http://themilitant.com/2017/8113/811301.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 13 April 3, 2017
(lead article, Socialist Workers Party statement)
SWP: Workers need to build our own political party!
Militant/Terry Evans
Socialist Workers Party candidate for NY mayor Osborne Hart, right,
speaks with Janice Hoseine at March 19 march in Queens against
deportations. Hoseine’s husband Ramesh Jajadhar Palaniandi was jailed by
ICE March 9. “SWP calls for amnesty for all 11 million undocumented
here,” Hart said. Party election campaigns help build party, win workers.
The following statement by Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party
candidate for mayor of New York, was released March 22.
Working people face a growing catastrophe — a “new normal” of permanent
unemployment for millions. This includes attacks by the employers and
their government on our wages, working conditions and rights and attacks
on undocumented workers, Jews and Muslims as the rulers scapegoat
sections of the working class to divide us and defend their rule.
The introduction of violence and blows to political rights reflect the
deepening polarization in crisis-ridden capitalist politics. Instability
and conflict among capitalist governments worldwide threaten to spin
into new, more deadly wars.
Workers increasingly see that the Democrats and Republicans are the twin
parties of capitalist rule, and the working class has its own party —
the Socialist Workers Party.
The SWP fights for a government-funded public works program to build
schools, hospitals, daycare centers, repair crumbling infrastructure and
make other things working people need. This can put people to work at
union scale across the country and cut across the division in our class
between employed and unemployed, putting us in a better position to
unite in solidarity and fight our common enemy — the propertied
capitalist rulers.
We demand amnesty for all immigrants in the U.S. and an end to the raids
and deportations. We oppose all government “tests” for immigrants based
on religion, nationality or political views.
There are growing calls for workers to take the day off work and march
against attacks on immigrant workers on May Day. Join these actions and
organize them if one hasn’t been called in your area.
We’re part of the fight against Jew-hatred and rising attacks against
Muslims and mosques. The bosses aim to divert us into blaming other
workers for the crisis we face, to turn us against each other, instead
of uniting against their immoral capitalist system, built on
exploitation, oppression and war.
As their economic crisis deepens, the capitalist rulers are driven to
sharper competition against each other. Trade wars and competition for
markets and resources are growing. In this world, conflicts can have
unintended consequences and disputes can lead to war. The Socialist
Workers Party demands Washington get all its troops out of the Middle
East and the Pacific.
In this crisis-ridden reality, political polarization is growing. In
Berkeley, California, and Middlebury, Vermont, we see liberal and
middle-class radical groups seeking to shut down those they disagree
with, breaking up political meetings and carrying out assaults.
But this is a deadly threat to the working class — busting up meetings
and physical violence shut down political space and open the door for
the rulers to further restrict our political rights. We need the widest
political space possible to discuss the class reasons for the crisis we
face and debate the road forward.
There is an example we can emulate — the revolution workers and farmers
made in Cuba. They faced a brutal dictatorship that was backed by the
unparalleled might of U.S. imperialism just 90 miles away. Led by Fidel
Castro and the July 26 Movement, they fought and won. Working people
were transformed, gaining the capacity to take political power and run
their own country.
They mobilized to abolish illiteracy, to run industry, and to beat off
attacks and a U.S. invasion at the Bay of Pigs. They extended the hand
of solidarity internationally, from the Congo to Angola, from Vietnam to
Bolivia and Venezuela. They led in conquering the Ebola epidemic in
western Africa.
This year, for the first time, people in the U.S. can join a May Day
brigade to Cuba, to learn about the revolution and express solidarity.
I’ve signed up to go and urge you to consider joining me.
We can make a revolution here. Join the Socialist Workers Party. Help us
campaign this spring, broadening the reach of the Militant and books
from Pathfinder Press, and winning contributions to the $112,000
Militant Fighting Fund.
Related articles:
Socialist Workers Party sets campaign in working class
7-week drive to spread party’s reach with ‘Militant,’ books
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