PLAINFIELD, N.J. — Joanne Kuniansky, inset, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of New Jersey, spoke to some 400 people at a candidates town hall at the Shiloh Baptist Church here Sept. 25. The event was organized by the National Pan-Hellenic Councils Across New Jersey.
“The imperialist epoch we are living in is driven by cutthroat competition between rival imperialist powers for resources, markets and labor to exploit,” Kuniansky told the gathering. “Governments are rearming with modern weapons capable of unimaginable destruction.
“Only the working class taking political power,” can prevent more wars, she said. “In the U.S., more workers are using their unions to fight, gain confidence and learn the power of collective action — not individual solutions.
“I support Israel’s defensive war to defeat Hamas. These Nazi-like thugs have made clear that their goal is to wipe out Israel, half of the world’s Jewish population — another Holocaust.
“Defeating Hamas will create better conditions for Palestinians, Jews and others to join in common struggles to advance the interests of all working people in the Mideast,” she said.
Each gubernatorial candidate — Kuniansky, Libertarian Vic Kaplan and Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill — made presentations and fielded questions in separate sessions moderated by Anthony Johnson, a reporter for ABC 7 Eyewitness News. Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli declined to participate.
Several participants stopped to talk with Kuniansky afterwards to learn more about the SWP.