Comrades,

Last week, at the end of the disastrous first year of the Trump presidency, the GOP’s long-waged war on the poor reached its most egregious stage yet, exposing their ruthless agenda to millions of Americans. Capitalism, and the violence it begets, are poised for an unprecedented assault on our paychecks, our healthcare, our education, our homes (should we ever have the privilege of affording one), and what little security still exists for millions of working and even middle-class families. This bill is pure evil. It puts an untenable burden on working people and they know it.

This is class war.

Larry Summers, the Nobel Laureate who served as Secretary of the Treasury for Bill Clinton and economic advisor to Barack Obama, predicted on Monday that 10,000 people per year would die as a direct result of this legislation, if it becomes law. Progressive organizations have placed the estimated number far higher.

The Republican Party is becoming ever more shamelessly plutocratic. Their tax bill does not even pretend to offer anything to the vast majority of Americans. Got a private jet? There’s an exemption for that. But if you’re a grad student making under $30,000 per year, your tax rates will go up 400%. They want to take the money you need to survive and give it to billionaires. They want to kill you to make people so rich that their children’s children will never have to work a day if they don’t feel the need to be just a little richer.

It has also created an unprecedented opportunity. For increasingly many of our friends and neighbors, the veil is dropping. They know, as we do, that this is not just about Trump. The GOP has been working toward this day for generations. The Democrats have revealed themselves unwilling to fight for working people’s interests. We must fight for each other.

We must fight back.

For the last year, across the country, we have been busily building the necessary infrastructure for national action. No organization is better poised to make both the case against capitalism, and a vision for a future free of brutal exploitation by the wealthiest citizens of this country, a part of the national discourse. Now is the time to center our politics in the fight for a better future.

Therefore, we are asking that DSA chapters join us in protest on December 15. We propose a national day of action in opposition to this nightmare bill. We must stop this monstrosity while we still have the chance – and show the ruling class that we won’t take this lying down. We must change the nature of the dialogue. And we must prepare ourselves for the long fight ahead, should it pass, because make no mistake, as the deficits rise the GOP and their ultra-wealthy puppet-masters will be coming for Medicare and Social Security next.

The time for an unapologetic class struggle is now, and we socialists must be at the fore. A day of action will show our enemies in Washington what we’re capable of. Together, from the largest city to the smallest town to college campuses across the country, we work within our communities to build alternatives, organize resistance, and to provide hope, even in these stressful times, that another world is possible. Let’s make our presence known.

In Solidarity,
Democratic Socialists of America, San Francisco

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