With elections less than two weeks away, Socialist Workers Party candidates and campaign supporters are stepping up efforts to reach working people with the party’s program. Campaigners are bringing solidarity to strike picket lines, talking to workers and farmers door to door in cities and rural areas, and joining protest actions supporting the widespread demonstrations in Iran, in defense of Ukraine’s independence, and more. Through these efforts, they’re winning support, signing up subscribers to the Militant and introducing books by SWP and other working-class leaders that offer a revolutionary road forward for working people.
In Philadelphia, Chris Hoeppner, SWP candidate for Congress, was interviewed Oct. 20 on WWDB-AM talk radio. “I explained that the biggest political question facing working people is the attack on our constitutional rights by the Joseph Biden administration and other liberal Democrats,” he told the Militant. “This is an attack not just against Trump, but on the entire working class.”
Hoeppner also pointed to the breakdown of the family. In Philadelphia 50% are headed by single parents. This is a product of the social, economic and moral crisis of the capitalist system. The half-hour interview is posted on PennsylvaniaProject.com as episode 186.
On Oct. 22, Sara Lobman, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate from New York, traveled to Boston to campaign with supporters there. In discussions with workers at their doorsteps, the nationwide contract fight by rail workers was of particular interest, as well as workers need to use union power to advance our interests in the U.S. and worldwide.
Lobman spoke that evening at a meeting hosted by campaign supporters. Participants included students and members of the Platypus Affiliated Society from the University of New Hampshire and Boston College, and a young electrician apprentice member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. During the day five Militant subscriptions and 11 books were sold.
Rallies back Iran protesters
In Texas, SWP members joined an Oct. 22 rally in Dallas of over 500 people, overwhelmingly Iranians, in solidarity with the protests sweeping Iran in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini. Alyson Kennedy, the party’s candidate for Texas governor, and Gerardo Sánchez, SWP candidate for Congress, met Ali Ghanbari, who told them he fought in the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed shah. “The SWP is a working-class party that has a revolutionary perspective,” Kennedy said. “We supported that powerful uprising, and co-thinkers of our party there took part in it.” Ghanbari subscribed to the Militant and bought Labor, Nature, and the Evolution of Humanity.
“The problems working people face in the U.S. are a result of the capitalist system that is supported by both the Democratic and Republican parties,” Sánchez said. “We’re for our unions fighting for a shorter workweek with no cut in pay and cost-of-living increases in union contracts as protections against inflation.” Ghanbari introduced the two party candidates to a friend who bought some books and gave a contribution to the SWP Party-Building Fund.
The annual SWP Party-Building Fund has a goal of raising $140,000 for the SWP’s work. The party depends on contributions from workers and farmers to finance its activities. In addition to party members and supporters, and readers of the Militant, many workers who are introduced to the SWP during the campaign on their doorsteps and at protest actions kick in to the fund. “We have succeeded in winning several first-time contributions,” reports Naomi Craine from Chicago.
In Los Angeles, campaign supporters have participated in several rallies and marches in solidarity with the protests in Iran. “We have set up tables with books in English and Farsi and have had broad discussions on politics in Iran, the U.S., Ukraine, Cuba and international politics, presenting the party’s working-class course in approaching all of these questions,” said Deborah Liatos, who has attended a number of the actions there. She is the party’s candidate for Congress in California’s 37th District. At these rallies, 18 Militant subscriptions have been sold and 30 Pathfinder books — 18 of them in Farsi.
In London, reports Dag Tirsén, at a similar rally “about 1,500 gathered in Trafalgar Square on Oct. 22. Our book table was crowded even before we had the books up. Many people wanted to talk.” Communist League members participating in the action there sold 16 books, 15 single copies of the Militant and one subscription.
The eight-week drive, which runs through Nov. 15, aims to get 1,350 Militant subscriptions and to sell an equal number of books by revolutionary leaders. All Pathfinder titles can be purchased at a 20% discount during the course of this campaign.
To join in, contact the SWP or Communist League branch nearest you.