Jay Forth is a graduate from Duke Divinity, a director of homeless outreach at a nonprofit in DC, previously he was the executive director of Festival Center, a faith-based space for organizing. In this wide-ranging conversation, Sarah talks with Jay about a paper he published linking the book, The Making of the Indebted Man: An Essay on the Neoliberal Condition by Maurizio Lazzarato and Jonathan Edwards’s sermon on sinners in the hands of an angry God. He also shares what it was like to grow up with black Jamaican immigrant parents, tenant organizing, and why queerness should not be just an identity, seamlessly connecting threads from racism to queerness to capitalism to the gospel.

Over 100 MADSA members turned out for our first general meeting of the year on Jan. 25, a record high (thanks to the Membership Committee phone bankers!).This meeting was all about DSA looking for ways we can have a direct impact on the policies of our state. After a brief presentation on how bills are passed by the Georgia legislature and how citizens can lobby and track those bills, a distinguished panel including Sen. Nan Orrock, Rep. Park Cannon, and leaders of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, the Labor Council, SPARK, the Feminist Women’s Health Center and others, clued us in about what to expect from the upcoming legislative session; who is fighting for working people’s interests in Georgia; and how to get involved.

A breakout session provided an opportunity for members to connect with our working groups and committees that help us take action, among them Immigrant Justice, Afro-Socialism, Ecosocialism, Political Education, MADSA for Bernie, Anti-war, Women’s Caucus/Reproductive Rights and Mutual Aid (which had held a brake light clinic earlier that day and provided refreshments for the meeting).

After a lively debate, we voted on whether to endorse two candidates for Georgia congressional seats. A separate blog post on the results will follow soon. The proposal for bylaws revisions was tabled to February’s meeting due to lack of time.

Following announcements of upcoming events and singing “Solidarity Forever,” we adjourned and many of us gathered for more solidarity at a friendly bar and restaurant on the Edgewood strip.

MADSA’s monthly general meetings welcome everyone, although voting is limited to dues-paying members.W

Photo: Michael Roberts

Bernie inspired a generation, but who inspired Bernie? Labor organizer Eugene Victor Debs led the United States socialist movement in the early 20th century. He received almost one million votes for president in 1920, running from his cell in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where he had been jailed for protesting World War I — when our population was one third the size of today’s! Debs was a charismatic, extremely popular figure during his lifetime but this history, like so much of our radical history, is rarely taught.

Debs famously declared: “While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison I am not free!”

Metro Atlanta DSA and Georgia State U. YDSA are proud to present this film, produced by Yale Strom and Elizabeth Schwartz, two San Diego DSA members. Discussion will follow the film, so please plan to stay.

We also plan to have some copies available of Eugene Debs, a Graphic Biography, by DSA members Paul Buhle and Steve Max, at half price. You can order a copy at half price online from national DSA.

Admission is free, though donations to help pay for the screening fee and theater rental will be welcome.

As we do every year, a contingent of MADSA members joined the Martin Luther King Jr. Day march on Jan. 20, along with hundreds of others from peace and justice organizations, labor unions, community groups, churches and schools, and individuals. The lead marchers chanted “Ho, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” and many other concerns were voiced, including demands for peace, reparations, and police accountability. Photos: Reid Freeman Jenkins.

At the January 5, 2020 meeting of the Charlotte Metro Democratic Socialists of America, the following statement was read aloud to members and guests. Members in attendance at the meeting voted to formally adopt this statement.

Oppose the U.S.-led Imperialist Foreign Policy in the Middle East!

Charlotte Metro Democratic Socialists of America (CLTMDSA) emphatically opposes a U.S. war with Iran. In light of the U.S.’s act of war against Iran, putting the two nations close to the brink of war, DSA calls on all members and chapters to mobilize against yet another U.S. war in the Middle East.

On January 2, 2020, the U.S. military assassinated, on Iraqi soil, Iranian General Qassim Suleimani. Such a move is an act of war, and unnecessarily escalates an already tense military situation in Iraq and Iran. In addition to recklessly endangering millions of lives throughout the Middle East, the aggressive military strike of January 2nd violates the War Powers Act, the U.S. Constitution, and international law.

As Democratic Socialists, we reject the jingoism, nationalism, xenophobia, and war profiteering endemic in all capitalist countries who pursue their imperialist policies to the detriment of the working class of all countries. 

The Charlotte Metro chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America calls upon all workers to oppose the aggression of the U.S. government in the Middle East and around the world, and to oppose all attempts to split the working class along national lines.

Workers of the World, Unite!

Charlotte Metro Democratic Socialists of America

“And here let me emphasize the fact — and it cannot be repeated too often — that the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish the corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both. They alone declare war and they alone make peace.”

 - Eugene V. Debs, Anti-War Speech given in Canton, Ohio (1918)

“Modern monopolist capitalism on a world-wide scale — imperialist wars are absolutely inevitable under such an economic system, as long as private property in the means of production exists.” 

- V.I. Lenin, Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism

Maxine Phillips leads DSA’s religion and socialism working group nationally. She is a retired executive editor of Dissent, former DSA national director, and current volunteer editor of "Democratic Left." She has been part of DSA since the late 70's and oversaw the Religion & Socialism print newsletter for decades, which included articles from Cornel West, Arthur Waskow, and Dorothy Sollee. This interview captures lots of her insights on the differences between each generation of DSA, and reflections on the parallels and differences between church and socialist spaces.

A rally Monday 12/16 on the steps of The People’s House (Atlanta City Hall) demanded that Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms – who has dubbed herself “the Housing Mayor” – “Stop displacing Black people from Atlanta!” Several MADSA members were there, including Lorraine Fontana, who posted this report:

Speakers included Tanya Washington and Robert and Bertha Darden, Peoplestown residents whose homes the City has taken by eminent domain (we demanded that Mayor Bottoms resolve this issue immediately, as these families have been strung along for seven years now!); advocates for people without homes; members of the Housing Justice League doing work to stem the tide of evictions and to create a BeltLine for All; and other folks who gathered to demand that our mayor respond to the needs of the people in the City Too Busy to Hate!

The mayor was not to be seen or found while we were there. . .but there will be more demands that she talk with these Peoplestown residents directly and use her executive power to withdraw the lawsuit against them that is now in the court. Some Housing Justice League and other sisters and brothers decided to stay all night outside the mayor’s office at City Hall, so they’d be there when the mayor does get to her office in the morning. Singing justice songs to keep them energized!

MADSA’s December general meeting, held at our downtown office, featured a holiday potluck feast and socializing in addition to a few business items and reports from working groups and committees. By breaking into groups of four we got to know some fellow members better, including new comrades from Athens (one plans to run for county commissioner!) and Kennesaw.

We also heard about plans for another break-light clinic in January (Mutual Aid WG); ongoing canvasses for Bernie; joining actions with our allies against climate change and a proposed Ga. Power rate hike, plus a popular ecosocialism book club (Ecosocialism WG); planning for public and internal education programs in 2020 (Education WG); a new MADSA YouTube channel, ready for your contribution (Digital-Communications Committee); and outreach to increase member engagement (Membership Committee). All members are encouraged to join these groups. Announcements included an Afro-Socialism group party, and the Housing Justice League’s City Hall protest against displacement of inner city neighborhoods by gentrification. We learned a lot but also had lots of fun!

MADSA Chair Councilman khalid opened the meeting. Photo: Catie Elle.

MADSA was in the house at the Bernie Sanders for President rally at Morehouse College on Nov. 21. We joined thousands of other Bernie fans, inspired by his political vision of Medicare for All, Collegefor All, a Green New Deal, and Workplace Democracy.

“Table got taken down, but the clip-boarding was very successful,” said MADSA officer Cole Reardon.”Sometimes it’s actually nice preaching to the choir.” Word is we signed up 200 people interested in joining our chapter!

See Bernie’s talk here. (Photos: Steve Eberhardt. Video: Georgia Grassroots Video.)

MADSA’s 13th annual Douglass-Debs awards dinner at Paschal’s restaurant Nov. 9 was a great success. The dinner has been our main fundraiser, enabling us to help our allies and pay our expenses, while honoring leaders of our progressive community and networking with friends and fellow activists from the unions, civil rights and other movements.

This year’s keynote speaker was Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO. That title doesn’t begin to suggest her inspiring, yet down-to-earth oratory, lifting all of us to support labor’s struggles — an especially relevant message right now, as her union just launched a campaign to organize Delta workers! She quoted widely from historic figures such as Mother Jones, Fredrick Douglass and Eugene Victor Debs, and from her own experience as a worker and a woman, assuring us that “Solidarity is stronger than gravity!” Watch her speak here!

Other moving tributes followed to the awardees:
1) The Highlander Research and Education Center, a key resource for progressive organizers since the 1930s (now located in New Market, TN) lost their main building to a right-wing arson attack earlier this year but continues their work undeterred. Member Eric Robertson explained that the award recognizes the continued importance of the center to the current movement for human rights, worker rights and racial justice as well as its role in nurturing such historic figures as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. As the Center was holding its own board meeting that weekend, Annie Thomas, regional organizer for Project South, accepted the award in Highlander’s behalf.

2) Georgia State Representative Renitta Shannon was recognized for her courageous service as one of a few progressive members of the Georgia General Assembly, standing up for women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and immigrant rights. Her friend Charmaine Davis, SE regional administrator of the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Women’s Bureau, recalled her friendship with Renitta and the awardee’s inspiring career.

3) To top off the celebration, we gave one of our special awards — for “creative activism” — to our own Daniel Hanley, well known for his leadership in every kind of direct action, most recently with the Light Brigade, which provides illuminated signage and projects uplifting slogans onto Atlanta’s night-time cityscape during demonstrations. MADSA founder Milt Tambor presented the award by noting many instances of Daniel’s commitment, courage and creativity — the essential makings of an activist — since he joined MADSA several years ago.