Vol. 73/No. 43      November 9, 2009

There are 21 SWP candidates running for public office in 10 states (see page 6). They and their supporters have worked with others to organize defense of abortion clinics under attack by rightists; marched against Washington’s wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq; rallied with thousands at demonstrations to demand legalization of undocumented workers; walked the picket line with striking bakery workers at Stella D’oro foods in Bronx, New York, and with Teamsters at SK Hand Tools in Chicago; joined rallies to win a new trial for framed-up death-row inmate Troy Davis; fought against police brutality from Oakland, California, to Rockford, Illinois; joined demonstrations against deep cuts in funding for education and health care in California; and participated in the international campaign to win freedom for the Cuban Five, Cuban revolutionaries framed up and held in U.S. jails for more than a decade by the U.S. government.

These candidates have challenged undemocratic restrictions on ballot access that are aimed at preventing a working-class voice from being heard. They and their supporters collected thousands of signatures to place socialist candidates on the ballot. The candidates have fought for the right to speak at public debates in opposition to the candidates of the employing class.

The socialist candidates put forward immediate demands to protect working people in the face of the devastation the capitalist system is causing and to unify the working class in struggle. They call for guaranteed unemployment compensation at union scale for all workers until they find a job; increasing the federal minimum wage to union scale; a federally funded crash public works program to put millions to work building schools, hospitals, roads, and public transportation; guaranteed lifetime medical care and retiree pensions for all; immediate, unconditional legalization of all undocumented workers; and an end to all income taxes on workers.

At the same time they explain to fellow workers that while by fighting we can win concessions from the ruling class, these cannot alter the laws underlying the operations of the capitalist system. Only the conquest and exercise of state power by the working class and the expropriation of the wealthy minority can lay the basis for a world based on solidarity among working people, instead of class exploitation, war, and race and sex discrimination. With state power, working people have the most powerful tool possible to uproot these conditions and reorganize society in the interests of workers and farmers.

If you like what the Socialist Workers candidates are saying, we urge you to attend the public meeting in New York City November 7 on “What Does the Dictatorship of Capital Have in Store for Working People? The Truth behind ‘Financial Crisis’ and ‘War’; The Working-Class Response.” There we can discuss with fellow workers and youth a fighting course for the next 365 days.
 
 
Related articles:
Iowa socialists ‘stand with those resisting’
2009 Socialist Workers Party candidates
Socialist outlines views at N.Y. mayoral debate
Montreal Communist League candidates  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home