A photo of Angela Lariscy, the Socialist Workers Party gubernatorial candidate in the state, petitioning to put the socialist slate on the ballot, appears with the article. Over the May 7-8 weekend, SWP campaign supporters collected 2,100 signatures to put on the ballot Lariscy and Michael Ortega, SWP candidate of State Assembly in the 28th District. The response exceeded expectations as 1,870 signed for Lariscy’s nomination and 275 for Ortega. The requirements are 800 and 100 signatures respectively. Campaigners were planning to collect double the state requirement in a week. They went over their goal in two days.

“The Socialist Workers Party, which has roots in New Jersey that date back to the 1930s, began distributing campaign literature over the weekend in Passaic and other cities throughout the state,” the Herald article continued. “The party’s gubernatorial and state assembly candidates…are aiming to get their names on the general election ballot by the state’s June 7 deadline.

“‘We are campaigning with literature that explains what our campaign is about, presenting a working-class alternative, defense of working people,’ said Ved Dookhun, campaign manager for Lariscy and Ortega,” the Herald said.

“Working people responded to the campaign’s central demand to support the struggles of workers to organize trade unions, and to use and extend union power to defend themselves form the bosses’ assaults,” said Lariscy, who is a garment worker. A number of airline workers signed, citing their concerns over cuts in wages and benefits, and the gutting of pension plans that bosses are imposing throughout the industry. One worker took a stack of campaign flyers to distribute at work.

In addition to Irvington and Newark, the campaign received a good response in Passaic, where many workers signed up because of the party’s opposition to the creation of a national ID and to federal and state restrictions on drivers’ licenses for immigrant workers. “Everybody needs a license,” said one worker who signed the petition. “How do you get to work?”

“It was good to be out there,” said Josias Caminero, a student at Stony Brook University in New York who came to help get the SWP slate on the ballot. “Many young people were attracted to getting a garment worker on the ballot and readily signed.”

“Our campaign starts with the world, and opposes the efforts by Washington and its allies to prevent the nations oppressed by imperialism from developing the sources of energy they need, including nuclear power, to make social and economic advances,” said Ortega, a student at Rutgers University, at a campaign barbecue on the evening of May 7. SWP campaign supporters there donated $300 to the socialist campaign.
 
 
Related articles:
What the SWP stands and fights for
2005 Socialist Workers Party election campaigns  
 
 
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