The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is asking candidates seeking their endorsements in next year’s state elections if they will support the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel, while ignoring any questions about black and brown folks being stripped of their homeownership through government programs, according to their candidate survey.
KCP obtained the questionnaire along with answers from candidates seeking the DSA endorsement to run against Assemblymembers Joe Lentol (D-Greenpoint, Williamsburg), Erik Dilan (D-Bushwick, Cypress Hills, East New York, Ocean Hill, Brownsville) and Walter Mosley (D-Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy) and State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (D-Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sunset Park, Gowanus, Park Slope)
The candidates interviewed were Nadja Oertelt and Emily Gallagher for Lentol’s seat, Boris Santos for Dilan’s seat, Phara Souffrant for Mosley’s seat, and Jabari Brisport and Jason Salmon for Montgomery’s seat.
The questionnaire asks candidates, among other questions, if they would oppose efforts by state legislators to deny state funding to organizations supporting the BDS movement against the “Israeli occupation of Palestine and to ban the Students for Justice in Palestine organization from CUNY campuses.”
In total, the survey asks the candidates to weigh on a broad socialism agenda heavy on race, gender and cultural politics.
In regard to racial justice, the candidates are asked if they would support reparations to African-Americans for their years of slavery in this country, but does not address the issue of the government-sanctioned taking of black and brown owned properties through non-profit organizations and redistributing their intergenerational wealth.
The survey also asks candidates if they would forgo campaign contributions from all for-profit corporations and for-profit PAC’s (Political Action Committees), but says nothing about accepting small-dollar donations from across the country that has no idea of local community issues.
The survey also fails to mention anything about small businesses and small business growth.
The survey does ask candidates their views on “socialist feminism”, fully ending cash bail and on favoring universal state-run healthcare and fully ending the private health insurance industry.
To see the survey and the candidates’ answers click here.
