Chicago: Smash Racist Healthcare, Build Communism

CHICAGO, July 11—Over 50 comrades and friends participating in Progressive Labor Party’s Summer Project took action to blast the racist and sexist “healthcare” system under capitalism. They brought a revolutionary communist vision of health and collective power to the working class of Chicago, during a packed day of CHALLENGE sales, forums, and a bold rally.
Early to Rise, Early to Struggle
Comrades arrived at two different hospitals on the city’s primarily Black and Latin west side at 6:00 am to greet workers and patients with CHALLENGE and fliers as they entered the facilities. In less than an hour, over 400 fliers and CHALLENGEs were sold and several workers gave us their information so PLP could be in touch with them.
The two hospitals, Mount Sinai and Stroger Hospital of Cook County, are the only options available for many Black and undocumented workers and their families. Because of the overwhelming racism of the system, workers and patients alike face poor staffing, long wait times, and cutbacks on essential services. The racist bosses of both facilities have committed a brutal attack on the working class with the decision to completely eliminate pediatric inpatient services. Communists say: a system that won’t guarantee comprehensive healthcare to the working class doesn’t deserve to exist!
Only Communism Will Heal Our Class
The collective next held a study group on the political economy of healthcare at a local university. A physician comrade talked about capitalism’s drive to provide medical services only as a means to ensure the productivity (and thereby profitability) of workers. Healthcare didn’t develop out of the “goodwill” of the bosses. To have workers drop dead in the fields or the factories was simply bad for their bottom line, so they established the minimum services necessary to ensure a steady exploitation of our labor.
We discussed historical examples of communist-influenced healthcare, such as when
communists in China doubled life expectancy in the span of a single generation through massive public health campaigns and breaking down elitist hierarchies in the hospitals and clinics. This
example, and others, reminded everyone how workers can and have made tremendous strides in healthcare when armed with communist politics and organization.
Smash Racist Healthcare
Eager to put theory into practice, comrades and friends returned to Stroger Hospital that same afternoon for a PLP rally. Sharp chants and bold speeches were given from a bullhorn as we held a picket line at the entrances. Even more CHALLENGES and fliers were handed out to workers. Comrades, many of whom were giving their first-ever speeches on a bullhorn, blasted capitalist healthcare and its racist and sexist cutbacks, calling on workers to fight for revolutionary alternatives.
In a matter of minutes, the rally caught the bosses’ attention. Racist kkkops attempted to shut down the picket, saying we were breaking the law by marching on the sidewalk in front of the hospital. PL’ers defied their bogus threats by chanting even louder and holding our ground! Eventually, we forced the cops to back off and our speeches and chants became even bolder and revolutionary. Hundreds of CHALLENGEs were
distributed, and many workers driving past honked in solidarity.
Addiction is a Disease of Capitalism
The day concluded with a forum on the current opioid epidemic in the U.S. Clear connections were made between alienation, pharmaceutical profits, incarceration, and capitalism. A collective analysis determined that capitalism was responsible for the opioid crisis, and that it had no therapeutic solutions to treat the increasing number of workers struggling with addiction. We also discussed the racism of the bosses’ attacks on Black workers struggling with crack addiction in the 1980s, and their more compassionate reporting of the overwhelmingly white workers that are
suffering from this opioid crisis.
Once again, capitalist “solutions” to drug addiction and selling were contrasted with communist approaches. Comprehensive medical treatment, collective struggle, and full access to productive labor and healthy recreation were among some of the more worker-based methods to treating addiction shared within the groups. Many participants shared personal experiences as well as historical examples, stimulating discussion and envisioning a world where destructive drug epidemics are a thing of the past.
Communism is the Antidote to Capitalist Poison
The truth is that capitalism can offer no healthy future for our class. The system bankrupts us, charging enormous fees to treat diseases that it causes, if workers even have access to those treatments. Their pursuit of profit will always come before workers’ needs! No reform will ever change that basic fact. The prescription that PLP gives is to join and build a mass anti-racist, anti-sexist international Party for communist revolution. As a united working class, we can take our health needs into our own hands and send capitalism straight to the morgue!