DC-area socialists begin electoral mobilizations for endorsed candidates — first canvasses begin on Saturday, January 10; Metro DC DSA to host Q&A with DC mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George — Monday, January 5; Metro DC DSA’s Political Education Working Group announces new Spring 2026 reading groups — Signups now open
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.
NOTE: TBD
UP FRONT
DC-area socialists begin electoral mobilizations for endorsed candidates — first canvasses begin on Saturday, January 10
As was announced in the December 19 Weekly Update, a mass vote of the chapter endorsed six candidates running in Democratic party primaries for local and state elections. The endorsed candidates are as follows:
Former Chair of Metro DC DSA Aparna Raj for DC Council, Ward 1
Incumbent delegate and long-time member Gabriel Acevero for Maryland House of Delegates, District 39
Tenant and union organizer Zola Shaw for Montgomery County Council, District 3
Navy veteran and political activist Josie Caballero for Montgomery County Council, At Large
Former member of the Steering Committee Imara Crooms for Prince George’s County Council, District 9
Storied political organizer Raaheela Ahmed for Maryland State Senate, District 23
The endorsed candidates objective — and that of democratic socialists over the next six months — will be to anchor working-class power in regional governments. This ambition goes beyond building on a tepid liberalism or toothless progressiveism, but will seek to enshrine tenant rights, worker rights, immigrant rights, union power, and expansion of public goods and social services. All socialists, progressives, workers, and allies in the region are encouraged to join this cause.
The first operations of the Democratic Socialist mobilization efforts are set to begin next weekend, January 10, in support of the Raj and Crooms campaigns. Operations in PG County, in support of Imara Crooms, will be launching at 12pm from James Ryder Randall Elementary in Clinton, MD — socialists will be offering rides from the Branch Avenue Metro station. In DC, socialists will be converging at 1pm in Columbia Heights to support Aparna Raj’s bid for the DC Council. All are welcome, regardless of canvassing experience; canvassing training will be provided before both canvasses, and canvassers are encouraged to bring a fully-charged phone with the Signal and MiniVAN apps installed.
Metro DC DSA to host Q&A with DC mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George — Monday, January 5
As part of the endorsement process for 2026 primary elections, Metro DC DSA's Political Engagement Committee will be hosting a DC Mayoral Candidate Q&A session on Monday, January 5 from 6:15 – 7pm with mayoral candidate and MDC DSA member Janeese Lewis George. Chapter members are free to submit questions for the Q&A session using this form. The session will be recorded for chapter members.
Metro DC DSA’s Political Education Working Group announces new Spring 2026 reading groups — Signups now open
Want to be part of a collective that’s learning and reading together? Kicking off in late January, Metro DC DSA is assembling 11 distinct reading and discussion groups on abolition, Palestinian poetry, publications and propaganda, healthy relationships for radicals, and more — sign up here. The chapter’s reading groups provide an opportunity to learn in a group, either online or in-person, and help members develop their organizing prowess and knowledge alongside comrades while providing a forum for debate and discussion. They are also a great opportunity for new members to get introduced to the chapter and its ongoing work. Register now using the sign up form.
BRIEFS
Metro DC DSA Bodily Autonomy Working Group kicking off the new year in 2026 — Thursday, January 8 at 7pm
The DSA’s Bodily Autonomy Working Group (BAWG) will be meeting on Thursday, January 8, from 7 – 9:30pm at “as you are.” in DC for their 2026 kick-off event. BAWG will provide an overview of the group’s goals for the new year, to be followed by a social for new and current members to drink, eat, and meet. BAWG looks forward to celebrating the new year as a community. MASKING STRONGLY RECOMMENDED — KN95s will be provided. RSVP for BAWG’s kickoff here.
NoVA socialists to knit better material conditions — Saturday, January 3 at 12pm
The Northern Virginia Mutual Aid Working Group (NoVA MAWG) is hosting its next fiber arts meetup on Saturday, January 3 from noon to 2pm at the Chantilly Regional Library. Work on individual projects or join crafty comrades to knit hats, gloves, and scarves to donate. Kids are welcome. A few hours after the fiber arts meetup at 5pm, comrades can join the next monthly-ish NoVA MAWG working group meeting to discuss upcoming working group activities, their timebank, their upcoming reading group (see UP FRONT), and to ratify their new Standing Committee. And finally, next week, come out to NoVA MAWG’s next monthly Crystal City distro on Sunday, January 11, from 11am to 2pm. Donations and volunteers are always appreciated; take what you need and donate what you can. Show the working class that socialists are ready to step up when capitalism fails to feed, clothe, and house our community.
DC Spanish Club for Socialists holding weekly meetup in Adams Morgan — Monday, January 5 at 7pm
Spanish Club for Socialists, a project of multiple area socialist and mutual aid organizations including Metro DC DSA, is a free weekly event where organizers meet up to practice their Spanish. The event is about 90 minutes long and is split into beginner, intermediate, and advanced groups, so learners of all levels should feel welcome. The next session is scheduled for Monday, January 5 from 7 – 8:30pm at Potter's House (1658 Columbia Rd NW). Sign up here for calendar updates and conversation guides.
Rally for America’s Workforce — Wednesday, January 14 at 12pm
In March, the Trump Administration signed an executive order to end collective bargaining for 85% of the unionized federal workforce. This amounted to more than 1 million workers losing union rights, making Trump the single biggest union buster in American history. The Protect America’s Workforce Act (PAWA) would restore these union rights by voiding the March executive order and requiring the administration to abide by collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) for the length of their stated terms.
PAWA passed the House on a bipartisan vote on December 11, and there is a real chance of getting this bill passed through the Senate. To push it past the finish line, a host of local organizations and unions, including FUN DMV Hub, Federal Unionists Network, Free DC, and 50501 DC are sponsoring Rally for America's Workforce on Wednesday, January 14 from 12pm – 1:30pm in the Upper Senate Park (200 New Jersey Ave NW). RSVP here.
INFO ACCESS
Entering 2026, the DMV continues to be under siege by militarism-fueled authoritarians, with local officials’ complicity. Want to fight fascism from the heart of the empire? Join DSA and fight to build socialism! We’re the alternative that works for people, not profiteers and their captive politicians. MDC DSA’s chapter spans NoVA, DC, and the big Maryland suburbs — yep, the “heart of empire.” There’s organizational info on our Metro DC chapter — DMV branches, working groups, campaigns, current activities, and enduring values — right here. Attend an in-person session of “Why You Should Join DSA/New Member Orientation” at MLK Library, 7pm January 7, with a virtual version soon to follow. What’s behind our activism? See the rich archive of our acclaimed Socialist Night School. Members are encouraged to join our Slack for real-time info on working group and campaign events, strategy/tactic exchange, and inspiration. Email [email protected] with your most recent DSA dues receipt to get access.
How to stay current with MDC DSA — Weekly Updates, like the one you are reading, are sent every Friday — sign up here; current and past Updates are available anytime on our website. The MDC Dispatch is the chapter’s new video news series, published on the first and third Sunday of each month. 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 Fall 2025 issue is available now and winter issue article submissions are currently in editing. Anyone, MDC DSA member or not, interested in contributing to the Washington Socialist can email submissions or questions to [email protected]. Members, look in on us or join at #publications on Slack.
DMV LEFT COMMUNITY BULLETIN
Have an allied event, action, or resource we should know about? Share it with us by using our tip line.
Harriet's Responders Orientation on January 5 | Harriet’s Wildest Dreams
Join this virtual info session on Monday, January 5, at 7pm to learn how to get plugged into the DC Safety Squad and Harriet’s Responders who are piloting a response team to act as an alternative to calling the police. RSVP here.
Sourdough workshop on January 7 | BOL
Learn the basics of baking sourdough bread with BOL, DC’s first worker-owned bookstore. Sample fresh baked bread, go over simple recipes, get tips to keep your starter alive, and then take your starter home for baking. Tickets are $15, and proceeds go to Food Justice DMV.
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.
Older workers are getting older — the National Center for Construction Education and Research estimates that about 41% of the current construction workforce will retire by 2031. And the current administration’s immigration policy has not only dried up the flow of potential overseas workers but has driven many construction workers — even those with proper documentation — underground. The building of data centers has surged over the past few years and construction workers on those projects are in such high demand they’re seeing pay jumps of 25% to 30% compared to their previous jobs — and in some cases, much more. We’re already seeing this trend develop. Trade school enrollment is up significantly since the pandemic and is expected to increase as much as 7% annually through 2030, a rate significantly higher than other forms of higher education. The ranks of students studying construction trades alone rose 23% over the past year, according to another report. Young people are not stupid. They’re following the money. The Guardian
The Rich Never Lose a War: No Blood for Oil!
Once again, we find that Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) must raise our voices and speak out against another potential imperial blunder. From Vietnam to Central America, to the Middle East, and Ukraine, we have had to pull out our banners and add our voices and our perspective as veterans to those fighting against imperial aggression. Now we must focus on Venezuela and the mounting US war in the works. The United States built its international reputation on claiming the resources of other countries as its own. Recent aggressions by the Trump Administration are nothing new and they are not even schemes of his own making. We are encouraged to think he’s the ringleader, but Trump, although a dangerous maniac on his own, is the willing lightning rod for multinational business interests and the Nazi ideologies spreading here at home. More from the National Office of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) December 30, 2025
Keeping Power Utilities in Corporate Hands Doesn’t Make Sense A new study shows that socialist plans to take over the privately owned power utility in New York’s Hudson Valley would lower rates for users and improve its long-term health. A bill introduced by Sarahana Shrestha, a democratic socialist assemblywoman in the Mid-Hudson Valley, and her state senate colleague, Michelle Hinchey, calls for a state takeover of the utility company serving the area. A feasibility study by NewGen Strategies and Solutions, commissioned by Shrestha’s office, says a public takeover would provide millions in savings to New York State and its ratepayers. According to the study’s projections, a publicly owned utility — unlike a private company — would no longer have to pay state and local taxes or make profit for its shareholders, allowing it to save $15.2 million in its first year alone. After that, the savings keep growing. Public ownership of power companies is better for everyone but the rich. Jacobinvia Portside
The New Surveillance State Is You
Privacy may be dead, but civilians are turning conventional wisdom on its head by surveilling the cops as much as the cops surveil them. Jennifer Granick, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, says the practice [of documenting law enforcement activity] likely goes back “centuries.” Indeed, documenting police activity is likely as old as policing itself. “The difference [today] is that technology has made it so everybody has a video recorder with them at all times,” Granick says. “And then it's very easy to get that recording out to the public.” WIRED
The Plans that Failed
The lessons of the Soviet experience are many and encompass not just the dangers of political authoritarianism but those of bad economics. Soviet planning made immense progress in its early years, but as time went on the gap between the East and West only grew wider. It’s hard to overstate the novelty of [the Soviets’ State Planning Committee — est. 1923] Gosplan’s work. It created the first national system of accounts, capturing a vast country’s entire economic activity, years before such a feat would be attempted in the West. In the following decade, it would be asked to do much more. By the 1930s, the mixed economy of the NEP period had been replaced by a system of total state ownership coordinated by administrative resource allocation. Whereas the early Soviet Union pioneered indicative planning, meant to shape public and private investment and smooth out market fluctuations, this new type of planning sought to mobilize immense resources directly through state decree. By the early 1930s, the market would be dismantled, not influenced. Jacobin
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.
Thinking about it, but want to get this email Update every Friday? SIGN UP
HERE
The flame of thought, the magnificence of art, the wonder of discovery, and the audacity of invention
all belong to revolutionary periods when humanity, tired of its chains, shatters them and stops inebriated to
breathe the breeze of a vast and free horizon. - Virgilia D'Andrea
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