http://themilitant.com/2017/8117/811704.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 17 May 1, 2017
(front page)
Join SWP to campaign against US war moves
BY MARY MARTIN
At the end of the second week of the SWP spring campaign to introduce
the party, the Militant and books from Pathfinder Press to working
people, SWP members report they find real interest in discussing the
party’s opposition to Washington’s war moves from Korea and Afghanistan
to Syria and Iraq. Workers are keen to discuss and debate what is behind
Washington’s wars and what workers should think about them.
The goal of the effort is to expand the reach of the party’s
publications and to increase the number of workers involved in its
activities.
The drive runs concurrently with the Militant Fighting Fund, to raise
$112,000 to cover the Militant’s operating expenses, reporters’ trips to
flashpoints in the class struggle and to help subsidize subscriptions to
prisoners. The fund drive chart is on page 3.
“We urged workers and young people we met to join us in calling for U.S.
hands off Korea and for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops and
planes from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan,” Margaret Trowe, Socialist
Workers Party candidate for mayor of Albany, New York, said when she and
other SWP members campaigned across the city April 15-16. “Some people
disagreed, others liked what we had to say. But everyone thought this
was important for working people to discuss. We explained how
Washington’s wars are an extension of the capitalist rulers’ offensive
against our class here at home.”
From Chicago Dan Fein writes that SWP campaigners Ilona Gersh and Leroy
Watson debated the war question on workers’ doorsteps in the
ex-coalfield town of Morganfield, Kentucky. “I think Obama should have
taken out Assad years ago when chemical weapons were first used in
Syria,” Wesley DeTalente, a retired pipefitter, told them after looking
at the SWP statement, “Get US out of Syria, Iraq!” on the front page of
the Militant.
After more discussion, including about how U.S. bombings make it harder
for Syrian toilers to organize to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad
dictatorship, not easier, he subscribed to the Militant, saying, “I’m
going to enjoy this paper.”
Rachele Fruit from Atlanta writes that SWP member John Benson met Henry
Fair, a 54-year-old ironworker, when he knocked on his door in East
Point. Fair said he liked what Benson said about workers’ ability to
organize society for human needs if we take political power, and that we
need to build a working-class leadership capable of leading the
transformation.
“We say the U.S. should get out of Syria, Iraq and everywhere else
Washington has its troops,” Benson said, handing Fair a copy of the SWP
statement protesting Washington’s bombing in Syria. “Do they care about
the kids they kill when they do that?” Fair said. “It’s just like when
they got bin Laden, they killed family members.”
“Four members of the Oakland branch of the party went knocking on doors
in San Leandro, California, after work,” Eric Simpson writes. “They used
the SWP statement, ‘Stop the Raids and Deportations! Amnesty for all
immigrants in the US!’ to open discussion on the need to fight to unify
the working class and strengthen our unions, and about the upcoming
national May Day protests against deportations.
Gerardo Sánchez offered a package of the three books on special with a
three-month Militant subscription — Are They Rich Because They’re Smart?
and The Clintons’ Anti-Working-Class Record both by Jack Barnes,
national secretary of the SWP, and Is Socialist Revolution in the US
Possible? by party leader Mary-Alice Waters — for only $20.
“Two of the workers Sánchez spoke with decided to go for it. An
autoworker did the same and purchased a copy of Cuba and Angola: The War
for Freedom,” Simpson said. The book is about how Cuba sent 400,000
volunteers to help the Angolan people fight off an invasion by apartheid
South Africa in the 1970s and ‘80s.
“Four workers got a total of four subscriptions and 11 books — in both
English and in Spanish — on one block in less than one hour,” he said.
“And there’s a lesson: Make sure to carry more than one set of books!”
Edwin Fruit reports that party members from Seattle traveled to Idaho to
join with United Steelworkers on strike at the Lucky Friday silver mine
at a union support rally in Coeur d’Alene April 12. They also campaigned
for solidarity with the strike and introduced the party to workers in
three small towns near the mine. A total of 14 miners and their
supporters signed up for subscriptions to the paper. Another three
picked up copies of the special campaign books.
David Rosenfeld, SWP candidate for mayor of Minneapolis, met Kao Xiong
while campaigning door to door in East St. Paul, Rose Engstrom reports.
“You’re running for mayor. So I am curious, what are some changes you
want to make?” Xiong asked him.
“Workers can’t accomplish anything by electing someone to office,”
Rosenfeld replied. “But we can work to build a powerful movement to
unite working people to fight for jobs, amnesty for undocumented
workers, universal government-funded health care, and other things
workers need.
“We have to counterpose class solidarity and internationalism to the
dog-eat-dog values of capitalism,” he said. “Only then can we begin to
discover our worth and the capacity of our class to take power and
reorganize society.”
“I can relate to that!” Xiong said. “It is dog-eat-dog now. I never
heard someone put it that way. This is great.” She bought a subscription
and The Clintons’ Anti-Working-Class Record and kicked in $15 to the
Militant Fighting Fund.
Donations from workers at their doorsteps are a key source for expanding
the base of the Militant Fighting Fund. Please send your money in early!
To join in the campaigning and fund efforts, contact the nearest branch
of the SWP or Communist League.
Related articles:
UK: Communist League speaks to African church
Spring Campaign to expand the reach of ‘Militant,’ books. week 2 (chart)
Militant Fighting Fund. week 2 (chart)
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home