The New York State budget is now 18 days late and while the media focuses on the horse trading going on between Governor Hochul and Senate and Assembly leadership behind closed doors in Albany, there are of course, as there always are, workers keeping everything running behind the scenes. 

Tonight we’re joined live by two of those legislative staffers, Astrid and John. We’ll talk to them about New York State Legislative Workers United - an effort to unionize and improve working conditions for legislative staffers across the state. 

You can follow New York State Legislative Workers United on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NYSLWU

A major housing bill is making its way through the Colorado legislature, SB23-213 – referred to as ‘land use’ – has driven much of the recent discussion over state housing policy. The bill, among other things, would enable greater housing density in municipalities around Colorado by compelling municipalities to change their land use regulations. In many cities, including Denver, it would effectively end single-family zoning and allow multiple units (currently up to 4) to be built on lots previously zoned for only one unit.

This legislation has much to like. Exclusionary and restrictive land use policy has made our housing and environmental crises worse, and it is important to use state power to break down this land use status quo. The rules to change occupancy limits are welcome, as are water audits, reforms to HOAs, and reduced parking requirements. We also recognize the importance of encouraging development patterns that are environmentally sustainable, promote housing density, and push cities away from suburban sprawl. We know that the status quo of single family zoning primarily serves to protect the interests of wealth and property values, not the interests of tenants. We do need more housing, and ultimately, housing for all. While this bill can inch us closer to housing for all, it is only one piece of a much larger puzzle.

Denver DSA’s support for SB23-213 is conditional. We demand that this land use bill passes together with two other critical housing bills: local control of rents (HB23-1115), which would enable municipalities in Colorado to enact rent control (aka local control of rents), and just cause eviction protections (HB23-1171). These bills are absolutely essential to defending tenants at a time of ever-increasing housing instability and exploitation from landlords. 

Through this legislative session, we have seen attention and support diverted away from these bills and towards land use, leading to a situation in which land use is upheld as a magic bullet for the state’s housing crisis. We reject this framing and demand that land use is passed together with local control of rents and just cause eviction protections. Otherwise, lawmakers are abandoning the immediate needs of tenants and instead opting for a legislative track that avoids direct confrontation with capital – namely the developer and landlord interests that wield substantial power over Colorado’s politics and that are invested in policy “solutions” to our housing crisis that prioritize their profits, not the needs of tenants. This imbalance of legislative attention, typical in prior sessions, is unsustainable in a context where renters are more cost burdened than ever while owners reap record profits. 

This legislation could very well be beneficial to our state in the long run. However, we have to temper our expectations for what it can achieve. We can’t rely on market-rate housing to solve our housing crisis. Moreover, the slogan of this bill, “More Housing Now” is misleading, as it will take many years, if not decades, for a significant amount of new housing to be built as a result of these policy changes to land use law. Without other major efforts to transform our housing system, including social housing, rent control, community land trusts, robust tenant protections, metro district reform, and tenant organizing — many tenants will continue to find themselves living in unstable, exploitative housing arrangements, and housing will continue to be financially out of reach for working people in our state. We are ultimately fighting for a transformation of our housing system to one in which enough housing is under democratic and community control to make housing a basic human right. It is imperative that we struggle for this transformation and build tenant power in all of our organizing and policy efforts. The land use bill does not, in any meaningful way, alleviate the necessity and urgency of this struggle. 

Land Use Reform is a good step, but its benefits are contingent on choices beyond the bill itself. 213 will not meaningfully address our housing crisis on its own, and must be implemented in conjunction with legislation that enables cities to pass rent control and just cause eviction protections, and must be amended to protect against displacement. Otherwise, we are continuing to neglect tenants and are missing an opportunity to bring about the fundamental changes that we so urgently need in our housing system.

Find a running list of resolutions and bylaw/constitutional amendments here.

If you’d like to support our delegates getting to Chicago, please donate here!

Congratulations to our elected delegates and alternate!

• Brian Escobar
• Amber Ruther
• Jermaine Covington
• Eric Cortes-Kopp (alternate)

Candidates (Alphabetical by Last Name):

Syracuse DSA Delegate Election Timeline (Updated May 30, 2023)

• May 21st: Nominations Period Closes
• June 2nd: Deadline to Confirm Candidacy
• June 3rd to June 5th: Election Period Open using Rank Choice Voting
• By June 6th: Announcement of Results

What is the DSA Convention?

The DSA Convention is the highest decision making body in DSA. Every two years, chapters and at-large members elect Delegates to vote on resolutions, make changes to DSA’s national bylaws and constitution, and set the vision for the work that DSA will be doing for the following two years.  

The 2023 Convention will run from the morning of Friday, August 4 through the early afternoon of Sunday August 6. Delegates must arrive on Thursday, because Friday will be a full day starting at 9 am.

Why discuss the Convention?

In order to participate in the democratic processes of our organization, it is imperative that chapter leaders communicate to members about the Convention, its role in our work, how to participate, and what will be voted on at the Convention.

Chapter leadership should include information about Convention in general meeting agendas and in chapter communications in the lead up to Convention. 

All members in good standing should be afforded the opportunity to run as delegates and give feedback on Convention proposals. 

What happens at Convention?

In order to participate in the democratic processes of our organization, it is imperative that chapter leaders communicate to members about the Convention, its role in our work, how to participate, and what will be voted on at the Convention.

Chapter leadership should include information about Convention in general meeting agendas and in chapter communications in the lead up to Convention. 

All members in good standing should be afforded the opportunity to run as delegates and give feedback on Convention proposals. 

Who attends the Convention?

Delegates are elected to attend the convention. Most Delegates are elected by their chapter’s membership. Others are elected by the at-large membership to represent members who are not currently in a chapter. 

Chapters will also elect alternates in case their Delegates cannot make the Convention. Alternates have the opportunity to attend Convention, but they do not vote unless they are filling in for a Delegate from their chapter. 

For more detailed information on delegates here.

The post 2023 National Convention – Important Information appeared first on Syracuse DSA.

As workers, tenants, and families settled down in the late hours of Thursday April 13th, after a long day of our labor being used to keep Florida running, Governor DeSantis signed a wholly unpopular bill into law that aims to escalate the unwanted exclusion of Floridians from access to abortions. This action has been decades in the making. As money from the evangelical elite poured into the Republican Party, and as the Democratic Party stood idly by on the sidelines while focusing their hate towards us as democratic socialists, the State of Florida has intensified its attacks against a person’s right to basic healthcare.

We are continuing our struggle as a chapter to force local policymakers and law enforcement to decriminalize abortion and protect citizens in the Tampa Bay Area from some of the most draconian laws in the country. We need to mobilize to apply pressure on these forces with popular public will. Join us to fight back.

SIGN THIS PETITION AND SIGN UP FOR DSA MEMBERSHIP

The post Tampa DSA’s Statement on the 6 Week Abortion Ban appeared first on Tampa DSA.

The Tampa chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has voted in favor of signing onto a resolution from the National DSA International Committee in support of Cuba. The resolution, among other things, insists that the obscene, deadly blockade of Cuba be lifted so that people on the island can have the same access to food, medical supplies, and other essential goods the United States cut off from the Cuban people. Read the resolution by the IC, below.

DSA International Committee: Chapter Call to Action

ince 1959, the United States has restricted trade, travel, remissions, and even the foreign relations of Cuba. Although opponents of U.S. imperialism refer to this hostile orientation as el bloqueo, or the blockade, the US restrictions are actually a patchwork of congressional acts and executive orders initiated during the Eisenhower administration and expanded by virtually every administration since. Despite a temporary thaw in relations during the Obama administration, Donald Trump reversed all progress and imposed even harsher restrictions on Cuba’s economy. Make no mistake: the blockade of Cuba is a multi-generational economic war. 

Today, the US blockade on Cuba touches every facet of the lives of the Cuban people. The threat of secondary US sanctions prevents international businesses and financial institutions from doing business with Cuba, cutting off not only credit and investment, but also crucial industrial and manufacturing equipment. The blockade prevents Cuba from purchasing life-saving medical equipment and basic goods, and even prevents Cubans in the US from sending remittances to family members. As a result of Trump’s escalation during the global pandemic, Cuba has been hindered in its plans to produce and share its locally-developed vaccines with the world. President Biden has failed to deliver on campaign promises to return to Obama’s Cuba policy and has instead continued the Trump policy of collective punishment.

At the 2019 convention, DSA adopted a resolution to support Cuba Solidarity work and to join the National Network on Cuba, of which we are a proud member today. In 2021 we further adopted a commitment in the DSA Political Platform to push for normalizing relations with Cuba and lifting sanctions. Our position has been to unite a broad front to oppose the blockade and to fight locally and nationally to dismantle its key components including the sanctions, travel ban, and the baseless designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terror. Learn more about DSA’s fight against the blockade: https://international.dsausa.org/cuba-solidarity/ 

Now is the time for DSA and YDSA chapters across the country to get involved with this vital work to end the blockade! The Cuba Solidarity Working Group, working through the IC Americas Subcommittee, is calling on local DSA and YDSA chapters to commit to fighting to end the US Blockade on Cuba by supporting the following goals:

• Our chapter will select a liaison to contribute to national Cuba organizing and coordinate the sharing of information, resources, and calls to action back with our chapter. 

• Our chapter will promote and sign on to coordinated national statements and campaigns with other DSA chapters and partner organizations that seek to dismantle key elements of the blockade, including congressional pressure campaigns. 

• Our chapter will seek to support local, municipal, and state government resolutions for Cuba normalization.

• Our chapter will participate in national political education events about the blockade and seek to organize events for members locally.

• Our chapter will share and promote opportunities for members to travel to Cuba on trips coordinated by DSA and partner organizations.

DSA and YDSA chapter leaders, please fill out the form below to sign your chapter up to participate:

https://dsaic.org/cuba-join

The post Tampa DSA Signs Resolution to End Cuba Blockade appeared first on Tampa DSA.

The Troy City Council will soon be considering adopting a new zoning code, the laws that shape how Troy is developed in the future. The zoning code is the set of rules that developers must abide by, and the zoning code is, arguably, the strongest way the community can influence what their community looks like, feels like, and how it physically works.

The new zoning code, as proposed, is a huge step in the right direction for working people over the current code. It takes large steps to increase the ability of low-income people and people of color by lowering barriers to opening businesses that meet the needs of their communities and adding affordable housing options in wealthier parts of the city, among other things.

However, the zoning falls short of many of the laudable goals and metrics it sets for itself by retaining single-family exclusive districts and low intensity development. We believe that the council should remove single-family exclusive districts and the lowest intensity zone (labeled as Neighborhood I) because this type of development:

• Limits equity and housing affordability: single-family exclusive zoning is historically racist and classist, and was used to keep black families from moving to white neighborhoods. Allowing multi-family units alongside single-family ones can improve opportunity for affordable housing and diversity of both race and income levels in our community .(https://www.planning.org/blog/9228712/grappling-with-the-racist-legacy-of-zoning/)
• Damages environmental sustainability: the proposed code does encourage more environmentally sustainable development in parts of the city (mostly concentrated near the Hudson and South of Lansingburgh), but allowing low intensity and single use development areas still causes environmental harm. Additional vehicle trips and related pollution, energy inefficient buildings, and more inflict harm on all of us, whether we live in these typically more wealthy areas or not. (https://gppreview.com/2019/11/05/green-houses-greenhouse-gases-exclusionary-zoning-climate-catastrophe/) 
• Causes traffic deaths and injuries: the code has a number of provisions to encourage the improvement of the safety of people walking, biking, or rolling. However, it does not strike at the root cause of most traffic violence: the necessity to drive for nearly every trip created by low intensity and exclusively single-family development. The more vehicles on our streets and trips taken, the more traffic deaths and injuries we see. Reducing this type of development will save lives. (https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.93.9.1541)
• Creates fiscal imbalance and inequality: more compact development improves the city’s financial resilience by collecting more tax revenues per acre, and allowing us to build and maintain cheaper infrastructure and services per capita. By keeping single-family exclusive and low intensity zones, the more dense, typically lower-income neighborhoods will continue to subsidize the lower-density, typically wealthier areas in the city’s budget, increasing the cost of living for renters and encouraging displacement. (https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/5/14/americas-growth-ponzi-scheme-md2020)

An additional issue is that while the proposed code encourages more mixed use development in more of the city – which increases the quality of life (convenient to grab something from the corner store) and reduces pollution (no need for a vehicle trip) – the code then undercuts this effort by including a buffer around convenience stores so that two stores can’t be across the street (or even down the block) from each other. This means that if the store closest to you doesn’t have the item you need, you may end up walking quite far, which encourages people to simply drive to the store. It also has the effect of granting those store owners who may not be great neighbors something of a local monopoly – making it impossible for competition to offer an alternative. 

Given the social, environmental, health, and fiscal cost of single-family exclusive and low intensity development, it is incumbent on the council to remove this kind of zoning from Troy’s zoning code. The cost of inaction – and half measures – are real and born by the most vulnerable of us. We, the undersigned, call for the Troy City Council to remove the exclusionary and harmful single-family exclusive use districts and the lowest density zones, as well as the convenience store buffer from the proposed code.

Stephen Maples

Mark Speedy

Renee Rhodes

Chel Miller

Anthony Olivares

Peyton Whitney

Dan Phiffer

Dylan Rees

Dara S.

David Banks

Line Kristine Henriksen

Ethan Warren

Rafael varela

Xan Plymale

Kristoph DiMaria

Caroline Nagy

Jack Letourneau

Rindle Glick

Rhea Drysdale

Daniel Graham

Marie H.

Zachary Guthrie

Tonight, RPM goes global. Strikes and protests have rocked the country of France in response to President Macron’s reform of the social pension system, lifting the country’s retirement age and robbing millions of their retirement. We will hear from Emre, an activist based in Paris with La France Insoumise, about these strikes & protests, and what the Left can do to fight Macron and the far-Right. Plus, we speak to Maia and Erl from NYC-DSA’s Healthcare Working Group on the ongoing organizing to bring universal healthcare to the United States - starting right here in New York. Learn more and RSVP for the April 15 bike ride and rally for the New York Health Act: https://www.mobilize.us/ourrevolution/event/552943/. 

In this interview with Dr. Wideline Seraphin, we discuss the decolonizing power of Haitian spirituality and the unique literacies of a group of Haitian transnational girls, discovering the necessity of including the whole self – mental, emotional, physical, social, & spiritual – in the work for liberation. Dr. Wideline Seraphin is Assistant Professor of Literacy Studies at UTA. Her research centers on the literate lives of Black immigrant girls, critical media literacy, and teacher education.

Tucson DSA April General Meeting We're meeting this Wednesday, April 5th from 6:30-8PM on Zoom.  Come and learn what the chapter is up to. Political education, trash pick-up, free transit in Tucson, and more. Check out our discord server!  The registration link for the zoom meeting.  See you there comrades!  Jeanne L.  Tucson DSA Co-Chair  Copyright © 2023 DSA Tucson, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Syracuse DSA endorsed Maurice (Mo) Brown for County Legislature District 15 at our General Meeting on April 16th, 2023. Mo is a DSA member and former Steering Committee member.

Mo’s commitment to affordable housing, public transit, #PublicPower, and Leader Freedom will put people before profit and bring a democratic socialist voice to the Legislature.

To learn more about Mo and his vision for Onondoga County, visit his website.

Syracuse needs new blood in the County Legislature. People who won’t put Aquariums before Lead Freedom.

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The post 2023 Endorsement Alert: Maurice Brown for County Legislature appeared first on Syracuse DSA.