Sharrilyn --

Welcome to April! We have turned the clocks ahead, snow drops and daffodils are peeking out of the ground and the Spring holidays are approaching. We have quite a line up of activities this month, we hope that you will be able to join us in one or more of our gatherings.

March: The Month that Was

The highlight of the month was the No Dictators (No Kings) rally in Malmö at Stortorget on March 28. Despite the rain, which of course increased in intensity 10 minutes before we got started. About 40 people joined to show support and be counted as part of the No Kings movement. Thank you to all who came and shared thoughts, hugs, and camaraderie! No Kings estimates that 10 million people came out to protest at more than 3000 events. You can see all the protest sites at https://www.nokings.org/

Prior to the No Kings we had a sign making After Work in Malmö. It was a great way to meet new folks and discuss happenings while getting inspiration for catchy slogans.

We also had our premier Kitchen Table Talk. This was a virtual meeting. We shared a family friendly recipe prior to the event which took approximately 45 minutes to prepare. 

Membership Questionnaire Results

Thank you to everyone who responded to our short survey. It helps us to know what is top of mind for DA Sweden Skåne members and how we can be responsive to the collective needs. There were a number of comments asking for more virtual events as well as meet ups in other parts of Skåne such as Kristianstad, Helsingborg and Hässleholm. As mentioned above, we have now introduced Kitchen Table Talks which is a virtual format. We can definitely also arrange for virtual After Works and will work that into our schedule.

Regarding Meet-ups in other hubs in Skåne, we can look at creating local “sub-chapters” or having a rotating local host list. Please feel free to reach out to myself and/or Sharrilyn if you have any suggestions or would like to host an After Work or other activity in your area. For example there are 10+ members on Gotland, 15+ in the immediate Växjö area, 30+ in the Helsingborg area, as well as 15+ near Ängleholm.

Help us get the word out!

We are still looking for someone who is good with promotion, social media, or communications to help us. Email [email protected] if you can volunteer an hour or so a month.

Activities in April

• Remember to RSVP for the Annual General Meeting which will be held in Umeå this year. It will be a hybrid event but in order to get the link we do need to know if you will be attending. If you would like to host other members at your place, lets us know and Sharrilyn and I can send a targeted invitation to people in your area.
• Join us for Phone Banking! It’s fun and you do have impact in helping get out  the vote. There are sessions on April 12 and April 19. More information is available on our Event page. 
• The After Work this month will be on April 22 in Lund. No RSVP is required although it is helpful so we can make sure we have space. 
• The Kitchen Table Talk will be on April 23. This is a virtual event so an RSVP is required to get the meeting link and recipe. The main subject will be elections in general, including the attempts to disenfranchise voters, preparing for midterms as well as laying the ground for 2028. (We won’t solve everything in 1 ½ hours but it helps to get the conversation going.)

Developments in the US, Special Elections and News Sources

I think most have not missed the state of affairs with the war in Iran, by the time this newsletter reaches you there will surely have been new developments. But despite all the chaos I want to remind everybody that the administration is backing down, they are eating their own as we can see from the leaks that are coming out of the administration. They are losing in the courts. And most importantly we are flipping seats which have earlier been seen as staunchly Republican. Democrats have flipped 30 Republican-held seats in state legislatures across the country over the past 14 months, a sign that the GOP is at risk of losing control of the House, and maybe even the Senate, in the midterms. The wins have come in even in deep red states such as Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi.

Let’s help keep up the momentum! Please help remind friends and family to check their voting status. If possible, support helping people getting documents that they may need in the event the SAVE Act passes in some form. A personal tip, a passport card is very handy if the person you know does not do any international travel and their state doesn’t offer “Enhanced RealID” (Currently only Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington offer Enhanced).

Special Elections

• April 7 Georgia: Runoff special election for Marjorie Taylor Greene’s seat in Georgia 14. It is super important to turn out here. Two candidates face off on April 7: Democrat Shawn Harris and Trump-backed Republican Clayton Fuller. Harris finished with 37.3% of the vote in the primary, according to CNN and AP, the most of any Democrat by a wide margin. Trump-backed Fuller finished with 34.9% of the vote, beating out Republicans Colton Moore and Brian Stover.
• April 7 Wisconsin: Supreme Court Election
• April 16 New Jersey 11 congressional district.
• April 21 Virginia: Redistricting proposition which could give the Democrats as many as four seats in future elections. Here the GOP has been flooding the space with deceptive flyers and advertisements which could cause a voter to vote against the measure even if they are positive to it. If you have friends and family in Virgina please alert them to the GOP campaign.

Resources

In case you have not found favourite sources I personally recommend reporting from:

• The Guardian
• BBC
• Ground News
• The Meidas Touch Network (especially Scott McFarlane who recently left CBS)
• And as always the wise framing of current events by Heather Cox Richardson through her “Letters from an American”, and Politics Chat

Please enjoy the lighter days and we look forwards to seeing you in any of the different spaces!

Karin Williams and Sharrilyn Helgertz

________________

Democrats Abroad Skåne Chapter Chair and Secretary

[email protected], 

[email protected]

Mobile: +46 709 94 25 69

DA Sweden-Skane
https://www.democratsabroad.org/