Where we left off

Five years ago I was at the counterprotests to Unite the Right, the fascist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, that culminated in a car attack that killed Heather Heyer and wounded many others, some quite seriously. I wrote about this for the PEWG Blog four years ago. I don’t need to rehash all the same things here, but I do want to reflect on the five years since.

I wrote that post from four years ago in part to promote the antifascist action that was coming up on August 18, 2018, and the educational panel ahead of it. As the post itself mentions, I was a speaker on that panel: Boston DSA’s speaker. It was a strange experience. I was used to protecting myself by being unnoticed. Being a speaker effectively made me a sort of VIP, one of the people that the security team – headed up by a dear friend and comrade who had been punched and stabbed at an antifascist action two weeks earlier – was there to safeguard. Some fascists did indeed show up and try to get in, albeit for apparent reconnaissance purposes more than mayhem. I didn’t know about it until the panel was over, because the security team did a great job. One guy that we’d never seen before did get in and record audio, but he wasn’t able to take video because, by his own admission, he knew that the security team would notice and bounce him.

The past and the present

On August 9 of last year, I was in Nashua, NH, hanging around outside a school board meeting with a handful of other people, including three other Boston DSA comrades. We were there in case fascists tried to crash or intimidate it. More than an hour into the meeting, the Nationalist Social Club (NSC-131) marched in, identically dressed and chanting in a group. The subset of people there who were active antifascist activists, including the four of us from Boston DSA, got in front of them. They came in shoving, grabbing one guy by the collar. We were able to arc their march to the other side of the street, so that our whole group was between them and the building. As we faced each other from across the street, one of their chants – presumably in recognition of it being two days before the anniversary of the A11 torchlight march – was “Jews will not replace us.” This was all pretty jarring for me, a direct reminder of being afraid that I would be dragged into a torch-wielding mob and mauled or killed. It brough up that same feeling of needing to be innocuous. But however unpleasant a walk down memory lane that was, it was still a memory rather than a repeat. I’ve put in a lot of work to prevent a repeat.

When I say that I’ve put in a lot of work to prevent a repeat, I mean some weeks where I spent 40+ hours doing antifascism (on top of my normal job). I mean time behind the scenes, time spent doing outreach and education, time spent in the streets. I mean getting in between our people and a guy swinging a hammer. I mean taking injuries and pepper-sprayings from both cops and fascists.

Which makes it all the more demeaning when people exclaim “Why isn’t anyone doing anything?” in response to a 4^th of July weekend march by Patriot Front (see an actual antifascist comrade’s statement on that), or in response to rallies from NSC. It also makes it all the more demeaning when people imply that commitment to antifascism is measured by whether you talk tough online or in street propaganda, whether you put “punch all the nazis” in your Twitter display name, or whether you have the right aesthetic. Or when people imply that because I don’t dress in black, that I owe a non-mutual gratitude toward those who do, or that my antifascist work is inherently lesser than theirs. Or that you need to be able to win a fight – something that’s always going to be unlikely for me for disability-related reasons – in order to properly be an antifascist.

NSC has gotten a lot of attention lately, in Boston and nationally, after they protested a Drag Queen Story Hour in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood, and their founder and leader Chris Hood was arrested for attacking a counterprotester. They recently protested another Drag Queen Story Hour in the Seaport as well. A lot of people seem to think NSC is a new player (they aren’t – they started as the New England Nationalist Club in 2019 and have been active monthly for nearly a year and a half) and indicative of things “getting worse” in the Boston area vis-à-vis the far right. The transphobic threat aimed at drag queens has escalated over the last several years alongside a far-right obsession with hunting “pedophiles.” We badly need to develop effective means to address that threat as escalation manifests locally. But in a more general sense of how the Boston area is faring in the face of fascism, the alarmism is wrong on more than one level. I remember what Chris Hood was doing in early 2018. He was building the Boston-area chapter of a different neo-Nazi group, Patriot Front (which he founded). He was part of an alliance that included Proud Boys, militias, American Guard, and a future 1/6 Capitol Riots arrestee who helped beat up counterprotesters in Portland later that year. That alliance was aiming to be an East Coast version of the ones centered around Patriot Prayer that caused so much damage to so many people in Portland (if you look closely at the ThinkProgress article, you can see that infamous Portland-area goon Tiny Toese was in its chat). Its goals never came to fruition.

A theory interlude

I see a lot of confusion and debate about what antifascism is and what its role in the left is. Whether it needs to take on a wider range of evils in order to be justified. My position is that antifascism is reproductive labor for liberatory movements that the far-right would attack and disrupt, and for the multiracial, multiethnic, multigender working class to which it would lay waste. It’s the shield to the sword, and it’s okay that it’s not the sword. Antifascism is also unusual (though not unique) in our organizing, in that it pits organizer vs organizer, rather than organizer vs existing system. That necessitates different, if overlapping, strategies and tactics, compared to what’s needed to take on the status quo. That’s okay too – it’s part of being “the shield.” I sometimes see people devalue antifascism precisely because they see far-right organizers as small potatoes. But as organizers ourselves, who believe in the power of organizing to literally remake society, we of all people should understand why far-right organizing, in all of its ideological and strategic tendencies, is dangerous. Fighting it is a specific, highly detailed task, and it needs no larger justification.

Another misconception that I see frequently about antifascism is this idea that if enough people in a community just mobilize and say they don’t want fascists in their community, the fascists will go away. A radical version of this is the idea that if you go hard enough against one fascists rally, really shut it down, they’ll never come back. I suspect that many of my readers are leftist organizers. Would you stop organizing because a bunch of people expressed opposition to you one time? Would you leave a city that you had goals for, and never come back, or abandon a campaign that resonates with the people you’re trying to organize, because your opposition shut down a single rally? This is not to say that there’s no value in individual mobilizations (a sustained effort, after all, is made up in part of individual mobilizations). But to successfully undermine, disrupt, and even eventually break fascist organizing, antifascism requires sustained, multi-pronged work. Sometimes daily work.

It requires understanding the far right, too, in its many ideological and strategic forms. How do you analyze, prioritize, predict trends, when you don’t understand what you’re fighting? No more “we don’t need to know anything about our enemies or what they think” nonsense dressed up as antiracism. No more trying to fit every far-right group into the mold of either the Klan or the National Socialist Movement, or pretending for the sake of 101-level online talking points that all far-right groups have the exact same orientation (either pro or anti) toward the state and/or police. And I am begging everyone to please read about the multiracial far right, its dynamics and its gender politics, and then to stop pretending that everyone on the far right has the same primary motivating chauvinism. Or worse, that queerphobic and transphobic groups are merely using queerphobia and transphobia as a cover for their true evil, white supremacism, as though viciously reactionary gender politics were not also far-right ideology.

Onward, redux

Reading through this reflection, it feels a bit like a litany of complaints. But I mean to end on a hopeful note. There’s no happily ever after, and the last few years have unfortunately brought a lot of new people into the far right. But I’ve seen new people join the work to fight the far right, become organizers, build their skills, and do a great job. I’ve seen people do things they never believed that they would be able to do. And I’ve seen the impacts of that – the crumbling of fascist organizations, coalitions, and actions, the gradually-increasing public awareness, the interest and involvement from people I never would have expected to join in antifascist work. In 2018, we contained fascists who tried to disrupt a trans youth rally and pro-immigrant rallies. This year I’ve seen both those events happen without incident. In 2017, I saw a torchlight march end in a brutal attack, saw hours of street brutality, saw Heather Heyer die and a lot of other people get badly hurt. Now, many of the fascist groups that participated in those events, and even the ones that rose in their wake, have declined or disappeared thanks to the hard work of antifascists.

If there’s any message that I’m trying to convey here, it’s that that this work matters, and that people can learn to do it. You don’t have to be some kind of stereotypical badass (I’m not!). You just need to be willing to put in the work, to think through what you’re doing and why, to learn and develop and reflect. To quote the comrade whose statement on the 4^th of July Patriot Front march I linked to above: “Our work is amplified when we work together, and to do that takes the sort of trust built only by shared struggle and shared vision of a better future. I have spent many years working with Boston DSA. Here, and in other organizations, is where you can find the people you can work with to make a difference.”

Donate to the fund for survivors in Charlottesville who still have ongoing medical and psychological needs.

With the Supreme Court throwing out 50 years of legal precedence and overturning Roe v. Wade, the U.S. abortion rights movement is taking to the streets and becoming increasingly visible to protest this attack on our fundamental human rights.

During this time of heightened focus on abortion rights, you may see people wearing green at rallies and protests around the country — especially green bandanas or handkerchiefs. The connection between the color green and abortion rights started with the Marea Verde, or “green wave,” movement, which has spent decades fighting for the decriminalization of abortion in Latin American countries. While the U.S. is moving backwards in terms of abortion rights, Latin American abortion rights organizers have been seeing a wave of wins across the region, and the Marea Verde movement should be an inspiration to organizers in the U.S.

The Marea Verde movement traces its roots back to Colombia. In 2006, Women’s Link Worldwide filed a petition with the Colombian courts arguing that it was unconstitutional to consider abortion a crime under any circumstances. In a historic ruling, abortion was decriminalized in certain cases, including the health of the pregnant person, cases of rape, or unviable fetuses. This petition set off almost twenty years of abortion rights organizing across the region.

The association with the color green started in Argentina, inspired by the white handkerchief of the 1970s movement Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which had protested the abduction and murder of children under the dictatorship at the time. In 2018, when Argentinian feminists took to the streets for abortion rights, many wore green handkerchiefs, or “pañuelo verde”,  as a nod to the Mothers of the Plazo de Mayo. The green handkerchiefs quickly spread through Latin America as a symbol of the abortion rights movement.

Though the region still has draconian abortion restrictions in countries such as  El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Honduras, there have been a series of monumental wins bolstered by the Marea Verde. In the last two years, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia — the three most populous countries in Latin America — have all decriminalized or legalized abortion.

Argentinian lawmakers passed a law in 2020 allowing abortion up to 14 weeks; in 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion; and in February 2022, the Colombian Constitutional Court issued a landmark ruling decriminalizing abortion on all grounds up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. In Chile, feminists have been at the center of mass protests and social upheaval that lead to a constitutional convention. In September 2022, Chileans will vote on a new constitution that includes the right to abortion.

The movement’s success is due to a variety of factors. Organizers focused on destigmatizing abortion and forcing conversations about abortion in the mainstream. A combination of legal challenges, mass protests, and public campaigns to change opinions was crucial. Though in the U.S., the language of choice and right to privacy is frequently used as arguments in favor of abortion rights, the Marea Verde organizers focused, instead, on abortion as an essential human right, and worked to highlight the connections between restrictions on abortion to all sorts of intersectionalities, including: sexuality, race, and class — linking their fight to a larger social justice movement that pushes back against all forms of oppression.

While abortion was legally protected in the U.S. by Roe v. Wade before it was overturned, issues of access have often been ignored, making abortion a “right” only on paper for poor people and people in marginalized communities. Latin American organizers demanded that abortion was not only legal and safe, but free as well, recognizing that poor people cannot be left out of this fundamental right. They also demanded inclusion for trans and non-binary people, acknowledging that not only women need abortion care, as is often ignored in the U.S..

If you wear green to an abortion rights protest, remember the legacy and ongoing fight of the Marea Verde in Latin America. By wearing green, we are connecting ourselves to an international movement greater than the U.S. With that in mind, it is important that we also commit ourselves to fighting for our Latinx comrades both abroad and at home, by opposing anti-immigration policies, fighting against the separation of families at the border, and opposing U.S. imperialism which exploits and oppresses our comrades across the world.

We must be united in the international struggle for the liberation of all people.

Tampa DSA’s Abortion Rights City Council Resolution

Update: Motion to vote on language submitted by Councilmember Hurtak, Councilmembers Maniscalco and Gudes motion to postpone until 08/18/2022 at 5:00 PM. Maniscalco-Gudes motion carries 4-1, Hurtak votes no.

WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Tampa honors the rights of pregnant people to bodily autonomy and control over their private medical decisions; and

WHEREAS, access to safe and legal abortion is a deciding factor in long-term health, safety, and quality of life; and

WHEREAS, the Supreme Court of the United States hasoverturned the 1973 landmark ruling, Roe v. Wade, which previously prevented individual states from directly banning such care; and

WHEREAS, on April 14, 2022, Florida Governor Ron Desantis signed into law HB 5, which effective July 1st, criminalizes access to abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy; and

WHEREAS, Article I Section 23 of Florida’s State constitution guarantees all Floridians a Right of Privacy, a right that the Florida Supreme Court, in In re T.W., 551 So. 2d 1186 (Fla. 1989) ruled also extends to protecting the right to abortion. Article I Section 23 states, “Every natural person has the right to be left alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life…:”;

WHEREAS, anti-abortion clinics, commonly known as “crisis pregnancy centers” or “pregnancy resource centers”, use deceptive tactics and propaganda to dissuade people from seeking abortion services. These anti-abortion clinics don’t provide abortions, don’t offer a full range of reproductive healthcare, and are explicitly opposed to legal abortion;

WHEREAS, people have a basic human right to medical treatment, up to and including abortion; and

WHEREAS, eliminating legal access to abortion has been empirically proven to dramatically increase the risk of death, bodily injury, and infertility, especially within low-income communities and communities of color; and

WHEREAS, the resources of the City of Tampa must always be dedicated to the health and well-being of its residents; and

WHEREAS, the City Council has demonstrated its commitment to abortion access in Resolution No. 2019-837, wherein the City Council supported the Federal Medicare for All Act of 2019 which includes “reproductive care;” and

WHEREAS, the right to privacy should protect doctors, patients, and all others providing abortion-related medical care from any criminal investigation related to decisions made within the healthcare provider-patient relationship so long as those decisions occur without coercion, force, or negligence; and

WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Tampa has a responsibility to protect its residents from any violation of their human rights and any criminalization of the free exercise thereof;

NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF TAMPA, FLORIDA:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa formally condemns any action intended to abrogate the fundamental liberties of its people and affirms its commitment to protecting the right of its residents to make reproductive health decisions, including abortion care, for themselves.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa will not approve the appropriation of funds for any action or activity that would abrogate or criminalize the rights of its residents to make reproductive health decisions, including abortion, for themselves. This further includes but is not limited to;

● Storing or cataloging any report of an abortion, miscarriage, or other reproductive healthcare act;

● Providing information to any other governmental body or agency about any abortion, miscarriage, or other reproductive healthcare act, unless such information is provided to defend the patient’s right to abortion care or the healthcare provider’s right to provide that care; or

● Conducting surveillance or collecting information related to an individual or organization for the purpose of determining whether an abortion has occurred, except for aggregated data without personally identifying information.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

The policy stated above does not apply in cases where coercion or force is used against the pregnant person, or in cases involving conduct criminally negligent to the health of the pregnant person seeking care.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa will not approve the appropriation of funds for any organization or entity operating a “crisis pregnancy center” or “pregnancy resource center” that is established with the explicit purpose of opposing legal abortion and dissuading pregnant people from seeking abortion services;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa’s approved appropriation of funds will reflect that the investigation or support for the prosecution of any allegation, charge, or information relating to any individual who seeks, provides, or supports abortion and abortion-related care will be the lowest priority for enforcement and the use of City resources and personnel.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That all proper officials of the City of Tampa are authorized to do all things necessary and proper in order to carry out and make effective the provisions of this Resolution.

The post Tampa DSA’s Abortion Rights City Council Resolution appeared first on Tampa DSA.

Tonight we're joined live by the NewsGuild of New York's Chris Brooks and Stephanie Basile, two labor organizers on the front lines of some of today’s most exciting worker-led campaigns. We’ll be discussing trends in labor organizing, as seen in groundbreaking victories from workers at Amazon, Starbucks, Apple Stores, Trader Joe’s, and many more. What in labor history can help us understand this current moment, and how do we keep up the momentum?

 

Want to learn more about worker-led momentum organizing? Read Chris Brooks in In These Times: https://inthesetimes.com/article/amazon-starbucks-workers-organizing-unions-momentum-movement-moment

TAMPA, FL — 

The Tampa chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has developed a list of demands in response to the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. This decision is an affront to bodily autonomy and democracy, and poses a mortal threat to the health and wellbeing of the working class. These demands are aimed at our elected officials and community members in positions of power, and we have called on members of the community to sign on to a petition for these demands. At the time of this press release, 208 local community members and organizations have signed on in support. 

Tampa DSA demands that:

• The City of Tampa refuse to enforce laws criminalizing abortion
• Mayor Jane Castor refuse to enforce laws criminalizing abortion
• Chief of Police Mary O’Connor instruct the Tampa Police Department to refuse to act against offenders of any laws criminalizing abortion
• State Attorney Andrew Warren uphold his statement pledging to abstain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abortions
• Hillsborough County Sherrif, Chad Chronister, refuse to monitor or take action against offenders of any laws criminalizing abortion
• Various local institutions of power refuse to report any signs of miscarriage or self-managed abortion to the authorities, including public schools and healthcare institutions (Tampa General Hospital, USF Health, Advent Health, etc.)

“Many people in positions of power have come forward in opposition to stripping away reproductive rights, but they say very little about what they plan to do about it. Our mayor, city council, CEOs of hospital systems and clinics – they do have power and there are paths available to them to help protect our right to abortion despite this ruling. The question is: do they care enough about us to take a real stand and act?” – Alec J., member of Tampa DSA.
“Poor and working class people have long been criminalized by the local Tampa government,” said Sam M., member of Tampa DSA. “We cannot stand idly by and watch our communities face further persecution. We must demand that our local officials take action.”

The post TDSA Abortion Rights Press Release appeared first on Tampa DSA.

From New York to Los Angeles and everywhere in between socialists have been winning in local, state, and federal elections. Daniel and Mike from the National Electoral Committee join us to discuss recent victories, upcoming campaigns, and the challenges faced by the ascendent socialist movement in the years to come.

Last Wednesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted to uphold the “Heartbeat” bill, signed into law by Brian Kemp in 2019, which effectively bans abortions after 6 weeks in Georgia. Atlanta DSA condemns this undemocratic, abhorrent assault on the right to healthcare and bodily autonomy for working-class people across the state.

The court’s enforcement of this 6-week ban represents a larger authoritarian campaign waged by a tiny right-wing minority against the American people, who overwhelmingly oppose abortion bans. We must demand that the US government take action to defend abortion rights for all, in addition to the right to universal healthcare, paid parental leave, living wages, childcare, college and more.

While this decision is horrific, working people have the power to win back our rights by getting organized! For this reason, we have worked alongside our progressive allies to resist the Supreme Court’s decision since its initial leak. We are mobilizing for pro-abortion protests, hosting workshops and trainings, and building public support for establishing a $300,000 city abortion fund in Atlanta to ensure that all who need abortion care can get it.

In order to win abortion rights for all people we must fight back against the extremist right wing and the capitalist class that supports them. Not only should we fight for bodily autonomy, but we must fight for a world where working-class people have real democratic power to shape policy and society around the needs of the many, not the few. Join us in the struggle for abortion rights and a democratic socialist society. We stand for free abortion on demand without apology, nothing less.

Fight back for abortion rights:

• Donate to ARC Southeast and Feminist Women’s Health Center.
• Sign on to demand Atlanta City Council create a $300,000 abortion fund and speak at a City Council meeting.
• Sign up to canvass for a city abortion fund this Saturday in Cabbagetown.
• Join DSA and organize with us!

For Immediate Release

Media Contact: 

Marina Roberts, mkelseyroberts@gmail.com, 228.238.5854

Austin DSA: Website — Twitter — Facebook — Instagram

San Marcos DSA:  Facebook — Twitter 

San Antonio DSA: Website — Twitter — Facebook — Instagram

AUSTIN, TX -- The Austin, San Antonio, and San Marcos chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America join forces this month around an Organized Labor for Reproductive Justice Rally and Resource Fair. The event will be held at the Federal Courthouse (501 W 5th St) in Austin, TX on Sunday, July 31st from 6:30-8:15 pm. 

This event will bring together labor unions, organizing workers, abortion funds, reproductive justice organizations, and community groups to rally around the demand for abortion rights. Information and resources about accessing abortion safely in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade will be shared. The Resource Fair will offer information about joining and organizing unions to build economic and political power among working people. The growing list of groups participating includes Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), United Workers of Integral Care, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) 520, Texas State Employees Union (TSEU), Restaurant Workers United (RWU), Tiff’s Treats organizers, UNITEHERE Local 23, Workers Defense Project, Austin Justice Coalition (AJC), and Sunrise Movement ATX. More will join in the coming days, watch the event page for updates.  

“The GOP, the political elites of Texas, and the Democratic Party are failing the working class,” said Austin DSA organizer Crystal Maher. “As the GOP criminalizes abortion, Texas already has the highest repeat teen pregnancy rate, among the highest maternal mortality rates, highest percentage of uninsured children of any state, soaring housing costs, and a serious childcare shortage. Working families here are struggling. The Democrats have offered no political solutions to any of this, only pandering. One minute Nancy Pelosi sends frantic emails to workers begging for their hard-earned money to defend abortion rights. The next minute, she travels to Texas to campaign for the lone anti-choice Democrat in the House, Henry Cuellar. Working people deserve solidarity and protection, not this hypocrisy.” 

“The dissolution of Roe v. Wade poses a problem that won’t be resolved by politicians alone,” said San Antonio DSA Co-Chair, Lexy Garcia.  “A majority of people in this country already support the right to abortion. What we need is an organized working class that can demand and win abortion rights for everyone. When workers claim our power through unions and organizing, we also claim power over the decisions that affect our lives. We do not have to be ruled by undemocratic, classist institutions like the Supreme Court.”

“A better world is possible when working class people have a voice and real political power through unions,” said San Marcos DSA organizer, Eden Ewing. “Many folks feel strongly about abortion rights, but don’t know how to fight back. Organizing offers us a way to do that. If workers join unions and organize in our communities, we can win abortion rights, free universal childcare, Medicare For All, environmental justice and more. Free abortion on demand no matter where you live is our goal, and we will not stop until the poorest among us can access abortion as freely as the rich.” 

Water will be distributed at the event, which will be held as planned pending extreme temperatures during the scheduled time.

###

Earlier this week, a video showed Clark County District Court Judge Erika Ballou presiding over a case and speaking with a defendant. In the video, Judge Ballou told the defendant:

“You’re a Black man in America. You know you don’t want to be nowhere where cops are… cause I know I don’t, and I’m a middle-aged, middle-class Black woman. I don’t want to be around where the cops are because I don’t know if I’m going to walk away alive or not…[Y]ou should have walked away instead of staying. You needed to walk away because you knew you were on probation, you knew.” Judge Ballou then revoked the defendant’s probation due to a violation.

What we see here is Judge Ballou describing her experience as a Black woman while still upholding her duty as a judge.

Nonetheless, the Las Vegas Police Protective Association (LVPPA) quickly lived up to its name and worked to shield law enforcement from any forms of criticism, going so far as to call for Judge Ballou’s resignation. They were followed by a statement from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) Sheriff and gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo.

This is because Lombardo and LVPPA know the facts: 

• Black people are 2.6x more likely to be arrested by LVMPD than a white person
• Black people make up 29% of the incarcerated population, despite only being 8% of the state’s population
• Black people were the subject of 43% of LVMPD’s non-deadly-use-of-force incidents and 50% of LVMPD’s officer-involved-shootings in 2021
• Las Vegas and surrounding areas are significantly overpoliced compared to cities of a similar population, and mostly arrest for low-level (not serious) offenses
• Earlier this year, LVMPD killed a young Black man in the middle of the night while implementing a “no-knock” warrant which the victim was not associated with

This is not the first time that LVPPA has attacked Judge Ballou. In 2016, the police union’s executive director wrote a statement to object to Ballou, then a defense attorney, for wearing a Black Lives Matter pin, calling it “propaganda”.

LVPPA, LVMPD, and Joe Lombardo deflect from their own egregious, racist failures because they value protecting police from criticism more than they value preserving Black lives and the dignity and well-being of Black people.

We call on community leaders and elected officials to defend Judge Ballou’s statements, and condemn Joe Lombardo and the LVPPA for their continued attacks against a fair, honest judge elected to represent and serve her community. Their attempts to invalidate the experiences of Black people, especially as it relates to law enforcement, must be denounced.

We invite all to join us in our fight to dismantle the prison-industrial complex, defund and demilitarize police, and replace them with systems that actually keep people safe so that one day we can all live without fear of police.

Tonight we’re joined live by Michaelangelo Pomarico, an organizer with Mid Hudson Valley DSA and the Public Power New York Coalition who has devoted a lot of time over the last several months organizing to elect Sarahana Shrestha, a DSA endorsed candidate for the New York Assembly. Michaelaneglo will share how Sarahana’s insurgent campaign in the Hudson Valley succeeded to unseat longtime incumbent  Kevin Cahill last month in the Democratic primary and what comes next for their DSA chapter. 

We also talk with Socialist Councilmembers Alexa Aviles and Tiffany Caban about their first six months on the New York City Council and we’ll hear in their own words why they, along with four other council members, were the only members to vote NO on the City Budget that was pushed through in a late night vote by the Council Speaker and later signed by Mayor Adams earlier this month.   

To learn more about Mid-Hudson Valley DSA follow them on twitter @MHVDSA  and visit www.mhvdsa.org 

To learn more about Sarahana Shrestha follow her on twitter @sarahana and www.sarahanaforassembly.com/