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YDSA stands in solidarity with the student protesters of Bangladesh who are facing brutal repression and terror from their government. Student protests began at the start of July against a quota reserving much of the civil service to descendants of veterans of the Liberation War. This system unfairly benefits supporters of the Awami League, Bangladesh’s authoritarian ruling party, and contributes to systematic governmental corruption. Through strikes and demonstrations, the students brought their schools and universities to a standstill. In response, the government has struck back with horrific violence. More than a dozen people have been murdered by police and armed supporters of the government with hundreds more injured including children. The government calls for calm while it accuses the students of treason and cuts off internet access. Yet the students of Bangladesh have continued their protests in spite of the regime of repression. As internationalists, the YDSA stands with the struggle of the oppressed worldwide. Across the world, the youth are leading struggles against common systems of exploitation. The students of Bangladesh are an inspiration to us in our united struggles

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DSA International Committee applauds the courage and determination of the Kenyan people in their tireless struggle against the imposition of the now-withdrawn 2024 Finance Bill. Amid fierce state repression, including the murders of as many as 200 protesters by police forces, thousands continue to mobilize, demanding the resignation of President William Ruto.

Protests against the 2024 Finance Bill, which promised to intensify an increasingly dire cost-of-living crisis, have united Kenyans of all ages, genders, and ethnicities. The Communist Party of Kenya describes the situation as, “not merely about an imposed IMF finance bill, [but] a potent manifestation of the deep-seated inequalities that plague Kenya. Millions of our people languish in abject poverty, while a stinking corrupt elite flaunts their ill-gotten wealth with shameless opulence.”

Austerity economics continue to ravage the working poor, unemployed, and landless in cities and rural areas all over the world. When we speak of austerity and neoliberalism, we lay responsibility first and foremost at the feet of the United States, which holds greater institutional power over the international financial system than any other nation on Earth. And it is US imperialism which guarantees, through force and subversion, the conditions necessary to reproduce austerity for billions across the world, generation after generation. Kenya is but the latest site of resistance to the mercenary demands of the US-led capitalist world system.

President Ruto’s government is fighting for its survival on multiple fronts. As Kenyans vehemently reject the draconian proposals of the 2024 Finance Bill, Ruto faces widespread domestic opposition and a substantive legal challenge for contributing more than one thousand police officers to a US-backed invasion of Haiti in service of the imperialist Core Group.

Haiti remains captured, controlled, and terrorized by Western forces, its treatment yielding minimal opposition across the Americas. Nevertheless, Kenyans have refused to sit by idly as they are enlisted as proxies to meet the military objectives of colonial powers and their collaborators in the region.

Kenya’s future belongs to its people. So, too, does the future of humanity depend on the persistent organizing and solidarity of socialists in the United States— a solidarity that must include willing sacrifice. Ours, too, is a struggle against the depravities of capitalism, the violence of imperialism and militarism, and the illegitimacy of anti-democratic rule over the working masses. We gain strength from our comrades in Kenya, and support every effort to advance their struggle and the struggles of all peoples around the world for justice, land, and dignity.

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The Colorado Springs and Denver chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) together stand firmly beside the people of Palestine and all those on the side of liberation and humanity. We reaffirm our unwavering and unequivocal solidarity with our partners in the Colorado Palestine Coalition and the broader Palestinian liberation movement, especially Palestinian-led organizations including the Palestinian Youth Movement and Within Our Lifetime. We call on the National Political Committee (NPC) to immediately pass the resolution ‘Making DSA an Anti-Zionist Organization in both Principle and Practice’ (MSR #12), that was tabled for the NPC after being pushed off the floor at the 2023 DSA National Convention. 

To quote our comrades in Albany YDSA, “Palestine is not dividing the left, it’s defining the left.” It’s long past time to shut the door on our organization’s tolerance for candidates who are ‘Progressive Except for Palestine’. We commend the NPC’s recent withdrawal of DSA national’s conditional endorsement of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), whose many recent words and actions have reinforced the Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism at the heart of the US imperial project and enabled Israel’s US-sponsored genocide of the Palestinian people, including: endorsing the war criminal Joe Biden [1] and shielding him from calls to step aside [2], publicly criticizing Palestinian liberation organizations as antisemitic [3], platforming Zionists intent on demonizing the movement for Palestinian liberation and agreeing with their bad faith critiques [4], equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, demanding that Hamas release all hostages with no acknowledgment of the thousands of hostages held (and tortured) by Israel or the many offers by Hamas to release hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, and continued insistence that Israel has a “right to defend itself” [5]; all while denying the right, enshrined in international law, of the oppressed people of Palestine to defend themselves, resist annihilation, and engage in armed struggle against their violent colonial occupiers. 

We condemn New York City DSA’s push to endorse AOC without condition – a decision which undermines the work of principled electeds and working class organizers across the country. Refusing to draw a clear moral line on Palestinian liberation damages the morale of DSA members and turns potential recruits away from DSA’s socialist project; leaves principled anti-Zionist politicians vulnerable to AIPAC attacks and principled activists vulnerable to state violence; and contributes to the social conditions that allow Zionists to murder, assault, and intimidate Palestinians and their allies. AOC’s re-endorsement was an affront to our anti-racist, anti-Zionist, and anti-imperialist internationalist values and a hindrance to our work to build multi-racial working-class socialist power. While we commend the NPC’s attempts to rectify this situation by extending a conditional endorsement, we demand more accountability in the endorsement process at the chapter level in the future to prevent the kind of fallout caused by the initial vote to re-endorse. Rank and file DSA members put our trust in the NPC to uphold our values and support our work, and passing MSR #12 would go a long way towards solidifying that trust and assuaging our concerns about future endorsements and electoral efforts. 

True socialist power is built from the grassroots and in solidarity among the working class, not from proximity to and conformity with ruling elites. DSA’s local chapter work is fueled by countless hours of unpaid, working-class labor. Many of our members have risked arrest and experienced state repression as a result of their support of Palestinian liberation and other anti-fascist organizing. We reject the endorsement of any candidates who do not take a strong, principled, and consistent stance on solidarity with the people of Palestine. Such endorsements serve to channel our labor toward platforming liberal politicians who reinforce capitalism, imperialism, and the rise of fascism. Whenever we decide to compromise our integrity in exchange for power, we have already lost both. Our endorsed electeds must reflect and be accountable to our working-class base, and DSA must solidify its commitment to anti-Zionism in both principle and practice at a national level by passing MSR #12.

1  By endorsing Biden, AOC is backing genocide, Electronic Intifada, July 18, 2024

2 Ocasio-Cortez backing Biden: ‘The matter is closed’, The Hill, July 9, 2024

3 https://x.com/fatimazsaid/status/1801200752393666631

4 https://x.com/SxarletRed/status/1800526900625870996

5 November 28,2023, AOC voted in favor of H.Res. 888 ‘Reaffirming Israel’s Right To Exist’, which conflates opposition to Israel’s “right to exist” with antisemitism and demands Hamas release all hostages

Democratic Party leadership claims that the threat to democracy posed by a second Trump presidency and Republican-dominated Congress is real, and they are correct. The Republican Party is clear in its intention to undermine essential market regulations and basic individual rights. With the backing of a loaded Supreme Court, Trump’s administration stands to finally break the promise held out by Democrats throughout the rising tide of fascism: that we can defend democracy through our legal system. When that tide breaks, it will most immediately impact trans and reproductive rights, the unhoused, immigrants, and asylum seekers—but it ultimately will affect us all.

Nevertheless, the Democratic Party’s actions contradict its own apparent concerns. For example, while touting the value of free speech and protest, the Biden administration has overseen the crackdown on student protest across campuses nationwide. This does nothing to distance Democrats from the charge of repression that it levies against Republicans. Furthermore, instead of allowing for a competitive primary process (ironically, something permitted by the Republican Party), the Democratic National Committee saw to it that Biden was effectively the only candidate on the ballot. Even before Biden’s disastrous debate and the question of his cognitive decline, unprecedented thousands of Americans expressed their will for another candidate by voting “uncommitted” or “no preference” across the country—not least because of his commitment to funding Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. Democracy may be under threat, but it is already compromised today.

People want to stand up for democracy, yet with Biden at the helm, the Democratic Party reveals itself to be unable and unwilling. Following the recent attempt on Trump’s life, Democratic Party leadership has been more interested in the symbolic high ground, calling for national unity against “political violence.” The hypocrisy is blatant. On one level, this calls for unity with a candidate and party who incite the very violence at issue. On a deeper level, however, the Democratic Party fails to reconcile this call for unity with the state of violence it has perpetuated. Biden may be the first president to stand on a picket line, but he has done little to nothing material for the American and global working class. While Biden has focused our attention on “shrinkflation” and “hidden fees” (admittedly insidious practices), the prices of housing and healthcare continue to rise. Instead of moving to socialize these costs, the Biden administration funds war abroad, which benefits everyone from landlords and developers to insurance agencies and weapons manufacturers. Meanwhile, working people suffer degradation and death.

Given these conditions, the Democratic Party rightly appears bought by capitalist forces, which allows the Republican Party to (falsely) claim it will oppose “elites” in the name of those most desperate. Behind the culture war he stokes, Trump (like populists the world over) taps into real pain felt by the working class. In order for the Democratic Party to stake any claim to legitimacy, it must field a candidate who will rise to the moment and confront the threat of fascism without hesitation, all the while attacking its root economic causes. That candidate is not Joe Biden.

From the City of Charlotte to Mecklenburg County and beyond, join the call: it’s time to drop Joe!

Let the following know it’s time to drop Joe:

Alma Adams: (704) 344-9950

Chuck Schumer: (202) 224-6542

North Carolina Democratic Party: (919) 821-2777

In this episode, Tripp Fuller of Homebrewed Christianity podcast joins to talk faith that's beautiful enough to be called good news, a process vision of socialism, fiction and popculture as the fullest expressions of humanity, and miscellaneous nerdiness. Join us October 17–19 in Denver for theologybeer.camp ! Use the coupon code TAKEHEARTHOBBIT for $50 off your ticket. Email us at religioussocialism@gmail.com if you plan to come, we'd love to meet up.

For five years flight attendants have been locked in contract negotiation with American Airlines (AA) to bargain for a better contract. Since then inflation has increased by more than 30%, yet starting pay remains frozen at $27k a year. 

The flight attendants and their union have authorized a strike with a 99% majority, but government agencies won’t let them. The Railway Labor Act requires flight attendants to obtain approval from the National Mediation Board (NMB) before striking, which the NMB has refused. The NMB’s limit on the right to strike impacts more than the 27,000 flight attendants at AA. In fact, it hurts all railway and airline workers in the nation, their families, and the communities they live in.

With no legal ability to strike, negotiations have been left at a standstill, which benefits no one but AA. They get to freeze employee wages while continuing to inflate their prices and fees. This story repeats across all industries because our government prioritizes the interests of capitalists who own corporations over the interests of workers who keep them running day in, day out.

The AA contract negotiation has gone on for five years: two under Donald Trump and three under Joe Biden. Republican and Democratic politicians may strongly disagree on specific policies, but they regularly come together to keep workers down (for example, Joe Biden recently appointed a Republican to the NMB).

As socialists we recognize the ability to strike as fundamental and necessary to fight the tyranny of capital. Any and all action to restrict this ability should be opposed and overturned. 

Follow the APFA on social media to keep an eye out for how you can support their fight for a better contract.

Last Tuesday was election night across New York State. The night highlighted both the enduring challenges and promise of the rising Socialist movement. In the most widely covered race of the night, Reactionary forces across the Right and Center, including AIPAC, funneled tens of millions of dollars into the 16th Congressional District to secure the defeat of DSA-endorsed incumbent, Congressman Jamaal Bowman by George Latimer. While at the state-level, all eight DSA incumbents in the State Senate and Assembly won their reelection bids, and they will be joined by DSA-endorsed candidate, Claire Valdez, who won her insurgent campaign to represent the 37th Assembly District in Queens. Tonight, we will hear from David Vibert, a steering committee member of DSA’s National Electoral Commission, to give his perspective on last week’s elections and their ramifications for the socialist movement in New York state and beyond. We will also hear from RPM’s own Jack Devine and Alex Randazzo on their breakdown of Bowman’s defeat, and what his loss tells us about the evolution of the 16th district since he first won the seat in 2020 and what we can learn in his loss 4 years later.