Dutrow told an August 25 Militant Labor Forum that he will speak out during the course of his campaign "to tell the truth about the Israeli regime's war drive to try to crush the resistance of the Palestinian people."

Several people came to the forum after meeting campaign supporters. One student who met the petitioners on his university campus commented on the contrast between the candidate's remarks and the "attempts by the press to demonize the Palestinian people."

One construction worker attending the forum took a petition to circulate in the area around the campaign office where he lives. He said he appreciated the socialist campaign's work in giving a voice to those standing up to attacks on immigrants like himself, especially the demands for union rights for all workers regardless of documentation, and for the right to drivers licenses.

Dutrow and supporters have walked picket lines with food workers at Rice Epicurean Markets, who went on strike August 27. The 300 United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) members at six food stores in Houston have been without a contract for nearly two months. Antiunion laws in Texas required the workers to train their replacements as the strike deadline neared, they told the socialist candidate. Dutrow pledged to use his campaign to urge all working people to back their strike.

Supporters have gathered most of the 1,200 signatures at shopping centers where workers shop. Many workers sign right away when they hear that a working-class candidate is trying to get on the ballot.

One older Black worker, who first responded that he wouldn't sign as he already had his candidate, decided to sign after reading Dutrow's campaign leaflet. "I'll sign for one reason," he said. "That thing with Pedro Oregon--that was not right." Oregon was a Mexican immigrant living in Houston who was killed by cops who broke into his apartment and shot him. Dutrow has been active over the past three years in building protest actions demanding the jailing of the cops who killed Oregon.

A featured activity of a petitioning weekend September 8–9 will be a Militant Labor Forum presented by former merchant seaman and a previous Houston Socialist Workers candidate, Tom Leonard. He will speak on "Why the Australian Government Bars Afghan Refugees: End Racist Attacks against Asians."
 
 
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