Washington’s war on Iran and threats against Cuba’s socialist revolution, along with bosses’ attacks on workers and our unions, are at the center of discussions Socialist Workers Party members are having.
The party is in the middle of an eight-week campaign to sell 1,300 subscriptions to the Militant, the same number of books by SWP leaders and other revolutionaries, and to raise $165,000 for the annual Militant Fighting Fund. The fund is crucial for the paper to continue coming out each week.
SWP members are explaining that capitalism is the source of the problems workers face and discussing the kind of political party workers need to lead the struggle to replace capitalist rule with workers power. Members of the Communist Leagues in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom are part of the effort.
“We’re campaigning against the war and explaining the importance of the meatpackers strike in Greeley, Colorado,” Rachele Fruit, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate from Florida, told Dougera Illarion in North Miami, Florida, April 12. “Workers need to break from the Democratic and Republican parties and support a party that defends the interests of our class.”
“Now you’ve got my attention. I’ve never heard anyone say that before — a party for the workers,” Illarion, a mechanic, said. “Do you think our government is messed up?”
“The government is the government of big business, the ruling class, no matter which of the bosses’ two parties is in the White House,” SWP member David Rosenfeld added. He asked Illarion what he thought about the war.
“The war is about the minerals and the oil. We pay for the war and they make the money,” Illarion replied.
As Illarion looked over a copy of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, Fruit said, “Malcolm was attracted to the Cuban Revolution.”
“Fidel lived by the rules of life — the life of working people,” Illarion said. “These books look good, but I’m going to first read the Militant to find out what’s going on in the world.” He signed up for a subscription.
In Sydney, Australia, Manuele Lasalo, a member of the Communist League, and CL supporter Baskaran Appu spoke with Clara Flemming on her doorstep April 4. Lasalo described the growing competition between rival capitalist rulers for resources, markets and profits.
“In my opinion the competition is about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. I’m with the workers,” Flemming said.
“Working people face a world of spreading wars,” Lasalo said. “The war against Iran is really two wars, the U.S. rulers are waging a war for their own class interests, but Israel is fighting a defensive war.”
“I’m not a Jew, but I support Israel’s right to defend itself,” Flemming replied. She signed up to get a subscription to the Militant.
‘U.S. is grave of medical certificates’
While campaigning door to door in Euless, Texas, April 12, Alyson Kennedy, SWP candidate for governor, met Ismail, a Sudanese Uber driver.
He said he came to the U.S. two years ago because of the civil war in his country and couldn’t find a job in health care, even though he arrived with a degree in radiology. For immigrant workers “the U.S. is the grave of medical certificates,” he said.
“The bosses discriminate and exploit immigrant workers as part of driving down the conditions and wages of the working class,” Kennedy said. “There is a war against working people both here and abroad so the wealthy class can make a profit.”
Ismail got a subscription to the Militant and a copy of Cuba and the Independence War in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde: The Fall of the Last Colonial Empire in Africa by Víctor Dreke. The book provides a firsthand account of Cuba’s decisive aid to that struggle and is invaluable for understanding the working-class internationalism that guides those who led the first socialist revolution in the Americas.
To join the effort to expand readership of the Militant and books by revolutionary working-class leaders, contact the area nearest you.