The actions of Detroit Police on the morning of Sunday, August 23 were sadistic and all too familiar. Video footage clearly shows that DPD escalated a confrontation with demonstrators exercising their right to assemble. The evidence is shocking, damning, and overwhelming. Utilizing the playbook police departments always use when they have been caught abusing their power, Detroit Police shamefully spread lies to the media almost immediately following the events of Sunday morning. The department, led by Chief James Craig, has been changing their story ever since.   After Sunday’s display of police brutality, A DPD spokeswoman announced that protestors had thrown rocks and water bottles at police. On Monday, Chief Craig was forced to walk back that lie.  When a police officer was clearly shown on video striking a citizen whose hands were tied with a baton, Chief Craig provided a lie of his own by saying “the officer never struck that individual.” When legal observers were assaulted and pepper-sprayed early Sunday morning, Chief Craig was unapologetic and proudly boasted that his department would ignore the Constitutional rights of lawyers and journalists at the scene. These are hardly isolated incidents. Earlier this summer when a police SUV rammed through a crowd of protestors in Detroit, Chief Craig suggested the officers “did the right thing.” There have been numerous instances of Craig’s unchecked bullies brutalizing our fellow citizens and even killing our dogs. Chief Craig has also excitedly welcomed the presence of federal agents as part of the Trump Administrations explicitly racist “Operation Legend” that presents more state-sanctioned terror in communities that have been systematically abandoned and underfunded for decades. When leadership, dignity, and accountability are most needed—Chief Craig has demonstrated that he possesses none of the above. Whether it be the daily marches led by Detroit Will Breathe or the many actions led by other grassroots organizations, Detroit has been showing up in defense of Black lives for three months now.  We have been demonstrating in support of defunding the police so that those funds could be directed to far more effective measures of public safety like mental health services, counseling, and housing, and education. The response to the protestors from Chief Craig’s deputy chief following their display of police brutality on Sunday morning was "You are not welcome here. Go. It’s just not working.”  On the contrary, Chief Craig’s disregard for citizens’ first amendment rights is not welcome here. Chief Craig’s willingness to excuse the violent conduct of his officers—the vast majority of whom don’t live in Detroit—is not welcome here. Chief Craig’s willingness to cozy up to the brazenly racist Trump Administration is not welcome here. We call upon Detroit Police Chief James Craig to resign. Go. It’s just not working.  Our work has only just begun. Signatories of the Statement 1 Michigan for the Global MajorityBlack Brown Alliance of Metro Detroit Democratic SocialistsBlack Youth Project 100 (BYP100)Charlevoix Village AssociationCommunity Movement Builders Detroit Area Youth Uniting MichiganDetroit Eviction DefenseDetroit Hispanic Development CorporationDetroit Justice CenterDetroit Solidarity & DefenseDetroit Will BreatheEast Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC)Field Street Block ClubGarage CulturalGeneral Baker InstituteInside Southwest DetroitJames & Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community LeadershipJewish Voice for PeaceMama Akua HouseMetro Detroit Democratic Socialists of AmericaMichigan Coalition of Rank & File Educators (MICORE)Michigan Environmental Justice CoalitionMichigan Liberation MIStudentsDreamMoratorium Now Coalition Motor City Street Dance AcademyMovimiento Cosecha - Detroit One Michigan for Immigrant RightsPalestinian Youth MovementQueer Pride DetroitRapid Response DetroitRiverwise MagazineShowing Up for Racial Justice Metro DetroitSt. Peter's Episcopal Church, Reverend Denise GrieblerSunrise DetroitSunrise Michigan Take On HateWe The People of MI We Want Green TooYemen Liberation Movement

Resolution to Endorse the DSA Great Lakes Authority (GLA) CampaignAdopted at Detroit DSA General Meeting: May 4, 2019 WHEREAS the Great Lakes region includes all of Michigan, as well as portions of Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.   Continue reading

Statement adopted June 17, 2018 Detroit DSA stands in solidarity with Sex Workers Outreach Project and Survivors Against SESTA to reject the conflation of consensual sex work and human trafficking. We condemn the passage of the FOSTA/SESTA package by Congress and we also condemn the seizure of backpage.com by the Department of Justice. Continue reading

A Statement of the National Political Committee of Democratic Socialists of America April 8, 2017 Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has consistently opposed U.S. military intervention in the civil war in Syria and condemns the Tomahawk cruise missile attack by the Trump administration. DSA has also supported from spring 2011 onwards the massive and democratic Syrian uprising against the brutal Assad regime, a regime that has shown no hesitation to use massive force, including chemical weapons, to suppress its people. Continue reading

Democratic Socialists of America’s National Political Committee’s Statement and Fact Sheet on TrumpCare, the House Republican Plan to “Repeal and Replace” the Affordable Care Act March 15, 2017 For democratic socialists, the most reprehensible aspect of the House Reconciliation Budget Bill to “Repeal and Replace” the Affordable Care Act is that it will gut Medicaid coverage and severely weaken Medicare’s viability as a single-payer system for the elderly and disabled. The bill does so in order to provide a major tax cut for the wealthy, equal to $650 billion over ten years. The bill would lead over 24 million individuals to lose health insurance coverage (according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office or CBO). The bill attacks the single-payer aspects of the U.S. health system (Medicaid and Medicare) in which the government as the sole insurer has the bargaining potential to curtail healthcare costs forced on us by private hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. Continue reading

Statement from DSA's National Political CommitteeDecember 17, 2016 Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is proud to endorse Representative Keith Ellison for Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Great change is needed within the Democratic Party. The DNC's gross mishandling of the primary election between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton demonstrates the need for a reinvigorated party that appeals to working-class voters of all races, ethnicities and genders. Hillary Clinton’s electoral loss to the most unpopular candidate in history — Donald Trump — clearly highlights the urgency of change. Continue reading

Statement from DSA’s National Political CommitteeNovember 13, 2016How Trump Won: Seizing the Anti-Establishment Ground through Racial and Economic Nationalism On November 8, voters in the United States narrowly elected an openly racist, misogynist and nativist candidate for president. Donald Trump succeeded in defining himself as an anti-establishment candidate who will end dynastic rule in Washington, D.C., by elites who care little for “forgotten Americans.” The grain of truth in this rhetoric masked an ideological appeal to a “white identity” that Republicans have long cultivated — in this instance, focusing on fear of immigrants, Muslims and people of color. The facts go against the liberal media’s narrative that “poor white people” were the primary force behind Trump’s rise. We must understand “Trumpism” as a cross-class white nativist alliance; the median family income of the 62 percent of white voters who supported Trump was higher than that of Hillary Clinton voters and wealthier than Bernie Sanders’ primary base. Continue reading

By Maria Svart Tuesday night was not unpredictable. For centuries, the ruling class has used racism to divide working class and poor people and grind us down. It makes sense that people are scared, angry and desperate for change. Even so, many of us are in mourning. Many of us are very afraid for our families, our neighbors, and our country. Continue reading

Statement of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) National Political Committee Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) condemns the ongoing state and corporate violence against the just resistance of the Dakota Sioux Standing Rock indigenous people to the violation of their land and treaty rights by the Energy Transfer Partners’ construction of the Dakota Access crude oil pipeline. Energy Transfer has vengefully bulldozed a historic tribal burial ground and with state sanction assaulted peaceful protesters with private security dogs. Both acts represent another atrocity in the long history of forced removal and genocide against indigenous peoples by an occupying white power structure. Contrast these brutal tactics with the cautious treatment of far-right-wing racist white hate groups that have tried to privatize federal lands. We hope that the federal government’s recent decision to reconsider the building of the pipeline on native land will lead to the permanent end to the construction of the pipeline. Continue reading

Statement of the DSA National Political Committee Democratic Socialists of America believes that the Left must balance two crucial tasks in the November 2016 elections. On the one hand, the progressive movement must roundly defeat Donald Trump’s racist, nativist, Islamophobic and misogynist presidential campaign, as well as isolate and delegitimize the far-right hate groups that his campaign has strengthened. On the other hand, the Left must sustain and expand the independent electoral and social movement capacity built by the insurgent Sanders campaign, while broadening it out in an explicitly antiracist and multiracial direction. Thus, through November, DSA will prioritize two goals: Continue reading