AUGUST 16, 2024
This is the weekly newsletter of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, which is produced by local members of the chapter’s publications working group.
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CONTENTS
UP FRONT
Not Another Bomb: Palestine solidarity protests planned for weekend, DC solidarity protests planned TODAY, 8am to 7pm
DSA to provide free backpacks for parents at St. Stephen’s Church — August 17, 2pm to 6pm
Tenants continue TOPA petition canvassing — August 21, 6:30pm
Not Another Bomb: Palestine solidarity protests planned for weekend, DC solidarity protests planned TODAY, 8am to 7pm
Over the weekend, anti-war activists will be staging protests in cities across the country to denounce the endless war against Palestine. The Not Another Bomb campaign, born out of the Uncommitted National Movement, is hosting a Weekend of Action this weekend. Over 60 actions are scheduled around the country to demonstrate resistance art and international solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and to demand an arms embargo on Israel.
In DC, actions are taking place from 8am to 7pm, beginning at Columbus Circle from 8am to 10am and ending on the National Mall from 4pm to 7pm. Metro DC DSA’s Internationalism working group will be in attendance, meeting formally on Friday at 4pm near 3rd St & Jefferson Dr SW (on the mall). DSA members and allies are encouraged to sign up at the link to receive updates and information. (If a contingent is confirmed for the 8am to 10am portion of the action, notice will be provided to those who sign up at the link and in the chapter Slack #internationalism channel.)
DSA to provide free backpacks for parents at St. Stephen’s Church — August 17, 2pm to 6pm
On Saturday, August 17, Metro DC DSA will be handing out free backpacks to any parent who needs them from 2pm to 6pm at St. Stephen’s Church in Columbia Heights (1525 Newton St NW). Parents can sign up for a reminder by submitting information into this link, but backpacks will be provided until supplies run out.
Metro DC DSA members can sign up to help by filling out this form, and are invited to pop in and say hello. All are invited to stop by to learn more about DSA and police abolition organizing in the DMV.
Tenants continue TOPA petition canvassing — August 21, 6:30pm
Metro DC DSA’s tenant organizing arm, Stomp Out Slumlords, will be convening on Wednesday for another TOPA petition canvass. The landlord lobby is aggressively attacking District residents’ rights as renters, so tenants are preparing to not just counter this effort, but pursue an expansion of tenants rights in the city. Canvassing serves to inform DC renters of this attack and encourage them to take action. SOS will be meeting on Wednesday, August 21 at 6:30pm at the 2800 Woodley Apartments (2800 Woodley Road NW). SOS will provide a short training before the canvass and then pair up new canvassers with experienced door knockers.
BRIEFS
Metro DC DSA adopts internal security resolution following chapter vote
Ballots for Resolution 2024-07-GR1A: Resolution to Improve Chapter Security closed on Wednesday evening. The resolution as amended was approved by a vote of 172 members: 95 voted yes, 63 voted no, and 14 abstained.
The new resolution imposes new vetting requirements for chapter members interested in running for the Metro DC DSA steering committee, and mandates a vetting report be provided to members prior to steering elections. (Metro DC DSA’s next steering elections will take place at the end of the year, at the chapter’s local convention.)
Full text of the resolution, as well as full vote result archives, can be found on the chapter’s internal wiki. Members interested in getting wiki access should submit a request through reddesk.mdcdsa.org.
Registration for Fall 2024 Reading Groups is open
Metro DC DSA’s famous reading groups are preparing for their Fall rollout, and all are invited to sign up. Socialists are invited to bring in friends, family, comrades, roommates, coworkers and beyond to participate — groups start after Labor Day and most will wrap before Christmas (unless you are reading the new translation of Capital Vol. 1). These reading groups are a great way to meet new people, learn core works connected to socialism and political economy, build our capacity to learn and debate ideas and get connected to political education in the chapter.
Fall offerings include two groups reading the brand new translation of Capital Vol. 1; an ecosocialism and political economy group reading The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet; an Internationalism group reading Frantz Fanon’s classic Wretched of the Earth; the Rent Strike reading group going through classic local and international works on housing; a Family Abolition reading group reading M.E. O’Brien’s latest book by that title; a Capitalism & Culture group reading the best radical perspectives on “cultural” issues; a Prisons and Resistance Since Attica: Abolition reading group reading the Tip of the Spear; and a group for those interested in radical thinking around legal issues titled Marxism and The Law. Register to join one or more — most groups will meet online but with regular in-person social meetups to build group camaraderie.
DSA flyering at Dupont Circle — August 18 at 1pm
Want to get out the word about the chapter and its upcoming organizing and education programs in a fun and social way? Sign up through the reading group form to join a team going out to put up posters promoting the chapter’s Political Education and Labor work this Sunday, August 18 at 1pm, meeting at Dupont Circle. The posters will focus on Fall 2024 Reading Groups and promote its work organizing through the Labor Working Group. Participants will be grouped into teams of three — no experience necessary and wear clothes and shoes you wouldn’t mind getting dirty — registration is requested, for planning materials.
Red for Bread Starbucks solidarity campaign — Chevy Chase flyering on August 24
Starbucks Workers United is making history with one of the fastest-growing union campaigns in history. More than 10,500 workers at almost 500 stores are headed back into bargaining for their first contract, and they are asking for the community’s support. Starbucks is one of the most profitable companies on the planet. As workers, Starbucks Workers United is building a movement to have a real voice in determining and sharing that success. Their next round of bargaining starts soon and they are asking us to show up in support as part of Red for Bread weekend.
On Saturday, August 24 at 9am, socialists will be showing support at a unionized Starbucks in Chevy Chase and to hand out flyers to customers. RSVP here.
Poor planning means large rate increases for DMV’s Exelon power customers
PJM Interconnection, the grid organization that oversees the country’s largest grid region (including Maryland), held its annual “capacity” auction a few weeks ago to secure the resources needed to meet projected electricity demand in 2025-26. It resulted in a price surge, with a projected cost of $14 billion, compared to $2.2 billion from the previous auction, for 2024-25. Exelon, a utility company with customers across PJM’s footprint, has said the auction is likely going to lead to rate increases of at least 10%. The winners include anyone operating a coal, natural gas or nuclear plant that may be struggling to stay afloat financially. “It just shows how poor the planning is,” said Ric O’Connell, executive director of GridLab, a nonprofit that does technical analysis for regulators and renewable power advocates. He said “it’s depressing” that wind and solar make up such a tiny part of the mix. Consumers across PJM’s territory, from Chicago to North Carolina, who indirectly pay these costs through their electricity bills, lose when prices go up. PJM has a slow and cumbersome process for approving grid connections for new power plants, which means thousands of projects — most of them solar farms or battery storage — are left to wait in the equivalent of a traffic jam before they can go online.
More in utility research: From Inside Climate News and Utility Dive — and also subsequent Utility Dive (8/15), “Maryland electric customers face up to 24% bill hikes from PJM capacity auction: report” — Reliability-must-run contracts for two Talen Energy power plants added about $5 billion to PJM’s capacity costs in its last auction, Synapse Energy Economics found.
INFO ACCESS
Learn more about our local chapter — structure, campaigns and working groups, Night School and reading groups — HERE. And live from our studio, Wednesday, August 28, 7 – 8pm, Why You Should Join DSA / New Member Orientation (with Q&A). MDC DSA members: Join our Slack for real-time info, convo and inspiration. Email slack@mdcdsa.org with your most recent DSA dues receipt to get Slack access. #Publications (our working group’s Slack channel) is always ready to onboard new socialist communicators.
MDC DSA Publications is information central for not just MDC DSA but the entire DMV left. The Washington Socialist publishes articles on a quarterly schedule; the Summer 2024 edition is now live and will be updated on a rolling basis. Anyone, MDC DSA members or not, interested in contributing to the Washington Socialist can email submissions or questions to washingtonsocialist@mdcdsa.org. Get your socialist self on the record.
Weekly Updates are scheduled and emailed on Fridays; current and past Updates are on the web here. Submit your Update suggestions to the tip line, including nominating articles for ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVES. Donate to our Comradery page if you would like to financially support socialist publishing in the DMV.
DSA CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Friday, August 16
8am – 7pm | Not Another Bomb: Solidarity Action with Gaza in DC
Saturday, August 17
1:30 – 6pm | Kids not Cops: Abolition Backpack Drive
Sunday August 18
6 – 7pm | NoVA Electoral General Election Research Kickoff
7 – 8pm | MDC DSA Internationalism Monthly Meeting
Monday, August 19
7 – 8:30pm | MDC Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy Organizing Meeting
7:30 – 9pm | Steering AMA Solidarity Office Hours
Tuesday, August 20
6 – 7pm | NoVA Medicare for All Working Group Meeting
Wednesday, August 21
6:30 – 8pm | SOS TOPA petition canvass
Thursday, August 22
6pm | Social Housing Organizing Meeting
7pm | Member Engagement Monthly Meeting
Saturday, August 24
10:30am | Metro DC DSA Pool Party
1:30 – 4:30pm | SOS Anti-Eviction Canvas
Wednesday, August 28
7 – 8pm | Why You Should Join DSA/New Member Orientation
Friday, August 30
6 – 8:30pm | Final Fridays with MDC DSA
COMMUNITY BULLETIN
Community Organizing 101 | Gallery Y
The DC Museum of Sidewalk Stuff at Gallery Y is organizing a free workshop on Saturday, August 17, from 3 to 5pm. Join them for a reflective hang in the gallery, where you’ll learn about how to create a buddy system with your neighbors, talk about collective needs in your neighborhood or building, and rally to help each other. RSVP here.
Red Army/PFLP: World War & Xie Jin’s Red Detachment of Women | CCP Film Series at Suns Cinema
CCP is a monthly Sunday film series dedicated to presenting politically left-wing cinema, currently hosted by Suns Cinema in Washington, DC. CCP covers a vast array of socialist, communist, anarchist, trade unionist, anti-imperialist, and other revolutionary movements featured in lesser-known left-wing films. This Sunday, August 18th will feature a classic of left-wing political educational documentary and a well-known, but rarely screened socialist feminist blockbuster. Screening will begin at 6pm to show Red Army/PFLP: Declaration of World War. In 1971, Japanese filmmakers Wakamatsu and Adachi traveled to Lebanon to embed themselves with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-affiliated armed militants. During their stay they shot footage of the everyday lives of both the PFLP fighters and Palestinian refugees and produced Red Army/PFLP as a political educational documentary on the Palestinian struggle aimed at Japanese leftists. This will be followed at 8pm by Xie Jin’s socialist feminist classic, Red Detachment of Women, “… a loosely fictionalized account of the actions of the Hainan communist women’s militia during the Chinese Civil War.” Tickets available here.
No Walls No Wars | 411 Collective
On Saturday August 24, from 4 to 10pm at Scooby Doo Mansion, attend this 411 Collective fundraiser for Palestine with live music, DJs, original art, food and drinks, an interactive mural and more. Learn more on Instagram here.
The Cost of Inheritance | Reel & Meal
“The Cost of Inheritance,” a PBS documentary, explores how the current wealth gap between Black and white Americans stems from the legacy of slavery. Briayna Cuffie, a descendant of enslaved persons, collaborates with Lotte Lieb Dula, a descendant of slave owners, in a group called Reparations 4 Slavery. Cuffie will attend the screening in person.The film is free and live at 7pm on Monday, August 19 at the New Deal Cafe (Roosevelt Center, Greenbelt) and on Zoom. Online registration is required for “virtual” participants here.
ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVES
ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVES are articles and opinion pieces of interest to DMV leftists but not, generally, appearing in local media. They should have links without paywalls. Readers are invited to submit candidates at our tip line.
His Socialist Podcast Became a Surprise Hit. Now He’s an Uncommitted Democratic Delegate
With guests including Rashida Tlaib and Bernie Sanders, Daniel Denvir aims to bring critical theory to a growing audience. Denvir, who as host of the socialist podcast The Dig regularly criticizes the Democratic party from its left, will attend as an alternate Rhode Island delegate for the uncommitted movement, a nationwide effort to pressure the Democrats to change course on the war in Gaza. The Guardian
Ilhan Omar, without AIPAC’s Zionist cash-bombs, prevails big in primary.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) beat back a primary challenge and bucked the trend of some progressive “Squad” members failing to win renomination this year. Omar defeated Don Samuels 56 percent to 43 percent, a substantially wider margin than their first tete-a-tete in 2022. Unlike her colleagues Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO), Omar benefited from stronger institutional support, fewer political vulnerabilities and a lack of AIPAC spending against her [our emphasis], POLITICO reports. “It’s nonetheless a high-profile win for the left, which has taken some hits lately.”
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