Features

Help the 9th Ward Stop the Lock!

The Army Corps of Engineers wants to build an outdated, unnecessary, and harmful expansion of the Industrial Canal at the St. Claude bridge.

First approved in the 1950s, this plan destroys homes, ties up traffic, and worsens quality of life for Bywater and the Lower 9th Ward. And for what? For short term profit for a few shipping companies based on outdated projections. The project is projected to take over a decade and cost well over a billion dollars. A decade of dredging that will expose residents to toxic chemicals. A decade of pile driving that will affect the water table underneath houses and businesses as far as 2 miles away. A decade of “relocation” for some residents.

All for a project that will have no economic benefits for the people of New Orleans. If completed, the project will increase the risk of flooding for people living in the area. The traffic bridges will stay up for longer periods, cutting off access to critical services like ambulances and fire trucks and creating daily traffic jams for people on their way to work or school. If millions of dollars are spent, residents’ lives are disrupted and the project is not completed, the Corps will not assume any liability or owe the citizens of New Orleans anything for their failure. 

Join The Canal Will Kill Nola and submit public comment opposing the Army Corps of Engineers’ dangerous plan for expanding the Industrial Canal. The deadline is this Tuesday, September 2.

No Contract, No Coffee! Support a Starbucks Worker Strike

Starbucks baristas greet customers, remember their names and favorite orders, open and close the stores, make the coffee and clean up the spills. They are part of our community and part of the fabric of our daily lives. They are neighbors. They are workers. They deserve a fair wage.

Starbucks workers, like all of us, deserve to make ends meet. That’s why they’re demanding a fair union contract with the staffing, hours, take-home pay, and on-the-job protections they need to do their jobs. Now they’re asking for our support as they fight for a union and a fair contract to turn these demands into reality. When they fight, we will support them. And when they strike, we will not cross the picket line. Show your support and sign the pledge. We will not patronize any Starbucks store when baristas are on strike. 

The Value of Marx – Andy L

In our primitive past, the natural phenomenon of lightning was not understood, so it was attributed to mysterious, unknowable forces, or gods, or something beyond the understanding of man. Then some people figured out electrons, then some others figured out how to move electrons through wire, to light up a room or turn a motor. Now we have a society swimming in electronics that lets us travel and communicate over impossible distances, heal the sick, and even make ice for our drinks. 

Similarly, the inner workings of living beings were attributed to humors or spontaneous generation or different types of tissues, but eventually some people figured out cells, and then some others figured out DNA, and now we have CRISPR, a tool that can drill down and modify the genetic code of living beings.

We still live in a superstitious world, where people believe that the political and economic forces that drive our lives are unknowable, or mysteries of human nature, or just too big to figure out. However, Marxism (AKA Scientific Socialism) allows us to break these systems into understandable parts. Just as JJ Thompson introduced us to the electron, and Robert Hooke taught us about cells, Marx started with the commodity and used it to develop the laws of motion of the economy. Our task is to continue that analysis, run different experiments, and build that better world for all of us. Marx laid the tools at our feet. Now, what are we going to do with them? As the man himself said: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.”

Bulletins

Fall 2025 Voter Guide Team Weekly Meeting Tomorrow

Every election, New Orleans DSA publishes our voter guide analyzing the key issues in each race through a socialist lens. This is a volunteer effort by comrades in the chapter, and we want you to join us! We’ll be at the Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Bring your laptop and all of your longstanding grudges against our local oligarchs. Get in touch with Aaron Z for more info.

DSA 4 Palestine Banner Build

Join your comrades this Thursday, September 5, for the DSA 4 Palestine Banner Build. Come paint and hang out with us at the Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Ave, Room 258, starting at 6:00 pm. Food, drink, and all materials provided. Sign up here to let us know to expect you.

Fork and Knife Club Inaugural Distribution

Help contribute to our Direct Service Committee as we begin a new campaign to distribute food around local community fridges. We’ll be preparing, packaging, and distributing meals starting at the Healing Center on September 13th at 12:00 pm. If you are interested, please sign up here. We would love volunteers to help with any stage of the process!

Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ

Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.

Write Like a Socialist: We Have a World to Win!

Have an update from your committee or working group? That’s a Bulletin! Want to tell us about an upcoming event? Add it to the Community Calendar! Got some opinion or analysis to share for the good of the membership? Write us a Feature! Make your contribution to the next edition of Solidarity Means Action in the Comms Discord channel.

Community Calendar

Friday, August 29

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Critical Mass Katrina Ride

6:00 pm – French Market, Barracks St & French Market Pl

Saturday, August 30

Canvass for Jackson Kimbrell, District C

9:00 am – 12:00 pm – Get involved

Voter Guide Team Weekly Meeting

10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Saturdays through September 20) – Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Get Involved

Sunday, August 31

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Get Involved

Chapter Orientation

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm (first and last Sunday) – Meet

Monday, September 1

AFL-CIO Labor Day Picnic

11:00 am – 3:00 pm – City Park’s Marconi Meadows, 6100 Marconi Dr

#SolidaritySeptember New Orleans Workers Over Billionaires Labor Day Rally

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Congo Square in Louis Armstrong Park, 701 N Rampart St – Event info

Tuesday, September 2

From Disaster to Solutions: A Mayoral Candidate Forum About Climate

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Ashé II @ The Ashé Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Bd

Wednesday, September 3

Indivisible Wednesday ICE Protest

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (every Wednesday) – ICE Field Office, 1250 Poydras St

Health Justice & Direct Service Meeting

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm (first Wednesday) – Meet

Urban League By The People Debate Series: Council At-Large Division 1

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Ashe Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Bd

Friday, September 5

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Urban League By The People Debate Series: Assessor

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Ashé Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Bd

DSA 4 Palestine Banner Build

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av Room 258 – Sign up

Saturday, September 6

Canvass for Jackson Kimbrell, District C

9:00 am – 12:00 pm – Get involved

Voter Guide Team Weekly Meeting

10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Saturdays through September 20) – Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St

The Forum: LGBTQ+ Voices Matter Political Candidate Forum

11:00 am – McDonogh 35 HS, 4000 Cadillac St

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Get Involved

Sunday, September 7

Poli-Ed Planning Meeting

10:00 am – 11:30 am (first Sunday) – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av Room 258 – Reading List

Coffee with Comrades

11:00 am – 12:00 pm – Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Get Involved

Big in the 90s Fundraiser for Bob Murrell

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Carrollton Station, 8140 Willow St

Chapter Orientation

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm (first and last Sunday) – Meet

Down the Road

September 9 Urban League By The People Debate Series: Mayor

September 24 Together New Orleans Mayoral and City Council Forum

September 24 Poli-Ed Movie Night: The Act of Killing

September 26 Voter Guide Release

September 27 Early Voting Starts

October 11 Election Day: Municipal PrimaryNovember 15 Election Day: Municipal Runoff

Features

Swing By the General Meeting Tomorrow at the Healing Center

August’s GM is tomorrow from 12:00 – 2:00 pm in Room #204 of the New Orleans Healing Center! Parking can be found at 2465 N Rampart St, and you can also join via Zoom using the link when you RSVP.

We’ll have committee and working group updates and three resolutions up for vote:

• Forming neighborhood circles to support local community building.
• Advancing chapter accessibility by requiring virtual options for meetings and establishing requirements for event venues.
• Prohibiting the use of AI-generated content for any chapter purpose.

Our National Convention delegates will also recap their trip to Chicago.

We hope to see you there!

Announcing the Newly Created  Fork and Knife Club

To help combat food insecurity locally, members of our Direct Service Committee will begin distributing food around the local community fridges. We’ll prepare, package, and distribute the meals starting at the Healing Center on September 13th at 12:00 pm.

We’re excited to expand our direct service programming this way. It’s a chance to put our values into action, support a great community fridge network, and spend time with likeminded socialists who just wanna hang out and help our neighbors. What could be better?

Come by tomorrow’s GM to learn more about the Fork and Knife Club. Or if you can’t contain your excitement, go ahead and sign up here. Now. Do it now. And if this is the kind of socialism that gets you fired up, bring your neat ideas to our Direct Service Discord channel.

On Moral Choices: Start With Getting Your Priorities in Order – Brodie L

In The Good Place, a comedy show that explores living ethically in the modern world, the protagonists discover just how forked the moral judgment system they’re living in is. In a nutshell, every action gives points based on its intent and its consequences. For example, you buy flowers for your sick partner, and that’s good. BUT because Trader Joe’s sources them from Israel, they’re sprayed with pesticides, and they’re harvested using underpaid labor, what started out as a good idea worth a few points has actually damned you to the Bad Place. That’s a pretty bullshirt system.

But where to start when trying to make ethical decisions? For consumers, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement has a list of companies with a proven history of complicity with the Palestinian Genocide. This list could be huge given the enormity of the war machine, but BDS has a priority list of companies we should absolutely focus on. Need gas? Skip Chevron (yes, no gas giant is good, except Jupiter, but you can choose to not directly support genocide). Need new shoes? Skip Reebok. Disney+ account coming up for renewal? Do you really need to watch the Avengers again? To some degree, it just takes asking ourselves, “What are these conveniences worth?” They’re not worth compromising your morals.

We have an opportunity to begin making the choices that align with a free Palestine and a free world. Reassessing our consumer habits is a necessary step to an equitable world. Talking with friends and loved ones is one of the best ways you can support socialist struggle. Labor rights organizer George Meany, born this week in 1894, put it well: “You only make progress by fighting for progress.”

*Related: Come to the Get Chevron Out of French Quarter Fest organizing meeting, Tuesday night at 6:00 at the Healing Center, Room 258.

Bulletins

Fall 2025 Voter Guide Team Weekly Meeting Tomorrow

Every election, New Orleans DSA publishes our voter guide analyzing the key issues in each race through a socialist lens. This is a volunteer effort by comrades in the chapter, and we want you to join us! We’ll be at the New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 258, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Bring your laptop and all of your longstanding grudges against our local oligarchs. Get in touch with Aaron Z for more info.

Surveillance Ordinance Removed From Council Agenda This Week

City Council’s Live Facial Recognition Ordinance 35,137 was scheduled to go in front of the Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday, but it was removed from the agenda. Councilmembers Eugene Green and Oliver Thomas have repeatedly tried to pass this first-of-its-kind intrusion into our daily lives despite massive public opposition. Keep up the pressure! Surveillance ain’t safety!

Palestine Banner Build

Your New Orleans DSA comrades are doing a Free Palestine Banner Build at the Healing Center on September 5th at 6:00 pm. Sign up here and bring your creativity to our art event.

Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ

Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.

Write Like a Socialist: We Have a World to Win!

Have an update from your committee or working group? That’s a Bulletin! Want to tell us about an upcoming event? Add it to the Community Calendar! Got some opinion or analysis to share for the good of the membership? Write us a Feature! Make your contribution to the next edition of Solidarity Means Action in the Comms Discord channel.

Community Calendar

Friday, August 22

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

OPDEC Candidate Forum – Mayor, Sheriff, Clerk of Court

6:00 pm – SUNO Millie M. Charles School of Social Work Auditorium, 6801 Press Dr

Saturday, August 23

Canvass for Jackson Kimbrell, District C

9:00 am – 12:00 pm – Get involved

OPDEC Candidate Forum – Assessor, City Council

9:00 am – SUNO Millie M. Charles School of Social Work Auditorium, 6801 Press Dr

Voter Guide Team – Weekly Meeting

10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Saturdays through September 20) – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 258

New Orleans DSA General Meeting

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm  – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 204 – RSVP

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Get involved

Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Get Involved

QTCAP Rally: Defend Transgender Healthcare!

5:00 pm – Louisiana Department of Health, 1300 Poydras St

Surveillance Ain’t Safety: Facial Recognition and Predictive Policing

7:00 pm – 11:00 pm – BJ’s Lounge, 4301 Burgundy

Sunday, August 24

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Get Involved

DSA Comms Team Meeting

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 258

Monday, August 25

Jewish Voice for Peace General Body Meeting

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 258

Local Council Meeting

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – Meet

Urban League By The People Debate Series: City Council District E

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, 8282 I-10 Service Rd

Tuesday, August 26

Get Chevron Out of French Quarter Fest Meeting

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 258

Wednesday, August 27

Indivisible Wednesday ICE Protest

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (every Wednesday) – ICE Field Office, 1250 Poydras St

Municipal Action Committee Meeting

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm (fourth Wednesday) – Meet

Friday, August 29

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Saturday, August 30

Canvass for Jackson Kimbrell, District C

9:00 am – 12:00 pm – Get involved

Voter Guide Team – Weekly Meeting

10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Saturdays through September 20) – Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Sunday, August 31

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Chapter Orientation

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm (first and last Sunday) – Meet

Down the Road

September 1 #SolidaritySeptember Labor Day Kickoff

September 2 From Disaster to Solutions: A Mayoral Candidate Forum About Climate

September 3 Health Justice & Direct Service Meeting

September 3 Urban League By The People Debate Series: Council At-Large

September 5 Urban League By The People Debate Series: Assessor

September 9 Urban League By The People Debate Series: Mayor

September 24 Poli-Ed Movie Night: The Act of Killing

September 26 Voter Guide Release

September 27 Early Voting Starts

October 11 Election Day: Municipal Primary

November 15 Election Day: Municipal Runoff

Features

Stand Up or Shut Up Time for City Councilmembers and Candidates

Eugene Green and Oliver Thomas’s expansive surveillance ordinance is returning to City Council this Wednesday. This dangerous ordinance would make New Orleans the first and only city in the country to allow live facial recognition of its residents. That means the cameras you see all around town will be identifying your face everywhere you go, and checking it against law enforcement’s target database.

The people have made ourselves clear: surveillance doesn’t make us safer. Giving the state the tools to track every immigrant, every labor activist, and every person who opposes the genocide in Palestine doesn’t make us safer. Paying for a technology proven to be biased against Black and brown people, with ever mounting costs for cameras, software, and data storage, that’s bound to result in millions in payouts for wrongful arrests and civil rights violations, does absolutely nothing to make our city better for its working class residents. All it’s going to do is make every demonstrator an easy target for white nationalist Proud Boys in military cosplay.

That’s why Eye on Surveillance, Unión Migrante, Jewish Voice for Peace, New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police, Indivisible Nola, and New Orleans DSA all oppose Ordinance 35,137. After delaying it multiple times this summer to wait out public opposition, Green and Thomas are bringing it to the City Council Criminal Justice Committee, 1300 Perdido St, 2nd Floor West, this Wednesday, August 20. We need you to contact the council and tell them to stop Ordinance 35,137.

Our privacy is under attack. Our elected officials are on the cusp of handing over massive surveillance powers to fascists. It’s time for council members and candidates to stand up or shut up – if you can’t find the courage to vote against this, then don’t bother asking us to vote for you.

Empty ‘Resistance’ to Rising Fascism – Bob M

President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and federal agencies in Washington, D.C., over invented hysteria is causing justified anxiety amongst anti-fascists across the political spectrum. The spectacle of our local election season has unfortunately been a distraction from a critical fight in our historical moment – defending what little democratic rights we have and fighting against authoritarianism at the federal, state, and local levels. 

During my campaign, I have continually brought up this urgency. On WDSU, I highlighted the need to come together to fight for democracy, and I explicitly called out the rise of fascism at the Urban League’s forum. Few other local Democratic candidates have mentioned Trump or Landry, and the narrative focus on roadwork and economic development feels like someone staring 6 inches ahead of their feet while walking towards a cliff. 

What frightens me is that these candidates want to give police more weapons, technology, and money without any recognition that Trump or Landry will inevitably push the boundaries of our laws. When Jim Crow comes back, do you honestly think Louisiana State Police are going to care about protecting us after they got away with murdering Ronald Greene? How confident do you feel in NOPD and OPSO, who are still under federal consent decrees for violating constitutional rights? The facial recognition technology they’re trying to sell us next week in City Council – you honestly think they won’t use that against political targets or foreign-born residents? The Real Time Crime Center admits having a Department of Homeland Security intelligence agent embedded within the city-run panopticon. For all the genuine concern I hear from residents about Trump and fascism, I hear nothing from my fellow District A candidates.

I am grateful for my fellow DSA candidates who continue to call out the reality around us and say, “No more!” Lock in and become a DSA member or renew your membership today. Get to public demonstrations. Support mutual aid efforts. Organize your workplace to build solidarity and the capacity to strike. There are more of us than them, and we are stronger together. Solidarity forever.

Fall 2025 Voter Guide Team Weekly Meeting Tomorrow

Every election, New Orleans DSA publishes our voter guide analyzing the key issues in each race through a socialist lens. This is a volunteer effort by comrades in the chapter, and we want you to join us!

Come to our first Saturday morning work session, where we’ll be crafting themes and assigning candidates to our team members for the Fall 2025 Voter Guide. Tomorrow, we’ll be on the back patio of Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Bring your laptop and all of your longstanding grudges against our local oligarchs. Get in touch with Aaron Z for more info.

Solidarity Forever – Andy L

The heartbreaking news that Planned Parenthood will cease operation in Louisiana September 30 reminds us that we’re living under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie: a ruling elite that needs vulnerable, exploitable workers. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast provided cancer screenings, birth control, pregnancy and STI testing, gender-affirming care, and more to the community. Even this attempt to support the working class was too great a threat to their patriarchy. 

A hegemon can’t allow anything to challenge its supremacy. It must destroy any perceived threat. This is why Israel smashed Syria into sectarian clusters and assassinated dozens of Iranian leaders and scientists in June. Right now, Israel and the US are forcing the Lebanese government to destroy itself in an attempt to disarm Hezbollah, turning an Arab vs. Zionist conflict into an Arab vs. Arab conflict. The resistance of the Palestinians is a challenge to the perception of Israel as an undefeatable power, so they are being exterminated.

The way to counter hegemony is with solidarity. The BRICS organization is attempting to counter the US’s military-backed hegemony with a cooperative economic system. It’s a race between the US encirclement of China and BRICS completing a trade network free of the US, but no one knows how it will all play out. The fact that the BRICS nations are working together is the only reason that they have a chance.

Applying these lessons locally, our path forward is to build solidarity with those who fight our class enemies. This involves organizations that have been doing the work for decades and groups and individuals who are finally putting all the pieces together. We need everyone to change everything: we will build the future together or not at all.

Red Rabbits Recommendation – Get Moving

We all know about the fight-or-flight response to a stressful situation. One thing that both options have in common is motion. Rather than sitting on your couch and doomscrolling about the state of the world, get up, get out, and get active.

We talk about getting active all the time, and usually that’s about organizing conversations or attending protests, but we shouldn’t neglect the physical benefits of motion. Even a leisurely walk around the block is good for you. You’ll get fresh air, see your neighbors, and lubricate your joints. The motion is the lotion, as the old-timers say. Deep breathing activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which calms your mind and reduces your body’s stress hormones. 

You don’t have to start running marathons or doing a hundred pushups a day. Every body is different, with unique limits and abilities. Start with what you can do, and what you want to do, then work from there. You can exercise alone, with friends, or with total strangers. Group activities help build relationships, which can make the whole process more enriching.  

The chapter is large enough that undoubtedly there are comrades who enjoy the same kinds of activities that you do. If you’ve been wanting to post on the Discord but don’t know what to say, then throw your hat in the ring and see if anyone wants to toss a frisbee around or do some yoga. 

Our good friend Dialectical Materialism tells us that quantitative changes (swimming every morning) will lead to qualitative changes (you become a morning person or don’t get so out of breath when you take the stairs). Find your fun, find your people, and get going!

Bulletins

Political Education Committee Reading Group

The Political Education Committee’s September discussion will cover Palestine: A Socialist Introduction (Chapter 1: Roots of the Nakba) & The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. We’ll meet at the New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 258, from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm. Come hang out and chat, even if you didn’t have time to finish all the materials.

DSA Cuba Delegation 2025 Application

From October 14–18th, DSA is hosting a five-day general membership political delegation to Havana, coordinated by our International Committee. DSA members will meet with public health officials, climate activists, local and national political leadership, organizations, ministries, and grassroots organizers. In addition, we will visit sites of cultural and historical significance to educate our membership and strengthen the project of normalization between Cuba and the US. Applications are due Sunday, August 17.

Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ

Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.

Write Like a Socialist: We Have a World to Win!

Have an update from your committee or working group? That’s a Bulletin! Want to tell us about an upcoming event? Add it to the Community Calendar! Got some opinion or analysis to share for the good of the membership? Write us a Feature! Make your contribution to the next edition of Solidarity Means Action in the Comms Discord channel.

Community Calendar

Friday, August 15

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Urban League By The People Debate Series: City Council At-Large

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – McDonogh 35 HS, 4000 Cadillac St

Saturday, August 16

Voter Guide Team – Weekly Meeting

10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Saturdays through September 20) – Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Canvass for Pastor Gregory Manning, Council At-Large

1:00 pm – Broadmoor Community Church, 2021 S Dupre St – Get Involved

Sunday, August 17

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Monday, August 18

National Nurses Organizing Committee Press Conference for UMC Nurses

5:30 pm – Charity Hospital, 1510 Tulane Av

Tuesday, August 19

Sports Drink Community Night: Local Politics

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm (third Tuesday) – Sports Drink, 1042 Toledano Av

Urban League By The People Debate Series: City Council District C

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – LB Landry HS Auditorium, 1200 LB Landry Av

Wednesday, August 20

City Council Criminal Justice Committee: Live Facial Recognition Ordinance

10:00 am – Council Chamber, 1300 Perdido St, 2nd Fl West

Indivisible Wednesday ICE Protest

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (every Wednesday) – ICE Field Office, 1250 Poydras St

Thursday, August 21

NOSHIP General Meeting

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – DM Instagram @_NOSHIP for info

Poli-Ed Reading Group: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction & The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm (third Thursday) – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av – Meet – Reading List

Friday, August 22

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

OPDEC Candidate Forum – Mayor, Sheriff, Clerk of Court

6:00 pm – SUNO Millie M. Charles School of Social Work Auditorium, 6801 Press Dr

Saturday, August 23

Canvass for Jackson Kimbrell, District C

9:00 am – 12:00 pm – Get involved

OPDEC Candidate Forum – Assessor, City Council

9:00 am – SUNO Millie M. Charles School of Social Work Auditorium, 6801 Press Dr

Voter Guide Team – Weekly Meeting

10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Saturdays through September 20) – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 258

New Orleans DSA General Meeting

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm  – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 204 – RSVP

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Get involved

Sunday, August 24

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

DSA Comms Team Meeting

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 258

Down the Road

August 25 Local Council Meeting

August 25 Urban League By The People Debate Series: City Council District E

August 27 Municipal Action Committee Meeting

September 2 From Disaster to Solutions: A Mayoral Candidate Forum About Climate

September 3 Health Justice & Direct Service Meeting

September 24 Poli-Ed Movie Night: Harlan County, USA

September 26 Voter Guide Release

September 27 Early Voting Starts

October 11 Election Day: Municipal Open Primary

November 15 Election Day: Municipal Runoff

Features

There Is No Safe Facial Recognition System

Our city government has invested heavily in surveillance cameras that record you every time you go to the grocery store, a friend’s house, or sit on your porch. Now, NOPD wants to record your face and run it through a target database every time you step into public. That’s why they’ve asked City Council to expand their surveillance arsenal to include live facial recognition technology.

The problem is that live facial recognition is ripe for abuse, and they know it. We’re living through a feverish backlash against every civil right our elders fought for, tearing apart the Voting Rights Act, criminalizing reproductive healthcare, and kidnapping immigrants, activists, and labor leaders to concentration camps. So after all of us spoke up against this ordinance, City Council responds with a public relations campaign promising that the mass surveillance state they plan to build won’t be used against immigrants, same-sex couples, and women seeking abortions.

You can’t fix this with safeguards. You can’t build a surveillance state and hope the fascist government won’t use it against you. Act 399 just went into effect in Louisiana, which makes it a felony for a public official to refuse to cooperate with ICE or Customs and Border Protection. We had our elected “progressive” prosecutor promptly abandon commitments against prosecuting children as adults, using the racist habitual offender law, and reinstating the death penalty, all to appease Troop Nola and the state government. Every one of these corporate-backed electeds in city government promising safeguards and responsible use of live mass surveillance will capitulate the instant the state or federal government comes after them.

New Orleans DSA and our endorsed candidates unequivocally oppose live facial recognition and mass surveillance. There are no safeguards that can make this infrastructure immune to takeover and abuse. There are no circumstances under which we are willing to pay Axon, Palantir, and Project NOLA to build the panopticon of our own imprisonment. If we build it, they will use it. Why would self-respecting people ever roll out a welcome mat for fascism?

Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair & School Supply Drive Tomorrow

Your favorite DSA comrades will be at 2932 S Carrollton Av, from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm, for our Brake Light Clinic. We’ll be checking and changing brake lights, handing out hot meals and cold drinks, and checking blood pressure. We’re also welcoming our friends from Trystereo to provide Narcan kits and educate us on how to use them, and we’ll be distributing back-to-school supply kits our members have put together this past month. It’s always a good time with good people, so get your hat, get your sunscreen, and come make some friends while you do some community organizing!

Red Rabbits Recommendation: Don’t Talk on the Jail Phones

If you get taken to jail, remember this one thing: prosecutors listen to your phone calls and read your messages. Your phone calls are not confidential. Your phone calls are not private. Your phone calls are being recorded and handed over to the state. So don’t talk about your case on the jail phones, you’re just giving the state free evidence, and they will twist your own words against you. Happy Shut the Fuck Up Friday.

Bulletins

DSA Cuba Delegation 2025 Application

From October 14–18th, DSA is hosting a five-day general membership political delegation to Havana, coordinated by our International Committee. DSA members will meet with public health officials, climate activists, local and national political leadership, organizations, ministries, and grassroots organizers. In addition, we will visit sites of cultural and historical significance to educate our membership and strengthen the project of normalization between Cuba and the US. Applications are due August 17.

Join the Voter Guide Team

Early voting for fall local elections begins September 27, which means it’s time for another round of the New Orleans DSA Voter Guide. We’re looking for members to join the research and writing team. See our previous Voter Guide editions here, and look for training and meeting announcements on the Voter Guide Working Group Discord channel.

Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ

Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.

Support UNO Workers Against Austerity

United Campus Workers at UNO are requesting community support to resist impending cuts to the University including termination of long time workers and valuable programs. These cuts come from decades of austerity, forcing working class people to shoulder immense costs for education with student loans, and leading departments to rely on adjunct faculty rather than investing in sustainable, full-time positions. Let UNO administrators know that the community stands with our students and our educators.

Write Like a Socialist: We Have a World to Win!

Have an update from your committee or working group? That’s a Bulletin! Want to tell us about an upcoming event? Add it to the Community Calendar! Got some opinion or analysis to share for the good of the membership? Write us a Feature! Make your contribution to the next edition of Solidarity Means Action in the Comms Discord channel.

Community Calendar

Friday, August 8

DSA National Convention

Chicago, Illinois

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Saturday, August 9

DSA National Convention

Chicago, Illinois

Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair & School Supply Drive

11:00 am – 2:00 pm – 2932 S Carrollton Av

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Get involved

Rally for Gaza

5:00 pm – Lafayette Square, 550 St Charles Av

Sunday, August 10

DSA National Convention

Chicago, Illinois

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Monday, August 11

Step Up Candidate Forum ft Bob Murrell

5:00 pm – 8:30 pm – bit.ly/districtA

Critical Mass Nola Ride: Black August

6:00 pm – Armstrong Park, 701 N Rampart St

Wednesday, August 13

Indivisible Wednesday ICE Protest

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (every Wednesday) – ICE Field Office, 1250 Poydras St

Thursday, August 14

Local Council Meeting

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm (second Thursday) – Meet

Friday, August 15

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Saturday, August 16

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Sunday, August 17

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Down the Road

August 19 Sports Drink Community Night: Local Politics

August 23 New Orleans DSA General Meeting

August 27 Municipal Action Committee Meeting

September 3 Health Justice & Direct Service Meeting
September 27 Early Voting Starts

October 11 Election Day: Municipal Open PrimaryNovember 15 Election Day: Municipal Runoff

Features

City Council Campaigns Are Underway, Get Involved!

Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has three endorsed members running for City Council. Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. At Step Up’s District E forum on Wednesday, Danyelle talked to voters about the need for a new council to make good on neglect and broken promises in her neighborhood. Bob did an r/NewOrleans AMA on Wednesday, focusing on candidate responsiveness, surveillance, short term rentals, public transit, and more. Jackson will be at the District C forum on August 6, and Bob will attend District A’s forum on August 11.

All DSA candidates are championing our People’s Platform to make this city work for the people who live here.

• Dismantling white supremacy & racism
• Opposing fascism, neoliberalism, privatization, and austerity
• Abolishing the criminal punishment system
• Climate justice and sustainability
• Abortion rights and access for all
• LGBTQ+ liberation
• Free quality public schools for all
• Supporting unionized labor & all unorganized workers
• Supporting immigrants, undocumented people, and oppressed and colonized nations
• Affordable quality housing and utilities 
• Living wage work for all who want it
• Healthcare for all
• Safe routes for all mobilities and robust and reliable mass transit  
• No tax breaks for billion dollar companies

Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.

Come to Our Brake Light Clinic and Health Fair AND School Supply Drive Next Week

Your favorite DSA comrades will be in City Council District A on August 9, changing brake lights and handing out hot meals, cold drinks, and doing health checks. We’re also welcoming our friends from Trystereo to provide Narcan kits and educate us on how to use them, and we’ll be distributing back-to-school supply kits our members have put together this past month. It’s always a good time with good people, so come hang out and do some community organizing!

The address is 2932 S Carrollton Av, from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Get your hat, get your sunscreen, and get a friend or make one at the clinic.

Support UNO Workers Against Austerity

United Campus Workers at UNO are requesting community support to resist impending cuts to the University including termination of long time workers and valuable programs.

These cuts come from decades of austerity, forcing working class people to shoulder immense costs for education with student loans, and leading departments to rely on adjunct faculty rather than investing in sustainable, full-time positions.

UNO stands as a beacon of higher ed accessible to New Orleanians. But as austerity takes hold, these cuts represent lost hope and lost futures. We know that major systemic change is needed to correct this. In the meantime, it is important to let UNO administrators know that the community stands with our students and our educators.

Back to Basics – Andy L

A recent conversation with smart, well-grounded, business-savvy workers illustrated the work that we have ahead of us. They could not grasp the way in which they are being robbed by their bosses. Almost every relation with economic characteristics has some sort of exploitation built into it, and our task is to show people how to identify what’s happening. The first step in recovery is admitting there’s a problem, right? For workers, we see it as theft of the value that they create with their own labor. A business owner who pays a worker $100 a day must get at least $100 worth of value out of the worker or else risk going out of business. The key question is, “how much MORE value is created by the worker than they are paid?”

Maybe you’ve heard of the Ohio pizza shop owner who had an employee appreciation day, where he gave his workers all the sales and tips from the day’s orders. Every worker made $78 AN HOUR. The news stories wrote about how the owner was a great guy, yet no one pointed out the massive gap between the value that the employees create and the amount they are normally paid. 

People aren’t struggling because they’re lazy or because they eat out too much. They struggle because they are systematically robbed of the value that they create. They are swindled by business owners and corporate overlords who trick workers into thinking that they are paid well enough. It’s all a con. 

This is why we say that capitalism must go, torn out root and branch. The system only functions if there are people so desperate for work that they’ll put up with exploitative conditions. It needs  a reserve force of unemployed people to discipline workers with the threat that they could be replaced if they fight for what’s theirs. Capitalism can’t survive in a robust, healthy society – it can only function where there are weak points to exploit.

Bulletins

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: EWOC Training Series on How to Unite and Win

Come join Worker Power Louisiana for the final session in a four-part training on fundamental principles of effective shop-floor organizing. The series wraps up tomorrow with Inoculation and the Boss Campaign, from 3:00-4:30p. Sign up here.

Join the Voter Guide Team

Early voting for fall local elections begins September 27, which means it’s time for another round of the New Orleans DSA Voter Guide. We’re looking for members to join the research and writing team. See our previous Voter Guide editions here, and look for training and meeting announcements on the Voter Guide Working Group Discord channel.

Community Calendar

Friday, August 1

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Saturday, August 2

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: Inoculation and the Boss Campaign

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm – Rosa F Keller Library, 4300 S Broad St – Sign Up

Sunday, August 3

Coffee with Comrades

11:00 am – 12:00 pm – Coffee Science, 410 Broad St

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Chapter Orientation

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm (first and last Sunday) – Meet

Tuesday, August 5

Rank & File Project Meeting

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm (first Tuesday) – REACH Center, 2022 St Bernard Av, Bldg C, 3rd Fl

Wednesday, August 6

Indivisible Wednesday ICE Protest

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (every Wednesday) – ICE Field Office, 1250 Poydras St

Health Justice and Direct Service Meeting

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm (first Wednesday) – Meet

Step Up Candidate Forum ft Jackson Kimbrell

5:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Thursday, August 7

Poli-Ed Planning Meeting

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm (first Thursday) – Oak St Brewery, 8201 Oak St – Reading List

Friday, August 8

DSA National Convention

Chicago, Illinois

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Saturday, August 9

DSA National Convention

Chicago, Illinois

Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair & School Supply Drive

11:00 am – 2:00 pm – 2932 S Carrollton Av

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Sunday, August 10

DSA National Convention

Chicago, Illinois

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Down the Road

August 11 Step Up Candidate Forum ft Bob Murrell

August 14 Local Council Meeting

August 19 Sports Drink Community Night: Local Politics

August 21 Poli-Ed Reading Group

August 27 Municipal Action Committee Meeting

October 11 Municipal Open Primary Election DayNovember 15 Municipal Runoff Election Day

Features

A Good Martial Artist Does Not Become Tense, But Ready – Bruce Lee

With the Supreme Court deferring to the Trump Administration’s whims, the full-on grab for power is well underway barely six months into this four-year term. The machinations of this administration will increasi

ngly expose the contradictions our society rests upon. For example, the revolutionary impulse of the working class has historically been kept in check by the middle class. However, the DOGE cuts to government jobs were not about trimming the federal budget; they were about conducting class warfare against the middle class. Obviously, some elements of the bourgeoisie think that a middle class buffer is now less important to their project. It looks like  they have another plan for controlling the masses.

Enter the Imperial Boomerang, coming to the US in the form of a tripling of the ICE budget. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from acting as a civilian police force. Supercharging ICE is a way to step around that law. The Administration doesn’t need tanks and jet fighters to deal with dissents – it just needs tens of thousands of goons that can move around the country, and prison camps to hold whomever belongs to the out groups. Who will become the next out group, the next focus of  government repression? And the next after that? Fascists always need an out group, and if you think you’re safe because you are not in the out group, well it might be that you’re just not in the out group for now.  

The US could become a generation-long military dictatorship (à la Brazil, South Korea and Taiwan), but even before that happens, we need to prepare and act. We must develop our resources, organize our comrades, families, neighbors and friends, and call out the fascists for every fascist thing they do. We have to be smart, brave, and diligent. Talk to everyone you can about what’s happening in the country right now. This isn’t a future hypothetical; this is crisis, terror, tragedy, and death happening in our society right now.

Red Rabbits Recommendation – De-escalation Tips

De-escalation is a great way to keep others safe when events seem to be spinning out of control. Here are a few helpful tactics that can make your task easier.

First, ask questions that can cast yourself as an ally or non-party to the conflict. Ally questions include “How are you doing? Are you hurt?” The non-party approach would use questions like “What brings you to this event? What makes you say that this person is [whatever]?” Questions draw attention away from the source of the conflict. They can help identify the issues in play, so that you can steer the conversation. Answering questions activates different parts of the brain, which might deflate a growing fight-or-flight response. That is, if someone is answering a question, they probably won’t be punching anyone.

Second, as with any organizing activity, you need to listen empathetically. Give your undivided attention, validate feelings and reflect the communication by repeating back what they say to you, but in a more relaxed register. Don’t be afraid to wait them out – even someone who is very agitated and upset usually only has about 2 minutes of yelling in the tank before they get exhausted. If you can get them to yell at you instead of someone else, the problem might be solved.

Lastly, peel them away if you can do so while keeping yourself safe. You can do this by inventing a pretext like “I really want to hear more about … can you tell me more about it over here?” or “I have someone who might be able to help you, let’s go explain the situation to them.”

De-escalation is emotional labor, so after the event, allow yourself time to decompress and unwind. Don’t burn yourself out – we need you healthy and ready to act again!

Bulletins

School Supply Drive with the Direct Service & Health Justice Committee

We’re planning a school supply drive for the August 9 Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair. Chip in for supplies at our School Supply Drive Wishlist, or bring your own to our next General Meeting where we’ll assemble the kits.

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: EWOC Training Series on How to Unite and Win

Come join Worker Power Louisiana for a four-part training on fundamental principles of effective shop-floor organizing. Sessions continue with The Arc of the Campaign (July 26), and Inoculation and the Boss Campaign (August 2). All sessions are from 3:00-4:30p Central. Sign up here to get started.

City Council Endorsement HQ

Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has three endorsed members running for City Council. Keep up with Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell’s campaigns at Endorsement HQ. Volunteer, donate, follow on social media, and fill out the Campaign Outreach Survey to get involved.

We’ve Moved to Discord!

New Orleans DSA members should get on our Discord server to keep up with your comrades and our efforts. We’ve phased out Slack and will migrate old conversations over.

Community Calendar

Friday, July 25

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Stop Starving Gaza Now Protest

1:00pm – Intersection of Lapalco and Manhattan Blvd.

Critical Mass Ride

Meet at 5:40pm, Roll at 6:30pm – French Market (Barracks St. Side)

Saturday, July 26

New Orleans DSA General Meeting

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Suite 258 – RSVP

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Get involved

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: The Arc of the Campaign

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm – Rosa F Keller Library, 4300 S Broad St – Sign Up

Sunday, July 27

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Chapter Orientation

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm (first and last Sunday) – Meet

Wednesday, July 30

Indivisible Wednesday ICE Protest

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (every Wednesday) – ICE Field Office, 1250 Poydras St

Friday, August 1

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Saturday, August 2

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: Inoculation and the Boss Campaign

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm – Rosa F Keller Library, 4300 S Broad St – Sign Up

Sunday, August 3

Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Get involved

Chapter Orientation

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm (first and last Sunday) – Meet

Down the Road

August 5 Rank & File Project Meeting

August 6 Health Justice and Direct Service Meeting

August 8-10 DSA National Convention

August 9 Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair

August 14 Local Council Meeting

August 19 Sports Drink Community Night: Local Politics

August 21 Poli-Ed Reading Group

October 11 Municipal Open Primary Election DayNovember 15 Municipal Runoff Election Day

Complete Calendar

Solidarity Means Action is the weekly newsletter of the New Orleans Democratic Socialists of America. Subscribe for updates every Friday at 8:00 am Central.

Features

So You Just Joined DSA, What’s Next? – Bob M, Membership Chair

If you are like the thousands of new members nationwide who have joined DSA in the last few months, welcome to the largest socialist organization in the country! As your chapter’s elected officer for membership, I’m here to help turn your excitement or anger into organizing and action. We have so many members from all walks of life in our chapter (you probably have friends who are already members), and to see working people share a little bit of their time and resources to the greater fight is inspiring, so thank you for joining us!

Here’s my brief guide for new members ( and anyone else still looking to get more involved):

1. Join the Discord server where we discuss and debate proposals between meetings, manage requests for help from our communities, share pictures of our animals, and so much more. Our Discord is primarily for members, but we do have a small space for non-members who want to stay informed. 
2. Pay local dues! National dues are required for membership in good standing, and the chapter does receive a fraction of those. Please consider chipping in a few more bucks a month for local dues. 100% of our local dues go straight to our chapter for renting our new office space, purchasing supplies for our brakelight and health clinics, printing materials, and more. 
3. Come to a New Member Orientation the first and last Sunday of every month, 8pm online. We will cover the basics of DSA and our local chapter, as well as give you space to ask questions and meet other new members. Our next two NMOs are July 27th and August 3rd. If you can’t make it, schedule a call to chat! Block off some time on my calendar to chat about why you joined, what matters to you, and how you can help our fight for a better New Orleans. 

It’s been great speaking with people who are looking to do something against the rise of fascism, and I know we will win the more we are able to come together with the rest of the working class in New Orleans. And now that you’ve joined, it’s time to get your friends, allies, and co-workers to join us in the fight for a better society. 

Do Not Be Tense; Be Ready

With the Supreme Court deferring to the Trump Administration’s whims, the full-on grab for power is well underwayin swing, barely six months into this four-year term. The machinations of this administration will increasingly expose the contradictions our society rests upon. For example, the revolutionary impulse of the working class has historically been kept in check by the middle class. However, the DOGE cuts to government jobs were not about trimming the federal budget; they were about conducting class warfare against the middle class. Maybe the bourgeoisie has another plan for controlling the masses.

The Imperial Boomerang has come to the US in the form of a tripling of the ICE budget. History shows us that government agencies only grow over time; they never seem to wrap up their work and disband. This begs the question that once the so-called “immigrant problem” is resolved, who will become the next out group, subject to government repression? And the next after that? Fascists always need an out group, and if you think you’re safe because you are not in the out group, well it might be that you’re just not in the out group for now.  

The US could become a generation-long military dictatorship (à la Brazil, South Korea and Taiwan), but even before that happens, we need to prepare and act. We must develop our resources, organize our comrades, families, neighbors and friends, and call out the fascists for every fascist thing they do. In many ways, Trump and his ghouls will make our lives harder, but in doing so, they will make our work easier. We have to be smart, brave, and diligent. 

As our good friend Bruce Lee reminds us: a good martial artist does not become tense, but ready.

Red Rabbit Recommendation – Keep It Casual, Comrades

One way we tighten up our operational security is to address each other by first name and the first letter of our last name. We all know that Karl M and Fred E are very important to our organization, but we don’t need to let those outside our organization know what their last names are. Ok, maybe we can let folks know about those two, but the rest of us shouldn’t use last names when we talk to or reference each other. Last names are superfluous to our work, and maybe we should keep an eye on someone who seems overly interested in learning everyone’s last name. We owe it to each other not to make anything easy for the class enemies.

Bulletins

School Supply Drive with the Direct Service & Health Justice Committee

We’re planning a school supply drive for the August 9 Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair. Chip in for supplies at our School Supply Drive Wishlist, or bring your own to our next General Meeting where we’ll assemble the kits.

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: EWOC Training Series on How to Unite and Win

Come join Worker Power Louisiana for a four-part training on fundamental principles of effective shop-floor organizing. Sessions continue with The Organizing Conversation (July 19), The Arc of the Campaign (July 26), and Inoculation and the Boss Campaign (August 2). All sessions are from 3:00-4:30p Central. Sign up here to get started.

City Council Endorsement HQ

Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has three endorsed members running for City Council. Keep up with Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell’s campaigns at Endorsement HQ. Volunteer, donate, follow on social media, and fill out the Campaign Outreach Survey to get involved.

We’ve Moved to Discord!

New Orleans DSA members should get on our Discord server to keep up with your comrades and our efforts. We’ve phased out Slack and will migrate old conversations over.

Community Calendar

Friday, July 18

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00pm – 12:45pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Saturday, July 19

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: The Organizing Conversation

3:00pm – 4:30pm – Rosa F Keller Library, 4300 S Broad St – Sign Up

DSA Space-Warming Party: Home is Where the Organizing Is

6:30pm – 8:00pm – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 258

Sunday, July 20

Monday, July 21

Tuesday, July 22

Wednesday, July 23

Indivisible Wednesday ICE Protest

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (every Wednesday) – ICE Field Office, 1250 Poydras St

Municipal Action Committee Meeting

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm (fourth Wednesday) – Meet

Thursday, July 24

Friday, July 25

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday) – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Saturday, July 26

New Orleans DSA General Meeting

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm – New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Suite 258 – RSVP

Knock Doors with Bob Murrell

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Sign up

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: The Arc of the Campaign

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm – Rosa F Keller Library, 4300 S Broad St – Sign Up

Sunday, July 27

Knock Doors with Bob Murrell

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Sign up

Chapter Orientation

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm (first and last Sunday) – Meet

Down the Road

August 2 – Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: Inoculation and the Boss Campaign

August 5 – Rank & File Project Meeting

August 6 – Health Justice and Direct Service Meeting

August 8-10 – DSA National Convention

August 9 – Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair

August 14 – Local Council Meeting

August 19 – Sports Drink Community Night: Local Politics

August 21 – Poli-Ed Reading Group

October 11 – Municipal Open Primary Election Day

November 15 – Municipal Runoff Election Day

Complete Calendar

Solidarity Means Action is the weekly newsletter of the New Orleans Democratic Socialists of America. Subscribe for updates every Friday at 8:00 am Central.

Features

It’s Time to Put the People Back in Charge! Four DSA Members Qualify for City Council Races

Wednesday morning, at the steps of the Criminal District Courthouse, DSA School Board Member Gaby Biro introduced DSA’s City Council slate for 2025. Members Pastor Gregory Manning, Bob Murrell, Danyelle Christmas, and Jackson Kimbrell will proudly represent our chapter on your October ballot.

This slate represents us. Our members come from working class and union families. We see the damage that white supremacy, incarceration, and the school to prison pipeline bring into our neighborhoods. We’re tired of watching our schools and public goods get sold off to private corporations. These candidates dream of a future where we take on climate change, we have power and public transportation we can rely on, and we build long term housing for every resident of this city. They’re out there every day, knocking on doors, standing side by side with their neighbors against ICE, and working to put the people back in charge at City Hall. A better world is possible, and being clear and unapologetic about our demands is how we’re going to get there.

Join us tonight at our Campaign Kickoff Party, 6:30 pm at Brieux Carré. Come hang with comrades and get a glimpse of all that we can accomplish together.

DSA Space-Warming Party: Home is Where the Organizing Is

We’ve officially moved into our space at the New Orleans Healing Center, and now it’s time to celebrate! Come enjoy comradely antics and support this new hub for community organizing on Friday, July 18th from 6:30-8 pm at the New Orleans Healing Center, Suite 258. There will be refreshments, snoballs, and plenty of good vibes, so be sure to pop by!

This new location fills the need for a secure meeting place for progressive groups, but it’s not cheap — donations are welcomed at the door, on Paypal to treasurer@dsaneworleans.org, or through monthly local dues. We’ll also be selling merch and encouraging in-kind donations of furnishings like chairs, tables, floor lamps, desks, and similar things (reach out on Discord with questions!)

Parking is located at 2465 N Rampart St. Small signs directing you to the space will be put up, and you can also check out our helpful guide and map for navigating the building. We hope to see you there!

What Hurricane Ida Revealed About the Failures of Our City-Assisted Evacuation Plan – Wash F

After Hurricane Katrina, the city developed a comprehensive city-assisted evacuation plan that kicks in once a hurricane is forecast to be category 3 or above. In 2021, when Hurricane Ida reached category 3, this evacuation plan should’ve been initiated, but Ida’s rapid intensification didn’t allow nearly enough time to do so. 

Given the difficulty of evacuating tens of thousands of residents with different needs across the city, the plan’s timeline involves evacuation orders going out 54-72 hours in advance of landfall. In comparison, Ida’s timeline was:

• [72 hrs until NOLA landfall] Ida designated a tropical storm: 8/26 at 7pm. 
• [54 hrs until] Hits Cuba as a category 1: 8/27 at 1pm.
• [30 hrs until] Intensifies to category 2: 8/28 at 1pm. 
• [18 hrs until] At 1am on 8/29, it intensified to a cat 3, beyond what was expected. One hour later, it was a cat 4. 

Assuming people checked the weather at 8am, that would leave less than *12 hours* before it hit the city around 8pm.

Climate change means storms will continue to develop quickly and unpredictably. When (not if) this rapid intensification happens again, how will we deal with it? Does the City truly have a sufficient hurricane response strategy, or just a best-case-scenario plan making us feel safer than we should?

The City needs to prioritize strengthening our ability to weather storms when pre-storm evacuation is not possible. Cuba is known to have robust hurricane preparedness and response infrastructure because of its vulnerability to hurricanes and inability to evacuate, so much so that Oxfam published the report “Weathering the Storm: Lessons in Risk Reduction from Cuba.” The City of New Orleans should learn from our Caribbean neighbors, reevaluate our current hurricane response plans, and pursue tactics for protecting the city and those in it when storms hit — our survival relies on it!

Red Rabbits Recommendation – Develop Threat Assessment Skills

We live in a world that isn’t safe, but learning how to make proper threat assessments can keep you and your comrades safer. There are different ways of making your assessment, including this four-step model:

1. What am I trying to do? Think about the thing itself and any information related to it.
2. What can go wrong? How what you’re doing can expose personal information in ways that are bad.
3. What am I doing to mitigate that? How changes in behavior or technology can prevent things from going wrong.
4. How did I do? Re-examine the situation under the new conditions to see if the threat level has changed.

We also have this five-step model from our good friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation: 

1. What do you want to protect? The data, communications, and other things that could cause problems for you if misused.
2. Who do you want to protect it from? The people, organizations, and criminal actors who might seek access to that stuff.
3. How likely is it that you will need to protect it? Your personal level of exposure to those threats.
4. How bad are the consequences if you fail?
5. How much trouble are you willing to go through in order to try to prevent those? The money, time and convenience you’re willing to dispense to protect those things.

As with many things, there isn’t a single, best solution. The challenge to you and your comrades is to craft and use a threat assessment protocol that will work in your situation. We owe it to each other not to make anything easy for the class enemies.

Bulletins

School Supply Drive with the Direct Service & Health Justice Committee

We’re planning a school supply drive for the August 9 Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair. Chip in for supplies at our School Supply Drive Wishlist, or bring your own to our next General Meeting where we’ll assemble the kits.

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: EWOC Training Series on How to Unite and Win

Come join Worker Power Louisiana for a four-part training on fundamental principles of effective shop-floor organizing. Four sessions will cover Developing Leadership (July 12), The Organizing Conversation (July 19), The Arc of the Campaign (July 26), and Inoculation and the Boss Campaign (August 2). All sessions are from 3:00-4:30p Central. Sign up here to get started.

City Council Endorsement HQ

Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has three endorsed members running for City Council. Keep up with Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell’s campaigns at Endorsement HQ. Volunteer, donate, follow on social media, and fill out the Campaign Outreach Survey to get involved.

We’ve Moved to Discord!

New Orleans DSA members should get on our Discord server to keep up with your comrades and our efforts. We’ve phased out Slack and will migrate old conversations over.

Community Calendar

Friday, July 11

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday)

Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

DSA City Council Campaign Kickoff Party

6:30 pm

Brieux Carré, 2115 Decatur St

Saturday, July 12

Unión Migrante Immigration Justice Teach-In

11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church, 3900 Pitt St

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: Developing Leadership

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Milton Latter Library, 5120 St Charles Av – Sign Up

Sunday, July 13

Membership Working Group Kickoff

12:00 pm

Discord Meeting Room 1

Monday, July 14

Critical Mass Bastille Day Ride with Danyelle Christmas

6:00 pm

French Market, Barracks St & French Market Pl

Tuesday, July 15

Indivisible Tuesday ICE Protest

9:00 am – 10:00 am (every Tuesday)

Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

Sports Drink Community Night: Local Politics

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Sports Drink, 1042 Toledano Av

Wednesday, July 16

Indivisible Wednesday ICE Protest

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (every Wednesday)

ICE Field Office, 1250 Poydras St

Thursday, July 17

Poli-Ed Reading Group: On Contradiction & The Master’s Tools

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm (third Thursday)

Oak St Brewery, 8201 Oak St – Reading List

Friday, July 18

Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday)

Immigration Court, 365 Canal St

DSA Space-Warming Party: Home is Where the Organizing Is

6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 258

Saturday, July 19

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: The Organizing Conversation

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Rosa F Keller Library, 4300 S Broad St – Sign Up

Down the Road

July 23 Municipal Action Committee Meeting

July 26 New Orleans DSA General Meeting

July 26 Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: The Arc of the Campaign

July 27 Chapter Orientation

August 2 Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: Inoculation and the Boss Campaign

August 5 Rank & File Project Meeting

August 6 Health Justice and Direct Service Meeting

August 8-10 DSA National Convention

August 9 Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair

October 11 Municipal Open Primary Election Day

November 15 Municipal Runoff Election Day

Complete Calendar

Solidarity Means Action is the weekly newsletter of the New Orleans Democratic Socialists of America. Subscribe for updates every Friday at 8:00 am Central.

Features

That’s a Wrap on the 2025 Local Convention!

New Orleans DSA held our Local Convention on Saturday at Big Couch. Thank you to all the members who brought food and volunteered for the event, and a special thank you to our wonderful hosts. Our State of the Chapter report introduced all the work we’ve done over the last twelve months, and the recent upsurge in members ready to take on the Trump administration and excited about Zohran Mamdani and the DSA electoral program!

During the convention, members approved our new Local Council leadership. Congrats to co-chair Jack S, at-large members Wash F and Burrell P, membership chair Bob M, treasurer Savannah C, and our committee chairs Charlie B (electoral aka Municipal Action Committee), Grant C (communications), Cody K (labor aka Worker Power Louisiana), Ari O (political education), and Tristan R (health justice). Additionally, our members approved a series of by-laws amendments including the move from Slack to Discord for chapter communications, cleaning up old language in our bylaws, and supporting anonymous membership that requires special approval from the Local Council.

Our chapter also passed two political resolutions. First, our chapter has recommitted to Eye on Surveillance and appointed Bob M and Aaron Z as representatives to the coalition. Second, we passed an organizing vision until the next Local Convention to consolidate our focus toward Growing Our Membership, Organizing Our Communities, and Fighting for Power. This organizing vision ensures that the priorities of our highest decisionmaking bodies – Local Convention and General Membership meetings – are receiving our members’ efforts and attention. 

Special thanks to Luisa from the DSA National Political Committee for her presentation on immigration justice, and Cynthia with Indivisible NOLA on local ICE protests and court watch efforts.

New Orleans DSA Will Qualify Three Candidates for City Council Races

On July 9, at 8:00 a.m., join City Council candidates Bob Murrell (District A), Jackson Kimbrell (District C), and Danyelle Christmas (District E), as they kick off their campaigns at a rally and press conference in front of Criminal District Court, 2700 Tulane Avenue. All three candidates are members of New Orleans DSA and have been endorsed by the chapter’s membership. This is the first time New Orleans DSA has three members running for City Council. Supporters should show up and sound off for our bold platform to put people before profits. Get our latest updates at Endorsement HQ.

Bob Murrell is a technical project manager and parent of two young children in Lakeview. Born at Charity Hospital forty years ago, Bob attended public schools and graduated from Riverdale High before studying Computer Science at Tulane University. He is running because he wants the next generation of New Orleanians to grow up in a city where you can afford to live here, have a good paying job, the lights stay on, and the streets don’t flood. His top issues for District A are the housing affordability crisis, adapting to climate change, childhood poverty and literacy rates, and fighting corruption and fascism. His campaign website is bob4districta.com.

Jackson Kimbrell is construction project manager who lives in Algiers with his wife and two boys. He grew up in Arkansas, and after graduating from The Citadel, moved to Louisiana to get his master’s degree from LSU. He is running to ensure all New Orleanians can be prosperous and the city can thrive for another 300 years. He brings new and innovative solutions for the problems the city faces. His top issues for District C are affordable housing, universal PreK, affordable utilities, resilient buildings, and expanded public transit. His campaign website is jacksonkimbrell.com.

Danyelle Christmas works in dentistry and is a single mother of four kids in the Lower 9th Ward. She went to Warren Easton High School and studied pre-law at Seminole State College in Orlando. She is running because everyone deserves a great quality of life no matter where they live: “We all deserve working street lights, parks for our kids to play in, and streets that don’t flood at the drop of rain or have pot holes older than our kids.” Her top issues for District E are affordable housing, making Entergy pay their fair share, and quality of life. Her website is bit.ly/danyelle4districte.

Don’t Let These Candidates Lower the Bar: The VOTE Mayoral Town Hall

Congress has decimated hurricane forecasting, cut cancer research and is shuttering rural hospitals, and is stealing  from our tattered social safety net to prop up the last two jobs they want remaining in this country: cops and prison guards. With this backdrop, mayoral candidates Arthur Hunter, Helena Moreno, and Oliver Thomas sat down for a town hall.

The takeaway is that none of these candidates could give clear and thoughtful answers to the most pressing issues of our day. Each of these people has been planning their mayoral run for years. They should know the problems that plague our city: our land is sinking while the seas rise, hurricanes come more frequently and intensely, insurance rates make housing unaffordable, our power and water systems routinely fail, our public schools funnel profits to corporate charter networks, and our sky-high incarceration rate doesn’t make us any safer.

When asked about housing, Thomas declared he’d build 10,000 new homes and public housing. When has Oliver Thomas built affordable housing, much less 10,000 units? Moreno talked about transforming unused city property into affordable housing. Has the realtor and council president given us reason to believe this would ever happen? Hunter offered workforce training and a 25-year housing plan, but both fail to address that people are being forced out of their homes today because insurance costs are astronomical and city council has been letting landlords make a killing on short term rentals.

Could these candidates at least take a stand against Entergy, the for-profit corporate utility that doesn’t care if we live or die as long as the auto-pay keeps on keeping on? Hunter said yes, Moreno said yes and no, and Thomas said, “That’s a deeper dive than a yes or no answer.” Well then give us your answer – you’re the career politicians who want to be in charge of this city, you’ve been workshopping your positions and rehearsing your pitches for years, you’re sitting on a stage with the entire city paying attention. Your unwillingness to give clear and detailed answers tells us that you just aren’t going to put in the effort to fix any of these problems.

Reader, you keep up with public transportation and ICE and Palestine. You have strong beliefs about what needs fixing in this city. Is it really so much to ask for politicians to put in half as much thought? The city is sinking. Fascism is enveloping the country. We deserve better than councilmember Thomas declaring, “I support undocumented criminals being deported.”

It’s socialism or barbarism. Which side are you on?

Support the UMC Nurses Strike Fund

Eighteen months after nurses at UMC overwhelmingly voted to create a union, the hospital’s executives and their lawyers continue to delay, distract, gaslight, and stall at the negotiating table. Now they’re intensifying their union busting by terminating nurses active in the union and promoting a blatant misinformation campaign across the hospital in a futile attempt to dampen nurses’ commitment to making the hospital the best it can be.

Left with no other choice, nurses are now preparing for a FOURTH strike, demanding the immediate reinstatement of the two nurses terminated in the hospital’s retaliation, the stop to all union-busting actions, and a reasonable contract that reflects the simple things that will make UMC better for staff and patients alike.

Nurses on the picket line will be making the sacrifice to go without pay for the duration of the strike. Nurses put themselves on the line every day, and no one should have to worry about making their bills as they fight for what’s right at UMC. That’s where you come in. Your donation to the Strike Fund helps a nurse stand with the strike for another day.

It’s simple: a fair union contract improves care for people in our community. Union busting does not. By giving to the Strike Fund, you stand with nurses and with everyone who is ready to create the best UMC possible.

Forget-Me-Not Friday: The Capitalist Running Dog

A Running Dog is a disparaging name for someone who sucks up to someone more powerful to curry favor or gain protection. Mao Zedong would refer to allies of imperialist counterrevolutionary forces as Imperialist Running Dogs. The expression blossomed into other forms as it made its way into the culture, but has fallen out of favor. 

That’s a shame, because it’s useful in a few ways. First, it reminds us the bourgeoisie don’t have to do the actual physical oppression because they get others to do their dirty work. Cops are absolutely Running Dog Class Enemies: as long as they enforce property rights, they’re pretty much free to do whatever they want to do. Second, it illuminates the power imbalance between those giving the orders and those executing them. Everyone doesn’t meet up, hash out what should be done, and work towards that goal; one side says “do it” and the other complies. 

That’s not the world that we as socialists want to build. We’re working towards more direct democracy, where we decide together how our world will be. That’s not just a pipe dream, by the way: for 120 years, Ancient Athens practiced a radical democracy that randomly picked 500 men (ok, they weren’t quite socialists) to govern the city over a one-year period. That society over that time frame gave us Sophocles, Pericles, Demosthenes, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, and countless other thinkers who laid the foundation of Western civilization.

So take some time and look at your situation. We all have bills to pay, but don’t be a capitalist running dog if you can avoid it. And definitely not when you’re on your own time. That’s time for Liberation! 

Red Rabbits Recommendation – Buddy Up!

When you go out to a protest or some other event, bring a comrade along. Or maybe even a pal whom you’d like to turn into a comrade. There are all kinds of advantages to using the buddy system. It’s comforting to know that in a sea of people, you have a friendly face by your side. You’ll have a companion to commiserate with during gaps in the program or long speeches. Anything you learn will be learned by another person, doubling the exposure. If you need to move quickly, you’ll have another set of eyes scouting out the path ahead or watching out for threats from behind. If you become injured, there will be someone to watch over you. Learning to act together is a basic tenant of solidarity, and it needs to be practiced, just like any other skill.

As part of proper planning, make sure that you and your buddy are in agreement about what level of risk you’re both comfortable with. If things go pear-shaped and you’re ready to make like a shepherd and get the flock out of there, you don’t want to find out that your buddy is actually ready to mount the barricades.

Never forget the wise words of Mariame Kaba: Everything worthwhile is done with other people.

Bulletins

We’ve Moved to Discord!

New Orleans DSA members should get on our Discord server to keep up with your comrades and our efforts. We’ve phased out Slack and will migrate old conversations over.

School Supply Drive with the Direct Service & Health Justice Committee

We’re planning a school supply drive for the August 9 Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair. Chip in for supplies at our School Supply Drive Wishlist, or bring your own to our next General Meeting where we’ll assemble the kits.

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: EWOC Training Series on How to Unite and Win

Come join Worker Power Louisiana for a four-part training on fundamental principles of effective shop-floor organizing. Four sessions will cover Developing Leadership (July 12), The Organizing Conversation (July 19), The Arc of the Campaign (July 26), and Inoculation and the Boss Campaign (August 2). All sessions are from 3:00-4:30p Central. Sign up here to get started.

City Council Endorsement HQ

Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has three endorsed members running for City Council. Keep up with Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell’s campaigns at Endorsement HQ. Volunteer, donate, follow on social media, and fill out the Campaign Outreach Survey to get involved.

Community Calendar

Complete Calendar

Solidarity Means Action is the weekly newsletter of the New Orleans Democratic Socialists of America. Subscribe for updates every Friday at 8:00 am Central.

Features

Local Convention is Here: Tomorrow from 1-5pm at Big Couch

Local Convention 2025 is tomorrow, June 28th, at Big Couch, 1045 Desire St. Local Convention is our chapter’s largest event of the year, where we review the past year and current state of the chapter, plan the course of the next year, and vote on important business like bylaws amendments and Local Council members.

Social/check-in starts at 12:30 pm in the lobby with food and drinks. Call to order will start at 1:00 pm sharp. You can check out the proposed amendments, resolutions, and Local Council nominee bios on the Convention Compendium. We’ll also hear from speakers about standing up in the face of recent attacks on immigrants, and will break bread while building community with our comrades! Check out the full agenda here.

Childcare will be provided. Please indicate childcare and accessibility needs when you RSVP.

Observers are welcome to sit in on our discussions and hear from our speakers, but only New Orleans DSA members in good standing are eligible to vote, so be sure to check your membership status at proof.dsausa.org before convention!

After Convention, grab a buddy and head over to the afterparty at The Domino Lounge, 3044 St Claude Ave.

City Council Pulls Surveillance Ordinance, Replaces It With Another on July 10

This week, you called and emailed city officials to oppose Ordinance 35,125, which would have expanded the government’s surveillance powers, including live facial recognition, characteristic tracking, cell-site simulators, and partnerships with unaccountable private entities like Project NOLA. Following overwhelming opposition, Council withdrew the ordinance from the June 26 agenda.

But much like the existing bans on facial recognition didn’t stop NOPD from repeatedly and illegally using facial recognition anyway, Councilmembers Oliver Thomas and Eugene Green are reintroducing the surveillance measure with minor cosmetic changes as Ordinance 35,137. The new ordinance adds lip service to oversight and protecting immigrants and those seeking abortion care, but that’s all it is: lip service.

Nothing about the ordinance, or policing in general, prevents state and federal officials like Jeff Landry and ICE from using these weapons for whatever they want. We already live in one of the most surveilled cities on the planet. Law enforcement has blinking cameras everywhere and drones in the sky, and is constantly monitoring our location data and social media.

None of us wants to live in this dystopia of constant surveillance, a minimum security prison in which our every movement gets precisely tracked. No safeguards purporting to reduce the racial bias of this technology, no fearmongering about radicalized Army veterans, and no amount of “process” or “community input” is going to change our position that surveillance ain’t safety and that our block is not a crime scene. Instead of selling out the city’s financial future on surveillance contracts and all the cameras, software, and data storage needs they’ll perpetually entail, let’s invest in the real changes that reduce violence: housing, healthcare, and education. Before City Council votes on July 10, email your city officials, text your friends, and tell everyone you know to oppose Ordinance 35,137.

Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think

News broke recently about Palantir securing another hefty government contract, signaling the continuing integration of AI and surveillance technology into the federal government.

Not to be alarmist, but you’re on the list of socialists. Not just our list so that you can get this newsletter, but the Facebook list because of the thumbs-up you gave your friends when they posted photos of their local protest, and the Twitter list (Musk dead names his own child, so it will always be Twitter) because of the spicy memes you re-tweet, and of course, the Palantir list.

The simultaneous good-and-bad news is that you’re in the Leftist club, whether you want to be there or not (spoiler: it’s good news). Fascists treat anything to the left of them as full-blown communist (even though many of them have no idea what that actually means), so you might as well set your expectations properly. History shows us again and again examples of people who try to “make a deal” with fascists and break off from the Leftists. The fascists take the deal, crush the weakened Leftists, then turn on the folks who thought they’d saved themselves. It’s as regular as the Saints breaking our hearts every year by mid-season.

However, you should remember that Palantir is named after the seeing stones from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Although the stones showed things happening, they didn’t show you everything you needed to know, which made them an unreliable guide to action. This Palantir will be the same way – software never completely performs as designed.

So there’s nothing left for you to do but fight. Learn the theory, do the praxis. Have organizing conversations every day. People want to talk, they want to be listened to, and they want answers that you can help them find. Good luck. We believe in you.

Red Rabbits Recommendation – Don’t Get Kettled

When the class enemies decide to violently break up a protest or a march, one of their options is to “kettle” some or all of the participants. This maneuver is done by boxing in the target group on all sides, then slowly closing the box by pushing into the center of the mass of people. Being squeezed in like this removes the ability of the kettled people to move freely, making them easy pickings for the cops. They peel off members of the immobilized group, package them up, and then transport them to jail. Kettling also often follows an arbitrary declaration of unlawful assembly, capturing large numbers of people who are lawfully assembled. Confining people in a small area with weapons trained on them, sometimes firing at them, can be really dangerous..

One of the big concepts that came out of the protests in Hong Kong a few years back was to “be water.” The crowds were constantly in motion, flowing hither and yon, making it difficult for the class enemies to contain and capture them.

Protest Marshals are an essential component of this type of resistance. A fully-staffed march will have marshals on the perimeter of the crowd and will even have lookout marshals at least a block away from the crowd on all sides, watching for massing groups of cops. The marshals are usually in contact with each other via walkie-talkies, and they’ll try to steer the crowd away from trouble. Marshaling is the embodiment of We Protect Us. If you have the capacity, please consider marshaling with Red Rabbits.

Also, being aware of an area’s geography can help you avoid areas where you can be kettled. Beware of bridges: those are open areas of flat, stable ground with limited access points. Don’t make anything easy for our class enemies.

To paraphrase the gals at My Favorite Murder: Stay Sexy, Don’t Get Kettled!

Bulletins

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: EWOC Training Series on How to Unite and Win

Come join Worker Power Louisiana for a four-part training on fundamental principles of effective shop-floor organizing. Four sessions will cover Developing Leadership (July 12), The Organizing Conversation (July 19), The Arc of the Campaign (July 26), and Inoculation and the Boss Campaign (August 2). All sessions are from 3:00-4:30p Central. Sign up here to get started.

City Council Endorsement HQ

Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has three endorsed members running for City Council. Keep up with Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell’s campaigns at Endorsement HQ. Volunteer, donate, follow on social media, and fill out the Campaign Outreach Survey to get involved.

Community Calendar

Friday, June 27

12:00-12:45p Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St.

Saturday, June 28

10:00a-12:00p Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E – Get involved

11:00a-12:00p Stop the Army Corps Lock Expansion Protest – Sanchez Center, 1616 Fats Domino Ave.

1:00-5:00p New Orleans DSA Local Convention – Big Couch, 1045 Desire St. RSVP here

5:30p The People’s Pride March – Washington Square, 700 Elysian Fields Ave.

6:00p Convention Afterparty – The Domino Lounge, 3044 St Claude Ave.

Sunday, June 29

10:00a-12:00p Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E – Get involved

5:00p Black & Palestinian Solidarity Day – Beauty Kingdom, 2147 S. Claiborne Ave.

Tuesday, July 1

5:30p SEIU March and Action to End ICE Raids and Release Those Unjustly Detained – Spanish Plaza, 2 Canal St.

6:00-8:00p Rank & File Project Meeting – REACH Center, 2022 St. Bernard Ave., Bldg. C, 3rd Fl.

Wednesday, July 2

12:00-1:00p NOLA Grannies / Indivisible Weekly Rally – ICE Field Office, 1250 Poydras St.

5:00-6:00p Health Justice and Direct Service Meeting – Zoom

6:00-8:00p VOTE New Orleans Monthly Meeting – VOTE New Orleans, 4930 Washington Ave., Suite A

Thursday, July 3

6:00-8:00p New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice Monthly Meeting – New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, 3500 Canal St., 2nd Fl.

7:00-8:30p Poli-Ed Planning Meeting – Oak St. Brewery, 8201 Oak St. Reading List

Friday, July 4

12:00-12:45p Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally – Immigration Court, 365 Canal St.

Saturday, July 5

10:00a-12:00p Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E – Get involved

Sunday, July 6

10:00a-12:00p Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E – Get involved

Down the Road

July 9 DSA City Council Qualifying Rally – Criminal District Court, 2700 Tulane Ave.

July 10 City Council Surveillance Ordinance Vote – City Council Chamber, 1300 Perdido St., Second Floor West

July 12 Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: Developing Leadership – Rosa F. Keller Library, 4300 Broad St. Sign Up

July 17 Poli-Ed Reading Group: On Contradiction & The Master’s Tools – Oak St. Brewery, 8201 Oak St. Reading List

July 19 Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: The Organizing Conversation – Rosa F. Keller Library, 4300 Broad St. Sign Up

July 26 Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: The Arc of the Campaign – Rosa F. Keller Library, 4300 Broad St. Sign Up

August 2 Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing: Inoculation and the Boss Campaign – Rosa F. Keller Library, 4300 Broad St. Sign Up

August 8-10 DSA National Convention – Chicago

October 11 Municipal Election Day – Open Primary

November 15 Municipal Election Day – Runoff

Complete Calendar

Solidarity Means Action is the weekly newsletter of the New Orleans Democratic Socialists of America. Subscribe for updates every Friday at 8:00 am Central.