Fighting a Rigged Deal — Your October Dispatch
Enjoy your October Dispatch! This month, Striketober anniversary solidarity, electoral training, political education, 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 Never Made This Deal
- Monday 10/10 — Striketober Starbucks Solidarity is Brewing Call
- Green New Deal Campaign Training Series 2022 — Sign Up by Friday 10/14
- Striketober Anniversary Mass Call Sunday 10/16
- Join our National Electoral Committee Get Out the Vote Training Call Thursday 10/20
- International Committee Call Saturday 10/8 — Pakistan Underwater: Debt and Climate Justice Now
- Apply for National Political Education Committee Speakers’ Training! Deadline Monday 10/10
- Sign Up for Socialists and Movements Call Tuesday 10/25
- Socialist Form Call for Submissions — Deadline Thursday 10/20
- Volunteer Discussion Board Moderators Needed!
- Meet Your Staff
From Maria — We Never Made This Deal
A week ago, Tua Tagovailoa suffered possibly multiple traumatic brain injuries in a row while playing for the Miami Dolphins. Critics blame his coaching team for negligence for putting him back on the field. This weekend on Fox NFL Sunday, rather than calling for tighter health regulations or questioning the profitmaking dynamic at play, commentator Howie Long remarked “That’s the deal you make.”
But here’s the thing: this deal is rigged. The circus of modern day gladiatorial combat traps both the players and the fans — and distracts from the fact we don’t even get our bread. Players, often with no other viable career options, risk their lives in what is acknowledged to be a deadly sport, and we have a spot of fun in our otherwise endless cycle of selling our labor to pay our bills. Meanwhile corporations have the highest rate of profit in 72 years, yet they’re blaming us for inflation.
Capitalism forces us into impossible choices. As we face down another likely Fed-inflicted recession, it’s important we have a clear view of what’s going on. When the infamous architect of the “Volcker shock” rapidly raised interest rates, he was walking around with a list of large union contracts and their expiration rates in his pocket. He wanted to ensure the labor market didn’t improve for workers overall right when union workers were starting negotiations. When Thatcher was preparing to attack the miner’s union, her government did an analysis of strategic industries and how many weeks she could withstand a strike in each. When the Supreme Court of the United Status decides to take on the right to vote and the right to strike along with bedrock material protections for segments of the working class, the same dynamic is at play.
The ruling class is intensifying the class war — and they’re being strategic about it.
Luckily, so are we. We’re organizing in the economic and the political realms. We’re building power for long-term solutions against the real drivers of climate change. We’re rooted at the base with chapters everywhere, run by ordinary people talking to their neighbors and coworkers. And we’re naming the real problem: the capitalist system itself.
Call your chapter today and let’s get to work!
Maria
Monday 10/10 — Striketober Starbucks Solidarity is Brewing Call
Solidarity is Brewing with some pumpkin spice this Striketober! Attend our call Monday 10/10 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT to hear how Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) is connected to the broader labor movement and why continued DSA solidarity efforts are essential for rebuilding labor militancy and growing socialism. Guest speakers include DSA Labor leaders and organizing workers.
Green New Deal Campaign Training Series 2022 — Sign Up by Friday 10/14
DSA is on the verge of electing almost 200 candidates across the country! Most of these wins are in local office, including those from the Green New Deal 2022 Electoral Slate. We know a better world is possible, and we’re going to build it by winning socialist Green New Deal fights across the country, at every level of government. To fulfill our vision, our socialist organizers need to run strategic campaigns that shift power away from the fossil-fuel funded ruling class to green public services and the working class. With your chapter’s help, DSA can move towards these objectives through campaigns coordinated with DSA electeds, non-DSA electeds, and coalitions to push state and local governments to embark on green public works projects in the areas of housing, transit, greening public spaces, and renewable energy.
Comrades from DSA’s Green New Deal Campaign Commission and Growth and Development Committee are excited to announce a comprehensive training series to guide chapter organizers through how to fight for a local Green New Deal, equipping them with the political education, tools, and coaching to launch, run, and win these campaigns locally. We will use real case studies to show how socialists can and have won Green New Deal campaigns across the country. Apply by Friday 10/14!
Striketober Anniversary Mass Call Sunday 10/16
We’ll be covering labor struggles from the past year, ongoing strikes, and future fights that we’ll take on shoulder-to-shoulder with workers. Speakers include rank-and-file members of:
- John Deere workers (UAW)
- Nabisco workers (BCTGM)
- UPS workers (Teamsters)
- Starbucks workers (Starbucks Workers United)
- University of California graduate student workers (UAW)
And more!
RSVP to get the link to the call’s live stream when it starts!
Join our National Electoral Committee Get Out the Vote Training Call Thursday 10/20
Election Day is around the corner is right around the corner, and it’s time for electoral campaigns around the country to start planning for the final stretch of canvassing, communicating, and fundraising. With that in mind, join our National Electoral Committee workshop Thursday 10/20 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT for information, tips, and discussion about setting up your chapter’s Get Out The Vote (GOTV) program.
International Committee Call Saturday 10/8 — Pakistan Underwater: Debt and Climate Justice Now
Pakistan is drowning. Following the devastating floods starting in June 2022, roughly a third of Pakistan is underwater, affecting upwards of 33 million people and causing an estimated $30bn in damages. These are the socialized costs borne by the Global South of a world system of expropriation to the benefit of fossil fuel, mining, and other extractive corporations headquartered in the Global North.
Pakistan’s demands are part of a growing global climate justice movement to hold the Global North and corporations accountable for the crisis they created. In addition to financial support, we must undo a global economic system that keeps countries suffering the impacts of the climate crisis down and in debt, and that forces them to adopt austerity measures fundamentally incompatible with the societal investments needed to respond and adapt to climate change.
Join the DSA International Committee and guest speakers Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (author of Reconsidering Reparations), Ammar Ali Jan (Haqooq-e-Khalq Party, Pakistan), Asad Rehman (Director of War on Want), and Bhumika Muchhala (Senior Advisory, Third World Network) to learn about the devastating situation in Pakistan and how Pakistan’s demands are linked to movements for debt and climate justice, and what truly transformative reparations should look like. The call will be Saturday 10/8 at 10am ET/9am CT/8am MT/7am PT. RSVP today!
Apply for National Political Education Committee Speakers’ Training! Deadline Monday 10/10
Join the National Political Education Committee (NPEC) for our fall Speakers’ Training Series! The series is intended for active DSA organizers who would like to develop speaking skills, learn to argue in clear and compelling ways, help lead political education within their chapters or working groups, and to speak to an audience in any capacity.
The course will include four sessions covering how to structure a 10-15 minute presentation and concrete tips for good public speaking. Participants will work on a presentation during the course and then present it to a small group of peers. Each participant will receive a recording of themselves presenting along with feedback. Written materials from the course and slides templates will be provided.
The course will be held on four consecutive Tuesday evenings: October 18 and 25 and November 1 and 8, from 5-6pm PT/8-9pm ET. Because this training is intensive, participation as a presenter is by application only. Applications will be accepted until Monday 10/10.
If you are not accepted as a presenter for this session, or if you don’t want to give a presentation but are interested in learning tips for preparing and giving a presentation, you are welcome to join as an observer by RSVPing here. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] with any questions. We look forward to receiving your application!
Sign Up for Socialists and Movements Call Tuesday 10/25
Join the National Political Education Committee for Socialists and Movements Tuesday 10/25 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT! This panel will look at the role socialists can play in building the left, and how we relate to progressive movements. Our speakers Bill Fletcher Jr. and Jonathan Smucker will address such questions as what movements should we prioritize, what forces are we willing to align with to win things like the Green New Deal and abortion rights, and how can we contribute to the defense of civil liberties.
Socialist Form Call for Submissions — Deadline Thursday 10/20
The Socialist Forum editorial committee is accepting pitches for article ideas for the upcoming Fall 2022 issue. Pitches must be submitted by 11:59pm on Thursday 10/20 in order 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]
Volunteer Discussion Board Moderators Needed!
Our Communications Committee is working to develop our DSA National Discussion Board as a useful resource for members to learn about socialist organizing, seek and give advice on our work, engage in constructive discourse, and build camaraderie across chapters. We’re looking for volunteers to help moderate the forum — this is an important role!
Check out the application form for moderator expectations, and please apply if you’re interested in helping to make the DSA forum a comradely and welcoming place for our members! Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.
Meet Your Staff
Amanda, Labor Organizer
Amanda left her role as Field Organizer to take on our newly created Labor Organizer position. Amanda joined DSA’s staff in January 2022 after working as a union organizer for the Texas State Employees Union. While working at TSEU, she organized a staff union with her coworkers and won their first contract. Amanda got her start in the labor movement by organizing her coworkers at Barton Springs Pool to join AFSCME Local 1624 and won a living wage for city employees. She joined DSA a year later on May Day in 2017 at a sit-in at the Texas capitol, while protesting against Texas’s “show me your papers” law. She has previously served on Austin DSA’s leadership committee, chaired its labor committee, and brought DSA into the coalition for a local paid sick leave ordinance. She is proud to continue to support the work of DSA Labor by building socialist power within the labor movement and supporting new union drives that seek to organize the multiracial working class. Amanda lives in Austin with her husband and two cats, and can be found either in her garden or swimming at Barton Springs in her spare time.