"The Black community is seething in Cincinnati," Hart reported. "One after another, people I talked to said they will not let Cincinnati return to 'normal.' 'Normal' is what the city officials want. Instead of bringing quiescence, their policies brought thousands into the streets in political protest."

Working people in Detroit also face brutality from police and security guards on a regular basis. Hart has helped to build recent rallies and picket lines at stores in the city to press for prosecution of security guards who have attacked working people. Over the last 10 months, three workers have been killed by guards.

"The way the Cincinnati Black community poured out into the streets in protest is an example for us here in Detroit," Hart said at the meeting. "Their fight against ruling class racism is part of the growing resistance of working people to the increasing attacks by the bosses and their government."

Hart said the Socialist Workers campaign will discuss with as many youth, workers, and farmers as possible why working people can and must "wage a revolutionary struggle to replace this capitalist government with one of our own." He pointed to the example of the Cuban Revolution, "which established a government of workers and farmers. They uprooted a dictatorship imposed by U.S. imperialism that was responsible for racism, discrimination against women, and poverty. That opened the way to the first socialist revolution in the Americas."

To qualify for ballot status, a mayoral candidate must collect 416 signatures on nominating petitions. Supporters of the socialist campaign plan to collect double the required amount to gain a ballot spot.

The economic slowdown in the United States has hit Michigan hard, especially Detroit where layoffs in the auto industry are deeply affecting working people. At the same time, as part of the capitalist profit drive, the bosses are scheduling more overtime, known as "lean manufacturing" in the auto industry.

"Working people around the world do not have to accept the devastating conditions of joblessness, overwork and speedup, financial crisis, or the pressures of an insecure future," Hart said. "This is the framework of all the other candidates, Democratic and Republican. But it doesn't have to be our framework. Instead, the labor movement must demand a shorter workweek with no cut in pay, which must be binding on all employers as federal law. This would create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and lift the burden of capitalist-created unemployment off the backs of working people.

"We need to press forward in the battle to overcome the race and sex discrimination used to divide working people on the job and throughout society," the socialist candidate said. "We need to fight to enforce and extend affirmative action quotas in employment and on the job, as well as in education. We need to champion the cause of working people in semicolonial countries, tens of millions of whom face devastation as a result of capitalism. We can demand cancellation of the Third World debt and elimination of all trade barriers and tariffs erected by the U.S. rulers. These demands will build unity in the working class, which will make us stronger."

Hart said the fight to increase the minimum wage for all workers to the equivalent of union wages; to guarantee full health, disability, and pension benefits for all; and an automatic cost-of-living protection against sudden bursts of inflation are also central demands of his campaign.

Ilona Gersh is a member of United Auto Workers Local 157.  
 
 
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