by Gregory Lebens-Higgins

Rochester’s mayoral primary debate took place on May 28, between incumbent Mayor Malik Evans, ROC DSA-endorsee and city councilmember Mary Lupien, and local businessman Shashi Sinha. Lupien spoke ambitiously of her vision for a better future, while Evans and Sinha invoked limitations and appealed to the status quo. The satirical exchange in the footnote below humorously captures the tone of the debate.*

About halfway through, the candidates were asked: “What is your stance on encampment sweeps? Do you support their removal, or do you think their removal [exacerbates] the issues of homelessness?” 

“How many people have we arrested for being on the street? The answer is zero,” said Mayor Evans. He elaborates, “you can’t arrest someone for being in poverty or having a substance abuse disorder.” But closer consideration reveals that arrest is the all too frequent response to poverty and substance abuse.

How does Mayor Evans’ logic hold up against racial disparities in policing? Black Americans comprise 33% of the prison population despite being just 14% of the general population, and are arrested at five times the rate of whites. Yet would Mayor Evans believe that “nobody has been arrested for being Black?” (or driving, running, shopping, and swimming while Black).

Of course, racial profiling will always be denied as the true motivation behind such outcomes. Following the Civil War vagrancy laws were enacted across the South, describes historian Eric Foner in his account of Reconstruction, punishing “the idle, disorderly, and those who ‘misspend what they earn,’” with fines or involuntary plantation labor. Virginia’s law punished those who demanded higher wages, while in Florida, disobedience and disrespect to the employer were criminalized. 

Many of these laws “made no reference to race, to avoid the appearance of discrimination and comply with the federal Civil Rights Act of 1866,” says Foner. “But it was well understood, as Alabama planter and Democratic politico John W. DuBois later remarked, that ‘the vagrant contemplated was the plantation negro.’”

Similarly, capitalist society builds a carceral framework around homelessness in more devious ways. The threat of homelessness disciplines labor, while the vulnerability of the homeless establishes a hyper-exploitable reserve army of labor. 

Today, more than 1,000 Rochester residents are homeless, and the city boasts the fifth highest child poverty rate in the nation, at over 40%. Homelessness in Rochester testifies to the racial legacy of America, with Black residents representing 40% of the general population but 55% of those experiencing homelessness. Meanwhile, rent continues to increase—a single-bedroom apartment now averages $1,200 per month—and a surging housing market pushes home ownership further out of reach. 

Housing is not the only rising cost of living, and income growth lags behind. Employment can be difficult to obtain, requiring a stable address, transportation, and a passing background check. Even retaining a job does not guarantee alleviation from homelessness, as employers provide low wages, unreliable hours, and limited time off, and employees are subject to termination at will. 

Rochester lacks adequate shelters for the unhoused, and those in extreme poverty have nowhere to go. Capitalism privatizes everything it can profitably possess. Modern public space carries a cost of occupancy, and minor violations such as sleeping in public or an open container can lead to arrest or a trespass notice. “Urinating and sleeping in public are both unavoidable and criminalized,” says Alex Vitale in The End of Policing, “creating a terrible dynamic.”

The unhoused are targeted by police and ostracized by the community. Despite Mayor Evans’ denial, encampment sweeps have traumatically displaced inhabitants and destroyed their belongings and continue to do so. Those occupying public spaces are more likely to have police contact or be subject to search, while poverty encourages crimes of desperation and nihilism—if society doesn’t care about me, why should I follow their rules?

Once the unhoused enter the criminal justice system, problems compound: “The criminal justice system, with its emphasis on punishment,” says Vitale, “[cannot] address the underlying and intertwined problems of homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse.” 

The unhoused are more likely to be held in jail, as they are denied release due to a lack of stable housing and cannot afford bail. They will encounter more difficulty paying fines, necessitating more court appearances or consequences such as license suspensions, and they can’t reliably stay in contact with their attorney or the court. Criminal entanglement can disrupt social services and limit job opportunities, leading to a downward spiral. 

So, yes, Mayor Evans, we arrest people for being on the street, in all but invocation.

Sinha’s response to this issue is not any better. Solving homelessness, he says, is “very simple and of course it’s [a] very complicated issue.” This answer is revealing—solving homelessness is simple in that the answer appears on its face: providing homes. It is complicated, however, because the desire for profit means this option cannot be delivered by the market. 

As mayor, Mary Lupien promises “[to] end homeless encampment sweeps day one.” “Homeless encampment sweeps can kill people,” says Lupien, by disrupting forms of support available to the homeless community through outreach and solidarity. Lupien clearly identifies the “simple answer”—“to provide them homes.” 

Mayor Evans admits “[homelessness] is not a problem that you can arrest your way out of.” Yet disproportionate city funding goes to policing rather than social services. With society’s wealth and capacity for production, we have the means to provide housing and a dignified lifestyle to all. When we arrange our society toward these ends, we will find not only that we can eliminate homelessness, but can create a more comfortable and safe community for all. 

* “Question: What pizza should we order?

Sinha: Pizza. Ordering. It has some crust. It has some cheese. But we never ask if we can afford it. You know…. sauce. Why aren’t we asking about why we need pizza? We need to fix this problem.

Lupien: I have been a staunch believer in pepperoni pizza, standing with the communities. More pizza in more mouths will feed so many hungry people. It is disappointing that Mayor Evans threw away two whole pizzas at the last pizza party that could have gone to feeding more people. We have the pizza available, we just need to get it to the right mouths. I’ve partnered with Pizza Justice and over a dozen other pizza communities, who understands what it takes to get there. It works.

Evans: I will never apologize for my pizza choices, because my pizza choices are right. I have personally delivered pizza to people, wasting not a single slice. When I was 14 I worked for Salvatores and cannot be ashamed at that. I have never thrown away a pizza. Three years ago we had a pizza crisis in this city. I rolled out Slice of the Night, which gave pizza to pizzaless communities. I will never apologize for what I’ve done. We don’t have the budget to just give everyone pizza. We could all make up misunderstandings about pizza waste, but that’s just not how things work. I have a three topping approach to pizza: sausage, onions, and peppers. You need all three. Let me be clear: without onions a pizza cannot happen. Just like I’ve been doing for 3.5 years, I’ve been bringing these together.

‘Sinha, you have your hand raised.’

Sinha: These two keep arguing. It just isn’t like that. It won’t happen unless we try.” – Reddit user Mysterious-Gold2220.

The post No Mayor Evans, the Answer is not “Zero”: On Arresting the Unhoused first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

by Rosa

A municipal budget is not a fascinating read to most, but it is a very valuable document to understand what, and who, is prioritized, and to provide specific projects or programs that can be targeted by local organizers, either for increased funding or abolishment. Every year, the City of Rochester’s budget includes a Community Input Report, summarizing residents’ responses from in-person events, a telephone town hall, and an online survey. Hundreds of residents respond every year, but one would be hard-pressed to actually find how their input has been applied. With the recent release of the proposed 2025-2026 $680 million budget, Rochesterians will again ask, “why are we being ignored?”

The online survey this year asked participants to rank twenty-eight specific City services by their essentialness, ranging from refuse collection to public arts funding to the Roc the Riverway project. Some options were very vague like “Safety in Rochester” (separately listed from fire, EMS, and “Police services and crime prevention”); to the very specific mentions of emergency repair housing grants, rehab grants and loans, and homebuyer assistance; to the undefined “Alternate First Response” models. Some of the services ranked least essential were “Downtown development” and “Development of riverfront, aka Roc the Riverway” at 20% and 15% of respondents respectively. The City’s budget over the years has not reflected that most people don’t find these essential: the Roc the Riverway project alone was proposed at $500 million—almost an entire year’s budget.

In-person and online participants also completed the Budget Bucks activity, a participatory budgeting tool where one can choose how they would allocate a hypothetical thousand dollars into ten categories. Housing received the highest allocation at 17%, and Violence Prevention followed closely, receiving 15%. “Police and Community Relations” only received 10%. 

Now the Budget Bucks activity didn’t include some essential services like water maintenance or refuse collection, but if we could truly spend the proposed budget on the priorities residents have identified, what would that look like? 

Based on this year’s budget of $680,455,000, 17% would mean $115,677,350 to spend on safe, quality housing for all residents. The current proposed budget for the Housing office is $895,000: that is 0.8% of what Rochesterians want spent on housing.

But what do Rochesterians mean by wanting more invested in housing? Going back to the City services listed in the survey, you’d never know that approximately two-thirds of Rochesterians are tenants; the only City services that mention housing are services for homeowners: emergency repair grants, rehab grants and loans, and homebuyer assistance. Where do residents have the chance to list affordable housing, rental assistance, or Housing First programs as priorities?

If we actually allocated 15% of the proposed budget to violence prevention, that would mean $102,068,250 to spend on youth intervention programs, mediation, and other programs with proven success. The current proposed budget for the Office of Violence Prevention is $3,243,100, only 3.2% of what Rochesterians want invested.

On the flip side of the coin, Police and Community Relations received 10% of allocated funds—still a sizable amount. 10% of the total budget would be $68,045,500. The proposed RPD budget this year is $115,436,800, 70% over what residents would spend.

As of 2025, there are 110 police officer vacancies (13WHAM). According to the upcoming budget, RPD estimates 27 newly hired police officers will complete the academy, with an estimated 40 officers separating from employment. By RPD’s own estimates, the number of vacancies will continue to grow, as that money continues to be allocated for empty positions. If we eliminated the empty positions that exist now (estimating salary and benefits to be around $150,000), we’d have $16,500,000 to invest in programs that Rochesterians actually want.

If the public was heard, how would our budget actually be spent? What would reinvesting in the community look like?

Rochester could have a true Housing First model: providing permanent housing to people without first requiring sobriety, getting a job, or completion of a financial education program, to list some of the common barriers people face when seeking long-term housing. A Housing First model ensures a level of stability and safety that makes seeking mental health care or finding a job much easier and more successful.

Rental assistance can be a huge help for people at risk of losing their housing. Loss of income, health issues, or unexpected expenses can push someone in a stable situation into eviction. Evictions are on the rise, and are on pace to double last year’s numbers. The rate of homelessness in the county increased 31% last year. The rates of unsheltered and chronic homelessness almost doubled from last year. Providing a few hundred dollars a month to households near eviction can keep people in their homes and off the streets.

The average rent in Rochester for a 1-bedroom apartment is $1,464/month. The City’s financial support of housing development prioritizing market rate units is contributing to displacing its own residents. In the Projects That Need Funding section of the budget is “Affordable Housing,” but it’s not what most would consider affordable housing: 25% of total units set aside for eligible households sounds more like market-rate housing with a few affordable units thrown in. Instead of pouring millions of grants into these projects, the City could fund projects that are solely affordable units, particularly growing the amount of public housing. Through changes to the restrictive zoning codes, investments could also be made into developing alternate types of housing such as cottage housing or accessory dwelling units, or helping people age-in-place.

Rhode Island has recently opened an overdose prevention center, with $2.6 million allocated for the first year of operation (WBUR News). Overdose prevention centers provide harm reduction for those using drugs by providing clean needles and testing strips, to referring people to rehabilitation services. $2.6 million is a significant amount, but it will save people’s lives as well as reducing the costs for services such as 911 call responses and health care related to drug use. 

Rochester is creating an ACTION team—a unit of community responders that will respond to non-urgent 911 calls like trespassing or welfare checks (Rochester Beacon). The program is still in development so it’s not clear what the annual cost would be at full deployment, but this unit could expand to other types of calls, such as writing incident reports for minor car accidents or resolving disputes between neighbors. Rather than be confronted by a badge and a gun, residents can receive referrals to mental health services or mediation.

It’s clear that Rochesterians want more from their local government but are being ignored. We can have a Rochester where residents are prioritized over real estate developers and the Police Locust Club. We can advocate for, and win, a community that takes care of each other.

A better Rochester is possible.

The post Why I Read Rochester’s City Budget Cover-To-Cover first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

by Lauren B.

A cloudy, drizzly Saturday in Livingston County saw around 100 people gather in Geneseo to mark International Workers Day—a first of its kind in the county, despite the holiday being more than a century old. 

The May 3 rally was a collaboration of local DSA members and the newly-formed YDSA Chapter at SUNY Geneseo, whose campus is a short walk from the rally location on Main Street near an area known as the Village Park. Other participating groups included Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace, Genesee Valley Indivisible, and the 5 & 20 Alliance. 

The power of organized labor and the history of International Workers Day were the event’s focus. Standing atop a short stone wall, Organizer Chris Norton explained that because May Day “was a festival of celebration, it led to a rare day off work for peasants in the Middle Ages.” In 1890, Norton went on, “May 1^st was chosen…by workers around the world—in support of an 8-hour workday in … the United States of America.”

DSA Member Lauren Berger’s remarks also commented on the history of International Workers Day, “in commemoration of the Haymarket affair,” during what was, they said, “the Gilded Age—robber barons, poverty, dangerous job sites, no social safety net, violent racial inequality … the top 12 percent of people in the US owned 86 percent of the wealth. The bottom 44 percent of the people owned 1.2 percent of the wealth. Sound familiar?”

“One of the ways people fought back was through organizing,” Berger continued. Not just labor strikes, but “support networks … to make sure the strikers got fed, had shelter, and could get medical care … . They listened and learned from each other to understand how their struggles were bound together—and in doing so created a collective power.”

Attendees held signs and stood along the Main Street sidewalk, representing a wide range of ages and backgrounds but hailing mostly from towns in Livingston and the surrounding rural counties. Some signs indicated specific workers to support—including the Post Office and fired federal employees. Other signs read “Stand with labor,” “Bread yes, but roses too,” and, “A better world is possible.” 

Berger explained the reference—the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike and the subsequent legend of a striking worker bearing a sign reading “Bread yes, but roses too,” meaning workers deserve not only the basic necessities of survival, but enough to be afforded dignity and joy. “We’re not outnumbered, just out-organized,” they said. “Our resistance, and our survival, stands a far better chance if we do it together.” 

Berger spoke about the ongoing Graduate Labor Union strike at the University of Rochester (linktr.ee/glu.ur), pointing to informational handouts on a table that grew damp in the intermittent sprinkles of rain. 

Norton led the group in a call and response, with a list of struggles fought and won by organized labor in the US, including, “If you like that kids go to school instead of work,” and “If you like safe working conditions,” and each meeting the echoing refrain, “Thank the Unions!”

Berger also read prior remarks from ROC DSA Member Rich Jurnack entitled “Manifesting the General Strike (rocdsa.org/blog/manifesting-the-general-strike).” As supporters honked their horns and the occasional disagreeing shout came from an opened driver window, Berger shared Jurnack’s retellings of two general strikes—the Palestinian-Arab Strike in 1936-39 and in Rochester in 1946. These instances and others prove, Jurnack wrote, “that we are in fact all essential workers, and they depend on us to make everything work. And if we stop working, their power goes away very fast.”

Referencing UAW President Shawn Fain’s moves for national contracts to simultaneously expire in his speech (originally delivered at the 2024 Chapter May Day Picnic), Jurnack wrote that May 1, 2028, “promises to be a moment where we as workers can come together and actually achieve the possibilities of a general strike. To achieve more politically and in the workplace than we’ve ever been able to before, at least since World War Two.”

Before concluding, the group sang “Solidarity Forever,” printed lyrics curling wet with the rain but well enough to read all six verses. As rally attendees departed many reported having learned something new, wondering aloud why this history isn’t commonly known. While this rally for International Workers Day might have been the first of its kind for Livingston County, it certainly won’t be the last. 

The post May Day rally brings out rural residents first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

On April 15, Border Patrol agents tackled a 27-year-old Salvadoran man to the pavement on Massachusetts Avenue in Portland. They zip-tied his limbs and threw him into the back of an unmarked vehicle. “It looked like someone getting kidnapped,” a witness told reporters. That’s because it was: a state-sponsored abduction, a spectacle of fear, and a message.

Eyidi Ambila, a man from the Democratic Republic of Congo, served a short sentence in Cumberland County Jail and has since been caged for over eight months by ICE with no new charges, no passport, and nowhere to be deported. This is not immigration enforcement—it’s indefinite detention and state-sanctioned cruelty. A federal judge ruled that Ambila can stay in the U.S. while appealing his deportation, acknowledging that returning him could mean arbitrary arrest, prolonged imprisonment, or torture. Let that sink in: the government admits deportation could lead to torture and still wants to deport him. He’s not a threat. He’s not a flight risk. He’s a living example of a system that dehumanizes, disappears, and discards. 

Marcos Henrique and Lucas Segobia, two skilled immigrant workers en route to a job in Maine, were abducted by ICE without charges. They were disappeared for over 36 hours and moved from one facility to another, while ICE lied to their families about their location. Jail staff refused responsibility. It was only after public pressure that officials finally tell their families where they were detained but the respite was brief, ICE, against their families wishes, moved them out of state.

These are not outliers. These are the cases that made it into the press. In April, documents obtained by the ACLU revealed that Cumberland County Jail was detaining 80 people for ICE, and Two Bridges Jail another 25. That’s over 100 people disappeared into the deportation pipeline with the full cooperation of local law enforcement. This is not policy failure—it’s policy success. It is not an accident—it is the infrastructure of repression being put to work to manage the turbulence of dying world.

We are living in the chaos of a collapsing order. Since the 1970s, the twin engines of neoliberal globalization and carceral expansion have reshaped United States: dismantling public institutions, deregulating capital, and replacing mass employment with mass policing, imprisonment, and deportation. What we are witnessing now is not an aberration but the terminal stage of this conjuncture—a world where crisis is met not with care or redistribution, but with cages and scapegoats. Immigration enforcement emerged to discipline labor, to create a hyper exploited strata of the labor market. Now it is being used by the Trump Administration to impose a blatantly fascist order.

To confront this reality, we start with a simple demand: End Cooperation Between Cumberland County Jail and ICE. And we understand that this demand is also a call to end suffering now, dismantle the deportation machine, and it opens the door to new solidarities and new ways of life.

The Event: Spectacle, Terror, and the Demand for Community Defense

The spectacle of forced removal is meant to terrify. It’s meant to be seen. It teaches entire communities to live in fear and sends a warning: no one is safe. The raids, the unmarked vans, the zip-ties—this is fascism in rehearsal. These moments are not isolated incidents; they are performances of state power. The goal is not merely removal. It is submission.

But for every spectacle of fear, we must respond with a celebration of solidarity. These bewildering, terrifying event demand community defense. They demand mutual aid. They demand we show up: outside jails, inside courtrooms, on the streets. The Trump Administration wants to fear going viral. Resistance must spread faster.

The Conjuncture: Neoliberalism, The Carceral State, and Crimmigration

Beneath the immediate spectacle is a broader structure of political economy. Over the last four decades, both parties have built the crimmigration regime—a fusion of carceral control and immigration enforcement designed to regulate the labor market and manage surplus populations. Reagan began immigrant detention. Clinton passed the laws that made mass deportation possible. Bush created ICE, consolidating immigration enforcement into a nationwide, federal police force. Obama used these tools to deport more people than any president in history. And Trump, despite all his gratuitous authoritarianism, has, in both terms, been unable to match the monthly deportation numbers of his democratic predecessors.

The system was not built to ensure justice. It was built to create a precarious workforce and a permanent underclass. It fabricates social order by dividing workers, criminalizing mobility, and treating migration as a security threat. The Trump administration is now using this bipartisan machinery to impose a more openly fascist order.

This is why ending ICE cooperation in Cumberland County matters. It’s not just a local demand. It’s a strike at on the pillars of the crimmigration system. It removes key logistical support. It complicates ICE’s ability to function. It interrupts the flow of bodies from street to cell to deportation. It is a lever of disruption—and it must be pulled.

The Longue Durée: Capitalism, Racial Division, and the Possibility of a New World

Zoom out further, and the contours of a deeper struggle emerge. The United States is a settler-colonial state founded on land theft, racial hierarchy, and labor exploitation. From slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration, from the reservation to the ghetto to the border, the same logics persist. Capitalism appropriates and exploits labor and then organizes abandonment. It produces surplus people: unemployed, unhoused, undocumented, untreated. It punishes these victims and twists and contorts their situations to make them appear as enemies to be contained, excluded, and expelled.

But from within that hell, new worlds are being born.

Presente! Maine is showing us how. Their land and food sovereignty programs, mutual aid work, and wellness initiatives are rooted in the labor and leadership of Maine’s Latine immigrant communities—most of whom work in the very sectors propping up this state’s tourism and agricultural economies. This is not charity. It is not service. It is revolutionary infrastructure. It builds autonomy. It deepens solidarity. It models a different way to live—with the land, with each other, and beyond the violence of borders and bosses.

This campaign is part of that same struggle. It’s not just about removing ICE from our jails. It’s about removing ICE from our future so we can build something better, something more humane, something that can unite New and Old Mainers.

We Are Not Asking—We Are Organizing

Of course, movements that threaten power face opposition—not just from reactionaries, but from liberals who want to manage dissent. We see it already. Some prominent liberal immigration advocacy organizations oppose ending ICE cooperation with the Cumberland County Sherriff, arguing that keeping people detained in Maine in the state aids legal defense. But proximity is not justice. Marcos and Lucas were hidden for 36 hours. Their families were lied to. Eyidi has been held for months with no end in sight. The system is built on opacity and cruelty. Local detention doesn’t protect—it enables.

The point is not to make the system more efficient. The point is to make it impossible.

Real change doesn’t come from appealing to authority. It comes from disrupting business as usual. From making the status quo ungovernable. From forcing elites to choose between justice and disorder. This is how power concedes. This is how history shifts.

We are not asking for better policies. We are not asking for a seat at the table. We are organizing to break the table in half.

For Marcos and Lucas.
For Eyidi.
For every neighbor taken in silence.
For every worker forced into the shadows.
For every life destroyed, for family shattered by the perpetual police war in the name of security and order.

End ICE cooperation in Cumberland County.
Free them all.
Stop the deportation machine.

The post Stop Deportation Machine: End ICE Cooperation in Cumberland County appeared first on Pine & Roses.

by Rochester for Energy Democracy

Metro Justice and members of the Rochester for Energy Democracy (RED) Campaign and allies rallied and spoke to City Council Thursday evening at City Hall to highlight the seriousness of the recent RG&E Audit, the close ties of RG&E to the Chamber of Commerce, and current City leadership’s refusal to act on a Phase 1 study, using already reserved funds.  

“The audit shows dramatic security and compliance concerns and a lack of planning and leadership at the utility level. In the face of such glaring evidence, will City leaders continue to refuse to act?” asked LaWanda Shipman, Vice President, Federation of Social Workers and President of Metro Justice. “A Phase 1 study that covers the city and county does not cost more than what the City already said they’d cover, and if they actually want to move this forward, it’s the way to get the County on board. We serve the city residents who are most impacted by the abuses of RG&E’s multinational owners and by the City’s delay – we can’t wait any longer.”

The groups are calling on the City to allocate already reserved funds for a Phase 1 study on replacing RG&E with a public utility. 

“When we voted for Mayor Evans, Melendez and other council members, we were looking for champions for our community and they are failing. They say they want to build with the community – Well how do you have $500,000 and you don’t think enough of the citizens who are mostly the marginalized and poorest and working poor of this city, and you don’t think we’re worthy to have that study performed? It is now time for them to step up,” expressed Lentory Johnson of Generational Engagement Matters. 

“The audit showed that basically nothing – planning nor leadership, happens at the utility level – it’s all at the level of their national holding company, and leadership doesn’t even know what’s happening at the RG&E level or where money is going. That in this context City leadership in power including Malik Evans, Miguel Melendez and Mitch Gruber continue to refuse to act while Bob Duffy is paid over $240,000 a year to sit on RG&E’s parent company (Avangrid)’s board makes you wonder – who is delay on the study serving?” asked Dr. Michi Wenderlich, Metro Justice Campaign and Policy Coordinator. 

Metro Justice also has released a Public Power Report Card outlining what candidates in the upcoming Primary have committed City leadership on a study, and which have refused. Those identified as most committed to city leadership on a study include Mary Lupien, Stanley Martin, Chiara “Kee Kee” Smith, Kelly Cheatle, and Kevin Stewart.

James Bearden, Third Act Rochester added: “Rochester Third Act Elders are part of a national community of Americans over sixty determined to use our generational power to face the existential crises of climate change and democracy threat. RG&E has for decades put profit before community interest. In 1975 Genesee Valley People’s Power Coalition challenged a RG&E proposed rate got the Public Service Commission to reduce the rate increase. Of course that was not the end of the story, RG&E has long been a bad actor. By 1980 GVPPC began to advocate for the city to fund a feasibility study on municipal power. Some of us were active in GVPPC and we have not changed our minds. We believe that a public utility company would provide more and better jobs for people living in Rochester, better service, lower energy costs, and community first policies. We urge Rochester City Council to put aside political differences and fund the preliminary study. Let’s find out if we can all work together to improve the lives of people in our community.”

The post Rochester for Energy Democracy calls out RG&E Audit and connection to Chamber of Commerce in Rally and Speak to Council, calling on City to Fund a study with reserved funds in June budget first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

I was on the street outside the Minneapolis VA Hospital, a truly giant facility that tends to the health of tens of thousands of military veterans each year.  The occasion was a demonstration sponsored by the two American Federation of Government Employees locals that represent thousands of workers at the hospital. The motivator for the […]

Authors: Jesse D, Aiden S, Jesse J (Electoral Working Group leadership)

The city of Portland is six months into its grand experiment in a new form of government. Portland City Council’s expansion and the multi-member geographic districts are providing new horizons of political action for the socialist movement and the city’s broader progressive milieu.  When thinking about our relationship with the new system, we find it important to refer to the past – in order to understand the present and to fight for a better future. 

Historically, candidates elected by people-powered movements to Portland city council have had short shelf lives. Their elections came as shocks to the establishment, who then fought to claw back those seats for the capitalist interests which dominate our city: the developers, the metro chamber, and their intersection in the Democratic Party of Oregon. For example, Commissioners Chloe Eudaly (elected 2016) and Jo Ann Hardesty (elected 2018), were identified by the establishment as part of the left. They both served single terms and then faced well-funded and aggressive opposition in their second elections, resulting in losses in 2020 and 2022 respectively. 

The second round of elections under the new system will fall first in Districts 3 & 4, where three DSA members are going to be up for re-election. It is imperative that we create a vigorous campaign plan to maintain our socialists in office. It is in the interest of all chapter members, and the city at large, that we succeed in that plan in 2026.

If you believe in our councilors’ mission – building a city that works for everyone, and not just the rich – consider these actions to get involved in defending our mandate:

1: Commit your time to the Electoral Working Group, which meets every third Thursday (find our next meeting on the chapter calendar here)

• Train with other members on how to run an electoral campaign, how to launch a canvass, how to be an effective canvasser, and fight for the candidacies of our DSA councilors on the front line!
• Attend the National Electoral Commission‘s upcoming “Electoral Academy” training series. This series is filled with important nuts-and-bolts trainings addressing all aspects of campaign work.
• Make an outreach plan for your non-DSA network: Highlight the work of our councilors to your non-DSA friends, coworkers, and family members. Encourage them to commit to donating to our Socialists in Office re-election campaigns or to canvass when we launch our field campaigns. Watch and listen for updates on these campaigns in chapter general meetings, Electoral Working Group meetings, and via direct communications (texts, emails, etc.).

2: Help prepare the chapter for a vigorous campaign

• Make the jump to solidarity dues to fund the chapter’s work between campaigns.
• Are your friends stoked about socialists on city council? Ask them to join the chapter!
• Keep up the good work in your Working Groups, Committees, and caucuses. We’re not just running on our councilors’ achievements but everything we do as a chapter!

3: Keep active with the chapter’s interventions at city hall

• We’ve seen greater group cohesion in our Socialist bloc when the chapter is organizing and mobilizing around our councilors’ legislative priorities.
• Bolster working groups’ policy priorities in the chapter (Renter’s bill of Rights, Family Agenda, public power etc.).

The post A Call to Action to Prepare for the 2026 Elections appeared first on Portland DSA.

By Nick Lavin

SOMERVILLE, MA — Just outside the Somerville Farmers Market, two Somerville for Palestine organizers – Lauren and Hala – lead a training for a dozen canvassers prepared and ready to engage people in the street. The group is gearing up to collect signatures for a ballot question demanding the city divest from from Palestinian occupation and genocide.

“While I’m frustrated the City Council voted not to divest, I’m proud so many people are doing the hard work to make this petition happen,” said Andrew, a Somerville resident and canvasser for the campaign.

Despite heavy rain all of the past twelve weekends, Somerville for Palestine has hit the streets hard since their ballot question campaign began a couple months ago after Somerville residents nearly overwhelmed City Hall in support of city divestment, only to be struck down by council. The campaign has collected well over 2,000 verified signatures for their petition calling for Somerville to “end all current city business and prohibit future city investments and contracts with companies… that sustain Israel’s apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine.” In order to get on the ballot, the campaign must collect verified signatures from 10% of the voting population. That’s 5200 certified signatures in total that are necessary, which means Somerville for Palestine has collected around 38% of the signatures needed so far to obtain ballot access.

Fundamental to the ballot campaign is an intensive canvassing operation that organizers hope will develop new pro-Palestine organizers and deepen support for the movement in Somerville. “We’re aiming for 10,000 signatures, that’s 10,000 conversations about Palestine in Somerville,” says Lauren, a Jewish pro-Palestine Somerville organizer. 

For many canvassers, the latest news from Gaza underlines the urgency of their work. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, with firm backing from American allies, is systematically starving Gaza by blockading international aid. The entire 2.1 million population faces famine.

While pro-Palestine organizers had hoped national and international pressure on the American government to suspend weapons shipments would force an end to the war, the election of Trump in 2024 foreclosed the possibility of an end to the catastrophe. President Trump wholeheartedly supports Israel’s siege, explaining his vision for Gaza with an AI-generated video transforming the Palestinian territory into a luxury resort while outlining a plan for the ethnic cleansing of its population.

Many organizations like Somerville for Palestine have responded to this changing political terrain by orienting to local petitions to consolidate a pro-Palestine constituency in the town while continuing to build the national movement for BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions), operating on both levels through concerted campaigns. Just as Somerville was the first town in Massachusetts to pass a ceasefire resolution in early 2024, a movement which quickly spread like a wildfire across the state and country, organizers hope momentum for municipal divestment in Somerville will encourage similar efforts while preparing the groundwork for continued state and national pressure.

Hala, a Palestinian and longtime Somerville resident, is motivated by the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the petition from the community and hopes their work will inspire people elsewhere.

As the song says at Somerville High, Somerville leads the way, so Somerville for Palestine is leading the way on divestment.

Somerville for Palestine has had a lot of success in organizing coalitional support to harness to achieve the ballot measure and build a municipal base for Palestine. Their weekly canvasses, jointly organized with groups like Allston/Brighton for Palestine and Boston DSA, bring people from all across the Boston area to talk about Palestine, ceasefire, and divestment with Somerville residents.

Immigration, Palestine, and Civil Rights

Somerville for Palestine’s divestment campaign comes as Trump cracks down on civil rights. Just two months ago, Somerville’s own Rümeysa Öztürk was kidnapped by Trump’s ICE officers for writing an op-ed about divesting her university from Israel. Then too, Somerville for Palestine members were out in force protesting the decision and demanding her release.

Öztürk’s arrest also ignited fury from the labor movement: as a Tufts graduate student and member of SEIU 509, her arrest garnered immediate reactions from unions across the state and country demanding her release. 

While unions were on the frontline in the fight for a ceasefire and arms embargo under Biden, pro-Palestine labor activists are still finding their footing on the shifting terrain under Trump. For DSA’s National Labor Commission, the focus remains squarely on an arms embargo; but rather than targeting federal officials, union activists are plunging headfirst into organizing pressure against local governments to prevent weapons shipments through their ports and transportation hubs.

In Somerville, it is crunch time for the divestment ballot question: with about three months left to collect the needed 5,200 signatures, Somerville for Palestine needs all hands on deck to get across the threshold to be on the ballot this fall. To support Somerville for Palestine’s efforts, you can sign up for a canvass at tinyurl.com/canvass4s4p.

Nick Lavin is a Boston Public Schools paraprofessional and a member of the Boston Teachers Union.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated there were 5500 signatures necessary to obtain ballot access, when the number is actually 5200.

The post Somerville Fights for Palestine appeared first on Working Mass.

By: Liam Noble

BOSTON, MA – In early May, a supermajority of the 70 Blank Street Coffee employees in the Boston area filed for voluntary recognition from management as members of the New England Joint Board (NEJB). Their motivating factors were a desire for better wages, better schedule accommodations, better training, safety protections, and adherence to just cause discipline. 

Blank Street workers operate the shops in shifts of two to three baristas, one on the machine and one on the point-of-sale. The myriad of tasks to keep the store running (opening, cleaning, customer service, heating the food, tracking down the perennially absent manager, etc) fall to the couple of baristas. This fits neatly into that holy scripture of neoliberalism: workers do as many simultaneous jobs as possible for as little pay as warranted, for as little pay as possible.

Besides wages accounting for the sheer amount of labor done, employee safety is the biggest common reason given for organizing. 

One worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Working Mass that their location had a broken A/C that caused the shop to heat up to 90 degrees. While the employees labored behind the counter in brutal heat, management was vague and uncommunicative about repairs. No one seemed to care. The owners were simply unwilling to invest in keeping their employees safe, viewing quitting for burnout as merely normal employee turnover.

Coffee from Big Tech

To some extent, it’s no wonder the business model has led to both paltry pay and safety concerns. Blank Street was founded by two tech guys in Brooklyn who, after a couple failed schemes to attract the largesse of venture capitalists, aimed to automate the cafe experience into a push-button assembly line. This model has been used to justify slimming down staffing, minimalist accommodations, and a small floor space. This is not a social site. Blank Street is geared towards getting customers in, then back out again. Time is money, and quicker turnaround equals more money.

Blank Street is a company subsidized by big-name finance: Tiger Global, among others. Blank Street has money to burn in its quest to corner the market (seven locations in Boston, and thirty-six in NYC). Blank Street attracted $113.8M in funding from venture capitalists that pushed for rapid expansion across the East Coast and United Kingdom, rewarding the business model for harming workers’ livelihoods and access to healthy workplace conditions. 

Meanwhile, the boss remains difficult to access let alone march on with demands: there are only three managers between seven locations. 

Working for the Man, Working for the Machine

Blank Street is not so much focused around the process of coffee-making as around a single, finicky, over-engineered, touch-screen, all-in-one espresso robot that’s very expensive and prone to faults: the Eversys espresso machine. When the machine breaks down, everything stops. If the Wi-Fi goes down, espresso can’t be made. Cries for help on how to repair the Eversys, by both managers and baristas, are frequent posts on Reddit coffeeshop forums. Everybody tries to avoid the costly technician, who inevitably comes swaggering in with a heavy toolkit and a big invoice. In one Reddit post, a user begged for solutions for their machine needing to be torn-down and cleaned after every other use. The fix: change the time/date on the machine’s clock to before 2024. A y2k style bug in deficient software turned out to be the culprit. 

Our anonymous employee had this to say about the Eversys, following a thoughtful pause: “Could be better. It tries to clean itself every ten minutes and we have no control over that. It interrupts training and makes everything more difficult. There’s a problem where sometimes the steam wand won’t shut off, and it’s dangerous to team members and customers.” Most forbodingly, they reported:

The machine has burned people before.

Software issues plague the machine. Nobody in the store is qualified to fix the Eversys; the manager has to call the local service organization. But remember – since the managers are on-call, workers must play a game of telephone tag to reach one of the only three managers in the Boston area to access critical equipment that are needed to do their jobs. Even with preventative maintenance, the machines start breaking down about a year into use (exactly as you’d want from a machine with a $20k price sticker).

That’s a recipe for employee frustration— especially when it’s just a couple of you in a cramped and hot shop trying to tell the teeth-gnashing, convenience-addicted customers that your espresso machine that’s somehow also an iPad is broken, but at least you can still do matcha.

Coffee with Dignity

I popped down to the Harvard Square Blank Street in May and there was a line out the door. Five minutes later, I had a cappuccino in my hand. The business is built for speed, workers go fast. Everything is like clockwork. Just like any other “fast-café,” but faster. I wondered how the baristas had time for any of the other responsibilities management saddled them with, that they weren’t being compensated for. The speed of the workers, and the rhythms they followed, reminded me of working retail during a holiday rush. Everything turns into a well rehearsed blur of muscle memory. Brains tick with the rhythm of the machine, and all behind the counter are a harmonious One— except the customer who remains a precarious Other.

In contrast to management and its machine, the workers expressed that their motivating goal is being able to look out for each other.

There’s a strong sense of pride and security that comes with belonging to a good union shop. For baristas, that entails needed benefits— Boston is an expensive city, and the cost of living keeps rising. Housing alone is 119% higher than the US average. While tenant unions fight against rent, workers fight for better pay to battle the crushing weight euphemistically called the “cost of living.” And the workers in Boston are not alone, as Blank Street Coffee workers ratified their contract earlier this year after beginning a campaign in 2023.

Emma Delaney and others at the NEJB are helping the baristas in Boston to win.

Delaney is a NEJB organizer for the Blank Street unionization campaign, but comes from a proud history of barista organizing predating the NEJB. Emma was employed at Pavement Coffee, and helped lead the initial unionization effort in 2021. Pavement was the first coffee shop contract won in New England, followed by City Feed, 1369, Diesel, Bloc, and Forge. Now, the NEJB helping workers across the city accomplish the same in their own workplaces. 

Now the union is confident, and preparing for negotiations that will follow member ratification. “We want the vote to speak for itself,” Delaney said. 

Our anonymous Blank Street worker was cheerful about the prospects of belonging to a union shop.

We’re all pretty excited. We’re going forward feeling positive and want to keep spreading the word. We have a great team, and just want a safe work environment. We’re going to be able to look out for each other, now.

Liam Noble is a writer, photographer, and a member of Boston DSA. Find his substack here: liamnoble.substack.com

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article listed Blue Bottle as a contract won, when in reality, they remain in a fight for a contract. City Feed, which unionized with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) during the same year as 1369 and Diesel, was also ommitted.

The post Baristas Versus the Machine: Boston Workers of Blank Street Coffee File for a Union appeared first on Working Mass.

by Jack Mottley

Hello to you all, and thank you for coming out today to show support and solidarity for your own, and other student’s, right to express discontent with the policies and practices of a government halfway around the world, and also the government here in the United States, and here at the University of Rochester. 

I came to the University of Rochester in 1986, before most of you were born, and saw students then having demonstrations and an encampment calling for the end of apartheid in South Africa. The University later claimed to be proud that students, working closely with the community here in Rochester, persuaded Kodak to become one of the first multinational corporations to participate in the boycott of the then-government of South Africa, eventually leading to the fall of that government and the abolition of apartheid there.  

All of this was in direct opposition to the wishes of the US  government, until politicians realized that acting humanely  toward your fellow human beings was actually popular among voters, and then you could not fight them off with sticks as they jumped in and took credit for it themselves. They even passed  laws that made it illegal for the US to sell arms to countries that  were probably going to use those arms to violate the human  rights of their own residents. Laws that those same lawmakers (or their successors) now simply ignore. 

At that time, here at UR Campus Security, or whatever they called  themselves at the time, were unarmed, and relatively well behaved. They respected the right of community members to  express opinions and present arguments, sometimes in  different and “unapproved” ways, even when the Board of  Trustees did not enjoy it.

Move forward some years, and the Department of Public Safety became a “sworn force” in 2013, meaning they can make arrests and file charges against individuals. And even against massive  opposition on campus some officers were allowed to carry guns  beginning in 2016. By 2020, over 200 people a year were being  criminalized by UR DPS, mostly around the Emergency  Department at the Medical Center, responding to people during  times of crisis with force and incarceration. 

That approach to the community has carried over to the River  Campus. When there were protests here over the illegal  collective punishment of all the people who lived in Gaza by the  Israeli government for an illegal act committed by a few Gazans in Israel, the Administration here at UR retreated behind a wall of  “security” rather than engage in conversation or healing.  

Any support for the Palestinian people, who are being murdered in  huge numbers every day, is denounced as “terrorism” and “antisemitism”. 

Any criticism of the actions of the government of Israel is denounced as “antisemitism”. Criticism of a government’s  actions is not an ad hominem attack on the supporters of the  COUNTRY: those who opposed America’s war in Vietnam were  not “anti-American” or “anti-democratic”, they were in reality  more pro-democracy than those who favored the war. “My  country right or wrong” is the chant of Fascists, not (small dee)  democrats. 

As you all know, this rush to condemn was nothing unique to the University of Rochester. Boards of Trustees and government officials hounded and destroyed presidents of universities for being too “soft” on “antisemitism” and “terrorism”, and even called them (here’s where Boomers gasp and clutch their pearls) “socialists” and “communists”. 

Slightly to their credit, the Administration here at UR did not call in the Rochester Police Department to violently crush the encampment and protests. Despite attempts by the UR  Department of Public Safety to goad protesters into violent  response, and in spite of lies being told to the community and  on social media, we succeeded in holding the longest-lived  encampment in the US! 

To their dis-credit, when things were winding down and most  students had left campus the UR Administration gave control of  dismantling the encampment over to the Department of Public  Safety, who proceeded to destroy virtually every personal article  they could lay their hands on in the encampment. Tents,  sleeping bags, cell phones, laptops, driver’s licenses, UR ID cards, medicines, even prayer shawls, were deemed “dangerous  materials”, put into dumpsters, and shipped off to landfills at  breathtaking speed. UR was the only University in the US that  did not at least try to return personal property to students, but  instead intentionally and maliciously destroyed it. 

Last summer, here at UR and across the country, University  administrations moved to consolidate control of their campuses  and to destroy the “rampant antisemitism and terrorism that  had been thriving there”.  

Specifically here at UR, the Administration created the  “Demonstrations, Vigils, and Peaceful Protests Policy” or DVPP,  that criminalizes behavior that the Administration does not like  EVEN IF THERE IS NOT A SINGLE COMPLAINT BY A SINGLE  PERSON.  

Further, the Administration created a “Camping Policy” that, simply  put, bans any encampment from happening again, ever. And it  includes a clause that all personal property seized when  enforcing the camping ban can be destroyed at the DPS’s  discretion. 

These policies were put in place with no discussion, no deliberation,  and no input from faculty or students, except for a few select  individuals who were bullied into acquiescence.

When an infraction of these policies occurs (which the  Administration and DPS get to decide using unknown criteria)  how do they know who to “charge”? There are at least 1600 security cameras all over this campus, so DPS “investigators” sit at a computer and search through recorded videos from all over  campus, making “timelines” of the “crime”, selecting the most  “incriminating” pictures, culling “incriminating evidence” from social media, and then putting it all together into a “dossier”.  

They also send sworn officers (with guns on their hips) out to  interrogate the “perps”, using all the good police tactics of  intimidation, all the way up to threatening students with arrest.  For a foreign student this could mean automatic loss of a  student visa and deportation just for having come to the  attention of a sworn officer. All this time the DPS Officers are  collecting evidence for possible use in CRIMINAL cases, but  without the presence of a lawyer or even an advisor. 

I have been a faculty advisor in two “hearings” since the  encampment was destroyed, and have talked to faculty who  were involved in others. The pattern in all is the same: The  “charges” presented to the University for adjudication have no complaints, no “victims”, just “violation of policy”. None of the  interrogations are mentioned, no potential criminal charges are  revealed, no mention of or opportunity to confront the  “accuser”. 

We have also learned that UR Department of Public Safety  collaborates with and engages with other law enforcement  agencies, all the way up to the FBI. We do not know if they have  collaborated with ICE yet, though the head of DPS appears to  believe that if ICE comes here then their administrative warrants will have to be obeyed.  

So far, I have not heard any assurance that the University  Administration will withhold information demanded by ICE or  any other federal agency, even if that request has no basis. The 

University’s stance seems to be one of pre-emptive appeasement, which, as we have seen with Columbia  University, does not work when facing bullies. 

The University of Rochester has abandoned all pretense of  academic freedom, of being allowed to express ideas that make  some people happy, some people thoughtful, some people uncomfortable, and some people apoplectic.  

They have, as their supporters, the very people who want to destroy  all universities, since colleges and universities tend to be places  where people with wide ranges of ideas get together to discuss  and criticize and expose the good and the bad sides of them all. Universities try to make the world “Ever Better”. 

Those who live by telling lies do not like that. They do not like people  to have facts with which to challenge their lies, or to disturb their  belief in their own “stable genius”.  

What can you do? You cannot know whether the UR Administration will defend your rights when the government comes after you. None of us can. We can only watch how the Administration acts BEFORE the government comes for us, when they come for others, and try to goad our Administration into doing the RIGHT things, instead of the “legal” things. You are here today, expressing your fears and concerns, and you should continue to participate in rallies and protests like this. You can write to the Campus Times. You can e-mail the President of the University. You can e-mail the people who are probably already asking you for donations and tell them that you will not make any donations unless you see direct evidence that the University is protecting its vulnerable students, faculty, and staff, and that you are  lobbying your friends and parents to do the same.

An addendum after giving the address: 

After additional reflection, the best thing you can do is to recruit  more (younger) students to the cause: the Administration often  downplays “student issues” because they know that the students complaining right now are going to graduate and will be gone soon. You have to plan who will keep up the fight after you leave. Students are here 4 years, the Presidents I have known averaged 8 years, Board of Trustee members are normally  limited to 10 years, and faculty stay forever (as of this writing I am going on 39 years here.)

The post Hands Off the Students first appeared on Rochester Red Star.