Morning Comrades.
Unfortunately sad news have prompted writing this special.
One of my dearest friends, Alyasha Owerka-Moore was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and due to the inhumanity of for-profit “healthcare” he is going to need all the help he needs.
This from the Go-Fund Me Campaign:
“Aly was diagnosed with colon cancer in early August 2022, after a routine checkup. Treatment began immediately and a few weeks later Alyasha underwent a colectomy procedure to remove a cancerous mass. Post-surgery, a biopsy of the mass further revealed that the cancer had advanced into stage 3 and that testing of the lymph nodes would also be necessary. The oncology results confirmed that indeed cancer was present in a lymph node and that an aggressive form of chemotherapy treatment would be necessary. Just two months after diagnosis, ‘Aly’ has begun a heavy chemo regiment that will involve twelve, three-day infusions for the next six months. This is not going to be an easy road for him, but Alyasha is facing it with all of the fortitude, optimism, and humor that he can. The Alyasha trademark chuckle remains intact.
Now, there is no need for me to write a sop-sorry as to why Aly deserves our help, no stories from our friedship or anything like that. The fact is that every human deserves all the care they require to live a safe and pain-free life. Nevertheless, and this fact is plain as it can be: Without Aly, his work and his friendship, I and everything that Black Lodges has done and hopefully will continue would not exist. It’s a simple as that. With that, if you have anything to spare, no matter the amount, here is the link to help Aly get through this.
Now for the rant. Other than the overwhelming feeling of fear and love I have for this man and this situation I have been raging ever since I have received these news. Yes, of course, this is personal but so be it.
It is beyond me that we, as in all of us, have to rely on Mutual Aid in order to manage, in order to survive any and all ailment solely for the reason of some other person’s profit. It truly and utterly enrages me that we have been forced to accept this as out reality. Of course, this applies to every aspect of our lives, the 1% get richer of our backs and when they fuck up, we pay the bills for it. That’s the essence of the capitalist reality and it should not be this way. What an outrageous reality to be truthful.
Our health is one of the absolute core pillars of our life. Healthcare, both mental and physical is not only necessary in order to maintain this throughout our life but is a god damn human right, as agreed upon by the world’s political community in the shape of the UN1:
“The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition”.
How the fuck did we ever get to the point where we let the ruling classes sell us the idea that on top of our tax contributions to our healthcare - on a grand scale, from your local doctor to the University Clinical Research Centres to Care Work and Pharmaceutical Production- would on the one hand require additional insurance, let alone be privatized for profit? The mere concept alone is utterly inhumane but of course that is exactly where we are and I say no more.
Of course, it’s relatively easy to explain how we got there- corruption and greed. Government representatives willing to sell out any and all national infrastructure to private enterprises that want to, and have profited immensely on not only “caring” for us, but often causing ailments that require their solution. It’s maddening beyond belief.
Capitalism and its inherent greed and corruption will always create the problem and then sell you the solution.
So here is a little bit of working class scientific utopianism for you- actually, scrap the scientific part. I am beyond the point of having to prove to our opponents the scientific truths about our goals when they not only get ignored in any case but more importantly, their truth, the existence we have to shoulder was never scientifically proven, nor could it, but enforced by brutality, so, fuck them.
How about this as a possible future, that requires nothing but political will:
All, and I mean truly all, health care should be, alongside housing, food and warmth be the top priority of any society paid for and carried by the work of everyone in said society. It’s hardly a revolutionary idea, fuck, it’s been around for centuries, but the capitalist narrative and hellscape we exist under has made that reality seem like a mad persons pipe dream.
It is not, it is absolutely feasible and doable in our lifetime. I am not even going to get into the bad-faith fascist talking point of “how ya gonna pay for it commie”. Please grow up and join the people at the table that actually want to help.
In any case, this dispatch isn’t meant to be a rage rod against this insanity. A valuable member of this community is in serious trouble simply because he has cancer. Before we overthrow this shit show of a system let’s give him a helping hand.
Yours, raging,
V.