Socialists mobilizing to drive Uncommitted vote in the Maryland presidential primary — Takoma Park canvassing continues this Saturday and Sunday, April 13-14
On April 5, the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America announced that members overwhelmingly voted to endorse the Uncommitted Vote in Maryland’s May 14th Democratic Primary, with 93% voting in favor of the endorsement resolution.
Voting “Uncommitted” in the Democratic presidential primary is intended to send a message to President Biden and Democratic leaders in Maryland: constituents demand peace and justice for Palestinians, and an immediate end to arms sales to Israel. In primary elections across the country, over half a million voters — one in ten Democrats — have voted for an uncommitted line in the primaries. The scale of these votes, particularly in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, pose a threat to Biden’s reelection chances and underscore the need for the administration to change course.
For any DSA members or readers interested in applying political pressure to the Democratic Party, driving turnout for this campaign is the shot. MDC DSA will continue the canvassing campaign in Takoma Park. Here is the plan for this weekend:
On Saturday, April 13, knock doors with the canvassing team in Takoma Park from 12pm until ~4pm. Meeting point: the gazebo next to Takoma Urban Park (7035 Carroll Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912). RSVP here.
On Sunday, April 14, canvasses will continue in Takoma Park between 1 and ~5pm. Meeting point: the gazebo next to Takoma Urban Park (7035 Carroll Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912). RSVP here.
There will also be phonebanks for Uncommitted with the Listen to MD statewide coalition — ongoing until Election Day: Sign up here.
DSA and ATU Local 689 to canvass in Petworth this weekend for DSA-endorsed Councilmember Janeese Lewis George
After another successful weekend of knocking doors for Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, the Re-Elect Janeese campaign will be back this weekend to talk to the residents of Ward 4. Sign up here to join us for a canvass this weekend. All supporters of Janeese Lewis George at any level of canvassing experience are invited to join.
Councilmember Lewis George has been at the forefront fighting for working people in DC, and the canvass this Saturday will be joined by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689. At a time when crucial services in our city like Metro, rental assistance and childhood education are being put in the backseat — while DC Police enjoy a 77 million dollar budget increase — working people aim to make it clear between now and Election Day that this is unacceptable. Driving turnout for Janeese will anchor that call.
The DSA x ATU 689 canvass will be meeting Saturday and Sunday at 1pm at Raymond Recreational Center; 3725 10th St NW near the Petworth Metro Station. Sign up here.
Socialist Night School session on DC’s Environmental Justice Amendment Act — Thursday, April 18
Black, Brown, immigrant and working-class neighborhoods in DC, particularly those in Wards 5, 7 and 8, are forced to bear a disproportionate burden of pollution from traffic, industry, waste facilities, freight trains, scrap yards and countless other sources of harm. The Environmental Justice Amendment Act of 2023, co-written by We Power DC and introduced by Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker, would represent a crucial step toward ending racist and dangerous zoning policies in the District by making it much more difficult to permit or re-permit polluting facilities in communities that face a disproportionately high level of environmental and public health stressors. Join this DSA Night School to hear more from the bill’s advocates about what the EJ Amendment Act could do for DC residents, how it came to be and how you can help make sure it becomes law. RSVP to join in person or online.
THE WASHINGTON SOCIALIST
Washington Socialist in the Metro DC Democratic Socialists' official chapter publication. Each edition is published quarterly, and contains commentary, ideas, research and debates from local chapter members. In this issue....
The Capitalist War on Telework! A must read for the local labor movement on negotiating better working conditions (and what to fight for). From MOCO member Frankie SF.
Unmasking the new wave of anti-mask legislation. Fights over masking policy are sweeping reactionary municipalities across the country. What's fueling these campaigns? From NOVA member Scott G.
Winning in DC: Where's our strategy? A proposal from a local chapter member on how to strengthen the local Democratic Socialist project. From DC member Hayden L.
Branches of the same tree. From prior chapter steering member Kurtis H, a critical look at the Chapter-Branch model in socialist organizing.
PLUS! Two new articles have been published on the REDBUG, Metro DC DSA's new local politics blog...
As MD General Assembly wraps up, tenants and public power advocates notch victories
Right before the Maryland General Assembly adjourned for the 2024 session, the Maryland State Senate passed two pieces of legislation that are winning praise from tenants and environmentalists in the state.
Following extensive pressure from the Enclave Tenants Association and the Renters United Maryland Coalition, the Tenant Safety Act passed the Assembly and is now headed to Gov. Moore’s desk for signature. This legislation allows tenants to pay rent into group escrow accounts if building conditions are unacceptable, eliminating the arduous process of tenants creating individual escrow accounts. In other words, this legislation makes it easier for tenants to go on rent strike and win concessions from their landlords. Although Good Cause legislation faltered at the last minute, tenants are vowing to redouble their organizing next year. Renters United Maryland released a statement on Twitter, which you can read here. Montgomery County socialists are continuing efforts to build tenant power by canvassing tenants in Rockville about rent increases and building conditions. The next canvass will take place on Sunday, April 14th. RSVP here.
In ecosocialist news, the upgraded EMPOWER Act has successfully passed with a Senate vote of 32-15. The legislation will strengthen the EmPOWER Maryland energy efficiency program, as MaryPIRG reports. This legislation mandates electric and gas companies, along with the Department of Housing and Community Development, to devise comprehensive plans aimed at achieving crucial energy efficiency, conservation and greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. By superseding existing goals, this bill signifies a significant step towards a greener, more sustainable future. The EMPOWER Act represents a critical stride in progressives’ ongoing efforts to combat climate change, keep pressure on corporate power companies and promote environmental equity. Excerpted from Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo.
Stomp Out Slumlords continues anti-eviction canvassing on Saturday, April 14
Stomp Out Slumlords, Metro DC DSA’s tenant organizing project, will be holding an anti-eviction canvass this Sunday, April 14. Canvassers will speak with tenants across the city to spread awareness about their rights as tenants. Tenants that speak with SOS are twice as likely to go to court and fight their eviction, so every volunteer makes a big impact. The canvassing group will 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 at Sonny’s in Petworth. New members are always welcome and will be paired with an experienced canvasser to learn the ropes. Get more details at the sign up link, or email [email protected] to ask questions or find out more ways to get involved. The canvassing group is always in need of cars, which can help canvassers get to Metro-inaccessible areas.
Alexandria for Palestine to turn out support for ceasefire at City Council — April 13, 9:30am
This Saturday, April 13th, at 9:30am, Alexandria for Palestine is packing the Alexandria City Council Chambers (2nd floor) to demonstrate popular support for a ceasefire resolution in the city. Supported and engaged by NoVA DSA, Alexandria residents are using Instagram to coordinate outreach and messaging. Supporters are urged to wear a black shirt in order to demonstrate mass support to the Alexandria Council. Learn more about the coalition here.
DC-area Armenian community plans march and demonstrations on April 24th, Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day
On April 24th, the greater Armenian community in the DC area is planning a march and demonstration for Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. The march will begin at 4pm at the Azerbaijani Embassy at 2741 34th St NW, with plans to march to the White House for further demonstration. All opponents of genocide and militarism are invited to demonstrate support and solidarity with the Armenian people.
Members of DSA can join the #internationalism channel in the chapter Slack to stay apprised of organizing for this march, which is being supported by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) of DC: an outwardly socialist party and a leading advocate for social and economic justice for Armenians around the world. Attendees are encouraged to follow ARF (Insta, Facebook) and its youth wing (Insta, Twitter) to stay apprised of updates.
Learn about Adcom and enjoy the AdCamaraderie — happy hour on April 19
Are you a member of MDC DSA's Administrative Committee (Adcom) or interested in joining? Then come blow off some steam and have some drinks with your AdComrades at Dew Drop Inn on Friday, April 19th from 5:30-9pm.RSVP here. You can talk to Department Stewards about the work their teams do to keep our chapter functioning smoothly and get to know some new people.
Green New Deal for DC Happy Hour for Janeese Lewis George — Wednesday, April 17
Organizers in the Green New Deal for DC Action coalition are holding a Green New Deal happy hour for Councilmember Janeese Lewis George next Wednesday, where we'll talk about several local climate/housing fights like the Green New Deal for Housing (the social housing bill), the Healthy Homes Act and the recent environmental justice permitting bill, all while signing up folks to help get out the vote so we keep our main champion of all those things on the Council (Janeese Lewis George) in office. Join us at Añejo Bar at 3910 14th St. NW, starting at 6:30pm.
Reproductive Care Kit Packing Event — Wednesday, May 8 at 6pm
Join the Repro Justice Working Group for our Reproductive Care Kit Packing Event for the DC Abortion Fund (DCAF), and donate HERE, especially if you can’t attend. The event takes place at As You Are in DC on Wednesday, May 8th at 6pm. We’ve got the upstairs reserved for us, so it’s sure to be a blast! We will be packing close to 500 care kits (so the more the merrier — bring your friends), along with raising money for DCAF, hanging out with our friends and supporting a wonderful local business. RSVP here.
Sign up and volunteer for the DC Labor History Walking Tour — May 11
Sign-ups are now open for the DC Labor History Walking Tour on Saturday, May 11 at 1pm. The tour will meet at Union Station, then visit several landmarks that pay tribute to the past and ongoing struggle of the American working class with a broad range of union organizers and labor experts as guides. Attendees will learn about the early rise of labor power, the violent state suppression of workers and corporate retaliation against unions that still impacts workers today, how workers fought back and won critical concessions through the Great Depression, how neoliberal international trade undercuts US labor and much more. Sign up in advance to receive weather notices, volunteer for the tour or take part in wheatpasting outreach opportunities beforehand.
INFO ACCESS
MDC DSA Publications Schedule: The Washington Socialist is now publishing on a quarterly schedule. The Spring 2024 edition is now live and will be updated on a rolling basis until Summer. The Spring issue’s pieces cover remote work as a socialist weapon, the passage of DC’s “Crimnibus” or Secure DC Act and an analysis of the chapter’s internal strategy. Anyone interested in contributing to the Washington Socialist can email submissions or questions at [email protected]. Get on the record!
Weekly Updates are scheduled for Fridays — April 19 and 26, this month. Want more INFO ACCESS? Submit your Update suggestions to the tip line, including nominating articles for ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVES.
Or even better, participate in MDC DSA’s Publications effort. 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.
Reel and Meal presentation highlights paths of colonial oppression | New Deal Cafe The Reel and Meal program on Monday, April 15th will focus on similarities in three refugee situations. All involve Muslim populations. All had their roots in former British colonial rule. Ahmed Mansour, an award-winning Palestinian filmmaker, will present his film Angel of Gaza and help lead the discussion afterward. Three other shorter films will be shown, about Kashmir and about the Rohingya from Myanmar. The program starts at 7pm at the New Deal Cafe, 113 Centerway, in Greenbelt. You can also attend via Zoom by prior registration here. For more details about the program, call Frank Gervasi at 301-467-2418.
Defend the unhoused at SCOTUS on April 22 | Housing Not Handcuffs On April 22, the Supreme Court will hear the most important case about homelessness in over 40 years, Johnson v. Grants Pass. At its core, this case will decide whether cities can arrest and fine people for things like sleeping outside with a pillow or blanket, even when there are no safe shelter options. On the day of the hearing, join national leaders, homeless activists and fellow advocates on the steps of the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC for the Housing Not Handcuffs Rally to oppose the criminalization of homelessness and advocate for real solutions to the affordable housing and homelessness crisis. More info about the case HERE. Register for the rally HERE.
April 19th Rally and March | For People For Planet Rally against destructive world capitalism at the IMF/World Bank Annual Meeting on Friday, April 19, 2024 from noon to 1:30pm at the Edward R Murrow Park on Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, (map), across the street from the World Bank. On the 80th anniversary of the World Bank and IMF, people from around the world are coming together to say that it’s time to put people and planet first and decolonize and decarbonize our global economy. While finance ministers from around the world meet inside the World Bank, be on the streets, joining forces with allies from the Global South to amplify calls for an end to fossil fuel finance, for debt cancellation and for climate justice. More info and event registration HERE.
From Emancipation to Reparations | DC Justice Lab Join DC Justice Lab for a virtual discussion on reparations in the nation’s capital on Emancipation Day, April 17, from 5-6:30pm. The panel includes Corey Shaw, a DC native deeply involved in local reparations efforts nationwide; Ronnie Galvin, an activist and leader in racial equity and reparative justice; and Dr. Tanya Golash-Boza, executive director at UC Washington Center and renowned scholar on racial disparities and the legal system’s role. Sign up HERE.
ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVES
Committed to Uncommitted DSA Chapters, branches, working groups throughout Maryland are working to build up the “Uncommitted Vote” to protest US support for the genocide in Gaza. For those involved, the following four articles might be of some interest:
Finally, from The Newsletter (a publication by Boston DSA members, though not a Boston DSA publication), an article protesting Proud Boy anti-Semites trying to hijack the Palestinian solidarity movement at Harvard
Labor’s 2024 Political Dilemma In order to defeat AIPAC, defend The Squad, and withstand the onslaught of the MAGA movement, the authors argue that we need to do something many of us fundamentally don’t want to do: double down on trying to move Biden on Gaza, as well as trying to secure his re-election. From In These Times via Portside.
New York eyes state-sponsored, state-owned public housing Progressives in New York State want to revive an old concept: let the government develop thousands of affordable homes. A bill introduced on Tuesday would create a government agency that could build housing using its own money or money raised in the bond market. It follows similar efforts in Atlanta, Rhode Island and Montgomery County, Md., and is an acknowledgment from the left that solving the housing crisis will inevitably mean building more homes. Emily Gallagher, a DSA-endorsed state assemblywoman from Brooklyn, is a principal sponsor of the social-housing plan. NYT
Conflict Could Upend DSA’s Big Tent—or Steady It An ally writes in Convergence about the conflict over budget shortfalls in national DSA, suggesting “to preserve DSA’s unique political dynamism, its factions will need to retreat from scorched-earth competition and move towards generative conflict.”
End the Persecution of Julian Assange “The fifth anniversary of Assange’s imprisonment would be a good day for the Biden administration to end this sordid saga — before it ends the First Amendment,” writes our comrade Chip Gibbons in The Nation. He provides the background that argues for the US dropping the charges, a move Biden just this week suggested he was considering.
Communities vary widely in reasons for “right track, wrong track” survey responses The American Communities Project, based at Michigan State University, uses demographic and socioeconomic measures to break the nation’s 3,100 counties into 15 different types of communities — everything from what we label as “big cities” to “aging farmlands.” In their work with the project, they've found a strong reason to be skeptical of the “right direction/wrong track” question. Simply put, the divisions in the country have rendered the question obsolete. From The Conversation
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 vast and free horizon.
- Virgilia D'Andrea
Sent via ActionNetwork.org.
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