PHILADELPHIA — Socialist Workers Party members in Pennsylvania, from branches in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, held a special state meeting Feb. 22 to discuss the substantial opportunities in running candidates and campaigning all across the state and beyond.
In photo above at Feb. 22 Militant Labor Forum are, from left, Sergio Zambrana, Abby Tilsner, John Studer and Ved Dookhun. Tony Lane was also on the speakers’ panel.
They had an in-depth discussion of opportunities to run a vibrant campaign to build protests against the U.S. oil blockade and deeper threats against Cuba, to campaign for amnesty for undocumented workers in the U.S., to explain and help lead the fight against Jew-hatred and defend Israel as a refuge for Jews, and to support union and political battles.
The party meets more workers today who see new wars coming, and who are looking for a party that can explain what is going on and fight effectively to prevent a third world war.
In his report to the meeting, Tony Lane from Pittsburgh said that we’re going to emulate the four presidential campaigns run by Farrell Dobbs, a former leader of the Teamsters union in the Midwest and SWP national secretary.
“These weren’t campaigns of arm-chair commentary, but interventionist campaigns, going to key spots in the class struggle, telling their stories in the Militant, winning solidarity and pointing to the only road to solve the crisis we face is to organize the working class to take political power into our own hands,” Lane said.
Copies of the Militant covering Dobbs’ 1956 campaign were distributed for members to look through.
After voting to field a statewide SWP slate, and as snow began to fall, party members spent a few hours campaigning on workers’ doorsteps and then held a Militant Labor Forum to announce the candidates.
John Studer, the SWP’s national campaign director and editor of the Militant, chaired the late afternoon program and introduced the candidates: Ved Dookhun for governor, Tony Lane for lieutenant governor and two candidates for Congress, Abby Tilsner in District 3 in Philadelphia and Sergio Zambrana in District 12 in Pittsburgh.
Dookhun and Lane are UNITE HERE airport workers; Tilsner is a UNITE HERE hotel worker; and Zambrana is a SMART-TD union railroad conductor.