Statement by Joanne Kuniansky, Socialist Workers Party candidate for New Jersey governor, March 16.
Democratic and Republican politicians alike claim to wield U.S. economic and military influence at home and abroad in the interests of “all Americans.” Workers and farmers in the U.S. know only too well what that means here — mass unemployment, rising prices, cop brutality and attacks on our political rights, wages and working conditions. Amazon workers in Alabama fighting for a union and locked-out oil refinery workers at Marathon Petroleum in Minnesota are setting an example and deserve support.
The drive of the ruling capitalist families to dominate world markets and exploit working people around the world flows from the same ravenous profit drive that is the source of conditions workers face at home.
President Joseph Biden says his foreign policy is the policy of “our country.” But countries don’t have foreign policies, they are class-divided. Under capitalism, the government’s foreign policy defends the class interests of the wealthy ruling families. The U.S. rulers’ military and trade moves abroad flow from their class needs at home. The predatory imperialist exploitation of toilers worldwide enriches them, while working people serve as cannon fodder for their wars abroad.
Working people need our own foreign policy, starting from the interests workers worldwide share and the indispensable place of working-class solidarity.
Join actions here to support the strikes and protests for political rights and against military rule in Myanmar; oppose the murderous repression meted out to political and labor activists by the Philippines government; support farmers in India fighting new government laws that threaten their livelihoods; and back the Cuban people’s decadeslong fight against the U.S. rulers’ embargo — an economic war aimed at overturning their socialist revolution.
The U.S. rulers are armed to the teeth to confront their capitalist rivals and to crush rebellions by working people anywhere. As long as the capitalists hold power they will not hesitate to use their military might when they judge it necessary. Neither will they surrender their place as the world’s top cop without a fight.
When Biden talks of restoring “American leadership” he means combining the threat of military action with punishing economic sanctions against the peoples of Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, as well as tariffs against rival capitalist powers.
The single most important thing working people here can do is to build a movement to take power out of the hands of the U.S. capitalist class. This would remove forever the threat of U.S. imperialist interference with the battles of working people worldwide.
Forming a workers and farmers government would lead millions to join the worldwide struggle for socialism. This is a realistic and liberating goal that has to be prepared, organized and fought for.
Join SWP campaigners in supporting today’s class battles and presenting this internationalist perspective. Help build the working-class combat party we need for the bigger battles to come.