In November, Put People First! PA Healthcare Rights Committees held three actions – two in person, one virtual – to connect the genocidal devastation of the healthcare system in Gaza, funded by the U.S. government, to the poor and dispossessed people here are being kicked off of Medicaid by the millions. Here’s some of what our leaders had to say.
Kiki, Central Appalachia PA Healthcare Rights Committee Gaza Solidarity Action, November 17th, 2023
“We’re giving billions of dollars for genocide. To kill babies. To kill innocent men and women. And For what? To have nothing here! Billions and billions of dollars that could be going to make our country a better place, but democrats and republicans – both conservative and liberal agree it should be going to genocide. It’s been going on for too long. All the war. For nothing. To enrich but a small amount of people. To enrich a ruling class that doesn’t give a damn about us. It shouldn’t be happening.
Are we meant to just sit down and be like it’s fine? It’s fine? No! We’re meant to fight with each other! We’re meant to fight with each other – oh you’re conservative, oh you’re liberal, oh you’re black, oh you’re white, you’re a Muslim, you’re Jewish. We’re meant to just sit here and fight while they’re laughing in your faces, billions of dollars to genocide. It has to end! It has to end! We need to come together. We need to defeat them. We are working class people and they don’t stand for us. It doesn’t matter where in the world we are. They don’t stand for us. If you think that you’re better than a person in Gaza, you aren’t! They think of us all the same. We need to stand together. We need to stand against apartheid. We need to stand against genocide. That’s the only way we as working class americans we’re going to get what we need here, the healthcare infrastructure, education, we need to rebuild this entire country.[…]
It’s been nothing but a month of anger and horror and we need a ceasefire now. But they’re afraid to do it. Because they’re afraid of peace. They’re afraid of unity. They want this war to go on for as long as possible. It doesn’t matter how much money or resources they waste. When it comes to: we just need simple healthcare, they can find money for infinite war anytime. I keep repeating this but it needs to end.
What we’re doing now, coming together, speaking out, even though we’re in a small town, is important. It’s what they don’t want us to do. They don’t want to see unity. They don’t want to see peace, and they don’t want to see a working class that unites across it’s differences. It doesn’t matter if you’re black, if you’re white, if you’re palestinian, if you’re jewish, if you’re gay, if you’re trans, or if you’re cis, we need to stand together as a class!”
Click below for press coverage of the Johnstown Action!
