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Visit the World
Socialist Web Site for daily Donate to the campaign! The Socialist Equality Party calls on all US readers of the World Socialist Web Site to send generous donations to our election fund. The SEP campaign has already had to outlay substantial sums of money to fight the attempt by the American state and the Republican and Democratic parties to keep socialist and third-party candidates off the November ballot. In August, at considerable cost,
the SEP filed a lawsuit in Ohio against the discriminatory filing
deadline in the state for third party candidates for Congress.
On August 27 the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld
a lower court decision denying ballot status to David Lawrence,
the SEP’s candidate for Ohio’s 1st Congressional District. The previous month, the SEP successfully
defeated the spurious challenge made by the Democratic Party
to the 2,009 petitions filed by Tom Mackaman, SEP candidate for
the Illinois state legislature from the 103rd District. We are combating organizations that receive tens of millions of dollars from big business. We rely on the working class to provide us with the resources we need. Alongside carrying out our challenge in Ohio, the SEP is preparing for the widespread distribution of our election statement and other programmatic material, as well as energetic campaigning by our presidential, vice-presidential and congressional candidates. We need your financial support to do so. We call on all WSWS readers to send as much as you can. We need your financial support
to do so. We call on all WSWS readers to send as much as you
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The SEP Candidates
Bill Van Auken, 54, is a full-time writer for the World Socialist Web Site whose involvement in the struggles of the American and international workers' movement spans 33 years. He joined the Workers League, the predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party, in 1971, during a period marked by the Vietnam War and growing militancy within the American working class. He began writing for the Workers League's newspaper, the Bulletin, in 1979. Fluent in Spanish, he has written extensively on political developments and social struggles in Latin America. He lives in New York City.
Jim Lawrence, 65, is a retired auto worker, who worked at General Motors plants in the Dayton, Ohio, area for 30 years. As a member of United Auto Workers Local 696 he has opposed the pro-company policies of the UAW leadership and its alliance with the Democratic Party and fought to mobilize the working class against concessions, union-busting and plant closings. He has been a fighter for socialist policies for more than three decades and stood in 1996 as the SEP candidate for congress in Dayton.
Jerry White, 44, has been a member of the socialist movement for 25 years, joining in New York City where he was a worker at United Parcel Service, a member of the Teamsters union and a student at the City University of New York. As a member of the Workers League, the predecessor of the SEP, he played an active role during the 1980s and 1990s in the struggle of coal miners, auto workers and other sections of the working class against corporate union-busting and the betrayals of the AFL-CIO bureaucracy. He has been a candidate for congress and in 1996 was the SEP candidate for US president.
Carl Cooley, 77, was born in
New Jersey and raised during the Great Depression in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
He worked for 12 years at the Chevrolet plant in North Tarrytown,
New York, where he was an active member of the autoworkers union.
He then taught public school in New York City, where he participated
in the 1968 strike.
David Lawrence, 37, was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, in a working class family. His father Jim Lawrence, the SEP candidate for vice president of the United States, worked at the General Motors Delco Moraine plant for 30 years. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati and a father of three children, David teaches at a public high school in Dayton. He has been engaged in many struggles to defend teachers and the right to public education. He joined the Workers League, the predecessor of the SEP, in 1993.
Tom Mackaman, 28, was born in Iowa and raised in Minnesota. He has been a graduate student at the University of Illinois since 1999, specializing in labor history, and has worked as both a teaching and research assistant. Tom is a member of the Graduate Employees Organization, IFT/AFT, where he has been a consistent advocate of democracy within the union.
John Christopher Burton is a civil rights attorney in Pasadena, California, whose 25-year practice has been devoted to the defense of working people victimized by police misconduct and discrimination. Although opposing last year's recall campaign for California governor, he ran as a candidate supporting the program of the Socialist Equality Party to provide an alternative to the pro-big business policies of the candidates associated with the Democratic Party. Burton ranked 13th out of a field of 135 candidates. |
Bill Van
Auken for president
Jim Lawrence for vice president
Jerry White for Congress, 15th
District, Michigan
Carl Cooley for Congress, 2nd District,
Maine
David Lawrence for Congress, 1st
District, Ohio
Tom Mackaman for State Representative,
103rd District, Illinois
John Christopher Burton for Congress,
29th District, California