Niles William Niemuth

 

Niles William Niemuth, 1988 -

VP candidate for Socialist Equality Party (aka Socialism Equality Anti-War) (2016)

Running mate with nominee: Jerome White (b. 1959)
Popular vote: 471 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

2016 would be Jerry White's fourth run as the Presidential candidate of the Socialist Equality Party, having previously campaigned in 1996, 2008, and 2012.

The Apr. 22, 2016 SEP press release described running-mate Niles Niemuth--

Niles Niemuth, 28, was raised in a working-class family in Wisconsin and became a member of the SEP during the 2011 mass protests against budget cuts imposed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Niles joined the staff of the WSWS after completing his master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, where he specialized in African-American history. Niemuth has written extensively on US social conditions, working-class struggles and the government’s assault on democratic rights.

The same announcement offered critical views of Clinton and Trump, but more energy was spent assailing Sen. Sanders, with an additional swipe at the Green Party--

The widespread popular support for the campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is largely based on his identification as a “democratic socialist.” His unexpected string of victories in state primaries shows that there is an enormous desire among workers and young people for an alternative to capitalism. The scale of his support has exploded the official narrative of American politics, according to which no one claiming to be “socialist” can get a hearing.

However, Sanders has demonstrated by his long political career that he is neither a socialist nor an opponent of the political establishment. Even when a nominal “independent,” he collaborated with the Democrats and staunchly supported the Obama administration. He defends capitalism and American imperialism, and he promotes economic nationalism, seeking to scapegoat workers in Mexico, China and other countries for the loss of jobs in the US.

Sanders’ central role is to utilize his bogus credentials as a “socialist” to waylay popular hostility among workers and young people to the two-party system and divert it back into the safe channels of the Democratic Party. The experience of the Obama administration, which came to power promising “hope” and “change,” has exposed the role of the Democratic Party as an instrument of the corporate and financial elite. With the assistance of the unions and an array of upper middle-class pseudo-left groups, the Democrats have perfected the practice of combining empty demagogy and various forms of racial, gender and identity politics with a thoroughly right-wing and pro-war policy.

If Sanders were to run an “independent” campaign—as urged by some of his political backers—this would not change the character of his campaign. His program is based on defense of the capitalist system and opposition to a political movement of the working class.

The same applies to the nominally “independent” campaign of the Green Party. The Green Party is a capitalist party that functions as an external pressure group on the Democrats. When Green parties have participated in governments—most notably in Germany—they have invariably backed the policy of the ruling class, including attacks on workers at home and support for imperialist war abroad.

While presenting a survey of unusual Presidential candidates, writer Lisa Pham made this comment regarding the 2016 SEP ticket--

Jerry White is running as a member of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), and actually has a pretty comprehensive website. I’m not just saying this as a liberal-minded, communist college student. White actually offers comprehensive explanations of his positions backed by figures and charts and other official-looking things. While this may be good for anyone who really seeks to understand who he is as a candidate, it doesn’t help with the “everyone is crazy” theme of my article. So we’re going to move on.

White/Niemuth were on the ballot in Louisiana and registered write-ins in half a dozen more states. In Louisiana they finished 13 out of 13 with 0.02% of the vote. The Party's popular vote result peaked in 1988 and had been steadily dwindling ever since and now they landed in the 3-digit range.

Although listed on the Louisiana ballot as a resident of Wisconsin, by Sept. 2016 Niemuth was registered to vote in Michigan, where White also lived. But the residency potential problem of two candidates from the same state was overshadowed by the fact Niemuth was under the age of 35, which was mandated by the Constitution.

Election history:
2018 - US House of Representatives (Mich.) (Socialist Equality Party) - defeated

Other occupations: door factory worker, writer, activist, webmaster

Notes:
Looks like Niemuth lives in Hamtramck, Mich., the same home as Matt Feazell's Cynicalman.

Phyllis Maria Scherrer

 

Phyllis Maria Scherrer, December 5, 1963 -

VP candidate for Socialist Equality Party (2012)

Running mate with nominee: Jerome White (b. 1959)
Popular vote: 1,279 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Jerome White of the Socialist Equality Party was making his third run for President in 2012. His running-mate was Pittsburgh schoolteacher Phyllis Scherrer. They started their campaign in mid-Feb. 2012.

In their initial announcement, White outlined the SEP "core principles"--

First, we insist that the key to the future lies in the international unity of the working class.

Second, we fight for social equality, which is the foundation of socialism and a humane society.

Third, the SEP opposes imperialist militarism and the assault on democratic rights, which is being led by the Obama administration.

Fourth, the SEP opposes the political subordination of the working class to the Democrats and Republicans, which are bought-and-paid-for instruments of big business.

During the campaign Scherrer expressed disdain over the Republican attempt to paint President Obama as a socialist. "Obama has never been a socialist," she said. "He is a defender of capitalism. Prior to winning the election in 2008, he came to the White House to discuss with the Bush Administration the organization of the bank bailout. He was completely in favor of that." She added, "They called the bank bailout socialism, but that's capitalism. They took from the working class and enriched themselves ... We paid for, with our tax money, the bailout of the banks. There was an expropriation from the masses to the wealthy. What we are proposing is an expropriation in the other direction."

In another news report Scherrer said, "I have immense confidence that our campaign will win support from workers throughout the country and all around the world. Millions of workers and young people voted for Obama, looking for change. Three years later, the administration has revealed itself to be a right-wing instrument of the banks and corporations."

The White/Scherrer ticket could be found on the ballot in Louisiana and Wisconsin (0.02% each) and Colorado (0.01%) and write-ins in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and New York.

Election history: none

Other occupations: teacher

Notes:
Joined the SEP in 1984.

William Van Auken

 

William Van Auken, January 13, 1950 -

VP candidate for Socialist Equality Party (2008)

Running mate with nominee: Jerome White (b. 1959)
Popular vote: 18 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
 
The campaign:

The Socialist Equality Party for some reason waited quite late in the game to announce their Presidential ticket in 2008. Jerome White was making his second run for the White House. His running-mate Bill Van Auken had been the Presidential nominee in 2004. They announced on Sept. 13, 2008, "The SEP will call on American workers to reject the national chauvinism promoted by these pro-imperialist parties and embrace a program of international working class solidarity."

White/Van Auken had three main points: 1. The world economic crisis - "The United States and much of the world are already entering into recession." 2. Militarism and the threat of world war - "The eruption of American imperialism is the greatest threat to the world’s population and threatens to spark a new world war, with incalculable consequences." 3. The crisis of American democracy - "The last eight years have seen a bipartisan assault on democratic rights, in the United States and internationally. Words such as “Abu Ghraib,” “Guantánamo,” “rendition,” “enemy combatant,” “water boarding,” and “enhanced interrogation” have come to symbolize the American government’s descent into criminality and fascistic barbarism."

Two days after the SEP Presidential nomination, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, crystalizing a global economic disaster that had been a long time in the making. The response of the Trotskyite party was swift--

The Socialist Equality Party and its presidential and vice presidential candidates, Jerome White and Bill Van Auken, unequivocally oppose the plan to bail out Wall Street with hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer funds announced by the Bush administration and embraced by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership.

The plan, which is being rushed through Congress for passage this week, is the response of the government and the entire political establishment to what is acknowledged to be the greatest economic crisis since the Wall Street crash of 1929. It calls for an unprecedented transfer of public funds to the major banks and the American financial elite at the expense of the broad mass of the people.

Both the plan itself and the manner in which it is being imposed are deeply undemocratic. Exploiting the breakdown in US and global financial markets, the financial aristocracy, which is responsible for the crisis, is exercising its control over the government, both political parties, and the media to implement policies of the most far-reaching character without any genuine debate or discussion. As in the aftermath of 9/11, it is seeking to utilize the crisis to push through policies that would otherwise be considered entirely unacceptable.

None of the measures being carried out address the underlying causes of the financial meltdown, nor will they resolve the crisis. At most, they will only postpone the day of reckoning ...

From the look of their campaign itineraries, White campaigned mainly in academic settings and spent time electioneering in the UK, Germany, and Canada. Van Auken covered the West Coast.

In an essay entitled McCain-Palin campaign’s attacks on Obama: a whiff of fascism, Oct. 10, 2008, Van Auken observed how Palin's presence on the Republican ticket had ushered in what he considered a large conspiracy-minded, aggrieved and angry element into the Republican Party, with rallies that resembled lynch mobs. Van Auken concluded--

The role of the Christian right and of semi-fascistic elements within the Republican Party remains the great unmentionable in American politics. They are accorded political protection and legitimacy precisely for the role they play in diverting the anger and frustration of sections of the population into reactionary channels that serve to prop up the ruling establishment.

The right-wing campaign presently being waged by the Republican Party has ominous implications. While it is highly questionable whether it will shift votes from Obama to McCain, it is serving to mobilize the most reactionary political forces and whip them to a fever pitch.

These forces will not go away after the November election. Given an Obama victory at the polls, they will be utilized to place continuous pressure on the incoming administration, driving it ever further towards the right.

Moreover, under conditions in which the immense crisis of American capitalism will inevitably produce explosive mass social struggles, the political sentiments to which the Republicans are appealing today will tomorrow form the ideological basis for fascistic movements aimed against the working class.

The Democrats' inability and unwillingness to answer the attacks coming from the McCain-Palin campaign demonstrates the impossibility of countering this threat from the right by voting for Obama. It requires, above all, the political mobilization of the working class through the building of an independent party fighting for its own interests on the basis of a socialist program. This is the alternative fought for solely by the Socialist Equality Party.

It strikes me as odd that the 2008 SEP campaign did not start their efforts earlier. The White/Van Auken ticket were not on any ballots but they were registered as a write-in in New York where 18 votes were reported. Most of their energies were spent outside New York in states, or even foreign nations, where they were not an option for voters even as a write-in. Also, instead of cultivating labor audiences they seemed to gravitate to academic venues. 2008 turned out to be their least successful year in terms of Presidential electoral politics.

Election history:
2004 - US President (Socialist Equality Party) - defeated
2006 - US Senate (NY) (Socialist Equality Party) - defeated

Other occupations: writer for the World Socialist Web Site

Notes:
Involved in the socialist cause since ca1971.
Opponents in 2006 included Hillary Clinton (winner), Howie Hawkins, and Roger Calero.
The website 4truthseekers.org identified Van Auken in 2004 as a "Reptilian/human hybrid," so there you have it.

James Lawrence

James Lawrence, 1939/1941 -

VP candidate for Socialist Equality Party (2004)

Running mate with nominee: William Van Auken (b. 1950)
Popular vote: 1,859 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The Socialist Equality Party did not run a Presidential ticket in 2000, but in 2004 the Party was back on the national scene. The SEP ticket was comprised of veteran members Bill Van Auken of New York and Jim Lawrence of Ohio.

Lawrence was a retired auto worker for General Motors and a member of the United Auto Workers. Some critics felt the ticket would have better been served if Van Auken and Lawrence had flipped their positions on the ballot.

The SEP had the sort of platform consistent with being a Trotskyist party, with a particular emphasis on anti-imperialism. They also had sort of a reputation of not playing well with other groups on the Left and going it alone, similar to the now nearly defunct Socialist Labor Party.

In a round-up essay profiling rival Left-wing political parties in the US in 2004, the Freedom Socialist Party summarized their view of the SEP thusly-- "The Socialist Equality Party is running Bill Van Auken and Jim Lawrence. Best known for the World Socialist Website, the SEP has never made it into the 21st century — barely into the 20th. The party disdains the battles for civil rights, feminism and gay liberation, and says unions are a waste of time. And it has a history of using the bosses' courts to try to destroy other Marxist groups." I found plenty of sources in 2004 where the SEP spoke up for civil rights, but then again the FSP seemed to be writing from some experience of interacting with the SEP.

On the ballot in five states, Van Auken/Lawrence finished with 0.02% in Colorado, Minnesota and New Jersey, and 0.01% in Iowa and Washington.

Election history:
1996 - US House of Representatives (Ohio) (Socialist Equality Party) - defeated

Other occupations: auto worker, union activist

Notes:
His son David Lawrence was a SEP candidate for US Congress in Ohio also in 2004.
The website 4truthseekers.org identified Van Auken in 2004 as a "Reptilian/human hybrid," so there
 you have it.

Fred Mazelis

Below: Fred Mazelis 2011

Fred Mazelis, May 4, 1941 -

VP candidate for Workers League (1992)
VP candidate for Socialist Equality Party (1996)

Running mate with nominee (1992): Helen Betty Halyard (b. 1950)
Running mate with nominee (1996): Jerome White (b. 1959)
Popular vote (1992): 3,050 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1996): 2,438 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1992, 1996): 0/538

The campaign (1992):

The previous election in 1988 would be the high point for this party in terms of popular votes. But as any of the activists would tell you in their third national election, it wasn't about getting votes but building a party. But the Michigan-based Trotskyite group was seeming to become self-encapsulated in the same way the Socialist Labor Party had been, and they held a special antipathy for the Socialist Workers Party.

Helen Halyard of Michigan, the VP in the 1984 election, served as the Presidential nominee. Fred Mazelis of New York, who is considered among one of the founding members of the League, was her running-mate. Mazelis started his activity as a Workers League candidate in Michigan in the 1980s.

They did not receive much press coverage, but Halyard did manage to sum up their situation in what we call the "elevator speech": "Rich people have two political parties to represent them-- Democrats and Republicans. The working class is politically disenfranchised. No matter who gets elected, they're not going to help the living standards of working people."

Unlike most of the other political parties on the Left, you would be hard pressed to find any statements from the Workers League during this era regarding civil rights for groups based on race, gender, or sexual orientation. For the Workers League it all apparently came down to the economy, building a labor party, and replacing the capitalistic system.

On the ballot in two states, they finished with 0.05% of the vote in New Jersey (placing 12th out of 13), and 0.03% in Michigan.

The campaign (1996):

The Workers League had morphed into the Socialist Equality Party in 1995 and their first Presidential nominee under the new name was Jerome "Jerry" White. Based in Michigan, this would be the first of White's four runs as the SEP nominee. Mazelis was once again the VP choice.

As usual the media all but ignored the SEP campaign. The platform included: Change the tax code to increase income tax on those earning more than $150,000 a year, create a five-year $500 billion public works program, reduce the work week to 30 hours with no loss in pay, require laid-off workers to collect regular wages until another job can be found.

Even though the SEP ticket was now on the ballot in three states instead of just two, their popular vote continued to decline: Michigan 0.04%, Minnesota and New Jersey 0.02% each. They placed dead last in Minnesota and New Jersey, and in Michigan they ranked 8 out of 9. The 1996 national vote result of 2,438 has not been surpassed to date (April 2020). It appears the SEP did not run a Presidential candidate in 2000.

Election history:
1982 - US House of Representatives (Mich.) (Workers League) - defeated
1984 - US Senate (Mich.) (Workers League) - defeated
1989 - Mayor of New York City (Workers League) - defeated

Other occupations: writer, union activist

Notes:
Winner of the 1984 race was Carl Levin.
Competitors in the 1989 race included David Dinkins (winner), Rudy Giuliani, Lenora Fulani.
Has a BS in Chemistry.