Contact: info@columbusdsa.org

COLUMBUS – The Columbus chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America released the following statement regarding DSA’s ongoing layoffs:

As part of DSA’s ongoing budget process, the National Political Committee (“NPC”), our political leadership, has sought to lay off seven unionized staff members. Through successful fundraising, non-staff cuts, and seven voluntary resignations, DSA was able to exceed its financial goals for this year before laying off a single staff member. Yet, the NPC insists it will not negotiate with the DSA Union or adjust the number of layoffs to our new circumstances. This is a damaging maximalist posture from our leadership and, simply, an economically unnecessary number of staff to eliminate.

Last year’s successful abortion rights campaign in Ohio depended on DSA’s Electoral Campaigns Organizer and Org Tools Coordinator and could not have happened without the support of these staff members. The NPC’s plan to fire them along with five other union members is immensely short-sighted and would seriously harm our basic organizing capacities. As DSA chapters around the country seize a historic political moment with ambitious organizing projects for reproductive rights, Palestinian liberation, and more, it is a mistake to eliminate the staff who play a key role in getting these efforts off the ground and scaling up our organizing.

During this process the NPC has engaged in bad-faith negotiation, and their insulting offer to the union would see workers sign away their rights and relegate all unionized staff to at-will employment. This and multiple other violations of the DSA staff’s union contract have led the union to file grievances against several NPC members.

We stand in solidarity with all members of the DSA Union and reject any politics that seeks to sacrifice or compromise workers’ rights.

Columbus DSA affirms the statements of the DSA Union and calls on the NPC to move away from its destructive approach by negotiating in good faith to minimize the number of layoffs.

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On this day in 1970, four Kent State students were murdered while protesting Nixon’s escalation of the Vietnamese war into Cambodia. This massacre further inflamed the anti-war protests on campuses across the nation which saw 4 million students strike for peace.

Today, we see history repeat itself with students occupying their campuses with the demand to cut funding to Israel’s apartheid regime as it slaughters ten of thousands and dislocates millions.

Today, we see that the leadership of the state and country has learned nothing as it continues to violently crush student protests while increasing funding for weapons of war being turned on the people of Gaza.

Today, we see Joe Biden has learned nothing from this experience as he smears student protestors and inflames violence against them by calling for order and obedience on college campuses

We stand with the student movement and demand an end to this genocide. We must continue fighting until the Palestinian people are free, just as the students of the 70s pushed on until Nixon was left with no choice but to sue for peace.

The post From Vietnam to Palestine: The Power of Student Solidarity appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

Cleveland DSA condemns the House’s passage of HR 6090, which deploys the IHRA definition of anti-semitism, conflating anti-zionism and anti-semitism, for enforcement of federal antidiscrimination laws on campus. Republicans introduced this legislation in a desperate assault on the youth protests that have erupted across America as a result of American universities’ bizarre, large scale investments in Israel. A hundred and thirty-three Democrats voted for this bill, with Cleveland’s Shontel Brown among the co-sponsors.

Cosponsor Richie Torres claims the bill doesn’t limit criticism of Israel’s policies except when people call for the destruction of Israel. In other words, one can legally favor one Zionist policy over another, but there will be only one lawful opinion on the apartheid regime itself. Legislators are well aware that those who support democratic rights for Palestinians across historic Palestine, regardless of the model proposed, are considered to be calling for Israel’s “destruction”. They know the IHRA holds that describing Zionist colonialism as racist is, by itself, antisemitism. They themselves join in widespread and willful misinterpretation of protest slogans as antisemitic. Why the First Amendment should have an exception carved out for Israel is not clear, but there is no question of how this law will be used on campuses across the United States.

There is a good reason Israel and its allies have, for decades, worked hard to cancel, vilify, and suppress Palestinian speakers and their allies, especially on campus. They know that there is no justification for settler colonialism, massacres, torture, police kidnapping, and general exploitation of Palestinians. Reflecting on the campus protests, Israeli Minister Nir Barkat recently stated that “American public opinion is an existential threat to Israel.” Mr. Barkat’s allies in Congress say it is necessary to ban certain opinions on Israel to prevent their gaining a foothold in the United States. This is a doomed effort, already a substantial minority of Americans, including large portions of America’s Jewish community, are openly expressing anti-zionist views, a situation that was unthinkable even 10 years ago.

Passing anti speech legislation to shield genocide supporters, a supposed anti-discrimination measure from the same party systematically attacking trans youth at school, is an insult to young voters. Under Trump, there is no question that the organizations criminalized today, with Democrat connivance, will be on the front lines against GOP repression. Laws like HR 6090, among countless other bipartisan measures of state-surveillance and repression, will be deployed against us by Trump. We will use our front line role in the battle for democracy to further educate the American public about Israel, whether or not the attorney general or the supreme court consider this lawful.

There is a widespread fear that Biden cannot secure enough young and Arab-American votes to defeat Trump, particularly here in the midwest. Democrats have been trying, hopelessly, to play both sides, to both criticize and supply Netanyahu’s genocide, and it is destroying their party. Should Biden decline to veto the bill, this would represent yet another step towards a second Trump term, a step taken not by students, nor outside agitators, neither by antizionist Jews, nor Arab America, but by the candidate who asks for our vote. It is in this desperate context that the GOP and the large majority of House Democrats are asking Joe Biden and their Senate colleagues to spit on the first and most fundamental right of Americans.

Our congresspeople were among the 91 to vote against the bill. Socialists must do likewise even when they are alone. Elected socialists must maintain a clear and accurate message regarding the occupation of Palestine. We urge our representatives and our sister chapters to comply with the spirit of the 2023 National Convention, which specifically resolved to expect electeds and prospective endorsees to reject the IHRA definition.

DSA chapters nationwide will continue to engage in protected speech on and off campus. We do not ask Congress’ permission for this. We applaud our fellow students, alumni, and community members on campuses across the country, risking their safety and liberty to fight the genocide, most especially right here at Case Western Reserve University. We know that you too do not ask the US government what you can or cannot say. Take heart: history will absolve us, even if the courts do not.

The post Anti-Zionists have a right to speak – Cle DSA Statement Against HR 6090 appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

The below is a response to President Kaler’s email threatening disciplinary and legal action against students for their Gaza solidarity assembly at CWRU

Hello President Kaler et al.,

As a member of the CWRU and the Cleveland Jewish community, I am deeply disturbed by the rhetoric of this email which implies that there is rampant anti-Semitism at the protests and on our campus. Members of my Jewish communities have been standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine long before October 7. It is my duty as a person of the Jewish faith to employ our values of tikun olam (repairing the world) and pikuach nefesh (saving and valuing all lives). This includes but is not limited to being in solidarity with my Palestinian siblings in our community. For the past 7 months, they’ve watched in horror as their family members and loved ones abroad in Gaza face forced displacement, forced starvation, and extreme violence that we are priveleged enough to never be able to fully comprehend.

Our brave students are risking everything to stand up for these Jewish values of repairing the world and saving all lives. As a Jewish person, I am not afraid, I don’t feel unsafe, and I am not intimidated by seeing community members of all faiths (again, including the members of the Jewish community) come together for interfaith prayer, dialogue, study, and wellness activities. In fact, I think what we are witnessing is a beautiful display of students living out our CWRU mission of the “promotion of an inclusive culture of global citizenship.”

To reiterate, I am not threatened by the students singing, practicing yoga, praying, and gathering for meals together. What I am afraid of, however, is the increased surveillance and policing measures we are seeing all across campus. Acts of surveillance only seek to antagonize our students who are peacefully exercising their right to protest our institution’s silence and complicity in the horrors we are witnessing from afar.

President Kaler’s email regarding the student protests, sent on 5/2/2024 to intimidate the camp and slander its participants.
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We urge you to write your own response to the administration’s attacks against student organizers and their supporters:

Provost’s Office: provost@case.edu
Presidents Office: president@case.edu
Office of Student Affairs: katie.brancato@case.edu

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