North NJ DSA

April is the cruelest month. Maybe. Hard to say, really. 

I bet you didn’t think it was going to happen but we have great news! We are now approximately 25% through Donald Trump’s first year. As of writing, online UK betting site Paddy Power gives 2:1 odds for Trump’s presidency ending in its first year. Which means we could be 25% through Donald Trump’s presidency. And now for the bad news – the line of succession is just abhorrent all the way down. Turtles would undeniably be better.

Ah, well, time to keep chugging along and fighting the good fight. And by good fight we mean the only one that’s reasonable: the fight to destroy capitalism and all of the dimensions of exploitation and oppression that are part and parcel of a capitalist system. The Democratic Socialists of America has now surpassed 20,000 members nationwide, organized into more than 130 chapters. We are fighting alongside awesome people and our ranks are growing.

One of the new groups organizing in DSA are our South Jersey DSA comrades. The South Jersey DSA Organizing Committee met for the first time recently at the Collingswood Public Library. Attended by around 20 people, the meeting focused on what a DSA presence in South Jersey would look like, what the interests of local members were, and what campaigns they would be interested in working on. At the end of the meeting, it was clear there was enough interest to move forward with submitting formal paperwork to pursue becoming an official chapter. Since that meeting, organizing committee paperwork has been submitted and by-laws are starting to be written with hopes of being voted on in May. The members in South Jersey are excited to get to work on living their democratic socialist values and getting to work fighting against the systems of oppression.

Please join us for our upcoming DSA activities and keep an eye on our Facebook pages for information about upcoming meetings:

  • DSA Monthly Meeting – North NJ DSA

Saturday, April 22nd – 2pm
Facebook Event

  • NJ DSA Bowls for Reproductive Justice

Saturday, April 29th
Facebook Event
Please support our bowling 

team, the Jacopins!

Monday, May 1st – 2pm
Facebook Event

DSA Endorses May Day Un Día Sin Immigrantes
  • DSA National Convention

August 3-6, Chicago IL
Please fill out this Google Form if you are interested in attending or volunteering or this Google Form if you are interested in organizing a workshop or event. NJ DSA will keep members in the loop about preparations for the convention, including delegate elections from NJ.

Don’t forget to keep in touch and stay in the loop using our statewide listserv and calendar of actions.

Gramsci’s Relevance for Today

“I hate the indifferent. I believe that living means taking sides. Those who really live cannot help being a citizen and a partisan. Indifference and apathy are parasitism, perversion, not life.”Antonio Gramsci
-Antonio Gramsci

Best known as one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), along with Palmiro Togliatti, Amadeo Bordiga and others, Antonio Gramsci would also go on to become one of the twentieth century’s most profound thinkers on social change. Central NJ DSA member M. Hancock has prepared an insightful and accessible introduction to Gramsci’s ideas and their relevance in our current political climate. That document is available here.
 

A Poetic Interlude

With respect to Martin Niemӧller, inspired by the brilliant, brave, and powerful activists I’ve seen and heard from, I write this:

First, they came for
Our healthcare, our civil rights, our reproductive rights, our unions, our LGTBQ+ friends and family, our Earth…
And we said
Not this time

Then they came for
Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Atheists, Agnostics…
And we said
Not this time

Then they came for
Undocumented students, undocumented workers, low-wage workers, public workers, retired workers…
And we said
Not this time

Then they came for
Our artists, our teachers, our journalists, our free thinkers, our free spirits…
And we said
Not this time

Then they came for us
The critics, the protesters, the activists, the radicals, the resisters, the opposition…
And we said as we will always say
Not this time.

– James Rosenstein, North NJ DSA

Feminism: Beyond Leaning In

“Something something. People ask, ‘why aren’t there more women millionaires?’ Bullshit. Why are there millionaires?”
– Amber A’lee Frost, imperfectly quoted

The Democratic Socialists of America has been a socialist feminist organization since its founding. Our members, across the country and across New Jersey, hold strongly to the belief that no aspect of an individual’s identity should be the basis of an individual’s oppression. In New Jersey, our members have been engaged in various activities to defend and spread that belief. Both the North and Central NJ Chapters have also created educational opportunities for our peers and members to learn about the history of oppression based on gender, sex, and sexual orientation, and the rights struggles of these oppressed groups. In 2016, North NJ DSA hosted a film screening of She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry, a documentary about the feminist movement of the late 1960s. The same film was also screened by the Princeton Branch of the Central NJ DSA on April 13th. That screening was co-sponsored by the Women’s Center of Princeton University and featured guest speaker Chris Riddiough, honorary Vice Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, member of the Socialist Feminism Working Group, and past member of the National Political Committee.
Chris Riddiough speaks at Princeton DSA eventOn March 8th, Central NJ and North NJ DSA members came together to participate in the Women’s Strike and March in NYC. Members of North NJ DSA have also been regularly volunteering as clinic escorts at a local abortion clinic and members from across the state will come together on April 29th to participate in a bowl-a-thon to raise money to help low income individuals pay for abortion services. We invite everyone to do everything they can to support our efforts to raise money for the NJ Abortion Access fund. Sign up for our team! Donate to our team! Ask your friends and family to donate! We also have amazing flyers created by one of our members. Spread the word so we can help make sure that financial considerations do not affect an individual’s decision about their body, their family, and their future.

  • NJ DSA Bowls for Reproductive Justice

Saturday, April 29th
Facebook Event
Please support our bowling 

team, the Jacopins!

NJ DSA Launches Healthcare Campaign

“Capitalists… should never be allowed near a healthcare system. They hold sick children hostage as they force parents to bankrupt themselves in the desperate scramble to pay for medical care.”NJ DSA members coalition for healthcare awareness.
– Chris Hedges

In March, Central NJ DSA and North NJ DSA both held straw poll votes about making Medicare for All our next big campaigns. It passed nearly unanimously in Central NJ and unanimously in North NJ, which will be having an official vote at the upcoming April meeting. On Sunday, April 9th, members held our first canvas for Medicare for All in New Brunswick. We are planning to do this a lot in the future and have made our heathcare resources available at our website for members who would like to organize their own canvassing events. We also ask that all DSA members call their Members of Congress to ask that they support Medicare for All legislation.

 Left Forum

“The forces that we are up against right now, my friends, are fascist. And we need to be clear in defining that… We are in an emergency where immigrants are in the crosshairs, where women are in the crosshairs, where gay people are in the crosshairs of an administration that intends to pull the trigger. And anyone who doesn’t make it their business everyday of their lives to stand on the front lines, holding that line, defending the most vulnerable in our society, should just hold their head in shame. Because it’s all of our responsibility.”
– Jeremy Scahill

The annual Left Forum takes place Friday, June 2 through Sunday, June 4 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 899 10th Ave. (near 59th St. Subway). DSA has the group rate of $35 for the whole weekend. Contact DSA’s Dan DiMaggio and he will instruct you on how to pay. Check the LF website, you may be able to get a better deal as student or unemployed. You can also volunteer to help DSA with tabling and other activities. Left Forum is the successor to the Socialist Scholars Conference, which began in 1983. Loads of panels (including DSA’s), stellar speakers, lots of tables (also including DSA’s), pretty exciting over the years with thousands of participants and attendees from many parts of the world. Meet old friends, find new ones!


Calendar

Resistance actions are now being added to a Google calendar as they are announced. Please see the event descriptions on the calendar for additional details about events. Members will be contacted via text, e-mail, and Facebook for targeted resistance events. Let us know if there are any events to add to the calendar! 


The Red Star-Ledger is a publication in the New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America. Have something to contribute to The Red Star-Ledger or know about an event of interest to our members? E-mail us!

Images are sourced from Facebook pages of the Central NJ DSA, North NJ DSA, and coalition partners.
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