Saturday May 12th, 2018
1pm - Rally for Health Justice at Oscar Grant Plaza in Downtown Oakland
7 Powerful Speakers
*Luci Riley, 17 year bedside ICU nurse, Health Justice Activist
*Gayle McLaughlin, co-founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance and a former mayor of Richmond, candidate for CA Lt. Governor
*Meagan Day, staff writer at Jacobin Magazine and member of East Bay Democratic Socialists of America
*Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project, Executive Director of Justice Teams Network, candidate for Mayor of Oakland
*Rupa Marya, MD, Faculty Director, Do No Harm Coalition, UCSF Division of Hospital Medicine
*Afi Kambon, Secretary of Berkeley NAACP, 2 time cancer survivor
*Erin Brightwell, Speech Pathologist, member of UPTE-CWA Local 9119, Socialist Alternative National Cmte
145pm - March for Our Health to the Corporate Headquarters of Kaiser Permanente (.7 Miles)
230pm - Public Speak Out @ KP Corporate HQ
This is your time to share your own story of being denied, discriminated against, overcharged & mistreated by the health insurance industry and by any other systemic inequity that has affected your health!
Why are we marching to the Corporate Headquarters of Kaiser Permanente?
Last spring, Kaiser Permanente's state lobbyist Teresa Stark threatened that the $70 Billion Dollar California company would be "dismantled" if California State Senate Bill 562, the bill that would establish a statewide single payer health plan, passed. She also said Kaiser not being able to sell insurance would be like "cutting off one of our limbs and calling it Kaiser."
2 months after that testimony, the Democratic Speaker of the California Assembly, Anthony Rendon, held the bill in the Rules Committee, keeping it under lock and key and effectively protecting health industry profits.
On May 12th, we have the opportunity to show the Bay Area, corporate politicians, and Kaiser Permanente a strong response to this corporate blackmail.
We strongly support the doctors and nurses and all of the others healthcare and service workers at Kaiser, but the corporate entity of Kaiser is opposed to SB 562 because they don’t want to lose money. We don't want to lose our lives.
May 12th is International Nurses Day. The March for Our Health is dedicated to the nurses that save lives all around the world and who fight for health justice for all!
We all deserve a healthy life. That means a right to healthcare, education, housing, a living wage, clean air, clean water, healthy food and the right to live a life free from discrimination, oppression, exploitation and violence!