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Mike Pappas

Mike is an activist and medical doctor working in New York City.

The Housing Crisis and Migrant Crisis Are Crises of Capitalism

As thousands of people come to the U.S. seeking shelter, politicians around the country are claiming that housing in the U.S. is already in crisis and that there is no room for them. Both the “migrant crisis” and “housing crisis” are crises created and exacerbated by capitalism.

Mike Pappas

September 20, 2023

Drug Patents Are Stifling Progress and Making us Sicker

Recently leaked corporate memos show once again that pharmaceutical companies always put profit over health. The recent example of Gilead shows how the pharmaceutical industry uses patent law to stifle medical progress and hurt the public.

Mike Pappas

August 15, 2023

New Study Finds Police Drug Seizures Increase the Risk of Overdose

Law enforcement agencies have long been engaged in the seizure of illicit drugs as part of the racist War on Drugs being waged for years. Now a recent study has shed light on a troubling connection between these police seizures and an increase in overdoses within the surrounding communities. The CDC funded study only further underscores how the institution of policing is dangerous to public health and needs to be abolished.

Mike Pappas

August 5, 2023

Capitalist Hegemony in Psychedelic Medicine

Excitement around psychedelics continues to grow with thousands set to attend the Psychedelic Science conference in Denver this week. Proponents in the psychedelic space have promoted a strategy to focus on the “medicalization” to gain wider societal acceptance. But this could lead psychedelics to come under greater control, ensuring that they serve as profitable tools to maintain the status quo.

Mike Pappas

June 20, 2023

Exposing the Facade: Nonprofit Exploitation and Betrayal in the Institute for Family Health

Management at the Institute for Family Health (IFH), a prominent non-profit health organization in New York City, has threatened to take away healthcare worker benefits if they don’t close medical charts in a specified timeframe. IFH’s decision not only reflects the capitalist logic employed by for-profit companies, but also highlights how nonprofit organizations reproduce this logic and function to uphold the capitalist system.

Mike Pappas

June 19, 2023

There Is No Capitalist Solution to the Overdose Crisis

The United States has weaponized its response to the overdose crisis it helped create, using it as an excuse to further its own imperialist agenda at home and abroad.

Mike Pappas

April 21, 2023

New York Nurses’ Strike Shows the Way Forward for Labor

Over 7,000 nurses struck at New York hospitals for three days, winning important partial gains. Despite attempts to avert the strike by the hospital bosses, Democratic Party politicians, and elements within the leadership of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the bargaining committees of two major hospitals held strong.

Mike Pappas

February 2, 2023

NYSNA 2019-2021: From Contract Sellout to Covid Hell

Thousands of nurses in NYC could go on strike in the coming days. After nurses struggled to provide care during the Covid-19 pandemic, this fight could be a chance for nurses to improve working conditions. The nursing union’s past acceptance of toothless contracts helped further exacerbate staffing crises faced during the pandemic. This history is key to developing more militant fights to improve healthcare today.

Mike Pappas

January 5, 2023

Eric Adams Prescribes More Cops and Prisons for New York’s Poor and Oppressed

Mayor Eric Adams's directive to involuntarily detain the unhoused is about hiding the uncomfortable effects of capitalism.

Mike Pappas

December 14, 2022

Senate Votes to Overturn Covid-19 National Emergency

Just over a week after the “election to save democracy,” Senate Democrats voted with Republicans to end the Covid-19 Emergency Declaration three years after it was invoked. Both parties show us time and time again that the working class needs its own party.

Mike Pappas

November 29, 2022

Cops Out of Martial Arts: You Can’t Make “More Humane” Agents of State Terror

Leandro Lo, a world champion in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, was recently shot and killed by an off-duty cop in Brazil. Martial arts coaches and practitioners often welcome cops into their spaces, saying they’re then less likely to use deadly force. Let’s be clear: cops have no place in martial arts schools

Mike Pappas

August 10, 2022

Our Movement Is the Cure: Fighting for Healthcare Means Fighting for Socialism

On July 30 activists marched and rallied in Washington, DC, calling for a more humane healthcare system. Physician and Left Voice member Mike Pappas spoke at the rally about how capitalism and health aren’t compatible. Below is the text from his speech.

Mike Pappas

August 2, 2022

Healthcare Profits: Montefiore Hospital Closes Bronx Center while Opening Boutique Clinic in Manhattan

Montefiore Hospital System is set to close a primary care center in the Bronx and open a boutique clinic in Manhattan, and healthcare workers are fighting back. We need a healthcare system controlled by workers and patients — not bosses.

Mike Pappas

July 28, 2022

ICE Wants to “Disaffiliate” with Its Union? We Say GTFO

The parent union of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has decided to formally file to disclaim interest in being associated with ICE, after ICE repeatedly expressed interest in leaving its union. But ICE, and cops more generally, should never have been part of unions in the first place. They are not workers but are instead tools of a violent state apparatus under capitalism. We say good riddance to not only ICE, but also to all cops who want to leave their unions. We must demand all cops out of our unions!

Mike Pappas

July 14, 2022

University of California Nurses Reach Contract Following Stanford Nurses Strike

Just weeks after a nearby strike at Stanford Hospital, which led to the union winning a contract, nurses at the University of California have reached their own contract agreement with compensation and other gains for healthcare workers. When healthcare workers strike, their fight extends beyond their workplaces, helping others win too.

Mike Pappas

July 14, 2022

Starbucks Illegally Fires Worker in Queens, New York

Starbucks has fired a union organizer at the 31st Street/Ditmars Blvd store in Queens, New York. As the company continues to union bust, the workers are continuing the fight and requesting help supporting fired workers.

Mike Pappas

July 9, 2022

The Court is Trying To Kill You: SCOTUS Bolsters Climate Change

The Supreme Court just gutted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s power to regulate emissions. It’s time for the climate movement to stand up and fight back against the capitalist institutions that are killing the planet.

Mike Pappas

June 30, 2022

Uvalde Mass Shooting Exposes Police Cowardice: Cops Will Never Keep Us Safe

The mass shooting at Robb elementary in Uvalde, Texas left nineteen children and two teachers murdered. Uvalde police are now being exposed as cowards, choosing to brutalize frantic parents outside the school and watch as shooter Salvador Ramos killed children and teachers in a classroom. Police do not keep us safe and must be abolished.

Mike Pappas

May 28, 2022

Resident Physicians Are Unionizing — They Need Fighting Unions

Amid growing pro-union sentiment in the country, resident physicians are unionizing. They need fighting unions that challenge the for-profit healthcare system.

Mike Pappas

May 14, 2022

Healthcare Unions Must Take Up the Fight for Abortion Rights

Healthcare unions must take up the fight to make sure everyone has a right to free, safe, legal abortion on demand. Abortion is healthcare and healthcare is a human right.

Mike Pappas

May 12, 2022

The Supreme Court Is Poised to Overturn Roe v. Wade — Now Is the Time to Mobilize

In a leaked draft of its upcoming decision, the Supreme Court appears to be prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade. It is absolutely essential that we mobilize now — in the streets, in workplaces, and in our unions — to protect the right to abortion.

Mike Pappas

May 2, 2022

A Radical Approach to Psychedelics and Mental Health

The so-called psychedelic renaissance is here. Proponents claim that the drugs can alleviate an array of psychological suffering. But while they try to gain medical acceptance, they ignore the structural factors that cause suffering in the first place. We need a revolutionary approach to these substances as they become more mainstream.

Mike Pappas

March 24, 2022

Minneapolis Has Money for Cops’ “PTSD,” But Not for School Counselors

The teachers’ strike in Minneapolis has entered its third week. The Democrat-controlled city can find creative ways to pay out worker compensation claims for cops with PTSD, but it claims to have no funds to provide mental health resources for students traumatized by racist police violence and the pandemic.

Mike Pappas

March 23, 2022

Antiwar Russians in the Streets Show the Way Forward. Stop the Repression!

Vladimir Putin’s incursion into Ukraine comes as tensions increase between Russia and NATO. But despite repression, many are fighting back against military escalation. Internationally, we need antiwar mobilizations that demand not just the end to war, but also sanctions, which only harm the masses.

Mike Pappas

February 24, 2022

Bosses Are Not on Your Team and They Proved It During the Pandemic

Are your bosses issuing an “apology” for how they handled the pandemic? Are they promising to “do better” as an institution? Bosses are trying to save face after having lost workers’ trust. Well, when someone shows you their true colors, you should believe them. No one showed their colors more clearly than bosses throughout the Covid pandemic, putting profit over lives.

Mike Pappas

February 10, 2022

California Healthcare Bill Fails: No, Not All Paths to Universal Healthcare Are Equal

As a bill to pass single-payer healthcare fails for the second time in the last five years, the question remains: What path should activists pursue to finally win universal healthcare in the U.S.?

Mike Pappas

February 8, 2022

Ending the Pandemic Is Not an “Individual Responsibility”

The Biden administration’s “individual responsibility” directive to “get vaccinated and boosted” is failing. The focus on vaccination only, rather than systemic solutions, is a ruling-class tactic to deflect blame away from bourgeois politicians and the capitalist system that continually places profit over lives.

Mike Pappas

December 28, 2021

Cancel Student Debt Now

The Biden administration has confirmed there will be no extension on the student loan moratorium, with repayments set to restart February 1, 2022. The working class should fight not just for extension of the moratorium, but what has always been needed: education as a right that is not commodified. We need a movement to demand the elimination of student debt altogether, along with free public college and university education for all who want it.

Mike Pappas

December 16, 2021

Candle Factory Bosses Commit Murder by Tornado

Deadly tornadoes ripped through the southern and midwestern United States on Friday. Reports since reveal that Kentucky candle factory bosses threatened to fire workers if they stopped to take shelter prior to their shifts ending. Under capitalism, candles are even more important than human lives.

Mike Pappas

December 14, 2021

Dear Columbia: Denying Student Workers Healthcare and a Living Wage Is the Real Violence

Columbia University’s administration has denounced the “violence” at this week’s completely peaceful picket by student workers. Do not be fooled: the real violence is the university denying student workers healthcare, a living wage, and neutral third-party arbitration.

Mike Pappas

December 10, 2021