Vol. 72/No. 18      May 5, 2008

Also speaking at the campaign event were Jessie Hasting, a grocery store worker who is a member of the Young Socialists and of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 21, and Sally Marshall, a member of UFCW Local 21 who won her job back after a successful fight by her coworkers. They were joined on the platform by Jim Bynum, a warehouse worker in Kent, Washington, who was part of a fight to win unemployment benefits for a coworker who was fired after campaigning for socialist candidates after work. (See article “Seattle-area warehouse workers organize against firing of socialist campaign supporter” in the March 24 issue of the Militant.)

“I’m glad that I was able to be part of a fight that won,” said Marshall, who was fired for giving a worker a $4 discount on food. “At first I didn’t think I would get my job back. I was surprised by the support.”

“We filed a grievance and got 30 signatures protesting the firing and the boss backed down,” explained Hasting. “First he wanted her to go to another store, but she said no and we got her back.” Hasting also described how she and her coworkers are building the Seattle May Day march for immigrant rights at the store “by talking it up and posting flyers on the union bulletin board.”

“I feel privileged to be part of this,” said Bynum. “I joined together with other workers at the warehouse when Cecelia Moriarity, a supporter of the socialist campaign, was unjustly fired. I’m glad to announce that the Washington State unemployment office just awarded Cecelia unemployment benefits even after the employer contested it, since they had no evidence to back up their false accusations against her.”

Bynum, who said he started reading the Militant after his coworkers introduced it to him, said that he has joined socialist candidates protesting immigration raids at the Northwest Detention Center. “This is new for me,” he said.

Calero also met with students at Green River Community College in Auburn, Washington, who are discussing how to respond to a rightist anti-immigrant campaign on campus. In March, a group called Citizens for a Better America distributed cards urging students to turn undocumented students and workers into the police for arrest and deportation. The cards have also appeared at elementary and high schools in the area.

One student told Calero that the school administration has urged them to keep their response neutral and modest, such as conducting an opinion poll on campus rather than organizing a public protest. “What do you think?” she asked.

“Workers learn that if they try to keep quiet and hide, the attacks on our rights and our living standards keep coming and worsen,” Calero said. “When we unite and protest publicly with as many other workers as possible, we defend ourselves and win new support. We put the opponents of immigrants’ and workers’ rights on notice that we won’t take these assaults in silence.” Calero suggested the students organize a contingent from their campus to march in the May Day action in Seattle.

Calero also campaigned at a “Unity in the Community” action at the University of Washington, organized against a “Tag the Immigrant” provocation planned and later cancelled by the College Republicans.

“Workers coming to this country is not a problem,” said Calero. “It is the anti-immigrant policies of the bosses who exploit them and the U.S. government that serves the interests of the bosses that is the problem.” Calero explained that there is no representative of the working class in the government, and that capitalist politicians approach the question of immigration as one of how best to maintain a second-class layer of the working class. That’s why working people need to form a labor party, based on trade unions tested in struggle, that can fight in the political arena for legalization of all the undocumented, an issue that is deeply important to the working class.

One student asked, “But if you are for opening the borders, how are we going to deal with the already crowded conditions like we face here on campus?”

“The lack of facilities on this campus and in this country—in housing, schools, and hospitals—is caused by the failure by the rulers to invest money in things that the working class needs,” said Calero. “When elected I will introduce legislation to implement a massive public works program to build the infrastructure and facilities we need. And I will invite workers from Mexico and other countries to help tear down the wall being constructed on the border with Mexico and to do so receiving pay at union-scale wages.”

Mary Martin and Edwin Fruit contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
No work or school on May Day! Legalization for all immigrants!
SWP candidate for vice president speaks to 300 at Rutgers University  
 
 
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