Category: Uncategorized

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

The University of Houston is spending $124 million to build a brand-new 1,200-bed dormitory to replace the aging Quadrangle. It’s a symbol of UH’s increasing popularity and growing prestige among Texas universities. There’s just one problem — UH isn’t making sure the general contractor or subcontractors on site are paying the workers who are building it the prevailing wages required by Texas Prevailing Wage Statute Section 2258. 

Both Federal and Texas state law mandate that publicly-funded projects pay workers the prevailing wage, similar to a minimum wage, specific to the work they are performing and the local area. 

Eight workers building the Quadrangle Housing Replacement to lay drywall for the project have filed a prevailing wage complaint, claiming they are being paid as general laborers, not drywall installers. This type of wage theft is called miscategorization, and it’s a common way for companies like Austin Commercial, the general contractor, to pad their bottom line by paying workers less for what should be higher-paid work.

While more workers have come forward than the eight workers who filed the complaint, even that small number of workers is owed over $43,000 in stolen wages — that’s more than $5,000 per worker. How would you feel if your boss paid you $5,000 less than you earned for your work?

The workers at UH aren’t alone: Texas workers lose $1.2 billion every year to wage theft, including one in five construction workers. We must stand with all working people who aren’t being paid what they earned and deserve. We all pay for the University of Houston, and our money should not sponsor worker exploitation–it must be spent fairly.

The University of Houston has until February 16 to respond to the workers’ prevailing wage complaint. Chancellor Renu Khator has the power to make the contractor pay its workers the money they’ve earned.

Call Chancellor Khator at 713-743-8820 and tell her that our public university must treat the workers building their institution fairly. She must fix this problem. 

Want to do more? Contact these two city councilors and ask them to urge Chancellor Khator to make sure Austin Commercial is in compliance with the law and get workers paid what they’re owed. 

MARTHA CASTEX-TATUM: call 832.393.3016 or email districtk@houstontx.gov

CAROLYN EVANS-SHABAZZ: call 832.393.3001 or email districtd@houstontx.gov

Due to the severe weather in tonight’s forecast and a flash flood watch taking effect this afternoon, we will be postponing the May 9th General Meeting to the following Thursday, May 16, from 7–9pm at the usual location, Gulf Coast ALF, 2506 Sutherland Street, out of concern for comrades’ safety.

Please keep an eye on weather forecasts and reports of street flooding as you make it through today, take whatever safety precautions you can, and don’t hesitate to reach out for help: by email info@houstondsa.org or  by text (832) 930-6583.

Stay safe, and in solidarity,
Houston DSA Steering Committee