Willie Burnley, Jr.

Willie Burnley, Jr. Somerville City Councilor

Activism

A month after re-electing Senator Elizabeth Warren as a Boston Field Organizer, I joined thousands of advocates in the Sunrise Movement in lobbying Congress for a Green New Deal and was one of 143 young environmentalists arrested during our sit-in of congressional offices. The next year, when white supremacists came to Boston for their “Straight Pride Parade,” I joined other queer youth to organize a counterprotest called “Hands Off Our Pride.” The following year, amidst a national reckoning on racism and police violence, I joined other Somerville residents in founding Defund SPD when we learned that there would be cuts to our city’s housing, healthcare, and economic development budgets. As part of one of the largest movements this city has ever seen, we successfully moved over a million dollars that was used to provide funding to the Office of Housing Stability, rental and food assistance for residents, as well as hire two bilingual social workers and a clinical youth specialist to the city’s department of Health and Human Services. We were able to do this because we did it together.

I learned these values of solidarity growing up in sunny San Diego where I was blessed to experience the beauty and struggle of an incredibly diverse, working class community. I lived with my father, a former Marine, who worked as a unionized pipefitter on the Coronado Naval Base before retiring a few years ago; my mother worked in the food industry since she was 14 years old and remains the strongest person I’ve ever known. Thanks to their sacrifices, I was able to move to Boston to attend Emerson College and became the first person in my family to graduate from college. Since then, I’ve organized against evictions with CAAS, for permanently affordable housing with the Somerville Community Land Trust, and for racial and economic equity as a member of Just Us Somerville, Democratic Socialists of America, and Union United.

Pro-Hamas Letter

In the wake of a terror attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, Harvard University students signed an open letter blaming Israel. After the students received negative media coverage, the ANSWER Coalition jumped to their defense in an open letter titled: "Open letter against intimidation at Harvard: Defend the freedom to speak in support of Palestine!" Willie Burnley, Jr. signed the letter. Excerpt:

We stand together against the racist harassment and demonization of Pro-Palestine student activists at Harvard and elsewhere across the country. These attacks are designed to intimidate, weaken, and silence people's right to speak out in support of the Palestinian people's struggle against occupation and apartheid. Their educational and professional futures are being threatened and right wing political operatives have even rented a TV truck to drive around campus displaying the students' faces. Some are even receiving death threats..."

Somerville for All slate

Willie Burnley, Jr., Charlotte Kelly, Eve Seitchik.

"Today, we have a Somerville that will move mountains for developers to remake entire neighborhoods. The Somerville For All slate has a vision of our city that will move mountains for working families, that will make investments in a thriving community, and that will ensure big developers and corporate landowners pay their fair share."

Boston DSA endorsed candidates

In late May, Charlotte Kelly spoke to a half-dozen volunteers ready to knock doors for her City Council of Somerville campaign.

Kelly is one of seven candidates running for Somerville City Council who has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). This slate of campaigns is bound not just by the idea of winning socialism in a general sense, but specific, concrete reforms to pave the way. To get there, the candidates demonstrate intricate knowledge of policy battles and embed themselves in community organizing, but it’s more than that, too: their proposals for the future drill down to the details. According to Spencer Brown, co-chair of Boston Democratic Socialists of America, the election centers on three issues of daily life—affordable housing, climate change, and public safety—and in addressing those issues the DSA-endorsed candidates move seamlessly from broad-stroke abstractions to net zero stretch code and idling police cruisers. The slate in Somerville has the potential to translate the grand aim of socialism into the minutiae of city politics.

Besides the mayor, Somerville’s municipal government includes an 11-seat city council, with four at-large and seven district seats. Two of the incumbent district councilors are also endorsed DSA members: JT Scott in Ward 2 and Ben Ewen-Campen in Ward 3. Beyond the incumbents, the socialist slate features five candidates running in open races, including three for the four at-large seats—Charlotte Kelly, Eve Seitchik, and Willie Burnley, Jr.—and two more for district seats—Tessa Bridge for Ward 5 and Becca Miller for Ward 7. According to a spreadsheet by Calla Walsh, data from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance shows that, as of the end of June, all seven DSA district candidates lead their races in fundraising (though Miller leads what may be the tightest district race by less than $2,000).

But it’s important to consider the slate collectively, Boston DSA co-chair Brown said. For some, the decision to run itself was collective and contingent on others’ running, but also prompted by the disappointments of the current Council’s governance. On paper, the Council looks like a fairly left-leaning legislative body. Besides the two socialist incumbents, a clear majority identify as “progressive.” Back in 2017, coming off of Bernie’s first run, Our Revolution secured a wave of victories in the city. But amid the uprising against police brutality sparked by the state murder of George Floyd, the Council failed to implement a full 10 percent cut to police spending, a decision some candidates cite as something a socialist-majority Council would have done differently.

Metro DC DSA Public Facbook group

Members of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, public Facebook group, as of March 12, 2017 included Willie Burnley, Jr..

DSA Boston Public Facebook Group

Members of Boston Democratic Socialists of America Public Facebook Group, in June 17 2019 included Willie Burnley, Jr..