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The following presentation was given by Joni Jacobs at a commission hearing sponsored by the National Organization for Women (NOW) in San Francisco on May 4.

My name is Joni Jacobs. I am Socialist Action's candidate for mayor of San Francisco, an eight-year-long member of NOW, and one of the leading organizers for NOW in San Francisco for clinic defense the past two years.

I hope that this obsolete belief that it's possible to reform the Democratic Party will not be a barrier for NOW to endorse my candidacy. Our campaign is reaching out to students, feminists, people of color, antiwar activists, and working people.

I don't claim to speak for anyone or to represent anyone or anything other than my ideas. But I think those ideas are shared by only those programs it deems AID THIS OULDNT HAPPEN Socialist Action the vast majority of people in this country.

Those ideas are that we can build a better world if we put human needs before profits. We think that healthcare, housing, education, and jobs should be the priorities for San Francisco's City Hall. And we think these basic human needs are affordable if we stop taxing working people and start taxing those who benefit from the "welfare for the rich" system we have now.

The Democratic Party won't offer this perspective because they're responsible for the transfer of wealth away from working people and into the hands of the idle rich.

People talk about the devastating effects of Reaganomics. It should more accurately be called "Democrat-nomics" because the Democratic Party-controlled Congress passed every budget and tax restructuring program Reagan asked for. the interests of big business. And then even the lip service stops.

Think about the gains working people have won in this country. Everything that's ever been won has been through independent action, by not relying on either of the two capitalist parties. The suffrage movement, the labor movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement all show this. But when these movements have relied on the Democratic Party, they have bogged down.

The history of the women's movement's fight for the ERA proved that the notion of reforming the Democratic Party is obsolete. Remember the Nevada 10? We wined and cheesed ourselves to death to elect these supposedly pro-ERA state legislators, not one of whom voted for the ERA once in office.

In fact, the majority of speakers here today have pointed out the treachery of the Democratic Party, but they fail to draw the only logical conclusion.

If NOW wants to make real change happen, it must break all ties with the Democratic and Republican parties. It must challenge the economic interests which those two parties represent.

I would like the Commission to take seriously the proposal that whether or not the Commission advocates forming a third party, it advise the National NOW Convention this July to not endorse, fund, or work for any candidates from either the Democratic or Republican parties, and to endorse only those candidates who truly represent the interests of women.

Luckily for the local chapter of NOW, there is such a candidate for mayor this November—me. I'll be seeking NOW's endorsement, and I'll need your help to get on the ballot.

You know, people talk about my campaign and my socialist ideas as being utopian. But the idea that you can reform the Democratic Party—that's utopian. Of course we need a new party. What we should be talking about is the nature and character of that party. Thank you.

Joseph Ryan/Socialist Action

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