Bernie Sanders Offers Progressive Economic Plan

Bernie Sanders's 12 Commandments to Save America's Soul


Bernie Sanders Pitches Progressive Economic Vision

Bernie Sanders's Bold Economic Agenda Seeks to Transform Politics


Petition to Encourage Bernie Sanders to Run for President in 2016

The 2014 Election and Beyond

The Democrats Catastrophe: The 2014 Election and Beyond

The 2014 Elections and Beyond

Thoughts on the Nov. 4 Election

Americans Aren't Buying into Democrats' Empty Economic Promises

The Democrats Need a Shot in the Arm

The Democratic Party is Going Nowhere, Can Progressives Take It Over?

Capitalism vs. the Environment

Capitalism Socialism and Sustainability - Democratic Socialists of America



Naomi Klein: "We Can't Dodget this Fight Between Capitalism and Climate Change" In These Times



This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate (A Manual for a Movement) In These Times

Top 3 Things About the 2013 Poverty and Income Data

Top 3 Things About the 2013 Poverty and Income Data



New data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau show that four years into the economic recovery, there has been some progress in the poverty rate as it fell from 15 percent in 2012 to 14.5 percent in 2013, with gains especially strong for children, whose poverty rates fell by nearly 2 percentage points. There was no statistically significant improvement, however, in the number of Americans living in poverty. The share of families struggling on the economic brink also remains elevated, with aboutone-third of Americans—33.9 percent—just one paycheck, sick child, or broken-down car away from poverty.

Run, Bernie, Run!

DSA is encouraging Sen. Bernie Sanders to run for President in 2016.  Sign the petition and help urge Bernie to Run in 2016 to challenge Hillary Clinton and other corporatist Democrats in the Democratic Party primary.

Run, Bernie, Run! - Democratic Socialists of America

May Day 2014

A May Day 2014 Lament for American Labor (Talking Union)

Tennessee Labor Activists Bring ‘Moral Monday’ to May Day - Working In These Times

Put the People First 

Talking Union

NLRB backs locked out Kellogg's workers/Charges Kellogg with Labor Violations

The National Labor Relations Board has sided with the Memphis Kellogg workers and against Kellogg's illegal lockout of the workers

U.S. Government Charges Kellogg with Serious Violations of Federal Law (BCTGM)

NLRB backs locked out Kellogg's workers » The Commercial Appeal

U.S. Gov't Charges Kellogg with Labor Violations (CH 24 Memphis)

Bernie Sanders for President 2016 ?

Even though Hillary Clinton is expected to be the inevitable Democratic nominee for President if (when) she throws her hat in the ring, many progressives and democratic socialists are pushing for Sen. Bernie Sanders, the progressive/left/socialist senator from Vermont to run, either in the Democratic Primary against Hillary Clinton to challenge her from the democratic left, or as an independent.  There are good arguments for either path, but it all depends on Bernie Sanders, who seems to interested in running...

Bernie Sanders: ‘I Am Prepared to Run for President of the United States’ | The Nation

Bernie Sanders: I Would Be A Better President than Hillary Clinton

Are Progressives Ready for "Political Revolution" with Bernie? Common Dreams

DSA/Labor Activist Bill Fletcher argues that if Sanders does run, he should run in the Democratic Primary  To the Point

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has launched it's own petition to urge Sanders to run

Draft Bernie Sanders Petition

And there is a Draft Bernie Facebook group

UAW Loses Volkswagen Vote in Chatanooga: Now What

TN Volkswagen Employees Vote Against Joining the UAW

UAW's Take: Historic Election Brings Outside Interference in Chattanooga VW Vote

How the UAW Lost Chattanooga (Talking Union)

UAW Appeals Election Lost at Chattanooga VW Plat

Tennessee Volkswagen Workers Vote on Union

Tennessee Republicans and national anti-labor organizations are in a frenzy to stop Volkswagen workers from joining the UAW, even though Volkswagen is not taking any sides and is not fighting it.

Volkswagen Workers Vote on Union, Works Council Scheme | Talking Union

Chattanooga Showdown  (Harold Meyerson)

Volkswagen Workers Call for End to Outside Interference (Talking Union)

Tenn. Republicans Threaten to Block Subsidies if VW Plant Unionizes (Talking Union)

How Tennessee Papers are Helping the Anti-Union Fight (Media Matters)

When the Boss Wants a Union, But the GOP Says "NO" (In These Times)

UPDATE: Tennessee Volkswagen Plant Employees Vote Against Joining UAW

In Memphis, Locked-Out Kellogg Workers Evoke MLK’s Legacy

In Memphis, Locked-Out Kellogg Workers Evoke MLK’s Legacy - Working In These Times

Martin Luther King, Socialism and Economic Justice

As the U.S. celebrates the MLK holiday Jan. 20, we need to remember that Dr. King's dream was not just about racial equality, but economic and social justice for all.  He is probably the best articulator of democratic socialism in modern U.S. history.

Martin Luther King and Economic Justice 

Martin Luther King, Economic Justice, Workers' Rights and Multiracial Democracy 

The Martin Luther King You Don't See on TV (FAIR)

Dr. King's Nightmare 

How would MLK view the Forbes 400 controlling as much wealth as our entire African-American population of about 41 million people? Could that state of affairs co-exist with his dream?

State of the Dream -2014 (United for a Fair Economy)

Restoring King (Jacobin)

4 Ways Martin Luther King Was More Radical Than You Thought (Alternet)

The Radical MLK We Need Today  (Salon)

MLK Day Jan. 20

This Monday (Jan. 20) is MLK Day and a great opportunity to support the locked-out BCTGM Kellogg workers in Memphis.  Join Memphis DSA to honor MLK on his birthday and march with Memphis labor groups and workers.

See: Kellogg Locks Out BCTGM-Represented Workers for more info

Memphis MLK Events

Please join us on MONDAY, JANUARY 20th in supporting Locked-Out Kellogg Workers at the annual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day festivities in Memphis Tennessee.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

10:00 A.M.

The 29th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King National Holiday Parade, sponsored by the Commission on Religion and Racism (CORR)

BCTGM International President David Durkee will march in the parade with a large group of locked out BCTGM Kellogg workers from Memphis.

WHERE? Parade begins at the slave auction block in Memphis, Tenn. – corner of Main & Auction, proceeding south on Main to Exchange, east on Exchange to Second, South on Second to Beale Street, and from Beale Street on Second to the National Civil Rights Museum.

2:00 P.M.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) will commemorate the leadership, vision, beliefs, and sacrifice of life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

BCTGM International President David Durkee is a featured speaker and the 225 locked out Kellogg workers are being honored as special guests.

WHERE? Cane Creek Baptist Church – 1785 Bellvue Blvd. Memphis, Tenn.

CLICK HERE to RSVP to this event on Facebook.

The War on Poverty-Fifty Years Later

50 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the Great Society "War on Poverty."  Our national poverty rate fell 42 percent during the War on Poverty, from 1964 to 1973. And that trend continues today: The poverty rate fell from 26 percent in 1967 to 16 percent in 2012 when safety net programs are taken into account.  While right-wing critics of the 'war on poverty' claim that social programs to address poverty have been failures, without programs like SNAP (food stamps), Medicare, Social Security, etc., the U.S. poverty rate would be much higher.  These programs have reduced poverty, but budget cuts and changes in the labor market have kept the poverty rate too high.  Since Reagan declared a war on the "war on poverty", the poor have suffered from cuts to programs to increase wages, access to healthcare, and public assistance (food stamps, etc.)

It is time to wage a new War on Poverty, with the immediate goal of cutting poverty in half in the next decade.  We need a New "New Deal," a New Economic Bill of Rights to guarantee every working person a job with living wages, healthcare and education, including free public college.  This should be the shared agenda of the democratic left in the next decade.  DSA is working to build the movement to renew the war on poverty and build a more equal and just society.

50 Years Later: War on Poverty Has New Battle Lines (USA Today)

10 Things You Might Not Know About Poverty

Everything You Need to Know About the War on Poverty (Washington Post)

The War on Poverty: Then and Now (Center for American Progress)

50 Years After LBJ’s War on Poverty | Center for American Progress

Resetting the Poverty Debate: Renewing Our Commitment to Shared Prosperity (CAP)

The Great Society programs of the 60s got the working-age poverty rate down from 20 percent to 15 percent, but then we gave up. Since the mid-70s, the poverty rate has stayed stubbornly stuck at about 15 percent:

We Could Do A Lot More to Fight Poverty If We Wanted To

Minimum Wage Raise Would Reduce Poverty by 5 Million (TIME)

Five Economic Reforms Millennials Should Be Fighting For (Rolling Stone)

America's Shame: Child Poverty Rises and Food Stamps Cut While Billionaires Boom

Inequality is (Literally) Killing America (The Nation)

The Female Face of Poverty (The Atlantic)

50 Years Later, A New Hunger for National Anti-Poverty Agenda (Common Dreams)

Is America Ready for a New War on Poverty? (Common Dreams)

The War on Poverty is Our Moral Challenge Now 

No Time to Wait

TAKE ACTION: Toolkit

Resources for the 50th Anniversary of the War on Poverty (Half in Ten Campaign)
DSA is working with the Half in Ten Campaign and the Coalition on Human Needs to urge Congress and the President to take action now to address poverty and growing inequality in the U.S.

The Problem Is Capitalism

See Also:
Poverty In America: 50th Anniversary of THE OTHER AMERICA (Memphis DSA)

American Crisis: U.S. Poverty Highest since 1960s (Memphis DSA)

CHANGE THE USA, JOIN DSA!