Socialist Workers Party members, and members of the Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, are using the Militant to discuss with working people the big political questions facing our class worldwide.

They are taking the paper to workers on their doorsteps, at strike picket lines and at political protest actions, and telling them about the program and activities of the parties.

Communist League members Beverly Bernardo and Katy LeRougetel spoke with some 40 participants in a weekly Bring Them Home march and rally in Montreal Jan. 5. The protests demand Hamas return the hostages it has held since its murderous Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom against Jews in Israel. Two Syrians took part, carrying the three-starred Syrian flag popular in the mass celebrations that have taken place since the fall of the Bashir al-Assad dictatorship.

“Some people say they’re worried about what will replace Assad,” one of the Syrians told LeRougetel. “But I tell them, it’s two different things. First, Assad has gone. Now it’s up to us what comes next.” He gave a $5 donation to get a copy of the Militant.

LeRougetel and Joe Young attended a rally in downtown Montreal Jan. 11 calling for the repressive government in Iran to free all political prisoners. The 50 participants also commemorated the 176 people killed when the Iranian military shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 on Jan. 8, 2020.

“We used to think it wasn’t possible to do anything against the government,” Leyla Fakhari, as she helped organize the “Woman, Life, Freedom” banner in French, Farsi and English, told LeRougetel. “Now that Assad is gone, we have hope. But we’re watching what happens next.”

“Workers in Syria have won space to breathe and to organize in their own name. We have to do the same here,” said LeRougetel.

“Yes, in Iran, the retired workers, the nurses, the oil workers, they’re rallying for their wages, but also for freedom for political prisoners,” Fakhari said. Taking note of the Militant’s coverage of these struggles, she bought a copy.

“Hamas and the Iran government, they’re both terrorist,” Eli Givari, a day care worker, told LeRougetel. Givari pointed to the picture on a Militant Labor Forum flyer of 19-year-old Naama Levy being kidnapped by a Hamas thug during the Oct. 7 pogrom. “They do the same to women in Iran. Tehran and Hamas are good friends and they teach each other about what they can do,” she said.

Rally participants chanted the name of Zhina Amini, a young Kurdish woman who died Sept. 16, 2022, after being brutalized by Iranian police for not wearing proper head covering.

“It’s the blows delivered by Israel against Hamas and Hezbollah that helped topple Assad,” said LeRougetel. “Yes, Hamas started the war and the Israelis are just defending their country,” Givari replied.

As rally participants started chanting in Farsi, LeRougetel asked Bita Jalali, a kindergarten teacher, what they were saying. “Kurds, Baluchi, Turks, fraternity, equality,” she said. “Amini was Kurdish. And now people say the Kurdish revolution is happening in Balochistan. We are united.”

Jalali explained that the song being played at the rally was by Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who was released from prison in December after being sentenced to death “for his music. He was held in isolation. Activists in Iran and around the world campaigned to free him. First his sentence was reduced, and now he’s out. It shows even little steps count!”

Communist League members Michel Prairie and LeRougetel spent an hour outside the huge Canada Post sorting center in Montreal’s St. Lawrence district Jan. 10 introducing workers to the Militant. Some 55,000 postal workers went on strike across Canada in November, until the government used a notorious anti-labor law to order them back to work. “Postal workers and others liked the sign we brought, saying ‘Union solidarity, for a party of labor, workers must take power. Read the Militant,’” Prairie told the paper.

“Some workers stopped to talk, asking if we would be back again since they didn’t have money on them. One postal worker bought a Militant and described company-spread rumors about work schedule changes,” he said. “Many are looking to the May deadline for a possible new strike. We will continue to get out the paper here and build solidarity with their ongoing fight.”

To join in getting out the Militant and program of the communist movement, contact the party branch nearest you.