Chapter 1: Who is Claire Valdez and what is her political background?
We're here with Claire Valdez, running for New York 7. As you guys know, I'm trying to get socialist elected, and Claire happens to be one. We're very honored and very excited to have you on the stream. You've been side by side with Zoram Mamdani from the beginning of the underdog campaign. You've been there from the jump. And now you're running for Congress. Welcome to the broadcast.
Thank you very much. I'm sure people are going to have a lot of thoughts, but let's get started on your background. Yeah, totally. So I'm currently a New York State Assembly member, like Zoran was. And he was one of the people who actually really convinced me to run in the first place when I was running for assembly.
We had a really great conversation about what our offices could do to build socialism beyond the legislature. And it was really inspiring. But before that, I was a union member. I was in UAW Local 2110. And I worked at Columbia University as an administrative assistant there.
And I organized alongside of 500 of my co-workers who are also administrative assistants, clerical workers, call center workers, the most underpaid, hardest working people on campus. And we organized and bargained against Columbia University, a $14 billion endowment institution that is mostly a real estate portfolio at this point, but also happens to grant degrees.
So I got my start in unit politics, and that was my introduction to this crazy world of organizing. I'm also a GSA member for the past seven years, since 2019. So yeah, you organize alongside your colleagues at Columbia for the UAW. And you were talking about the clerical workers and all the people that 500 members that are some of the most like undermined.
Underpaid, most invisible workers on campus who actually make the university run. And we went toe to toe with Columbia, got to sit across the table from management to negotiate our contract. It's a transformative experience to sit across from your boss and be an equal. And that was really my start into organizing, into politics, and it's the fight that I want to take to Washington now.
Hell yeah. What are some of the agenda items? Like if you were to break it down, Zoran style, like, you know, five major points you want to hit on your campaign. What would you say those like five points are? Because this is not a mayoral race. Right. This is a congressional race.
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Chapter 2: What inspired Claire Valdez to run for Congress?
So obviously the stakes are higher. Yep. You have more power, technically. I mean, I guess like the... Mayor's got a lot of power. Mayor's got a lot of power in New York. Yeah. But I meant like...
You are going to be building coalitions with other progressives Inshallah once you get an office and There's going to be a legislative agenda Obviously, it's still impacted by whether or not Democrats are gonna win the majorities in both the houses and there's still the the White House. Yeah, but let's say you are now a part of Congress and
and you've been able to secure coalitions within the Congressional Progressive Caucus. What are the five things that you would want to bring to the table? Yeah, so the campaign's really about housing for all, healthcare for all, unions for all, ending the genocide in Gaza, and abolishing ICE. So the big picture platform is around those five things.
I'd say in terms of legislation, the things that I'm really excited about fighting for, passing the pro-apt finally, winning social housing across the United States and here in New York. Okay. Let's go. So I love that. Yeah.
This is something that I've had a big gripe with, with the national Dems, with the party in general, including but not limited to even the likes of, I would say, Bernie Sanders,
Because there is no real vision like this is a often not discussed element of the affordability crisis that Americans are facing housing for all as a policy or social housing as a policy is I feel like unheard of in America, but it is definitely one of the most important aspects of I think a socialist position a leftist position
So it's actually quite surprising to hear that from someone who is running for Congress. We don't talk enough about tenants and about social housing at the national level. Oftentimes at the national level when we talk about housing, we're talking about tax incentives for homeowners, things like that. The only path for stable housing is homeownership.
This is a district that has 77% tenants, overwhelming percentage of tenants. And those tenants live in market rate housing. They live in stabilized housing, in public housing. But we need a real pathway towards true stability and decommodified housing at the federal level. AOC carries the Homes Act to be very supportive of that. But we need to be thinking about
Deeply affordable, permanently affordable, democratically managed housing, and social housing is the way forward. I was in Barcelona a few years ago doing a tour of their social housing developments there, and just beautiful housing. We have the richest country in the world, and certainly the richest city in that country. We have the resources to make this happen.
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Chapter 3: What are the main agenda items for Claire's campaign?
universality addresses this problem. Yep, absolutely. And I think that's precisely the reason why capital owners do not want it to happen. Yeah, exactly. No, 100%.
No, again, and when you build universality into these programs, that's the entire constituency of people who cannot be ignored, of people who are, God forbid, triple-prime democratic voters who will raise hell if their benefits are being cut. And so that's exactly why we need things like universal child care.
And we're fighting right now at the state level to make sure that we're taxing the wealthiest New Yorkers and the most profitable corporations so that the universal child care program that our wonderful mayor has just rolled out is truly universal and durable for the long term. Because otherwise, it's just going to be a temporary win and not the kind of program that will actually help New Yorkers.
Absolutely. So let's talk about New York politics in particular. You're a state assembly member. There is you brought up an initiative about social housing in New York. You also brought up that like a version of social housing already exists or public housing exists in New York, even though it's underfunded. So do you want to talk a little bit more about that?
I'm going to be meeting with the DSA Slate tomorrow as well. Amazing. Yeah, totally. Well, I mean, on DSA Slate, hi, Slate mates. Really great to have you all on the Slate together.
Really incredible organizers kind of all over the city who are running for, you know, the same things that we always fight for, taxing the rich, making sure that our stands are fully funded, making sure that our housing is beautiful and equitable and truly affordable.
making sure that the childcare program, again, is truly universal, durable for the long term, is not going to sundown in two years, and fighting to protect our neighbors from ICE. There are a few pieces of legislation on the table that would protect immigrant communities here in New York.
One of them is New York for All, which would end the complicity or the collaboration between local law enforcement and federal ICE immigration enforcement, which needs to pass this session. big push from a lot of immigrant and coalition work. And really essential, the governor is moving on immigration, but she's not going nearly far enough.
So there's that, there's access to representation to make sure that if you do end up in immigration proceedings, you have a lawyer present, you have representation, the MELT Act to make sure that ICE agents can't cover their faces. So make sure we MELT them. Melt ice, maybe.
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Chapter 4: How does Claire Valdez plan to address housing issues?
Like I said, we only have funding for two years of full universal child care, and so we have to tax the rich baby. And really, you know, our power is going to come from the movement that helped elect Zoran.
The power is going to come from the movement that hopefully is going to elect, you know, a bunch of new assembly members, Democratic Socialist Assembly members to the New York State Legislature. And the power is going to come from the, like,
you know thousands and thousands of people who are shouting and chanting tax the rich at abbey vocal at the at forest hill stadium a few months ago um so that movement is really the thing that has to be sustained and maintained and people just stay ready to talk to their neighbors to knock doors talk to their representatives who aren't budging damn we got paid protesters sorry we got great we got paid supporters
That's the movement that's going to sustain the call to tax evasion. It's actually going to make it happen. So that's the organizing that DSA and a bunch of other organizations are doing in the next few months. But it's going to take all of us doing it. There's a mass mobilization to go to Albany on February 25th. If you're in New York and you want to come up, please hit us up.
We need 10,000 New Yorkers to come to Albany and make this demand really clear. So what's the what's the dynamic of the state assembly look like right now as far as like state assembly members that are, let's say, you know, team Zoran, team DSA, team like this entire DSA slate versus antagonistic towards that towards these policies? I mean, what's the breakdown like?
What's the percentage breakdown, give or take? Hard to nail that number down. I'm not good at the math piece on this. But what I will say is that the... The mayor's race demonstrated there is a really broad constituency for a Democratic-Socialist platform, obviously. And so that has really sent shockwaves through a lot of the political world in New York State.
And so everyone's talking about affordability. Everyone's talking about utilities are too high, rent's too high, child care is too high. And we need to really take aggressive action to make sure that our constituents aren't being left out in the actual cold, which is incredibly uncomfortable right now. Yeah. But so people are moving a lot. People are moving, I think.
I think this is a year of real opportunity given Zoran's election, given the governor's race, given the kind of like true affordability crisis that New Yorkers are facing. And so I... We're working on it. Like I said, it's going to take a real movement to organize to make sure that we get the revenue ratios we deserve and need to make sure that the city is whole, the state is whole.
We're negotiating a $252 billion budget right now. It's a lot of money. We have the resources to do what we need to do. How do we ensure the spoilers on this agenda that are backed by corporate interests, that will specifically play the role of undermining the legislative agenda at the state level, that will of course impact New York City, how do we apply pressure towards them?
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Chapter 5: What role does social housing play in Claire's platform?
And I think what I believe as a union organizer is that your average Joe has immense potential and immense political power. And what we need is to organize together to fight for the things we need. Yeah. I mean, I ask this question all the time.
Given your experience so far in the State Assembly, some of your colleagues, and don't take any offense to this, I ask this to Rashida Tlaib, I ask this to every politician I talk to, and every elected I talk to, would you say they're cynical or stupid?
like the issue is uh like the most the the the most common the reason why i ask this question is like it's commonly around israel right like there's obviously a groundswell of support for palestinians unlike ever in american history it's an 80 20 issue favoring the side of the palestinians especially in the democratic party this is a very blue city this is a very blue state yet there are
Democrats who don't abide by the interests of the base of support here. Is their inability to address this coming from a place of cynical posturing because they care more about AIPAC or they care more about Zionist donors that they have to their campaigns who care about Israel quite a bit? Or is it actually stupidity and they're still, two years into this genocide, very out of touch?
I think it's I think it's cynicism, to be honest. I think people are looking at a donor landscape rather than a mass movement landscape. They're kind of unwilling to see that the status quo is changing. It's changing from underneath their feet. And they're having a hard time catching up with that because the political status quo is how a lot of people came to office.
You know, a lot of people went through the traditional trap. of doing politics as usual and have arrived at seats of power, and now we're trying to grapple with the fact that that's not how it's gonna operate anymore, that we're,
mobilizing, we're going to fight to take these seats back, we're going to fight for Palestinian liberation, that especially in New York and within the Democratic Party, that there's a mass recognition that you cannot claim to be progressive, you cannot claim to speak for human rights if you are not also calling for the end of the genocide and the liberation of Palestine.
They're going to fall behind at their own peril. This is no longer a question of being brave politically, even in the last two years there have been tremendous institutional stigma still applied to those who dare to protest against these atrocities. Absolutely.
at this point it's undeniable that this played a role in kamala harris losing the election this is an issue that the democrats are completely on the opposing side of and it's up to the electeds to realize which side they're on are they going to side with humanity are they going to side with barbarity or are are they going to side with humanity and their base of support yeah absolutely so it's not just the elections i think
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