On Feb. 21st Boston DSA emailed out the following call to action to Boston residents encouraging them to give public testimony on how the Mayor’s rent control proposal is in need of serious changes

Tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb. 22nd, at 10 am the Boston City Council will be hearing public comment on the Mayor’s proposed rent control legislation. Unfortunately, the proposal as is does not adequately protect tenants from increasing rents. It excludes many renters’ landlords and still allows for annual rent increases of 6 percentage points more than inflation (and rent increases of up to 10%). Most gravely, since the proposal lacks vacancy controls it may even incentivize evictions.

We are asking people to either submit written testimony or show up to give public comment tomorrow to point out to the Council that Boston deserves better. Boston is one of the most expensive cities to live in within the US; we need more affordable housing options.

To testify virtually on Zoom, email this address and ask for a link to give public comment: Christine.oDonnell@Boston.Gov. To submit written testimony, simply email your comments to this email: Ccc.Go@Boston.Gov. There is no deadline to submit written testimony.

If while drafting your testimony you’re looking for specific points to make on how Boston City Government could be ensuring people have affordable housing, here are some suggestions:

• First and foremost, the rent control proposal absolutely needs vacancy controls added in. Meaning, rent-increase caps must extend to both current and new tenants. Absent vacancy control, landlords will just have an extra incentive to evict renters and find higher-income tenants.

• The rent control proposal’s ‘just cause’ eviction protections have too many exemptions / potential loopholes to make up for the lack of vacancy controls. Most importantly, the vast majority of evictions in Boston are for non-payment of rent, which are not protected at all.

• The rent control proposal should limit increases to no higher than inflation in the given year.

• The rent control proposal excludes too many tenants. For example, it excludes buildings where the property owner lives there and there are also six or fewer dwelling units.

• The rent control proposal does not give due consideration to students who also suffer from their universities’ exorbitant housing costs.

• The rent control proposal should also include an overall rent cap, in an actual dollar amount.

Furthermore, we encourage folks to point out to the Council how rent control alone is not sufficient to end the exploitation of tenants by real-estate interests. More needs to be done to address the core problems the housing market generates.

• More municipal dollars should be committed to community-land trusts.

• We need more social housing and greater public funding for maintenance so as to have the upkeep residents deserve. Accordingly, the State Legislature must approve Boston’s request for a real estate transfer fee.

• The State Legislature must also pass legislation guaranteeing a universal right to free legal counsel in housing court for tenants.

Again, the public hearing is tomorrow at 10 am. And to testify virtually on Zoom, email this address and ask for a link to give public comment: Christine.oDonnell@Boston.Gov. To submit written testimony, send your comments to this email: Ccc.Go@Boston.Gov. 

P.S. We want to further acknowledge that housing justice isn’t simply attained with governmental policy changes, but through tenants collectively organizing and compelling real-estate interests to act. So, we encourage you to get in touch with the chapter’s Housing Working Group if you wish to plug in to that sort of organizing — simply email Housing@BostonDsa.Org and ask to join.

By Michael Sebastian

As the Oakland Education Association bargains a new contract, it has raised a comprehensive set of common good demands to help strengthen Oakland’s public schools and support students. OEA rallied hundreds of teachers and community members in support of these demands at the February 8 school board meeting. 

At the rally outside La Escuelita elementary school ahead of the board meeting, participants heard speeches from OEA teachers and parent leader Pecolia Manigo, who fired up the crowd with chants of “Who’s schools? Our schools!” Manigo, a leader of the Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network (PLAN) and recent candidate for school board, said “we can get this confused, that this is just about a contract. The contract is a representation of what we want in our schools.”

As the school board meeting opened to the public, hundreds flowed into the gymnasium where the meeting was held. Ismael Armendariz’s suggestion to “cut pork at the top” sparked chants of “chop from the top,” referencing the top-heavy finances of the district’s budget, where the superintendent makes $294,000 and other administrators pull in large salaries which divert money away from schools, teachers, and children. As OEA observed in a pamphlet in 2019: “OUSD is ‘broke’ on purpose so billionaire influencers can make financial arguments for closing neighborhood schools, refusing living wages for teachers, and denying students the support they need in order to learn and grow.” The chronic lack of resources has less to do with funding and more to do with who will foot the bill. The budget will either be balanced on the backs of black and brown students, as Armendariz said in the gymnasium, or the district will need to “chop from the top”.

As the meeting continued and the floor opened for public comment, attendees spoke about the dangerous consequences of chronically underfunded schools. One teacher spoke via Zoom about finding guns in school lockers, and a student report back showed that roughly half of high school students in OUSD don’t feel safe at the school that they attend. These problems arise because schools are understaffed, which is why OEA is calling for smaller class sizes, more nurses, counselors, psychologists and school librarians. Reinvesting in our schools and fully staffing them is the only way to create safe and productive learning environments for children.

Part of the reason that Oakland schools are so understaffed is that teachers in Oakland are substantially underpaid. Oakland is one of the most expensive cities to live in the state, and one of the lowest paid for teachers in Alameda county. “Living wages continue to be an issue in Oakland,” said OEA president Keith Brown in Edsource. “An experienced teacher can move to Hayward Unified and make $28,000 more overnight.” This results in high turnover, with one in four teachers leaving the district each year. In order to increase teacher retention rates, provide quality teachers for students, and maintain a stable learning environment in public schools, Oakland Unified will need to increase salaries so that teachers don’t leave the district or change careers to meet cost of living in the Bay Area.

Finally, OEA wants to reinvest in the Community School model, which has received over $4 billion in new state funding over the past two years. Engaging parents and communities so that schools become places where neighborhoods can flourish, community schools will provide needed resources for families, organizing in and out of school to make sure that students can thrive. This will help the district fulfill another one of OEA’s common good demands, a Reparations 4 Black Students resolution which aims to eliminate the black student opportunity gap in literacy and educational outcomes, and provide resources for black families who predominantly live in the city’s most disadvantaged communities.  

Combining the teachers’ requests for living wages and better working conditions with resources that will help Oakland children thrive, OEA is mindful that without the support of the community most of their demands will go unmet. The fight for better teacher wages, better working conditions, and better schools for children are completely intertwined. This is why the union fought so hard to save Oakland schools from closure, culminating in the 4-3 vote in January to overturn last year’s decision to close five elementary schools. This is also why it continues to fight to hold on to these victories and set the stage for more gains for our schools, children, and communities in the future.

Join teachers at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater on Wed, March 15 at 2pm to demand that OUSD bargain in good faith.

Michael Sebastian is a member of the steering committee of East Bay DSA.

Revolutions Per Minute spans the Atlantic Ocean this week, exploring the parallels between Labor movements in the UK and the US, with special guest Jordan Flowers, a co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union. We speak to Stuart Richards, a senior organizer with the GMB in the UK’s West Midlands focused on Amazon workers, and James Meadway, a Council Member at the Progressive Economy Forum and a former advisor to the shadow chancellor John McDonnell MP. 

By: The People’s Transit Alliance

5 minute read

tw: racism, sexual assault

This past Saturday, Feb. 4th, 2023, was Transit Equity Day, “a collaborative effort of several organizations and unions to promote public transit as a civil right and a strategy to combat climate change…” organized by Labor 4 Sustainability. 

For Transit Equity Day 2023, the People’s Transit Alliance held a canvass of transit riders in Downtown Berkeley to discuss what improvements could be made to the bus system, the planned service redesign, and the importance of transit workers and riders building power together.

Labor 4 Sustainability chose Feb. 4th, Rosa Parks’ birthday, in order to honor her legacy as a civil rights icon, and her courageous action taken on a segregated bus on December 1, 1955. Those of us raised in the United States know the story of Rosa Parks, and her refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger.

What is less well known is her long history as an organizer for the NAACP, her radical politics, and her lifelong commitment to fighting white supremacy in the United States. 

The People’s Transit Alliance wishes to share this neglected side of Rosa Parks’ story. As we organize in her name, we must disrupt the whitewashed version of her life that is taught in schools, and used by politicians and corporations to maintain the very systems of oppression that she spent her life fighting against.

Rosa Louise McCauley was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She grew up with her maternal grandparents and mother. Her grandfather was a follower of Marcus Garvey, and taught young Parks the importance of self-defense, sitting on his porch with a shotgun when the Ku Klux Klan came into town.

She was a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church for her entire life, where she learned a “theology of liberation that affirmed the equality of all people, laid forth a Christian responsibility to act and provided sustenance to struggle against injustice.”

Mrs. Parks first met her husband, Raymond Parks, while he worked as an organizer on the Scottsboro Boys case. Mr. Parks was a committed activist and revolutionary, who often had to hold secret meetings and avoid police, who were seeking to harass and arrest him for his activism. He and Mrs. Parks attended Communist Party meetings, and worked with other important socialist and communist organizers in the Deep South.

Mrs. Parks began working with the Montgomery NAACP in 1943, where she would soon meet E.D. Nixon. Nixon, Parks, and a small group of activists at the NAACP would lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement in the decade leading up to the bus boycott. 

Parks worked as the secretary of both the Montgomery and Alabama State chapters of the NAACP, seeking justice for black women who had been raped by white men, and black men who had been wrongly accused of sexually assaulting white women.

She and Nixon represented a working class presence at the NAACP, which was often dominated by more affluent members of the black community. When the national NAACP directed local chapters to expel members with socialist or communist tendencies, Parks spoke out against the purge. The Montgomery chapter refused to carry out the resolution.

On December 1, 1955, when Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, she was not the first to do so. Claudette Colvin, who was 15 years old at the time of her arrest, had refused to give up their seat months before Parks, as had others.

In fact, it was a case against Colvin, not Parks, that was brought before the Supreme Court and led to the decision that bus segregation was illegal.

Parks’ decision to remain in her seat was not wholly spontaneous, but a result of her growing frustration with the lack of success that negotiating with the city government had produced, as well as an intimate understanding of the consequences of taking such an action.

Often, Parks’ role in the boycott is diminished. Rather, it is seen as the moment where Martin Luther King Jr. achieved national prominence. However, this version of events ignores Parks’ work as a carpool operator, and a key member of the inner circle of organizers at the Montgomery NAACP.

Eventually, due to death threats, red baiting, an inability to find work in Montgomery, and disagreements over the direction of the Civil Rights movement, Mrs. Parks and her husband were forced to move to Detroit.

In Detroit, Mrs. Parks worked tirelessly as an organizer, particularly focused on freeing political prisoners, expanding access to reproductive rights, defending the rights of women prisoners, and defending black women who had been sexually assaulted. She was a primary organizer of the Joann Little Defense Committee.

Rosa Parks’ politics were truly radical, and clearly opposed to the goals and actions of the powerful politicians who claim to honor her legacy today. She called Malcolm X her personal political hero, and believed in the power of organized nonviolent direct action and the moral right to self-defense.

In 1973, she wrote a letter that included the statement, “The attempt to solve our racial problems nonviolently was discredited in the eyes of many by the hard core segregationists who met peaceful demonstrations with countless acts of violence and bloodshed. Time is running out for a peaceful solution. It may even be too late to save our society from total destruction.”

She was a committed supporter of the Black Power movement, showing up to support radical organizations such as The Black Panthers and working alongside the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and Republic of New Afrika in the wake of the 1967 Detroit Riots.

She was also an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, apartheid in South Africa, and the march towards war in the aftermath of 9/11.

To recount the entirety of her activism, organizing, and incredible life is beyond the scope of this article. Rather, our goal with this piece is to shed light on an important piece of history that is often ignored, in favor of a quiet, modest Rosa Parks.

Organizing around public transit was not her primary political project but rather one part of a broader struggle against white supremacy, patriarchy, and imperialism. On this Transit Equity Day and beyond, The People’s Transit Alliance seeks to carry Parks’ radical history into the present and imagine organizing for a better transit system as one part of a broader struggle.

When we organize transit workers and riders, we build power at a key political and economic intersection in the East Bay. We reconnect organized labor with a radical political project, and develop concrete strategies to improve the working conditions of those that operate the transit system, which in turn improves riding conditions.

Public transit serves the East Bay’s multiracial working class. It ensures that workers can get to their jobs, the grocery store, doctor’s appointments, places of worship, friends and family, and access all parts of the city.

Improving public transit alleviates the economic burden of maintaining a car, lowers the carbon emissions that deepen the climate crisis and pollute the air we breathe, improves mobility for disabled people, and provides critical access to the working poor of the East Bay.

Transit organizing is a key priority in the fight against white supremacy, the climate crisis, patriarchy, and liberation of the working class. To honor Rosa Parks on Transit Equity Day, we must remember that we are still fighting the same systems of oppression she began fighting more than 80 years ago.

Solidarity forever!

Note: For further reading about the incredible contributions of Rosa Parks to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond, please visit these links:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/12/01/how-history-got-the-rosa-parks-story-wrong/

https://archive.org/details/rebelliouslifeof0000theo_i7s2/page/n24/mode/1up?view=theater

The People’s Transit Alliance is a project of East Bay DSA, organizing for an equitable, democratically controlled transit system that serves the multiracial working class of the East Bay and beyond.

At our 2023 Annual Convention, members voted to endorse two Priority Campaigns: a Labor RnF Strategy and a Tax the Rich Campaign.

Membership also voted for a new Steering Committee. The winners are:

• Co-Chairs: Keller S. and Kira M.
• Secretary: Eric CK.
• Treasurer: Emma D.
• Membership Organizer: Jocelyn R.
• Communications Organizer: TJ S.

Resolution and Bylaw Amendment Results

A New Approach to Organizational Structure – Passed (14-1-0)

Co-Signers: Keller S., Amber R., Mac C., Joe B.

Whereas, Syracuse DSA has undergone a change in membership engagement and committee involvement…

Whereas, the demands of Committee leadership are a significant strain on those individuals…

Whereas, several Syracuse DSA committees have dissolved or gone dormant in the last 12 months…

Whereas, there currently exists no formal mechanism for small working groups to engage in chapter work without full recognition as committees… 

Whereas, greater coordination between committees is a tangible and worthwhile goal…

Be it resolved that the Syracuse DSA Bylaws be amended to add the following language:

ADD:  Article IX, Section 5. Organizing Committee and Organizational Structure

1. The Organizing Committee (OC) of Syracuse DSA (composed of Steering Committee members and co-chairs of all chartered committees) may elect, with a simple majority, to organize chapter committees under the structure of the OC. The OC and Steering Committee (SC) will convene regular meetings in which the work of standard committee meetings takes place, for all committees that are organized under this structure. Committee members may share their work and provide updates as necessary to the entire OC in order to facilitate greater connection between committees and reduce the overall burden of scheduling for committee members. 

2. All chapter members in good standing are encouraged and welcome to attend and participate in OC meetings, and all chapter members in good standing in attendance at a given meeting will be considered voting members of the OC. 

3. The chapter Co-Chairs are responsible for convening and facilitating OC meetings but may delegate roles as needed. 

4. Regular minutes should be taken for all OC meetings, as well as for any breakout sessions that may occur. The chapter Secretary is responsible for recording minutes but may delegate responsibilities as needed. 

5. The OC may, by simply majority, empower chapter members to form Working Groups under the guidance of the OC. Working Groups must be composed of at least 2 chapter members in good standing, and may engage in organizing work similar to a full committee. Working Groups will adhere to the same duties and responsibilities of a full committee, except for leadership roles. Working Groups will not have formal or elected leadership positions and must adhere to any guidelines laid out by the OC. Working Groups should be considered temporary structures, with a goal of either disbanding at a given date or event, or converting into a full committee. Working Groups are obligated to regularly report their work and provide updates to the OC. 

Proposal to add a Labor Officer Position to the Steering Committee – Passed (15-0-0)

WHEREAS, labor organizing is fundamental to any socialist strategy to build power;

WHEREAS, because of labor organizing’s importance to all aspects of our work, it is important to institutionalize a labor focus on our Steering Committee, the most central body of our chapter;

WHEREAS, Syracuse DSA needs a purposeful, thought out labor strategy and needs leadership who can prioritize the execution of this strategy;

WHEREAS, Syracuse DSA does not and did not, for most of 2022, have a functioning labor committee;  therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that in Article V Section 1 of our bylaws the list of Steering Committee positions be edited to include a Labor Officer;

RESOLVED, that in Article V Section 5 of our bylaws the list of elected local officers be edited to include a Labor Officer;

RESOLVED, that in Article V of our bylaws a new section will be added after Section 10 which reads:

Section 11. Labor Organizer:

The Labor Organizer will be a voting member of the steering committee who will be responsible for engaging the chapter in deciding and executing a labor strategy.;

RESOLVED, that the first election for Labor Officer will be held immediately should this resolution be passed; and
RESOLVED, should this election fail to result in the election of a Labor Officer then a new election for Labor Officer will be held at the chapter’s April general meeting.

Plan a Conference of the Local Left – Passed (13-0-2)

Endorser: Brian E.

Co-endorsers: Mac C., Marianna P., Jermaine C., Jocelyn R., Emma D.

Be it resolved that the chapter will initiate the planning of a conference of the local Left to be held in the second half of 2023 or early 2024.

Be it resolved that we will initiate conversations with other local Left organizations, with an encompassing definition of the Left, including all long-term coalition partners in addition to others we might like to be in coalition with and including a variety of kinds of organizations. Conversations will determine the level of interest of each organization reached out to and solicit initial thoughts about its goals, scope, timing, length, structure and content.

Be it resolved that interested organizations will be asked about the level of involvement they will commit to, with clear expectations for each level: a) planning and coordinating, b) promoting, or c) attending.

Be it resolved that organizations that join the planning will jointly determine the overall plan for the conference and will determine what kind of content should be prioritized.

Be it resolved that Syracuse DSA will seek to strengthen mutual understanding and relationships with other conference participants, that we will foster conversations about topics that inform our work but that do not naturally arise in the course of campaigns or other current coalition work. We will seek mutual recognition of points of agreement with other Left organizations and will seek comradely understanding of points of disagreement.

Be it resolved that Syracuse DSA will seek to foster greater cooperation among local Left organizations and unorganized Leftists.

Be it resolved that all parts of Syracuse DSA, be they committees or other projects, will participate in the planning and coordination of the conference and support its success.

Resolution for An Alternative Housing Model – Passes (14-0-1)

Author: Eric CK

Co-Sponsors: Max L., TJ S.

Whereas the American housing system is built upon structures of racism and inequality, which are exacerbated by capitalism; and

Whereas our current housing system will never be able to properly address concerns of tenants and at the very best provides limited and criminally unenforced protections to said tenants; and

Whereas Syracuse’s housing stock and quality are controlled by slumlords who have no intention to properly care for or maintain property conditions; and

Whereas Syracuse has one of the highest rates of childhood lead poisoning and poverty in the United States; and 

Whereas Syracuse DSA has been an active member of the Syracuse Tenants Organizing for Power (STOP!) alongside the Syracuse Tenants Union, Party for Socialism and Liberation and members of the Communist Party and;

Now, therefore, be it resolved that Syracuse DSA recommits itself to the STOP! Coalition and building tenant power across Central New York; and

Be it further resolved that Syracuse DSA will emphasize tenant organizing by sharing STOP! trainings and events regularly with DSA membership; and 

Be it further resolved that Syracuse DSA will encourage its members to work as part of STOP! and further the coalition’s capacity for form tenant associations and further the work of the Syracuse Tenants Union (STU); and

Be it further resolved that Syracuse DSA members who are actively engaged or become actively engaged with STOP! will commit to further discussion and creation of an alternative housing model; and

Be it finally resolved that members engaged with STOP! will continue to build upon established projects, such as creating a land trust, and will work in collaboration with the other coalition members to create a sustainable and long-lasting tenant movement across Syracuse. 

Proposal to Revitalize the Labor Committee – Fails (6-6-3)

Author: Eric CK

Co-Sponsors: Emma D., TJ S., Max L., Andrew B.

Whereas labor organizing and activism have been the heartbeat of DSA and other socialist organizations; and

Whereas Syracuse is one of the most union-dense areas in the United States, having three unionized hospitals and a dozen unionized grocery stores, and strong union representation in logistics, education, and other industries; and

Whereas there has been a wave of class-struggle from the Sysco Strike, and unionization of Communication Service for the Deaf, Syracuse University Graduate Students, TCGplayer Authentication Center workers, Hamilton College student admission workers, and Starbucks baristas in Liverpool; and

Whereas several important contracts are expiring in 2023 and workers may go on strike, from UPS workers with the Teamsters and 13,000 workers at Tops Friendly Markets across Upstate NY and Northern PA  with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW); and

Whereas Syracuse DSA’s Labor Committee has been inactive since March 2022; and

Whereas we must organize on the shop floor to transform our unions into democratic organizations capable of self organizing in conflict with the capitalist class; and

Whereas Syracuse DSA needs to create a space for union members in our chapter to come together to stand in solidarity and advance their own struggles against the boss and to transform their unions; and

Now, therefore, be it resolved, that Syracuse DSA commits to reactivating our Labor Committee to serve as the basis for supporting our labor work and recruiting individuals into ongoing labor campaigns; and forming a base for our socialist organization in the working class of Syracuse 

Be it further resolved that the Labor Committee will meet monthly in a union-business, a business or location that is unionized or in the process of unionizing, including but not limited to the Liverpool Starbucks and Tops Friendly Markets Fayetteville cafe; and

Be if further resolved that the Labor Committee will serve as a space to skill-share and provide community for workers and union-members; and

Be it further resolved that Syracuse DSA, through the Labor Committee, will assist in the strengthening of socialist aligned unions and the creation and maintenance of reform caucuses in different unions at the request of other Rank and File union members; and

Be it further resolved that Syracuse DSA and the Labor Committee will work in tandem with  reform caucuses, including but not limited to, RailRoad Workers United, Reform UFCW, Teamsters for a Democratic Union, and Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAW); and

Be it further resolved that the Labor Committee will coordinate solidarity actions with working-class individuals and union campaigns, and provide assistance with the implementation of the Rank-and-File strategy as laid out in the Labor priority resolution; and

Be it further resolved that the Labor Committee will focus on providing trainings for DSA members working in the healthcare and education sectors; and

Be it further resolved that the Labor Committee will implement the Strike Ready DSA 2023! program laid out by the National Labor Committee to aid striking workers in Syracuse, Central New York, and beyond; and

Be it further resolved that the Labor Steering Committee Officer should regularly communicate with and act on the advice of the Labor Committee. 

Be it finally resolved that the Labor Committee will involve local labor members in its work and work alongside other DSA committees to ensure that the priorities and needs of workers and union members are addressed in all of DSA’s work. 

The post Chapter Convention 2023 Results appeared first on Syracuse DSA.

Drag is an art with deep roots in New York City’s queer communities of color that has much to offer to all people who are interested in liberating themselves from traditional and patriarchal ideas of gender. That’s part of why it’s become a target of the organized far-right both here in NYC and nationally, with public libraries and other community venues facing protests over their regularly offered drag performances and story hours. Local politicians have also experienced far-right threats for merely expressing support for drag. On tonight’s edition of Revolutions per Minute, we’re live with Drag Story Hour NYC storyteller Oliver and  organizer and parent Desiree to discuss the many aspects of drag, and how New Yorkers have come together to reject the far-right threat and show the beauty and power of queer community.  

To learn more about Drag Story Hour NYC, visit dshnyc.org. 

January 17, 2023

The Charlotte Metro Democratic Socialists of America steering committee calls on the CATS bus system contractor RATP DEV USA to accept CATS workers’ collective bargaining demands.

Over the last few months of negotiation, CATS’s contractor has been trying to push a raw deal on bus operators. The company is threatening to cut pensions, remove dependents from their health insurance coverage, and ignore bus operator’s safety concerns. After years of pandemic and inflation it’s unconscionable that an employer would threaten to stop covering medical expenses for loved ones, and pretend a raise below inflation would make up for this. 

The bus operators have voted 254-14 to strike, which may begin as early as February 6th if the company continues to ignore their workers’ concerns. This strike will undeniably inconvenience many people who depend on public transit. We are disappointed that CATS and many local media sources have framed this as the fault of the workers. The workers are going on strike to defend the benefits they currently have and win the dignity we all deserve. It’s the company’s  focus on profits over their workers that is threatening to hurt riders.
As climate change increasingly threatens society, we need to do everything we can to cut back on emissions. This includes investing in our public transportation and the workers who operate it. If we let our city and its contractor keep mistreating the workers and families that keep the buses running, we’re going to struggle to find enough workers to keep up with the transit expansions we’ll need to avoid the worst of climate change.

We stand with our bus operators and their authorization to strike. A win for them is a win for all of us. It’s a win for public transportation, a win against climate change, and most importantly, a win against capitalist exploitation.

Solidarity Forever!

Charlotte Metro Democratic Socialists of America Steering Committee

By Michael Sebastian

Parker students marched with teachers and DSA members to Markham Elementary School last year to protest the closure of their school. (Photo: Stephanie Hung)

On January 11, Oakland’s educators and the community scored a signal victory in their years-long fight to end the closure and privatization of public schools. Within days of being seated on the school board, two new members endorsed by the Oakland Education Association, Valarie Bachelor and Jennifer Brouhard, joined a 4-3 majority to overturn last year’s school closure plan.

The closures faced mass opposition from parents, teachers and students, prompting protests and packed town halls. More than 2,000 attended last year’s virtual school board meeting on February 9, when the board voted to approve the closures. Public comments were unanimously opposed, arguing that the closures fell disproportionately on low-income, majority-black districts in Oakland, and were not needed in the face of a record budget surplus in California and a district superintendent with a base salary of $294,000. “OUSD has had a pattern of targeting schools with black and brown students populations for closures, effectively balancing the budget on the backs of our most marginalized students,” said Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, an Oakland teacher and OEA vice-president. “It has caused generations of harm.” The vote by the previous school board further eroded trust in a board seen as dominated by charter-school interests, setting the stage for the replacement of several board members in the 2022 elections.

This month’s vote reversing the closure plan saves five elementary schools that were slated to close this year: Brookfield, Carl B. Munck, Grass Valley, Horace Mann, and Korematsu Discovery Academy. In addition, the middle school grades at Hillcrest K8 will be preserved. The vote does not undo last year’s closure of Parker and Community Day elementary, and La Escuelita’s middle school. 

Manufactured Crises Pave the Way for Charters

Despite California’s chronic underfunding of public education, the debt piled onto OUSD when the state put it in receivership in 2003, and chronic deficits since then, the closure of public schools is not the only solution to fiscal woes. The crux of the problem is that the district is spending the money it does have on the wrong things: too many administrators and consultants who are not supporting teachers and students. As Majority observed in 2019, “OUSD spends $30 million more on its central office than other comparable school districts in California. In the 2014-15 school year, if OUSD had reduced its central office spending to the comparison group average, it could have freed up $14 million.”

In fact, closing schools is a false solution. Districts receive per-pupil state funding for the number of students attending, so the more students that the district cedes to private and charter schools, the less money it receives for public schools. By closing public schools, the district only encourages parents to seek alternatives since their child’s own school could be next on the chopping block. Oakland has become a “charter boomtown” according to one KQED report, and in the decade after 2000 the number of charters “more than tripled”. But charters have the option of picking children that do better in school and have less need for support. This leaves public schools in a self-perpetuating cycle, with more high-needs students and fewer resources to support them. Schools then have to cut back on materials and extracurricular activities, which further incentivizes families to leave.

OEA Fights Back

The Oakland Education Association, the union representing Oakland’s public school teachers, made its opposition to school closures a centerpiece of its seven-day strike in 2019. “For decades a grassroots movement in Oakland has fought against the forces of privatization for equity, local control, and well resourced neighborhood public schools,” said OEA president Keith Brown. “The power of this collective effort grew when community and labor joined OEA in our 2019 strike.” 

Brown noted that the strike “brought many improvements for students and re-energized our fight for education justice in Oakland.”  Among those improvements was a brief moratorium on school closures and charter school expansion, and a contract provision that required the district to give OEA and the community a year’s advance notice of its plans to shutter more schools to allow for full community engagement before a decision is made.

Last February, when the district violated that provision, the struggle continued to grow. Teachers and the community organized a week of action against school closures in February, including a mass rally and march, as two teachers at Westlake middle school held a hunger strike. 

These actions culminated in a one-day unfair labor practice strike on April 29 by OEA teachers protesting the district’s breach of the notice provision in their contract. 

Then, as Election Day approached, the California Department of Justice opened up a probe into Oakland’s school closures for potential violation of student’s civil rights, driven in part by a complaint filed by OEA. 

Winning Change at the Ballot Box and in the Bargaining Campaign

But the union’s efforts to protect Oakland’s public schools didn’t stop there. After a disappointing meeting in June in which the school board failed to reverse its decision, organizing efforts shifted to the school board election in November. 

OEA endorsed three candidates, Jennifer Brouhard, Valarie Bachelor, and Pecolia Manigo, who ran on a platform that included reversing the closures. Brouhard and Bachelor won their elections, shifting the balance of power on the board and culminating in this month’s 4-3 vote to reverse the closures. At the emergency board meeting, Bachelor called on “every single board member sitting here today to approve this resolution to make sure that we stop the harm that we’ve already caused our families and make sure that we support these school sites moving forward.” She noted that, “as a Parker Elementary School community member, I saw the devastating impact of the school closures on our community and I don’t want that to happen across the city, especially in East Oakland.”

OEA president Brown credits the reversal of the school-closure decision to “the people power of Oakland,” and he sees the fight of students, families, workers and community for “for equity, local control, and increased resources prioritizing students and families” continuing to grow. “The fight continues this spring as Oakland educators organize to win a contract that addresses the crisis in educator salaries and supports schools that are safe, stable, and racially just.”

As it begins bargaining over a new contract, OEA has put forward a “Common Good” proposal to diversify the curriculum, address racial disparities, and protect our public schools from closure. This plan calls for reinvestment in the Community School model, which has been shown to be a successful alternative to school closures, and received over $4 billion in new state funding over the past two years. The OEA bargaining proposal also outlines a set of guidelines to reallocate resources, consult with the community, and do a thorough analysis before any school closure takes place. Charter schools that do not meet AB1505 regulations would also be returned to OUSD. 

“This victory has been a long journey!,” reflected OEA second vice president Taiz-Rancifer. “Today we need to remember there is not one sole hero in this story. We need to acknowledge all the work done by so many advocates, organizers, parents, educators, and students who have put their hearts on the line and helped us get to this point. Today, we must remember harm caused to many families, school staff, and educators that have been affected by closures. Now and in the future we must stay vigilant because this is a victory in a larger fight against privatization in Oakland.”

Michael Sebastian is a member of the steering committee of East Bay DSA.

The Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America condemns the murder of an Atlanta Forest Defender by the Georgia State Troopers. This killing is the latest act of state violence taken against the Forest Defenders, and the local authorities aim to misrepresent it as an act of self-defense to absolve themselves of responsibility. Over several months, the police have escalated their attack on Forest Defenders using violent tactics, in an attempt to suppress public opinion and organized political dissent to building a costly, corporate-funded cop training facility. Wednesday morning’s raid represents a clear escalation by law enforcement who orchestrated a violent eviction of protestors from public land. Atlanta DSA maintains our full support for the democratic rights of all people to peacefully protest this development and defend Atlanta’s public forests from destruction. As socialists, we should always condemn attempts by police and the far-right to mischaracterize Left-wing activists as “outside agitators” or “domestic terrorists.”

Atlanta has the highest income inequality in America, yet all the corporate Democratic and Republican officials have to offer is environmental destruction and more state violence. Cop City is both an ecological and racial justice issue, with both Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp calling for the destruction of much of Atlanta’s South River Forest as well as the expansion of the carceral system through a $90 million dollar cop facility. We stand firmly with the working-class communities who overwhelmingly oppose the destruction of public forests, and who squarely reject the construction of an 85 acre police base in their backyards. We call on Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta City Council to shut down construction and cancel the city’s plans for a new cop academy. We reiterate calls for an independent investigation of this recent murder by police, which should be shielded from the corrupt political agenda of local officials and the Atlanta Police Foundation.

As socialists committed to environmental justice and the abolition of the carceral state, we ask our comrades and the community to donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund to provide bail support to protestors arrested in Atlanta. You can follow and find more ways to support the movement at defendtheatlforest.org and @defendtheATLforest.

Statement co-written by Atlanta DSA and the National DSA Abolition Working Group

Workers at America’s only major unionized publishing house, HarperCollins, went on strike in early November of last year after their contract expired in April. As their strike approaches day 50 with little response from management, workers are standing strong on the picket line and fighting for higher wages, real racial equity on the job, and a union security agreement or “agency shop”. Tonight, we hear from bargaining committee member Carly Katz on how workers are standing up to a company owned by right-wing media conglomerate NewsCorp and how their union is sustaining the longest strike in their shop’s history.

 

In other New York labor news, Senate Judiciary Committee hearings started Wednesday January 18 for Governor Hochul’s nominee for the next chief judge of the state’s top court. In the weeks since Hochul announced her nomination of Hector LaSalle to the Court of Appeals, labor unions have joined with the abortion rights movement, socialists in office, and Senate progressives to oppose a judge with an alarming record on labor and abortion rights. Last week, TWU International president John Samuelsen broke with NY Labor and refused to denounce LaSalle. We’ll hear from transit worker John Ferretti on why he won’t be following his union leadership and what the LaSalle story can tell us about the power of organized labor in our city.

 

Find ways to support and follow HarperCollins Union here: https://linktr.ee/hcpunion