Beyond the Vibes: Ramsey Robinson on Third-Party Organizing, Day-One Rent Freezes, and the Power of the Youth Vanguard
Saludos familia, welcome back to Hella Brown and Hella Loud.
Skip the next paragraph if you want to get right into the conversation with Ramsey! But I had something to say!
I see the comments, and I hear you regarding paywalls. My goal was to create early access for folks going above and beyond to support me (and making it available to everyone after a few days) but I don’t want to make those that don’t have the financial means to be left out.
Moving forward, our interviews and full transcripts will be 100% free for everyone. With that said, I hope you all can still consider supporting me since this type of independent work can be a lot! Between travel, gas, parking, time, equipment and production I tend to take a financial loss every time I do one of these. The few folks that support help make my work sustainable. If you can just click the button below!
Would also love some help in sharing this and helping us get out numbers up! Mil gracias- los quiero!
This week I had the pleasure to sit down for the second time with Ramsey Robinson, who is running third-party for Governor of California on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. Ramsey is a mental health social worker and community organizer who has been on the front lines of the housing crisis and anti-war movements. Because we both share deep roots working in schools, this conversation immediately hits a personal note before diving into the hard-hitting policy.
We break down his catalyst moments in activism, the mechanisms he plans to use on Day One to halt evictions, his response to corporate propaganda, and why he believes the youth are the vanguard leading our future.
The complete, uncut interview transcript is available below.
📋 The Transcript: Ramsey Robinson for Governor
🎥 Intro & The Catalyst for Organizing
Speaker 2 (Angel): I’ll start with a quick intro and then like afterwards, I’ll start asking you questions.
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): Sure. All right. We got a clap. So we can. Nice things. Great. Three. Two. One.
Speaker 2 (Angel): Saludos familia. Welcome back to Hello Brown and Hello Loud. I have the amazing Ramsey with me. Ramsey who’s running for governor. I actually met him before. It’s the second time that I meet him. Homie works in schools, so I have a lot of love for people that work in schools in general. Ramsey, do you want to quickly introduce yourselves to people that don’t know you? And I forgot to tell you, you can look directly into the camera if you ever want to look at the people. But do you want to introduce yourself real quick?
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): I will, thank you, brother, and good to see you again. Yeah. So for those who don’t know me yet, and there’s a reason why you might not know me, because the billionaires and the Democrats and Republicans are scared of us. The Peace and Freedom Party. And I am the candidate for governor of California with the Peace and Freedom Party. The Peace and Freedom Party is the fastest growing political party in California. Not the Democrats, not the Republicans.
And I’m running for governor of California because like so many of us that are watching this, and the 40 million of us in California, I’ve not only been a worker, but a worker in crisis. And so when we talk about these challenges that folk like us face—that a million of us are behind on rent, that 2.5 million of us don’t even have health insurance—this was never me on the outside looking in. That has been my life, too. And that oppression that folk like us feel, it always elicits a response from the cruelty and the inhumanity of the system that we live in.
It elicited a response from me, and it made me want to fight. I started to realize the power of fighting through organizing and meeting other organizers where we could actually put pressure on the people responsible for the changes that we need. And then I saw it happen. I can give two quick examples: one was in 2020 when George Floyd was murdered and I had never been out in the streets, I have to say humbly, and it elicited that response. I have to get out there. And 36 million of us got out there in the streets. I was organizing at the time with the party and still do—I’m a proud member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Many people remember what that was like. Right now as we record this, Derek Chauvin, who murdered George Floyd, is in prison. And that is because we linked up and connected our struggles and fought back. So I got a taste of the power of organizing.
Then in San Francisco, when Banko Brown, who was a trans brother, was murdered for the crime of being hungry, we organized the PSL with other organizations. Hundreds of people on the street put pressure on Brooke Jenkins, the DA, to release the footage to prove his innocence. He was innocent. And also, I think this goes to say, the power of a party, too. We were also able to say that in a $4 trillion economy, there’s no excuse that anyone goes hungry.
✊ Shared Origin Stories & Double Consciousness
Speaker 2 (Angel): Yeah, I love that you just shared your origin story because I was going to ask you what was the origin of Ramsey Robinson that’s running for these political spaces to hold space, to speak truth to power. Because I think in the same way that you mentioned the Black Lives Matter movement really got things going, I remember for me it was around the children in cages. Right? And seeing so many people being outspoken in support of the community, that really got me started. For people that don’t know your background, can you tell us where you come from, what you stand for, and how that background influences what you’re trying to achieve now?
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): Listen, the power that we have is when we connect our struggles. My daddy’s Black, and knowing as a child that my descendants were slaves—I say that to say that they were workers who were unpaid. It sounds a lot like what’s going on now when bosses intimidate undocumented workers who are saying, “Hey, you’re not paying our wages. We just worked a 40-hour workweek and we’re not getting it.” They intimidate them and steal their wages. As a matter of fact, $7 billion are stolen from us workers here in California every single year.
So when I was growing up, I knew, okay, damn, my descendants were slaves. Besides the cruelty and inhumanity of that, we weren’t paid for our labor. So when we say for our campaign that Black people in California will get reparations in direct cash payments, that’s because of the centuries of stolen labor.
Being Black early on cracked open an awareness for me that something’s up. Something’s not right here. How could it be that a whole group of people are so oppressed? Right off the bat, that made me have this double consciousness—that yeah, I’m a human and a child and I’m growing up and going to high school, but I’m also a Black kid and the police are messing with me. Just the other day, Angel, I was trying to count in my head all the times that I’ve been pulled over. It’s like a dozen times.
That’s where my consciousness started growing. I started reading Malcolm X and Frantz Fanon and W.E.B. Du Bois, and being like, okay, I see what’s up now. This isn’t by accident. The struggles that folk like us face—this is a rigged system that from the jump got the money it’s using right now from unpaid slavery, from extricating resources from people who were here first.
That made me think, okay, there’s a root to our problem, and it has a name. It’s capitalism. Capitalism is a huge factor in the fact that my ancestors were imprisoned. Capitalism is a huge factor in the fact that our undocumented siblings right here in California are super exploited. When we talk about that $7 billion taken from us, that disproportionately falls on our Black and Brown brothers and sisters.
I’ll tell you one story from 2020 that really put it over the edge for me. Very simply, this one data point changed my life: when I learned that there are half a million unhoused people in our country, but 17 million empty homes. Something about that clicked, and I’m like, oh, there’s no excuse. It’s one thing if we just live in a racist society or get our wages stolen, but it’s another thing if there is actually more than enough, and a small group of people are keeping that from us and sitting back laughing while we’re suffering. Here in California, we have 187,000 unhoused people, but 1.2 million empty homes. Let’s get everyone in a home. When we say for our platform that guaranteed housing for everybody is a human right, we’re not just saying it—we can do that.
🏫 Representation in Schools & The Youth Vanguard
Speaker 2 (Angel): Yeah, it’s possible. A lot of people don’t realize—I think one of the things that I hear on my platforms often from people that are part of the opposition is that, quote-unquote, “illegal immigrants” are taking all the homes, and that’s why they can’t afford one. The reality doesn’t match up.
One of the things that you were talking about right now is the reason why a lot of folks are looking at your platform and supporting you. There are a lot of people that don’t even live in California leaving comments like, “You gotta look at Ramsey.” It’s because you clearly understand the struggle of underprivileged and underrepresented people. You work in schools right now, right? What do you think that representation means for Black and Brown people who don’t see themselves in politics? That’s part one.
Part two is a little more personal: how are your students reacting to this? I used to be a high school principal and a high school teacher, and that’s when I started getting my audience on social media. So I got to see my students’ reactions—seeing like, “Oh, my principal is famous on the internet sometimes, that’s so weird, but if he can do it, I can do it.” What does it mean when they see their school personnel running for governor and getting the attention they deserve?
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): Well, yeah. I mean, it’s been amazing. I walk into a classroom to pull a kid for therapy, and other kids in the class will be like—this literally happened to me—they’re on TikTok and they’re like, “Mr. Robinson, your edits are fire.” I’m like, “I don’t know what an edit is, but I know fire’s good, thank you.”
In the school setting, to talk to them—not in the therapeutic space, because you’re dealing with depression and anxiety and it’s not appropriate to bring it up—but to point out these things. Like when these kids graduate, I tell them: when you graduate, you’re not going to have a guaranteed job, you’re not going to have guaranteed healthcare. If you lose your job, you might become unhoused. I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t have an answer for it. And then to say to them: there’s no excuse for it. We live in a $4 trillion economy and that money is ours. Your mama made that money, your aunties, your uncles made that money. That should be our money.
To start to see them get excited and involved is beautiful. I have to say this, Angel—woo! To see these students on May Day, they walked out in protest for better labor rights against the administration. To see young people leading that? I had nothing to do with that. It’s just amazing. You see that our future is in good hands. Someone on our slate, Frank Lara for Superintendent of Public Instruction, likes to quote Che Guevara: The youth are not the future of anything; they are the present of everything now.
If I’m able to drop some jewels to them and inspire them, cool, but they’re also the vanguard. They’re leading this over and over and over. We were just in Bakersfield this weekend, and a 16-year-old came up to me completely clear about what we’re talking about and about making mass movements in her school. It’s super inspiring.
Speaker 2 (Angel): Yeah, the next generation doesn’t play around. What I noticed when I was the principal last year, some students planned a walkout. These foos came up to me and were like, “We’re doing a walkout.” I’m like, “Dude, I’m your principal. You’re not supposed to tell me, bro. Don’t—you’re not getting advice from me, bro. Go ask that teacher who will give you the advice you need. I’m not supposed to know.”
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): They trust you, though! To your point, they see folk like us up in there. And that’s beautiful to me, Angel, that they have that relationship. Students should have more relationships like that with their principals. So shout out, that’s dope.
🗳️ Why Run Third-Party?
Speaker 2 (Angel): Yeah, I think my students thought it was dope too. They also loved to prank me, they did the most. There was one question that I wanted to ask you before I forget. A lot of folks have left this comment and I want you to be able to respond to them: they’re wondering why run as a third party? A lot of folks are saying, “Ramsey is saying everything that we want to hear, he stands for everything we stand for, why didn’t he run as a Democratic Socialist and join the Democrats?” A lot of folks can’t understand making a decision that might create a handicap for you, but it was intentional that you ran in this third party. Do you mind explaining to folks why that’s necessary and important, and what you’re standing against?
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): We would not be able to offer or promise the things we’re doing if we rolled with the Democrats or the Republicans. I think your viewers right now can take the Republicans off the table—who’s rolling with them? They’re proactively attacking us. And actually, the Democrats are, too. These Democrats have had a supermajority in both the House and the Senate for decades now, and all these challenges that we talked about—a million of us behind on rent, 15 million of us drowning in medical debt, still no reparations, still ICE coming into our communities—that’s under the Democrats.
The reason is because they are, just like the Republicans, tied in with the billionaires. If we are saying guaranteed housing for all, that we will do a rent freeze and stop evictions—the Democrats can never say that because they’re in bed with the corporate landlords. They’re paying off, basically bribing, you could say lobbying, these Democrats and Republicans. They paid $540 million just last year to make sure the billionaires’ money that they split from us is protected.
We’re not going to push the needle anywhere if I was to roll with the Democrats. The power that we have is that we are independent from the billionaires. The power that we have is that we were birthed from the anti-war movement. The Peace and Freedom Party was formed in 1967 and co-founded by the Black Panthers. Black liberation—and they were socialists, too. They demanded the end to police terror, they demanded that we have guaranteed jobs and housing. You will never see me roll with the Democrats, because even though we have well-intended candidates in the Democratic Party, look at the foundation of the party. You can’t remodel a house that was built on the foundation of keeping folk like us out. We need our own house. We need our own party, and that is the Peace and Freedom Party. It’s for us, by us.
📋 The Day-One Housing Plan
Speaker 2 (Angel): I love that. I think some people always ask me when I interview folks, “Make sure that you get past the vibes and ask about the actual politics.” It can be really hard because you’re such a cool dude, I just want to ask you about regular things! But talking about political stances and things that you’re running on: Day One, what is that Day-One plan? What are the biggest priorities for you at the beginning if you were to become the governor of California?
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): Yeah, Day One, we are going to freeze the rents. No more evictions, no more foreclosures. I’m so glad you brought this up—and shout out to whoever said, “Hey, cool with the vibes, but let’s get into it.” I want to talk about housing, and I’ll be brief and specific. When we say guaranteed housing for everyone, this ain’t an Oprah thing where you get a car and you get a car. There are mechanisms that the state already has on the books that the governor can use.
Specifically, the California Emergency Services Act. This is a mechanism where, day one in office, I can halt evictions and freeze rents. When we were deep in Covid, Gavin Newsom used the California Emergency Services Act to stop evictions, as he should. None of us should be thrown out of our homes because we can’t pay rent during a worldwide pandemic. He did that, but it wasn’t enough. He could have used that right there to freeze the rents too, but he didn’t. It just shows that he’s tied up with the billionaires who say, “Whatever you do, let these corporate landlords keep piling on that rent.”
I will invoke that California Emergency Services Act because when a million of us are behind on rent, tens of thousands are facing eviction, and these huge corporate landlords are snatching up properties all across California jacking up prices—this is an emergency. So we will freeze the rents. No more foreclosures for homeowners, either. And we will build 1.4 million beautiful public social homes. A lot of them are already there; we don’t even have to build them. We can use eminent domain to take back these homes that were stolen from us. Day one in office, housing costs can and will go down.
💰 Rebutting Billionaire Propaganda
Speaker 2 (Angel): Yeah, you talk a lot about the $4 trillion economy, and I don’t even need to ask you, bro—I know you want to tax the billionaires. One of the main critiques that folks who are more conservative often say is that if we tax the billionaires, they’ll leave the state, and that’s going to cause a downturn on the economy. How do you respond to that propaganda?
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): There have been studies that demonstrate when taxes on billionaires are imposed, only 1 to 2% of billionaires actually leave. Let’s do the math: there are 194 billionaires in California. If 1 to 2% leave, that’s still more than enough to meet all of our needs. So if they leave, we’re going to be fine.
Second, there’s no way they would leave. It’s propaganda to make us scared to shake up the status quo, because the status quo is only working for them right now. To huge corporations like Amazon, Uber, and Lyft, California is a 40-million-person market. There is no way these corporations will leave all that money sitting on the table. And we’re not taking all their money right now—eventually, we do want to get rid of billionaires, because you can’t get that rich without making people poor—but right now we’re saying just a permanent tax on them to make sure we have everything we need.
Lastly, go ahead and leave! It’s the construction workers, the agricultural workers, the social workers, the teachers, the nurses, and the principals who make California run. It’s not the billionaires. They can leave, but their money isn’t going anywhere. We will have everything we need here to live a life of dignity and security. There are only 194 people keeping us from that, and that’s who we’re after.
⚡ Rapid-Fire Round: Newsom, Reparations, & Voting
Speaker 2 (Angel): It’s crazy if you think about it. That’s the number of people keeping us from being able to have our basics met. I looked at the time, we have like three minutes left. So I’m gonna ask you some rapid-fire questions and just keep it down to like 30 seconds. Very good, let’s give it to 20 seconds. All right, can you name one good thing and one critique that you think the current governor of California is doing?
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): A good thing: he’s making more of us realize that the Democrats are completely incapable. That’s a good thing. The bad thing he’s doing: he didn’t sign for reparations. He ran on universal free healthcare, and he just vetoed CalCare again. Those are two things, and I could go on.
Speaker 2 (Angel): What is one thing that is not housing that keeps you up at night about California?
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): Reparations does. Can you imagine working your whole life and getting nothing but grits and a piece of bread? That haunts me, and it carries on. It’s by design that Black households have one-tenth the household wealth of white households. That’s because of centuries of unpaid labor. Knowing that we have the money where everyone could have housing, healthcare, education, and direct cash reparations keeps me up all night and makes me want to keep fighting.
Speaker 2 (Angel): If people want to support your platform, what can they do?
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): Y’all can go to ramsey4gov.com [https://www.ramsey4gov.com/]. It’s a one-stop shop. You can register with the Peace and Freedom Party. You don’t have to be registered with the party to vote for us on June 2nd, but please do register, volunteer, or donate. We have 7,000 volunteers right now and have knocked on 30,000 doors in the last two months. Also, check out the Party for Socialism and Liberation, because that’s a party that’s going to continue to fight in between election cycles.
Speaker 2 (Angel): Beautiful. And last question—you can look right into the camera for this one. My audience is the BIPOC community: immigrants, mixed-status families, allies, and folks in general. What message do you have for them? What would you like them to know?
Speaker 1 (Ramsey): There are just 194 people on that side keeping us from the wealth that we generate. On our side, there are 40 million of us. You all know how special, resourceful, intelligent, and hardworking we are. There is no competition, and when we get organized, we will win. That’s when the billionaires get scared.
We have to connect our struggles and see that we have a common purpose. With socialism, we win. For those who don’t know what socialism is, here are three quick definitions:
* It’s where working people control the wealth we create.
* It’s where oppressed and working-class people have the economic and political power to plan the economy to meet our needs.
* It’s when we make sure all of us, no matter how we identify or where we’re from, have basic dignities: housing, healthcare, education, a guaranteed union job at $30 an hour, and a dignified retirement.
The billionaires use disunity to separate us. We need to come together, and part of this interview is doing exactly that.
Speaker 2 (Angel): Awesome. It’s a pleasure, Ramsey. Nice to see you again.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit senorbarragan.substack.com/subscribe [https://senorbarragan.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]
![episode [Bonus] Beyond the Labels with Fernando Deveras: Identity Politics, Strategy, and Harm Reduction artwork](https://img.podimo.com/artwork/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdWJzdGFja2Nkbi5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0LzgyNTI1MzYvcG9zdC8xOTk1MTYwNzMvYTkxMWU3ZWZlNWNjZmMzOTc5MDVmZmZhZjUxY2Q2NWQuanBn?w=400&h=400&id=cac52476-611a-4af0-8278-a356176435f3&type=EPISODE&s=3tnYexyl3jkhANLRCU3U1ZQLGgc=){kind=small}
