Socialist Equality Party announces US election campaign

the editorial board

13 February 2012

The Socialist Equality Party in the United States will run candidates in the 2012 elections. The SEP candidate for president is Jerry White; the vice presidential candidate is Phyllis Scherrer.

In a statement published today by the World Socialist Web Site, White outlined the basis of the SEP campaign.

The SEP has also established a new election web site to present its program and organize election committees and meetings throughout the country.

SEP presidential candidate, Jerry White and vice presidential candidate Phyllis Scherrer

White, 52, has been active in the socialist movement for more than three decades. He joined the Workers League, the predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party, in 1979, while working at United Parcel Service and attending the City University of New York.

In 2008, White ran as the SEP candidate for president in opposition to Barack Obama and John McCain. He has represented the SEP in other elections, including running as the party’s candidate in 2006 for US Congress from Michigan’s 12th Congressional District.

White is a writer for the World Socialist Web Site. He has written extensively on the struggles of auto workers, coal miners and other sections of the working class. Most recently, he has covered the struggle of locked-out Cooper Tire workers in Findlay, Ohio.

“I am proud to represent the Socialist Equality Party in these elections,” White told the WSWS. “This will be a year of growing resistance by the working class in the United States and around the world. Our campaign will fight to unify these struggles and direct them to a political fight against the capitalist system.”

Phyllis Scherrer, 48, is a school teacher in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. She joined the Socialist Equality Party in 1984 when she was a student at Chatham College in Pittsburgh. She has participated actively in the struggles of miners and steel workers in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. As a contributor for the WSWS, Scherrer has reported on the fight to defend public education from the attacks of the Bush and Obama administrations.

“I have immense confidence that our campaign will win support from workers throughout the country and all around the world,” Scherrer said. “Millions of workers and young people voted for Obama, looking for change. Three years later, the administration has revealed itself to be a right-wing instrument of the banks and corporations.”

The SEP campaign takes place under conditions of a historical crisis of the capitalist system, growing working class struggles, and the mounting danger of world war. The day before the campaign was announced, police clashed with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Greece as the parliament voted for brutal austerity measures. The US and European powers at the same time are escalating their threats against Syria, preparing the groundwork for another war for regime-change.

In the United States there is widespread hostility to capitalism, but it can find no expression within the political establishment. Behind the mutual denunciations and mud-slinging, the Democrats and Republicans are agreed on all essential issues of ruling class policy. Meanwhile, the 2012 elections are dominated by massive infusions of money from millionaires and billionaires into the coffers of both parties.

The Socialist Equality Party will seek to get on the ballot in as many states as possible. However, because of undemocratic electoral laws that in many cases require tens of thousands of signatures on petitions, the SEP will run write-in campaigns in many states.

“The SEP is going to run a very aggressive campaign,” National Secretary Joseph Kishore said. “We will set up election committees and hold meetings throughout the country to promote the campaign. We will organize interventions in all the struggles of the working class. A successful campaign requires the active support of all those who agree with the need to fight for socialism.”

Information on the SEP election campaign, including how to become involved and how to contribute financially, can be found at the SEP election web site “Vote Socialist Equality in 2012!” at www.socialequality.com.