Enjoy your April National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected eighteen-person body (including two YDSA members who share a vote) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. Read on for more!

• From the National Political Committee
• NPC Statements — Chauvin Verdict, Daunte Wright, Justice for Trans People
• NPC Steering Committee Update
• Your Convention Update
• This Weekend, Saturday 4/24-Sunday 4/25 — Building the Religious Left Conference
• Sunday, 4/25 — Join our Puerto Rican Self Determination Panel
• Get Democratic Socialists in Office — Support our Socialist Slate!
• Meet Your Staff
• Welcome New DSA Organizing Committees

FROM THE NATIONAL POLITICAL COMMITTEE — MAY DAY, THE PRO ACT, AND STEERING COMMITTEE UPDATE

A little more than three months out from our 2021 National Convention, we want to take a moment to sit with what’s to come. As we inch toward having an organization of 100,000 members, toward finalizing a national platform, and toward a week-long virtual event where we will decide on our resolve for this organization over the next couple years, we want to remember why we call each other comrades. Because in the fight against capital, we’re all we’ve got. As we practice democracy and cultivate a culture of solidarity, we take seriously the chance to come together and collectively decide how we intend to not only grow, but to wield the power we’ve built through our organizing. We are hopeful that we will come away from the Convention with a clarified vision for not only a better world but a plan for a mass, working-class organization capable of achieving that vision.

May Day is next week, and we’re pumped about the work of our PRO Act campaign. We’ve flipped not only one but TWO Senators (King and Manchin) and are putting the three holdouts on notice! At our last NPC meeting, we voted to extend the PRO Act campaign as a national priority for another month because we know if we don’t turn up in mass action for the final push we might lose the biggest victory for workers in decades. A giant thank you to the nearly 50 chapters who have committed to May Day actions! If you’re reading this and haven’t joined the campaign yet, sign up here to start organizing alongside your comrades and/or donate to our campaign fundraiser. Let’s keep this momentum going!

May Day was born from struggle, a testament to worker militancy, and we plan to not only celebrate international workers’ solidarity but to work toward it, to ground ourselves in the reality that it will take a mass movement of workers from all around the world to win the world we deserve. May Day is also an opportunity to remember who our enemies are and who will oppose our efforts every step of the way. Those whose lives were stolen in the Haymarket Massacre of 1886 went up against the police. And over a hundred years later, those same forces are continuing to oppress and harm our communities with no consequences, publicly murdering and terrorizing Black and brown people with increasing cruelty. Justice will only be served with the demilitarization, defunding, and dismantling of these systems and the removal from power of every single mayor, politician, and corporation who fund their terror.

This fight is our fight. So this May Day, and every day that follows, we remain resolved to fight for an abolitionist future. Not only a world without cops, prisons, or borders, but also a world of abundance and joy, where everyone lives with dignity and the agency to make decisions about their own lives, in their communities and in their workplaces. We will do this together. All the while we practice solidarity to give each other the courage to fight for a just and liberated future. We fight today for a socialist tomorrow. We have a world to win.

Solidarity,

Your National Political Committee

NPC STATEMENTS — CHAUVIN VERDICT, DAUNTE WRIGHT, JUSTICE FOR TRANS PEOPLE

The NPC has released statements on the Chauvin verdict, the murder of Daunte Wright, and legislative attacks on transgender youth and on transgender athletes of all ages. You can find the statements here:

• The Derek Chauvin Verdict is Not Justice
• For Daunte Wright/Para Daunte Wright
• Justice for Trans People Requires Power

NPC STEERING COMMITTEE UPDATE

Our Steering Committee chair, Natalie Midiri, has stepped down from that position but will continue to serve on the SC. We are grateful for her leadership and commend her ongoing and tireless commitment to DSA. Thank you, Natalie, for all you do and all you have done as we’ve learned to navigate leadership during a pandemic! Jen McKinney has agreed to serve the role of chair through the end of our term, with Kristian Hernandez taking her place as Secretary/Treasurer.

YOUR CONVENTION UPDATE

We are excited to share the theme for this year’s Convention… “From the Ashes of the Old: Socialism for a New Tomorrow!” This theme was submitted by At Large member Jason K and is in part based on Norman Bel Geddes “World of Tomorrow” exhibits during the 1939 World’s Fair. We’re excited to share our initial graphic and hope you love what our members and staff put together!

And the deadline for nominations for At-Large delegates to the 2021 DSA National Convention is Friday, 4/30! “At-Large” is defined as members who do not belong to a chapter. Based on DSA’s National Constitution and Bylaws, members of Organizing Committees are considered At-Large Members of DSA and are eligible to run in the At-Large Delegate Election. You can find more information on At-Large delegate elections here.

Starting in mid-May, DSA will host five Pre-Convention Conferences leading up to the 2021 Convention in August. All conferences will be hosted virtually and are open to any member. Members who are running to be delegates to the Convention are strongly encouraged to attend. The registration for pre-convention conferences is now LIVE!! You can register at this link. Registration closes for the first session on 4/30.

Many have asked, and we’re glad to share the agenda for the pre-convention conferences and the tentative agenda for the Convention. We are still committed to making this the biggest convention yet and hope this helps in members making a decision about whether to run for delegate. Click here to view the agendas.

The Programming Subcommittee has opened submissions on topics for plenaries, workshops, and trainings. They’ve designed a rubric to help guide comrades who have programming suggestions. Members in good standing can submit programming proposals for plenaries, workshops, and to request self-organized time via the form here. The deadline to submit is May 14th.

Lastly, we plan to send out more regular Convention updates to members who opt in for them. We’re asking members who want frequent email updates, including Convention-specific email as well as Dispatches and NPC Newsletters with Convention updates, to sign up here. This opt-in is for DSA members in good standing only. All members will continue to receive any Convention updates in the Dispatch and NPC Newsletter.

THIS WEEKEND, SATURDAY 4/24-SUNDAY 4/25 — BUILDING THE RELIGIOUS LEFT CONFERENCE

Join DSA’s Religion and Socialism Working Group this weekend, 4/24-4/25, for “Building the Religious Left,” the largest multi-faith religious socialism conference in DSA’s history!

Please register for specific sessions through the links in the agenda here and for the conference as a whole here. We will be sending out emails if/as panels or workshops change, and the only way that we can have your email is through this form.

If you can’t attend the whole conference, no problem. All panels and workshops will be recorded and links sent to you if you register here.

SUNDAY, 4/25 — JOIN OUR PUERTO RICAN SELF DETERMINATION PANEL

Join us Sunday, 4/25 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT for “The Puerto Rican Self Determination Act: Continuing the anti-colonialist fight in Puerto Rico!” Under foreign rule for over 400 years, first under Spain, then under US control in 1898 (as a protectorate, then as a commonwealth since 1950), Puerto Rico is the world’s oldest colony. The untenability of their status has become acutely painful in the last 20 years, as the nation has faced austerity and further abrogation of its democracy by the US imposed PROMESA. The Puerto Rican Self-determination Act, co-authored by DSA member Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was recently reintroduced. The PRSDA pushes for a constitutional process in which the various options can be deliberated. DSA, having a decades-long commitment to anti-colonial struggle and, as of 2019, a mandate to support decolonization in Puerto Rico, gathers members of the Puerto Rican Senate and DSA organizers from and in the Puerto Rican diaspora to discuss the importance of the proposed bill. Featuring María de Lourdes Santiago (Puerto Rican Senate, Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño), Rafael Bernabe Riefkohl (Puerto Rican Senate, Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana), Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (Chicago Alderwoman, Democratic Socialists of America) and José La Luz (Labor Activist, Founding member of the Democratic Socialists of America). Moderated by Jonathan Soto (Political Organizer, Bronx/Upper Manhattan DSA).

GET DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS IN OFFICE — SUPPORT OUR SOCIALIST SLATE!

DSA is running electoral campaigns from Texas to Ohio, Florida to New York, and they all need your support. Learn about the latest eight campaigns that our National Electoral Committee has endorsed, some of which have elections as soon as May 1st, and split a donation between them!

MEET YOUR STAFF

Maura, Office Coordinator

My name is Maura, and I’m the new Office Coordinator, here to provide administrative support to the national staff. In other words, I am the helper’s helper. My job is to make sure my teammates have all the tools they need to help fulfill the goals set by the elected leadership and to support our members. I have a Bachelor of Science in Public Affairs and six years of administrative experience in the nonprofit sector. Outside of the office, I am a certified personal trainer and a certified cycling instructor. I am in full support of working-class power and against corrupt capitalism. I am here to help fight the good fight!

Rafael, Organizing Tools Coordinator

Hi everybody. My name is Rafael and I am the new Organizing Tools Coordinator. I’m based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico (Mountain time represent!) I will be your go-to for all organizing tech needs. I like to call myself a borderland nerd. I grew up and have worked along the southern border all my life. I got into this work because I witnessed first hand the suffering of my community and knew I had to do something. I started out as a field organizer but quickly realized the importance of data and technology in the field and for our movement, so I naturally gravitated towards that. In my free time, I like hiking, DnD, board games, and working on my hot wing recipe.

WELCOME NEW DSA ORGANIZING COMMITTEES

Let’s give a warm welcome to DSA’s latest organizing committees!

• East Texas
• San Marcos, TX
• Shasta County, CA
• Southern Maryland