International Solidarity

Join our International Solidarity Working Group as we organize for a free Palestine, an end to U.S. support for fascism, and a liberated international working class! We typically meet every three weeks on Thursday evening on Zoom. Check out the SVDSA Events Page to find out when our next meeting is.

The International Solidarity working group was officially chartered on 02/24/2024.

Charter

Name

The name of the proposed Working Group is “International Solidarity Working Group.”

Reporting Structure

This Working Group will report to the full Chapter of Silicon Valley DSA.

Background

Silicon Valley DSA has a record of standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people. In 2021, as Israel expelled Palestinian families in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods to make room for settlers, we condemned Israel’s violence, reiterated our support for the anti-racist Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and recognized the long-standing impacts of Zionist ethnic cleansing from the 1948 Nakba (Nakba Day 2021 statement).

We believe Palestinians have a right to resist apartheid and occupation. Every attempt to self-determine and pursue this liberation peacefully, such as the Great March of Return of 2018-19, has been met with violent repression. Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have long suffered daily abuse, harassment, torture, and undeserved detainment at the hands of Israel’s Occupation Forces (IOF). The settler-colonial state of Israel made peaceful change impossible, and this led directly to the events of October 7 (DSA National statement). Israel’s genocidal siege and collective punishment of Gaza since then has made clear to the world the depravity of Israel that Palestinians have long desperately cried out against.

Just as Zionism has harmed Palestinians through the establishment of a Jewish supremacist ethnostate, so too has the Hindutva ideology of Hindu supremacy harmed the minority Muslim population of India and caste-oppressed groups. We supported SB 403, CA’s anti-caste-discrimination bill, in the face of immense opposition and lobbying from U.S. Hindu supremacist groups such as Vishva Hindu Parishad of America (statement).

Silicon Valley DSA set up a provisional Palestine Solidarity group in October in response to the ongoing genocide of Gaza. Since then, we have helped organize local ceasefire resolutions in San Jose (which issued a statement), Santa Clara County’s Democratic Party, Redwood City, and Santa Clara; participated in No Money for Massacres phonebanks and held our own “fax banks” to Senators; turned out members to protests; dropped banners over freeways, handed out fliers, and held a teach-in in Redwood City; and worked in coalition to successfully pressure Reps Ro Khanna and Zoe Lofgren to support a ceasefire.

Objectives

The proposed International Solidarity Working Group seeks to build upon our past work, and provide both resources and a local socialist organizing home for those who seek to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people; against ethno-supremacist ideologies such as Hindutva and caste oppression; and against the U.S. military-industrial complex, imperialism, colonization, and oppression more broadly everywhere.

Our initial objectives for this Working Group through to the 2025 Chapter Convention are to:

  1. Organize locally and nationally to achieve a ceasefire in Palestine
  2. Support the BDS campaign, including by organizing Apartheid Free Zones, banning state-sponsored trips to Israel, and ending City/County investments in BDS targets.
  3. Organize for reparations to the Palestinian people, and all those who have been similarly wronged by U.S.-sponsored genocide, colonialism, and imperialism.
  4. Build coalition with local anti-imperialist organizations such as San Jose Against War (SJAW), Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) SF Bay Area, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) South Bay, and the San Jose Peace and Justice Center (SJPJC).
  5. Support the efforts of DSA National’s International Committee, such as No Money for Massacres, as well as global anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist campaigns by our international affiliate Progressive International. We will also work in solidarity with national groups such as the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) and CODEPINK.
  6. Identify candidates for elected office who will work through a socialist lens to dismantle the U.S. military-industrial complex, and submit them to the Chapter for endorsement consideration.
  7. Educate and mobilize new and existing members on Palestine solidarity and the broader anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist struggle
  8. Grow capacity and develop leaders for internationalist organizing in Silicon Valley DSA

Initial Strategy

Our actions to achieve our Objectives, until the 2025 Convention, will include but not be limited to:

  1. Local organizing, including legislation
    1. We will continue to support efforts to pass a ceasefire resolution in Redwood City, as well as explore new efforts in San Mateo County and Santa Clara County.
    2. We will support SJAW’s efforts to end City-authorized travel to Israel, as well as similar BDS campaigns to divest from targets. We will also explore Apartheid-Free Zones more broadly, outside of elected bodies.
  2. Direct actions. As many of these are time-sensitive, we request as part of this Charter’s approval that Silicon Valley DSA’s organizational endorsement and logo may be used to endorse individual rallies, protests, calls to actions, press releases, or other such materials in connection with International Solidarity and Palestine Solidarity efforts, subject to approval by a majority of the Chapter Committee, without requiring membership approval at monthly Chapter meetings.
    1. We will organize or support vigils, pickets, and protests to achieve a ceasefire and end the genocide in Palestine.
    2. We will turn out our Chapter members to nearby protests and other direct actions that we endorse.
  3. National campaigns
    1. We will support the DSA International Committee’s efforts to end the genocide in Gaza, including through phone banks to DSA members nationally to hold Congress and the President accountable.
    2. We will remain connected with USCPR on effective local organizing efforts. USCPR has supported local ceasefire campaigns and is now shifting to divestment campaigns.
  4. Education
    1. We will host events such as teach-ins, and support art, fliers, and other propaganda, to educate the general public about Palestine, imperialism, and colonialism.
    2. We will continue to publicize our actions through social media, flyering, and more, with the goal to bring in more new members to the socialist, anti-imperialist struggle.
  5. Coalition Building
    1. We will continue to support the organizing efforts of SJAW, PYM, AROC, CAIR SF Bay Area, JVP South Bay, SJPJC, and other similar organizations that stand against imperialist warmongering.
    2. We will strengthen connections with militant labor unions, local community groups, and others who align with us against all war but class war.

Duration

This Working Group will exist until all objectives are met, and as re-chartered annually at Convention per Silicon Valley DSA’s bylaws.

Anticipated Use of Funds

We anticipate that we will need to spend no special allotment of funds other than for meeting spaces and incidental expenses such as printing and supplies. This amount should not exceed $500 until the 2025 Convention. Beyond this amount, we will fundraise for expenses as needed.

Membership Criteria

Membership is open to all Silicon Valley DSA chapter members.

Leadership

This Working Group shall have up to 3 co-chairs, who shall serve 1-year terms through to the next Chapter Convention. Pursuant to Article VII, Section 6 of our bylaws, at least 1 co-chair position will be reserved for a non-male applicant. At least 1 co-chair position will also be reserved for each of our branches (San Jose and Lower Peninsula), if there are applicants from each branch.

Acknowledgments

This charter’s language was partly adapted from similar language in DSA SF’s Palestine Solidarity Working Group Charter.