time he won. Papandreou ran once, they put him in jail. He ran again and got 75%. Then he got 25°/o; and finally, 45%. Mitterrand ran two or three times; contended, narrowly lost, and ran again. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with running and losing. A lot of the time, you have to run just to learn how to do it. And you need to have the experience to test people in that arena. It’s very difficult, sometimes, for someone who’s been a community or leftwing organizer, to get used to the public role of being a candidate. They must learn to deal with the press and electronic media; to work with people on their right in a friendly way without giving in on their issues. They have to learn how to handle themselves in public. These are skills that can’t be learned in school. The more people get out there and do it, the better they get at it. But it takes a process, a progressive program, and the support of a local political coalition. CSQ: In Economic Democracy, you state that, "...the two essential elements of any strategy of fundamental reform in the United States today are: (1) the shift of investment control from corporate domination to the public; and (2) the reconstruction of economic decision making through democratic, worker- and worker/consumer-con- trolled production." How have you applied these precepts to your work in Santa Monica? Shearer: The city in America has historically been run in the interest of the downtown business groups, particularly real estate interests. Most local politics in America are dominated by people who are developers, bankers, insurance agents and realtors— people who make money off of how land is used. City government has the most direct control over these interests. In Santa Monica, we very directly intervened in the housing market and put forward the view that housing should not be a market good subject to speculation. It should be regulated. Housing should be viewed like a public utility. People have a right to affordable housing, just as they have a right to telephone service, or gas or water at a fair price. We are regulating housing through rent control. And we are giving tenants rights which they haven’t had before, such as just cause for eviction. And we’re going to prevent condominium conversions because that is not new housing; that’s just refurbishing existing housing in order to make a big profit by throwing out one class of people for a higher income class. We can do this because we have the legal right under American governmental powers. What we’ve done, very directly, is to open up a section of the economy—the housing market—to public control and democratic control, through a democratically elected rent control board. In Santa Monica, we’ve given people an increased measure of control over one area of their lives— housing and housing costs. We are also trying to aid and support locally based small businesses and community enterprises like cooperatives and community development corporations, because we feel that these kinds of locally oriented businesses are the most responsive to people. It makes the most sense to talk about a market or a market place when you’re talking about a local small business that has to deal with consumers in the community. Word does get around about good products, good restaurants, adequate service and how you’re treated as a customer and person. It makes a big difference. The people who run local businesses have to be responsive to the community or they can’t stay in business. Whereas, if you In Santa Monica, we ’re using the powers of the city to benefit the residents of the city, not the owners of capital. What we’re really saying is that the city government collectively represents the people who live in the city. They are our first concern. go into a big chain store, like a Safeway or a Penneys, people are not polite or the product is shoddy, they don’t care that much. What we've been doing is very deliberately supporting the local businesses. Through community economic development efforts, we are trying to create more employee-owned and community- owned, community based enterprises. We have done some very simple things like developing a farmers’ market. The city provides its streets for nothing and small family farmers come in and sell food directly to the people. The senior citizens love it because they get cheap food; people like the old style market atmosphere; and small businesses downtown, which have been suffering because of a new mall with big chain stores, like it because people come downtown. In Santa Monica, we're using the powers of the city to benefit the residents of the city, not the owners of capital. What we’re really saying is that the city government collectively represents the people who live in the city. They are our first concern. Our priority is the quality of life in the city for the people who live there—not that the few people who own capital get richer. • • THIS CHRISTMAS, USE SOME IMAGINATION. WE DID. WONDERFULLY IMAGINATIVE AND PRACTICAL GIFTS ARE FOUND AT PORTLAND’S FAMOUS MARKETPLACE. OPEN EACH WEEKEND AND ESPECIALLY FOR CHRISTMAS DEC. 19-24th IN OLD TOWN. FREEDOM IS THE ISSUE The problem is the marijuana laws— not marijuana use. NEEDED ACTION If we can collect 60,000 signatures of valid, registered Oregon voters on petitions, this measure will be voted on by the people of Oregon in a general election. If it passes, it will become law. We need your help in registering voters, gathering signatures, and collecting funds for the campaign. HELP US KEEP THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF OUR BACK YARDS AND LIVING ROOMS Join Oregon Marijuana Initiative, P.O. Box 40422 Portland OR 97240 or call 775-9250, 777-3766. Name ____________________________________ Street Address _______________________________ _________________ City State Zip Phone No. _________________________________ __ ________________ 16 Clinton St. Quarterly
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