Thorn West: Issue No. 173

State Politics

• As the state legislative session drawing to a close this coming Thursday, many bills have been approved by the legislature this week, to next be signed or vetoed by Governor Newsom. These include a measure to legalize certain psychedelic drugs, as well as a first-in-the-nation law to ban caste discrimination.

• The legislature also approved two proposed constitutional amendments to be placed on the 2024 ballot. ACA 1 and ACA 13 both address the difficulty in passing housing and infrastructure bills at the municipal level, thanks to high voting thresholds imposed by past ballot measures. While 2022 only saw seven statewide measures on the ballot, there are already nine qualified for 2024.

• Across California, the positivity rate for COVID-19 has continued to rise.

City Politics

• The New York Times recapped the city’s corrupt 2020 redistricting process that drastically redrew the district of Councilmember Nithya Raman, and it provided a few updates on Los Angeles City Council’s plan to draft ballot measures to expand council and move to independent redistricting.

• The DSA-LA candidate forum for Phase 1 endorsements is this Sunday from 10am to 3pm. Three candidates for Los Angeles City Council will be present for Q&As: Ysabel Jurado, who is running in CD 14, Nithya Raman in CD 4, and Jillian Burgos in CD 2. The voting period, during which members can vote on whether or not the organization should endorse each candidate, will begin after the forum. RSVP or submit questions here!

Labor

• Last weekend, Star Garden Topless Dive Bar celebrated its reopening as the nation’s only unionized strip club!

Housing Rights

• The Los Angeles Housing and Homeless Committee advanced a motion to discuss with the city attorney whether the city can do more to prevent bad-faith Ellis Act evictions. The Ellis Act is state law that allows landlords to evict tenants from rent-controlled apartments if they take the units off the market permanently. The Los Angeles Housing Department has claimed there is little the city can do to prevent Ellis evictions that strongly appear to be in bad faith, such as the massive eviction underway at Barrington Plaza. Audio from that meeting is here, and is actually quite clarifying.

• Councilmembers Soto-Martínez, Harris-Dawson, and Hutt introduced a motion to eliminate “public facilities zones,” a zoning classification that severely restricts the ability of the city to utilize public land for affordable or new public housing.

• Knock LA published “LA’s War on Public Housing,” a multi-part series on the dismantling of public housing in Los Angeles that has been taking place since the 1980s.

• The City of San Francisco attempted to appeal a preliminary injunction preventing the displacement of unhoused people who have not been made a realistic offer of shelter. This week that appeal was denied.

Environmental Justice

• $2.5 million in funding was approved for Skid Row cooling stations to help unhoused Angelenos stay safe in the summer heat. But massive delays prevented most of them from opening until the summer was almost over. LA officials say it was the result of a miscommunication.

• The Clean Vehicle Rebate Project will end when it runs out of money this year. In its place, the state will expand a program next year that provides subsidies only to low-to-middle income residents.

• A new study finds that climate change has increased the risk of explosive wildfire growth in California by 25%.

The post State Leg. Session Closing + DSA-LA Candidate Forum This Weekend appeared first on The Thorn West.

In this episode, we interview activist Chuck Collins on his new novel, "Altar to an Erupting Sun." His book addresses the work of activism, the value of community, and the question of what tactics are on the table as we face the destruction of the planet. Find his book and more resources at chuckcollinswrites.com. Don't forget to join us for theologybeer.camp on October 19–21st. Use promo code HEARTGODPOD for a discounted ticket and to support this podcast. Hope to see you there!

Democratic Left is DSA’s volunteer-led nationwide print-and-online publication. It’s now America’s largest socialist publication at a time of exploding interest in socialism, and we’re eager to improve the quality of the publication and increase its online frequency and reach. To accomplish that, we have great need of skilled volunteers in the following categories: Graphic designers,…

The post Democratic Left needs skilled volunteers! appeared first on Democratic Left.

Cindy is 65 years old, disabled, and lives on the third floor of a Siegel Suites apartment complex with a broken elevator. Due to her disability, the broken elevator makes it impossible for her to bring groceries up to her apartment or do laundry without help. Her rent of $1800+ per month makes it difficult for her to save up and find a new place to live. Siegel Suites preys on their tenants, trapping them with high rents while ignoring basic repairs and maintenance.

We’re collecting stories from tenants about their living situations and predatory landlords. Have a story you’d like to share? Fill out our tenant incident report form.

Want to get involved in our housing justice work? Join us for our next meeting September 12th @ 6pm.

Translated into Spanish below / Traducido al español a continuación

The DSA IC congratulates Bernardo Arévalo and Movimiento Semilla for their resounding victory with 58% of the vote in Guatemala’s presidential runoff election on August 20. We stand in solidarity with the Guatemalan people who voted to put an end to elite control and corruption in Guatemala’s political system and bring about systemic change. We fully support the call for a Second Guatemalan Spring to continue the work set out in the first Guatemalan democratic opening that was tragically cut short by a State Department sponsored coup in 1954.

The DSA IC would also like to express serious concern about the safety of President-Elect Arévalo and ongoing attempts by the Guatemalan “Pact of the Corrupt” to overturn the election. We condemn the apparent decision by Guatemala’s electorally-defeated elite to use the four months before the presidential transition in January to free military officials charged with crimes of genocide and former politicians charged in corruption investigations, to arrest and harass political opponents, and to threaten indigenous land defenders and social movements across the country. 

The DSA IC wishes to raise awareness of the inappropriate sharing of US military and intelligence resources with the previous Guatemalan regime. We are concerned that these assets may be used to undermine the Arevalo  government and its progressive agenda. We also call on the U.S. government to acknowledge the role that it has played in destabilizing Guatemala and provide comprehensive reparations to the Guatemalan people for the harm that the 1954 coup and subsequent 36 years of US-funded genocidal armed conflict caused.

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Por una Segunda Primavera Guatemalteca

El DSA IC felicita a Bernardo Arévalo y al Movimiento Semilla por su contundente victoria con el 58% de los votos en la segunda vuelta presidencial de Guatemala el 20 de agosto. Nos solidarizamos con el pueblo guatemalteco que votó para poner fin al control de las élites y a la corrupción en el sistema político de Guatemala y generar un cambio sistémico. Apoyamos el llamado a una Segunda Primavera Guatemalteca para continuar el trabajo de la primera apertura democrática guatemalteca que fue trágicamente interrumpida por un golpe de estado patrocinado por el Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos en 1954.

El DSA IC también quisiera expresar su seria preocupación por la seguridad del presidente electo Arévalo y los continuos intentos del “Pacto de los Corruptos”de anular las elecciones. Condenamos la e decisión de la elite de Guatemala, derrotada electoralmente, de utilizar los cuatro meses previos a la transición presidencial en enero para liberar a oficiales militares acusados de crímenes de genocidio y a políticos acusados de corrupción mientras que arrestan y acosan a opositores políticos y amenazan a los pueblos indígenas, defensores de la tierra y movimientos sociales en todo el país.

El DSA IC desea crear conciencia sobre el intercambio inapropiado de recursos militares y de inteligencia estadounidenses con el anterior régimen guatemalteco. Nos preocupa que estos esos recursos puedan usarse para socavar al gobierno de Arévalo y su agenda progresista. También hacemos un llamado al gobierno de Estados Unidos para que reconozca el papel que ha desempeñado en la desestabilización de Guatemala y proporcione reparaciones integrales al pueblo guatemalteco por el daño que causaron en el golpe de 1954 y los 36 años posteriores de conflicto armado y genocida financiado por Estados Unidos.

The post For a Second Guatemalan Spring appeared first on DSA International Committee.

Join us for our monthly meeting and coffee hour! Non-members, both socialist and socialist-curious are encouraged to attend. Our first hour is dedicated to chapter business, with committee reports, updates, announcements, and other chapter news. Then at 5 pm we break for a more free flowing discussion or presentation.

This month, a representative from LEAN (Law Enforcement Accountability Network) will discuss an important case concerning racial justice in our city. Coffee and treats served!

This was an exhausting weekend. Super hot too. But we made tons of new community connections at the all day Saturday Pride Festival, and our button making station was a big hit. We had a good playlist that we blasted from our PA during the Sunday Pride Parade, and for Labor Day we narrowed it down to three solid labor songs.

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Sarah demonstrates our button making station. People could choose from our designs, or they could draw one of their own (popular with kids).

Last year, President Biden announced a plan to cancel $20,000 in student loan debt. This plan wound its way through the courts and was ultimately struck down by the undemocratic and rightwing-dominated Supreme Court. As of today, borrowers will once again be allowed to collect student loan payments, ending the pandemic-era debt relief for tens of millions of working class people across the country. 

Since 1980, the cost of going to a four-year college in the US has tripled. The total cost for a four-year college in 1980 – including all expenses – was a little over $10,000 in today’s money. Now, the average cost  is $36,436 per year. Many, many students take out significantly more loans than that to pay for cost-of-living expenses or to pursue graduate degrees.

Governmental support for higher education has also dwindled dramatically. In previous decades, working class families could rely on significant support via Pell Grants. Now, in order to attend a four-year college, families have to take out loans, starting their young adult life on the back foot by taking on tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Now, the average American carries $37,338 in student loan debt and more than 45 million people carry thousands of dollars in student loan debt. The burden of student loan debt is not held equally–Black college graduates owe, on average, $25,000 more than white college graduates. 

During the pandemic, student loan payments were paused, buying months of relief for working families and young people. Student loan payments could just stop, like turning off a light switch, and the economy didn’t fall apart. Instead, when the payments were stopped, a new world opened up for some sectors of the working class, one where each paycheck didn’t have to be a scramble.  

Jackie Wang in Carceral Capitalism put it this way:  “The hold that debt has over our lives is not merely numerical. It functions as a disciplinary apparatus as we internalize the ideology that naturalizes indebtedness.” As we prepare to dole out 10-15% of each paycheck only to watch the total amount that we owe get bigger due to high interest rates, we cannot help but feel it not only in our pocketbooks but also internally. We can end this nightmare, but only if we act collectively to fight back against this unjust system. 

As socialists, we demand better: We demand that all student debt – and medical debt, and carceral debt – be canceled and forgiven immediately. We demand  public education from pre-K to college that is truly free for all to attend. Join us in this fight. 

• Learn more about how we fight to abolish debt with this political education course from the Debt Collective! 
• Sign our petition to demand that President Biden cancel ALL student debt! 
• Join DSA and commit to Solidarity Dues to fund our fight for a democratic economy that works for all! 

The post Cancel All Student Debt appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

The good folks at Worx have put together a beginner swag shop for us. Worx is a union cooperative, and they offer print-on-demand custom branded swag, union printed with a bug. A beginner store is 3 items. We went for the t-shirt in both regular and femme cut, and the hoodie. They threw in a tote bag as well. Additional items will include a set-up fee, but the hosting is free. We make no profit from the swag, so it all goes to the workers. Click on the image to see the store.