Comrade,
Welcome to 2020 and our first issue of the new decade. Our activism, our events and our socialist discourse all are on tap here.
Articles in this issue on MDC DSA through Japanese newspaper readers’ eyes, the promise of the SEED the Vote project for electoral advances, NOVA’s 2019 plus, nationalizing Facebook, diversity in Maryland and more. See the complete contents below.
CAMPAIGNS UP FRONT on Sunday, January 12, 2020 – Kick Off 2020 with Metro DC DSA’s Winter Campaigns Fair & January GBM 3:30 — 5:30 PM The Festival Center, 1640 Columbia Rd NW · Washington, DC – Save the date for MDC DSA’s first General Body Meeting/Campaigns Fair for 2020. We will have a few business items to discuss but this Campaigns Fair is for members, guests and interested folks wanting to get involved with the chapter’s various campaigns! There will be hot chocolate to warm us up — and feel free to bring some cookies or snacks to share!
This weekend: Sunday JAN 5, Stomp Out Slumlords canvass and MoCo General Branch Meeting – follow links or see calendar for details.
BRIEFS
LABOR WORKING GROUP
Thursday JAN 9 Bust the Boss Planning Session Pt. 2, Labor Working Group, 6:30 PM at 1616 P Street NW
"Bust the Boss is a
project of the Labor Working Group that seeks to help workers in non-unionized industries fight for better working conditions. At this planning meeting we'll be continuing our conversation about how to improve the project in the new year. Newcomers are encouraged to attend."
Also – the
Labor Working Group’s regular January Meeting January 11 in Arlington. See the calendar for both events.
CLIMATE JUSTICE ACTION
Saturday JAN 4, 10:30 AM: #ShutDownDC grassroots organizing training, 1640 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC: The #ShutDownDC coalition is getting ready for major climate strikes in the spring! We need your help recruiting new people to the movement. This 90-minute session will include a brief introduction to grassroots organizing and will emphasize role-playing and interactive exercises to build comfort and confidence in having one-on-one organizing conversations. More info:
https://www.shutdowndc.org/post/grassroots-organizing-training
Monday JAN 13: Coordinated banner drops for climate justice: #ShutDownDC is hanging banners over busy overpasses during rush hour to draw attention to the climate crisis. This
map shows many places where it could be done. If you'd like to participate, fill out this form and specify that you want to join the DSA crew:
https://www.shutdowndc.org/post/coordinated-banner-hang-action?fbclid=IwAR1zc6Wv4Ws6DUP8AkCsBTwkz1ANNR_8fXek4jnvJSCIF7Ks17wtxZlit7Q
MDC DSA 4 BERNIE UPDATE
SAT January 11, DSA 4 Bernie canvass! In Hyattsville (Exact Location TBD), 12 noon to 3:30 PM
Welcome to the new decade. Your resolution: Come knock doors for Bernie and tell voters how we will transform this country to work for the working class.
Our exact location is TBD, but we will be canvassing the general Hyattsville area. Check the Facebook and Meetup events (below) to RSVP and find out if we will meet at the West Hyattsville Metro or the Prince George's Plaza Metro (both Green and Yellow lines.)
If this is your first time canvassing for Bernie, first of all, welcome! We will provide a short training at noon, run through the script, teach you how to use VAN, and pair you up with a veteran canvasser. We’ll all gather at a bar afterwards to chat about how the canvass went and discuss future events for Bernie!
There will also be a canvass on Jan 18th!
https://facebook.com/events/571376290367691/?ti=icl
http://meetu.ps/e/Hz7Wr/cMgsq/a
>> Email us at:
[email protected]
>> Join the convo on Slack: #bernie
---Kristen B
Want to be a Bernie delegate? Here’s a webinar on
Wednesday, JAN 8 to check out.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2591645827732710/
DISABILITY JUSTICE WORKING GROUP
Thursday JAN 16 6:30-8 PM Come join us for the January
Disability Justice Working Group meeting at the Festival Center at 6:30 PM. We’ll be diving into plans for a Disability Town Hall, disability narratives/comics, and reading groups.
ECOSOCIALIST CAUCUS
Tuesday JAN 14 January Ecosocialist Caucus meeting 7 - 8:30 PM at the Southeast Neighborhood Library in the SOE Meeting Room.
The discussion will include next steps for our energy democracy and climate strike campaigns. A meeting agenda will be sent out via email the week before the meeting. Please email
[email protected] with comments and any agenda suggestions.
INTERNATIONALISM WORKING GROUP
Next monthly meeting is Monday, JAN 13, 6:30 – 8 PM, at Cleveland Park library conference room
As we announced during the last chapter’s GBM meeting, we are hoping to revitalize the working group and hope you will be a part of it in 2020. If you’re interested in ensuring that our movement has a global perspective, fighting against US militarism and imperialism, and building solidarity across borders toward a global socialism, please join us at our next monthly meeting where we will be planning what’s next for the internationalism working group.
-- Cesar G
Here is the MoCo branch email newsletter, including info on
this weekend’s branch meeting https://mailchi.mp/mdcdsa.org/join-us-on-saturday-nov-1263427?e=003de9ccab
ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE
▲Journalist Nobu Tanaka of the
West Japan Daily wrote a feature for his paper on our work as a chapter. Our comrade Kaiser F, who was one of Tanaka’s interviewees, brings
this translated version to us.
▲An innovative and neighborly project called
SEED The Vote helps activists cross state lines to push uncertain states toward purplish-blue. Kurt Stand provides program and background.
▲NOVA DSA provides a
roundup of their activities in 2019 and plans for 2020.
▲MDC DSA’s
Socialist Heritage Caucus has been making sure socialism’s present doesn’t lose its institutional memory, as Bill Mosley outlines.
▲Progressive radio host Thom Hartmann, in Progressive Breakfast, checks off the
reasons Facebook should be nationalized.
▲Endless war-machinery or Medicare for All is
the choice before US voters, IPS researcher Lindsay Koshgarian writes for People’s Action.
▲Conversations about diversity and equity in Maryland, a Baltimore attorney-activist asserts, require that “Those most impacted must also be
the ones most empowered”.
▲Bill Mosley notes that the same everyday ways of
practicing one’s socialism in public life are valid today as they were in 2013, when he first wrote about them.
▲And reprises of two articles published since the December issue: Kurt Stand on
Prince George’s County’s failures on criminal justice reform, and Andy Feeney’s article marking
a singular moment in the climate debate as denial begins to lose traction.
▲Last, and also first, here is the
Washington Socialist 2019 article index, all articles from last January through December – chronologically, and also by broad topic. Also included: links to previous indexes.
PUBLICATIONS-- Metro DC DSA Publications Working Group Year-end Report 2019
(as delivered at the December General Body Meeting)
Mission: Outward-facing and inward-facing communications to inform our members about perennial and evolving aspects of democratic socialism and attract new ones to democratic socialism.
Print publications: mostly one-off flyers promoting DSA or campaigns for outward-facing communication.
Online publications: the monthly
Washington Socialist newsletter and Weekly Updates, generally every Friday. Audience: 3,500 email recipients, both members and non-members.
Shared duties: keep mdcdsa.org dynamic and informative. Provide graphic design and publications support for all of MDC DSA’s formations: working groups, campaigns and caucuses. Seek and develop new paths for communicating socialism.
In 2019 the
Washington Socialist published 80 distinct articles in 12 monthly issues, nearly all by our own members. Topics: both our specific local campaigns and broad general socialist analysis, including of DMV, national and international political terrain.
In 2019 the Publications Working Group
elected, as a 2018 bylaw amendment required, a five-member Publications Editorial Board to ensure all our communications were in the best interests of MDC DSA and socialism.
Needs: More and more diverse writers and editors. More awareness in campaigns of opportunities to gain support and participation through strategic communications.
* * *
PUBLICATIONS SCHEDULE: Updates in January Fridays, January 10, 17 and 24. The February
Washington Socialist will be sent Friday, January 31 with an
article deadline of Saturday, January 25.
Info bank: What does the MDC DSA local chapter
do, week in and week out?
See our working groups, caucuses and campaigns in the DMV here.
And speaking of info: Many of our campaigns, working groups and caucuses keep the conversation going between meetings on our MDC DSA Slack platform. If you are a DSA member in good standing and aren’t on our Slack you may not be getting the full picture about the rich array of activities suggested
above in the chapter structure link. To get on Slack,
use the email by which DSA knows you and request access from
[email protected]
