By Jonathan Michael Feldman, December 21, 2024

Celebrations of Powerlessness

On December 20, 2024 I noticed the following item on sale at the Union Square holiday market. That’s Union Square in Manhattan in New York City. This display itself is an ironic statement. This location has historically been one of New York City’s most important sites for labor activism and protests for economic justice, earning it the nickname “Union Square” (though the name actually comes from the union of Broadway and Bowery Road). Among the protests were: The First Labor Day Parade (1882) involving 10,000 workers who marched from Union Square to demonstrate for workers’ rights. Then, the May Day Rally (1886) involved a massive demonstration in support of the 8-hour workday movement. The year 1911 witnessed The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Protests (1911) which took place after the tragic fire killed 146 workers. At this point, Union Square became a gathering point for massive protests demanding workplace safety reforms. The Unemployment Council Protests in the 1930s, were organized During the Great Depression, when Union Square became a key site for demonstrations demanding unemployment insurance and relief programs. May Day Protests also took place during that decade and involved regular large-scale labor demonstrations throughout the decade. By 2020, Healthcare Workers Protests took place where Healthcare workers demonstrated for better working conditions and protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Cooperative Alternative: Social Mobilization + Cooperatives

In contrast to the self-mobilization of citizens, workers and consumers to achieve a policy goal, the assassination of Brian Thompson, the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has led to a movement (or mass sentiment, a precondition for a movement) embracing his alleged assassin, Luigi Mangione. The T-shirt in his honor is but one sign of a larger problem. A December 19 report describes a group of Mangione’s supporters who travel from around the country. These were present outside the Blair County Courthouse on the occasion of the suspect’s preliminary and extradition hearing in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. This group held signs protesting Mangione’s prosecution, holding signs that read “Free Luigi!” and called for changes in the decadent U.S. private healthcare system. A protestor on the scene argued that “it’s important to recognize that people feel backed into a corner” when discussing the justification of Thompson’s murder. Another protestor stated: “He did a good thing. You know, even if it’s true, he did the right thing, to gun down a serial killer, because this person is a murderer.” This latter protestor epitomizes the problem of how various persons in the United States appear to worship their own powerlessness: “There’s no way to stop [Thompson] legally. No politician is willing to do this because they get, you know, they have lobbyists and everything, and they have money for the court to fight in the court. No one is going against these wealthy people, the CEOs. So this is the only way to, you know, to stop this serial killer.”

In contrast to assassination-worship, during the early-mid 20th century healthcare reform movements demonstrations supported cooperative health insurance models, particularly during: (a) the post-WWII period when labor unions advocated for expanded healthcare coverage, including some cooperative models and (b) the 1930s-40s Group Health Cooperative movement.

There are various health insurance cooperatives which have included:

Swiss Mobiliar (Switzerland) – Switzerland’s oldest private insurance company, operating as a cooperative since 1826;

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (USA) – Originally started as a farmers’ mutual insurance company in 1925;

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (USA) – Though now very large, it remains a mutual insurance company owned by its policyholders;

MAIF (France) – Mutuelle d’Assurance des Instituteurs de France, started by teachers in 1934;

Co-operators Group (Canada) – Owned by 45 member organizations including co-ops and credit unions;

MACIF (France) – Mutuelle Assurance des Commerçants et Industriels de France;

P&V Group (Belgium) – A cooperative insurance company dating back to 1907;

Folksam (Sweden) – One of Sweden’s largest insurance companies, owned by its customers;

HF Mutual Insurance Group (Finland) – A customer-owned insurance group.

Transform Media Capital and Hero Worship into Economic Capital and Democratic Insurance

An entry in Wired by Angela Watercutter (December 11) explains the media diffusion of Mangione enthusiasts: “On TikTok, people performed ballads dedicated to whomever the shooter was. On Bluesky, they marveled over his ebike escape and the backpack found in Central Park full of Monopoly money that allegedly belonged to him. There was a look-alike contest held in New York City. On Spotify, there were dedicated playlists…Following the shooting death of Brian Thompson, a fandom emerged around his suspected killer that seemed unifying in a way few others have been. He became an avatar that anyone who’d ever struggled with a hospital bill could understand.”

The Network Contagion Research Institute noted on November 15th that “out of the top ten most engaged posts on Twitter/X that mention Brian Thompson or UnitedHealthcare, six either expressed explicit or implicit support for the killing or denigrated the victim.” In addition, “a top ten most engaged post” that referenced the incident on Twitter/X stated “Are we starting now then?,” which the Institute considered “likely in reference to a beginning of a larger movement.” This post “garnered over 1.8 million impressions, with highly engaged comments referencing a ‘Class War.'”

An article by Filip Timotija published in The Hill on December 17, 2024 showed the depth of support for the assassination: “A poll found 41 percent of adults under 30 consider the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson acceptable, more than the 40 percent in that demographic who consider it unacceptable.”

The spectacle of supporters of this killing could pool their media, political and economic resources to support a cooperative alternative to UnitedHealthcare. They could leverage their mobilizing resources, prosumer power and boycott capacities to push universities, banks, trade unions, non-profits, religious organizations, and local drugstore chains, etc. in this direction. Instead, we get a passive workshop of assassination and the social amnesia about past mobilization for cooperatives and the contemporary existence of such alternatives. This is a cultural defect and a product of defeatism and limited political consciousness. In the name Luigi Mangione, one finds the words “age,” “goal,” and “lie,” yet another irony in this saga.