I sent Bob an article last night which was all about voting for third parties,
and asked him to forward it to the list. I don't know if he did so. Perhaps
I'll forward it to you, Carl, so you can send it on to the list. It was a
really good article, informative, all about a proposed voting bill. But one of
the points that the author made was that the Green Party is on the ballot in
only, I think, about 30 states, and the Libertarian Party, only in 21 states.
He didn't mention the SWP. When a party is on the ballot in just a few states,
one can hardly even make a noticeable political statement!
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Jarvis [mailto:carjar82@xxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2016 11:33 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Miriam Vieni
Subject: Re: [blind-democracy] SWP: Capitalism wastes human ability, potential
Good reading, Roger. Maybe just enough positive stuff to nudge my lazy bones
into researching the Socialist Worker's platform in depth.
Kennedy and Martin do present a place to lodge a solid protest vote.
In past elections I have voted for the socialist worker's candidates for
governor. But despite some misgivings regarding our two US Senators, Maria
Cantwell (D)Since 2001 Patty Murray (D)Since 1993 I have not broken rank with
the State Democrats, in an effort to stave off the election of a Republican to
add to the Block Headed Pack in the US congress, doing their best to tear down
what social benefits still exist for Americans.
In the past, many years back, I had problems with the socialist worker's
platforms, but can't remember what it was. I will take a long look at their
modern Party before deciding where to place my vote.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/12/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2016/8024/802401.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 24 June 20, 2016
(lead article)
SWP: Capitalism wastes human ability, potential
Tenn. worker: ‘We sure need something different!’
Militant/Maggie Trowe
John Benson, left, talks with Robin Long while campaigning for
Socialist Workers Party in Memphis, Tennessee, June 4.
BY MAGGIE TROWE
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Campaigners for the Socialist Workers Party talked
with unionists at the 7 a.m. shift change at the Kellogg’s plant here
June 6, where members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers
and Grain Millers union fought a nine-month lockout in 2013-14. Some
remembered that SWP members walked the picket lines and covered the
fight in the Militant.
“We’re a little more unionized and a little stronger,” said Steve
Boswell when he pulled his car over to talk. “But we’re still fighting
for our back pay and benefits.”
“Kellogg’s thought we’d be forced to accept concessions,” said
maintenance worker Todd Parnell. “The workforce here is half Caucasian
and half African American, and the bosses thought we wouldn’t be able
to unify. But we came together. Things are different than they used to be.”
Parnell subscribed to the Militant, seven workers bought single copies
of the paper and two made contributions totaling $12.
This response is common, as the Socialist Workers Party campaigns
across the country, from here and Minnesota to Washington state,
discussing and debating the way forward for working people with
workers on their doorsteps, as well as at picket lines and at factory gates.
Teams campaigned here and in Nashville, Chattanooga, Jackson,
Murfreesboro, Smyrna, Lebanon, Knoxville, Alcoa and Johnson City May
29-June 6.
“We sure need something different, because it’s going the wrong way,”
Joey Yopp, a retired gas company worker from a union family, said June
4 at his door in Memphis. Yopp has been favorable to Donald Trump and
Bernie Sanders. He and many others signed to put the Socialist Workers
Party presidential ticket of Alyson Kennedy and Osborne Hart on the
state ballot.
The same day John Benson talked with Robin Long on her porch. Long has
a chronic illness and is on disability, but would like to find work
she could handle. “Just because you’re disabled doesn’t mean you can’t
do anything useful,” she told Benson.
“Under capitalism there’s a tremendous waste of human potential and
creativity,” he agreed. Long signed to put the SWP ticket on the ballot.
“This means I could have someone to vote for,” she said.
In Nashville June 2 John Miller called his wife, Pascale Killian, to
the door to talk about the SWP’s political perspective. Killian, a
nurse, subscribed to the Militant and got a copy of Is Socialist
Revolution in the U.S. Possible? “It’s getting closer than it was a few years
ago,”
she said, referring to the book’s title. Miller signed to be an SWP
elector.
During nine days of door-to-door campaigning, Socialist Workers Party
supporters collected 456 signatures and secured 11 electors, sold 38
Militant subscriptions and nearly 100 single copies and more than a
dozen books.
❖
BY JOHN STUDER
SEATTLE — SWP presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy visited Spokane,
Washington, June 4-7 to join the picket line of International
Association of Machinists Local 86 members at Triumph Composite
Systems and to discuss the party’s revolutionary working-class program
with area workers on their doorsteps. She was joined by Mary Martin,
SWP candidate for governor of Washington; Eleanor García, SWP candidate for
U.S.
Senate from California, who works for a nonunion Triumph plant in Los
Angeles; and supporters.
The Triumph workers have been on the picket line since May 11,
fighting company demands to keep a divisive two-tier wage scheme, deny
pensions to new workers and raise health care costs (see article on front
page).
The visit came as SWP supporters were wrapping up a three-week effort
to introduce the party across the state, win new readers to the
Militant, familiarize workers with books from Pathfinder Press on
working-class history and the SWP’s program and gather signatures to
put Kennedy and Hart on the ballot. In Spokane, 10 of the 111 workers
who signed got subscriptions. Statewide more than 1,650 — well over
the 1,000 requirement — signed to get the party on the ballot.
“Where I work, a lot of workers have been quitting because we haven’t
got a union and get just $12.50 to $18 an hour,” Stephan Teah, an
assembler at Exotic Metals, which like Triumph makes parts for Boeing,
told Kennedy. “When I found out that workers at Triumph were fighting
for better conditions, I said ‘Yes!’ I drive by the picket line every
day and wave.”
Oppose assault on Trump supporters
Socialist Workers Party campaigners talked about a variety of
political questions in the news as well as how the working class needs
to organize independently of the bosses and fight to defend the
interests of all the oppressed.
“The physical assaults on Trump supporters are an attack on the
working class,” Kennedy told many workers she met in Spokane,
referring to the June 2 attack on people leaving a rally in San Jose,
California.
“Workers were sucker-punched coming out of the meeting, and had eggs
and other objects thrown at them,” she said. “The liberal press and
left-wing groups that claim Trump is a fascist actually see those who
back him as the real danger and view them as stupid, reactionary ‘trash.’
“These growing attacks on our class show we need to organize to fight
for workers power,” Kennedy said. “And they are making some look to
the Socialist Workers Party.”
One man who answered his door said he was backing Donald Trump because
he has something different to offer. Kennedy responded that workers
need to organize and prepare to fight for political power themselves.
His wife came over. “I don’t like any of the other candidates,” she
said. “I like what you say and the fact that you’re a worker.”
Three others in the house joined in, all saying they were attracted to
Bernie Sanders. All five signed the petition, and they got a subscription.
Kennedy and Martin were interviewed by Spokane radio station KYRS.
❖
BY CANDACE WAGNER
MINNEAPOLIS —“Hi, my name is Candace,” I say. “If you have a moment
I’d like to tell you about my organization, the Socialist Workers
Party. We think that organizing working people ourselves is the answer
to the crisis we face.” The door swings open. “Come in. Sit down.”
In the past two weeks, hundreds of doorstep and living room
discussions about the crisis of capitalism and the revolutionary
perspective put forward by the SWP have taken place in over 25 towns
and cities across Minnesota. As a result, over 100 people have signed
up for subscriptions to the party’s newspaper, 25 purchased books and
many made financial contributions. Some 1,500 have signed petitions so
far toward the 2,400 goal to put the SWP ticket on the ballot.
“We need to do in this country what the Cuban workers and farmers did
in
1959 and take political power,” said Lisa Rottach, talking with
retired Marine Ron Dalrymple at his door. “I was stationed in
Guantánamo,” he responded, referring to the military base Washington
imposed on Cuban territory. After further discussion, he purchased a
subscription to the Militant to learn more.
Pam White described her many years work as a nursing assistant. “They
don’t care about the patients. It’s hurry them in and hurry them out,”
she said. “I prefer non-union, but from the changes I’ve seen, now I
think we need unions.”
SWP campaigners are meeting workers with struggle experience. An older
worker in Austin remembered the party from the 1980s strike of
packinghouse workers there against the Hormel Corporation. A woman in
Osseo described the successful organizing drive of her workplace into
the Teamsters union. A union healthcare aide said that she will be
walking the picket line with the Allina nurses if they vote to strike
against concession demands.
Related articles:
US socialist candidate joins with striking workers in Quebec visit
Communist League in Australia: Workers need to organize independent of
bosses The political war on the working class
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