It’s clearer now more than ever in the wake of Tuesday’s presidential election that we all have to band together to build a political alternative for the multiracial working class. Are you sad, confused, or angry about the results? We are too – that’s why we’re making the space to strategize together, to make sense of these results together, and to chart our path forward.
Join us tomorrow for an open discussion of the good, the bad, & the ugly of the last election with other members of your community committed to the fight for a better world, at all costs and as long as it takes.
Together, we can build a movement that can secure workers’ rights, vanquish bigotry and racism from our society, and create a new and better world from the ashes of the old. The only way to do it is through solidarity and action. Let’s get to work!
Hey Comrades! Election Day is TOMORROW! If you have any availability, we need YOU to seal the deal for Devin and Gaby! If you can drop lit, make calls, sign wave, or knock doors, please sign up!
ELECTION DAY VOLUNTEERING FOR GABRIELA BIRO: Sign up to volunteer for Gabriela here.Gabriela will be sign waving & more – you can also reach out to her directly on the chapter Slack.
Election Day is this coming TUESDAY and we need all hands on deck to finish strong for our endorsed candidates, Devin Davis for Congress and Gabriela Biro for School Board. Can you pitch in this weekend or volunteer on election day?
We have some events over the weekend to check out:
TOMORROW: DEVIN DAVIS GUMBO & SNOBALLS SOCIAL: Come down to Devin’s campaign office at 1024 Elysian Fields Ave. this Saturday afternoon at 12:30PM to enjoy homemade gumbo & snoballs, the perfect combination for Louisiana fall weather.
SUNDAY: COFFEE WITH COMRADES: Spend Sunday morning hanging out with your DSA comrades and our member-candidates Devin Davis and Gabriela Biro and check in on the campaigns over some coffees in the backyard at Coffee Science (410 S. Broad St.) this Sunday at 11AM.
We hope to see you out there getting the word out for two of our incredible comrades ahead of this election!
Our October General Meeting will be held Saturday, Oct 26 from 12-2pm in-person at Parish Hall (2533 Columbus St) and online using this registration link. We’re going to have a brief meeting with updates, then we’re going to go canvass for our endorsed candidates Gabriela Biro & Devin Davis!
If canvassing isn’t your thing, you have the option to stay at Parish Hall and pack power outage kits for the Make Entergy Pay campaign. Hope to see you there!
EARLY VOTING STARTS TODAY! We are excited to release our 2024 Voter Guide. Our chapter democratically debates and votes on any endorsements and recommendations that members propose.
🌹New Orleans DSA endorses🌹 Gabriela Biro – Orleans Parish School Board District 2 Devin Davis – U.S. Representative 2nd Congressional District
🌹New Orleans DSA recommends🌹 Mel Manuel – U.S. Representative 1st Congressional District YES on Charter Amendment 1 (Workers’ Bill of Rights) YES on Charter Amendment 2 (Housing Trust Fund) NO on Lakeshore Crime Prevention District Proposition NO on Mid-City Security District Proposition We explain the difference between endorsements and recommendations in the appendix at the end of this guide.
Here’s what’s in this week’s update: Get Involved: Support Socialist Candidates! Gabriela Biro & Devin Davis! Upcoming Events: STRIKE BACK! FundrRAGER for the Make Entergy Pay campaign – Sunday 10/20 7-11pm General Meeting: Take the feedback survey and join us 10/26!
VOLUNTEER FOR DEVIN DAVIS & GABRIELA BIRO! Early voting is just around the corner, so we need to get out the vote for our endorsed members, Devin Davis & Gabriela Biro! Volunteer support can make a HUGE difference in these campaigns, and the more shifts we fill, the closer we come to victory.
Sign up here to work a Get Out the Vote shift for Devin Davis
FUNDRAISER: STRIKE BACK! Make Entergy Pay + Below Sea Level Aid Our Make Entergy Pay campaign & Below Sea Level Aid are hosting a night of music, costumes, tarot card readings, and an OPEN BAR for the early birds at Chickie Wah Wah (2828 Canal St.) to fundraise for our campaign’s Entergy Survival Power Outage Kits & Resource Guide and BSLA’s mutual aid programs. Come out and have fun for some good causes! $25 cover, 21+
COMMUNITY EVENT: ACAB Zine Fest THIS SUNDAY, 10/20 FROM 11AM-7PM:Check out the New Orleans Art, Crafts, and Books Zinefest at the Fred Hampton Free Store (5523 St. Claude Ave.) for info distro, small press, print artists, music and more, then join Make Entergy Pay & Below Sea Level Aid for the STRIKE BACK! afterparty!
GENERAL MEETING: 10/26 — Parish Hall and on Zoom at LINK, with discussions about building power on election day and Make Entergy Pay’s campaign and Power Outage Resource Guide.
GENERAL MEETING QUALITY FEEDBACK SURVEY If you’ve attended a General Meeting in person or virtually, please fill out our quality survey! Your Local Council is working to improve the quality and accessibility of our General Meetings and want everyone’s voice to be heard.
Early voting in Louisiana starts today, which means it’s time for another edition of New Orleans DSA Voter Guide! There are lots of important down-ballot races, read the guide before you cast your vote.
Join us TONIGHT for a presentation by Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtors’ union. We’ll be talking about using debt as power and how it relates to our Make Entergy Pay Campaign.
When we organize, we can flip the script on unjust systems that burden our communities with debt.
Topics include:
Why organize around debt?
Student Debt
Medical Debt
Utility Debt and Make Entergy Pay
When: October 9th, 6-7:30pm Where: Hi-Ballz Cafe, 4901 Canal St, New Orleans, LA
Guests will receive:
Power Outage Kit
Debt Collective’s In These Times Magazine
Open tab for food, teas, and mood-lifting mocktails
It was great seeing those who were able to come out to last weekend’s General Meeting. The resolution to create a “People’s Platform” passed! We are excited start building a coalition around policies for the working class people of New Orleans.
We are also excited to announce that we have endorsed our own Gabriela Biro for School Board!
We join the Palestinian Youth Movement and our partners in the NOLA 4 Palestine Coalition in calling on the entire GNO community to rise up and turn out to the streets on Saturday, October 5th for the International Day of Action!
Here’s what is covered in this week’s update:
International Day of Action March for Palestine: One Year of Genocide, One Year of Resistance – Sat Oct 5
Upcoming DSA Events:
Make Entergy Pay x Debt Collective – Wed Oct 9
Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair – Sat Oct 12
Electoral Action:
Support Endorsed Candidates
Voter Guide Support
Big Easy Budget Ballot Bash – Tue Oct 8
Register to Vote!
Municipal Action:
Consent Decree Public Meeting – Tue Oct 8
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION: One Year of Genocide, One Year of Resistance This week marks one year since those in Gaza showed the world the unyielding power of the Palestinian people in resisting their decades of forced displacement, apartheid, and countless forms of inhumane violence by their colonizer. The Gaza Health Ministry has released the names of over 40,000 martyrs killed by the Zionist state in less than a year, with experts conservatively estimating there’s been over 189,000 deaths in Gaza alone. Amidst this brutal genocide, Palestinians across the globe remain resolute, as do the freedom fighters in Lebanon now facing the genocidal wrath of “Israel” and its American weaponry.
Join us Saturday, October 5th at 5pm at Congo Square (701 N Rampart) to demand we stop supporting their year-long, ever-expanding genocide and to celebrate the steadfast resistance of those fighting their violent oppressors. The struggle continues, and we will make clear that our global movement will keep resisting, tirelessly, until there is complete liberation!
MUTUAL AID: Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair Join us Saturday, Oct 12th @ 11AM-2PM at a NEW LOCATION! We’ll be meeting right across Nora Navra Library at A.P. Tureaud Park (1800 A.P. Tureaud Ave). We can check and change your brake light, take your blood pressure, connect you to community health resources, share food and cold drinks, and chat about achieving socialist revolution together.
MAKE ENTERGY PAY x DEBT COLLECTIVE: You are not a Loan Join us for a powerful conversation with Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtors’ union, and discover how we can build collective power to Make Entergy Pay! Together, we can flip the script on unjust systems that burden our communities with debt.
When: October 9th, 6-7:30pm Where: Hi-Ballz Cafe, 4901 Canal St, New Orleans, LA Guests will receive: Power Outage Kit • Debt Collective’s In These Times Magazine • Open tab for food, teas, and mood-lifting mocktails
ELECTORAL WORK: Voter Guide Our Voter Guide Working Group is looking for art submissions for the upcoming guide. Please submit your entries using this form before October 8th, selected art will receive a small monetary contribution.
If you’re interested in contributing writing or editing, please join the #voter-guide-working-group channel in the chapter slack. Are you a member not on Slack? Email us to join.
Support our Chapter Endorsed Candidates Our chapter has officially endorsed Gabriela Biro for School Board! She joins Devin Davis as our chapter endorsed candidates for the November 5th election. Please give them both your support during the push towards election day.
Big Easy Budget Ballot Bash Join our allies this Tuesday, October 8th at 5:30-7:30pm for our Budget and Ballot Bash! Food, drinks, and music alongside the opportunity to learn about the Housing Trust Fund, the Worker’s Bill of Rights, and the City budget! Free to attend. All ages welcome.
Deadline to register to vote online & early voting The deadline to register to vote or update your registration is Oct 15th. Early voting begins October 18th!
The NOPD Consent Decree Monitor (OCDM) will hold a virtual public meeting on Tuesday, October 8th at 12:00 PM CST via Zoom to discuss the proposed Sustainment Plan that was filed on September 27th and the status of the implementation of the NOPD Consent Decree.
Hope y’all are doing well and staying cool in this August heat! At our July General Meeting, we approved interim stewards for the Make Entergy Pay Campaign and Worker Power Louisiana — Congratulations to Sarah B and Aspen W! We also discussed and passed consistent expectations for our endorsed candidates.
Next GM will be August 31st, 12-2pm at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church at 5851 Canal Blvd in Lakeview.
THURSDAY, August 8th, 9:15am-til — City Council Meeting: ALL HANDS ON DECK for the People’s Ceasefire Resolution! This Thursday, the City Council is introducing a “Statement of Peace” Resolution organized by the local Zionist Jewish Federation and signed by all of the New Orleans City Council Members.
We demand the City Council not move forward with their so-called “Statement of Peace”and to work with all affected communities to craft a true ceasefire resolution. Show your support for these efforts:
❗Join us 9:15am until noon at City Hall for the next City Council meeting to tell them that we REJECT their insidious “Statement for Peace” and that WE DESERVE TO BE HEARD!
📞 Spread the word about signing onto the People’s Ceasefire Resolution, particularly to business owners, faith or community leaders, and other notable people that could influence the Council.
✍️Send an email to your council members to ditch the “statement of peace” and put the People’s Resolution on the agenda.
📢 Tell everyone you know about what’s happening! Repost this infographic to correct the record about this so-called “Statement of Peace”.
This resolution:
Actively excluded the NOLA Ceasefire Coalition, the local Palestinian community, and all Muslim organizations in the drafting process;
Doesn’t say the word Palestine or acknowledges our local connections to illegal violence against Palestinians in the West Bank;
Mischaracterizes the genocide of the Palestinian people as a “conflict” where both sides are equally situated, instead of a genocide of people resisting their colonizers;
Endorses the actions of our complicit federal government without demanding anything of them;
Dangerously insinuates that our democratic protest is a form of violent extremism; and
Undemocratically prioritizes the will of monied interest groups over their constituents who have been showing up meeting after meeting.
This must be our biggest turnout yet, so come support us in packing the council chambers this Thursday!Come at 9:15am, or show up whenever you can. We need to show that New Orleans does not stand with the US government’s support for Israel, as the city council’s statement falsely asserts.
Wear your cool Liberation pelican t-shirt if you got one at the Local Convention,your keffiyehs, and any pro-Palestine accessories you have. Other groups will be wearing red, so DSA shirts are welcome too!
Online comments will be available Wednesday but Council has been consolidating online comments if they are repetitive at the discretion of one employee at the moment. So, if you send a comment, make it short & personal about why this matters to you so we can fit as many in the time allotted.
SATURDAY, August 10th, 11AM-2PM — Brake Light Clinic and Health Fair: Join us at A.L. Davis Park (2600 Lasalle St) this Saturday! We can check and change your brake light, take your blood pressure, connect you to community health resources, share food and cold drinks, and chat about achieving socialist revolution together. If you want to volunteer, sign up here: https://forms.gle/cAMSMxnffhF5CefJ8 (or show up day of).
TUESDAY, August 13th @ 6-7PM — Comms Convos: Restructuring DSA Communications: Join us in brainstorming the future of comms in the chapter to make it more sustainable and structured. Members of all skills and interests are welcomed — communications includes A LOT, so there’s tons of different ways to get involved! Come share your ideas and let’s work together to make DSA New Orleans comms the very best it can be.
Will meet at HI-BALLZ (4901 Canal St) — if you want to come but can only do so remotely, reach out to Wash (or comment in the #comms channel) on Slack so we can set up a Zoom option!
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Reminders:
Reach out to Charlie and Max on Slack if interested in campaigning for Devin Davis. Visit devin4la.com/events to sign up.
Interested in helping develop a working group for unhoused solidarity work? Reach out to Wash on Slack!
Keep up to date with New Orleans DSA actions by following us on Instagram, joining the members-only Slack (email us for access), and checking out DSA’s event calendar at dsaneworleans.org/events.
Solidarity forever, DSA New Orleans Local Council 🌹
We hope y’all have been able to stay cool in this July heat. Apologies for the delayed announcement, but this month’s General Meeting is this upcoming Saturday, July 27th from 12-2pm! We will be covering business carried over from Local Convention and more.
We will be at Norman Mayer Library (3001 Gentilly Blvd) and on Zoom here. We will be using Open Slides again, so look out for an email from Open Slides for the sign-in. It should use the same username. The draft agenda for the meeting can be found here. RSVP here!
Exciting news: local chapter member Gabriela Boni has qualified for School Board alongside our chapter-endorsed candidate Devin Davis for Congress! They will be on the ballot for the primary election held on November 5th, so make sure you check your voter registration at the Secretary of State — the deadline to register online is October 15th. Sign up here to volunteer at Devin’s phonebank this upcoming Tuesday, July 23rd at 5:30pm.
UPCOMING:
Frustrated by recent power outages we’ve been experiencing out of nowhere? Comment on the Entergy agenda item with your experience, and tell City Council that we want affordable, reliable, and accountable energy! The agenda and public comment form are available at this link, and will remain open until 2 hours before the meeting.
Agendas and public comment links are made available by the City on their own time, usually the day before the meeting, and will remain open until 2 hours before the meeting begins
THURSDAY, JULY 25: Local Day of Action for Palestine
New Orleans City Council continues to fail their people by refusing to discuss our complicity in genocide in spite of the community demanding otherwise. Read more and tell New Orleans City Council to pass a Ceasefire Resolution NOW using this form, which will send an email directly to your councilmember to let them know that you and so many of their other New Orleanians demand that:
Gretna resident Samaher Esmail’s safety and freedom be ensured by the U.S. government due to her recent kidnapping and charging by the IDF in the Israeli-occupied West Bank;
they express their deepest condolences for Tawfic Abdeljabbar, the 17-year-old Gretna resident killed by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank
they publicly support peaceful student protests and condemn the Tulane and Loyola administrations for punishing students and attacking them with state police
And they support Palestine and an immediate and permanent Ceasefire in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Port of New Orleans continues to ship weapons to enable the genocide in Gaza. In the month of May alone, our Port has shipped to Israel:
2,727,643 aircraft engines and parts
51,261 rocket launchers, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, and torpedo tubes
80,572 drones
Join NOSHIP (New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports) in demanding the Port be held accountable for their facilitation of genocide and that the City end all cooperation with the Zionist entity by signing their petition here, joining them at Port meetings (more information below), and checking out the rest of their resources here.
(Organized by NOSHIP and Jewish Voice for Peace)
10am-noon: NOLA City Council Meeting @ City Hall (1300 Perdido St.) Noon: Inter-Action Lunch outside City Hall 🍕 Gather at 1pm: Port of New Orleans Board Meeting @ 1350 Port of New Orleans Pl.
Join us for a day of organizer-supported local government actions. Give public comments to make your voice heard on Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and beyond.
First up, City Council! There will be a greeter stationed right outside council chambers who’ll be there 10am till noon to orient newcomers & regular participants alike. They’re happy to walk you through the process and happy to see new faces every time! Tell City Council: NOLA needs to take a stand against genocide NOW!
At NOON, grab a slice 🍕 on them outside City Hall. Organizers will be on-hand to debrief the City Council meeting and to answer questions about the upcoming Port Board meeting scheduled to start after lunch.
Then, carpool on over to the Port Board meeting. Plan to gather at the Port Board meeting at 1pm so we can let the Port of N.O. know: no more “business as usual!” It’s well past time for the the Port of New Orleans to end all cooperation with the State of Israel and complicit Israeli businesses. You can also try setting up carpools from elsewhere in the city at this link.
Unmet access needs? DM @_noship or @jvpnola on Instagram to request accommodations.
COVID 😷 safety: Masks strongly encouraged. The City Council meeting greeters will have masks on-hand right outside council chambers.
Show up. Stand up. Speak up. Free Palestine.
The city is gearing up for its 2025 budget deliberations, but so far have postponed the town halls originally scheduled for this week. In the meantime, fill out this survey from the Vera Institute for Justice, one of a coalition of organizations which advocate to the City Council on budget issues on behalf of our community (among many other great things)!
For further information on past budgets and keep an eye on when the meetings are scheduled, you can visit the City’s 2025 Budget page here. We deserve to have our desires, values and beliefs to align with how our city spends OUR money!
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Keep up to date with New Orleans DSA actions by following us on Instagram, joining the members-only Slack (email us for access), and checking out DSA’s event calendar at dsaneworleans.org/events. Hope to see y’all at this Saturday’s General Meeting!
Solidarity forever, New Orleans DSA Local Council 🌹
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