I'll need to read this article more carefully later. But off the top
of my head, where most of my babble comes from, I'd say that first we
need to return all the property and money taken from the working
class(all those whose labor has been seized by the current ruling
class).
Then, once that task is accomplished, all of us will rule all of us.
So we'd better get busy and decide just what that sort of government
would look like.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/15/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2016/8031/803102.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 31 August 22, 2016
(front page)
Who should rule — capitalist bosses or the working class?
BY MAGGIE TROWE
The two crisis-wracked parties of capitalism and war in the U.S. — the
Democrats and Republicans — and their candidates Hillary Clinton and
Donald Trump are tearing into each other, debating whether “America is
great” or needs to be made “great again,” while presenting no proposals
to create jobs or meet other burning needs of working people.
At the same time, Socialist Workers Party members and supporters are
campaigning on workers’ doorsteps and in their living rooms, discussing
how the deepening capitalist depression is an unfolding catastrophe for
workers and farmers and how we can unite to defend our class interests.
Members of Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the
United Kingdom are doing the same.
Addressing the faltering U.S. economy Aug. 8, Trump noted that the
number of workers the government counts as members of the labor force is
at the lowest point in four decades and proposed a package of
pro-business tax cuts that would boost profits, claiming this would
increase production and jobs. The previous week Clinton promised
“millions of jobs with rising incomes.”
But many capitalist pundits — in articles such as Robert Gordon’s New
York Times Aug. 8 op-ed “Can Clinton or Trump Recapture Robust American
Growth?” and Neil Irwin’s Aug. 6 Times article “We’re In a Low-Growth
World. How Did We Get Here?” — acknowledge that no policy can solve the
worldwide contraction of capitalism. “It increasingly looks as if
something fundamental is broken in the global growth machine,” Irwin
writes.
Both capitalist candidates say they are dedicated to assuring the
military and political supremacy of U.S. imperialism. While President
Barack Obama and Clinton argue that Trump is too unstable to be trusted
with Washington’s foreign policy, Trump hammers away at Obama’s legacy
of eight years in office with the U.S. government at war somewhere in
the world every day of his administration. Many workers say they’re
dismayed by both capitalist candidates.
David Rosenfeld, SWP candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota, and
supporter Rose Engstrom met Jose Rosas, a call center worker, at his
trailer home in Owatonna, Minnesota, July 24. Rosas liked what they had
to say. Two weeks later he attended an Aug. 6 public campaign meeting in
Minneapolis to hear Osborne Hart, the party’s vice-presidential candidate.
Rosas, 24, agreed things need to be changed. He said he was disturbed by
the dog-eat-dog values of capitalism. “There must be a better way for
people to live,” he said. “They talk as if we are all in a bucket and
have to step on each other to get out, to get ahead.”
While touring Minnesota, Hart was interviewed Aug. 7 by Jeremy Jones, a
reporter for the Hutchinson Leader. Jones talked with Hart for two hours
at the Happy Hour Cafe in Glencoe, an hour west of Minneapolis.
Hart explained that the Socialist Workers Party campaigns going door to
door in working-class areas, in towns large and small, in city and
countryside, and gets a good response in all of them. When Jones
expressed doubts about the kind of response the Socialist Workers Party
is receiving, Hart and supporters started talking with June and Marlen
Wichelman, who were having coffee at a table nearby.
“Socialism? Hadn’t considered that,” Marlen Wichelman said. “Well, there
has to be something better than those two running for president!” June
Wichelman replied. They wished Hart luck in the campaign.
Later Hart spoke with farmer John Worm, who was selling corn at a stand
in Glencoe. “I’m a Trump supporter,” Worm told Hart, adding that he
didn’t like the word “socialism.”
When Hart said the Socialist Workers Party is a working-class party,
Worm pointed out that Trump’s rallies are big because working people
come out for them.
“Yes,” Hart replied, “because he talks about unemployment and some of
the problems workers and farmers face. But he doesn’t raise answers to
those problems.”
“You’re right about that,” Worm said, and listened when Hart spoke of
his discussions about the capitalist crisis and the example of the Cuban
Revolution with small farmers in south Georgia. Worm took a campaign
flyer and got a copy of the Militant, saying, “Now I have something to
read and think about.”
Before going to Minnesota, Hart toured in Nebraska, speaking at campaign
meetings at Meadowlark Coffee and Espresso in Lincoln and at the Malcolm
X Memorial Foundation in Omaha. Eleven people who had never heard of the
Socialist Workers Party came, discussing the need to build the party to
help lead workers and working farmers to take political power.
Jacquie Henderson in Minnesota and Joe Swanson in Nebraska contributed
to this article.
Related articles:
Socialist Workers Party: Join Sept. 8 miners rally! SWP tells miners
‘Our party is your party’
SWP builds Sept. 8 protest in West Virginia, Kentucky
Working people in Utah welcome SWP campaign
SWP campaigns in Tennessee, condemns US wars abroad
Contribute to Socialist Workers Party’s $30,000 campaign fund!
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