http://themilitant.com/2016/8031/803152.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 31 August 22, 2016
SWP campaigns in Tennessee, condemns US
wars abroad
BY SAM MANUEL
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — “Workers need their own party to lead the fight for
working-class political power,” Alyson Kennedy told the press after
filing Aug. 8 to place the Socialist Workers Party on the ballot here.
“We say to workers, ‘Our party is your party.’”
The filing followed a weekend of campaigning here with SWP supporters
talking to workers on their doorsteps. In an indication of the interest,
nine people bought the book Are They Rich Because They’re Smart?, 10
subscribed to the Militant and 109 signed to put the party on the
ballot. In all, they submitted 569 signatures from across the state,
more than double the 275 required.
The party calls for Washington to unilaterally eliminate its nuclear
weaponry and to withdraw all its troops from the Middle East and elsewhere.
“The war against workers here and Washington’s spreading wars against
workers and farmers abroad will deepen,” Kennedy said. “This is what
happened in the last great depression in the 1930s. Capitalist
governments fought ever more fiercely for markets and sources of raw
material until the second imperialist world slaughter broke out, killing
millions of workers. And these profit-hungry rulers have enough nuclear
weapons to destroy all of humanity.”
When SWP supporters went door to door to discuss the party program in
South Pittsburg, a town of 3,000 just west of Chattanooga that was a
center of coal mining prior to World War II, two dozen workers signed to
place the SWP on the ballot in a couple of hours of campaigning. The
loss of jobs in rail transportation and manufacturing, resulting from
mine closings in recent years, still mark the town.
Hans MaDave, a candy factory worker in Nashville, liked the fighting
nature of the Socialist Workers Party campaign. “Change can’t come from
just one person alone, but from many coming together,” MaDave told
campaigner Lisa Potash. He pointed to the civil rights battles of the
1960s and ’70s as an example of how working people overcame divisions to
fight more effectively.
Related articles:
Socialist Workers Party: Join Sept. 8 miners rally! SWP tells miners
‘Our party is your party’
SWP builds Sept. 8 protest in West Virginia, Kentucky
Who should rule — capitalist bosses or the working class?
Working people in Utah welcome SWP campaign
Contribute to Socialist Workers Party’s $30,000 campaign fund!
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