Vol. 79/No. 40      November 9, 2015

The following is a campaign statement by Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Philadelphia, run on the front page of the Opinion section of the Philadelphia Inquirer Oct. 25.

Workers in Philadelphia, like working people around the world, are facing a slow-burning capitalist depression with no end in sight.

The percentage of the working class with a job has fallen to a decades-long low; temporary, part-time, and agency work is everywhere from the Philly airport to our city’s schools; and wages are stagnant. Philadelphia, the fifth-largest U.S. city, has the highest deep-poverty rate of the country’s top 10 cities.

But a new wind is blowing. As a native of North Carolina and a longtime participant in the struggle for civil and black rights, I joined in the revulsion and dignified response among working people of all skin colors to the political assassination of nine African Americans in the AME church in Charleston, S.C. And I celebrated when the overwhelming response forced the state’s rulers to pull down that symbol of terror, the Confederate battle flag, from the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol.

Young people in the Black Lives Matter movement, led by youth who are African American, staged a mini-rebellion in Baltimore that forced indictments and prosecution in the case of Freddie Gray, who died while in police custody. These young protesters persisted despite being called thugs by politicians and the media. In Philadelphia, I joined demonstrations demanding justice in the police killings of Brandon Tate-Brown and Frank McQueen, as well as the beating of Tyree Carroll. As a result of our actions, the rulers have begun to rein in the police and are pressed to bring more indictments.

Young fast-food workers, and those working for airport contractors, in home health care, for Wal-Mart, and in other low-paid jobs, are striking and marching. Immigrant workers are also standing up for their rights. We are acting in solidarity, demanding $15 an hour, regular work schedules, and a union. We are having an impact, forcing bourgeois politicians in city and state governments across the country to raise the minimum wage.

These workers and youth are inspiring others to stand up and fight — serving as an example of the way forward for the working class as a whole.

On Oct. 1, for the first time in more than 30 years, autoworkers rejected a national contract (Fiat-Chrysler) that would have left standing a two-tier wage structure. I have joined the steelworkers’ union that is battling a lockout at Allegheny Technologies in Western Pennsylvania.

John Staggs, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for City Council at large, was in Quebec on Oct. 11 in support of rail workers who are being unjustly blamed for an oil-train disaster there. As in Philadelphia, which recently experienced the Amtrak crash in Port Richmond, these are life-and-death issues when you have oil trains coming through neighborhoods. We need to fight for workers’ control of safety on the job and build unions strong enough to stop production until unsafe conditions are fixed.

As mayor, I will use my office to fight for these immediate safety measures: make it illegal for the railroads to operate without a minimum crew of four; restore the caboose at the end of every train; mandate a maximum train length of 50 cars; and immediately use double-hulled cars to haul oil and other hazardous materials.

My party also proposes a massive, government-funded public works program to put millions to work at union-scale wages — building housing, safe public transportation, schools, child-care centers, recreational facilities, and rebuilding roads and infrastructure.

The Cuban Revolution is a living example of what workers and farmers can accomplish when they fight to take political power, transforming themselves in the process. So we demand that Washington end the blockade now and return Guantánamo to Cuba.

The Socialist Workers Party calls for breaking from the Democrats and Republicans — the bosses’ parties — and constructing a labor party based on the trade unions. Through independent working-class political action we can chart a course to take power out of the hands of the capitalist exploiters and establish a government of workers and farmers that joins the worldwide struggle for the interests of the toiling majority.

For more information, email philaSW2015@gmail.com or visit www.themilitant.com.
 
 
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