Ian Greer tells Theresa Alt how the Co-Lab at ILR mobilizes research resources at Cornell to work on practical matters. They include the question of setting the minimum wage in Tompkins County at the level of the local living wage. Big employers mostly oppose it, but a few favor it. Some small employers are for it, most are not. Most really don’t know what it will cost them. Economists show that raising minimum wages leads to little reduction in jobs. Raising them would especially help people of color. Loss of benefits is a smaller problem with a bigger raise in the minimum wage than with a stingy one. Recorded March 5, 2021.
New York City teacher Daniel Jerome tells Maribel Tineo about reopening schools after COVID. The pandemic has hurt the mental health of teachers and especially pupils. As of early March elementary and middle schools are open 2 or 3 days a week. High Schools are still closed. Parents and teachers are being left out of the conversation. There is a push to increase distance learning permanently. The Movement of Rank & File Educators - MORE - addresses school issues but also social ones. Recorded March 4, 2021.
David Foote interviews Suzy Lee. She sees the prevalent view of immigration policy as exaggerating the power of racism and nativism. The vast majority of Americans support policies like amnesty and are quite open to immigration. Historically borders were opened and closed in response to the needs of capital. Conservatives want flows of people without rights. Socialists are OK with flows of people but want rights for all. Labor needs to support immigrant rights, because only with such rights can immigrants be part of workplace organizing, and only when organized labor hits the bottom line will capital be forced to demand policy changes, including rights for immigrants. Recorded February 18, 2021.
Aired February 23, 2021 -- 6:30-7:00 pm
Jason Leifer tells Maribel Tineo that there are two models of municipal broadband. A town can provide it or just own the infrastructure. The barriers are political. Dryden Town will own and operate its broadband. People will be able to take their complaints to the Town Board. Such new systems bring superior fiber technology to the home, not just on the road. Raleigh NC has such successful public broadband that private companies got the State legislature to prohibit other cities from doing it. Recorded April 23, 2021.
Ithaca DSA members produce a half-hour radio program on WRFI Community Radio called The Inquiring Socialist. The program airs at 10:00AM on alternate Fridays.
Ithaca DSA has a weekly cable access television program "Ithaca DSA Presents", a half-hour talk show covering local, national and international politics, economics and labor. It airs Tuesdays at 7:00 pm and several more times each week on Spectrum Cable Channel 13 in Tompkins County; DVDs of the program can be borrowed from the Alternatives Library in Anabel Taylor Hall on the Cornell Campus.
We will also be working on making Cornell pay for better and free TCAT, putting socialists in City government, supporting labor unions and affordable housing, and opposing police militarization and jail expansion in this community.
What We Believe
Democratic Socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives.
We are dedicated first of all to democracy, and to bringing democracy into the economic sphere. We are not a political party that runs candidates. Rather, we are a political organization that engages in many activities as needed: electoral politics, issue politics, organizing, protest, and education.
