By Bruce Nissen

It’s a pretty well-known story by now. The rich are getting richer, and poor are getting poorer, and the “middle” is hollowing out with the vast majority joining the poorer in losing ground while a small number of the so-called middle class join the ranks of the rich. This has been going on for decades.

The consequences are damaging to the fabric of our country. Massive corporations and billionaires use all that money to “buy” the electoral results and public policies that even further redistribute wealth upwards to themselves. Homelessness proliferates, housing grows ever-more unaffordable, governments lack the resources needed to address urgent social needs, millions lack normal access to healthcare, the deregulated businesses despoil the environment and the country heads toward dissolution of a democratic form of government as people lose faith that a democratic system can actually deliver on the needs of the populous. Meanwhile, billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk spend millions on private adventures in space and plans to escape to other planets as social needs go unmet and Earth heads toward Armageddon.

To make matters worse, the court system that is now stuffed with judges dedicated to maintaining the grip of big money over our country are firmly placing the rules that result in increasing inequality into the coercive grip of the law. In the infamous Citizens United case in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that money is speech, and therefore curbs on monetary expenditures to influence elections are unconstitutional curbs on free speech. The Court also ruled that corporations are people, and therefore curbs on corporate spending are violations of constitutional rights of corporate “persons” to free speech. The rule of money over our political system is thus complete; inequality continues to grow.

The latest figures from the federal government are not encouraging. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reports that wage inequality continued to increase in 2020, the most recent year for which numbers are available (https://www.epi.org/blog/wage-inequality-continued-to-increase-in-2020-top-1-0-of-earners-see-wages-up-179-since-1979-while-share-of-wages-for-bottom-90-hits-new-low/).

How bad is it? Let’s look at a graph of wage growth since 1979 for the wealthiest 1% all the way down to the bottom 90%.

In the 41 years between 1979 and 2020, the top one-tenth of 1% had real (inflation adjusted) increases in their wages of 389%. For the top 1%, it was more than 179%. For the bottom 90%, it was just over 28%.

As is apparent from the graph, in every period during those decades, wages from the bottom 90% continue to be redistributed upwards. Consequently, the share of all wages received by the bottom 90% has dropped by 9.6% while the share of the top 5% has increased by 9.2%. This is despite the fact that a solid majority of Americans think there is too much inequality in our country (https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/views-of-economic-inequality/). Sixty-one percent think there is too much inequality; 23% the right amount, and only 13% believe there is too little inequality.

Clearly the trend in income inequality is contradicting the wishes of the American people. The consequences of such vast inequality are verging on catastrophic. Yet the same poll showing public opposition to our nation’s inequality also show that only 42% of the American public think that attacking inequality should be a top priority of public policy (https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/most-americans-say-there-is-too-much-economic-inequality-in-the-u-s-but-fewer-than-half-call-it-a-top-priority/).

There may be many reasons for this lack of urgency in attacking the problem. One is that polls also show that even though Americans are aware of inequality, they consistently underestimate the degree of it. Another might be cynicism that public policy changes could actually make much difference. A third could be that most Americans fail to make the connection between growing inequality and the myriad of other ills facing our society (lack of healthcare, lack of affordable housing, erosion of democracy, etc.).

For those of us who care deeply about this issue, perhaps a first step toward reversing our runaway inequality is to broadly publicize the issue and make people aware of its extent and its disastrous consequences.

Arrestable protests in Washington are not the only way to get a response from the President. It is time for mainstream media to give creatives greater news coverage.

To our comrades,

We are writing to reaffirm our commitment to transforming DSA into a fighting organization of the exploited and oppressed, built on the power of the working-class, rather than a handful of politicians and self-appointed movement leaders.

On March 18, 2022, the NPC voted to de-charter BDS WG, despite its compliance with their request to turn over its social media passwords. While the NPC’s statement leaned on bureaucratic explanations, there is no doubt that this was retaliation for BDS WG’s public criticism of Congressman Jamaal Bowman, and the NPC’s decision not to censure him for supporting Israeli defense funding. Ultimately, it seems the NPC’s only concrete reason for de-chartering BDS WG was its refusal to delete a month-old Twitter thread criticizing a popular NPC position defending Bowman.

In a statement of dissent posted to the internal discussion board, NPC members including Jen B, Jen M and Kara H wrote “we invite you to commit to struggling through conflict, to remain true to our anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist values and support us in standing with our Palestinian and Palestinian-allied comrades against censorship.” We stand by this statement.

Our dissenting leaders have demonstrated what true leadership means—standing without apology for the oppressed and rallying the rank-and-file members who make DSA worth fighting for to their cause. This is the DSA we joined: an organization made up of our comrades who walk picket lines in the pouring rain, who clash with riot police in the movement for Black Lives, and who organize into the dead of night to see our cause through, the rank-and-file majority who do not flinch in the face of the ruling-class. We will not stand and watch while DSA is hollowed out in the name of backroom deals with politicians.

Since the initial decision by the NPC on March 18, 2022, the NPC has reversed their decision, reinstating the BDS WG. However, the working group’s leadership has not been reinstated or had the ban lifted.

Middle Tennessee and Nashville is comprised of many Palestinian people. In early 2021 this chapter helped organize rallies alongside our Palestinian community—these marches attracted over 1000 people. At these events, the participation was staggering—there were children who have never been able to visit their homeland due to Israeli apartheid. There were parents and teenagers who were refugees that had their homes destroyed or taken from them. There were even grandparents who are older than the state of Israel who remember their homes and their neighbors.

Palestine solidarity is a local effort. The Metro Nashville Police Department has participated in the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) program. This program sends police officers to Israel to learn brutal tactics from the Israeli occupying police and its military. This program also invites Israeli forces to the US to teach our law enforcement. The same tactics that have led to the deaths of people in Nashville are the same ones that they learned in Israel and through the GILEE program.

It is obvious that here in our communities there is support for the Palestinian cause. Moreover, solidarity with Palestine and her people and supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction movement is a moral, ethical, and logical obligation to any person, let alone a socialist. This chapter has always held a deep love and solidarity for our Palestinian comrades and will continue to do so.

We affirm the following commitments:

1. We demand the NPC reinstate the BDS WG’s previous leadership and lift the ban on national leadership placed on them.
2. We demand the NPC affirm the right of lower bodies—including all chapters, working groups, standing committees and caucuses—to publicly criticize higher bodies, up to and including the NPC. Without open criticism, our democracy will wither and die.
3. We commit to the struggle for a liberated and democratic Palestine, and to the merger of socialism and anti-imperialist movements across the world. We will work toward a DSA that lives up to this commitment.
4. In the coming year leading to the 2023 DSA Convention, we will work toward building a unified opposition in DSA committed to a strategy of international working-class revolution and against collaboration with the ruling class.
5. Middle Tennessee DSA reaffirms our commitment to Palestinian Civil Society’s call and reaffirm our full support of BDS.
6. Middle Tennessee DSA reaffirms itself as in full solidarity with Palestinian Civil Society’s struggle against apartheid, colonialism, military occupation and for equality, human rights, and self-determination.
7. Middle Tennessee DSA affirms that any political solution to the ongoing crisis must be premised on the realization of basic human rights, including all rights outlined in the BDS call.
8. Middle Tennessee DSA will establish a dedicated BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working group to show solidarity and make change in our region, and we invite all DSA chapters to do so as well.

The struggle for Palestinian liberation is as much a local struggle as it is an international one. Only through global solidarity and action in concert with the international working class will we see a free Palestine. The fight for Palestinian liberation will forever be a line in the sand for this chapter and its members.

We will not suffer attempts to undermine the struggle for Palestine or her people.

In love and solidarity,
Middle Tennessee Democratic Socialists of America

On Monday, April 4th, 2022 a meeting of the Colorado Springs Law Enforcement Transparency and Accountability Commission met, with several items on the agenda that pertained to COSDSA. The subjects discussed were how the CSPD conducts undercover investigations, how the CSPD disciplines officers who break the law, and how the CSPD handles officers who use excessive force with citizens. In addition to the commissioners, several police officers, interim Police Chief Vasquez, several other stakeholders, and many members of the COSDSA were in attendance. The audience came prepared with questions to address the CSPD's recent undercover investigation of COSDSA, as well as other leftist groups.

Unfortunately, interim Police Chief Vasquez would not entertain any questions from the public. Only members of the commission were allowed to ask questions. Additionally, Vasquez was unwilling to discuss any specific undercover investigations or tactics that are employed during such investigations.

Vasquez's main point was that, in order to conduct an undercover investigation, there must be reasonable suspicion, a violation of the law, or criminal activity. Upon questioning, he was unwilling to discuss the reasonable suspicion resulting in any specific investigations, but he said upon further questioning that, due to the large amount of resources that are involved in such investigations, certain cases get prioritized based upon the estimated amount of harm that the perpetrators would inflict upon the community. He said that any investigation had to have reasonable suspicion that a criminal activity is occurring, and that the department had to lay out the facts in order to proceed with an investigation. The former chief, attending virtually, parroted his own canned statement that the CSPD is not political and no officers or investigations were ever biased.

Deb Walker, who was at the table with the commission, asked several pertinent questions, particularly about the Fourth Amendment rights of people who are the target of an undercover investigation. She wanted to know what checks and balances are in place to ensure that these rights are not being denied. She also asked what procedural justice those people have to ensure the security of their private information.

Vasquez responded to these questions by repeatedly using the department's standard trainings as examples of checks and balances. He said that oversight from within the department and, occasionally, a liason in the DA's office, were evidence of checks and balances. He was unable to describe any actual checks and balances in place within the department. He referred to laws that the department is required to follow, and to CORA (Colorado Open Records Act) guidelines, stating that people who are under investigation should request information under these guidelines (even though there's no way for them to know they're under this type of investigation in the first place). He also recommended that people interested in this should investigate the Bureau of Justice's 28 CFR part 23, which outlines policies and procedures that should be followed when operating federally funded, multijurisdictional criminal intelligence systems. He did not elaborate as to which specific policies the department has in place to comply with this guidance.

Members of the audience were very frustrated by being denied a voice in the proceedings of the LETAC. When the audience became audibly agitated, they were instructed to settle down.

What became very clear during the course of the meeting was that the CSPD doesn't intend to submit to any form of checks and balances of their power. This is currently a very upsetting trend in the USA as a whole. According to stakeholders, the LETAC was designed to have no authority to undertake corrective action as a result of such meetings. Trainings are not checks and balances. Oversight from within the very same organization it's overseeing does not constitute checks and balances. PC Vasquez intentionally directed the commission to CORA, when CORA doesn't even apply to the CSPD. Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act does, and the CSPD's website says that no information will be given in regards to undercover investigations.

The COSDSA is making requests for as much information as possible, but anticipates that there will be very little, if any, information shared regarding the recent undercover investigation.

Where is the accountability? Where is the transparency?

It’s official! We have a brand new online shop where you can get LVDSA shirts and stickers. We’ll also be selling merch in person at Springtime Solidarity on April 16th.

Tonight we’ll continue our series of interviews with the DSA For The Many Slate with David Alexis, a rideshare driver, working class father and climate organizer who is running to represent Senate District 21 in Flatbush, Brooklyn

Many began 2022 with some hope that with Andrew Cuomo out of office, New York might finally be able to pass a state budget that meets the needs of working class people. The budget was due April 1st and is now five days late. Much of the hold up is because of last minute additions from Governor Kathy Hochul to roll back bail reform within the budget and fund a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills, owned by billionaire fracker Terry Pegula. And it's not just Governor Hochul doing the bidding of fossil fuel capital in Albany.  We talk to David Alexis about his campaign to unseat Senator Kevin Parker who has stalled climate legislation in Albany earning him the nickname the “Joe Manchin of New York.”  We’ll hear why David is fighting for Public Power for his neighbors in Flatbush, how being a dad impacted his run for office and his vision for public safety and housing.

Follow @David4BK or visit https://www.davidforbk.com/ for more info on David. 

 

 

Colorado Springs Democratic Socialists of America supports strong legislative protections for public sector workers. We support a bill that will allow all public sector workers the same rights that other workers enjoy, to collectively bargain, including the right to strike. We support a bill that respects and celebrates public sector workers who contribute to the state of Colorado and its citizens every day. Colorado Springs DSA believes that public sector workers deserve a seat at the table and to be part of the decision making process in their workplace. Colorado Springs DSA supports a strong bill that gives public sector workers democracy, not just at the ballot box, but also in the space where they spend the largest portion of their waking lives.

The right to collectively bargain is a basic right enjoyed by most workers in the state of Colorado and throughout the U.S. To deny this right to workers serving the public is to tell firefighters, teachers, healthcare workers, and anyone that serves the community that they don’t deserve basic dignity. A strong bill granting public sector workers the right to do what any other worker can do is simply asking for respect and equality. This is what the Colorado Springs DSA stands for and nothing less. If Governor Polis is worried about the ability to strike, maybe he should ask himself why this would even be a concern. Is Governor Polis aware of the low pay, poor treatment, and mediocre benefits of the people who serve the citizens of Colorado?  Does he not care?  Is he worried that empowered workers might actually have a reason to strike?  

Colorado Springs DSA demands that any legislation pertaining to public sector workers’ rights be fair and equal, not simply meaningless gestures. If the bill moving forward creates no real or meaningful change, the bill is less than useless. Any bill not granting public sector workers the same rights as other workers is simply spitting in the face of public workers. A weakened bill tells public sector workers that they aren’t worth as much, and that’s something we cannot stand for. We believe in democracy in the workplace. We believe that public sector workers have every right to make their voice heard and have a real and meaningful say in how they spend the vast majority of their lives. Let it be clear, any bill that fails to give workers the right to strike and collectively bargain is a bill that Colorado Springs DSA will actively and vocally oppose.

DSSL Resolution For an Internationalist DSA

Whereas the State of Israel has carried out a regime of occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people; and

Whereas the U.S. government continues to fund and arm the Israeli settler state, sending billions of dollars in military aid with congressional approval; and

Whereas our position as a left, anti-imperialist, working-class group striving for the freedom, peace, and safety of oppressed peoples here within the imperial core, ourselves residents of a settler colonial state, is only strengthened by principled and active solidarity with Palestine; and

Whereas an array of Palestinian civil society organizations has called for a policy of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to pressure Israel to comply with international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall.
2. Granting Palestinian/Arab citizens of 48’ (‘Israel’) their right to full equality.
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194; and

Whereas the Democratic Socialists of America national convention voted to support the BDS movement in 2017, reaffirmed its commitment in 2019 by establishing a BDS & Palestine Solidarity national working group, and in 2021 included BDS in our National Platform; and

Whereas this struggle is critical to those of us here in Utah, which is one of 32 states with an anti-BDS law on the books; and

Whereas our state capitol (Salt Lake City) currently engages in police exchanges and training programs with Israeli occupation forces [SLCPD in Israel]; this training has been happening in cities across the state and country for more than two decades; and

Whereas our state currently sends $24,031,816 of our tax dollars to fund the Israeli military, instead of investing in our communities in the forms of, for example, 297 elementary teachers, 15,970 people receiving food assistance, or 324 clean energy jobs [https://uscpr.org/militaryfunding].

Whereas our lives are already negatively intertwined with our comrades outside the US, through our government’s contributions to apartheid structures in the Israeli state, and as socialists it is our responsibility to redirect that harm within the imperial core away from our comrades, reinvest that money and energy in our own communities, and foster solidarity by joining Palestinian civil society’s call for a US policy of BDS of Israeli apartheid.

Whereas the illegitimate vote by the National Political Committee to decharter the BDS & Palestine Solidarity Working Group was the latest overreach (according to the national Bylaws, the NPC does not have this authority) and continues a pattern of crossing the BDS picket line in defiance of DSA’s stated mandate to support BDS.

Whereas the illegitimate vote to decharter overrode the decisions made by the majority of convention delegates at the 2019 Convention that established this Working Group in the first place, and was won by only a simple majority, lacked credibility, and will harm our larger organization if any part of it is allowed to stand.

Therefore be it resolved that we, the Democratic Socialists of Salt Lake, stand in active solidarity with the DSA BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group, and while we approve of the NPC’s recent decision to reverse its attempt to decharter, we call for the reinstatement of the leadership of the Working Group, reversing the NPC’s one-year ban on members of the steering committee from participating in national positions.

We concur with the Working Group’s Statement in response to NPC’s egregious and illegitimate punitive acts and the authors of the For An Internationalist DSA in their support of dissenting NPC members when they write: “we invite you to commit to struggling through conflict, to remain true to our anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist values, and support us in standing with our Palestinian and Palestinian-allied comrades against censorship.” 

Be it further resolved, DSSL will publicly announce the resolution in the form of this statement on its website and social media accounts, and send a brief notification of the resolution statement to NPC.

March 2022

The post DSSL Resolution For an Internationalist DSA first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.

My darling comrades, My name is Josh, and I am the current Treasurer of the QCDS. I may seem like a person who enjoys attention, and the truth of the matter is that I do. I want to take some of your time to introduce myself by kickstarting our Member Spotlight in which we give […]

Tim Ryan may think echoing Trump-style generalizations will win him Republican votes, but using fear-mongering tactics against Ohio families will do nothing to grow the working class’ prosperity or keep those at risk of racist violence safe. It is simply unacceptable and abhorrent. In a time when Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders regularly face racially-based violence, Ryan’s ad further fans the flames of xenophobic Republicans who would rather deflect the criticism of America’s ruling class onto Asian Americans than be held accountable for their part in the decline of good-paying, union jobs.

The decline of Ohio’s manufacturing is not the fault of China, or any other nation, it is because Ohio’s political class is more focused on coddling big business donors and promoting the interests of Wall Street than building the power of workers in government and their workplace. No matter how much politicians want to blame other countries, the decrease in workers’ wages is a failure of capitalism and its enablers in government. When politicians serve the bosses and not the workers, Ohio manufacturing will always be at risk of disappearing, and the profits of Ohio’s labor will always be in the pockets of corporate CEOs.

Columbus DSA stands in solidarity with Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders of Ohio against racist attacks. We call on Tim Ryan to remove his disgusting ad, publicly apologize to the Ohioans he has put at risk, and change his campaign strategy to one that will actually promote workers’ interest: democratic ownership of their business.