Features

Surplus and Profit –Andy L

A barista makes $1,000 worth of coffee sales during her shift, and she gets paid $50. What’s left over is money in someone else’s pocket. That $950 margin she doesn’t get paid (what we call surplus value), is the profit to the owner of the coffee shop.

Other, more insidious ways that what’s left over becomes money in someone else’s pocket include surplus capacity, surplus products, and surplus populations. Surplus capacity—and its evil twin Artificial Scarcity—hurt us by limiting social-valuable but unprofitable endeavors. Medical schools could train more doctors to meet our need for medical care, but fewer doctors means that they are in more demand, and can charge more for their services.

Commodities are products that you make to be exchanged, rather than consumed. The brownies that you make for your pals are not commodities, but if you sell them at the neighborhood bar, then they are. When producers make too much milk or too many oranges, they simply destroy them, because they were made to be exchanged, not consumed. The extra work of giving it to people who need it but can’t pay for it cuts into their profit margins.

Surplus populations have been used throughout time to discipline labor, including using a reserve army of labor to keep wages down, and sending Black workers to be strikebreakers against the very unions that wouldn’t admit them as members. Those who aren’t put to work are criminalized and incarcerated in for-profit prisons. AI threatens to turn all manner of white-collar folks into surplus workers.

So the time is long past to condemn the hoarding of surplus as the theft that it is, in all its forms. This is a beast that is coming for us all. Only together can we defeat it.

Bulletins

Fork & Knife Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our next scheduled Fork and Knife Event, and we look forward to having many of you there, either bringing dishes, plating meals, or running boxes of food to the community fridges so we can continue meeting the people where their needs are. If you want to get involved with these programs, come chat with us on the Direct Service and Health Justice Committee Discord Channel, sign up with the Fork and Knife action this weekend, or donate to help keep filling fridges. Solidarity! ✊️

Queer Soc: Game Night May 16

Join DSA’s Queer Socialist Section for a game night Saturday, May 16th at 6pm in Suite #258 at the New Orleans Healing Center! We’ll have fun table games, conversation-based games, and a dabbling of crafts. It’ll also be a potluck, so be sure to bring your favorite food, snack, or drink! Avoid the FOMO: come hang with the homos! 🏳️‍🌈

Poli-Ed Reading Group: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Please join us at the Healing Center #258, Sunday, May 17, to discuss The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The Poli-Ed Reading Group meets on the third Sunday of every month to chat about books, films, articles, and more. Come enjoy good times, good people, and good conversation.

Queer Soc: Queer Northshore Pride Parade

Hello to all fellow Queer Socialist Comrades! The New Orleans DSA’s Queer Socialist Section is set to walk in the Queer Northshore Pride Parade on May 30th! We will have ten to twenty people marching with us and we will be carrying a banner to celebrate our DSA chapter under the theme “We Rise Together”. We will be scheduling a banner build day soon and still have some spots open if anyone didn’t see this before and still wanted to join us on our march. Please contact either Artemis or Warren if you want to get involved and/or march!

Save the Date for Local Convention

June 27th, 12-5pm at First Grace UMC (3401 Canal St) will be our annual local convention. With the large growth in our chapter, this convocation of our members is a great way to meet members, hear political arguments, and engage in planning our next year of organizing. We’re hoping for our highest attendance in years, so please save the date and make plans to attend. Childcare will be provided.

Queer Soc: LGBTQ+ Map

New Orleans DSA’s Queer Socialists Section has released its map of pro- and anti- LGBTQ+ businesses in the greater New Orleans Area! This map is an ongoing project which requires community support. If you know of a business that is pro- or anti-LGBTQ+, or if you are the owner of a business, please submit information to Queer Soc’s tip-line!

Marketplace for Cooperatives

DSA members are starting a new tech worker cooperative, and one of our first projects is a marketplace where people can shop online at coops! This is socialism in action, as it supports businesses where workers own the means of production, rather than profiteering shareholders. Read more about the reasons why in our Manifesto.

Sign up for updates on how the marketplace is coming along and share with everyone you know who is interested in supporting worker-owned cooperatives! Visit us at https://solidarityecono.my

Membership: Meet Comrades in Your Neighborhood Circle

We live in a very isolated, alienated society that feels so unnatural. That’s because it is! Neighborhood circles are how we connect with comrades where we live, work, or otherwise spend our time. We’re using them to host gatherings, plan events, and organize around issues in our neighborhoods. Click here to join yours today! Neighborhood circles are for members only and follow the chapter’s code of conduct and guidelines for respectful discussion.

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 from the link on Discord.

Community Calendar

Friday, May 8

The Culting of America ft Daniella Mestyanek Young, Rubia Garcia, Lauren Jewett
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania St

Molly Crabapple in Conversation With Kali Akuno
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
John Thompson Legacy Center, 1212 St Bernard Av

Saturday, May 9

Fork & Knife
11:30 am – 2:00 pm
Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av

Statewide Day of Action Against Voter Suppression
2:00 pm
Duncan Plaza, 343 Loyola Av

Sunday, May 10

Hands off Cuba Committee
12:00 am – 2:00 pm
Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av #258

Monday, May 11

🌹 🌹 🌹

Tuesday, May 12

Direct Service & Health Justice Meeting
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Meet

Wednesday, May 13

Queer Soc Meeting
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Meet

Thursday, May 14

AfroSoC Meeting
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
TBD + Zoom

Chapter Orientation
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Meet

Friday, May 15

Nola Freedom Forum: Stop Fueling Genocide
6:00 pm
John Thompson Legacy Center, 1212 St Bernard Av

Saturday, May 16

Queer Soc Game Night
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av #258

Sunday, May 17

Northshore Neighborhood Social
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Roots Plants + Coffee, 124 Erlanger Av Suite B, Slidell

Poli-Ed Reading Group: The Message (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av #258 – Meet

Down the Road

May 23 New Orleans DSA General Meeting
May 30 Queer Northshore Pride Parade
June 7 Coffee With Comrades
June 21 Poli-Ed Reading Group: My Traitor’s Heart (Rian Malan)
June 27 New Orleans DSA Local Convention