Despite pressure to call off their strike, Junior Doctors hit the picket lines and rallied outside Downing Street to demand pay restoration

Hundreds of Junior Doctors joined the BMA rally outside Downing Street on Thursday afternoon. Thousands of Junior Doctors around the country are on strike until 2 July, demanding pay restoration: NHS doctors’ pay has been cut by more than a quarter since 2008.

Striking workers from various cities travelled to London by coach to join the rally, which heard from junior doctors and BMA organisers. It was clear from speeches and chants that, like many other workers, junior doctors feel they have been ignored by the government, and angry that after twenty months of industrial action under various health secretaries (and prime ministers) they are still having to strike for fair pay.

Speakers emphasised their anger that working conditions have been gradually degraded after fourteen years of Tory and coalition government: for instance through many hospitals turning staff rooms into offices. Various speakers also mentioned their anger at the turn towards Physician Associates, who don’t have the same qualifications as doctors and are unable to offer the same range of treatment, but are easier to train. There was also anger at the number of healthcare workers forced to go overseas for work, or turning to the private sector because of the government’s refusal to provide decent pay and conditions.

Other trade unions were also represented at the rally, with a video message from Daniel Kebede of the NEU, and Riccardo la Torre from the FBU, who highlighted the political nature of the strikes, and the need for solidarity between workers in times of struggle: ‘this isn’t a struggle for one worker, it’s a struggle for all workers.’

Junior doctors will be on strike until 7am on 2 July. The fight for pay restoration and decent pay and conditions for all NHS workers is linked to the fight for the NHS as a whole. The health service is facing deep crises as a result of decades of underfunding and privatisation.

With neither the Tories nor Labour offering any meaningful solution to issues such as outsourcing, waiting lists or staff retention, a struggle from the bottom up is crucial to restoring the NHS to being a healthcare system amongst the best in the world, as it had been for decades.

In addition to supporting workers on strikes, it is important we support calls to keep the NHS in public hands and to fight Tory and Labour plans to give more and more NHS funding to the private sector.