Obst in Great Britain: “Workers must take political power”
MANCHESTER, England — “Workers must rely on themselves if we are to fundamentally change the conditions we face,” Rachele Fruit, the Socialist Workers Party’s U.S. presidential candidate, told attendees at a Militant Labor Forum on Aug. 18, the start of her week-long tour of Britain organized by the Communist League.
There is no easy, quick solution. But we cannot expect solutions from those who are responsible for the attacks on the working population. We need a class break with the capitalist rulers and their parties, a course of independent political action by the working class.
“Our campaign is the only voice in the United States that represents the interests of our class, and I mean our class worldwide,” said Fruit. “That’s why it’s a joy to be here. Workers face similar conditions. And we face a common international challenge – creating working-class leadership in a world marked by never-ending capitalist crisis, social convulsions and war.”
Communist League leader Hugo Wils chaired the meeting. Several of the 25 participants had heard about the event through the CL’s campaign during the recent British general election. The party’s candidates attracted great interest as they discussed a working-class alternative to the Conservatives, Labour and other capitalist parties and the need to build a workers’ party.
Fruit pointed to the crucial development in US politics. “As the living conditions of the working class deteriorate and wars escalate, millions of workers are being drawn into politics,” she said. “More and more workers are forming unions and using them to fight.” And the SWP’s campaign is finding resonance, especially among workers who are ready to fight.
The next day, Fruit met with ticket inspectors at Northern Trains and fought for recognition of their union, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. Struggles like this lay the foundation for building a mass working class party, a workers’ party, Fruit told those at the meeting. It would organise workers of all nationalities, religions, colours and both sexes to intensify our struggles.
“From what Rachele said, I realise that it is up to us, the working people,” Derick Osei Appiah, a delivery driver who attended the meeting, told the Militant. “We must unite in struggle, form unions, build a workers’ movement.”
The SWP campaign emphasizes the importance of “defending the constitutional freedoms that working people in the United States have fought for over the years. They will be critical in our future struggles,” Fruit said. But today they are under attack, especially from the Democratic Party, “through plots – the usual method of targeting working-class militants – and through attacks on free speech.”
According to Fruit, similar questions are being asked in the UK following the murder of three girls and the riots that followed. The government has targeted people for expressing their opinions and writing and has used thought control laws to combat “hate crimes.”
Showing working people a way forward “also means opposing the rulers’ march to war. For decades, US imperialists have stationed tens of thousands of troops, warships and fighter jets in Europe and the Middle East to protect their interests. They have expanded their presence in Asia and the Pacific to contain China’s influence. And both parties are discussing increasing the military budget. The SWP opposes US military operations anywhere in the world.”
Turning point in world politics
“This is particularly important given the turning point in world politics marked by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the October 7 pogrom in Israel by Hamas, with the help and direction of the capitalist regime in Tehran. At the heart of a working-class programme today is the fight against Jew-hatred and pogroms, including defending Israel’s existence as a place of refuge for Jews,” Fruit said. After the meeting, she was interviewed by the Manchester-based weekly Jewish Telegraph.
The solution to all these problems – the march to war, national oppression, Jew-hatred – lies in the working class seizing political power, said Fruit.
“It is a revolutionary perspective in continuity with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. It is not only necessary but also possible, as the results of revolutionary struggles in the United States show – from the victorious War of Independence against British rule, the Civil War against slavery, the tremendous workers’ struggles that led to the formation of industrial unions in the 1930s, to the proletarian-led struggle for black rights that ended racial segregation.
“We may solve the question of all questions, which class rules. Only by wresting power from the capitalist rulers can working people stop the march toward fascism and war. This is true of every capitalist country in the world: the US, Britain, Israel, Iran, Russia, Venezuela. This is the raison d’être of the SWP and the Communist League. We hope you will join us in this effort.”
