Community Safety

The Community Safety working group was officially chartered on 9/27/2025.

Charter

Nationally, we’ve seen an attack on the Capitol building led by White Supremacist militia groups in an attempt to subvert a free and fair election, the rise in ICE raids and deportations along with the current regime leader filing lawsuits against various institutions meant to protect civil liberties, with many settling prematurely with little to no resistance, in order to stifle free speech. Instead of fighting back, the Democratic Party establishment is shifting Right and capitulating to the current regime’s policies and programs in an effort to maintain the status quo. Thankfully a new wave of political engagement is leading people to organize to fight fascism. The current fascist regime requires our Chapter, SV DSA, to meet the current moment of national crisis. We must join the fight by continuing to build power locally through a commitment to organizing with the aim of defending our neighborhoods and communities. This requires the creation of a working group that empowers SV DSA to take a multi-pronged and accessible approach to fighting fascism.

This approach includes pushing back against the surveillance state, developing outreach campaigns to inform community members of their rights, providing training for protest safety and best practices, creating counter-messaging to refute fascist talking points, and supporting initiatives aimed at education and de-programming of fascist permission structures. We need a working group ready to put out statements, conduct training, develop coalitions, and take action to mobilize all new members ready to join the fight.

I) Name: Community Safety Working Group

II) Objectives:

  • Outreach campaigns to inform members of the community who fear they could be a target of fascism, this includes how to prepare in advance of being approached by ICE or law enforcement and knowing your rights in the event you are approached.
  • Push back against the surveillance state and surveillance tech that has contributed to the rise of fascism and demonstrable harm to our communities.
  • Create programming to negate the dominance of the Fascist Right-Wing media sphere
    • Produce messaging to directly counter often uncontested right-wing messaging (“fighting in the propaganda war”). 
    • Educate people about how fascism develops, how to “de-program” people you know (potential collab w/ education-wg). 
  • Research ways to protect privacy & etc. as we organize (information security).
  • Ensure chapter members are equipped to protest safely, act as legal observers, and participate in direct action.
  • Enforce the protection of democratic rights ie; voting, citizenship, right of all children to education.
  • Monitor White Supremacist militia groups and document the ongoing fascism w.r.t current regime
    • Create an online resource/archive for documenting fascism allowing for a low-stakes/anonymous method for contribution, thus making it easier to get people to participate.
    • Build relationships w/ local press to find good reporters/journalists to learn best documentation practices
    • Be prepared to mobilize to protect our community as needed.

III) Initial Strategy:

Outreach Campaigns:

Create, with the assistance of legal experts who are familiar with the current political landscape, campaigns to inform everyone of their rights and how to prepare in advance of being approached by ICE as well as how to respond when in the process of being questioned by ICE. This work will be done in collaboration with the International Solidarity Working Group.

Resist Surveillance Technology: 

Create programming to negate the dominance of the Fascist Right-Wing media sphere:

Research what messaging has been shown to work historically to oppose fascism. Work to ensure nothing is left uncontested, and provide a usable guide for countering fascist lies that is convenient and accessible. Connect with the political education working group on creating curriculum.

Research ways to protect privacy & etc. as we organize (information security):

Connect with the tech committee to create best practices for all chapter members and partner organizations

Protest Safety Training & Best Practices:

Create, with the assistance of legal experts, materials describing best practices for protesting or legal observation that prioritizes safety. Distribute to chapter and community members.

Enforce the protection of democratic rights ie; voting, citizenship, right of all children to education:

Setup a system for monitoring and gauging the current health of our (small-d) democracy in Silicon Valley/Santa Clara County

Monitor and Document Fascism:

  • Research and continuously monitor far-right organizations in Santa Clara County on a regular basis.
  • Use online tools (e.g. suggested in the vein of archive.org) to compile and back up trusted information on fascist or far-right activity in our area.
  • Identify contacts within the local press to learn best practices for validating and disseminating information (especially through social media).

IV) Duration: 

Until there are no more Nazis or fascists.

V) Anticipated Use of Funds: 

We anticipate that we will need to spend no special allotment of funds other than for meeting space and incidental expenses such as printing and member outreach (through textbanking, phonebanking, etc). Should we pursue initiatives that incur outsize costs, we will request additional funds from the Chapter Officers through the expenditure authorization processes specified in the chapter Bylaws.

VI) Membership Criteria:

Members of law enforcement and fascist groups are prohibited from joining. All Members in Good Standing of Silicon Valley DSA are welcome to join so long as they do not conflict with the prohibitions in the previous sentence.