Vol. 76/No. 46      December 17, 2012

Militant/Helen Meyers

Jacob Perasso, Socialist Workers Party candidate for City Council District 4 in Omaha, Neb., talks with Valerie Eure Dec. 2. Party there is also running Maura DeLuca, who was SWP candidate for vice president in 2012, for city mayor.

The primary election is scheduled for April. The top two vote getters for each office will face each other in the general election in May.

“Nothing has changed for working people as a result of the 2012 presidential and congressional elections,” said DeLuca, who was the SWP candidate for U.S. vice president this year. “The Democrats and Republicans govern in the interests of the ruling capitalist class, who are cranking up the exploitation of living labor in reaction to an historic worldwide crisis of capitalism. Workers need our own party, an independent working-class party, here in Omaha and around the world.”

The Omaha Socialist Workers ticket sparked interest as campaigners talked to workers from packinghouses and other factories, construction workers, housecleaners and unemployed and disabled workers. Many welcomed the opportunity to discuss the deteriorating work and living conditions they face, and what workers can do to address this.

“I used to think the Republicans were better, since President Reagan granted amnesty to immigrants, then I switched to Democrats because they seemed more for the workers, but it seems like they all make promises they don’t keep,” a meat packer at one of the many large plants here, who asked that his name not be used because of possible reprisals by his boss, said. “I feel like we’re modern day slaves in the factories.”

He bought a subscription to the Militant, the campaign newspaper, and a copy of Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution.

Campaigners found interest among many workers about the history of revolutionary working-class battles—experiences that show how through the course of struggle workers are capable of transforming themselves to lead the fight for working-class political power and to reorganize society in the interests of the toiling majority.

Eighteen subscriptions to the Militant were sold over the weekend along with two copies of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power and one copy of the Spanish edition of Women in Cuba.

“I remember seeing this paper around in the meatpacking plants a few years back,” said Gustavo García, a meat cutter at Greater Omaha who subscribed for the first time over the weekend. “I think a paper like this is important for workers like me who work hard in poor conditions for little pay.”

A flyer in English and Spanish is being used by campaign supporters here to build a Dec. 8 public event at the South Omaha YMCA to meet the candidates. (See ad on this page.)

The leaflet features the campaign’s call to fight for a massive, government-funded public works program to put millions of unemployed and underemployed to work at union-scale wages, as well as its opposition to U.S. war moves and support for independent working-class political action.
 
 
Related articles:
SWP LA mayoral candidate on ballot
The Working-Class Alternative in the Omaha Election  
 
 
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