Vol. 72/No. 17      April 28, 2008

Larry Ginter, a retired farmer from Marshall County, where the college is located, introduced Calero at the meeting. After Calero made a presentation, a student asked, “There are millions of people supporting the Democrats and Republicans. How do you get support?”

Calero explained, “We get the best hearing from those who fight back against a boss, against cop brutality, or those who oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

In all of these fights, he continued, workers are hampered as long as the labor movement remains tied to the two-party capitalist system of the Democrats and Republicans. “Above all, working people need our own political party, a labor party based on fighting unions,” he explained. “A labor party will mobilize workers and farmers independent of the capitalist parties to fight for a massive public works program to create jobs at union scale, for cost-of-living allowances in wages and benefits so workers can keep up with inflation, for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Four students stayed after the class to talk more with Calero, Thon, originally from Sudan, said, “I talked to Barack Obama when he spoke in Iowa earlier this year and now I have heard you.” He offered to organize a house meeting for the socialists.

This was one of three college classes Calero addressed while on tour here April 8-11. More than 90 students heard the socialist candidate speak, including members of a high school antiwar group in Des Moines. Calero also met with meatpacking workers at the Tyson plant in Perry, Iowa. Calero had worked at the plant in 2000.

Calero spoke at Grinnell College to a class on “Race and Ethnicity in America” at the invitation of Professor Kesho Scott. “I liked what you said about unifying with immigrant workers,” a student told him after his talk. “I had never thought about how they use immigrants to lower everyone’s wages.”

At Iowa State University in Ames, Professor Mack Shelley introduced Calero to his class on “American Institutions: The Presidency and Congress.” The first question asked was, “You were born in Nicaragua. Doesn’t that disqualify you from taking office?”

“Laws can be changed,” answered Calero. “It takes a struggle, like the fight that won women’s right to vote, and the battle in the South to end the poll tax used to disenfranchise Blacks.

“My running mate Alyson Kennedy and I are the most qualified candidates in this race,” he went on. “Our most important qualification for office is that we are workers who have joined in fights with other working people many times through the years to advance the interests of the working class.”

Following the class, Calero met with students from the Iowa State Socialist Club. One member, Aaron Bleich from northern Iowa, volunteered to help organize petitioning to get the socialist ticket on the ballot in his home area over the summer.

A reporter from the Iowa State Daily interviewed Calero and a front-page article appeared on April 9.
 
 
Related articles:
Calero speaks in Philadelphia on war, energy  
 
 
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