Upcoming Events
🌹 Tuesday, May 20 (7:15 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.): 🐣 Socialist Night School: Salting (In person at 1916 McAllister)
🌹 Wednesday, May 21 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): 🐣 What is DSA? (In person at 1916 McAllister)
🌹 Wednesday, May 21 (6:45 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (In person at 438 Haight)
🌹 Thursday, May 22 (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.): 🍏 Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)
🌹 Thursday, May 22 (7:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.): 🐣 Comrade Karaoke (In person at The Roar Shack, 34 7th St)
🌹 Saturday, May 24 (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.): No Appetite for Apartheid Outreach and Training (Meet at 1916 McAllister St)
🌹 Saturday, May 24 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): 🐣 Homelessness Working Group Food Service (Meet at Castro St. and Market St.)
🌹 Sunday, May 25 (1:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.): Excursion to Angel Island to see Border Surveillance: From Gaza to the Rio Grande (Meet at the Ferry Building)
🌹 Monday, May 26 (5:50 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Socialist in Office + Electoral Board Meeting (Zoom)
🌹 Monday, May 26 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): 🐣 Tenderloin Healing Circle (In person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate)
🌹 Monday, May 26 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Regular Meeting (In person at 1916 McAllister)
🌹 Monday, May 26 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)
🌹 Tuesday, May 27 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tech Reading Group (In person at 1916 McAllister)
🌹 Tuesday, May 27 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): 🐣📕 Da Vinci Code Reading Group – Day 2 (In person at 1916 McAllister and Zoom)
🌹 Wednesday, May 28 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): 🐣 Maker Wednesday (In person at 1916 McAllister)
🌹 Thursday, May 29 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Ecosoc Vision and Strategy (In person at 1916 McAllister)
🌹 Thursday, May 29 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigrant Justice Working Group (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)
🌹 Saturday, May 31 (6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.): 🐣 Chapter Movie Night: A Screening of Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba) (In person at Carr Auditorium, 22nd St, Building 3)
🌹 Sunday, June 1 (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Capital Reading Group (In person at 1916 McAllister and Zoom)
🌹 Monday, June 2 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Biweekly Meeting (Zoom)
Check out https://dev.dsasf.org/events for more events and updates.
Events & Actions
🐣 Socialist Night School: Salting
Curious about salting? Heard the term but not sure what it means? Interested in learning about salting opportunities in the Bay Area? Join the Labor Board for a Socialist Night School on salting on Tuesday, May 20 from 7:00 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. at 1916 McAllister. We’ll learn about salting strategies, examine past SF wins, and hear about current opportunities to salt a workplace.
Masks are encouraged but not required. Food and drink will be provided!
RSVP at https://actionnetwork.org/events/socialist-night-school-salting/
DSA Karaoke 🎤
Come hang out and do some karaoke with your fellow DSA SF comrades or cool people you want to impress with your incredible singing voice! Thursday, May 22 from 7:30 – 10:00 p.m. at The Roar Shack (34 7th Street at Market). Suggested donation of $10, no one turned away for lack of funds. No songs refused, no entry denied! Cheap drinks available to purchase or feel free to bring your own!
Good Vibrations & Urban Ore Celebration & Fundraiser
Party with East Bay DSA to celebrate two union victories and rai$e money to continue the fight! After more than two years of organizing and struggle, workers from Good Vibrations and Urban Ore, with support from the East Bay Workplace Organizing Committee (EBWOC), BEAT their bosses, reaching major milestones at the bargaining table!
Come to Berkeley’s Hottest Backyard at 2923 Newbury St on Friday, May 23rd from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. for food, rousing speeches, DJs, dancing and karaoke! There’s a sliding scale entry fee to raise funds!
No Appetite for Apartheid Training & Canvassing
We’ll be holding our next training and canvassing for No Appetite for Apartheid this Saturday, May 24! We’ll be meeting at 10:00 a.m. at 1916 McAllister to do training. After the training, we will divide up into groups to visit stores, and maybe some restaurants and cafes!
If you’ve already trained and you just want to canvass, feel free to show up at 11:30 a.m. at 1916 McAllister to get a turf. If you are able to provide transportation for people from the training site to the canvassing location, please indicate that in the RSVP form.
Border Surveillance: From Gaza to the Rio Grande
The logic of empire extends all the way from Gaza to the Rio Grande. Join DSA for a thoughtful excursion, as we discuss the past and present of border surveillance, and how it relates to the methods and policies of colonization and empire.
On May 25th, the Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialism Working Group will lead a group to San Francisco’s historic immigration detention center on Angel Island where the Electronic Frontier Foundation is currently holding its exhibition Border Surveillance: Places, People and Technology.
We will meet at the Ferry Building at 1:30 p.m. to catch the 1:55 p.m. shuttle to Angel Island. We will then view the exhibition at the Angel Island Immigration Museum and discuss the connections between border surveillance practices and technology in the United States and decades of occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Our event will conclude at the Ferry Building at 5:30 p.m.. Note: The cost of a roundtrip on the ferry is $15 per person.
Maker Wednesday
Join us for Maker Wednesday on May 28 from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.! Come make some art and connect with comrades. All are welcome, see you there!
Office Hours
Co-work with your comrades! Come to the DSA SF office and get your DSA work or work-work done, or just hang out. We’ll be at 1916 McAllister from 12:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m. on Fridays.
May Chapter Meeting Recap
Our May Chapter Meeting was full of energy and lots of business! We heard report backs from Emilye on our May Day labor actions, and from Christina and Nayef from our Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialist Working Group on what it means to divest here in San Francisco. Members debated and passed three important resolutions: to nominate Andrew and Hazel to DSA’s National Political Committee, and to increase our travel budget while launching a fundraising push to make sure everyone can take part in the work, regardless of finances. We also heard from over 30 candidates running to be delegates to the 2025 DSA National Convention!
We won’t have a regular chapter meeting in June, because we’ll be having our annual June Chapter Convention June 14 and 15, from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. each day at the Kelly Cullen Auditorium (220 Golden Gate). All are welcome!
Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee Reportback
After breaking the ice by sharing our first concert experiences, the 12 of us dove into the second EWOC Fundamentals Training Series session focused on organizing conversations. We started with learning about the steps of an organizing conversation, had a group discussion about factors that could make those conversations more or less difficult, then we partnered up and practiced among ourselves before wrapping up for the day.
Coming out of those practice conversations, one comrade acting as an organizer was praised for how they organically applied the 3D framework when they got to the issue identification and agitation step. They detected an issue, asked their partners to further define the nature of the problem, and dug deeper by inquiring about the emotional impact of the issue. Inquiry tools were also a major part of our group conversations about conditions that make organizing challenging. More specifically, we discussed how asking questions that make people imagine life outside of their current state can make it easier to organize someone who either thinks their situation is fine or rationalizes it as being okay. While asking questions, listening, and making people feel heard are critical, they were just a few of the traits we learned to look for in workers who should be brought into an organizing committee. The others were: not being abrasive, having the trust of coworkers, and demonstrating the ability to lead coworkers into action.
Next week we’re going to learn about the arc of a campaign!
Hygiene Kit Assembly and Distribution Reportback
Mutual aid is a tactic that models a socialist world where community members take up the responsibility of caring for each other through material solidarity. It exposes participants to revolutionary possibilities in the face of state neglect and violence. On Sunday May 11, the Labor Board and the Homeless Working Group hosted a Hygiene Kit Assembly and Distribution event at the DSA Office at 1916 McAllister Street. This was done not as an act of charity, but rather solidarity — an opportunity to share a resource, commune, and learn with working-class people who are in struggle against capitalism. The morning event attracted over 25 eager and early-risen volunteers, including some community members from outside of DSA, who stepped up by bringing requested kit supplies and delivered by building over 100 hygiene kits to distribute to our unhoused neighbors. The Homeless Working Group also provided information and guidance on how to best distribute the kits that all volunteers were provided at the end of the event. It can be tempting to view this as a one-time, “feel good” activity. Instead, we asked participants to see it as the first step in a project of regular support for, and community-building with, our unhoused neighbors. Hygiene kits are just a starting point — please reach out to DSA SF’s Homelessness Working Group for further training and collaboration!
Behind the Scenes
The Chapter Coordination Committee (CCC) regularly rotates duties among chapter members. This allows us to train new members in key duties that help keep the chapter running like organizing chapter meetings, keeping records updated, office cleanup, updating the DSA SF website and newsletter, etc. Members can view current CCC rotations.
To help with the day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running, fill out the CCC help form.
