Know Your Rights: DC’s Family & Domestic Violence Courts; oin Metro DC DSA to canvass for endorsed candidates; Socialist Political Engagement Committee to host Virtual Electoral Orientation
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
Know Your Rights: DC’s Family & Domestic Violence Courts — Saturday, September 27 at 3pm
Do you or someone you know
have questions about how family court works, how to file a protective
order, or what happens during divorce and/or child custody proceedings?
Prefer to resolve situations without relying on the cops or prosecutor’s
office? Want to know where to find the form to apply for a fee waiver?
Join Metro DC DSA’s Abolition Working Group for a Know Your Rights presentation about DC’s Family Court and Domestic Violence Court on Saturday, September 27 from 3 – 4:30pm on Zoom with live Spanish interpretation.
Participants
will learn how to navigate child custody matters without a lawyer,
discuss how to file for and get a Civil Protection Order and the impact
it has on custody cases, and get resources on legal organizations that
provide free legal advice or representation. Attendees will leave this event
empowered to fight for themselves and their children. Sign up here for this virtual event.
Join Metro DC DSA to canvass for endorsed candidates Frankie Santos Fritz for Greenbelt City Council and Omodamola Williams for Gaithersburg City Council
Frankie and Omo are fighting
for much-needed change in local government to support working people in
Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties. Metro DC DSA is continuing to
hold weekend canvasses for both of the chapter's endorsed candidates, and continued support is needed to get out the vote.
Doorknocking milestones set by the campaigns have been hit on schedule - maintaining the pace of the campaign is vital to secure victory.
Socialist Political Engagement Committee to host Virtual Electoral Orientation — Wednesday, October 1 at 6:30pm
This October 1, Metro DC DSA
is hosting an orientation to educate socialists on the foundational
skills for socialist electoral and canvassing operations. For all
interested in fighting capitalism and the stranglehold of the capitalist
duopoly but not sure where to start, this training is for you.
Right
now, Metro DC DSA is supporting the races of two candidates: Frankie
Santos Fritz for Greenbelt City Council and Omodamola Williams for
Gaithersburg City Council. The event will discuss how these campaigns
connect with DSA’s broader political strategy and provide education on
the skills needed to expand our range of tactics. Attendees will learn
about the candidates themselves and what they are fighting for, and how
DSA is working to bridge the gap between campaigns and voters.
The
orientation will allow attendees to focus on one of two areas of focus:
(1) Building popular support among DSA members and our communities for
ongoing canvass operations; or (2) learning the art of door knocking and
effective persuasion tactics at the door. The class will be entirely
virtual. Sign up for DSA’s electoral orientation here.
Endorsement Questionnaires are due Monday, October 20
Endorsement Resolution deadline is Monday, October 27
First read at general body meeting on Sunday, November 2
Candidate / Ballot Measure Campaign Q&As the week of Monday, November 17
Endorsement meeting in early December at Local Convention (exact date TBD)
All
who wish to submit a request for endorsement in the 2026 general
election cycle must return their completed endorsement questionnaire to
[email protected] by the deadline of Monday, October 20.
BRIEFS
Anacostia tenants progress towards victory in years-long fight against slumlords
A critical tenants’ struggle
in Anacostia achieved another milestone on Wednesday, with DC’s Office
of the Attorney General (AOG) seeking over $46 million in restitution to
tenants and other civil penalties to be shaken out of derelict
landlords.
Five years ago,
tenants organizing with Stomp Out Slumlords — Metro DC DSA’s tenant
organizing arm — at Marbury Plaza launched their fight against unlivable
conditions, which included health-damaging mold, major leaks, and
failing utility systems. Following persistent organizing and a rent
strike, the tenants secured their first victory in 2022 when AG Brian
Schwalb sued Marbury Plaza’s former owner, MP PPH LLC and their property
management firm Vantage Management over unlivable conditions. Their
second victory was won in 2023 when the DC Superior Court found MP PPH
in contempt of the Court’s order that critical health and safety
improvements on the property be made, and ordered a 50% rent abatement
for tenants, applied retroactively. In total, the rent abatements
returned more than $5 million to Marbury tenants.
But
the fight is not over. The case has moved to the penalty phase, where
OAG continues to seek restitution for tenants and civil penalties for
the District. On Wednesday, tenants turned out for a hearing at the DC
Superior Court where the judge heard arguments to determine the amount
owed to the tenants. The OAG is seeking $46 million in total — both the
judge and the OAG recognized this likely vastly underrepresents the true
compensation the tenants deserve for the conditions they’ve been forced
to live with. A final decision will be made in October, which will
almost certainly be appealed, meaning a final victory for Marbury Plaza
tenants looms far in the horizon. But the warpath at Marbury Plaza continues. Those looking to get involved in the fight against slumlords and fight for tenants’ rights in the DMV, fill out this form.
De-stress and socialize with socialists at Metro DC’s monthly happy hour — TONIGHT at 6pm
Organizing can be hard and
stressful, and while the victories make it worth it, they are sometimes
few and far between. Come out TONIGHT
at 6pm to Metro DC DSA’s next Final Friday happy hour at the Dew Drop
Inn (2801 8th St NE) to celebrate or commiserate in community with
fellow chapter members. Find comrades sitting with roses and DSA merch
and enjoy the cool fall weather with a pint. Sign up to receive updates here.
NoVA Branch DSA members: Geo-Rep ballots due by September 29
Ballots for the Northern
Virginia Branch’s Local Steering Committee (Geo-Rep) elections went out
to Northern Virginian members in good standing on Monday, September 22. If
you did not get a ballot and feel that you should have, please check
your spam folder and then reach out to [email protected] for
assistance. Ballots are due by Monday, September 29 at 11:59pm. Candidate statements can be found on the MDC DSA wiki here.
Per the Northern Virginia Branch charter, these four Local seats are
reserved for; (1) Arlington County, the City of Falls Church, and the
City of Alexandria; (2) Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax; (3)
Loudoun County and Fauquier County; (4) Prince William County, the City
of Manassas, and the City of Manassas Park.
Learn the art of (class) war: Virginia socialists to join Northern Virginia Labor Federation at three-day labor organizing training in Alexandria — October 3 – 5
The next three-day Inside Organizer School (IOS) is happening from Friday, October 3 to Sunday, October 5
in Alexandria. The school will be led by workers who spearheaded the
Starbucks union campaign and will provide valuable instruction on
organizing and bargaining skills. The event will also convene labor
organizers from across the DMV for networking and co-instruction. Thanks
to the Northern Virginia Labor Federation, there is no cost to attend
the school and meals will be provided. Sign up here to attend.
The
strategies pioneered and taught by the school have been pivotal in many
recent high-profile labor struggles at Starbucks, Amazon, and other
corporate employers. Advancing an emboldened labor movement is one of
the best ways for the working class to fight back against the powers of
capital, and plays a key role in backboning fights in other sites of
struggle against capitalism. Understanding the importance of building a
strong bench of labor organizers ready for action, United Auto Workers
President Shawn Fain and Flight Association (AFA-CWA) President Sara
Nelson stopped by to address organizers at last year’s Virginia IOS.
Learn more about the IOS’ tactics in Business Week: “The Undercover Organizers Behind America’s Union Wins.”
INFO ACCESS
The DMV continues to be under siege by militarist authoritarians. Want to fight fascism from the heart of the empire? Join DSA and fight to build socialism!
We’re the alternative that works for people, not profiteers and their
captive politicians. The next session of MDC DSA’s “Why You Should Join
DSA/New Member Orientation” is an in-person version set for Wednesday, October 8. Learn about the Metro DC chapter — branches, working groups, campaigns, current activities, and enduring values — at any time right here. Get inside our ideas and our work through our acclaimed “Socialist Night School” — archive is here.
Members are encouraged to join our Slack for real-time info on working
group and campaign events, strategy/tactic exchange, and inspiration.
Email [email protected] with your most recent DSA dues receipt to get
access.
Staying current with MDC DSA — Weekly Updates, like the one you are reading, are scheduled and emailed on Fridays; current and past Updates are available anytime on our website. The MDC Dispatch
is the chapter’s new video news series, published on the first and
third Sunday of each month. Submit your Update or Dispatch 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; check out the Socialist’stopic-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]. Members, look in on us or join at #publications on Slack.
DMV LEFT COMMUNITY BULLETIN
Boycott Target on September 27 | Jewish Voice for Peace-DC Metro
On Saturday, September 27, join
JVP-DC Metro on the picket line at 11am at the Columbia Heights Target.
The Boycott Target DMV Coalition, alongside national organizers, have
called for a boycott of Target until they reverse their decisions
capitulating to racist fascists. Plus, learn about the connections
between the fight for Palestinian liberation, against antisemitism, and
against racist fascism. RSVP here.
Mid-Autumn Festival on October 4 | Save Chinatown Solidarity Network
Join the Save Chinatown Solidarity
Network on Saturday, October 4, for their Mid-Autumn Festival
celebration. They will have mooncakes, tea, crafts, tai chi, and more.
Find more info on Instagram here.
2025 DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival on October 10-12
As we approach two years of unrelenting
genocide in Gaza, this year’s DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival
uncovers the layers of disruption that shape the experiences and
threaten the livelihoods of Palestinians and Occupied Palestine and
those in the diaspora witnessing it. Learn more about the full lineup
and get tickets 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.
The well-hidden threat of Open AI
Karen Hao’s long, detailed and excellent book, “Empire of AI,” gets a long and detailed review in The Nation.
She makes a strong case for her argument that the booming,
profit-seeking former nonprofit’s ambitions are not merely about scale
or the market but the creation of a global network of exploitation that
rivals a colonial power of old. Via Portside
Abolition is About Making Things…
Mariame
Kaba’s latest Substack dives into the power of imagination, reminding
us that imagination is a collective practice and, though our current
oppressive system was imagined into reality, we can also use imagination
to achieve liberation. A question driving Kaba that she invites us all
to consider is: What are the ruptures and breaks that allow us to pre-figure another way of living? Via Substack
Who’s Afraid of “Settler Colonialism”?
What
has made [the term] settler colonialism such an object of both
apprehension and dismissal? To its critics, the concept is analytically
unhelpful since it evokes a fact about all societies; if you go back far
enough, they all have original sins. In this argument, settler
colonialism isn’t a scholarly tool so much as an unhelpful accusation of
political guilt. What’s worse, critics fear that under the “political theology”
at play, the scales of justice can only be made right by removing those
excoriated as “settlers.” In the United States, this may be a farcical
nonstarter, but for Israel/Palestine, it is ultimately what Adam Kirsch
calls a “theory of a massacre.” Via Dissent
GI Resistance needs revival and support in era of Trump’s illegal orders
…it is not enough for About Face and
other movement organizations to be doing this work [support for troops
disobeying illegal orders] alone. The GI resistance needs mass support,
including support from elected officials. It is not enough for governors
to declare National Guard deployments to be illegal and
unconstitutional, like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker
has done. Elected officials also need to back up their words with
actions that don’t leave military members to face illegal and immoral
orders alone. They need to provide sanctuary, amnesty, and legal support
for military members who wish to refuse those illegal orders. Via Truthout. Also see David Ignatius’ WaPo column on purging of “JAG” military lawyers with roles designed to check illegal orders.
Immigrant Defense is the Frontline in the Fight for Democracy
As
repression increases, the need to be strategic increases as well. Bill
Gallegos explains how the successful struggle to force marines and the
National Guard out of Los Angeles provides an example of how to build a
united front against fascism. See his article in The New Liberator
Labor Turning the Corner? It Will Take More Than Mobilization
Rebuilding
the labor movement is similarly critical to the success of resistance
to reaction and to developing transformative alternative politics.
Michael Eisenscher, a longtime union activist, argues in an overview of
the last few decades of union history that militancy alone is not
enough, we need social justice unionism grounded in local union member
engagement. “We need to build a labor movement that recognizes,
articulates, and practices values that are fundamentally different from
those of the market, namely values of solidarity, equality, inclusivity,
community, and democracy.” from Portside
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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