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   Vol.64/No.29            July 24, 2000 
 
 
Socialists launch ballot drive in New York
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Photo - see caption belowPhoto - see caption below
Militant photos/Ruth Nebbia
Socialists campaign for ballot status in New York. In left photo: Jacob Perasso, candidate for U.S. Senate; in right photo: Paul Pederson, candidate for U.S. Congress.
 
 
 
BY GREG MCCARTAN AND ELENA TATE  
NEW YORK--"We collected 1,780 signatures tonight!" said Don Mackle, after the first day of petitioning to place the socialist campaign on the ballot in New York. Some 50 campaign supporters fanned out across the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn, armed with clipboards, campaign fliers, and the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial newspapers, and got the drive to collect 30,000 signatures off to a flying start.

July 11 was the first day of the campaign to win ballot status for James Harris and Margaret Trowe, Socialist Workers Party candidates for U.S. president and vice president, along with Jacob Perasso for U.S. Senate and Paul Pederson for Congress. Perasso is a packinghouse worker and leader of the Young Socialists. Pederson is the chairperson of the Brooklyn branch of the SWP and a worker in the printshop of Pathfinder Press.

Also running for Congress are William Estrada, a meat packer and member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union; John Hawkins, a worker at Pathfinder's printshop; Olga Rodríguez, an airline worker and member of the International Association of Machinists; Douglas Nelson, also a worker at Pathfinder's printshop and leader of the Young Socialists; and Glova Scott, a garment worker and member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

Mackle, one of the organizers of the petition drive, said, "Team members reported collecting well over the 15 signatures per hour that we had set as our goal. Supporters in Brooklyn averaged more than 23 per hour. Veteran petitioners reported being struck by the interest of people in learning more about the campaign. This is a reflection of the deepening working-class resistance that our campaign is a part of."

The three branches of the party, along with the Young Socialists, held planning meetings the weekend before the petitioning drive in order to get off to a strong start. They plan to collect over half the signatures before the start of the Active Workers Conference on July 27 through a daily effort that includes a team of workers and students who have volunteered days off to petition full-time.

In addition to Washington, D.C., supporters are organizing to place the socialist campaign on the ballot in Colorado, where papers have been filed; Washington State, where the petitions have been turned into the state; Iowa, which has 600 more signatures to go to meet the goal of 2,500; Minnesota where a big effort this week netted 1,674 signatures; Mississippi, where 150 of 2,000 have been collected, and New Jersey, which has completed its drive. In Florida, socialists are lining up 25 electors to meet ballot requirements. Supporters started the ballot drive in Rhode Island, and have signed up 618 people out of a goal of 2,300.  
 

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BY JANICE LYNN  
WASHINGTON--Socialist Workers Party vice-presidential candidate Margaret Trowe spoke to scores of working people here July 7–10. "James Harris and I are traveling across this country to meet workers and youth who are resisting the offensive of the bosses," Trowe told an audience at the Friday Militant Labor Form.

Trowe pointed to the 5,000 people who turned out in Dearborn, Michigan, to protest the killing of a Black man, strikes by mine workers in the Western coalfields, struggles by meat packers in Minnesota to unionize, and rallies, strikes, and actions by janitors in many cities who are standing up for their rights against company assaults. "Our campaign is joining these picket lines and protests wherever they break out," she said.

The forum followed several days of petitioning to get the socialist candidates on the ballot here. Two people who met petitioners came to the forum and one bought a subscription to the campaign newspaper, the Militant. A young woman who attended decided to help campaign the following day. Trowe visited four different locations in the city, talking with working people and encouraging them to sign the petitions that her supporters were circulating. Many who signed were glad to learn about the socialist campaign. One man signed up for a subscription to the Spanish-language campaign magazine, Perspectiva Mundial. Altogether some 15 copies of the Militant were purchased along with several Pathfinder books and pamphlets. The day netted some 540 new signatures on petitions.

Brenda McDaniel, who signed to put the socialist candidates on the ballot, told Trowe, "It's nice you're a regular worker." She volunteered to help distribute campaign flyers the next time campaigners come to the shopping center. A number of workers and youth were particularly appreciative of the socialist campaign's stance against police brutality. One signer told of police harassment of youth in that area and invited the socialists to a community meeting the following week.

Trowe then went to Union Station and met with several railroad workers at an eatery there for an in-depth discussion on socialism and other issues the unionists were concerned about. Amtrak worker Tom Headley took Trowe around and introduced her to a dozen or so other workers. The following morning Trowe and two campaign supporters met workers heading into the Smithfield ham plant in Landover, Maryland. The meat packers bought two copies of the Militant and four copies of the special Perspectiva Mundial supplement about the struggle of meat packers in Minnesota.

By the end of the second week of petitioning some 2,345 signatures were obtained on petitions towards the 3,320 required. Socialist campaigners plan to collect well over this number by the August 15 deadline. They have also begun petitioning to place Socialist Workers candidate Sam Manuel on the ballot for delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. Manuel attended the national convention of the NAACP in Baltimore July 9–12, and plans to participate in the August 26 march here in Washington to protest police brutality and racial profiling.

Janice Lynn is a members of the International Association of Machinists.  
 
 
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