Militant/Frank Forrestal

Diana Newberry, left, SWP candidate for Los Angeles City Council District 14, campaigns July 24 in Boyle Heights area.

“This is an antilabor measure aimed at tying up unions in red tape and opening the door to employer and government interference in the basic organizations of working people,” Newberry said.

The defeat of a similar reactionary proposition in a 1998 referendum was an important victory for labor, she noted.

Campaigning around this and other political questions while presenting the party’s platform, the socialists have collected 1,200 signatures to put Newberry’s name on the ballot—more than double the requirement of 500.

“Give me that petition, I want to sign it,” said a young man after reading the first few points in the Socialist Workers Party platform. He was glad to find out that Newberry’s campaign was putting forward a working-class alternative to the twin capitalist parties, the Democrats and Republicans.

This response was typical of many who signed to put the SWP candidates on the ballot. The campaign’s emphasis on workers’ need to organize unions and use union power in face of the bosses’ assaults struck a chord.

Newberry is one of 17 candidates who have announced their intention to run for the seat in this working-class, predominantly Latino district. The special election was called after the incumbent, Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa, was elected mayor of Los Angeles in May.

In addition to the Los Angeles city council race, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called a special statewide election for November 8 to vote on several ballot initiatives.

Besides the antiunion measure, another ballot initiative would require parental notification before a woman under the age of 18 may have an abortion.

“The Socialist Workers campaign defends a woman’s right to choose, and opposes all such restrictions on access to abortion,” Newberry said.

“This is fundamental to women being able to control their own lives. The U.S. rulers cannot easily roll back the legal access to abortion that was won in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, but they keep chipping away at that right through measures like this ballot initiative.”

Some people told socialist campaigners they wondered whether the recent decision of several major unions to walk out of the AFL-CIO might hamper workers’ ability to win support for their struggles.

Newberry explained that this infighting among union tops wouldn’t stop working people from resisting the bosses’ assaults or winning solidarity throughout the labor movement.

“It’s the struggles by workers standing up to the bosses and reaching out for solidarity that show the way to real unity in action and reversing the weakening of the unions.”

A student from Occidental College readily signed the petition, saying he had run across the Militant online last year while working on a school project, and really liked it. He expressed interest in bringing the socialist candidate to his campus when the fall term starts up, as did a student from Los Angeles City College.

Campaign supporters did a final round of petitioning July 31. They also set up a table in front of the campaign headquarters on 4229 South Central Avenue, where an annual jazz festival was taking place. Several people came in, took campaign literature, and bought a wide variety of books on revolutionary politics.
 
 
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