BY VALERHE JOHNSON
BOSTON - Maceo Dixon, the Socialist Workers candidate for city council at-large, was informed by the Boston Election Commission (BEC) July 27 that he would be placed on the ballot in the September 19 primary election. This victory is the result of a public protest campaign demanding the socialist be put on the ballot. Dixon is an airport worker and member of the International Association of Machinists.
The Socialist Workers campaign is also running Valerie Johnson, a rail worker and member of the United Transportation Union, for city council in District 3. While the board says she did not garner the necessary signatures to be on the ballot, she will continue to campaign as a write-in candidate.
The socialist campaign began with an intensive three- week petitioning drive in working-class neighborhoods. Volunteers collected more than 1,000 signatures for Dixon and 500 for Johnson - at least double the required number.
Working people in the city have given the socialist candidates a warm response. One supporter mailed in a $500 contribution. Others purchased the Militant newspaper, as well as a range of books and pamphlets, at street tables during the petitioning drive. Hundreds read statements in defense of affirmative action that socialist campaigners are distributing. Large signs in support of affirmative action, against the death penalty, and in defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal drew a lot of working people and youth to the tables for political discussion.
In spite of the broad support for the socialists to be on the ballot, the Election Commission informed Dixon July 18 that neither he nor Johnson had met the requirements. It claimed Dixon was 38 signatures short of the required 500. Immediately a ballot fight was launched.
City and state officials here have a history of excluding socialists and other candidates from the ballot. Dixon's supporters circulated a fact sheet pointing out that in spite of extensive petitioning campaigns over the last 12 years only two Socialist Workers candidates were placed on the ballot.
In 1983 Eloise Linger, Socialist Workers' candidate for mayor of Boston, was put on the ballot after protests against BEC attempts to keep her off. In 1987 the BEC denied ballot access to socialist candidate Denise McInerney for Boston school committee. While she won in court, the ballots had already been printed.
In 1993 the BEC was rocked by a public scandal. They were exposed for undemocratically throwing 60,000 voters off the rolls. The board had also attempted to exclude five of the many candidates running for mayor, including Dixon.
There was an uproar in the city and all but Dixon got on the ballot. Karen Ray, the Socialist Workers' candidate for city council, made it on the ballot by one signature.
Socialist Workers campaigners circulated an open letter to all defenders of democratic rights this year, appealing for support in the ballot fight. A team of volunteers spent five days in the BEC office reviewing each and every signature that was invalidated. A picket line was held July 25 outside city hall. Meanwhile, the BEC received phone calls, faxes, and letters demanding Dixon be placed on the ballot.
Dixon said in a press release, "The BEC is the gatekeeper of the present capitalist government. It is a government for the rich, of the rich, and by the rich. The BEC is a tool used to make sure that a working-class voice is not heard in the elections and subsequently it helps maintain the political monopoly of the ruling rich.
"For instance, there are many capitalist politicians in city hall and the mayor himself who oppose affirmative action," Dixon noted. "Senator Dole introduced legislation that would outlaw all affirmative action programs of the federal government for contracts, jobs, or in education. This is a travesty. My campaign seeks to unite working people. Affirmative action is not only about past discrimination, it's about what is going on today."
Dixon has been invited to a number of candidates' forums to debate the issues. On August 21 he is slated to speak before the Boston Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO and will be interviewed by cable TV. The interview will be aired for two weeks.
Dixon also spoke at an August 8 victory rally for Mumia Abu-Jamal in downtown Boston after the framed-up activist won a stay of execution. Dixon and Johnson took part in the August 12 march and rally in Philadelphia for Abu-Jamal.
Both socialist candidates received a good response at a candidates forum sponsored by the Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance of Massachusetts. A victory rally was held August 4 at the local Pathfinder bookstore.