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Hello John,
Election season is finally over, and with it comes the end of the nonstop text messages and TV ads we are subjected to here in Western Pennsylvania. Now we’re fixing our eyes to the long road we have up ahead, because the work doesn’t stop with the election of a new president! We’ve also seen a huge influx of interest in leftism and in DSA in the last week and we are thrilled to meet all of our new comrades and to get you all linked into our many projects and committees.
And with that here are some chapter announcements and committee updates! |
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RSVP Links to Meetings |
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News |
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Leadership Opportunities Open in the Coordinating Committee There are still unfilled positions for Communications Coordinator, Membership Coordinator, and 4 Members-at-Large. We specifically need non-men to fill these slots since by our bylaws we can’t have more than 6 men on the CC.
If you are interested in serving the chapter in any of these roles, please reach out to members of the current CC on Slack or email [email protected] to contact a member of the CC directly. For former members looking to get back in to organizing with the chapter or comrades who have been recently radicalized and want to join one the largest DSA chapters in the country you can renew or sign up for dues here: https://act.dsausa.org/donate/membership_redesign/
It is recommended that you sign up for monthly dues since a portion of monthly dues is taken from National and sent back to the local chapter. Once you fill that out please forward the confirmation email you get for being a DSA member to [email protected]. Then we can onboard you to Slack, our Google Calendar and Drive, and Action Network, our database of members. If paying dues is not financially feasible for you, please consider filing a dues waiver form to the National DSA so they can approve you for membership. https://act.dsausa.org/survey/dueswaiver/
Finally if you want to directly donate contributions that go to specifically to the Pittsburgh chapter you can do so by clicking and following the instructions on this link: https://pghdsa.org/donate/
November General Meeting Our monthly general meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 17th at 7:00 PM! The meeting will include an Ed segment on the 2020 Presidential Election provided by our Political Education Committee, a breakout session focused on connecting comrades with one another to organize in their neighborhoods, and much more. To receive the Zoom call info you must RSVP on this link: https://bit.ly/PGHDSANov2020GeneralMeeting
We hope to see you then!
Defund the Police Campaign In last month’s general meeting we voted to launch a campaign to help our members, and anyone else, organize to push municipalities and counties to defund the police to fund caring for our communities.
While the campaign will focus on Pittsburgh’s and Allegheny County’s budgets, many of our members live in different municipalities and counties with their own police budgets, so we’ll also be rolling out a toolkit and organizing support in the coming days to provide tools for anyone to organize around their budget.
For now, click here to tell Allegheny County Council to defund the police before the 2021 proposed budget is formally introduced, and we’ll be in touch with everyone who writes an email using this tool about what’s next and ways to get involved!
PGH DSA Merch The Pittsburgh DSA will soon have new t-shirts and tote bags for sale made by the wonderful (and union) folks at Commonwealth Press. They will print the designs we send them and ship the orders we receive on our new Shopify account.
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Committee Reports |
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Queer Socialism Committee This year, instead of our annual Friendsgiving Potluck, Queer Soc will be creating a virtual Friendsgiving cookbook, and we want your contributions! All are welcome to contribute! We are gathering both recipes and food resources. Recipes can be your own, taken from family/friends, or adapted from a cookbook. You may submit recipes anonymously, but please credit the original source for all adapted recipes.
Food resources are soup kitchens, food banks, and free food pantries-- if it is an accessible community resource for food, we want to hear about it. For food resources, please share their name, location, and website if they have one. Submit your contributions here!: https://forms.gle/5PurU3r3hr8vZqAo8
The Queer Soc Committee would also like to recognize that while elections are only a component part of our liberation, we saw incredible and historic wins from the queer community across the US-- including Jess Benham, the first openly LGBT+ woman to serve in the PA legislature, in our local PA House District 36. It is our hope that we can all draw joy from this representation, and look forward to the continuing work of true equality
Abolition and Anti-Imperialism Committee Join the AAI committee Tuesday Nov 24th at 6pm for their monthly meeting; this meeting will include committee officer elections. Currently there is no one running for vice chair, if you want to take up a role that is less strenuous than chair or secretary; consider running for vice chair. To receive the zoom information RSVP on this link
To get more involved with this committee or express interest in running for officer positions, follow the #abolition channel on the Slack or email [email protected].
Socialist Feminist Committee Our next SocFem meeting will be on November 23rd at 6:30pm. We’ll be talking about our Socialist Sprouts skill share program, anti-CPC work, and post-Roe strategy. RSVP Here!
Our first Socialist Sprouts Skillshare will be on Wednesday, November 11th at 7pm! Our very own comrade, Ted, will be giving a lesson on singing rounds. Learn some short and sweet songs to take home with you. Sign-up Here! Have a sprout that would like to learn or share their skills? Fill out THIS form. Have a skill you’d like to share with our sprouts? Fill out THIS form.
Elections and Pressure Campaigns Committee The Elections & Pressure Campaigns Committee has been focused on working with the Abolition & Anti-Imperialism Committee to launch the defund the police campaign, and this will be a big focus of our work til the end of the year!
Additionally, we’re working on updating our endorsement questionnaire for 2021 municipal elections, and would be excited to talk with anyone excited to work on that or strategizing around candidate recruitment and training!.
To get involved in this or other aspects of the committee’s you can also join the #electionsandpressure channel on Slack or email [email protected].
Healthcare Justice Committee The Healthcare Justice Working Group is now a committee once again! Interested in getting involved with M4A work and other actions? Follow the #health_justice channel on slack or email [email protected] to get plugged in!
Housing Committee Our Housing Committee is dedicating the overwhelming majority of its time and energy to supporting the Pittsburgh Union of Regional Renters (PURR) in its wide-ranging attempts to stop evictions, at the courthouse steps or elsewhere. Our members have also undertaken research on a push for statewide emergency social housing. Both should lay the basis for widespread tenant organizing and further our belief that housing is a human right. We need help in data management, social media, research, feet on the ground, material delivery and more! To get involved in this work follow the #housing channel on Slack or email [email protected]
Internal Organizing Join us for our next Internal Organizing committee meeting on Wednesday, 11/11, at 6 PM (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84075414852). We will be discussing our (1) conflict resolution workshop; (2) an update on the mentorship program which started in the summer; (3) project to connect DSA members within Pittsburgh neighborhoods; and (4) finalizing pamphlets for new members.
Ecosocialism Committee The Ecosocialist committee is continuing its mutual aid work. The community garden is wrapping up for the year soon, and work is being done to prepare for the next season. The free pantry is still getting stocked on a weekly basis, however the committee is looking into stocking it on a more frequent basis. To donate to the Free Food Pantry send money to the venmo: Sabrina-Robinson-21!
In addition, the committee is representing Pittsburgh DSA in the People over Petro Coalition which is working around fighting the proposed petrochemical buildout in the region. If you are interested in the exciting work that our Ecosocialism Committee has been doing and want to get involved or attend meetings, check the #ecosocialism channel on the Slack or email [email protected]
Labor Committee Join us for our next Labor Committee meeting on Thursday, 11/12, at 6pm to discuss unionizing, organizing, and how to join together to make things better, one person at a time. One of our major projects is to map Pittsburgh DSA to understand where people are in organizing their workplaces and what they need to continue those efforts. To receive the zoom info click this link to RSVP
If you are interested in getting further involved with the committee follow the #labor channel on the Slack or email [email protected]
Political Education Committee The November Political Education Meeting will be on Saturday Nov 14th at 5:00 PM to receive the zoom info early, RSVP here
Zoom info will also be provided in the #politicaleducation channel on Slack; you can also email [email protected] to get connected. Some topics to be discussed are doing education segments for the general meetings, an event discussing the rise & effect of Qanon, further development of a digital library on the chapter website, and potential reading groups/night school events.
Operations Meeting There will be an Operations meeting on Sunday Nov 15th at 2:00 PM to discuss the logistics of the chapter. If you are interested in that kind of work; consider RSVPing at this link
In solidarity, Pittsburgh DSA |
