ALBANY, N.Y. — “I am running for Albany County Executive for the Socialist Workers Party to put forward a program that can defend working people from the carnage of the crisis-ridden capitalist system and unite the working class in struggle,” Abby Tilsner told supporters as she announced her candidacy at a press conference Sept. 10.
Tilsner, 53, who works at St. Peter’s Hospital, was among dozens of nurses who rallied in June in support of the contract fight being waged by nurses at Albany Medical Center.
Last April the nurses voted to unionize, joining the New York State Nurses Association. However, the hospital has refused to sign a contract.
“A central pillar of our campaign is organizing workers to extend solidarity to struggles like these nurses are waging,” Tilsner said.
The campaign was announced by WNYT Channel 13. Tilsner is joined on the SWP slate by rail worker Ved Dookhun, the party’s candidate for mayor of Troy, and Walmart worker Lawrence Quinn, its candidate for Troy City Council president.
The socialist candidates explain that it is possible for working people to take political power into our own hands and uproot capitalist exploitation.
Tilsner’s opponent, Democratic incumbent Daniel McCoy, has backed federal lawsuits against drug companies for pushing sales of addictive opioids. The pharmaceutical bosses are making giant profits from opioid addiction.
“This crisis cannot be solved by suing pharmaceutical companies and transferring billions of dollars from them to the government and lawyers,” Tilsner explained. “The rising rates of suicide and addiction are the result of the broader crisis facing millions under capitalism. Our fighting program explains that working people can be transformed in the course of struggles against the bosses and their system, building our self-confidence and self-worth — along the way we can begin to address these issues.”