DSA Statement on Israeli-Palestinian Violence
DSA Statement from the National Political Committee
October 7th
DSA is steadfast in expressing our solidarity with Palestine. The past few day’s events are a direct result of Israel’s apartheid regime—a regime that receives billions in funding from the United States. End the violence. End the Occupation. Free Palestine.
We unequivocally condemn the killing of all civilians. It is imperative for international human rights law to be respected. But we cannot forget that the Israeli state has systematically denied Palestinians the right to self-determination for decades.
This was not unprovoked. For over 60 years, Palestinians have faced ethnic cleansing, torture, bombings, and housing demolitions. Gaza is still under a blockade. As socialists, we must act.The #NotOnOurDime coalition campaign—advanced by NYC-DSA member & NY Assemblymember @ZohranKMamdani—provides an effective model for pressuring elected officials to stop providing financial support to the Israeli state.
Take to the streets to join a protest for peace and against funding the Israeli state. Find out what actions local DSA and YDSA chapters are taking and join in.
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Statement of Solidarity with Palestine
DSA LONG BEACH fully supports and stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their struggle for liberation from military occupation, colonialist oppression, and the brutal apartheid system imposed... Read more »
The post Statement of Solidarity with Palestine appeared first on DSA-LB.
Salt Lake DSA Statement in Support of Palestinian Liberation
“When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.” – Frantz Fanon
The Salt Lake Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America stands in unwavering solidarity with the people of Palestine in their decades long fight for national liberation and urges the people of Utah and the United States to stand up against settler-colonial, Zionist apartheid.
The Palestinian people have been held in apartheid since the establishment of the so-called State of Israel and the Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”) that followed. Millions of Palestinians have been removed from their homes, denied their basic human rights, and killed when they stood up against this tyranny upheld by the Israeli occupation. Israel is, per its constitution, an ethnostate, and it is not terrorism or anti-semitism to fight against this injustice.
The Palestinian people have shown us that no matter what walls Israeli forces may try to build to push the indigenous peoples out of their homeland, those walls can and will come down. We see this with the Palestinian people using bulldozers to tear down the fences surrounding Gaza, we see this every time Palestinians and their allies stand up in the face of violence, and we see this every time a smile crosses a Palestinian’s face. The Palestinian people are resilient people, and it is our duty as Socialists to stand with them. Apartheid structures will come down, and we will stand with the Palestinian people in their fight to tear down every structure used to uphold the apartheid they face.
Anti-Zionism is a principled Socialist position, and one that Salt Lake DSA takes seriously. Some of our members have worked with the DSA BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group and have relatives from Palestine themselves. It is also important for us because we are the only DSA chapter in Utah. Utah has its own history of settler colonialism, and much of the tactics and rhetoric modern day Israel uses in their attempt to eliminate the indigenous Palestinians, the European Mormon settlers used against the indigenous Ute, Paiute, Goshute, Shoshone, Dine (Navajo), and Timpanogos peoples. It is an issue personal to us, and to our history as a multi-racial, socialist organization in Utah.
From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!
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North NJ DSA Calls for Senator Bob Menendez’s Resignation
North NJ DSA Calls For Sen. Bob Menendez To Resign
For Immediate Release: September 27th 2023
North NJ DSA calls for Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to resign from the office of U.S. Senate, amid incredible charges of bribery in exchange for political influence. While the Justice Department continues to investigate these charges of bribery the court of public opinion Menendez brushes off is not just one of reaction but one where cases can be made to envision a New Jersey and a United States without warhawks and criminals like Bob Menendez. The Senator’s anti-worker, imperialist, and undemocratic vision for the United States is demonstrated by his conduct as well as his record in Congress; as his vision is one that is reactionary and ruthless, one with allegiances to Big Pharma, Israeli apartheid, and the special interests that have consistently slipped the not-so-proverbial bars of gold into his pockets for too many years. We affirm our call for Menendez to resign is, in fact, politically motivated.This is a moment New Jersey can stand up and demand Menendez step down and in so doing build a better New Jersey, a better nation, and a better world.
But let’s be clear: New Jersey’s corrupt political culture of party bosses that serve for-profit interests is what got us here. Learn about our work to dismantle this relationship right now, on picket lines of auto workers and nurses in our region.
Here is why we’re motivated to build a New Jersey free from Menendez and interests that keep him in power
In a state with over 70% support for Medicare for All, Menendez has long stood in the way of health justice, refusing to support this popular policy because he prioritizes the revenue of his corporate financial backers. Aligned with other reactionary Democrats, Menendez takes in huge amounts of money from the pharmaceutical industry. He has even forced the Democrats to weaken Medicare drug-pricing reforms, ensuring that more people suffer and die so that profits keep flowing.
In 2022, when Roe v. Wade fell to a rogue Supreme Court, we marched on his office in Jersey City to demand he codify Roe and protect abortion access for all. His resistance to stand up for bodily autonomy of Americans may now come to his aid, as members of a rogue Supreme Court also have engaged in similar acts of bribery and may now determine the Senator’s legal outcome.
Senator Menendez also notably belongs to the pro-war faction of the Democratic Party, and as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he has supported the build-up to a dangerous new Cold War with China. He opposed President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal in 2015, a rare effort to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East. His avid support for sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela harm ordinary people more than any dictators he claims to target. Menendez’s slavish devotion to Israel’s ongoing genocidal oppression of the Palestinian people knows no limits, as he answers to AIPAC–an organization that supports MAGA Republican fascists–while working with Marco Rubio and Mitch McConnell to suppress the American right to protest with the sweeping “Combating BDS Act,” a shameful throwback to the McCarthy era.
His failure to sign on as co-sponsor for a Green New Deal, the Raise the Wage Act, his vote against stopping weapons to Saudi Arabia, and decades of votes to hand more and more money to the Department of Defense for war abroad make Menendez one of the worst Democrats in championing progressive policy in the Senate.
This is only a partial list of Senator Menendez’s real crimes–his sacrificing of lives in New Jersey and elsewhere for the sake of the powerful interests he has always served and protected. We reject Menendez’s vision for the world and for working people everywhere. We also condemn his installing his son as heir to a seat that belongs to the working class of North Jersey.
North Jersey DSA believes a better New Jersey, U.S. and a better world are possible– one without Bob Menendez in office.
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The UAW Strike with Jane Slaughter
The historic strike of the United Auto Workers against the Big Three US automakers is inspiring new hope for the labor movement. I sat down with Jane Slaughter, a founder and long-time editor of Labor Notes, to discuss the ongoing strike, what it will take to win, and how the strike was made possible by a small opposition caucus defeating the entrenched UAW bureaucracy to take leadership of the union earlier this year. I then speak with Manya Janowitz, a Seattle DSA member and organizer with UNITE-HERE Local 8, about the strike and contract battle at Homegrown, the Seattle-based sandwich chain. The discussion with Jane Slaughter references her recent article, “No Reform Caucus, No UAW Strike,” published in The Call on September 20th. This podcast is only possible due to the generous monthly contributions of Seattle DSA members and supporters who fund my part-time salary as the chapter’s Communications Organizer alongside vital organizing work. To sustain this podcast, and our wider communications work, please become a monthly contributor at seattledsa.org/podcast.
Stand Up with the UAW: Big 3 Strike and New York Postdocs
After Friday’s midnight deadline, the United Auto Workers went on strike against the Big 3 automakers of Ford, GM, and Stellantis, marking the first time in history the UAW has gone on strike against all three auto companies. As of this recording, 12,700 auto workers have walked off the job at three plants: a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, a GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri, and a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio, and there are potentially many more plants to follow. While here in New York City, postdoctoral workers with the UAW at Columbia University and Mt. Sinai Hospital are fighting to transform the working conditions for postdocs in Higher Ed. Tonight, we are joined in-studio with Brandon Mancilla, Director of UAW Region 9A, and Chris Voila, an auto worker and UAW member, to hear the latest about this historic auto strike. We will also hear from PJ and Andrea, postdocs with the Columbia Postdoctoral Workers Union and Sinai Postdoctoral Organizing Committee, on their respective contract fights and how postdoc workers are ready, if necessary, to strike.
Follow SPOC-UAW at @spocuaw (Twitter) and https://sinaipostdocunion.org/
And CPW-UAW at @CPWUAW (Twitter), cpw_uaw (IG), and https://columbiapostdocunion.org/