Politics

On March 8 the Cincinnati Socialist Feminists coalition and allies from Columbus decided to send Ohio Governor Mike DeWine a message for International Women’s Day. A dozen women and men attempted to access DeWine’s upper-floor office at the Columbus Riffe Center.

After being turned away, they went to the ground floor lobby and held a sit-in. “Our bodies, our choice!” they chanted. “Governor DeWine, abortion’s not a crime!”

The protesters were targeting Ohio Senate Bill 23, the so-called “heartbeat bill” which would ban abortions six weeks after conception. DeWine has pledged to sign the bill if it’s passed by the Ohio legislature.

When the lobby closed at 5 PM, State Highway Patrol officers ordered the demonstrators to leave. Depending on their level of resistance, they were escorted, dragged, or carried out of the building. There were no arrests. Outside, the protesters were joined by about 40 supporters and held a rally on the sidewalk.

Columbus voters have line-item budget appropriation powers at the ballot this May. It will be split into five separate bond issues ranging in amount from $50 million to $425 million coming to a grand total of $1.03 billion for all five. The following is a breakdown of what exactly each bond issue could, but not necessarily will fund, according to the city and county officials I have contacted, as well as other documents made public by the city. Most are straightforward things that you would expect your city budget to cover, but some are more ambitious proposals, with one being downright historic for our city.

Columbus, Ohio – Ahead of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine delivering his State of the State address, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio highlights how Governor DeWine’s priority to outlaw abortion and criminalize medical professionals for providing care to patients by signing the six-week abortion ban undermines his rhetoric to make Ohio a healthier, more prosperous state.  

Statement from Lauren Blauvelt-Copelin, Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Affairs, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio:

“We anticipate to hear Governor DeWine to discuss his administrations’ proposed priorities for children. However, DeWine’s administration does not support women’s well-being, including their ability to make their own reproductive health care decisions, so they cannot stand behind their promise to do the same for children. 

“Children largely depend on women and mothers for their care. Governor DeWine’s promise to sign a dangerous six-week abortion ban will severely undercut any efforts to address Ohio’s alarming infant mortality rate, unemployment, and economic opportunity.”

COLUMBUS, OH – Joe Motil, candidate for Columbus City Council attended today’s public hearing at City Hall that was held by Councilwoman Shayla Favor for a proposed designated Kenny & Henderson Community Reinvestment Area (CRA). The CRA was initiated by developer Preferred Living who is seeking to purchase and develop the property where the Kahoots Gentlemen’s Club is located near the southeast corner of Kenny and Henderson Roads. Preferred Living would potentially replace the business with a 219 unit apartment complex. If approved, new construction in this CRA would be eligible for 15 year 100% tax abatements.

The best place to start to understand the undemocratic nature of U.S. elections is to search “Paul Weyrich” and “Goo Goo” online. Weyrich, who states in the speech that “…I don’t want everybody to vote,” is co-founder of the Moral Majority, a religious right organization and ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is infamous for writing oppressive and anti-democratic “model” legislation – much it followed by Ohio’s Republican-dominated state legislature.

After the 2016 presidential election, a New York Times editorial pointed out that North Carolina’s “…Republican Party issued a news release boasting that cutbacks in early voting hours reduced black turnout by 8.5% below 2012 levels, even as the number of white voters increased by 22.5%.” A North Carolina federal appeals court struck down one of their most outrageous voter suppression laws noting that it targeted black voters “with almost surgical precision.”

Ohio’s former Secretary of State Jon Husted used similar racist voter repression tactics in our state. He cut back on early voting hours and eliminated voting centers in urban areas where minority voters are concentrated.

Let's take a field trip to Delaware County to learn about government and politics at their worst. 

Our field trip takes us to the City of Powell and Liberty Township, two contiguous entities in central southern Delaware County, where 30,000 of the county's 200,000 citizens live.

Four elected right-wing Republicans apparently have conspired to wreak havoc on the city and the township by acting to decimate the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) services provided by the Liberty Township Fire Department (LTFD). The actions show they have confused their radical ideology with their responsibility to provide valuable public services to the community.

This drama of disrespect toward the community and its fire and EMS professionals was instigated by Republican Melanie Leneghan, a Liberty Township trustee who lost close races last year in the 12th Congressional District primaries, in part because it was alleged that she voted to pave her own street.

Joe Motil, a longtime community advocate for fairness and equality for Columbus neighborhoods was told by Mayor Andrew Ginther’s office that he was not permitted to represent the Columbus Chapter of the NAACP’s Labor & Industry Committee at the upcoming Construction Trades Career Fair at the Fort Hayes Career Center. The event is being sponsored by the City of Columbus and several other construction trades and related organizations. Mr. Motil serves on the Chapter’s Executive Committee and was recently appointed as Chairman of the Labor & Industry Committee. Furthermore, Joe has worked in the commercial construction industry for 39 years and is retired from Laborers Local 423. For the past 13 years he has worked as a construction safety manager and currently oversees the safety of the $355 million Mt. Carmel Grove City Hospital construction project for Hunt Construction.

Venezuela Under Siege 

What would you do if you were a socialist who had to manage a capitalist economy in crisis? Or an environmentalist who had to govern a country whose main export was oil and whose national budget was thus subject to its massive price volatility? Or an ecosocialist torn between the reality of people who are long accustomed to fuel prices kept unsustainably low by implicit energy subsidies and the urgent need to stop smugglers smuggling subsidized fuels out of the country and selling it at much higher prices  in neighboring countries? There are no easy answers, are there? 

Such is the predicament in which Venezuela’s left-wing government and its supporters find themselves. It is not a job of North American activists to find solutions to the problems in Venezuela, however. Our task, instead, is to help open up the necessary political space and time in which Venezuelans themselves can work out a best course of action under the circumstances and implement it – without interference from the United States government. 

President Donald Trump’s move to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan last month certainly sent the Washington establishment into a tizzy. However, the action will show, as journalist Matt Taibbi wrote, the real divide in our nation’s capital – those who oppose war and those who are for it, profit off of it and probably just enjoy it. It has been the American way for quite some time now.

To make our city government work for the benefit of everyone, Yes We Can Columbus has been advocating for campaign finance reform since 2016. Currently, candidates for Columbus Mayor, City Council, City Attorney, and City Auditor are permitted to receive unlimited campaign cash from wealthy individuals and corporations. Candidates favored by the rich can afford to pay for more air time, canvassing, campaign literature, and yard signs than candidates who depend on the smaller donations that ordinary citizens can afford.

The well-heeled candidates win, because they have more money to sway public opinion. After the election, their wealthy donors expect favors in return. And they get them.  

An even playing field is essential for a healthy democracy, where working class people have a say in decisions that affect them. But the idea has had no traction with Mayor Ginther and the current City Council, who were elected under the current pay-to-play system.