Elections simply confirm the class struggle that has preceded them and it is clear from the San Francisco election results for November 8, 2011 that the needs and interests of the workingclass are held in total contempt with the electorate’s support of Proposition C, one of 2 anti-city worker pension destruction propositions placed on the ballot by Democrats.
The pro-labor position is to reject all such proposals and demand that the city government tax the rich by setting up a corporate profits tax for the large corporations while increasing employment by eliminating the payroll tax.
Proposition C was supported by Ed Lee, the Democratic interim mayor endorsed by the San Francisco Republican Party, and was placed on the ballot by the entire Board of Supervisors, all Democrats, including mayoral candidates John Avalos, David Chiu and Bevan Dufty and supported by mayoral candidate, State Senator Leland Yee. It was also supported by the Democratic Party and its lickspittles, the labor lieutenants of capitalism known as the San Francisco Labor Council, which should have and could have placed a corporate profits proposal on the ballot. San Francisco is a very wealthy city with lots of millionaires and billionaires and lots of large corporations making large profits.
San Francisco has about 800,000 people, of whom about 16% are children, leaving 672,000 adults, of whom 143,806 voted and had ballots counted. The actual number of votes will increase in the next couple weeks as all the ballots are counted. Since it appears that figure will be less than 300,000, this was a low voter turnout, property owners election. Most of the workingclass who bother to vote did not vote in this election. Most of the workingclass in San Francisco are tenants.
Since we have instant runoff voting, it is unknown as to the outcome of the mayor’s race, but some things are known, and the results so far are shameful and put to rest the illusion that there is anything progressive about San Francisco. Let us start with the registration. San Francisco has some 259,000 registered Democrats, 136,000 decline to state, most of whom vote Democrat, 44,000 registered Republicans, 8,500 registered Greens and 1,500 registered Peace & Freedom. In the 2010 November general election for governor and others, 49,000 voted for the Republican governor candidate. Republicans vote in every election, as should all other voters. In a low voter turnout election, their strength is much greater than their numbers. We can see that in the first round vote for Republican Party endorsed Democratic interim mayor Ed Lee, who won 44,451 votes so far, or 31% of the vote, leading the list of 16 mayoral candidates.
Terry Baum, the Green Party’s candidate for mayor, and the only one who called for taxing the rich and opposing Props C&D, the 2 anti-city worker pension destruction propositions, is in 11th place with 2280 votes. It is clear that Green Party and Peace & Freedom Party members, who are the base of Baum’s vote, are mostly not voting their conscience but instead are playing games with their vote, commonly known as “strategic voting” or “lesser evil” voting. The whole point of being a member of the Green Party and Peace & Freedom Party is to vote your conscience. Hopefully, for their 2d and 3rd choices, the members of these 2 parties who bothered to vote will have voted for Terry Baum for mayor so that Ms. Baum moves up to at least 8th place. For more on Terry Baum, see:
http://terryjoanbaum.com/ Most city workers are not police and make far less than the $100,000 a year and up plus benefits that the police receive. Most city workers’ pensions are about $25,000 a year OR LESS. Cutting city worker pensions is VICIOUSLY ANTI-LABOR. The ballot arguments in the Voter Handbook against Proposition C make it clear that this is a pension destruction proposition. Many city workers will now be unable to pay for their health benefits and will not qualify for Healthy San Francisco. Most notable ballot arguments against Prop C were by Peace & Freedom Party, Patrick Monette-Shaw and Denise D’Anne, and the rest of the anti-Prop C arguments were also good.
For more on Proposition C’s horrors, see:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/10/18692945.php Here are the 2 pages in PDF format:
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2011/10/10/no_on_c__no_on_d__-_page_1.pdf http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2011/10/10/no_on_c__no_on_d__-_page_2.pdf Propositions C&D were opposed by Peace & Freedom Party, the Green Party and the San Francisco Tenants Union.
Clearly, we do not have any thinking going on; we have Democratic Party robot voting. We also had lots of election fraud on the part of Ed Lee’s campaign, as was reported in the press, and that should have disqualified him from the race. For more on the election fraud, see:
The audio is the news report by Ann Garrison on KPFA, 94.1 FM, 10/22/11, 6 p.m. news at
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/23/18694626.php (has Ann's audio excerpt and pictures from the video below)
And here is the video:
http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2011/10/21/witnesses-ed-lee-supporters-mark-others-ballots/?tsp=1 There are also allegations of money-laundering by the Ed Lee campaign, in collaboration with a notorious eviction strongman, Archway Property Services, which terrorized tenants at apartments owned by CitiApartments. Archway asked its employees to contribute $500 each to Lee's campaign, claiming they would be reimbursed.
As to the bond measures, Props A, the school bonds, and Props B, the road bonds are passing. San Francisco tenants may be paying for the road bonds as they can be passed through by landlords to tenants.
Proposition C, placed on the entire Board of Supervisors, all Democrats, is passing with 68% of the vote. Proposition C was promoted by Republican billionaire financier Warren Hellman who paid $200,000 for an actuary and at least $100,000 for the campaign.
Proposition D, a charter amendment placed on the ballot by at least 46,559 signatures, and promoted by Democratic mayoral candidate, Public Defender Jeff Adachi, is losing with 66% voting No. Prop D was financed by venture capitalist Michael Moritz and businessman George Hume, who each gave $250,000 to the campaign. They have contributed to Republicans in Ohio and Wisconsin, including anti-labor governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker. Moritz is a Democrat and Hume is a Republican.
Proposition E, an anti-democratic measure allowing the Board of Supervisors to repeal what we vote on, put on the ballot by Democratic supervisors Chiu, Chu, Cohen, Elsbernd, Farrell, Kim and Wiener, is losing. Please note that only 4 supervisors or a sufficient number of voter signatures on a petition are necessary to put propositions on the ballot.
Proposition F, allowing more anti-democratic measures concerning campaign consultants, put on the ballot by the entire Board of Supervisors, all Democrats, is also losing.
Proposition G, the anti-worker, regressive sales tax, put on the ballot by the entire Board of Supervisors, all Democrats, is losing.
Proposition H, the racist “neighborhood schools” declaration of policy, put on the ballot by at least 7,168 signatures, is passing.
To see the daily updates of the election results, go to:
http://www.sfelections.org/results/20111108/ We now turn our attention to the presidential campaign of 2012 where everybody in Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party have no excuse but to vote their conscience. Peace & Freedom Party also needs your registration to stay on the ballot. For more on both parties, see:
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/ and
http://www.cagreens.org/