Columbia has started imposing registration holds on strikers’ accounts. What this means is that you won’t be able to register when it’s your designated time, if the strike doesn’t end before then. You can find a full list of registration times here—the earliest registration date for the summer is March 8, and fall registration doesn’t begin until April 5. There will be another billing deadline on March 18, and we’ll reassess whether to continue to strike at that point. For the time being, we’re asking everyone to continue to withhold tuition for as long as possible. 

It’s important to keep in mind that you can still register for classes as soon as you pay tuition (the administration claims it’s instantaneous that holds are removed after paying tuition), so you could still register even if you miss your first scheduled registration time. If you are flexible about what classes you register for, or if the classes you want are widely available, then there are minimal risks to continuing to strike. 

For students who are graduating this year, commencement begins on April 27, meaning a diploma hold will come into effect on March 27. As with the registration holds, this is not permanent but rather will be lifted once you pay. As mentioned above, we will have held a vote on whether to continue the strike before the March 18 deadline, and will continue to be in touch about how we want to move forward. 

If you are considering dropping out of the strike, please reach out to columbia.ydsa@gmail.com to talk more.

Lastly, we want to emphasize that Columbia will do everything in their power to keep us in school and get us to pay tuition again. The administration aims to intimidate us with this retaliation, but we still have power. Over the next month, we’re going to be doing everything we can to force the administration to concede. We’ll need all the help we can get. If you’re interested in getting involved, you can join one of our working groups! We’re also hosting a town hall meeting this Thursday, 2/25, at 8 pm EST where we’ll be discussing potential in-person actions and other next steps.

Solidarity,

Columbia YDSA

Matt Mazewski and Brendan Moore, both economics doctoral candidates and labor organizers, join “Heart of a Heartless World” to discuss the relationship between labor rights and the American Catholic Church. Matt and Brendan are interviewed by Nicole-Ann Lobo, and their conversation includes a brief history of Catholic social teaching and what papal encyclicals have to say about labor rights, the current state of American bishops and labor, the role of the Catholic Labor Network, and how Catholic higher education instutions are treating graduate student unions. Resources: Fratelli tutti Challenges the Utopia of Neoliberalism — https://christiansocialism.com/pope-francis-fratelli-tutti-socialism-capitalism/ The Catholic Labor Network — catholiclabor.org Gaudium et Spes Labor Report — http://catholiclabor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GESAnnualReport2020.pdf The NLRB’s Theology of Labor — https://www.thestrikewave.com/original-content/religion-and-the-nlrb U.S. Bishops praise Biden’s actions on immigration — https://www.catholicsentinel.org/Content/Default/Homepage-Rotator/Article/US-bishops-praise-Biden-s-actions-on-immigration-/-3/382/41722 USCCB brief on Janus case — https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/about/general-counsel/amicus-briefs/upload/Janus-v-American-Federation-of-State-16-1466-bsac-usccb-amicus.pdf

On January 3rd, 2021, Charlotte Metro DSA held its monthly meeting in the midst of the #ForcetheVote on Medicare for All debate that was raging online amongst the American Left.  While the weeks since that meeting have diverted our attention, it is important for the chapter leadership to revisit what was discussed at the meeting and report on the debates and decisions that the chapter made as a democratic organization in regard to #ForcetheVote. 

Members displayed their passion and commitment to socialism and building working class power in one the longest debates in chapter history. Many fantastic questions were raised about how we build power, the nature of organizing work, and how we can effectively reach our friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors in the working class. Ultimately it was decided to not endorse the #ForcetheVote effort, but instead to use this as an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment as a chapter to Medicare for All organizing.   

Through the debate we were able to reach a consensus as a chapter that healthcare is at the top of everyone’s mind, especially in the midst of a pandemic and economic crisis.  Since healthcare intersects with every aspect of our lives - labor, housing, education, race, and gender, to name a few - it is also one of the easiest ways for us to start talking to and organizing with the people in our lives.  So, instead of simply voting “no” on endorsing the #ForcetheVote effort, we want to use this as an opportunity. An opportunity to recommit to supporting Medicare for All organizing within Charlotte Metro DSA and in the Carolinas, as a way to reach and recruit new members, as a vehicle to building an effective organizing body in the region, and as a way to positively impact the lives of workers in our community and state.

As we launch this renewed effort in Medicare for All organizing, please join us for our Medicare for All Campaign Kickoff on Saturday, February 20th at 1:00 PM.

RSVP here. Campaign news, updates, and actions will be posted on our M4A Campaign launch page.

Medicare for All now. Solidarity forever.

The Charlotte Metro DSA Steering Committee

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/18/the-columbia-university-student-strike-is-about-far-more-than-tuition

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Our society is in economic and social crisis, and as socialists, we know that the roots of this crisis spread far beyond the immediate cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. Deliberate policy decisions by our leadership at all levels have led to a widening gap between the wealthy and the poor, crumbling social and physical infrastructure, an education system designed to reinforce the dominance of the capitalist class, a healthcare system designed to extract profit from human suffering, and a mass incarceration system that imprisons and brutalizes tens of thousands. In this episode, RPM's own Jack Devine interviews State Senator and NYC-DSA member Julia Salazar about the state budget process and how New York State can lead the charge against 50 years of harmful neoliberal austerity. We also speak to Emmaline Bennet of Columbia YDSA about the current tuition strike at Columbia and the fight for democratized universities dedicated to the pursuit of human knowledge over private profits. Finally, because it's COVID winter, Desiree Frias will walk us all through how to help eligible people, especially elders, sign up for a vaccine appointment through the city's fiendishly difficult online portals. Times are tough, but we have a world to win.

https://taxtherichnys.com/

https://bit.ly/tuition-strike-fund

https://bit.ly/tuition-strike-letter

https://nycvaccinelist.com

To give to the station, please call (516) 620-3602 or go to wbai.org. Thank you!

At the beginning of this month, State Senator Warren Hamilton proposed Oklahoma Senate Bill 676, a punitive piece of legislation that would make it illegal for healthcare entities to provide life-saving, gender-affirming medical care to trans Oklahomans under the age of 21.  Senator Hamilton is a staunch anti-choice conservative who believes that his role in […]

Building the power to win public power  - The failures of our current energy system are all around us. Here in New York City we see blackouts every summer during heatwaves and people lacking heat in the winter. Utility debt is mounting across the state, but investor owned utilities are still building dirty fossil fuel infrastructure at the expense of rate payers, and the health and safety of communities and the climate. Today we’ll talk with Mohini Sharma and Patrick Robbins about how the NY Public Power Coalition is building power across the state to pass two bills later this year that will replace corporate utilities with a democratically controlled, publicly owned energy system.

Anyone who lives here in New York City knows the sight of mostly empty luxury towers lording over our neighborhoods. These developments generate immense wealth for real estate capital while raising rents for the working class residents who actually live here. As luxury buildings proliferate, tens of thousands are forced into homelessness and millions more pay most of their meager wages to their landlords. Gentrification is a campaign waged by real estate capital and their representatives in the state that dispossesses disproportionately black and brown working class New Yorkers for profit.  

NYC-DSA endorsed candidate for City Council in District 35 Michael Hollingsworth has spent life building tenant power and fighting for the people. He joins us to discuss his history as an organizer in the struggle to build working class power in his neighborhood and why he decided to run for city council on a socialist slate. We also hear from a member from DSA’s healthcare working group on the worker led fight to keep a hospital open in East Flatbush.

Earlier today, Joe Biden was sworn in as the President of the United States. He comes into office as more than 400,000 people in this country have died from Covid-19, 2020 was the hottest year on record and white supremacists are desperately fighting to maintain their power in this country after social uprisings against police brutality this summer strengthened movements for racial justice and Black Liberation. Biden ran his campaign for President as a centrist democrat and has since proposed a 1.9 trillion dollar stimulus plan called the “American Rescue Plan” and announced 17 executive actions he plans to take on day one that many in the mainstream media are describing as Biden’s way of beginning to dismantle Trump’s legacy. Today with our DSA comrades we will talk about how Biden’s plans leaves out many struggling people including essential workers and why Biden must go further in the first 100 days of his administration and embrace bold policies that Democratic Socialists and grassroots movements across the country are organizing for like defunding the police and a Green New Deal in order to truly dismantle Trump’s legacy. We’ll also hear from Desiree Joy Frias who has been on the ground at the Teamster union worker strike at Hunts Point Produce Market.