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pierre
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United Kingdom
13890 Posts |
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aussiewelshman
Retired Webteam Member
New SOUTH WALES
23652 Posts |
 Posted - 07/08/2009 : 23:13:38
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NHS Legacy Stands Testament To Work Of A Socialist Hero
Source - ThisIsStaffordshire
WATCHING the television in the middle of the night on Tuesday, I chanced upon a documentary on the birth of the National Health Service in 1948 up to the recent events, which are causing the decline of the greatest 'free at the point of service' system ever created in the world.
Inspired in the Labour Government period of Clement Attlee by Aneurin Bevan, the minister of both housing and health, the man with a mind of a social genius and a will of steel devised, pioneered and set in place the NHS we have known for all these years. Against all the odds and the opposition of political bodies and doctors, agreement was reached when a pay deal was brokered with the medical profession.
The programme dedicated to the MP born in Tredegar, Wales, showed the tenacity of his fight for social change, his absolute opposition to the inequality of the Conservatives and Conservatism. In fact his hatred of all Conservatives stood forth, when at a speech in Parliament to the shock of all there, including his own party, he called them "scum, lower than vermin" for their pursuit of greed and opposition to social policy.
Parallel to this, in 50s America the Conservative's vindictive pursuit of anyone connected to Socialism knew no bounds.
Government, media, the hall of representatives, industry bosses, even the Federal Bureau of Investigation under J Edgar Hoover branded all socialists as communist infiltrators and traitors out to destroy America.
No-one was immune to the witch hunt which took place with blacklisting for factory workers, film, theatre and the music industry, unable to pursue their profession or speak in public without the fear of imprisonment.
There was a bond of comradeship in the Socialist movement of Britain and America and one poignant point of the documentary showed the Welsh Valley's Choir singing, 'There'll be a welcome in the hillside' performed for a packed audience in America to give support to another great exponent of Socialism who suffered at the hands of the FBI, the black singer and actor Paul Robeson.
He could barely breathe in without being accused of stealing air, or breathing out and causing pollution and was relentlessly pursued, branded communist, prevented from working and repeatedly arrested but never silenced.
This is the true face of Capitalism, Conservatism and evil.
It is the pursuit of self-serving wealth at all costs, irrespective of all its harms and nothing deters from that.
Years later a victory speech by Margaret Thatcher at the end of the miners' dispute over her enforced pit closures contained the epitaph, "at last socialism is dead never to return". God forbid that ever happening.
New Labour and its third generation Conservative leader, Tony Blair, pictured, used his term in office to make sure of it and the Conservative leader David Cameron eats his royal jelly with a silver spoon, while he spouts his future intentions of social inclusions with a forked tongue.
The three massive commemorative rock monuments at Tredegar hold tribute to the steel, iron and coal industries, which made Britain great.
They pay homage to the courage of the working class. Their fortitude in times of strife and, most of all, the life and death of a truly great man, his unshakeable beliefs in the rights of the masses not the chosen few, NHS, social housing, nationalisation and Britain.
Aneurin Bevan was a true national hero. |
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aussiewelshman
Retired Webteam Member
New SOUTH WALES
23652 Posts |
Posted - 15/08/2009 : 07:48:24
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Aneurin’s Great-Nephew Hits Back
Source - WalesOnLine
Aneurin Bevan’s great-nephew said American criticism of the NHS is rooted in jealousy.
Howard Bevan also dismissed Republican complaints designed to knock President Obama’s healthcare reforms off track as “nonsense”.
“The Americans have always talked nonsense like that, but nobody takes much notice. I think they are jealous,” said the 56-year-old engineer from Tredegar, who was 12 when his great uncle died.
“I’ll always be proud of what Aneurin achieved and his legacy lives on.” |
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