In Houston, we know that we are not alone in our struggle for economic, social, and housing justice. We are  not alone in the struggle for liberation from capitalism, colonialism, […]

The post May Day Statement appeared first on Houston DSA.

(This statement is from April, 24, 2024) We stand with unwavering solidarity with the students in Rice University, the University of Houston, Columbia University, and all campuses, as they demand […]

The post Student Encampment Solidarity Statement appeared first on Houston DSA.

(This post is from November 8, 2023) For the last 11 weeks, our members have been on the ground talking to Houstonians all over the city about the importance of […]

The post Houston voters overwhelmingly pass Proposition A! appeared first on Houston DSA.

Students here in New York and across the country are staging protests and encampments on university campuses in solidarity with Palestinians under siege in Gaza for over 200 days. The student movements are united by a common call for their institutions to divest and boycott the state of Israel, companies, and institutions complicit in Israel’s occupation and ongoing genocide in Gaza. In response to this vast mobilization of students, the university administrations at Columbia, NYU, CUNY and elsewhere have handed out mass suspensions & even threats of expulsion to students involved in the encampments, in addition to unleashing NYPD to arrest students protesting peacefully on their campuses. Tonight, we will hear from the students themselves. We will hear from Britt, a student organizer at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at CUNY City College, about the ‘Five Demands’ of the students to the CUNY administration. We will also be joined in-studio by Erin, a student at NYU and a member of the National Coordinating Committee of YDSA, to hear the latest from the NYU encampment and what YDSA is doing to meet the national moment. 

 

*This episode was recorded at 7pm Tuesday night before the NYPD sweep and mass arrests of students at Columbia and CUNY. Go out and provide jail support for the arrested students & comrades opposing genocide at One Police Plaza  

 

Link to CUNY Gaza Solidarity Statement: https://twitter.com/cunygse/status/1785677626431934751/photo/1

ROC DSA Monthly Newsletter | No. 01

The post ROCHESTER RED STAR (May 2024) first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

Democratic socialist State Representative Erika Uyterhoeven (27th Middlesex); Cambridge City Council Member Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler; Somerville City Council Members Willie Burnley, Jr. and JT Scott; and Medford City Council President Zac Bears, who represent almost a quarter of a million residents released the following statement:

We stand in solidarity with the students practicing peaceful protest at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Emerson, and Northeastern Universities, as well as all others across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the country. We unequivocally condemn the violent repression that the police, university administrators, and elected municipal leaders have exercised toward these students. 

Massachusetts, and the Boston area in particular, has long been a cradle of protest and dissent, dating back centuries. These students embrace and honor this history of dissent through their peaceful protests against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the higher education structures that enable it. Their brave and powerful protest represents a united call to not just end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza but for their universities to divest from institutions that profit from this genocide, Israeli apartheid, and occupation. We are firmly opposed to antisemitism, which has no place in this movement to end the genocide and is part of the same machinery of fear and division that these students are organizing against. We are moved by this multiracial, multigenerational, interfaith movement and these encampments demonstrate the power of solidarity against division and hate. The sowing of division and condemnation of peaceful protest has been a longstanding tactic to undermine social justice movements standing on the correct side of history.

As we approach the 54th anniversary of the Kent State University massacre on May 4, it is disturbing  to see university administrations and police replicating the violent suppression that led to that tragedy. We must not repeat this history. Massachusetts is home to over 100 institutions of higher learning with nearly half a million students. We call upon these universities to protect these students’ right to assembly, free speech, and to provide amnesty for students by revoking any retaliatory academic discipline. Universities should be bastions of free speech, but instead we clearly see that our constitutional rights are secondary to universities’ collusion with police as a means of maintaining systems of oppression. 

It is important in this moment to remember the reason these students have made the brave decision to protest, which is the ongoing genocide in Gaza. University administrators, government officials, and corporate media outlets seek to reframe the conversation in this moment around students’ right to protest. We must avoid this trap and remain focused on demanding those in power finally adopt what the majority of Americans support – an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Palestine and end to the Israeli occupation.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, April 30 (1:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Ecosociolists at SFMTA Hearing – Stop the MUNI Fare Increase(In person at 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Floor 4, Room 400)

Wednesday, May 1 (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.): International Workers Day March and Rally (In person at 24th St BART)

Wednesday, May 1 (6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): New Member Happy Hour (In person at Zeitgeist, 199 Valencia St)

Thursday, May 2 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Palestine Solidarity Working Group (Zoom)

Thursday, May 2 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

Friday, May 3 (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): Office Hours (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, May 4 (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.): Jackie Fielder Campaign Mobilization (Meet at Precita Park)

Saturday, May 4 (1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Sock Distro (Meet at 1916 McAllister St)

Sunday, May 5 (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.): Extreme Dean Door Knock Mobilization (Meet at Jefferson Square Park, corner of Turk & Laguna)

Monday, May 6 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Ecosocialist Monthly Meeting (In person at 1916 McAllister St and on Zoom)

Tuesday, May 7 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Mutual Aid Priority Meeting (Zoom)

Wednesday, May 8 (6:45 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): May Chapter Meeting (In person location TBD and on Zoom)

Saturday, May 11 (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Tenant Organizing Movie Night: “Boom: The Sound of Eviction” (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, May 13 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Environmentalism From Below: How Global People’s Movements Are Leading the Fight for Our Planet (Zoom)

Check out https://dsasf.org/events/ for more events.

Events & Actions

May Day Action!

Wednesday, May 1 is International Workers’ Day, and this year the workers will answer the call of Palestinian labor unions to stand in international solidarity against genocide.

An injury to one is an injury to all! No business as usual!

Join your DSA comrades at any or all of these events

• 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.: SF Daytime March & Rally at the (24th St BART, SF)
• 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.: Oakland Sin Fronteras March & Rally (1301 Clay St, Oakland)
• 4:00 p.m.: Port of Oakland Shutdown (Meet at West Oakland BART)
• 6:30 p.m.: SF Evening Panel: The Past & Present of Labor in SF with SF Berniecrats (1916 McAllister, SF)

Solidarity with Pro-Palestine Student Protesters for BDS

DSA SF stands in solidarity with university student protesters across the country occupying their campuses to demand their administration divest from companies complicit in the apartheid state of Israel.

Israel and the United States continue to perpetrate genocide and enforce apartheid upon the people of Palestine. Universities that use their endowment to invest in and support military contractors and Israeli companies are also complicit.

In response to these protests, universities have called on law enforcement to begin the forcible removal and arrest of students. DSA SF strongly condemns the arrest, suspension, or expulsion of any participating students.

Universities must meet the demands of their students – fully divest from the companies profiting from genocide, apartheid, and occupation in Palestine; institute academic boycotts and sever ties with Israeli universities; and drop all charges against student activists.

Universities and police have allied to support the US’s imperialist ambitions and Zionist settler colonialism. We must all play our part in fighting for a free Palestine.

To support our local student protests, check dsasf.org/events for ongoing mobilizations, and follow your local universities for turnout and donation asks!

It’s all hands on deck as we prepare for the 2024 Chapter Convention this June 15th and 16th! Here are some handy reminders for the next few weeks to help you get ready.

• Nominations for Steering and Grievance Officers are open! Submit your nominations here. Nominations will remain open until the May 8th chapter meeting, and elections will be held at the convention in June.
• April 24th – Deadline to submit bylaws amendments for voting at Convention
• April 28th – Deadline to submit priority resolutions for feedback from Steering
• May 1st – Pre-Convention Info Session and Workshop #2
• May 8th – May Chapter Meeting
  • This is the deadline to submit priority resolutions to steering
  • Bylaws amendments concerning voting at Convention must be read to the chapter for consideration at this meeting.
  • Annual reportbacks from all chapter bodies
  • Nominations close for Steering Committee and Grievance Officers
  • First reading on proposed bylaws amendments
• May 16th – Deadline to notify all members of the upcoming convention

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Tenant Organizing Movie Night Boom: The Sound of Eviction

Join the DSA SF Tenant Organizing Working Group for our next movie night on Saturday, May 11th at 5:00 p.m. at 1916 McAllister! We’ll be watching Boom: The Sound of Eviction. While our city’s rulers and the fawning media celebrated the Dot-Com Boom of the ‘90s, the reality was different for thousands of tenants who were evicted or priced out. From the dot-com party crashing at one end of the economic spectrum to painful moments with evicted families at the other, this documentary features interviews with dot-com workers, real estate developers, and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, as well as those who challenged the new economic order through community organizing, electoral politics, and direct action.

This event is free and open to the public, and we look forward to seeing you there!

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Kickball(s) for Abortion Access on May 18th

Connect with your neighbors on Saturday, May 18th at 1:00 p.m. while raising money for abortion access!

San Franciscans don’t need to be reminded that the struggle for bodily autonomy is universal. Or, that when someone is denied an abortion it’s more than a hardship for the individual and their family—it’s a test of our community and our commitment to basic human rights. So, let’s put our money where our mouths have been, are, and always will be: BALLS DEEP FOR ABORTION!

We’ll have a friendly fundraising competition, kickball tournament, snack bar, prizes & more! 100% of proceeds will be donated to Texas grassroots abortion access orgs Frontera Fund and Buckle Bunnies (recommended by our comrades at DSA Austin).

For more information about how to get involved, RSVP below!

Behind the Scenes

The Chapter Coordination Committee (CCC) regularly rotates duties among chapter members. This allows us to train new members in key duties that help keep the chapter running like organizing chapter meetings, keeping records updated, office cleanup, updating the DSA SF website and newsletter, etc. Members can view current CCC rotations.

Questions? Feedback? Something to add?

We welcome your feedback. If you have comments or suggestions, send a message to the #newsletter channel on Slack.

For information on how to add content, check out the Newsletter Q&A thread.

As Ron DeSantis and his ilk across the country seek to further enshrine a white supremacist version of history in our schools, libraries, and cultural centers, “organized efforts to document and broadcast the truth of our past are the most significant defense we have against disinformation.”

Place names are an enduring and omnipresent way of remembering the past. The choice of place names informs whose version of history is commemorated and given precedence. Our daily interaction with the names of streets, parks, rivers, and buildings continuously reinforces a specific version of history and consciously and subconsciously informs our relationship to the places we live.

A Brief History of Place-Naming in Michigan

People have been naming places for as long as there have been people in places. Indigenous place names often relate to the intrinsic nature of the land. Teuchasa Grondie, the place of many beavers, is the placename Iroquois speakers call the place we call Detroit, and Maskigong, based on Ojibwe “mashkig” meaning “swamp,” describes the large wetlands at the headwaters of the Maskigong Ziibi (Muskegon River). Descriptive place names value the land for its innate properties and allow for the creation of practical maps that share knowledge of how to get from one place to another, using narrative stories, poetry, and song, as well as pictorial images.

Settler-colonialism brought with it the practice of naming places to claim land ownership. British, French, and Spanish colonizers asserted the collective ownership of their rulers and cultures by naming places for kings and queens, Christian saints, European towns and cities, and famous figures from their history. Hence across the river in Ontario there is a town called London and a river called Thames, and any number of places across the U.S. named for St. _____ and various Charleses, Marys and Georges.

Individual colonizers claimed ownership of land by affixing their names to the places they settled. To give just two of many examples in Michigan: Pellston was named by William Pells in 1882, to claim his ownership of a camp on the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad [1], and on the Lake Michigan coast, Bliss was named for Rhoda Bliss, the first white woman to colonize there [2]. Many of the places the colonial settlers slapped their names on already had names. Some of these names were erased and replaced, such as Teuchasa Grondie by Detroit, and some were erased and rewritten in English, such as Maskigong to Muskegon, Michigami to Michigan, and Michinimakinaang to Mackinaw.

Later settlers took over not only Anishinaabe land but also Anishinaabe language to name places. Peter White, iron mining tycoon, appropriated the Anishinaabemowin word “ni-ga-ni” meaning “he walks foremost or ahead,” and anglicized it to Negaunee, to name a colonial settlement on the Upper Peninsula in honor of the “pioneer” ore furnace in the region. Henry Schoolcraft, U.S. “Indian Agent” in Michigan, who incidentally has a street named after him in Detroit, made up place names by combining Anishinaabemowin and Latin. For instance, Arenac is a combination of Latin “arena” meaning sand and Ojibwe “ac” meaning land or earth, made up by Schoolcraft to mean “sandy land” or “sandy place.” Some other Schoolcraft-appropriated names include Alcona, Alpena, Iosco, Kalkaska, Oceola, and Oscoda. Before assuming that a place name is Indigenous in Michigan it is worth researching to ensure it was not made up by Henry Schoolcraft [3].

Place naming for individuals did not just rename the land, it redrew the map. Instead of explaining, verbally or pictorially, how to get from A to B by describing the features of the land, maps now facilitated navigation using the names of the local colonizers. This orientation around ownership claims removed a layer of connection to the land as people walked or rode along the path navigating, not by the wetlands at the headwaters of the river, but by Pells’ Railroad Camp.

Redrawing the map erased and rewrote history. Many books, blogs, historical societies, websites, and Wikipedia posts have been dedicated to the stories of settlers who named places for themselves. All these sources, directly or indirectly, legitimize colonizers’ land ownership claims and orient us to place from a settler colonial perspective. Trying to dig beneath the layers of William Pellses, Rhoda Blisses and Arenacs to learn the original place names and the stories of the people who called them home is not an easy task.

A New Gazetteer for Downtown Detroit

To visit downtown Detroit is to be immersed in a space created to laud a specific version of the city’s past and perpetuate a vision of the future where that vision is seen to be the natural, and only possible, order of things. This space is created using monuments, statues, parks, fountains and, most ubiquitously, street names. In his work on the naming of Martin Luther King Jr. Streets in the Southern U.S., Derek Alderman notes, “Naming is a powerful vehicle for promoting identification with the past and locating oneself within the wider networks of memory” and “[street names] make the past intimately familiar to people in ways that other memorials cannot [4].”

What does it feel like to move through a land where your place names, language and history have been erased or ignored? For People of European Descent, with our language and history so prolifically and seemingly indelibly inscribed on the land, it is almost impossible to imagine.

This map shows what downtown Detroit would look like if you erased the streets and street names that honor the colonizers. When you go downtown to enjoy the holiday lights, open this map on your phone and, even if you think you know where you are going, try to use it to navigate. While in no way parallel to hundreds of years of human, land, history, and language theft and erasure, may this little exercise give you pause to acknowledge that theft and to recognize the impact of its inscription on the land.

Click here to open the map in ARCGIS

Unlike removing monuments or changing the names of private buildings, such as university halls, changing street names is a hard and expensive task and one that, frankly, we do not have the time to organize around given all the other needs of our communities. We also cannot boycott or divest from street names, they are everywhere; on signposts, maps, your ID, your mail, every form you fill out, your online billing statements, your eventbrite RSVP, and many more.

This Gazetteer asks us to change the conversation by subverting the street name narrative to tell another version/s of our shared history…

Click here to open the map in ARCGIS

This project is not intended to be the final word on street names. I am in no way any more “qualified” to be naming Detroit’s streets than the city’s so called “founders.” My intention is to inspire Detroiters to use street names to tell different narratives of place that expand our learning of history and thus our vision for the future.

In working on this project, I noticed I was only able to find Black and White honorees for the street names. I want to recognize that this is directly related to the legacies of colonialism and imperialism as discussed above, and to the legacy of slavery, which erased the indigenous names of enslaved people, and replaced them with the names of their White enslavers.

If you would like to share an honoree/s (it could be anyone from the past or present, well-known or unsung, a personal hero or a family member, or someone who is both of those things) and their stories for the gazetteer, either for any of the streets on the current map or other Detroit streets, parks, plazas etc., please click here!

[1] Petoskey News Review, 14 April 1966

[2] The Petosky Record, 19 September 1883

[3] Walton, I. (1955). Indian Place Names in Michigan. Midwest Folklore, 5(1), 23–34. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4317501

[4] Alderman, D.H. (2008). Martin Luther King Jr. Streets in the South: A New Landscape of Memory. Southern Cultures. (14)3. 88–105. University of North Carolina Press.

The Detroit Socialist is produced and run by members of Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective. Interested in becoming a member of Detroit DSA? Go to metrodetroitdsa.com/join to become a member. Send a copy of the dues receipt to: [email protected] in order to get plugged in to our activities!

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Whose Streets? Our Streets!: A New Gazetteer for Downtown Detroit was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Louie Moore offers a deep dive into degrowth, one potential disruption of capitalist production and capitalist-induced climate change. Degrowth is an economic policy focused on reducing production and consumption within an economy to prioritize a more sustainable economic lifestyle while promoting a cleaner, healthier Earth. The current economy is centered around the idea of “growth,”…

The post Why Degrowth is Needed appeared first on YDSA.