Local Metro DC DSA Convention to take place December 9 and 10 — deadline for resolutions, nominations soon
Metro DC DSA’s Local Convention is December 9 and 10. Local convention is an opportunity for all chapter members in good standing to come together, propose and debate changes to the chapter, set priorities for the next year and elect chapter leadership. Important information is summarized below:
Bylaw Amendments and Resolutions — submission deadline November 26
If you think our bylaws need reworking, or we need some guiding resolution for our work in 2024 (and beyond), consider submitting a bylaw amendment or resolution via this form by Sunday, November 26 at 11:59pm. Bylaw amendments and resolutions should be thoroughly socialized with the chapter prior to submission — the more your fellow socialists know about changes you would like to see, the better we will be able to consider them on their merits. Make sure to use #2023-local-convention for introducing comrades to your ideas in the run up to convention. There will be an opportunity to suggest amendments to proposals, with more information to come after the initial submission period closes.
Steering Nominations — deadline for nominations November 26
The Steering Committee meets every other week and serves as the administrative and political leadership for the chapter between conventions and general body meetings. The committee is composed of 11 members: eight At-large, one Treasurer, one Secretary, and one Campaigns Council Chair. Any chapter member in good standing who receives nominations from five different chapter members submitted via this form by Sunday, November 26 at 11:59pm will receive an email notification and be able to accept their nomination to run for the office for which they have been nominated. There will be a candidate forum put on by the IED between November 30 and December 7 — stay tuned for more details.
Electoral Endorsements — questionnaire deadline December 2
Convention will feature the first read of all electoral endorsement resolutions for the 2024 primaries. Candidates running for office across the region have until December 2 to submit questionnaires to the chapter, and chapter members have until December 7 at 11:59pm to submit endorsement resolutions, which require one sponsor and four cosponsors. All resolutions to endorse campaigns that have submitted questionnaires will be read for the first time on December 9, the first day of convention.
To dive deeper into information about convention, including bylaw amendment and resolution submissions, steering elections and electoral endorsements, visit the overview on the member portal here, email [email protected] or reach out in the #2023-local-convention channel in Slack.
BRIEFS
Temporary ceasefire brokered between Israel and Hamas — campaign to make ceasefire permanent and end Israeli apartheid continues
(Time of writing: Wednesday, November 22): Late Tuesday, a tentative deal struck between the Israeli government and Hamas produced a four-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 50 hostages taken by Hamas. According to reporting, 150 Palestinian prisoners will also be released from Israeli jails as part of the agreement. Over the past month, the Israeli government has destroyed close to 50% of the buildings in Gaza, displaced nearly 1.7 million and killed over 10,000 Gazans as part of a genocidal retaliation campaign. The tenacity and reality of the ceasefire deal, however, is unclear: reporting coming out late Wednesday evening noted that the deal is delayed until Friday, November 24.
In America, Palestinian solidarity groups, left-wing organizations, Jewish and Muslim faith networks and an active working-class anti-war movement played a key role in focusing public outcry over Israel’s vengeful terror. The DSA also played a critical role in mounting pressure to call for a hold in Israel’s egregious destruction of Gaza. Over the past month, the DSA organized more than 1,000 callers to place well over 250,000 strategically targeted calls to Congressional representatives as part of the No Money for Massacres campaign, aiming to apply pressure on the American government to reverse course in its tacit support of Israel’s slaughter.
The DSA will continue to apply pressure to ensure the ceasefire is made permanent, and to bring an end to Israeli apartheid once and for all. To connect with the national DSA effort, join a No Money for Massacres phonebank. Future Weekly Updates will continue to track this development.
DC’s Green New Deal for Social Housing Act to receive follow-up hearing — November 28
On Tuesday, November 28, the Committee on Housing will hold a follow-up hearing on the Green New Deal for Social Housing Act with nationwide housing experts to determine the best way to establish a successful, permanent social housing program in the District. Virtual tune-in details, testimony submission and meeting details can be found on the DC Council’s website here.
Testify in support of universal free school meals — November 30
On Thursday, November 30 at 10am, the DC Council will hold a virtual public hearing on B25-0035 – Universal Free School Meals Amendment Act of 2023. The Universal Free School Meals Amendment Act, introduced by Councilmember Christina Henderson earlier this year, will provide free school breakfast, lunch and after-school snacks to DC students at public, charter and private schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program. Click here for more information on the bill and a testimony toolkit from DC Greens. Parents, guardians and students are particularly encouraged to consider testifying live or via video (upload a video and include the link within a written submission). To testify live, you must register online by 5pm on Tuesday, November 28.
Last Nuts and Bolts Training: Social Media and Comms 101 for Socialists — Thursday, November 30
Sign up now for the sixth and final training in the MDC DSA Nuts and Bolts series. Taking place this Thursday, November 30 at 7pm, Comms and Social Media 101 for Socialists will cover key considerations on how to communicate socialist ideas, how to distribute your ideas through social media channels, and how best to sync your organizing and social media efforts. Sign up in advance for the link.
Maryland residents: tell state lawmakers to keep funding for CASA’s essential public services and reject unconstitutional anti-Palestinian repression
CASA is a powerhouse organization building power and improving the quality of life for working-class immigrant communities and people of color. In Montgomery County, CASA has worked in coalition with MoCo DSA, Jews United for Justice and other groups in the Montgomery County Racial Equity Network to win a landmark rent stabilization measure and improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of tenants. At the state level, CASA recently passed legislation expanding health coverage for all pregnant people, regardless of immigration status. In addition to its political advocacy, CASA also provides vital social and legal services to vulnerable immigrant families, supporting them with housing, fair wages, English language learning, legal representation and much more.
Now those services are under attack — every member of the Montgomery County State Senate delegation recently sent a letter threatening to cut funding for CASA after they released a statement expressing solidarity with Palestine and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Maryland residents can write to their state senator here, and write your members of the House of Delegates here.
Ford, GM and Stellantis workers ratify new contracts
United Auto Workers working at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis voted to ratify their respective tentative agreements. While each contract is unique, overall wins include 25% raises to base pay, the reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments, the right to strike over plant closures, the reopening of a Stellantis plant in Belvedere, Illinois, and more. Read more — including testimony from UAW workers — in the Washington Post. Next up for the UAW? Organizing nonunion companies like Tesla. And see how Tesla is entangled in labor solidarity in Sweden.
Socialist Feminist Section Happy Hour — Thursday, November 30 at 6pm
We will be gathering at Red Bear Brewing Co. Show up early, show up late — we would love to see you. Our events are well-attended by the chapter and a great way to meet comrades (old and new) and get plugged back into the chapter. All are welcome. RSVP here.
Councilmember Janeese Lewis George Introduces the Do Right by DC Tenants Amendment Act
The Do Right by DC Tenants Amendment Act of 2023 would prevent any individual or business from obtaining a new basic business license or building permit if anyone in the ownership structure has received more than five Class 1 or Class 2 housing code violations in a 12-month period. Class 1 and Class 2 infractions are the most severe housing code violations and are enforced by the Department of Buildings through inspections. “We welcome housing providers to our city, but we are also sending a clear message that if you want to do business in DC, you need to do right by our tenants,” said Councilmember Lewis George.
NoVA Branch Gamenite — December 1 at 6:30pm
Join the NoVA Branch on Friday, December 1 at 6:30pm for our monthly Gamenite at the Board Room right next to the Clarendon Metro. The Board Room comes with games, but feel free to bring your own. RSVP here.
INFO ACCESS
MDC DSA Publications Schedule: This is November’s final Update. The December issue of the Washington Socialist zine/newsletter is currently scheduled for Friday, December 1 with that week’s first December Update. Succeeding December Updates are scheduled for the 8th (pre-Convention issue), 15th and 29th, skipping Friday the 22nd. Friday, January 6 will nominally be the Update plus the first Washington Socialist of 2024. But in these tumultuous times we have been publishing MDC DSAers’ extended views week by week, each new article signaled in each new Update. Write yours now; submit to [email protected].
Would you like to participate in MDC DSA’s publications? We write, we edit, we design, we do the tech — there are so many ways your hand could lighten the load. Check us out on #publications and let us know what you would like to write, or write about, or …? If you would like to see something included in the Update, suggestions can be submitted to the tip line.
DSA Feed, an RSS feed that aggregates multiple DSA publications — including our own Washington Socialist — in one convenient place. More from the National Tech Committee here.
A Seat at the Table | Central Union Mission Central Union Mission (65 Massachusetts Avenue NW) provides year-round hot meals, medical care, shelter, job training and other community services to locals in need. For Thanksgiving, the organization is hosting its Seat at the Table program with a mission to provide meals for those affected by poverty and struggling with addiction. You can make a financial contribution to help raise funds for holiday meals — $3.21 can provide one meal. Learn more/donate here.
For years the Israel on Campus Coalition — a little-known organization with links to Israeli intelligence — has used student informants to spy on pro-Palestinian campus groups. James Bamford in The Nation, via Portside
Greenbelt, Maryland, which has drawn DSA field trips to explore its official-“utopian” inception, may see an uncertain transition ahead. “When [FDR] took office in 1933 amid the wreckage of the Great Depression, more than a million Americans were homeless, cities were cluttered with shantytowns and density swelled as unhoused families doubled and tripled up,” Petula Dvorak writes in the WaPo. “The Resettlement Administration was created to address the crisis at the urging of agricultural economist Rexford G. Tugwell, who said the United States needed to urban-plan its way out of the housing problem.” Tugwell, an FDR brain-truster, took the then-First Lady for a ride in the Maryland countryside and suggested a model working-class community for others to emulate. Now Greenbelt, some of which is still on a co-op footing, is looking at the FBI and the FBI is looking back.
From Bob Kuttner at the Prospect: Political life keeps getting uglier because social provision keeps losing to commodification. But that’s so vague and abstract. Want a list? Target these, in “The Commodification of Everything.”
The flame of thought, the magnificence of art, the wonder of discovery, and the audacity of invention all belong to revolutionary periods when humanity, tired of its chains, shatters them and stops inebriated to breathe the breeze of a vaster and freer horizon.
- Virgilia D'Andrea
Sent via ActionNetwork.org.
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