Cal State Long Beach student Marylou Cabral, 21, has been campaigning to become LA county supervisor for several months. As a member of the socialist party, she wants the community to know what they truly stand for, and to bring attention to issues she feels are being ignored.
“Basically the process of it is the real goal, to reach out to people and let them know that we are placing ourselves against the status quo,” Cabral said. “We’re presenting an alternative to the politics that are in place now which are not politics in the interest of the common people, but in the interest of those that are in power.”
Several other members of her party have decided to run for office as well. They have a member running for president, vice president, congress, and for supervisor in other districts. Cabral’s main goals as a candidate are decent jobs for all, quality education and accessible healthcare for citizens and non-citizens alike. She is also concerned with ending racism, sexism, and the exploitation of the common worker.
“I guess growing up in this area and seeing the huge discrepancy between the middle and lower class and seeing that kind of antagonistic relationship that exists made me want to do something about it,” Cabral said. “The way resources are distributed in this country and in this city are very unequal.”
Though Cabral is an art in education major, her main priorities are her political activities. She has organized several protests and worked with groups such as the A.N.S.W.E.R (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) coalition. Last year she was the main organizer in one of CSULB’s largest campus protests against the war in Iraq, and says she also spoke in front of over 100,000 people at an anti-war protest in Washington D.C. last September. She is currently in the process of starting an A.N.S.W.E.R. club on campus.
