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Como sacar los idiotas del gobierno
How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office, Spanish-Language Edition
by William Upski Wimsatt, Adrienne Maree Brown, Héctor A. Ceballas, Marisol Enyart, Alma Rosa Silva-Bañuelos, et al.
Dec 2004
Trade Paper
$11.95 US
($15.50 CAN)
978-1-932360-66-0 | 9781932360660
1-932360-66-2 | 1932360662
192 pp
88 per carton
Spanish Language
POLITICAL SCIENCE
Government/General
Fall 2004
Imprint Rights: W* (excludes United Kingdom & Ireland)
Title Rights: W* (excludes United Kingdom & Ireland)
Product Safety: Mfgr warrants no warnings apply
Published by
Soft Skull Press
Description:
Anyone can trash-talk politicians or bemoan the apathy of the electorate, but How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office explains how to silence that inner cynic and get active. For six months, a group of Latino, black, and other activists worked to develop strategies for positive change through the electoral process. Rather than taking to the streets, or "bombing the suburbs," these groups show how to "throw the bums out." This book tells the story of 19 cases of successful bum-bumping in the recent past. Examples include young Latino and American activists in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who helped swing a mayoral race and four city council seats; Richie Perez's work with the Justice for Youth Coalition and Prison Moratorium Project in halting construction of a youth prison in New York; and Bostonvote and Massvote's incredible work with low-income and immigrant communities to achieve massive spikes in voter turnout. Essays from 11 writers including Jackie Bray and Davey D share strategies for organizing young and marginalized voters to put progressive candidates in office. Included are lists of potentially close races and maps of key swing states and districts.
Excerpt:
This is an annotated Table of Contents
OPENING ESSAY: by William Upski Wimsatt (4000 words)
CHARTS:
1. List of incredibly close elections with dates
2. Maps of key swing states and districts in 2004
including chart of how close key races were in 2000
and 2002 (Partnership for Working Families)
3. Over 800 people under 35 in elected office (
Pew/Eagleton Inst Study)
4. Youth voter turnout map
5. Harvard study on Youth as Swing voters
6. Impact of the youth vote in key elections
7. Map of special voting laws in different states and
localities
19 CASE STUDIES OF LOCAL SUCCESS
1. Albuquerque, NM Young people (mainly Latino and
Native American) fight New Mexico's most powerful real
estate developer who has obtained permission to build
a road over the Petroglyphs. a Native sacred site.
Their issue campaign helped swing a mayoral race, four
city council seats. They also won two seats on the
city school board.
2. Jackson, MI Southern Echo has helped dozens of
progressive black people get elected throughout
Mississippi, some young.
Long Sidebar: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and
the Campaign to Restore Voting Rights. A coalition of
eight national organizations works in five states to
restore voting rights to ex-offenders.
3. Providence, RI A 22 year old college student and
Green Party candidate wins a local city council seat. He
works closely with community groups such as DARE on a
local living wage ordinance and for one of the
nation's best police civilian review boards.
4. Selma, AL A multi-generational group, with young
leadership, ousts the long-standing white racist Mayor
Joe Smitherman. Their innovative campaign includes
18th Birthday celebration/voter registrations at the
high school, "Joe Gotta Go" cheers, and local radio
spots by major hip-hop artists. Latosha Brown almost
wins a statewide school board seat (stolen from her
Alabama-style) and the black radio station is
mysteriously bombed.
5. New Haven, CT A historical piece on the NAACP
Youth Council, under the leadership of Lisa Sullivan
in the late '80s, who elected the first Black Mayor by
registering and turning out more than 5,000 black and
Latino young people (the Mayor then hired the nation's
most progressive big city police chief who reduced
crime dramatically by respecting young people).
6. Louisville, KY Young people associated with the
Brat Magazine hold "Screw the Curfew" concert with 400
kids on steps of city hall. Progressive City Council
candidate Bill Allison requests their help on
campaign, wins, helps them build a youth center.
Loses, youth center closes.
7. Madison, WI Progressives at UW Madison take over
student government, pass living wage ordinance,
organize statewide coalition against education cuts
and other things, and do massive voter turnout to
elect Tammy Baldwin, the first out lesbian
congresswoman.
8. Boston, MA Bostonvote and Massvote's incredible
voter mobilization model, working with local community
groups achieved massive spikes in local voter turnout
in low-income and immigrant communities.
9. Newark, NJ- Hip-hop organizer Ras Baraka almost
wins city council seat and mayor. Appointed deputy
mayor in November 2002.
In their own words: Baye Adofo and Rosa Clemente on
The National Hip-Hop PAC
10. Pine Ridge, SD- Native youth led voter turnout
efforts are critical to a narrow victory in a tight Senate race.
Also, how to swing the under-populated states
11. Minneapolis/St.Paul, MN- Senator Paul Wellstone's
2002 campaign spent 30% of its budget on field
efforts, as opposed to the usual 3% spent by most
candidates. A look inside the campaign, and its
unique hiring of organizers in the Somali, Hmong,
Tibetan and hip-hop communities.
In their own words: Nimco Ahmed,
James Everett, Pakou Hang (1000 words)
Sidebar: U Minnesota Student Zachery Coelius sent out
500,000 emails to college students reminding them to
vote, telling them how to vote absentee, etc.
12. Portland, OR- Political group started by 20
somethings, X-PAC, holds candidate forums and has
helped elect young progressives like Eric Sten who has
fought corporate privatization of the city and zero
tolerance.
13. New York, NY Justice for Youth Coalition and
Prison Moratorium Project lobbied and stopped a youth
prison and a youth jail from being built.
Sidebar: Working Families Party endorses several
Republicans who are more progressive on some issues in
Republican-controlled districts.
In his own words: Richie Perez. (1500 words)
14. Chicago, IL -Historical piece on Harold
Washington, city's first black Mayor who built a
Black, Latino, white liberal coalition, and did
massive voter registration and precinct walking.
15. Seattle,WA Indy-rock, Rave & hip-hop based Late
Night Coalition fights ordinance against crazy
restrictions against clubs. Also, how folks fought
and defeated the Rave Act.
16. Chaarlessssston, SC When he was 24, Kwadjo Campbell
was working with kids and fighting gentrification in
the historical black community on Charleston's East
side. He got elected to city council and the local
white establishment tried to throw everything at him
imaginable.
17. Oakland,CA A coalition led by young people got
Prop EE Just Cause on the Ballot to protect low-income
tenants and the elderly from unjust eviction. They
won in November 2002.
18. St. Louis, MO When he was in high school in
Connecticut, Ben Smilowitz started a group that got
two high school students appointed to the state board
of education. As a college student in St. Louis, he
lobbied the Governor to create a youth task force in
which he was able to get 45 young people throughout
the state to sit on every state task force, and to
review and recommend policies.
STRATEGIES
-The emerging progressive majority: a 30-50 year plan.
-Building a stellar ground campaign
-The art of precinct walking
-Key reforms to electoral system: IRV, Same Day Voter
Reg, $ out of politics, Paper trail to computerized
voter machines, etc
RESOURCES
-Contact info and brief descriptions of groups working
on voter reg, ed, GOTV, etc.
-Other resources and electoral-related trainings from
groups
-How to start a local League of Pissed Off Voters
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