BY KRISTIN MERIAM AND ADAM WOLFE

CHICAGO - Youth and workers rarely hear "your vote doesn't count for much" from candidates for political office. But that's exactly what Socialist Workers presidential nominee James Harris told audiences around Chicago in his four-day visit here. Instead, Harris explained that people don't get to vote on matters that affect their lives such as whether to go to war, or raising the minimum wage. He insisted that real political change comes about when working people get out in the streets.

"What is significant is what ordinary people do, what working people do," Harris told about 45 students at suburban Naperville North High School the morning of September 9. "Real changes are spearheaded by youth and the working class, whether it be the anti-Apartheid struggle, the civil rights revolution, or the union movement." After a lively question and answer period, three students signed up for more information on the Young Socialists or how to travel to Cuba next year for the world youth festival.

Harris arrived in Chicago September 6 and promptly held a lunch time protest against the U.S. bombing of Iraq and press conference at the federal building plaza downtown. City News Bureau and Voice of America attended. Placards his supporters held denouncing Clinton's assault on Iraq drew some passersby, including Ron, a young worker from the Illinois Central Railroad who stuck around to talk after the press conference was over.

Next day Harris accompanied Kristin Meriam, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress in the 4th district in Illinois, campaigning at a back-to-school parade in Englewood, a Black neighborhood on the south side.

That night he addressed an audience of about 50 at the Pathfinder Bookstore. Harris focused on the deepening polarization in the world. He cited statistics showing that half the world's population earns less than $2 a day and that 358 billionaires control more wealth than countries representing 45 percent of the earth's population.

It is these vast inequalities created by capitalism that make social explosions inevitable, Harris stated. "There will be explosions. There will be massive struggles. All history tells us that will happen. But what is crucial is that we might not win, unless we're organized to take it on, unless we tell working people what they face and build a proletarian party capable of leading workers to take power."

A reporter from the Chicago Tribune accompanied Harris and his entourage throughout the day September 9, from Naperville North to a taped radio interview at WONC 89.1 FM at North Central College, and met up with the candidate again at the Ford Assembly Plant on the southeast side. There Harris and his supporters leafleted hundreds of autoworkers streaming in and out of the plant at shift change. One of the assembly line workers is also on the Socialist Workers slate. Frank Forrestal, running for U.S. Senate in Illinois, campaigned at the plant gate when he got off work.

Harris was interviewed by the editors of the Chicago Defender, a widely-read Black daily, and by Cliff Kelley on WGCI and WVON. Both AM radio stations are popular in the Black community.

Jóvenes Rebeldes (Rebel Youth), a new organization of Latino youth inspired by the Cuban revolution and recent peasant revolts in Mexico, invited Harris to speak at their Monday evening meeting at DePaul University. According to Susana Ochoa, of Jóvenes Rebeldes, 18 members attended and Guatemala Radio Project taped the meeting, to be aired in Chicago on 88.5 FM.

Next Harris was off to the studios of WLS 890 AM, "the 50,000 watt talk monster of the Midwest." Listeners in much of North America heard the candidate on the Jay Marvin show that night. Harris expounded on the importance of his demand of jobs for all. Citing a recent article in the New York Times, Harris said that capitalist politicians claim that more people getting jobs causes inflation. This is not true. What they are really afraid of, he said, "is that the more people get jobs and are not totally insecure, the more they begin to demand raises. And the ruling class in this country doesn't want to grant that."

A caller from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania asked why there is higher unemployment among Blacks. "Do you feel that's because of the welfare?"

Harris responded, "That has to do with racism in this country that institutionalizes discrimination against Blacks, which is one of the reasons we put forward the need for affirmative action."

The next morning a student at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, called the campaign headquarters in Chicago. He heard Harris on the radio and liked what the presidential candidate had to say. "Most of my friends are Republicans and whatnot. I used to be a Rush Limbaugh fan `til I saw through his games," the student said. Now he is interested in the Young Socialists and said he'll send away for a subscription to the Militant.

Adam Wolfe is a member of the Young Socialists. Kristin Meriam is a member of the United Transportation Union.

BY RICH STUART

SEATTLE, Washington - "We campaign actively to build the October 12 March in Washington D.C. for immigrant rights," said James Harris, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. president, in front of some 50 farmworkers in Sunnyside in Washington's Yakima valley August 29.

Speaking to the farmworkers attending a citizenship class at One-Stop Immigration, Harris blasted "the hypocrisy of the U.S. government and right-wing forces when they say immigrants are the problem and cause of the economic crisis. The immigration of workers into this country strengthens the working class and makes us more international, unifies us, and makes the bosses less able to divide us."

He continued, "The Socialist Workers campaign is an internationalist campaign. Workers everywhere, whether in the U.S., Mexico, Japan, or Canada, have more in common with each other than with our ruling class. Working people need to unite across borders."

The socialist candidate was introduced by David Silva of One- Stop Immigration. Silva also translated Harris's talk to the audience of migrant workers, both men and women.

Most of the workers are following the seasonal harvest in the Yakima valley of Washington state, a rich agricultural region producing fruits, vegetables, hops, and other crops. Silva is the Washington state coordinator for the October 12 march on Washington D.C.

Silva explained to Harris that in the many small agricultural towns in the area there are no Latino elected representatives to local offices or school boards, even though a large majority of the population is Latino. Harris told the assembled workers, "Working people should have the right to vote and participate in politics wherever they are."

Harris's tour through the state included informal discussions with aerospace workers from Boeing in Everett and shipyard workers in Seattle.

The SWP presidential nominee began his visit with a meeting of young people who wanted to get involved in the campaign and learn more about socialism.

Harris also participated in a panel at the University of Washington of representatives of the presidential campaigns of William Clinton, Robert Dole, Ralph Nader, and Ross Perot speaking to a class of 17 Fulbright scholars from around the world.

After an afternoon of street campaigning at the annual Bumbershoot cultural festival in Seattle, Harris spoke to a crowd of some 60 supporters packed into the Pathfinder Bookstore here. Over $1,000 was contributed to the campaign at the meeting and two young people said they are interested in joining the Young Socialists.  
 
 
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