The Atlanta chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (Atlanta DSA) is proud to announce our endorsement of member and fellow Democratic Socialist, Rogelio Arcila for the Atlanta City Council District 4.

Rogelio, born and raised here in Atlanta, is the child of Mexican immigrants and the first Latino to run for Atlanta City Council. After witnessing many years of neglect of the city’s working people by Atlanta’s so-called public servants in favor of tax breaks for developers and ever-increasing budgets for the city police, Rogelio was driven to run for City Council seat for District 4. For too long, our city council has ignored the desires, demands, and needs of the everyday people who keep Atlanta running. Our infrastructure is crumbling, our residents are facing a housing crisis as predatory developers load costs and taxes onto residents, pushing residents out of their long-time homes and making Atlanta too expensive for working people. Even as more corporate wealth sets up shop in Atlanta and taxes rise, there are fewer and fewer resources available for the community’s real needs.

Rogelio believes that our city’s wealth should fulfill the needs of the people, not corporations and developers. This is why Atlanta DSA is enthusiastic in our support for Rogelio as a candidate in a district overlooked by its own public servants. With Rogelio in office, we will have a councilperson who will be accountable to and fight for Atlanta’s working people, not its 1%.

“I am so humbled to receive the support of a group of hardworking and dedicated people whose values align with mine,” said Rogelio. “I know that true power lies with the people, and when we decide to mobilize and act, together we can protect our rights against the encroachment of corporate interests and corruption.”

“We are thrilled to see one of our own fighting for a voice in our city’s future,” said Atlanta DSA co-chair Shafeka Hashash. “Rogelio has already accomplished so much for our chapter’s mission here in Atlanta by serving the city’s everyday people faithfully. I look forward to seeing what more he can accomplish in office.”

If you would like to join in the effort to support Rogelio’s campaign and elect him to office this coming November, you can donate and/or volunteer at voterogelio.com, or you can get involved with Atlanta DSA by joining today at atldsa.org/join.

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We envision a Clark County fueled by 100% renewable energy, where all people have equitable access to resources such as water, housing, education and healthcare, and the labor of our workforce is mobilized toward fighting climate breakdown.

As such, Las Vegas DSA opposes the Clark County Lands Bill, which would allow real estate developers to purchase federal public lands outside of the Las Vegas Valley along the I-15 corridor toward California. This bill would further urban sprawl, increase carbon emissions and air pollution, and perpetuate inequities in housing, transit, and climate. Las Vegas is among the fastest-warming cities in America, experiencing 5.7°F of warming since 1970. Low-income Las Vegans suffer the most from climate change and pollution, with increasingly unaffordable utility bills, higher rates of many adverse health conditions, and more exposure to environmental hazards and the unequal effects of natural disasters. The Clark County Lands Bill is in direct opposition to the changes we must see in order to maintain a livable planet and build a green energy future.

Clark County residents already suffer from the consequences of sprawl:

• Disproportionate impact on communities of color: Robert Bullard, environmental justice researcher, touches on multiple ways sprawl impacts hurt minorities (White flight and the decay of urban public schools, lack of reliable public transit, and air quality impacts in urban centers)
• Spatial mismatch leads to lifetime cycles of poverty, impacts on time and money earning potential of those who live in low income urban areas.
• Las Vegas is a non-attainment zone, meaning air pollution here exceeds EPA air quality standards. The valley has the 9th worst air for ground-level ozone in the country. As a result Nevada ranks 13th in the nation in asthma, which is the leading causes of missed school days and grade retention in children

The land disposal and expansion of the urban growth boundary proposed in the Clark County lands bill would exacerbate these issues, while contributing to significantly increased carbon emissions which put us on a track for a climate catastrophe. While the evidence of significant harm from sprawl and unchecked growth are becoming more clear by the day, this bill would double down on the patterns of unsustainable development which have brought us to the brink of climate and ecological collapse.

We are not here to solely express opposition, but to offer a more sustainable path for our community which addresses projected population growth, dwindling natural resources, and the effects of a two-industry economy that is vulnerable to the whims of economic boom-and-bust cycles. The Green New Deal is an economic, racial, class and environmental justice piece of legislation that guarantees universal housing and creates millions of good jobs in the process of tackling the climate crisis. The Green New Deal does even more, it moves us away from outsourcing solutions to private industry which has proven, and will continue to prove, its inability to pull us out of climate catastrophe. There has never been a better time to leave the status quo behind, legislate for your constituents and work to ensure that the solutions meet the scale of the climate, economic, racial and environmental crises we face.

Signed,
Las Vegas DSA
Sunrise Vegas
National Lawyers Guild – Las Vegas

As the budget fight continues to heat up in Albany, workers in New York City are continuing the struggle for power and equity on the job and at school. On tonight’s episode, we’ll visit the picket line at Columbia University, where unionized graduate students are on their second week of a strike to demand fair pay and healthcare. We also hear an update from last Saturday’s NYC-DSA march to Tax the Rich and Impeach Cuomo.

We’re joined LIVE by NYC-DSA endorsed candidate for City Council District 39 (and community radio fan!), Brandon West, to hear about his work to Defund NYPD, defeat machine politics, fund excluded workers, and build working-class power. 

To learn more about Brandon West and get involved with his campaign, please visit https://westforcouncil.com/.

Starting on Wednesday, March 24th, AADSA will host conversations with ACC commissioners Mariah Parker, Carol Myers, Jesse Houle, Tim Denson, and Melissa Link on affordable housing in Athens. The conversations will be streamed live on Facebook and Twitter.

Marin DSA stands in solidarity with Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama and the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), who are engaged in a historic organizing drive to form the first-ever union for Amazon warehouse workers in the United States. 

All workers deserve a union. Jeff Bezos is the wealthiest person in the world and Amazon has made record profits throughout the pandemic, all while refusing to pay their workers a living wage, failing to provide proper safety standards, and subjecting them to dehumanizing working conditions. 

Capitalism runs on exploiting workers to maximize profits for the wealthy few. Workers organizing together in a union is how we fight back to build a more just, free, and equal world. We stand with RWDSU and the Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama!

On Tuesday, February 16th, Charles Howard, University Chaplain and Vice President for Social Equity and Community at the University of Pennsylvania, spoke with Lawrence Ware, co-editor of "Ballad of an American," the first-ever graphic biography of Paul Robeson, about Robeson's relevance for today. Paul Robeson was the pre-eminent Black, left-wing figure of U.S. popular culture during the 1930s-40s. Concert singer, film actor, public personality, his "Ballad for Americans" was heard by millions of radio listeners. Idolized across large parts of Europe, his records heard widely in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, Robeson was struck down by McCarthyism. His legend and his lessons remain. The event was co-sponsored by the Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus (AFROSOC) of DSA, the DSA Fund, and the International Committee of DSA, along with the Religion and Socialism Working Group of DSA. You can order the book from Rutgers University Press and receive a 30% discount on it and all books sitewide by using the code DSA RUP at checkout.

The Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America (ATL DSA) stands in unity and solidarity with the Asian-American community in Atlanta, Georgia, and across the United States as we collectively process a horrific hate crime that targeted Asian women, killing 8 people.

Our first thoughts turn to the victims, their families and their communities. Many people, including our comrades in ATL DSA, are experiencing intense anger and pain in the wake of another racist mass shooting event. This spree shooter specifically targeted women, highlighting the particular gendered racism that Asian women face in the United States. In his own words, the shooter targeted businesses which he believed were sites of sex work. ATL DSA stands with Asian women, who face a particular gendered racism in the United States. We stand with sex workers, an unjustly criminalized group vulnerable to violence. We stand with Asian sex workers who are often victims of racialized sexual violence resulting from patriarchy and white supremacy. Race, gender, and class in America intersect in ways that render poor and unassimilated Asian Americans invisible and thus especially vulnerable to violence like the murders that were perpetrated on March 16.

Moreover, we know that this horrific event did not take place in a vacuum. Over the last year, acts of racist violence against Asian Americans have increased significantly, a direct result of the jingoistic rhetoric about China and the COVID-19 virus propagated by politicians on both sides of the aisle and furthered by corporate media outlets. During the 2020 presidential election, both Trump and Biden jockeyed to be “tougher on China,” as the ruling class egged on a new Cold War with China and continues to do so now. In any conflict between China and the U.S. or their proxies, it is the working class that suffers, abroad and at home. We must be vigilant in counteracting propagandic narratives that would lead us to believe otherwise. Yesterday’s killings are the latest expression of a long history of anti-Asian racism and discrimination that stretches back hundreds of years in the U.S.

The simple fact is yesterday’s murders did not need to happen. We must reject the anti-China and anti-Asian rhetoric that inundates American society, and we must fight to end the racialized misogyny that demonizes and oppresses sex workers. We denounce anti-Asian and Sinophobic rhetoric in all its forms, and we oppose those who wish to perpetuate conflict with China. We stand in solidarity with sex workers and oppose efforts to increase policing or expand the carceral state as a solution to this violence, as we know this would only result in further oppression and harm towards those affected.

We stand in solidarity with communities most impacted by this attack and are prepared to respond to calls for support. We are listening to our comrades, our local Asian-American community groups and their leaders, to best understand how to act in solidarity, and we will amplify any ways that the broader community can demonstrate their support as well.

Also see the DSA National Political Committee’s statement for more info.

A few days ago we held a vote open to all tuition strikers about whether to continue the strike past the next payment deadline of March 18. Similar to our vote in February, students were overwhelmingly in favor of continuing the strike, with 82% voting to continue and hundreds of students participating in the vote. The majority of those students were personally committed to continuing to withhold their tuition payments. 

With the Graduate Workers of Columbia going on strike the same week that we are announcing the continuation of our tuition strike, we are in an uniquely strong position. We’ve shown the administration that we aren’t going away until they give us a real plan for how our demands will be met. 

But now we need to continue organizing to put as much pressure on the administration as possible. Here are some ways you can help the effort:

1. Take action by calling and emailing administrators, emailing all of your past and current professors to ask them to sign our open letter in support, getting in touch with all alumni you know to ask them to sign our alumni open letter / no-donation pledge and to join our email/call campaign. You can find all of this on our action guide: https://bit.ly/tuition-action 
2.  Come to our Day of Action, Friday March 18th, 4-5 pm ET to put pressure on administration and organize our networks together! (RSVP for Zoom info here)
3. Sign up for a working group to help us organize actions, press outreach, and coalition-building.
4. Donate to our strike fund. Thanks to all the donations we’ve raised from supporters across the country, we will likely have the funds to cover late fees for everyone who requests them and who is unable to obtain a waiver. We’ve put together this script for requesting late fee waivers from Columbia offices, and if you are unable to obtain a waiver and need funds to cover late fees, you can request them here. 

You can also come to our Tuition Strike General Body Meeting this Thursday, 8 pm ET (RSVP for Zoom info here) to discuss strategy, next steps, and ways to get involved with the effort. 

Hope to see you at our Day of Action and as always feel free to reach out to us at columbia.ydsa@gmail.com to talk more!

For Immediate Release—Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Madison Area Democratic Socialists of America
Contact: dsamadison@gmail.com

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No New Pipelines! PGND and Madison DSA Stand in Solidarity with Water Defenders AGAINST Line 3

MADISON, WI — People’s Green New Deal – Madison and the Madison Area Democratic Socialists of America, stand in solidarity with water protectors who are mobilizing for protest, calling on federal and state governments to immediately halt construction of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline. 

Line 3, a pipeline owned by the Canadian-based energy company, Enbridge Inc., has been seeking to “update” the pipeline to accommodate tar sands oil coming from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin. For the last 5 years, Anishinaabe water protectors and allies, led by the White Earth Nation, Red Lake Nation, and Giniw Collective in northern Minnesota, have withstood freezing temperatures and police repression to halt construction of Line 3, The pipeline will cross 200 bodies of water, 800 wetlands, and violates Anishinaabe treaty rights. Enbridge is already responsible for the biggest inland oil spill in US history and this “update” will carry double its original amount of tar sands oil. It’s not a matter of if it will spill, but when it will spill, resulting in ecological devastation. 

President Biden refers to himself as the “climate President” and was right to cancel permits for the Keystone XL Pipeline. We call on his administration to do the same regarding Line 3.

We call on Governor Evers and his Task Force on Climate Change to strengthen their stated commitment to a green transition by moving their recommendations regarding pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure from Tier 2 considerations to priorities and take immediate action to halt construction in Wisconsin. 

We also call on Governor Evers to overturn Act 33, which he signed into law in 2019. As The Progressive said, under the law “peaceful protestors can be charged with a felony punishable by up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine if they trespass on property owned, leased, or operated by companies engaged in the distribution of oil or petroleum.” We defend the right of water protectors to defend their land against unfair targeted lawsuits.

We call upon the courts to side with White Earth Nation, Red Lake Nation, and the Sierra Club in their lawsuit, to respect treaty lands and defend fragile ecosystems.

Completion of Line 3 will only increase the demand to refit pipelines going through Wisconsin and Michigan to accommodate tar sands oil. Line 3 is the lynchpin. 

As eco-socialists, we pledge to mobilize in the coming months to support protests against Line 3 and will work alongside everyone committed to this fight.

If you can, please donate to Giniw Collective and follow them on social media.