The Socialist Workers Party of the District of Columbia is a minor political party in the District of Columbia. The party advocates for statehood for the District of Columbia and ending congressional control over the District's laws and finances. The party wants to abolish capitalism and replace it with a socialist economy.
History
1970s
1971 election cycle
In November 1970, James E. Harris announced he would run for Delegate to the United States House of Representatives as the Socialist Workers Party candidate. Raised in the District, Harris attended Cleveland State University. At the time of his candidacy, he was a resident of Glover Park and worked as an auto mechanic. He protested the Vietnam War as a member of the Student Mobilization Committee, and he was also a member of the Young Socialist Alliance. In Summer 1970, Harris traveled to Cuba to harvest sugar cane as part of the Venceremos Brigade.
Harris' campaign focused on establishing a minimum annual wage, reducing the workweek, prices limits established by trade unions and consumer groups, a 100percent tax on income in excess of $25,000, and ending the Vietnam War. Harris stressed that communities that whose residents are predominantly Black should be controlled by Black people and that the economy must be democratically planned so that all people benefit not just the wealthy. Harris advocated for preferential hiring of women, free daycare, and free contraception and abortions.
Rep. Richard Ichord of Missouri criticized Harris' campaign while on the floor of the House of Representatives, claiming that the media had not explained the purpose of the Socialist Workers Party and that it had ties with an "international Communist organization". Harris' responded to Ichord's accusations, saying that the Socialist Workers Party does not advocate the violent overthrow of the government. Instead, the Socialist Workers Party wanted a drastic change of the nation's economic system to socialism.
Keith Jones ran for an at-large seat on the District of Columbia Board of Education. Jones was a graduate of Coolidge High School in the District. While in the United States Army, Jones had founded and edited an antiwar publication called Open Sights. As a student at Howard University, Jones was active in the Third World Task Force, a group that had organized an antiwar demonstration in the District. At the time of his candidacy, Jones was living in Dupont Circle. Jones said that the public school system's problems were linked to education funding being siphoned off to pay for the Vietnam War, residents' lack of control over their own neighborhoods, lack of free daycare and free contraceptives, and the government's low priority to educating students of color.
Harris came in sixth place with 431 votes, or less than one percent of the total vote.
Jones came in fourth place with 989 votes, or two percent of the total vote.
1972 election cycle
Herman Fagg was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for Delegate to the United States House of Representatives.
Fagg had been a member of the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee and the Congress of Racial Equality. Fagg's campaign advocated for nonviolently changing the United States' economy into that of socialism. He also campaigned for racial equality, women's equality, and an end to war.
Fagg came in fifth place with 1,133 votes, or one percent of the total vote.
1973 election cycle
Omari Musa was the Socialist Workers Party candidates for at-large seat on the District of Columbia Board of Education. Musa had previously run for Delegate in 1972 under the name Herman Fagg. At the time of his campaign, Musa was an ironworker living in Dupont Circle. Musa opposed the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, calling it "a fraud and a sellout". Musa said that District residents should be able to vote on statehood instead. Musa advocated for the District to have more control over its own educational system and a District-wide conference on students' rights. Musa opposed having armed guards in the District's schools.
Erich Martel was also a Social Workers Party candidate for an at-large seat on the Board of Education. A resident of Adams Morgan, Martel worked as a teacher at Cardozo High School. Martel said that District students should be told that their education will only prepare them for low-paying jobs.
Nan Bailey was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for the Ward 2 seat on the Board of Education. Born in Fort Monroe, Virginia, Bailey was raised in many different places around the world as her father was transferred to different Army bases. She received a scholarship to attend St. Timothy's School in Catonsville, Maryland, where she was the first African-American student. Bailey had attended Brown University where she studied Afro-American Studies and joined the Young Socialist Alliance. She worked as a secretary. Bailey worked as a secretary and lived in Dupont Circle. Bailey said that the students' lack of discipline is actually a rebellion against a school system that prepares students for low-paying employment.
James Harris was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for the Ward 3 seat on the Board of Education. A resident of Glover Park, Harris worked as a clerk for the Library of Congress.
Musa came in eighth place with 39 votes, or one percent of the total vote. Martel came in seventh place with 606 votes, or two percent of the total vote. Bailey came in fifth place with 40 votes, or three percent of the total vote. Harris came in fourth place with 130 votes, or three percent of the total vote.
1974 election cycle
Toba Singer was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for Delegate to the House. Singer ran as a write-in candidate. Originally from New York City, Singer had graduated from the University of Massachusetts. She had organized a civil rights boycott of New York City Public Schools in 1964. She was an activist with the Women's National Abortion Rights Coalition. At the time of her candidacy, Singer was a graduate student at the University of Maryland studying library science, and she had lived in the District for three years. Singer said the Democratic Party was a racist political party because it was the party of Georgia Governor Lester Maddox and Alabama Governor George Wallace. Singer said that the Metropolitan Police Department should cease to exist because it does not prevent crime; it should be replaced with civilian review boards.
Nan Bailey was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of the District of Columbia. Bailey advocated for a minimum wage of five dollars per hour and zero tax on income less than $15,000. She proposed a 100% tax on individual income in excess of $30,000 and a 100% tax on the profits of companies that pollute. She said that employees should be paid for forty hours of work while actually working thirty hours. Bailey proposed free public transportation and limiting rent to ten percent of a tenant's income. Bailey wanted to disband the Metropolitan Police Department. Bailey was critical of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act because it kept the District under the control of Congress, which she said was racist, and was an inferior alternative to statehood for the District of Columbia.
Allan Budka was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for chair of the Council of the District of Columbia. Originally from Lorain, Ohio, Budka had attended Case Western University where he was a part of the Young Socialist Alliance. Budka had moved to the District two years prior to his candidacy, and he was an ironworker who worked in construction.
Anne Powers was a Socialist Workers Party candidate for an at-large seat on the Council. Powers worked as a teacher at Wheatley Elementary School in Trinidad.
Sara Smith was also a Socialist Workers Party candidate for an at-large seat on the Council. Smith was a student at George Washington University, and she led the school's Young Socialists Alliance.
Budka came in third place with three percent of the total vote.
Powers came in thirteenth place with 5,650 votes, or two percent of the total vote.
Smith came in fourteenth place with 4,970 votes, or two percent of the total vote.
Singer and Bailey did not win the elections in which they each ran.
1976 election cycle
Dorothy Hawkinson ran as a Socialist Workers Party candidate for an at-large seat on the Council in 1976. Living on Scott Circle, she worked for the National Association of Social Workers. Hawkinson's campaign emphasized reducing the unemployment rate; establishing a federal program to build schools, housing, and hospitals; levying property taxes on federal buildings; and reducing the workweek without reducing workers' pay. Hawkinson said that 75 percent of the District's housing is substandard. She said that tenants living in substandard housing should not have to pay rent, and the Council should prohibit landlords from raising all other tenants' rents.
Hawkins came in fifth place, receiving 10,256 votes in the general election."Maryland, Virginia, D.C. Election Charts". The Washington Post. November 4, 1976. p. C6. Because Hawkins received more than 7,500 votes, the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics deemed the Socialist Workers Party a major party in June 1978. As a major party, the Socialist Workers Party would hold primary elections during each election cycle beginning in 1978 and continuing as long as at least one of their candidates received more than 7,500 votes in each general election.
1977 election cycle
Afroditta Constantinidis was the Socialist Workers Party's candidate for an at-large seat on the Board of Education. Constantinidis was a graduate of Federal City College. She was a teacher who, at the time of her candidacy, was temporarily working as a dispatcher for an air freight company.
Constantinidis said that the goal of the incumbent members of the Board of Education was to please white business owners rather than help their constituents. Constantinidis advocated for more funding of schools in neighborhoods predominantly with black residents. She wanted to cut funding for school police officers, school guards, and truant officers. She said the school curriculum should include information about the oppression of workers and people of color.
Constantinidis did not win the primary election.
1978 election cycle
Antonio J. Grillo ran to represent Ward 1 on the Council in 1978. He was unopposed in the Socialist Workers Party primary election. A resident of Mount Pleasant, Grillo worked as a clerk.
Grillo advocated for abolishing property tax on the homes of families and retired senior citizens. Grillo said that the government should seize all abandoned residential buildings and sell them to people with low incomes. Grillo said that workweeks should be reduced to thirty hours per week with no reduction in salary. He supported limiting rent increases to ten percent per year.
According to Grillo, the incumbent Democrats on the Council were following the will of the Board of Trade and D.C. Chamber of Commerce rather than the will of the people. Grillo's campaign focused on exposing political corruption, collecting delinquent business property taxes, and reforming rent laws. Grillo was in favor the hiring of undocumented workers and increasing payments to people who are unemployed.
Grillo came in fourth place with 211 votes, or two percent of the total vote.
With no candidate receiving more than 7,500 votes in the 1978 general election, the Socialist Workers Party returned to minor-party status.
1980s
1980 election cycle