There is growing interest in the Socialist Workers Party and its candidates today, spurred by the party’s activities in support of labor battles and its working-class response to deepgoing shifts in world politics. It reflects workers’ increasing recognition that neither the Democrats nor Republicans have any interest in fighting the worsening conditions we face, let alone offer a road out of the capitalist crisis.
At union picket lines, protests against deportations and in working-class neighborhoods, SWP members are discussing how working people can defend ourselves from the bosses and their governments. And what it will take to bring an end to capitalist exploitation — the root cause of the increasing difficulties workers face providing for their families — as well as the growing threat of new wars.
Craig Honts, the SWP candidate for lieutenant governor of New Jersey, reports that five striking sanitation workers got subscriptions to the Militant during a July 19-20 visit he and other party members made to bring solidarity to the Teamster picket lines at Republic Services in Massachusetts. The workers are members of Local 25.
During a discussion with garbage truck driver Shane Alexson about working conditions, SWP members pointed to the need to organize all workers — regardless of their immigration status — into unions.
Some unions are beginning to defend immigrant members who are being detained, they said. If you work, you should be in a union.
“Exactly,” Alexson replied. “These anti-immigrant raids by ICE are terrible.” After looking at the Militant’s coverage of today’s labor battles, as well as the fight to defend Israel as a refuge for Jews, he decided to get a subscription and a copy of Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs, an SWP leader and central organizer of the powerful movement that built the union across the Midwest in the 1930s.
“My wife’s from Latin America and is Jewish,” he said.
Another copy of Teamster Rebellion and The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us: The Socialist Workers Party Looks Forward by SWP leaders Jack Barnes, Mary-Alice Waters and Steve Clark were bought by strikers.
CL in Canada winning support
In Montreal the Communist League held a well-attended barbecue July 19 for people to meet its candidates, Katy LeRougetel for mayor of Montreal and Philippe Tessier for mayor of the St. Leonard borough.
Two people came to the event who had just met the CL as it was gathering signatures to put the candidates on the ballot. So far 122 signatures have been collected toward the goal of 300 for LeRougetel, and 47 of 150 for Tessier. Campaigning to go over the top is being organized in August.
Socialist Workers Party members are joining demonstrations to protest against ICE raids and deportations. SWP members took part in a protest at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, July 14. One of the speakers was Ngoc Phan, whose husband Tuan Thanh Phan, originally from Vietnam, was deported by the U.S. government to South Sudan in March.
“They are hunting down our people like dogs,” she told the rally. “We need brave leaders who will stand up. If Governor Ferguson isn’t willing to stand up, he should get voted out.”
After the rally Phan spoke with Rebecca Williamson, SWP candidate for King County Executive.
“It’s the capitalist class that’s driving the attacks that are coming down on workers,” Williamson said. Phan agreed when Williamson pointed out that both Democratic and Republican administrations carry out deportations and scapegoat immigrants to try and divide workers and attack our wages and conditions. We need to organize independently of them, Williamson said.
Fight to unify working people
“The fight for an amnesty for workers without papers is a fight to unify the working class,” Williamson said. “Working people have forced the government to grant broad amnesties before, and we can do it again.
“Ultimately it will take a movement of millions to put working people in power and bring about the changes we need.”
Phan got a subscription to the Militant and a copy of The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us.
SWP members Maggie Trowe and Eric Simpson set up a campaign table July 12 in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, in front at a drugstore parking lot where day laborers gather to find work.
“Yes, we need a revolutionary party,” retired construction worker Mario Arevalo told the SWP campaigners after they showed him the Militant. Arevalo had been part of the revolutionary movement in El Salvador during the civil war there in the 1980s.
He said he became disillusioned with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, a revolutionary organization that had initially advanced struggles by workers and landless peasants against a brutal dictatorship backed by Washington. But the FMLN lacked the program and class orientation to take power and turned away from leading workers and farmers to act in their own interests. It transformed itself into another capitalist party.
“It sold out for money,” Arevalo said. “Yes, but that’s not inevitable,” Trowe replied, it depends on whether a communist working-class leadership is built. She pointed to Revolution and the Road to Peace in Colombia: The Example of the Cuban Revolution by Fidel Castro. It draws on the lessons of the revolutionary struggle in Cuba that culminated in working people taking power and making a socialist revolution.
“The SWP is building a revolutionary party here today,” Trowe said.
Arevalo liked what Trowe and Simpson had to say, including the SWP’s backing for Israel’s war to defeat Hamas. He got a copy of the Militant and the SWP National Committee’s June 25 statement “Defend Israel’s battle to prevent another Holocaust! US troops, bases and warships out of the Mideast!” He thanked the SWP members for campaigning in the area.
The statement is available on the Militant website.
The SWP is looking for people who want to learn more about fighting to change society and to get involved with the party. To help get out the Militant, check out the location nearest you.
Beverly Bernardo in Montreal, Rebecca Williamson in Seattle and Eric Simpson in Oakland contributed to this article.