• The first meeting of the South Wales Coordinating Committee Against the Cuts in the NHS was held in Cardiff on 29 October. The Committee decided to base their activity on the resolution carried at the recent Conference of the Medical Committee Against Private Practice, agreeing that this would constitute a guideline for local work.
The Committee decided as a priority to monitor the extent of the cuts in their area. They also decided to organise a labour movement conference against the cuts and to produce a local bulletin on the crisis in the NHS. This will help to ensure that nothing goes on "behind the backs of the workers'.
Present at the meeting were Paul Sellinman (NALGO), Dan Garvey (East Wales Secretary, British Association of Social Workers), Dr Sue Brown (Medical Practitioners Union), Ros Olivier (NUT and NAC), Dave Galligan (COHSE Branch Secretary, Heath Hospital), Michelle Connor (NUT), Mary Crofton (NUPE shop in a Newport hospital), Phil Cornell (IMG and Iron & Steel Trades Confederation), John Williams (AUEW No. 3 branch Cardiff), Dr lan Chalmers (Socialist Medical Association), D.C. Davies and D. Haywood (South Wales Mineworkers Executive), M. Davies (NALGO Action Group), P. Cronin (NALGO official), Ray Perry (COHSE branch secretary), Chris Jones (NALGO Action Group).
• Delegates from the Bristol area who attended the MCAPP Conference met last week to set up a steering committee lr their area to build support for the decisions of the Conference.
Representatives at the meeting included workers from AUEW Rolls Royce, ImMPU, NALGO, NUPE, COHSE, T&GWU hospital workers, NAC and Royal College of Nursing. • The 12-person strong com mittee includes representatives from these unions as well as Labour Party members Since the meeting the South Wales NUM executive have offered to pay for all the publicity for the regional confer •A meeting has been called by the NUPE branch at Southampton General Hospital on the cuts in the NHS. NUPE has invited all the other unions in the hospital to attend, and has also invited representatives from unions outside the health service. NUPE secretary Arthur Hill, who was a delegate to the MCAPP Conference, has suggested setting up an Action Committee in the Southampton area based on the broad trade union inning of a campaign for the following demands: renogtiation of emergency and night services; restoration of any day posts already cut; rethinking on planned cuts; and that the Council should expand services in line with the Government circular issued at the beginning of this year.
WEST MIDLANDS Members of the National Union of Public Emplovees have pointed the wav fo other council workers in fighting redundancies. In both Birmingham and Solihull, council workers have refused to cover where councils have cut back on jobs. Now the three area committees of NUPE in the West Midlands have passed resolutions making this policy the rule for all NUPE members.
The deep impact being felt in the whole working class as a result of the cuts has been expressed in the setting up of a campaign to fight the cuts in BirmThe campaign, which involves hoth local trade unions and tenants and residents associations, will fight for: oDD