Editor’s note: Mike Lee, who is homeless and a long-time activist in the San Francisco Bay Area, now in the streets, is running for Mayor of Berkeley. He has launched a serious campaign on the rights of the homeless people and others, against the gentrification and redevelopment, the criminalization of the homeless and street artists, and the city’s attempts to drive them away. He wrote this statement for the People’s Tribune:
BERKELEY CA — Look at me. Elect me. For endless months the circus of electoral politics has assailed even the most hardened of senses. On one hand you have the clown spewing his rhetoric of exclusion. On the other is a gentler kinder jester with a message wrapped in Tie Dye.
For homeless people there is no difference between the other two candidates, for neither is interested in their plight. Discarded workers left to shiver in America’s doorways because they are unable to generate a profit for the ruling class. In the midst of the national circus is the overlooked sideshow of local contests.
In Berkeley, a homeless man dares to run for Mayor. This candidate puts an end to the accepted stereotypes. Public discussion is now focused on the fact that homeless people are victims of a system which places profit before people. The platform presented speaks to the higher hopes and aspirations of all workers, both housed and unhoused. The other candidates have started to borrow pieces of this platform.
At the end of the day, electoral politics is incapable of solving homelessness. That solution will only be realized when homeless and housed workers link arms, creating a society that places the welfare of people first, and distributing the cities’ wealth according to need, not profit.
Mike for Mayor
