The activity of these campaigns, both of the candidates and their supporters, will on its own show an alternative to the two-party system and the course of the Democrats, Republicans, Reform, and other parties that operate within the framework of capitalism.

The socialist candidates are part of the resistance of working people across the country. They are building demonstrations to defend affirmative action, while the employers and their parties in state and federal government try to dismantle it; walking picket lines on strike or in solidarity with workers fighting increasingly harsh conditions on the job and attacks on our unions; joining actions of farmers as part of building a fighting alliance of workers and farmers today; and standing shoulder to shoulder with others in actions against police brutality. They encourage and participate in protests against imperial outrages committed by Washington around the globe: from military assaults to the embargo against Cuba.

The socialists bring something else to tens of thousands through their campaigns: the perspective that working people can and must, in their tens of millions, organize a revolutionary movement that can topple the imperialist government in Washington and put in place a government of workers and farmers. Only this victory can open up the wider education and mobilization of the population to overturn capitalism and begin the transition to socialism, joining with working people in other countries as part of a worldwide struggle.

This is the only answer and road forward for working people in face of the economic crisis, and the perspective of fascism and war that forms the deadly logic of the capitalist system. The heat lightening of this can be seen across the imperialist world, from Jörg Haider in Austria to Patrick Buchanan in the United States. Right-wing and fascist currents are organizing with the knowledge that the capitalists will turn to them down the road to attempt to crush the growing revolutionary mobilizations and organized power of workers and farmers.

Socialist campaigners are discussing this perspective and encouraging those interested to read and study books with them, such as Capitalism's World Disorder and The Changing Face of U.S. Politics. This exchange among vanguard militants is the best way not only to draw together current experiences in fights and struggles, but to draw on the written legacy of similar working-class battles and revolutionary struggles for 150 years.

The imperialists have in their hands military, economic, and political power. But they are a minority without any ideas, only pragmatic and brutal actions to defend an outmoded and decaying system from which they profit.

Working people have on their side organization and the program its leaders have forged through struggle since the inception of the modern working class--mighty weapons that can bring victory. All those involved in the ongoing resistance--from truckers, to farmers, to mine workers, to youth--are welcome to become a part of the socialist campaign, and join the organizations that exist today in the United States that are advancing this perspective: the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists.  
 
 
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