https://themilitant.com/2018/09/15/workers-need-independence-from-capitalist-state-parties/
SWP speaks with, for working people
‘Workers need independence from capitalist state, parties’
By Emma Johnson
Vol. 82/No. 35
September 24, 2018
“I like to see a working person running for office,” Christina Etapa
told Dan Fein, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of
Illinois, when he knocked on her door in the Brighton Park neighborhood
of Chicago Sept. 9. “All these politicians are into it for their own
self-interest and other rich people like themselves.”
Fein is one of the members of the SWP and the Communist League in Canada
standing as party candidates this fall (see full list on page 3). Taking
the party’s politics to workers’ doorsteps in cities, towns and rural
areas is the central activity of the party and of the Communist Leagues
in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, week in and
week out all year round.
Join SWP/Communist League campaigns!They discuss the developments in
politics, as the “world order” the U.S. capitalist rulers imposed after
they emerged the winner from the second imperialist world war is
increasingly coming apart. They stress the need for workers to chart a
political course independent of the capitalist rulers, their party and
their state, to join with the SWP in building our own party. They find
interest in discussing a way forward for the working class and the labor
movement.
Fein and Etapa talked about the need for working people to unite across
all the divisions bosses try to impose on us — native-born vs.
immigrant, employed vs. unemployed, Black vs. Caucasian, etc. — and
build a movement that can challenge the capitalist rulers and overturn
their system of exploitation, war and oppression.
“I walked the picket line with hotel workers two days ago,” Fein said.
Members of UNITE HERE Local 1 are on strike at 25 Chicago downtown
hotels. “My party urges workers to join their struggle for year-round
health care. Workers deserve government-financed health care, regardless
of their situation. Their strike strengthens the labor movement.” (See
article on page 5.)
“My dad helped get the union into the factory where he worked 36 years
in the maintenance department,” Etapa said. “After they got the union,
the owners closed the doors and put them on the street and eliminated
his pension. He was able to get on at the Chicago Transit Authority but
had to then work until he was 70 to get a pension. He retired and a year
later he died.”
Fein works at Walmart where there is no union. He said this is the most
important thing for workers there, how to figure out a way forward to
organize at the biggest private company in the country.
“Workers without unions need to realize that they’re affected by what
the unions have won,” Etapa said. “And that they can organize and build
unions.”
She signed up for the Militant and picked up three books on special with
the subscription — Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? and The
Clintons’ Anti-Working-Class Record: Why Washington Fears Working
People, both by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes, and Is Socialist
Revolution in the US Possible? by SWP leader Mary-Alice Waters.
The party speaks out as a tribune of the people against all the
capitalist rulers’ assaults — against attacks on jobs, wages and working
conditions, on women’s right to choose abortion, for amnesty for
immigrant workers in the U.S., against the debt slavery forced on
working farm families and against police brutality.
Fein and other party members joined the Sept. 5 demonstration outside
the courthouse where Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke is on trial for shooting
and killing 17-year-old African-American teen Laquan McDonald (See
article on page 4).
Wars endemic to capitalist system
Laurie McClarty picked up a subscription and Are They Rich Because
They’re Smart? from Communist League member Lynda Little, who knocked
on doors in McClarty’s neighborhood in Surrey in the lower mainland of
Vancouver, British Columbia, in mid-August.
Militant subscriber Laurie McClarty, left, invited Communist League
members over Aug. 29 to discuss capitalism’s wars. Right, Katy
LeRougetel, CL candidate for Vancouver mayor.
Militant/Lynda Little
Militant subscriber Laurie McClarty, left, invited Communist League
members over Aug. 29 to discuss capitalism’s wars. Right, Katy
LeRougetel, CL candidate for Vancouver mayor.
She invited Little to come back and on Aug. 29 they got together at
McClarty’s house, joined by Katy LeRougetel, Communist League candidate
for mayor of Vancouver in upcoming October elections. They discussed the
world capitalist economic crisis, where it comes from and what it takes
for workers to fight against the effects on our class and to change the
image the rulers impose on us that we are not capable of taking power
and running society.
“Wars are hugely profitable for the military-industrial complex,”
McClarty said, “and they have a disproportionately large amount of
influence over politicians.”
“Wars are built into the capitalist system, they are the continuation of
politics by other means,” LeRougetel said. “It’s the ultimate weapon in
the competition and rivalry between the capitalist classes in different
countries and their way to protect their rule and their system.”
“There is no ‘we,’ every country is class divided,” Little added. “The
working class is the social force that can lead the fight to overturn
capitalism and take the power to make wars out of the hands of the
warmakers.”
She said that fighting to bring the working class together, speaking out
for the needs of all the oppressed and exploited is key.
They talked about how experiences in the class struggle can transform
working people and give us confidence in our own capacities.
McClarty’s said she saw that when she worked a season on railway track
maintenance, which changed both her and her co-workers. She was the only
woman on a 16-person crew and at first she was the butt of jokes and
threats.
“My kids learned to cook that summer, when I would come home so tired I
couldn’t move,” she said. “But at the end of the season when we were
finished, every single guy shook my hand and said I’d earned my place.
People do change when they get to know you.”
McClarty decided to get another book, The Clintons’ Anti-Working-Class
Record, and hopes to place that and other Pathfinder titles on
revolutionary, working-class politics in the local library. She said she
looks forward to learn more about the Communist League.
To join with the party in door-to-door discussions with fellow workers,
or learn more about our program and activities, contact the SWP or
Communist League nearest you, listed in the directory.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Demand US rulers sign peace treaty with NKorea
•‘Workers need independence from capitalist state, parties’
•Iraq protests demand gov’t provide services, end to Tehran interference
•Liberals’ frenzy against Trump falters in face of workers’ distaste
•Join fight against prison censorship of ‘Militant’ in Florida, Illinois!
Feature Articles •Mexico election registers crisis for capitalist
rulers, parties
Also In This Issue •Steelworkers authorize strikes at U.S. Steel amid
contract talks
•‘Convict Chicago cop who killed Laquan McDonald’
•Workers at Whole Foods, Target take steps to organize
•Sankara books welcomed at NY Burkina Faso festival
•Kentucky UFCW workers strike at Four Roses plants
Editorials •Decay of US rulers ‘world order’ opens room to fight
On the Picket Line •Chicago hotel workers fight for health care, higher
wages
•Miami airport workers rally, press for union contract
Books of the Month •‘First years of Communist Party heroic part of our
continuity’
As I See It •Gangs, drugs and violence are built into capitalist rule
25, 50 and 75 years ago
© Copyright 2018 The Militant - 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor - New
York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxx
