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Vol. 80/No. 12 March 28, 2016
Socialist Workers Party launches state campaigns
The Socialist Workers Party has launched candidates for U.S. Senate
and other offices across the country. They are:
California — Eleanor García, Senate
Florida — Cynthia Jaquith, Senate
Georgia — Sam Manuel, Senate
Illinois — Dan Fein, Senate
Minnesota — David Rosenfeld, U.S. House of Representatives, District 5
New York — Jacob Perasso, Senate
Pennsylvania — John Staggs, Senate
Washington — Mary Martin, Governor
Washington, D.C. — Glova Scott, U.S. House of Representatives
Along with SWP presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy and Osborne Hart
for vice president, they are joining in struggles of working people and
presenting a working-class alternative to all of the capitalist parties
and politicians.
❖
Wendy Lyons from Los Angeles reports that when nurses at Kaiser
Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center began a weeklong strike March
15, SWP candidate Eleanor García joined the picket line and distributed
a statement supporting their fight. The 1,200 nurses voted to join the
California Nurses Association/National Nurses United in July and are
fighting for their first contract.
“We have to stand up,” John Mark, a young nurse who started some months
ago, told García. “There are not enough nurses and it is risky for the
patients when there is not enough staff.”
“Nurses here have been fighting for over six years to get better pay and
pensions and for better staffing,” Joy Guinto said.
Below is García’s statement.
❖
The Socialist Workers Party supports your fight for a union contract.
I’m here on the picket line with you and urge others to do likewise.
All workers need unions. It’s the starting point for fighting the
depression-driven assaults by the bosses, backed by their government. As
you point out, Kaiser Permanente has made over $14 billion in profit in
the last six years while freezing nurses’ wages.
You are not alone. Thousands of people have marched for a $15 an hour
minimum wage. Port truck drivers and warehouse workers in Los Angeles
are fighting for union recognition.
Our unions can become an effective fighting force. It starts with
relying on solidarity and mobilization. We also have to recognize that
all the capitalist party candidates — from Bernie Sanders and Hillary
Clinton to Donald Trump — seek to rescue capitalism at our expense from
the international contraction in production, trade and employment. There
is a burning need to break from the bosses political parties and build
our own independent labor party based on the unions.
Your fight is for something bigger than your own self-interest. That
attitude is what we need to counter the dog-eat-dog capitalist system
which has turned health care into a commodity to be bought and sold,
depriving billions the world over of a basic human right. This won’t be
solved short of a mighty struggle to wrest political power from the
billionaire rulers and reorganize all society on a foundation different
than the current dictatorship of capital — a socialist society.
In socialist Cuba, a revolution secured health care for all. On top of
that, the Cuban people send tens of thousands of medical personnel
around the world, not for profit, but as part of what they see as their
debt to humanity. As they say, they don’t give what they have left over,
they share what they have.
When you win your fight for your first union contract, it will be a
victory for all working people.
Related articles:
Breakup of Trump rally sets back working class
Socialist Workers Party campaign statement
Socialist candidate gets hearing at Trump event
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