Socialist Workers National Campaign Statement issued by Ellie García Feb. 21.
Exploited farmers and ranchers face skyrocketing prices for fuel, seed, fertilizer, equipment and other inputs today. At the same time, capitalists reap vast profits from land speculation, driving up land prices and preventing small farmers from being economically viable. Under capitalism, working farmers take all of the risks: the burden of crop failures, unstable market conditions, high interest rates and taxes. State and federal regulatory bureaus like the Department of Agriculture tighten restrictions and crush small farmers and ranchers to the benefit of large-scale agribusiness.
Working people, the world over, confront either comparably declining conditions or much worse in the oppressed countries of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The global order imposed by the victors out of the inter-imperialist slaughter of World War II is shattering, with explosive ramifications for workers and farmers worldwide. A decadeslong retreat by the working class and our trade unions has come to an end, in the U.S. and beyond. Trade unionists are resisting the bosses, the capitalist rulers and their parties’ attempts to shift the burden of their crisis onto our backs. Deteriorating economic and social conditions are pressing more workers to begin to use their unions and build solidarity.
To move forward, we need an alliance of the exploited producers, an alliance of all workers and all small farmers, together against the capitalist class, our common enemy. They benefit from dividing us, worker against farmer, farmer against farmer, Black against Caucasian. As we build an alliance of the producing classes we will tear down these divisions.
The ruling capitalist families use the Democrats and Republicans, both imperialist parties, to make us think we have a choice as they prepare for the 2024 elections. We need to rely on our own strengths, instead of relying on their parties and politicians. We need a labor party based on the unions. There will be more union struggles, which will have an impact on farmers to find ways to fight back against the debt slavery the capitalists impose on them.
The workers and farmers in Cuba made a revolution in 1959 and established a workers and farmers government. Through this alliance they took their land out of the hands of the banks, nationalized the land, and fought to carry through far-reaching nationalizations of industry and utilities. Titles to the land were given to tens of thousands of peasants, guaranteeing their families the right to farm.
Here in the United States, trade union struggles will rise, as will farmers’ struggles, class against class. There will be more opportunities for workers and farmers to join forces and organize, for a leadership to develop out of those experiences and to build a worker-farmer alliance that can take power out of the hands of the capitalists and establish our own revolutionary political power, a workers and farmers government.