For five years flight attendants have been locked in contract negotiation with American Airlines (AA) to bargain for a better contract. Since then inflation has increased by more than 30%, yet starting pay remains frozen at $27k a year. 

The flight attendants and their union have authorized a strike with a 99% majority, but government agencies won’t let them. The Railway Labor Act requires flight attendants to obtain approval from the National Mediation Board (NMB) before striking, which the NMB has refused. The NMB’s limit on the right to strike impacts more than the 27,000 flight attendants at AA. In fact, it hurts all railway and airline workers in the nation, their families, and the communities they live in.

With no legal ability to strike, negotiations have been left at a standstill, which benefits no one but AA. They get to freeze employee wages while continuing to inflate their prices and fees. This story repeats across all industries because our government prioritizes the interests of capitalists who own corporations over the interests of workers who keep them running day in, day out.

The AA contract negotiation has gone on for five years: two under Donald Trump and three under Joe Biden. Republican and Democratic politicians may strongly disagree on specific policies, but they regularly come together to keep workers down (for example, Joe Biden recently appointed a Republican to the NMB).

As socialists we recognize the ability to strike as fundamental and necessary to fight the tyranny of capital. Any and all action to restrict this ability should be opposed and overturned. 

Follow the APFA on social media to keep an eye out for how you can support their fight for a better contract.

Scientists working for the oil companies have known about climate change since the 1950s. It’s been a scientifically accepted fact since the 1980s. Millennials have grown into middle age listening to the debate between fossil fuel industry plants and reality. And while the pundits argued, climate changed. 2023 was the hottest year since records began in 1850. And 2024 is hotter than that!

Climate change is linked to more frequent natural disasters everywhere. In 2023 alone Canada lost 5% of its forest area to wildfires, China was inundated with more than 9.5” of rain in 24 hours around Beijing, and entire towns in Libya were completely destroyed by sudden flooding.

Grand Rapids had 47” of snow last year, 30 inches less than our average of 76”. Winter sports in Michigan may be a thing of the past. In recent winters, activities such as snowmobiles and skiing have been canceled due to warm temperatures.

Without radical changes, Michigan’s climate could be similar to Oklahoma or North Texas. And summers in Texas may get hot enough to cook a person. We’ll likely see climate migration in the coming decades. Given our current housing crisis, will we be prepared?

Our food systems have been developed based on existing climate patterns. What will happen when those change?

CAPITALISM IS THE PROBLEM

In North America, the European settlers who brought the concept of money had to systematically eradicate the North American indigenous cultures that revered the Earth.  If Capitalism could  save us from  climate change, it would need to somehow reconcile the parts of itself that created the issue in the first place. “Green” Capitalism presents us two options:

Individual Consumer-Based Solutions Are Insufficient

We know that individual solutions aren’t enough to prevent climate catastrophe. Just 100 corporations have been responsible for releasing 71% of greenhouse gasses. In one year, the richest billionaires each produce as much carbon as someone in the 99% would in 1,500 years.

So even if we got the entire working class to ELIMINATE their “carbon footprint” (a term created by the oil industry), we wouldn’t be anywhere close to making the change necessary! Additionally, many of the products for these consumer-based solutions require continued exploitative precious metal mining in Africa, for lithium and cobalt. 

Carbon Offsets Are a Shell Game

The world’s largest companies and Grand Rapids City Government plan on reaching net zero by using carbon offsets. Many consumers are even presented with the option to add $2 to your plane ticket to offset “1,000 air miles” or $17/year to offset your breath.

This money goes to projects like Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in PA–a nature preserve since the 1930s–or Hudson Farm Club in NJ–Billionaire Peter Kelogg’s private hunting club. Things under no threat of bulldozers. There is no additional benefit, just an excuse to continue business as usual. In fact, in a 2021 study the Grantham Research Institute of Climate Change and the Environment found that carbon offsets have substantially increased pollution. And why wouldn’t they? Logging companies can just clear cut the land next door and forest fires don’t care about human contracts.

SO WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

The solution is simple: LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND! We have pulled out enough fossil fuels that, if burned, would send us into catastrophic climate change. If we stopped burning fossil fuels today and figured out what to do without them tomorrow, the positive effects would still outweigh the negative effects. We don’t need more exploration and extraction. We need a just transition now!

There are common sense solutions that could slash emissions today, like regulating the oil industry and heavily taxing billionaires who are making the worst climate impacts. A competent government would be banning cryptocurrency mining and closing the MPG loophole for ultra-heavy vehicles like SUVs and modern trucks, while improving and expanding public transit, which would drastically reduce emissions and simultaneously reduce traffic, transportation costs, and car accidents.

America’s green transition is moving so slowly because our leaders insist on waiting for private utility companies to switch to renewable energy at a pace that stays profitable. Instead of wasting time while these companies drag their feet, we should be creating and supporting public utilities with the resources and the will to build green energy. NOT TOMORROW BUT TODAY!

Just last year the NYC DSA won a massive campaign to pass the Build Public Renewables Act, which invests heavily in new green energy production and requires the state owned power company to go completely green by 2030. This isn’t a pipe dream, it’s already happening in this country!

The post The Time is NOW for Climate Action! appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.

Last Tuesday was election night across New York State. The night highlighted both the enduring challenges and promise of the rising Socialist movement. In the most widely covered race of the night, Reactionary forces across the Right and Center, including AIPAC, funneled tens of millions of dollars into the 16th Congressional District to secure the defeat of DSA-endorsed incumbent, Congressman Jamaal Bowman by George Latimer. While at the state-level, all eight DSA incumbents in the State Senate and Assembly won their reelection bids, and they will be joined by DSA-endorsed candidate, Claire Valdez, who won her insurgent campaign to represent the 37th Assembly District in Queens. Tonight, we will hear from David Vibert, a steering committee member of DSA’s National Electoral Commission, to give his perspective on last week’s elections and their ramifications for the socialist movement in New York state and beyond. We will also hear from RPM’s own Jack Devine and Alex Randazzo on their breakdown of Bowman’s defeat, and what his loss tells us about the evolution of the 16th district since he first won the seat in 2020 and what we can learn in his loss 4 years later.

by M.W.D.

On February 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell—a local unaffiliated comrade who was deeply involved in local mutual aid efforts, and a friend to many—self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. in protest of the genocide in Gaza and the complicity of the US military. On March 1st, friends of Aaron organized a vigil, not only to commemorate Aaron, but to “pay homage to Palestinians taken from our world, the resistance fighters and ordinary people who continue to love humanity in the face of unspeakable brutality and genocide.”

M.W.D., a friend of Aaron and an active member of San Antonio DSA, gave the following speech at the vigil. 

I am a comrade of Aaron Bushnell, and I would like to share two stories and offer thoughts on strategy. 

In early September last year, mutual aid comrades spent an evening at Canyon Lake. As we were walking back to our cars, I was whistling The Internationale. Aaron was behind me, and started singing along. I thought it was a delightful interaction, and I remembered it two months later, when a group of his friends came together to sing karaoke to celebrate Aaron. We sang Dolly Parton, we sang The Internationale, among other songs. Aaron was leaving to Ohio to skillbridge out of the military industrial complex, once his contract was up. 

In the idea of internationalism, let me offer some thoughts on strategy. We must win a permanent ceasefire, and stop US military and diplomatic aid for Israel. Let us be accomplices in achieving a free Palestine, to achieve a lasting peace built on community—not on repression, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

Organizing always begins somewhere, so start organizing where you are. Use Aaron's protest, the South Africa Genocide Case against Israel, the daily atrocities—to talk with your friends, family, and coworkers, at church, at social groups.  Hell, talk with normal people here, trade numbers, share food together, and connect with San Antonio for Justice in Palestine (SAJP). Merely connecting with each other won't let us win—but I know it will be a necessary part of any strategy to win. We need a mass movement, of ordinary people, of civilian and military populations. 

More broadly, we must have a diversity of tactics, with coordination and trust between groups wherever possible. Some people will put pressure electorally, and I would like to also emphasize direct action as described in the Crimethinc zine, Strategizing for Palestinian Solidarity. It describes tertiary targeting, where companies with economic ties to weapons manufacturers that sell to Israel are targeted to cut their ties with those weapons manufacturers.

If you are active duty, I encourage you to check out the GI Rights Hotline, which has a high success rate of getting people out of the military through conscientious objection.

We—you—we must be inventive. All tactics are necessary, the moment is urgent. In terms of diversity of tactics, Aaron probably would have liked me to say that you might be wary about "Party" organizations that can put a clamp down on radical inventiveness and diversity of tactics. 

Aaron was a deeply compassionate person. I would like to emphasize that we must care for each other, challenge each other to develop, politically, as people. We must support each other deeply, like Aaron's comrades and their social groups have supported each other in these past few days, and deeply, as the people in Palestine have done since the start. While organizing, avoid snarky dismissals of serious issues. Instead, I suggest to take the time to deliberate—to give cause-and-effect reasons for why an action will probably be (or not be) materially effective, and to fill in each other's blindspots. Be kind and patient with each other. 

There is a genocide in Gaza happening right now. The conditions for life are being withheld and destroyed. People are massacred trying to get food for their children.

This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal. But we are not the ruling class. And we can decide things to be different. Free Palestine.

With recent Supreme Court rulings further criminalizing homelessness and stripping government authority to enforce major 20th century reform legislation, we are belatedly publishing this resolution from our 2024 Chapter Convention on the undemocratic nature of the first US Constitution and the place of the battle for democracy in our organization’s socialist vision.

Whereas

The United States is run by and for the capitalist class, and this class rule takes the specific form of the liberal-constitutional regime outlined in the Constitution.

This Constitution was imposed undemocratically by an alliance of slaveowners and capitalists in order to secure their property against popular democracy, and yet the working-class majority who would not even have been eligible to vote on it at the time of its ratification have been forced to live under its provisions ever since.

The political institutions established by the Constitution are intended to be an obstacle to democracy at every step, including, but not limited to: the outrageously unrepresentative Senate, the Electoral College, and the glut of the imperial Presidency and the surrounding bureaucracy.

The Constitution has allowed for further usurpations of popular sovereignty, including, but not limited to: judicial review by a panel of unelected judges who serve for life, the establishment of a repressive standing army, and the sale of elections, public officials, legal services, and the press to the highest bidder.

The process the Constitution provides for its own amendment is intentionally very difficult, stultifying, and anti-majoritarian.

The historical tendencies towards the concentration of capital in few hands and the concentration of people in few states has rendered any constitutional paths that may once have been open to the socialist movement forever closed, obstructing progressive reform and leaving those reforms already won through historical mass struggle defenseless as the political servants of the capitalist class conspire to strip them away.

The DSA has pledged to fight for a “a world organized and governed by and for the vast majority, the working class,” which is clearly impossible under the current Constitutional regime and cannot be won through the antidemocratic channels of reform laid down by the Constitution.

DSA’s platform affirms that DSA is an antiracist organization dedication to the abolition of white supremacy yet the Constitution was written by slaveowners and to this day serves to deny self-determination to Black, Indigenous, and other oppressed populations,

We understand that the fight for socialism is the fight for democracy but, with no democratic means of reforming the undemocratic Constitution, we must follow the revolutionary path to democracy in order to take the democratic road to socialism.

Therefore, be it Resolved, 

Cleveland DSA affirms, from the DSA Political Platform, that “the American political system was not made to serve the working class” and that “the nation that holds itself out as the world’s premier democracy is no democracy at all” by officially raising the demand for a new and radically democratic constitution, drafted by an assembly of the people elected by direct, universal and equal suffrage for all adult residents with proportional representation of political parties, and rooted not in the legitimacy of dead generations of slaveowners and capitalists, but that of a majority consensus of the working masses. 

Additionally Cleveland DSA urges DSA as a whole to take up a stance of opposition to the Constitution, openly indicting it as antidemocratic and oppressive, encouraging all DSA members in elected office to do the same, taking concrete actions to advance the struggle for a democratic republic such as agitating against undemocratic judicial review, fighting for proportional representation, delegitimizing the anti-democratic U.S. Senate, and advancing the long-term demand for a new democratic Constitution. We declare that to be a socialist is to fight for an expansive working-class democracy in which the state and society are democratically managed by the majority. In the U.S. this means demanding a new Constitution.

Be it finally Resolved, this resolution shall be published on the Cleveland DSA website.

The post Winning the Battle for Democracy appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

Mark your calendars!

Our next chapter meeting is Saturday, July 20th at 10am. It will be an hybrid meeting, you can attend in-person at the Ventura Diversity Collective or online via Zoom.

This meeting will serve as our annual chapter convention. If you would like to vote in, or, volunteer for a chapter leadership position please RSVP!

This year we face an unprecedented challenge. Our chapter’s steering committee is currently at a critical juncture. We are in urgent need of new leadership. As of now, only two members are committed to continuing on the committee. Without additional volunteers to step up and take on leadership roles, we face the very real possibility of having to dismantle our chapter. The work we do is vital. Our efforts to promote social justice, economic equality, and democratic socialism in Ventura County depend on a strong, active steering committee. Your passion, ideas, and dedication are what drive our movement forward. Without a full committee, we cannot maintain the momentum necessary to achieve our goals. We are calling on you, our members, to consider taking a leadership role in the steering committee. Your involvement is crucial. By stepping up, you will help ensure that our chapter remains a vibrant and effective force for change in our community.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP

For immediate release 
Jun. 20, 2024

The Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) opposes the efforts to recall members of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors as privatizers seek to further undermine the public school system.

The recall effort comes as several board members, including DSA-endorsed member Missy Zombor, supported necessary funding measures to continue vital school services despite pressures from the Republican-led state legislature to further cut education funding. 

“This is a political game, and it is the city’s families and public educators who will lose: Milwaukee DSA recognizes this recall as an attempt by school privatizers to further undermine the public education system in Milwaukee and beyond, turning that system into a profit-making venture instead of a necessary hub for quality learning,” Milwaukee DSA Co-Chair Pamela Westphal said. “Now more than ever, the children of Milwaukee need the social and educational benefits of public education to enrich their lives, we must stand up and fight back against privatizers who are trying to break those social bonds.”

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has already threatened to withhold millions in state funding from Milwaukee’s students over delayed financial reports from 2023, leading to the resignation of the district’s superintendent and comptroller.

“Some of the biggest failures of the United States’ domestic policies of the past 50 years have involved selling off our public services to those seeking to exploit the working class for profit. Milwaukee DSA recognizes this as an avenue for harm, not growth,” Milwaukee DSA Communications Officer Greg Brown said. “People in Milwaukee who want to see better education outcomes in our community should focus on building a robust public system with proper funding and public control instead of further stripping that system of its resources for privatization and profit, a common goal of the leaders of this recall effort.”

Milwaukee DSA publicly endorsed Zombor in her 2023 election and is Milwaukee’s largest socialist organization fighting for a democratic economy, just society and sustainable environment.

###

This episode is a condensed recording of a live conversation between Andrew Wilkes, Gary Dorrien, and Andrew Wilkes exploring the power of the Black Social Gospel for the Civil Rights Movement through the present struggle for liberation and equity in the U.S. and beyond.

We are issuing this statement as a chapter to address recent events and the misinformation that have permeated the local community leading to rifts among various organizations. WARNING: This statement concerns past incidents of sexual assault and abuse. 

For years, rumors have circulated accusing both Colorado Springs DSA and the Chinook Center of being apologists and defenders of people who have committed sexual assault. Not only is this blatantly untrue, but it is a misrepresentation of the core situation that led to these rumors. That being said, we empathize with those who have encountered these rumors and we understand why people have reacted strongly to the false allegations. We wish to acknowledge that this spread of misinformation has itself been a source of great harm. It has caused unnecessary pain to our members, other Chinook member organizations, and the community at large. This pain has especially been felt by the many survivors of abuse within these circles who have to encounter this false information. We are coming forward with this statement to put a stop to this harmful cycle of misrepresentation and manipulation of public perception. 

In order to be thorough, transparent, and direct, we will recount the situation as it was observed by people directly involved and who were also directly impacted/victimized by the core situation. 

WARNING: Non-detailed mentions of sexual assault and abuse. During the summer of 2020, Chinook Center leadership was made aware of allegations of sexual assault and abuse of Chinook community members by an individual named Patrick. This individual had been involved in various movement spaces, but upon these allegations of assault and abuse, he was kicked out of the Chinook community and clearly told he was not welcome at Chinook. SW, who is a member of the Chinook executive team, made an inappropriate comment on Facebook questioning why the victims didn’t go to the cops. He meant to ask, as he later explained, whether he and others should pursue some sort of vigilante justice against Patrick, seeing as the police hadn't been involved. While these comments were not questioning the validity of the allegations, they still had a harmful impact on survivors within the Chinook community and concerns about SW’s comments were raised to Chinook leadership. SW made additional comments in numerous places that were similarly upsetting and these comments were also brought forth to be addressed.

In response to these concerns, Chinook leadership held a community trial where SW was confronted by the concerned community members. The result of the community trial was a restorative justice process with SW, including a meeting with survivors from within the Chinook community. He has taken full accountability for his comments and understands the ways they could be misinterpreted and hurtful. The survivors of Patrick’s abuse and other survivors impacted by SW’s comments were satisfied with the outcome of SW’s restorative justice process and atonement.

A  former Chinook community member who was not a victim of Patrick’s felt unsatisfied by the community’s response and left, saying that Chinook (and its member organizations, including Colorado Springs DSA) is full of rape apologists. The rumors since then have led to the serious misunderstanding that this community member was a victim of SW,  when the reality is that SW was held accountable for writing upsetting Facebook comments, and not any form of abuse. It is not the position of Colorado Springs DSA to defend or attack the actions or reputation of any individual within this situation, but it is our position to stand by the community process of accountability, restorative justice, and the outcome of that process. 

Most of our members were neither involved in nor aware of these events, since they occurred in the early days of the Chinook Center when our chapter was still in its early stages and very small. While most of us cannot speak directly on the described events, we have been debriefed by those COS DSA members who were present throughout this process, including some who were directly impacted and harmed. Those harmed were satisfied with the resolution of this situation and we have followed their lead in standing by community-led justice and accountability work. 

As an abolitionist feminist organization, Colorado Springs DSA firmly roots our values in supporting survivors and following their lead in matters of community justice. We therefore stand by the results of the restorative justice process. Like the Chinook Center, Colorado Springs DSA is committed to building community spaces that move away from carceral systems. Being abolitionists means that we reject the logic of punishment and disposability and commit ourselves to the challenging work of repairing relationships when harm has been done. There is no established framework for transformative justice and many in the community are not familiar with the principles of abolition. When punishment and incarceration are the accepted norm for dealing with situations of harm, it can be difficult for people to understand what justice and accountability look like within abolitionist communities. 

In adherence with the principles of abolition, Colorado Springs DSA has honored the wishes of the survivors who experienced harm by accepting the outcome of the Chinook Center’s accountability process. Furthermore, we will always believe survivors who come forward with allegations of abuse or violence and are committed to investigating any new allegations. Should situations ever arise where accountability is needed, Colorado Springs DSA will be an active partner in helping to build and refine the community’s process. 

So, to be clear, we will directly address the false accusations that have arisen from this hurtful situation: 

• SW is not the alleged perpetrator of sexual assault in this situation. 

• The Chinook Center did not skirt accountability for the actions that SW did engage in. 

• Justice and accountability were pursued to the satisfaction of those who were victimized by Patrick and who were hurt by the comments of SW, and they considered the situation resolved via community accountability and restorative justice. As an abolitionist organization, we stand by these non-carceral forms of community justice. 

The person who was unsatisfied by the outcome of this process was not a victim of the situation, but was a bystander who has been misrepresenting the facts and perpetuating false allegations against Chinook and SW in spite of the survivors’ objections. Instead of following the lead of the survivors and respecting their wishes for the situation to be laid to rest, the rumors have continued to be spread throughout the leftist community in Colorado Springs. The resulting rumor mill has made the abuse survivors targets of community shame and blame, which has perpetuated their revictimization. 

Although the members of the broader community have understandably reacted to the false information with anger and outrage, they have not been given the true facts. Instead, their good intentions have been manipulated and weaponized in ways that have created a rift in the leftist community. To be clear, we are not assuming the intent behind these rumors, but we must address the impacts of this situation regardless of intent. These rifts and the misinformation that fuels them make all of us on the left vulnerable to state attacks. We cannot and will not make accusations, but we will note that the weaponization of misinformation and the deepening of division have been a known tactic of state oppression. The state has repeatedly utilized covert interference and infiltration of leftist communities to sow mistrust and hostility between individuals and organizations. As an organization that has been targeted by CSPD and the FBI with surveillance and infiltration, we feel we must sound the alarm on circumstances that make all of us on the left vulnerable to manipulation and security breaches. This statement is not only a rebuttal of individual actions, but a warning against allowing the state to tear our community apart and thus dilute our organizing power. Our greatest defense is the trust we can build amongst one another, and we are taking this step towards building and repairing trust by being fully transparent about our observations and our positions on the circumstances of our community’s past. However, more repair work is needed within the community to build upon our initial step forward and to heal the harmful impacts of this misinformation and the backlash that has followed. 

Every time these rumors recirculate, it is extremely distressing to the survivors of the original situation and is revictimizing them through retraumatization. This in itself is a huge injustice. Colorado Springs DSA and other Chinook organizations have also been regarded as guilty by association, and the backlash, as seen most recently, has been retraumatizing and harmful to abuse survivors within our orgs – including those who were never involved in the initial situation. They continue to be impacted by the hostility directed towards us and the defamation of our organizations. To limit future retraumatization, sources including this statement will be compiled into a physical binder at the Chinook Center. The binder will include resources addressing this situation, the Chinook Center’s policies surrounding restorative justice and community support, and other resources to continue building upon the work our organizations have already been doing. 

We prefer to presume innocence of intent by those in the leftist community in COS who have been involved in perpetuating this false information, but which has fueled the hostility against our orgs and individual members. However, if these allegations continue and if our orgs and members continue to be targets of character assassination, we will regard these actions as willful malintent moving forward. These actions would go beyond defamation and would constitute the perpetuation of harm and injustice towards those who were victimized by the original situation, and the many survivors in our community who want peace and restoration. 

Colorado Springs DSA also wants to reaffirm our commitment to standing by survivors of violence and abuse. Our leadership committee is predominantly composed of female and nonbinary persons who hold queer, BIPOC, and survivor identities. We will always start by believing survivors who come forward with allegations of abuse or violence and are fully committed to investigating any new allegations that should ever arise. We know that we keep us safe and we are fully committed to making sure that our members and the broader community have a safe and affirming environment to organize for our collective liberation. We believe that the only way to achieve liberation and build a successful revolutionary movement is to center intersectionality and the dismantling of heteropatriarchy and white supremacy within our anti-oppressive work. We recognize that abusive power dynamics and misogyny have a long legacy within leftist communities, and we are vigilant in addressing these cultures and helping our people to do better. 

We hope that by coming forward, we can begin to bring about healing in the community and repair the damage that has been done. Our chapter and individual members have suffered enormous reputational damage through this latest resurgence of the old rumors, and we are taking this first step towards laying the foundation for repair, but we cannot do it on our own. We know that we are stronger together, and we hope that those who have received the false information in the community can approach us in dialogue and restoration. 

Colorado Springs DSA

The term “social housing” has gained traction on the US Left today. Prominent political currents in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have become more comfortable using the term to gesture vaguely at some more just allocation of housing than what currently exists. For example, DSA’s “Building for Power” (B4P) campaign encourages DSA chapters to “…work with tenants and/or tenant unions as well as building trades unions to retrofit social or other tenant housing,” operating under the assumption that social housing is an existing thing that can be improved upon.