https://themilitant.com/2019/04/13/swp-moves-out-to-expand-political-reach-of-the-party/
SWP moves out to expand political reach of the party
By Betsey Stone
Vol. 83/No. 16
April 22, 2019
“For years I’ve hated how capitalism pits everyone against each other,”
nurse Mickale Hensley, left, in her front yard, told SWP member Maggie
Trowe in Williamstown, Kentucky, April 5.
Militant/Jacquie Henderson
“For years I’ve hated how capitalism pits everyone against each other,”
nurse Mickale Hensley, left, in her front yard, told SWP member Maggie
Trowe in Williamstown, Kentucky, April 5.
REEDLEY, Calif. — Socialist Workers Party members and supporters from
the Bay Area and Los Angeles spent two days in California’s agricultural
heartland, the Central Valley, April 6-7. They knocked on doors to meet
and get to know fellow working people here and in Kingsburg and Raisin City.
They discussed with workers on their doorsteps and passed out flyers
with the party’s program. People they talked with bought seven books by
leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and two subscribed to the Militant.
Party members and supporters, and members of the Communist Leagues in
Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K., are engaged in a seven-week
effort to expand the political reach of the party and the paper and
books they circulate, and to raise $115,000 to meet the Militant’s
operating costs. They look to exchange views and share experiences with
workers and farmers, small producers and other toilers, in cities, towns
and farming communities, and to make lasting contacts.
“I’m here to learn what people in the Valley are going through,” SWP
member Joel Britton told Vince, a longtime employee at the Del Monte
cannery, now a high school teacher.
Vince, who declined to give his last name, replied that his stepfather
has a grape ranch of 20 acres that has been in the family for five
generations. Now the ranch doesn’t make enough to live on.
“The SWP raises the need for all workers to defend the working farmer,”
Britton replied. “An example is what was accomplished by workers and
farmers in Cuba as a result of their revolution. Farmers in Cuba cannot
be foreclosed on if they are working their land.”
Campaigners met Burl Holley, an electrician and former farmer, who was
plowing under a field of grass. After learning Britton was a member of
the SWP, he turned off his tractor to talk.
“I think our problem is lawyers and politicians. I’m for capitalism.
What are you campaigning for?” he asked.
“Both the Democrats and Republican politicians serve the interests of
the wealthy,” Britton said. “Our party says we need to unite workers and
farmers, wherever we live, to fight in our own interests. We can build a
movement strong enough to forge a workers and farmers government.”
Britton pointed to the example of the yellow vest movement in France,
where people hit hard by the crisis of capitalism in the small towns and
rural areas have been protesting for weeks. “I think a similar thing is
bubbling here below the surface,” he said.
“You should talk to the farmers up and down this road,” Holley said.
“They’re friendly people.”
Along the road lined with fruit and nut orchards, Britton talked with
farmworker Oscar Unanzor, who was flying a kite with his son. Unanzor
said his biggest concern was getting a raise to pay his family’s rent,
which has gone from $750 a month to $950 in the last few years.
“I can’t understand why they would allow a plane to fly when it’s not
proven safe,” former Boeing worker Karen Berney told Henry Dennison, SWP
candidate for Seattle City Council, outside her home in Issaquah,
Washington, April 4. Bosses’ drive for profits was behind recent Boeing
crashes, Dennison said.
Militant/Mary Martin
“I can’t understand why they would allow a plane to fly when it’s not
proven safe,” former Boeing worker Karen Berney told Henry Dennison, SWP
candidate for Seattle City Council, outside her home in Issaquah,
Washington, April 4. Bosses’ drive for profits was behind recent Boeing
crashes, Dennison said.
Unanzor’s daughter, Nicole, who is in high school, joined the
discussion. She said she wants to study agriculture and remain in the
area. “I like it here because it’s quiet, and people help each other.
There is a community,” she said. After they talked more about what faces
working people today, Unanzor decided to subscribe to the Militant.
SWP members are learning more about the wide-ranging impact of the
capitalist crisis on all layers of the working class and other exploited
producers. And they’re expanding the readership of the Militant and
books by leaders of the revolutionary working-class movement and raising
$115,000 for the Militant Fighting Fund.
The party has set a goal of selling 1,050 subscriptions and 1,055 books
in an international effort through May 28. All books are being offered
at 20% off. There are additional offers on titles featured in the ad below.
Party members in Oakland have gotten the Militant Fighting Fund off to a
solid start, sending in checks totaling $2,050. With eight other areas
sending in contributions, the fund has raised $4,493 in the first few
days of the effort. Getting an early start is key to raising the funds
needed to ensure the paper can continue to cover political developments.
Oakland jump starts fund drive
Carole Lesnick reports that SWP members there asked readers of the paper
who hadn’t made up their minds on how much to contribute to write a
check now for what they could. They can give more later as the drive
continues.
With the Democratic and Republican parties gearing up for the 2020
presidential election, SWP candidates for office — presenting a
working-class alternative to the twin parties of capitalist rule — get a
hearing among working people.
When SWP campaigners Maggie Trowe and Jacquie Henderson knocked on
Mickale Hensley’s door in Williamstown, Kentucky, they showed her the
campaign flyer for Amy Husk and Samir Hazboun, SWP candidates for
governor and lieutenant governor. “I’ve been thinking about many of
these questions, but didn’t have anyone to talk to about them,” she said
as she studied the flyer.
Hensley, 26, works as a nurse. “For years I’ve hated how capitalism pits
everyone against each other,” she said. “I was a sort of ‘Bernie Sanders
person,’ but I don’t see much there either.”
Trowe pointed to the experiences workers and farmers went through in the
course of the Cuban Revolution as an example for working people here.
Hensley wanted to learn more and got a subscription and four books,
including Cuba and the Coming American Revolution by SWP National
Secretary Jack Barnes.
Jonathan Silberman in London reports that Communist League members there
sold 60 books and five Militant subscriptions to politics-thirsty young
people at a thousands-strong protest against the hated rule of Omar
al-Bashir in Sudan April 6. Among the titles were five books by Thomas
Sankara, the central leader of the popular revolutionary government in
Burkina Faso in the 1980s. One woman who is going back to Sudan snapped
up The Communist Manifesto and Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun in
Arabic to take with her.
To join in this effort, or for more information, contact the party
branch nearest you in the directory.
Terry Evans contributed to this article.
Related Articles
SWP candidate for State Assembly speaks at community meeting in NJ
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Fifty people attended the April 1 meeting of the
Regional Alliance of Students and Professionals to hear Lea Sherman,
Socialist Workers Party candidate for New Jersey State Assembly, speak
about her campaign. The meeting here, part…
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Workers protest gov’t raid at factory in Texas
•Rail barons slash training, safety in move to boost profits
•SWP moves out to expand political reach of the party
•Protests in Sudan, London demand fall of Omar al-Bashir government
•Dozens at meeting in Kurdistan region debate road to women’s emancipation
•US rulers exploit crisis in Venezuela as pretext to push attacks on Cuba
Feature Articles •Jim Spaul: 30 years building the communist movement
Also In This Issue •Cuban health workers deliver aid to cyclone-hit
Mozambique
•SWP candidate for State Assembly speaks at community meeting in NJ
•Asian Studies conference goers debate politics, get books
•Erbil book fair draws thousands, reflects Kurdish gains
•Ongoing mass protests in Algeria force president to resign
•March May 1 for driver’s licenses, amnesty!
On the Picket Line •Ukrainian rail workers rally for higher wages,
better conditions
25, 50 and 75 years ago
© Copyright 2019 The Militant - 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor - New
York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxx
--
---
Christopher Hitchens
“ What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.
”
― Christopher Hitchens,
