posted about this earlier, but didn't stress that a socialist alternative member was the driving force
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/seattle-becomes-first-us-city-outlaw-caste-discrimination-after-council-vote-2023-02-22/
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/2/21/dalits-are-winning-against-caste-discrimination-in-the-us-too
A Seattle City Council resolution against caste discrimination is an important step in this journey.
On Tuesday, February 21, the Seattle City Council will make history if it votes yes to include caste in the city’s non-discrimination policies. Outlawing caste discrimination would be the culmination of years of Dalit feminist research and organising that has exposed caste oppression in the United States and has centred Dalit healing in the battle to end caste discrimination everywhere.
Caste is a hierarchical social system dating back thousands of years and practised throughout South Asia among people of all religions. It negatively affects more than 1.9 billion people worldwide and at least 5.7 million South Asian Americans, degrading their quality of life.
It determines who can worship where, education and career opportunities, and even personal relationships — in essence, caste shapes entire lives. While caste-based discrimination in the US is not as widespread and overt as in India, where it has its roots, it exists here, too.
South Asian immigrants from Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Myanmar, Maldives, and indentured communities all report experiencing caste discrimination in the US. The Equality Labs 2016 Caste in the United States survey found that one in four Dalits in the US had faced verbal or physical assault and two out of every three said they had faced discrimination at work.
This data is further supported by a forthcoming report from the National Academic Coalition for Caste Equity and Equality Labs, with the preliminary analysis of a new survey revealing that within US higher education, four in five caste-oppressed students, staff, and faculty reported experiencing caste discrimination at the hands of their dominant-caste peers.
Further, three in four caste-oppressed stakeholders did not report that discrimination in their universities or colleges because caste was not added as a protected category, or because their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion departments lacked the competency to address their concerns.
This data is backed by troubling testimonies of caste discrimination in workplaces, schools, places of worship and businesses.
It can no longer be denied: caste discrimination exists in the US and must be fought with civil rights enforcement.
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I have no idea what their internal strategy discussions are. Their external messaging is that they're going to focus on union organizing and labot coalition building. I think they'll fail, as they are even better at alienating unions than they are at alienating activist orgs. I have no idea why they even want to do one to the exclusion of the other. My best guess is that Kshama is tired of doing city council things, the redistricting and polling numbers look bad, and they have no idea how to run anyone else. But who knows.
Like I said, the bar is low. Every other org / coalition is dramatically less effective.
Here, here!
Like always it's a lot of things but I think the big one is having no long-term planning, strategy, or even just some kind of plan to build power. Left to their own devices, vaguely left people get absorbed into charity and electoral work that vampirizes their empathy. They have no idea what else they could be doing and at least material aid has an immediate and tangible impact.
And it's better than half of what DSA does lol. Last I heard they were still obsessed with having "debates" that are just people who have no idea what they're talking about arguing back and forth 60 seconds at a time.
That does make sense about charity and electoral work. The latest with dsa is they brought in a state official to defend the war in Ukraine lol
My friends told me they brought in someone whose academic work was DoD- funded.
But even having those debates is so dumb. DSA members, on average, have no understanding of socialism, let alone imperialism, let alone a critical lens towards the actions of and reactions to empire. The only outcome of "debates" like that, in lieu of a politically educated membership, is pointless alienation.