In this issue:

Events:

• Vienna: Election Night Party
• Graz: Post-Midterm-Elections Dinner, Drinks, & Debriefing
• Experienced Democrats Meet-Up
• Thanksgiving A Feast with All the Fixings
• Global Black Caucus Book Club
• Sol Sun: 2018 Midterm Recap

Issues & Actions:

• Vorarlberg’s Going Viral
• Thank You Volunteers!

Reviews:

• DAATalks: Timothy Snyder
• Sol Sun: The Lucrative Business of US Prison

Members Corner:

• Pod Love: The Daily
• Institute for International Peace Podium Discussion

Events

Vienna:  Election Night Party

We've canvassed, we've phone-banked, we've voted, and on election night we'll be watching for the wave! Join us for dinner and drinks and stay late as the election results come in.

Graz: Post-Midterm-Elections Dinner, Drinks, & Debriefing

We responsible Graz-dwelling Americans are going to bed early on November 6th and will awaken fresh and bright-eyed to glorious news of the blue wave having surged through Congress and our state and local legislatures. Join us for drinks, dinner and discussion, hugs and tears (of joy, we hope!) on the evening after the midterms.

Visit us on facebook!

Experienced Democrats Meet-Up

Global Black Caucus Book Club

Don't let the title keep you away from examining this historical perspective on race and class in America. Author Nancy Isenberg uncovers the ever-present “poor white trash” throughout American history and destroys the notion that upward class mobility in America is possible. Isenberg also draws from her extensive research to show us that Trump and his appeal to poor rural whites is nothing new- they have always been used as a means to a political end. Come join us for meaningful discussions and an unflinching look at the past that is informing our present.

Sol Sun: 2018 Midterm Recap

Issues & Actions

Vorarlberg’s Going Viral

In the late spring of 2017, Stephanie Don of the Vorarlberg Chapter received a couple of names of people whose data were being updated in the Democrats Abroad Austria (DAA) records when she asked whether there were any other expats living in her newly established home. Without much ado, she contacted them and then they were four.

Paul and Andrea Miller, Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger and Stephanie began planning regular meet-ups, talking about what was going on and subsequently crying into their glasses of wine, beers or tea (depending on who you ask). As the meetings rotated between the three homes, the snacks turned into dinners and great discussions about travelling and food and all sorts of things beyond politics until, one night, Paul said, “We gotta do something that makes a difference."

READ MORE

We hope you enjoy the video! How Far Would YOU Go to Get the Vote Out?

Thank You Volunteers!

Democrats Abroad Austria proved once again that even though Austria is a small country, we are a strong DA Country Committee. Thanks to our volunteers who called members, registered voters, wrote postcards, and answered voters’ questions, more than 50% of our members registered to vote through Vote From Abroad and nearly 90% – this includes non-members – of the number of our members used the site. As International Chair Julia Bryan wrote, “Austria accomplished a super feat.” Globally, DA made nearly 114,000 calls and registered more than 88,000 voters!

Please give our DA Austria volunteers a round of applause!

Alma, Andreas, Anne, Aryo, Ashley, Becky, Bonnie, Brett, Bruce, Caitlin, Cecilia, Dan, Eva, Faith, Fiona, Fred, Gloria, Harold, Jeffrey M., Jen, Jennifer S., Jessica, John, Juan, Karin, Kate, Keith, Marcy, Mary Anne, Matt, Michael, Mickaela, Mico, Nathan, Raina, Renee, Robert, Salem, Steve, Suzanne, and Tanya.

– Jennifer Rakow-Stepper, Chair

Reviews

DAATalks: Timothy Snyder

DA Austria welcomed Professor Timothy Snyder for a fascinating and lively talk at the Republikanischer Club in Vienna’s 1st District on October 24, 2018. Timothy Snyder is a Professor of History at Yale University, specializing in Central and Eastern Europe and the Holocaust. He is also a Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen) in Vienna. Additionally, Snyder’s ability to speak, write, and read eleven European languages gives him a unique insight into the countries he writes about. His books include: Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century, and most recently, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia Europe America.

What’s going on? Snyder posited that the current unpredictability

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Solidarity Sundays: The Lucrative Business of US Prison

Democrats Abroad members gathered once again, this time to discuss both the explicit and implicit costs of the mass incarceration of American citizens. First we discussed the purpose of incarceration and if the goal is mainly to punish or rehabilitate. Then we dispelled some common myths about the American prison system, including the total number of incarcerated Americans (over 2 million), which common offenses they commit to end up in prison (mainly violent crimes at the state level and drug offensives at the federal level) and that 6.1 million adults are unable to vote due to state-specific restrictions on voting while incarcerated and on probation (13 states can restrict voting indefinitely!). We completed the discussion with a call to action on what we can do from abroad to help. We can boycott companies that use both public and private prison labor. We can also put pressure on politicians who take donations from for-profit prison companies. And finally, we can donate to organizations that fight for prison reform, like the Equal Justice Initiative, the Sentencing Project and the Formerly Incarcerated People’s movement.

– Faith Hall Herbold, Global Black Caucus Coordinator

Members Corner

Podcast Love: The Daily

The Midterms are closing in, which means the next days will be an emotional rollercoaster. This is the season of breathless headlines, dire polls alternating with hopeful polls, Trump rallies, and ACLU fights in courts.

You could probably do with a soothing voice in your ear, companionable, confiding, and focussing on just one thing at a time. Am I right? Here are a few podcasts that may help.

“The Daily“. You may still be yelling at the Timesfor emails, emails, emails. Don‘t let that stop you from checking out its podcast. Its twenty-minute update murmured in your ear by former political reporter Michael Barbaro is described byThe New Yorkeras “a necessary daily practice: like meditation, but with hair-raising breaking news instead of mindfulness.“ It offers insight into the culture of hard newsgathering, showing the work-in-progress of reporting, not just its finished product. Barbaro is smart, but not afraid to ask, “So, Rukmini, where exactly isMosul?“ Try it for the news, stay for the idiosyncratic intonation and emo empathy.

“On The Media“ by WNYC. I‘ve written of OTM here before, the hour-long weekly investigation into how the media shapes our worldview. I mention it again because this is a time of polarized, tribal politics and ratcheting anger at “the other side“. We‘ve all caught ourselves at it. Brooke and Bob show us how choices made by media professionals frame our reactions. Try it for the enlightenment, stay for the exchange between hopeful, rational Brooke and doom-and-gloom Bob.

“Trump Inc.” is not an antidote to the emotional convulsion of the election season. It’s a true-crime podcast about the President’s business dealings by ProPublicaand Slate. If Dems are able to re-take Congress, this investigative podcast is working through the long list of items for congressional committees to tackle. Try it for the connections between Trump‘s Presidency and his profits, stay for the leads sent in by listeners.

– Tanya Lolonis, Member-at-Large, Solidarity Sundays Coordinator

Podiumsdiskussion: Die USA nach den Wahlen

Das International Institute for Peace (IIP) freut sich Sie auf die bevorstehende Veranstaltung aufmerksam zu machen und herzlich einzuladen!

Moderation:

• Hannes Swoboda, Präsident, International Institute for Peace (IIP)

Podiumsteilnehmer:

• Eric Frey, der Standard
• Heinz Gärtner, International Institute for Peace (IIP), Universität Wien
• Dardis McNamee, Zeitschrift Metropole
• Eva Nowotny, ehem. Österr. Botschafterin in Washington DC
• Elisabeth Rosenstock-Siller, US-Botschaft

Inhalt:

Kurz nach den Zwischenwahlen in den USA lädt das International Institute for Peace zu einer Podiumsdiskussion ein um folgende Fragen zu diskutieren:

Was waren die Gründe des Wahlergebnisses? Ist Präsident Donald Trump gestärkt oder geschwächt? Was bedeutet das Wahlergebnis für die Demokratische, was für die Republikanische Partei? Welchen Weg nehmen die USA nach den Zwischenwahlen? Was sind die innen- was die außenpolitischen Konsequenzen der Wahlen?

Im Anschluss lädt das IIP zu Getränken und Snacks

Die Veranstaltung findet in Deutsch statt

WHEN: Thursday, November 8, 19:00-21:00

WHERE: International Institute for Peace, Möllwaldplatz 5/2, 1040 Wien

REGISTER: https://www.iipvienna.com/registration/

Sie finden diese Veranstaltung auf unserer Homepage www.iipvienna.com/events sowie auf Facebook www.facebook.com/IIPVIENNA

Mit der Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung stimmen Sie der Veröffentlichung von Fotos und Filmaufnahmen, die im Rahmen der Veranstaltung entstehen, zu.

Um keine weiteren Zusendungen mehr zu erhalten, schreiben sie bitte an registration@iip.at.

DA Austria welcomed Professor Timothy Snyder for a fascinating and lively talk at the Republikanischer Club in Vienna’s 1st District on October 24, 2018. Timothy Snyder is a Professor of History at Yale University, specializing in Central and Eastern Europe and the Holocaust. He is also a Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen) in Vienna. Additionally, Snyder’s ability to speak, write, and read eleven European languages gives him a unique insight into the countries he writes about. His books include: Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century, and most recently, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia Europe America.

What’s going on? Snyder posited that the current unpredictability – Trump, Brexit, the Polish government’s fictions – multiply faster than we can keep up and are causing us to lose our sense of time. Journalists are of course more important than ever as they are in the position to produce facts and therefore reinforce not only a past, but also a future. Without a past, we don’t feel the future. Without history we’re in an eternal present with events looping over and over again. The competing notions of time eternalin present day Russia and time inevitablein Europe is the conflict that manifests itself in Russian interference in European and American elections, the war in Ukraine and the destabilization of Syria.

What to do? Regardless how November 6th turns out, activism is key. To win in the long run we must address issues of economic inequality; we need to fill the public space with facts – not just point out the lies; we need to discuss and debate issues in the real world – not online or in social media – and support local news organizations which cannot be targeted by widespread bot campaigns.

The Road to Unfreedom is required reading for anyone interested in Professor Snyder’s central question: How did we get here?

– Jennifer Rakow-Stepper, Chair