Beds, not body bags— communism, not capitalism

Hundreds of workers and community members at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center have signed a petition “Beds not Body Bags” protesting racist Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan to consolidate three hospitals (Kingsbrook, Brookdale and Interfaith). This would eliminate over 200 hospital beds as we move into a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. These hospitals are located in and serve the heavily Black neighborhoods of Flatbush, Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, and Ocean Hill-Brownsville. Cuomo serves the billionaire capitalists of Wall Street and New York real estate; racism is the lifeblood of  capitalism.
Over the last 20 years over 20,000 hospital beds have been cut in New York State.  Cuomo closed Long Island College Hospital Center, pared down Brookdale Hospital, and closed many services at Downstate Medical Center. Many workers were laid off, mostly women and Black, Latin and Asian workers. In the end, Brooklyn has 2.2 hospital beds per 1000 people while Manhattan has 6.4 beds per 1000 people.
Covid-19 a disaster in Brooklyn after years of cuts
The lack of infrastructure in medical care caused by the continual cuts led to thousands of unnecessary deaths in the outer boroughs of NYC even before Covid-19. The pandemic starkly exposed the racist nature of these cuts. You can put a bunch of beds in the hospital cafeteria, but you can’t staff them quickly. Skeleton teams  of nurses, doctors, technical, and housekeeping staff could not keep the hospitals safe for patients or workers. Covid patients lying in hallways, shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), medications and bodies piling up in refrigerated trucks (and sometimes unrefrigerated trucks) were the order of the day. During the height of the pandemic in the spring, the hospitals being downsized were seeing  500 Covid patients a day. The years of cuts absolutely contributed to higher numbers of deaths in Brooklyn, especially of Black and Latin workers.
Capitalist inequality can’t be voted out
This goes way beyond racist Donald Trump. It implicates the whole capitalist class, and both Democratic and Republican politicians, as racist agents of genocide. Liberal politicians like Joe Biden and Cuomo get the cuts done. And they get away with it because they claim to be more pro-the-little-guy, more antiracist than the conservatives. The main finance wing of the ruling class needs this because they need more resources for maintaining their imperialist world empire (this means wars).  And union leaders are part of this liberal cover for the racist inequalities of capitalist health care. Instead of taking on liberal capitalist politicians like Cuomo, most union leadership tells people to vote for them on November 3rd. In Progressive Labor Party we say don’t vote, revolt. . Lead walkouts, rallies, marches, and strikes against racist health care. Unite hospital workers with our communities. But make no mistake. Capitalism will not, cannot provide decent health care for workers, especially Black and Latin workers. We need a revolution to get rid of it.
These cuts have prompted major fightback by hospital workers in Brooklyn in particular, but also nationally with strikes in Chicago and massive marches and rallies in the affected neighborhoods.  Over the years, Progressive Labor Party has joined and at times led marches and protests at Brookdale and Downstate. We will unite with all workers to help smash the racist system of capitalism that values profit over human life. Only an egalitarian communist revolution can create a society of equality and solidarity that can transform the capitalist world into a world where the international working class is empowered to run society. The rebellions against racist police terror all over the world this past summer show our class is ready to fight. Now we need you to join our Party (see www.plp.org) and help us fight not only for “beds not body bags” but also for communism.