LETTERS, CRITICISM AND SUGGESTIONS
Communism Will Keep Us Healthy
Last issue’s article on socialism and medicine did a good job explaining how much better communist health care will be. However, caring for sick people is only part of the story. In communism, people will be much less sick, much less often. I believe this will be true of all kinds of illnesses.
For a start, life under capitalism is extremely stressful for workers. Workers never have enough money, even when they have a job. They have to worry about paying the rent or mortgage, buying food, paying for gas, clothes for the kids … you know the story. They have to worry about losing a job or getting sick. Bosses driving them crazy at work, kids getting into trouble. And many face racist/sexist harassment and violence.
Stress aggravates almost all illnesses, from diabetes to depression. In communism, the abolition of money and unemployment (not to mention sexism, racism and xenophobia) will mean a life of joy rather than stress. The joy of working together to satisfy people’s needs and the joy of studying together to better meet people’s needs. The joy of living in a society where you cooperate rather than compete. Replacing stress by joy will result in a huge difference in people’s heath, without any professional intervention.
Another difference is that people will not have to be lonely anymore. Almost all activities will be communal. You can be alone if you want, but that will be a choice. Loneliness is known to be a health risk factor – as harmful as smoking or obesity.
Good food is vital to good health. For capitalism, on the contrary, what’s vital is cheap food, so bosses can pay low wages. And cheap food – processed food and junk food – is known to be slow poison. Communism does not have the same incentive. We can make sure we eat well (if simply) and nutrition-based diseases like diabetes will all but disappear.
Good housing, including sewage and clean drinking water, is also vital. Under capitalism good housing does not make workers more productive – they can live in squalor and still produce big profits for the bosses (as billions do). We’ll do away with both junk food and junk housing, not to make money but to make workers happier. And a lot healthier.
This is hardly the whole story. For example, work and life under communism will be varied – mental and physical labor, indoors and outdoors. No one will live a sedentary lifestyle.
Of course, there will be medicine, healthcare workers and hospitals in communism. And they’ll be great for those who need them. But I predict that, thanks to the communist lifestyle, workers won’t experience illness on the scale they do under capitalism.
—Reader in Canada
Let’s Develop a Deeper Communist Class Analysis of Racism
The last issue of Red Flag had an article “Communist Movement Needed to Fight Fascist Police Murders.” It said important things about how “the minority (the capitalists) … continually exploit the masses. Racism, sexism, nationalism are key tools of that oppression.” It explained that we need to fight racism with class consciousness, not identity politics.
This is true everywhere, not just in the US. We need more articles about this.
The article should have included the link to the ICWP racism pamphlet icwpredflag.org/rpe.pdf. This was an editorial error.
A few years ago, we printed a more detailed article about identity politics: It’s No Privilege to Live in Racist Capitalism icwpredflag.org/CurrentE/091715/art5.html
More recently, the most openly fascist forces in the US, Europe and Australia have been pushing “white identity” politics. When white people at a Trump rally cheer calls to “shoot immigrants” we can see how dangerous this is.
On the other hand, some liberal activists are backing down on “white privilege.” Now they say: “Being white doesn’t mean you aren’t oppressed. It means you aren’t oppressed BECAUSE of your color.” This cracks open the door for our class analysis of racism.
However, the article about fascist police murder presented an economic analysis that is not really a class analysis. It emphasized a divide between neighborhoods with median household incomes just above and just below $52,000/year. This line does not separate classes. Instead, it divides the working class into two parts.
For example, the average annual income for a machinist is $45,250. For a sewing-machine operator it’s $26,990. These two workers’ combined household income would be over $52,000 even if one only worked part-time.
The Economic Policy Institute has a “family budget calculator.” This estimates the income needed for a “modest yet adequate” standard of living. Pretty much everywhere in the US, a family of 2 adults and 2 children would need at least $70,000/year.
There are other problems with the way the article presents data. But this is probably the most significant one from a communist point of view.
Democratic Socialists describe the most impoverished among the US masses as “the other America.” However, communists must emphasize that all who have to sell our labor power to the capitalists are part of the same international working class. None of us are “other.”
That’s why the best way to confront the capitalists’ racist lies is to contrast the way capitalism divides and exploits all workers with the way that communism will unite us. Communist production for need instead of profit will create the material basis for destroying racism and other tools of capitalist oppression.
—LA reader