Thursday’s Jobs with Justice gala brought a club-like atmosphere to the quaint chapel of St. John’s the Evangelist church on 15th Street. Bright blue colored SOLO cups of craft beer were poured out of kegs by the dozen and the chapel floor of the church gave way to raffles, food, and crowds of attendees packed wall to wall.
“Part of it is celebrating victories like Gordon [Mar] winning in the Sunset and having a progressive majority in the board. Bringing people together like this is what has brought us those victories,” said Kung Feng, Jobs with Justice’s Executive Director.
The gala’s two-hour runtime brought in activists and organizers from across the city and around the Bay Area. Raffles to weekend getaways, artwork and wine were on hand. Hugging the northern walls of the chapel, unions offered sign-up sheets and information. The cool kids of the party, Poster Syndicate, were slotted away in the corners as they pressed two-tone posters that were freely disseminated to attendees.
Every available seat was occupied by vegan-tamale-eating attendees, and energized children darted between every freestanding adult. Standing room inside the church had reached a renter’s premium when the gala’s emcees called the night to order, beginning their presentations as a chorus of people hushed each other.
Among those honored during the ceremony were Carlos Gutierrez and his family. Gutierrez, who died earlier this year, was an active member of Jobs with Justice’s executive board. He a founder of Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth (HOMEY).
Oakland native Boots Riley, who wrote and directed this year’s popular film Sorry to Bother You, was called up to the altar and given a framed gift reflecting his support of the organizing movement.
“A lot of what I write is as much to inspire myself as it is to inspire you or other folks,” Riley said during the ceremony. “Some people had problems with the movie, but not with the parts of a militant strike.”
The crowd laughed, and Riley waded into the audience following waves and a thumbs-up.
Supervisor-elect Gordon Mar, a progressive who has declared victory in moderate hotbed District 4, was honored for his time as Executive Director of Jobs with Justice, along with his activism.
He called his victory in District 4 a “victory for Jobs with Justice and the movement,” noting that “it’s pretty natural and I think more organizers should take a step towards politics.”
As the party wore on, crowds dispersed and peeled into the night. Chairs that occupied the main aisles of the chapel disappeared into their storage closets and volunteers began their Sisyphean task of cleaning the chapel once more. A volunteer cheerily sweeping up reminded others that people need the space later as the church would soon open its doors to homeless people needing a place to stay.
“It’s not just a church. People need to sleep here during the day,” she reminded.
The No.1 crisis facing San Francisco is the housing shortage — and the attendant runaway housing costs, displacement and homelessness problems that it exacerbates.
What do the new crop of Supervisors like Gordon Mar intend to do about that?
What are their solutions?