MINNEAPOLIS — Supporters of Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Minneapolis Kevin Dwire are fanning out widely to present the party’s working-class program and its championing of union and other struggles to working people as they campaign to put him on the ballot.
Three days into the effort, SWP members have won 203 people to sign up, toward the party’s goal of collecting 750 signatures, well above the 500 required for ballot status. Six subscriptions to the Militant and four books on revolutionary working-class politics have been sold so far. The SWP is also running Edwin Fruit for City Council in Ward 1.
Along with SWP members elsewhere in the country, campaigners in Minneapolis are distributing a June 25 statement issued by the party’s National Committee, “Defend Israel’s battles to prevent another Holocaust! US troops, bases and warships out of the Mideast!” It’s available in English, French and Spanish on the Militant’s website.
Dwire presented the working-class alternative to the capitalist parties at a mayoral forum in the Little Earth neighborhood of Minneapolis June 25, sponsored by the American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center.
In response to a question about what candidates would do about homelessness in Minneapolis, Dwire said this crisis is a product of the workings of capitalism. What’s needed, he explained, is for workers and our unions to break with the Democrats and Republicans and build a party of our own capable of leading the fight to take power out of the hands of the capitalist rulers.
Dwire pointed to the example of the Cuban Revolution. After workers and farmers took power in 1959, their revolutionary government slashed rents, as it mobilized millions to nationalize industry, grant land to those who till it, end capitalist exploitation and to deepen the role of workers in running all aspects of social and political life.
Dwire urged participants “who agree with what we’re presenting to join the SWP and fight together with us.”
He pointed to comments made by Malcolm X in 1965 when he was asked if he was trying to wake people up to their exploitation. “No,” Malcolm replied, “to their humanity, to their own worth and to their heritage.”
After the forum, a member of the Native American organization told Dwire, “I’d like to shake your hand. You are the only one who talked about self-worth and dignity. That is what we’re trying to promote in our community.”
Another mayoral candidate, Brenda Short, told Dwire, “Listening to you, it crossed my mind that I should just back you. I would have to know more. But you were the only other person that talked about what regular people are facing.” She got a copy of the Militant. The ballot drive continues through July 12.
US rulers’ Mideast intervention
In North Miami, Florida, SWP members Chuck Guerra and Rachele Fruit talked to airport worker Roudy Francis on his doorstep June 28.
“Which of the two parties do you identify with most?” Francis asked.
“Neither,” Fruit replied. “Both are bosses’ parties. The SWP is a party of workers that takes the side of the working class on all questions.”
“I’m glad you said that,” Francis replied. “What do you think about the United States getting involved in the war between Israel and Iran. Aren’t they supporting Israel?”
The U.S. rulers “don’t care about Israel’s right to exist or the fate of the Jews,” Guerra said. “They’re intervening to protect their own economic and political interests in the region, to send a message to the competing capitalist powers there.”
“To show them who’s top dog,” Francis added. He signed up for a subscription to the Militant.
To help get out the Militant or join in campaigning for the SWP go to the directory.
