This past weekend, DSA held their inaugural kickoff for their new nationwide campaign for Trans Rights & Bodily Autonomy. Spearheaded by the Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy Campaign Commission, DSA will mobilize the organization’s tens of thousands of members across 150+ chapters across the country, not only to combat the advances of the far-right and their systematic attempt at every level of government to remove trans people from public life & restrict access to abortion, but also to advance a positive vision of queer liberation that protects queer spaces, our rights as workers, students & educators, and as human beings. Tonight, we will hear from Genevieve, joining us from Ithaca, NY and one of the leaders of this organization-wide project, to break down all the pieces of this ambitious campaign, how DSA will rise to fight the far-right, and why the struggle for trans rights & bodily autonomy is a struggle for the whole working class. 

Join DSA's Trans Rights & Bodily Autonomy Campaign Commission: https://airtable.com/appxkhakxWCUXVVqO/pag9jCfy3jpsn74do/form

Support Tech Guild Workers organizing for trans rights at The New York Times:

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/nyt-respect-trans-workers

Here’s your February Dispatch! This month, hear our co-chairs on DSA’s budget and organizing, join our school staff network launch, sign up for Green New Deal organizing training, and more. Read on to get involved. 

And to make sure you get our newsletters in your inbox, sign up here! Each one features action alerts, upcoming events, political education, and more.

• From Maria —  An Important Choice
• Tonight Wednesday 2/7 — Join our Fireside Chat with National Political Committee Co-Chairs!
• RSVP for National Labor Commission School Staff Network Launch Thursday 2/8
• Starting Thursday 2/15 — Building for Power Strategic Campaign Training Series
• Join our Budget and Finance Committee Member Call Tuesday 2/20!
• Mutual Aid Working Group Takes over Solidarity Dues Sunday 3/3

From Maria — An Important Choice

This is my last Dispatch. The National Political Committee has asked me to stay on for another six weeks to focus on transition work. I agreed because I believe in you.

As our co-chairs Ashik and Megan have pointed out, DSA is at a crossroads. (I bet you will hear more about this tonight on the Fireside Chat!) We face a Christian Nationalist movement and far-right presidential candidate Trump, and a genocide-funding Biden is driving his own re-election chances off a cliff. Just when we need to be our most unified and strong, talking to our neighbors and coworkers and bringing them into campaigns that transform them and build solidarity and working class power, we are instead scrabbling for scraps.

We have nine months until the election, and the clock is ticking. Who in your community outside of DSA is in motion? How does your chapter relate to them, and what’s the plan for the next five months until the Republican and Democratic party conventions? For the next big union contract expiration or new organizing campaign in your state? What ballot initiatives, candidates, or pressure campaigns are you using to build coalitions and trust and flex your grassroots muscle?

Mass work like this is how we build the power it takes to win. It’s how we grow our membership and budget. And it’s how we learn the lessons and mutual respect that helps us work through our internal divisions and forge a stronger whole. 

To reword that famous JFK phrase, consider not what DSA can do for you, but what you can do for DSA. Now more than ever, it’s time to fight for someone you don’t know. 

In solidarity,

Maria Svart
DSA National Director

Tonight Wednesday 2/7 — Join our Fireside Chat with National Political Committee Co-Chairs!

Tonight, Wednesday 2/7 at 9pm ET/8pm CT/7pm MT/6pm PT, join Ashik and Megan, our 2023-2025 National Political Committee Co-chairs, for our February Fireside Chat!

On this call, you’ll hear about:

• our 2024 national budget
• the organizing landscape for the year ahead of us
• the growth and sustainability of our organization’s future

And check out Megan and Ashik’s letter to membership! You can also find their letter on the Discussion Board here.

RSVP for National Labor Commission School Staff Network Launch Thursday 2/8

Join fellow DSA educators and school staff in (re)launching our industry network! The call is on Thursday 2/8 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT. We’ll discuss the education workers unions, reform efforts underway around the country, and school board races happening nationwide!

Starting Thursday 2/15 — Building for Power Strategic Campaign Training Series

Join the Green New Deal Campaign Commission and the Growth and Development Committee to learn about strategic campaigning! Over the course of three sessions (Thursdays Feb 15, Feb 22, and Feb 29 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT), we’ll equip you with the political education, tools, and coaching necessary to launch, run, and win a Building for Power campaign. We’re talking about deeply felt demands that will help improve conditions for the working class, while building your chapter’s membership and supporter base at the same time. Join us! 

Join our Budget and Finance Committee Member Call Tuesday 2/20!

Join members of DSA’s Budget and Finance Committee and national staff on Tuesday 2/20 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT for our first quarterly report on DSA’s 2024 budget. We have been working hard to develop our 2024 budget so that we can meet the needs of our growing organization without breakin’ the bank. Hope to see you there — bring all your financial questions! 

Mutual Aid Working Group Takes over Solidarity Dues Sunday 3/3

Join the Mutual Aid Working Group phone banking members about solidarity dues! We’ll be on the Solidarity Dues Call-a-thon Sunday 3/3 at 4pm ET/3pm CT/2pm MT/1pm PT. And give 1% for the 99% by signing up for solidarity dues today!

The post An Important Choice — Your February Dispatch appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

by Brett Arnold

The following comments are a summary of the readings for Socialist Sunday School #53: Why the BID is Bad for Business, held Sunday, February 4, 2024. Socialist Sunday School is a program of ROC DSA’s Political Education Committee that meets to discuss socialist theory, organizing, and local issues.

Please join our upcoming “In Jackson Heights” Screening and Panel, on February 11 @ 2:00pm. Hear why a Business Improvement District (or “BID”) in downtown Rochester is not only unjust but destructive. ROC DSA and NO BID ROC will host a 30-minute screening followed by a Q&A panel. Register here: bit.ly/JacksonBID.

This is a great opportunity to meet your comrades and discuss important ideas, whether you’re new to these conversations or have been involved in them for a long time. Every effort will be made to create a safe, accessible, and comradely space for learning and discussion.

Welcome to this week’s Socialist Sunday School! This is a project hosted by Rochester DSA’s Political Education Committee, meeting biweekly on Sundays to help educate current and prospective members as well as our friends and neighbors. This week we partnered with NO BID ROC to focus on an issue specifically facing our community.

Our reading this week covers two articles related to BIDs: “Business Improvement Districts Ruin Neighborhoods” by Max Rivlin-Nadler in The New Republic, and “Business Improvement Districts Allow for Aggressive Policing of the Unhoused” by Tyler Walicek in Teen Vogue.

The two articles overlap but provide different perspectives. TNR provides a good overview of what a BID is, and the problems with them, and is recommend if you’re looking for a quicker read and summary. The Teen Vogue article provides more specific insight, including lots of great details on the role of BIDs in exacerbating the criminalization of homelessness. The TNR piece also briefly spotlights the documentary “In Jackson Heights”, focusing on one Queens neighborhood’s fight against a BID, which ROC DSA and NO BID ROC will be screening along with a panel discussion one week from today. We will also be hearing from one of the organizers featured in that documentary today for their perspective!

So what is a BID? In theory, they are a private entity founded by property owners at the neighborhood level, who band together to boost commercial activity by taking over activities that the municipal government could provide like trash collection and security, as well as public events. BIDs first arrived in the 1970s, and now there are over 1000 nationwide, with at least 115 in NYS at last count, with nearby examples including Syracuse, Buffalo, and Geneva.

The name and purpose sounds positive at first glance: Who doesn’t want the small businesses that our friends and neighbors make their livelihood from to thrive? However, the insidious nature of BIDs ultimately lies in their decision making structure. BIDs remove democratic power from the hands of working-class residents and place these areas under private control of local property owners. Even BID members are not immune. Instead of one person one vote, property owners have weightier votes with the more properties they own, leading to the voices of small businesses being drowned out by large property owning corporations.

The problems BIDs claim to solve are real, and BIDs may grant some additional funding and power to benefit small businesses and residents in some ways. But ultimately they remove accountability mechanisms, allowing the wealthy property owners who operate the BID to remake entire neighborhoods as they see fit.

So in theory, BIDs are a way to help struggling municipal governments at the local level. But in practice they serve the needs of the wealthy few over those of the many, who are free to put in place policies harmful to the residents with limited means of accountability or transparency.

The board of directors of a corporation managing a BID oftentimes does not live within or even close to the area managed by the BID. There are additional problems with their funding structure. BIDs are funded by tax dollars and a fee imposed on their membership businesses. This means BIDs funnel tax dollars from residents and property owners into a slush fund for the BID members and board of directors. In essence, using our money to invest in their businesses, so they can profit at our expense while also funding marketing and political lobbying for ever increasing power. Taxation without representation, anyone?

In addition to BID fees often passing down from landlords to tenants, BIDs lead to increased gentrification by raising rents that can price out both residents and small businesses alike. This is fine for large property owners who are only interested in profit, but terrible for residents who are often rent-burdened in the City of Rochester. This displacement from downtown, while at the same time limiting investments into the area, effectively creates a 21st century version of redlining.

A BID’s vision of neighborhood revitalization is focused on commercial interests, over the interest of the community members. So who gets left out? The development of BIDs coercively excludes marginalized people, especially people who are unhoused. These people are harassed by over-policing (selectively enforcing crimes like “vagrancy” and loitering)—only now via private security, instead of via city police who are at least in some way accountable to the public via the mayor and police accountability boards. This private security surveils local residents, issues orders, and works with police to issue citations and arrests. Some people charged with offenses within the BID may even be referred to community service to occur for the benefit of the BID—free labor!

The BID amounts to a secondary, private government stapled over top of our existing one, and one that does not work for us or our interests. Ultimately, the BID serves business interests with an outsized voice, ensuring the needs of other community members go unmet. BIDs and allied businesses often lobby to oppose social aid and outreach measures, in the name of successful commerce downtown.

A BID may seem harmless or even beneficial at first glance, but by its very nature of removing our democratic input, we have no way to keep it accountable to our needs. Cities are not run for the sake of businesses alone. This is why we ask for your help in stopping the Roc BID!

Discussion Questions:

1. In the New Republic article, they note that “It’s theoretically possible that a Business Improvement District can help a community and help small businesses grow through actions like improving garbage collection, putting on public events, and providing the tools small businesses need to navigate bureaucracy. But too often BIDs have turned against the businesses they were meant to serve, making the cost of entry into a new area even higher for local merchants, or lacking the transparency needed to instill trust from the community.” As socialists, is it in our interest to support the success of small businesses? Does this point resonate with you (why/why not)?

2. What are some alternate ways to address municipal issues such as those listed in the articles (e.g. trash collection, public events, public safety) in Downtown Rochester? Further, do you think these are the most pressing issues to focus on, or are there others you would like to see addressed first?

3. The Teen Vogue article notes that the exclusion of marginalized folks, including those who are unhoused, is at the heart of BIDs. As members of DSA, how can we respectfully and successfully work with unhoused folks in Rochester to fight back against the BID?

4. One of the main arguments against BIDs is the subsequent creation of private police forces, notably for enforcement of “quality of life” violations. How does this policing affect public engagement in shared spaces? What are some ways to ensure public spaces are truly open to everyone?

* * *

Please attend the upcoming “In Jackson Heights” Screening & Panel, featuring City Councilmember Stanley Martin, local comedian and activist Chris Thompson, owner of Ugly Duck Coffee Rory Van Grol, and former Deputy Commissioner of Neighborhood and Business Development Kate Washington.

Register here: bit.ly/JacksonBID

The post Business Improvement Districts in Theory and Practice: Comments from Socialist Sunday School #53. first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

Is the United States a democracy? What steps could we make today to improve democracy here? What will potential roadblocks be, and how do we overcome them to achieve a society that works for instead of against the working class?

Join the Education Committee’s Democracy Social Discussion Group for a series of informal discussions about democracy. 

Upcoming

No sessions are scheduled at this time.

Past

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, 2/6 (6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.): SHOP Training with the Tenant Organizing Working Group (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, 2/7 (5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Research Party (Zoom)

Wednesday, 2/7 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Extreme Dean Turnout Wednesday (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, 2/7 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): HWG Reading Group: Mean Streets (In person at 1916 McAllister; Zoom)

Friday, 2/9 (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): Office Hours (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, 2/10 (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group (HWG) Office Hours (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, 2/10 (11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.): Extreme Dean Lit Drop Mobilization (Jefferson Square Park, 950 Gough Street)

Saturday, 2/10 (1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): HWG Sock Distro (Meet in person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, 2/14 (6:45 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): February Chapter Meeting (UNITE HERE Local 2, 209 Golden Gate Ave)

Friday, 2/16: Cross-Bay Mixer with East Bay DSA (Location and exact timing TBA)

Saturday, 2/17 (12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.): Field Trip to the Museum of International Propaganda with EBDSA (1000 5th Ave, San Rafael)

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

Events & Actions

Join the Tenant Organizing Working Group for SHOP Training!

Come join the DSA Tenant Organizing Working Group tonight for the final session of a three-part training to develop successful socialist tenant organizers.

Part 3 of the Socialist Housing Organizing Program (SHOP) covers the basics  of an organizing conversation to recruit your neighbors to the tenant union.

You can attend upcoming training on today, February 6th at 6:30 p.m. at 1916 McAllister.

This training will take place at the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister. Zoom is available upon request. Register today!

Join the HWG’s Sock Distro on Saturday 2/10!

Come join the Homelessness Working Group on Saturday, February 10th for our sock distro mutual aid project! We’ll be meeting at the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister at 1:00 p.m. before heading out to different neighborhoods to pass out socks, sandwiches and hygiene products. Feel free to show up an hour early if you’re able to help prep sandwiches!

Nominate Co-Chairs for the Palestine Solidarity Working Group

The Palestine Solidarity Working Group will be holding elections for the working group’s co-chairs at the February 14th chapter meeting! The new co-chairs’ term will last from February through June. Members can nominate themselves or a comrade by emailing steering@dsasf.org with their nominations before the February chapter meeting.

A Report from Extreme Dean’s Office

Hello Comrades, 

The D5 Team had a busy week! In case you missed it, Dean has called on the City to implement Zurich’s Four Pillars strategy to help save lives and address the opioid crisis in San Francisco. Before implementing this model, Zurich was dealing with public drug use, cleanliness issues, crime, and deadly overdoses. After implementing the Four Pillar strategy, which included prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and enforcement, Zurich has seen a reduction of overdose deaths by over 60%, a decrease in crime related to drug dealing, and a 98% reduction in thefts. Learn more about how we can overcome this crisis by working together toward a solution that emphasizes science, care, and compassion here.

Dean also introduced a resolution urging state lawmakers to reverse the $1.2 billion cuts to affordable housing programs made by Governor Gavin Newsom in his proposed budget. We all know the City badly needs affordable housing and has produced less than half (48%) of its targeted goals for affordable housing goals, while producing 151% of its market-rate housing goals. More than 6,400 affordable homes could be lost if these cuts are adopted. If California is serious about keeping more people in their homes, our state legislators must work together to restore the proposed budget cuts. 

Upcoming opportunities to help Extreme Dean:

• 2/7 – Turnout Wednesday at the office from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.!
• 2/10 – Mega mobilization and lit drop for the progressive DCCC Slate and Dean at Jefferson Square Park at 10:00 a.m.
• 3/17 – Official Dean field campaign launch mega mobilization and door-knocking at Alamo Square at 10:00 a.m.

Show Your Smolidarity at the February Chapter Meeting

The Priority Mutual Aid Working Group will be providing childwatch at the chapter meeting next month on February 14th!

Parents and caregivers can fill out this form before the meeting to help ensure we have enough volunteers and supplies on hand. Volunteers interested in providing childcare can let us know on the #priority-mutual-aid Slack channel or via the form. We hope to see you and your kiddos there!

Field Trip to the Museum of International Propaganda with East Bay DSA

EBDSA is organizing a  field trip to the Museum of International Propaganda on February 17th from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in San Rafael. They’ve invited us to join them!

If you’re interested in tagging along, message ellie or Jenna L on Slack.

Apply to Join the 2024 Convention Planning Subcommittee!

The 2024 Convention Planning Subcommittee is tasked with setting the timeline, putting together the agenda, leading the coordination, and handling the logistics for the chapter’s 2024 Annual Convention in June. We are starting early because its a big operation! The cadence will be light at the beginning of the process and naturally pick up the pace as we get closer to the main event!

Comrades with event planning experience are especially encouraged to apply! This is also a great place for newer members who are interested in jumping into the chapter to get involved. You’ll have plenty of support and see how the sausage is made for one of the biggest productions and most important cornerstones of our chapter’s democratic practice.

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.

Questions? Feedback? Something to add?

We welcome your feedback. If you have comments or suggestions, send a message to the #newsletter channel on Slack.

For information on how to add content, check out the Newsletter Q&A thread on the forum.

When you are having trouble navigating relationships and dynamics or whether you have a grievance you wish to file, an HGO can help you. HGOs serve a specialized role with Central NJ DSA. If you feel you need an HGO to help with a topic you are facing please do reach out as soon as possible. You can reach an HGO through this form or by emailing HGO@central.dsanj.org.

A HGO will help you in a compassionate and professional manner navigate tough obstacles and can be used to help further difficult communication amongst a set of people or a group.

Contacting and HGO does not mean harm was done and that is often assumed. HGOs serve a valuable role in helping comrades navigate dynamics. Every case a HGO handles is unique and must be cared for in that nature. There is no easy solution to an HGO case and you can rest assured that your approach will be tailored to your needs and the community at large. You have a voice in how your case is handled.

The post How Do I Utilize An HGO appeared first on Central NJ DSA.

At our January chapter meeting, DSA SF is proud to have passed, with overwhelming support, a resolution that reinforces DSA SF as an Anti-Zionist organization in principle and in practice.

Since the start of the most recent genocidal assault by Israel on Gaza, DSA SF mobilized to call for a ceasefire, from the streets, to union halls, to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. As these mobilizations continued, it became clear that DSA SF had to address the history of DSA with regards to Zionism if we wanted to continue being an effective ally in this struggle.

Following the lead of other chapters, including Houston DSA and Inland Empire DSA, we drafted a resolution to fully commit the chapter to Anti-Zionism and place ourselves on the side of the Palestinian liberation struggle. This resolution commits DSA SF to Anti-Zionism as a part of our socialist understanding of anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, and anti-racism. 

The adopted resolution explicitly defines Anti-Zionist expectations for our membership and endorsed candidates. We also define the Palestinian cause as an anti-colonial cause, relating it to the landback movement.

As a result of this resolution, Zionism and any Zionist disposition, such as opposition to BDS and the Palestinian right of return, are considered to be in substantial disagreement with DSA SF’s principles and policies. Similarly, endorsed candidates must support BDS, have no affiliations with any Zionist lobby groups (Democrats for Israel, AIPAC, etc), and pledge to politically support the Palestinian cause from their elected positions. 

Before introduction, we worked with chapter leadership and across various groups within the chapter to build consensus and to incorporate feedback they provided with respect to the specific work of the chapter. All in all, our diverse chapter membership was fully behind this resolution. At our chapter meeting, members engaged in a thoughtful discussion and adopted amendments to further clarify and strengthen the resolved commitment to Anti-Zionism.

This resolution will push DSA SF forward and make us a formidable ally in the fight for Palestinian liberation. It will also enable us to work more closely with Palestinian coalition partners, connecting the Palestinian cause with the variety of socialist causes DSA SF focuses on.

We call on all other DSA chapters to pass similar resolutions, and join us in making Palestine central in the ongoing struggle against global capitalism, settler colonialism, and US imperialism.

Across the world, demonstrations have been happening almost daily in protest to the ongoing slaughter of tens of thousands in Gaza, with growing voices now declaring it a genocide being committed by Israel. Here in Maine, we have seen a number of rallies from Bangor to Bath to Portland, all demanding an immediate ceasefire, and on Friday, February 2nd, Portland saw another action in support of peace in Gaza, this time a little bit more disruptive in hopes of getting its organizers’ point across more directly. 

At 1 PM, about two hundred protesters rallied at the intersection of Marginal and Franklin, a popular bottleneck for traffic using the on and off ramps of I-295. The rally was organized by the Maine Coalition for Palestine, an umbrella group that includes organizations like the Maine Democratic Socialists of America, Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights, the Maine Party for Socialism & Liberation, and more. At least four speakers, including family members of holocaust survivors, addressed the ongoing atrocities taking place in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire and loudly denouncing the role the U.S. government has played with its carte blanche military support for Israel. 

Protesters proceeded to block the street for nearly two hours, preventing cars from exiting or getting onto the highway. They held banners and signs declaring, “Palestine will be free” and waved Palestinian flags. Attendees kept up spirits with chants like, “We are all Palestinian! In the thousands, in the millions!” “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide! We charge you with Genocide!” and, “Viva, Viva, Palestina!” 

In short order, the police arrived and warned protesters that anyone blocking the street would be arrested. However, a number of protesters clearly knew that this would be a possibility ahead of time and committed themselves to having their demands be taken seriously, even if it meant being taken into custody. As one protester noted, “it can’t be any worse than being in Gaza right now.” Within twenty to thirty minutes after their warning, the police moved in and arrested eleven people for blocking the roadway. Among those arrested was Lisa Savage, who ran for U.S. Senate as an Independent in 2020.

As local news announced the protest and arrests online, comment sections were quick to fill up with a mixed bag of people either supporting or denigrating the demonstration. While a number of social media comments cheered on the protest with posts like, “Proud of them. Thrilled to see Mainers standing against genocide”, other comments called for violence against the protesters like, “Run them over”, “Time to get the plow truck out”, and “Open fire!!!!” Some of this vitriol could potentially be explained by the rising political polarization in the U.S., and especially the rise in violent rhetoric on the right. But, it’s also true that protesters fighting for peace have long faced threats of violence in America. From women’s suffrage, to the Civil Rights Movement, to the anti-war movement of Vietnam, people have created peaceful acts of disruption and partaken in civil disobedience, all in order to call attention to larger injustices. And, without fail, those acts of peaceful disruption have and will continue to draw hateful, violent vitriol (or worse) from those who favor the status quo of war, injustice, and inequality.

But for all those who are upset at the protesters on February 2nd because you were late for work, or an appointment, or picking up groceries from Whole Foods, we will leave you again with what the protester quoted above said, “it can’t be any worse than being in Gaza right now.”

The post Maine Coalition for Palestine Blocks Traffic, Protests Genocide in Gaza. appeared first on Pine & Roses.