Vol. 77/No. 4      February 4, 2013

Three hundred seventy people signed up for DeLuca and 79 for Perasso. The requirements are 1,000 signatures of registered voters for mayor and 100 for city council. Supporters of the socialist campaign are organizing to go substantially over the requirement, as the election commission has said each signature will be checked for validity.

The deadline to file for the primary is March 1. The top two vote getters in the April 2 election for each office will face off in the general election May 14.

The enthusiasm in the petitioning effort is built on the response campaigners have been getting, going door to door with the Militant to expand its readership during the paper’s recent subscription campaign and since.

Some petition signatures were collected door to door, with the majority gotten at shopping areas in the city. Sixty-two copies of the Militant and six 12-week subscriptions were sold over the weekend.

Don Bossert, a 62-year-old retired welder and unionist who met the SWP when workers with the Militant knocked on his door more than a year ago, joined in gathering signatures. “I want to see the socialists on the ballot. This would be an advance for working people to get into a public office,” he said.

“The SWP campaign is about workers having our own party, about beginning to organize ourselves independently of the capitalist class that’s in power,” DeLuca told workers as she campaigned at a shopping center in North Omaha’s Black community. “We give support to workers getting together and taking a stand, like the 9,000 school bus drivers in New York City who just went on strike to defend their seniority rights.”

Carmen Phillips, a 58-year-old Omaha bus driver, signed the petition, saying, “I read about what the bus drivers in New York are doing, and I’m with them 100 percent.”

“I would be happy to sign for a socialist candidate,” Edwin Rose, 65, a welder, said as he bought a copy of the Militant and placed his name on the petition. “We need some big changes. The people in office now aren’t worth a dime.”

“We are running to bring a working-class voice to the city elections,” Perasso told the Militant while campaigning in South Omaha, part of District 4. “When we explain that we need a movement that breaks from the capitalist parties to support workers organizing to fight for our class interests, we find a great deal of support.

“Many workers signing the petitions contributed a dollar or two, including $6 from one couple, for a total of $26 over the two days,” Perasso said.

Casimiro Sauceda-Landeros, who made a donation and subscribed to the Militant, said, “I want to help the campaign because of the unemployment and the unequal treatment of immigrant workers.”

Lilia Wisniewski, 45, a meat worker at Tyson Foods, signed a petition in South Omaha. The company laid off 40 of her co-workers recently, she told campaign volunteer Maggie Trowe. “We would like to have a union,” she said, describing how she joined with her coworkers to protest against a supervisor who yells at the workers.

“I like the campaign that calls for a massive jobs program,” Wisniewski added.

The effort to get DeLuca and Perasso on the ballot will continue through February. Volun-teers are welcome. Call the Omaha SWP at 402-779-7697 or email: swpomaha@fastmail.net.  
 
 
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