News

We did it! Your May Dispatch

May 4, 2023

Here’s your May Dispatch! This month, a major Green New Deal win, getting Strike Ready, volunteering for housing justice, and more. Read on to get involved.

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From Maria — We Did It!

Did you hear the amazing news out of New York? DSA chapters, members, and elected officials across the state have been fighting for years to tax the rich and win a state-level Green New Deal. And we won! The Build Public Renewables Act will bring working class control over the energy system of New York — the tenth-largest economy in the world. It enacts a New Deal model of public ownership to build renewable energy at a massive scale, and ensure that it remains a public good, affordable to New Yorkers, and a source of tens of thousands of good, green union jobs.

You’ll hear more about this victory in the coming days, but in the meantime take it as a reminder that people power wins! We do it through your grassroots organizing in chapters big and small across the country, and your pooling your financial resources so we are an independent, member-funded and member-run organization. Below are more opportunities to organize people and organize money so together we can effectively confront the capitalist class.

Maria Svart
DSA National Director

Volunteer to Protect Tenant Rights! Shifts Open Sunday 5/7–Monday 5/15

Join Portland DSA to phone bank for the nationally endorsed Eviction Representation for All campaign for tenants’ right to counsel in eviction court! Since the right to counsel initially passed in New York City in 2017, many other DSA chapters have taken up similar measures. This initiative follows in the footsteps of those efforts. Join in solidarity with Portland, Oregon at these dates and times:

  • Sunday 5/7 at 6pm ET/5pm CT/4pm MT/3pm PT
  • Wednesday 5/10 at 9pm ET/8pm CT/7pm MT/6pm PT
  • Sunday 5/14 at 6pm ET/5pm CT/4pm MT/3pm PT
  • Monday 5/15 at 9pm ET/8pm CT/7pm MT/6pm PT

Join Our Strike Ready Call Monday 5/8!

Join DSA Labor Monday 5/8 at 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT/6:30pm MT/5:30pm PT to learn about our Strike Ready campaign to support UPS Teamsters in their contract fight! The campaign encourages chapters to pass the Strike Ready resolution and appoint solidarity captains. We now have over 90 solidarity captains identified from 40+ chapters!

The Strike Ready campaign will require all of us to be ready to support the UPS Teamsters, including at-large members, smaller chapters, chapters with less active labor work, YDSA chapters, and chapters that have not yet passed the resolution. This campaign is also meant to help chapters build their labor work and solidarity capacity. UPS is the first of many fights to come, and chapters and members should get “strike ready” for all of the labor fights ahead.

On this call, you’ll hear what the Strike Ready campaign is, why the UPS Teamsters’ contract fight is important, what work has already been done, and how members, including those at-large, can plug into the work. This call will also help chapters learn how to hold solidarity fund fundraisers in May as part of the Strike Ready campaign and re-ignite excitement around the campaign as it begins to ramp up during June and July.

Sunday 5/21 — Green New Deal Win! Join Our Call to Build Public Renewables

For 4 years, New York’s socialists have been fighting to take back our energy system from fossil fuel profiteers and make the Green New Deal a reality. After unprecedented climate organizing that pitted organized labor, climate activists, legislators at every level of government, and working-class New Yorkers against the full forces of fossil capital, they’ve scored the biggest Green New Deal win in US history — so far!

The Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), which just became state law, is laying the foundation for a socialized electrical grid, powered by clean energy, and built by union labor.

New York’s DSA chapters are taking the “just transition” from slogan to reality — and they want YOU to know how they did it. Join our BPRA debrief call Sunday 5/21 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT to hear from the organizers who made it happen and grow the movement for public power to win a Green New Deal from coast to coast!

Workers In Tech Are Under Attack — Organize!

Tech jobs are under attack. Over the past several months, tech companies have laid off hundreds of thousands of workers. Across the industry, workers are experiencing longer hours, seeing benefits slashed, and taking on more work to compensate for lost coworkers. Many tech companies are using the threat of more layoffs to increase precarity and project false scarcity. Management is enforcing dominance and driving down labor costs to increase profits flowing to the top. Now is the time for tech workers to forge the militancy their siblings in labor have stoked for decades.

In light of this new paradigm for tech workers, EWOC is building a program to support unionizing in tech. To date, this program has touched young campaigns at many influential tech companies, and we’re ready for more. This is just the beginning.

If you’re a tech worker or know someone in the tech industry, reach out. We can help you draw from the lessons and wisdom of the labor movement as you take on the biggest bosses of the century. Together you have power and now is the time to wield it.

Mutual Aid Working Group All-Member Meeting Wednesday 5/10

The Mutual Aid Working Group is roaring into May with a calendar chock-full of events! Hear more at our All-Member Meeting Wednesday 5/10 at 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT/6:30pm MT/5:30pm PT.

And to get more involved, sign up here to join the working group!

RSVP for Hindu Nationalism and the US Far Right Call Tuesday 5/30

Join the Religion and Socialism Working Group, Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, and Hindus for Human Rights for a teach-in on the growing alliance between the United States and Indian far-right, the various appearances of Hindutva in US public life, and ongoing anti-caste discrimination litigation. There will be plenty of time for discussion and questions on this urgent topic. The call will be held Tuesday 5/30 at 6:30pm ET/5:30pm CT/4:30pm MT/3:30pm PT.

DSA Fund Conference — How We Win: The Democratic Socialist Policy Agenda in Office, Friday 6/16–Saturday 6/17

The DSA Fund, Jacobin and The Nation are co-organizing a June “How We Win” gathering for elected officials and their staff. We need your help getting the word out!

Are you a democratic socialist elected official looking to meet other socialists in office? Do you work for a socialist officeholder? This conference is for you. Or are you a chapter member who works closely with a public official to promote socialist public policy? You can help them attend “How We Win” by making sure they know about it.

You can find more information and registration here, or email [email protected] to ask questions and recommend someone to attend. The DSA Fund is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to political education and engagement. All donations are 100% tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. DSA Fund does not participate or intervene in any political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. No DSA member dues go to the DSA Fund.

Socialist Forum — New Issue and Call for Submissions

The Winter/Spring 2023 issue of Socialist Forum is live! This issue features articles addressing a wide range of issues, including worker organizing in the cannabis industry, the politics of sports team ownership, the war in Ukraine, and the big questions of electoral and labor strategy facing our movement. If you would like to respond to any of the articles, please contact us at [email protected].

The Socialist Forum editorial committee is also accepting pitches for article ideas for the upcoming Winter 2023 issue. Pitches must be submitted by 11:59 pm on Thursday, 5/18 to be considered. If your pitch is accepted, the full article should be roughly 3500-4000 words in length. Please note that submissions are not officially accepted until after editors review the first draft of a full article. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

Welcome Our Latest Organizing Committee!

A warm welcome to our latest Organizing Committee, Alachua County DSA, Florida!