The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.17           April 29, 1996 
 
 
Socialists Campaign In N.J.  

BY KATY KARLIN

NEWARK, New Jersey - "You like Cuba? I'm down with that!" a Rutgers University student said enthusiastically as he signed a petition to get Socialist Workers candidates on the ballot in New Jersey. Another student sunbathing on the grass opened her eyes wide when she heard the socialist campaign was fighting Buchan- anism. "I'll sign!" she said.

These were typical responses campaign supporters got as they spread to different cities across the state and collected more than 1,000 signatures for Olga Rodríguez for U.S. Senate and four Congressional candidates.

Toni Jackson, 29, who is running in the 10th Congressional District, led a team of campaign supporters to Orange, New Jersey, where they met a young man who expressed interest in going to the upcoming Young Socialists national convention. "I want that book," he said, picking up Frederick Engels's Socialism: Utopian and Scientific from the table, "because I'm a socialist."

William Estrada, 29, the socialist candidate in the 13th Congressional District, campaigned in downtown Elizabeth. There he met a high school student who told him she knows other communists in her high school, where they meet on a weekly basis to discuss politics. She invited Estrada to speak to her club.

Campaign supporters in Elizabeth also met a member of the Service Employees International Union in New York who had been on strike earlier this year. He was interested in getting a subscription to the Militant and coming to an upcoming Militant Labor Forum on the recent strike at General Motors. He asked to get more information on the campaign.

In New Brunswick, campaign supporters petitioned for Stefanie Trice, a 25-year-old rail worker who is running in the sixth Congressional District. Many Rutgers students there welcomed the opportunity to support a socialist candidate. "This is the first time I'm voting," a freshman told a campaign supporter. "I'm like a lot of people my age. You want to make a difference, but you want to vote for someone you can really believe in, too."

A student from the gay and lesbian group on campus and others from the Puerto Rican student group asked if candidates could address their organizations.

Robert Robertson, a pharmaceutical worker who is a member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union, is running in the seventh Congressional District.

Katy Karlin is a member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union in Rahway, New Jersey.

 
 
 
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