BY VED DOOKHUN

SAN FRANCISCO - There is an alternative to supporting Clinton, Dole, or other pro-capitalist politicians. That's what many of the demonstrators at an April 14 March to Fight the Right here found out when they were introduced to James Harris, candidate of the Socialist Workers Party for U.S. president.

Nearly 40 youth signed up for more information on the campaign at the demonstration and at a young feminists sleepover the night before. Some decided to join Young Socialists for Harris and Garza.

"We want people who are interested in campaigning for a socialist alternative to become Young Socialists for Harris and Garza," said Jack Willey, a leader of the Young Socialists who marched in San Francisco. The YS launched the effort to support the campaign for Harris and vice-presidential candidate Laura Garza at its national convention the week before.

"This is an opportunity to learn about the socialist perspective and join with candidates who are involved in the struggles against the horrors of capitalism, like this demonstration, protests against police brutality, actions defending the Cuban revolution, and picket lines of striking workers," Willey said. "Young Socialists for Harris and Garza are people who want to set up speaking engagements for socialist candidates at their high school or college, circulate petitions to put the candidates on the ballot, set up campaign tables on the streets and at political events, and get involved in other ways.

"We want to sign up young workers," Willey noted. That weekend the SWP's national trade union committee decided to take a goal of winning 100 co-workers to campaign with Young Socialists for Harris and Garza by May 27. "That can include setting up house meetings or lunchtime discussions with the socialist candidates," he said.

"Today's demonstration is an example of the kind of things the socialist campaign will take part in," said Harris speaking to around 40 people at a campaign-sponsored open house held at a restaurant after the march. "This was a highly militant, young demonstration. It was larger than people thought it would be.

"A lot of people today told me, `It's good to see a third party,' " Harris said. "But that's not what we are. We're a working-class alternative to all those - Democrats, Republicans, and others - who support or accept the capitalist system. We explain there is no way to reform capitalism. What we need to fight for is a workers and farmers government." As he spoke, several of the restaurant workers stopped to listen.

Campaign supporters joined Harris along the march and at a large table covered with socialist literature, the Militant, and the Spanish-language monthly Perspectiva Mundial. The table, and others like it at the rally assembly point, became centers of political discussion. Young Socialists from Los Angeles, New York, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco helped staff the table. Campaign supporters sold some 200 copies of the Militant.

Two youth from San Francisco who are not YS members helped campaign and sell the Militant. They had attended the YS convention, where Harris and Garza spoke the previous weekend, and decided to endorse the campaign. Another young woman from Los Angeles had met socialist campaign supporters the week before at a demonstration of 6,000 against the police beating of two Mexican workers there.

In the Río Grande Valley, Texas more than 200 activists who had gathered for a national conference of the Chicano student group MEChA discussed how to fight anti-immigrant attacks. Many picked up literature on the socialist candidates.

Campaigning at MEChA conference
"Buchanan's racist and anti-working-class campaign can't be answered by supporting Clinton," said Socialist Workers vice- presidential candidate Laura Garza, speaking with people who came by a literature table the campaign set up at Pan American University, the conference site. Many agreed with her.

"Clinton has been leading the charge against our rights, with proposals for more border cops and laws to make it easier to jail people and limit our democratic rights. We have to mobilize ourselves to have a voice that will answer this. A voice that will say `equal rights for all immigrants, stop the deportations,' " Garza said. The socialist campaign will be helping to build any such actions, including the protests being planned at the Republican national convention in San Diego.

About a dozen signed up to become part of the Young Socialists for Harris and Garza. Some expressed interest in joining the YS and having a Young Socialists representative visit their campus.

"We got a great response at the Culture Shock festival here on April 13," said Tom Alter, a YS leader in Bloomington, Indiana, in a phone interview. He and other campaign supporters set up a table at the event, which drew many students and others from the area, under a Young Socialists for Harris and Garza banner. "We sold 10 Militants, a copy of the Communist Manifesto, and a Militant subscription," Alter said, "and 17 people signed up who were interested in the YS or the campaign. Now we're calling them back. I'm meeting one person this afternoon who says he wants a subscription."

Verónica Poses contributed to this article from the MEChA conference in Edinburg, Texas.  
 
 
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