‘Medicare For All’ March Held In Newark (VIDEOS)

NEWARK, NJ — A coalition of groups in North Jersey recently led a “Medicare for All” march in Newark in solidarity with a national day of action for health care reform.

According to a statement from organizers, the July 24 rally was held to demand “comprehensive health care” for every person in the U.S., “free of discrimination according to any characteristic or capacity.”

The local rally in Newark was spearheaded by groups including North NJ Democratic Socialists of America, the People’s Organization For Progress, and the NJ State Industrial Union Council. Representatives from Our Revolution NJ, the Green Party of NJ, and New Labor were also in attendance.

Activists took aim at what some called “the predatory nature of the health care industry,” congregating in Military Park for speeches and musical performances, then proceeding to a picket outside the headquarters of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Imani Oakley, a progressive organizer running for Congress in the state’s 10th district, said that she knows what it’s like to live without health care.

“People like us have a little issue to take care of,” Oakley said. “And that little issue is the people who sit in Congress who don’t believe that we should have Medicare for All.”

“Capitalist medicine kills – capitalist medicine impoverishes,” said Larry Adams, vice-chair of the Newark-based People’s Organization For Progress.

“Capitalist medicine doesn’t provide health care, it gives us management of disease, because that’s profitable,” Adams charged. “So we’re out here dragging the United States of America into the 21st century.”

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