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Vol. 72/No. 28      July 14, 2008

 
Socialist candidate speaks at N.Y. meeting
 
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS  
NEW YORK—“Working people in the United States and around the world are bearing the brunt of a world economic crisis that is just beginning and no one knows how long or how deep it is going to be,” said Róger Calero, Socialist Workers Party candidate for president of the United States, addressing 50 people at a June 27 campaign appearance here.

Calero said, “The proposals put forward by the SWP campaign to confront growing unemployment, alleviate the impact of massive inflation, and protect the environment and working people from the rising toll on life and limb caused by the employers’ profit drive are the only realistic response to the consequences imposed on working people by the capitalist rulers.”

To combat inflation, the socialist candidate explained, “vice presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy and I, when elected, will appoint trusted union fighters to the Department of Labor to implement federal legislation for a sliding scale of wages and hours so that as the cost of living increases, wages will also increase. Steps will also be taken to end government rigging of statistics on inflation and unemployment that rob workers of billions of dollars in wages and benefits and lower their standard of living.”

To counter unemployment, the socialist administration will prioritize passing legislation to force the bosses to shorten the workweek with no cut in pay to spread the available work to all and to defend and extend affirmative action programs in employment, education, and housing, Calero explained. He said he would fight for a public works program to create jobs at union scale to build low-cost housing, schools, and hospitals, and to repair the infrastructure.

Calero noted that prospective Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama says he’s for a tax on the profits of oil companies, a $1,000 tax credit for the middle class, and a second economic stimulus rebate check. “We have a better proposal,” Calero stated. “Repeal all sales taxes, including fuel taxes, which always hit working people the hardest.”

Neither Obama nor Republican John McCain will take measures like these that eat into the profits of the wealthy, Calero said. He called for the unions to break with the twin capitalist parties and form a labor party based on combative unions that will contest the Democrats and Republicans in the electoral arena and lead the fight to defend working people.
 
 
Related articles:
Socialist Workers announce ballot effort in New York
Socialists on Delaware ballot  
 
 
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