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📣Mark your calendars! FIGHT THE BILLIONAIRE CLASS Where is US Politics Heading & the Role of Socialists? Recently the masters of the universe gathered for a weekend of backslapping and carving up the world at the Word Economic Forum in Davos. To greet them Oxfam released a report on the state of the world’s yawning wealth gap. And the results are shocking. Over the last 2 years, the 1% increased their wealth by $26 TRILLION dollars! - gorging themselves on 75% of all new wealth created. In 2022, the food and energy sectors (dominated by just 95 companies) saw their profits explode by $305 billion dollars! This coming at a time when inflation devoured working people’s ability to buy food and gas to heat their homes. As many as 828 million people go to bed hungry every night. The number of those facing acute food insecurity has soared - from 135 million to 345 million - since 2019. A total of 49 million people in 49 countries are teetering on the edge of famine. Here, in Seattle, is home to 16 billionaires, whose wealth equals $469 billion, and is home to some of the biggest, most rapacious corporations in the world. Being in the belly of the beast, where fierce unionization battles are raging, puts more of a responsibility on us to fight the billionaire class by building mass movements and popularizing the need for socialism. Seattle DSA has been energetic partners in Starbucks and HomeGrown unionization efforts; we threw down to try to elect a socialist fighter in Stephanie Gallardo; we are committed to winning social housing though I-135; we’ve sought to ameliorate the ravages of capitalism through our community breakfast program. And in 2023, we’re throwing our might behind several important campaigns this year - Raise the Wage Renton and Matthew Mitnick for Seattle City Council District 4. 📆 The 2023 Seattle DSA Chapter Convention will be Saturday, March 25 from 10 am to 5 pm! 📣 The deadline for bylaws changes, resolutions, and publicized LC nominations is Sunday Feb 19 at 11:59 pm. (LC nominations may be made and accepted up to and including the convention on March 25th. So this Feb 19 deadline will ensure the candidate’s name appears in the official program and convention materials we make.) You can nominate folks for LC, find out how to submit resolutions, and find all convention info at http://seattledsa.org/chaptercon But to make the convention happen, we really need more volunteers on 3 committees: 1. Elections, 2. Rules and Bylaws, and 3. Convention Logistics! All you need is a couple hours a week until March 25, and your efforts will help us have a successful convention which will determine the direction of our organization! |
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☑️VOTE YES on I-135 for Social Housing!Ballots have arrived in your mailbox & are due February 14th!
🚪🏃♀️We are knocking doors and text banking throughout the week and every weekend!
Community Canvas: Capitol Hill This Saturday, Feb 11, 11am-2pm Please RSVP - it’ll help organizers contact you if you’re running late and can’t find us
We’ll be meeting at Broadway Hill Park to knock doors in the neighborhood, so wear comfortable walking shoes!
Community Canvas: Columbia City This Sunday, Feb 12, 1:30pm-4:30pm Please RSVP - it’ll help organizers contact you if you’re running late and can’t find us We’ll be meeting at the parking lot in the Genesee Playfield to knock doors in the neighborhood, so wear comfortable walking shoes! A fully charged phone with miniVAN installed will also be helpful. |
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Raise the Wage Renton Tabling – Renton Library (100 Mill Ave S)
This Saturday, Feb. 11, 12-2pm
Raise the Wage Renton Tabling – Renton Highlands LibraryThis Monday, Feb 13 11am(not required, but encouraged so we have a sense of how many volunteers to expect)
Join us to help get Raise the Wage Renton on the ballot! We need to gather over 10,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot. |
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Friends, In 2014 under pressure from a movement led by socialists and the local labor movement, Seattle City Council passed the $15 minimum wage - the first major city to do so. This set off a prairie fire of other minimum wage struggles, most recently in Tukwila. It’s been estimated that the 2014 Seattle minimum wage victory will transfer $2.5 billion over ten years from some of the biggest corporations in the world to 100,000 workers, disproportionately people of color, women, LGBTQ, and Black people. We have an opportunity to strike a blow against the billionaire class through a grassroots movement of working people and youth that can win a higher wage in Renton. First and foremost we need to help gather the 10K+ signatures to qualify for the ballot. This will take resources. The low wage, no benefit corporations that dominate Renton will fight tooth and nail to prevent any attempt to stymie their ceaseless flow of profits. They will spare no amount of money to defeat our movement. In October our chapter voted to hire two part-time staff members – a major milestone for Seattle DSA. This month, Guillermo Zazueta began work as our new Campaign Organizer and Ty Moore stepped in as our new Communications Organizer. The two staff will help activate our 1,500 members, build in South King County, and ramp up our chapter’s communications and media. With its multi-racial working class, the need for socialists to root our movement in South King County is clear. Raise the Wage Tukwila winning by 82% showed there is an opening, and we’ve established points of support during the Gallardo campaign. But to build DSA in South King County will take serious resources. Please chip in $25, $50, $100 to strike a blow against the billionaire class! |
