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YDSA stands in solidarity with the student protesters of Bangladesh who are facing brutal repression and terror from their government. Student protests began at the start of July against a quota reserving much of the civil service to descendants of veterans of the Liberation War. This system unfairly benefits supporters of the Awami League, Bangladesh’s authoritarian ruling party, and contributes to systematic governmental corruption. Through strikes and demonstrations, the students brought their schools and universities to a standstill. In response, the government has struck back with horrific violence. More than a dozen people have been murdered by police and armed supporters of the government with hundreds more injured including children. The government calls for calm while it accuses the students of treason and cuts off internet access. Yet the students of Bangladesh have continued their protests in spite of the regime of repression. As internationalists, the YDSA stands with the struggle of the oppressed worldwide. Across the world, the youth are leading struggles against common systems of exploitation. The students of Bangladesh are an inspiration to us in our united struggles

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DSA Cleveland’s Public Pressure Non-Campaign Activity for Trans Rights was passed unanimously at the February 2024 general meeting. The “non campaign activity” was NOT a priority project of Cleveland DSA, therefore it did not have an elected leadership body and other privileges of being a priority. From February-April 2024 DSA sent members to make public comment at meetings where the restrictions on trans health care were being considered, including the Ohio Health Advisory Board, Ohio Department of Health and Department of Mental Health. DSA members also attended a public meeting of the Cuyahoga County Board of Health to bring up our concerns about anti-trans legislation. We made 345 phone calls and sent countless emails and public comment submissions. We engaged 58 DSA members and community members in this work. We also worked directly with Abortion Fund of Ohio on an education event. At the end of the authorization period for this activity, it was ultimately the lower Ohio courts that opted to block and stall the implementation of HB 68, and interest in mass action over the issue died down.

We wanted to host a large scale demonstration occupying the Cuyahoga County Department of Health, this also did not happen. We hosted a smaller demonstration in the Cuyahoga County Board of Health parking lot where we distributed literature to the workers there. The culmination of the work on this project is a plan for a Trans Liberation Priority Project. While the authors of this proposal believe it holds untapped potential, they did not recommend it for approval due to a lack of developed leaders ready to take on the four elected roles; legislative researcher, project administrator, comms coordinator and membership coordinator. DSA new members and observers should note that although we do not have ongoing work in every issue-area we have experience and projects prepared for prioritization when chapter capacity and external circumstances align, we are ready and we need your help.

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DSA International Committee applauds the courage and determination of the Kenyan people in their tireless struggle against the imposition of the now-withdrawn 2024 Finance Bill. Amid fierce state repression, including the murders of as many as 200 protesters by police forces, thousands continue to mobilize, demanding the resignation of President William Ruto.

Protests against the 2024 Finance Bill, which promised to intensify an increasingly dire cost-of-living crisis, have united Kenyans of all ages, genders, and ethnicities. The Communist Party of Kenya describes the situation as, “not merely about an imposed IMF finance bill, [but] a potent manifestation of the deep-seated inequalities that plague Kenya. Millions of our people languish in abject poverty, while a stinking corrupt elite flaunts their ill-gotten wealth with shameless opulence.”

Austerity economics continue to ravage the working poor, unemployed, and landless in cities and rural areas all over the world. When we speak of austerity and neoliberalism, we lay responsibility first and foremost at the feet of the United States, which holds greater institutional power over the international financial system than any other nation on Earth. And it is US imperialism which guarantees, through force and subversion, the conditions necessary to reproduce austerity for billions across the world, generation after generation. Kenya is but the latest site of resistance to the mercenary demands of the US-led capitalist world system.

President Ruto’s government is fighting for its survival on multiple fronts. As Kenyans vehemently reject the draconian proposals of the 2024 Finance Bill, Ruto faces widespread domestic opposition and a substantive legal challenge for contributing more than one thousand police officers to a US-backed invasion of Haiti in service of the imperialist Core Group.

Haiti remains captured, controlled, and terrorized by Western forces, its treatment yielding minimal opposition across the Americas. Nevertheless, Kenyans have refused to sit by idly as they are enlisted as proxies to meet the military objectives of colonial powers and their collaborators in the region.

Kenya’s future belongs to its people. So, too, does the future of humanity depend on the persistent organizing and solidarity of socialists in the United States— a solidarity that must include willing sacrifice. Ours, too, is a struggle against the depravities of capitalism, the violence of imperialism and militarism, and the illegitimacy of anti-democratic rule over the working masses. We gain strength from our comrades in Kenya, and support every effort to advance their struggle and the struggles of all peoples around the world for justice, land, and dignity.

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The Colorado Springs and Denver chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) together stand firmly beside the people of Palestine and all those on the side of liberation and humanity. We reaffirm our unwavering and unequivocal solidarity with our partners in the Colorado Palestine Coalition and the broader Palestinian liberation movement, especially Palestinian-led organizations including the Palestinian Youth Movement and Within Our Lifetime. We call on the National Political Committee (NPC) to immediately pass the resolution ‘Making DSA an Anti-Zionist Organization in both Principle and Practice’ (MSR #12), that was tabled for the NPC after being pushed off the floor at the 2023 DSA National Convention. 

To quote our comrades in Albany YDSA, “Palestine is not dividing the left, it’s defining the left.” It’s long past time to shut the door on our organization’s tolerance for candidates who are ‘Progressive Except for Palestine’. We commend the NPC’s recent withdrawal of DSA national’s conditional endorsement of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), whose many recent words and actions have reinforced the Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism at the heart of the US imperial project and enabled Israel’s US-sponsored genocide of the Palestinian people, including: endorsing the war criminal Joe Biden [1] and shielding him from calls to step aside [2], publicly criticizing Palestinian liberation organizations as antisemitic [3], platforming Zionists intent on demonizing the movement for Palestinian liberation and agreeing with their bad faith critiques [4], equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, demanding that Hamas release all hostages with no acknowledgment of the thousands of hostages held (and tortured) by Israel or the many offers by Hamas to release hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, and continued insistence that Israel has a “right to defend itself” [5]; all while denying the right, enshrined in international law, of the oppressed people of Palestine to defend themselves, resist annihilation, and engage in armed struggle against their violent colonial occupiers. 

We condemn New York City DSA’s push to endorse AOC without condition – a decision which undermines the work of principled electeds and working class organizers across the country. Refusing to draw a clear moral line on Palestinian liberation damages the morale of DSA members and turns potential recruits away from DSA’s socialist project; leaves principled anti-Zionist politicians vulnerable to AIPAC attacks and principled activists vulnerable to state violence; and contributes to the social conditions that allow Zionists to murder, assault, and intimidate Palestinians and their allies. AOC’s re-endorsement was an affront to our anti-racist, anti-Zionist, and anti-imperialist internationalist values and a hindrance to our work to build multi-racial working-class socialist power. While we commend the NPC’s attempts to rectify this situation by extending a conditional endorsement, we demand more accountability in the endorsement process at the chapter level in the future to prevent the kind of fallout caused by the initial vote to re-endorse. Rank and file DSA members put our trust in the NPC to uphold our values and support our work, and passing MSR #12 would go a long way towards solidifying that trust and assuaging our concerns about future endorsements and electoral efforts. 

True socialist power is built from the grassroots and in solidarity among the working class, not from proximity to and conformity with ruling elites. DSA’s local chapter work is fueled by countless hours of unpaid, working-class labor. Many of our members have risked arrest and experienced state repression as a result of their support of Palestinian liberation and other anti-fascist organizing. We reject the endorsement of any candidates who do not take a strong, principled, and consistent stance on solidarity with the people of Palestine. Such endorsements serve to channel our labor toward platforming liberal politicians who reinforce capitalism, imperialism, and the rise of fascism. Whenever we decide to compromise our integrity in exchange for power, we have already lost both. Our endorsed electeds must reflect and be accountable to our working-class base, and DSA must solidify its commitment to anti-Zionism in both principle and practice at a national level by passing MSR #12.

1  By endorsing Biden, AOC is backing genocide, Electronic Intifada, July 18, 2024

2 Ocasio-Cortez backing Biden: ‘The matter is closed’, The Hill, July 9, 2024

3 https://x.com/fatimazsaid/status/1801200752393666631

4 https://x.com/SxarletRed/status/1800526900625870996

5 November 28,2023, AOC voted in favor of H.Res. 888 ‘Reaffirming Israel’s Right To Exist’, which conflates opposition to Israel’s “right to exist” with antisemitism and demands Hamas release all hostages