Not the next President

>> U.S. communist leader drops by for a proletarian sandwich and chat

By CRAIG SEGAL

James Harris is the Socialist Workers Party candidate for President of the United States, but few noticed when he came up from Cleveland to spread his communist revolutionary message to Montrealers. Speaking with a deep voice, quoting Marx and munching on a sausage sandwich, Harris spent some quality time with the Mirror at Pathfinder bookstore on St-Laurent this week.

Mirror: How strong is socialism when a party that advocates transcendental meditation has more support than you?

Harris: Marxism and socialism are not strong in the United States at all. We'd never say it was.

M: Do you advocate violent revolution?

JH: I believe in the defence of the working class, and the States is one of the most violent places in the world.

M: What goes on at your Socialist Workers Party training school?

JH: We just study Marxism and Engels and history.

M: Is it a sleepover place?

JH: It's definitely a sleepover. Six months. You just read and study in a more intensive fashion. You just leave other responsibilities and other activities behind.

M: Can they watch TV there?

JH: No TV.

M: Does TV brainwash people?

JH: I think people brainwash people through the TV.

M: Do you watch TV?

JH: Sure, I shamefully watch some of that stuff.

M: Can you smoke? Can you drink?

JH: If you're caught doing drugs you get kicked out. Drugs are one of the ways the government uses to frame activists. We obey the laws because we don't want to leave any room to be victimized. I drive the speed limit. They engage in frame-ups and all kinds of things. You just assume that that's the way they operate.

M: Have you ever used drugs?

JH: Ha ha! Nobody's ever asked me that before. Yeah, I used drugs a long time ago. I did all the things people my age did. I had a good time.

M: Why did you quit university?

JH: I thought I could learn more by being in the struggles of working people than I possibly ever could in a school. Mainly colleges are there to convince layers of people that they have interests separate and apart from the working class.

M: Do you worry you're being watched by the government?

JH: I assume at all times that the government is aware of the things that we do and the things that we say. I just assume that that's part of what politics is.

M: How many members do you have?

JH: We never give out a list or a total and stuff. That helps them compile a list.

M: What do you think about the Canadian government?

JH: I think it's an imperialist government like the United States, since it subordinates itself very much to the United States. It does it through the repression of Quebec, for example.

M: So the referendums were illegitimate?

JH: When a country's enslaved, referendums never mean anything.

M: Are you pro free love?

JH: People can do whatever they want to.

M: Is Canada going to become the 51st state?

JH: The Canadian people are not going to allow that to happen. :

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