White speaking at a meeting in Detroit

Jerry White, the Socialist Equality Party candidate for United States president, will be speaking over the coming month at a series of meetings in Britain, Germany, and Sri Lanka. The meetings will provide an opportunity for White to discuss the political issues in the 2012 US elections and advance the fight for the international unity of the working class against austerity, the destruction of democratic rights, militarism and war.

The presidential elections in the US have vast international implications. It was the collapse of the speculative bubble on Wall Street in 2008 that set off the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s. The American ruling class is leading the demands for bank bailouts and austerity throughout the world, and the American military is engaged in a campaign for global control that threatens to unleash a new world war.

In these elections, the two main candidates—Barack Obama of the Democratic Party and Mitt Romney of the Republican Party—agree on all essential questions. Millions of people around the world looked to the election of Obama in 2008 in the hope that it would mark a significant turning point in American foreign and domestic policy. Yet Obama has expanded war abroad, deepened the attack on democratic rights, and led the assault on working people in the United States and internationally.

The past year and a half have seen the eruption of social protests in countries throughout the world—from Egypt, to Greece, to the United States. This is only the beginning. In all of these struggles, however, the fundamental issue is the need for an independent revolutionary leadership.

“From the beginning of our campaign,” White said, “the Socialist Equality Party has placed the fight for the international unity of the working class as the center of our program. American workers cannot defeat the attacks on the living standards and basic social rights without forging the closest ties and collaborating in their struggles with the workers of Europe, Asia and around the world.

“I look forward to speaking to workers and young people in Sri Lanka, a country where the world Trotskyist movement has deep roots and has waged a heroic struggle for socialist internationalism against the communalist politics of the South Asian bourgeoisie.”

The small island in the Indian Ocean has also been pulled into the geo-political maelstrom of US imperialism’s efforts to contain China and maintain its economic and military domination in the Asian-Pacific. White will discuss the political program needed to unite American and Asian workers against the danger of a new world war.

In Europe, the global banks and institutions like the European Union have imposed savage austerity measures to make the working class pay for the bank bailouts and economic crisis. Major corporations like Peugeot Citroen, Fiat and Ford are carrying out American-style plant closings, mass layoffs and wage cutting with the full assistance of the unions. In meetings in Berlin, London and Manchester, White will be discussing the significance of the US elections and the SEP’s perspective for building a socialist movement of the international working class.

Meeting details:

Colombo, Sri Lanka
Sunday, August 26, 3:00 pm
New Town Hall
Map

Kegalla, Sri Lanka
Tuesday, August 28, 3:00 pm
Hotel Hashani—Reception Hall

Galle, Sri Lanka
Thursday, August 30, 3:00 pm
Town Hall

Manchester, Britain
Tuesday, September 4, 7:00 pm
The Mechanics Centre, The Main Hall
103 Princess Street, Manchester M1 6DD
Map

London, Britain
Thursday, September 6, 7:00 pm
University of London Union, Room 3E
Malet St, London WC1E 7HY
Nearest tube: Goodge Street
Map

Berlin, Germany
Saturday, September 8
Date, time and location to be announced