Our Chapter is proud to announce our endorsement for our member Dean Preston’s 2024 re-election campaign for District 5 Supervisor. For decades, Dean has been a tireless champion for workers, tenants, the unhoused, and everyone left behind by our city’s corporate-serving governance. In office, Dean has won major gains for San Francisco’s working class, including raising hundreds of millions for affordable and social housing, taxing vacant homes, and fighting against transit cuts and fare hikes.

With Dean’s strong record in office, it is not surprising he has come under attack by billionaires and right wing groups. In 2020, oligarch-funded PACs spent over a million to unseat Dean, but were rejected by District 5 voters. As reactionary movements gain momentum, we are more committed than ever to defending Dean as the only open democratic socialist currently in elected office in San Francisco.

In considering the endorsement, our Chapter conducted a careful and strategic process that we aim to carry forward to future endorsement decisions. Our chapter-elected Electoral Board, in addition to the traditional policy questionnaire, held several meetings with Dean and his staff in which we agreed upon a set of shared values both on the campaign trail and in office. This helps us to ensure that there is accountability, mutual trust, and open communication between the Dean campaign and our Chapter as we engage in this shared struggle.

As we begin to move into campaign season, we are excited to engage and mobilize all Chapter members to organize in this crucial campaign. Since we are up against tremendous opposition from organized capital, the only way to win is for ordinary people to get out in the District, talk to voters, and share our vision for a better future. The Electoral Board will be sharing opportunities in the coming weeks and months to get involved in the campaign. Join DSA San Francisco to help build a City that works for the people, not the rich and powerful!

Events

🌹Tuesday, 6/13 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Strike Ready Phonebank (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Wednesday, 6/14 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): What is DSA? (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Friday, 6/16 (7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.): Labor 101: Strike Solidarity (Zoom and in person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Saturday, 6/17 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Socialist Housing Organizing Project (SHOP) Organizing Training (Session 3) (Zoom and in person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Tuesday, 6/20 (6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Sock Distribution (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Sunday, 6/25 (2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): AfroSocialists Book Club: Black Marxism (Chapter 4)(Zoom and in person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Thursday, 6/29 (2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): Tech Worker Meetup (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Sunday, 7/9 (Time TBD): Solidarity Softball – Teamsters vs. DSA SF (Location TBA)

🌹Wednesday, 7/19 (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.): Free Outdoor Screening of Live Nude Girls Unite! (Kerouac Alley, next to Vesuvio & City Lights Bookstore)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Socialist Housing Organizing Project (SHOP) Workshop #3

Join the Tenant Organizing PWG this Saturday, June 17th at 6:00 p.m. for the third session of our Socialist Housing Organizing Project (SHOP). Hybrid on Zoom and DSA Office (1916 McAllister St).

Our goal with this 3-part workshop is to build DSA SF’s tenant organizing capacity and plug folks into autonomous tenant organizing efforts in the city. We will discuss a socialist perspective on housing, current tenant rights in the city, and collaborate with seasoned TANC (Tenant and Neighborhood Councils) organizers on learning direct action strategies. 

The third session captures how to have a one-on-one organizing conversation with your neighbor to get them to join a tenant union or association. These conversations are also building blocks for all kinds of organizing, from building labor unions to community groups, helping turn DSA into the organization of organizers we aspire to become.

June 22: Labor Logistics 101

Join the DSA SF Labor Working Group at the DSA SF office or over Zoom to learn from labor organizers how you can help organize the logistics industry!

AfroSocialist Slow Book Club: Black Marxism (Chapter 4)

Please join DSA SF’s AfroSocialists and Socialists of Color Committee on Sunday, June 25, at 2:00 p.m. at the DSA SF office (1916 McAllister St) for one of our Slow Book Club gatherings. We will be covering Chapter 4 of Black Marxism by Cedric Robinson, and intend to cover approximately one chapter per month.

7/19 Free Outdoor Screening of the Documentary Live Nude Girls Unite! in Kerouac Alley

Join DSA SF Labor and Vesuvio on July 19 at 8:00 p.m. for a free outdoor screening of Live Nude Girls Unite!, about the 1996 unionization effort at The Lusty Lady. Come watch this iconic labor film in Kerouac Alley, right across the street from where it all happened!

Sign Up to Distribute Socks with Homelessness Working Group

Come do sock distro with HWG! DSA SF’s Homelessness Working Group is currently organizing a sock distribution, and restarting our chapter’s efforts directed toward connecting with our homeless neighbors. We’ll be low-key training chapter members about our specific approach to mutual aid and street solidarity, as well as building capacity for this and, potentially, more expansive mutual aid projects in the future!

DSA SF, led by AfroSocialists and Socialists of Color Committee, condemns the recent proposals for increased signing bonuses and a $27.6M budget supplemental for the San Francisco Police Department, and instead advocates for increased spending for teachers, public health workers, and other underfunded social services and community based solutions that will make a meaningful and long-term impact on our community. We call on the people of San Francisco to oppose another massive increase to SFPD’s budget.

At a time when many working class residents and San Francisco city workers are facing potential eviction, hunger, a lack of jobs offering living wages, and countless other crises that could be addressed by local government, it is unsurprising but disappointing to see the mayor and many supervisors fighting to spend more money on policing.

Just last year, the Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to the Police Officers Association’s memorandum of understanding (i.e., contract) to include longevity bonuses, pay raises, and sign-on bonuses. In addition to the fact that the city voluntarily opened up the SFPD contract for negotiation, the SFPD was the only agency that received all three of these concessions from the city. Teachers, sanitation workers, firefighters, bus drivers, and other essential workers were denied such consideration. 

The Mayor and Board of Supervisors also approved a massive SFPD’s $713 million budget for 2023, which it is on track to overspend.

SFPD doesn’t have a budget problem, they have an accountability problem. 

Compared to similar jurisdictions around the country, SFPD already spends more per capita on policing, and has a higher police officer to resident ratio than similar cities. This latest move continues an ongoing trend of increased police spending, despite data from the SF police department itself showing that crime has decreased compared to previous years. Meanwhile, the SFPD is taking longer and longer to respond to calls, including serious calls about violent crime. 

Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s recent call for increased signing bonuses for new officers continues this unfair and unjustified use of public funds. Just last year, the Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to the Police Officers Association’s memorandum of understanding to include longevity bonuses, pay raises, and sign-on bonuses. The SFPD was the only agency that received all three of these concessions from the city. Teachers, sanitation workers, firefighters, bus drivers, etc. were denied such consideration. 

All of this paints a clear picture: this is a blatant display of SFPD exceptionalism which does nothing to solve the root causes of San Francisco’s tattered social fabric. 

The city is in crisis. Crucial functions that boost the city’s wellness continue to be severely underfunded. Even well-tenured teachers in San Francisco typically make less than $80,000 annually, putting them below the poverty line and below the earnings of a starting police officer. City College of San Francisco is similarly facing a budget crisis, with many educators being laid off and many others being forced to part time roles as classes are canceled. Many public health workers were supposed to be hired to support linkages to housing and medical treatment in the Tenderloin, but plans have repeatedly fallen through with little accountability. Muni faces a $215 million deficit as federal pandemic funding runs out, and could potentially cut service by 25%. 

As a country, we already know that our community’s safety is dependent not on increased policing, but funding of our social pillars, such as health, education, and safer streets. 

Under capitalism, we live in an atomized society where the capitalists hoard all the wealth while the working class fights for scraps. This inequality creates the conditions of desperation that lead to crime. When a person’s needs: food, water, housing, healthcare, transportation, education, are not met, they have every right (even a duty) to break the rules of a society that denies them to all. Punishment of individuals does nothing to end the conditions that lead to crime, nor is it intended to. Police exist to protect property and maintain a hierarchical order through the threat of violence. Our criminal “justice” system regularly breaks families apart, puts them in debt due to fees and penalties, and reinforces desperate situations that lead to more crime. Restorative justice is transformative when we look to build better people instead of punishing them. The solution: solidarity and socialism. Creating a society where we work together to meet our collective needs will always be more effective than an order rooted in violence. 

In the face of this injustice, we ask every San Francisco resident: when we give the Police Officer’s Association and SFPD priority and political weight over our teachers, public health workers, and public transportation, what does this say about our values?

We know that we can do better. If you also believe in investing in the long-term health of our communities, speak out against both of these proposals when they hit the Board of Supervisors. The police department’s $27.6 million supplemental will be heard on March 14, and we expect police bonuses to be heard in the coming weeks. In the meantime, join our coalition as we push back against increased policing, and in favor of the services that uplift our community and address the root causes of the issues we see today. You can use our toolkit to make public comment at the relevant meetings and email the Mayor and Board of Supervisors.

Here’s your weekly roundup of announcements, events, and reportbacks for the week of March 7, 2023.

Events

🌹Tuesday, 3/7 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Ecosocialist Book Club: The Future is Degrowth(Zoom)

🌹Wednesday, 3/8 (6:45 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): March Chapter Meeting (Zoom and in person at 518 Valencia)

🌹Thursday, 3/9 (5:45 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): DSA SF Labor Reads: Class Struggle Unionism by Joe Burns (Zoom)

🌹Friday, 3/10 (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): Office Hours (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Tuesday, 3/14 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Turnout Tuesday for Recommitment Drive (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Wednesday, 3/15 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Free Muni Full Service Priority Monthly Meeting (Zoom)

🌹Friday, 3/17 (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): Office Hours (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Friday, 3/17 (6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): The Battle of Chile Film Screening (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Tuesday, 3/21 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Ecosocialist Book Club: The Future is Degrowth(Zoom)

🌹Tuesday, 3/21 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Turnout Tuesday for Recommitment Drive (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Wednesday, 3/22 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): What is DSA? (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Friday, 3/24 (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): Office Hours (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Saturday, 3/25 (1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.): The War in Ukraine: Book Talk with Medea Benjamin (Zoom)

🌹Tuesday, 3/28 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Turnout Tuesday for Recommitment Drive (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

🌹Friday, 3/31 (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): Office Hours (In person at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

🌹March Chapter Meeting

DSA SF’s chapter-wide regular monthly meeting is happening next week, March 8th from 6:45 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.! Register to join on Zoom below or join us in person at 518 Valencia St. (Masks are recommended for in-person attendees.) We look forward to seeing you there!

Battle of Chile Film Screening on March 17, 24, and 31

Join the DSA SF International Solidarity Committee for a film screening and discussion of Patricio Guzmán’s documentary The Battle of Chile: The Struggle of an Unarmed People. The documentary covers the right wing boycott and military coup against the Allende administration, focusing on the bottom-up organizing of Chilean workers in response to U.S.-funded efforts to dismantle their revolution. The film highlights the many counter-revolutionary tactics that U.S. imperialism continues to deploy in Latin America today while providing key insights into organizing strategies that we can apply to our current struggle for a worker-controlled democracy. The first of three screenings is taking place on Friday, March 17th at 6:30 p.m. at the DSA SF office (1916 McAllister). Food and drinks will be provided!

Book Talk with Medea Benjamin on March 25

Come join us on Saturday, March 25, at 1 p.m. for a talk on Zoom with Medea Benjamin, author of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict. Her book provides a fantastic summary of points generally ignored in Western media: the historical context to the conflict, America’s role in escalation, NATO expansion, misinformation campaigns, the global impact of Western sanctions, and the real threat of nuclear war. Medea is a co-founder of CODEPINK and the fair trade advocacy group Global Exchange; she has also written books on drone warfare, US-Saudi relations, and American aggression against Iran. Medea has been awarded with the US Peace Memorial Foundations Prize and has been a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award and Martin Luther King, Jr Peace Prize from the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Office Hours Every Friday This Month!

The DSA SF office will be open for office hours from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. every Friday in March! Folks will be milling around working on a variety of DSA and non-DSA things and generally hanging out and having a good time. If you’re looking for a place to work for the afternoon in community with other socialists on Friday, come hang out!

Ecosocialist Book Club: The Future is Degrowth

Join the DSA SF Ecosocialist Committee’s book club for a two part discussion on degrowth on March 7th and 21st from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. We’re reading and discussing The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism. Open to all!

Comrades,

The DSA International Committee is a member of the Peace In Ukraine Coalition. The Coalition is calling for a National Week of Action this week to say YES to negotiations and NO to an endless proxy war with Russia in Ukraine!  

“While Biden is calling for another $13+ billion to fund the war on top of the $50+ billion already funded, we demand money for climate, jobs, healthcare and housing, not for more weapons to escalate the war and enrich military contractors.”

What you can do:

• Sign the DSA letter to Tell Congress to Oppose Weapons Shipments to Ukraine
• Join the action in SF on Thursday, Aug 15
• Watch the video of the DSAIC Ukraine Webinar: The War in Ukraine, Impacts and Perspectives: Women, Workers, and Global South
• Share this call to action with comrades

For more info on this campaign click here or message the #international-solidarity slack channel.

Solidarity,

DSA SF Comms Committee

Events

🌹 Wednesday, 9/14 (6:45 p.m.-9:00 p.m.): September Chapter Meeting (Zoom and in-person at 518 Valencia)

🌹 Thursday, 9/15 (12:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.): San Francisco Stop the War in Ukraine; Negotiate Ceasefire Now! Action (in-person at Senators Padilla and Feinstein
333 Bush St San Francisco (Padilla) and One Post St San Francisco (Feinstein)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Want to Write Local Stories? Help Us Out at SFIJ!

After a long-awaited hiatus, the San Francisco Independent Journal (SFIJ) is back and we’re currently looking for writers and editors (both will be paid) to help us keep reporting the most important stories in this charming city. Nowadays, it’s highly unlikely to get local stories without the influence of police propaganda, mayoral influence, and corporations. You can read past stories such as tenants marching to Veritas headquarters last year right before the eviction moratorium and SFUSD teachers organizing a walk-in to demand more safety at schools.

We’re currently looking for writers to help with the following story pitches:

• Investigating San Francisco’s 40,000 empty homes with a focus on three locations
• A few articles on CCSF student and labor organizing, administrative neglect, and what the future holds for CCSF

If you’re interested, please reach out to comms@dsasf.org! You can also support our work here to help us pay for writers and editors.

The Next Chapter Meeting is Tomorrow, September 14!

Join us tomorrow, September 14 at 6:45 p.m. for our monthly chapter meeting! As usual, this will be a hybrid meeting – you can register to attend on Zoom using the link below, or come to the meeting in person at 518 Valencia.

DSA SF Now Has a Protect Abortion Working Group

DSA SF now has a provisional Protect Abortion Working Group. The provisional co-chairs are Ellie G and Alyssa A, and initial plans are to organize pro-abortion actions in coordination with other groups including CA-DSA and National, hold a teach-in for the chapter, and organize mutual aid to support people seeking abortion access. To get involved, join the #abortion-working-group channel in DSA slack – we’ll have lots more updates about the working group’s plans and actions in the weeks and months to come.

Comrades,

For over a year, Amazon and Google workers have been organizing to end their companies’ $1 billion contract with the Israeli military and apartheid government. Through their contract, Amazon and Google help the Israeli government surveil Palestinians, expand illegal settlements, and inflict violence on Palestinians under siege and occupation.

The message is clear: tech workers do not want to build technology used to enable Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. Join us this Thursday, September 8 at Embarcadero Plazaalongside  tech workers and Palestinian organizers, who will lead direct actions at Google and Amazon offices in San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City. Communities and workers will stand together in solidarity against this harmful contract. Learn more here!

To join the contingent for DSA SF (members in good standing only), use this link for the Signal group chat. Hope to see a lot of you there as we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian diaspora and Palestinians on the ground.

Solidarity,

DSA SF Comms Committee

E

🌹 Thursday, 9/8 (12:30 p.m.): No Tech for Apartheid (in person at Embarcadero Plaza)

🌹 Thursday, 9/8 (6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.): What is DSA? (Zoom and in person at the DSA SF office on 1916 McAllister)

🌹 Saturday, 9/10 (11:00 a.m.): Empty Homes Tax Lit Drop and Blowback Podcast Discussion (in-person, Sunset Reservoir Playground at 24th Ave and Ortega)

🌹 Wednesday, 9/14 (6:45 p.m.-9:00 p.m.): September Chapter Meeting (Zoom and in-person at 518 Valencia)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Join us to lit drop for People First San Francisco and to discuss the latest episode of the Blowback podcast

DSA SF now has a Protect Abortion Working Group

DSA SF now has a provisional Protect Abortion Working Group. The provisional co-chairs are Ellie G and Alyssa A, and initial plans are to organize pro-abortion actions in coordination with other groups including CA-DSA and National, hold a teach-in for the chapter, and organize mutual aid to support people seeking abortion access. To get involved, join the #abortion-working-group channel in DSA slack – we’ll have lots more updates about the working group’s plans and actions in the weeks and months to come.

Contribute to the DSA Labor national labor solidarity fund to help support local strikes and union drives across the country!

DSA Labor is launching the national labor solidarity fund, a collective resource for all DSA chapters to use in support of local strikes, union drives, and other forms of working class struggle. All we have is us – pitch in to make sure labor can keep up the fight everywhere, including upcoming strikes at Starbucks, Amazon, UPS, and more!

You can also get some sweet socialist merch for your contributions! DSA Labor has stickers and buttons available now, and you can pre-order t-shirts and tote bags. Proceeds from DSA Labor merchandise sales will go towards our labor solidarity fund!

The next chapter meeting is on Wednesday, September 14!

Join us on Wednesday, September 14 at 6:45 p.m. for our monthly chapter meeting! As usual, this will be a hybrid meeting – you can register to attend on Zoom using the link below, or come to the meeting in person at 518 Valencia. More details to come on the agenda in the days ahead!