Genesee County Democratic Socialists of America
Genesee County Democratic Socialists of America is a branch of Rochester Democratic Socialists of America.
Genesee DSA
Estaphie Ward was a co-chair of Genesee County Democratic Socialists of America.
Angela Carlson
August 14 2022.
Gaza protest
Calling for an end to U.S. funding what they term "genocide" in Gaza, members of the Genesee County Democratic Socialists of America conducted a protest Saturday outside of Batavia City Hall.
"A lot of people died, a lot of people are displaced," said Logan Wyatt Cole, secretary for the group. "It's not only that, but they can't come back, they have nowhere to go. The rates of death, especially the death of children, rival that of historical incidences of genocide, including the Armenian Genocide and even some of the concentration camps back during the Holocaust."
Asked for his views on Hamas, Cole said, "Their tactics are not ones I support, but it is very difficult whenever you are held in an area, in an open-air prison, and I think historically, violence has become something that is sort of inevitable when you're putting so much pressure on a particular population."[1]
Antifascist teach-in
The Genesee County Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is organizing an antifascist teach-in on Saturday, August 13, 2022.
The tour is “an opportunity for fascists to spread hate and recruit,” said Gina Schelemanow, a member of the ROC DSA Genesee County Branch Organizing Committee. “It is important to understand why they are doing this and actively stand against it.”
The August 12 and 13 stop was originally planned for the Main Street Armory in Rochester. A grassroots effort led by Rochester DSA (ROC DSA) and the Rochester Mutual Aid Network (RMAN) [1] successfully pressured the owner of the venue to cancel the stop. The stop was then moved to the Cornerstone Church in Batavia.
During the teach-in speakers will argue that “demagogues like the RAT speakers take people’s justified anxiety and anger about the state of the country and the world and blame the weak for the decisions of powerful elites,” said Logan Wyatt Cole, a member of the ROC DSA Genesee County Branch Organizing Committee. “These people are desperate to stop working people from banding together to make the government work for us. They spread hate to turn us violently against each other—while they laugh all the way to the bank,” Cole added.
Gina Schelemanow of Genesee County DSA urged opponents of fascism, opponents of Christian nationalism, and opponents of white supremacy to attend the teach-in. “While we will be three miles away from the hatefest, people who attend far-right events do have a history of aggressive behavior.” Schelemanow, therefore, suggested that parents exercise caution when deciding whether to bring children along.[2]