Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America

It’s official: Laurie Sweet has WON the recount and is the Democratic candidate for State Representative in the 91st District.

We’re sending a Democratic Socialist to the State Legislature! 🌹

Hamden voters have spoken, and today’s recount clearly showed that Laurie Sweet won the August 13th primary in the 91st district and will move on to the general election as the Democratic candidate.

Free and fair elections are a bedrock of our community and our democracy, and those principles were upheld in Hamden today. As state representative, Laurie will continue the work she started on legislative council, as a champion for Hamden’s workers, tenants, students, and more at the capitol.

CT DSA is starting a tenants’ circle meeting to create space to specifically discuss tenant organizing projects. Our first meeting is next week! We welcome anyone currently organizing with a tenant union or interested in starting one to join this meeting. It will be an open space to discuss organizing skills, work through organizing challenges, and to share perspectives on building-level work.

Tenant Circle
Wednesday, August 7
7:00 PM on Zoom

RSVP link in bio!
link.ctdsa.org/hjp87

RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/truct730
We're talking to transit riders around about how they can fight for better public transit and a return to free fares.
Join us this Tuesday, July 30th at 4:30pm for a Transit Riders Union canvass in Bridgeport, CT, followed by a social at 6:30! 🚌🌹

CT DSA is proud to announce that we have ENDORSED Abdul Osmanu and Laurie Sweet for State Representative, respectively in Districts 94 and 91, for the August 13 Democratic primary election.🌹💪

We’re proud to endorse Abdul Osmanu, the most visible elected official in the CT movement for Palestine solidarity; an avid advocate for free transit and rideshare drivers; and an ally to tenants organizing for housing justice.

We’re proud to endorse Laurie Sweet, an architect of the strongest municipal tenants rights ordinance in CT; a committed fighter for environmental justice; and a champion for expanded public services for all.

Abdul and Laurie mark CT DSA’s first ever electoral endorsements as a statewide chapter!

We are excited to fight side by side with these proud socialists and committed organizers, for the better world we know we deserve.

Join us: link.ctdsa.org/electoral

CT DSA was proud to host Steve Thornton for a presentation on his new book, Radical Connecticut, co-authored with CT DSA member Andy Piascik. We were inspired to hear the histories of suffragettes, abolitionists, anti-gentrification activists, labor organizers, and more in CT — and we hope to continue those traditions of struggle in our ongoing organizing.

🌹STATEMENT🇵🇸: Connecticut DSA (CTDSA) condemns the arrest on Monday morning, 4/22/2024, of over 40 protesters by the New Haven Police Department (NHPD) at Yale University’s Gaza solidarity camp in Beinecke Plaza. We stand in solidarity with those who were arrested and all students calling for Yale to divest from apartheid Israel and its genocidal actions in occupied Palestine. We celebrate the efforts and leadership of student organizers, including National Students for Justice in Palestine, SJP chapters and other Palestine solidarity formations, Yale YDSA, and National YDSA in the growing wave of college occupations.

This protest, taken alongside students and faculty in over 10 universities nationwide, is an act of civil disobedience with a long history, both at Yale and across the United States. In 1968, Columbia University, the site of the first encampment in solidarity with Gaza earlier this month, was occupied by students protesting the school’s connection with the United States’ genocidal war in Vietnam.

In 1986, students at Yale occupied the same Beinecke Plaza with a shanty town in protest of the school’s connection to apartheid South Africa. Yesterday’s events were a repeat of that moment, with Yale and the police acting as protectors of apartheid and the financial interests which serve it.

Despite attempts by Zionist agitators to distract from their goals, student protesters have remained resolute in their demands for Yale to divest from the Israeli occupation of Palestine and have drawn both faculty and their neighbors in New Haven into the fight. Despite the attempts by the police to break the demonstration with violent arrests, protesters reconvened to receive their comrades upon release with cheers, dance, and song.

We ask all our members, allies, and supporters to join and support the Yale divestment protests and the growing swell of support for Palestine at campuses nationwide in any way you can as they continue this week until universities divest from war and until the liberation of Palestine.

“Disclose, divest,
We will not stop
We will not rest!”

Steering Committee of Connecticut DSA

The polls are OPEN for the Connecticut Democratic Presidential Primary! Join us and to send a message to Joe Biden: we will NOT be complicit in Israel's genocide ✊️🌹🇵🇸

🚨CT DSA endorses UNCOMMITTED in the April 2nd Democratic Primary🇵🇸🌹
We are proud to join and the CT Palestine Solidarity Coalition in endorsing "Uncommitted" in the April 2nd Democratic primary. Read our thread below, and join the fight: bit.ly/VoteUncommittedCT

The steering committee of CT DSA voted to join the national and the CTPSC I'm endorsing UNCOMMITTED in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary on April 2nd. We encourage our members and supporters to register and vote on April 2nd to send a clear message to Biden.

The vast majority of working and oppressed people do not want to see Trump & the far right return to power. By continuing to support Israel's genocide, the Biden administration bears full responsibility for another Trump presidency. We demand a permanent ceasefire, nothing less.

Unless Biden changes course, we will have no choice but to vote Uncommitted and continue the fight for a better world. Join us in that fight: http://bit.ly/VoteUncommittedCT

Members, check your email for an invite to our February 29th virtual General Meeting, where we'll hear updates on our work across the state, and will be joined by guest speakers from Cargill Tenants Union to learn about their ongoing Rent Strike in Putnam, CT! 🌹🏘️✊

Also check your email for our latest newsletter, and get ready for a busy week of public testimony and working group meetings! 🌹 Find all our events on our public calendar http://ctdsa.org/calendar/📅

Martin Luther King, Jr reminds us all that the fight against capitalism is also the fight against racism, militarism, and imperialism. We honor his life and legacy as we carry forward the struggle for democratic socialism. 🌹✊

This Friday, Jan 12, join us for a Day of Action, where we will be continuing to zero-in on unfair, unequal reproductive health treatment by making investigative phone calls to administrative officials & other staff. Live in Hartford and via Zoom! RSVP: https://actionnetwork.org/events/reproductive-justice-hybrid-day-of-action-4/

CT DSA is ecstatic to celebrate Manchester Spencer St Starbucks workers, the newest addition to CT SBWorkersUnited🌹☕️💪

We are ready to stand with you for your union election, as we stood w/ West Hartford and Danbury Starbucks workers for 2023’s 🏳️‍🌈 & 🥤Solidarity!

Happy New Year to all our members & comrades in the fight for liberation! It's been a busy year for us, from completing our statewide merger to standing in solidarity with workers against their bosses, Palestinians against apartheid, and tenants against landlords. 🌹✊🥳 Wherever you are, whatever your struggle, you are not alone. Join us in the fight to build a better world in 2024: www.dsausa.org/join

We've seen enough, and we're calling it: Hamden's Socialist Slate has WON! 🌹🗳️
Congratulations to our endorsed members Laurie Sweet, Abdul Osmanu and Rhonda Caldwell for their victories tonight. We look forward to fighting alongside you for worker & tenant power in Hamden! ✊❤️

ALL OUT FOR PALESTINE, Monday at 3pm on the New Haven Green! 🇵🇸

Yesterday, the Palestinian resistance launched an unprecedented anti-colonial struggle, starting from Gaza and rapidly spreading to the whole of historic Palestine. Despite 75 years of settler-colonial occupation, the Palestinian people are standing tall and unbroken. On Indigenous People’s Day, we are gathering to support the struggle to take back the land from Palestine to Turtle Island. Palestine calls and we are answering! No peace on stolen land!

After the rally, we invite attendees to join an Indigenous People’s Day ceremonial circle on the New Haven Green at 4 pm.

Join the CT DSA Reproductive Justice Working Group for our third Day of Action in Hartford and New Haven!

In our first two Days of Action, we continued our research into Crisis Pregnancy Centers in Connecticut, and developed a Google Form to allow people to submit complaints against the CPCs directly to the state’s 2-1-1 department where they had been listed as reproductive care providers.

During this Day of Action, we will be researching the active anti-abortion practices of the Catholic St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, power mapping the institution, and laying the groundwork for a campaign.

The event will take place in Hartford or New Haven -- the exact location will be sent to attendees after RSVP'ing. A remote option will be available for those who cannot make it in person.

RSVP Link: https://actionnetwork.org/events/reproductive-justice-digital-day-of-action-3

This Saturday at 2pm, join the CT Stop Cop City Solidarity Coalition for the Weelaunee Defense Society's speaking tour stop in New Haven! Learn the history, lessons, and plans of the movement to defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta, which has been the site of resistance against a planned police training center. RSVP: bit.ly/stopcopcitytour-ct

On Tuesday at 6:30pm in Middletown, we're screening OWNED: A TALE OF TWO AMERICAS, a documentary about the history of speculation and racism in housing in the US. Co-sponsored by CT DSA's Housing Justice Project and the the Wesleyan Union of Student Employees (WesUSE). Sign-up and get more film dates: https://linktr.ee/HJPfilm

Join us on Tuesday, September 26th, 6pm at St Johns Church in Waterbury for the CT Bus Riders Convention! Transit riders in CT have been hit hard by cuts to the Shoreline East rail schedule and an end to fare free busses, both enacted by Governor Lamont despite record budget surpluses. Working class people need strong transit infrastructure to get to work, go to school, seek medical care, and live their lives. Learn how to fight back against austerity with us on Tuesday!

CT DSA is proud to endorse Abdul Osmanu and Laurie Sweet for Hamden Legislative Council in the upcoming Democratic primary!

As incumbent legislative council members, Laurie and Abdul have worked tirelessly to represent tenants and working people. CT DSA endorsed Abdul's candidacy in 2021 as part of the JAM slate for Council and Board of Education. Elected in the same year, Laurie joined DSA through her work with us while on the council, and has become a valued member of our chapter.

Although their colleague and our comrade Justin Farmer will be retiring from the council this year, we want to send them back to build on their work transforming Hamden in to a base of working class and tenant power.

Stay tuned for canvassing dates as we gear up for the September 12th primary!

Members, check your email and our Mattermost for an invitation to our General Meeting, this Sunday at 3pm! We've got endorsements to consider, and report backs from our National Convention delegates. Not a member yet? Join today: http://dsausa.org/join 🌹✊

CT DSA congratulates UPS Teamsters on ratifying their new contract, won through the threat of the largest strike action in recent memory. We were proud to stand in solidarity with CT Teamsters at their practice pickets and when rallying in solidarity with Local 396 members fighting to organize Amazon in California, and look forward to being Strike Ready in support of the UAW workers at the Big Three auto unions, and all acts of labor resistance that follow. Solidarity forever! Read the full national DSA statement here: https://www.dsausa.org/statements/ups-teamsters-show-us-the-way/