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  • Monthly Review Essays

About Don Fitz

Don Fitz (fitzdon [at] aol.com) is on the Editorial Board of Green Social Thought where a version of this article first appeared. He was the 2016 candidate of the Missouri Green Party for Governor. His book, Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing Revolution, has been available since June 2020.
  • Mail Adventures: Women on Stamps | S for Scouts

    Girl Scouts threatened for supporting Palestinian children

    Don Fitz

    The national Girl Scouts are threatening legal action against a St. Louis troop for the crime of making bracelets to raise money for Gaza’s children.

  • Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

    Degrowth – How anti-worker would it be?

    Originally published: Green Social Thought on October 10, 2023 (more by Green Social Thought)

    One accusation still seems to lack an adequate response: Is the U.S. working class inherently anti-degrowth because it would mean a massive loss of jobs?

  • Is Nuclear Fusion Energy Salvation?

    Is Nuclear Fusion Energy Salvation? Eternal Energy = Eternal Damnation

    Originally published: Green Social Thought on June 3, 2023 (more by Green Social Thought)

    Or is Eternal Energy = Eternal Damnation?

  • Two barrels aim at African People's Socialist Party

    Two barrels aim at African People’s Socialist Party

    Originally published: Green Social Thought on December 26, 2022 (more by Green Social Thought)

    With new FBI and Department of “Justice” (DOJ) attacks expected in early January, a defense, mobilization and information session attracted hundreds of allies of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP).

  • Life Expectancy (LE) in US and Cuba, 2017-2021

    Life expectancy: The U.S. and Cuba in the time of Covid

    Originally published: Green Social Thought on September 12, 2022 (more by Green Social Thought)

    Recent data shows that between 2019 and 2021, life expectancy (LE) in the US plunged almost three years while for Cuba it edged up 0.2 years.

  • Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change in Cuba

    Cuba prepares for disaster

    Originally published: Green Social Thought on March 22, 2022 (more by Green Social Thought)

    The book traces Cuba’s preparedness from the threat of a U.S. invasion following its revolution through its resistance to hurricanes and diseases, which all laid the foundation for current adaptions to climate change.

  • Caceres Harris

    From the Murder of Berta Cáceres to Dam Disaster in Uttarakhand

    Don Fitz

    March 2, 2021 was the five year anniversary of the murder of Berta Cáceres, who opposed the Agua Zarca dam in Honduras. That date was less than one month after the deaths of dozens of people from Tehri Dam disaster in Uttarakhand, India. The two stories together tell us far more about consequences of the insatiable greed of capitalism for more energy than either narrative does by itself.

  • Demand SINGLE PAYER Expanded & Improved Medicare for All HR 676 Now Protest at the Baltimore Convention Center on Pratt at South Charles Street in Baltimore MD on Saturday morning, 11 February 2018 (Photo: Elvert Barnes Photography)

    Medicare-for-All is a beginning, not the end point

    Originally published: Green Social Thought on August 29, 2020 (more by Green Social Thought)

    As a coup de grâce to the Bernie Sanders campaign Joe Biden declared that he would veto Medicare-for-All. This could drive a dedicated health care advocate to relentlessly pursue Med-4-All as a final goal.

  • Alejandro Pedregal

    Cuban medical internationalism has been a core component of the revolution

    Alejandro Pedregal and Don Fitz

    “If the small economy of Cuba can improve the health of millions of the world’s people, imagine what could be accomplished if America’s enormous productive capacity changed from creating useless and destructive junk to producing what people throughout the world actually need.”

  • Bust from the statue of Taino Chief Hatuey in Baracoa, Cuba

    A statue of Hatuey

    Originally published: Green Social Thought on July 2, 2020 (more by Green Social Thought)

    As monuments to Columbus and confederate heroes topple and Democrats ponder which militarist they wish to glorify in their replacements, it is critical to realize that statues which go up are at least as important as the ones that come down. Perhaps the best nominee for a new statue is Hatuey, who led the first guerrilla warfare against European invasion of the western hemisphere.  

  • Museum of American History - Smithsonian Institution Intron A; Interferon Alfa-2B Recombinant, 5 million IU | National ...

    Can We Simultaneously Oppose Bayer/Monsanto’s Biotechnology and Support Cuba’s Interferon Alpha 2B?

    Don Fitz

    Technology reflects social factors throughout its development and use. Genetically engineered crops allow mega-corporations to patent seeds, lure farmers into buying them with visions of high yields, and then destroy small farmers. Cuba’s drugs are shared throughout the world. Making a distinction between the biotechnology of agro-industry and Cuba requires understanding the difference between bioimperialism and biosolidarity.

  • Heberon Alfa R, Interferón Alpha 2B

    Cuba: from AIDS, Dengue, and Ebola to COVID-19

    Don Fitz

    Cuba’s preparation for COVID-19 began on January 1, 1959. On that day, it laid the foundations for what would become the discovery of novel drugs, bringing patients to the island, and sending medical aid abroad. Coping with HIV/AIDS, dengue fever and Ebola helped Cuba develop the ability to cope with pandemics, both internally and abroad.

  • Fukushima Daiichi power plant, three minutes after an explosion on March 14, 2011

    Is nuclear power a solution to the climate crisis?

    Originally published: Green Social Thought on August 24, 2018 (more by Green Social Thought)

    Faith that environmental catastrophe can best be avoided by technological gadgetry rather than a change in social relationships received a big shot in the arm with the May 2018 publication of Energy: A Human History by prolific author Richard Rhodes. Rhodes profoundly misses the connection between technology and class relationships when he presents nuclear power as a socially neutral source of energy. Rather than pointing to a solution for climate change, his radiation denial mirrors Donald Trump’s climate denial in its derogation of scientific research and its personality attacks.

  • National March on Ferguson, August 30, 2014

    Don Fitz

    You are invited to join us at the National March on Ferguson, on Saturday, August 30, 2014.  The Justice for Michael Brown Leadership Coalition will begin the march at 10 am at “Ground Zero,” the corner of W. Florissant Ave. and Canfield Dr. (63135).  This site of ongoing activity is a block from where policeman […]

  • Why Is Cuba’s Health Care System the Best Model for Poor Countries?

    Don Fitz

    Furious though it may be, the current debate over health care in the US is largely irrelevant to charting a path for poor countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.  That is because the US squanders perhaps 10 to 20 times what is needed for a good, affordable medical system.  The waste […]

  • What Part of FREE SPEECH Does Whole Foods Not Understand?

    Don Fitz

    On Saturday, August 18, several cars and a pickup truck with signs on top, in the windows or on bumpers, drove into the Whole Foods Market (WFM) parking lot in Brentwood, which borders St. Louis, Missouri.  Police approached as soon as they arrived. “Yes, officer, we will take the signs off of the cars if […]

  • Practicing Revolutionary Medicine in Cuba and Venezuela

    Don Fitz

    Steve Brouwer.  Revolutionary Doctors: How Venezuela and Cuba Are Changing the World’s Conceptualization of Health Care.  New York, Monthly Review Press, 2011.  245 pp.  $18.95. As Venezuela becomes the first country to reproduce the Cuban medical model on a massive scale, it is doing so in ways that are unique in both form and process.  […]

  • What’s Wrong with a 30-Hour Work Week?

    Don Fitz

    With millions of jobs lost during the first part of 2009, who is calling for a shorter work week to spread the work around?  Not the Republicans.  Not even the Democrats.  But why is there nary a peep from unions? In the U.S., auto sets the pace for organized labor.  The only discussion at the […]

Also By Don Fitz in Monthly Review Magazine

  • How Che Guevara Taught Cuba to Confront COVID-19 June 01, 2020
  • Cuba’s First Military Doctors November 01, 2018
  • The Birth of the Cuban Polyclinic June 01, 2018
  • The 3,000 Who Stayed May 01, 2016
  • Cuba’s Medical Mission February 01, 2016
  • Cuba: The New Global Medicine September 01, 2012
  • The Latin American School of Medicine Today March 01, 2011

Books By Don Fitz

  • Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing Revolution July 01, 2020

Monthly Review Essays

  • The Migrant Genocide: Toward a Third World Analysis of European Class Struggle
    Iker Suarez A banner at a memorial rally for victims of the 2014 massacre of migrants at Tarajal, 2021.

    Over 10,000 people died in transit to Spain in 2024 alone.[1] On June 2022, the border fence of Melilla, one of two Spanish enclaves in Morocco, was witness to a massacre that killed or disappeared over a hundred African migrants.[2]  A recent BBC investigation revealed that Greek border guards systematically repeal immigrants already on Greek […]

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    Hugo Chávez Mural of Chávez in Caracas. (Univision)

    On October 7th, 2012, after hearing of his victory as the nation‘s candidate with 56 percent of the vote, President Hugo Chávez Frias announced from a balcony in his hometown that a new cycle was beginning the very next day, October 8th.

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