We did it! — Your November Dispatch
Enjoy your November Dispatch. This month, hear about our electoral wins, learn to organize your workplace, build our movement, 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 — We did it!
- DSA National Post-Election Call Sunday 11/13 — Join us!
- Join our Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee Training Series — Starts Tuesday 11/15!
- We Canvassed! We Voted! Now Build DSA!
- Tuesday 11/15 — RSVP for Psalms for Black Lives Call
- Sign up for November Socialist Night School Wednesday 11/16
- DSA Budget Report to Membership Thursday 11/17
- Apply to the Abolition WG Steering Committee! Deadline Friday 11/18
- Child Watch Training for Chapters Tuesday 11/29
- Special DSA Member Offer — Subscribe to Dissent Today for a 50% Discount
From Maria — We did it!
Even in the face of gerrymandering and ballot box intimidation, voters have repudiated the so-called red wave that capitalist owned media was peddling. Better yet, DSA won 75% of our endorsed candidates and initiatives, in states blue, purple and red, including measures for workers’ rights, tenant protections, abortion rights, and higher wages for tipped workers.
Now’s the time to go on the offensive and organize at the grassroots against the authoritarian right everywhere. The neoliberal capitalist order is failing. We face a choice between socialism and fascism. And socialism can only be won with a truly mass movement.
What is DSA’s role? First, we must defend the idea of society and public institutions, our number one tool to advance the interests of the working class majority. MAGA Republicans have undermined the gains of the socialist movement with their anti-democratic definition of freedom. Neoliberal Democrats capitulate with privatized solutions and undermine us, their class enemies. The only way to fight back is with politics and policies rooted in solidarity and the public good.
Second, we engage in collective learning. When Trump became president we built wings to take people in and fly, but sometimes we gave insufficient attention to the plane’s structure. Members in the Trump years were in constant fightback mode. Now with the pandemic we all struggle to manage. We keep organizing, as our fantastic wins this week show, and as we develop a new layer of DSA leaders, we must make sure to share lessons, consider the new political terrain, and discuss structural improvements to our organizing vehicle. We need to be long distance runners for socialism.
In the coming months, the National Political Committee will organize opportunities for DSA members to discuss and debate critical questions on what have we learned from our own work and from history, and what that means for building and wielding mass, multiracial working class power in this new moment. The first step is joining our election reflections call Sunday night.
But I ask you, where else can working class people reflect on and influence the direction of our own organization, and learn how to win big victories for hundreds or thousands of people who don’t even know our names? Please help strengthen DSA by stopping to think of three people — co-workers, family, friends, neighbors — and then personally invite them to join DSA. Send them to our membership page, or better yet, call or meet with them to make the ask!
Maria Svart
DSA National Director
DSA National Post Election Call Sunday 11/13 — Join us!
DSA won big on Election Day, expanding our legislative caucuses into red and purple areas, and leading the field efforts to stop abortion bans in red states. Hear from organizers about how we can win in any environment this Sunday 11/13 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT on our DSA National Post Election Call!
On this call, you’ll hear from:
- Kentucky, Montana, and Kansas organizers who helped defeat anti-abortion measures
- Metro DC DSA on winning tipped wages
- Newly-elected DSA members
Join our Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee Training Series — Starts Tuesday 11/15!
Join the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee’s Foundational Training Series! The four-week series starts Tuesday 11/15 and runs until Tuesday 12/6. All sessions will be at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT. Space is limited to 200 participants, so sign up now!
Want to organize your workplace but don’t know where to start? How to talk to your coworkers? How to build a team of organizers out of your coworkers? How to build your campaign? What to do when the boss responds badly to your organizing?
We’ll discuss problems workers face at work and addressing them together with your coworkers. You’ll practice connecting with coworkers, collective decision-making around common concerns, and preparing yourself and your coworkers to take collective action. Finally, you’ll learn how to build, from scratch, a democratic organization with your coworkers to negotiate with the boss over your working conditions. Register today!
We Canvassed! We Voted! Now Build DSA!
This week we voted. Today, we get back to organizing the mass multiracial working class movement we need to win the world we want! As socialists, we know elections are a place where we wage class struggle. But with antidemocratic forces increasingly normalized, we have to fight harder than ever, in our workplaces, in the streets, and at the ballot box to win the long-term change we need.
So how do we build the mass working class movement we need for the long haul? By talking to our co-workers, friends, and family members about how we build power as working class people and asking them to join us! Here are two things you can do this week to make the democratic socialist movement stronger:
- Ask three friends to join DSA through our membership page here!
- Pitch in today to keep DSA’s movement-building work strong and member-funded!
Tuesday 11/15 — RSVP for Psalms for Black Lives Call
In the summer of 2020, while composing a series of devotionals for their church, the Double Love Experience, authors Gabby Cudjoe-Wilkes and Andrew Wilkes recognized that the ancient Psalms spoke truth and inspiration not only to their community, but also to the growing number of people pursuing justice, undoing structural racism, and building a society that truly values Black lives. Josiah Daniels, associate editor of Sojourners, will be in conversation with the authors about their new book, Psalms for Black Lives: Reflections for the Work of Liberation. Join us!
Sign up for November Socialist Night School Wednesday 11/16
Learn how to plan and conduct a Socialist Night School in your chapter! Join us Wednesday 11/16 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT for our “What is Capitalism?” module. We look forward to seeing you there!
DSA Budget Report to Membership Thursday 11/17
DSA is a membership-led and membership-funded organization, with the vast majority of our funding coming from membership dues. This guarantees that our resources come from our source of power: organized people. Our funding and our power are inextricably linked. Dues allow our organization to be accountable to our members and our members alone. As DSA members, we have a responsibility to make strategic decisions about where, when, and how we use our resources. How we raise and spend our money has political consequences for our work. That work includes grassroots fundraising: it’s part of building solidarity and power. We can’t build an independent working-class organization without the financial support of working class people.
Join members of DSA’s Budget & Finance Committee and national staff for an annual report on DSA’s budget Thursday 11/17 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT! The call will include a breakdown of our current income and spending, and ways we are planning for sustainable funding that can support our collective work for the long haul.
Apply to the Abolition WG Steering Committee! Deadline Friday 11/18
Interested in joining the 2023 Abolition WG Steering Committee? We are accepting nominations until Friday 11/18, and will be scheduling 1:1s with candidates to determine a slate of 7 individuals to submit to the NPC for approval. Candidates will be notified by the end of November whether they have been selected, and the slate will be submitted to the NPC by Monday 12/5. If you have capacity, are a committed abolitionist, and want to grow the political consciousness and organizing capacity of DSA membership, please run for a leadership position in the Abolition Working Group. Questions? Feel free to email us at [email protected]
Child Watch Training for Chapters Tuesday 11/29
Join DSA’s National Political Education Committee and Mutual Aid Working Group for our first-ever Child Watch training! Learn how to build and run a child watch program in your chapter from the ground up, from recruitment to clearance to activities. We’ll cover everything you need to know to make your chapter meetings accessible to children and caregivers alike.
The training will be held on Tuesday 11/29 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to [email protected] with any questions. We can’t wait to see you there!
Special DSA Member Offer — Subscribe to Dissent Today for a 50% Discount
In 1954, Lewis Coser and Irving Howe wrote an essay called “Images of Socialism” for a new magazine, Dissent, that they founded at the height of McCarthyism. “Socialism,” they wrote, “is the name of our desire.” Sixty-six years later, that desire has found a home in DSA, and new generations of socialists are organizing to turn that desire into a reality.
In celebration of that shared history, Dissent is offering a special subscription discount to DSA members! Subscribe today to receive a copy of the latest Fall issue, “Socialism For Our Time,” with a special section on socialism today. DSA members who subscribe to Dissent using this link will receive a discount of 50% on print subscriptions.