| From | East Bay DSA <[email protected]> |
| Subject | Newsletter: Yes, this is who we are |
| Date | January 14, 2021 11:54 PM |
Links have been removed from this email. Learn more in the FAQ.
Links have been removed from this email. Learn more in the FAQ.
Again we have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that Capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – both black and white, both here and abroad. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Comrades,
A week after a right-wing mob occupied the U.S. Capitol building, many questions remain. We are eager to know how members of Congress may have helped plan the events ([link removed]) , and are deeply concerned for the health of those who were exposed to COVID-19 in lockdown ([link removed]) . One early point of confusion in the aftermath of the attack has hopefully been cleared up, though bad-faith actors continue to spread misinformation ([link removed]) : yes, this is who we are. Has it ever been clearer?
The threat of far-right violence, whether by mobs or by police, has always been a weapon against Native and Black Americans, immigrants, queer people, laborers, and activists. It has always influenced our democracy. The military and police presence in this far-right movement merely reflects the evil of U.S. imperialism and the repressive, anti-democratic function of our law enforcement.
Though these events do not represent a break from so-called American values or tradition, they do reflect a crisis. If we are to reform our society, it must be around the values of democracy and human flourishing. Our government should guarantee safety and good health not only its representatives, but to all its people.
Our part in this as socialists is clear. This month kicked off a renewed campaign to win single-payer healthcare in California, an action that will have huge benefits for working people here in the state and the absolute best step we could take toward national Medicare For All. Join a phonebank this week ([link removed]) to advance the campaign. Then later this month, learn from DSA’s Nationwide Socialist Feminist Committee and Medicare for All Committee about the history of Roe v. Wade ([link removed]) , the future of abortion access, and the necessity of Medicare for All for reproductive freedom.
Next week, help us fight for an end to the war in Yemen — learn about the history of the conflict and the U.S.’s role in it with Metro DC DSA Night School on Monday ([link removed]) and join DSA SF’s car caravan on the 25th ([link removed]) . And please join Socialist Night School on Tuesday to examine the radical legacy and honor the vision of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a special session, “MLK In His Own Words ([link removed]) .”
In solidarity!
News and Information
Here's some of the latest news and information from East Bay Majority ([link removed]) , East Bay DSA's news source with a socialist perspective
** WHY SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE CAN WIN IN CALIFORNIA: AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL LIGHTY
------------------------------------------------------------
"[A] new set of electoral circumstances is colliding with a change in our political movements. The Bernie campaign popularized Medicare for All, making it the defining issue in the healthcare debate. Where you stand on Medicare for All defines where you stand on healthcare. It’s gone from the margins to the center; its support has exploded."
Read more ([link removed])
Featured Events
While we are still unable to meet face-to-face, events are still going on that you can be a part of. RSVP below to stay updated. You can also keep track on our Events page ([link removed]) .
** (NATIONAL DSA) HOW DO WE #CANCELRENT IN 2021?
------------------------------------------------------------
Tonight!, January 14 | 5:30 pm.–7:30 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
It's 2021, and our homes, jobs, and health are still on the line. COVID-19 is surging and unemployment is at historic levels, while eviction moratoriums are due to expire across the country. The call to cancel rent is more urgent than ever.
So how do we win and what is DSA's role in the fight? Chapters big and small have organized tenants to go on rent strike, and joined coalitions to try to sway lawmakers to stop evictions. What strategies are working? Is #CancelRent a demand that we can even win from lawmakers, or one we must win building by building through collective action?
Join the Housing Justice Commission for a conversation about housing justice organizing in 2021 with an eye toward developing shared strategy and resources across chapters.
RSVP ([link removed])
** THE ORGANIZER’S TOOLBOX: HOW TO GIVE A GREAT POLITICAL SPEECH
------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, January 16 | 11 a.m.–1 p.m.
Online via Zoom ([link removed]) ♿️
It's a new year—time to learn a new organizing skill! Join us for another iteration of the Organizer's Toolbox, where we introduce and practice specific, tangible skills for DSA organizers that you can put to use!
Note: Please try to arrive at this training on time and plan to stay for the whole training. This is a very interactive training and works best when the attendees are fully engaged and committed to learning from each other in this process.
In this training for DSA organizers, we will explore our personal stories together, and discover how they can become important tools that motivate and inspire others. Personal stories are important because they allow us to identify with each other's experiences, motivate us to fight for common aims, and ultimately build solidarity. We'll examine how other leaders on the left use personal stories to motivate the masses to take action and then spend time crafting our own.
Adapted from Marshall Ganz's "Public Narrative," this training will challenge you to put aside the logical reasons why we need to win a better world and rather consider emotional & personal reasons.
Suggested reading and watching material (it’s quick!):
Public Narrative Participant Guide ([link removed])
Marshall Ganz: The Public Narrative lecture fragment ([link removed])
—
Join via Zoom ([link removed]) RSVP ([link removed])
** HOW TO PLAN AND EXECUTE A DIRECT ACTION
------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday and Sunday, January 16–17 | 2–4 p.m.
Online via Zoom – register in advance ([link removed]) ♿
East Bay DSA's Direct Action Working Group is excited to teach our 3rd Direct Action Training!
We may not know what is coming next, but we can prepare for it anyway. Direct action has historically been the most effective way to change the world, and we built a workshop to teach folks how it has worked, and how we can plan and execute effective and powerful actions. This training will cover the same ground as the previous Direct Action training, which was very well received.
As racist violence, unemployment, evictions, and climate chaos keep increasing, we need to expand our capacity to leverage our collective power. This training series will introduce creative ways to escalate ongoing campaigns, participate in mass uprisings, and keep each other safe in our confrontations with capital and the state.
The training is 4 hours spread across two days. Please attend both days. For the topics covered and full schedule, click the Event Details link below.
Register ([link removed]) Event Details ([link removed])
** STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING
------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, January 17 | 2–5 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
See how your elected leadership works as we deliberate on current chapter issues. This meeting is open to all DSA members to observe the proceedings. The agenda is TBA.
RSVP ([link removed])
** CAMPAIGN KICKOFF: PHONEBANKING FOR COVID RELIEF IN NAVAJO NATION
------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, January 17 | 4–6 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated Navajo Nation, and the destructive legacies of settler colonialism and extractive capitalism (unemployment regularly above 50%, food deserts, a widespread lack of running water for hand washing, etc.) have pushed the death toll far above that of the rest of the country, and with no federal alleviation in sight.
Join us and other DSA chapters in phone banking to raise funds toward existing grassroots mutual aid relief networks in Navajo Nation. Though this is a temporary campaign for an acute crisis, we see this as a first step in adding material substance to DSA’s 2019 endorsement of the Red Deal (The Red Nation's radical call for a people's movement that is anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and anti-extractive).
We'll begin the phonebank with updates on the situation in Navajo Nation, and a brief discussion about how socialists can engage in meaningful indigenous solidarity work in the future to help build a mass people’s movement for liberation. RSVP below!
RSVP ([link removed])
** ENDING THE WAY IN YEMEN | SOCIALIST NIGHT SCHOOL PRES. BY METRO DC DSA
------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, January 18 | 3:30–5:30 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿
The war in Yemen is one of the world’s most pressing crises right now, having intensified in March 2015 when a U.S.-supported Saudi-led coalition intervened against Houthi rebels aligned with the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The war has turned the country into a humanitarian catastrophe. With U.S. military support, Saudis and Emiratis have bombed hospitals, health clinics, schools, factories, markets, residential areas, even school buses full of children, killing thousands of Yemeni civilians. The Saudi-Emirati “coalition” has blockaded the ports of Yemen and cut off the flow of food, fuel, medicine, and clean water, resulting in the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet, with 20 million people on the brink of famine and a 27% COVID-19 death rate.
As part of the Stop the War Coalition World Day of Action (January 25, 2021) to call for an end to the war in Yemen, DSA’s International Committee and many chapters across the U.S. are calling on the United States to end support for this criminal military intervention in Yemen and supports the massive international grassroots effort to end these horrific crimes. Together with Metro DC DSA’s Socialist Night School, the chapter’s Internationalism Working Group will be hosting a teach-in with Jehan Hakim to talk about the war in Yemen and the role of the United States, how to get involved in this movement and the various activities happening on January 25.
RSVP ([link removed])
** (NATIONAL DSA) SCREENING AND Q&A: SIXTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS - A COMEDY SHORT ON REPARATIONS
------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, January 18 | 4–6 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
Screening and Q&A on Sixteen Thousand Dollars: A Comedy Short on Reparations with filmmaker Symone Baptiste; creative team members Brodie Reed and Ellington Wells; and moderator Bianca Cunningham.
Join the Democratic Socialists of America Fund, DSA’s Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus (AFROSOC), and Dissent magazine for a discussion of the film and the issues it raises about reparations.
RSVP ([link removed])
** RACIAL SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING
------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, January 18 | 7–9 p.m.
Online via Zoom – email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) for info ♿️
Join the Racial Solidarity Committee for our monthly meeting!
The Racial Solidarity Committee (RSC) is dedicated to fighting for the rights of BIPOC communities here in the Bay Area as well as around the world. We are committed to building a multiracial democratic socialist organization that reflects the diversity of the Bay Area working class. Our work ranges from immigration justice and open borders to workers' rights and access to fully-funded public education. In our general meetings, we hold political discussions and report on upcoming RSC campaigns and events. Join us and become a part of the fight for Racial Solidarity!
Racial Solidarity Committee is open to all, and we especially welcome self-identified BIPOC folx. BIPOC facilitators take progressive stack, and we maintain community agreements.
RSVP ([link removed])
** SOCIALIST NIGHT SCHOOL: MLK IN HIS OWN WORDS
------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, January 19 | 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Online via Zoom ([link removed]) ♿
In the decades since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination at sanitation workers strike in Memphis, his legacy has been appropriated by just about every political movement out there. From Fox News pundits claiming he would oppose tax increases on the rich because he was "for freedom," to the more typical whitewashing of his radical politics for a broad audience, anyone and everyone claim the sainted image of the good Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as their own.
But in his own time, MLK was viewed as the radical that he was. By cleaving toward an uncompromising politics of racial justice, economic transformation, and peace abroad, MLK won the ire of nearly ¾ of Americans who said they disapproved of him in a 1967 Harris Poll. Today, on our national holiday celebrating his legacy, we invite you to read and listen to his own prophetic words as he wrote and spoke them in his time.
Priority Reading & Viewing:
* Excerpt from the Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March ([link removed])
Summary: Dr. King cites the roots of Jim Crow in a political strategy by southern planters to break the multi-racial alliance of tenant farmers that arose with the Populist Movement.
* Excerpt from "Where Do We Go From Here?," Address Delivered at the Eleventh Annual SCLC Convention ([link removed])
Summary: Dr. King confronts the difficult challenges facing the Civil Rights movement after the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. He argues the task in front of them was to build a multi-racial movement for a complete economic transformation of society that guaranteed the equality of black people and the well being of all.
* VIDEO: MLK Talks 'New Phase' Of Civil Rights Struggle, 11 Months Before His Assassination | NBC News ([link removed])
Summary: In this stunning interview with NBC news, MLK discusses the challenges facing the Civil Rights movement in 1967. He calls for a focus on transforming the ghettos of the North, which were not addressed by ending Jim Crow. He also denounces the Vietnam War for killing millions of innocents and diverting money and attention away from the War on Poverty.
Additional Reading & Viewing:
* Book: Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community? Chapter 2 - Black Power ([link removed])
Summary: MLK tells the story of the first time Black Power was used as a slogan in the Civil Rights movement. MLK argues that Black Power and the view that black people can “go it alone,” is understandable given white backlash to Civil Rights, but is ultimately giving in to hopelessness. He argues that despite white backlash, the only path forward for poor black people is to build coalitions with poor whites.
* Full Speech & Audio: The Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March ([link removed])
* Full Speech & Audio: "Where Do We Go From Here?," Address Delivered at the Eleventh Annual SCLC Convention ([link removed])
Join via Zoom ([link removed])
** GREEN NEW DEAL READING GROUP: OUR HISTORY IS THE FUTURE BY NICK ESTES, PART III
------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, January 19 | 7–9 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
We will be reading the final chapters (Chapter 5 to the end) ahead of this meeting. Anyone interested in learning and discussing with others is welcome to join us. (If you missed the previous meeting, catch up and join us!)
The book is about how two centuries of Indigenous resistance created the movement proclaiming “Water is life”. In Our History Is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance that led to the #NoDAPL movement. Our History Is the Future is at once a work of history, a manifesto, and an intergenerational story of resistance.
RSVP ([link removed])
** LET'S OWN PG&E CAMPAIGN
------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, January 20 | 6:45–8:15 p.m.
Online via Zoom ([link removed]) ♿
Learn about why a for-profit PG&E will never work for the people or the planet and be a part of winning a Community-owned, Community-controlled PG&E.
Join via Zoom ([link removed])
** SOCIAL HOUSING COMMITTEE MEETING
------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, January 20 | 7–8:30 p.m.
Online via Zoom ([link removed]) ♿
Monthly meeting for the EBDSA Social Housing committee. Come to hear updates about our upcoming projects, and have a political discussion about the decommodification of housing in the Bay Area!
Join via Zoom ([link removed]) RSVP ([link removed])
** CLASSROOM JUSTICE MEETING
------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, January 21 | 7–9 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿
Join the Classroom Justice Campaign!
[link removed]
RSVP ([link removed])
** (NATIONAL DSA) 48 YEARS OF ROE V. WADE: NO REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM WITHOUT MEDICARE FOR ALL
------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, January 23 | 1–3 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
January marks 48 years since Roe v Wade legalized abortion in all 50 states, and reproductive rights and abortion access has only gotten worse, with states attempting to ban abortion and closing down hundreds of clinics over the less decade. Not only has abortion access been eroded, but reproductive oppression like forced sterilization of immigrants and women of color, lack of clinics, and no universal child care has made navigating reproductive health care decisions disastrous for the working class. The struggle for Medicare for All and single payer healthcare provides a potential avenue to overturn the Hyde Amendment, provide sweeping coverage of abortion and all reproductive health services. It would be the socialist feminist victory of a lifetime, and we need to get organized to win.
The DSA Nationwide Socialist Feminist Working Group and the DSA Medicare for All Committee are hosting this panel discussion about how we can win reproductive freedom through the fight for Medicare for All. The panel will be followed by a call to action to fight for single payer health care and reproductive justice. Speakers are TBA.
Questions? Email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
RSVP ([link removed])
** (NATIONAL DSA) DSA Q&A
------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, January 24 | noon–2 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿
Interested in DSA but haven’t joined yet? Looking to get involved in the fights to stop evictions, win Medicare for All, or defund the police, but unsure how to get started? Frustrated with the limited possibilities of national, top-down politics and looking for an alternative?
Join DSA leaders from across the country to talk about how organizing as socialists and engaging in mass, bottom-up movement struggle is the best path forward to winning our demands and building a better future, together.
RSVP ([link removed])
** (NATIONAL DSA) THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF SOCIALISM
------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, January 24 | 5–7 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿
In the transition between Trump and Biden presidencies — the consequences of a global pandemic, deepening economic crisis, the weakness of American liberalism, open displays of violence from the far right, and the absence of a strong, organized Left from the main stage of political life will be on striking display. Many will be looking for analysis and political vision beyond the insufficient Democratic and Republican establishment 'business as usual' responses.
DSA provides an alternative vision. Please join us to discuss what the first 100 days of a socialist government might look like, and to hear from leaders from various national DSA committees on their visions for a socialist future.
This event will feature speakers from the Democratic Socialist Labor Committee, Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus, Ecosocialists WG, Socialist Feminist WG, National Political Education Committee, YDSA, and International Committee.
RSVP ([link removed])
** CAR CARAVAN FOR YEMEN
------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, January 25 | noon–3 p.m.
444 Spear St, San Francisco ♿
Since 2015, the Saudi-led bombing and blockade of Yemen have killed tens of thousands of people and devastated the country. The U.N. calls this the largest humanitarian crisis on Earth. Half the country's people are on the brink of famine, the country has the world's worst cholera outbreak in modern history, and now Yemen has one of the very worst COVID death rates in the world: It kills 1 in 4 people who test positive. The pandemic, along with the withdrawal of aid, is pushing more people into acute hunger. And yet Saudi Arabia is escalating its war and tightening its blockade.
The war is only possible because Western countries – and the United States in particular – continue to arm Saudi Arabia and provide military, political and logistical support for the war.
This car caravan will demand that the new administration:
* Stop foreign aggression on Yemen
* End weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and cease logistical cooperation on the war
* Lift the blockade on Yemen and open all land and seaports
* Restore and expand humanitarian aid for the people of Yemen.
RSVP on Facebook ([link removed])
Upcoming Events
** MEMBER ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING
------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, January 25 | 7–9 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿
We need your help building a strong and active chapter! Join our next Member Engagement Committee monthly meeting and learn how you can put your skills to work or grow new ones you never knew you had!
The Member Engagement Committee was created for the purpose of initiating and sustaining our members' active and healthy participation in the chapter's work. We cannot grow our movement without engaging and fostering growth within our current membership. We strive to grow confident organizers and leaders as well as strong relationships between comrades in our chapter by supporting all committees in their work and creating spaces for learning and camaraderie.
Our committee builds and maintains projects such as (but not limited to) our mobilizers program, planning and execution of chapter socials, new member events, and Organizer's Toolbox Trainings, as well as managing the onboarding of new members. As our chapter grows we need to grow our efforts with it and would love to welcome new members to our committee.
Contact us at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
RSVP ([link removed])
** MOBILIZER TEAM PHONEBANKING
------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, January 26 | 6–8 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
The Mobilizer team's mission is to build the personal connections that help DSA members get more involved in our chapter and politically active. We have one on one conversations with both new members and existing members of our chapter where we learn about what drew them to the struggle for socialism and help them think about how they want to take the next step to get more engaged. In this weekly phone bank, we call our members and train new Mobilizers how to make calls. Come help us build a strong chapter and movement while having great conversations!
RSVP ([link removed])
** MEDICARE FOR ALL COMMITTEE MEETING
------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, January 27 | 6–8 p.m.
Online via Zoom ([link removed]) ♿
With the pandemic and its multiple, intersecting crises, and the polling popularity of Medicare for All, our commitment to the movement is more important than ever. Come learn about our committee's efforts, as well as local, state, and national initiatives around Medicare for All and single-payer healthcare. All are welcome!
Attend on Zoom ([link removed])
Catch up on Socialist Night School
CATCH UP ON NIGHT SCHOOL
With social distancing guidelines still in place, now's as good a time as any to catch up on our Socialist Night School.
Catch up on past night school readings and videos below.
Watch past Night School videos ([link removed])
Catch up on Night School readings ([link removed])
Not a Member Yet? Let's Fix That.
DSA now has 85,000 members nationally, and we're still growing. There's never been a better time to get involved than right now! Join our national organization by clicking below and become an official socialist organizer.
Join DSA ([link removed])
Caucus Corner
Our caucuses organize events too! Check out the Caucus Corner of our website ([link removed]) to learn more about the activities of East Bay DSA caucuses and how to participate.
Announcements
THE EBDSA LABOR CENSUS
Building working class power and the movement for socialism requires organizing in our workplaces. And knowledge is power—so, if you're a member, help us build it in 2021 by filling out the EBDSA Labor Census ([link removed]) ! The chapter-wide Labor Census is geared to help us better understand where members work, the kinds of jobs we do, the level of organization that exists in our respective workplaces, and interest in potential workplace organizing. The data will allow us to support comrades organizing in unionized as well as non-unionized workplaces, facilitate the formation of 'labor circles,' and inform strategic organizing campaigns. We have developed appropriate measures to ensure members' information remains confidential and secure.
Take a few minutes to fill out the Labor Census ([link removed]) if you are an EBDSA member and haven't already. If you would like to get involved with the census in other ways, please contact [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
MEET WITH A MOBILIZER!
Are you a new DSA member? Or are you looking to get more involved with East Bay DSA's projects and campaigns? Sign up to talk to a mobilizer!
Here are three reasons to sign up to talk to a mobilizer:
1. Meet a fellow socialist organizer
We want to build a movement of millions of working class people and change the exploitative and oppressive system in which we live, but we do that first and foremost by building one-to-one connections with each other.
2. Answer your questions
Learn more about DSA, the local East Bay chapter, and our different committees and projects.
3. Get more involved
The main thing a mobilizer will help you with is getting more involved in DSA. Maybe there’s a campaign or project you’re particularly interested in, or maybe you’re a blank slate and you don’t really know what to do. Either way, a mobilizer will help you figure it out.
Sign up to talk to a mobilizer! ([link removed])
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Comrades,
A week after a right-wing mob occupied the U.S. Capitol building, many questions remain. We are eager to know how members of Congress may have helped plan the events ([link removed]) , and are deeply concerned for the health of those who were exposed to COVID-19 in lockdown ([link removed]) . One early point of confusion in the aftermath of the attack has hopefully been cleared up, though bad-faith actors continue to spread misinformation ([link removed]) : yes, this is who we are. Has it ever been clearer?
The threat of far-right violence, whether by mobs or by police, has always been a weapon against Native and Black Americans, immigrants, queer people, laborers, and activists. It has always influenced our democracy. The military and police presence in this far-right movement merely reflects the evil of U.S. imperialism and the repressive, anti-democratic function of our law enforcement.
Though these events do not represent a break from so-called American values or tradition, they do reflect a crisis. If we are to reform our society, it must be around the values of democracy and human flourishing. Our government should guarantee safety and good health not only its representatives, but to all its people.
Our part in this as socialists is clear. This month kicked off a renewed campaign to win single-payer healthcare in California, an action that will have huge benefits for working people here in the state and the absolute best step we could take toward national Medicare For All. Join a phonebank this week ([link removed]) to advance the campaign. Then later this month, learn from DSA’s Nationwide Socialist Feminist Committee and Medicare for All Committee about the history of Roe v. Wade ([link removed]) , the future of abortion access, and the necessity of Medicare for All for reproductive freedom.
Next week, help us fight for an end to the war in Yemen — learn about the history of the conflict and the U.S.’s role in it with Metro DC DSA Night School on Monday ([link removed]) and join DSA SF’s car caravan on the 25th ([link removed]) . And please join Socialist Night School on Tuesday to examine the radical legacy and honor the vision of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a special session, “MLK In His Own Words ([link removed]) .”
In solidarity!
News and Information
Here's some of the latest news and information from East Bay Majority ([link removed]) , East Bay DSA's news source with a socialist perspective
** WHY SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE CAN WIN IN CALIFORNIA: AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL LIGHTY
------------------------------------------------------------
"[A] new set of electoral circumstances is colliding with a change in our political movements. The Bernie campaign popularized Medicare for All, making it the defining issue in the healthcare debate. Where you stand on Medicare for All defines where you stand on healthcare. It’s gone from the margins to the center; its support has exploded."
Read more ([link removed])
Featured Events
While we are still unable to meet face-to-face, events are still going on that you can be a part of. RSVP below to stay updated. You can also keep track on our Events page ([link removed]) .
** (NATIONAL DSA) HOW DO WE #CANCELRENT IN 2021?
------------------------------------------------------------
Tonight!, January 14 | 5:30 pm.–7:30 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
It's 2021, and our homes, jobs, and health are still on the line. COVID-19 is surging and unemployment is at historic levels, while eviction moratoriums are due to expire across the country. The call to cancel rent is more urgent than ever.
So how do we win and what is DSA's role in the fight? Chapters big and small have organized tenants to go on rent strike, and joined coalitions to try to sway lawmakers to stop evictions. What strategies are working? Is #CancelRent a demand that we can even win from lawmakers, or one we must win building by building through collective action?
Join the Housing Justice Commission for a conversation about housing justice organizing in 2021 with an eye toward developing shared strategy and resources across chapters.
RSVP ([link removed])
** THE ORGANIZER’S TOOLBOX: HOW TO GIVE A GREAT POLITICAL SPEECH
------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, January 16 | 11 a.m.–1 p.m.
Online via Zoom ([link removed]) ♿️
It's a new year—time to learn a new organizing skill! Join us for another iteration of the Organizer's Toolbox, where we introduce and practice specific, tangible skills for DSA organizers that you can put to use!
Note: Please try to arrive at this training on time and plan to stay for the whole training. This is a very interactive training and works best when the attendees are fully engaged and committed to learning from each other in this process.
In this training for DSA organizers, we will explore our personal stories together, and discover how they can become important tools that motivate and inspire others. Personal stories are important because they allow us to identify with each other's experiences, motivate us to fight for common aims, and ultimately build solidarity. We'll examine how other leaders on the left use personal stories to motivate the masses to take action and then spend time crafting our own.
Adapted from Marshall Ganz's "Public Narrative," this training will challenge you to put aside the logical reasons why we need to win a better world and rather consider emotional & personal reasons.
Suggested reading and watching material (it’s quick!):
Public Narrative Participant Guide ([link removed])
Marshall Ganz: The Public Narrative lecture fragment ([link removed])
—
Join via Zoom ([link removed]) RSVP ([link removed])
** HOW TO PLAN AND EXECUTE A DIRECT ACTION
------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday and Sunday, January 16–17 | 2–4 p.m.
Online via Zoom – register in advance ([link removed]) ♿
East Bay DSA's Direct Action Working Group is excited to teach our 3rd Direct Action Training!
We may not know what is coming next, but we can prepare for it anyway. Direct action has historically been the most effective way to change the world, and we built a workshop to teach folks how it has worked, and how we can plan and execute effective and powerful actions. This training will cover the same ground as the previous Direct Action training, which was very well received.
As racist violence, unemployment, evictions, and climate chaos keep increasing, we need to expand our capacity to leverage our collective power. This training series will introduce creative ways to escalate ongoing campaigns, participate in mass uprisings, and keep each other safe in our confrontations with capital and the state.
The training is 4 hours spread across two days. Please attend both days. For the topics covered and full schedule, click the Event Details link below.
Register ([link removed]) Event Details ([link removed])
** STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING
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Sunday, January 17 | 2–5 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
See how your elected leadership works as we deliberate on current chapter issues. This meeting is open to all DSA members to observe the proceedings. The agenda is TBA.
RSVP ([link removed])
** CAMPAIGN KICKOFF: PHONEBANKING FOR COVID RELIEF IN NAVAJO NATION
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Sunday, January 17 | 4–6 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated Navajo Nation, and the destructive legacies of settler colonialism and extractive capitalism (unemployment regularly above 50%, food deserts, a widespread lack of running water for hand washing, etc.) have pushed the death toll far above that of the rest of the country, and with no federal alleviation in sight.
Join us and other DSA chapters in phone banking to raise funds toward existing grassroots mutual aid relief networks in Navajo Nation. Though this is a temporary campaign for an acute crisis, we see this as a first step in adding material substance to DSA’s 2019 endorsement of the Red Deal (The Red Nation's radical call for a people's movement that is anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and anti-extractive).
We'll begin the phonebank with updates on the situation in Navajo Nation, and a brief discussion about how socialists can engage in meaningful indigenous solidarity work in the future to help build a mass people’s movement for liberation. RSVP below!
RSVP ([link removed])
** ENDING THE WAY IN YEMEN | SOCIALIST NIGHT SCHOOL PRES. BY METRO DC DSA
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Monday, January 18 | 3:30–5:30 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿
The war in Yemen is one of the world’s most pressing crises right now, having intensified in March 2015 when a U.S.-supported Saudi-led coalition intervened against Houthi rebels aligned with the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The war has turned the country into a humanitarian catastrophe. With U.S. military support, Saudis and Emiratis have bombed hospitals, health clinics, schools, factories, markets, residential areas, even school buses full of children, killing thousands of Yemeni civilians. The Saudi-Emirati “coalition” has blockaded the ports of Yemen and cut off the flow of food, fuel, medicine, and clean water, resulting in the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet, with 20 million people on the brink of famine and a 27% COVID-19 death rate.
As part of the Stop the War Coalition World Day of Action (January 25, 2021) to call for an end to the war in Yemen, DSA’s International Committee and many chapters across the U.S. are calling on the United States to end support for this criminal military intervention in Yemen and supports the massive international grassroots effort to end these horrific crimes. Together with Metro DC DSA’s Socialist Night School, the chapter’s Internationalism Working Group will be hosting a teach-in with Jehan Hakim to talk about the war in Yemen and the role of the United States, how to get involved in this movement and the various activities happening on January 25.
RSVP ([link removed])
** (NATIONAL DSA) SCREENING AND Q&A: SIXTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS - A COMEDY SHORT ON REPARATIONS
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Monday, January 18 | 4–6 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
Screening and Q&A on Sixteen Thousand Dollars: A Comedy Short on Reparations with filmmaker Symone Baptiste; creative team members Brodie Reed and Ellington Wells; and moderator Bianca Cunningham.
Join the Democratic Socialists of America Fund, DSA’s Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus (AFROSOC), and Dissent magazine for a discussion of the film and the issues it raises about reparations.
RSVP ([link removed])
** RACIAL SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING
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Monday, January 18 | 7–9 p.m.
Online via Zoom – email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) for info ♿️
Join the Racial Solidarity Committee for our monthly meeting!
The Racial Solidarity Committee (RSC) is dedicated to fighting for the rights of BIPOC communities here in the Bay Area as well as around the world. We are committed to building a multiracial democratic socialist organization that reflects the diversity of the Bay Area working class. Our work ranges from immigration justice and open borders to workers' rights and access to fully-funded public education. In our general meetings, we hold political discussions and report on upcoming RSC campaigns and events. Join us and become a part of the fight for Racial Solidarity!
Racial Solidarity Committee is open to all, and we especially welcome self-identified BIPOC folx. BIPOC facilitators take progressive stack, and we maintain community agreements.
RSVP ([link removed])
** SOCIALIST NIGHT SCHOOL: MLK IN HIS OWN WORDS
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Tuesday, January 19 | 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Online via Zoom ([link removed]) ♿
In the decades since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination at sanitation workers strike in Memphis, his legacy has been appropriated by just about every political movement out there. From Fox News pundits claiming he would oppose tax increases on the rich because he was "for freedom," to the more typical whitewashing of his radical politics for a broad audience, anyone and everyone claim the sainted image of the good Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as their own.
But in his own time, MLK was viewed as the radical that he was. By cleaving toward an uncompromising politics of racial justice, economic transformation, and peace abroad, MLK won the ire of nearly ¾ of Americans who said they disapproved of him in a 1967 Harris Poll. Today, on our national holiday celebrating his legacy, we invite you to read and listen to his own prophetic words as he wrote and spoke them in his time.
Priority Reading & Viewing:
* Excerpt from the Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March ([link removed])
Summary: Dr. King cites the roots of Jim Crow in a political strategy by southern planters to break the multi-racial alliance of tenant farmers that arose with the Populist Movement.
* Excerpt from "Where Do We Go From Here?," Address Delivered at the Eleventh Annual SCLC Convention ([link removed])
Summary: Dr. King confronts the difficult challenges facing the Civil Rights movement after the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. He argues the task in front of them was to build a multi-racial movement for a complete economic transformation of society that guaranteed the equality of black people and the well being of all.
* VIDEO: MLK Talks 'New Phase' Of Civil Rights Struggle, 11 Months Before His Assassination | NBC News ([link removed])
Summary: In this stunning interview with NBC news, MLK discusses the challenges facing the Civil Rights movement in 1967. He calls for a focus on transforming the ghettos of the North, which were not addressed by ending Jim Crow. He also denounces the Vietnam War for killing millions of innocents and diverting money and attention away from the War on Poverty.
Additional Reading & Viewing:
* Book: Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community? Chapter 2 - Black Power ([link removed])
Summary: MLK tells the story of the first time Black Power was used as a slogan in the Civil Rights movement. MLK argues that Black Power and the view that black people can “go it alone,” is understandable given white backlash to Civil Rights, but is ultimately giving in to hopelessness. He argues that despite white backlash, the only path forward for poor black people is to build coalitions with poor whites.
* Full Speech & Audio: The Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March ([link removed])
* Full Speech & Audio: "Where Do We Go From Here?," Address Delivered at the Eleventh Annual SCLC Convention ([link removed])
Join via Zoom ([link removed])
** GREEN NEW DEAL READING GROUP: OUR HISTORY IS THE FUTURE BY NICK ESTES, PART III
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Tuesday, January 19 | 7–9 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
We will be reading the final chapters (Chapter 5 to the end) ahead of this meeting. Anyone interested in learning and discussing with others is welcome to join us. (If you missed the previous meeting, catch up and join us!)
The book is about how two centuries of Indigenous resistance created the movement proclaiming “Water is life”. In Our History Is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance that led to the #NoDAPL movement. Our History Is the Future is at once a work of history, a manifesto, and an intergenerational story of resistance.
RSVP ([link removed])
** LET'S OWN PG&E CAMPAIGN
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Wednesday, January 20 | 6:45–8:15 p.m.
Online via Zoom ([link removed]) ♿
Learn about why a for-profit PG&E will never work for the people or the planet and be a part of winning a Community-owned, Community-controlled PG&E.
Join via Zoom ([link removed])
** SOCIAL HOUSING COMMITTEE MEETING
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Wednesday, January 20 | 7–8:30 p.m.
Online via Zoom ([link removed]) ♿
Monthly meeting for the EBDSA Social Housing committee. Come to hear updates about our upcoming projects, and have a political discussion about the decommodification of housing in the Bay Area!
Join via Zoom ([link removed]) RSVP ([link removed])
** CLASSROOM JUSTICE MEETING
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Thursday, January 21 | 7–9 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿
Join the Classroom Justice Campaign!
[link removed]
RSVP ([link removed])
** (NATIONAL DSA) 48 YEARS OF ROE V. WADE: NO REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM WITHOUT MEDICARE FOR ALL
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Saturday, January 23 | 1–3 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
January marks 48 years since Roe v Wade legalized abortion in all 50 states, and reproductive rights and abortion access has only gotten worse, with states attempting to ban abortion and closing down hundreds of clinics over the less decade. Not only has abortion access been eroded, but reproductive oppression like forced sterilization of immigrants and women of color, lack of clinics, and no universal child care has made navigating reproductive health care decisions disastrous for the working class. The struggle for Medicare for All and single payer healthcare provides a potential avenue to overturn the Hyde Amendment, provide sweeping coverage of abortion and all reproductive health services. It would be the socialist feminist victory of a lifetime, and we need to get organized to win.
The DSA Nationwide Socialist Feminist Working Group and the DSA Medicare for All Committee are hosting this panel discussion about how we can win reproductive freedom through the fight for Medicare for All. The panel will be followed by a call to action to fight for single payer health care and reproductive justice. Speakers are TBA.
Questions? Email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
RSVP ([link removed])
** (NATIONAL DSA) DSA Q&A
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Sunday, January 24 | noon–2 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿
Interested in DSA but haven’t joined yet? Looking to get involved in the fights to stop evictions, win Medicare for All, or defund the police, but unsure how to get started? Frustrated with the limited possibilities of national, top-down politics and looking for an alternative?
Join DSA leaders from across the country to talk about how organizing as socialists and engaging in mass, bottom-up movement struggle is the best path forward to winning our demands and building a better future, together.
RSVP ([link removed])
** (NATIONAL DSA) THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF SOCIALISM
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Sunday, January 24 | 5–7 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿
In the transition between Trump and Biden presidencies — the consequences of a global pandemic, deepening economic crisis, the weakness of American liberalism, open displays of violence from the far right, and the absence of a strong, organized Left from the main stage of political life will be on striking display. Many will be looking for analysis and political vision beyond the insufficient Democratic and Republican establishment 'business as usual' responses.
DSA provides an alternative vision. Please join us to discuss what the first 100 days of a socialist government might look like, and to hear from leaders from various national DSA committees on their visions for a socialist future.
This event will feature speakers from the Democratic Socialist Labor Committee, Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus, Ecosocialists WG, Socialist Feminist WG, National Political Education Committee, YDSA, and International Committee.
RSVP ([link removed])
** CAR CARAVAN FOR YEMEN
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Monday, January 25 | noon–3 p.m.
444 Spear St, San Francisco ♿
Since 2015, the Saudi-led bombing and blockade of Yemen have killed tens of thousands of people and devastated the country. The U.N. calls this the largest humanitarian crisis on Earth. Half the country's people are on the brink of famine, the country has the world's worst cholera outbreak in modern history, and now Yemen has one of the very worst COVID death rates in the world: It kills 1 in 4 people who test positive. The pandemic, along with the withdrawal of aid, is pushing more people into acute hunger. And yet Saudi Arabia is escalating its war and tightening its blockade.
The war is only possible because Western countries – and the United States in particular – continue to arm Saudi Arabia and provide military, political and logistical support for the war.
This car caravan will demand that the new administration:
* Stop foreign aggression on Yemen
* End weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and cease logistical cooperation on the war
* Lift the blockade on Yemen and open all land and seaports
* Restore and expand humanitarian aid for the people of Yemen.
RSVP on Facebook ([link removed])
Upcoming Events
** MEMBER ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING
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Monday, January 25 | 7–9 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿
We need your help building a strong and active chapter! Join our next Member Engagement Committee monthly meeting and learn how you can put your skills to work or grow new ones you never knew you had!
The Member Engagement Committee was created for the purpose of initiating and sustaining our members' active and healthy participation in the chapter's work. We cannot grow our movement without engaging and fostering growth within our current membership. We strive to grow confident organizers and leaders as well as strong relationships between comrades in our chapter by supporting all committees in their work and creating spaces for learning and camaraderie.
Our committee builds and maintains projects such as (but not limited to) our mobilizers program, planning and execution of chapter socials, new member events, and Organizer's Toolbox Trainings, as well as managing the onboarding of new members. As our chapter grows we need to grow our efforts with it and would love to welcome new members to our committee.
Contact us at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
RSVP ([link removed])
** MOBILIZER TEAM PHONEBANKING
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Tuesday, January 26 | 6–8 p.m.
Online via Zoom – RSVP for info ([link removed]) ♿️
The Mobilizer team's mission is to build the personal connections that help DSA members get more involved in our chapter and politically active. We have one on one conversations with both new members and existing members of our chapter where we learn about what drew them to the struggle for socialism and help them think about how they want to take the next step to get more engaged. In this weekly phone bank, we call our members and train new Mobilizers how to make calls. Come help us build a strong chapter and movement while having great conversations!
RSVP ([link removed])
** MEDICARE FOR ALL COMMITTEE MEETING
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Wednesday, January 27 | 6–8 p.m.
Online via Zoom ([link removed]) ♿
With the pandemic and its multiple, intersecting crises, and the polling popularity of Medicare for All, our commitment to the movement is more important than ever. Come learn about our committee's efforts, as well as local, state, and national initiatives around Medicare for All and single-payer healthcare. All are welcome!
Attend on Zoom ([link removed])
Catch up on Socialist Night School
CATCH UP ON NIGHT SCHOOL
With social distancing guidelines still in place, now's as good a time as any to catch up on our Socialist Night School.
Catch up on past night school readings and videos below.
Watch past Night School videos ([link removed])
Catch up on Night School readings ([link removed])
Not a Member Yet? Let's Fix That.
DSA now has 85,000 members nationally, and we're still growing. There's never been a better time to get involved than right now! Join our national organization by clicking below and become an official socialist organizer.
Join DSA ([link removed])
Caucus Corner
Our caucuses organize events too! Check out the Caucus Corner of our website ([link removed]) to learn more about the activities of East Bay DSA caucuses and how to participate.
Announcements
THE EBDSA LABOR CENSUS
Building working class power and the movement for socialism requires organizing in our workplaces. And knowledge is power—so, if you're a member, help us build it in 2021 by filling out the EBDSA Labor Census ([link removed]) ! The chapter-wide Labor Census is geared to help us better understand where members work, the kinds of jobs we do, the level of organization that exists in our respective workplaces, and interest in potential workplace organizing. The data will allow us to support comrades organizing in unionized as well as non-unionized workplaces, facilitate the formation of 'labor circles,' and inform strategic organizing campaigns. We have developed appropriate measures to ensure members' information remains confidential and secure.
Take a few minutes to fill out the Labor Census ([link removed]) if you are an EBDSA member and haven't already. If you would like to get involved with the census in other ways, please contact [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
MEET WITH A MOBILIZER!
Are you a new DSA member? Or are you looking to get more involved with East Bay DSA's projects and campaigns? Sign up to talk to a mobilizer!
Here are three reasons to sign up to talk to a mobilizer:
1. Meet a fellow socialist organizer
We want to build a movement of millions of working class people and change the exploitative and oppressive system in which we live, but we do that first and foremost by building one-to-one connections with each other.
2. Answer your questions
Learn more about DSA, the local East Bay chapter, and our different committees and projects.
3. Get more involved
The main thing a mobilizer will help you with is getting more involved in DSA. Maybe there’s a campaign or project you’re particularly interested in, or maybe you’re a blank slate and you don’t really know what to do. Either way, a mobilizer will help you figure it out.
Sign up to talk to a mobilizer! ([link removed])
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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