BY ELLIE GARCÍA AND AMY HUSK

This week supporters of the Socialist Workers campaign of James Harris for U.S. president and Laura Garza for vice president scored a big victory by completing petitioning drives to place the candidates on the ballot in Alabama, Iowa, New York, and Washington, D.C. A team of full-time volunteers is needed for petitioning drives in Rhode Island and Vermont. (See ad on front page.)

NEW YORK - Eighty supporters of the Socialist Workers campaign of James Harris and Laura Garza went well over the top in their drive to place the candidates on the ballot here, collecting 7,000 signatures the October 10-11 weekend alone. A total of 23,895 people signed up to place Harris and Garza on the ballot, along with 5,438 for laid-off auto worker Eleanor Garcia in the 12th Congressional District.

The weekend began with TV Channel 9, a major station in the area, filming the start of the petitioning day at the Manhattan campaign headquarters. The crew interviewed members of the Young Socialists and youth who had just returned from Cuba on the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange.

BY BRIAN WILLIAMS

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Campaign supporters here have collected over 3,500 signatures for James Harris and Laura Garza and over 3,000 for Sam Manuel, SWP candidate for delegate to the House of Representatives, to be placed on the ballot.

A forum featuring the local socialist candidates August 10 was attended by several people new to the campaign, including a teacher who met one of the petitioners during the day at a local supermarket and a worker from the Smithfield meatpacking plant. Also speaking at the forum was 24-year-old Allison Copeland, who first came in contact with the socialist campaign at a literature table several weeks ago.

BY NANCY BOYASKO

BIRMINGHAM - Supporters wrapped up petitioning to get James Harris and Laura Garza on the ballot in Alabama on Saturday, August 3. On that date 15 campaigners hit the streets and collected 566 signatures bringing the total number collected to 8,172. The biggest response campaigners received was to discussions taking up the attacks on welfare benefits and the bosses' profit drive around the TWA explosion.

Throughout the petition effort thousands of campaign statements were distributed taking up the burnings of Black churches, calling for U.S. troops out of the Middle East, supporting Irish independence, and backing the UAW workers on strike at Pemco. George Williams, a Socialist Workers candidate for congress, is one of the strikers.

BY JOE SWANSON

DES MOINES - Socialists went over the top here in the drive to put James Harris and Laura Garza on the ballot in Iowa, collecting the signatures of 1,898 people. Another 1,682 were collected for Shirley Peña, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate who is a member of the United Auto Workers union and a production line worker at Maytag. Over 400 signatures were collected to place Dick McBride on the ballot. McBride is a packinghouse worker running for U.S. Congress.

During the last weekend of petitioning activity, campaigners related a number of highlights. Former Firestone strikers, who have organized informational picket lines at the Iowa State Fair, signed the petitions of the socialist candidates and spent the time engaging in political discussion. Campaigners also met a student, majoring in agriculture, who expressed an interest in going to Cuba for next year's world youth festival.

BY PATTI IIYAMA

HOUSTON - Socialists here launched SWP campaigns for U.S. Senate and Congress during the "Campaigning for Socialism" weekend. A petition drive was begun to place Jerry Freiwirth, a refinery worker and a member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union, on the ballot for Congress in the 25th District, which is dotted with refineries and chemical plants.

The Texas socialists also announced the campaigns of Lea Sherman, an aerospace worker and member of the International Association of Machinists, for U.S. Senate, and Lieff Gutthiudaschmitt, a student at the University of Houston and a member of the Young Socialists, for Congress in the 29th C.D.

In early August a court redrew boundary lines for every Houston congressional district, nullifing primaries and ordering special elections. This was a result of the reactionary U.S. Supreme Court decision against predominately Black and Mexican- American districts in Texas and North Carolina.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home