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September 29, 2010 - No. 163 Health Care Is an Investment, Not a Cost!• Health Care
Is an Investment, Not a Cost! -
Peggy Morton Health Care Is an Investment, Not a Cost!
Refuting this disinformation is absolutely necessary, as is the fight that people are waging against every attempt to hand over health care to private profiteers. In waging this fight, it is important to recognize that the aim of the disinformation is not just to convince people that private health care is "cheaper." It is to stop people from actually providing solutions based on the recognition that people have rights by virtue of being human and that these rights must be provided with a guarantee. The rich no longer recognize the social responsibility of a modern state towards its citizens. They do not recognize that this responsibility requires a publicly funded, not-for-profit, comprehensive healthcare system for all without user fees, corruption, privilege or prejudice. Of course those who want to develop the health care "market" for their own narrow interests cannot come right out and say so. So they have concocted various arguments. One is that they are "cheaper, better and more efficient." Another is that public health care is "not sustainable."
When the rich speak of "reducing costs" they mean either reducing the services provided to the patient or attacking the wages and working conditions of those who provide the care and services. Reducing services might mean sending patients home early and cutting hospital stays. It might mean treating patients as outpatients and shifting the cost of IV medications to the patient. It also can mean delisting services so they are no longer covered by the public health care system. Means of attacking the wages and working conditions include contracting services, imposing collective agreements on health care workers and professionals by decree, forcing fewer people to care for more patients, and on and on.
When the owners of the private clinics claim that they "cost less" they do not include the profits which go into their pockets. For example, if the patient goes home two days earlier, reducing the number of hours of direct care and support services they receive from health care workers and professionals, this is considered "reducing costs" while what has actually happened is that the rich have pocketed the "savings." In other words, those who are actually providing care are called a "cost" while the owners of capital are not a "cost." Owners of capital are desperate to hide the reality that they no longer play any positive role in the society and are capable only of wrecking. The claims of the owners of capital are never considered sacrosanct. For example, a hip prosthesis, a simple ball and socket device made of titanium and polyethylene, costs about $3,000. Canada has virtually no medical equipment and device manufacturing and is dependent on the U.S. monopolies. Why is it never suggested that the medical equipment monopolies should be restricted and the prices set by government? What about establishing a publicly owned and controlled medical equipment industry to break this dependence, eliminate the claims of the foreign monopolies and serve our nation-building project?
Rejecting this capital-centred outlook and instead discussing how the issue actually poses itself, is important and necessary for health care workers and activists. Such discussion is an important part of building the Workers' Opposition and fighting for a society where the right to health care is provided with a guarantee. Successful Conference of Workers' Party of Korea Held in Pyongyang Korean People Celebrate Re-Election of
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The claim that private delivery of
health care is more
"efficient" and that it "costs less" just will not go away. No matter
how many times the claims of the private clinic owners and others who
want expansion of a two-tier system are shown to be nothing but
disinformation, their assault continues. The constant
refrain that health care costs too much is intended to overwhelm the
workers and put them on the defensive and to convince the people that
public health care is not sustainable.
Let us consider the argument that
private delivery is
"cheaper, better and more efficient." What does it mean to say that
private delivery of health care is "cheaper." Very definite resources
are required in order to care for people's health. Take hip replacement
surgery as an example. It will involve: 1) the infrastructure --
the hospital with its operating rooms, beds and so on which has been
built by the workers; 2) the human resources -- surgeon, anaesthetist,
nurses, and support staff such as housekeeping, sterilizing, food
services, clerical and maintenance; 3) supplies, the most significant
being the plastic and metal prosthesis and
pharmaceuticals; 4) pre- and post-surgical care including physiotherapy
and other services.
All of these measures are
described as "cost reduction."
This is distorted, capital-centred thinking. First, health care is not
a cost to society but an investment. Nor are health care workers and
professionals "costs." Their wages and benefits are paid from the
added-value created by the working class, and claimed
by government for social programs. When funds are withdrawn from health
care, this is not a "saving" -- it is a redistribution of the total
social product from the producers, the working people to the rich which
weakens the socialized economy. The claim that private clinics are
"more efficient" is being used as a
way of exerting pressure to reduce the care and services provided to
patients.
The working class cannot
accept a warped and irrational,
capital-centred outlook which has no place in a modern society. The
source of all wealth is the hard work of the working class applied to
the bounty of mother earth. Added-value created by the working people
is the only source of claims for workers,
capital and governments. The monopolies are demanding their claim on
added-value be increased, while the funding for social programs be
reduced. Anything not claimed by the rich, directly or indirectly is
called a "cost."
 September 26, 2010: Conference delegates from around the country arrive at Pyongyang Station. (KCNA) |
All the participants observed a moment's silence in memory of President Kim Il Sung who successfully accomplished the cause of founding the Juche-type (self-reliant) revolutionary Party and developed the WPK into a powerful and victorious staff of the revolution.
Kim Yong Nam, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, gave the opening address, following which the Conference elected its Presidium and then considered the following agenda items:
1. The re-election of the Kim Jong Il as General Secretary of the WPK;
2. The revision of the WPK rules;
3. The election of the central leadership body of the WPK.
Kim Yong Nam proposed the re-election of Kim Jong Il as
General Secretary of the WPK. He
pointed to Kim Jong Il's life-long devotion to the prosperity of the
country and the nation and the victory of the revolutionary cause. The
half century-long history of Kim
Jong Il's revolutionary activities was one of heroic struggles,
he stated. The proposal was a reflection of the unanimous will of Party
members, the military and people of the
country, he pointed out.
Many delegates
representing the military, the youth, the workers and others spoke in
favour of the proposal, following which he was re-elected, reflecting
the
high level of approval for his bold and decisive leadership by Party
members, the armed forces and the people.
With respect to the revision of its Charter, the WPK adopted a resolution stating that the present reality calls for revising the Party rules so as to strengthen it in every way and increase its leadership role including in the parliament, the youth league and the Korean People's Army (KPA).
As concerns the election of the central leadership of the Party, the Conference declared that Kim Il Sung, founder of the WPK and outstanding leader who led the Party and the revolution to successive victories, would always be held in esteem at the supreme level of the WPK. The Conference also declared General Secretary of the WPK Kim Jong Il re-elected to the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, to the Central Committee and to the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission of the WPK. This was carried out according to the WPK rules and the detailed regulations for the election of the supreme leadership body of the WPK.
The election of the members and alternate members of the Central Committee followed, as did the election of the members of the Central Auditing Commission of the WPK.
Following the conclusion of the conference, the newly elected Central Committee of the WPK was convened also on September 28, where the Central Committee's Political Bureau and its Presidium, as well as the WPK's Central Military Commission were elected.
The occasion of the historic conference and the enthusiasm of the WPK delegates for the re-election of Kim Jong Il as General Secretary of the WPK was reflected in a celebratory atmosphere throughout the country. In Pyonygang, Party flags and billboards with revolutionary slogans adorned street corners while outdoor artistic performances and other festivities took place at various locations. This included a performance by the art squad of the Central Committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League at the plaza of the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium on Tuesday in which the performers extended the warmest congratulations to Kim Jong Il. Across the country, youth and students held celebratory balls, including at the plazas of the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium and the Arch of Triumph. On September 29, the KPA held a mass rally in Kim Il Sung Square in central Pyongyang also in celebration of the re-election of Kim Jong Il.
As part of nation-wide festivities to celebrate the re-election of Kim Jong Il as General Secretary of the WPK,
youth and students hold a celebratory ball near the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyand on September 28, 2010 (top),
while on September 29, 2010, the KPA held a mass rally in Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang.
Banner reads: "We give the greatest glory to the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il." (KCNA)
In related news, Kim Jong Il also issued an order on
September 27 promoting several military personnel as part of
strengthening
the armed forces which play a central role in the nation-building
project and its defence, on the basis of
the DPRK's Songun (military first) policy. The order for the
promotions was also part of marking the 65th anniversary of the
founding of the WPK on October 10. The ranks of Kim Kyong Hui, Kim Jong
Un and
Choe Ryong Hae and three others were promoted to general; Ryu Kyong to
colonel general; Ro Hung Se and Ri Tu Song and four others to
lieutenant general; and those of Jo Kyong Jun, Jang To Yong and Mun
Jong Chol and 24 others
to major general. In the order, Kim
Jong Il underscored the integral relationship between the Party and the
military,
where the steadfast leadership of WPK was forged in the anti-Japanese
liberation war. He pointed out that the KPA is demonstrating its
might before the world as a powerful revolutionary army, having
developed into a strong army in unison with the leader and the Party,
devotedly defending the headquarters
of the revolution with arms and performing heroic and historic feats in
the defence of and building of a thriving socialist nation.
He expressed the firm belief that the commanding officers of the KPA
who
have matured under the care of the Party and the leader would
creditably discharge their honourable
missions and duties as the mainstay of the revolution in
accomplishing with arms the revolutionary cause and remain true to
the Party's leadership in the future.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) sent General Secretary Kim Jong Il its sincere congratulations on his re-election and wishing the Korean people every success in rising to meet the challenges of their socialist nation-building project.
Disinformation
The Essence of Capitalism They Want to Impose on Us
Day of Action against the G20, Toronto, June 25, 2010.
When capitalist propaganda calls on Third World nations to establish or extend market policies or to reject socialist policies of common benefit, there's no way of knowing whether it's simply mockery that reflects its scorn for the intelligence of Third World peoples or if it's an invitation for them to become accomplices of the minority in the world that exploits the majority.
U.S. imperialism's manipulation of the mass media has led most U.S. citizens and a large part of the citizens of the other "western" countries to call the far-from-democratic system headed by Washington -- though, in fact, it's run by Wall Street and the military-industrial complex whose axis is the Pentagon -- "democracy."
U.S. war policy since the end of World War II has become the main motor force of its domestic economy and a requisite for its world domination.
The dictatorship that the United States exercises in the world with the support of the affluent classes in other countries -- in spite of the serious contradictions that globalization has imposed on the latter -- is now in a precarious state.
Extreme poverty, exclusion from the main stream, lack of educational possibilities and of honest work, and emigration that breaks up families and leads to violence and drug addiction are results of a capitalist system that has failed to provide even minimal solutions for the pressing problems it has created.
The ethic of individualism that lies at the root of capitalism has spawned all the worst ills of today's society: corruption, theft, speculation, abuse, exploitation of the work of others and privatization of the social sphere....
As Eduardo Galeano has written, "Consumer society is a trap for fools. Nature cannot support a shopping mall the size of the planet."
If capitalism could show a world of progress, freedom and justice, it would be easy to "sell" the system throughout the world and get the Third World to accompany it in this crisis, but nothing could be farther from the truth.
According to official United Nations data, the world has a population of 6.8 billion people, 1.2 billion of whom are chronically undernourished; 2 billion have no access to medicine; close to 900 million don't have drinking water; over 900 million are homeless or live in ramshackle conditions; 1.6 billion have no electricity; 2.5 billion don't have plumbing; 770 million of the adults are illiterate; 18 million (mainly children under 5 years old) die every year from causes attributable to poverty; and over 200 million children and young people between the ages of 5 and 17 work in conditions akin to slavery as soldiers, prostitutes, domestic servants and doing other dangerous or humiliating tasks.
Obviously, with such a catalog of "attractions," more and more money and effort is required to "sell" capitalism as the system the world needs, by hiding the many realities that scourge most of the world's population every day -- and not only in the underdeveloped nations.
The United States depends on propaganda and militarism, both supplied with enormous financial and human resources to the detriment of the real interests of mankind, to retain its global hegemony.
In order to continue its military domination in the midst of the global crisis of capitalism, Washington maintains close to a thousand military bases around the world and is waging two large and bloody wars to continue its occupation of two countries so as to achieve its geopolitical objectives and further the strategic interests of the large oil corporations.
It will become increasingly difficult to make people believe that a system which generates so much injustice among human beings and that has shown itself so inept in handling their relations with nature can be maintained any longer. Nobody knows whether or not, in the interests of its survival, mankind has enough time to repair the damage done to the environment by the greed that powers capitalism, a system that cannot be humanized because it is intrinsically inhuman.
A system -- whatever its name -- that promotes the social good and solidarity rather than the greed and competition imposed by capitalism (because capitalism requires them in order to exist) offers the only way mankind can save itself, placing intelligence at the service of survival.
(A CubaNews translation by Mary Todd. Edited by Walter Lippmann.)
Resurrecting Lies About Katyn Once Again
On September 25, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov attended a wreath-laying ceremony and mass in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The ceremony was to commemorate the "Katyn Massacres," which until recently referred only to the 4,143 Poles who were murdered in Katyn Forest by the Nazis during the Second World War, but who the Nazis claimed were murdered by the Soviets, a line the Polish president and current Russian leadership are repeating. The present-day rulers of Poland are now spreading confusion by also using "Katyn" to refer to deaths of Polish officers in locations other than Katyn, including near Kharkiv in the Ukraine.
Katyn Forest was last in the news after the tragic Polish plane crash on April 10, which killed 132 passengers, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski and other Polish leaders, on their way to attend a "Katyn Memorial" in Smolensk, near Katyn Forest.
The murders of the 4,143 Poles in Katyn Forest was just one of many crimes the Nazis committed against the Polish people. During the Second World War, the Nazis perpetrated against Poland some of the worst crimes history has ever known. Poland suffered the most casualties per population of any European country, with a total of about 6 million people killed. Some 40,000 Polish intellectuals, political personalities, and other leaders were shot by the SS within the first six weeks of the Nazi occupation.
What may seem odd is that while the Nazis murdered millions of Polish people, the present-day rulers of Poland act as if the only Poles ever murdered were those linked to Katyn Forest. They also claim, by bringing in other locations, that the number killed was actually 22,000 and that Katyn was "one of the worst crimes of the entire Second World War." The Government of Poland has even declared April 13 as a Polish "National Day of Remembrance" for Katyn, although no other wartime murders by the Nazis are commemorated in that way.
Why is the Polish ruling class constantly resurrecting Katyn and ignoring all the other well-documented Nazi war crimes against the Polish people? Why do they not, for example, constantly discuss the 2,800 Poles murdered by the Nazis at Radom in January 1941? Why do they not constantly discuss the more than 5,000 Polish victims of the Nazis whose bodies were found in the Kampinos Forest near Palmiry? Why do they not constantly discuss the more than 10,000 men, women, and children murdered by the Nazis in Bydgoszcz, Pomerania from September 1939 to January 1, 1940? All these killings and thousands more are clearly documented in publications of the Polish Ministry of Information such as The German New Order in Poland (1942).
The Polish rulers only want to discuss Katyn. Rather than acknowledging that Katyn was just one of innumerable mass murders carried out by the SS and the Wehrmacht, they want to try to blame the Soviet Union for the killings. The origin of this lie was Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, who committed suicide in 1945 to avoid trial for war crimes. Goebbels is infamous for the quote: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will come to believe it." In April 1943, Goebbels himself told the big lie that the Soviets were responsible for the bodies the Nazis had conveniently "found" in Katyn Forest, just as the war was turning against the German military. Goebbels' aim was to try to drive a wedge between the Soviet Union and the other allied forces. On Goebbels' orders, German newspapers and magazines devoted great attention to repeating the Katyn lie, giving it weeks of detailed, often front-page coverage.
The Polish reactionaries and their counterparts across the world continue to ignore the countless crimes of the Nazis against the Polish people and instead have taken up the mantle of Goebbels and continue to repeat his big lie about Katyn to this day. By doing so, they reveal their true colours, taking the word of a Nazi war criminal who tried to drown the world in blood over the word of the Soviet Union, which played the main role in saving the world's people from Nazism. The truth is that the reactionaries care nothing about the Nazi crimes committed against the Polish people during the Second World War, either at Katyn or anywhere else. They only raise Katyn to attack the Soviet Union and communism in order to disorient the revolutionary movement and divert attention from their own crimes against the people. In this manner, the Polish ruling class is hoping to cement the anti-people, anti-communist, and Nazi path for Poland forever.
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