Socialist Workers Party candidates and members are campaigning against the U.S. rulers’ drive to war at home and abroad with workers on their doorsteps, on union picket lines and at political events. They’re making steady gains in the eight-week campaign to sell 1,300 Militant subscriptions, the same number of books by SWP leaders and other revolutionaries, and raise $165,000 for the annual Militant Fighting Fund.
Members of the Communist Leagues in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom are part of the effort.
Minneapolis SWP member Joanne Murphy knocked on Mata Henderson-Combs’ door in Fridley, Minnesota, April 19. Murphy pointed to the Militant headline “End Washington’s war for plunder in the Middle East.”
“It’s chaotic, heartbreaking, to see what Israel and the U.S. are doing,” Henderson-Combs, a member of the Service Employees International Union, told Murphy. “We shouldn’t even be over there.”
Murphy said Washington is out to seize control of oil and other resources and riches in the region, extend its position as the dominant imperialist power worldwide and push back its rivals. But Israel’s goals, she said, are different. “Israel is fighting a defensive war against the Jew-hating bourgeois clerical regime in Tehran, and its allies, Hamas and Hezbollah,” Murphy said. “The rulers in Iran are out to destroy Israel.”
After looking at a copy of The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class, Henderson-Combs asked, “What is a pogrom?”
It’s the organized massacre of Jews, Murphy explained, part of efforts by capitalist ruling classes to deflect blame from themselves at times of deepening crisis by targeting Jews. The book’s cover shows Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom. Its back cover explains “pogroms are now part of the permanent social convulsions and wars of the imperialist epoch.”
Henderson-Combs bought the book and decided to get a subscription to the Militant.
In Montreal, Communist League members Annette Kouri and Katy LeRougetel met over coffee with a United Steelworkers member on strike against Citadelle, a maple syrup company in Plessisville, Quebec, April 11. Workers there have been on strike since March 18, fighting for higher wages and better conditions on the job.
“Why are employers willing to risk their reputation by treating their employees so badly?” asked Thibaut, who requested his last name not be used.
“The bosses take the long view,” LeRougetel replied. “They’re preparing to survive the economic crisis, and they want to break our spirit, so they can drive us hard for years to come.”
“When they do that, they set uncontrolled forces into motion,” Thibaut said. “The unity we’ve created while on strike, that’s here to stay.” He got a subscription to the Militant.
Going door to door in the same area, LeRougetel and Kouri met Pierre Barilfiola, an unemployed metal worker who said he had friends on strike at Citadelle.
“The bosses’ answer to the economic crisis is to wage war on workers at home, and to wage war against each other abroad for markets and control,” Kouri said.
“Like the war on Iran,” Barilfiola said. “That’s a war for oil too.” He signed up to receive the Militant articles that are translated into French each week.
SWP candidates around the country are continuing to extend the party’s reach. The California Voter Information Guide contains the platform of Margaret Trowe, the SWP candidate for governor, who is on the ballot. It’s now available to the state’s 23 million voters in 11 languages, along with American Sign Language and audio versions of each language for the visually impaired.
To join in expanding the reach of the Militant, contact the distributor nearest you.