Plainfield, NJ – The fight here to save Muhlenberg Hospital continues to intensify and broaden. Two public hearings of the New Jersey Health Planning Commission, on May 5 and on June 5, each drew more than 1200 people. The Commission must grant a Certificate of Need (CN) to legally allow Solaris Health Care Corporation to close the hospital.

The battle has seized the community to an extraordinary degree. An attendee at the June 5 hearing had to park several blocks from Plainfield High School, the location of the hearing. On the way over three boys around ten years old stopped their play to ask him to go to the high school because people wanted to stop the hospital from closing.

Ordinarily the commission rubber-stamps hospital closings. In March it gave a Certificate of Need to Catholic Hospitals East to close Saint James Hospital in Newark after the hospital had been closed. Catholic Hospitals East should have suffered fines and possible criminal penalties but big capital is ordinarily immune to violations of legal procedure.

Muhlenberg is different. The Certificate of Need has become a big issue because of mass opposition to Solaris. A main charge against Solaris is that its claims of losing money from Muhlenberg are false.

Community members have repeatedly charged that Solaris transferred highly profitable cardiac care and other procedures out of Muhlenberg to its other facility, John F. Kennedy hospital in Edison. By closing Muhlenberg Solaris will keep the business it wants and get rid of things it doesn’t want, mainly care for uninsured patients.

Some people think Solaris wants to close Muhlenberg not because it is losing money, but to make more money than it already does. They repeatedly say it puts profits before life and health. They demand an independent audit of Solaris’s books and its financial claims before any grant of a Certificate of Need. It is a crucial issue.

Both class struggle and the fact that more forces such as professionals and small business owners are being drawn into the struggle stand out on the people’s side. It was the working class that made an issue of Muhlenberg.

Plainfield’s overwhelmingly working class African-American community has been a big presence from the start. Ranks were swelled by hospital workers, most of whose jobs would be lost and many of whom are white. Latino participation is on the rise, although many are threatened by Bush repression against immigrants.

Class struggle

The struggle was initiated by the Plainfield branch of the People’s Organization for Progress, whose members are mostly African-American and working class.

In contrast, the St. James struggle was led by professionals and health care experts. By the time the masses became active it was too late. The Muhlenberg fight was started by African-American people because they are more used to struggle, and the working class responded in strength, black and white. As a result the hospital, which was supposed to be closed by mid-May, is still open although a number of services have been removed.

Class struggle has emerged not only between the masses and Solaris but right inside the mass movement. There are the just demands advanced by the people: “Don’t close Muhlenberg; keep it as a full-service hospital!” Then there is the defeatist view that focuses on what to do if Solaris succeeds in its aims. The difference is between two class outlooks. The former view is the stand of the working class: health and human life are more important than profit. The hospital stays, that’s that.

The leading exponent of defeatism is New Jersey Assemblyman Jerry Greene, the dominant figure in Plainfield Democratic Party politics. He never questions Solaris’s claim that it is losing money. He wants the City of Plainfield to buy the hospital and find ways over time to reopen it.

The problem is that in everything he says and does Greene assumes that Solaris will succeed in closing the hospital. As an elected official he gets a lot of media attention. The net effect is to undermine the people’s will to struggle. Moreover a municipal hospital would be an abundant source of patronage.

If the hospital is closed the authorities will have to make some sort of adjustment anyway. Any effect the people could have on the outcome would be as a result of the strength they gain from the mass struggle.

A class broadening of struggle has occurred. Muhlenberg is not only a vital medical resource to the community, it is a principal economic engine to the entire 200,000-person region it serves. As a result many business and professional people support retention. They have been of great value to the people’s cause.

The Muhlenberg Doctor’s Association donated $6000 for buses to take protesters to Trenton on April 15. New York Giants center Shaun O’Hara spoke to a rally to support the hospital. The president of the Plainfield Chamber of Commerce has spoken at rallies. Many elected officials from surrounding middle-income towns have spoken strongly to retain the hospital at Commission hearings. People’s Attorney Bennet Zurofsky wrote a 26-page informal legal brief to the Commission.

Crisis of capitalism

U.S. capitalism is in trouble. For example, New Jersey and Connecticut are the two richest states per capita, in the richest country in the world, yet New Jersey state finances are a wreck.

Wealthy capitalists like New Jersey governor and investment banker Jon Corzine are trying to throw the burden or the economic downturn on to the working class and oppressed nationalities. He is meeting with resistance.

The inspiring struggle the masses are waging around Muhlenberg Hospital may seem to have some unusual features, but it is a harbinger of things to come as the masses face times of basic social change.

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Trenton, NJ – 500 people traveled to Trenton, the state capital of New Jersey, April 5, to protest the threat to close Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield. Hospital closings are at crisis level in New Jersey and Muhlenberg, which has served Plainfield for 125 years, is only the latest to be threatened.

The struggle is led by the People’s Organization for Progress and has been largely based in the working class. In a significant broadening of the movement’s class basis, the Muhlenberg Doctors Association paid for the buses to travel to the rally.

The crowd marched from the drop-off point to the New Jersey Statehouse chanting, “What’s the word? Don’t close Muhlenberg,” “Save Muhlenberg hospital!” and other slogans. Passersby waved and smiled and drivers honked their car horns in support.

The Trenton municipal authorities had at first stalled on permits for the march, but in a concession to the power of the people a street lane was cleared for marchers on the approach blocks to the statehouse.

The rally heard Plainfield community activists, Muhlenberg workers and elected officials speak. To a roar of support from the crowd, People’s Organization for Progress Chairman Lawrence Hamm said, “There have been a lot of attempts to discourage us by reports that the closing of Muhlenberg is a done deal. Well this ain’t over until we say it’s over!”

Protest April 5 in Trenton, NJ to protest threatened closing of Muhlenberg Hospital..

He said the next demand of the people is to convene a public hearing to determine whether a certificate of need could be granted for the closing, as required by state law. Time and again in hospital closings, legal requirements have been bypassed. Organizing meetings are held every Monday night at Ducret School of Art in Plainfield, which donates the meeting space to the struggle.

Mr. Hamm then read the program of people’s demands from the statehouse steps, as follows:

“Demands of the people who oppose closing Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center. We demand:

1. Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center (MRMC) remain open as a full service ‘essential’ hospital.

2. An immediate halt to the transfer, termination, or shut down of any MRMC services, procedures, departments, units, equipment and other assets; an immediate halt to the transfer and lay-off of employees; an immediate halt to the diversion of insured and uninsured patients from MRMC to other facilities; and the maintenance of the ‘status quo’ at MRMC at least until the Certificate of Need application process has been completed and a decision is issued by the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services.

3. No further action be taken to close MRMC until a total community needs assessment is completed by an independent entity.

Protest April 5 in Trenton, NJ to protest threatened closing of Muhlenberg Hospital..

4. Solaris Health Systems, Inc. (Solaris), with regards to MRMC, adhere to the Certificate of Need application process as set forth by state law.

5. The restoration of all of services, procedures, departments, employees, units, equipment, and other assets that have been transferred from MRMC or shut down. They must be restored to insured and uninsured patients alike at MRMC.

6. Solaris provide a full report on the evaluation of alternatives it considered for MRMC to remain a full service hospital.

7. Solaris provide a complete accounting of the endowment funds it is holding in the name of Muhlenberg Hospital and the nursing school, and how these funds will be used in the event of MRMC closure.

8. Solaris provide a backup plan for Emergency Management in the event of a catastrophe if MRMC is closed.

9. Solaris provide a plan for eliminating loss of life and deterioration of healthcare delivery services to the elderly, the uninsured, the physically and mentally impaired and patients who lack transportation to other hospitals in the event of MRMC closure.”

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Plainfield, NJ – A throng of 600 turned out here, March 15, to protest against the closing of Muhlenberg Hospital by its owner, Solaris Healthcare. A 250-person protest had already come out on March 1 at the call of the People's Organization for Progress.

The same mood of exuberant militancy prevailed. The crowd marched from the hospital down Park Avenue and back. Whole city blocks echoed to thunderous chants of, “Do not close,” “Muhlenberg yes, Solaris no,” and “We the people have spoken, keep it open!”

Again the big turnout was about evenly divided among Black and white people. Returning to the hospital parking lot to rally, the crowd chanted, “We are united!” A few began to sing the civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome and all took it up, inspired by the power of the people that comes with unity.

Ostensibly the plan to close the hospital is because of deficits from indigent care. A hospital worker told Fight Back! that there had also been years of corruption and abuses in the hospital's finances. The worker also said management had threatened to fire any employee seen on the picket line. The hospital's director of security was prominently on the scene from the start. Still there were many hospital workers present.

Signs against the closing produced by POP are seen all over town. Some Latinos attended but not many in comparison to the city's population. Further efforts are still needed, such as bilingual leaflets and signs.

Muhlenberg social worker Carrie Barone told the rally, “They're coming for us today but they're coming for others tomorrow. The government has a plan to let hospitals die on the vine. We have a beautiful rainbow community in Plainfield and we're not going to let it happen here.” She mentioned nearby Overlook Hospital and JFK Hospital among those immediately threatened with closing. JFK also belongs to Solaris and is the supposed destination of patients displaced from Muhlenberg.

Hospital nurse Andrea Hughie, a POP member, told the rally that university hospitals could not replace community hospitals. She detailed the problems of determining which secondary hospitals will even receive emergency patients from outside communities, the problem of which hospital a given ambulance can go to and delays due to travel time, among other problems. She concluded that community hospitals must be preserved.

Many spoke against the practice of putting profits ahead of health care needs. Repeated criticisms of the war in Iraq were heard. Its costs are huge while people's needs at home are unmet.

More than 100 people have met Monday evenings at DuCret Art School to plan for an ongoing campaign to save the hospital. A rally in Trenton, the state capital, to demand that Muhlenberg remain in full operation will take place on Saturday, April 5. Thousands are expected.

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Plainfield, NJ – A move to close Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey has triggered a storm of protest. Plainfield would hardly be a city without the 125-year old Muhlenberg Hospital.

A rally was called for March 1 by Stephen Hatcher, chair of the Plainfield Branch of the People's Organization for Progress. Over 200 people responded. Marchers chanted, “Don't close Muhlenburg!” and “What's the word? Muhlenberg!!” Passing drivers blew their horns and waved their fists in support.

Community care hospitals are in crisis nationwide. The Newark area has seen the recent closing of four hospitals. Twelve hospitals in New Jersey are in immediate danger of closing. All 78 community care hospitals in New Jersey, the richest state in the country, are in danger.

The root of the problem is the ruthless profit motive of capitalism. Almost 50 million people in the United States go without health care coverage while 30 cents of every health care dollar goes for financial overhead. Health care is the largest sector of the economy. Even as it continues to get bigger the crisis gets worse.

The cost of care for the uninsured is borne mostly by community care hospitals. Plainfield Councilman Jerry Greene told the rally that the city had approached New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine for relief from $17 million in uninsured costs for Muhlenberg. The state only came up with $6.4 million. It is the same story everywhere.

Local activist Mary Zink said attempts to blame undocumented immigrant workers for the crisis are wrong. Everyone benefits from the value their work creates. Health care is a human right. The problem is insurance companies and health care corporations put profits first.

A 39-year veteran worker at Muhlenberg said she came here from Italy. She said this country belongs to everyone who comes here. Still, deficits come from care for the uninsured and only part of them are immigrants.

Rabbi Samber of the hospital's ethics committee said individual cases are the usual concern. He said maybe it is time for the committee to consider whether closing a hospital for financial reasons is ethical or moral. Many, including state POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm, spoke of the care their families and loved ones had received at Muhlenberg.

Mayor Sharon Briggs Robinson spoke at the protest, as did doctors and other staff members. About half the participants were black and half were white. All saw the power of the people that comes from unity. A joyful spirit of struggle arose.

Over a hundred people came to the follow-up meeting two days after the rally. Contact information for relevant New Jersey elected and appointed officials was provided. The timetable of the threatened closing will be found and publicized so that people will know where to voice their opposition.

The main decision made at the follow-up meeting was to bring thousands of people to the state capitol in Trenton on April 5 to oppose the closing. Money was collected for signs and posters. People volunteered to work on outreach in the community. Monday night meetings at DuCret will continue. There will be another rally at the hospital on March 15.

On to Trenton for April 5!

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