BY DIANA NEWBERRY

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The day before the October 12 immigrant rights march here, James Harris and Laura Garza, Socialist Workers candidates for U.S. president and vice president, respectively, addressed a meeting at George Washington University (GWU). Diana Newberry, a leader of the Young Socialists, also spoke.

The meeting was broadcast on the C-SPAN national television network. The local campus newspaper, the Hatchet, and the Howard University Community News also covered the event.

Three dozen people came to hear the socialist candidates. Many were students from around the country who were attending a conference on science and technology.

A group of students from Juniata College, near Pittsburgh, were excited to hear Garza describe how she had joined the picket lines of striking Wheeling-Pittsburgh steelworkers. Several came up after the meeting to say they wanted to meet some strikers too. A number of students signed up for more information on the campaign and the YS.

The next day, Harris and Garza marched in the demonstration with some of their supporters and received an overwhelmingly warm response. After the march, 150 people crowded in nearby Quigley's Restaurant to hear the socialist candidates speak at an open house. Among the newest supporters of the socialist campaign were two of the students who had attended the meeting at GWU.

BY ABBY TILSNER

NEW YORK - The phone has been ringing off the hook at the Socialist Workers Party national campaign headquarters here. People from all around the country have called in and talked to campaign volunteers, or left messages asking for more information after a broadcast of the Socialist Workers presidential candidates' October 11 meeting at George Washington University on C-SPAN.

One student from California State University at San Marcos phoned October 14, to see if Harris was available to be a keynote speaker at an anti-Proposition 209 rally at his campus. That ballot initiative is an anti-affirmative action referendum that will be on the California ballot in November. The caller also said he was impressed with the remarks given by Young Socialists leader Diana Newberry and wanted to know if she could come and speak as well.

Another caller from the Los Angeles area said he was inspired by what Harris had said at the campus meeting, and that it gave him some confidence to see himself as someone who could act politically. For the past year he has been living in Cuba making films. He said he agreed with much of what Harris said about Cuba and the stand of the socialist campaign in defending Cuba.

A Palestinian man from Queens in New York said he was so riveted by what was being said by the socialist candidates that he didn't want to leave the room to get a pencil to write down the phone number for more information. He made this reporter promise to "tell Mr. Harris that, even though I cannot vote, he is president in our home." He said he has initiated many discussions with friends that mirror the stands of the socialist candidates. He is now considering hosting a meeting at his home for one of the local socialist candidates.  
 
 
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