Jess Spear is running against Frank Chopp, current Speaker for the Washington State House of Representatives, for the 43^rd District in this November’s election. Spear is a scientist, has been influential in campaigning for the $15/hour minimum wage and was a fundamental part of the campaign that got Kshama Sawant, of the Socialist Alternative Party, elected to the Seattle City Council. We had a chance to ask Spear some questions about her background, her goals and the election, which you can read here. 

 

What do you think is the biggest difference between you and Frank Chopp? 

I think the biggest difference between the two of us is our thinking about what is “politically possible.” He accepts the limitations set by capitalism, and I don’t.

Let me give you an example of how this plays out in real life:

Speaker Chopp is arguably the most powerful politician in Olympia besides the governor. He decides what issues get voted on and what does not. Earlier this year he let a $12 minimum wage die in committee, saying that there wasn’t enough votes to get it passed. (The House has 55 Democrats and 43 Republicans, what does that say about the Democratic Party?)

It’s clear he decided it was not a priority. Giving a raise to thousands of low-wage workers across the state was not a priority. Now that he’s up for re-election he talks about supporting $15 statewide.   

I, on the other hand, have been campaigning for a $15 minimum wage for nearly 3 years. I did everything I could to pass $15 even though there wasn’t the votes to pass $15 in 2012 when we first ran Kshama Sawant for office (against Frank Chopp, who did not support it then). The votes weren’t there in 2013, a majority of the city council did not support $15. But, we campaigned on it, helped to popularize it, and built so much pressure that the mayoral candidates had to support it in the fall. I went on to direct a grassroots movement in our communities to build support for low-wage workers that was ultimately successful. If I had followed the logic of Frank Chopp and the rest of the political establishment, we would not have a $15 minimum wage.

Frank Chopp accepts the status quo as immovable, having an inertia determined by business leaders and politicians. I, on the other hand, see the political situation as constantly changing, affected by the economic situation people face and their willingness to fight for something better, but it’s also influenced by the work community activists who organize communities to change things together. That’s how we move forward on progressive issues. Our starting point is “what do people need?” not “what does business accept?” And, we move on from that to building movements in our communities to win what we need. Frank Chopp starts from what business will accept, then builds “coalitions” to convince the community to accept what is in reality crumbs, considerably less than what working people need, and calls this “progress.”

Besides being elected, of course, what is the #1 outcome for you from this election? 

The most important thing we are hoping to accomplish with this campaign is to build on the success of our previous campaigns – to inspire working people to get involved in the political process and to gain the confidence that if we get organized, we can build the type of politics that represents ordinary people, not corporations.

It’s been incredibly inspiring to see just how many people view this campaign as an act of resistance against the status quo, against the Wall Street dictatorship over our lives, against the 2-party political system captured by corporations. We have over 300 volunteers dedicated to building this campaign because they see it as an extension of their own resistance against a system that exploits humankind and destroys our environment.

What have you learned since throwing your hat into the ring as a candidate?

Since joining Socialist Alternative, I’ve been heavily involved in community organizing. But, I was always in the role of “the organizer,” the person who essentially made sure we were effectively empowering people in our communities, to inspire people to join us for community rallies and marches, ensuring we had effective material for our volunteers, and so on.

The role of the candidate is very different. It has its pros and its cons. I’m not a fan of public speaking – but, really who is? – and I don’t enjoy seeing my face plastered all over the district on posters. It seems unfair and unhelpful that I should get most of the credit for the amazing work of our campaign staff and volunteers. Unfair, to the dedicated staff who pour their creativity and energy into this campaign, but also unhelpful for working people because of the way campaigns are covered in the media generally upholds the idea that the candidate is the person doing everything, who has all the great ideas, and is responsible for the success of the campaign, when really it’s a collective effort and is not possible without the assistance of not only the staff, but the hundreds of volunteers.

However, as the candidate you have the amazing opportunity to inspire people, to make them feel confident, and to encourage them to get more involved, and to be a voice for ordinary people who have been marginalized their entire lives. In short, you have an opportunity to speak up and be heard. This draws an immense amount of criticism that can be uncomfortable, but it’s part of the package. You aren’t doing much to change the status quo if you aren’t shaking things up and making the status quo, and all those who make excuses for them, uncomfortable, which then causes them to lash out at you.

I’ve also witnessed how excited people can get about politics, how hopeful they can be about their future if they see someone stepping forward and saying all the things they themselves have been thinking and feeling. Many people feel politics is boring, alienating, and not worth their time. And, for the most part, I agree. Corporate politics – politics determined by big business – is boring and uninspiring. But politics the way we do it, determined by the people, focused on our needs and involving thousands of people, not just those in elected office, is exciting. Making a better world? Who doesn’t want that? Who doesn’t want to be a part of that, if they feel their time is meaningfully spent in that endeavor? 

On the whole, you’re a young candidate for office – how might your youth aid you in the job?

As someone born right at the beginning of the “millennial” generation (1981), I can give voice to the perspective of younger workers, who are dealing with the worst economic situation than any previous generation since the 2^nd world war. We face a future where our living standards are likely to be less comfortable than our parents, we have record levels of student debt, and face bleak job prospects. And, it’s not about, as so many political pundits say, the “Me” generation, or that we’re lazy and don’t know the value of hard work. Rather, we are the most educated generation, ever, and yet so many of us are unemployed or underemployed, or employed in fields unrelated to our degrees. Burdened by student debt myself, I know the difficulty college graduates face when contemplating big decisions like purchasing a home or going on to graduate school.

But, also as a young person who watched political leaders fail, nearly my entire life, to do something about global warming. We now have no choice, we are the generation who must step up to the plate, tell the corporations “no more!” and remake our society to work for the billions, not the billionaires.

You are a climate change scientist as well as a candidate for public office – what are the top three things Seattleites need to know about climate change moving forward?

1) We are facing the biggest threat to global civilization, ever. I can’t stress that enough. We cannot ignore this any longer. Anyone telling you that we have to worry about the economy first is not taking this threat seriously (or they are ridiculously shortsighted). Anyone telling you we’re doing a great job at tackling greenhouse gas emissions is either lying, or has no idea what they’re talking about. You do not need to have a degree in climate science to know the US is not making good headway on reducing emissions. We’ve seen the largest expansion of fossil fuel extraction in a generation – under the supposedly most “liberal” presidential administration ever.

2) Emissions must peak within a few years and then rapidly be reduced to keep global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius. Important to know about that number is that what we’re already dealing with – heatwaves, superstorms, flooding, drought, and sea level rise is a result of only about 1 degree Celsius. So, accepting 2 degrees is really accepting more of what we’re already dealing with, and possibly some feedbacks – like warming of the Arctic causing the release of methane, a far worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, which will cause further warming, which causes more methane to be released – that will make climate substantially less stable. The good news is that we already have all the technology and resources necessary to rapidly transition to a clean energy economy.

3) The current system that governs our economy – capitalism – cannot be regulated at a rate or at the magnitude necessary to deal with this problem. The short-term profit motive for the CEOs of major fossil fuel companies, and the competition inherent in the system, not cooperation, outweighs the long term consequences of their actions. They aren’t evil, they are just doing their job. If we want an economy that is governed by what people need and by what will repair the ecological damage inflicted by industry, then we need to demand just that, and not accept the totally inadequate regulations proposed by the political establishment. This is why I am a socialist. I refuse to accept that capitalism is the best system that we can come up with to produce a fair, equitable, and just society, and in fact it produces the opposite of that. I am fighting for a world where the people have democratic control over our economy, where the vast resources of the world – human and natural – are harnessed to guarantee high living standards for all, and the opportunity for every individual to live a happy, purposeful, and healthy life.

What have you learned 1) from helping to run Kshama Sawant’s campaign? 2) Having seen her working in office?

What I’ve learned working on Kshama’s campaigns in 2012 and 2013 is that there is a massive political vacuum to the left of the Democratic Party. Socialist Alternative had the perspective that the anger against the bank bailouts, the austerity for the rest of us, and the ineptitude of the political establishment would not dissipate after the Occupy encampments were brutally evicted. Rather, people would seek another outlet to express their frustration that the system continues to benefit the superwealthy at the expense of people and the environment. We thought the presidential election in 2012 would draw the attention of the majority of people, and there was an opportunity to give a voice to that anger, first expressed in Occupy Wall Street.

This opening to the left of the Democratic Party was tested and verified when we ran Kshama Sawant against Frank Chopp in 2012. It’s why a small socialist group was able to get twice as many votes against the most powerful politician in Olympia – Frank Chopp – than any other challenger in his career, and then went on to unseat a 16-year incumbent.

The majority of people do not vote because they are completely uninspired by the Democratic and Republican parties. They also feel voting doesn’t change much, and they are generally correct about that. Both parties support Wall Street. Both parties support welfare for corporations while cutting welfare for ordinary people.

It’s not enough to just know the space exists though. We have a responsibility to occupy that space and provide alternatives for people. Otherwise, other forces will step in, like the Tea Party, like the Libertarians, who espouse disastrous economic policies and would represent a step back, not forward.

Since taking office, what I’ve learned is how powerful it is to have a worker’s representative, as an effective tool for working people to highlight their struggles and win their demands. Through Kshama’s office 100,000 workers were able to win the highest minimum wage in the country! They had a city councilmember fighting alongside them, striking down the lies from big business, urging the other councilmembers to vote for pro-worker amendments. Their city councilmember didn’t just vote for their demands, she helped to start a grassroots organization to further assist them, which will increase their capacity to win future demands. They’ve also been able to fight back against harassment at Harborview, to organize a union at the emerging Uber and Lyft companies, to fight back against the SHA rent increases.

Having just one representative, who can’t be bought, who consistently aids working people’s struggle for a better life, has transformed politics in this city. Imagine if we had hundreds of workers’ representatives across the country. What more could we win? Imagine if we built a party that ran candidates across the country, in local, state, and federal races, that accepted no corporate money and did not seek to represent corporate interests, only the interests of the 99%. Kshama’s campaigns, her victory, and her brilliant work as our representative gives us a glimpse of what that might look like. 

Along with rent control, what do you see as the other important issues facing citizens/voters?

One of the most important issues we face is the chronic underfunding of social services, including public schools and transit. We have the most regressive tax system in the country. You and I pay a higher effective tax than multi-billionaire Bill Gates or the 68,000 millionaires that live in King County alone. This is not only unjust, it also means we never have enough money to pay for the public services we all rely on. So, once again we are facing a budget deficit, and state agencies are being asked to look for cuts, and our kids are attending public schools that are 47^th in the nation for class sizes, their teachers have gone 6 years without a cost of living raises, and the State Supreme Court ruled the legislature is in contempt of court for failing to put together a plan to fund education. It’s hard to do, I know, when you’re busy giving everything to Boeing.

We need to question the excuses our elected officials give for why they can’t tax the super wealthy. They say it’s our fault. We voted down I-1098. But, the truth is, working people don’t trust the Democratic Party establishment politicians. They are constantly passing regressive taxes. When they had supermajorities from 2007-2010, they didn’t pass taxes on the super wealthy, they passed taxes on us. So, I don’t blame working people for worrying about a slippery slope.

If the Democrats had called the tax exactly what it was, a tax on the rich, then working people would have been clearer about it, and there would have been a lot less room for Republicans and the super rich that did not support the tax to sow confusion about it. That’s what we would do. Indeed, that’s what we’re doing right now. We don’t accept that “voters don’t get it.” They just don’t trust the establishment, and neither do I.

Where will you be election night? 

I’m not sure, yet. We’re pretty focused on the GOTV effort. There will be 14 rallies in the district this weekend, people doorknocking everyday, postering, calling voters, etc.

In the past we’ve watched the results at the amazing Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar, but I think we need a larger space this year.

What is it about Seattle that drives you, what do you love most about the city? 

I’m driven by the knowledge that we have all the resources necessary to take care of people, to give them the opportunity to thrive and contribute in a meaningful way to society, but those resources are being hoarded by the global elite. I’m driven by the knowledge that society could be so much more, but it’s being held back, not because “voters vote against their interests,” or “people just need to get educated,” but because the capitalists, and the political establishment that loyally serve their interests, are blind to this possibility because the system serves them well, and they deserve to be thrown into the dustbin of history. We need to move on. Seattle is where I was living when I first understood the magnitude of the problem and how to build a force to overcome it. So, I have a deep fondness for the people in this city. Through countless conversations with people in this city, I have gained a confidence in humanity to overcome these problems. I feel tremendously empowered because of these conversations, and inspired to keep fighting.

I’ve lived in Virginia and Florida previously, and I can honestly say that I’ve never felt more at home than when I moved here. What I love most about this city is the close proximity of the mountains and the ocean to a vibrant city chock full of music, art, and theater.