The U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and threats against Korea and Iran, the socialist candidate said, are “an extension of the assaults on the living and job conditions of working people at home.” These attacks, he said, “include cuts in education.”

Britton said SWP candidates “welcome the resistance by working people that points toward a solution, like the massive rallies to legalize all immigrants last spring. I marched on May 1 as I am sure some of you and members of your families did.”

Most of the students who gathered for one morning class period in the school auditorium were Asian American. Senior Diana Suen, who is of Chinese descent and represents Lowell on the school board’s Student Advisory Council, chaired the event.

After the candidates gave one-minute opening remarks, Suen took questions from the students, allowing 30 seconds for each answer. The first question was about each candidate’s position on the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC).

Britton said he was opposed to schools being tied to the U.S. military and called for immediate pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and “U.S. hands off Korea!”

None of the other candidates addressed Washington’s threats against north Korea. But in responding to the question on JROTC, a range of views were expressed.

Dan Kelly, a Democrat and the only incumbent running for another term, called for phasing out this pre-military training program. Jane Kim, one of three Green Party candidates for school board, said she was opposed to the Iraq war and favored ending JROTC in high schools. Kim-Shree Maufas, Green Party-endorsed candidate who is also backed by the African-American Democratic Club, said she supported her high school-age daughter belonging to JROTC but opposed repeated efforts by the Army to recruit her.

The night before the forum at Lowell, Suen was part of a panel of students who posed questions to the the school board candidates at a Balboa High School forum, sponsored by the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) and attended by 100 people.

At the PTA forum, Britton led off with an opening statement that called for “No to sanctions and acts of piracy” against Korea. He also rapped the recent denial of high school diplomas to tens of thousands of students who could have qualified but failed new “exit exams.” He called for repealing the exit-exam law.

Other candidates commented on an “achievement gap” between many Blacks and Latinos and other students here. Kelly lamented “resegregation” of the schools. Britton called for affirmative action measures to combat the racist discrimination faced by African-American and immigrant youth.

At these forums, and at one sponsored by the League of Women Voters October 3, Britton called for defeating Proposition 85, a ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to require parental notification and a waiting period for minors seeking abortions.

Britton introduced students and others at these forums to the pamphlet The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning: The Fraud of Education Reform under Capitalism by SWP national secretary Jack Barnes.

In the “Voter Information Pamphlet and Sample Ballot” registered voters are receiving by mail, the SWP candidate’s statement says in part: “The most important education is that which prepares for the greatest battle ahead, the battle of workers and farmers to throw off the negative self-image the rulers teach us, to recognize that we are capable of taking power and organizing society in our interests.”
 
 
Related articles:
Vote Socialist Workers
U.S. hands off Korea! Lift sanctions!
Troops out of Iraq, Afghanistan now!
Unionize all workers! Legalize immigrants!
Socialist Workers Party candidates in 2006  
 
 
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