Comrades,

Black History Month is as much a time to reflect on past injustice as a time to dismantle the systems that allow that injustice to persist. The chapter’s Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty priority is doing that work, examining the ways we can break down systems of marginalization within the chapter while identifying external allies and building collective power to overcome the white supremacy that has always been at the heart of this country. And collective power needs the people – if you haven’t yet, get in touch with the priority leaders to see how you can get involved.

That work does not allow for compromise with the racial capitalism that we struggle against, and it holds that an injustice to one is an injustice to all. Last year, we saw New York congressman and DSA member Jamaal Bowman vote to fund the apartheid state of Israel’s defense systems and meet with Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett – a DSA-endorsed elected politician taking pictures with the leader of a state that actively denies the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. This weekend, there will be a DSA forum on how we can hold our leaders accountable when they use their power in ways fundamentally incompatible with the international socialist project. You can find more information about that forum below.

Antiracism and international solidarity are essential to the socialist project, and we need to fight for them year-round. This Black History Month, let’s work together as a chapter to recommit to those ideals for long after February ends.

Solidarity, DSA SF Comms Committee

Event Calendar

🌹 Wednesday, 2/2 (5:00 p.m.): Phone bank for tenants’ rights with Daybreak PAC (Zoom)

🌹 Wednesday, 2/2 (6:30 p.m.): Intro to DSA (Zoom)

🌹 Saturday, 2/5 (12:00 p.m.): Bigger Than Bowman: DSA BDS & Electoral Accountability Forum (Zoom)

🌹 Sunday/Domingo, 2/6 (9:00 a.m.): El ABC del Capitalismo: Entendiendo al Capitalismo (Zoom)

🌹 Wednesday, 2/9 (6:45 p.m.): DSA SF February Chapter Meeting (Zoom)

🌹 Saturday, 3/19 (2:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Book Club: Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future (in-person, at the Panhandle in Golden Gate Park)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Hear about how to hold our DSA politicians accountable – Palestinian humanity is non-negotiable!

Late last year, New York Representative and DSA member Jamaal Bowman voted to increase funding for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system and met with Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett, providing material support and cover for the apartheid state of Israel. DSA is an organization committed to the humanity of the Palestinian people – so what do we do when our endorsed and elected representatives fail to stand up for the core values of the movement? This Saturday, February 5 at 12:00 p.m. PT on Zoom, make time for Bigger than Bowman, a forum discussing how we can hold our DSA-endorsed elected officials accountable and push them towards BDS and away from negotiating away the rights and humanity of the Palestinian people.

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The next Intro to DSA is tomorrow evening

Come learn how Democratic Socialists of America is building the socialist movement in San Francisco. There will be an introduction to the mission of DSA, the socialist project, and what our organizers are doing locally. Bring your questions and a friend! Registration link here.

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Join us for the February chapter meeting next week

Mark your calendars – our February chapter meeting is on Wednesday, February 9 at 6:45 p.m. on Zoom. Join your comrades as we discuss chapter business and get updates from our chapter priorities, committees and working groups!

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El ABC del Capitalismo: Entendiendo al Capitalismo

Domingo, 6 de febrero @ 9:00 a.m. | RSVP for more details here

En DSA Latinos Socialistas estamos leyendo los ABCs del Capitalismo. Únase a nosotros para discutir el primer folleto ‘Entendiendo al capitalismo’. Este folleto explica cómo, en palabras de Chibber, el capitalismo “genera injusticia sistemáticamente”. Pensaremos en preguntas como: ¿Qué es el capitalismo y cómo funciona? ¿Qué es el capital?¿En qué consiste el ‘poder’ bajo el capitalismo?¿Por qué los socialistas se enfocan en los trabajadores? Habrán tres discusiones, una por cada folleto: Domingo, 20 de febrero : Folleto B – El capitalismo y el estado Domingo, 6 de marzo: Folleto C – El capitalismo y la lucha de clases. DSALatSoc@gmail.com

Note: The entire event will be in Spanish.

Reading Groups

Ecosocialist Book Club: Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future

Join the DSA SF Ecosocialist Committee’s book club for a special one-shot discussion in March. We’re reading and discussing Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future – you can get the book here. The Ministry for the Future is a novel about the near future of climate change – the environmental cost, the human cost, and how we might work collectively for a different future. Open to all – register now!

Comrades, 

With the surge of COVID-19 cases in the Bay Area, we have had to roll back many of our in-person events to being Zoom-only. While this is the safe decision from a health standpoint, our chapter cohesiveness has suffered because we are unable to have the free-flowing discussion that comes from face-to-face interaction. In lieu of that in-person discussion, we’ll be holding a free discussion on – among other topics – the state of the chapter and our campaigns and a proposal for membership development tomorrow, January 26 at 7:00 p.m. If you would like to participate in the discussion and are a DSA SF chapter member, please register for this session here. 

Solidarity, DSA SF Comms Committee

Event Calendar

🌹 Wednesday, 1/26 (5:00 p.m.): Phone bank for tenants’ rights with Daybreak PAC (Zoom)

🌹 Wednesday, 1/26 (7:00 p.m.): DSA SF Open Political Discussion (Zoom)

🌹 Wednesday, 2/9 (6:45 p.m.): DSA SF February Chapter Meeting (Zoom)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

The February Chapter meeting is coming up!

Mark your calendars – our February chapter meeting is on Wednesday, February 9 at 6:45 p.m. on Zoom. Join your comrades as we discuss chapter business and get updates from our chapter priorities, committees and working groups!

In Case You Missed It…

Organize a Healthcare Labor Circle with us!

Help us organize a healthcare labor circle! We are hoping to connect with members who work in healthcare in San Francisco. Our first step would be to organize an informal meet and greet among members to discuss where people work, what issues they face, and what a healthcare labor circle might look like. If you are interested in getting involved in this process please send an email to hansen.weaver@gmail.com.

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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,

Yesterday was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, where everyone came together to celebrate his legacy. But to better understand his perspective, we must not allow mainstream interests to sanitize his message for a broader audience. Find out more by joining East Bay DSA tonight at 6:30 p.m. and hear from his own words. More details below.

Also, as a chapter, we have dedicated ourselves to Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty in the form of a Priority Campaign, a major component of which is community outreach and learning how we can better support BIPOC liberation and sovereignty through our work. The kickoff meeting for this external-facing effort is this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. As this is a Priority Campaign event, we encourage all members to attend and help make this effort a success. We hope to see you there!

Solidarity, DSA SF Comms Committee

Event Calendar

🌹 Wednesday, 1/19 (5:00 p.m.): Phone bank for tenants’ rights (Zoom)

🌹 Tuesday, 1/18 (6:30 p.m.): [East Bay DSA event] Socialist Night School: MLK in His Own Words (Zoom)

🌹 Saturday, 1/22 (1:00 p.m.): [Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty Priority Campaign event] Building Power & Working for Black Liberation Externally

 (Zoom)

🌹 Wednesday, 1/26 (7:00 p.m.): DSA SF Open Political Discussion (Zoom)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Socialist Night School: MLK in His Own Words

In the decades since Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, his political legacy has mostly been sanitized for a broad audience. But in his own time, MLK was viewed – correctly – as a radical. By fighting for an uncompromising politics of racial justice, economic transformation, and peace abroad, MLK won the ire of nearly ¾ of Americans who said they disapproved of him in a 1967 Harris Poll.

Instead of letting mainstream interests shape our perception of Dr. King, we can listen to him directly to understand his perspective. His written words and fiery speeches are still with us today and give invaluable insight into one of the most prominent American freedom fighters in the last hundred years.

What did Dr. King actually say and think while he was alive? How is it important for socialists today? Can we continue the emancipatory vision that he laid out back then, in this day and age? Join the East Bay DSA Political Education Committee, with Shane Ruiz, co-chair of East Bay DSA, for a discussion of these questions and more! RSVP now for East Bay DSA’s Night School on January 18.

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Open Political Discussion

With the surge of COVID cases in the Bay Area, we have had to roll back many of our in-person events to being Zoom-only. While this is the safe decision from a health standpoint, our chapter cohesiveness has suffered because we are unable to have the free-flowing discussion that comes from face-to-face interaction. In lieu of that in-person discussion, we are holding an open discussion session on any political topic that members would like to discuss Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. If you would like to participate in the discussion and are a member, please register for this session here.

In Case You Missed It…

Sign a petition for a #2WeekPause to keep teachers and students safe!

With the Omicron surge of COVID cases we’re seeing in the city, our teachers and students are facing a crisis. Hundreds of teachers, staff, and students have been absent because of COVID – it’s a learning environment that works for no one and is neglectful of everyone’s health and safety.

Meanwhile, SFUSD is refusing to meet with union leaders and bargain a new health and safety memorandum of understanding. At the same time, the district is failing to provide adequate PPE, failing to provide adequate testing, failing to provide adequate contact tracing – virtually nothing is being done.

Some of our comrades started a petition for a sickout last Thursday during the first round of negotiations and got almost a thousand signatures and almost 900 workers “out sick” that day.

Bottom line, we need a #2WeekPause for our corrupt, bloated school district to put some BASIC safety measures in place. Sign the petition linked here to support our teachers in demanding the absolute bare minimum from SFUSD!

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Organize a Healthcare Labor Circle with us!

Help us organize a healthcare labor circle! We are hoping to connect with members who work in healthcare in San Francisco. Our first step would be to organize an informal meet and greet among members to discuss where people work, what issues they face, and what a healthcare labor circle might look like. If you are interested in getting involved in this process please send an email to hansen.weaver@gmail.com.

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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,

Another COVID wave emerging right after the holidays is causing calamity in the city, and too many of our neighbors are facing a looming eviction crisis. As usual, we’re all we’ve got – so if you’re able, join us in helping tell our neighbors how they can access rent relief and fight for their rights!

On Sunday, January 16 at noon in Alamo Square Park at Hayes and Scott, we’ll be meeting to distribute flyers in Supervisor Dean Preston’s declared eviction-free zone in District 5. The only way the eviction-free zone can live up to its name is if we rise up together to make it happen, and that starts with making sure our neighbors know how to protect themselves from the callousness of their landlords and the indifference of capitalism. Sign up to volunteer or find out how to access rental assistance for yourself here!

Solidarity, DSA SF Comms Committee

Event Calendar

🌹 Tuesday, 1/11 (6:30 p.m.): Intro to DSA (Zoom)

🌹 Wednesday, 1/12 (5:00 p.m.): Phone bank for tenants’ rights (Zoom)

🌹 Wednesday, 1/12 (6:45 p.m.): January Chapter Meeting (Zoom)

🌹 Sunday, 1/16 (12:00 p.m.): Eviction-free Zone lit drop (Alamo Square Park at Hayes and Scott)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Follow-up from ISOC’s Haiti Event

Thank you for joining our panel on Haiti’s Crisis and the Popular Resistance on December 19! If you registered but couldn’t attend, you can watch the recording here. Some resources (more to come in another email): 

• Video series from Jafrikayiti
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Part 3 
• The king on Haiti’s dream

Next Steps:

• If you’re a DSA SF member and you’d like to get involved with the International Solidarity Organizing Committee, please fill out this form.
• If you’re in another DSA chapter, national committee, or another organization but would love to collab with us for any upcoming anti-war/internationalist campaigns, please fill out this form!
• Got any ideas on topics that can lead to more virtual discussions and other educational events? Please email us at international@dsasf.org!
• If you’d like to reach out to any of the ISOC leads for any other inquiries or to work on a campaign, please email us at international@dsasf.org!

We appreciate you for joining us and we looking forward to seeing you at the next panel!
Speaking of which, the first International Solidarity meeting of 2022 is scheduled this Thursday 1/23 at 7pm. David Paul will report on his trip to Nicaragua & Venezuela as an election observerAnd that’s not all. Register here!

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Sign a petition for a #2WeekPause to keep teachers and students safe!

With the Omicron surge of COVID cases we’re seeing in the city, our teachers and students are facing a crisis. Hundreds of teachers, staff, and students have been absent because of COVID – it’s a learning environment that works for no one and is neglectful of everyone’s health and safety.

Meanwhile, SFUSD is refusing to meet with union leaders and bargain a new health and safety memorandum of understanding. At the same time, the district is failing to provide adequate PPE, failing to provide adequate testing, failing to provide adequate contact tracing – virtually nothing is being done.

Some of our comrades started a petition for a sickout last Thursday during the first round of negotiations and got almost a thousand signatures and almost 900 workers “out sick” that day.

Bottom line, we need a #2WeekPause for our corrupt, bloated school district to put some BASIC safety measures in place. Sign the petition linked here to support our teachers in demanding the absolute bare minimum from SFUSD!

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Organize a Healthcare Labor Circle with us!

Help us organize a healthcare labor circle! We are hoping to connect with members who work in healthcare in San Francisco. Our first step would be to organize an informal meet and greet among members to discuss where people work, what issues they face, and what a healthcare labor circle might look like. If you are interested in getting involved in this process please send an email to hansen.weaver@gmail.com.

Comrades,

Mayor London Breed recently announced a declaration of a state of emergency with proposals and claimed that they will “make Tenderloin a safer, healthier neighborhood”. Given her history of overpolicing and criminalizing the unhoused and poor, DSA SF strongly condemns her proposals and calls on the Board of Supervisors to reject ratification of the mayor’s declaration of a state of emergency in the Tenderloin at this Thursday’s special hearing. You can read the full statement here.

We’ll need to let the supervisors know where we stand. You’ll be able to call in to Thursday’s special hearing to leave public comment, and it’s possible we’ll be going against a number of people supporting the mayor’s actions. Call-in information is below, and an email template to send to supervisors and talking points for public comment will be shared on the DSA SF Slack this week. Please look out for those and more direct action alerts in the coming weeks and months.

*Update: Here’s the email template from No New SF Jail Coalition.

Thursday, December 23 at 2:00 p.m.

Watch on www.sfgovtv.org

PUBLIC COMMENT CALL-IN

Dial 1 (415) 655-0001 – when prompted, use Meeting ID: 2497 279 5481 # #

Also, DSA SF Comms Committee is going to take time off from the weekly newsletter until January 11, 2022. We hope you all take care of yourselves throughout the holidays!

Solidarity, DSA SF Comms Committee

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!

DSA SF strongly condemns Mayor London Breed’s latest winter police state occupation of the Tenderloin and supports the recent condemnations by Defund SFPD Now, Coalition on Homelessness, and many others. We call on the Board of Supervisors to reject ratification of the mayor’s declaration of a State of Emergency in the Tenderloin at this Thursday’s special hearing. The Tenderloin has been beset by the intersection of multiple crises: poverty, COVID, homelessness, opioids (particularly fentanyl), all of which have resulted in a tremendous amount of suffering, staggering loss of life, and a street situation that is inhumane and untenable for all residents of the Tenderloin, both housed and unhoused. This situation has been exacerbated by the policies of the Breed administration.

Mayor Breed’s newfound outrage regarding drug overdoses in the Tenderloin is nothing more than an opportunistic publicity stunt and a rebranding of failed “tough on crime” policies of yesteryear, which will have devastating consequences for the very people for whom she feigns concern. Mayor Breed’s plan includes diverting funds from other programs and increasing the SFPD’s budget to expand street sweeps to displace unhoused people, increase surveillance and arrests, and target street vendors that don’t have licenses.  

Mayor Breed claims that her proposals will “make the Tenderloin a safer, healthier neighborhood,” but this will not improve the health and safety of Tenderloin residents. This is about protecting the interests of the wealthy landlords and developers who reap profits from the ongoing income inequality and racial disparities in San Francisco. More recently, she has revealed her true motives by prioritizing protecting property at Union Square over those who have been harmed by the police and other entities.

The Breed administration refused to house people in shelter-in-place (SIP) hotels at the beginning of the pandemic. After pressure from the Board of Supervisors and the community, Mayor Breed begrudgingly implemented the federally funded SIP hotel program on a much smaller scale than was mandated by the Board of Supervisors and necessary for public health.  

Mayor Breed also fought furiously to close down the SIP hotels, which are the bare minimum to keep people safe during the pandemic instead of living on the streets. Her own city departments are sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in allocated (but unspent) homelessness response funds which has stalled the very programs the mayor claims will be part of her plan, including behavioral health services, Compassionate Alternative Response Team (CART), and more. 

The mayor and the press have cited “red tape” as a justification for needing a declaration of emergency. However, it is simply false to contend that red tape has prevented the mayor’s own departments from implementing any of the stalled programs she now claims to want to implement. Rather, the state of emergency is a political maneuver to give the mayor free rein to reallocate public money and to subvert the oversight of the Board – and therefore the people. This is a move to send more money to cops and to questionable nonprofit entities like Urban Alchemy.

Forcibly cleaning the streets and putting people into jail does not create safer streets or healthier people — it simply punishes people for circumstances that are the direct result of capitalist alienation and oppression. It’s an unjustifiable policy that is not only dehumanizing but also harmful to people on the streets and folks who use drugs that are not sanctioned by the capitalist class. These tired “War on Drugs” tactics also harm efforts to destigmatize drug use and, in turn, save lives. Thus, the recent public health emergency manifest in drug addiction cannot be solved by the police. The focus on using cops to enforce sit-lie, sleeping, and camping laws as the mayor has announced she intends to, is not only illegal but cruel and inhumane. The policies of this city keep people out of housing by enforcing laws that protect private property. The simple truth is the people Mayor Breed is targeting with anti-sleeping laws have no place to go. Of course, she doesn’t care where people go so long as they are out of sight.

If Mayor Breed actually cared about the health and safety of the Tenderloin, she could have spent the already allocated funds to invest in behavioral health and harm reduction services that can become lifelines for many. She could have invested in the Tenderloin rather than increase the SFPD budget. Instead, she’d much rather continue to criminalize and demonize the poor, the unhoused, and immigrants simply trying to survive in this city. We believe that the people in the Tenderloin deserve to be housed, have better economic opportunities, community-based programs including responding to mental health crises without the police, and other solutions that will move us towards harm reduction and addressing the root causes. We will invest our time, money, and energy into our own programs like Hotels Not Hospitals, brake light replacement clinics, and mutual aid actions to distribute PPE and supplies to unhoused people.

While the mayor has unsurprisingly blocked many proposals that would’ve provided safer environments and resources for those that are affected, we will continue to fight until the marginalized in this city are no longer hurt by these policies.

We urge Mayor Breed to use the power and funds already at her disposal to meet people’s needs rather than grandstanding and overpolicing at the expense of the most vulnerable folks in the Tenderloin. We further call on the Board of Supervisors to stand up to Mayor Breed and protect the people of the Tenderloin by rejecting this politically-motivated declaration of a state of emergency. This is not a time for silence or rubber stamping. Mayor Breed has laid out her detailed plan to criminalize the Tenderloin community. It’s time for you to step in.

Comrades,

To bring about a just world, the fight for socialism is just as vital here in San Francisco as it is anywhere else in the world. This past week, DSA SF took action against international and local injustices – last Friday, DSA folks organized and marched with various human rights organizations in honor of International Human Rights Day and to protest a U.S.-led Summit for Democracy that included Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, leaders of fascist regimes funded by the U.S. war machine.

After we shouted down continued U.S. hypocrisy on the world stage, we got together to make sure that our fellow comrades here in San Francisco remain housed. Dean Preston and DSA’s Electoral Board organized an Eviction-Free Zone gathering to inform tenants of their legal rights to fight back against landlords. Dean and various DSA leaders spoke about the importance of eviction protections in a historic housing crisis.

As we head into 2022, we’ll look to do more of the same together – strengthening our sense of community here in the Bay while building towards a world that puts people first. Build it with us!

Solidarity, DSA SF Comms Committee

Event Calendar

🌹 Sunday, 12/19 (12:00 p.m.): Haiti’s Crisis and the Popular Resistance panel discussion (Zoom)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Join us for a panel discussion about crisis and resistance in Haiti!

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!

Comrades, 

Last week, DSA-endorsed District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston’s housing appropriation PASSED with a veto-proof majority in the Board of Supervisors! This a huge victory for socialism and DSA SF, because it consolidates our victory at the polls last year with Prop I. While Mayor Breed tried to redirect the money via bureaucratic obfuscation, we stayed on message and gained unlikely allies due to the overwhelming majority of voters who supported Prop I. This is an object lesson in our struggle: it’s not enough to win at the polls, we need to keep constant pressure on the state to win. And last week, we won

Tomorrow night at 6:45 p.m., we will be having our first hybrid in-person meeting since the beginning of the pandemic. The in-person meeting will be held at 518 Valencia Street, but you will also be able to join the meeting using Zoom. We will be observing COVID safety protocols – masks will be required indoors and in-person attendees must be vaccinated. There will be opportunities before and after the meeting to socialize with comrades. Note that due to the nature of this hybrid meeting, there will not be food served, nor will there be childcare. There will also not be Wi-Fi available. Register here!

Solidarity, DSA SF Comms Committee

Announcements

March for International Human Rights Day with the International Solidarity Organizing Committee!

Join the International Solidarity Organizing Committee this Friday, December 10, at 5:00 p.m. to march for International Human Rights Day. Joe Biden will be hosting his virtual Summit for Democracy December 9-10 to “promote respect for human rights.” This action will start at the SF Federal Building (90 7th St), and we will march alongside Malaya Movement SF, San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (SFCHRP), Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), Haiti Action Committee, Black Alliance 4 Peace, and more towards Powell and Market St.   This is in response to Biden’s virtual summit, and grassroots organizations will highlight the actual human rights situation and hold Biden and the US government accountable for their contributions to human rights violations and support of fascism and dictatorship around the globe. We will put forward these demands to Biden and the US government to stop funding and arming dictatorships, stop militarizing our communities, uphold human rights at home and abroad, and respect people’s rights to self-determination. We hope to see you there! Click here for more info.

Join #30RightNow TODAY for a victory rally to celebrate affordable rent for our most vulnerable comrades!

For two and a half years, #30RightNow has been fighting to secure a 30% of income rent cap for folks living in permanent supportive housing sites, and it has been a fight every step of the way – securing approval from the Board of Supervisors, ensuring Mayor Breed funded the cap this year, and finally ensuring that both the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) and the Department of Public Health (DPH) do their parts to implement the cap in the sites they operate. We were set to take that fight straight to the doorstep of the holdouts at DPH today to demand that they implement the cap NOW – and now we’ll be celebrating, instead. DPH has agreed to implement the 30% standard across all their supportive housing sites, and that means today’s protest is now a victory rally. It’ll be in front of DPH offices at the corner of Polk Street and Grove Street today at 12:45 p.m. There will be special guests, celebration, and talk of what comes next – because there’s so much left to fight for.

Reading Groups

Ecosocialist Book Club: Jason Henderson’s Street Fight: The Politics of Mobility in San Francisco

Join the Ecosocialist Book Club  tonight at 6:00 p.m. for our final session reading of Street Fight: The Politics of Mobility in San Francisco. We’ll be joined by a very special guest – author Jason Henderson! Open to all, DSA members and DSA curious alike. Register here!

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!

Comrades, 

News about the emergent omicron variant of COVID-19 puts a clear truth into focus – there is no post-COVID era. We are still living through a pandemic, our lives are still being disrupted, and our friends, family, neighbors, and comrades are still being endangered as much by the viciousness and indifference of our government as we are still facing the impacts of the pandemic. 

That’s why it’s so urgent we show up to make San Francisco’s District 5 an eviction-free zone. District 5 supervisor and DSA comrade Dean Preston has declared his district an eviction-free zone, and folks need to know about it! First, you can help phone bank every Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. from tomorrow to December 22 to call tenants living in District 5 and tell them about their rights and how to apply for rent relief. You can register to help out here!

We’ll also be hosting an Eviction-Free BBQ on Saturday, December 11 at 1:00 p.m. in the Panhandle (corner of Baker and Fell). Come out to connect with your neighbors, build community, and learn more about eviction protections and rent relief. You can help make it a success by joining our lit drop at the same location (corner of Baker and Fell) on Sunday, December 5 at 12:00 p.m. to give folks in District 5 fliers about the BBQ and how they can protect themselves against their landlords. Check out the District 5 Eviction-Free Zone website for more information! Together, we can build community and build strength, and show ourselves the care and compassion the market by its nature can never provide. 

Solidarity,

DSA SF Comms Committee

Event Calendar

🌹 Wednesday, 12/1 (5:00 p.m.): District 5 Eviction-Free Zone Phonebank with Daybreak (online)

🌹 Wednesday, 12/1 (6:30 p.m.): Intro to DSA (Zoom)

🌹 Sunday, 12/5 (12:00 p.m.): District 5 Eviction-Free Zone BBQ Lit Drop (in-person at the Panhandle, corner of Baker and Fell)

🌹 Tuesday, 12/7 (6:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Book Club: Jason Henderson’s Street Fight: The Politics of Mobility in San Francisco (online and in-person at location TBD)

🌹 Wednesday, 12/8 (6:45 p.m.): December DSA SF Chapter Meeting (online and in-person at location TBD)

🌹 Saturday, 12/11 (1:00 p.m.): District 5 Eviction-Free Zone BBQ (in-person at the Panhandle, corner of Baker and Fell)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Intro to DSA

Joining DSA can feel a little overwhelming! If you want to get to know what DSA is doing (and why!), come to Intro to DSA tomorrow, December 1 at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom. Those new and old to DSA, or those considering joining, are all invited to attend! We’ll talk socialism and introduce you to some of the work being done by the chapter’s priority campaigns, committees, and working groups. Register here!

Our December Chapter Meeting Will Take Place Both In-Person and Online!

We are planning to have our first hybrid chapter meeting next month! Our December chapter meeting will be on Wednesday, December 8 starting at 6:45 p.m. on Zoom and in person at a location to be determined – we’ll have updates soon! To register and express interest in attending in person or on Zoom, please use the link here – and we look forward to meeting more of the chapter in person on December 8!

Reading Groups

Ecosocialist Book Club: Jason Henderson’s Street Fight: The Politics of Mobility in San Francisco

Join the Ecosocialist Book Club on Tuesday, December 7 at 6:00 p.m. for our final session reading of Street Fight: The Politics of Mobility in San Francisco. We’ll be joined by a very special guest – author Jason Henderson! Open to all, DSA members and DSA curious alike. Register here!

Comrades, 

While many of us are going to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families and loved ones, we must also recognize that we occupy the ancestral lands of the Muwekma Ohlone people, and it’s important to learn from Indigenous leaders about their untold history. And, with the turmoil that took place last week, one thing we’re thankful for is the solidarity we’ve seen amongst each other in this chapter through these difficult times. 

We hope you all have an opportunity to take it easy this week. 

Solidarity,

DSA SF Comms Committee

Events Calendar

🌹 Tuesday, 11/23 (6:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Book Club, (online)

🌹 Thursday, 11/25 (3:00 p.m.): Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Webinar, (online)

🌹 Monday, 11/29 (6:00 p.m.): DSA Electoral Board discussion and Q&A, (online)

🌹 Wednesday, 12/1 (5:00 p.m.): District 5 Eviction-Free Zone Phonebank with Daybreak (online)

🌹 Sunday, 12/5 (12:00 p.m.): District 5 Eviction-Free Zone BBQ Lit Drop (in-person at the Panhandle, corner of Baker and Fell)

🌹 Wednesday, 12/8 (6:45 p.m.): December DSA SF Chapter Meeting (online and in-person at location TBD)

🌹 Saturday, 12/11 (1:00 p.m.): District 5 Eviction-Free Zone BBQ (in-person at the Panhandle, corner of Baker and Fell)

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Webinar

Join us online on Thursday, November 25 at 3:00 p.m. PDT to learn firsthand from Indigenous leaders about human rights and ecological stewardship. 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. Please register for the webinar here.

Find Out About Upcoming Ballot Measures!

Want to learn more about upcoming DSA ballot measures? Join the DSA Electoral Board on Monday, November 29, at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom for a discussion and Q&A. We highly encourage all members in good standing to attend so we can fill everyone in on the process and answer any questions. Zoom link here – hopefully we’ll see you then!

Support the District 5 Eviction-Free Zone!

District 5 supervisor Dean Preston has declared his district an eviction-free zone, and a big part of making that a reality is getting out and telling our neighbors about their rights! Daybreak will be hosting weekly phonebanks every Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. from December 1 to December 22 to call tenants living in District 5 and tell them about their rights and how to apply for rent relief. You can register to help out here!

Then, on Saturday, December 11 at 1:00 p.m. in the Panhandle (corner of Baker and Fell), DSA SF will be hosting an Eviction-Free BBQ where we can meet our neighbors and help each other learn more about eviction protections and rent relief. We’ll have lawyers on hand to offer legal advice, as well. And, of course, lots of food and drink!

To make that BBQ successful, we need to let the neighborhood know about it! We’ll be meeting at the same location (corner of Baker and Fell) on Sunday, December 5 at 12:00 p.m. to lit drop fliers about the BBQ and how folks can learn more about eviction protections. Check out the District 5 Eviction-Free Zone website for more information!

Our December chapter meeting will take place both in-person and online!

We are planning to have our first hybrid chapter meeting next month! Our December chapter meeting will be on Wednesday, December 8 starting at 6:45 p.m. on Zoom and in person at a location to be determined – we’ll have updates soon! To register and express interest in attending in person or on Zoom, please use the link here – and we look forward to meeting more of the chapter in person on December 8!

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. Street Fight discusses the intersection of transit, public policy, and social justice in San Francisco, and lays out a great framework for thinking about what a just transportation system in San Francisco looks like. Open to all DSA members and DSA-curious! The second of three sessions will be tonight at 6:00 p.m. – register now!

ICYMI

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!