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Vol. 80/No. 39 October 17, 2016
Workers say, ‘What can I do to help the party?’
BY MAGGIE TROWE
As Socialist Workers Party members engage in workers’ struggles whenever
they arise and in day-in day-out discussions on their doorsteps across
the country, we find workers who agree with what we say and want to join
party members in activity. And they want to read and study the party’s
literature and the Militant, and to contribute financially to sustain
the SWP’s work.
“I consider myself a socialist,” said Nelson Daggett, a member of the
Machinists union and ferry worker, after talking with SWP members John
Naubert and Clay Dennison at his home in Mount Lake Terrace, Washington,
Oct. 1. “I can’t stand big government and corruption.”
After deciding to subscribe to the Militant and buy two new books
published by Pathfinder Press — Is Socialist Revolution in the US
Possible? and Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? —Daggett asked, “What
else can I do to help the party?” Dennison told him about the Socialist
Workers Party-Building Fund and he kicked in $10.
The 10-week appeal for contributions, which runs through Dec. 7, aims to
raise $100,000 to sustain the work of the party. Every branch of the
party is reaching out broadly to workers in their region for contributions.
The working class is living through a crisis unlike anything any of us
have experienced in our lifetimes. Feeling the impact of decades of
grinding depression conditions, disturbed by the devastation wrought by
25 years of imperialist war in the Mideast and elsewhere, and
unconfident the rulers have any solution to the crisis, millions of
workers are open to discussing the need for the working-class to find
the road to organizing the exploited and oppressed to take political power.
Reinaldo, a welder and unionist born in Puerto Rico, was pleased when
SWP member Tamar Rosenfeld knocked on his door in New Haven,
Connecticut, and introduced herself and her party. She invited him to
attend the Oct. 9 rally across from the White House to demand Puerto
Rican independence fighter Oscar López be freed. He said he was familiar
with López and how the U.S. government framed him up.
“I don’t know if we can win independence, after all these years of being
a colony and being ‘Americanized,’” he said, but he agreed with the need
to fight against the colonial exploitation of the island’s population.
“I think it’s possible both for the Puerto Rican people to win their
independence and for us to make a revolution here in the U.S.,”
Rosenfeld said. “Things — and we — change qualitatively as our struggles
deepen.”
Reinaldo decided to make a donation to the fund on top of picking up a
Militant subscription and the Spanish-language editions of Are They Rich
Because They're Smart? and Puerto Rico: Independence is a Necessity by
Puerto Rican independentista Rafael Cancel Miranda. “Good luck with your
work,” he said.
To join the effort or make a contribution, contact the SWP branch in the
directory of local distributors.
Related articles:
Socialist Workers Party-Building Fund
Join SWP campaigning, make a donation
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