The important thing is what we do together, in Canada and in the United States, Hawkins replied to Terrero. “It’ll take a revolutionary movement of millions of workers and farmers to take power out of the hands of the capitalist class,” she said. The SWP candidate took part in a march the strikers had organized that day as well as a barbeque on the picket line (see article in this issue).

The next day, Hawkins and backers of her campaign took to the streets of Toronto for some campaigning.

The SWP candidate also spoke at a Militant Labor Forum here November 6. Nearly 30 people attended, including three workers from a nonunion garment factory and a reporter for a community radio station. “Every four years we’re asked to vote for one or another of the capitalist parties to represent us in the political arena,” Hawkins said. “Workers need political action independent of the bosses.” At the center of the SWP campaign, which goes on 365 days a year, she added, is championing the need of workers to organize unions and use those they have to resist the bosses’ offensive on our wages and working conditions—like the workers striking Quality Meat Packers. Out of these struggles, she said, working people will more clearly see the need to build a labor party based on the unions that fights in the interests of workers and farmers.

Hawkins also explained why the SWP candidates call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops and other imperialist forces from Iraq and elsewhere. She said that one of the central demands of the socialist campaign is to defend the right of semicolonial countries to develop the sources of energy they need, including nuclear power, for the electrification that’s necessary for economic development.

“How do you measure the success of your campaign?” asked one participant during the discussion. “Is there a third party movement in the U.S.?” another wanted to know. “If so, how did this affect the outcome of the election?”

“Our presidential ticket was on the ballot in 13 states and the District of Columbia,” Hawkins replied. “Many of these are states where important battles are being waged by workers to build and strengthen unions—from the miners at the Co-Op mine in Utah, to Point Blank garment workers in Florida, to meat packers in the Midwest. Some 70,000 people across the United States signed our petitions to help put the SWP ticket on the ballot. This is very important, and I thank all those who were part of this effort. This has been a very successful campaign.” Part of its success, she said, were the dozens of students, young workers, and others who became attracted to the SWP platform, many of whom campaigned for the SWP ticket.
 
 
Related articles:
Middle-class contempt for workers fuels liberal panic over U.S. elections  
 
 
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