January, 1999
Labor Party Press
Just
Healthcare
(story continued from page two)
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Photo ©Michael Kaufman,
Impact Visuals |
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On Friday afternoon, delegates marched out of the
convention hall carrying big blue-and-white circular signs that said "Just
Healthcare." They swarmed down the street chanting, in the company of a 12-foot
replica of the Statue of Liberty (with an IV needle stuck in her arm), catching curious
glances from passing Pittsburghers. They parked themselves at the Federal Building, where
they stood under a brilliant blue sky. Bob Kingsley, UE’s director of organization;
Kit Costello, president of the California Nurses Association; Sid Wolfe of the Health
Research Group; and Kathleen Connors, president of Canada’s National Federation of
Nurses Unions, all talked about why we need to rekindle a movement for real universal
publicly funded healthcare in this country.
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Kathleen Connors, president of the
Canadian National Federation of Nurses Unions, joins LP co-chair. Photo ©Michael
Kaufman, Impact Visuals |
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The next day, delegates put that idea into motion by passing a resolution
on Just Healthcare. Like the electoral strategy, the Just Healthcare campaign did not
spring up from nowhere: a tentative plan had been floated by the Labor Party’s
governing body, the Interim National Council, and many LP members had already talked about
the idea in their unions and local groups.
The proposal, largely crafted by Kit Costello, calls for a national
campaign to build support for a new healthcare system that guarantees everyone access to
quality care. The resolution calls on the
Labor Party to organize through one-one-one contact, workplace organizing and media
visibility. A campaign to organize a "Committee of One Million" for Just
Healthcare will collect petition signatures and place ads in local papers sponsored by all
those who have signed on. The delegates agreed to add one other tactic to this list:
electoral ballot initiatives.
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Kensington
Welfare Rights Union members joined other LP convention delegates in a demonstration for
Just Healthcare. Photo ©Michael Kaufman, Impact Visuals |
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In fact, just days before the convention, the Massachusetts Labor Party
scored the party’s first electoral victory when voters from two state districts backed a Labor Party-sponsored ballot initiative calling for
universal healthcare and the elimination of private health insurance companies. Voters
endorsed this audacious idea by 71 percent.
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