Streamed live from the COP27 climate talks in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt – Medact members brought together a panel of activists from the global movement for health and climate justice to discuss the need for a transformative Green New Deal that centres the health of people and planet!  Speakers include:  Asad Rehman – War on Want, UK  Omar Elmawi – Stop EACOP, Kenya  Erika Arteaga Cruz – People’s Health Movement, Extractive Industries Circle, Ecuador  Jon Bonifacio – Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Philippines   Chaired by Dr Abi Deivanayagam, member of Medact and Race & Health.

What impact has two decades’ worth of policing and counterterrorism had on the state of mind of Muslims in Britain? The Suspect draws on the author’s experiences to take the reader on a journey through British counterterrorism practices and the policing of Muslims.

Join Rizwaan Sabir and Tarek Younis for discussion on the traumatising effects of Sabir’s surveillance, arrest and detention for suspected terrorism.

Writing publicly for the first time about the impacts of these experiences, Sabir argues that these harmful outcomes are not the result of errors in government planning, but the consequences of using a counterinsurgency warfare approach to fight terrorism and police Muslims.

To resist the injustice of these policies and practices, we need to centre our lived experiences and build networks of solidarity and support.

Buy The Suspect now from Pluto Press: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745338484/the-suspect/

Sign our pledge to challenge Prevent and uphold the duty of care: https://www.medact.org/2022/actions/health-workers-against-prevent/  

Read our report – 'False Positives: the Prevent counter-extremism policy in healthcare': https://www.medact.org/2020/resources/reports/false-positives-the-prevent-counter-extremism-policy-in-healthcare/

Read our report – 'Racism, mental health and pre-crime policing: the ethics of Vulnerability Support Hubs': https://www.medact.org/2021/resources/reports/racism-mental-health-and-pre-crime-policing-the-ethics-of-vulnerability-support-hubs/

Read our report – 'The Public Health Case Against the Policing Bill': https://www.medact.org/2021/resources/briefings/public-health-case-against-policing-bill/

Join the Medact Securitisation of Health Group: https://www.medact.org/membership/groups/securitisation-of-health/ Join Medact as a member: https://www.medact.org/membership/

Listen back to the event celebrating the publication of the sixth edition of Global Health Watch.

Hear from speakers who contributed to this essential volume, which integrates rigorous analysis with stories of struggle and hope for radical transformation, at this once-in-a-generation moment of focus on the issue of health justice.

Speakers include:

• Dr Chiara Bodini, co-editor of GHW
• Members of the Medact Research Network: Roman Gnaegi, Catia Confortini and Michael Orgel
• Dr Annabel Sowemimo, sexual and reproductive health doctor and founder of Decolonising Contraception
• Dr Lauren Paremoer, senior lecturer in the Political Studies Department at the University of Cape Town and member of PHM South Africa
• Rhiannon Osborne, medical student, organiser with Health for a Green New Deal and Stop Cambo, and member of People’s Health Movement UK.

Global Health Watch (GHW), now in its sixth edition, is the definitive alternative voice on health. Published since 2003, with contributions from activists and academics from around the world, GHW6 integrates rigorous analysis of the social, economic, political and environmental determinants of health with stories of struggle and hope for radical transformation.

The book has been co-produced by People’s Health Movement, Medact, Third World Network, Health Poverty Action, Medico International, ALAMES, Viva Salud and Sama.

This event was held in collaboration with Health Poverty Action, People’s Health Movement UK and People’s Health Movement Scotland—please check out their work!

The online launch of three brand new pamphlets developed by members of the Economic Justice & Health group.

These booklets explore the key campaigning areas of secure housing, tax justice and liveable incomes, and provide an informative resource for those looking to fight against economic and health injustice.

Hear from a great line-up of speakers on the issues covered by the booklets:

• Guppi Bola, strategist, organiser and co-founder of Decolonising Economics and author of “Reimagining Public Health”
• Abigail Acheampong, cleaner at Royal London Hospital. UNITE representative and key leader in the campaign that ended outsourcing in England’s biggest NHS trust
• Representatives from Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth and London Coalition Against Poverty

A decade of austerity policies and vast cuts to public finances have contributed to worsening health for people and communities that are marginalised by our current economic systems.  As members of the health community, our work is as much about caring for those in immediate need as it is about advocating for and building new societal systems in which all are able to live well and thrive.

Download the digital booklets in advance of the event here: https://www.medact.org/2022/resources/briefings/a-peoples-economy-booklets/

It is possible to create a society in which our collective safety and wellbeing are prioritised. Developing trusting, healthy relationships with all of our patients is essential to this work.

However, Prevent – with the government’s stated aim of identifying “vulnerability to radicalisation” – compromises all of this, and is a source of harm and increased marginalisation.

Why is the NHS the only healthcare system in the world with a legal obligation to engage with such a strategy? What aren’t you being told about Prevent in safeguarding training?

Learn more in our series of online Alternative Trainings on Prevent.

This training will seek to shed light on some unanswered questions about Prevent. We will hear from:

• Latifa Akay—writer, producer and Head of Collective Care at Act Build Change. Prior to this, Latifa worked as Director of Education at Maslaha. She is a trustee at the Inclusive Mosque Initiative,
• Ameen—a GP in east London, and a member of Medact’s Securitisation of Health group,
• Mashal Iftikhar—a member of Medact’s Securitisation of Health Group and an NHS doctor training in psychiatry. She is passionate about health equity in mental illness and the intersection of criminal justice with mental health services.

This event recording is particularly aimed at people who work or are training in, study, or who have worked in health.

Read the briefing: link.medact.org/PolicingBill

Watch this event on YouTube: youtu.be/hqDFFtF7nMA

The government has misleadingly branded the racist and dangerous PCSC (Policing) Bill a “public health approach” to combating serious violence. But health workers in the Medact Research Network have debunked these claims in a new briefing.

Written to support the huge groundswell of opposition to this bill in the #KillTheBill movement, the briefing explains why the measures in the Bill – greater police powers, repression of protest, harsher prison sentences, erosion of confidentiality and increased criminalisation of Gypsy and Traveller communities – will actually harm public health and entrench discrimination.

We aim to articulate and amplify radical public health voices against the Policing Bill’s approach and explore potential alternatives.

In this event recording, hear from health workers who are members of our Research Network and involved in creation of the briefing, as well as four fantastic speakers who discuss public health in the context of crime, policing and prison:

• Lola Olufemi – Lola is a black feminist writer and researcher, author of Feminism Interrupted: Disrupting Power and Experiments in Imagining Otherwise. Alongside writing, she is a member of ‘bare minimum‘, an interdisciplinary anti-work arts collective. Lola also facilitates reading groups/workshops, occasionally curates, and is volunteer co-ordinator at the Feminist Library in South London.
• Kelsey M – Kelsey is a feminist, abolitionist organiser based in London, resisting state violence and working to explore and build transformative justice and community-led responses to violence. As a facilitator with grassroots collectives she delivers workshops exploring community accountability, bystander intervention, power, and tools for campaigning and movement building.
• Chelsea McDonagh – Chelsea is a researcher, Irish Traveller activist and writer. She speaks on a wide range of issues affecting Gypsy and Traveller people including education, health, policy and politics. Chelsea is one of the co-founders of the Rom Belong programme, a KCL Widening Participation programme for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils and is passionate about improving opportunities for young people.
• Kavian Kulasabanathan – Kavian is a paediatric A&E doctor and researcher at the University of Oxford. His interests span socio-political determinants of health, particularly pertaining to race and class, alongside community-centered models of care. Kavian organises with PHM-UK and Race & Health collective.

Presenters cover topics such as the future implications of the PCSC bill, different visions of public health, new approaches to care, and approaches to ‘serious violence’ and socio-economic issues that don’t rely on punitive or carceral responses. This is followed by a Q&A from the live audience.

On the 25th May 2021 we held our second Alternative Training on Prevent in Healthcare to explore what you aren't being told about Prevent in safeguarding training. 

The training shed light on some unanswered questions about Prevent and we heard from:

• Members of Medact’s Securitisation of Health Group (SHG)
• Susan Wright ─ a crime and human rights barrister acting for defendants, NGOs and other organisations on a range of public law matters
• Reem Abu-Hayyeh ─ Campaigns and Policy Lead: Peace and Security at Medact
• Dr Lyn Jenkins ─ a retired GP/ ophthalmologist, bereavement support volunteer, and heading up In My Own Bed Please, a lobby group advocating for improved palliative care at home in emergencies

On the 19th May 2021, we held an event to launch our latest report Racism, mental health and pre-crime policing: the ethics of Vulnerability Support Hubs. The report is based on documents obtained through a series of long-running Freedom of Information requests and exposes how a counterterrorism police-led project blurs the boundaries between security and care in disturbing and dangerous ways.  

At the report launch we were joined by guest speakers:

• Dr Hilary Aked – Medact’s Research and Policy Manager
• Dr Tarek Younis – Cultural and critical clinical psychologist and Lecturer in Psychology at Middlesex University
• Dr Charlotte Heath Kelly – Reader in Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
• Vicki Nash ─ Head of Policy, Campaigns and Public Affairs at Mind

You can read the full report here: http://link.medact.org/racismmentalhealth

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (PCSC) is a dangerous piece of legislation that undermines our fundamental rights, threatens all our safety, and implicates health workers in the expansion of violent police powers. Medact and Docs Not Cops have joined the Kill The Bill Coalition to stand in solidarity with everyone targeted by the Bill and fight back against these harmful policies.

On Monday 26th April 2021 we held an urgent briefing to discuss the public health impacts of the PCSC Bill, what the Kill The Bill Coalition is building towards and what health workers can do to get involved.

Many thanks to our panel of guest speakers:

• Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper, a research associate in sociology at University of Greenwich. He organised with The Monitoring Group and Black Lives Matter UK. He is author of Black Resistance to British Policing (Manchester University Press).
• Shanice, a feminist activist involved in direct action, community organising and the movement to #KillTheBill
• Chelsea McDonagh, an Irish Traveller with interests in education, policy and research
• Dr Hilary Aked, Medact Research Manager, who holds a PhD in political sociology and specialises in investigative research on topics including the pro-Israel lobby and the Prevent counter-extremism policy in healthcare.

The Health for a Green New Deal campaign seeks to build mass support in the health community for a transformative Green New Deal and to organise health workers and students to advocate for a just transition to a zero-carbon society.

The Medact Climate & Health research cluster has been working on a briefing that sets out the public health case for a Green New Deal and sets out key actions that health workers and students can take to organise.

On 8th April we held an event to launch the briefing and we heard from a range of guest speakers and Medact activists from across the country, including: 

• Dr Helen Stokes Lampard – The Chair of the Academy of Royal Medical Societies, and Chair of the Board for the National Academy for Social Prescribing.
• Guppi Bola – The chair of Joint Council For The Welfare Of Immigrants and author of the influential ‘Reimagining Public Health’ report published by Commonwealth.
• Hannah Martin – co-director of Green New Deal UK who are campaigning across the UK for a transformative Green New Deal. 
• Dr Andrew Harmer – A senior lecturer at the Centre for Global Public Health, Medact member and one of the briefing’s co-authors.
• Dr Anya Gopfert - A public health registrar, Medact member and one of the briefing's co-authors. 

It is possible to create a society in which our collective safety and wellbeing are prioritised. Developing trusting, healthy relationships with all of our patients is essential to this work.  However, Prevent ─ with the government’s stated aim of identifying “vulnerability to radicalisation” ─ compromises all of this, and is a source of harm and increased marginalisation.  Why is the NHS the only healthcare system in the world with a legal obligation to engage with such a strategy? What aren’t you being told about Prevent in safeguarding training?  We hosted a training session for health workers to shed light on some unanswered questions about Prevent. At the training we heard from:  • Members of Medact’s Securitisation of Health Group (SHG) • Dr Tarek Younis ─ a cultural and clinical critical psychologist and lecturer in psychology • Marcelo Camus ─ member of Medact’s SHG, a social practice artist and co-founder and organiser of the Social Art Network • Reem Abu-Hayyeh ─ Campaigns and Programme Lead: Peace and Security at Medact

On the 16th February 2021 we held the online launch of of our latest briefing  ‘Health Versus Wealth? UK Economic Policy and Public Health During COVID-19’. 

The briefing considers how a false dichotomy between public health and economic wealth has contributed to the pandemic taking such a tragic course in the UK. It also considers how cuts to essential health and social services over decades and decades have torn at the social fabric of our communities ─ and what can be done right now to mend this fabric and build up our social immunity.  

We heard from a panel of experts on the subject, including:  

• Professor Christina Pagel, Professor of Operational Research at University College London and member of Independent Sage

• Christine Berry, trustee of Rethinking Economics, fellow of the Democracy collab and contributing editor of Renewal journal

• Dr Monica Sharman, an NHS junior doctor based in Yorkshire & Humber , Medact member and co-author of the briefing

• Daniel Carter, Research fellow in social epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Medact member and co-author of the briefing

Read the briefing: https://link.medact.org/healthvswealthbriefing 

Sign up for email updates from our Economic Justice & Health Group: http://link.medact.org/economicjustice​   

Sign up to email updates from our Medact Research Network: https://link.medact.org/researchnetwork

Find out more about joining Medact as a member: https://www.medact.org/membership/

On the 9th July 2020 we held an Action Call to build the Health Movement for a Green New Deal.

We discussed the what, why and how of building the health movement for transformative climate justice and were joined by special guest speakers:

• Dr Abdul El-Sayed – Former Health Director of Detroit and professor at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health

• Guppi Bola – Former Medact Interim-Director, Chair of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, researcher and public health strategist with a background in economic justice campaigning.

• Dr Stephanie Davis Le Brun – Clinical psychologist working in older adult mental health services and a member of the North West branch of Psychologists for Social Change.
  

Here are some useful links shared in the Action Call.

Form to book a Health for a Green New Deal campaign session:
https://link.medact.org/GNDSession

‘Reimagining Public Health’ report by Guppi Bola:
https://www.common-wealth.co.uk/reports/reimagining-public-health

‘The Green New Deal doesn’t just help climate. It’s also a public health new deal.’ by Abdul El-Sayed
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/26/the-green-new-deal-public-health-new-deal

Just Recovery letter - Psychologists for Social Change North-West
http://www.psychchange.org/a-north-west-just-recovery-following-coronavirus.html

On the 2nd July 2020 we held the online launch of our latest report ‘False Positives: the Prevent counter-extremism policy in healthcare’.

This report brings together new research that seeks to shed light on the implications of the Prevent duty in UK health services.

Prevent is a controversial strand of the government’s counter-extremism strategy that obliges public service providers and workers to ‘have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’.

We heard from a panel of experts on the subject, including:

• Dr Hilary Aked – Research Manager at Medact and a writer and investigative researcher with a background in political sociology
• Dr Mayura Deshpande – Consultant forensic psychiatrist, deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, and chair of the Ethics and Professional Practice Committee at the Royal College of Psychiatrists
• Dr Tarek Younis – Cultural and critical clinical psychologist, and currently a Lecturer in Psychology at Middlesex University
• Rosalind Comyn – Policy and Campaigns Officer at Liberty, where she leads work across policing and counter-terrorism
  

Read the report and key findings: https://www.medact.org/prevent-report

Read our Peace & Security Campaigner’s article on mental health and deaths after police contact: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/mental-health-and-deaths-after-police-contact-why-senis-law-is-welcome-but-mo/

Read our Campaign Assistant's blog on the expansion of policing powers during the coronavirus pandemic: https://www.medact.org/2020/blogs/policing-the-pandemic/

Read black feminist organiser and Global Health academic Sarah Lasoye’s blog on the police’s use of tasers: https://www.medact.org/2019/blogs/on-tasers-policing-and-imagining-new-responses-to-violence/

Sign up to our Securitisation of Health mailing list:
https://www.medact.org/project/securitisation/

Find out more about joining Medact as a member:
https://www.medact.org/membership/

Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic reached the UK, it became clear that the NHS was not sufficiently equipped or staffed to respond to the crisis.

In March, the government put out a call for industry to convert its production to manufacture crucial medical equipment, such as ventilators and PPE for frontline workers. To date, a number of arms and defence companies have responded to this call – alongside existing companies that manufacture medical equipment and others.

Workers at Lucas Aerospace called for exactly this kind of arms conversion back in 1976, when they produced an Alternative Corporate Plan – now known as the Lucas Plan.

In this webinar we discussed what a ‘just transition’ from industries that cause destruction to those that support peace and public health could and should look like.

Thank you to our expert speakers:
* Dr. Stuart Parkinson – Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility
* Phil Asquith – Chartered Engineer and former Chairman of the Lucas Aerospace Combine, Burnley site
* Dr. Andy Haines – Professor of Environmental Change and Public Health at LSHTM
* Hilary Wainwright – Founding editor of Red Pepper Magazine and co-author of ‘The Lucas Plan: A New Trade Unionism in the Making?’
* Sam Mason – Policy officer at PCS Union and member of the New Lucas Plan project

We apologise for the connectivity problems that obscured the later part of Hilary's talk!

Sign up at medact.org/emails to find out more about Medact's work bringing a health voice together for peace.

*(Dr Stuart Parkinson said that 1,000 direct jobs were lost in the UK arms industry at the end of the Cold War - it was actually 100,000)