US v. Skrmetti decision announced as protests erupt in response TODAY; Chapter Q & A session for endorsing Frankie Santos Fritz for Greenbelt City Council; battle against Bowser's austerity budget continues; and more ...
This is the weekly newsletter of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America (MDC DSA), which is
produced by local members of the chapter's Publications Working Group. The Weekly Update publishes every
Friday at 9am. Want to fight fascism from the heart of empire? Join DSA and fight to build socialism!
Paid for by Metro DC DSA (mdcdsa.org). Not authorized by any candidate or committee.
UP FRONT
US v. Skrmetti decision announced: SCOTUS upholds state bans of gender affirming care for minors
On Wednesday, June 18, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in US v. Skrmetti, another sobering reminder in the escalation of the Trump regime that the courts will not be here to save our democracy — or lives.
Filed last year by three families of trans youth and a provider of gender-affirming care, this case is the first from the 26 states that currently ban gender-affirming care to come before the Supreme Court. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti alongside the six Supreme Court justices in the majority claimed that it was necessary to protect children from “experimental” medical treatments, despite affording the same care to cis youth. But the truth is that this ruling will only cause more harm to trans youth. There are an estimated 100,000 trans youth living in states where their medical care has been banned — and a study by the Trevor Project found that anti-trans laws are linked to a 72% increase in suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary youth.
The court believes that states have a right to discriminate against trans youth and adults. Since they did not rule on the constitutionality of bans on gender-affirming care, DC’s lack of statehood allows these bans to exist in the District under the ruling. Protesters are expected to gather in DC TODAY, Friday, June 20 at 11am at the steps of the Supreme Court. Readers interested in deep organizing to defend trans rights, abortion access, and free gender expression for all can fill out the Metro DC DSA chapter’s Bodily Autonomy Working Group (BAWG) interest form.
Chapter Q&A session for endorsing Frankie Santos Fritz for Greenbelt City Council — Wednesday, June 25
As part of Metro DC DSA’s chapter endorsement process, the PEC will be holding a Q&A session on June 25 from 6pm to 7pm on Zoom. Chapter members will have the opportunity to submit questions ahead of the Q&A as well as during it. The meeting will be recorded for any who miss it to be able to watch later. You can see the submitted questionnaire and endorsement resolution here. Follow #pec and #electoral for updates. RSVP for the Q&A session here.
The battle against Bowser’s austerity budget continues — housing activists call rally at Wilson Building on Monday, June 23rd
The District and residents are in crisis, with economic uncertainty caused by Trump’s assault on federal workers, the social safety net, and DC autonomy. In her proposed budget, which also includes a full repeal of Initiative 82, Mayor Bowser has made a clear choice to prioritize billionaires and corporations over the residents who need the city’s support and stability. This past week, an alliance of labor, abolitionist, immigrant rights, environmentalist and progressive forces rallied at the DC Council building to urge a fight-back against this austerity regime, demonstrating a mass base for opposition to Bowser’s budget. The budget battle is set to continue over the next month.
With incomes threatened, the cost of housing is emerging as the clearest vector of instability of life in the city; nearly half of DC renters are paying more than 30% of their income on rent, as the DC Fiscal Policy Institute reported in an April study. And yet, the only proposals we are seeing are guts to the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), rental assistance, and eviction protections. Spin-doctors backed by capitalist forces say that these protections are shooing away new development in the city — but an analysis from Washington City Paper published yesterday suggests the narratives proposed by local right-wing think tanks and their operatives in city government are illusions.
On June 24, the housing committee, led by Councilmember Robert White (at-large), will perform “mark ups” which will move money available to the committee between vital programs that residents rely on to survive. DSA is urging community to show up to the Wilson building at 10am on June 23 to demand that Robert White #ChooseUs over billionaires and corporations by raising revenue to fund housing programs. RSVP for the housing rally here.
CM White was at one point an ally of progressive forces in the city. However, his office appears to be openly flirting with the investor class of the city. Beyond the housing front, White is also publicly waffling on support to save Initiative 82 — a proposal he publicly supported back in 2022. This week, in response to tipped workers urging defense of Initiative 82, he said he “didn’t know” if he would support Bowser’s full repeal in the budget — an alarming aboutface.
On Initiative 82, CMs Henderson and Allen both confirmed to workers their opposition to repeal of the initiative. Although a seventh vote will be needed to support a repeal amendment, CM Mendelson may choose to pull the proposed I82 repeal out of the budget entirely. (DC voters in favor of full implementation of Initiative 82 are urged to contact their local representatives to urge support for full implementation of Initiative 82.)
BRIEFS
Rockville tenants pack City Hall for rent stabilization, canvass planned for Saturday, June 28
This past Monday, Rockville tenants, including MDC DSA chapter members, packed the Rockville City Hall again to demand that the Rockville City Council and mayor pass rent stabilization, allowing Rockville tenants the same rights as tenants elsewhere in the county. Speaker after speaker condemned Mayor Monique Ashton and Council members Barry Jackson, Kate Fulton, Marissa Valeri, and Adam van Grack’s refusal to consider a rent stabilization policy for the city. Members of NIH Fellows United, the union for postbaccalaureate and postdoctoral researchers at the National Institutes of Health, called out the mayor and the council majority’s failure to protect federal workers. ABC7 covered the hearing.
Want to get involved in this campaign? The Huntington Tenant Association is planning a canvass of the King Farm neighborhood on Saturday, June 28. RSVP here.
Neocon Don preparing US for war; antiwar coalition scrambles to stop escalation on Capitol Hill
Last Friday, Israel launched a surprise attack on Iranian targets, interrupting negotiations between the US and Iran. Iran retaliated by firing missiles into Tel Aviv; Israel responded by firing back; and repeat. The hot war has led to thousands of civilian casualties and has shown little signs of cooldown, potentially risking expansion into a wider regional war.
While the world waits to see if Trump will be mousetrapped by Israeli warlord Benjamin Netanyahu into sending his biggest bombs to Iran’s subterranean Fordo(w) nuclear site, attention is conveniently diverted from Gaza, where the new Israeli-approved food aid regime has led to hundreds of deaths, largely from IOF troops firing on unarmed Palestinians seeking food. (A recent analysis in The Lancet journal says life expectancy in Gaza has dropped from a pre-war 70.5 years to 40.5 years since October 2023.)
War hawks in the Republican Party appear to be egging Trump into intervention. “Finish the job,” said Sen. Graham (R-SC), a Southern dandy whose political career has been propped up by the military industrial complex. The populist end of Trump’s base, however, is irate over the president’s betrayal: Reps. Greene (GA) and Massie (KY) in particular are urging non-interference. But the right-wing populists appear to be sidelined by Trump’s neocon turn, as reported in Semafor this week. To really stop Trump’s escalation, a War Powers Resolution will need to take shape in Washington and pull in populist MAGA reps with anti-war Democrats. Although Sen. Sanders introduced a bill to prevent US funding of military force against Iran, the bill is unlikely to go anywhere with Senate Democrats split. War powers resolutions have been raised in the House, with Sen. Kaine (VA).
It’s unclear when Trump will make a decision on the matter, or if the threat of US intervention is just leverage in ongoing negotiations (NYT says a decision is coming in the “next two weeks”). Regardless, popular support for US intervention appears to be low, according to polling from The Economist: "Polling conducted by YouGov on behalf of The Economist shows that 60% of Americans want to stay out of the conflict, while only 16% are keen to get involved. There was some variation by political persuasion—but not much." Reporting also suggests Trump is eager to time bombings so as not to spook the stock market, which is still on edge from Trump’s tariff chaos.
Virginia Democrats settle on lieutenant governor and attorney general candidates in Tuesday primary
Virginia wrapped up its primary elections last Tuesday, with the two top offices of AG and Lt. Gov being settled by extremely thin margins. The primary races appeared to settle without any clear narrative; regional divisions between Northern Virginia, Richmond, Virginia Beach, and rural counties were on wide display in the results for top races.
In the Democratic primary for attorney general, former state rep Jay Jones eeked out a narrow victory against Dominion Energy-funded Shannon Taylor. Jones, running with the backing of organized labor, clinched the narrow win by running up wide margins in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. In the lieutenant governor’s race, progressive-backed Ghazala Hashmi won by a narrow margin of 3,000 votes (~27%) against labor-backed ex-football player Aaron Rouse and casino magnate Levar Stoney (each pulled ~26%). Hashmi’s victory was secured by running up high margins in Richmond and Roanoke, overcoming Rouse’s base in Virginia Beach and Stoney’s in southern Virginia. The vote in Northern Virginia was complicated between alt-progressives Alex Bastani and Victor Salgado and teachers union arch-nemesis Babur Lateef. In the Virginia District 1 House race, incumbent Patrick Hope — backed by progressive groups and labor unions — won a commanding victory with over 70% of the vote over upstarts Arjoon Srikanth and Sean Epstein.
The governor’s race is looking particularly grim for socialists and leftists. On the Democratic side, ex-CIA operative Abigail Spanberger cleared the race as the sole candidate. She is set to face off against Lt. Gov Winsome Earle-Sears, a consistent booster of President Trump. Considerations over abortion access, Trump’s entitlement cuts, and civil rights protections are likely to dominate voter considerations. A detailed look at the results can be viewed on the Virginia Public Access Project. Also review coverage of races up for local consideration on REDBUG.
Coffee with comrades? Join NoVA Branch for a coffee social — June 21 at 1pm
Join the Northern Virginia DSA branch’s FIRST coffee social meetup on Saturday, June 21, with future socials taking place every third Saturday of the month afterward. The social will be at Detour Coffee (946 N Jackson St) for an afternoon of good times and good vibes. Look for a piece of paper that says "DSA" in big letters. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required. If you test positive after attending, please let us know so we may alert other attendees. All socialists, progressives, workers, and allies are invited to attend — no DSA membership required.
Help send Metro DC DSA to the 2025 National Convention — NYC primary watch party on June 24
This August, DSA members from across the country will gather in Chicago for the 2025 National Convention, where we come together as a national organization to make decisions about our shared priorities and strategies for the next two years. From housing justice and labor organizing to international solidarity and trans liberation, this will be where we shape our vision and build our collective power. To help cover the costs for our delegation to travel to Chicago, Metro DC DSA is hosting a fundraiser and watch party for the NYC Democratic mayoral primary next Tuesday, June 24 at 7:30pm. Come watch the results over drinks with fellow socialists on the third floor of Sudhouse DC and chip in funds for our delegation. RSVP to the watch party here. Comrades with the means can also donate directly. With your help, we can ensure every delegate, regardless of income, can participate in our organization’s internal democracy. Every contribution counts towards covering travel, shared lodging, and registration costs.
Ecosocialists to hold happy hours to discuss public utilities and mass transit — June 24 and 29
Interested in replacing Pepco with a city-owned, affordable utility? Join We Power DC organizers at Lyman’s Tavern to chat about wheatpasting, canvassing, article writing, and more over drinks. RSVP here for the happy hour on Tuesday, June 24 at 6pm.
Meanwhile, the Green New Deal Working Group is hosting a happy hour on June 29 from 2 – 5pm at MetroBar to mark the changeover to Metro's New Bus Network, as well as the launch of a new campaign to establish a progressive source of revenue for sustaining WMATA's operations for the next generation: Tax Land, Fund Metro, Build Housing. Topics include campaign priorities, ways to get involved, upcoming educational talks, and all things public transit. To learn more, register for the event, or get connected to the campaign, RSVP here.
DSA member input requested in developing chapter program; listening session planned on Sunday, June 29
At the local convention in December, the chapter established a Program Development Commission to develop a draft two-year program for our chapter. Now, the PDC wants to hear from members like you! Come to the commission’s 3rd listening session to give your input on what the chapter should focus on in the coming years. This listening session will be held in Arlington, VA, and will feature aspects of the program for attendees to give feedback on. You can also submit your thoughts and feedback in the MDC DSA 2025 Survey. This event will be hybrid. RSVP to receive the Zoom link.
Join Internationalism Working Group for the fifth session of teach-in series about global empire — Anti-Imperialist Summer School Week 5, June 29
Metro DC DSA’s Internationalism Working Group is holding the fifth session of their six-week Beyond the Bombs: Anti-Imperialist Summer School teach-in series on Sunday, June 29, with a session titled “International Governance and Empire.” This session will run from 4 – 6pm, in-person at the Festival Center (1640 Columbia Road NW) and hybrid on Zoom.
This session will examine the role that the institutions and structures of international governance — specifically, the United Nations and the international legal system — play in the imperialist world-system. We will trace the history of these institutions and their formation by colonial powers as a response to the shifts in the 20th-century imperial order, as well as explore the ways in which they have both been instrumentalized as tools of imperialism and wielded as platforms for Global South nations to challenge and critique empire. Learn more and RSVP here.
MDC DSA Political Engagement Committee to hold online Electoral Accountability Forum — Tuesday, July 1 at 7pm
Following Shayla Adams-Stafford’s win earlier this year in Prince George’s County, the socialist electoral project continues on; future electoral planning and a return to accountability for socialist electeds remains a crucial need. This project is being coordinated by the chapter’s Political Engagement Committee, a five-member body appointed by the Metro DC DSA Steering Committee.
The PEC will be holding a conversation on the chapter’s strategy around accountability for endorsed elected officials at their upcoming bi-weekly meeting on July 1; all chapter members are invited to attend (invite forthcoming) and to join #electoral in Slack for updates. This event will be a great opportunity to learn about — and comment on — a set of important chapter decisions, and will help to guide our electoral approach over the rest of this year. Whether you are a DSA member new, old, or returning, input and engagement on this process is strongly encouraged.
NoVA Mutual Aid to host next virtual meeting — July 3
The NoVA Mutual Aid Working Group will be holding its next virtual meeting on July 3 at 7pm. Join comrades interested in directly improving the material conditions of workers in Northern Virginia in ways that challenge and replace capitalist exploitation. Anyone interested in attending is free to add items to the agenda, which currently consists of creating a time bank/skill share, a childcare cooperative, researching and compiling existing mutual aid projects, and a knitting circle. RSVP for the meeting here.
Maryland branches prepare for upcoming General Body Meetings — June 29 and July 6
The Prince George’s Branch will be hosting their June General Body Meeting at 1pm on Sunday, June 29, both in person at the Greenbelt Community Center and on Zoom. The meeting will be dedicated towards working to optimize advantages in county political alignment, as well as discussing upcoming ways to get involved in branch activities.
And on Sunday, July 6 at 3pm, comrades in the Montgomery County Branch are invited to come out for their next monthly General Body Meeting, hosted virtually on Zoom. Please RSVP to the meeting in advance to see the Zoom link and agenda, viewable on the "Event Details" page.
Want to stay current? Weekly Updates, like the one you are reading, are scheduled and emailed on Fridays; current and past Updates are available on our website. Not subscribed? DSA member or not, sign up to get the Update, the go-to source for the DMV left. The MDC Dispatch is the chapter’s new video news series, published on the first and third Sunday of each month. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and submit your Update or Dispatch suggestions or DMV scandal tips to our tip line. The Washington Socialist, published since the 1970s, offers in-depth analytical/opinion articles on a quarterly schedule; the Spring 2025 quarterly issue now leads the queue but the Summer 2025 issue is in editing now. Check out our indexed and searchable archive to see what we write — and what you can write. Anyone, MDC DSA member or not, interested in contributing to the Washington Socialist can email submissions or questions to [email protected].
Members — want to stay updated in our local chapter workspace? MDC DSA members are encouraged to join our all-member Slack for real-time info on working group and campaign events, strategy exchange, and inspiration. Email [email protected] with your most recent DSA dues receipt to get Slack access.
DMV LEFT COMMUNITY BULLETIN
Building Power for the Budget Fight | Fair Budget Coalition
This budget season, join the Fair Budget Coalition for community learning and strategizing. On Saturday, June 21, from 1 – 4pm, they'll be doing intentional skill-sharing grounded in shared political analysis. Identify moments of interference during the budget cycle, analyze their recommendations, and discuss how to build power for a racially equitable budget. Sign up here.
Street Law 101 training | DC COLLAB
Know your “rights” when police try to interact with you. On Saturday, June 21, from 12 – 2pm, the DC COLLAB is hosting Street Law 101, a workshop designed to help participants understand what the law says and how it actually plays out in the streets. This training breaks down legal rights, exposes the gaps between policy and practice, and equips people with the knowledge to navigate and resist state violence while building a strong community defense network. RSVP for the training here.
Neoliberalism teach-in | Anakbayan DC
On June 25 from 6 – 7:30pm in Tenleytown, Anakbayan DC will be hosting a teach-in to discuss how neoliberalism has and continues to orient the state to serve the needs of monopoly capital instead of the people, both in the US and Philippines. RSVP to the teach-in here.
Organizing work parties | Movement Infrastructure Project
Movement Infrastructure Project is organizing three upcoming work days to get their space ready for another incredible year of organizing. Help out at their work parties on Thursday, June 26, from 4 – 8pm; Sunday, June 29, from 11am – 3pm; or Tuesday, July 1, from 12 – 8pm. RSVP here.
Shabbat Ritual and Action: Stop Starving Gaza | Jewish Voice for Peace
On Friday, June 27 at 6pm, join our JVP comrades in Columbus Circle in downtown DC to observe Shabbat and call on Congress to stop starving Gaza. RSVP to the Shabbat here.
Summer Reading Series: Constitutional Bind | Third Space Politics
Third Space Politics is hosting its summer reading group, starting on July 2, on the National Mall. We will be discussing portions of Aziz Rana's The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document that Fails Them. More info and RSVP here.
ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVES
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.
What’s Next for Capitalism: Reinvention or Authoritarian Rule?
In a dialogue with Lynn Parramore of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, John Cassidy discusses his new book, Capitalism and Its Critics: A History from the Industrial Revolution to AI, which “brings to life the figures who warned of monopoly power, inequality, environmental peril, and authoritarianism—forces still at work today… Cassidy unpacks how capitalism shapes more than just economies—it reshapes our politics, values, and sense of humanity. His book raises a pressing question: Can we reform the system before it chews up the democratic ideals it once helped build?” via Portside
Abundance? Pragmatism? Which comes first? Reviews and views on two new books
Here’s a round-robin of discussions and reviews about two attention-getting books, Malcolm Harris’s What’s Left: Three Paths through the Climate Crisis and Ezra Klein/Derek Thompson’s Abundance. Harris himself reviews the Klein/Thompson opus in The Baffler, in “What’s the Matter with Abundance?” – in which he invokes extensively the work of our local comrade David Schwartzman. Alyssa Battistoni walks us through the Harris book in “All Together Now” in Lux magazine – a recent reading of our local magazine-essay reading group. She sees “a climate book that starts where most end: with the political challenges and possibilities before us, presented not by way of tired gestures to optimism or pessimism but clear-eyed assessment of their prospects.” And Walid Shaheed in The Nation addresses “The Case for Abundance Populism” while pinpointing a critical issue about a post-scarcity future: “a growing chorus on the left has voiced skepticism about abundance—less about the abstract goal of increasing state capacity and more about its conspicuous ambivalence toward oligarchy and corporate power.” That is to say, who owns/will own the robots?
For the first time, social media overtakes TV as Americans’ top news source
For years, social media and video apps weren’t quite able to overtake good old television as Americans’ most-used source for news. That’s finally changed, according to Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) in its 2025 Digital News Report, out earlier this week…“The proportion accessing news via social media and video networks in the United States (54%) is sharply up,” the report’s authors write, “overtaking both TV news (50%) and news websites/apps (48%) for the first time.” Nobody will want to read this whole graphics-festooned worldwide roundup from the Nieman Lab, but it is very well organized by topic and country so if you have special interests about how people get their news — and what kind and where — you’ll find it here without much difficulty. And, in a significant sideshow, “It’s Official: Streaming Is Now the King of TV” from the NYT. Could all this affect socialist comms strategy? How could it not?
This is the weekly newsletter of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America (MDC DSA), which is produced by
local members of the chapter's Publications working group. The Weekly Update publishes every Friday at
9am.
Paid for by Metro DC DSA (mdcdsa.org). Not authorized by any candidate or committee.
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