Features
Vote Tomorrow: New Orleans DSA Recommends Erica Johnson for Soil and Water Conservation District
We believe that the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Louisiana should be representative of the diverse communities stewarding the land of Louisiana—including small farmers, sustainable agriculture, urban agriculture, and farmers of color.
Erica Johnson is an urban farmer in Central City, producing vegetables, fruit, and shelf-stable products. She believes in a collective bettering of her community and often engages neighborhood members and children on the land. Her farm focuses on “finding strength, joy, and potential in providing limited but efficient nutrition options to a city that holds such high food insecurity.” You may have seen her at the New Orleans Flower Collective Mother’s Day Flower Market, and you can find her at the Crescent City Farmers Market on Sundays.
In Erica’s first term, she led the effort to improve public visibility and accessibility of the board and increased support for local urban farmers. She became treasurer and introduced new programming like low-cost tool rental for small-scale and urban farmers. Her challenger has no experience or history with the SWCD and doesn’t represent our diverse community.
We urge you to rally your friends and vote first thing tomorrow morning at one of the only eight polling places available in the region. To be eligible to vote in the Soil & Water Conservation District election, you must be 18 years old with a state ID, and reside in Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles, or St. John the Baptist parishes.
Click here to find your polling place – it’s probably not the one you usually go to.
Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair Tomorrow!
After you cast your vote for Erica Johnson, join us at the Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm at 4961 N Claiborne Ave.
We can check and change your brake light, share food and cold drinks, take your blood pressure, connect you to community health resources, and chat about achieving socialist revolution together. We also put together gift bags and other goodies to distribute as well!
Wanna volunteer? We can teach you how to change brake lights day-of and always have other little tasks available to make the event the best it can be, so don’t be afraid to come by to lend a hand.
See you tomorrow!
Soft Power 101: Tulane Forces Out Environmental Scientist Kimberly Terrell
On Wednesday, the AP reported that Kimberly Terrell, the director of community engagement at Tulane’s Environmental Law Clinic (TELC), has resigned. Among other things, TELC researches the environmental impact of Louisiana’s petrochemical industry and illuminates their racial disparities in hiring practices. Although this work is beneficial to the community, it puts Tulane leadership in a bind. Tulane needs money from the state as well as from private donors to continue their downtown development project at Charity Hospital. Petrochemical companies don’t like TELC making them look bad, but they don’t have to go after Tulane directly with time-consuming lawsuits or expensive advertising campaigns. They simply lobby our elected officials, convince them to turn off money to Tulane or shut down any money that they send Tulane themselves, and poof!
Remember that a private university is a business. They combine sports teams, hedge funds, and private resorts into a service that trains and disciplines successive waves of workers and elites. Benefit to the community is secondary to the primary objective of maintaining the capitalist system, as Terrell’s struggle so clearly illustrates.
This is a classic example of Soft Power, and it is the dominant way that things get done. Send an angry email to your city councilor? Good luck. Have a meaningful conversation with someone who has the councilor’s ear? Now you’re getting somewhere. A fundamental task of organizing is Power Mapping. You need to find out who influences those who make the decisions. We can all agree that it’s not the working class – yet.
Mind you, it’s still important for us to continue to march, so that we can declare to the world what we think is wrong, find like-minded people, and organize them. The bourgeoisie is already organized: they don’t need to march.
Red Rabbits Recommendation – STFU Friday
Cops are class enemies whose sole purpose for being is to enforce property rights. Anything helpful they do beyond that is lagniappe. They are under no obligation to help you or protect you from harm. This comes from the case Castle Rock v. Gonzales (2005), where the Supreme Court ruled that state and local government officials are not obligated to protect the public from harm they did not create.
They have no material interest in justice – they are there to maintain order, as defined by those with the property rights we talked about above.
It can be helpful to think about your interactions with them like you would interact with a feral animal: keep your distance and don’t talk to or taunt them, because they may seem perfectly calm at one moment and then violently lash out the next. Sometimes you just never know.
It’s possible that we’re rolling into a long hot summer of protesting, so here are some things to keep in mind when you decide to take to the streets:
- Know who’s leading your group (join a trusted group)
- Know what the plan is (have a clear plan)
- Know what actions you agree together to take (know what to expect) or avoid (know when to leave)
We owe it to each other not to make anything easy for class enemies. Stay smart. Stay safe.
Bulletins
Local Convention Update: Preliminary Agenda with Proposals and Nominees
Excited for the Local Convention on June 28th? Start preparing by checking out our Convention Compendium, which includes the proposed bylaw amendments, resolutions, consent agenda, and the agenda. Check them out and submit any suggested amendments to the proposals. We finalize the agenda and compendium a week before the convention with any amendments proposed by that time, but people are welcome to propose amendments day-of as well. RSVP for Local Convention here!
Support Our Endorsed Candidates for City Council
Our chapter voted to endorse three candidates in this year’s City Council races. Now, it’s up to us to help get our members into those seats! Check out our newly launched Endorsement HQ to find up-to-date info on all of our endorsed candidates! Take a minute to follow them on social media, donate to their campaigns, and volunteer using the links provided. Also, fill out our (very brief) Campaign Outreach Survey and let us know how you can best get involved.
Political Education Reading Group Meets June 19
Poli-Ed Reading Group’s book for the month is The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins. Whether you finish the book, only part of it, or just want to hang out for discussion, come by Oak St. Brewery, 8201 Oak St., on June 19 at 7:00 pm.
Municipal Action Committee Wants You!
MAC currently has 2 vacant co-chair positions. While they aren’t strictly defined roles, we think it would be extremely useful to have one that is focused on electoral work, such as coordinating with our endorsed candidates, and one that is focused on civic engagement, such as keeping tabs on our various city governmental institutions. If either of these areas interest you, please shoot an email to hello@dsaneworleans.org or find Charlie B on Slack!
Chapter Merchandise Available Now!
Support and rep your favorite socialist organization with merch! Help us fundraise to send our delegates to DSA’s biennial National Convention, move into a new space by ordering a shirt, or just give us feedback on what items you might want to see in the future. Check it out at bit.ly/dsanola-merch.
Community Calendar
Friday, June 13
12:00-12:45p Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally – New Orleans Immigration Court, 365 Canal St.
1:00p Tulane Environmental Law Clinic Under Attack Press Conference & Rally – 6823 St. Charles Ave.
6:00-8:00p Toxic Legacies: Environmental Racism & Resistance in Louisiana – Café Istanbul, 2372 St Claude Ave., Room 252
Saturday, June 14
8:00a-6:00p Election for Crescent Soil and Water Conservation District – Find your polling place
10:00a-12:00p No Kings Counter-Parade & Protest – Mandeville & Decatur St.
11:00a-2:00p Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair – 4961 N. Claiborne Ave.
4:00p No Pride in Genocide/Shell Out of Pride March – N. Rampart & St. Peter St.
Sunday, June 15
9:00a-12:00p Canvass for Jackson Kimbrell, District C – Get involved
Monday, June 16
6:00-7:30p Make Entergy Pay Campaign Meeting – Care Forgot Beercraft, 1728 St. Charles Ave.
6:00p The Canal Will Kill NOLA General Meeting – Sanchez Center, 1616 Fats Domino Ave.
Tuesday, June 17
7:00-9:00p Sports Drink Community Night: Politics Edition – Sports Drink, 1042 Toledano Ave.
Thursday, June 19
3:00-10:00p NOCOP Juneteenth Fundraiser & Community Block Party – Café Istanbul, 2372 St Claude Ave.
3:30-7:00p VOTE Juneteenth Cookout for the People – VOTE, 4930 Washington Ave.
7:00-8:30p Poli-Ed Reading Group: The Jakarta Method – Oak St. Brewery, 8201 Oak St.
Friday, June 20
12:00-12:45p Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally – New Orleans Immigration Court, 365 Canal St.
Saturday, June 21
10:00a-12:00p Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E – Get involved
Sunday, June 22
9:00a-12:00p Canvass for Jackson Kimbrell, District C – Get involved
10:00a-12:00p Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, District E – Get involved
Down the Road
June 28 New Orleans DSA Local Convention – New Orleans, RSVP here
August 8-10 DSA National Convention – Chicago
October 11 Municipal Election Day – Open Primary
November 15 Municipal Election Day – Runoff
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.