SWP wins support, files for ballot in four more states
https://themilitant.com/2020/08/15/fight-for-a-union-on-every-job-site-and-a-labor-party/
BY EDWIN FRUIT
Vol. 84/No. 33
August 24, 2020
SWP presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy, at center, and supporters
file over 2,000 signatures in Olympia to be on the ballot in Washington.
Inset, press coverage on filing.
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW/LAUREL DEMKOVICH
SWP presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy, at center, and supporters
file over 2,000 signatures in Olympia to be on the ballot in Washington.
Inset, press coverage on filing.
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Winning support from thousands of working people,
Socialist Workers Party campaigners filed nominating petitions to put
the party’s presidential ticket, Alyson Kennedy and Malcolm Jarrett, on
the ballot in New Jersey, Tennessee and Washington state over the past week.
The party was informed Aug. 12 it was on the ballot in Louisiana after
Kennedy filed the necessary papers.
Party supporters are still in the middle of collecting signatures needed
to file for ballot status in Minnesota. In each state they’re finding
workers who back the party’s fight to get on the ballot and many who are
interested in learning more about and discussing its fighting
working-class campaign platform.
Kennedy, a cashier at Walmart in Dallas, and Jarrett, a cook in
Pittsburgh, have already been certified for the ballot in Colorado and
Vermont. Along with 22 Socialist Workers Party candidates for U.S.
Senate and Congress around the country, they are the only voices in
defense of the interests of workers and farmers in the upcoming elections.
SWP campaigners get a serious hearing when they say workers need their
own party, a labor party, a union in every workplace, and workers
control of production. They explain why working people are capable of
fighting in our millions to replace the rule of the capitalist class
with a workers and farmers government.
Militant/Jacquie Henderson From left, Anthony Stark, Shania Paulson and
Socialist Workers Party campaigner Sergio Zambrana discuss campaign in
Hutchinson, Minnesota. When Zambrana told them the party explains need
to fight for workers control of production, Stark, a welder, said,
“Workers on the job know what is unsafe and can work together to fix
it.” Stark and Paulson both signed to put SWP on the ballot.
MILITANT/JACQUIE HENDERSON
From left, Anthony Stark, Shania Paulson and Socialist Workers Party
campaigner Sergio Zambrana discuss campaign in Hutchinson, Minnesota.
When Zambrana told them the party explains need to fight for workers
control of production, Stark, a welder, said, “Workers on the job know
what is unsafe and can work together to fix it.” Stark and Paulson both
signed to put SWP on the ballot.
Kennedy filed over 2,000 signatures — double the requirement — at the
state capital here Aug. 7 to place the working-class ticket on the
ballot in Washington.
Washington election official Stu Jensen received the petitions at a
table set up outside the secretary of state’s office. He said he had
received several letters urging the state to put the party on the
ballot. Jensen said the certification process will take a week.
Among those sending letters of support for the party’s right to be on
the ballot are Dan Coffman, past president of International Longshore
and Warehouse Union Local 21, Longview; John Martinez, a long time
officer of the American Federation of Teachers union at Seattle Central
College; John Waller, secretary of the Seattle Cuba Friendship
Committee; Mark Downs, a former executive board member of ILWU Local 19
in Seattle; and Heather Jay Mclean-Riggs, former president of the
Senate, Seattle Central College, AFT Local 1789.
The Spokane Spokesman-Review ran an article on the filing the next day
headlined, “Socialist Candidates Want Working Class in Control.” The
article reported that Kennedy and Jarrett’s campaign “focuses on
building a labor party that represents working people.”
“We are capable of changing things in this country,” Kennedy said.
“The party calls for a government-funded program to provide jobs,” noted
the Spokesman-Review, to build hospitals, roads and public
transportation. “With the working class in control, Kennedy said she
believes many issues that currently exist would be eradicated.”
On July 25 in Renton, campaign supporter Dean Peoples met Tierrnesha
Maynard — one of many who enthusiastically signed the petition. “I’m
involved in community work to register young people to vote,” she said.
“But I have to ask myself — to vote for what? This campaign is actually
something that is meaningful and that is inspiring.”
Tennessee over the top!
BY SUSAN LAMONT
NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate
Alyson Kennedy and campaign supporters turned in 810 signatures here
Aug. 11, nearly triple the requirement for the Tennessee ballot.
Valerie Whitehead, center, signed to put SWP presidential ticket on
ballot in Tennessee after campaigners Maggie Trowe, left, and James
Harris came by her neighborhood in Nashville Aug. 6.
MILITANT/RACHELE FRUIT
Valerie Whitehead, center, signed to put SWP presidential ticket on
ballot in Tennessee after campaigners Maggie Trowe, left, and James
Harris came by her neighborhood in Nashville Aug. 6.
Some two dozen campaign supporters won a lot of support during 16 days
of intense campaigning. They talked to several thousand workers, farmers
and small proprietors in 25 of the states’ counties, selling 67 Militant
subscriptions, 104 copies of the paper and 36 books by SWP leaders and
other revolutionaries.
Felicia Allen signed when Maggie Trowe, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate
from Kentucky, knocked on her door in Smyrna. Trowe pointed to the
party’s call for workers to fight for a union movement in every
workplace. Allen replied that when she worked at a retail store, “they
told us during orientation, ‘If you join a union you’ll be fired.’”
Bosses threaten that in other workplaces too, Trowe replied, “but that
doesn’t stop workers wanting a union and looking for ways to defend
themselves.”
“Unemployment benefits are not enough to live on,” Allen said. “My
husband has to work 12 hours a day to make it.” After Allen and Trowe
discussed the party’s proposal for a jobs program and the need for a
labor party, Allen endorsed the campaign and subscribed to the Militant.
She thanked Trowe for coming by, pointing out that the discussion had
been “a teaching moment for my grandsons” who were nearby listening in.
Join fight to put SWP on New Jersey ballot!
BY CANDACE WAGNER
UNION CITY, N.J. — Supporters of the Socialist Workers Party are
demanding state officials certify Alyson Kennedy and Malcolm Jarrett for
the state ballot in the November election.
On Aug. 10 the campaign completed filing its petitions. The first batch
of 270, along with electors, were submitted July 27. The total is now
1,300 — 500 more than required for ballot status.
Given limitations imposed by the lockdown and other restrictions enacted
by Gov. Philip Murphy during the pandemic — many of which continue — the
SWP had asked for adjustments on the signature and filing requirements.
The party didn’t get a response until shortly before the filing
deadline, denying the request and the campaign geared up to meet the
requirements.
The campaign was informed Aug. 11 by Donna Barber, supervisor of
Election Administration, of her decision not to place the SWP ticket on
the ballot, saying it didn’t make the deadline.
The party is calling on the governor to reverse that decision.
Support for the right of the SWP to be on the ballot is registered by
the 1,300 people who signed petitions from all over the state and their
signatures should be honored. The deepening economic crisis bearing down
on working people demands the broadest debate and discussion in the 2020
elections.
A campaign press release on the filing, which included the SWP campaign
platform, was run in full by Insider NJ, a well-known online news outlet.
Construction worker Osvaldo Rabelo signed after talking with Jarrett
when he knocked on the door of an apartment Rabelo was repairing in Newark.
“Workers need a labor party rooted in building a union movement in every
workplace,” SWP vice presidential candidate Malcolm Jarrett told
construction worker Osvaldo Rabelo, right, in Newark, New Jersey. “I’m
happy to see another party, another option,” Rabelo replied.
MILITANT/NANCY BOYASKO
“Workers need a labor party rooted in building a union movement in every
workplace,” SWP vice presidential candidate Malcolm Jarrett told
construction worker Osvaldo Rabelo, right, in Newark, New Jersey. “I’m
happy to see another party, another option,” Rabelo replied.
“I’m happy to see another party, another option,” Rabelo said. In Puerto
Rico, where he is from, “it is the same thing, we only have two parties.
But we had a strong movement to get rid of the governor,” referring to
15 days of mass protests last year that forced the resignation of Gov.
Ricardo Rosselló.
“We need a leadership to take it further,” Jarrett said. Roselló’s
replacement, Wanda Vázquez, is as dedicated to preserving the U.S.
rulers’ plunder of the island as Roselló was.
“Working people in the U.S. need to form our own party, a labor party
rooted in building a union movement in every workplace,” Jarrett added.
He showed Rabelo The Clintons’ Anti-Working-Class Record and Are They
Rich Because They’re Smart? by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes.
Jarrett said these books “explain that the working class needs to take
power and make learning a lifetime experience, not the education we get
today that serves to teach us obedience and passivity.”
“They don’t teach us to be creative or let us claim our history,” Rabelo
replied. “I like that you have books and a newspaper.” He signed to put
the party on the ballot and bought a subscription to the paper and both
books.
To aid the fight to get on the ballot in New Jersey, contact the
campaign headquarters at (551) 240-1512 or email: swpnewjersey@xxxxxxxxx.
‘Workers acting together only way to get change’
BY JACQUIE HENDERSON
HUTCHINSON, Minn. — Socialist Workers Party campaigners have already
collected 1,914 signatures by Aug. 11 toward their goal of 2,400, to put
Kennedy and Jarrett on the ballot in this state.
Anthony Stark, a 26-year-old welder who lives in this town of 15,000,
liked what campaigner Sergio Zambrana told him about how workers need to
fight to take control of production out of the bosses’ hands. “Workers
on the job know what is unsafe and can work together to fix it,” Stark said.
Zambrana described how he visited the picket line of 4,300 striking
shipbuilders in Bath, Maine, a few weeks ago to show solidarity.
“Different generations of workers are standing up to the company,”
Zambrana said. “The solidarity we brought from our co-workers at Walmart
was really appreciated.”
In Maplewood, SWP campaigner Dean Hazlewood discussed the economic and
social crisis with teacher Pam McIntyre on her porch. “The capitalist
ruling class has no solutions,” Hazlewood said. “Organizing millions in
struggle, workers and farmers can gain confidence in our ability to take
power out of the hands of the propertied rulers and organize society
ourselves.”
“You are right about the crisis,” McIntyre replied. “And it is working
people acting together that is the only thing that can change this.”
McIntyre signed to get the working-class candidates on the ballot,
subscribed to the Militant and got a copy of the book Malcolm X, Black
Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Barnes.
“I like that you are here talking with us,” Jacob Van Gerpen, who
services forklift batteries, told campaigner Tom Baumann at his door in
Inver Grove Heights. “Some people are so far left or right that they
don’t want to hear the other side.”
“We need to have civil discussion,” Baumann said. “That’s the only way
working people can get the political clarity we need to move forward.”
Van Gerpen signed in support of the SWP being on the ballot.
See directory to contact nearest party campaign office.
Errin Donahue, a health care worker, caught up with Kevin Dwire and
Arrin Hawkins walking down the street in Robbinsdale.
“Can I sign that petition?” she asked. “You just left my house and my
husband said he liked what you told him about the protests against the
killing of George Floyd. He said you are part of the protests, but
oppose the violence at them. The destruction has put a lot of people out
of business.”
“We can build a mass movement that is disciplined and effective to win
demands for the arrest and prosecution of the police who killed Breonna
Taylor and so many others,” Dwire said.
Dan Fein and Holly Harkness spoke with Darryl Johnson, a 31-year-old
construction worker, in Burnsville. “I like what you’re saying, but I
can’t vote because of a felony charge. I spent eight months in
Stillwater prison, although I was never convicted of anything,” he said.
“We oppose prisoners being denied rights,” Harkness told him. “They
should have the right to vote and we are campaigning for that.”
Fein showed him the article on the front page of the Militant announcing
that Pennsylvania prison officials had overturned their ban on a
prisoner’s access to the paper, after the inmate subscriber and the
working-class weekly fought it. “I’m glad about the victory. Prisoners
should be able to read this paper,” Johnson said.
Fight for workers control of production and safety
Alyson Kennedy, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for president,
issued the following statement, Aug. 12. The Socialist Workers Party
2020 campaign — Alyson Kennedy for president and Malcolm Jarrett for
vice president — is the only campaign that joins and…
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Also In This Issue
Protests boost interest in books on working-class politics, history
SWP ‘stimulus’ appeal at $143,600, more to come
Protesters: Prosecute cops who killed Breonna Taylor!
Philadelphia: Political fight breaks out over Jew-hatred
London bans China’s Huawei, looks for trade bloc with US
As crisis deepens, workers fight boss attacks on jobs, conditions
Sugar workers in Iran on strike since June over unpaid wages
Belarus protests erupt over presidential election results
Books of the Month
‘American workers: Stop your rulers throttling our revolution’
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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