Mass protests expected on DC streets this weekend as national rage builds against Trump’s fascist state; SUNDAY, April 6: Chapter General Body Meeting to go over DSA National Convention engagement; The Burning Case for a Socialist Green New Deal: A Conversation with Dr. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
This is the weekly newsletter of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America (MDC DSA), which is
produced by local members of the chapter's Publications Working Group. The Weekly Update publishes every
Friday at 9am. Want to fight fascism from the heart of empire? Join DSA and fight to build socialism!
Paid for by Metro DC DSA (mdcdsa.org). Not authorized by any candidate or committee.
UP FRONT
Mass protests expected on DC streets this weekend as
national rage builds against Trump’s fascist state
Another week in the heart of empire: The Republicans’ plot to destroy the social safety net begins to emerge; the
extra-judicial kidnappings of immigrants by ICE squads continue; the illegal assault on collective bargaining rights
by Trump’s cabal of morons drones on; techno-fascists loot the government for profit; and the US keeps up the
support for Israel’s genocide and never-ending war. This weekend, mass numbers of Americans are planning to take to
the streets across the country to voice their opposition to this rogue regime.
Could this be the emergence of an American popular front? The streets will tell the story. Here’s
what socialists have planned this weekend:
DEFEND IMMIGRANTS: Press conference to Protect DC’s Sanctuary Status — TODAY — 5pm in Mt.
Pleasant As cruel ICE raids and mass deportations continue nationwide, the
Migrant Families Collective will be holding a press conference at 5pm at Lamont Plaza (3210 Mt. Pleasant St
NW) to tell Mayor Bowser and councilmembers to protect DC’s status as a Sanctuary City (limiting cooperation
with immigration authorities). Mayor Bowser's cowardly submission to Trump will not stop at the assault on
immigrants —when will this city fight back? Attendees are requested to wear black
and bring face masks.
DEFEND LABOR:
Hands Off! Rally to tell oligarchs HANDS OFF public services — Saturday, April 5 — 11:45am
at Pershing Park This Saturday, April 5, federal workers, labor unions, and
the broad left are organizing a mass national mobilization to denounce the corporate takeover of the United
States. Masses will march for many reasons, but are determined to send a common message: Hands Off our
democracy, our rights, our livelihoods, and our neighbors! The DSA contingent is planning to
meet at Pershing Park (1440 Pennsylvania Ave NW) at 11:45am, and will march to the
Washington Monument to join the broader mobilization by 12pm. Members and allies can RSVP
here for detailed notice. Check out handsoff2025.com for more
information.
DEFEND STUDENTS and
FREE PALESTINE: March on Washington for Palestine — Saturday, April 5
— 12:30pm at Marshall Park
As the Trump state expands repression at home, Israel’s
US-backed genocide of Palestine continues. Thousands are converging on Washington to demand an end to
genocide, a liberated Palestine, and the freedom of students and immigrants taken as political prisoners by
Trump’s gestapo for their pro-Palestinian speech. The DSA contingent is planning to meet at John
Marshall Park (400 C St NW) at 12:30pm, to join the wider mobilization at
Pennsylvania & 3rd at 1pm.Members and allies can RSVP
here for detailed notice.
Nonviolent action is a core commitment of these mass events. All participants are expected to de-escalate potential
confrontations. Chapter members can read a more detailed accounting in the chapter Slack #announcements and
#action-alerts channels.
Can’t attend events this weekend? The DSA will be organizing beyond protest. DSA members interested
in getting involved in migrant justice support can review the #migrantjustice Slack channel and/or fill out
the Migrant Justice Subcommittee’s interest
form. Those looking to organize with the Internationalism Working Group can visit #internationalism
and fill out the IWG interest
form. And prospective DSA labor organizers should visit #labor and fill out the LWG
interest form.
Planning to go out this weekend? We urge you to review the COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY notice in briefs below before
heading out.
SUNDAY, April 6: Chapter General Body Meeting to go
over DSA National Convention engagement
Metro DC DSA is holding a General Body Meeting
(GBM) this Sunday, April 6, from 2 to 4pm. General Body Meetings are where chapter members receive updates on
campaigns and administrative updates, and discuss chapter resolutions and governance. The meeting is taking
place at Rockville Memorial Library (21 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, MD 20850), but will also be fully
hybrid for those who can’t attend in person. Hybrid attendees can receive login details on registration.
Members are strongly encouraged to register in advance of the meeting.
At this GBM, members will be receiving notice of upcoming delegate elections for the DSA National Convention. This summer, hundreds of DSA members from
across the US will be converging in Chicago to consider and vote on national resolutions, national bylaw changes,
the national platform, and National Political Committee leadership.The chapter will need to elect delegates to
represent Metro DC DSA at the convention (the chapter is estimated to have 46 delegates). Find
more info RE convention rules in the 2025 DSA Convention Handbook.
The Metro DC DSA Steering Committee voted previously to set the tentative opening for delegate nominations on April
20th, and identified the May 18th GBM as the meeting where delegate voting method will be decided by the
membership. At this GBM, assembled members will also discuss a resolution and amendment relevant to the
upcoming delegate elections:
Resolution
2025-04-GR01 — To Poll Membership on Delegate Election Voting Method proposes conducting a
nonbinding poll of chapter members via OpaVote on different delegate voting systems. It also
confirms that a separate, official vote for ratifying the delegate election voting method will take
place via live voting at the May 18th GBM.
Amendment
to 2025-04-GR01 — proposes facilitating this poll through the chapter’s Weekly Update (the
official vote on chapter process will take place on May 18th). This amendment will be discussed before the
base resolution is considered.
Although alternative voting systems are allowed for consideration by the chapter, Article VI, Section 3 of the National DSA Constitution clarifies that the Hare
system (STV) is to be used if: (1) a petition from ten percent (10%) of a Chapter’s membership; (2) a motion
supported by fifteen percent (15%) of those present and voting at a Chapter meeting determining delegate election
methods; or (3) if a meeting determining a voting method is not held. Chapter members in support of Hare/STV have
been circulating this petition for consideration.
The Burning Case for a Socialist Green New Deal: A
Conversation with Dr. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò — Tuesday, April 8 at 7pm
Join Metro DC DSA on Tuesday, April 8 from 7 to 9pm for a conversation
on socialist climate politics with Dr. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Georgetown professor, DSA member, and author of
Reconsidering Reparations and Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And
Everything Else), followed by an interactive session about DC’s local Green New Deal campaigns and
strategies for the path forward. The neoliberal climate agenda has failed us. As Americans face down four years of
federal environmental backsliding, the need for locally driven movements to advance transformative climate justice
policy and build a Green New Deal has never been more urgent. Register
for the conversation here.
BRIEFS
Metro DC DSA to hold special election to fill Steering
Committee vacancy — ballots to go out Saturday, April 12 through April 14th
Metro DC DSA’s Steering Committee currently has a vacancy. As of April 1st, two candidates have accepted their
nominations to run to fill the slot: Julia P and Shawn V. A full ballot will go out to eligible voting members on April
12th and will stay open until April 14th. Chapter members are encouraged to read their self-submitted
survey questions here and will be able to interact with the candidates in a chapter forum to occur sometime next
week (a recording will be made available). Chapter members with Slack access can review more details in the
#announcements channel (see Info Access, below, for access details). The election is being facilitated by the
Internal Elections Facilitation Department, and will use the approval voting system.
Communications security and protest safety
notice
Under the Trump administration, there has been an increased willingness to target demonstrations, including seizing
phones. As many protests are taking place this weekend, and more are likely to emerge throughout the spring, all
activists, protesters, and leftists should take as many safety precautions as possible. Not sure where to start? Read this protest preparation checklist. Don’t overlook
technological self-defense — read this self-defense
guide for surveillance-prepping your tech before you march.
Socialists planning to join the DSA contingent are encouraged to follow this guidance:
If you don’t already have it on your phone, Signal is recommended for
coordinating with people in your contingent.
Write the DC National Lawyers Guild legal helpline number (202) 850-0010 in sharpie somewhere on your body that
will be easy for you to see such as your forearm. This way, you can readily call the number from jail even if
you don’t have your phone.
Most importantly: Turn off Face ID, thumb scans, or any other biometric way to unlock your
phone. The police cannot force you to give them a password, but they can legally hold your phone up to your face
(or thumb, or however it works on your device) to unlock it. Doing this doesn’t just protect you
— it protects everyone in your phone.
Metro DC DSA Street Team monthly meeting —
Saturday, April 5 at 11am
Build power in the DMV and join the Metro DC DSA Street Team by attending the monthly meeting on Saturday, April 5
from 11am to 12:30pm at the Cleveland Park Library 2nd floor meeting room. This event is for anyone interested in
getting active in the chapter’s Street Team to build socialist power in the DMV. The Street Team hosts and attends
community events to connect Metro DC DSA and its campaigns with the community in the DMV in order to expand the
chapter’s base and build a more democratic society. A Street Team tabling at the DC History Conference at MLK Memorial
Library will follow. All are encouraged to attend in-person. RSVP here for the Street Team monthly meeting.
Restaurant workers rallying at Wilson Building on
Tuesday, April 8 at 10am in response to I82 threat from RAMW
The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) is pressuring
the DC Council to repeal Initiative 82, despite no councilmembers introducing such legislation. Instead of
respecting the will of voters, RAMW is spreading misleading claims about job losses while restaurants impose
confusing service fees that cut into workers’ tips.
RAMW’s focus on worker wages is curious, given that it is not the largest source of cost increases posed to
restaurants. They could be advocating for policies in DC that would actually control costs posed to restaurants:
commercial rent control, fairer licensing fees, or expanded public benefits such as paid family leave or universal
healthcare coverage to reduce business overhead. RAMW’s mission, however, is not to represent the interests of
legitimate local business. Their objective is to represent the interests of the National Restaurant Association. In
creating a stir, their objective is to seed the impression that increasing worker wages is creating problems for
restaurants, so that similar initiatives do not take hold in other states and cities. Bastards.
The Fair Price, Fair Wage coalition, which includes Metro DC DSA, is calling on the public to show support for
Initiative 82 by attending a press conference in front of the Wilson Building at 10am on Tuesday, April 8. Workers
and allies intend to lobby the council afterwards in order to steel resolve in the Wilson Building against RAMW’s
cynical propaganda campaigns. View the latest Fair
Price, Fair Wage policy memo to learn more about the ongoing fight.
Austerity & Fascism reading group to hold conversation
with author and economist Clara Mattei — Thursday, April 10 at 6pm
MDC DSA’s Austerity & Fascism reading group will be speaking with Clara Mattei about her book The Capital
Order, the implications of the history she recounts, and the analysis she provides on our present
political-social-economic conjuncture. The conversation will be online on Zoom at 6pm on April 10 — details
and an RSVP will be forthcoming at #political-education.
Metro DC DSA Book Exchange at Wangari Gardens Spring
Festival — Saturday, April 12 at 1pm
The Metro DC DSA Book Exchange and Street Team will be at the Wangari Gardens Spring Festival on Saturday, April 12
from 1 to 4pm with button-making and print-making, book sales from After the Storm, and ways to get involved with the
chapter. Bring a book, take a book (or two or three), and join your neighbors for a potluck, yard games, music, and
educational workshops. Learn more about Wangari
Gardens Spring Festival on Instagram.
The Facility hybrid film screening and panel
discussion — Saturday, April 12 at 2:30pm
Join the NoVA Abolition Working Group on Saturday, April 12 from 2:30 to 4pm at Arlington Central Library and online
for a hybrid film screening and panel discussion of The Facility, a documentary about the organizing led by
migrants detained in the Irwin County Detention Facility at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizer Nilson
Barahona, featured in the film, will be part of the panel. The event is free to the public.
Whether or not you can attend, if you are financially able, NoVA Abolition is encouraging supporters to make a
donation to Free Them All and LaColectiva’s Liberation Fund. This fund supports migrants affected by systems of
detention and deportation with needs such as commissary, post-release support, and more. You can donate through
Venmo @LaColectiVA with the note “Liberation fund.” *This event is not sponsored by Arlington Public Library. RSVP for
the film screening here.
INFO ACCESS
MDC Dispatch (new feature!) The MDC Dispatch is the chapter’s new video news series, published on
the first and third Sunday of each month. Subscribe to our YouTube
channel and enable “All” notifications to be alerted to new installments.
Staying current: MDC DSA members: Join our all-member Slack for real-time info on working group and
campaign events, convo, and inspiration. Email [email protected] with your most recent DSA dues receipt to get Slack
access. Chapter members are also invited to read — and edit — MDC DSA’s internal wiki. Email [email protected] to get set up or ask in
#helpdesk.
Making MDC DSA hum: MDC DSA Publications Working Group is information central not only for MDC DSA
but the entire DMV left. #publications (our working group’s Slack channel) is how to get a flavor of how we
work. Weekly Updates like the one you are reading are scheduled and emailed on Fridays; current and past Updates are
on the web here. Not subscribed? DSA member or not, sign up to get the Update here. Submit your Update
suggestions or DMV scandal tips to our
tip line.
The Washington Socialist, published since the 1970s, offers in-depth analytical/opinion articles on a
quarterly schedule; the Spring 2025 quarterly
issue went live a week ago. Check out our indexed
and searchable archive to see what we write — and what you can write. Anyone, MDC DSA member or not,
interested in contributing to the Washington Socialist can email submissions or questions to
[email protected]. Get your socialist self on the record. Donate to our Comradery page if you would like to financially support
socialist publishing in the DMV.
DMV LEFT COMMUNITY BULLETIN
Hands Off Our Schools Student Rally on April 4
A coalition of student governments of local universities are holding a student rally TODAY, Friday, April 4, at 4pm
outside the Department of Education. They are protesting the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on our education,
stripping our schools of diversity, freedom of speech, and access. K-12 students and all community members are invited
to join. Learn more in this Instagram post and let them know if
you’ll make it here.
Recess at the Capitol Pt. 2 on April 7 | Free DC
Congress is threatening funding for DC schools. Keep making noise! Meet at the Spirit of Justice Park on Monday,
April 7, any time between 9:30am to 3pm. Advocacy trainings and family-friendly recess activities are happening all
day. Learn more and RSVP here.
“Stop Solitary” Event on April 7 | UDC
This in-person gathering will bring together advocates from the community to raise awareness and drive change to end
solitary confinement. On Monday April 7, between 11am and 5pm at UDC, meet community partners like Harriet’s Wildest
Dreams and Voices Unbarred, and attend film screenings, workshops, and panel discussions. More info
here.
Copaganda on April 8 | Busboys and Poets
Writer Alec Karakatsanis is well known on social media and substack for writing about the police, media, and
“copaganda.” He is coming to DC on a book tour for his new book, Copaganda, on Tuesday, April 8 at Busboys
& Poets on K St. All book royalties are being donated to community organizations. Book
event info is 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.
Radical
Change Isn’t Free The Black Panthers shook America awake before the party was eviscerated by
the US government. Their children paid a steep price, but also emerged with unassailable pride and burning lessons
for today. A generational account of an enduring factor in today’s struggle. From The Guardian via Portside
Studio Ghibli in the Age
of AI Reproduction
The writer notes the underhanded use of AI knockoffs of the popular and beloved Studio Ghibli style in right-wing and
deformative propaganda: “Fascism attempts to organize the newly proletarianized masses while leaving intact the
property relations which they strive to abolish. It sees its salvation in granting expression to the masses
—but on no account granting them rights. The masses have a right to
changed property relations; fascism seeks to give them expression in keeping these relations unchanged.”
— from the blog Read Max
Will
Federal Workers Rediscover Their Militancy?
Trump has destroyed a federal system of labor relations that helped contain conflict for decades. The move could have
unintended consequences, one being rousing the union movement and its allies to a more confrontational opposition to
his agenda than anyone could have foreseen. DISSENT.
Choosing Lawlessness
Despite having no
criminal convictions and possessing a valid “withholding of removal” order based on credible threats to his life in
El Salvador, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was sent by the Trump administration to a notorious Salvadoran prison
without due process, prompting accusations that the administration “has chosen lawlessness.” Learn more and read his
story. Popular Information — and Thursday’s
latest from NYT
The Trump Administration’s goal for cutting educational funding: “Trump loves the poorly
educated”, and he prefers more, not fewer. Julianne Malveaux examines this in the
Washington Informer.
And the other side of cutting education is keeping people in prison. There is a major push now in the Maryland
legislature to pass the Second Look Act — a bill that would give people who have been locked up for 20 years
the opportunity to get parole. The title of the article by Leigh Goodmark in Maryland Matters says it all:
Some
Offenders Were Victims First; It’s Time to Pass the Second Look Act.
Longtime chapter member Kurt S writes about the new anti-fascist resistance in Z: All of us or none of
us.
This is the weekly newsletter of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America (MDC DSA), which is produced by
local members of the chapter's Publications working group. The Weekly Update publishes every Friday at
9am.
Paid for by Metro DC DSA (mdcdsa.org). Not authorized by any candidate or committee.
Thinking about it, but want to get this email Update every Friday? SIGN UP
HERE
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 its chains, shatters them and stops inebriated to
breathe the breeze of a vast and free horizon. - Virgilia D'Andrea
Sent via ActionNetwork.org.
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