Austin DSA

Honor Our Martyrs! Two Years of Genocide Vigil. Oct 8th, 6 to 9:30 PM, Auditorium Shores, Brent Gulke Plaza. Please bring candles, flowers, or names of martyrs to honor if you can!

As we approach two years of intensified genocide in Gaza, we will come together to grieve every life lost and renew our commitment to the fight for Palestinian liberation.

Long live Palestine 🇵🇸

🌙 Oct 8th, from 6-9:30pm
🌃 Brent Gulke Plaza Auditorium Shores

STOP ALPR! Canvass #11 Help us inform our neighbors about Automated License Plate Readers, mass surveillance, and the dangers of bringing this technology back to Austin! When: Saturday, October 11th, 10 AM to 2 PM. Where: Barton Springs Pool (South Gate), 1000 Azie Morton Rd.

Join the next Austin DSA canvass for the No ALPRs campaign! We'll be informing our neighbors about Automated License Plate Readers, mass surveillance, and the dangers of bringing this technology back to Austin.

Remember, the only secure data is data never collected!

RSVP here: buff.ly/UHkw7S4

Freedom Ride Against Genocide! Saturday, Oct 11th, 5 PM. Starting and ending at Once Over Coffee Bar, 2009 S 1st St. 5-8 miles, mostly flat and beginner friendly route. Follow us on IG: @freeridepal_atx

This Saturday, October 11th at 5 PM, join our members in participating in the Freedom Ride Against Genocide, starting at our Austin Against Apartheid campaign's participating location, Once Over Coffee!

Updated meeting spot!
bit.ly/atxgreg

Welcome home Austin veteran and Global Sumud Flotilla activist Greg Stoker! While sailing with the Global Sumud Flotilla, a fleet of over 50 civilian boats attempting to deliver critical humanitarian aid to Gaza, Stoker was abducted by the Israeli military. Join us in welcoming him home and standing in solidarity with the hundreds of activists and thousands of Palestinians still held captive in Israeli prisons. Time: Tuesday, October 7th, 7:30 PM. Location: Austin-Bergstrom Airport Arrivals

🚨 BREAKING 🚨
Global Sumud Flotilla crew member and U.S. Army veteran Greg Stoker is returning to Austin today, Tuesday, October 7th. Join us at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at Arrivals at 7:30 PM to welcome him home!

actionnetwork.org/events/no-al...

Join the next Austin DSA canvass for the No ALPRs campaign! We'll be informing our neighbors about Automated License Plate Readers, mass surveillance, and the dangers of bringing this technology back to Austin as the City Manager wants to do.

@noalprs.bsky.social

[ATX DSA Stop ALPR logo] Postcard Writing Party! Tell Austin City Council: No mass surveillance in our city! When: Saturday, Sept 20th, 3 to 6 PM. Where: Brewtorium, 6015 Dillard Cir A.

This Saturday, join the No ALPRs campaign for a postcard writing party! We'll be writing to urge our Austin City Council members to oppose Automated License Plate Readers, a harmful form of AI mass surveillance being used to facilitate mass deportations across the country.

RSVP: buff.ly/1puZXtN

Enhanced Library Card | Austin Public Library español

Also, there's still time to get your Enhanced Library Card if you haven't already and want to win a superlative! See the Austin Public Library website for more information: library.austintexas.gov/enhanced

Enhanced Library Card Drive Celebration! We surpassed 100 pledges to get and use Enhanced Library Cards, let's party! Drag performances, manifestation station, ELC photo superlatives, collective banner making, trans and intersex Texas history trivia. When: Sunday, September 14th, starting at 12 PM. Where: Double Trouble, 103 N Loop Blvd E.

Agenda: 12 PM - Manifestations, banner making, and ELC Photo Superlative submissions begin. 12:45 PM - ELC Photo Superlative submissions close and voting begins. 1 PM - ELC Photo Superlative voting closes, Drag performances with Sir Beau Elliot, Gender Destruction, and Kino Kino begin. 2 PM - ELC Photo Superlative crowning ceremony. 2:15 - Trans and Intersex Texas History Trivia. 2:45 PM - Trivia winners crowning ceremony. 3:00 PM - Party wrap-up!

Remember to bring: Your Enhanced Library Card, in order to win a superlative! Tip $ for the drag performers! Positive changes you'd like to manifest for the queer community! Trans and Intersex Texas history knowledge! Doodle ideas for your banner square! A sense of whimsy!

Our Enhanced Library Card Drive Celebration is coming up this Sunday! We're celebrating reaching 100 pledges to normalize the use of gender-free IDs by using an ELC whenever possible. Join us at Double Trouble for a fun afternoon of drag performances and party games!

RSVP: buff.ly/gCThquz

Accessibility note: Masks encouraged, five high-quality air filters running throughout the event. Elevator on-site with accessible entrance. Food will be provided.

National Convention Reportback Town Hall! Thursday, September 18, 6:30 to 8:30 PM. At IBEW Local Union 520, 4818 E Ben White Blvd #205.

Next Thursday, Sept 18th, join comrades from Austin DSA's delegation to the 2025 National DSA Convention to discuss the events and outcomes of the convention, what they mean for our movement, and how they will affect our work locally!

This event will be hybrid, RSVP here for Zoom: buff.ly/kl82Vvb

Labor Day Fundraising Concert! Live Music: Jay Wanderer, Slomo Drags, New Strangers. Sunday, August 31st, Doors at 6:30 PM. At Sagebrush, 5500 S Congress Ave.

Come hang out with Austin DSA for Labor Day for a night of live music! (21+) At Sagebrush on South Congress!

Workers make the world go round and Austin DSA is committed to making the world a better place for workers.

RSVP+Tickets: buff.ly/Yykkb0z

Stop Automatic License Plate Readers! Canvass #5. Where: Dick Nichols District Park - 8011 Beckett Rd, Austin 78749. When: 10 AM to 2 PM, Saturday 8/30

Join the next Austin DSA canvass for the No ALPRs campaign! We’ll be informing our neighbors about Automated License Plate Readers, mass surveillance, and the dangers of bringing this technology back to Austin as the City Manager wants to do.

RSVP here: buff.ly/9gV6GdM

Online public comment is still open for SB 8 until Monday, August 25th at 5 PM! Make your voice heard here: comments.house.texas.gov/home?emci=45...

Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy CALL TO ACTION (Urgent!) We need your help to stop a bad bill: Senate Bill 8!

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Senate Bill 8 seeks to ban trans people from occupying sex-segregated facilities that align with their identity within publicly owned spaces, including schools. This applies to facilities such as bathrooms, dorm rooms, locker rooms, jails, and domestic violence shelters. Policies like this operate on an outdated definition of “biological sex” and put trans people at a significantly increased risk of harm, whether it be the impact on mental health or violence and harassment from those who seek to police others’ bodies. Trans and intersex people deserve to exist, work, and learn in public spaces without fearing for their safety and access to basic needs.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: SB 8 has crossed over and will have a hearing with the House State Affairs Committee TOMORROW, Friday, August 22. We need to be ready to show up to the Capitol in force to testify and drop cards against this bill. The hearing will start at 8:00 AM in room JHR 140. How to drop a card: https://buff.ly/877Bp8V How to testify: https://buff.ly/QCqn53G Find and contact your Texas House Representative: wrm.capitol.texas.gov

CALL TO ACTION: Senate Bill 8, or the anti-trans bathroom ban, has been scheduled for a hearing TOMORROW, Friday, August 22.

How to drop a card: buff.ly/877Bp8V
How to testify: buff.ly/QCqn53G
Find and contact your Texas House Representative: wrm.capitol.texas.gov

Text that reads: You should get an Enhanced Library Card! Check out the blog post at redfault.com. The Austin DSA Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy campaign logo is at the top.

Do you like libraries, gender-neutral IDs, solidarity with marginalized groups, and defying Greg Abbott? Learn about how you can get all of these things at once with Austin Public Library’s Enhanced Library Card (ELC) in our latest Red Fault blog post at buff.ly/SAti9cZ

Did you know there is a form of secondary ID with no gender marker that you can get for free?

Austin DSA’s Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy Campaign invites you to join our Enhanced Library Card Drive! We’re all getting gender marker-free photo IDs to say fuck you to Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, and all of the state legislators who refuse to recognize transgender Texans’ right to self-determination. Get an Enhanced Library Card with us, stick it to the man, and join us for a party when 100 people pledge to get and use ELCs by August 15th!

What is an Enhanced Library Card? An Enhanced Library Card (ELC) is a form of secondary identification offered by the Austin Public Library that includes your name, address, photograph, and date of birth, plus a scannable barcode. Not only does it let you check books out from the library, but it’s also an acceptable form of ID for numerous city departments and community organizations. Notably, you can use your ELC to identify yourself to the Austin Police Department.

Do you like libraries, gender-neutral IDs, solidarity with marginalized groups, defying Greg Abbott, and parties? You can enjoy all these things at once when you pledge to get an Enhanced Library Card along with Austin DSA's Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy campaign! More info in the thread 🧵

No ALPRs presents: a community movie night this Saturday, August 2nd 4 to 6 PM! 🍿🎥 FREE! We will have snacks and speaker Daniela Silva will share how you can keep the Austin community safe!

RSVP link in bio! 🎟️

Austin DSA Batcast: The Struggle for Trans Rights, Episode 2.

"The road to fascism is paved with many small human rights violations." - Rox S, Co-Chair of Austin DSA's Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy campaign

As the 2025 Texas Legislative session came to a close, state lawmakers returned to a subject that dominated the previous session in 2023. The last two legislative sessions alone have seen an unparalleled influx of bills targeting Texas’ trans population; attacking their access to healthcare, their bodily autonomy, and their ability to exist at all. This may seem like standard procedure for a state where LGBTQ+ people have long been political targets, but the rapid increase in harmful legislation comes on the cusp of a larger national trend. And yet, Texas is distinct in its long, rich history of queer culture that dates back over a century.

The 2023 session saw 7 major anti-LGBTQ+ bills pass that have fundamentally changed the way queer people are able to live in this state. A state where its very own citizens spent decades paving a path forward for marginalized groups, put the best interest of religious fundamentalists first. Texas has set queer people back in ways we’re only just beginning to see the effects of. The 2025 state legislature may have closed [now extended with a special session], leaving behind its own trail of anti-trans legislation, but still, in the midst of this, Austin residents continue to resist and take the necessary action required to challenge hate and bigotry every step of the way.

In this episode of the Austin DSA Batcast, we're covering the fight for trans rights in Texas, with a special interview from our Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy campaign Co-Chair Rox S.

Head to linktr.ee/austindsa) to watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify!

Wait, did you say something about a party? Yes, that’s right! If we can get 100 people to pledge to get and use an Enhanced Library Card as a primary form of ID by August 15th, we’ll throw a party! With House Bill 229 taking effect September 1, we want to make sure that as many people as possible have and are using their gender-free IDs by then. Pledge by adding your name here: tinyurl.com/ELC-ID-Pledge

Get your ELC at your convenience, and join Austin DSA TRBA for a party (details TBA) when we reach 100 new ELC-holders by August 15!

Pledge to get and use an Enhanced Library Card as a primary form of ID whenever possible here: tinyurl.com/ELC-ID-Pledge

Why should I get one? We just went over what an ELC includes. What it does NOT include is a gender marker. House Bill 229, which will take effect on September 1, 2025, has codified reproductive system-based definitions of immutable, biological sex into state law. While we have yet to see what effects HB 229 will have, we anticipate it will prevent transgender Texans from seeking gender marker changes on their IDs. Getting an ELC means that you can identify yourself without outing yourself or disclosing your gender identity.

That's not all! We're getting Enhanced Library Cards in solidarity, too. ELCs are also recommended for people in other marginalized communities, like those who are unhoused and undocumented immigrants. Even if you aren’t transgender, it’s a good idea to get an ELC. The more people who have and use an Enhanced Library Card as a form of identification, the more its use is normalized. That way, someone providing an ELC to a police officer won’t immediately be singled out. Protect yourself and other vulnerable members of our Austin community at the same time!

How do I get one? To qualify for an Enhanced Library card you will need: to be over the age of 18, a photo ID, and proof of address. You will have to go to a participating library in person to present your documents and have a photo taken. Digital forms of ID and proof of residency are accepted. Enhanced Library Cards are available at nine Austin Public Library locations: Central Library, 710 W César Cháves ST. Cepeda Branch, 651 N Pleasant Valley Rd. Little Walnut Creek Branch, 835 W Rundberg Ln Menchaca Road Branch, 5500 Menchaca Rd. Milwood Branch, 12500 Amherst Dr. Ruiz Branch, 1600 Grove Blvd St. John Branch, 7500 Blessing Ave. Southeast Branch, 5803 Nuckols Crossing Rd. Terrazas Branch, 1105 E. César Cháves St.

Getting an ELC is FREE and takes just a few minutes at a local library branch (view the participating locations in the slides above). You’ll get your ELC printed right in front of you and can start using it right away to identify yourself to APD, the Austin Municipal Court, and more.

Did you know there is a form of secondary ID with no gender marker that you can get for free?

Austin DSA’s Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy Campaign invites you to join our Enhanced Library Card Drive! We’re all getting gender marker-free photo IDs to say fuck you to Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, and all of the state legislators who refuse to recognize transgender Texans’ right to self-determination. Get an Enhanced Library Card with us, stick it to the man, and join us for a party when 100 people pledge to get and use ELCs by August 15th!

What is an Enhanced Library Card? An Enhanced Library Card (ELC) is a form of secondary identification offered by the Austin Public Library that includes your name, address, photograph, and date of birth, plus a scannable barcode. Not only does it let you check books out from the library, but it’s also an acceptable form of ID for numerous city departments and community organizations. Notably, you can use your ELC to identify yourself to the Austin Police Department.

Do you like libraries, gender-neutral IDs, solidarity with marginalized groups, defying Greg Abbott, and parties? You can enjoy all these things at once when you pledge to get an Enhanced Library Card along with Austin DSA's Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy campaign! More info in the thread 🧵

Fundraising House Party: Help our delegates attend DSA Convention! Live music, grilling, drinks. camaraderie. Friday, July 25, 6 PM. $25 suggested donation for ticket.

We're raising funds to help our Austin DSA delegates attend DSA National Convention in Chicago in August! Join us Friday, July 25th, for a Fundraising House Party with live music, grilling, drinks, and camaraderie. Suggested donation is $25 to attend, donate here: buff.ly/OPs0vrA

From Austin DSA, congratulations to Zohran Mamdani and NYC DSA for yesterday’s monumental victory in the New York City mayoral primary election. Policy that serves working class interests wins! We've done it before here in Austin, electing Mike Siegel to City Council last year, and Zohran's huge win shows that the Democratic Socialist movement can beat establishment politics.

Austin DSA congratulates Zohran Mamdani and @socialists.nyc for their monumental win in the NYC mayoral primary election. This victory shows that working-class politics can triumph over establishment politics for city leadership.

Let’s keep up the momentum, join DSA: dsausa.org/join

A graphic that reads: Witness and Solidarity in Palestine: Testimony from Austinites. Hybrid, RSVP for Zoom link and location. Thursday, June 26, 2025, 7 to 8:30 PM. Below the text is an image of a person walking in the West Bank.

This Thursday, June 26th, join Austin DSA and Seminarians for a Free Palestine for a panel and Q&A with several Austinites who have recently returned from doing solidarity work in the West Bank.

Masking will be required for in-person attendees.

RSVP: buff.ly/GqeYIkY

Graphic with a rainbow background and text that reads: June General Body Meeting! Time - Tuesday, June 24th, 7 to 8:30 PM. Location - 2008 Justin Building A. Virtual Attendees: RSVP for Zoom link.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 24th, join us for our monthly General Body Meeting! Austin DSA gathers monthly for updates on our current campaigns, rousing political speeches, and to vote on what the chapter should work on.

RSVP: buff.ly/yxfk0Lt

Austin DSA Presents: Labor History and Tactics, The Origins of Mayday. Join us on Zoom. Thursday, June 12th, 7 to 8:30 PM. In the background is an image of demonstrating workers.

Join Austin DSA's Political Education Committee on Thursday, June 12th at 7 PM for a conversation on Labor History and Tactics. Times are dark, but we can still organize, fight, and win!

RSVP here: buff.ly/jbsB9t3

Headline: Austin DSA stands against AI Surveillance! Imagery: Two screenshots of a local Fox 7 article explaining that voting on the ALPR program has been removed from the agenda, thanks to community members showing up to the work session on Tuesday to oppose the program. Subhead: Corporations want to collaborate with I.C.E and the far-right. We say: not now, not ever!

Headline: Austin DSA stands against AI Surveillance! Body text: This week, Austin City Council was set to decide if they would renew the automated license plate reader program (ALPR). Over 500 scanners that record our movement without a warrant, were installed at fixed locations and police cars across the city. Our community was subjected to over 75 million license plate scans and 165 arrests. By stopping the use of ALPRs, we protect our immigrant communities, people seeking healthcare, and our First Amendment rights. It's too risky to collect data that could fall into the wrong hands. We say: not now, not ever!

Austin City Council was due to vote to renew the Automatic License Plate Reader Program today. Austin DSA took part in getting the vote on this dangerous surveillance program shut down. We say: not now, not ever!

Austin DSA and Austin Against Apartheid organize for a free Palestine by diverting US resources away from Israeli genocide and apartheid. In doing so, we are standing against all occupational forces that stand between working class people and freedom. We all deserve to live in a world free from money spent on state violence and war instead of life affirming services like housing, healthcare, and social safety nets. Israel’s aggression and religious framings of the conflict breed acts of hatred around the world. The struggle for Palestinian liberation affords us a vocabulary for envisioning a safer, freer world. A free Palestine means a safer society at home and abroad.

A free Palestine means a safer society at home and abroad.

For over a year and a half, Austin DSA has argued that the state of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people is inseparable from struggles for justice in Texas and the United States. We see this everywhere: from the militarized police forces that stalk Black and Brown neighborhoods after being trained by the Israeli military, to the women in Gaza forced to navigate reproductive healthcare structures that have been obliterated by imperial US foreign policy as reactionary domestic policy destroys those same systems at home. The local is inseparable from the international, as the violence that the US oversees abroad returns to our own communities in the form of fascist violence.

We stand in solidarity with Nueces Mosque, Austin Diyanet Center, and the Islamic Ahlul Bayt Association (IABA), which on May 22 were spray painted with “symbols, including Stars of David, defacing the mosque’s main entrance and surrounding property.”

Conventional media in the United States often frames violence in Palestine as a religious conflict that has lasted for centuries. The spray painting of a Star of David on a mosque perpetuates this myth, when in fact, this conflict is defined by the aggression of a Zionist, racist, setter-colonial state against an indigenous people which refuses to let itself be destroyed. Framing this as a religious conflict hides a national liberation struggle and inflames both Islamophobia and antisemitism around the world. While Zionism claims that no Jewish person can be safe from antisemitism without a militarized ethnostate, Jewish people suffer when their religion is co-opted and equated to the violent, political ideology of Zionism.

The use of a Jewish religious symbol as a hate crime against Austin’s Muslim community at large and the UT community at Nueces Mosque in particular is only one more example of how these dynamics have tangible consequences in our city. Recall the stabbing of Zacharia Doar following a Palestine solidarity protest in Austin in 2024, the attempted drowning of a child in Euless, TX later that year, and the emboldening of local neo-nazi groups to carry out actual antisemitic hate crimes in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election. None of us are safe unless all of us are safe.

We stand in solidarity with Nueces Mosque, Austin Diyanet Center, and the Islamic Ahlul Bayt Association (IABA), which on May 22 were spray painted with “symbols, including Stars of David, defacing the mosque’s main entrance and surrounding property.”