The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.39           November 4, 1996 
 
 
`I Urge You To Struggle'  

BY TOM ALTER AND JACQUIE HENDERSON

ST. PAUL, Minnesota - "I'm not really interested in your vote," Socialist Workers' presidential candidate James Harris told students at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, October 21. "I'm here to urge you to become part of the struggle to change the world."

Later, at Macalester University in St. Paul, Harris asked a group of students, some of whom had traveled to Washington the week before to demonstrate for immigrant rights, "Why do you think the October 12 demonstration was so important? Do you think it is because it was right - that no human being should be considered illegal?"

"Yes," Harris answered. "But also because of what it says about workers today. Workers are not supposed to see themselves as equals, as united in opposition to those who exploit them. Inside that demonstration were the seeds of a movement for real social change."

The meetings attracted more than 40 students, including some from high schools and other colleges in the Twin Cities. Students crowded round to talk with Harris and members of the Young Socialists long after the meetings ended.

Several bought copies of the campaign newspaper, the Militant, and three bought subscriptions. One youth bought a copy of the Marxist magazine, New International, another picked up Teamster Rebellion. Two copies of the Young Socialist organizational pamphlet went rapidly. One student asked to join the Young Socialists. A dozen students signed up for more information about campaign activities Campaign supporters also handed out a local Socialist Workers campaign brochure. The four-page brochure highlights the national and local candidates, an interview with Tom Fiske, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate, explaining that his Democratic opponent, Paul Wellstone, is a liberal advocate of imperialism. It also includes information on becoming involved in the SWP campaign and participating in the upcoming Regional Socialist Educational Conferences November 29 - December 1.

The campus meetings followed a gathering of 45 people the night before at the Pathfinder bookstore in St. Paul.

BY RAY PARSONS

CHICAGO - "We choose representatives in the elections but they don't end up representing us. Why?"

"Why are socialists always pointing to fighters, and referring to themselves as fighters?"

"Who is a worker? Isn't the owner of a factory a worker too?"

"Capitalists will try to subvert even a socialist leader that rises to power. How do we prevent this corruption?"

"What is the socialist stand on gun control?"

These were just some of the questions raised in a spirited and open discussion after Kristin Meriam, the Socialist Workers candidate for the 4th Congressional district of Illinois, spoke before the October 1 meeting of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Division 682 in Hammond, Indiana.

The local organizes engineers at the Indiana Harbor Belt, a small railroad that serves the steel mills and connects various rail yards around Chicago. Meriam, 28, is a conductor at Norfolk Southern Railroad.

She was invited to speak before the union by Don Byrom, the local's legislative representative. Byrom had met the Socialist Workers Campaign during the protests around the Democratic National Convention in August. Several workers stayed after the union meeting to continue talking. One bought the Marxist magazine New International no. 10, with the article "Imperialism's March toward Fascism and War," as well as two Pathfinder titles, Eugene Debs Speaks and American Labor Struggles: 1877-1934, by Samuel Yellen.

I interviewed Byrom later as he waited for his train at the Burlington Northern yard where other campaign supporters work. "I'm glad you came, and that I had the opportunity to put together such a lively discussion," he said.

Ray Parsons is a switchman at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe yard in Cicero, Illinois.  
 
 
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