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From The Militant, Vol. 10 No. 29, 20 July 1946, pp. 1 & 8.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
NEW YORK, N.Y., July 14 – Farrell Dobbs, editor of The Militant, will head the Socialist Workers Party ticket as candidate for Governor in the fall elections in New York State. His running mate for the post of Lieutenant-Governor will be Milton Richardson, World War II veteran and militant trade unionist.
The ticket will be rounded out, the announcement by the New York SWP office stated, by the following candidates:
A mass meeting to introduce the candidates to the working class public will be held on Wednesday evening, July 24, at Webster Manor, 119 East 11th St., New York City.
The Socialist Workers Party will present the only working class ticket in the 1946 elections. Despite all the loud talk and bluster about a “Third Party” following the railroad strike, the trade union bureaucrats and the politicians heading the Liberal and American Labor Parties are continuing the fatal game of supporting “progressive” candidates on the capitalist party tickets.
Once again the workers of New York see the sordid deals between Tammany Hall and the American Labor Party. Marcantonio who speaks for the ALP has given his endorsement both to Democrats and Republicans, The ALP is primarily concerned with capturing Democratic nominations, employing for this end a policy of the most crooked horse-trading. The Stalinists trail behind like faithful lapdogs, snapping at anyone who speaks of honest, independent working class politics.
Under these conditions the contest between Dewey and Mead, the most likely Democratic nominee. can be nothing but a sham battle, with the real interests of the workers ignored; and the victory of Wall Street and capitalist reaction assured in advance.
The program of the Socialist Workers Party will give the only genuine answers to the most vital problems facing the workers of New York in the elections: rising prices and the threat of rising rents, anti-labor legislation, race discrimination, the housing shortage, the preparation for a third world war. In brief it will be a fighting program to combat the attempts of Big Business to make the working people pay the immense debt and interest resulting from the second imperialist war.
The entry of the ticket for the coming campaign marks the first time the SWP is engaging in electoral activities on so broad a scale in this state. The first task before the party will be to overcome the innumerable stumbling blocks written into the statutes to make it as difficult as possible for a minority party to be listed on the ballot. Signatures are required from each of the 62 counties, including the most sparsely settled, in the state. The time for obtaining these signatures is restricted to a minimum.
Nevertheless the New York organization is embarking on the campaign with every confidence that it will be able to overcome these obstacles so that the workers of New York may have the opportunity of voting for a workers’ ticket in November. Friends and sympathizers of the party are invited to participate in the campaign to gather signatures, which formally opens on July 27.
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Last updated: 18 June 2021