Justice, from Iraq to S.F.

MARCH 20, 2003: thousands of antiwar activists and organizers shut down downtown San Francisco to protest the invasion of Iraq. Sept. 16, 2003: many of the same people celebrated as a year and a half of hard work and organizing paid off and the Board of Supervisors finally voted down Proposition N, Sup. Gavin Newsom’s attack on homeless people known as Care Not Cash.

Although these two victories happened on different stages, recognizing that they are different pieces of the same struggle is a crucial step toward winning justice in both arenas.

Internationally, the so-called war on terror continues, centered on the ongoing occupation of Iraq. Nationally, attacks on immigrants and on civil liberties continue, including expanding new pieces of the PATRIOT Act. Locally, although Care Not Cash has finally been defeated, Newsom continues his attempts to gain political power through scapegoating some of the most vulnerable people in our community with Proposition M, which would criminalize panhandling.

The local, national, and international attacks all reflect the same logic. When poor people, people of color, and homeless people in San Francisco are treated as disposable, the lives of people of color in Iraq and Afghanistan are more easily cast as expendable.

These attacks are all part of a major push to consolidate power and wealth into the hands of a small number of already very rich and powerful people and corporations. Their attack is multifaceted, so we must resist their aggression on every level – and we are.

The largest international antiwar movement the world has ever seen blossomed in response to the Bush administration’s plans for endless war. Right now more than a thousand immigrant workers and allies are en route with the Freedom Ride to New York, exposing structural racism in the United States and demanding civil rights (including the reunification of families, worker protection, and a path to citizenship for immigrants), in the spirit of the 1960s Freedom Riders. In San Francisco, groups like People Organized to Win Employment Rights, the Coalition on Homelessness, and the Day Labor Program are building off the long-overdue defeat of Prop. N to fight Prop M. Also on the November ballot is a proposed citywide minimum-wage increase, which could enable working-class individuals and families to stay in this city.

To win the fight against U.S. imperialism and to beat back downtown developers and corporate control in San Francisco will take massive, broad, multiclass, multiracial, grassroots movements willing and able to respond to attacks on all levels. Taking to the streets in protest of new bombings and continued occupation, resisting the PATRIOT Act, and fighting against Prop. M and for an increased minimum wage are all ways to build these movements.

An example of local and global organizing to build stronger movements occurred recently in Oakland. After the Oakland Police Department opened fire on peaceful antiwar protesters at the Oakland docks with so-called less-lethal weaponry, a coalition of community groups, including People United for a Better Oakland and Bay Area PoliceWatch, joined Direct Action to Stop the War in holding the OPD accountable. This successful collaboration was a result of years of antiwar, global-justice, and community organizers working together on many issues, building relationships and learning about the connections between issues.

With Newsom’s latest attacks on poor people on the November ballot alongside the chance for a living wage in San Francisco, activists and organizers in all arenas have the opportunity to work together, strengthen existing coalitions and create new alliances while beating back another attack from corporate powers, the political elite, and the wealthy.

Demanding racial and economic justice in San Francisco is a crucial first step toward national and global justice, and every victory on the local level develops the power of our communities – and it is empowered communities that form the crucial foundation for building national and global movements for justice.

Rahula Janowski and Clare Bayard are members of the Heads Up Collective, an antiracist, antiwar group working on local, national, and international issues.