On January 5th, Georgia will be at the center of national attention for runoff races that will decide the party leadership of the United States Senate. While Metro Atlanta DSA holds no allegiance to any capitalist political party, we recognize the significance of these races and the issues at stake.

In addition to the US Senate, there is also a closely contested election for Public Service Commission, an agency which oversees utility rates, power company regulations, and access to broadband across the state.

Metro Atlanta DSA believes the working class should be informed about the workings of government, and the issues at stake in elections. Our members have worked to put together the following voter guide that discusses the races on the ballot, the significance of the offices being decided, and provides information about how to reliably and safely vote in this election.

Over the course of this runoff campaign, Metro Atlanta DSA plans to be actively organized in supporting voting rights, as well canvassing and phone banking voters about key working class issues at stake. Join MADSA if you want to be involved!

On Election Day, the state of New Jersey overwhelmingly voted “yes” on Public Question 1. This public question sought to legalize the possession and use of marijuana for persons age 21 and older, and legalize the cultivation, processing, and sale of retail marijuana.

We at the North New Jersey Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America initially viewed this a victory. It seemed this would provide relief for communities that have historically been targeted by cannabis criminalization by having one less aspect in which they engage with the police.

It took no time at all for NJ State Senators Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) to cook up a bill in which most of the tax revenue from cannabis sales would go toward subsidizing police training.

Knowing that this would be wildly unpopular, these senators made sure that the public had only three hours on a Friday night to contest this before sending the bill to a vote. Thanks to the work of activists, the vote has been postponed and we have time to fight it. 

We find this bill and these actions to be abhorrent. 

Following a summer in which there was a historic call to defund the police, it is unthinkable that our local politicians would have the gall to actually put forward a bill that would provide those same police with more funding.

We demand that the subsidies from the sales of marijuana, in the state of New Jersey, fund communities that have been ravaged by the war on drugs to fund initiatives like: 

• public and behavioral health
• job training
• legal aid for civil and criminal cases
• health education programs
• housing assistance
• food assistance
• healthcare services
• youth recreation
• violence prevention
• poverty mitigation
• RESTORATIVE JUSTICE PROGRAMS
• mentoring
• literacy programs

…AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!

North New Jersey Chapter of DSA is exponentially growing by the day, and we hope you will join us in fighting for a just bill. 

You can help us by contacting your two assembly people and your senator by phone, email, Twitter, or anyway possible. 

To enable , we will be hosting call-in day trainings on:

Friday, December 4th 7-9pm
Register for zoom link:

Sunday, December 6th, 2-4pm
Register for Zoom link:

This task can’t be conquered individually. It is in moments like these that we must UNITE! For through comradery, we achieve economic justice for all. 

In Solidarity, 

North New Jersey DSA!

The post Fund People NOT Police first appeared on North NJ DSA.

The winter holiday season of 2020 begins this week, bringing with it opportunities for challenging and fruitful conversations about the hot topics of religion and politics. On this week’s show, we speak with members of NYC-DSA’s Religion and Socialism Working Group on how faith and spirituality blend with our socialist organizing efforts. We also hear an update from our South Brooklyn branch and Sunset Park Popular Assembly on the inhumane conditions at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, a Federal prison in our backyard, and the organizing to demand justice for murdered inmate Jamel Floyd.

To contact the RS Working Group, you can email: religious.socialism@socialists.nyc or follow @ReligSocialism on Twitter or @religoussocialism on Instagram. 

RSVP for the next working group meeting  https://actionnetwork.org/events/religion-socialism-december-2020-meeting

The RSWG is also co-sponsoring a Tax the Rich teach-in on Tuesday, December 1st: https://actionnetwork.org/events/nyc-dsa-121-tax-the-rich-campaign-teach-in

For more details on the December 4th action at MDC and the demand for Justice for Jamel, follow https://www.instagram.com/sunsetassembly/

The post North NJ Democratic Socialists Join Historic Public Outcry Against ICE first appeared on North NJ DSA.

Jewish Traditions of Socialism Our latest episode of ‘Heart of a Heartless World’ is a recording of our October 26th webinar conversation between Rev. Andrew Wilkes and Rabbi Andy Bachman, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Project and former senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim, about how Jewish traditions of socialism, from Martin Buber’s reflections on Utopia to the labor organizing and organic intellectuals of the early twentieth century, have helped create a political economy where workers’ dignity and decision making power is prioritized and can, going forward, inform and inspire contemporary movements of religious socialism.

If you think the election of Joe Biden means the defeat of fascism, think again. The twenty-first century American fascist beast feeds off the monstrous rot of neoliberalism. DSA member and union organizer Brendan O’Connor joins RPM to discuss his new book, Blood Red Lines: How Nativism Fuels the Right. We also hear directly from organizers who experienced police brutality at the Black Lives Matter protests this past summer. https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1519-blood-red-lines

John D'Emilio joins "Heart of a Heartless World" to discuss the history of Bayard Rustin, a Quaker and democratic socialist who introduced nonviolent tactics to the civil rights movement and organized the March on Washington. After years of organizing protests, Rustin argued after Lyndon B. Johnson's election that the left needed to move "from protest to politics" and engage directly with the political system while building broad-based coalitions. In this episode John D'Emilio charts the similarities between Rustin's engagement with LBJ's administration and the left's challenge with an incoming Biden administration. John D’Emilio is a pioneer in the field of gay and lesbian studies and is professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he taught in the Gender and Women’s Studies Program and the Department of History. He is currently president of the board of the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, a Chicago community-based LGBTQ history archives and cultural center. Resources: John D'Emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin (2003): https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo3644370.html Interview with John D'Emilio with Meagan Day, "Capitalism made gay identity possible. Now we must destroy capitalism." (2020): https://jacobinmag.com/2020/08/gay-identity-capitalism-lgbt John D'Emilio, "Capitalism and Gay Identity" (1983): https://sites.middlebury.edu/sexandsociety/files/2015/01/DEmilio-Capitalism-and-Gay-Identity.pdf John D'Emilio, Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago's LGBTQ Archives, (2020): https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/Q/bo44312771.html

Our latest episode of ‘Heart of a Heartless World’ is a recording of a webinar DSA’s NYC chapter hosted with faith leaders on how American apocalyptic thinking gets in the way building a better future, how to decolonize the apocalypse, and the potential for societal transformation through a just transition towards ecosocialism. On October 13th Ryan Felder (3rd Year MDiv at Union Theological Seminary) facilitated the panel which included Rev. Chelsea MacMillan (interfaith minister, Extinction Rebellion Activist, and co-founder Brooklyn Center for Sacred Activism), Shay O’Reily (Lutheran lay leader and climate organizer), and Nathan Albright (writer with The Flood and Catholic Worker). 
 Our next webinar discussion will feature Rev. Andrew Wilkes and Rev. Sekou, artist, author, and public theologian, in conversation about the ethical and religious streams of the Black radical tradition on Thursday, November 19th. For more information and to register: https://www.religioussocialism.org/next_religious_socialism_webinar_the_spirit_of_black_radical_traditions

On Saturday, major news networks called the Presidential election for Joe Biden after it became clear he had won the State of Pennsylvania. New Yorkers took to the streets to celebrate the defeat of President Donald Trump as much as to celebrate Biden’s victory. On tonight’s show, we’ll talk with NYC-DSA co-chair Chi Anunwa about Saturday's march as well as DSA’s organizing strategy under a Biden administration. 

We also have Ariadna Phillips from NYC-DSA’s Bronx Upper Manhattan Branch live with us to talk about DSA’s mutual aid work to feed South Bronx community members. The New York Times recently published an interview with Bronx and Queens congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after centrist democrats claimed leftist demands such as Medicare for All, a Green New Deal and defunding the police had caused the Democrats to lose races in swing states. We’ll talk with Ariadna about the necessity of such policies in her South Bronx community and more.   

To support South Bronx Mutual Aid and Undocumented Women’s Fund by volunteering, donating, or requesting assistance, please click here: 

https://linktr.ee/SouthBronxMutualAid

Trump and the Far Right are doing everything they can to subvert the will of the people. We must be prepared to fight any effort to subvert the democratic will of the working class. We cannot allow the Republican party to disenfranchise people with the same Jim Crow playbook they've been using for generations in order to continue their deadly authoritarian agenda on every level of government.

Sign the pledge now to show your support for counting every vote and are willing to mobilize if any attempts are made to steal the election. Add your name now to pledge your commitment to take action to ensure that every vote is counted.

No matter what happens, we will continue to fight for democracy, Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and more. A better world is possible.

The Democratic Socialist of America Chapters of North Carolina
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Charlotte Metro DSA
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Piedmont DSA
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