Overturn Leadership Vote Against “No More 24”

After four branches of the NYC-DSA overwhelmingly passed the “Stand With Home Care Aides Against Exploitation, Support the ‘No More 24’ Bill” resolution, the chapter leadership unilaterally reversed this vote. NYC-DSA is now on record against immediately ending forced, slave-like, 24-hour shifts for home care aides. The May 7 petition motivated below by the Just Break Already caucus condemns this gross breach of members’ democratic rights and betrayal of these workers, and JBA calls on the DSA left to fight to reverse the leadership’s underhanded maneuver.

The Marxist Unity Group (MUG), a left caucus in NYC-DSA, supports “No More 24,” noting that DSA has “a duty to fight for the liberation of all people, even when it puts us at odds with liberal allies.” But they have yet to fulfill their duty and officially denounce the leadership’s crime, much less promote the petition. Reform & Revolution, another left caucus, put out a statement that declares the dispute to be over what to do “when class struggle comes into tension with our relationships to elected officials.” But their response to this tension is paralysis. Unlike JBA, they provide no way forward.

Tweets by MUG members and others reduce the problem to “bureaucratic control freakery,” denying the reason for it: the DSA’s attachment to Democrats. Zohran and Hochul have been blocking the bill. Aligning with these liberal forces will always lead to betrayal. If the DSA left wants to defend the working class, it must break unity with the right and fight in action against the leadership’s class collaboration, which poisons the socialist cause.

For years, home care workers in New York have been waging a pitched battle against brutal conditions on the job and the slave-like imposition of a half-unpaid 24-hour workday. The mostly Chinese and other immigrant women workers recently ended a 7-day hunger strike in their fight for better conditions and to demand the passage of the “No More 24” Act, which would make 24-hour workdays illegal in NYC.

Over a week ago, four NYC-DSA branches (Queens, Bronx/Upper Manhattan, Staten Island and Lower Manhattan) overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution to support the strikers and the passage of the “No More 24” Act. Despite this, the NYC-DSA CLC leadership discarded the original resolution and passed a heavily amended version which rejects the immediate fight to end the 24-hour workday. The NYC-DSA leadership is spitting in the face of workers, who are subjected to appalling conditions, and rejecting internal democracy. This can only serve to discredit the name of socialism in this city.

While Zohran promised to end the 24-hour day when he campaigned for mayor, now he has moved to block the bill in cahoots with Strikebreaker Hochul. The CLC majority in the NYC-DSA leadership has shown that they care more about protecting the image of their electeds and supporting liberal politicians than taking an immediate, decisive stand on the side of home healthcare workers.

The Just Break Already caucus is calling on our fellow DSA members and caucuses to sign this petition and hold a special meeting to overturn the decision of the CLC and pass the original resolution supporting No More 24. Socialists must take a stand on this matter. To stand aside or divert DSA’s efforts to another campaign would be an utter betrayal of the battle that is raging right now! Comrades, sign the petition, uphold the will of the membership and let the working class in our city know that we will fight for them!