Recently, DSA and the future of the democratic socialist movement in the USA have been threatened by ill-informed sloganeering – especially on matters of international affairs, such as the Israel/Palestine conflict. Sectarians substituting dogma, purity, and vanguardism for real democratic debate have corroded DSA's organizational culture. Making matters worse, the media has spread outright lies without fact-checking, prompting widespread condemnations of DSA.
Some long-time comrades and elected officials are now leaving DSA, outraged by apparent support by some DSA members and chapters for Hamas’s horrific attacks on Israeli civilians. We share our departing comrades’ outrage. Israel’s increasingly repressive and violent treatment of Palestinians does NOT justify Hamas murdering civilians and hostage taking, just as the offensive of Hamas and others does NOT justify Israel’s retaliating through bombardment and cutting off food, water and other necessities to Gaza. But we are not leaving DSA. We are staying to fight on two fronts: to develop a stronger, more thoughtful, and more humane approach to international affairs, and to build a truly democratic DSA. What Really Happened Before going further, it is necessary to separate fact from fiction. The current outcry began with a New York Post hit job. The Post published “Democratic Socialists of America cheer murder and kidnapping of Israels at the hands of Hamas terrorists.” The editorial skewered NYC-DSA for organizing a rally scheduled for later that day. NYC-DSA did not organize this rally or co-sponsor it. No DSA leaders spoke or were seen there. No DSA members flashed swastikas or applauded the deaths of Israeli civilians. Yet CBS and other news outlets repeated the lies on a national TV news segment, without fact checking. Congress members from New York leapt at the chance to denounce DSA as anti-Semitic; one demanded the expulsion of DSA members from elected office. NYC Mayor Eric Adams conflated the Times Square rally with the rally in Grand Army Plaza that was organized by Jewish groups supporting peace and equality in Palestine. With reckless disregard for truth, Adams accused the DSA officials of speaking at a rally where people flashed swastikas and called for exterminating all Jews. Fortunately, other media sources set the record straight. The timing of a NYC-DSA tweet, promoting the Times Square rally during the initial Hamas assault, was rash and insensitive. So was the embedded national DSA tweet declaring solidarity with Palestinians before expressing grief for the Israeli civilians killed. The NYC chapter subsequently apologized, and issued a statement expressing grief for all civilians killed well before the Mayor grossly misrepresented the organization. Statements by some chapters were far worse, seeming to celebrate the initial Hamas assault on Israeli civilians as a brave strike for national liberation. What We Stand For Let us be clear: The principles of democratic socialism recognize that all lives, Israeli and Palestinian, deserve respect and justice. Criminal acts of war are both immoral and contrary to our goals of achieving freedom, equality and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians. If not stopped soon, the death tolls will mount ever higher in Israel and Palestine, and spread outwards. Hezbollah, Iran, and the U.S. could enter a regional conflict that kills millions. DSA has been organizing chapter and national phone banks to ask our members to urge their representatives to support a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation., sponsored by Reps. Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez, Bowman, and Bush. Organizational Democracy Matters Ill-advised statements by DSA chapters including on the war in Ukraine, elected officials, or policing have misrepresented DSA’s positions and values and were used by the media and political opponents to attack our endorsed candidates. The Israel/Palestine issue, however, is particularly fraught with emotion. Careful messaging is critical. Sparked by Bernie Sanders’ runs for president in 2016 and 2020, DSA’s membership increased ten-fold. DSA, however, failed to develop a structure and internal programs appropriate to its greatly enlarged size. DSA today has a structure built for an organization of 10,000 people, not 100,000. Most crucially, it lacks a shared understanding of organizational democracy. Developing an international policy in particular, will force us to debate some difficult issues. Entering into these debates in good faith is part of our second task: building a more democratic organization. Self-Protection and Integrity Despite these problems, DSA has accomplished a great deal since our membership surge began. Hundreds of people have run for elected office under the DSA banner. Many have won: There are more socialist elected officials in the U.S. than ever before. DSA has also played a leading role in passing vital eco-socialist and tenant protection laws, and defeating statewide abortion bans. We have played an important role, too, in revitalizing and democratizing the labor movement. The actions of a few members and chapters threaten to destroy all we accomplished. While some recent missteps may be innocent mistakes or insensitive blunders, there are organized caucuses that we believe are actively seeking to wreck DSA and using the Israel/Palestine issue to do so. We have been here before: Some of us were leaders of Students for a Democratic Society, which played a key role in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s, before fights between the Progressive Labor and Weatherman factions consumed it. SDS fell apart. Some of us were leaders of socialist feminist groups in the early 1970s, such as the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, that dissolved after fights for control led by various sects exhausted and disgusted most members. These and other experiences prompted DSA to include in its founding bylaws a provision that specified that “members may be expelled if they are found to be in substantial disagreement with the principles of the organization or if they consistently engage in undemocratic, disruptive behavior or if they are under the discipline of any self-defined democratic-centralist organization.” While we adamantly oppose efforts to expel members for disagreeing on particular issues (not principles), we believe this part of our bylaws remains crucial to organizational health and self-protection. Conclusion We are staying in DSA because we believe it would be wrong to abandon our democratic socialist comrades, leaving them to combat the sectarian wreckers. Our experience and reading of U.S. history also leads us to believe there is no hope that a new organization—a party, an activist group, or think tank—would not suffer the same fate that has destroyed many organizations in the past and now threatens DSA. If we fail to counter the sectarians, DSA will crumble or become just another irrelevant sect. If we fail to develop a political education program for new members and a shared understanding of what constitutes internal democracy, DSA will slide into oblivion, and the democratic socialist movement in the U.S. will be associated with cruelty and repression. It is time to fight back. Leaving allows the sectarians to win. It allows them to exploit and destroy the only national-scale democratic socialist organization in the United States. This letter is a call to action, a call to organize, and a call to educate. All of us pledge to do what we can to bring forth a better world by building a better, more democratic DSA. We invite those who agree with this statement to sign on here. Signatures will be appended to this text.
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www.thenation.com/article/activism/quit-dsa-gaza-israel/After over four decades as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, one of the group’s founding members is leaving in sorrow and anger.
MAURICE ISSERMAN I’ve belonged to only two nationally organized left-wing groups in my life: the first, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) for just over a year; the second, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for 41 years. My membership in SDS ended in 1969, when I was 18 years old, without any input or agency on my part, when the organization collapsed around me in a chaotic maelstrom of rival manifestos, mass walkouts, fervid chanting, and a few fistfights, all of which scattered the group’s thousands of members to the winds. My membership in DSA ended with considerably less drama last week, when at a somewhat more advanced age I resigned from the organization via an e-mail. I left to protest the DSA leadership’s politically and morally bankrupt response to the horrific Hamas October 7 anti-Jewish pogrom that took the lives of 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and saw over 200 hostages carried off to Gaza, both groups of victims including children and infants. https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/quit-dsa-gaza-israel/ ------ Opposing view: I’m a Proud Jewish DSA Member. Here’s Why I’m Not Quitting. Maurice Isserman’s scurrilous piece—written at a time when Gaza is under horrific assault—does not reflect the organization I know. HADAS THIER https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/im-a-proud-jewish-dsa-member-heres-why-im-not-quitting/ Hadas Thier is the author of A People’s Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics.
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden President of the United States The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20500 The Honorable Antony J. Blinken Secretary of State U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, D.C. 20520 October 13, 2023 Dear President Biden and Secretary Blinken: We write to express our concerns regarding the unfolding humanitarian situation in Gaza as Israel responds to Hamas’ terrorist attack. We unequivocally condemn Hamas’ shocking and horrifying terrorist attack on Israel. This is the worst perpetration of violence inflicted on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Our hearts are with those who were tragically killed and their loved ones who mourn their loss. We also continue to hope for the safe return of those who were taken hostage by Hamas, including American citizens, and stand ready to support your Administration in bringing them home. As efforts are made to rescue hostages, we urge those carrying out military operations to follow international humanitarian law and protect innocent civilian lives on both sides. We strongly agree with the President’s sentiment that, “democracies like Israel and the United States are stronger and more secure when we act according to the rule of law.”1 We are deeply concerned about the order to evacuate over a million civilians out of northern Gaza in 24 hours and the devastating humanitarian consequences that would ensue. We are also deeply concerned by the recent comments from Israel Defense Forces leaders that call for a “complete siege,” of the Gaza Strip. As both the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights said, imposing a complete siege on Gaza and depriving 2.3 million Palestinian civilians who have nowhere else to go—half of whom are children2—of food, water, and electricity, would be a violation of international humanitarian law. As President Biden has previously stated, Israel has the right to defend its people and respond to these vicious attacks, which have taken more than 1,300 lives and wounded over 3,000 more 1 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/10/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-terrorist-attacks-in-israel-2/ 2 https://www.prb.org/resources/the-west-bank-and-gaza-a-population-profile/ people.3 We strongly believe that Israel’s response must take into account the millions of innocent civilians in Gaza who themselves are victims of Hamas and are suffering the consequences of their terror campaign. The most recent reporting indicates that already more than 423,000 people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip and over 1,500 have been killed —many of them civilians, including more than 500 children.4 To that end, we urge you to take the following priorities into account: Communicate that Israel’s response in Gaza must be carried out according to international law and take all due measures to limit harm to innocent civilians; Work to quickly restore the delivery of food, water, fuel, electricity, and other life-saving necessities to Gaza to ensure that innocent civilians have the basics needed for survival; Collaborate with regional partners to establish a humanitarian corridor to enable the delivery of such life-saving necessities and to allow Palestinian civilians and foreign nationals, including U.S. citizens, to seek safe haven outside of Gaza; Publicly discourage any hate crimes and backlash against any American—including Jews and Muslims—including by communicating to the American people that Hamas is not the Palestinian people and the Palestinian people are not Hamas; and Ensure that supplemental funding requests to Congress include humanitarian assistance for both Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis. However this current conflict plays out, we feel strongly that the US government and the global community must continue the tough work to achieve lasting peace in the region. The future and safety of Israelis and Palestinians are intertwined. We cannot achieve lasting peace and security for Israelis without addressing the humanitarian crises in Gaza and the West Bank. Thank you for the work your Administration is doing to respond to this crisis, provide support to our ally Israel, and bring American citizens home safely. We must do everything possible going forward to work for peace in the region that will bring an end to these ceaseless cycles of violence and suffering among Israelis and Palestinians. We greatly appreciate your attention to these stated priorities, and stand ready to be of assistance to your Administration. Sincerely, Jan Schakowsky Member of Congress Mark Pocan Member of Congress and 50 + more members. See the list here. https://jayapal.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Letter-Expressing-Concern-on-the-Humanitarian-Situation-in-Gaza.pdf Ceasefire Now Resolution urges support for an end to violence in Israel and Occupied Palestine
Washington, D.C. (October 16, 2023) — Today, Representatives Cori Bush (MO-01), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), André Carson (IN-07), Summer Lee (PA-12), and Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03), alongside Representatives Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Jonathan Jackson (IL-01), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), and Nydia Velázquez (NY-07) announced a resolution urging the Biden Administration to call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine, to send humanitarian aid and assistance to Gaza, and to save as many lives as possible. We originally thought this would be a resolution with a few squad members and instead it is being introduced with 13 offices and more to come soon. A huge number of groups endorsed, most with about 15 hours notice. Full info & endorsements here: https://bush.house.gov/media/press-releases/reps-bush-tlaib-carson-lee-ramirez-lead-colleagues-in-call-for-immediate-ceasefire on TAP: And why, after 48 years in the organization, I’m quitting.
BY HAROLD MEYERSON OCTOBER 17, 2023 https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-10-17-divisions-in-dsa-israel-gaza/ On October 11, 2023, Senator Sanders issued the statement below on the violence in Israel and Gaza. On October 14, DSA issued the following statement. https://www.dsausa.org/statements/no-money-for-massacres/https://www.dsausa.org/statements/no-money-for-massacres/ On Oct 15, the North Star Steering committee met and discussed the situation. The Steering Committee decided by unanimous vote of those in attendance to adopt the statement of Senator Sanders as our North Star policy position. Sanders Statement on Continuing Violence in Israel and Gaza WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday issued the following statement on the continuing violence in Israel and Gaza following Hamas’ horrific attack on Saturday: Hamas’ terrorist assault on Israel will have horrific short- and long-term consequences. As a result of this attack, thousands of Israelis and Palestinians – including many women and children – have been killed and injured. That toll will rise. The gunning down of young Israelis at a music festival is an image the world will not soon forget. Longer term, this attack is a major setback for any hope of peace and reconciliation in the region – and justice for the Palestinian people. For years, people of good will throughout the world, including some brave Israelis, have struggled against the blockade of Gaza, the daily humiliations of occupation in the West Bank, and the horrendous living conditions faced by so many Palestinians. For many, it is no secret that Gaza has been an open-air prison, with millions of people struggling to secure basic necessities. Hamas’ terrorism will make it much more difficult to address that tragic reality and will embolden extremists on both sides, continuing the cycle of violence. Right now, the international community must focus on reducing humanitarian suffering and protecting innocent people on both sides of this conflict. The targeting of civilians is a war crime, no matter who does it. Israel’s blanket denial of food, water, and other necessities to Gaza is a serious violation of international law and will do nothing but harm innocent civilians. The United States has rightly offered solidarity and support to Israel in responding to Hamas’ attack. But we must also insist on restraint from Israeli forces attacking Gaza and work to secure UN humanitarian access. Let us not forget that half of the two million people in Gaza are children. Children and innocent people do not deserve to be punished for the acts of Hamas. After further discussion, the North Star Steering Committee also voted unanimously to endorse the statement of the United Nations Secretary General. Updated. https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2023-10-15/secretary-general%E2%80%99s-statement-the-situation-the-middle-east For Immediate Release: October 10, 2023 Contact: press@socialists.nyc STATEMENT: PEACE NOW, END OCCUPATION & APARTHEID NYC-DSA believes in peace, equality, and freedom for all Palestinians and Israelis. We deeply mourn the loss of life in the region and unequivocally condemn all hatred and the killing of all civilians. Our sympathy and condolences go out to those who have lost loved ones or have loved ones in harm’s way. On Saturday, in anticipation of escalatory violence to come, we tweeted a promotion of a rally in solidarity with the people of Palestine. We understand why many, including our allies, were shocked by the timing and the tone of this message in a moment of profound fear and grief. We are sorry for the confusion our post caused and for not making our values explicit. We are also concerned that some have chosen to focus on a rally while ignoring the root causes of violence in the region, the far-right Netanyahu government’s escalating human rights violations and explicitly genocidal rhetoric, and the dehumanization of the Palestinian people. Gaza is now under a “complete siege.” The Israeli Defense Ministry announced that it will cut off electricity, food, and water to over two million people, half of whom are children. The death toll is rising rapidly. No amount of violence, deprivation, or collective punishment will make everyday Palestinians and Israelis safe. We call for an immediate cease-fire to stop the senseless murder. We call for the end of the 75-year Nakba that includes the occupation of the West Bank, the end of the 16-year siege on the open-air prison that is the Gaza Strip, and the end of U.S. military aid for occupation and apartheid. That is the only pathway to safety and peace for all in the region. ### ABOUT NYC-DSA: New York City Democratic Socialists is the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America—the largest socialist organization in the United States with over 85,000 members. NYC-DSA is run by its 6,000+ members and activists who are working together to build a democratic socialist organization in the five boroughs. WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday issued the following statement on the continuing violence in Israel and Gaza following Hamas’ horrific attack on Saturday: Hamas’ terrorist assault on Israel will have horrific short- and long-term consequences. As a result of this attack, thousands of Israelis and Palestinians – including many women and children – have been killed and injured. That toll will rise. The gunning down of young Israelis at a music festival is an image the world will not soon forget. Longer term, this attack is a major setback for any hope of peace and reconciliation in the region – and justice for the Palestinian people. For years, people of good will throughout the world, including some brave Israelis, have struggled against the blockade of Gaza, the daily humiliations of occupation in the West Bank, and the horrendous living conditions faced by so many Palestinians. For many, it is no secret that Gaza has been an open-air prison, with millions of people struggling to secure basic necessities. Hamas’ terrorism will make it much more difficult to address that tragic reality and will embolden extremists on both sides, continuing the cycle of violence. Right now, the international community must focus on reducing humanitarian suffering and protecting innocent people on both sides of this conflict. The targeting of civilians is a war crime, no matter who does it. Israel’s blanket denial of food, water, and other necessities to Gaza is a serious violation of international law and will do nothing but harm innocent civilians. The United States has rightly offered solidarity and support to Israel in responding to Hamas’ attack. But we must also insist on restraint from Israeli forces attacking Gaza and work to secure UN humanitarian access. Let us not forget that half of the two million people in Gaza are children. Children and innocent people do not deserve to be punished for the acts of Hamas. We have removed the statement made here about the war between Israel and Hamas because it is not clear that this was a statement by DSA. After searching and searching, DSA appears to not have made an official statement.
When an official statement is made, we will try to post it. For information and an individual’s view on this rapidly changing conflict, please see Harold Meyerson’s “Israel and Palestine : No Exit. Here. https://americanprospect.bluelena.io/index.php?action=social&chash=d6bcb486f72ae7b5dc68b5b7df7ec887.2371&s=f3196cb603d6d11dedcd326ed6daf0e3 The conflict over the New York Chapter’s participation or support is reported below. The matter is unclear. NEW YORK — A pro-Palestinian rally Sunday in Times Square endorsed by the city chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America ensnared prominent party members amid widespread condemnation of the event. Gov. Kathy Hochul and other leading Democrats blasted the rally as “abhorrent and morally repugnant” and drew a dividing line with far-left members of the party — including New York Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, who denounced the attacks and called for a ceasefire but didn’t take a stand on the rally. Note: It is not clear that this demonstration was endorsed by the DSA chapter as claimed by Politico ( above) . A spokesperson for the local chapter was quoted as saying that the sharing of information was an act of cooperation with another organization. For more informed comment see here. As Israel and Gaza erupt, the US must commit to ending the violence — all the violence BY PHYLLIS BENNIS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 10/08/23 7:30 AM ET https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4243830-as-israel-and-gaza-erupt-the-us-must-commit-to-ending-the-violence-all-the-violence/ Bill Fletcher Jr. andCarl Davidson October 6, 2023 Over the years, all of us on the Left have been engaged in a wide variety of mass movements —antiwar, labor, environmental, civil rights, women’s and gender rights, and more. Likewise, we have all taken part in public campaigns of various sorts, especially in the electoral arena—sometimes as organizers, other times as voters or endorsers at the grassroots, and still other times in large antiwar demonstrations, whether centered in one or two large cities, or held in cities, towns, and campuses across the country on a single day. We know movements and campaigns are interconnected, often in profound ways. But for the moment, let’s look at how they differ at the extremes. Movements, first of all, reside on the ground of longstanding injustices—enslaved people held in bondage, women denied agency and autonomy against patriarchy, workers stressed to the point of exhaustion and cruelty to their families, peasants and farmers pressed to produce over their ability to reproduce, and many more. These can simmer for long periods, mainly outside the realm of public discourse. read more. https://convergencemag.com/articles/campaigns-and-movements-how-are-they-connected-how-do-they-differ/ Eric Lee As I walked around Kyiv on a beautiful, sunny morning in early September, I noticed the scaffolding in the city’s squares. Statues had been covered up to protect them from bomb damage. Later, I saw a statue with no protection around it– a graffiti-covered memorial to a Red Army general whose name nobody remembered. I was told that this statue had been covered by protective scaffolding before the war. The protection was removed when the war broke out. There was some hope that Russian bombs might solve the problem of what to do with this relic of Soviet rule. You cannot understand the war in Ukraine without knowing its history. This was made very clear to me in a conversation I had with Olesia Briazgunova, who works for one of Ukraine’s two national trade union centers, the KVPU (Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine). I suggested that I saw some similarities between the situation in Ukraine today and the Spanish Civil War. Olesia stopped me right there and asked if there had been genocide in Spain. I said there hadn’t been. She said, “Well there’s genocide here — and the Russians have been trying to wipe out the Ukrainian nation for a very long time.” I thought of Stalin’s terror-famine of the early 1930s, which Ukrainians call the Holodomor, and which they rightly consider an act of deliberate genocide. She had a point. History surrounds you in Kyiv. You hear it in conversations, you see it in the street names, and you breathe it in the air. The Solidarity Center, which is the AFL-CIO’s global workers’ rights project, is located on a street once named after Stalin’s Communist International. The street was renamed in honor of Symon Petliura, a leader of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and a deeply controversial figure in the country’s history. In addition to renaming streets with Soviet connections, the city seems to be removing much of its Russian history, too. At one point I was directed by Google Maps to Pushkin street. But Pushkin street no longer exists. When I interviewed Georgiy Trukhanov, the leader of the 1.2 million member teachers union in Ukraine, about their relationship with the teachers union in Russia, he told me that those Russian teachers were partially guilty here. “Guilty of what?” I asked. All the Russian soldiers currently fighting in Ukraine, all of them, studied in Russian schools, he said. They were taught to be what they have become — killers and rapists. The war has united Ukrainian society as never before. The unions are fully signed up. The FPUpresident, Grygorii Osovyi, told me that 20% of Ukrainian trade union members are now serving in the armed forces. Georgiy Trukhanov told me that teachers could not be drafted as they are considered essential workers — so thousands of them have volunteered. I spoke with many union leaders about the situation in what Ukrainians call the “temporarily occupied territories.” Russian occupiers have essentially banned the Ukrainian language from classrooms. Many workers have fled those territories, and unions are doing an amazing job of helping them, collecting aid, providing accommodation, and much more. Union offices I visited were full of boxes of aid, including plastic sheeting to replace windows destroyed by Russian artillery. Mykhailo Volynets, a former miner and head of the KVPU, told me that there was an urgent need for bandages. Amid the horrors of the war, there are occasional bits of very positive news. An LGBTQI activist explained to me how Putin had weaponized homophobia in Russia, including spreading rumors that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and other leaders were gay. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, there has been a huge shift in public opinion regarding LGBTQI people, many of whom are serving at the front. This is a part of the world where homophobia has run rampant, and even turned violent, as we have seen in countries like Georgia. But in Ukraine, the war has helped change attitudes in a positive way. I spoke with Ukrainian socialists, with young workers who organize couriers, with aviation workers and railway workers. I was interviewed by women members of the nuclear power workers union — who are staying at their posts at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya, now under Russian occupation. The message I got from everyone could not have been clearer: The Ukrainian labor movement and Left stand fully against the Russian invasion. They want and expect solidarity from the labor movement and Left in other countries. They enormously appreciate everything from solidarity gestures such as the visits of leading trade unionists, including the American Federation of Teachers’ president Randi Weingarten, and donations from unions ranging from generators to much-needed bandages. Despite the differences, I still see this conflict as the Spanish Civil War of our time. The many young men and women who have come to Ukraine to join the fight are inspiring in the way that the International Brigades were some 90 years ago. The Spanish Republic was defeated in large part because many democracies failed to come to its aid, while the fascists were fully backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Will the same thing happen in Ukraine? Putin’s regime is a fascist one, and the war on Ukraine is an illegal, imperialist war. Ukraine is not a perfect society, and its government is not a perfect government. Nor was the Spanish Republic. But in the fight against fascism, we need to ask ourselves, to paraphrase the old song, which side are we on? About Eric Lee Eric Lee is the founding editor of LabourStart, the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement. Its Ukraine labor coverage can be found at LabourStart.org... There has been considerable on line controversy about the wording in the above post. Here is an additional substantive piece on the issue of the war in Ukraine and the left. The writer represented Die Linke on the German parliament's Defense Committee. Quote from the article : "However, when some leftists talk about geopolitics and proxy wars or call for an end to solidarity with Ukraine, they are not only invoking old friend-enemy paradigms (“the enemy of my enemy is my friend”), but also blurring the line between perpetrator and victim in this war. This is morally unacceptable and politically foolish." https://rosalux.nyc/myths-and-facts-about-the-war-in-ukraine/ Title: Imperialism: The U.S. and Mexico Description: The relationship between the United States and Mexico, both today and historically, constitutes a significant feature of U.S. imperialism. Speakers at this panel event will discuss Lenin's and more recent socialists' concepts of imperialism; the long drive by U.S. capital and the U.S. government to dominate Mexico and seize economic benefits at the expense of Mexico and the working class of both countries; and Mexican/Chicano labor in the U.S. and in the Maquiladoras in Mexico, including the ways in which the U.S. imperialist relation to Mexico has divided the working class and the progressive responses to those divisions. This unequal relationship continues today, impacting workers on both sides of the border. We hope to develop a better understanding of the relationship between the two countries and deepen our bonds of solidarity. The panelists are Bill Gallegos, Luisa Martinez, and Vamsi Vakulabharanam. This panel event was organized by the Democratic Socialists of America's National Political Education Committee. Registration. Date etc: Saturday, September 30, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM ET Link: https://actionnetwork.org/events/npec-presents-imperialism-the-us-and-mexico?source=direct_link& Immediately After the 1973 Chilean Coup, US Socialists Supported Those Fighting for Freedom9/11/2023 by, DAVID DUHALDE The moment that Salvador Allende was violently deposed on September 11, 1973, democratic socialists in the US knew it was a crime. They joined others around the world organizing solidarity efforts and supporting political refugees. In August, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and several congressional leaders visited Brazil, Colombia, and Chile to meet with leftist activists and elected officials — a goodwill trip that the Wall Street Journal dubbed “AOC’s Socialist Sympathy Tour.” In Chile, Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues insisted that the US government declassify more documents related to Washington’s support for the coup that overthrew socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973. Bowing to pressure, the State Department released several of President Richard Nixon’s daily briefings concerning the Chilean military’s movement against the democratically elected government. As the memos show, Nixon knew at the time of the coup that Allende was open to a “political solution” (likely holding a plebiscite) and hoped to “fend off a showdown,” which he never got the chance to do. The revelations confirmed that the United States went into the putsch with its eyes wide open and still backed a coup that wiped out Chilean democracy. AOC and the delegation’s successful push for declassification is the latest action in nearly five decades of US democratic socialist solidarity with Chileans, stretching back to the Democratic Socialists of America’s two predecessor organizations: the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM). While not the primary US movers of what became known as Chile Solidarity — the global social movement supporting democratic rights in the Southern Cone country — DSOC and NAM, in their publications and organizing, played a real role in opposing Chile’s military dictatorship. In Jacobin. https://jacobin.com/2023/09/chile-coup-allende-dsco-nam-democratic-socialists-america-aoc September 3, 2023 Ariel Dorfman THE NEW YORK REVIEW On September 4, 1973, an enormous multitude of Chileans—I was one of them—poured into the streets of Santiago to back the besieged government of Salvador Allende. Ever since he had won the presidency three years earlier with 36.6 percent of the vote in a three-way race, forces from inside and outside the country had been conspiring to destroy his attempt—the first in world history—to build a socialist state through nonviolent, democratic means. One shout from a chorus of voices echoed through the air: “Allende, Allende, el pueblo te defiende,” emphasizing the need to defend the president. After one thousand days of unrelenting opposition, his enemies seemed close to orchestrating a coup d’état that would wipe “the Marxist cancer” from Chilean society forever. Allende felt cornered. I knew this because, though only thirty-one at the time, I had been working for the previous two months at the presidential palace of La Moneda as a cultural and press adviser to Fernando Flores, Allende’s chief of staff, and our reports indicated that many admirals and generals were openly plotting against him. Allende nevertheless remained hopeful. Unlike that of so many Latin American nations, Chile’s military had a lengthy tradition of respect for constitutional rule, with smooth transitions between presidencies guaranteed by its strict nonintervention in political affairs. Thus far the army, at least, had continued to profess loyalty to the government. I remember Flores telling me with glee that General Augusto Pinochet, the head of the army, was in his pocket, nicely tied up: “Este Pinoccho! Lo tengo en este bolsillo, bien amarrado.” Allende also believed this was the case, but he placed his real faith in the mobilization of el pueblo (a term that encompasses several meanings in Spanish: the people, the masses, the poor, the great unwashed). And the Chilean pueblo had many reasons to support the Allende experiment. His cabinet—the first to include a peasant and an industrial worker as ministers—had undertaken a series of reforms, the most impressive of which was the nationalization of the enormous copper mines, until then owned by predatory US corporations. It had also nationalized the mining of minerals like nitrate and iron, as well as many banks and large factories, a number of which were being administered by those who worked in them.1 An ambitious agrarian reform had been handing over latifundios—large rural estates—to the peasants who had toiled on them from time immemorial; by 1973 almost 60 percent of Chile’s arable land had been expropriated. https://portside.org/2023-09-03/defending-allende Salvador Allende campaigning before Chile’s parliamentary elections, Santiago, February 1973,STF/AFP/Getty Images Sanders for Labor Day “At a time of unprecedented corporate greed, we need an unprecedented worker response,” said Senator Bernie Sanders before an audience of 2,000 union activists at the UNI Global Union World Congress in Philadelphia on August 27. UNI Global is an international union federation with affiliates in 150 countries representing 20 million workers, including janitors, postal workers, call center workers, and retail employees. portside.org Sanders for Labor Day: Unprecedented Corporate Greed Demands Unprecedented Worker Response Support 150,000 workers this Labor Day! In just two weeks, the union contract for the three biggest automakers will expire. If the bosses don’t budge, it’s very likely that the United Auto Workers (UAW) will strike one, if not all three, automakers this month. Take the UAW Big 3 Strike Ready Pledge to stand with workers!
The stakes are high. Profits are up, and executive compensation is skyrocketing — but the workers aren’t getting their fair share. So autoworkers are coming together to demand:
This fight is important not only to the 150,000 UAW workers at the Big 3, but to the whole working class. That’s why DSA members organize on the job and stand in solidarity with other organizing workers. The UAW Strike Ready campaign will make sure we’re always ready to support labor when needed. Pledge to support UAW workers in their fight and join them on the picket line if the bosses force them to strike! In solidarity, Maria Svart DSA National Director Not posted at the direction of DSA. N.S. makes independent decisions. Border policy, and Latin America Congressman Greg Casar ( D. Texas) once a DSA member. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/8/30/progressive_codel_latin_america_greg_casar Peter Dreier "50 Years After the March on Washington, What Would MLK March For Today?" Washington Post, August 22, 2013. The March on Washington, where King delivered his great "I Have a Dream" speech, took place on August 28, 1963. I wrote this article in 2013 to celebrate the march's 50th anniversary. If he were alive today, King would be fighting for the same causes - peace, women's reproductive health, affordable housing, desegregation, immigrant rights, gun control, and others. Asante-Muhammad and Chuck Collins, "We Still Have a Dream," Sun-Sentinel, August 27, 2023 Black Americans have endured the unendurable for too long. Sixty years after the famed March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his landmark “I Have a Dream” speech, African Americans are on a path where it will take 500 more years to reach economic equality. Our country has taken significant steps towards racial equity since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s. But growing income and wealth inequality over the last four decades has supercharged historic racial wealth disparities, slowing and even reversing some of those gains. Sixty years without substantially narrowing the Black-white wealth divide is a policy failure. But just as federal policy helped create the racial wealth gap, it can also help close it. The op-ed column by Asante-Muhammad and Chuck Collins is a summary of their report, "Still A Dream: Black Economic Inequality 60 Years After the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," which looks in detail at the state of that racial and wealth divide and recommends policy reforms that would substantially narrow it within one to two generations. by Harold Meyerson,
Even without Donald Trump anchoring last evening’s Republican debate on Fox News, his spirit fouled the air. The scapegoating, paranoid theorizing, misstatements of fact, and moral indifference that have been the hallmarks of Trump’s career went on merrily without him. The fear of offending the Trump cult that is now the Republican base dominated his rivals’ performances. When asked if they’d support him as the party’s nominee even if he’s convicted of the crimes for which he’s been indicted, all but former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (who appears to be running because he has nothing better to do) raised their hand. Even tough guy Chris Christie raised his, if halfway and belatedly, only then to explain it away as a gesture to redirect the conversation. So went the evening. Candidates who spoke of restoring faith in American justice, in reaffirming the fundamentals of Christian morality, felt compelled to give Trump a pass. It was hardly the night’s only "Do I contradict myself? Yes!" moment. Candidates who spoke for bolstering the nation’s police and its intelligence operations against drug cartels also demanded the dissolution of the FBI. Candidates who extolled both the rights and wisdom of the 50 states demanded a federal ban on abortions, lest they continue to happen in California, New York, and Illinois. Evasions were even more prominent than contradictions. Asked if they believed climate change was caused by human conduct, none raised their hands to signal that they did. Several then went on to blame China and India’s reliance on coal burning for the planet’s decay, but somehow, that didn’t mean that human conduct as such was to blame. (The coal in Asia apparently burns itself.) The spark plug of the evening was Vivek Ramaswamy, who combined the epistemic indifference of a shock jock with the patina of a Harvard education and the verbal speed of an auctioneer. No one treads quite so closely in Trump’s footsteps as Ramaswamy, who, like his mentor, overstates the MAGA base’s rage-filled misapprehensions to drive home that he’s one of them, only more articulate. No one else on the stage went so far as to call climate change "a hoax" or to dismiss the obvious moral claims of Ukraine (for which Nikki Haley took him so effectively to task that even the America Firsters in the room were silenced). If this had been the pre-Trump Republican Party, Haley would have won not only the evening but also a clear jump in the polls. But it’s not, and she probably didn’t. Almost every actual candidate (a description that cannot be applied to Hutchinson or North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum) had a back-and-forth with Ramaswamy, with the notable exception of the candidate whose prepared Ramaswamy attacks were actually leaked to the press: Ron DeSantis. Indeed, DeSantis opted not to mix it up with anyone other than, very briefly, the Fox moderators. As Haley, Christie, and Mike Pence all blew their respective gaskets at Ramaswamy’s smarminess, DeSantis appeared oddly detached. He may have been told that since he is universally viewed as a pit bull in a foul mood, he should eschew indignant exchanges, or, alternatively, he may simply lack the spontaneity to go off-script. Seldom have we seen a presidential debate where a contentious front-runner—well, the barely-hanging-on second-place leader of this Trumpless pack—receded so completely into the background. The evening certainly did DeSantis no favors, but it’s hard to see any of the other candidates surging to the point that they diminish Trump’s overwhelming lead. Until Ramaswamy veered into denials of reality so blatant that they offended even the MAGAnaut audience, he was the candidate the audience (and not just the Vivek-section) cheered the most. In Trump’s absence, he came closest to voicing their unmediated rage. DeSantis may voice their fury at wokeness, whatever that may be, but Vivek, like Trump, fairly spews it. (After all, he did write a book called Woke, Inc.) At various points, the crowd unleashed that fury at both Pence and Christie, so much so that moderator Bret Baier had to turn to them and ask them to pipe down. It’s the hate artists, the guys who steam with promises of vengeance on those they loathe, that today’s Republicans want to put in power. They’d have fit in just fine at the Nuremberg rallies. The American Prospect: https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-08-24-even-without-trump-still-trumps-party/ Thank you for joining the United Auto Workers (UAW) Solidarity Call! Together we heard from powerful speakers and hundreds of us showed the Big 3 Auto CEOS: The climate movement is organizing and stands in solidarity with UAW! Now, we need to keep up the pressure. Our friends at UAW have set up a number so our movement can make quick 2 min voicemails that UAW will deliver to Big 3 Auto CEOs so they hear loud and clear - RECORD PROFITS DESERVE RECORD CONTRACTS! We demand a fair UAW contract now! Call 318-300-1249 and leave a message → UAW will deliver it to the Big 3 Auto CEOs. When you call 318-300-1249, you’ll hear a brief intro about the contract negotiations from UAW. At the beep, just leave your message. Then text 5 friends and ask them to do the same. That’s it! Your 2 minute call will help amplify the pressure to meet auto workers’ demands for a fair contract! You can find talking points and additional ways to take action in the quick action guide we made for the call. Tweet about it! “This clean energy transition needs to be community driven. Working people are being left out while corporations are getting billions of dollars in government grants and huge tax breaks. We also know that we can't do this alone. We need the support of our elected officials, our fellow Union members, and the broader community.” - Marcelina Pedraza, UAW Local 551 Member This fight is just beginning, and we need all hands on deck! Stay tuned, let’s stick together until we win a fair contract. Solidarity! BY BRANKO MARCETIC As with any elected official, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Squad should be criticized when needed. But left-wing vitriol is unwarranted: it ignores the Squad’s many progressive accomplishments and their legislation’s aid to activist campaigns. JACOBIN. It’s tough being a member of the “Squad” these days. Once the darlings of the American left, the group of progressive and socialist House members that includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, and others are as likely to be savaged these days from the Left as they are from the Right. Popular YouTube commentators regularly denounce them as “sellouts,” protesters interrupt their meetings calling them warmongers, and even committed socialists question what the point of the Squad has been. The lion’s share of this ire has been trained on Representative Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who’s faced relentless criticism since winning office from all sides, sometimes over substantive issues (once failing to show up for an Amazon union rally, casting a vote that denied railworkers the ability to strike), sometimes over remarkably petty ones (conciliatory rhetoric, the positioning of her hands while being arrested). Much of this was crystallized in a recent critical analysis of Ocasio-Cortez’s record in New York magazine by Freddie deBoer, who charged she has drifted “from radical outsider to Establishment liberal,” making mere “token gestures of resistance to solidify the illusion that she is a gadfly,” and argued that her and the rest of the Squad’s entry into Congress has been entirely fruitless. Read more. https://jacobin.com/2023/08/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-aoc-the-squad-left-criticism-policy-accomplishments Photo Jacobin As the Georgia indictments make all too clear.
by Harold Meyerson. With 19 indicted conspirators and 30 unindicted conspirators, there are now almost as many Republicans caught up in Fulton County’s wheels of justice as there are Republican candidates for president. At some point, we may want to indict those candidates (among whom only Chris Christie and, lately and reluctantly, Mike Pence have noted that Trump appears to have broken the law), too. On the charge of contributing to the erosion of American democracy, any number are guilty as sin. The sheer length of Fulton County DA Fani Willis’s bill of criminal particulars makes clear that it takes a village to seize the presidency, even when that seizure is thwarted. Nor is it only in Georgia that those villagers are being hauled into court. Those Georgians who posed as the state’s electors have company in Michigan, where that state’s attorney general has indicted those Michiganders who swore, falsely, that they were that state’s authorized electors. According to a report in today’s Arizona Republic, both groups may yet be joined by Arizona’s electoral poseurs. Such is the genius of federalism. Some law school professors (not a lot) have argued that taking Trump to trial, much less convicting him, would do so much damage to our system of government and/or be so divisive that we shouldn’t go through with it. The question they don’t address, however, is what we should do about his co-conspirators who also broke fundamental laws—by, for instance, swearing falsely that they were their state’s electors and thereby depriving the voters of their state of their right to choose a president. Should people who violated the very laws on which the nation is based also be let go? And if not, how can we hold them responsible for such violations but exempt the person entirely responsible for their lawbreaking? This is the kind of thing that could give double standards a bad name. If we’re to scrap the very idea of equal justice under the law, in the most glaring and democracy-eroding way imaginable, tens of millions of Americans are certain to conclude that our legal system is a (bad) joke and a fraud. (Those Americans who keep abreast of the Supreme Court may well have already done that, of course.) I can only presume that those legal eagles who counsel us to cease the prosecutions of our former president don’t wish that to be the consequence. If they don’t, however, they’d have to support dropping the charges not just against Trump but against every knave and fool who broke the law on his behalf, including those who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Of course, if we’re actually serious about equal justice under the law, we’d scrap the Electoral College and the Senate, but I digress. From: the American Prospect http://americanprospect.bluelena.io/social/01894d6f048493d2cacde3c579c315a3.2302 The Steering Committee of DSA North Star unanimously calls for convention delegates to DEFEAT Amendment B to NPC Recommendation #8.
Update, the convention agenda has been amended. This topic is back on the agenda for discussion. Amendment B would bring back the resolution rejected by the survey of Delegates, to "Make DSA an anti-Zionist Organization" and expel all members found to be "Zionists", which was proposed by adherents of the DSA Boycott Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Working Group. There are three reasons why the DSA convention must defeat this proposal: 1. SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION A cardinal principle of solidarity is respecting the right of an oppressed people to democratically choose their own representatives. Yet in a resolution which purports to support the Palestinian struggle, there is no mention of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the broad organization of Palestinian civil society which is the coordinating body for the BDS campaign. Instead, the resolution proposes that DSA should work with the Palestinian Youth Movement, which is not affiliated with the BDS National Council, and which proclaims, “It Is Time for the Palestinian Leadership to Go.” The Palestinian BDS National Committee issued a statement separating itself from the unprincipled campaign the DSA BDS WG conducted against Comrade Bowman and the DSA NPC. DSA has no business taking sides in the internal affairs of Palestinians. 2. BUILDING THE BROADEST, STRONGEST OPPOSITION TO THE OCCUPATION AND ISRAELI STATE VIOLENCE AGAINST PALESTINIANS Building the broadest and strongest opposition to the Israeli occupation and state violence is a vital solidarity task. Yet in this resolution, the authors attack prominent DSA members, including Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who are among the most vocal public opponents in the United States of the Israeli occupation and state violence. Moreover, they single out by name as a prohibited “Zionist lobby” group a Jewish organization, J Street, which has been the strongest lobby on Capitol Hill against the occupation. Proposed amendment B would undermine vital coalition work against the occupation and Israeli state violence and must be defeated. 3. TURNING AWAY FROM A SELF-DESTRUCTIVE PATH OF PURGES The bulk of the resolution lays out an apparatus for conducting purges of DSA members who do not submit to the DSA BDS Working Group’s view of the Palestinian struggle. It leaves no doubt that its primary targets are prominent elected officials who are DSA members. There is another proposal to amend NPC Recommendation 8, Amendment A, without a mandate to purge DSA members and elected officials. However, amendment A also has the central, overriding flaw of prioritizing the issue of Palestine over all other issues in the world, by officially making DSA an "Anti-Zionist Organization". DSA is already an anti-racist and anti-imperialist organization. DSA's existing policy of opposing Israel's occupation by supporting BDS should not be replaced by either of these divisive factional statements, especially Amendment B. If adopted, Amendment B would contribute to the destruction of DSA as a relevant political organization by fomenting attacks on and expulsion of elected DSA members who are respected as progressive leaders. |
Principles North Star caucus members
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