The American empire is fraying — for the Left to fight against empire, its powers and vulnerabilities must be charted. This Saturday, January 27 at 1pm, you can learn about the imperial appendages, vassals and infrastructure of the American Empire at Metro DC DSA’s Spies and US Imperialism Walking Tour. The tour group will be meeting at the center of Gateway Park in Rosslyn, Virginia (1300 Langston Blvd, VA 22209) at 1pm and will be followed by a happy hour at the Continental Pool Lounge in Arlington. Hot chocolate and hand warmers will be provided. Sign up here.

The tour will explore three sites — including two that are soon to be demolished — connected to American imperialism and spycraft in the Northern Virginia region, covering: the global reactionary networks forged in Rosslyn and Langley by the Reagan CIA, the “Watergate Scandal” and the larger systems of repression against the Left that inspired it and the hubs of internet infrastructure that lay just on the outskirts of the American capital. Walking tours are great ways to learn about socialism, bring friends to DSA events, plan events and get connected to local organizing.

Metro DC DSA will hold its first general body meeting of 2024 this Sunday from 2 to 4pm at the Festival Center in Adams Morgan. This general body meeting will be the last space to formally discuss electoral endorsements for the 2024 primary cycle. At this meeting, members should expect actual debate on chapter endorsements, although voting ballots will go out the following week. Just like the chapter’s convention, the event will be hybrid — although members who show up in person can receive free socialist posters and buttons (while reserves last). Sign up for the meeting here.

Last week, the DC Council’s Public Safety and Judiciary Committee approved the Secure DC omnibus (advocates are calling it the “Crimnibus”) to be considered for a vote by the full Council as early as February. The 93-page bill is being pushed by a corporate independent expenditure committee called Opportunity DC, which is bankrolled by the same real estate corporations, capital investment firms and school privatizers that are gentrifying the city and pushing out DC’s working-class. The Crimnibus has also drawn discreet support from real estate corporations currently being sued by the city for their involvement in a rent-fixing cartel.

The legislative changes outlined in the omnibus package would do little to address violence in DC. Along with rolling back critical reforms and oversight of the police hard-won in the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd uprisings, the Crimnibus would significantly reduce police oversight, authorize new forms of state violence and dramatically expand the surveillance state. Some nightmare provisions include: expanding pretrial detention of children and adults; expanding the use of deadly police chases, which were restricted in 2021 after the killings of Karon Hylton-Brown and Jeffrey Price; expanding police use of neck restraints, which can cause head, neck and spinal injuries (although cutting off air/blood flow would still be banned); expanding officers’ ability to review bodycam footage before writing reports, making it easier to fabricate lies; restricting public access to the files of police officers accused of misconduct; allowing officers to use mask-wearing as a pretext for harassment or arrest; and bringing back failed “drug-free” zones, which were repealed in 2014 on constitutional and racial justice grounds.

Metro DC DSA will be engaging in a Don’t Throw DC Under the Crimnibus Week of Action starting Monday, January 29th along with partner organizations in an effort to stop this bill. Members interested in stopping the expansion of the carceral state in DC can help by filling out this form to begin the process of getting organized. Each day will feature a targeted phone-zap and email campaign organized along the different dangers posed by this bill — coordinated public pressure can fight many of the provisions in this legislation, so every action counts.

Further information on this:

• Stop Police Terror Project and Civil Rights Corps statement on the legislation
• Deep dive on the omnibus in Washington Informer
• DC omnibus teach-in – Monday, January 29th at 7pm being coordinated by Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, Black Lives Matter DC, DC Justice Lab and TRIGGER Project
• Sign up for coordinated week of action in opposition to the bill
• Meanwhile, in Maryland… cop gangs and their allies are trying to weaken new Maryland laws on juvenile justice

A bill put before the Virginia Courts of Justice Committee would effectively make solidarity bail funds illegal in Virginia. Virginia HB 846 would require community volunteers running crowdfunding campaigns for cash bail payments to register as official nonprofit organizations, submit to biennial audits and administrative hurdles and pay exorbitant registration fees. It would also prohibit community bail funds from providing cash bail payments for anyone charged with a felony or violent crime or with a prior conviction for a violent crime. Similar methods are already playing out throughout the US, most notably in Atlanta where the Atlanta Solidarity Fund has faced charges for providing bail for Stop Copy City protestors, which later grew into RICO indictments being given to 61 protestors.

Virginia residents can submit comments on the bill via the House of Delegates’ HODSpeak public comment website or via email to your delegate if they are on the Courts of Justice committee. MDC DSA’s Abolition WG prepared this toolkit for submitting comments and sample language.

Metro DC DSA members are invited to attend a special in-person training on One-on-One Conversations at Petworth Library on Tuesday, January 30 at 7pm. The training is intended to assist anyone in Metro DC DSA’s campaigns with conversing with the public, helping anyone talk one-on-one with family and friends who are not socialists about socialist values and go through principles of effective conversations you will need at canvasses and legislative campaigns. This training will include active discussion participation, real-life scenarios and simple exercises designed to improve your conversational skills.

These trainings are put on by the chapter’s Training Commission, which is looking for three stewards and additional members to build the skills of Metro DC DSA members to organize for a socialist world. They hosted the Nuts and Bolts and Organizer Trainings last year and will expand its offerings next year — but need people with sufficient interest, skill and vision to make these plans a reality. If interested, there is an online information session at 7pm on Monday, February 12, with applications being due at 11:59pm on Monday, February 19. Sign up and apply here.

WMATA is facing a $750 million budget gap, which means the serious potential for job loss in union workers, closed bus routes, delays and more. Due to WMATA’s tri-jurisdictional nature, there is no no dedicated funding; Metro funding must be cobbled together every budget cycle, creating a yearly fight over appropriations that threatens this vital public infrastructure. While the number of riders, and therefore revenue, is down from pre-pandemic levels, the proposed cuts and station closures would be concentrated in minority and working-class communities in DC.
A regional labor alliance is coming together to save the DMV Metro — coordinated by the local Amalgamated Transit Union. Metro DC DSA’s Labor working group is circulating this petition as the broader chapter is angling how it can engage in this fight. The Amalgamated Transit Union’s Local 689 is also circulating their own petition here. (Check back in on future Weekly Updates to stay apprised of developments in this campaign.)

Workers of the popular Filipino fast food restaurant delivered a majority-signed letter to management of a Wheaton, Maryland, location demanding double pay on holidays for crew members. This push comes on the heels of a success by workers at a New Jersey Jollibee location who organized for reinstatement of and backpay for their illegally terminated coworkers in October. In their public letter, the Wheaton workers demanded a timely response from management and made it clear they are “prepared to engage in further actions” if they deem necessary.

Our campaign for a publicly owned utility, We Power DC, is meeting virtually on February 10th, from 2 to 4pm. This is a perfect event for people in DC who want to organize around rising energy costs, environmental justice and climate change but might not know where to start. We Power DC organizers will provide an overview of the campaign and will lead skills-building sessions. RSVP here.

DSA-endorsed Delegate Gabe Acevero is preparing to introduce a resolution to the Maryland General Assembly calling for a ceasefire in Gaza where the Israeli government has killed 25,000 Palestinians and displaced 2,000,000 more. The Council on American-Islamic Relations and IMAN Network are urging members and the wider Maryland public to ask the Maryland General Assembly for their support.

Build power in the DMV and join the Metro DC DSA Street Team by attending a hybrid info session at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library on Saturday, February 3 from 2:30 to 5pm. This event is for anyone interested in getting active in the chapter’s newly formed Street Team, organized by the Metro DC DSA Political Education Working Group. The Street Team’s intention is to host and attend community events and to connect Metro DC DSA with the community in order to expand the chapter’s base. This hybrid session will share basic information about the chapter, the organization of the Metro DC DSA Street Team and ways to contribute to the chapter. While this is a hybrid event, all are encouraged to attend in person on the fourth floor of the MLK Memorial Library, 901 G St NW, Washington, DC, room 401-E. RSVP here.

Sign-ups are open for Spring 2024 reading groups through Metro DC DSA. These reading groups are a great way to meet new people, learn core works connected to socialism, build our capacity to learn and debate ideas and get connected to political education in the chapter. Spring reading groups include: cultural readings in Late Capitalism, a group reading through Marx’s Capital Vol. 1, Liberation Theology, the Radical Climate Fiction group reading Parable of the Sower, the If We Burn group reading about 2010s social movements, a group covering two key works related to the Nonprofit Industrial Complex, the Palestinian Liberation Film and Reading Group alternating films with readings and groups sponsored by formations such as the Socialist Feminist section, the Migrant Justice working group and Public Power (We Power DC). Most groups will meet online but with regular in-person social meet-ups to build group camaraderie.

New this week in Washington Socialist:

“DC Fails to Protect Its Children” — by David Schwartzman
Unaddressed income and wealth inequality has produced staggering child poverty in the City, with low income support for Black and brown families plus additional assault from toxic lead exposure.

MDC DSA Publications Schedule: Washington Socialist is now publishing on a quarterly schedule. Updates to the current edition will be published on a rolling basis over the next two months. Anyone interested in contributing to the Washington Socialist can email submissions or questions at [email protected].

The first Update of February will appear Friday, February 2, with subsequent February Updates Fridays the 9th, 16th and 23rd.

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 in 2024 and beyond. 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, submit your suggestions to the tip line.

Quick reference links for MDC DSA:

• Our local structure — campaigns, working groups, etc.
• Capsule introduction to the chapter including our branches covering the DMV
• A home-grown history of our local chapter
• Archive of our MDC DSA Socialist Night School (recordings and some transcriptions)
• On a linked site, Archive of the Washington Socialist including current issue
• Here is National DSA’s website
• 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.

And, live from our studio: Wednesday, January 31st from 7 to 8pm | Why You Should Join DSA / New Member Orientation — including Q&A.

Saturday, January 27

12pm | Montgomery County Rent Stabilization Wheatpasting
1 – 3pm | Spies and US Imperialism Walking Tour
3pm | PG County Housing Justice Coalition

Sunday, January 28

2 – 4pm | MDC DSA January General Body Endorsement Meeting

Wednesday, January 31

7pm | Training: The Power of One-on-One Conversations

Wednesday, January 31

7 – 8pm | Why You Should Join DSA/New Member Orientation

Saturday, February 3

2:30 – 4pm | Join the Street Team Information Session

Sunday, February 4