First round voters in Queensbridge Houses voted for Andrew Cuomo over Zohran Mamdani, 59 per cent. to 29 per cent., rejecting the darling DSA/WFP/PSL newcomer

A vote of no confidence from NYCHA residents in Zohran Mamdani’s Assembly district

The drumbeats eminating from the largest public housing development in the Nation have turned ominous for Assemblymember Zohran K. Mamdani (DSA-Astoria), the Democratic Party nominee in the November génerale mayoral race in New York City.

Assemblymember Mamdani reportedly lost the vote at Queensbridge Houses, the large public housing development in his Assembly district, according to an Editorial published by the Daily News.

 

Cuomo beat Mamdani in Ravenswood Houses and Astoria Houses, also in Mamdani’s district, suggesting a voter backlash by NYCHA residents to the DSA/WFP/PSL duplicity.

In the first-round voting in the primary election, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) beat Assemblymember Mamdani amongst Queensbridge Houses voters 59 per cent. to 29 per cent., revealing a 30 per cent. margin in political support. The Editorial revealed that Assemblymember Mamdani’s margin of defeat was similar at Ravenswood Houses and Astoria Houses.

Assemblymember Mamdani’s defeat amongst New York City Housing Authority tenants after over two terms as a State Legislator flew in the face of the Socialist’s brand of politics. Assemblymember Mamdani has walked a fine line between “seizing the means of production” and opulent spending on a globe-trotting lifestyle. He lives like a Ugandan warlord. Voters facing inflation at the grocery stores and disenchantment with the Duopoly may have taken notice at the duplicity.

NYCHA public housing residents are used to being forgotten, getting left behind, and ignored. Are they beginning to fight back ?

An Upstate-Downstate coälition, a front-group of DSA/WFP/PSL functionaires and led by the DSA’s maven of social housing, Cea Weaver, was the reported lobbying coördinator behind the DSA/WFP/PSL’s Plantation Trust (f/k/a the “Blueprint For Change”), which aims to end F.D.R.’s New Deal promise of housing as a human right by replacing NYCHA. Like RAD/PACT, the Plantation Trust seeks to collaborate with the stated Project 2025 goal of President Donald Trump (R) to end Section 9 public housing.

After years of struggle, are public housing residents waking up to how the DSA/WFP/PSL, and their chorus of front-puppets, have sold them out ?

Democrats in New York have had a race problem for some time, and it’s seemingly getting worse.

Are Blacks abandoning the Democratic Party in New York because their land use policies favour gentrification and displacement ?

In a rare and insightful probe into the state of Black power in New York, the New York Times revealed that Blacks are engaged in a migration out of New York due to the housing crisis and quality of life issues. The article postulated that, as a result, the Democratic Party faces a reckoning with the loss of, and the loss of confidence by, a key voting bloc, noting, in relevant part, that, “community leaders and residents alike say they have noticed real political and demographic shifts that stand to threaten the endurance of New York’s once-ironclad Democratic coalition . . . .” Indeed, the Rev. Dr. Adolphus Lacey, the senior pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, described the exodus as an erosion. The report highlighted that, even as Blacks are moving, it could be because they are being moved out : “the same trends that disproportionately harm Black Americans are also driving some of them out of New York.”

Setting aside quality of life issues, let’s focus on the housing crisis.

The Democrats’ answer to the housing crisis has been to approve non-stop luxury condominiums ; develop and implement an affordable housing lottery system, which has been called a scam ; and to seemingly collaborate with Republicans in the Project 2025 goal of ending public housing. Because the Democratic Party wants to make New York a playground for the rich, of course races, which have faced centuries of discrimination, are going to get squeezed out.

More luxury apartments have been built in New York City Council District 3 under Councilmembers Corey Johnson (D) and his successor, Erik Bottcher (D), than in any other City Council district. This was largely due to Hudson Yards, which was developed by MAGA billionaire and Trump White nationalism supporter-donor Stephen Ross and gentrification related to the construction of the High Line. The gentrification has ushered in a mega-new, wealthy White neighborhood : the Hudson Yards plantation.

The affordable housing lottery system is premised on providing tax benefits to wealthy real estate developers in exchange for a set-aside of apartments for at least some of the 99 per cent. However, it’s been shown that the affordable housing lottery doesn’t help the very New Yorkers, who can least afford private sector housing, no matter the tax abatements. In New York, up to 25 per cent. of Blacks live in poverty, at least eight per centage points higher than the National average in a City that serves as the power base of the Democratic Party and the financial capital of the World.

Since the Democratic Party enjoys super-majority control over New York Governments, it raises serious questions, when the private sector cannot construct low-cost housing for New Yorkers earning low-incomes, like, why are Democrats choosing to end Section 9 public housing through schemes known as Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT), and the Preservation Trust ? Approximately 90 per cent. of public housing residents living in New York are minorities. By shifting such a large bloc of vulnerable people, including senior citizens living on fixed-incomes, to the private sector, these New Yorkers will lose Civil Rights Act protections that treat housing as a human right. In place of those civil rights protections, these minorities will face private sector landlords known for violating anti-discrimination laws.

As a result, the leading candidate in the Democratic Party primary for New York City mayor cobbled his coälition . . . without Blacks !

When State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (DSA-Astoria) finished ahead in the first-round of ranked choice voting in the Democratic Party’s mayoral primary, he did so without Blacks coälescing behind his mayoral campaign. His presumptive win came without the support of the solidly-Black neighborhoods in New York, according to a report published by the New York Times. The lack of Black support flies in the face of the mayoral primary wins of Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams, the Times found, adding that, nationally, the Black voting bloc carried the recent presidential nominations of Barack Obama, Hillary  Rodham Clinton, and Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

What this shows is that the White coälition that is powering Assemblymember Mamdani’s mayoral campaign has been willing to ditch Black power after making the political calculation that Black support was expendable in a City-wide mayor’s race.

Nowhere else can that be seen than in Assemblymember Mamdani’s support for the RAD/PACT and Preservation Trust sell-out of NYCHA public housing in New York. Returning to the Times‘ trend story of Democrats’ failed policies forcing Blacks to move-out of New York, two key issues facing Blacks are the housing crisis and the crisis of public housing. To maintain support amongst Whites and the Big Business community that are the sources of large, campaign donations, the support by Democrats, including Assemblymember Mamdani, to the sell-out of NYCHA could be the leading driver of Blacks being moved-out of New York.

The gentrification that beset Harlem and shattered that historic neighborhood’s focal point of Black power in New York is one example of how Democrats, who enjoy super-majority control over New York City Government and public policy, are complicit in a racist drive to break Black power in New York. They’ve learned to take their racist fight to break DEI to the ballot-box, and win, just like President Donald Trump (R).

The Democrats’ new model of White power politics, which is indifferent to Black issues and Black support, can also be witnessed in the transactional politics of Democratic Party powerbroker Allen Roskoff and in the obfuscation of District Leader Layla Law-Gisiko, who supports the privatisation and demolition of public housing in Chelsea and who uses an almost deliberate misreading of the law to excuse the unlawful disposition of City real property outside of the ULURP Process, respectively. The pattern of racial indifference is more than accidental, and its fingerprints can be seen in more than just the mayor’s race. Ask Councilmember Erik Bottcher (D-Chelsea).

VIDEO : Targeting Privatisation Queen Julia Salazar (Sleep-out protest)

[siteorigin_widget class=”WP_Widget_Media_Video”][/siteorigin_widget]

More and more people are seeing Julia Salazar for the shifty, shady politician that she is.

State Sen. Julia Salazar (DSA-Bushwick) was a no-show at her own fundraiser, which was ultimately cancelled due to our scheduled protest. Her supporters knew not to show up, or else their privatisation record on public housing would be exposed.

Protest Julia Salazar to stop the NYCHA Preservation Trust

The DSA are transactional, and they appear not to mind to transact NYCHA into oblivion.

It appears that, yet again, the NYC DSA have their eyes on another scheme that would lead to a wholesale end of Section 9 public housing, the sole bedrock of true housing security in gentrified New York City.

Their latest artifice is the NYCHA Preservation Trust, a plan concocted by NYCHA CEO Gregory Russ with the support of then Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) and current Mayor Eric Adams (D-New York City). We know that the DSA, led by State Sen. Julia Salazar (DSA-Brooklyn) and campaign consultant Cea Weaver have been apparently negotiating with the Real Estate Board of New York for passage of alleged anti-eviction legislation that some portray as a roll-back of landmark rent laws passed in 2018. It’s been reported that Ms. Weaver was complaining that REBNY would not support for the “Good Cause” legislation in exchange for an extension of the corrupt and racist 421-a luxury real estate development tax abatement programme. Because the State Sen. Salazar and other DSA leadership have attacked autonomous organisers of public housing residents, it appears that the DSA may be using passage of the Preservation Trust as an inducement to get REBNY’s support for the Good Cause legislation.

Since his election, Mayor Adams has turned out to be a delusional, neoconservative nightmare, supporting the return of racist Broken Windows policing tactics and an end to all pandemic mitigations. It’s not known why the DSA would negotiate to support Mayor Adams’ real estate agenda, unless, perhaps, there was corruption involved ?

R.S.V.P.

Join us to protest State Sen. Julia Salazar (DSA-Brooklyn) at her apartment on Monday night. Please bring supplies and prepare to spend the night outside. We plan to construct a homeless camp to demonstrate the consequences of displacement for public housing residents.

Date : Monday, 30 May 2022

Start Time : Meet at 6 pm

Place : 577 Van Buren St., Brooklyn

Pack the Court on Monday morning as Fight For NYCHA makes one last effort to stop RAD/PACT !

It appears that Mayor Bill de Blasio should have put RAD/PACT conversions through the ULURP Process. But he didn’t !

Because protests have not worked, the last few members of Fight For NYCHA have sued Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City), the City of New York, NYCHA CEO Greg Russ, and NYCHA to stop the RAD/PACT privatisation of public housing !

It’s been almost three years since Fight For NYCHA was formed. In that time, the activism to save public housing in New York City has been beset by division, sectarian politics, ego, obfuscation, and subversion. We had AOC refuse to stand-up to Mayor de Blasio’s use of RAD/PACT and the Blueprint to sell-out NYCHA. We had other Electeds approve of the sell-out of public housing, and they never faced any consequence for having participated in the sell-out of public housing. We had socialists and other sectarian groups promote the use of Section 8 vouchers to the disadvantage of public housing residents, which was shameful and a form of betrayal, because that was certainly no way to show class solidarity. Rather than confront Mayor de Blasio, some activists formed YouTube talk shows to promote themselves. Other groups, like Movement School, sought to use NYCHA activism as a cover for membership drives that was entirely divorced from a commitment to an outcome to saving Section 9 public housing. We also endured selfish political candidates, seeking to use NYCHA issues for their political campaigns, only to turn their backs once their campaigns floundered. Other political candidates, like Marni Halasa, used NYCHA activism for press clips ; it didn’t matter that she was leading/misleading residents in the wrong direction. All that mattered were her media mentions.

The lawsuit we filed was largely based on the lawsuit filed by Beep Gale Bewer (D-Manhattan) to stop the infill development at Holmes Tower, which she won after Mayor de Blasio backtracked from the unlawful plans for the real estate development in the Upper East Side.

We had no choice but to file this lawsuit after activism to mobilise public housing residents failed in New York City due to many “community groups” and nonprofit orgs running interference for Mayor de Blasio and other corrupt Electeds. Remember how one nonprofit hosted Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) at a Black church in Brooklyn after it came to be known he supported the sell-out of public housing in Chelsea. Even after we exposed the truth of how some Socialist Democrats were collaborating with Mayor de Blasio in his scheme to end all Section 9 public housing, it came to a shock to many that it took direct action in the face of the DSA to put a halt to the Blueprint.

The lawsuit, filed as an Article 78 Petition, revealed that Mayor de Blasio’s implementation of RAD/PACT was illegal, since the way that Mayor de Blasio is rolling-out RAD/PACT conversions violate the City Charter and the New York State Public Housing Law. The City Charter and the Public Housing Law require large-scale projects, like RAD/PACT conversions, to be put through the ULURP Process. But Mayor de Blasio, NYCHA, CEO Russ, and the City of New York did not follow the laws. In respect of the RAD/PACT conversion of Fulton Houses and Elliott-Chelsea, the lawsuit made a showing that the de Blasio administration admitted that they decided to act outside of the ULURP Process.

As time passed, we knew that litigation, like this, would be our last resort, if social movement building failed in the face of sectarian opposition. We ask for support, as we make it clear that all other groups must set aside self-interest and self-promotion for the common good of all. And that means seeing to it that Section 9 public housing is saved from privatisation. This must be made a priority, at long last.

Pack the Court !

Date : Monday, Nov. 15

Time : 9:30 am

Place : Supreme Court, New York County, 60 Centre St., Room 130

Update

Updated 12 Nov 2021 13:55 The Defendants have filed motions to dismiss our Article 78 petition. We need to work together to put a stop to RAD/PACT once and for all !

Source Documents

Cea Weaver was exposed for gaslighting a NYCHA tenant association president over de Blasio’s ongoing schemes to sell-out NYCHA with Section 8 vouchers

Cea Weaver played the part of “a dumb blonde” when it came to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s use of Section 8 vouchers to end public housing as we know it.

Over Labour Day week-end, NYCHA tenant leader Melanie Aucello called-out the alleged misrepresentations and gaslighting by the DSA housing policy leader, Cea Weaver, about the use of Section 8 rental assistance vouchers to end Section 9 public housing in New York City, according to a report published by the Real Deal.

In response to Aucello’s entreaties, Weaver asked Aucello to table the NYCHA talk, but Aucello wasn’t having any of it, according to the report.

And then the name-calling began.

As revealed by Fight For NYCHA, Weaver and a group of New York State legislators, which appeared to include State Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Bushwick), State Sen. Jabari Brisport (D-Bed-Stuy), Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes (D-Red Hook), were on the cusp of agreeing to support passage of the controversial Blueprint for Change for NYCHA last spring that would have convert all non-RAD/PACT public housing apartments into a new entity that would have effectively brought about the end of all Section 9 public housing in New York City. The Blueprint was stopped after Fight For NYCHA, in a coälition with others known as NYCHA Is Not For Sale, exposed the hypocrisy of DSA leaders supporting the end of public housing.

And if Weaver hadn’t insulted Aucello, personally, and all NYCHA residents, generally, Weaver then resorted to obfuscation and gaslighting, cliaming that Weaver never supported the Blueprint but instead was supporting some other policy, leaving Aucello fuming and demanding to know when had Weaver ever denounced Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) over his schemes to sell-out NYCHA public housing with “RAD/PACT/Blueprint.”

Weaver never answered the question.

Time to spill the tea about what’s been going on with NYCHA activism !

Some real talk about NYCHA “activist groups”

It’s time boil your water and to seep your tea. We are gathering by Zoom on Wednesday afternoon to drink some hot tea and share some real talk about NYCHA activism.

Zoom Information

Date : Wed., 08-Sept.
Time : 5 pm
Zoom link : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7033053210?pwd=UkdrRHZNSlc0elNKcjJpaG5SdG9Odz09
Zoom passcode : NYCHA

Updated

We revealed some of the names of activists and groups, which we believe are protecting Mayor Bill de Blasio from criticism, as well as describing general conditions that lead to ineffective activism. The speaker panel included Melanie Aucello and Cynthia Tibbs, with Louis Flores as moderator. Some NYCHA tenants provided input near the end. Please share and comment.

[siteorigin_widget class=”WP_Widget_Media_Video”][/siteorigin_widget]

Schumer broke a promise to put public housing funding into the Infrastructure Bill. Now, he risks breaking a second promise about the Budget Reconciliation.

Is Majority Leader Charles Schumer going to betray the New Deal promise of public housing ?

Members of Fight For NYCHA were present at the 18 April press conference, where Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) promised to put $80 billion in funding for public housing into the President’s Infrastructure Bill. Sen. Schumer said that the initial proposal of $40 billion that President Joseph Biden (D) had suggested was too low and that the increase would allow NYCHA to receive the $40 billion it needed to complete the backlog of capital repairs that have been used as an excuse by Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) to sell-out NYCHA with RAD/PACT, infill development, and air rights sales.

However, after President Biden gave the keys to the Kingdom to Senate Republicans, they succeeded in watering-down the Infrastructure Bill, leaving no money for public housing. None ! That meant that, as of 24 June, once the GOP compromise was detailed by the White House, Sen. Schumer’s first lie was exposed.

We need the $40 billion that is owed to the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, for capital repair funding in order to stop the privatization of public housing. We need to save Section 9 housing.

Even though President Biden closed the door on the Infrastructure Bill negotiations, Sen. Schumer has continued to advocate for $80 billion for public housing in “infrastructure” spending, including at a 23 July photo-op at the Oceanside Houses in Far Rockaway, Queens. But the Infrastructure Bill was already closed to negotiations. What Sen. Schumer not being honest with us ?

There is a corrupt bait and switch going on, and public housing residents will pay for it in higher rents, threats of evictions, and violations of their civil rights.

Since there’s been no money for public housing, unscrupulous politicians, like Mayor de Blasio, are using Section 8 conversions under RAD/PACT and the proposed Blueprint scheme to end Section 9 housing. This effectively ends the New Deal promise of public housing, which was for the Government to admit that it had a role in providing safe and sanitary housing to people at low-cost. What is happening now is that corrupt politicians are using the Section 8 rental assistance voucher programme to replace Section 9, something that was never intended to occur when Section 8 vouchers were first created.

The RAD/PACT scheme that Mayor de Blasio has been promoting leads to higher rents, higher risks of evictions, and violations of tenants’ civil rights. It’s a bad deal that tenants need to reject, and Sen. Schumer knows that.

Now, Sen. Schumer is promising us the public housing funding in the Budget Reconciliation, but that comes with strings attached, like we can’t demand forensic audits of public housing authorities, and we can’t repeal the Faircloth Amendment that caps the construction of new public housing. We’re scared that politicians will use these limitations to either accelerate Section 8 conversions, or do something worse, like end all Section 9 housing in one fell swoop.

Because Sen. Schumer’s office has begun to use parliamentary rules that stem from the filibuster to qualify that public housing funding can’t come with greater tenant protections, this puts public housing residents at-risk for bad leases, increased costs, and evictions. As a result, we increasingly feel that H.R.235 — the bill to fully-fund public housing — should be passed as a standalone bill after it has been increased to guarantee $40 billion to NYCHA to save Section 9 housing and amended to include forensic audit requirements, a repeal of the Faircloth Amendment, education and jobs programs for public housing residents, a repeal of Section 8 conversion schemes, including RAD/PACT, and a provision that any disposition of public housing assets be subjected to the local community approval process that is in effect in each Municipal jurisdiction. This would stop the privatization of public housing.

Since Sen. Schumer doesn’t inspire confidence, we have begun to flyer about these truths, because we are tired of Sen. Schumer coming up short. If he doesn’t pass H.R. 235 as a standalone bill in a way that does not permit Section 8 vouchers to replace Section 9 housing, we will begin to work with anyone, even the DSA, to see that Sen. Schumer is primaried in the 2022 Midterms. As much as we distrust the DSA, we know that they are focused only on self-interest, as is AOC. They only think of opportunism, self-promotion, and expediency. “Power can be beautiful,” AOC said to CNN for her new 2022 Midterms fundraising infomercial, in which she herself doesn’t rule out a primary challenge to Sen. Schumer. That’s a mighty powerful convergence of forces that Sen. Schumer would have to overcome.

New York has become a battleground for a new Democratic Party, where Christine Quinn, Joseph Crowley, Eliot Engel, Corey Johnson, and Jimmy Van Bramer have seen their political careers come to an end after people reached their limits with being sold out. Now, Sen. Schumer gets to decide if he faces the same prospect.

[siteorigin_widget class=”WP_Widget_Media_Image”][/siteorigin_widget]

We won !

Hours after our Protest Against the NYCHA Blueprint, the Blueprint sponsors withdrew the Bills from consideration this Legislative Session.

Sometime last night, State Senator Brian Kavanagh (D-Manhattan and Brooklyn) and Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (D-Brooklyn) released a joint statement, announcing that the controversial NYCHA Blueprint scheme would not be advancing this Legislative Session.

“After consultation with public housing residents, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and other stakeholders on proposed legislation (S6999A/A7805) that would create the New York City Public Housing Preservation Trust — a new public agency intended to enable NYCHA to seek higher levels of federal funding to renovate and manage up to 25,000 apartments — we have decided that further conversation, outreach, and negotiation are necessary before advancing legislation on this topic,” adding that, “For this reason, we will hold the bill in committee for the remainder of the current legislative session, which ends next week. We thank everyone who provided input and expressed their concerns about the proposal, and we look forward to continuing to discuss how best to meet the needs of public housing residents in the months ahead.”

The about-face came about hours after a protest by the new NYCHA Is Not For Sale coalition that unmasked duplicity by many self-styled “progressive” politicians.

The Blueprint scheme has been an attempt by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) to bring about the wholesale end of Section 9 housing in public housing developments not already destined for RAD/PACT conversion. According to information received by Fight For NYCHA, Mayor de Blasio had been twisting the arms of Albany Legislators to force a vote on or before June 10, just days before NYCHA owed a report-back to the U.S. District Court Judge administering the Baez class action lawsuit against NYCHA.

In pleadings filed in Manhattan Federal Court, the co-counsel for the Baez plaintiffs had argued that NYCHA was seeking to transition all public housing apartments to Section 8 as a backdoor way to abandon their core obligations to public housing residents. The U.S. District Court Judge has ruled that NYCHA can create a lower-tier, separate but unequal class of rights for Section 8 residents.

Protest Against NYCHA Blueprint Turns Savage, as DSA Members Manhandle a Green Party Candidate, Engage In Ad Hominem Online Attacks to Obfuscate Their Corrupt Support for the Blueprint Sell-Out of Public Housing

A protest to save public housing devolves into chaos, as DSA leaders are exposed for supporting the Blueprint sell-out of NYCHA, leading to a rift amongst the political left in New York.

A new coalition of public housing activists, NYCHA Is Not For Sale, held a protest against the corrupt, neoliberal plan by Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) to bring about the wholesale end to Section 9 public housing. The plan, known as the Blueprint, would create an unaccountable, nebulous State Authority that would rewrite the apartment leases of every public housing tenant, who isn’t already destined for another corrupt, neoliberal scheme — the RAD/PACT conversions that have been the subject of legal controversies.

The protest against the Blueprint turned chaotic when members of the New York City Democratic Socialists — loyalists to the mayor’s political supporters — interrupted the public housing rally with a competing demonstration.

[siteorigin_widget class=”WP_Widget_Media_Video”][/siteorigin_widget]

A mature, responsible call for political unity was disrupted by the NYC-DSA.

The public housing rally began with plain clothes NYPD officers wearing no badges, names, badge numbers, or body cameras, harassing the public housing activists about their protest signs. Shortly there after, public housing residents and various political candidates denounced Mayor de Blasio’s privatisation schemes for the New York City Housing Authority and called on political unity in support of Federal funding legislation that would pay for the backlog of capital repairs that have been the cause of pain and suffering for public housing residents.

NYCHA tenant association presidents Rev. Carmen Hernandez and Melanie Aucello and NYCHA tenant activist and City Council candidate Lilithe Lozano each repudiated the political betrayal that allowed NYCHA to become nearly uninhabitable. In turn, City Council candidates Lena Melendez and Edwin DeJesus spoke of the moral reasons to fully-fund NYCHA without having to resort to privatisation schemes. And Lindsey Boylan, a candidate for Manhattan borough president, made a compelling call for Democratic Party unity to support H.R. 235, draft legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives sponsored by U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY 07) that would fully-fund NYCHA. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) has expressed support for H.R. 235.

A foreshadowing of trouble was observed when Public Advocate Jumaane Williams cast aspersions on the Schumer-Velázquez Federal aid package for NYCHA. Chaos ensued after the NYC-DSA attempted to undermine the public housing protest.

“You can’t shoehorn a working class movement into a corporate party.”

The public housing protest took place outside the eastern security gate to New York City Hall, which is across the street from the office building at 250 Broadway, which, in turn, houses the executive headquarters for NYCHA. Several New York State Legislators also maintain offices in the same building.

Out of sight, members of the NYC-DSA had gathered in City Hall Park for a demonstration for public control of electricity companies. Once the NYC-DSA activists emerged from the park, they acted to block traffic on Broadway between the public housing protest location and the entrance to 250 Broadway, at which point the public housing protest moved into the street.

Not long after, Mr. DeJesus used a megaphone to denounce State Sens. Julia Salazar (DSA-Brooklyn) and Jabari Brisport (DSA-Brooklyn) over their duplicity. In response, NYC-DSA members placed their hands on Mr. DeJesus, pushed him back, and attempted to take his megaphone. Some members of NYCHA Is Not For Sale rushed to use their bodies to block NYC-DSA members from escalating their physical assault. Members of NYCHA Is Not For Sale have questioned the moral clarity of NYC-DSA to claim their espousal for public power when they have allowed Mayor de Blasio to move forward with the privatisation of public housing.

Online, Sen. Salazar downplayed the acts of assault and tore into the criticism by engaging in ad hominem attacks on members of NYCHA Is Not For Sale, at one point making a scurrilous and libelous attack against the entire NYCHA Is Not For Sale coalition by calling them “grifters,” thereby telegraphing to NYC-DSA members that she would destroy the reputations of socialists, who fractured the myth that the NYC-DSA was a political monolith that was expected to serve its leaders. In recent years, politicians, who have exploited the language of social movements for power or personal enrichment, have faced political losses, such as former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-03) and former U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY 14). The political repercussions have also ensnared 2021 political candidates, like Dianne Morales.

According to activists, Mayor de Blasio is urging a vote on the Blueprint on or before June 10, so he can bring about a wholesale end to Section 9 housing before a critical June 14 hearing in the Baez Federal class action case against NYCHA. New York has long exhibited signs of political boss systems from Albany to New York City Hall — and now, apparently, to the NYC-DSA.

[siteorigin_widget class=”WP_Widget_Media_Video”][/siteorigin_widget]