Radical Hope: The YDSA Chapter at CCNY

Via YDSA National

By: Ingrid Ibarra

The Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) is a nationwide organization where students in many universities across the country come together to organize events and protests for a better tomorrow. It is the youth and student section of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) political party founded in 1982 by Micheal Harrington. After the merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and the New American Movement in 1982, they became known as the Democratic Socialists of America Youth Section but later became the YDSA. The YDSA became heavily involved in anti-apartheid movements in South Africa and protested the United States's involvement in Central America during the 80s. In the 1990s, the membership in these chapters decreased significantly until 2016, following the election of Donald Trump.

After the YDSA began to gain popularity again, they spread across the country, with specific chapters or local branches in each university. Anyone who is interested in creating one at their specific university or college can do so. The YDSA chapter had not come to The City College of New York (CCNY) until the fall of last year, started by Jay, who had just moved to New York. He was surprised CCNY didn't already have its own chapter, especially since CCNY is such a large campus in a primarily democratic city. He was first radicalized by Trump's presidential win in 2016 while he was living in Vietnam. He couldn't grasp how "The Democratic Party failed so horribly at electing an eligible candidate who had a chance against Trump." Jay was also at the time inspired by politicians with socialist views, such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). However, he now believes that "We should not rely on or beg politicians for change to occur."

Currently, the CCNY YDSA chapter is working on a campaign called "Education not Deportation" after Trump's declaration of war against immigrants, starting deportations on his second day in office. This campaign consists of four different aspects. First, it asks students not to collaborate with ICE under any circumstances. Second, it prohibits ICE from collaborating with CUNY as a whole, as well as with the state. Next, they want CUNY to cut all contacts with prisons that work with ICE to deport immigrants. Finally, they want a new deal for CUNY. This means a free CUNY for all students, including undocumented residents. In addition to these specific features of the campaign, a student pledge was created where students sign agreeing that they won't work with ICE. YDSA organizers also hope to build a strong student-faculty coalition to protect students against ICE if they were to try to enter. This is a response to many students being afraid to attend classes after Trump's strategic attack on the young working class. Even though New York is legally a sanctuary city, back in January, Trump sent ICE to Chicago, another sanctuary city, where they tried to enter schools. They were unsuccessful due to the teachers' union that strongly opposed it. When Trump started his deportation efforts, it was abundantly clear he did not respect sanctuary city laws. 

Last spring, the YDSA chapters throughout different NYC universities, including CUNY's YDSA chapter, were active in organizing the encampments in support of Palestine. The YDSA is in solidarity with CCNY's Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter. The organization is also an official member of CUNY Divest at CCNY, a coalition of student clubs whose shared goal is "...disclosure and divestment from colonial and imperial regimes including investments in weapons manufacturers that are currently committing active genocide in Palestine immediately." CCNY SJP and CUNY 4 Palestine led the efforts of organizing the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampments, whose main demand was for CUNY to divest from Israel. Instead of listening to their student body, CUNY sent the NYPD to remove students from campus by brutally raiding the encampment. CUNY, a system of public universities where the student body is predominantly made up of minorities, has refused to listen to students about their political concerns; one must ask why university administration will not listen to their student body? A theory from Jay, the president of the YDSA chapter at CCNY, is that "if they divest from Israel, they are scared the students will ask for more. The next thing will be the military, then the NYPD, etc." The question that then arises is, why are universities, specifically public universities, investing their money instead of using it to fund the education and experiences of their students? Jay mentioned that "...under neoliberalism, universities have become businesses that now care more about investments and profits over their own students." The tuition paid by students goes to Israel instead of funding their education. CUNY has been slowly defunded over the years, leading them to ask for more tuition from their students and seeking more federal grants; however, they have yet to divest money from Israel. 

The YDSA chapter at CCNY is also involved in other efforts, which include two other campaigns. The first campaign is called "No More 24," calling on Kathy Hochul to enforce the labor law and reimburse home care workers for their stolen wages. This comes after the New York Supreme Court ruled that Hochul's Department of Labor broke the law by dropping home care workers' wage theft cases. The governor did nothing to help recover stolen wages for the home care workers but instead awarded the contract to the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC). The CCNY YDSA chapter is involved with this campaign by joining protests outside Hochul's NYC office building. Many of these workers are older Chinese women, often immigrants, who were forced to work 24 hours but only received 13 hours' worth of pay under inhumane conditions. They have been ignored and even met with violence from the NYPD less than 2 weeks ago during a peaceful protest.

No More 24 Rally, via @cityydsa on Instagram

The other campaign that YDSA is heavily involved with is the protests against the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA). This campaign began after MOCA were complicit in harming Chinatown by assisting in closing down a banquet hall in the neighborhood for the construction of a new jail which as a result harms residents and small businesses. Actions like these take away shared community centers and make it harder for these small businesses to survive. The picket is held in front of MOCA, Thursday to Sunday from 11 am - 1 pm, where the CCNY YDSA chapter gets involved by joining the protest. Protestors of MOCA have two demands: return the $35 million to support the community instead of the jail and reopen Jing Fong, a local restaurant, at its original location. The museum's new leader, Michael Lee, is also a board member of the CPC, which, as mentioned above, is known to exploit home care workers.

The long-term goals of the YDSA organization are a democratic socialist nation (and eventually, the world) to be managed by the working class and to prioritize people over profits. During Trump's first presidency, which began in 2017, the YDSA has held campaigns to fight against the presidential administration's policies. The organizing of students led to them demanding that CUNY became a sanctuary school where ICE would not be allowed to enter. Even CUNY faculty became involved in the campaign, which made it stronger. CUNY did not officially respond then and hasn't mentioned anything since Trump's second term began. 

The YDSA is an important reminder that the working class ultimately outnumbers the powerful elites, which means they hold the power and are responsible for enacting change within our communities. The president of CCNY's YDSA chapter also mentioned that he has spoken to numerous students on campus who seem nihilistic about life after graduation under capitalism, but he believes that change remains possible even through the new administration. The YDSA believes that a democratic socialist world is not a complete fantasy if people come together to fight for change so that, eventually, people are put above profit.

If you are interested in joining the YDSA chapter at CCNY, you can follow their Instagram (@cityydsa) to follow events they are participating in. As a member of the YDSA, the time you can provide will be respected, which means they are not going to force any responsibilities on new members. Currently, they are active in the picket fence against MOCA every Sunday, which is an easy way to become active in the chapter. Since they are still relatively new at CCNY, they are interested in recruiting new members, and anyone interested can eventually become part of the organization committee.