The Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) and the International Committee of DSA extends our solidarity to the University professors of ANDES-SN (National Union of University Professors), the administrative workers of Fasubra (Federation of Technical-Administrative Workers Unions in Public Higher Education Institutions of Brazil), and students of UNE (National Union of Students) who are currently on strike to increase the funding for public universities in Brazil. Professors at Brazilian public universities have faced a 40% decrease in their real wages since the Rousseff PT government was couped in 2016. This is on top of the austerity that has been imposed on the universities that has been cutting essential services for students and faculty alike. President Lula was elected, with the support of many professors and students, on the promise that he would support public education and end the funding cuts implemented by the neo-liberal and neo-fascist Bolsonaro administration. We stand with our courageous comrades and ask President Lula to make good on his campaign promises and negotiate with the striking unions in good faith, to ensure that the Brazilian public university system serves the working class.

We are engaged in the same struggle against the austerity our administrations and state governments impose upon our universities and other public services. They will cut and cut and cut, unless someone fights back and it has to be us. We must build a movement of university staff and students marching hand in hand to ensure that our universities and public institutions are able to serve the working class. We hope to emulate what you have built in Brazil and replicate your upcoming victories!

We also want to thank ANDES-SN specifically for their recent statement in support of the ongoing student protests against the Genocide in Gaza and the Zionist Apartheid regime of Israel. It is inspiring to us to know that we have the support of the international working class in our firm stance against our institution’s complicity in the mass atrocities that have been carried out both in this year and over the entirety of the 76 years of the settler colonial project of Israel’s existence. It will be through the mass action of the international working class that we free Palestine and put an end to the oppression of the Palestinian people. We are honored by your support and we will continue to fight for a free Palestine with our comrades here in the states. 

Solidarity Forever!

Solidariedade para Sempre!

The post Solidarity from DSA International Committee and YDSA to Striking Professors, Administrators, and Students in Brazil appeared first on DSA International Committee.

On this day in 1970, four Kent State students were murdered while protesting Nixon’s escalation of the Vietnamese war into Cambodia. This massacre further inflamed the anti-war protests on campuses across the nation which saw 4 million students strike for peace.

Today, we see history repeat itself with students occupying their campuses with the demand to cut funding to Israel’s apartheid regime as it slaughters ten of thousands and dislocates millions.

Today, we see that the leadership of the state and country has learned nothing as it continues to violently crush student protests while increasing funding for weapons of war being turned on the people of Gaza.

Today, we see Joe Biden has learned nothing from this experience as he smears student protestors and inflames violence against them by calling for order and obedience on college campuses

We stand with the student movement and demand an end to this genocide. We must continue fighting until the Palestinian people are free, just as the students of the 70s pushed on until Nixon was left with no choice but to sue for peace.

The post From Vietnam to Palestine: The Power of Student Solidarity appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

In Houston, we know that we are not alone in our struggle for economic, social, and housing justice. We are  not alone in the struggle for liberation from capitalism, colonialism, […]

The post May Day Statement appeared first on Houston DSA.

(This statement is from April, 24, 2024) We stand with unwavering solidarity with the students in Rice University, the University of Houston, Columbia University, and all campuses, as they demand […]

The post Student Encampment Solidarity Statement appeared first on Houston DSA.

(This post is from November 8, 2023) For the last 11 weeks, our members have been on the ground talking to Houstonians all over the city about the importance of […]

The post Houston voters overwhelmingly pass Proposition A! appeared first on Houston DSA.

“Half of recent US inflation due to high corporate profits, report finds” - That’s one of the many headlines which have noted the skyrocketing cost of living for US consumers since the 2020 pandemic. Utilities, gas, and other basic necessities have all massively increased in price since 2020. Since 2022 the average American pays 25% more for groceries alone. Of course most workers don’t need a headline or a statistic to tell them the obvious - their ability to live an affordable, prosperous, and dignified life has been hugely eroded in recent years. One of the areas worst hit by this ‘greedflation’ is that of housing. Already the largest single expense for the average American, Idaho workers are especially hard hit as places like Boise and Idaho Falls see record growth, and multinational corporations rush in to snap up properties expected to earn them a profit.

The burden of corporate profiteering is all too real for tenants at the 208 Apartments in downtown Boise. The 208 was recently purchased by Primrose Morse, LLC., a massive corporation based in California. Primrose wasted no time in exploiting their new property: raising rent by 25%, increasing laundry and parking fees, and issuing eviction threats to tenants on the strictest basis possible. No doubt the executives at Primrose expected the 208 tenants to quietly continue to fork over their paychecks to line their own pockets. Unfortunately for them that has not been the case.

Since March tenants at the 208 have been fighting back. Working to organize a tenants’ union, Boise DSA members have been gathering complaints from residents in order to eventually present management (Redstone Residential, Inc.) with demands. Potential demands by tenants include: having management fulfill maintenance requests in a timely manner, improved garbage disposal, and better access to utilities. Black mold is nearly universal, and in the past management has simply painted over black mold when reported. Other tenants do not have drinkable water and have had heater repairs delayed for months into the winter. Management has consistently denied or delayed their response to these problems, but has not hesitated to pressure tenants to renew their leases up to 8 months in advance of termination dates. Tenants are fed up and ready to fight back!

Efforts to resist the exploitation of working tenants at the 208 have just begun to pick up steam. While anger with Primrose and Redstone Residential is near universal, the success of the union in demanding better housing conditions and affordability is not guaranteed. The organizing committee of the 208 Tenants’ Union will fight for these demands no matter what happens, but the difficulties of fighting against management have demonstrated how badly Idahoans need an organized tenant class across the state. As the only existing tenants’ union in Idaho, we are limited in how much pressure we can bring to bear against our corporate landlords.

If more tenants organize in Boise and across Idaho our collective power can grow exponentially. By meeting and sharing problems with fellow tenants we can build a real community of tenants and renters in Idaho, a community which will have the strength to stand up and fight back against housing corporations endlessly working to take more and give less. With enough people fighting together we can build an Idaho with affordable, dignified, and secure housing for all!

If you or someone you know is interested in organizing a tenants’ union contact us at organize208@gmail.com or @organize.208

Hello readers, I am writing again about the housing struggle in Boise. As each successive generation becomes more unlikely to ever afford a house, let alone rent an apartment, I find it eternally pressing.

Recently, our state passed HB 545 ending section 8 housing regulations which mandated an amount of housing go to vouchers in the low income program. In addition, the bill also ends the $30 cap on application fees, which means landlords are more capable of accepting applications from people they have little intention of taking as tenants in order to make a quick buck. Meanwhile, I myself have known several people who have had to accept rent assistance from the state. To clarify, all landlords are no longer mandated to comply with any programs regulating how they price their rental properties, there will be no application fee caps, and rental properties that are condemned will no longer require the landlord to return the deposit to tenants.

It is worth noting that there is a sizable population in this state which can hardly afford rentals. The burden continues to get placed on everyone who pays taxes, although our tax rate is flat. This is patently bourgeois in every conceivable manner. First, the flat tax disproportionately affects the poorest earners, where 30% of 1,000 dollars may be less than 30% of 100,000 dollars, but the net is that one person has 700 dollars after taxes and the other 70,000. Second, the bill’s language explicitly states that this deregulation applies to “residential property” owners. Who are those people, exactly?

From the “mom and pop landlord” (and why should we care if the landlords are big or small, self-made or not?) to the massive complexes such as mine, we have a broad class of landlords who control an ever-increasing amount of the available housing in Boise. Now, with section 8 vouchers effectively optional, landlords can choose their profit margins over actually housing people, further proving that they do not provide anything of value so much as control it, and leverage it against everybody else. Why would a landlord choose section 8 housing besides maybe the opportunistic landlord looking to get “the rest of potential renters?” Given the cost of living in Boise being 5% higher than the national average, with groceries being more expensive than average and houses running for half a million, this legislation is sure to cause a spike in homelessness and also of people leaving the state. Further complicating things is the opportunism of real estate companies and landlords in a time when the housing supply needs to add ~2800 houses in order to meet the demand, and 2000 of those need to be affordable for people who can’t pay more than $600 for rent. Forget “political refugees” (i.e. affluent out-of-staters coming in to save money and finally start their own businesses,) we’re going to have “economic refugees.”

Why does it seem like our legislators are better at passing bills depriving people of housing, stripping trans people of basic dignities, or general culture wars/identity politics, than they are at fixing all the roads, ending the grocery tax, or simply incentivizing working people to even stay here? I predict Idaho becoming a state with one of the lowest working class populations over the next few decades, and what reason do I have not to? Just two years ago I got a job that started me at 8 dollars an hour. With my first promotion, it only went up by two dollars. When rent is around 1000 dollars a month around the valley? I can’t be expected to want to remain in this state — and there are thousands like me.

It’s ironic that people don’t want Idaho to become “another California,” while our legislators actively try to turn this state into a city like Anaheim, which should be known not just for attractions like Disneyland, but also a white, upper class commune resulting from mid-to-late 20th century white flights out of the Deep South.

But I do not mean to instill feelings of hopelessness in the readers, so much as just anger. Thankfully, there are plenty of things we working Idahoans can do collectively — but nothing is ever as easy as just doing it. To this point, might I recommend not merely “voting correctly,” but actually taking matters into our own hands through initiatives like a tenants’ union.

The purpose of the tenants’ union is to take a medium-to-large scale rental property and organize the majority of tenants to demand improved amenities and resist rent increases, which consistently reduces costs of rent. Naturally, the landlords would oppose this wholesale. Why provide things like actually good Internet (or Internet at all,) gas and electric, or even affordable housing when they can keep twisting the knife so they can afford all their pleasures you should be able to afford, all while giving you a shabby box with few amenities to live in? Anyone (and I mean possibly even Joe Normal next door) with a good credit score can take out a loan to acquire a small property and take advantage of tenants, and some even make enough money from this that they can become larger scale landlords. They feed on your labor, and the biggest benefit they can sell you is not having a mortgage, because if you can’t afford the housing, you are simply evicted with haste.

In this capitalist world, the landlord brings less value to the table than even the employer who squanders the workplace. Collectively, as all employers own the workplaces, so too do the landlords have a monopoly on rentals. Publicly-owned housing would solve so many problems and yet we do not have it, because the [establishment] politicians are not our friends and would rather stack a bunch of boulders at the Rhodes Skate Park overpass than house the increasing homeless population.

When the politicians says “property owners” or even something as clear as “landlords,” you should take what they says seriously, because they are not talking about your friend, but the tick that sucks off some of your life force in exchange for you not freezing during the winter. Some consolation prize that is!

Evict the landlords, consider getting into touch with myself or others actively trying to organize tenant unions at their apartment complexes, and may the fight for the world that we built end with it actually belonging to us.

In late March and early April, governor Brad Little signed into law three bills, all of which directly legislate and dictate the ways that transgender Idahoans are able to live their lives.

H.B. 421 redefines ‘men’ and ‘women’ as biological facts, that men are those who produce or should be able to produce sperm, that women are those who produce or should be able to produce eggs, and that any intersex person also fits into one of those categories as assigned by their doctors, regardless of the chromosomes that person has. It also equates gender with sex, defining them as one and the same, a definition that goes completely against the current scientific consensus.

H.B. 538 allows the discrimination of trans individuals by not compelling governmental (including teachers in public schools) workers to use pronouns or language that contradicts someone’s assigned gender at birth.

H.B. 668 stops gender affirming care, which is life saving in some cases, from being covered by Medicaid. Sally (alias), a trans woman from Caldwell, told the Idaho Capital Sun that had she not started utilizing gender affirming care, she would’ve been found “as a suicide statistic.”

As well as those recently passed into law, H.B. 71 was passed in April of last year bans care, medication, and surgery for transgender youth. Despite an ongoing suit in the Supreme Court against the state of Idaho, this law was allowed by the Court to go into effect.

The question then is how does this affect the trans community and individuals of Idaho? To answer this I conducted an anonymous survey to gauge not only how legislation would hurt trans individuals, but also the experiences in general of living in Idaho. Idaho is consistently rated by the ACLU and other sources as a high-risk state to live in for transgender adults, and actively dangerous to live in for transgender youth.

The survey respondents were in total thirteen people, ranging in location from Boise and Nampa to Pocatello and Cottonwood. Those who filled out the survey listed their gender identities as trans women, men, agender, nonbinary, and “none”.

It must be stated that this survey was only able to cover gender identity as a metric. Race and class are both incredibly impactful with how someone is treated in the United States, and one cannot separate aspects of class when talking about gender just as one cannot separate aspects of class when talking about race.

All participants rated on a five point scale the danger of living as a trans person in this state, with five being the safest. Most respondents rated Idaho a three, citing fears like not knowing if spaces “are actually safe or not”, facing harassment if they are not viewed as cis-passing, and that the state itself is “trying to systematically destroy us.”

When asked about their political orientations, all participants were decidedly left with their politics. Political ideologies ranged from “Marxist”, “anarchist” and “communist” to “Green Party”, “leftist” and “democratic socialist”.

The idea of being trans also cannot be removed from politics, as one participant stated, “being trans itself is a radical act.” And it is - transness is first and foremost a recognition that the system we are born into is not only imperfect but systemically flawed. American culture at large and capitalism specifically is a system of rigid binaries and biological essentialism that demands to be perpetuated and have those binaries placed onto all people at birth. Being trans then is the rejection of that system entirely. Transness lies within the framework that, to make the world better, to make your body better, is to destroy the notions that we come to accept as normal and unable to be changed.

Other answers included that “I have to be leftist to fight for my right to be alive”, that “it’s easy to recognize that me and my politics have to be interconnected” and that leftism is “more than performative politics. It’s about taking action.”

The legislation that was recently passed then would impact not only trans people in Idaho, but all vulnerable communities susceptible to discrimination and hate. This legislation makes it so that it’s harder for those communities to get “access to care that I have desperately wanted my entire life [...] a bill like H.B. 668 makes that dream feel like I may never grasp it”, to make it “harder to work, live, and reside in Idaho” and to be “forced back into the closet.” This legislation not only allows for discrimination, but signs it into law, making underrepresented people and groups that much less represented, signing away not only their rights but their personhood as well.

There are spaces, though imperfect, spaces for trans people to come together in community and fight for a world that takes care of them. Places like “leftist organizations such as the YDSA [Young Democratic Socialists of America] and DSA [Democratic Socialists of America]”, “DIY music scenes” and online spaces.

This survey shows that the problems of trans people in this country, the unique hardships they face, are consistently under attack by those in power. For a liberated working class, there must also be a liberation of all unique sectors of it. And the liberation of trans people begins in community organizations like the Boise DSA and YDSA at Boise State.

It is vital that an ideological throughline for liberation be found within the community, and to stand forever with all those oppressed by the parasitic capitalist class to work and fight together for a world worth living in.