New York is in a housing crisis, but 2019 presents a rare opportunity to turn the tide, ending evictions, homelessness, and fight the power of abusive landlords. This #TenantTuesday, RPM sits down with activists on the front-lines of the fight for housing justice.

Tune in to hear @DR0DRIGUEZ and @ceaweaver have an amazing conversation about this fight that affects everyone.

Jack and Lee discuss the recent upsurge in Social Reproductive Labor organizing, with teacher and nurses on the front lines.

This is an equal parts hilarious and insightful episode of Religious Socialism podcast. Kelli Dunham is an author, comedian and storyteller — she’s the founder of Queer Memoir, a storytelling series for the queer community and stand-up comedian. But in this podcast, she recounts her religious history — from her childhood attending drive-in churches in Florida, her time at a gay conversion camp, and seven years as a nun in the Missionaries of Charity. Between laughs, she reaches some poignant truths about similarities in the socialist ethic among churches and queer communities, and how laughter can be a healing force. See below to learn more about Kelli Dunham and the podcast: KelliDunham.com Religioussocialism.org/podcast Religious Socialism Podcast is hosted by Sarah Ngu and produced by Devin Briski. Our music is “Made and Broken” by Hugel.

A history of US Imperialism in Central America and a report from DSA comrades in Tijuana

On episode 4 of RPM, we’ll be talking about the surprisingly important electoral landscape in New York City in 2019!

In the studio, we'll have Renée Paradis from the Brooklyn Electoral Working Group of NYC-DSA all before we connect with you — the audience — to take your calls in the last quarter of the show!

Tune in on Tuesdays at 5:00 PM on WBAI 99.5 FM New York and online at: nyc-dsa.link/nycRPM and follow us on Twitter @nycRPM

People do not belong in cages. Kei of the No New Jails Coalition and Jordan of NYC-DSA and the No New Jails Coalition joined Jake, our host who also participates in both organizations in the studio. Together they have a passionate conversation on what abolition is, DeBlasio's jail expansion plan, and the current fight to prevent people, mostly poor people of color, from being warehoused because they can't afford bail.

Features include Patrick Houston from NYCC on the fight against Cuomo on the Williams Fracked Gas Pipeline, and other fracking infrastructure, Nicole Catania from the Sunrise Movement, on the Green New Deal, their hope and their plan for the first half of 2019, Alexandria Villasenor, a 13-year-old climate striker, and Kelly Roache from NYC-DSA and the NY Democracy Alliance on what you can do locally to fight.

In our first broadcast, State Senator Julia Salazar joined us to discuss the impact of Amazon's plans for HQ2 in Long Island City and the #NoAmazonNYC coalition that's organizing against it.

Rabbi Michael Feinberg is the executive director of The Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition, whose goal is to build a long term alliance between the faith community and labor movements in New York City. He's spent decades as a multi-faith activist building diverse coalitions to advocate for workers' rights. In this interview, we discuss why he prefers the term "multi-faith" to "interfaith," what he learned from Father Daniel Berrigan's radical anti-nuclear protests, the heritage of Bundism (historical secular Jewish socialist movement), and what he thinks the role the faith community can play in the fight for worker's rights.

 

 

The Charlotte Metro Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (CLTMDSA) strongly opposes the six NC constitutional amendments slated for the November 2018 ballot. These amendments are unintelligible jargon, unreadable, and ultimately part of a concentrated GOP power grab to gerrymander and take powers away from other elected officials. We urge others in the Charlotte-Metro region to also vote against all six amendments. Read more about them below.

 

Amendment 1: Photo ID voting requirement

This will require voters to show photo ID before casting a ballot. Defenders of these laws claim that IDs reduce voter fraud; however considering in-person voter fraud is extremely rare, requiring voters to show identification is more of “a solution in search of a problem.” The reality is that these ID laws prevent many from exercising their right to vote and are discriminatory against the poor, racial minorities, and other vulnerable groups.1

 

Amendment 2: Create an eight-member bipartisan election board

Under current North Carolina law, the election board consists of nine members – four from the governor’s party, four from the other major party, and one independent – with the governor overseeing the board. This amendment will reduce the nine-member election board down to eight, all of which would be appointed by the general assembly thus taking power away from the governor.2 As the current governor is a Democrat, this amendment is simply a blatant power grab by the Republican- controlled legislature.

 

Amendment 3: Reduce the state income tax cap from 10% to 7%

As Democratic Socialists, we believe that people should pay their fair share and that if you have more, you should pay more in order to create a society that meets the needs of all. This amendment would cap the income tax at 7%, thus concentrating more wealth for the wealthy while putting more financial burden on lower-income earners and potentially cutting funds from needed services.

From the News & Observer: “A state’s revenue needs can vary unpredictably over time and income tax caps eliminate flexibility. If income taxes can’t be raised to meet needs, a state’s primary alternative is to raise sales taxes (and various usage fees). Sales taxes (and usage fees) impact poor people much more than they impact wealthy people: Poor people must spend most of their income, subjecting most of their income to sales tax, while wealthier people spend a much lower percentage of their income. Moreover, [this specific cap] locks in rates that are lower than recent historical rates and the new flat-rate tax structure shifts more of the income tax burden to lower earners. Other states such as Kansas that have lowered tax rates dramatically have had poor results. We are already seeing hints of the impact in N.C. with a precipitous drop in inflation-adjusted per student spending in public schools.”3

Amendment 4: Establish a merit system for filing judicial vacancies

This amendment is another attempted power grab by the NC GOP and shifts the power of who appoints judges between elections from the governor to the state legislature. Instead of the governor making appointments, anyone in the state may submit recommendations to the general assembly who will then provide the names of two NCGA-selected nominees to the governor. The governor will then have to select from between those two nominees who are not subject to gubernatorial veto. If a vacancy occurs right before an election, the chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court is then tasked with the appointment instead of the governor.4

Amendment 5: Protect the right to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife

There is no current threat to these activities in the state, and having this on the ballot is more so an attempt to get the GOP base to show up to the polls. Since the amendment refers to making these “preferred means of managing and controlling wildlife,”5 this also causes ecological concerns in that it could result in reduced protections for wildlife areas and habitats. It also defers hunting and fishing laws to the general assembly, which takes power away from local groups to establish regulations and create or maintain protected wildlife areas. Again, this is nothing more than another attempted power grab by the state legislature.

Amendment 6: Add rights for victims of felony crimes

As Democratic Socialists, we stand for the abolishment of prisons and the carceral state. This particular amendment is dangerous as it could result in even more people in prisons and with harsher sentencing. There are also risks that this could create even more bias against defendants facing trial.

Mark Rabil, law professor at Wake Forest University says, “Obviously everybody agrees victims should have rights, but the way I see the goal of Marsy’s Law is so much more than that................. The bottom line is

they’re giving victims and victims’ families constitutional party status that can override the constitutional rights of a defendant to a fair trial and the right of districts attorneys to pursue cases in ways they perceive to be fair.”6

On top of the fact that the criminal justice system already largely discriminates against vulnerable communities and racial minorities, this amendment is an open door to further exacerbate that discrimination and create even more disparity within our justice system.

CLTMDSA sees these amendments as disingenuous and not in the best interest of the people of North Carolina. Rather these efforts are to increase GOP control, consolidate power for the wealthy, and create more inequality for the most vulnerable in the state. Please join us in voting NO on all six in November.

1https://www.aclu.org/other/oppose-voter-id-legislation-fact-sheet    2 https://longleafpolitics.com/nc-constitutional-amendments-2018/

3https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article214823780.html 4https://longleafpolitics.com/nc-constitutional-amendments-2018/ 5https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article216437935.html 6https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article218118890.html