‘More workers taking SWP seriously than I remember’
OAKLAND, Calif. — “The objective of the Socialist Workers Party is to present the working-class road to taking political power, to change which class rules,” Norton Sandler, the SWP candidate for governor of California, told 35 people at a campaign rally here April 6. “This is decisive for humanity.
“As the capitalist rulers drive toward World War III, we explain why it’s imperative to build a revolutionary party to lead the march to working-class power. At labor and social actions, in working-class neighborhoods and on the job we meet those attracted to this perspective and they come closer to the Socialist Workers Party as we work together.”
Sandler launched his campaign by participating in the “With These Hands” march of thousands of farmworkers and other unionists in Delano, California, March 31, who are fighting to defend the rights of immigrants.
“Resistance by workers to the bosses’ attacks is growing,” Sandler said. “The employers are pushing hard. Not every strike wins. But amid high prices and worsening conditions workers are refusing to be pushed around. More workers are taking the program of the Socialist Workers Party seriously than any time I can remember. This was confirmed by our experiences campaigning in Delano.”
Eric Simpson, SWP candidate for Oakland mayor, also spoke. “I built solidarity and walked the picket line with members of the Amalgamated Transit Union on strike against the Valley Transportation Authority in San Jose recently. I appreciated the unity of workers of many different nationalities there fighting for wages and dignity,” he said. “Then the Democratic Party mayor and judge forced them back to work, saying they don’t have the right to strike.”
“The capitalist state isn’t neutral,” Sandler said. “It intervenes against union struggles.
“Last Wednesday President Donald Trump imposed massive tariffs against capitalist competitors worldwide and called it ‘Liberation Day,’” Sandler said. “I don’t think any workers felt liberated. The lesson of history is that imperialist trade conflicts lead to war.
“To understand the moves by Trump and previous Democratic and Republican administrations, we have to place them in the imperialist epoch we’re living in. V.I. Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, explained what imperialism is. It’s marked by the merging of industrial and banking capital into finance capital.
“In this epoch, finance capital is characterized by a vicious drive to compete for new markets, new areas to invest capital, new sources of raw materials and cheap labor. This sharp competition leads capitalism to repeatedly fall into crises of overproduction — too many goods produced for the workers of the world to buy with what they are paid,” said Sandler.
“Washington and other imperialist powers demand concession after concession from impoverished semicolonial countries. Competition between capitalist powers heats up, threatening another world slaughter like the two world wars of the last century.
“Trump often says, ‘We aren’t being treated fairly,’ and talks about bringing industry back to the U.S. This gets an echo,” Sandler said. “He and the Democrats talk about ‘we Americans.’ But there is no ‘we’ in this country. There are two classes, whose interests are counterposed. Workers here have the same interests as workers in other countries and need to unite against the bosses’ attacks.”
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain takes the wrong approach, Sandler said, cheerleading for the auto tariffs instead of working to unite autoworkers in the U.S. with fellow workers in Mexico and other countries.
“The key to humanity moving forward is for working people to break from reliance on capitalist parties’ promises, to advance along the road to taking political power and joining the worldwide struggle for socialism,” said Sandler. “To do this we must build a party strong enough and firm enough to take on the most vicious ruling class in history. That party is the Socialist Workers Party.”
Among those attending the meeting were two machine operators who work at the same factory as Simpson.
“I thought this was Eric’s best talk yet,” Rebecca Francisco, one of them, said after the meeting.
Help get out ‘Militant’
Campaigning for the SWP candidates and program is strengthened by the party’s eight-week spring campaign, along with the Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada and the U.K., to win 1,300 new readers of the Militant, get out the same number of books by revolutionary leaders and to raise $165,000 for the Militant Fighting Fund. The Militant is written, distributed and funded by working people.
SWP campaigners attended “Hands Off!” rallies in several cities April 5. Although the anti-Trump actions were aimed at boosting the Democrats, a number of participants were interested in the SWP’s program and activity.
In New York City, Seth Galinsky and Willie Cotton campaigned for SWP mayoral candidate Paul Mailhot at a march through midtown. They carried signs pointing to the need for workers to break with the Democrats and Republicans, and for the working class to fight Jew-hatred.
“Some people who are opposed to Israel didn’t want to talk, but many others told us they liked what we said about Hamas being the biggest obstacle facing Palestinians and for the need to fight Jew-hatred,” Galinsky said. “We sold 25 Militants, two subscriptions, and a high school student picked up a copy of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power.
Joel Britton reports campaign supporters sold three subscriptions and six books at the “Hands Off” event in Oakland. “Our sign ‘Fighting Jew-hatred is a union question’ attracted several people who were relieved to see the problem of rising antisemitism being addressed,” Britton said.
At “Hands Off!” events in Cincinnati, SWP campaigners sold 10 subscriptions and eight books, and in Dallas, nine subscriptions and seven books.
SWP candidates are campaigning in working-class neighborhoods and meeting workers interested in learning more about the party.
“Good luck with what you’re doing,” Amina Ali, a former Teamsters member and truck driver, told Kevin Dwire, the SWP’s candidate for Minneapolis mayor, after talking with him when he knocked on her door April 6. Ali subscribed to the Militant. “Let me know about your campaign events,” she said.
In Oakland, California, the SWP branch raised its subscription and book quotas from 80 to 90 last week. “As we get the SWP program out widely, the response we’re getting is stronger than ever,” Betsey Stone, the branch organizer there, told the Militant. “We’re also winning new contributors to the Militant Fighting Fund and some increased pledges from long-term subscribers.”
To contribute to the fund, send a check to the Militant at 307 W. 36th St., 13th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or donate online at www.themilitant.com.
