ABSTRACT
This chapter contrasts the ways that two groups of campaigners, with distinct political perspectives, organized themselves around an effort to prevent the closure of a children's hospital in Manchester. Outside anti-racist and anti-fascist activities, the party has accumulated far less experience in 'community campaigns'. The Save Booth Hall Campaign (SBHC) insisted on a strictly 'one issue' protest, aimed solely at preserving the hospital facility at Booth Hall. Activists, whatever their persuasion, constantly monitor their own actions and their effects, privately or in discussion with others. They reflect on successes and failures, become uncertain how to proceed, and in the process learn and unlearn ways of making history, even on a small scale. The SBHC and the Parents Action Group for Booth Hall (PAG) might seem partially to represent the two alternative possibilities — even if 'new movement' theorists might sniff suspiciously at a 'participatory' movement led by a party like the SWP.
