by Seth

Freedom is a border
Freedom is a wall
Freedom is the right to freeze
Freedom is the right to starve
Freedom is cancer without treatment
Freedom is $300 insulin
Freedom is $1200 childcare
Freedom is $2000 rent
Freedom is a once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe
Freedom is the hottest year in history
Freedom is five miles to a grocery store
Freedom is a decommissioned factory
Freedom is a shuttered school
Freedom is a forced birth
Freedom is surveillance
Freedom is silence
Freedom is slavery
Freedom is a white man’s burden
Freedom is manifest destiny
Freedom is a bomb
Freedom is a paperclip
Freedom is a backroom deal
Freedom is an empire
Freedom is a blockade
Freedom is a boss is a cop is a tyrant
Freedom is the lesser of two evils
Freedom is a prison cell
Freedom is boots on the ground
Freedom is a standing army in your neighborhood
Freedom is a knee on your neck
Freedom is being corralled on a dead end street and gassed
Freedom is a bullet
Freedom is a gun
Freedom is as American as apple pie
…tainted with disease
…painted red to hide
…the rot that lives inside

by Chuck

This article is a part of our series Ask DSA, where we ask members of our chapter to define what a concept popular on the left means to them. The rest of the responses can be found here.

Freedom is a powerful notion, something to fight and die for, though I’m largely a pacifist. Like my father, I would enlist to fight against Hitler (my father was fortunate the Germans surrendered shortly after and he occupied their country).

But rarely is the threat to freedom so clear or the solution so obvious, a war between nations being the last resort.

More often, particularly today, we fight a different kind of war, a culture war over the very definition of freedom. It’s imperative that the left not surrender this powerful concept to the right, or their corporate sponsors.

While simple dichotomies are dangerous, this may help:

On the left side, freedom means the freedom… 

to vote, to assemble/protest, to organize unions, of women to control their bodies, to determine one’s gender, to have a clean environment, to not have to drive a car/use mass transit 

On the right side, freedom means the freedom…

to limit those who vote to the right people, to ‘speak’ with money, to bribe politicians, to fire workers, to lower wages and working conditions, to have military style weapons, to drive any car anywhere, to pollute and exploit scarce resources, to force women to carry fetuses to term regardless, to enforce patriarchal gender norms, to practice discrimination if religion dictates…

The difference between left and right ideologically has much to do with a fundamental disagreement over the relationship between the individual and the group. Capitalist ideology wants to imagine the individual exists alone, granted freedom by the marketplace operating on higher principles.

Those on the democratic left know this ‘invisible hand’ of the market is imaginary, and that an unregulated market is highly destructive, like a dangerous machine out of control. Freedom comes in a society when individuals can form communities held together by social justice. Freedom comes when individual choices are meaningfully shaped through a democratic process. When markets are limited and well-regulated, infused with social values like equality and a healthy planet. Freedom can only be achieved by pulling the evil of right-wing capitalism out by the roots, replacing it first with social democracy then democratic socialism. 

Let freedom ring.

by A. Adams

This article is a part of our series Ask DSA, where we ask members of our chapter to define what a concept popular on the left means to them. The rest of the responses can be found here.

Freedom in this country is invariably defined in individualistic terms. Freedom is cast as the individual triumphing against the constraints imposed on the individual by laws and regulations imposed on her or him by “big government” bureaucracy, leading many, particularly on the right, to cast a cold eye on anything that has a whiff of collective action about it. I believe that this is not an accident, but is a viewpoint that has been purposely propagated by many on the right to stymie progressive change in favor of working people.

The simple truth is that one cannot begin to talk of freedom until the collective freedom of all members of the community is brought into consideration. As John Donne himself counseled us, “no man is an island unto himself.” We are all connected by social relations, and what happens to one part of the community will invariably affect the whole. Even the richest plutocrat, despite their direct role in exploiting the working-class, is affected by the consequences poverty, for it eats away at the social fabric of the same society in which they are a part as well. 

Perhaps the richest among us have dreams of sequestering themselves in high security compounds. Perhaps they will take up residence on an island far out in the ocean. Some may even harbor dreams of leaving the planet all together and leaving the rest of humanity to rot as in some Philip K. Dick dystopia. Who would want to wrench themselves away from the rest of humanity like this but the worst sort of misanthrope?

Humans are by nature social beings, and we cannot live without each other for long. None of us can claim true freedom until we can honestly say that freedom is to be found throughout society. And that must include the freedom from want.

Democratic socialism aims for true freedom: both the freedom from want, but also the freedom to develop ourselves to our fullest abilities once our basic needs have been satisfied. It is the freedom to take over ownership of our own lives as well as the well being of our shared communities. Isn’t this worth fighting for? And if not, what is the alternative? A dystopia of brutality and misery for the vast majority of people on this planet? What freedom is that? 

We as democratic socialists must redefine and extend the definition of freedom so that we can explain to our fellow members of the working-class exactly what it is that we are fighting for. In a time when the meaning of freedom has become so twisted and warped by our exploiters, the necessity for fighting for real freedom, the emancipation of the working-class, has never been more important. The stakes are high. But we can overcome if we find it in ourselves to struggle together. For it is only together that we can discover real and lasting freedom.

By Seth

Celebrate your American freedom, or lack thereof with this July 4th playlist.

We’re coming to the end of Pride Month amidst an environment of escalating attacks from the right on queer and trans people. 

Tonight, we speak to two grassroots organizers working on self-defense programs for queer, trans, and people of color in NYC and the Bay Area. We hear from Kenji of Soar Over Hate and DJ Guerrilla Pump of We Are The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For on how they are protecting their communities by organizing educational programs, creating art and healing practices, distributing tools and resources, and uniting community care with self-defense.

We’re also joined live tonight by Aaron Fernando, a member of the Queens DSA Electoral Organizing Committee, to discuss yesterday’s primary election results. Because of the redistricting debacle, New York is holding two primaries this summer with voters weighing in on Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Assembly races yesterday.

DSA For the Many endorsed four socialist Assembly Members for re-election and five new candidates for the Assembly. All the incumbent DSA members won their primaries, some by a very large margin,but of the five new candidates only Sarahana Shrestha, running in the Hudson Valley won her race outright, toppling 13-term incumbent Kevin Cahill who has held the seat since 1999. Samy Nemir Olivares’ race against Erik Dilan in Bushwick and Cypress Hills is still too close to call with Samy trailing by about 200 votes.

To learn more about queer self-defense programs and how you can get involved and support, visit soaroverhate.org and wevebeenwaitingforus.org.

To learn more about getting involved in upcoming races to elect DSA endorsed candidates for senate visit fortheturnout.nyc

Peninsula DSA Condemns SCOTUS Ruling on Dobbs, Calls for Interstate Solidarity

SAN MATEO, June 28, 2022 — On Friday, June 24, the US Supreme Court released their 6–3 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, using anti-scientific and ahistorical arguments to overturn the constitutional right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). This illegitimate Supreme Court has thwarted the will of the people and bypassed the 14th Amendment so the state can force our reproductive labor to create a readily exploitable “domestic supply of infants” for the capitalist class.

Peninsula Democratic Socialists of America (PDSA) vehemently rejects the premise that the people exist to serve the elite-captured economy, or that gender oppression is in any way compatible with democracy. We stand in solidarity with the people in other states who have lost, or may soon lose, non-negotiable human rights. The Dobbs decision is nothing short of an act of class warfare that will disproportionately harm our most vulnerable communities, no matter where they live.

• We demand that Congress end the filibuster in order to pass legislation protecting the right to abortion and reproductive freedom.
• We demand that the California legislature make use of its Democratic supermajority to (1) make the right to abortion explicit, (2) protect any person seeking reproductive healthcare from intimidation, interference, or prosecution, and (3) pass CalCare (AB 1400) to guarantee free healthcare to all.
• We encourage our chapter members and potential members to support reproductive justice by donating to Oakland’s Access Reproductive Justice and by joining our Healthcare Working Group, which next meets on Wednesday, July 20 at 6 p.m.
• We invite our neighbors in San Mateo County to join DSA and build a mass political movement to fight for abortion rights and for democracy.

In the face of barbarism, we continue to fight for equality through socialism, including universal healthcare with free abortion on demand and without apology. They may have the courts, but we have the people. Solidarity forever.

We’re always looking for ways to increase engagement from our membership. Let us know what you’d like to see us do more of by sending us an email.