“The Socialist Workers Party’s International Active Workers Conference July 22-24 will be a springboard for campaigns led by the 20 candidates the party has endorsed in the 2021 elections,” John Studer, SWP national campaign director, told the Militant.
“We will be building on the success of the spring circulation drive,” Studer said. “SWP campaigners introduced new readers to the Militant, raised funds for its publication and got out books that help explain how we can fight to end the root cause of the problems workers face — capitalist exploitation.”
A panel of candidates endorsed by the party will address the conference.
“They will describe how they have joined with others to organize support for today’s union struggles; built protests against the U.S. rulers’ embargo of Cuba and actions against cop brutality; and discussed with fellow workers and farmers why it’s necessary to build a communist party that is prepared and capable of leading millions in future battles to make a socialist revolution,” Studer said.
“New supporters of SWP campaigns are being won among working people looking to resist what the bosses and their governments are doing to us today, and who are interested in studying the crucial lessons of previous working-class struggles. Some join in introducing the SWP-endorsed candidates to fellow workers and family members.”
Workers ‘need to stand up together’
Ned Measel, Dave Perry and other SWP campaigners spoke with Ralph Robinson Jr., on his porch in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 10. The 68-year-old third shift stocker works at Kroger and is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.
The SWP builds support for struggles by workers, Measel told Robinson, “no matter how big or small, against the attacks of the capitalist rulers and their system of exploitation and oppression.” He said solidarity is crucial for the current strike by miners at Warrior Met in Alabama and other labor battles.
Perry described the attacks he and fellow blind workers face at the factory where he works and how they use union power to defend themselves. “Workers have to stand together,” Measel said.
“Yes we do,” replied Robinson. “All the time!” He told the SWP campaigners that a few weeks ago “Kroger workers in Arkansas threatened to go on strike.” The bosses “took managers from all over to try to stop the strike, including from the store where I work.”
“We can transform ourselves through our struggles and forge a leadership like working people did in Cuba, where millions overturned capitalist rule and made a socialist revolution,” said Measel.
“Malcolm X told the truth when he said it was necessary to wake people up to their own worth, their history of struggle and their ability to change the world,” he added.
“My parents used to tell me about the things you are talking about today,” Robinson said. “I didn’t want to hear it then, but now I realize they were right.”
“I’m getting this book,” he said, referring to Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes, the SWP national secretary, after Measel showed it to him. Robinson then described his more than four decades of experiences standing up for workers’ rights.
“People who understand what you raise have a responsibility,” said Measel.
“Yes, to the world!” replied Robinson. “I’m going to read this book because what you say is true. And I want you to come back again soon.”
To find out more about the SWP and its campaigns, contact the branch closest to you.