Vol. 77/No. 20      May 27, 2013

More than 75 people donated money to the campaign for the required filing fees, which totaled more than $3,000. All contributions were under $25, in order that the campaign would not be required to turn contributors’ names over to state authorities.

“We would like to thank the scores of workers from across the region who contributed to make it possible for the working class to have a voice in the elections,” Martin said.

“We are running to provide an alternative to the candidates of the twin parties of capitalism, the Democrats and Republicans,” Martin told some 200 people in her opening statement at a candidates’ forum in Seattle April 29. “Working people are living through the worst economic crisis since the 1930s with long-term unemployment and attacks on our unions and democratic rights.

“We call for a massive government-funded jobs program to put millions to work building infrastructure, schools, hospitals, recreation centers and other things working people need.” Fighting for and wresting such a concession from the capitalists’ government, the candidates explain, would deal a blow to the competition among workers fostered by high joblessness, strengthening the confidence, unity and combativity of the working class.

“Our campaign doesn’t start with Seattle but speaks to the interests of the international working class,” Martin said. “My running mates John Naubert for port commissioner and Edwin Fruit for city council and I stand with the striking and locked-out dockworkers from Vancouver, Wash., to Hong Kong.”

Candidates at the forum were asked to write “yes” or “no” on placards in response to several questions.

“Is the Seattle Police Department better than it was four years ago?” was one of the questions asked in the context of recent investigations into the SPD by the Department of Justice for using “excessive force.” The Seattle Times ran a photo of the responses. The bourgeois candidates each held up signs with “yes” and “no” answers. Martin’s placard read: “Prosecute and jail cops who kill and brutalize working people.”

After seeing the photo, two workers from the Boeing aircraft plant in Seattle sent in contributions to her campaign.

“I campaign face-to-face with the Militant newspaper, going door to door to engage in discussions with working people,” she said. “I point to the example of the Cuban Revolution as a place where capitalism was overturned and society is being built based on human needs, not profit.”

“Capitalism’s dog-eat-dog values teach that the highest form of living is to amass wealth and to take care of number one,” Martin said when asked what “her greatest career regret” was. “We are talking about building a movement to fight for working class interests on the road to overturning capitalism and workers taking power.

“Ask the Seattle port truck drivers what their greatest ‘career regret’ is,” she said. “They are fighting for union representation and bathrooms with soap and running water where they can wash their hands prior to meals and prayers. I stand with them.”

At the end of the forum people came up to Martin and thanked her for speaking to the issues of concern to working people. A union bus driver explained he has to work 11-hour shifts and is not allowed to take bathroom breaks. A member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in Seattle said he appreciated the Militant’s ongoing coverage of longshore battles.

The debate was covered by the Seattle Times, online news outlets, Crosscut.com, Seattlemet.com and The Stranger newspaper.

Over the past couple weeks, the three SWP candidates have walked the picket lines of locked-out ILWU members in Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., to help build solidarity with their fights, and Martin spoke to a class at Tacoma Community College.

“We say organize and unionize all workers. No deportations!” Naubert said, addressing participants at a May Day march and rally in Yakima.  
 
 
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