This report was submitted on behalf of the CPUSA San Diego club.

Here in the San Diego and Imperial Counties Club, a new member picked me up on December 2nd, and sat with me at a town hall where I stood up and “birddogged” our Representative Mike Levin, who still refuses to call for a ceasefire. This comrade is a young dad, with a wife and two small children. It was his first time attending any political event, and it sparked his enthusiasm to continue looking at what we can do together in the club and in the party. He wound up filming on his cell phone my call-out of our rep, and while he declined to be credited for the video, he allowed the San Diego Jewish Voice for Peace (SD JVP) to post it on their Instagram account. Here is the video.

This comrade quietly, with no fanfare, did the confusing online registration for the town hall and went through the security check at the door with me¹, and sat silently next to me the whole time. On the way there, he told me how gratified he was to be able to do something to leave a better world for his children. He got to hear my phone interview with a reporter from a local newspaper. The reporter wound up quoting the wrong person, but, hey, at least they covered JVP and allies’ presence — that was the first time the SD JVP has been covered in local corporate press!

The comrade was going to leave it at that, and then it occurred to me to invite him to write up a brief summary of the event and post it in our club chat. He agreed to do it, and it upped his engagement in the club and the club chat.

I’ll end with a plug for the digital tool that US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) created, it’s pretty eye opening. You can simply type in your city or state to see what the money currently going to support the Israeli military could pay for. I made use of this tool by taking a screenshot of the result for San Diego and posted it on the SoCal CPUSA Twitter page.

^{1. Why I mention that the comrade went through the online registration: allies from some other left-wing groups (not JVP) came only for the demonstration outside on a remote sidewalk down a hidden driveway, bringing a professional photographer to film that and make a big social media splash. They ignored the town hall, which a team of us had closely prepped with JVP staffers for, for several days beforehand. My club comrade got to see the difference between a small left group showing up for photo ops vs. actual lobbying of our elected officials. The left allies didn’t see fit to send a professional photographer inside, which our local JVP chapter doesn’t yet have the resources or personnel for, though it’s a quickly growing chapter. ↩}

Image: San Diego Jewish Voice for Peace calls out Mayor Todd Gloria for his silence and complicity with Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza by JVP San Diego (Instagram)

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