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Can This Independent Mass. Governor Candidate Rally a 67% Unenrolled Electorate? · The Real News Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to this edition of Rattling the Bars. I'm your host,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Manson Moose. Joining me today is Andrea James, an activist
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in every sense of the word. I want to say abolitionist,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: but she's an activist in every sense of the word, organizing,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and is currently running for the governor of Massachusetts. Thank
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: you for joining me, Andrea.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. It's really great to be
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: back in your studio and just to have the privilege
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: of being a part of how you disseminate information. It's
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: really an honor to be here. And I thank you
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: for this opportunity.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: And we want to go on record right now saying that,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: you know, here at Rattlin' Bob, we recognize that it's
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a so-called two-party system. And we recognize that when you're
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: dealing with electoral politics, that if you're not a traditional
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Democrat or Republican or so-called independent, according to their definition,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you're not going to get the recognition. So we're here
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: today primarily to level the playing field. It's not our
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: endorsement of her. It's more opportunities for her to talk
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: about her candidacy, why she's in this position, why she's running,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and what she expects. And with that being said, introduce
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: yourself to our audience, Andrea.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Well, I want to say thank you for introducing me
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: as an abolitionist. I mean, I am an abolitionist. I
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: have had a direct experience that causes me to understand
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: that this country has had more than 250, but 250
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: recognizable years of incarceration, of prison and prison building and
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: incarcerating people in cages. And, you know, I've actually, I
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: believe in direct experience and that that's what leaders should be,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: should have. some level of direct experience so that there's
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: an urgency around the issues that need to be worked on.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: And so I've had the experience of incarceration myself personally,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: and I happen to know, having lived in a women's prison,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: that they only cause further harm and that they are
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: antithetical to getting us to a place of having whole,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: healed and healthy communities and people. So I am a
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: prison abolitionist, absolutely. And thank you for referring to me
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: in that manner. Why I'm running has a lot to
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: do with that experience in 15 plus years specifically. Decades
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: prior to that in my lifetime came from a family,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: African-American family of civil rights folk breaking color barriers and
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: so forth in law, in the field of medicine. My
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: grandmother was the first Black nurse in the city of Boston.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I'm from a community that is the most incarcerated community
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We've been in Massachusetts for
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: seven generations in the same old house in Roxbury for
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: five generations. And so why I'm running is this alchemy
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: of these life experiences that have brought me to who
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: where I am in my life today with my understanding
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: of these issues and also who I am today. And
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: that includes all of my life experiences, not just the
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: highs that I've reached and the accomplishments that I've had
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: and the academic achievements that I've had the privilege to
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: be exposed to, but also my incarceration, which it has
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: been one of the most important experiences of my life
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: that propelled me You know, this was 20 plus years ago.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I made a mistake in my law practice. I wound
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: up on a prison bunk in federal prison for wire fraud.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: And what I received and learned from that experience after
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: having been a criminal defense attorney, after having, you know,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: worked my entire adult life on ending mass incarceration and
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: bringing attention to that issue, and then having the direct
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: experience of myself of living in a prison, I knew
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: immediately after being surrounded by all these women, I had
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: to survive 24 months of incarceration. I was laying next
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: to head to toe, head to toe, head to toe
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: on a prison bunk next to sisters who had been
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: in there for 24 years. So that, I mean, I
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: knew my parents were researchers of people of African diaspora.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: When I was a kid, they were traveling all over
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the world with us showing of different cultures of our people.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: And one of them was a trip to Goree Island.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: where we saw where they enslaved African people, put them
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: into caves, waited for ships to come, load them on
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: like cargo and take them to every single place on
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: the planet to work as labor. And when I was
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: in that prison, I wrote a book, a memoir called
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Upper Bunkies Unite. And because I remember I was on
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: a tarp bunk and I remember looking up over this
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: sea of black women And being like, damn, the first
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: thing that came to mind all those years later was
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Goree Island, was how they stacked us. And so, you know,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I'm running for all of that and I'm running for
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: more of the immediacy of creating change right now. I've
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: been going to the Massachusetts State House for 15 years,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: writing policy, writing legislation, giving of my voice, my experience
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: to panels and state legislative hearings and congressional hearings and
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: being trotted out for all of the things on the
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: federal level policy. And enough is enough. Enough is enough.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: And I have done every piece. I'm older. I'm older.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: I believe in pouring into our young because they're brilliant.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: They have a language now that we like. What are
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: you all talking about? But I like how it sounds.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: But we need to break the ceiling of the caste
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: system that they expect us to continue to live under.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: And I refuse to do it any longer. I refuse
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: to be made a chump in an electoral process that
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: is not addressing the needs of the people that are millions,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: that actually in Massachusetts have become the majority of people
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: who are dissatisfied with either of the establishment parties, meaning
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: the Democrats or the Republicans, that 67% of voters in
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have become unenrolled. Now, does it
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: mean that they're all the way over here, prison abolitionists
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: and to the left and progressives like I am? I
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: don't even call myself a progressive because that's been co-opted
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: in so many ways to help you know, democratic socialists
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: get into office and so forth that do not go
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: far enough for me. However, you know, we need to
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: be a part of this in more ways than just
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: being on the table. Um, we need to shake up.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, you talk about rattling the bars, the electoral
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: process needs to, those bars need to be rattled. We get,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: we get people into office and they think that the job,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: the hard work was getting elected, which is an arduous process.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Even when you have their millions of dollars, which we don't,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: but still, you know, too many of our electeds have
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: gotten into office and they thought getting into office was
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: the job. And then they just term after term after term,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: they're just comfortable. It's like they have a job. They
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: have a nine to five that they go to.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: So let me ask you this here.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Okay. So I, you're running, we, you already clarified the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: so-called progressive. We agree that, you know, The term in
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: and of itself says one thing, but the behavior says
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: something else. But you're running as an independent. Then juxtapose
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: that against Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders has ran as the
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: longest independent, but how do you see yourself when you
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: say you're independent? Is your independency similar to Bernie Sanders' same,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: or are you saying independent in fact and not in theory?
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I'm independent in fact. I mean, I'm running on issues.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Come on. I am not running on any party platform.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: And I refuse to be constricted by a party platform.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I unenrolled because I was a member of the Democratic Party.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: I was raised by strong Black Democratic women over the
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: generations in my family. I unenrolled because I thought it
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: was unconscionable what the Democratic Party has become. And I
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: believe that it is a duopoly between the Republican parties
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: and the Democratic parties. That being said, I wasn't running
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: on any party because I've seen the party that I
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: expected to do carry the water and make the noise
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: on behalf of the issues that are affecting so many people.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: When they weren't doing that term after term, elected position
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: after elected position, I decided the party platforms are not
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: going to carry the work that needs to be done.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: So I said, I'm going to work on these four issues. Now,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I care about a lot of other issues. Trust me. Right.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: But right now in the compound compounded crises that people
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: are going through, everyday people are going through in the
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: communities like mine across the country, but specifically across the
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Commonwealth, we're a Commonwealth. It's different.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: We're a Commonwealth.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: That means of the people. We've become a corporate wealth.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Our mantra in our campaign is it's the Commonwealth, not
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: the corporate wealth. We are under the oppression and control
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: of of a corporate agenda right now in Massachusetts. So
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: wealthy donors and corporations are getting what the focus and
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: the attention that working families, underemployed, unemployed, formerly incarcerated people,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: people who have gone through a state of struggle, the
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: focus should be on. We're a commonwealth. Right. But I'm
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: running on four issues.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Come on, talk about them.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: So that it is very clear Because they've co-opted the
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: term affordability. They've listened to our language and taken our language,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: both the Republican and the Democratic candidate, and morphed our
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: abolitionist language into their establishment party agenda. So I said,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: I'm not dealing with none of that. I am an independent,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: meaning I am running on issues, not any sort of
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: party platform or party identity. Not even like we don't
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: have an independent party in Massachusetts, which is called unenrolled
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: slash independence. So it's not even that I'm running on
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: a platform called independent. I'm running on four issues, housing.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: universal health care, child care, and equitably funded education. Why
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: those issues? Because I am the voice of the people
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: who have been just tamped down into a caste system
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: that is only growing and widening. So before it used
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: to be all of us, Black, Brown, we have a
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: wealth gap in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that is astounding
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: that nobody even wants to talk about. It's always like,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: why has it got to be about race? Because everything
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: is about race, baby. You know, so we've got to
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: discuss that. But. You know, we've got an unemployment rate
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: that is double for Black people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: And so these are things that we have to talk about.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: But the issues that I'm running on are issues that
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: would create an immediate lift. I call it lifting from
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: the bottom and closing the gaps. When you talk about unaffordability,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: it is at a crisis level in this state and
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: around the country. But housing, universal health care, childcare and
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: equitably funded education immediately gives economic empowerment to the people,
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: the millions of people just in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts alone,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: the wealthiest state in the country that has been completely
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: left out of that. So we have nurses and firemen
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: right now, who can't afford places to live. And so
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: it has expanded. It's no longer just formerly incarcerated people
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: who got no chance in hell. That's got no chance
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: in finding support, I should say. We still make it.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: But in finding support, inclining out of that hole they
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: tried to bury us in and get back on our
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: feet and raise our children and bring our families back
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: together and restitch the fabric that they've shredded economically, family-wise,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: but it's expended to a lot of the middle class,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: so to speak, who are now feeling the same level
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: of pain Even as they still are intact and have
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: their jobs and may have a house or may be
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: able to figure out how to pay their rent, but
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: really are not making a living wage themselves. And so housing,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: universal health care, why universal health care? That's single payer
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: health care. I've traveled the world in the work that
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I've done as an expert on women and incarceration. I've
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: talked to parliaments in different countries about the issue. I've
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: visited women's prisons all over the world. And while doing that,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: I have had the experience of those countries and their
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: major cities and how they address policy. Well, housing... is
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: a number one thing in many of these places, but
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: also they have universal healthcare. People do not, they're not
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: beholden to what we're stuck with, which is the CEOs
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: who make 200 million with an M dollars a year
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: who run healthcare companies in the United States. And We
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: have no benefit of it. We pay high premiums. We
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: have deductibles. And most of the time we have to
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: ask if they'll fix something for us. And it's denied.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: And so universal health care is one way to immediately
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: infuse some economic stability in the families and in the people,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: everyday people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. If we have
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: single payer health care, which means the state takes over completely,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: which we are uniquely poised to do here because Massachusetts
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: already controls its own health care market. Right. The only
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: reason we don't have it is that because the governor
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: and the other leadership in the Commonwealth, the legislature, are
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: beholden to the wealthy donors who are the CEOs and
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: their rank and file who donate money to these campaigns
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: because there is no other way to explain in the
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Commonwealth of Massachusetts where we already control our own health
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: care marketplace, where it does not make fiscal decisions. sense,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: or it's not fiscally responsible to not have single payer healthcare,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: that we still have it, except that we will hold
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: in place because of the lobbyists, the healthcare industry, and
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: the CEOs that make us have to pay all of
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: this money for healthcare that does not produce the level
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: of health and wellness that we deserve.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Okay. Let me ask you this here then. Okay. So
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: you already acknowledged that you got this wealth gap and
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: you got, in terms of like the political structure. So how,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: how you managing being competitive in the sense of being
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: able to get out and get your message out unless you,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: are you getting APAC money? Are you getting corporate money?
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: So how are you funding your campaign? And how do you,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: how do you see, how do you see, because you,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: like you say, you up against like, Just like to
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: your own point, it ain't common wealth, it's corporate wealth.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: It's corporate wealth, right?
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: Millions and millions of dollars. Millions of dollars. The Republican
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: candidate in this race, there's three of us. First of all,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: mainstream media is beholden to the Democratic Party, and they
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: only refer to her. And in reference to the Republican
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: candidate running against us, they only refer to her. one
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: opponent running this race against our current Democratic governor. There's
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: three of us. There's not just two. So mainstream media
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: plays a huge role in completely blocking. Took 10,000 signatures.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: They didn't think we could get it as an independent candidate.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: We got 13,311 certified signatures from the Secretary of State. Certified.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: at the Secretary of State's office, which means I am
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: on the general election ballot on November 3rd. Mainstream media
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: has refused to include me in anything. We did our
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: first mainstream media interview that aired Sunday morning, the very
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: first one, but yet that same network is hosting one
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: of the few debates that the current governor, Mara Healy,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: has agreed. They left it up to her. They let
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: her do all the deciding. There's three candidates, but she's
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: the one that got to decide where she was going
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: to show up. Fine. They're excluding me from the debates,
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: the mainstream networks. I'm a candidate. I am on the ballot.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: And I am being excluded from being in the debate.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: When I asked the other network that I just did
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: the interview with, why had they not invited me into
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: the debate between the gubernatorial candidates? And they said, because
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: the people have expressed that they only want to hear
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: from the establishment parties. Well, that's interesting. In Massachusetts, where
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: 67% of the voter roll are currently unenrolled independents. So
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: who who are you talking to? Right. Right. And so
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: it doesn't matter, you know, what what Donald Trump is
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: doing right now with mainstream media and on the national level,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: CNN and all them. He just, you know, kicked them
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: out of the press to their credentials. And they're on
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: the sidewalk outside of the White House trying to do
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: an interview like that, you know, being fed information from
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: inside the press room. That's exactly what these these networks
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: are doing to me. by inviting us into the debate
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: and allowing the voters to hear the messages, to be
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: informed voters, and not just mainstream media being able to
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: determine who gets to be heard and who doesn't get
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: to be heard. That's a violation of constitutional rights of
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: first amendment. There's a plethora of wrongness with it.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: That shouldn't happen. And so then we got to talk
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: about the money. Right. So the current governor is a millionaire,
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: but she also has millions of dollars that have flowed
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: into her campaign by corporations, the CEO. And then, you know,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: all you got to do, it's all public knowledge. Anybody
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: can look at us. They can look at theirs and
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: you can see where the money's coming from. And it's
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: all the wealth and power in the Commonwealth and people
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: of wealth and power who want to make sure that
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: the Democratic platform stays intact. Now, look at the Republican
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: candidate that's running against us. He's got a $ 31 million
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: mansion in Montana somewhere, a summer home in Montana. But he,
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: at the start of his race, said, I'm putting $ 10
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: million into this race. So they've got commercials running. They've
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: got all kinds of stuff that we don't have. So
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: the only thing that we have is an opportunity to
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: be blessed, to be invited into opportunities like this, like
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: what you are always provided for us at Rattling the Bars.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: But it's about boots on the ground. And that's one
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: thing that we our model of our our style of
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: organizing didn't change because it shifted to electoral politics. Right.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: So that's we know how to do this. it's still
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: hard because you have to pay for signs. You have
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: to pay for, even though like, you know, here's an example. Like,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you can see it cause my screen,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: but you know, throughout this entire campaign, our money has
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: been sent off and spent on toner and paper. You
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: know what I mean? Because, uh, uh, we've been talking
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: to independent candidates, Schwab, Schwab out in, uh, Washington state
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: and just talking to their campaign managers about how y'all
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: getting this done, you know, against multi, multi millions of
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: dollars that are just, they're not even talking about us yet.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Cause they don't want to give any rise to the
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: awareness of people that there is a person like myself running.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: So they're just, you know, suppressing everything else by, by
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: covering everything with signs and, with commercials, things that we
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: just don't have. So we're doing our best. We're boots
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: on the ground. You know, they paid, you know, it
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: took them two days to get 10,000 signatures to get
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: back on the ballot. It took us months because we
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: were grassroots. I stood outside in the rain, the heat,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: the snow, whatever, for months, personally, asking people if they
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: would sign my ballot sheet, right? And so, and then,
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: but also it gave me an opportunity to have conversations.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: with people about what's their pain points? What do they
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: need in their lives to create joy? It's not just
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: about the struggle we're going through, but what are the
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: investments to create joy in the lives of the people
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: of the Commonwealth? All of us. So it has been
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: a real... And then again, Massachusetts is a blue, blue state.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: We got a blue seven and we got.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Which is another reason why I ran because I'm like,
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: hold up. The line in the sand for me was
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: we went... So Massachusetts was one of three states up
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: until 2000 that allowed incarcerated people to vote. Right. Full
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: access to the ballot, okay? They took that right away
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: from incarcerated people in 2000 because the brothers inside of
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: a men's prison here called Norfolk State Prison started to
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: organize themselves. And they started to organize themselves because of
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: the hard draconian sentences that more of these young brothers got.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: were starting to come into the prison with these real
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: heavy sentences hanging over them, young. And so the legislature
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: was predominantly white and male was like, oh, wait, you
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: gonna organize yourselves and your families on the outside? We
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: make up 7% of the population black folks in Massachusetts.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: We make up 51% of the casserole population. Might as
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: well make that make sense. Math ain't mathin', okay? they said,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: we're going to strip you of the right to vote.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: And they did. They had to move heaven and earth.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: They had to change the Massachusetts constitution to strip us
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: of the right to vote inside. Okay. Now we have
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: been fighting to reinstate that ever since. And so we went,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: they got a congressional hearing in one of the sessions
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: and we went and poured our hearts out. And with
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: my testimony, I lined up the fact that This is
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: voter suppression. This goes back to denying Black people the
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: right to vote whenever you have a disproportionality in the
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: numbers of Black folks in the state and the levels
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: of incarceration, on and on. Well, they didn't even reconvene
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: after the hearing to discuss it. It never made it
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: out of committee. It was what every other piece of
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: our legislation that we have worked on over decades went
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: to what they call winter study. That was it for me.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: I said, y'all ain't even going to huddle and discuss
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: this after we came in and poured our hearts out
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: about why it's important as people who have had direct
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: experience with incarceration for people inside the vote. I was
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: a mother. I had a five-month-old little baby boy when
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: they made me go into the prison. You know, a
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: 12-year-old daughter, you know, and young adult, a son and
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: two daughters. Like, I had good reason to still have
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: my right to vote. Right.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Answer this here, Andrea. So, and I want you to
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: put yourself in this space, your candidacy in this space.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: So when we was at the Her March, I asked
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: you about that. And this is what you said. You said,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: when we first started this, the first time we came
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: down here, We had 100 people. The day that we
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: was down there, we had blocks and blocks and blocks
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of people. We had Freedom Plaza flooded. So that's one.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: I want you to put your candidacy in these two spaces.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: How do you see your candidacy in this life? And
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: I was in Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts, I think the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: year before last, where they was doing a showing of
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the movie called Strike, where they shut down Pelican Bay.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: where the men shut down. How do you see your
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: candidacy in terms of, you was in a prison where
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: they was treating y'all like animals. Y'all made y'all minds
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: up when y'all got out. When y'all got in a
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: position to change the narrative, you was going to change
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: it systematically and continuously. You changed it. Her movement. When
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: I was down there where the buses was at, I
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: ran into a lot of sisters I had dealt with
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: and interviewed. Everybody was energized. Strikes. They organized this strike
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: throughout California under a situation where they didn't even have
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: the ability to communicate. So put your candidacy under that
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: type of light.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, we did. We started our work as
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: incarcerated women inside of a federal prison. And we were like,
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: you know what? We don't hear nothing about us, the
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: separation of us from our children, whatever. So we organized
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: ourselves in that prison and we did not, we didn't
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: have no way of, you know, we were writing letters
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: and sending kites outside, whatever we could do to raise
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: awareness of the issue of the incarceration of women and
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: our separation from us, from our children. But if you
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: look at the life of a woman on a prison bunk,
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: every issue that we are fighting for Has been a
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: factor that led them to that prison bunk, the lack
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: of housing, the lack of health care, the lack of education,
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: the lack of child care, you know, the lack of
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: resources for the most vulnerable among us. And so that's
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: the first thing. The second thing is. I'm older. You know,
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: I'm older and they want to create a narrative and
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: have created a narrative that we have no more value
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: and we don't count. And the issues that we're talking about,
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: nobody should listen to because we have incarcerated or formerly
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: incarcerated as part of who we are. And because of that,
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: we're just valueless now. We have no more authority. We
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: cannot be accountable. We cannot be relied upon. to run
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: these institutions, to run these states. And they have these
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: positions like Kiana Johnson, county clerk. What? Come on now.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: You got the first formerly incarcerated Black woman who is
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: now the clerk in Prince George's County. This is what
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: we talking about. We've got a new Black woman mayor
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: in Washington, D.C. because of the rallying and the intense
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: work that Black women did formerly incarcerated Black women did
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: to change that and put new leadership into that seat.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: So I want to be that. Let me break the mold.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean? It's a win-win for us
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: as far as I'm concerned because I'm challenging that. Like, yeah,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: they're like, oh, now, you know, they started out only
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: writing stories. Like there'd be one page of a story
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: when I announced my candidacy a year ago and the
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: whole page was filled up linking my case and talking about,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: you know, my transgression, you know, why a fraud and
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: went to federal prison as a lawyer. And one little
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: line that said, Oh, and.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: By the way, she's running for governor.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: So I'm like, okay, somebody has to step out and
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: kind of be like, okay, I'm the whip, like I'm
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: the whipping post. You know what I mean? Cause I'm
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: going to, I'm going to push back on that. And what,
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: I don't have time to talk about that. I have
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: time to talk about why it's important to have people
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: with direct experience who actually know and have the urgency,
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: the transparency, the accountability that it requires. that we don't
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: currently have from our current legislature, from our current governor,
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: particularly in Massachusetts. Massachusetts just received the Black Hole Award
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: in the country. That means the least transparency in any
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: state in the United States, okay? The least. We have
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: the least effective legislature in the entire country. So we
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: have to do something different in Massachusetts They've made it
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: impossible pretty much if you have a felony conviction to
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: run for things. You can't be a state legislator for
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: the felony conviction in Massachusetts. But guess what? They didn't
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: think that anybody would have the nerve to do as
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: a formerly incarcerated person, run for governor. But also, I'm
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: not a politician. I'm a community organizer. And I have
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: no interest in making a career out of starting from
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: school committee and working my way up. and sitting around
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: in the state legislature, I'm going straight to the top.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: To the top, yeah, that's right.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Where we can get the things moving that we need
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: to have moving. And so, you know, if this just
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: tills the soil, I have had so many sisters in
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: our network across the country say, hey, sis, I'm going
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: to run for office now. You've inspired me. That's what
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: I'm talking about.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: One thing for sure and two things for certain, you
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: got a broad network. You got, in terms I seem
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: to respond, that you got from many women coming out
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: that's in this space. So what kind of feedback, because
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: you said, you told me earlier that you've been traveling
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: across the state. And I want to say this, you know,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: isn't it, you know, because Massachusetts got the misnomer of
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: being a progressive state, you know, the Kennedy and whatnot.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: But talk about what kind of response you're getting from
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: the people that you're talking to across the state. And
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: I know you're going everywhere, every crevice. Talk about the
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: response you're getting from the people that's going to be
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: responsible for you getting elected. Because I believe you can
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: get elected and you will get elected.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Well, those are the communities that I'm in where no
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: other politicians seem to go. The people who represent those
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: communities go there when it's election time. And then they
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: become the untouchables. Nobody sees them or hears from them.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: I've been in the western part of the state, which
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: is closer to New York than it is to Massachusetts.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: They wear Yankees caps as opposed to Red Sox hats.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: because they are completely disconnected. I'm talking about Worcester, Springfield, Holyoke, Chicopee,
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: these towns that I was in Holyoke last year, and
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: this sister said to me, you came all the way
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: out here? And I was like, of course I came
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: out here. She was like, nobody comes out here. They
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: can't even tell you who the governor is in those
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: parts of the state. To me, and it's mostly black
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: and brown. Black, brown, and poor. And they're feeling like
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: you know, like they don't even vote. And so we
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: have this tiny, tiny base of predominantly Democrats who are
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: holding a party platform in place. There's not enough Republicans
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: in Massachusetts to make that matter. And they are predominantly white.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: They do not have the direct experience of struggle economically.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: And they have co-opted the term progressive and they go
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: to things like No Kings and Hold Signs because that's
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: the only kind of way that they're feeling like they
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: could make a difference. They will never vote for me.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: And so I'm like, if you vote for me, I
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: would love, great. You have a choice. We just want
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: you to know that. I'm in those communities that are
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: in the housing developments. You know what I mean? Up
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: in the projects. I'm knocking doors there. I'm talking to
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: people in towns where people are like, don't nobody vote
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: out here. And I've never voted. But we've been simultaneously
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: doing a voter registration drive along with this campaign from
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: day one. We have a false campaign. belief amongst the
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: majority of formerly incarcerated Black men that I found out
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: running this race over the past year that do not
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: even know that they can vote because they've been told
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: when they leave the prison. Massachusetts, if you file any
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: conviction in a state prison, they took the right to vote.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: But the minute you walk out of that door, if
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: you were registered before, all you got to do is
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: go and vote again. If you aren't registered, you can
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: register and vote in the next election. We can vote
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: as formerly incarcerated people in Massachusetts, as long as we
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: are not currently serving a state prison sentence for a
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: felony conviction. If you're in jail in Massachusetts, you can vote.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: You can vote while you were serving a misdemeanor sentence
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: in a county jail. Access to the ballot. Do they
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: have it? No. So those are the people that we're
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: talking to. And again, we live, I get it, like
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: so many, people have said to me, Black people have
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: said to me, sis, I don't vote. I'd vote for you.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: I would vote for you, but I can't vote. I'm
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: formerly incarcerated. We correct that and say, you can, we
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: get them registered. We tell them, you know, you don't
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: have to go into the voting place. You can get
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: a mail-in ballot. You can do all these things. The
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: other piece of that is no matter what, too many
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Black and Brown folks have said to me, I still,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: I'm not, I don't even believe in the process since
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: I don't vote. And now my response to that is
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: one in six black children in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: go to bed hungry. 30,000 children, predominantly black and brown
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: and poor kids sleep in a car under some makeshift
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: shelter every single night in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. If
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: they still go to school, they go to school that
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: are woefully, you know, unequally funded. underfunded, right? And they
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: just had more teacher layoffs. If you say to me,
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: I'm asking you, I'm an elder Black woman running for office.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: We've never had a candidate like me. I'm asking you
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: to get engaged just to vote, just to vote, right?
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: Just vote, vote for us, vote for our issues. If
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: I'm wrong, I'm willing to step out of the electoral
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: process and to do what, what are you doing? When
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: I tell you that, do you have children? Most of
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: them tell me yes. Do you care about the Black
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: child over here who's going to bed hungry every night
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: that's sleeping on the street? If you have a better
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: way to approach that, I'd like to know if you
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: have an alternative to getting somebody like myself in the
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: governor's seat to create immediate, significant, radical change that is
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: going to start not from a budget that they've created
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: that is so... has no transparency, that nobody knows if
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: it's true, if it's not true, that we voted for
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: an audit that we can't get. We don't know how
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: much money's there. We don't know who's deciding where money
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: should be allocated. If you don't understand the power to
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: not start from a budget that we don't even know
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: if it's true or not, but instead start from the
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: issues and the people that need the support the most
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: and make that the priority for the work, and where
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: the money is being spent, then tell me what you
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: have as an alternative for me to make sure as
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: a mother who raised black children, as a grandmother who
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: now has grand babies and is from a community that
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: has been, the fabric has been shredded by all of
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: these systems You tell me what your proposal to me
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: is so that I'm not wasting my time any longer
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: so I can make sure that these black babies and
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: these poor families, white, black, brown, whatever, we don't have
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: any more children who are hungry and sleeping on the street.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: There you have it. Andre, tell our audience as we
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: close out how they can get involved with your campaign
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: or how they can get more information about them. about
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: your campaign?
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: We don't have millions of dollars. We barely have any dollars.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Our money comes from mostly poor, formerly incarcerated Black, white,
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: brown women who just are urgent to create change in
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: their own families and communities who are struggling just to
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: feed their kids, find a place to live and the
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: whole bit. AJ4, F-O-R, that shows my age. My kids
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: were like, why didn't you just put the number four?
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: Because I didn't know. So AJ4MA, for Massachusetts,. com, that's
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: our website. You go there, there's a volunteer form. There's
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: a donate button. You know, no amount is too small.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: We get $ 5, $ 10, $ 15, $ 20 donations. And that has
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: carried us for whatever we've been able to get, the signs,
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: whatever we've been able to do. We're doing lit drops
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: right now. Lit drops are where you carve out turf
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: and you literally drop in literature like this so that
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: people know we're running. And knocking on doors, door knocking.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: Anybody who's run campaigns like we have to stop prison
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: builds and so forth, you've door knocked with me. Come
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: and stand with me and door knock for this campaign now.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: It's it is change, you know. And so that's how
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: they can AJ for MA dot com. Hit us up.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: Send us an email. Whatever you want to do. A.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: James at AJ for MA dot com. you know, all
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: the information's on our website. And we've got 45, maybe,
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: I don't know, November 3rd is the election day. We
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: are in the 11th hour and still too many people
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts who want or are looking
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: for change don't know about this campaign because mainstream media
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: has intentionally left us out. And so we need help.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: We need boots on the ground who can go do,
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Do a standout for us. Disseminate our lit for us.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: Put a yard sign if you have a yard or
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: a window sign if you have a window. We need
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: to raise awareness and we need to do it right now.