On Saturday, July 13 at 1:30pm, Metro DC DSA’s tenant organizing campaign, Stomp Our Slumlords, will be kicking off their monthly anti-eviction canvass. Every month, canvassing operations roll out to inform tenants facing eviction of their rights in court and legal options, and to solicit interest in organizing their building. The canvass will meet at L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station at the D Street exit at 1:30pm. All levels of experience are invited to attend: newer participants will have a quick training beforehand and be paired with someone more experienced for training. Following the canvass, the crew will meet at Sonny’s Pizza in Park View to debrief and socialize. RSVP here.

Canvassing will continue on Sunday, July 14 at 4pm at the Woodner Apartments (3636 16th St NW) to defend the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) in DC. As the landlord lobby is preparing to roll back this vital right for tenants in DC, tenants are organizing in large apartment buildings citywide to build support for TOPA and ask the Council for fully funded support. This canvass will include a quick training for newer canvassers. Contact [email protected] if interested in participating in the Woodner canvass.

After a lengthy hearing on Monday, July 8 where dozens of Rockville residents, including MDC DSA members, shared why they need rent stabilization in the City of Rockville, Rockville Mayor Monique Ashton and Rockville City Councilmembers Adam Van Grack, Kate Fulton, Marissa Valeri and Barry Jackson abruptly voted to end all discussions on rent stabilization. This move, led by Councilmember Van Grack and seconded by Councilmember Fulton, disregards the tireless efforts of renters and supporting organizations advocating for stable housing due to rising rents. This decision is both disheartening and demeaning to the residents who testified and hundreds of tenants who have courageously shared their struggles and fears of displacement with their evasive elected officials.

Councilmembers Izola Shaw and David Myles stood in opposition, fighting for the community’s needs and against the ongoing displacement of Rockville residents. Tenants and their supporters are mobilizing to demand accountability and the fight for rent stabilization in Rockville is far from over. The Rockville Tenant’s Coalition published a statement this week, outlining a path forward to push for rent stabilization in the county. Rockville residents and socialists interested in getting involved in the fight can email [email protected] to join this evolving fight.

Metro DC DSA will be debating and voting on “Resolution to Improve Chapter Security” at our General Body Meeting on Sunday, July 21 from 2 to 4pm. Members can find a copy of this resolution on the chapter Slack or in an email sent on Tuesday, July 9. Amendment proposals are being accepted through today, Friday, July 12. Amendments need to be submitted through RedDesk (Agenda Item/Submit Resolution) and must include the exact changes being proposed. Please email [email protected] with any questions.

The General Body Meeting is a full convening of the chapter active in DC, Northern Virginia, Montgomery County and PG County. The GBM is open to members and non-members, but only members will be able to vote or propose amendments to the resolution. Register early for this entirely virtual GBM here. Afterwards, the chapter will host a post-GBM happy hour at the Continental Pool Lounge in Arlington, Virginia, starting at 5pm. RSVP for the social here.

Metro DC DSA will be holding two events in DC’s Malcolm X Park this weekend. The park, bounded by 16th, Euclid, 15th and W Streets between DC’s Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights neighborhood, is also referred to as Meridian Hill Park.

On Saturday, July 13, MDC DSA’s Community Builder’s team will hold the rescheduled Pride Picnic in the Park at 4pm. All are invited to bring food to share, games to play, protection from the sun, Pride-themed accessories and a comfy chair or blanket to sit on. All are welcome to this family-friendly event. Keep an eye on Metro DC DSA’s socials and Slack the day of for the specific location, but attendees can also look for MDC DSA’s signature rose props as well as DSA merch and our logo. Dress for warm weather and be sure to bring water. RSVP here.

And on Sunday, July 14, join Metro DC DSA for a book exchange and writing workshop from 2 to 4pm. Bring, read and swap books and write in community with others. This open event is for everyone who wants to carve out some intentional time this summer and spend it in good company. Writing prompts will be available, with optional sharing time in a low-key, drop-in space. Spot the table of books with people writing nearby on blankets at the elevated section of the park (same level as public bathrooms) on the grass. This gathering is sponsored by Metro DC DSA and local anticapitalist fiction magazine After the Storm. RSVP on Meetup.

On July 1st, DC workers received a large increase in the minimum wage. The standard minimum wages per hour increased from $17/hr to $17.50/hr, and the tipped minimum wage increased from $8/hr to $10/hr in accordance with Initiative 82, which is set to phase out the sub-minimum wage entirely by 2025. These increases are now in effect — all workers should check their paychecks to ensure compliance with these new wage/hr laws.

DC workers will be celebrating this increase in Lamont Plaza on Saturday, July 13 at 2pm. The celebration, organized by DC Jobs With Justice, is a family-friendly festival that will commemorate the ongoing fight for fair wages in the city and also educate workers on how to organize and fight against wage theft in the city. This festival is FREE and a perfect opportunity for all to unite as workers, families, friends and neighbors. Learn more and RSVP here.

On Wednesday, July 10, the DSA National Political Committee released their statement on the status of Rep Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). To continue with national endorsement, the NPC set a series of conditional requirements to continue which, at time of writing, had not been addressed by AOC’s office: “Because we have not seen evidence of AOC meeting these conditions [see full statement], and at the request of the NYC-DSA [steering committee], the NPC is withdrawing our conditional endorsement of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, although she will remain endorsed by our New York City chapter.” Read the full NPC statement here.

The decision to decline national endorsement follows a public debate within the DSA on the nature of socialist electoral engagement at the national level. Although local chapters enjoy a range of local autonomy on endorsement procedures, national-level endorsements open up a wider range of resources and nationally-coordinated support for those seeking public office.

On Saturday, July 13 at 7pm at Market Square in old town Alexandria, Metro DC DSA and allies in NoVA for Palestine will be holding a counter-celebration of Alexandria’s 275th founding. The People’s Liberation Celebration will be a cross-cultural, intergenerational and family-friendly evening of art, music, speeches and more in honor of indigenous, dispossessed and oppressed people from the Potomac to the Mediterranean Sea. RSVP here.

Continuing Metro DC’s long-running Socialist Night School series, the NoVA and DC Abolition working groups are proud to announce Police Abolition 101 to be held July 30 at 7pm. In this session, abolitionist organizers will discuss what policing and prisons are, their codependent relationship with capital, their alternatives and how abolitionist approaches differ from other critiques (like mass incarceration). RSVP here.

Find out in depth about our MDC DSA chapter — structure, campaigns and working groups, Night School and reading groups — HERE. And live from our studio, Wednesday, July 17, 7 – 8pm, Why You Should Join DSA / New Member Orientation (with Q&A).

MDC DSA Publications is information central for not just MDC DSA but the entire DMV left. The Washington Socialist publishes on a quarterly schedule; the Summer 2024 edition is now live and will be updated on a rolling basis. Added recently: coverage of the DC coffee wars – battle at the Wydown – has received wide readership.. Anyone, MDC DSA members or not, interested in contributing to the Washington Socialist can email submissions or questions to [email protected]. Get your socialist self on the record.

Weekly Updates are scheduled and emailed on Fridays e.g. July 19th, and 26th. Current and past Updates are on the web here. We’re proud that the wider DMV left sees the Update as a utility for activists: Our Weekly Updates attract over 5k readers a week. Want more INFO ACCESS? Submit your Update suggestions to the tip line, including nominating articles for ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVES. MDC DSA members: Join our Slack for real-time info and inspiration. Email [email protected] with your most recent DSA dues receipt to get Slack access.

#Publications (our Slack channel) is always ready to onboard new socialist communicators. We write, we edit, we do the tech. Donate to our Comradery page if you would like to financially support socialist publishing in the DMV.

Psychozionism
Adrian Daub, n+1 Germany doesn’t give the appearance of working through anything; it hardly appears to be working at all.

If Meta bans news in Australia, what will happen? Canada’s experience is telling | Nieman Journalism Lab
“The ongoing news ban in Canada has had several key effects. First, the removal of direct links to news articles meant a collapse in user visits to news sites. Those who once occasionally clicked on a news link in their feed can no longer do so… Instead, the main replacement for news coverage on Facebook has been political discussion that doesn’t directly reference or link to the news it draws on. This disconnection also opens the door for the circulation of well-meaning misinformation or deliberate disinformation.”

We’re in a Class War. Jane McAlevey Actually Acted Like It.
“Jane devoted her life to union organizing, and then to writing about it. But the writing was organizing too, a means of multiplying herself, allowing the lessons to reach into countless nooks and crannies across the economy and globe. Bay Area factory workers, striking teachers from West Virginia to Los Angeles, Starbucks baristas, and Amazon warehouse workers have all mentioned her work to me as an inspiration. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that many workers treat Jane’s writing like a kind of Bible, but that would imply a reverence that the substance itself refutes. As Jane argued again and again, workers already have the power to change the world, and the organizer’s role is to show them that: to listen, to identify what they cannot stand, and to teach them the skills to channel their power effectively in order to wrest control from the bosses — to fight and win.” From Jacobin. The spirit of Jane McAlevey lives on within Metro DC DSA as her Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) is being read as a summer 2024 reading group and is already leading to local intra-union organizing.

The Republicans’ new party platform is scary — because it can win:
Disturbing news from a couple of our comrades about the Republican platform: “Rather than running on the Biden administration’s oversight of job growth in distressed areas and its new industrial policy, liberals seem content to do battle on the cultural front. This discursive failing has allowed common sense policies that are more reflective of the governing practice of today’s Democratic party — from defending the social safety net to growing manufacturing jobs – to become rebranded as the bread-and-butter of the Republican party. The Guardian

Shaky alliances: How a Teamster Leader’s Flirtations With Trump Have Divided the Union
The Teamsters’ president, Sean O’Brien, will address the Republican convention next week in Milwaukee, just when President Biden needs unified support from organized labor. “We will not allow the working-class labor movement to be destroyed by a scab masquerading as a pro-union advocate after doing everything in his power to destroy the very fabric of unions,” James Curbeam, the national chairman of the Teamsters National Black Caucus, wrote in a blistering letter to Teamsters members after Mr. O’Brien announced a meeting with Mr. Trump earlier this year. New York Times

Saturday, July 13

1:30 – 4:30pm | Stomp Out Slumlords Anti-Eviction Canvas

4pm | Potluck in the Park (Rescheduled)

Sunday, July 14

2 – 4pm | MDC DSA Book Exchange and Writing Workshop

2 – 3:30pm | NovaDSA Labor Workgroup Open Meeting

6pm | MoCo DSA Game Night

Tuesday, July 16

6 – 7pm | NoVA Medicare for All Working Group Meeting

Wednesday, July 17

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

Thursday, July 18

6:30 – 8:30pm | Social Meetup – NoVa Branch

Saturday, July 20

1 – 2:15pm | MDC DSA Internationalism Monthly Meeting

2:30pm | Praying for Armageddon film screening (please note Til’ Kingdom Come will no longer be screened)

Sunday, July 21

12 – 2pm | Abolition WG | Midsommar Planning Retreat (new time)

2 – 4pm | July General Body Meeting (online only)

5pm | July Post-GBM Social

Wednesday, July 24

8am | July 24 Netanyahu protest

Thursday, July 25

6pm | Social Housing Organizing Meeting

Sunday, July 29

2pm | Maryland Union Organizing School

Tuesday, June 30

7pm | Socialist Night School: Police Abolition 101