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    Vol.60/No.20           May 20, 1996 
 
 
Socialists Announce Candidates In Minnesota  

BY JON HILLSON

ST. PAUL, Minnesota - "Our campaign speaks out for the cause of working people against the privileges of capital worldwide," said Tom Fiske, a 52-year-old machine operator at Eaton Corporation and member of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), announcing his campaign as the Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Senate in Minnesota at a May 1 news conference here.

Also declaring their candidacies were Jennifer Benton, 27, an assembler at Eaton and member of the IAM, for U.S. House of Representatives in the 5th Congressional District; Tony Lane, 44, a Northwest Airlines ramp worker and member of the IAM, for U.S. House of Representatives in the 4th C.D.; and Doug Nelson, 22, for Minnesota assembly in District 63-A.

Fiske said the SWP campaign stands "shoulder to shoulder with striking unionists, with resistance to attacks on affirmative action, abortion rights, and the rights of immigrant workers.

"We embrace the struggle of the Lebanese people against the brutal, immoral, and illegal occupation of their country by the government of Israel," the veteran union activist said. "We stand with Havana in its defiance of Washington's criminal embargo, now tightened by passage of the Helms-Burton law. We support Cuba's defense of its sovereignty against U.S.-backed air pirates, as carried out by Cuban air force pilots in February. We oppose U.S. war moves against Beijing and U.S. meddling in China's internal affairs. We protest the deployment of U.S. troops in Yugoslavia, who will be used to try to restore capitalism through force and violence."

Benton focused her remarks on "defense of Cuba, which is at the heart of the socialist campaign. I'm proud to announce my candidacy on May Day," she said, "as hundreds of thousands of Cuban workers march to celebrate the fact that the reins of power in Cuba are in their hands."

Benton, who visited Cuba as a member of the U.S. delegation to the Cuba Lives International Youth Festival in 1995, explained that her campaign "is telling the truth about Cuba. Despite the worldwide crisis of capitalism, its government has not shut a single hospital, closed a day-care center, or driven people into homelessness. The revolution makes the land available to anyone who seeks to farm, the opposite of what is happening in Minnesota, where every day farmers lose their land to the banks and the government. Above all," the young unionist said, "workers and farmers, not wealthy parasites, rule Cuba. This is the kind of government working people need in the United States, the kind of government socialist candidates stand for."

Benton urged "young people, high school students, college and university students, and young workers to see Cuba for themselves, as I did, by participating the upcoming U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange."

Lane, originally from New Zealand, noted the importance of a demonstration of 6,000 defenders of immigrant rights who marched in April in Los Angeles to protest the police beating of two Mexican workers.

Lane, a participant in the mobilization, said, "This is evidence of the fighting spirit that will grow as workers born outside the United States refuse to submit to the outrages of the bosses, the government, and the cops. There will be more and more immigrant workers, and increased protests by them and their allies. We welcome this reality with open arms."

Fiske and Benton were interviewed by several radio stations in the Twin Cities and Duluth after the news conference.  
 
 
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