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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 27 July 25, 2017
Socialist Workers Party gets hearing at
NOW conference
BY SUSAN LAMONT
ORLANDO, Fla. — “The discussion we had most often with the women and men
who attended the National Organization for Women conference here was
about the meaning of President Donald Trump’s election,” said Rachele
Fruit, one of six Socialist Workers Party members from Atlanta and Miami
who participated in NOW’s Forward Feminism conference June 30-July 2.
“We explained the devastation working people face as a result of the
long-term crisis of the capitalist system; that workers who voted for
Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and then voted for Trump, helping get him
elected, didn’t suddenly become racists,” Fruit said. “They were looking
for relief from unemployment, lack of health care, low wages, the
scourge of opioid addiction and more. Above all, they were looking to
‘drain the swamp’ in Washington that does nothing but makes things worse.
“We pointed to the gains won by working people, including major advances
for women in the Cuba Revolution,” she said. “They were transformed in
the process of making and defending their revolution, taking political
power and maintaining it to this day. This is an example worth emulating
here.”
The conference drew 558 NOW members and guests, many from chapters
throughout Florida but also from as far away as Hawaii. Dozens stopped
by the Socialist Workers Party table during the conference to talk and
buy revolutionary literature.
Some were drawn to a photo display showing the activities of SWP
candidates around the country. It also featured pictures from the
Militant of young women from Iraqi Kurdistan, Iran and the Philippines
buying communist literature at book fairs and other international
political events the SWP has participated in over the past year.
Participants bought nine copies of Are They Rich Because They’re Smart?
and four copies of The Clintons’ Anti-Working-Class Record, both by SWP
National Secretary Jack Barnes, and seven copies of Is Socialist
Revolution in the US Possible? by SWP leader Mary-Alice Waters.
Participants also got a number of titles on the Cuban Revolution,
women’s liberation, Marxist classics, the Jewish question and other
subjects. All told, $517 in literature and 11 Militant subscriptions
were sold.
Jayna Fleming, a young African-American woman from San Antonio, Texas,
spent some time at the table. SWP member Janice Lynn told her about the
upcoming “In the footsteps of Che” brigade going to Cuba in October and
the opportunity it presents to learn about the Cuban Revolution
firsthand. “I got a lot out of our conversations,” Fleming said, picking
up Malcolm X Talks to Young People and a subscription. “I want to learn
more about the brigade.”
SWP members also joined political debate at several workshops.
“It’s been over 40 years since abortion became legal in the U.S. and
look where we are today,” Cindy Jaquith, SWP candidate for Miami mayor,
said at the workshop on “Reproductive Justice.”
“Governments at every level have chipped away at this basic right since
the day it became legal,” Jaquith said. “NOW has advocated the same
approach being put forth today — elect ‘feminist’ or ‘pro-woman’
candidates, meaning Democrats. It doesn’t work. We need a fighting
women’s movement, independent of the bosses’ two parties that can
mobilize broad support in the streets for women’s right to abortion.
“I am also concerned about the liberal’s relentless witch hunt against
President Trump, which threatens political rights critical to working
people,” she said. “The target is the working class, those who voted for
Trump, looking for a change from the capitalist crisis today. It’s a lie
that these workers — Caucasian, Black, Latino, women and men — are
‘deplorables’ who are anti-woman, racist, and homophobic, as Hillary
Clinton said. Workers’ hatred for anti-working-class politics in
Washington and the economic carnage they face means we can find allies
to fight to defend our rights.”
One NOW member at the workshop asked Jaquith how she discusses abortion
with workers who are opposed to it. “We go door to door in working-class
communities nationwide and this is one of the questions we discuss,”
Jaquith said. “We don’t challenge the moral or religious views that
workers have, but explain that the government shouldn’t decide if a
woman should give birth. Many, many workers agree that it should be up
to the woman to decide, even if they are personally against abortion.”
That’s right, the questioner replied.
Related articles:
Socialist Workers Party steps up campaigning across the country
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