“People over Profits!” and “Tax the Rich!” were the messages heard across Vermont as the PSL socialist candidates toured the state.
On Feb. 12, PSL presidential candidate Gloria La Riva spoke to 65 students at the Vermont Law School in South Royalton on the case of the Cuban Five. La Riva also gathered petition signatures in South Royalton and Montpelier, Vermont’s capital.
From Feb. 14 through Feb. 15, La Riva was joined in Brattleboro by PSL vice-presidential candidate Eugene Puryear as well as other PSL members and campaign supporters. The group petitioned and leafleted across downtown Brattleboro in front of the post office, office buildings, stores, restaurants, food co-ops and convenience stores. They successfully gathered hundreds of signatures to place La Riva and Puryear on the Vermont ballot.
On Feb. 15, La Riva and Puryear addressed a public meeting titled “The Socialist View of the Elections.” Speaking to a crowd of supporters and newcomers, the candidates touched on a variety of electoral issues from the Iraq war to the economy and the Democratic primaries. La Riva and Puryear contrasted the socialist position with those of the two major party candidates.
“This will be a fighting campaign,” La Riva emphasized to the audience, making clear that the PSL intends to take the demands of the people’s struggle into the electoral arena.
On Feb. 16 and 17, the candidates and their supporters took the campaign to Burlington, Vermont’s largest city. There, the candidates were able to meet hundreds more people while gathering petition signatures at the University of Vermont and downtown. They took the PSL’s socialist message on the streets and in stores. Many of those who signed the petition were grateful that there would be a socialist alternative on the Vermont ballot.
The 2008 PSL presidential campaign collected hundreds of signatures in Vermont in a matter of days. There are plans to tour the state several more times prior to the November elections and take the PSL’s campaign message to every corner of Vermont.
