Tonight we’re joined live by Michaelangelo Pomarico, an organizer with Mid Hudson Valley DSA and the Public Power New York Coalition who has devoted a lot of time over the last several months organizing to elect Sarahana Shrestha, a DSA endorsed candidate for the New York Assembly. Michaelaneglo will share how Sarahana’s insurgent campaign in the Hudson Valley succeeded to unseat longtime incumbent  Kevin Cahill last month in the Democratic primary and what comes next for their DSA chapter. 

We also talk with Socialist Councilmembers Alexa Aviles and Tiffany Caban about their first six months on the New York City Council and we’ll hear in their own words why they, along with four other council members, were the only members to vote NO on the City Budget that was pushed through in a late night vote by the Council Speaker and later signed by Mayor Adams earlier this month.   

To learn more about Mid-Hudson Valley DSA follow them on twitter @MHVDSA  and visit www.mhvdsa.org 

To learn more about Sarahana Shrestha follow her on twitter @sarahana and www.sarahanaforassembly.com/

On July 2^nd 2022, a large force from Patriot Front, the largest Neo-Nazi group in America, marched through downtown Boston. They assaulted an onlooker, but the situation was deescalated by FBI agents on the scene. The Nazis proceeded to ride the MBTA Orange Line to Oak Grove, where they were confronted by antifascists. They were protected by police and allowed to exit without incident. As a Boston antifascist, I say this shit sucks.

There have been a few writings published about this incident. Some are in the genre “Oh my gosh Boston is better than this!!! WTF?” Boston is not better than this. Another common genre is “Oh my gosh look at these scary Nazis why won’t somebody do something! Here’s a bunch of descriptors to make them look tough!” Boston antifascists need to set the record straight and make sure well-meaning liberals don’t end up just reproducing Nazi propaganda for Patriot Front. Patriot Front is actually very shitty, and not even in the “they’re dangerous Nazis” sense: they’re a bunch of angry children trying to look tough. They are not tough. 

Moreover, their display on July 2nd does not represent the amount of force that Patriot Front can reliably bring to bear in Boston or anywhere in the Northeast. Patriot Front locally is much more of a “stickers and graffiti” type of organization, not a marching one. 

What is Patriot Front?

PF grew out of the ashes of Vanguard America, after one of VA’s members committed a vicious car attack at the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. This left Heather Heyer dead and many others wounded and traumatized. This was a turning point in the alt-right movement. It was a public relations disaster and many alt-right and alt-lite organizations fell into infighting. Patriot Front sprung from the remnants of VA and appeals to the same demographic of angsty fascist teen boys and their desire to feel like big men.

Patriot Front has been active in Massachusetts for years. Their appearance is not new. Chris Hood, their original main organizer locally, showed up to protest Mark Bray (author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook) at the Harvard Coop in 2017, alongside members of Boston Free Speech. After that, Hood showed up to several local fascist events, trying to network with, organize with, ally with and recruit from the likes of BFS and Resist Marxism.

The first time I ran into Patriot Front they were attempting to disrupt the Boston Anarchist Book Fair in 2018. Likely, the local PF had chosen the book fair as a target because PF in Texas, where it originated and has typically had its largest concentration of members, had more successfully disrupted a similar event weeks earlier. But the attendees of the BABF quickly mounted up to eject the fascists, and we chased them off without further incident.

In early 2019 Patriot Front stirred up intimidation and anxiety by flyering East Boston, a largely immigrant neighborhood. After what seemed to be great success the first night they went out and flyered again the next night. This led to a police officer confronting PF, and one of them panicking, which then forced the cop to search them. Several of them (including their local leader, Chris Hood) were carrying illegal knives and were arrested. The lesson here is that oftentimes, a fascist has to make a mistake—like annoying a cop—before the cops will arrest them. Ultimately, the charges against these PF people were minor. Catching a charge did not deter Chris Hood, who is still a fascist organizer (although not with PF, since he was later ejected for stealing money that was supposed to go toward sticker printing and instead buying weed with it).

Patriot Front’s modus operandi is to spread Nazi propaganda and deface things. As I said before, Patriot Front is the largest Nazi organization that exists in America. But it’s also important to note that the vast majority of their work is putting up stickers and going out into the woods to hit each other as “training.” Members of Patriot Front only tend to get violent when they think they can win, and in Boston we have out-organized them and left them too afraid to directly confront the “scary antifa communists.” 

One of Patriot Front’s primary tactics, which has been adopted by other Nazi groups such as Hood’s PF Spinoff, The Nationalist Social Club, is to suddenly arrive at a location in force, do a photo op to prove they went to the location, and then leave. This has the advantage of looking very scary, while also having extremely limited risk for the Nazis doing it. It’s not easy to counter events that are not announced ahead of time. But the risk level for this sort of action is not zero, as Patriot Front discovered when they attempted this trick in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. Thirty-one of their members ended up arrested, including their Texas-based founder and leader, Thomas Rousseau. Nationalist Social Club found this out, too, last summer, when their attempt to march around Manchester, NH was countered: antifascists found their rally point, and the Nazis fled without any hesitation. 

What happened July 2^nd

At about 12:45pm a large group of Patriot Front Nazis appeared near Haymarket in downtown Boston. From there they marched toward the Boston Public Library in Copley. One thing is clear: two FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force managed to catch up to them in short order, and followed along with them.

I have to be a little bit coy discussing the details here. Fascists do not like that we resist them. Likewise, we know Boston antifascists are under surveillance by state forces. The state doesn’t necessarily like Nazis, especially ones who call for the overthrow of the government. But they treat Nazis very differently from how they treat antifascists. Often, if a Nazi is caught with an illegal weapon, their charges will go up in smoke very quickly, while just as often an antifascist who has the temerity to stand against white supremacy can very easily end up in a years-long cycle of court dates on trumped-up charges. Indeed, the JTTF agents have convened grand juries to harass local antifascist-sympathetic filmmaker Rod Webber and his family and friends. It’s also very interesting that the FBI agents from the JTTF managed to catch up to the march so quickly. Interesting and very lucky indeed, because agent and Boston cop Andy Creed was seen calming Patriot Front while they assaulted an innocent bystander.

From various news articles it appears that calls to 911 from bystanders fell on deaf ears. If the role of police in society were to protect people from violence you would expect them to come as quickly as possible and dissuade the Nazis from committing acts of violence. Instead 911 operators ignored and disconnected calls from people who saw these Nazis. For those wondering why emergency services didn’t respond to Patriot Front assaulting people on the streets, remember that when fascists organize openly in Boston the police always operate as their private security team.

The Patriot Front march was all over Twitter. Unfortunately, Twitter is a terrible source of real time information. For my part, I jumped on the Orange Line, came to the conclusion they were going toward Copley and made my way to Back Bay. By the time I reached Copley they were already long gone. By that time, there were images of them at Back Bay station on Twitter, so I jumped back on the Orange Line. I assumed they were traveling north (where they came from). Patriot Front ended up on a train which went out of service at Community College. It’s unclear if the MBTA’s rotting infrastructure is to blame or if the T wanted time to make sure there was a police welcome for the Nazis at their destination. Regardless, I managed to confirm their presence at Community College. It was still unclear exactly what their destination might be: the last three stops on the Orange Line all have large parking lots, convenient for out-of-town fascists and their cars. 

It turned out they were going to Oak Grove. When they arrived, there was a significant police presence at the station to ensure the safety of Patriot Front. There were also many counter protesters at Oak Grove. Widely available videos give a bit of a false impression that it was only Rod Webber shouting at them, which is not the case. This is because Rod has a semblance of operational security and does not want to aid the police and Nazis in their attempts to doxx antifascists. But even so, it is very difficult to organize enough people to travel to and confront a march of 75 or so Nazis with zero forewarning. That’s why Patriot Front uses this tactic.

The cars that drove Patriot Front away from Oak Grove were largely from out of state. Patriot Front is indeed active in Massachusetts, as it has been since late 2017, but this particular event was an attempt to give a false sense of scale and power. The Patriot Front marchers came from all across the country, with a few positively identified as coming from as far away as Texas (such as Thomas Rousseau himself). Patriot Front has done similar actions in other cities on past July 4th weekends, and they have been more active lately. Incidents of stickering, flag drops and other stealthy propaganda distributions have increased nationally. But unlike with other fascist groups that get less mainstream attention, this was a one-time attempt to project power, rather than part of an ongoing campaign aimed at the Boston area. 

In short: Patriot Front in the New England area sucks, both in our terms because they are Nazis, and in their terms, because they are weak. This was a puffed-up attempt to show strength, and we all can see through it once we know the facts. 

Antifascism is a long game

Fighting fascism is a long, slow process and it’s a bigger problem than just Patriot Front. Throughout late 2017, 2018, and early 2019, Resist Marxism tried to turn Boston (and then, as they started losing ground here, Providence) into an East Coast version of what Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys established in Portland, Oregon: a place to go to beat up “commies” with reckless abandon. Through the work of Boston DSA and many other organizations and comrades, we successfully repelled their efforts. Resist Marxism’s successor org, Super Happy Fun America, will now rarely show their face in Boston because they know they’ll be humiliated. I have been involved in this work since 2018 and spent many hours disrupting fascists and protecting leftist groups and events from far right attempts at disruption. It takes a lot of effort and organization, but it is worth it.

Boston DSA has been deeply ingrained in the struggle against fascist organizing for years, of which the struggle against Patriot Front is only one very small part. Social media is not nearly the whole story here. To those who weren’t at Oak Grove on July 2nd, who posture online about what they would do if they saw PF, now is the time to stop posting and start organizing. Antifacism works in numbers, and we need those numbers in the street.

Moreover, most of the media sources who have seen fit to opine on the Patriot Front march have been less than helpful to local antifascism. The editorialist in the Globe who made the July 2nd march more about the use of masks than about the violence and fascist beliefs of the marchers seems to have missed the last two and a half years entirely. I thought we were past the “masks are for cowards” thing. DigBoston requested in their “annoyed Starbucks customer” way for someone else to make an early warning system for fascist actions…but the editors have made a policy of not covering antifascism in Boston for years. Antifascist organizers, including some who have written for DigBoston in other capacities, have offered to write about antifascism for the paper, and to offer inside access to Dig reporters, and the editors have consistently rebuffed them for vague reasons pertaining to their “not naming fascists” policy. If the media would like to cover fascist stunts like the July 2nd march, they should be careful to put these events in context, and use local antifascists as their sources.

For the sake of our safety, many antifascist organizers must work anonymously. The state meets us with tremendous violence for the crime of protecting our communities, far more harshly than they come down on the fascists for terrorizing those same communities. Anonymity is important, but only goes so far. Our work is amplified when we work together, and to do that takes the sort of trust built only by shared struggle and shared vision of a better future. I have spent many years working with Boston DSA. Here, and in other organizations, is where you can find the people you can work with to make a difference. 

If you were horrified by the display Patriot Front put on, that’s the right response. The next step is to join up with comrades, find an organization in the struggle, and get involved in the work. 

Vinnie M

NC Triangle DSA condemns the anti-democratic, dishonest attempts of the Democratic Party to block the Green Party from the 2022 midterm ballot.

After the Green Party collected nearly 16,000 verified signatures on a petition to appear on the ballot this year, far exceeding the required number of signatories, the Democrats immediately set out to invalidate this work. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee contractors, in some cases claiming they were affiliated with the Green Party, canvassed petition signatories to coerce them into removing their names from the petition. Last week, the Democrat-controlled NC State Board of Elections voted 3-2 not to certify the petition, in defiance of the wishes of tens of thousands of voters.*

While the unelected, unaccountable political aristocracy of the Supreme Court strips away our right to bodily autonomy, the Democratic Party exploits this tragedy for its own gain, offering us nothing but fundraising emails and toothless half-measures. Rather than putting their considerable resources into fighting the rising right wing, they smother any grassroots fight that has not been pre-approved by their donors. In doing so, they flout democracy, paying canvassers to harass petition signatories and turning certification of ballot access into a partisan weapon.

The Democrats feel threatened by the possibility of socialists like Green Party candidate Matthew Hoh appearing on the ballot, rightly recognizing that their claimed mandate as a party of the working class is increasingly tenuous. Rather than responding to a threat from their left by fighting boldly for basic human dignity, they engage in dishonest tactics to crush their competition. As socialists, we know why: the Democratic Party’s ultimate allegiance is to oligarchy, and the oligarchy fears working people fighting for our interests far more than they fear any rollback of our rights. Their continued success is predicated on remaining the “lesser evil” for the marginalized and working class while never straying too far from the interests of their big business donors. Any attempt to upset this balancing act incurs the wrath of the party elite who understand the party’s purpose: providing liberal cover for the atrocities of capitalism and our current social order.

This is just the latest example of how limited our so-called democracy is in practice, even when Democrats are in charge: it is a democracy for the wealthy, not for ordinary people, and as such it cannot bring about our liberation. The Democratic Socialists of America aims to build a true democracy: a system where the working class is at the helm and ordinary people have a real say. Our working-class, socialist organization is building a grassroots movement here in the Triangle, by engaging our fellow tenants to take on our landlords, by talking to coworkers in our workplaces to build unions, and by conversing with other transit riders to win fare-free transit. In our democratic organization, neither the ruling oligarchy nor their mouthpieces in the political establishment have any say in how we fight for the interests of ordinary people. To those who seek an alternative to politics as usual, we ask you to join the movement for radical democracy and real change.

*The Green Party is requesting volunteers to challenge the Board's decision. If you were contacted by the DSCC to have your name removed from the petition, you may contact the NC Green Party, which is filing a lawsuit against the State Board of Elections to gain ballot access before November.

Ever thought about organizing your workplace? Curious about the hype around labor unions? Want to learn how to build and support a fighting labor movement? This workshop series is for […]

CINDSA will be joining the broader Indy community against the proposal happening today (7/11/2022) at the CCC building @7 pm. Zach Adamson, Vop Osili, and Kristin Jones will introduce a proposal at Monday’s Council meeting to criminalize charitable distributions to 10+ people […]

Volume 1, Issue 9

In our series Ask DSA, we ask our members to define a popular leftist concept and what it means to them. Comment below with questions or topics you would like to read about in ‘Ask DSA’

The anniversaries of two of America’s most sacred days are celebrated just two weeks apart. July 4th marks the day when the American colonies delivered the Declaration of Independence to the English in 1776. Eighty-nine years later, on June 19, 1865, the enslaved people of Galveston, Texas were the last to be notified of the Emancipation Proclamation, making them the final people to be freed by that document. The relationship between these two days exposes the central contradiction of America’s conception of freedom. How can we celebrate America’s glorious revolution when independence only meant freedom to land owning, and slave-owning, white men? As we’ve seen over the last few years, the extent of one’s freedom in America is still largely conditional based on your race, gender, and income bracket. While some Americans can breach the walls of congress heavily armed and come out unscathed, others are killed in the street for non-compliance. While some children can kill with impunity in the name of private property, others can be ripped from their families because of their birthplace or gender identity. While billionaires are jetting off to space, their workers are being fired for unionizing, food is unaffordable, evictions are rising, and with the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, states have been given authority to force that pregnancies be carried. Where is this freedom that we celebrate? It’s easier to see what freedom is not, but what is freedom? As we continue our fight for freedom, let’s talk about what freedom means to us.

Seth

From the crowded playgrounds of America’s public schools, to the shop floors of its unionized factories, from the crinkled, smiling lips of liberals to the snarling, bespittled mouths of Trumpists, all over this land you’ll hear loudly proclaimed, “it’s a free country!” Few of us take a moment to contemplate the meaning. Most just bask in the magic power of those words. “I can do whatever I want, don’t tell me what to do, it’s a free country.” 

We’re all equally free to own vast reserves of oil, oceans of land, armadas of machines, fleets of trucks, factories and distribution centers that pay starvation wages. We’re all free to import raw materials from child labor farms in Africa and send death squads to kill South American workers attempting to unionize. We’re all free to petition the government with political action committees, fund million dollar ad campaigns and hire teams of lawyers to draft legislation. We’re all individually capable of circumventing international law to foment rebellion in democratically elected countries, engineer civil wars, and profit off of the carnage they cause. It’s our god given right. We’re United States citizens! No one can tell us what to do. It’s a free country. Our grandfathers fought and died for these rights. 

Sure we’ve got to sacrifice a few things. Things that some might call “human rights” or “freedoms.” But what’s the point of all that if we and 89 of our best friends can’t be personally responsible for mass extinction and total ecological collapse. Sure, people in other countries are free to stay home with their newborn babies. Free to raise them up school age without fear of starvation or homelessness. In fact people all over the world never have to worry about food or where they’ll sleep tonight, because those people mutually agreed that food and housing are human rights. Those same people are comfortable in the knowledge that their children will get a full education including university and vocational training without being burdened with a lifetime of debt that will make owning property impossible. Sure those people take months of vacation every year and they never fear that a small injury could lead them to bankruptcy because what kind of society would profit off of healthcare? Oh right! A free society. And you, as a free red-blooded American, have just as much right as any other American to own and control an insurance company or a pharmaceutical company. Rake in those dollars, Jack, you’ve earned it. We really are the freest country in the world (as long as you don’t look at any other country). Enjoy your freedoms, Americans! Happy Fourth of July. 

Chuck

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.

[Read Chuck’s full article here]

A. Adams

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.

[Read A. Adams full article here]

Ashley W.

Our society claims it is a free country and we even have a holiday to celebrate that notion. Sure, freedom looks different to everyone; however, there are some basic, fundamental things that make a country truly free. True freedom would include the abolition of Capitalism, which only serves to exploit and suppress working people a.k.a the vast majority of us. If the foundation of a society breeds unhappiness via a never ending hamster wheel, is it actually free? A free society would not only ensure a living wage, but it would also respect its workers who would always have a seat at the table. 

Another area that is crucial to a free society is education. It should not only be encouraged and accessible, but it should also be free of cost. How are you free when learning is hampered to those only in a certain income bracket, or one must be forced into the hardship of debt to receive it? Additionally, a major proponent to a free society is access to healthcare. In a country where freedom is paramount, you would not fear going to the doctor due to cost. Whether it be safe abortions, therapy, optometry, dentistry, regular preventive care, surgery, prescriptions, anything from a medical doctor—healthcare should not only be easily accessible, but it should also be free of cost. Again, how can a society be free without being able to access necessary medical needs without the fear of debt? 

[Read Ashley’s full article here]

Comment below with questions or topics you would like to read about in ‘Ask DSA’

By Ashley W.

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.

Our society claims it is a free country and we even have a holiday to celebrate that notion. Sure, freedom looks different to everyone; however, there are some basic, fundamental things that make a country truly free.

True freedom would include the abolition of Capitalism, which only serves to exploit and suppress working people a.k.a the vast majority of us. If the foundation of a society breeds unhappiness via a never ending hamster wheel, is it actually free? A free society would not only ensure a living wage, but it would also respect its workers who would always have a seat at the table. 

Another area that is crucial to a free society is education. It should not only be encouraged and accessible, but it should also be free of cost. How are you free when learning is hampered to those only in a certain income bracket, or one must be forced into the hardship of debt to receive it? 

Additionally, a major proponent to a free society is access to healthcare. In a country where freedom is paramount, you would not fear going to the doctor due to cost. Whether it be safe abortions, therapy, optometry, dentistry, regular preventive care, surgery, prescriptions, anything from a medical doctor—healthcare should not only be easily accessible, but it should also be free of cost. Again, how can a society be free without being able to access necessary medical needs without the fear of debt? 

A society can only be free if they remove themselves from the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) as it only encourages, promotes, and supports violence. A free society would use the billions of dollars otherwise used to fuel the MIC to create and send weapons etc. on helping its citizens.

Freedom also means not fearing where you are going to sleep next or when you are going to eat. Shelter and food are basic human rights! How can you be a free land when millions are starving and sleeping on the streets? 

Freedom also must include enacting regulations, creating jobs, etc. that promote clean energy and saving our planet. This is extremely important, because how can any of us be free on an uninhabitable planet?

Finally, for a society to be free, it must have racial and gender equality. You truly cannot call your country free until equality is achieved.

There are many major things that would have to occur for the above things to happen but it’s definitely possible. The more folks come together and demand improvements and change, the more we move towards actual freedom. So, on this holiday weekend, think about and consider what freedom actually means to you!

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