“Before the union came it was stressful working there,” said Sayre Archira, a former worker at TomaTek, a tomato processing plant in Firebaugh in California’s Central Valley. She was speaking with Socialist Workers Party members from Los Angeles and Oakland as they introduced the Militant and other party literature during their Oct. 11-13 visit to the area.
A successful organizing drive brought 1,100 workers at the factory into the Teamsters union after 91% voted for the union in July 2024. They ratified a contract with wage increases of over 20%. The valley is the agricultural hub of California, which produces over half the country’s vegetables, fruits and nuts.
“We were always running, doing multiple jobs, all for very low pay,” Sayre said. “The wage increase was really needed.”
“Nearly everyone we talked with had worked at TomaTek, or knew someone who has, and all expressed support for the union,” SWP member Betsey Stone reported.
She and party member Bernie Senter spoke with Carmen Santos, another former TomaTek worker. “Before, they had everyone running to keep up, firing and laying off people at will,” Santos said. “Now they have job protection.”
She got a Militant after expressing interest in an article on the transformation of sports in Cuba following the socialist revolution there. Her 10-year-old daughter, Frieda, who loves to play basketball, said that to be on the city team it costs over $1,000, which the family couldn’t afford. “After the workers took power in Cuba, school and other sports competitions were free, so everyone could participate,” said Stone, who wrote the article and was a highschool basketball player herself.
The SWP campaigners sold eight subscriptions to the Militant in three Central Valley towns. In Atwater, they talked with sweet potato workers about the recent victory of the United Farm Workers unionizing Viera Ag, the largest sweet potato company in the state.
In a complex of small apartments rented by farmworkers, more copies of the Militant were sold. Laborers there said the complex will shut in November when the sweet potato season ends. Many will look for work elsewhere and return next spring.
SWP members discussed the party’s demand for amnesty for workers in the U.S. without papers. “Equal rights for all who are working in the U.S. is in the interests of all working people,” SWP member Joel Britton told mechanic Luis Alcantar. “The case of Abrego García, whose union has defended him against deportation and government frame-up, is an example to be followed.”
Britton also explained the party’s stand in support of Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews and why Hamas needed to be completely defeated. “When Israel doesn’t finish the job it backfires, that has happened before,” Alcantar said. Britton said President Donald Trump is pushing a course to advance the interests of the U.S. capitalist rulers. This will let Hamas rebuild. After further discussion on capitalism’s economic crisis and its march toward another world war, Alcantar signed up for a subscription to learn more.
These efforts are part of a campaign by the SWP to sell 1,300 subscriptions to the Militant and an equal number of books by SWP and other revolutionary leaders from Sept. 20 to Nov. 18. The Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada and the U.K. are part of the effort.
Party members are discussing what can be done to advance workers’ struggles today and to win solidarity, and why it’s possible for workers to chart a course to take political power into our own hands. They’re presenting the party’s program and activity to workers on their doorsteps, at union picket lines and social protests.
SWP Party-Building Fund
The SWP relies on contributions from working people to finance its work. This fall’s Party-Building Fund has a target of raising $140,000. People attracted to the party and its working-class program are asked to contribute what they can.
Dozens of visitors to the Fall Fair in Cincinnati Oct. 11 were drawn to a SWP literature table. The party is running John Hawkins for mayor and Ned Measel for City Council.
Bosses push workers “to the limit with no regard to our safety, family needs, or even our lives,” Steven Justice, a worker with decades in steel mills and machine shops, told SWP members Anthony Dutrow and Jacquie Henderson.
“The Democrats and Republicans are both parties of the rich,” Justice said. “They will never be any help to workers.” He was pleased to meet the party, getting a subscription to the Militant along with The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class by V.I. Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Farrell Dobbs, James P. Cannon, Jack Barnes and Dave Prince.
Alexa Justice, Steven’s daughter, agreed. “This is exactly what I am looking for!” she told SWP member Valerie Libby, who encouraged her to participate in Militant Labor Forum programs and to join in campaigning for the party. “Yes, I want to do that,” she said. When her father suggested that she get an introductory Militant subscription, she said, “No! I don’t want to be without it after just 12 weeks.” She subscribed for a year.
“I know the answer to that question,” she laughed, when she saw the cover of Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Class, Privilege, and Learning Under Capitalism by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes. “But I’d like to find out more about how we ‘discover our own worth and learn what we’re capable of becoming,’ as the back cover says.” She bought the book.
Six subscriptions were sold and dozens took the party’s campaign platform.
‘Values U.S. labor coverage’
In the U.K., Communist League members Dag Tirsén and Hugh Robertson visited Militant subscribers in Peckham, London, Oct. 11. Syrus Cook said he liked the paper’s international coverage, especially “reports from labor struggles in the U.S.,” since the media there gives the impression the union movement in the U.S. is “totally suppressed.”
Cook had been part of a union fight with the bosses of the charity he works for, over better wages for newer hires. He said he wanted to spread the word about the campaign of Julie Crawford, the Communist League’s candidate for Southwark Council in 2026.
To help get the Militant and books on revolutionary working-class politics into more people’s hands or to make a contribution to the SWP Party-Building Fund, contact a distributor.