After three long weeks, Putin’s war with Ukraine has devastated the region with mass shellings of Ukrainian towns and villages, and bombings that have included hospitals and kindergartens. All of this has been under the banal guise of a [quote] “special military operation”, words which ring hollow to any Leftist familiar with the lies of Imperial Powers. This assault has taken thousands of Ukrainian lives and made tens of thousands more into refugees. With lines of Russian tanks that stretch for miles, marching onward to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, it can be easy to forget that this war carries the weight of history. To explore some of the deeper, historical complexities that led to this war, covering past, present, and future, we talked with Volodymyr Ishchenko, a Ukrainian sociologist and scholar of Eastern European history. Meanwhile back here in New York City, tens of thousands suffer under the regime of mass incarceration. Starting at the age of 15, Prakash Churaman lost six years of his life in pretrial detention after being forced into a false confession by the NYPD. Authorities claim he murdered his best friend, but there is no physical or forensic evidence linking him to the crime. Only the words of a scared, young kid locked in a room. Prakash proclaims his innocence and refuses to take any plea deal. Despite limited access to the outside world, Prakash organized to gather bail money for his release. Last week we spoke with Prakash and his lawyer Jose Nieves about his story and the Free Prakash Alliance.

The city of Lakeland is in talks about further criminalizing homelessness and poverty as well as cracking down on the organizations who step in to help their neighbors.
Private citizens and organizations have been handing out food to anyone in need for years in public parks like Munn Park, Webster Park and Dobbins Park with the support of the community. These organizations are providing hundreds of meals and drinks, free clothing, hygiene and personal supplies, books and art supplies, and more to anyone in need in Lakeland.
People will often walk up to tables and give kind words and even offer to come back with donations. Community members support these programs and it’s their encouragement that keeps them going. These organizations are led by local citizens who got started because everyday people are coming up and asking for help.
It’s a misconception that the only people who need help are unhoused. There are working people who can’t afford lunch, elderly people on fixed income, families and children who have run out of benefits for the month, people with disabilities, and people who just find themselves needing some extra help that day.
All of the groups who are providing mutual aid and services to their community are well within their rights to do so. As noted by the city attorney in the linked Ledger article, public sharing of food is legally considered a protected First Amendment right that’s strongly protected in places like public parks and sidewalks. There’s been many court cases establishing that limiting the ability to provide free meals to the public is a violation of free speech and free association.
If you support this kind of work and enjoy living in a community that is made up of active and compassionate people, please use the QR code in the graphic or follow the link below to send a letter to the Lakeland City Commission and the Mayor telling them that you do not want further criminalization of homelessness and you do not want laws passed preventing churches, organizations, or private citizens from helping their neighbors and community.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/oppose-anti-homeless-measures-in-lakeland

By Pinellas DSA member Bruce Nissen

Editors note: at the end of this post, you will find a link to a presentation by Bruce Nissen on this subject, as a supplement to this post.

As a DSA member who is over 70 years old, I’m finding that a lot of my young comrades are very curious about what it was like in the 1960s and early 1970s. And, mystifying to me, a number of them are fascinated by tales I can tell of my “radical student days” during those years. I’ve never thought my own life was all that interesting, but I will admit that the late 1960s were indeed very, very interesting times. I am very grateful that I came to political maturity in that period; it certainly shaped the trajectory of rest of my life.

One enormous part of the 1960s campus milieu was the music. Especially folk music and rock music were integral to the emerging “youth culture,” and some of it took on a decidedly political tone. Here I want to highlight one very radical singer-songwriter of the time who apparently very few of my younger friends have ever heard of. I saw him live numerous times; he was a major radicalizing force to me and many others. He was one of my heroes.

His name was Phil Ochs. He was a contemporary of Bob Dylan and they both emerged from the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early/mid-sixties. Dylan of course went on to fame and fortune and a long life. Phil had a much more tragic trajectory; he took his own life in 1976 when at the bottom of one of his manic-depressive cycles. Despite this sad ending, Phil was an incredible songwriter and performer who influenced many of us at the time.

What I want to do here is introduce my younger DSA comrades to Phil Ochs, primarily through exposure to his songs and performances. What follows is a series of links to YouTube videos of Phil Ochs performances.

Many (although not all) of Phil’s songs were topical commentaries on the events of the day. With the Vietnam War raging, opposition to that war was a common Phil Ochs topic. Here is Draft Dodger Rag, one of the first of his songs I ever heard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFFOUkipI4U

Another anthem of the anti-Vietnam War movement was his song I Ain’t Marching Anymore:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRU_ruqnR6Q

And as the war dragged on into the 1970s, his song The War is Over was his attempt to hasten its demise. Here he is performing it live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOs9xYUjY4I

Of course, the Vietnam War was not his only target. Here is his anthem against police, I Kill Therefore I Am: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQBLBvi67fw

Some of his music consisted of tributes to those songwriters who had gone before him who he admired. One was Woody Guthrie, America’s troubadour who wrote This Land is Your Land and many other songs, and who was much more radical than the sanitized version of him that has been passed down to us. Here is Phil’s salute to Woody, Bound for Glory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xONuHXndRuI

Another radical singer/songwriter of earlier vintage that he greatly admired was Joe Hill, the organizer for the radical union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or Wobblies). Here is Phil’s song The Ballad of Joe Hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kozWk8Ff_Xg

Not all of Phil Och’s songs were overtly political. He also wrote some haunting ballads that are more personal. Here I want to simply highlight two that have been covered by many other artists. First up, perhaps his most beautiful song of all time, Changes (this one has a lot of great pictures of Phil in the video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlVfVBFdMaM

And his There But for Fortune has also been covered by many other artists and folksingers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smlg7sPUmRs

There are so many more Phil Ochs songs that are burned into my brain, but I fear that this could go on too long, so I won’t put any more in this article. In his final years, as his life was unravelling he went through a “gold lame suit” Elvis Presley-Merle Haggard phase that failed to connect his radical politics with his gestures toward American pop culture: his old fans hated it and apolitical pop music fans did not pick up on his music at all. Near the end he wrote some extremely poignant and revealing songs, like Crucifixion, Another Age, My Life, Chords of Fame and others. You can find almost all of these and many more on YouTube. In addition a fair bit of his music is possible to buy. There is a documentary film on his life There But for Fortune and folk musicians still celebrate his life and legacy through tribute get-togethers around the country.

He was an extremely flawed human being. But at the time he was my hero. I’m hard pressed to think of any contemporary vocal artists today who play a similar role to the one he played in the 1964–1974 period. I believe my young DSA comrades would benefit from an acquaintance with his work.

A presentation on the subject by the author can be found here: https://youtu.be/JFMPEfUoz6s

Tonight on RPM we continue our series of conversations with DSA’s 2022 For The Many candidate slate with Illapa Sairitupac. Illapa is social worker and climate organizer who has been endorsed by NYC-DSA for Assembly District 65, a Lower East Side district once held by the notorious Sheldon Silver.  We’ll talk to Illapa about running a campaign for working class New Yorkers in a district that also includes the capital of capitalism: Wall Street.

We’ll also hear from members of the NYC-DSA Housing Working Group who were out canvassing in lower Manhattan with Illapa this weekend for the Right to Remain campaign - to pass the Good Cause Eviction bill.

Plus a breaking news update on the REI Soho Union vote with Amy Wilson. 

For more info on Illapa: https://illapa.nyc/

To learn more about Right to Remain and the NYC-DSA Housing Working Group: https://linktr.ee/nycdsa_housing

March 3, 2022

The Ithaca, New York chapter of Democratic Socialists of America condemns the agents of military aggression, including the Putin regime in Russia and NATO forces, whose bids for global control have driven the crisis in Ukraine and endangered civilians throughout the region and the world who need a just transition to a humane economy and a livable planet—NOT a war on behalf of ruling class interests. 

 

Putin is an expansionist who governs on behalf of the rich and powerful, and who aims to reconstruct the territories of the Soviet Union. His invasion of Ukraine and his claim that Ukrainians can have no identity separate from Russians violate principles of self-determination and international law that all advocates of peace must uphold. Putin has manipulated history and claims of genocide to justify unleashing Russia’s military might against the people of Ukraine. He has jeopardized the lives of countless civilians, further destabilized the world, and generated new refugee disasters. These crimes can only fuel militarism and far-right extremism within and beyond the region. Russian imperialism must be denounced. We reject the twisted logic that holds that “Socialists condemn U.S. foreign policy; Putin condemns U.S. foreign policy; so socialists should condone Putin.”  

  

At the same time, the U.S. and its allies deserve condemnation for their aggression in Eastern Europe and around the globe. U.S. efforts to promote a western-friendly Ukraine are designed to surround Russia while sinking the roots of global capitalism deeper in the region. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact provided an opportunity to dismantle NATO, a machine of permanent Cold War conflict. Instead, the U.S. helped NATO expand and threatened to bring Ukraine into the alliance, a provocation that amounts to installing missiles in Russia’s backyard. U.S. condemnations of Russian violence are absurdly hypocritical. The world’s chief invader, the U.S. in the last two decades has killed almost a million people while pouring trillions of dollars into a crusade for oil, power and wartime profit. The so-called War on Terror has spread chaos and bloodshed across Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, and other parts of the Middle East and Africa. Meanwhile the U.S. has continued its tradition of interfering in the affairs of sovereign nations in Latin America and elsewhere. The U.S. and NATO’s obscene assault on Libya a few years ago no doubt helped provoke Putin’s latest act of hostility in Ukraine.

 

People of conscience in the U.S. have a special duty to oppose American imperialism and reject its lies. That means exposing the dishonesty of American warmakers and their servants in the corporate media. U.S. political elites mouth democratic ideals while relentlessly pursuing global capitalism. Their calls for security and human rights are meant to camouflage war profiteering and empire-building. By accepting the demonization of foreign adversaries, ordinary Americans serve the private interests of a ruthless ruling class. We refuse to vilify the Russian people. As the discredited War on Terror loses its power to justify endless conflict, we must not let our government reignite Cold War hostilities or launch new overseas adventures. 

 

We must also unmask the racist hypocrisy behind western outrage over Russia. Where is the outcry against routine violations of Palestinian self-determination? Where is the anguish over the suffering caused by U.S. air strikes and lopsided warfare in the Global South? We must combat the white supremacist logic that normalizes violence against brown-skinned people while portraying military clashes between Europeans as unthinkable disasters. 

 

It is our responsibility as Americans to resist the warmongering of our leaders, just as it is the Russian people’s responsibility to defy the antihuman agenda of their political elites. We reject all forms of aggression, including sanctions, which disproportionately harm vulnerable civilians. Sending Ukraine more U.S. military aid and weapons can only further destabilize the region while empowering the far right.  

 

We demand an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of foreign troops, and an end to brinkmanship. We demand that Russia and NATO deescalate, and that all parties in the Ukrainian dispute seek diplomatic solutions. We stand with the brave Russians who have protested their government, and with the besieged Ukrainians who seek survival and coexistence. 

 

We recognize that the threat of mass bloodshed and nuclear war casts a perverse shadow over the dreams of the masses for dignity and peace. We pledge to work for the demilitarization of our planet, and to seek the ecological repair and the reorganization of power and wealth that a world without war requires.  

 

We call on people of conscience everywhere to participate in mass rallies and other actions in the name of a just peace. Soldiers, defy orders! Civilians, oppose nationalism and militarism! No war but class war!

Ithaca DSA Steering Committee

We stand in solidarity with the working class of Ukraine and Russia, who are not responsible for the violence and chaos currently being orchestrated in Eastern Europe, yet will be its ultimate victims. We support the anti-war protestors in Russia as well as Ukrainian expatriates whose families are being affected by the invasion. The United States should unconditionally accept Ukrainian refugees who are forced to leave their country as a result of this conflict. As socialists, we oppose authoritarianism, imperialism, and war in all its forms. As always, the rich and powerful will push for further American military intervention, as well as increased military spending, and we must oppose this at all costs. This conflict cannot be resolved positively with guns, tanks, or nukes, but with a unified international diplomatic response. We must say, “No to War!” 

 

– WSILDSA Steering Committee

The specter and reality of war haunts humanity. The imperialist expansion of NATO and right-wing Russian nationalism continue to escalate tensions in the Ukraine, where CIA backed fascist paramilitaries roam the streets. While Russian invasion would prove devastating for the workers of the world, further US intervention would only make things worse. War is only rational for the profiteers in the military industrial complex. Deescalation and peace are the only sensible pathways for those who value human life. A devastating war in the Middle East rages on with deafening silence from the corporate media. Saudi jets drop American made bombs on Yemeni civillians. Bombardment has not only reduced cities to rubble, but has shaken the economy to its core. Dylan and Kawthar join us to discuss the horrifying US backed Saudi led genocide in Yemen and the efforts by antiimperialists in the United States to organize to end it. Join the rally in front of Meeks’ Jamaica office on March 1st 12pm, 153-01 Jamaica Ave Call 1-833-STOP-WAR Ask them to oppose an FTO designation as well (this is more recent) every75seconds.org Yemeni Alliance Committee Is continuing to lobby around this, Adam Schiff’s office NYC-DSA Anti-War Working Group Email us, antiwar@socialists.nyc Follow us, @nycDSAantiwar

Peninsula DSA Endorses James Coleman for CA State Assembly (AD 21)

On February 20, 2022, members of Peninsula DSA (PDSA) voted to enthusiastically endorse PDSA member James Coleman in his grassroots, corporate-free campaign for California State Assembly in newly redrawn District 21, which now represents eastern San Mateo County from Brisbane and South San Francisco down to East Palo Alto. Because James favors bold, uncompromising action to effect popular progressive policies such as raising the minimum wage, instituting higher taxes on the ultra wealthy, and increasing spending on health care, education, and infrastructure, he is the best candidate to bring about transformative change for working people on the Peninsula, and he is well positioned to win the primary election in June 2022. In 2020, James successfully ran as a Democratic Socialist against 18-year incumbent and mayor Richard Garbarino, winning a city council seat in his hometown of South San Francisco with over 52 percent of the votes. As South San Francisco’s first openly LGBTQ+ and youngest-ever City Councilmember, James has a track record of looking out for the interests of the working class. So far he has been instrumental in

1. building broad support for the Early Care and Education for All South San Francisco ballot measure campaign (modeled after Portland DSA’s successful measure in Multnomah County, OR) to bring universal preschool to all working families in South City;
2. passing a citywide Medicare for All resolution, which helped secure outgoing CA Assemblymember Kevin Mullin’s commitment to vote Yes on CalCare (AB 1400); and
3. advocating for union-constructed multi-family housing—including mixed-income social housing—to solve the dual crises of decreased housing stock and increased numbers of unhoused neighbors on the Peninsula.

In addition to organizing with PDSA, James was actively involved in Harvard College Students for Bernie Sanders, and in spring 2020 helped transition the group to a Young DSA chapter (Harvard Young DSA). A proponent of bold action on climate, James has also been involved with the Alliance for Climate Education, the Harvard Undergraduates for Environmental Justice, and Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard. James Coleman has also earned the endorsements of SEIU California, the San Francisco Berniecrats, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Courage to Change PAC, Daybreak PAC, Project Super Bloom, Reach Coalition (allyship), Downballot Progress, Run for Something, and current DSA-endorsed elected officials: CA Assemblymember Alex Lee (AD 25), Redwood City Councilmember Lissette Espinoza-Garnica, and San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston.

Hello, this is the March 1st, 2022 Primary San Antonio Democratic Socialists of America Voters Guide. There are no SADSA endorsed candidates on the ballot this cycle.

All candidates named in this guide are recommended, but San Antonio DSA did not actively campaign on their behalf. Candidates/propositions must seek the endorsement of SADSA and our general membership votes on the decision to endorse. Several community members have reached out to SADSA for a voter guide, so we have created one. It is by no means expansive and does not cover every race in our area, but we hope this can help inform your decisions if you’re looking to a socialist organization for electoral advice. Our struggles go beyond the ballot box, but it is a site of struggle that we cannot withdraw from. We can take it back if we fight together. Join San Antonio DSA.

If you have any questions or comments, please email SanAntonioDSA@gmail.com.

Click here to view full voter guide