Metropolitan Atlanta Local

Democratic Socialists of America
www.dsa-atlanta.org

DSA's Action-Oriented National Convention

Atlanta DSA delegates attending the November 11-13National Convention in the Washington DC area included Barbara Joye, Jorge Lawton, Minnie Ruffin, Milt Tambor and Bob Wohlhueter. The convention was infused with excitement, energy and the spirit of Occupy Wall Street(OWS). Maria Svart, DSA's new Executive Director, reported to the delegates that membership had climbed to 7,000 with 1,000 members joining up since the summer, and that DSA continues to be the largest socialist organiation in the U.S.

Eliseo Medina, SEIU International

Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) activists participating in OWS drafted a convention resolution supporting the movement and its demand for justice. OWS was encouraged to demand: a public jobs program, Medicare for all, an end to foreclosures, a fair and progressive income and tax structure, a tax on all speculative and financial transactions, the nationalization of failed banks, the foregiveness of student debt and substantial investment in clean energy. The resolution was endorsed and it's last sentence hit the mark. "Together, all the democratic forces of the 99% can remake our society and remodel it in keeping with our age-old values of liberty, equality and solidarity."

The workshops were well planned and organized. The Economic Justice through Economic Education Project (EJEEP) workshop was especially useful. The power point presentation explains how the root causes of the current economic crisis stem from deliberate policy choices that, in fact, can be reversed. The workshop material will be reviewed at an upcoming membership meeting and adapted for use with outreach to community and labor organizations.

Jos Williams, President Metro Washington Labor Council

Carl Davidson described the workings of the Mondragon Cooperative, in the Basque region of Northwest Spain, in the workshop-Moving toward Socialism: alternative ways to organize work. The discussion of the mobilization process in Ohio leading to the referendum victory restoring collective bargaining rights for public workers was especially exhilirating for those attending the labor and public sector session.

Three of our delegates participated on panels dealing with starting a local, building a local and rolling back democracy-voter suppression. Two other of our Atlanta delegates helped formulate the priorities of the national DSA committee on extending anti-racism toward all peoples of color. In another workshop, DSA activists shared with each other ideas about successful coalition work while maintaining a socialist identity. While YDS members organized aworkshop on the crisis in public education, especially as it relates to higher tuition costs at public universities, and the attending student loan problems.

Workshop on alternative ways to organize work

We also were captivated by two dynamic speakers: John Nichols, Washington correspondent for the Nation and author of "The S Word: a ShortHhistory of an American Tradition...Socialism" and Jose' LaLuz, an AFSCME leader ..[in].. organizing public workers in Puerto Rico and DSA Vice Chair. We stood and cheered as the speakers connected the protests in Wisconsin and OWS to the dramatic changes in the current political debate; income and wealth inequality could no longer be ignored.

Frank Llewellyn, outgoing DSA Executive Directer of the past ten years, was honored for his contribution to the organization and will continue to be active as a member of the National Political Committee (NPC). Our Atlanta local delegates felt most fortunate when Barbara Joye agreed to serve again on the NPC.

At the end of the convention, DSA locals were asked to outline their plans for the coming year. Atlanta delegates agreed to:

1) Develop an education program commemorating the 50th anniversary of Michael Harrington's "The Other America";

"This land is your land, this land is my land.."

2) Continue to build Atlanta Jobs with Justice and promote joint actions with Occupy Atlanta;
3) Hold an open house and seek to recruit new members to MA-DSA; (4) make the econonic education program (EJEEP) available to labor and community organizations in the Atlanta area;
5) Reach out to and collaborate more closely with the greater Atlanta Latino community.

[Photos courtesy of Stuart Elliot.]

Occupy Atlanta Update

Occupy Atlanta is endeavoring to find its focus for the winter months ahead. Some participants are "camping" indoors in the downtown homeless shelter that is under siege by the city government and business interests (excuse the redundancy). Others have pitched some tents in Freedom Park adjacent to a gentrified historic neighborhood whose commercial center is also a magnet for countercultural types. Most meetings continue to be held in "Troy Davis Park" downtown. Actions are taking place against various targets around the city, from Fannie Mae and Wells Fargo to the public transit system (which recently hiked its already steep fares), but participation is smaller than when there was an encampment in a central location. Several people were arrested in a bridge action adjacent to the state university Thursday.

A couple of weeks ago the protests in metro Atlanta went to a new level when a black policeman and his family who had been foreclosed on when they fell behind in payments as directed by their mortgage lender, supposedly in order to be processed for a loan modification (a common trap), asked Occupy Atlanta for help. The sheriff was able to persuade the family to ask the Occupiers to leave after a couple of days by threatening to arrest them for trespassing and have the policeman fired.

A week later, four Atlanta DSA members attended the first meeting of a new Labor/Occupy coordinating committee designed to strengthen solidarity between the Occupiers and the more progressive unions in town -- and, I hope, provide some substance that will help the stronger organizers in Occupy Atlanta to keep the movement focused on the issues rather than on turf battles. The plan is to find another foreclosed family willing to let Occupy intervene in a threatened eviction, with better preparation. Two days later, about 25 Occupiers joined CWA and Teamster members in an action at Home Depot and Verizon stores that are near each other in a popular shopping strip.

It's an Atlanta Progressive Tradition!: the 5th annual Frederick Douglass-Eugene Debs Dinner was Exhilarating

This past Saturday's Douglass Debs Dinner was a resounding success. We filled Paschal's Restaurant on the second floor to its capacaity of 125 people. Roger Sikes reported on the plans to reoccupy Troy Davis Park later that evening. Rev McDonald set the tone with an inspiring invocation.

Maria Svart, Executive Director of DSA, described the work of the national organization in mobilizing around a jobs progran and a financial transaction tax countering the right's efforts to cut domestic programs.

The awards presentations by Senator Nan Orrock, Senator Vincent Fort and Randy Brown,Teamster Local 728 president to Ann Mauney, Co-coordinator of Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition-Atlanta, Ben Speight, Local 728 Organizing Director and Teo Maus, President of Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, demonstrated dramatically how activists can make a difference in building a strong progressive community in Atlanta.

In place of Congressman Hank Johnson who had business in Washington, his wife, Mereda, introduced Congressman John Conyers. Congressman Conyers departed from his written speech to charm us with anecdotes while also emphasizing the important contribution made by Occupy Wall street in bringing to the American public's attention the need for jobs and progressive taxation.The singing and the comedic musical number by the Pluto Crats added much to the evening's festivities.

Following the dinner many of us present headed down to Troy Davis Park in support of Occupy Atlanta. Several folks told me that this Dinner was "the best ever." I want to thank DSA members for making such a program possible and helping us fund our activities for the coming year.

On Sunday many of us attended the fundraiser sponsored by the Conyers for Congress Campaign at the home of John and Midge Sweet. Conyers is running in a newly drawn district where he will be facing stiff competition. Campaign contributions could well determine whether he holds on to his seat. The 50 people in attendance enjoyed food, music and good conversation. Nearly $3,000 was collected for the Conyers campaign.

You can download MP3 audio files of the of the entire evening: 1) Milt Tambor's Welcome; 2) Roger Sikes update on Occupy Atlanta; 3)Rev. Tim MacDonald's invocation; 4) Barbara Joye's iintroduction of DSA National Director Maria Svart, and Maria's comments; 5) Randy Brown introduces awardee Ben Speight; 5) Sen. Nan Orrock introduces awardee Ann Muaney; 6) Sen. Vincent Fort introduces our award to GLAHR; 7) Mereda Johnson introduces keynote speaker Congressman John Conyers. And, if you still need to be energized, you can sing along withThe Pluto-Crats, Bob Goodman and Terry Carpente.

MAY DAY 2011-- Responding to the Crisis: How to Generate Millions of Jobs Now

MA-DSA's annual May Day event was held this year on Saturday, April 30th, at the Georgia Hill Neighborhood Facility (in Grant Park, 250 Georgia Av. SE, Atlanta 30312). Ian Fletcher started the day with a reminder the "History of May Day". Peg Strobel, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois continued the heroic tale of American Labor by recalling the history of "The Triangle Shirt Waist Fire" in New York City in 1911, and profiled the important contributions of women to the labor movement, particularly those of Rose Schneiderman and Frances Perkins. Peg's talk was illustrated with a lot of historical photos. You can download the slide-show here.

Milt Tambor, of MA-DSA, brought us up to date with an account of the current, concerted attack of public and private sector workers, an attack which can only be described as "class warfare". Lest you are inclined to rest on the laurels of the history portrayed by Ian and Peg, Milt will shake you out of complacency.

The keynote talk was by Bill Barclay, an economist with the Chicago Political Economy Group. Bill brings the authority of a professional economist and the heart of a Barclay committed socialist to his analysis of how the country might realistically deal with the crisis of unemployment: "Responding to the Job Crisis: How to Generate Millions of Jobs Now". As any good economist, Bill brought along his charts! Move over Geitner and Bernake, here is the real scoop.

discussion Following the keynote, we circled the chairs for more informal up-dates on the local labor scene in Atlanta. Students, community activists, and labor organizers presented snapshots of their struggles, including reports on the Emory University students' support of SODEXO food service workers, efforts to organize Delta workers, public worker fightback and the new YoungDemocratic Socialist group in Atlanta.

Proceeds from registration and book sales were given to the Emory "SODEXO Seven" who were arrested for their April 22nd action against the university's washing its hands of responsibility for mistreatment of its food service workers.

MP3 audio of our May Day blast are here (left click to stream, right click to download):
1) Fletcher on History (7 min, 2.8 MB)
2) Strobel on the Triangle Fire (15 min, 11 MB)
3) Tambor on Class Warfare (8 min, 6.2 MB)
4) Barclay on Creating Jobs (38 min, 28 MB)

Speaking Out for Jobs with Justice

By Barbara Joye, Jobs with Justice/Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America and Dell MacLean, American Friends Service Committee. (Photos by Dell MacLean and Al Viola.)

A Speak Out for Jobs Now held April 2 -- intended as a first step toward empowering Atlanta's many unemployed and underemployed people and also a kick-off event for the new Atlanta Jobs with Justice -- drew enthusiastic participants and dozens of volunteers. Their statements covered a variety of travails confronting the unemployed, but also repeatedly stressed that the problems are systemic and not the fault of individuals and that working and unemployed people of every race and ethnicity need to unite to fight for more jobs and a society that recognizes meaningful work at a living wage as a human right. Thirty-eight organizations, including Metro Atlanta DSA (MA-DSA), co-sponsored the event with Jobs with Justice (JwJ), and MA-DSA is also a JwJ coalition member.

JwJ_table

Want to know more about the event? To read the full version of this article click here.

MA-DSA Member Publishes Novel

Ralph Freedman, retired professor of history at Iowa, Princeton and Emory Universities has written a novel "Rue the Day", published in 2009 by Twilight Times Books of Kingsport, TN. Dr. Freedman was born in Germany in 1920, and had previously published biographies of poets Heinrich Heine and Rainer Maria Rilke.

The novel is set in the McCarthyite era. An Italian anti-fascist partisana has married a German-American Army Intelligence officer, and settle down as academics at the University of Washington in Seattle. But her fight against Italian fascists and his haunted memories of Germany's "Kristal Nacht" provide no protection against the anti-communist witchhunt. A gripping story set in a turbulent time makes for provocative reading.

A Bus Ride to Remember: Spectacle is Not Development!

On January 29th Columbus Ward, President Peoplestown Revitalization Corporation, and Larry Keating, Emeritus Professor City and Regional Planning, Georgia Tech, were our guides on a unique bus tour which took us through residential neighborhoods surrounding Atlanta’s core, and explained the history behind the gentrification of Altanta. Larry plans on a similiar "site-visit" this spring -- probably in March, check "events calendar" tab for latest announcement.

A Radical Proposal! (by FDR, 66 years ago!)

It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.

The Metro Atlanta DSA "Action Calendar", displayed at the bottom of this page, logs local DSA events, and other actions in which we are involved as coalition partners. [Point your mouse on a colored date to get a short description; click to open a sub-window with details.]

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Jan. 14th General Membership Meeting previewed Miklethun's "Politics and the Economy"

Our January General Membership meeting was held at the Open Door Community on Saturday, Jan. 14th. The featured speaker was Ray Miklethun, who presented his "PowerPoi8nt" talk on "Politics and the Economy: Mass mobiliazation strategies to address economic inequality". This was RAy's debut presentaton of a work-in-progress, which he intends to use as an outreach educational program. It is an excellent analysis of how governmental economic policies have led to the current, grotesque disparity of wealth and income in the U.S. -- the "1%" is not just happenstance!

The presentation provoked an animated discussion and critique: the finally polished presentation will be made available for download. You can find the complete minutes of the meeting in the "minutes" dropdown menu under the "organization tab".

Directions to Open Door Community

By Car:
• Take I-75/85 to downtown Atlanta, Exit 248C Freedom Parkway, Carter Center, Highway 10 East. Follow Freedom Parkway until it dead ends at Ponce de Leon Ave. (Do not take Highway 42 East which goes to the Carter Center.) Turn right on Ponce de Leon. The Open Door (#910) is the 4th building on the left after you pass the 1st traffic light at Barnett Street.
• Parking: Parking is at the rear of the building. You can take the driveway on the left side of the building to the rear parking area. Alternately, turn left on Barnett St. at the traffic light, then turn right into the alley immediately behind the Blockbuster Video store. Go to the end of the alley and you will be in the Open Door parking area. Come to the front door and ring the bell.
There is limited parking at the rear of the building. Those who can should park on the side street (Barnett) or on the street behind which parallels Ponce (St. Charles).

By Public Transportation:
• Take the MARTA Rail North/South Line to the North Avenue Station. At the North Avenue Station follow the signs to the buses and wait for a Number 2 bus. Ride the Number 2 bus to Barnett Street (just past Freedom Parkway and at the corner where Moe’s Grill is). The bus driver can tell you when to get off. Cross Ponce de Leon Ave. at Barnett Street and walk east, away from downtown. The Open Door (#910) is the 4th building on the left (across the street from Fellini’s restaurant). Come to the front door and ring the bell.
· The number 6 which can be caught at the Lindbergh Marta station going South and also at the Inman Park station going North. You can get off at Briarcliff and Ponce de Leon and walk west a couple of blocks.
· Also the number 16 bus which can be caught at the downtown Marta station going north or the Loehman's shopping center at Druid Hills going south. Get off at Briarcliff and North Highland and walk several blocks going west.

The next meeting of Metro Atlanta DSA's Socialist Education Circle will be February 25, 2012 at the Open Door Community.

At the December we had planned to discuss William Greider's article "Reimagining Capitalism" published The Nation, but didn't get to it! (It is available at http://www.thenation.com/print/article/161267/reimagining-capitalism-bold-ideas-new-economy ) An overview of this ariticle will be presented by Barbara Landay.

Additionally we will discuss Michael Zweig's The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret. Jim Skillman will review these chapters for us. The book in its entirety is a good investment for your library; our SEC discussion will focus on the Introduction and Chapter 1 (these exerpts can be viewed here.)

The discussion will be moderated by Bob Caine. The overviews provide sufficient background for participation in the discussion. So please attend, even if you haven't done the reading.

Directions to Open Door Community

By Car:
• Take I-75/85 to downtown Atlanta, Exit 248C Freedom Parkway, Carter Center, Highway 10 East. Follow Freedom Parkway until it dead ends at Ponce de Leon Ave. (Do not take Highway 42 East which goes to the Carter Center.) Turn right on Ponce de Leon. The Open Door (#910) is the 4th building on the left after you pass the 1st traffic light at Barnett Street.
• Parking: Parking is at the rear of the building. You can take the driveway on the left side of the building to the rear parking area. Alternately, turn left on Barnett St. at the traffic light, then turn right into the alley immediately behind the Blockbuster Video store. Go to the end of the alley and you will be in the Open Door parking area. Come to the front door and ring the bell.
There is limited parking at the rear of the building. Those who can should park on the side street (Barnett) or on the street behind which parallels Ponce (St. Charles).

By Public Transportation:
• Take the MARTA Rail North/South Line to the North Avenue Station. At the North Avenue Station follow the signs to the buses and wait for a Number 2 bus. Ride the Number 2 bus to Barnett Street (just past Freedom Parkway and at the corner where Moe’s Grill is). The bus driver can tell you when to get off. Cross Ponce de Leon Ave. at Barnett Street and walk east, away from downtown. The Open Door (#910) is the 4th building on the left (across the street from Fellini’s restaurant). Come to the front door and ring the bell.
· The number 6 which can be caught at the Lindbergh Marta station going South and also at the Inman Park station going North. You can get off at Briarcliff and Ponce de Leon and walk west a couple of blocks.
· Also the number 16 bus which can be caught at the downtown Marta station going north or the Loehman's shopping center at Druid Hills going south. Get off at Briarcliff and North Highland and walk several blocks going west.

Bibliography of past readings discussed by the Education Circle (most recent first):

Summer and fall 2011 meetings were on June 26th and December 17th.

At those meetings we discussed Terry Eagleton’s book “Why Marx Was Right”. The book answers criticisms of Marx and Marxism that are exactly the same criticisms leveled against Socialists and Socialism. These are criticisms we all have to answer when discussing Socialism with friends, family and other political activists.

On June 26, 2011, g we dicussed the questions raised in the first two chapters (15 minutes each chapter) of Eagleton's book.

Topic 1 (chapter 1): Socialism is finished. Socialists are just too stubborn to recognize this fact. (Reviewer: Barbara Landay)
Topic 2 (chapter 2): Socialism sounds good in theory but in practice it has led to tyrannical and oppressive states. (Reviewer: Norm Markel)

At the Dec. 17 meeting, Adam Shapiro facilitated the discussion of chapters 4 and 7:

Topic3 (chapter 4): Marx’s Socialism is an unrealistic utopian dream based on a naïve view of human nature. (Reviewer: Norm Markel)
Topic 4 (chapter 7): Class struggle is a figment of Socialists’ imagination and is out of touch with current reality. (Reviewer: Bob Wohlhueter)

At our March 27, 2011 meeting, we discussed several "Examples of Economic Democracy":

1) “Grassroots Economic Organizing” Yael & Ian Fletcher; (30 minutes)
2) “Mondragon” Marcia Borowski & John McDonough; (30 minutes)
2) “The Kibbutz Movement” Norm Markel & Oded Borowski; (15 minutes)
3) “Unemployment Councils” Barbara Joye. (15 minutes)
Plus a general discussion of these presentations moderated by Bob Caine. (30 minutes)

At our October 2010 and January 2011 sessions we discussed "After Capitalism" by David Schweickart, published by Rowman and Littlefield, 2002.

July 23, 2010: we discussed several chapters from "A Contemporary Cuba Reader", edited by Philip Brenner, Marguerite Rose Jimenez, John M. Kirk and William M. LeoGrande, and published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2008. For an alternative perspective, we consideed "How to Visit a Socialist Country" by Richard Levins, published in the Monthly Review, vol. 61, no. 11, April 2010, pp. 1-27. A copy of this reading can be had at http://www.monthlyreview.org/100401levins.php.

Apr. 18, 2010: we discussed George Lakoff's book "Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. The Essential Guide for Progressives".

Feb. 21, 2010: READING: Joseph Schwartz, "The Future of Democratic Equality: Rebuilding Social Solidarity in a Fragmented America" (Routledge, new edition 2009); discussion on chapters 5 - 8. Barbara Joye gave an overview, Bob Wohlhueter some commentary, and Bob Caine moderatde the discussion.

Larry Keating, Atlanta: Race, Class and Urban Expansion [2001, Temple University Press]

J. B. Foster and F. Magdoff, The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences [2009, Monthly Review Press]
Paulo Freire Pedagogy of the Oppressed [originally published 1970; 30th anniversary edition 2009]
Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America [1978]
V I Lenin, Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism [1916], chapter X.
Friedrich Engels, Letter to Karl Marx (dated 1858 Oct 07)
Karl Marx, Letter to Meyer & Vogt (dated 1870 Apr 09)
Rosa Luxemburg, Concerning Morocco [1911]

Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America, by Frances Fox Priven, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers (2006). New and used copies available at www.abebooks.com, or your favorite progressive book shop. Piven_cover

"Towards Freedom: Democratic Socialist Theory and Practice" by Joseph Schwartz and Jason Schulman. The article is available to view or download here.

Harrington, Michael; Socialism Past and Future; Arcade Publishing, New York (1989). Used copies at www.abebooks.com, and elsewhere.

Marx, Karl; Value, Price and Profit (1865). {Copies are available at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit} MS-DSA member Charles Pierce has prepared notes on this speech Marx gave to the London Workingmen's Association.

weekend_cover

Murolo, Priscilla and A.B. Chitty, From the Folks Who Brought the Weekend: A Short Illustrated Historyof Labor in the United States;
The New Press, New York (2001). {New copies at www.amazon.com; used copies at www.abebooks.com}

And now for a little music... (everyday)

Your socialist education is hardly complete without learning the Internationale; here's the English version. You can almost imagine Delacroix' Ms. Liberty leading the chorus.

The Internationale

Eugène Delacroix "La Liberté guidant le peuple" (1830)

Stand up, all victims of oppression
For the tyrants fear your might
Don't cling so hard to your possessions
For you have nothing, if you have no rights
Let racist ignorance be ended
For respect makes the empires fall
Freedom is merely privilege extended
Unless enjoyed by one and all

Chorus:
So come brothers and sisters
For the struggle carries on
The Internationale
Unites the world in song
So comrades come rally
For this is the time and place
The international ideal
Unites the human race

Let no one build walls to divide us
Walls of hatred nor walls of stone
Come greet the dawn and stand beside us
We'll live together or we'll die alone
In our world poisoned by exploitation
Those who have taken, now they must give
And end the vanity of nations
We've but one Earth on which to live

And so begins the final drama
In the streets and in the fields
We stand unbowed before their armour
We defy their guns and shields
When we fight, provoked by their aggression
Let us be inspired by like and love
For though they offer us concessions
Change will not come from above

Words: Billy Bragg Music: Pierre Degeyter

MA-DSA Member Publishes Novel

Ralph Freedman, retired professor of history at Iowa, Princeton and Emory Universities has written a novel "Rue the Day", published in 2009 by Twilight Times Books of Kingsport, TN. Dr. Freedman was born in Germany in 1920, and had previously published biographies of poets Heinrich Heine and Rainer Maria Rilke.

The novel is set in the McCarthyite era. An Italian anti-fascist partisana has married a German-American Army Intelligence officer, and settle down as academics at the University of Washington in Seattle. But her fight against Italian fascists and his haunted memories of Germany's "Kristal Nacht" provide no protection against the anti-communist witchhunt. A gripping story set in a turbulent time makes for provocative reading.

Local Chapter

The Metro Atlanta chapter of Democratic Socialists of America provides an opportunity to meet, discuss and act with DSA members in the Atlanta area. Anyone interested is invited to join our regular meetings (click on "Local DSA Events" tab) , which often include outside speakers on some special topic, and our Social Education Circle (click on "Socialist Education" tab). We are locally self-supporting, and do not receive funding from the national organization.

DSA-USA

To become a regular member of the local chapter you must become a member of the national organization, DSA-USA. The easiest way to accomplish this is to visit the national organization's website and join up there. Alternatively, you can download, print and mail in an application form.

join_us

photo credit: Reid Freeman Jenkins

photo credits: Reid Freeman Jenkins

Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America

Local publications and meeting protocols

The drop-down menu gives you access to MA-DSA's newsletters and records of past meetings.

Executive Officers

Four elected officers of the chapter plus three members-at-large comprise the Executive Committee; officers are elected at the September general meeting for a term of one year; current officers are:

Chair: Milt Tambor (phone 770.313.4628; email mltambor@yahoo.com

biographical sketch: Milt Tambor moved to Atlanta from Detroit in 2001 and is currently retired. He worked for Michigan American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 25 as a staff representative and education coordinator. As staff representative he represented public sector workers in collective bargaining and grievance appeals. As labor educator he conducted classes in collective bargaining, steward training, labor history, economics, strategic planning and health and safety. With a Ph.D. in Sociology, Milt also taught classes as an adjunct faculty at Wayne State University's School of Social Work. He has served as Metro Atlanta DSA chair since 2006.

Membership Secretary: Norm Markel (email normandale@townesquare.net)

biographical sketch: Norm Markel received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Chicago in 1960. He was Professor of Communication, Linguistics & Anthropology at the University of Florida from 1964-99. He is currently Professor Emeritus and resides in Decatur, Georgia. In 1975 he was elected the first president of the United Faculty of Florida (AFT/NEA), which represented faculty in all 10 state universities. He has served as Metro Atlanta DSA membership secretary since 2006.

Recording Secretary: Barbara Joye

biographical sketch: Barbara Joye moved to Atlanta from New York City in 1966. She taught college English for several years before serving in a series of public policy research and communications jobs for government and nonprofit agencies, including a year in Washington DC with the Safe Energy Communications Council. In Atlanta she volunteered for the city’s “underground” newspaper, The Great Speckled Bird; the Atlanta Independent Media Center; and (for many years) the community radio station WRFG-FM. She recently retired from the State of Georgia’s Department of Human Resources, Office of Communications. A veteran of SDS and Movement for a Democratic Society in the ‘60’s, she has been active in various progressive groups, including an affiliate of the Mexico Solidarity Network; Amnesty International; Women’s Action for New Directions; and the U.S. Social Forum. She is now in her second term as recording secretary for MA-DSA, and serves on the National Political Committee of national DSA.

Treasurer: Marcia Borowski

biographical sketch: Marcia Borowski got her BA in philosophy from Wellesley College and her Masters of Arts in Teaching from Wayne State U. She spent 3 years on Kibbutz Lahav in Israel where her husband Oded was a member before she lured him to the US. Back in the States she was a social worker, taught American Government in community colleges before coming to Atlanta, where she served as the director of Metro Fair Housing for a number of years. She then went to law school and practiced law primarily in civil rights and representing labor unions until she retired. She now volunteers with WAND, Fund for Southern Communities, the Democratic Party, Atlanta Legal Aid; she gardens and, most importantly, is grandmother 4 spectacular grandkids.

Members of the Executive Committee at large:

Barbara Landay, Barbara Segal, Adam Shapiro

Webmaster: for comments on site presentation please email bobwohlhueter@earthlink.net

DSA: Who are we?

Federal Theatre Project poster (ca. 1936)

Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America is one of more than 30 local DSA organizations in the US. As democratic socialists we envision a society and a world where resources are democratically controlled. In pursuing this goal, we educate the public about socialist values and policies and build progressive coalitions committed to fighting for economic and social justice. Since our formation in 2006, our local has supported the work of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, Coalition for a Peoples' Agenda, Minimum Wage Coalition, Atlanta Jobs with Justice, Grady Hospital Coalition and the Up and Out of Poverty Now Coalition. Our members have led workshops at the Georgia Progressive Summit, raised money for the Benie Sanders senate campaign, participated in the planning and promotion of the US Social Forum and hosted the national DSA convention in Atlanta. We meet monthly and regularly hold forums on issues ranging from universal health care to the Employee Free Choice Act. Our other activities include issuing a newsletter, meeting as study circle to discuss readings on socialism and organizing an annual Douglass Debs Dinner.

An Agenda Towards an Economic Justice

DSA's 2007 national convention adopted the legislative platform "Towards an Economic Justice Agenda." We hope this proposal will lead to a consensual legislative and political program around which a broad coalition of progressive groups can coalesce. It is presented for use in outreach and discussion, and to elicit feedback from members and non-members alike. It is available here. A shorter version designed for easy distribution will be available soon.

What is Democratic Socialism?

Howard Bay's set design for "Life and Death of an American"

Democratic Socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically — to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives. Democracy and socialism go hand in hand. All over the world, wherever the idea of democracy has taken root, the vision of socialism has taken root as well — everywhere but in the United States. Because of this, many false ideas about socialism have developed in the US. With this pamphlet, we hope to answer some of your questions about socialism. {A longer answer to this question, developed by DSA-USA, can be viewed here.}

Some History

"A Brief History of the American Left" is written by Maurice Isserman

"Promising indeed," Eugene Debs wrote in September l900, "is the outlook for Socialism in the United States. The very contemplation of the prospect is a wellspring of inspiration." Debs, a gifted and militant leader of America's railroad workers, seemed to have been granted a prophetic gift. When he ran for President in 1900 as the candidate of the newly unified socialist movement, he attracted a mere one hundred thousand votes. As the Socialist Party's standard-bearer twelve years later, he won nearly a million votes, some 6 percent of the total. In some states, such as Oklahoma, Washington, and California, the Socialist share of the vote climbed into the double digits. Over the same twelve-year period, the Socialist Party expanded its membership from 10,000 to nearly 120,000. Twelve hundred of these Socialists were elected to public office across the United States, including mayors from Flint, Butte, and Berkeley.

Haymarket Memorial, Chicago, erected 2004, 118 years after the massacre

Socialists were influential in the leadership of some major American Federation of Labor (AFL) unions, as well as in independent unions such as the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. Socialist and non-Socialist radicals in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) pioneered in the organization of unions among immigrant workers in mass production industries in cities like Lawrence and Patterson, and among migrant workers in the lumber camps and mining towns of the far west. While the Socialist Party was not immune to the racism endemic in turn of-the-century America, Socialists were among the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The ideas of the Socialist movement attracted a growing following on college campuses, in church groups, and in the settlement house and women's movements. The key to the Socialist Party's success in the 1910s was unity in diversity. Its members disagreed with each other on some issues (whether, for example, to put their main emphasis on electoral or union organizing), but for a while the common goal of democratic socialism seemed more important than tactical or ideological differences.

In the long run, Debs's optimism proved misplaced. The year 1912 was the high-water mark of Socialist strength. The party fell on hard times with the coming of the First World War. Pre-existing internal tensions were exacerbated by debates over the party's attitude towards American involvement in the war, followed by debates over whether (or how best) to support the Russian Revolution. Official repression of antiwar dissent led to the imprisonment of Debs and dozens of other Socialist leaders, while Socialist legislators were expelled from public office and the Socialist press was banned from the mails. As a Communist Party on the Russian model split from the Socialist Party, and the IWW went into a sharp decline, the radical movement in general slipped into the doldrums in the 1920s.

With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, however, faith in American capitalism went into a tail-spin, and the fortunes of the radical movement revived. Despite the deep divisions that beset the left, radicals from a number of different groups -- Socialists, Communists, and Trotskyists among them -- played a central role in the struggles of the unemployed to win adequate relief in the early 1930s, and in the vast expansion of industrial unionism through the organization of the new Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) in the later 1930s. Socialists helped to organize Detroit autoworkers and southern sharecroppers; Communists were influential in drives to organize the auto, steel, electrical, and longshore industries, among others.

Depression era Federal Theatre Project "Living Newspaper" drama inspired by FDR's 2nd inaugural address ".. I se one third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished."

While neither Socialists nor Communists were able to replicate the electoral successes of the Debsian era, the Socialists were able to attract a million votes for Norman Thomas, their Presidential candidate in 1932. Running in the Democratic primary, the Socialist novelist Upton Sinclair captured the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in California in 1934. And during the "Popular Front" era of the later 1930s, when Communists sought to build a broad-based American movement not so explicitly tied to the Soviet model, the Communists developed a considerable political base and measure of influence within the Democratic Party in such states as Washington, Minnesota, and California, and in the American Labor Party in New York. The Thirties did not usher in "the Revolution," contrary to the expectations of many at the start of the decade. Nevertheless, much had changed for the better in American politics in the space of a few years. While Franklin Roosevelt's administration was never the hotbed of radicalism it was portrayed as in right-wing propaganda, it is certainly true that radicals helped play midwife at the birth of the liberal-labor "New Deal coalition" that would shape the contours of Democratic Party politics over the next three decades.

Radicals were not, however, in a position to take independent advantage of the new political possibilities opening before them. The Socialist Party finished the decade once again in disarray, wounded by an internal factional battle with Trotskyists (with whom they shared little beyond a hatred of Stalinism), and divided over the question of whether they should abandon their long-standing refusal to back Democratic Party candidates. The Communist Party, though nominally more "revolutionary" than the Socialists, had proven tactically more flexible, and its tacit alliance with Roosevelt had helped it to grow to perhaps as many as 75,000 members by 1938 (with another 20,000 in the Young Communist League). After a bruising few years when its international guide, Stalin, was allied with Hitler, the American Communist Party seemed to emerge triumphant during the years of the "Grand Alliance," when the United States and the Soviet Union were allied against fascism and it was possible to be both "patriotic" and "pro-Soviet." But with the onset of the Cold War in 1945, radicalism of any sort was again suspect, and the Communists came under particularly ferocious attack.

By the mid-1950s, dozens of Communist Party leaders had been imprisoned under the Smith Act, while thousands of rank and file Communists were harassed by the FBI, dragged before Congressional investigating committees, denied passports, and in many instances fired from their jobs. Several of the most unscrupulous men in postwar American political life, including Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon, built their careers on the shrewd manipulation of anticommunist hysteria. In the end, the Communist Party was able to survive McCarthyism. What finally led to its demise as the most important force on the left was its own internal disagreements, brought to a head in 1956 by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of his now safely-dead predecessor Stalin. This "de-Stalinization crisis" led many American Communists to question not only their previous unquestioning support of Soviet policies, but also the undemocratic nature of Soviet-style socialism and the authoritarian nature of their own movement. Most of these dissenters left the party after 1956.

Diego Rivera "Man at the Crossroads" (1934), a 63- foot mural originally in Rockafeller Center, NY, but removed largely because of its depiction of Lenin

Even as the Communist Party disintegrated in the mid-1950s, a new wave of radical activism began to take shape. This time, however, it would not be the traditional socialist parties of the left that would lead the way, nor would the organization of the industrial working class be the main concern of the new radicals. Starting with the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and accelerating with the sit-in movement launched by black students in Greensboro and a dozen other southern cities in 1960, movements emerged that were destined to change the U.S. political landscape. White students, inspired by the example of their black counterparts in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), were drawn into civil rights protests, and from there into a wide range of movements for peace, university reform, and social change. Many joined a new campus group, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which became the main organizational vehicle for what was beginning to be called the "new left".

A series of developments in mid-decade -- including John F. Kennedy's assassination, the murder of civil rights activists in the South, and the mounting escalation of the Vietnam war -- spurred the growth of the new left, while tarnishing the optimism of the early 1960s. Over the years in which the war in Vietnam raged on, a loose coalition of radical activists developed the broadest and most diverse antiwar movement in American history. It was, to be sure, a turbulent and in many ways a tragic era. Some student protesters, in despair over bringing the war to an end (and sometimes egged on by government agents), turned to selfdefeating violent street confrontations and even to bombings. But it should also be remembered that, by the end of the 1960s, antiwar sentiment had spread from elite Ivy League universities to working-class community colleges and high schools, and that groups like the Vietnam Veterans Against the War were playing an increasingly prominent role in antiwar demonstrations. The general cultural and political ferment of the decade also gave rise to a revived feminist movement and a new gay liberation movement.

At the end of the 1960s the left again faltered. If the old left Socialists and Communists had been too wedded to the "New Deal coalition" of urban ethnics and industrial workers to respond adequately to the new black, youth, and women's insurgencies, nevertheless those new constituencies alone could not build a stable base for a mass new left. Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968 hastened the demise of the civil rights movement, while SNCC and SDS collapsed from sectarian excesses. The antiwar movement held on into the early 1970s but, by the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, had lost most of its momentum. And not only was the left collapsing, but this time the New Deal coalition itself -- the mass base for American liberalism -- was showing signs of increasing instability, as Richard Nixon's victories in 1968 and 1972 indicated. This liberal weakness became progressively clearer as Nixon's fall in the Watergate scandal led, not to a revival of the New Deal coalition, but to a long-term revival of radical conservatism in the Republican Party under Ronald Reagan.

Jack Beal (1976), "A History of Labor in American - 19th Century", U.S. Department of Labor

From the beginning of this long period of deepening conservatism in the early 1970s, several groups continued to uphold the traditions of the American left. Two in particular sought to recreate the broad and tolerant spirit of the Debsian Socialist Party, while absorbing also the new lessons, causes, and constituencies over which the left had stumbled in the intervening decades. The Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) had been founded by Michael Harrington out of some fragments of the old Socialist Party. DSOC continued to operate, in the old Socialist or Communist manner, as the left-wing of the New Deal coalition, clearly now not as a separate political party but as an explicitly socialist force within the Democratic Party and the labor movement. It met with some success in attracting young activists disenchanted with the Democratic Party's drift and seeking ways to galvanize the ailing party coalition. DSOC also drew to its banner a number of well-known public figures, such as Machinists' Union leader William Winpisinger, feminist Gloria Steinem, gay rights activist Harry Britt, actor Ed Asner, and California Congressman Ron Dellums, the first avowed socialist in Congress since World War Two.

The New American Movement (NAM) emerged at about the same time, more from the new left than from the old, though it counted in its number some former Communists who had left their party after 1956. NAM, true to these new left origins, was more skeptical about the long-term future of the New Deal coalition, and accordingly devoted its energies more than did DSOC to the new movements of the 1960s, especially feminism, gay and lesbian liberation, and local community organizing.

But neither NAM nor DSOC saw their heritages and organizing areas as mutually exclusive, and by the early 1980s -- especially considering the weakness of the American left -- came to see themselves as complementary, completing a formal merger in 1983. The merged organization, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), for the first time since the First World War brought together the various splinters of left opinion in America: former Socialists and Communists, former old leftists and new leftists, and many who had never been leftists at all. The decades of disunion had taken their toll. The hundreds of thousands of Debs's day had dwindled to mere thousands. But a new beginning now seems possible in the 1990s As the old Cold War polarities break down, DSA has an opportunity to demonstrate that the history of the American left had reached a turning-point, not an end.

Maurice Isserman teaches history at Hamilton College. A DSAer, he is author of If I Had a Hammer: The Death of the Old Left and Birth of the New and co-author of Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party.

We are not alone!

While socialism informs our perspective on politics and the economy, we act in concert with socially and politically progressive people in the Atlanta area. Listed here are websites of organizations with which we have a strong working partnership.

www.dsausa.org: The national organization of DSA is a rich resource of socialist history, literature and position papers.

www.gcpagenda.org: The Coalition for the People's Agenda, convened by Dr. Joseph Lowry, is active in Atlanta and throughout the Southeast. It sponsors a weekly Stand for Peace and works for voter empowerment.

www.gpjc.org: Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition - "We believe there can only be peace in the presence of justice, so as we oppose war, we also work for justice and the protection of human rights for all."

georgiapeace.org is the independent website of the Atlanta group of GPJC, with the banner "No War on Iran".

www.humanrightsatlanta.org, Human Rights Atlanta is a grassroots organization promoting the sixtieth anniversary of the 1948 signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

www.soaw.org keeps you informed of activities of the "School of the Americas Watch", which convenes the annual demonstrations at the gates of Fort Benning.

georgialivingwage.org: The Minimum Wage Coalition addresses the causes of poverty and its detriment to democracy.

www.wrfg.org: for 35 years WRFG-FM - Radio Free Georgia - has been serving the Atlanta community with progressive news and grassroots cultural programming at 89.3 FM.

www.atlantaprogressivenews.com: Atlanta Progressive News is your web source for new stories you won't get in the AJC

www.atlanta.indymedia.org: Atlanta Indymedia brings a progressive perspective to news stories from the whole world.

keepgradypublic.org: is the web face of the Grady Hospital Coalition. Health care is a human right, and Grady is essential to health care for all in Atlanta.

www.atlantawand.org: local chapter of the Women's Action for New Directions throws a sharp light on the relationship between excessive military spending and unmet human and environmental needs.

Local chapter members Barbara Joye and Barbara Segal at joint retreat with Young Democratic Socialists, August 2008

Metropolitan Atlanta Local

Democratic Socialists of America www.dsa-atlanta.org

DSA's Action-Oriented National Convention

Occupy Atlanta Update

It's an Atlanta Progressive Tradition!: the 5th annual Frederick Douglass-Eugene Debs Dinner was Exhilarating

MAY DAY 2011-- Responding to the Crisis: How to Generate Millions of Jobs Now

Speaking Out for Jobs with Justice

Want to know more about the event? To read the full version of this article click here.

MA-DSA Member Publishes Novel

A Bus Ride to Remember: Spectacle is Not Development!

A Radical Proposal! (by FDR, 66 years ago!)

Jan. 14th General Membership Meeting previewed Miklethun's "Politics and the Economy"

The next meeting of Metro Atlanta DSA's Socialist Education Circle will be February 25, 2012 at the Open Door Community.

Bibliography of past readings discussed by the Education Circle (most recent first):

Summer and fall 2011 meetings were on June 26th and December 17th.

And now for a little music... (everyday)

MA-DSA Member Publishes Novel

Local Chapter

DSA-USA

Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America

Local publications and meeting protocols

Executive Officers

Members of the Executive Committee at large:

DSA: Who are we?

An Agenda Towards an Economic Justice

What is Democratic Socialism?

Some History

Democratic Socialists of America
www.dsa-atlanta.org