One day before the election, on November 2nd, the Mission District commemorated their lost loved ones at the annual “Dia de los Muertos” event. Late into the evening, the energetic drumming of the youth emanated from 24th and Mission proving that even with many lost, we are still here, “aquí estamos y no nos vamos.” The seemingly ceaseless life that the Mission showed that evening was an appropriate backdrop to what was expected to be a hard-fought election to save the Mission and San Francisco in general for working people.
As the numbers come in on November 3rd, what can be certain is that when the system no longer feels threatened, the big landlords, investors, CEOs, and the politicians and city officials that serve them, can openly buy off and manipulate the supposed “democratic” process which is meant to “legitimize” their rule over us.
In this election, Airbnb, temporary housing-based company, demonstrated the farce that is the electoral game in SF (and more broadly in the US) by pouring in $8 million+ to defeat Prop. F. Prop F was put on the ballot in an attempt to slow down the runaway rise in rents in the city. Airbnb’s campaign donation represented 96% of campaign funds available to the NO on F campaign. For a company that is valued at $25.5 billion, $8 million is chump change, another investment to continue kicking out families who depended on their homes for basic subsistence. The $8 million was used to buy an unceasing stream of lying radio and TV ads and a forest’s worth of lying mailers.
This latest exercise in “Dollar Democracy,” was supported by the SF Chronicle. San Francisco’s only daily newspaper uncontrollably ran anti-homeless and anti-poor news coverage that claimed Ed Lee was a “realist” who was beating back immature idealists seeking more humane solutions to the massive inequity in San Francisco. They claimed there was no opposition to Lee while independent mayoral candidates worked tirelessly uphill to garner votes. The full force and power of capital, money plus influence, was set in motion to preserve the status quo.
Headlines from around the country, as well as around the world, point to the incredible housing costs where rents in SF now average $3,500. More shocking figures point to a Black population reduced to less than 6%; the kicking out of 8,000 Latino families in just three years; the forcing out of hundreds of teachers who can no longer afford to live where they teach; and the horrid conditions of homelessness even amongst our children. What is clear is that those currently in power, are the super-rich who only care about maximizing profit. Poor and working people, who are facing housing, job and basic food insecurity cannot hope to match the dollars that they use to buy the elections.
Yet, history has proven time and time again, that the people are more powerful than ruling elite when we unite and fight. There is a new generation of activists and organizers, many who would consider themselves revolutionaries who want to fight for a different future. We are learning how to be creative and effective in bringing our message and our organizing to a wider public. Our organizing has won important reforms meant to alleviate the weight of capitalism on poor and working people.
This grassroots organizing shows its effectiveness more prominently outside the golden dome of power. It is when the people confront that which exploits and oppresses their existence that genuine power is built. And this power has never been exercised primarily through the ballot box. Malcolm X said it, the Black Panthers proved it, and oppressed countries around the world changed their entire history and continue to do so based on this principle.
We must build a politically independent and genuinely progressive movement in San Francisco, the Bay Area and across the country, one that raises the legitimate slogan “Human Rights OVER Property Rights.” The right of the people to housing must come before the right of the developers, speculators and landlords—and the banks who stand behind—to profit. Today, thousands of housing units sit empty in San Francisco while thousands are homeless and tens of thousands live in overcrowded and unsafe conditions. It is an outrage that shows again the bankruptcy of capitalism.
We will need to be bold. We will need to raise the unfiltered demands created by the grassroots struggles themselves. We must challenge the capitalist system itself and demonstrate that the only alternative is socialism.
SF and the Mission for Poor and Working People Will be Won in the Streets!
