A respected Doctor and a Super Marxist Dr Musa Bashir of AKTH shared this 5 points on his wall from a Marxist perspective about the sack. 1. #SackedDoctors 1 We,always cite the example of ASUU. But what we always forget is that ASUU did not face the Federal Government alone; the lecturers went to war with the solidarity from their class brothers and sisters in labour movement (NLC/TUC), civil society (JAF, KCSF, etc) and student movement (NANS). Doctors cannot do it alone either. 2. #SackedDoctors 2 The resort to legal and street protests mechanisms might be in order. But there is a whole structure of struggle out there, which was instrumental in the success of ASUU strike; the triad movements of labour, civil society and students are very essential. We must devise ways of tapping into them. Doctors need help from their class brethren. 3. #SackedDoctors 3 That Ebola virus indiscriminately infected doctor- and non-doctor-workers in Lagos and that the pathetic response to the epidemic by the government will also indiscriminately affect both types of health workers; all these mean the two types of health workers actually belong to the same class and share the same enemy. That doctors are sacked to surgically crush the progressive section of NMA (resident doctors) means the individualist isolationist petty bourgeois tactics of NMA have reached their limits. Now more than ever doctors need proletarian spirit of class solidarity. 4. #SackedDoctors 4 Not all striking doctors were sacked, only the most militant and progressive i.e. the residents. This is no accident. The attack on residents is a sign of what is to come: the privatization of public hospitals. This will start from outsourcing (privatizing) some departments like Laboratory, Pharmacy and Accounting. These fall under JOHESU. The objective crisis of capitalism and its logic of privatization and austerity will push doctor and non-doctor health workers into a necessary alliance. The duty of Marxists is to explain this fact and consciously accelerate the emergence of this alliance of all workers in the health sector. 5. #SackedDoctors 5 They say life teaches. We always believe that the professional/craft interests of doctors should be subordinated to the interests of socialist revolution in general and proletarian class solidarity in particular. Now that doctors obviously need the help of their class brothers and sisters, it is time for them (doctors) to streamline and fine-tune their demands to reflect this fact. This starts with a less confrontational attitude towards their sister union (JOHESU) demands. In the final analysis, the real struggle within the health sector is between workers (doctors and non-doctors) and the bosses (CMDs, MDs, Minister of Health, other government bureaucrats etc).
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 21:16:12 +0000