Perhaps making mindful choices about what we eat based on a recognition of the human and non-human labor can bring us one step closer to fulfilling authentic needs.

A member essay on a recent anti-zionist resolution considered by the members of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists.

Come review our 2024 with us!

Our AfroSocialists & Socialists of Color Section (AFROSOC), alongside other chapter members, kicked off our 2024 by showing up, tabling, and speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally with former DSA honorary chair Cornel West! AFROSOC continued the year with monthly meetings and bimonthly game nights, affirming a space for our BIPOC-identifying members to build power in Birmingham DSA and their communities.

In February, we approved our Save Our Libraries campaign! With our comrades at North Alabama DSA, we pushed back against the censorship of LGBTQIA+ and racial justice materials in Alabama’s public libraries, speaking in opposition to far-right groups at board meetings for North Shelby Library and the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS). We also organized “write-ins” in Shelby County and Tuscaloosa and online to overwhelm the APLS with anti-censorship letters.

Also in February, our Palestine Working Group gathered outside pro-IDF musician Matisyahu’s show at Saturn to let him know he’s not welcome in Birmingham. Subsequent protests in the Southwest led to Matisyahu’s shows being cancelled in Arizona and New Mexico.

Following our March endorsement of voting “Uncommitted” in the Alabama presidential primary, a March vigil for martyr Aaron Bushnell, and a May Nakba Day rally, we joined local Palestine solidarity organizations to pack a Birmingham City Council meeting. As a result, we successfully pressured our councilpeople to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza (albeit a watered-down version of our original proposal).

On May Day, our Labor Working Group gathered to create solidarity signs and banners for Mercedes workers unionizing in Vance. We continued our labor solidarity by supporting striking AT&T workers on their summer picket lines, and organizing “sip-ins” in support of the unionized Midtown Birmingham Starbucks partners.

And, alongside our North Alabama DSA comrades, our members continued to develop their own workplace organizing skills at October’s Alabama Troublemakers School.

We kicked off Pride Month in June with our Queer Socialists Member Section (QueerSoc)’s first-ever meeting! Tabling at Central Alabama Pride (CAP)’s Pridefest and marching in CAP’s Pride Parade, QueerSoc and chapter members handed out literature on how Israel “pinkwashes” their genocide of Palestinians.

After disrupting multiple summer town hall meetings of transphobic Alabama politicians, QueerSoc closed out the year with a November Queersgiving potluck, a December gift swap, and a reading group for David Levithan’s “Two Boys Kissing.”

In July, our Mutual Aid Working Group expanded its Brake Light & Fuse Replacement Clinic program from clinics every three months to clinics every month. The program, which aims to protect working-class Birminghamians and Tuscaloosans from police violence, also began offering free oil and filter changes.

In August, our Mutual Aid Working Group also expanded its Street Solidarity houseless/homeless resource program from once-a-month to twice-a-month actions every 1st and 3rd Sunday in Linn Park. We also began a reading group for Deborah K. Padgett’s “Housing First,” to continue thinking of ways we can build power for our houseless and homeless neighbors.

In October, we launched our “Stop Fueling Genocide” priority campaign! This campaign, begun by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, aims to pressure Chevron, the largest natural gas supplier to Israel, into leaving Palestine. Our members agitated for boycotts of local Chevron and Texaco stations by canvassing local outdoor markets. They next aim to pressure local station owners into disaffiliating from Chevron.

Following the Democrats’ Election Day losses, our membership grew by nearly 15%, as Birmingham and Tuscaloosa socialists sought to fight back against a second Trump presidency. With our spike in membership, we moved our general meetings to Saturn to accommodate our increased attendance, restarted our “Birmingham DSA 101” orientation events, and experienced record attendance at all our chapter meetings.

Throughout the year, we held socialist social hours, new member happy hours, and debate and Election Night watch parties to build our camaraderie. We also created an Electoral & Legislative Working Group to continue building working-class power through elected office.

And, to close out 2024, we spent our Christmas Eve on the Midtown Birmingham Starbucks partners’ picket line, supporting their fight for better raises and to stop Starbucks’s union busting.

Thanks for reviewing our 2024 with us! Want to join us in 2025? Go to bhamdsa.org/calendar, and look for events with a bread 🍞 emoji. These are events we recommend for new members and those who are DSA-curious.

And join DSA! Start your monthly dues at dsausa.org/join.

Charlotte Food Not Bombs (FNB), an organization we have collaborated and share cross membership with, recently released a statement platforming allegations of sexual violence. These allegations regard an individual involved in several activist spaces in our city.

Charlotte Metro DSA stands in solidarity with FNB in their pursuit of restorative justice for the survivor(s) as they come forth. Our organization has zero tolerance for sexual assault and harassment and will refuse to work with anyone credibly accused of such—or the organizations which uncritically harbor them. We recommend that everyone check out @clt_food_not_bombs on Instagram for details on the developing situation and how to support the survivor(s).

As a reminder, per DSA's Resolution 33, we have a grievance policy in place to seek justice for survivors and hold perpetrators accountable in our organization. If you would like to file a grievance or learn more about our process, please check out https://charlottedsa.org/grievance-policy.

As socialists, we recognize sexual violence as an outgrowth of patriarchy, itself one of the principal ways our capitalist society divides the working class and furthers our collective exploitation. The fight for socialism is inseparable from the fight for women's liberation. We have to look out for our comrades and allies by fostering welcoming and inclusive organizing spaces. This will require us to seriously reflect on how we can set an example of feminist community and organization as we fight for the overthrow of class society and its systemic perpetration of patriarchy.

In solidarity,

Charlotte Metro DSA Steering Committee

Thorn West: Issue No. 222

City Politics

• LAist talks with incoming (DSA-LA-endorsed councilmember Ysabel Jurado about her vision for CD 14. Conversely, Streetsblog LA covers the last day of outgoing CD14 councilmember Kevin de León. 

• The office of City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has elected to press charges against several dozen activists who were arrested while blocking traffic on the 110 Freeway, to demand an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

• A report from the CAO updates the city’s worsening budget problem.

Health Care

• The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health launched the Medical Debt Relief Program. The program enables the county to purchase $500 million of qualifying county residents’ medical debt, at a fraction of its cost. The debt is then automatically forgiven.
• Governor Newsom has declared a state of emergency to combat the spread of bird flu, following several confirmed cases across the state.

Labor

• LAUSD school principals have voted to join the Teamsters union. The result of the election is seen as a rebuke of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho who has pushed to cut administrative jobs and increase principal workloads.

Housing Rights

• LA Public Press projects the various ways that an incoming Trump administration could disrupt housing and homelessness policy in Los Angeles.

• The city’s Board of Transportation Commissioners has voted not to transfer a city parking lot in Venice, which is planned for use by a low income housing project. City Council can vote to override the decision. A lawsuit against the city alleges that officials, including City Attorney Feldstein Soto and Councilmember Traci Park, have colluded to sabotage the project.

Transportation

• The incoming Trump administration has threatened to cut federal funding to the long-planned high speed rail project connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Incarceration

• CalMatters places Proposition 36, which will result in more people being incarcerated in the California prison system, in the context of the state’s obscenely high number of inmate deaths.

• Last week, the LA County Probation Department announced that it will not comply with a state order to close the understaffed and unsafe Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. This week the Board of Supervisors later voted 4–1 to declare a state of emergency in a last-ditch effort to keep the dysfunctional facility open.

Environmental Justice

• The Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to California’s vehicle emission standards – which are more strict than the federal standard – leaving them in place for now.

• Demands to close the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility have thundered since it was the site of the largest methane leak in U.S. history, nine years ago. Despite public outrage, today the California Public Utilities Commission voted to delay the closure indefinitely, until such time as the demand for natural gas has dropped.

The post LA County Pilots Medical Debt Relief Program + New Councilmembers Seated appeared first on The Thorn West.

For decades now the federal government has, to a certain extent, mediated relations between the classes through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the National Mediation Board (NMB), the Department of Labor (DOL), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), etc. The Labor Bureaucracy has been fine with that because it kind of keeps them […]

Thorn West: Issue No. 221

State Politics

• A new state legislative session has begun. Both houses have adopted new rules that reduce the amount of bills a member may introduce: from from 50 to 35 in the Assembly and from 40 to 35 in the Senate.

• Though Republicans gained a few seats in the state legislature, Democrats have maintained their supermajority in both houses.

• Several close House races across California have finally been called, with the results favoring Democratic Party candidates. The final split in the House of Representatives will be 220-215 in favor of Republicans.

• The special legislative session called for by Governor Newsom to “Trump-proof” California met for the first time this week. So far, it has introduced legislation to set aside $25 million for potential legislation against the Trump administration (a move which does not require that the legislature be called).

City Politics

• This Saturday, several of DSA-LA’s successfully endorsed candidates for local office will sit with DSA-LA members running for organizational leadership in 2025 for a panel discussion on “what our roadmap to a Los Angeles for the working class looks like in the year ahead.” Click here to find out more or to RSVP (note that this event is only open to DSA-LA members in good standing).

Labor

• Starbucks Workers United is entering a critical phase in contract negotiations, and is organizing solidarity flyering events nationwide. In Los Angeles, DSA-LA is organizing a flyering event on Sunday, December 15, at 2 pm, at the Starbucks at 3785 Wilshire Boulevard. (For more info, email:  labor@dsa-la.org)

Immigration

• StreetsblogLA goes into depth on LA’s new “sanctuary city” ordinance, placing it in the context of the attempts to implement such a law, which have run into the LAPD’s unwillingness to be democratically controlled. The final version of the ordinance was put into effect by a unanimous City Council vote this week.

• Though both the city and state have announced intentions to fight the Trump administration’s stated intention to conduct dystopian levels of deportations, there may be no way to stop the planned construction of a new detention facility that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to build in the state.

NOlympics

• Outgoing City Council President Paul Krekorian has been appointed to lead LA’s newly created “Office of Major Events,” which will oversee, among other things, the Olympic Games in 2028. More from Torched.

• The LA Metro Board has sent a letter to incoming President Trump, asking him to set aside $3.2 billion to fund transportation projects, specifically in support of the Olympics.

Local Media

• A former editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times explains the motive for his recent resignation: the ongoing heavy-handed interference of the paper’s billionaire owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, on behalf of the hard right Trump coalition.

Environmental Justice

• LA Public Press spoke with several local experts on the potential impact of a Trump administration on the city and state’s climate policy.

The post Final Election Results in CA + City, State Prepare for 2nd Trump Term appeared first on The Thorn West.

Two weeks ago, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for their atrocious war crimes against humanity that have been steadily directed at the people of Palestine; specifically, for their crimes of mass murder, persecution of the Palestinian people, and purposeful withholding of aid so as to cause starvation and a plummeting quality of life. All three crimes have led to unnecessary pain and suffering for Palestinians as well as targeted attacks against their ways of life and calculated destruction of their infrastructure. The arrest warrants were brought about from the International Criminal Court by way of three judges named Nicolas Guillou, Reine Alapini-Gansou, and Beti Hohler. The warrants are recognized and enforced by 124 countries that are a part of the International Criminal Court. As of the release of the warrants, there have been 44,466+ deaths and 105,358 injured in Gaza and 801+ murdered in the West Bank, though these numbers are likely much higher as Gaza’s Ministry of Health is no longer able to adequately report deaths.

With the destruction and massacres of the Palestinian people, there has also been an ongoing conflict against the people of Lebanon as well. 3,961 Lebanese people have been killed since last year and 16,520 have been injured. A ceasefire was introduced on November 27 that was aimed to last 60 days and would involve the removal of Israeli armies and Hezbollah as well as implementing the Lebanese army to the south of the country to oversee the ceasefire operations. The ceasefire has been backed by the French and the United States, though Israel violated the ceasefire within a day of it being enacted. With both countries being under constant attack from the Israeli war machine, there has been a growing movement of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to support the Palestinian people and to put pressure on governmental bodies to withdraw support of Israel. The BDS movement is used locally and internationally with multiple successes, such as cutting ties with military arms companies, blocking shipping of arms to Israel, and refusing to support companies that use Palestinian land.

Within Alabama, there has been pressure against the arms companies based in Huntsville, pressure against the University of Alabama from students to cut financial ties with Israel, and a current campaign to boycott the Chevron gas company. The boycott of Chevron aims at stopping the gas giant’s contracts with Israel as it profits from the genocide and enforces the illegal siege of Gaza. To continue the support of the BDS movement locally and to help our Palestinian siblings in and out of state, there is an open invitation to pledge to boycott Chevron and to join the campaign of boycotting its Texaco and Caltex brands. To join in the campaign is to continue to remain steadfast in the face of the oppression of the Palestinian people and their lands as well as supporting an already mounting and successful pressure on agencies to stop interacting with the Israeli war complex.

Sources

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/21/what-are-the-icc-countries-where-netanyahu-and-gallant-may-face-arrest

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/icc-judges-who-issued-netanyahu-gallant-arrest-warrants

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/12/israels-genocide-day-423-israeli-siege-of-north-gaza-intensifies-as-it-enters-60th-day/

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241201-factbox-number-of-israeli-ceasefire-violations-in-lebanon-reaches-62-with-24-reported-saturday/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/26/ceasefire-between-lebanons-hezbollah-and-israel-what-to-know

https://bdsmovement.net/call

In a world where capitalism’s crises grow more acute with each passing day, the need for a truly revolutionary socialist movement has never felt more urgent. Yet within the broad left, a crucial question persists: How do we transform our principles into mass movements powerful enough to challenge, and eventually overthrow, the capitalist system? An […]

In this episode, Aaron Stauffer (Associate Director, The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice) joins to discuss faith, the strategies of broad-based community organizing, and the role of sacred values in organizing work. For more on the topic, check out his book: Listening to the Spirit: The Radical Social Gospel, Sacred Value, and Broad-based Community Organizing.