Mike's Letter from America No 15

The Worst of Health

Yesterday, I went to have some blood samples taken. The first thing I was asked when I got to the clinic was ‘could I see your insurance card?’ This is always the first thing an American resident is asked when going for the first time to a doctor, dentist, or even a hospital – except in the direst of emergencies, no insurance = no treatment.

The irony of this is that, if you believe the Republicans and their allies in the media, in Britain or other countries that have a public health system ‘government bureaucrats come between you and your doctor’. Yet in 39 years under the care of the NHS, I never had to see a bureaucrat, government or otherwise. When I lived in Oxford, the NHS medical centre was literally across the road - the only thing ‘between me and my doctor’ was a street. In the US, however, the private bureaucracy of the insurance companies always stands between a patient and his or her physician.

Another example of my experience of the US healthcare system: soon after arrival in America, I went to the pharmacy for a prescribed nasal spray. When told it would cost me $40 (about £26), I asked whether they had remembered to deduct the portion paid by the insurance. They told me that yes, they had, and that the full price for the medicine was more like $400! Now, I know for a fact that this medicine sold for a market rate of about £8 in the UK, where it is obtainable over the counter. With a prescription, of course, it costs even less (and is free in Scotland or Wales).

As shown by Michael Moore’s movie Sicko, the US healthcare system regularly fails those who need it most. Over 47 million Americans (nearly 20% of the population) have no health insurance and, as Moore demonstrated, even those who are covered constantly find that their insurers fail to pay up. Whole armies of bureaucrats are employed by the insurance companies to investigate their clients to find loopholes that will allow them not to pay for their treatment. In 1993, when health care reform was proposed by the Clinton administration, the insurers paid out 95c for every $1 they collected in premiums; now, the figure is only 80c. Meanwhile, their profits have increased by over 400%.

Fortunately, Obama has a plan. To listen to the Republicans and the pundits on Fox News, you’d think he was going to bring in a fully-funded public health-care system, paid for by expropriating the bourgeoisie while strangling some particularly adorable puppies. In fact, Obama’s plans are incredibly moderate, consisting mainly of a public insurance scheme to compete with the private insurers, and making it compulsory for employers to offer health coverage to their workers. His administration has been very careful to reassure the health insurance industry that their profits will be left intact. A few weeks ago, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was on the radio telling listeners that the government-sponsored public insurance scheme would not undercut the private insurers – to which my reaction as ‘why the hell not?’

The other plank of the healthcare scam is the pharmaceutical companies. My $400 nasal spray incident was made possible by the fact that the in insurers are essentially in cahoots with the drugs companies to maximize their profits. Pharmaceutical companies can charge what they like, knowing insurers will (grudgingly) pay up; insurers can charge what they like, knowing that the public have no other choice but to pay their premiums. Yet the Obama plan leaves the big pharmaceutical companies untouched. Recently, Harry and Louise, the adorable white middle-class couple who famously appeared in ads opposing Clinton’s health reform proposals (paid for, of course, by the health insurance industry), have been on our screens again. This time, however, they are supporting Obama’s plan. And who is paying for the ads? The lobby representing the drugs companies. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOr17a4ZOIU You may think any healthcare reform that is backed by big pharma is not a reform worthy of the name – and you’d be right.

Still, Obama’s plan is a tiny step in the right direction. It ought to be very popular – polls show that 72% of Americans want some kind of public health insurance. Yet the barrage of lies and scare tactics against ‘socialized medicine’ seem to be having an effect, with some polls showing Obama losing popularity over the healthcare issue. The ‘Blue Dogs’ (right-wing Democrats who would not be out of place in David Cameron’s Tory Party) are getting cold feet, and Democrat senators are trying to cobble together a deal with the Republicans to remove even the tiny, weak public insurance scheme proposed by the president.

Ironically, public health care already exists in the USA. Medicare/Medicaid, which covers the poorest and the elderly, has been in place since the 1960s, and is incredibly popular. More to the point, members of Congress benefit from a health insurance scheme of the sort that they would deny the rest of us. The military also have publically-funded health insurance, and John Stewart on the Daily Show managed to get neo-con Bill Krystol to admit that (a) it is better than private health care and (b) that the rest of us don’t deserve the same. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa69puS7J0Q

If health care reform is scuppered again, as it was under Clinton, it will show where true power lies in US society. The Democrats have the presidency, both houses of Congress (including a supposedly unassailable 60-40 majority in the Senate), and the backing of 72% of the population. But the private health industry has the $500 million it paid last year on lobbying and campaign contributions to politicians. It will take a mass campaign from outside the halls of Congress to counter that, and make sure Democratic congressmen vote with their electors, not with the lobbyists.

Vestas workers take on climate change minister in Oxford

Vestas workers challenged Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband at a packed public meeting of 600 people at Oxford Town Hall on Monday evening.
Protesters supporting the Vestas workers heckled Miliband earlier in the day when he met the public at Oxford train station. Local trade unionists and environmentalists forced him to agree to an impromptu personal meeting with one of the Vestas workers.

Later, local campaigners gathered signatures from the public as they entered the public meeting, calling for a Vestas worker to be allowed to address the meeting from the platform. Just as Miliband was about to speak it was announced, to much applause, that “due to popular demand” the meeting agenda would be rearranged to allow a Vestas worker to speak to the meeting.

Vestas worker Dave Hughes addressed the meeting. He explained what had happened and why the workers were occupying the factory – to save their jobs and to show the government that they have the skills to make wind turbine blades for the UK market. He asked Miliband, “Why has the government stood back and allowed 600 workers to be fired?” and said that if the government was serious about tackling climate change it should save Vestas.

Miliband replied that Vestas management had told him that government money would not save the plant and that the biggest problem was UK planning laws – laws that he said the government was going to change. Several Vestas workers and others challenged Miliband from the floor. They asked why, if the government could find billions to nationalise the banks, they could not nationalise Vestas to save jobs and help save the environment. Miliband argued that, “If I nationalise I don't think it will encourage others to come here and invest”. A speaker from People and Planet lambasted the government’s new energy white paper saying it was “incoherent and does not have a long term strategy behind it”. To much laughter people pointed out that, while the government claims to be a global leader on carbon reduction, it now owns the Royal Bank of Scotland—the biggest funder of fossil fuels in Britain. Miliband urged us all to “suspend our pre-existing views” to find ways to deal with climate change. Yet when challenged again from the floor as to why the government won't step in and save Vestas he replied, “It’s not about the amount of money from us – to nationalise will do more harm than good”.

New Labour is clearly not prepared to drop its ideological belief that the free market is the answer to solving climate change and creating much needed new green jobs during the biggest recession the country has faced since the 1930s.
Many people left the meeting unconvinced by Miliband’s lukewarm response – but inspired by the Vestas workers’ action.

A collection for the Vestas workers raised £200

More info at: http://savevestas.wordpress.com/

Pictures from http://www.flickr.com/photos/energyclimatechange/with/3765226602/

Unite Against Fascism- Oxford coach for 15th August

A national demonstration will take place against the Red, White & Blue fascist “festival” organised by the BNP in Derbyshire on Saturday 15 August

Despite significant local opposition, the BNP are going ahead with their Nazi rally in the Derbyshire countryside.

In previous years, BNP members were secretly taped by BBC documentary makers singing Nazi marching songs at the event.

In the wake of the election of two fascist BNP members to the European Parliament, we must ensure that the BNP does not use its electoral foothold to promote their bigotry and hatred on our streets.

Unite Against Fascism is calling on every organisation and individual opposed to the BNP to join the national protest and rally against the Red White and Blue “festival of hate” in Codnor, Derbyshire. We want to bring enough protesters to Codnor to “kettle” the BNP rally by encircling it with anti-fascists. This action will symbolise the fact that the vast majority of people in this country reject the BNP’s Nazi politics.

This action is supported by local Unite Against Fascism and Love Music Hate Racism groups.

Seats on the coach from Oxford can be booked online c/o http://web.bethere.co.uk/OxfordUAF/ or email OxfordUAF@bethere.co.uk. Alternatively ring 07790532513. Please talk to your friends, work mates and members of your organisations about supporting this demonstration.

Message from the Campaign Against Climate Change

Save Vestas - Defend Jobs, Save the Planet - Support the Occupation
 
Workers at the Vestas Wind Turbine factory on the Isle of Wight have
JUST NOW occupied their factory. They are fighting for 600 jobs and 
the future of the planet. They need help now.

PLEASE TEXT AND CALL EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

There is a large picket of support starting outside the factory. This 
will be crucial in giving people confidence inside. We want hundreds 
of people by morning.
If you are not working, come now, by car, bus or train.
If you are on the South Coast and working, come for the night and go
to work exhausted and proud.

If you can’t come, call up friends and offer to pay the fare or petrol 
money for someone else to come down. Or part of the fare.
Don’t just call the environmental and union activists you know. Call 
your friends and ask them who they know. Call your brother’s friends=2 0
or your children’s friends. Text everyone. Get your friends calling 
and texting.

WE WANT HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE NOW.
SAVE THE JOBS - SAVE THE PLANET.

The workers want Gordon Brown to step in as if it was a troubled bank 
and save the jobs and keep making wind turbine blades. They gave the 
bankers trillions. They say they care about climate change. He has 
talked about creating 40,000 "Green Jobs", the first step should be 
protecting these 600.
 
The workers will need solidarity - donations of money, food and other 
assistance. In the first instance please send messages of solidarity 
to savevestas@gmail. com

We will suggest other forms of solidarity soon. Do this now. Reach for 
your phone.

Why we should get the Troops Out of Afghanistan

INTERVENTION AND RESISTANCE IN AFGHANISTAN
Why has one of the poorest countries in the world been soaked in blood for over 150 years, as three major powers have sought to control it? Stop the War officer John Rees presents a short video history of imperialist intervention and local resistance in Afghanistan.The 20 minute film can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/13TEmJIt is part of the Timeline series produced by the Islam Channel (http://bit.ly/4jCqQ).

Mike's Letter from America No 14

Factories Close, Guantanamo Stays Open

‘Do you approve of President Obama?’ asks a quiz on Facebook. Polls are always pretty unreliable, especially online ones, which tend to be self-selecting. But the more scientific polls reveal that, while some of the initial euphoria about Obama’s election has worn off, his approval ratings have been consistently over 60%. Gordon Brown (assuming he’s still PM by the time I finish writing this) could only dream of such ratings. The problem with the poll, of course, is that it begs the question ‘approve of what?’ Do I approve of the fact that Obama, not John McCain, is president? Well, yes, but there is a lot to disapprove of about the Obama administration.

The biggest question facing the US at the moment is, of course, the economy. To be fair to Obama, he has carried out some vaguely social-democratic polices, but more by accident than design, as he has been forced to take measures (like FDR in the Great Depression) to save capitalism from itself. Most striking has been Obama’s behavior toward General Motors (GM). First, the president insisted on sacking the company’s CEO after GM received a government bail-out – a small step perhaps, but an astonishing breach of the free-market  taboo against state intervention that has dominated politics for the last 30 years. Now, following GM’s bankruptcy, the federal government has taken a 60% share of the company. Nobody will say the word, but this is in effect nationalization. Something apparently even more radical occurred in Chrysler, where a trust controlled by the auto workers’ union the UAW received a controlling share of the company

The auto industry is a subject close to the hearts of us in Michigan, home to the so-called ‘Big Three’ car manufacturers (Ford, Chrysler, and GM) all of which are in various degrees of distress. Given that Michigan already has the worst economy of any of the 50 states, with unemployment in double figures, the crisis in the car industry could send the state into economic meltdown. So have Obama and the UAW ridden to the rescue, implementing a socialist utopia of nationalization under workers’ control?

Not so fast. The government intervention is designed to stabilize GM and manage its bankruptcy. No jobs are being saved, on the contrary, the government and the union are there to manage the redundancies, which continue almost daily. (This morning, GM announced another 400 redundancies in Flint, Michigan, a city whose plight was explored in Michael Moore’s documentary Roger and Me.) The Democrats were quick to reassure big business that Congress would not be running GM (which begs the question, why nationalize a company if you’re going to leave its running to the executives who drove it to bankruptcy?). For its part, UAW bureaucracy, which has led the way in selling pay cuts and the loss of pensions to its members, is acting to smooth the process of bankruptcy and redundancies. As for Chrysler, the UAW is using its share to finance its members’ pensions (which, until the union sold out, had been paid for by the employers anyway), and has stated it will not control management of the company.

Let us leave the depressing prospect of the devastated economy of Michigan to consider more positive matters. Isn’t Obama closing down Guantanamo? Well, no, not really, as he is only closing it down in order to move the inmates to other prisons. The whole regime of detention without charge or trial is to continue, and the administration’s lawyers even came up with a new, updated definition of ‘illegal combatants’ to justify their continued detention. But even the plan to move the deckchairs on this ethical Titanic was too much for the Democrats in Congress. Following a hysterical fear-campaign by the Republicans, invoking images of dangerous terrorist running free in small-town America, Democratic senators crumbled, and the measure to close Guantanamo was defeated by an astonishing margin of 90 to 6, in a senate that contains only 40 Republicans.

Surely, at least in foreign policy Obama is progressive? Part of his continuing appeal is that he has changed the tone compared to Bush. In place of confrontation and a contemptuous dismissal of other cultures and nations, Obama is very good at making the right noises about peace and cooperation.  His speech in Cairo was a great example of his approach, dotted with references to Islam and Arabic culture that won over his audience. He even mildly criticized Israel, but the substance of his speech left little of comfort for the Palestinians, who were told they had no right to armed resistance, and must accept whatever crumbs are handed them from the negotiating table. Meanwhile, Obama is moving more troops to Afghanistan, and Afghan and Pakistani civilians are dying in the continuation of Bush’s ‘War on Terror.’

It is too early to see if any alternative to the left of Obama is going to emerge, and most liberals seem prepared to give Obama the benefit of the doubt, especially as he is about to launch long-awaited health care reforms. But the optimistic opinion polls disguise growing unease over the economy and torture, and (unlike the depressing scenario in the European elections) the Republicans are ill-placed to take advantage of it. When the right organized a series of ‘tea-bagging’ demonstrations (don’t ask!) against wholly-imaginary Obama tax increases, the turn out in most places was pathetic, and the notion of ‘tea-bagging’ received widespread ridicule. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLsKt4O4Yw8 More good news is that the wretched bureaucratic leadership of the UAW is not the whole story when it comes to the labor movement in the US. Union membership is growing rapidly in the service sector, and in 2007 union membership figures increased nationally for the first time in 25 years. As I’ve written before, the gay rights movement is growing in reaction to California’s ban on same-sex marriage, and the conservatives have been forced onto the back foot over this issue. Finally, despite the Republicans attempts to (ludicrously) scare people by labeling Obama a socialist, opinion polls show that half the population actually think socialism is a good idea. Maybe we should believe those polls after all?

Tom Woodcock result in Cambridge Council Elections shows scope for Left Alternative

Tom Woodcock stood in the recent County Council elections in Cambridge under the slogan 'make the bankers pay – defend jobs, public services and the environment'.
Kilian Bourke (Lib Dem) 34.4% 829
Chris Freeman (Labour) 20.46% 493
Tom Woodcock (Independent) 17.63 % 425
Phil Richards (Green) 12.32% 297
Sam Barker (Conservative) 11.2% 270
Marjorie Barr ((UKIP) 3.98% 96