{"id":19556,"date":"2021-08-02T09:24:33","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T16:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=19556"},"modified":"2021-08-02T09:26:40","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T16:26:40","slug":"medicare-for-all-activists-press-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2021\/08\/02\/medicare-for-all-activists-press-democrats\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicare for All Activists Press Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Joe<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By JOE MANISCALCO<\/a> July 30, 2021 (dcreport.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Actress Susan Sarandon and activist Erobos Abzu Lamashtu were among the marchers who gathered at the locked Bronx office of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Joe Maniscalco)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocates Urge Ocasio-Cortez and Other Progressives to Support Single-Payer Healthcare<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With Covid spiking again and  deaths topping 610,000, pro-Medicare for All marchers hoping to light a fire under passive House progressives could have used a lot of labor muscle when they took to the streets in 50 American cities this past weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The marchers demanded legislative action. They didn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason, according to People\u2019s Party<\/a> head Nick Brana, is organized labor\u2019s continuing blind fealty to the Democratic Party and duopoly politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOrganized labor is the biggest institutional force that serves working people \u2014 they should be on the front lines,\u201d Brana said outside the Bronx office of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on July 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea was to cap off Saturday afternoon\u2019s M4M4All<\/a> (March for Medicare for All) nationwide actions by hand-delivering a petition and a shortlist of Medicare for All demands<\/a> to anyone who might answer AOC\u2019s door. But a vacant office and locked roll down gates put the kibosh on that plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fear Corporate Dominance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Marchers are pressuring Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives in Congress to step up the fight for single-payer because they fear the Democratic Party establishment is succeeding in subverting them to its corporate-dominated will. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, as Brana says, \u201cWhat good does it do to have representatives in office who don\u2019t take corporate money if they\u2019re listening to the politicians that do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ocasio-Cortez chose to stump for congressional hopeful Nina Turner in Ohio on July 24. M4M4All organizers don\u2019t necessarily mind, but they say she could have tweeted support for their efforts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way Brana sees it, trade unionists across the country should not only be joining efforts to help force a vote on Medicare for All, they really should be leading the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Labor] should be organizing actions like these because their own members are the ones that suffer,\u201d Brana said. \u201cTheir own workers are the ones that suffer when they have to contend with employer-based [healthcare] plans. That means that the power of labor, the power of workers is diminished \u2014 and that diminishes the power of unions themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AFL-CIO \u2014 a federation of 56 national and international labor unions representing some 12.5 million active and retired workers \u2014 in 2017 officially called for moving expeditiously toward a single-payer Medicare for All system <\/a>as a \u201ccore goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York Legislature Balks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But when the Democrat-controlled New York State Legislature advanced a single-payer measure <\/a>earlier this year, with more than 30 co-sponsors in the Senate, the United Federation of Teachers [UFT] led by Michael Mulgrew and other New York City public sector unions stepped in to help make sure it didn\u2019t get to a vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy hasn\u2019t the New York State Legislature passed the New York Health Act yet,\u201d asked New York State Green Party \u2018s Gloria Mattera outside City Hall Park on July 24. \u201cPeople want that, some of our elected officials have lobbied for it, in fact. But the two leaders \u2014 [Assembly Speaker Carl] Heastie and [Senate Majority Leader and President Pro Tempore] Andrea Stewart-Cousins wouldn\u2019t even let it come to a vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWill [Governor] Andrew Cuomo champion a single-payer system in the State of New York? No \u2014 he champions himself just like he did during the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edwin DeJesus, an M4M4All organizer and independent candidate for city council running on the Green Party line in NYC\u2019s 22nd District, attributes a lot of this past weekend\u2019s poor union showing to the enduring allegiances certain labor leaders have to Democratic Party power players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of it, I think, has to do with the fact that union leaders who have ties to certain political leaders [who are owned by corporate interests] are all in that cycle of \u2018Let\u2019s maintain the status quo because that\u2019s what\u2019s keeping us in power\u2019,\u201d DeJesus says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just something we\u2019re going to have to combat with relentless education and letting union members know\u2026stand up for what you believe in\u2026don\u2019t necessarily feel you have to be silent because leadership has a certain opinion on something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brana, Bernie Sanders\u2019 national political outreach coordinator during the Vermont senator\u2019s 2016 presidential bid, says that sinking unionization rates that have dipped from 35-percent to about 10-percent over the years, demands that organized labor \u201cobjectively reevaluate its relationship\u201d with the Democratic Party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you told any corporation that their success, [their] revenue, would be cut to a third \u2014 and then you told them that deal\u2019s working out for you \u2014 they would tell you get the hell out of here. And that\u2019s exactly what labor needs to tell the Democratic Party,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeJesus concedes that an avalanche of online political rancor and hate directed at M4M4All organizers disrupted outreach efforts to labor unions \u2014 at least in New York City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic Resistance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Democratic Party acolytes have been on the attack since last December, when the People\u2019s Party, Greens and other allies rallied behind a grassroots effort to convince House progressives to leverage their vote for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and force a vote on Medicare for All.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStop being ablest and privileged in telling me what I\u2019m allowed to be pissed at,\u201d M4M4All National Organizer Savage Joy told a group of about 30 supporters in the Bronx. \u201cI am holding people accountable, I am not calling names, I am not insulting. I am saying you made a promise. You are not even doing the bear minimum of Tweeting Medicare for All \u2014that is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activist Susan Sarandon urged Ocasio-Cortez to get \u201ccreative\u201d and to reject the duopoly\u2019s tired old game of incrementalism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo not play the game they\u2019ve asked you to play because the only way things are gonna change is from the bottom up,\u201d the Academy Award winner said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen that the top does not care. They have their lobbyists from insurance and pharmaceutical [companies] and that\u2019s the bottom line. You have to show up and get other people to show up. It\u2019s great to have a rock star from New York that\u2019s there who has five million [Twitter] followers \u2014 but let\u2019s use those people to our advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s office has not responded to requests for comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paula Jean Swearengin, the coal miner\u2019s daughter from West Virginia who challenged Democratic Party elites Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito for their Senate seats, recently left the Democratic Party to join the People\u2019s Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of unions across the country have supported Medicare for All, even the UMWA<\/a> outside of West Virginia,\u201d Swearengin said on Monday. \u201cI\u2019m here to continue that fight\u2026and carry on legacy of those who fought for union rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

March for Medicare for All activists know all too well that it\u2019s been 80 years since FDR rolled out the \u201cEconomic Bill of Rights<\/a>\u201d and nearly 60 years since JFK started talking about Medicare<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe that labor needs to return to its militant roots of striking,\u201d Brana continued under a blistering Bronx sun. \u201cWildcat striking, the teachers\u2019 strikes in West Virginia where Paula Jean is from \u2014 that\u2019s the model. The victories that were won in the 1930s \u2014 they were won because workers were radical, they were militant and they fought back. They didn\u2019t wait, necessarily, for even the union to tell them to do it. They self-organized and fought back \u2014 and that\u2019s what we need more of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n