Pensacola DSA Blog

  The situation in the Middle East has been deteriorating very rapidly. So many families across the arbitrary border dividing Israel-Palestine have been sobbing and mourning the loss of loved ones. We are witnessing an unprecedented loss of life. In the wake of terrifying attacks on a music festival in Israel and the bombing of civilian infrastructure and dense residential areas in Gaza -- including apartment blocks and refugee camps -- Gaza is under a complete siege as Israel prepares for what looks like an imminent ground invasion of the enclave, while Palestinians in the West Bank face settler paramilitary forces. DSA members across the country are mobilizing right now by attending and hosting protests, writing letters and calling members of Congress. In PDSA we are going to be having phonebanking and letter writing calls this weekend from 4 PM - 6:30 PM this Saturday and Sunday, pressuring our elected officials to support immediate deescalation and defunding o...

Pensacola DSA responds to racist, antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ attacks on our community August 25th, 2023 On August 13th, 2023, members of the Pensacola Democratic Socialists of America (PDSA) joined with organizers and volunteers from Strive (The Socialist Trans Initiative) and the Party for Socialism in Liberation (PSL) to engage in cleanup of vile antisemitic Nazi vandalism marked around the Graffiti Bridge in Pensacola, Florida. In the past weeks and months we have seen antisemitic, racist markings on the rise in Pensacola. Swastikas and other racist propaganda have cropped up in our neighborhoods and communities. These have no place here in ou...

  The Pensacola chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America strongly condemns the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization . This regressive ruling targets the right to privacy and bodily autonomy that has been protected under Roe v. Wade for the last fifty years and allows individual states to ban abortion entirely. At this time, thirteen states have trigger laws in place to ban abortion immediately and thirteen more are expected to follow. The far right wing of the Supreme Court, most of whom were appointed by a president who lost the popular vote, has demonstrated beyond all debate that they are an illegitimate institution, more focused on forcing the American people to bend to their personal ideologies than on following the will of the people they serve. Just this month, the Court has weakened the separation between church and state through Carso v. Makin ; ruled against a 108-year-old NY law limiting concealed carry of guns in New York Sta...

Before the abortion clinic bombings of the nineties, before the anti-feminist political backlash of the eighties, before the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, feminists fought for abortion both covertly and publicly. Some through organizing mutual aid networks like the Jane Collective, while others in legal challenges against state abortion prohibitions like Women Versus Connecticut. On our education night for June we’ll discuss these important groups and how feminist resistance of the past can inform present and future struggles. It will take place on Tuesday, June 7 at 7pm (CT) on zoom. Our two readings are: Genevieve Carlton, “ Inside The Jane Collective, The Underground Abortion Network That Helped Thousands Of Chicago Women Before Roe V. Wade ,” All That’s Interesting (2022). Women Versus Connecticut, “ Women vs. Connecticut Organizing Pamphlet ” hosted by History is a Weapon (1970). If you can’t read the text before the meeting, we’d still love to have you! Someone will summariz...

  This past Sunday we—along with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Pensacola Dream Defenders, a speaker from the Poor People's Campaign, and passionate members of the public—held a rally for International Women's Day (IWD). We rallied around the history of women, gender non-conforming, and non-binary individuals' struggle and the ongoing fight against bigotry & injustice. We rally because we are tired, we are hurting, and we are angry. Angry that those in power continue to show us who they are by denying us justice and stripping us of our humanity. As many speakers pointed out, the struggles faced are systemic issues that cannot be fixed alone. They weave through our lives and intersect where they cannot be untangled from one another. We must recognize that true women's liberation is tied to the liberation of all, and more specifically, to the liberation of the most marginalized. It is clear that poor and working class women, gender non-conforming people,...

  On October 2nd, 2021, a caravan of decorated cars paraded through downtown Pensacola, Florida with messages of support for bodily autonomy and human rights. The caravan concluded at the Graffiti Bridge, where both other activists and zealous protestors awaited. As cars passed by, they honked horns with fists raised, aiding the rally’s cry, and some supporters used their large signs to block the disturbing images that the protestors carried from these passerbys. Several people spoke at the rally including s...