In Menntaskólinn í Kópavogi Harris was invited to speak to three classes in sociology and English. "Are you for or against gun possession," one student asked. Harris said that he was not for gun control, unlike liberal politicians. Gun control laws not only do nothing to advance the interest of the working class, but sooner or later such laws will be used by the ruling class against working people who fight for their rights.

Violence in capitalist society, he added, "comes not from films or video games, as some capitalist politicians claim, but from the real world--the brutality that is inherent in capitalist rule. The capitalists and their system are the source of violence--their wars of aggression all over the world, the police brutality on the streets and in prisons."

"What do you think about the military policies of the United States?" a young woman asked at a Militant Labour Forum. "I am against it," Harris answered. "I am not for cutting the military budget but for abolishing the entire U.S. military, which is the biggest and most brutal war machine ever created. But I have no illusions that a president could be elected and do this. It will take no less than a revolution and the establishment of a workers and farmers government to disarm the warmakers, and millions of workers, farmers, young people--including working people in uniform--will have to take part in that battle."

Accompanied by a couple of workers who are supporters of the Militant, Harris also met some members of the bus drivers union, Sleipnir, who were on strike last summer and still do not have a contract. The drivers told Harris about their fight and were interested in U.S. politics.

One bus driver, Sigurdur Flosason, asked Harris about the antiunion "right to work" laws in some U.S. states, which union supporters call "right to work for less" laws. He commented that in their own strike, the bus drivers had to deal with the fact that the employers offered them higher wages if they were willing to leave the union or not join it--a ploy to undercut the labor movement and eventually drive down wages. Flosason added that the fact that there are workers in Iceland who are in no union is relatively new, and that their recent strike was one of the toughest battles in that country in many years.

Harris described the existence of a number of antiunion laws in the United States. In spite of those laws, however, there are more fights by workers to organize unions today, including in "right to work" states, which shows that the key to what working people can accomplish is what they do in struggle.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home