Jeanne Cashen, a 22-year-old women's studies student at the University of New Orleans, liked what the socialist candidate had to say about working-class struggles today. She is active in Community Labor United (CLU), a coalition of labor, women's rights, religious, and community groups that has been focusing on union-organizing efforts in New Orleans. "The first target was the Convention Center," said Cashen, "where many workers were angered by strip searches of women workers there carried out by the management."

Cashen bought a copy of the Pathfinder book Capitalism's World Disorder and renewed her subscription to the socialist campaign newspaper The Militant for one year. She had first subscribed at last year's NOW convention. Five conference-goers purchased Capitalism's World Disorder in English or Spanish, and five bought subscriptions to the Militant. Sharon Russ got one of each, and also picked up a copy of the book, The Changing Face of U.S. Politics. Russ, a Teamster from the Tampa, Florida, area who was injured on the job at UPS, talked with Rollande Girard, Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of Miami-Dade County, about the March 7 rally of thousands of people for affirmative action they had both attended in Tallahassee.

Russ said she spoke at a February hearing in Tampa where she explained that "I am for affirmative action and abortion rights." After she spoke, "One of [Florida governor John Ellis] Bush's cabinet members asked me if I was 'a Christian,' implying that supporting abortion rights was antireligious. They just try to control us and try to divide women and Blacks."

Three activists at the conference bought copies of the pamphlet Feminism and the Marxist Movement.

A total of 18 people signed up to get more information about the socialist campaign, including a waitress who is a member of the hotel and restaurant workers union at the convention site. She explained that "there is a mini-revolution going on here" in the consciousness of the hotel workers in comparison to a year ago when she was hired. Workers are now much more likely to confront the bosses who insult them or when their paychecks are missing overtime pay or other benefits, she said. She pointed out that their determination to "stand up to abuses" shows through in their demands for a new contract that in addition to wage increases includes measures to respect their dignity and job conditions.

Socialist candidate Trowe explained to activists who came by the campaign booth that the Democratic and Republican parties have been targeting a woman's right to choose ever since the 1973 Supreme Court ruling decriminalizing abortion. They have sought to push back affirmative action as well.

In addition, ultrarightists, such as Reform Party presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan, make the assault on abortion rights a central part of the "culture war" against working people as a whole. Trowe pointed to the growing confidence of millions of women in the United States who are engaging in struggles in factories, on farms, and in the streets today. "The nucleus of the forces necessary to take on the Buchanan Brigades, as well as those who block women's access to abortion clinics, can be found among the workers standing up to the bosses' attacks--such as those at Dakota Premium in St. Paul who are fighting for a union.

"They are part of the growing resistance of working men and women that will build the kind of movement that will place the fight for women's liberation at the center of the struggles of working people. They can not only defeat Patrick Buchanan and other rightists but organize a revolutionary movement that can fight for political power in this country," Trowe said.

Mike Italie is a garment worker in Miami.