Confronted with a daily barrage of vitriolic campaign ads by the Democratic and Republicans berating each other ahead of the Nov. 3 elections, working people in the U.S. have welcomed discussions with Socialist Workers Party candidates about a road forward to defeat the bosses’ efforts to put the costs of their deepening capitalist crisis onto our backs.
To take advantage of the opportunity, SWP campaigners across the country are on a special 10-day expanded outreach to introduce the party and its program.
When Joanne Kuniansky, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate from New Jersey, knocked on the door of Darwin Cruz, a hospital electrician, in Perth Amboy Oct. 25, he wanted to talk about the sharp increase in the cost of healthcare.
Kuniansky pointed to Cuba, where every person has the right to free medical care offered with human solidarity. That’s the difference a revolution makes.
“The U.S. is going after Raúl Castro to pave the way for military intervention,” Cruz said. “Just like they did in Venezuela.” In May Washington provocatively filed frame-up charges against Castro and five Cuban pilots for “conspiracy” to murder four U.S.-based counterrevolutionaries who repeatedly violated Cuban air space, threatening attacks.
“The U.S. rulers are determined to overturn Cuba’s socialist revolution because of the example it sets,” Kuniansky said. “But the Cuban people are determined to defend what they’ve won. We join them, organizing protests in the streets here against Washington’s oil blockade and threats of attack.”
Cruz got a subscription to the Militant and Cuba and the Independence War in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde: The Fall of the Last Colonial Empire in Africa, a firsthand account of that struggle and the decisive role of its leader, Amílcar Cabral, by Cuban combatant Víctor Dreke.
As part of the special campaign week, members of the Socialist Workers Party from New York and Washington, D.C., took part in the 3rd Annual Amílcar Cabral Conference in Falmouth, Massachusetts, an event organized by the Cape Cod Cape Verdean Museum and Cultural Center. Museum director Barbara Burgo invited Pathfinder to bring its literature and participate.
Of the 25 people present, 16 bought Pathfinder titles including 11 copies of Cuba and the Independence War in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Two people subscribed to the Militant.
Margaret Trowe, SWP candidate for governor of California, and campaign supporters traveled to Fresno Oct. 24 to talk with workers there about how to push back against the expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation being carried out across the state.
They gave out a statement — “Amnesty for undocumented workers: It’s in the interests of all working people” — issued by Trowe and Laura Garza, SWP candidate for Los Angeles mayor.
“What you’re saying is good, but I don’t think that will ever happen,” Martín Mejía, a landscape and construction worker who was fixing his car, told Trowe. With a smile he added that as a young man working in California’s grape fields, he won legal status under the amnesty granted 40 years ago during the administration of Ronald Reagan. In 1986, 2.9 million immigrant workers won amnesty under Reagan.
Mejía got a subscription to the Militant and wished Trowe well.
Campaign on the radio
Naomi Craine, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate from Illinois, was interviewed Oct. 26 on “Cafecito con Vicky,” a daily Spanish-language radio show in Chicago. The host, Vicky Corces, who was born in Mexico and supports the Cuban Revolution, bought a subscription to the Militant earlier in the year. In a discussion with campaign supporters about renewing her subscription and getting a copy of Dreke’s book, she invited Craine to speak on her program. They promoted an Oct. 28 rally in Chicago to demand an end to Washington’s blockade against Cuba.
Later in the day, Craine and campaign supporters set up a table at a transit hub where they passed out literature and built the upcoming Cuba rally. Three people subscribed to the Militant and two of them took advantage of special book offers available with a subscription and got a copy of Revolution and the Road to Peace in Colombia by Fidel Castro and Cuba and the Independence War in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.
Nat London and another Militant supporter set up a table at the march of more than 100,000 in Paris Oct. 24. “Our posters drew lots of attention and from the limited number of books we were able to bring we sold 12 French-language Pathfinder books and a copy of the Militant,” he said.
So far in the 10-day special election campaign effort, 155 new readers have signed up for Militant subscriptions and 257 books have been sold. This gives a boost to the seven-week international campaign by the SWP and Communist Leagues in Canada, Australia and the U.K. to win 1,150 Militant subscribers and sell an equal number of books by SWP and other revolutionary leaders. And another $23,585 was collected toward the $140,000 SWP Party-Building Fund. For full campaign results see the attached chart.
To join in the campaigning, find a campaign center near you.