Hello Comrades!
Over the month of July, our chapter undertook a massive project to help support our mutual aid efforts. As you've no doubt heard, we gave hours of public comment, then launched a referendum against Tempe City Council’s Special Events Parks Ordinance.
On Friday, we turned in more than 4,000 signatures on more than 476 signature sheets to the City Clerk — collected by more than 127 volunteers who dedicated hundreds of hours of canvassing in the summer heat to send this ordinance to the ballot. We were joined in our effort by a wide coalition of community partners, including AZAANHPI and Tempe 1st. To qualify for the ballot, we only need 2,440 of those signatures to be valid. We're feeling confident that we will qualify.
We’ll find out by the end of the month, but until then we’ll keep up the electoral push in other ways.
- Several members have asked for a presentation on the mechanics + strategy of running a ballot campaign. We’re tentatively planning that for a Zoom on Monday August 11th at 8pm. It's open only to current DSA members, so invite friends from other chapters who might want to run the same kind of campaign.
- In the last week of August, we’ll do an in-person meeting with our coalition partners to discuss what’s next with the campaign. By then, we are hopeful that we will have received confirmation from the city clerk about whether our referendum will be on the ballot for the March 10th election.
- Allies in Tucson may soon be facing a referendum of their own if Tucson City Council goes on to pass Project Blue. The Phoenix Metro area is rife with water-sucking data centers and we understand the widespread impacts projects of this size can have. If you are interested in participating in such a campaign, sign-up here! This is a great opportunity to stand in solidarity with our comrades in Tucson, and build power across the state of Arizona.
There’s no better time to become a member of Phoenix-Metro DSA. Since November 5th, we've nearly doubled in size as a chapter, and this campaign is proof of we’ve used that growth to build community power. We're immensely proud of the incredible work we've accomplished as a chapter by coming together to fight for our right to use public spaces to provide mutual aid to people in need in Tempe and across the valley.
Join DSA or renew your membership today!
In Solidarity,
Priority Campaign Committee
Phoenix-Metro DSA
