Unionizing hotel workers at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City (2799 Richmond Highway, Arlington, VA) are picketing their union-busting bosses after filing for a union election, and they need community support. Locals are encouraged to show strength and solidarity with housekeeping staff who are engaged in a fight for their rights to unionize and collectively bargain. Picketing was initially scheduled for every upcoming Saturday, but after management was caught illegally surveilling and intimidating organizers, picketing is now happening daily. Pickets are scheduled for THIS MORNING from 7 – 9 am at the Hyatt Crystal City, and then 10am – 12pm at the Grand Hyatt DC (1000 H Street NW). Another picket is scheduled for 7 – 8am on Saturday at the Hyatt Crystal City. Locals interested in support can reach out to UNITE HERE Local 25 for more information.

Ready to beat the summer heat? After a successful Montgomery County picnic, Northern Virginia socialists are set to grill and relax tomorrow, Saturday, August 10 from 2 to 8pm. The cookout will be at Quincy Park Pavilion in Arlington, just outside the GMU Metro stop in Northern Virginia (1021 N Quincy St, Arlington, VA 22201). The event will take place right after the Northern Virginia branch monthly organizing meeting. There will be grilling, games and a surprise musical guest. RSVP here. (Want to bring something? Send NoVA an email to coordinate.)

Metro DC DSA’s famous reading groups are preparing for their Fall rollout, and all are invited to sign up. Socialists are invited to bring in friends, family, comrades, roommates, coworkers and beyond to participate — groups start after Labor Day and most will wrap before Christmas (unless you are reading the new translation of Capital Vol. 1). These reading groups are a great way to meet new people, learn core works connected to socialism and political economy, build our capacity to learn and debate ideas and get connected to political education in the chapter.

Fall offerings include two groups reading the brand new translation of Capital Vol. 1; an ecosocialism and political economy group reading The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet; an Internationalism group reading Frantz Fanon’s classic Wretched of the Earth; the Rent Strike reading group going through classic local and international works on housing; a Family Abolition reading group reading M.E. O’Brien’s latest book by that title; a Capitalism & Culture group reading the best radical perspectives on “cultural” issues; a Prisons and Resistance Since Attica: Abolition reading group reading the Tip of the Spear; and a group for those interested in radical thinking around legal issues titled Marxism and The Law. Register to join one or more — most groups will meet online but with regular in-person social meetups to build group camaraderie.

Want to get out the word about the chapter and its upcoming organizing and education programs in a fun and social way? Sign up here to join a team going out to put up posters promoting the chapter’s Abolition and Political Education work tomorrow, Saturday, August 10 at 1pm, meeting in Columbia Heights Civic Plaza. The posters will focus on the chapter’s back to school backpack drive and Fall 2024 Reading Groups (who are hosting another wheatpasting outing on 8/18 — sign up here). Wheatpasters will be grouped into teams of three — no experience necessary (registration is requested, for planning materials).

The NoVA Abolition working group will be hosting a planning retreat on Sunday, August 11 at 1pm to help strategize and come up with plans and campaigns to focus on in the coming months. The retreat will also be a great opportunity for new members to get plugged into abolition work and discuss ideas for the near future. Previously, the DC and NoVA Abolition working groups hosted a Socialist Night School on Police Abolition 101 that discussed what policing and prisons are, their codependent relationship with capital, their alternatives, and how abolitionist approaches differ from other critiques (like mass incarceration). If you missed the event, keep your eyes out for the presentation to be posted online.

Interested in bringing a new world into being? After the Storm seeks to use writing to share visions for a collective way forward out of our current system of exploitation and oppression. In partnership with the Washington Socialist, come out for a socialist writing workshop on Sunday, August 25 from 2 to 4pm at Sudhouse DC and join comrades in writing manifestos with collaborative exercises and discussion about socialist imaginaries. Signups are capped at 30 people — RSVP here.

In the wake of the Supreme Court allowing the carte blanche criminalization of homelessness in June, the DC Public Library has announced new policies to prevent the unhoused from accessing WiFi after hours and calling the police on people sleeping in the vicinity of libraries. Public libraries serve as one of the few services available to people without spending money, making them vital for the unhoused who frequently lack both safe spaces and accessible internet. As always, the weight of the carceral state does nothing to improve the conditions of our unhoused brethren, and instead only isolates them from the resources they need. Comrades at Stop the Sweeps DC have put together this petition to call on DCPL to change course on this damaging policy.

On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to run alongside her in her campaign for President. The pick has been met with cautious optimism across the broad left, with some seeing Minnesota’s progression as a progressive, labor-friendly state as a gesture to the grassroots left active in the party. Democratic Socialists from across the country have weighed in:

• National DSA has identified the choice as an outgrowth of the Uncommitted movement embarked across the organization. In a Twitter thread released this week: “Harris choosing Walz as a running mate has shown the world that DSA and our allies on the left are a force that cannot be ignored. Through collective action, DSA and the US left more broadly have made it clear that change is needed. DSA members organized in our workplaces and unions to realign the labor movement to support Palestinian liberation.” DSA National also urged sign-on to a letter demanding an arms embargo to Israel.
• Twin Cities DSA reiterated demands of top-level Democrats to push for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel: “Our demands regarding a free Palestine remain unchanged. The Harris-Walz ticket still needs to commit to a ceasefire and no more bombs for Israel. We support the Uncommitted delegates, and all who hold them to this task.”

The ticket’s approach to the enduring crisis in Gaza is likely to define grassroots engagement with Harris’s campaign going forward: At an election rally in Michigan, Harris chided protesters calling for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel, disrupting positive momentum won by the ticket over the last two weeks. But potential change may be in the cards: Prior to the event, co-founders of the Uncommitted Movement interacted directly with VP Harris, who agreed to a meeting to discuss policy change.

Last Tuesday, Democratic Socialist Cori Bush was ousted in a close primary race by a corporate-backed challenger, losing out 51 – 46%. Representative Bush was strongly supported by National DSA and the St Louis chapter, which led an aggressive defense of her seat.

In Congress, Bush was a noted voice for the anti-war movement in the United States, a critical ally of labor unions and a staunch advocate for the homeless. Her positioning attracted a seething intervention from corporate elites and the Israel lobby. This intervention turned the race into one of the most expensive House Primary elections in US history: AIPAC alone spent over $9 million as another pro-Israel lobby group, the United Democracy Project, spent more than $8 million in the race. Following the victory of opponent Wesley Bell, conservative news outlets celebrated their manipulation of Democratic Party primary elections.

In her concession speech, Cori Bush vowed to continue the fight against AIPAC and corporate influence in American elections, as Saint Louis DSA vowed to continue its local fights for a Green New Deal and racial justice.

Learn more about our local chapter — structure, campaigns and working groups, Night School and reading groups — HERE. And live from our studio, Wednesday, August 14, 7 – 8pm, Why You Should Join DSA / New Member Orientation (with Q&A). MDC DSA members: Join our Slack for real-time info, convo and inspiration. Email [email protected] with your most recent DSA dues receipt to get Slack access. #Publications (our working group’s Slack channel) is always ready to onboard new socialist communicators.

MDC DSA Publications is information central for not just MDC DSA but the entire DMV left. The Washington Socialist publishes articles on a quarterly schedule; the Summer 2024 edition is now live and will be updated on a rolling basis. 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; current and past Updates are on the web here. Submit your Update suggestions to the tip line, including nominating articles for ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVES. Donate to our Comradery page if you would like to financially support socialist publishing in the DMV.

ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVES are articles and opinion pieces of interest to DMV leftists but not, generally, appearing in local media. They should have links without paywalls. Readers are invited to submit candidates at our tip line.

Peril of Private Equity Incursions into Health Care Market Outlined
New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrates the danger of private equity acquisitions in healthcare. It has become a common practice for new private equity owners to sell off land, buildings, computer technology, and medical equipment in order to make a quick profit. Researchers found that hospitals acquired by private equity firms lost an average of $28 million in assets in the years after acquisition as a result of these “strip and flip” schemes. In addition to raising operating costs for hospitals, these schemes also lead to worsening patient outcomes — with higher rates of infections, patient falls, and even patient mortality. [NBC News] This is yet another reason why it is crucial that we organize around Medicare For All and fight against further privatization of healthcare.

National DSA’s political blog, Democratic Left, published a new collection of articles over the past week. Included are reviews of books by our longtime scholar-comrade Nelson Lichtenstein and democratic socialist Naomi Klein as well as an analysis of the mixed message of the recent French snap election.

State Lawmakers Urge US Exit From Toxic ISDS Mechanisms in Trade Deals
“Outdated trade rules like [Investor-State Dispute Settlement] can pose a real threat to states’ sustainable energy initiatives and the good-paying jobs they create,” said one lawmaker from Maine. More than 300 state lawmakers signed a letter Monday calling on President Joe Biden to “eliminate the threat of Investor-State Dispute Settlement from all U.S. trade and investment agreements,” joining hundreds of civil society groups and dozens of members of Congress in speaking out against rules that allow foreign corporations to challenge state laws. The legislators—who include Democrats, Republicans, and Independents—expressed support for the official position of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) regarding IDS, as the conference convened its annual summit in Louisville, Kentucky. The NCSL opposes trade deals “with investment chapters that provide greater substantive or procedural rights to foreign companies than U.S. companies enjoy under the U.S. Constitution.” Common Dreams via Portside

Inside the Dark World of Doxing for Profit
From tricking companies into handing over victims’ personal data to offering violence as a service, the online doxing ecosystem is not just still a problem—it’s getting more extreme. “Laws worldwide are simply not fit to provide protection,” says Amanda Manyame, digital rights adviser at Equality Now, a feminist human rights NGO. “Victims have no way to swiftly regain control of information that has been published with the intent to harass, intimidate, and/or harm them.” WIRED

U.S. Tech Companies Are Party To Israel’s Slaughter In Gaza The Israeli army is using Amazon’s cloud service to store surveillance information on Gaza’s population, while procuring further AI tools from Google and Microsoft for military purposes, an investigation reveals. +972 Magazine via Progressive Hub

Saturday, August 10

1pm | Wheatpasting for Abolition Backpack Drive/Reading Groups

1 – 2:30pm | NoVA Branch Monthly Organizing Meeting

2pm | NoVA Branch Picnic and Cookout

Sunday, August 11

1 – 3:15pm | NoVA Abolition Planning Retreat

Wednesday, August 14

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

Thursday, August 15

6:30 – 8:30pm | NoVA Branch social meetup

Saturday, August 17

1:30 – 6pm | Kids not Cops: Abolition Backpack Drive

Sunday August 18

6 – 7pm | NoVA Electoral General Election Research Kickoff

7 – 8pm | MDC DSA Internationalism Monthly Meeting

Monday, August 19

7 – 8:30pm | MDC Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy Organizing Meeting

Tuesday, August 20

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

Thursday, August 22

6pm | Social Housing Organizing Meeting