Socialist Workers Party members are getting a good response from workers and young people searching for a way out of today’s worsening crisis of capitalism that’s driving rival ruling classes toward a new world war. They’re presenting the party’s perspective that the only way out is for working people to take political power into our own hands.
134 Pathfinder books
sold at African Studies
conference in Atlanta
The SWP and the Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada and the U.K. are discussing a revolutionary road forward with workers who recently got subscriptions to the Militant during the party’s fall propaganda campaign.
“I love everything about the paper, especially how it tells the truth about what’s really happening in the world,” Tyrone Morgan, a retired school cafeteria worker and longtime member of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 372, told this worker-correspondent when I met him on his doorstep in New York City Dec. 7.
Morgan was pleased to hear about the 50,000-strong march by unionists and other working people against the Quebec government’s assault on union and political rights. He said he “was looking forward to reading more about it.”
“The bosses always underestimate what working people are capable of doing,” I said. Then I showed him the book Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Class, Privilege, and Learning Under Capitalism by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes. He decided to buy it and gave an additional $3 donation.
In Minneapolis SWP members Kevin Dwire and Joanne Murphy met a construction worker from Colombia while they campaigned door to door Dec. 6. They discussed the earlier civil war in Colombia and he said he didn’t like the methods used by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which included taking civilian hostages.
The SWP campaigners showed him the title Revolution and the Road to Peace in Colombia: The Example of the Cuban Revolution by Fidel Castro and he decided to buy it. Castro was part of efforts to end six decades of armed conflict that ended in 2008. In the book Castro describes the lessons of the rich experience of working people in Cuba as they fought to take state power and make the first socialist revolution in the Americas.
In Richmond, California, SWP members Maggie Trowe and Andrea Morell brought solidarity to 3,000 schoolteachers and other workers on strike against the West Contra Costa Unified School District there Dec. 4. At the picket line the president of Teamsters Local 586 subscribed to the Militant and purchased Teamster Power and Cosmetics, Fashion, and the Exploitation of Women. Another teacher bought the Spanish edition of Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? with a subscription.
The SWP is running Norton Sandler for governor of California in next year’s election.
Party members Bernie Senter and Ray Parsons set up a table to promote the Sandler campaign at Los Angeles City College Dec. 3. They met a student whose family was from Armenia who pointed to the Militant headline, “Defend Israel’s right to exist! Stop Hamas terror in Gaza.” She asked Parsons to explain the headline because it seemed to her that people in Gaza are struggling against an Israeli occupation.
“Hamas is the central obstacle to working people of all nationalities coming together to address their problems,” Parsons replied. He pointed to Hamas’ thuggery against Palestinians and its deadly Jew-hating assaults.
“National divisions are harmful to the working class,” she said. They discussed the recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan and politics in the U.S. She liked what Parsons said about the Republican and Democratic parties serving the interests of the capitalist class, not workers, and decided to get a subscription to the Militant.
In Montreal the organizer of the International Forum on Development and Solidarity invited Pathfinder Books to have a table at the event Dec. 5-6. He had previously seen Pathfinder titles at the November Montreal Book Fair. Some 250 Africans, living both in North America and French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa, and others participated in the forum’s panel discussions and plenary sessions.
Communist League campaigners sold 17 books by revolutionary working-class leaders at the event, including titles by Thomas Sankara, the leader of the 1983-87 revolution in Burkina Faso. Two participants left with French-language copies of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power.
To find out more and join in campaigning for the SWP candidates, contact the area nearest you.