Enjoy your August Dispatch! This month, get involved with Green New Deal phonebanking, sign up for political education on race and class, support housing justice and voting rights, and more. Read on to get involved. And to make sure you get our newsletters in your inbox, sign up here! Each one features action alerts, upcoming events, political education, and more.

• From Maria — Organizing Works
• Green New Deal Phonebanks for David Alexis — Shifts Start Sunday 8/7, Monday 8/8
• Apply to the Multiracial Organizing Institute! Deadline Extended to Friday 8/12
• Volunteer with our DSA National Electoral Committee!
• Wednesday 8/24 — Race and Class Series Political Education Call “Organizing Within Racial Capitalism”
• Housing Justice Committee Elections — Applications due by Sunday 9/4
• Apply to our Voting Rights Committee!
• Socialism 2022 Labor Day Weekend — DSA Panels Announced
• Meet Your Staff

FROM MARIA — ORGANIZING WORKS

Let’s go, Kansas DSA members! And Cori and Rashida too!

It’s easy to get down when the world burns, bakes, and floods around us. But then we get reminders that organizing works. When the owning class and their Christian nationalist allies push their forced birth agenda, we fight back. DSA members made thousands of voter ID and GOTV contacts in Kansas this summer, and this week we had 100 members on a protect abortion training call getting into the nitty gritty of power mapping their states and planning strategic campaigns depending on the specific terrain. The ruling class wants us to produce the next working class to serve as cogs in their machines — we say we’ll form our families and live our lives on our own terms. That’s why we also supported DSAers Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib as they beat back establishment primary challenges, and dozens of DSA chapters are actively supporting Starbucks workers in our Solidarity is Brewing campaign.

Our elected National Political Committee meets next week to assess the national balance of power in politics, the economy and where they intersect, the class struggle. The fascists are on the march, but we can go on the offensive. It’s now or never!

Maria Svart
National Director

GREEN NEW DEAL PHONEBANKS FOR DAVID ALEXIS — SHIFTS START SUNDAY 8/7, MONDAY 8/8

It gets easier and easier to doomscroll these days. Videos of torrential waves ripping across Kentucky homes and wildlife fleeing the blazes of Colorado. The capitalist class has no scarcity of stories to make us feel afraid and hopeless. But it’s not hopeless. Just this week, we saw White House staffers drag the climate crisis back into the Inflation Reduction Act, demonstrators rock the Congressional Baseball Game, and countless climate warriors demand that the Build Public Renewables Act be passed in New York NOW. It’s not hopeless, because each and every one of us can fight back. And when we fight back, we win! One way to fight back? Join us for our weekly phonebanks for Brooklyn’s own David Alexis! Shifts start Sunday 8/7 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT and Monday 8/8 at 6pm ET/5pm CT/4pm MT/3pm PT. Let’s build a Green New Deal everywhere!

APPLY TO THE MULTIRACIAL ORGANIZING INSTITUTE! DEADLINE EXTENDED TO FRIDAY 8/12

This fall, DSA will host the inaugural Multiracial Organizing Institute focused on developing multiracial leadership and organizing strategy. The agenda includes training and dialogue around building a mass org, strategic campaigns, intentional recruitment and organizing, identity politics, and more. We are extending our application submission deadline to August 12th, 11:59 pm PST. Participants in the Institute will dig into some of the biggest questions facing the organization. While it’s recommended to have had some leadership experience within DSA and priority will be given to organizers of color, all are welcome to apply!

VOLUNTEER WITH OUR DSA NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMITTEE!

DSA’s National Electoral Committee is building our capacity to support people-powered campaigns by onboarding volunteers from around the country. While our ultimate goal is for all DSA chapters to run candidate and ballot measure campaigns, there are many reasons why that’s not always possible. By volunteering with the NEC, you can play an important part in electing DSA candidates, driving vital ballot measures, and fighting capitalism’s control of government. Sign up today!

WEDNESDAY 8/24 — RACE AND CLASS SERIES POLITICAL EDUCATION CALL “ORGANIZING WITHIN RACIAL CAPITALISM”

Join DSA’s National Political Education Committee in collaboration with comrades in the Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus Wednesday 8/24 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT for part two of our race and class series: Organizing Within Racial Capitalism. Last session we learned about the concept of racial capitalism. This session, join our panel in discussion on what racial capitalism means for our work and how race and class impact people’s role in the struggle. Local chapters are encouraged to hold viewings and post-event discussions with their fellow chapter members. Send in your questions on the topic of organizing within racial capitalism to [email protected], or reach out for more information.

HOUSING JUSTICE COMMITTEE ELECTIONS — APPLICATIONS DUE BY SUNDAY 9/4

The Housing Justice Commission (HJC) is getting ready to elect a new Steering Committee! If you are interested in becoming a candidate, please fill out this form no later than Sunday 9/4 at 11:59pm PT. Elections will be held September 18-25, and the new term starts on October 1. Not ready to become a candidate but you’re interested in the work of the HJC? Sign up here!

APPLY TO OUR VOTING RIGHTS COMMITTEE!

DSA’s Voting Rights Committee is making plans for the 2022 elections and beyond. We are a still small and growing group looking to focus DSA’s work on these issues, in order to understand and prepare for attacks from right and center forces attempting to marginalize the impact of socialist candidates and elected officials.

We are looking to fill a few vacancies on our leadership body. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Applicants from Georgia and Arizona will be prioritized.

SOCIALISM 2022 LABOR DAY WEEKEND — DSA PANELS ANNOUNCED

Join us Labor Day weekend in Chicago for Socialism 2022! The National Political Committee and the National Political Education Committee have organized almost a dozen DSA panels for our members and other socialists to attend. There will also be opportunities for informal meet ups, and a special Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) how-to-organize-your-workplace training on Saturday afternoon. Free, professional, on-site childcare will be available, plus discounted hotel rooms for conference goers. For more information check out our FAQ.

MEET YOUR STAFF

My name is Patrick, and I’m honored to join DSA staff as a Field Organizer. I bring over a decade of experience in the labor movement as an organizer, agitator, salt, negotiator, and rep for unions and labor organizations in the South and Northeast. I’ve been a member of DSA since 2015, focusing on building our labor and electoral programs. Most recently I’ve worked on DSA’s organizing against the US embargo on Cuba.

As field organizer, I will bring my perspective as a socialist who started off organizing in the South, and all of the tools I have gained in my career as a labor organizer across the country. DSA is my political home and the organization that can continue to grow into a true mass organization of the multiracial working class. I can’t wait to build power together!