The Socialist Workers Party is running eight additional candidates in the November election. They will campaign against U.S. military intervention in the Persian Gulf, Ellie Garcia, the party's 2nd Congressional District candidate, said Saturday.
Garcia and Tony Dutrow, the party's 3rd Congressional District candidate, are already on the 1990 election ballot. New candidates are Mike Fitzsimmons, 35, for the Utah Senate; Mike Galati, 33, Barbara Greenway, 37, and Mary Smith, 36, for the Utah House; Dave Salner, 46, for Salt Lake County commissioner; and Mike Ziouras, a 22-year-old University of Utah student, for the Utah Senate.During a press conference at the party's campaign headquarters, 147 E. 900 South, Garcia explained that party members are expanding their campaign to speak out aggressively against the current bi-partisan military movements in the Middle East.
Garcia said the party is alarmed because the U.S. government is assembling the largest military buildup since the Vietnam War, activating a massive combination of combat troops and offensive weaponry in and around the Arab peninsula. "U.S. rulers clearly intend to go to war to protect big oil," Garcia said.
"The war is going to affect common working people, because it is the workers, the farmers and their sons who will go overseas and die for big oil," Garcia said. "American workers have more in common with the working people of the Middle East than big oil. It is us who are going to be sent to die for these profits. It is us who have to stop this war."
Before the official announcement, Buddy Beck, a campaign co-chairman and employee at Phillips' Utah refinery, said he is lending his support to the campaign because he "deals with the lies and deceit of large oil companies every day."
Beck added that the party opposes U.S. policy concerning the Persian Gulf because the party has "no interest in supporting a war on behalf of Exxon."
"Big oil companies help dictate U.S. foreign policy," Beck said. "The policy involves actions our party condemns. We are going to campaign against U.S. intervention because this war is not in our best interest."
During the conference, Garcia explained that the party would also campaign to defend the 18-month strike by members of the International Association of Machinists against Eastern Airlines; the rights of Native Americans; and the right of women to have abortions.