Director: Neill Blomkamp

Alien refugees land on Earth in South Africa, and are treated the way that most immigrants are: badly. A science fiction film that maintains its edge, action and humor, while using a fairly blatant metaphor of the situation to examine immigration, racism, occupation, insurrection, and justice. Out in theaters now.

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By David Graeber

A look into the social justice movement from an academic who chooses to get involved instead of staying on the sidelines. The book’s main focus is on telling a vivid tale of the anti-globalization protests at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001.

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At last week’s “VH1’s Hip Hop Honors” award show, the performance of the night must have been the onstage jam featuring Public Enemy, Tom Morello & Boots Riley (aka Street Sweeper Social Club), and The Roots performing PE’s “Rebel Without a Pause”. Unfortunately, those of us who weren’t there can’t see this till the show airs on October 13.

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As many of you can tell from experience, the health care system in the United States is broken. If you don’t have enough money, you can’t afford health insurance or medical treatment. If you have any kind of chronic illness already, most health insurers won’t offer you their services.  If you can afford health insurance (or if it’s a benefit provided by your employer), you might still be paying high rates, high deductibles, and may not actually have all the coverage you think you do (many people pay their insurance bills, only to find out when they need to get treatment, their insurance company will not pay).  Over 47 million Americans have no health insurance at all, and we suspect that millions who do have insurance will be shocked to find out that they are not given the help they need when they ask.

Most doctors, economists, and researchers agree that the best way to get everyone health care is through some sort of national health care program: socialized medicine, or “single payer”. In countries that follow this policy, any citizen can see a doctor and get treatment, and their medical bills are paid by the government-run health insurance agency, and this agency is funded by citizen tax dollars.  People who do not like the government’s health insurance plan are free to pay for private insurance from companies like the health insurance companies we have here today. It’s not a perfect system, but the people who live in “single payer” societies seem very satisfied with it.

Although every day we have more headlines about “health care reform” in the United States, the “single payer” system is not even on the table.  To be honest, no one knows what is truly being proposed for the Obama/Democrat health care reform package, because the various power players are still writing up the plan in the back rooms.  At best, the reform package might have a “public option”, which would be like adding a government-run health insurance company into the marketplace among all the other privately-run health insurance companies.  There may also be legislation that would prevent the private insurance companies from refusing to take on patients with pre-existing conditions.  But from what we can tell, that’s it.  And the health insurance companies are fighting tooth and nail to kill even those parts. They want every last penny of profit they can grab, and they don’t care how many Americans have to suffer or die for them to get it.

So now we come to the payoff: if you want any sort of health care reform in this country, YOU will have to do it. YOU will have to write your Congressmen, YOU will have to write the president, YOU will have to get out in the streets, YOU will have to donate money to advocacy groups, YOU will have to make things happen. Sadly, the Obama years are showing us how badly democracy is broken in this country; it doesn’t matter what the public wants. All that matters is the pressure put on the legislators.  And right now, tens of millions of dollars in lobbying and advertising are putting a lot more pressure on them to leave our disastrous health care system as it is.

Info

• “What if your health insurance company says no?”
• Sick for Profit
• “Death, the GOP, and the Politics of Health Care Reform”
• Alternet’s Coverage of the Health Care Debate

Organizations

• Universal Health Care Action Network
• SEIU
• AFL-CIO
• Citizens Alliance for National Health Insurance

Contact

• Your Senator
• Your Representative
• The President