Vol. 72/No. 43      November 3, 2008

They have walked picket lines with striking workers in both countries, joined protests against the death penalty and to stop the execution of Troy Davis, talked with farmers, marched against immigration raids and for legalizing immigrants, and spoken with hundreds of high school and college students in classrooms and campus meetings.

In a phone interview with the Militant—Calero from Seattle, Kennedy in Miami—both said that the financial crisis has sparked more interest in the campaign.

“You get a little bit of a different response now,” Calero said. “There is a greater sense among working people that something is very wrong with the system and economy and that neither Obama nor McCain offer a solution.

“Workers, youth, and others we speak to are listening seriously to the revolutionary perspective being offered by the Socialist Workers candidates,” Calero emphasized.

“We point out that the bailout and similar measures are designed to save their system. It’s a good opportunity to point out that the real problem is capitalism.”

“I’ve found a lot of people who are very angry about what’s going on, the bailout, unemployment,” Calero said. “This anger is directed at the government and corrupt politicians or greedy capitalists.  
 
‘Need a workers and farmers gov’t’
“But anger is not enough, it’s not a road forward,” he explained. “It’s not what you’re against, it’s what you’re for. The problems won’t go away unless we get rid of the system and replace it with a government of workers and farmers.”

“We’ve been running into laborers who used to work every day,” Calero said. “Now they’re getting jobs once or twice a week because of the credit freeze and slowdown.” He also noted the jump in unemployment among Blacks, a direct consequence of the reality of last hired, first fired under capitalism.

The deepest division fostered on working people by capitalism, the socialist candidates explain, is between employed and unemployed. To unite working people, the socialist candidates call for shortening the workweek with no cut in pay to spread available work. And they call for a massive public works program at union-scale wages. “People really like that,” Kennedy said, “building the things we need: housing, bridges, levees, mass transit, schools.”  
 
Working-class solidarity
“We need to get out of the framework of competing with each other for jobs and instead fight for the interests of the entire working class,” Kennedy said. “That’s why affirmative action is so important.” Affirmative action programs set quotas for the hiring of Blacks, other minorities, and women, to help combat racism and discrimination.

“When we also explain that we are for free, universal health care for all, some ask, ‘Where is the money going to come from?’” Calero said. “With the bailout scam and the billions the government is pouring into the banks and markets, we can easily point out that funding these programs is not a problem. We can take back and put to good use the wealth that working people create.”

The financial crisis has really affected the kinds of questions asked at many meetings. “I’m getting fewer questions on what I think about Obama, Clinton, McCain and other candidates and more on what we’re for,” Kennedy said.  
 
Life-or-death questions for unions
The impact of the May Day actions, beginning in 2006 when millions of immigrant workers took the day off from work and marched for legalization and against deportations, “hasn’t gone away,” Calero said. “I saw the confidence of immigrant workers in Postville, Iowa, who are awaiting trial after the raid there, who are not allowed to work, but continue to see themselves as part of the struggle.”

While in San Francisco, Calero joined a picket line by construction workers, both Black and Latino, who were protesting firings and unsafe working conditions at a job site. “Black workers were calling out to their Latino coworkers to join in the protest, which shut down the site for several hours,” he said.

“The bosses will continue to try to drive down wages, to deepen the divisions among working people, and this will be more of a question as unemployment and job competition grow,” Calero said.

“That’s why both legalization of immigrants and affirmative action are life-or-death questions for the unions and working people as a whole.”  
 
‘Vote for what you’re for’
At many meetings students and workers who haven’t made up their minds on who they are going to vote for have come to listen to Kennedy and Calero.

“A student at Spelman College told me that he was going to vote for Obama as the lesser evil,” Kennedy reported. “He said he knew that Obama would carry out much the same course as McCain.

“I told him that if you vote for someone who’s politics you oppose, you’ll get what you vote for,” she said. “Don’t vote for what your against. Vote for what you’re for.

“I raise the need for a labor party, that we need a mass working-class party based on unions in the struggle, a party that can mobilize working people.”

“I point out that Obama, like McCain, is for the war in Afghanistan, for U.S. intervention in Pakistan,” Kennedy said. “Róger and I are for immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq; Afghanistan; Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; and everywhere else they are stationed around the world.”

“Obama, like McCain,” Calero pointed out, “Tells us we’re all in this together, rich and poor, Black and white, that we need to tighten our belts. When they say we must sacrifice, they mean the workers must sacrifice, not them.”

“’I agree with what you say,’ one student told me. ‘But how can you make a revolution?’ Another student wanted a detailed plan on how to nationalize industry after I said the oil companies would be nationalized and put under workers control.

“I pointed to the experience of the Cuban Revolution, where workers and peasants nationalized companies and the revolutionary government backed them up,” Kennedy said.

“If Alyson and I are elected,” Calero said, “we will continue doing what we are doing, organizing a movement to take power out of the hands of the capitalist class, promoting our program and demands that can unite working people.

“If we’re not elected, we and our party will continue doing the same thing. That’s why workers should vote for the SWP candidates and continue to join together in action after election day.”
 
 
Related articles:
SWP presidential campaign tour schedule
List of states with SWP presidential campaign on the ballot
‘We need a workers and farmers gov’t’
SWP candidate: ‘Stop execution of Troy Davis’
Layoffs rise with world financial crisis  
 
 
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