This past election cycle, the Metro DC Democratic Socialists have been organizing in support of endorsed candidates and a ballot measure in the DMV. Election day is Tuesday – do not forget to vote. Electoral organizing will never be the sole method for constraining and ending capitalist hegemony – but it is a necessary supplement to the labor and working-class organizing that happens on the streets and in our workplaces.
In DC, the DSA has endorsed Zachary Parker for Ward 5 District Councilmember. Parker has run on a people-first platform, and if elected he will join fellow democratic socialist Janeese Lewis-George to champion DC’s working-class on the Council.
The DSA has also endorsed Ballot Initiative 82, which would raise the tipped minimum wage in DC over five years to be pegged to DC’s minimum wage. Ending the tipped minimum wage is critical to addressing the unacceptable exploitation, financial instability, and gender and racial pay disparities experienced by tipped workers. DC residents can check their voter registration status and other registration information on the DC Board of Elections website. Early voting will take place until November 6 in the District. If you are voting by mail or drop-off ballot, don’t forget to turn your ballot over to vote on Initiative 82! If you are unsure how to vote in some of DC’s critical races, you can refer to the Washington Socialists’ REDBUG General election guide here. The guide is designed to be mobile friendly, so you can even bring it to the ballot box with you.
In Maryland, the DSA has endorsed incumbent Gabe Acevero for Maryland House of Delegates District 39. Since taking office, Acevero has been an unapologetic champion for justice and working class power and a dedicated MDC DSA comrade. Each year in the General Assembly, he routinely championed Anton’s Law, which sought to roll back protections for police officers who have been accused of misconduct. Due to his efforts in coordination with policing reform advocates, that law went into effect October 2021. You can check your voter registration status or polling place look-up through the Maryland State Board of Elections website.
Where Does Brazil Go Now? — Socialist Night School — Monday, November 7 at 6pm (hybrid)
On October 30, Brazilians reelected former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to an unprecedented third term, defeating far-right extremist incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Despite an entrenchment of deeply reactionary forces in Brazil’s recent congressional and gubernatorial races, Lula has mounted an epic political comeback, confronting a right-wing onslaught in the world’s fourth-largest democracy.
The world looks much different today than it did twenty years ago when Lula was first elected. Brazil faces enormous challenges and opportunities—some old, some new—in the years ahead. With global attention on Brazil as Lula turns to the task of shaping his administration, it is not too soon to ask how he will govern, or what the Brazilian left’s task is moving forward. On Monday, November 7, join Sabrina Fernandes and Andre Pagliarini for a conversation about the campaign and its implications, Brazilian history, the left, and possible futures for Latin America’s largest nation. In addition to RSVPing, please fill out this form if you are interested in joining us in-person (near Dupont Circle). DSA members and supporters are welcome.
Final GOTV canvass in support of Initiative 82 — Saturday, November 5 and Sunday, November 6
For the past two months, DSA members have been knocking doors to get out the vote in support of Initiative 82. So far, the DSA has knocked over 11,600 doors – this weekend is the last opportunity to boost turnout in support of higher wages and fairer working conditions for DC’s tipped minimum wage workers. If you’d like to get the word out for Initiative 82, fill out this form and a DSA organizer will be in touch. This weekend, the DSA is swinging over to Ward 8 to finish strong. Large corporations and local business moguls have dumped over $600,000 to finance a nebulous propaganda campaign against Initiative 82 – but their action is no match for the DSA’s boots-to-pavement effort.
BRIEFS
NoVA Branch DSA Updates Monthly Branch Meeting Format to Boost Political Education — November 10 at 6:30pm
NoVA branch members are being asked to read an article in advance of our Monthly “All Hands” Business Meeting. The article will align with the meeting theme. Next week’s meeting theme is Medicare 4 ALL and we are asking folks to read this Medicare 4 ALL Organizing Guide beforehand. To attend our meeting, please RSVP. For those joining in person, we’ll now be in the Bluemont Room on the 2nd floor of the library with a 35-person capacity. You can also attend remotely. RSVP for more details.
Green New Deal for Social Housing: Testify by November 17th — new DSA working group forms in support of social housing
DC Councilmember and DSA elected official Janeese Lewis George has introduced the Green New Deal for Social Housing Amendment Act of 2022. The bill, which already has majority support in the Council, would allow investments in District-owned social housing developments and require the mayor to evaluate certain properties for conversion into social housing developments before disposing of them. It will also make DC a leader in the fight against the climate crisis by making sure all buildings run on clean energy and have zero emissions. At the same time, it will also make sure each building has strong tenant control – the ability to elect leadership, hire and fire management companies, and manage a community budget. But to make sure it passes in its complete form, supportive public testimony is needed.
The first public hearings for the bill will be held virtually. Sign-up (before Nov. 15) to give a short public statement (3 minutes or less) in support of the legislation at 11am on November 17th. You can do so in written form, in person or over Zoom. If you’d like to testify, you can sign up here. And if you’d like guidance on how to testify, you can find it here. Written statements can be submitted to [email protected] until December 1st.
A new DSA working group has formed to advance the legislation and support Councilmember Lewis George’s efforts. If you would like to join the new Social Housing Working Group to advance the legislation, email: [email protected]. Check out next week’s update for news on a 11/10 special information session with Ed Lazere, Saoirse Gowan, and more.
Metro DC DSA Fall Book Exchange — Saturday, November 12 at noon
Join Metro DC DSA for a fall book exchange and DC Public Library card sign-up on Saturday, November 12 from noon to 3pm at Alethia Tanner Park. Bring your books, pick up some free swag and learn about getting access to library resources in DC and surrounding areas. The event is open to all and will take place at Alethia Tanner Park, 227 Harry Thomas Way NE, Washington, DC 20002. An alternate location will be announced in advance if it rains. See you there!
Candidate Accountability: What it looks like and why we do it — Tuesday, November 15 at 7pm
The Political Engagement Committee is inviting all chapter members to its Tuesday, November 15 meeting for a discussion on candidate accountability. As socialists aiming to win political power, it’s vital we know how, when, and why we keep elected officials in line with their campaign promises. We’ll have an internal discussion about what that should look like, issues the chapter has had in the past, and how we’ve dealt with it then. This discussion will serve as a basis for another discussion at our yearly convention on the topic. You can sign up for the accountability session here.
Metro DC DSA Fall Book Exchange — Saturday, November 12 at noon
Join Metro DC DSA for a fall book exchange and DC Public Library card sign-up on Saturday, November 12 from noon to 3pm at Alethia Tanner Park. Bring your books, pick up some free swag and learn about getting access to library resources in DC and surrounding areas. The event is open to all and will take place at Alethia Tanner Park, 227 Harry Thomas Way NE, Washington, DC 20002. An alternate location will be announced in advance if it rains. See you there!
Gamenite is back in NOVA — today starting at 6:30pm at The Board Room in Arlington
It’s located near the Clarendon Metro Station. NoVA DSA had a great turnout last month and hope to host a monthly Gamenite. RSVP link here.
MDC DSA now has tote bags
Metro DC DSA is leading the fight against inequality and fascism in the DMV. We are the democratic, organizing home of the socialist movement because of working people like you who volunteer your energy to help us win our priority campaigns. We are asking for your help to power and sustain these efforts. Contributions like these help us elect endorsed candidates to the DC Council, support tenant organizing, stand with workers, fight to defund MPD, win public power and so much more.
When you sign up for a $10/month recurring donation, we’ll send you a code to get a free tote bag from our merch store. We think they’re pretty cool and we can’t wait to see you carrying your things in them around the district.
You can also check out some of our other merch offerings here. We just restocked the MDC DSA T-shirts and hoodies that many are calling an ‘instant classic’. (You’re hearing this more and more.)
INFO ACCESS
Publications Schedule: We are postponing publication of the November Washington Socialist to next week – Friday, November 11 – to provide election coverage and analysis. The Washington Socialist monthly newsletter is published in harness with the weekly update every month. November Updates are scheduled for Fridays, Nov. 11 (including the newsletter’s articles), 18 and (for Thanksgiving) Wednesday the 23rd, and the December monthly newsletter will be dated Friday, December 2.
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 [email protected].
Our annual MDC DSA convention (on December 10-11) 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. Did you know that between our local conventions, “In the absence of a local convention, the members present and assembled at a general body meeting represent the general body membership and are the highest decision-making authority in the chapter”? (Bylaws 3.1) A second workshop on how to propose bylaw amendments and resolutions is set for Sunday, Nov. 13, details to come but save that date. As a reminder, the deadline to submit bylaw amendments and resolutions for convention will be November 21st. Here is a look at last year’s 2021 Convention Bulletin, with full texts of all submitted resolutions.
COMMUNITY BULLETIN
Seeking Food/Toiletry Donations | Powell Community Farm
DC Parks and Recreation’s newest community farm, Powell Farm in Ward 1, is looking for items to supplement their weekly veggie giveaway as production at the farm slows. Each Thursday from 11am-12pm, Powell Community Farm harvests fresh produce and flowers to share freely with the community. They are hoping to stretch this giveaway into December, if possible. If you have extra non-perishable foods, veggies from your own garden, toiletries or other community supplies to share, please email [email protected] to coordinate.
Donate Your Spare Halloween Candy | HIPS DC
Sitting on a stash of extra candy? Give it to the HIPS Outreach Mobile Van! Wrapped candy can be dropped off at HIPS H Street location (906 H Street NE) during open office hours (11am-1pm). Schedule bulk pickup (5lb bags or larger) by contacting HIPS at [email protected]rg org calling 202-232-8150.
Co-Learning Workshop | Ujamaa Seeds
On Saturday, November 12 at 4pm, learn about the Young Researchers Community Project (YRCP) serving youth in Prince George’s and Charles Counties and the birth, in 2021, of the Ujamaa Cooperative Farmers Alliance (UCFA) to foster the growing of culturally meaningful seeds. UCFA, a program under the nonprofit STEAM ONWARD, is a BIPOC led collective that recognizes the need for increased diversity in farming and in the $15 billion U.S. seed industry. The UCFA works to bridge the gap between prospective growers and seed companies. Register for this online event here.
Call To Edit Radical Fiction? | After the Storm
The futurist publication After the Storm is looking for editors to help them handle their submissions. If you want to help create fantastical new worlds that flesh out what a post-capitalist fiction would like, then this might be a great opportunity for you. Editors are also free to submit their own stories as well. Please reach out to [email protected] for more details.
ESSENTIAL TRAFFIC
Reparations as a Construction Project – An interview in The Progressive with Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, the Georgetown University philosopher whose constructionist melding of reparations for global racialist empire with climate-change mitigation is the subject of an MDC DSA political education reading group this fall.
In their already disrupted lives, households are the last people who can keep track of costs to them vs. profits of the corporadoes. The corporadoes, however, have no problem making those adjustments, and always in their favor… “Food Prices Soar, and So Do Companies’ Profits,” reports the NYT – “Some companies and restaurants have continued to raise prices on consumers even after their own inflation-related costs have been covered.”
A longform report by The Nation reveals federal and state police collaboration in crushing racial justice movements and prosecuting protestors with extreme sentences.
The NYT’s Tom Edsall is back! (you know you missed him), and in this typically thorough and rather dispiriting dive into how AI (artificial intelligence) can accelerate automation of more jobs and devalue educational attainment up the ladder, he suggests once more that unless the people own the robots, it’ll be the reverse, with corporate capitalists raking it in behind the curtain. Note that Musk is actually making a huge move, shifting the monetization of his brand-new social media platform from advertising to subscriptions. Is this a trend (or monopoly capitalism’s version of a “non-reformist reform”)?
DSA CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Most MDC DSA meetings remain remote-only. To join remote meetings, members will need to register at the event link provided and receive the remote-access link by email.
Friday, November 4
6:30 – 9pm | NoVA DSA Gamenite (in person)
Sunday, November 6
7:30pm | NoVA DSA Labor Meeting
Monday, November 7
5 – 7pm | Where Does Brazil Go Now? — Socialist Night School
Wednesday, November 9
6 – 9pm | MoCo DSA Post-election front yard party (in person)
Thursday, November 10
6:30 – 8pm | NoVA Branch Monthly Organizing Meeting (hybrid attendance) — Theme = Medicare 4 ALL
Saturday, November 12
noon – 3pm | Metro DC DSA Fall Book Exchange
1pm | Rent Stabilization Canvass (in person)
3 – 4pm | Publications WG meeting
Tuesday, November 15
5 – 7pm | Socialist Night School Film Screening: Barry Farm: Community, Land and Justice in Washington, D.C.
7 – 8:30pm | MDC DSA Political Engagement Committee: Candidate Accountability – what it is, why we do it.
Wednesday, November 16
7 – 8:30pm | How to Organize a Walking Tour – Political Education
Saturday, November 19
9am | MoCo DSA at the Silver Spring Thanksgiving Parade (in person)
Sunday, November 20
7 – 9pm | MDC DSA General Body Meeting
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
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 vaster and freer horizon..
- Virgilia D'Andrea
