Vol. 80/No. 12      March 28, 2016

 

Socialist Workers Party launches state campaigns

 
The Socialist Workers Party has launched candidates for U.S. Senate and other offices across the country. They are:

California — Eleanor García, Senate
Florida — Cynthia Jaquith, Senate
Georgia — Sam Manuel, Senate
Illinois — Dan Fein, Senate
Minnesota — David Rosenfeld, U.S. House of Representatives, District 5
New York — Jacob Perasso, Senate
Pennsylvania — John Staggs, Senate
Washington — Mary Martin, Governor
Washington, D.C. — Glova Scott, U.S. House of Representatives

Along with SWP presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy and Osborne Hart for vice president, they are joining in struggles of working people and presenting a working-class alternative to all of the capitalist parties and politicians.

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Wendy Lyons from Los Angeles reports that when nurses at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center began a weeklong strike March 15, SWP candidate Eleanor García joined the picket line and distributed a statement supporting their fight. The 1,200 nurses voted to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United in July and are fighting for their first contract.

“We have to stand up,” John Mark, a young nurse who started some months ago, told García. “There are not enough nurses and it is risky for the patients when there is not enough staff.”

“Nurses here have been fighting for over six years to get better pay and pensions and for better staffing,” Joy Guinto said.

Below is García’s statement.

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The Socialist Workers Party supports your fight for a union contract. I’m here on the picket line with you and urge others to do likewise.

All workers need unions. It’s the starting point for fighting the depression-driven assaults by the bosses, backed by their government. As you point out, Kaiser Permanente has made over $14 billion in profit in the last six years while freezing nurses’ wages.

You are not alone. Thousands of people have marched for a $15 an hour minimum wage. Port truck drivers and warehouse workers in Los Angeles are fighting for union recognition.

Our unions can become an effective fighting force. It starts with relying on solidarity and mobilization. We also have to recognize that all the capitalist party candidates — from Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump — seek to rescue capitalism at our expense from the international contraction in production, trade and employment. There is a burning need to break from the bosses political parties and build our own independent labor party based on the unions.

Your fight is for something bigger than your own self-interest. That attitude is what we need to counter the dog-eat-dog capitalist system which has turned health care into a commodity to be bought and sold, depriving billions the world over of a basic human right. This won’t be solved short of a mighty struggle to wrest political power from the billionaire rulers and reorganize all society on a foundation different than the current dictatorship of capital — a socialist society.

In socialist Cuba, a revolution secured health care for all. On top of that, the Cuban people send tens of thousands of medical personnel around the world, not for profit, but as part of what they see as their debt to humanity. As they say, they don’t give what they have left over, they share what they have.

When you win your fight for your first union contract, it will be a victory for all working people.
 
 
Related articles:
Breakup of Trump rally sets back working class
Socialist Workers Party campaign statement
Socialist candidate gets hearing at Trump event
 
 
 
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