Fruit takes SWP program to working people in Georgia
ATLANTA — “The future of humanity depends on the U.S. working class taking power away from the capitalist rulers and starting down the road to make a socialist revolution,” Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. president Rachele Fruit told the 47 people at a May 11 public meeting, the high point of a campaign tour here.
“What is needed is a political formation independent of the bosses’ parties. We call for a labor party based on the unions that organizes the whole working class to fight together, a social movement that can attract all those facing exploitation and oppression by capital and who care about the future of humanity.
“A labor party could explain no worker has to die on the job if we controlled safety and production,” she said. “A labor party would demand a government-funded program of public works to create jobs at union-scale wages to build the things we need, from schools and hospitals to bridges and mass transit.
“It would fight for cost-of-living adjustments to our wages and benefits, to offset the scourge of inflation, and would demand reduced hours of work with no cut in pay to address layoffs.
“A labor party would unite and represent the interests of all workers regardless of nationality, race, sex or immigration status. The scapegoating of immigrants is a weapon used by the ruling class to divide and weaken us. The fight to unify our class is a life-and-death question for the working class. A labor party would demand amnesty with equal rights for all,” she said.
“These measures are essential for families to be able to live, rather than be torn apart by the bosses’ relentless drive for profits. This includes fighting for government-paid health care, including reproductive and maternal care, child care and elder care; sex education that is not gender indoctrination, as well as access to the safest and most reliable contraceptive methods and safe and legal abortion procedures.
Stand up against Jew-hatred
“And a labor party will organize working people to stand up to all acts of Jew-hatred,” Fruit said. “The SWP denounced the Oct. 7 massacre carried out by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad — the largest anti-Jewish pogrom since the Nazi Holocaust. We say Israel has the right to defend itself as a refuge from Jew-hatred and pogroms.”
She decried the reactionary mobilizations on elite college campuses around the country that have backed Hamas’ so-called resistance and threatened Jewish students and faculty.
“Their campus actions have been planned by well-funded political currents that back Hamas, including anarchists and various Stalinist organizations, in order to build support for the anti-Israel, Jew-hating program of Hamas. Their tactics are disruption, violence and intimidation,” Fruit said.
“On Oct. 7 it was absolutely imperative to stand up to the pogrom, without hesitation. It was a test for every political current and party. We explain that Jew-hatred, a product of the crisis of capitalism, is a life-and-death question for the working class,” she said. “It is used to try to prevent middle-class layers ruined by capitalism from blaming the capitalist system itself. When the capitalists feel their rule is threatened they will back fascist thugs who will recruit these forces to try to smash the unions, crush the working class and annihilate the Jewish people.”
“The working class is the one force that can and will advance humanity,” Fruit said, explaining that the workers she has been meeting around the country are interested in learning more about the party.
“More workers are using their unions, walking picket lines, gaining confidence in one another and beginning to see our class as a social force with immense potential power,” Fruit said. “And we will work to win many of these workers to our campaign, to the banner of socialist revolution and to the Socialist Workers Party.”
Chairperson Lisa Potash, the SWP’s congressional candidate in Atlanta, invited people to join in campaigning in Tennessee in the coming weeks to put Fruit and running mate Dennis Richter on the ballot.
A lively discussion followed Fruit’s presentation. Several of those present had come from North Carolina and spoke about the recent union contract won by Daimler truck workers there. “This fight was led by the workers, who held rallies and practice pickets,” one said. “They won raises, the end of wage tiers and cost-of-living adjustments.”
Workers willing to fight today
Others noted the expansion of union organizing in the South, including the overwhelming vote for the United Auto Workers union by workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “This is further confirmation that the low point of labor resistance is behind us,” one said.
Another participant said there are increasing stakes for the working class, which is living through and feeling the crises of capitalism. “The SWP campaign gets a response from workers when we talk about the necessity of political activity by labor to confront this.”
Fruit agreed and told of her meeting with workers in Montreal who are in a nationwide contract battle with the rail bosses, and against the Canadian government’s attempt to bar them from striking. She described how striking brewery workers she met in Texas told her how proud they were to be standing up for themselves. And that hotel workers she marched with in Los Angeles and Florida who are fighting for union contracts, more staffing, higher wages and better working conditions, are building growing unity and confidence among the workers.
One participant said the party’s explanation of why only a socialist revolution can put an end to the conditions faced by the working class might seem abstract. She asked Fruit how she answers the question, “How do we get there?”
Fruit spoke about her visit to East Palestine, Ohio, the scene of the February 2023 toxic Norfolk Southern train derailment and fire, meeting with some of the fighters there who have been battling for the government and the railroad to take responsibility for the disaster.
“More workers are realizing the government and companies don’t care about us,” Fruit said. “This can only be resolved by the working class taking power. Our campaign points in this direction — breaking with the capitalist parties and organizing independently. One retired worker active in the fight there saw this and endorsed our campaign.”
Another participant said, “When working people fight together they see they can change things,” pointing to the historic victories won in the fight to overthrow Jim Crow in the 1960s. It helped break down divisions in the working class the bosses had relied on.
Two schoolteachers who came to the meeting signed up as endorsers. “Rachele’s talk was enlightening,” Crystal Thomas told the Militant. A collection for the SWP campaign’s Tennessee ballot effort netted $2,757.
