DSA's national Medicare for All Campaign Committee has been working to put together new materials to support the campaign and reaching out to and coordinating among the now 100-plus Local Chapters working on the campaign!
We have an updated website with new organizing materials, Local Chapter updates featured in our blog and we are now organizing for our first National Weekend of Action. Read more below.
COMMUNICATIONS
Our Communications team has been hard at work popularizing our principles and pushing a bold democratic socialist message around Medicare for All.
Our social media is in full swing, so be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We want to use these channels to highlight the amazing work of local chapters in front of a national audience. To help with this, we’ve written a communications best practices guide so you can maximize your chapter’s outreach and engagement.
An updated version of our website is now live! This is Version 3.0, and it has a host of new features that will better serve the campaign and our Local Chapters. We have developed and made available more flyers, posters, stickers, editable templates and other materials for download and printing. We encourage everyone to use these materials as they see fit but please remember to always print union. We are in touch with translators to make many of these materials available in Spanish as well, so look out for those! The new website also contains a page that will allow members and fellow-travelers to connect with Local Chapters working on the campaign. If your Local Chapter, Organizing Committee or YDSA Chapter is working on Medicare for All, be sure to sign up on the website.
We have also launched this very blog that includes articles about Medicare for All and highlights the work of individual chapters. The inaugural article with Austin DSA is well worth reading! The goal of this series is to feature the diverse organizing and member-driven power behind this campaign. If you’d like to be featured, please fill out this intake form. As always, e-mail us if you have any questions or suggestions.
We made sure our campaign had a strong presence at the Labor Notes conference in Chicago this month, with plenty of DSAM4A merch and freshly printed “Labor and Medicare for All” pamphlets available. Also, make sure to check out our new video featuring Michael Lighty of National Nurses United!
Lastly, we’ve really enjoyed seeing a lot of beautiful independent media crop up. Please see our living design resources folder for assets you can use to make your own, including logos, video resources, and a style guide. Be sure to tag us with your art and designs so we can share widely!
Philly DSA wants to talk to YOU about healthcare without co-pays, debt or premiums.
POLITICAL SUBCOMMITTEE
We received over 50 applications for our Political Subcommittee. The Campaign Steering Committee recently approved and sent-off a list of impressive and qualified candidates for the Subcommittee to DSA’s National Political Committee for selection. The Political Subcommittee will serve as an advisory board and will be comprised of the Campaign Steering Committee, representatives from major and relevant national bodies such as the National Electoral Committee and the Socialist Feminist Working Group, the Disability Working Group and the Democratic Socialist Labor Commission, YDSA, as well as allies from major campaign partner organizations, and at-large members selected from amongst DSA’s Medicare for All activists from a range of backgrounds. Now that the candidates have been selected, the Political Subcommittee will convene and make recommendations to the National Political Committee as well as the Campaign Steering Committee about how to move the campaign forward with our coalition partners and our Local Chapters.
Coalition Partners
National Nurses United - Michael Lighty
Physicians for a National Health Program - Adam Gaffney
Labor for Single Payer - Mark Dudzic
DSA Working Groups
Queer Socialists - Justine Medina
Socialist Feminists - Andee Sunderland
Disability Working Group - Matthew Sampson
Democratic Socialist Labor Commission - TBD
National Electoral Commission - TBD
At Large Members
Nick Conder (Louisville)
James Cole (Austin)
Valerie Davis (N. Texas)
Ashlyn Velasquez (Denver)
Sam Forman (LA)
Jen James (NYC BUM)
Jorge Roman-Romero (Green Country, OK)
Mariana Pineda (Suffolk County)
Ben Himmelfarb (Hudson Valley)
Ben Beckett (NYC Queens)
Devin Howard (Phoenix)
ORGANIZING SUBCOMMITTEE
The Organizing Subcommittee is now in the process of reaching out to and coordinating with dozens of Local DSA organizations across the country that are working on the campaign. Our organizers are putting Chapters in touch with other coalition partners and other DSA Locals in their region. Importantly, the Subcommittee is gearing up for our first National Weekend of Action on April 21st and 22nd, when we're encouraging all of our chapters working on Medicare for All to plan canvasses, educational events, and other actions in a coordinated demonstration of our political strength.
In preparation for this weekend of activities, we've held two trainings to help get your chapters ready to convince their communities that single-payer is their fight. Our “How to Run a Canvass” training on March 18th covered the basics of how to set up a Medicare for All canvassing campaign and went over in detail how to give a Medicare for All door-knocking rap. Our second training on April 8th was about how to incorporate electoral work into your chapter’s Medicare for All campaign, and featured guest speakers from DSA’s NPC and National Electoral Committee.
As a volunteer-driven operation this campaign depends on the commitment of member-organizers. We cannot do it without you! Any member or local Chapter looking to get involved in the campaign should make sure to sign up on our website, and don’t hesitate to reach out to the Medicare for All Campaign Committee directly to ask questions, give feedback, and receive materials, training, and even speakers at [email protected].
Got swag if you want it.
M4A CAMPAIGN KITS
We’ve been happy to see our campaign kits arriving at chapters around the country! The resulting photos have been great. The kit includes: 5 Organizing Guides, 120 Pamphlets, 20 Stickers, 40 Pins, and 5 T-Shirts. These kits were designed to help organizers get their campaigns off the ground, and soon we’ll be making individual items available for order. Stay tuned!
The cost to produce each of these kits, not including staff and volunteer time, came to $120/kit, so we are asking chapters to help us out with suggested donations at the following rates:
Discount Rate: $90 | Regular Rate: $120 | Solidarity Rate: $180
We in the Campaign Committee would also like to send a special thank you to Austin DSA. Austin DSA alongside a variety of coalition parties recently won a paid sick days campaign making Austin the first city in the US South to secure such a crucial victory for the working class. Their campaign showed all of us how effective our larger efforts can be when flexibly tied to intermediate goals. Health is a broad and social issue that impacts workers' lives in a variety of ways - Austin DSA demonstrated how tying our material interest in paid sick leave to the larger struggle for Medicare for All will build support for our movement. Watch their story here.
In solidarity,
DSA Medicare for All Steering Committee
Benjamin Fong
Jeremy Gong
Dustin Guastella
Chris Riddiough
Megan Svoboda
Organizing Subcommittee
Megan Svoboda
Amy Zachmeyer
Ben Fong
Matt Stone
Andrew Hudson
Marilyn Arwood
Christie Offenbacher
Frances Gill
Andrew Porter
Design/Communications Subcommittee
Luke Thibault
Alex Salta
Brian Cipriano
Tim Higginbotham
Chris Middleman
Connary Fagen
Political Education Subcommittee
Dustin Guastella
Chris Riddiough
