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The dramatic change she proposes is primarily focused on income inequality and the litany of issues that come along with it. Fielder believes income inequality is not dealt with enough in Sacramento. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot of people are for these great ideas like single-payer healthcare and mental health services and ending homelessness but when it comes to actually finding the resources and funds to make it happen, I don\u2019t see a lot of movement there,\u201d Fielder said. \u201cAnd no one\u2019s talking about income inequality.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her frustration comes from personal experience but is not unsubstantiated. With California\u2019s economy having climbed to the fifth largest in the world, it is really no surprise the golden state is also home to 157 billionaires. At the core of Fielder\u2019s campaign is her fight for equity and equality for all Californians, not just the ones who can afford it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fielder talked about Labor issues as a distinguishing example of the flaws within California politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are state legislators that have a perfect score card with the labor orgs, not all but specifically on labor specific bills they have voted correctly,\u201d she said. \u201cBut what is not encapsulated in that scorecard is all of the issues that really hit workers, such as affordable housing, healthcare, childcare and education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, there is way too much charter school money, real estate money in legislature and California state politics for there to really be anyone who has a 100 percent score for workers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This kind of interconnected platform for the people is what Fielder has championed in her organizing and is championing in her campaign. She supports repealing Costa Hawkins and the Ellis Act and is not taking money from charter schools or real estate interests. She supports \u201cgig workers rights to form a union and get all of those same benefits as union workers,\u201d in regards to AB-5 but is reserving full support for the bill until talking with gig workers themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another flaw she pointed out of the Sacramento style politics is the willingness of politicians to voice support for an issue without following through. She sees the discourse around affordable housing as a good example. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re supposed to be able to rent a house for 30 percent of your income, for me that would mean paying $1,000 a month in rent, which we know in SF and District 11 in general, that\u2019s rarely possible for one person,\u201d said Fielder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fielder spoke with excitement and pride about her previous work with the Public Bank Coalition and the grassroots movement behind it. From her perspective, public banks are \u201ca necessary step for cities to be able to provide affordable housing, renewable energy, public infrastructure, reduce student debt and keep small businesses open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a revolutionary viewpoint on politics and how they should operate regarding capital. It\u2019s often a foregone conclusion that special interest money is inextricable from politics, that it is simply part of the process and working people have to simply grin and bear it. Recent victories by Chesa Boudin and Dean Preston, along with Fielder\u2019s State Senate campaign, challenge this notion about money and politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey won because people saw that they were the obvious challenging candidates who are not going to go the usual route of establishment politics and making deals with big real estate or with police unions, and they won,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
San Francisco is experiencing as close to a political upheaval as possible in a city that, nationally anyway, is still on the far left end of the spectrum. Progressive and leftists voices are challenging and winning against the established political machine. The fervor and excitement of a grassroots political movement is playing out on a national scale, as well with Senator Bernie Sanders\u2019 popular presidential campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fielder feels political labels are \u201cunhelpful\u201d and she recognizes that a core set of issues is really the driving factor behind her support. Judging by a packed, 200-person campaign kickoff on Dec. 6, she may be right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her campaign differs from Wiener\u2019s in many ways, but the most telling distinction may be how she described her supporters and potential supporters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf they are people that are feeling the crunch, whether they\u2019re unable to find housing or unable to find one job that pays enough…if they fear for future generations ability to breathe clean air and drink clean water and eat from fresh soil, then they are absolutely the people I want to talk to.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Political campaigns\u2014whether local, statewide or nationwide\u2014are categorized by a calculated, wonkish style of promotion. One that often leaves out or overlooks the desires of working people as being too uninformed to be trusted. Jackie Fielder\u2019s state senate challenge to Scott Wiener is flipping this notion on it\u2019s head. Fielder is a Mexican-Indigenous organizer who works […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":42407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[18445],"class_list":["post-42406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voices","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n