BY STEFANIE TRICE
"If elected, I'd use my office to mobilize young people and workers to defend ourselves against attacks on our standard of living, democratic rights, and our right to jobs, education, and social benefits," said Dennis Richter at an April campaign rally for Socialist Workers candidates running for Morgantown City Council.

Richter, a member of the United Transportation Union (UTU) and a brakeperson at Conrail, and Nancy Burroughs, a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 1141 at Allegheny Ludlum in Washington, Pennsylvania, ran for two of six city council seats in a recent election. Both candidates hit hard on the growing crisis of unemployment in this coal-mining region. "The 2,000 people in this county who will be losing their jobs in the coming months will join the ranks of 800 million jobless workers worldwide," Richter stated. Calling for an international, union-led struggle to shorten the workweek with no cut in pay, he explained, "Unemployment creates the deepest division in the working class. All the other ways the bosses seek to divide us and weaken the labor movement - by skin color, national origin, sex, and age - are reinforced and accelerated by this fundamental division."

Supporters of the socialist campaign made a special effort to reach out to workplaces in the area, including Consolidated Coal's Arkwright mine and Sterling Faucet, both scheduled to shut down this summer. One Sterling worker who bought a copy of the campaign newspaper, the Militant, said he had been looking for an alternative way forward, outside of the divisive programs of the bosses. A miner at Arkwright who liked the socialist platform to fight for unity within the working class bought a copy of An Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis, which addresses how working people can organize to fight for these demands.

Burroughs told local reporters that the socialist campaign is really an international one. "When we go door to door, we talk about issues broader than just the city. The campaign doesn't stop with the elections - we campaign 365 days a year," she said.

At a campus meeting in opposition to proposed federal cuts in education funding, campaign supporters joined youth in demanding education as a right. Burroughs and Richter turned out with youth to attend Morgantown's Take Back the Night March, after which Burroughs spoke at a forum on "The Origins of Violence Against Women." Both socialist candidates also built the national women's rights rally held April 9 in Washington, D.C., which they attended along with busloads of young workers and students from throughout West Virginia.

Socialist campaigners joined the discussion at a meeting convened by city council member Tom Bloom to address "random acts of violence." In a town where youth already face government-imposed curfews, Bloom projected several moves to further curb the democratic rights of "violent youth," whom he referred to as "a throwaway generation." Some participants in the meeting stayed behind to continue discussions with supporters of the Socialist Workers campaign on how to defend democratic rights and build a movement based on working-class solidarity that can get rid of capitalism and offer a real future for youth. Throughout the campaign, the candidates urged people to learn more about the socialist revolution in Cuba, and encouraged them to be part of building nationwide actions October 14 to protest U.S. government policy against Cuba.

The socialist workers ran as official write-in candidates, so their names did not appear on the ballots. Despite this, Burroughs received 59 votes, and Richter got 47 votes, in an election where only 18 percent of those registered voted. Besides campaigning door-to-door, the two spoke at the National Organization for Women's "Candidates Night" and participated from the floor in a debate hosted by the League of Women Voters.

Stefanie Trice is a member of UTU Local 1006 and of the Young Socialists.  
 
 
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