----- Original Message -----
From: John A Imani
To: May 19th Movement
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 11:26 AM
Subject: [May 19th Movement] Why We Need Workers' Candidates to Run in Los
Angeles-Meeting
(The abdication by City Council to freeze the rent (in light of almost zero
inflation) shows the failure that the 'inside strategy' of playing to elected
officials good hearts. This (in)action demonstrates that these officials cater
to their own interest by catering to the interests of their finacial backers,
in this case, the landlords. That's fine, now that we understand, we ought get
ours. A united workers campaign concentrating (initially) upon Council
Districts 8 (Parks) and 9 (Perry) can ignite the class consciousness of the
working (mainly, 'minority') population.) They got the money, but we can get
the votes.)
Platform
1.) the right to a job for all wanting to work at a 'union-wage'; 2.) the
right to housing and an end to involuntary homelessness; 3.) the right to free
and quality health-care; 4.) the right to free education up to the person's
ability; 5.) the right to participate in real job-training so as to
dramatically improve the skill levels of the unemployed, the underemployed and,
those who are for now, unemployables; 6.) the right of a worker to go to where
he/she can best provide for themselves and their families; 7.) the right to
municipal voting whereby the qualification for the franchise is residency (and
not what is called 'citizenship').
Class Struggles in Los Angeles 2010
Before the HCED of the City Council of Los Angeles a motion made to place a 1
year moratorium on rent increases by Councilman Alarcon and amended by
Councilman Herb Wesson of the 10th District to limit the moratorium to 4 months
(and a possible 2 extra months) passed with a notable exception of Jan Perry of
the 9th District. The motion will now go before the full City Council.
On one side stood the landlords; the big and, especially, the small given their
space to speak and be cheered rather wildly by the crowd of supporters. They
explained what hardships such a moratorium would bring them. And in truth,
their inability to raise rents would mean, everything else being equal, their
inability to improve their property. In counter to this there is a law that
allows the landlords to pass on the costs of such improvements to the renter
(CITE?). In counter to that while it is true that the freeze would impair
such landlords who do pass on increases in rent into improvements in property,
the landlords would be vastly outnumbered by those who would be hurt if such a
suspension of rent increase were not put into place. In addition to that, Mr
Wesson advised that due to the crisis and the causing and resulting decline in
the 'value' of such residential property that the coming re-assessment (for
purpose of property taxes) that these landlords would be receiving a tax
decrease upon their properties.
This crisis is hurting almost all but it is inflicting greater wounds upon
those of us who have no property, those of us who have nothing but their
ability to work, those of us standing on the other side of the city council
chambers, facing up to the owners who seek to further increase their livelihood
at the expense of those of us who, in truth, have nothing more to give.
Here is the rub. The landlords bring with them two weapons which they are in
no way hesitant to use. They bring with them the ability to make political
contributions for or against elected officials who stand again for office.
Further, they bring an almost certainty of these very same people exercising
their personal franchise to cast a vote for or against this or that politician
or would-be-politician. And lastly, they are organized as they demonstrated
with strategically placed in the back of the room cheerleaders who began (and
clapped to the end) when one of them spoke. Arrayed against these are us. Who
are we? We are many. We are many more than them. What do we have? Nothing.
Nothing, that is, that we can fork over to the political cash-wagons of this or
that politician. Where is our power, in this arena? Many, though not all,
also have the right to vote but do so at a percentage far les than our
adversaries.
We must run comrades for political office who will stand up not only for those
who vote for them but also those who cannot vote for them. This last we
cannot, as yet, immediately do anything about. But we can do something about
those who could vote for our representative, but in the past have not exercised
their right to vote. These comrades know their interests which is nothing but
our interest but have not been inspired by any candidate to make the efforts to
not only vote but also to impress this urgency upon their friends, their
relatives and, most importantly, themselves.
Our candidate must be one of us. He/she must be directly responsible to us and
only us just as the candidates of wealth are answerable to those who fund their
campaigns. He/she ought take this position at a workingman's wage, say $50,000
which is approximately the yearly total of a 'union-waged' position paying
$20/hr with all above that allocated to a fund for either political or social
purposes aimed at improving the lives of the poor and workers receiving wages
up to that of a 'union wage'. This candidate must also articulate, advocate
and advance the three (JAI: 6) necessaries: 1.) the right to a job for all
wanting to work at a 'union-wage': 2.) The right to housing and an end to
involuntary homelessness; 3.) the right to free and quality health-care; 4.)
the right to free education up to the person's ability; 5.) the right to
participate in real job-training so as to dramatically improve the skill levels
of the unemployed, the underemployed and, those who are for now, the
unemployables; and, 6.) the right of a worker to go to where he/she can best
provide for themselves and their families; 7.) the right to municipal voting
whereby the qualification for the franchise is residency (and not what is
called 'citizenship').
Meeting Thurs July 29th
Coalition LA 2500 Wilshire Bl #908
6:30
The May 19th Movement, named for the day being the day of the group's first
meeting as well as also being the birthdate of both Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh,
is dedicated to the development of a local independent political party with the
express purpose of finding, running and electing working class candidates to
office in Los Angeles to represent the interests of the poor and the working
poor.
Subscribe at: https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/may19thmovement
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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