On Friday, activists from a number of workers organisations made their way to the headquarters of the National Blood Service (NBS) head office, where NBS bosses work, tucked away in the quiet business district of Watford.

The offices, which share the same street with a Hilton Hotel complex and the central offices of pub giant Wetherspoons, are not widely publicised, and not regular seens of public assembly. The noisy demonstration then must have taken the sleepy area by surprise.

The demonstration was called to protest against the NBS Directors refusing to release documents related to the cuts plans (promised some months ago). The documents relate to a recent review of the earlier cuts plans; the review had been forced on management by the workers and supporters of the campaign. During the review it became clear that top management consultants firm, McKinseys, who had been drafted in at great public expense, had slated the bosses, then, cuts plans. The review amounted to a partial victory for the campaign, but cuts in the South West (left out of the review) continue, and the fight goes on.

Campaigners want to use the documents to show that the bosses were incompetant with their cuts measures in the North of England, and that cuts left out of the review in the South and West, are equally suspect, and would have been stopped if they had been included in the review.

The lively demonstration, backed by community groups Hackney Solidarity Network, Stop Haringey Health Cuts Coalition, the West Midlands Coalition of Health Campaigns, and others lasted about an hour. With a dozen people drumming and shouting "Release the McKinsey report!" After half an hour a management official finally left the castle to approach the demonstration.

Carrying banners from the local Watford trades council, the Healthworkers Union - IWW, which is spearheading the campaign, as well as from the Solidarity Federation, the crowd met a Mr Evans, who is head of HR at the NBS.

Mr Evans proceeded to try and tell the assembled campaigners that there was no anaylsis or report produced by the management firm McKinseys, however after debating the point hotly for a number of minutes, and being filmed on camera saying differently, Evans relented that the report documentation both did exist, and would be released afterall. The prospect of further demonstrations outside their, until now, secretive nerve centre, must have worried the management.

Demonstrator Nick relates:

"The people are getting away with carving up a vital part of the NHS to try and break it up into bits that they can privatise. Already some patients have lost their lives as a result of all this shakeup and meddling. We need to put a stop to this. These bosses think they are invincible sat in ivory towers like this office block in Watford, but what they are doing is absolutely outrageous.

The demonstration shows that the NBS campaign is growing, as we have again forced management to publicly have egg on their face. A fact which the campaign hopes to exploit as we grow in membership and wider support. The release of the report to the campaign, following the demonstration represents a small step forward in the campaign. There is however, more to come."

Another positive result for the NBS campaign, but there is still a big campaign ahead to save 600 jobs and a key part of the NHS.

For further information on the NBS campaign see  http://nbs-sos.blogspot.com /  http://nbs.iww.org, or contact the campaign at  nbs.sos@gmail.com