FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Metro DC DSA Demands Incoming Biden Administration Fight For Our Lives
DATE: Friday, December 11, 2020
PRESS CONTACT: For all press inquiries, please contact media@mdcdsa.org.
WASHINGTON, DC: Members of the Metropolitan DC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are marching with allies through downtown Washington, DC today to demand that the incoming Biden administration fight for a working class agenda that meets the scale of the present COVID and climate crises. The march includes a series of demonstrations at the offices of Biden cabinet appointments to highlight the ongoing corrosive influence of fossil fuel, corporate, and war profiteering interests on the Democratic Party’s climate, economic, and foreign policy. Today’s march is part of a nationwide DSA action to make it clear the Democratic Party leadership and incoming administration cannot afford to ignore working class needs during the ongoing crises.
The march is targeting the following appointments to Biden’s Cabinet, each of whom raise numerous concerns about the incoming administration’s commitment to bold action:
- Janet Yellen, Biden’s Treasury Secretary nominee, has a long history of advocating for austerity politics as a board member of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She is a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council, a group backed by corporations such as ExxonMobil, BP, and General Motors that resists transformational climate policies like the Green New Deal.
- Anita Dunn, Biden’s senior campaign advisor and co-chair of the transition team, is a managing director at SKDKnickerbocker, a corporate lobbying firm that represents fracked gas giant Dominion Energy and has consistently lobbied to overturn regulations in service to corporate interests.
- Tony Blinken, Biden’s Secretary of State nominee, co-founded WestExec Advisors, an opaque defense consulting firm, and serves as a partner with Pine Island Capital Partners, which is promising profits in the US defense market by utilizing their “relationships and networks.”
- Gen. Lloyd Austin, Biden’s Secretary of Defense nominee, serves on the board of numerous private weapons manufacturing corporations and his appointment directly violates the norm of civilian rule over the military.
- Brian Deese, Biden’s nominee for chair of the National Economic Council, was the Global Head of Sustainable Investing for BlackRock, the world’s largest financier of fossil fuels, leading the greenwashing efforts of BlackRock’s destructive investment practices.
- Neera Tanden, Biden’s Office of Management and Budget Director nominee, is the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, where she disbanded an employee union, backed policies that would slash Social Security benefits and cut Medicaid and Medicare coverage, and led opposition to the Green New Deal and Medicare for All.
“Despite narratives claiming otherwise, Green New Deal policies consistently poll positively with a growing majority of voters, yet we continue to hear leaders in the Democratic Party tell us that these ideas are too radical, too extreme, and will lose elections. We have a clear message for President-Elect Biden and his administration: those days are over,” said Ashik Siddique, a member of DSA’s national Green New Deal Campaign Committee.
Democratic Socialists of America are demanding that President-Elect Biden and the Democratic Party support the following policies:
- Pass a People’s Bailout and provide everybody $2,000 per month through the remainder of the public health crisis.
- Fund a Green Stimulus, including a trillion dollars to bail out state and local government’s budget crises.
- Enact a Federal Jobs Guarantee.
- Pass the PRO Act to protect and expand workers’ right to organize.
- Pass the Healthcare Emergency Guarantee Act to ensure everyone has access to free healthcare through the duration of the public health emergency.
“Biden told his donors behind closed doors that nothing fundamentally will change if he won. But we’re here to say that everything must change,” said Siddique. “After the 2008 economic crisis, the Obama administration chose to bail out capitalists instead of the people. Doing this again will lead to an even stronger fascist movement, and something even worse than Trump.”
“We need a bold climate plan that focuses on working people, not one that caters to the one percent,” said Maryland State Delegate Gabriel Acevero. “The crises at hand require an end to compromise with vested interests, austerity politics, and the revolving door of corporate corruption. With this in mind, there is no time to waste.”