I recently started working in a county clinic with predominantly black and Latin patients and workers. The rebellions in Ferguson, as well as the local fightback against the murder of 25-year-old black worker Ezell Ford here in Los Angeles, provided an opportunity to meet my new co-workers on a political footing.
I wasn’t sure what to do or how to do it but I knew workers were outraged about what was happening in Ferguson. I also wasn’t sure if they heard about Ezell Ford, murdered only two days after Michael Brown. So I printed out a picture of a demonstration I went to. I wrote a few sentences beneath it about sending our condolences to the Ford family and standing in solidarity with their fight back against racist police murders.
I showed it to one of my co-workers, Denise, and she literally took it and ran with it. Her first comments were that we need to make this into a card and print it out in color. She then passed it to another co-worker to change the wording. For obvious reasons, the administration wouldn’t support it: they removed the name of the clinic and simply said it was from me and my co-workers. Denise definitely improved the message while maintaining the politics of “stand in solidarity with fightback against racist police murders.”
Denise then took it to all our co-workers in the clinic and in the hospital nearby. She got about 25 signatures. She then typed them up in a nice font and asked for money. We raised over $200 just in a couple of days for the family. While she did most of the leg work, she mentioned me. Folks came up to thank us for what we were doing.
I discovered one of the nurses had her 25-year-old son murdered about 10 years ago. At the time, she was a nurse at the now non-existent trauma center her son was brought to and where he later died! The county hospital, along with its emergency rooms and trauma center, has been closed for the last seven years. This means more deaths as ambulances have to travel longer distances to hospitals already overwhelmed.
When the county hospital does open sometime next year, it will still be a skeleton of its former self with one-fifth the number of hospital beds available. And with Obamacare, this “safety net” hospital will require some form of health insurance. Given that LA County is expected to have one million uninsured in spite of government subsidies and expanded MediCal (the California Medical Assistance Program), this will mean more illness and death largely on the backs of black, Latin and immigrant workers we serve.
The Ford family was very appreciative of our efforts. Since the funeral last week, the fightback has died down some. Nonetheless, we have some contact with the family and its opened doors for more struggle on the job.
Denise and I have had a couple more conversations about Ferguson and the likely war in the Middle East. Denise talked about the fascist response in Ferguson and compared it to the response the bosses took in Boston after the marathon bombing last April. I showed her the latest CHALLENGE editorial as well as articles from our comrades who were in Ferguson. From the racist cops to this racist “healthcare” system, I hope to continue this struggle in our clinic and build a base for communism among these black and Latin women workers.
Red Health