Like many concerned workers, community advocates, and neighbors, Buffalo DSA Steering Committee is disgusted by the impending delay of SNAP benefits on Nov. 1. 42 million Americans, including an estimated 200,000 Western New Yorkers, will face unprecedented food insecurity.

This is a public health and safety crisis, and an attack on the working class. Wages have stagnated, and workers face unmitigated exploitation and wage theft, yet the cost of living continues to rise unchecked. Capitalists continue to hoard resources, leaving only scraps for poor and working people. The ruling class then spews baseless propaganda that we should blame each other–immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, or other marginalized workers, in particular–thus engulfing our class in an unending culture war.

We are strongest when we stand together against the true enemy–the capitalist class. We must organize and act, together, as a united working class.

What does this mean? We must implement both short- and long-term approaches to this impending, immoral hunger crisis. In the immediate term, the Buffalo DSA Steering Committee commits to both monetary and material contributions to organizations doing critical work on the ground in Western New York. We will also share resource guides with both chapter members in need and the greater community. Finally, we encourage members who are physically and financially able to contribute to mutual aid initiatives that uplift their local neighborhoods. Beyond this, we must harness the energy we have to aid our neighbors in the short term, by committing to long-term struggle against all who continue to oppress us. Community care and nonprofit support are not enough to defeat the depths of this crisis–only a democratic socialist state with a destigmatized social safety net can tackle issues of this magnitude. When we organize toward this aim in our apartment buildings, at work, and beyond, we outnumber the ruling class and their sinister lobbies. We must use mass, collective power to demand our taxes go toward essential services and food for all, instead of war crimes and authoritarian states abroad. Ultimately, the power we harness through organizing for our demands will help us build a truly democratic political apparatus independent of both capitalist parties, leading us to the effective government we deserve.

This multi-front fight does not happen in solitude, nor does it happen overnight. If SNAP benefits are restored at this moment, we still know the Trump administration will find new games to play with our lives again. We must create organizing networks and durable infrastructures of support as the working class. As a democratic socialist member organization, DSA provides this political home for any and all who wish to learn the essential skills we need in the uncertain times ahead.

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If you need help in the coming days and weeks, see the following pages for a non-exhaustive list of resources.

Buffalo Community Fridges
A local network of community fridges available to take what you need, and leave what you can. Most food items are accepted here, with the exceptions of raw meat, alcohol, and catering trays. All home cooking should be labeled with ingredients and dietary notes, and packaged separately. Note that the 257 East Ferry fridge has recently closed, but all other fridges remain open.

• Locations:
• Buffalo Love Fridge (45 Jewett Ave)
• Big Herk (167 Herkimer Street)
• Merriweather Library (1324 Jefferson Ave, limited to operating hours)
• Delevan Grider Fridge (877 E. Delevan Ave, limited to operating hours)
• Groundwork Market Garden Fridge (1698 Genesee St.)
• Gloria J. Parks Fridge (3242 Main St.; near UB South)
• Resource Council of WNY (347 E. Ferry)
• ACME Fridge (1848 Clinton St)
• NY4BDMA Fridge (637 Walden Ave)

WSCS Provisions 139 Pantry | 44 Breckenridge, 14213 (entrance faces Niagara St.)
Near West Side/Grant-Lafayette/Black Rock areas. Open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. This pantry is not able to accept fridge or frozen foods from non-commercial sources.

Milligan’s Food Pantry | 4th floor, Campbell Student Union (Buff State) Resource for Buff State students in need of food. Open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Student ID required.

Town Square Food Pantry | 2710 N. Forest Rd (Amherst/Getzville/Williamsville) Pantry near UB North, in the close vicinity of student housing.

Seneca Babcock Food Pantry | 1168 Seneca St. | 716-822-5094
Near South Buffalo/Babcock/Larkin areas.

Buffalo Urban League Pantry | 86 Pine St. | 716-854-7625
Inside the Clemmon H Hodges Community Center. Near Perry/Old First Ward/Downtown areas.

Buffalo River Food Pantry | 62 Republic St. | 716-856-8613
Inside Old First Ward Community Center. Near Old First Ward/Perry/Downtown areas.

Belle Center Food Pantry | 104 Maryland St. | 716-845-0485
Near Lower West Side/Hispanic Heritage District/Allentown areas.

FeedMoreWNY
A county-wide food nonprofit that offers pantry options, including a mobile food pantry, or meal delivery for those with mobility limitations.

Emergent needs? Contact Erie County DSS at 716-858-7239, or dial 2-1-1. Tell the operators you are looking for a pantry, meal delivery, or groceries today; you will then be referred accordingly.

As this dreadful police state bears down on us, there are still faint glimmers of hope. One of the most promising is the Democratic primary win for New York City’s mayoral race by long-time DSA member Zohran Mamdani. This victory, somewhat surprising given his low polling early in the race, has put explicit democratic socialist executive power on the table for the first time in decades, in a central hub of Wall Street capital and a center for international finance. Simultaneously, massive crowds have rallied  behind Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, demanding a future worth living in. As Bernie’s clear protege, it is quite possible that AOC will run for president in 2028, inspiring millions who view her as the last best chance for social progress in America. Now, DSA’s task is to make sure that this popular energy is channeled into a lasting political project—not crushed or coopted as it was in 2020 and 2024 for a decrepit Democratic establishment.

At our recent 2025 convention, DSA passed two separate resolutions that commit the organization to  exploring a run for president in 2028. It also committed us to the task of building an independent socialist party. If we want to make these dreams a reality, however, we have two strategic imperatives: first, we need to draft a democratic socialist presidential platform –  DSA’s vision for how to use the presidency to fight for socialism in our lifetime. Second, we must begin our intervention in the 2028 presidential primary by running our own candidate, a bold DSA cadre candidate, even if that candidate eventually drops out and backs a figure like AOC for the general. 

Are we up to the task? Have faith, comrades! It’s reasonable to feel small next to the scale of the problems that haunt us. Yet in DSA, we have real strengths that we can continue to develop: vision, commitment, and continuity. When elections end and the cameras leave, we are the ones who keep the struggle alive, who stay rooted in our communities and refuse to bow down to Democratic elites. They may have the name recognition, but we have a lasting organization that can inspire a new kind of mass movement and hopefully, a broader national presidential agenda to go along with that sense of commitment.

Rallying the Masses

This isn’t about winning the first time we run our own independent candidate for the highest elected office in the country. It’s about preparing the US working class for a revolutionary conquest of state power. The crucial reality is that the U.S. Constitution is already dead under Trump’s autocracy, which itself is a result of decades of creeping oligarchy. With the extreme disparities in Senate representation, the hideous influence of money in politics, and all the chaos and confusion ahead, it’s very unlikely that we’ll ever win a clean trifecta of the presidency, House, and Senate. Even Lincoln wasn’t that lucky when his insurgent Republican Party first took the presidency in 1860.

Rather, we’ll sweep to power using presidential politics to help trigger an avalanche of working class struggle, and rip up the old rulebook. It’s about using electoral campaigns for political office to attract support and to agitate the working class. Alongside the electoral realm, we will use every other tool available: strikes, demonstrations, mutual aid associations, and so on. Our “organizer in chief” presidential campaign will also encourage socialists to build up their own media, like the mass livestreams that Bernie Sanders pioneered or Zohran Mamdani’s masterful TikTok videos. We can be certain the cable news pundits won’t be kind to us, and it’s high time we found ways to counter their propaganda, and to cultivate peoples’ questioning of the status quo into something more enduring and focused!

Imagine our candidates throwing down on the picket line with striking workers; holding listening sessions outside VA hospitals and rail yards, organizing militant public health initiatives to subvert abortion bans and defend transgender care. Wherever we find organic working class leaders, we funnel them right into the pipeline to our People’s Cabinet. In our movement, today’s train conductor is tomorrow’s presidential nominee! The presidential election is just an audition for power—a way to build the muscle, the vision, and the network that the working class needs to actually govern when the time comes.

A Platform of Revolution

Before we even begin to select a potential candidate, we would need to determine what we’re running them for. Steps and patience are still necessary. We start by drafting a “Democratic Socialist Presidential Platform”: a prepared list of tasks that we would initiate on day one of a socialist presidency. Through rapid executive action, our intent would be to mobilize the working class to dismantle the capitalist state as it currently exists and win peace, homes, and healthcare for all.

Our agitation around this document would be more than a protest campaign. It’s a platform campaign spanning countless election cycles, not just one, in a nationwide struggle for power. Instead of beginning with a personality, we can start by revisiting DSA’s existing program, refining it together through democratic deliberation. The following could be inspiring commitments for our platform:

• Appoint a People’s Cabinet of working class organizers, prepared to take power as a revolutionary workers’ government. Such organizers would be recruited from across the country.
• Redeploy federal resources toward massive climate resiliency projects, housing, and healthcare for all, regardless of locality
• Cut all federal support for genocide and the Israeli war machine, instead supporting Palestine’s freedom
• Arrest all war criminals and genocide collaborators in the US for prosecution in international courts. 
• Arrest all collaborators in Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile network.
• Recognize the self-determination of all colonized and indigenous nations fighting global capitalism and U.S. imperialism
• Declare a public health emergency to restore abortion rights and gender-affirming care nationwide, deploying federal resources to ensure universal access.
• Nationalize public infrastructure, from railways to energy grids, under democratic control
• Welcome climate refugees and declare universal amnesty for immigrants 
• Liberate political prisoners from both federal and state incarceration
• Reorganize the armed forces into a democratic people’s army
• Convene a Popular Assembly, elected by nationwide proportional representation, to rewrite the US Constitution and declare a democratic socialist republic

The agenda will lead, not a personality. Our socialist vision will be spearheaded by charismatic people with a strong sense of responsibility to the movement, ready to build a permanent constituency for socialism. As we boldly articulate DSA’s vision for the country and the world, we will become infinitely more powerful.

The DSA Presidential Convention

With a platform agreed upon, we’ll be ready for the next step of nominating our ticket. Those who will be responsible for using electoral politics to spread our socialist movement across the country won’t be nominated through a backroom negotiation. Instead, we can hold a DSA presidential nominating convention. Anyone would be free to run for the nomination, as long as they pledge to implement the DSA Presidential Platform. DSA could develop democratic procedures for selecting a nominee and hold livestreamed in-person debates for all declared candidates to earn the DSA endorsement and full backing. Such debates will encourage healthy discourse in our organization and push all of us forward politically 

But how do we find good candidates? We can do this by thinking outside the box! We don’t necessarily need a governor, a member of Congress, or even an existing DSA elected. It would be amazing to win over a national politician like Rashida Tlaib or Cori Bush, but we could also pick a DSA chapter leader, a national co-chair, or a rank and file union activist. We could draft a local elected like Richie Floyd, a socialist schoolteacher like Jeremy Gong, or even a plain-spoken left wing academic like Matt Karp. The nomination process will give us ample opportunity to observe the candidates in action, picking one who is up to the task of building a socialist constituency.

Then, we could bring in other figures to boost the ticket. Imagine Zohran Mamdani, running for Congress on a nationwide slate of democratic socialist firebrands. These candidates will be backed by the strong campaigns that are necessary to win, build DSA and spread consciousness about our program. Downballot campaigns will get a boost when the presidential candidate barnstorms their district to help get their name out, and local elected officials will in turn have a part to play in boosting the presidential ticket. 

Running for a collective presidency would give us incredible resilience. If we spread name recognition across the movement, we can avoid getting trapped with a single perennial candidate like Bernie, Corbyn, or Melénchon. Instead, we can learn from figures like former Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and his successor Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico, who have used their groundbreaking electoral campaigns to build up permanent institutions like Morena, a mass party of the Mexican left. Bernie and AOC seem to be building support for their progressive vision through their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, but their distance from DSA limits their ability to cohere an organized mass base for their political program. Their instinct has always been to center their personalities instead of trying to create a new voter identity or a partylike organization.

If we nominate our candidates early—perhaps in 2026—we’ll have plenty of time to start forging a socialist voter identity as 2028 approaches. We can begin by running in the national Democratic primary with a stridently independent campaign, making it clear that we will never endorse the establishment if they steal the nomination or continue to ignore working class grievances. Our candidate’s orientation would still be to antagonize masses of typical voters, including the many Democratic party voters who have become increasingly frustrated with the party, and to offer them a true alternative to the GOP. If the time seems ideal, we can continue to the general election as an independent, on a third-party ballot line, or perhaps even as a write-in candidate, taking with us support from inside the primary. Every step of the way, we will assess support for socialism and continue the long overdue process of cultivating a pro-socialist constituency.

If AOC enters the primary, many comrades will feel that the only responsible choice is to rally behind her immediately. For many Americans, she is the most familiar figure to emerge from Bernie Sanders’ movement, their entry point to “democratic socialism.” Yet there is a hard truth that DSA sometimes struggles to address: AOC’s approach is rarely insurgent and has in fact become increasingly conciliatory in recent years. In 2024, she went so far as to go on the DNC stage and claim with a straight face that Kamala Harris“[works] tirelessly for a ceasefire in Gaza”—all while Harris groveled to Biden’s killing spree and promised the “most lethal” military in the world. More recently, AOC voted against a measure to slash funding for Israel’s Iron Dome, followed by reasoning that itself sounded contorted and unclear.

AOC’s strategy is compromised by her commitment, however well-intentioned in some circumstances, to staying in the good graces of a party leadership that is utterly hostile to progress and its own voter base. That is not a personal attack, but a political reality with consequences. If DSA plays “follow the leader” and tails a left-Democratic presidential candidate, we will forfeit any ability to push beyond the limits they accept. We should never forget what happened in 2020: when Bernie Sanders capitulated to Biden early on in the name of “party unity,” his massive volunteer army was left in despair and disunity. When summer came, millions rose up in the George Floyd rebellion, but they had no real political leadership—no defiant presidential agitator who could guide their righteous fury into a permanent resistance. That tragedy could repeat itself in 2028 if AOC surrenders to the establishment, all while ICE tramples more families into the ground. 

We can welcome AOC into the field. We may even consider forming a united front of some kind with her as the primaries unfold—if she makes significant concessions to the DSA platform, and we retain our own independent voice. Even from a position of “critical support for AOC,” we could continue to build a constituency around DSA’s unique vision and stay completely hostile to establishment Democrats. If she drops out and endorses an establishment primary winner, we must not follow her. A revolutionary campaign must be prepared to go much further than AOC will, because the US working class deserves more than a fleeting populist resistance: it demands an enduring socialist opposition. 

With a boldly independent socialist campaign, we will answer working people’s hunger for a real alternative. We’ll be putting forward our own agenda, unfiltered by the expectations of the Democratic party establishment. This strengthens our leverage and puts pressure on the entire political system. Ironically, this may even bolster AOC’s position within her party by showing the establishment that there’s a far more dangerous option than her. In the short term, that too would be in our favor, with AOC forced to concede to some of our more liberatory demands, all the while we carry on developing our independent sources of power, electoral or otherwise. DSA’s strength lies not in our proximity to progressive celebrities, but in our capacity to organize working-class people around a shared vision for a better society. All strategies, including the electoral, proceed over from this principle. 

The Hard Road Ahead

As our new National Political Committee builds on our commitment to building a socialist party, it should begin planning for a groundbreaking presidential campaign to fight for “socialism in our lifetime.” Across the country, DSA members increasingly understand that contesting the presidency is vital to our success as a movement. The greatest challenge ahead is making sure our presidential intervention is bold, inspiring, and courageously independent.

If DSA can come together around this vision, we will be taking a considerable leap of faith. It requires confidence in socialism as a movement, as an organization, as a concrete project worth fighting for. Is it actually possible for socialists to rise to power in the United States? If we don’t start to believe it ourselves, no one else ever will. 

If there’s one thing we can draw hope from, it’s the fact that all the old release valves are breaking apart. The Democratic Party has never been weaker and more decrepit. If we seize this moment with unrelenting ferocity, we can emerge with the independent movement of our dreams. The key to all of it is developing our vision through a presidential platform, and then running a candidate who is willing to speak to it. It is a message of confidence to the entire world that we can achieve socialism in our lifetime, in the United States: the center of global capitalism and empire.

Our time will come. Our time is now. 

Image: Photo of the Oval Office during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s time as U.S. President. (Public Domain)

COLUMBUS — The Columbus chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) issues the following recommendations to residents of Columbus.

1. In For Issue 1, YES.
2. In For Columbus School Board, vote MOUNIR LYNCH.
3. In For Columbus City Council, district 7, vote JESSE VOGEL.

A detailed rationale for each recommendation follows.

Disclaimer: No recommendations made here are endorsements. These recommendations are tactical considerations meant to minimize the harm likely to occur to the working class here and abroad as a result of this election.

Do you lament the lack of socialist, abolitionist, anti-ICE and pro-BDS candidates running for office? You can be a part of changing that, whether by running for office yourself or helping us to discover and cultivate future socialists-in-office. To advance the democratic socialist movement in Central Ohio, join DSA today: www.columbusdsa.org/join/.

Endorsement for Columbus School Board

Mounir Lynch

Columbus DSA is proud to endorse Mounir Lynch for Columbus School Board. Lynch sought our chapter’s endorsement and was thereafter endorsed by a democratic vote of the chapter. From our conversations with him, Lynch has demonstrated that he shares our ideals. He will seek to prioritize community voices, students, families, educators, and neighbors in shaping schools with transparent processes and district-wide advisory boards that will meet at convenient times and locations.  He wants to make teachers and staff “partners” with the board and will work to direct resources where they’re most needed. He wants to end the inequality in funding to schools and will work to provide all students with a world-class education. Lynch will fight for better pay, not only for teachers, but for all staff, including school bus drivers, cafeteria workers, aides and other support staff. Furthermore, Lynch has and will continue to speak out against developers who steal from our schools through tax abatements, and against the privatization of education. As he has said, “Our public schools belong to all of us.” We support Lynch’s vision for safe, inclusive schools where all students and workers are valued and respected.

Recommendation for Columbus City Council, district 7

Jesse Vogel

Columbus’s City Council has been bought and paid for by the local Democratic Party for decades. The local party has opposed efforts to make the process of electing councilmembers more democratic and has insisted on appointing or endorsing their own chosen candidates to maintain their hold on power in Columbus. (Our chapter’s Democracy in Columbus Priority Campaign seeks to change this.) Jesse Vogel’s campaign is part of the struggle against the established Democratic Party’s stranglehold on power in this city. Vogel’s vision is positive and certainly superior to the vision offered by the local Democratic Party leaders and his opponent, Tiara Ross. Vogel has not sought our chapter’s endorsement, and we are not granting it. But we do acknowledge that he is far superior to his Democratic Party endorsed opponent, and as a result, we recommend that our members vote for Jesse Vogel for city council. 

Recommend “Yes” vote for Issue 1

We recommend a Yes vote on Issue 1, a .05-mill increase of an existing levy over ten years to fund the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health (ADAMH) Board. This increase will strengthen key services available to all, with a particular focus on helping the uninsured and underinsured with mental health and addiction crises and recovery services. Key recipients of the levy dollars are the new Franklin County Crises Core Center for adults, Youth Prevention services, Treatment Access, Recovery and Support Services, Housing Programs, Family & Caregiver Support, and other Specialized Services for mental health and addiction issues.

No recommendation for other Issues

We cannot, in good conscience, recommend any other issues, due to lack of specific information from the City as to how funds, coming from the largest request for bond packages ever, will benefit the average citizens of Columbus.

Mayor-President Sid Edwards and the Metro-Council are currently debating how to proportion the parish's budget. You know that the Baton Rouge police have a history of abuse and violence, and you know that the best way to prevent crime is to fund communities through social programs, homelessness support, good jobs, parks, transportation, schools and other people-centered approaches. The police can only respond to crime, but we can have a safer city by tackling the root causes. Hiring more police officers or paying them more will not address these problems, and they could make them worse.

In this bonus episode, we keep the mics rolling with Kelly Latimore as we discuss icons, Bonhoeffer, and subversive religious practices.

This is a special meeting of the GRDSA Chapter to consider a proposal to endorse and support several ballot initiatives.

We will have reps from each campaign to give a brief presentation and answer any questions. Then chapter members will present a proposal to endorse and circulate these petitions as a chapter.

Michigan for the Many (M4M) is an alliance between the MOP Up Michigan (Money Out of Politics) and the Invest in MI Kids (wealth tax to fund education).

Rank MI Vote (RMV) would amend the Michigan Constitution so that we would use Rank Choice Voting (instant runoff) for elections.

Join us Sunday, October 19, 4pm, on Zoom to hear how these initiatives can empower the working class of Michigan.

The post Special Chapter Meeting: Campaign Proposal Town Hall appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.

The following article is the result of a visit to the People’s Republic of China to participate in celebrating China’s 80th Anniversary of its victory over Japanese fascism. Dee Knight and DSA China Working Group coordinator Anlin Wang were part of a five-person self-organized delegation of DSA members.

Beijing buzzed with excitement on September 3, as leaders of friendly countries poured into the city from around the world. They came to celebrate China’s 80^th anniversary of defeating Japanese fascism in World War II and to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Summit meeting. It was an impressive display of “unity in multi-polarity” featuring Russian President Putin and Indian Prime Minister Modi, as well as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, among about two dozen others.

With participation of most southeast Asian members of ASEAN, as well as the “stans” of central Asia, China was literally surrounded by the representatives of countries representing well over four billion people and nearly half the world economy. Another prominent participant was President Pezeshkian of Iran, which maintains close economic and military partnerships with both Russia and China.

The New York Times called Beijing’s Victory Day parade on September 3 “a defiant warning to its rivals.” The awesome display of China’s military might at the V-Day parade lent “a menacing tone” for Western leaders and media. CNBC said Xi Jinping made “a thinly-veiled swipe at Trump’s global tariff campaign” when he said “shadows of Cold War mentality and bullying have not dissipated, with new challenges mounting.”

CNN offered a more measured tone, quoting Xi: “I look forward to working with all countries for a more just and equitable global governance system… We should continue to dismantle walls, not erect them; seek integration, not decoupling.” CNN added that “Xi’s vision pushes back against the foundations of a US-led world order, opposing alliances like NATO.”

Russian President Putin commented to Russian media after the summit that “The SCO is not designed to confront anyone. We do not set ourselves such a task. And… during the discussions and bilateral meetings, there has never been anything that could be described as a confrontational beginning during these four days.”

In kicking off the SCO Summit, Xi said “We should advocate an equal and orderly multipolar world, and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and make the global governance system more just and equitable.”

How defiant is that? (Strange that advocating “universally beneficial and inclusive economic organization” can actually be considered a death threat for the US-led “rules-based” system.)

The massive military display at Beijing’s V-Day celebration left little doubt that China would never allow itself to be bullied again. More than 35 million Chinese were killed in Imperial Japan’s invasion and occupation of their country from the early 1930s to the end of World War II in August 1945. That’s even greater than the USSR’s loss of 27 million from the German Nazi onslaught. Together those numbers prompted Trump to say “Many Americans died in China’s quest for victory and glory. I hope they are rightfully honored…” 

Through the summit, we can see the past and future in contention for a world that’s striving to break away from overwhelming U.S. domination and unipolar rule. 

The “American Century”

The US lost about 420,000 soldiers in World War 2, according to the National WW2 Museum. But it assumed the role of overall victor, launching “the American Century” along with a global war against communism. It has maintained occupation troops in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Guam and other Pacific islands – all of which are deployed today against China, just as NATO (and its “defensive alliance” against the Soviet Union) continues to threaten Russia. Which side is threatening and destabilizing? It depends largely on your point of view.

During the Korean War, from 1950 to 53, the US slaughtered millions of Koreans, and flattened all buildings of more than one story, in a massive bombing campaign. Its threats to extend the war into China were repelled by the mobilization of half a million Chinese to fight alongside the North Koreans. The US war against Vietnam began shortly after the French colonizers were routed in 1954 and lasted until the US too was finally defeated in 1975, at a cost of additional millions of Vietnamese victims and tens of thousands of US troops. Some estimates put the total number of Vietnamese dying from the U.S. war there at over 3 million, a staggering amount of human loss. Both wars were also aimed at China, and China provided troops and weapons to support their allies in both, staving off further ruin and destabilization within their own territory.

The war zones of today, in Eastern Europe, West Asia and the Far East, are continuations of eighty years of US unipolar domination, both militarily and economically. But the way the US is protecting its interests in all three areas has exposed a blunt reality: the constant official refrain that “America is protecting democracy and human rights” is nothing but war propaganda and mythology. For most of the world’s population, America’s leadership has only meant invasion, coups and more death. 

The US: Sponsor and Protector of Fascists

While China and the USSR achieved major defeats against fascism, the US sheltered and rehabilitated Imperial Japan’s fascist rulers, helping them form and maintain the country’s far-right Liberal Democratic Party which has ruled virtually non-stop for 80 years. (The US CIA did the same for the fascists of Ukraine, and have since sponsored them against Russia.) Japan’s rulers have been obstinate in acknowledging their role in the horrors their empire had perpetrated across Asia, refusing  to apologize for slaughtering millions in their invasion and occupation of China. Ditto for Japan’s 35-year colonial hold on Korea, from 1910 to 1945. In both countries the Japanese imperialists were notorious for setting up systems of “comfort women” – sex slaves for Japan’s occupation forces (not very different from the hospitality enjoyed by US occupation forces across Asia today, but a significant contrast to the status of women in China today).

In South Korea, a country formed by Korean collaborators with the Japanese empire,  the U.S. has sponsored a series of military dictatorships in South Korea, until democracy finally broke through in the 1990s. Such dictatorships were aimed at threatening China, most notably in the so-called Korean War, that resulted in an armistice in 1953 but never officially ended, which has kept Korea split in two and maintained a kleptocratic U.S. client state in power in the south for generations to come. In fact, through the armistice deal, the US working with its anticommunist counterparts in South Korea, awarded itself a forever military presence there, guaranteeing “operational control” of the massive Korean military in case of war against the Democratic People’s Republic of [North] Korea (DPRK), China, or both. Such belligerence underscores the significance of DPRK leader Kim standing next to Russian President Putin and Chinese President Xi at the V-Day event. It would seem that America’s network of alliances is now being faced with a counter-alliance of groups and nations no longer willing to accept its rule. 

Even the internal politics of South Korea has been scrambled over the last few months. Its new president, Lee Jae Myung, came to power last June, following six months of intense popular struggle to oust the US puppet President Yoon, who was impeached and jailed after declaring martial law, and trying to provoke a war with US backing. When President Lee visited Trump in August, he resisted US pressure for him to join US escalation against China, which is South Korea’s number one trading partner.

The friendly leaders from around the world who joined both the SCO summit and the Beijing V-Day celebration showed that US efforts to surround and threaten China are failing. Most of the southeast Asian countries that make up ASEAN, notably Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia, attended after recent visits to their countries by Chinese President Xi. The significant exception was the Philippines, where the US maintains a military alliance aimed at China. But like in South Korea, the popular movement against US domination is strong, with serious efforts to force the US bases out, and to help US soldiers refuse to engage in a hopeless war that can only lead to needless suffering and death.

The American century, part two, is in a phase of serious reckoning, as China does what the U.S. has never done, which is build alliances rather than simply imposing its will on other nations. 

Remembering When the US Helped China Against Fascism

The week before China’s national V-Day celebrations, there was a special event in the southwestern province of Guizhou, honoring doctors and nurses from the US and European countries who formed an International Medical Rescue Corps. As this Xinhua article reports, “Dozens of foreign medical workers worked alongside thousands of their Chinese counterparts from the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps to save lives and provide medical training under harsh conditions. Today, these foreign medical workers are collectively remembered as the International Medical Relief Corps (IMRC).”

On August 26, a delegation of the descendants of these volunteers attended a commemoration in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province, “to pay tribute to their forebears and mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War,” the Xinhua report said.

“As descendants of the International Medical Relief Corps, we are incredibly grateful to you for keeping our ancestors’ memory alive,” said Peter Soyogyi, whose father served in the IMRC. “For them, as international anti-fascists, this was not just China’s war; it was their own. It is essential for future generations to understand the fight against fascism and the struggle for freedom,” he added.

Following the commemoration ceremony, the descendants’ delegation and a group of solidarity activists from the US traveled along the famous “24-Zig Road” – also known as the Stilwell Road – which served as a supply line from Burma (now Myanmar) and India for medical supplies to the US-supported Chinese resistance to Imperial Japanese aggression. The road was a joint project of US and Chinese forces, and a symbol of their united efforts against Japanese fascist forces at the time.

US commanding General Joseph Stilwell had many conflicts with Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) leader Chiang Kai-Shek, who called for his ouster. Stilwell argued for unified efforts of the KMT and Red Army forces, which led to his replacement.

The descendants’ delegation, and the solidarity group from the US, got a close-up view of the challenges faced by US troops, as well as US and European medical workers, in helping the Chinese resistance to fascism during World War II.

Official US support during World War II for Chinese resistance to fascism was a major factor in defeating global fascism. But the switch to supporting fascism after the war, including up to the present day, poses a challenge to the world’s progressive forces. The existence of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization constitutes a giant bulwark in that fight. But the struggle continues, as challenging as ever, as can be seen in the US-backed genocidal assault on Palestine. Just as the world’s progressive forces united to stop fascism in the 1940s, history calls on us to unite even more strongly today. Victory against fascism today may spell the end of imperialism and capitalism, and usher in the common prosperity and shared future the world needs now. China, clearly, in its honoring of U.S. medical teams from the past, and in its willingness to bridge divides between itself and other countries, some who have been less than sympathetic to China such as India, should be taken seriously by those of us studying world events and the trajectory of history. So far, a new world order appears to be possibly forming right before our eyes, a world order promising far more diplomacy than explicit warmaking, a world order led by China and countries emboldened to try a different route than what had been the norm under U.S. unipolarity for generations. The recent summit exemplifies this new possible path that China and other countries are now willing to risk against the terrorism of the West. 

Photo: General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea Kim Jong Un, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto at China’s Victory Day military parade in Beijing. Courtesy of the government of Indonesia.

When did prisons become the primary method of justice? What future should abolitionists be working towards? In her short but powerful book, Angela Davis carefully maps out the origins of the prison system, explains the haphazard merging of interests that created the Prison Industrial Complex, and uncovers the inner workings of its racist and misogynistic structures that continue to evade reformation.

Join us for a collective conversation using this landmark book! This will be an open discussion. So bring your unanswered questions, your concerns, and your personal stories. Feel free to join even if you didn’t get the chance to read.

The post Greenville Book-Talk: “Are Prisons Obsolete?” by Angela Davis appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.

Baton Rouge DSA joined its youth wing, the Young Democratic Socialists of America at LSU, to stand in solidarity with Students for a Democratic Society's No MAGA President campaign.

The Colorado Springs DSA strongly believes in the power of public education to empower and to liberate. We believe that the best people to decide how and what to teach are professional educators. We have been deeply troubled at the consistent interference from the extremist school board in District 11 of Colorado Springs as they deprive teachers of the very agency that allows them to excel. Their decisions are becoming ever more concerning. No novels in high school English classes. Pages physically cut out of health textbooks. And just last week we understand they cut from the curriculum the incredible abolitionist, writer, and orator Frederick Douglass.

Instead of cutting Douglass from the curriculum, we choose to live by his words, “I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.” We choose to unite with Charles Johnson, a union-endorsed candidate for the school board in D11. We know that he is trying to do right, even as the allies of the extremists now vying for seats on the board play into the shameful, racist tradition of painting Black men as criminals by sending out a mass text showing the mugshot from Charles’s 2020 arrest. True to what we know of him, he was guilty only of, as John Lewis loved to say, making good trouble.

In 2019, a good friend of Charles, De’Von Bailey, was shot in the back and killed by the Colorado Springs Police Department. Charles organized for greater accountability for the department. At COS DSA, we know that Black history is fundamental to American history. Maybe if these extremists spent more time studying it instead of erasing it, they would know how predictable it was that Charles was then singled out for arrest by CSPD. But they don’t know, and we suspect they just don’t care.

We stand in solidarity with Charles Johnson. Charles has been a friend to many of us who are organizers and activists in Colorado Springs, and we know him to be kind and insightful. A product of D11 himself, his commitment to teachers and students in the district is an inspiration. As the Colorado Springs Education Association prepares to strike on October 8th, we call on everyone able to show teachers their support by joining them on the picket line and by standing with Charles and the rest of the union-endorsed school board candidates come the November election. Their only goal is one we all surely share; outstanding public education in this city we love.