Those of you who voted in the Richmond Progressive Alliance majority might want to take a look at what was Agenda Item H-30 on the April 6, City Council Agenda. It was removed from the consent calendar and not voted on before the meeting ended at 11:30 PM but it will be back.

What Council members Willis and Jimenez are asking the City Council to do is adopt the resolution of support copied below for the Richmond People’s Strike Task Force, which among other things, seeks to “upend the efforts of the Biden campaign,” and seize power from “Richmond city officials and police and banks.”

We have no idea who constitutes the Richmond People’s Strike Task Force, but the website https://peoplesstrike.org/ states:

People’s Strike is a growing coalition of workers, community, and political organizations confronting the COVID-19 pandemic by struggling against inept and corrupt government and the forces of capital (banks, corporations, brokers, etc.) that put profit before the people and the planet. We represent a broad movement to put an end to the systemic madness revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We call for actions on the 1st of every month!

The COVID-19 pandemic has starkly revealed the inequalities and injustices that daily plague the world. The triple crisis of viral plague, systemic economic breakdown, and the failure and/or unwillingness of Governments to provide necessary protections, especially for the poor and people subjected to white supremacy, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and misogyny has thrown us into a fight for our lives.

The resolution is as follows. Whatever else the Richmond People’s Strike Task Force is, they could sure use a good editor.

RESOLUTION NO.                                                   

A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND, CALIFORNIA, IN SUPPORT OF THE LOCAL RICHMOND PEOPLES STRIKE RESOLUTION AND TASK FORCE.

WHEREAS, as Richmond, California workers, their 2,277 homeless, and their 15.4% poor people have had their Human Rights violated during these tumultuous times of the Coronavirus that included 49,082 cases in in our County and 7,796 cases in the City of Richmond; and,

WHEREAS, Homeward Systems Coordination showing the 29.1% of working homeless still unhoused; and,

WHEREAS, The Housing Now! State-wide initiative showing that the $2.6 COVID -19 Tenant Relief Act as only one part of the needed solutions. The Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) Medicare for All legislation and the Green New Deal Legislation as only part of the solution; and,

WHEREAS, our core capitalist within our country is rapidly abandoning the pretense of democracy and advancing towards war, we send this urgent solution; and,

WHEREAS, we have taken back our dignity together. We together through the process of the World Social Forum/ US Social Forum, and Southern Movement Assembly in a People’s Movement Assembly (PMA) have decided to answer the call to take decisive action to stop the advance of authoritarianism and the potential restoration of the neo-liberal fragmentation and austerity which delivered us to that moment; and

WHEREAS, The United States is now a powder-keg. Right wing forces have threatened and assaulted our progressive forces with deadly intent and outcomes all over the country. We bring to point the January 6,2020 US National Capital Insurrection; and,

WHEREAS, progressive forces have been confronting the repressive and exploitative institutions of society since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, on a scale not seen since the 1930’s. These forces stand juxtaposed in epic conflict and contrast and these forces now are candidates for the 2021 US Nobel Peace Prize; and,

WHEREAS, behind this conflict is a struggle for power, the power to direct and transform society with one of the critical backdrops of this contest being the national elections in the United States, for President and Congress; and

WHEREAS, heightening this conflict was the struggle over which party was going to appoint the next Supreme Court Justice in the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing.    From the statements and actions of the previous President Donald Trump, it was clear that the November 3rd election was undoubtedly contentious and contested, regardless of the outcomes; and,

WHEREAS, we have learned hard lessons from history that in the contest of equal rights it is force that decides the outcome. Trump was intent on staying in power and we must do everything we can to ensure that this does not happen again. The stakes could not be higher, and not just for those of us in  the  United States, but for everyone around the world given the impact of U.S. imperialism; and,

WHEREAS, we have to galvanize and mobilize, even with a new democratic presidential legislator in office, a force powerful enough to ensure democratic outcomes; and

WHEREAS, we must also upend the efforts of the Biden campaign, the DNC, and the neoliberal forces behind them to impose austerity upon the world and apply strategic repression against to those who have sustained the Floyd Rebellion Uprising; and,

WHEREAS, in order to defeat the deadly and inhumane past Presidential government and their corporate responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global depression, and the deepening climate and ecological crisis, we have to demand more and we have to act in our own interests. We therefore we have called on all who are able to join us in taking a Pledge of Resistance and to Act Decisively in nonviolent ways; and,

WHEREAS, This one day that was on Wednesday, November 4, 2020;  Working and Poor People in Richmond had come together on this day in Contra Costa County; and,

WHEREAS, the city, state, and federal government  are unable  to  address  the crisis without this Richmond People’s Strike Task Force for low income, homeless and for working class people; and,

WHEREAS, it is not just the Richmond city officials and police and banks, but our Richmond community that can make the decisions to not accept people and people-less post-election decisions in our community; and,

WHEREAS, we want acknowledgement that the North Bay residents of Richmond voices be allowed and listened to by the Richmond officials. We want this Richmond Task Force Resolution to draw the people’s own next steps and actions; and,

WHEREAS, Enough is enough. This is a call to unite and to support the community self-determination initiatives.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Richmond City Council hereby supports the Richmond People’s Strike Task Force Resolution and urges our Richmond Mayor’s Office and the California State Legislature to support the efforts of the Richmond People’s Strike Task Force.

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If this is the kind of thing you believe the City Council should be doing, you have the right City Council.