The Montana DSA Podcast

Jim Nelson was an Associate Justice on the Montana Supreme Court from 1993 to 2012. Justice Nelson has perhaps most affected the State's privacy jurisprudence in the area of personal autonomy. As a result of cases like Armstrong v. State (on abortion rights) and Gryczan v. State (on marriage rights)—both Nelson-authored opinions—Montana's right to privacy now more fully encompasses personal autonomy and decision-making. Nelson most recently set the white Christian nationalist's hair on fire with his speech defending the Montana Constitution and our co-equal judicial branch, delivered on March 15, 2023, before several hundred people in the state capitol rotunda. The Freedom Caucus Republicans accused him in a press release, rightly ignored by the Montana press, of being a "jihadist." You can watch the speech at https://www.helenacivictv.org/on-demand/4391 (starting at 22:00).

Jonathan Motl is Montana's senior public interest attorney. He's written nine ballot initiatives and was from 2013-2017 Montana's Commissioner of Political Practices. He talks with the Montana DSA Podcast host Frank Kromkowski about how Senate Bill 93, "Generally revising ballot issues," continues the corporate attack on our citizen initiative process, an attack that was passed in the 2021 session as House Bill 651 and is being waged again this Tuesday morning in the State Administration committee of the House. He concludes with what electors—we the people—can do to force the legislature to recognize the constitutional separation of powers of the three co-equal branches of state government, as well as the constitutional right of Montana's citizens to make their own laws.

Danny Tenenbaum was a legislator in the 2021 session, representing a House district in the Missoula area. Now he serves as an Associate Justice on the Court of Appeals for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. He talks to Montana DSA Podcast host Frank Kromkowski about the importance of defending an independent judiciary, the Montana Indian Child Welfare Act, and bipartisan efforts to right the decades-long wrongs of exclusionary zoning that have helped exacerbate the affordable housing emergency in Montana.

Mary Caferro, representing House District 82 and the longest-serving legislator in the Helena area, talks with Montana DSA Podcast host Frank Kromkowski about where progressive legislation stands as the Legislature breaks to transmit bills from one house to the other. While Republicans focus on lining the pockets of their wealthy donors and three-pieced-suited lobbyists, additional legislation may improve working-class Montanans' lives--but only if we keep up the pressure. The second half of the session starts tomorrow, with budget issues and constitutional amendments likely to dominate the discussion through April 7. 

This episode features a conversation with Elizabeth Marum of Belgrade, MT. Elizabeth has been at the forefront of the affordable housing fight in Gallatin County, one of the fastest-growing areas of the state, for decades. She talks about current legislative approaches—all of which favor landlords because so many legislators are in fact landlords—as well as options that could be pursued to establish housing trusts. With a combination of higher taxes on second (and third, etc.) homes, as well as taxing Airbnbs and VRBOs as commercial businesses, enough funds could be secured to help make affordable housing more available.

What the Funk is a blog started last summer by several long-time residents of Great Falls in reaction to the news desert in which they found themselves. They cover a broad range of topics but recently have focussed on the legislature, especially the extremism of the representatives that Great Falls voters have sent to Helena. They do this with a refined and often outraged sense of humor. (Please excuse the poor audio/video quality in parts of this episode, starting at about 10:30 and lasting just a few minutes. The internet in Montana is often unreliable.)

Billings City Council member Denise Joy joins podcast host Frank Kromkowski to discuss how the Montana Legislature is impacting how our communities are governed. First among them is that the current legislature continues to take away powers that her constituents think the city council should have. Denise, who is also Co-Chair of Billings DSA, also discusses how democratic socialism can be a relevant politics to address issues that working-class Montanans face every day.

In the seventh episode of The Montana DSA Podcast, host Frank Kromkowski talks with Chance Standish of Butte, America. Chance worked in Albertsons for several years, and eventually became a statewide union organizer for the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), representing grocery store workers and meat cutters. A couple of years ago, he was introduced (by a customer at work) to DSA and immediately became a member. Because there is no DSA chapter (yet) in Butte, Chance is working with the Montana DSA Legislative Action Committee to research and mobilize members on labor issues at the legislature, including defeating "Right To Work" legislation, again!

The Montana DSA Podcast host Frank Kromkowski has a conversation with Jan Strout, President of Montana NOW (National Organization for Women), about the broad range of issues and bills that Montana NOW members, leaders, and coalition partners are working on at the Montana legislature. 

Episode 5 of the Montana DSA Podcast features actions Montanans can take (especially in the county of Missoula the City of Missoula, Helena, and Bozeman, who together make up 55% of the Northwestern Energy ratepayers in Montana) to support their local government plans to be energy efficient by 2030. This demand, among others, is being pushed by 350 Montana, the state-wide affiliate of 350.org, one of the world's leading organizations addressing the climate crisis. Jeff Smith, Co-Chair, and Winona Rachel, Climate Action Coordinator, discuss these actions with Frank Kromkowski, The Montanan DSA Podcast host.

For the fourth episode of The Montana DSA Podcast, host Frank Kromkowski has a conversation with Joanie Kresich, Board Chair of the Northern Plains Resource Council. Founded in 1972 originally to fight expanded coal mining on ranch land, NPRC is one of Montana's oldest and largest citizen action groups. It's also quite active at the Montana Legislature, fighting for priorities that its members identify (you should check out their impressive citizen lobbying tools at northernplains.org). Joanie also discusses plans for the rally to protect Montana's Constitution on Wednesday, February 1 at noon at the state capitol rotunda.  Montana DSA is one among many organizations mobilizing its members to be there. Don't Mess With It!

Episode 3 of the Montana DSA Podcast focuses on the acute housing affordability crisis in Montana, and how a tenants union is a solution supported by democratic socialists in Montana. Our guest is Ken Grinde, a renter since age 12 and currently the Press Officer for the Missoula Tenants Union, the first tenant union in Montana. As Ken says, tenants are working to pay the mortgages of landlords (especially out-of-state and corporate landlords). And that's not right in a society as rich as America that should guarantee housing as a human right. He also discusses how the MTU is working with Forward Montana, among others, to pass public policy in the legislature that builds power for renters in Montana. Your host is Frank Kromkowski, member of Helena DSA.

In the second episode of The Montana DSA Podcast, State Senator Mary Ann Dunwell (SD 42, Helena and East Helena) explains how the majority (as Republicans call themselves in the legislature) often thwart the will of Democratic Representatives and Senators simply because they have the power. Despite wielding that power anti-democratically, Senator Dunwell and others are moving legislation. Frank Kromkowski of Helena DSA is your Montana DSA Podcast host. For more information, please get in touch with us at helenamtdsa@gmail.com.

In the inaugural episode of The Montana DSA Podcast, Sandy Burch, Co-Chair of Western Montana DSA, tells us how Montana DSA's coordinated campaign to help defeat LR-131 on the November ballot evolved into a legislative campaign to protect abortion rights as well as address housing and labor issues in the legislative session which convened in Helena today. Frank Kromkowski of Helena DSA is your Montana DSA Podcast host. For more information, please get in touch with us at helenamtdsa@gmail.com. (And please disregard the time stamp in the lower right of this recording; we are learning...)