A point of entry for California’s devastating criminal justice system is often a traffic stop. Once this initial contact is made, power is immediately leveraged by law enforcement officers over us as every word, movement, and glance made by us is under the scrutiny of the law enforcement officer. The results of these situations run the gamut of possible state violence and oppression: from assault, to rape, to murder of an individual under the law enforcement officer’s power.  Unfortunately, a moving violation or infraction isn’t even needed to warrant a traffic stop, as law enforcement can initiate a traffic stop with merely “probable cause.” The DSA-LA Free Break Light Clinic intends to curtail the incidence of state violence in our community by reducing the number of broken tail lights, thus reducing the opportunity for law enforcement agencies to initiate a traffic stop. However, from a socialist perspective, this point of contact has far reaching economic and exploitative repercussions on the working class. Continue reading

NOlympics LA, a growing coalition of dozens of local organizations opposing the controversial LA 2024 2028 bid, needs funds for conducting independent market surveys gauging public interest, knowledge, and opinion about hosting the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. We’re doing this because Angelenos have effectively been denied a voice in the entire decision-making process to bring the Games to our city. No independent research has been conducted to date regarding the 2024 or 2028 LA Olympic bid, which is incredibly unusual. For example, WBUR in Boston is an outlet which consistently conducted polls during the Boston 2024 bidding process. In fact, WBUR was still polling about the Boston bid in 2017, even though their bid has been dead for over two years. Continue reading

On November 2, 2017 the proposed revisions to the DSA-LA Bylaws were ratified by 91% of 168 voters.* This bylaws revision and expansion was led by the interim Steering Committee—a short-term leadership body elected to develop and implement a set of governing standards aligned with the realities of the growing DSA-LA local. The process for Bylaws revisions began in July 2017, when the interim Steering Committee ensured opportunities for committees and members to begin to pilot proposed updates. Before calling for a vote on the proposed revisions, the interim Steering Committee released a full draft of the revised Bylaws for a 2-week public comment period on October 1st. DSA-LA members were asked to review the draft and bring feedback to a chapter meeting on October 14th, where the draft document was presented to multiple small groups for responses. Member feedback was prioritized for inclusion if it was raised by multiple members, addressed major omissions, or identified areas unaligned with DSA-LA’s ratified Mission Statement and Organizational Priorities. Members voted to approve a final revision which incorporated this feedback on November 2nd.   Although the Bylaws revision process was responsive to member feedback, the interim Steering Committee acknowledges the importance of having an opportunity for members to propose, advocate for, and vote on amendments to these Bylaws. To that end, Article IV, Section 1 of the Bylaws outlines a requirement that the Steering Committee hold a Local Annual Convention. The Annual Convention is established as the highest legislative body of the local and will feature in-person debate and votes on future revisions to the DSA-LA Bylaws and the Mission Statement and Organizational Priorities. Continue reading

TPS holders are people with Temporary Protected Status, a provisional legal protection from deportation granted to migrants who are unable to return to their home countries due to environmental disasters or social conflicts. There are TPS holders from: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Recently, the Trump administration has given a six month extension to Haitians so they can make arrangements to return to Haiti. Salvadorans and Haitians will have until the beginning of next year to hear a final decision before their temporary residency expires. Rex Tillerson has made it clear to the Department of Homeland Security that it is okay for the migrants to return to El Salvador and Haiti, regardless of the fact that Haiti has still not recovered from the earthquake in 2010 or that El Salvador has some of the highest homicides, feminicides, and gang violence in the world. This is a fight for all migrants, one that ultimately seeks citizenship for all and one without borders Continue reading

In the wake of a series of revelations regarding media mogul Harvey Weinstein, the #MeToo campaign trended across social media sites. Created by Tarana Burke to demonstrate the ubiquity of sexual assault and harassment in society, the current #MeToo campaign has inspired many victims of sexual abuse to speak out and share their stories The hashtag brought a decidedly vintage feminist tactic — consciousness raising — out of the living room and onto our iphones. In doing so, #MeToo raised awareness of the all too disturbing fact that sexual assault is a widely-shared experience for many. Continue reading

Billionaire Joe Ricketts decided to shut down DNAinfo and the Gothamist network of local news sites (including our local LAist) earlier this week in retaliation for the successful union drive by workers at those publications. This is a blatant and disgusting example of union busting, and a stark reminder that bosses will do whatever it takes to crush workers, independent of any regard for the social or economic value of their work. The DSA-LA Labor Committee stands in solidarity with the writers at DNAinfo and Gothamist who had the courage to assert their right to form a union, and extend our thanks to those journalists who saw DSA’s continuing historic rise as the important story that it is, and covered the work of our chapter and our sister chapters nationwide accordingly. It is through their hard work that these sites were able to reach, in Ricketts’ own words, more than 9 million people per month. It was their hard work that led Ricketts to spend “low seven figures” on acquiring the sites in the first place. Continue reading

DSA-LA’s Prison Abolition Committee, Immigration Justice Committee, and NOlympics Working Group stands in solidarity with Jewish Voice for Peace, Los Angeles and the Deadly Exchange campaign, a campaign to end police exchange programs between the U.S. and Israel. As we work toward dismantling the U.S. carceral state, the largest on the planet, we include U.S. policing, prosecution and criminalization. The U.S. police system is one that engages in racist, oppressive violence often targeted against people of color in the name of “security.” Every impoverished black and brown community in the country is under the occupation of these forces, ones that terrorize, harass, oppress and degrade. In 2016, the LA Police Department led the nation in fatal shootings for the second year in a row. The LAPD has war gear including grenade launchers, assault rifles, military helicopters, and mine-resistant armored vehicles. They are currently in the process of acquiring drones. “Predictive policing” techniques, introduced by former LAPD Chief Bratton, were developed as anti-insurgency methods by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan (StopLAPDSpying.org) Continue reading

On Veterans’ Day weekend (November 10-11), DSA-LA’s Political Education Committee will be hosting the first Socialist Day School event in Los Angeles. More than just a series of lectures and panels, the purpose of this forum is to encourage thoughtful discussion and debate whilst expanding our organization’s collective understanding of socialist concepts, histories, and strategies. By providing members and non-members alike with an opportunity to learn about socialist analyses of power, as well as the meaning and history of Democratic Socialism in the context of American history, we aim to broaden and deepen the conceptualizations among socially conscious individuals of what is not only fathomable but also achievable in the current political framework.   Continue reading

This month, DSA Los Angeles will be holding elections for the next Steering Committee term, which begins at the end of the month. Nominations are officially open today. If you're interested in running for any Steering Committee positions, or for the YDSA Coordinator position (full details about DSA-LA leadership positions in this blogpost), please fill out the below forms, which are managed by your elected Nominations Committee: Continue reading

While socialism recognizes that the right to housing is universal and guaranteed regardless of economic conditions, under capitalism shelter is a commodity used to maximize profit at the expense of human need.  The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act prioritizes the profits of landlords, developers, and the financial institutions that lend to them above California residents and their basic right to shelter. As one part of the larger struggle for housing justice, Democratic Socialists of America - Los Angeles (DSA-LA) supports efforts to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, by Assembly Bill 1506 (Bloom), a statewide popular ballot measure, or otherwise.  Continue reading