Protest TOMORROW, Bernie canvassing, war is a racket, and more

MoCo DSA members:

At Sunday's branch meeting we made signs for our first protest of 2020, which will be tomorrow - Wednesday, Jan. 8 at the Columbia Country Club (more info below). Once again, we are calling on our delegates to repeal the state law that grants tax breaks to the golf clubs of the 1%. Yes, these clubs that cost $80,000-$100,000 just to join pay a lower property tax rate than the rest of us.

We also discussed the U.S.' illegal and immoral escalation of our war in the middle east. Even many "progressive" politicians are peddling war propaganda as they criticize Trump - most cannot even bring themselves to call the killing of Iranian Gen. Soleimani what it is - an assassination. We recommend articles like these to help counter the conventional framing that ignores the history of U.S. imperialism and violence throughout the world. Please stay tuned for updates and actions we'll be taking.

Educational equity is a major issue in Montgomery County. Please sign on to this letter addressed to the Board of Education to ask that it continue with its plan to study school district boundaries, a necessary (but not sufficient) step towards educational equity in MoCo. There is currently a vocal opposition that threatens to stop even just the study of school boundaries

Don't forget to renew your DSA membership in 2020 - you can do so here! All membership renewals and new memberships must be done through national DSA. (You can still make direct donations to our Metro DC DSA chapter, but those donations can no longer be used for membership renewals.) Confused? Unsure if your membership has expired? Just ask us!

Upcoming DSA events:

TOMORROW - Wednesday, January 8 from 8 am-9 am: Protest at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase
Please join us to protest the outrageous tax breaks that country clubs in MoCo receive. Columbia Country Club is at the corner of Connecticut Ave. and East-West Highway in Chevy Chase. The rush hour traffic will love our signs and banner! Email us to RSVP and for more details.

Saturday, January 11 at 12 pm: Canvass for Bernie Sanders in Hyattsville
Our chapter's DSA for Bernie working group will canvass for Bernie in Hyattsville this Saturday, January 11 at noon. Canvassing is really fun - more info and RSVP here! (They will canvass again on Jan. 18 as well.)

Wednesday, January 22 at 7 pm: Rent Control meeting in DTSS
Our Rent Control working group will meet to plan the next steps of our campaign. Send us an email to get the location if you can attend! (If you can't attend but would like to get involved, email us and let us know!)

Friday, January 31 from 6-8 pm: MoCo DSA Happy Hour at Not Your Average Joe's
We're having a happy hour in downtown Silver Spring at Not Your Average Joe's. Join us for some casual, social time with fellow socialists! More info and RSVP here.

Saturday, February 1: Deadline for nominations to branch steering committee
We will hold our annual branch steering elections in February - please email us by Feb. 1st if you have any questions or would like to nominate yourself to run for steering committee!

Sunday, February 2: MoCo DSA Branch meeting in Bethesda
Our next branch meeting is Sunday, February 2 at the Bethesda library at 2 pm. - details and RSVP here.

Good Reads
In Current Affairs: "How to Avoid Swallowing War Propaganda" by Nathan J. Robinson. "1) What happens in the leadup to war is that government officials make claims about the enemy, and then those claims appear in newspapers ('U.S. officials say Saddam poses an imminent threat') and then in the public consciousness, the 'U.S. officials say' part disappears, so that the claim is taken for reality without ever really being scrutinized. This happens because newspapers are incredibly irresponsible and believe that so long as you attach 'Experts say' or 'President says' to a claim, you are off the hook when people end up believing it, because all you did was relay the fact that a person said a thing, you didn’t say it was true."

In Mintpress News: "In Redux of Iraq War Run Up, Media Cheers on Assassination of Soleimani" by Alan Macleod. "With echoes of Iraq, media are once again cheering an attack against a Middle Eastern country on the grounds of a supposedly imminent strike against the United States. Assassinating foreign leaders is a major international war crime under international law, yet across the corporate spectrum, media applauded the bombing, or 'precision targeting,' as CNN described it."

In truthout: "Humans aren't inherently destroying the planet - capitalism is" by Robert Raymond. "One of the biggest ironies of the right-wing trope accusing socialists of wanting 'free stuff' is that in reality, the entire capitalist economy would immediately collapse if it couldn’t continue to rely on free stuff. Without free or artificially cheap access to things like natural resources, care work, labor and a whole array of other elements, capitalism could not stay afloat. In fact, the only way that capitalism was ever able to even emerge was through a process of 'primitive accumulation' — where things like slavery and colonialism were utilized to extract free labor and resources."

In solidarity,