OAKLAND, Calif. — The Socialist Workers Party eight-week spring campaign to introduce workers to its candidates, expand the readership of the Militant, get out books by SWP leaders and other revolutionaries and win contributions to the Militant Fighting Fund showed an increase in openings to build revolutionary working-class parties.
Members of the SWP and the Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada and the U.K. discussed the shifts underway in world politics with thousands of workers. Many sense that the accelerating rivalries between capitalist powers worldwide threaten more wars and that the bosses’ parties in the U.S., the Democrats and Republicans, have no way to prevent this.
SWP campaigners found people attracted to a party of workers that presents a clear working-class response on all political questions, and who were interested in learning more about the party’s principled record and the revolutionary road forward it presents.
The final chart showing party branches going over the top on all their campaign goals was published in last week’s issue.
“The response we got at two May Day actions in Los Angeles and Riverside were a real confirmation of the openness to the party and its program,” Norton Sandler, SWP candidate for California governor, told the Militant. Party members sold 31 books and 21 subscriptions in the two cities.
“During the campaign, several people gave bigger contributions to the Militant Fighting Fund than in previous years, in response to what the party is doing,” Sandler added. “We went almost $1,000 over our quota.”
In Oakland “on picket lines, on the job and in working-class neighborhoods we found more workers who are looking for a way forward out of the crisis,” Betsey Stone, the organizer of the SWP branch here, reports.
Tells truth about workers’ struggles
“Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union who struck against Valley Transportation Authority in March organized a strong fight for wages and working conditions,” Stone said.
“When city officials slandered the workers as being greedy and used the courts to order them back to work, the strikers appreciated the Militant’s coverage of their fight. Many we got to know on the picket line were interested in the party’s program in response to the worldwide economic crisis, wars and trade wars. A number subscribed to the Militant and bought books.
“We campaigned at the farmworkers march in Delano in March with a statement calling for amnesty for undocumented workers, and got a good response from workers who harvest strawberries and sweet potatoes in the Central Valley,” Stone said. Some 30 subscriptions were sold at the union-backed march of 5,000 farmworkers and their supporters.
“Eric Simpson, the SWP candidate for Oakland mayor, participated in four candidate forums,” Stone said. “That was a road to meeting quite a few workers. Getting a description of the campaign into the voters guide and coverage in local papers introduced many thousands to the party’s revolutionary program, including the importance of the fight against Jew-hatred for the working class.”
“Now we’re getting back to the people we met during the campaign who were most interested,” Stone said.
“The Socialist Workers Party and its program are getting more known here,” Dennis Richter, organizer of the SWP branch in Dallas-Fort Worth, told the Militant May 27. “Alyson Kennedy, SWP candidate for Fort Worth mayor, received more than 1,600 votes in the election May 3.
“While it was officially a ‘nonpartisan’ election, Kennedy made it clear she was the Socialist Workers Party candidate in interviews, candidate forums and in the voters guide,” Richter said. She spoke on the big questions facing working people worldwide and explained what the SWP has to offer — building a party that is capable and resolute to lead millions of working people to take political power into our own hands.
“Interest in what we’re saying is stronger, no question about that,” Kennedy told this reporter. “There is more recognition of what working people are facing with the growing threat of war. We always get a good response from workers on our defense of Israel’s right to exist.”
SWP member Gerardo Sánchez spoke with a woman originally from Mexico, on her doorstep in Fort Worth May 25. They discussed Jew-hatred and the killings in Washington, D.C.
“She said she didn’t know much about Hamas,” Sánchez told the Militant, “but had heard this group wanted to get rid of Israel.”
Sánchez described the significance of the protests by Palestinians in Gaza demanding “Hamas out! Out!” that the Militant has reported on.
“That is interesting. I’d like to read more about that,” she said. “I need to learn more.” She bought a Militant subscription and The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class.
“We need to put in another order for that book,” Richter said. “We only have four left.”
To find out more about the SWP, contact the branch nearest you.