Land of the rich and home of the homeless

Scan page 16

By SYLVIA San Francisco is a "Democratic" city. That is, the mayor is a Democrat and at least 10 of the 11 supervisors are Democrats. The election campaigns are always touted as "independent" but they are far from independent. Money pours into the coffers of "independent" Democrats from the rich of this city. Those who pay the piper call the tune. That's what happens in San Francisce.

San Francisco has been turned into the playground of the rich. Housing for the working class and the poor has been torn down to allow for construction of high-rent condominiums. Large areas of the city have been turned over to luxury hotels and tourist attractions. The city has become a nest of high-cost restaucan only find new ways to give tax breaks to the wealthy. At one time, in this beautiful city, children could go for free to the zoo, museums, and such places as the Japanese tea garden in Golden Gate park. Not now.

Labor has also felt the whip of our Democratic politicians. Anti-labor injunctions have been issued by the Democratic-controlled courts, turning freedom of speech and assembly into a joke. In this city the right to free speech and assembly is not for striking workers.

Just ask the workers at Macy's and Emporium department stores, who were thrown in jail for violating an injunction that restricted their right to picket. Or ask the restaurant workers who are on now on strike and have also been arrested for picketing. The politicians leave no doubt on whose side they are.

I am sure that this description of conditions in San Francisco is typical of most cities-whether Democratic-or Republican-controlled. The political system is set up to guarantee profits first and foremost. Whichever Democratic or Republican lovelies are elected, they are certain to continue their attacks against working people, turning more of our resources over to the rich to do with as they please.

However, I'm convinced that this system is living on borrowed time. Working people, just as those in other countries, will rise up against their oppressors and take control over their destiny.

Whatever we have gained has been won in struggle. Women fought for and won their right to vote. Trade unions were organized in spite of the cops, bosses, and courts. Black parents and their children marched by the millions in Selma, Montgomery, and elsewhere to destroy Jim Crow segregation. Copper miners in Arizona are showing the same fighting capacity as the miners of England. The people of Latin America have fought against oppression and have made giant gains in Cuba and Nicaragua. That's the future-a future for the human race-not the rat race. sentenced to 99 years in prison.

The next night Springsteen told his audience of a long walk he took from the Lincoln Monument to the Vietnam Wend is a moral in We hinged, Prom "And it's a long way,' he added, a government that's supposed to represent all of the people to where we are today... and sometimes it's hard to remember that this place belongs to us, that this is our hometown."

Springsteen then sang "Our Hometown, a song about a father showing his son the closed factories where he used to work.

"There's something really dangerous happening to us out there, Springsteen said. "We're slowly getting split up into two different Americas. Things are getting taken away from people that need them and given to people that don't need them. And there's a promise being broken."

Springsteen then dedicated a song to the rank-and-file steelworkers of Local 1397, headed by Ron Weisen, who has led the rank-and-file caucus that is challenging the national union bureaucracy. After the concert Springsteen met with Weisen and later announced that he was donating $10,000 to a United Steelworkers' food bank to assist unemployed steelworkers.

Considering the voluminous files the FBI keeps on the views of ordinary citizens, you would think it would have been quite easy for the Reagan men to have figured out where Springsteen stood before trying to enlist him in their campaign.

Of course, there is a not unfounded theory that anyone who trusts George Will as a rock music critic has a serious problem and deserves what they get. But considering Reagan's illustrious acting career, it isn't surprising that he looks to Will for musical enlightenment.

Reagan's uninformed attempt to swing a few votes with Springsteen's help resulted in a minor fiasco for the president's campaign. "Bruce may have been 'born to run," Walter Mondale gloated, "but he wasn't born yesterday."

Mondale too, may have been born to run (a losing campaign, that is) but there is no word that he has Spring-