BY BETH FINNEAS
PHILADELPHIA - In response to escalating war preparations against Iraq, the Socialist Workers Party here decided to immediately announce the candidacy of Connie Allen, a 44-year- old sheet metal assembler at Boeing Helicopters, for Congress in Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District. A member of the United Auto Workers union, Allen is the running in the special election called to fill the seat vacated by Thomas Foglietta, recently appointed as ambassador to Italy.

"I'm running to give a voice to working-class opposition to the U.S. government's impending military strike against the people of Iraq," Allen said. Allen will be joining with others in a public protest against the U.S. war moves on Friday, January 30 at the Federal Building downtown.

Allen reported that at Boeing where she works, some workers say that a war against Iraq will mean jobs for workers in the United States. "But I say that a war to strengthen our bosses will ultimately lead to deeper attacks on our unions, living standards, and democratic rights," Allen explained. "We should not be fooled by the patriotic drum-beating of the Democratic and Republican party politicians in Washington. Our only real allies in the fight for jobs and against the capitalist crisis are workers and farmers like ourselves in Iraq and throughout the world.

"The war threats abroad are an extension of the U.S. employers' war against working people at home - attacking union rights, social services, the rights of immigrants, women, Blacks, and other oppressed nationalities. Rampant police brutality and a campaign to step up use of the death penalty are their weapons on the homefront," Allen stated.

"My campaign stands with the Iraqi workers and peasants and fighters across the globe in demanding the United States and other intruding power remove every last soldier and `weapons inspector' from the Persian Gulf and that all economic sanctions be immediately lifted," Allen said.  
 
 
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