Campaign organizers report that the board of elections informed them August 23 that the Socialist Workers Party ticket will be on the ballot in New York. No one challenged the SWP petitions during the three days allowed by state law. Candidates are officially certified by the state in late September.

The socialists announced that they had filed more than 30,000 signatures, double the legal requirement to win a ballot spot for the socialist ticket—Calero for president, Arrin Hawkins for vice-president, and Martín Koppel for U.S. Senate from New York.

“Because of the number of people who signed from Buffalo to Binghamton, Albany, and the five boroughs of New York City,” said Calero at the state capitol news conference, “there will be an independent working-class alternative in New York to the Democrats, Republicans, and smaller capitalist parties that function as pressure groups of the left and right within U.S. imperialism’s two-party system.”

Calero described the grinding social conditions facing working people, as a result of the offensive by the bosses and their government trying to shore up declining profit rates. “The consequences are deteriorating conditions on the job, a faster pace that endangers life and limb, longer hours, a longer workweek, often needing more than one job to survive, and a longer working life,” he said. “Millions of working families have no medical coverage or access to medical care.”

Calero cited this systemic crisis of capitalism and the resistance to its effects by workers and farmers as the main reasons for the response to the SWP election campaign platform. More than 60,000 people nationwide signed petitions in just over two months to place the socialists on the ballot, he pointed out.
 
Support right to organize unions
“Our campaign strikes a chord among working people,” Calero noted. “At the center of our platform is support for the right of workers to organize unions and to defend themselves from the bosses’ assaults.” The socialists are using the campaign to help spread the word about organizing and other labor struggles, he said, to help expand labor solidarity so that workers can get allies in their struggle “to organize a union where they don’t have one or to strengthen those they do have.” Calero said there is a need for “unions to become more effective fighting instruments for better working and living conditions, not just on the factory floor but on a social level.”

Highlighting the Socialist Workers’ call for “a massive, federally funded public works program to put millions to work at union scale,” Calero said it’s important for the labor movement to champion this demand as part of transforming the unions into instruments of struggle to defend working people from the ravages of the capitalist economic crisis. “There are enough resources to put millions to work to build the deteriorating infrastructure,” he said.

Working people not only need to defend themselves on the economic level, Calero added. “We need to organize independently of the employers on the political level as well. Socialists call for the launching of a labor party, based on the unions, to fight in the interests of workers and farmers.” This flows from supporting workers’ right and pressing need to organize unions, and defending the labor movement from the employers’ assaults that are backed by the Democrats and Republicans, he pointed out.

On the eve of the Democratic Party convention, Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), stated that in spite of the fact that the SEIU had poured millions of dollars into the Democratic Party campaign of John Kerry, a victory for Kerry would consolidate an even worse Democratic Party for labor. Thus it might be better for Kerry to lose. That way, Stern said, the Democratic Party could nominate candidates from its more pro-union wings. It would then address the problems that unionized workers and other working people face today.

After a few days of pounding by the other labor tops and the leadership of the Democratic Party, Stern was back in line, saying “All out for Kerry!”

Everything Stern said, however, was wrong, Calero said.

The cause of the worsening economic and social crisis—from exploitation by the bosses to wars of plunder abroad—is not an individual politician or a particular party holding office, but the capitalist system and the tiny handful of billionaire families that perpetuate their rule at the expense of the vast majority, he said.

The capitalist class has two parties, the Democrats and Republicans, he pointed out. Their two-party system is a trap designed to hoodwink working people into thinking that we have choice and to keep us from attacking the real problem, capitalism. “Anyone trying to convince working people that one wing of the Democratic Party can be a better friend of labor than another, is reinforcing this two-party con game,” Calero said.

Calero described the socialists’ stance in solidarity with working people on a world scale, and in support of the efforts of power-poor semicolonial nations to acquire and develop the energy sources necessary to expand electrification, a pre requisite for economic and social advancement. He said he is using his campaign to expose the drive by Washington and its allies to prevent nations oppressed by imperialism—such as Iran, Brazil, north Korea, and India—from developing the sources of energy they need, including nuclear power, to bring millions out of darkness.

Dorothy Kolis, the SWP candidate for U.S. Congress in New York’s 16th C.D., denounced recent disruption operations by provocateurs from the FBI and local police (see article on page 4). “This can only have a chilling effect on the right of people to protest, which is a constitutionally protected right, and is aimed at disrupting and infiltrating unions and other organizations,” she said. “We join with others in protesting this assault and will be in the streets during the Republican National Convention.”

Responding to a question from a reporter on whether Calero met the constitutional requirements to run for office, Calero responded, “the laws can change, and have changed in this country.” He pointed out the undemocratic election laws and noted that not so long ago you had to be 21 years old to vote, and that Blacks were denied the right to vote as well. “As more foreign born in the United States are drawn into politics, more people are beginning to demand that foreign-born residents be allowed to vote and run for office. We support these changes and support extending full rights to anybody who works and lives in this country. This can only strengthen the working class.”

Explaining the opportunity to present a working-class alternative to the tens of thousands of young people, unionists, and others who will converge on the streets in New York City to protest leading up to and during the Republican National convention, Calero said, “While we whole heartedly agree and join with those who say ‘Defeat Bush!’ we also say ‘Defeat Kerry too!’ Don’t vote for the man, vote for the program. Nothing has changed in this country by voting for individual capitalist politicians. The Republicans and Democrats are the twin parties of imperialist war, economic depression, and racist oppression. Smaller capitalist parties running in these elections, like the Greens and the Libertarians, or the Nader-Camejo ticket, also serve the interests of American imperialism’s two-party system.”

“We are out to win,” said Arrin Hawkins, in response to a question from a reporter who asked if the intention of the campaign was to just get the message out. Referring to the “third party” campaigns of the Greens and Ralph Nader, Hawkins said that these are not independent from the ruling class, but pro-capitalist campaigns that operate within the “Dump Bush” framework and serve as pressure groups on the Democratic Party. “Capitalism as a system cannot be reformed,” she said. “We need a party and a movement that can lead working people through revolutionary struggle to overthrow capitalism, put in place a workers and farmers government in the United States, and join the worldwide struggle for socialism.”

The Greens and Nader campaigns had filed petitions for ballot status in New York. According to state election officials, the Greens’ petition has been challenged.

“Our campaign does not end on election day,” Calero added. “We will continue to campaign and extend support to those fighting to defend their living and working conditions. Every one of our candidates will continue to do so after November 2. If we organize ourselves and we do it well, we can increase the number of victories that can be scored by our class. In that sense we are out to win.”

Millie Sánchez and Willie Cotton, SWP candidates for U.S. Congress in New York’s 8th and 15th C.D.s respectively, were also present. Local TV and newspapers covered the press conference.

“At first glance, Róger Calero seems like a perfect presidential candidate for the Socialist Workers Party,” said an article published in the August 18 Albany Times Union.

“He is young, energetic and passionate about the party’s signature issue—gaining rights for low-income, nonunionized workers—and even experienced their plight as a meat packer in Iowa.

“Only problem is, Calero, 35, cannot legally be president. Born in Nicaragua, he is still a citizen there. He has lived in the United States since 1985 and has a green card allowing him to work here, but the U.S. Constitution mandates the president be a natural-born American….

“Norton Sandler, national campaign director for the Socialist Workers Party, said that in about half the states where the party is on the ballot, it is fielding a slate of ‘stand-in’ candidates, who, if elected, would champion a constitutional amendment to allow Calero to be president and step aside to make way for him after it passed.”
 
 
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