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. The deadlines to submit Bylaw Amendments, General Resolutions, and to nominate members for steering have passed, but the submission period for amendments to already-submitted Bylaw Amendments and General Resolutions is still live and can be submitted here until Monday, December 4 at 11:59pm. Furthermore, candidates running for public 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 electoral campaigns will be read for the first time on December 9, the first day of convention.

To dive deeper into information about MDC DSA’s annual 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. Chapter members will need to have been DSA members in good standing on or before November 9, 2023 to be voting delegates at the convention. If you have been a member in good standing but your dues have expired within the past year (since November 10, 2022), you will still be eligible to participate after renewing your dues. If you’re planning to attend, please make sure to RSVP ahead of time.

DSA and a coalition of organizations have organized a week-long hunger strike outside of the White House to demand President Biden call for a permanent ceasefire and end military aid to Israel. The strike, organized by DSA, Adalah Justice Center, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Dream Defenders, Jewish Voices for Peace, IMEU, elected officials, activists and more, called attention to the starvation in Gaza that the US is supporting. The days of the strike have included teach-ins on solidarity with Palestinians across faith and racial groups, interfaith sessions, an art build, and nightly candlelit vigils to read the names of Palestinians who have been killed. On Wednesday, Congressmembers Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, and Jamaal Bowman held a press conference in solidarity with the hunger strikers.

Since October 7, Israel has killed over 14,850 Palestinians in Gaza and displaced thousands more, and Netanyahu has indicated that he will escalate the violence when the temporary pause ends. Even while there’s a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel has continued its violence in the West Bank, killing two Palestinian children this week. As hostage exchanges continue and Palestinans and Israelis return home during the temporary pause, it is clear that the only path to lasting peace is through a permanent ceasefire.

Today is the final day of the strike. Metro DC DSA and the broader coalition will be convening at 10am at Lafayette Square for a presser with labor leaders including DSA members. Attendees who are members in labor unions are encouraged to wear your union gear.

DC residents are urged to call, email or post on social media to tell the DC Council: The District demands a ceasefire now. You can use this toolkit to tell your Councilmember, the at-large Councilmembers and the Council Chair to introduce a ceasefire resolution calling for a permanent end to Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. Today, December 1, is the last day in a planned week of action that started on Monday.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, intent on shifting blame for her failed approach to public safety, is proposing a dangerous legislative package in B25-0555 called The “Addressing Crime Trends Now.” Activists and defenders of civil liberties have been raising alarms about the dangerous legislative package, which would embolden violent policing methods and double-down on the 90s-style “tough on crime” legislation that created the modern carceral state.

B25-0555 would:

• impose new anti-loitering positions (“drug-free” zones), which have previously been deemed unconstitutional, to return to the failed policies of the war on drugs;
• undo recent reforms to body camera regulations, allowing most officers to view body cam footage before writing their incident, enabling officers to adjust their stories to match recordings;
• free up DC officers to strangle victims through use of chokeholds and neck restraints. (Local Retired officer Ron Hampton on the strangle provision: “I can’t imagine why that’s being brought back…it has nothing to do with fundamentally dealing with the problems we’re having in the city…”)
• repeal and hide the names of disciplined police officers, and the names and badge numbers of officers who are tried before an adverse action hearing;
• fabricate new charges to compound sentences faced by alleged criminals in court (such as participation in bogus “retail theft” syndicates)

The bill received its first hearing on November 29th, and a coordinated network of developers, capital investment firms, and right-wingers corrupted the public record to manufacture popular support for the bill. However, in thirteen testimonies scattered across the day-long hearing, locals and community members expressed dire warnings about the legislation. Among those who routinely interface with the streets, fears were expressed about B25-0555’s likelihood of only irritating crime and restarting failed mass-carceral policies. Survivors of police aggression expressed fears of renewed police aggression from these provisions. And victims of violence in the city pleaded with the Council to focus on the actual roots of violence, not these show fixes.

ACT is being shepherded through the DC Council by Councilmember Brooke Pinto of Ward 2 — a private equity heiress desperate to distract away from allegations of her own misuse of public dollars. It’s still unclear if the Council is set to move on this legislation, but activists are preparing an effort to interrupt the legislation. Check in during next week’s update for reporting of a teach-in on the bill, and DSA members interested working-class opposition to this bill should join the #abolition channel in the chapter Slack.

These Steering Committee candidates received at least five nominations and have accepted their nominations by the November 29 deadline.

At-large: Alex M-T, Aparna R, Bakari W, Carl R, Claire M, Diego J, DJ L, Eduarda S, Emily N, Hayden D, Hunter F, Imara C, Javien D, Lyra M, Vinay O

Treasurer: Tim S

Secretary: Michael M

Campaigns Council Chair: Gary Z

Please check the #2023-local-convention channel in Slack for details on candidate positions, slate platforms and other important announcements.

Join Stomp Out Slumlords this Saturday, December 2, for their next anti-eviction canvass. Tenants who speak with SOS are twice as likely to go to court and fight their eviction, so every volunteer can make a big impact — especially if you have a car to help get to metro-inaccessible areas. Meet at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro for a quick training at 1:30pm, and then pair up to canvass followed by a debrief/social afterward. Get more detailed information at the sign-up link or email [email protected] to ask questions or find out more ways to get involved.

The Metro DC DSA Book Exchange group is tabling a holiday book giveaway at the Festival Center on Saturday, December 2, from 12 to 3pm. Check out an impressive collection of lefty books curated by chapter members and supporters on the second-floor coworking space of the Festival Center (1640 Columbia Road NW).

In local labor news, DCist reports that the Washington Teachers’ Union and DC Public Schools have yet to meet at the bargaining table nearly two months after their most recent contract expired. The union says they’re ready to meet, but DCPS is dragging its feet. Issues like teacher retention and safety are top union priorities. See what’s next for the two sides.

At the ripe age of 100 — an age millions of people worldwide could not reach thanks to American imperialism — former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger finally passed. Celebrated as a peacemaker and statesman of the highest order by both sides of the American political duopoly, Kissinger is most famously known for prolonging the Vietnam War in a successful attempt to aid in the election of Richard Nixon, for expanding the Vietnam War to Laos and Cambodia, for overthrowing the democratically elected Marxist President Salvador Allende of Chile and replacing him with a neoliberal military junta headed by Augusto Pinochet, for overthrowing Isabel Perón in Argentina to be replaced by yet another neoliberal military junta, for supporting the Indonesian occupation of East Timor and for supporting the genocide of Hindus in East Bengal (later Bangladesh) by Pakistan. Millions died needless and violent deaths so that Henry Kissinger could build a world more amenable to American domination. A top Obama NSC official, in a caustic assessment, writes of his realpolitik: “he never felt irrelevant: Ideas go in and out of style, but power does not.” With regard to the bombing of Cambodia, Anthony Bourdain famously wrote: “Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never want to stop beating Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands.”

NYT’s Ezra Klein wrote about the OpenAI fiasco over the weekend, but he really spilled the beans with this: “Capitalism is itself a kind of artificial intelligence, and it’s far further along than anything the computer scientists have yet coded. In that sense, it copied OpenAI’s code long ago.” He’s overlooking the real point: Capitalism came first; the poorly controlled instrument governing power distribution with capital-as-currency in a (false) climate of scarcity, running on the platform of collective human info-management. AI is a simulacrum. But judge for yourself whether Klein has caught on fully at The Unsettling Lesson of the Open AI Mess.

Political Crisis in Guatemala Intensifies: In The Progressive (via Portside), Jeff Abbott raises the alarm on right-wing attacks against democracy in Guatemala: “The far right in Guatemala is increasing its efforts to prevent progressive President-elect Bernardo Arévalo from taking office. On November 17, Guatemala’s unpopular Attorney General’s office officially requested to strip Arévalo, Vice President Karin Herrera, and congressional representatives of their immunity, opening them up for investigation for supporting student protests in 2022.”

Israel Arms the World’s Autocrats—With Weapons Tested on Palestinians: “The Palestine Laboratory” outlines how Israel sells its “battle-tested,” “field-proven” weapons and spyware to practically anyone, no matter how malevolent. The New Republic via Portside.

Friday, December 1

6:30pm | NoVA DSA Gamenite December

Saturday, December 2

1:30 – 4:30pm | SOS Anti-Eviction Canvas

Sunday, December 3

7 – 8pm | NoVA Electoral Working Group Meeting

Tuesday, December 5

6 – 7pm | M4All Alexandria/Arlington Third Tuesday Update

Wednesday, December 6

8 – 9pm | Why You Should Join DSA / New Member Orientation

Saturday, December 9

12 – 5pm | MDC DSA Local Convention 2023

Sunday, December 10

12 – 5pm | MDC DSA Local Convention 2023

Monday, December 11

7 – 8:30pm | Socialist Feminist Quarterly Meeting: Winter 2023