The Progressive

Does anybody know the magazine The Progressive? I picked up the May issue because I wanted something to read during lunch and it promised me an article about the WalMart and Andy Stern "Health Care Fix." Unfortunately, the article is 50% about the current health care crisis (I guess people who read TP don't know these things), 24% about how some people on the "left" think Andy has gone crazy, 24% about how some people on the right think WalMart has gone crazy, and 2% about the "health care fix." Okay, 2% might be pushing it. I know that it's not "single-payer," it's "government run" and I know that business would never go for those two things, but that's about all I know. Tantalizingly, the article mentions that the AFL-CIO executive committee recently endorsed "Medicaid for all" and that this has gotten no press play, but then it is given no more press play. So essentially TP, and the rest of the American press, seems to think that the largest labor federation in the US comes out in favor of single-payer government-run health care equals *yawn*, but a labor splinter group allies with big business to propose more of the same equals cover story.

Of course, what comes through loud-and-clear is the ambivalence/fear/hope people like the people who write for/read TP have for Andy Stern. Here is a guy that proclaims loudly that he is going to change the labor movement in America! Organize women! Minorities! Democracy! Alliances with business! Private health insurance for all! Unions concerned about the shareholders! Globalization is here to stay! Secret deals with nursing homes! I've already decided how I feel about this guy, I sense other people are coming around.