Gary Walkowicz:
Working Class Party Candidate for U.S. Congress, Michigan 12

Oct 31, 2016

How are you all doing? On Nov. 8, many people in Michigan will again be going to the polls to vote. But this year, something is different in Michigan. This year, working people, instead of having only a choice between the lesser of two evils, this year people can vote for something that we agree with. We can vote for the candidates of the Working Class Party.

Now the Working Class Party in Michigan is not a real party of the working class. A real party of the working class would be a mass party with tens or hundreds of thousands of working people. And the changes we need will come about, not through elections, but when the working class makes a fight. But the fact that the Working Class Party is on the ballot means that this year workers can say, with their vote, what they think. We can say that we want to see the working class build its own party....

The fact that the Working Class Party is on the ballot in Michigan is a victory. Yes, it’s a small victory, but it’s a victory. 50,000 people in Michigan were willing to put their names on a petition to the State to say that the working class needs its own political voice; that the working class needs its own party.

Working people are facing a crisis situation–crises that have been aided and caused by the two main political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. Both parties support policies that led to an economy where many people are not able to find a job, or are only able only to find a part-time job; an economy where even many full-time jobs don’t pay enough to be able to have a decent standard of living. Both parties in Michigan made decisions that led to poisoned drinking water for the people of Flint. Both parties are responsible for the destruction of public schools in Detroit and other working class communities.

Both parties say there is not enough money to deal with these problems. They are lying. The money is there.

The Working Class Party says that there is enough wealth in this society to provide clean water, good schools, and full-time jobs at decent wages for all who want them. We say that the wealth and the hoarded profits should be taken out of the hands of the corporations and the billionaires and the Donald Trumps, and that this money should be used to benefit the working people who produce those profits and that wealth....

Our campaign does not have the money that the two parties have. We don’t have the Koch brothers or Wall Street billionaires giving us money. Our campaign does not have the major media reporting about us 24/7. They don’t even mention us. That’s no surprise since most newspapers and TV stations are owned by millionaires and media corporations. But we have reached people, not nearly everyone in the state, but we have reached people.

Our campaign is being made by ordinary working people, like those of us in this room. Our campaign is one person talking to their neighbor. Our campaign is one person selling a button to their family member. Our campaign is one person giving a leaflet to their co-worker, who then passes it on to someone else. Our campaign is people donating money, $5 or $10 or $20 at a time.

And we are going to keep going until Election Day, November 8. And all the days after.