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Abolition Working Groups

Justice For Jalen Call To Action

Houston DSA is calling upon all its members, allies, and people of conscience in the city of Houston to join in solidarity with the family of @Jalen J Randle and all victims of racist police violence at 10AM, Saturday, April 22nd, at City Hall. April 27th will mark the one-year anniversary of the cold-blooded murder of Jalen at the hands of white police officer Shane Privette. It will also mark one year without justice – one year of protests and tireless organizing, all led every step of the way by Jalen’s parents, Tiffany Rachal and Warren Randle, supported by their allies in the neighborhood of Pleasantville and the wider city of Houston. 

This statement will not go over the hideous and outrageous details of Jalen’s murder, which you can find at the links below. They are not fundamentally different than George Floyd’s. They are – as with every lynching from Emmitt Till to Tyre Nichols – a merciless indictment and conviction of this society and how it is organized from top to bottom. 

As @Warren Randle has remarked, “it took 3 seconds” for HPD to murder Jalen. And every second, hour, day, and month since Jalen’s murder without any meaningful action from the city has demonstrated the baleful contempt and heinous disregard this racist system has for the families it destroys and the communities of color it terrorizes. In George Floyd’s hometown – whose political class was so quick to ride the protest wave of the 2020 BLM Uprising – we have a prosecutor that refuses to prosecute lynchers who wear a badge and blue, a police chief that practically shrugs at the executions carried out by the cops under his supervision, and a City Hall – Democrats and Republicans alike – that would much rather sit on their hands, pass-blocking for the interests of HPD and the wealth the cops loyally “protect and serve” than the lives of communities of color in this city.

Jalen was murdered during a far-right backlash following the 2020 uprising and was one of the 1,183 *record number* of police murders of 2022. In this context, it is worth noting further that Jalen attended Furr High School in the Houston Independent School District (HISD), which the state of Texas is currently intending to takeover and pulverize, closing black and brown schools, privatizing them, and replacing them with testing factories under the name of “charters.” It is clear they want Houston without a school district but with a police department. In Atlanta, the same forces are seizing indigenous and ecologically protected land to put up a 90-million-dollar police training facility, known as “Cop City.” From Jalen to Tortuguita, from Houston to Atlanta, the map of police activity is a map of murder and dispossession. 

To their Cop City, we say Our City. To their HPD, we say HISD.

Inside the doors of City Hall, the wall reads “The People Are The City.” This is not a statement – but a demand, one we made in the streets that BLM conquered in 2020, from the sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement, from tenants on rent strike, from workers defending picket lines – one we are still making from every grassroots struggle. If the people are the city, then Jalen’s family deserves justice – people should come before police. So should our schools, our hospitals, our nurses, our firefighters, our teachers, and our housing. When we say “Indict. Convict. Disarm. Defund. Abolish,” we demand a society beyond racial capitalism; we demand a society where life is more precious than profit – a world where Jalen would be alive today. 

We must fight for it – together – every day. Stand with Jalen’s family and join us on Saturday, April 22nd, 10 AM at City Hall.

Houston DSA

Sources:

When HPD killed Jalen Randle, the east Houston community of Pleasantville lost a son

Roland Martin interview with Jalen’s family

The 2020 BLM Uprising Lives On in Houston’s Struggle Against Police Violence

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Uncategorized

Let Ron DeSantis Know He’s Not Welcome In Houston

Black Lives Matter Houston, Community Voices for Public Education, Houston DSA and allied grassroots groups are calling on all people of conscience in our city to protest Ron DeSantis’ speaking engagement at the George R. Brown Convention Center on Friday, March 3rd, where he’ll be addressing a local Harris County GOP fundraiser. DeSantis is at the sharpest edges of a vicious and murderous anti-LGBTQ and white supremacist backlash following the historic BLM protests of 2020. As over 20 progressive groups did on Monday in Chicago, where he addressed the Fraternal Order of Police, we must mobilize in solidarity with communities under attack and send a clear message to all that DeSantis, his supporters and his politics of queerphobia, racism and attacks on public education are not welcome in Houston.

We are asking attendees to gather at Discovery Green across the street from the George R. Brown at 4:30pm, Friday, March 3rd. We are looking forward to seeing you there.

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Houston DSA Statement on the Murder of Tyre Nichols

CW: Graphic descriptions of police violence


The footage of Tyre Nichols being killed at the hands of Memphis PD captures the murderous function of police in all its brutality. The police initiated and escalated the violence; they passed him around as they beat him with fists and batons; in his last moments, Tyre called out for his mama.

Police don’t keep us safe. The only tools they have at their disposal are to incarcerate or kill; their ultimate purpose is to use these tools to protect the ruling capitalist class’ institutions and interests, as evidenced by the eager expansion of the police state by both Democrats and Republicans. The violence is inherent; the behavior of the police officers that murdered Tyre is the expectation, not an aberration.

Houston DSA is committed to fighting for a world free from police and free from systems of violent oppression, systems that disproportionately affect black and brown, working class people. Memphis and Houston are not so different- in our own city, Jalen Randle was murdered by HPD on April 27th, 2022, and the family is still fighting for the officer responsible to face justice. We stand in solidarity with all victims of police brutality, and mourn the loss of Tyre Nichols.

Disarm, Defund, Abolish. Black Lives Matter. ACAB.

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Statement on The Colorado Springs Shooting

The Houston Democratic Socialists of America is appalled by the horrible act of violence against the LGBTQ+ community in Colorado Springs. 

This tragic event was not a senseless act of terror, but the expected result of a purposeful campaign of hateful and incendiary rhetoric deployed by the far-right to demonize queer people. 


As socialists, we stand against homophobia and transphobia as a denial of queer peoples’ right to exist fully, without shame. It is an attack against their basic humanity.

While we mourn the lives lost, we will continue to fight and organize to build a world where everyone will be free to live and love how they please and with who they please, without apology or fear.

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Help us support the Young Active Labor Leaders Summit!

Looking to join or form a union? Perhaps you’re a union worker or a DSA member looking to build organized labor’s power across the state of Texas and beyond?


Join young workers and students from across Texas (and beyond) at the Young Active Labor Leaders (YALL) Summit, being held Friday, July 22nd through Sunday, July 24th, 2022, in Round Rock, located just outside of Austin in the beautiful Texas Hill country.


The three day event will include a variety of panels and breakout sessions. Topics will include:


– Digital Organizing
– Texas Green Climate Jobs: Organizing around climate change
– Creating a union
– and much more!


Get to know and learn from your fellow Texan labor enthusiasts as we Educate, Agitate, and Mobilize for a brighter future.


For more information or to register, please go to yallsummit.org.
Houston DSA and our Labor Working Group are raising funds to provide scholarships and financial assistance to youth and workers to attend this Summit!

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Uncategorized

Houston DSA Chapter Statement on NPC/BDS Working Group Resolution

Houston DSA members voted to affirm their full solidarity with the DSA BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group, and call for the DSA National Political Committee to reinstate the Working Group’s leadership. 

We “commit to struggling through conflict, …remain true to our anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist values, and …[stand] with our Palestinian and Palestinian-allied comrades against censorship.”
View the Resolution passed by chapter membership at General Meeting on April 14: http://bit.ly/HDSA-Palestine

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General Meeting Uncategorized

January 2022 General Meeting Recap

Thank you to everyone who showed up to the January general meeting yesterday; it was longer than normal but we covered a lot of important voting. We’re proud to announce Franklin Bynum for Harris County Criminal Court 8 and Molly Cook for Texas Senate as re-endorsed and newly endorsed candidates respectively! The membership also passed a resolution calling on the NPC to expel Jamaal Bowman and uphold BDS in our own work.

Again, thank you to everyone who showed up, expressed their point of view, or ran for endorsement. It was exciting to see so many people show up and forge a path for our chapter through debate. We hope to see you at canvasses and other organizing events in the future!