Tonight on our show we will be talking about our host Desiree Joy Frias' home of the South Bronx where capitalist interests and government failures are continuing to cost lives.

 

In the middle of brutal winter weather and yet another Covid spike, tenants are once again mobilizing to defend against evictions and build working-class power with all of New York City’s residents, including the 1 in 12 New Yorkers who live in public or section 8 housing. Last week’s tragic and preventable Twin Parks fire on 181st street in the Bronx and yesterday’s Con Edison explosion on Fox Street less than two miles away are just the latest examples of the ongoing violence of landlord neglect and failures by the federal and local government to provide adequate public housing and public infrastructure. Con Edison is responsible for yesterday’s explosion that killed one, injured seven  and  leveled an entire row home in the South Bronx. This exploitative monopoly spends millions in lobbying fees to fight green projects and remain the sole provider of power to over 12 million customers.  

 

To discuss these preventable tragedy and how socialists are organizing for tenant power, we're live in the studio with RPM comrade and fellow Bronx/Upper Manhattan DSA member Bernard  Goyder and an organizer from NYC-DSA’s Brooklyn Housing Working Group, Isaac. Tonight you’ll learn about NYC-DSA’s Right to Remain campaign to pass Good Cause Eviction, transformative legislation that will protect millions of tenants just like us. Keeping with the uptown theme, we’ll also hear an update on the successful strike by the Student Workers of Columbia.

 

Get organized, get involved, help your neighbor, call your legislator: https://linktr.ee/nycdsa_housing

 

Read more on South Bronx Mutual Aid and others' efforts to support tenants in the Bronx: https://twitter.com/booksandrose/status/1483854067457826822?s=20

Last week, against the backdrop of the most dangerous period of the COVID-19 pandemic, City Council voted to increase our CPS Energy rates. During a period that has found teachers, students, service workers, and the highest rate of city employees out on COVID leave, we are being urged to stay home, to stop the spread, but no further federal assistance is coming. Instead, residents of San Antonio are being forced to bear the brunt of CPS Energy’s mismanagement.

We commend our DSA endorsed City Councilmembers, Jalen Mckee-Rodriguez and Teri Castillo, for voting against the rate hike. Other Council Members gave lip service to the idea of reforming CPS Energy, without using their power to force any committed change. The Council discussion made clear who is listened to: it’s the CEOs and business executives who run a utility which we, the people, own. Who knows if Rudy Garza will be here to see any of these commitments through? Former CEO Paula Gold Williams certainly isn't, but we, the working class ratepayers of San Antonio will be here.

Since the fallout of Winter Storm Uri, it was clearly only a matter of time before the cost of the storm would be pushed onto working class people. On the first CPS Energy Board of Trustees call following the storm, over 140 people delivered public comments identifying the failures of CPS Energy. At nearly every single CPS Rate Adjustment Town Hall, the choice of the people was overwhelmingly clear, no rate hike. Instead, a majority of City Council voted against the will of the people. We are repeatedly told that our public input is valued, and like clockwork, our representatives vote against our interests. It’s made obvious again that the majority of our City Council is unwilling to govern with the tenacity our living conditions call for.

This is why the only action the people of San Antonio have left is direct democracy. Last year, Recall CPS nearly collected enough signatures to put CPS Energy reform on the ballot. Next year, it appears we have no other choice. If our elected officials refuse to represent the will of their constituencies, we need a ballot measure that allows the voters of San Antonio to choose the best way forward for CPS Energy. We hope you will join us in that fight. DSAUSA.org/join

In an effort to exert its power over the Americas, the United States has enforced an embargo on Cuba ever since its revolutionary struggle for independence from American imperialism. The blockade is an effort to force regime change against the will of Cuban people who want to improve their society without foreign interference. Despite the immense suffering caused by the embargo to this very day, socialists in Cuba have made remarkable achievements in education and healthcare. DSA members Rolando, Tom, and Patrick as well as Daniel Montero, a journalist from Cuba, join us to discuss the movement to end the embargo and the fight to preserve Cuban self-determination.

The formation of the United Auto Workers in the 1930s represented the upsurge in organized working class militancy that pushed forward a New Deal. Since that time the UAW has been a base of support for its members that collectively provides workers with a better life. Yet the UAW has weakened as its corrupt leadership has chosen compromise with the bosses over a robust internal democracy. That’s all about to change. The successful One Member, One Vote referendum has forced open the democratic process and created space for new leadership to rise up. We’ll discuss that and much more with UAW members Kay and Chris. The UAW is much more than just autoworkers. After threatening to strike, the 17,000 member Student Researchers Union of the University of California system won recognition and officially became the newest UAW local. How did these academic workers build a new organization? We hear directly from Kat and Laura of the SRU on how they made it happen.

It’s never been easy to be a front-line retail or customer service worker at the holidays, and with a dramatic surge in COVID cases affecting New York City, this year is even harder. For our Revolutions per Minute holiday special, we’re joined live by Eric Dirnbach of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, DSA’s national project in partnership with the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, as well as Aria, a retail worker who participated in a successful strike last year at the Good Vibrations sex shop in Massachusetts with support from EWOC.

Plus, a special correspondent, Shen, visits the picket line in Chinatown to speak with Liang, a restaurant worker at the historic dim sum restaurant Jing Fong.

We are fundraising for the WBAI end of year Tower Fund with some help from our NYC-DSA chorus, Sing in Solidarity. Give to the Tower Fund at towerfund.wbai.org and follow our chorus on Twitter @nycdsachoir.

Sign the petition to support Jing Fong workers and stop displacement in Chinatown at bit.ly/stopdisplacement.

Are you a retail or service worker looking for support organizing your worksite? You are not alone. Support and help is available. Visit https://workerorganizing.org/support/. 

2021 has been another incredibly tough year, with the pandemic and climate crisis exacerbating income inequality and dire living situations for working class people across the globe.

 

Tonight we’ll catch up with a few DSA working groups to talk about the organizing they’ve done to build working class power and solidarity this year and what’s coming up for 2022. Our guests tonight are Joel from the BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group on the Boycott Puma campaign and the power of a consumer boycott, Emma Claire from the Healthcare Working Group on universal healthcare and labor rights for home health care workers, and Josh and Robert from Eco-Socialists on the Green New Deal for Public Schools and the New York Public Power campaign.

 

To learn more or get involved with NYC-DSA's eco-socialist organizing, visit https://ecosocialists.nyc/join-us/.

 

Find NYC-DSA's Healthcare Working Group on Twitter or Facebook @NYCDSAHealth or email the organizers at healthcare@socialists.nyc.

 

Curious about the BDS movement and DSA's Palestine solidarity work? View the primer and FAQ: https://palestine.dsausa.org/palestine-and-bds-faq/.

 

Throughout this episode and all our remaining 2021 episodes, we are fundraising for WBAI's rent on the transmitter at 4 Times Square. We encourage all who are able to donate what they can, even a small amount, toward this important community institution. Visit towerfund.wbai.org to give. 

Gary Dorrien's new book American Democratic Socialism is a comprehensive look at the deep roots, many of them religious, of democratic socialism in this country. Rev. Andrew Wilkes spoke with Professor Dorrien at a live event in New York City at Judson Memorial Church, where this podcast was recorded.

*and Cypress Hills, and Ocean Hill!

Believe it or not, 2022 is right around the corner and will bring with it a new electoral cycle and a new slate of DSA-endorsed socialist candidates for office. On tonight’s show, we kick off our series of interviews with NYC-DSA’s 2022 slate as we speak LIVE with Samy Nemir Olivares, candidate for Assembly District 54 in Bushwick, Cypress Hills, and Ocean Hill. Hear from Samy on their experience as a community organizer in North Brooklyn, the radical legacy of queer and trans people of color, the next steps for socialists in Albany, and smashing gender binaries right alongside capitalism.

 

We also speak to Gabriel Hernandez of NYC-DSA’s Queer Caucus on building queer community and mentorship for socialists. Finally, we hear a brief update on the struggle for free, equitable higher education for all from the New Deal for CUNY coalition.

 

To learn more about Samy Nemir-Olivares and support his run for Assembly, visit: https://www.samyfornewyork.com/

 

To learn more about NYC-DSA’s Queer Caucus, sign up for their mailing list here: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/queer-caucus-interest-form

 

For more on the December 11 action for a New Deal for CUNY, visit: https://psc-cuny.org/SatDec11

Working class struggle continues to spread across New York City and the rest of the country. Wirecutter workers at the New York Times have launched their strike, joining the 3,000 Columbia academic workers on the picket line. 14,000 Kroger workers in Houston have authorized a strike while 24,000 academic workers at the University of California have done the same. Rank-n-file reform slate Teamsters United won a sea-changing victory in leadership elections. New leadership has promised more labor militancy and committed the 1.3 million member union to organizing Amazon facilities and drivers across the country. Earlier this month the New York Taxi Workers Alliance declared victory after a hunger strike forced the city government to acquiesce to their demand to cancel millions in debt and restructure their loan. We’re joined by Jaslin Kaur and Augustine to hear about this fight and what it means for working class New Yorkers. Last week a Wisconsin court allowed Kyle Rittenhouse to walk free despite the fact that he shot, wounded, and killed protesters in Kenosha. We’ll play you sounds from the streets as protesters reacted to this injustice here in Brooklyn.

Today we’re talking with Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest and her district manager Justin Freeman about how they are bringing their socialist office directly to the community they represent and are building power not just to win elections, but pass legislation that meaningful changes the lives of the working class in Brooklyn like the Less is More bill, which was signed into law this year, and Public Power and ‘Good Cause Eviction’ bill which are top priorities for DSA electeds this upcoming legislative session.

 

And it’s not just the power in the halls of government that is being challenged by organizers in New York City right now. Workers are taking on one of the most powerful and influential Ivy League universities and newspapers in the country at the same time. We’ll hear from RPM’s own Chris Carr who is one of many union members of the Student Workers of Columbia currently on strike and from one of the New York Times’ Wirecutter union members who plan to strike on Black Friday.

 

Follow Phara and Justin on twitter @phara4assembly and @JustinR_Freeman

and get involved with Phara's office at bit.ly/pharaoffice