The first stop was a meeting with dairy farmers Toby and Fred Heiss and Earl Shaad in Lowell, in southeast Ohio. The dairymen are members of the National Farmers Organization and took part in the July 4 dumping of a day's milk production to protest low prices. Comparing the action to a union strike, Shaad explained that dumping milk was "our way of withholding our labor."

Toby Heiss, who milks 44 Holsteins, told the candidate that farmers in Ohio dumped 36,000 pounds of milk that day, and he looks forward to helping organize more farmers to do the same later in the summer. He is quoted in a recent issue of Farm and Dairy saying, "Many people say they can't afford to dump a day's worth of milk. I say we can't afford not to. I don't know how any dairyman with debt can make it in this industry. They must be living on nothing."

Shaad and the older Fred Heiss, Toby's father, have several decades of struggle under their belts. "I've burnt grain, dumped milk, and shot hogs since the 1960s," recalled Shaad. "Why are they trying to move people who are self-supporting, and who bring forth such wealth, onto the welfare rolls?" he asked.

Trowe pledged the support of the Socialist Workers campaign in championing actions like this by farmers. "There are farmers all over the country and all over the world who are facing the exact same conditions as you are. You are not alone," Trowe said. She described a recent trip she participated in with a delegation of fighting farmers from the United States to the congress of the National Association of Small Farmers in Cuba.

The delegation learned about the thoroughgoing land reform that has been one of the central goals of the revolution in Cuba. Land was not only turned over to the peasants, but farmers there cannot be foreclosed on, she said.

The next stop was a coffee house meeting in Mansfield, Ohio, where Trowe met with a locked-out member of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 169 at AK Steel, another USWA member from Mansfield Foundry, and anti–death penalty activist Kathy Foster from Toledo. They discussed the attacks by the bosses against the unions, including recent full-page ads run by AK Steel in the Mansfield paper accusing the Steelworkers union of terrorism in strikes that have taken place in recent years.

Local 169 activist Bonnie Rooks--who is in her 70s and proud to be the oldest locked-out Steelworker in the fight--described the traveling she has done speaking out and building solidarity for the struggle.

She also explained to Trowe her recent change of heart about the death penalty. "I used to be a 'zap 'em' kind of person, until I saw what the police have done in framing up my daughter," who is also a locked-out AK Steel worker. "Now I see how there must be many innocent people in jail," she said. Rooks was anxious to hear from Trowe the latest news from the union-organizing drive among meat packers in St. Paul, Minnesota, which she has been following closely in the Militant. Workers at Dakota Premium Foods staged a seven-hour sit-down strike June 1 and have been campaigning to win union recognition since that time.

The next day, eight members of the Union of Needletrades, Textile, and Industrial Employees (UNITE) from the Hugo Boss suit factory in Cleveland met with the Socialist Workers candidate after work. The informal get-together took place in a restaurant near the plant.

Workers told Trowe of the conditions they face in their shop, and were interested in learning about the organizing drive at Dakota Premium Foods. Workers at the plant have been involved in ongoing efforts to strengthen the union at Hugo Boss and were impressed by the unity that the Dakota Premium workers showed that June day.

Later on, Trowe and Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, Michael Fitzsimmons, a garment worker, attended and spoke at an annual picnic meeting of the Ottawa County Farmers Union. The socialist candidates were well-received at the meeting, which attracted some 25 farmers.

"What is it going to take to win a decent living for farmers? More organizing?" a farmer asked. Trowe explained that organizing actions like the recent Rally for Rural America in Washington, D.C., is crucial, as is linking up with fighting workers here and around the world.

"These are steps in building a revolutionary mass movement of workers, farmers, and their allies that aims to take state power out of the hands of the capitalist minority," she said.

Eva Braiman is a member of the United Auto Workers. Tony Prince, a member of UNITE, contributed to this article.