🗳️ Our General Meeting continues - vote now! | Bulletin

🚨 You can still cast your CRITICAL VOTE to bring into order ALL decisions of 2021 (and choose a new logo)! Search your email for the “OpaVote” link and email [email protected] if you need help or have any questions. 🚨

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Alongside other members of the Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition, Philly DSA has fought for City Council to create the first municipal public bank in the country. DSA members now have the opportunity to make that vision a reality. Councilmember Derek Green took up the coalition’s call and introduced a public banking bill that has a hearing in the finance committee on Monday, December 13 at 10am. We need our comrades' voices in the fight to make Philadelphia the first city in the country to break the power of Wall Street by creating a public bank. 🏦

The bank would take tax-dollars currently invested in Wall Street and instead fund projects that benefit our city’s residents. It would focus investments on working class neighborhoods and communities of color that have historically been denied banking services and access to credit. The bank could fund the reconstruction of our toxic school buildings, green infrastructure projects that create union jobs while reducing carbon emissions, permanently affordable housing, and the creation of worker cooperatives and Black and Brown small businesses – among a long list of potential projects. And we can do this while ending the city government’s reliance on Wall Street banks that overcharged us hundreds of millions in fees, but continue to get contracts to issue new bonds.

To win these investments and a future not governed by private capital, we’ll need every comrade to raise their voice in unison and urge our City Councilmembers to pass this bill. You can learn how to call, email and post at the relevant Councilmembers by using this toolkit.

I’m proud to fight alongside all of you for a future where public investments are determined by the needs of the people – not the profit margins of Wall Street.

–Greg Windle, Philly DSA member and representative on the Public Banking Coalition

On the calendar
Unless otherwise specified, all events are held via Zoom. 

Philadelphia Troublemakers School with Labor Notes, December 11 at noon
Join Philly DSA, Labor Notes, and Philly-area unionists for a day of skill-building workshops, education, and strategy discussions to put some movement back in the labor movement. The goal is to help workers get active in resisting management attacks—and taking the fight on the offensive. In other words: to make “good trouble.” 

Member Engagement Committee Meeting, December 12 at 3pm
A regular meeting of the Member Engagement Committee. We'll be planning winter social events and assessing our internal organizing initiatives.

Political Education Committee Meeting. December 12 at 6pm
Join to discuss ongoing events and plan future events. This is a great place to get involved with organizing specific events you're interested in.

Electoral Finance Subcommittee Meeting, December 14 at 5pm
Discuss campaign finance, compliance, and fundraising. 

We Own PGW Open Strategy Session, December 15 at 6pm
Join a facilitated strategy session to help shape the plan to win a fossil-fuel free PGW that provides Philadelphians with ample, good, green union jobs! 

Night School: The Labor Movement, December 15 at 7pm
Join us whether you're new to DSA or an expert Marxologist. Night Schools are open to all, regardless of previous experience. There are no assigned readings.

Housing Committee Open Meeting, December 16 at 8pm
Join us for our final meeting of 2021 to discuss our ongoing projects, such as Stomp Out Slumlords tenant organizing and the city-wide legislative campaign for rent control.

School Funding: A Socialist Analysis & Discussion (EJC), December 19 at 3pm
A discussion on the fundamentals of public school funding from a socialist perspective, facilitated by committee member and education policy professor Dave Backer.

View the full calendar

Updates from the branches

Delco DSA
March for Fanta Bility, December 11 at 1pm, Academy Park High School
The family of Hasein Strand will be having a march in Sharon Hill for Fanta and the two teens, AJ & Hasein, who are being charged with first degree murder. Sign the petition to hold the officers who killed Fanta accountable.

BuxMont DSA

Bucks Cancel Lunch Debt Coalition Meeting, December 10 at 5pm
The BCLDC was formed to raise awareness of school lunch debt and empower local residents to collectively seek ways to end this problem, so no student goes hungry or feels ashamed for needing food. The goal is to end the lunch debt crisis in PA and eventually the country. 🥪
BuxMont General Meeting, December 12th at 5pm
Hear reports from working groups and committees, discuss and debate the upcoming actions and events of the branch, and vote on resolutions proposed by the membership.

View all events

General Meeting Digest
Here are the highlights from last weekend’s GM. You can also view the full minutes.

• We heard from Joel Brooks, a North New Jersey DSA candidate who ran for City Council this fall. 
• We adopted the Steering Committee report and temporary committee reports. 
• We endorsed Philly DSA member Paul Prescod for State Senate in the 8th District! Keep an eye out for ways to get involved with his campaign.
• We debated reforming our bylaws. 🗳️ Voting is still open on OpaVote. 🗳️ Please check your email for a voting link and vote by 12/12! If you didn’t receive a link to vote, please email [email protected] ASAP. 
• We adopted the following resolutions:
  • Resolution to Encourage and Support Members to Run and Serve as Committeepeople 
  • Cuba Solidarity (Register for the interest meeting!)
  • Resolution to Create Local GND for Philly Public Schools Campaign
• You can view all the resolutions up for a vote in our GM Packet.

This week in unions

LABOR BRANCH - UPCOMING EVENTS 

• HAPPENING TONIGHT: Medicare For All Virtual Text Bank Party with National Nurses United and the Labor Medicare For All Subcommittee. Please join us! 
  • RSVP Here: Thursday, December 9 from 7-9pm
    
• THIS SATURDAY: Our Labor Branch has worked hard to put together a Troublemakers School with Labor Notes and it’s almost here. If you’re a union member or workplace activist, register to sharpen your organizing skills and connect with unionists from across the area.

LABOR NEWS: 

• BCTGM Kellogg's workers across the country have voted overwhelmingly to reject a tentative agreement. These workers have been on strike for over two months. As the holiday season approaches and it gets colder, they need our support now more than ever.  
  • Head to the picket line, share their story on social media, boycott Kellogg’s products, and donate here.
• Philly DSA’s Paul Prescod spoke with rank and file member and UPS worker Paul Trujillo about what lies ahead for the Teamsters after electing new leadership. Watch.
• In a historic victory Monday night, Richmond Public School teachers are the first in the state to gain collective bargaining rights. 
• Erie Ironworkers have been on strike for 10 weeks fighting for higher wages and dental to be included in their insurance. “I’ve seen a worker welding with a swollen face and an ice pack. Another guy asked for my needle-nose pliers and pulled his own tooth in front of me,” says Glenn Ybanez, one of the Erie Strayer ironworkers.” 
  • Donate to their strike fund. 

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

• Donate to the Philly DSA PAC! This is how we fund our electoral campaigns. Contribute here. 🤑
• Our membership voted to make fighting for Medicare for All a priority at our 2021 Local Convention. If you’re interested in working on strategic campaign planning related to Medicare for All and healthcare justice in the age of COVID-19, please fill out this interest form.
• Ben Fletcher was an African-American leader of Local 8, part of the Marine Transport Worker Industrial Union, the most powerful interracial and multiethnic union of the World War I era. Our Racial Justice Committee has submitted an application to Mural Arts for a riverfront mural to commemorate Ben Fletcher, the history, and the legacy of interracial labor organizing in Philadelphia. Tell your City Councilmember to support this application today! 
• The Housing Committee is still collecting survey responses to help identify landlord and property management companies that DSA members have in common. Please fill it out to aid future tenant organizing. 🏡
• Reminder: In These Times is generously offering DSA members a free 12-month print subscription and special issue all about our organization, to anyone who signs up by December 15. 
• 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.

In solidarity,

Philly DSA
http://www.phillydsa.org/

“I like the cold weather. It means you get work done.” - Noam Chomsky, maybe