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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.?

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Hypocritical Oath: Medical Residency Trains Physicians to Be Tools for Capitalism

Residency training often claims to focus on training effective physicians. In reality, it’s an intricately designed conditioning process to train physicians to be tools for profit maximization. In order to be truly "effective" physicians, residents, in solidarity with other healthcare workers, must organize to challenge the systems that lead to suffering and illness both in health care and around the globe.

Healthcare Workers Must Join the Fight for Trans Liberation

Healthcare workers must join the fight against attacks on the trans community. In the process, we must fight to destroy the capitalist system that oppresses us all.

Healthcare Workers at Kaiser in Northern California Set To Strike in Solidarity with Striking Engineers

Kaiser Permanente has recently averted a strike of over 50,000 healthcare workers in Southern California, Oregon, and Hawaii after reaching a tentative agreement with workers. In Northern California, though, thousands of healthcare workers from various sectors are still set to strike this week. Striking Kaiser engineers in Stationary Engineers Local 39 have been picketing since September 18. Now, starting this week, around 40,000 workers from multiple unions will walk off the job in sympathy with Local 39. Healthcare worker Mike Pappas speaks with a mental health worker who will be striking.

People are Dying from Mass Incarceration. Doctors and Community Members are Fighting for Healthcare Access

Within the past year, the Department of Corrections (DOC) and Correctional Health Services (CHS) have overseen 14 reported deaths and ongoing human rights violations in NYC jails. Community members have had enough. They are joining together to demand access to patients to prevent more from dying in DOC and CHS hands.

Buffalo Healthcare Workers Strike for Better Patient Care and Fair Wages

Left Voice visited the picket line at Mercy Hospital near Buffalo, New York. Nurses and other hospital workers have been on strike for three weeks, calling for safe staffing ratios and better pay.

Striking Workers Reveal the Big Lie Behind “Family-Friendly” Kellogg Company

Kellogg claims, in ad after ad, to care about kids and their families. But the company’s actions show it couldn't care less — just like capitalism as a system does not care about working families.

Healthcare Workers Are Fed Up And Hitting the Picket Lines

The fight of healthcare workers against poor working conditions and a decreasing standard of living is expanding across the country. It’s time to broaden the struggle.

Firing Thousands of Health Care Workers Won’t Stop the Pandemic

The state of New York is firing thousands of unvaccinated health care workers and replacing them with members of the National Guard. While we support all workers being vaccinated, this is a clear attack coordinated by the bosses and the State against the working class.

Capitalism Breeds Pathogens: An Interview with Epidemiologist Rob Wallace

Evolutionary epidemiologist Rob Wallace speaks with Left Voice healthcare workers Mike Pappas, Tre Kwon, and Cliff Willmeng on the origins of Covid and capitalism’s failure to respond to the crisis.