Support Striking Verizon Employees!

At midnight last night Verizon employees with the Communications Workers of America (CWA)and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)went on strike. The unions are in contract negotiations and at the 11th hour Verizon has refused to back off over 100 concessionary items. Find out more about the issues and how you can support the strike here.

Help Mobilize the SP for the One Nation Working Together March!

Comrades,

In the past the Party has asked members which type of fundraiser they are most
likely to support. The overwhelming response was for special fundraiser with
specific purposes and for specific issues/events. Over the last few months,
you’ve probably noticed we’re had more special fundraisers than in other
times, but on each occasion members came though.

In August we had a successful National Organizing Conference and were able to
get Cindy Sheehan there and most recently we were able to keep The Socialist
printed at a union shop after our old union printer went out of business. Now
we have one more reason to ask you for a contribution.

On October 2nd hundreds of thousands of activists will be mobilizing in
Washington DC for the “One National Working Together” march and rally at
the Lincoln Monument. The forces behind the march are mostly main-stream
pro-Democratic Party organizations and originally we did not consider this
event an action to focus on (especially since it’s just after the general
strike mobilization in Europe and just before mass-student walkouts in the US),
but recently there has been a general agreement by many left and socialist
organizations to make sure our faces and message is included and we’ll be
there.

This puts us in a bind and with a short window to organize a large SPUSA
contingent at the One National march. So here’s our plan and what your
support is needed for;
* a mailing announcing the event to many of our members in the area
* a new banner for the contingent
* lots of lit for the literature table
* white SPUSA t-shirts for all participants
* funds to cover last minute expenses

We think we can get this done. By the end of next week, we will have a website
with logistics and a RSVP form for the SPUSA contingent linked from our
homepage, but since we did not really budget for this, we need your help to
make sure we can get this done.

We REALLY need your financial support to make sure we can get banners, signs
and t-shirts to Washington, so please help us with a contribution. You can
contribute on-line at: http://socialistparty-usa.org/contribute.html
or send your contribution directly to the SPUSA at 339 Lafayette St. #303 NY,
NY 10012

If you are going- please RSVP from the link at:
http://socialistparty-usa.org/onenation102.html so we can be sure to give you
up-to-date info. There are free and low-cost buses from across the eastern part
of the US (and some from the West!) you can get this info off the march website
at: http://www.onenationworkingtogether.org/pages/transportation

Hope to hear from you soon and hope to see you in DC!

In Unity,

Greg Pason
National Secretary
Socialist Party USA

Solidarity with the Striking Workers in Europe and Student and Worker Walkouts in the US this September and October

Passed by the Socialist Party National Action Committee, August 31, 2010

Since May of this year, workers in Greece, Italy, France and Spain have organized increasingly large strikes. In Europe, just as in the United States, workers are confronted with budget cuts, union-busting, and labor law ‘reforms’ that favor the rich. In Spain, labor unions are organizing a general strike on September 29th to coincide with a meeting of European finance ministers on September 29 in Brussels. It is expected that militant actions in other countries will also take place on this day.

Workers’ organizations and individuals in Europe have been calling others to help build September 29 into a day that will begin to awaken a response by global workers to austerity and attacks on our rights.

In the United States students and workers have called for a repeat of last year's mass actions and students walk-outs. On October 2nd and 7th actions are being called to stop budget cuts and other regressive measures which balance budgets on the backs of students, the poor and union workers.

We stand with the European workers and our fellow workers and students in the United States, raising our fists in defiance this September and October.

As socialists, we must reject the latest onslaught of neo-liberal attacks on students’ and workers’ rights, working conditions, social services for our youth, the elderly, and people living with disabilities.

Inasmuch as we call on the US and European governments to immediately halt austerity plans that are killing our people, we also remind our sisters and brothers in the movement that we cannot settle for reforms – we must reject capitalism as a whole. Just as globalization has opened borders to exploitation, we must stand united for the transformation of our societies from the rule of the wealthy few to the radically democratic governance of the collective wealth of the many.

Together we recognize that our politics and our approaches to this mass strike ought to reflect the open, transparent and democratic qualities that are prerequisites for genuine socialist democracy. It is necessary to show unity in action as well as theoretical, tactical, and political distinction from reformist parties and labor union bureaucracies.

With one voice, American and European workers, students and all oppressed by the capitalist system must rise up and demand an end to the war on workers, an end to the imperialist occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq; and an end to capitalism’s war on humanity, thus giving substance to the words: Workers of the world, unite!

This Labor Day, Workers Face Weak Economy on All Fronts - Working In These Times

This Labor Day, Workers Face Weak Economy on All Fronts - Working In These Times

Please help the SP magazine keep a union printer!

Dear Friends and Supporters,

I write to you today to ask for your support in our effort to continue printing The Socialist magazine at a unionized printer. Our long-time printer, Saltus Press, shut down unexpectedly last week just as the magazine was about to go to press. We have scrambled to find another union printer and after a flurry of calls finally found one that could match our print specifications. However, the cost will be $200 more than our deal with Saltus.

Once we get the latest issue out, we will conduct a more thorough search for a union printer that fits our budget. Your contribution will help us keep the magazine going while we look.

As socialists, we support unionized workplaces. Larger than that, we are often the folks who initiate union drives or wake sleepy bureaucratic unions from their slumber through rank-and-file action. We need to keep the Socialist at a union printer and need your help to do so.

The Editorial Board of the Socialist Party USA and the Editor of the Socialist ask that you please consider making a generous contribution to our emergency printer fund. Times are tough for all of us, but socialists have bedrock principles. Supporting union labor is one of them.

Please donate online via a credit card or PayPal:
http://socialistparty-usa.org/contribute.html

Or send a check or money order (mark Emergency Printer Fund in the memo) to:
Greg Pason
Socialist Party USA
339 Lafayette Street, Room 303
New York City, NY 10012

Thank you in advance for your support and keep up the struggle!

In Solidarity,

James Marra
Convener, Editorial Board SP-USA

Billy Wharton
Editor, The Socialist

Tax Day April 15: Tax Wall Street

Wall Street got its bailout--now it's time to bail out the American working class!

April 15: Tax Wall Street Day of Action

AFLCIO: March on Wall Street Planned As Unions Try to Out-Tea Party the Tea Party

Labor Plans March on Wall Street

Thought for April 15: More than 53% of Your Tax Payment Goes to the Military