Dear Friends,

In a few weeks the Socialist Workers Party will be announcing its presidential ticket. The candidates and their campaign will chart a course of action and present a program to advance the interests of working people in the United States, together with workers and farmers around the world.

The socialist candidates for president and vice president, along with numerous campaigns for other federal and state offices, are workers and youth deeply involved in the struggles and resistance of working people today. We salute the most recent battles, from janitors striking in Los Angeles and Chicago, to actions demanding the U.S. government get its Navy out of Vieques, to Wal-Mart meat cutters standing up for a union. From union actions in South Africa and peasants fighting for land in Zimbabwe, to mass actions in Bolivia and Costa Rica, and strikes in Korea and New Zealand.

The socialist candidates will discuss with workers, fighting farmers, and youth why it is capitalism--and the policies of the big-business parties that defend it--that are the cause of the economic hardships, attacks on our unions, devastation of working farmers, assaults on democratic rights, denial of women's rights, police brutality and killings, and the racism and discrimination that come with national oppression.

They will present to tens of thousands at speaking engagements, at rallies, on street corners, on picket lines, and through the media why it is both possible and necessary to build a revolutionary movement that can replace the capitalist government in Washington with one of workers and farmers, opening the road to the struggle for socialism together with working people in other countries around the world.

The fighting course and socialist perspectives of the campaign are needed now more than ever. The volatility of the giant bubble on the stock markets exposes the fact that underneath the "economic miracle" heralded by the Clinton administration, the threat of a financial breakdown and banking crisis looms over the capitalist economy, something that would devastate industrial production and the lives of hundreds of millions worldwide. This uncertainty, sensed by millions, gives ultrarightist and fascist forces a hearing, especially among middle-class layers and better-off workers. It propels the trade union officialdom to step up its reactionary, American nationalist, and protectionist campaign, which is a deadly trap for unionists and fighting workers.

What capitalism has to offer working people here and internationally becomes clearer every day. Two roads are being fought out in the factories, mines, and mills; on the streets and on picket lines; and among opposing class forces such as in New York over the ability of the cops to brutalize and kill working people. That of the capitalists is one of brutality to protect their system; that of working people to defend and advance social conquests and to chart a new future for humanity.

To finance this effort the campaign has launched a fund to raise at least $80,000 by June 4. We urge you to take advantage of this opportunity by contributing to the only campaign that has no interests other than those of fighting workers and farmers.

Across the country--indeed across North and South America--there is a growing spirit of resistance among workers and farmers. Strikes, mass protests, rallies, and other actions are a feature of daily life. Socialist workers are part of all struggles that can help build greater self-confidence and the broader social outlook working people need to effectively struggle against the employing class and their parties and government.

Key to this outlook is solidarity with workers and farmers throughout the world who are fighting national oppression by imperialism and capitalist exploitation, and the economic and military assaults by U.S. imperialism in particular. The candidates explain the central place held in this struggle by the workers and farmers of Cuba and their communist leadership, who overthrew capitalist rule more than 40 years ago and have stood up to Washington ever since.

The Young Socialists have decided to put the Socialist Workers campaign at the center of their activity through the rest of this year, and will be among the candidates fielded by the socialists around the country. The YS will also be organizing teams, setting up meetings, and helping to prepare and distribute literature on the campaign. There are thousands of young people looking for answers to the seemingly irrational workings and brutish nature of the capitalist system. Many will decide to join the YS and SWP by becoming part of the campaign.

The funds are needed to back efforts to place the campaign on the ballot in as many states as possible . Travel, publicity, following up on those interested in joining the campaign, and media work are essential parts of the campaign that need to be financed by working people and youth who support the perspectives of the socialist alternative.

Funds are needed now to help get the campaign underway. Please send your contribution to the Socialist Workers National Campaign Committee, PO Box 14239, St. Paul, MN 55114. 
 
 
In solidarity,

James Harris, 
Socialist Workers Party candidate for president in 1996

s/Samantha Kern 
Samantha Kern, Organizer, Young Socialists National Executive Committee  
 
 
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