The following article by Scott Jenkins, entitled "Socialist files for Senate," appeared in the August 8 Salisbury Post, a daily in North Carolina.

KANNAPOLIS--A candidate whose campaign says she favors a shorter work week and opposes U.S. military action in Iraq has entered the race to succeed Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate.

Connie Allen, who works in the towel sewing department at Pillowtex Plant 1, is running a write-in campaign as the Socialist Workers Party candidate.

She joins a crowded race that includes Republicans Elizabeth Dole, Dr. Ada Fisher and Doug Sellers, from Rowan County; Democrats Erskine Bowles and Dan Blue; and Libertarian Sean Haugh.

Allen plans to formally announce her candidacy at a 7 p.m. meeting Friday at the Pathfinder Book Store, 2001-A N. Cannon Blvd., where the campaign will have its headquarters.

"We think there will be a lot of interest among working people," said Steve Wolf, a campaign worker. "We’ve found that already with the campaigning we’ve done here in Kannapolis."

Allen, 49, was not available this morning. Wolf said she was sleeping after working third shift at Pillowtex.

Wolf said Allen is a native of Lincoln, Neb. Before moving to Kannapolis about 2-1/2 years ago, she lived in Philadelphia for about 10 years.

While living in Philadelphia, Allen ran unsuccessfully for Congress under the Socialist banner, Wolf said.

Wolf said the campaign believes the party’s message will be well received at a time when the nation is trudging through recession and "heading into a depression like we haven’t seen since the 1930s."

Wolf promised Allen will conduct a "much different campaign."

Friday, Allen will speak about why working people should oppose a war in Iraq and the effects of such a war on the national and world economy.

"Workers need to raise demands that can unite working people here and around the world and that increase our solidarity in the face of rising unemployment and the real danger of ruinous bursts of inflation, financial panic and the deepening global crisis of the capitalist system," Allen said in a prepared statement.

Among the actions Allen supports:

• Shorten the work week with no cut in pay and substantially increase the minimum wage. Wolf said this would stem unemployment.
• Defend and extend union organizations to provide job security and safety.
• Enact government-funded public works projects, such as schools and parks, at union-scale wages.
• Require that all wages are covered by full and automatic cost-of-living protection.
• Provide working farmers with the credit and aid needed to prevent foreclosure.
• End the deportation of immigrant workers.
• Provide workers with guaranteed health insurance, Social Security and retirement "funded from increasing taxes on the profits of the rich."
• Cancel Third World debt.
• Support self-determination for the Palestinian people and the "unbreakable fight of the Palestinian people for their land against Israeli government brutality."
• End the embargo of Cuba.

* Campaign with Young Socialists for Koppel and Hawkins for Governor and Lt. Governor of New York

* Read about the Socialist Workers 2002 campaign in New York State
 
 
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