May 21, 2021

For starters, here’s a recent talk to our San Francisco comrades on DSOC/DSA history and its founding spirits. 

Every year, the US sends over $3 billion in aid and an additional $8 billion in loan guarantees to Israel, while continuously defending its existence and “right to self defense” whenever conflict arises in occupied Palestine. But why? What is the root of all this endless support to the apartheid state? Jacobin tackled the question “Why Does the United States Support Israel?” this week, starting with the early developments of Zionism in the late 19th century until the solidification of the “special relationship” between the two countries.

Damon King of Legal Aid DC explains why limiting the emergency ban on utility shut-offs to people enrolled in safety net programs is a terrible idea. 

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott delivered a victory to housing justice advocates when he vetoed a bill that would have created alternatives to the traditional security deposit for renters, opening up a new market for predatory financial schemes. Now, advocates, including Baltimore DSA, are shifting their attention towards stopping the Baltimore City Council from overriding Scott’s veto.

The Fight for $15 signaled Wednesday that it would not dwindle away, McConnell or no, and Sarah Jaffe (Work Won’t Love You Back) in the Prospect shows how the false narrative of UI benefits as disincentives to return to the workplace is slithering into the discourse — and how it needs to be fought at every level.

NYT’s Tom Edsall again with a wide take on how a recent research piece that showed discussion of race as reducing support for progressive policies created a furor among left academics and illuminated how important careful discourse can be to the project. One leading academic in the Race-Class Narrative Project argues, “if the left chooses to say nothing about race, the race conversation doesn’t simply end. The only thing voters hear about the topic are the lies the right peddles to keep us from joining together to demand true progressive solutions.”

Tax talk (unglaze those eyes!) from our economist comrade and frequent GOOD READS contributor Dave R: “‘Unless the stepped-up basis loophole is closed, we will soon have a large class of hugely rich people who have never worked a day in their lives.’ PS Every dollar a wealthy person has that he/she didn’t work for is a dollar that a worker worked for that he/she doesn’t have.”

Inspired by protests for racial justice last summer, a six-step DIY guide to steering institutional change. The animating idea: since racism is systemic, all institutions must change and each of us is well-positioned to advance racial equity in the institutions we are already part of. Prepared by a local comrade.

And just yesterday (Thursday), our comrade Jimmy Tarlau outlined in Maryland Matters why Maryland’s Dem power structure still jumps through hoops held by the business community and has left wide swathes of public sector workers unable to join unions.