SV DSA Newsletter
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Our cities have become unaffordable to our poorest families, and this problem is leaving a deep and jagged scar on our next generation. 
― Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Hi John!

The fight against Palantir is gaining more and more national attention, and we're continuing our important work with the Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps. On Friday, DSA members joined other CCCC partners to shut down the entrance to Palantir's employee cafeteria for several hours. ICE uses the company's software to plan its massive raids, and we're demanding that Palantir end its ICE contracts! To find out more about future actions, join the CCCC here.

Also, we're thrilled to announce our newest caucus: Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color! AfroSOC will focus on empowering Afro/POC organizers, reaching out to communities of color in Silicon Valley, and building up the chapter's multilingual infrastructure. You can read the full charter here. If you'd like to get involved, email [email protected].

In Solidarity,
Your SV DSA Newsletter Team 🌹

Silicon Valley DSA is your local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). We're a nationwide movement organizing for democratic socialism.

Calls to Action

🏠  Defend rent control and tenant's rights in Mountain View, at 7:00pm TONIGHT at Mountain View City Hall! The City Council is considering weakening the city's rent control and tenant protections. We need you to advocate for expanding and strengthen the existing protections, otherwise landlords' demands will go unchallenged. Unsure what to say? The Housing Working Group is hosting a meetup before the meeting at 6pm at nearby Pioneer Memorial Park, with snacks, information on the current rules, and plenty of comrades to practice your public comments with!

📢 Join Serve the People San Jose to protest Google's campus plans and advocate for more housing on Thursday, August 22 at 5:45pm at San Jose City Hall. This will be the first time Google publicly unveils its planned downtown campus after multiple closed door meetings with the City Council, and we'll be there to say "Housing Not Google!"

Fall Chapter Meeting - Save the Date

Join us Saturday, September 14 for an afternoon of organizational skills trainings, guest speakers, tons of food, and more! But before then, we need YOUR help -- getting ~100 socialists from both of our San Jose and Lower Peninsula branches together in one room takes quite a bit of work! That's why we're running a 📞 planning call 📞 on Thursday, August 22, from 8:00pm to 9:00pm (details here). The possibilities for volunteer roles are endless: set up, sign in, clean up, childcare, bringing food, coordinating carpools, and more! We’ll go over the responsibilities and expectations for each role, plus we’ll spend some time planning out which trainings/speakers/etc we’d like to have.

Oh, and don't forget to RSVP for the chapter meeting itself - it really helps all our wonderful volunteers with the planning. 🙂

Socialists? In office? Maybe!

At our branch meetings this month, we're going to be talking a lot about how we want to approach electoral work going into 2020. We'll be voting on a proposal to endorse Bernie Sanders and begin campaigning for him that was submitted by members. We are also working on finalizing our candidate questionnaire for local candidates who might want our chapter's endorsement, and going over some of exciting campaign finance laws we're all going to have to follow if we take up this kind of work!

If you want more info about the proposed Sanders endorsement and campaign finance law, please join us for an educational call on Tuesday, August 20 at 7:00pm to 8:00pm. We'll release notes from the call for anyone who can't make it, and we'll go over a summary of the info at the branch meetings themselves.

Lower Peninsula Branch

August 27 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Details

San Jose Branch

August 29 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Details

Upcoming Events

Socialist Feminist Working Group

August 19 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Details

Join our working group to discuss Socialist Feminist organizing!

Justice Working Group

August 20 at 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Details

It’s been an exciting month for Justice. That why we need you’re help. Help us Fight ICE. Fix brake lights. Collect books and write letters of support for the incarcerated. Attend rallies, marches, and crucial public meetings.

Labor Working Group

August 21 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Details

Come join us for the next Labor Working Group meeting! Teachers, nurses, tech workers, and many more are organizing and building power across the Bay Area. Join us for debriefs, strategies, and plans!

South Bay Indigenous Solidarity

August 22 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Details

South Bay Indigenous Solidarity (formerly Friends of Juristac) are volunteers who support the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band in their efforts to stop an extractive mining project at their most sacred site, Juristac. We need massive public support so our county supervisors will vote to protect Juristac and not side with big business!

DSA Book Club: The New Jim Crow

August 23 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Details

Come join SV DSA’s Political Education Working Group as we read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. This week we'll be discussing chapters 1 - 3, so there's plenty of time to grab a copy and join us!

Mobilizer Working Group

August 25 at 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Details

We will be discussing our media presence, on-boarding, local meet-ups, etc. Newcomers strongly encouraged to attend!

Chapter Committee

August 26 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Details

Officers meet regularly to check in on all of our working groups and plan future events. If you’re interested in the nuts and bolts of chapter administration, or have questions for the officers, you’re welcome to attend. Just fill out this form for details!

Ecosocialist Working Group

August 28 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Details

Join us for our monthly Zoom call for the Ecosocialist Working Group!

Announcements

Join DSA!

To join DSA and vote at our meetings, you can pay dues or request a waiver. (If you're not sure your membership is current, we can check. If you've moved, let us know.)

Support your local chapter

Membership dues mostly go to support national DSA—to support Silicon Valley DSA directly, set up voluntary local dues! We recommend you pay up to $5 monthly in national dues, if affordable, and reserve your additional generosity for the local. 🌹

Organize a local meet-up

To win the world, we need to win our buildings, our neighborhoods, and our cities. If you want to start a DSA local meetup in your neighborhood, email us! This is a fun and easy way to connect local comrades and bring in new folks.

Let's connect 1-on-1

Want to chat with one of our mobilizers to figure out ways to make a difference with DSA? Sign up here.

Submit content!

  • Newsletter & Events. Click here to submit an event, update, or call to action for next week's newsletter. Please submit it by Friday at 8pm. Accepted submissions will also go out on our calendar and social media.
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Questions?

If you have any questions, please reply to this email. 🌹
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Menlo Park, CA 94025-9991

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