USC Digital News: Socialist Mayoral Candidate campaigns until the end

And then there is Carlos Alvarez, a 22-year-old socialist who acknowledges he doesn’t stand much of a chance.

“I’m not saying we are [going to win], or even have a likely chance of winning,” he said.

Running as a member of the Party of Socialism and Liberation, Alvarez’s ultimate goal is to protect the rights of working-class citizens of Los Angeles. The son of El Salvador immigrants, the East L.A. native is an anti-war activist and leader of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) who has led demonstrations against racism, sexism and homophobia. Alvarez currently works as a paralegal in L.A., where he also works as a community organizer, specifically leading the immigrant rights movement.

The mayoral ballot consists of ten candidates. However, none are expected to pose a threat to the incumbent mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa.

While he acknowledges that his chances in prevailing in Tuesday’s election are slim, Alvarez said he continued to campaign in order to promote his hopes for fundamental change in society that he believes should be rooted in the needs of workers, not big businesses.

“People can, and do, dismiss me because of my age, because I’m a socialist — even some because I’m Latino or because I defend immigrant rights, or because I’m gay,” he said. “However, I’m out there because I’m trying to promote something that is much broader thinking.”

That broader thinking is the core socialist belief that the economy is at its best when workers are making a good wage and enjoy healthy living conditions and when the wealth of the nation is “earned by those who produce the work, not those who own the work that is done.”

Alvarez’s platform calls for a moratorium on all forecloses and evictions in Los Angeles and for raising the minimum wage to $15. He also wants everyone to have the right to free housing, quality healthcare and education.

To pay for these programs Alvarez said he would take away money from the Los Angeles Police Department, which he sees as a menace to the community. “They don’t deserve those resources,” he said, “because they actually terrorize many of our communities through police brutality and institutional racism.”

He said lowering the Los Angeles Police Department’s budget would free resources that could be used to improve local communities.

“Instead of hiring more teachers or making more schools or hospitals, we are putting more police on the street and building more prisons,” Alvarez said.

The city’s priorities are backwards, he said, and that disconnect between what programs are currently funded and which ones need to be funded hurts the working citizens.

His plan also calls for raising taxes on large corporations that are, in his eyes, responsible for the economic crisis. Working-class citizens are not to blame, he said, and the government’s utilization of flat taxes — such as sales taxes or bond-issued programs — as a solution to the problem further hurts workers who are already disproportionately shouldering the burden.

Alvarez believes that socialism can work even at the local level to strengthen the working class. He said that although his party doesn’t believe change comes through elections, his candidacy is a means of representing the people. Were he to win, he said, his programs to strengthen working-class citizens would be the beginning of a change in the mindset of how Americans viewed socialism.

Ian Thompson, 33, a non-profit lawyer and volunteer for the Party of Socialism and Liberation, said he supported Alvarez because the city’s workers need to be represented. “We need someone in touch with the working-class communities. Those communities are the ones most affected by the decisions of the government. They need to have a say and now they don’t.”

A move toward socialist ideals, said Alvarez, would help drive the economy forward. He said he supports any candidate whose goals are to help working-class citizens, including James Harris, the Socialist Workers Party candidate. Even though they are both running for mayor, Alvarez said he doesn’t consider Harris an opponent in the election. The Social Workers Party declined to comment on that statement.

And what of incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa? “I can’t find a single thing he has done that is positive,” Alvarez said. Anything good that has come about, he continued, has been because city council had no choice, not because of Villaraigosa.

Alvarez said his biggest problem with Villaraigosa was his decision not to fire Police Chief William Bratton for the “abuses in the communities, and also what happened on May Day.” The May Day injustice he refers to was the controversial tactics police used on immigrant-rights protestors on May 1, 2007 that resulted in the injury of approximately 27 protesters.

Yet even with all the positives the Party for Socialist and Liberation sees in its young candidate, there remains an underlying sense that the battle will most likely be lost.

“We are going to continue to do our work,” said Thompson, “whether that leads to an electoral victory or not, we are still going to have our say.”