August 25, 2022 04:54

By: David Mandel

Originally submitted to the Sacramento Bee, but was rejected.

The latest violence in Gaza [August 5-7] disappeared from headlines in record time, after “only” three days of heavy Israeli bombardment and in response, rocket fire from Gaza toward Israeli territory.

But even in that brief time, the damage wrought was overwhelming horrific. At least 49 Palestinians were killed, including 17 children, and hundreds wounded, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. There were no serious Israeli casualties.

While some of the Gaza casualties were apparently caused by rockets that fell short, they would not have been launched if not for Israel’s self-described “pre-emptive strike,” itself a blatant violation of international law.

Beyond the immediate carnage, anyone who cares about the fate of Israelis, Palestinians and others affected in the region should not let this episode fade into the background, as has happened so many times before.

Since 2008, Israel has now waged five major assaults on the Gaza area, plus frequent additional attacks, killing nearly 4,000 people – one-quarter of them children – and destroying tens of thousands of homes and businesses. They previous ones lasted much longer before cease-fires were arranged, only to be broken again.

Why the outbreak this time, and why only three days? Analysts, citing formal and informal statements by the parties, have proffered several reasons:

• A flexing of military muscle by Israel’s leaders is a common pre-election tactic to solidify support among hawkish Israeli voters. Interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid is gearing up toward a Nov. 1 contest, for the fifth time in four years pitting the loyalists of former premier Binyamin Netanyahu against a diverse, shifting and also mostly hawkish coalition, united only around its opposition to him.
• But Israelis also have a habit of disaffection from the inconveniences posed by lengthier wars. So the quick cease-fire too was likely seen as an electoral asset.
• With fuel supplies cut off by Israel along with other crucial goods, shutting Gaza’s only power plant amid a heat wave and no clean water, failure to stop fighting would have downgraded conditions from hellish to doubly deadly, making Israel look bad.
• At least some elements of the international community may be losing patience with repeated bloody episodes of Israeli attacks on the Gaza fish barrel, so the short “mowing of the lawn,” as Israeli leaders have referred to their periodic initiatives, may have been meant to avoid further alienation, with short memories conveniently taxed by Ukraine, Taiwan and other current global flashpoints as well as domestic situations.
• Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza, abstained from joining the fray. Had the exchanges continued, it might have felt obligated to join in. So by halting the assault, Israel maintained political divisions among Palestinians along with its de facto arrangements with Hamas for slight easing of life for Gazans.

Nevertheless, the situation remains dire for Gaza’s 2 million-plus inhabitants, most of them descendants of refugees forced from their homes during Israel’s establishment in 1948. Israel and Egypt continue to impose full closure on the territory, with minimal – and fluctuating – exceptions to head off mass catastrophe. Health, nutrition, livelihood are all precarious.

Meanwhile, in various parts of the occupied West Bank, 2022 has seen a steady uptick in land takeovers with expulsions of Palestinians, city dwellers and rural farmers alike. These are invariably accompanied by brazen settler violence, abetted by the military, and by further crackdowns on any semblance of political resistance. The recent visit by President Biden underscored the utter lack of a diplomatic horizon.

The latest attack’s brevity seems to have been mostly successful in eliciting the desired response in Washington: many senators and representatives (“progressives” among them) had no comment at all, leading some optimists to conclude that they refrained from cheering for Israel when unlike in other rounds, there was no doubt this time about “who started it.” But almost all of those who did speak up mouthed the usual reflexive phrases about Israel’s “right to defend itself,” no matter how hollow it echoed.

It’s a nearly sure bet that the latest round will spawn calls in Congress for additional funding for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket batteries (of dubious value, according to some experts) and other arms. Suddenly, Ukraine has supplanted Israel as by far the largest “beneficiary” of such transfers of our tax dollars to the U.S. arms industry via the ever-expanding “defense” budget.

When will we conclude that it’s time to devote our scarce resources instead to human needs at home and globally, and to planetary survival?

For starters, let’s stop pretending that the vast majority of us benefit from U.S. support of regimes that occupy their neighbors and repress democracy, including Israel.

Today, in an unprecedented and historic move, Governor Charlie Baker’s MBTA will shut down the entire Orange Line for thirty days of emergency maintenance. This, the severs a vital transit artery for hundreds of thousands of greater Boston residents, and forces riders to pay the price for decades of disinvestment from public transportation by corrupt politicians from both parties. The T closure will snarl traffic, cut people off from whole neighborhoods, make it more difficult to get to work, and take away time that people can spend with their families. 

The Boston chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America condemns the Massachusetts political establishment’s abandonment of the T. We stand in solidarity with our neighbors and fellow commuters, the riders and frontline T workers who will bear the brunt of this crisis.

The T is falling apart. For the past decade, delays, derailments, service cuts, garages collapsing, unstable tunnels, leaking cars, rusted-out stairways, fires in tunnels and across bridges, and tragic and preventable deaths have undermined trust in the political institutions that are tasked with managing it for the public good. This doesn’t have to be the case – the T once stood as a point of pride for the city and its residents, a symbol of progress, and we must work to get there again. 

Yet the collapse of the T was not caused by mere governmental incompetence, or an inevitable failure of public institutions. It’s the result of years of hard work by politicians like Charlie Baker and leaders in the Massachusetts legislature to undermine those public institutions. We condemn the failure of elected leadership and their abandonment of the public good that is mass public transit. We appreciate the legislature’s $400 million appropriation for the T in a recent transportation bond bill, although bond bills still leave a lot of the power in the hands of the Governor whether the money is even spent. We call for this full amount to be appropriated as fast as possible. But this is not enough. The T’s debt exceeds $8 billion, requiring a serious commitment to long-term funding from the state. 

We call:

• For the legislature to come back into session to forgive the T’s unjust, inherited debt and create a dedicated, long-term sustainable source of funding for the T. 
• In solidarity with Senator Markey, Representative Pressley, and others, for Governor Baker to make the MBTA’s entire system free during the Orange and Green Line extension shutdowns. 
• For cities along the Orange and Green Line shuttle routes to install temporary protected bus and bike lanes so that commuters and residents utilizing alternate modes of transportation can travel safely, as we know the streets are not completely safe for non-car uses without these measures. 
• For Maura Healey, the presumptive next Governor of Massachusetts, to resist attempts to privatize the T and undermine its unionized workforce, who work every day to protect commuters and deliver a public good, and to appoint a Secretary of Transportation with experience. 
• For voters to vote yes on 1, the Fair Share amendment, this November to fund the T in a more comprehensive way. 
• For DSA members and interested readers, to join us in canvassing at Haymarket station TODAY at 5 pm to circulate these calls to action with commuters! 

Resist privatization! Fund, Fix, and Free the T! 

Boston DSA is the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America for the Greater Boston area. We are an activist organization — not a political party — that works against oppression in its many forms. DSA’s members are building mass movements for social change while establishing an openly socialist presence in communities and politics in the Greater Boston Area, from the South Shore to the Merrimack Valley

TAMPA, FL — 

The Tampa chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has drafted a City Council resolution outlining support for decriminalizing abortion city-wide. This resolution has been drafted in collaboration with Councilwoman Lynn Hurtak in response to the recent overturning of Roe v Wade, and was presented to the Tampa City Council for a vote at the City Council meeting on August 4th, 2022. The City Council moved to table this vote until the evening City Council meeting on August 18th, 2022, with only Councilwoman Lynn Hurtak voting against delaying a vote. As a non-binding statement of intent, this resolution is the bare minimum that the Tampa City Council can do to show support for our reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. 

This resolution outlines that the City Council of the City of Tampa:

• will not approve funding for actions or activities that would criminalize the rights of Tampa residents to make reproductive health decisions, including abortion, for themselves
• will not approve funding for any organization or entity operating a “crisis pregnancy center” or “pregnancy resource center” established with the purpose of opposing legal abortion and dissuading pregnant people from seeking abortion services
• will do everything in their power to make the criminalization of abortion the absolute lowest priority for city resources and personnel and approve a city budget that reflects as much

See the resolution attached in this email.

This resolution builds off a list of demands Tampa DSA has released for the City of Tampa regarding abortion rights, which has been signed by 223 community members and organizations. You can find and sign onto our list of demands here.

This resolution also mirrors a recent city resolution which passed in Austin, Texas to support decriminalizing abortion – the GRACE Act, or Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone Act. This resolution passed 10-1.

“This is the bare minimum Tampa’s City Council can do to show they oppose criminalizing our right to abortion care. In this unprecedented moment we need to challenge what’s clearly unsettled law and fight for our basic rights before they’re viciously stripped away. To not pass the full text of the proposed resolution would signal that Tampa’s City Council is unwilling to confront unconstitutional Tallahassee laws and any future abortion restrictions or bans that come our way. I hope they follow Councilwoman Hurtak’s lead and vote to pass this on the 18th.” – Jocelyn Koenig, member of Tampa DSA.

For media inquiries, please contact Mikaela Aradi at 727-492-9646 or healthjustice.tdsa@gmail.com 

Tampa DSA is an official chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. We believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for the wealthy elite. We are a political and activist organization, not a party. DSA members use a variety of tactics, from legislative to direct action, to fight for reforms that empower working people. We have over 270 dues-paying members of our chapter.

Tampa Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) | Tampa, Florida | healthjustice.tdsa@gmail.com | tampadsa.org | https://www.facebook.com/tampadsa

The post TAMPA CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON TDSA’S CITY RESOLUTION ON ABORTION DECRIMINALIZATION appeared first on Tampa DSA.

Where we left off

Five years ago I was at the counterprotests to Unite the Right, the fascist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, that culminated in a car attack that killed Heather Heyer and wounded many others, some quite seriously. I wrote about this for the PEWG Blog four years ago. I don’t need to rehash all the same things here, but I do want to reflect on the five years since.

I wrote that post from four years ago in part to promote the antifascist action that was coming up on August 18, 2018, and the educational panel ahead of it. As the post itself mentions, I was a speaker on that panel: Boston DSA’s speaker. It was a strange experience. I was used to protecting myself by being unnoticed. Being a speaker effectively made me a sort of VIP, one of the people that the security team – headed up by a dear friend and comrade who had been punched and stabbed at an antifascist action two weeks earlier – was there to safeguard. Some fascists did indeed show up and try to get in, albeit for apparent reconnaissance purposes more than mayhem. I didn’t know about it until the panel was over, because the security team did a great job. One guy that we’d never seen before did get in and record audio, but he wasn’t able to take video because, by his own admission, he knew that the security team would notice and bounce him.

The past and the present

On August 9 of last year, I was in Nashua, NH, hanging around outside a school board meeting with a handful of other people, including three other Boston DSA comrades. We were there in case fascists tried to crash or intimidate it. More than an hour into the meeting, the Nationalist Social Club (NSC-131) marched in, identically dressed and chanting in a group. The subset of people there who were active antifascist activists, including the four of us from Boston DSA, got in front of them. They came in shoving, grabbing one guy by the collar. We were able to arc their march to the other side of the street, so that our whole group was between them and the building. As we faced each other from across the street, one of their chants – presumably in recognition of it being two days before the anniversary of the A11 torchlight march – was “Jews will not replace us.” This was all pretty jarring for me, a direct reminder of being afraid that I would be dragged into a torch-wielding mob and mauled or killed. It brough up that same feeling of needing to be innocuous. But however unpleasant a walk down memory lane that was, it was still a memory rather than a repeat. I’ve put in a lot of work to prevent a repeat.

When I say that I’ve put in a lot of work to prevent a repeat, I mean some weeks where I spent 40+ hours doing antifascism (on top of my normal job). I mean time behind the scenes, time spent doing outreach and education, time spent in the streets. I mean getting in between our people and a guy swinging a hammer. I mean taking injuries and pepper-sprayings from both cops and fascists.

Which makes it all the more demeaning when people exclaim “Why isn’t anyone doing anything?” in response to a 4^th of July weekend march by Patriot Front (see an actual antifascist comrade’s statement on that), or in response to rallies from NSC. It also makes it all the more demeaning when people imply that commitment to antifascism is measured by whether you talk tough online or in street propaganda, whether you put “punch all the nazis” in your Twitter display name, or whether you have the right aesthetic. Or when people imply that because I don’t dress in black, that I owe a non-mutual gratitude toward those who do, or that my antifascist work is inherently lesser than theirs. Or that you need to be able to win a fight – something that’s always going to be unlikely for me for disability-related reasons – in order to properly be an antifascist.

NSC has gotten a lot of attention lately, in Boston and nationally, after they protested a Drag Queen Story Hour in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood, and their founder and leader Chris Hood was arrested for attacking a counterprotester. They recently protested another Drag Queen Story Hour in the Seaport as well. A lot of people seem to think NSC is a new player (they aren’t – they started as the New England Nationalist Club in 2019 and have been active monthly for nearly a year and a half) and indicative of things “getting worse” in the Boston area vis-à-vis the far right. The transphobic threat aimed at drag queens has escalated over the last several years alongside a far-right obsession with hunting “pedophiles.” We badly need to develop effective means to address that threat as escalation manifests locally. But in a more general sense of how the Boston area is faring in the face of fascism, the alarmism is wrong on more than one level. I remember what Chris Hood was doing in early 2018. He was building the Boston-area chapter of a different neo-Nazi group, Patriot Front (which he founded). He was part of an alliance that included Proud Boys, militias, American Guard, and a future 1/6 Capitol Riots arrestee who helped beat up counterprotesters in Portland later that year. That alliance was aiming to be an East Coast version of the ones centered around Patriot Prayer that caused so much damage to so many people in Portland (if you look closely at the ThinkProgress article, you can see that infamous Portland-area goon Tiny Toese was in its chat). Its goals never came to fruition.

A theory interlude

I see a lot of confusion and debate about what antifascism is and what its role in the left is. Whether it needs to take on a wider range of evils in order to be justified. My position is that antifascism is reproductive labor for liberatory movements that the far-right would attack and disrupt, and for the multiracial, multiethnic, multigender working class to which it would lay waste. It’s the shield to the sword, and it’s okay that it’s not the sword. Antifascism is also unusual (though not unique) in our organizing, in that it pits organizer vs organizer, rather than organizer vs existing system. That necessitates different, if overlapping, strategies and tactics, compared to what’s needed to take on the status quo. That’s okay too – it’s part of being “the shield.” I sometimes see people devalue antifascism precisely because they see far-right organizers as small potatoes. But as organizers ourselves, who believe in the power of organizing to literally remake society, we of all people should understand why far-right organizing, in all of its ideological and strategic tendencies, is dangerous. Fighting it is a specific, highly detailed task, and it needs no larger justification.

Another misconception that I see frequently about antifascism is this idea that if enough people in a community just mobilize and say they don’t want fascists in their community, the fascists will go away. A radical version of this is the idea that if you go hard enough against one fascists rally, really shut it down, they’ll never come back. I suspect that many of my readers are leftist organizers. Would you stop organizing because a bunch of people expressed opposition to you one time? Would you leave a city that you had goals for, and never come back, or abandon a campaign that resonates with the people you’re trying to organize, because your opposition shut down a single rally? This is not to say that there’s no value in individual mobilizations (a sustained effort, after all, is made up in part of individual mobilizations). But to successfully undermine, disrupt, and even eventually break fascist organizing, antifascism requires sustained, multi-pronged work. Sometimes daily work.

It requires understanding the far right, too, in its many ideological and strategic forms. How do you analyze, prioritize, predict trends, when you don’t understand what you’re fighting? No more “we don’t need to know anything about our enemies or what they think” nonsense dressed up as antiracism. No more trying to fit every far-right group into the mold of either the Klan or the National Socialist Movement, or pretending for the sake of 101-level online talking points that all far-right groups have the exact same orientation (either pro or anti) toward the state and/or police. And I am begging everyone to please read about the multiracial far right, its dynamics and its gender politics, and then to stop pretending that everyone on the far right has the same primary motivating chauvinism. Or worse, that queerphobic and transphobic groups are merely using queerphobia and transphobia as a cover for their true evil, white supremacism, as though viciously reactionary gender politics were not also far-right ideology.

Onward, redux

Reading through this reflection, it feels a bit like a litany of complaints. But I mean to end on a hopeful note. There’s no happily ever after, and the last few years have unfortunately brought a lot of new people into the far right. But I’ve seen new people join the work to fight the far right, become organizers, build their skills, and do a great job. I’ve seen people do things they never believed that they would be able to do. And I’ve seen the impacts of that – the crumbling of fascist organizations, coalitions, and actions, the gradually-increasing public awareness, the interest and involvement from people I never would have expected to join in antifascist work. In 2018, we contained fascists who tried to disrupt a trans youth rally and pro-immigrant rallies. This year I’ve seen both those events happen without incident. In 2017, I saw a torchlight march end in a brutal attack, saw hours of street brutality, saw Heather Heyer die and a lot of other people get badly hurt. Now, many of the fascist groups that participated in those events, and even the ones that rose in their wake, have declined or disappeared thanks to the hard work of antifascists.

If there’s any message that I’m trying to convey here, it’s that that this work matters, and that people can learn to do it. You don’t have to be some kind of stereotypical badass (I’m not!). You just need to be willing to put in the work, to think through what you’re doing and why, to learn and develop and reflect. To quote the comrade whose statement on the 4^th of July Patriot Front march I linked to above: “Our work is amplified when we work together, and to do that takes the sort of trust built only by shared struggle and shared vision of a better future. I have spent many years working with Boston DSA. Here, and in other organizations, is where you can find the people you can work with to make a difference.”

Donate to the fund for survivors in Charlottesville who still have ongoing medical and psychological needs.

With the Supreme Court throwing out 50 years of legal precedence and overturning Roe v. Wade, the U.S. abortion rights movement is taking to the streets and becoming increasingly visible to protest this attack on our fundamental human rights.

During this time of heightened focus on abortion rights, you may see people wearing green at rallies and protests around the country — especially green bandanas or handkerchiefs. The connection between the color green and abortion rights started with the Marea Verde, or “green wave,” movement, which has spent decades fighting for the decriminalization of abortion in Latin American countries. While the U.S. is moving backwards in terms of abortion rights, Latin American abortion rights organizers have been seeing a wave of wins across the region, and the Marea Verde movement should be an inspiration to organizers in the U.S.

The Marea Verde movement traces its roots back to Colombia. In 2006, Women’s Link Worldwide filed a petition with the Colombian courts arguing that it was unconstitutional to consider abortion a crime under any circumstances. In a historic ruling, abortion was decriminalized in certain cases, including the health of the pregnant person, cases of rape, or unviable fetuses. This petition set off almost twenty years of abortion rights organizing across the region.

The association with the color green started in Argentina, inspired by the white handkerchief of the 1970s movement Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which had protested the abduction and murder of children under the dictatorship at the time. In 2018, when Argentinian feminists took to the streets for abortion rights, many wore green handkerchiefs, or “pañuelo verde”,  as a nod to the Mothers of the Plazo de Mayo. The green handkerchiefs quickly spread through Latin America as a symbol of the abortion rights movement.

Protestors raising their green handkerchiefs during a demonstration in front of the Argentine Congress

Though the region still has draconian abortion restrictions in countries such as  El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Honduras, there have been a series of monumental wins bolstered by the Marea Verde. In the last two years, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia — the three most populous countries in Latin America — have all decriminalized or legalized abortion.

Argentinian lawmakers passed a law in 2020 allowing abortion up to 14 weeks; in 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion; and in February 2022, the Colombian Constitutional Court issued a landmark ruling decriminalizing abortion on all grounds up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. In Chile, feminists have been at the center of mass protests and social upheaval that lead to a constitutional convention. In September 2022, Chileans will vote on a new constitution that includes the right to abortion.

The movement’s success is due to a variety of factors. Organizers focused on destigmatizing abortion and forcing conversations about abortion in the mainstream. A combination of legal challenges, mass protests, and public campaigns to change opinions was crucial. Though in the U.S., the language of choice and right to privacy is frequently used as arguments in favor of abortion rights, the Marea Verde organizers focused, instead, on abortion as an essential human right, and worked to highlight the connections between restrictions on abortion to all sorts of intersectionalities, including: sexuality, race, and class — linking their fight to a larger social justice movement that pushes back against all forms of oppression.

A woman climbs a fence around the Angel of Independence monument, during an abortion rights march in Mexico City.

While abortion was legally protected in the U.S. by Roe v. Wade before it was overturned, issues of access have often been ignored, making abortion a “right” only on paper for poor people and people in marginalized communities. Latin American organizers demanded that abortion was not only legal and safe, but free as well, recognizing that poor people cannot be left out of this fundamental right. They also demanded inclusion for trans and non-binary people, acknowledging that not only women need abortion care, as is often ignored in the U.S..

If you wear green to an abortion rights protest, remember the legacy and ongoing fight of the Marea Verde in Latin America. By wearing green, we are connecting ourselves to an international movement greater than the U.S. With that in mind, it is important that we also commit ourselves to fighting for our Latinx comrades both abroad and at home, by opposing anti-immigration policies, fighting against the separation of families at the border, and opposing U.S. imperialism which exploits and oppresses our comrades across the world.

We must be united in the international struggle for the liberation of all people.

Abortion rights supporters celebrate in support of the decriminalization of abortion outside the Constitutional Court in Bogota, Colombia

Tampa DSA’s Abortion Rights City Council Resolution

Update: Motion to vote on language submitted by Councilmember Hurtak, Councilmembers Maniscalco and Gudes motion to postpone until 08/18/2022 at 5:00 PM. Maniscalco-Gudes motion carries 4-1, Hurtak votes no.

WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Tampa honors the rights of pregnant people to bodily autonomy and control over their private medical decisions; and

WHEREAS, access to safe and legal abortion is a deciding factor in long-term health, safety, and quality of life; and

WHEREAS, the Supreme Court of the United States hasoverturned the 1973 landmark ruling, Roe v. Wade, which previously prevented individual states from directly banning such care; and

WHEREAS, on April 14, 2022, Florida Governor Ron Desantis signed into law HB 5, which effective July 1st, criminalizes access to abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy; and

WHEREAS, Article I Section 23 of Florida’s State constitution guarantees all Floridians a Right of Privacy, a right that the Florida Supreme Court, in In re T.W., 551 So. 2d 1186 (Fla. 1989) ruled also extends to protecting the right to abortion. Article I Section 23 states, “Every natural person has the right to be left alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life…:”;

WHEREAS, anti-abortion clinics, commonly known as “crisis pregnancy centers” or “pregnancy resource centers”, use deceptive tactics and propaganda to dissuade people from seeking abortion services. These anti-abortion clinics don’t provide abortions, don’t offer a full range of reproductive healthcare, and are explicitly opposed to legal abortion;

WHEREAS, people have a basic human right to medical treatment, up to and including abortion; and

WHEREAS, eliminating legal access to abortion has been empirically proven to dramatically increase the risk of death, bodily injury, and infertility, especially within low-income communities and communities of color; and

WHEREAS, the resources of the City of Tampa must always be dedicated to the health and well-being of its residents; and

WHEREAS, the City Council has demonstrated its commitment to abortion access in Resolution No. 2019-837, wherein the City Council supported the Federal Medicare for All Act of 2019 which includes “reproductive care;” and

WHEREAS, the right to privacy should protect doctors, patients, and all others providing abortion-related medical care from any criminal investigation related to decisions made within the healthcare provider-patient relationship so long as those decisions occur without coercion, force, or negligence; and

WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Tampa has a responsibility to protect its residents from any violation of their human rights and any criminalization of the free exercise thereof;

NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF TAMPA, FLORIDA:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa formally condemns any action intended to abrogate the fundamental liberties of its people and affirms its commitment to protecting the right of its residents to make reproductive health decisions, including abortion care, for themselves.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa will not approve the appropriation of funds for any action or activity that would abrogate or criminalize the rights of its residents to make reproductive health decisions, including abortion, for themselves. This further includes but is not limited to;

● Storing or cataloging any report of an abortion, miscarriage, or other reproductive healthcare act;

● Providing information to any other governmental body or agency about any abortion, miscarriage, or other reproductive healthcare act, unless such information is provided to defend the patient’s right to abortion care or the healthcare provider’s right to provide that care; or

● Conducting surveillance or collecting information related to an individual or organization for the purpose of determining whether an abortion has occurred, except for aggregated data without personally identifying information.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

The policy stated above does not apply in cases where coercion or force is used against the pregnant person, or in cases involving conduct criminally negligent to the health of the pregnant person seeking care.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa will not approve the appropriation of funds for any organization or entity operating a “crisis pregnancy center” or “pregnancy resource center” that is established with the explicit purpose of opposing legal abortion and dissuading pregnant people from seeking abortion services;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa’s approved appropriation of funds will reflect that the investigation or support for the prosecution of any allegation, charge, or information relating to any individual who seeks, provides, or supports abortion and abortion-related care will be the lowest priority for enforcement and the use of City resources and personnel.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That all proper officials of the City of Tampa are authorized to do all things necessary and proper in order to carry out and make effective the provisions of this Resolution.

The post Tampa DSA’s Abortion Rights City Council Resolution appeared first on Tampa DSA.

Round 1

• State Rep. Eric Morrison (RD-27, Glasgow, incumbent, DSA member)-the first openly gay man in the history of the Delaware General Assembly, everyone’s favorite progressive firebrand faces a primary challenge from Capitol Police Chief Michael Hertzfeld and Republican John Marino. Being that having a massive number of former police officers in the state legislature is a huge obstacle to enacting any type of police accountability in Delaware, it is crucial to defend Rep. Morrison’s seat.
• State Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton (RD-26, E. Newark, incumbent, DSA member)-the first Muslim in the history of Delaware legislature, as well as its youngest member, Rep. Wilson-Anton is best known for her fierce advocacy on environmental and housing issues. She too, faces a primary challenger (from Kelly Williams-Maresca, a self-described “fiscal conservative” who downplayed the January 6th coup attempt and compared it unfavorably to the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, in addition to likening COVID restrictions to the Holocaust) as well as Republican opponent Timothy Conrad. Despite Maresca’s abhorrent views, she is being funded by Rep. Wilson-Anton’s archnemesis, corporatist Democrat, and Reybold Industries owner Jerry Heisler as well as the former Rep. John Viola who was defeated by Rep. Wilson-Anton last primary cycle.
• Rep. Larry Lambert-(RD-7, Claymont, incumbent)-Rep. Lambert is running unopposed this cycle, but we still want to re-endorse him and shout him out for his work on criminal justice reform, creating the Delaware EARNS program, and implementing environmental justice. Way to go, Rep. Lambert!
• Sen. Marie Pinkney-(SD-13, Bear, incumbent)-Sen. Pinkney, the first queer Black person in the Delaware General Assembly, is also running unopposed, but she has earned DSA’s re-endorsement. From her tireless work on giving Delaware its first-of-its-kind in the nation family/medical leave to a majority of its workforce by the middle of the decade to pushing through the “momnibus bill” to reduce the disparities in treatment that Black women face in maternal healthcare to offering a broader variety of healthcare options to women up and down the state, Sen. Pinkney has been our most tireless voice for justice in the Delaware State Senate. Thank you for all your hard work, Sen. Pinkney!

Round 2

• Wilmington City Councilwoman Shané Darby-Bey (RD-1, Wilmington, DSA member)-Councilwoman Darby-Bey from the 2nd Ward is taking on Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha, who has been in opposition to the tenants’ right to counsel despite his district having a very high proportion of renters. She is the founder of Black Mothers in Power, has been a vocal advocate for police reform, reproductive justice, and the Black Lives Matter movement, and is a young, dynamic voice for change. She also has experience working from the very bottom up in politics-before she was a city councilwoman, she worked with Co-Chair Jonathan while they attended Temple University together in the Residence Hall Association!
• Kyra Hoffner (SD-14, Smyrna) is in a clown car primary to take over the retiring Sen. Bruce Ennis against 4 all-male opponents who range from a union man and Representative District Democratic Committee Chairman to a two-time Trump supporter. She has been a fierce advocate against gun violence and for fair re-districting in Delaware. We know that Kyra’s good government advocacy will do a lot of good in Dover, where the Delaware Way and corruption bog down progress whenever we try to make it.
• Rep. Rae Moore (RD-8, Middletown), a progressive incumbent, is facing fierce opposition in the general election from a Republican who is being supported by Middletown’s Dixiecrat mayor and town councilmen. While her district should probably be safely Democratic, this Democratic opposition still puts her in unique danger. It is important to keep Rep. Moore in office as she is more quiet about it than our firebrand members in the legislature, she was both one of the driving forces behind the paid family and medical leave making it through the House even with its corporate Democratic leadership and a key hard-worker on much of the abortion justice progress we’ve seen in Delaware.
• DeShanna Neal (RD-13, Elsmere) is challenging House Majority Whip Rep. Larry Mitchell, who has been a major obstacle to police accountability efforts as a former police officer himself, and who has opposed even the most basic human rights for homeless people. DeShanna is a nationally known activist on behalf of their transgender daughter Trinity and would be the first nonbinary state legislator as well as the first Buddhist legislator in Delaware history. Currently, they sit on the Red Clay Consolidated School District’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee where they helped shepherd their first of its kind in Delaware trans-inclusive policies as well as the RD-13 Democratic Party Committee. We know that she will be a fierce advocate for LGBT, BIPOC, and low-income Delawareans, and while she has a Republican opponent, winning the nomination would almost certainly be tantamount to election given the makeup of her district.
• Kerri Evelyn Harris (RD-32, Dover) is running for Andria Bennett’s soon-to-be-vacated seat. The DNC National Committeewoman for Delaware, best known as Tom Carper’s DSA-endorsed 2018 primary challenger, is a disabled, biracial, Black, LGBT veteran (no, she was not cooked up in a DSA-ideal-candidate lab) in a race against Phil McGinnis, son of a Delaware politician and real estate agent, and two other more recent arrivals. Harris got enough national attention to bring DSA icon Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez here to the First State. She also will face the winner of the Republican primary in the fall, but winning her primary would likely amount to victory.
• Susan Clifford, (RD-39, Seaford) is facing House Minority Leader Danny Short in the general election, who has not faced Democratic opposition since 2008. While it is an uphill battle, due to Seaford diversifying and the district being redrawn, Clifford, the former Sussex County DSA branch chair (the Sussex and Kent branches have since merged into our Southern Delaware DSA branch) has a real shot. She is a tireless volunteer and canvasser, was big in the Bernie 2020 campaign in Delaware, and will be a much needed voice in Dover.
• Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown (RD-17, New Castle, unopposed). While Rep. Minor Brown is running unopposed, she has shown herself to be a strong progressive who has led the charge in maternal healthcare and reproductive justice, and continues to do so in her quest with Rep. Morrison to get Medicaid to fund abortions in Delaware. We are proud of you, Rep. Minor-Brown!

Round 3

• Sophie Phillips (RD-18, Bear, DSA member) is running in a primary against union man Martin Willis. Phillips recently obtained her Master’s Degree in energy and environmental public policy from the University of Delaware, started a community garden in the Southbridge neighborhood of Wilmington, and was Miss Delaware 2021. She has a lifelong passion for environmentalism and climate justice, and would be the first Jew of color and the first Asian American to ever serve in Delaware’s General Assembly as well as its youngest member. This is a very winnable primary for one of our members, as her opponent has yet to campaign as of this post, and there is no Republican opposition.

Round 4

• Becca Cotto (RD-6, North Wilmington, DSA member) is a tireless activist and educator from Brandywine Hundred who is now running to be a State Representative! She got her start in activism through the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign like so many of us did, and has since continued her work with Delaware United, the Delaware Working Families Party, and now Delaware DSA. She works as an an antiracism educator for a local nonprofit and serves on the RD-6 Democratic Party Committee. She was previously the vice chair of the New Castle County Democratic Party before running for office. We appreciate all of Becca’s hard work, as well as her refusal to take corporate money, and we know that she will be a fierce advocate for marginalized people in Dover when she gets down there!

Tonight we're joined live by the NewsGuild of New York's Chris Brooks and Stephanie Basile, two labor organizers on the front lines of some of today’s most exciting worker-led campaigns. We’ll be discussing trends in labor organizing, as seen in groundbreaking victories from workers at Amazon, Starbucks, Apple Stores, Trader Joe’s, and many more. What in labor history can help us understand this current moment, and how do we keep up the momentum?

Want to learn more about worker-led momentum organizing? Read Chris Brooks in In These Times: https://inthesetimes.com/article/amazon-starbucks-workers-organizing-unions-momentum-movement-moment