We all seem to understand intuitively that the government doesn’t work for us. Whether one is a warehouse worker like myself, a waiter, or an office worker, we all have this in common: the feeling that our "leaders" don't give a damn what we want or need.

Sure once every four years you’ll go vote Red or Blue but what good has that ever done you? If the Republicans really gave a damn about your rights to bear arms they wouldn’t’ve championed the 1994 gun ban. At two former Republican presidents’ urging they banned many semi-automatic firearms at the federal level for ten years. Likewise, if the Democrats really cared about abortion rights wouldn't they have codified it when they had the power to do so? Of course not! This is a well choreographed dance with each political pirouette designed to keep you focused on hating anyone in the opposite colored shirt. When was the last time either of these parties, composed nearly exclusively of Ivy League nepo-babies, has done a damn thing for the common man? Increasing the minimum wage in pace with inflation for example would drive other employers, like yours, to increase their wages likewise.

Workers have precious little political power in this country; we are told to vote once every four years for the color of the next swindler’s tie and be done with it. And what else can we do when things are as tough as they are for the average man? Who’s got the time to get politically active when you’re struggling to feed your family?

That's where the struggle for workers' rights comes in. We endeavor to enfranchise the working class and make policy not on the basis of what is most profitable but instead on the basis of what needs done for the average citizen. We endeavor to be citizens, in the real sense, with power over our government and more importantly power over our future, to be more than just subjects under an aristocracy! After all, it was over nearly the same conditions that the American Revolution was fought in. No taxation without representation? Of course! But what representation do we have now?

Some, understandably, believe the system is broken, but the reality of the matter is that the system is working exactly as intended. From the ground up the State apparatus is designed to keep power AWAY from you and your peers! We toil away keeping the country running while the parasites on top take the lion's share of our labor, sitting in their ivory tower and occasionally feigning interest in our well being to curry votes to maintain their positions of power. So what is there to do?

Join a union!

Unions are the most powerful tool we have for both political potency and financial security. On average union wages are 15 percent higher than comparable non-union jobs. That coupled with better job security and more paid leave is reason enough to start or join one. However, there's an even greater reason, bigger than all of us as individuals: the ability for members of the working class to bargain as a collective and demand not beg, that our conditions be improved. It's only thanks to unions that we have weekends, an 8 hour work day as opposed to 12+, sick leave, paid vacation, and many other labor rights we take for granted. And of course, there are some who have been burned by unions in the past, but this is not an enduring trait of unions' nature, rather the opposite; it is a consequence of the worker being at the mercy of union bureaucrats and of reduction of workers' voice in unions overall. Both are antithetical to labor unions’ explicit goals. We must stand firmly against any structure which acts against the enfranchisement of the worker.

The dictatorship of the elite must be replaced with true democracy, true power for the working class. It’s only by upsetting this unjust balance of power that we can truly be secure in our workplaces and in our nation's future. It’s only by throwing the bosses off our backs that we can be our own leaders and assume our proper place as the rightful stewards of this American experiment which has so regrettably fallen into disrepair. We have the tools to remake it, to construct a country where each and every one of us truly has liberty and justice delivered to us, by us.

We built this country and it’s only fair that we own it, don’t you think?

May Day has been the day of celebration globally for the class which creates all that is necessary to live and to live well, the working class. It is celebrated in more than 140 countries and territories around the world on May 1 or the first Monday in May as a show of international worker solidarity. Although the significance of this day traces its origin to an event in this country, it has been largely ignored here in the United States.

On Saturday, May 1, 1886, thousands of workers around the United States went on strike and marched under the slogan "Eight Hours for work. Eight hours for rest. Eight hours for what we will." Nearly half a million workers from Chicago to New York, to Milwaukee to Detroit marched in solidarity. In Chicago, this is often remembered as leading to the infamous Haymarket Affair in which a bombing took place at a labor demonstration four days later, May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois. Eight workers would be framed and convicted of conspiracy though only two of the eight were even at the Haymarket at the time and the two could not even be connected to the throwing of the bomb. Seven were sentenced to death and one to a term of 15 years in prison. Eventually four were hanged on November 11, 1887, one committed suicide while in prison and the remaining three would remain wrongfully convicted until their pardon in 1893. Just before his execution, August Spies, one of the convicted men, cried out the famous words: "There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today."

In commemoration of the general strike and those workers targeted and imprisoned, worker organizations and trade unions demonstrate on the First of May for the material demands of the working class, the demand for a living wage, a respectable and decent job, and a Democratic way of life which has shown to be unattainable under the rule of landlords, bankers and bosses embodied within the economic system we live in.

U.S. resistance to celebrate International Workers' Day in May stems from a resistance to emboldening worldwide working-class unity. In his book, The Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day, British labor historian Peter Linebaugh states "The ruling class did not want to have a very active labor force connected internationally … The principle of national patriotism was used against the principle of working-class unity or trade union unity."

In efforts to encourage working people to forget this history President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September of each year a national holiday to remove any association of the original May Day. Much later in 1958 President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared May 1 "Law Day" dedicated to the principles of law and order, and in 2021 President Joe Biden declared May 1st "Loyalty Day" further burying the history of the working people in their struggle.

In the global south, May Day celebrations also commemorate anti-colonial/pro-democracy struggles associated with the nation’s history. In South Africa, the public holiday has come to signify not only the sacrifices made on the long road toward building worker power, but also the bitter battle against Apartheid in which trade and labor unions played a key role. Continuing with this tradition, this year on May day, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa released a statement calling on workers around the world to mobilize for Palestine. “The working class are the creators of wealth, and it is the united power of the working class that has the power to overthrow hateful, brutal regimes like Apartheid Israel … On this Workers Day, we call on workers of the world to unite in defense of Palestine so that its people can be free, from the river, to the sea!”

It is quite remarkable that a spark lit by the oppression of workers in Chicago more than a century ago continues to be a source of inspiration for workers globally towards building worker power.

Today there appears to be a great amount of anxiety stemming from the rising cost of living. While most people have been hanging on for the last few years, and I know very well people are hanging on and still finding places to rent at or under 500 dollars a month, this will soon not be the case. From the city to the countryside, there seems to be a general sense that the working class will be gradually emptied out of the area and replaced by upper middle-class individuals that move from out of State.

This environment has produced interesting sentiments in the cities and the countryside. In the cities there are young middle class people who don't see a future here in Idaho and plan to run away to another state. For the working class in the cities, those that cannot afford the mentality of “escape-ism,” the prevailing sentiments have been hopelessness for some, anger for many, and annoyance for all. In more rural areas we see a common distaste for real estate agents. There are a great number of people there who believe, and it is hard to blame them for believing, that real estate agents are going where money/demand is: marketing almost exclusively to wealthy and out of state individuals, and leaving locals behind. In the rural areas one might have heard the whispers of laws restricting commissions of real estate agents in the state, many of these whispers have great distortions within their contents, but the feeling that something is wrong is more than observable.

On top of all of this, trust in the current political institutions and the two political parties are so remarkably low that statisticians are having a field day with “all time” or “ever before” types of headlines. Pew Research has been talking about “historic lows” with their statistics that, according to them, demonstrate that Americans have less trust in the Government today than they did during the Vietnam War. While partisan hostility has grown between Democrats and Republicans, apparently between 3-4/10 Americans do not feel well-represented by either party and see both quite negatively. “63% of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the candidates who have emerged so far,” and this does seem to line up with the uncommitted votes cast in the Presidential primary and Reuters polls that demonstrate that regardless of race, gender, and age everybody is unhappy. At least on paper, many Idahoans do not affiliate with either Party. According to the Idaho Secretary of State’s office, not only a mere 23.1% of the voting age population actually voting in local elections, as of January 2020, out of 872,794 registered Idaho voters, 308,784 are unaffiliated to any party. According to the Idaho Secretary of State’s office, the largest block of registered voters are Republicans at a little over 400,000, then in second place, unaffiliated voters, and in third place is the Democratic party at 112,000.

This means, to put it frankly, not even half of the population of the City of Boise, considered a liberal bastion within Idaho, are registered Democrats.

Shedding the exhausting baggage of the two Parties is a crucial move in Idaho to reach an ever-growing trend within the United States of dissatisfaction. With dissatisfaction, there also comes exhaustion with both the Left and Right. While working people juggle ever busier schedules, the absurd politics of democrats have been on the decline. At the same time, the insane policies of the right have effectively brought government bureaucracy into our lives in ways never before imaginable. The State Government is now obsessed with questions of the books your children can read, words your children can say, and bathrooms your children can use. What was before The old party of so called “limited Government” has apparently taken most questions out of the hands of parents and school boards and made them all matters of the State. The tiresome politics of a perpetually fragile and guilty left and a perpetually paranoid, frantic, and emotional right has had most people looking to boredom with a sense of longing to be bored again.

What Is To Be Done?

First, any solution must be able to shed the old party politics and the agents of chaos which exist within these two parties. These parties are certainly not popular amongst working people, but an alternative, which can be legally secured with canvassing, has not been offered yet. Labor already has a base of voters that, with their signatures alone can initiate aThird Party. A third party, so long as it appeals to both rural and urban citizens, can effectively attract those who might casually vote Republican in rural Idaho, and those that might casually vote Democratic in urban Idaho. We are not looking for those who are especially energetic about either party, and fortunately there appear to be only a few anyway.

Second, after shedding the two Parties any solution must understand the cynical and heinous nature of the “Culture War” we currently see. The appeal of Farmer-Labor on this front would be in positioning itself as an attempt to bring stability to the lives of the great majority of the exhausted working class through common good politics. The common good politics I describe will confuse those on the Right and those on the Left. It rejects the right-wing obsession with the market and instead takes the concept of Self Government as the North Star. It rejects this strange hatred of the foreigner, the immigrant, and all those “different” as not only entirely irrational and immoral, but also as a criminal attempt to distract working people from their real adversaries. The hatred of those who are born outside of this country, those with a different color skin, culture or those who are not heterosexual is plain to see in so many people today, and this must be combated on the terms that this divides the camp of the working people. The consequences of division is ancient knowledge even described in the bible (Mathews 12:15), that “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.”

Farmer-Labor, in the same breath rejects the liberal obsession with the self and all its “individualized” truths. Common good politics does not find an ally in trains of thought which demand the acceptance of all points of view or interpretations as wholly legitimate just because a person has them. This negates more than it affirms. Instead, I see Farmer-Labor championing the concept of toleration even with those whose views on social norms one may privately disagree with. Conversations on social norms and taboos are worth having in a Democratic society, and this requires toleration of views but also the ability to not accept and even disagree with views regarding social matters. To be a mass-movement, a truly mass movement, a common shield is required to protect all people on the basis of toleration. This does not mean that one must advocate nor accept all views another has, only be willing to hold up their end of the shield.

However, there is a line, the outlawing of one way of life is a serious matter which strips democratic and human rights away from a people. Broadly Farmer-Labor, and every decent person, opposes such a thing and offers to protect all sections of the working class from abuse, maltreatment, and persecution. This does not mean that one must advocate nor accept all views of those Farmer-Labor will protect, but a strong democratic culture requires broad unity for the defense of democratic and human rights, a common agreement to hold up the shield. If there is no room for this way of thinking then there is no tolerance, there is no mass movement to begin with.

Third, to put it plainly, the Farmer-Labor solution is an attempt at mass “common good” politics which appeals to the city and countryside with a sense of democratic life. Farmer-Labor values self-government and democratic life in Idaho and identifies threats to self-government in a small elite group of shareholders who profit while the great majority suffers. It is here that the argument for expropriation and nationalization, even a Workers and Farmers Government, are best found. Farmer-Labor identifies the monopoly of industry, credit and communication in the hands of a small group of shareholders as a great contradiction to the concept of self-government. The development of a small elite few has meant that the lives of the rest of the population have been entirely dictated by the needs and interests of a small group’s profit motive. Contrary to the principles of self-government, the real center of political and economic life today is not the demands of the citizenry, but the profitability of a very small group of shareholders. This violates what I see as Common Good politics that starts from the undeniable fact that a stable, democratic political order of self-government must be in the hands of the great majority - that is the working class.

This is only possible of course, through a more democratic government, a Republic worthy of the name Republic - a Workers and Farmers Government.

Those things and people harmful to the tenets of Self-Government, namely those economic players and practices that breed mass dependence, are the chief enemies Farmer-Labor identifies.

What a fresh idea it is, Farmer-Labor will finally actually publicly identify enemies honestly, a practice unheard of in American politics.

Students here in New York and across the country are staging protests and encampments on university campuses in solidarity with Palestinians under siege in Gaza for over 200 days. The student movements are united by a common call for their institutions to divest and boycott the state of Israel, companies, and institutions complicit in Israel’s occupation and ongoing genocide in Gaza. In response to this vast mobilization of students, the university administrations at Columbia, NYU, CUNY and elsewhere have handed out mass suspensions & even threats of expulsion to students involved in the encampments, in addition to unleashing NYPD to arrest students protesting peacefully on their campuses. Tonight, we will hear from the students themselves. We will hear from Britt, a student organizer at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at CUNY City College, about the ‘Five Demands’ of the students to the CUNY administration. We will also be joined in-studio by Erin, a student at NYU and a member of the National Coordinating Committee of YDSA, to hear the latest from the NYU encampment and what YDSA is doing to meet the national moment. 

 

*This episode was recorded at 7pm Tuesday night before the NYPD sweep and mass arrests of students at Columbia and CUNY. Go out and provide jail support for the arrested students & comrades opposing genocide at One Police Plaza  

 

Link to CUNY Gaza Solidarity Statement: https://twitter.com/cunygse/status/1785677626431934751/photo/1

DSA San Diego has endorsed Power San Diego, a ballot measure to move the City of San Diego to its own municipal electric utility. The measure is currently gathering signatures to qualify for the November 2024 ballot. DSA members are helping gather signatures, including at some of the events you can find on the Power San [...]

Read More... from We can do better than SDG&E

The post We can do better than SDG&E appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America | San Diego Chapter.

In this episode, we sit with Dr. Tim Conder and Dr. Daniel Rhodes of the Black Mountain School of Theology and Community to discuss a marxist, community-centered mode of theological research, organizing, and education. Visit their website at https://blackmountainschool.org

The Democratic Socialists of America’s International Committee (DSA IC) affirms Iran’s right to self-defense in response to the illegal Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. DSA IC reiterates our firm opposition to providing any military or diplomatic assistance to the Zionist project, which is currently engaged in a genocidal campaign against the Palestinians and reckless attacks on neighboring states, posing a serious risk of escalating into a full-blown regional conflict. We oppose any U.S. participation in or support of Israeli strikes against Iran and denounce punitive measures such as sanctions and travel bans enacted by the Biden administration or Congress in response to Iran’s defensive strikes on Israel. 

Despite western attempts to paint Iran as the aggressor, DSA IC recognizes that Iran has long been targeted by the U.S. and its allies for its efforts to establish national self-determination and champion Palestinian liberation. Since the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, the US and Israel have wrought war on the Iranian people by murdering millions in the Iran-Iraq war, carrying out regular assassinations of its leaders, scientists, and top-commanders on diplomatic missions, and depriving the Iranian people of necessary medical supplies through sanctions. This is part of the U.S.’s imperial policy: destruction and de-development against any country that exercises sovereignty or opposes U.S. hegemony. 

The Israeli Occupation Force’s (IOF) April 1st strike against the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, which killed at least 16 people including a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander, represents an extremely serious violation of international laws and norms governing diplomatic relations between states, including the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and 1963 Convention on Consular Relations. The Biden administration’s “iron-clad” support of the Zionist project has allowed Israel to operate with total impunity, resulting in gross violations of international humanitarian law and military provocations against regional allies of Palestinians which threaten to destabilize the whole of West Asia. 

Not only has the Biden administration refused to deescalate the current crisis with a denunciation of  the Israeli strikes on the Iranian consulate, but it also blocked the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) from doing so. Likewise, President Biden did not act on the purported Iranian offer to forgo a retaliatory strike on Israel in exchange for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. On April 13th, Iran launched a limited defensive strike against Israel, hitting several Israeli bases including the Netavim Air Base from which the attack on the Damascus consulate was launched. The strike was telegraphed in advance, allowing for ample preparation by Israel and the U.S. The strike’s success highlights the ability of Iran to defend itself against Zionist aggression and restore crucial deterrence against increasingly rogue Israeli actions. Additionally, the Iranian defensive strikes have helped to further undermine the mantle of invincibility which the Zionist project has constructed in order to allow its continual ethnic cleansing and genocide in their colonial occupation of Palestine. 

While it is reported that the Biden administration will not participate in Israeli strikes against Iran, continued statements of “iron-clad” support for Israel leave the door open for runaway escalation. With Israeli Occupation Forces crossing the Lebanese border in recent days, intensifying bombing of southern Lebanon, and their continued genocide in Gaza, Israel is dragging the U.S. into a larger death spiral. DSA IC reiterates our demands for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, an end to all military aid to Israel and an end to sanctions against the people of Iran. The power to stop this genocide and end this rapidly escalating regional crisis remains in Biden’s hands. The Biden administration bears full responsibility for every death that follows. No war with Iran! Free Palestine!

The post DSA IC Affirms Iran’s Right to Self-Defense appeared first on DSA International Committee.

The successful struggle for telework, transit subsidies, alternate work schedules and similar programs was the result of the hard work of federal workers and their unions.

In this episode we meet Jonathan Soto, the DSA endorsed candidate running for New York State Assembly in the North East Bronx. Jonathan is a public school parent, an inter-faith organizer and a democratic socialist, campaigning to unseat longtime incumbent Michael Benedetto in Assembly District 82. 

This commentary by CVDSA member Tanya Vyhovsky originally appeared in VTDigger. A clinical social worker and former school services clinician, Vyhovsky represents the Chittenden-Central District in the Vermont State Senate.

Ordinarily in Vermont, we in the Senate give the governor great deference when it comes to whom he appoints to serve in his cabinet. While we may have policy differences with an appointee, the governor was elected by the people, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt when making appointments.

Not this time.

After years of methodically hinting at his preference for private schools, Gov. Phil Scott made it crystal clear where he stands when it comes to education funding here in Vermont. By choosing a former executive of a for-profit charter school company to be his next education secretary, he is finally saying the quiet part out loud — public education money should be able to flow freely to private and religious schools.

After meeting with the nominee, it is clear to me that she is very smart and accomplished. However, she is not qualified to lead the Vermont public education system past this inflection point and into the future. The nominee’s scant experience in public schools does not give me confidence in her ability to strengthen our public schools in this time of turmoil, and it further shows the governor’s lack of commitment to our public schools. 

Couple that with a State Board of Education that seems willing to at the least be complicit in the governor’s agenda to privatize our schools. This nomination raises alarm bells that should give every one of us who cherishes our local public schools great pause.

I have always been proud that in the state of Vermont, the Constitution guarantees quality public education for all children. That imperative has been carried out over the centuries by dedicated educators, volunteer school boards, administrators, parents, communities and others who believe — rightly — that education for all Vermont children is a valuable asset to all of us.

Indeed, our local public schools — despite assertions to the contrary — deliver the goods year after year, preparing our children with the tools to be happy, healthy and successful in whatever life they choose.

But that egalitarian opportunity is in danger as private and religious schools ramp up their ongoing efforts to co-opt taxpayer dollars for private gain. 

This comes with the tacit approval of the governor and, as of two years ago, the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court. Those justices, in Carson v. Makin, made it clear that states like Vermont that give publicly funded vouchers to private schools must also open the public purse to religious schools as well. 

I am profoundly disappointed that we as a Legislature have failed to address this very real threat to our public schools.

It will further undermine our public education system if the charter school company executive chosen by the governor becomes the next guardian of Vermont public schools. If confirmed by the Senate, she will have a compliant pro-private-school State Board of Education to remake rules that will not only allow those schools to become even more unaccountable to the public, but to expand the amount of public resources flowing in their direction and further undercutting our top-in-the-nation public school system.

I am not alone in my deep concern over this nominee. Many of my colleagues have expressed reservations about this appointee, and I’ve heard from hundreds of Vermonters who say charter schools and the further privatization of public education are just plain wrong. 

The governor and those who work in his cabinet want us to believe that opposition to his appointee is personal, sexist or based on where she came from. But those accusations — taken directly out of the D.C. GOP handbook — are meant to distract from the nominee’s deep experience as an executive for a for-profit charter school company that has siphoned public education dollars from students and into the pockets of shareholders, and her utter lack of experience leading a public school system.

We will, as promised, fully explore the nominee’s record. We will conduct hearings and respect the nomination process. But as we do so, we must ensure that the next education secretary is dedicated to protecting, preserving and supporting our local public schools and the 90% of Vermont kids who rely on them every day.