YOU MUST RSVP BY MONDAY AT MIDNIGHT IN ORDER FOR YOUR MEMBERSHIP TO BE CONFIRMED.

On Tuesday, September 29 at 7pm, Austin DSA members will vote on whether or not our chapter should endorse and campaign for a proposed candidate and ballot proposition. To attend, RSVP here by Monday at midnight. On Tuesday afternoon before the meeting, we will confirm membership status and send out the Zoom link information. Here is our agenda, and keep reading for more details.

An endorsement from DSA is a big decision that requires the majority buy in of the group. Our national policy is to pursue "class struggle elections" that "use elections, public offices, and legislation as vehicles to encourage working-class organization." Please read the brief Class Struggle Elections resolution here.

All the materials, including the agenda, rules for the meeting, candidate questionnaire, and ballot proposition resolution are hosted in this folder.

We will first be voting on whether or not to endorse incumbent Council Member and DSA member Greg Casar's campaign for re-election to Austin City Council District 4. You can read Council Member Casar's responses to our extensive questionnaire here.

After a speaker motivates the motion to endorse his campaign, Council Member Casar will answer questions from members for half an hour. He will then leave the meeting, and we will have time for open debate before the vote. Please help us make the meeting run more smoothly by submitting questions through this form, though we will still take questions during the meeting.

After voting on whether or not to endorse the Casar Campaign, we will repeat the above process for the vote to endorse Proposition A, on a transit bond for Austin. You can read the resolution to adopt the campaign here. A socialist supporter of the campaign will be available to answer questions from DSA members about why socialists should adopt this campaign, and then we will have open debate. Finally, we will vote.

When Austin DSA votes to adopt any campaign, that marks the beginning, not the end, of our involvement. A vote to endorse an electoral campaign is a vote that you believe that you and your comrades in DSA should dedicate time to organizing to build socialism through that campaign. Since DSA is a democratic organization, we undertake the campaigns that are democratically decided upon. To participate in DSA means participating in the campaigns we are have voted to adopt. If we vote to adopt these campaigns, we will be pursuing this work alongside the rest of the work we are currently engaged in, including organizing for safe and pro-worker policies on school reopenings in Central Texas.

Covid-19 and the loss of the Bernie campaign have presented many difficulties for socialist organizing . However, DSA is growing, millions of people are taking to the streets to demand justice, and we know that the organized working class is capable of abolishing capitalism itself. The work we do will build socialism.

In Solidarity,

Austin DSA's Leadership Committee