Today in England, “junior doctors” — post-graduate physicians akin to residents and fellows in the United States — are walking out. This two-day strike represents a major intensification of actions that began in January. It was precipitated by last year’s breakdown in negotiations over a contract that the Conservative government of David Cameron has now proclaimed it will impose come hell or high water. But the stakes of the junior doctors’ strike are much higher.

Physicians’ strikes, it’s worth acknowledging, do not always seek progressive ends. The 1962 Saskatchewan Doctors’ Strike aimed to torpedo the province’s milestone single-payer legislation. But the current action in England, endorsed by a near-unanimous vote last year, is something different. Fundamentally, it’s aimed at the preservation — not the derailment — of universal health care.

The travails of the junior doctors are one part of a much larger campaign. Against austerity, of course. But also for the perseverance of the United Kingdom’s unique health care system — in substance, not merely in name — in the twenty-first century.