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Vol. 80/No. 24 June 20, 2016
US socialist candidate joins with striking workers in Quebec visit
BY BEVERLY BERNARDO
MONTREAL — Alyson Kennedy, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for
U.S. president, walked picket lines, exchanged experiences with workers
and youth, and built participation in the upcoming Active Workers
Conference during a visit here at the end of May.
“Because of the world capitalist economic crisis we need more
international working class solidarity than ever,” she told a crowd of
100 strikers and their supporters May 27 at a press conference and rally
near the Old Port tourist complex to launch a three-day strike for a
minimum wage of $15 Canadian an hour (US$11.73). The workers, including
gardeners, educators, security workers and janitors, are members of the
Union of Old Port Workers – Public Service Alliance of Canada Local 10333.
The following evening, Old Port workers union president Konrad Lamour
spoke along with Kennedy at a special Militant Labor Forum.
On May 30 Kennedy visited the picket line of members of Unifor Local
1209 who are on strike at the Delastek aerospace factory in Grand-Mère,
Quebec (see article on page 5). During an exchange, a dozen strikers
told Kennedy about the working conditions that led them to bring in the
union in 2003 and their efforts since then to strengthen it. Kennedy
described her experience in fighting for and winning a union at the
Co-Op coal mine in Utah in 2003-06.
Many strikers expressed opposition to Donald Trump. Kennedy replied that
the Socialist Workers Party explains “the need for workers to break with
both the Republican and Democratic parties and to fight to replace
capitalist political power with a workers and farmers government.”
Kennedy also spent time talking with three young people planning to
attend the June 16-18 Active Workers Conference in Oberlin, Ohio.
Related articles:
SWP: Capitalism wastes human ability, potential
Tenn. worker: ‘We sure need something different!’
Communist League in Australia: Workers need to organize independent of
bosses
The political war on the working class
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