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Vol. 76/No. 34      September 24, 2012

 
Fla. meeting answers denial
of ballot status to SWP
 
BY DEAN HAZLEWOOD  
MIAMI—“The state of Florida’s refusal to place the Socialist Workers Party candidates—James Harris for president and Maura DeLuca for vice president—on the ballot is an attack not only on our party, but on all working people. Our response is to step up our campaign,” said Naomi Craine, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida, at a program at the party’s campaign headquarters here Sept. 8.

Craine related a discussion with Kirk Butts, a groundskeeper and campaign supporter in Brooksville. “He called to say he just received the campaign buttons and flyers he’d ordered. He started wearing the button to work, which started discussions with several coworkers. Some are now reading the candidates’ biographies.”

The week before, the state Division of Elections denied the SWP presidential ticket ballot status. (See accompanying article.) Many of those who had agreed to serve as electors for the party came to the meeting to protest this attack on democratic rights and to learn about the campaign’s next steps.

Rosario Martínez, an elector in Orlando and activist in the fight to free Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López, sent a message.

“The capitalist system uses so-called representative democracy as a cover for the dictatorship of capital,” he wrote. “They call on us to participate in their game, but then when they see our participation as a threat to their interests they act in a brutally dictatorial manner. The SWP is prevented from participating in the Florida elections because of its stand in defense of the working class.”

Nicholas Marte, a health care worker, told the meeting that when he signed up to be an elector he noticed that the SWP is listed as a “minor” party. “We should fight to make them remove the word ‘minor.’ It should just be the Socialist Workers Party.”

“We ask working people to campaign with us, to help us get out the word about the working-class alternative and to vote for us,” Craine said, “whether you pull the party lever or write in the candidates’ names.”
 
 
Related articles:
‘US bosses’ 2-party system provides illusion of choice’
SWP pres. candidate starts Pacific tour in Australia
SWP argues for right to be on ballot in Florida
Chicago: Socialist candidate backs teachers’ fight  
 
 
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