Comrades,

May Day is this Sunday – time to show up and show the bosses how strong we are when we’re all together! DSA SF will be part of the International Workers’ Day march this Sunday, May 1, and we want everyone to show up! The march will start at the Embarcadero outside the Ferry Building at 9:30 a.m. and will recreate the historic 1934 march up Market Street, ending at Civic Center with a rally.

We’ll be there to assert the power of the working class, and to continue to push the Empty Homes Tax forward, getting more signatures towards our goal of getting it on the ballot. Want to join in? We’re meeting up at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister at 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning, so we can head over and march together – be sure to wear red! If you want to meet us at the Embarcadero, be sure to be there by 9:00 a.m. to make sure you march with the rest of the chapter. Just look for the red flags! 

Before and after the march, the Electoral Board will be out collecting signatures to get the Empty Homes Tax on the ballot – the more folks we have out collecting the signatures, the closer we get to making landlords pay for withholding housing from our neighbors. To make sure we show up in force, we’ll also be holding a phonebank tomorrow evening, April 27, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., also at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister. Hope to see you there – and hope to see you marching down Market Street with the workers of the Bay Area this Sunday!

Solidarity,

DSA SF Comms Committee

Events

🌹 Wednesday, 4/27 (5:00 p.m.):  Phonebank for International Workers’ Day March (in person at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister St)

🌹 Saturday, 4/30 (4:00 p.m.):  Tech Labor Circle Meetup (in person at Fly Bar on 762 Divisadero St)

🌹 Sunday, 5/1 (8:30 a.m.):  International Workers’ Day March (meet at DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister St or at the Embarcadero in front of the Ferry Building by 9:00 a.m.)

🌹 Thursday, 5/12 (7:30 p.m.):  Intro to Democratic Socialism Session Two: The History (part 1) (Zoom or in person at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister St)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Apply to be part of the SF Civil Grand Jury!

Every year, each county in California convenes a Civil Grand Jury to investigate local city and county government. In contrast to a criminal Grand Jury, the SF Civil Grand Jury comprises 19 ordinary residents who research and investigate any topics of their choosing related to local government, then release reports with recommendations on how to improve City government. City and county officials are required to make themselves available for interview if the Civil Grand Jury requests it, and City departments are required to respond to recommendations by the Civil Grand Jury.

If you’re interested in the details of how City government works and want to help make it function better – and like conducting interviews and deep dives on documents and records – this opportunity may be for you! The only requirements for the SF Civil Grand Jury are that you are a U.S. Citizen, and that you have been a resident of SF for one year. The time requirements are generally around 10 hours per week, but anybody who is interested in doing more research and investigation can put more time in if they would like. Finally, Civil Grand Jury service is paid and fulfills requirements like normal jury service — a maximum of $75/week is paid depending on days worked on investigations.

The deadline for application is May 14, and anybody who is interested in applying can find the application form, as well as more information, here.

Meet fellow tech workers at Fly Bar!

Do you work in tech in SF? Are you jealous of workers in other industries who are winning union election after union election? Join DSA SF’s Tech Labor Circle for a meetup at Fly Bar next Saturday, April 30, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. to get to know other tech workers who are interested in growing labor power in their own company and in the industry at large. Bring your ideas for ways to bring power to the workers!

Reading Groups

Learn about the history of Democratic Socialism!

The second session of the Intro to Democratic Socialism series will cover the history of the movement, from the “utopians” — Fourier, Owen, et al, to the “scientifics” — Marx, Engels, and the International Workingmen’s Association. This session will be held on Thursday, May 12 from 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister. You can also register via Zoom here.

In Case You Missed It

Phone bank for tenants’ rights!

The Daybreak PAC is hosting weekly phone banks every Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. where we call District 5 tenants. It’s a great chance for DSA members to help protect tenants from eviction and assist folks in applying for rent relief!

Comrades,

DSA SF was chartered five years ago and since then we’ve organized nonstop to paint the city red under the big banner of socialism. We’re finally taking a night off from organizing to celebrate our chapter with all of you at El Rio (3158 Mission Street in San Francisco) tomorrow, April 20, from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. 

We are asking nothing but for you all to have fun with us! There will be light refreshments provided and we’ve got a solidarity fund going if you are strapped for cash and still want to have a beer with your comrades. 

Come join us to celebrate the work we’ve done for the past five years and share your favorite memories with us! We look forward to seeing you there!

Solidarity,

DSA SF Comms Committee

Events

🌹 Wednesday, 4/20 (7:00 p.m.):  DSA SF’s Five-Year Anniversary Party (in person at El Rio)

🌹 Thursday, 4/21 (7:30 p.m.):  Bigger Than Bernie reading and discussion group (Zoom or in person at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister St)

🌹 Friday, 4/22 (10:00 a.m.):  People’s Earth Day (in person at Civic Center BART Station)

🌹 Sunday, 4/24 (12:00 p.m.):  Empty Homes Tax Signature Gathering (in person at Alamo Square Park, corner of Scott and Hayes)

🌹 Saturday, 4/30 (4:00 p.m.):  Tech Labor Circle Meetup (in person at Fly Bar)

🌹 Thursday, 5/12 (7:30 p.m.):  Intro to Democratic Socialism Session Two: The History (part 1) (Zoom or in person at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister St)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Help Us Hit Our Goal of 500 Signatures This Week!

Join us to collect signatures for the Empty Homes Tax Ballot Initiative this Sunday, April 24, from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Alamo Square Park on the corner of Scott and Hayes. Come help us hit our goal of 500 signatures this week! No signature gathering experience necessary! We will train you, provide all materials necessary, and give you a location for gathering.

Please join us at People’s Earth Day 🌍 ✊

Meet fellow tech workers at Fly Bar!

Do you work in tech in SF? Are you jealous of workers in other industries who are winning union election after union election? Join DSA SF’s Tech Labor Circle for a meetup at Fly Bar next Saturday, April 30, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. to get to know other tech workers who are interested in growing labor power in their own company and in the industry at large. Bring your ideas for ways to bring power to the workers!

Reading Groups

Learn about the history of Democratic Socialism!

The second session of the Intro to Democratic Socialism series will cover the history of the movement, from the “utopians” — Fourier, Owen, et al, to the “scientifics” — Marx, Engels, and the International Workingmen’s Association. This session will be held on Thursday, May 12 from 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister. There will be an option to join in using Zoom, as well!

Bigger Than Bernie Reading and Discussion Group

Comrades,

We didn’t need a reminder, but we got one anyway – when democracy is in the clutches of capitalism, the battles are never just fought at the ballot box.

San Francisco’s district map is being redrawn, and the process has been anything but democratic or transparent. It includes a district map approved at 3:00 a.m. that splits District 5 apart — a district that has organized so effectively for the rights of tenants and working class people — and caused other members of the Redistricting Task Force charged with drawing the map to walk out of the meeting in disgust.

And it’s not just District 5 — by spitting Potrero Hill from District 10, this task force is eroding Black working class power. By splitting the Tenderloin from District 6, they are breaking apart the Transgender Cultural District. It is a wish list for moneyed interests, and all the boxes are ticked.

A leaked email from a board member of Neighbors for A Better San Francisco, a PAC funded by billionaires that repeatedly attacks and dehumanizes our unhoused neighbors, says the quiet part out loud — this is gerrymandering. After failing at the ballot box, it is an attempt at ripping organized communities apart to suit the interests of capital.

We’re not having it. Join us in telling this Redistricting Task Force exactly what we think of this shameless attempt to manipulate San Francisco politics and demanding that our working class communities are represented fairly. There is one more chance to leave public comment – call in during the Redistricting Task Force’s meeting tomorrow, April 13. The meeting starts at 3:00 p.m. – knowing this task force and how many working class people they’ve enraged, expect to keep them up past midnight again.

Solidarity,

DSA SF Comms Committee

Events Calendar

🌹 Wednesday, 4/13 (3:00 p.m.):  Leave public comment: Redistricting Task Force meeting (virtual, call-in instructions at the linked website)

🌹 Wednesday, 4/13 (6:45 p.m.):  DSA SF April Chapter Meeting (Zoom or in person at 518 Valencia)

🌹 Saturday, 4/16 (12:00 p.m.):  Empty Homes Tax Signature Gathering and BBQ (in person at Golden Gate Park, corner of Haight and Stanyan)

🌹 Thursday, 4/21 (7:30 p.m.):  Bigger Than Bernie reading and discussion group (Zoom or in person at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister St)

🌹 Friday, 4/22 (10:00 a.m.):  People’s Earth Day (in person at Civic Center BART Station)

🌹 Thursday, 5/12 (7:30 p.m.):  Intro to Democratic Socialism Session Two: The History (part 1) (Zoom or in person at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister St)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Celebrate our progress on the Empty Homes Tax – and help us maintain our momentum!

Fill out those signature pages, then fill up on delicious BBQ! We’re making progress toward our goal of getting the Empty Homes Tax on the ballot, but we can’t stop now – we need all hands on deck to make sure we have enough signatures to make landlords and speculators pay for keeping vacant homes away from the San Franciscans who need them. Join us at Golden Gate Park on the corner of Stanyan and Haight this Saturday, April 16 at 12:00 p.m. to collect signatures to get this initiative on the ballot, then stick around for a BBQ afterwards – we’ll have sandwiches, beer, and lots more!

Please join us at People’s Earth Day 🌍 ✊

On April 22, DSA SF 🌹 — with our AfroSocialists & EcoSocialists — will be joining Greenaction for Environmental Justice, Youth Vs Apocalypse, and other Black, Brown and Indigenous-led environmental justice groups in the streets to demand the cleanup of radioactive and toxic waste from our city.

On Friday, April 22 at 10:00 a.m. we’ll be meeting at Civic Center BART Station to fight for environmental and climate justice for Bayview-Hunters Point, Treasure Island, and more frontline communities. If you can take the day off work, call in sick📞🤒, Zoom in 💻 from the streets, or find the time, please join us — we’re hoping for a BIG TURNOUT! Email ecosocialist@dsasf.org with any questions.

Our monthly chapter meeting is this Wednesday!

Our monthly chapter meetings are where you’ll hear about what’s been going on in our priority campaigns, working groups, and ballot initiatives – and where we vote on chapter business. Don’t miss it! You’ll be able to participate virtually using Zoom or in person at 518 Valencia, with the meeting starting at 6:45 p.m. tomorrow night.

Learn about the history of Democratic Socialism!

The second session of the Intro to Democratic Socialism series will cover the history of the movement, from the “utopians” — Fourier, Owen, et al, to the “scientifics” — Marx, Engels, and the International Workingmen’s Association. This session will be held on Thursday, May 12 from 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister. There will be an option to join in using Zoom, as well!

Bigger Than Bernie Reading and Discussion Group

DSA members and Jacobin writers Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht wrote Bigger Than Bernie in 2020 and revised it in 2021. It should prove to be a useful read for assessing where as socialists we see ourselves and the world today. There will be two discussions at the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister St on April 21 and 28 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. There is also a Zoom option for those who want to participate remotely – registration link here!

The San Francisco Democratic Socialists of America demand that the San Francisco Redistricting Task Force reject politically motivated gerrymandering. As socialists, we are committed to democracy, both as a means and an end. We are building a mass movement of working class people to take back power from big corporations and the 1%. Across the country, we have seen partisans draw lines that split constituencies in order to weaken our movement and reverse social progress.

This week, gerrymandering came to our city. The Redistricting Task Force has betrayed their responsibility to their constituents, by reversing a prior vote and sneaking in a new map at 3 a.m. that guts District 5 wholesale. Working class San Franciscans from across the city have spent precious hours waiting late into the night to demand fair maps and we agree with them: San Franciscans deserve better.

The motives behind this decision are crystal clear. A leaked email was released from a board member of Neighbors for A Better San Francisco, a dark-money PAC full of billionaire Mitch McConnell supporters that attacks homeless San Franciscans in racist, classist mailers, and has funded (by its own admission) 80% of the recall campaign against District Attorney Chesa Boudin. This board member, Nick Podell, made his name as a luxury gala-hopping developer fighting to steamroll tenant and anti-gentrification organizers in the Mission District. Emailing his fellow co-conspirators this Wednesday, Podell gloated, “After rocking, my next favorite activity right now is San Francisco politics… We are in the final week of the Redistricting process and it is going better than I could have ever dreamed.”

This isn’t just a threat. It is a confession.

Why are the billionaires so excited about the current redistricting proposal? Because it guts District 5. District 5 has shown again and again that a movement-based approach to politics, led by tenants and workers, can still defeat deep-pocketed corporate interests. A broad coalition of socialists and progressives won reforms to make San Francisco a home for all, including a universal right to eviction counsel, progressive taxes to fight homelessness & displacement (Prop C, Prop I), a new mandate for municipal social housing (Prop K), and the defeat of a naked power grab by the Police Officers’ Association to remove use of Tasers from public oversight (No on Prop H). It is not lost on us that our obstructionist mayor and her enablers have stood in the way of nearly all of these efforts.

Our coalition has also elected Dean Preston to the Board of Supervisors twice. Since the Mayor and her allies in San Francisco’s real estate and big business establishment have been unable to defeat Dean Preston and the policies we have fought for alongside him at the ballot box, they now want to draw his district – and our proven progress for the working people of this city – out of existence. 

As we speak, the Mayor and her political allies are weaponizing the redistricting process to attack DSA member and D5 Supervisor Preston, while using the residents of the Tenderloin as political pawns. For twenty years, the residents of the Tenderloin and their neighbors in SoMa have worked together in District 6 and built political coalitions to represent their mutual interests. DSA SF stands with the Tenderloin community in choosing whatever district best uplifts their struggle, especially as the Mayor and her allies have proven once again in recent months that the Tenderloin is worth little more to them than an opportunity to score cheap political points at the expense of real material progress for the community.

The Redistricting Task Force has until April 14 to complete their work. At every meeting from now until then, DSA SF members will join community leaders from across San Francisco to demand truly democratic representation. The same truth is clear in North Carolina, Alabama, Seattle, Texas, San Francisco, or anywhere else: wherever the capitalist establishment undermines democracy in the service of their own power and profit, working class people suffer. 

It’s not too late to give San Franciscans the representation that they deserve! Here’s how you can help: 

1. Show up at the next Redistricting Task Force Meeting on April 7 and demand that the San Francisco Redistricting Task Force reject politically motivated gerrymandering.
2. Join DSA SF and our current Empty Homes Tax campaign to keep the political establishment quaking as we continue to build a better and more equitable San Francisco.

This is a pathetic attempt to rig city politics for the next decade, but we’re committed to winning  socialism in all of San Francisco, whether we begin in the Western Addition, the Tenderloin, or South of Market, in city hall or in the streets.

Comrades,

You voted last summer to make running a ballot measure slate a priority for the Chapter and we wanted to give you an update on how our first ballot measure is doing. The ballot measure is a tax to fill San Francisco’s 40,000 empty homes, and we’re explicitly running this campaign along class lines to maximize working-class consciousness and build a base of power through the electoral process.

We are well into the signature-gathering phase of the campaign and have collected an impressive amount, nearly 2,000 signatures of the required 14,000!

That’s 14% completed – amazing work for only one month!

Last Wednesday, we held an amazing fundraiser at the Make Out Room and raised nearly double what we were hoping to! It was an amazing experience to talk to all kinds of people – hardcore campaigners, new members, non-members – and see the shared excitement of a collective class project. It truly was inspiring and it won’t be the last time we’ll be doing one of these social events. But: campaigns are built on hard work and we can’t risk falling behind. Whether it’s signatures or fundraising, we’re going at max capacity, and we need to keep momentum up with our own labor.

This ballot measure belongs to you, the members of DSA SF. You should feel immense gratification of how far we have come, but you should also feel a positive anxiety to see it through to its successful completion. This ballot measure is an experiment in our dedication to building socialism. It is powered by the membership of this Chapter and it won’t succeed without us.

If you have the ability to volunteer to fulfill the promise we made to ourselves last summer, then please sign up for a shift HERE.

Solidarity always,
DSA SF Electoral Board

Events Calendar

🌹 Tuesday, 4/5 (6:00 p.m.): Empty Homes Tax Turnout Tuesdays (Zoom or in person at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister St)

🌹 Thursday, 4/7 (6:00 p.m.): Copaganda & Public Safety: Feat. Alec Karakatsanis, Dean Preston, & more! (Zoom or in person at SF Main Public Library: Koret Auditorium)

🌹 Sunday, 4/10 (12:00 p.m.):  Empty Homes Tax Mobilization: Mission Dolores (in person at Mission Dolores Park, corner of 19th and Dolores)

🌹 Wednesday, 4/13 (6:45 p.m.):  DSA SF April Chapter Meeting (Zoom or in person at 518 Valencia)

🌹 Thursday, 4/21 (7:30 p.m.):  Bigger Than Bernie reading and discussion group (Zoom or in person at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister St)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Help gather signatures to get the Empty Homes Tax on the ballot

Coming on the heels of our hugely successful fundraiser, DSA SF is hosting another signature gathering mobilization at 12:00 p.m. this Sunday, April 10, at Mission Dolores Park on the corner of 19th and Dolores. Help us keep the momentum going and hit this week’s goal of 500 signatures! No signature gathering experience necessary. We will train you, provide all materials necessary, and give you a location for gathering. See you there!

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Copaganda and Public Safety featuring Alec Karakatsanis, Dean Preston, and Sameena Usman

Please join us for a panel discussion, co-hosted by the Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty Priority Resolution and Dean Preston, on copaganda, abolition, and public safety. The event will feature Alec Karakatsanis (Civil Rights Corp) and Sameena Usman (CAIR) — other guests may also make an appearance!  The event will be held this Thursday, April 7, 6:00 p.m. at SF Main Library (Koret Auditorium). This event will either be livestreamed or recorded for those who are not able to make it in person. Please direct any questions to blis@dsasf.org. Register here!

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Our monthly chapter meeting is next Wednesday!

Our monthly chapter meetings are where you’ll hear about what’s been going on in our priority campaigns, working groups, and ballot initiatives – and where we vote on chapter business. Don’t miss it! You’ll be able to participate virtually using Zoom or in person at 518 Valencia, with the meeting starting at 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, April 13.

Reading Groups

Bigger Than Bernie Reading and Discussion Group

DSA members and Jacobin writers Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht wrote Bigger Than Bernie in 2020 and revised it in 2021. It should prove to be a useful read for assessing where as socialists we see ourselves and the world today. There will be two discussions at the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister St on April 21 and 28 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. There is also a Zoom option for those who want to participate remotely – registration link here!