Satter is the Socialist Workers candidate for Congress in the 9th district in Massachusetts, in a special election called after the death of Joseph Moakley, a Democrat.

Speaking to campaign supporters at the start of a petitioning drive here to place Satter on the ballot, the socialist candidate said his campaign points to the need for workers and farmers in the United States to join together in a revolutionary struggle for a government of their own. "Only by replacing the capitalist government of the superwealthy ruling class, and fighting to overturn capitalism itself, can we begin to truly collaborate with working people around the world and build a society fit for humanity," he said.

"Capitalism is heading the world into more wars, economic crisis, and racist assaults," he said. "It keeps the vast majority of the world's population in chains of backwardness and oppression. Its wars and exploitation of working people around the world is simply an extension of its policy at home--something workers and farmers here know firsthand."

It's important to remember, Satter said, that the assault on the rights and living conditions of working people has been carried out in a bipartisan manner. "The Democrats and Republicans represent different wings of the same ruling class," he said. "Our campaign represents an independent, working-class alternative to the two-party system."

Satter had just returned from Cuba as a participant in the Second Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange. "Cuba is an example of what working people are capable of once we get the government of the exploiters off our backs and begin to reorganize society to meet human needs rather than the profits of a tiny minority," he said. He called on Washington to end its decades-long embargo against Cuba and restrictions on travel by U.S. citizens there. A forum is planned August 11 featuring a panel of those who participated in the Youth Exchange.

Campaign supporters collected some 800 signatures the first weekend in August and are planning for a big turnout August 11--–12, as part of a drive to collect twice the requirement of 2,000 signatures.

Earlier in the week a team of campaign supporters petitioned during rush hour at a subway stop in South Boston, a largely Irish immigrant part of the city. Andrea Morell, a campaign supporter, reported she met some Irish workers who had only been in the country a few weeks or months. One bought a copy of the campaign newspaper, the Militant. Morell explained, "He shared the conviction of the paper's coverage that the fight for a united Ireland was unstoppable." Four Militants were sold by the team.

Ted Leonard works in a meatpacking plant in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
 
 
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