Happy May Day from Seattle DSA!
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, is the international working class’ yearly celebration of the labor movement and commemoration of the seven martyrs of the Haymarket Affair. One hundred and thirty-four years after the battle for the eight-hour day, we are still battling the capitalist class, now more than ever in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we face the crises of COVID-19 and capitalism, it’s time for us to fight back and organize for a socialist transformation of society.
We stand in solidarity with the struggles of working class and oppressed people around the world today. We stand with workers who are striking at Instacart, Whole Foods, Amazon, Walmart, Target, FedEx, and elsewhere, and with renters who are organizing and withholding rent.
SHARE MAY DAY DEMANDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Join Seattle DSA’s May Day social media campaign! Take a selfie with a home-made sign of your May Day statement regarding DSA’s support for tenant and workers struggles during the COVID-19 crisis. Or take photos with your coworkers and neighbors while social distancing!
Tag Seattle DSA on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and we’ll share your post!
Need ideas?
Share some demands: CANCEL RENT! SEATTLE NEEDS A GREEN NEW DEAL! ABOLISH ICE! MEDICARE FOR ALL!
Or words of solidarity: I STAND WITH STRIKING WORKERS! FROM HAYMARKET TO COVID-19, SEATTLE DSA STANDS WITH THE WORKING CLASS!
You can also share one of our COVID-19 relief art series here, designed by Seattle DSA member Val Ross!
As you share, let your friends know about Seattle DSA! You can invite them to our General Membership Meeting on Tuesday, May 5th (see below!).
STAND WITH TENANT ORGANIZERS
Support tenant organizing in the Ben Lomond apartments! Stand in solidarity and send a message now to Cornell & Associates to suspend the rent! Read about the incredible organizing one of our members has been doing:
My name is Sean Case. I’m a renter and an indefinitely laid off cook in Capitol Hill. My fellow tenants and I have been organizing in our building—The Ben Lomond—for about a month now. (Check out the article in the Seattle Times and KOMO!)
We decided to band together to meet one another’s needs and place some demands on our landlord. We sent a letter to our landlord on April 9th asking for rent relief for tenants affected by the COVID-19 crisis. On April 15th, we got a response not from our landlord, but from our management company—Cornell & Associates. They slipped a letter under our doors demanding we pay rent by any means necessary—including asking our parents for money and going into credit card debt. We have yet to receive a serious response to our demands despite repeated followup.
We’re organizing in my building to meet our needs, to make sure none of us falls through the cracks during this pandemic. And our needs are the same as all other renters in this city, and all other working and poor people throughout the country. We’re afraid for our health and our livelihoods. We shouldn’t have to worry about rent on top of that. We need universal rent and mortgage suspension now. We need it in my building, in Seattle, in Washington, and nationally. Working and poor people are not going to foot the bill for this pandemic. We’ve paid enough already.
Do you live in a Cornell and Associates building and want to learn more and maybe take action? Contact us here.
One action of solidarity everyone reading this can make right now is join onto our email campaign to pressure Cornell & Associates to meet our demands. This is a small step, and in order for us to win our demands, we need mass organizing and mass solidarity.
WE CAN’T GO BACK TO “NORMAL”: COME DISCUSS HOW TO REBUILD SOCIETY WITH A GREEN NEW DEAL
On Tuesday, March 5th from 7 - 9PM, join Seattle DSA for our May General Membership Meeting! We will discuss how to build towards a Green New Deal in the face of the dual crises of COVID-19 and capitalism.
Politicians and corporations are pushing to re-open businesses and lift shelter-in-place orders, claiming that we can “get back to normal.” Yet we know that we cannot go back, that “normal” is a deadly and exploitative capitalist system. So what can we fight for to preserve and expand our wins during this time, like fare-free transit and renter and worker protections? What is a socialist vision of how to transform society out of this crisis toward a sustainable and just future?
We’ll hear from climate change activists and organizers about our current political moment, the contradictions of capitalism that it reveals, and what it will take to transform society in this moment, from policy change to public ownership of major corporations. We’ll share opportunities to get involved in the fight for COVID-19 relief, Green New Homes, and a Green New Deal to rebuild society.
The meeting will take place via Zoom. Please register HERE to access the link!
