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Howdy Comrades!

Welcome to issue 24 of the Houston DSA Newsletter! I'm Stephen Adkison, Houston DSA's Communications Secretary. Thanks for reading, and for doing all the work that I'll be writing about in these newsletters.

This is intended as a way to stay updated on the many things that our chapter does, so I think you should share the subscription link with a friend, and bring them out to anything we do!

Without further ado, here is issue 24 of the Houston DSA newsletter!

Contents

• Reading Group
• Last Week in Houston DSA
• Upcoming Events
• Signing off

Reading Group

On Monday December 16 from 7-9 PM at Bohemeo's, the Reading Group will be covering Mark Fisher's short book "Capitalist Realism". After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only realistic political-economic system---a situation that the bank crisis of 2008, far from ending, actually compounded. The book analyses the development and principal features of this capitalist realism as a lived ideological framework.

Using examples from politics, films, fiction, work and education, it argues that capitalist realism colors all areas of contemporary experience. But it will also show that, because of a number of inconsistencies and glitches internal to the capitalist reality program capitalism in fact is anything but realistic.

If you are interested in obtaining an epub version of this book for non-distributional purposes to read for the discussion, please email us at [email protected]. Of course, the book is also available for purchase online from various sources.

The Houston DSA Reading Group is open to members and non-members alike and aims to be accessible to all attendees regardless of background knowledge or expertise. We hope to see you there!

Last Week in Houston DSA

Our Housing and Tenants's Rights Working Group met on Tuesday for their last meeting of the year, taking the opportunity to reflect backward and move forward. They talked about the work being done by the Houston Tenants' Union, plans for developing socialist housing policy for Houston, and internal political education around housing issues. If you want to help make Houston a better place to live, keep an eye out for their meetings in the New Year and come out!

We had our monthly General meeting on Thursday. We voted in a new Endorsements Committee (congratulations to everyone!), which is the body responsible for screening candidates and making recommendations to membership. There were updates on various issues and campaigns such as the opposition to the state takeover of HISD and immigration justice work being done in Brownsville. We also voted to lay out a specific plan and budget for our work around Bernie Sanders and our other endorsed candidates, Audia Jones and Stevens Orozco. Members should have received an email about our plans for a 2020 local convention, so please everyone check for that and respond to it. If you are a member and didn't receive that email, let us know!

Speaking of, we've had several DSA for Bernie Canvasses, and they'll keep happening! The best way to know what's planned is to like our Facebook page and subscribe to our calendar on our website. We canvassed today in Aldine, and will continue to plan canvasses around the county. If you'd like us to canvass your part of town, for Bernie Sanders, Audia Jones, or, if you are in district 18, Stevens Orozco, you can message us and we'll connect you with the right people to set one up. There will also be a debate watch party on Thursday, from 7:30-10pm at Bohemeo's. This is one of our current priorities as a chapter and is a great opportunity to organize people for socialism and around many different issues, so please come out whenever you can!

Upcoming Events

Signing Off

Thanks for reading! I hope to all of you soon!

Solidarity Forever,

Your Communications Secretary, Stephen Adkison

Paid for by Houston Democratic Socialists of America, Inc. (houstondsa.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.