On June 22, the name India Walton skyrocketed into the mainstream after the DSA-endorsed candidate won the democratic primary for the Mayor of Buffalo. Walton was endorsed by Buffalo DSA and National DSA, as well as the DSA slate in Albany. When elected in November she will be the first socialist Mayor of a large city since 1960, but she joins a number of socialist, like Pennsylvania Representative Summer Lee, who are winning elections in the rust belt. Today we'll be joined by Steven Jackson from Buffalo DSA to talk about India Walton’s incredible victory and the rise of socialism in the rust belt.

 

Follow Buffalo DSA on Twitter at @BuffaloDSA  and on Instagram and Facebook

 

Visit www.IndiaWalton.com to support India's campaign

 

Join the Gas Bill Strike against National Grid's North Brooklyn Pipeline at www.nonbkpipeline.org/strike

 

 

In the words of civil rights giant Ella Baker, “Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens.”

 

As the summer of 2021 continues to heat up, reactionaries and conservatives are escalating their assault on our struggle for multi-racial working-class liberation -- but socialists are continuing to fight back and rack up gains. On tonight’s show, we’ll speak to members of Suffolk County DSA about the recent election of DSA member Colin Palmer to the Riverhead Central District school board and how school boards are a crucial front for community control and democracy. We’ll also hear from the DSA’s new National Antifascist Working Group which is working to connect anti-fascists and anti-racists across the country.

 

RSVP for the AFWG introduction call on July 11 here: https://dsausa.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uOOnljlAR0mn7UzUHlv83Q. Follow the working group on Twitter at @DSAAntifascist or subscribe to their mailing list: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/national-dsa-antifascist-working-group-mailing-list-registration

 

Follow along with Suffolk DSA’s efforts to organize for socialism in the suburbs on Twitter @SuffolkDSA or at suffolkdsa.org. Follow Colin Palmer, Riverhead Central School District board Trustee and the first democratic socialist elected in Suffolk County, at @CJTPalmerEsq. 

Are you suffering from chronic anxiety as our planet burns around us while our politicians act without any sense of urgency? Coulee DSA book club has the book for you!

The reading group is starting a new book, Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert. The book focuses on the climate crisis and how much damage has already been done, as well as the cutting edge of technology and geoengineering that will be necessary if human civilization as we know it will survive.

The group is now meeting on Thursday nights at 7 PM online. Next Thursday, July 8th will be the first night with reading from the new book.

If you are interested in hearing more, email us at couleeDSA@gmail.com. We are looking for feedback on possible barriers to participation. If you don’t like our book selections, or don’t feel invited to participate for any other reason, please reach out to us. We will keep your information confidential.

The post CouleeDSA’s Next Reading: Under A White Sky first appeared on Coulee DSA.

India Walton will be the 63rd Mayor of the City of Buffalo. She won by inspiring and organizing people through a plain-spoken, class-conscious message. She will be one of the most significant executives in the country to be a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and the first woman to hold this office. 

The Buffalo chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, a socialist organization driven by member dues and decisions, backed India Walton in February with a unanimous vote. We recognize Walton as of and for the working class. We admire her intentional organizing on healthcare as a proud nurse. We value her focus on labor agitation, police and justice reform, community housing, the rights of tenants over landlords, and leadership development.

“All that we are doing in this moment is claiming what is rightfully ours. We are the workers. We do the work. And we deserve a government that works with and for us.” – India Walton

Buffalo will be the largest American city to have a socialist mayor since Milwaukee in 1960. In 1917, the Socialist Party mayoral candidate won over 30% of the vote on an anti-war platform in Buffalo. Over 100 years later, we are proud to support the mayor-elect’s platform that rejects austerity and places the class interests of workers and tenants over the extractive private interests that have run our government.

India Walton’s organizing approach was rooted in the working class. She united left groups and volunteers in canvassing and phonebanking to discuss values like the demilitarization of police, removal of predatory fines, and prioritization of community infrastructure and public education. This campaign overturned Byron Brown, a corrupt stooge, after 16 years. The ruling class all over the country flooded his campaign with more than $100,000 in the week before the election, hoping for the charter school lobby and billionaires to advance their interests in our city government. But as India shouted with her supporters Tuesday evening, “when we organize, we win.”

We applaud the efforts of all involved in this campaign, and thank the Buffalo DSA Electoral members who maintained an independent strategy and support system to petition, canvas, phonebank, and get out the vote for mayor-elect India Walton. We invite all Buffalonians who want to continue member-directed organizing at the point of class conflict, such as in labor, healthcare, and housing, who want to receive and grow socialist political education, and who want to participate in developing our electoral strategy, to join DSA and be part of the life of this organization.

Buffalo DSA is looking forward to proudly working alongside the executive of our city in our collective fight against capital, and we extend our most heartfelt thanks and congratulations.

Yesterday was election day in New York. Since we’re dealing with the New York Board of Elections and the new ranked choice voting system here in New York City, many of the results are not yet finalized. DSA for the City candidate Tiffany Caban won her city council race in Queens while the rest of DSA endorsed candidates await the final results. Upstate in Buffalo India Walton won the Democratic Party primary for Mayor and a number of Rochester DSA endorsed candidates won their elections. Socialism continues to have unprecedented success at the ballot box in New York, but there is clearly so much work left to be done.

The Queer community has made huge strides towards social acceptance in this country, but there is still work to be done. In the state of New Jersey, the “Trans Panic” defense has been outlawed, and this March, the “Queer Senior Bill of Rights” was signed into law, barring senior care facilities from discriminating against seniors based on their orientation, gender identity, and HIV status, but key protections, such as transwomen’s rights to compete in sports, are still only under executive purview, and not codified in law.

This leaves us vulnerable to the whims of future administrations. Right now, there is even a bill to prevent transwomen from competing in women’s sports, a position rooted only in bigotry, and not at all in science. It seems to have died in committee, but it still poses a threat to the rights and dignity of transpeople in our state. We do not want to go down the road of other states, such as Florida, where minors are to have their genitals inspected by adults before competitions. Such egregious actions are not only a violation of transpeople, but of all people who wish to compete, and such systems are begging to be abused. We call on the state legislature and governor, Phil Murphy, of New Jersey to enshrine the rights of trans athletes in law so as to prevent such heinous abuses from encroaching upon us in the future.

Happy Pride Month! As a bisexual woman of color and as a new mom, I am so proud to share this time with you as we celebrate the beauty of the queer community. I am thankful to stand beside all of you as we fight for liberation. Yet the capitalists and the police state have tried to co-opt our struggle. Everywhere you walk in New York you can see banks, corporations, and cop cars decorated with rainbows in an effort to conceal that these institutions remain forces of domination against the oppressed people of the world. The Reclaim Pride Coalition (RPC) will take to the streets on Sunday, June 27th to stage the third annual Queer Liberation March. We’re joined by Natalie James, Saje Liese, and NYC-DSA endorsed candidate for city council Tiffany Caban to discuss the upcoming action and much more.

The city and county of La Crosse are each receiving over $20 million in stimulus funding. The broad left community must act together to ensure that public oversight and input are the driving force in spending this funding. This level of funding is a once in generation opportunity to pay for projects that can save lives and uplift our community as a whole. Please get involved in the decision making process.

Coulee Tenants United, CouleeDSA’s tenant organizing working group, is participating in 2 nights programming at the La Crosse Public Library on Housing and Homelessness this month. CTU is a working group dedicated to educating, organizing, and empowering renters in the Coulee region.

Part 1 on June 21st at 6:30 PM is focused on homelessness, while part 2 on June 28th at 6:30 PM covers housing, development, market and non-market solutions, and tenancy struggles. Follow the links to get registered. Program recordings will be available for those who can’t make it in person.

Long-term, systemic solutions to the housing crisis require large up front investment. Demanding that this historic stimulus bill is leveraged to better our community through permanent projects should be a priority. Reach out to us at CouleeDSA@gmail.com or at our Facebook page if you want to get involved.

The post Housing and Homelessness programming with CTU: Systemic problems and Solutions first appeared on Coulee DSA.