Hutchinson for Congress in Connecticut!
2010 2010-06Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 6 →
The words are the paper's own, from its digital file; the division into articles was made by machine, so a box or caption can end up inside the article next to it.
Scan page 6
demonstrated how the movement for queer liberation and HARTFORD, Conn.—In March, Socialist Action launched a campaign for Congress in Connecticut’s first district. Candi- Hutchinson then illustrated the interconnections between date Christopher Hutchinson is an art teacher, a popular po- the struggles that working people wage all over the world. litical cartoonist, an activist in the anti-war and immigrant- He argued that the rapid growth of unemployment has given corporations the leverage over their employees necessary to This campaign does not seek to encourage workers to root speed up production, and thereby increase work-place acfrom the sidelines for yet another white knight who promises cidents, deaths, and disasters such as the explosions at the to rescue them from the numerous crises created by capital- Massey Upper Branch mine and the Kleen energy plant in ism. The campaign instead aims to expose the phony saviors Middletown, Conn. He cited the BP oil spill as the most starthrown up by the parties of big business—the Democrats tling example of the profit-driven system in action today. and Republicans—to expose the parasitic class they serve, Other speakers that night included Laura Lockwood, a Hartand the system they defend. Most importantly, the campaign ford campus women’s center director and LGBTQ activist; aspires to challenge working people to take political action in Saeed Ahghari, an urgent care physician recently returned their own names and for their own interests; to create their from Haiti; Frankie Acevedo, an immigrant-rights activist; own organizations and parties; and yes, to take the reins of and Marissa Janczewska, president of the Central Connectisociety in their own hands and organize life based on human Chris Hutchinson has employed this campaign to help build Teams go out every weekend and some weekdays to collect and publicize working-class actions from Hartford to Washsignatures to win ballot status for Hutchinson as a Socialist ington, D.C., including marches to defend immigrant rights Action candidate. Just under 3000 valid signatures from reg- and the ongoing strike of 1199 workers in Connecticut to istered voters are needed by Aug. 4 to attain this status. Peti- demand a better contract from Spectrum nursing homes. He tioners have been consistently surprised and encouraged by will speak next at a forum organized to oppose the escalating the support they find for a socialist candidate. Offers to help assault on public education. To learn more or join the campaign effort go to www.votesocialistaction.org. n 6 Socialist Action june 2010 rights movements, and a member of Socialist Action. need instead of profit. volunteer are not infrequent. Puerto Rico.
(Left) Christopher Hutchinson speaks at Socialist Action (Canada) educational conference last month. At a packed May 7 campaign dinner, Johanna Rivera, a student from Puerto Rico, told the crowd that she supports Hutchinson because Socialist Action understands that the struggles of students in the U.S. are linked with the struggles of students on strike in Ryan Henowitz, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, said that the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan are waged only in the interest of the U.S. ruling elite and that Chris Hutchinson is the only candidate who called for an immediate end to these wars. Student LGBTQ-rights leader Aaron McAuliffe enthusiastically urged a vote for Hutchinson and the movement to end the wars are inextricable. cut State University’s Youth for Socialist Action. example is the current Democratic candidate for governor, Terry Goddard—a man who brought us the cruel prosecution against young immigrant workers at the Panda Express fast-food chain in Tucson a couple of years ago.
Goddard is currently attorney general of Arizona, and as such, he is defending SB 1070! He is in charge of defending Arizona against the many lawsuits that have been filed to overturn SB 1070. He also favors more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. When Obama announced on May 26 that he was sending 1200 National Guard troops, Goddard was quoted by AP as saying: “the planned deployment was a good first step, but … the president’s plan should evolve to include more troops and more authority.”
In this situation there is no way for the oppressed to win in the electoral arena. So the movement must continue in the streets, independent of the politicians, who are serving the interests of the employer class, the big corporations, the military-industrial-prison complex, and the “banksters.” These forces, who support racism to divide and weaken the working class, in fact control both parties, Republican and Democrat.
We need a political party of our own, a Partido de los Trabajadores, a Labor Party. Such a political movement, linked with the movement in the streets, could channel the energy of mass mobilization, of the oppressed fighting back against their oppression, so that their demands would in fact be carried out and their true interests be served. Then we would not hear complaints that Obama “broke his promises.” A party created and built by the workers themselves, funded and controlled by the rank and file, would keep its promises—or else! n