Twin Cities
Democratic Socialists of America
|
Shaking off the Winter Doldrums
|
Readers, before we get into some chapter highlights since our last edition, we want to ask for your thoughts on our Little Red Letter. To help us evaluate some potential changes to our newsletter production, please complete our survey so we can hear what you most value in a newsletter from our chapter. This newsletter has been maintained in various forms since 2017, and we want to ensure our communications are relevant, useful, and sustainable as we look forward to a busy 2025 and beyond. Thank you in advance for your time.
So what have we been up to? Check out the Twin Cities DSA April 2025 Round-Up, your quick glimpse into the work of the chapter over the last couple months.
|
In the TCDSA Little Red Letter April 2025 Round Up:
- The I-94 Fight Continues
-
Cut the ZenCity Contract!
-
Boycott for You, Me and the Community Event
-
Educational Event – From Palestine to Turtle Island: Resistance
-
2025 Chapter Endorsements – Minneapolis and Saint Paul
-
On the Ground with Street Corps
-
Building Worker Power
-
Hands Off! Nationwide Protests
|
Join us for the April 2025 General Meeting!
Our next general meeting is Saturday April 26th at University of Minnesota Keller Hall Room 3-210. Check-in starts at 12:30, call to order is at 1:00pm.
On the Agenda:
- Special Election for a Member-At-Large to the Steering Committee
- Environmental Justice Working Group: I-94 Visioning Discussion
- National DSA Convention Panel Discussion and Delegate Experience
- Introduction of a Bylaws Amendment regarding the Political Education Committee
|
Is Minneapolis ready for a socialist mayor and all the challenges that brings? An examination of the context and lay of the land going into endorsements from Austin B.
|
From the Labor Branch, the most recent newsletter on their ongoing work and events to connect with the millions of people moving into action against Trump and offer them socialist politics as an alternative to both the far-right Republicans and the corporate Democrats.
|
Ezra Ishman Solidarity Fund – Volunteers Needed!
- The Ezra Ishman Solidarity fund is looking for members to help administer applications. This fund was established in 2018 and distributes one-time grants up to $300 to TCDSA members. It is meant to help meet immediate material needs and is a means of mutual support among people organizing together. If you are interested in helping to review these applications, please contact Tim H at tcdsasolidarityfund@gmail.com.
|
TCDSA Informal Spanish Conversation Practice Group
- Did you know that TCDSA has an informal Spanish conversation practice group? We meet every other week and welcome speakers of all levels (though know that the focus is on conversation and that the sessions include no formal tutoring/teaching).
It’s a very informal group and we’d happily welcome you! Event info is on the TCDSA calendar. You can also join #socialists-spanish-conversation-practice for more information!
|
Join us for an introduction to Twin Cities DSA! Designed mainly for new members but any member might benefit. This event will acquaint you with the ideas behind socialism, the structure, culture, and history of Twin Cities DSA, its position in the national and local left ecosystem, and help you discern where you might find the most rewarding opportunities to get involved.
|
Our chapter office will be open for members to drop in! Come on by to hang out, use the printer, read or check out books in the library, and more!
Our office is located on the second floor in Room 204
|
Our Justice Fundraising Ice Cream Social – RSVP Here
|
An ice cream social to raise money for the Our Justice abortion fund-a-thon!
|
Earth Day Means Close the HERC! – Tuesday, 4/22 6:30p – 8:00p
This is a virtual phone bank hosted by TCDSA’s Environmental Justice Working Group in honor of Earth Day. Join us on Zoom to phone bank TCDSA members and supporters to promote our upcoming Clean Air Now! HERC Suburban Organizing Meeting on April 29th, and to make calls to local elected officials in support of HERC closure.
|
Join Twin Cities DSA as we kick off our door knocking for 2025 with Cole Hanson’s campaign for Saint Paul Ward 4 City Council! Great opportunity to sharpen your skills and have organizing conversations about building a socialist movement in the Twin Cities!
We’ll provide training and buddies for first time door knockers.
|
NA4A Updates – April – Saturday, 4/19, 11:00a – 12:00p – Online – RSVP Here – Virtual Meeting Link
- Monthly meeting for the ongoing No Appetite for Apartheid Campaign.
|
Hamline/Midway Street Corps: Solidarity Sundays – TBD
Sunday, 4/20, 4:30p – 6:30p
Sunday, 4/27, 4:30p – 6:30p
- Join our Street Corps Working Group’s Hamline/Midway Cell with outreach to and organizing of our houseless and lower income neighbors. We will be preparing and handing out food, information flyers, and talking with our neighbors about their needs.
To find out specific week to week volunteer asks and specifics, connect with our Street Corps Working Group.
|
Como/Marcy Street Corps Weekly Distro – TBD
Sunday, 4/20, 6:00p – 9:00p
Sunday, 4/27, 6:00p – 9:00p
-
Join our Street Corps Working Group’s Como/Marcy Cell with outreach to and organizing of our houseless and lower income neighbors. We will be preparing and handing out food, information flyers, and talking with our neighbors about their needs.
RSVP in the cell’s signal group
To find out specific week to week volunteer asks and specifics, connect with our Street Corps Working Group.
|
Labor Branch Organizing Committee Meeting – Monday, 4/21, 7:00p – 8:30p – Zoom Registration
-
The Organizing Committee (OC) functions as a space to develop leaders within the labor branch through consistent engagement in political education, developing and supporting labor branch campaigns and projects, and planning the monthly branch meetings.
|
Environmental Justice Political Education Group Meeting – Monday, 4/21, 7:30p – 8:30p – Zoom Registration
-
This standing meeting is intended to provide structured, designated time for EJ WG members to work on upcoming political education events, and to maintain momentum and provide overarching structure/ strategy to the series of events instead of handling them on a disjointed one-by-one basis.
|
Immigrant Defense Working Group – Wednesday, 4/23, 8:00p – 9:00p – Zoom Link
- Join us as we organize for immigrant rights and defense in the Twin Cities! Meetings are Zoom only right now.
|
Electoral Committee Phonebank – Thursday, 4/24, 5:30p – 7:00p – RSVP Here
-
Join our Electoral Committee in calling TCDSA members to get out to our April 27th doorknocking kickoff for Cole Hanson in St. Paul Ward 4’s special election!
Make sure to sign up here for our kickoff if you haven’t also!
Most phone banks will be virtual via Zoom using a nifty auto-dialer program. We’ll provide a training for everyone.
|
Internal Organizing: Outreach Subcommittee – Thursday, 4/24, 6:00p – 7:00p – Eagles 34 in the Buechner Room – Zoom Registration
- The Outreach Subcommittee is tasked with community outreach within spaces that are not traditional activist or political spaces and learning how to have constructive conversations about socialism with working class people outside of the traditional leftist/activist milieu.
|
Palestine Solidarity Working Group – Thursday, 4/24, 7:00p – 8:00p – Zoom Registration
-
Regular biweekly meeting of the TCDSA Palestine Solidarity Working Group. Join us as TCDSA organizes with allies in the community towards Palestinian liberation.
Check the #palestine-solidarity Slack channel for the zoom link and agenda. If you are a member and need access to slack, sign up at tcdsa.org/slack
|
Cyber and Legal Behavior, Security Training, and Workshop – Friday, 4/25, 6:00p – 8:00p – TCDSA Office at the Coliseum Building – RSVP Here – Zoom Registration
- This event is going to be a Cyber and Legal behavior and security training and workshop. I will provide education for these topics with concrete examples with, to some degree, interactive content. This includes us practicing this and discussions on what the best practices will be. I could definitely lead this alone, but the more collaborative, the more ethical and effective we and this protocol will be.
|
Solidarity Saturdays: Delta Workers Phone-bank – International Association of Machinists’ office
Saturday, 4/19, 10:00a – 12:00p
Saturday, 4/26, 10:00a – 12:00p
-
DSA across the country is supporting the historic unionization drive of 18,000 Delta ramp, cargo, and tower workers. In 2023, Delta made 40% of the airline industry’s profits – more than United, American, Southwest, and Alaska combined. Despite these record profits, Delta workers are nowhere near the highest compensated in the industry in terms of pay or benefits. This is an important opportunity to support the revival of the labor movement and to support a racially diverse workforce in winning a union and more rights, which will help us fight Trump and the billionaire class.
Delta workers are organizing with the International Association of Machinists (IAM), who have asked DSA for solidarity! Across the country, Delta workers, union members, DSA, and IAM staff are phone-banking Delta workers on Saturdays asking them to resign expired union authorization cards. No experience needed; phone script provided.
|
Street Corps Training Lecture – Sunday, 4/27, 6:00p – 8:00p – TCDSA Office at the Coliseum Building
- Special training lecture session of the Street Corps Working Group. Interested attendees should reach out at streetcorps@twincitiesdsa.org.
Being held in our office located in Suite #204
|
Budget, Finance, and Fundraising Committee Meeting – Sunday, 4/27, 7:00p – 8:00p – Zoom Registration
- This is the biweekly meeting for all things Budget, Finance, and Fundraising related! This meeting is to discuss the state of our budget, what our plans are for fundraising, compliance reporting, and similar subjects.
All expenditure inquiries should be directed to the Steering Committee
|
Charting an Unheroic Past, Fara Dabhoiwala on Catherine Hall’s new book
Wow. Have you ever read a book review, where both the book and the reviewer were so good that the experience is intense and emotive, like reading a 1000 page novel in ten minutes? This is a book review folded into the heart of a love story, and the book itself is about a fairly distant past in intense conversation with a roiling present. As the reviewer said about one of Hall’s previous projects, an online database of British wealth created by slave ownership, “It has transformed British public discourse about the history of slavery. Not many historians can say that their work has changed the present as well as illuminated the past.”
From: Deb K R
How the Federal Government Fell
The government [we used to know] no longer exists. We are now in a fundamentally different country. Under the authority of President Trump, Elon Musk is leading a de facto cyber-coup of the United States.
From: Deb K R
|
This Is What Government by Electronic Plebiscite Looks Like
The current media landscape has, not the pluralism of voices it promises, but a cacophony that eventually gives way to monotony, an unbearable din that dulls the mind and the senses. Those in charge deliberately broadcast noise and emotional electric shocks.
From: Deb K R
The DOGE plan to loot Medicare
The American Prospect (magazine article) estimates a team of forensic accountants might easily find as much as a half-trillion dollars in waste annually, roughly $100 billion of that in Medicare Advantage overpayments alone.
From: Deb K R
|
|
