Austin Democratic Socialists of America

Who We Are

Democratic Socialists of America is the largest socialist organization in the United States and we are in the midst of explosive growth nationally and locally. We are not a political party; we are an activist organization. Our vision is of a democratically run economy and society that gives power to the people rather than the privileged elites. Learn more about us.

Convention 2020 is coming up and you can be apart of it!

Join Today

Simply put, we fight for a better world. Join us in our mission to build a democratically run economy and society that serves the needs of all.

Ready to help make a difference?

The next general body meeting will be 6:45PM-8:30PM at the Parish Hall of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection on Tuesday, September 17, 2019. See our calendar for more events!

Upcoming Events

October 8, 2020
  • FAC Book Club: No Shortcuts

    October 8, 2020  7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

    https://actionnetwork.org/events/fac-book-club-no-shortcuts/

    Jane McAlevey’s NO SHORTCUTS argues today’s organizers must go beyond mobilization or advocacy in favor of mass organizing, rebuilding unions to redistribute power for change with working class communities. 

    Join our weekly book club, as we work through MacAlevey’s theory of organizing, including dissecting lessons from labor unions & social movements, and discuss how we can use these lessons in organizing for power locally. 

    Book Club is open to anyone in Austin DSA who wants to learn more about organizing, and will take place every other week over Zoom. Meeting dates: 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, 11/19, & 12/3, 7:30pm over Zoom.

    Each week we’ll focus on a separate chapter of the book, hosted by a different book club member. Sign up at the Action Network link above to participate, choose a chapter, request a copy of the book, or ask questions! You'll receive the Zoom link upon RSVP.

    See more details

October 9, 2020
  • Buffet at the Bullock: Don’t Starve, Fight!

    October 9, 2020  5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
    https://actionnetwork.org/events/buffet-at-the-bullock-dont-starve-fight/

    We’ll be serving up a buffet of what Cornyn is offering restaurant workers - nothing!

    Sign up here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/buffet-at-the-bullock-dont-starve-fight/

    Senator Cornyn and candidate MJ Hegar are holding a televised debate Friday, and we’re going to be there! Join us in demanding Cornyn follow through with his commitments to restore unemployment funding for furloughed restaurant and hospitality workers. Unemployment benefits are running out but the jobs haven’t recovered, and the pandemic continues to make working conditions unsafe. We’ll be serving up empty plates with messages on the crisis from unemployed workers, because that’s what Cornyn is offering us!

    We demand an extension of the $600 unemployment benefit to be paid retroactively, to be extended to all unemployed no matter immigration status. We demand Senator Cornyn join his constituents who are risking their lives to beg for help. WE WILL NOT BE IGNORED!

    Bring your own paper plates with messages for Cornyn and all the Senators who are holding up relief payments during these insane times!

    If you’re working, join our tweetstorm during the debate and call out Cornyn for his failure to support the working people of Texas! #TexasSenateDebate

    See more details

  • DSA NATIONAL: The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s — A Discussion

    October 9, 2020  7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
    https://actionnetwork.org/events/the-dslc-presents-the-southern-key

    Call / Meeting Info

    RSVP: RSVP Here

    Event Information

    DSA’s Democratic Socialist Labor Commission is excited to host Michael Goldfield as he presents on his book The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s and discusses labor strategy in the American South.

    Here’s a preview of what to expect from the book’s abstract:

    The South is today, as it always has been, the key to understanding American society, its politics, its constitutional anomalies and government structure, its culture, its social relations, its music and literature, its media focus, its blind spots, and virtually everything else. The Southern Key argues that much of what is important in American politics and society today was largely shaped by the successes and failures of the labor movements of the 1930s and 1940s, and most notably the failures of southern labor organizing during this period. It also argues that these failures, despite some important successes in organizing interracial unions, left the South (and consequentially much of the rest of the United States as well) racially backward and open to right-wing demagoguery. These failures have led to a nationwide decline in unionization, growing economic inequality, and overall failures to confront white supremacy head on. In an in-depth look at unexamined archival material and detailed data, The Southern Key challenges established historiography, both telling a tale of race, radicalism, and betrayal and arguing that the outcome was not at all predetermined.

    See more details

October 10, 2020
  • DSA National: Building Student, Teacher, Caregiver Solidarity

    October 10, 2020  12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
    https://actionnetwork.org/events/building-student-teacher-caregiver-solidarity?clear_id=true&source=direct_link

    Join us for a call on Saturday, October 10th at 1 PM Easter/10 AM Pacific on Building Solidarity between Students, Teachers, and Caregivers around safe schools demands with teacher strike leader Arlene Inouye from United Teachers of Los Angeles and high school student leaders who organize with PODER, the social justice caucus within the San Antonio Alliance.

    The call will be moderated by Rebecca Garelli, founder of National Educators United and a member of DSA's national Democratic Socialist Labor Commission, with time for audience Q/A. If you are building power within your community for safer schools during the Covid-19 epidemic, this call is for you!

    See more details

  • DSA NATIONAL: Black Health + Black Liberation: Stories from the Front

    October 10, 2020  3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
    https://act.dsausa.org/survey/black_health_black_liberation_3/

    Call / Meeting Info

    RSVP: RSVP Here

    Event Information

    Hear from the most marginalized communities about their experiences with how structural racism in the private U.S. healthcare system has impacted their own personal health.

    Sponsors:

    Afrosocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus, DSA • Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) Action • Democratic Socialists of America • M4A Committee, DSA • Healthy California Now • National Union of Healthcare Workers • People’s Action • Physicians for a National Health Program

    See more details

October 12, 2020
  • DSA National: Immigrants’ Struggles in the Time of Covid/La lucha en los tiempos de Covid!

    October 12, 2020  7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
    https://www.dsausa.org/calendar/immigrants-struggles-in-the-time-of-covid/

    Immigrants’ Struggles in the Time of Covid/La lucha en los tiempos de Covid!

    Monday, October 12th, 2020

    8:00 PM EDT / 7:00 PM CDT / 6:00 PM MDT / 5:00 PM PDT

    Call / Meeting Info

    RSVP: RSVP Here

    Event Information

    This People’s Indigenous Day, join the Immigrants’ Rights Working Group (IRWG) for a webinar: Immigrants’ Struggles in the Time of Covid/La lucha en los tiempos de Covid! We will be joined by comrades on the front lines of the immigrants’ rights movement and find out ways to get involved!

    Join us for an evening of discussion.

    Chair: Alexander Hernandez – IRWG Steering Committee

    Adelina Nicholls, Executive Director, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR). GLAHR educates, organizes and trains the Latino community in Georgia to defend and promote their civil and human rights. Their work has been crucial in exposing the atrocities taking place in Georgia ICE detention centers.

    Jorge Mujica, IRWG Steering Committee, Organizador de trabajadores inmigrantes y de bajos ingresos / Immigrant and low-income workers Organizer.

    See more details

  • Bylaws Committee Meeting

    October 12, 2020  8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

    More Details Coming!

    See more details

October 13, 2020
  • Feminist Action Committee Meeting

    October 13, 2020  7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

    See more details

October 14, 2020
  • Socialist Night School: What Is Democratic Socialism?

    October 14, 2020  7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

    Socialist Night School is an open course that provides a chance to develop our politics together, regardless of background knowledge or whether you’ve attended a class before. New members and lifelong socialists, all are welcome!

    You must RSVP here for the Zoom link: https://actionnetwork.org/events/socialist-night-school-what-is-democratic-socialism/

    This session, we're going back to the basics. What is Democratic Socialism and why should we fight for it? And how? We'll answer those questions together by readings the two articles below and discussing them.

    We'll start Socialist Night School with a lecture (so you can participate even if you couldn't do the readings), and then we'll break out into small, guided discussion groups led by trained facilitators.

    Readings:

    Neal Meyer, What is Democratic Socialism. 

    This Jacobin article, written by a DSA member, spells out the basics of democratic socialism, especially how it differs from liberalism and social democracy. It also names many of the challenges democratic socialists face, and what we can do to get past them.

    https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/07/democratic-socialism-bernie-sanders-social-democracy-alexandria-ocasio-cortez

    Meagan Day, Democratic Socialism Explained

    This Vox article, also written by a DSA member, explains why socialists want to go beyond reforming and regulating capitalism.

    https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/8/1/17637028/bernie-sanders-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-cynthia-nixon-democratic-socialism-jacobin-dsa

    See more details

October 18, 2020
  • DSA National: Labor Rights and Struggle in Mexico

    October 18, 2020  12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
    https://act.dsausa.org/survey/labor_rights_and_struggle_in_mexico/

    Call / Meeting Info

    RSVP: RSVP Here

    Event Information

    Join us for a panel including author David Bacon, as well as other prominent labor experts and leaders, on the conditions of struggle in Mexico. This panel will cover issues such as the maquiladora sweat shops and the independent trade union movement of the Mexican Electrical Workers union (SME) who are pushing back against privatization and the state crushing of fair union elections.

    See more details

October 20, 2020
  • Austin DSA October Monthly Meeting!

    October 20, 2020  7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
    https://actionnetwork.org/events/austin-dsa-october-monthly-meeting

    You must RSVP here for the Zoom link: https://actionnetwork.org/events/austin-dsa-october-monthly-meeting

    Agenda to come!

    Every month, Austin DSA has a meeting open to members and prospective members. DSA is fighting to build a world where the working class are in charge. Our socialist vision is that if the working class can get political organized, every single person will have high quality healthcare, housing, and good union job. And, only the project of building socialism can stop climate change.

    Our monthly meetings are a great way to keep up with and plug into the work of our chapter. We're currently working on a chapter-wide campaign to Defund the Austin Police Department. We're out at protests and we are organizing to build as much pressure as possible on City Council to defund the police to the tune of $100 Million — or more — and put that money into the social services, jobs, and housing that we need to thrive.

    Stay tuned for a full agenda, and make sure to RSVP in order to get the Zoom Link!

    https://www.facebook.com/events/673229953405075/

    See more details

October 21, 2020
October 22, 2020
  • FAC Book Club: No Shortcuts

    October 22, 2020  7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

    https://actionnetwork.org/events/fac-book-club-no-shortcuts/

    Jane McAlevey’s NO SHORTCUTS argues today’s organizers must go beyond mobilization or advocacy in favor of mass organizing, rebuilding unions to redistribute power for change with working class communities. 

    Join our weekly book club, as we work through MacAlevey’s theory of organizing, including dissecting lessons from labor unions & social movements, and discuss how we can use these lessons in organizing for power locally. 

    Book Club is open to anyone in Austin DSA who wants to learn more about organizing, and will take place every other week over Zoom. Meeting dates: 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, 11/19, & 12/3, 7:30pm over Zoom.

    Each week we’ll focus on a separate chapter of the book, hosted by a different book club member. Sign up at the Action Network link above to participate, choose a chapter, request a copy of the book, or ask questions! You'll receive the Zoom link upon RSVP.

    See more details

October 26, 2020
  • Bylaws Committee Meeting

    October 26, 2020  8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

    More Details Coming!

    See more details

November 5, 2020
  • Ecosocialist Working Group Monthly Meeting!

    November 5, 2020  7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

    Agenda to come.

    See Slack or email for Zoom link.

    See more details

  • FAC Book Club: No Shortcuts

    November 5, 2020  7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

    https://actionnetwork.org/events/fac-book-club-no-shortcuts/

    Jane McAlevey’s NO SHORTCUTS argues today’s organizers must go beyond mobilization or advocacy in favor of mass organizing, rebuilding unions to redistribute power for change with working class communities. 

    Join our weekly book club, as we work through MacAlevey’s theory of organizing, including dissecting lessons from labor unions & social movements, and discuss how we can use these lessons in organizing for power locally. 

    Book Club is open to anyone in Austin DSA who wants to learn more about organizing, and will take place every other week over Zoom. Meeting dates: 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, 11/19, & 12/3, 7:30pm over Zoom.

    Each week we’ll focus on a separate chapter of the book, hosted by a different book club member. Sign up at the Action Network link above to participate, choose a chapter, request a copy of the book, or ask questions! You'll receive the Zoom link upon RSVP.

    See more details