BY STEVE WARSHELL
CLEVELAND, Ohio - James Harris completed a successful campaign tour here August 1-3. The Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate and supporters met a number of members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers while campaigning at Hoover Corp. in North Canton, Ohio. These workers had recently rejected company demands for a third tier in the union contract, standing up to company threats of plant shutdowns and sending work to maquiladora sweat shops in Texas and Mexico.

On Saturday, the candidate and campaign supporters spent the day at the African-American Family Day picnic at Luke Easter Park on Cleveland's east side followed by a special Militant Labor Forum featuring Harris.

Two workers from the Youngstown area traveled to Cleveland to hear the candidate. It was their second trip to the Pathfinder bookstore. One of them, Pat Carey, had been introduced to the Militant newspaper and socialist ideas by a republican detainee in Long Kesh jail in Northern Ireland with whom she corresponds. "He told me if I wanted to find out the truth about Cuba and the United States I should see the folks down at the Pathfinder Bookstore," she explained to the candidate.

Another worker attending the forum was from West Africa. "I had the chance to hear Thomas Sankara when I lived over there," he explained, referring to the revolutionary leader who was president of Burkina Faso until his assassination in 1987. "I was so surprised to see supporters of that struggle here in Cleveland. He spoke for the oppressed around the world."

Another young woman, Virginia, decided to join the Young Socialists. She had been working at Oberlin College and met the Young Socialists during a recent international conference held there. "I've been in other socialist groups," she explained, "but they were just all talk. I like the Young Socialists because they take a position and then go out and defend it."

BY HARRY RING

LOS ANGELES - Socialist Workers vice-presidential nominee Laura Garza campaigned for five days here before going on to San Diego to join the protest forces at the Republican convention.

With supporters, she campaigned at shift changes at the McDonnell Douglas aircraft plant and the Chevron and Arco oil refineries. At the Northwest Airlines employees gate, a dozen workers stopped at a campaign table to meet Garza. Six bought copies of the Militant. At Hollander Home Fashions, a union garment shop, she had a lunchtime visit with one of her campaigners and a group of coworkers.

Traditionally, the media here has been particularly grudging in its coverage of socialist candidates. But the response to Garza's visit showed an improvement.

When she spoke at the Militant Labor Forum, the Associated Press sent a reporter who interviewed her before the meeting, and a photographer who shot pictures throughout the evening.

The UCLA campus paper, the Bruin, also had a reporter and photographer at the meeting. The paper carried the full text of a statement by Harris and Garza urging support for the Northern Ireland freedom struggle.

The AP interview was picked up and featured in the major Spanish-language daily, La Opinion, along with a photo of Garza speaking with a supporter during the pre-forum dinner.

Garza and presidential candidate James Harris, who was in town briefly, held a press conference at the downtown federal building which houses the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Both major Spanish language TV stations covered it as well as a reporter for La Opinion.

Earlier, she was interviewed by Carlos Quintanilla for his Spanish-language program on Pacifica radio station KPFK. The station also carried and English-language interview with Garza.

BY TERRY COGGAN

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate James Harris accompanied by Ryan Kelly, a leader of the Young Socialists from Boston, participated in a meeting of 15 people at Auckland University. The gathering was hosted by Te Kawau Maro, a group of Maori rights fighters on the campus. Tauni Sinclair, the chair for the meeting, announced that he and three other members of the group planned to visit Cuba next January to see the realities of the revolution for themselves.

Harris held a discussion with a group of five airport workers at a house meeting, and spoke before two classes local technical institutes. At the tour's end, three young people said they wanted to join the YS.  
 
 
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