On July 6, Socialist Workers congressional candidate Margaret Trowe took her campaign to 125th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem. Supporters who accompanied her set up a literature table with political books drawing the lessons of working-class struggles over the past 150 years--ideas that are an integral part of her election campaign. Trowe, who is running in the 14th C.D., is part of a slate of SWP candidates running in New York that includes Martín Koppel for governor. Socialist William Estrada is standing for Congress in the 15th C.D., which includes Harlem.

While she was campaigning a police officer approached Trowe, then issued her a citation for violating city vending regulations by "peddling a book within 20 ft. of Hello Sports store front." He claimed that city law prohibits the sale of any item on public streets within 20 feet of a store, and that within a large section of Manhattan--from 2nd Avenue to 9th Avenue between 30th Street and 65th Street--sales by vendors is banned altogether.

On August 9 Trowe, accompanied by campaign supporters, appeared before Judge Sharon Finklestein at the Environmental Control Board court.

Trowe’s attorney, Beth Haroules of the New York Civil Liberties Union, moved for dismissal of the charges, explaining that the summons should be considered null and void because the activity carried out by the Socialist Workers Party is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech, and therefore does not fall under the city’s regulations of vendors. The judge said that she would rule on the case by early September.

"The Socialist Workers campaign is not a vendor," Trowe explained later that day at a Militant Labor Forum in Washington Heights. "We are a political movement actively seeking broad support for a program to defend working people against the ravages that the coming economic depression and imperialist war drive are bringing. We are calling for a workers and farmers government. As part of this we distribute campaign materials and sell periodicals and books in several languages that argue for our position and provide the history of working-class struggles, revolutionary movements, the fight against racism, and for women’s rights.

"We appeal to working people and all who support the First Amendment to support this case," Trowe continued. "In doing so you defend the right not only of our party, but of any group of workers, farmers, students, or others to carry out activities to win support for their ideas, including the sales of literature espousing their cause or providing an argument for their ideas, on the sidewalks of New York City. This is activity that has a long and proud history, and any police actions or court decisions to inhibit it strike a blow against the interests of all working people and democratic rights."

Trowe has written a letter on the case to New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, and is asking others to do the same. Letters should be addressed to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, City Hall, New York, NY 10007. E-mail messages may be sent from the "Contact the Mayor" website at http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html  
 
 
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