http://themilitant.com/2016/8019/801953.html
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Vol. 80/No. 19 May 16, 2016
SWP brings internationalism to Indiana plant
closure protest
BY LAURA ANDERSON
INDIANAPOLIS — Dan Fein, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S.
Senate in Illinois, and supporters brought an internationalist
working-class perspective to an April 29 rally of hundreds here
protesting air conditioner manufacturer Carrier’s decision to move its
plant to Mexico, making 1,400 workers jobless. The rally was sponsored
by the United Steelworkers union.
The theme of the rally, including speeches by AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was “Make it
in America.” Sanders’ platform features a section on “Keeping jobs in
the U.S.”
Republican candidate Donald Trump has pledged to impose a 35 percent
tariff on Carrier’s Mexican-made products. “They’re going to call me and
say, ‘Mr. President, Carrier has decided to stay in Indiana,” Trump told
a crowd in Indianapolis April 27.
Fein’s position contrasts sharply with the capitalist politicians and
union officials. “The Socialist Workers Party is in solidarity with the
Carrier workers, but the nationalist, patriotic slogans raised by the
speakers here today are not the answer,” Fein told Helen Williams and
Antoinette Jones, United Auto Workers members who work on the General
Motors assembly line in Kokomo. “Divide and rule is the bosses trick to
weaken the unions. We need international working-class solidarity. All
workers need jobs.”
“I agree with the international view,” Williams responded, and decided
to subscribe to the Militant.
“I am for bringing jobs back to America,” Brandon Terrill, a UAW member
who works at the GM truck assembly plant in Fort Wayne, told Fein.
“There is an economic crisis wracking the capitalist world,” Fein said.
“Unemployment is a world problem, and all workers need jobs. We are part
of an international working class.
“My party proposes the labor movement fight for a government-funded mass
public works program putting millions to work at union scale building
things workers need — housing, hospitals, infrastructure. That, along
with organizing solidarity with workers worldwide as they fight for
electrification, education, jobs and dignity, would unite the working
class — not divide it like the ‘Save American jobs’ slogan does.”
“I wish you good luck on your campaign,” Terrill told Fein. He signed up
for a subscription to the Militant.
“I think everyone in the world deserves the right to take care of their
families,” warehouse worker Brian Hixon told Fein. “Most of my
co-workers are from Myanmar. We’re all in the same Teamsters union.”
“I agree with what you say about the Democrats and Republicans being
capitalist parties,” he said, “but I want my vote to count. I’m voting
for Bernie because he has a chance to win.”
“The point isn’t to win an election, but to build a revolutionary
workers movement to take power from the capitalist class,” Fein replied.
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