By SJ Otto
The national Democratic Socialists of America has decided to
support divestments from all of Israel ’s
business investments and it pulled out of the Socialist
International. These decisions were made at this year’s DSA conference in
August. Wichita
members of the group attended the conference and reported on this and other
important decisions at the local Wichita DSA meeting here last Saturday.
As with most left-wing organizations, DSA is concerned about
Palestinian rights. Support for their rights has become more main stream and
more groups are opposing investments in Israel for that reason. Also DSA
has a lot of new members and the group has been steadily moving to the left in
recent years, especially after the last Presidential election, where Bernie
Sanders ran as both a Democrat and a socialist.
As for the Socialist international, Jim Phillips told member
at the meeting the Socialist International has been moving towards neo-liberalism
and really has little in common with a real democratic socialist party.
It was also announced that DSA documents are now available
on line. To access them go to:
Or click on the above hyperlink.
A list of actions and positions taken at the national
convention was read to the local group.
The local DSA group is planning a retreat for the end of
September, possibly the 23rd. The details are not all worked out yet, but it
will focus on organizing for the actions that DSA is planning to take. DSA’s
next meeting will be October 7. More details will be provided by this blog as
they are developed.
Other actions the group discussed include educational
outreach, ways to educate people as to what socialism really is and how to
reach public educational facilities.
A discussion was held on promoting socialist candidates. The
group agreed we will all support Democrat James Thompson and Brandon
Johnson, but we are not sure at what point we want such candidates to endorse
us as a group since socialism is still a dirty word.
DSA will be supporting a $15 an hour minimum wage increase
campaign. There is now some suggestion that a $13 an hour wage is more likely
to get passed than $15.
A movie night is being planned for maybe the 30 of September,
at 2pm. The planned movie is Union
Maids. If that is not available then the movie Matewan will be shown.
Wichita DSA is working on making some shirts for members to
wear.
The Socialist International - Pix
by Resistance Is Fertile -
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