What Difference Would A Socialist Supervisor Make?

Scan page 17

San Francisco is a "Democratic" city. The mayor and most members and candidates for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors are Democrats. The election campaigns are always touted as "independent," but these "independ -ent" Democrats receive huge campaign contributions from the rich of this city. And those who pay the piper call the tune.

San Francisco has been turned into the playground of the rich. Large areas of the city have been given over to tourist attractions and luxury hotels.

Housing for the working class and the poor has been torn down to allow for construction of high-priced condominiums and office buildings.

The Western Addition, which used to be primarily a Black neighborhood, looks like it has been stepped on by Godzilla. Redevelopment was supposed to provide new employment opportunities for Blacks. But it provided few jobs and forced most of the residents to leave their community for other areas.

Labor has also felt the whip of our Democratic politicians. Striking work -ers have been thrown in jail for violating court injunctions that restricted their right to picket. City police are used routinely to herd strikebreakers through picketlines.

I am running for the Board of Supervisors with a different idea in mind—the overwhelming majority of the people of San Francisco, the workers, are the ones who should run the city.

What would that mean?

It would mean that the needs of working people-jobs, housing, education, and public services—would come first. Working people have created tremendous wealth for the employers who run this city. On top of that, workers are disproportionately taxed while many big corporations pay nothing. It's time to return that wealth to the people.

The Socialist Action campaign says that working people can and must organize themselves into a politically independent party, a labor party based on the unions, that will represent their interests. My campaign offers San Francisco voters an alternative to voting for the Democrats-and Republi -cans too. Both of the major parties are responsible for the attacks on working people.

I became a socialist over 40 years ago. I am more convinced than ever of the rightness of socialism. I believe that working people have the potential to build a new society that is in the interests of all the exploited and oppressed.

About the candidate

Sylvia Weinstein is a long-time activist in the women's movement and the socialist movement. She has been a member of the National Organization for Women (NOW) since 1973 and served on its Executive Board from 1975 until 1982. She serves on the Reproductive Rights Committee of NOW and was active in building the March for Women's Lives in March of this year.

Weinstein is a leading proponent of expanding public childcare and served on the Childcare Initiative Task Force and the Health and Childcare Committee of the Commission on the Status of Women. She also served on the Children's Center Expansion Committee of the school district, which helped get increased funding for childcare on the heels of the passage of the Childcare Initiative.

Weinstein has organized several solidarity campaigns for workers on strike here and around the world, including Polish Solidarity. She is active in the struggles against U.S. Intervention in Central America and against U.S. ties to apartheid in South Africa.

Sylvia Weinstein is a founding member of Socialist Action and a columnist for Socialist Action newspaper. She has been a socialist since 1945. She has three grandchildren.

In 1984, Weinstein was a candidate for 10,000 votes. HOARD of BOARD of SUPERVISORS SUPERVISORS IS, a gislatior medical

----- pull-quotes -----

ACTiON It will be a great day when our schools get