Plans are under way for the petitioning drives to place the Socialist Workers candidates for U.S. president and vice president on the ballot in more than a dozen states. In late June the campaign will be launched at a public meeting in New York, kicking off an intensive effort across the United States to present a socialist alternative to the parties of the super-wealthy minority.

The first petition drives will be in New Jersey, Iowa, Washington State, and Rhode Island, followed by New York and Washington, D.C. For the first time ever, the socialist campaign has an opportunity to get on the ballot in Florida, due to a change in the ballot requirements in the state. Socialist workers are starting to sign up electors for the party's candidates there to take advantage of the greater openings this will provide to gain a hearing for the socialist program and perspectives.  
 
Successful Miami event
Rachele Fruit from Miami reports that a May 26 meeting in that city raised $1,200 for the national Campaign Fund and participants in the event pledged another $650. Four socialist candidates for public office in the state spoke at the meeting.

With each week, new struggles of working people pop up across the United States--from mine workers' rallies and strikes to actions by locked-out Steelworkers at Kaiser, from the recent delegation of fighting farmers to Cuba to demonstrations demanding the U.S. Navy get out of Vieques, Puerto Rico.

The response to the Militant by working people involved in these struggles indicates the interest there is in learning about other battles. There is openness to considering a socialist explanation of the capitalist crisis and why workers and farmers need to mount a revolutionary struggle to establish a government of their own, opening the road to constructing a socialist society. Socialists have launched election campaigns in Michigan, Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Ohio, with more to come over the next several weeks.

In the home stretch on the fund drive, supporters in three cities have raised their goals: San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Charlotte, North Carolina. Every reader of the Militant is encouraged to send a contribution to: Socialist Workers Campaign, P.O. Box 14239, St. Paul, MN 55114.  
 
 
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