Country club protest, Bernie canvassing, happy hour, and more

MoCo DSA members:

Last week we demonstrated outside the Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase - a club that charges $80,000 in initiation fees alone. We held signs and gave leaflets to drivers to educate them about repealing the state law that grants tax breaks to the golf clubs of the 1%. MoCo's dozen or so private golf clubs pay a lower property tax rate than the rest of us - thus shifting the cost of providing needed services to county residents away from the wealthiest and onto the working class. Many, many rush hour commuters honked their horns and waved to us in support!

Speaking of the needs of the working class, housing remains a huge crisis in America, especially in expensive regions like the DMV. In the San Francisco area, extreme gentrification and financialization of housing has led to an even bigger affordable housing crisis than MoCo. A group of unhoused single mothers, called @Moms4Housing, decided to start inhabiting an empty home in Oakland that is owned by a real estate investment firm. When a judge ordered their eviction, hundreds of people showed up to surround the house, protect the moms and their children, and demand that empty, investor-owned housing be given to unhoused people who need it. Not surprisingly, the police who came to evict the moms yesterday showed up with a tank, AR-15s and SWAT gear - and not only evicted, but also arrested them. Even though the occupation of this home has ended, the fight will continue. Read yesterday's interview with the Oakland mothers here.

If this story boils your blood like it does ours, please come to our next Rent Control working group meeting on Jan. 22, where we will share some breaking news about rent control in MoCo. More info is below - RSVP here!

In addition to working on a fight for rent control at the County level, we are also pleased to announce that MoCo DSA has officially endorsed two key pieces of housing legislation: D-19 delegate Vaughn Stewart's "Homes for All' package, and D-20 delegate Jheanelle Wilkins' "Stable Homes Act." The "Homes for All" package is a set of bills that create funding for Social Housing and contain zoning changes and renter protections. The "Stable Homes Act" would protect renters by preventing landlords from refusing to renew a lease without a good reason.

Upcoming DSA events:

Saturday, January 18 at 12 pm: Canvass for Bernie Sanders in West Hyattsville
Our chapter's DSA for Bernie working group will canvass for Bernie in West Hyattsville this Saturday, January 18 at noon. Canvassing is really fun - about 40 DSA members showed up to canvass last weekend! More info and RSVP here!

Wednesday, January 22 at 7 pm: Rent Control meeting in DTSS
Our Rent Control working group needs to discuss some BREAKING NEWS, so we 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 Jacobin: "Socialists Identify With Humanity As A Whole" by Meagan Day. "Nathan J. Robinson is the founder and editor of Current Affairs and the author of Why You Should Be A Socialist. Jacobin spoke with Robinson about self-interest versus moral conviction in the makings of a socialist, the cruelty of conservatism and cluelessness of liberalism, the revolutionary reform agenda of Bernie Sanders, and the state of socialist organizations and left media today."

At the Library of Congress: "A New Exhibit Tells Rosa Park's Story Beyond the Montgomery Bus" - "Rarely-seen handwritten notes, letters, manuscripts, photographs, records, and memorabilia comprise a new exhibition at the Library of Congress called Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words. It’s pulled from a collection of 10,000 items that document her and her family’s lives from 1866 to 2006."

In truthout: "As Tensions In iran Escalate, It Is Time to Challenge Empire In the Classroom" by Shirin Vossoughi, Roozbeh Shirazi and Sepehr Vakil. "For educators committed to justice, we know that our teaching cannot be ahistorical and apolitical, nor can we be silent in the face of popular struggles and vast inequities of power. Why then, do empire and militarism so often fall by the wayside in our teaching?"

In solidarity,