Fighting Back !!!!

by Ed Willard/PNN Community Journalist and POWER Member

This is the story of how the POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights) union, a union made up of poor people, homeless people, working class people, in coalition with several other grassroots organizations of poor and homeless folks took the first big step in fighting back against forces in this city that would like to take from us the things that are rightfully ours. Shortly I'll tell that story, but first...................

On a grim, rainy Saturday in November, 2001, scarcely two months since the events of 9/11, I hunched my shoulders against the cold as I pushed through the wind, walking down 9th St. toward the Quaker Meeting Hall, the site of POWERs monthly membership meeting. The bad weather provided a fitting backdrop for my queasy inner feelings of discomfort at the way things were going in the world. President Bush had declared "permanent war" and the bombs were already dropping on Afghanistan, killing thousands of innocent people in a dubious search for "terrorists". On the home front, the Patriot Act had become law, granting the police broad powers to lock people up without due process of law. I felt like I was living in a police state with the mainstream media screaming about the need for revenge, increased surveillance at home and the worst part................ most everyone seemed to be buying the lies, a fact driven home again and again by all the nationalist flag waving. Lies were everywhere and I wanted to see what my friends down at POWER had to say about things

By the end of that meeting I felt a bit better. Folks at POWER were worried too but everyone there was committed to getting at the truth and saw that as the first step in changing things. And then POWER folks had the attitude that the only way to change this system was for us to get together................. to unite to fight against repression and exploitation........................... to fight against the lies. When I walked back into the cold rain on that Saturday afternoon I had a spark warming my insides..................... an idea that went like this: Sometimes things have to get REALLY bad before they can get better. In the big picture things had been bad. Poor and working class folks worldwide had always been exploited by the system of imperialism and capitalism, the same system that waged unjust wars in the name of "democracy" and "freedom", more lies to cover up the greed of the huge international corporations. The thought I had then that was becoming a fire in my belly was that just maybe the forces of repression had gone to far this time.....

OK, that was nearly a year ago and my idea is being proved in a way that I hadn't anticipated then. I got back involved with POWER at a high level like in the old days when I was on GA and now we're in a local fight against Proposition N, a fight against Gavin Newsom, who introduced the initiative for vote on the November ballot and a fight against the forces who fund and support it. Essentially the Proposition seeks to slash folks GA benefits, cutting them from $320.00 down to 59 dollars per month. And Newsom tours the city making speeches about how all GA recipients are drug addicts ad that Prop N will "relieve" people of their drug money and provide services, (housing and drug treatment), instead. One lie on top of another, as anyone who reads the language of the bill will see: NO SUCH SERVICES ARE ACTUALLY PROVIDED FOR IN IT. In fact, if Prop N becomes law, it is sure to increase homelessness.

But just the way I believe that, in the big picture, the forces of exploitation have gone too far, I see that locally Newsom and his supporters have crossed the line. A month ago the POWER union and it's allies organized an action against Prop N and folks showed up in numbers to demonstrate and picket Newsom's fund-raiser. Since then anger against Newsom and Nasty N has been growing. POWER staff and steering committee members investigated and found out who the main funders of Prop N were. Turns out the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, (GGRA), was among the biggest funders. The association includes dozens of restaurants spread over the Bay Area and it's president is Kathleen Harrington, owner of Harringtons Bar and Grill. So an action was organized against Harringtons and it was set for 6PM on Friday evening.

Well, I knew that POWER members were angry about Prop N, but still I was unprepared for the scene at the POWER office last Friday at 4:30 where we had agreed folks would meet up. When I walked through the door it was into a packed office, dozens upon dozens of members, lots of them on GA, mad as hell and ready to fight! After some final preparations people left the office in waves getting on the Market St Busses with a prearranged meeting spot at a park a couple of blocks from the restaurant. From there folks marched down to Harringtons. I arrived a few minutes later in my car with food for the demonstrators and signs for everyone to carry. POWERs allies in the Coalition Against An Increase In Homelessness had arranged for a sound system to be brought down there, (actually the whole set up was a very cool, rolling PA system that hooked up to a bicycle), as well as several staff writers and media organizers from POOR Magazine who were calling for a boycott of the GGRA, members of Gays against Newsom, folk from Coalition on Homelessness and many more joined in a very loud protest.

"You can buy Gavin Newsom". Cindy Weisner from POWER was leading the chants in a loud, booming voice.

And the response from the crowd, "But you can't buy the people!"

"You can buy an expensive burger".

"But you can't buy the people!".

"You can buy the politicians".

"But you can't buy the people!".

There were 80 to 100 of us there and we had formed a picket line circling in an oval around the PA system in front of the restaurant. Actually the place is a sidewalk cafe with metal tables set up in front and some yuppies were sitting at these looking a curious mixture of confused and entertained, (after all we were putting on a good show). In front of the entrance was planted a uniformed security guard and a couple of guys in suits. (I later learned that one of these was Mike Farrah, Newsom's aide who had been sent there as a spy. Steve Williams got him into a conversation and asked him what he thought of Prop N and though he slithered out of any direct response, Steve said it was clear he wasn't any too happy with Newsom's brainchild.)

We had organized a delegation to go into the restaurant to present Kathleen Harrington with a list of demands, (basically boiling down to one demand, that being to STOP FUNDING PROP N!). When the delegation tried to walk through the front door they were muscled to a halt by the security guard and the suits. Later Garth Ferguson told me that he got hopping mad when the guard started to become physical with him. When it became clear that the delegation wasn't going to be let in, we started to chant, "Let them in............. let them in!" Harrington never did face us but finally sent her manager out, he listened politely to POWERs spokesperson, Teresa Guerra as she presented the demands and even signed our document, promising to give it to Harrington.

To wind things up Cindy POWER gave a rousing speech about how POWER wouldn't sit still while politicians, backed by the GGRA and other downtown big business interests attempted to steal GA money from homeless folks. About how that GA stipend was money we worked for. About how the politicians and lawmakers needed to start working on real solutions to homelessness like affordable housing for all and job programs paying a living wage.

Cindy's voice over that PA system was plenty loud but it seemed even louder because it was the truth and as I looked around at the faces of all the POWER members there I knew they felt it too, the volume and the power of the truth. And just then, I thought I could see the beginnings of the movement that I had first envisioned on that cold, rainy Saturday back in November, a movement that would start small but that would grow into something big, something big enough to challenge the lies and injustices all over the world.