Power Play: The fallout from Cesar Chavez bombshell. Plus: Another Gaza moment for Wiener

This article is from Power Play, a twice-weekly newsletter rounding up the latest City Hall and local politics gossip. To sign up, visit The Standard’s newsletter page.

In a city where 95-year-old labor legend Dolores Huerta isn’t just an inspirational figure who appears in children’s books and sidewalk murals but an active force of nature who regularly walks arm-in-arm with striking workers — Wednesday’s report in The New York Times (opens in new tab) of her allegations of rape at the hands of the late Cesar Chavez shook the labor movement to its core. 

Already, Chavez’s alleged sexual abuse of girls and women connected to the farmworkers movement is spurring whispers of a reckoning for other labor leaders who have long been suspected of exploiting their power over members. As several organizers told Power Play, difficult discussions are already taking place.

Olga Miranda, president of SEIU Local 87, said the movement needs time to heal before any discussion of next steps — but in the end, abusers will be outed.

“Is there any other motherfucker who hasn’t been named?” she said. “I’m sure there are many jumping at an opportunity [to accuse abusers]. But I’m saying, give us time to process this.”

Miranda called women a “force” who have long powered the labor movement. “I have the privilege of having chosen the kind of job where the strength of my personality and the veracity of my voice carries to make company supervisors, business owners, regret the moment they fuck with any of our janitors in this industry,” she said. “Not a lot of people get to say they get to fight back.”

While it’s too early to tell if there will be a “me too”-style reckoning within the labor movement, the reverberations are being felt, especially considering Chavez’s local ties. 

Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council, said he remains proud of his Mexican American family’s legacy in the agricultural industry — but he worries about the darker story that Chavez now represents. 

“We’ve found inspiration in a small number of very significant Mexican American leaders,” he said. “But that’s harder right now. I want young Mexican American leaders, I want my son, to have people to look up to. It was never Cesar’s union; it was a workers’ union. That doesn’t erase the legacy, or the ongoing struggle, of the people who literally feed us every day.”

In addition to Chavez’s name being plastered across San Francisco institutions, his son-in-law, Richard Ybarra, is CEO of a Mission-based community organization, MNC Inspiring Success. The Times’ reporting states that Ybarra, who married Chavez’s daughter, was one of the labor leader’s bodyguards in the 1970s after federal authorities discovered an assassination plot. 

The Times reported that a different bodyguard drove Chavez and one of his underage victims, Debra Rojas, to a motel, where the 15-year-old was allegedly raped. Ybarra declined to comment for the Times article. Power Play emailed Ybarra and was referred to a comment from the Chavez family that said, “This is deeply painful for our family.”

As for Huerta’s legacy, it’s still being forged in real time. Her name is on a school and a parade in San Francisco. In January, she stood with LiUNA! Local 261 street cleaning workers on the steps of City Hall to fight for fair wages. Last year, she advocated for Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting measure.

For that reason and many others, the local labor movement is coalescing around Huerta as the new icon of the 60-year fight for farmworkers’ and immigrants’ rights. As one labor insider told Power Play, “My hot take: Soon everything with Cesar Chavez’s name on it in San Francisco will have Huerta’s instead.” — Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez and Gabriel Greschler

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DON’T GET ME WRONG: State Sen. Scott Wiener, who you may have heard is running for Congress, obviously does not want to get caught in any geopolitical snafu after his viral Gaza genocide moment (opens in new tab) from a candidate forum in January. But Saturday’s Chinatown congressional forum appeared to briefly send him into panic mode — this time over Taiwan.

The moderator of the forum, hosted by Asian community groups and conducted in Chinese and English, asked whether the candidates agree with Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s high-profile and controversial 2022 trip to the democratic island, a region claimed by China as part of its territory. Wiener voiced his support while carefully avoiding overreach.

“I do not think Taiwan should be conquered,” Wiener said. “But we also have to make sure we don’t get to the point where there is any kind of war.”

However, the interpreter hired by the organizers to provide live translation twice misstated Wiener’s position, saying the candidate supported Taiwan’s independence. Wiener, who does not speak Chinese, was unaware of the gaffe, which would fly in the face of his and other Democrats’ longtime endorsement of a “One China” policy. But soon, Wiener was seen (opens in new tab) looking at his phone and becoming upset, glancing around, then grabbing the microphone.

“Apparently, I was misinterpreted saying that I support Taiwanese independence,” Wiener said. “I did not say that.”

The event’s organizer, Ed Lee Democratic Club president Thomas Li, immediately apologized and had a member of Wiener’s team correct the interpretation. Li said organizers had hired a professional interpreter and regretted the slip-up.

Wiener’s campaign told Power Play that a Chinese campaign staffer alerted Wiener that his answer was inaccurately interpreted, and Wiener immediately corrected the record.

“He supports Taiwan’s democracy, not Taiwanese independence,” Wiener’s spokesperson Joe Arellano said. “We appreciate the organizers allowing for the correction. It’s not easy to translate an entire debate, and it was an honest mistake.”

Taiwan remains a sensitive geopolitical topic and could be a vote-decider for some in the Chinese community. Among the candidates, Wiener struck the most hawkish tone on China, expressing support for Tibet and Uyghurs. According to Mission Local, Wiener got booed (opens in new tab) when he stated that he supported Pelosi’s trip. 

Saikat Chakrabarti, a former tech founder, said he opposed Pelosi’s visit. Supervisor Connie Chan, a Chinese immigrant who grew up in Taiwan, is arguably the most qualified to weigh in but chose to sidestep the question — an apparent move to avoid triggering controversy or inflaming partisans. The fourth candidate on the dais, political activist Marie Hurabiell, said she supported Pelosi’s trip but remains largely neutral on the issue. — Han Li

CHOPPING COMMISSIONS: After a year of endless deliberations, the effort to streamline San Francisco’s complex board and commission system has reached the part of the process when things get really feisty: Yes, it’s the Board of Supervisors’ turn to weigh in.  

The Commission Streamlining Task Force, mandated by 2024’s Proposition E, has presented its final report (opens in new tab) to the board. The plan would reduce the city’s 152 advisory bodies to 87 by eliminating some and merging others.

At the meeting Tuesday, a nearly three-hour discussion over the task force’s recommendations turned contentious. While many of the report’s diagnoses for eliminating repetitive or inactive bodies are considered noncontroversial, some speakers still voiced opposition, warning of weakened public oversight. At least one supervisor expressed strong dissatisfaction.

“You exceeded the mandate and inserted opinions and politics into the process,” Supervisor Shamann Walton told task force chair Ed Harrington. Walton is especially concerned that changes to the Police Commission would strip some of its authority.

Walton also criticized the task force for a lack of diversity. “The task force was about as diverse as a stack of $1 bills,” he quipped. 

Harrington said he understands the criticisms and expects the board to modify the recommendations. He noted that some of the loudest opposition is not about eliminating commissions but about proposals to move them from the city charter to the administrative code — a shift that critics believe to be a downgrade and would give the mayor and supervisors more power to remove the boards. Those include the Status of Women, Human Rights, Environment, and Youth commissions. There is also opposition to proposals involving the merging or elimination of advisory bodies focused on homelessness, aging and disability, and children and families.

If the process moves forward, charter-related changes must go before voters, with a final version potentially appearing on the November ballot. Expect plenty more fireworks before Election Day. — H.L.