Fiddles? Actually I play the harmonica and auto harp.
But I agree, the sky really is falling in, chicken little. And we're
all flapping our mouths about the horrors that are about to land on
our little chicken heads. It's interesting. We humans love to talk
about our independence, but we turn around and behave like a flock of
sheep
Carl Jarvis
On 12/21/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It's interesting, or perhaps tragic, to observe all of the articles being
written about organizing workers and the other articles about who should
run
for president in 2020 or how we should all plan to fight back while
basically, we are all paralyzed, watching Trump gather an administration
filled with bigots, militarists and corporatists, while he keeps his own
private security force separate from our government Secret Service, while
he
stays involved in his web of businesses and plans government policies that
will enrich those businesses. People are seeing what is happening and
they're writing about it, but the wheels keep turning and we will see a
true
autocrat take office in January. We will watch whatever pretense of
democracy that was left, crumble into a true corporate, military autocracy.
Everyone fiddles while Rome burns.
Miriame
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 9:06 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] SWP in LA: 'Workers need
to
build our own party'
Certainly a Workers Party would be a starting point. But unless it has a
major plank that calls for the end of Corporate Person hood, and another
plank calling for limitations on corporate power, then any new party will
be
doomed.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/21/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2016/8048/804801.htmlsystem.
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No.48 December 26, 2016
(lead article)
SWP in LA: 'Workers need to build our own party'
Militant/Deborah Liatos
Dennis Richter, left, SWP candidate for Los Angeles mayor, campaigns
in West Adams Nov. 19.
BY DEBORAH LIATOS
LOS ANGELES - "Workers face slow-burning depression conditions in the
U.S. and much of the world today," Dennis Richter, Socialist Workers
Party candidate for mayor here, told Daniel Lopez, a 23-year-old UPS
worker in the Highland Park neighborhood Dec. 11. "We need to get
together and build our own party to fight for the working class and to
take political power. That's what the SWP is all about."
After more than two weeks of campaigning, knocking on workers' doors
and introducing the party, the SWP got word from city officials that
Richter was on the ballot for the May election. Party members and
campaign supporters had gathered over 1,000 signatures, more than
double the requirement.
"Rents are going up and we're getting kicked out of where we live,"
Lopez, a member of Teamsters Local 396, told Richter. He said that
after the elections he hoped something would be done to protect
immigrants in Los Angeles.
"It is in the interests of the entire working class to defend
immigrant rights and oppose deportations," Richter said. "Attacking
immigrants is one of the ways the bosses and their parties - both
Democrats and Republicans - attempt to divide working people. We can't
depend on politicians like Mayor Garcetti to give us 'safe places' for
workers without papers."
The status of undocumented workers is a big question here. Some 1
million immigrants without papers live in Los Angeles County.
Democratic Party Mayor Eric Garcetti, running for re-election against
Richter, has said he and the L.A. cops will not search workers for
their papers or round up and deport those who don't have them.
These workers will have "safe spaces and safe places" in Los Angeles,
Garcetti said Nov. 30.
"You can't depend on the politicians in Los Angeles or anywhere else.
We have to do what working people did in 2006," Richter said. "I was
working in a meatpacking plant in Chicago and we walked off the job
and joined the nationwide one-day strike of 2 million people on May
Day and killed the anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner bill.
"This is a key fight for the working class," Richter said. "The bosses
make billions off exploitation of immigrant workers.
"We need to organize all workers, those with papers and those without,
into our unions," he said, "and transform our unions to lead the fight
against deportations, E-verify and all moves to scapegoat immigrant
workers and divide our class."
"That's right," Lopez agreed, "everyone has to come together."
"We need to have a revolution," Richter said. "We need to get rid of
the dictatorship of capital."
'Build affordable, safe housing'
"Housing is another big issue," Richter said. "For the landlords and
the government the only question is how to make it profitable.
"After the warehouse fire in Oakland, the city government blames those
who are forced to live in such dangerous structures," Richter said.
"But the tenants aren't responsible. It's the owners and their agents
who cut corners to make money. Like all the bosses in this dog-eat-dog
We need to demand cheap, plentiful and safe housing be built."
"It wasn't safe but they're going to blame the people," Lopez said.
"That's the way capitalism is."
"There is an example for workers here just 90 miles offshore in
revolutionary Cuba," Richter said.
"The press says everything is bad in Cuba but I saw the way the people
turned out there," Lopez said, referring to the massive mobilizations
to honor Fidel Castro and defend the revolution there.
"Fidel said it was possible to make a revolution in the interests of
workers and farmers and then he led them to do exactly that," Richter
said. "They've been defending it for over 55 years and advancing
solidarity to workers all over the world. We have to do the same thing
here."
To join the Socialist Workers Party campaigning across Los Angeles and
around the country, discussing how to build a party that can unify the
working class and defend our interests, contact the party at
swpla@xxxxxxx or (323) 643-4968.
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