Thanks for letting me know this. It actually gives me a personal connection. I went off at the tender age of 17 to the U of Chicago in 1976 and the only socialist group truly active on Campus besides the Sparts and the RCP, was NAM. So I joined NAM. It was a group with a lot of interesting people but the meetings had some aspects of an encounter group. It was the 70s after all. I wonder if I met some of the people arourn SEIU while I was passing through the group. I was too much of a hard Marxist, with a tint of infantile leftism to remain inside NAM for long, and then it dissovled/devolved into DSOC/DSA.
Anyway, it is presently in the objective self-interest of many US
> companies for the country to get a single-payer health plan. But doesn't it
> seem that even if we get to a point where all US corporations would benefit
> from it it still would be damn near impossible, what with the durability of
> the broad right coalition that rules our politics these days? Those folks
> believe in their ideology so much they're willing to go up against the
> Fortune 500 on immigration; winning single payer will depend more on ability
> to overcome the broad right in the electoral arena than convincing GM it'd
> be cool for the gov to pick up their healthcare bill. Not to say the dems
> are for single payer, or capable of waging that battle, or even capable of
> continuing as a serious party for another decade.
>
> But a dull ache in my teeth tells me we need to win it anyway!
>
Well, I think you expressed this better than I could.
On 7/18/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> > Horse-and-Buggy Health Coverage
> > By ANDY STERN
> >
> > Today I sent a letter to every CEO in the Fortune 500 asking them to
> > make health care their national priority. I urge corporate leaders to
> > come forward. Our union members -- your employees -- will work with
> > you. The old idea that business and labor can't work together for the
> > common good is as outdated as lifetime jobs. The Service Employees
> > International Union is the largest health-care union in the country.
> > Our membership includes nearly one million nurses, doctors, hospital
> > staff, nursing home and home care workers. We know health care. You
> > know business. Together, let's build a new 21st-century American
> > economy.
>
>
> This is not class struggle politics, to say the least. And the Old
> Trotksyist would condemn Stern for class collaboration and for begging
> the ruling class, instead of mobilizing the working class, etc.
>
> But really! Doesn't such begging make sense? Isn't it in the interest
> of some the really big corporations to externalize the cost of health
> care by getting the federal government to take care of it? I think
> people on this list have written about this.
>
>
> Jerry
>
>
> ___________________________________
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>
>
-- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/
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