WASHINGTON, DC, October 27—Progressive Labor Party (PLP) health workers once again sharpened the politics at the national convention of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Even as Covid-19 has kept the conference still mostly virtual, we were able to attack capitalist health care as serving the bosses profits system and not the needs of the working class. As in past years, we promoted an antiracist resolution that we had written with friends, prepared a special APHA Challenge supplement (bit.ly/APHA CHALLENGE), and presented a PLP program at the end of the conference. We were able to bring communist ideas into the struggle against racist public health conditions and challenge people to join the fight for communist revolution.
Putting communism front and center
Our virtual PLP program, “Racism and Capitalism: Is Communism the Solution?”   was a great success. We promoted it during many sessions we attended all week during which we raised the issues of capitalism and communism. Eighty people attended and heard three young comrades speak about revolution versus reform, imperialism, and the need for a party.
One speaker challenged public health workers to go all the way “upstream” to smash capitalism, the root of social problems, instead of stopping with piecemeal reforms. The destruction of people’s lives due to imperialism and its policies through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other organizations was clearly described with an emphasis on how capitalist international relations are NOT CHARITABLE.
When the third speaker asked what made people mad under capitalism the chat function went wild with multiple examples! We then had 30 minute breakout rooms of about six people each with a PLP facilitator where we discussed how revolutionaries participate in reform struggles and/or what went right and wrong in previous communist revolutions. Even more people were interested as 121 people registered for the event and all will get copies of the program. There were multiple requests for transcripts. One young participant was inspired to say “it’s great that there are so many passionate and active people,” and others liked the opportunity to discuss in the breakout rooms.
Capitalism will always incarcerate the working class
As police and prison reform efforts have spread around the country we have joined many of these struggles and discussions that have included prison abolition – a situation that can only exist for the working class after a communist revolution. The resolution, Advancing Public Health Interventions to Address the Harms of the Carceral System, had passed as a late-breaker last year but had to be resubmitted this year to become permanent policy.
We testified in the hearings on this resolution about the high incarceration rates in New Orleans where air conditioning is denied to prisoners, about the horrible conditions in detention centers where Covid-19 management is non-existent and medical care is incompetent, and how releasing prisoners during the pandemic did not lead to dangerous situations. The reviewers had initially given it a negative assessment but the authors doggedly pursued the issue within the APHA membership and finally the reviewers put it on the agenda and it passed with 86 percent in favor.  It will be posted on the APHA website and public health workers and others can continue to use it in campaigns locally and nationally to decarcerate the prisons.  
Keep fighting
The APHA is attended by thousands of public health workers each year who are dedicated to reform struggles for better health care and access. The APHA leadership is tied to Big Fascist main wing bosses(see glossary on page 6). The organization is there to ensure the bosses interests are advanced in public health care.
Our goal is to fight for the needs of the working class and build a communist movement led by PLP. When it is in person, we always organize a demonstration about a key issue and try to involve local workers and students who cannot afford to attend the expensive conference. In these actions we try to lead with advanced ideas that build confidence in the working class. Meanwhile, we continue to meet more and more  fighters who question capitalism, like the three new young members who spoke at our session. We continue to fight for our position that capitalism can never provided decent health care for workers, who are only seen as commodities. We’ll be back next year to bring the fight for communism to the conference in Boston.