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*Morpheus Voice* Welcome to MTV's The Real World.

Just kidding! It's me, Houston DSA's Communications Secretary Stephen Adkison, bringing you Houston DSA Newsletter. If you enjoyed that bad joke, share the newsletter link with a friend! If you didn't like it, also share the newsletter link so that you can have more people on your side to take me down. Anyways, enough with the jokes.

Without further ado, here is issue 8 of the Houston DSA newsletter!

Contents

Featured Event: Exploratory Abolition Campaign Meeting
2019 DSA General Convention Fundraiser
Last Week in Houston DSA
Upcoming Events
Signing off

Exploratory Abolition Campaign Meeting

Houston and Harris County are historically home to one of the most brutal criminal punishment systems. Houston has a legacy of activists fighting back against police brutality and the zealous punishment bureaucracy: our police, our courts, our jails. Like many other groups, Houston has done some work in fighting back. Our biggest victory is our Franklin for Judge campaign. We were successful and got Franklin Bynum elected to one of our county’s criminal courts, where he has completed all of his major campaign goals within months. Another member who we endorsed, DaSean Jones, was elected to a district criminal court!

The work is not done. We still have tens of thousands of folks who are victimized by this system.

If you want to help build a world based on care, not cages, Houston DSA is meeting on July 25 to discuss the formation of a campaign around our chapter’s abolitionist values. The location is still to be determined, so keep an eye out on Mattermost, the link below to our calendar, and any other communications we send out when that gets finalized.

Details Here

General Convention Fundraising!

The National Convention is rapidly approaching! Because of you, our DSA chapter is sending 11 delegates to the 2019 DSA National Convention. The convention will be the largest gathering of American Socialists in modern times and will set the national agenda for the next two years. As a working-class organization, many of us live on small budgets and can’t afford to attend the convention on our own - but this shouldn’t be a barrier to participation.

We need your help to cover $6,000 in travel costs for our delegates, and we still need a lot of support. Please give a solidarity gift today of $25, $50, or $100 today here. Thank you for your support! If you've already given, thank you! We could always use some more money to reimburse our costs. If you haven't, please consider it! The convention is less than two weeks away. Giving financially is an act of solidarity, and we appreciate it.

Last Week in Houston DSA

The Racial Justice Working Group met and discussed several potential inroads for socialists to push forward the fight for racial justice. They discussed a resolution that will be debated at the National Convention around encouraging chapters to engage in District Attourney elections. They also talked about the work being done in the city around stopping ICE Raids that we can support.

At the Education Working Group meeting, they continued their plans to counter-recruit high school students away from the military. They also discussed the book The Industrial Classroom, and how we can fight the corporatization of schools and push for more, stronger, and better teacher's unions.

Our dormant Socialist Feminist Working Group met up again to try and re-form. They discussed ways we can work to make the chapter a more inclusive body, from creating spaces specifically for women and non-binary folks to hosting feminist political education events. They plan on meeting again next month, so keep an eye out for that!

The Medicare For All Working Group also met last week. They discussed how their canvassing efforts have been and ways they can continue to improve. Also discussed was the plans to make a fanny-pack first aid kit for use at protests and rallies. Finally, they elected new co-chairs, so congrats to Henry and Mike!