Sunday, December 18^th

4:00 – 7:00 PM

536 W. 111 Street, Apt. 37

Manhattan

Between Broadway and Amsterdam

No. 1 train or M104 bus

We’ll have some drinks and nibbles, but please consider bringing something to share.

RSVP to nycdsa@gmail.com.

NYC DSAers should convene at the northeast corner of Foley Square (near intersection of Worth and Centre Streets) at 5:00PM. Look for DSA banners, buttons, and signs. After rallying with the laborers’ union, we will march to the Brooklyn Bridge, where a musical event will mark the two-month anniversary of the #occupy movement, and our commitment to shining light into our broken economic and political system.

As the old saying goes, without struggle there is no progress. In these dark times, we should go one step further – without struggle, there is no future. This is the fight of our lives. Join us.

RSVP to nycdsa@gmail.com or 212-727-8610.

Many NYC DSAers have been involved in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests. This work has been very useful and important, but in order to build NYC DSA and to maximize the strategic impact of our interventions, we need to do so as members of our organization, not as individuals.  

To that end, NYC DSA will begin meeting weekly to debrief our OWS activities, plan future interventions, and discuss the future of this exciting and inspiring movement.  The first of these weekly meetings will occur this Sunday, October 30 at the national DSA office at 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 505 in lower Manhattan.

All local DSAers are strongly encouraged to attend. Dinner will be served!

As the #OccupyWallStreet protests in lower Manhattan near their one-month anniversary, it’s worth taking stock of what has been accomplished so far and what remains to be done in the weeks, months, and even years ahead.

Since its birth on September 17, this phenomenon (I still hesitate to call it a movement) has accomplished very much indeed. It has captured the imagination of countless people in the United States and around the world, and garnered a great deal of attention in the mainstream media. It has shown that discontent with the exceedingly bleak political-economic situation that confronts us does not come exclusively from the libertarian and conservative Right. While the populist cry of “we are the 99 percent” may set my Marxist teeth on edge, it nonetheless speaks to the aspirations, insecurities, and interests of the working-class majority and points toward the construction of a solidaristic, collective political subject—a highly welcome development for a Left that’s typically been far more concerned with the politics of recognition and difference in recent decades. And in inspiring at least 150 copycat protests in cities and towns across the country, it has fired hopes that—at long last—a new period of mass social protest has begun.

Everyone who has been involved in #OccupyWallStreet, from the nucleus of activists who have spent weeks sleeping on cold concrete to those whose contributions have been far more episodic, should be proud of what we’ve done. Considering the chaotic and frustrating conditions that prevailed during the first days of the protests, as well as the rather unimpressive record of left organizing and activism in recent years, I’m still in disbelief that things have developed so far and so fast. This is no small victory.

Still, there is a staggering amount of work that remains to be done. Global capital can easily withstand a few weeks’ worth of political theater, no matter how brilliant or inspiring. As Slavoj Žižek put it in his moving speech to the general assembly in Zuccotti Park last Sunday, let’s not fall in love with ourselves and our beautiful gestures but with the long, hard struggle for a new society that lies ahead. Occupation can be a highly effective tactic, but it is not a strategy and it is not a movement. As fall turns to winter and the encampments in lower Manhattan and elsewhere inevitably disband, activists will need to build new organizations, institutions, and coalitions that can follow through on the promise of these protests and make concrete gains in the lives of the people they claim to speak for.

But not everyone among the multitudes on Broadway feels the same way.

Read the rest at Dissent’s Arguing the World blog.

Chris Maisano: What have you thought of the protests so far?

Frances Fox Piven: I think they’ve been pretty terrific. And I really am hopeful that it’s the beginning of a new period of social protest in this country. I think a lot about the protest is absolutely on target, it’s so smart. It was so smart to pick Wall Street because Wall Street looms so large not only in the reality of inequality and recession policy, but it looms so large in the minds of people now because everybody knows that they’re stealing the country blind. So they picked the right place, they had somehow — I don’t know how self-consciously, maybe self-consciously — absorbed a kind of lesson from Tahrir Square of staying there, because usually we have demonstrations and marches and parades and things, and they’re over in a nanosecond. And all that the authorities have to do is wait, because they’re gonna be over.

So what they tried to do is take this classical form of the mass rally — they didn’t do it alone, obviously it happened in Egypt too — and connected it with the disruptive potential of mass action because they said “we’re staying.” And “we’re staying” is more troublesome. Not only that, “we’re staying” makes it possible for them to organize and mobilize throughout the course of the action, which is what they do. So that part of it was pretty, pretty smart.

They are smart in being very inclusive. I mean, they’re very happy to include everybody, and they’ve actively reached out to the unions. When has a youthful protest done that in living memory? A very long time since that’s happened. But they knew from the beginning — probably they were helped to learn that from Wisconsin. And they’re so happily counter-cultural, you can’t even get angry at them if you’re a stiff old person! Then you read their statements, I’m sure you do. Well, I do too. And I think they’re very thoughtful for statements issued by a general assembly sitting on the cold cement – they’re very good statements, and they really are statements that include the 99%. So it’s great.

It’s also true that when I say I think we may be on the cusp, at the beginning of a another period of social protest and [Occupy Wall Street] is the sign, I don’t think that social protest works as a little explosion and gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. It doesn’t happen that way. It’s much more interrupted, dispersed, there are periods of discouragement — 1959-1960 the civil rights movement people thought it was over, after 1962 in Albany, Georgia — this movement is going to be like that too.

Read the rest of the interview at The Activist.

A message from new DSA National Director Maria Svart:

We Want YOU to Attend the National Convention – Register Now!

Join us at the 15th biennial convention of Democratic Socialists of America, November 11-13 in the Washington D.C. suburb of Vienna, Va. Register now.

We are the alternative to the tea party conservatives, the Republicans whose only program is to say no, the Democrats who have forgotten what progressive politics really are and the progressives who think that they can stand apart from the left.

It’s time to use plain language. Despite the GOP’s talking points to the contrary, Warren Buffett was right when he said “there’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

Now is the time to focus on some critical questions:

1) How do we respond to the Right’s relentless and extreme assaults on working people and their institutions?

2) How do we build a response that rebuilds our economy, provides equitable access to education for young people, and provides jobs and security for workers, the retired and the near-retired in the aftermath of the Great Recession?

3) How do we set a political agenda that strengthens progressive forces and inspires rather than disillusions activists and voters?

Over the last two years, we have continued renewing and revitalizing our organization to meet the challenge of making the socialist tradition relevant to 21st century America. Membership has grown, new DSA locals and YDS chapters have organized and I have become the new National Director.

We must keep building DSA.  Never has the United States been in greater need of the contributions of democratic socialists to rebuild the American Dream.

In the words of Michael Moore, “America is not broke!”

Attend the convention to:

·         Get to know fellow DSAers and YDSers from around the country, share activist best-practices, and build democratic socialist community

·         Discuss and debate our political strategy and elect our national leadership for the next two years

·         Develop organizing skills like recruiting new members and getting our message into the media

·         Participate in workshops and other convention sessions about: defending public services, a socialist-feminist response to the recession, dealing with the jobs crisis, progressive taxation, cutting the bloated military budget and much more!

Convention Registration

Register online and make hotel reservations now.

·         Convention delegates are elected by DSA local organizations. Members not in locals may run as at-large delegates to the convention. YDS (youth section) members attend as delegates with their local or as at-large delegates. There is also an option to attend as an Observer.

·         Or call the national office to register and get more information: (212) 727-8610.

·         The advanced convention fee of $195 covers all materials as well as coffee breaks and a Saturday banquet dinner. The week-of convention fee is $220, but we need to plan ahead so please register as soon as possible. Limited financial aid will be available for members in need. Child care can be provided. Roommates can be arranged to decrease hotel costs.

·         As soon as you register, delegates will be added to a special email listserve for pre-convention discussion and a list to receive further convention information.

·         The convention will be held at the Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner, 8661 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA 22182, in a suburb of Washington, DC.

·         Hotel Reservations: To reserve a room and receive the special convention rate of $109 (for a single or a double room) per night plus tax, call (703) 448-1234 and reference the DSA convention, or register online here. The rooms and the special discount will be held only until the beginning of October, so make your reservations now. Your credit card will not be charged until you arrive at the hotel.

Our convention is the opportunity to improve your organizing skills, share ideas with other DSA activists, and decide the direction of our organization for the next two years.

A corporate-dominated political system will move in a progressive direction only if powerful democratic social movements force it to do so. Your participation is important.

If not now, when?  Register today.

In solidarity,

Maria Svart

National Director

From Adrian Kinloch's flickrstream (http://flic.kr/p/as6oij)

This Wednesday, labor, community, and student groups will march in solidarity with the courageous and inspiring members of the Occupy Wall Street encampment – and NYC DSA will be there with them. All DSAers in and around New York City are strongly encouraged to join us this Wednesday and lend their voices and their hearts to the growing movement to end corporate rule.

NYC DSAers should begin gathering at our offices at 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 505 at 3:30 PM. We will collect our banners, signs, buttons, and literature and then walk to City Hall, where the march is scheduled to begin at 4:30PM.

As the old saying goes, without struggle there is no progress. In these dark times, we should go one step further – without struggle, there is no future. This is the fight of our lives. Join us.

This Wednesday, the NYC local of Democratic Socialists of America will host the final installment of its summer discussion series. All local members and anyone else who might be interested are strongly encouraged to attend!

When: Wednesday, August 31, 7:00PM
Where: 15 Avenue C, Apt. #1 (just north of E Houston St.)
Subways: F to 2nd Avenue or J/M/Z to Essex St.

Please RSVP to nycdsa@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

Readings
Antonio Negri, excerpts from The Porcelain Workshop/Empire

Doug Henwood, Liza Featherstone, Christian Parenti, “Action Will be Taken: Left Anti-Intellectualism and its Discontents“

Barbara Epstein, “Why the US Left is Weak and What to do About It“

It remains to be seen whether or not it can be passed in time before the August 2 deadline to raise the federal debt ceiling, but the “Gang of Six” deficit reduction proposal seems to be gathering support among Congressional leaders in both parties as well as the Obama administration. While the mainstream media unfailingly characterizes the proposal as “serious” and “bold,” the simple truth is that it gives even more tax increases to the wealthiest Americans while cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. As Dean Baker sums up in a press release on the plan:

In short, this is a plan that should be expected to please the wealthy since it will mean large reductions in their tax liability in the decades ahead. On the other hand, most of the rest of the country is likely to feel the effects of lower Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, in addition to other cuts that are not yet fully specified.

A “Gang of 70-Plus” House Democrats has issued a statement opposing the plan, and last week it sent a letter to House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) expressing opposition to cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

NYC DSA is pleased by these developments. But all the statements and letters in the world are not worth the paper they are written on unless words are backed up by action.

That’s why NYC DSA will be outside the regional Social Security office at 26 Federal Plaza on Friday, July 22nd at 12:30PM to call on NYC’s Congressional delegation to stand firm against the Gang of Six and any other deficit deals that undermine the social programs Americans need most. Join us as we call in to Congressional offices and pass out literature telling our representatives to send the Gang of Six packing! No tax cuts for the rich, no program cuts for the rest of us!

from the Center for Working Families

________________________________________

“I’ve never made this many cuts, never had to.” – James P. Mazgajewski, Cheektowaga-Sloan Superintendent.
________________________________________

What does a tax cut for millionaires look like?

Communities across New York are starting to find out – as they cough up for the state’s millionaires tax break:

•    Erie County plans to carve out over 25% of the libraries’ books and materials budget and raise local taxes to support what’s left.

•    North Tonawanda is cutting gifted and talented education and has to raise property taxes.

•    Syracuse schools are slashing 470 jobs – nearly 12% of its staff.

•    Suffolk County is scrambling to keep the doors open at two of its county health care centers.

•    Poughkeepsie will shutter a local psychiatric center and three community facilities that served in-patients and out-patients in Putnam, Ulster and Dutchess counties.

•    New York City will end its commitment to thousands of kids who had been promised college scholarships for keeping a B average.

•    Things have gotten so bad in Brooklyn that civil courts are moving to a once-a-week schedule and Coney Island is rationing toilet paper.

From Buffalo to Suffolk, tax breaks for a few look like more layoffs, bigger classes, and fewer essential programs.  And tax hikes for the rest of us, just to maintain what’s left.

Tell us what it’s looking like in your community.  We’ll print the best – or the worst – in the next issue.

Sunshine Ludder & Chloe Tribich

Follow us!

Center for Working Families creates and implements innovative policy ideas to improve the lives of working and low income New Yorkers. To learn more or sign up to receive future eblasts, visit our website.

Center for Working Families
1133 Broadway
Suite #332
New York, NY 10010
(212) 206-9168