"The arrogance and violence of the police, directed against working people and Blacks especially, underscore the racist nature of capitalist society and every institution of the capitalist state," the socialist candidate said. "From New York to Miami to Cincinnati to Inglewood, these beatings and killings at the hands of the cops are not aberrations, but the police doing the job they are trained to do." The candidate called for the immediate jailing and prosecution of all the cops involved.

Bailey, a National Committee member of the Socialist Workers Party and a garment worker from Los Angeles, was nominated as the party’s candidate for governor of California on June 29. The party is also running William Kalman, a leader of the party’s San Francisco branch and a meatpacking worker in that city, for lieutenant governor, and Olympia Newton, a leader of the Young Socialists and meatpacking worker in Los Angeles for secretary of state.

"What happened in Inglewood and Oklahoma City," said Bailey, "are two more examples of the racist nature of class society under capitalism and every institution of the capitalist state. Every police department, every police agency in this country is an enemy of working people.

"The ruling class and their political servants--both Democrats and Republicans--have nothing to offer except more cop violence, more racist violence, and terror as they deepen their assaults against working people at home and abroad. In the last decade thousands of working people were executed on the streets by the cops and millions more have been thrown behind bars.

"My campaign supporters will join those who will demonstrate today at city hall in Inglewood to protest the beating of 16-year-old Dorean Jackson-Chavis by Inglewood police on July 6," said Bailey. "I urge others to participate in these demonstrations in order to advance the fight against police brutality and racism. These actions deserve the support of the entire labor movement. The road to ending racism and cop brutality is the same road as the fight for governmental power by working people," Bailey said. "If you want to put an end to police brutality once and for all, join the Socialist Workers campaign in our work to educate and organize the working class in order to establish a workers and farmers government, which will abolish capitalism in the United States and join in the worldwide struggle for socialism."

The Socialist Workers campaign got off to a strong start the June 29–30 weekend. Socialist workers and young socialists kicked off the campaign by setting up literature tables and knocking on doors in working-class neighborhoods in the city.

Thirty-seven people attended a public launching of the campaign in Los Angeles June 29 featuring the three candidates. Newton said the socialists "will use this campaign to reach out to workers and youth who are resisting the attacks of imperialism. This campaign will help us build the world communist movement." Newton announced that her first act as the party’s candidate for California secretary of state will be to travel to Venezuela as part of a reporting team for the Militant.

"We mean it when we say that this campaign, though based in California, is a campaign that begins with the world and a real internationalist perspective," said Newton.

Over the past week the candidates joined a protest opposing moves by the state government to start putting a stamp on the drivers licenses of immigrant workers, something that would make an entire section of the working class more vulnerable to police harassment and deportation.

Supporters of the socialist campaign also participated in a picket line of garment workers who worked for the Forever 21 clothing manufacturer. They are demanding payment of wages they were denied when the company suddenly shut down.

"We’ve done all this already and we’ve just gotten started with this campaign," said candidate Kalman. He said the candidates and their supporters will be taking the campaign to their workplaces both on the job and at plant-gate campaign teams in front of garment shops, meatpacking factories, and mine portals in the West.

The socialist candidates and their supporters also launched the statewide campaign in San Francisco at a public meeting July 14 where Bailey and Kalman spoke.  
 
 
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