Features
Thank You From Bob Murrell for District A
I want to thank every person who took time to answer their door, who shared their stories of struggle, and who decided to be a protagonist in their life. Every time I met a voter was an opportunity to listen. I heard a lot, like the 70-year-old woman in Hollygrove with a $1,900 Entergy bill, the Mid-City renter whose landlord won’t address the mold in their apartment, the Desaix homeowner on a fixed income who had to pause prescriptions to afford new Delta gas charges. I’m not going anywhere. Their fight for human dignity is my fight. All my love to the 68 people who joined Team Bob and the nearly 200 people who donated, the organizations and individuals that endorsed me, and the over three thousand people who cast a vote for our campaign.
First, I urge everyone to turn out for the run-off to vote for Calvin Duncan for Clerk of Court. Election integrity is critical in this historical moment, and it’s clear the current Clerk is willing to manipulate voters with lies, misinformation, and questionable ethics. There is genuine anxiety about what our country and our state have become, and a lack of leadership locally to meet the moment. Trump and Landry were the plurality of issues that voters expressed to me directly, not potholes or crime. New Orleans doesn’t live in a vacuum, and I strongly encourage the remaining candidates to put in writing on their website or social media where they stand with the National Guard deployment and ICE. There will be a series of ballot measures to approve bonds to pay for some sizable projects that are vital, please read up on it (I’ll share info later).
Closer to election day, a number of people said they heard about me explicitly as the “socialist candidate” or being endorsed by DSA when I knocked on their door. There is genuine interest in DSA and what democratic socialism is, and I’m thankful for people willing to listen or ask about it. Capitalism fails us to benefit a handful of greedy families and oligarchs, both locally and nationally. We saw them spend millions on mailers and yard signs that find their way into the landfill—how much of that could have fed or housed people? I ran as an independent socialist, and it may have cost us some votes, but we also gained respect and support. Thank you to over 100 new members of New Orleans DSA who joined since the start of the year and the almost 400 dues-paying members who show up for the poor and working class people of our city. Join the fight: dsausa.org/join.
“On the day the thermometer of universal suffrage registers the boiling point among the workers, both they and the capitalists will know where they stand.” – Friedrich Engels
Keep the revolutionary flame burning inside of you! Here is an excerpt from Marta Harnecker’s Ideas for the Struggle that I found to be my motivation during this election cycle:
How often have we heard the left, after discovering that its electoral results were not what it was expecting, complain about the adverse conditions it had to face during an election campaign? …[W]hat tends to occur is that— instead of carrying out an educational, pedagogical campaign that serves to increase the organisation and awareness of the people — the left uses the same techniques that the ruling class uses to sell its candidates and seek votes.
[W]hen electoral defeats occur, the frustration, tiredness and debts incurred during the campaign are compounded by the fact that the electoral effort does not translate into political growth, leaving a bitter sense of having wasted time. The situation would be very different if campaigns were conceived from a pedagogical point of view, where election campaigns are used to deepen awareness and popular organisation. Then, even if the electoral results are not the most favorable, the time and effort invested in the campaign are not wasted.
The political activity of the left cannot be reduced to the conquest of institutions; it must be directed towards changing those institutions in order to be able to transform reality. A new correlation of forces must be created so that the necessary changes can be implemented. We have to understand that we cannot build a political force without building a social force.
Get to the Greenway for No Kings!
Saturday’s No Kings rally provides a great opportunity to invite more comrades into our work. The Indivisible movement has done an amazing job of gathering disgruntled liberals, but we can’t let the revolutionary potential of this increasingly class-conscious group be co-opted by calls to vote harder or back toothless reforms. Adding justices to the Supreme Court isn’t going to undo two hundred years of rulings favoring the capitalist class and reinforcing the white supremacist state.
We know that the system itself is the problem, but most people out there still give our capitalist hellscape the benefit of the doubt. Our task is to get people to see the contradictions in their own lives and show them that they have the power to change the world, once they organize.
Start simple: walk up to some folks at the rally, introduce yourself, and ask them why they are there. Follow up with a few questions about what brought them: how do they see that thing in society, how has it changed, what might have caused those changes? Listen to them talk and explain it. Ask if they’d thought about working with a group to address that problem, or how they feel about groups who are working on that problem. What would it take for them to join one of those groups? Avoid yes/no questions—just get them to think out loud, in a casual, safe environment. You’ll be surrounded by your kind of people (mostly), in a low-stakes environment. Shoot the shit and if it seems right, give them a nudge to an org. Total soft sell. Go out there, speak to each other as equals and make some future comrades. We have a long road to walk together.
Bulletins
Fork & Knife Club Returns
Join us Saturday, November 8th, at 11:00 am for the bimonthly Fork & Knife Club at the Healing Center, 2372 St. Claude #258. Last month we had 23 volunteers donate over 157 meals and stock 6 community fridges. Not a master chef? No problem! Volunteer to package meals to drop off at local community fridges. Can’t make it to the event and still want to donate food? We will come to you and pick up any donated meals or snacks! Sign up here to donate, package, or drop off meals.
Sign Up for Neighborhood Circles
We’re making neighborhood circles to connect people where they live, work, and anywhere else they spend time. Use your circle to host gatherings, plan events, and organize around issues in your neighborhood. If you’re interested in joining our newly formed neighborhood circles, opt in here. Neighborhood circles will follow the chapter’s code of conduct and guidelines for respectful discussion.
2025 DSA Membership Survey
Members in good standing are encouraged to fill out our quick 2025 Membership Survey for us to get a better sense of who our membership is overall and to guide our actions as a chapter.
Do It Jewett for US Congress District 1
Union teacher and New Orleans DSA member Lauren Jewett is running for US Congress, LA-01. Lauren has been a public school special education teacher for 17 years, standing up for the things that working people in Louisiana deserve: dignity, a life we can afford, thriving opportunity, and actual protection and recovery from major storms and disasters. She knows that workers are the hands, hearts, soul, and backbone of our state and our country. We deserve a representative who believes that and acts like it. Stay tuned for more campaign updates for Lauren, and help us kick off her candidacy with your financial support.
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, October 17
Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally
12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday)
Immigration Court, 365 Canal St
Queer Soc Planning Meeting
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm (every other Friday)
Meet
No Kings Sign Making Party
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av #258 – Signup
Saturday, October 18
No Kings
3:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Lafitte Greenway, between N Prieur and N Galvez
Sunday, October 19
Municipal Action Committee Meeting
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av #258 – Meet
Poli-Ed Reading Group: The Poorer Nations by Vijay Prashad
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm (third Sunday)
Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av #258 – Meet
Tuesday, October 21
Direct Service & Health Justice Meeting
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Meet
Wednesday, October 22
Indivisible Wednesday ICE Protest
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (every Wednesday)
ICE Field Office, 1250 Poydras St
Stop the Grain Train Weekly Meeting
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm (every Wednesday)
Art Conscious, 6601 St Claude Av
Thursday, October 23
Purrsday Karaoke for DSA
9:00 pm
Twelve Mile Limit, 500 S Telemachus St
Friday, October 24
Free Palestine! Abolish ICE! Weekly Lunch Hour Rally
12:00 pm – 12:45 pm (every Friday)
Immigration Court, 365 Canal St
Krewe of Zeitoun Presents En Masse: A Dance Party ft. Sirocco Brass
8:00 pm – 12:00 am
Canoa, 4210 St Claude ($10)
Saturday, October 25
New Orleans DSA General Meeting
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av #258 – RSVP
Sunday, October 26
Poets for Palestine: Polly Sawabini & Thafer Abu Qamir
3:00 pm
Gasa Gasa, 4920 Freret St
DSA Comms Meeting
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av #258 – Meet
Chapter Orientation
8:00 pm – 9:00 pm (first and last Sunday)
Meet
Down the Road
October 27 Local Council Meeting
November 2 Coffee with Comrades
November 2 Poli-Ed Planning Meeting
November 8 Fork & Knife Club
November 15 Election Day: Municipal Runoff
November 16 Poli-Ed Reading Group
December 6 Labor Notes New Orleans Troublemakers School