FLOC organized the September 24 rally in order to present to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, who was speaking on campus that day, with FLOC’s "legislative agenda" in favor of amnesty for undocumented immigrants. Several of those attending the rally were meat packers who had been fired after their boss, J.H. Routh Packing Co., received Social Security "no match" letters from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The INS has sent out hundreds of thousands of such letters, forcing many workers to leave their jobs rather than face harassment from the bosses and the cops and possible deportation. The workers hope to gain the support of their union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and other unions.

Two of the workers were particularly interested in the socialist campaign. One worker decided to subscribe to the campaign’s Spanish publication, Perspectiva Mundial, to learn about the broader picture of working-class struggles in the United States and about the Cuban Revolution. The other worker, who works in the fields of a large nursery near Oberlin, described to Braiman the brutal conditions workers face there.

In a discussion with a University of Toledo student, who was jarred by the patriotic, pro-government rhetoric of Sweeney’s address, Braiman and her fellow campaigner pointed to the socialist campaign’s position in opposition to "no match" letters, INS raids, and deportations, and on the need for working people to stand together regardless of their country of origin. Braiman explained the perspective her campaign advocates of fighting to transform the unions into revolutionary instruments in a fight by workers, together with farmers, to take political power. One interested student purchased the Militant and a Pathfinder catalog and expressed interest in continuing the discussion.

Braiman and her co-worker were interviewed by the campus newspaper about conditions faced by workers in factories and farms in the region. Drawing on his own experience in the peach orchards, GL pointed out that, while the U.S. government hypocritically accuses the Iraqi government of developing chemical weapons, immigrant farm workers all over the United States are routinely sprayed with pesticides and other toxic chemicals. "The growers put up signs warning people to keep their families and pets out of the fields while they spray, but meanwhile there are human beings working there," he said.  
 
Discussions with striking teachers
The Socialist Workers candidates have also joined striking teachers on the picket line and set up a campaign table at a support rally in the Maple Heights school district, a working-class suburb of Cleveland. The teachers have been on strike for more than a month, confronting black-clad, combat-boot-wearing guards of the Huffmaster Crisis Response, as well as scabs recruited by Alternative Workforce. The school district has hired the two companies in an effort to intimidate the teachers and break the strike.

The teachers are fighting for a pay increase, smaller classes, and time each week to prepare lessons. Maple Heights teachers report that they are among the lowest-paid in the county. A number of meetings have been organized by parents and teachers to back the union’s demands.

Many of the teachers have expressed the hope that a tax increase proposal on the ballot in November will pass and, by helping the school district bridge the "budget gap," convince the authorities to give them a wage increase.

Helen Meyers, the Socialist Workers candidate for Ohio attorney general, explained on the picket line, "My campaign is urging other working people to support the Maple Heights teachers--their fight is an example of how workers can defend our interests. The solution to funding the public schools is not taxes on workers’ wages. Workers and farmers, who produce all the wealth and are exploited by the superwealthy families that rule this country, are already squeezed by taxes on their modest earnings and other regressive taxes. Taxes on working people should be abolished and replaced with a steeply graduated tax on the profits, dividends, and interests of wealthy individuals and capitalist corporations."

The Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress, Michael Fitzsimmons, recently participated in a rally by salt miners protesting the union-busting moves of Cargill, Inc. Some 130 miners were fired by the company following their strike last summer over scheduling, seniority rights, and subcontracting. Several miners have purchased the Militant to find out more about the socialist campaign.

Exchanging views with the miners, Fitzsimmons pointed out that they are an important part of the working-class resistance to the capitalist rulers’ offensive both at home and abroad. "As working people, we need to oppose the U.S. war drive against Iraq--which is an imperialist war of plunder--as we join with other working people to win solidarity in the fight against Cargill," said Fitzsimmons, who pointed to a number of Pathfinder books that explain what’s behind the imperialist drive to war.

After meeting students at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, Braiman has been invited in October to participate in the Islamic Bazaar in the student center. On the encouragement of a number of Ohio farmers, the campaign will also visit grain storage and processing facilities in the state, as farmers deliver their harvest. The socialist campaigners will learn more about the effects of the drought and explain working-class proposals for defending small farmers from the cost-price squeeze of the capitalist market.  
 
 
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