Marxists’ Internet Archive: ETOL Home Page: Trotskyist Writers Section: Farrel Dobbs
Source: The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 42, 18 October 1948, p. 4.
Transcription & Mark-up: Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Los Angeles, Oct. 11 – Because of the extremely anti-democratic election laws, we must conduct a write-in campaign for the presidential ticket in California. However, we will have two local candidates on the ballot, thanks to the long hard hours of labor of the party membership, working against terrific odds.
Myra Tanner Weiss is battling for election to Congress from the Los Angeles area. Harry Press is slugging it out with his capitalist opponent in San Francisco’s 20th Assembly district. Both Myra and Harry were in there pitching on the streets and at the indoor rallies during my visit.
We had two rousing street meetings on the San Francisco waterfront where about 600 striking longshoremen and other maritime workers heard the program of the Socialist Workers Party. Stalinist slander merchants got busy against us right away, but. they couldn’t cut the mustard. The SWP hit the waterfront with an impact that flattened the Stalinist liars under the hammer blows of truth.
We also took to the streets in the Los Angeles district where Myra is campaigning. Here too, we are hammering the Stalinist betrayers, who support not only the Wallace swindle but also the pro-Marshall Plan, pro-military conscription Democratic politician, Chet Hollifield.
In both Los Angeles and San Francisco we had record breaking indoor election rallies. Predominant in the audiences were workers from maritime, auto, steel, aircraft, oil refineries, needle trades and other fields.
Another contact from Sandstone prison showed up at the Los Angeles meeting. He is a former Jehovah’s Witness who learned about the SWP and its program through his prison conversations with Oscar Coover. He asked to be remembered to Oscar for whom he has the warmest feeling of gratitude and friendship. The Los Angeles comrades will now take up where Oscar left off and we hope soon to have another recruit.
Our campaign work in Salt Lake City is already bearing rich fruit. A former member, now living in that Utah city, came out to Los Angeles during my visit. He will take the initiative, with the assistance of the Los Angeles comrades, to organize a party branch among the excellent contacts developed in Salt Lake City during the election campaign.
While in San Francisco I fulfilled a long-held desire to clasp the strong hand and look into the honest eyes of Warren K. Billings. He together with Tom Mooney, spent 20 cruel years in prison as a victim of capitalist injustice because of his fidelity to the working class. As I stood in the presence of that incorruptible hero of labor, I found hew inspiration to go forward in the struggle for man’s socialist future.
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Last updated: 26 March 2023