SWP VP candidate addresses Sydney dockworkers

Militant/Ron Poulsen

SYDNEY — “Workers everywhere face the consequences of the deep economic crisis of capitalism, a crisis that is irreversible. The working class needs to organize and unite to fight independently of the bourgeois parties and their politicians like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the U.S.,” Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for United States vice president, told more than 200 unionists here at a worksite meeting, above, of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Engineering Union.

During his Aug. 23-27 visit, Hart also spoke to 40 delegates at the monthly meeting of Unions NSW, the statewide federation, and Hutchison Port dockworkers, members of the Maritime Union of Australia, on their lunch break.

“Workers are being hammered by the bosses and the government,” Hart told the construction workers. “We need to organize, unionize and build solidarity to strengthen our ability to fight effectively. There is no ‘lesser evil’ for the working class — whether Trump or Clinton is elected, the attacks on us will deepen.

“In Cuba the workers and farmers took political power to reorganize society in the interests of humanity,” he said. “That’s what we have to do.”

Several workers stayed after the meeting to continue talking. Three subscribed to the Militant. Plumber Robert Bell later phoned the Communist League to get a copy of Pathfinder’s Are They Rich Because They’re Smart?

— RON POULSEN