Ontario’s Bill 60 has delivered a death blow to public medicare. The provincial medical system will no longer operate as a public service but as a profit-taking business managed by the private sector.
There are two sides to this war. One is the war among imperial powers. The other is the war between the global capitalist class and the global working class. Both are heating up.
Yet another surge of COVID-19 has people wondering if this pandemic will ever end. It cannot end as long as disease is structured into the global chain of production. Until that changes, community lockdowns, vaccines, and travel restrictions can only slow viral spread, giving new variants time to emerge.
The push for mandatory vaccination has revealed a class conflict between those who accept capitalists having more power over workers and those who oppose this.
There are no ‘social determinants of health’ under capitalism. Nothing about this society generates health for people or their environments.
Inequality, racism, sexism – these social sources of sickness helped to build the wealth of nations, and they continue to build and maintain that wealth, despite the tremendous suffering that results.
Capitalists are afraid to let workers play an active role in ending this pandemic. They prefer technological solutions, however ineffective, that keep them in control.
Socialism is the Best Medicine