Op-Eds

Op-eds

Should DSA SF Endorse Chesa Boudin for District Attorney?

Two members share their views on a potential DSA endorsement of Chesa Boudin. Alejandro Schuler argues for an endorsement, while Melissa Hernandez argues against. DSA SF should endorse Chesa Boudin Chesa Boudin, an openly socialist deputy public defender whose parents were Marxist revolutionaries, is running for San Francisco district attorney. He speaks explicitly about addressing …

Why Should We Build a Public Bank?

Once upon a time, the United States had a much more diverse financial system. But by the end of the first Gilded Age, large Wall Street institutions had established a virtual stranglehold over the plumbing of our economy. That might change if AB857, a bill to allow the creation of publicly-owned financial institutions, passes in …

San Francisco is Waging War on Homeless People

On April 12th, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and two other ghoulish right-wing organizations filed a lawsuit against 2018’s Prop C ballot measure, citing a California Constitutional amendment that requires a two-thirds majority of voters for any tax increase. Until the case is decided–which might take years–the city can’t release the Prop C funds it …

Take the Power Back

In 1852, the official seal of the newly-established San Francisco Gas Company bore the words fiat lux– let there be light. A century and a half later, the time has come to say “lights out” to its successor, the company we now call PG&E. California’s energy history has always been a fight between those who …

DSA SF’s Red Star Caucus on the Bernie Sanders Endorsement Vote

The National Political Committee of DSA is currently debating the question of whether or not to endorse Bernie Sanders’s campaign for president. While Red Star San Francisco does not have a common stance on whether the national organization ought to endorse his campaign, we are united in a critique of it, and in an understanding of our role as socialists engaging in electoral struggles.

San Francisco Wants Union Beer

On February 7th, workers at Anchor Brewing Co. announced their intent to unionize with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), citing low pay, cuts in hours, and rising costs of benefits. The announcement was the culmination of a year-long underground organizing drive supported by the ILWU and The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) San …

Solidarity with Park Rangers

Who do our National Parks really serve: the public or the profit motive? With the government shutdown, national parks and public lands have been closed throughout the US. But during the holidays, Alcatraz and Muir Woods–two of the most visited parks in the Bay Area–stayed open. The Department of the Interior has decided that national parks …

Deadly Wildfires Prove We Must Nationalize PG&E — and Every Other Utility

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.

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 nation’s 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 city’s 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 “Snopes of the Proletariat”, ‘cause we got your facts, right here.

Our Housing Crisis Is Out Of (Local) Control

Not In My Backyard, Forest Hill Edition Earlier in 2018, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development dropped a proposed development in Forest Hill that would have changed the lives of 150 low-income, formerly homeless seniors by providing them with permanent, affordable housing. The city and Supervisor Yee’s stated reason for torpedoing the development was that the …