November Dispatch — take action NOW to demand democracy
The people have spoken. Yet Trump is afraid of the results. Since Tuesday night, his mobs in Detroit have chanted “stop the count,” and it has now spread to other blue cities like Phoenix and Philadelphia. He’s filed lawsuits and bragged about taking this to his Supreme Court. We must demand democracy.
This Saturday 11/7 there will be actions in communities large and small and we need you there. Look here to find a local action or talk to your DSA chapter. Dozens of DSA chapters have already mobilized, both in battleground states to protect vote counting sites and everywhere else to the public square, simply to say “count every vote!” When we stay united, when the multi-racial working class stands together for democracy, we can protect the people’s will.
But we have not forgotten that the people have spoken down ballot as well. Socialism is winning! While breathless MSNBC commentators’ expectations of a blue wave totally flopped, there was a red wave — our kind of red! So far, 28 out of our 37 nationally-endorsed campaigns have won; we have “squads” in state legislatures in Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Maine, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, California, and Michigan; and we won 8 out of 9 major ballot initiatives.
We’re still just a political organization, but contrast that with a Democratic Party that fails to listen to working class people and fails to invest in building grassroots power. It has become a failure — or perhaps was never designed to empower us in the first place. In the eloquent words of DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, “The idea that socialists like Dems… lol.”
So how does the working class build enough real power in such a rigged system to eventually have our own party? We’re figuring it out together! We know it starts with putting boots on the ground to demand democracy, but it goes so much deeper than that. It’s laughable to think the centrist Democrats running the party will learn from this terrible election — after all, they didn’t last time. But you better believe that our chapters in every state of the country will be out asking our coworkers and neighbors how we resist both fascism and neoliberalism and build a better world.
In closing, it’s been a long week, after a long year, but it’s also a moment of opportunity! I hope you will join me for a call this Sunday night, 11/8, at 9:00PM Eastern, to talk about what just happened and where we go from here.
Onward!
Maria Svart
DSA National Director
Announcements from Around DSA:
- Sunday 11/8 — Join DSA4USPS Black Postal Lives Matter call!
- Monday, 11/16 — Building DSA as a Mass Organization
- Tuesday 11/16 — I Want to Start A DSA Chapter Call
- Tuesday 11/17 call — How to Choose a Strategic Electoral Campaign
- Thursday 11/12 — RSVP For Immigrants’ Rights Working Group Post-Election Call
- Update from the Restaurant Organizing Project — and Join Monday 11/10 Call!
- Sign up for Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) Training
- Wednesday, 11/11 — Socialists at Work: Life as a Rank-and-File Labor Organizer
- Thursday, 11/19 — Religion and Socialism Working Group Call on The Spirit of Black Radical Traditions
- Wednesday, 12/2 — Them and Us Unionism Call
- Support Your Local USPS Worker — Create a Postal Worker Care Package
- New International Committee Newsletter Out Now!
SUNDAY 11/8 — JOIN DSA4USPS BLACK POSTAL LIVES MATTER CALL!
Join our DSA4USPS subcommittee Sunday, 11/8 at 6pm ET/5pmCT/4pm MT/3pm PT for Black Postal Lives Matter! This webinar will explore the significance of Black postal workers and Black liberation struggles to struggles at the post office, including the 1970 postal strike.
We’ll hear from Mack Julion, National Association of Letter Carriers, President, Chicago; Courtney (CJ) Jenkins, American Postal Workers Union, Organization/Legislation director, Baltimore; Ajamu Dillahunt, APWU retired, Black Workers for Justice, Raleigh; and Philip Rubio, former letter carrier, and author of There’s Always Work at the Post Office: African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs, Justice, and Equality and Undelivered: From the Great Postal Strike of 1970 to the Manufactured Crisis of the U.S. Postal Service. DSA Afro-Socialist Caucus co-chair and Labor Notes staff writer and organizer Bianca Cunningham will be the MC. RSVP today!
MONDAY 11/16 — BUILDING DSA AS A MASS ORGANIZATION TRAINING
What is a mass organization and why is it different from what many people experience as activists and organizers? Why build it? And what will it take to do so? Join us on Monday night 11/16 as we cover some historical context along with discussions and breakouts to explore the idea of building a mass organization, and why DSA is committed to becoming a mass working class organization.
TUESDAY 11/17 — I WANT TO START A DSA CHAPTER CALL
Are you a DSA member but DON’T have a chapter that exists in your area and want to see more about what it would be like to start one? If so — or if you’re still in the very early stages of starting one — please sign up for this call on Tuesday November 16th where we will talk through your organizing and administrative next steps along with an overview of the entire process.
TUESDAY 11/17 CALL — HOW TO CHOOSE A STRATEGIC ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN
Join DSA’s National Electoral Committee Tuesday, 11/17 at 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT/6:30pm MT/5:30pm PT to learn about how to choose your chapter’s next electoral campaign! Over the past few years, DSA chapters have used elections to build working class power. On the call, we will hear from DSA leaders on the strategy involved in planning your first or next electoral campaign.
THURSDAY 11/12 — RSVP FOR IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS WORKING GROUP POST-ELECTION CALL
Are you active in immigrants’ rights work or want to get involved? Join the Immigrants’ Rights Working Group of DSA for a post election call on Thursday 11/12 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT! We need you more than ever.
The Immigrants’ Rights WG organizes and provides resources for the national and local chapters of DSA members. Our work helps members learn about the multiple organizing efforts currently emerging in defense of immigrant communities, understand the role of immigration in our nation and our economy, and gain skills to support DSA’s work in the movement to defend immigrants.
UPDATE FROM THE RESTAURANT ORGANIZING PROJECT — AND JOIN MONDAY 11/10 CALL!
Our Restaurant Organizing Project continues to build chapters of restaurant workers that can strategize locally and nationally towards better organization in this historically difficult to organize industry. Join us Tuesday, 11/10 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT for our next bi-weekly national call!
Last week, we participated in organizing a big training hosted by Ilhan Omar’s office that highlighted successful union drives in food service. Watch the video and share this form with any food service industry people you know who want to get organized.
We also put out a solidarity call this week for Colorado Springs food service workers who are building some amazing momentum in their demands against retaliation and wage theft, and for union recognition. You can find out more here.
SIGN UP FOR EMERGENCY WORKPLACE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (EWOC) TRAINING
The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee is hosting weekly Organizer Trainings November 11 through December 13. EWOC is a project of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Sign up to learn the fundamental principles of effective shop-floor organizing and fight for dignity in your community and your workplace.
WEDNESDAY, 11/11 — SOCIALISTS AT WORK: LIFE AS A RANK-AND-FILE LABOR ORGANIZER
Join Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) Wednesday 11/11 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT for Socialists at Work: Life as a Rank-and-File Labor Organizer! The centrality of the labor movement and the need to rebuild it through democratic and militant unions is vital to YDSA’s strategy. As YDSA members we have a role to play in this critical task. However, since YDSA often focuses on campus issues, labor outside of the campus is often overlooked.
This leaves many YDSA members in a position where they are unsure of how to pursue the socialist struggle outside of their high school and college years.
Many are faced with the question of what to do next. Should YDSA students take any random job and begin to do organizing on the side or is there a strategic option of entering high-impact fields to build working-class power?
THURSDAY, 11/19 — RELIGION AND SOCIALISM WORKING GROUP CALL ON THE SPIRIT OF BLACK RADICAL TRADITIONS
Join our Religion and Socialism Working Group Thursday, 11/19 at 7:30pm ET/6:30pm CT/5:30pm PT for The Spirit of Black Radical Traditions! The spirit of Black radical traditions, at their best, can turn the world upside down and help usher in a political economy of dignity, voice, and decision-making power for working-class communities. Liberationist streams of Black radical spirituality are as contemporary as Alice Walker’s call for democratic socialist womanism, as old as Reverend George Washington Woodbey’s Black Baptist socialism and beyond.
The call 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. The conversation will cover the origins of the tradition and its implications for our present moment.
WEDNESDAY, 12/2 — THEM AND US UNIONISM CALL
Militant, activist, democratic unions — that’s what DSA supports, but what do such unions really look like? Join the DSLC for a panel discussion on the United Electrical Workers’ (UE) new pamphlet on “Them and Us Unionism” with UE organizer Kari Thompson, labor historian and author of The Long Deep Grudge Toni Gilpin, and International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) member Zack Pattin as we talk about class-struggle unionism past and present. The call is Wednesday, 12/2 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT. RSVP today!
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL USPS WORKER — CREATE A POSTAL WORKER CARE PACKAGE
This first page contains the directions and suggested items for the creation of the Care Package. The second page is a letter, for you to print out and attach to your Care Package. Support your local USPS workers today!
NEW INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER OUT NOW!
The International Committee (IC) is excited to share its quarterly newsletter with the DSA membership and our global comrades. The IC is made up of a Secretariat, Steering Committee, and subcommittees representing various regions and topics. Please read the newsletter here to see what these bodies have done the past quarter and their upcoming plans.