Vol. 73/No. 9      March 9, 2009

Socialist Workers Party candidates Janet Post, who is running for Philadelphia city controller, and Osborne Hart, running for district attorney, visited the town in early February to tell residents that the SWP campaign calls for prosecution of the anti-working-class arsonists and supports all efforts by the workers and youth to defend themselves, including against harassment by the cops.

The candidates spoke with workers on Fleetwood Street where 15 row houses were burned January 24, leaving dozens of people homeless. Like many here, Beth Howard, who used to work in a building that was destroyed by an unsolved 2007 arson, told them she doesn’t think the authorities are doing enough to determine the cause of the recent fires.

In response to the demands by working people that the perpetrators of the arson be found and prosecuted, city officials called a meeting January 28, which was attended by more than 400 people.

James Jackson said he believed the arsons were hate crimes. The cops have used the arsons to step up random searches of working people. Jackson said the cops should also be searched. That remark drew cheers from the audience, reported the Daily Local.

So far city officials have pointed more in the direction of blaming residents for the fires than taking action to find the culprits. Six-hundred-dollar fines have been levied against anyone leaving furniture or other “flammable objects” on their porch.

Twenty-one-year-old Giovanni told Post about the 8:00 p.m. curfew for youth under 18. “If you’re coming home from work, or you’re going to visit some friends,” he said, “they stop you while you’re walking down the street; they check your pockets for no reason.”
 
 
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SWP mayoral candidate: ‘Oppose New York cuts’
 
 
 
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