BY JOHN STAGGS
PHILADELPHIA - Before a supportive audience at an election night celebration held at campaign headquarters, Socialist Workers mayoral candidate Deborah Liatos reported on the successes of the socialist campaign in this city.
"Supporters of our campaign reached out widely to workers and presented the socialist perspective. We joined the discussions and debates on how to confront the economic crisis today," said Liatos, a member of the International Association of Machinists who works at USAir.
"The heart of our campaign was to actively join the working-class struggles taking place today and present a program to unite workers and youth in the fight to defend ourselves against the attacks by the bosses and their government," she said.
The November 7 celebration culminated seven months of active campaigning.
In addition to Liatos's mayoral campaign, two other workers ran on the Socialist Workers ticket for city council at-large. They were John Staggs, a Ford Electronics worker and member of the United Auto Workers (UAW), and Hattie McCutcheon, a Boeing worker and UAW member who, along with 7,000 of her co-workers around the country, was recently laid off by the aerospace giant.
Candidates and campaigners took the socialist alternative to plant gates and picket lines at several workplaces, including to strikers at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Caterpillar, and MAB Paints.
In a front-page October 5 story on Liatos's mayoral campaign, the West Philadelphia Weekly Press noted that she "advocates defending and extending affirmative action and abortion rights, stopping police brutality, saving Mumia Abu-Jamal, abolishing the death penalty and ending the U.S. embargo against Cuba." That is a good summary of the diversity of political activities in which Liatos, McCutcheon, and Staggs participated during their campaign. The candidates were on the speakers platforms at many of these events.
Campaign teams set up tables dozens of times at campuses in the area. Students arranged to have the candidates speak at four different campuses. Hundreds of unionists where the candidates work heard about the campaign; many read the socialist campaign literature and discussed politics with the candidates. A number of them bought subscriptions and copies of the campaign newspaper, the Militant.
In July, the Socialist Workers campaign stepped up its activity with a petitioning effort that succeeded in winning the candidates a place on the ballot. Campaigners garnered nearly 4,500 signatures, well over the 3,000 required.
At least eight newspapers ran major articles on the socialist campaign, including the two main dailies. The candidates were covered by many television stations and radio programs as well. Liatos participated in two televised and one National Public Radio-sponsored mayoral debates.
The League of Women Voters, which sponsored the main mayoral debate, excluded Liatos while including all three of the other candidates - Democratic incumbent Ed Rendell, Republican Joe Rocks, and Lance Haver of the Consumer Party who, like the Socialist Workers, had to petition to get on the ballot.
The Socialist Workers campaign held a protest news conference outside the debate, which was covered by the press.
During the campaign socialist candidates attended seven other community-organized candidates events.