Article from People’s World published by campaign member Cameron O.!

“Right To Counsel JC is fighting to have the program run by an office in city hall and funded by fees on big new development projects. Such a program would be a strong enforcement mechanism, empowering tenants to help the city make sure housing laws are followed and buildings are up to code.”

Read “Right to Counsel: Jersey City tenants fight for free lawyers in eviction struggles” in People’s World

Whereas: all 340,000 non-management UPS workers are covered by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and UPS Teamster members have been organizing escalating contract actions across the country as the contract fight heats up, and will need community support as they get closer to the August 1 deadline; and

Whereas: If they strike, they will need the whole labor movement behind them to show that when we fight, we win; and

Whereas: the Resolution #5 from the 2021 convention of the Democratic Socialist of America mandates the National Labor Commission engage DSA as a whole with labor work; and

Whereas: the Tampa Local Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America stands in unwavering solidarity with workers and prioritizes the labor solidarity work,

Therefore be it resolved: that Tampa DSA will take the following steps to be STRIKE READY: 

April 12th:

• The Chapter will publicly commit to the national Strike Ready campaign and supporting rank-and-file UPS Teamsters throughout the contract fight.

By May 13th:

• The Chapter will democratically choose two Solidarity Captains to liaise with the NLC for coordination on the national campaign to support the UPS Teamsters in their contract fight and ensure they are connected with the NLC and attending Labor Corps Solidarity Calls.

By June 30:

• The Chapter will have reviewed the Strike Ready 2023 Chapter Kit and familiarized members with key concepts of labor solidarity 
• Ask chapter members to sign the Strike Ready Pledge.
• Identify chapter members to assist Solidarity Captains in local support with chapter listwork and map the local labor community as outlined in the Strike Ready Kit.

Throughout June and July : 

• The Chapter will canvass their membership, local contacts and the community to build support for the UPS Teamsters by asking them to sign the Strike Ready Pledge. 
• The Chapter will support escalating contract actions as announced by the IBT, local UPS Teamsters, and the National Labor Commission.

August 1: The Chapter will turn out members and community supporters to show up at the picket line or the contract ratification celebration. 

After the fight: The Chapter will use the excitement generated by the contract fight to recruit chapter members to commit to the rank and file strategy and debrief on experience to prepare for future labor solidarity actions.  

The post Tampa DSA Strike Ready Resolution appeared first on Tampa DSA.

This episode is an edited version of a webinar built around Joerg Rieger's new book, Theology in the Capitalocene. He was joined by the incredible scholars Filipe Maia and Jason Moore. In the episode, we define the Capitalocene, upack the importance of class analysis for building solidarity, and close with a discussion of the intersectionality of all of these deeply related ideas. BIOS: - Joerg Rieger is a theologian, author, & speaker. He is the Distinguished Professor of Theology and the Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair of Wesleyan Studies. He is also the founding director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice. - Jason Moore is an author, editor, and professor. He is an environmental historian and historical geographer at Binghamton University, where he is professor of sociology and leads the World-Ecology Research Collective. - Filipe Maia is Assistant Professor of Theology at Boston University School of Theology where his research focuses on liberation theologies and philosophies, theology and economics, and the Christian eschatological imagination. LINKS: Joerg Rieger 
- Profile: https://divinity.vanderbilt.edu/people/bio/joerg-rieger - Website: https://www.joergrieger.com - New Book: https://www.fortresspress.com/store/productgroup/2056/Theology-in-the-Capitalocene Jason Moore - Essays: http://jasonwmoore.com - World-Ecology Research Network google doc sign-up: https://forms.gle/wgATH5KjsqsV5nMQ6 - Recent short essays: http://jasonwmoore.wordpress.com/ - World-Ecology Research Network: on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/worldecology/?ref=bookmarks on Academia: https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/World-Ecology Filipe Maia: - Profile: https://www.bu.edu/sth/profile/filipe-maia/ - New book: https://www.dukeupress.edu/trading-futures

Seattle voters passed Initiative 135 in February, creating the only radically democratic, tenant-led, publicly-owned social housing developer in the country. I sat down with Tiffani McCoy, Co-Chair of House Our Neighbors, the coalition who led the fight. Then I interviewed two leaders of Seattle DSA, Sydney Province and Ramy Khalil, to get their perspective on the fight ahead to fully fund social housing in Seattle. Both interviews were excellent, but went long, so we split this into a two-parter. Subscribe to get an alert when Part 2 drops. Thanks to Luke Wigren and Charlie Spears for help recording, editing, and mixing this episode.

I interviewed Julianna Dauble, president of the Renton Education Association, about the ballot initiative campaign her union and South Sound DSA members launched to raise the minimum wage in Renton to $19/hour. This first episode was produced in February as a prototype for Seattle DSA members as we considered whether or not to invest our Chapter's resources into producing a regular podcast. After three months of debate, in late April large majority voted to launch Socialist Sound as part of a wider plan to improve Seattle DSA's communications. While its dated and geared toward a specific audience, we thought it was well-worth sharing this prototype episode publicly. Thanks to Luke Wigren and Charlie Spears for help recording, editing, and mixing this episode.

What’s May Day??? 

May Day has been the day of celebration for the class which creates all that is necessary to live and to live well, the working class. This day has been largely ignored here in the United States. Traditionally the date of May 1st was set by workers' organizations as a day of work stoppage in the fight for the eight-hour workday. In the United States this was historically tied to the general strike of 1886. On Saturday, May 1, thousands of workers around the United States went on strike and marched under the slogan "Eight Hours for work. Eight hours for rest. Eight hours for what we will." Nearly half a million workers from Chicago to New York, to Milwaukee to Detroit marched in solidarity. In Chicago this is often remembered as leading to the infamous Haymarket Affair in which a bombing took place at a labor demonstration four days later, May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois. Eight anarchists would be framed and convicted of conspiracy though only two of the eight were even at the Haymarket at the time and the two could not even be connected to the throwing of the bomb. Seven were sentenced to death and one to a term of 15 years in prison. Eventually four were monstrously hanged on November 11, 1887, one would commit suicide while in prison and the remaining three would remain wrongfully convicted until their pardon in 1893.

In commemoration of the general strike and those workers targeted and imprisoned Socialist organizations and trade unions demonstrate on the First of May for the material demands of the working class, the demand for a living wage, a respectable and decent job, and a Democratic way of life which has shown to be unattainable under the rule of landlords, bankers and bosses embodied within the economic system of Capitalism.  

In efforts to encourage working people to forget this history President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September of each year a national holiday to remove any association of the original May Day. Much later in 1958 President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared May 1 "Law Day" dedicated to the principles of law and order, and in 2021 President Joe Biden declared May 1st "Loyalty Day" further burying the history of the working people in their struggle.  

Many Americans have not forgotten this history, and those committed to Socialism and Democracy still gather to continue the struggle. Today, we remember those working-class fighters that came before us who fought persecution and imprisonment in the battle for Democracy that can only be won with a Workers' Government. 

Are you interested in becoming the best organizer you can be? Do you want to expand socialism here in Milwaukee, but are unsure of where and how to start? Have you been involved but feel like the project did not go anywhere? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the Milwaukee Socialist Organizer Class is for you! 

This nine week program will focus on holistically teaching you to be an unstoppable organizer who builds socialism, changes hearts and minds, and impacts our city.  You will learn direct action organizing, as defined by Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists, in which we organize actions, campaigns, and tactics to “1) win real, immediate, concrete improvement in people’s lives . . . 2) Give people a sense of their own power . . . 3) Alter the relations of power.” 

Interested individuals will apply (click here for application, which is due Thursday, May 18), be interviewed, and enter the program if selected.  DSA membership is not required to participate, but is encouraged. 

This education program will be a combination of in-person events with virtual events if necessary. Each unit will be roughly a week, with a week break in the middle of the program. Each unit will consist of classroom-style instruction in the unit topic (no more than 2 hours, which will be in-person), field work in organizing (which will be at least 3 hours and consist of having conversations, moving people to action, and building infrastructure for a strong socialist movement involving several types of campaigns), and time for personal reflection. Each participant must commit to the entire program and, unless excused, attend every unit instruction, and field work session.  Missing more than two classes and field work sessions may result in removal from the program.  

Time commitment per week: 

Unit instruction: 2 hours 
Organizing work: 3 hours 
Miscellaneous tasks: 1 hour 
Total time per week: 6 hours

Weekly Schedule 

Class will be conducted on Tuesday evenings from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. and held in-person at various locations.  

Field work will be held at regular intervals over the week, with options to organize at several points during the week: 

(tentative schedule, subject to change . . .) 

Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.

Sundays 12:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. 

Mondays 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. 

Program Timeline: 

Thursday, May 18:

Application deadline – apply here

Tuesday, May 23: 

Start of nine week program (class held, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.), location TBD, but in City of Milwaukee 

Tuesday, May 30:

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday, June 6:

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday, June 13:

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Monday, June 19 to Monday June 26:

Week Break

Tuesday, June 27

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday, July 4:

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday, July 11: 

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday, July 18,: 

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Friday, July 21: 

End of class party (tentative) 

Monday, July 24:

Completion of program

Units

Each unit helps to answer the question: what is organizing? 

Welcome: what is organizing?

• Get to know participants and instructor
• Define scope of class and intentions 
• Determine goals and desired outcomes 

Organizing is one-on-one Conversations

• Learn the 7 point organizing conversation 
• Practice the conversation and its elements 

Organizing is building the committee and the campaign 

• The importance (or not) of the committee
• Power Mapping the campaign 
• Strategy Chart 

Organizing is holistic productivity 

• Traction versus distraction 
• Time management and its importance
• The Reverse Calendar 
• Overcoming blocks to action

Organizing is a mindset 

• Acknowledging hurdles and setbacks 
• Failure is a great option
• Develop a practice to keep you going

Organizing is raising money and managing it

• Why money is OK 
• How to bring energy and money to your campaign 
• The basics of campaign budgeting and finance 

Organizing is communications

• What does “messaging” mean? 
• The power of media 
• Writing workshop

Organizing is bringing it all together

• You’ve got momentum – now what? 
• Recap of unit themes

Reviews

Here is what previous students have to say about the Milwaukee Socialist Organizer Class: 

“[Before the class] I had no idea about the actual work of organizing.  Now I feel confident that I would be able to become a leader in a campaign setting . . .” 

“I loved the practical application of socialism . . . [and] I loved the far-reaching application of some of the class content.” 

“This is a great way to move into the world of socialism. . . thank you so much for offering this course” 

“This [class] is a great first step for anyone looking to start organizing . . .” 

“I radically grew in my comfort around being upfront and simply being able to approach a complete stranger with a potentially controversial topic.” 

“New organizers and experienced organizers can benefit from this class.” 

“Generally speaking my confidence level just interacting with people about socialism has gone through the roof.  I have been given a phenomenal overview of how to organize and I feel confident that I can find out what works best for me in the future.”  

“It was great to grow as an organizer within the confines of a welcoming community/instructor.” 

“I feel more confident organizing outside of an electoral context.”  

Meet your instructor: 

Alex Brower is a labor leader, socialist organizer, and the chapter co-chair of the Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America. Professionally, Alex is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, which organizes union retirees.  In his organizing work, Alex has saved jobs from privatization, helped workers win a union voice on the job, defeated a temp agency, organized against a proposed iron-ore mine, helped bring comprehensive sex education to Beloit Public Schools, and won workplace healthcare for many uninsured MPS Substitute Teachers. As an MPS substitute teacher and former Milwaukee Rec. Department instructor, Alex brings a host of experience teaching others. Alex has also been a candidate for Milwaukee City Comptroller and School Board, running both times as a socialist. 

Any questions? 

Contact Alex Brower at 414-949-8756 or milwaukeedsa@gmail.com 

Apply now!

Click here to apply, or copy and paste this URL into your web browser: https://forms.gle/DChATjAzgXPFdhG59

Tucson Democratic Socialists of America Greetings Comrades!  On Saturday May 13th from 12:00-2:00 PM, we're holding a hybrid general meeting at the Woods Memorial Library, which is located at 3455 N 1st Ave. The meeting is hybrid to ensure that it is accessible to anyone unable to attend in person or folks who are uncomfortable with indoor in-person meetings. You can register in advance for the zoom meeting here and if you have any trouble with the link, please let us know by replying to this email. Please see our general events for the month of May below.  Solidarity,  Jeanne L.  Co-Chair, Tucson DSA  DSA Tucson Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

This email was sent to <<Email Address>> why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences DSA Tucson · PO Box 1038 · NYC, New York 10272 · USA

ilmDSA was out last Saturday to pick up some trash in an area neglected by the city.  In just a few short hours, we bagged up and took to the dump over 1,500 pounds of trash!  We made a difference in the area and helped keep a lot of litter out of our local waterways.  

If you want to come out and help this month, RSVP Here and we’ll see you out there!