Fruit: ‘Today’s strikes key to building the labor movement
PITTSBURGH — “The presidential campaign of the Socialist Workers Party is the only voice representing the interests of our class — and I mean the working class worldwide,” Rachele Fruit, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. president, told a campaign meeting here Oct. 30.
Workers face similar conditions, “and we face the same challenge of developing a leadership that can lead a revolutionary fight for workers power in every country.”
Full-time jobs that pay enough to cover workers’ living expenses are hard to find in the U.S., Fruit said. “Millions work two or three jobs to make ends meet. The cost of rent, food, child care and other necessities are up about 25% on average since 2019.”
Fruit and her running mate, Dennis Richter, have visited picket lines of striking Boeing workers, flight attendants, longshoremen, Teamsters, autoworkers and others. Fruit said she walked the picket lines of hotel workers who can’t afford to live in the cities where they work in the Los Angeles area, and joined an action in downtown Miami organized by her union local of UNITE HERE
“These workers understand that the union is their vehicle to defend themselves. They are learning that their struggles are all political struggles too.”
Steps toward independent working-class political action will come as struggles deepen, she said. We need a party of labor “to fight against every outrage that the rulers commit against us and fight for the things we need. But it will take a fight for power to secure them. That’s the most important thing we can learn from Cuba’s socialist revolution.”
Fruit said, “Most workers know that this election won’t solve any of the fundamental questions we face. That will depend on what we do to defend ourselves.”
Fruit described discussions among rail workers about the conditions they face and votes on new contracts at a number of Class 1 railroads. The issue of safety is a life-and-death question, she said, and it can’t be bargained away. “No worker has to die on the job!”
In each area Fruit visited she sat down with workers to discuss the way forward. “In every case, our discussions centered on why we call for a party of labor and why the fight against Jew-hatred must be a question for the labor movement to champion. We have won new campaign endorsers in every city.”
Fruit explained that the Republican Party has tried to recast itself as a party for working people.
“This has been Donald Trump’s appeal since 2016,” Fruit noted. “He is willing to talk about the carnage facing working-class communities across the country. But the problem, he says, is the immigrant ‘invasion,’ and he calls for massive deportations of undocumented workers, which divides our class. Trump has singled out Haitians in Charleroi, Pennsylvania.
“I got a chance to meet workers there yesterday, many facing layoffs if their plant closes in December,” she said. The SWP calls for a union-led fight for a large-scale government-funded public works program to create jobs to put millions back to work at union-scale pay, building the housing, hospitals and other things we need.
“Kamala Harris shares the politics and social outlook of former President Barack Obama,” Fruit told the meeting. “They speak for an upper-middle-class layer, tens of millions strong — the ‘smart’ people — that has growing clout in the Democratic Party. They blame workers who they call ‘ignorant, racist, religious or patriotic’ for the situation we find ourselves in.”
The various frame-ups against Donald Trump organized by the White House and Democratic prosecutors were meant to prevent him from running for president, Fruit said, and they hoped to prevent millions from voting for him. In doing so they deal blows to constitutional freedoms working people need.
“Constitutional protections like freedom of speech, assembly, of worship, the right to bear arms, the right to a fair trial are held dearly by the working class,” she said. “It is the working class that will have to fight to defend them for everyone, including our political opponents.”
Take power from warmakers
The U.S. imperialist rulers seek to expand their economic, military and political sway throughout the world, Fruit said, “just like their competitors do. For decades they’ve deployed tens of thousands of troops, warships and fighter jets to the Middle East to protect their interests.
“They continue to try to stay Israel’s hand,” she said, as it defends itself from attack by the reactionary capitalist regime in Iran and its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas. “Even after Tehran launched 180 ballistic missiles against Israel Oct. 1, the Biden administration was still talking about the need for Israel to de-escalate.
“We defend Israel, which is a capitalist country, as a refuge against Jew-hatred and pogroms. It is the only country that will fight against the slaughter of the Jews,” said Fruit. “But the state of Israel cannot solve the problem” and end Jew-hatred for all time.
“The solution is tied to building a revolutionary working-class party of all nationalities in every country, including in Israel and in the U.S., that works toward workers taking power.
“This is a revolutionary perspective,” Fruit said. “It will take a disciplined movement of millions of working people to create a new world based on human solidarity. And it requires a party with the vision and the program to lead workers to victory. Join us in this effort, in whatever way you can. It’s the most meaningful thing you can do with your life.”