Vol. 80/No. 37 October 3, 2016
SWP campaigns in United Kingdom,
among US miners
In working-class Failsworth Sept. 13, truck driver Dave Wardle told Kennedy he favors the UK Independence Party, a capitalist party led by Nigel Farage that campaigned for the vote to leave the European Union, that passed in June.
“Farage spoke at a Trump rally in the U.S.,” Kennedy said. “He and Trump are both ‘America First’ or ‘U.K. First’ nationalists. Trump claims better trade deals will fix the crisis. But all of them — Trump, Clinton, Farage, [U.K. Conservative Party Prime Minister Theresa] May and their parties — represent the bosses. And with or without trade deals, in or out of the European Union, workers are getting hammered.
“Working people need to unite, refuse to let the ruling class pit us against each other. We must build workers’ movements in each country capable of taking political power and using the wealth workers produce to solve the immense social and economic problems caused by capitalism, as we build a new society based on solidarity and join the worldwide struggle for socialism.”
Wardle asked the Communist League members to call again.
“All the plants I worked in around here have closed,” T.J. Murphy, a steel galvanizer of Irish descent in nearby Clayton, told Kennedy. “Trump is the champagne type and Clinton is the cup of coffee sort. I think she will do better,” he said, speaking of the U.S. elections.
Kennedy described how Clinton told coal miners in West Virginia she would put them out of work and close mines, with a vague promise of new “clean energy jobs.” Trump, on a platform with mine bosses, demagogically promised miners jobs, she said. “My party says miners and their unions should be the ones to organize any transition in energy sources, in a way that leaves no one unemployed. We call for a government-funded public works program to put millions to work at union scale pay.”
“One of the problems here is immigrants from eastern Europe who live crowded in houses and don’t have jobs,” Murphy said.
Kennedy told him of campaigning in Harlow, where a worker from Poland was beaten to death recently. “British-born and Polish-born workers came out to protest the assault,” she said, “and show that workers are on the same side, no matter where we come from.”
“This killing took place in the U.K.? That’s terrible,” Murphy said.
At a pub Sept. 12, Kennedy met with six Tulip meat factory workers. Adam Herring asked her why there is so much police brutality in the U.S.
“Under capitalism the police act to serve and protect the rulers and to keep the working class in line,” said Kennedy. “Their violence disproportionately targets African-American workers, because they fear their history of steadfastness in class battles.”
Kennedy and Martin traveled to Paris to talk with workers there and join a Sept. 14 union protest against the new anti-working-class labor law.
Kennedy and Pete Clifford, Communist League candidate for mayor of Greater Manchester, spoke at a Militant Labour Forum here Sept. 17 with 20 people attending, engaging in a lively discussion and raising £597 ($778) for the Communist League.
The International Business Times, North Manchester FM radio and online news site Mancunian Matters all interviewed Kennedy.
BY ILONA GERSH
AND LAURA ANDERSON
STURGIS, Ky. — Socialist Workers Party vice-presidential candidate Osborne Hart joined Dan Fein, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate from Illinois, and others to knock on doors here Sept. 17 in an area devastated by mine closings.
Judy Adams, 58, a disabled nursing assistant, invited Hart in. Her husband, who worked as a coal miner, died last year of black lung disease.
“I took coal mining classes some years back,” she said after Hart told her SWP presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy has been a miner. “My husband said, ‘You’ll never pass the test.’ But I did. I think women can do anything men can do.”
She agreed with Hart that all workers need retirement income and lifelong health care they can count on, and that we can’t win it company by company. She bought a subscription to the Militant and thanked the socialists for visiting.
John Pike, the son of a coal miner, works at Hydro Aluminum in nearby Henderson. He stopped doing yard work to talk with Hart, asking him, “What do you think of the military?”
“The SWP calls for ending Washington’s wars in the Mideast and elsewhere,” said Hart, whose father was a career soldier. “Everywhere we campaign we meet veterans of the endless wars, many disabled, fighting for Veterans Administration care and benefits. That’s one of the social problems the rulers cause, but won’t solve.”
Hart and Fein talked with Misty and Jim Beck on their porch. Misty Beck was an organizer for the Bernie Sanders campaign for a while. Jim Beck works at an aluminum smelter and is a member of the United Steelworkers. “The Democratic and Republican parties don’t represent the working class and can’t solve the capitalist crisis,” Hart said.
“I agree,” Misty Beck said. “Capitalism is the problem, along with the two-party system.”
“We need a revolution,” added Fein, “to replace this capitalist government with one of workers and farmers.”
“That will never happen,” Jim Beck retorted. “Workers are ignorant and backward. That’s who supports Trump.”
Fein disagreed. “Workers are looking for an alternative. They are dissatisfied with the status quo.”
Misty Beck told Hart she admires Cuba’s health care system. “It took a revolution to produce revolutionary health care,” he said.
“It looks like I have some good reading ahead of me,” Misty said, as the couple bought Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? and five other books that present the SWP’s program.
The next day Hart visited the West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago, Indiana, where many children have dangerous levels of lead in their bodies. It was built in 1972 on the site of a lead smelter and declared an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund toxic waste site seven years ago. Parents weren’t told until last month that their children were in danger.
Now city officials plan to demolish the complex and are forcing residents to move, but the vouchers they issue don’t cover the cost of replacement housing.
“This housing should never have been built where the lead smelter was located,” Hart told resident Ana Carranza, a cashier. “It shows the disregard of the capitalists and their government for workers’ lives.”
Related articles:
SWP: What is ‘deplorable’ is capitalist crisis, not working class
Socialist Workers Party joins protest in Puerto Rico
Join SWP campaigning, contribute funds
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