Striketober is here and it sure is SCARY for the bosses! 👻 Workers all over the country are fed up after working through a pandemic and being deemed essential in name only.
General Meeting date change: Our next General Meeting will be held on December 4 at noon. Be sure to RSVP in advance. We’ve changed the date in hopes of encouraging you to attend another exciting event that day: Labor Notes is hosting a Troublemakers school right here in Philadelphia! This is a day of workshops and strategizing with Philadelphia unionists on building solidarity and organizing your workplace. Learn more and RSVP here.
Friend —
Striketober is here and it sure is SCARY for the bosses! 👻 Workers all over the country are fed up after working through a pandemic and being deemed essential in name only. While corporations are making record profits off our backs, they offer us crumbs. Enough is enough! Now thanks to a tightening labor market, workers have more leverage to strike — and win. 💪
Thousands of workers are currently on strike in the United States: 10,000 workers at John Deere (on strike for the first time in 35 years), 2,000 workers at Mercy Hospital in Buffalo, 1,400 workers at Kellogg’s (supported in Lancaster by Philly DSA), 1,000 coal miners in Alabama, 700 nurses in Massachusetts, 450 steelworkers in West Virginia, 400 whiskey-makers in Kentucky, and 200 bus drivers in Nevada. This number continues to fluctuate as workers at Frito-Lay and Nabisco settle new contracts, and as 60,000 IATSE members in the entertainment industry decide whether to ratify their tentative agreement or consider a strike. 40,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser in California are also on the verge of a strike.
And as of Tuesday, University of Pittsburgh faculty voted overwhelmingly to unionize. If you’re reading this feeling inspired by the thousands of workers taking action and you’d like to be one of them, contact our friends in the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee at [email protected] to get the tools to organize your workplace!
On the calendarUnless otherwise specified, all events are held via Zoom. RSVP links can now be found in event titles.
Housing Committee Meeting, tonight at 8pm Hear from guest speaker Dennis Culhane, a housing policy expert with a background in homelessness organizing, and discuss projects including our Stomp Out Slumlords tenant organizing project. 🏡
Defund the Police Campaign Meeting, October 24 at 12pmJoin for an open discussion and campaign debrief. Please come to the meeting with any current events related to policing at the city, state, or national level you'd like to discuss.
Green New Deal Committee Meeting, October 25 at 6:30pmJoin this regular meeting to hear report-backs from our campaigns and plan future actions.
From the Electoral Committee:
Canvass for North New Jersey DSA candidate Joel Brooks! October 23 & 30 at 12:30pmPhilly DSA is joining NNJ DSA to canvass for labor organizer and candidate for Jersey City Council Joel Brooks. Transportation will be arranged. 🚌
Electoral Finance/Compliance Subcommittee Meeting, October 27 at 6pmDiscuss the chapter's electoral fundraising and compliance activities at this open meeting.
Electoral Committee Open Meeting: Pre-endorsement and Candidate Meeting, November 17 at 6pmThis meeting will cover everything related to our questionnaire and endorsement timeline ahead of the December GM, where the entire DSA body will vote on endorsement in the 2022 primary. The Research and Education subcommittee will present their findings on candidates, districts, win-numbers and overall campaign viability. There will also be candidates present, who will speak to why they believe Philly DSA should endorse them. You won’t want to miss it!
Phonebank for Boston DSA’s endorsed candidates in Somerville ☎️The Electoral Committee encourages you to sign up for a phonebank to support Boston DSA’s candidates for Somerville City Council. If elected, they will make up the first majority-democratic socialist city council! You can also donate if you can’t make calls.
View the full calendar
Updates from the branches
BuxMont DSA
Council Watch, October 24 at 4pmThe BuxMont DSA Council Watch is an organized affinity group that meets on the 4th Sunday each month to discuss what their mayors, municipal councils, school boards, and local government are up to. 👀
BuxMont General Meeting, October 26 at 7pmHear reports from working groups and committees, discuss and debate the upcoming actions and events of the branch and vote on resolutions that are proposed by the membership. To vote you must be a DSA member in good standing and live in Bucks or Montgomery counties.
View all events
This week in unions
To Get Involved: If you’re interested in supporting workers who want to organize, organizing your workplace, supporting workers and unions taking collective action, or in building relationships with rank and file union members and leaders, email [email protected].
What we’re reading
In solidarity,
Philly DSA
http://www.phillydsa.org/
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.” - Ursula K. Le Guin, born on this day in 1929
Isn’t it time to do something? Get involved with the Local.