Supporters of the Socialist Workers national and local campaigns are spreading the word about the socialist alternative in the elections. As Israeli forces began bombing Lebanon, socialist campaigners jumped into protest actions calling for an end to the assault and to Washington's support for Tel Aviv's terrorism. Below are some of the activities campaign supporters have written in about.

DEARBORN, Michigan - One day after Israeli bombs killed 100 people at a UN refugee center in Lebanon, Mark Gilsdorf, the Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, and Doug Douthat, the Socialist Workers candidate for the 12th Congressional District, joined a candlelight vigil and speakout against the bombing held at Henry Ford Community College here. Addressing the crowd of 150 during an open air speakout Gilsdorf said, "I'm here to express my campaign's solidarity with the people of Lebanon and their fight for freedom. There will be no peace in the Middle East until Israel gets out of Lebanon and returns all of the land it has stolen from the Arab peoples. My campaign demands: Stop the bombing now! Cut all U.S. ties to Tel Aviv! Israel out of Lebanon!"

On April 20 Gilsdorf and Rosa Garmendia, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress in the 10th Congressional District, led their supporters in hitting the streets in Dearborn, where many Arabs live, selling the Militant, the socialist campaign's newspaper. They passed out the statement issued by James Harris and Laura Garza, the Socialist Workers Party candidates for U.S. president and vice president, condemning the Israeli occupation and bombing of Lebanon. The campaign teams sold more than two dozen copies of the Militant and many shop owners took copies of a leaflet for an April 26 speak-out hosted by the Militant Labor Forum titled "Israel out of Lebanon! Stop the bombing now!"

The next day the candidates and their supporters joined a march of 7,000 in Dearborn to demand Israeli forces get out of Lebanon.

BOSTON - A picket on April 18 against Israel's attacks on Lebanon drew 150 people, carrying signs saying "Resistance is a Right, Occupation is Not," and "Stop the Bombing," while they chanted, "Free South Lebanon. " Young Socialists for Harris and Garza joined others at the action in planning further events. The next day there were two more protests, a picket of 50 in front of the Israeli consulate and another action of 30 organized by the Lebanese Club at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Half a dozen Young Socialists for Harris and Garza met April 21 to discuss how to maximize participation in the protest actions. Elaine Lowe, a high school student, took campaign literature to show some friends who might be interested in joining actions with the socialist campaign. Jerrad, another high school student at the meeting, also said he has several friends interested in socialist ideas. The Young Socialists for Harris and Garza helped distribute 200 copies of the candidates' statement condemning the Israeli aggression at an April 23 Harvard Square demonstration that drew some 400 people.

MORGANTOWN, West Virginia - Socialist workers took advantage of job layoffs the week of April 15 to start campaigning for the socialist alternative to the parties of war, racism, and unemployment. They visited West Virginia University, selling the Militant and the book The Truth about Yugoslavia. At a protest against a nonunion mine, organized by a laid-off member of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), they met a Teamsters union member who later went by the Pathfinder bookstore to get a copy of the book Teamster Rebellion.

In the Charleston area they campaigned at West Virginia State College, met students involved in a Native American support committee, and sold more socialist literature. The socialist campaigners sold nine copies of the Militant at a UMWA-organized coal mine in Hobet, introducing the workers to the socialist alternative to William Clinton, Robert Dole, Patrick Buchanan, and Ralph Nader.

NEW YORK - On a Newstalk TV cable program Socialist Workers vice presidential candidate Laura Garza joined an April 22 discussion on the rightist Republican presidential candidacy of Patrick Buchanan. The show included representatives of Buchanan for President and the Libertarian Party, as well as Lenora Fulani of the Committee for a Unified Independent Party.

Garza said Buchanan is not just running an election campaign but is trying to build a rightist movement that could take action against the rights of workers, like those who have attacked abortion clinics in an attempt to beat back the right of a woman to control her own body. The Socialist Workers Party, she explained, "stands for uniting the working class to take on the bosses, who are leading an assault on our rights, wages, and unions." While Buchanan falsely points to immigrants as the source of evils in society, Garza said, the socialist campaign defends equal rights for immigrants and points to the need to organize a fight for jobs for all, raising the minimum wage, and defending affirmative action to guarantee equal access to housing, education, and employment.

Fulani, while stating she disagreed with Buchanan on some of his "social issues, " stressed there was room for "all Americans" in constructing an independent political party. She cited as key issues opposing negative campaigning and the corruption of the two parties, and supporting an overhaul of the political process, including term limits.

Garza countered, "Working people have nothing to gain from being in a coalition with [Ross] Perot, Buchanan, or other capitalist politicians who are part of leading the charge against the social gains and democratic rights of the working class."

Jean-Luc Duval in Detroit, José Aravena in Boston, and Barbara Greenway in Morgantown, West Virginia, contributed items to this article.  
 
 
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