Anti-mask bans are making a comeback, and they are disrupting anti-capitalist resistance movements and suppressing civil liberties in the process.

A new vision for technology can radically challenge the myth that capitalism is the fastest route to innovation and progress for working people.

The following statement was adopted at our April 4th General Meeting

As the death toll in Gaza reaches 40 thousand people, one of the strongest voices for a ceasefire has been Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on campuses across the country. Sadly, at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), the school administration has suspended the campus chapter of SJP on a technicality. This level of scrutiny and punitive action has no basis in precedent and amounts to an effort by a pro-Israel school administration to silence a student group because of its political views. President Kaler and the administration have no problem denying students their first amendment rights if it pleases their donor base. DSA says loud and clear: End the suppression of SJP at CWRU. Reinstate them. Ceasefire now, end the occupation and free Palestine!

The post Cleveland DSA Stands with Students for Justice in Palestine at Case Western Reserve University appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

Select the link for your Councilmember!

https://dsa-la.org/HarrisDawsonRSO-script

https://dsa-la.org/McOskerRSO-script

https://dsa-la.org/BlumenfieldRSO-script

If you’re interested in democratizing the economy then you’re going to need to build a social base capable of such a dramatic transformation of our way of life. The only way to shift the balance of power toward the working class is to build the labor movement. Organized labor remains weak in the United States with about 10 percent of all workers organized into unions. This number has dropped nearly 25 percent since the peak of the AFL-CIO during the 1950s following the incredible surge in organization in the mass production industries during the New Deal and World War II. What is to be done to demonstrate our strength in organized numbers? Today we continue our series with labor organizers here in New York City fighting to build unions in the service sector. We’ve already spoken with workers at Starbucks, Trader Joes, Barboncino’s, and Nitehawk. Now we’re joined by organizers from Partners Coffee Union who are attempting to form a collective organization that can improve their material interests.

By Ash T

“The Spring Revolution is coming closer than ever!”

It’s not hard to see why so many comrades have completely lost hope in the state of the world. As we see ongoing genocides in Rojava and Palestine, many watch in horror as American bombs and money fund genocidal wars of conquest by the Turkish government and Israeli state. At the ballot box, we see the horrors of both the Biden government’s treatment of the Palestinian people and the possible future horrors that will await under a Trump presidency. The Palestinian struggle is something that is ongoing and our solidarity with the Palestinian people should be central in the coming days. 

However, this is not a call to pessimism. In fact it’s quite the opposite. One struggle goes unnoticed amongst fellow comrades that I’ve seen, and learning about it can give your average socialist something that seems too far gone on the left: hope. And you know which revolutionary struggle gives me hope? Myanmar. Myanmar, in my view, is a beacon of hope and in need of our solidarity. Their revolution against fascism and a repressive military junta is shocking the world as we speak. A group of ragtag militias, ethnic minorities, and even college students have taken up arms and are now making solid ground in the country. 

History

For some short context, Myanmar as a nation emerged out of conflict with the Japanese Empire, British, and later from themselves. In 1948, groups like the Karenni National Union and the Communist Party of Burma gained support from the country’s non-Bamar peoples. Since then, the Burmese state was ruled by various military governments, but this flared up after the 2021 Myanmar coup d’etat. After a short period of democracy under Aung San Suu Kyi, the Sit-Tat (commonly known as Tatmadaw) took power in the country. Win Myint and Aung San Suu Kyi were arrested and small elements of civil disobedience occurred with minority groups, who were most at threat when the military junta decided to oppose their existence.

The Burmese population appeared at protests across the nation in opposition to the junta, only to be gunned down on the streets. The Sit-Tat’s grip on the country is not a new sight, however, since the nation was wrecked previous to  the existence of the Tatmadaw by fascist, ultranationalist elements of the military. The problem of “Buddhist nationalism” with the Sit-Tat became a cause of  the Rohingya genocide. This is not to say that the existing government wasn’t complicit in this genocide. Aung San Syu Kyi was noted to have allowed the whole process to happen, not doing anything about the Sit-Tat’s brutal massacres. Buddhist monks in the 969 movement fanned the flames of Islamophobia, and the government used this to mandate a Buddhist nationalism and a Bamar-centric system that left minorities in the dust.

This is where the revolutionaries come in. The Burmese Revolution or the People’s Defensive War began shortly after the repression. One interesting thing as a result is the shift in politics at play in the region. After the military went on the offensive on its own people, the people of Myanmar themselves decided enough is enough and the minorities and oppressed people of Myanmar decided to take matters into their own hands.

The War

One of the enshrining unified ideologies of most people in the rebellion is the idea of federalism and democracy. Their political ideology seems to be a very big tent style organization with disgruntled minorities like the Chin and the Karenni in under one large flag. 

After scrolling and wandering and talking to various people on the Burmese side of the Internet, you see a wide array of opinions of what to do when the fascist junta is obliterated, but most agree on a democracy for all people in the nation. Looking at the military side of things, the NUG rebels are made up of various people in Burmese society. Ethnic minorities, college students, deserted soldiers, and almost every sector of Burmese society has decided to fight against the junta and strive for something better.

And they’re doing quite well at it. One video shows PDF revolutionaries being able to take a police station with AK-47s while wearing flip flops. NUG leader, Duwa Lashi La, has said that the PDF forces have made “stunning gains” in the past 3 years. A large portion of the country has decided to take up arms and fight the Sit-Tat. The fascist military junta is now overworked and dying by the hand of revolution.

It’s easy to look at the state of affairs in the world and feel depressed. But people in Myanmar are fighting an objectively good fight. The Burmese struggle needs our solidarity.

by Sara G.. 

Austin Socialist News Bulletin – March 2024

March in Austin is dominated by the juggernaut of South by Southwest. Locals familiar with the hectic influx of visitors create elaborate plans to avoid downtown. Austin DSA dove straight into the fray, working with the Austin for Palestine coalition on two weeks of protests, organizing, and, of course, great live music. The motives of this successful campaign have been previously covered. Below are other highlights from this busy month.

In the past month…

• Austin DSA member Jose Garza won an overwhelming victory for reelection as Travis County District Attorney. For four more years, we will have a class ally in office prosecuting wage theft and supporting community justice initiatives.

• With a very short turnaround time, Austin DSA organized a showcase for musicians who dropped out of official SXSW shows. The event at Double Trouble featured Enola Gay, Currls, Ardamus and Ratarue, Vera Ellen, Tetchy, Holiday Ghosts, and High As Fuck. 

• Our chapter also passed an internal resolution to re-affirm our commitment to anti-zionism, and to holding elected officials accountable if they support apartheid in Israel through actions such as voting for military spending.

• Austin Against Apartheid has successfully signed up more businesses to refuse to stock food products that contribute to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Customers can also commit to not shop at businesses complicit in apartheid by signing the pledge.

• A group of us recently wrapped up a reading club for Class Struggle Unionism (Joe Burns, Haymarket Books) where we examined the vital role that class struggle plays in motivating real change in the workplace through productive union work. Burns, with his decades of labor activism and research, draws the line between capitalism’s need for bodies to produce goods and services, creating extreme concentrations of wealth for those at the ownership level – the “employment transaction” – and how class struggle-focused unionism can fight it. Drawing on lessons learned, and not learned, from the history of the US labor movement, Burns makes a case for union organizing driven by the belief that we must challenge the very societal power structure responsible for this inequality. He stresses the importance of confronting existing labor laws designed to undermine union progress and worker coalescence; disregarding, for instance, laws that make organized walkouts and picket lines illegal. Accomplishing this requires democratic radical efforts that connect the workers’ fight for basic needs, like fair compensation and humane regard, to a dismantling of a capitalist system dependent on worker exploitation. (credit: Vera S.)

The post Austin Socialist News Bulletin first appeared on Red Fault.

At our March General Membership Meeting, the Chicago chapter of the DSA voted to declare our support of one democratic state in Palestine. At our last national convention, our membership affirmed the Palestinian right to self-determination. 

Although a permanent ceasefire in Gaza is necessary, it would not redress the cyclical slaughter, starvation, displacement and torture of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians over the past 75 years. The ethnostate that oppresses them will never give Palestinians equal rights. And we know well as Americans that separate is not equal. 

These rights can never be granted in the apartheid state of Israel, under a regime whose legal foundation is ethno-nationalism.

Nor will it happen under a two state solution. The conditions in Israeli-controlled Palestinian settlements already illustrate the lengths Israel will go to in order to maintain control of the entire region. In addition to our moral and ideological opposition to ethnocracy, the material power imbalance between these two imagined states will make it impossible for the “Palestinian half” of historic Palestine to have true self determination.

For this reason we also call on the national DSA to also state its support of one democratic state in Palestine: a one-person-one vote state in which everyone is represented equally, regardless of ethnicity, religion, origin, etc. As socialists it is our responsibility to imagine what a just world would look like and share that vision with the world. 

Without democracy, self-determination is impossible, and without full equal rights under a secular state, there can be no democracy for the Palestinian people.

The post CDSA Statement on One Democratic State appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

Towards a Socialist Opposition in Florida

We are pleasantly surprised by the Florida Supreme Court’s decision to approve the abortion rights ballot initiative. This is our chance to strike a small but powerful blow against the police state oppression of pregnant Floridians. We can enshrine our right to abortion in the Florida Constitution.

Pinellas and Tampa DSA will join DSA’s statewide campaign for the initiative and do all that we can to contribute. You’ll see us canvassing, fundraising, and rallying together, fighting for reproductive freedom.

No matter what happens, we will affirm the inherent right of pregnant people to defy these atrocious abortion bans. We will continue to criticize the initiative where it does not go far enough, and connect working class people with the resources they need to live free.
We will survive this fascist cruelty with our dignity intact. Together in solidarity, we will build a socialist opposition in Florida!

Join DSA today!

The post Pinellas and Tampa DSA Joint Statement appeared first on Tampa DSA.

Miami Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has the utmost confidence in the current National Political Committee (NPC) to lead our organization through the ongoing budget crisis. The NPC is our highest democratically elected leadership and, as such, retains the trust of our membership. In this moment of intense debate, we must engage with each other with respect and fight to keep building our collective socialist project. The NPC has our support to make the tough decisions that are necessary to avoid insolvency and the shuttering of our organization.

First, our chapter acknowledges that cuts to staff positions or salaries tied to their contributions to our organizing work should be considered no matter how painful these decisions may be. It is incredibly heartbreaking to be in a situation where our revenue and projected budgets cannot sustain the staff that we currently have, but we must come to terms with that reality. The budget deficit has been a pressing issue for previous administrations that failed to meet the challenge. We reject uncomradely attacks on our NPC, such as calling them ”union busters” or “scabs.” This undermines solidarity within our organization and incorrectly compares the DSA to a capitalist firm. 

Second, Miami DSA wishes to stress that we believe continuing dues shares must be prioritized. For many chapters, this is the primary connection to National. Chapter Dues Share should stay as a staple for the stability of smaller chapters; this support is crucial in building a stronger socialist movement in the respective areas of these chapters.

Third, we must recognize that this is not only an organizational crisis, but a political one. In recent years, the DSA has bled members and lacked an inspiring political vision or sense of direction. The votes by DSA members in Congress to fund Israel and break a railway strike have also been demoralizing for members. The DSA must continue to strive to be a mass organization that can lead ambitious class struggle fights for and by the multi-racial working class.

Fourth, the NPC should prioritize Convention voted campaigns, consider online only conferences, and limit in person conventions if our financial state does not improve. Our Chapter will continue to advocate for such cost-saving measures for at least two years.

Finally, in a show of solidarity, our chapter has decided to forgo the next quarter’s dues share. We call upon and encourage larger and more financially stable chapters with excess funds to consider voluntarily forgoing their upcoming dues share. While we understand that this is a drop in the bucket, we hope this gesture demonstrates that our chapter, like many others in this organization, is willing to make sacrifices to sustain our movement and ensure that we are ready to meet pressing challenges in the future. These challenges are demanding but cannot distract us from our mission: building socialism in our lifetime.

We also commit to fundraising by hosting solidarity dues phone-banks, starting Sunday April 14th at 4pm, and we call on other chapters to do the same. We encourage all our members to switch to income-based solidarity dues immediately. Let’s give our 1% for the 99%!

A second Trump presidency looms as a distinct possibility in November. Israel continues to commit atrocities in their genocidal campaign in Gaza, financed and backed by our government. Every day, working class communities face repression by means of anti-worker legislation and over-policing. 

Considering the stakes we are faced with, we support the NPCs decision to ensure the survival and longevity of the organization. As a member-led and member funded socialist organization, composed of working class people, we must be ready and able to tackle these issues. We believe that DSA, as the largest socialist organization in America, has the best chance of building socialism within our lifetimes.

We ask our fellow DSA Chapters to stand in solidarity with our organization. Take the pledge to forego your Chapter’s next dues share allocation in order to aid in alleviating our current budgetary crisis.

In Solidarity,

Miami DSA