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Recent updates to this site: Sep 3: meet the director

This is the web site of several Northern California Chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America, a national organization committed to a radically better America in a radically better world. Visit the national website for more information about our principles. See particularly the "Where We Stand" document available there. You can also read a brief summary of the state of the national organization, along with specifics about the Sacramento local.

Fill in the survey and email it to us! You should copy the survey into your mailer and then fill it in. Sorry it's not more automatic.

News and Boycotts

There has been quite a lot of talk about networking recently in DSA. We now have Susan Chacin's paper explaining and arguing for this position.

Stop massive ethnic cleansing in Sudan. pdf version.

BOYCOTT WAL-MART The country's largest employer is a big part of the reason people who work don't earn enough to live comfortably.

Calendar

Thurs, Sep 6, 7pm	11 Panorama Dr, SF	Meet with DSA National Directory Frank Llewellyn
Sun, Sep 9, 4pm	RSVP (415) 789-8497	America's Moving Left!? with DSA National Directory Frank Llewellyn
Ongoing	Enter your zip code in the locator to find a place and time that's convenient.	Screenings of Wal-Mart: the high cost of low price. Wal-Mart has been a particular focus of DSA's Low Wage Economy campaign

East Bay DSA generally meets on the second Saturday of each month at the Niebyl-Proctor Library. Executive committee, open to all, starts at 9:30 am, with the general meeting at 10:30 am.

Items on this calendar are not necessarily DSA events, officially endorsed by DSA, or held by organizations that endorse DSA! However, we think they may be of interest. You may wish to be aware of the politics of ANSWER, which has organized many of the anti-war protests. They are not DSA's politics, though we agree on stopping the war. DSA is a member of the United for Peace and Justice Coalition.

Projects

Study Group: What is Socialist Economy?

If we don't know what we are for, we are unlikely to be terribly effective.  Several of us felt personally uncertain about how a Socialist economy would be organized, and also felt that this lack of clarity and vision was hurting the organization as a whole.  So we decided to embark on a course of reflection, discussion and study.  We've completed our first meeting (reported in the minutes ).

You can read pieces by Ross (in Adobe Acrobat's pdf for nice formatting, or plain text ) and Bob , an answer by Cy Gonik that we will discuss at our next meeting (the Boulder study group liked it), and the start of a bibliography on this subject.

See also the Socialist Education Project.

Peoples' Electoral Project

East Bay DSA has been heavily involved in bringing together a coaltion doing progressive electoral work in the East Bay. Contact electprog@hotmail.com to get involved.

Here's a report on the initial planning meeting (things have moved on since then).

The Sept. 11 Terrorist attack and response

The DSA national convention passed a resolution condemning the September 11 attacks, supporting in principle the selective use of multilateral armed force, and calling for a halt to the bombing. Its text, along with previous statements by DSA on the war, will presumably be available at the national web site soon. The Sacramento local and the anti-racism commission issued a prior statement , also available as an MS Word document. The East Bay local will be working for the re-election of Barbara Lee, the sole member of Congress to oppose a resolution granting sweeping, vaguely specified war powers to our illegitimate President.

Power Crisis

The neoliberal agenda for the world has come home, and it's not pretty.  Let's nail the energy profiteers, and help consign market triumphalism to the dustbin of history.  Click here for more.

Strategic Planning

The 2003 convention committed DSA to a thorough discussion and rethinking of organizational basics, including the development of a strategic plan, refinement of a mission statement, and discussion of Socialist Vision.

This continues the process initiated at a weekend retreat in July 2001, reported on under the "minutes" section below. Duane Campbell of Sacramento headed the organizing committee, and Sue Chacin from the East Bay was also a member. Other Californians present were Ross Boylan (SF), Delores Delgado Campbell (Sacramento), Virginia Franco (San Diego), Karl Knobler (East Bay), Maria Pineda (Davis), Michele Rossi (East Bay), Herb Shore (San Diego), and Eric Vega (San Diego).

Resources

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None But Ourselves by Susan Chacin. An essay on the value of networks of people (not computers!) for promoting social change (or use the MS Word version).

I am convinced that some of us need to take a broader perspective. The economy in the U.S. is now service and information-based, and networks of various kinds are the basis of production. I am arguing that radicals can build a flexible, responsive movement around our networks and that this kind of movement-building can give us the context in which to develop more agreement on program and strategy.

The heart of the paper is in pp. 19–27, which are also excerpted online in the DSA anti-racism blog

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Citizen's Inaugural Pledge, with info on electoral irregularities

Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan

Flyer for June 5 antiwar demo in SF

Essay on electability and voting.

Tim Wolforth's discussion document for the Jan 17, 2004 meeting on the Democratic party.

DSA anti-war flyer.

On biotech in general and stem cells in particular, see here. On stem cell research see www.multiversity.org/two-petitions.htm. For additional background click here.

Download Ross Boylan's opinion piece (MS Word 97 or html ) on the power crisis.  Then send him your comments. Sample invitation/flyer for power house party (I recommend downloading and printing in graphics program; it will be huge on your screen). It's a partial reprint of an article from the Chronicle plus the invitation. See also the project links for more information, related web sites, and other goodies.

Contacts

Voicemail for Bay Area DSA, with notices of upcoming events, is at (415) 789-8497. For San Francisco DSA, send e-mail or call (415) 550-1062.  In particular, you can request notices when the calendar, or when anything at all, changes at this site.

Click www.dsausa.org for national DSA.

Click dsaoregon.igc.org for DSA Oregon.

Join the official DSA Member discussion list.
Visit igc.topica.com/lists/asdnet to sign on to the unofficial, unsanctioned, unmoderated electronic forum for DSA members, friends, enemies, and random lunatics.