Statements from chapter members in favor and against PCR2: Select We Power DC as a Priority Campaign for 2022 will be posted in this thread.
Statements will be accepted as they are received, until the deadline of 8:00 pm ET on Sunday, December 12, 2021.
Statement from Stu K - IN FAVOR - regarding Resolution PCR2: Select We Power DC as a Priority Campaign
I am voting in favor of We Power DC as a priority campaign for our chapter. Ecosocialist organizing is critical, especially as our world faces an impending climate disaster due to climate change. This brunt of climate disaster will also be disproportionately borne by the working class not just in America but across the world. The public power campaign that the We Power DC priority proposal outlined will likely be a pointed campaign with achievable goals—that also intersect with multiple other ongoing campaigns across the chapter. I urge fellow chapter members to vote for We Power DC as a priority campaign.
Statement from Marie Therese K - IN FAVOR - regarding Resolution PCR2: Select We Power DC as a Priority Campaign
We Power DC is uniquely positioned to supercharge MDC DSA’s activities as a priority campaign given its strong internal organizing infrastructure and the potential for our public power demand to organize diverse constituencies in DC around socialist politics and public ownership. Our team has worked with DSA’s Mobilization Department and AdCom teams to recruit less active DSA members into needed roles on our team, and follow up 1-1 with folks who express interest in Ecosocialism during DSA’s weekly new member orientation sessions.
As the most active campaign in the DC ecosocialist organizing space, we are prepared to find ways to offer opportunities for the 1,000 members of the #ecosoclialism Slack channel to engage in concrete actions (I.e. community tabling, public education events, research tasks) to advance environmental, economic, and racial justice. Our team has also served as a DSA onboarding channel, as many members (including myself) have joined our work through other organizing channels, and through engaging with DSA members, attending political education programs, and participating in DSA’s organizing infrastructure, have consequently become DSA members.
Second, our public power demand presents opportunities to engage the broader DC community in our work. Most every DC resident is a ratepayer/has an electric bill (whether directly or indirectly), and therefore, has a reason to care about where their power comes from. When we are doing community tabling events, the first questions we ask are “Do you get an energy bill from Pepco?” and “What is your experience with Pepco?” rooting our work in people’s lived experiences of and frustrations with our energy system rather than an abstract sense of “climate action” or “energy justice," which are great goals, but difficult to organize around when abstracted from our material circumstances.
We aim to leverage the accessibility of our demand to increase support for/build organizing power around public ownership; a key component of our socialist future. Priority status would increase our internal capacity to do more outreach and take advantage of the 2022 election cycle, advancing not only energy justice and climate action, but broader issues of democratic ownership and control at the core of most of DSA’s campaigns.