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“You might be asking why a candidate for mayor of Chicago is interested in farmers’ problems,” Dan Fein, left, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Chicago in the Feb. 24 elections, told Randy Heims, a grain farmer in central Wisconsin. “There aren’t many farmers in Chicago.”
“No question, the Democrats and Republicans are no good for us,” Heims responded.
“Workers and working farmers are natural allies,” Fein said. “The capitalist government defends agribusiness at the expense of working farmers just like it defends big business against workers. The effects of the worldwide capitalist crisis in production and trade squeeze you as a farmer and me as a factory worker. We need to build a revolutionary movement to lead the workers and farmers to take political power from the propertied rulers.
“The ruling class tells farmers the reason for the high cost for their machinery is overpaid union workers in the factories,” said Fein. “They tell workers the reason for high prices in the grocery store is that farmers get too much for what they produce.
“Our struggles are international. Our interests lie with workers and farmers worldwide — from Ukraine to revolutionary Cuba — not with our own country’s bankers and bosses.
“The labor movement needs to fight for a government guarantee to working farmers of their cost of production, including adequate living expenses,” the socialist candidate said.
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