Welcome to FINALS WEEK at Revolutions per Minute. Inspired by the developing tuition strike at Columbia-Barnard and other actions around the country, we’re focusing on workers and students organizing on campus. Our live guest, David Duhalde, will speak on the history of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, DSA’s campus-oriented arm and a crucial part of our diverse socialist movement. We also hear from Michele of CUNY Adjuncts on their struggle against austerity and for a human-centered approach to graduate labor. Finally, farmers’ protests have made global headlines as millions of workers fight back against neoliberalism in India. We’ll end our show tonight with a brief interview with Jagpreet of Queens DSA on these massive protests and the governmental policies that provoked them.

 

To learn more about the Columbia-Barnard tuition strike, visit linktr.ee/columbiaydsa.

 

Tired of austerity measures like those that threaten CUNY adjuncts? Tax the rich! This week, NYC-DSA, NYCC, Empire State Indivisible, and DSA chapters around NYS are throwing down to protect our communities from budget cuts. As part of their Tax The Rich week of action, their campaign is calling people across New York state to pressure Albany to Tax the Rich to fund our future. NY is facing a budget deficit of over 50 billion and we need Albany to act in the new year to pass over 50 billion in new taxes on the rich to save our state from catastrophe. Go to taxtherichnys.com to get involved.

The CDC Evictions Moratorium is set to expire at the end of the calendar year. People in Indiana are still being evicted, and the eviction crisis is only going to […]

Last week, many New Yorkers celebrated Thanksgivings, but for members of the Shinnecock Nation it was recognized as a Day of Mourning and the end of Sovereignty Camp 2020, a multi-week encampment led by Indigenous women of the Shinnecock Nation to call on New York State to drop their lawsuit over a monumental billboard the nation has put up to bring in economic development to its members who are suffering from hundreds of years of violent settler colonialism. We’ll talk with Shinnecock tribal member and lawyer Tela (tea-la) Troge about Sovereignty Camp 2020 and the nation's centuries long struggles to defend their ancestral territory. We’ll also be joined by comrades from Suffolk DSA to talk about their campaign to Defund the Police and organize to build democratic socialism in a uniquely conservative region of Downstate New York. The Shinnecock Nation lawsuit link: https://linktr.ee/WarriorsoftheSunrise Suffolk DSA Campaign: bit.ly/SteveAndTimListen to email and call Steve Bellone and Tim Sini

On September 22nd, a two-thirds majority voted to join the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 993. As of November 30th, their employer Herzog Transit Services Inc. (HTSI) has yet to formally recognize their union: HTSI is still making terminations and policy changes without ATU’s consultation.  Dangerous Work Conditions Oklahoma County has been a hotbed for […]

On January 5th, Georgia will be at the center of national attention for runoff races that will decide the party leadership of the United States Senate. While Metro Atlanta DSA holds no allegiance to any capitalist political party, we recognize the significance of these races and the issues at stake.

In addition to the US Senate, there is also a closely contested election for Public Service Commission, an agency which oversees utility rates, power company regulations, and access to broadband across the state.

Metro Atlanta DSA believes the working class should be informed about the workings of government, and the issues at stake in elections. Our members have worked to put together the following voter guide that discusses the races on the ballot, the significance of the offices being decided, and provides information about how to reliably and safely vote in this election.

Over the course of this runoff campaign, Metro Atlanta DSA plans to be actively organized in supporting voting rights, as well canvassing and phone banking voters about key working class issues at stake. Join MADSA if you want to be involved!

The winter holiday season of 2020 begins this week, bringing with it opportunities for challenging and fruitful conversations about the hot topics of religion and politics. On this week’s show, we speak with members of NYC-DSA’s Religion and Socialism Working Group on how faith and spirituality blend with our socialist organizing efforts. We also hear an update from our South Brooklyn branch and Sunset Park Popular Assembly on the inhumane conditions at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, a Federal prison in our backyard, and the organizing to demand justice for murdered inmate Jamel Floyd.

To contact the RS Working Group, you can email: religious.socialism@socialists.nyc or follow @ReligSocialism on Twitter or @religoussocialism on Instagram. 

RSVP for the next working group meeting  https://actionnetwork.org/events/religion-socialism-december-2020-meeting

The RSWG is also co-sponsoring a Tax the Rich teach-in on Tuesday, December 1st: https://actionnetwork.org/events/nyc-dsa-121-tax-the-rich-campaign-teach-in

For more details on the December 4th action at MDC and the demand for Justice for Jamel, follow https://www.instagram.com/sunsetassembly/

Jewish Traditions of Socialism Our latest episode of ‘Heart of a Heartless World’ is a recording of our October 26th webinar conversation between Rev. Andrew Wilkes and Rabbi Andy Bachman, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Project and former senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim, about how Jewish traditions of socialism, from Martin Buber’s reflections on Utopia to the labor organizing and organic intellectuals of the early twentieth century, have helped create a political economy where workers’ dignity and decision making power is prioritized and can, going forward, inform and inspire contemporary movements of religious socialism.

If you think the election of Joe Biden means the defeat of fascism, think again. The twenty-first century American fascist beast feeds off the monstrous rot of neoliberalism. DSA member and union organizer Brendan O’Connor joins RPM to discuss his new book, Blood Red Lines: How Nativism Fuels the Right. We also hear directly from organizers who experienced police brutality at the Black Lives Matter protests this past summer. https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1519-blood-red-lines

John D'Emilio joins "Heart of a Heartless World" to discuss the history of Bayard Rustin, a Quaker and democratic socialist who introduced nonviolent tactics to the civil rights movement and organized the March on Washington. After years of organizing protests, Rustin argued after Lyndon B. Johnson's election that the left needed to move "from protest to politics" and engage directly with the political system while building broad-based coalitions. In this episode John D'Emilio charts the similarities between Rustin's engagement with LBJ's administration and the left's challenge with an incoming Biden administration. John D’Emilio is a pioneer in the field of gay and lesbian studies and is professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he taught in the Gender and Women’s Studies Program and the Department of History. He is currently president of the board of the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, a Chicago community-based LGBTQ history archives and cultural center. Resources: John D'Emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin (2003): https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo3644370.html Interview with John D'Emilio with Meagan Day, "Capitalism made gay identity possible. Now we must destroy capitalism." (2020): https://jacobinmag.com/2020/08/gay-identity-capitalism-lgbt John D'Emilio, "Capitalism and Gay Identity" (1983): https://sites.middlebury.edu/sexandsociety/files/2015/01/DEmilio-Capitalism-and-Gay-Identity.pdf John D'Emilio, Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago's LGBTQ Archives, (2020): https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/Q/bo44312771.html

Our latest episode of ‘Heart of a Heartless World’ is a recording of a webinar DSA’s NYC chapter hosted with faith leaders on how American apocalyptic thinking gets in the way building a better future, how to decolonize the apocalypse, and the potential for societal transformation through a just transition towards ecosocialism. On October 13th Ryan Felder (3rd Year MDiv at Union Theological Seminary) facilitated the panel which included Rev. Chelsea MacMillan (interfaith minister, Extinction Rebellion Activist, and co-founder Brooklyn Center for Sacred Activism), Shay O’Reily (Lutheran lay leader and climate organizer), and Nathan Albright (writer with The Flood and Catholic Worker). 
 Our next webinar discussion will feature Rev. Andrew Wilkes and Rev. Sekou, artist, author, and public theologian, in conversation about the ethical and religious streams of the Black radical tradition on Thursday, November 19th. For more information and to register: https://www.religioussocialism.org/next_religious_socialism_webinar_the_spirit_of_black_radical_traditions