presidential election campaign in its history. A case could be made that it was the most extensive socialist propaganda drive conducted in the United States since the days of Eugene V. Debs. Certainly there is nothing in the postwar period to compare with it and it overshadowed every other effort on the left. The SWP began its campaign by nominating Peter Camejo for president and Willie Mae Reid for. vice-president in December 1974, long before the major capitalist parties had even considered their candidates. The nearly twoyear-long campaign was conceived as a vehicle for popularizing the socialist program among broad masses of working people and as an aid in building the party. The most intensive stage of the campaign began last spring as the SWP conducted petition drives to get on the ballot in as many states as possible. Reactionary election laws place the two capitalist parties dutomatically on the ballot while making it extremely difficult for minority parties to achieve ballot status. Each state has its own election laws and they differ widely. The high point of this petition drive was the collection of some 300,000 signatures of registered voters in California to place SWP nominees for state and national office on the ballot in that state for the first time ever. In all, the SWP achieved ballot status in twenty-eight of the fifty states (represenfing 72 percent of the voting age population), after securing some 600, 000 signatures. The SWP campaign focussed on the central issues facing working people and their allies and was integrated with the ongoing work of the party in the unions, in defense of the Black, Chicano, and other oppressed minorities, in support of the fight of women, etc. A central concept raised in the campaign was the need for working people to make a class break with the capitalist Democratic and Republican parties and construct a labor party based on the unions. The SWP called for a sliding scale of wages and hours to protect working people from unemployment and inflation. It opposed the war budget, urging that these billions be spent for needed social services (instead of cutting back on them as the ruling class is now doing) and for a massive federal jobs program. Support for the right of Black people to equal education, and in particular support of busing and Boston's embattled Black community, were central features of the campaign, as were demands for equal rights and opportunities for women and the oppressed minorities in general. The party campaigned vigorously for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to remove legal backing for discrimination against women, The campaign was also fled into the massive suit the party and the Young Socialist Alliance have Filed against the FBI, CIA, and other government agencies. The suit itself helped concretize the demand that all the books and files be opened on all the secret political 20
THE U.S. LE PRESIDENTI PETER CAMEJO FOR PRESIDENT police operations against the labor, socialist, Black, womens, etc. movements in the United States and abrood. Considering the SWP's small resources (some $140,000 being spent on the campaign as contrasted to the $70 million spent by Carter and Ford), an enormous amount of material was distributed. More than one million copies of the SWP platform, the "Bill of Rights for Working People, " were distributed, in both English and Spanish.
TANDTHE L ELECTIONS WILLIE RED FOR VICE-PRESIDENT by TIM WOLFORTH Access to television was nearly monopolized by the capitalist parties. But a remarkable response was received whenever the SWP candidates were able to obtain even a little time on television. After Peter Camejo appeared on a national discussion show-(after a legal Fight under the largely-circumvented "equal time" federal rulings), at 1:30 a.m., nearly 4,000 letters were received by the campaign committee. Of these, 999 wanted to become new subscribers to the Militant. Small donations also come along with many of these letters, totalling S3, 589.
These responses came from virtually every state and corner of the country, from minuscule farm towns as well as the largest cities. By and large they were written by ordinary people without a radical political background, workers and middle class people who usually vote Democratic. They reflected discontent with the two capitalist parties and a greater willingness to consider socialist ideas in the population at large. Forty-seven percent of Americans of voting age did not bother to vote. Many who did vote did so with little enthusiasm, voting largely against the other candidate rather than for theirs. A poll taken by the New York Times after the election indicated that the majority of both voters and non-voters thought the government serves "big interests" rather than "all the people. " A difference between voters and non-voters was that voters said by a 75-21 majority that one should vote for the "lesser evil" while non-voters said by a 50-45 margin that they preferred not to vote if they didn' like any of the candidates. "Nonvoters were much more likely to say that one person's vote makes no difference, that there is no difference between the major parties, or that it makes no difference who is President. These feelings are especially prevalent among those in the lower socio-economic classes, the Times pointed out. Other Tendencies on the Left The SWP campaign stood out sharply on the left. The other tendencies were forced to take their positions in light of the SWP campaign. Only the Communist party mounted a serious campaign. The Stalinists obtained ballot status in twenty states for their ticket of Gus Hall for president and Jarvis Tyner for vice-president and clearly were trying to outpace the SWP in election work. The effective election campaigns of the SWP in the past and the impact of the Camejo-Reid campaign (the CP ticket was announced only a year after the SWP campaign began) were no doubt a spur to the CP effort. The running of a CP ticket did not represent any change in the basic class collaborationist strategy of the CP. Since the 1930s, when Stalin mode the fur to the popular front, the American CP has translated the popular-front line into basically support for the Democratic party. The CP utilized its ticket to beat the drums for détente and to attempt to counter the appeal of the SWP campaign. Consequently, it ran a more "left" campaign, denouncing both capitalist parties and claiming to stand for "independent working class political action. " However, the CP continues to be buried inside the Democratic party and to support "working class" candidates of that party. It supported Tom Hayden, the ex-New Lefter, when he ran against the incumbent candidate in the California Democratic party senatorial primary, and then, when Hayden lost, supported the incumbent against the Republican.
AMERICAN LEFT IN ELECHUND The CP's call for "independent working class political action" - for the future - turns out to be far from that. The CP explains that what it means is an "antimonoply coalition, " a multiclass party including a supposedly pro-peace and "antimonopoly" section of the ruling class. While waiting for such to appear, the CP supports Democrats and runs certain CP campaigns to preserve its image, especially in face of the challenge from the SWP. The Hall-Tyner campaign, however, was not able to match the Camejo-Reid effort in impact and scope. Another interesting development on the left was the role of Michael Harrington of the Democratie Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC). DOC resulted from a split in the Socialist party, which also produced the Social Democtats, USA. The Social Democrats, USA, stand to the right of Ford on most issues, especially foreign policy, and support the most reactionary wing of the trade-union bureaucracy. They originally campaigned for Senator Henry Jackson and then supported Carter when he won the Democratic nomination. The DOC has a more "radical" and "socialist" image, tends to support the more "enlightened" wing of the trade-union bureaucracy, participates in some struggles, and has attracted some socialist-minded youth, DOC also urged a vote for Carter. The SWP campaign had an impact on the general rodical milieu the DSOC works in, and even on DSOC members. It was probably for this reason that Harrington agreed to debate Camejo on the day before the elections. The debate was held at Queens College in New York City and broadcast on the city's nonprofit radio station; it was rebroadcast on election day. The debate centered on whether to vote for Carter or Camejo. Harrington said that the election was a class confrontation, with big business behind Ford, and the workers, Blacks, and women behind Carter. He felt that Carter's election would make at least a little difference, especially in areas of economic policy, and would encourage further progressive developments. The radio station took telephone calls from listeners after the debate for two hours. Many who called said they agreed with Camejo in terms of what was necessary for a long-run solution, but that they had voted for Carter as the lesser of two evils. all the major Maoist foctions called for abstention. They sat the election out, doing virtually nothing even to make their abstentionist position known. This absolved them from fielding their own candidates in a test of strength with the other left tendencies, or even from differentiating themselves from the Democrats many of them support on a local level. The International Socialists, which looks to the group of the same name in Britain, also called for abstention. The Spartacist League sect accused both the CP and SWP of favoring reforming capitalism and on this basis 22 also called for abstention. They pointed to the SWP's suit against the government as proof of its "reformism," and odded the absurd assertion that the SWP believes in achieving socialism through a constitutional amendment. The Worker League, the dwindling U.S. supporters of Gerry Healy of Britain, fielded some local candidates. At the last minute, they called for a vote for the SWP. This was odd, because for the past year the major campaign of this group has been to spread the slander originating with their British guru that the SWP is led by "accomplices of the GPU." Spark, the newspaper of the American group affiliated with the French Lutte Cuvriêre group, gave critical support to the SWP ticket. La Raza Unida parties exist in some areas of the Southwest. These parties are independent Chicano-based organizations which are still at the level of propaganda groups. The New Mexico Raza Unida party endorsed the SWP campaign and actively campaigned for it. A bizarre sidelight in the campaign was the role of the National Caucus of Labor Committees, which ran Lyndon LaRouche for president under the ballot designation of "U.S, Labor Party. " This group can in no way be considered part of the left. It is an extreme right wing group that the media often misidentifies as Marxist. If did its best to get the SWP and the CP ruled off the ballot through legal challenges. On the eve of the election, LaRouche obtained a half hour of prime television time, reportedly costing S90, 000 which was brought to the TV studio in small bills in a paper bag. In his broadcast LaRouche explained that the election of Jimmy Carter would mean thermonuclear war in the next few months, to be followed by a depression. He urged Republicans to vote for Ford and Democrats to vote for him to avoid these catastrophes.
* * * * * On the American left, the recognition won by the Trotskyists in the antiwar movement and other struggles placed them in a favorable position to turn the new openings that developed in the course of this campaign to account. The cumulative impact of the SWP's participation in the major social struggles of the 1960s and 1970s enabled the party to win new forces to its ranks, new allies, and growing respect. This was reflected in the course of the campaign by a geographical expansion of the party. Many new branches were established in cities where there were none before. Overall, the 1976 election campaign marked a further shift in the relationship of forces on the American left. The SWP emerges in a stronger position relative to the Stalinists and Social Democrats and in a good position to carry forward its work in all aspects of the class struggle.