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NO SUMMER VACATION IN MEDICARE FIGHT
(This editorial is from the June 16-30/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
Time is quickly running out in the crucial struggle to save Medicare. Only much stronger pressure on federal and provincial politicians in the weeks ahead can stop Alberta's Bill 11 from coming into effect. That legislation will trigger NAFTA provisions which make it impossible to prevent some of the greediest, profit-hungry corporations on the planet from swarming across the border. Once that happens, it's game over: two health care systems in Canada - a deluxe version for the wealthy, and a bare-bones system for everyone else.
That would reverse a cherished victory for working people in Canada. Deeply angered by the denial of proper medical care to millions of Canadians, leaders like the Communist Party's Dr. Norman Bethune and Saskatchewan's CCF premier, Tommy Douglas, launched powerful movements to establish a universal health care system for all, rich and poor alike. That historic struggle took nearly four decades to succeed, and now it is being snatched away. It was the so-called "socially progressive" Chretien Liberals who set the stage for this calamity, starting with Finance Minister Paul Martin's deep cuts in spending for education, health and social welfare. Now the right-wing Tory government of Alberta is pulling the NAFTA trigger.
There are many important people's initiatives underway from coast to coast to defend Medicare. Every one of these protests deserves full support. The Alberta citizens who occupied their Legislature against Bill 11 should inspire all Canadians to take similar militant actions.
There is also an urgent need for the key mass movements in this country to mobilize for an all-out counter-attack. The call by delegates at the annual meeting of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women for a summit meeting of people's organizations on health care should be acted upon immediately. Yes, summer is coming, but if the labour and democratic movements wait until September to decide further strategy, it will be too late. The time to fight back is now!
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