BY TODD PRINGLE

Below are excerpts of an article from the Daily Cougar on the campaign of Lieff Gutthiudaschmitt, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress in the 29th Congressional District in Texas. The Daily Cougar is "the official campus newspaper of the University of Houston since 1934." This article appeared in the September 10 issue, under the headline "A quick lesson in socialism - Student runs for office, doesn't expect to win." BY TODD PRINGLE

Not every politician runs to win. University of Houston student and 29th congressional district candidate Lieff Gutthiudaschmitt does not even want to do so. Wishing people to remember him simply as "Lieff," he is this year's election dark horse.

Lieff is a socialist.

While 29th District candidates Gene Green, the Democratic congressional incumbent, and his Republican challenger Jack Rodriguez will enjoy minimal media coverage at best, Lieff's name won't appear on the Nov. 5 ballot, his face will never grace a television screen, and he'd be cheating fortune if he's mentioned once by even a minor mainstream newspaper....

Lieff came to Houston with his family in 1984 after leaving rebellion-torn El Salvador, his birthplace, at age 13. But escaping the fight only made his family aware of a very different type of strife, he said: the competition for low- skilled jobs, shrinking benefits and other woes associated with companies more concerned with profits than workers.

"The working class makes our society run, but workers are seen only as machines and tools by their bosses," Lieff said.

"(Socialism calls for) creating a society which is organized to meet the needs of the people instead of one group's profit," he added.

Responding to that proposal in a phone interview, Republican candidate Rodriguez wondered, "how can any worker make money if their (employer) doesn't make a profit?"...

Protests, demonstrations and worker strikes are favored socialist actions in the fight for guaranteed universal health care, zero unemployment, housing and an adequate living wage, Lieff said.

But even liberal systems that offer social benefits like Lieff's proposals, such as Canada, Germany and France, aren't what Lieff and the Socialist Workers Party have in mind, he said. Capitalism is to blame for the problems in those nations, he said.

"Problems still occur (in those countries) because profits are not being made by those countries, like the protests in France show," Lieff said. "(Theses countries) cannot always afford to provide guaranteed services without cutting them and raising taxes."

What's needed, he said, is a government that guarantees all people the right to employment and a minimum wage equal to union standard - about $12 to $13 per hour. But to ensure that enough work is available to go around, the week's work load would also be cut in half, without a cut in pay....

When asked how many votes he thinks he will receive at the Nov. 5 election, Lieff seemed optimistically pessimistic: He won't win, he said, but his message should raise a few heads. "(Socialism cannot be achieved) in just one country. It must be a worldwide venture that the world's workers have nothing to lose but their chains."  
 
 
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