Jules Bernstein

Jules Bernstein is a Washington DC activist.

Leaving DSA

November 9, 2023 Twenty-four longtime members of the Democratic Socialists of America published an open letter in The New Republic to explain why they’re leaving the organization.

Our hopes for a better world—more egalitarian, more just, more humane—once found expression in the Democratic Socialists of America.

Many of us have been members of DSA since its founding in 1982—some of us in leadership positions—as well as activists in the organizations and movements from which DSA emerged...

We were elated by the explosive growth of DSA that began in 2016, followed by the election of more than 100 DSA members to elective office. In such figures as Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Summer Lee, and Greg Casar, we cheered a new generation of progressive political leadership in the United States. It seemed that we could finally join other nations in having a meaningful democratic socialist presence in our political mainstream.

In recent years, however, we have been deeply troubled by the emergence of isolating, purist, and self-destructive tendencies inside DSA that have undermined its promise. The very strength of the regenerated DSA is in its electoral work and its high-profile, politically astute elected officials, and yet they came under attack from within. Ocasio-Cortez was condemned for stating that Israel had a right to exist, and Bowman was subjected to a vicious campaign for his expulsion from DSA because of his refusal to endorse the boycott, divestment, and sanctions, or BDS, movement, as well as for his connections with Jewish peace organizations in the U.S. and Israel.

The campaigns against DSA members of Congress garnered high-profile, public attention, but they were only the tip of the iceberg. There were several attacks on DSA-member and DSA-endorsed state and local officials. Purist litmus tests were increasingly imposed on candidates for elected office as the price of DSA endorsements.

In our judgment, a moment of truth has arrived. The events of the last weeks in Israel and Palestine, and the responses of national DSA and many of its local chapters, bring us to the painful conclusion that today’s DSA has driven itself beyond redemption....

We are beginning discussions amongst ourselves, to which we will invite other signatories to this letter, on how to keep the true vision of democratic socialism alive and how we can work together to develop an organizational framework that supports our educational and political work.

Leo Casey, Harold Meyerson, Richard Healey, Peter Dreier, Ruth Jordan, Mark Levinson, Nathan Newman, Maurice Isserman, Ingrid Goldstrom, Larry Mishel, David Kusnet, Aaron Greenberg, Randall Brink, Janette Brink, Jules Bernstein, Jeff Isaac, Tom Canel, James Berger, Robert Feldman, Jennifer Klein, Ed Collins, Raymond Barglow, John Zuraw, Bill Mosley.

DSA Members Organizing Against Trump

DSA Members Organizing Against Trump was a letter released early October 2010 to shore up Democratic Socialists of America support for Joe Biden.

Signatories included Jules Bernstein, Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America.

Obama connection

Jules Bernstein with Barack Obama 2016.

Supporting bus strike

When bus drivers on Martha's Vineyard struck at the height of the tourist season in 2019, solidarity from longtime residents, including some DSA activists, helped them win. Key issues for the drivers were wages, which after 14 years of service are capped at $23.50 per hour, and health care, which covers only individual workers, not their families.

Founding DSA member and union-side labor attorney Jules Bernstein, along with DSA member Virginia Diamond and other progressive residents, helped lead the solidarity effort among residents. An op-ed by Bernstein in the July 10 Martha’s Vineyard Times, under the headline “Union-busting lands on Martha’s Vineyard shores” laid out a strong case for supporting the striking drivers. Management, he pointed out, seemed determined to break the strike and the union to reassert total control over working conditions. Massachusetts senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, supported the union.

Virginia Diamond· June 28 2019·

With Katharine Kavanagh, John Christensen, Holly MacKenzie and Jules Bernstein in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts.

Democratic Agenda

More than 1,200 people attended the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee initiated Democratic Agenda Conference held November 16-18, 1979, at the International Inn and Metropolitan AM Church in Washington 1 DC. The conference focused on "corporate power'; as the key barrier to "economic and political democracy," concepts many Democratic Agenda participants defined as "socialism.'

The Democratic Agenda meetings attempted to develop anti-corporate alternatives" through influencing the direction of the Democratic Party during the period leading to the July 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York.

Workshops included "Stopping the New Union Busters" - Jules Bernstein, Phyllis Payne.

Campaign for America's Future

In 1996 Jules Bernstein was one of the original 130 founders of Campaign for America's Future.

2014 Debs-Thomas-Bernstein Award

Boston Democratic Socialists of America's Debs-Thomas-Bernstein Awards Reception, took place Sunday, June 8, at the Workmen’s Circle, 1762 Beacon Street, Brookline.

Honorary Chairs for the DSA Awards Reception were;

Former Rep. Barney Frank; Rep. Ruth Balser; Sen. Patricia Jehlen; Dick Bauer—Co-Chair, New England Jewish Labor Committee; Arthur Bernstein—former YPSL, brother of Julius Bernstein; Jules Bernstein—labor attorney; Sheila Decter—Director, Jewish Alliance for Social Action; Ellen Feingold—former Director, Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly; Michael Felsen—past president, Workmen’s Circle; Shelagh Foreman—Director, Massachusetts Peace Action; David Harris—Managing Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, Harvard Law School; Georgia Hollister Isman—Director, Mass Alliance; John McDonough—Director, Center for Public Health Leadership, Harvard School of Public Health; Rabbi Barbara Penzer—Co-Chair, New England Jewish Labor Committee; Steve Tolman, President, Massachusetts AFL-CIO; Rand Wilson—Communications and Policy Director, SEIU Local 888.

Stand with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

We Stand with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a 2018 letter signed by several Democratic Socialists of America members mainly from the DSA North Star in response to attacks on Ocasio-Cortez over remarks she made on Palestine.

A recent petition circulated by some DSA members criticizes Ocasio-Cortez for supporting a two state solution to the Palestine-Israel question and not aligning with a long list of demands regarding Palestine and Israel. Should Ocasio-Cortez fail to agree with this list of demands, the petitioners are calling for DSA to revoke her endorsement. These attacks on Ocasio-Cortez have come despite the fact that she has staked out positions which will make her one of the strongest advocates of Palestinian rights and self-determination in Congress.

We stand with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The position she has taken on Israel and Palestine are principled stances, worthy of a democratic socialist, in its recognition of both Palestinian humanity and rights and Israeli humanity and rights. On this issue, as many, she will be a voice for the voiceless in Congress.

Signatures included Jules Bernstein.

DSA North Star

In 2018 Jules Bernstein was an original signatory of the DSA North Star founding principles statement.

Socialist Majority Caucus

DSA's Socialist Majority Caucus signatories list as of April 25 2019 included Jules Bernstein of Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America.

References

Template:Reflist Template:Campaign for America's Future co-founders