Since October 7th, 2023, over 32,000 innocent people in Gaza have been martyred, of which over 40% are children. Those that are still alive have now been forced into famine. Throughout this campaign of genocide, the University of South Florida has maintained its investments in corporations that profiteer off this mass suffering.

On March 18th, in response to USF complicity in this evil, 19 USF students began a hunger strike to urge the university to divest from the genocide in Gaza. 

Their demands are as follows:

1. USF president Rhea Law call for a ceasefire and for humanitarian aid to be let into Gaza.

2. The USF investment portfolio from 2013-2023 and onwards is immediately made transparent and open to the public.

3. A Student Oversight Committee is established by Fall 2024, ensuring student input in future investments.

4. USF immediately divests from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Hewlett Packard, and Caterpillar, for their complicity in genocide.

Instead of meeting these demands, instead of disinvesting from genocide, the University of South Florida chose to retaliate against students who are fighting for humanity. Instead of recognizing its position of complicity in these horrific acts, the University chose to mischaracterize its own investments as apolitical. We echo these brave students in acknowledging that the “starting point of investments are already political when you invest in a genocide.”

Ignoring their students’ calls for divestment is a tradition for the university. In 2013, a student referendum calling for the boycott and divestment of companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine passed with popular support. However, the university declared it “null and void” and was accused of violating the first amendment rights of students. The following year, Students for Justice in Palestine responded by collecting 10,000 signatures on a divestment petition. Still, the university ignored student voices. In 2016, the student senate voted overwhelmingly in support of a divestment resolution, still no commitment to divest. After more than a decade of student organizing, USF must listen to student voices.

Join us in our condemnation of the USF Foundation and USF administration by emailing USF President Rhea Law and the Board of Trustees to demand that they divest now! 

Tampa DSA

Follow the hunger strikers at their Instagram account

Call Rhea Law at (813) 974-2791 and the Board of Trustees at (813) 974-6442.

The post Tampa DSA Stands in Solidarity with the Hunger Strikers at USF appeared first on Tampa DSA.

Note: This report was written by the 2023-24 Executive Committee and originally presented to Madison Area DSA membership ahead of the March 2024 Chapter Convention. This public-facing version has been abridged in some places.

What We Did This Year

Here’s a brief summary of what Madison Area DSA has been up to since last year’s chapter convention! For the sake of brevity we’ll skip over some of the activity also covered in working group reports further below:

Chapter Events

• Our average chapter meeting’s attendance was 21 people. Our chapter activity was lower than in previous years for most of spring and summer 2023 (lowest attendance was eight people in late August 2023), but has been steadily building the last few months, leading to our February and March 2024 general membership meetings (chapter meetings) having our highest attendance since spring 2022 (30-40 people).
• In May the executive committee moved chapter meetings from being Zoom-only to hybrid, with an in-person location at the Social Justice Center. Exec purchased audio/video equipment to facilitate this, and we have been able to sustain conducting hybrid chapter meetings for most of the past year. Previous attempts were made to move to hybrid meetings in summer 2022 but could not be sustained at that time. Prior to that all general meetings since March 2020 had been Zoom-only.
• In September after support from general membership, the executive committee moved general membership meetings from twice to once a month, increasing leadership capacity and allowing meetings to be more focused and purposeful, with more time for preparation in between. For the previous 2-3 years, chapter meetings were held twice a month with one meeting primarily dedicated to political education.
• The second monthly meeting was instead replaced by a monthly social event (starting with marching in the Willy St. Parade in September), giving more opportunities for members to get to know each other and building a stronger sense of community in our chapter. While Exec members were heavily involved in the planning of the first few socials, we have since been able to delegate this task to the Membership Committee.
• In May the chapter co-hosted a May Day event at the Goodman Center with former co-chair Tessa E.
• Exec voted to move our annual chapter convention from a two-day virtual event to a single-day in-person event. After assessing the shortcomings of our previous chapter priority model, which resulted in most submitted priorities passing but not being effectively prioritized by the chapter afterwards, the convention committee recommended moving to a priority chapter campaign model for 2024, where only one campaign would be voted on and prioritized at the 2024 convention.

Other Chapter Activity

• In December, Exec voted to form a new Membership Committee, which has engaged a number of active members and leaders in the chapter. The Membership Committee created a new Skills and Interests Survey to more accurately track member interest and capacity and find suitable opportunities, and began a spring membership engagement drive to systematically work through our entire membership list and ask members to fill out the survey and RSVP for the chapter convention. This has helped drive a significant increase in active membership in the chapter and make the role of membership coordinator easier to step into with more work being delegated to a committee of members.
• MADSA sent several delegations to conventions and trainings the past year. In August we sent 5 delegates to the biennial DSA National Convention in Chicago, several of whom took on larger roles in the chapter after returning. In September we supported sending 8 members to the annual Socialism Conference in Chicago. In October we sent 6 chapter leaders to a DSA Regional Organizing Retreat hosted in Milwaukee.
• MADSA formed a Strike Ready Committee to support local labor action, including turning out members to support UAW workers in Milwaukee in September. MADSA members also provided additional strike support locally to the CUNA Mutual Union and Starbucks Workers United, mostly coordinated through the Labor Working Group.
• MADSA joined a new statewide Socialists in Office (SIO) Committee to liaise with elected DSA members in the Socialist Caucus of the State Assembly. The SIO committee was brought to the chapter by a member working as a legislative staffer.
• In January, the chapter voted to endorse member and Dane County Board Supervisor Heidi Wegleitner in her re-election campaign.
• In February, the chapter approved purchasing new chapter shirts for the first time since 2019, driven by the work of the executive committee to ensure this goal was reached.

Palestine Solidarity

• In mid-October, the chapter held a special meeting to vote on publishing a chapter statement on the Israeli genocide in Gaza, allowing members to democratically offer amendments and feedback on an initial draft written by Exec before voting on the final statement. Many members turned out to events and actions hosted by other organizations, as the chapter lacked capacity at the time to coordinate turnout as DSA.
• MADSA joined the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine and sent a member to liaise who also took on a leadership role within the coalition. We were able to coordinate member turnout and table at a large December rally hosted by the coalition.
• In early March, Exec voted to endorse the Vote Uninstructed campaign for the April presidential primary election after overwhelming support and interest from chapter members. Due to increased chapter activity, MADSA has been able to take on a larger role in this campaign, committing to leading multiple rounds of canvassing and participating in phonebanks alongside the Listen to Wisconsin coalition. This campaign has engaged 30+ chapter members so far and will likely build a significant amount of chapter capacity going forward, as well as developing closer ties with members in the UW-Madison YDSA and providing valuable experience for our future priority chapter campaign.

Co-Chair Reflection

Whenever the official history of Madison Area DSA is written some day in the future after the fall of capitalism, 2023 certainly won’t be remembered as a high-water mark for the chapter. But it might be remembered as a crucial rebuilding period, where organizers regrouped and started slowly laying the groundwork that could make much bigger victories possible in the next few years.

Although Madison Area DSA existed since the 80s, its modern era (like most other DSA chapters) began in late 2016 following the first Bernie Sanders presidential run, and the chapter grew quickly but unevenly in leaps and bounds over the next few years. During this time the chapter notched some wins in the electoral and labor arenas while developing a strong core of organizers and many active working groups.

However, chapter leaders also faced difficulties in trying to bridge the sometimes siloed, federated nature of these working groups and in building a shared chapter culture that could effectively connect and amplify organizing efforts. Efforts to set chapter priorities at previous conventions had mixed results, as most proposals were passed but lacked the focus and collective buy-in to be truly prioritized by the chapter.

The last few years saw a slow decline in active membership and capacity, attributable to a number of factors such as national membership attrition, the impact of the ongoing COVID pandemic, the loss of social cohesion with several years of mostly Zoom-based organizing, and burnout. This culminated in 2022 when multiple chapter conflicts boiled over, including some members leaving over political disagreements with elements of elected national leadership, and a working group disaffiliating entirely.

This resulted in the loss of most of the chapter’s active leadership core at the time of the 2023 chapter convention. Only one member of the previous executive committee stayed on, with other seats filled by first-time leaders facing the difficult task of assuming the mantle of both administrative and political leadership. Too much responsibility fell on Exec, which was too overburdened with week-to-week administrative tasks to put sufficient work into other local organizing that could grow the membership and provide for more delegation of responsibilities. This loss of capacity was also felt across most working groups, with several struggling to even convene for long stretches last year.

Despite these difficulties, the reduced activity also presented an opportunity to address MADSA’s long-standing issues with siloed working groups in a way that wasn’t possible before – many active members and working group leaders began to agree and buy into the idea of prioritizing shared chapter organizing work in a way that hadn’t taken root in the past.

Changing the nature and form of our monthly chapter meetings was key in starting to turn things around. We began holding hybrid chapter meetings instead of Zoom-only, and a few months later after membership feedback reduced meeting frequency to once a month, replacing the other with a monthly social. By trying to do less and focus our limited energy, we were able to have better-run meetings and free up leadership capacity.

We also benefited from changing winds at the national level – a healthier organizing culture with more focus on member development at the chapter level led to increased support and training opportunities from other DSA member-volunteers and staff. Several delegates who attended the national convention in Chicago returned with new vision and energy, and now saw themselves as leaders who were ready to step into larger roles in the chapter, had clearer ideas of where they needed to step in, and how to develop and bring other members along with them.

The effects of increased leadership capacity weren’t immediate but slowly started to show. In October, MADSA wasn’t yet in a position to take on a leading role in Palestine solidarity organizing locally despite having many passionate members. Our main chapter activity at that time was deciding whether or not to make a public statement which led to heated political debate in our chapter Slack.

Although the statement ultimately had little visibility or promotion from members who argued in favor of publishing it, it was the outcome of a well-run meeting that built buy-in from members engaging in a fair democratic process, and built the self-confidence of Exec committee members in seeing themselves as political leaders.

The formation of the Membership Committee in December pulled in both new and active leaders from different parts of our chapter, as we started doing systematic listwork and phonebanking of our membership in a way that we hadn’t in several years. The ensuing member engagement drive built off the organizing 1:1 conversations, chapter socials, and event mobilizations of the previous few months, and helped activate a number of new members in addition to developing existing active members.

Without this mobilization effort, we likely would not have been in a position to take advantage of the sudden opportunity presented to us by the Uninstructed campaign this month. The increased capacity has the potential to create a virtuous cycle where many active members have the opportunity to develop into stronger leaders through being conditioned by campaign experience.

As part of taking on a larger political leadership role, Exec voted to make significant changes to this year’s chapter convention, determining the priority model used for the previous three years had mixed results and moving to replace it with voting on a single priority chapter campaign that will be run by a committee not housed within a working group. This aims to both focus our work as a chapter and develop capacity by not overcommitting and spreading ourselves too thin, while also hopefully further address the historically federated nature of MADSA.

The coming year presents plenty of opportunities for continued growth as a chapter, as well as new challenges accompanying that. Increasing our active membership and capacity will allow us to take on more projects, and we will need to be intentional to combat the natural tendency for renewed siloing with more committees and active working groups, and to ensure potential conflict can be resolved constructively. Developing stronger norms and expectations for internal communications will be a key task of the next Executive Committee, as will be continuing to delegate work and creating more opportunities to develop a stronger middle leadership layer of our chapter that eroded over the previous two years.

Another important task will be reprioritizing political education and integrating it into our existing work. Creating space to surface and openly discuss political disagreements is important to productively addressing conflict and finding areas of common ground; this is key to diffusing the tendency to personalize political conflict and politicize personal conflict within DSA.

– Adithya P, Co-Chair (Sep. 2023-Mar. 2024)

Treasury Report

Some financial information has been redacted from the public-facing version of this report.

This bump in donations, paired with a drop-off in spending after September meant that we came in just under breaking even in the last half of the year after we did most of our spending in the summer months.

Broadly, I’m generally happy with our spending this year. I said coming into my term as Treasurer that I wanted to spend down the bank somewhat, and we broadly have. Extrapolating to next year, there is no National Convention, so similar overall spending would leave us down less than 1k. We can run similar deficits for some time more to try and build the chapter. There are also some pretty clear ways to reduce or eliminate the deficit, should a future exec wish to do so, by cutting out donations and/or the conference spending. We couldn’t cut sending people to the National DSA Conference, but National recommends that chapters hold a fundraiser to get members out, which we didn’t do, opting to use our bank instead of our time. We are fortunate to be in a position to be able to do that, and likely will be for a few more years.

– Will P, Treasurer, 2023-2024)

Membership Report

As of 3/9/2024 the total number of Members in Good Standing, that is, members who are currently paying dues in some fashion or have filled out a dues waiver is 314. We lost, on average, about 8 people per month, and gained just over 4 people per month on average, resulting in an average net loss of 4 people per month. Based on conversations with our regional organizer, Tom H, this is not unique to this chapter, but an issue that’s shared throughout the DSA. Also, anecdotally, 2023 represented a draw down in participation in leftist organizing spaces in general. This is consistent with the GDC’s 2023 report, which outlines a peak in membership during 2020 and 2021 and a slow decline from that peak.

At the chapter level, this represented a steady loss of membership as people did not renew or quit their membership. Looking over the data, it’s difficult to pinpoint any specific events that caused membership to drop. This is not to say that there were no addressable reasons for our membership decline, but there does not seem to be any one or group of events after which we can point to a large drop in membership. The lack of any steep drops is a bit of a surprise, at least to this Membership Coordinator, given that a significant and active working group, the Socialist Feminist Collective, did not recharter with the MADSA due to political and personal disagreements. This is likely due to the fact that Socialist Feminist Working Group had a model of open membership that did not require one to be a dues paying member. While their exit represented a loss in organizing partners, it did not represent an outsized loss in Members In Good Standing.

Total members in good standing (see Picture M1, below) does show a slight leveling off, even a modest growth starting in January 2024. Further, One can see that both Dec 2023 and March 2024 show spikes of 8 new members a piece, outperforming previous months. This period of growth during the winter of 23-24 corresponds with two events: The uprising in support of Palestinian Resistance, and a dedicated focus on membership and recruitment at the chapter level.

As we saw in 2020, big events can drive membership increases, and while it is difficult to measure exactly; the winter of 23-24 included a number of actions put on by coalition partners in support of Palestine. These events provided MADSA with things to organize around and places for people to plug in to. Our presence and explicit tabling at these events added to our visibility and gave MADSA an opportunity to let people know the causes of the Israel/Palestine conflict and offer organization as a possible organizing space for those who want to support Palestine. In support of this, MADSA empowered a new Membership Committee to focus on recruitment, retention, and engagement. David O. and Phil P. serve as Co-Chairs (with the bulk of the administration and planning in the hands of David O.). In early December, the Committee started organizing an engagement drive pointed at current members, with the ask of getting them to our chapter convention in March 2024. These activities had the effect of normalizing one on one structured conversations, tracking the engagement of members, assessing how active those members were, tracking of member’s strengths and interests, and deliberate attempts to plug those new or re-engaged members into chapter needs (occasionally involving them in Membership Committee work directly). Existing engagement and onboarding efforts, like monthly New Member Orientations, had new and better defined asks for members. It would seem that our focus on member engagement is beginning to pay off. MADSA plans to continue this pattern into the next exec’s term by way of choosing a single, chapter-wide campaign that will serve as a central ask for new or re-engaging members.

Picture M1 – 2024 Chapter Member Growth

This term on exec has proved to me the importance of a central campaign to organize around. Even something as simple as asking people to get themselves to the Chapter Convention can serve as a framework upon which to hang new members, re-engaged members, process development, deadline setting. Comrades have to have the opportunity to get to know each other and work with each other on something. The world at-large is dependent on structure and hierarchy, and it can be tempting to believe that as long as you can define a structure for a set of like-minded people, they will sort themselves into that structure. Not so! Part of what we must do is organize ourselves, one to the other, by way of intentional conversations about a central project of some kind. This builds capacity and trust.

Further, the speed and volume of a project or plan matters. Various parts of the Membership Committee existed before in some form, but did not have the same effect. Both myself in my previous term and other Membership Coordinators have conducted surveys to determine interests, scaffolded intentional one-on-one conversations by way of the Rose Buddy program, even petitioned working groups and committees for needed skills from new or re-engaged members. However, these things don’t serve their purposes if they happen separately, too slowly, or without a defined project to follow-up on whether or not one or another member was engaged to their capacity. The current work of the Membership Committee is a relief to witness, and I look forward to working with the chapter along these lines in the next year.

– Phil P, Membership Coordinator (2022-2024)

Today in Albany, New York tenants numbering in the thousands descended onto our State’s Capitol Building in a Day of Mobilization, urging the New York Legislature to pass key legislation, such as Good Cause protections for tenants and greater rent support for low-income families facing eviction. Amidst the calls made by tenants and housing justice organizers for greater protections against the worst injustices of the current housing system, there also exists a new transformative vision of what housing could look like in our state. A new bill co-written by DSA-endorsed State Assembly member Emilly Gallagher representing North Brooklyn, would establish the New York Social Housing Development Authority and empower the state to build & maintain substantial new housing developments across the State that will be publicly funded, environmentally sustainable, permanently affordable by law, and democratically-controlled by tenants. If passed, the social housing authority would work to shift the balance of power over our whole housing system towards tenants and the state government and away from wealthy private developers that have no interest in building affordable housing, and the landlords that get rich from its scarcity. Tonight, we will hear from Renette, a DSA member and tenant organizer with HOPE Tenant Union, and Genevieve, a housing justice organizer with Ithaca DSA, on the importance of this new bill and the campaign to build beautiful, abundant, & affordable social housing for the whole working class of New York. 

In this special episode, we visit the Debs Museum in Terre Haute, IN to speak with museum director Allison Duerk about the life and vision of the pioneering socialist Eugene V. Debs. Visit the Debs Museum and follow them on social media for events and updates. https://debsfoundation.org https://www.facebook.com/EugeneVDebsFoundation https://www.instagram.com/debsmuseum

The Biden administration’s plan to establish a port in Gaza in order to ostensibly deliver humanitarian relief is a farce, a feigned show of concern for the Palestinian people meant to disguise plans of further western imperial encroachment in the region. Throughout the Israeli and Zionist forces campaign of annihilation on the Palestinian people, the Biden administration has made clear that it sees adherence to international law as subordinate to ensuring that the occupation of Palestine continues by any means necessary. 

Under the current proposal put forth by the Biden administration, Gaza is to be ruled either directly by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) or by the Palestinian Authority, a body that answers to Israel, suppresses Palestinian resistance on behalf of the Israeli security apparatus, and has long lost the trust of the Palestinian people. The construction of this port, reportedly being developed in cooperation with the occupation forces, is also a way to buttress the Biden administration’s efforts to legally and diplomatically protect the occupation on the international stage. Ignoring the overarching and ulterior motives of the United States government here is deeply naive at best and complicit in genocide at worst.

We recognize and name this fig leaf for what it is: a means to cover for the atrocities that are being carried out with the assistance of the Biden administration, designed to counter a rapidly growing sense of international and domestic outcry. The vast majority of our elected officials continue to ignore their constituents even as Americans have begun to register their opposition to the Biden administration’s genocidal foreign policy via the ballot box, phonebank campaigns, municipal ceasefire resolution efforts, protests and direct actions across the country. 

Each day of the past week has been marked by what once was referred to as the “Flour Massacre”, a now daily aggression in which the IOF has used Palestinians’ hunger— a direct result of Zionist crimes against humanity— against them in a gross display of the depth of this campaign to destroy Gaza. While these recent atrocities are posed as a reaction to the resistance of Palestinians, they are just the latest chapter in the long and bloody history of the occupation that stretches back to the roots of Zionist colonialism in Palestine at the end of the nineteenth century. The history of the Zionist entity is a continuous and unbroken chain of colonialism, ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian nation.

We condemn Biden’s proposed Gaza Port as a horrifying project of imperial expansion. We stand with the Palestinian people in demanding a permanent ceasefire: an end to the mass collective punishment and torture campaign conducted by the IOF. We demand a well-funded UNRWA that can provide humanitarian aid to the hundreds of thousands newly displaced by the ongoing, indiscriminate bombing campaign conducted by the IOF over the past five months. We demand an end to the weapons shipments, now counting over 100— approximately one every 36 hours— sent by the US government to support this genocide. 

In the face of continued complicity on the part of the Biden administration and the U.S. establishment as a whole, DSA’s International Committee remains committed to a free Palestine from the river to the sea. The Palestinian people will not forget nor will they forgive these horrific crimes carried out with the assistance of the United States, and neither will we. As socialists, we demand a ceasefire to end the current slaughter and an end to U.S. military, diplomatic and financial aid to the Zionist project. We commit once again to fight until the end of the occupation and colonization of Palestine.

The post DSA IC condemns Biden administration’s imperialist agenda in proposing Gaza port appeared first on DSA International Committee.

Today is day 158 of Israel’s genocidal assault on the Palestinian people in Gaza and also primary day for voters in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington.  

Over the last several weeks, hundreds of thousands of people across the country have voted "uncommitted" in the presidential primaries, to send a message to President Biden calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.  Tonight we’re joined by Ali and Tzara to talk about DSA’s role in the Vote Uncommitted campaign and what comes next to achieve a lasting ceasefire and the liberation of Palestine.  

To become a member of the Democratic Socialist America: https://www.dsausa.org/join

To follow Ali & Detroit DSA: @alihallalmi and @detroitdsa

Contact: info@columbusdsa.org

COLUMBUS — The Columbus chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) issues the following recommendations to residents of Central Ohio voting in the March 19, 2024, Democratic primary election.

1. In Delegates-at-Large and Alternates-at-Large to the National Convention, LEAVE BLANK.
   
2. In For U.S. Senator, LEAVE BLANK.
   
3. In For Representative to Congress (3rd District), LEAVE BLANK.
   
4. In For Representative to Congress (15th District), vote ZERQA ABID.
   
5. In For Justice of the Supreme Court (Unexpired term ending 12-31-2026), vote TERRI JAMISON.
   
6. In For State Representative (10th District), vote SARAH POMEROY.
   
7. In For Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, vote STEPHANIE HANNA.

A detailed rationale for each recommendation follows. Additionally, see our addendum about the race for Franklin County Prosecutor.

Disclaimer: No recommendations made here are endorsements. Columbus DSA has not endorsed any candidate in this upcoming election. To our knowledge, there is no candidate that comes close to sharing our vision of democratic socialism as will be necessary to establish a free and just society. These recommendations are tactical considerations meant to minimize the harm likely to occur to the working class here and abroad as a result of this election.

Do you lament the lack of socialist, abolitionist, and pro-BDS candidates running for office? You can be a part of changing that, whether by running for office yourself or helping us to discover and cultivate future socialists-in-office. To advance the democratic socialist movement in Central Ohio, join DSA today: www.columbusdsa.org/join/.

Recommendation 1

In Delegates-at-Large and Alternates-at-Large to the National Convention, LEAVE BLANK.

DSA’s National Political Committee (NPC), our elected leadership, alongside DSA-endorsed U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, supported an “Uncommitted” vote in the Michigan Democratic primary. The Listen to Michigan campaign to convince Democratic voters to vote “Uncommitted” was a remarkable success, earning over 100,000 “Uncommitted” votes in the primary. Campaigns in Hawaii, Minnesota, and other states have yielded similar successes.The Listen to Michigan campaign sent a clear message to President Biden: “Recant your support for Israel’s crimes, or you will lose reelection.” We stand by this message wholeheartedly. 

Show the Democratic Party that Biden’s support for Israel’s crimes will cost Democrats the presidency if he fails to reverse course and repair the harm he has aided and abetted.

Because our primaries lack the option to vote “Uncommitted,” we recommend that Columbus voters simply leave this field blank. Unfortunately, unlike in some states, blank votes are not counted in Ohio. Meaning, these votes will not be tallied for or against Biden.

We note that Dean Phillips, the only other candidate on the ballot, has suspended his campaign and endorsed Biden. Therefore, if voters would like their vote to be tallied against Biden, they can safely mark their ballot for Phillips without actually lending support to Phillips in the election.

Recommendation 2

In For U.S. Senator, LEAVE BLANK.

Sherrod Brown has a strong record of support for organized labor, LGBTQ+ rights, and other progressive causes. We commend his recent decision to voluntarily recognize his campaign staffers’ union.

At the same time, Sen. Brown also has a strong record of support for Israel. Brown opposes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and supports the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, a proposed federal law that would make it easier for states to promulgate BDS bans. Further, he objected to UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which found that Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and the Golan Heights violated international law.

Brown will be the Democratic nominee for the general election. We recommend that voters not mark their ballots for him in this primary to demonstrate that his continuing support of Israel is unacceptable.

Recommendation 3

In For Representative to Congress (3rd District), LEAVE BLANK.

Joyce Beatty retracted her signature from a letter to President Biden calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, claiming it was added in error. At a joint session of Congress welcoming Isaac Herzog, President of Israel, on July 19, 2023, Beatty said: “We are proud to celebrate Israel’s 75th anniversary and strengthen the ironclad relationship between the U.S. & Israel.” The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights gave Beatty a score of “F” in its 2024 scorecard tracking Congressional Democrats’ records on Palestine. For 2024, Beatty has been endorsed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Democratic Majority for Israel.

Despite constant overtures from community organizers and members of her constituency over the past months and years, she has refused to recant her previous statements labeling Israel a U.S. ally, or to join the calls for a ceasefire led by DSA-endorsed Reps. Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib. While we recognize that Rep. Beatty has recently voted against new apportionments of aid to Israel, these votes are too little too late, and Rep. Beatty has not signaled any change in her stance on long-term political and financial support of Israel.

Beatty will be the Democratic nominee for the general election. We recommend that voters not mark their ballots for her in this primary to demonstrate that her continuing support of Israel is unacceptable.

Recommendation 4

In For Representative to Congress (15th District), vote ZERQA ABID.

Zerqa Abid is founder and president of MY Project USA, a non-profit organization providing youth-focused community services in Columbus. She is running to challenge the incumbent in this seat, Rep. Mike Carey, a Trump-endorsed former coal lobbyist and pro-Israel Republican.

Abid supports a $15 minimum wage, gun control, and abortion access. If elected, she has promised to vote to restrict U.S. military interventions and oppose funding any foreign government or other entity committing human rights abuses. She supports a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Her primary opponent, Ohio Rep. Adam Miller, has been endorsed by the Franklin County Democratic Party. Abid will need all the help she can get to take on the Democratic establishment.

Recommendation 5

In For Justice of the Supreme Court (Unexpired term ending 12-31-2026), vote TERRI JAMISON.

Terri Jamison is a former Franklin County public defender and a supporter of the Ohio Sentencing Data Project, which will provide the public with detailed knowledge of the state of criminal sentencing in Ohio. Jamison, formerly a West Virginia coal miner, is a supporter of reproductive rights and bail reform. If elected, she would be the third Black woman to serve in the Supreme Court of Ohio. We see merit in Jamison’s blue-collar background, a more diverse state supreme court, and a supreme court more friendly to progressive positions on issues of criminal law.

Recommendation 6

In For State Representative (10th District), vote SARAH POMEROY.

Pomeroy is a Senior Assistant City Attorney in Columbus, working in the Nuisance Abatement division. Her work entails prosecuting out-of-state landlords that abuse tenants. Having witnessed the scale of Central Ohio’s housing crisis, Pomeroy is running on increasing the affordable housing supply, stopping property purchases by out-of-state private equity firms, and encouraging occupancy of vacant housing.

If elected, Pomeroy has promised to fight to overturn H.B. 68 and push back against attacks on reproductive healthcare. She supports automatic and same-day voter registration, and politician-free redistricting.

Pomeroy has been endorsed by Sheet Metal Workers Local 24, the Ohio Environmental Council, and Ohio Rep. Munira Abdullahi, among others.

Recommendation 7

In For Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, vote STEPHANIE HANNA.

If elected, Hanna has promised to establish a reentry docket to help individuals released from prison reintegrate into society. Her campaign has stated that Franklin County is the only large county in Ohio still lacking such a docket, and Hanna sees the need for one here. We agree.

Hanna, who has served on the boards of the Children’s Hunger Alliance, YWCA Columbus and Mental Health America of Ohio, would be the first Egyptian-American judge in Franklin County, and the second in Ohio. Noting that less than a third of Ohio judges are women, Hanna wishes to redress that inequality.

Hanna was registered as a Republican from 2014 to 2021, and ran as a Republican in the 2016 and 2020 judicial elections. She voted as a Democrat from 2010 to 2012 and re-registered as a Democrat in 2022. She also previously served as a prosecutor in Tiffin. Still, we see merit in voting for her over her primary opponent, Ohio Rep. Richard Brown, who opposes establishing a reentry docket, on this single issue.

Addendum

There is no candidate in the upcoming prosecutorial election that meets DSA’s standards for criminal legal reform. Rather than recommending a certain candidate to voters, we will simply state what we know about each.

Pierson

Pierson currently serves as deputy chief counsel in the office of Franklin County Prosecutor Gary Tyack. He previously worked as an Assistant Attorney General under Dave Yost, where he oversaw the A.G.’s investigations into officer-involved critical incidents and shootings. Pierson has been endorsed by Tyack and Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin.

Writing in the Dispatch, Rev. Raymond Greene, Jr., executive director of Freedom BLOC, urged Columbus residents to vote against Pierson due to his failure to prosecute the officers who shot and killed 25-year-old Jayland Walker in 2022. Pierson oversaw the Attorney General’s investigation into that shooting. J.U.S.T. 614, a trusted community organization and core organizing partner of our chapter, has also called on residents to oppose Pierson’s candidacy. Pierson’s campaign is attempting to address concerns over lack of transparency in officer-involved shootings. If elected, Pierson has promised to mandate that the case file for any offer involved use-of-force case be posted publicly online within 48 hours of a grand jury’s failure to indict.

Pierson previously defended the Franklin County Prosecutor’s decision to recommend a bond of $400,000 for any defendant charged with possessing a firearm who was previously convicted of a first or second-degree felony for drug or violent offenses.

Given the grievances that members of our community have lodged against Pierson, we cannot recommend a vote for him.

Favor

We also cannot recommend Shayla Favor. Despite testimony before City Council by Columbus DSA’s Housing Campaign highlighting Blackstone’s abysmal housing practices and human rights record, Favor voted to permit the private equity firm and real estate developer to build in Columbus. Leaders within our chapter have continually expressed disappointment with Favor over the chasm between her behavior and rhetoric, as well as for her treatment of them in her capacity as a Councilmember, up to and including standing them up when they showed up for a pre-scheduled meeting.

When the Dispatch asked each of the prosecutorial candidates for comment following the mistrial in Jason Meade’s prosecution, Favor was the only candidate to decline to answer the question of whether she would retry the case. In lieu of an answer, Favor replied: “As an agent of change, I am committed to leading with transparency, prioritizing accountability, and honoring the dignity and respect of every Franklin County resident.” This vague moral posturing, rather than a conclusive response to questions posed by the community as to her positions, perfectly mirrors the way she has spoken on housing policy in her tenure as a Councilmember.

Favor supports death penalty abolition and opposes cash bail, calling it “the definition of an unjust and inequitable system.” Favor’s campaign website communicates pledges to not pursue incarceration for low-level offenses and to provide meaningful alternatives to incarceration. However, while these are remarkable promises, our previous experience indicates that she would fail to make good on them if elected.

Harris

The authors have little to say on Natalia Harris. Rather than taking political stances, her campaign has focused largely on highlighting her experience as the city attorney for Delaware, as well as her experience as a former prosecutor and Columbus city attorney. She has stated that her motivation for running is to address the backlog of unresolved murder cases in Franklin County, which she alleged in January to be at 251. Pierson, current deputy chief counsel for Prosecutor Gary Tyack, said that this number was “wildly” inaccurate, and that the backlog is actually at less than a third of that number.

Harris has said that she would be willing to seek the death penalty in a criminal prosecution, stating: “If there is a case that warrants it, then that is a tool that I will employ.”

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The Las Vegas chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America announced their endorsement of Valerie Thomason, candidate for Assembly District 10. LVDSA played a significant part in Bernie Sanders’ sweep of the Nevada caucuses in 2020 and the election of the Progressive Slate that took over Nevada’s Democratic Party leadership in the spring of 2021. Thomason’s endorsement is the chapter’s first of its kind since its members adopted a more stringent endorsement process in the summer of 2021. LVDSA says it commits to turning out volunteers for Thomason’s campaign as it looks to lead a significant ground game for the Assembly District 10 seat.

Valerie Thomason is a Teamster, single mother, and organizer within the community. If elected, she would become Nevada’s first openly democratic socialist state legislator. Her campaign’s top priorities include rent control, universal childcare, and strengthening unions. She was an organizer for the Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, a Clark County Democratic Party Board Member from 2021-2023, and has served on the Steering Committee of LVDSA. Thomason has also earned endorsements from Run for Something and People’s Action PAC alongside Congress Members Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other left-wing legislators. Learn more about Valerie Thomason at valfornevada.com.

Quotes:

• LVDSA Co-chair Shaun Navarro: “From her work on the Bernie campaign, to leadership in LVDSA and now with the Teamsters, Val has proven her commitment to her community and fighting for the working class  in Las Vegas. She not only has our endorsement but she lives the values that LVDSA is all about.”
• LVDSA Co-chair Anthony Lambert: “Val is a fantastic organizer and a great representative of our values. She understands what the working class is going through, and she’s not going to bend to corporate lobbyists or toe a moderate line.”
• Candidate Valerie Thomason: “I’ve been a member of the Las Vegas DSA for a long time. I am incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together and of the things this organization has accomplished. I believe that this is another step towards building real power for working class people in Las Vegas and I am thrilled to not only be endorsed but to work together towards this future.”

Editorial note: The Las Vegas chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America may be short-handed as “LVDSA”, “Las Vegas DSA”, or “Las Vegas Democratic Socialists”.

South by South-Which Side Are You On?

by Gumbo V.

Over two dozen artists who were scheduled to perform at South by Southwest in Austin, TX have announced that they are boycotting the festival in solidarity with Palestine and in protest of SXSW’s ties to military contractors. The artists include Squirrel Flower, Eliza McLamb, Proper, TC_Superstar, Mamalarky, The Curls, and many others, as well as author Dr. Devon Price.

The boycott announcements began flooding social media on Tuesday, 5 March 2024, just days before the festival was scheduled to kick off. The day before, the United Musicians and Allied Workers, a non-profit organization consisting of musicians and fellow travelers struggling for better pay and working conditions, announced their own demands of SXSW in solidarity with the Austin for Palestine Coalition’s  “War Mongers out of SXSW” campaign. The Austin for Palestine Coalition consists of Austin-based organizations including Austin Democratic Socialists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation – Austin, Jewish Voice for Peace – Austin, the Palestine Solidarity Committee at UT Austin, and Austin With Palestine.

Austin for Palestine Coalition’s “War Mongers out of SXSW” campaign began on 21 February 2024 with an instagram post articulating a list of demands and a call to action:

We are protesting the inclusion of Raytheon (RTX), its subsidiary Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems at the South By Southwest festivals and conference. Raytheon (RTX) manufactures missiles, bombs, and other weapon systems for the Israeli military to use against Palestinians. Collins Aerospace provides crucial components for military aircraft used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). BAE Systems has supplied weapons and equipment used in the occupation of Palestinian territories. We urge that SXSW take the following actions:

We are protesting the inclusion of Raytheon (RTX), its subsidiary Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems at the South By Southwest festivals and conference. Raytheon (RTX) manufactures missiles, bombs, and other weapon systems for the Israeli military to use against Palestinians. Collins Aerospace provides crucial components for military aircraft used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). BAE Systems has supplied weapons and equipment used in the occupation of Palestinian territories. We urge that SXSW take the following actions:

1. Disinvite Raytheon, Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems from the festival
2. Reevaluate the inclusion of agencies in the Department of Defense in events and discussions hosted by the festival.
3. Use its platform to raise awareness about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and advocate for peace, justice, and the protection of human rights.

The campaign began as a targeted email campaign directed towards the SXSW board of executives, including Co-President and Chief Programming Officer Hugh Forrest, Co-President and Chief Brand Officer Jann Basket, Chief Logistics Officer Michele Flores, Vice President of Film & TV Claudette Godfrey, and Chief Culture & People Officer Autumn Nicole Amuesca.

A material analysis of the festival’s conditions included understanding whose labor SXSW profits from, and how that labor might be wielded to amplify demands. Members of the Austin for Palestine Coalition representing Austin DSA and the Austin chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation thus reached out to United Musicians and Allied Workers and the Austin Federation of Musicians local 433 to determine how organized labor could stand in solidarity with Palestinian liberation.

This is far from the first time that artists have protested SXSW. Just last year, UMAW and AFM 433 began their Fair Pay for Fair Play at SXSW campaign due to stagnant pay rates for artists for over a decade. The stakes are even higher in 2024, as the entire world watches a genocide be livestreamed in real time and the companies that manufacture weapons to perpetuate it are invited to speak about their “innovations” at SXSW’s opening Startup Crawl on 8 March. In April 2021, SXSW was acquired by mass media conglomerate Penske Media Corporation, and the organized labor behind SXSW’s cultural legacy have drawn direct connections between the corporatization of SXSW, the festival’s refusal to pay artists a fair wage and provide labor protections, and its platforming of genocidal military-industrial companies.

Penske Media Corporation (PMC) is owned by founder Jay Penske, heir to father, Roger Penske’s, transportation company Penske Corporation, Inc. known for its truck rentals service and racing investments. Jay Penske has been compared to Rupert Murdoch and William Randolph Hearst for his amassing of media holdings, including Rolling Stone, Variety Magazine, Deadline, IndieWire, and over two dozen other brands. The comparison is especially prescient as both media moguls are notorious for their mass accumulation of capital at the direct expense of their workers, Murdoch for his forced displacement of the working class Wapping neighborhood of London and Randolph Hearst for being the target of the 1899 Newsies Strike

There is no small irony in the corporatization of South by Southwest. The shift towards being a “capitalist carnival for the young and energetic” has been decried for many years and is part and parcel with Austin’s rise as the so-called Silicon Valley of the South. Regardless of its corporatization, however, one is left to wonder: what place do military contractors and the U.S. Department of Defense have at a music and film festival?

As stated above, the musicians’, cultural laborers’, and Austin for Palestine Coalition’s demands are quite simple:

1. Remove and deplatform the companies with public and explicit ties to the Israeli genocide in Gaza;
2. Reflect on what the festival has become such that the U.S Army, DoD, CIA, NSA, and many others have decided to make it a vessel for cultural warfare; and
3. Use the global platform of SXSW for moral and material good

To contact that SXSW board with these demands at the click of a button, please visit: https://tinyurl.com/WarMongersOutSXSW
For more information about the Austin for Palestine Coalition, please visit https://austin4palestine.org/ and come to the Falasteen Street Museum during SXSW outside of Austin City Hall from 5pm-9pm on 8-10 March and 15-17 March!

The post Musicians, Culture Workers Boycott SXSW for Platforming Genociders first appeared on Red Fault.

by Sara G.

Tuesday night, we celebrated. At Hotel Vegas, as a live band played, we ate tacos and toasted democracy. The crowd chanted “four more years” as our District Attorney José Garza took the stage for his acceptance speech upon winning reelection with a remarkable 33% lead.

José campaigned on supporting survivors of sexual assault, prosecuting wage theft and abusive cops, and offering community-based justice solutions. His opponent Jeremy Sylestine didn’t speak about the issues, but a dark money group from Dallas called Saving Austin spoke for him. Fearmongering mailers featuring a dark hand clasped over a child’s mouth were sent to the most progressive districts in Austin. A group of bikers from Pflugerville followed volunteers for José from house to house to intimidate them on Sylestine’s behalf, much like they did during council member Mackenzie Kelly’s 2020 campaign. Silicon Valley billionaires donated heavily to Sylestine, and conservative media celebrities like Joe Rogan, Bari Weiss, and Libs of TikTok threw their weight behind his campaign. Austin’s most famous proponent of the Great Replacement Theory, Elon Musk, even tweeted his support, only to delete the tweet in shame once he saw the results. In total, Sylestine raised over $1.2 million compared to José Garza’s $200,000.

On José’s side, we had the power of people. José has a strong labor background, serving as  Executive Director of the Workers Defense Project and working with the Department of Labor and the NLRB. He received strong endorsements from local labor unions. Volunteers from our chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, labor unions, University Democrats and other community groups all pitched in to spread the message of how crime has decreased with José Garza as DA. In one weekend, DSA knocked on over 1,400 doors for José. Where they had the money, we had the people.

Together we have proven that you can run as an open socialist, you can have all of the money of Silicon Valley, local billionaire elites and national right wing demagogues against you, and you can win. By building a mass movement from the bottom up, we can take on any opponent.

The post

José Garza Wins Overwhelming 2:1 Victory in DA Race

Working Class Ally Thumps Proxy for the Right

first appeared on Red Fault.