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UP FRONT

• MDC DSA’s General Body Meeting - Sunday, August 9
• Saturday and Sunday actions in support of striking tenants at the Southern Towers
• Organizing to protect Montgomery County’s working families
• Bringing the red wave to DC

General Body Meeting - Sunday, August 9 at 3:00 PM
Our monthly meeting to occur this Sunday. Agenda is on the way, and will be posted on Slack as soon as it’s available. We ask all intended to attend to register for the meeting in the above link. Registering helps give the meeting heralds a sense of the scale of attendance, and makes sure you get the right Zoom link info!

Our GBM’s are a great way to get plugged into our chapter’s ongoing activities, figure out where our attention is focused, and discuss ongoing debates and topics happening across the DMV’s socialist scene.

Southern Towers Tenant Support - Saturday and Sunday
When Virginia entered Phase 2 of reopening during the pandemic, eviction moratoriums were lifted and many Virginia residents are at risk of losing their housing. To help keep immigrant families in their homes, the chapter raised $10,600 for La ColectiVA. The amount raised was more than double the fundraising goal! This was an incredible show of community solidarity and a very successful mutual aid project. A huge thanks to all those who organized the fundraiser, donated, and helped raise awareness!

But there is still more work left to do. Our neighbors in Southern Towers continue to fight eviction proceedings, and there is a drumbeat growing across the commonwealth for evictions to end until the end of the COVID-19 pandemic- no more piecemeal solutions. There will be series of actions over the next two weeks as the VA General Assembly prepares to reconvene on August 18th. Through our statewide solidarity efforts, NOVA Branch is working with other VA DSA chapters and allied organizations to push VA legislators to stop evictions during the pandemic. This weekend, here are the immediate events in support of the Southern Towers rent strikers:

• Saturday, August 8 at 5 PM - Southern Towers (5001 Seminary Road, Alexandria, VA), in front of the 7/11. *Bring comfortable shoes, hand sanitizer, and a mask. We will be talking with tenants who have pending eviction hearings, make sure they know their rights, and get more information about their situation.
• Sunday, August 9 at 1 PM - Southern Towers Support Planning Meeting. For planning the support of the striking tenants of Southern Towers, and to discuss research and canvassing work.
• Friday, August 7 at 7 PM - Special Meeting of the Coalition to Repeal “Right to Work” on the Eviction Crisis. This virtual event will feature speakers from tenant leaders from Southern Towers, plus elected and advocacy leaders. For Zoom access info, please email [email protected]

Protecting Montgomery County’s working families
Metro DC DSA and its MoCo Branch needs your help to protect Montgomery County’s working families. We are fighting to defeat a regressive, pro-austerity ballot measure in November that could cripple our county’s ability to deliver vital services to its residents. Help us defeat this measure while engaging underrepresented members of the community and building working class power in Montgomery County! If you are able, please sign up to volunteer with our campaign via this form.

We will be urging voters to fund essential services, like public health programs and vote against tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations. Additionally, you can donate HERE to the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America Solidarity PAC.

As many of you have no doubt followed, DSA has been seeing some great victories across the country. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib beat her opponent by over 30 points, and Cori Bush beat a 50 year political dynasty to advance to the Congressional election in November. Democratic socialism is winning when we organize effectively and unapologetically demand a world that works for all of us.

Locally, Metro DC DSA’s Election Working Group has been making sure the red wave hits DC’s City Council this November. We’re keeping our momentum going after Janeese Lewis George’s primary win by supporting her and Ed Lazere in November’s DC Council elections. Our Call Training website is now online, and organizers are standing by to mobilize our membership to bring DSA to victory in DC!

This weekend, we’ll have three phone-bank training sessions prepared:

• Friday 6-7pm
• Saturday 11am-12pm
• Sunday 11am-12pm
• Sign-up for future phonebank trainings

BRIEFS

Bylaws Commission resolution
MDC DSA’s Steering Committee Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution creating a Bylaws Commission – one of the most important functions of the local Convention scheduled to take place in December. Bylaws discussion and debate amounts to refreshing the stance and direction of the local chapter. You can find the text for the resolution here. A brief discussion is included in the agenda being developed now for the August GBM.

Participatory Budgeting gears up
Will your campaign or working group need support – and we mean money – from the MDC DSA stash? MDC DSA’s participatory budgeting process needs to hear from your activity by August 12. Fill out this form to indicate what you’ll need and why, and send to [email protected] (cc to [email protected]) by August 12th. The process, and participation details, will be included in the agenda for this Sunday’s GBM.

Metro DC DSA’s Internationalism WG
The Internationalism WG is looking to start a conversation about the best way forward in navigating a post-COVID-19 world with the national DSA Internationalism Committee, now open to the full DSA membership. The suggested course of action for consideration: 1) Focus on plugging MDC DSA members directly into their national-level subcommittees of choice and 2) retaining our communication channels (Slack, listserv, etc) as places of discussion and for more ad hoc organizing (e.g., organizing an embassy demonstration) but not trying to force our own local campaigns.

This is meant to start a conversation and we would value all feedback via our #Internationalism Slack channel and the [email protected] email. We would also be happy to set up a call to discuss potential options further. We have immense gratitude and respect for the work that people have done in this WG thus far and are eager to hear your thoughts.
– Solidarity from Cesar G, Michael G, Carl T, and Eliot B

Pepco is trying to raise electricity prices even though thousands of DC residents are struggling to pay their bills due to COVID-19, and Pepco continues to block the clean energy transition we need to address the climate crisis. Click here to send a letter to the Public Service Commission and DC Council about why you oppose Pepco’s rate increase. Personalized letters are always more powerful, so if you can, be sure to include information about how the rate increase would impact you and why it would cause hardship during the pandemic. Email [email protected] if you want to get involved in our chapter’s campaign for energy democracy and climate justice!

More? See GOOD READS for Pepco’s purchase of influence.

We combined our two surveys into one and tossed in a few new questions. We’re quite excited about it. We want to know all about YOU! We invite members and supporters alike to participate. Please respond to our Member Survey on Skills and Interests when you have a couple minutes to spare.

MDC DSA’s Socialist Feminist caucus is meeting next Tuesday, August 11. Please note, we are in the process of deciding whether or not to allow men or masc identifying folks into this space. Until this is voted on we ask our masc. allies to please respect that for the time being, please do not attend anything other than the reading groups. We welcome all womxn and non-masculine spectrum nonbinary people and look forward to working with you!

Socialist Night School is back in session

MDC DSA CALENDAR OF EVENTS

EVENTS FROM OUR ALLIES IN THE DMV

NATIONAL DSA EVENTS

Monday, Aug 10 | 8:00 PM EDT
Workers Organize and Win: MIKE DAVIS, Bianca Cunningham, Rosalyn Pelles, and essential workers!
The COVID-19 crisis has not gone anywhere. As states “reopen” and more workers are forced back into risk for corporate profit, workers across the country are joining together to fight and win better protections, higher pay, paid time off and basic dignity.

Thursday, Aug 13 | 8:30 PM EDT
Labor Film Screening: Union Time
The DSA Labor Commission is proud to sponsor this Zoom screening of the film Union Time, which documents the history of the successful 16-year process of organizing the Smithfield pork processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina.

Thursday, Aug 13 | 8:30 PM EDT
Housing Justice Commission: Eviction Defense Strategy Call
Unless drastic action is taken by all levels of government, we can expect a tidal wave of evictions throughout the coronavirus “recovery,” with more loss of housing than the 2008-2009 recession. Now more than ever, DSA members and tenants across the country must organize to fight back and defend tenants from displacement.

INFO ACCESS

INFO about YOU – for all of us. We’re requesting members take our Member Skills and Resources Survey as well as our Interests and Activism Survey. As we continue to fine-tune our organization, we are trying to make sure we – that’s you – have a proper grasp of our membership’s skills and interests so we know what we are capable of!

MDC DSA’s reach and scope can be amazing when you step back and see the landscape we cover in the DMV. Get the picture with this annotated list of our activities - campaigns, working groups, caucuses and how our local chapter does organizing in a democratic socialist way. It’s a great resource for new members or existing members wondering what to do with quarantine. Check out our chapter structure here. Our branches in Montgomery County, Maryland and Northern VA as part of our coverage.

Members of campaigns are of course contacting us at #publications regularly to keep individual entries current and informative (you know who you are).

Metro DC DSA publications – one of those working groups – are intended to keep a socialist perspective and lens on events and actions both for our members and our allies, and we reach over 5,000 readers in the DMV. August updates will be sent Fridays, August 14, 21 and 28 and because Labor Day 2020 is celebrated Monday Sept. 7, this year’s Labor Day issue of the Washington Socialist will be published Friday, Sept 4.

Workers and working families are the ground from which we all struggle to overcome capitalism. So start thinking about how you will mark Labor Day with the appearance of your article in the Labor Day/September newsletter of Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America. Discuss what you think you might write about in our #publications Slack channel – a great place to exchange ideas and develop our perspective on organizing, the history of radical activism, and how socialist ideas help us shape effective action. Or check in at [email protected] and ask what’s needed. We welcome all comments, questions, or observed issues with the new site; please send notices through the Red Desk or chat us up in that #publications Slack channel.

IN THE AUGUST EDITION OF THE WASHINGTON SOCIALIST...

In our newest edition of the Washington Socialist…

• When Impossible Becomes Inevitable: The Fall of ‘Petty Racism’ - Bill Mosley recounts the social and political inertia that kept offensive Confederate statues on their pedestals in the Richmond, VA of his younger years and the startling near-revolutionary changes that came with the death of George Floyd.
• Housing is a Human Right: Dispatch on the Fight Against Evictions in Alexandria - The idea that housing is a human right is gaining ground, but the struggle in Northern Virginia between a rental-apartment behemoth and the slowly coalescing tenant movement shows the grinding social and economic issues that hamper the wheels of change there.
• Self-education and the Path of a Socialist - How to be(come) a socialist – a mental walk along the path through apathy and escapism to knowledge, empowerment and the camaraderie of the collective. A classic account of how we learn and win.
• Reflections 1986: Race and the Left - DSA has wrestled with its identity as a (largely white) organization as it tried and often failed to engage with the black freedom struggle. An account from the Washington Socialist of early 1986 presents sharp critiques by black socialists delivered point-blank at a DSA meeting.
• The Before Times Are Over. What’s Next? - How many changes brought by the pandemic will be permanent and how many fleeting – and which ones can socialists hope to shape to the task of a non-capitalist future?
• Class Struggle in DuPont/Kalorama: A Self-Guided Walking Tour - A veteran member will lead a (pandemically careful) walking tour of some of DC’s radical past.

GOOD READS

Kaela Bamberger of We Power DC looks at how the District’s investor-owned utility uses charitable donations to cultivate political influence.

A “Good Listen” sent our way about DC’s rich black history, from our comrade Ingrid Goldstrom via the Anacostia Community Museum: “Knowing Our Past, Creating Our Future”. 2 hrs; dip in!

Two takes on the monopoly character of the big four tech companies and how they are getting away with violating antitrust law that a real Justice Department would invoke. First, from Tim Wu in the NYT (Wu’s historical analysis of the cycles of monopoly and government response in US tech development in his book The Master Switch is terrific). Second, from the Center for American Progress - a rundown on the antitrust aspects of Big Tech.

Ages have come and gone, kingdoms and powers and dynasties have risen and fallen, old glories and ancient wisdoms have been turned into dust, heroes and sages have been forgotten and many a mighty and fearsome god has been hurled into the lightless chasms of oblivion.

But ye, Plebs, Populace, People, Rabble, Mob, Proletariat, live and abide forever.
- Arturo Giovannitti