Time for action

It is a time to act. Now. One action is already on the front burner: Boycott Arizona.

Arizona’s reactionary ruling class stuck a knife in the back of its half-million undocumented workers with its racist immigration law — a thorn in the side of every decent person. Remove the thorn. Remove the knife. Boycott Arizona.

Mass protests raised this slogan in at least 80 cities on May Day. This idea has arrived. It must only be given organization and shape and turned into deeds. No tourism to Arizona. Picket the Arizona Diamondbacks. Demand your colleges divest from Arizona businesses. Boycott Arizona!

A second action is poised to move to a front burner. Now it needs planting and nurturing. Workers and organizers are going to Washington, D.C., on May 8 to do just this. The Bail Out the People Movement has called an action at the Department of Labor demanding a national jobs program.

Under the pressure of five years of depression and many mass struggles, a president — himself a member of the ruling class and a defender of capitalism — signed the Works Progress Administration into law 75 years ago. The WPA directly created millions of jobs, built roads and schools and museums, produced theater and art and kept people alive with decent jobs working directly for government.

There are 30 million unemployed and underemployed workers in the U.S. now. No trickle-down policies have provided jobs. No “recovery” has recovered their wages. BOPM will demand that the government provide a 21st-century version of the WPA.

Spread the idea. Plant the seed. Only with mass struggle can this be won. But it has happened before. It is eminently believable. And it has every chance of turning into that kind of struggle.

Boycott Arizona! Fight for jobs!