BY JAN CLIFFORD  
“What makes you think you have a chance of being elected Vice President?”

Socialist Workers Party candidate Arrin Hawkins must hear that question in every interview she gives. Indeed, the white-hot U.S. presidential race seemed to be taking place in another world far from the coffee shop on Tulane University’s campus last Saturday. Students filed lazily through, or sat outside in the gauzy sunlit heat as Hawkins explained why her party still matters in America.

“We’re on more ballots than ever before and we are able to respond to being on the ballots,” Hawkins said. Hawkins, 29, is the only African-American woman running in the 2004 race. Her presidential running mate is Róger Calero, associate editor of the Spanish-language magazine Perspectiva Mundial. She immediately thanked the voters who were responsible for the SWP making it to the Louisiana ballot.

Hawkins was in New Orleans for a talk and reception sponsored by the Tulane Politics Club. Poised and trim in a blue pinstriped suit and short cropped hair, she flashed an easy smile, behind which were some not-so-easy ideas.

“We start with the working classes,” she said. “We meet with students, workers, and begin to talk about politics.”

That, said Hawkins, is the primary strategy of the Socialist Workers Party—trusting that bringing together the nation’s constituency will produce workable systems that benefit that same constituency. It was, after all, the strategy of the founding fathers when they won a new nation from England and founded it on democratic principles. “We have a tradition to draw on—the war against the British when people demanded a bill of rights,” Hawkins said.

The cornerstone of Hawkins’ position as a candidate is that resources such as tax breaks, health care, and fair representation should care, and fair representation should be cycled back to the people who produce goods and services in the American economy: the working class. She spoke repeatedly of the “attack” on the working class, citing trends such as cutbacks on benefits, longer work hours, the Bush administration’s proposed legislation to eliminate overtime pay, and cutting safety corners to protect profits. She offered an alternative to “a small minority of the capitalist ruling class.”

“That’s where the attack on the working class begins, and now it’s on increasing layers of the middle class,” Hawkins said. She said that corporations’ and business owners’ profits are dropping and driving the movement to outsource American jobs. “Our enemies are not workers in Mexico and China—they are our allies,” Hawkins said.

“The tax money is there. Why not tax the billionaire families who own the corporations? The national sales tax is a regressive tax. If you can’t make it work with this system, we need a new system,” Hawkins said. “We think the working class is capable of running the country in their own interests. What do the billionaire parties do?”

Hawkins referred to the Democrat and Republican parties as billionaire parties serving corporate interests, with a monopoly on the election system. She said that the exclusion of alternative parties from national debates and media coverage illustrates that monopoly, and that major parties are moving more and more to the political right. She contended that the assault on the working class will continue and escalate, whether Bush or Kerry wins the election. As for the Green Party and Ralph Nader, they are still capitalism-based and would work within the same systems as the Democrats and Republicans.

So, how would the SWP implement governance of the nation without the machinery of the major political parties? Hawkins repeated her position of organizing people to produce programs and systems that would radically reorganize the U.S. economy. She said that in her campaigns she repeatedly met people disenchanted with the current parties and systems.

The SWP does not employ polls, but Hawkins does pay attention to the national debates and other polls. She’s interested in what people are saying. “It’s important to know what they’re saying and respond to it.”

Building and supporting strong trade unions and empowering “semicolonial countries” such as Cuba and Venezuela to acquire and develop stabilizing resources are bedrock goals of the SWP. Hawkins has been on the front line of some important issues, paying her dues and winning her candidacy. She helped build the April 25, 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., in which thousands of pro-choice women participated. She has worked as a baggage handler, garment worker, and was involved in a union fight at the American meat packing plant in Chicago, where she mobilized a community to win severance pay and health care after the plant closed without notifying workers in advance.

When asked if she was perceived as an agitator in the workplace, Hawkins corrected the language. “I’m political, not an agitator. I’m conscious of class and people’s rights, but I’m also a good worker. I come in on time and do a good job.” She also encouraged people to read and make decisions for themselves. Reluctant to reveal much about herself or her family, Hawkins did say that her age and race were not a handicap. She rather said that taxing conditions in the U.S. affected workers everywhere, drawing a comparison with the fight for women’s rights, which was won in small steps. “Wages are being lowered. It does have a different impact on different nationalities,” she said. “People need to organize independently the way Malcolm X said.”

One of the major programs the SWP would put into place if elected is a massive public works program, much like the WPA in the 1930s. They would organize workers, artists, and planners; putting people to work in the national interests instead of corporate interests. “Social security was won through struggles on the streets in the l930s,” she added. “We deserve health care and we deserve benefits.”

If elected, the SWP would also immediately withdraw U.S. troops from around the world. “Troops do not serve an altruistic purpose. They protect U.S. (financial) interests and our young men to die to protect those interests. France had 800 contractors before the war and now have none,” she said.

She denied being an isolationist and contended that the war on terror was a label manufactured to allow the U.S. to act as an aggressor. “The U.S. was the first and only country to use a nuclear bomb,” Hawkins said.

According to the U.S. Constitution, prerequisites for being elected to office in the U.S. require one to be at least 35 years of age and U.S.-born. Since Hawkins is 29, and Calero was born in Nicaragua (although a permanent U.S. resident), their race is clearly for something beyond the White House. Hawkins said, “People will continue to vote for the individual, not the party. As things develop in this country people will begin to break from the big parties. As the resistance deepens, more people will look for alternatives.”  
 
 
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