On Monday, July 24, 2023, Columbus City Council voted 6-1 to approve the American Campus Communities / Blackstone development proposed at 50 West Lane Avenue.

Blackstone is the largest corporate landlord in history. They own thousands upon thousands of properties across the United States and abroad. They have earned international condemnation for their aggressive rent hikes and use of eviction as a profit-making scheme.

Now, City Council has given them a piece of our city–and are poised to sweeten the deal even further by handing over the public’s money in the form of tax abatements.

Despite so many community members testifying about Blackstone’s horrific human rights record and business practices–including its having been lambasted by the United Nations for its role in the global housing crisis–Council rolled out the red carpet to welcome them into our housing market. Even worse, Blackstone indicated that they intend to seek tax abatements for their trouble.

This is yet another example of Council weighing the business interest of a developer over the wellbeing of its constituents. It confirms our fear that Council’s purported “Housing for All” policies are a sham, meant only to placate voters while they continue to line corporations’ pockets with money lifted from our neighborhoods and schools.
For months, constituents flooded Columbus’s democratic channels with their fears over Blackstone coming into our city, providing written and spoken testimony at the University District Area Commission, the Development Commission, and finally, City Council. Of these bodies, only the Area Commission rejected the proposal, though City Council neglected to listen even to them.

Columbus DSA’s Housing Priority Campaign made it our responsibility to inform the public about Blackstone’s abysmal history and organize opportunities to speak out against them. We are so proud of the energy and tenacity the community supplied to our campaign. Columbus DSA will continue to oppose tax handouts for the rich so long as the working people of our city struggle to find housing that is affordable, dignified, and secure. We are sick of watching the working class get cut out of the deal. We are tired of seeing our schools gutted, our public services plundered, and our neighbors left to rot on the sidewalk. We are finished with the housing crisis being used as an excuse to build playgrounds for the wealthy instead of seeing our people safe. A bed for every person. A meal in every stomach. A city for every one of us. That is our future, and we are the ones to build it. Not Blackstone.

By Emil McDonald

On Saturday, July 22, 2023, fifty workers and community members rallied at San Francisco City Hall in solidarity with 340,000 UPS Teamsters. Since UPS walked away from the bargaining table earlier in the month, UPS workers had been busy preparing for a potential August 1 national strike with the potential to shut down 7 percent of U.S. GDP.

The tide had turned a day earlier, when UPS relented and agreed to return to the bargaining table. Just a few days later, on July 25, the union announced a tentative agreement (TA) for a new five-year contract. Members will be voting on whether to ratify the TA through August 22, and the strike deadline has been postponed. 

At the July 22 rally, Emil McDonald, a five-year UPS worker and member of Teamsters Local 315 in Richmond, CA, spoke about the changes that he saw in the union’s rank and file, and beyond, as a result of strike preparations. – The Editors

A UPS Teamster at the Local 315 “practice picket” in Richmond, July 20. (Photo: R. Marcantonio)

As many of you may know, on July 5th negotiations between the Teamsters and UPS broke down. UPS told our negotiating committee they had “nothing more to give.”  This is a company that recently paid more than $5 billion dollars in dividends to Wall Street and bought back $3.5 billion of its own stock so that executives and major shareholders could fatten their wallets. 

Not only do we know that UPS has a LOT more to give —- we’re gonna make sure they give it.  We’ve made it perfectly clear to UPS that if they can’t find the money to give our essential workers a living wage and reward some of the hardest working people in the country for the tens of billions of dollars we made them during the pandemic,  UPS executives will be putting their own company on strike and that profit faucet is gonna get shut off. 

Thank you all so much for being here and for supporting UPS Teamsters as we fight for a contract that will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers and bring historic change to our union.

The kind of change I’m talking about isn’t just union leadership that is willing to build a credible strike threat and go to the mat for our lowest-paid members. It is the experience of rank-and-file Teamsters put into motion, united with the community to win a good contract for ourselves. 

For the last few weeks, all over the country UPS Teamsters have been holding practice pickets outside of our hubs joined by DSA, PSL, Jobs with Justice, our friends and families–even some of our customers. 

Drivers I work with are asking me about these signs they keep seeing up out on road. In store windows, taped to peoples’ front doors—some have even taped the signs up inside their trucks. 

Your efforts are not going unnoticed. It is one thing to feel cheated or unappreciated as an individual worker. Everyone here has felt that and it sucks. But when you see that you are not alone and that you have brothers and sisters who are willing to fight with you and that the community has your backs — it can be a very powerful thing. 

The experience of banding together and fighting for something that’s right changes you. It cuts through all of the noise and the cultural divides that keep us powerless and disillusioned.  

A couple of Teamsters in my local — who to my knowledge had never attended a picket line before — came out to San Francisco this week to join academic workers at a rally at the UC Regents meeting.  This is the kind of change I’m talking about. Seeing yourself as part of a broader labor movement.  United we fight, divided we beg. 

Emil McDonald celebrates a successful practice picket with a co-worker (Photo: R. Marcantonio.)

Whatever happens between now and when we have a new UPS contract, the contract campaign over the last year has created hundreds if not thousands of new shop floor leaders in our union and given us experience organizing against one of the largest corporations in the United States.  This is something we will continue to build on in the coming years. Militant stewards will be born out of this fight.  Solidarity will be born out of this fight. Five years from now, when it’s time to negotiate the 2028 contract, we will be many times stronger and many times wiser from the start. 

And guess what?  It turns out maybe UPS does have something more to give than poverty wages. They must have checked their couch cushions and went to Coinstar because this week they reached out to our union requesting to go back to the table in an effort to avoid a strike.  

But when Sean O’Brien and our NorCal negotiators go back to the table next week they will not be alone.  They will be backed by the tens of thousands of Teamsters who attended practice pickets, 80,000 supporters who signed petitions demanding a living wage for part-time workers and the knowledge that our members — backed by our brothers and sisters in the labor movement and our communities —- are ready to strike if we have to to win what we deserve. 

Emil McDonald is a UPS Teamster and a member of Local 315 in Richmond, CA.

The delegation of the Houston chapter of the Democratic Socialists ofAmerica stands with the BDS Working Group in support of their proposed amendment to NPC Recommendation #8, “Make DSA an […]

The post HDSA for an Anti-Zionist DSA appeared first on Houston DSA.

For over a year, UPS Teamsters have been prepping for the largest private-sector contract fight this country has seen in decades – saving money for personal strike funds, signing pledge cards, and in more recent weeks, organizing practice pickets in the early morning hours outside of UPS facilities. UPS, meanwhile, repeatedly delayed the bargaining process by failing to come to the table in good faith and presenting workers with an inadequate contract. Following broken down negotiations mid-July, thousands of Teamsters and community supporters flocked to practice picket lines and began to seriously accelerate preparations for a nationwide strike.

After weeks of coordinated practice pickets and the increasing fear of a work stoppage, UPS was convinced to return to the bargaining table. On Tuesday July 25th, the Teamsters national negotiating committee announced a tentative agreement with UPS, subject to a vote of its membership which will begin August 3 and last until August 22. DSA stands in unflinching solidarity with the 350,000 UPS Teamsters whose tireless militancy gave their negotiating committee strong leverage throughout this fight.

Despite the narrative pushed by corporate media that the deal is entirely sealed, approval of this tentative agreement is entirely up to the rank-and-file to vote on, and Atlanta DSA commits to stand with workers no matter the outcome of this vote. The gains made in this tentative deal were only possible because of years of hard work and rank-and-file organizing on the ground, and the credible threat of a strike that would cost the company billions. Contrary to UPS’s narrative, it was worker power – not corporate benevolence – that forced UPS’s hands in making significant concessions like ending the two-tier wage system, protecting against forced overtime, securing air conditioning in delivery trucks, making MLK day a paid holiday, and more. Workers bravely organized to withhold their labor, hold down picket lines, and build meaningful community support for their efforts. For this all UPS Teamsters should be extremely proud, and we are proud to stand in solidarity with them through the duration of this fight until the last vote is cast and beyond!

Under capitalism, major companies like UPS are incentivized to maximize profits at all costs, at the expense of human safety and dignity. Both part-time and full-time UPS workers bore the brunt of the pandemic – risking their own lives to deliver essential medication and other goods to working people and families around the country. These workers on the front lines are the reason UPS brought in record breaking profits of $10 billion in 2021, and still, because of corporate greed, UPS CEO Carol Tomé takes home a larger salary in one day than the average UPS worker earns an entire year. DSA will always stand with workers fighting back against injustice and demanding their fair share — no matter whether Teamsters vote to accept or reject their TA. The UPS Teamsters have run a militant, fighting campaign that left a major company shaking in its boots. Their organizing will inspire workers everywhere to continue building power and resistance through their leverage to withhold their labor. Solidarity forever – when workers fight, we win!

This episode explores the growing alliance between the U.S. and the Indian far right, the various appearances of Hindutva (Hindu Nationalism)in US public life, anti-caste discrimination, and how Hinduism and socialism can be mutually informed. For more on this topic, check out – Hindus for Human Rights @hindusforhumanrights www.hindusforhumanrights.org – Sadhana Coalition of Progressive Hindus @sadhanahindus www.sadhana.org

The North New Jersey, Central New Jersey, and New York City Chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America stand in solidarity with former Journal Square Jollibee workers who filed a formal complaint to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after being illegally terminated earlier in 2023. We unequivocally support their demands for reinstatement, back pay, and an apology.

A group of nine workers at Jollibee, a popular Filipino fast food restaurant, were harassed, surveilled, and then terminated after management at the Journal Square store learned they were organizing for fairer working conditions. These workers had organized around a $3 wage increase, holiday pay, and improved working conditions, gaining the support and documented signatures of over 90% of the workers at their location in just a couple of weeks. After filing with the NLRB, the group launched the #Justice4JollibeeWorkersCampaign where they attempted to deliver their written demands to management on National Fried Chicken Day. This is one of the busiest and most demanding days of the year for fast food workers, who experience increasingly dangerous conditions and maltreatment from management during the rush.

As an internationally ubiquitous fast food chain set to open 500 stores in North America in the next five to seven years; Jollibee Food Corporation is valued at over $5B and made $3.2B worldwide in 2022. The workers who make this growth possible haven’t benefited from it. Management uses several tactics to keep their pockets lined, including wage theft, mistreatment, surveillance, chronic understaffing, and intentional misclassification and casualization of workers to deprive them of full-time benefits and pay. The #Justice4JollibeeWorkers campaign demands, at minimum, that Jollibee uphold its workers’ rights to organize at all stores, reinstate fired workers with back pay, and apologize publicly for their retaliation. They have received widespread community support from organized workers in New Jersey, including Pilipinos Organizing for Worker Empowerment and Rights (POWER).

As socialists, we believe that every worker has the right to organize, and that Jollibee’s behavior is unacceptable. We condemn the multinational company’s mistreatment and intimidation of their workforce, disproportionately made up of people of color and members of the Filipino labor diaspora. We applaud the former Journal Square workers for organizing to build power and have their voice heard on the job. The North and Central New Jersey as well as New York City DSA Chapters cover all NJ and NY Jollibee shops in our states’ most populated areas. We support the #Justice4JollibeeWorkers demands and will stand with Jollibee workers as they fight, and until they win.

Sign the #Justice4JollibeeWorkers petition against the Jollibee Foods Corporation here.

The post NNJ, CNJ, and NYC-DSA Stand in Solidarity with Illegally Terminated Jollibee Workers appeared first on Central NJ DSA.

UPS Teamsters are fighting for better pay, hours, and treatment on the job! If UPS doesn’t respond to workers’ demands before their contract expires on July 31, over 340,000 UPS workers are prepared to launch the largest strike in decades.

Show your support for UPS workers!

1. Do you know your UPS worker that brings packages to your work or to your home? Display this beautiful poster in your window to show your UPS worker and the community that you support their fight for a fair contract.

2. Join us next Friday, July 28 for our Strike Ready Fundraiser at the Gallatin Labor Temple! It will be an exciting night of live music to raise money for local UPS workers.

Featuring performances by:
STiLGONE
ART & FUNK COLLECTIVE
THREE PENNY RIOT

Suggested Donation $10

Donations will go to the DSA Labor Solidarity Fund, which is a national fund that supports local labor activity. Donations will support striking workers in Bozeman on this or future picket lines.

Happy red hot summer!

UPS Teamsters have voted to go on strike August 1 if the bosses do not agree to a fair contract. Join us Sunday, July 9, 2:00-3:30 PM at the Gallatin Labor Temple (422 E Mendenhall) for a discussion about why workers go on strike and how to support UPS workers.

Suggested materials to review:

• The Chicago Teachers Strike Is a Fight for the Common Good (Article)
• Create Havoc Around our System (CHAOS) method (Video)
• Teamsters Deliver The Goods 2  (Podcast)

Other upcoming dates:

• Thursday July 13, 6:30 PM, Housing Working Group (1820 W Lincoln)
• Sunday July 16, 2:00 PM, Labor Working Group (422 E Mendenhall)
• Thursday July 20, 6:30 PM, Housing Working Group (1820 W Lincoln)
• Sunday July 23, 2:00 PM, Labor Working Group (422 E Mendenhall)
• Friday, July 28, Strike Ready Fundraiser at the Gallatin Labor Temple to raise money for a strike fund to support UPS workers if they need to strike
• Sunday, August 13, 2:00 PM, New DSA Member Orientation

Solidarity Forever

By Jonathan Martin

On August 4, 1997, 185,000 members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) led by president Ron Carey began a fifteen-day strike that would cost the United Parcel Service (UPS) over $600 million. They won 10,000 full-time positions with higher salaries and benefits, and preserved Teamster’ pensions from UPS takeover.

John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO at the time, said of the strike, “You could make a million house calls, run a thousand television commercials, stage a hundred strawberry rallies, and still not come close to doing what the UPS strike did for organizing.”

On August 1, 2023, UPS Teamsters, now numbering 340,000, are ready to strike again if the company refuses to meet their demands. In an economy increasingly reliant on drivers to deliver online orders, and a logistics sector awash in COVID profits, the leverage of such a large strike is unmistakable. This would be nearly twice as large as the powerful 1997 strike; in fact, it would be the largest strike in the United States since the 1959 strike of around 500,000 steel workers.

Burned by concessions, Teamsters elect new leaders

Yet just five years ago, militant action by the Teamsters was off the table. In 2018, when a weak UPS contract was brought to the membership by James P. Hoffa’s bargaining team, they rejected it. Invoking an obscure provision in the IBT charter, Hoffa Jr. forced the contract through, angering many Teamsters. 

Especially contentious was the creation of a “two-tier” system for drivers. New full-time positions that split time between driving and warehouse work would earn less pay overall, and have no protections from overtime abuse. Teamsters say that in practice these workers largely act as delivery drivers, earning less pay for the same work as others. (This video offers an in-depth explanation.)

For many Teamsters, the overriding of their vote rejecting the contract was the final straw. Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) had been organizing for decades to reform the union and elect a more militant and democratic leadership, and in November 2021 they saw success. Teamsters United, a coalition made up of Hoffa critics and TDU members, successfully elected fourth-generation Teamster Sean O’Brien as president, and TDU leader Fred Zuckerman as its secretary-treasurer.

O’Brien has promised militancy and a win for the Teamsters, no matter what it takes.

Teamsters pose an array of demands

This year, the “two-tier” system implemented in 2018 is a key bargaining issue. Removing the so-called “22.4” category for drivers would see thousands of full-time workers get an immediate bump in pay, bringing them in line with the other full-time drivers doing the same job.

The Teamsters also seek to raise the pay of part-timers, who often earn little more than minimum wage. In 1997, part-time work was a key issue that resonated with the public, and became a rallying cry for the striking workers. In an economy driven by gig and part-time work, this demand could once again be key to winning the support of the public and could galvanize demands by workers in other sectors.

Another key issue is forced overtime, where workers are required to work a sixth day of the week (called the “six-day punch”). The Teamsters also want to address the driving conditions of workers. Many UPS trucks lack air conditioning units, hospitalizing workers during heat waves. 

These are some of the top national demands. However, the national contract only entered bargaining 3 weeks ago, as regional “supplements” to that contract are still being negotiated. (Currently, Oakland’s Local 70 and Zuckerman’s former Louisville local, the massive Local 89, are in the two regions that have not yet settled supplements.)

UPS has already begun to cry poor, making negative predictions about revenue in an attempt to undermine the Teamsters position. In reality, however, profits at UPS continue to grow.

According to data from TDU, UPS ships around 20 million packages each day, and made $13.8 billion in profit in 2022. It dwarfs its competitors, controlling nearly two-fifths (37%) of all revenue from package delivery services in the US. The company plans to reward its investors with $8.3 billion in dividends and buybacks 2023. 

A crucial link in the supply chain, UPS moves 6% of the United States’ GDP each year. A strike could cost UPS $185 million a day. 

Solidarity Delivers the Goods

In the past year, East Bay DSA and the broader community have stood in solidarity with thousands of workers on strike. This includes public education workers in Oakland, and last year’s strike of 48,000 academic workers at the University of California. 

UPS Teamsters supported both those strikes, turning out to the picket line at Global Family Elementary in solidarity with OEA. Many honored loading dock pickets at UC, helping build the power of UAW’s strike. 

The Teamsters’ contract fight is already mobilizing UPS workers in every state in the country, but if they are forced to strike, it could galvanize workers across the U.S. in the way that the West Virginia teachers’ strike did for education workers nationally in 2018. The current struggle represents a huge opportunity for national organizing both in the broader labor movement, and for community supporters here in the East Bay. 

We can stand in solidarity by contributing to organizing funds, educating other workers about the working conditions and demands of UPS Teamsters, and preparing for a possible strike on August 1. These networks not only strengthen the power of contract fights and strikes across union lines, but represent important linkages as unions like the Teamsters seek to unionize Amazon.

DSA members and their communities are getting strike ready with UPS, and helping strengthen the wave of labor militancy sweeping across the country. Many have already pledged to support a strike. From Trader Joes and Starbucks, to the Teachers’ Unions, to UPS, our solidarity is critical in the working class’s fight against the bosses and billionaire class.

Add your name to DSA’s pledge to support a strike.

Jonathan Martin is a member of East Bay DSA. 

In January, Cambridge police killed Arif Sayed Faisal, a 20-year-old UMass student experiencing a mental health crisis. Despite multiple protests and community outrage in the 5 months since the shooting, neither Cambridge Police (CPD) nor the established Police Review and Advisory Board (PRAB) have taken any concrete action to address the situation.

On February 14th, CPD determined that “based on all of the information that has been reviewed so far, the department has not identified any egregious misconduct or significant policy, training, equipment, or disciplinary violations.” Perhaps this is true – but this pronouncement comes from the very party whose actions are under scrutiny. Why should we accept it at face value?

Decades ago, the PRAB ceded its power back to CPD – the very organization PRAB is supposed to monitor! The PRAB, instead of investigating allegations of police misconduct themselves, decided to let the “Cambridge Police Department conduct investigations on behalf of the board.” This is ridiculous on its face. It should go without saying that Justice  without impartiality is not justice. But if the history of US police violence over the last decade has taught us anything, it’s that the police cannot be trusted to police themselves. 

Per current ordinanc language, the PRAB is hand-picked by our City Manager – who is themself not elected. It is past time for an elected PRAB – not one that is 3 steps removed from the voters and that has given up on its job. If we want any transparency or accountability from CPD, we must have a review board that is (1) independent from CPD and (2) accountable to our community, not an unelected bureaucrat.

On May 22nd, City Councillor Zondervan proposed a policy order that would do just that – by putting the question of electing the PRAB on the November ballot.

This would be an opportunity for our community – a community that has shown its disappointment in the lack of police accountability and transparency in our city – to have input on police disciplinary procedures.

The process around this policy order – Order #96 – was an embarrassment to democracy. After Zondervan introduced the order, typically it would have been discussed, debated, delayed (if councillors wanted more time for consideration), and ultimately, voted on. Instead, Councillor Toner did something virtually unprecedented: he motioned immediately to end debate and move straight to a vote.

His motion passed with a 6-3 vote, with Councillors Zondervan and Nolan, as well as Mayor Siddiqui, dissenting. (It’s worth pointing out that besides Zondervan, the other two dissenting voices presumably voted no because they wanted to speak on the order.)

Councillor Toner’s platform lists “promoting civil and inclusive dialogue” as his number one campaign priority. It was anything but civil and inclusive for Councillor Toner to end debate before his colleagues had had a chance to speak. His motion was disrespectful and anti-democratic, and it flew in the face of his own stated highest principles. Disgraceful.

The other five councillors who supported the motion to end debate are also to blame. It’s one thing to disagree with the proposal, but it’s another altogether to stifle debate on it. What were they afraid of? 

Once that motion passed, Order #96 was voted on and failed 1-8, with Zondervan as the lone “aye” vote. Many councillors expressed that their “no” votes were based not on the content of the order itself but the spontaneity of its introduction and the lack of prior discussion on it. But these are the same councillors who voted to close discussion!

If these councillors had wanted more time to consider the order before open debate, there is a separate option for that: City Councillors have the right to delay a vote on a proposed order until the next council meeting. This is a commonly used tool among councillors to ensure they can make informed decisions before taking votes. That six of our nine councillors chose to close discussion outright rather than exercise this option has no justification. All six of these councillors say they want to do everything they can in the aftermath of what happened to Faisal, but when given the chance to discuss legislation that’s popular with their constituents and could have actually made a difference, they abruptly abandoned those commitments.

When they did so, they also abandoned their commitment to listen to their constituents. In fact, the idea of a democratically elected PRAB was conceived not by Zondervan but by a group of constituents who asked him to propose the order.

This episode was a gross miscarriage of democracy and showed a disturbing disconnect between the City Council and their constituents – the working-class Cambridge community. The order’s failure shows that the council is not listening to the growing movement of people demanding justice for Faisal and accountability from the police, which is itself beyond disheartening, and the manner in which the bill failed is equally, if not more, infuriating. 

The Council’s redundant policy rules forbid any councillor from reintroducing this legislation this cycle, meaning no one will be able to propose this order until 2024. Cambridge won’t have the option to vote on whether we want an elected PRAB in 2023.   With this shameful, anti-democratic vote, the Council has determined that the voters can’t be trusted to decide what police accountability looks like – despite the complete inaction and lack of transparency surrounding Faisal’s murder. 

I hope the voters will keep this in mind as we elect our council this November – and that we replace these vanguards of the status quo with a city council that will uphold democracy and fight for police accountability. As proud socialists, we know that civilian monitoring and investigatory oversight of the police is not the end of the road. We know that the only thing that will stop police brutality is defunding and abolishing the police. But we have to start somewhere. We can start by watching and recommending discipline.