At an April 15 rally of over 600 UPS workers and their supporters in Orange, California, Socialist Workers Party members Norton Sandler and Fredy Huinil extended solidarity and joined discussions with Teamsters union members there. They’re fighting for a new contract.
During a conversation with Eric Sanchez, who is a driver and union shop steward, Sandler pointed to the significance of this fight for all working people. “The union movement is handicapped by relying on the Democratic Party, which protects the interests of the rich,” Sandler said. “Workers need our own party, a labor party based on our unions that fights in our interests.”
“I agree,” Sanchez replied, “but how we get there is the question. Third parties have tried but haven’t gone anywhere.”
Conditions are changing under the impact of the employers’ attempt to take their crisis out on our backs, Sandler said, and workers are more open to the idea of a labor party than they have been in some time.
Sanchez got a six-month subscription to the Militant and a copy of Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs. The book recounts the strike battles and union-organizing drives carried out by Teamsters in Minneapolis in the 1930s — struggles that pointed the road toward independent working-class political action.
Before the Teamsters rally, Huinil and Sandler approached a group of workers from the San Marcos UPS terminal, showing them the Militant and Teamster Rebellion. They were especially interested in the book as they had recently listened to a recording of a talk by Farrell Dobbs. Three got copies of the book along with three Militant subscriptions.
One worker at the protest also purchased The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us: The Socialist Workers Party Looks Forward by SWP leaders Jack Barnes, Mary-Alice Waters and Steve Clark.
Discussing new openings for advancing a working-class course forward is at the heart of the spring campaign to get 1,350 subscriptions to the Militant, sell 1,350 books by SWP and other revolutionary leaders, and raise $165,000 for the Militant Fighting Fund by May 16.
Members of the SWP and of the Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada and the U.K. are talking to working people on their doorsteps in cities, towns, farms and rural areas; on union picket lines; and at protests called to defend the interests of workers from Ukraine to Iran.
‘Learn from experience’
“We learn about socialism online, but I want to learn from people who have had real experiences,” Florida International University student Thaly Marcu told Socialist Workers Party members Rachele Fruit and Alex Huinil, on the campus April 13.
Fruit pointed to the fight of workers, farmers and small-business owners in East Palestine, Ohio, for control over the cleanup following the train derailment there and the role of the Militant in organizing solidarity for this and other working-class struggles.
Marcu looked over The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation by Abram Leon. “People always say, ‘How can you oppose antisemitism if you are critical of the Israeli government, if you don’t support Netanyahu?’” she asked.
“The SWP supports the right of Israel to exist 100%,” Fruit responded. “Since the Holocaust it has been a refuge for Jews fleeing antisemitic attacks. But we don’t support the anti-working-class policies of the Israeli government any more than we support the U.S. government.”
Marcu got the book and a Militant subscription to share with others.
Communist League members Dag Tirsén and Andrés Mendoza spoke with Ishak Milani at the Kurdish Community Centre in north London April 9. After seeing the Militant ’s coverage of the fight for Ukraine’s sovereignty, Milani said, “We support Ukraine because we identify with their struggle. Putin is trying to do the same to Ukraine as [Turkish President] Erdogan does to us Kurds. We’ve been living this for 400 years.”
Mendoza showed him the book The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us, explaining that the fight for Ukrainian independence is part of a growing number of struggles by working people and the oppressed around the world. Milani got the book and a year’s subscription.
Funds keep arriving both by mail and online for the Militant Fighting Fund. “The Militant really captures the growing resistance by working people in the U.S. and worldwide, and the openness to revolutionary ideas!” writes Ray Parsons from Delmar, New York, in a message he sent with his donation.
To join in the campaign to expand the reach of the Militant, to get out books that explain that workers are capable of leading revolutionary struggle, and to contribute to the Militant Fighting Fund, see the directory for the party or Communist League branch nearest you. Donations to the fund can also be made online at themilitant.com.