News

November Dispatch — Electoral Wins, Strikes, and Strategic Campaigns

November 4, 2021

Enjoy your November Dispatch! This month, read about our electoral wins and sign up to work on future campaigns, RSVP for our member survey reportback, join our leadership training, and more!

FROM MARIA: BUILDING WORKING CLASS POWER FOR THE LONG TERM

You and I deserve to thrive, not just survive. We know we’re all in this together. Yet socialists also know someone is rigging the game against us. We starve so the rich may drink champagne, and that won’t change until we take back our workplaces, our communities and our political system and run them all for the benefit of the many.

We also know there are no shortcuts in organizing.

We had some hard losses on Tuesday. The black Democratic political machine in Buffalo, NY sacrificed democracy, India Walton and the working class black districts that voted for her overwhelmingly by uniting with Republicans to overwhelm her with suburban white votes and fishy campaigning.

But we won 68% of DSA’s 37 nationally endorsed candidates and 5 ballot initiatives! And our wins were all over the country — here are a few:

  • Across the state of New York we helped elect socialist slates in Ithaca, Rochester and NYC, as well as across the country in Connecticut, Minnesota’s Twin Cities, and Somerville Massachusetts.
  • In St. Petersburg, Richie Floyd won a seat on city council. He’s now the first socialist elected in Florida history. His district was engineered to keep people of color out of office, yet his fight for affordable housing and higher wages won the race.
  • In Carrboro, North Carolina, Danny Nowell joins the Town Council after serving in DSA chapter leadership and running a campaign around climate action and affordable action.
  • In Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Anita Prizio increased her vote share in a city council seat considered most likely to switch to the GOP, while other Dems lost voters across the state.
  • Austin, Texas DSA worked alongside a broad coalition to defeat by a landslide a ballot initiative, Prop A, to defund city services to hire more police.
  • In Washington state, Whatcom-DSA endorsed Bellingham People First ballot initiatives one and two expand renter’s rights and ban invasive police technology.

We won’t transform this country in one election cycle, but we’re building a candidate pipeline, and even more importantly training hundreds of you across the country on how to run people-powered electoral campaigns.

Combined with the other legs of our theory of power — mass workplace strikes and strategic pressure campaigns to make decision makers give us what we deserve — we’re building working class power for the long term. Strikevember begins with over 22,000 union members in the United States currently out on strike for better conditions, their share of the fruits of their labor, and more control in the workplace. DSAers are on picket lines and we’ll always be organizing between elections.

Ask a friend to join DSA today, or look up a meeting or action with your local chapter. We can win — if we organize!

In solidarity,

Maria Svart
DSA National Director

JOIN OUR MEMBER SURVEY REPORT BACK CALL MONDAY 11/8!

Who is DSA? Join the Trainings and Surveys Subcommittee of the Growth and Development Committee (GDC) on Monday 11/8 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT for a report on our 2021 Membership Survey! During this call, we will discuss survey responses and what they say about DSA across regions, chapter sizes, and demographics. Both chapter leaders and rank and file members are encouraged to participate in this discussion to help organizers shape and target their campaigns!

APPLY TO SERVE ON THE DSA NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMITTEE — DEADLINE TUESDAY 11/16

Applications to serve on the NEC are now open! Please share the information below with your chapter and electoral leads and anyone you think would be a good fit.

The DSA National Electoral Committee is seeking 24 individuals to serve as voting members of the committee for a term of two years starting January 2022 and ending in December 2023.

To apply to serve as a voting member of the National Electoral Committee, please complete this form. You may nominate yourself or another person. Only DSA members in good standing may apply, nominate others, or be nominated to serve. Applications will be accepted until Tuesday 11/16 at 11:59pm PST.

For more information on the application process and the goals and expectations of serving on the NEC, please read the Application Guide.

DSA NATIONAL DISABILITY WORKING GROUP THURSDAY 11/18 — RSVP TODAY

The DSA National Disability Working Group (DWG) has been officially meeting for 6 months, and will be holding our bi-yearly Regular Meeting on Thursday 11/18 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT! We’ll be discussing our upcoming election schedule, building DWG membership, and other topics. Regular meetings are open to members and prospective members of the DWG. You can register for the meeting here. For questions, please email [email protected].

FRIDAY 11/19 — JOIN OUR BUILDING CAPACITY AND DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP TRAINING!

The past two years have been hard on all of us, and our individual and collective capacity has suffered as a result. As organizers, we know we must be intentional about bringing others into the work to build our chapter/working group capacity and increase the skill set of the activists in our organization. Join the Growth and Development Committee (GDC) Training team Friday 11/19 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT for a call on how to build capacity and develop leadership in your chapter or national body.

MEET YOUR STAFF

Émilia, Database Coordinator

Hi y’all, I’m Émilia, and I’m thrilled to be taking on the role of our organization’s new Database Coordinator. I have worked in socialist and progressive political organizing since the Bernie 2016 campaign, while daylighting in the IT sector. I currently work with my local chapter’s voter information team, and I’m excited to wrap all of those skills together to help support the work of building a mass socialist movement across the nation!

Joey, People Services Coordinator

My name is Joey and I’m the new People Services Coordinator here at DSA. It’s a pleasure and a joy to be a part of this greater organization, and I’m looking forward to serving as another resource for the National staff. I’ll be serving as an HR function here at the organization by managing benefits and assisting with conflict resolution. I come from one of the largest real estate trusts in the NYC area where I was previously directly involved with Labor Relations and Data Management. A couple fun facts about myself are that I’m originally from Concord, NH and every time I travel I collect a hat from that location.

WELCOME NEW CHAPTER AND OC!

A warm welcome to our newest chapter, Athens Area, GA, and to our latest Organizing Committee (OC), Wichita Falls, TX!