Global Health Watch

international | miscellaneous | news report Thursday July 21, 2005 02:49 by jj - northstar anarchist collective mnacollective at yahoo dot com

A Step Forward

The sad fact is that most of these health problems can be easily avoided if we were to rid the world of capitalism and electoral process’s and the state

As the anti-capitalist globalization movement has been stuck in a slow down since 911 there has been many sophisticated improvements being made within. The movement has done some major self-reflection and asking serious questions of which way forward. Although this movement has not seen any major wins in the past few years it has been trying to make the right connections to issues that will help propel it forward in hopes having a even larger front.
The movement is confronted with two major authoritarian fronts that of the neo-liberalism front and that of the fundamentalist front. While these two fronts battle each other, they both widely tried to push the anti-capitalist globalization movement to the background where it could be dealt with later. And yet because of the leaderless and anti-authoritarian nature of the anti-capitalist movement it remains versatile and resilient through building strong community connections in our own neighborhoods and internationally. Thus we are the opposite of destroying communities, which is constantly committed by the two authoritarian fronts.
One of the more sophisticated improvements of the anti-globalization movements is its historically overlooked “Healthcare for All” aspect. When we examine what it is we’re against and what it is we are for we need to get to the root problems and causes. By trying to argue in the abstract that capitalism and globalization are bad for the world based upon some old Marxist text it is hard to win folks over. And this is even true when we say that we have a global society that is not based in democracy where some groups have the power to acquire more resources at the full expense of the vast majority of the world. That is that inequalities can create, on the minor end, such conditions for individuals such as mental health issues in the form of depression, anxiety, negative stress, and etc. But on the major scale inequalities can lead to disproportionate levels of death and disease. This scale of minor to major can be seen in almost all countries throughout the world with the disproportionate level consuming the nations considered the global south or/and developing nations. But even in the global north inequalities in health can be seen throughout the industrialized world.
The sad fact is that most of these health problems can be easily avoided if we were to rid the world of capitalism and electoral process’s and the state. The second meeting of the Peoples Health Assembly is being held in Cuenca, Ecuador from July 17th to the 25th. At this important peoples assembly they will be releasing the new document called the Global Health Watch (GHW) report. The GHW is a health report of the world, which points to capitalist globalization as the most serious public health threat. It also includes an analysis of why the World Health Organization (WHO), as the healthcare authoritarian body, has been a major player in dismissing inequality in healthcare, as it is understood through neo-liberalism. This document can be found online (below) and is over 300 pages long. This is an important tool to use as we keep trying to dismantle the capital/state model, and how to build for a better and healthier future.

JJ, NorthStar (A) Collective (personal capacity)

Global Health Watch report: http://www.ghwatch.org/2005report/ghw.pdf