Vol. 80/No. 19 May 16, 2016
(front page)
Socialist Workers Party joins fights, gets on
Colorado ballot
Seeing a sign inviting them to “Meet Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for vice president,” many workers driving out of the plant pulled over to talk to him and take campaign biographies. Thirty-four bought copies of the Militant. The Fort Morgan Times ran a front-page photo story on the plant-gate campaigning May 3.
The Colorado campaigners stopped to warm up at a cafe frequented by Somali workers, some of whom were fired by Cargill Dec. 23 after they walked off the job when the company began refusing them prayer breaks. “I was fired a week before the others,” Abdi Ali told Hart. “I asked for a break to pray and my supervisor said no. I went anyway and was fired.” Ali said he is getting unemployment compensation, but Cargill is appealing payments to some workers.
“If Cargill gets away with this here, it has an effect beyond Colorado,” Hart said. “Other bosses are watching what is happening here. Working people need to stand with you and fight this.”
Hart traveled to Milwaukee to join the May Day rally there, while Kennedy marched with hundreds of thousands of workers at the rally in Havana.
SWP campaigners are introducing many workers to the party’s revolutionary program through efforts to put the party’s candidates on the ballot in Tennessee and New Jersey as well.
“I am so excited reading these articles in the Militant,” Carolyn Kelley, a retired social worker, told SWP member Rachele Fruit on the phone April 29. Fruit and others met Kelley going door to door in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Fruit invited Kelley and her husband, a union electrician, to attend the Socialist Workers Party conference in Oberlin, Ohio, June 16-18. “Now I have someone to vote for, and we wish we could attend the conference in Ohio,” she said. The Kelleys agreed to be electors to help put the SWP on the ballot.
In four days the Socialist Workers Party team went to workers’ districts in Chattanooga, Smyrna, Murfreesboro and Cleveland, Tennessee. They met six potential electors and sold six Militant subscriptions and four books.
At a Verizon strike rally in Jersey City April 29, 17 workers signed petitions to put the SWP on the ballot in New Jersey, one bought a subscription to the Militant and seven got single copies. The Socialist Workers Party has been building support for the strike and discussing the important stakes involved for working people everywhere campaigners go.
Syrian-born mechanic Nart Zakaria liked the SWP’s call for Washington to get out of the Mideast. He subscribed to the Militant after talking to socialists at his door in Haskell, New Jersey, April 30. Washington, Moscow and Tehran “just want to divide up the pie so each can dominate Syria and Iraq,” he said.
When a neighbor told the campaigners about a nearby Verizon picket line, they stopped by to show their support.
Integrating the New Jersey ballot drive into such activities, SWP teams have collected more than 1,000 signatures, while winning many new readers of the party’s paper and books. The ballot drive will wrap up May 8.
“I came across an old issue of the Militant in the prison dayroom here and found it quite informative,” a worker incarcerated in Illinois since 1967 wrote. “I wish to inquire whether you share your ’zine with those of us confined to these gulags.” He received a reduced-rate subscription covered by the Militant Prisoners’ Fund. This spring 14 workers behind bars have subscribed.
Keep up progress on Militant fund
At the end of the fourth week of the six-week effort the Socialist Workers Party is leading to win 1,550 readers and $110,000 in contributions to the party press, 1,009 subscriptions and $48,550 have come in. We want to continue picking up the pace of contributions to the Militant Fighting Fund, which is behind schedule. Nearly $20,000 arrived last week. Supporters in France pledged $450 and have already collected $390.Contact a Socialist Workers Party branch near you (see list on page 8) to join in party-building activity at labor and social struggles, campaigning door to door in large cities and small towns and increasing the readership and support for the party’s press.
Related articles:
Workers need international solidarity, not ‘Americanism’
Spring subscription drive chart April 2 - May 17 (week 4)
Militant Fighting Fund chart April 2- May 17 (week 4)
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