ALBANY, NY, January 8 — Nearly 1,000 workers rallied here in a fight to prevent the closing of Downstate Hospital, stop layoffs and preserve patient services. Rising at 4:00 a.m., they used a vacation day to board buses from Brooklyn to the State Capital. Black and Latino women workers led the way, bringing family and friends.
The closing or privatization of this hospital, which serves central Brooklyn’s predominantly black and Latino population where healthcare needs are the highest, is a racist and sexist attack. It will ultimately take patient lives and cause the death of their community. Already 400 layoffs and the threat of many more to come are devastating these workers and patient care. Actually privatization has already begun. Outsourced non-union cleaners are replacing those laid off.
Hundreds of fists in the air in that usually quiet State legislative palace signified workers’ commitment to struggle. The facts were stated clearly, such as Downstate cares for 400,000 very needy patients annually; 15,000 petitions collected by workers and their allies told Governor Cuomo the facts, but he ignores them. He’s been planning healthcare cuts for several years.
He appointed a Wall Street tycoon, Steven Berger, to lead a commission — which includes two leaders of Service Employees International Union’s 1199 Healthcare Workers East — to deconstruct healthcare in Brooklyn.
Cuomo’s plan, mirroring similar cuts around the U.S, takes away gains in job security and healthcare that workers have won from struggles in the 1930s, ’40s and ’60s. The bosses’ success in eroding health care here will spread.
The pro-capitalist misleaders of the State AFL-CIO and the head of the State’s Civil Service Employees Association (representing hundreds of thousands of NY State workers) refuse to lead a real offensive against these cuts. A massive fight could marshal support in our communities and might keep hospitals open. Instead of a plan of action all we got was a pep talk and prayers.
Many workers were frustrated by this show and complained, “Or else what?” and “Where’s the punch?” Some of us tried to start a chant “Occupy Downstate!” The potential energy of the aroused workers was deflated by the union mis-leaders, ministers and politicians.
Progressive Labor Party is committed to leading a militant class struggle to keep Downstate open, return laid-off workers to their jobs and to fight for healthcare services for all. But we also know that a system based on profits first and workers last won’t create jobs and provide decent healthcare. It has to go.
The bosses who control this system aren’t concerned with our health or other needs. They’re locked in competition with their capitalist rivals abroad. They aim to divert funds for healthcare to finance wars that they hope will maintain their domination of the world’s resources and the exploitation of the international working class.
Their system is geared to keep the lion’s share of the world’s wealth for the capitalists who own it and will always sacrifice our needs to that end. We need to develop leadership to build an egalitarian communist world in which society is organized to meet the needs of all workers.