Members of the Socialist Workers Party are off to a solid start in the party’s fall propaganda and fund campaign, which runs from Sept. 20 to Nov. 18. They’re discussing the SWP’s response to today’s strike battles, capitalist economic crisis and the growing threat of war. They invite fellow workers to join with the party in advancing the interests of the working class.
These discussions point to a road forward for the working class, a road to take political power from the capitalist class and into our own hands.
The goal of the campaign is to sell 1,300 subscriptions to the Militant and an equal number of books by Socialist Workers Party and other revolutionary leaders, and to win support for the party’s candidates. SWP campaigners describe how the party is financed solely by its members and fellow workers, asking people for contributions and to join. The goal of this fall’s Party-Building Fund is $140,000.
Members of the Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada and the U.K. are extending the Militant and book campaign internationally.
Party members reach out in working-class districts in cities and towns to engage with workers on their doorsteps, on union picket lines and at protests, like those against Jew-hatred, and at other social actions of vital importance to the working class.
John Hawkins, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Cincinnati, was joined by campaign supporters Anthony Dutrow and Jacquie Henderson meeting rail workers at a CSX yard gate Sept. 25. One who had gotten the paper previously rolled down his window, saying, “Yes, I want my paper!” He gave them $3 “to make up for the ones I’ve missed. See you next week.”
The yard is in the midst of a busy industrial area, with a road to nearby plants. Over the more than two years that SWP members have campaigned regularly there, drivers going to work have pulled over to talk, and buy the Militant and Pathfinder books.
“I’ve seen you here before,” Jackey Taylor said as he pulled up. “What’s this all about?”
“We’re a working-class party,” Hawkins explained. “This is one of the ways we reach out to fellow workers, presenting the need to break with the capitalist parties that try to shore up their crises-ridden system with wars abroad and attacks on working and living conditions at home. We pose the need for workers power.”
“So you’re not Democrats or Republicans?” Taylor asked.
“No. They’re the parties of the bosses,” replied Hawkins. “The capitalist class tries to squeeze more and more out of workers in their competition for profit. That drive is also the source of their rivalries and wars in the world today.”
Looking over the party campaign leaflet, Taylor asked, “Were you really a coal miner? Tell me about that.”
“That’s not just about me, it’s about our class,” Hawkins replied. “Union miners in this area and across the coalfields fought against the bosses’ drive for profits at the expense of miners’ lives. They exposed government cover-ups and fought for ways to mine coal without devouring their lives, limbs and health. They took control of their union and their fight for safety succeeded in putting an end to black lung disease.”
After talking with Hawkins for several minutes, Taylor subscribed to the Militant, saying, “I’d like to learn more.” Hawkins said he’d contact him about getting together.
Independence for Puerto Rico
At the Puerto Rican Day Parade in Philadelphia Sept. 28, Kyrsis Sabater told SWP member Chris Hoeppner she agreed with the sign on the party campaign table, “Oppose U.S. war maneuvers in Puerto Rico!” She was one of several people there who wanted to discuss what was behind Washington blowing up boats off the coast of Venezuela and stationing warplanes in Puerto Rico, and what could be done about it.
Sabater bought a subscription to the Militant and Puerto Rico: Independence Is a Necessity by Rafael Cancel Miranda, on the fight against U.S. colonial rule.
“What is the Socialist Workers Party?” asked a Puerto Rican college student. After a discussion about the necessity to build a revolutionary working-class party in the U.S. that can lead millions to take power out of the hands of the imperialist rulers, he bought a Militant subscription and two books, Labor, Nature, and the Evolution of Humanity by Frederick Engels, Karl Marx, George Novack and Mary-Alice Waters, and Socialism and Man in Cuba by Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
‘Opening Guns of World War III’
At a party campaign table at a busy southwest Chicago transit stop, a 25-year-old medical coordinator who works at the University of Illinois stopped to talk politics with SWP member Leroy Watson. She asked that only her initials, A.R., be used for fear of reprisal at work.
The title, “Opening Guns of World War III” by Jack Barnes on the cover of New International no. 7 caught her eye and she bought it. A.R. subscribed to the Militant, and also got two other New International magazines that explain the historic decline of the world’s final empire and the revolutionary capacities of the working class to take power and prevent World War III.
Hugo Wils, a Communist League member in the U.K., spoke to Ian Whittaker, a foster care worker and former supermarket union steward, while campaigning door to door in Manchester Sept. 27. As part of a wide-ranging discussion, Whittaker said he thought “things are simmering underneath, people are getting angrier and the media lies about it.”
He agreed with Wils that “Israel needs to defeat Hamas in this war. If they don’t, the conflict will just continue for years to come.”
“Our class needs to take power,” Wils responded, “like the Bolsheviks organized to do in Russia. It’s what ended the first world war.”
Whittaker said he had heard “about Lenin taking Russia out of the war.” He added he thought “what Stalin did was monstrous.” Interested in learning more, including about what he called “the fight within the Bolsheviks against Stalin led by Leon Trotsky,” he subscribed to the Militant.
To join in helping circulate the Militant and books on revolutionary working-class politics, and to make a contribution, contact the distributor nearest you from the list in the directory.
Jacquie Henderson from Cincinnati contributed to this article.
