Ralph talks to a new generation of young activists, Timothy Faust, who tours the country promoting single-payer healthcare, and Ralph Wilson, who is putting a spotlight on Charles Koch’s efforts to influence what’s taught at colleges and universities.
Timothy Faust is pursuing a Masters of Public Administration in health policy and finance at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and has been on a whistle stop tour giving speeches to different community groups on the case for Medicare for All. He is also working on a book about health injustice.
“We have this fixation on the market and the idea that market will solve our problems and the body is a commodity. And any time you permit the body to be a commodity, even in just a whisper, you open the door to massive systemic violence and cases of abuse.”
Ralph Wilson is a co-founder of UnKoch My Campus. He currently studies academic and donor policy at universities, with a particular interest in corporate influence and academic independence. Mr. Wilson co-founded the Florida State University Progress Coalition, a student group that has worked to expose and combat the corporatization of education since 2011. Additional interests include criminal justice reform, academic white supremacy, and money in politics.
“At Florida State – for just a couple million dollars over some number of years – they were not only able to create several courses – they created a certificate program; they created a minor program; they also had essentially veto power over several faculty hires. And one of the most egregious problems involved was that they also selected the chair of the economics department. They offered him a hundred and five thousand dollar bribe essentially, what he called an ‘inducement’ to stay the chair. So, they wouldn’t provide the money unless he stayed. So, they are elbowing their way into every part.”
Medicare For All/UnKoch My Campus