In order better to accommodate some of our members’ schedules, we have moved our monthly general meetings to the final Wednesday of each month. That means our March general meeting, open to members and non-members alike, will take place on March 27th. The time and place for the meetings will remain unchanged: 6:30PM at the Appalachian Liberation Library (419 W Market St in Johnson City) or by Zoom (ntdsa.org/meeting). See you there!

On February 25th, Aaron Bushnell lit himself on fire in protesting the genocide of the Palestinian people. With his last words, he shouted “Free Palestine” three times, until collapsing into the flames around him

This January, Salt Lake DSA renewed its participation in the national boycott campaign of Israeli and Zionist foods called No Appetite for Apartheid, launched by the Palestine Solidarity Working Group in 2022, which is itself part of the Apartheid Free Zones campaign and the larger BDS movement launched by Palestinian civil society groups in 2005. We are canvassing local stores to see if we here in Utah can help add to the number of Apartheid Free stores nationwide, which will support the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. See the chapter calendar for biweekly meetings and canvassing update, follow the guidelines in the one-pager below, and join us!

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The post Still No Appetite For Apartheid! first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.

In the early twentieth century the vast majority of mass production industries were unorganized in the United States. Efforts to replicate the success of the United Mine Workers, brewery workers, and the garment trades were largely unsuccessful until the 1930s when the Congress of Industrial Organizations changed everything. Fragile Juggernaut tells this story with a narrative that spans from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1950s. Andrew Elrod joins us to discuss why this history is important and what organizers can learn from it today.

DSA’s Green New Deal campaign hosted a chapter-wide, 3-session training series in coordination with the Growth & Development Committee on how to create, assess, and build a Green New Deal-style campaign. The series was attended by over 50 comrades across 40+ chapters.

This is an updated version of our 2022 chapter training, now featuring case studies from LA, NYC, and Cleveland.

Session 1: Components of a strategic pressure campaign

Facilitators: Wren P (At Large), Marc K (LA), Daniel G (NYC)

• Theory of Change
  • Socialism is the solution 
  • Building for Power
• Breaking Down a Campaign
  • Case study: NY’s Build Public Renewables
• Identifying a Winnable Demand
  • Case study: LA’s Green New Deal for Public Schools

Session 2: Identifying Targets, Opponents, and Supporters

Facilitators: Nicole M (NYC), Akshai S (Clevland), Rashad X (NPC, Lakefront)

• Identifying the Target
  • Types of targets
  • Where does their power come from?
• Developing a Power Map
  • Case study: Cleveland Public Square
• Using the Powermap for Organizing
  • Organizing the base into DSA, and allies into a coalition
  • Intentional recruitment

The first few minutes of session 2 were not recorded, apologies for the oversight.

Session 3: Building a Team and Executing Strategy

Facilitators: Claire M (Metro DC), Lori (LA), Jeff (Austin)

• What It Will Take to Win a GND
  • Using the demand to build the base
  • Building a coalition to win
• Strategy vs. Tactics
  • The Anytown Transit Expansion Campaign
• Building a Campaign Team
  • Assemble a team
  • Making adjustments

The post Building for Power Chapter Training (2024) appeared first on Building for Power.

by Jay P., Electoral Coordinator

Today, March 5, is our primary election here in Travis County.

Who’s voted for our chapter-endorsed candidate, District Attorney José Garza? Have you?

There’s a list of voting locations available at votetravis.org. The good news is, if you have been to any of them, odds are that you had minimal wait time.

If you haven’t been yet, here’s some bad news: turnout through the early voting period was below 6% of registered voters in Travis County.

Here’s some good news: Travis County has got all the voters we need to win, they just happen to have been sitting on their asses this whole time. Travis County Democrats have stood by past electoral efforts towards goals like humane workplace safety regulations, criminal justice reform in 2020, and last year with the police oversight passed with Yes on A/No on B. 

Back to the bad news: as of last Friday, roughly 20% of people who voted in the Democratic primary were GOP crossovers and therefore obvious, rock-solid locks for the opponent. 

This is at least 5,800 votes the opponent had, as of last week. The right is aware that the top of our ballot is rotten. They know that local races rarely make noise in an uncontested presidential primary, and they think they can win it on the cheap. The sole candidate running in the GOP primary has said people should vote for the opponent. How the two differ in any particular way, he has not said.

Their strategy has been relentless, defamatory, and disgusting. You’ve probably seen their attack ads, but you may not have heard about the grotesque intimidation and harassment of our canvassers by the opponent’s supporters. If what they have said and done has been enough to give you pause, if you haven’t done anything yet, then I’m sad to report that they got you. If this situation holds, I can see the coverage on March 6th: “Local reformer has a few good years,” “Back to Business,” “DSA in Disarray: Lots of enthusiasts, short attention spans”. I’m not too proud to say these imagined headlines have been screaming at me for weeks.

Some history: in 2020, we worked in coalition to elect a candidate who represented a courageous and meaningful break with the past. This coalition began in 2017 as our campaign with local labor, the Worker’s Defense Project, and other community groups to win paid sick leave. In his original campaign for District Attorney, not only did José promise and pursue accountability for the violence and recklessness exercised by the Austin Police Department, its leadership, and others in response to the 2020 racial justice protest; he has overseen a double-digit drop in violent and property crimes, making Austin one of the safest big cities in the country (no matter what you heard from the online right). 

We have achieved this by focusing the office’s resources where they matter most: at the root causes of crime, especially violent crime, in our community. He has endorsed and supported ambitious mental health and criminal diversion programs because we know they work where the incarceration first (incarceration-only) policies of the past haven’t and won’t. He has partnered with local trade unions to connect people with apprenticeship opportunities that can address the same poverty and day-to-day insecurity of being without a good job and a strong union to back you up against the bosses. And the bosses, finally, let’s never forget the bosses—I am certain they would love to see our home-grown Economic Justice Enforcement Initiative go up in smoke, and not have to worry about a top prosecutor who cares about wage theft, workplace safety violations, and the kinds of labor abuses they get away with in other jurisdictions across the country and cost the workers tens of billions of dollars per year. For us, for the multiracial working class of Austin, these are priorities we’ve been working for years to realize, and while much remains to be done, we are immensely fortunate to have a dedicated fighter for that working class in office.

The opponent offers none of this. The opponent has never once said he would protect Travis County’s right to seek and obtain abortion, he has never once said he would protect trans kids and their families seeking lifesaving care. He has said nothing about our priorities for the enforcement and prosecution of justice here in Travis County, and so we must assume the worst.

They have money, they have the apathy of demobilized Democratic Party voters, but we can overcome—because we have people. We are the only ones who can save us, now and always. We need to step up and be comrades for our comrade, who’s given so much to make our cause a fact on the ground.

I said we’ve got people, so let’s see them. We need you to stop reading, open your phone, and find three friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers who haven’t voted yet. Tell them how to make a plan to vote: every location citywide is open from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Let them know which forms of ID are accepted at the polls (there are seven types). Offer to give them a ride if they need it, and no matter what, let them know what’s at stake in this election. 

Who are our comrades today? If you’re ready for this fight, this is only one way, but a vital and necessary way, to show your solidarity today.

The post Who’s Voted? Have you? first appeared on Red Fault.

The post The Activist Chats: Running for City Council from YDSA with Marek Broderick appeared first on YDSA.

2024 DSA-LA CONVENTION PROPOSAL TIMELINE AND GUIDELINES We’re fast approaching that time of year again to come together and democratically decide the priorities and direction of our chapter! Our 2024 local convention will be taking place on Saturday, April 20. RSVP here. CALL FOR LOCAL CONVENTION PROPOSALS Updated 15 March 2024 At each convention, members submit priority resolutions which help direct the work of our chapter. Priority resolutions are time-bound, large-scale chapterwide campaigns that require major chapter resources. The most effective priority resolutions have clearly outlined plans with actionable items that can engage members. Up to but no more than 3 priority resolutions may be approved. When submitting your proposal, please keep in mind the following guidelines: Is it a winnable demand? Is the demand widely and deeply felt among working class Angelenos? Does it build power? Does it create more socialists? Does it develop the organizing skills of our members and create new leaders? In addition to priority resolutions, members may also submit amendments to our Bylaws and/or amendments to our Mission Statement and Organizational Priorities. All require a ⅔ supermajority to pass. Thanks to feedback from members, we want to provide more clarity and information about proposals to amend the chapter bylaws. DSA-LA is currently going through the process of separate incorporation, which will soon be completed as we wait for our paperwork to be finalized with the California Secretary of State. Fingers crossed it will be done by convention. While the process is nearing completion, we are currently operating under our non-separately incorporated chapter bylaws. Once the separate incorporation process is complete our new bylaws as a separately incorporated chapter immediately go into effect. DSA-LA members approved the new bylaws for separate incorporation in December of 2023.  For members putting forward proposals to amend the chapter bylaws at the 2024 chapter convention, your proposals should be amendments to the new bylaws that go into effect upon separate incorporation. You can review those bylaws here.  Understanding that this information was not readily available and clear to members, we are extending the deadline for submission of Bylaws Amendments proposals and Priority Campaign resolutions to Wednesday, March 20th at 6:00 p.m.  Below is the updated timeline for convention: March 20, 2024: Submission period closes at 6:00 p.m. All submissions will be shared with the membership for review. March 27, 2024: Deadline for amendments to Priority Campaign resolutions and Bylaws Amendments proposals to be accepted by authors March 29, 2024: Final version of resolutions and proposals to be debated will be published and shared with membership. April 20, 2024: Convention Priority Campaign resolutions and Bylaws Amendments proposals must be co-signed by 25 members in good standing. You must share a Word doc or Google doc of your resolution and a list of the cosigners, including their name, phone number, and email address associated with their DSA membership, with the Steering Committee (steeringcommittee@dsa-la.org) by March 20th at 6:00 p.m. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Proposals for amendments to the DSA-LA Bylaws, Mission Statement and Organizational Priorities (Updated 15 March 2024): Per our current bylaws, proposed amendments must be made by written resolution and accompanied by 25 signatures of members in good standing. Submissions must be submitted to the Steering Committee via email (steeringcommittee@dsa-la.org) by March 20, 2024 at 6:00pm include the following: Article # and title of bylaws provision you wish to amend or add Lead contact Full names, emails, and phone numbers of 25 members in good standing who cosign the proposed amendment (can include lead contact) Proposed in-line edits or additional text of the proposed amendment or organizational priority Motivation for the amendment, should not exceed 500 words Proposals for Priority Resolutions: Each proposed resolution must be submitted to the Steering Committee via email (steeringcommittee@dsa-la.org) by March 20, 2024 at 6:00pm and must be accompanied by signatures of 25 members in good standing. Submissions must include the following: Title of Priority Resolution Lead contact Full names, emails, and phone numbers of 25 members in good standing who cosign the proposed resolution (can include lead contact) Proposed Chapter Resolution and Justification Guidelines: Component 1 (500 words max recommended): Description of the Chapter Resolution, including a detailed timeline, and Local resources required. Local resources include, but are not limited to: chapter’s monetary resources, members’ monetary resources, member mobilization and time, political capital, and production of materials. Component 2 (500 words max recommended): Organizational Priorities with which this proposed resolution is aligned and motivation for the resolution. Component 3: Identify relevant goals of applicable Committee and Working Group platforms, which this resolution supports and advances. This component should describe ways in which other working groups may be expected to support the implementation of the resolution. Campaign Working Groups Campaign Working Groups will be formed to guide and support the implementation of all resolutions that are passed. We recommend authors to keep this in mind and describe ways that each working group will work with existing bodies to make sure the resolution is implemented. Each Campaign Working Group will be directed by the Steering Committee and two appointed Co-Chairs, but will have opportunities for all interested members to learn about volunteer opportunities and provide feedback. Thank you all for reading and we can’t wait to see you at our Convention! -DSA-LA Steering Committee INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // FACEBOOK

 

by AJ

The following article represents the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Detroit Socialist Editorial and Writers’ Collective or Detroit DSA as a whole.

‘Those governments remain determined to persist in their ignoble and dishonorable role as allies of a truly murderous regime.’ Oliver Tambo was not talking about the U.S. veto of the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Tambo, president of the African National Congress, was talking about the U.S. government’s boycott of U.N. sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1986. The parallels between the movement to end apartheid in South Africa and the calls to end apartheid in Israel today do not begin or end with Security Council resolution vetoes.

In the 1980s, President Reagan supported South Africa’s apartheid government as an ally in the Cold War “fight against communism,” designated Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress as terrorists, and supplied weapons to the South African army. Meanwhile thousands of Americans were arrested at protests outside the South African Embassy, many thousands more joined the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement, refusing to buy South African goods or support companies that did business with South Africa. Additionally, artists and athletes from all over the world joined cultural and sporting boycott’s, such as Arthur Ashe and Harry Belafonte’s Artists and Athletes Against Apartheid.

Similarly, successive Presidential administrations have viewed Israel as a strategic ally in the Cold War and the “War on Terror,” sending more than $318 billion in weapons to the Israeli Defense Force in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. President Biden continues to place this political ideology over the lives and human rights of the Palestinian people, while the American people take to the streets, blockade ships, trucks and weapons manufacturers, and protest cultural events to make their opposition to the genocide of Palestinians heard across the country.

Looking back at the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa gives hope that this moment, with all its horror and pain, is an opportunity for true global solidarity. To remember that as all our liberation was bound up in the liberation of Nelson Mandela and all Black South Africans, today, all our liberation is bound up in the Palestinian intifada against Israeli occupation and genocide. Whether we are Jewish, Muslim, Black, White, Arab, Indigenous, Latinx and/or Christian we face a choice between supporting regimes built on separation, militarization, surveillance, and fear or demanding a new paradigm based on mutual aid, respect, and peace in the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, and indeed here in the land between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

The export/import exchange between the U.S. and Israel is not limited to physical weapons. The two governments have a collaborative relationship that extends to ideas about policing, borders, border walls, checkpoints, surveillance tower design and implementation, and cyber, drone and communications surveillance tactics and how the U.S. treats the movement of people inside and outside its “borders.” The Congressional Research Service 2023 report on U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel found that Israel’s defense industry “now ranks as one of the top global arms exporters,” selling nearly 70% of their missile defense systems, spyware, and cyber surveillance systems around the world. In 2019, in addition to sending $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel, the U.S. purchased $1.5 billion in weapons and surveillance products from Israel.

Many of the weapons and tactics that Israel uses to terrorize Palestinian people are deployed by the U.S. along the U.S./Mexico border. On the Tohono O’odham reservation in Arizona, surveillance towers, developed and built by Israel’s Elbit Systems, watch residents as they go about their daily lives. That may seem like a long way from us here in Detroit, but we should beware. As Bobby Brown, senior director of Customs and Border Protection at Elbit Systems of America, told The Intercept’s Will Parrish, “the company’s ultimate goal is to build a ‘layer’ of electronic surveillance equipment across the entire perimeter of the U.S. ‘Over time, we’ll expand not only to the northern border, but to the ports and harbors across the country.’” The Mexicanization of the U.S./Canada border that began after 9/11 continues today, and while border militarization and surveillance systems may not yet be as visible as the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints and Elbit’s towers in Arizona and Texas, we should be under no illusions that they are not there. To resist the proliferation of invasive border surveillance technologies is our intifada.

Is this what we want our tax dollars spent on? Taking just the $5.3 billion in 2019 U.S. military aid and payments for weapons systems to Israel and dividing that equally between all 50 states, Michigan would receive $106 million. That is enough, in one year, for 5,300 Detroiters to receive $20,000 home repair grants. The current ten-year Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Israel, valued at a minimum of $38 billion, divided between the states would give each state $774.5 million that could be spent on education, infrastructure and environmental projects, as well as home repairs. To recapture that money is our liberation from leaky roofs, drafty windows, and concrete heat islands.

Importing the Israeli government’s ideas about borders creates emotional and relational barriers in addition to physical ones. It divides families, neighbors, and communities. In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, a complicated system of visas, permits, walls and checkpoints keeps Palestinians separated from families and friends and prevents building community between Palestinians and Israelis. In Dearborn, in the wake of 9/11 an invisible border wall was erected by the Department of Homeland Security separating families into “those who stay in [Middle Eastern Country]” and “those who stay in the U.S.” One of the wall’s many “bricks,” Operation Green Quest, made people sending monetary gifts as small as $50 to family members in Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, or Iraq vulnerable to federal enquiry, detention, and deportation [1].

Meanwhile Michigan’s anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) law also seeks to criminalize those who refuse to allow their money to be exported to support genocide and apartheid. To move freely and support our families, neighbors, and communities financially and emotionally is our intifada.

The Israeli State uses violence and intimidation to suppress Palestinian elections, arresting and detaining candidates, sabotaging election campaign events, and preventing access to polling stations. Here in the U.S. Zionist election interference has become increasingly aggressive as politicians and their constituents have become more uncomfortable about supporting the oppression of the Palestinian people. This is particularly true here in Michigan, where in 2022, AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee), a lobbying group with deep ties to the Israeli government, funneled more than $8 million through its Super PAC to try to unseat Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Andy Levin. In Levin’s case their efforts paid off. In the upcoming election cycle AIPAC has offered $20 million to a number of candidates if they will run against Tlaib in 2024. So far all have declined. To shake off AIPAC and Israeli government interference in our elections is our intifada.

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers re-enact the violent removal of Indigenous people that U.S. settlers perpetrated on Indigenous people across North America. In the U.S. dispossession and abuse of Indigenous communities continues, from mining on Oak Flat to the Enbridge Line 5 tunnel project and Mayor Duggan’s planned Solar Farms here in Detroit. To be free from colonial land appropriation projects that extract natural resources and destroy our human, animal, and plant relatives’ homes and habitats is our liberation.

It took the combined energy and engagement of millions of regular people around the world for South Africans, black and white, to shake off the oppression of apartheid. Since the start of the genocide in Gaza thousands of Detroiters have marched, prayed, learned and educated each other, called their elected officials to pass “ceasefire resolutions,” and amplified the voices of Palestinians at cultural events, in public spaces in Detroit, Dearborn, Ferndale and Hamtramck.

It will take all our ongoing collective commitment to support Palestinians and Israelis in rising up against the Zionist forces that devastate their lives and land today. In the 1970s, a group of Aboriginal activists in Australia made a simple statement to define solidarity. They said, “If your liberation is bound up with mine, let us work together.” Truly our liberation is bound up with Palestinian liberation. Let us work together. Globalize the Intifada!

[1] Howell, Sally, and Andrew Shryock. “Cracking Down on Diaspora: Arab Detroit and America’s “War on Terror”.” Anthropological Quarterly 76, no. 3 (2003): 443–62. Accessed September 12, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3318184.

The Detroit Socialist is produced and run by members of Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective. Interested in becoming a member of Detroit DSA? Go to metrodetroitdsa.com/join to become a member. Send a copy of the dues receipt to: membership@metrodetroitdsa.com in order to get plugged in to our activities!

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Viewpoint: Globalize the Intifada was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.