BY JEFF POWERS
SEATTLE - "Who do I make the check out to?" a tall, bearded man asked as he approached the socialist campaign table. "The Socialist Workers Campaign Committee," replied Scott Breen, candidate for mayor of Seattle. He thanked the man, who turned out to be a union member, for his $100 contribution, and signed him up for a subscription to the Militant newspaper.

Breen had just finished speaking from the floor at a mayoral candidates forum organized by the Washington Environmental Alliance for Voter Education. Although the sponsors had excluded him from the platform, campaign supporters picketed against the exclusion and supporters were allowed to set up a table inside. Breen was introduced by the program moderator and allowed to speak for a few minutes from the floor during the discussion.

Exclusion was the exception, however. Breen participated equally in seven other public debates. One couple sent a contribution of $20 to the campaign with a note reading, "We heard you at the Washington State Arts Council Forum. Bravo!"

In addition to Breen, an aerospace mechanic at The Boeing Company, the socialist candidates in the Seattle municipal elections include Chris Rayson, a railroad worker at Burlington Northern Santa Fe, for Port of Seattle Commissioner, and Robbie Scherr, a chemical worker at Boeing, running for Seattle City Council. All three are active union members.

At a mayoral candidates forum hosted by the Seattle Film Industry, a sharp debate broke out over finding jobs in the industry. Several people in the audience complained that they were losing jobs to Vancouver, British Columbia. What could be done to keep those jobs in Seattle, they demanded?

Several of the capitalist candidates got big applause when they said that Seattle's mayor should find a way to better compete with Vancouver.

"I'm not a Seattle First, or America First candidate," Breen explained. "Workers need to unite across borders and fight for jobs for all, not to compete with each other, which is why the Socialist Workers Party proposes a shorter workweek, with no cut in weekly pay. The workers in Vancouver have a right to a job, too," he said to scattered applause.

He pointed to the example of the UPS strikers, "where workers who were full-time and better paid supported workers who were part-time, and got lower wages and their unity in struggle won a better contract for both." All the socialist candidates visited the Teamsters picket lines during the strike against UPS, building support for their strike through the campaign and in their unions.

At the August meeting of the International Association of Machinists, Local 751A, which Breen is a member of, one of the Teamsters strikers who spoke to the 200 union members there took time in his remarks to thank Breen for his support. At the same union meeting, Breen took the floor to announce his campaign for mayor.

In addition to the debates, there was some newspaper, TV, and radio coverage, including in the Seattle Times and the Post Intelligencer.

During the campaign, Breen requested a leave of absence without pay to campaign in the last week before the September 16 primary elections. Several of Breen's co-workers, including his union steward, actively voiced their support for this request to management.

Boeing denied the leave. At first, the general manager told Breen that granting him a leave to run for office was like giving him a leave to look for another job. Co-workers didn't buy that, especially after reading Boeing's document entitled "Employee Involvement in Political Activities." Section 4B stated, "The company will make reasonable efforts to adjust the work schedule of an employee-candidate for state and local public office... Where work schedules permit, the employee may be granted leave without pay." After this was brought to the attention of Human Resources, the company still refused his request for a week's leave, but changed the reason, saying that "work schedules" did not permit it.

Commenting on the Boeing's refusal, Vern Dunn, one of Breen's co-workers, said, "If it had been a salaried Republican running, he'd have gotten all the time off he wanted." Dennis Frazier, another co-worker, commented, "I find the most distressing thing is that Boeing finds it convenient to not follow their rules when its inconvenient for them."

The Friday before the primary election, The Boeing News, a weekly newspaper put out by the company, ran a column titled, "Boeing Employees in the race." Among other candidates it included Breen and Scherr, identifying their affiliation as Socialist Workers Party. After reading that Scherr was a socialist candidate for Seattle city council, one 24-year-old worker approached her to discuss her political ideas and got a subscription to the Militant.

The September 16 primary resulted in Paul Schell, the Democratic Port Commissioner and Charles Chong, a Democratic City Council member, advancing to the General election in November. Scott Breen finished sixth among the 11 candidates.  
 
 
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