SWP campaign builds support for workers’ struggles today
https://themilitant.com/2021/10/16/swp-campaign-builds-support-for-workers-struggles-today/
BY SETH GALINSKY
Vol. 85/ No. 39
October 25, 2021
Beverly Bernardo, left, Communist League candidate for mayor of
Montreal, marches with day care workers’ union in Montreal Oct. 12
during two-day strike over wages, working conditions.
MILITANT/JOHN STEELE
Beverly Bernardo, left, Communist League candidate for mayor of
Montreal, marches with day care workers’ union in Montreal Oct. 12
during two-day strike over wages, working conditions.
The first week of the international combined drive to expand the
readership of the Militant and communist literature and raise funds for
the Socialist Workers Party shows the growing interest in discussing how
workers can win support for union struggles and a working-class road
forward.
Along with members of the Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada, New
Zealand and the U.K., SWP members are organizing to sell 1,300
subscriptions to the Militant and 1,300 books by SWP leaders and other
revolutionaries by Nov. 23. In the U.S. they are raising $130,000 for
the annual Party-Building Fund. As of Oct. 13 we are at 374
subscriptions and 396 books, well ahead of schedule. (See chart.)
Campaign to expand reach of 'Militant,' books, SWP fund October
2-November 23 (week one)
Campaign to expand reach of ‘Militant,’ books, SWP fund October
2-November 23 (week one)
Sam Manuel, Socialist Workers Party candidate for Atlanta City Council
president, and campaign supporter Janice Lynn joined the picket line of
dozens of striking Kellogg’s workers, members of the Bakery,
Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union Oct. 9 in
Memphis, Tennessee.
“I will be using my campaign and the Militant newspaper to get out the
word about your strike,” Manuel told BCTGM Local 252G Vice President
Kevin Bradshaw, who videotaped his remarks as part of documenting the
solidarity the strike has been receiving.
“Everything of significance workers have won, has been won on the picket
lines and through fights on the job,” Manuel said. “My campaign is about
building solidarity with workers’ struggles and explaining the need for
the unions to break with the two parties of the bosses and form our own
party, a labor party. I will talk about this fight on the radio and
press interviews and to workers I meet when we campaign door to door.”
“We appreciate your solidarity,” Bradshaw said. “We will not accept
Kellogg’s inhumane conditions. We want equal pay and equal benefits for
equal work. We say, ‘One day longer, one day stronger.’”
Bradshaw introduced Manuel and Lynn to strikers and strike supporters,
encouraging them “to tell your story so this labor paper can report on
our fight.” Bradshaw recalled the accurate reporting provided by the
Militant during the nine-month lockout workers faced at the plant in
2013-14.
Manuel and Lynn met David Whitson on the picket line. A member of the
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Whitson was
called to do work in the plant. But when he saw the strikers, he refused
to go inside and joined the picket line.
“The bosses and their government try to keep us divided,” Manuel said.
“Your act of solidarity is important.” Manuel gave Whitson a copy of the
party’s campaign platform urging workers to use union power to fight
employer attacks. Whitson decided to subscribe to the Militant.
Winning fund contributions
An important part of making the fall drive a success is recruiting
workers to finance the building of the SWP. One aspect of that is
winning working people and youth that campaigners have met to continue
the discussion and contribute to the fund. Some will want to organize
house meetings for SWP candidates, help win solidarity for strikes and
locked-out workers and join in campaigning with the SWP.
Militant reader Tyler Perkins, a software engineer, greeted Communist
League campaigners Francois Bradette and Katy LeRougetel at his door
Oct. 9 in Montreal. “The Militant shows more people getting involved” in
union struggles, he said.
Bradette invited Perkins to join them at a day care workers’ union rally
Oct. 12 during a two-day strike. “I tried to organize a union where I
work,” Perkins said. “We didn’t succeed,” he said, but Perkins aims to
“get a union eventually.”
He looked at the photos in Teamster Rebellion, which show union members
facing off against employer-organized thugs in 1934. The book is one of
eight on special offer.
Communists in the leadership of that fight led workers to reach out to
the unemployed, other unions and farmers as they waged the strike
battles and organizing drives that made Minneapolis a union town.
“That’s how we win,” LeRougetel said. Communist leaders of Teamsters
union Local 574 also campaigned against U.S. entry into the second
imperialist world war.
Perkins spent a year in China and saw the onerous working and living
conditions imposed on factory workers by bosses and the government
there. “That’s not communism,” he said.
Perkins gave the campaigners $50 for his renewal and got Teamster
Rebellion to learn more about what working people can accomplish with
the leadership we deserve. “Put the rest toward whatever you think is
useful,” he said.
LeRougetel and CL campaigner Lynda Little met construction worker Isaac
Sutcliffe in Montreal’s Lachine neighborhood Oct. 10.
“I’m vaccinated, but I don’t agree with the government forcing you,”
Sutcliffe said. “They’re going to fire nurses who aren’t vaccinated. How
does that make sense?”
LeRougetel pointed to the success the Cuban government is having
combating the pandemic. This includes mobilizing medical workers and
mass organizations to vaccinate the entire population by the end of the
year. The government there is a product of the socialist revolution
workers and farmers made in 1959. Sutcliffe subscribed to the Militant.
You can join the work to expand the reach of the communist movement by
contacting the party branch nearest you.
2021 Socialist Workers Party candidates
Join Socialist Workers Party campaign!
Statement by Joanne Kuniansky, Socialist Workers Party candidate for New
Jersey governor, Oct. 13. In the three weeks left before the 2021
elections, Socialist Workers Party candidates will present a program for
the working class to defend our interests and…
Front Page Articles
Kellogg strike is in the interest of all workers!
Fight Texas law that attacks a woman’s right to choose abortion
SWP campaign builds support for workers’ struggles today
Workers increasingly turn to our unions to fight assaults by bosses
Minnesota court uses Chauvin’s appeal to go after rights workers need
Feature Articles
‘Cuban Revolution: a challenge to US imperialism’
Also In This Issue
Stalinist coup killed Maurice Bishop, Grenada Revolution
Louisville forum: ‘SWP is on its way to Cincinnati!’
John Deere workers reject contract, set strike
Join Socialist Workers Party campaign!
Celebrate political life of Maurice Williams
Campaign to expand reach of 'Militant,' books, SWP fund October
2-November 23 (week one)
On the Picket Line
Cereal maintenance workers in UK fight wage cuts
Michigan auto-parts workers strike, win UAW union
‘We are fighting for respect,’ say Montreal hotel strikers
25, 50 and 75 years ago
© Copyright 2021 The Militant - 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor - New
York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxxx
--
― Aron Ra, “This is what science always has to do, but religion will not
do that. While scientists themselves may be religious individuals of
many different faiths, their methodology was designed to be the
antithesis of faith—it requires that all assumptions be questioned, that
all proposed explanations be based on demonstrable evidence, and that
all hypotheses be testable and potentially falsifiable. Blaming magic is
never acceptable because miracles aren't explanations of any kind, and
there has never been a single instance in history when assuming the
supernatural has ever improved our understanding of everything. In fact,
such excuses have only ever impeded our attempts at discovery.” ― Aron
Ra, Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism
