Twin Cities DSA

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Platform

  1. Context
    1. The United States political system is rigged against working people. This is not a democracy where we have a real say in what our government does. Billionaires buy elections so that the system works in their interest: funding wars and genocide and giving themselves more handouts. As the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Twin Cities DSA’s mission is to unite workers into a powerful political movement to win the battle for democracy and change the world. 
    2. The bosses live lives of security and comfort, while the rest of us contend with unliveable wages, terrible working conditions, ICE kidnapping our neighbors, and the climate crisis looming larger every day. Millions live in precarity, facing daily struggles to put food on the table and a roof over our heads. In America, it has been democracy for the capitalist oligarchs, authoritarianism for the working class.
    3. The Democratic Party is unable to effectively counter Trump and the Republican’s authoritarian takeover, because both parties represent different faces of the same capitalist donor class that controls our country. The establishment would sooner turn to embrace the rise of fascism than see the working class begin to govern as a democracy. 
    4. We are building the party that we need to win the world we deserve–that’s DSA. To quote our national program, Workers Deserve More:
      1. “Our goal is to put workers in charge of the government through a new democratic constitution that establishes civil, political, and democratic rights for all, is based on proportional representation in a single federal legislature, and ends the role of money in politics.
      2. With a government by, for, and of the working class and with powerful labor unions and social movements organizing in every city and town, we hope to build a socialist society where people come before profit, basic needs are guaranteed, the largest corporations are put under public ownership and democratic control, peace around the world is secured, and workers around the world join together in common struggle to construct socialism worldwide.” 
    5. As the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America, we fight not for the landlords, the bosses or the corporate interests. We fight for us.
  2. Demands
    1. We will commit to decolonizing “Minnesota” after centuries of genocide. Territory held by settlers will be returned to First Nations. 
      1. Decolonize the Settler State of Minnesota: We maintain the rightful sovereignty of this land to those Indigenous Tribes and Nations that the occupation-state of Minnesota currently administers. We demand the settler- state of Minnesota recognize the illegality of the 1851 Traverse des Sioux treaty and recognize the Dakota sovereignty over said stolen land, and the full reinstatement of treaty rights to the First Nations.
      2. Return of land: Return land to First Nations, starting with expropriating State, Federal, and large private holdings, with the return of the rest of the land as soon as possible.
      3. Restoration of land: Create and fund state teams who shall, under control of the respective First Nation, carry out restoration projects on their behalf.
      4. Take down “Fort Snelling”: Take down the fort over Bdóte, return the land to Dakota nations, and fund a restoration of the area.
      5. End the persecution of Native women: End the legal and extra-legal discrimination, assault, and killing of Native women. Fund grassroots Indigenous organization that defend their community, like MIWRC and IPM.
      6. Dakota & Anishinaabe language education: Add Dakota & Anishinaabe language education (depending on territorial extent of each nation) to all the schools. Have all public signage include one of the languages.
      7. End all racist cultural iconography: Ban racist “tribal mascots”, convert “Columbus” and “Thanksgiving” holidays into ones that celebrate First Nations.
    2. We will build an economy that serves the needs of the many by taxing the rich and putting workers in control of our livelihoods.
      1. Living wages: Mandate a living wage of at least $20/hour for all workers regardless of age, employment, or status, regularly adjusted to account for changes in inflation. No discrimination in pay based on race, gender, or nationality.
      2. Fair working hours: Set a legal limit of a 32-hour workweek, with compensation for lost overtime and no reduction in overall pay.
      3. Municipal control: Take into public ownership key industries and workplaces in the Twin Cities necessary for human life, dignity, and flourishing.
      4. Free, universal healthcare: Guarantee the health and wellbeing of the public, rather than profits of healthcare corporations. 
      5. Free, quality education: Fully fund our schools, reduce class sizes, and implement free, universal childcare for all.
      6. Union power: Protect and expand the right for all workers to organize labor unions, collectively bargain, strike, and carry out secondary boycotts.  
      7. Worker Ownership: Provide public supports and education to transition privately owned workplaces into worker cooperatives. Provide tax incentives that reduce taxes on worker owned enterprises.
    3. We will build a democratic society and political system that guarantees the freedom and liberty of all peoples in Minnesota.
      1. Queer liberation: Defend Minnesota’s status as a sanctuary for trans and queer internal refugees, protect children and adults’ right to gender affirming care, and ensure full equality and bodily autonomy for all.
      2. Racial justice: Dismantle structural racism. Implement reparations that address the historical seizure of wealth from racialized communities (such as redlining and construction of highways) that leaves intense disparities today. 
      3. Socialist feminism: End patriarchal oppression and domestic violence, implement full parental leave, and expand and redistribute community care work equally across all genders.
      4. Democratic representation: Dissolve the Minneapolis Park Board, Board of Estimate and Taxation, and Charter Commission, and transfer that power to the City Council. Democratize the Metropolitan Council. Expand ballot measure power to all cities. Replace the state senate and house with a single, proportionally elected unicameral body.
      5. Publicly funded elections: End private donations that allow the wealthy and corporate interests to buy our elections.
    4. We will halt the fascist and imperial war machine at home and abroad.
      1. Abolish ICE and the entirety of the Department of Homeland Security and Resist Fascism: Stop the kidnapping of our neighbors and return anyone who was deported. Support community organizing to defend against any incursions by State or Federal forces to undermine democracy and human rights in Minnesota. Ensure full reconciliation and reparations for harm done by ICE and other Federal agencies to harmed members of our community.
      2. Free Palestine: End any and all Minnesotan support of the Israeli apartheid and occupation. This includes the decommissioning of all weapons production and logistical support facilities that contract with Israel or any of its main partners, such as Elbit Systems or Honeywell.
      3. Divest From The War Economy:  End any and all support for and divest from companies in Minnesota engaged in weapons development for the United States military or that enable war crimes domestically or abroad. We would fight to provide conversion jobs for the millions of workers displaced by canceling the war industry.
    5. We will provide safe and dignified housing for all.
      1. Halt rent hikes: Pass rent control.
      2. Public housing: Fund and build thousands of units of low carbon public housing that are democratically controlled by renters, and invest in maintenance of already-existing public housing units.
      3. Organize renters: Support tenant union organizing to stand up to slumlords.
      4. Housing First: Provide our unhoused neighbors with housing, medical care, and the services they need – no more encampment sweeps!
    6. We will transition away from fossil fuels toward a green and sustainable future with clean air to breathe and clean water to drink for all.
      1. Clean communities: Shut down the HERC incinerator. Fulfill our promise to the East Phillips neighborhood by fully funding the community vision for a community controlled Roof Depot site.
      2. Just Transition: Build publicly owned, operated, and administered renewable energy utilities with union labor.
      3. Municipal ownership of utilities: Transfer control of Xcel and Centerpoint to our communities without compensation for their corporate owners.
      4. Dismantle the racist, toxic highway system and invest in our neighborhoods: Rebuild I-94 into a fast public transit corridor and return ownership of the land to Twin Cities communities to build community-controlled (and publicly-owned) housing, commercial establishments, and parks.
    7. We will build a system of public safety that serves the needs of our communities and truly keeps us safe.
      1. Comprehensive public safety: Fully fund and support mental health responders and community safety programs. 
      2. Rein in violent and racist cops: Hold police accountable for police violence (including financially accountable for misconduct lawsuits) and oppose the expansion of the surveillance state.
      3. Abolition as a horizon: Organize for a world without prisons and armed policing. Replace the police with an elected force of neighbors representing the neighborhoods in which they live.