Join DSA Ventura County’s Labor Working Group on zoom to discuss recent labor struggles in our communities, from Starbucks Workers United’s indefinite strike, to the new contract our County employees won by threatening to strike, to the movement for an arms embargo by Labor for Palestine, and the calls for a general strike by May Day 2028. Please, bring other ideas, campaigns, and your own workplace experiences. An agenda will be posted on slack soon. You will receive the zoom link shortly after completing RSVP.

Monthly Working Session Meeting

The Political Education Working Group is the place to bring your ideas for workshops, educational material, agitprop, and more. Our goal is to bring socialist ideas, DSA messaging and campaigns, and class consciousness to the people of Ventura County. All levels of organizing experience welcome.

Date: Saturday, September 19 from 10 AM until 2 PM

Location: Kellogg Park• 33 Kellog st, Ventura, CA 93001 US

The Mutual Aid Working Group of DSA Ventura County is engaged in base-building and community organizing by exchanging goods and services with those who want to see a world beyond capitalist profiteering.

A free meal is served to attendees. Come get a free meal, or even bring your favorite potluck item or beverages, or non-perishable food to donate.

If you would like to help our mutual aid efforts but are not able to attend, DONATE HERE:

Many hands make light work.

Please reference our Slack’s events channel, or general, for the Agenda.

Zoom Meeting link will appear upon RSVP.

Sunday – September 13 at 12 pm PDT

Location:  The Open Book – The Oaks Mall

556 W Hillcrest Dr, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

Join the DSA Ventura County book club for discussions about selected readings. If you love history, the written word, or the world around you, then you belong here!

This will be a friendly, inclusive event open to all, regardless of prior experiences or familiarity with the topic.

Monday, September 14 at 7 pm

Join DSA Ventura County’s Mutual Aid Working Group for a planning meeting focused on addressing unmet needs in Ventura County. Bring your big ideas, suggestions for coalition partners, and a desire to stand in solidarity with others. We are cookin’ up some ideas, and will post an agenda on our slack.

Sponsored by

Wednesday, September 9 at 6 pm

ROC DSA Steering Committee | September 8, 2026

This August saw the highest number of immigration arrests on record at 50,925, surpassing the previous record of 50,208 set in July. More than 65,000 people are currently being held in ICE detention. In the first eighteen months of Trump’s presidency, ICE detention in Monroe County increased by 1,500 percent. Most of those detained have no prior criminal record, and we know all too well of the hardworking and caring friends and family members who are missing. 

Meanwhile, the federal government is building a detention center in our own backyard, and despite community concerns our County Legislature just approved grant funding that requires coordination with Customs and Border Protection (CBP). We need reassurance that our neighbors are being protected.

ROC DSA applauds the leadership of the City of Rochester and New York State on this issue. Rochester has considered itself a sanctuary city since May 1986 – a policy recently upheld to the embarrassment of the Trump Administration’s lawyers. At the state level, immigration reforms now ban formal 287(g) agreements, bar local jails from being used for immigration detention, and prohibit local governments from contributing to the costs of immigration detention facilities. 

Monroe County needs to plug the gaps by barring all forms of coordination, whether under 287(g) agreements or otherwise. The state policy does not bar much of the coordination we have witnessed. In Illinois, similar state-level legislation is being undercut by informal coordination. And despite the protests of County legislators that Operation Stonegarden is “not about enforcing immigration laws or facilitating deportations,” an investigation by New York Focus has found examples of sheriffs participating in immigration arrests under the program. Already, sheriffs across New York are challenging the state’s legislation, and our own sheriff, Todd Baxter, joined Republican sheriffs from eleven other counties to speak out about the proposed legislation in April. We do not trust the Sheriff’s pinky-promises about enforcement policy.

ROC DSA also demands that the County use its economic leverage against the proliferation of detention centers by divesting from companies involved in their construction. 

Recently, many of our legislators took photo ops in front of Lake Ontario, or released strongly-worded statements against the Trump regime. It’s time they back this rhetoric up with action. 

This proposal to Protect Our Neighbors may not achieve our vision of a clear path to citizenship for all, ending deportation, abolishing ICE, and dismantling detention centers. However, it is an important step toward building a bastion of resistance against the rising tide of fascism.

We encourage our community to give voice to those too vulnerable to speak out. And we encourage our legislators to remember that they represent all county residents, and have a duty to use their privileged position for our protection. 

The post ROC DSA Encourages the Monroe County Legislature to Protect Our Neighbors first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

Tuesday September 8 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Ecosocialism Working Group Bi-weekly Meeting (in person at 1916 McAllister St and on zoom)

Wednesday September 9 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM) DSA SF General Meeting (in person at Kelly Cullen Community 220 Golden Gate Ave and on zoom)

Sunday September 13 (1:00 PM – 2:30 PM) What Is DSA?(in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Sunday September 13 (5:00 PM – 6:00 PM) Tenderloin Healing Circle Working Group (on zoom)

Sunday September 13 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Working Class Gender Liberation (Provisional) Working Group (in person at 1916 McAllister St, front room)

Monday September 14 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Tenderloin Healing Circle (in-person at Kelly Cullen Community 220 Golden Gate Ave)

Monday September 14 (6:00 PM – 8:30 PM) Homelessness Working Group (in person at 1916 McAllister St and on zoom)

Monday September 14 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Labor Education Committee Meeting (zoom)

Tuesday September 15 (5:30 PM – 7:00 PM) Social Housing Working Group (in person at 1916 McAllister St and on zoom)

Wednesday September 16 (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (in person at 1916 McAllister St and on zoom)

Thursday September 17 (5:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Phonebank for Prop I (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Thursday September 17 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Education Board Open Meeting (in person at 1916 McAllister St and on zoom)

Thursday September 17 (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) Organizing Mindset Training Series (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Friday September 18 (5:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Movie night: The Battle of Chile Part One (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Saturday September 19 (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM) Prop B x Prop I Lit Drop (in person at Rochambeau Playground Park, 238 25th Ave)

Saturday September 19 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) HWG Food Service [New Location!] (in person at Patricia’s Green Picnic Area, 499 1/2 Hayes St)

Sunday September 20 (3:00 PM – 5:00 PM) Canvass Workers with SF EWOC! (in person at William McKinley Monument, the Panhandle)

Monday September 21 (5:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Yes On I – Social Housing Working Group Lit Drop (in person, location TBD)

Monday September 21 (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) SF EWOC Local Meeting (in person at 1916 McAllister St and on zoom)

Yes on B Lit Drops!

Prop B has TWO lit drops this weekend, including a joint event with Prop I. We’ll be in:

• Cole Valley (Grattan Playground) on Saturday the 12th at 11AM
• The Castro (Eureka Valley Rec Center) on Sunday the 13th at 11AM.

We need your help to get the word out about what a public bank can do for SF before ballots drop! RSVP here

Organizing Mindset Training: Basebuilding 101, How to Have an Effective Organizing Conversation

Every Thursday at 7PM from Sep 17 through Oct 8
DSA SF Office – 1916 McAllister St

Talking to people is central to effective organizing, but how do you embark on an organizing conversation? Organizing Mindset Training is a four-part event series that goes in depth into every aspect of the organizing conversation so that it’s a sharpened and ready-to-use tool for any campaign. After this training, participants will:

• Learn about the differences between organizing, advocacy, and direct services/mutual aid
• Understand of the role of an Organizing Committee and carrying out an organizing strategy
• Overview the Organizing Conversation and get in-depth practice for each step
• Develop the ability to have multiple successive organizing conversations with a person, with the goal of getting them more involved in your organizing

Attendance of all four sessions isn’t required, but it is encouraged! RSVP HERE

Organizing Mindset Training: Basebuilding 101, How to Have an Effective Organizing Conversation

DSA SF movie nights are back with The Battle of Chile! We will bring to life the heroic struggles of the working people of Chile and Salvador Allende’s presidency in the lead up to the US-backed fascist coup of Sept 11, 1973. These films will give us a glimpse into a powerful class-wide grassroots movement which won the country’s highest elected office and controlled vast sectors of industry and community networks on the ground.

Join us on Fridays Sept 18, Sept 25, and Oct 2 in the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister St. Snacks and soft drinks will be provided. Bring a friend! RSVP Here

I love the Hearts of Pine. Been to my share of games. Have spent hundreds of bucks on gear. I’m on a first name basis with one of the owners. And I appreciated the statement they made last month calling for accountability after ICE murdered Johan Sebastian Guerrero Duran.

All that said, the city of Portland should not carve out an exception to our working waterfront zone in order to allow them to build a $50 million dollar soccer stadium on land protected for marine-based industries.

Why? Well, soccer stadiums can operate anywhere. Cargo ships, barges, trawlers, and tugboats cannot. Nor can the longshoremen and women, stevedores, harbor pilots, and deckhands who service them. They need deep water ports, which is what the western waterfront provides.

As background, a couple weeks ago, the Hearts of Pine announced they had put Cassidy Point, the westernmost corner of our waterfront, under contract to build an 11,000 seat soccer stadium. That sale is contingent on the city approving a carveout to our longstanding protections for marine-based freight and industrial uses, which need access to the deep water of the harbor.

The zone was first put in place in the late 1980’s after a developer transformed Central Wharf into a string of 150+ high-end condos (now called Chandler’s Wharf). The backlash to that development led to a citizen referendum in which Portlanders voted 2-1 to freeze all non-marine development on the water side of Commercial street.

That zoning has been modified carefully over the years, and only after extensive input from those working the piers. Those modifications have allowed for a certain percentage of non-marine uses, mostly on the upper floors of old or new structures, in order to provide some economic diversity. 

Overall, the amount of space in Portland that marine business can use is decreasing. But for the western half of the waterfront, where the Hearts of Pine want to build their stadium, there’s been some real growth in marine industries. 

Eimskip, a shipping company, moved into the International Marine Terminal at the beginning of the western waterfront in 2013. Around the same time, Portland Yacht Services turned 23 acres of what was fallow land into a thriving boat restoration and storage business. And between those two sites, a massive cold storage facility was built. 

This has meant hundreds of new good-paying jobs, doing exactly the work that can only be done on the waterfront. A real success story of how protecting land for its best community use, not simply its most profitable return for an investor, can help everyone.

But Cassidy Point was recently purchased by a multi-billion dollar out-of-state hedge fund. Those investors have reportedly been trying to make a quick buck by flipping it. Apparently, both the Maine Port Authority and Eimskip had been interested in buying it before the hedge fund, because they had wanted to expand commercial shipping to that area.

But my guess is the hedge fund managers know that if they could find a buyer who would seek to rezone the property out of its protected status, they could exponentially maximize their profit (some estimates say eliminating its protected status inflates the value ten times). That’s where the Hearts of Pine came in. 

When I was mayor, Portland developed a comprehensive plan where groups from all across the city came together to discuss what we wanted to see for Portland by 2030. Fully 91% of Portland residents surveyed at the time supported “continued protections for Portland’s working waterfront.” That is why two of the plan’s major goals for the waterfront are the “ … mitigation of market trends that could compromise the balance between marine industries and competing development,” and “recognize and reinforce waterborne transport of goods and people as foundational to our community.”

Even in our most recent overhaul of our building code, the waterfront protection zone, in its entirety, was kept intact.

So, what to do? Clearly we love our soccer team. And if the owners want to spend their own money building a new stadium, they certainly have that right. But, as I said above, soccer stadiums can go anywhere. They could put it out on Riverside Street (hey, if it is good enough for our homeless shelter, it should be good enough for soccer). Or maybe next to 295, just up from Cassidy Point, where there are huge swaths of land near going unused. The Hearts of Pine owners said they actually looked at 12 viable sites.

But wherever it goes, it should not go on the waterfront. Supporting the home team matters, but in this case, the home team I side with are the women and men who need the waterfront to make a living.

***

This story was originally published by The Beacon, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from the Beacon, sign up for the free Beacon newsletter here.

The post Portland’s working waterfront is no place for professional soccer appeared first on Pine & Roses.