The Las Vegas chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America announced their endorsement of Valerie Thomason, candidate for Assembly District 10. LVDSA played a significant part in Bernie Sanders’ sweep of the Nevada caucuses in 2020 and the election of the Progressive Slate that took over Nevada’s Democratic Party leadership in the spring of 2021. Thomason’s endorsement is the chapter’s first of its kind since its members adopted a more stringent endorsement process in the summer of 2021. LVDSA says it commits to turning out volunteers for Thomason’s campaign as it looks to lead a significant ground game for the Assembly District 10 seat.

Valerie Thomason is a Teamster, single mother, and organizer within the community. If elected, she would become Nevada’s first openly democratic socialist state legislator. Her campaign’s top priorities include rent control, universal childcare, and strengthening unions. She was an organizer for the Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, a Clark County Democratic Party Board Member from 2021-2023, and has served on the Steering Committee of LVDSA. Thomason has also earned endorsements from Run for Something and People’s Action PAC alongside Congress Members Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other left-wing legislators. Learn more about Valerie Thomason at valfornevada.com.

Quotes:

• LVDSA Co-chair Shaun Navarro: “From her work on the Bernie campaign, to leadership in LVDSA and now with the Teamsters, Val has proven her commitment to her community and fighting for the working class  in Las Vegas. She not only has our endorsement but she lives the values that LVDSA is all about.”
• LVDSA Co-chair Anthony Lambert: “Val is a fantastic organizer and a great representative of our values. She understands what the working class is going through, and she’s not going to bend to corporate lobbyists or toe a moderate line.”
• Candidate Valerie Thomason: “I’ve been a member of the Las Vegas DSA for a long time. I am incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together and of the things this organization has accomplished. I believe that this is another step towards building real power for working class people in Las Vegas and I am thrilled to not only be endorsed but to work together towards this future.”

Editorial note: The Las Vegas chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America may be short-handed as “LVDSA”, “Las Vegas DSA”, or “Las Vegas Democratic Socialists”.

South by South-Which Side Are You On?

by Gumbo V.

Over two dozen artists who were scheduled to perform at South by Southwest in Austin, TX have announced that they are boycotting the festival in solidarity with Palestine and in protest of SXSW’s ties to military contractors. The artists include Squirrel Flower, Eliza McLamb, Proper, TC_Superstar, Mamalarky, The Curls, and many others, as well as author Dr. Devon Price.

The boycott announcements began flooding social media on Tuesday, 5 March 2024, just days before the festival was scheduled to kick off. The day before, the United Musicians and Allied Workers, a non-profit organization consisting of musicians and fellow travelers struggling for better pay and working conditions, announced their own demands of SXSW in solidarity with the Austin for Palestine Coalition’s  “War Mongers out of SXSW” campaign. The Austin for Palestine Coalition consists of Austin-based organizations including Austin Democratic Socialists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation – Austin, Jewish Voice for Peace – Austin, the Palestine Solidarity Committee at UT Austin, and Austin With Palestine.

Austin for Palestine Coalition’s “War Mongers out of SXSW” campaign began on 21 February 2024 with an instagram post articulating a list of demands and a call to action:

We are protesting the inclusion of Raytheon (RTX), its subsidiary Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems at the South By Southwest festivals and conference. Raytheon (RTX) manufactures missiles, bombs, and other weapon systems for the Israeli military to use against Palestinians. Collins Aerospace provides crucial components for military aircraft used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). BAE Systems has supplied weapons and equipment used in the occupation of Palestinian territories. We urge that SXSW take the following actions:

We are protesting the inclusion of Raytheon (RTX), its subsidiary Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems at the South By Southwest festivals and conference. Raytheon (RTX) manufactures missiles, bombs, and other weapon systems for the Israeli military to use against Palestinians. Collins Aerospace provides crucial components for military aircraft used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). BAE Systems has supplied weapons and equipment used in the occupation of Palestinian territories. We urge that SXSW take the following actions:

1. Disinvite Raytheon, Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems from the festival
2. Reevaluate the inclusion of agencies in the Department of Defense in events and discussions hosted by the festival.
3. Use its platform to raise awareness about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and advocate for peace, justice, and the protection of human rights.

The campaign began as a targeted email campaign directed towards the SXSW board of executives, including Co-President and Chief Programming Officer Hugh Forrest, Co-President and Chief Brand Officer Jann Basket, Chief Logistics Officer Michele Flores, Vice President of Film & TV Claudette Godfrey, and Chief Culture & People Officer Autumn Nicole Amuesca.

A material analysis of the festival’s conditions included understanding whose labor SXSW profits from, and how that labor might be wielded to amplify demands. Members of the Austin for Palestine Coalition representing Austin DSA and the Austin chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation thus reached out to United Musicians and Allied Workers and the Austin Federation of Musicians local 433 to determine how organized labor could stand in solidarity with Palestinian liberation.

This is far from the first time that artists have protested SXSW. Just last year, UMAW and AFM 433 began their Fair Pay for Fair Play at SXSW campaign due to stagnant pay rates for artists for over a decade. The stakes are even higher in 2024, as the entire world watches a genocide be livestreamed in real time and the companies that manufacture weapons to perpetuate it are invited to speak about their “innovations” at SXSW’s opening Startup Crawl on 8 March. In April 2021, SXSW was acquired by mass media conglomerate Penske Media Corporation, and the organized labor behind SXSW’s cultural legacy have drawn direct connections between the corporatization of SXSW, the festival’s refusal to pay artists a fair wage and provide labor protections, and its platforming of genocidal military-industrial companies.

Penske Media Corporation (PMC) is owned by founder Jay Penske, heir to father, Roger Penske’s, transportation company Penske Corporation, Inc. known for its truck rentals service and racing investments. Jay Penske has been compared to Rupert Murdoch and William Randolph Hearst for his amassing of media holdings, including Rolling Stone, Variety Magazine, Deadline, IndieWire, and over two dozen other brands. The comparison is especially prescient as both media moguls are notorious for their mass accumulation of capital at the direct expense of their workers, Murdoch for his forced displacement of the working class Wapping neighborhood of London and Randolph Hearst for being the target of the 1899 Newsies Strike

There is no small irony in the corporatization of South by Southwest. The shift towards being a “capitalist carnival for the young and energetic” has been decried for many years and is part and parcel with Austin’s rise as the so-called Silicon Valley of the South. Regardless of its corporatization, however, one is left to wonder: what place do military contractors and the U.S. Department of Defense have at a music and film festival?

As stated above, the musicians’, cultural laborers’, and Austin for Palestine Coalition’s demands are quite simple:

1. Remove and deplatform the companies with public and explicit ties to the Israeli genocide in Gaza;
2. Reflect on what the festival has become such that the U.S Army, DoD, CIA, NSA, and many others have decided to make it a vessel for cultural warfare; and
3. Use the global platform of SXSW for moral and material good

To contact that SXSW board with these demands at the click of a button, please visit: https://tinyurl.com/WarMongersOutSXSW
For more information about the Austin for Palestine Coalition, please visit https://austin4palestine.org/ and come to the Falasteen Street Museum during SXSW outside of Austin City Hall from 5pm-9pm on 8-10 March and 15-17 March!

The post Musicians, Culture Workers Boycott SXSW for Platforming Genociders first appeared on Red Fault.

by Sara G.

Tuesday night, we celebrated. At Hotel Vegas, as a live band played, we ate tacos and toasted democracy. The crowd chanted “four more years” as our District Attorney José Garza took the stage for his acceptance speech upon winning reelection with a remarkable 33% lead.

José campaigned on supporting survivors of sexual assault, prosecuting wage theft and abusive cops, and offering community-based justice solutions. His opponent Jeremy Sylestine didn’t speak about the issues, but a dark money group from Dallas called Saving Austin spoke for him. Fearmongering mailers featuring a dark hand clasped over a child’s mouth were sent to the most progressive districts in Austin. A group of bikers from Pflugerville followed volunteers for José from house to house to intimidate them on Sylestine’s behalf, much like they did during council member Mackenzie Kelly’s 2020 campaign. Silicon Valley billionaires donated heavily to Sylestine, and conservative media celebrities like Joe Rogan, Bari Weiss, and Libs of TikTok threw their weight behind his campaign. Austin’s most famous proponent of the Great Replacement Theory, Elon Musk, even tweeted his support, only to delete the tweet in shame once he saw the results. In total, Sylestine raised over $1.2 million compared to José Garza’s $200,000.

On José’s side, we had the power of people. José has a strong labor background, serving as  Executive Director of the Workers Defense Project and working with the Department of Labor and the NLRB. He received strong endorsements from local labor unions. Volunteers from our chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, labor unions, University Democrats and other community groups all pitched in to spread the message of how crime has decreased with José Garza as DA. In one weekend, DSA knocked on over 1,400 doors for José. Where they had the money, we had the people.

Together we have proven that you can run as an open socialist, you can have all of the money of Silicon Valley, local billionaire elites and national right wing demagogues against you, and you can win. By building a mass movement from the bottom up, we can take on any opponent.

The post

José Garza Wins Overwhelming 2:1 Victory in DA Race

Working Class Ally Thumps Proxy for the Right

first appeared on Red Fault.

In order better to accommodate some of our members’ schedules, we have moved our monthly general meetings to the final Wednesday of each month. That means our March general meeting, open to members and non-members alike, will take place on March 27th. The time and place for the meetings will remain unchanged: 6:30PM at the Appalachian Liberation Library (419 W Market St in Johnson City) or by Zoom (ntdsa.org/meeting). See you there!

On February 25th, Aaron Bushnell lit himself on fire in protesting the genocide of the Palestinian people. With his last words, he shouted “Free Palestine” three times, until collapsing into the flames around him

This January, Salt Lake DSA renewed its participation in the national boycott campaign of Israeli and Zionist foods called No Appetite for Apartheid, launched by the Palestine Solidarity Working Group in 2022, which is itself part of the Apartheid Free Zones campaign and the larger BDS movement launched by Palestinian civil society groups in 2005. We are canvassing local stores to see if we here in Utah can help add to the number of Apartheid Free stores nationwide, which will support the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. See the chapter calendar for biweekly meetings and canvassing update, follow the guidelines in the one-pager below, and join us!

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The post Still No Appetite For Apartheid! first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.

In the early twentieth century the vast majority of mass production industries were unorganized in the United States. Efforts to replicate the success of the United Mine Workers, brewery workers, and the garment trades were largely unsuccessful until the 1930s when the Congress of Industrial Organizations changed everything. Fragile Juggernaut tells this story with a narrative that spans from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1950s. Andrew Elrod joins us to discuss why this history is important and what organizers can learn from it today.

by Jay P., Electoral Coordinator

Today, March 5, is our primary election here in Travis County.

Who’s voted for our chapter-endorsed candidate, District Attorney José Garza? Have you?

There’s a list of voting locations available at votetravis.org. The good news is, if you have been to any of them, odds are that you had minimal wait time.

If you haven’t been yet, here’s some bad news: turnout through the early voting period was below 6% of registered voters in Travis County.

Here’s some good news: Travis County has got all the voters we need to win, they just happen to have been sitting on their asses this whole time. Travis County Democrats have stood by past electoral efforts towards goals like humane workplace safety regulations, criminal justice reform in 2020, and last year with the police oversight passed with Yes on A/No on B. 

Back to the bad news: as of last Friday, roughly 20% of people who voted in the Democratic primary were GOP crossovers and therefore obvious, rock-solid locks for the opponent. 

This is at least 5,800 votes the opponent had, as of last week. The right is aware that the top of our ballot is rotten. They know that local races rarely make noise in an uncontested presidential primary, and they think they can win it on the cheap. The sole candidate running in the GOP primary has said people should vote for the opponent. How the two differ in any particular way, he has not said.

Their strategy has been relentless, defamatory, and disgusting. You’ve probably seen their attack ads, but you may not have heard about the grotesque intimidation and harassment of our canvassers by the opponent’s supporters. If what they have said and done has been enough to give you pause, if you haven’t done anything yet, then I’m sad to report that they got you. If this situation holds, I can see the coverage on March 6th: “Local reformer has a few good years,” “Back to Business,” “DSA in Disarray: Lots of enthusiasts, short attention spans”. I’m not too proud to say these imagined headlines have been screaming at me for weeks.

Some history: in 2020, we worked in coalition to elect a candidate who represented a courageous and meaningful break with the past. This coalition began in 2017 as our campaign with local labor, the Worker’s Defense Project, and other community groups to win paid sick leave. In his original campaign for District Attorney, not only did José promise and pursue accountability for the violence and recklessness exercised by the Austin Police Department, its leadership, and others in response to the 2020 racial justice protest; he has overseen a double-digit drop in violent and property crimes, making Austin one of the safest big cities in the country (no matter what you heard from the online right). 

We have achieved this by focusing the office’s resources where they matter most: at the root causes of crime, especially violent crime, in our community. He has endorsed and supported ambitious mental health and criminal diversion programs because we know they work where the incarceration first (incarceration-only) policies of the past haven’t and won’t. He has partnered with local trade unions to connect people with apprenticeship opportunities that can address the same poverty and day-to-day insecurity of being without a good job and a strong union to back you up against the bosses. And the bosses, finally, let’s never forget the bosses—I am certain they would love to see our home-grown Economic Justice Enforcement Initiative go up in smoke, and not have to worry about a top prosecutor who cares about wage theft, workplace safety violations, and the kinds of labor abuses they get away with in other jurisdictions across the country and cost the workers tens of billions of dollars per year. For us, for the multiracial working class of Austin, these are priorities we’ve been working for years to realize, and while much remains to be done, we are immensely fortunate to have a dedicated fighter for that working class in office.

The opponent offers none of this. The opponent has never once said he would protect Travis County’s right to seek and obtain abortion, he has never once said he would protect trans kids and their families seeking lifesaving care. He has said nothing about our priorities for the enforcement and prosecution of justice here in Travis County, and so we must assume the worst.

They have money, they have the apathy of demobilized Democratic Party voters, but we can overcome—because we have people. We are the only ones who can save us, now and always. We need to step up and be comrades for our comrade, who’s given so much to make our cause a fact on the ground.

I said we’ve got people, so let’s see them. We need you to stop reading, open your phone, and find three friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers who haven’t voted yet. Tell them how to make a plan to vote: every location citywide is open from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Let them know which forms of ID are accepted at the polls (there are seven types). Offer to give them a ride if they need it, and no matter what, let them know what’s at stake in this election. 

Who are our comrades today? If you’re ready for this fight, this is only one way, but a vital and necessary way, to show your solidarity today.

The post Who’s Voted? Have you? first appeared on Red Fault.

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