High Stakes for the 99% This Election

15 Aug High Stakes for the 99% This Election

Voters to decide on taxes, death penalty, three strikes
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By Jesus Andrade

Community Coalition organizers knock on one of thousands of doors in South L.A. to inform voters about what’s at stake in the upcoming elections.

Although the outcome of the 2012 election may not be as historic as when the country chose its first African-American president, the repercussions for working families and communities of color could be as important as in 2008.

“This election comes at a critical time when wealth inequality and corporate power are at the greatest levels we have seen in a while,” said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president and CEO of Community Coalition. “This election is about whether we can fight back corporate power and build an economy and society that create jobs, growth and wealth for everyone or just make the rich even richer.”

State’s Future
California Calls field director Karla Zombro also believes there is much at stake for working families in the state, which has an unemployment rate that is higher than the national average, continuous years of devastating budget cuts and an ongoing foreclosure crisis. Her organization, a statewide alliance of groups including Community Coalition, urges fairer tax and fiscal policies. “We have a ton to gain and a ton to lose,” Zombro said.

The important matters that voters will decide in November include whether to do away with the state’s death penalty (Proposition 34) and reform the three-strikes law (Proposition 36). Both could have a profound impact on communities of color, which make up the bulk of the incarcerated and those on death row, and save the state more than $100 million annually on administrative costs.

Other key initiatives include the opportunity to increase revenues to fund public education and services by taxing millionaires (Proposition 30) and taxing corporations to fund green jobs (Proposition 39).

“Both [tax] measures call on wealthy individuals and corporations who have profited from this economy to give back so that everyone can recover,” Zombro said. For example, Proposition 30 could bring in $6 billion to $9 billion annually in new revenues for schools and public safety with 90% of that money coming from the state’s top income earners.

Corporate Power
Also on the ballot is an initiative that could result in unchecked corporate power in Sacramento. Proposition 32, which would restrict payroll deducted money from use for political purposes by unions and corporations, could deeply hamper working families’ participation in elections and the political process via labor organizations at a time when corporations are pouring billions of dollars into electoral campaigns.

“Unions have fought hard to obtain and maintain decent middle-class jobs for a wide spectrum of Americans,” contended Jo Schafer, a South Los Angeles resident who says she is proud of her family’s strong labor background. She has become increasingly angered by the attacks on working families from corporate interests. “If this proposition passes, unions will become weak institutions and have no ability to support their members,” she said.

Although voters have rejected measures similar to Proposition 32, corporate interests and conservatives have been able to get the paycheck deduction matter back on the ballot. “If Proposition 32 passes, the collective voices of Californians will be silenced while the influence big banks and corporations have on our elected officials will grow even more powerful,” said Laphonza Butler, president of SEIU United Long Term Care Workers.

With so much to gain and lose, getting the word out in communities like South L.A. about the November election is crucial. That’s why Schafer has been helping to plan Community Coalition’s South L.A. Summer Power Festival on Aug. 25 from 4 to 9 p.m. at King Park to educate voters about the significant issues they will determine.

Jesus Andrade is a community organizer with Community Coalition.