The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.10           March 15, 1999 
 
 
Socialist Candidate Joins Labor Struggles In Chicago  

BY JOHN STUDER
CHICAGO, Illinois - "More and more working people are entering into combat against our employers and the government," said Joshua Carroll, launching his campaign as the Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of Chicago January 30. "A new vanguard of workers and farmers are emerging in these struggles, looking from their own battles to solidarity in action with others, and searching for answers to the broader crisis being created by the death agony of capitalism today.

"We are running to give voice to this vanguard and to offer a fighting action program to advance the interests of our class in the political arena," Carroll added.

Carroll's campaign released a general issues brochure in English and Spanish, and statements supporting the fight of working farmers, discussing how best to defend the jobs and working conditions of steelworkers, and condemning the death penalty.

Carroll, 26, works at the blast furnace at LTV Steel in East Chicago, Indiana. He is a member of United Steelworkers Union Local 1011. His campaign has generated a lot of discussion on the job, where co-workers follow his campaign literature closely.

After announcing his campaign, Carroll took a week leave of absence from work to take the socialist program out to workers and students across Illinois. He took his campaign to the Peabody Marissa Mine in Marissa, the Zeigler 11 Mine in Coulterville, and the Arch Conant Mine in Conant, Illinois. At Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Carroll and supporters set up a campaign booth. One student, Lucky, decided to build a meeting for Carroll to speak on the campus, which is scheduled for after the February 23 election.

On February 3, six members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308, which organizes the subway section of the Chicago public transit system, met with Carroll at the home of one of the workers. Carroll had just come from a downtown rally in solidarity with strikers at Lenc-Smith in Cicero, Illinois, and gave a report on the fight there and the perspectives of the socialist campaign. In the discussion that followed, Carroll explained how important it was that groups of workers, even if small, got together to talk about these struggles and figure out ways to build solidarity with them.

"I'm not very political, but I agree with what you were saying about solidarity," Cleo Smith, a CTA repairman, said at the end of the meeting. "I came because I thought I would learn something, and I did."

Carroll visited the picket lines at Tool and Engineering in Chicago a number of times during his campaign. The strikers are members of Steelworkers Local 15271 and have been out since last November. Some strikers are recent émigre's from Yugoslavia and were especially interested in Carroll's stand against U.S. troops being sent to intervene there. Someone came to the picket line with a lawn sign for Richard Daley, the incumbent Mayor, and was shooed away by strikers reading Carroll's brochure.

Carroll was invited to address six classes at Kewaskum High School in Kewaskum, Wisconsin, which generated a lively debate.

On the weekend before the election, Carroll attended two rallies in defense of José Solís Jordan, a Puerto Rican professor who is facing frame-up charges of conspiracy and destruction of government property (see article on back page). Carroll is planning to attend as much of the trial as his work schedule permits.

A number of people who heard about the campaign expressed interest in helping spread the political perspectives of the socialist campaign after the election. Chicago-based Radio Guatemala is planning to broadcast an interview with Carroll. Students at DePaul University, who met the socialist campaign at a street table, have set up a meeting for March 4 for Carroll to speak on the campus.

Because of undemocratic election laws in Chicago designed to keep working-class candidates off the ballot, Carroll was a write-in candidate for mayor.

John Studer is a member of USWA Local 1011.

 
 
 
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