In the abject chaos of the aftermath of the 2024 election, there is one extremely stark contrast from 2016: The liberal response to the results. There were very few election night mass protests, if any. The events that went forward the day after were smaller than in 2016, and organized almost exclusively by left-wing groups. For now, the mass liberal revolt against Trump appears to be a thing of the past.

The fact that Trump’s victory was decisive, with mass rightward shifts across all regions including blue-state metropolitan areas, might be one factor. You can claim that 2016 was an aberration. But to be honest in looking at 2024, you have to be honest that Trump is popular and voters overwhelmingly chose him. This fact exists alongside the successes of socialist candidates and left policies, including multiple ballot initiatives that protected abortion access in red states.

Across social media, I’m seeing many well-meaning liberals and progressives state their desire to become “internal émigrés,” a term for a person living under a repressive government who chooses to disconnect from politics altogether. Many Americans have already chosen to “check out,” to focus on themselves and their families. There is little interest in #resisting this time around. People got what they wanted and they deserve what they’re going to get.

This, frankly, is an unacceptable attitude that will get people killed.

People simply do not have the luxury of checking out right now. Trump is promising mass deportations on Day 1 of his second term. Biden is refusing to use the expansive new powers granted him by our rogue Supreme Court to commit “official” acts as President to delay and complicate the transfer of power. You cannot claim your opponent is a fascist and then send a congratulatory call and aid and abet his transition. This means that Biden either doesn’t believe Trump is a fascist or he thinks fascism is good and normal. Every guardrail is broken. Everything is up to us.

Trans people scrambling to figure out HRT access during a Trump administration do not have the luxury of “checking out.” Working parents with trans children desperately trying to make the math work on a sudden move to a sanctuary state don’t have the luxury of “checking out.” 

Immigrants of all statuses do not have the luxury of “checking out”. Yes, that includes the ones who voted for Trump who are going to be targeted by his policies.

Teenage girls subjected to pro-rape taunts from right-wing Gen Z boys do not have the luxury of “checking out.”

Palestinians across the world do not have the luxury of “checking out.”

Parents with disabled students who rely on the IDEA Act do not have the luxury of “checking out.”

“Authoritarian regimes rely heavily on
self censorship and popular demobilization
to exercise control over society.“

Anyone engaging in public-facing left organizing does not have the luxury of “checking out.” Because guess what, folks? We’re targets, too. Take Trump’s threats to go after political enemies seriously.

It is important to prevent burnout, know your boundaries, and be selective in what battles you choose to fight in order to preserve yourself. But that is profoundly different than retreating to false pastoralism because it finally dawned on you that right wing politics has mass appeal. I saw this attitude firsthand growing up in a conservative town during the Bush years. Instead of retreating into apathy, I used that experience to change minds and dedicate my life to fighting for people I don’t know.

Authoritarian regimes rely heavily on self-censorship and popular demobilization to exercise control over society. One person is easy to single out for harassment, arrest, or worse. Such tactics are logistically impossible to use against a million people standing together. The far right wants us to cede the political sphere to them. Conscious disengagement from struggle to preserve oneself is a gift to the fascists. Uniting to protect one another, to defend our democracy, and ultimately to win the world we deserve is the only way forward.

The answer to this crisis isn’t unilateral disarmament. The answer is organizing together to throw every bit of sand into the gears to keep as many people safe as possible. It means having very awkward water cooler conversations with your coworkers who aren’t convinced that Trump will do all the bad things he says he’ll do. It means telling your daughters and nieces that they should beat up any boy that taunts them – and having their back when they face punishment for doing so. It means not throwing trans people under the bus in order to score midterm victories. It means mass meetings and making phone calls and writing postcards and thinking seriously about the fights we pick at the ballot box–and organizing to win those fights. It means meetings with legislators and making demands. It means sharing Know Your Rights information around ICE and CBP. It means all of the unglamorous and tedious work that goes into resisting fascism.

And above all, it means doing this without flinching and apologizing for our politics. Now is not the time to rationalize anti-trans rhetoric as legitimate concern about equity in school sports. Nor is it the time to be border hawks. If immigration and trans rights are unpopular, our task is to make them popular through constant education and agitation. 

In 2004, a number of gay men and women made the case for marriage equality on Fox News and in conservative media. While this strategy involved a great deal of respectability politics, it worked. People understood that gay people were in fact just like them, and people explaining in plain language about all the ways not having access to marriage impacted their daily lives to mass audiences did in fact move the needle and built popular support for marriage equality. There has not been any recent attempt to publicly identify asylum seekers, immigrants, or trans people as people simply seeking dignified lives without government scrutiny in the US. And the liberal “resistance” movement has zero interest in doing so. Likewise, when Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast there was no gloating that residents “got what they voted for”. There was mass outrage and efforts to save lives and fight a deliberately incompetent FEMA.  Both of these examples, from Bush’s second term, show that mass action and constant agitprop do force change in a politically hostile environment.

This time around, the organizations I see immediately moving to host mass meetings, rallies, skillshares, and logistical planning events are all socialist or firmly to the left of the Democratic Party. It will be up to us to lead the resistance, to absorb both the disaffected people who did not vote (mainly in “safe” blue and red states), and the people who do want to polish off their knitted beanies and get back to work. The path ahead starts with fighting a return to isolation and a mentality of “protecting me and mine.” And it starts now. 

The post You Do Not Have the Luxury of Checking Out appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

How do we fight Trump? With a united front of working class organizations.

On November 5, Donald Trump was elected, again. How did this happen? At the heart of the disaster is the failure of the Democratic Party. For decades, Democrats have operated as just another party of big business, corporate policies, and the status quo.

While corporate Democrats fell to crushing defeat, socialists won elections across the country. Portland was a bright spot. We elected two endorsed city councilors after an incredible campaign of door-knocking and organizing — and voted in four democratic socialists to city council. Five of the twelve winners signed our Renters’ Bill of Rights.

But our victories exist against the context of a wider victory for the right-wing. What to do now? In Portland DSA we passed an emergency election response with a clear goal: build a coalition to fight for left-wing policies in Portland, and to oppose Trump, and the hard right, conservative, capitalist policies of the Republican Party.

To build a strong coalition, we will invite unions, Palestine solidarity organizations, sympathetic local and state officeholders, and labor solidarity groups to an activist conference to discuss our strategy.

This plan is unified around a set of demands: No abortion ban, no genocide, no deportations. DSA chapters across the country are already making these demands. In Portland, we are also looking ahead to a socialist vision for city council: A Green New Deal for Portland, a Renters’ Bill of Rights, and a jobs program for Portland.

Together, we will work with a coalition of Left organizations to plan a joint forum on the strategy for Portland’s Left, an inauguration day protest, and a longer term left-wing, anti-Trump coalition.

Portland DSA is calling on other chapters to pass the same resolution! We are experiencing an enormous moment of opportunity, as liberals and progressives question their approach of the last 8 years. The strategy of lesser-evilism, and running within the two-party paradigm has left us without a clear response to Trumpist populism. As people begin to question the role of the Democratic Party, it is the job of socialists to convince them of the need for a new party for the working class.

Our chapter is asking DSA to convene the same sort of coalition nationally. The Left is growing, workers deserve more, and together we can build a party and defeat the Right!

How do we fight Trump? With a united front of working class organizations.

On November 5, Donald Trump was elected, again. How did this happen? At the heart of the disaster is the failure of the Democratic Party. For decades, Democrats have operated as just another party of big business, corporate policies, and the status quo.

While corporate Democrats fell to crushing defeat, socialists won elections across the country. Portland was a bright spot. We elected two endorsed city councilors after an incredible campaign of door-knocking and organizing — and voted in four democratic socialists to city council. Five of the twelve winners signed our Renters’ Bill of Rights.

But our victories exist against the context of a wider victory for the right-wing. What to do now? In Portland DSA we passed an emergency election response with a clear goal: build a coalition to fight for left-wing policies in Portland, and to oppose Trump, and the hard right, conservative, capitalist policies of the Republican Party.

To build a strong coalition, we will invite unions, Palestine solidarity organizations, sympathetic local and state officeholders, and labor solidarity groups to an activist conference to discuss our strategy.

This plan is unified around a set of demands: No abortion ban, no genocide, no deportations. DSA chapters across the country are already making these demands. In Portland, we are also looking ahead to a socialist vision for city council: A Green New Deal for Portland, a Renters’ Bill of Rights, and a jobs program for Portland.

Together, we will work with a coalition of Left organizations to plan a joint forum on the strategy for Portland’s Left, an inauguration day protest, and a longer term left-wing, anti-Trump coalition.

Portland DSA is calling on other chapters to pass the same resolution! We are experiencing an enormous moment of opportunity, as liberals and progressives question their approach of the last 8 years. The strategy of lesser-evilism, and running within the two-party paradigm has left us without a clear response to Trumpist populism. As people begin to question the role of the Democratic Party, it is the job of socialists to convince them of the need for a new party for the working class.

Our chapter is asking DSA to convene the same sort of coalition nationally. The Left is growing, workers deserve more, and together we can build a party and defeat the Right!

November 9, 2024

This coming Wednesday 11/13, Common Council will be voting on the City's budget. Conservative Common Council members are introducing amendments that would defund and eliminate essential city services like youth programming and critical infrastructure. We're calling for Common Council to reject these cuts and pass the budget.

These cuts would completely paralyze the city’s ability to do its basic functions: repairing streets and sidewalks, promoting affordable housing and supportive services, and providing childcare for young children and working families. Not to mention, they would reverse so many of the progressive initiatives we have fought for these past few years. Here are some examples:

• Defunding of a city attorney position would disrupt the city's ability to enforce regulations that serve residents' interests, like stopping apartments from being turned into AirBNBs.

• Defunding the city's health insurance would make it even harder for working class people to run for local office

• Defunding the city's contribution to dozens of nonprofits who provide essential services which include food banks, childcare, support for senior residents, and legal aid.

We are calling on members of Ithaca DSA to join us this Wednesday at 5:30 PM at City Hall (108 E Green St, Ithaca) and tell Common Council to reject austerity amendments and pass a People-First Budget. The people first budget implements:

• Substantial funding to address homelessness

• Planning how to implement reparations for Black Ithacans

• Low-cost improvements to winter sidewalk maintenance

These amendments are capitalizing on the legitimate concern Ithacans are feeling about higher taxes, but they're false solutions and the costs will be borne in working people's lives. Our DSA-endorsed council members have identified and proposed cost-saving cuts of half a million dollars for unfilled staffing positions in the police department. Right now, the City is planning to unnecessarily tax residents for positions that have been unfilled for years.

We're petitioning council to keep funding for community, youth, and infrastructure, but cut the excess from the police department — and most importantly, pass this people-first budget.

In Solidarity,

Ithaca DSA

October 21, 2024

Cornell University targeting anti-genocide protestors with suspension, as well as the threat of expulsion and deportation

Ithaca, NY  — On October 17th, four Cornell students, including the former Co-Chair of Cornell YDSA and the President of Cornell Jewish Voices For Peace were suddenly notified of their suspension from the university for participating in anti-genocide protests on campus before promptly being arrested by Cornell University Police and taken away in handcuffs. 

"Cornell's recent suspension of four students for their involvement with a protest was a harsh, unaccountable, and repressive act of administrative violence," said DSA-endorsed Tompkins County Legislator Veronica Pillar. "Rather than protecting students, Cornell's actions further endanger the community. I urge Cornell administrators to reverse their decision, and I stand in solidarity with the multitude of students, faculty, staff, and alumni calling for due process, human rights, and an end to investments in genocide. Free Palestine."

"Cornell University claims to uphold values like free inquiry, expression, and community, yet its retaliatory actions against these students—suspending, arresting, and banning them for participating in a peaceful protest—directly contradict these principles," said DSA-endorsed Alderperson Kayla Matos of the Ithaca Common Council. "Cornell can practice these principles by reversing these suspensions and respecting students' right to free speech and assembly.

This comes after Cornell's suspension of Graduate Student Momodou Taal, who the university had threatened with deportation before public backlash caused his suspension to be walked back. After Taal's initial suspension, Joel Malina, Cornell's VP of University Relations, in a private meeting with students and parents, affirmed that Cornell University is comfortable with inviting the Ku Klux Klan to university campus. Cornell University's willingness to deport a Black immigrant student for exercising his right to free speech while simultaneously welcoming white supremacists onto campus is blatant white supremacy and we condemn it unequivocally.   

“As of late Cornell University appears more concerned with surveilling and policing its students than with educating them,” said Jorge DeFendini, Chair of Ithaca DSA. "I urge the university to adhere to its mission of 'Any Person, Any Study,' and allow all students to exercise their right to free speech without vindictive retaliation from the administration." 

Ithaca DSA condemns Cornell University's retaliation against its students and stands in total solidarity with these brave protestors in their principled stance against the genocide of Palestine. We call on the university to reverse these suspensions, drop arrest charges, and adhere to the student body's resounding call to divest from companies complicit in Israel's genocide in Gaza. 

Solidarity Forever & Free Palestine.

Steering Committee of Ithaca Democratic Socialists of America

May 29, 2024

Over 48,000 members of UAW 4811, higher ed workers in the University of California system, are standing up and striking back against unfair and illegal repression by their universities. These workers make the university system run with their labor, by instructing classes and bringing in grant money with their research. The wealth they create is then invested in weapons manufacturers and other companies that supply, support, and enable the genocide in Gaza, the illegal settlement of the West Bank, and the day to day violence of Israel’s apartheid regime. This Monday, May 19, they began their strike. 

These workers heeded the call put out by their fellow students, joining the movement for a ceasefire in Gaza and Palestinian liberation. Union members were tear-gassed, beaten, and intimidated – first by counter protesters and then by police called by the University of California.

The response to students and workers exercising their right to free speech was repression and violence. But these academic workers are unionized, and have legal protections from unfair labor practices like this. And they have a tool to protect their rights: the strike.  

With this strike, UAW 4811 makes the following demands:

1. Amnesty for all academic employees, students, student groups, faculty, and staff who face disciplinary action or arrest due to protest.

2. Right to free speech and political expression on campus.  

3. Divestment from UC’s known investments in weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and companies profiting from Israel’s war on Gaza. 

4. Disclosure of all funding sources and investments, including contracts, grants, gifts, and investments, through a publicly available, publicly accessible, and up-to-date database.

5. Empower researchers to opt out from funding sources tied to the military or oppression of Palestinians. The UC must provide centralized transitional funding to workers whose funding is tied to the military or foundations that support Palestinian oppression. 

UC academic workers are fighting against repression on behalf of students and workers everywhere, from California to Palestine! Their fight is our fight, and we stand with them!

As DSA members, we know that the workers at the University of California are fighting not just for their own safety and right to peacefully protest, but for workers all across the world, especially in Palestine. Workers at UC are taking a bold step, striking not only for better working conditions, but to defend their fundamental political rights and freedoms. After all, it is our collective power to withhold our labor by which these very rights are guaranteed. We know that the struggle for a better future begins on the shop floor, and as democratic socialists, we stand loudly and proudly alongside all workers who demand political freedom and an end to the genocide in Palestine.

Therefore, as Ithaca DSA members we commit to:

• Amplify the demands of the rank-and-file through public statements of support

• Hold UC accountable to meet the just demands of their workers

• (IF APPLICABLE: We will join striking workers on the picket line and provide material support to help them stay strong)

When workers, students, and social movements stand together demanding an end to US complicity in Israel’s genocide, we will win!

First Published October 29, 2023

Ithaca DSA supports Professor Russell Rickford and is disgusted by the attacks being leveled at him. He has been accused by Cornell campus groups and media outlets of celebrating Hamas’s violence against Israeli civilians and promoting hate speech. These accusations are based on a short and decontextualized video clip of a much longer, 19-minute speech that was given at a rally in support of the Palestinian people, co-organized by Jewish Voices for Peace and the Ithaca Committee for Justice for Palestine and co-sponsored by the Ithaca DSA and other local organizations. Professor Rickford did NOT support or glorify violence against civilians. In fact, he stated "I hate violence. I hate violence. I can’t stand guns. I come from a deep tradition of peace. I come from a deep tradition of resistance to militarism, and to war. I would never presume, on principle, I would never presume, to tell an oppressed people how they should seek their liberation... I abhor the killing of civilians. It’s horrific," (full transcript of speech here). 

The deliberate misrepresentation and decontextualization of his speech is an affront to open dialogue and free speech, which Cornell purports is a key value of the university. We call on Cornell to take the side of Professor Rickford, instead of those making bad faith attacks, undermine free speech, and distort others’ viewpoints for political gain. 

Professor Rickford is a wonderful scholar, teacher, community member, and activist who does not deserve this incredible outpouring of hate and disinformation. 

Sign a petition to support him here.

The question is the same as it was a hundred years ago: Will we collectively choose Socialism or Barbarism?

Democratic socialists know that governments that protect the interests of the ruling class while refusing to guarantee our rights to housing, healthcare, and education are democracies only in name, and that both major parties in fact support a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (that is, the one percent). Even so, DSA engages with the electoral process as candidates, campaigners, canvassers, and voters. The electoral arena is often where we find allies, grow coalitions, and inspire the rest of the working class to build socialism together, brick by brick.

This election, we are faced with a stark reality that the duopoly power shared by the two major US parties is a ratchet effect, dragging the window of political discourse ever rightward, despite the broad popularity of progressive policy. As socialists, we understand the Purpose of a System is What It Does, and in an election in which progressive policies and down-ballot candidates consistently outperformed the top of the ticket, it is clear that the Democratic Party is more concerned with excising social democratic and “Berniecrat” elements from the party and providing unwavering material support for Israeli genocide than winning “the most important election of our lifetimes.” To be clear, the Democratic corporate consultant class will get paid either way, and the stock portfolios of Democratic and Republican politicians alike will continue to go up.

The bourgeois election process may have selected the American version of fascism embodied in Donald Trump, but we recognize two important facts. One, American fascism is neither recent nor novel, with a long, brutal history both domestically and internationally supported by both parties. Two, as proven in places like Indonesia and Chile, democratic socialist policies are broadly popular and effective at countering reactionary politics, at least until the forces of US capital intervene on the side of violent, anti-democratic repression. As Americans worry about the very real threat of violent, anti-democratic repression at home (an ongoing and longstanding reality for many Americans, and a new possibility for certain privileged groups), it is worth reminding ourselves that the tools of imperial control perfected abroad will inevitably come home and be used on us too.

What Is to Be Done?

The question is the same as it was a hundred years ago: Will we collectively choose Socialism or Barbarism? American support of Israel’s brutal genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, mirrored by the brutal militarization at our southern border, shows that the American ruling elite have made their choice: barbarism. Therefore, we must organize together to build a future worth passing on to the next generation. We must be sober, analytical, and adaptable. We must look to the analysis and lessons learned from those that came before us. We must help educate each other.

We are in the midst of a multi-generational class war, as well as a time of many morbid symptoms as the old world dies and the new world struggles to be born. What that new world will look like remains to be seen, but in the words of the late, great David Graeber, “The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make, and could just as easily make differently.”

Statement from the Madison Area DSA Executive Committee on the 2024 Election

Donald Trump’s victory is a setback for the working class and will surely threaten our communities in countless ways. But it would not be possible without the failures of the Democratic Party. Kamala Harris’s focus on upholding a sorry status quo was not enough when voters are dissatisfied and disgusted with climate change, genocide, inflation, and our corrupt political system.

Workers deserve more. Workers deserve housing, Medicare for All, unions. Workers deserve a Green New Deal, taxes on the rich, an end to the US war machine. Workers deserve a party that fights for us, not the rich who exploit and divide us. Workers deserve socialism, and we won’t stop organizing until we get it.

Democrats lost, but DSA can and does win in down-ballot races throughout the country. Progressive and pro-worker ballot measures passed in several “red” states. Here in Madison, voters overwhelmingly passed budget referendums to fund our schools and city services. With those funds, we demand free school meals, affordable housing, sanctuary for immigrants, safety for trans people, and better pay for workers.

Only socialism and building mass movements and political organizations can defeat barbarism. Don’t despair – join DSA and organize for a better world with us! Come join us this week at one of the following events!

• Saturday 11/9 at The People’s Organizing Fair
• Sunday 11/10 at the Shout Your Abortion rally
• Tuesday 11/12 at our next Madison DSA monthly meeting
• Saturday 11/16 at our next New Member Orientation

Register for all of the above at https://madison-dsa.org/events/.