Join DSA’s Electoral Board voter action network and field training session!
Join the DSA Electoral Board and Outreach Committee tomorrow, October 27 at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom for a voter action network and field training session with Avery Yu! We will learn about campaign data and field targeting for our upcoming priority ballot measure campaign. Register here!
DSA SF’s Fall Social is now on Saturday, November 13
Our fall social has been rescheduled! We’ll all be meeting up on Saturday, November 13 from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. by the tennis courts in Dolores Park. Please feel free to bring an individual snack(s). We won’t be bringing anything from the office — this is a BYOB (bring-your-own-blanket) event. Appropriate safety considerations will be observed. See you all there!
Demand Senate support for Bernie Sanders’ NDAA amendment to stop US support for the Saudi War in Yemen
United States support of the violence in Yemen must end. Bernie Sanders is sponsoring a Senate amendment to the NDAA to match the amendment passed in the House to stop US support for the Saudi War and the humanitarian disaster in Yemen. Take a few minutes to send an e-mail to California SenatorsDianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla asking them to co-sponsor Bernie’s amendment to the NDAA. You can also tweet them about Bernie’s NDAA amendment using the example tweet below:
Example tweet: .@SenFeinstein @AlexPadilla4CA can we count on you to co-sponsor @BernieSanders Yemen amendment to the NDAA? Every 75 sec, a Yemeni child is expected to die from man-made causes. Supporting this can prevent thousands of Yemenis from dying. #YemenCantWait #NDAA
Hit the streets to demand action on climate change!
On Friday, October 29 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., join DSA SF, Idle No More SF Bay, Youth Vs Apocalypse, and many others as we go to the headquarters of evil financiers BlackRock to demand the end of funding corporations engaged in climate destruction and human rights abuses. The action will mark the start of the COP26 (the UN Global climate talks in Glasgow). Meet outside BlackRock HQ at 400 Howard St (First St, near Embarcadero or Montgomery BART) in Downtown SF. BlackRock is the biggest financier of climate fires, climate chaos and deforestation, setting the world on fire from California to the Amazon. Help create a block-long street mural using paint made with ashes from the California wildfires, and make your voice heard. For more information, check out the Facebook event here. If we stop the flow of money, we stop the flow of oil.
Labor Picnic
Organizing in the workplace is a crucial avenue for socialists to build power. However, if your workplace doesn’t have a union, or if your union is between active campaigns, it can be difficult to know how to start. Labor Circles bring workers in similar industries together so they can share notes, build solidarity, and start thinking long term about the changes they’d like to see in their workplaces. Join us for a picnic on Saturday, November 6 at 2:00 p.m. to meet other DSA members and interested parties who work in the same fields as you! RSVP here.
Reading Groups
Ecosocialist Book Club: Jason Henderson’s Street Fight: The Politics of Mobility in San Francisco
Join our DSA SF Ecosocialist Committee Book Club to discuss Jason Henderson’s Street Fight: The Politics of Mobility in San Francisco. Open to all DSA members and DSA-curious! We’ll meet for three sessions starting Tuesday, November 9 at 6:00 p.m. – register now!
In Case You Missed It
Interested in East Bay Socialist Housing Organizers Project (SHOP) Training?
East Bay DSA is holding a training program called Socialist Housing Organizers Project (SHOP) along with Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC), an autonomous tenants union. The SHOP program trains DSA members to become tenant organizers and get plugged in to organizing in their own buildings or supporting others in doing so. The Tenant Solidarity committee hopes to get a group of DSA SF members to go through the trainings to develop tenant organizing skills. The committee also hopes to explore the possibility of expanding SHOP into a cross-chapter collaboration that can connect people with TANC’s SF chapter. If you are interested in participating in a future training, please sign up via this form. Email tenantsolidarity@dsasf.org with any questions.
Volunteer for Single-Payer Healthcare Campaign
National Nurses United and the California Nurses Association have been ramping up the CalCare campaign as the bill for California state-level single-payer will return in January. They are focusing on priority districts, including AD 17 and AD 19 in San Francisco. For those areas, they are looking for District Leaders to lead locally. They’ll provide extensive training and support to these leaders. If you are interested, you can sign up here. If you want to participate in the campaign but not be a District Leader, please reach out to DSA SF member Ellen Y (by emailing healthcare@dsasf.org), who is a District Leader for AD 19 – she can get you started on text-banking voters!
And IATSE workers are planning a tentative strike for their working conditions in the entertainment industry.
Workers of San Francisco really deserve better.
Want to catch the wave? Keep reading to find out how you can gain skills to organize your workplace, and connect with others from your industry — right here in DSA SF.
This past weekend, DSA SF members joined Neighbors United and the Daybreak PAC in a rally at Alamo Square to declare D5 an eviction-free zone. The rally was then followed by a lit drop to all D5 residents to let them know about this initiative, and inform them of their tenants’ rights.
The weekend concluded with the Labor Circles Kickoff, which included a brief introduction to organizing conversations, as well as an opportunity for members to connect briefly with others from their industry.
But the fun doesn’t stop there. You too can join the fun of working on our three amazing priority campaigns. Check out the events below…
Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty: Our Work to Dismantle White Supremacy
To further anti-racism and dismantle white supremacy, DSA SF has committed ourselves to furthering Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty. In this episode of The Priority, Alisha F. sits down with Savannah K. to discuss how we’re working towards these goals.
Labor Circles: Critical Evaluation of Jane McAlevey’s Organizing Model
Labor Circles: Kickoff/ The Organizing Conversation
Hear about the basic unit of organizing — the organizing conversation — from the chapter’s Labor Circles priority campaign. This was the first of what will be a series of lessons on how to organize your workplace.
Join us for our fall social from 2-4 p.m. on Sunday, October 24th! We will meet out by the tennis courts in Dolores Park*. Please feel free to bring an individual snack(s). We won’t be bringing anything from the office — this is a BYOB (bring-your-own-blanket) event. Appropriate safety considerations will be observed.
Hosted by DSA SF Community Team. In the event of inclement weather this event will be relocated and updated location information will be sent via internal communication.
Illegal Sanctions Against Venezuela: A Feminist Human Rights Perspective
The DSA International Committee is hosting a panel this Saturday, October 23rd, at 11:00 a.m. on the US’s illegal sanctions against Venezuela, which disproportionately affect women and children. Join us to learn from Venezuelan women human rights and feminist activists Lucrecia Hernandez of the human rights NGO Sures, Maria Eugenia Russian of Fundalatin, and Laura Franco, a well-known feminist activist with Quinta Ola, a Venezuelan feminist organization, and co-author of a rebuttal to a New York Times article about contraception in Venezuela that barely mentioned illegal sanctions. Moderated by Leonardo Flores of CODEPINK. Register now.
East Bay Socialist Housing Organizers Project (SHOP) Training
East Bay DSA is holding a training program called Socialist Housing Organizers Project (SHOP) along with Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC), an autonomous tenants union. The SHOP program trains DSA members to become tenant organizers. It then helps them get plugged in to organizing in their own buildings or supporting others in doing so. The Tenant Solidarity committee hopes to get a group of DSA SF members to go through the trainings to develop tenant organizing skills. The committee also hopes to explore the possibility of expanding SHOP into a cross-chapter collaboration that can connect people with TANC’s SF chapter. If you are interested in participating in a future training, please sign up via this form. Email tenantsolidarity@dsasf.org with any questions.
Labor Circles: Organizer Trainings
The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) is holding its series of labor organizing trainings. The six-session program covers many fundamental workplace organizing practices. This week’s session, Training 3: Inoculation and The Boss Campaign, will be held at two times (both times cover the same material): Wednesday, October 20th at 5-7 p.m. PT and Sunday, October 24th at 2-4 p.m. PT. Sign up here. You will need to note “DSA SF” as your referral source in order to register.
Volunteer for Single-Payer Healthcare Campaign
National Nurses United and the California Nurses Association has been ramping up the CalCare campaign as the bill for California state-level single-payer will return in January. They are focusing on priority districts, including AD 17 and AD 19 in San Francisco. For those areas, they are looking for District Leaders to lead locally. They’ll provide extensive training and support to these leaders. If you are interested, you can sign up here. If you want to participate in the campaign but not be a District Leader, please reach out to DSA SF member Ellen Y (by emailing healthcare@dsasf.org), who is a District Leader for AD 19 – she can get you started on text-banking voters!
Labor Picnic
Organizing in the workplace is a crucial avenue for socialists to build power. However, if your workplace doesn’t have a union, or if your union is between active campaigns, it can be difficult to know how to start. Labor Circles are designed to bring workers in similar industries together so they can share notes, build solidarity, and start thinking long term about the changes they’d like to see in their workplace. Join us for a picnic on Saturday, November 6th at 2 p.m., designed to introduce DSA members and interested parties to other people who work in their respective fields. RSVP here.
Reading Groups
21st Century Socialism Book Group reads Erik Olin Wright’s Envisioning Real Utopias
Please join the Twenty-First Century Socialism Reading Group to continue reading along in Envisioning Real Utopias, by Erik Olin Wright (1947-2019). The next meeting will be Tuesday, October 19th at 6:30 p.m.
The new work of Wright—who was a preeminent figure in recent American socialist thought—is a comprehensive assault on the quietism of contemporary social theory. Envisioning Real Utopias lays the foundations for a set of concrete, emancipatory alternatives to the capitalist system through a systematic reconstruction of goals and values for Leftists thinkers. Wright diverges from classical Marxism with his classification of subgroups in the working class. He introduced novel concepts to adapt a changing perspective for ideas like deep democracy and interstitial revolution. Rigorous and engaging, this will become a landmark of social thought for the twenty-first century.
The Twenty-First Century Socialism Reading Group usually meets every two weeks and reads 25-50 pages per session. To join the reading group, please reach out to education@dsasf.org.
Ecosocialist Book Club: Jason Henderson’s Street Fight: The Politics of Mobility in San Francisco
Join our DSA SF Ecosocialist Committee Book Club to discuss Jason Henderson’s Street Fight: The Politics of Mobility in San Francisco. Open to all DSA members and DSA-curious! We’ll meet for 3 sessions starting November 9th at 6:00 p.m. – register now! bit.ly/dsasfecobookclub [good for new people ]
We are near the end of Latinx Heritage Month, which began September 15 and ends this Friday, October 15. The date, September 15, marked the 100-year anniversaries of the independence in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. All of these countries and others in the Global South were heavily targeted due to US imperialism. Meanwhile, immigrants and refugees are still being brutalized and sent to detention centers by ICE. We also cannot forget that Haitian refugees are unduly impacted by unjust immigration policies, and Title 42 is no exception. That is why this Thursday, October 14, there will be a national day of action to call for an end to these deportations, and there will be a rally in front of City Hall at 11 a.m. You can learn more about it here.
Yesterday, we also celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which honors Indigenous peoples’ history and their culture. However, in order to further Indigenous sovereignty, we must call for a stop to the Line 3 pipeline and commit to the ongoing fights for Indigenous people. This pipeline is currently threatening the treaty-protected land of the Anishinaabe people, and the Biden administration is commemorating this day while taking no actions to use their power to stop the construction of Line 3.
And with all of these commemorations in place, one thing is especially clear: that the people we are celebrating are far from being free, especially from capitalism and racism. A better world is possible, if we fight for liberation for all!
As part of its plan of work this year, the Steering Committee identified accessibility as a long-standing chapter need. For accessibility concerns and accommodation requests, or if you would like to join the Chapter Accessibility Task Force to help us implement a chapter survey and accessibility guidelines, please email steering@dsasf.org.
Supervisor Dean Preston has declared District 5 an eviction free zone. Join us for a rally on Saturday, Oct. 16, at noon inAlamo Square, on the corner of Hayes and Scott St, followed by a lit drop to D5 neighbors. The lit drop is expected to run until approximately 3 pm.
East Bay Socialist Housing Organizers Project (SHOP) training
East Bay DSA is holding a training program called Socialist Housing Organizers Project (SHOP) along with Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC), an autonomous tenants union. The SHOP program trains DSA members to become tenant organizers. It then helps them get plugged in to organizing in their own buildings or supporting others in doing so. The Tenant Solidarity committee hopes to get a group of DSA SF members to go through the trainings to develop tenant organizing skills. The committee also hopes to explore the possibility of expanding SHOP into a cross-chapter collaboration that can connect people with TANC’s SF chapter. If you are interested in participating in a future training, please sign up via this form. Email tenantsolidarity@dsasf.org with any questions.
Labor Circles: Trainings and Kickoff
The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) is holding its series of labor organizing trainings. The six-session program covers many fundamental workplace organizing practices. This week’s session, Training 2: Building Your Organizing Committee, will be held at two times (both times cover the same material): Wednesday, October 13th at 5-7 p.m. PT and Sunday, October 17th at 2-4 p.m. PT. Sign up here. You will need to note “DSA SF” as your referral source in order to register.
The Labor Circles Priority Campaign is hosting its Kickoff Event on Sunday, October 17 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Zoom. Come by to learn and practice labor organizing tactics, connect with comrades from your industry, and help build socialist power in the workplace! Register here.
Jane McAlevey’s Organizing Model: A Critical Evaluation
Jane McAlevey’s Organizing Model: A Critical Evaluation, Thursday, October 14, 7:00 PM
Jane McAlevey’s approach to labor organizing is having an impact throughout this country as well as around the world. Her workshops on organizing attract thousands of attendees. DSA has partnered with McAlevey and the United Electrical Workers (UE) to create EWOC, the Emergency Workers Organizing Committee, which has launched a series of workshops aimed at training workers to build power by organizing their co-workers. This panel will evaluate her approach, including what is both positive and negative. Register here.
Join DSA SF’s International Solidarity Organizing Committee!
DSA SF’s newly-elected International Solidarity Organizing Committee is looking for more members to join their work! There are many ways to plug into this work, such as doing research, supporting education events, and textbanking for upcoming actions. If interested, please fill out this form and they’ll get you up to speed on all things international solidarity. Once you fill out the form, join them on the #international-solidarity Slack channel for updates.
Volunteer for Single-Payer Healthcare Campaign
National Nurses United and the California Nurses Association has been ramping up the CalCare campaign as the bill for California state-level single-payer will return in January. They are focusing on priority districts, including AD 17 and AD 19 in San Francisco. For those areas, they are looking for District Leaders to lead locally. They’ll provide extensive training and support to these leaders. If you are interested, you can sign up here. If you want to participate in the campaign but not be a District Leader, please reach out to DSA SF member Ellen Y (by emailing healthcare@dsasf.org), who is a District Leader for AD 19 – she can get you started on text-banking voters!
Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Ceremony and Webinar Wednesday, November 24
Join us online on Wednesday, November 24th for the second webinar in the series to learn firsthand from Indigenous leaders about the obstacles and lack of basic human rights faced on a daily basis. You will learn how we can act in solidarity with Indigenous groups in this two-part webinar series, co-sponsored by Indigenous groups in California. As stated in The Red Deal “for our Earth and relatives to live, capitalism and colonialism must die.” Our work as Socialists to dismantle capitalism and colonialism is critical in preventing further erasure of Indigenous people, stewardship, and ancestral sites.
More details to come!
Reading Groups
21st Century Socialism Book Group reads Erik Olin Wright’s Envisioning Real Utopias
Please join the Twenty-First Century Socialism Reading Group to continue reading along in Envisioning Real Utopias, by Erik Olin Wright (1947-2019). The next meeting will be Tuesday, October 19th at 6:30 p.m.
The new work of Wright––who was a preeminent figure in recent American socialist thought––is a comprehensive assault on the quietism of contemporary social theory. Envisioning Real Utopias lays the foundations for a set of concrete, emancipatory alternatives to the capitalist system through a systematic reconstruction of goals and values for Leftists thinkers. Wright diverges from classical Marxism with his classification of subgroups in the working class. He introduced novel concepts to adapt a changing perspective for ideas like deep democracy and interstitial revolution. Rigorous and engaging, this will become a landmark of social thought for the twenty-first century.
The Twenty-First Century Socialism Reading Group usually meets every two weeks and reads 25-50 pages per session. To join the reading group, please reach out to education@dsasf.org.
This week, the International Solidarity Organizing Committee (ISOC) is hosting their first ever panel on Afghanistan today at 6:00 p.m., with speakers including University of San Francisco professor Stephen Zunes and journalist Anand Gopal, who is notable for reporting on Iraq and Afghanistan. You can find more details below.
If you can’t make it to this panel, join ISOC this Saturday, October 9, at 7:00 p.m. at the DSA SF office backyard (1916 McAllister St) for a documentary screening of “Bitter Lake” by Adam Curtis, which will give you an opportunity to educate yourself about the political history of Afghanistan that created today’s conditions. See more below.
And lastly, if you still haven’t joined our chapter yet but want to learn more about our work, come join us tomorrow, October 6 at 6:30 p.m. for an intro to DSA! Be sure to register if you haven’t yet.
If you’d like to learn more about the work that we do, make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more timely updates.
As part of its plan of work this year, the Steering Committee identified accessibility as a long-standing chapter need. For accessibility concerns and accommodation requests, or if you would like to join the Chapter Accessibility Task Force to help us implement a chapter survey and accessibility guidelines, please email steering@dsasf.org.
RESCHEDULED TO TODAY! Afghanistan and the U.S. Withdrawal: A Webinar Discussion
TODAY at 6:00 p.m.! Join the International Solidarity Organizing Committee (ISOC) for our first panel on Afghanistan and the U.S. Withdrawal. We’ll be joined by speaker Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco and DSA SF member, and Anand Gopal, Kabul-based author of “No Good Men Among the Living” and long-time journalist notable for his reporting on Afghanistan and the Middle East. Register here via zoom.
If you’re attending, please read this article before the event or watch this optional video for a fascinating look into politics in Afghanistan.
Join this week’s Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee Organizer Trainings for our Labor Priority Campaign
The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) is holding another series of labor organizing trainings! The six-session program will cover many fundamental workplace organizing practices like Mapping and Charting a Workplace, Leader Identification, Building an Organizing Committee, Organizing Conversations, Inoculation and Preparing for Boss Campaigns, Escalating Campaign Strategy, and Taking Public Action on the Boss. This week’s session will be held at two times (both times cover the same material): Wednesday, October 6 at 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m and Sunday, October 10 at 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Sign up here. You’ll need to put down “DSA SF” as your referral in order to get registered.
Tenants Block BBQ
Come join TANC for a Tenants Block BBQ on Saturday October 9th at 1 pm. TANC builds a network of tenants in SF and this is an opportunity for tenants to talk to organizers and get info about their housing rights.
TANC will also be flyering during the week of October 4 in neighborhoods of SF that are low income and have had a high volume of tenant petitions in the past. If you are interested in putting up flyers, please contact tenantsolidarity@dsasf.org.
Documentary Screening: “Bitter Lake” and the History of Afghanistan
Join the the International Solidarity Organizing Committee (ISOC) on Saturday, October 9 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (1916 McAllister Street) for a screening of “Bitter Lake” to learn more about history of Afghanistan. With the U.S. Empire’s withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, it’s an opportune time to educate ourselves about the political history that created the conditions today in Afghanistan. Directed by Adam Curtis, “Bitter Lake” is a BBC documentary that helps explain these factors and covers some of the history of Afghanistan dating back to the 1970s. We will be screening the documentary in the backyard of the DSA SF office starting at 7:00 p.m. This events is outdoors for COVID-19 protection. Come for engaging conversation with comrades afterwards! Learn more here.
Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Ceremony and Webinars Monday, October 11 and Wednesday, November 24
Join us online on Monday, October 11 at 2:00 p.m. and Wednesday, November 24 to learn firsthand from Indigenous leaders about the obstacles and lack of basic human rights faced on a daily basis. You will learn how we can act in solidarity with Indigenous groups in this two-part webinar series, co-sponsored by Indigenous groups in California. As stated in The Red Deal “for our Earth and relatives to live, capitalism and colonialism must die.” Our work as Socialists to dismantle capitalism and colonialism is critical in preventing further erasure of Indigenous people, stewardship, and ancestral sites.
More details to come!
East Bay Socialist Housing Organizers Project (SHOP) training
East Bay DSA is holding a training program called Socialist Housing Organizers Project (SHOP) along with Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC), an autonomous tenants union. The SHOP program trains DSA members to become tenant organizers. It then helps them get plugged in to organizing in their own buildings or supporting others in doing so. The Tenant Solidarity committee hopes to get a group of DSA SF members to go through the trainings to develop tenant organizing skills. The committee also hopes to explore the possibility of expanding SHOP into a cross-chapter collaboration that can connect people with TANC’s SF chapter. If you are interested in participating in a future training, please sign up via this form. Email tenantsolidarity@dsasf.org with any questions.
Jane McAlevey’s Organizing Model: A Critical Evaluation
Jane McAlevey’s Organizing Model: A Critical Evaluation, Thursday, October 14, 7:00 PM
Jane McAlevey’s approach to labor organizing is having an impact throughout this country as well as around the world. Her workshops on organizing attract thousands of attendees. DSA has partnered with McAlevey and the United Electrical Workers (UE) to create EWOC, the Emergency Workers Organizing Committee, which has launched a series of workshops aimed at training workers to build power by organizing their co-workers. This panel will evaluate her approach, including what is both positive and negative. Register here.
Labor Circle Organizing Training
The Labor Circles Priority Campaign is hosting its first training session on Sunday, October 17 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m on Zoom. Come by to learn and practice labor organizing tactics, connect with comrades from your industry, and help build socialist power in the workplace! Register here.
Join DSA SF’s International Solidarity Organizing Committee!
DSA SF’s newly-elected International Solidarity Organizing Committee is looking for more members to join their work! There are many ways to plug into this work, such as doing research, supporting education events, and textbanking for upcoming actions. If interested, please fill out this form and they’ll get you up to speed on all things international solidarity. Once you fill out the form, join them on the #international-solidarity Slack channel for updates.
Volunteer for Single-Payer Healthcare Campaign
National Nurses United and the California Nurses Association has been ramping up the CalCare campaign as the bill for California state-level single-payer will return in January. They are focusing on priority districts, including AD 17 and AD 19 in San Francisco. For those areas, they are looking for District Leaders to lead locally. They’ll provide extensive training and support to these leaders. If you are interested, you can sign up here. If you want to participate in the campaign but not be a District Leader, please reach out to DSA SF member Ellen Y (by emailing healthcare@dsasf.org), who is a District Leader for AD 19 – she can get you started on text-banking voters!
Reading Groups
21st Century Socialism Book Group reads Erik Olin Wright’s “Envisioning Real Utopias”
Please join the Twenty-First Century Socialism Reading Group for its next book: “Envisioning Real Utopias” by Erik Olin Wright (1947-2019). The meeting will be today, Tuesday, October 5 at 6:30 p.m. This session is on Chapters 6 and 7. Register for Zoom here.
The new work of Wright––who was a preeminent figure in recent American socialist thought––is a comprehensive assault on the quietism of contemporary social theory. Envisioning Real Utopias lays the foundations for a set of concrete, emancipatory alternatives to the capitalist system through a systematic reconstruction of goals and values for Leftists thinkers. Wright diverges from classical Marxism with his classification of subgroups in the working class. He introduced novel concepts to adapt a changing perspective for ideas like deep democracy and interstitial revolution. Rigorous and engaging, this will become a landmark of social thought for the twenty-first century.
The Twenty-First Century Socialism Reading Group usually meets every two weeks and reads 25-50 pages per session.
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