CALIFORNIA
LeiLani Dowell for Congress
By Workers World San Francisco bureau
Workers World Party member LeiLani Dowell is
running for Congress on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket in
the November 2004 elections. She is running against Democratic
incumbent Nancy Pelosi in California's 8th Congressional
District, which includes most of San Francisco.
Peace and Freedom, the only socialist party on the
California ballot, regained its electoral status after losing
it in 1998 for failing to meet the 2-percent threshold in that
year's election. A statewide struggle by socialists, including
WWP, put it back on the ballot this year.
Dowell is a young worker running on a socialist platform.
She is a lesbian of African American and Hawaiian descent. A
labor studies student at San Francisco State University, Dowell
is a fighter for women's rights and a leader in the
International ANSWER coalition.
Why would a 25-year-old activist like Dowell run against the
multimillion-dollar campaign of a liberal congressperson?
Millions of workers will be paying attention to the 2004
elections. The big-business candidates try to draw the people
into elections to reinforce the capitalist profit system. WWP
will be doing just the opposite--revealing the sham of
capitalist elections by projecting a struggle-oriented,
working-class campaign.
"When capitalist candidates say they represent workers'
interests, they are lying," Dowell told Workers World. "No
capitalist candidate lacks health care, tries to survive
earning minimum wage or has union membership that he or she has
had to fight for. WWP's campaign will bring the concerns and
struggles of working people--struggles our members have
participated in--into elections otherwise dominated by
ruling-class propaganda."
Dowell said: "Being a worker and an activist, I know what
it's like to scrape together the rent and work to pay tuition.
That's why I believe free education should be a right. That is
why I believe housing should be a right."
Many people are aware that capitalist candidates don't
really represent them. But, Dowell said, the barrage of
propaganda has convinced many that elections are the only
avenue for change.
"The constant capitulation of the Demo cratic Party--which
took no real stand against the war, which supports the
occupation of Iraq, which has supported the ever-increasing war
budget at the cost of social programs--has increased the
disillusionment people feel with the elections," charged
Dowell.
"Nancy Pelosi's record is evidence of this. Since 9/11 she
has consistently supported Bush's 'war on terror.' She backs
Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people. And she voted
against easing the travel ban on Cuba. How could she possibly
fight for jobs and the rights of working and oppressed people
at home with such a pro-war imperialist policy abroad?
"Because millions of workers are watching the elections, and
many of them are disenchanted with the candidates, the election
provides an opportunity to offer them an alternative, a genuine
alternative, not only to the elections but to the whole system
of exploitation and oppression," argues Dowell.
"Ideas raised by progressive and socialist candidates in
elections often take hold in the struggle as well. The
elections provide a forum for these ideas to be heard by
workers. It is important that they are exposed to a socialist,
working-class perspective that speaks to their needs and
interests."
Reprinted from the Dec. 11, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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