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Message From The Executive Board:
Co-Chair Election!
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DSA Sacramento is electing a new chapter co-chair! Unfortunately one of our current co-chairs has had to step back for personal reasons, so we will be electing a new co-chair at our next general meeting (February 20).
Under our bylaws, the new co-chair must be a self-identified woman. Any interested member may run, or nominate someone they think would make an ideal co-chair. This is a great opportunity to get more involved with Sac DSA and start putting your ideas for organizing into action! No particular experience is required, other than a passion for socialism and working with others. We strongly encourage all members to consider running, even if you haven't thought of yourself as a leader before -- part of what makes DSA great is that we are made up of ordinary people who are unlocking their talents and learning through collective action. Your fellow board members will be there to support you, and we are planning to host leadership and organizer trainings over the coming months.
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The co-chair position requires about a five-hour commitment each week, including biweekly board meetings that are held on Tuesday evenings for about an hour and a half (though meeting times can be changed to accommodate your schedule). Nominations will remain open right up until the general meeting on February 20.
In Solidarity,
Sacramento DSA Executive Board
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What Sac DSA's Been Up To This Week |
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Sac DSA Turns Out to Support our Unhoused Neighbors Against Fascism
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In response to the planned fascist rally at the state Capitol building in Sacramento on Inauguration Day, DSA Sacramento organized a group of our members to hold a mutual aid event at Cesar Chavez Park to support and protect our unhoused neighbors there. Back during another fascist rally in November, Proud Boys had come to Cesar Chavez Park to beat up people living there. Our event was intended to provide hot food and water for the residents there, as well as to deter any violence from fascists who had vowed to rally at the Capitol.
Luckily, the fascists did not show up at the park. Instead a group of our members was able to distribute hot food, including homemade burritos and sandwiches, as well as water and PPE supplies. We also got a chance to talk to our unhoused neighbors about the conditions at the park and their thoughts on the inauguration and police/fascist violence in the area. It was also a rare chance in these COVID days to meet one another in relative safety in the open air!
Solidarity to every member who was able to make it out, provide food, or signal boost. We are looking forward to organizing more such events in the future. If you have any thoughts on similar actions we could host, or how to make such events even more accessible to all of our members, please let us know on Slack or by emailing us at [email protected].
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Sac DSA Votes to Support Indian Farmers Strike
At our last general meeting, Sacramento DSA passed a resolution in solidarity with the ongoing farmers strike in India. This is the largest strike in human history, and a direct rebuke to neoliberalism worldwide. Our resolution expresses our full support of the strike, as well as the movement's efforts to overcome issues of caste, gender, sex, religion, and colorism.
We call on the Modi government to end its use of force against the strikers, and ask other DSA chapters to support the strike.
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Pictured in our solidarity poster is Bhagat Singh, the Punjabi revolutionary who fought British rule in favor of an independent, socialist, and non-sectarian India. Today’s strikers have used Singh’s image in their protests, to link today's struggle to those of India's past.
The South Asian community in California has been rallying for weeks in support of the strike. Their next rally will be held online on Friday, Jan. 22, at 6PM. This rally was originally supposed to be held in-person at the state Capitol, but the fascist menace and heightened law enforcement presence has forced the organizers to move the rally online. You can find the Facebook event page for it here.
To learn more about the strike, you can read this article from Jacobin magazine, and follow JakaraMovement (a progressive Sikh Californian youth organization), journalist PunYaab and Kisanektamorcha on Twitter.
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Sac DSA Joins Striking Fast Food Workers
Sac DSA members joined fast food workers and SEIU 1021 in support of the Fight For $15 nationwide strike last week. The purpose of the strike was to push for PPE and sick leave for California's fast food workers, as well as to hold the incoming Biden administration's feet to the fire on its promise to enact a $15 federal minimum wage. (On the day of the strike, Biden announced his intention to put a $15 federal minimum wage provision in an upcoming COVID-19 relief bill). |
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We successfully shut down a Burger King location on Stockton Boulevard for nearly an hour, as restaurant workers delivered their petition for COVID relief directly to management. At an accompanying rally, Burger King worker and Fight For $15 organizer Holly Díaz addressed fellow workers with the following message:
If I had a message for the workers who are afraid to stand up, what can I say to them? I say this: you are not alone. The union is more than a voice for the workers, they are your support system. You've got to look at the union as a support group, and you've got to look at work as a bad relationship. When you get scared to leave a relationship, you have nowhere to turn to. When you're scared to leave your job and fight for yourself, who do you turn to? You turn to nobody. And then what? You get caught up in the system. Well, our system is screwed up. The union is here to help. So if you are scared to leave that relationship, join a union. Stand up for yourself. Because as you can see, with everybody out here, we are not alone.
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Upcoming Actions |
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DSA Says Stop The US/Saudi War In Yemen
Monday, Jan. 25, is a global day of action to end the war on Yemen, a horrific humanitarian crisis executed by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and others' bombs, with support from the U.S. since 2015 (yep, under Obama) and escalated ever since. Biden has said he'll end it, but that's one of many things we need to hold him to with our shouts.
Please join our International Committee and comrades from other supportive groups for a show of solidarity (with banners) at what we're billing as a "press conference," 10 a.m. January 25th (Monday) in front of the Matsui federal building in Sacramento, 5th and I streets. Please come a little early so we can have a respectable (albeit masked and distanced) crowd when all the TV reporters show.
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If you want to learn more about the U.S. role in Yemen and the reasons we are taking action, check out this Q&A with Kawthar Abdullah (of the Yemeni Alliance Committee) that the D.C. chapter of DSA hosted a few days ago!
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Upcoming Meeting Announcements:
Healthcare Committee, 1/21/21 (Thurs) @ 7PM
Intro to Young Democratic Socialists of America (Los Rios / Sierra College chapter)
Electoral Committee, 1/24/21 (Sun) @ 12PM,
International Committee, 1/28/21 (Thurs) @ 7PM
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Missed a Meeting?
Minutes of our past meetings are hosted online.
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What We're Reading (Or Viewing, Or Listening To...)
"Small Town Socialism, A Case Study" by Nathan M.
"Check out this anatomy of a successful electoral campaign in Merced. They didn’t just win, DSA in Merced is essentially serving as shadow counselor, and setting policy. There’s a ton of valuable lessons in here for us."
"Freedom Struggle a Labor Struggle, Than and Now" by Robin D.G. Kelley.
"Inspired by the current Indian farmers strike, Robin D.G. Kelley gave this presentation to a New York City DSA Labor webinar about the history of Black-led union organizing in the USA and the need for labor organizers to take a broad view of the community, its needs and traditions of resistance -- including those of low wage, marginalized workers in fast food, retail, healthcare, homecare, domestic work, and agriculture."
"Margo St. James, Matriarch of the Modern Sex Work Movement, Has Died" by Joe Kukura
"Here’s a follow-up article to the obit I posted on the webpage earlier about pioneering sex work organizer Margo St. James."
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