United against

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To join or affiliate, write to Chris Richardson, 21 Devonshire Promenade, Lenton, Nottingham NG7 2DS. £5 for individuals, or for affiliated organisations, per 1000 members. £2 for low-waged individuals. £1 for unwaged. Add 50p if you want the : special issue of Gay Socialist. Campaign for Gay Rights very important advantage. As long as there are patients in a hospital the District is required by law to ensure their treatment. You cannot be locked out or lose pay.

It usually does not require sleeping in although if you take over a room of office for an occupation base it might be necessary to have someone there all the time.

Occupations do put stress on the workers and their families. It is good to get the family involved in picketing and petitioning, etc.

In some cases management is banned. This is a difficult question and depends on the strength of the occupation and the size of the hospital. A good rule from the beginning is to ban any senior managers who do not normally come to the hospital.

Careers It is best to ban management completely at some stage. They may be polite and pretend that they really do not want the hospital t close, but their real sympathy is with their careers. Don't trust them.

A is nece- regular picket ssary removal to prevent the THERE was a meeting of Public Sector unions in Coventry last Wednesday called by Coventry Trades Council on the initiative of the local branch of the POEU. The meeting issued an appeal for a Broad Alliance of unions to mount a rank and file campaign against privatisation and cuts in services.

30 union activists attended with representatives from POEU, UCW, NUPE, FBU, NALGO, CPSA, NUR, T&G. Reports from workplaces detailed the way government cuts are effecting services and preparing the ground for One meeting felt that in many areas the message was not getting across to the memberships, that this government was not only selling off public assets and cutting services to line the pockets of its friends in big business, but also intent on destroying union structures that protect jobs and con ditions.

Therefore, the Trades Council will have to act as a clearing house for information; getting literature into the workplaces and organising speakers to address meetings.

Emergency HACKNEY Health Emergency is just one of a number of London campaigns which have sprung up during the last year to coordinate the fightback against cuts and closures.

The campaign has held open meetings throughout Hackney and Shoreditch; and plans are already well underway for a day of action. When the DHA meet on September 26 to decide the fate of the hospitals after the so-called "consultative period".

September 26 is probably one of the most significant fightbacks that will take place since Thatcher's election.

strike TWENTY-THREE Asian workers at Sandhar and Kang's wholesale warehouse in Birmingham are out on strike to defend their union organisation.

Back in June 1982 these workers won recognition for the T&GWU, considerable improvement in their sweat-shop conditions, and minor improvements in their very low pay levels. That took a month long strike, and the workers are prepared to stay out at least as long this time, to defend their hard-won gains:

The dispute was sparked by management's decision to sell off the dispatch department to one Milovan Popowick, who just happens to be married to the accountant at S&K's Coventry brnach: The sale of the dispatch department means that the senior T&GWU shop steward and one other union member will no longer be S&K employees.

'We are not cattle to be sold to the highest bidder,' say the strikers' placards.

Send donations, etc., to:

S&K Strike fund, T&G 211, Broad St., Birmingham 1

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