Socialist workers Dean Cook and Dave Ferguson are running in Districts 18 and 22 that encompass large working-class and farming areas in and around Houston city limits. Lea Sherman is the party's candidate for U.S. Senate.

Campaign supporters have taken their petitions to shopping centers, libraries, hardware stores, colleges, and factories. Dozens of people stopped by the table to sign up to get a fellow worker on the ballot, to browse through Pathfinder books offered for sale, and to buy copies of the publications that support the campaign--the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial.

Jason Schroeder, a student at San Jacinto college in Pasadena, signed to get Dean Cook on the ballot because he wants to see "revolutionary ideas raised in the campaign." He bought a copy of the Pathfinder book Che Guevara Talks to Young People, and convinced his friend, a high school student, to buy a subscription to the Militant. Schroeder also bought a copy of a pamphlet on the Young Socialists. "I want to help make a revolution here," he explained.

Petitioners report that many people want to stop and talk about what one steelworker described as "these companies' total disregard for workers' lives." He explained that when he saw the news of the latest explosion at Phillips Petroleum in Pasadena March 27, "I knew exactly what had happened. It's just like the pipe mill where I work. These companies have cut back on maintenance to the point where our lives are threatened. They are only interested in their profits."

Many workers signing the petitions explain from their own experiences why they think workers need to organize to defend themselves in trade unions. One young K-Mart employee, signing up on his break, described the efforts of companies like K-Mart and Wal-Mart to keep out unions.

Dean Cook's union experience as one of more than 200 workers locked out by Crown Petroleum for more than four years is one that many workers signing want to discuss. Several people have said they not only are familiar with the lockout but know other workers involved.

Two new subscribers this week work in a garment factory with Dave Ferguson, a sewing machine operator. Ferguson was featured in television coverage when he spoke as a candidate at a police brutality protest here last month. More than a dozen co-workers commented on the coverage. One sewing machine operator took petitions home to sign up her neighbors.

The petitioning effort will continue through the first week of May, and the candidates encourage anyone who can to help out in the effort to put the socialist alternative on the ballot.  
 
 
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