Ten years ago last month, the world watched militarized police forces ‘manage’ the collective outcry of civilians protesting the police killing of Michael Brown. In uniform and weaponry, the police were indistinguishable from combat-ready soldiers. 

Another event, also a decade old last month: Operation Protective Edge, the Israeli military’s 2014 action in Gaza. From its official start in June to its cessation on August 26, 2014, the summer’s war left thousands of Palestinians and scores of Israelis dead. 

As scholars like Angela Davis have noted, these events — in Ferguson and in Gaza — are connected in ways that St. Louisans should know about and act upon.

For example: As police fired tear gas at demonstrators in Ferguson, the demonstrators received advice from Palestinian activists on social media about how to manage their reactions to the gas. “Solidarity with #Ferguson. Remember to not touch your face when teargassed or put water on it. Instead use milk or coke!” wrote Ramallah-based journalist Mariam Barghouti. “And of course DON’T wash your eyes with water,” added Palestinian doctor Rajai Abukhalil. Like Black Americans, Palestinians are a population familiar with the state repression of protest.

But the impact of Israeli policing of Palestinians on policing in St. Louis County runs deeper than social media. More than 100,000 police officials across the United States have made professional visits to Israel as part of an international “police exchange,” as the activist group Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) documented in a 2018 report titled Deadly Exchange. These visits are funded by pro-Israel lobbying groups such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). 

According to the St. Louis Jewish Light, the St. Louis chapter of the ADL “organized four trips for St. Louis-area police officers” as of November 2017. One trip alone, in March 2017, included “top law enforcement officers from Creve Coeur, Florissant, Frontenac, Olivette and St. Ann.” 

The JVP report finds that U.S. police on trips to Israel examine Israeli policing infrastructure and attend conferences on policing strategy. On the March 2017 trip, area police met “with Israel Defense Forces commanders” and “spoke with Israeli officials at border checkpoints separating parts of the West Bank controlled by the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. They also visited an Israeli prison”, as recounted in the Jewish Light. 

U.S. police delegations have also met with senior members of the Israeli security state, including figureheads of Shin Bet, the security agency whose regular torture of Palestinian detainees has been documented for decades by human rights groups and news outlets inside and outside of Israel. 

The ADL “quietly paused” its funding for U.S. police trips in 2019, but the group insists that it is only a pause, and that funding might resume at any time. 

This possibility is alarming for many reasons. Human Rights Watch (HRW) declared Israel an apartheid state in 2021; Amnesty International followed suit the following year. The advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), issued this July, found Israel in violation of the United Nations convention condemning racial discrimination – specifically, the convention’s article “condemn[ing] racial segregation and apartheid.” As the HRW report exhaustively documents, Israeli policing plays a crucial role in the maintenance of this apartheid. 

The role of prisons in these visits is also gravely concerning. The UN released a new report on July 31 about the detention of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. In a press release, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said: “The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees…in flagrant violation of international human rights law.” Surveillance footage was recently leaked of Israeli prison guards gang-raping a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman military prison.

Finally, St. Louis-area police met not only with Israeli police, but also with officials from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). If this happens again, local officers will likely meet with a military that the ICJ’s January decision found to be “plausibl[y]” failing to protect “Palestinians in Gaza…from acts of genocide.” 

The solution to this problem is simple, and it was modeled by Durham, North Carolina. In April 2018, the Durham City Council voted 6-0 to “bar the city’s police department from engaging in international exchanges” featuring “military-style training.” The resolution was prompted by the Durham Police Department’s participation in police exchanges with Israel, like those undertaken by St. Louis-area officers. 

Mayor Tishaura Jones and the St. Louis Board of Aldermen should work together to draft and pass a similar resolution with respect to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and encourage other area boards to do likewise. By doing so, the Board would demonstrate continued leadership after its principled passage of a ceasefire resolution in January.

Clearly, visits to Israel are not the only source of America’s over-militarized policing; nor are they the main source. But they are one source, and in the light of Gaza’s ruination, those visits must end. A decade after Michael Brown’s killing, it is long overdue.

Nicholas Dolan is a PhD student in the Department of English at Washington University in St. Louis. The views expressed are the author’s alone and do not reflect the views of any institution or organization.

The post It’s Time to Permanently End U.S.-Israeli Police Exchanges in St. Louis County  appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

This year, Las Vegas DSA mobilized over 70 members to knock 10,000+ doors for our first endorsed candidate in the Nevada legislature primaries. In keeping with that energy, we have formed an Electoral Working Group to begin the work on recruiting, training, and running candidates from within LVDSA membership.

This year, we offer a voting recommendation and explanation for each of the 7 ballot questions, and a rundown on the CCSD School Board. We will not be recommending candidates in the general and have chosen to focus our capacity and energy on building our own strategy and growing the socialist movement.

View the voter guide

Monthly Newsletter of the Rochester Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America

The post Rochester Red Star | October 2024 (Issue 06) first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

by Rochester Grants Pass Resistance

Editor’s Note: ROC DSA livestreamed this event. A recording is available on our YouTube page, here: YouTube.com/@rocdsa (Note: Timestamped to first speaker).

Housing advocates are holding a press conference to address the devastating Supreme Court decision that  criminalizes homelessness, Grants Pass v. Johnson. In the wake of the ruling, the group Rochester Grants Pass Resistance formed to address how the case could impact Rochester. 

The Supreme Court found that laws regulating camping on public property does not constitute “cruel and  unusual punishment” prohibited by the Eighth Amendment; allowing municipalities to arrest and fine  individuals for sleeping outdoors, even when there are no shelters available. 

We anticipate that this decision will have a significant impact on Monroe County’s population of  houseless individuals. We note alarming impacts of the Grants Pass decision in other cities: San Francisco  is preparing for more aggressive encampment sweeps that could include criminal penalties, and Portland  has enacted a long-planned city camping ban. We want to protect the houseless individuals living in our  community from facing similar consequences as a result of this decision. 

The press conference will feature multiple speakers who have been directly impacted by homelessness. They will describe why they are unable to access shelter. We will announce our call for legislative action and present a list of demands of the City of Rochester and Monroe County to limit the consequences of this court decision and help our houseless neighbors. 

RGPR is bringing the following demands to Rochester City Council and the Monroe County Legislature to address the potential impacts and protect our houseless neighbors: 

1. Make a municipal commitment not to arrest or fine people for sleeping in public areas.

2. Stop the “sweeps” of homeless encampments, including ending confiscation of individuals’ personal property. 

3. Remove all hostile architecture. 

4. Provide Housing for All: an apartment for each houseless person. 

5. Create No-barrier Shelter: meet people where they are, as they are. 

6. Fund Housing for All: direct tax on rental income or a countywide tax on sale of property.

7. Create a Housing Task Force to advise policy changes (Overdose Prevention Centers, overhaul of  DHS sanctions, MH community-based housing funding, housing vouchers).

Editor’s Note: The event, originally scheduled for ‘Peace Village,’ at 161 Industrial St., was forced to move several times. These updates are shared below.

[Update 9/28 @ 1:20pm] The city blocked off broad street at industrial street (peace village) so the press conference is moving to 1248 north Clinton Ave. Please find us there.

[Update 9/28 @ 1:58pm] We have heard that bringing people to North Clinton will be harmful to the folks in the encampment here. The encampment has been harassed by police often as of late. So we will move the press conference to the corner of Joseph and Loomis at the fenced in lot. Thank you for joining us at 3:15pm, to give you all time to make adjustments to another location. This, incidentally, is what it’s like, in a small way, to be unhoused and pushed from place to place, welcome nowhere, unwelcome again and again.

The post Press Conference to Demand Monroe County Protect Homeless Following Supreme Court Decision  first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

This fall voters face yet another election where we are left to choose between the threat of fascism or the neoliberal status quo. On one hand, Trump represents the threat of mass deportations of immigrants, attacks on bodily autonomy and LGBTQ rights, deepening attacks on unions and workers, racist attacks on people of color, and […]

by Brinn F.

The fight against climate change can often seem distant and on a scale beyond what the average person has the power to do. While it’s true that saving our planet is a task that can only be accomplished through collective action, we have an opportunity for that action right here in Austin, Texas. Within the past year, the city of Austin has unveiled a plan to construct a gas plant to be operated by Austin Energy. This unsustainable plan would only further add to the pollution in a city already struggling to keep the air safe and breathable.

It was this proposal that galvanized Austin’s environmentalists to form the Public Power Campaign. This broad coalition comprised people from a variety of backgrounds such as environmentalism, labor organizing, and simply being a concerned resident of Austin. The possibility of the city investing its limited resources towards a non-renewable, polluting source of energy was enough to pull together a diverse base of support.

The most immediate goal of the public power campaign is to prevent the construction of the planned gas power plant. However, the campaign extends beyond that to fight for climate justice well into the future. Beyond stopping the expansion of non-renewable energy, the campaign advocates for the construction of renewable sources of energy here in Austin. Not only would this create a safer environment to live in, it would also give the city access to federal funds under the Inflation Reduction Act. With this plan, Austin has the opportunity to be a national leader by simultaneously creating clean and sustainable energy infrastructure and growing the city budget.

Another priority of the Public Power Campaign is ensuring that the transition to green energy is done in a way that protects Austin’s workers in the long term. An invaluable part of the campaign has been its cooperation with organized labor. A common concern about the push for renewables is that it risks putting workers in the energy sector out of a job. By working so closely with, and being spearheaded by, workers in the field, the campaign’s goals have been tailored to protect labor during this transition. The campaign is fighting to prevent Austin’s energy infrastructure being sold off to private interests who are more likely to lay off workers for profit. At the same time, the campaign is pushing for protections to guarantee workers can continue to work in the field once unsustainable sources of energy are replaced by sustainable ones.

There are a number of ways to get involved with this effort. Those in the Public Power Campaign have emphasized that this work can only be accomplished with the continued efforts and support of Austin’s communities. One of the best ways to get involved at time of writing is to participate in the upcoming climate town hall hosted by the Austin Democratic Socialists of America. The town hall will take place on September 29th at 2:00 PM located at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection Parish Hall. Beyond attending Public Power Campaign events, representatives from the campaign encouraged people to support candidates who advance climate justice such as Mike Siegel, the DSA’s endorsed candidate for the District 7 council seat. As well as pushing for supportive candidates, a great way to help out is to talk to others about the campaign and its importance for the future health of our community.

In the fight for climate justice, the challenges ahead are significant. The construction of the planned gas plant would have negative effects for both Austin’s health and economy for decades to come. However, the combined efforts of so many sectors of this community have created a real chance to not only prevent this current catastrophe, but to go further and fight for future victories. Only through solidarity and collective effort can the Public Power Campaign help bring about a cleaner, just, and more prosperous future for the people of Austin.

This article was written based on information generously provided in interviews with Austin DSA Members Jay P. and Ramsey B.

The post Public Power Campaign Fights for a Green Austin first appeared on Red Fault.

Unions have relied on staff to encourage members to build the union through new organizing at non-union workplaces, but they could be doing much more.

The post Every Member an Organizer appeared first on EWOC.

How Maryland organizers used electoral canvassing to make voting about something more than the candidate—a tool in the fight for Palestinian liberation.

Metro DC DSA claims to be a “vehicle for the working class”. How can we open the door wider? Some thoughts...

Years ago, a judge found the NYPD's Stop and Frisk practice a form of systemic racial discrimination. The Stop and Frisk program in DC is even worse. Why can't we stop it?