DSA San Diego has adopted food sovereignty as a 2025 Priority Campaign, and the work is already rolling forward! Read more. [...]

Read More... from Seeding Food Sovereignty Priority Campaign: Spring 2025 Update

The post Seeding Food Sovereignty Priority Campaign: Spring 2025 Update appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America | San Diego Chapter.

DSA San Diego condemns the blatantly unlawful detention of Mahmoud Khalil by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Read our statement. [...]

Read More... from DSA San Diego’s Statement on the Illegal Detention of Mahmoud Khalil

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Upcoming Events

Tuesday, March 18 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): Abolish Rent Reading Group – Session 2 (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, March 19 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): What Is DSA? (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, March 19 (6:45 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenant Organizing Working Group (Zoom)

Thursday, March 20 (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.): Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialist Working Group (Zoom)

Thursday, March 20 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigration Justice Priority Working Group (Zoom)

Friday, March 21 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): Maker Friday (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, March 22 (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.): No Appetite for Apartheid Training and Outreach (522 Valencia)

Saturday, March 22 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Food Service (In person at Castro & Market Sts)

Monday, March 24 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenderloin Healing Circle (In person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate)

Monday, March 24 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly (Zoom)

Monday, March 24 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Electoral Board Meeting (Zoom)

Monday, March 24 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

Wednesday, March 26 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Intro to Socialism (Zoom)

Thursday, March 27 (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.): Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Saturday, March 29 (1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.): Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialism Reading Group: Ten Myths About Israel (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Sunday, March 30 (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.): Spanish for Organizers (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Sunday, March 30 (1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.): Know Your Rights Canvassing (Meet at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, March 31 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

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

Events & Actions

Maker Friday: Zine Edition

Join us for Maker Friday on March 21 at 1916 McAllister from 7:00 p.m. to 9 p.m.! We’ll be doing a free zine-making workshop with Tenant Organizing. Come make some art and connect with comrades. All levels are welcome, see you there!

No Appetite for Apartheid Training and Outreach

Come and canvass local businesses with the Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialist Working Group! No Appetite for Apartheid is a campaign aimed at reducing economic support for Israeli apartheid by canvassing local businesses to boycott Israeli goods. On Saturday, March 22, we’ll be doing a training on how to talk to stores in the neighborhood, then going out and talking with stores together. Meet at 522 Valencia at 10:00 a.m. and we’ll debrief after canvassing at 2:00 p.m.

Homelessness Working Group Food Service

Join the DSA HWG for a food service on Saturday, March 22 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Castro and Market Streets. We’ll be serving food for our unhoused neighbors and the larger community. Sign up here to cook, serve, or otherwise help out! Questions? Email homelessness@dsasf.org.

Spanish for Organizers

Join the Immigrant Justice Working Group for Spanish for Organizers! Come learn and practice basic Spanish phrases for organizing. All skill levels welcome. We’re meeting on Sunday, March 30, at 12:00 p.m. at 1916 McAllister. See you there!

Can’t make it to Spanish for Organizers or are feeling extra inspired to encourage turnout? Come through for our Turnout Tuesday on March 25 from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at 1916 McAllister. We’ll be making calls and sending texts to let folks know about the Spanish for Organizers training. RSVP here.

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.

by Lara

Flus, colds, and covid are not the only scourges feverishly flaring up again: fascism and anti-intellectualism are political poxes scarring the soul of our society. While you should not underestimate their potential for devastation and death, know that you are not defenseless and you are not alone. 

Metaphorical contagions and actual contagions are a large concern, particularly now with the appointment of RFK as Secretary of Health and Human Services, layoffs and information suppression at the Center for Disease Control, and withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization. Though not widely reported on by mainstream media, protests against the Trump regime have erupted in all 50 states and abroad. When viral pandemics occur, we isolate ourselves to protect each other, but to achieve the same result with these metaphorical contagions, we must do just the opposite. We need to come together to resist these plagues.

Fortunately and unfortunately, these ailments aren’t new. We have been inoculated against what may be to come throughout history—our body (of people) has learned to fight this fever before. Though the virus has adapted to new circumstances—technology—over the years, so too can we. The infection vector may have mutated but our resiliency remains, though it is likely to be tested in the time to come.

Toxoplasma gondii is a non-viral parasite to many warm-blooded beings, including felines—whose guts are the only known place where T. gondii are able to reproduce. Incredibly, this single-celled microbe is able to alter the brain and behavior of rodents, causing them to be attracted to—rather than afraid of—the scent of cat urine, increasing the odds of the infected rodent being eaten by a cat and thus allowing for the multiplication and spread of T. gondii. 

Many Americans walked towards the mouth of a predatory beast, allowing for the spread and growth of more hateful policy, with little instinct for self or collective preservation, when they voted against their own interests this past national election. 

Make no mistake, all Trump voters voted against their own interests, for when one individual is oppressed, all are negatively impacted because the oppressed individual will not be able to freely and fully participate in society. Though billionaires are benefitting from the current regime, more people seem to be recognizing the dangers of a system that allows for the accumulation of such inordinate, concentrated amounts wealth-–and it may ultimately lead to changes in societal structures that advance such inequality and the exploitation that makes it possible (which is in its own way parasitic).

“Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world for indeed, that’s all who ever had,” has been attributed to author and anthropologist Margaret Mead. Dr. Mead purportedly considered the first sign of civilization to be a 15,000 year old healed broken femur, which would have required six months’ rest to mend and protection from others to survive the process. 

Part of being a part of a functioning society is caring for your fellow beings, which can take many forms. It may be calling out bigoted behavior. It may be wearing a mask to protect others. It may be bringing a meal to a lonely or hungry neighbor or treating the unhoused like what they are: human beings, deserving of dignity and compassion, as we all are. 

It may be many things but at the heart of them all is our imperative to hold fast and care for each other and protect the vulnerable. With the potential for AI to become conscious (and few regulations limiting data being used to train it and the stealing of data by DOGE) and necrotic tendrils of fascism seeping through rich soils, it is critically important that we retain what makes us compassionate. 

Parasitic capitalism needs to feed on people to survive. Viruses require host cells to replicate. Don’t be a host cell for hatred. Push back against authoritarian and exploitative systems. We are the immune system. Let us overwhelm the forces of evil, the ways bees might swarm around an enemy, extinguishing it with our collective power, warmth, and energy (Note: I am not advocating for violence against individuals, but rather the abatement of ideas and policies that violate human rights). Though the rodent cannot be uneaten, we can work to prevent future rodent consumption, predators from taking office, and parasites from propagating. 

Viruses have fundamentally altered evolutionary history, accounting for ~8% of our genome. Though they have undoubtedly had detrimental and sometimes fatal consequences, often overlooked are impacts that have ultimately been favorable. Indeed, a virus gave rise to the formation of the mammalian placenta, allowing for greater nutrient transfer from mother to progeny. We cannot overlook the devastation viruses have caused nor should we gloss over the good they’ve given rise to. How will you resist this pestilence? What goodness will you grow in its wake?

Love always, 

Lara

The post Inoculation first appeared on Rochester Red Star.