Socialist campaigners have been a motor force of the circulation effort so far.

In New York, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate Martín Koppel campaigned October 1 at a meatpacking plant and two days earlier at a garment factory in New York City. Then, on October 4, Koppel, Salm Kolis, SWP candidate for U.S. Congress in New York’s 16th District, and one campaign supporter set up a literature table and met with students at the state university in New Paltz, New York, a town about two hours drive north of Manhattan.

A group called “Students Against Empire” is among the sponsors of an October 11 senatorial debate, at which Koppel will face Donald Silberger, the candidate of the Libertarian Party, and David McReynolds, the Green Party candidate. Mitch, one of the members of the group, asked Koppel how does the workers movement ensure that the will of the majority is carried out. Koppel showed him the book Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs, explaining that he would find in it examples of proletarian organizational methods that ensured the highest level of working-class democracy in action. The student picked up the book and signed up for a Militant subscription.

In all, six New Paltz students signed up to subscribe to the Militant that day. Socialist campaigners also sold 28 books and pamphlets from their literature table. Koppel then spoke at a meeting with members of Students Against Empire that evening.

Dennis Richter, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate in California, was granted a leave from his job in the sausage production department at Sarah Lee Foods in San Leandro to campaign for office. On October 5, Richter and two SWP campaign supporters from San Francisco campaigned at the “Rock the Vote” gathering at Napa Valley College, near San Francisco. In addition to the Democrats and Republicans, who had a big presence at the gathering, a number of smaller parties had booths.

One of the questions discussed at the table was the socialists’ support for a woman’s right to choose abortion. Myra, a first-year student there, joined the campaign table for the day after attending a campaign meeting at the socialist campaign center in San Francisco the week before. She bought a copy of the pamphlet Abortion: A Woman’s Right to Choose! at the meeting and told socialists she was interested in having SWP campaign representatives speak on this question at a meeting on campus.

According to the Napa News, which covered the event, “Of all the smaller parties, the Socialist Workers Party was grabbing the most students. Laura Anderson, one of the San Francisco residents working the table, said the party’s candidate for U.S. Senate, Dennis Richter, would appear later in the day at the Starbucks on Soscol Avenue.”

In New Zealand, campaigning has also been a catalyst for sales of the Militant and PM. Felicity Coggan, Communist League candidate for mayor of Auckland, spoke at an open mike at Auckland University during “politics week” organized by the students’ association. After several tables on that campus and others, a number of students signed up for subscriptions to the Militant.
 
 
Related articles:
‘We stand with workers trying to organize unions’
We support right of oppressed nations to economic development, says socialist in Iowa
Penn. socialists step up campaigning in wake of arson attack
SWP candidate for vice president speaks at Florida NAACP convention
Calero speaks to coal miners, others in Utah
Support SWP ticket in 2004  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home