Vol. 79/No. 1      January 19, 2015

Militant/Anne Parker

Glova Scott, right, Socialist Workers Party candidate for City Council Ward 4 in Washington, D.C., and Walmart worker, joins picket by Laborers’ Union against Unity Disposal Jan. 4 in Laurel, Maryland. Workers have been on strike since Dec. 26 over safety conditions, pay.

Scott works at Walmart and is a member of OUR Walmart, active in the fight to win a $15-an-hour minimum wage and full-time work for workers at the country’s biggest non-government employer.

Going door to door, campaigning and petitioning, and looking to win new readers for the Militant newspaper, the socialist campaign is getting a good response.

Saul Hernandez, a bartender who lives a few blocks from Scott, signed her petition Jan. 3, getting an introductory subscription to the Militant and the booklet The Cuban Five: Who They Are, Why They Were Framed, Why They Should Be Free.

“I heard about them and I’m glad they are free,” Hernandez told Scott. Hernandez explained that he left Chile after the ousting of the Salvador Allende government there. Allende was overthrown by a U.S.-backed military coup in 1973. “The U.S. closed its doors to me and others like me who tried to come here,” he said.

“The U.S. government’s goal remains to overthrow the Cuban Revolution,” Scott said. “My campaign demands an end to Washington’s brutal, more-than-half-century-long embargo of Cuba and normalization of relations. We demand an end to their violation of our right to travel to Cuba and learn about their revolution for ourselves.”

Scott and campaign supporters joined about 40 trash haulers picketing against Unity Disposal Jan. 4 in Laurel, Maryland. The workers, members of LiUNA, the Laborers’ Union, went on strike Dec. 26, and the company is hiring replacement workers.

Strikers Martin Puesan and Esteban Zelaya told Scott they face lack of safety on the job, no overtime after 40 hours and discrimination. “They use a kind of arithmetic where the more you work, the less you get paid,” said Puesan. “This is our third time on strike in just a few years. We win a little and they take it back.”

“You’re a member of OUR Walmart and I applaud you,” Raymond Diaz, an organizer for LiUNA, said. “It’s like we are the peasants and they are kings and the queens. They treat all of us workers like we are disposable.”

“I applaud and support your strike,” said Scott. “The problem we face is the capitalist system. The bosses rule through the two-party system, where the only alternative they offer working people is the lesser evil. We need to build our own party — a labor party, based on the unions. Fighting for a labor party would unite us as a class,” said Scott.

One thing that struck campaign volunteers was how seriously workers read the campaign literature. Luis Chiliquinga, a McDonald’s worker, met up with Scott Jan. 4 to find out how he could help the petitioning effort. Chiliquinga is involved in the fast-food workers’ campaign for $15 per hour and full-time.

After going over the campaign flier point by point, Chiliquinga had a suggestion to clarify the campaign’s demands to defend working farmers. “There are rich farmers and there are poor farmers,” he said.

“You’re right, we can make it clearer,” Scott said. “The Socialist Workers Party fights for a government guarantee to cover production costs for working farmers to assure them a decent living, as well as access to government-financed affordable credit.”  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home