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    Vol.62/No.32           September 14, 1998 
 
 
Socialist Workers Candidates Will Be On New York Ballot  

BY OLGA RODRÍGUEZ
NEW YORK - Socialist Workers candidates for statewide office held a news conference in front of City Hall August 31 to announce that they will be on the ballot in November, at the same time condemning the city's crackdown on democratic rights.

The candidates and their campaign supporters had obtained permission from city authorities to hold a press conference on the steps of City Hall, but were then informed that because of "heightened security," the candidates would have to move outside the concrete barricades surrounding City Hall and its grounds, and would not be allowed in the building.

The barriers, manned by city cops, went up in front of City Hall, the Federal court building and other government offices after U.S. authorities accused two young men of taking part in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and kidnapped them from abroad, bringing them to New York where they sit in prison awaiting a trial.

"We believe that the city administration is using the so- called terrorist threat to intimidate those who would stand up and fight the capitalist offensive against working people," said Al Duncan, a railworker at Conrail and member of the United Transportation Union (UTU), and Socialist Workers candidate for governor of New York. Duncan explained that the attack on democratic rights was similar to the assault by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on the Million Youth March, which Giuliani has called a dangerous "hate march," and on protesting cab drivers several months earlier, whom the mayor referred to as "taxi terrorists."

Reporters from New York Newsday, Daily News, and the New York Post interviewed Duncan; Ruth Robinett, a member of the UTU at Amtrak and Socialist Workers candidate for lieutenant governor; and Rose Ana Berbeo, a baggage handler and member of the International Association of Machinists at Northwest Airlines who is the SWP candidate for U.S. Senate. All three will be on the ballot in the November 3 election.

An article in the New York Post the next day about the ban on gatherings at City Hall included two paragraphs quoting Duncan. The article said that "Al Duncan, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor, wasn't as sanguine" as one of the Democratic candidates about the blocking of using City Hall for news conferences. The article continued, "Asked if the bombings of U.S. facilities overseas wasn't real, Duncan responded, `We believe the No. 1 terrorist in the world is the U.S.' "

Newsday and the Daily News also ran articles mentioning the Socialist Workers candidates' protest.

 
 
 
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