Health

The conditions that have led to a haemorrhaging of trained staff from the health service have not come about by accident and will take a serious fight to reverse. Lalkar writers Overwhelmingly, both NHS staff and patients want to see our health service back in purely public hands. But in order to achieve a truly universal, high-quality and free service, a serious campaign needs to be organised – one whose leaders are prepared to harness the collective power of the working class and who won’t be intimidated by the pressure, blackmail and lies of the privateers and their servants in the political and media establishments. The following article was written by a long-serving NHS nurse and party member. ***** A myth was perpetrated in the late 19th century that continues to this...

How can we explain the seemingly absurd combination of British workers’ failing health from malnutrition alongside rising obesity? Proletarian writers In the days of the cold war, British people were bombarded with scare stories about the horrors of socialist rationing and shortages. In today’s Britain, supermarket shelves are crammed with brightly-coloured packages, but capitalist-style rationing – by pay packet – keeps many workers from accessing the kind of foods that will actually keep them and their families in good health. While fresh fruit and vegetables are priced out of their range, they are instead sold ultraprocessed addictive foodlike substances that seem to satisfy the tastebuds, but fail to bring nourishment to the body. Around 11,000 people in England were hospital...