Under Lock & Key

I just wanted to take advantage of this lull in the recent pain I’ve been struggling with, as much psychologically as physically. It should get better, relatively speaking, and pass. It usually does. The only thing that’s truly effective is the pain medication I’m on, but I’m not in any position to request an increase. I’ve got a good doctor right now and he does what he can, of course within the restrictions imposed upon him that limit his abilities. It’s really just so damn frustrating, not being able to identify the root of the pain. I can’t help but genuinely wonder if I’d be subjected to this if I were not incarcerated and had good insurance and doctors?

You see, my doctor can only do so much here behind these walls for a number of reasons. Resources are practically non-existent and anything he wants to do, it’s first scrutinized and questioned. And if it’s okayed then he has to outsource it to an outside specialist and hospital. And quite often the specialists will either “shoot it down” or use it as an opportunity to run up a bill and bill it to the state. That is, they’ll admit me for several days, or a week, run a load of expensive but pointless tests that they’ve run before. So I’m shackled to a bed and they always either discontinue, or significantly reduce my pain management to ineffective dosage.

So my doctor here is very limited in what he can do without ultimately risking his own employment. You push too hard to provide adequate health care to us animals and it won’t be long before you’re seeking employment elsewhere.

Philosophically, it’s really an interesting dilemma. Especially for a Marxist, or one well acquainted with “the unification of opposites.” As we know, the prison system as an appendage of the “state apparatus”, is in its very essence, that is, by its “nature,” an oppressive institution.

All doctors take a Hippocratic oath and although the oath is subjectively interpreted, the practice of medicine is objective, and the practice of medicine in its “essence” (nature) is irreconcilably opposed to the essence of the prison system and its very existence.

So any doctor employed by the state (prison) is in direct opposition to the very essence of its employers. This is an objective phenomenon that exists whether one is conscious of this inter-connection of opposing tendencies, or not.

Ultimately the doctor will either submit and capitulate to the interests, i.e. trajectory, of the state through a slow process of indoctrination that occurs both subtlety and conspicuously, consciously and subconsciously, as well as from their own experience that they will have with those prisoners around them. And this is the greatest influence on them. I have to admit that I have a tremendous amount of respect for those doctors that do last as long as some of them do when I see how some (most) of these “inmates” act. (notice my distinction of inmate vs. convict).

Anyway, my doctor is in a no-win position. He does what he can without jeopardizing his job security. And although you and I would without a second thought, push and fight until we were unemployed, in these circumstances we are in the minority.

MIM(Prisons) adds: This is just another example of how the oppressed struggle for day-to-day survival under capitalism, despite some principles like the Hippocratic oath. In every issue of ULK we print a statement discussing a better form of justice that will be implemented under the dictatorship of the proletariat. We often talk about Chinese prisons during the socialist period of 1949- 1976. The most in-depth reports we have of those conditions come from the former emperor and collaborator with the Japanese occupiers who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Chinese people, and two Amerikan students imprisoned for spying for their country.(1) Both stress the fair treatment they received, and being fed adequate food in times when food was not always in adequate supply for the whole population. Meanwhile, in the heart of excess, in the United $tates, we have prisoners suffering from lack of basic needs.

It is obvious that this system has no interest in serving the oppressed. But what might not be so obvious is how prisons can and have been used in states that are of and by the oppressed. While a socialist state will use force to repress those who attempt to restore exploitation and oppression, the goal is to build communism. Therefore everyone is to be included in the benefits of society, and even the former class enemies will be won over by fair and humane treatment while being struggled with politically. That is what it looks like to engage in a project to abolish class differences. The key difference is the class in charge. It is only when the proletariat seizes the state from bourgeois rule that we will see systems that truly serve all people. Until then such claims are just political sloganeering.

There is some good news. Remember the doctor Robert Sharp mentioned in the ULK 40 Hailey Care article? He was terminated from Ridgeland Medical and rumor has it that he’s in Florida. A lot of effort was expended in trying to get him out, however much work needs to be done still. It seems the history of slavery, Willie Lynch, and other institutionalized oppression still have an effect on a certain class of people here in South Carolina.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We’ve been reporting on the deficient medical care in this South Carolina prison for nearly two years. By our count, they are on at least their fourth incompetent doctor in that time, and we have no reason to believe the medical care was any better before that time.

While it can be a useful battle to organize around, in the end removing “Doctor” Sharp, or any of the doctors in question, won’t solve the problem of inadequate medical care at Ridgeland Correctional Institution. Reformists spend all their energy trying to get a better doctor, or a better medical director, or a better president, or whatever. But inadequate medical care for prisoners likely isn’t Sharp’s only offense to humynity. There are more forces at play than just Sharp’s bad judgement or malice. And there are more Sharps than we can count, other doctors at other prisons all across our country providing similar or even worse treatment. There are likely more Sharp-type doctors working in U.$. prisons than not, and when they are removed from their job, they just go to a different facility and are replaced by a similar “doctor.” As was explained in the Hailey Care article, the inadequate medical care is even sponsored by the Governor of South Carolina.

On the other hand, revolutionaries aim to change the entire social and economic system. We want to eliminate the conditions that breed people like Robert Sharp, Nikki Hailey, and all their predecessors. We want to provide actual medical care for everyone in society, including prisoners. We want to create a communist society not based on capitalism or national oppression. Today we work on small reforms and education, to set the stage for the day when we will need to take up arms against the state in order to end the various oppressions inherent to capitalism.

June 2015 brought about one of the more serious human rights violations here at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Aliceville. The medical care is horrible. From the first day I have witnessed gross negligence, malpractice in many forms, and some of the nastiest medical personnel I’ve ever encountered. I worked in the intensive care unit at a hospital for 9 years, and I’ve seen some lacking in bedside manners, but these people are downright abusive.

I’ll skip all the second-hand horror stories and tell you about Karen Massengale. She came here about a month ago. I am not sure exactly how old she was but by her gray hair and other tell-tale signs I think she was not young. From day one she was sickly. There were several times she vomited in the common area and in her cell. She was seen at medical and given a laxative. After multiple trips to medication pick-up she finally was able to get them.

Her condition continued to deteriorate rapidly. She lost weight and she couldn’t leave her room. On two occasions she was wheeled to medical saying “something’s wrong, I know my body and something is wrong, I think I’m dying.” When she returned she was distraught, treated like she was faking and told there’s nothing wrong. Then on 25 May 2015 after laying in her room for three days, unable to eat or drink, she was rushed to medical. I saw her in a wheelchair barely able to sit up. That was the last time we saw her.

The buzz around the facility is that she died 30 May 2015, possibly of a bowel obstruction. One of the nursing staff (Nurse Eli) who told her there wasn’t anything wrong has told multiple prisoners that they are faking. She even went so far as to write one prisoner a shot for malingering. Two days later they were in surgery for a bowel obstruction. Trust me this is not the exception, it is the rule.

I currently have a grievance in process on medical and one on Nurse Eli. What I am asking from MIM(Prisons) is to simply follow up on Karen Massengale. She deserved for the last weeks of her life (if in fact she is deceased) to have been more humane. To die in a prison while begging for help and being told you’re faking is the epitome of cruel and unusual punishment, wouldn’t you say?

MIM(Prisons) responds: We have verified that Karen Massengale did die on 30 May 2015. Medical negligence is a serious form of abuse of prisoners. It is particularly tempting for prison administrators looking to save some money, as health care can be quite expensive, especially for a population that is fed a terrible diet, given little opportunity for exercise, and put in conditions that cause both mental and physical deterioration.

The health care system offered by capitalism generally offers better care to the wealthy and punishes the poor with sickness and death. This distinction is especially dramatic in countries like the United $tates which don’t offer universal healthcare equally to all. But even those capitalist countries that provide healthcare for all of their citizens are ignoring the health of the majority of the world’s people who are literally dying in service of profit. There is no excuse for the deaths from easily (and in many cases cheaply) preventable diseases that plague the Third World. Pharmaceutical companies test and manufacture expensive drugs in oppressed nations around the world while denying these test subjects and workers access to basic care. These drugs are for First World customers. The profit motive driving healthcare is a clear example of why capitalism is bad for the majority of the world’s people.

I thought I’d share how it works up here in Ad-Seg. I trip on how I’ve been going at it since the end of September. I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, from request forms, to 22 [inmate request] forms, to 602 [inmate appeal] and no good results. The appeals here are quick to catch a mistake and return it. First off, I am not a lawyer, second I’m a CCCMS mental health prisoner. But that does not mean anything here.

Anyhow, I wrote Sacramento, letting them know that I never wanted to do a 602 but it concerns my back brace and prescription glasses. And they’re in my property at the property room. I had to pay for those 2 items in state and I needed them so I was OK with that. Now I’m just asking for what’s mine and it’s a need. I use a cane and have a vest. I bought some glasses from another prisoner who wanted hygiene, but I’m not supposed to do that.

Nobody listens here and the 602 process is meaningless. I don’t know what else to do.

MIM(Prisons) responds: California was where the demand for grievances to be addressed began five years ago. It has since been taken up by comrades in a dozen other states. The focus is on petitioning state and federal officials responsible for the care of prisoners. In doing so, comrades are attempting to rally prisoners together as a group to defend their basic rights, like the ones the writer above describes; basic medical care and property rights.

But there are reasons why the arms of the injustice system are so unaccountable. Their central task is to control certain populations, and they must be given leeway to achieve that task. If their task was about justice, then obviously injustices like the ones above would not be tolerated. So we must rally together to ensure the rights of all are respected. Yet, ultimately, we must build a system that serves the interests of those who are oppressed and exploited by the current imperialist system that dominates our world. Petitions will not prevent these ongoing abuses.

These concentration camps are using chemicals that are carried on the pigs’ hips along with their billy clubs and handcuffs. They call these chemicals mace, but I’ve been pondering on something for years now: what are the ingredients inside these cans that are being used on us? Do these chemicals have a long-term effect on a person’s health? Riot cans are being used on us while we are locked down, and how does this make sense? We are lab rats being experimented on by these oppressors. The new trend is chemical warfare, and these oppressors are using different “toys” to instill fear to control us. They have mace ball guns where, instead of paint balls, the balls are filled with dry mace powder so that when a person is hit the powder gets all over their body causing a painful burning sensation. They have large fire extinguishers filled with foam mace and it’s attached to battling rams. At least three to four days a week we are woken up choking from the aroma of these chemicals because the pigs have sprayed a prisoner.

The pigs walk around with riot cans prepared to spray prisoners at any time, and in most cases for no good reason at all, just because they can. I’ve witnessed numerous times these riot cans being put into a prisoner’s mouth, prisoners being sprayed in their faces at point-blank range, or in their private regions while handcuffed. Personally I have been sprayed so many times that I have received chemical burns. I recall one night while resisting an injustice that was being done by these oppressors, they didn’t want to assemble an extraction team so instead the pigs got about 10 riot cans and sat them on a table in front of the pod. These pigs’ intentions were to spray from 1 a.m. all the way to 6 a.m. when another shift arrived.

Right now I am at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, aka Looneyville, and these pigs spray these chemicals on a daily basis. I’ve witnessed them spray prisoners numerous times under false pretense. I call this the “jump back.” This is when the pigs walk around intimidating prisoners with their chemicals and if we don’t comply with the pigs’ demands then the pigs walk down the range to stand in front of a prisoner’s bars and yells some gibberish and then “jumps back” pulling out their mace and spraying.

The Captain or Lieutenant comes and takes this prisoner to the hole, putting him in a slammer cell. The administrator accuses him of spitting or throwing something on a pig, which is is clearly a setup. When placed on the slammer side, the prisoner is put around the same pig that set them up and us further harassed. The pigs play with our food, cut off our water, and give us the bare minimum of our property.

If you write an informal complaint, eventually you’ll get sprayed in retaliation, receiving a ticket and getting placed on phone and commissary restriction to try to limit your communication with society. If you present the issues to the Warden and administration, they’ll pass it along to the pigs and they’ll spray and jump you when they get the right opportunity.

These prisons remind me so much of Nazi concentration camps where hoards of humans were experimented on with different kinds of chemicals until they found the perfect ingredients to eliminate them. We don’t know what long-lasting effects these chemicals have. These chemicals enter our bodies and we are being released back to society, making babies and don’t even know what we are passing along. Got to watch these oppressors’ every move because genocide is their long-term objective.

I just received a recent update that these oppressors are about to bring stun guns in! I sit here with fire in my eyes immune to their tactics because I know their true motives. I resist by any means necessary, organizing, networking, and educating until we become one mind, one body for one cause. All power to the people.

Here at Tracy Deuel Vocational Institution (DVI) the water has been contaminated. It is rusty red and black and contains pesticides that come from surrounding farmland which soaks into the water that DVI tries to filter for our consumption.

Prisoners have been breaking out in rashes with hives all over their bodies. Medical staff say this is a reaction to the contaminates within the drinking water. On 19 February 2015 the California Department of Corrections/Tracy (DVI) handed out to each prisoner 1 gallon of purified water in response to this medical crisis.

Seems to me, this dirty water is just another way to wipe out prisoners or to just save a lousy penny for the California Department of Corrections’ pocket.

MIM(Prisons) adds: The water at Tracy has been notoriously bad dating back to before 2009. The CDCR has also had major problems with the safety of water at Kern Valley. It’s realities like this that put the interests of U.$. prisoners closer to the Third World proletariat than the oppressor nation who sees unlimited clean water as a given. The oppressed experience ecological destruction first hand, in the form of things like lack of clean water. As comrades struggle for clean water at DVI, we should push this in the context of a revolutionary ecology that recognizes the inherent destructive nature of the anarchy of production under capitalism. We cannot keep pushing the problem onto other nations, as eventually we all will suffer these results of ecological destruction.

A recent study concluded that even a moderate deficiency of vitamin D results in a 53% increased chance of developing dementia. The most abundant source of vitamin D on earth comes from a chemical reaction that occurs naturally when our skin is exposed to direct sunlight.

Sunny California’s torture units feature dog run style walk-in closets called “walk alone” or “small management yards” (SMY). These usually consist of four solid walls and a plexiglass or metal grating for a roof, both of which obstruct sunlight. Depending on the time of day, a prisoner may not get any direct sunlight at all.

The SMY torture cages designed for Grade A and B death row prisoners warehoused in San Quentin’s East Block (SHU II D.R.) are especially cruel and unusual. Unlike the torture cages in the SHU III D.R. (The Adjustment Center) which are completely exposed to the elements with no protection whatsoever, the SHU II D.R. torture cages have a corrugated steel cover over 1/4 of its top and every one of these 40 or so cages are under a gigantic modified metal pavilion which could be comparable to a rusted metal circus tent. The only direct sunlight penetrating this bizarre big top of the CDCr circus pierces through rust holes in the massive metal canopy.

True to form, California’s mad scientists conducting the world’s most infamous death penalty experiment in numerous SHUs across the sunshine state prefer their own blend of pharmaceutical cocktails to solve the problems they themselves are mass producing. CDCr’s “chemical solution” aims to obscure and/or delay known side effects of this particular experiment which subjects humans to sunlight deprivation torture indefinitely. CDCr prescribes Vitamin D/Calcium supplements and “psych meds.”

Who will dare to fathom the impact this state-sanctioned torture has on prisoners in the United $tates, and on the prison system’s medical and mental health costs. This is a system already overloaded and still under federal receivership.

The bottom line is this is where getting involved in the grievance campaign would be a wise choice. Also keep in mind that no matter what your current classification is, it’s always subject to change. Just being in a California control unit is all it takes to become a test subject in this already out of control experiment. Don’t think you are somehow immune to this twisted chemical warfare.

While imprisoned on one of South Carolina’s 27 prisons, I’ve come to understand that Hailey Care is a system that uses the denial of basic health as a form of social control. Hailey Care offers prisoners poor nutrition, medical neglect, ignoring medical complaints, deliberate indifference to medical needs, improper diagnosis and failure to provide prescribed medication.

Nikki Hailey, a Republican and South Carolina’s first female Governor, is responsible for this system. So far Hailey Care has meant a denial of medical care for a lot of Black prisoners, especially for older prisoners. Doctors who come to work for the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) usually have less than stellar records, come from other states where they have been barred and/or have an array of sanctions. Perhaps for South Carolina and its medical board it’s a case of “political unaccountability” and an indifference to the human lives of its lumpenproletariat class.

One case in point was Dr. Paul C. Drago (lic # 9700531), barred from three states: New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. He’s listed as a plastic surgeon, and was hired by the SCDC, but after many complaints he was said to have resigned. The SCDC then brought in Physician Assistant Gregory Schaller, who time and time again exhibited intolerance towards the medical needs of Blacks. After much resistance he too resigned.

I’m currently under care of Dr. Robert Sharp, an Osteopath. I went to see Dr. Sharp and I requested medicated shampoo for psoriasis of my scalp. I also informed him that I was indigent and could not afford shampoo from the canteen. His reply: “I’m Jewish and a tax payer and I’m not ordering shampoo for an African American’s hair.” Because I reported his racial remarks to human resource staff person Ms. Wright, a member of the predominately Black “overseers” here at the Ridgeland plantation, I was labeled a liar and given a sanction of 15 hours extra duty.

As of the writing of this article, I’m in need of glasses, and am being denied treatment for sleep deprivation and a degenerative nerve disorder. Just today I reported the fact that I have holes in the bottom of my “crocks.” I was told I have to wait a month, while under the auspices of Hailey Care. I will continue to speak out about the inadequate health care abuse in South Carolina’s prison kamps.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We’ve written extensively about the failure of capitalism to provide adequate healthcare so it’s no surprise that the healthcare provided in South Carolina prisons is even more dangerous to the health of prisoners.(1) In previous articles we’ve exposed Dr. Drago’s incompetence on our website. The dismissal/“resignation” of him and his equally incompetent successor are tactical victories, no doubt in response to the complaints and bad press. We encourage all readers to follow this comrade’s example in exposing abuse in all forms, including medical neglect and malpractice. While we cannot create a system of healthcare that provides adequately for all under capitalism, we may save some lives by stopping the most dangerous practices. We can even use this information to educate people about the need to put an end to imperialism, a system that lets people suffer and die around the world with no interest in the health of the majority of the world’s people.

For those interested in alternative healthcare systems to the ones failing us currently, we recommend studying how the public health standard was raised in communist China under Mao. We distribute a number of books on this topic through our Free Boos for Prisoners Program.

Abril 1 - El plazo para inscribirse en el seguro de salud bajo el Acta de Cuidado Accesible (ACA) pasó anoche, y ahora hay 4.4 millones de personas en los Estados Unidos recientemente inscritos en planes de seguro de salud Medicaid patrocinado por el gobierno federal.(1) Aquellos quienes no se inscribieron en alguna aseguranza y no están protegidos por un plan a través de su familia, trabajo o escuela encararán multas. Para personas con ingresos menores al 400% de la “linea de pobreza” federal, los planes son subsidiados por el gobierno, y aquellos con 138% de este corte o menos recibirán cuidado de salud gratis por Medicaid. Al final, para al menos la clase mas baja la sanción les costará mas de lo que les costaría teniendo seguro de salud.

Este nuevo sistema de cuidado de la salud en los Estados Unidos, y frecuentemente llamado “Obamacare,” esta lejos de ser socialista, pero esto sirve como un buen recordatorio de los fracasos del capitalismo para cuidar de algunas de las necesidades básicas de ciudadanos del país imperialista. Los Estados Unidos había tenido cuidado de salud dirigido por el gobierno para personas en el servicio militar y sus familias desde los años 1800s, y para los relativamente pobres, discapacitados y ancianos desde los años 1960s con la creación de Medicare y Medicaid. Pero estos programas sirven a una minoría de Americanos, dejando a el resto buscar cuidado de salud a través de aseguradas proporcionadas por sus trabajos o a través de planes comprados privadamente o por pagar directamente por esos servicios. Esto significa que gente sin trabajo o en labores que no proporcionan cobertura de salud son frecuentemente dejados sin seguros de salud. El ACA intenta dirigir este problema proporcionando un programa dirigido por el gobierno para ayudar a asegurar ciudadanos sin cobertura medica.

No estamos asumiendo las criticas de los que dicen que la calidad del cuidado de la salud se iría abajo si es dirigida por el gobierno Americano. Esas mismas personas anularían la educación gratuita universal, privatizarían la distribución del agua, y eliminarían el departamento de Bomberos. Esto es un debate entre diferentes facciones de la burguesía y no merece el tiempo de los comunistas, solo señalar que tenemos fundamentalmente diferentes valores. No tenemos necesidad de defender la habilidad de un gobierno capitalista para dirigir estos programas bien porque no apoyamos gobiernos capitalistas. Y sabemos que el motivo del beneficio no hace más grande la “eficacia” como a los capitalistas les gusta afirmar. Vemos esto claramente en los Estados Unidos donde la comida es tirada en vez de distribuirla a personas hambrientas, y el tremendo desperdicio de dinero en publicidad en vez de satisfacer sus necesidades básicas.

Opinamos acerca del cuidado de salud de la misma manera que opinamos acerca de la educación, comida, agua limpia y otras necesidades básicas. Estas son cosas que comunistas buscan proporcionar para todas las personas sin distinción. Damos prioridad a necesidades básicas humanas por encima de artículos de lujo como botes, lujosos carros, grandes casas, televisiones, etc. Capitalismo, por otra parte, ha demostrado que artículos lujosos rentables son una prioridad por encima de las necesidades básicas humanas. Mientras en una cuestión de años de capitalismo han conseguido computadoras manuales en las manos de alguien con un poco de poder adquisitivo, las décadas de larga lucha contra las fácilmente evitables enfermedades en el tercer mundo continúa. Millones de niños de menos de cinco años de edad mueren cada año en el sur de Asia y Africa del Sur de el Sahara como un resultado. Creemos que el Acta de Cuidado Accesible ofrecería a estas personas servicios de cuidado de salud gratis. Mientras el ACA ha demostrado una y otra vez que pequeñas reformas en capitalismo pueden ser logradas cuando ellas sirvan los intereses de ciudadanos del país imperialista, capitalismo nunca permitirá reformas para mejorar todo el resto del mundo. De hecho, aún dentro de las fronteras de Estados Unidos los no ciudadanos son no elegibles para asegurarse bajo el ACA. Estos más en necesidad, trabajando las más duras y más peligrosas labores por menos dinero, les son todavía negados cuidados de salud básicos.

Mientras es fácil para Americanos el ignorar lo que pasa afuera de sus fronteras, esto sería una verguenza para el imperialismo Americano que el individualismo de estos ciudadanos es tan fuerte que hasta ahora ellos han rechazado cuidado de salud para aún sus propios relativamente acomodados ciudadanos. Aún ahora, muchos a través del país continúan peleando y resistiendo esta nueva ley. Previo al Acta de Cuidado Accesible (Affordable Care Act), Americanos quienes quieren comprar seguros de salud privados fueron frecuentemente rechazados por los planes de salud por “preexistentes condiciones.” Esto significa que planes de salud fueron seleccionando únicamente a los individuos más saludables para asegurarse, dejando a estos con aún menor historia de problemas de salud sin recursos porque la mayoría de planes de salud en los Estados Unidos son dirigidos privadamente para un beneficio. Ahora más aseguranzas en este país están todavía dirigidos para un beneficio, pero los gobiernos Federal y del Estado proporcionan estándares mínimos de cuidado que tienen que ser proveídos con cada póliza, y vender estos aprobados planes de aseguranza en un mercado, en espera que la competición de mercado inherente en capitalismo incrementará la calidad y transparencia mientras reduciendo el costo.

Aboliendo el cuidado de salud por beneficio será una prioridad para comunistas cuando tomemos el control de un gobierno. Queremos hacer tratamiento de cuidado preventivo disponible para toda la gente. La nueva ley ACA en los Estados Unidos no elimina aseguranzas privadas ni remueve el beneficio de cuidado de la salud, y esto es un paso fundamentalmente corto hacia cobertura universal para America. Pero esto permite a las personas conseguir seguros de salud a pesar de sus ingresos o condiciones de salud. Para ciudadanos Americanos esto es progreso. Y para la mayoría esto es parte del actual soborno de estos ciudadanos por los imperialistas, asegurando su lealtad al sistema imperialista. Sin embargo, un gran numero de los no asegurados en los Estados Unidos viene de la nación oprimida de la clase mas baja, y esto es un paso positivo para la supervivencia y la vida saludable de este grupo con un interés material en revolución.(3) Total vemos el ACA como un paso progresivo hacia cuidado de salud universal para todos en el mundo, ojalá porque esto demuestra el concepto de cuidado de salud como un derecho básico.

Continuaremos peleando por cuidado de salud para los explotados y oprimidos del mundo, quienes son principalmente encontrados en el tercer mundo, donde aún servicios médicos básicos son difíciles de obtener. 801,000 niños menores de cinco años mueren de diarrea cada año, la mayoría de los cuales son causadas por falta de acceso a agua limpia e higiene. Mas de 3 millones de personas mueren de enfermedades evitables por vacuna cada año. 86% de las muertes entre niños menores de 5 años son evitables y debido a contagios, enfermedades tratables, problemas de nacimiento y falta de nutrición. Estos abrumadores números costarían muy poco de rectificar. Cuidado Universal Verdadero de salud es una prioridad para comunistas, y las estadísticas arriba son justo unas pocas razones del porqué el derrocamiento del capitalísmo es literalmente un asunto de vida o muerte para la mayoría de la gente en el mundo.

This new healthcare system in the United $tates, often called “Obamacare,” is far from socialist, but it does serve as a good reminder of the failures of capitalism to care for some of the basic needs of imperialist country citizens. The United $tates has had government-run healthcare for military service people and their families since the 1800s, and for the relatively poor, disabled and elderly since the 1960s with the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. But these programs serve a minority of Amerikans, leaving the rest to seek health care through insurance provided by their work or through privately purchased plans or by paying directly for services. This means that people out of work or in jobs that don’t provide insurance coverage are often left without any health insurance. The ACA attempts to address this problem by providing a government-run program to help insure citizens without coverage.

We’re not going to take on the critics who say that health care quality would go down if run by the Amerikan government. These same people would abolish free universal education, privatize water distribution, and eliminate the fire department. This is a debate between different factions of the bourgeoisie, and not worth the time of communists, except to point out that we have fundamentally different values. We have no need to defend the ability of a capitalist government to run these programs well because we don’t support capitalist governments. And we know that the profit motive does not make for greater “efficiency”, as capitalists like to claim. We see this clearly in the United $tates where food is dumped rather than distributed to people going hungry, and the tremendous waste of money on advertising rather than meeting basic needs.

Communists think about health care the same way we think about education, food, clean water and other basic necessities. These are things we seek to provide to all people indiscriminately. We prioritize basic humyn needs over luxury items like boats, fancy cars, big houses, TVs, etc. Capitalism, on the other hand, functions on the concept that profitable luxury items are a priority over basic humyn needs. While in a matter of years capitalism has gotten hand-held computers into the hands of anyone with a little disposable income, the decades-long struggle against easily preventable diseases in the Third World continues. Millions of children under five years old die each year in southern Asia and Africa south of the Sahara as a result. We believe that the Affordable Care Act should offer these people free health care services as well. While the ACA has proven once again that small reforms in capitalism can be achieved when they serve the interests of imperialist country citizens, capitalism will never allow reforms to improve the lot of the rest of the world. In fact, even within U.$. borders non-citizens are not eligible for insurance under the ACA. Those most in need, working the hardest and most dangerous jobs for the least money, are still denied basic health care.

While it’s easy for Amerikans to ignore what goes on outside of their borders, it should be an embarrassment for Amerikan imperialism that the individualism of its citizens is so strong that until now they had refused health care to even their own relatively well-off citizens. Even now, many across the country continue to fight and resist this new law. Prior to the Affordable Care Act, Amerikans who wanted to buy health insurance on their own were often rejected by the health plans for “pre-existing conditions.” This means the health plans were picking only the healthiest individuals for insurance, leaving those with even minor history of health problems with no recourse because most insurance plans in the United $tates are privately run for a profit. Now most insurance in this country is still run for profit, but the federal and state governments provide minimum standards of care that must be provided with every policy, and sell these approved insurance plans on a marketplace, in hopes that the market competition inherent in capitalism will increase quality and transparency while reducing cost.

Abolishing the profit motive behind health care will be a priority for communists when we take control of a government. We want to make preventive care and treatment available to all people. The new ACA law in the United $tates does not eliminate private insurance or remove the profit from health care, and it’s a fundamentally timid step towards universal coverage for Amerikans. But it does enable people to get health insurance regardless of income or health status. For Amerikan citizens this is progress. And for most it is part of the ongoing bribery of these citizens by the imperialists, ensuring their allegiance to the imperialist system. However, a large number of the uninsured in the United $tates come from the oppressed nation lumpen class, and the ACA is a positive step for the survival and healthy living of this group which has a relatively high material interest in revolution.(3) Overall we see the ACA as a progressive step towards universal health care for everyone in the world, if only because it demonstrates the concept of health care as a basic right.

We will continue to fight for health care for the world’s exploited and oppressed, who are mostly found in the Third World, where even basic medical services are difficult to obtain. 801,000 children under age 5 die from diarrhea each year, most of which are caused by lack of access to clean water and sanitation. More than 3 million people die from vaccine-preventable diseases each year. 86% of deaths among children under age 5 are preventable and due to communicable, treatable disease, birth issues and lack of nutrition. These abysmal numbers would cost very little to rectify. Truly universal health care is a priority for communists, and the statistics above are just a few reasons why the overthrow of capitalism is literally a life or death issue for the majority of the world’s people.