Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has signaled his intention to sign the “fetal heartbeat bill” (SB 184, HB 133, HB 484) that would criminalize abortion after a heartbeat is detected, usually at 6 weeks. This bill is the result of decades of work by anti-choice zealots to shut down abortion access state by state.

This bill won’t protect life in Louisiana. It won’t do anything about the maternal mortality rate that is the 2nd worst in the country. It won’t stop the 45% of pregnancy-related deaths that are preventable. It won’t address the fact that childbirth is 4x more deadly for black people in Louisiana, and 3x more deadly for parents over 35. It won’t provide greater access to healthcare. It won’t help a single person living in this state.

It won’t help parents provide for their children’s food, shelter, education, or healthcare. It won’t create jobs and livelihoods to sustain families. It won’t stop violence. This bill is meant to punish and dominate. To steal autonomy and choice from pregnant people. This bill is designed — as most of Louisiana’s abortion laws are designed — to punish working class people and make our lives harder. Already, 95% of parishes don’t have an abortion clinic (75% of Louisianans live in a parish without a clinic). People seeking abortions already have to arrange transportation and travel, take multiple days off work, receive medically unnecessary ultrasounds and state-mandated counseling, and self-fund procedures that cost hundreds of dollars — starting around $500 in the first trimester and getting more expensive as time passes.

Happy May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day. This Wednesday, May 1st, DSA New Orleans will be joining the annual march organized by New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. We’ll gather in Congo Square at 1:30 PM and we invite all of you to join us! Remember to wear red.

We have a ton of great events planned this month. In addition to our regular monthly Brake Light Clinic, we’re doing two Medicare-for-All canvasses. We’ve got a film screening about Anne Braden, a southern socialist organizer and civil rights activist. Our Socialists of Color Caucus is hosting a forum about liberation movements in the Caribbean. We’ve got a book event about the red state teachers’ strikes, and we’ll close out the month with a social.

*Upcoming June Convention*

Upcoming DSA Events

Upcoming Events

Chapter Program Meeting: Our Priorities
Monday, April 22nd, 6:30 – 8pm
2022 St. Bernard Ave

We’re working on our chapter program, which will help guide our work and focus our efforts as we organize for a better world. In February members identified four issues they want to focus more on: growing the chapter, labor organizing, healthcare justice and environmental issues.

We’re getting together to brainstorm and develop action plans for our chapter based on member feedback, and we want everyone to come! Dinner provided, children welcome. Wheelchair accessible building.

Socialist Cookout on the Bayou

Friday, April 26th, 6:30pm til late
On the Bayou between St. Ann & Dumaine

We’re having a cookout and everyone’s invited! Bring cold drinks or something to throw on the grill — or just bring yourself. Children welcome. Nearby bathroom available.

Wheelchair accessibility info: event will be held in a grassy area. The bathroom is, unfortunately, not wheelchair accessible.

There are plenty of ways to keep up to date with us as we try to build a better world:

• Take a regular look at our events page for the latest meetings and events coming up.
• Follow us on social media to learn more about democratic socialism, upcoming events, and our spin on local politics: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
• Sign up here to become a DSA member.

We hope to see you soon!

Hello & thanks to everyone who attended our April general meeting. We had at least 80 attendees, making this our chapter’s biggest meeting yet!

We were lucky to welcome Miriam from Familias Unidas en Accion as a guest speaker. Hannah gave a recap from the Dallas DSA conference, where 10 delegates from our chapter met DSA leaders from all over Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Josh went over some guidelines for our upcoming chapter convention in June, and we heard updates from all of our committees and caucuses. 

Jordan gave a report back on our chapter program development and our work to develop political proposals and strategies around priorities of growing & diversifying the chapter, labor organizing, ecosocialism and healthcare justice. 

Finally, we voted to approve proposed financial reforms to our chapter bylaws, to establish a Media Policy Working Group, and to endorse the Ecosocialist Green New Deal Principles.

Read the minutes from Tuesday’s meeting here. 

Version 2. February 2019.

The Work of Many

In the introduction to v2 of New Orleans DSA’s Gimme a Brake! (Light): A DIY Guide, we refer to the brake light clinic as “genius.” We should be clear the “genius” referred to herein is not ourselves, but the person who came up with the idea of these clinics, DSA organizer Kaitlin Marone. What a cool idea!

Many of us are writers, and we can tell you, a cool idea gets you pretty much nowhere. It doesn’t accomplish anything, on its own. What an idea can do is bring people together. And that’s what it did here in New Orleans. Marone took the idea to the newly-established DSA local. The brake light clinic’s success is not its idea: it is its execution, which is the work of many.

Only two people*  who worked on the original version of this guide had a hand in creating v2. That’s because in the past year and a half, the brake light clinics have gone from a cool idea to an ongoing project that has helped our chapter recruit members, develop new leadership, sharpen our political education, develop better organizing skills, and record our institutional knowledge. That is the work of many.

This guide was built by consensus. We started the process by gathering information about clinics around the country and soliciting feedback from people who had built on our work. Then we met around a table in New Orleans, each of us outfitted with a printout of the old guide, plus every piece of organizing material we had developed since. And then we went, page by page, talking about whether each piece of information was necessary, clear, and accurate. Then we rewrote and came back and did it again. And again.

It is revolutionary to be more proud of a group project – of true consensus – than an individual effort.

As we release this v2 guide, we are orienting ourselves for deeper questions. How can we transform this project into a more sustained demand? In Louisiana, there is no part of life untouched by the carceral state. Should we fight to end money bail? Can we agitate to change the fee schedule for traffic violations? How can we leverage our position and build power to influence the 2020 District Attorney race in Orleans Parish?

The work of many will continue. We are overjoyed that you’re on the journey with us.

In Solidarity,

Direct Service Committee

New Orleans DSA

*and not Kaitlin Marone!

We had a great crowd last night at our New Member Dinner. About thirty new faces! It was good to meet everybody and enjoy delicious food, wine and king cake. Stay posted for details on our next chapter dinner, which will be scheduled sometime in mid-late March after everyone recovers from Carnival season!

 DSA New Orleans stands in solidarity with striking Los Angeles teachers!

🌹🌹🌹🌹

Across the U.S., education workers are under attack. They’ve been pushed to the edge by charter schools and austerity.

Today more than 30,000 education workers in L.A. went on strike for the first time in 30 years. They’re demanding an end to school privatization, inflated class sizes, excessive testing and decreased funding.

As socialists and working people, we believe that support for labor struggles is a central priority of our movement. To demonstrate our solidarity, we’re donating $100 to a strike fund for Los Angeles education workers and sending them a statement of support from our chapter.

Solidarity forever!

Strike fund: https://act.dsausa.org/donate/utla_strike_fund/

Here is a statement for our upcoming special election to select a new at-large council member for the chapter. Only one person, Jordan F., has been nominated for to run in this election. The election will be held Monday, January 7th, 2019.

Jordan F

Our chapter has grown incredibly in the past year! We’ve sharpened our skills, built up our committees, developed new leaders, and given new members a place to plug in. The space in this chapter for members to incubate different projects is one of our greatest strengths.  What we need to do next is synthesize all this work into a cohesive political vision and concrete demands. Let’s leverage these projects in a way that escalates campaigns and builds victories. I will focus on this through building a strong chapter program process and by building up the capacity of committees. I’m running for this position because I want to be part of a chapter everyone can be proud of and because I want everyone to feel like they own the work we collectively do. The only way we can build this future is if we build it together. 

(more…)

Democratic Socialist Voting Guide

Municipal Action Committee

New Orleans Chapter – Democratic Socialists of America

New Orleans DSA organizes for the power and benefit of working class and poor people in Louisiana, and to take power and influence from the wealthy and corporations. In our first electoral guide for the 2018 Midterm elections, we specifically choose not to endorse any candidates. There are currently no candidates for office whose platform includes our core values of fairness, direct democracy, and human dignity. We present this guide to offer historical context, information on candidates, and a vision of how these offices could function differently in our democracy.

The scope of this guide is limited mainly to issues appearing on the Orleans Parish ballot. This is a reflection of the majority composition of our chapter’s membership.  It also includes comments on some of the Jefferson Parish School Board races.

There are more than 200 DSA members in New Orleans and more than 300 in Louisiana. If you have any questions or want to get involved, email hello@dsaneworleans.org

(more…)