David Harding is a candidate for Baltimore City Council. He has worked for the Maryland Health Dept. for over 30 years. Active among state workers, he has joined with others to try to defend themselves over issues and problems they face.
He held the position of president of Local 1535 of AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, for over 10 years.
Before that, he worked at Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point for 8 years and was active in Steelworkers Union Local 2609.
When he first came to Baltimore in 1963, he was active in the Mobilization Against the War in Viet Nam and worked with U-JOIN, a community organization at that time.
He is a long-time socialist, having learned more than 40 years ago that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will defend working people. We have to do it ourselves.
He believes there is more than enough money in Baltimore to begin to address many of the problems working people face. But the city and the state give money away to big developers, corporations and banks. The developers, like those building around the harbor, have gotten richer. Under Armour at Port Covington can expect special consideration for the next 30 years. Even giant Amazon gets special tax breaks.
David Harding believes that to take this money back and use it for ourselves will require an organized and massive fight by working people. He believes there is no other way to deal with the crisis the bosses created and to impose what is necessary for everyone to have a decent standard of living.
He says elections will not make this happen. But we can use the elections to show we are fed up with both parties, and to show there are people who agree that such a fight, with these goals, is needed.