Stay ConnectedWeekly radio show from the Democratic Socialists of America in NYC, recorded live at WBAI 99.5 in Brooklyn NY, Tuesday @ 7pm EST. Listen and call-in!
Our vision for a democratic socialist future, from the minds and hearts of organizers fighting every day in NYC. Hear the latest news, analysis, and organizing experience from our members and partners and learn how to be part of a revolutionary political moment. Join the movement at socialists.nyc!
Copyright: © NYC Democratic Socialists of America
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.
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.
You’re listening to Revolutions Per Minute live on WBAI 99.5fm. We’re a socialist radio show and podcast from members of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America. DSA is the largest socialist organization in the United States, with 95,000 members nationwide and NYC-DSA is its biggest chapter. We are run by our 7,000+ members and organizers who are working together to build democratic socialism in all five boroughs. As our returning listeners are well aware of, there is currently an ongoing struggle for Public Power here in New York. Earlier today, ecosocialists organizers held a rally outside city hall to demand the transformation of our statewide energy system necessary to avoid climate catastrophe. We’ll share with you protest sounds and speech from the action. Later in the show I’ll speak with DSA anti imperialist organizers Olivia Katbi Smith and Dylan Saba about the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement against Israeli aparthied. DSA supports freedom of movement and equal civil and democratic rights for all people across the world. Palestinians are no exception. We’ll discuss how an anti imperialist analysis reveals how ruling classes across the region and especially here in the United States profit and are empowered by the current state of affairs. International working class solidarity is the only solution.
Last night, hundreds of people occupied the amphitheatre area in front of the Brooklyn Museum to share stories and collectively mark the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. At least 15 NYPD vehicles lurked on Eastern Parkway 100 yards away. The police presence included the large vans used to transport people who have been arrested as well as two vans for NYPD’s notorious Strategic Response Group, a “riot control” division which has violently arrested, pepper sprayed, and intimidated anti-racist and anti-fascist protestors consistently over the last year. SRG was established in 2015 and has an estimated yearly budget of $68 million.
We know it doesn’t have to be this way. We can change our city for the better by redistributing the massive amount of resources NYPD uses to harass and intimidate New Yorkers and investing that money in healthcare, education, housing, parks, art, and other things that will actually improve our quality of life and keep our communities safe. Tonight on Revolutions per Minute, we hear from DSA-endorsed candidate for City Council District 22 Tiffany Cabán, a long time de-carceral activist, on why she was proud to sign on to DSA’s vision for real public safety and budget justice. We’ll also be taking your calls live with Kay Gabriel, an NYC-DSA member and Defund NYPD organizer.
Learn more about Tiffany Cabán and her campaign at www.cabanforqueens.com.
Has your City Council candidate signed on to the Real Public Safety pledge? Visit bit.ly/defundpressure2021 to find out and get involved.
Revolutions per Minute looks forward to seeing you at the Defund NYPD week of action May 31 - June 6! View a full schedule and sign up at https://www.defundnypd.com/woa.
With only three weeks left in the New York State legislative session and city primaries following up close behind, socialist are in the streets! Tonight we’ll hear from comrades in Astoria who are fighting to pass Public Power as well as comrades in Sunset Park, who are working to elect DSA-endorsed candidate for city council Alexa Avilés. And we’ll also talk with Alexa herself about how her mother’s struggle for Puerto Rican liberation and being a mother fighting for her own kids’ education has shaped her politics and about her community’s vision for District 38.
To get involved with Alexa's campaign: www.alexaforcouncil.com/
To get involved with the campaign for Public Power: https://ecosocialists.nyc/events/
It’s our second annual post-May Day labor movement extravaganza! From coast to coast, workers are organizing to win, making gains, and reckoning with disappointments and challenges. On today’s show, we’re joined live by journalist and organizer Chris Brooks and by our radio comrades Jacob and David, hosts of Valley Labor Report -- Alabama’s only union talk radio show! From workers at the heart of New York’s cultural and media worlds to mine workers on strike in Alabama, it’s all on the table for tonight’s show.
Valley Labor Report broadcasts Saturday mornings from 9:30am-11:00am on 92.5FM/770AM WVNN. Watch from anywhere on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheValleyLaborReport and follow the show on Twitter @LaborReporters.
If you’re ready to organize your workplace or just get more active in the labor movement, a great place to start is the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (https://workerorganizing.org/) a joint effort between DSA National and United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.
As socialists, we know that healthcare goes beyond direct contact between providers and patients and into issues of budgets, community safety, and long-standing social forces like racism and misogyny. How can we organize for real public health? On tonight's show we're joined by DSA-endorsed Assemblymember, nurse, and organizer Phara Souffrant Forrest of District 57 in Brooklyn to discuss vaccine disparities, Cuomo's austerity baby, and the goals of our movement in Albany. We also hear from NYC-DSA's Healthcare Working Group on our campaign to pass the New York Health Act and the critical importance of universal healthcare to the overall socialist project.
Follow Phara Souffrant Forrest, Assemblymember for District 57 at @phara4assembly. Follow along with NYC-DSA’s Healthcare Working Group at @NYCDSA_Health or email healthcare@socialists.nyc.
Much of conventional labor organizing is centered around a shared physical location for workers, like a shop floor or a break room. But what about those who work in cars, on bikes, or in others' homes? Our labor movement stands in solidarity with all workers because an injury to one is an injury to all. On tonight's show, we'll talk to NYC-DSA endorsed candidate for City Council Jaslin Kaur about organizing for justice for taxi workers and why her home district in Eastern Queens is ready for democratic socialism. We also speak to Margaret of the Ain't I A Woman? campaign of home health care workers organizing for control over their time. Finally, we hear an update from our Defund NYPD campaign, which has launched a new pledge for City Council candidates to affirm their commitment to defunding NYPD and investing in social services.
To learn more and get involved with Jaslin Kaur’s campaign for City Council, please visit jaslinkaur.nyc.
The Ain’t I A Woman? campaign is calling for community support at a picket outside Chinese-American Planning Council in Manhattan Chinatown on April 28th. Learn more and RSVP at tinyurl.com/APR28CPC or visit aintiawoman.org.
To learn more about the Defund NYPD campaign and its pledge for City Council candidates, go to defundnypd.com
To get involved with the campaign for Public Power: http://ecosocialists.nyc/ and https://www.nypublicpower.com/
To get involved with the Internet for All campaign: internetforall.nyc/join
With a surge in anti-AAPI violence making news and the Derek Chauvin murder trial ripping open wounds, it's time to keep up the pressure and defund NYPD. On tonight’s show, we’re joined live by Cheryl Rivera, an organizer with NYC-DSA’s Defund NYPD and Abolition Action campaigns. We’ll discuss common myths and misconceptions about defunding the police and organizing for community safety in a non-carceral framework. We also hear from Lizzy of Queens DSA and our Immigrant Justice Working Group and Yves from the grassroots collective Red Canary Song on violence against Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities and why increased policing is not the answer. To learn more about the Defund NYPD campaign, please visit www.defundnypd.com. To learn more about Red Canary Song and its work with Asian and migrant sex workers, visit https://www.redcanarysong.net/. To donate or request funds from the NYC-DSA Mutual Aid fund, visit bit.ly/covid19aid.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
