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Mike Pappas

Mike is an activist and medical doctor working in New York City.

What Billionaire Space Flights Mean to Healthcare Workers

While the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage around the globe and climate disaster is destroying the planet, billionaires are taking joyrides to space. Two healthcare workers who worked throughout the pandemic respond.

Mike Pappas

August 2, 2021

Capitalist Healthcare Killed My Grandparent … And Hurts All Elderly

As a healthcare worker in New York City, I write this as a way to process and grieve, as less than 72 hours ago, another human was killed at the hands of the capitalist healthcare system. In the past, I have written about capitalism’s detrimental effects on our lives, and I have personally seen countless suffer and die at the hands of these systems in the healthcare setting. Today is different, as this death is more personal. This time the for-profit healthcare system under capitalism killed my grandfather.

Mike Pappas

July 18, 2021

Capitalist Competition Is Sabotaging the Race for a Vaccine

The global race for a Covid-19 vaccine appears to be in its final leg. The research was publicly funded. But Big Pharma stands to make enormous profits, at the expense of people the world over.

Mike Pappas

November 23, 2020

Strike for Breonna, Strike Against Police Terror

It’s official: the officers who killed Breonna Taylor will not be charged. While tragic, this is not surprising — the police, capitalism’s guard dogs, protect capital and the status quo and are therefore protected by the system they serve. Justice for Breonna Taylor and other victims killed by cops will not come through the courts. We must continue to protest and we must strike. We need to take action against racist cops and the capitalist system the institution of policing serves to protect.

Mike Pappas

September 27, 2020

SEIU Should Actually Strike for Black Lives

On July 20, unions and their members from around the country signed on to participate in the “Strike for Black Lives” led by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). In theory, this is a great step forward, but as a member of the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), which is part of SEIU, I have to ask, is SEIU prepared to actually strike?

Mike Pappas

July 18, 2020

Labor Must Defend the NYC Encampment and Join the Fight Against Racist Police

The labor movement should fight against police violence and support the City Hall encampment.

Mike Pappas

June 30, 2020

“They Are Cracking Down Like This Because They Are Scared of the Movement”: Doctor Arrested by NYPD Speaks Out

Left Voice editor, doctor, and street medic Mike Pappas was arrested for violating curfew on Thursday night while marching against police brutality. He made this video at 2am Friday morning after he was released.

Mike Pappas

June 6, 2020

A Healthcare Worker Answers Governor Cuomo’s “Conundrum”

Recent data out of New York City shows a large number of people with COVID-19 have largely been staying home. Governor Andrew Cuomo called this a "surprise." But capitalism is forcing working-class people to spread the virus. A socialist doctor from New York explains the problem to all the Cuomos of the world.

Mike Pappas

May 11, 2020

The Art of Exploiting a Pandemic: From Propaganda to Profit

Throughout the U.S., institutions that have no real interest in public health are exploiting the ongoing pandemic to benefit their public image and their bottom line. We must recognize and combat these efforts in order to fight the pandemic, directing resources to where they’re desperately needed rather than towards PR campaigns. 

Mike Pappas

May 1, 2020

Capitalism Is a Virus: Interview with Two Socialist Healthcare Workers from New York

As thousands die each day, bodies are piled into mass graves --- these are the surreal images coming out of the world’s dominant imperialist power. This situation was by no means inevitable, but it was prepared by decades of neoliberal policies, as explained by nurse Tre Kwon and Dr. Mike Pappas from New York, members of Left Voice.

Mike Pappas

April 15, 2020

Neither Trump nor Cuomo: Socialist Healthcare Workers Tell Us How to Fight the Pandemic

Capitalism has birthed a nightmare. Nearly two million people around the world have already fallen ill as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Hospitals like ours have been completely overwhelmed by the rush of patients. The bodies of the dead are being held in refrigerated trucks. Those who can’t be identified are buried in mass graves. Unemployment may already be as high as 13 percent in the U.S.

Mike Pappas

April 14, 2020

Liberal Elite More Deadly Than Coronavirus

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, millionaires and billionaires, who have been key to oppressing the working class, are trying to position themselves as everyday Americans. We need to understand them for what they are: beneficiaries and key supporters of the capitalist system that helped create this crisis.

Mike Pappas

March 29, 2020

Healthcare Workers Are At War, But Trump Isn’t on Our Side

NYC physician gave this speech about the war against the coronavirus and the ongoing war against for-profit health care, Trump and capitalism itself. The coronavirus pandemic is magnifying capitalism’s complete inability to foster overall health and well being. We don’t just need a new healthcare system, but a new economic system altogether.

Mike Pappas

March 24, 2020

A Call to Healthcare Workers

Calling all healthcare workers: Are you concerned about the coronavirus response? How has the pandemic affected you and your workplace? We want to hear from you!

Mike Pappas

March 20, 2020

On the Front Lines of the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Doctor’s View

The coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the globe. There seems to be no way of containing it at this point, and health systems are struggling to keep up. The virus is exposing inadequacies in health systems all over the world, especially the U.S.’s abysmal health infrastructure. Health workers on the ground continue to provide care during the pandemic despite the severe lack of resources and dangers to their personal health.

Mike Pappas

March 16, 2020

Capitalism is an Incubator for Pandemics. Socialism is the Solution.

Coronavirus is wreaking havoc across the world. Capitalism cannot adequately respond to a global health crisis. That's why we need socialism.

Mike Pappas

March 9, 2020

Democrats Team Up With Trump to Maintain Disastrous Healthcare System

Both Republicans and Democrats have blocked all attempts to build a rational, universal health care policy for the U.S. This is because capitalism prioritizes profit over the health and well-being of the working class. Creating a truly just health care system will require moving beyond capitalism.

Mike Pappas

February 10, 2020

The Police are Bad for Your Health

Police are bad for our health. It is up to all those who strive to improve societal well being to oppose the violence the institution of “law enforcement “continues to perpetrate on us all.

Mike Pappas

December 2, 2019

Nurses Are Leading Strike Efforts — Where Are The Physicians?

Nurses in New York City are pushing back against hospital systems that put profits over patients and threaten their efforts to strike for safer staffing ratios. While nurses are fighting, physicians, so far, have remained on the sidelines of this struggle.

Mike Pappas

April 17, 2019