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For Immediate Release
March, 22 2019, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Lawrence Dreyfuss, 212-727-8610, media@dsausa.org
Democratic Socialists of America Endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for President
DSA's National Political Committee (NPC) voted to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for president at a special meeting on Thursday.
WASHINGTON
DSA's National Political Committee (NPC) voted to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for president at a special meeting on Thursday.
The endorsement vote is a culmination of a process that has unfolded in the 56,000-member organization over the last three months, from debates at the local chapter and regional level, to an advisory poll in which over 75% of eligible members voted to support an endorsement. The NPC is the DSA's highest elected body between national conventions, and with its vote to endorse Thursday night, the DSA is officially moving forward with an independent campaign to elect Bernie Sanders and advance a class-struggle agenda.
Sanders is the only democratic socialist running for president in 2020, and the only socialist in American history with a serious chance of winning the presidency. Sanders's platform -- Green New Deal, Medicare for All, College for All, ending cash bail, strengthening unions, and a living wage -- would transform American society by ending the worst forms of poverty and inequality while empowering workers to fight for even more.
"Bernie Sanders is part of an incredible revival of resistance to billionaires and their corporations," said DSA National Director Maria Svart. "Democratic socialists are proud to join with Sanders, his millions of supporters, teachers and other workers on strike across the US, and students protesting climate change across the world in fighting for a society that puts people over profit. But even as we endorse Sanders, we know that no single president can do this alone: only by building a massive, multi-racial working-class movement for the long term can we fight back against the capitalist class. We just have to remember: we have the power if we stand together."
As Sanders himself said at a rally in Iowa this month, the billionaires and corporations who control US politics "are so powerful, they have so much money, that no one person, not the best president in the world, can take them on alone. The only way we transform America is when millions of people together stand up and fight back."
Since Sanders and his program are popular among a diverse base of millions of workers, his run for president offers unprecedented opportunities to build that movement. This week at the UCLA picket lines in California, Sanders made clear that his campaign will be helping to build the working-class movement in this country: "What we are seeing all across this country is a war being waged against the working people of America. And the time is long overdue for the American people to stand up, to say enough is enough."
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has over 55,000 members and 200 local groups (as of November 2018) building working class power while establishing an openly democratic socialist presence in American communities and politics.
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The lone Palestinian American in the U.S. Congress said Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "must be arrested" in compliance with warrants issued by judges on the International Criminal Court, a response that contrasted sharply with that of the Biden administration and allies of President-elect Donald Trump.
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The ICC also approved an arrest warrant for Hamas military leader Muhammad Deif, whom Israel claims to have killed in an airstrike in southern Gaza last month.
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Tlaib was among a number of progressive U.S. lawmakers who backed the ICC's decision as the Biden White House, Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and likely members of the incoming Trump administration lashed out at the court and threatened retaliation—underscoring the country's outlier status as its allies affirmed their support for the ICC and said they would abide by its warrants.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Thursday that the ICC's decision represents "an important step to hold these war criminals accountable for their grave crimes against humanity and war crimes."
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also voiced agreement with the ICC's decision to issue the warrants, saying late Thursday that the court's charges against Netanyahu, Gallant, and Deif "are well-founded."
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In his statement Thursday, Sanders said that "Netanyahu, Gallant, and Deif have all launched indiscriminate attacks against civilians, and all three have caused unimaginable suffering within the civilian population."
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The American Prospect's David Dayen, the author of an acclaimed book on Wall Street foreclosure fraud, noted Friday that Bondi's victory in Florida's 2010 attorney general election was aided in part by donations from Lender Processing Services and other firms that were facing investigations launched by the office of Bondi's predecessor.
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In a November 8 letter obtained by ProPublica, Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey wrote that an "investigation was unable to uncover which individual(s) disclosed confidential information" despite state law and confidential agreements signed by panel members barring such disclosures.
Toomey explained that the committee was immediately "disbanded," a replacement panel will be formed through a new application process, and additional procedures are under consideration regarding confidentiality, oversight, and organizational structure.
ProPublica reported that the office of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp—who appointed Toomey—declined to comment and referred questions to the health department, whose spokesperson also declined to comment, saying that the letter, "speaks for itself."
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Reproductive rights advocates say Georgia's decision to dismiss and restructure its committee also could have a chilling effect on the committee's work, potentially dissuading its members from delving as deeply as they have into the circumstances of pregnant women's deaths if it could be politically sensitive.
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