Vol. 79/No. 39 November 2, 2015
“Continuing working class resistance — from autoworkers at Fiat Chrysler; Steelworkers at ATI, U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal; workers fighting for $15 and a union in fast food restaurants, car washes, retail stores, airports, and other places; and rail workers fighting for safety on the tracks to prevent further derailments and deaths — is fueling deep interest in the capitalist depression unfolding today and how to fight it,” Craine said.
“From big cities to rural areas, union fights to protests against police brutality and killings, the Militant is appreciated and needed,” she said, “to find out about struggles worldwide, learn from the experiences of past revolutionary battles and discuss what we can do next.
“Through these campaigns we’re building support for the party, its program and activity. We’re building the meetings in November for leaders of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples that are a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the example of the Cuban Revolution. We’re building participation in the Nov. 10 national day of action for $15 and a union.
“The fund drive is decisive for the SWP to take advantage of growing openings to join workers’ struggles and expand the party’s influence,” she said. “It makes it possible for party leaders to travel internationally, deepen solidarity with Cuba’s socialist revolution and broaden the fight to end Washington’s brutal embargo of the island.”
Workers around the country are taking part.
“I try to pass the Militant around on my job. I like the world view, the ideas of the SWP are important,” James Nobles, a sanitation worker from Tobyhana, Pennsylvania, told Arlene Rubinstein in Washington, D.C., over the phone. “Workers face a problem that is not going away. Some of us are paying 20 percent of our paycheck for health care. The SWP says health care should be universal. Like in Cuba, when you’re sick, you go to the doctor and get well. You don’t have to get out a magnifying glass to read your policy first.”
He also pledged to give to the fund drive. “I get post-traumatic syndrome when I look at my paycheck,” he said, “but every contribution helps.”
Many new subscribers also take advantage of the special offers to get a selection of key books on revolutionary politics and history from Pathfinder Press at half price. (See ad below.) SWP supporters in Chicago sold copies of Teamster Politics and The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning: The Fraud of Education Reform Under Capitalism along with four subscriptions knocking on doors in a trailer park in Minooka, Illinois.
“We just got the Teamsters union recognized for school bus drivers here,” Rich Fisher told Dan Fein as he signed up for a subscription. “The boss kept pissing off workers which led to the victory. In 20 days we’ll start negotiations for our first contract. This paper is for me.”
“We got a renewal from a construction worker on Saturday whose teenage daughter also reads the paper. Like most construction workers we talk to, he has a lot to say about the fight for safety on the job,” Katy LeRougetel wrote from Calgary, Alberta. “He called his daughter over and showed her the various books on special to see if she wanted one.
“She read the back cover of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, which describes the vanguard place of workers who are Black in the proletarian-led social and political struggles and the fight to overthrow the dictatorship of capital in the U.S., and said she wanted that one,” LeRougetel said.
Planning how to use every day, from now until the drives end Nov. 3, is decisive to success, Craine said. “We need to carefully map out taking advantage of each opportunity, from joining protests like the Oct. 24 march against police brutality here in New York, taking the paper to talk to workers looking for something different at big rallies scheduled for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, to knocking on workers’ doors.”
Close the gap in the fund drive
Party supporters in every area also need a battle plan to reach and surpass their fund goals. This is the only way to go over the top, since local quotas are some $5,000 short of the $100,000 goal.“We are confident we will make and exceed our target,” Joel Britton wrote from Oakland Oct. 19. “We still have yet to hear from some usual contributors and we’re getting donations as we’re meeting people campaigning with the Militant.
“After a political discussion about the party, the Militant and the fund, one construction worker whose door we knocked on excused himself for a couple minutes and returned with a $20 bill for the fund,” Britton said.
SWP members in Atlanta decided to raise their goal by $900 to $9,500. “We are getting contributions from party supporters in Texas also,” wrote Janice Lynn.
“We’ll be sending in a sizable chunk tomorrow putting us over our goal of $3,400,” Frank Forrestal wrote from Twin Cities Oct. 18. SWP members there have raised their goal three times. “When all is said and done, we should be sending in around $3,800.”
If this kind of effort is emulated everywhere, we can make the fund, Craine said.
To find out how you can help get the Militant around and to contribute to the fund, contact the Socialist Workers Party branch nearest you listed in the directory on page 8.
John Studer is the 2015 SWP Party-Building Fund director.