Vol. 80/No. 2 January 18, 2016
SWP campaigns against Washington’s war drive
“We participated in a forum against anti-Muslim attacks in Alameda Dec. 27,” wrote Eric Simpson from Oakland, California (see article above). “We learned about the event a couple days earlier when we visited the mosque to express solidarity after it had been vandalized.
“We got a warm response to a small table at the door of the speakout featuring Pathfinder books in English and Arabic and the Militant,” Simpson said. “More than two dozen participants purchased copies of the paper, and several bought books in Arabic including Is Biology Woman’s Destiny? Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, The First and Second Declarations of Havana and Voices From Prison.
“One high school student was seriously interested in the literature. ‘What is the difference between communism and socialism?’ he asked. He got a copy of the paper, learned how to read it on the web, and made sure to leave his contact information. Another participant picked up a subscription,” said Simpson.
Party members from Oakland also took part in a Dec. 18 rally of 200 people outside San Francisco City Hall to speak out against attacks on Arabs and Muslims. One of the speakers was Rasheed Albeshari, who was physically attacked by California Department of Corrections employee Denise Slader Dec. 6. Slader shouted abuse at him and others, disrupting a Muslim prayer service at a park in Castro Valley. Albeshari began recording her rant, at which point Slader slapped him and threw coffee on him.
“Sixteen people at the protest bought copies of the Militant, and we sold several pamphlets,” wrote Carole Lesnick.
SWP members and supporters from Oakland and Colorado are organizing a second team to Fort Morgan, Colorado, where nearly 200 Muslim packinghouse workers were fired in a dispute over the right to prayer breaks. They will talk with workers at the plant and in the surrounding area.
Deborah Liatos from Los Angeles sent a note about discussions going door to door Jan. 3 in San Bernardino, where supporters of Islamic State had killed 14 people a month earlier.
Natisha Robinson, a 19-year-old worker at an Amazon distribution center, told Liatos she disagreed with anti-Muslim statements made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. How can you blame all people who come from Pakistan because that’s where the attackers in San Bernadino originally came from, she said. “Trump said Mexican immigrants are rapists. How can you run for President and be down on people like that?”
“The Obama government and all the candidates — Democrats and Republicans alike — are using the attacks in France and San Bernardino to scapegoat Muslims and Arabs,” Liatos said, “and this is used against the working class as a whole.
“Natisha agreed when we explained the importance of workers fighting back, like the movements to fight for $15 and a union and against police brutality,” she said. “We discussed why the working class needs to take power in the U.S. and around the world, and pointed to the example of the Cuban Revolution — what is possible when workers make a revolution.
“A young auto body mechanic got a subscription to the Militant. He said since the attack in San Bernardino he is more hesitant to go out into crowds. He also said the police are scrutinizing people more, mostly if they are young and a lot of people in a car or together,” Liatos said. A restaurant worker also signed up.
To join in this campaign, contact the Socialist Workers Party in your area, listed on page 8.
Related articles:
Washington war plans unravel as conflicts surge in Middle East
Alameda, Calif., meeting protests attack on mosque
Vietnamese people, US anti-war fight stopped Washington’s war
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