The Socialist Equality Party campaign wins ballot status in New Jersey

I am proud to announce that the Socialist Equality Party campaign of myself and Jerry White will be on the ballot in the state of New Jersey, after submitting more than double the official signature requirement. This is the product of very hard work by campaign volunteers and a growing audience for genuine socialist politics in the working class and youth.

The SEP campaign is explaining the connection between imperialist war abroad and the class war at home. The only way to stop the genocide in Gaza, the escalating US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, and the turn of the ruling class to fascism and dictatorship, is through the mobilization of the working class in the fight for socialism.

The SEP is the only party even treating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as a serious issue. We have taken every opportunity to explain to workers the continued threat of infection, the reality of Long Covid, and what must be done to stop the spread of the virus and save lives.

In the petition drive, we explained the unity of the interests of all workers, in the US and internationally. More than two million of New Jersey’s nine million residents are foreign born. As elsewhere around the country, migrants have been scapegoated in an attempt to redirect social anger away from the ruling class and the failure of capitalism.

There was important support gained among key sections of workers, including longshore and warehouse workers in Newark and Elizabeth, home to the second largest US port, logistics workers at UPS, and healthcare workers, one of the largest sections of the working class with 460,000 workers, facing inadequate pay and intolerable working conditions.

Workers can not advance one step without a complete break with the Democrats, the Republicans and the entire capitalist political system. In these elections, one of the principal parties of the ruling class, the Republicans, has acquired an increasingly overt fascistic character. The central priority of the Democrats, dripping in blood from the genocide in Gaza, is the escalation of imperialist war, which threatens all of humanity.

For all their talk about defending democracy, the Democrats are working furiously to block independent candidates and third parties from even getting on the ballot.

Winning ballot status in New Jersey is an important victory which we must now build upon. I call on all workers and young people to support the SEP campaign, donate and get involved.