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A recent and high-profile fumble led by the Portland City Council’s socialist members (who nearly all publicly expressed remorse afterward) showed cracks in the socialist bloc’s momentum and, in some ways, sophistication.
The bloc, alongside councilors Jamie Dunphy, Candace Avalos and Loretta Smith, voted in early June to freeze $64 million headed to nonprofits that serve underprivileged children via the Portland Children’s Levy, a highly regarded city program. They cited concerns over a flawed and potentially racist selection process.
The remand stunned dozens of organizations—many of them Black and brown-led—that expected funding, and rendered uncertain their ability to provide food, after-school programs and mentoring to kids.
The request to halt the spending stemmed from two Black-run organizations not approved for funding they sought—Self Enhancement Inc. and the Equitable Giving Circle—which lobbied councilors hard. But a caucus of the DSA lobbied councilors as well.
A group that calls itself the PDX Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus demanded in a letter that City Council “immediately fund” Equitable Giving Circle, writing that the selection process was deeply flawed. They demanded that the council select a new slate of organizations to fund, and only ones whose clients are at least 50% Black and brown children.
“Failure to act is an act of betrayal,” the caucus wrote.
Portland DSA co-chairs Olivia Katbi and Brian Denning say the caucus did not get approval from the local chapter to send out the press release, and that the group is an “autonomous caucus nationally, and local chapters are still working out what that means in terms of things like public statements.”
Later that month, after intense public pressure from Black- and brown-led nonprofits who’d been expecting the funding, the council unanimously reversed the remand. Councilor Mitch Green said publicly that he’d regretted his initial decision. In a phone call with WW, he said concerns from his constituents—chief among them the DSA—led to his remand vote.
