“In every area, we should be pressing right now to arrange speaking engagements on campuses and elsewhere, and media interviews for both local SWP candidates and the presidential ticket,” Sandler continued. “We should be soap boxing at busy areas in working-class districts, including transportation centers and factory gates, where appropriate.”

This includes making sure that every Militant Labor Forum between now and the election has a campaign focus, Sandler said. Militant Labor Forums are public meetings organized in cities and towns across the country on Friday nights by supporters of the campaign newspaper, the Militant and its Spanish-language sister publication Perspectiva Mundial.

“Working-class candidates have no equal time on TV, radio, or other media, even where we are on the ballot,” Sandler pointed out. “We don’t have millions of dollars to buy expensive commercials on television to get out the message of our campaign. So we must use every opportunity for candidates to speak, including the weekly Militant Labor Forums. This is also a time when campaign directors in states across the country can be spokespeople for the SWP ticket,” he said.

Sandler pointed to what Róger Calero and Arrin Hawkins—the socialist candidates for president and vice-president—had done the previous three days as examples that can be emulated everywhere. This included campaigning by Calero in California (see front-page article) as well as at Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York. In the latter example, Martín Koppel, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate in New York, joined Calero in speaking at three classes, at the invitation of a faculty member. A reporter for National Public Radio accompanied the socialist candidates and their supporters the whole day, which began with campaigning at a building full of garment factories in Midtown Manhattan. As we go to press, Calero was campaigning in the Des Moines, Iowa, area (see SWP candidates’ schedule below).

On September 28, Hawkins campaigned at a farmers’ rally in Washington, D.C., to demand an end to anti-Black discrimination they have suffered at the hands of U.S. government agencies (see article on page 10). She then traveled to Tampa, Florida, and was scheduled to campaign next in New Orleans, Houston, and Cleveland.

Two candidates for U.S. Senate, Martín Koppel in New York and Dennis Richter in California, have taken several weeks off work to campaign full-time.

Public meetings, like Militant Labor Forums, offer a chance to have a back-and-forth discussion on how the socialist campaign addresses vital questions in world politics, and to explain and popularize the party’s platform. “Having local SWP candidates mix it up by speaking at different campaign centers, beyond their city or state, will also serve to strengthen each candidate’s presentations by drawing on various experiences in different areas of the country,” Sandler said.

Sandler added that SWP candidates and their supporters should be talking to workers and distributing campaign literature regularly in front of factory gates and mine portals over the next month, along with selling the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial and books on revolutionary politics.

In another interview, Militant editor Argiris Malapanis said that all local organizers of the Socialist Workers campaign should make sure that photos are taken of SWP candidates in action and sent to the Militant every couple of days. “In addition to articles giving a feel for each presentation by the socialist candidates and the exchanges with their audiences, pictures are vital for getting across what the socialists are doing,” he said. “No other paper will give such prominent and regular coverage of the SWP campaign for the next five weeks. Let the photos and articles roll!”
 
 
Related articles:
Strengthen unions to fight bosses’ attacks
Socialist speaks at California campaign rally
SWP campaign key to success of sub drive
Protests pour in against attack on SWP Penn. campaign hall
Socialist Workers Party 2004 campaign schedule  
 
 
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