As the budget fight continues to heat up in Albany, workers in New York City are continuing the struggle for power and equity on the job and at school. On tonight’s episode, we’ll visit the picket line at Columbia University, where unionized graduate students are on their second week of a strike to demand fair pay and healthcare. We also hear an update from last Saturday’s NYC-DSA march to Tax the Rich and Impeach Cuomo.

We’re joined LIVE by NYC-DSA endorsed candidate for City Council District 39 (and community radio fan!), Brandon West, to hear about his work to Defund NYPD, defeat machine politics, fund excluded workers, and build working-class power. 

To learn more about Brandon West and get involved with his campaign, please visit https://westforcouncil.com/.

Starting on Wednesday, March 24th, AADSA will host conversations with ACC commissioners Mariah Parker, Carol Myers, Jesse Houle, Tim Denson, and Melissa Link on affordable housing in Athens. The conversations will be streamed live on Facebook and Twitter.

On Tuesday, February 16th, Charles Howard, University Chaplain and Vice President for Social Equity and Community at the University of Pennsylvania, spoke with Lawrence Ware, co-editor of "Ballad of an American," the first-ever graphic biography of Paul Robeson, about Robeson's relevance for today. Paul Robeson was the pre-eminent Black, left-wing figure of U.S. popular culture during the 1930s-40s. Concert singer, film actor, public personality, his "Ballad for Americans" was heard by millions of radio listeners. Idolized across large parts of Europe, his records heard widely in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, Robeson was struck down by McCarthyism. His legend and his lessons remain. The event was co-sponsored by the Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus (AFROSOC) of DSA, the DSA Fund, and the International Committee of DSA, along with the Religion and Socialism Working Group of DSA. You can order the book from Rutgers University Press and receive a 30% discount on it and all books sitewide by using the code DSA RUP at checkout.

The Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America (ATL DSA) stands in unity and solidarity with the Asian-American community in Atlanta, Georgia, and across the United States as we collectively process a horrific hate crime that targeted Asian women, killing 8 people.

Our first thoughts turn to the victims, their families and their communities. Many people, including our comrades in ATL DSA, are experiencing intense anger and pain in the wake of another racist mass shooting event. This spree shooter specifically targeted women, highlighting the particular gendered racism that Asian women face in the United States. In his own words, the shooter targeted businesses which he believed were sites of sex work. ATL DSA stands with Asian women, who face a particular gendered racism in the United States. We stand with sex workers, an unjustly criminalized group vulnerable to violence. We stand with Asian sex workers who are often victims of racialized sexual violence resulting from patriarchy and white supremacy. Race, gender, and class in America intersect in ways that render poor and unassimilated Asian Americans invisible and thus especially vulnerable to violence like the murders that were perpetrated on March 16.

Moreover, we know that this horrific event did not take place in a vacuum. Over the last year, acts of racist violence against Asian Americans have increased significantly, a direct result of the jingoistic rhetoric about China and the COVID-19 virus propagated by politicians on both sides of the aisle and furthered by corporate media outlets. During the 2020 presidential election, both Trump and Biden jockeyed to be “tougher on China,” as the ruling class egged on a new Cold War with China and continues to do so now. In any conflict between China and the U.S. or their proxies, it is the working class that suffers, abroad and at home. We must be vigilant in counteracting propagandic narratives that would lead us to believe otherwise. Yesterday’s killings are the latest expression of a long history of anti-Asian racism and discrimination that stretches back hundreds of years in the U.S.

The simple fact is yesterday’s murders did not need to happen. We must reject the anti-China and anti-Asian rhetoric that inundates American society, and we must fight to end the racialized misogyny that demonizes and oppresses sex workers. We denounce anti-Asian and Sinophobic rhetoric in all its forms, and we oppose those who wish to perpetuate conflict with China. We stand in solidarity with sex workers and oppose efforts to increase policing or expand the carceral state as a solution to this violence, as we know this would only result in further oppression and harm towards those affected.

We stand in solidarity with communities most impacted by this attack and are prepared to respond to calls for support. We are listening to our comrades, our local Asian-American community groups and their leaders, to best understand how to act in solidarity, and we will amplify any ways that the broader community can demonstrate their support as well.

Also see the DSA National Political Committee’s statement for more info.

A few days ago we held a vote open to all tuition strikers about whether to continue the strike past the next payment deadline of March 18. Similar to our vote in February, students were overwhelmingly in favor of continuing the strike, with 82% voting to continue and hundreds of students participating in the vote. The majority of those students were personally committed to continuing to withhold their tuition payments. 

With the Graduate Workers of Columbia going on strike the same week that we are announcing the continuation of our tuition strike, we are in an uniquely strong position. We’ve shown the administration that we aren’t going away until they give us a real plan for how our demands will be met. 

But now we need to continue organizing to put as much pressure on the administration as possible. Here are some ways you can help the effort:

1. Take action by calling and emailing administrators, emailing all of your past and current professors to ask them to sign our open letter in support, getting in touch with all alumni you know to ask them to sign our alumni open letter / no-donation pledge and to join our email/call campaign. You can find all of this on our action guide: https://bit.ly/tuition-action 
2.  Come to our Day of Action, Friday March 18th, 4-5 pm ET to put pressure on administration and organize our networks together! (RSVP for Zoom info here)
3. Sign up for a working group to help us organize actions, press outreach, and coalition-building.
4. Donate to our strike fund. Thanks to all the donations we’ve raised from supporters across the country, we will likely have the funds to cover late fees for everyone who requests them and who is unable to obtain a waiver. We’ve put together this script for requesting late fee waivers from Columbia offices, and if you are unable to obtain a waiver and need funds to cover late fees, you can request them here. 

You can also come to our Tuition Strike General Body Meeting this Thursday, 8 pm ET (RSVP for Zoom info here) to discuss strategy, next steps, and ways to get involved with the effort. 

Hope to see you at our Day of Action and as always feel free to reach out to us at columbia.ydsa@gmail.com to talk more!

Essential workers have been carrying a pandemic stricken New York City on their backs for a year now, and as economic insecurity worsens and the time frame  left to address the overlapping climate crisis shortens, there’s never been a moment more ripe, and necessary for militant labor organizing.  On tonight’s episode we’ll hear from NYC-DSA endorsed City Council candidate Adolfo Abreu about what essential workers in his Bronx community need and how the NYC-DSA slate plans to build long term working class power. We’ll also talk to Daniel Dominguez of DSA-Los Angeles about how DSA members and unionists across the country are organizing for the PRO- ACT, the most comprehensive labor legislation reform in generations. 

Listen to our September 2020 show about the fight to stop the NRG plant in Astoria: https://revolutionsperminute.simplecast.com/episodes/stop-the-astoria-power-plant, then submit a public comment to support the ongoing struggle: bit.ly/noNRGplant.

Learn more about and get involved with Adolfo Abreu’s campaign for city council: https://adolfo.nyc/

Sign up to get involved with DSA’s national campaign to pass the PRO Act: https://www.dsausa.org/proact/

We are calling on all supporters of the tuition strike to also support the Graduate Workers of Columbia in their upcoming strike. Provost Ira Katznelson sent out a misleading email on Monday trying to pit students against the workers. But we and thousands of other students understand that the working conditions of our teaching assistants directly impacts students’ learning conditions. If you support Columbia academic workers on strike, please add your name to this petition to show the workers and the Columbia administration that students and workers stand together.

Ira Katznelson writes that the GWC’s decision to call for a work stoppage is “regrettable” and “unnecessary,” but in fact it is a last resort that they have been pushed to by the administration’s unwillingness to meet their very reasonable and necessary demands for a living wage, protection from harassment, union protection, and full recognition of all academic student-workers.

Katznelson’s email argues that doctoral workers’ compensation is comparable to that at other institutions. This is false, as rates for hourly pay are significantly lower than at other NYC institutions like CUNY and NYU, and compensation for Ph.D. students on 9-month appointments is lower than at NYU. Katznelson and the Columbia administration obscures the reality that attending Columbia requires incurring a uniquely high cost of living. Even after housing subsidies, the vast majority of graduate workers spend over 40% of their total compensation on rent, which is neither sustainable nor paralleled at peer institutions. If it’s neither “reasonable” nor “responsible” to pay student workers living wages under the current budget, is it “reasonable” or “responsible” to continue paying seven-figure salaries to administrators and pursuing multi-billion-dollar expansion and renovation projects?

On the issue of harassment and discrimination, Katznelson writes that the union and the university are “not adversaries,” yet the university’s counterproposal on this issue would maintain Columbia’s unchecked decision-making power and would prevent any real recourse for cases of power-based harassment. 

The issue of union recognition tells a similar story. The administration refuses the GWC a union shop model, which nearly all graduate unions in private universities (as well as all other unions at Columbia) have. Moreover, the university still refuses to recognize entire groups of student-workers as part of the union. 

Katznelson’s email demonstrates how fearful the administration is of the power that GWC wields through a strike, which is so potent precisely because these students’ work is absolutely necessary to the university’s functioning. 

If you want to support the strike, here are some ways you can help out with the effort:

1. DO NOT report your striking instructors or TAs to their department, to faculty, or to administration. Deans Valentini and Rosen-Metsch have recently sent out an email encouraging students to ‘contact the relevant academic department for further information or instructions’ if their instructor is on strike. This is the administration’s disingenuous way of saying that they are relying on students to report their striking instructors in order to potentially retaliate against them by reducing their stipends and financial aid.
2. Sign this solidarity petition in support of the strike and share with all other Columbia students you know!
3. Send an email to Provost Katznelson using this script!
4. Send a letter in support of student-workers’ demands! 
5. Join the picket lines (and bring some friends)! (in-person picket sign up; virtual picket sign up)
6. If you are an academic student-worker (including undergraduate and Master’s TAs and RAs), commit to striking! 
7. Donate to the hardship fund here!  (During bargaining yesterday, admin threatened to create a website for self-reporting non-participation in the strike and to dock pay for strikers. We’re starting up a fund to help support strikers who might incur financial hardship from retaliatory measures.)

This strike will only be successful if striking academic workers have the full support of all members of the Columbia community, especially fellow-students. Any support you can show will go a long way in helping Columbia student-workers win their urgently necessary demands. 

We are nearing the 2-month point on our tuition strike. Through our collective action, we have bolstered democratic student power, won increased financial support through acceptance of the CARES Act aid, and won our demand for Columbia to divest from fossil fuels. Yet, we know that this is far from enough, and we have not forgotten that we have a long struggle ahead of us. Our strike builds upon years of student activism at Columbia, and we hope to continue to organize through the strike and beyond to win our other demands. 

As part of our democratic decision-making process, we ask that strikers please fill out this voting form to voice your opinion on whether the strike should continue beyond March 18th, the beginning of the next billing cycle. Using this information, we will inform participants of the decision by Sunday, March 14th.

It’s very important that everyone who is striking fills out this voting form, because if we don’t get enough responses for the vote to be representative, we might have to call off the strike due to not having adequate confirmation of our current numbers. That’s why we’re also asking everyone to vote on what threshold of respondents we should consider to be sufficiently representative for a binding vote.

We have been doing our best to understand the pros and cons of withholding past the next billing deadline, Thursday, March 18th, when additional late fees will potentially be charged. We have, as of now, been on strike for nearly two months, and continuing to strike even in the face of additional late fees or holds will show the administration that we will not be quelled, but there are some increased risks. To the best of our knowledge, these are the risks of continuing to strike past this date: 

• All accounts with an outstanding balance will potentially be issued an additional $150 late fee on the next bill (issued Thursday, March 18).
  • Please note: To the best of our knowledge, strikers will be able to get late fees waived by SFS once they pay tuition and some strikers have already received late fee waivers by contacting SFS (You can use this email script for talking with Columbia offices: https://bit.ly/financial-aid-script). It also seems that late fees were not applied at the last payment deadline of February 18, likely a direct result of the strength we’ve built up through the strike.  Additionally, we have raised over $9,000 for our strike solidarity fund. If you are a striker that has been unable to receive a waiver, please request funds using this form: https://bit.ly/strike-fund-request 
• If you are planning to register for Summer or Fall 2021 semesters: If the balance on your student account is $1,000 or greater, your account will be placed on a financial hold, and you will not be able to register until the balance is paid. This hold is not irreversible and will be lifted automatically when you pay tuition. Registration dates across Columbia schools are listed here. Summer registration began on March 8th, and the earliest date listed for Fall registration is April 5th. 
• If you are graduating Spring 2021: Graduation holds are placed 30 days prior to the graduation date, and you will not be able to receive a diploma or transcript until the balance is paid. This means that you could still withhold tuition until March 25th (31 days before commencement on April 26th) without facing a diploma or transcript hold at the time of graduation.

We encourage all tuition strikers or supporters of the effort to come to our next tuition strike town hall this Thursday, 7 pm ET, where we will discuss our strategy for the upcoming month. RSVP here: https://bit.ly/cu-tuition-strike-town-hall 

Sexual harassment is never ok, never funny, and never just a misunderstanding. A report by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2016 stated that about 60% of women have experienced some sort of sexual harassment in the workplace. The accounts by three women, so far, of sexual misconduct and harassment by Governor Cuomo are familiar to almost any woman who has interacted with men in a professional or social environment.

Governor Cuomo has been the headline of several scandals in the last months. His personal disregard for women also manifests in his austerity politics as a governor, where he has cut funding from programs that disproportionately impact working class women. After cutting Medicaid funds during the pandemic, underreporting COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes, and relentlessly advancing austerity politics, Governor Andrew Cuomo cannot be allowed to stay in office.

Governor Cuomo is known for a pattern of bullying. The people of New York deserve better.

As a socialist, feminist and anti-racist organization, we stand with survivors. In light of these multiple allegations of sexual harassment, the High Peaks Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America joins NYC DSA in their call for the immediate resignation and, failing that, impeachment of Governor Andrew Cuomo. We are in solidarity with Charlotte Bennett, Lindsey Boylan, and Anna Ruch, who have spoken out about their horrific experiences.

Signed,
High Peaks Democratic Socialists of America

The post On Sexual Harassment Allegations Against Governor Andrew Cuomo appeared first on High Peaks DSA.

Yesterday, March 2, New York City DSA issued a statement calling for New York State governor Andrew Cuomo to resign or face impeachment. This comes in the wake of weeks of political turmoil regarding Cuomo’s cover-up of nursing home deaths due to COVID and new testimony about his gendered workplace abuse. The organized left in New York state has known for a long time that Andrew Cuomo is far from a “Resistance Hero”, as the liberal media has cast him. On tonight’s show, we’ll hear from RPM correspondent Michael Carter and Alexandra Walling of our Socialist Feminist Working Group on Cuomo’s persistent disregard for the lives of working-class New Yorkers and what this means for our socialist movement. We also check in with NYC-DSA’s newly-elected Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes of Assembly District 51 on her first weeks in Albany and our fight to tax the rich and invest in our New York.