My draft SDA October newsletter
Dear Comrades,
Many folks ask me how I can devote so much time to building Socialism in the United States. Who pays for it?
This long text shows how easy it is to change the world, but the first step you need to do is send an email to socdems@team.repmyblock.org.
It’s pretty simple: I am trying to save my bathtub. It’s a simple story of corruption, and today I am in court fighting my landlord, who wants to raise everyone’s rent by more than 200% and, for me, about 1500%.
It’s the last time I talk about my experience. Over the last decade, so many lores have circulated that it’s time to set the record straight. When did I become part of the local folklore?
If you listen carefully to all my public testimonies, I always inject some personal experiences into fighting the greedy landlords that make New York City unaffordable. The revelation was when I remembered the cost of a bathtub on a spreadsheet (about $900) and later when the items started arriving in the building and comparing them with the price at Home Depot ($300.)
Where was the difference going?
I joined in 2002 the tenant association board of my building with the promise that we were getting affordable rent. I was paying $169, earning a decent salary of $70,000, and agreed to a rent restructuring to about $900. That was fair.
Today, they painted the walls (which they had not done in 20 years), “fixed” the plumbing, and handed us a bill for about 60 million dollars, meaning that our rent is now north of $2000 with another increase to $3500 around 2033. And we are getting older in the process.
If this sounds familiar, let me know.
In 2002, like all 30-year-old single busy professionals, I would vote and engage in parties. That was until the 2002 French election when Jean-Marie Le Pen (a French version of Donald Trump) acceded to the second round. It hasn’t been since the German Occupation that a French right-wing xenophobe came this close to power. We were horrified.
At the French Consulate, I met Corrine Narassiguin, a young computer professional working for Citigroup who had just joined the French Socialist Party and headed the New York Branch. (Today, she is French Senator Narassiguin.)
I met professionals working for Universities, Tech Startups, the United Nations, Banking, Medicine, and Research there. I realized that Socialism was not what we were brainwashed by within the United States.
I joined the French Overseas Leftist organization in 2003 and the French Socialist Party in 2004. I participated in a monthly meeting where we organized cultural and philosophical meetings with distinguished French and European thinkers.
The time commitment for the Tenant Association and the Political party was about 6 hours a month.
My job at Time Warner was to look over the equipment, and I had plenty of quiet time, which allowed me to automate many of the tools required to run a political campaign. I learned programming and developed a version of RepMyBlock.
Over the years, through my political organizing, I would meet all kinds of French politicians; and whether they were the President of France, minister, or member of parliament, we would meet them in a relaxed environment where we would engage in fascinating exchanges about our experiences, the problems we faced, what could we change.
I watched some of my proposed ideas become a reality when everyone casually brushed them off. One was Overseas Representation (but that is one for another day.)
The point I am trying to get across is that making a change is a small investment of time.
Over ten years of meeting all these exciting people, I learned how to build a political platform. I started wondering how a platform we developed in the United States and realized that it was a neurotic endeavor monopolized by money.
How was it that in France, we, activists, could participate in a campaign while holding a job and a family with children, and in the United States, it was impossible?
I found the answer with Cell Phone Encryption.
In 2015, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. wrote an OpEd titled “When Phone Encryption Blocks Justice” with his French, Spanish, and British counterparts.
In 2015, I held responsibilities in my New York Community Board and French political party. I participated in creating the French-English Dual Language program in school, so I knew a lot of politicians, including Cyrus Vance Jr. and Axelle Lemaire. Their answer was night and day.
I was part of the team that rolled out Cellular service for Time Warner Cable. I dabbled in the technology involved and contacted Cyrus Vance Jr. to see if he would change his mind.
After all, I had hundreds of conversations with many of my elected officials over the years, so I did not expect this to be any different.
Meeting Cyrus Vance Jr. was such a condescending experience.
I reached out to my Socialist Comrade Axelle Lemaire (by then, she was the Minister of State for Digital Affairs for the French President), and four months later, she disavowed Cyrus’ proposal publicly.
That is when I realized that being a member of the Democratic Party was just for politicians to empty my pockets for donations, but in the end, they did not care about my experience or discourse.
I started searching for the room where discourse happen in America.
In France, I knew where the room was; once a month, we would meet in New York and write a policy statement on anything, and they would end up on the French Socialist website (regardless of quality): https://www.socialists.us/direct/drafts/direct/fr2020/policies.
In the New York Democratic Party, I realized that the room did not exist. Yes! People were meeting, but the collective work would not make it on a platform if the employees of an elected official did not believe in it.
There is an invisible wall between the Elected and the Grassroots.
That invisible wall is held together by many people petitioning to get on the County Committee once every two years.
When I realized that, everything made sense!
My bathtub, the fate of the Accidental Americans, the environment, the Palestinian plight, the high-speed railroad network, the privacy policies, etc; you name it, Wall Street controls everything.
And no! Not the money that controls Wall Street, but the activists of the Democratic Party that represent Wall Street.
All that is needed to make a change is for Activists across New York City to collect 50 signatures each.
Changing the world requires that we devote 40 hours every year.
Join me monthly, and I promise we’ll make a difference. It doesn’t matter whether you are a renowned surgeon or a sanitation worker. You must participate.
Everything is explained on the Rep My Block website: https://www.repmyblock.org/web/training/steps/torun, but the first step is to email socdems@team.repmyblock.org.
And to answer the question, “Who pays for it?”
I stopped giving money to all these politicians, so it pays for itself. I only provide the politicians with 50 signatures each February and put the literature of the one I like under my neighbors’ doors.
40 hours a year!
The content of this newsletter (Still being written, may change anytime.)
- The national Zoom meeting is on October 4th at 9 p.m. East / 6 p.m. West
- SDF — Social Democratic Forum monthly conference
- God forbid we elect a Republican who could pass laws that would benefit the people
- 2023 Manhattan Democratic Party
- PIP New York Comrades celebrate their 77 anniversary
- Argentinian Socialist elected in Buenos Aires
- Paperboy Love Prince is running for President
The national Zoom meeting is on November 1st at 9 p.m. East / 6 p.m. West
SDF — Social Democratic Forum monthly conference
After the long introduction, this newsletter could be titled “The Settling Scores Edition.”
The SDF team organized a great conference with Eric Lee on his experience in Ukraine.
For the last three years, the main organizer of the Social Democratic Forum and I have had this on-and-off relationship with the anti-democratic SDA structure. SDA aims to organize, train, and elect Socialist politicians. SDA is not the Buena Vista Social Club.
Yes! In organizing, we aim to have rewarding experiences, but in the end, it’s about the long-term goals of turning Ralph Nader’s or Bernie’s words into reality.
Instead, I suggest this October 5th, 2011, introductions by Justices Breyer and Scalia on the role of judges in the American republic. They talk about being busy and anti-democratic.
If you read the long introduction, I realized that the American education system has people conditioned to fight over trivialities such as the leadership of non-profits like SDA.
You are no longer welcome in our forums, and we ask that you do not assert, affect, or imply any connection between the Social Democratic Forum and your group (SDA) or any of your organizing activities.
You are no longer welcome in our forums and we ask that you do not assert, affect, or imply any connection between the Social Democratic Forum and your group (SDA) or any of your organizing activities.
We’ll have to find another group to organize the forums.
You may wonder why we are taking this action. Or you may not be wondering because you have been faced with similar reactions to your neurotic pestering and machinations.
My response was simply:
I had my share of doors closed at my face in my 40 years of activism. You are not the first, and you won’t be the last, but the difference is that my door will always be open. I have included some extra SDA documents explaining how we plan to grow, and you and the SDF team are welcome to join.
At this time, we won’t have the video of the SDF. If someone is interested in organizing a Forum for SDA to discuss various topics, please email me at theo@socialists.us.
I have a very long list of exciting contacts but don’t have time to organize. Someone has to step up.
God forbid we elect a Republican that could pass laws that would be beneficial to the people
I go into so many details in this month’s report because most of the people I refer to in this email are national figures, and I am not. To us, these people are local figures like your local elected officials.
I just got one of the countless fundraising emails from AOC introducing the next speaker, which upset me.
When we claim to represent the nation, the Democrats could have picked a different speaker than Hakeem Jeffrey.
I know Hakeem Jeffries, and if he were an honest leader representing the people, they would have made a deal with the most liberal Republican to elect that person.
I properly introduced myself in October 2022 to Gregory Meeks as a Socialist. These people know precisely who I am and what the SDA logo represents.
I have been displaying it prominently everywhere in their district. I understand why they are ignoring me, and I would do the same thinking as they do.
In the video, you can hear Gregory Meeks promise to meet after. I have been waiting a whole year, and I am still waiting.
But with 212 votes, they just could have chosen the next speaker, but they are playing the same game that the European socialists played, and Hillary Clinton played.
Let the extremists take control so we can govern next time, but meanwhile, it’s the people who suffer.
That is why I am asking everyone to stop donating money to all these politicians, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
2023 Manhattan Democratic Party
It took us seven years, but I said it in front of 800 Manhattan Democrats: “I AM A SOCIALIST.”
If you listened to my housing testimony in front of the City Council (the first video), I would blast those fake progressives.
The reason is that these self-proclaimed Progressives from Wall Street made a deal with the Dominican Donald Trump to win the leadership of the Manhattan County Committee by trying to disenfranchise the voters.
That will serve as a lesson to all the Wall Street progressives. After I spent two months preparing and sending 2,000 letters, the New York Progressive Action Network (NYPAN) leaders made a deal with Melissa Mark-Viverito and Congressman Adriano Espaillat.
I caught one of the vice chairs of the Manhattan democratic party lying about my candidacy. She is a black woman who hates socialists, but she can’t explain how liberal policies can help liberate BIPOCS (Black, Indigenous, People of Color.)
She gets the support on the fact that her Democratic club is very majority white and that she gets elected to make the white leadership feel that they reached out to minorities.
It’s that behavior that creates an environment where we end up with the most segregated school system in the country in 2023. The only way we can move forward on race relations is to acknowledge the racist policies that must be struck out from the books.
But this meeting is more manageable than the previous one, and now we have a base to work with.
The real progressive Democrats of Manhattan are introducing a rule to ensure the event doesn’t dissolve in the chaotic meetings of 2019 and 2022.
It only required I object with a megaphone at the 2022 meeting.
I promised that if I could present my candidacy to the room and we could have a fair vote, I would not bring the megaphone. I kept my end of the bargain; the Democratic party leadership only half of it.
I got the speech but not the roll-call vote. Like in previous years, I let it go. We got what we wanted.
This deal was done before the Wall Street progressives and the Dominican First Congressman Adriano Espaillat and Many de los Santos tried to influence the results.
We will try again in 2025. Meanwhile, it’s Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, and AOC is not interested in educating her followers.
She is participating in the Fundraiser organized by the Progressive that made a deal with the Dominican Donald Trump.
The leader of the New York Progressive Action Network is the one who proposed to win the County Committee and had a meeting with Assemblyman Harvey Epstein, Melissa Mark-Viverito, and Adriano Espaillat.
AOC’s first NY endorsement came from NYPAN, and I understand why she cannot call them out, but it’s time she does. I hope she teamed up with Paperboy Love Prince to recruit those 17,000 New Yorkers to run with them.
PIP New York Comrades celebrate their 77 anniversary
Our Socialist International Comrades from the Partido Indenpendentista Puertorriqueño celebrated their 77th Anniversary of the their foundation this month at the People’s Forum.
The event began with the fist-up performance the PIP revolutionary national anthem interpreted by Mario Cancel, followed by a from Juan Dalmau live from Puerto Rico.
The PIP national legislators Maria de Lourdes Santiago and Denis Marquez for the excellent conversation and to partner Elia Collazo for her impeccable work as presenter of the same.
The audience present was very attentive to their speeches and very grateful for their answers.
A special thank you to the plastic artist and fellow struggles Carlito Rovira for the beautiful painting he elaborated in a posthumous tribute to Professor José Antonio Irizarry, former president of our committee.
Everyone thanks the former Young Lord for his words of praise and the solemn participation of the family of dear comrade Irizarry.
During the event, Eric Ramos proudly introduced the new director of the New York PIP Committee. Our reorganization assembly was last weekend and the new trumpet is composed of Jaime Medina as President, Elia Collazo as Vice President and Millie Ayala as Treasurer.
Long live free Puerto Rico! To fight and to victory!
You can read the whole report on the PIP New York Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/nuevayorkpip1.
Argentinian Socialist elected in Buenos Aires
We’ll finish with good news for one of our Socialist allies from Argentina, Estaban Paulón, a prominent South American Prominent LGBTQ activist elected to Argentina’s Congress.
In 2013, he criticized the Argentinian pope, which got him a mention in the New York Daily News.
You can read his report in the Washington Blade:
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2023/10/23/prominent-lgbtq-activist-elected-to-argentinas-congress.
Paperboy Love Prince is running for President
We couldn’t end this newsletter without some Paperboy exuberance, and after more than 150 years of existence, our comrade Paperboy Love Prince is running for President.
It’s a primary, and that is what primaries are for. Will it be the official SDA candidate for President? Only the membership can decide, but as an American citizen and member of SDA, we can only encourage as long as their taking points are Socialists, and we’ll call them out if they are not just like any other Socialist.
If you want to give them a hand, you can email paperboy@team.repmyblock.org or visit the Rep My Block at https://www.repmyblock.org/rmbimg/draft/paperboy.
Draft AOC 2024 is now Draft AOC 2028
Governor Cuomo laid the role of the Democratic in a speech in Brooklyn with “get of the vote operation,” “fundraising operation,”
“candidate recruitment.”
He is right, and what thing SDA does is Candidate Development.
So start a SDA chapter in your town, with one meeting a month, and we’ll help navigate this complicated world.
