Brandon Collins wasn't afraid to touch a politically controversial subject Monday - providing jobs to all City residents and working toward guaranteed employment. But the City Council candidate, whose push for more jobs struck a nerve with other City politicians, is used to being an outsider - he is the first Socialist Party member to run for this position.
Collins, who works as a music teacher, musician, restaurant worker, personal care attendant and activist, has lived in Charlottesville his whole life and graduated from Charlottesville High School. He said he got involved with politics and with the Socialist party after making personal changes in his life.
"I was kind of a mess for a good chunk of my life, and it wasn't until I had gotten sober, basically, that I got pretty active in activism and organizing," Collins said. "I'd always been kind of politically aware, but sort of through that personal change, my politics changed, and I realized ... the only way to deal with [societal issues] was to get actively involved. And I jumped right into it."\nPart of getting actively involved was choosing a political party.
"I had done a lot of reading, a reading of history, and a lot of reading of thought that pointed out that we still have these same problems," he said, noting the influence of Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States," which offered him the "oppressed side of U.S. history." Collins was interested in these issues and began searching for a party "to fit [his] politics," ultimately deciding on the Socialist Party.
"We're different from a lot of the other groups out there," he said. "We're decentralized and that's something we hold as being really important in terms of how we're organized and how a future society would be."
Dick Lahey, co-chair of the Socialist Party of Central Virginia, said he believes Collins chose to become involved with the party because of his concern about people and love of activism. Collins is currently secretary of the Socialist Party of Central Virginia.
"From my understanding, Brandon was concerned about people, and he puts people before profits, and he took a keen interest in how to channel that," Lahey said.
That concern for people spurred Collins to run for Council. He said he decided to run because of the encouragement of others and his desire for a "poor people's candidate."
"There have been some decisions that have been made that I don't always agree with the Council on," Collins said. "I remain pretty active in City Council meetings and I'm pretty knowledgeable about this stuff, and I felt we needed more oppositional people in the race. I felt like working folks and poor folks needed their own voice."
Collins is currently a board member of the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice and a co-founder of both Virginia United Against Oppression, which focuses on immigrants' and workers' rights, and the Cville Workers Action Network, which aims to organize solutions for labor issues.
Collins announced his campaign in April. Even as an aspiring politician, he plans to maintain his activism, including in his relations with the University.
Collins said he participated in the Living Wage Campaign two years ago while it was still developing and intends to continue supporting the cause in the future.
"I'm willing, either as a councilman or not, to engage in civil disobedience to make the U.Va. Living Wage happen," he said. "I think City Council should be much more adamant about U.Va.'s Living Wage."
Hunter Link, student organizer of the campaign, said he first met Collins when the candidate played in a local band at a Living Wage event.
"[The Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice] is a very active voice, and [Collins is] the communicator between University students and CCPJ," Link said. "We tell him what we're doing and he tells us what they're doing."
Collins said the issues he wants to work on which will most concern University students, in addition to the Living Wage campaign, are extending the Free Trolley's late night hours, developing sustainable methods of public transportation and making student housing more affordable.
Regarding housing costs, "We want everyone to get housed at a decent price," Collins said, "and that's something that's definitely going to affect students at U.Va. And we'd like to see better housing in the rest of the city and see the rent not increase - I don't think it's ever going to decrease."
The Socialist Party does not have ballot status in Virginia. Collins will run as an independent in the election in November.
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