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OccupationalOccupational HazardsHazards Occupying Hospitals: some inspirations and issues from our history Occupational Hazards Occupying Hospitals: inspirations and issues from our history past tense Published by past tense 2013 W nicked all of the following, so please reproduce, spread, use all or part of this text, (so long as it’s not for anyone’s profit). past tense c/o 56a Infoshop 56 Crampton Street, London. SE17 3AE email: [email protected] www.past-tense.org.uk printed by shortfuse press [email protected] contents introduction 1 1. The South London Women's Hospital Occupation 3 1984-85 • Rosanne Rabinowitz including a short discussion of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Work-in, 1976-8, the Hounslow Hospital occupation, and other occupations of the early 1980s. 2. Occupational Therapy 16 • by some individuals involved in the UCH Community Action Committee The campaign against ward closures at University College Hospital, 1992-4. 3. Brief accounts of other UK Hospital occupations 48 4. Occupy and Win 65 • London Health Emergency, 1984. A manual for fighting hospital closures. A note on Unions 77 Some changes and mergers since the 1980s. NB: We apologise for the rough look of this dossier, we produced it in a hurry, and have had some technical difficulties. Last minute production as usual...It’s not intended to be a coffee table affair, we hope it’s a practical document. As always, replies, responses, arguments, and more information is always welcome. past tense introduction Secondly, many of the shorter accounts are very brief and sketchy. Partly this is due to the hurried nature of the preparation of this This dossier is not intended to be anything dossier; we didn’t have the time to investi- like comprehensive. It’s merely a contribu- gate as far as we would have liked. For tion to a possible debate... We are reprint- some occupations we only have a rough ing it because it shows how the idea of date and a name, and have so far discov- occupying hospital buildings, to prevent ered no more, but are working on it! But their closure by management, or to force the problem also results from the origin of wider concessions, was widespread and these accounts; most were pasted onto the accepted in the late 1970s and early 1980s, web direct from contemporary leaflets, and carried on producing actions in to the reports, etc; without a timeline of events, in 1990s. many cases, and even in some, no indica- We have tried to document some of the tion of the eventual result! Our investiga- hospital occupations we can in the UK in tions will continue, though, and hopefully recent history, both to give some account future editions of this publication will of the actual events, and where we can to appear with more detailed info. present issues, questions, conflicts that arose. The aim is to spread the idea that Thirdly, and following on from the above, such actions can take place, and have done while the longer accounts of the South so, but also to draw attention to successes London Women’s Hospital and UCH occu- and failures, and to organisational ques- pations do attempt some analysis and per- tions and ideological and political barriers spective on the issues and on organisation- that can come up (and potentially affect the al question relating to unions and political outcome). groupings, the shorter accounts that follow mostly do not. Again, partly this results Some of the following we or friends of from how the documentation has been pre- ours were involved in, others we have sented; but it is also true to say that they found out some information. But we accept come almost exclusively from trade union from the start this pamphlet has a number sources, and reflect no intent to question of limitations. union structures. This is inevitable; but we feel the lack of a balanced look at how Firstly we have consciously limited the fol- things really worked inside those events. lowing to the UK; in practice this means We know from the longer accounts of the England and Wales (there may be examples issues that arose at UCH for instance, that from other parts of Britain but we haven’t questions of dominance by political group- yet come across them). This doesn't reflect ings, or the complex relations of official any nationalistic intent, or imply that other union structures with workers taking examples from elsewhere hold no interest actions like working in, or occupying for us; it’s just that at some point you have wards, are not clear cut. Union hierarchies to set a practical limit. There are interesting usually fear and mistrust actions lie this struggles to be studied elsewhere; recent that break the bounds, and often had to be resistance in Greece against the current pushed into supporting them, or took spe- ‘austerity’ measures being imposed to sat- cific action to sabotage or prevent them. At isfy EU bail-out conditions have included grassroots level the relations were more some hospital occupations for instance. 1 complicated; many occupations, strikes, ly? Management practices and control are etc came from unionised workers, and much more vicious and our work situa- specifically through union branches; and tions much more precarious... fear of the official recognition was useful for gaining consequences of taking radical steps is a support from other workers. It would be powerful inhibitor. But even knowing such interesting to have some more thoughtful things are possible can be the first tenta- inside knowledge on how this all worked tive step. in practice in many of the other occupa- tions listed here. Some more thought and discussion would also be interesting, on how workers’ occu- Probably the most pointed missing ques- pations in the hospital context, especially tion here though, is, how useful are these when organised through orthodox union tales of the past to us today? It’s true that structures, represented a real challenge to much of this history, of occupations, existing relations in the NHS. How much resistance to previous waves of austerity, did occupations were in the main defen- re-organisation and ‘adjustment’, is forgot- sive of the status by their nature go ten, or at least exists in a backwater. Has beyond it, and approach a more radical the almost total decimation of the kind of breakdown of the hierarchical Health grassroots trade union militancy that Service, and of the divisions between enabled such actions to flower, rendered workers and service users? Since its incep- these accounts just interesting episodes, tion the NHS has always been imposed but firmly of our past? This question fol- ON us, in many ways, out of our control, lows on from this publication, if anything. despite its value, only a partial attempt The onslaught we are currently experienc- towards a socialised health care. Re-organ- ing from what we would loosely term the isations in favour of transnational profit- ‘capitalist class’, aimed at cutting as much making have increased this; how much did social provision as possible, has already occupations, especially where community begun to include cuts and ‘re-organisa- and workers participated together, reverse tions’ in the NHS, which will doubtless this, even temporarily? multiply. Current campaigns against hospi- tal closures, such as Lewisham or We hope this dossier contributes some- Whittington in London, show that collec- thing towards the asking of these ques- tive action and protest still has the power tions... to force the bureaucrats to reverse some of their slash and burn policies. But what past tense, 2013. actions may need to happen in the future? Could work-ins and occupations take place now in the same way? Or are other tactics more practical? Did the idea of workers’ control, a wider acceptance of a general collectivity, that existed in the 1970s and early 80s, say, allow such actions to be even on the agenda - and has the climate, the consciousness, the sense of what is possible or even thinkable, changed utter- 2 The South London Women’s Hospital Occupation 1984-85 Rosanne Rabinowitz What does it take to occupy a hospital, to ters! If the bosses won’t exploit us, we’ll have engage in direct action in a workplace that to do it ourselves!” deals with peoples’ lives rather than products? However, work-ins also included community In the first hospital work-ins, people were outreach and political organising. For exam- understandably afraid of putting patients at ple, at Plessey’s River Don steelworks redun- risk, and aware that someone might not want dant workers devoted themselves to campaign to have a baby or an operation in the middle work rather than completing orders for the of an industrial dispute. It was an unprece- plant’s liquidator. dented step, but staff and service users had come to a point where they felt they had to From private to public... take drastic action or say goodbye to their jobs and healthcare. A twist in the tail came when hospital work- A background of cuts and closures provoked ins and occupations extended this tactic to the this first wave of occupations in the 1970s, public sector. In the face of such closures, a often undertaken by people who were not strike presents problems unless it takes the activists. In the early 1970s both the private form of sympathetic action in other hospitals and private sector were restructured in or workplaces. However, by providing a serv- response to IMF directives. The restructuring ice that management was trying to cut, work- was also a move to curtail the improved ers strived to create a rallying point.

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