This candidate profile was originally published in Partisan issue no. 25, printed May 2008.

Gloria La Riva is the 2008 presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

In 1994 and 1998, La Riva was Peace & Freedom Party's candidate for governor of California. She is president of the Typographical Sector, Media Workers Union, Local 39521, CWA.

La Riva has been a key organizer of mass demonstrations opposing the Iraq wars. In 1998 she produced the award-winning video, Genocide by Sanctions.

La Riva is coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, and has worked for decades to end U.S. hostility toward Cuba.

She has been active in the struggle for immigrant rights, speaking at many mass marches in California. In 1991, she initiated the Farmworkers Emergency Relief campaign.

In September 2005, days after Hurricane Katrina, La Riva traveled to New Orleans, producing the video "Heroes Not Looters."

La Riva was an independent candidate for Vice-President in 1984, 1988 and 1996.

Gloria La Riva says:
As the Peace & Freedom Party presidential candidate, I would wage a dynamic campaign stressing the necessity of socialism to solve the many and growing problems confronting the working class and society as a whole. The Party for Socialism and Liberation campaign is seeking ballot status in least 16 states, and our national campaign literature would identify me as the candidate of both the PSL and PFP. I believe that waging a vigorous socialist campaign in California is critically important at this time, both because of deepening domestic and international crises of capitalism, and for the future of Peace & Freedom Party.

The war in Iraq must be ended now and U.S. troops brought home from more than 100 countries around the world. My campaign calls for an end to intervention, blockades and sanctions against Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Korea, Palestine, Sudan and elsewhere. The huge Pentagon budget should be used to meet peoples needs.

As a labor activist, I know firsthand the deteriorating wages and benefits that millions of workers are facing today. My campaign calls for a $15/hour minimum wage, strengthening union rights, healthcare for all, free education through college, and a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions housing is a right!

As a child of a Mexican immigrant, I know the oppression immigrant workers face. My campaign supports full rights for all, and an end to raids and deportations.

As a beneficiary of affirmative action, I know it is needed to overcome longstanding racism and sexism. My campaign opposes mass imprisonment and police brutality, supports reproductive rights for women, the right to same-sex marriage, and equal rights regardless of nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

The choice for the future is clear: Either exploitation of the world for the profits of a few, or an ecologically sustainable economy based on meeting peoples needs - socialism.

Eugene Puryear

Eugene Puryear is the 2008 vicepresidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Puryear is an anti-war and social justice organizer in Washington, D.C. He is a volunteer organizer in the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition.

Puryear is an organizer in the movement to Free the Jena 6. Puryear spoke at the 1,500-strong rally for the Jena 6 at Howard University that brought major national attention to the case.

Born in Charlottesville, Virginia., Puryear has been an anti-war organizer since high school. He has chaired numerous rallies and marches—including the Sept. 24, 2005, antiwar march of 350,000 people, the 2005 counter- inaugural protest, and the Sept. 15, 2007, mass die-in and anti-war protest at the White House.

Puryear has been profiled by the Washington Post, and interviewed by outlets such as WPFW, WOL-AM, WBAI, the Final Call newspaper, Blackamericaweb.com, WTOP and the Associated Press.