Striketober is here 🎃👻 | Bulletin

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 calendar
Unless 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 12pm
Join 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 6:30pm
Join 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 12:30pm
Philly 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 6pm
Discuss the chapter's electoral fundraising and compliance activities at this open meeting.

Electoral Committee Open Meeting: Pre-endorsement and Candidate Meeting, November 17 at 6pm
This 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 4pm
The 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 7pm
Hear 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

• Philly DSA members joined striking Kellogg's workers in Lancaster this past weekend. Kellogg’s workers are still on strike and need our support — pickets are 24/7 so DSA members are encouraged to head up anytime. 
  • If can’t make it but would still like to support, donate to their strike fund.
• TWU Local 234’s contract expires on Halloween, and talks with SEPTA management have begun to stall. Philly DSA members will be ready to support them if they decide to strike! If you’re interested in getting involved in strike support, email Mindy I. at [email protected].
  • Be sure to fill out our “I’ll Be There” pledge to stand with TWU members and any other worker taking action across the city! 
• IATSE members have a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but it’s unclear if members will ratify it or if they’ll reject it and move to strike.

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]. 

On the bulletin

• The Political Education Committee is seeking responses to this form about a Socialism 101 series. If you’re brand new to socialism, or just need a refresher, we’d like to hear from you. 🗣️
• The Housing Committee is still collecting survey responses to help identify landlord and property management companies that DSA members have in common.
• Join us on Slack: If you’re a Philly DSA member and you’d like to join our Slack workspace, please fill out this form.
• Harassment and Grievance Process: Read about the process to file a grievance here.
• Did you know? You can check out all of our past bulletins on our website.

What we’re reading

• The Simplest Fix to America’s Rent Problem | The Atlantic
• Colin Powell Was a Nice Man Who Helped Destroy Iraq | The Intercept

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