Kelsea Bond
I think housing and health care are human rights; I think quality education is a human right. But importantly, democratic socialism, as well as being a union member, has taught me a lot about democracy. When you are a part of a democratic organization or a democratic union, you see what bottom-up democratic decision-making looks like in practice.
When you compare that to what we have at the city level, you see the stark contrast. We’re told time and time again growing up that we live in a democracy, but really we see corporate politicians whose decisions are swayed one way or another based on what corporate entities or developers are donating to their campaigns. That’s why, like most DSA candidates, I’m not taking contributions from corporations or private developers, [which] is super common in Atlanta politics.
I’m trying to make a statement: I am going into city hall to fight for regular working people, not real estate interests.
When I think about democracy in Atlanta, so many examples come up to show that we are not currently living in a democratic system. These last few years, there was a campaign to hold a referendum vote on Cop City, and organizers collected over a hundred thousand signatures to put Cop City on the ballot. Our mayor basically threw that referendum campaign in the trash and built Cop City anyway.
In 2016, there was a referendum to expand the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) under the umbrella of the More MARTA program, which included light rail on the Beltline. This referendum passed by overwhelming margins; we’ve been collecting a half-penny sales tax on it since then. The mayor, again, just unilaterally decided that we’re not going to do that anymore.
We recently have also seen corruption issues at city hall, with the mayor going after the Office of Inspector General after it began some ethics investigations into the mayor as well as other city council members. And any community member who has shown up to city hall these past few years for public comment can just see how undemocratically our city council meetings are run. They’re held in the middle of the day when the average working person can’t make it because they’re at work or they’re watching their kids, and then you usually wait about two or three hours through proclamations and ceremonial things before you can even make your two-minute comment.
Bringing my experience organizing within democratic institutions, I’m hoping to try to create more avenues and platforms for regular people to get involved in these democratic processes — to push for more opportunities for democratic referenda, democratic decision-making, public comment, town halls, and even participatory budgeting that we are not seeing in our city government right now.
Great Job Kelsea Bond & the Team @ Jacobin Source link for sharing this story.
