S.F. candidate fights exclusion from debate

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IDEAS!

Alan Benjamin/Socialist Action SAN FRANCISCO-"Joe Ryan doesn't have money but he has ideas!" "Let all the candidates debate!" These slogans summed up the theme on Oct. 14 as Socialist Action supporters brought their skills as picketline organizers to the electoral arena.

The demonstration, which protested the exclusion of independent candidates from a televised debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters (LWV), was a centerpoint of the campaign of Joseph Ryan for mayor of San Francisco.

The LWV, a "non-partisan" community service group encouraging. "the exercise of democratic rights through the election process," required that candidates gain support of 10 percent or more in published opinion polls before being allowed to speak from the stage.

This policy allowed only three out of the Il candidates with ballot status to address the voters in the first televised debate of the race. The chosen three are all millionaires.

Ryan for Mayor campaign staffers negotiated with the LWV, pointing out that only rich candidates can afford the advertising which generates the name recognition measured in these polls. Besides, the two San Francisco daily newspapers, The Chronicle and The Examiner, which were relied upon by the LWV for their polls, have consistently refused to cover the Ryan campaign.

"The League's policy amounts to censorship," Ryan said. "It denies the voters the right to hear all viewpoints. The League caters to candidates with more money than ideas and ignores the democratic rights of all candidates."

When the LWV refused to back down from its exclusionary policy, outraged supporters of Ryan's right to speak picketed the event, calling for the LWV to open the debate to all candidates.

Ironically, the picketline garnered interviews for Ryan on two television and two radio stations. He was chosen as spokesperson for the other excluded candidates.

"A war against youth"

The Ryan for Mayor campaign also carried its program into high school auditoriums, union halls, and community groups last month. "I'm the socialist candidate," Ryan told the student body of Alamo High School, an alternative school where students finish their education while working and supporting families.

"The Vietnam War turned me into a socialist," Ryan said. "There's a war going on right now that's going to turn you into socialists. In San Francisco there's a war going on against youth."

"This system is based on racism and sexism," he continued. "Working people are getting poorer, and the rich are getting richer. We must moblize ourselves independent of the politicians." The socialist candidate received a loud, enthusiastic round of applause from the students.

Ryan also got a friendly response from supporters of the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association when he congratulated them in their efforts to stop developers from buying up nearby land for so-called affordable housing. The city government was "giving away" the land, originally reserved for a new library for S.F. City College, to real estate developers for a meager $36,000.

"They'll put in one or two units of 'affordable' housing," said Ryan, "and make record profits by renting the rest of the units for $1000 to $1500 a month. Housing is a basic right that should not be used to make profits."

Ryan pointed out to the meeting that "it's only when you organize yourselves independent of the Democrats and Republicans that you can win your basic rights.

"Only through struggle"

A meeting of members of the Postal Workers Union warmly received Ryan's comments about union busting and the role of police as strike breakers and scab herders.

"Unlike the other candidates before you tonight," Ryan told the unionists, "I believe everyone has the right to a job, that human needs come before profits, and that Joseph Ryan speaks to Alamo High School students television interviews with "experts" which the only people who are going to make things better for this city, this country, and this world are you—the working people.' "Unlike the other candidates, I say that electing an individual is not going to make a difference, even if you elect a socialist."

"Our rewards will only come through struggle," Ryan concluded. "But you're stuggling right now. You're struggling to raise a family, pay your rent, and make a decent life for yourselves in this society. Only when we struggle together in an organized-and independent—political party can we win our basic human rights."

Ryan is scheduled to appear with the other mayoral candidates on the local educational channel on Oct. 28 at 9:00 p.m. • Adam Wood/Socialist Action analysis, that turning the presses loose.

Every dollar the government prints to pay its debts-unsupported by new revenues—proportionately reduces the real value of every dollar in circulation. In other words, the debt guarantor of last resort—the toiling classes in the United States and in the world—will be targeted to pay for the bankruptcy of capitalism.

It is not possible to immediately know whether or not the stock market plunge of Black Monday 1987 will immediately be followed by a deep recession like that of the 1930s. Capitalism still has some options for buying a little more time. But they invariably involve paying for a temporary respite with the cruelest and most unfair form of taxation: inflation.

While recessions are deflationary, the period ahead will most certainly see an unprecedented rise in the rate of inflation, as capitalism attempts to bail itself out through increased deficit spending and other measures intended to spur a lagging economy.

This means the period of relative labor quiescence is about to come to an end. After the crash of 1929 it took nearly five years before a shocked and paralyzed working class was able to react against the massive cuts in living standards. But in the current crisis, inflation-caused reductions in living standards—as capitalism desperately strives to find new ground for restabilizing the economy-will force working people onto the field of class struggle much sooner.