Gubernatorial candidate Gabrielle Prosser: DFL, GOP both spell 'boss.' I'll work for workers.

My name is Gabrielle Prosser. I am a member of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Union Local 22. I work in an industrial bakery in north Minneapolis. And I am the Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor.

We live in a class-divided society. Both the Democratic and the Republican parties defend the interests of the bosses. The program of the Socialist Workers Party says workers need our own party, a labor party, based on the unions, that can defend the interests of the workers under assault by the bosses and their government.

Today there is a pressing need to defend and extend the freedoms of the people and the states protected by the U.S. Constitution. The current Democratic Biden administration is leading an assault on our democratic rights and freedoms. Whether it's the nine-hour armed FBI raid on the home of former President Donald Trump, or the FBI harassment of Cuba solidarity activists in Puerto Rico, the real targets of these assaults are the freedoms and rights workers need as we begin to organize and fight back.

Whomever the target is today, it is working people who will be targeted tomorrow.

Our living and working conditions have been deteriorating as the wealth of ruling class families grows. The prospects for young workers to live independently, and start a family if they wish, is undermined. Older workers are unable to retire, and the care of the elderly and the sick is pushed entirely onto the family.

Workers are facing the rising costs of food and fuel, as well as lack of access to child care and health care. Because of inflation and low wages, more workers are working multiple jobs. Added to all this is a growing social carnage caused by rising addiction to opioids and other drugs, with more than 100,000 overdose deaths last year alone! This is the face of the growing social, moral and economic crisis of capitalism.

These burdens often fall heaviest on workers who are women. What is needed is nothing short of a transformation of the social conditions women and families face. At the same time, workers need to defend access to safe and legal abortion as a precondition to women's emancipation under capitalism.

The solution in face of this growing crisis is for workers and farmers to begin to organize ourselves independently. Working people cannot look to the bosses' parties for our political leadership. We can only depend on our own organizations to defend ourselves from these worsening conditions. Ultimately, working people will need to chart a course to take political power for our class, and form a workers' and farmers' government.

Workers must start by using and strengthening our unions. We call for cost of living wage increases for all workers, including those retired or on disability. Cut the workweek with no cut in pay! We need a massive jobs program at union-scale wages that will put people to work building houses, hospitals, child care centers and other infrastructure that people need!

We have everything to gain by supporting workers who are using their unions to fight, including coal miners on strike against Warrior Met Coal in Alabama, BCTGM members on the picket lines against Ingredion Inc. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, rail workers across the country fighting against a draconian attendance policy and deteriorating safety conditions, and Minnesota nurses and other health care workers still pushing for a contract.

More information can be found at www.themilitant.com.

We invite you to join us.