The Democratic Socialists of America condemn the killing of Sonya Massey by the Springfield, Illinois Police Department. Sonya Massey called 911 because she was afraid of a potential intruder but instead of receiving support, she was met with horrific violence. This brutal execution is another entry in the unending line of police killings of Black people in the United States. The problem is not police brutality. It’s the police.

Police exist to serve the interests of the ruling class, working with both Democrats and Republicans to repress the working class across the US, and collaborating with imperialists across the world, as in the many collaborations between US police departments and the IDF that is now waging a genocide in Palestine. 

The police cannot be reformed, and more funding only bolsters the fundamental role of police to protect and serve the forces of white supremacy and racial capitalism. 

DSA stands alongside abolitionists across the country in demanding the end of police and prisons. This means defunding and dismantling structures of policing and incarceration and building up the conditions that create real safety and justice for all people, including housing, economic security, transportation, and health care.  

Join us today to fight for a world without police.

The post Justice for Sonya Massey appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Union busting is common, but the silver lining is that it’s also predictable. Bosses pull from a playbook that hasn’t changed much in the past century.

The post Anatomy of a Union-Busting Campaign appeared first on EWOC.

Thanks to the Hunter Gatherer meetup organized on June 30th, DSA Columbia’s Mutual Aid Working Group has now gone two-for-two on successful outreach events. Seven new contacts are now keeping up with DSA Columbia’s newsletter, and a potential collaboration with Time Bank is in the works! 

The main branch of our working group, Columbia People’s Programs, has been brainstorming ways to match the growing interest in our cause with an equally growing need for more food prep locations and volunteer cooks. For example, one of our steady volunteers is looking to organize a monthly meal prep event at their home in Aiken. This event would help CPP’s cooks cut down on their weekly to-do lists while also serving as a regular time and place for our comrades to socialize! 

While this event will have our monthly supply of hot meals covered, CPP is still in need of more locations in the Columbia area with the freezer space for food donations and the counter space to host sandwich prep on Saturdays and Sundays.

GET INVOLVED: If you’ve got the time or space and a desire to support Columbia’s growing unhoused community, email ColaPeoplesPrograms@gmail.com. 

We appreciate all our donors and volunteers who are helping make a big difference in the lives of Columbia’s growing unhoused population. These donations allow us to provide both survival supplies and material comforts for the folks we serve. During the winter, a hot cup of coffee (supplies for which were purchased by your donations!) let people wake up and feel alive again after a cold night outside, and the hand warmers we purchased and distributed helped them stay warm after we left. As we move into summer, the focus is going to shift from these warming supplies towards cooling supplies. We all know that Columbia is a brutally hot city, and if you’re living outside then things like ice cold drinks and popsicles are not just comforts, but essential for survival and are recurring operating expenses on our end.

In addition to meeting recurring needs, we have made several exciting large purchases recently! One of these was the long awaited prepaid bus tickets. These allow folks to get around the city in order to access their jobs or shelter spaces. Without access to the bus, they are forced to walk miles every day in the scorching hot Columbia sun and thanks to the city’s war on the unhoused population, services are being spread further apart, increasing the demand for bus fare. To meet this need, we started by purchasing 50 passes that allow 7 days of free transportation. As a pilot program, we have been distributing them to those who express a need for transportation, although we are currently planning to expand this by creating a more structured distribution mechanism and then purchasing more tickets. We have also begun distributing hygiene supplies in the form of 150 dental hygiene kits (a toothbrush, tube of toothpaste, and floss) and 200 hand sanitizer bottles. The population we serve is simply unable to afford healthcare, and so it is vitally important that they have access to the preventative supplies we take for granted.

GET INVOLVED: Donate to the Unhoused Benefit Fund as a one-time donation or a recurring donation. 

DSA at the national level has been going through a rough time. The current National Political Committee (NPC) has been hard at work preparing the budget for the next fiscal year. Unfortunately, this has been a much harder time than anyone could have expected. The NPC elected at our latest convention inherited a financial deficit of $1,054,490. This is due to a number of factors. Our last convention voted to fund a number of campaigns, such as giving more resources to locals in order to help elect DSA members to school boards, allowing YDSA to participate in dues sharing, and creating full-time paid political leadership positions like national co-chairs and NLC co-chairs. The previous NPC also hired 12 new staffers to help with the influx of members that joined in 2020 due to the Bernie campaign and the George Floyd uprising. This increase in spending, plus the loss of membership DSA has had since 2021, has caused our national deficit to become untenable. The current NPC has voted to slash many of the spending priorities I mentioned above, but even after this, the organization will be left with a deficit of over $500,000. This made the majority of the NPC propose cuts to the national organization’s staff. You may be hearing this and thinking there is nothing you can do to help the situation. But you can by signing up for Solidarity income-based dues! At our last convention, we passed a resolution titled “Give Our 1% for the 99%,” allowing members the option to give one percent of their yearly income to the national organization. Many chapters have been participating in Solidarity Dues drives to get as many members as possible to sign up for income-based dues. And we have had amazing success. In fact, our projected income was increased by $420,000! While our deficit is still large, we should do everything we can to lower it. This will allow us to fund as many campaigns as possible and hopefully lessen the number of staff we will have to lay off. You may be asking yourself, “I’d love to sign up for this, but I don’t know how!” Luckily, a member of DSA’s national editorial board created this helpful explainer on how to sign up! This link will take you to a post made to the national organization’s discussion board. Let’s all chip in our 1% for the 99% and build the socialist movement!

GET INVOLVED: Update your member dues to solidarity dues here. If you’re not a member of DSA yet, you can join now using the same link. 

2023 was a watershed year for the city of Columbia’s hostile response to the rising unhoused population. Spearheaded by Republican mayor Daniel Rickenmann, the city has passed several ordinances that only make life more difficult for this vulnerable population. Condemned by the SC ACLU and a large group of local advocacy groups, these new rules empower police to arrest anyone sleeping outside, using a shopping cart, or possessing the ill-defined “drug paraphernalia,” which includes simply having a metal spoon. In addition, the city has sought to move services like Oliver Gospel Mission and Transitions Shelter out of the city center, and has a projected budget of $30 million dollars for this move which could otherwise go to more constructive efforts.

Columbia DSA’s mutual aid working group has worked tirelessly to continue to support the unhoused population despite these challenges. We have raised $1500 in the past eight months for several projects, including purchasing bus tickets and other direct aid to members of the community. This is in addition to the weekly food services provided on Saturdays and Sundays, which include cooked hot food, sandwiches, drinks, and hygiene products.

GET INVOLVED: Do you want to help? Donate directly to the Unhoused Benefit Fund. Volunteer for weekly food distribution on Saturdays at 12pm or Sundays at 1pm by emailing dsaofcolumbia@gmail.com. If those times and days are not accessible for you, we ask that members carry necessities like food and water in personal vehicles for individual distribution, especially as temperatures climb in the summer.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, July 30 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Turnout Tuesday for Dean Preston (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, July 31 (5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Phonebank for Extreme Dean (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, July 31 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Independent Outreach (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Thursday, August 1 (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Jackie Fielder For D9 Supervisor Mobilization (Meet at Bernal Rec Center, 500 Moultrie St)

Thursday, August 1 (5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Phonebank for Extreme Dean (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Thursday, August 1 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialist Working Group (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Friday, August 2 (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): Office Hours (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, August 3 (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.): Extreme Dean Door Knock Mobilization (Meet at Alamo Square Park)

Sunday, August 4 (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.): Jackie Fielder For D9 Supervisor Mobilization (Meet at the Mission Office, 3389 26th St)

Sunday, August 4 (1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.): No Appetite for Apartheid Canvassing Soft-Launch (Meet in person in front of Foods Co, 1800 Folsom)

Monday, August 5 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Meeting (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, August 5 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

Wednesday, August 7 (8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.): DSA Board Game Night (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, August 10 (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.): Jackie Fielder For D9 Supervisor Mobilization (Location TBD)

Saturday, August 10 (1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Outreach Training (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Sunday, August 11 (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.): Extreme Dean Door Knock Mobilization (Location TBD)

Sunday, August 11 (1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.): No Appetite for Apartheid Work Session (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, August 12 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Ecosocialist Monthly Meeting (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

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

Events & Actions

Turnout Tuesday for Dean Preston, Every Tuesday!

It’s all hands on deck as we close in on the final months before the election this November! Join the Extreme Dean team every Tuesday from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at 1916 McAllister to call Dean’s supporters and get folks fired up about weekend mobilizations.

Jackie Fielder for D9 Supervisor Thursday Evening Mobilization

Only 9 more weeks left until ballots drop and thousands of doors left to knock! We really need your help! Come meet us Thursday, August 1 at 5 p.m. at the Bernal Rec Center, 500 Moultrie St to pick up a turf and knock on some doors on the south side of Bernal! 

Can’t make it Thursday? We’ll also being mobilizing this Sunday, August 4th. Meet us at the Mission office, 3389 26th St at 10 a.m.

Board Game Night!

Wednesday, August 7th, 8:00-9:30 p.m. Invite your friends to play some socialist-themed games and hang out. We’ll have snacks, drinks, and good vibes. Feel free to bring your own games, drinks, and snack to share as well. All are welcome!

Join the Palestine Solidarity Anti-Imperialist Working Group in our No Appetite for Apartheid campaign in SF!

Inspired by long-standing Palestinian boycott tactics and the BDS call, we are canvassing local stores and asking them to pledge to become Apartheid Free by dropping products from companies complicit in the genocide of Palestinians and colonization of Palestine. It’s time to turn up the heat on this apartheid regime and take apartheid off our plates!

We will be holding our first public canvass on August 18th!

Want to show your support? Sign our Apartheid-Free Pledge so business owners know how popular this movement is with their local customers. After signing the pledge, we would love to see you at any of our upcoming campaign strategy sessions and canvassing days.

• Materials prep & canvas script run-though Sunday, August 11th, 1:00-2:30 p.m. at 1916 McAllister
• Canvassing kick-off! Sunday, August 18th, 1:00-2:30 p.m. at 1800 Folsom St (Foods Co)
• Weekly canvassing every Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. Check dsasf.org/events for meeting location updates.

Sign the BAD! Petition

Bay Area Divest! (BAD!) is a new coalition that believes we must invest our public funds in our communities, NOT in repression, war, or genocide! DSA SF officially endorses BAD!, along with East Bay DSA, AROC, Palestinian Youth Movement, AFSC, Palestinian Feminist Collective, JVP, CodePink, and several other great organizations. Please sign the petition to join BAD! in refusing to allow our public funds to go towards supporting genocide and occupation.

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.

To help with the day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running, fill out the CCC help form.

The post Rochester Red Star | August 2024 (Issue 04) first appeared on Rochester Red Star.