A strike wave is spreading across the United States. Thousands of nurses, carpenters, miners, factory workers, teachers and other workers are taking a stand against the big shots who steal the fruits of our labor. Unionization drives of academic, healthcare, and media workers have brought tens of thousands of new brothers and sisters into the organized labor movement. 60,000 IATSE film workers have authorized a sector strike in the entertainment industry as the hundreds of thousands of members in entertainment unions like SAG, WGA, and the DGA alongside the Democratic Socialists of America have committed to standing in solidarity. Has labor begun to turn the tide against capital in the United States? While Red for Ed and higher education unions across the country have launched major strikes of hundreds of thousands of workers united with their students over the past three years, the public sector stasis has yet to be broken in the heart of American social democracy. DSA members and other socialist labor organizers are preparing to bring the education strike wave to New York City. A huge coalition is building for the New Deal for CUNY. PSC, NYC-DSA, and YDSA organizers at CUNY campuses are uniting for a plan that will pay academic workers a living wage and make CUNY tuition free. As a historian and union worker and organizers at CUNY this fight is personal to me. NYC-DSA Assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest spoke with us at NYC-DSA convention about the New Deal for CUNY and a potential political strike to make that happen. We’ll also talk with my comrades in PSC and hear from YDSA organizers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 6, 2021

Media Contact: Julia Tache, North Jersey DSA Immigrant Justice Working Group communications chair. Email: jat2167@columbia.edu , Phone: 201-707-5203. 

Kearny, New Jersey– On October 7th, 2021 at 6 PM, immigrant rights activists from the North New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America and the Abolish ICE NY/NJ coalition will be rallying outside of the Hudson County Detention Center to demand releases not transfers for those currently detained by ICE. Although contracts with ICE have been canceled across the state, the fight is far from over. 

“We demand the release of all immigrant detainees at Hudson County Correctional Center prior to the scheduled November 1 end of ICE detention. It is unconscionable that the long-awaited end of ICE detention in Hudson County would lead to the cruelty of forced transfers,” said Brett Robertson, an organizer with both the Immigrant Justice Working Group of the North Jersey Democratic Socialists of America and the Abolish Ice New York New Jersey Coalition.

Approximately 34 people are currently in Hudson County detention. There are plans for the center to be “depopulated” by November 1st. Individuals were only given TEN days to submit a release request by October 4th, which will be reviewed by several ICE offices. Talia Peleg, Associate Professor of Law at CUNY, characterizes Hudson’s release request process as “manifestly unjust. The process is opaque; ICE rarely provides a decision on release requests (or at best, a cursory decision) and there is no mechanism through which an individual can appeal a denial.” Folks who are not released will be transferred to Orange County. We demand  ALL those in detention be released  back to their families and communities. The pandemic continues to wage war on those in close quarters in ICE facilities, which are notorious for inhumane and unsafe conditions. Our communities are far from “safe” if folks continue to live in fear that ICE will tear their families apart and those imprisoned face awful treatment and isolation.

Releasing everyone is the right thing to do, a widely popular policy that immigrant justice activists have been demanding for ages. Both New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez wrote a letter in support of releases from Hudson. We reside on colonized and occupied Lenape land and any declaration that deems people “illegal” is illegitimate. There will be representatives and speakers from the immigrant community as well as testimonies from folks in detention at this event. 

The North Jersey and New York City community is invited to join this action and show support for releases from ICE detention and immigrant rights! 

The post PRESS RELEASE: Rally for #ReleasesNotTransfers October 7th, 2021 first appeared on North NJ DSA.

On Friday rent will be due for millions of New Yorkers. For tenants struggling to pay rent, this summer has been a roller coaster of ups and downs as hard fought for eviction moratoriums at the state and federal level have been won, overturned and finally reinstated here in New York, providing crucial protections until Jan 15, 2022. Today we will talk with NYC-DSA endorsed candidate and democratic nominee for City Council District 38 Alexa Avilés about why she was arrested earlier this summer fighting for housing justice, what caused New York City's housing crisis in the first place, and what her housing priorities are once she becomes a member of city council next year.

 

For more info follow the Housing Justice for All campaign @housing4allNY on Twitter and Alexa Avilés @alexaforcouncil

 

Tweets by BuffaloDSA

"Because of my access to birth control and abortion, I was able to have my first child last year when my husband and I were financially stable enough, emotionally ready and could be the best parents we could be for him. Family planning is a human right for all birthing bodies and after experiencing childbirth I am an even stronger advocate for everyone’s right to an abortion, on demand for any reason they decide to," writes tonight's host Desiree Joy Frias.

 

For too long, anti-abortion forces have claimed the label of “pro-life” while passing laws and encouraging actions that cause direct harm to people’s lives and bodies. As the right-wing assault on abortion access in the United States continues to escalate, organizers in New York City are fighting back and standing up for politics that center bodily autonomy, human rights, and reproductive freedom. Hear from New York City for Abortion Rights on the local struggle to protect abortion clinics and ensure access to abortion by any means necessary.

 

Plus, we visit the New York Taxi Workers Alliance sit-in at City Hall to discuss another life-or-death issue: medallion debt forgiveness. Taxi workers are demanding that New York City provide adequate debt relief for drivers as soon as possible.

 

Follow NYC4AR on their website abortionrights.nyc or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/nycforabortionrights/. Visit https://linktr.ee/nycforabortion to sign the petition to stop clinic harassment in Cobble Hill or donate to an abortion fund in Texas. The next Cobble Hill counter-protest will be held on October 9.

 

The NYC-DSA Debt & Finance Working Group is calling on DSA members and allies to show up in solidarity with New York taxi workers this Friday, September 24. Learn more and RSVP at bit.ly/DSAforNYTWA.

Coulee DSA’s reading group keeps trekking on! Next up on the reading list is a fun book that promises to be have more humor than most of our entries. Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling’s A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear tells the story of an attempted Libertarian utopia that, to no one’s surprise, goes awry. Check out an interview with the author here. If it sounds interesting, email us at CouleeDSA@gmail.com to get hooked up with the book club.

The post Coulee DSA Reads: A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear first appeared on Coulee DSA.

The world is on fire and the organizations of the international working class are the only force capable of putting it out. Union organizer and campaign worker Marvin Gonzalez, a member of National DSA’s International Committee, joins us to discuss his recent trip to the conference of the International in Venezuela. After that we hear from Zenab Ahmed on Afghanistan. Later in the show, we will speak to Halema Wali, a community organizer and the co-founder of the Afghans for a Better Tomorrow. We also speak to DSA International Committee member Sepehr Makaremi as well as Don Rhodes from the NYC-DSA Anti-War working group. The trio will discuss how the socialist movement has been at the forefront of organizing efforts to assist Afghan Refugees and how we can all work to challenge the power of American capitalist imperialism.

Today, the Atlanta City Council showed its true colors, choosing to ignore vocal opposition by thousands of working-class residents in favor of Atlanta’s corporate elite on the board of the Atlanta Police Foundation. Despite over 16 hours of public comment with 70% of resident callers against the proposal, and despite a survey showing that 98% of Atlanta residents oppose building Cop City, the following Council-members have voted to put profits over people, clear-cut Atlanta’s historic forest, and build an 85 acre, $90 million Cop City: Joyce Sheperd, Andre Dickens, Cleta Winslow, Dustin Hillis, Matt Westmoreland, Michael Julian Bond, Andrea L. Boone, Howard Shook, Marci Overstreet, J.P. Matzigkeit.

Over the last three months, Atlanta DSA has organized weekly canvasses in neighborhoods most directly impacted by the proposed facility, speaking with residents in Atlanta City Council’s 5th and 12th districts and in Dekalb County’s Gresham Park. Despite attempts by City Council, APF, and the corporate media to manufacture consent for the proposal, our outreach affirmed that the community overwhelmingly opposes the development, with over 1,000 residents signing our petition to Stop Cop City. While City Council actively obstructed all meaningful opportunities for public input, we organized a truly democratic People’s Town Hall attended by over 100 residents who came to express their stance against Cop City. The message from working-class Atlanta is loud and clear: Stop Cop City.

Yet despite the clear public opposition from Atlanta’s working class, despite the rallying cries from the public over the last year to defund the police state, despite the human and environmental harms that will result from deforestation as we face the threat of climate change, this City Council once again sided with corporate Atlanta over their own constituents.

If anything, this vote has reinforced that as long as we live under capitalism, and corporate “philanthropists” maintain their grip over City policy and priorities, the same neoliberal villains that brought us Cop City will continue to bring us dystopian proposals until the working class stands together and organizes for real change. 

Despite the disappointing vote, the Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America will continue to organize working class people in the struggle against the billionaire elite. We will continue to organize to abolish policing and mass incarceration. We will continue organizing towards universal housing, healthcare, food for all, and a Green New Deal. The campaign to Stop Cop City has only strengthened and emboldened the working class as a serious political force in Atlanta. If anything, this campaign has confirmed that we can build mass movements to take back power from the corporate elite. We can build a society that invests in communities over the carceral state. It’s more clear now than ever that when ordinary working people come together, we can wield our collective power through organization. 

We invite you all to join us in these future struggles towards liberation. To learn more about this campaign and our future work, tune in next Wednesday, September 15th at 7pm, for an online debrief call as we review all we’ve learned and accomplished over these last months, and analyze the final vote and what it means for November’s elections. As always, we invite those committed to joining our future fights to organize in solidarity with us and join DSA.

Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America stands with the Clark County Staff Organization (CCSO), the organizing and representation staff union of the Clark County Education Association (CCEA), in condemning this school year’s reopening and CCSD leadership’s inability to keep teachers and students safe.

CCSD received nearly $800 million in federal funds over the next three years for the purpose of ensuring safety for educators, support staff, and students — yet it’s clear the processes in place are not working and funds are not being implemented appropriately. Over 1,800 positive cases have been reported throughout the district in the current school year, endangering the broader community. Yet this may be an underrepresentation of the true number of cases, as nurses in charge of the effort report that contact tracing outcomes are being suppressed by central administration, therefore subverting the quarantine requirements for staff and students. Furthermore, COVID-related sick leave has not been available to staff members since the FFCRA provisions expired in December. Many staff only have six sick leave days, which is not enough for a quarantine period.

Nevada lawmakers’ historic refusal to adequately fund education only looks worse in the current spotlight of the pandemic. It has led to increasingly detrimental facilities, untenable working conditions, unsustainable staff-to-student ratios, and grossly inadequate mental health support. The children of Clark County have already lived through a year and a half of immense trauma. Nevada families are being pushed to their emotional limits while facing uprootings, loss of loved ones, personal illness, and the highest rate of unemployment, along with additional economic distress brought on by the end of the eviction moratorium and federal unemployment benefits — issues especially felt in BIPOC communities.

Las Vegas DSA immediately calls upon CCSD to meet the demands of CCEA and all other unions, negotiate workplace safety and conditions, cease practices resulting in greater spread of infection, use the federal funding to provide educators with at least 10 days of paid COVID-related sick leave, hire staff that are capable of continuing instruction should an educator need to use the sick leave, conduct regular COVID testing so employees aren’t forced to go on their own time, and update school safety protocols to allow nurses to fully conduct contact tracing without suppressing outcomes.

We encourage members of the community to make a public comment during a CCSD Board of Trustees meeting and sign this statement of support for Clark County educators. Written public comments may be submitted to boardmtgcomments@nv.ccsd.net and in-person testimony can be scheduled in advance or immediately prior to the meeting.

About Las Vegas DSA

The Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America is a community of Las Vegas comrades committed to uplifting our city through advocacy of and organizing for a nation-wide, world-wide working-class movement that puts people and planet over profit. As a group of leftist organizers and civil actors, we recognize that corporations, the finance industry and private interests stripped working people’s political power. We are socialists, feminists, and anti-racists who share a positive vision for a better, fairer world. Together we can impact our community for the better and fulfill our nation’s promise of democracy. Join us to help fight for liberty and justice for all!

Contacts

For inquiries, please email lasvegasdsa@gmail.com

It’s a Revolutions per Minute social and fundraising extravaganza! Tonight we’re taking a break from our usual format to share a peek behind the scenes of the Revolutions per Minute collective: who we are, why we organize community radio for NYC-DSA, and why we support WBAI 99.5FM. Hear from our RPM hosts, producers, and behind the scenes comrades during this relaxed, casual show that emphasizes the importance of movement-based community media.

 

Please consider giving to WBAI in the name of Revolutions per Minute. Monthly donations of any amount are appreciated, and giving $25 in a calendar year makes you a voting member of the station! To donate, visit give2wbai.org. We have more cool rewards coming, so keep listening and check back!

 

To pitch a story for coverage on Revolutions per Minute, visit bit.ly/pitch2RPM.

 

If you’re a member of NYC-DSA looking to learn more or get involved with making RPM, please visit bit.ly/RPMJoinForm.

 

This episode was recorded remotely during a night of heavy rain and catastrophic flooding in New York City. We urge you to join NYC-DSA's Ecosocialist Working Group or another local formation and get involved with the struggle to protect workers and tenants against climate catastrophe.