Our Immigration Working Group formed in mid June to provide support for the Abolish ICE march lead by Congreso and People’s Assembly. Its current purpose is to develop our members’ capacity to support immigrant communities and stand in opposition to borders, police violence, and mass incarceration. At Immigration WG meetings, we focus on educating ourselves through a socialist framework, discussing different tactics of resistance, and how we can plug into active support roles.

The next Immigration WG meeting will be Sunday, August 12th at 5:30 PM, 2022 St. Bernard Ave.

The New Orleans Democratic Socialists of America stands strongly opposed to the Sewerage and Water Board’s decision to resume water utility shutoffs for accounts the board considers “delinquent.” We believe every person has a right to clean water, a basic human need, and that all utility shutoffs are a violation of this right. These resumed shutoffs will do little to resolve the budget problems that the utility claims prompted this decision. Instead, they will impose needless harm and hardship on the poor and working class people of New Orleans.

The S&WB claims that over 12% of the residences and businesses in New Orleans are currently more than 60 days overdue on paying their bills and that this is causing the utility to run out of money. However, the financial difficulties at S&WB are, by the utility’s own admission, a result of its own mismanagement. The utility acknowledges that the bills people have received are wildly inaccurate due to the utility’s own mishandling of a switch to a new billing software system. In fact, shutoffs were suspended because S&WB was aware of how widespread this problem was and that it was their responsibility. The billing problems have not been resolved. If S&WB acknowledges the widespread inaccuracies of the bills, they have no authority to collect on these inaccurate and inflated bills.