Chapter and Verse

DSA members march in support of NYC-DSA’s #DEFUNDNYPD campaign. Photo courtesy instagram.com/nycdsa

After the murder of George Floyd on May 25, DSAers across the country stood up to defend Black lives and defund police to re-fund our community services. Members attended and provided security for mass protests, coordinated jail support, supplied protesters with food and water, and raised money for bail funds.

In Minneapolis, Twin Cities DSA joined local actions immediately after Floyd’s death, then continued to support their community by providing hot meals, fresh produce, and other food supplies to South Side residents when grocery stores were shuttered during the protests.

In Houston, where Floyd grew up, Houston DSA joined area protests, then co-hosted a Juneteenth weekend Essential Workers Car Caravan for Black Lives with unions and other labor organizations.

In partnership with Black and indigenous families affected by police violence, Seattle DSA’s AFROSOC caucus led a march of over 1,000 people through Seattle’s wealthiest neighborhood to Mayor Jenny Durkan’s mansion, with speakers from the Family of Charleena Lyles, Missing and Murdered Indigenous People & Families, Decriminalize Seattle, and many more.

In California, DSA San Francisco and East Bay DSA joined the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)’s West Coast port shutdown to celebrate Juneteenth, end systemic racism and police terror, and stop the privatization of the Oakland port.

After a month of street protests throughout the five boroughs, members of NYC DSA’s Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus became part of the organizing committee of a weeks-long occupation outside City Hall demanding that the city defund the NYPD.

On what would have been Breonna Taylor’s birthday, DSA North Texas joined In Defense Of Black Lives Dallas in protest. And on Juneteenth weekend, they held a Defund the Police event to talk about what Dallas’s future might look like without so many cops in the streets.