Did you know that Coulee DSA has a book club? It started shortly before Covid hit, and currently meets online every Tuesday night at 7 PM. The group discusses books, articles, and essays, as well as podcasts and documentaries. Next Tuesday, 5/11, is a great time to join as the group is starting a new book, Before The Next Bomb Drops: Rising Up from Brooklyn to Palestine by Remi Kanazi.

The group doesn’t require regular attendance, so feel free to stop by or drop in and out as you have time. Reading is strongly encouraged but not required. The discussion often goes off on tangents and covers a broad array of topics, and we would love you add your voice to the discussion! Reply to this email if you are interested in joining, and we will connect you to the group.

The post DSA Book Club’s Next Read – Before The Next Bomb Drops first appeared on Coulee DSA.

It’s our second annual post-May Day labor movement extravaganza! From coast to coast, workers are organizing to win, making gains, and reckoning with disappointments and challenges. On today’s show, we’re joined live by journalist and organizer Chris Brooks and by our radio comrades Jacob and David, hosts of Valley Labor Report -- Alabama’s only union talk radio show! From workers at the heart of New York’s cultural and media worlds to mine workers on strike in Alabama, it’s all on the table for tonight’s show. 

Valley Labor Report broadcasts Saturday mornings from 9:30am-11:00am on 92.5FM/770AM WVNN. Watch from anywhere on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheValleyLaborReport and follow the show on Twitter @LaborReporters. 

If you’re ready to organize your workplace or just get more active in the labor movement, a great place to start is the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (https://workerorganizing.org/) a joint effort between DSA National and United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.

Hey, CDSA members, supporters, and awesome community members! Coulee Democratic Socialists of America is revamping our communications stream.

Going forward, our newsletter will be broken up into regular blog posts. We have carried your subscription over from the newsletter to our blog here on the Coulee DSA website.

Posts will include info on our working groups, the DSA as a whole, local campaigns and projects, and more. We are aiming for an email a week or so–and we promise not to spam you with pointless posts.

If you are looking for more info, check out our website, or email us back.

The post CDSA Blog Kickoff first appeared on Coulee DSA.

Athens Area DSA will be partnering with other DSA chapters in Georgia to host a Pass the PRO Act phonebank on Saturday, May 8th from 3:00 – 5:30pm. Join us and comrades from all across the state to demand that Senators Warner, Kelly, and Sinema fight for workers and support the PRO Act! Register for the phonebank here

This May Day, Coulee DSA came out in numbers to volunteer at the community garden on the south side of the Hogan administration center in La Crosse. In a simple illustration of the power of workers uniting, many hand made the load light, and we got all the weeding, tilling, and planting done in about an hour for the entire garden plot.

Community based projects like these are a wonderful way to bring people together and use the power of labor to benefit the community as a whole. We are looking forward to the harvest this Fall!

Thank you to Our Wisconsin Revolution La Crosse Chapter, Weigent Hogan Neighborhood Association, and all the individual volunteers who showed up to lend a hand.

The post DSA planting on May Day first appeared on Coulee DSA.

In recent years there has been a strong tendency from progressives, and even some people who classify themselves as “socialists”, of pining after social democracy, often the so-called “Nordic model”. Social democracy, in this context, broadly refers to a governing system where capitalism is still dominant, but there exist stronger social safety nets, featuring some form of universal health care, higher wages, more paid time off, increased union membership, universal child care, and so on. While undeniably an improvement of the unrestricted capitalism found in the United States, the Nordic model has a dark side to it as well, and it is not something that anyone who considers themselves on the left should be interested in pursuing. Because social democracy isn’t an antidote to imperialism; instead, it’s imperialism rebranded for the 21^st century.

    Under the Nordic model the quality of life in the Scandinavian countries has undeniably improved significantly. But it has come at the cost of the global south, whose exploitation is essential for this model to work. Furthermore, it needs to be kept in mind that these countries are predominantly homogeneous in terms of both ethnic makeup and culture, and have seen strong rises in anti-immigrant views in recent years. In the most recent election in Denmark the Social Democrat party won by adopting massive anti-immigrant policies, including a plan to stop accepting an annual quota of refugees, the creation of a “ghetto plan”, prison sentences for immigrant parents who take children to visit the countries of their birth, and mandatory “culture and values” education for children who are not ethnically Danes, starting at age 1. We shouldn’t view this as an aberration. The social democrats in Denmark take the view that immigrants threaten their social welfare systems by requiring more resources from it, the type of argument that wouldn’t seem out of place from reactionaries in any country around the globe.  As this demonstrates, as long as the structures of capitalism remain in place, the other harmful hierarchies that go along with it will remain in place as well. This can be seen beyond simply in the case of the treatment of political and religious minorities. Although the Nordic countries are generally praised for having stronger gender equality than other capitalist nations, the rate of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in the Nordic countries is significantly higher than in other European countries, with Denmark’s rate at 32%, meaning that roughly one third of Danish women have been subjected to physical violence by their partners. This helps to illustrate how reforming capitalism won’t help us in dismantling the patriarchy.

    However, the true rot of the social democracies only becomes apparent when you view them as they exist in the global system and how they interact with nations in the global south. Much like the US and the western European nations, the standards of living in the Nordic countries are based not on having invented a wonderful system that can provide for everyone’s needs, but based on the exploitation of resources and labor of the global south. Lenin described one of the key tendencies of imperialism as “the exploitation of oppressed nations—which is inseparably connected with annexations—and especially the exploitation of colonies by a handful of “Great” Powers, increasingly transforms the “civilised” world into a parasite on the body of hundreds of millions in the uncivilised nations.” While the large colonial empires of Lenin’s time have largely dispersed, the relationships have not so much disappeared as they have changed form. The global south is exploited, and the western powers profit.

    We can begin by looking at some of the ways these nations themselves, as well as their major corporations (who are often tied up hand in hand with the government either on paper or in terms of mutually beneficial arrangements, not unlike in the US) have behaved. Telenor, the Norwegian communications giant which is partially owned by the state, was exposed for exploiting child labor in truly horrific conditions in Bangladesh, including having these children handling chemical substances without any protection (which lead to at least one known death). Similarly, Swedish clothing company H&M is able to offer affordable clothing for westerners solely because of the way they exploit cheap labor in nations like Bangladesh. According to a breakdown provided by John Smith in “Imperialism in the 21^st Century”, of the sale price of an H&M shirt, only 0.95 euros remain in Bangladesh to cover all of the costs put into the production, while the remaining 3.54 euros are extracted along with the products for H&M’s profits, as well as for taxes. In other words, while workers in Bangladesh do almost all of the work, they, along with the nation itself, see almost none of the profit; meanwhile H&M as well as the Swedish government make enormous profits off of their suffering. This pattern can be seen repeated throughout all of the Nordic countries, and indeed all throughout the so called developed world. It is a fact that everyone in the global north needs to confront head on that the quality of life that they enjoy, and the affordable products that they have access to, both necessities and luxuries, are only made possible due to unpaid or underpaid labor coming from the global south. “Development” doesn’t just reside specially in the powers of North America and Europe; it has been systematically extracted from South America, Africa and Asia, and a system that perpetuates that exploitation, but provides more of the fruits of the exploitation to workers in the northern countries instead of only the shareholders is not a fairer system for the global proletariat.

    The Norwegiean oil company Statoil, which is partially owned by the state, has been involved in numerous corruption cases around the world centered around their exploitation of the local oil resources, in countries such as Iran and Libya. And Norway’s connections to Libya run far deeper than just a corruption scandal from 2008; Norway dropped 588 bombs on Libya during the war taken against the country by NATO. Afterwards, Statoil was involved in the extraction of Libya’s oil. In the span of a few years, Libya went from a country that had exceptionally strong health care, and significantly better gender equality and life expectancy of most of its neighbors, to a nation with slave markets so that Norway and their allies could extract the oil. This is in many ways one of the purest examples you can find of what had led Lenin to classify imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism; the merging of monopoly corporations with state power for the resource extraction of poorer nations.

    The imperialism of the Nordic countries might be surprising to some, considering that we don’t generally think of these nations as being colonial empires. But although the Nordic countries were not colonizers on the level of the British, Spanish, Portuguese or French, they were colonizers. The Norwegian controlled Société du Madal in Portuguese Mozambique ran coconut plantations, which were dug out and worked by indigenous people and used child labor under brutal conditions. Denmark had a variety of colonial holdings around the world, including the Danish West Indies which were sold to the US in 1916. They’re now part of the U.S. Virgin Islands where they continue to be colonial subjects of an empire to this day. Although Sweden had a variety of colonial holdings around the Americas and Africa, their worst case example would be the treatment of Saint Barthélemy, an island in the Caribbean which they purchased from France during the time of Louis XVI in 1784. Sweden began shipping in slaves, and soon between one-third to half of the island’s population were slaves (Sweden, it should be noted, was among the last European nations to outlaw slavery). Although there were at least 6,000 people living on the island in the early parts of the 19^th century, by 1875 the population had been reduced to merely 2,000 people. Just two years later, Sweden sold the island back to the French government, who continue to control it to this day. To this day, the Swedish people and government have never truly reckoned with their colonizing days, and you can see the ramifications of that in their continued imperialism.

    And returning to the present day, we come to the most essential issue of the 21^st century: climate change. The Nordic countries aren’t generally thought of as being some of the biggest contributors to climate change, but they have among the worst CO2 emissions per capita, as well some of the highest resource use. While about 7 tonnes of material use per person per year is considered a sustainable level by experts, the Nordic countries average around 32 tonnes, on par with the US (Norway and Finland even exceed the US in this department). Norway is rated one of the least sustainable nations in the world by the sustainable development index (SDI), with only Canada, the US, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Singapore behind it. Finland is just ahead of it, while Denmark and Sweden fare only slightly better, being ranked 139^th and 144^th respectively. On the other hand, Cuba is 9^th and Bolivia is 20^th. This isn’t an accident on Norway’s part, either. Oil extraction is key to their economic model which funds everything else. (Interestingly, I hear far fewer people talk about Norway’s failures to transition away from oil than I do for Venezuela, who rank 50th by SDI, far above any of the Scandinavian countries) While all carbon emissions and pollution disproportionately affect the global south, Sweden takes it even further. Multiple generations of the Chilean community of Arica were poisoned by the Swedish mining company Boliden when the company dumped improperly-treated toxic waste in their community. When the people of Arica attempted to take legal action against Boliden for the harm brought to them, the Swedish supreme court ruled that too much time had passed since Boliden exported the waste, and left the plaintiffs with the €3.2 million in legal fees. Boliden is hardly the only Swedish company to be caught for wrongdoings in Chile specifically. Swedish corporation SCA was found guilty of price fixing on toilet paper in Chile between 2000 and 2011, part of a wider range of price fixing happening all throughout Chile that contributed to the 2019 uprising which took place. Back home, that same SCA has been one of the leading contributors to the destruction of the Great Northern Forest. As with everything else, social democracy has no cure for overconsumption; all it can do is make the consumption more evenly distributed. But in order to save the planet we must do better than that. We need a socialist society which reduces consumption and improves living conditions all across the globe.

    While the Nordic countries receive lavish praise for being the happiest countries on earth and are seen by many as a more equitable society that we should strive for, it is more honest to view them as the smiling face of capitalism. They might treat you better than the nasty face put forward by the USA or the United Kingdom, but the smiling figure can hide a knife behind their back just the same. In order to end capitalism (and by extent, imperialism, capitalism’s highest stage) we must have a new program to offer which steps completely outside the existing power dynamics rather than simply shifting them around slightly as the social democracies have done. The only cure for this unchecked imperialism and the destruction of the environment is a radical new stage of society which places the global south on the same footing as the global north. It’s our mission to help everyone find their way there.

References

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/oct/x01.htm

https://www.elsevier.com/connect/nordic-paradox-highest-rate-of-intimate-partner-violence-against-women-despite-gender-equality

https://storage.googleapis.com/gpuk-old-wp-site/pictures-great-northern-forest-beauty-destruction/index.html

https://www.dw.com/en/swedish-toxic-waste-poisons-chilean-community-for-30-years/a-51424782

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-forestry-cmpc/chile-court-fines-cmpc-and-swedens-sca-for-fixing-prices-on-toilet-paper-idUSKBN1Z605H

https://www.telesurenglish.net/analysis/Scandinavias-Covert-Role-in-Western-Imperialism-20170320-0022.html

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/12/6/the-dark-side-of-the-nordic-model

Lets meet in socially-distanced and masked person-space! Saturday May 1st Athens Area DSA will be at Bishop Park with games and snacks for a family friendly gathering. Come chat, learn about what we are doing, see where you can plug in! Later we will move to a casual hang out at Little Kings (adults only) starting at 7pm. Come to either or come to both! We are excited to see and speak to your faces!

RSVP for the event here: https://fb.me/e/KR0njmt2

Let there be no confusion, Gov. Ron DeSantis and those in the Florida legislature claim that the HB1 “Anti-riot bill” (aka the DeSantis Oppression and anti-protest law) was enacted to combat the sort of violence seen at the Capitol on January 6^th. But those aren’t the rioters the governor is afraid of; rather, the Trumpist republican crowd that stormed the Capitol are the very people DeSantis has spent his political career cozying up to (along with wealthy mega-donors). We all know those aren’t the people this legislation will be used against. Rather, the people DeSantis truly fears are those engaged in the worldwide movement to fight for racial justice and end police killing of unarmed black bodies. This legislation was drafted in September 2020, long before the Capitol riot, specifically in response to the massive showing of solidarity in the wake of police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others. DeSantis fears people in the streets organizing for a more just world because he, rightfully, sees us as a direct threat to the systems of oppression that brought him to power. The passage of this bill shows that ALL of the republican rhetoric around “protecting free speech”, “limited government”, and “promoting law and order” are simple ploys which they have no problem actively abandoning at the first opportunity to seize more power for themselves.

They will tell you that this law is to protect free speech and the right to peacefully protest while preventing violent riots and property destruction. The quiet part they won’t mention is that it gives the police discretion to distinguish a protest from a riot. Proud Boys assembling in public spaces with open carry weapons to intimidate voters—”peaceful protest”. Thousands of decent working class people came together to demand a reimagining of public safety and an end to police executions—”violent riot”. Because to those in power, actions that challenge their authority and push back against their oppression, are indeed acts of violence (in their minds). Whereas, true violence, like mowing over a protestor with a vehicle, is actually protected from any civil liabilities in this legislation, completely peaceful members of a protest can be arrested, held without bail, and charged with a felony simply for being present at a “riot” (that is, a protest where police-deemed “violence” or “property destruction” magically transformed it into a “riot”). This law does more to protect the sanctity and well-being of statues of confederate officers than to promote the safety and well-being of Floridians exercising their first amendment rights. To DeSantis and the Florida Legislature, their story of “American exceptionalism” and thinly veiled white supremacy must be defended with every tool in their arsenal against the lived reality of millions of human beings (those “exceptional” Americans) who see the cages and extrajudicial executions for what they are. We know that the vast majority of protests in the Summer of 2020 were entirely peaceful. And that was the problem. DeSantis couldn’t criminalize the millions of people peacefully assembling to undo the systematic marginalization and silencing of the black community. With HB1, that criminalization is now possible, as ANYONE at a protest where at least one person is accused of acting violently or destroying property can be charged with an “aggravated riot” 2^nd degree felony. They are scared of the power we displayed  last Summer, and knowing that the numbers are not on their side, have sought to tip the scales using the threat of violence and intimidation. Our response must be to continue to organize and show them what true power looks like.

They will tell you that the republicans are the party of “limited government”. Yet the very same people saying they hate “Big Government” have now enacted laws to further centralize control over municipal law enforcement budgets. With this legislation, the governor’s office, by special panel, has the power to amend municipal budgets that seek to reduce policing and incarceration apportionment. So if Miami or Tampa or Pensacola decide they want to balance their budget (according to their rhetoric, a republican dream), and recognize that policing takes by far the largest portion of the municipal pie, the same government bureaucrats in Tallahassee preaching “limited government” and “fiscal responsibility” are going to FORCE cities to continue wasting more money year after year on a system which only serves to devastate and traumatize our communities. If a city decides to finally listen to the science and evidence about how to actually reduce crime (i.e., promote a decent and equitable standard of living, provide opportunities for work and skill development, offer addiction treatment, etc.), they will be told that the governor and his cronies know better than the sociologists, healthcare professionals, and criminologists.

They claim this legislation is meant to show the state’s commitment to “law and order”, a dog-whistle phrase that harkens back to Nixon’s southern strategy and introduction of the war on drugs. Yet acts of violence, actual rioting, and property destruction were already against the law in ways that could be enforced in Florida. This is a grab for more power, plain and simple. DeSantis couldn’t disrupt those organizing against him without expanding the definition of “violence”, because the vast majority of those engaged in protests were assembling peacefully. Now he has the means to go after everyone who disagrees with him. This is not about “law and order”, this is about repression and silencing the voices of the many to promote the power of the few, veiled under the cover of legality. Too often, what is legal and what is moral run in direct contradiction to each other (see: slavery, Jim Crowe, mass incarceration, drug war, COINTELPRO, etc.), and this law is one more in a long line of transgressions against the people of this nation and the black community in particular.

The demagogues who claim to love America for its “freedom”, which they never define, are all too happy to step on the rights of others as long as their freedom to oppress is upheld. “You are FREE! You are Free… to do as we tell you! You are free to DO AS WE TELL YOU!!”

Well, we say that TRUE freedom is a decent life, a decent education, and communities which are made safe not through the threat of police violence, but through the availability of the resources needed to promote prosperity. DeSantis thinks that criminalizing peaceful assembly will stop this movement, but our vision of freedom is far greater than any repression law, and our movement is only gaining steam. If you believe in a truly FREE and JUST world that does not give power to authoritarians like DeSantis, then join our movement. Get organized, show up, and keep pushing until this vision becomes a reality.

In Solidarity,

Morgan G.
Internal Coordinator, Miami DSA

We believe in a fair society that works for everyone. The spread of COVID-19, and the public narrative around it, is highlighting the ways that our system doesn’t work this way – that it is broken. Even here in Ithaca, where many live comfortable, fulfilled lives, the reality is that we have the same problems as everywhere else – all of which are highlighted and made worse by the crisis at hand.

Here, as anywhere else, we have workers and poor people who cannot lose the scant economic security accessible to them. Isolation is impossible when your life depends on your wages.

We need to:

• Protect the poor from evictions or utility shutoffs and mandate a living wage in Tompkins County.

• Protect the homeless from infection and immediately work to provide equitable and comfortable housing for all.

• Cover the costs of testing and treatment for all affected, and work decisively to enact the NY Health Act.

• Require businesses to provide paid sick leave and penalize those who have used the crisis to deprive wages.

• Provide care for those who are at risk due to incarceration, and develop definite plans to implement alternatives to prisons.

The limited steps that the government has taken to address the economic and social effects of the outbreak show that real change is not impossible. Their shortcomings are the direct result of interference by the wealthiest people in the country. We won’t stand by while others suffer. We demand permanent relief from poverty and injustice.

Ithaca DSA Executive Team