Walking Tours with Metro DC DSA

On Sunday, November 17, 2024 at 1pm, the DC Walking Tour: A History of Police Violence, sponsored by the Abolition Working Group, explored downtown DC sites of historical and recent police violence, led by the incredible speakers Afeni Evans, Alec Karakatsanis, Derecka Purnell, Qiana Johnson, and Vendedores Unidos. Kicking off at Black Lives Matter Plaza, the walking tour explored how police, prisons and carceral logic are used to put forward an idea of “safety” that in practice only makes life even harder for DC residents with the least access to resources. The tour shared alternative visions for the abolition of police and prisons, to build the city we deserve where we keep ourselves and our neighbors truly safe.

The DC Labor History Walking Tour, held on Sunday, May 12, 2024, sponsored by the Labor Heritage Foundation, visited several landmarks and paid tribute to the past and ongoing struggle of the American working class. Attendees heard from a broad range of union organizers and labor experts who spoke about the early rise of labor power, the formations of the AFL and CIO, the violent state suppression of workers during World War 1, how workers fought back and won critical concessions through the Great Depression, the corporate conservative retaliation against unions that still impact workers today, the role neoliberal led international trade play in undercutting American labor, and more.

The History of Tenant Rights Walking Tour visited 3 sites around Columbia Heights connected to the history of how tenants came together to demand rent control, better housing conditions, buy the buildings from their landlord and form cooperatives, organize tenant unions, and exercise their power to get the DC Council to pass the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase (TOPA) Act.

The Spies and US Imperialism Walking Tour explored 3 sites in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington connected to how imperialism and spycraft have shaped the landscape and architecture of the region over the past century. The Walking Tour was led by Professors Andrew Friedman and Dan Greene -and they covered how global reactionary networks were forged in Northern Virginia by the Reagan CIA, how the layout of the region and the architecture of its hotels and office buildings are affected by the US’s imperial project, how the “Watergate Scandal” reflected larger systems of repression against the Left, the history behind why the region is a hub for the infrastructure of the internet and how the real estate market mediates private and public infrastructure functions.

Led by Katie Wells and Declan Cullen, the authors of Disrupting DC, participants at the Big Tech and Capitalism: DC Walking Tour visited three sites in downtown DC to learn how tech firms like Uber have undermined racial justice, remade urban spaces, and profited through lobbying and influence in local government. Tour members heard how Uber was a social and geographic “solution” to an economic crisis—but one that came with a cost to labor rights and the city’s democracy.

Led by Malcolm Harris, author of Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, this tour brought Malcolm’s DC-related research to 3 stops downtown connected to capitalism and the American Empire. At the Tour, attendees learned how Herbert Hoover organized American capitalism before and after his Presidency, what the real “Iran-Contra” scandal was, and how Stanford and tech money enable reactionary organizing.

Hosts from the Chapter explained how institutions such as the Carlyle Group, Pepco, and City Center DC create and maintain extreme wealth in the District — and how they reshape DC’s skyline and public spaces to make the city safe for the 1%. The Walking Tour drew on original research on private equity, public utilities, and luxury real estate in DC to document how they exploit rentier capitalism and political connections.

During this tour, host Christy Thornton connected the rise of neoliberal methods abroad and locally to lobbying firms, international institutions, and the Wilson Building around downtown DC. Christy shared the history of neoliberalism as propagated from DC, and Chapter members made connections to DC local governance and contemporary campaigns to democratize DC and build international socialism. See video of the Tour here.

During this tour, hosts Tanya Golash-Boza and Mara Cherkasky explored three sites in Northwest DC connected to how Brightwood Park was segregated and resegregated in ways that connected to race and class. The Walking Tour linked the area’s history to contemporary struggles over policing and housing.

Stuart Schrader and DSA members shared their work on the exchange of violent police tactics and its roots in DC at four stops: the former International Police Services site, the Letelier-Moffitt Memorial at Sheridan Circle, the Anti-Defamation League, and the former International Police Academy site at the Car Barn in Georgetown. Attendees connected organizing work against policing and the exchange of violent policing tactics to the present day, specifically to ongoing organizing to ban Israeli Occupation Forces training with the Metropolitan Police Department.

January 30, 2021. Chapter members learned more about the history and structure of organizations that police DC by visiting four sites around Judiciary Square: Metropolitan Police Headquarters, the US Attorney of DC, the Law Enforcement Museum, and the Fraternal Order of Police regional lodge. Attendees heard original research on DC police, prosecution, police unions and the ideological apparatus supporting it all — provided by volunteer tour guides.