Contemporary authoritarianism and exploitation of the country’s working class are rooted in its past as a U.S. colony.

The post U.S. Imperialism Resulted in a Forgotten Genocide in the Philippines appeared first on Democratic Left.

Monthly Newsletter of the Rochester Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America

Welcome to the October issue of Rochester Red Star, ROC DSA’s monthly newsletter. This month, find essays on DSA’s internal democracy, a voter guide, remarks on Marx, and more. You’ll also find upcoming events and coverage of chapter activities.

Interested in contributing? Send submissions to bit.ly/SubmitRedStar, or get involved with our Communications Committee. Reach out to steering@rocdsa.org and join DSA today!

The post Rochester Red Star | October 2026 | (Issue 30) first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

A member of Brazil’s Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) discusses their alliance with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party (PT) to beat the far right — and the stakes riding on the defeat of Trumpism for Brazil and the rest of the world.

The post Brazil Faces a Crucial Choice on Oct. 4 appeared first on Democratic Left.

Thousands of New Yorkers protest Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations.

The post “You Are Wanted for Genocide!” appeared first on Democratic Left.

Portland DSA resolutely denounces the political coercion by Texas State police of DSA member and Austin City Council candidate Misael Ramos, who was wrongfully arrested the morning of September 26. Ramos had recently attended a protest decrying ICE brutality, particularly the violence against Venezuelan immigrant Wilber Rafael Garces Perez who still remains critically injured after being shot by immigration police.

Misael is one of many people in Texas being targeted for exercising their free speech in rightfully condemning state violence against the immigrant community. What we’re seeing is a racheting up of state repression, now targeting citizens and socialist political candidates.

We will stand by our people, immigrants and poor alike, against this violence. Portland DSA demands the charges be dropped against Misael and that Wilber be released to his family. We also echo calls by DSA to the following:

No one is free until everyone is free.

In solidarity,
Portland DSA

By: Andrew S

BOSTON COMMON – On September 14, sex workers and their allies gathered at Brewer Fountain under a canopy of red umbrellas for Boston’s historic first March for Sex Worker Pride. Led by organizers Rita Romero from Red Light Disco, Amanda Rodriguez from FemMenThem, and Jessica Van Meir from Boston Sex Workers and Allies Collective (BSWAC), the march both centered the public celebration of sex worker pride and the ongoing fight for full decriminalization.

Several sex workers, community organizers, and local political leaders spoke to a crowd about the importance of the event before participants marched from the Common to Jacques’ Cabaret, the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the city.

Speakers at the rally spoke on decriminalization, the importance of protecting bodily autonomy, and the contributions sex workers have made to the feminist and queer rights movements. The march was the first in Boston history, creating an opportunity to publicly recognize sex workers and their allies. Save Our Selves (SOS) and Protect Trans Futures were both crucial supporters of the event.

For some participants like Savannah Sly, the march marked a huge milestone:

I have been a sex worker since 2003, and I am so ecstatic to see sex workers and allies visibly marching through Boston and demanding our rights be respected. I wish something like this existed when I was eighteen and was first getting started.

Members of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) in attendance supported the same. Rat, chair of New Hampshire CPUSA said:

This is another step toward destigmatization, decriminalization, and collective liberation, and to be recognized for who we are in public.

Full Decriminalization vs. Nordic Model

The question of decriminalization has long been a battleground of policy for sex workers. One side favors the Nordic Model (also known as “end-demand”), where prostitution is a phenomenon manufactured from societal gender inequality, understanding buyers in the sex trade as the main culprit. Nordic Model organizations seek to illegalize commercial sex trade from the consumer side by targeting “Johns,” or customers of sex workers who are customarily presumed to be men. Nordic Model supporters believe that if the consumption of the commercial sex trade is made illegal, trafficking in the trade and the exploitation within the industry will effectively diminish.

But advocates for full sex work decriminalization actively see the Nordic Model as a dangerous misstep that is more likely to harm the livelihood of sex workers. Sex workers experience higher levels of violence within the Nordic Model because clients are less likely to provide their personal information for screening purposes and more likely to want to meet in hidden, discreet locations. Dr. Niina Vuolajärvi’s research from the London School of Economics reports that a resounding majority of sex workers she interviewed – 96%, to be exact – felt that Nordic Model legislation put them in more harm both from clients and the police. The resulting difficulty to find clients also causes greater impoverishment for sex workers. According to the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), the Nordic Model has failed to achieve its intended goal of decreasing incidences of sex work. The burden of the Nordic Model therefore falls heavily on the sex workers it claims to protect, not just the buyers legislation targets.

Organizations such as the ACLU and Human Rights Watch have advocated for full decriminalization of sex work.

Protection of sex workers’ right to bodily autonomy was a center pillar for many in attendance at Boston’s first Sex Worker Pride March. Beyond keeping them safe from wrongful discrimination, autonomy plays an inevitable role in sex worker earnings, too. Zachary Flynn, a sex worker in the area, spoke on his own experience:

In late-stage capitalism, autonomy is important. If you would rather judge someone for sex work than pay them a livable wage, then what else do you expect us to do? I work three to four jobs on top of sex work, and that is barely keeping me afloat.

Zachary continued, speaking on how sex work builds wealth through labor: 

I think the fact that even with sex work being one of three to four jobs someone can have and even then not being able to support themselves financially says a lot on its own, but not everyone’s story with sex work is strictly about survival. It’s a chosen (and needed) profession for a fair amount of society. The point of the march is autonomy. All forms of work are selling your mind or body through means of labor, so why is it different in this context? If you have ever watched or rented porn, visited a strip club or advocated for women/queer rights, that means you support sex work, whether you realize it or not.

From Origins to Pride

Carol Leigh was the first to coin the term “sex work” in the 1980s to provide a term alternative to the stigmatized “prositution.” According to Mary Carol of the Boston Sex Workers and Allies Collective (BSWAC), an important part of that was the emphasis on work and labor.

BSWAC organized events in the community around this foundational concept in the run-up to the Pride March. On September 7, BSWAC hosted a screening and panel on Working Girls (1986), independent filmmaker Lizzie Borden’s movie about a day in the life of a woman working in a brothel in New York City. An overbearing manager forces her to stay beyond her hours, while displaying glimpses of interaction between workers and clients throughout the entire day. Working Girls is a representation of sex workers and their connection to labor in the view of Mary Carol.

The Pride March also took the time to remember what sex workers have contributed to and suffered historically. The red umbrellas ubiquitous across the march were not coincidence, but rather the universal symbol of solidarity that has called attention to poor working conditions faced by sex workers since 2001. Further, sex workers’ contributions far outdate the symbol. Sly stated:

Sex workers helped start Pride. Sex workers are the canaries in the coal mine for how people are treated. They are at the forefront at the advancement of human rights and bringing home the bacon for their communities at the same time. Pride is sex workers claiming their own unique space and being the focus for collective liberation.

Many steps remain to make in order for sex worker pride to be fully enjoyed.

Rat claimed that more needs to be done legislatively and culturally: “we need to challenge elected officials on their decriminalization stance, and we need people to speak up for sex workers even when they’re not in the room.” BSWAC’s Legislative Priorities include legislation for full decriminalization, safe reporting, and mechanisms to protect workers from sexual assault by cops.

Andrew S is a member of Boston DSA and associate editor of Working Mass.

EDIT: A previous version of this article misstated the origin of sex work, which has been corrected in this version. A previous version also listed CPUSA’s affiliate as a chapter in Southern New Hampshire, rather than New Hampshire CPUSA, which has also been corrected.

The post Red Umbrellas: First Sex Worker Pride March Organized in Boston History appeared first on Working Mass.

The cost of the long-term care of our child is a constant source of anxiety. A just society would not punish its vulnerable members for their inability to compete on the capitalist market.

The post The Social Safety Net Fails Special-Needs Families appeared first on Democratic Left.

ETOC Cadre News:

Jersey City tenants declare a rent strike at 5 separate buildings on the city’s west side

FROM HUDSON COUNTY VIEW: Jersey City tenants declared a rent strike at five separate buildings on the city’s west side, alleging issues ranging from neglect, pests, and no on site building superintendent.

“They just don’t care to fix anything. The kitchen floor is in awful shape. They put some screws in the kitchen floor tile so that they don’t move around too much. It’s an awful thing. We just gotta go on strike to get what we want,” Charlie, a tenant at 154 Belmont Ave. where a rally was held last week who declined to give his last name, said.

“I’ve been living in this building 40 years. Nothing gets done, they want me to get out. Rats, mice, holes in the bottom, holes on top, and they still have the nerve to make me pay for water,” added fellow building tenant Luneste Alexender.

429 Bergen Ave., on rent strike since November, was joined this month by 150 and 154 Belmont Ave., also owned by Amir Ben-Yohanon. The Belmont buildings were previously without heat in the winter of 2024 along with 35 Kensington Ave., as HCV first reported.

Ben-Yohanon owns these buildings through a separate LLC from 429 Bergen Ave., a common practice among Jersey City landlords who may have dozens of LLCs obscuring their real estate portfolio in the city.

Tenants at 19 and 25 Kensington Ave. are also withholding rent from Optimum Properties.

“I learned about this building a while ago but just recently I just learned the severity of how people are living here. I’m talking rats biting peoples’ toes, what looks like cracks in drooping walls,” Bergen Grand Tenants Association President Liv Malone declared at the rally.

A tenant in the crowd interjected that the building at 429 Bergen Ave. has “water coming in everywhere.”

“So I’ve just really enjoyed getting to know everyone who lives here and thinking about how they can get to live in a home that’s safe and that’s clean. Because I can promise you that the landlord that we share, Amir Ben-Yohanon, does not live like this and the only way that that will change is by the people living here deciding it’s done and that’s what you guys are doing here,” Malone concluded.

Eli King, an organizer with Jersey City Tenants Union, echoed that sentiment without mentioning calling out any specific landlords.

“Landlords know their power and they’re not afraid to use it, to neglect basic living standards in buildings they own to maximize the profit from their investment. Tenants are coming together and using our power: there’s more of us than there are of them and every dollar of those profits is money that we work for,” he asserted.

“Both of these owners own massive portfolios in the city and we’re not going to stop with these buildings or with these landlords. Anyone who is ready to get organized and fight back against their landlord, come talk to us.”

Ben-Yohanon did not return an email seeking comment on Sunday, while Optimum Properties could not be reached for comment.

READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE!

By: Reid Jackson

BOSTON – On September 16, Boston announced the end of its contract with Flock Safety after uncovering the company sharing local data with outside law enforcement.

If this is shocking news to you, you may be a Boston City Councilmember: “Boston City Councilor Ben Weber said he was disappointed to see the agency was sharing data.”

Boston is now the latest – and largest – city in New England to find out the hard way that Flock cameras are more trouble than they’re worth. The cancellation is the latest but not the first. While City Hall can be given a crumb of credit for doing the bare minimum and shelving the contract once the threat to data security became evident, it’s strange that the eight separate cases of cops misusing Flock cameras primarily to stalk former partners did not incentivize City Council to act. It’s also hard to excuse Flock violating the data sharing policy despite being strictly forbidden by the city’s contract:

“When the Boston Police Department discovered that a Flock data-sharing function had been enabled despite a clear, contractual agreement prohibiting its use, BPD immediately directed the vendor to disable it,” the city and the Boston Police Department said in a joint statement on WCVB 5. “The city has since ended all use of Flock and will not use its services going forward.”

The public can watch city officials and police run headfirst into its own crisis, considering the reputation of Automated License Plate Readers across the country. The public perception of state-approved spy cameras is exactly what you think it is, and according to some organizers in the Metrowest region, exactly the weapon that many fear.

Bobbie, one Framingham resident and member of the Metrowest Neighborhood Group of the Boston chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), has been present at every step of the process of the push to get Flock cameras not just removed, but outright banned in her town. 

The Metrowest area of Framingham and Marlborough has the largest population of Brazilian immigrants in the state, which has opened the towns up to become the main targets of ICE in the region. The movement to target surveillance technology arose from organizers within the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of MA, after shifting from a focus on ICE verification training that characterized much of LUCE’s activity in 2025.

Immigrant justice organizers were aware of ICE’s use of data from cameras like Flock’s to coordinate kidnappings. According to Bobbie:

There was a lot of concern that ICE could have access to this technology to identify and kidnap our neighbors, and that the federal admin could use it to stalk activists. Plus, police forces from outside of Massachusetts could use it to track citizens looking for healthcare across state lines, which we had already seen proof of in 404 Media reporting.

Bobbie said the first and most crucial step of their crusade against Framingham’s Flock program was to gather information, especially of the actual number of cameras in the city’s limits. This was a task that was only possible with the coordination of Framingham residents who mapped out everywhere they could find a camera on a city street, in order to accurately measure the success of the campaign. Framingham residents report using the website deflock.me to identify the cameras, as well as driving to each spot to visually confirm their location in town.

Next was the ordinary avenues of public pressure on the local government. Despite the City Council’s sidestepping and shifting of responsibility between the police chief and the mayor, organizers successfully managed to land a date for a public hearing with a Flock official in Spring 2026 through a Framingham City Councilmember arranging a public forum to ask questions of a company representative. Coalition members held the representative’s feet to the fire as they attempted to dodge questions and explain away the infringements of residents’ civil liberties.

Depending on the city leadership, campaigns here have two choices: extra pressure or public protest. Power-mapping is the strategic tool most helpful here, to determine the power relations unique to the municipality. Longer fought battles have been the case in similar campaigns against the much better funded data center projects such as the Dungeon in Lowell, which recently had its expansion paused by a state judge.

Alternatively, in towns like Natick or Waltham, the town does not need an excuse to do away with a surveillance program. In Natick’s example, the project was not made known to the public or voted on by the Town Meeting or Select Board. Natick voted unanimously to end the program this February, and Waltham shut their cameras down just this month.

For many of these towns, including Framingham’s removal of cameras this June, this marks only the first step. Since the state legislation is lagging behind this issue, municipalities are forced to set their own rules – and be pressured as organizing targets – for surveillance in their neighborhoods case-by-case. 

[When we started this campaign]… a few of our organizers initially thought we would only get regulation and not a full ban,” Bobbie said. “Even though we all wanted a ban… we learned we had more support on the full council for a full ban… after a ton of public comment from our organizers.

Despite the reservations of more entrenched institutions, expanding the horizons of the politically possible is the organizers’ role. The fight against mass surveillance will be fought town-by-town, but with the help of a broad coalition like Mass 50501, Indivisible Mass Alliance, and DSA, the tools of one successful campaign can easily be repurposed for use in other towns, or in other fights against encroaching tyranny in the American empire. 

With Flock and other ALPR’s only becoming less and less popular, the tide is on the side of those fighting against accountability-free data collection.

Reid Jackson is a member of the Metrowest Neighborhood Group of Boston DSA and contributing writer for Working Mass.

NOTE: A previous version of this article misattributed LUCE as the source of reporting, when 404 Media was the actual source mentioned in-quote. This has been corrected in this version of this article.

The post Flicking the Switch on Flock appeared first on Working Mass.

On Thursday, members of our Steering Committee and endorsed candidate Adam Bojak met privately with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. We were proud to share how we are building a durable, sustainable socialist project here, as well as share our hope to see Rep. AOC coordinate more strongly with the growing socialist bloc forming at every level of elected office. Afterward, a range of our chapter organizers joined Team AOC for their Project Reactivation event.

Regardless of what her political career holds, one thing is clear: Rep. AOC and her team would not have visited Buffalo, or prioritized a private sit-down with Buffalo DSA leaders, without the diligent work of our members. The foundation we’ve laid in healthcare organizing, labor solidarity, tenant suport, and electoral politics have put Buffalo DSA on the map.

The working class is hungry for political change, and our chapter is ready to lead the charge.

We look forward to leading discussions on this meeting, how our chapter might relate to a future AOC candidacy, and more at our Oct. 17 General Body Meeting. We will also hold our first of many discussions on the 2028 Presidential Election, and DSA’s role within that.

Join DSA to shape our strategy in and out of electoral politics, to build real working class power.