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Articles by Scott Tucker
The Sabotage of Single Payer Healthcare
ow did this wealthy nation drift into the twenty-first century with such a backward and class-divided healthcare system? The United States certainly has world-class centers of medical research and teaching, but it also has “the highest rate of maternal death among its economic peer nations,” according to “State of Maternal Health 2025,” a report from The Century Foundation published in April of this year.
Does the Botanical Gardens Need Saving?
At its peak it was a place of beauty and recreation, and also of plant science. So what happened to this 32 acre park, and why, after over 100 years of being tended to by the Government does it look so bleak now? About twenty years ago the Bermuda Botanical Gardens was thriving. Plants and trees were labelled and cared for; specialist collections took pride of place; there were guided tours and a library filled with books for reference.
Socialist Health Care Organizers Exit DSA
Socialist Health Care Organizers Exit DSA Open Letter by Scott Tucker and Larry Gross Members of the DSA LA Healthcare Justice Committee September 14, 2023 We are members of the Healthcare Justice Committee of the second largest chapter of the largest socialist group in the United States, namely the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA-LA).
Pete Buttigieg: The Energizer Bunny of Hegemony
Pete Buttigieg’s father, Joseph Anthony Buttigieg II, who died in early 2019, was a prominent scholar of the works of Antonio Gramsci, the Italian Marxist who opposed Mussolini’s fascist regime. In 1926, the prosecutor at Gramsci’s trial declared, “For twenty years, we must stop this brain from functioning.” Yet Gramsci continued thinking and writing in prison, and Joseph Buttigieg cotranslated and coedited the three-volume English edition of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks.
Democratic Socialism in the Twenty-First Century
In the previous century I was a regular columnist for The Humanist magazine, and I was fortunate to work for an editor, Rick Szykowny, who was committed to publishing both class conscious and explicitly socialist writers. On March 1, 1994, The Humanist published my article titled “The Good Fight: The Case for Socialism in the 21st Century.” The article is archived online at The Free Library.
DNC Declares War on Sanders...Again
There’s already lots of evidence that the DNC old guard will sabotage Bernie’s campaign. Again. For example, take a look through the sources, links and excerpts below this column. The New York Times also ran more op ed slander against Sanders this past Saturday. Among younger people especially, however, predictable dark money ads and redbaiting “centrist” talking points have spectacularly backfired. Donations and volunteer efforts for Sanders increase.
Sure, Impeach Trump, But Let's be Honest
Sure, impeach Trump for legitimate reasons explicitly stated in the Constitution. But let’s be honest that an 18th century document did not include slaveholding among high crimes against humanity, and certainly has no specific clauses covering modern war crimes and state terrorism. The New York Times has a recent article (“Republican Tactic: Using Impeachment Hearings to Smear Biden on Ukraine,” by Katie Glueck and Maggie Haberman, Dec.
Premature Democratic Socialists: Reasons for Hope and Change
December 9, 2019 by Scott Tucker In the United States there was a time in the previous century when a political campaign was waged against “premature antifascists,” namely against members of the socialist left who warned and fought against fascism well before World War II. In the wake of that war, the leading career politicians also worked within a corporate consensus of capitalist triumphalism.
National Nurses United Endorses Sanders, Centrist Democrats Campaign on Illusions
Though I vote Green and hope to vote for an ecosocialist candidate of that party, I also take my good news wherever I can find it. And the fact that many young people have swelled the ranks of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in all 50 states is undeniably good news. The public conversation about democracy and socialism is bigger and healthier, and most importantly has gone under, over and around MSNBC and FOX News.
Memory, History, and a Pillar of Salt
Lot’s Wife is a poem by Anna Akhmatova, a poem I only regard as prophetic in retrospect. Reading this poem again has not just been a trip down Memory Lane, but also a venture into the wilderness of history. Akhmatova was born in June, 1889 and died in 1966, and her social circle included many of the Russian poets of her generation, including some who were crushed by the Stalin regime and others who endured to live out their long lives.
Europe: Green Surges, Older Parties Erode, Far Right Gains
Green parties made stunning gains in the European Elections, due to the strength of many younger voters, the grass roots insurgency of ecological school strikes and marches, and the tenacity of Green Party activists. The older mainstream parties, both center-right and social democratic, received a mix of drubbing demotions and eroding support. The far right nationalists also made gains, notably in France and Italy. The far right also gained less dramatically in Germany.
Abolish Wage Slavery: Productivism as an Extractive Industry
The alienation of labor takes many forms, including the outright ownership of slaves. When big mills and factories were introduced under systems of waged labor, elements of judgment and craft were still preserved among workers because otherwise the machinery would not run at all. Streamlining assembly lines became one of the innovations of the Ford factory system, and his best paid workers were able to buy the basic model cars.
Top 7 Reasons Progressive Andrew Gillum Can Defeat Ron DeSantis
Congressional representative and Florida gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis shocked the nation on Wednesday by warning Florida voters not to “monkey it up” by electing African-American democratic standard-bearer Andrew Gillum, whom he incorrectly described as a “socialist.” Gillum was a Hillary Clinton delegate and voted for her, and his career as mayor of Tallahassee was not characterized by an expanded public sector or by a shrinkage of entrepreneurial opportunities.
Books not Magazines: Opposing Betsy DeVos' Outrageous Proposal
Joaquin Oliver would have turned 18 years old on Aug. 4 had he not been killed on Valentine’s Day, along with 16 other students and staff, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Like many student survivors of the Parkland massacre, Joaquin’s parents, Manuel and Patricia Oliver, have become gun control activists. Had Joaquin lived, Aug. 4 would have been a day of celebration.
David McReynolds, Pacifist and Socialist, 1929 - 2018
David McReynolds was born in Los Angeles during the week of the stock market crash of 1929, a signal event in the Great Depression that would follow. His father was a devout Christian, who McReynolds thought would have been happier as a minister. Instead, McReynolds’ father became a salesman, and the toll this job took on the family was one reason McReynolds became a socialist.
Do We Have to Help Destroy Yemen to Save It? That's What Washington Post Editors Are Saying.
Over the past year, the Washington Post editorial board has routinely ignored the US’s involvement in the siege of Yemen—a bombing and starvation campaign that has killed over 15,000 civilians and left roughly a million with cholera.
Advice to College Graduates in the Age of Trump
Class of 2018, I’ve always been told that a joke’s a good way to launch any talk. It’s a matter of breaking the ice, though on your graduation day, with the temperature soaring into the upper eighties, that may not be the perfect image. Still, you know what I mean: an attempt to lighten the atmosphere a little before getting to the tough stuff.
Israeli Snipers Kill Palestinian Nurse, Injure 100, at Gaza March of Return
For the Israeli Army to shoot unarmed Palestinians who posed no danger to anyone simply because they were in a zone declared off limits within Gaza is a war crime.
Not a Paying Customer? Go Shit Somewhere Else.
Decent public bathrooms, and for that matter, public showers, ought to be free in all our cities and larger towns. That would be just one elementary kind of social democracy in this country. If we can afford endless wars and public bailouts for a rogue regime of banks and corporations, we can surely afford toilets, soap and water for we, the people.
Public Safety Is None of Your Business
World peace is none of your business You must not tamper with arrangements Work hard and simply pay your taxes Never asking what for Oh, you poor little fool Oh, you fool World peace is none of your business Police will stun you with their stun guns Or they’ll disable you with tasers That’s what government’s for Oh, you poor little fool Oh, you fool World peace is none of your business So would you kindly keep your nose out The rich must profit and get richer And the poor must stay poor Oh,...
Getting From Profits for a Few to Health Care for All
Democracy is a more radical idea than socialism. That has been noted by a fair number of democratic socialists, including one of the steady campaigners on the left wing of the British Labor Party, Tony Benn, who died in 2014. By stressing democracy first and foremost, he plainly did not abandon the full range of his socialist commitments. On the contrary, the extension of democracy into the workplace and the advance of workers into public life has been the real ground of social democracy.
Daniel's Ellsberg's Advice for How to Stop Current and Future Wars
Daniel Ellsberg has a message that managers of the warfare state don’t want people to hear. “If you have information that bears on deception or illegality in pursuing wrongful policies or an aggressive war,” he said in a statement released last week, “don’t wait to put that out and think about it, consider acting in a timely way at whatever cost to yourself. … Do what Katharine Gun did.” If you don’t know what Katharine Gun did, chalk that up to the media power of the war system.
Guns, 'Socialism' and Capitalism in the Wake of the Parkland Massacre
After the usual shock and horror, my reaction after hearing about the latest United States mass shooting perpetrated by a demented white male with an assault weapon was, sad to say, “Here we go again.” I waited for the standard cycle to run its depressing course. The venues and details are different each time, of course, but the story is always the same: a demented psychopath with weaponry and ammunition made available to him through loose gun laws.
U.S. Should Accept Putin's Offer to Negotiate
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his state of the nation address. Much of his speech focused on economic issues and proposals to improve the Russian economy and well-being of the Russian people.
California's Democratic Primary and the Sham of Elections
The recent California Democrats State Convention denied Sen. Dianne Feinstein an endorsement for a fifth full term, although the party machine and her bank account are still in her favor. There are signs of dissent and youthful unrest among Democrats, and not just in California, though anyone hoping to reform that party must first break the death grip of the old guard.
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