November 25, 2022
CONTENTS
UP FRONT
MDC DSA November General Body Meeting MOVED to this Sunday, November 27 at 7pm
MDC DSA elects a new steering committee for 2023 in conjunction with our December 10-11 Annual Convention; nominations are now underway, ending November 30
Green New Deal for Social Housing hearing draws huge support
MDC DSA November General Body Meeting MOVED to this Sunday, November 27 at 7pm
MDC DSA Steering Committee has moved the chapter General Body Meeting to this Sunday, November 27 at 7pm ET. The theme will be the upcoming local convention. Please come with any questions you may have about the convention! See you there!
The MDC DSA Steering Committee has also rescheduled its meeting to Tuesday, November 29, 7pm. Consult #steering channel for access as time approaches.
MDC DSA elects a new steering committee for 2023 in conjunction with our December 10-11 Annual Convention; nominations are now underway, ending November 30
Discussion of the election and candidate statements will appear on the Slack channel #2022-december-convention.
All MDC DSA chapter members have been added to that channel.
Timeline for the Steering Committee Election
Please see below for a list of important dates and deadlines during the Steering Committee election.
- Monday, November 21 to Wed, Nov 30. Candidate nominating period for the Steering Committee election. Chapter members can submit nominations here.
- Saturday, December 3. Deadline for chapter members with at least five nominations to accept their candidacy for the Steering Committee.
- First week of December, Date TBD. Internal Elections Facilitation Department hosts a candidate forum for all Steering Committee candidates. Event page forthcoming.
- Monday, December 12 to Friday, December 16. Ballots are open. Internal Elections Facilitation Department sends out email ballots for the election via OpaVote.
According to the chapter’s standing election rules, to become a candidate for Steering Committee, you will need to secure five nominations from individual chapter members and be a member of the chapter in good standing. Members may nominate themselves. Nominations will be accepted until 11:59pm on Wednesday, November 30.
To ensure that candidates are aware of when they reach the nomination threshold, and to provide transparency in the nomination process, our chapter has historically made the number of nominations public for each candidate. You can access the public list of candidate nominations here.
More, and more detailed, information about the 2022 MDC DSA convention and steering committee election is on the Slack channels #2022-december-convention and #announcements.
Green New Deal for Social Housing hearing draws huge support
On Tuesday, November 22, the DC Council’s housing committee held its first hearing on the Green New Deal for Social Housing Act. The legislation, introduced by Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, would begin the process for the DC government to begin construction and provision of social housing — a “public option” for housing, owned by the government, that is also co-governed by the tenants that live there.
The hearings lasted over 11 hours and featured well over 100 unique testimonies on the bill. The hearing was chaired by Councilmember Lewis George along with Council housing committee chair Anita Bonds.
The hearing drew a wide range of testimony from policy experts, labor organizers, tenant advocates, environmentalists and local residents. Below are some of the timestamped testimonies provided from the 11-hour hearing: legislation drafters Kush Kharod of Sunrise Movement and local housing policy expert Will Merrifield; DSA steering committee members Hayden G and Carl R; ATU 689 representative Brian Wivell; Eliana Golding speaking on behalf of DC Fiscal Policy Institute; sociologist Gianpaolo Baiocchi representing the Urban Democracy Lab at NYU; Ward 5 Councilmember-elect Zachary Parker; Climate Action Network executive director Keya Chatterjee; Ed Lazere of the United Planning Organization; Amanda Korber of Legal Aid DC; professor David Schwartzman speaking on behalf of the DC Statehood-Green Party; Dante O’Hara of the Claudia Jones School; and Frankie SF on social housing development in Montgomery County … just to point to a few.
The wide range of public support suggests clear and enthusiastic support for this new approach to building housing outside the whims of the private market. The legislation, which already has a majority of the Council onboard, is going through further revisions and is likely to be voted on within the next few months (if next year, the legislation will need to be reintroduced, which is likely given its broad support across the city). Those interested in aiding in this fight should sign up for updates from Councilmember Lewis George, who is leading the effort in the DC Council. We will provide further updates on this legislation in this newsletter.
BRIEFS
DC Area Labor Notes Meetup — Sunday, December 4 at 5pm
Labor Notes is building up to the DC Area Troublemakers School in 2023 by having quarterly Labor Notes meetups! Our last one was in July in Silver Spring, MD. Our next one is on Sunday, December 4th at 5pm at Sonny’s Pizza (3120 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20010), about half a mile from the Columbia Heights Metro stop. Think about how we can bring more rank and file union activists together in the DMV! If your union or caucus is interested in endorsing/promoting this event, please let either Jonah F. or Janette C. know!
Virginia SBWU Solidarity Rally — Friday, December 9 at 5pm
On Friday, December 9th at 5pm, come to a SBWU Solidarity Rally at the Bozman Government Center plaza, 2100 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington, VA. This is the one year anniversary of the first union victory at a corporate-owned Starbucks store in Buffalo. After the rally, gather at Fireworks Pizza to celebrate and talk strategy to get Starbucks to stop union busting.
Tentative DC Teachers pact announced Wednesday afternoon
From WaPo: “After more than three years without a contract, the District has reached a tentative agreement with its teachers union, officials announced Wednesday.
“The agreement will deliver a retroactive raise and a salary hike for next year, totaling a 12 percent salary raise over four years. Teachers will also receive a 4 percent retention bonus, according to a statement from D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee and Jacqueline Pogue Lyons, president of the Washington Teachers’ Union.” More here
From DCist: “The WTU tweeted that in addition to the 12 percent salary increase and 4 percent signing bonus, the contract included a significant increase in administrative premiums, or negotiated compensations for teachers in the union.” More here
Atlanta DSA announces involvement in Georgia Senate runoffs; calls for support
The 2022 elections are almost over, pending a runoff in Georgia to take place on December 6, where Trump-backed Herschel Walker is running head-to-head against incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock. The contest will determine the Democrats’ margin of error in the Senate — a loss will constrict Democrat’s ability to shoot at the sort of big legislation needed to enshrine abortion rights, cancel student debt, and empower organized labor.
The Democratic Socialists of Georgia are not sitting this battle out. Atlanta DSA issued a public statement this week urging members and supporters to vote to defeat Herschel Walker. Although Atlanta DSA has not publicly endorsed incumbent Raphael Warnock, the chapter announced plans to initiate canvassing, phonebanking and poll-monitoring operations in the state. Atlanta DSA has released a larger GOTV compendium on their website, and volunteers can sign up for campaign operations here.
Raphael Warnock has drawn a large base of support from residents of DC for his public support for DC Statehood. Although Warnock hasn’t officially signed onto the Senate bill confirming DC statehood, he is considered a supporter by DC’s Shadow Senator Paul Strauss.
INFO ACCESS
Publications Schedule: The Washington Socialist monthly newsletter is published in harness with the Weekly Update every month and the next issue is scheduled for Friday, December 2. After that, Weekly Updates will drop on Fridays, December 9, 16, 23 and 30.
The Washington Socialist welcomes solo or collaborative responses from our many Fall reading groups; pass along what you are learning and thinking to your comrades who aren’t present and to our wider readership on the DMV left. Join our #publications channel to chat this up on Slack and send individual or group responses to thesocialist@mdcdsa.org.
Our annual MDC DSA convention (on December 10 to 11) is when we tinker with and update our chapter bylaws and propose chapter-wide resolutions. Wait — we have bylaws? Yep, and you can find them here. Info on submitting resolutions is above, in UP FRONT. Here is a look at last year’s 2021 Convention Bulletin, with full texts of all submitted resolutions.
Available as a member resource on the local chapter website is the road map of MDC DSA’s activities — campaigns, working groups etc., including our three branches. Want to see our chapter activities laid out in monthly calendar form? Here it is.
Red Desk is where all members can go to request support, calendar links for events, etc. for their campaigns and working group needs. How to access and use Red Desk? Here are some visual how-tos
DSA CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Saturday, November 26
3 – 4:30pm | Publications WG — Washington Socialist planning meeting
Sunday, November 27
5 – 6:30pm | Internationalism Working Group Monthly Meeting
7 – 8pm | NoVA DSA electoral meeting
7 – 9pm | MDC DSA November General Body Meeting (rescheduled)
Monday, November 28
7 – 8:30pm | November Campaign Council Meeting
Wednesday, November 30
7 – 8:30pm | Reproductive Justice Working Group Meeting (link to come)
DECEMBER
Friday, December 2
6:30 – 9pm | NoVA Gamenite (in person; all welcome)
Sunday, December 4
5pm | NoVA DSA Labor Workgroup Monthly Call
5 – 8pm | DC Area Labor Notes Meetup
Wednesday, December 7
6 – 7pm | NoVA DSA Tenant Organizing Meeting
7 – 8:30pm | Reproductive Justice Working Group Meeting (link to come)
Thursday, December 8
6:15 – 7:45pm | NoVA Branch monthly organizing meeting (hybrid attendance)
Friday, December 9
5pm | SBWU Solidarity Rally
Saturday, December 10
MDC DSA 2022 Annual Convention (day 1)
Sunday, December 11
MDC DSA 2022 Annual Convention (day 2)
Wednesday, December 14
7 – 8:30pm | Reproductive Justice Working Group Meeting (link to come)
Sunday, December 18
2pm | Maryland Statewide Meeting (hybrid)
5 – 6:30pm | Internationalism Working Group Monthly Meeting
COMMUNITY BULLETIN
Being & Belonging | DC Humanities Truck
The Humanities Truck is proud to partner with the Lily and Earle M. Pilgrim Foundation and the @visual_aids for Day With(out) Art 2022 to present Being & Belonging, a program of seven new videos centering the emotional reality of living with HIV today. The program features new work by Clifford Prince King, Jaewon Kim, Mikiki, Davina “Dee” Conner & Karin Hayes, Camila Arce, Jhoel Zempoalteca & La Jerry, and Camilo Acosta Huntertexas & Santiago Lemus. It has musical performances by Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer and puppeteers Reverend Dr. Julianne Robertson & Gina P. Puppet. Being & Belonging will screen in over 100 museums, universities and arts organizations worldwide beginning December 1, 2022, Day With(out) Art / World AIDS Day. The videos will also be available to stream online free of charge at visualaids.org/dwa2022.
Food Waste Drop Off | SIStained
Will you or someone you know be throwing down in the kitchen this week with some major cooking projects?? If so, there’s a good chance there will be some raw veggie or fruit scraps leftovers in need of a good home (aka, not the garbage!). Make the sustainable choice by composting your scraps with SIStained. Drop offs are available on Sundays, November 27 and December 4 at Lederer Gardens (4801 Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave NE) from 3:30 to 4:30pm.
Climate Webinar | Institute for Policy Studies
Monday, December 12, the Institute for Policy Studies hosts a 12 to 1:30pm climate webinar on Zoom entitled “Getting from the Unsustainable Here to the Sustainable There: Mechanisms of Transition to a Post-Growth Future.” Four distinguished panelists will provide a snapshot of the ongoing rethinking of the way humanity organizes its economic activities to move in the direction of greater sustainability and equity: Vedran Horvat is the head of the Institute for Political Ecology in Zagreb, Croatia; Susan Krumdieck is professor and chair in Energy Transition at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland; Simon Michaux is an associate professor of geometallurgy at the Geological Survey of Finland; Renata Nitta is a campaign strategist for Greenpeace International based in Brazil. Click here to register.
Food Distro Winter Schedule | Serve Your City/Ward 6 Mutual Aid
Each Saturday from 2:30 to 3:30pm, Ward 6 Mutual Aid SW offers free produce distribution at Christ United Methodist Church (900 4th St SW — courtyard gate in the back of the building in the side street off Wesley Place SW). This winter, produce donation drop offs are available on Wednesdays and Fridays from 3 to 5pm and Saturdays from 11am to noon. Serve Your City/Ward 6 Mutual Aid’s SW Pod will be closed on November 25 and 26 and will reopen on November 30 for normal hours. There will be no produce distribution on November 26, and Christ United Methodist Church will not hold its 5000 Food Pantry that day. For more info, email SWMutualAid@serveyourcitydc.org.
GOOD READS / ESSENTIAL TRAFFIC
From Governing magazine, no less: Rail workers want tracks publicly owned. A coalition of railroad workers unions says the biggest rail companies in the US have become far too focused on profits and is calling for public ownership of rail infrastructure across North America.
Lydia Polgreen in NYT asks if Elon Musk, or anyone else with financial interests outside a wholly-owned social-media platform, can be trusted to protect “free speech” against authoritarian-flavored governments, nominally “democratic” or not.
One more from the NYT. These two academics frame the world’s “polycrises” from a very socialist, all-is-connected perspective. But socialism — or capitalism — are never mentioned.
The World Cup kicked off on November 20, even more fraught with controversy than usual. Progressive International published an interview detailing the exploitative forces that coerce migrant workers into terrible working conditions in states with kalafa (sponsorship) systems; a 2021 report in The Guardian revealed that more than 6,500 migrant workers had died in Qatar in the years since it was awarded the World Cup.
Housing, homelessness and inequality: “The Nation’s Vacant Homes Present an Opportunity — and a Problem.” Pew’s Stateline Daily outlines how vacancy is a state of mind varying with forms and purposes of capitalist ownership.
Steering member Aparna R. was interviewed in Washington City Paper about MDC DSA’s role in Initiative 82’s huge victory: “We’re the people who are also trying to figure out how to make rent, who also want to be able to live in the city for the long-term instead of having to move out of it. Who also just want to be able to make enough to take home each week to support our own families, and to make sure our parents can age in place. And people really respond to that.”
The flame of thought, the magnificence of art, the wonder of discovery, and the audacity of invention all belong to revolutionary periods when humanity, tired of the chains of its restrictions, shatters them, and stops inebriated to breathe the breeze of a vaster and freer horizon.
–Virgilia D’Andrea