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NEWS & LETTERS, October 2004Science and state-capitalism in CaliforniaCalifornia, the country’s most populous and technologically developed state, by all accounts is going to vote against George W. Bush in a big way in this Presidential election. Here capitalism is a bit more progressive than the political alliance of militarized science and religious reaction that seems to nearly have a lock on the federal government. For example, Proposition 71, which has huge backing from many super rich contributors, will authorize $3 billion in bonds for stem cell research. The biotech industry, which will be the beneficiary of this corporate welfare, is also adding money that blankets the media with ads with testimonials from experts on the tremendous potential of stem cell research. However, this corporate giveaway to make California competitive with countries like the United Kingdom in stem cell research comes just when health and social services are severely stressed under an unprecedented state financial crisis. In the national election campaign, Kerry certainly found a "wedge issue" by saying he would be a president who believes in science and he brought in science in a human way pointing to the potential of stem cell research to help cure a whole host of diseases. Against a metaphysical soul attached to cell cultures there is in the here and now millions of conscious individual souls developing in the womb of society whose lives are threatened with many possibly curable diseases. People can relate to that, but let’s not be fooled that in this capitalist framework this science won’t be one more way of making health care, especially pharmaceuticals, more of a profit center for capital accumulation. On the ground, in California clinics and hospitals, workers are fighting heath care restructuring that focuses on the bottom line and limits their efforts to save lives. For example, it was recently announced that the Martin Luther King, Jr./Drew Medical Center, the only public hospital serving a huge part of South Central Los Angeles, will close its trauma unit. At the same time workers continue to get stuck with the increasing costs of medicines and coverage, if they are lucky enough not to lose coverage altogether. That makes another proposition a crucial test. Prop 72 is an initiative submitted by the legislature and signed by then Governor Davis which will require companies with more than 20 employees to provide health care coverage by 2006. Pro-business Governor Schwarzenegger and business interests, mostly fast food franchises calling themselves "Californians Against Government Run Healthcare," are also flooding the media with disinformation to defeat Prop 72 and support for it is going down. Businesses will do everything to undermine the effort to bring the benefits of medical science to the growing lower tier workforce even as they expect workers to pay for their research and development. Elections in capitalist big-money democracy will not overcome this contradiction, but we are hoping for a small victory in the effort to make the well-being of the human being the focus of our activity. --Ron Brokmeyer |
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