IT'S BEEN OVER TWO WEEKS SINCE ELECTION DAY.  Despite the impressive ground-war mobilization to oust Bush and his cronies, the right-wing won big.  Without a doubt, these next 4 years will be full of defensive battles, organizing grassroots opposition, and keeping hope alive for a better world.  Just days after the now infamous Nov. 2nd, YDS' Coordinating Committee met in NYC to hash out our post-election plans and to further our work for social and economic justice.  Expect to hear from us soon about our winter outreach conference and other political initiatives.  After a break from sending out these email updates due to us being busy around the elections and the untimely illness of YDS' National Organizer (read his 'post-election ramblings' below), we'll now be resuming our more-or-less regular weekly schedule.  As always, send us your feedback or material for us to post.  And let us know how you're surviving and thriving in the face of GOP advances.   



              1) DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS IN THE NEWS
              2) LINKS OF THE WEEK: RED VS. BLUE GETS UGLY    
              3) POST-ELECTION RAMBLINGS
              4) ACTIONS: ELECTORAL REFORM, FALLUJA & SEX DISCRIM.

1) DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS IN THE NEWS
"Where Did We Go Wrong? Democrats add up the votes and go a little crazy"
by Harold Meyerson (DSA Vice Chair, writer for L.A Weekly, Washington Post & American Prospect)
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/51/powerlines-meyerson.php

"The Faith Factor"
by Barbara Ehrenreich (Honorary Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America-DSA)
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041129&s=ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich wins 2004 Puffin/Nation $100,000 Prize - author honored for her commitment to social justice:
http://www.nationinstitute.org/awards/puffin/

Progressive Radio: Frances Fox Piven Interview
Frances Fox Piven (DSA Honorary Chair), teaches at the City University of New York and has a new book out called "The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush's Militarism." The Progressive magazine editor spoke with her about the book, about what went wrong during the election, and about what can be done to halt the onslaught from the right.
http://www.progressive.org/radio.html#anchorpiven04


2) LINKS OF THE WEEK: RED VS. BLUE GETS UGLY
A mean-spirited rant against 'the South' and 'red states'
http://www.fuckthesouth.com
A smug and satirical conservative site urging Bush-haters to leave the country
http://www.helpthemleave.com
An inadvertently trippy site mapping the 'red' and 'blue' election results
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/


3) POST-ELECTION RAMBLINGS (from YDS' National Organizer, Lucas Shapiro)
I had planned to spend election day in swingin' Bucks County, PA to get-out-the-vote with other YDSers.  Instead, on that ill-fated Tuesday, I was stuck in bed fighting off a fever and cold chills.  That night I fell asleep hoping not only that I would feel better in the morning, but that I would wake up to news of Bush' ultimate defeat.  November 3rd also happened to be my 25th birthday, so I desperately wanted to be in good shape to celebrate our hard-fought victory over the hard-right.  Then the election results started coming in.  Bush would not only retain the White House, but the GOP would increase its dominance over every branch of government.  Could the marking of my first quarter century on this planet get any worse?  You bet.  As if by psycho-somatic reaction, I became dangerously sick and wound up in an ambulance on the way to the ER.

But to save this missive from becoming nothing more than a personal sob tale, here are some political reflections from my post-election week from hell:

NYC public hospitals are shockingly understaffed.  On Nov. 3rd, I spent nearly 7 hours in the emergency room and maybe saw a doctor for a total of 10 minutes.  The nurses (whom I happened to overhear lamenting Bush' victory) were stuck with sick and dying (no joke) patients who were all frustrated by the lack of medical attention they were receiving.  The man in charge of making sure I had health insurance visited more times than the doctor. If anything else, this serves as a reminder that the struggle for universal health care and adequate funding of our hospitals and clinics remains a pressing social justice issue.  For the 30% of 18-25 year-olds who are unlucky enough to have no health coverage whatsoever, a comparable time attached to an IV drip (I spent another 4 days in a moderately better hospital) would likely have been a debt sentence.

My landlord threatened to evict me while I was in the hospital, even after I sent in my monthly check.  The new lease I just signed included a 11% increase to what was already a ridiculously over-priced rent.  Big surprise, NYC housing is also steeped in a profound crisis. The powerful landlord lobby has successfully chipped away at what little affordable housing and tenant protections have existed.  Concentrated economic power and the inhumane logic of the market have immeasurably increased the hardship of millions on working people in NYC alone.  Capitalism has unleashed suffering on a much larger scale in other corners of the globe.

Despite the rather bleak picture I've painted, and despite the disappointing results of the election, there's no need to succumb to defeatism, to give up the fight or to take the spouse and kids and move to Canada.  Let us not forget that nearly 56 million Americans voted to toss Bush out of office.  Or that 4.6 million more 18-29 year-olds voted this time around than did in 2000.  And if us youngins alone were to have decided the election, Kerry would have won in a landslide.  Notwithstanding the results, countless youth and students were radicalized through the course of this election cycle, and undoubtedly many of them will commit to a life of organizing for change.  There seems to be an increasing understanding among a layer of activists and those new to politics that our struggle to build a progressive majority must combine both strategic short-term aims (largely around electoral politics) with more visionary long-term goals.  These are welcome developments, in my mind.

I want to end by going back to my rant against the sorry state of affordable housing here in NYC.  Believe it or not, there was a time when people who identified as socialists, mostly from immigrant communities, were able to build blocks of democratically-run, cooperative housing units to meet the needs of low-income families and trade-union members.  These Coops, as they were called, inspired social and economic relations that defied the profit motive and the capitalist system itself.  In addition to housing developments, there were socialist summer camps, reading rooms, cultural clubs, and neighborhoods with worker-run shops and cafes.  I was reminded of this proud, but often forgotten history, last weekend as I visited the 'Radicals in the Bronx' exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.  At a time now when the political label of 'liberal' is a dirty word for many, it's hard to imagine that earlier in the century large numbers of Americans marched under the banner of socialism.  Just like the socialists of the 20's and 30's who organized for racially-integrated, non-profit housing, the socialists of today are needed in the struggle for workers' rights, for marriage equality, for environmental justice, for access to quality education, for a sane U.S. foreign policy, for an end to racism in the criminal justice system... and the list goes on.  These next four years might be arduous, but there will be no shortage of critically important and meaningful work to do.  We owe it to ourselves and those we care about to (re)build the movements and institutions of the Left and carry on the good ol' fight for liberty, equality and solidarity.

    
4) ACTIONS ITEMS: ELECTORAL REFORM, FALLUJA & SEX DISCRIM.
Support Meaningful Election Reform
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=18058

Demand an Investigation into Falluja
United for Peace and Justice (of which YDS is a member organization) is urging everyone to demand an investigation into the humanitarian disaster in Falluja, Iraq and reports of widespread civilian casualties.
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/

Take a Stand with Dolores Huerta Against Sexual Discrimination
Please join Dolores Huerta (United Farm Worker's founder and DSA Honorary Chair) & tell Sorrento Lactalis--maker of Precious and Sorrento brand cheese--to take a stand against sexual discrimination.

Dolores has spent her life fighting for farm worker and women's rights. She is asking that we take a stand to help the dairy workers at Threemile Canyon Farms. These workers have been struggling to get a contract for the last 20 months.

Sorrento Lactalis, maker of Precious and Sorrento brand cheeses, currently receives milk produced by Threemile Canyon Farmsand refuses to use it's influence to help resolve this dispute despite requests from Threemile Canyon Farms customers such as Safeway.

Please make a difference for these workers. Sign the on-line petition calling on Sorrento to use its influence to resolve this situation. Go to:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/DHdairy?rk=J716HV51-P1fW



 
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