SAN JOSE, CA — As the California Primary on March 3 looms just ahead, we find ourselves in a fight for our lives. Articles on these pages reflect some of these fights: from Moms 4 Housing in Oakland fighting for their families not to freeze outside while investment housing remains vacant; to the residents in Southeast L.A., campaigning for environmental justice; to Decarcerate Sacramento that won a victory against expansion of the downtown jail, to the homeless in San Jose speaking out against Trump’s proposed roundups.
The main battlefield of these struggles at this time is the fight for power in the electoral arena. Inspired by Bernie Sanders’ Political Revolution, brave fighters are challenging the hold of corporations on the California Democratic Party and stepping forward to run for office. Young and old are phoning, texting, and walking precincts to make sure that authentic leaders who stand for what we need get elected. The California Progressive Alliance, which had its annual meeting in Berkeley on January 11, is one of the formations taking on corporate Democrats.
The fight for democracy includes opposing voter suppression and disenfranchisement. Nation-wide, cross-check and other voter purge mechanisms in southern and battleground states have deprived millions of their right to vote, especially African-Americans. Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, who have been long-time contributors to the economy, face barriers to citizenship and have no say in elections. Current and formerly incarcerated people are either denied the right to vote or face hurdles to exercising that right. Native Americans on reservations are being targeted because they have no street address.
This suppression also extends to the barriers that those who registered as No Party Preference in California, often millennials, will face if they want to vote for Sanders in the Democratic Primary, as happened in 2016. This voter suppression imposed by the California Democratic Party is destined to be repeated in March, as those who do not know how to specifically request a crossover ballot will see their vote languish for weeks in a pile of “provisional” ballots, and often not counted.
Let us continue our righteous fight for democracy, on the streets, at the ballot box, in city council chambers and in the California legislature!
