Poaching nurses and skilled workers from the global south - what is the solution?

Dr Ranjeet Brar, our member and a consultant surgeon in the NHS discusses the question of poaching of Nurses from west Africa - where there are just 0.9 qualified nurses per 1,000 of the population, and bringing them to Britain (where there are 10 times as many nurses per 1000 population) to fill shortages of workers to plug the gaps in an NHS system that is being bled by privatisation and underfunding. It is not individuals who are to blame. It is natural for workers to try and better their lives, pay and conditions. It is the imperialist system itself, built upon the past crimes of colonialism, that has created and sustains the great economic divide between the wealthy exploiting nations and the impoverished majority of exploited - “the global south”. The struggle against imperialism is the common cause of workers of all countries and the only answer to our shared problems. It is imperative to fight racism and for unity of action in this world embracing struggle.