Zohran Mamdani announces Maria Torres-Springer, Lina Khan, Grace Bonilla and Melanie Hartzog as transition co-chairs. “The poetry of campaigning may have come to a close last night at nine, but the beautiful prose of governing has only just begun.”

Your party is run by war criminals. Sit the f*ck down.

Your party is run by war criminals. Sit the f*ck down.

Solidarity with Kansas City Tenants Union and the tenants at Bowen Tower Tenant Union in Raytown, Missouri, on their historic rent strike! Tenants at Bowen Tower are currently withholding over $34,000 in rent for the month of October. The tenants are fighting for an end to dismal living conditions, and the criminal refusal by their multi-state corporate landlord, Alta/CGHS, to address a myriad of problems which include flooding, broken plumbing, broken heating and air conditioning, and bed bug infestations. Despite failing to fix these issues, the landlord is RAISING the rent, with one tenant reporting a rent increase of 40 percent! In response to their rent strike, the tenants have been met with outrageous $160 late fees, threats of eviction, and intimidation from the police. Alta/CGHS real estate is a wealthy corporation that owns well over 15,000 properties. Its main owners — Charles Hill, Howard Song, and Greg Salyers — have been involved in billions of real estate acquisitions in their careers. The company boasts “unique principal strategies in order to maximize value … to ensure optimal return on investment”. These corporate landlords make their profits from exploiting working-class and poor renters. The “optimal return on investment” for these multimillionaires is only possible because of the obscene rents they charge us working people and by spending as little as possible on maintaining the homes we live in. Earlier this year, tenants at Independence Towers near Kansas City won a major victory through an 8-month rent strike, which saw them withhold $290,000 in rent and win recognition of their tenants union! Tenants got to keep their rent and utility rates at the same level and do not have to pay a dime in back pay.  Solidarity with the rally and march TONIGHT that the tenants are itemizing organizing to extend this historic rent strike and to fight against evictions! @KCTenants

Despite the dire situation with SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program), Democratic Party politicians have refused to do what it would take to continue SNAP benefits uninterrupted — fund SNAP at the state level by taxing the rich. The Democratic Party has a trifecta (Governor and majorities in both State houses) in 15 states. In every single one of these states, they could be carrying out emergency taxes on the billionaires and multimillionaires to fully cover SNAP funding. If any state succeeded in winning taxes on the rich to protect SNAP, it would undoubtedly lead to enormous pressures on both parties not only to do that in other states, but also to immediately restore federal funding for SNAP. But not a single Democratic politician is even talking about taxing the rich. As Trump and the Republicans have made brutal cuts to services at the federal level, the Democratic Party has refused to mount any real fightback all year. Instead, they have led draconian budget cuts of their own in multiple states. Working and poor people are losing out from both the Democratic and Republican parties, both of which represent billionaires. We need independent organizing, strike actions, and a new party for the working class. workersstrikeback.org/news-a…