In June, ILWU Local 6 and Local 10 workers at C&H Sugar in Crockett, CA went on strike against contract takeaways and to demand the company negotiate in good faith. The company responded by rerouting a shipment of raw sugar to a nearby non-union facility, bypassing the striking ILWU workers, and dumping sugar from Negros Island in the Philippines onto its docks. Negros, where just months earlier, the Armed Forces of the Philippines massacred 19 human rights activists, community journalists, and land defenders, including Bay Area organizer and SFSU alumnus Lyle Prijoles.
On August 7 at 6:00 PM at the DSA office (1916 McAllister St), come to Bloody Sugar: The C&H Strike and Justice for Land Defenders in the Philippines, where we’ll connect the C&H strike to the struggle of Filipino sugar workers and land defenders, examine sugar’s bloody history and the imperialist global supply chains that bind us together in struggle, and discuss how we can organize in solidarity here in San Francisco.
- RSVP for Bloody Sugar: the C&H Strike and Justice for Land Defenders in the Philippines
- Read DSA SF’s statement: Justice for Lyle Prijoles and the Negros 19!
| Events & Actions |
🌹 Tuesday August 4 (5:30 PM – 7:00 PM) Social Housing Working Group (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
🌹 Wednesday August 5 (6:00 PM – 9:00 PM) Social Housing Happy Hour (MOTHERSHIP, 3152 Mission St)
🌹 Wednesday August 5 (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) Tech Worker Reading Group (in person at 1916 McAllister St)
🌹 Thursday August 6 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Education Board Open Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
🌹 Thursday August 6 (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) Immigrant Justice Regular Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
🌹 Friday August 7 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Bloody Sugar: the C&H Strike and Justice for Land Defenders in the Philippines (in person at 1916 McAllister St)
🌹 Saturday August 8 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM) No Appetite for Apartheid: Consumer Pledge Canvass (Dolores Park, by the Miguel Higalgo Statue)
🌹 Saturday August 8 (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM) Fundamentals of Tenant Organizing [ETOC] (in person at 1916 McAllister St)
🌹 Sunday August 9 (5:00 PM – 6:00 PM) Tenderloin Healing Circle Working Group Meeting (zoom only)
🌹 Monday August 10 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Tenderloin Healing Circle (Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Ave)
🌹 Monday August 10 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM)Labor Working Group Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
🌹 Tuesday August 11 (6:30 PM – 8:30 PM) Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting(zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
🌹 Wednesday August 12 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM)DSA SF General Meeting (zoom and in person at Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco, 1187 Franklin Street (at Geary) in the Starr King Room)
🌹 Saturday August 15 (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM) Fundamentals of Tenant Organizing [ETOC] (in person at 1916 McAllister St)
🌹 Saturday August 15 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Homelessness Working Group Food Service (Patricia’s Green Picnic Area, 499 1/2 Hayes St)
🌹 Sunday August 16 (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM) Affordable Housing Guarantee Act Field Kickoff (Duboce Park)
🌹 Monday August 17 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Homelessness Working Group Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
Bloody Sugar: the C&H Strike and Justice for Land Defenders in the Philippines
Join us on the evening of Friday, August 7 at 6:00 PM at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister St — we’re hosting a guest speaker from San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines to discuss the recent events that connect the strike against C&H Sugar in Crockett, California to the massacre of 19 land defenders and activists in Toboso, Negros Occidental in the Philippines. We’ll dive into sugar’s bloody history, learn about the links in the imperialist global supply chain that bind us together in struggle, and discuss what we can do here in San Francisco.
RSVP for Bloody Sugar: the C&H Strike and Justice for Land Defenders in the Philippines
Apartheid-Free Bay Area Consumer Pledge Canvassing
Come join us for our next No Appetite for Apartheid consumer canvass! We will be meeting in Dolores Park on August 8 at 11:00 AM at the Miguel Hidalgo Statue. Help build support for the 200 apartheid-free zones our campaign has established in SF.
Social Housing Ballot Measure Field Kickoff
Great news: according to recent polling, the DSA SF-endorsed Affordable Housing Guarantee Act has support the support of 67% of San Franciscans, but there are still so many who haven’t heard about the measure yet. We need your help to make sure every San Franciscan hears about this measure directly from us – join us to kickoff the field campaign for the Affordable Housing Guarantee Act, Sunday, August 16 at 11:00 AM at Duboce Park.
RSVP for the Social Housing Ballot Measure Field Kickoff
Picnic in the Park
Join your friendly neighborhood socialists at Dolores Park on August 22 from 2:30 PM to 5:00 PM for an afternoon hanging out in the park. Great for families and new members! Bring snacks to share and a blanket! Meet in picnic area by the playground.
Beach Day with Palestine Solidarity Working Group
Join the Palestine Solidarity Working Group at Ocean Beach on August 29 at 2:00 PM as we play some games and enjoy some time on the beach together! We’ll have snacks/drinks and a volleyball net, and of course we will be snagging a bonfire pit for the vibes. 
Please bring whatever you’d like to roast over the fire and come learn more about our work with Palestine!
RSVP for Beach Day via Partiful
Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates.
| Reportbacks |
Know Your Rights Canvassing in the Fillmore
A small but mighty crew of four DSA members met at Raymond Kimbell Park on Saturday, August 1st to do some Know Your Rights Canvassing in the Fillmore District. The group went out into the community to chat with employees and business owners about what to do in the event of ICE agents showing up at their business. Informational handouts in both English and Spanish were distributed along with red cards that provide an easy script on what to say if you are in a situation confronting ICE.
Several blocks of Fillmore were covered and the businesses were receptive and often appreciative of the information being given to them. It also was a chance for DSA members to interact with the public in general, and some direct conversations were sparked with members of the community. DSA members enthusiastically encouraged curious people to seek out https://dsasf.org/events/ to get involved.
If you are interested in joining our next KYR Canvassing event or have suggestions on neighborhoods we should visit please join our Immigrant Justice Slack channel or check the events page for our upcoming meetings and planned community events.
EWOC Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing Week #3
Last Tuesday, we held our third session of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) course Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing, a four week course that goes into the basics of organizing: from organizing committees to inoculation against the boss. A group of about 10 met in person at 1916 McAllister to watch the course plenary before engaging in group discussion about the material.
This week’s topic was “Collective Action and Escalation” and was focused on the approach of building the cohesion and unity within a workplace necessary to make demands of the bosses. The plenary emphasized that Organizing Committees need to pick issues that promote worker cohesion in the campaign. Following that: the demands in a campaign need to be widely and deeply felt, definable, specific, measurable, and significant enough to actually change peoples’ lives. Also noted was the fact that often the choice of campaign target is as important as the issues chosen for the campaign–campaign targets should be people who are within reach of the workers and who are decision-makers. Finally, the plenary emphasized that escalating the campaign requires buy-in from coworkers at every stage. The campaign should only be escalated when your coworkers are ready for the next step. Discussion touched on stress tests, the mechanics of escalation, and the tact necessary to organize workers who are on visa or are undocumented.
The next session will take place on Tuesday, August 4 at 7:00 PM, hosted at 1916 McAllister St and will cover the Inoculation Against The Boss’s Campaign.
If you’d like to get involved with the SF local chapter of EWOC, reach out to the lead coordinator Caitlin S. or email labor@dsasf.org. EWOC is a standing topic at meetings of the Labor Working group, which are held every fourth Monday at 7:00 PM, both in-person at 1916 McAllister St and over Zoom. Anyone is welcome to attend, and we’re always looking for people interested in workplace lead canvassing, organizer trainings, and volunteer outreach. If you’re interested in organizing your workplace and would like to be connected with an EWOC organizer, fill out the request form here.
| Behind the Scenes |
The Chapter Coordination Committee (CCC) regularly rotates duties among chapter members. This allows us to train new members in key duties that help keep the chapter running like organizing chapter meetings, keeping records updated, office cleanup, updating the DSA SF website and publishing the weekly newsletter. Members can view current CCC rotations.
Interested in helping with the newsletter or other day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running? Fill out the CCC help form.