Italie, a socialist worker fired from his job as a sewing machine operator at Goodwill Industries in Miami, opened his tour here by having a wide-ranging political discussion with the meat packers, who work at Dakota Premium Foods and Lloyd's Barbecue Company. The three workers from Lloyd's decided to work together to collect signatures and win support for Italie's fight where they work. The following day Italie met four other workers from Dakota Premium Foods at a similar house meeting.

Last fall, as the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Miami, Italie was outspoken in support of the Cuban Revolution, in defense of unions and workers' rights, and in opposition to the U.S. war in Afghanistan. After he explained these positions in a televised debate with the Democratic and Republican candidates, he was fired October 22. Goodwill's CEO Dennis Pastrana told the Miami Herald that he had dismissed Italie for his political views. Since then Italie's supporters have waged a campaign to get his job back and make Goodwill pay a political price for its violation of his rights. At the center of this campaign to defend workers' rights is talking with and winning support from thousands of working people across the country.

At the meeting here, Marcos, a worker at Lloyd's Barbecue, said he is "angry about police brutality. One time I was brutalized by five cops for no reason at all. I was outraged when the cops who beat up Rodney King were let off the hook in Los Angeles in 1992. I am very interested in how to defend workers against these kinds of attacks."

"The cops who beat up workers like you are doing their job," said Italie. "The cops exist in order to intimidate working people and to defend the prerogatives of the rich. The source of cop brutality is capitalism. The problem of cop brutality poses the question of building a political party of workers that can take political power out of the hands of the capitalists."

Lloyd's Barbecue Company is a subsidiary of food giant General Mills. A series of attacks by the company on the workforce has made the plant floor the scene of frequent discussions on how to fight back. For instance, 10 days before the meeting with Italie the bosses laid off 43 workers, using the excuse that production had to be cut back. However, the company is now demanding that the remaining workers keep up the same level of production

"The company spends lots of money on new machinery and we produce a lot more meat," stated Marcos. "This causes unemployment. However, they don't raise wages. And we get none of the benefit."

"You're exactly right," Italie said. "The companies are driven to make more money by getting us to produce more in less time. This also drives them to attack our rights. The companies don't want us to have any space to talk to each other and to organize against them."

"I am especially angry at Lloyd's management because of the manner in which they laid off the 43 workers," stated José. "No one was given notice. They were marched out of the plant by a supervisor all the way to the parking lot without the opportunity to talk to any other workers. They were marched out as if they had done something wrong. It was as if they were criminals. It was insulting."  
 
The way bosses view working people
"This is the way the capitalists view working people," Italie said. "They wish we had no rights. They have no respect for our dignity. This is what is shown in my case as well. Goodwill Industries where I worked was just pushing a little harder and faster than other companies. One of the things that my case highlights is that the laws under capitalism do not protect workers. The laws protect the capitalists. Workers at Lloyd's will have to put up a resistance, like other workers who are under attack.

"We should also figure out what is the root of these attacks," Italie said. "I point out that it is the system of capitalism. Under this system the bosses are only concerned about maximizing the profits of the owners of industry and the banks. The fewer rights we have the easier it is for the bosses to maximize their profits."

Miguel, a leader of a union-organizing campaign at Dakota Premium Foods, said he thought that unemployment "is getting to be a big problem. What recourse do workers have who cannot get a job? Their situation is desperate. It's working people like these who participated in the Mexican Revolution."

Workers at Dakota Premium Foods launched a fight to establish a union in June 2000 with a seven-hour sit-down strike in the company cafeteria. They demanded the company slow down the line speed and stop forcing workers to work while injured. During the sit-down strike the workers were able to force the company to meet with them and to grant some concessions. The company has refused to recognize the union ever since, even though workers voted in their big majority for a union.

"Working people can only effectively resist the attacks by the bosses and their government when we act together," Italie said. "Workers are in the same boat. The capitalists push us together and we begin talking to each other about our common problems and we get to know each other. We begin to see this is a broader problem and learn of other workers who are also resisting. By going through experiences together it is easier to see our own strength and potential power as a class."

At Dakota Premium Foods, Miguel said, "We found the strength to resist together in the sit-down strike. We organized many people ahead of time. We discussed the fact that we had no alternative but to fight. The bosses talked to each worker individually and asked them to give up. Nobody buckled. We stood strong."  
 
Example of the Cuban Revolution
In addition to signing up thousands of workers and encouraging union members, striking workers, and people involved in protests against police brutality and other struggles to protest the firing by Goodwill, Italie said he also urges everyone "to read socialist literature like Pathfinder books. We need to understand that we are capable of making a revolution in this country." He pointed to Cuba and the Coming American Revolution by Jack Barnes, and From the Escambray to the Congo: In the Whirlwind of the Cuban Revolution, a newly released Pathfinder title by Víctor Dreke. "The main lesson of both books is that working people like us can do it, can take political power. We can defeat the capitalists. The example of the Cuban Revolution is clear. Si, se puede.

"In order to accomplish that goal, we need to build a communist party in the United States," stated Italie. "Without a conscious, tested, and disciplined leadership the struggles we are talking about today cannot be led to victory once and for all.

"As with the recent massive upsurge in Argentina, the capitalists will always find a way out of their crises until a revolutionary party is built that can lead millions of working people to replace the capitalist government with one of their own," he said. "That is what the Socialist Workers Party is all about. That is why you should get to know more about our party and work with us."

Supporters of Italie in the Twin Cities are also building a citywide meeting at the University of Minnesota.  
 
 
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