Your help is needed
Fuel the fires of resistance
By Leslie Feinberg
We are standing at a crossroads in history, weathering a
storm of reaction. The political climate is hot and oppressive.
And the stock market is a barometer of more turbulent days
ahead. An economic crisis is shuddering like an earthquake,
rolling across the economic landscape in slow motion, yet
powerful enough to create a tidal wave that has already toppled
economic towers like Enron. Workers are watching their pensions
washed away in the Wall Street deluge, and with it dreams of
security and relaxation in the not-so-distant future.
The deep rumbling on the economic Richter scale is one
reason that Bush and his generals are hurling the lightning
bolts of war. This imperial war tempest is capitalist
globalization, aiming to sweep aside any obstacles to capital
expansion and jolt the economy with war spending. And storm
clouds of racism and repression, gathering on the domestic
front, aim to intimidate working and oppressed people from
rising up in class battles.
Pink slips, layoffs, 401Ks and life savings evaporating,
utility bills quadrupling--more and more workers are plummeting
to earth in economic free fall while CEOs glide gently past
them on golden parachutes and the rich owners get richer. But
economic dislocation, and the war crisis, has the potential to
awaken many to the need to fight back. We're already seeing
signs of motion.
We believe this period of deep political reaction is laying
the basis for a tide of mass struggle that will sweep these
barons of banking and industry off the stage of history.
Right now, we've got a war to stop, racist roundups and
reaction to halt, and an economic crisis that demands we
organize resistance. But a period of capitalist economic crisis
makes it even harder to carry out the urgent struggles that
we're such a vital part of.
That is why money must be moved to the top of the
agenda.
Workers World is a leading force in the anti-imperialist,
anti-war movement. We spend a lot of time and energy helping
the coalitions we're part of to do their own fundraising. But
that's not raising funds for Workers World. We're a
working-class party, also hard hit by the capitalist economic
crisis.
As a result, we are sounding the opening bell of a fall fund
drive.
We all need to pitch in at this critical moment.
Revolutionaries cannot be financially beholden to any other
class except the one they work to help liberate.
One-time contributions are welcomed. Also, please take the
time to join the Workers World newspaper supporter
program--which has helped extend the reach of our weekly paper
by bringing in money from friends and members for 25 years.
And we all need to consider adding Workers World to our
wills to ensure that our revolutionary contributions will
continue beyond our lifetimes.
Every one of us needs to dig deep. Our money is our labor.
So we vow to stretch every dollar till it shouts out loud. All
of us need to be creative about how to raise money.
If we want revolutionary fire--and we all do--let's get the
fuel!
Reprinted from the Oct. 3, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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