If we want utilities that truly serve human needs, and a shot at preventing the worst effects of climate change, we must abolish all private utilities. Energy joins water, waste disposal, telecommunications, and transportation as essential services that must be brought under full democratic control, with revenues being reinvested in providing better, greener service at lower rates to the public.
Op-Eds
Op-eds
The Rent is Too Damn High
Proposition 10 stands to repeal Costa Hawkins, a brutal law that is in no small part responsible for our state having somewhere between a fifth and a fourth of the nationās estimated homeless population. Costa Hawkins has made every single-family home, apartment, and condominium built after 1995 exempt from rent control (a price ceiling on …
The Shameful History of San Francisco’s Homelessness Policy
The homelessness crisis in SF is all over the international news, and Proposition C on the November ballot proposes to fund the most comprehensive package of services for addressing the issue in the cityās history. Built on best practices learned over the last thirty years, it prioritizes housing rather than services on the street, and …
5 Facts about Prop C
In the era of Fake News, Donald Trump and the Kardashians, can we really afford any more confusion? Call us āSnopes of the Proletariatā, ācause we got your facts, right here.
Our Housing Crisis Is Out Of (Local) Control
Not In My Backyard, Forest HillĀ Edition Earlier in 2018, the Mayorās Office of Housing and Community DevelopmentĀ dropped a proposed development in Forest HillĀ that would have changed the lives of 150 low-income, formerly homeless seniors by providing them with permanent, affordable housing. The city and Supervisor Yeeās stated reason for torpedoing the development was that the …
Exiting the Magic Kingdom
Burned by the junta in Chile, and effectively banned from the US over copyright infringement claims,Ā How To Read Donald DuckĀ is a guide to exposing the ideology in mass culture and a call to extricate the aspects which teach us to subjugate and be subjugated. If It Looks Like AnĀ Empireā¦ On September 11, 1973, a coalition …
San Francisco’s Chamber of Horrors
Editorās Note: The SF Chamber of Commerce relaunched its website after this piece was written, sending much of their record of supporting anti-worker/anti-tenant policies into the memory hole. Several links in this article will make use of the Internet Archive and Googleās cache to source the history of the Chamberās policy agenda. Given the severity …
The Gall of Galles
On July 20th the SF Chronicle ran an op-ed arguing against rent control. In an extreme case of headline abuse, they slammed rent control and inclusionary housing as āself-interested and harmful.ā In a city that is majority renter, with more than 60% of renters protected by rent-control, arenāt the real self-interested parties the corporate developers …
The Board of Supervisors Did the Right Thing on Tasers
Yesterday, San Franciscoās Board of Supervisors did the right thing. During a meeting of the Boardās Budget and Finance Committee, which has oversight on the cityās disbursements, Supervisors voted 3ā2 to deny the funding that would have equipped the San Francisco Police Department with Tasers. This vote effectively and indefinitely denies SFPD access to Tasers. …
Our Pride: None of your Business
Why do we celebrate LGBTQ+ pride? Pride is a celebration of LGBTQ visibility, community, and resilience. The exploitation and persecution of LGBTQ+ people by bigots and the American state has been persistent, strategic, and often violent. Not long ago, police raids on LGBTQ gathering spots were common; raids in the 1960s at places like Gene …
London Breed Hates Your City
Are you voting in the mayoral election? Do you live in San Francisco? Do you love San Francisco? Would you prefer a beautiful, multicultural city to a grim Ayn Rand dystopia? If so, then London Breed is going to disagree with you. Unless you are super-rich, London Breed is not on your sideāāāand here is …
Building an Ecosocialist Housing Policy: Lessons from SB 827
SB 827 is done and dusted, at least for now. Throughout the debate on the controversial bill, one critical factor remained mostly unexamined: what effect would this proposed housing and transportation legislation have had on the environment? Now, though the specter of SB 827 is in Californiaās collective rear-view, it is important to discuss the …