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Vol. 72/No. 16      April 21, 2008

 
For a labor party based on unions
(editorial)
 
There is an uptick in protest actions by working people in the United States. Independent truckers—facing soaring fuel costs—began rolling strikes and protest actions across the country on April 1.

Immigrant workers fighting against raids, deportations, and other forms of intimidation are fueling involvement in efforts to build May Day actions in dozens of cities.

Calls to protest indignities and brutalities produced by this crisis-ridden system—from imperialism’s expanding wars, to hospital closings and soaring prices—are getting a broader echo in the working class.

In Chicago, where more than 400,000 marched May 1, 2006, and more than 150,000 marched on May Day last year, this year’s march is gaining momentum. Broad support has built in the labor movement, among Black rights organizations, immigrant rights groups, and on the campuses.

This is important. It shows that these aren’t “immigrant rallies” but vanguard actions of the working class. It makes it easier for workers to see how the battle to win legalization for 12 million undocumented workers living in the United States is a life-and-death question for the entire labor movement.

This resistance is bubbling in the midst of an economic recession. The deepening financial and economic crisis of U.S. and world capitalism is in its early stages. Sections of the working class and exploited producers are already feeling the squeeze as prices rise, layoffs increase, and debts weigh heavier.

We are in for years of this. Before it is over, the standard of living of the toilers will decline in absolute terms.

More and more workers are beginning to recognize this fact and becoming more open to considering what political alternative there is to the Democrats and Republicans.

This is a good time to promote the need for the unions to break with the twin capitalist parties and form an independent labor party, based on fighting unions, that leads the struggle for cost-of-living increases in wages and benefits; a shorter workweek, with no cut in pay, to spread the available work to all; an end to raids and deportation and immediate legalization for all undocumented workers, with no conditions.  
 
 
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