We Have a World to Win! Endorsements and Recommendations for Tomorrow’s Election
🌹 🌹 🌹 Clerk of Criminal District Court: Calvin Duncan Assessor: Casius Pealer Council At-Large Division 2: Pastor Gregory Manning Council District A: Bob Murrell Council District C: Jackson Kimbrell Council District D: AGAINST Eugene Green Council District E: Danyelle Christmas Home Rule Charter Amendment (Fair Chance Amendment): Yes 🌹 🌹 🌹
Join comrades at our Election Watch Party at The Courtyard Brewery, 1160 Camp St, starting at 8:00 pm.
Join New Orleans DSA and Support Our People’s Platform
The work doesn’t end with Election Day. Our chapter has committed to a united electoral front that advances a high-level vision for the future of New Orleans, and supports candidates who can fulfill that vision. Our candidates promise to pursue, without compromise, specific policies and laws that reflect the following values:
Dismantle white supremacy & racism
Oppose fascism, neoliberalism, privatization, and austerity
Abolish the criminal punishment system
Climate justice and sustainability
Abortion rights and access for all
LGBTQ+ liberation
Free, quality public schools for all
Support unionized labor & all unorganized workers
Support immigrants, undocumented people, and oppressed and colonized nations
Affordable quality housing and utilities
A living wage for all workers
Healthcare for all
Safe routes for all mobility and robust, reliable mass transit
Rent Party! Raffle & Music Show to Support Community Room #258
Please join DSA, FRSO, and the New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression on Friday, October 10, 6PM–10PM for a rent party at Okay Bar, 1700 Port St, to raise money for our new community office space in the Healing Center! Support the fight against Trump by raising money for a secure space for community organizing available to progressive groups throughout the city. There is a suggested donation of $10–20 at the door, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Come listen to some music and buy a raffle ticket to support the space—prizes with a value of over $600! Please enter the raffle via donorbox at tinyurl.com/fund258. All raffle submissions must contain your name, contact info, and the items you choose in the comment section.
See y’all there!
DSA + FRSO + Indivisible Safety Coalition Training
DSA, FRSO and Indivisible NOLA have teamed up to build collective capacity for the increasingly frequent need to take to the streets. Our goal is to develop a large pool of New Orleanians trained in security and de-escalation that can be activated to keep our community safe during free speech events. This is the last training opportunity if you’d like to volunteer for the Safety Team for No Kings NOLA 2.0. Meet at the New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, on Sunday, October 12, from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm.Sign up here.
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.
Unhoused Sweep Legal Observer Training & Advocacy Meeting 10:30 am – 12:00 pm Legal Observer Training 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm Advocacy Meeting Healing Center Room 258, 2372 St Claude
New Orleans DSA Election Results Watch Party 8:00 pm – The Courtyard Brewery, 1160 Camp St
No Kings 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm – Lafitte Greenway, between N Prieur and N Galvez
Sunday, October 19
Poli-Ed Reading Group: The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South, by Vijay Prashad 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm (third Sunday) – Healing Center Room 258, 2372 St Claude – Meet
Down the Road
October 23 Purrsday Karaoke for DSA at Twelve Mile Limit
October 25 New Orleans DSA General Meeting
October 27 Local Council Meeting
November 2 Coffee with Comrades
November 15 Election Day: Municipal Runoff
November 16 Poli-Ed Reading Group
December 6 Labor Notes New Orleans Troublemakers School
New Orleans DSA has endorsed Gregory Manning for City Council At-Large Division 2
Pastor Gregory Manning is a committed activist, proud New Orleans DSA member, and the pastor of Broadmoor Community Church. He is emphatically progressive on social issues and an ardent champion of economic justice, climate justice, and environmental justice. He founded the Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition and helped lead the Community Lighthouse project in New Orleans, which uses distributed solar generation to offer backup power during extended outages. To reduce the city’s climate impact and break Entergy’s energy monopoly, Manning will “municipalize the gas network” and ban the “expansion of gas infrastructure.” He supports the short-term reduction of rates and elimination of customer debts, and the long-term municipalization of Entergy.
Pastor Manning has a record of showing up anytime, anywhere, always on the right side of history. He is more than capable of building bridges, but knows when to fight the good fight and won’t back down in the name of doing the easier thing. Time and time again, he has risked his physical safety and professional connections to do the right thing, regardless of personal costs. He will bring that same energy to City Hall, at a time when the people of New Orleans desperately need it, in light of overreach by our fascist state and federal governments.
We wholeheartedly believe Pastor Gregory Manning is the right candidate to confront the urgent challenges bearing down on all of our region’s residents.
New Orleans DSA has endorsed Bob Murrell for City Council District A.
Bob Murrell is a longtime leader in New Orleans DSA and one of the chief architects of our electoral program. For years, he has worked within grassroots organizations – Voice of the Experienced, Step Up Louisiana, and Eye on Surveillance – to build people power in every neighborhood of our city. Because he shows up and fights for all of us, every single day, he’s won VOTE’s endorsement, as well as that of Step Up for Action, Run for Something, the 3.14 Action Fund to bring STEM leaders to the front of issues from climate change to reproductive healthcare, and local progressive champions Gaby Biro, Devin Davis, and Pearl Ricks.
Murrell has been organizing with the Make Entergy Pay campaign to fight back against the monopoly’s utility shutoffs and rate hikes. New Orleanians must replace our profit-driven energy monopoly with a publicly-owned utility, and his commitment to our campaign gives us full confidence that he’ll make municipalizing Entergy one of the next Council’s key tasks. Murrell’s campaign also prioritizes affordable housing, great public schools, good paying union jobs, and better streets and drainage, and he has long spoken about wanting to live in a District A that pays as much attention to its traditionally neglected Black neighborhoods like Hollygrove as it does its white ones like Lakeview.
A powerful organizing force in New Orleans grassroots politics, often found pressuring Council members to prioritize working class interests over those of wealthy political donors, Bob Murrell has the courage, principles, and track record to fight for us. We need public servants who will make New Orleans safer, more fair, and more liveable for everyone. New Orleans DSA fully endorses Bob Murrell for that mission.
New Orleans DSA has endorsed Jackson Kimbrell for City Council District C
Jackson Kimbrell is a New Orleans DSA member bringing a construction background to his focus on working class issues that affect us all: affordable housing, rising insurance rates, underfunded public transit, expensive childcare, and rising utility bills. He has committed to fiercely regulating Entergy and our Make Entergy Pay demands, putting people over profits.
Much of Kimbrell’s campaign centers on economic and environmental sustainability in the face of global warming, and he has nuts-and-bolts proposals to get things done. At candidate forums and in questionnaires, Kimbrell addresses roof fortification funding and expanding solar retention on all city properties. He’s proposed partnering schools with unions to teach our children trade skills and create more union jobs. He’s proposed investing in our tree canopy to fight the urban heat island effect. Ideas like these that focus on what we can do locally are critically important at a time when federal and state funding sources are drying up.
Around town, Kimbrell has been advocating with Critical Mass NOLA about making roadways work not just for cars and trucks, but for cyclists and pedestrians as well. These measures would protect residents all over District C, particularly in a dangerous St. Claude corridor that has seen several recent deaths.
Kimbrell is running a campaign funded by small-dollar donations from neighbors and fellow DSA members—not corporations or law firms that put profits first.
New Orleans DSA has endorsed Danyelle Christmas for City Council District E
Dental assistant and single mom of four Danyelle Christmas is a proud member of New Orleans DSA. She has earned the endorsements of Step Up for Action, Voters Organized to Educate, Run for Something, and Lead Locally. Christmas has been leading a campaign that fights for safety, affordable housing, economic justice, and human rights. The daughter of the late Dan Bright, a man wrongfully convicted and sent to Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Christmas was inspired to run based on witnessing the unjust impacts of the prison-industrial complex on her family and the wider community. In candidate forums and interviews, Christmas recalls childhood memories of taking the bus to visit her father at Angola, witnessing his activism with Innocence Project New Orleans (now Innocence & Justice Louisiana) once he was released, and dealing with the trauma that resulted from his incarceration. These experiences have solidified her commitment to banning facial recognition technologies in the city, supporting immigrants’ rights and access to legal services, speaking out against the genocide in Gaza, shifting budget priorities towards more youth and community-oriented initiatives, and advocating for policies that are human-centered and recognize the dignity of working class people.
Christmas has also expressed her frustration with the blight rampant across New Orleans East and the Lower Ninth Ward, where she grew up and went to public school. Christmas spent seven years in Orlando and was dismayed to return home to see streets, sidewalks, and infrastructure the same as when she left, and just the bare foundations of flooded homes as a vestige of Hurricane Katrina. In a Step Up for Action forum, Christmas also brought up her concerns about clean air and water, noting that her children have dealt with more sicknesses here in New Orleans than anywhere else. Christmas has also been active in work for safer streets for bicyclists with Critical Mass Nola and has pushed against disruptive industrial activity with the proposed Sunrise Foods International Grain Terminal in the Lower Ninth Ward/Holy Cross neighborhood. She has pointed to the lack of investment in people and the neighborhoods of District E as a major public safety issue.
Pushing out corporate greed, pushing for city-owned utilities that offer more transparency and an end to unjust fees, and pushing for a city cap on rental costs are additional measures that Christmas is advocating for to make New Orleans a city that is affordable for everyone and would allow people to stay and thrive. She wrote in her VOTE questionnaire: “New Orleans residents are [either] choosing between paying Entergy, rent, or food to feed families,” and she feels that it shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be that way for people in the city who are working 40+ hours a week and still not making the income needed to survive. Ultimately, Christmas argues that everyday working people in District E and New Orleans are tired of the lack of adequate services and deserve representation by someone who understands their experiences. As she remarked in a recent news interview with The Boston Globe, ”What I’m fighting for, I’ve lived it.”
New Orleans DSA recommends Calvin Duncan for Clerk of Criminal District Court
Calvin Duncan was one of the principal architects of the legal strategy to overturn Louisiana’s system of non-unanimous juries, a success achieved at the US Supreme Court in 2020. Wrongfully arrested at 19 for murder, Duncan was sentenced to die at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Refusing to give in to the crushing weight of Louisiana’s criminal legal system, Duncan became a jailhouse lawyer and helped other incarcerated men research their cases, file appeals, and overturn their convictions.
Duncan tried challenging his own case, but could not get access to police reports, witness statements, and other records. When he finally got Innocence Project New Orleans to take his case, those records showed that prosecutors had hidden evidence that proved his innocence. After 28 years wrongfully imprisoned at Angola, Duncan co-founded The First 72+ re-entry program, graduated from Tulane, and earned a law degree. He’s now a research associate at Loyola’s Jesuit Social Research Institute, pushing for criminal justice reform.
People wonder why the clerk of court is an elected position, and justifiably so. Duncan knows what it means if the clerk of court doesn’t preserve court records and doesn’t give people access to them: human beings, like Duncan himself, languish in prison without a chance to challenge the evidence against them. He is endorsed by VOTE.
New Orleans DSA recommends Casius Pealer for Assessor
Casius Pealer is an architect, attorney, affordable housing advocate, and Senior Professor of Practice at Tulane’s School of Architecture. He has worked on hundreds of millions of dollars in community projects and has been active in national housing initiatives. Now, as a first-time candidate for assessor, he is running on a platform of fairness and transparency.
Pealer has been one of the sharpest critics of Errol Williams’s assessor’s office. He has called out the practice of “sales chasing,” which drives up assessments for families who just bought a home while leaving longtime owners with lower valuations. On the equally thorny question of short-term rentals, Pealer stresses that decisions like these must be made fairly and transparently to address residents’ complex needs, but also acknowledges that STRs should likely be removed from neighborhood sales data due to the risk of inflated neighborhood values, particularly in gentrifying areas.
He proposes publishing annual reports on all property tax breaks and exemptions so the public can see who benefits. He also wants to simplify the appeals process, which many homeowners find confusing and inaccessible. His approach, he argues, would reduce costly disputes and restore trust in the office.
Pealer has criticized the city’s plans to double the homestead exemption, which gives wealthy homeowners the same tax break as struggling families while draining about $40 million a year from the city budget. He also argues that the current tax system is inequitable: homeowners have access to homestead exemptions, but renters have no comparable relief and would end up shouldering higher costs.
He speaks often about how the assessor’s office and housing policy can and should work together to benefit everyone in Orleans Parish: homeowners, but also renters and small business owners. He emphasizes that renters also pay property taxes, since landlords pass the costs into rent. In New Orleans, where the median renter income is less than $34,000, more than half of renters are already cost-burdened, and rising property taxes can amount to two months’ rent each year. He notes that 13,000 seniors rent their homes with no protections, and points to “circuit breaker” programs in 30 other states that tie property taxes to income, helping both homeowners and renters avoid being priced out. Louisiana’s own constitution even allows for renter tax relief, but the current assessor has ignored that while pursuing larger exemptions for homeowners.
Pealer’s background in housing and real estate development, combined with his clear responses to problematic aspects of Williams’s record, position him as a credible reformer. Where Williams has spent decades entrenching favoritism and opacity, Pealer’s campaign offers a path toward equity and accountability.
New Orleans DSA recommends voting YES on the Home Rule Charter Amendment
Our city has a Bill of Rights prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, religion, disability, and gender. It’s time to add criminal conviction history to that list, because the criminal legal system shouldn’t block people from housing, jobs, and a path to getting back on their feet. This update, called the Fair Chance Amendment, is presented by VOTE, a frequent partner organization of ours composed of people who have experienced the criminal legal system.
People can often get caught up in the details of their everyday life. Our modern economy and ruling class, in fact, depend on our collective inaction. The only way to reach the equitable society that we know we all deserve is to show up. Even when you’re tired. Even when you’re stressed. Particularly when you’re tired and stressed! When you are among people who not only believe in awakening class consciousness, but are actively involved in the work, you feel a deep rejuvenation of your soul because you see that people aren’t standing by passively.
This weekend is filled to the brim with options for feeling that connection. I encourage you to attend at least one, but I also want to challenge you to bring someone with you, especially if that person is reluctant to use their power in this movement. If you are electorally minded, our endorsed candidates need your enthusiasm and charisma to help bring in voters. If you want to buy your coffee tomorrow morning, consider buying it at the River Ridge Starbucks on Jefferson Highway to show your support for their unionization efforts. Do you like using your hands or talking with your neighbors? Head over to the Brake Light Clinic at Tureaud Park to help our community members avoid unnecessary interactions with the police (no brake light experience required!). Consider going to Freedom Square at 6pm Saturday night to memorialize two years of active genocide of the Palestinian people, and join an organization to continue that work.
Show up to rallies, and then make some friends while you’re there. The struggle isn’t just work; it can also be fun. So round out the weekend with the first DSA Queer Social costume party at First Christian Church in Slidell. We only win by consistently and reliably showing up!
Qualitative Change Is Always on Its Way
One of the core principles of historical materialism is that quantitative change leads to qualitative change. How many individual grains of rice constitute a bowl of rice? In physics, when you try to heat up a jar that has water and ice in it, the water will stay at 32° F until all the ice is melted. The quantitative change is the heat from the flame, touching small parts of the whole. The qualitative change is the ice’s state change from solid to liquid.
When this happens in society, we don’t always see it in real time. The pigs kill people of color regularly, often in conditions that seem indefensible to people who aren’t desensitized by the violence of American society. Yet the murder of George Floyd set off a rebellion more immediately widespread than the murders of John Crawford III or Sandra Bland or Tortuguita. Many factors contributed, but that single event kicked off a qualitative change in the way a lot of people think about this. Tens of millions won’t ever go back to the carefully crafted image of the cops as servants of the people. We see them as the class enemies that they are.
Another qualitative change is in progress, related to American dominance. The Global South is knitting together a system that doesn’t need the US. China doesn’t buy US soybeans anymore, getting them from Brazil instead. Chinese exports to the US dropped 15% this year, with China’s total exports dropping less than 1%. They’ve found less troublesome buyers.
We don’t know what the next qualitative change will be or when it will happen, but now is the time to hone your class analysis. Be ready for people to start asking questions. Help them see through counter-revolutionary answers. Keep your wits sharp and your eyes on the prize: Global Liberation!
Bulletins
No Contract, No Coffee! Support the Starbucks Workers United Practice Picket
Starbucks Workers United will have a picket on tomorrow, October 4. It’ll go from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm at the River Ridge Starbucks, 9301 Jefferson Hwy. They are demanding a fair union contract with the staffing, hours, take-home pay, and on-the-job protections they need to do their jobs. They are part of our community and part of the fabric of our daily lives. They are neighbors. They are workers. They deserve a fair wage. When they fight, we will support them. And when they strike, we will not cross the picket line. Show your support: sign the pledge and join the picket. We will not patronize any Starbucks store when baristas are on strike.
Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair Tomorrow
Your favorite DSA comrades will be at AP Tureaud Memorial Park tomorrow, October 4, changing brake lights and handing out hot meals, cold drinks, and doing health checks. We also are providing safe injection kits and Narcan kits courtesy of Trystereo. It’s always a good time with good people, so come hang out and do some community organizing!
The address is 1800 AP Tureaud Av, from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Get your hat, get your sunscreen, and get a friend or make one at the clinic.
Action and Solidarity on the Second Anniversary of October 7th
This next week marks the second anniversary of this latest period of genocide by the state of Israel upon the people of Palestine. Our comrades are showing solidarity with the people of Palestine this Saturday, October 4th, in a rally at Jackson Freedom Square. You may have seen our latest banner in support of Palestine at the latest General Meeting. We’ll be unveiling it at this action, and would love to have you behind it. If you are available to join us and carry it, we would love to see you there!
DSA Queer Social Costume Party on Sunday
In the South, the LGBTQ+ community is often more isolated than anywhere else in the United States. As socialists, we want to build up strong, healthy communities that support each other through shared struggles. To do this, we established a Queer Socialist Section (Queer Soc) at our September GM!
To bring together our queer community and allies, Queer Soc is launching monthly themed socials. Build up your Halloween spirit by joining us for our all-ages Queer Social Costume Party at the First Christian Church, 102 Christian Ln, in Slidell this Sunday, October 5th, 6-9pm! We hope to see you there~ 🦇🏳️🌈
Eye on Surveillance Monthly Meeting This Wednesday
Join EOS at our October monthly meeting on Wednesday the 8th, at 6:30 pm, via Zoom. Exciting updates include our mapping out and scouting of Project NOLA cameras, future teach-ins on the harms of racist tech such as facial recognition, and efforts to prepare against a local and federal government that attacks our privacy, livelihoods, and right to organize. RSVP here.
Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ
Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.
DSA + FRSO + Indivisible Safety Coalition Training
DSA, FRSO and Indivisible NOLA have teamed up to build collective capacity for the increasingly frequent need to take to the streets. Our goal is to develop a large pool of New Orleanians trained in security and de-escalation that can be activated to keep our community safe during free speech events. This is the last training opportunity if you’d like to volunteer for the Safety Team for No Kings NOLA 2.0. Meet at the New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, on Sunday, October 12, from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm.Sign up here.
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 3
Early Voting 8:30 am – 6:00 pm (through October 4, except Sunday) Locations
Film Screening & Panel: The Facility 5:30 pm doors, 6:00 pm screening, 6:45 pm panel VOTE New Orleans, 4930 Washington Av
Saturday, October 4
Early Voting 8:30 am – 6:00 pm (through October 4, except Sunday) Locations
Canvass for Jackson Kimbrell, Council District C 9:00 am – 12:00 pm Get involved
River Ridge Starbucks Workers United Practice Picket 10:00 am – 12:00 pm Starbucks, 9301 Jefferson Hwy – Signup
Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair 11:00 am – 2:00 pm AP Tureaud Civil Rights Memorial Park, 1800 AP Tureaud Av – Volunteer Signup
Canvass for Bob Murrell, Council District A 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Get involved
Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, Council District E 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Get Involved
Rise Up for Gaza: Two Years of Genocide International Day of Action 6:00 pm Jackson Freedom Square Amphitheater, 701 Decatur St
Sunday, October 5
Coffee with Comrades 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St
Canvass for Bob Murrell, District A 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Get involved
Canvass for Danyelle Christmas, Council District E 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Get Involved
Street Medic Training 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av Room 258
Poli-Ed Planning Meeting 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm (first Sunday) New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av Room 258 – Meet, Reading List
DSA Queer Social Costume Party 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm First Christian Church, 102 Christian Ln, Slidell
Chapter Orientation 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm (first and last Sunday) Meet
Monday, October 6
Knock Doors with Bob Murrell, Council District A 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Get involved
Canvass for Pastor Gregory Manning, Council At-Large Division 2 5:30 pm & 6:30 pm (Monday-Thursday) Broadmoor Community Church, 2021 S Dupre St – Get Involved
Tuesday, October 7
Knock Doors with Bob Murrell, Council District A 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Get involved
Canvass for Pastor Gregory Manning, Council At-Large Division 2 5:30 pm & 6:30 pm (Monday-Thursday) Broadmoor Community Church, 2021 S Dupre St – Get Involved
Health Justice & Direct Service Meeting 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm (first & third Tuesday) Meet
Wednesday, October 8
Indivisible Wednesday ICE Protest 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (every Wednesday) ICE Field Office, 1250 Poydras St
Canvass for Pastor Gregory Manning, Council At-Large Division 2 5:30 pm & 6:30 pm (Monday-Thursday) Broadmoor Community Church, 2021 S Dupre St – Get Involved
Canvass for Pastor Gregory Manning, Council At-Large Division 2 5:30 pm & 6:30 pm (Monday-Thursday) Broadmoor Community Church, 2021 S Dupre St – Get Involved
Rank & File Project Monthly Meeting 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm REACH Center, 2022 St Bernard Av, Bldg C, 3rd Fl
New Orleans DSA Election Results Watch Party 8:00 pm Location TBD
Sunday, October 12
DSA/FRSO/Indivisible Safety Coalition Training 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av Room 258 Signup
Down the Road
October 18 No Kings October 23 Purrsday Karaoke for DSA at Twelve Mile Limit October 25 New Orleans DSA General Meeting November 15 Election Day: Municipal Runoff December 6 Labor Notes New Orleans Troublemakers School
New Orleans DSA Fall 2025 Voter Guide Release This Weekend
The Trump administration is sending federal agents and National Guard troops to occupy American cities, disappearing people into ICE detention, and continuing the genocide in Gaza. The religious right have criminalized reproductive healthcare and are targeting LGBTQ+ rights. The Supreme Court is rigging election maps and laws. Billionaires control the major media platforms and the algorithms that steer you to their manufactured trends. We are fully immersed in an authoritarian crisis and our own local electeds are building the surveillance networks and jail cells that the fascists are using to strangle free speech and assembly. This is what’s at stake.
How are candidates auditioning for the fight? Well, many are fiddling around with ChatGPT and uploading AI slop to their socials. Candidate surveys used to be hard to come by and thin on details because it takes a lot of time to thoughtfully answer so many questions. But in this cycle, candidates are churning out dozens of five-paragraph essays with all the hallmarks of large language models: most restate the prompt, offer superficial policy proposals riddled with empty jargon, are obsessed with three-item series, sprinkle em dashes everywhere, throw in an obscure statistical citation here and there, and repeatedly use this sentence pattern: This campaign is not just about [some cliché]–it’s also about [some other cliché].
Why does it matter that they’re using ChatGPT? After all, frauds and grifters co-opting progressive vocabulary is nothing new, and we’ve long had Rupert Murdoch, Jeff Bezos, and Michael Bloomberg controlling our media ecosystem. But now, as Entergy positions itself to steal power away from communities for their massive new data centers, and generative content destroys our cognitive function and our environment, we also have to vote for some idiot whose primary political handler is an algorithm channeling Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, or Elon Musk? Hell no.
DSA and all of our candidates aren’t giving any ground to fascism. We adopted a Resolution to Prohibit Chapter Use of AI-Generated Content that we stand by. We ran a slate of candidates to explicitly reject the far-right leadership in Baton Rouge and DC. We believe in democracy–a society organized by and for the working class. We believe in socialism–a society based on equitable distribution, feminism, racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships. We are the Democratic Socialists of America, and we believe in fighting fascism whenever and wherever it appears. Join us in the struggle.
New Orleans DSA General Meeting Tomorrow! – Brodie L
We’re holding our September General Meeting tomorrow at the Healing Center. It’s going to be a great one because we’re bringing back food! No need to worry about sitting through new business with a grumbling stomach; at our recess we will take a break and refresh ourselves over hot food and cold drinks with our comrades. Our docket has only two pieces of new business, but we’ll also have plenty of updates.
The chapter will vote on whether to institute a Queer SOC, which will create a way for our queer comrades to plan, organize, and otherwise feel affirmed in our space. We’ll also decide several Voter Guide recommendations: 1) Parishwide HRC Amendment, 2) Clerk of Court, 3) Assessor, and 4) City Council District D.
Your local has also been at work launching several new mutual aid initiatives across the city and providing support to our endorsed candidates. Come hear the specifics at our meeting, and if you can’t make it, please still send in your proxy vote because it helps us make quorum. We can either assign a comrade one or you can let us know which comrade attending will be voting with yours. Hope to see you tomorrow at 12:00 pm at the Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av Room 258, or online.Make sure to RSVP; it gives us a headcount, and gets you the virtual link or a proxy if you need.
DSA at the Movies: The Act of Killing – Brodie L
This past Wednesday night, DSA had its first ever Movie Night at the Broad, courtesy of Gaptooth Media. It was an opportunity to share a few drinks with fellow and prospective comrades before watching a deeply profound and troubling film. If you joined the Political Education Committee in reading The Jakarta Method by Vincent Blevins, then the subject matter would be familiar: the mass slaughter of communists in Indonesia in 1965-’66. The director, Joshua Oppenheimer, mainly follows the executioner Anwar Congo, but several of his associates appear throughout the film.
Oppenheimer asked them to re-enact the killings in whatever way they wished. Even just writing that still feels surreal. They discuss the way they murdered their fellow human beings with such ease. Anwar seems to actually wrestle with the moral implications of what he did as he plays the part of one of his victims in a reenactment. It should be on every leftist’s watch list; the film is a grueling treatment of how easily a society can descend into violence and never leave it.
One of the most shocking moments for me was seeing a state television news host praising Anwar and his accomplices because they found “new and exciting ways of killing communists more efficiently.” The film was only released in 2012, 13 years ago, and they still talk openly about the mass murder of over 1 million of their fellow countrymen with awe. This is a future we must seriously grapple with in the US where far-right violence is the norm, not the exception. Stay safe, comrades!
Red Rabbits Recommendation: Drop and Give Me Twenty (Tomatoes)
The weather is about to break, everyone. We’re leaving the time of the year where we hide from the heat and let our yards run wild. This is the perfect time to get to gardening. It’s a wonderful form of low-impact exercise. You’re up, you’re down, you’re digging over here, you’re weeding over there. Almost all of us need to be more physically active, for all kinds of reasons.
Motion is the lotion, Comrade! By moving around, you’re loosening up your joints and helping your body’s natural pump system do its job. Focusing your attention on something that’s not flashing or beeping at you, or live-streaming horrible things half-a-world away, lets your brain slow down to a more natural pace: the speed of growing things. It’s good to work on something that won’t pay off right away but will change and grow and bear fruit with time. It’s a great reminder that things as they are now are not the things that they will be later.
There are beneficial critters in healthy soil that your body might be really missing. Touching grass is all well and good, but pulling weeds and releasing the beasties from the soil is where it’s really at. Gardening is a great way to build community as well. There aren’t really that many asshole gardeners: they tend to be sharers of knowledge, of company, and when they plant too many carrots, of produce. Red Rabbits firmly believe that We Keep Us Safe. So grow that ‘We’ as you grow your Swiss chard. We are blessed with an environment where we can garden all year long. Get out there, get dirty and grow whatever you can, however you can do it.
Bulletins
Eye on Surveillance Community Scouting Day Tomorrow
Join the community effort to map out Project Nola cameras, which pose a danger to our privacy and well being. Join Eye on Surveillance for a walk downtown and learn how to scout, identify, and map the hundreds of cameras that spy on our community every day. Meet at 2:00 pm Saturday, September 27, on the sidewalk outside 422 Canal St.
Brake Light Clinic & Health Fair on Saturday, October 4
Your favorite DSA comrades will be at AP Tureaud Memorial Park on Saturday, October 4, changing brake lights and handing out hot meals, cold drinks, and doing health checks. We’re also welcoming our friends from Trystereo to provide Narcan kits and educate us on how to use them. It’s always a good time with good people, so come hang out and do some community organizing!
The address is 1800 AP Tureaud Av, from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Get your hat, get your sunscreen, and get a friend or make one at the clinic.
No Contract, No Coffee! Support the October 4 Starbucks Worker Picket
Starbucks Workers United will have a practice picket on Saturday, October 4. It’ll go from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm at the River Ridge Starbucks, 9301 Jefferson Hwy. They are demanding a fair union contract with the staffing, hours, take-home pay, and on-the-job protections they need to do their jobs. They are part of our community and part of the fabric of our daily lives. They are neighbors. They are workers. They deserve a fair wage. When they fight, we will support them. And when they strike, we will not cross the picket line. Show your support and sign the pledge. We will not patronize any Starbucks store when baristas are on strike.
Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ
Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.
DSA/FRSO/Indivisible Safety Coalition Training
DSA, FRSO and Indivisible NOLA have teamed up to build collective capacity for the increasingly frequent need to take to the streets. Our goal is to develop a large pool of New Orleanians trained in security and de-escalation that can be activated to keep our community safe during free speech events. This is the last training opportunity if you’d like to volunteer for the Safety Team for No Kings NOLA 2.0. Meet at the New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, on Sunday, October 12, from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm.Sign up here.
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.
Please join our first ever movie night at the Broad Theatre, in conjunction with Gap Tooth Media! On Wednesday, September 24th, we’ll screen the critically acclaimed The Act of Killing, which recounts the US-backed mass killings of 1-2 million of communists, leftists, and others in 1965-66 Indonesia. We expect tickets to sell out, so get yours soon.
Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ
Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.
Fall 2025 Voter Guide Team Weekly Meeting Tomorrow
Every election, New Orleans DSA publishes our voter guide analyzing the key issues in each race through a socialist lens. This is a volunteer effort by comrades in the chapter, and we want you to join us! We’ll be at Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Bring your laptop and all of your longstanding grudges against our local oligarchs. Get in touch with Aaron Z for more info.
Introducing 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.
No Contract, No Coffee! Support a Starbucks Worker Strike
Starbucks workers are demanding a fair union contract with the staffing, hours, take-home pay, and on-the-job protections they need to do their jobs. They are part of our community and part of the fabric of our daily lives. They are neighbors. They are workers. They deserve a fair wage. When they fight, we will support them. And when they strike, we will not cross the picket line. Show your support and sign the pledge. We will not patronize any Starbucks store when baristas are on strike.
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.
News broke last week about an ICE raid on a firefighting crew working on the Bear Gulch fire in Washington state. The crew of 44 was detained for three hours, resulting in the arrest of two men. The other 42 were sent home, their contracts terminated by the management company that deployed them into an ICE ambush. At the time, the fire was less than 9,000 acres in size and was 13% contained. A week later, the fire had grown to over 10,000 acres and was only 9% contained.
Also last week, ICE agents raided a Hyundai plant in Georgia and arrested 475 people. The plant is under construction, and 300 of the detained people are South Korean nationals, here because they have the technical expertise needed to build such an advanced facility. As it turns out, the Georgia education system isn’t producing the kind of graduates that Hyundai needed. Thus, when not enough of the Hyundai investment makes its way into American hands, in come the ICE running dogs.
We’re already seeing the metastasization of ICE. Instead of their initial BS about “protecting the US from the worst of the worst,” ICE is increasingly revealing itself as the goon squad for corporate America, kneecapping public services and industrial development in the service of American capital.
This is the dark side of Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the market. Capital has to use every tool at its disposal in its never-ending quest for profit. Side effects and collateral damage aren’t unfortunate accidents, they actually increase profit by weakening the workers and society in general, making them easier to exploit.
The way out of this mess is to dismantle the tools of capitalist oppression. Abolish ICE.
Bulletins
Fall 2025 Voter Guide Team Weekly Meeting Tomorrow
Every election, New Orleans DSA publishes our voter guide analyzing the key issues in each race through a socialist lens. This is a volunteer effort by comrades in the chapter, and we want you to join us! We’ll be at the Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av Room 258, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Bring your laptop and all of your longstanding grudges against our local oligarchs. Get in touch with Aaron Z for more info.
Fork & Knife Club Distribution Tomorrow
Help contribute to our Direct Service Committee as we begin a new campaign to distribute food around local community fridges. We’ll be preparing, packaging, and distributing meals starting at the Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av Room 258, at 12:00 pm. If you are interested, please sign up here. We would love volunteers to help with any stage of the process!
Introducing 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.
Join DSA Movie Night at the Broad
Please join our first ever movie night at the Broad Theatre, in conjunction with Gap Tooth Media! On September 24th, we’ll screen the critically acclaimed The Act of Killing, which recounts the US-backed mass killings of 1-2 million of communists, leftists, and others in 1965-66 Indonesia. We expect tickets to sell out, so get yours soon.
Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ
Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.
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.
No Contract, No Coffee! Support a Starbucks Worker Strike
Starbucks workers are demanding a fair union contract with the staffing, hours, take-home pay, and on-the-job protections they need to do their jobs. They are part of our community and part of the fabric of our daily lives. They are neighbors. They are workers. They deserve a fair wage. When they fight, we will support them. And when they strike, we will not cross the picket line. Show your support and sign the pledge. We will not patronize any Starbucks store when baristas are on strike.
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.
New Orleans DSA vehemently opposes the Trump administration’s proposed military occupation of our city. We wholly reject the claim by the Federal and Louisiana state governments that they intend to deploy the military in order to address any semblance of “crime” here. A police state will neither prevent nor reduce crime. Only investment in our communities–a living wage, affordable housing, universal healthcare, and youth services–can accomplish that. Such actions will only restrict our ability to freely engage in public life.
We’ve seen ICE terrorize communities across Los Angeles and D.C. with the backing of the Marines, National Guard, and local police. We’ve witnessed them kidnap our neighbors and abduct countless others across the country to bring them to our state, the prison capital of the world. Right now, they are expanding Angola Prison in order to force these captives into modern-day slavery and funnel even more public dollars to private corporations.
Make no mistake: this proposal is yet another grotesque attempt by the white supremacist regime that defines our government to make a show of punishing the working class. This is about persecuting immigrants, Black people and other people of color, unhoused people, women and queer people, and all people fighting for their community, particularly in cities with Black and female leadership. They don’t care about public safety; they care about perpetuating violence and maintaining the ultra-rich oligarchy.
We call upon all of New Orleans to get organized and resist this fascist occupation. Protect your neighbors and make these troops and federal agents feel unwelcome in every part of our city. We stand with all organizations in this struggle for justice and humanity and are eager to work alongside you. We encourage students and workers to organize walkouts and pickets against these violations of our rights. We call upon all local officials and candidates for office to propose concrete actions that they will take to protect our people and drive out this occupation. Words aren’t enough: we must act.
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
On Labor Day, union teacher and New Orleans DSA member Lauren Jewett announced her candidacy for US Congress, LA-01. We couldn’t be more excited to help one of our own unseat Republican Steve Scalise.
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.
Unravel the Threads and Radicalize New Comrades
It seems like there’s always something to be angry about: crooked politicians, the lunar landscape that we call our roads, or the ding-dong who cut you off in traffic this morning.
It’s important to remember that many things which make us angry are merely the tip of a wedge that is being driven between us. If you’re mad about “immigrants stealing our jobs,” you’re not thinking about the decades-long de-industrialization of our economy, the destabilizing effects of the US imperial program on Latin American countries, or the exploitative nature of capitalism leaving too few resources for all of us. You’re mad now, and you’ve found a convenient, isolated target. The trouble is that a lot of us are those immigrants, or we have a lot more in common with those immigrants than with the fat cats at the top, whether we want to admit it or not.
The purpose of division is domination. So long as we direct anger at each other, we cannot fight the true enemy.
We need everyone to change everything. When you encounter someone who is mad, sit with them and examine why they feel that way, what wedge issue might be behind those feelings, and how a deeper interpretation can radicalize them into action. You don’t need to become a psychotherapist, just learn how to help people spot contradictions in their lives, then help them unravel those threads themselves. Maybe practice a bit on yourself first. There are plenty of angry people out there; they will still be there when you’re ready to talk to them. However, don’t wait too long. We have a lot of work to do. Good luck. We believe in you.
Red Rabbits Recommendation: Delay, Distract, Diffuse
In the ongoing struggle to keep our people safe, bear in mind the difference between strategy (the overall objective or long-term goal) and tactics (short-term actions). For example, when we encounter counter-protestors at a march, the objective is to keep our group moving along, so marshals tactically engage the troublemakers until our people have passed by.
The Three Ds (Delay, Distract, Diffuse) are helpful skills to practice. Sometimes a few seconds will make all the difference in the world, so being able to delay the action of an opponent can thwart their plans and give your side time to complete their plans, react to the new wrinkle, or make an escape.
Distracting your opponent is a great tactic. If their attention is on you, then your people are freer to do their thing. You can ask them about what brings them there, or why they are so upset, or where did they get those fabulous shoes? Just keep them thinking about you, and not on your comrades.
You can also try to diffuse the passion that has them riled up. Sometimes you can do that with questions, other times you can simply sit there and listen to them. If you know that it’ll only take 60 seconds for your march to pass by, just suck it up and learn all about how the lizard people are running the government, or whatever they need to get off their chest. Then, once your people are by, or someone you’re protecting has made an escape, you’re free to walk away.
Always keep your eyes on the prize. Act tactically to support your strategy, but make sure that you have them both properly sorted out before you engage in any action.
Bulletins
DSA 4 Palestine Banner Build
Join your comrades tonight, September 5, for the Palestine Banner Build. Come hang out and paint at the Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Ave, Room 258, starting at 6:00 pm. Food, drink, and all materials provided. Sign up here to let us know to expect you.
Fall 2025 Voter Guide Team Weekly Meeting Tomorrow
Every election, New Orleans DSA publishes our voter guide analyzing the key issues in each race through a socialist lens. This is a volunteer effort by comrades in the chapter, and we want you to join us! We’ll be at the Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Bring your laptop and all of your longstanding grudges against our local oligarchs. Get in touch with Aaron Z for more info.
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.
Introducing 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.
Fork & Knife Club Distribution
Help contribute to our Direct Service Committee as we begin a new campaign to distribute food around local community fridges. We’ll be preparing, packaging, and distributing meals starting at the Healing Center on September 13th at 12:00 pm. If you are interested, please sign up here. We would love volunteers to help with any stage of the process!
Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ
Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.
Join DSA Movie Night at the Broad
Please join our first ever movie night at the Broad Theatre, in conjunction with Gap Tooth Media! On September 24th, we’ll screen the critically acclaimed The Act of Killing, which recounts the US-backed mass killings of 1-2 million of communists, leftists, and others in 1965-66 Indonesia. We expect tickets to sell out, so get yours soon.
No Contract, No Coffee! Support a Starbucks Worker Strike
Starbucks workers are demanding a fair union contract with the staffing, hours, take-home pay, and on-the-job protections they need to do their jobs. They are part of our community and part of the fabric of our daily lives. They are neighbors. They are workers. They deserve a fair wage. When they fight, we will support them. And when they strike, we will not cross the picket line. Show your support and sign the pledge. We will not patronize any Starbucks store when baristas are on strike.
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.
The Army Corps of Engineers wants to build an outdated, unnecessary, and harmful expansion of the Industrial Canal at the St. Claude bridge.
First approved in the 1950s, this plan destroys homes, ties up traffic, and worsens quality of life for Bywater and the Lower 9th Ward. And for what? For short term profit for a few shipping companies based on outdated projections. The project is projected to take over a decade and cost well over a billion dollars. A decade of dredging that will expose residents to toxic chemicals. A decade of pile driving that will affect the water table underneath houses and businesses as far as 2 miles away. A decade of “relocation” for some residents.
All for a project that will have no economic benefits for the people of New Orleans. If completed, the project will increase the risk of flooding for people living in the area. The traffic bridges will stay up for longer periods, cutting off access to critical services like ambulances and fire trucks and creating daily traffic jams for people on their way to work or school. If millions of dollars are spent, residents’ lives are disrupted and the project is not completed, the Corps will not assume any liability or owe the citizens of New Orleans anything for their failure.
Join The Canal Will Kill Nola and submit public comment opposing the Army Corps of Engineers’ dangerous plan for expanding the Industrial Canal. The deadline is this Tuesday, September 2.
No Contract, No Coffee! Support a Starbucks Worker Strike
Starbucks baristas greet customers, remember their names and favorite orders, open and close the stores, make the coffee and clean up the spills. They are part of our community and part of the fabric of our daily lives. They are neighbors. They are workers. They deserve a fair wage.
Starbucks workers, like all of us, deserve to make ends meet. That’s why they’re demanding a fair union contract with the staffing, hours, take-home pay, and on-the-job protections they need to do their jobs. Now they’re asking for our support as they fight for a union and a fair contract to turn these demands into reality. When they fight, we will support them. And when they strike, we will not cross the picket line. Show your support and sign the pledge. We will not patronize any Starbucks store when baristas are on strike.
The Value of Marx – Andy L
In our primitive past, the natural phenomenon of lightning was not understood, so it was attributed to mysterious, unknowable forces, or gods, or something beyond the understanding of man. Then some people figured out electrons, then some others figured out how to move electrons through wire, to light up a room or turn a motor. Now we have a society swimming in electronics that lets us travel and communicate over impossible distances, heal the sick, and even make ice for our drinks.
Similarly, the inner workings of living beings were attributed to humors or spontaneous generation or different types of tissues, but eventually some people figured out cells, and then some others figured out DNA, and now we have CRISPR, a tool that can drill down and modify the genetic code of living beings.
We still live in a superstitious world, where people believe that the political and economic forces that drive our lives are unknowable, or mysteries of human nature, or just too big to figure out. However, Marxism (AKA Scientific Socialism) allows us to break these systems into understandable parts. Just as JJ Thompson introduced us to the electron, and Robert Hooke taught us about cells, Marx started with the commodity and used it to develop the laws of motion of the economy. Our task is to continue that analysis, run different experiments, and build that better world for all of us. Marx laid the tools at our feet. Now, what are we going to do with them? As the man himself said: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.”
Bulletins
Fall 2025 Voter Guide Team Weekly Meeting Tomorrow
Every election, New Orleans DSA publishes our voter guide analyzing the key issues in each race through a socialist lens. This is a volunteer effort by comrades in the chapter, and we want you to join us! We’ll be at the Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Bring your laptop and all of your longstanding grudges against our local oligarchs. Get in touch with Aaron Z for more info.
DSA 4 Palestine Banner Build
Join your comrades this Thursday, September 5, for the DSA 4 Palestine Banner Build. Come paint and hang out with us at the Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Ave, Room 258, starting at 6:00 pm. Food, drink, and all materials provided. Sign up here to let us know to expect you.
Fork and Knife Club Inaugural Distribution
Help contribute to our Direct Service Committee as we begin a new campaign to distribute food around local community fridges. We’ll be preparing, packaging, and distributing meals starting at the Healing Center on September 13th at 12:00 pm. If you are interested, please sign up here. We would love volunteers to help with any stage of the process!
Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ
Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.
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.
Swing By the General Meeting Tomorrow at the Healing Center
August’s GM is tomorrow from 12:00 – 2:00 pm in Room #204 of the New Orleans Healing Center! Parking can be found at 2465 N Rampart St, and you can also join via Zoom using the link when you RSVP.
We’ll have committee and working group updates and three resolutions up for vote:
Our National Convention delegates will also recap their trip to Chicago.
We hope to see you there!
Announcing the Newly Created Fork and Knife Club
To help combat food insecurity locally, members of our Direct Service Committee will begin distributing food around the local community fridges. We’ll prepare, package, and distribute the meals starting at the Healing Center on September 13th at 12:00 pm.
We’re excited to expand our direct service programming this way. It’s a chance to put our values into action, support a great community fridge network, and spend time with likeminded socialists who just wanna hang out and help our neighbors. What could be better?
Come by tomorrow’s GM to learn more about the Fork and Knife Club. Or if you can’t contain your excitement, go ahead and sign up here. Now. Do it now. And if this is the kind of socialism that gets you fired up, bring your neat ideas to our Direct Service Discord channel.
On Moral Choices: Start With Getting Your Priorities in Order – Brodie L
In The Good Place, a comedy show that explores living ethically in the modern world, the protagonists discover just how forked the moral judgment system they’re living in is. In a nutshell, every action gives points based on its intent and its consequences. For example, you buy flowers for your sick partner, and that’s good. BUT because Trader Joe’s sources them from Israel, they’re sprayed with pesticides, and they’re harvested using underpaid labor, what started out as a good idea worth a few points has actually damned you to the Bad Place. That’s a pretty bullshirt system.
But where to start when trying to make ethical decisions? For consumers, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement has a list of companies with a proven history of complicity with the Palestinian Genocide. This list could be huge given the enormity of the war machine, but BDS has a priority list of companies we should absolutely focus on. Need gas? Skip Chevron (yes, no gas giant is good, except Jupiter, but you can choose to not directly support genocide). Need new shoes? Skip Reebok. Disney+ account coming up for renewal? Do you really need to watch the Avengers again? To some degree, it just takes asking ourselves, “What are these conveniences worth?” They’re not worth compromising your morals.
We have an opportunity to begin making the choices that align with a free Palestine and a free world. Reassessing our consumer habits is a necessary step to an equitable world. Talking with friends and loved ones is one of the best ways you can support socialist struggle. Labor rights organizer George Meany, born this week in 1894, put it well: “You only make progress by fighting for progress.”
*Related: Come to the Get Chevron Out of French Quarter Fest organizing meeting, Tuesday night at 6:00 at the Healing Center, Room 258.
Bulletins
Fall 2025 Voter Guide Team Weekly Meeting Tomorrow
Every election, New Orleans DSA publishes our voter guide analyzing the key issues in each race through a socialist lens. This is a volunteer effort by comrades in the chapter, and we want you to join us! We’ll be at the New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av, Room 258, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Bring your laptop and all of your longstanding grudges against our local oligarchs. Get in touch with Aaron Z for more info.
Surveillance Ordinance Removed From Council Agenda This Week
City Council’s Live Facial Recognition Ordinance 35,137 was scheduled to go in front of the Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday, but it was removed from the agenda. Councilmembers Eugene Green and Oliver Thomas have repeatedly tried to pass this first-of-its-kind intrusion into our daily lives despite massive public opposition. Keep up the pressure! Surveillance ain’t safety!
Palestine Banner Build
Your New Orleans DSA comrades are doing a Free Palestine Banner Build at the Healing Center on September 5th at 6:00 pm. Sign up here and bring your creativity to our art event.
Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ
Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.
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.
Stand Up or Shut Up Time for City Councilmembers and Candidates
Eugene Green and Oliver Thomas’s expansive surveillance ordinance is returning to City Council this Wednesday. This dangerous ordinance would make New Orleans the first and only city in the country to allow live facial recognition of its residents. That means the cameras you see all around town will be identifying your face everywhere you go, and checking it against law enforcement’s target database.
The people have made ourselves clear: surveillance doesn’t make us safer. Giving the state the tools to track every immigrant, every labor activist, and every person who opposes the genocide in Palestine doesn’t make us safer. Paying for a technology proven to be biased against Black and brown people, with ever mounting costs for cameras, software, and data storage, that’s bound to result in millions in payouts for wrongful arrests and civil rights violations, does absolutely nothing to make our city better for its working class residents. All it’s going to do is make every demonstrator an easy target for white nationalist Proud Boys in military cosplay.
That’s why Eye on Surveillance, Unión Migrante, Jewish Voice for Peace, New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police, Indivisible Nola, and New Orleans DSA all oppose Ordinance 35,137. After delaying it multiple times this summer to wait out public opposition, Green and Thomas are bringing it to the City Council Criminal Justice Committee, 1300 Perdido St, 2nd Floor West, this Wednesday, August 20. We need you to contact the council and tell them to stop Ordinance 35,137.
Our privacy is under attack. Our elected officials are on the cusp of handing over massive surveillance powers to fascists. It’s time for council members and candidates to stand up or shut up – if you can’t find the courage to vote against this, then don’t bother asking us to vote for you.
Empty ‘Resistance’ to Rising Fascism – Bob M
President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and federal agencies in Washington, D.C., over invented hysteria is causing justified anxiety amongst anti-fascists across the political spectrum. The spectacle of our local election season has unfortunately been a distraction from a critical fight in our historical moment – defending what little democratic rights we have and fighting against authoritarianism at the federal, state, and local levels.
During my campaign, I have continually brought up this urgency. On WDSU, I highlighted the need to come together to fight for democracy, and I explicitly called out the rise of fascism at the Urban League’s forum. Few other local Democratic candidates have mentioned Trump or Landry, and the narrative focus on roadwork and economic development feels like someone staring 6 inches ahead of their feet while walking towards a cliff.
What frightens me is that these candidates want to give police more weapons, technology, and money without any recognition that Trump or Landry will inevitably push the boundaries of our laws. When Jim Crow comes back, do you honestly think Louisiana State Police are going to care about protecting us after they got away with murdering Ronald Greene? How confident do you feel in NOPD and OPSO, who are still under federal consent decrees for violating constitutional rights? The facial recognition technology they’re trying to sell us next week in City Council – you honestly think they won’t use that against political targets or foreign-born residents? The Real Time Crime Center admits having a Department of Homeland Security intelligence agent embedded within the city-run panopticon. For all the genuine concern I hear from residents about Trump and fascism, I hear nothing from my fellow District A candidates.
I am grateful for my fellow DSA candidates who continue to call out the reality around us and say, “No more!” Lock in and become a DSA member or renew your membership today. Get to public demonstrations. Support mutual aid efforts. Organize your workplace to build solidarity and the capacity to strike. There are more of us than them, and we are stronger together. Solidarity forever.
Fall 2025 Voter Guide Team Weekly Meeting Tomorrow
Every election, New Orleans DSA publishes our voter guide analyzing the key issues in each race through a socialist lens. This is a volunteer effort by comrades in the chapter, and we want you to join us!
Come to our first Saturday morning work session, where we’ll be crafting themes and assigning candidates to our team members for the Fall 2025 Voter Guide. Tomorrow, we’ll be on the back patio of Coffee Science, 410 S Broad St, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Bring your laptop and all of your longstanding grudges against our local oligarchs. Get in touch with Aaron Z for more info.
Solidarity Forever – Andy L
The heartbreaking news that Planned Parenthood will cease operation in Louisiana September 30 reminds us that we’re living under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie: a ruling elite that needs vulnerable, exploitable workers. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast provided cancer screenings, birth control, pregnancy and STI testing, gender-affirming care, and more to the community. Even this attempt to support the working class was too great a threat to their patriarchy.
A hegemon can’t allow anything to challenge its supremacy. It must destroy any perceived threat. This is why Israel smashed Syria into sectarian clusters and assassinated dozens of Iranian leaders and scientists in June. Right now, Israel and the US are forcing the Lebanese government to destroy itself in an attempt to disarm Hezbollah, turning an Arab vs. Zionist conflict into an Arab vs. Arab conflict. The resistance of the Palestinians is a challenge to the perception of Israel as an undefeatable power, so they are being exterminated.
The way to counter hegemony is with solidarity. The BRICS organization is attempting to counter the US’s military-backed hegemony with a cooperative economic system. It’s a race between the US encirclement of China and BRICS completing a trade network free of the US, but no one knows how it will all play out. The fact that the BRICS nations are working together is the only reason that they have a chance.
Applying these lessons locally, our path forward is to build solidarity with those who fight our class enemies. This involves organizations that have been doing the work for decades and groups and individuals who are finally putting all the pieces together. We need everyone to change everything: we will build the future together or not at all.
Red Rabbits Recommendation – Get Moving
We all know about the fight-or-flight response to a stressful situation. One thing that both options have in common is motion. Rather than sitting on your couch and doomscrolling about the state of the world, get up, get out, and get active.
We talk about getting active all the time, and usually that’s about organizing conversations or attending protests, but we shouldn’t neglect the physical benefits of motion. Even a leisurely walk around the block is good for you. You’ll get fresh air, see your neighbors, and lubricate your joints. The motion is the lotion, as the old-timers say. Deep breathing activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which calms your mind and reduces your body’s stress hormones.
You don’t have to start running marathons or doing a hundred pushups a day. Every body is different, with unique limits and abilities. Start with what you can do, and what you want to do, then work from there. You can exercise alone, with friends, or with total strangers. Group activities help build relationships, which can make the whole process more enriching.
The chapter is large enough that undoubtedly there are comrades who enjoy the same kinds of activities that you do. If you’ve been wanting to post on the Discord but don’t know what to say, then throw your hat in the ring and see if anyone wants to toss a frisbee around or do some yoga.
Our good friend Dialectical Materialism tells us that quantitative changes (swimming every morning) will lead to qualitative changes (you become a morning person or don’t get so out of breath when you take the stairs). Find your fun, find your people, and get going!
From October 14–18th, DSA is hosting a five-day general membership political delegation to Havana, coordinated by our International Committee. DSA members will meet with public health officials, climate activists, local and national political leadership, organizations, ministries, and grassroots organizers. In addition, we will visit sites of cultural and historical significance to educate our membership and strengthen the project of normalization between Cuba and the US. Applications are due Sunday, August 17.
Keep Up With the Candidates at Endorsement HQ
Election Day is October 11 and New Orleans DSA has four endorsed members running for City Council. Pastor Gregory Manning, Danyelle Christmas, Jackson Kimbrell, and Bob Murrell are making calls, knocking on doors, and attending candidate forums. Volunteer, donate, and follow these campaigns at our Endorsement HQ.
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.
