Vol. 71/No. 30      August 20, 2007

“Our response to the rightist picket of the Militant Labor Forum Hall is to launch our campaign,” said Newberry, referring to a picket by the Minutemen and supporters of Republican Thomas Tancredo’s presidential campaign outside a July 20 forum. (see article on front page). Newberry said the attack by the Minutemen comes from the deepening polarization in this country around the expanding layer of immigrants in the U.S. working class.

“We need to unify our class and the rulers need to keep us apart,” she said. The SWP campaign calls for unconditional legalization of all immigrants. “They want to deepen the attacks on our wages and working conditions, as well as criminalize undocumented workers. The rulers are using the threat of deportation and jail time to try to scare us into not fighting for our rights.

“We are campaigning for the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said. The SWP campaign also calls for a massive federally funded public works program, no cuts in present or future Social Security benefits, defending and extending affirmative action, and ending Washington’s economic war against Cuba.

A central part of the campaign, said Newberry, is supporting workers’ struggles to organize and use union power. “They will continue to go after our unions as they did in the decertification campaign at Dakota Premium Foods in Minnesota, and the recent arrest of the vice-president of United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 1149 at the Swift plant in Marshalltown, [Iowa], who was charged with ‘harboring illegal immigrants,’” she said.

The meeting also featured a special presentation from Rebecca Williamson, a member in the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789 at the Dakota Premium Foods plant in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“Our fight against the company’s effort to decertify the union is shaping up to be the most important labor battle taking place in the United States today,” she said. She explained the history of the fight for the union at Dakota and why working people should support the struggle against decertification today.

Galinsky spoke in support of recent protests by immigrant workers in Marshalltown to try to prevent local police from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

“We’re glad to see so many people here tonight from the Upper Midwest at this meeting to support our campaign and to defend our headquarters,” said Newberry. People came from Iowa, the Twin Cities and Austin, Minnesota; Chicago; and Denver.

The event raised nearly $400. Over the weekend, campaign supporters collected more than half of the 1,600 signatures needed to get Newberry and Galinsky on the ballot.
 
 
Related articles:
Rightists picket Iowa Militant Labor Forum
‘Militant’ supporters fan out across Iowa  
 
 
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