Vol. 71/No. 35      September 24, 2007

Meat packer Amanda Ulman, 32, is running for mayor on the SWP ticket, along with garment worker Steve Warshell, 53, the party’s write-in candidate for controller.

“We have already received a strong response from working people,” Ulman told the press and campaign supporters at city hall after filing election papers yesterday. She said the filing fee “was raised by workers and youth who put contributions in our collection cans at factory plant gates and campaign tables in working class neighborhoods.”

Ulman is one of three candidates running for mayor. Warshell is one of two for controller. Today’s Houston Chronicle wrote that incumbent mayor William White “will face minor opposition” from Ulman.

“There is nothing ‘minor’ about our campaign,” Ulman said, in an interview. “Working people are belittled every day by the bosses and their parties. The Socialist Workers campaign is presenting a working-class alternative to the Republicans, Democrats, and other capitalist parties.

“We are the only candidates calling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and all theaters of imperialism’s ‘war on terror,’” she added.

Ulman and Warshell have participated with coworkers in street demonstrations demanding legalization for undocumented immigrants over the past two years, including on May Day 2006 and 2007.

“The SWP campaign urges support for a September 12 protest at the federal building and other actions demanding an end to the deportations and raids,” Ulman said.

On August 14 the socialist candidates were interviewed on the KPFT radio program Proyecto Latino.

“The need to support workers’ struggles to unionize in order to fight effectively is at the heart of the SWP platform,” said Warshell.

“Safety is a life and death union question for workers,” added Ulman, pointing to the August 6 coal mine collapse that trapped six Utah miners.

“Our campaign is 100 percent financed by workers, and we need your help in getting the campaign on the ballot and sending our mayoral candidate to Utah to get a firsthand report on the response of working people there,” said Warshell.

One garment worker who unsuccessfully tried to get through the station’s phone lines to offer support for the campaign came to a campaign forum after Ulman returned from Utah and donated $50.

Ulman has also campaigned at the Pilgrims Pride chicken processing plant in Nacogdoches, Texas. There she met workers looking for ways to resist company firings of immigrants whose papers it questions. She has also campaigned in the town of Farmers Branch, where the city council passed a law against renting to and doing business with immigrants without papers.  
 
 
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