The Militant, as our masthead explains, is a socialist newsweekly published in the interests of working people. In asking you to vote Socialist Workers, we say working people will be voting for themselves, for their interests.

Including its nominees for president and vice president, the Socialist Workers Party is fielding 44 candidates in 22 states and the District of Columbia who offer a working-class alternative to the twin parties of U.S. imperialism—the Democrats and Republicans.

The SWP presidential ticket of Róger Calero and Arrin Hawkins, and socialist candidates for state and local office across the country (See, ‘List of SWP candidates.’), are presenting a revolutionary working-class program in the United States to reach out to our sisters and brothers around the world in order to strengthen the struggle against our common enemies—the imperialist aggressors and capitalist exploiters the world over.

The SWP campaign has been explaining that to resist stiffening assaults by the bosses, workers in the United States need to organize unions and to use our unions as effective instruments of struggle where they already exist. Out of the struggle to organize and transform the unions, a labor party based on the unions needs to be formed that fights in the interests of workers and farmers. That’s the only way for working people to fight not only on the economic level but to develop our own political voice independent of the ruling capitalists and their parties.

To promote economic development so necessary for social and political advances by working people in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, the socialists have been exposing imperialism’s hypocritical campaign to prevent Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—and other countries they target—from developing the sources of energy they need, including nuclear energy.

In addition, the SWP candidates have been denouncing the efforts by Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, and others to dictate which weapons may be developed by governments in the semicolonial world in face of ongoing military threats and aggression by imperialist powers.

They have also been pointing out that it is the capitalist government of the United States, the common enemy of the toilers outside and within its own borders, that represents the biggest threat to humanity. It is Washington that has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, and it is the only government to have ever used the nuclear bomb.

The socialists have been calling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. and other imperialist troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Korea, Haiti, Colombia, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Calero, Hawkins, and the other socialist candidates are themselves workers who have been part of the resistance by working people to the bosses’ offensive on our wages, working conditions, and living standards. They have been urging working people to vote not for the individual, but for the program. “It’s not who you’re against, but what you are for!” has been the slogan of the socialist campaign.

The SWP ticket is also advocating principled positions in the interests of workers and farmers on local initiatives and referenda that will be on the ballot November 2. These include voting no on a referendum in Georgia that would ban gay marriage and deny basic civil rights to same-sex partners (see article in this issue). The socialists are calling for full civil rights for gays and lesbians. Similar reactionary initiatives are on the ballot in another 10 states. They should all be defeated because they advance anti-gay prejudice and discrimination.

The ruling class in the United States has adopted a military posture and political world strategy since the end of the Cold War that has crystallized over the last few years. This is not the offspring of the Bush administration alone but has the backing of the majority of the wealthy rulers—Democrats and Republicans. It includes the “transformation” of the U.S. military into more agile and mobile units that use the most modern technology, and are being repositioned away from western Europe and closer to theaters of conflict imperialism is pursuing, centered in the Middle East and Central Asia. It also includes the doctrine of preemptively striking “terrorists” and states that give such groups shelter.

The U.S. rulers are being driven to accelerate their transformation in the teeth of the challenges they face—including imperialist rivals vying with them over control of the world’s aircraft or other markets; the failure of neocolonial models, from Iran to Argentina and Singapore, that imperialists held up in the past as proof that capitalism and “democracy” work; and a world financial crisis. The ruling class will pursue this course regardless of which party occupies the White House or organizes Congress after November 2.

At the same time, many militant workers are being transformed as working-class resistance grows to the social consequences of the capitalists’ course. It is this resistance that’s generating the seeds of the coming rebellions against the rule of the exploiters and provides hope for humanity’s future. This is what the socialist campaign points to. Join us in supporting the working-class alternative in November, and beyond.

As part of backing the socialist ticket, we also urge you to build and take part in wrap-up SWP campaign rallies across the country (see campaign page) and the October 31 public forum in New York featuring SWP national secretary Jack Barnes.
 
 
Related articles:
SWP candidate for president starts final leg of campaign in Miami
SWP candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania campaigns in Utah for Calero, Hawkins
Vote ‘No’ on antigay initiative in Georgia
Socialist candidates campaign in Puerto Rico  
 
 
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