Striking junior doctors marching with teachers in London, 26.4.2016, photo by Paul Mattsson

Striking junior doctors marching with teachers in London, 26.4.2016, photo by Paul Mattsson   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

“By standing up for ourselves, we are standing up for the NHS” said Dr Yannis Gourtsoyannis, a member of the BMA’s (doctors’ union) junior doctors committee, speaking at London’s May Day demonstration on 1 May.

The BMA’s junior doctor committee meets on 7 May to discuss future action following the latest, escalated round of strikes on 26 and 27 April which included a full withdrawal of labour for the first time.

The meeting should include a call to the TUC general council to back the junior doctors by calling a national demonstration. This demand was put forward by the civil servants’ union PCS and firefighters’ union FBU but was scandalously rejected by the TUC on 27 April. The TUC has, at every turn, left the junior doctors’ struggle isolated.

The organisation and solidarity required was shown on the first day of the most recent strike action, as 5,000 marched in a London joint demonstration called by the North and South Thames region of the BMA and the London region of the teachers’ union NUT.

Rail workers, nurses, civil servants, firefighters, local government workers and others marched in solidarity.

The demonstration hinted at the potential there would be for a huge demonstration in support of junior doctors and in defence of the NHS if one was called by the TUC. We demand the TUC reconsider its position and we call on the BMA junior doctors’ committee to demand the same.