http://themilitant.com/2016/8037/803705.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 37 October 3, 2016
(front page)
SWP: What is ‘deplorable’ is capitalist crisis, not working class
BY MAGGIE TROWE
Half of Republican candidate Donald Trump’s supporters are a “basket of
deplorables. … racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic —
you name it,” Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said
Sept. 9. “They are irredeemable, but thankfully they’re not America.”
Democratic Party leaders and liberal pundits defended Clinton, saying
she was accurate — in fact, understated.
Considering Caucasian workers backward bigots is a widely held
proposition among liberals and the left. They look at those who come to
Trump rallies and see danger.
Trump — who also has no proposals to advance the interests of working
people as they face “slow burn” depression conditions and worse to come
— takes advantage of workers’ search for an alternative to capitalist
politics-as-usual and the Clintons’ lack of credibility. But much of
what he offers is rightist demagogy, aimed at dividing the working class.
He moved to capitalize on the angry reaction of many workers to
Clinton’s contemptuous remark, declaring himself the representative of
the “deplorables.”
“What is deplorable is what working people face in the U.S. and around
the world,” Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate Alyson
Kennedy, the only candidate representing the interests of the working
class in the election, told the Militant Sept. 19. “When I campaign door
to door with supporters, workers tell us about the reality they face —
joblessness, low wages, speedup on the job and more dangerous
conditions. They tell us of social problems like opiate and heroin
addiction ravaging their communities.”
Kennedy said her experience — and that of hundreds of campaign
supporters talking to workers about the SWP and its program on their
doorsteps — shows opposition to racist attacks and a desire to build
unity among workers of all nationalities against attacks by the bosses
and the government.
“The capitalist rulers are afraid of the working class. They portray the
majority, workers who are Caucasian, as reactionary to divide and
discourage us,” Kennedy said. “But it’s not working. The mass movement
that overthrew Jim Crow segregation, as well as recent protests against
police killings, inspired millions of workers of all races and
strengthened the working class.
“If this wasn’t true, how could you explain the speed and breadth of
Confederate flags being taken down at statehouses all across the South
over the past year?” she said.
“We meet workers of all races and nationalities who are attracted to the
SWP’s confidence that working people are capable of fighting for unity,
organizing the unorganized, and opposing the bosses and their
government’s wars,” Kennedy said. “By doing this we will become strong
enough to displace the capitalist dictatorship and build a new society
run by workers and farmers based on values of solidarity and dignity.”
In a Sept. 15 Financial Times article, Edward Luce interviews people in
Hazleton, Pennsylvania, especially Caucasian workers who say they’re
leaning toward voting for Trump. Hazleton was built by workers from all
across Europe who emigrated for jobs and made a living mining anthracite
coal and in other factory jobs that have since shut down. The town began
to shrink.
But it began to grow again, as the Latino population, largely Dominican,
grew from 4 percent in 2000 to nearly half today. In 2006 then Mayor
Louis Barletta gained nationwide notoriety trying to demonize the
newcomers.
Much has changed in 10 years. “A striking thing about Hazleton’s Trump
supporters is their reluctance to copy their candidate’s derogatory
language about Hispanics,” Luce writes.
“Every time I see a Dominican they greet me and they smile,” Karen Ezak,
73, who favors Trump, told Luce. “I have never had a problem with them.
They’ve brought life back to the schools and churches.”
Members of the Socialist Workers Party knocked on doors in a
working-class area in Hazleton Sept. 18.
“I’m a full-time office worker, but I need a second job,” Dottie Pisano,
52, told the socialists. “I don’t live a flashy life. But I can’t make
it month to month with one job. And if you get sick, forget about it —
you have to move in with your folks.” She doesn’t like Trump but leans
toward him, saying, “I refuse to vote for that woman,” meaning Clinton.
Pisano’s neighbor Angela Carrasco, in her 20s, at home on parental leave
caring for her month-old son Johnny, was born in the Dominican Republic
but grew up in Hazleton. Like many in the town she works for the big
Amazon distribution center.
“There was a lot of discrimination against Dominican immigrants in the
past,” Carrasco said, “but it’s much less now.”
Writing off large numbers of workers who are Caucasian, the Clinton
campaign is counting on votes from African-Americans and Latinos, as
well as those of women. But leaders of Clinton’s campaign are worried
about lack of enthusiasm among Blacks.
“The Clinton campaign has refocused its efforts to a big turnout push
directed at black and young voters,” the New York Times reported Sept.
18. “Younger black voters, in particular have expressed misgivings about
Mrs. Clinton because of some of the policies of her husband’s
administration,” including the 1994 crime bill, which imposed tougher
sentences for nonviolent drug offenders and Clinton’s moves to “end
welfare as we know it,” which resulted in deeper poverty, insecurity and
social crisis for millions of working-class women and children.
“I will consider it a personal insult — an insult to my legacy — if this
community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this
election,” President Barack Obama, revealing some panic and a
meritocratic contempt for Black workers, told the Congressional Black
Caucus Sept. 17.
Related articles:
SWP campaigns in United Kingdom, among US miners
Socialist Workers Party joins protest in Puerto Rico
Join SWP campaigning, contribute funds
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