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.

The most immediate and useful thing you can do is give your money to an abortion fund – WHO/Ohio (@whoohio) Midwest Access Coalition (@midwest_access_coalition), Preterm in Cleveland (@pretermclevelandohio), the Aggie Fund in Toledo. They all facilitate people getting abortion care that they need as abortion care that is now more difficult to access than ever.

Remember that we have known – with certainty – that this was coming for six weeks. Organizers, clinic defenders, clinic workers, and other folks on the front line have known for much, much longer. Roe has been a line in the sand, allowing state level restrictions to pop up rapidly and prevent many, many people from accessing abortion services despite the theoretical right.

What is a Right without Access?

Every day of the six weeks prior to the court’s decision was a blessing for those who sought abortion care, because every day the Supreme Court delayed their decision – however cowardly it was to do so – people were able to get that care.
Abortion is older than the state.

Abortion providers have historically been witches, midwives, rootworkers, herbalists, people on the margins who serve the health of our communities, and people from who power has been withheld.

Legality hasn’t been the norm for most of human history. Stripping away the legal right to abortion will not deter us from owning and celebrating our bodies and holding our community close.

There is no pithy statement, quip or hot take that wouldn’t immediately undermine the severity of what has happened. People are suffering.
There is no usefulness in being content with our moral superiority, pointing out hypocrisy and shortcomings of the “other side.”

It is now time to dive deep within ourselves to take care of our people and to do for us what the state cannot or refuses to do.

The people in power do not care about us. not the GOP, not the Democratic Party – but there are more of us than there are of them.
It is time to join a mass movement that takes care of others and will fight back for the right to do so.

You can join ours at columbusdsa.org. It will take all of us.

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.