CCDS FORUM & DISCUSSION BOARD

NAME: Harry Targ
EMAIL: Targ@polsci.purdue.edu
DATE: 04/08/2007

TITLE: Midwest CCDS Discusses How Venezuelan Policies Increase Public Services While Cook County Destroys Them

Harry Targ
Midwest Regional Coordinator
CCDS

Midwest CCDS Discusses How Venezuelan Policies Increase Public Services While Cook County Destroys Them

While poor Venezuela struggles to provide education, health care, and housing for its people, the Cook County Board of Commissioners adopted a draconian 2007 budget that is eliminating health care delivery for thousands of citizens of the Chicago area.

These issues were discussed at the semi-annual meeting of the Midwest region, CCDS, held March 30 in Lafayette, Indiana. In attendance were 22 CCDS members and friends from Chicago, Gary, Lafayette, West Lafayette and Frankfort, Indiana, Louisville, and even Boston, Massachusetts.

Ira Grupper, Louisville, reported on a February Witness for Peace trip to Venezuela he and 13 others from his city took to Venezuela. Their delegation met with human rights activists, trade unionists, small villagers, Christian activists and others. While Venezuela still experiences poverty and inequality, Grupper said, the Bolivarian revolution has led to the eradication of illiteracy, free access to medical care ( provided in part by 30,000 Cuban doctors), and the distribution of subsidized food to the 80 per cent of the population which is poor. The Witness for Peace delegation met with a representative of a progressive trade union confederation who spoke of the nationalizations of 1700 abandoned businesses by the state which are now run by workers. In opposition to Venezuela’s progressive turn, Grupper suggested, stands U.S. imperialism still committed to the overthrow of the regime of Hugo Chavez.

Mildred Williamson, Chicago, and Beryl Fitzpatrick , Gary, then shifted the focus of discussion to the attack on working people in Cook County, Illinois. Williamson spoke of the decision by the Cook County Board to close 10 of 26 neighborhood health clinics, gut significant preventive and primary care services at the Cook County Jail, and lay off over 1,000 county workers, most of whom are health care, public safety, and legal services personnel.

She began by reviewing the debate about single payer health care which she strongly endorses. She said that if the basic health care infrastructure is destroyed by policies such as those recently adopted by Cook County, even if a national health car plan is eventually adopted, the infrastructure for implementing it will be gone. Around the nation, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and now Chicago, public health facilities are being dismantled that will make it extremely difficult to rebuild in the future.

In the short run, emergency services will be overloaded. Shortages of care in jail facilities will mean that communicable diseases will be spread to communities when prisoners are released. And, with the decline of mental health care in public institutions, former patients will be released with continuing disorders. The draconian policies, Williamson said, hit working people and people of color particularly and in the medium and long run will cause major financial and social crises in the community at large. Further, by eliminating the jobs of health care specialists, the system will experience deprofessionalization

Beryl Fitzpatrick added that in the face of employee fears of job loss, most workers continue to provide the kind of service to clients they deserve. At the same time that they fear job loss, Cook County employees can barely contain the outrage they feel about the brutal, racist policies of the Board. The community and employees of Cook County are being forced to suffer because of leadership mismanagement and rightwing ideology and growing pressures from the federal government.

An afternoon panel led by Brandon Wallace, Lafayette, addressed youth and politics. Three younger attendees spoke of the silencing effect of campus life and at the same time successful campaigns against university support for sweatshop labor and for worker rights. Harry Targ distributed a “briefing kit” called “The Economic Challenges Facing Young Adults” (a Demos document) that presented data and recommendations about access to higher education, low wages, credit card debt, the high cost of housing, costs of starting a family, and youth political participation. Several participants reminded the group that when we speak of “youth” we should not only refer to college students.

Before adjourning attendees made several recommendations for CCDS action coming from the spirited and passionate discussion:

1. The National organization should develop a position paper and a variety of informational materials on the health care crisis, the threat to the basic healthcare infrastructure in the United States, and a single payer national health care system. These materials should be broadly disseminated.

2. Presenters at the Midwest CCDS meeting should prepare a module from available materials on the health care crisis. This module should be posted on the Socialist Education Project webpage.

3. CCDS should explore the hiring of a National Youth Coordinator.

4. CCDS should organize a National Youth Conference.

The next Midwest CCDS meeting will be held on September 15 or 22 in Louisville, Kentucky.

If you would like to respond to this article click here: Discussion Board

HOME ABOUT DONATE JOIN CONTACT US PUBLICATIONS CCDS STATEMENTS EMAIL US