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Vol. 80/No. 32 August 29, 2016
Fla. workers discuss reality in US, Cuba
BY ANTHONY DUTROW
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — When Socialist Workers Party presidential
candidate Alyson Kennedy campaigned in South Florida, construction
worker David Castro invited her and Cindy Jaquith, SWP candidate for
U.S. Senate, to visit him Aug. 6 at the trailer park where he lives.
When they arrived Castro was grilling at the park’s annual barbecue.
When members of the SWP knocked on Castro’s door last spring he
subscribed to the Militant and later renewed the subscription, bought a
copy of Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Class, Privilege and
Learning by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes, and convinced a neighbor
to subscribe.
Castro’s neighbor Carlos Delgado, a Ft. Lauderdale airport food-service
worker, told Kennedy he was having a tough time getting by on $8.35 an
hour. He arrived with his wife and children from Cuba 10 months ago.
Kennedy, who once worked a similar job at the Chicago airport, agreed
workers need higher pay and unions.
“We have a union,” Delgado said, “but the officials don’t do anything to
improve conditions. In Cuba, unions help the workers.”
“I visited Cuba for the May Day celebrations as part of a delegation of
mothers and relatives of youth killed by the police in the U.S.,”
Kennedy told him. Delgado nodded his head, saying, “In Cuba there is
little violence of any kind, and the police there don’t kill people.”
Kennedy asked Castro about his take on the elections. “It’s like we’re
on a plane, but in different seats,” he replied. “The rich sit in the
first-class seats, the curtain is closed, they turn their backs on us
and never look at the conditions we are going through. No one is dealing
with our problems.”
Castro has been reading and promoting Are They Rich Because They’re
Smart? and took Militant subscription cards for several neighbors
interested in the Socialist Workers Party.
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SWP candidate Hart meets Calif. farmers, farmworkers
Join Mine Workers protest Sept. 8!
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Join the Socialist Workers Party campaigning
Contribute to Socialist Workers Party $30,000 campaign fund
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