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November 25, 2003
I voted yesterday for Matt Gonzalez. I voted
early, because I’ll be away during the election,
but I hope those of you who will be here will
consider not only voting, but helping to get out
the vote. I know there is already a strong campaign
among progressives to register voters, and I was
delighted to see friends of mine wearing "Anarchists
for Matt Gonzalez" buttons.
As you know, I usually stay out of electoral politics.
But I can’t bear the thought of San Francisco
falling into the control of Newsome, a man who
has come to power on the backs of the homeless,
who represents the most cynical workings of the
political machine. I think Gonzalez still has
a chance, however slim, and a victory right now
would be important on many levels.
Progressive movements and ideas arise out of real
communities. All the internet organizing and
virtual spokescouncils in the world can’t replace
a real community of people who actually run into
each other at the grocery store and meet face
to face. We need ground to stand on, turf, real
places where we struggle with day to day issues
with those who share some of our values.
San Francisco has always been one of those places—an
island of liberating, progressive vision, a magnet
for artists and revolutionaries, poets and writers
and dancers, free thinkers and all those exploring
the edges from political insurrection to sexual
liberation. But San Francisco also has another
side: the city of old money and new dot-com wealth,
of backroom deals and payoffs and machine politics.
I’ve live here for twenty-eight years, and I’ve
seen artists and writers and youth priced out
of her neighborhoods. Young families can no longer
afford to raise kids here. Ordinary working people
can no longer afford to live here. I don’t think
the vibrancy of this city can survive under one
more mayor in the pocket of developers, who serves
corporate interests over people. And if we lose
San Francisco as a progressive heart, we lose
a major center of cutting edge thinking and political
practice.
A victory for Gonzalez would also have important
repercussions for the national elections. It
would say to the cynical, pandering Democrats
that all the deal making in the world cannot prevail
against an aroused public. It would put the progressive
vote on the map. It would give us a Green mayor
of a major city.
Hallinan is also on the ballot—and he’s been a
good friend to activists, consistently declining
to prosecute protestors. He deserves to be re-elected,
and a strong progressive turnout would also help
him.
So please vote on December 9—get your friends
to vote, volunteer if you can to help get out
the vote. Let’s turn the tide here in San Francisco!
-- Starhawk
Copyright (c) 2003 by Starhawk. All rights reserved. This copyright protects Starhawk's right to future publication of her work. Nonprofit, activist, and educational groups may circulate this essay (forward it, reprint it, translate it, post it, or reproduce it) for nonprofit uses. Please do not change any part of it without permission.