Join the Alachua County Labor Party and their community co-sponsors to celebrate the 45th birthday of Medicare!

The event will have a panel of speakers:

Jack Price (retired labor organizer who campaigned for Medicare) — “A People’s History of Medicare
Dr. Bill Warrick (local physician and healthcare activist) — ” The Vital Role of Medicare in Private Practice”
David McCally, PhD (Professor of History, Bethune-Cookman University) — “1965: Medicare and the War on Poverty”
Mark Piotrowski (Board member, Healthcare-NOW) — “Why Americans Want Improved and Expanded Medicare-for-All”

The audience will be invited to give testimony, and enjoy cake and refreshments .

In the face of threaten cuts from the deficit commission, this is an especially important time to show support for this successful government program.

If you need childcare, or transportation, please RSVP 48 hours ahead of time.

This is an informal gathering; it’s meant to be an opportunity for everyone to get to know each other, and discuss how working people can support one another. For more information please see: http://www.meetup.com/Fellow-Worker/

6p for pizza, 6:30 for discussion

The planning meeting for our upcoming event, “Happy Birthday Medicare; Protect It, Improve It, Expand It”, was successful. The event will be on July 31st, from 1-2:30p. We have a great panel of speakers planned; they will talk about the movement for Medicare, and how Medicare affects doctors practice (both in hospitals, and in private practice).

However, we still need help to pull together the event. At our next general meeting we’ll be creating the Medicare birthday cards, planning who will give testimony first, get volunteers for set-up and clean-up, and plan times and places to pass out the flyer for the event.

We will also be watching a clip from Michael Moore’s “Capitalism, a Love Story”, that features Roosevelt’s last state of the union address; in which Roosevelt introduces his proposed Second Bill of Human Rights. His Second Bill of Human Rights includes the right to universal healthcare, jobs, and college education.

We’d like to follow the clip with a discussion on Healthcare NOW’s addition in their campaign for Single Payer; HC-NOW plans to fight the Deficit Commission, as well as push for universal healthcare.

The Alachua County Labor Party is planning an event to celebrate Medicare’s 45th Birthday. This is an especially important time to show support for this program, and our other social programs, because of the cuts suspected to be considered by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

We need your input and help!

So far, we have booked a room for the Medicare Birthday event, and have picked a day and time (July 31st, from 1-3pm). But there is much more to do; we would like help in creating a flyer, passing out flyers, tabling, bringing refreshments, and other event logistics.

If you aren’t able to come to the meeting, but would still like to help, please call the office, at 352-375-2823, or write to aclp@floridalaborparty.org.

With Medicare and other social programs on the chopping block, now is an incredibly important time to show our support for these cherished public programs.

Join us on Tuesday, June 15th, at 6:00p, at the ACEA Union Hall (618 NW 13th Street).

please call the office for more information, or directions, at 352-375-2832

The ceremony will be followed by a reception with light refreshments and a showing of the documentary classic “The Good Fight,” which tells the story of American volunteers like Jack who fought in the Spanish Civil War.

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Two years ago this month, Gainesville lost a true citizen of the world when John A. “Jack” Penrod, veteran of World War II and of the XV International Brigade, Spanish Civil War, died at age 94. Since then, Gainesville Veterans for Peace, the Alachua County Labor Party, and United Faculty of Florida have created the John A. Penrod “Brigadas” Award for Peace and Justice, an annual award in his honor.

This year’s awardee, Jessica Newman, hails from Jacksonville, Florida, and will graduate from the University of Florida with a BA in journalism this April. Seeing a void for quality, in-depth journalism as far as the established campus media went, Jessica rounded up a group of students who cared about the same issues and started The Fine Print, which has been running solidly for the last two years. In the summer of 2009, it won the national Campus Progress award for Best New College Publication of the Year and Jessica was interviewed on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now. Jessica also works closely with the farm workers rights movement.

A ceremony honoring Jack and Jessica Newman, the 2010 recipient of the award in his name, will be held on Saturday, April 24th from 7:00-8:30 at the Civic Media Center, 433 S. Main St., Gainesville, Florida. The ceremony will be followed by a reception with light refreshments and a showing of the documentary classic “The Good Fight,” which tells the story of American volunteers like Jack who fought in the Spanish Civil War.

Your donations are requested to help fund the Brigadas Award. This important work needs our financial backing to enable our activists to keep fighting for all of us. Please send your donation to Alachua County Labor Party, P.O. Box 12051, Gainesville, FL 32604. Call (352) 375-2832 for more information.

Come join us on April 24th. Help continue Jack’s legacy.

Chad Hood, M.D., Alachua County Labor Party
Scott Camil, Gainesville Veterans for Peace

For more information call 375-2832.

For more information call 375-2832.