[Marxism] Michael Moore: An Awesome First Night for "SiCKO"

[Jon Flanders]

On Sun, 2007-07-01 at 08:42 -0400, Walter Lippmann wrote:
> Have other people here seen the film? Thoughts on it?


I saw at a special preview for health care activists and labor people on
Wednesday.I agree that it is a magnificent piece of agit-prop, which
will be immensely useful for organizing. Particularly powerful for me
was the destruction Moore wreaks on the stereotypes of other countries
national health care systems.


Here in the Capital District of NY we are handing out four page
brochures at the showings, sponsored by the PNHP chapter and the Troy
Area Labor Council.


At the Friday opening, dozens of medical students in their uniforms made
an appearance with literature of their own.


I spent half an hour yesterday handing brocuhures out at the theater
before the afternoon show. People snapped them up and some actually
thanked me for leafleting. I have a pdf available if anyone wants to
utilize the excellent layout of this literature in their own area.

At work I plastered my shop with the brochures, and in the many
discussion that started I heard right away horror stories about family
memberslike those Moore documents in the film. My machinist's local is
already on board with support for the HR 676 bill in Congress, around
which a national campaign for labor support is building.

List member Andy Coates has a front page Op-Ed piece on single payer and
SICKO in today's Albany Times Union.

You can read it here:
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=602277&category=OPINION&newsdate=7/1/2007

I think he did a great job with this. How many leaflets does this equal?
According to the 2007 figures, approximately 50,000.
I sense a real organizing opportunity coming.

Jon Flanders