Support Aimee Allison for City Council in Oakland

After seeing Aimee Allison debate Pat Kernighan
yesterday at Laney College it is clear that Aimee is a
deep, inspiring and powerful young leader. She is
someone who is in touch with the needs of low and
no-income communities of color in Oakland. Like Ron
Dellums, she will inspire others to take action and
will bring a sense of movement and true democracy
through participation.

She had a fantastic knowledge of how Jerry Brown and
those connected with him played a significant role in
pushing out poor people of color from Oakland and what
is needed to change this trend. She also showed deep
connections with community organizations working for
justice in Oakland; she was able to reference
campaigns of organizations that I work with and care
about deeply; groups like All of Us or None and the
Ella Baker Center.

In contrast Pat Kerninghan while a good person, has
shown that she is often not willing to stand up
against her wealthy campaign contributors or the
Perata machine to stand with the people who need her
support. I was present for her very first vote at
City Council. We had organized with a group of youth
to speak out against their criminalization for side
shows, saying that the City needs to provide young
people with activities, rather than incarcerating them
because they don't have anything to do. Because so
many young people were there a motion was made to move
the item on sideshows earlier on the agenda. Pat was
the deciding vote and she voted NO, making it so all
the youth present were not able to speak (the item
didn't end up coming to the floor until after
midnight!) Right after her first vote as a
Councilmember a baby in the room started to cry.
Aimee not only would have voted "Yes", she has shown
that she would have lead the youth into Council,
speaking out at their rally beforehand.

Particularly astounding to me at yesterday's debate
was that both in our one-on-one conversations and in
front of the crowd Pat continuously stated that she
was powerless to change the problems of Oakland, that
it was the State and Federal government that needed to
make the changes. It made me wonder.. why was she
running for City Council??

I asked her during and then again after the debate if,
as a former civil rights activist and someone who says
she believes in equality, if she would drop out of the
race to support a young person of color. I explained
that this was especially significant because it was
clear from polling that if poor people in Oakland
voted at the same rate as rich people that she would
have no chance at winning. She recognized that this
was true!! However, still stated that she was going
to run and that is was our responsibility to unseat
her. Let's take that challenge!!

This campaign, just like Ron Dellums' campaign is not
about Aimee Allison, it is about our movement and
about the voice of the people of Oakland.

Please get involved in Aimee's campaign, stop by their
headquarters: 3208 Grand Avenue next to the Grand Lake
Theatre or call at (510) 277-0182
(http://www.aimeeallison.org)

Jonah Zern

Precinct Walking

Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs 5-8pm and
Sat/Sun 12-5 pm

Phone Banking

Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs 5-8:30pm
Sat 12-5 pm
Sun 11-5 pm