“When the Key Bridge collapsed, truckers were promised funds by the government. But that doesn’t mean we saw any money,” Ernest Beard, a trucker and a veteran, told James Harris, Socialist Workers Party candidate for D.C. delegate to the U.S. Congress, and SWP campaigner Kaitlin Estill at a truck stop in Jessup, Maryland, Oct. 16.
“Bills were signed, articles were written, so people think we got it. But there was never any money,” he said. The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after it was struck by a fully loaded container vessel that lost power March 26. The Port of Baltimore was closed for 11 weeks after the disaster.
“I was thrown out of work and two days away from being evicted,” Beard told the SWP campaigners. “My landlord said, ‘I don’t care that the bridge fell, what does that have to do with me getting my money?’ I was only able to stay because the Veterans Administration stepped in.”
“Truck drivers and workers at the Port of Baltimore should be fully compensated,” Harris said. “The collapse of the bridge did not need to happen. It was the result of the shipping bosses’ drive for profit and their complete indifference to the lives and safety of working people. It’s one example of why working people must organize to take power out of the hands of the capitalist class and begin to use the wealth that we create for the benefit of all rather than the wealthy few.”
Beard described how truck drivers at the port have been discussing the need to unionize to defend themselves. He subscribed to the Militant.
Rachele Fruit and Dennis Richter, the SWP’s presidential ticket, and members of the Socialist Workers Party and of the Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada and the U.K. are at the midway point in the fall campaign to win 1,300 readers to the Militant, and the same number of books by SWP leaders and other revolutionaries. The drive ends Nov. 19.
In the U.S. they’re raising $140,000 for the SWP Party-Building Fund.
‘Solid response’ to SWP fund
SWP campaigners in Atlanta have gotten $8,955 pledged toward their goal of collecting $10,000 for the fund, with $4,100 already in hand. “We had a solid start,” Susan LaMont, the organizer of the party’s branch there, told the Militant. “Élan is high among SWP campaigners because of what the party is doing in response to the big turning points in world politics we’re living through.”
In every area plans are being laid to meet the fund quotas in full and on time. The fund is important to financing the work of the SWP, which relies on contributions from working people attracted to the party’s program and activity.
The party encourages Militant readers and endorsers of the SWP campaign to get involved in the effort.
In Seattle, SWP campaigners report a good response when they introduced the party and the Militant to working people in the South Park area of the city Oct. 16. The day before a large rally had been held in the neighborhood by striking members of the International Association of Machinists at Boeing.
“The team got five subscriptions and sold six books,” Rebecca Williamson, the organizer of the Seattle SWP branch, reports.
Kaylie Hartsock, a psychology student who works as a billing coder, and her boyfriend, Ryan Kuehn, a 3-D artist, talked with the SWP candidate for governor of Washington state, Vincent Auger. “The system is set up so that you don’t have time to read, to study,” Kuehn said. “And you have to go to work or you won’t be able to feed your kids or spend time with them,” Hartsock added.
Auger pointed to a number of recent labor struggles where workers have fought to push back mandatory overtime and end onerous schedules that make family life impossible.
“Like at Boeing,” Kuehn added. “That company has been screwing them over for generations.”
Hartsock and Kuehn got a Militant subscription and copies of Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Class, Learning, and Privilege Under Capitalism by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes, and Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs. To endorse the SWP ticket and help get out the word about the party’s campaigns, contact the SWP branch nearest you.