Volume 1, Issue 8

By Seth

This playlist was the soundtrack to the first annual Janesville May Day Celebration

Download and print your own copy of our International Workers’ Day pamphlet from the first annual Janesville May Day Celebration.

This week marks both the 13th anniversary of the assassination of beloved abortion provider and patients’ rights advocate Dr. George Tiller by an anti-abortion extremist, and the second anniversary of the peoples’ uprising against NYPD sparked by the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many many more.

 

Although the official Supreme Court decision that will overturn Roe v. Wade has yet to be released, the reality on the ground in many places in the so-called United States is that abortion has been made illegal. Here in New York City, organizers are preparing for shifts in the nature of abortion care, attempting to protect providers in the face of the potential criminalization of abortion, and navigating a street landscape that lays bare the reality that organized white nationalists and fascists have thrown their lot in with the anti-abortion movement.

 

On this show, we're joined by NYC for Abortion Rights organizer Nix to discuss self-managed abortion and the landscape of abortion access now. We take live calls from the WBAI audience about abortion.

 

Continue the discussion by following NYC for Abortion Rights: abortionrights.nyc

On June 2, the legislative session will end in New York State and elected officials will head home for the summer. And in typical Albany fashion, the fight to pass the most transformational bills is coming down to the wire. Tonight, we continue our series of interviews with the DSA for the Many slate of candidates with Vanessa Agudelo, who is joining us live on RPM from Peekskill, New York. Vanessa is running for Assembly District 95 in the Lower Hudson Valley. We'll talk to her about why Peekskill and the other communities she’s running to represent need a Green New Deal, the status of the Build Public Renewables Act with one week left to pass the bill, and much more.

 

For more info on Vanessa follow @VanessaBAgudelo on twitter and visit her website www.vanessaforny.com

We, the Pittsburgh Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), reaffirm our commitment to Palestinian Liberation. We join the chorus of DSA chapters formally rebuking the DSA National Political Committee’s (NPC’s) decision to de-charter the Boycott, Divest, & Sanction and Palestine Solidarity Working Group (BDSWG) and to remove the organizers who were doing work in that group from current and future leadership positions. 

At the 2019 Convention of the DSA, member delegates voted to pass Resolution #35 which reads, (in part, full text can be read here):

Be it resolved that the Democratic Socialists of America establish a national working group dedicated to BDS and Palestine Solidarity; 

Be it resolved that the National will allow autonomous leadership and membership of said working group; 

Be it resolved that the National will reaffirm BDS and Palestine solidarity as a priority for the national organization and further commit itself to organizing in solidarity with the BDS movement, which urges nonviolent pressure on Israel until it meets three demands: ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

In late 2021, a DSA-endorsed congressman, Jamaal Bowman of New York’s 16th district, voted to support Israeli Iron Dome defense funding, met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and took a trip to Israel sponsored by J Street, a pro-Israel lobby group. These actions, along with a failure of attempted meetings to produce course corrections from Rep. Bownman led to calls from BDSWG (among others) for the NPC to censure or expel Rep. Bowman from DSA membership. Ultimately, neither occurred. Instead the NPC retaliated against the BDSWG by de-chartering the working group and banning its leaders from future leadership positions in the DSA for one year.

The decision to de-charter the group was undemocratic, was not supported by our bylaws, and remains highly detrimental to the future of this organization on a strategic level insofar as it sent a message to our Palestinian members and other leftist organizations that Palestine is not a priority for DSA, and that we are more interested in building personal relationships with elected officials than adhering to our democratically determined values.

It is the position of the Pittsburgh DSA that the BDSWG was unjustly punished for legitimate public criticism of the NPC’s actions in contravention to the will of DSA’s membership, as expressed at the 2019 convention. While the NPC has attempted to justify these undemocratic actions as a response to harassment, grievances among individual members should have been resolved through existing harassment and grievance channels, rather than through the undemocratic collective punishment of the BDSWG.

While the NPC has since partially reversed their decision, by reinstating the BDSWG as a working group, it has failed to reinstate the leaders who were unjustly removed from the group and banned from future leadership positions for one year. 

As an chapter, we want to be clear: Palestinian liberation is a priority in our organizing. The Pittsburgh DSA has been proud to support local Palestinian justice coalitions—including The Pittsburgh Coalition to End the Deadly Exchange and the Pittsburgh BDS Coalition—and to host the BDSWG at our January 2022 General Body Meeting. Our chapter also voted unanimously at our March General Body Meeting to issue our own BDS Resolution which holds us to support the Pittsburgh BDS Coalition, to avoid purchasing boycotted products or services with chapter funds, and to hold our own endorsed candidates accountable for anti-BDS stances or actions. 

Therefore, the Pittsburgh DSA makes the following demands:.

1. Reinstate the leaders of the BDSWG who have full rights, in a democratic organization, to freely and openly critique the broader organization and its leadership, the NPC, when they violate adopted resolutions of the general membership. The freedom to publicly criticism of leadership is essential to any democratic institution.
2. Revoke the one-year ban on these members running for future leadership positions.

In closing, we want to thank the members and leaders of the BDSWG, the minority of the NPC who spoke out against the decision and provided the membership with transparency throughout the process, and our fellow DSA chapters, working groups, and members who have continued to unconditionally support Palestinian liberation.

[Approved by the General Body, May 16, 2022]

The post Pittsburgh DSA Statement on the BDSWG and the NPC appeared first on .

BC students left in the dark during emergency response.

Dozens of police from Newton and Boston descended onto BC’s campus last night in response to an emergency call. Now students and members of the BC community are looking for answers as to what was going on and questioning why an emergency alert was not sent out to the community.

On Saturday evening just before eleven o’clock a tweet from an account that monitors police band radios alerted members of the public that Boston Police were responding to reports of an armed individual on BC’s campus. The account monitors police radio frequencies and reports on police, fire, and EMS incidents in Boston and the surrounding area.

Obviously this is alarming information to discover on social media. Without verification it’s hard to know in the moment what is true or not, but with the prevalence of mass shootings in the United States people cannot afford to take alerts like this lightly. The author then posted that Newton police were en-route to the campus to assist with the response.

Regardless of what the eventual outcome of the incident was, and we don’t know what happened because neither BC nor BCPD has released any information at this point, the fact is there was a massive deployment of police in response to the threat of an armed individual on BC’s campus. If the individual wasn’t armed, or wasn’t even on campus, or if the entire thing turned out to be a prank, it doesn’t matter. If it was a serious enough threat that Boston and Newton police mobilized that many officers to respond, it was a serious enough threat that members of the BC community should have been alerted and advised what to do. The eventual outcome doesn’t validate the actions that were not taken while incident was taking place.

While the initial twee indicated the individual claimed to have a gun, a member of a local news team on the sight last night across from 66 informed us he heard reports it was a knife.

Over forty minutes after the initial tweet about the armed individual police still had residents of the dormitory gathered outside on the lawn. Witnesses that crossed the street to talk to us let us know that at least one student wanted to leave and was not allowed. At around 11:40 pm we witnessed officers patting down several male students among the group of people gathered on the lawn, so it appeared even at that late time officers were still looking for something or someone.

Video of the police presence outside BC can be seen here. Video of the students gathered outside with police can be seen here and here. Just before midnight, almost an hour after the initial tweet was posted, police began to depart and allowed students to return to the dormitory, video of which can be seen here.

Around midnight the account that monitors the police frequencies posted that the situation was all clear and the call may have been a prank. Without confirmation from BC, Boston, or Newton police it is impossible to know what really happened.

One interesting thing to note here is that we assume the person or people who run the account monitoring police radios heard the calls about the incident on Boston or Newton’s radio frequency and not BC’s. That is because as far as we know Boston College police use an encrypted radio frequency that cannot be heard on police scanners that members of the public use to listen to radio traffic. This is not common among police departments or university police from what we can gather. Members of the public can use police scanners, radio scanner apps on mobile devices, or websites to listen to first responders’ frequencies including the Boston and Newton police and fire departments. It is unclear why a college police department would need encrypted radios.

A forum on a site dedicated to radio topics from a decade ago discussed BCPD’s use of encrypted radios. Another poster on the site shared the same information. Several years ago NPR published a piece on encryption and police radios and reported the vast majority of real police departments do not use encrypted frequencies. Lindsay Blanton, the CEO of Broadcastify.com, a site dedicated to providing access to police frequencies, said only ten to fifteen percent of police communications are hidden by encryption. He explained that encryption can inhibit a departments ability to communicate with surrounding departments.

“Encryption costs money, especially when it means buying new radios, which can cost thousands of dollars per unit. There’s also a technical challenge in figuring out ‘interoperability’ — how to stay in touch with other departments and agencies, especially if they’re using different systems.”

Former police chief and former head of the National Police Foundation Jim Bueermann spoke in support of publicly accessible police communications. He said “he almost never encountered a situation in which open radio communications put him in danger or compromised the work during his three decades as a police officer. He says officers already have more secure ways of sharing sensitive information — cellphones and group texts — and he thinks there’s value in keeping a police department’s broader communications out in the open.”

Regardless of whether BCPD uses encrypted radios or not the issue at hand is as of late Sunday afternoon members of the BC community still have no official account of what happened last night. Information about an armed individual being on BC’s campus was apparently relayed to a crisis or support line, and the threat was serious enough that a large number of Boston and Newton police were dispatched to BC’s campus. It’s hard to understand how an emergency alert or some sort of information was not sent out to BC students. If it eventually turned out that police discovered the individual was not armed or the call was fake and there was no threat everyone should be relieved. But before that was confirmed and the possibility of an armed individual was real, how could BC not send out an alert? In the future if there were an active threat are people confidant that BC or BCPD would handle it correctly and do everything possible to keep the BC community safe?

A number of questions need to be answered. Students and members of the community need to know exactly what happened over the course of the hour in question and need to know why as of late Sunday afternoon there still has been know official communication informing everyone what happened.

For more of our reporting, including a 5 part series on BC’s police chief, check out our blog here!

https://ydsofbc.wordpress.com/blog/

May 20, 2022

Ithaca Democratic Socialists of America strongly condemns the horrific recent killing of legendary Palestinian-American journalist and Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli military sniper. In what can only be described as an execution, the sniper appeared to target Abu Akleh, a highly recognizable TV correspondent, as she stood alongside a group of journalists while covering Israeli raids on Palestine’s occupied West Bank. Abu Akleh was clearly identified as press when the fatal bullet struck. Her cowardly murder should deepen the resolve of people of conscience worldwide to oppose Israel and its brutal occupation of the Palestinian people.

Abu Akleh was a beloved voice of truth whose accurate coverage of crimes against humanity spanned more than 20 years. Her iconic work highlighted the dignity of the Palestinian people and their determination to resist colonialism and oppression. While the targeting of a journalist is both shameful and illegal, Abu Akleh’s killing is merely another example of the systemic violence of the Israeli state. Her murder and the subsequent Israeli assault on mourners at her funeral reflect the routine brutality of an occupation designed to degrade, terrorize and displace Palestinians. Though Western media often portray Israel as a democratic actor, Israel respects none of the principles of decency and justice that are essential to democracy. Indeed, it is the moral shelter and military aid provided by the United States that enable Israel to continue expanding illegal settlements while violating the human rights of Palestinians.

Abu Akleh’s tragic death further exposes the lie that Israel seeks only to defend itself. In fact, the Israeli regime relies on military aggression, collective punishment, and the silencing of peace activists and other principled opponents. Now is the time for people of goodwill to reject the historical and contemporary whitewashing of Israel’s crimes, and to condemn the passive voice (“Journalist is killed during clashes”) and other tactics adopted by the mainstream media to conceal Israeli aggression. Americans have a particular responsibility to condemn Israeli apartheid, given that our taxpayer dollars provide Israel with more than $3 billion in annual aid.

While all people should denounce Abu Akleh’s killing and the systemic violence of Israeli occupation, progressives and leftists have a special duty to speak out. Only by taking an unambiguous stand against apartheid, colonialism and racism at home and abroad can U.S. leftists show that Palestinian dignity lies at the heart of human liberation. There can be no compromise or retreat on the question of Palestine. We call on conscientious people to pressure politicians to condemn and defund Israeli apartheid and to launch a full investigation into Abu Akleh’s death. Even more importantly, civilians must join the global BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement and become lifelong participants in Palestinian solidarity efforts, taking part in rallies, direct action and other forms of agitation until Palestine is free. We also demand:

• Disclosure of the identity of AbuAkleh’s killer.

• Release of Omar Abu Khdair, one of the beaten pallbearers, who has been jailed without charge or conviction.

• Recognition of the BDS movement as protected free speech.

• An end to all U.S. participation in Israeli “security” trainings, which expand the militarization of domestic policing and the racist targeting of black people and other people of color.
  

Ithaca DSA Steering Committee

Amazon Labor Union scored a big victory for the labor movement last month when organized workers overwhelmingly won an NLRB election at a Staten Island Amazon facility. Yet most of Amazon and the private sector in general remains unorganized. Despite a valiant effort, ALU’s next attempt at a different Amazon facility failed. What is to be done? Brian, a former Amazon worker and member of DSA Labor’s logistics committee, joins us to discuss organizing at Amazon and the state of the labor movement.

Our condolences to all who were close to Roberta Drury and all the others murdered by the white supremacist at a Buffalo grocery store. The attack on the Black community of Buffalo is horrific.

We must oppose the spread of racist ideas, racist conspiracy theories, racist myths of history, and the implementation of racist political and economic policies, which all reinforce each other. Whether the killer technically acted alone or not, he was taught and supported by large sections of the US and global political spectrum. We must elevate movements that empower and unite people of the multiracial working class and build relationships of solidarity, especially those targeted by the Right, such as Black and Brown communities, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, and women.

Please support by donating to mutual aid and mental health support efforts organized by Black Love Resists in the Rust in Buffalo who are partnering with community organizations to link people to and pay for ongoing mental health services.