Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Sunday, May 18th, 2008, at 7:00 pm: THIS MONTH'S TWIN CITIES DSA MEETING

THIS MONTH'S TWIN CITIES DSA MEETING

Saturday, March 22, 2008

BRIAN MERCHANT TO SPEAK AT NEXT DSA MEETING ON PEAK OIL

This Sunday, March 30th, Twin Cities DSA will be proud to welcome Brian Merchant to speak on the topic of peak oil. Our meeting will be at 7:00 PM, Sunday March 30th, at Davanni's Pizza & Hoagies.

When: Sunday, March 30th, 2008, at 7:00 pm

Where: Davanni's Pizza & Hoagies, Riverside, at 2500 Riverside Ave, Minneapolis, MN, in the upstairs meeting room.

Brian's Background
Brian Merchant attended the First U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions in 2004. Since then, he has made presentations on peak oil and energy transition for Living Green Expo, the Minnesota Green Party Membership Conference, First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, the Critical Thinking Club of St. Paul, the Environmental Sustainability program of the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs, and the Northland Bioneers Conference. Brian's article, "Have We Hit Peak Oil Yet?," appears in the 2008 issue of Do It Green magazine.

Brian served as a group facilitator for "Overcoming barriers to action and taking the next step," a portion of the June 6th conference, "Preparing Your Community for Climate and Energy Change: Opportunities for Local Sustainability" sponsored by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. He was a panelist for "Minnesotans respond to a growing energy crisis" at the May 2007 "Green by Design" conference sponsored by Minnesota Green Communities. And Brian is a member of the Twin Cities Energy Transition Working Group which developed the Twin Cities Peak Oil Resource Guide posted at Neighborhood Energy Connection.

Brian arranged for two public appearances in the Twin Cities by Richard Heinberg, author of The Party's Over and Powerdown, in June, 2005.

Brian has a B.A. degree in Psychology and an M.A. degree in Human Development.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Fighting for Health Care for all: Health Care Action

We invite Twin Cities progressives to take part in an important event in order to fight for health care for everyone! Check the link below for details.

Take Action Minnesota
Health Care Action
Tuesday, February 12 at 11:30 AM
State Capitol Rotunda

Coalition organizing protests at Republican Convention in St. Paul:
www.protestrnc2008.org

Monday, January 14, 2008

MN United Steelworkers (USW)

Twin Cities DSA supports the MN United Steelworkers (USW) campaign 'Moving the Midwest towards Energy Independence'. The campaign aims at expanding renewable energy development and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

Less reliance on foreign oil will reduce the chance of going to war over limited resources. More renewable energy and alternative fuel sources in Minnesota will create quality jobs for MN workers and family farmers. Other benefits include less pollution and global warming as well as greater price stability and energy reliability for MN consumers.

Building links between the labor and environmental movement is a step towards ecological socialism. Check out these links at:

www.blugreenalliance.com and www. apolloalliance.org

Recent Events

November 2007:

Guest speaker, Kip Sullivan, author of one of the finest researched books on the American health care system entitled The Health Care Mess: How we got into it and how we'll get out of it. He works at COACT (Citizen Organizations Acting Together). He has worked closely with HCCM (Health Care Campaign of Minnesota), and more recently the Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition.

September 2007:

During the week of September 17, 2007, four executive committee members of the Luxembourg local of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) visited the Twin Cities. The tour was sponsored by the Washington Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The members were Koba Krause, Renata Fackler, Nikolaus Bahn and Bianca Bethke. There were several events scheduled around town, with the main theme of discussion being health care, renewable energy, Iraq War and European unification. The first major event was at the home of former Mpls. mayor and long-time Congressman Don Fraser and his wife Arvonne. 30 people from the DFL Education Foundation and Twin Cities DSA were present. The second day, MN Rep. Steve Simon (DFL) gave the visitors a two hour tour of the state Capitol building in St Paul, much more extensive than a regular tour. For lunch, there was a discussion with at the University of Minnesota Center for German and European Studies, led by director Sabine Engel. Representatives from the political science department, history, European studies, and others were in attendance-among them Minnesota's most famous historian, Prof. Hy Berman. Sabine Engel then treated the visitors to a tour of the University of Minnesota campus. There was also a brief talk with the dean of the Humphrey Institute, Brian Atwood. Wednesday, there was a roundtable discussion with ten or so labor union leaders at the AFL-CIO headquarters in St Paul, led by the editor of Workday Minnesota, Barb Kucera. The Luxembourg delegation then had conversations with staffers of a feminist bookstore in Minneapolis and also the "Wedge", the Twin Cities largest food co-op. A political report followed up their visit in October.

April 2007

Special guest, Saul Escobar Toledo, from Mexico's PRD party visits from Mexico City. Events in Mpls-St Paul included student student activities scheduled at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, DSA dinner in Minneapolis, and events in Chicago, IL.

Saturday, September 27, 2003

Book of Condolence for Anna Lindh, Swedish Foreign Minister

We received this message from the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis:
This day has been one of great sorrow as we awoke to the news of the tragic and senseless death of Anna Lindh, Sweden's Foreign Minister. People throughout Sweden and those with whom she came into contact had the deepest respect for her intellect, her passion and her compassion. She was dedicated to the cause of human rights, and to making the world a place where all peoples can have the opportunity for a meaningful life in democratic societies without fear of violence. She will be deeply missed, and all people should be keeping the members of her family, her colleagues, and the people of Sweden in their thoughts and prayers.

Secretary of State Colin Powell stated today that "Anna Lindh will be remembered for her outstanding contributions to international diplomacy and transatlantic relations. She had a special energy, integrity and compassion and she spent a great deal of her time focusing her efforts on global humanitarian issues. Anna was a cherished colleague and friend, and I will miss her."

There will be a Book of Condolence available for people to sign and express their sorrow about the death of Anna Lindh. This Book of Condolence will be placed at the American Swedish Institute, 2600 Park Avenue, Minneapolis. All are invited to come to sign this Book of Condolence during the open hours of the American Swedish Institute through Wednesday, September 17th. This Book of Condolence will be sent to the Embassy of Sweden in Washington DC.

If you cannot make it to the American Swedish Institute by Wednesday, inquire at the office there, as they expect to have the book on hand for a few days afterward; it just won't be on display. The Institute is open from 12 noon to 4 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It is open on Wednesdays from 12 noon to 8 PM, and on Sundays from 1 to 5 pm.
For more information, call the American Swedish Institute at 612-871-4907.
Archived 2003-09-27

Twin Cities DSA History

The Twin Cities DSA local has been meeting monthly for twenty years. Up until recently meeting at the home of the late Corbin Kidder, a founder of the local. Included here is an excerpt from the press release submitted to local Twin Cities papers in memorium:

Corbin Sherwood Kidder, 84, an ardent transit consumer advocate and active DFL member, died in Saint Paul on March 11. For over thirty years, Kidder served on Metro Transit's Advisory Committee on Transit and was, for six of those years, its Vice-Chair for Operations. Kidder also served on the Metropolitan Council's Transit Accessibility Advisory Committee. Transit for Livable Communities, and the local Sierra Club's Conservation Committee. He was the Transportation Chair of the Minnesota Senior Federation, where he also served as a Trustee and Member of the Board. Kidder was Vice-Chair of he Minnesota Railfans Association during the 1950's. In 1971, he joined the Minnesota Transportation Museum, continuing in this organization as a volunteer trolley operator until his death. Within the Transportation Museum, he was also Station Master at the Minnehaha Depot in Minneapolis from 1984 until his death.

Kidder was born in Madison, Wisconsin, raised on Staten Island, New York, and educated in New York and Washington DC. He completed 26 years of U.S. Army Active and Reserve service before retiring from the Minnesota National Guard in 1982. Discharged from service in World War II, he received a bachelor's degree from Penn State University and did graduate work in Industrial Psychology at the University of Minnesota. He was a Procedures Supervisor for Federal Cartridge Corporation, a System Analyst for Honeywell, and retired as Customer Quality Audit Instructor at Unisys in Saint Paul in 1981.

Kidder was a life-long and active member of the Democratic Party where he served as a Precinct Chair, Senate District Officer, and member of the Central Committee of the Saint Paul DFL and Minnesota State DFL. He was an early and active member of the DFL's Feminist Caucus and a member of the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action.

Kidder advocated for what he called the "12 major modes" of transit: buses, electric trolley buses, LRT, urban rail, commuter rail, ferries, inclines, jitneys, monorails, PRT, People Movers, cable cars. He was an inveterate bus rider who insisted that public transit routes be included in all meeting notices and who refused to attend meetings not accessible by public transit. He rode on the last trolley to Hopkins from Minneapolis in 1951, and later on the last cable car to Mahtomedi from Saint Paul.

Besides being a political and transit activist, Kidder served as Vestry Clerk of St. Philip's Episcopal Church, in Saint Paul, a parish he joined in 1963. He was earlier a Vestry member of Holy Trinity parish at the Episcopal Center of the University of Minnesota. He was an excellent home cook and photo hobbyist, and had an abiding interest in language.

German Sister Chapter

Our sister chapter
In the spirit of international cooperation, we have established a relationship with a chapter in Europe. The Dillingen-Innenstadt community local is our "sister" organization in Germany and is part of SPD-Saar.

A letter from our friends at SPD Dillingen Innenstadt
We received the following letter from Carsten Klein who is a member of the Executive Committee of the SPD Dillingen Innenstadt (which loosely translates into the City Center Chapter for Dillingen of the Social Democratic Party of Germany). It describes the history of the town of Dillingen and the role that the SPD has played there.

SPD Dillingen-Innenstadt:
Dillingen is a small city of 22,000 inhabitants in the Saarland state and can look back on a history of over 2000 years. It began as a gallic-roman settlement called Contiomagus, in what today is Pachten suburb. In 256/57 AD Contiomagus was destroyed by Franconians; in the 4th/5th century Roman rule was replaced by those of the Merowingians. In 1357 the city's old castle was mentioned for the first time, which today serves as a cultural center. In 1685, Ludwig XIV gave permission to the owner of the castle and ruler of Dillingen, the Marquis de Lenoncourt, to establish ironworks, steel plants and melts. This was the beginning of the development of 'Dillinger Huette' [steel mills] into a global enterprise, and is today the largest employer of the city with over 5000 employees.

Starting in 1766, the Dillingen citizens became subjects of the French king. Dillingen was elevated to a duchy in 1789 under the duchess Katarina Kest, the second wife of the sovereign of Nassau-Saarbruecken. The French revolution meant an early end to the duchy. In 1815, Dillingen, Diefflen and Pachten became Prussian. The rise of Dillingen to a modern city began at the end of the 19th century. As the supply of sheet metals from the iron works to the navy grew, so did the number of persons employed, and thus the number of inhabitants of Dillingen. After WWI Dillingen, as part of the 'Saargebiet' region, was under the administration of the League of Nations. 1919 saw, for the first time, a local chapter of the SPD, which in 1920 already had 120 members. The first chairman of the Dillingen SPD was Johann Schneiderloechner. In the same year the party garnered 10 seats in the Dillingen city council elections thereby becoming the strongest party. In 1923 the 'independent socialist party' split off. The years 1934/35 were characterized by the struggle of the so-called 'status quo' movement, consisting of Social Democrats, Communists (Dillingen was at the time a stronghold of the KPD) and a few catholic politicians against annexation of the Saarland state into Nazi Germany. In spite of this, over 90% of the Saarland residents followed the Nazi slogan "Heim ins Reich" [back home to the empire]. After the reintegration into the German Reich, Pachten became a suburb of Dillingen in 1936-not voluntarily. The antisemitic policies of the National Socialists found support also in Dillingen and its suburbs. In 1938 the local synagogue was burned down, and Jewish fellow citizens became victims of persecution. Some of the Dillingen Social Democrats were persecuted by the Nazis as well, such as Jakob Burger who was executed in 1944 for 'preparation for high treason and undermining of the military strength.' Today, the Jacob Burger Place reminds us of the fate of this Social Democrat. The designation took place on the initiative of the Dillingen Young Socialists. In WWII Dillingen suffered a high number of war-dead, evacuations, and the destruction of large parts of its industrial plants, public buildings and private homes.

In 1946 the SPD was refounded as the Social Democratic Party Saar, Dillingen local, under the chairmanship of Alois Scharf. In 1949 Dillingen received municipal rights. The following year resulted in a split within the Saarland Social Democrats, again over the issue of affiliation to Germany or autonomy. The SPS (Social Democratic Party Saar) supported the 'Saarstatut', meaning independence but with integration into the French economic area, whereas the DSP (German Social Democratic Party) supported reunification with Germany. Again, 2/3 of the Saarland citizenry opted for Germany. After the referendum, DSP and SPS were unified as SPD Saar. In 1969, Diefflen became a Dillingen suburb. In 1977 the Dillingen SPD was divided into 4, later 5, local chapters,i.e., Innenstadt [city center], Pachten, Ueberm Berg, Diefflen, and later North. To coordinate the local chapters, a local confederate committee was created whose first chairman was Dr. Rudi Peter. In 1984 a Social Democrat, Lothar Grund, became city manager and thus deputy to the mayor. In 1989 the SPD received 21 of the 39 city council seats; the absolute majority for the first time, which was repeated in 1994. In 1990 Dillingen celebrated its 2000th anniversary. In 1994 Erwin Planta, a Social Democrat, became mayor of the city for the first time. Large political projects of the Dillingen SPD in recent decades include the improvement of the Saar harbour,the redesign of the market place, the creation of a city bypass, the (internally controversial) establishment of an aluminium foundry, the realization of a bicycle traffic concept, and the promotion of renewable energy.

Two prominent Social Democrats are closely connected with Dillingen: Oskar Lafontaine, the former Saarland Prime Minister and SPD chairman, grew up in Pachten suburb; and Dr. Brunhilde Peter, the former Saarland minister, has been and still is politically active in Dillingen including being a former chair of the SPD Innenstadt local. Also noteworthy is Guenter Mittermueller, a long time party activist, who recently received the 'Freiherr-von-Stein' medal for his volunteer work in local government and the community. Today, with its 275 members the SPD Dillingen Innenstadt is the largest of the 5 Dillingen locals, and also the one with the largest membership in Saarlouis county. Since 2004, the SPD is again in the opposition in the city council; it has 14 members , the CDU (Christian Democrats) 20, the OEBL (Environmentalists) 3 and the FDP (Liberals) 2. The SPD Innenstadt has five delegates in the city council, the local's chairman is Christian Wein, the deputy leaders of the parliamentary group Guenter Mittermueller, Rita Lorenz, Carsten Klein, and Cesira Zumia Bologna. Likewise, the local is represented in the Saarlouis county council by Olaf Papesch; by Christian Wein in the SPD executive committee, with Ahmed Koektas in the county executive committee of the Young Socialists, and with Karsten Klein in the regional party council of the Young Socialists. Rita Lorenz also serves as chair of the Dillingen SPD women's caucus.

Current projects taken on by the local range from discussion of a 'Business Improvement District (BID), to a 'Hundertwasser Solar Park' project, a youth center in an old railway assembly hall, and integration related issues concerning the many Italian, Turkish, and German-Russian citizens of the town. In addition, the local supports efforts to preserve the city's west wall bunkers from WWII for reasons of historical documentation.

Hopefully, we will be able to accept your invitation to Minneapolis/St.Paul some time soon. In return, as a matter of course, we invite our American comrades to visit us in the Saarland anytime.

Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America

THIS MONTH'S TWIN CITIES DSA MEETING

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Saturday, May 10, 2008

Sunday, May 18th, 2008, at 7:00 pm: THIS MONTH'S TWIN CITIES DSA MEETING

THIS MONTH'S TWIN CITIES DSA MEETING

Saturday, March 22, 2008

BRIAN MERCHANT TO SPEAK AT NEXT DSA MEETING ON PEAK OIL

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Fighting for Health Care for all: Health Care Action

Monday, January 14, 2008

MN United Steelworkers (USW)

Recent Events

Saturday, September 27, 2003

Book of Condolence for Anna Lindh, Swedish Foreign Minister

Twin Cities DSA History

German Sister Chapter