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   Vol.66/No.41           November 4, 2002  
 
 
Vote Socialist Workers!
(editorial)  

See list of candidates

There is a fighting, working-class alternative to the twin parties of imperialist war and depression in the November 5 elections. It is offered by the Socialist Workers candidates, who are running in cities and states around the country.

Along with young socialists and other campaigners, these candidates have been in the streets presenting a revolutionary perspective in face of the brutal offensive by the wealthy U.S. rulers against working people at home and abroad.

They have campaigned against U.S. imperialism and its military assaults, including its drive toward a war of plunder against Iraq and the peoples of the Mideast, as well as its aggression around the world--from threats against north Korea to stepped-up military intervention in Colombia.

Socialist campaigners have joined workers opposing the bosses’ drive to undermine wages, job safety, and human dignity, from striking janitors in Boston, to California farm workers fighting for a union, to coal miners defending safety on the job. They are standing alongside working farmers who resist the foreclosure of their land.

They have also joined protests in Detroit demanding the release of a Muslim leader held with no charges, and have traveled to Lackawanna, New York, to back the fight to free six local residents--U.S. citizens of Yemeni descent--who are being framed up on "guilt by association" charges of providing "material support" to al Qaeda. Such attacks are aimed at the rights of all working people.

The candidates explain that the spiraling world depression and the U.S. war on working people here and abroad are not the results of "mistaken" government policies. This is how capitalism works. As it continues its long-term decline, this system threatens millions with economic devastation and increasingly inescapable brutality.

While the bosses attempt to trap working people into identifying with them as "we Americans" against "them," referring to those targeted by Washington, the socialist candidates say: no, that’s a lie. The real we is workers and farmers around the world, and our interests are completely opposed to them--the bosses and their parties, cops, and government.

The only way to end the exploitation, brutality, and oppression that capitalism imposes on us is to make a socialist revolution. That requires organizing a movement of millions that can take power out of the hands of the imperialist rulers and establish a workers and farmers government, joining with fellow working people around the world in the fight for a socialist future.

Is this possible? Yes--the example of Cuban workers and farmers, who broke free of U.S. imperialist domination and took political power, shows the direction that working people can and will take. They proved that Washington, the center of the world’s final empire, is not all-powerful and can be defeated. To achieve that goal, working people will have to organize our own political party that can lead a revolutionary struggle for power and the transformation of society.

That is what the Socialist Workers campaign is about. And it doesn’t come to a halt on election day. The campaign for communism will continue in the streets, in factories and fields, on picket lines and at protests by working people and youth. We urge you to get involved in different ways:

Vote Socialist Workers! Join in campaigning for socialism!
 


The SWP candidates in 2002

Listed below are the Socialist Workers candidates for federal and state offices in the 2002 elections. The socialists are fielding candidates in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Because of undemocratic election laws designed to keep working-class candidates off the ballot, most of the Socialist Workers candidates will not appear on the ballot. In such cases, the candidates are running as write-ins. The names of those appearing on the ballot are indicated below with an asterisk (*).

ALABAMA
Governor: Brian Taylor
U.S. Senate: Susan LaMont

CALIFORNIA
Governor: Nan Bailey
Lieutenant Governor: William Kalman
Secretary of State: Olympia Newton
U.S. Congress, 8th C.D.: Deborah Liatos

COLORADO
U.S. Congress, 3rd C.D.: Jason Alessio

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Mayor: Sam Manuel*

FLORIDA
Governor: Rachele Fruit
Lieutenant Governor: Lawrence Mikesh
Commissioner of Agriculture: Karl Butts

GEORGIA
U.S. Senate: Eleanor García
U.S. Congress, 5th C.D.: James Harris

ILLINOIS
Governor: Joel Britton
Lieutenant Governor: Chessie Molano
Secretary of State: Claudia Hommel
U.S. Senate: Lisa Potash
U.S. Congress, 4th C.D.: Gerardo Sanchez

IOWA
U.S. Congress, 3rd C.D.: Edwin Fruit*

MASSACHUSETTS
Governor: William Leonard
Lieutenant Governor: Sarah Ullman

MICHIGAN
Governor: Don Mackle

MINNESOTA
Governor: Kari Sachs*
Lieutenant Governor: Samuel Farley*
U.S. Senate: Barry Fatland

NEBRASKA
Governor: Lisa Rottach

NEW JERSEY
U.S. Senate: Ved Dookhun

NEW YORK
Governor: Martín Koppel
Lieutenant Governor: Arrin Hawkins
Comptroller: Jack Willey
U.S. Congress, 12th C.D.: Paul Pederson
U.S. Congress, 14th C.D.: Margaret Trowe
U.S. Congress, 15th C.D.: William Estrada

NORTH CAROLINA
U.S. Senate: Connie Allen

OHIO
Governor: Eva Braiman
Lieutenant Governor: Michael Fitzsimmons
Attorney General: Helen Meyers

PENNSYLVANIA
Governor: Anthony Lane
Lieutenant Governor: Hilda Cuzco
U.S. Congress, 1st C.D.: John Staggs
U.S. Congress, 11th C.D.: Betsy Farley
U.S. Congress, 14th C.D.: Omari Musa

TEXAS
Governor: Steve Warshell
U.S. Senate: Jacquie Henderson
U.S. Congress, 18th C.D.: Anthony Dutrow

WASHINGTON
U.S. Congress, 7th C.D.: David Ferguson

 
 
 
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