BY KATHY MICKELLS

CLEVELAND - "When 1,400 people gather to ostensibly discuss the idea of independent working-class political action, as a meatpacker, as a unionist, let alone as socialist candidate for president, I want to see this first hand," said James Harris. The Socialist Workers Party candidate observed sessions of the Labor Party founding convention here and met a variety of fighters and union activists.

Harris spoke with members of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) from Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, who are fighting Tosco, the company that recently purchased the refinery where they work. When workers refused to accept deep cuts, Tosco shut the refinery down.

He was also introduced to OCAW workers from the UNO-VEN refinery in Lemont, Illinois, 460 of whom have been locked out by management since March 24. The company, a joint venture between Unocal and the Venezuelan state oil enterprise, had demanded a two-tier wage structure, a deep roll-back in seniority rights, and sweeping cuts in premium pay for overtime. When the union wouldn't knuckle under, armed company security forces escorted the workers to the plant gates. They warmly greeted Harris when he told them, "This is the first I've heard of your struggle but I want to get all the details so I can tell other working people about your situation and appeal for solidarity."

Jorge Cuellar, a transit worker from Mexico, was attending the Labor Party conference in the hope of winning solidarity for the struggle of Mexican transit workers. They are fighting privatization of the Mexico City transit system

Harris introduced himself to Cuellar, saying, "We believe the most important thing for U.S. workers to learn is who are our friends and who are our enemies. Fighting workers around the world, like you, are our friends and the bosses in the United States are our deadly enemies."

Cuellar explained that the route on which he worked was sold off to a bus company which then abandoned the route. The workers went on strike. The government responded with a wave of arrests. Twenty-eight strikers were just released after spending 14 months in jail, he told Harris.

Cuellar had already stopped by the socialist campaign table outside the Convention Center and purchased a subscription to the Spanish-language monthly Perspectiva Mundial. He was not alone. Twelve participants subscribed to the Militant and two to Perspectiva Mundial. Over $450 worth of Pathfinder literature was sold at the four-day convention, with titles on labor and Cuba topping the list of sales. Three copies each of Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War and Teamster Rebellion were purchased along with five copies of the theses recently adopted by the Central Organization of Cuban Workers. The Pathfinder catalog was also a good seller.

Another worker who stopped by the table was Doug, one of 30 striking newspaper workers from Detroit who attended the convention. The 30-year-old striker explained they came to reach out for solidarity and to have discussions with workers about the "way we can win. Do you have any opinions about what it takes to win a strike these days?" he asked the socialist presidential candidate.

"You've taken the first step to charting a course to win -

fighting," said Harris. "Without fighting, you can't even begin to pose the question of winning." Harris pointed to the recent trade union conference in Cuba as an example of the fighting capacity and capabilities of working people. "They're pointing the way for all of us. They've maintained their sovereignty and independence against great odds. Ultimately we need a workers and farmers government, like they have in Cuba," Harris said.

Accompanying the presidential candidate at the convention was Ryan Lewis, a Young Socialist and the Socialist Workers candidate for Congress from Kent, Ohio. Lewis also introduced Harris at a campaign event June 8 at the nearby socialist campaign headquarters. A few convention attendees participated in the event along with four high school students. Lewis, 20, recently joined the Young Socialists.

At the campaign meeting, Harris explained his view that, "a party of labor needs a program based on overcoming the divisions perpetuated by the bosses. A program that fights clearly for the oppressed, that stands for affirmative action, that calls for shortening the workweek and canceling the Third World debt." Any party aspiring to represent the working class, the socialist candidate continued, needs to "stand 100 percent on the side of the most oppressed, particularly immigrant workers, who are under increasing assault by the bosses and their government.

The starting point of OCAW and other union officials promoting the Labor Party is not the beating working people are taking, Harris maintained, but their own social status, generous salaries, and perks. Through this new formation they seek to reverse the fact that their influence within the Democratic Party on the wane.

"So even though the officials promoting the Labor Party use all kinds of militant sloganeering," Harris explained, "the reality offers working people very little." A genuine working- class party will come out of the massive struggles of working people around a program that clearly defines their interest in opposition to those of the ruling class and fights to win power, Harris stated.

Kathy Mickells is a refinery operator at Sun Oil's Marcus Hook plant and is a member of the OCAW.  
 
 
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