Dear Comrades,

Within less than a year after the murder of George Floyd, countless others, including Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Adam Toledo in Chicago, and Roger Allen in Daly City, were recently killed by police. These tragedies occurred during Derek Chauvin’s trial. Daunte Wright was killed just 11 miles away from where Floyd was murdered. Roger Allen was killed in Daly City, here in our own backyard. This cycle of violence is never-ending, and communities can rarely grieve the loss of one member before another gets shot by police.

No matter how the media portrays them, it is evident that this system has never “failed” — rather, it upholds white supremacy, systemic racism, and capitalism by design. 

That is why the system can never be reformed. 

There is no legal reform or policy change that will prevent police violence from happening if it doesn’t call for demilitarizing, defunding, and dismantling this very system that protects their interests over Black people and the working class. For example, the George Floyd Act, which was introduced on the House floor last summer, was supposed to ban racial profiling, overhaul qualified immunity, and ban using chokeholds. But what also happened was it gave more funding to various police departments, leading to more killings at the hands of police. 

Public safety cannot be delivered to the people through a system that, at its core, is designed to keep the status quo. Protestors have been demanding to defund the police and refund our communities because we know what keeps us safe: safe and accessible housing, worker protections, food, community infrastructure, and meaningful paths for self-determination as we work to dismantle the entire system of capitalism—not the police. We are committed to abolition, and we will continue to demand justice for all victims of police murder in San Francisco and across the country. As the Derek Chauvin trial reaches a verdict this week, the work must continue toward liberation for all.

In Solidarity,
Your DSA SF Steering Committee

Upcoming Events

Reminder: Trivia Night

The Chapter Coordinating Committee’s Community Team is hosting another trivia night tonight, April 20 at 6:00 p.m.! Hop on the DSA SF Discord server to play!

If you’re a member of DSA SF and not on Discord yet, email discord@dsasf.org to be added!

Today! Stop Budget Cuts to CCSF: Join SF Grey Panthers Meeting to Fight Back

Once again, CCSF is under attack. As former CCSF Chair of Labor & Community Studies Bill Shield explains, “for many years, the neoliberal, corporate agenda has included a fierce attack on public education at all levels… More recently, the school wreckers turned their guns on public higher education, including community colleges.” CCSF students, faculty, staff, their unions, and the community are fighting back to preserve CCSF as a community college. Find out what we can do to save it by joining here this afternoon, April 20th,from1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Tomorrow! Public Comment: Demand Permanent Housing, not Safe Sleeping Sites

District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s A Place for All legislation would require the City to provide each unhoused person a tent in a safe sleeping site. Tents are NOT permanent housing, and every dollar that goes toward these extremely expensive safe sleeping sites is a dollar spent on something that fails to get our unhoused neighbors into safe and stable housing. The SF Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee is meeting tomorrow, April 21, at 9:00 a.m. and A Place for All is on the agenda.

We need folks to call in and tell the committee that the City needs to put these hundreds of millions of dollars hard-won through the passage of Prop C in 2018 towards permanent supportive housing, not tents and further criminalization of homelessness. Our unhoused neighbors deserve pathways to stable housing, not another one of the City’s money-slick labyrinths designed to “solve” them by keeping them out of the sight of the housed. Dial-in info and instructions below – feel free to email homelessness@dsasf.org if you have any questions!

Instructions: 

• Dial (415) 655-0001. Enter the Access Code (187 355 1611) then press ‘#’.
• Press # again to join the meeting as a participant. You will hear a beep when you have entered the meeting.
• When you hear the beep: stop and listen. Wait for Public Comment for the A Place for All item to be announced.
• When the Clerk calls Public Comment, dial * 3 to be added to the speaker line. You will hear ‘You have raised your hand to ask a question. Please wait to speak until the host calls on you.’ Wait for your turn to speak.
• When you hear ‘Your line has been unmuted,’ this is your opportunity to make your public comment after the beep. Tell the Committee that these hundreds of millions of dollars cannot be spent on a system that would hustle our unhoused neighbors from site to site and that they need to take this historic opportunity to use money from Prop C on stable housing for all!

This Thursday! People’s Earth Day Rally

Join the Ecosocialist Committee and other environmental advocates this Thursday, April 22, at 12:00 p.m. at City Hall and demand Mayor Breed and the Board of Supervisors to:

• Declare a MORATORIUM on Lennar’s Shipyard development and unsafe soil excavation!
• Declare a PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY!
• Conduct full retesting, safe cleanup & removal of all radioactive and toxic waste at the Shipyard Superfund Site and Treasure Island!

Learn more here.

NEW! PRO Act: Phonebank & Save the Date for Bay Area Town Hall

DSA’s highest national priority is to pass the PRO Act (Protect the Right to Organize), which would strengthen unions, the power of the working class to organize on the job, and our collective capacity to win a just transition to a green economy for all. After successfully pressuring one of our target senators to co-sponsor the bill, we need all hands on deck to make calls targeting the other four holdouts. This month, DSA called 500k voters to rally support! ??Sign up for Phone-Banking shifts, Text-Banking shifts, and donate what you can to keep the campaign going strong.

Also, SAVE THE DATE: DSA SF, East Bay DSA, and other chapters will hold a Bay Area PRO Act Townhall, with exciting guests to be announced, on Tuesday, April 27 at 6:00 p.m.! Workers & the World Unite!

For more events, click here.

Impunity of an Empire: The Cost of Plunder in the Philippines

 Join us on Friday, April 30 at 5:30 p.m. to hear from Filipino Solidarity Activists about: 

• The historical relationship between the United States and the Philippines and the dire consequences of its colonial dynamics
• The current situation in the Philippines under the Duterte dictatorship
• The popular struggle for democracy and against imperialism and the current demands of the Filipino people
• How people in this country can support that struggle and oppose the neo-colonial domination of the US and the US militarization of East and Southeast Asia

The event will be co-hosted by the IRIS Committee and will include speakers from the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines and the Malaya Movement. Learn more.

NEW! Film Screening of We Mean to Make Things Over: A History 

East Bay DSA and DSA SF’s Labor Committees are co-sponsoring a virtual screening of We Mean to Make Things Over: A History of May Day, a half-hour documentary video in progress, on Thursday, April 29 at 7:00 p.m. The screening will feature the filmmaker, EB DSA Member Fred Glass, and DSA DSLC Commissioner Daniel Dominguez. They will be discussing the film, as well as the Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, and will hold a brief Q&A afterwards. Register here and check out the Facebook event.

NEW! Intro to Socialist Feminism

How do we reconcile the socialist movement with the insights of liberal feminism? Join us Thursday, April 29 at 6:30 p.m. for a lecture exploring capitalist patriarchy, misogyny, intersectionality, and social reproduction theory. There will be time set aside for questions and discussion at the end. Sign up here.

Announcements

This Week on SFIJ

Hi there, comrades!

We think the following pieces of news from the San Francisco Independent Journal (SFIJ) may be of interest to you:

?First, hundreds of peaceful protestors gathered for a vigil and march last Thursday, organized by Defund SFPD Now, on the steps of Mission High School for Roger Allen, Adam Toledo, and Daunte Wright, all of whom were murdered by police.

?Second, we recently had the pleasure to talk with long-time socialist and DSA member Tom Gallagher, who has been involved in local progressive politics and continues to advocate for issues such as foreign policy.

?Finally, the San Francisco Board of supervisors voted to support Assembly Bill 20 (AB20), which would add California to the list of states that bar business entities from directly contributing to political campaigns.

If you have committee work or another story you want to be publicized by a friendly outlet, please submit tips to writing@dsasf.org.

Welcome DSA SF’s Newest Comrade

If you are active in the Ecosocialism Committee, then you know Tyler B, Eco’s mobilizer. Tyler has recently helped bring a new member to the chapter, so let’s all welcome Julian Aaron! Let’s make a better world for Julian.

We Need You to Build Socialism!

We need your help with the following:

• Help Produce the Newsletter!
  • Every week we put out the very newsletter you are reading, and we need organizers to help write, edit and produce it. Contact comms@dsasf.org or #ccc-comms on Slack to help out.
• Help Manage Our Social Media! 
  • You already live on Instagram and Twitter, so why not help build socialism instead of just providing data to targeted advertising algorithms? Contact comms@dsasf.org or #ccc-comms on Slack to help out.
• Help Organize Our Monthly Meetings and Other Fun Events! 
  • If you have experience or interest in organizing events, our Community team could use your help. Social events, educational events, and of course our monthly meetings; none of them happen without organizers. Fill out this form, email community@dsasf.org, or #ccc-community on Slack to join the fun.
• Help Our Tech Team! 
  • Want to be a part of a team that is actually making a difference in the world, not just talking about it on LinkedIn? Help build the infrastructure that DSA SF uses to build socialism. Contact tech-support@dsasf.org or #ccc-tech on Slack to pitch in.

DSA SF Membership Drive

Please consider becoming a member of National DSA, or making sure your membership is current, so you can stay up to date with what the National Organization is doing and participate in the member forums. Becoming a member also counts towards DSA SF’s delegate count for the August National Convention! As always, no one is turned away for lack of funds, all you need to do is fill out the dues sponsorship form. If you have any other questions or hurdles on membership, feel free to email steering@dsasf.org and we’ll figure something out together.

Reading Groups

The Antonio Gramsci Reader

The 21st Century Socialism Reading Group takes a dip back into the 20th. There will be four sessions every other Tuesday, continuing with our second session on April 27th from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Register here!

Comrades,

In the past few weeks, the chapter has been busy! We welcomed in new socialists during another Intro to DSA meeting, and our Labor Organizing Committee organized with Dandelion Chocolate workers, the ILWU, and the broader labor movement following a rally on March 31. We heard updates from Supervisor Dean Preston’s office. Lots more coming soon, too — there will be two healthcare panel discussions this Thursday and next Sunday, and a new panel discussion on the historical relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines on April 30. Read on for more information and ways you can get involved.

In solidarity,
Your DSA SF Communications Team

Upcoming Events

New! Trivia Night

The Chapter Coordinating Committee’s Community Team is hosting another trivia night on Tuesday, April 20 at 6:00 p.m.! Hop on the DSA SF Discord server to play!

If you’re a member of DSA SF and not on Discord yet, email discord@dsasf.org to be added!

New! Impunity of an Empire: The Cost of Plunder in the Philippines

 Join us on Friday, April 30 at 5:30 p.m. to learn about the historical relationship between the United States and the Philippines. We will explore the dire consequences of its colonial dynamics and how we as individuals in the U.S. need to take an active role in foreign policy, grassroots organizing, and alliance building. The Filipino people need us to resist and challenge the imperial hold the US has on the Philippines! The San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (SFCHRP) and Malaya Movement San Francisco, in collaboration with DSA SF, will provide an in-depth presentation diving into these themes as well as a space for attendees to participate in a thorough discussion. More details to come.

Healthcare and Labor Panel

Join us for our Healthcare and Labor Panel this Thursday, April 15 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.! This will be a panel discussion on raising class consciousness, fostering union militancy, and fighting for Medicare-for-All featuring:

• Eunice Balancio, RN, MSN, NNU/CNA
• Jamie Dawson, OFNHP/AFT Local 5017
• Greg Gabrellas, Secretary-Treasurer of CIR-SEIU
• John Pearson, ER Nurse, President of the AHS Chapter of SEIU 1021

We will discuss questions such as: how do we foster class-consciousness among our coworkers? How do we become effective workplace leaders, and how can we use our relationships to foster a militant union? How do we organize into a union where we have none, and how do we reform our unions if the leadership does not represent the rank-and-file’s interests? You can register for the Zoom meeting here!

The Future of Medicare for All: What Way Forward?

Two-thirds of American voters support Medicare for All. What are the obstacles to passing it, and how do we overcome them? Join us on Sunday, April 18 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. for a panel discussion on the way forward for Medicare for All. Speakers include Dr. Susan Rogers, president of Physicians for a National Health Program; Stephanie Nakajima, Director of Communications for Healthcare-NOW; Michael Lighty, national spokesperson for DSA’s Medicare for All campaign; and Shamus Cooke, a public union worker and member of Portland DSA, and will touch on maternal and infant mortality, life expectancy inequities, the need for mass action, and how we can bring about a multi-racial mass movement. Don’t miss it! Register here!

Join Homelessness Working Group’s Strategy Meeting!

Join the Homelessness Working Group on Monday, April 26 at 6:30 p.m. to talk about strategy and how we should best navigate the current state of the pandemic and beyond to best support our unhoused neighbors. We’ll talk about the state of our current projects and how we can better engage our unhoused neighbors and involve them in the direction of the working group. No need to register – just join us on April 26 on Zoom here.

PRO Act: Phonebank & Save the Date for Bay Area Town Hall

DSA’s highest national priority is to pass the PRO Act (Protect the Right to Organize), which would strengthen unions, the power of the working class to organize on the job, and our collective capacity to win a just transition to a green economy for all. This month, DSA called 500k voters to rally support! ?? MORE phonebanks this week here.

Also, SAVE THE DATE: DSA SF, East Bay DSA, and other chapters will hold a Bay Area PRO Act Townhall, with exciting guests to be announced, on Tuesday, April 27 at 6:00 p.m.! Workers & the World Unite!

For more events, click here.

Announcements

Dean Preston Weekly Office Update

In this issue:

• Passed the AB 20 Resolution
• Hosted a D5 Budget Town Hall
• Defended Plaza East Tenants

Have an idea or want to schedule a meeting with your caucus or committee with Dean’s office? Write either PrestonStaff@sfgov.org or lexvonklark@gmail.com with details, mention you’re with DSA, and we’ll schedule a day!

We Need You to Build Socialism!

We need your help with the following:

• Help Produce the Newsletter!
  • Every week we put out the very newsletter you are reading, and we need organizers to help write, edit and produce it. Contact comms@dsasf.org or #ccc-comms on Slack to help out.
• Help Manage Our Social Media! 
  • You already live on Instagram and Twitter, so why not help build socialism instead of just providing data to targeted advertising algorithms? Contact comms@dsasf.org or #ccc-comms on Slack to help out.
• Help Organize Our Monthly Meetings and Other Fun Events! 
  • If you have experience or interest in organizing events, our Community team could use your help. Social events, educational events, and of course our monthly meetings; none of them happen without organizers. Fill out this form, email community@dsasf.org, or #ccc-community on Slack to join the fun.
• Help Our Tech Team! 
  • Want to be a part of a team that is actually making a difference in the world, not just talking about it on LinkedIn? Help build the infrastructure that DSA SF uses to build socialism. Contact tech-support@dsasf.org or #ccc-tech on Slack to pitch in.

DSA SF Membership Drive

Please consider becoming a member of National DSA, or making sure your membership is current, so you can stay up to date with what the National Organization is doing and participate in the member forums. Becoming a member also counts towards DSA SF’s delegate count for the August National Convention! As always, no one is turned away for lack of funds, all you need to do is fill out the dues sponsorship form. If you have any other questions or hurdles on membership, feel free to email steering@dsasf.org and we’ll figure something out together.

Reading Groups

The Antonio Gramsci Reader

The 21st Century Socialism Reading Group takes a dip back into the 20th. There will be four sessions every other Tuesday, starting today, April 13 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.Register here!

Interested in joining DSA or just curious about socialism? Join us for our upcoming Intro to DSA event on Wednesday, April 7, at 6:30 p.m. and hear what we’re doing to build the socialist movement in San Francisco. Register here! There’s no time like the present when it comes to fighting for our future and building working-class power. Bring your questions and a friend!

Upcoming Events

Join Homelessness Working Group’s Strategy Meeting!

 Join the Homelessness Working Group on Monday, April 26 at 6:30 p.m. to talk about strategy and how we should best navigate the current state of the pandemic and beyond to best support our unhoused neighbors. We’ll talk about the state of our current projects and how we can better engage our unhoused neighbors and involve them in the direction of the working group. No need to register – just join us on April 26 on Zoom here.

PRO Act: Phonebank & Save the Date for Bay Area Town Hall

DSA’s highest national priority is to pass the PRO Act (Protect the Right to Organize), which would strengthen unions, the power of the working class to organize on the job, and our collective capacity to win a just transition to a green economy for all. This month, DSA called 500k voters to rally support! ?? MORE phonebanks this week here.

Also, SAVE THE DATE: DSA SF, East Bay DSA, and other chapters will hold a Bay Area PRO Act Townhall, with exciting guests to be announced, on Tuesday, April 27 at 6:00 p.m.! Workers & the World Unite!

Take Action This Week to Defend City College!

City College is facing deep staffing cuts for next year. Layoffs are planned to go into effect on May 15. These cuts endanger the college’s state funding by sharply reducing enrollment, and also threaten the survival of many programs and departments at the college. A broad coalition is fighting to rebuild CCSF rather than let the downsizing continue!

Things you can do:

Please sign this petition for a Vote of No Confidence in CCSF administration, attend the CCSF student-led rallythis Sunday, April 11 at 1:00 p.m., and visit the Rebuild CCSF website for more actions and resources here.

City College is a vital institution that serves the working class of San Francisco, and we need to speak up for it!  

Healthcare and Labor Panel

Join us for our Healthcare and Labor Panel on Thursday, April 15 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.! This will be a panel discussion on raising class consciousness, fostering union militancy, and fighting for Medicare-for-All featuring:

• Eunice Balancio, RN, MSN, NNU/CNA
• Jamie Dawson, OFNHP/AFT Local 5017
• Greg Gabrellas, Secretary-Treasurer of CIR-SEIU
• John Pearson, ER Nurse, President of the AHS Chapter of SEIU 1021

We will discuss questions such as: how do we foster class-consciousness among our coworkers? How do we become effective workplace leaders, and how can we use our relationships to foster a militant union? How do we organize into a union where we have none, and how do we reform our unions if the leadership does not represent the rank-and-file’s interests? You can register for the Zoom meeting here!

The Future of Medicare for All: What Way Forward?

Join us on Sunday, April 18 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. for a panel discussion on the future of Medicare for All and a single-payer health care system that ensures care for all, regardless of wealth or employment status. The panel will include Dr. Susan Rogers, President, of Physicians for a National Health Program; Stephanie Nakajima, Director of Communications for Healthcare-NOW; Shamus Cooke, public sector worker, union activist, and member of Portland DSA; and Michael Lighty, National spokesperson for the DSA Medicare for All Campaign, and will touch on maternal and infant mortality, life expectancy inequities, the need for mass action, and how we can bring about a multi-racial mass movement. Don’t miss it! Register here!

Announcements

This Week on San Francisco Independent Journal

This week, SFIJ has three new articles – Dandelion workers and supporters rallied last Wednesday at Dolores Park after announcing their intent to unionize, a group of 35 or so participants organized a car caravan on March 29 to demand the end to the 61-year US embargo of Cuba and the embargo Trump initiated towards Venezuela, and an under-the-radar regulatory body has the ability to greatly improve air quality. Will it do so under pressure from fossil fuel companies? Give them a read!

If you have committee work or another story you want to be publicized by a friendly outlet, please submit tips to writing@dsasf.org.

We Need You to Build Socialism!

We need your help for the following:

• Help Produce the Newsletter!
  • Every week we put out the very newsletter you are reading, and we need organizers to help write, edit and produce it. Contact comms@dsasf.org or #ccc-comms on Slack to help out.
• Help Manage Our Social Media! 
  • You already live on Instagram and Twitter, so why not help build socialism instead of just providing data to targeted advertising algorithms? Contact comms@dsasf.org or #ccc-comms on Slack to help out.
• Help Organize Our Monthly Meetings and Other Fun Events! 
  • If you have experience or interest in organizing events, our Community team could use your help. Social events, educational events, and of course our monthly meetings; none of them happen without organizers. Fill out this form, email community@dsasf.org, or #ccc-community on Slack to join the fun.
• Help Our Tech Team! 
  • Want to be a part of a team that is actually making a difference in the world, not just talking about it on LinkedIn? Help build the infrastructure that DSA SF uses to build socialism. Contact tech-support@dsasf.org or #ccc-tech on Slack to pitch in.

DSA SF Membership Drive

Please consider becoming a member of National DSA, or making sure your membership is current, so you can stay up to date with what the National Organization is doing and participate in the member forums. Becoming a member also counts towards DSA SF’s delegate count for the August National Convention! As always, no one is turned away for lack of funds, all you need to do is fill out the dues sponsorship form. If you have any other questions or hurdles on membership, feel free to email steering@dsasf.org and we’ll figure something out together.

Dear Comrades,

Your Steering Committee would like to wish a very happy Passover to all! Passover is a holiday commemorating the Jewish people’s escape from slavery in Egypt by recounting the struggle against oppression, rejoicing in the joy of freedom, and celebrating the rebirth of spring happening around us. That celebration also comes with reflection and responsibility; our joy is tempered by the bitterness and pain of our brethren suffering in bondage, and our festivities are commingled with call to action: that none of us are truly free until all of us are free. This year, the themes and lessons of Passover could not be more relevant.

As we observe the second Passover under quarantine, the first a year ago as the COVID-19 plague was first taking hold and this year with hope finally visible on the horizon, we reflect on how COVID-19 became a plague – because of the hardened hearts of our modern-day pharaohs. Instead of providing mortgage freezes, income replacement, free healthcare for all, and freedom for those held in prisons and camps, half a million lives were sacrificed on the altar of capital. It is also a powerful reminder of the importance of building working class solidarity and power: those who benefit from the exploitation of the masses will not cede power if we do not come together to fight for it.

As we remember that Anne Frank died not in a gas chamber, but of an infectious disease caught in a concentration camp, we must act to free people like Malik Washington, who is being punished for reporting a COVID-19 outbreak in his halfway house.

Like the Jews escaping bondage in Egypt to spend 40 years in the desert, we are all striving to reach a better world that we may not live to see, but that we know is out there to be found together.

As many of us teach our children the story of our ancestors, let us adapt the traditional Four Children into a Marxist approach, and also teach them how to pursue justice in our time.

WHAT DOES THE REVOLUTIONARY CHILD ASK? “The Torah tells me, ‘Justice, justice you shall pursue,’ but how can I pursue justice?” Empower him always to seek pathways to advocate for the vulnerable. As Proverbs teaches, “Speak up for the mute, for the rights of the unfortunate. Speak up, judge righteously, champion the poor and the needy.” Give him readings, invite him to protests and public speeches, and encourage him to learn and to build the revolutionary organization.

WHAT DOES THE SKEPTICAL CHILD ASK? “How can I solve problems of such enormity?” Encourage her by explaining that she need not solve the problems, she must only do what she is capable of doing. As we read in Pirke Avot, “It is not your responsibility to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” Show her the long history of class struggle, the consistency of the working class rising up against the capitalist class and the few examples of success. Let her read about the Russian revolution and see the most backwards capitalist country in its time turn into the most progressive in just a few weeks of socialism. These examples are our guide.

WHAT DOES THE INDIFFERENT CHILD SAY? “It’s not my responsibility.” Persuade him that responsibility cannot be shirked. As Abraham Joshua Heschel writes, “The opposite of good is not evil, the opposite of good is indifference. In a free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” Show how capitalism is destroying the earth so that none of us can live on it. Show how crisis affects people of all classes, not just the most oppressed. Finally, show how the failure to build leadership leads to confusion at best, and bloody reaction at worst.

AND THE UNINFORMED CHILD WHO DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO ASK… Prompt her to see herself as an inheritor of our people’s legacy. As it says in Deuteronomy, “You must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Tell her about the infinite possibilities of socialism, the promises of the transitional program, and the joyous future we can build under socialism.

May next year bring a world where we are all free, and able to celebrate our freedom safely with our loved ones.

L’ Tikkun Olam – to the improvement of the world!

In Solidarity,
Your DSA SF Steering Committee

Upcoming Events

Stand with Dandelion Chocolate Workers Organizing with ILWU!

DSA SF’s Labor Organizing Committee have been working with Dandelion Chocolate Workers to organize with ILWU! Join us on Cesar Chavez Day, this Wednesday, March 31 at 6:00 p.m. in Dolores Park, to show that SF stands with the workers in their fight for safety, living wages, and a seat at the table! More information can be found here.

Intro to Socialist Feminism

How do we reconcile the socialist movement with the insights of liberal feminism? Join us Wednesday, March 31st at 6:30 p.m. for a lecture exploring capitalist patriarchy, misogyny, intersectionality, and social reproduction theory. There will be time set aside for questions and discussion at the end. Sign up here.

Healthcare and Labor Panel

Join us for our Healthcare and Labor Panel on Thursday, April 15 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.! This will be a panel discussion on raising class consciousness, fostering union militancy, and fighting for Medicare-for-All featuring:

Eunice Balancio, RN, MSN, NNU/CNA
Jamie Dawson, OFNHP/AFT Local 5017
Greg Gabrellas, Secretary-Treasurer of CIR-SEIU
John Pearson, ER Nurse, President of the AHS Chapter of SEIU 1021

We will discuss questions such as: how do we foster class-consciousness among our coworkers? How do we become effective workplace leaders, and how can we use our relationships to foster a militant union? How do we organize into a union where we have none, and how do we reform our unions if the leadership does not represent the rank-and-file’s interests? You can register for the Zoom meeting here!

The Future of Medicare for All: What Way Forward?

Join us on Sunday, April 18 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. for a panel discussion on the future of Medicare for All and a single-payer health care system that ensures care for all, regardless of wealth or employment status. The panel will include Dr. Susan Rogers, President, of Physicians for a National Health Program; Stephanie Nakajima, Director of Communications for Healthcare-NOW; Shamus Cooke, public sector worker, union activist and member of Portland DSA; and Michael Lighty, National spokesperson for the DSA Medicare for All Campaign, and will touch on maternal and infant mortality, life expectancy inequities, the need for mass action, and how we can bring about a multi-racial mass movement. Don’t miss it – Zoom link to register for the panel is here!

Announcement

DSA SF Membership Drive!

Please consider becoming a member of National DSA, or making sure your membership is current, so you can stay up to date with what the National Organization is doing and participate in the member forums. Becoming a member also counts towards DSA SF’s delegate count for the August National Convention! As always, no one is turned away from lack of funds, all you need to do is fill out the dues sponsorship form. If you have any other questions or hurdles on membership, feel free to email steering@dsasf.org and we’ll figure something out together.

New on the San Francisco Independent Journal

This week, SFIJ has two new articles – an interview with DSA SF member and District 5 supervisor Dean Preston and a look at the battle over reopening public schools in San Francisco, despite the considerable risks posed to teachers and students alike. Give them a read!

If you have committee work or another story you want to be publicized by a friendly outlet, please submit tips to writing@dsasf.org.

Reading Groups

21st Century Socialism Reading Group

Come join your comrades tonight at 6:30 p.m. for a discussion on The Old Is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born: From Progressive Neoliberalism to Trump and Beyond by Nancy Fraser! Register here.

Future Economies Reading Group: Commons-Based Peer Production

If, as Marx says, “slavery cannot be abolished without the steam-engine,” what forms of domination can be ended with the advent of global communication networks? This month the Future Economies Reading Group will study new modes of production enabled by new technologies. Join us tonight from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

We will investigate a positive vision of a future centered around the redevelopment of the commons—imagine Wikipedia but for all of production. We’ll also read an introduction to McKenzie Wark’s theory of the Vectoralist Class, a new subset of the ruling class which draws its power from controlling overflows of information. Find the short readings and Zoom details here.

Phonebank for the PRO Act: Wednesday & All Week!

DSA’s highest national priority is to pass the PRO Act (Protect the Right to Organize), which would strengthen unions, the power of the working class to organize on the job, and our collective capacity to win a just transition to a green economy for all. The priority for this week is to phonebank to rally support in key swing states. Register for the next one alongside DSA SF comrades on Wednesday, March 24 between 5 to 8 p.m. and other phonebank sessions here. Workers & the World Unite! 

Upcoming Events

Help Vulnerable Seniors Get Vaccinated

As the city stumbles to vaccinate essential workers and vulnerable populations, our chapter, in conjunction with our comrade/District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, is stepping in to make sure vulnerable seniors in D5 don’t fall through the cracks. Many seniors are struggling to navigate the city and state’s appointment system and we are stepping in to provide desperately needed mutual aid. Join comrades TONIGHT, Tuesday, March 23 from 6 to 8 p.m. to call seniors and help them make appointments for their vaccinations. Click here to join the Zoom. You can contact our comrade Ian James at ianhenryjames@gmail.com for more information.

Remembering Six Years of War on Yemen

Join the Yemeni Alliance Committee, DSA SF, and other antiwar & solidarity groups for a webinar taking stock of the war on Yemen on Friday, March 26, at 4 p.m. This March marks six years since a U.S.-backed Saudi coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war. To understand this conflict, a range of speakers—activists, researchers, and elected officials— will be discussing the roots of this ongoing war, the impact on the Yemeni people, and how folks can join and build an effective anti-war movement.

Speakers:

• Dr Shireen Al-Adeimi
• Dr Aisha Jumaan
• Madea Benjamin
• Hassan El-Tayyab
• Mohamed Alwazir, and more! 

Register here!

Intro to Socialist Feminism

How do we reconcile the socialist movement with the insights of liberal feminism? Join us Wednesday, March 31st at 6:30 p.m. for a lecture exploring capitalist patriarchy, misogyny, intersectionality, and social reproduction theory. There will be time set aside for questions and discussion at the end. Sign up here.

Announcements

This Week on SFIJ

Hi there, DSA SF!

We think the following pieces of news from the San Francisco Independent Journal (SFIJ) may be of interest to you: 

    ?First, Salesforce has announced that it will allow its workers to work remotely indefinitely — what does this mean for San Francisco’s working class?

    ?Second, despite California’s commitments to reversing climate collapse, Governor Newsom continues to issue permits to the carbon industry. Nowhere is this contradiction more obvious than in Kern County, where 1/3 of the population lives by an oil well.

    ?Finally, Fresno has become the largest city in the U.S. to have free bus service, and Supervisor Dean Preston has been considering making San Francisco’s MUNI system free as well.

If you have committee work or another story you want to be publicized by a friendly outlet, please submit tips to: writing@dsasf.org.

Dean Preston Updates

This week, our comrade Dean Preston’s updates include: 

• Information about drop-in vaccines for all 65+ San Francisco residents;
• The passage of Dean’s resolution in support for Calcare (AB 1400)
• A shoutout to DSA SF comrades for their organization in support of Prop I, which has already raised $20 million to fund social housing and rent relief.

Feel free to reach out to Dean’s office by emailing prestonstaff@sfgov.org or lexvonklark@gmail.com if you have ideas about how DSA SF can collaborate with Dean’s office. Read the full update here!

DSA SF Membership Drive!

Please consider becoming a member of National DSA, or making sure your membership is current, so you can stay up to date with what the National Organization is doing and participate in the member forums. Becoming a member also counts towards DSA SF’s delegate count for the August National Convention! As always, no one is turned away from lack of funds, all you need to do is fill out the dues sponsorship form. If you have any other questions or hurdles on membership, feel free to email steering@dsasf.org and we’ll figure something out together. 
 

Electoral Strategy Commission

Come join our newly-elected comrades on the DSA SF Electoral Strategy Commission for their open meeting TODAY, Tuesday, March 23rd, from 7 to 8 p.m. to discuss how DSA SF should approach electoral work in the near future and long term. Register here.

Reading Groups

EcoSoc Book Club: Silvia Federici’s Re-Enchanting the World

Join the Ecosocialist Committee’s book club on bi-weekly Mondays in March, with the third session on Monday, March 29, from 6 to 7 p.m. We’re reading and discussing Silvia Federici’s Re-enchanting the World: Feminism & the Politics of the Commons. This reading group is open to all. Register here today! 

21st Century Socialism Reading Group

Come join your comrades on Tuesday, March 30 at 6:30 p.m. for a discussion on The Old Is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born: From Progressive Neoliberalism to Trump and Beyond by Nancy Fraser! Register here.

Future Economies Reading Group: Commons-Based Peer Production

If, as Marx says, “slavery cannot be abolished without the steam-engine,” what forms of domination can be ended with the advent of global communication networks? This month the Future Economies Reading Group will study new modes of production enabled by new technologies. Join us on Tuesday, March 30, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

We will investigate a positive vision of a future centered around the redevelopment of the commons—imagine Wikipedia but for all of production. We’ll also read an introduction to McKenzie Wark’s theory of the Vectoralist Class, a new subset of the ruling class which draws its power from control overflows of information. Find the short readings and Zoom details here.

Comrades,

As we enter a full year of public health restrictions to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, we are reflecting on everything this chapter has done for each other, our neighbors throughout San Francisco, and the state of California. At the outset, we called for the decommodification of survival through the implementation of Medicare for All, rent and mortgage relief, widely-available testing and vaccine access, safe working conditions, decarceration of our local jails and nearby prisons, and a moratorium on deportations to combat community spread and ensure that working-class people could safely shelter in place. With over 530,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States alone, those demands remain just as relevant today.

But despite the difficulties of navigating a pandemic, our comrades mobilized almost immediately to show up for our community. From our efforts to provide tents to our unhoused neighbors, provide hotel rooms for vulnerable unhoused San Franciscans, phonebank to raise COVID-19 relief funds for Navajo Nation, provide countless public comments to save essential workers’ jobs, distribute masks and hand sanitizer to neighbors in need—including our imprisoned neighbors, help our neighbors schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments, and many other efforts, our comrades have backed up our COVID-19 policy demands with their time, energy, and money to ensure that we can show San Francisco what is possible when we build class solidarity and fight to improve our community’s material conditions.

The pandemic isn’t over, but we aren’t done either. We remain committed to fighting for a recovery focused on building power for working-class people, international solidarity, and saving our planet.

In Solidarity,
Your DSA SF Steering Committee

Upcoming Events

Mutual Aid: Help Our Seniors Get Vaccinated!

Vulnerable seniors in District 5 need our help with getting vaccinated. Some seniors are struggling to navigate the confusing appointment system so we are stepping in to provide desperately needed mutual aid. Join the Electoral Committee and Dean Preston’s office tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. to help make these important calls. Click this link to join us on Zoom or contact Ian James at ianhenryjames@gmail.com for more information. Thanks!

Deadly Iran Sanctions: Lessons from Iraq and Palestine

Join the Immigration Committee and the No Sanctions on Iran Project for a webinar about the Iraq sanctions, the Gaza embargo, and the Iran sanctions on Tuesday, March 16, at 12 p.m. The No Sanctions on Iran Project is a group of feminist Iranian-American scholars, students, activists, and artists who are concerned about the deadly effects of the U.S. sanctions on the Iranian people. Noura Erakat, Negar Mortazavi, Assal Rad, and Zainab Saleh will be discussing the connections between sanctions in Iran and Iraq and the Gaza embargo, and asking: How do sanctions and embargoes debilitate populations and subject them to death? What possibilities exist for solidarity with people living under sanctions, and what might that solidarity achieve? This event is live-captioned for Accessibility. Register here for the Zoom link. 

Questions? Email: immigration@dsasf.org

Co-sponsored by: ITSRC, AGITATE!, MADRE, Jadaliyya, MERIP, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Code Pink, Femena, NIAC, AROC, and DSA SF

Remembering Six Years of War on Yemen

Join the Yemeni Alliance Committee, DSASF, and other antiwar & solidarity groups for a webinar taking stock of the war on Yemen on Friday, March 26, at 5 p.m. This March marks six years since a U.S.-backed Saudi coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war. To understand this conflict, a range of speakers—activists, researchers, and elected officials – will be discussing the roots of this ongoing war, the impact on the Yemeni people, and how folks can join and build an effective anti-war movement. Register here to sign up.

COVID-19 Relief In Navajo Nation Solidarity Phone Bank

On Sunday, March 21, from 2 to 5 p.m., join a coalition of DSA chapters in phone banking to raise funds for existing grassroots mutual aid relief networks in Navajo Nation, which has been devastated by COVID-19. RSVP here!

See more events on our event calendar here!

Announcements

This Week on SFIJ

Hi there, DSA SF!

 We think the following pieces of news from the San Francisco Independent Journal (SFIJ) may be of interest to you: 

    ?First, a piece about D6 Supervisor Dean Preston proposing public bike share for the city.

    ?Second, a piece about the recent court ruling on SF Bay View editor Keith ‘Malik’ Washington after the Sunday 3/7 rally.

    ?Then, a report back about the Haiti Solidarity demonstration on 3/1

?Finally, a piece about CCSF proposing layoffs due to budget shortfall; hundreds protested against this decision.

If you have committee work or another story you want to be publicized by a friendly outlet, please submit tips to: writing@dsasf.org

DSA SF Trivia Night

Come join your friends on Discord on Monday, March 22nd, 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for DSA trivia night! We’re going to hang out, play trivia, and get to know each other! We had a lot of fun with this last month, so if you missed it last time this is your chance to join in. Email coordinators@dsasf.org for more info or to join the Discord!

Reading Groups

EcoSoc Book Club: Silvia Federici’s Re-Enchanting the World

Join the Ecosocialist Committee’s book club on bi-weekly Mondays in March, with the third session on Monday, March 29, from 6 to 7 p.m. We’re reading and discussing Silvia Federici’s Re-enchanting the World: Feminism & the Politics of the Commons. This reading group is open to all. Register here today! 

21st Century Socialism Reading Group

Come join your comrades on Tuesday, March 30 at 6:30 p.m. for a discussion on The Old Is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born: From Progressive Neoliberalism to Trump and Beyond by Nancy Fraser! More details on registration to come.

Future Economies Reading Group: Commons-Based Peer Production

If, as Marx says, “slavery cannot be abolished without the steam-engine,” what forms of domination can be ended with the advent of global communication networks? This month the Future Economies Reading Group will study new modes of production enabled by new technologies. Join us on Tuesday, March 30, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

We will investigate a positive vision of a future centered around the redevelopment of the commons—imagine Wikipedia but for all of production. We’ll also read an introduction to McKenzie Wark’s theory of the Vectoralist Class, a new subset of the ruling class which draws its power from control overflows of information. Find the short readings and Zoom details here.

Help DSA SF step in where the city falls short

As the city stumbles to vaccinate essential workers and vulnerable populations, our chapter, in conjunction with our comrade/District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, is stepping in to make sure vulnerable seniors in D5 don’t fall through the cracks. Many seniors are struggling to navigate the city and state’s appointment system and we are stepping in to provide desperately needed mutual aid. 

Join comrades TONIGHT from 6 to 8 p.m. to call seniors and help them make appointments for their vaccinations. Click here to join the Zoom. You can contact our comrade Ian James at ianhenryjames@gmail.com for more information.

Upcoming Events

? DSA SF March Chapter Meeting

Join us for our upcoming Monthly Meeting onWednesday, March 10, at 7 p.m. (check-in begins at 6:45 p.m.). Join us to hear what our chapter has been up to and learn how you can get involved. We have several voting items on the agenda for this month, so make sure you reach out to eligibility@dsasf.org with any questions about voting eligibility. Register for the meeting here.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Marx But Were Afraid to Ask

Join the Education Committee on Thursday, March 11th at 6:30 p.m. for an interactive session and discussion of the ideas of Karl Marx. After a brief introduction, participants will choose short passages/quotations from Marx to analyze and discuss. This educational exercise is intended to make Marx more accessible and less intimidating, especially for newcomers, while also allowing those already familiar with Marx to dig deeper into his key texts. For access to the passages/quotations, as well as the Zoom link, please register here.

The Paris Commune: 150th Anniversary Event

Join the Education Committee on Thursday, March 18 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss selections from Karl Marx’s “The Civil War in France” to learn about and remember the Paris Commune. On March 18, 1871, the workers of Paris declared the Paris Commune, which Marx called “the glorious harbinger of a new society.” The Franco-Prussian war marked the end of the Second Napoleonic Empire in France. After the city of Paris had been encircled, bombarded, and starved by the Prussian army, working people expelled the new French government from Paris and created new democratic institutions of their own to discuss and decide on policies around work, education, the arts, and more. The Commune lived for two months until the French state massacred up to 20,000 communards in a single week. 150 years later, the Paris Commune remains an inspiration to socialists around the world and an important event for thinking about the transition to a just society. Register here for the reading and Zoom links.

COVID-19 Relief In Navajo Nation Solidarity Phone Bank

On Sunday, March 21 from 2 to 5 p.m., join a coalition of DSA chapters in phone banking to raise funds for existing grassroots mutual aid relief networks in Navajo Nation, which has been devastated by COVID-19. RSVP here!

See more events on our event calendar here!

Announcements

Hotels Not Hospitals—Now With Apartments!

Hotels Not Hospitals is excited to announce that we are in the process of securing one-year apartment leases for our unhoused partners currently sheltered in hotel rooms. Community-supported housing (CSH), modeled after community-supported agriculture (CSA), is an opportunity for us to collectively transform San Francisco’s response to homelessness and ensure all our neighbors have access to safe and secure housing. Set up your monthly contribution today at any amount, and sign up to help us build out the CSH model this year!

Dean Preston Weekly Update

This week’s Dean Preston update includes detailed information about a number of things, including: 

• Information about local vaccine eligibility, which has expanded to include healthcare workers, people 65 and older, education and childcare workers, emergency services workers, and food and agriculture workers;
• Tonight’s joint Dean/DSA SF phonebank event, from 6 to 8 p.m, to register vulnerable seniors for vaccine appointments (Zoom here);
• Dean’s call to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to make Muni free for all for the duration of the public health crisis; and
• Dean’s resolution, in conjunction with the Bay Area Tigray Community, condemning human rights violations against the people of Tigray and urging Congressional action.

Read the full update here.

Reading Groups

EcoSoc Book Club: Silvia Federici’s Re-Enchanting the World

Join the Ecosocialist Committee’s book club on bi-weekly Mondays in March, with the next session on Monday, March 15 from 6 to 7 p.m. We’re reading and discussing Silvia Federici’s Re-enchanting the World: Feminism & the Politics of the Commons. This reading group is open to all. Register here today! 

Future Economies Reading Group: Commons-Based Peer Production

If, as Marx says, “slavery cannot be abolished without the steam-engine,” what forms of domination can be ended with the advent of global communication networks? This month the Future Economies Reading Group will study new modes of production enabled by new technologies. Join us on Tuesday, March 30, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

We will investigate a positive vision of a future centered around the redevelopment of the commons—imagine Wikipedia but for all of production. We’ll also read an introduction to McKenzie Wark’s theory of the Vectoralist Class, a new subset of the ruling class which draws its power from control overflows of information. Find the short readings and Zoom details here.

Defend Black Journalism – Rally to Free Malik and Get GEO Out of California!

SF Bay View National Black Newspaper Editor Malik Washington is being severely retaliated against for releasing a public memo documenting a preventable COVID-19 outbreak at 111 Taylor, an enormous GEO Group-owned halfway house in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. The $2B+ for-profit prison company stole his phone and put a gag order on him in what is the most egregious attack on journalism and Malik’s constitutional right to freedom of speech. They are now threatening to send him back to jail, and Malik has sued.

For more information, see below:
https://48hills.org/2021/01/covid-outbreak-and-media-crackdown-at-private-halfway-house-in-tenderloin/
https://48hills.org/2021/02/editor-sues-over-gag-rule-at-private-prison-in-tenderloin/
https://48hills.org/2021/02/bay-view-editor-wont-face-immediate-discipline-for-holding-press-conference/

For an excellent documentary exposé on the atrocious, dehumanizing conditions at 111 Taylor St, please view the 11- minute documentary put forth by SF Public Defender’s The Adachi Project here.

GEO Group is fighting Malik, but they are also currently litigating against AB 32, which would ban private detention facilities in California, arguing that they would lose $15M per year in revenue, with a large portion coming from caging our siblings in abusive ICE Detention Facilities across the state. Well we say NO to PUTTING PROFITS OVER PEOPLE EVERY SINGLE TIME! For-profit prison companies have no place in California or anywhere!

Join us for a masked up, socially distanced rally at 111 Taylor Street, SF from 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 7 to demand Malik Washington’s freedom, to stop the attack on Black journalism, and to shout to the rooftops: GEO Group – get out of California! More details here. 

This rally is being organized by the Malik Washington Defense Committee. Please like their page to support them and help guarantee Malik’s freedom. To donate to Malik’s legal fees and to support radical, black journalism, please donate here. 

Upcoming Events

? Intro to DSA SF

Join us for our upcoming Intro to DSA event onWednesday, March 3, at 6:30 p.m. and hear what we’re doing to build the socialist movement in San Francisco. Register here! There’s no time like the present when it comes to fighting for our future and building working class power. Bring your questions and a friend!

Labor Organizing Training (Begins Wednesday, March 3)

The next semester of organizer training will begin this Wednesday, March 3 at 5:00 p.m.PT and run for six weekly sessions, with alternate sessions on Sundays at 2:00 p.m. PT(the first alternate session is on March 7, session topic same as preceding Wednesday):

• Session 1 – Leader Identification
• Session 2 – Mapping and Charting a Workplace
• Session 3 – The Organizing Conversation
• Session 4 – Escalating Campaigns
• Session 5 – Public Action and Engaging with the Boss
• Session 6 – Inoculation and the Boss Campaign

If you want to learn more about how to organize at your own workplace or support others in doing so through EWOC, sign up for the training.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Marx But Were Afraid to Ask

Join the Education Committee on Thursday, March 11th at 6:30 p.m. for an interactive session and discussion of the ideas of Karl Marx. After a brief introduction, participants will choose short passages/quotations from Marx to analyze and discuss. This educational exercise is intended to make Marx more accessible and less intimidating, especially for newcomers, while also allowing those already familiar with Marx to dig deeper into his key texts. For access to the passages/quotations, as well as the Zoom link, please register here.

Announcements

Help Dean’s Office Get Seniors in D5 Vaccinated

Seniors in District 5 need our help to get vaccinated. Join us tonight, March 2, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. to make these important calls. Navigating a confusing system is hampering efforts to make sure all seniors get their vaccines, so we are stepping in to provide mutual aid. This project is the first step in creating a new organization, Neighbors United, that will advocate for all the issues we care about like tenant rights, affordable housing, and improved public transportation in District 5. Click this link to join us on Zoom or contact Ian James at Ianhenryjames@gmail.com for more information. Thanks!

Demand That the City Fund #30RightNow

This Wednesday, March 3, at 1:00 p.m., the Board of Supervisors Budget and Appropriations Committee will be having two separate hearings related to homelessness and housing. Item #1 is a hearing on the budget for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. Please call in to urge the funding and implementation of #30RightNow, which would reduce rents to 30% of income for supportive housing tenants. For more information, click here. Item #2 is an overview of the budget of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development. Please also call in to urge the implementation of Prop K and help to develop municipally owned social housing. For more information, contact lakshbhasindeveloper@gmail.com The call-in information is 415-655-0001 Meeting ID 187 516 8993 # # press *3 to speak

COVID-19 Relief In Navajo Nation Solidarity Phone Bank

On Sunday, March 7 from 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. PT, join a coalition of DSA chapters in phone banking to raise funds for existing grassroots mutual aid relief networks in Navajo Nation. RSVP here!

See more events on our event calendar here!

Now is the time for action…

As we end an eventful February 2021, we reflect on how much we have to build and accomplish together. Are you a nonmember ready to commit to helping us make this world better for all of us instead of just the rich? Are you a comrade who took a break and needs a refresher?

Join us for our upcoming Intro to DSA event onWednesday, March 3, at 6 p.m. and hear what we’re doing to build the socialist movement here in San Francisco. Register here! There’s no time like the present when it comes to fighting for our future and building working class power. Bring any questions and a friend!

Announcements

Soliciting Resources for Strategic Planning

With an upcoming convention in June and a year in which we have no planned regional elections, it would be good to take a step back and come up with a plan on fights we should undertake in the coming years. As we brainstorm ideas it would be incredibly helpful for us to share resources to help us come up with a framework for thinking strategically. We’d love to compile a list of articles, books, magazines, movies—really anything that you might have found useful in doing any of the following:

1. Identifying areas of struggle for us to participate–the capitalists have created lots of suffering in the world, each of which demands a lot of attention to adequately address. Which of these problems should we address? What should we look out for when picking a project?
2. Tactics that we can adopt in our organizing.
3. How should we think about coalitions?
4. What should the goals of our projects be? When can we consider a particular project complete?

If you have a resource that you’d like to share with the rest of your comrades, please send your recommendations via this form and join the conversation on the DSA SF forum.

Dean Preston’s Weekly Update

This week’s update from our comrade Dean Preston includes a statement of solidarity with San Francisco teachers, who are currently being attacked and sued by Mayor London Breed and the City Attorney Dennis Herrera. Make no mistake: this is an all-out war on the hardworking teachers of San Francisco, driven by a capitalist desire to reopen the economy no matter the human cost. Supervisor Preston and his office stand firmly with the UESF and say loud and clear: No reopening until it’s safe! Read his full statement here. 

The update also includes many opportunities to get involved and help our community: 

• Join Dean & our comrades TODAY, February 23 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. to reach out to senior renters who are eligible for the vaccine. Zoom link here.
• Call into the next Budget & Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday, February 24, at 11:00 a.m., to demand that the $20.1 million raised by Prop I are allocated to rent forgiveness and affordable housing. Talking points here. Call into 1 (415) 655-0001 and enter the following Meeting ID: 187 836 1885 ##
• Sign up to help Mrs. Adrian Williams and The Village Project pack up bags of food for San Francisco seniors.

Read the full update here.

Upcoming Events

Tonight: DSA Trivia Night

Come join your friends on Discord tonight, February 23rd, 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for DSA trivia night! We’re hanging out to play trivia and get to know each other!

Email coordinators@dsasf.org for more info or to join the Discord!
 

Socialist Feminist Working Group Day School

The national DSA Socialist Feminist Working Group will be holding its third Day School session on Saturday, February 27th at 1:00 p.m. to discuss social reproduction theory with an eye toward history and the modern, post-pandemic day. Please RSVP here (make sure you read the instructions to get the Zoom link).

Already registered? Check out the full syllabus and readings here.
 

Labor Organizing Training (Begins Next Week on March 3)

The next semester of organizer training will begin on Wednesday, March 3rd at 5 p.m. PTand run for six weekly sessions, with alternate sessions on Sundays at 2 p.m. PT (first alternate session 3/7, session topic same as preceding Wednesday):

• Session 1 – Leader Identification
• Session 2 – Mapping and Charting a Workplace
• Session 3 – The Organizing Conversation
• Session 4 – Escalating Campaigns
• Session 5 – Public Action and Engaging with the Boss
• Session 6 – Inoculation and the Boss Campaign

If you want to learn more about how to organize at your own workplace or support others in doing so through EWOC, sign up for the training.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Marx But Were Afraid to Ask

Join the Education Committee on Thursday, March 11th at 6:30 p.m. for an interactive session and discussion of the ideas of Karl Marx. After a brief introduction, participants will choose short passages/quotations from Marx to analyze and discuss. This educational exercise is intended to make Marx more accessible and less intimidating, especially for newcomers, while also allowing those already familiar with Marx to dig deeper into his key texts. For access to the passages/quotations, as well as the Zoom link, please register here.

Reading Groups

Future Economies Reading Group: Raising Capital in Worker Cooperatives

This month, the Future Economies Reading Group will investigate how worker-owned cooperatives can raise startup capital while maintaining full worker control. While capitalist corporations can raise capital by selling equity shares, cooperatives are owned and governed by their stakeholders—not by absentee shareholders.

We’ll look at case studies and real structures that cooperatives use in practice to raise funding. We will be joined by Daniel Fireside, most recently Capital Coordinator at the cooperative Equal Exchange on TONIGHT, February 23rd from 5:30 p.m to 7:00 p.m. Find the short readings and Zoom details here.

What is Fascism?

As someone once said, the history of fascism is, at the same time, the history of the theory of fascism. This reading group will explore what fascism is and why it is a severe danger to working and oppressed people. We think these writings on fascism will help provide the conceptual tools required to develop the correct strategy and tactics to fight fascism and the far-right. We’ll cover classic texts from Clara Zetkin, Antonio Gramsci, Daniel Guerin, Leon Trotsky, and Nicos Poulantzas. We’ll also read recent writing on the US far-right, including from DSA Santa Cruz comrades, who we expect to be joining us for discussion.  

This week’s reading (February 25th) will be On the Popular Impact of Fascism by Nicos Poulantzas. Please register here for Zoom and reading links. Thursdays 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

? Starting 3/1: EcoSoc Book Club

The Ecosocialist Committee will be reading Silvia Federici’s Re-enchanting the World: Feminism & the Politics of the Commons starting on Monday, March 1 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., with additional meetings on March 15 and March 28.All comrades are encouraged to register.

This Week on SFIJ

Hi there, DSA SF! We think the following pieces of news from the San Francisco Independent Journal (SFIJ) may be of interest to you:

• First, a piece from Hotels, Not Hospitals (HNH) that was published last week.
• Next, a piece about how Newsom chose an oil industry lobbyist for his Chief of Staff.
• Then, a piece about the UCSF Parnassus extension that is an illustration of every affordable housing debate in miniature.
• Finally, an interview with the Alphabet Workers Union spokesperson.

If you have committee work or other story you want publicized by a friendly outlet, please submit tips to writing@dsasf.org.

Upcoming Events

DSA Trivia Night

Come join your friends on Discord on Tuesday, February 23rd, 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for DSA trivia night! We’re hanging out to play trivia and get to know each other!

Email coordinators@dsasf.org for more info or to join the discord!

Labor Organizing Training (Begins First Week of March)

The next semester of organizer training will begin on Wednesday, March 3rd at 5 p.m. PT and run for six weekly sessions, with alternate sessions on Sundays at 2 p.m. PT (first alternate session 3/7, session topic same as preceding Wednesday):

• Session 1 – Leader Identification
• Session 2 – Mapping and Charting a Workplace
• Session 3 – The Organizing Conversation
• Session 4 – Escalating Campaigns
• Session 5 – Public Action and Engaging with the Boss
• Session 6 – Inoculation and the Boss Campaign

If you want to learn more about how to organize at your own workplace or support others in doing so through EWOC, sign up for the training.

Reading Groups

?The Socialist Awakening by John Judis

“The Socialist Awakening” by John Judis is one of a number of recent books considering the questions of imagining socialism in the modern world. The final session of this reading group will be held tonight, on Tuesday, February 16th, at 6:30 p.m. If interested, please register in advance. Persons new to socialism or DSA welcome.

Future Economies Reading Group: Raising Capital in Worker Cooperatives

This month, the Future Economies Reading Group will investigate how worker-owned cooperatives can raise startup capital while maintaining full worker control. While capitalist corporations can raise capital by selling equity shares, cooperatives are owned and governed by their stakeholders—not by absentee shareholders.

We’ll look at case studies and real structures that cooperatives use in practice to raise funding. We will be joined by Daniel Fireside, most recently Capital Coordinator at the cooperative Equal Exchange. Find the short readings and Zoom details here. Tuesday, February 23rd from 5:30 p.m to 7:00 p.m.

What is Fascism?

As someone once said, the history of fascism is, at the same time, the history of the theory of fascism. This reading group will explore what fascism is and why it is a severe danger to working and oppressed people. We think these writings on fascism will help provide the conceptual tools required to develop the correct strategy and tactics to fight fascism and the far-right. We’ll cover classic texts from Clara Zetkin, Antonio Gramsci, Daniel Guerin, Leon Trotsky, and Nicos Poulantzas. We’ll also read recent writing on the US far-right, including from DSA Santa Cruz comrades, who we expect to be joining us for discussion.  

This week’s reading (February 18th) will be Fascism: What It Is & How to Fight It by Leon Trotsky. Please register here for Zoom and reading links. Thursdays, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Sign up for the EcoSocialist Book Club! Silvia Federici

The Ecosocialist Committee’s next book will be Silvia Federici’s “Re-enchanting the World: Feminism & the Politics of the Commons.” Register and help us find a time for a few sessions in March.