Vol. 72/No. 44      November 10, 2008

“This crisis does not stem from poor regulation,” the socialist candidate explained. “It is part of the way capitalism works.”

To fight against the impact of layoffs, the candidates of the Socialist Workers Party put forward a series of demands that can overcome the divisions fostered by capitalism and unite workers in the United States and internationally, Calero said.

“We say cut the workweek with no cut in take-home pay to spread around the available work. Another measure needed to fight unemployment is a massive public works program at union-scale wages,” he explained.

“We need affirmative action programs” that can be a weapon in fighting the disproportionate impact of the crisis on Blacks in the United States, he said.

The socialist candidates also call for immediate, unconditional legalization of undocumented workers.  
 
Nationalize under workers control
When workers demand higher wages in the face of rising prices, some bosses say they can’t pay. “Those businesses should be nationalized and put under workers control,” Calero said. He is also for nationalizing the energy industry, which has been raking in record profits.

Fighting around these kinds of demands will put working people in a better position to take power out of the hands of the wealthy capitalists and replace their government with a government of workers and farmers, he said.

While in New York, Calero walked the picket line with striking workers at Stella D’Oro, a biscuit factory in the Bronx. Workers there have been on strike since August 13, when the company refused to budge from its demands for steep wage and benefits cuts.

During an October 21-23 tour in Washington, D.C., Calero’s running mate, vice presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy, spoke before five high school classes and was interviewed by a radio station, two campus newspapers, and an online news service. She joined in a protest at Howard University calling for a halt to the execution of Troy Davis.

At Banneker High School, students were eager to ask Kennedy questions. One wanted to hear about the socialists’ program on international issues. Kennedy explained that one of the first acts of a Calero-Kennedy administration will be canceling the debt of the semicolonial countries.

On the final day of her tour in the Washington area, Kennedy joined representatives of the Green Party, the Democrats, and Republicans at a foreign policy debate hosted by the African Students Association at the University of Maryland at College Park.

Kennedy said that when elected the Socialist Workers candidates will immediately close down AFRICOM, the recently inaugurated military command center for the deployment of U.S. troops on the African continent, and instead offer unconditional aid to the region.  
 
Cuba’s role in Africa
Kennedy pointed to Cuba as an example of solidarity “with no strings attached.” Cuba has a proud history in Africa, she said. Thousands of Cubans volunteered to fight side by side with the Angolan people to repel an invasion by the South African government in the 1970s and ’80s. The revolutionary government of Cuba continues to send thousands of health-care workers to Africa today as well as train African students to be doctors and nurses, she added.

Jeremiah Lowery, representing the Republican Party, questioned whether Kennedy, a coal miner of many years, was qualified to be vice president of the United States. “We need workers and farmers on Capitol Hill because everyone else there represents the wealthy class that exploits the working class,” she replied.

While Kennedy was in the Washington area, Calero campaigned in New England. He addressed students at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and Central Connecticut State University, and campaigned in Somerville, Massachusetts, at the plant gate of Angelica Laundry, which is organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

He met with leaders of Maya K’iche, a Guatemalan immigrant rights group that has been leading the defense of the 360 workers arrested last year by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the raid at Michael Bianco, a sewing factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

In mid-October Kennedy campaigned in Florida. More than 35 students heard Kennedy speak after school hours at a debate club meeting at South Broward High School in Hollywood.

“Would socialists take away from the wealthy people and give it to workers?” one student asked Kennedy. “We live under the wages system where the wealth workers produce is taken by the bosses,” Kennedy said. “We need a fighting alliance of workers, farmers, and youth that can build a revolutionary movement that will bring a workers and farmers government to power.”

Seth Dellinger and Tim Mailhot in Washington, D.C., Laura Garza in Boston, and Ellen Brickley in Miami contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
Vote Socialist Workers!
Workers, farmers need to take political power
Socialist candidate backs N.Y. strikers, speaks on campus
List of SWP candidates and their ballot status and presidential campaign tour schedule  
 
 
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