Participants in the meeting focused their discussion on how to better organize and deepen their political work on the job and broadly among working people. There are many opportunities today to gain a hearing for working-class explanation of the world and a revolutionary perspective, speakers pointed out.

Participating in the meeting were socialist workers who are members of or work in industries that could be organized by three industrial unions: the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), Union of Needle-trades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). The meeting took place here July 24, the day before the opening of the Socialist Workers Party convention. The socialist workers met together in a joint session, then separately in their respective fractions for further discussion.

Brian Taylor, a member of the UMWA from Birmingham, Alabama, pointed to the political space open for socialist workers on the job and within the struggles of working people today. But, he said, there has been "a gap between the opportunities we face and how we have been organizing to take advantage of them."

Maggie Trowe, a garment worker and UNITE member from New York City, added, "We have to use the political space open to us today. Otherwise it will not be there when war or other crises hit." Socialist garment workers in New York helped set the pace along these lines in winning new readers during the spring subscription drive for the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial.

"There is plenty of action in the three industries where we have chosen to establish fractions," Farley said, "from union-organizing drives in meatpacking, to contract fights by the United Mine Workers, to struggles around issues like black lung benefits, health and safety on the job, and fights by immigrant workers for the right to obtain drivers licenses. We are part of this resistance.

"But that alone is meaningless unless we can politicize the work of our fractions," she said. "We need to focus on how we can build the party and its influence among workers today, including the recruitment of those individual workers who can be won to the communist movement. More people know we are communists than we think. If we are not discussing politics on the job they will get the idea that our party isn’t serious."  
 
Communist work at factory gates
A key component in advancing this course is for every party branch and organizing committee to carry out weekly political work at plant gates and mine portals where communist workers are employed. As well as joining those sales, fraction members get out to a factory gate in another industry each week.

By selling the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial, revolutionary books and pamphlets from Pathfinder Press, handing out election campaign flyers, and other activities, socialist workers maximize the opportunity to meet and discuss politics with co-workers. Several participants emphasized that, while each situation is different, in general the bolder the teams are the more they get out of these efforts.

Samuel Farley, who for two years has been part of a battle for union recognition at Dakota Premium Foods in St. Paul, Minnesota, reported that when he joined the team selling socialist literature at his plant gate, "we sold three subscriptions to co-workers. This shows the respect that has been won by the party," he said.

In Omaha, Nebraska, 25 meat packers bought subscriptions to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial during the recent subscription campaign. Many of the new readers were part of a successful fight to organize a union at ConAgra Northern States Beef. "When co-workers see you staffing a literature table near the plant it adds to the discussion at work," explained Lizbeth Robino, an Omaha meat packer. Several new readers have helped promote the socialist publications among their co-workers.

A Young Socialists member from Chicago described how participating in literature table teams in a workers district where the Chicago branch has decided to focus its efforts has complemented her work at a UNITE-organized sewing factory. Several co-workers asked her what she was doing after they drove by the literature table, opening up political discussions on the job. In mid-June, the company at this plant had the union’s business agent arrested in the cafeteria, provoking a discussion among workers about how to respond to this attack on the union. The union shop steward circulated a grievance against the arrest that most workers signed.  
 
Interest among coal miners
Tony Lane, a coal miner from western Pennsylvania, discussed his experiences joining a sales team near the mine portal where he works. Lane, who is the SWP candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, described how the election campaign has reinforced the fraction’s political work. He also emphasized the importance of setting up house meetings with co-workers and others we meet, especially since miners tend to live many miles and in different directions from the mines where they work.

Jeremy Rose, a coal miner from southwestern Pennsylvania, described a recent Militant sales team to the southern West Virginia coalfields that sold three subscriptions at mine portals and a number of single copies of the paper. The particular issue of the Militant that week had no coverage of fights in the coalfields, and focused on Washington’s push toward war against Iraq. At a mine portal, he reported, one miner told another that the Militant was the only paper that supported their 1993 strike. The second miner bought it, commenting, "I’m not a communist or Islamic, but I want to know what you guys have to say."

Following the fraction meetings, when the socialist workers learned of the nine miners who were trapped in the flooded Quecreek mine in Somerset, Pennsylvania, Tony Lane and Jason Alessio, a Young Socialist and underground coal miner from Colorado, traveled to the mine site. They joined family, co-workers, and local residents in awaiting the rescue of the miners and gathered facts on the situation.  
 
‘Routinism does not serve us’
Socialist workers who are meat packers also discussed ways to build the party today in the packinghouses, an industry marked by increasing efforts by a layer of vanguard workers to advance fights for union recognition and improved working conditions. They approached this from the perspective that the spring subscription drive for the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial is not over, but rather the work to transform the way they function has just begun. Joel Britton, a longtime leader of the SWP, said that "revolutionizing our functioning is affirming that we believe in ourselves and our party. Routinism does not serve us."

Promoting the socialist workers election campaign can be an effective way to win co-workers to a communist perspective. Kari Sachs, a meat packer and the SWP candidate for lieutenant governor in Minnesota, reported on success on the job in using the campaign to explain the program of the SWP. "Two co-workers are really pushing us to do daily political work because of their interest in our ideas. They are enthusiastic that we are running for office, and one wants to help us campaign," she said.

Connie Allen, a textile worker at Pillowtex in Kannapolis, North Carolina, reported on widespread layoffs by textile companies across the south, including 600 at the four-plant complex where she works. After a 25-year struggle, workers at the plants won union recognition in 1999. As they shed workers, the bosses attempt to increase the load on those remaining, while still meeting production goals. For many this has meant working through their breaks. "Workers most directly affected by this attempt to intensify production have protested these attacks on wages," Allen said.

This experience by the workers led to a discussion about the union. North Carolina is a "right-to-work-for-less" state and membership in the union is not compulsory, Allen explained. "We are part of this discussion about the importance of the union and how to strengthen it, as we resist the company’s offensive. We are part of the stepped-up effort to get co-workers to join the union," she said.

Allen reported that sales of the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and books and pamphlets by Pathfinder Press outside the plant gate where she works has broadened the number of workers she can talk to inside the mill.

Sam Manuel in Washington, D.C., contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
Socialist Workers Party convention turns party outward to new opportunities
Young socialists discuss impact of convention  
 
 
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