End of strike—Capitalist healthcare conditions sickens workers

CHICAGO, July 13—Today marks the official end of an 18-day strike of Cook County workers against the racist and sexist city bosses. Over 2,500 workers united across many different job titles and workplaces to fight against the County board’s profit-based cutbacks. The majority of these workers are Black and Latin women, providing another clear example of Progressive Labor Party’s (PLP) outlook that those most exploited and oppressed under this ruthless capitalist system are those most ready to organize for its destruction.
The striking workers of the Cook County system have fought boldly, asserting their dignity and a good deal of power in the face of a system not designed to suit working-class needs. But even the gains of the most militant and prolonged strike can and will be blunted or even erased, as long as the racist capitalist profit system remains intact.
Members of PLP have been proud to support this struggle, marching on the picket lines, distributing leaflets and copies of CHALLENGE while making conversation with the strikers. The workers are fighting for a better deal from the Cook County bosses, and no doubt learning from their experience. We in PLP encourage all workers to join the fight for an egalitarian communist society to end racism and sexism once and for all.
Racist bosses keep safety net hospitals on the chopping block
A racist trend that the working class has been grappling with is a significant reduction of services for the so-called “safety net” hospitals under capitalism. These publicly-funded institutions primarily care for uninsured and underinsured workers, the majority of which are Black, Latin, and immigrant.
Around Chicago alone in the past few years, we have experienced the complete closure of two hospitals (Westlake and Metro South), the proposed closure of Mercy Hospital on the south side, and major reductions of service throughout the Cook County Health system, which includes Provident Hospital on the south side and Stroger Hospital on the lower west side. These cuts have proven devastating to workers’ health outcomes, with life expectancy varying as much as 30  years between different neighborhoods (Chicago Tribune, 6/5/19).
In the majority of these cases, especially in Chicago, it is the Big Fascist liberal bosses that are leading the attack on our health and wellbeing. This Big Fascist wing of the U.S. ruling class (see glossary on page 6) uses identity politics and progressive-sounding language as a means to try and mislead workers into supporting pro-capitalist policies. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot – both Black women – have led the charge against striking healthcare and education workers as well as anti-racist protestors in recent years.
The truth is, capitalist bosses of all stripes have little to no interest in funding public services that serve working people. As the U.S. bosses watch the rise of their rivals in Russia and China, they are pressed to funnel more trillions of dollars into their war machine. They understand the contradictions of their system can ultimately only be settled in the arena of global imperialist war, the most deadly assault on the international working class.
Pro-boss unions put workers on reform carousel
The workers represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 include many of the lowest-paid workers in the Cook County public system. Despite the financial hardship no doubt involved in a prolonged strike and union organizers failing to engage patients and the community, these workers remained boldly committed to the cause.
In exchange for their commitment, the most that SEIU leadership could scrape together was a meager $50 strike fund per worker. Contrast this scant amount to the one million dollars that SEIU donated to Preckwinkle’s mayoral campaign in 2018 (Herald and Review, 12/10/18). The union leadership actively contributed to the same class enemy that we fight today!
But such collaboration should come as no surprise when we consider the overall role of unions under capitalism. Their purpose is to keep working-class fightback within acceptable limits for the bosses, build loyalty and dependence to capitalist politicians and their courts, and negotiate the terms of our exploitation on the job.  They will never by their nature challenge capitalism and its rampant inequality and unemployment – only a mass communist PLP can do that.
A communist society is a healthy society
Regardless of shortcomings, the Cook County strike has had a motivating impact in the lives of countless workers. It has no doubt stimulated our local PLP collective to struggle to push past our limits in order to follow up with new contacts and raise communist politics more broadly.
We don’t need a system that takes care of the needs of billionaires—the capitalist system. We need a communist society in which we share equally in the fruits of our labor. It is a system in which workers are appreciated, racism and sexism are eliminated, and good health and health care are shared by all.