⏳ Medicare for All-esque Town Hall Side-Quest

Working Class Unity Side-Quests
,
5

I put together an example agenda (with more information that we will probably be able to fit) based on the outline we had above to give us something more concrete to discuss / vote on during the General Meeting.

Death of the Left II: Whatever Happened to Medicare for All?

The Healthcare Crisis

  • We still have millions of Americans with no health insurance; millions more underinsured
  • Two-tier healthcare system where half the population has inadequate or no healthcare access
  • The half with “good” insurance still deals with rising healthcare costs, it cutting into their paychecks for less coverage

The Capitalism Crisis

  • Profit-driven
  • Market Failure: Healthcare does not even operate as a normal market.
  • Profit over people.

Personal Healthcare Stories

Why M4A Matter and Why It Stalled

The Promise of Medicare for All

  • Universal coverage
  • Cost control
  • Freedom from employers
  • Free up time/money/ties to employment that would make it easier for socialists to organize

The Political Moment (2016-2020)

  • Bernie Sanders made it central to his presidential campaigns
  • 70% of Americans supported the policy
  • Primary way ‘progressives’ differentiated themselves from centrist Democrats during primaries (this was actually an issue…)

Why It Stalled (Sheepdogging and Co-optation)

  • Despite momentum, it has been abandoned:
    • Kamala Harris endorsed and then backed firmly away from it
    • Even AOC suggested M4A might just be a negotiating tactics for a public option
  • Democratic Party never on board (why)
  • Corporate Influence (never fully unleashed)
  • Sheepdogging (California Democrats)
  • Policy Dilution (top-down demand/slogan easy to twist)

The Failure of Conventional Politics

  • Healthcare costs are not higher than before Obamacare
  • Networks have narrowed, limiting access
  • The ACA preserved and entrenched industry profit extraction
  • Continued consolidation of the entire industry
  • But we need to move beyond trust-busting

Faith in the Valley TU Example

  • Movements that on their face challenge capitalism directly are often redirected into channels that do not fundamentally threaten the system

CALL Stockton Example

Not Just About Policy - It Is About Building Class Consciousness

Beyond Single-Issue Reform

  • Build Class Consciousness: Develop shared understanding that workers’ interests fundamentally differ from those of the capitalist class
  • Create Independent Organizations: Working-class institutions independent from Democratic Party and Donor control
  • Develop Political Education: Helping people understand how capitalism works and how it perpetuates crisis

Why is building class consciousness important

  • Breaks political dependency: Helps workers see beyond the Democratic/Republican false choice
  • Creates solidarity: United people across differences around shared economic interests
  • Enables strategic action: Allows for an analysis of and coordinated pressure at key points in the system vs only relying on lobbying and electoralism
  • Provides an alternative vision: shows that another society is possible centered around different interests, not just profit and capital
  • Builds lasting power: Well-educated and experienced workers become lifelong organizers who can recruit and develop others

From Frustration to Organized Power

  • The Medicare for All campaign’s failure reveals a critical lesson: popular policy campaigns cannot succeed without organized working-class power. Our strategy must build independent power beyond lobbying politicians.
  • Strategic Local Organizing
    • Healthcare Worker Network Development
      • Map San Joaquin County’s healthcare sector: hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, facilities
      • Research ownership structures (corporate chains, private equity, non-profits)
      • Identify union status and contract expiration dates for strategic intervention
      • Build cross-facility healthcare worker networks to share information and coordinate actions
      • Support healthcare unionization drives with organizing trainings and resources
      • Link workplace struggles directly to the broader M4A fight
    • Patient-Worker Solidarity Campaigns
      • Organize union workers to include patient demands in contract negotiations
    • Public Ownership Options
      • Research public healthcare models like NYC Health + Hospitals, serving 1 million people with 1.5% of NYC’s budget plus federal funding
  • Building Strategic Alliances
    • Cross-Sector Solidarity
      • Connect with unions representing workers in logistics, pharmaceuticals, and other strategic sectors
      • Coordinate political education across different sectors to build class consciousness
    • Collaboration
      • Build relationships with grassroots healthcare advocacy groups
      • Support tenant organizations fighting for healthy housing conditions
  • Political Education as Organizing Tool
    • Historical Context and Analysis
      • Study past healthcare victories like Britain’s NHS creation
      • Analyze ACA structural failures and limits of incremental reforms
      • Examine successful union-based healthcare campaigns
      • Learn from movement setbacks and co-optation
    • Connecting Local to Systemic
      • Develop materials showing links between local healthcare problems and capitalism
      • Host regular study groups on healthcare political economy
      • Train members to articulate connections between healthcare issues and systemic problems
  • Maintaining Revolutionary Politics
    • Long-Term Vision
      • Frame Medicare for All as removing a burden that facilitates future organizing
      • Focus on building working-class power beyond policy asks
      • Maintain independence from Democratic Party
    • Politics
      • Assess relationships between reform campaigns and revolutionary goals
      • Prevent politicians from co-opting the movement
    • Connecting to Broader Movements
      • Link local organizing to statewide and national Medicare for All campaigns
      • Share organizing models and lessons with other groups

Winning single-payer in the U.S. will require working people organizing across many sectors. By building independent working-class power through local organizing and start and coordinating more broadly from there, we can create the conditions where Medicare for All becomes not just popular polling-wise, but an active campaign where people see it as a stepping stone to overcoming capitalism.