As Twin Ports DSA endorsed City Councilor Azrin Awal noted in her statement on October 16, Duluth is about the same length as the Gaza Strip. But Gaza has a population of 2 million people, compared to our 85,000. Israel has already dropped over 6000 bombs on Gaza during the past week, and an invasion is in the works. DSA has launched a No Money For Massacres phone bank campaign. Sign up to participate here.

Below is Councilor Awal’s statement in full.

After the events of October 7th, 2023, the Israeli occupying force wasted little time in launching an indiscriminate bombing campaign against the 2.1 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza as a collective punishment, targeting ambulances¹, apartments, schools, mosques, hospitals, and media outlets, turning the existing blockade into an active and deadly siege. Israel has cut off all water, power, fuel, and food supply to Gaza, a further crime against humanity, and the specter of starvation and genocide looms. Telegraphing further escalation, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip²; only a day earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Palestinian civilians in Gaza to “leave now.”³ Leave to go where exactly?

At the time of this writing, thousands of people have already been killed inside and near the Gaza Strip. International law is clear on the legitimacy of occupied peoples to liberate themselves from “colonial domination, apartheid, and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.”⁴ International law is also clear on the prohibition of punishing a civilian for an offense he or she has not personally committed and the prohibition of reprisals against protected persons and their property.⁵ But since the beginning of 2023, the Israeli police, military, and armed settlers have killed, on average, one Palestinian a day. Since Israel imposed the blockade on the Gaza Strip, the occupying force has bombed Gaza a total of seven times: 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2023 — and Palestinians have never been able to leave for safety.

However, Netanyahu’s faux-humanitarian warning to Palestinians, “leave now,” touches the roots of the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” In 1948, Zionist paramilitary groups ethnically cleansed over 750,000 Palestinians from historic Palestine and established the state of Israel, a historic event known as al-Nakba in Palestinian collective memory⁶. It is the reason why nearly 67% of Palestinians in Gaza are descendants of families that were ethnically cleansed from the villages where Israeli kibbutzim and cities stand today. It is the reason why Israel is a military garrison state that maintains an apartheid system today, where Palestinians are harassed, robbed, and murdered by Israeli soldiers and settlers every day, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.⁷ It is the reason why, despite Zionist attempts to deny their existence, Palestinians have continued to resist, persevere, and yearn for Return.

Now is not the time for supposedly balanced, measured statements that obfuscate the truth of the conflict. The failure of international bodies and leaders to hold Israel accountable to international law and to apply UN Resolution 194, the right of Palestinians to return to their ancestral homes, has resulted in what we are now bearing witness to. This has been the status quo for Palestinians for 75 years, and it must end.

Israel is able to maintain this barbaric status quo because of the diplomatic, military, and financial support of the United States since 1967. The United States uses this alliance to project its military power into the Middle East, as it seeks to do in all geostrategically important areas of the globe.

As American socialists, we understand the fight for socialism is international, and we understand the unique role the United States plays in administering a global capitalist empire. To assist Palestinians in their struggle for self-determination, our primary role is to pressure the US for a change in its foreign policy. To this end, we unequivocally support the BDS movement and call on American civil society to join the targeted boycott of Israeli goods, companies, and institutions.

The response of the Biden administration to these events still unfolding has been to supply Israel with more money and weapons.^{8 9}The United States must end its policy of arming the apartheid, settler-colonial ethnostate of Israel. We fully condemn the capitalist Republican and Democratic parties, who are largely culpable for the continuation of violence and dispossession perpetrated upon Palestinians. America’s expanding military-industrial complex continues to act as a force of destabilization and oppression throughout the world, and major arms and military technology manufacturers like Raytheon make billions of dollars in profits from exploitation and war.

As socialists living in the heart of a global capitalist empire, we stand in opposition to the imperialism of the American ruling class, and we stand in solidarity with all oppressed people.

Palestine will be free — from the river to the sea.

In solidarity,
Central New Jersey DSA

1. https://www.businessinsider.com/doctors-without-borders-hospitals-ambulances-targets-israel-hamas-gaza-2023-10 ︎
2.  https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/9/israeli-defence-minister-orders-complete-siege-on-gaza ︎
3. https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/israel-palestine-conflict-more-than-530-killed-after-hamas-launched-unprecedented-attack-on-israel-netanyahu-retaliates-declares-war-1.1696670798153 ︎
4. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-184195/ ︎
5. https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciv-1949/article-33 ︎
6. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ethnic-Cleansing-of-Palestine/Ilan-Pappe/9781851685554 ︎
7. https://jacobin.com/2023/10/west-bank-apartheid-israel-idf-oslo-accords ︎
8. https://themessenger.com/politics/biden-administration-discussing-military-aid-package-to-israel-after-hamas-attack ︎
9. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67049196 ︎

The post From the River to the Sea! appeared first on Central NJ DSA.

Denver DSA unequivocally stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their fight for liberation from the apartheid regime of Israel. Palestinians have endured 75 years of dispossession, colonization, desecration, torture, and confinement at the hands of the Israeli government, enabled financially, politically, and culturally by the United States. The path to liberation must include ceasing all U.S. aid to Israel, lifting the blockade of Gaza, ending Zionist settler-colonialism, and ensuring the right for Palestinians to return to their homeland.

Yesterday, a wealthy and well-funded nuclear power with the financial, political, and cultural support of the United States began forcibly evacuating 1.1 million civilians from Gaza City during an ongoing indiscriminate carpet-bombing campaign which has already killed thousands of civilians, injured tens of thousands, and displaced hundreds of thousands. Israel has cut off food, water, fuel, electricity, and medical care from Gaza’s 2.3 million citizens, half of whom are children. These civilians have been deemed “human animals” by the Israeli Defense Minister overseeing these attacks, who committed to “treat them accordingly” – an open declaration of genocide. Yet even now, the American war machine readies itself to ship more weapons and send more military funding to support Israel’s extermination of the Palestinian people for daring to resist their brutal, unlivable conditions.

Border walls, military checkpoints, crippling sanctions, restricted water and electricity, food scarcity, impoverishment, denial of medical care, and routine bombings are the material conditions that Palestinians have been forced to live under for over 75 years. Backed by the US, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) brutally murder Palestinians with impunity, over 8,000 since 2000 and thousands since October 7. The IOF detains 600 Palestinian children every year and keeps over 5,000 Palestinians imprisoned, a quarter of whom are held without charges or trial. For 16 years, Gaza has been transformed into an open-air prison, wherein the IOF concentrates 2.3 million people in an area smaller than Denver and bombs them in politically-motivated campaigns they sadistically term “mowing the grass.” 

Bloodshed is a universal tragedy. But under apartheid and occupation, some lives are deemed more precious than others. The negative blowback of apartheid should come as no shock; people who are oppressed will perpetually seek ways to free themselves from that oppression. The murder of Palestinians has been a systemically invisibilized occurrence for decades. When Palestinians quietly suffer the daily violence inflicted on them, the West calls that “peace”. Denver DSA recognizes that the only true and lasting peace must be predicated on liberation from occupation, and it is towards that goal that we resolve ourselves today.

We call on all DSA members and endorsed DSA electeds to stand unequivocally in support of Palestinian people’s right to resist. We encourage all DSA chapters to stand with the people of Palestine and organize turn-out to local demonstrations.

May Palestine be free, from the river to the sea.

In the face of over 75 years of settler-colonial violence and genocide, the will and spirit of the Palestinian resistance burns brighter than ever. The state of Israel has ethnically […]

The post Statement In Support Of Palestinian Liberation appeared first on Houston DSA.

Contact:  The Executive Committee of the River Valley DSA rvdemsoc@gmail.com  ATTN for Immediate Release: October 5, 2023 River Valley DSA Condemns the Tax Cuts River Valley DSA condemns the tax cuts that overwhelmingly passed the Massachusetts State House and Senate last week, and now head to Governor Maura Healey’s desk. This so-called “tax relief” package […]

12:30 PM @ Eckstrom-Columbus Library

SATURDAY GENERAL MEETING!  Come learn about what Tucson DSA is up to and get involved! We will be meeting at Eckstrom-Columbus Library this Saturday at 12:30 PM. There will be a presentation during the meeting about public power in Tucson, the problems with Tucson Electric Power, and a strategy for winning public power.  Democratic Socialists of America, PO Box 1038, New York, NY 10272

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The City University of New York improves the lives of millions. Founded in 1847 with the purpose of providing higher education to working class New Yorkers, CUNY today has 25 colleges spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving 243,000 degree-seeking students of all ages and awarding 55,000 degrees each year. Like many other institutions built to serve the public good, CUNY faces multiple intersecting crises. The university system could not function without its 30,000 strong unionized labor force. Many professors, graduate student workers, and staffers are underpaid and overworked. The Professional Staff Congress, of which I am a member, is currently in negotiations to improve the material conditions of workers across the board. CUNY has also suffered from decades of underfunding by New York state and city elected officials. This has not only forced thousands of educators into precarious employment, but led to decaying infrastructure. As funding has gone down, tuition has been increased at the once free public university system. We’ll discuss how PSC union organizers and their allies are fighting back to build the People’s University that this city deserves. Later in the show we’ll hear from Amy Wilson and her interview with Wren, a healthcare worker struggling to materialize reproductive rights in a capitalist society.

The historic strike of the United Auto Workers against the Big Three US automakers is inspiring new hope for the labor movement. I sat down with Jane Slaughter, a founder and long-time editor of Labor Notes, to discuss the ongoing strike, what it will take to win, and how the strike was made possible by a small opposition caucus defeating the entrenched UAW bureaucracy to take leadership of the union earlier this year. I then speak with Manya Janowitz, a Seattle DSA member and organizer with UNITE-HERE Local 8, about the strike and contract battle at Homegrown, the Seattle-based sandwich chain. The discussion with Jane Slaughter references her recent article, “No Reform Caucus, No UAW Strike,” published in The Call on September 20th. This podcast is only possible due to the generous monthly contributions of Seattle DSA members and supporters who fund my part-time salary as the chapter’s Communications Organizer alongside vital organizing work. To sustain this podcast, and our wider communications work, please become a monthly contributor at seattledsa.org/podcast.

After Friday’s midnight deadline, the United Auto Workers went on strike against the Big 3 automakers of Ford, GM, and Stellantis, marking the first time in history the UAW has gone on strike against all three auto companies. As of this recording, 12,700 auto workers have walked off the job at three plants: a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, a GM plant in Wentzville, Missouri, and a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio, and there are potentially many more plants to follow. While here in New York City, postdoctoral workers with the UAW at Columbia University and Mt. Sinai Hospital are fighting to transform the working conditions for postdocs in Higher Ed. Tonight, we are joined in-studio with Brandon Mancilla, Director of UAW Region 9A, and Chris Voila, an auto worker and UAW member, to hear the latest about this historic auto strike. We will also hear from PJ and Andrea, postdocs with the Columbia Postdoctoral Workers Union and Sinai Postdoctoral Organizing Committee, on their respective contract fights and how postdoc workers are ready, if necessary, to strike. 

 

Follow SPOC-UAW at @spocuaw (Twitter) and https://sinaipostdocunion.org/

And CPW-UAW at @CPWUAW (Twitter), cpw_uaw (IG), and https://columbiapostdocunion.org/

Palm Beach DSA Weekly Newsletter   Upcoming Events   Monday, September 11  Housing For All Meeting  8:00-9:00pm Zoom Join us this Monday for our Housing Justice Working Group Meeting! Come join us this week as we watch part 2 of “How to Build a Tenant Union,” organized by East Bay DSA and the Socialist Housing Organizer Project! In this training we’ll learn tenant organizing skills, how to structure a tenant union around democratic processes, ways to escalate against an unresponsive landlord, how to build for the long term and what to do when people move out. You can watch part 1 and/or register for the meeting using the links found here. Our mission is to create a countywide movement comprising renters and housing justice advocates fighting for and winning demands, including basic legal rights and protections for tenants and truly affordable and safe housing for all residents.   Tuesday, September 12  Reproductive Justice Working Group: Meeting with Milo  6:30-7:30pm Zoom This Tuesday the Reproductive Justice Working Group will meet with Milo, an Electoral Campaign Organizer from DSA National on Zoom.  Their goal is to connect with every DSA chapter in Florida to talk shop about the abortion access ballot measure fight. “I want to help support every Florida chapter in building campaigns that develop lots of new leaders and organizers, grow your chapters, and make some history!” You can join the meeting using the link found here.   Saturday, September 16  General Membership Meeting  12:30-1:45pm Friends Quaker Meeting House  823 North A StLake Worth, FL 33460 & Zoom(Hybrid Meeting) Join us this Saturday for our General Membership Meeting! At this meeting we’ll hear report-backs from working groups, updates from members, discuss chapter priorities, general business and upcoming events! If you plan on attending the meeting through Zoom, please register using the link found here.  We hope to see you there!   Saturday, September 16  Environmental Working Group Meeting  2:00-3:00pm Common Grounds Brew & Roastery 12 S J StLake Worth, FL 33460 Join us this Saturday for our Environmental Working Group Meeting where we’ll be discussing ideas for projects and our new reading group! If you’re interested in ecosocialism, we hope you’ll join us!   Saturday, September 16  Food Not Bombs: West Palm Beach  4:30pm 150 N Clematis St West Palm Beach, FL 33401(near the fountain) Food Not Bombs meets every Saturday at Nancy M. Graham Centennial Square.  Come join us as we share food and other resources with the community! If you’d like to bring a dish to share, the organizers kindly ask that the dish be vegetarian or vegan. Clothing donations are accepted. If you’d like to share something but you’re unsure of what to bring, things like fruit, bottled water, juice, and soft drinks are great! If you have any questions, please email admin[at]fnbpbc[dot]org. Parking: Banyan Garage is a convenient and relatively inexpensive parking option. It’s within short walking distance of Nancy M. Graham Centennial Square and costs $5 to park all day. Banyan Garage address: 200 Banyan Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401   Sunday, September 17  Stuart Meet and Greet  4:00-6:00pm Ocean Republic Brewing 1630 SE Federal HwyStuart, FL 34994 To celebrate the expansion of Palm Beach DSA to now include Martin and St. Lucie counties, and as a way to welcome our northerly comrades, we’ll be holding a social this Sunday at Ocean Republic Brewing in Stuart! Stop by, say hi and come hang out with your fellow swamprades! If you have any questions or need more information, please email us at info[at]palmbeachdsa[dot]org. We can’t wait to see you there!   News & Announcements Mexico decriminalizes abortion, extending Latin American trend of widening access to procedure:Last Wednesday, Mexico’s Supreme Court threw out all federal criminal penalties for abortion, ruling that national laws prohibiting the procedure are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights in a sweeping decision that extended Latin American’s trend of widening abortion access.The high court ordered that abortion be removed from the federal penal code. The ruling will require the federal public health service and all federal health institutions to offer abortion to anyone who requests it.Some 20 Mexican states, however, still criminalize abortion. While judges in those states will have to abide by the court’s decision, further legal work will be required to remove all penalties.The court said on X that “the legal system that criminalized abortion” in Mexican federal law was unconstitutional because it “violates the human rights of women and people with the ability to gestate.”The decision came two years after the court ruled that abortion was not a crime in Coahuila, a northern state on the Texas border. That ruling set off a slow state-by-state process of decriminalizing it.The week before, the central state of Aguascalientes became the 12th state to drop criminal penalties.Abortion-rights activists will have to continue seeking legalization state by state, though Wednesday’s decision should make that easier. State legislatures can also act on their own to erase abortion penalties.For now, the ruling does not mean that everyone will be able to access the procedure immediately, explained Fernanda Díaz de León, sub-director and legal expert for women’s rights group IPAS.What it does do — in theory — is obligate federal agencies to provide the care to patients. That’s likely to have a cascade of effects.Díaz de León said removing the federal ban takes away another excuse used by care providers to deny abortions in states where the procedure is no longer a crime.It also allows those with formal employment who are part of the social security system and government employees to seek the procedure in federal institutions in states where the abortion is still criminalized, she said.Díaz de León and officials at other feminist organizations worry that some, particularly in more conservative areas, may still be denied abortions.“It’s a very important step,” Díaz de León said. But “we need to wait to see how this is going to be applied and how far it reaches.”Across Latin America, countries have made moves to lift abortion restrictions in recent years, a trend often referred to as a “green wave,” in reference to the green bandanas carried by activists in the region.The changes in Latin America stand in sharp contrast to increasing restrictions on abortion in parts of the United States.The decision may have ripple effects in Texas, where abortion is almost entirely banned. Some Texans have already turned south to access abortion.Even before the ruling, cheap regulated and unregulated medication have been available over the counter at Mexican pharmacies, including abortion-inducing drugs that are strictly regulated in the U.S.Before abortion was legalized in parts of Mexico, volunteer organizers helped safely terminate pregnancies independently as part of an extensive “accompaniment” system.Some organizers have since started moving abortion-inducing medication across the border and helping replicate the system in the United States.Mexico City was the first Mexican jurisdiction to decriminalize abortion 15 years ago.After decades of work by activists across the region, the trend picked up speed in Argentina, which in 2020 legalized the procedure. In 2022, Colombia, a highly conservative country, did the same. 2023 DSA Convention Results: Official results from the 2023 convention, including all resolutions and amendments that passed, failed, and were referred to the newly elected National Political Committee (including the full text of those resolutions). View the full document using the link found here. Stand in solidarity with United Auto Workers (UAW) at the Big 3 auto companies! Sign the Big 3 Strike Ready Pledge today!   After years of concessions to the bosses and skyrocketing executive compensation, autoworkers are standing firm and saying enough is enough. They’re organizing in their shops and communities ahead of the contracts at Ford, Stellantis, and GM expiring on September 14, 2023, and are preparing for the possibility of a strike if the companies don’t give them what they deserve. Stand with UAW at the Big 3 auto companies fighting for:     – An end to two-tier wages and benefits     – Cost of living raises     – Secure union jobs in a just transition to electric vehicles!  This fight is important not only to the 150,000 UAW members who work at the Big 3. Their fight is the fight of the whole working class. Workers need to support each other as we fight for a better world. Pledge to support UAW workers in their fight and join them on the picket line if the bosses force them to strike! Sign the Big 3 Strike Ready Pledge today by clicking the link found here! Support Reproductive Rights! Call for Volunteers: Abortion (up to 15 weeks) is still legal in Florida until the state’s current ban on abortions after 15 weeks is upheld by the Florida Supreme Court, which would allow the state’s six-week ban to take effect after 30 days of the ruling. In Palm Beach County and throughout the South, more and more people are in need of support to access abortion services. DSA members everywhere are stepping up, since rights to one’s own body are central to social justice. In addition to canvassing for abortion ballot initiative petition signatures and supporting those seeking abortions with Emergency Medical Assistance (West Palm Beach), you can volunteer as an escort at the Presidential Women’s Center in West Palm Beach. If interested, please write Mike at mbudd44[at]gmail[dot]com. Donate to the Labor Solidarity Fund!  The National Labor Solidarity Fund provides support to any DSA chapter involved with local labor struggle, and we need you to help build a war chest that can be used for any solidarity effort, from a union drive at your local Starbucks or Trader Joe’s to a national strike at John Deere or UPS! If you’d like to donate, please use the link found here. Thank you! Want to stay even more connected? Join our Slack channel! You can join by clicking the link found here. (Note: due to security concerns, in order to join you must be a dues-paying member of DSA.)