Vol. 71/No. 43      November 19, 2007

BY MARK STUBENS  
PITTSBURGH—“Our campaign offers a fighting perspective and political program for workers, farmers, and youth. It’s the working-class alternative to the twin parties of capitalism, the Republicans and the Democrats,” said Ryan Scott, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor, speaking here at a November 2 campaign rally.

Scott, 24, is a member of the Young Socialists and a sewing machine operator at a pillow factory outside Pittsburgh.

“Our campaign counters the grinding assault by the employing class against working people at home and abroad,” Scott said. “We have joined with other workers fighting to organize unions or to use their unions to fight the bosses’ attacks.”

In recent weeks some students and young workers here have joined socialist campaign teams on campus tables, at actions to oppose imperialist war, in the coalfields of West Virginia, and in working-class neighborhoods in Pittsburgh.

“I met the Socialist Workers Party campaign at a street table here in Squirrel Hill last month,” said Eric VanDevender, 22. “I got interested because I’ve been disillusioned by the two-party system for some time. It’s important for socialists to promote a working-class alternative to the capitalist parties.”

VanDevender joined the candidate on the last weekend of campaigning before the election. He also joined the campaigners at the October 27 regional protest in New York City against the war, where they called for the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of U.S. and other “coalition” troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The socialist campaign is a comprehensive analysis of our society. It addresses politics in the U.S. and abroad with a class-conscious approach,” said Cassandra Markoe, 22, who campaigned last weekend.

“The Socialist Workers Party is the only party that speaks up for the workers in the face of the rich,” said Tom Marvit, 26, a student at the University of Pittsburgh. Recently he joined others on a team to West Virginia to bring the Socialist Workers campaign to miners and students there.

“We explained how the Crandall Canyon mine disaster in Utah could have been avoided, and why we should oppose Washington’s cowardly wars,” said Marvit. “One thing that has impressed me the most about the campaign is the idea that Pittsburgh’s problems are a reflection of problems workers of the world face.”

The mayoral campaign in Pittsburgh is over now, but the socialists campaign 365 days a year. Young Socialists around the country are gearing up for the 2008 elections, where they will support the Socialist Workers Party’s presidential ticket and candidates for state and local offices. In some places Young Socialists will run on the SWP ticket.

The YS invites all young people repulsed by the rulers’ unrelenting offensive against working people, both at home and abroad, to join us in the coming months. Help petition and campaign for the Socialist Workers Party candidates, the working-class alternative to all the capitalist parties.  
 
 
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