Since October 7th, DSA has supported the cause of Palestinian liberation through calls for a ceasefire, an end to US military aid to Israel, and the end of Israeli apartheid.

National actions

On a national scale, the “No Money for Massacres” campaign has been phone banking members and patching them through to leave comments with their elected representatives, whose offices take note of constituent opinion. The campaign has made hundreds of thousands of calls and has a schedule posted for interested activists to sign up for shifts. 

The DSA International Committee – whose robust Palestine Solidarity Toolkit is worth checking out – held a national call on Thursday Nov 9 that featured Nerdeen Kiswani and professor Bikrum Gill. Ms. Kiswani, one of the most prominent voices for Palestinian liberation in the English-speaking world, suggested that DSA members would do well to familiarize themselves with the Points of Unity of Within Our Lifetime (WOL), the organization she is affiliated with, and join Palestinians in their call for the right of return to the land “from the river to the sea.”

Professor Gill addressed common questions about violence during decolonization. He stated that it is not possible for people living in the belly of the beast to give instructions on how to resist oppression to people who are facing nuclear armed superpowers. He added that it is the duty of activists within the American empire and its allies to organize toward the disarmament of the military apparatuses in their own home countries.

There are some notable ad-hoc efforts by DSA organizers that have had national and international reach. Jewish socialists from across the country have signed onto an open letter whose authors are some of DSA’s Jewish organizers. The letter has caught the attention of mainstream outlets and is crucially letting the public know that Zionism is antithetical to both Judaism and social justice. A prominent DSA member helped raise over $88,000 for the Palestinian Children Relief Fund through social media. 

The work of chapters

Chapters across the United States are taking action as well. They have both sponsored rallies and marches as well as sent contingents to be present at those actions where sponsoring events was not possible. Portland DSA’s Jewish organizers were critical to the November 11 labor rally and march for a ceasefire. NYC DSA is leafletting across the boroughs, holding political education meetings about Palestinian liberation, and is leading an email blitz of elected representatives. In California, East Bay DSA was instrumental in getting a resolution in solidarity with Gaza passed in Richmond California, which was the first American city to pass such a resolution. Similarly, EBDSA members organized to boost turnout to protest and shut down a weapons shipment from the Port of Oakland, taking the lead of the Arab Resource Organizing Center and joining the wave of dockworkers in Belgium and South Africa who are similarly protesting. 

In California

California DSA members, including California Democratic Convention delegate Jonah Gottlieb of East Bay DSA, have given public comment at the Alameda County Democratic Party and the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, which has helped pass pro-Palestine resolutions in those bodies. Future targets for similar resolutions are Oakland Unified School District, the SFDCC, the Berkeley School Board, and the Oakland City Council.

YDSA in California has been active on Berkeley’s campus, supporting, promoting, and speaking at rallies organized by Bears for Palestine and Law Students for Justice in Palestine. It also hosted a teach-in on the history of Zionism and Palestinian resistance, phone banked members of Congress in support of a ceasefire and an end to US military aid for Israel, and supported UAW members at UC Berkeley in the union’s successful passage of a pro-Palestine resolution.

The above is only an overview that is meant to be representative of DSA’s involvement in the struggle for Palestinian liberation in the past several weeks, not an exhaustive recounting. Readers are encouraged to regularly check both national and local DSA websites for information on ways to participate as we continue to struggle alongside our Palestinian siblings. As American Socialists, we must be clear in echoing the demands of organizations such as WOL and Palestinian Trade Unions such as demanding a ceasefire, stopping U.S. military aid to Israel, and an end to the Israeli apartheid regime. 

Over the past year, AC Transit, the East Bay’s local bus network, has been planning a major service redesign known as “Realign”. The multi-year project seeks to adjust transit service to meet changing travel demands among riders and an ongoing transit worker shortage. However, the current proposals threaten to cut transit service and fail to address the root causes of AC Transit’s problems: workplace issues causing a transit worker retention and hiring crisis.

Linking Workers’ and Riders’ Issues

East Bay DSA’s People’s Transit Alliance began a petition campaign in May 2023 to call on AC Transit to improve conditions for transit workers and address service reliability deficits. The petition was based on demands raised by transit workers during a town hall with DSA-endorsed AC Transit Director Jovanka Beckles in April 2023. Too often, workers say, bus schedules do not accurately reflect on-the-ground conditions, causing undue pressure for Bus Operators. Workers’ breaks at the end of their routes are often cut short or don’t happen at all. For instance, when the bus arrives 10 minutes late to its final stop, that is time taken away from an operator to take a break and use the restroom before getting on their next route. For riders, this means that their buses are unreliable, leaving them unable to get to their destinations on time.

AC Transit’s own data shows that on time performance (OTP) is around 75%. However, OTP is significantly lower among certain lines—particularly the trunk routes that carry the highest number of riders. 

The Realign Proposals

On November 1st, AC Transit staff presented three proposals to the Board of Directors. AC Transit is set to vote to select and implement one of these proposals in April 2024, with full roll-out set for August. The proposals, however, currently only show route-by-route changes, without data to compare overall service levels among each other or to pre-COVID service. 

In addition, none of the proposals provide any concrete means to improve scheduling and reliability. Instead, the proposals seek to merge various lines together, exacerbating their unreliability, while threatening to cut one of AC Transit’s highest ridership lines, the 72R. All this will mean greater strain on workers and a continuing workforce shortage that keeps AC Transit from restoring services cut at the onset of the COVID pandemic.

PTA’s Interventions 

In the last week of October, PTA sponsored a sign-on letter to the AC Transit Board of Directors. The letter, which gathered over 130 signatures, called on the Board to ensure that Realign addresses scheduling issues, to publish more data on the proposed changes, and to create a truly aspirational Visionary Scenario. At the November 1st board meeting, PTA organized workers and riders to make public comment, ensuring that the Board and staff heard our concerns directly.

Along with the demands included in the letter, PTA also called on AC Transit to delay the implementation of Realign to ensure that staff have time to get it right. These interventions have incorporated workers’ voices into the Realign process.

Realign and the Longer Fight for a World-Class Transit System

Realign is a major service redesign with a lot at stake for both workers and riders. While it will take continued efforts to transform the East Bay’s bus network into the system that the multi-racial working class truly deserves, Realign provides a nearer-term opportunity to identify and organize around common-good demands. By connecting worker and rider issues, PTA is fostering solidarity among providers of a critical public service and the communities they serve, while showing that it is in fact these two groups that should be giving direction on how public transit is governed in the East Bay. 

Earlier this month Santa Ana Ward 3 residents in Orange County beat back an attempted recall of councilwoman Jessie Lopez with the help of DSA members by a 56-44% margin.

An hour south of Los Angeles, nestled between the 5, the 55 and the 22 freeways, sits Ward 3 of Santa Ana. This November, the residents there raised their voice in opposition to the corporate arm of Santa Ana city council members at the ballot box, and they won. 

Democracy be damned

We are living in a time where conservatives don’t seem to care whether their candidate earned the most votes. These are the entitled brats of our contemporary era, blindly addicted to power, democracy be damned. Can we still call it democracy? Santa Ana Councilwoman Jessie Lopez faced what appears to be a pattern on the right: when you lose the election, no you didn’t! Deny the possibility that you did in fact lose. Allege that all the votes cast for your opponent are fraudulent. And fight and spend like hell to recall the winner when you have no evidence to support that claim.

In Santa Ana—the only city in Orange County with rent control—big developers, landlords and police spent money in favor of liberal, centrist politicians who wouldn’t mind having us all pay even higher rent. Jessie Lopez, a member of the Working Families Party, was duly elected to the City Council, representing Ward 3, in November of 2020. The City Charter, which was drafted and adopted last century, clearly reads that a member of the City Council is elected for a term of four years. Why do right-wingers, cops, and big owners wish to ignore basic foundations to the Santa Ana city code? a

“It’s very important to remember that landlords and police unions teamed up together not for the benefit of the community, but for the benefit of themselves. This recall was an attempt by the powers that be to disenfranchise the voters from the 3rd Ward,” said Daniel Placencia, Co-Chair of the Orange County chapter of the DSA. “They were willing to spend eight hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money, for what? To end rent control and diminish police oversight.”

Disrespect

When landlords, cops and establishment Democrats on the council endorsed a recall of Jessie Lopez, they did it out of complete disrespect for the majority of working families who put her there. Jessie was born and raised in Santa Ana, California. She holds a BA in Sociology from the California State University, Long Beach, after transferring in from Santa Ana College. While in college, she organized to fight against sexual assault. She has worked to ensure the city’s parks are revitalized and taken care of. She is an exemplar of public service. Make no mistake, these qualifications fall on deaf ears for her greedy and power-hungry opponents.

These opponents include Phil Braccera, David Penazola, and Valerie Amezcua, the current mayor, who are against full enfranchisement of the residents of Santa Ana, as well as rent control. Over the past year, these councilmembers took xenophobic and classist positions in debates. In Amezcua’s own words, “There’s four people up here that are just jumping in the water cause it feels good, looks good – ra, ra, ra – pat yourself up on the back because ‘I’m saving my community.’”  

She went on, “That’s mature, responsible leadership. That’s not what we’re doing up here.” Allowing rents to increase, handing over excessively more money to cops, and disenfranchising residents of Santa Ana appear to be what Amezcua finds responsible. Rather than deploying the council’s power to the benefit of people, these liberal centrists have repeatedly bent their knees to big money interests.

Placencia points out, “What’s more ridiculous is that Jessie is up for re-election next year, the general election. They knew less people would show up during an off year, and that’s why they tried this.” Daniel grew up in Santa Ana and is now studying Political Science at Concordia University, a small private university in Irvine. He understands politics as a noble vocation, sharing my excitement over a cup of coffee that Jessie defeated the recall.

Who gets to have power

The policies Lopez supports include keeping Santa Anans housed, aid for houseless people, and ensuring city funds are provided for education, recreation, mental health professionals. These policies help keep everyone safe, while supporting the most vulnerable in our society. While these seemingly intractable social problems pervade the state, every Californian can find hope in Jessie’s victory.

“Imagine talking to single parents or struggling families and telling them your rent is going to go up two hundred dollars a month this year,” said Placencia. “Can you imagine the amount of extra stress they’d be put under to pull together an extra two hundred? [Because of] our victory, we maintained the 3% rent control, which was established when Jessie was the deciding vote in favor in 2020.” 

Or as Lopez told Jacobin, “This is the fundamental fight that so many of us have been a part of for so long—of who gets to have power in their communities.”

Orange County DSA members joined the CA Working Families Party to phonebank for Jessie on September 29. And on the Saturday before the election, November 11th, Orange County DSA members joined a canvass to knock doors for her. The night she won, OCDSA members joined the celebration. 

With this victory, Californian socialists can admire Santa Ana for leading on democratic and collectivist principles. But the fight goes on. With neighboring Orange County cities such as Costa Mesa and Buena Park signaling support for rent control policies when we all drastically need them, you better believe the interests of capital will swarm in to try to stop these municipalities from progressing. If we continue to organize, we can continue to win.

The national wave of worker unrest over hospital conditions that create job stress, burnout, and short-staffing reached the corner of Clement and 42nd Streets in San Francisco’s outer Richmond district last month.

On October 18, nearly one hundred RNs and other staffers from the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center (SFVAMC) spent their breaks or lunch hour on an informational picket-line. It was organized by Local 1 of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), which represents 1,100 employees at the facility.  Dressed in blue scrubs, and accompanied by a boom box blasting golden oldies like “We Are Family,” the RNs waved signs, chanted slogans, urged passing drivers to honk their horns in solidarity, which many did, and perfected their picket-line call-and-response skills (“When nurses are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”) 

A key organizer of the protest was SF DSA member Mark Smith, an occupational therapist at the VA. NFFE members are getting picket line and public support from other SF DSA labor committee activists and SF Supervisor Dean Preston, who is also a DSA member.

The protest was triggered by a cost-cutting measure, announced by one of 170 medical centers run by Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which serves nine million patients nationwide.  SFVAMC executives want to cancel flexible work schedules for bedside nurses at a time when the VA is struggling to fill RN vacancies around the country. A recent report by the agency’s own Inspector General found “severe shortages” of nurses in more than 90% of VA hospitals.

NFFE members—who picketed in T-shirts with the slogan “Serving Those Who Served” on the back—say this management move will impede RN recruitment and retention locally and adversely affect the quality of patient care.  According to one report, 87% of healthcare recruiters surveyed are having more difficulty hiring nurses, with two-thirds reporting major difficulties.  This has created an intense post-pandemic competition for nursing staff.  The flexible work schedule known as “72/80,” which allows nurses to work for 72 hours while being paid for 80, has become a key tool for keeping experienced RNs on the job and attracting younger ones.

Why Change What’s Working?

To conform to this new industry standard, VA management initiated “72/80” about a year ago.  As part of a national effort to reduce RN burnout and relieve staffing shortages, more than 5,100 nurses at 57 VA medical centers around the country are currently on this schedule, a 70% increase from earlier this year. At the San Francisco VA, inpatient and emergency department nurses currently work six 12-hour shifts in two weeks, totaling 72 hours instead of the traditional 80 hours. 

This arrangement is popular because it permits workload relief and more time off between shifts.  As one NFFE member explained, it allows nurses to have more time to care for themselves and their families, and also work part-time elsewhere if necessary.  In a high cost of living city like San Francisco, this is often a necessity. Another nurse, who has been with the VA for over a decade, recalled that management initially rolled out flexible scheduling “very intentionally, unit by unit to see how it would work and it was working.  People were happier and morale went up.” 

But then management decreed that nurses at Fort Miley, as the facility is popularly known, would have to return to a traditional 80-hour schedule in early November.

“We have been told by our leadership that there is a $76 million deficit and that part of the way they want to deal with that is by taking away our flexible work schedules,” said one picketing nurse, who did not want her name used for fear of employer retaliation. “To now take that away and have us work more for no difference in pay, no increase in pay, is a huge problem for us.” She and other nurses interviewed for this story worry the schedule change, if implemented, will lead valued co-workers to quit.  “That would absolutely happen,” one RN predicted. “There are so many nurses that are hanging on because they care about our veterans.”  

Listening to Nurses?

Union supporters were also irate about management’s stance during a recent virtual town hall meeting with nursing staff. Instead of listening to rank-and-file concerns, one reported, “They ended up speaking over the nurses for nearly the entire time and, when we tried to have the union meet with our medical center director, she wouldn’t even entertain the idea.”  (Not surprisingly, a VA Inspector General report issued in August found deficiencies in the local leadership, including the facility’s nurse executive. Even more alarming was its finding that 40% of San Francisco VA hospital staff were afraid to disclose a “violation of any law, rule, or regulation” for fear of reprisal.) 

According to NFFE chief steward Mark Smith, management “has been unwilling to negotiate over its proposed change in nurses’ working conditions and has not responded to our bargaining related data requests.” NFFE has a filed an unfair labor practice charge over this, triggering a pending investigation by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA).

VA management did respond to a CR request for comment on the dispute. In an email message, local public affairs representative Shirley Jih told us that “the re-evaluation of the 72/80 alternate work schedule was carefully made and we are confident, that as a health care organization, our ability to provide high-quality care for veterans will remain unchanged. We will monitor outcomes and continue to evaluate the decision as we move forward.” Jih said that the SF VA Medical Center has “an active talent management program and will continue to utilize available recruitment and retention authorities to hire and maintain highly qualified nursing staff.” 

Community Support

Mark Smith points out that the VA’s top three local competitors for nursing staff—UC San Francisco, Zuckerberg San Francisco General, and California Pacific Medical Center—all offer flexible schedules along with equivalent or better salaries and benefits for their nursing staff. Two San Francisco Supervisors, who have weighed into the dispute, are questioning management’s claim that the impending schedule change will have no adverse impact on what Jih called the “valued, dedicated, and hardworking members of our staff.” 

On October 18, District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan offered personal picket-line encouragement to VA nurses, who work in her district. She told us that “taking away flexible schedules is creating a hazard in the work environment not just for nurses but for their patients.” In a letter sent the same day to SF VA hospital executives, District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston chided management for not “consulting with frontline nurses or their union.”

Preston put the ill-advised scheduling decision in the broader context of “privatization of public goods.” This has led, under the Obama, Trump and Biden Administrations, to massive out-sourcing of veterans’ care to the private healthcare industry. Currently, more than one quarter of the VA’s $120 billion clinical care budget is being spent outside the VA for treatment that could be provided, at lower cost and with greater effectiveness, inside the nation’s best working model for socialized medicine.

Impact of Privatization

As a result, the VA Medical Center in San Francisco is only one of many around the country with operating deficits, due to unnecessary but Congressionally-mandated patient referrals to the private sector. The hospital’s $830 million budget for 2020 was increased by $87 million for the following year; yet $50 million of that increase was spent on reimbursement of private doctors and hospitals. When a group of VA patients and union activists held an anti-privatization protest four years ago at the same location as the NFFE protest this month,  Vietnam combat veteran Paul Cox warned that “outsourcing is going to do serious damage to the VA’s ability to provide healthcare.”

That prediction has, unfortunately, come true. And those paying the price today, locally and nationally, are VA patients like Cox and front-line care-givers forced to wage defensive fights over the fall-out from privatization of VA services. Like trade unionists under attack anywhere, NFFE Local 1 is necessarily focused on local damage control.

“Nurses understand the necessity of effective budget management,” says chief steward Mark Smith. “They are prepared to discuss alternative solutions to address financial concerns while preserving the 72/80 schedule. They firmly believe that cost savings can be achieved in ways that don’t reduce bedside nurses’ quality of work-life. We want an agreement that benefits the VA, its bedside nurses, and the veterans they care for.”

Any such “win-wins” on a larger scale will not occur until more caregivers stand up and fight back politically against the privatization push that threatens more 300,000 union-represented workers at the VA and nine million patients.

On October 4th, from 4:30-6:30 PM, seven members of the Climate Action Committee of East Bay DSA canvassed at the Concord Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station, talking to people on their way back from work.

The primary aim of the canvass was to gather signatures for a petition to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to ban new oil and gas infrastructure within the county and to phase out existing drilling.

To give some context for the petition and canvass, let’s look at the fossil-fuel geography of Contra Costa County. Contra Costa is chock full of refineries, which dot the coast of the county along its natural northern and western borders—a chain of waterways transitioning from the Sacramento River to the San Francisco Bay. Here we find a history of anti-fossil-fuel resistance, in the city of Richmond especially, where the Chevron refinery has poisoned residents for decades (e.g., Richmond has an asthma rate of 25%, compared to 13% in California).

Contra Costa also has an active oil well in unincorporated land outside the city of Antioch. This is on the eastern side of the imposing Mount Diablo, which splits the county.

We canvassed in Concord, which is the most populous city in Contra Costa (129,000), but fairly spread out with a land area larger than Manhattan. Concord is to the west of Mount Diablo.

Our experience canvassing

To assist the seven of us canvassing BART riders at the Concord station we had made flyers, which described our intent and some background on the current drilling.

Here’s what we found.

• Many had no knowledge of drilling in Contra Costa County. One canvasser said only one person he spoke with knew about the drilling, and that person had been taught about it a few years ago as a high school student. This person was against the drilling, but felt hopeless about stopping it.

• Only a small fraction of the BART riders stopped to chat, and even among those who seemed supportive, few were interested in having long conversations. As a result the vast majority of conversations were quite short.

• Only a fairly small fraction of those who opposed the drilling did so due to the relationship between fossil fuel usage and climate change. Other reasons included: the negative health effects it could have on a beloved pet, and the perception that drilling could result in seismic activity.

Takeaways

A person will take an action to try to change the world when 

• that action fits into the existing pattern of their life-activity

• they believe that that action has a good chance of changing the world to alleviate a felt pain.

Put another way, the strongest resistance begins in sites within people’s daily lives, in opposition to obvious wrongs, with actions that start off as small modifications of behaviors they’re already engaged in. This is why labor and tenant unions can be so powerful. They do not require their members to engage in purely “activist” activity outside the patterns of their daily behavior; rather they allow people to struggle within the life-patterns they are already following due to their position within the social structure.

Climate change is, unfortunately, a pretty abstract issue. The connection between its causes (fossil fuel usage demanded by the needs of capital accumulation) and its effects (heatwaves, fires, droughts, flooding, destruction of animal and plant life, mass migrations) is difficult to perceive directly because there is a large time-lag between the cause and the effects, and because the causality is mediated by completely invisible changes in the composition of the atmosphere.

Growing the committee’s skills

Even in this case of concrete fossil fuel infrastructure, the fact that the existing well is hidden away from most people makes the issue abstract in a way that lessens the felt pain. Moreover, the actions we were presenting people with—first stopping to talk about a yet unknown issue, and then subsequently signing a petition—required interrupting their normal commuting-rhythm and perhaps was not credible in terms of its potential to actually ban new fossil fuel infrastructure.

As a result, I think our effectiveness was limited in terms of getting signatures and having deep conversations. On the positive side, I think the canvass was valuable in terms of exercising our skills as a committee: our logistical capacity of getting canvassing materials to the site, our mobilizing capacity to turn out members, our design and communication capacities in the design and production of a flyer, and our skills in talking to strangers about politics. Moreover, I think we learned something about how a local segment of the working class is currently thinking about the climate crisis, the relation of that crisis to fossil fuel, and the possibility of intervening.

Hot labor summer has come to a close with a union election win for Planned Parenthood workers in southern California. On September 12th, the National Labor Relations Board tallied mail-in ballots, revealing 93% of workers in support of forming a union with SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW). 

An Accelerated Campaign

Following the overturn of Roe with the Dobbs decision in June of last year, abortion providers became especially vulnerable to the will of their employers, as demand for essential healthcare services increased. Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest (PPPSW) workers recognized this, and understood there cannot be reproductive justice without labor justice.

The organizing committee leading this campaign was determined via nomination by peers, identifying individuals considered organic leaders within the micro-community of each work site. This process cultivated organizers with diverse experiences, and representation of job roles across PPPSW. This was the first union organizing campaign for most of the organizing committee. Therefore internal development and improved understanding of unions and labor justice were important for the organizing committee’s success. Committee members became a key resource for all PPPSW workers, dispelling myths and misconceptions about unions, and streamlining communication throughout the campaign. 

PPPSW workers progressed through their organizing campaign at a remarkable pace for the affiliate’s size and geography, which includes about 500 workers in San Diego, Riverside, and Imperial counties across 26 facilities. This momentum may be attributed to the workers’ collective dedication to reproductive rights, and how those principles align with ensuring a fair and equitable workplace. Less than a year of rank-and-file organizing resulted in a clear majority win for PPPSW, forming a union of workers from many job titles, including licensed professionals, medical assistants, patient access specialists, and non-clinical administrative roles. 

Membership Priorities 

In joining SEIU-UHW, PPPSW workers have chosen a prominent healthcare justice union of more than 100,000 workers across California, which includes workers from Kaiser and SHARP Healthcare. With this foundation of solidarity, PPPSW workers intend to improve on key issues such as pay, benefits, and work-life balance. Governor Newsom’s recent approval of SB 525, which establishes the first statewide healthcare-specific minimum wage of $25 per hour, was spearheaded by SEIU-UHW membership, and sets the tone for PPPSW’s upcoming contract negotiations. Bargaining is set to begin in December 2023. 

Solidarity and Next Steps

San Diego DSA supported PPPSW workers throughout their union campaign, allowing workers to air issues and campaign progress with the Labor Working Group. DSA members shared connections to elevate the PPPSW campaign in media at the local and national level. DSA members also participated in PPPSW union events, such as a Labor Day action and a mutual aid fundraiser. 

As the PPPSW union moves into negotiating its first union contract, DSA members will continue to support the campaign by pressing the employer to bargain in good faith and participating in worker collective actions as they arise. 

On November 7th Tacoma voters passed the strongest tenant protections in Washington State, despite the landlord opposition shattering all previous spending records to defeat us. Tacoma DSA launched the campaign and built Tacoma for All into a broad labor-community coalition to win Initiative #1. We overcame efforts by the Mayor and City Council to derail our campaign, first by attempting to co-opt the movement with a watered down alternative, and then with a competing initiative.

Backed by the 8,000 grocery workers in UFCW 367 and the wider Pierce County Central Labor Council, Tacoma for All built a 100-strong volunteer army to knock over 20,000 doors. The victory of Initiative #1, and DSA-endorsed city council candidate Jamika Scott, has transformed DSA into a center of gravity for working-class politics in Tacoma.

Meanwhile, Whatcom DSA helped win two major ballot initiatives: one to raise the minimum wage in Bellingham, and a second to compel landlords pay tenants relocation assistance when rent hikes over 8% force renters to move. DSA plays a central role in Community First Whatcom, the coalition behind both initiatives. After winning two ballot initiatives in 2021, this is the second round of victories for Whatcom DSA and the coalition, cementing the organized left as major force in Bellingham politics.

My first interview is with four fellow leaders of Tacoma DSA, who co-led the initiative campaign with me. My second interview is with Cleveland Harris, a leader in Whatcom DSA and the chair of Community First Whatcom.

Thanks to Jason Corey and Max van Ginneken for mixing and editing the audio for this episode, and to Val Ross for the cover art.

Earlier this month, voters nationwide went to the polls. In Ohio, The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety, listed on the ballot as Issue 1, passed with 57% of Ohioians voting to codify a right to an abortion, contraception, and other reproductive rights into the state Constitution, in a clear rebuke to the near total-ban on abortion pushed through by the far-right Republican Ohio Legislature in the wake of the Supreme Court Dobbs Decision. While here in New York, voters elected their City Council members, and DSA-endorsed incumbents, Tiffany Caban of District 22 in Queens and Alexa Aviles of District 38 in Sunset Park, won resounding bids for reelection in their districts. Tonight, we will hear from Julie from Cleveland DSA, about the statewide effort across several Ohio DSA chapters to mobilize voters to the polls in support of reproductive rights. We will also be joined in-studio with Stef from NYC-DSA Electoral Working Group and Anna from the Aviles campaign to discuss the City Council races and what’s in store for DSA electoral politics in 2024. 

You can become a DSA member at https://act.dsausa.org/donate/membership/ 

To get more involved in the NYC DSA Electoral Working Group go to https://socialists.nyc/ or email at electoral@socialists.nyc

To join a phonebank to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, visit https://www.dsausa.org/no-money-for-massacres-phonebanks/

Summary

Chapters need a way to share files, meeting minutes, agendas, graphics and often end-up using web storage like Google or Microsoft. They also need a way to restrict who has access and easily remove and add access for members without it becoming cumbersome. This guide has a solution using Google Groups and a dedicated Google email account that is completely free, and implements Role Based Access Control, a key information security principle which dictates access based on someone’s role in their local DSA chapter or National Committee.

Outcomes

DSA Chapter will have a free and easy to use and setup role based access via a simple and familiar platform. A group e-mail and google drive structure to manage information.

1. Setup
2. Pre-Planning
   1. Decide on what the name of your group e-mail will be.
      • Ex: dsa-example-chapter@gmail.com
   2. Consider what roles exist in your group/organization. For instance your steering/organizing/leadership committee and general membership. This will determine how many google groups you make. It is recommended you start small even with just the two groups above and only make groups as needed. Name these similar to your group e-mail with the name of the role(or sub-group) first.
      • Ex: steering-dsa-example-chapter@googlegroups.com
      • Ex: members-steering-example-chapter@googlegroups.com 
   3. Google Groups can also be used as group e-mail addresses and e-mail listservs that can be used for group communication. Consider if you want to use this feature or not it can be turned on and off at any time! 
3. Making the Setup (total time ~30 minutes)
   1. Make a Gmail account and give members who will be checking it or making the drive folders access. Make sure you set up account recovery information once made. Write down your password or store it in an offline document or password manager if you have one.*
   2. Logged into the Gmail account you just made. Go to groups.google.com and hit create group. Feel free to follow this guide through ‘Create A Group’. We will start with your leadership/steering committee group.
   3. There will be another section/guide on using Google Groups as shared e-mail inboxes for now this will focus on making use of it to grant and revoke access to Google Drive folders. 
   4. On the left side of your screen you will see People click this tab.
      1. 
   5. At the top of your screen you will see ‘Add Members’ click this
      1. 
   6. In the pop up window hit directly add members
      1. 
   7. The Gmail that made the group will automatically be made an owner. You can copy and paste an e-mail list into any of the three fields (Members, Owners, Managers). These groups determine how much someone can manage the google group!
      1.  For Steering Committees and non-general membership groups/committees consider making all members group managers to ease the ability to add or remove members without having to log into the group Gmail account. Determine what security works best for your situation but don’t forget ease of use!
      2. Feel free to type a message letting people know they have been added.
      3. NOTE: Google places a limit of 200 new email addresses in a 24 hour period day to get added to a Google Group. For larger chapters, you will need to split your membership lists up to several days.
   8. Click Add members 
   9. Now repeat this process (Steps 2 – 8) for the general membership group but only put members in as Group Members. Consider the same again for Group Managers to ease the ability to add members to the Google Groups. Make sure everyone including the people from the leadership/steering group is added to this group!
      • Note for small or flat groups you can get away with just one group and skip this part.
   10. After making the general membership group there is one setting we need to change specific to the general membership group before we go into setting up a google drive folder.
       1. Click Membership Privacy
          1. 
       2. For larger groups or spaces where privacy is important please make sure you select group managers only for the following two options as Group Managers or Owner.
          1. 
   11. Now this is where we can decide if we want to allow people to send e-mails to the group like a listserv. You may want to turn this off for general groups and use your regular newsletter or listserv system.
       1. Click “General” under Settings
          1. 
       2. If you want to let members e-mail each other and let people not in the group e-mail the group use these settings
          1. 
          2. If you don’t want to allow non-group members to e-mail select ‘Group Members’ under who can post.
       3. If you want to not allow e-mails to the group change this setting to Group Managers or Group Owners.
          1. 
4. Setting up the Google Drive
   1. Note that whether or not you use paid Google Workspace Shared Drives or regular Google Drives this is still useful to easily manage permissions. As you will still have individual users who can have varying access to specific files.
   2. Go to Google Drive with the organization gmail account.
   3. Make a folder(s) as needed in the google drive and name them appropriately.
      1. Ex: DSA Steering Committee Files
      2. Ex: DSA General Files
   4. Right click the folder(s) and hit share
      1. 
   5. On the share popup type in the name of the google group you made before.
      1. 
   6. Grant the access needed and hit done!
   7. Now just make files inside of these folders where your main Gmail account is the owner and the appropriate google group has the access you want them to have. You add and remove people from one place groups.google.com instead of trying to manage a bunch of files and different ownership.  
5. If you already have Google files
   1. If you already have Google Drive folders or files on this same screen have the person who owns the file ‘transfer ownership’ to the organization’s Gmail account.
      1. After giving the organization’s Gmail access. Click the down arrow next to the editor label.
         1. 
6. Other Uses for Google Groups
   1. As mentioned they can be used for e-mailing a group together or allowing someone to e-mail a group of people as one. 
   2. You can also use them to easily invite people to a calendar just type in the group name and it will send the invite to all of the people you want just like the files.