Enjoy your March National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 27-person body (including both YDSA Co-Chairs) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, find out how chapters are melting ICE and improving their communities, stand against war, get involved with DSA labor work, and more!

And to make sure you get our newsletters in your inbox, sign up here! Each one features action alerts, upcoming events, political education, and more.

• From the National Political Committee — Melt ICE, Stop War, Build Labor
• Tonight, Thursday 3/12 — Join Our International Migrant Rights Working Group ICE OUT Training Call
• Union Members: Organize Against the War on Iran! Here’s How
• RSVP for National Electoral Commission: Standing Up to ICE Call Tonight Thursday 3/12
• Save the Date — DSA National Organizing Conference This Summer!
• Help Support DSA! Sign Up for Development Phonebanks Sunday 3/15 or Sunday 3/29
• Learn Fundraising Skills for Your Chapter — Join Our Sunday 3/22 Training
• Join Our Workers Organizing Workers Salt Training Series this April! Sessions Begin Monday 4/13
• DSA National Labor Commission May Day Organizing — Get Involved!
• Religious Socialism News and Events — Calls Starting Friday 3/20
• Join Our National Labor Commission Today
• Welcome New DSA Organizing Committees and YDSA Chapters!

From the National Political Committee — Melt ICE, Stop War, Build Labor

“They tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing people. That is too much, even for a joke. Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.” — Eugene V. Debs, Speech at Canton, OH, 1918

These words, pulled from the speech which famously got Comrade Eugene Debs thrown in jail (where he carried on his 1920 campaign for President on the Socialist Party ticket), are a universal truth. This truth could not be more evident as Trump and the Republicans, with the complicity of far too many Democrats, march us into yet another deadly forever war, this time with Iran, while continuing to starve and saber-rattle in their siege against Cuba. sell weapons to Israel, and use sanctions and violence to destabilize countless other people. Who suffers? The working class, always. Who benefits? The ultra-wealthy. 

But we aren’t backing off from the fight for working class power here or abroad, and we know that all of our fights are connected. For every new union contract we win, every tenant we organize to protect, every wealth tax we pass, every privatized good we make public, every socialist we put in office, we chip away at the power that the ruling class holds over us and consolidate it for the working class. It’s easy to feel hopeless when things seem so bleak, but we draw our strength from these wins, knowing that each one builds toward true working class power and total liberation.

Here are just a few of the blows against the capitalist class that are bringing us strength this month:

• Twin Cities DSA co-hosted an incredible Melt the ICE Week of Action, which included rallies, marches, trainings, and more, to share lessons learned from standing with immigrant neighbors on the frontlines of occupation by ICE. That included much discussion of the massive strike against ICE that recently took place on January 23, when many workers withheld their labor and almost 100,000 people took to the streets despite subzero temperatures. People in Minnesota are letting the ruling class know that a moderate step-down of ICE forces is still unacceptable — they want ICE gone, and they’ll keep organizing to kick them out from every part of civil society until that happens. 
  • For more reportbacks and reflections about the 1/23 mass actions against the ICE incursion in Minneapolis, join organizers from Twin Cities DSA and our National Labor Commission for a mass call on Tuesday 3/31 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT!
• Chapters across the country, from New Orleans to Philly to Seattle and beyond, hit the streets the day after the bombing began. Our National No War With Iran Rapid Response Committee mobilized members to send over 30,000 letters to Congress saying NO to war with Iran and YES to the War Powers Resolution, and held a mass call for over 1200 people to talk about the context and next steps for this mobilization. Watch the recording here if you missed it!
• NYC-DSA and chapters from around the state met up in Albany for a day of action demanding that Governor Kathy Hochul TAX THE RICH and spend that money on public goods — protecting New Yorkers from devastating SNAP and Medicaid cuts, instead of co-signing President Trump’s $12 billion giveaway to millionaires and billionaires. Meanwhile in the city, our socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani has set out to seize buildings from bad NYC landlords in order to improve life for tenants — and City Council is exploring a legal pathway to do it. 
• Symbolically, we love to see Zohran as NYC’s first Muslim mayor observing Ramadan side by side with workers — sharing a pre-dawn suhoor meal with sanitation workers about to take on a citywide blizzard, breaking fast with delivery workers — and hosting Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil for an iftar dinner at Gracie Mansion, a public show of solidarity after the ordeal of his prolonged detention by ICE under Trump’s crackdown on campus protests one year ago.
• Seattle DSA threw down to support socialist-in-office Assembly Member Shaun Scott in passing an amendment that successfully axed a massive tax break for corporations as part of a new state tax bill — more money out of the hands of the ruling class and into the goods and services the working class demands.
• New Orleans DSA, along with coalition partners at the BDS National Movement and elsewhere, successfully pressured the world-famous French Quarter Festival to drop Chevron as their title sponsor, connecting our national Stop Fueling Genocide campaign with their vibrant local arts scene and snatching away a primeaux reputation-laundering opportunity for one of the world’s worst (and wealthiest) companies.
• Atlanta DSA member Kelsea Bond motivated the Atlanta City Council to vote unanimously to support their first resolution in office as a socialist city councilmember, to prioritize pre-arrest diversion and examine the arrest procedures of the Atlanta Police Department as the FIFA World Cup nears, playing a critical role in preventing further jail overcrowding and punishing low-level offenses, and shifting toward community-based care.

This is just a taste of the work that our members are taking on. We are organizing from coast to coast and we’re not stopping! 

Later this month, DSA chapters across the country will be joining the No Kings mobilizations on Saturday 3/28 to say No Kings, No Cuts, No Billionaires! Over the past year, millions of Americans have turned out to these massive rallies against the Trump administration’s authoritarianism and horrific, cruel policies. We’re showing up in solidarity with everyone getting politicized right now, when we must show mass opposition to Trump’s power grabs and the rise of fascism. We need an opposition that isn’t funded by billionaires and special interests, who often stand against meaningful reforms like universal healthcare and working-class institutions of power like unions. Powerful opposition requires organization that keeps building through moments of mass mobilizations — and DSA is ready to keep building powerfully and democratically, as our organization of over 100,000 is funded by member-dues, and accountable to the working-class, not the billionaire class.

On the same timeline, we’re looking ahead to May Day this year, where we’re joining with the May Day Strong coalition and workers across the country to plan for May 1, 2026 as a day of action to rally, march, and plan for a day of no school, no work, and no shopping! When the billionaires break every rule, it’s going to take more than rallies to stop them. An upsurge of working class resistance is happening across the country against the violent repression by the Trump administration, most clearly on display in Minneapolis. We have to keep flexing our collective muscles and show our power to hit them where it hurts economically — it’s workers over billionaires!

If you’re not engaged with your local chapter’s work, we challenge you to connect with them today. Join your comrades for a rally, a canvass, or even just a fun social event, and get involved. Nothing helps combat despair like being an active part of this movement for the better world we know is possible. 

In Solidarity,

Megan Romer and Ashik Siddique
DSA National Co-Chairs

Tonight, Thursday 3/12 — Join Our International Migrant Rights Working Group ICE OUT Training Call

287(g) agreements allow ICE to deputize local law enforcement and embed ICE into jails, police departments, and even university campuses. ICE relies on local collaboration to create the neighborhood-to-prison pipelines for mass deportation, and we can and must organize to stop our local government and resources from being hijacked by Trump’s anti-worker and anti-immigrant agenda.

Join DSA’s International Migrants Rights Working group tonight, Thursday 3/12 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT to learn how to map and expose local collaborations with ICE and build coalitions to end them.

Union Members: Organize Against the War on Iran! Here’s How

If you are a union member, DSA’s National Labor Commission calls on you to talk to five of your union siblings about the war and begin organizing your union to take anti-war action!

• Contact Congress and demand they pass a War Powers Resolution on Iran to require congressional approval for any continued intervention in Iran.
• Take direct action with your union siblings by attending or organizing a mobilization against the war. DSA has endorsed the following ANSWER Coalition actions.
• Ahead of May Day 2026, talk to your coworkers about what labor actions they’d be willing to take in the face of prolonged war or election interference.
• Consider organizing a solidarity school or joining your local May Day coalition as a socialist unionist.

Stand with the people of Iran and take action today as a proud union member!

RSVP for National Electoral Commission: Standing Up to ICE Call Tonight Thursday 3/12

Tonight, Thursday 3/12 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT, hear from DSA Socialists in Office Robin Wonsley (Twin Cities) and Alex Brower (Milwaukee), as well as chapter electoral leaders in New York and Los Angeles as we discuss the role our electoral efforts have played in the response to ICE’s siege of our cities across the country. This is a members-only event!

Save the Date — DSA National Organizing Conference This Summer!

DSA is hosting a National Organizing Conference in Chicago, July 31–August 2. Save the date if you’re interested in attending — application details will be shared in the coming weeks.

Help Support DSA! Sign Up for Development Phonebanks Sunday 3/15 or Sunday 3/29

Join the Growth and Development Committee for an upcoming phonebank!

• Solidarity Dues Phonebank on Sunday 3/15 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT
• Recommitment Phonebank on Sunday 3/29 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT

Training will be provided at the beginning of each call. We’ll see you there!

Learn Fundraising Skills for Your Chapter — Join Our Sunday 3/22 Training

Join the Fundraising Committee for a training on chapter fundraising on Sunday 3/22 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm ET. RSVP today!

Join Our Workers Organizing Workers Salt Training Series this April! Sessions Begin Monday 4/13

Are you looking for a new job? Want to join the labor movement and build power on the shop floor with your co-workers? Join our Workers Organizing Workers (WOW) Salt Training Series! This three-session series will be held Mondays in April beginning 4/13. All sessions will be held at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT.

Salting, or getting a non-union job and organizing your workplace, is a key tactic that organizers have used for decades to build the labor movement. Join a historic tradition today! We’ll cover organizing basics, share information about our priority industries, and help you get a job you can organize. No organizing experience required.

DSA National Labor Commission May Day Organizing — Get Involved!

This year it’s more important than ever for DSA members to take the lead in bringing socialist politics to May Day by organizing May Day actions with their local unions and labor bodies. Whether your chapter is organizing a march, a solidarity school, a political education event, a movie night, or something else entirely, you can help organize successfully for  May Day 2026, International Workers Day! Contact your chapter for details. If you have any questions, please contact the National Labor Commission at nlc@dsacommittees.org.

Religious Socialism News and Events — Calls Starting Friday 3/20

If you are a person of faith, check out the DSA Religion and Socialism Working Group (RSWG). We are unique on the Left as a multifaith socialist group. This month, we have three calls and a new sub-group starting. Get involved today!

• The Black Liberation Socialist Circle is organizing Black Christians who are interested in the Black Radical Tradition and liberation struggles. Join our Discord here for more information. This space brings together political education, fellowship, and strategy rooted in the long tradition of Black freedom movements.
• On Friday 3/20 at 9pm ET/8pm CT/7pm MT/6pm PT, join the Democratic Socialist Episcopal Association (DSEA) for “A Socialist Way of the Cross Service: Who is the Empire Crucifying Today?”. This solemn service places the passion of Christ in direct conversation with the suffering of our own time. At each station, we will reflect on Christ’s journey to Golgotha, and on the systems of political domination, economic exploitation, racialized violence, and carceral control that continue to crucify the poor and marginalized today. This service asks where Christ is being condemned, beaten, and executed in our communities. Through prayer and reflection, we will confront the powers of death while proclaiming a hope rooted in collective liberation. Come prepared to meditate, lament, and recommit yourself to the work of justice. You can sign up for the call through the DSEA’s Discord.
• And help build the Buddhist Circle. What might it look like? How can Buddhist precepts and practices (e.g., meditation, 4 noble truths) deepen socialist ethics and be of benefit to organizers, activists, everyone? Join us Thursday 3/26 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT. Meetings are held the last Thursday of every month. You can find notes here.

For more about the Religious Socialism Working Group, please sign up for our email list to join our monthly online meetup on Tuesday 3/24 at 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT/6:30pm MT.

Join Our National Labor Commission Today

Are you:

• A union member?
• Trying to organize your workplace?
• An aspiring labor writer?
• Active in your chapter’s labor working group?

Join DSA’s National Labor Commission (NLC) and get involved in socialist labor work at the national level! Whether it’s salting your workplace, organizing towards May Day 2028, sharing strike support strategies with solidarity captains in chapters across the country, writing reports about national labor issues, or building up our national listwork, there’s an NLC campaign for you to plug into. Apply to join today!

Welcome New DSA Organizing Committees and YDSA Chapters!

And a warm welcome to our newest DSA Organizing Committees and YDSA chapters!

DSA Organizing Committees

• DSA Maui, Hawaii
• Cadillac DSA, Michigan
• DSA Wooster, Ohio

YDSA Chapters

• Indiana University Bloomington
• Santa Monica High School
• Millersville University
• University of Missouri Kansas City
• Western New England University
• Lehman College
• University of Wisconsin Eau Claire
• St. Mary’s College of Maryland

The post Melt ICE, Stop War, Build Labor — Your National Political Committee Newsletter appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Bosses and workers take on average 400 days to negotiate new contracts. The organizing challenge is significant, so how do you win?

The post How do I win a first contact? appeared first on EWOC.

By Tyler Edlin

Content advisory: murder, white supremacy, fascism, antisemitism, homophobia

On January 7, 2026, a Minneapolis resident named Renée Good was shot and killed by a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer while attempting to drive away from a frenzied scene of ICE officers and a group of other Minneapolis residents who had gathered on the street after an ICE vehicle had allegedly become stuck in the snow. On January 24, 2026, Alex Pretti, also of Minneapolis, was shot and killed in the middle of a street while filming ICE activity in his area on his cellphone. Their filmed executions have just been the most prominent of numerous casualties of the Trump Administration’s “Operation Metro Surge,” which targeted the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area of Minnesota following a story of alleged fraudulent daycare centers run by Somalian immigrants that took right-wing media by storm in late 2025.

Following the deaths of Good and Pretti, reactionary social media was buzzing, and the overwhelming consensus from the fascistic elements of MAGA was that this was a win for them.

One X (Twitter) user wrote in response to a video of ICE shoving a woman to the ground:

“Omg you voted for old white women to be aggressively shoved to the ground??”

Yes. Yes I did.

Another was in an argument with a MAGA supporter who expressed concern about how bad the shooting of Pretti looked and said:

Just don’t counter signal.  Period.  It’s not that hard.  I don’t care if they clusterbombed 10,000 protesters.  Don’t fucking counter signal our guys.  The other side never does this.  When will you all learn that

There are thousands of similar examples on social media of people cheering for their perceived enemies to be hurt and killed, along with people defending the administration’s brutality with no reservations, but these two are particularly revealing. This behavior is not unique to the current movement; it echoes the tactics of many past fascist and reactionary groups.

In the 1992 Republican Party presidential primaries, incumbent president George H. W. Bush faced down a disgruntled base after he infamously stated “Read my lips: no new taxes” in a 1988 speech before going on to raise taxes in a move that was almost universally loathed. His primary challenger was a man by the name of Pat Buchanan, a man described by the Anti-Defamation League as an “unrepentant bigot” who “repeatedly demonizes Jews and minorities and openly affiliates with white supremacists.” In an article written for The Washington Post in 1992, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote: “The real problem with Buchanan … is not that his instincts are antisemitic but that they are, in various and distinct ways, fascistic.” Buchanan has also gone on record defending Nazi prison camp guards, questioning Holocaust death numbers, pushing antisemitic hoaxes about Jews controlling the United States, calling gay people “Satanists,” and describing white people as being genetically superior to the other races.

In the aforementioned 1992 Republican primaries, George H. W. Bush ended up winning 72.8% of the vote (only to later go on to lose to Bill Clinton in the general election) while known anti-semite and white supremacist Pat Buchanan ended up with 23% of the vote (2.9M voters). Ultimately it was a far cry from what was needed to actually win anything, and with his later failures in 1996 and 2000, Buchanan proved to be unable to ever attain the Presidency (and thank God for that). That said, Buchanan’s successes point to a hyper-reactionary undercurrent in the old GOP of the post-Reagan years that many people, even Republicans at the time, did not want to acknowledge. I’ve heard this subsection of the pre-Trump GOP described as the “mad woman in the attic” – “we feed her, but we do not talk about her” – before Donald Trump came along and declared this disgruntled group as his base.

Buchanan’s followers, his “true believers” who remained always loyal to him, had a phrase that they liked to use: “lock and load.” An interesting, though often forgotten example of this was in the year 2000, when Buchanan completed a hostile takeover of Ross Perot’s Reform party. His supporters shouted down anti-Buchanan Reform party members with chants of “lock and load” at meetings, expelled a gay party leader simply because he was gay, and rewrote party rules to ensure that Pat Buchanan could run the Reform party as an anti-gay, anti-abortion hate machine (which then plummeted in the polls and finished with 0.43% of the vote in the general election).

In the 1920s, an Italian former schoolteacher and former Socialist named Benito Mussolini laid the groundwork for fascism and founded the world’s first fascist party (the PNF). At his disposal were the Squadrismo (later known as the “blackshirts”), a fascist militia who loved violence, hated socialists, and answered (mostly) to Mussolini himself. They terrorized local socialists, attacked their meetings, killed members, and laughed and reveled in the chaos and terror that they sowed.

Their motto was “me ne frego” – “I don’t give a damn.”

They murdered political opposition – “me ne frego.”

Set fire to socialist meeting places – “me ne frego.”

Tortured working-class union leaders in front of their families – “me ne frego.”

All of this came to a head in 1924. Mussolini had formed fascism from a movement of disaffected war veterans and youths into a political party. He wore a suit and played the political game. But when a socialist leader and prominent voice in the Chamber of Deputies named Giacomo Matteotti rallied people behind him after a fraudulent election which saw the fascist coalition gain so much power that they could no longer be kept in check, Mussolini had him assassinated.

Me ne frego.

Benito Mussolini walked into the next parliamentary session and fully removed the mask. He dared anyone to stop him, threatening fascist blackshirt violence on anyone who stood in his way.

Nobody moved.

Thus, the fascist beast was revealed for all to see. Violence not as a byproduct of fascism, not as a few “bad actors” among a larger whole. Violence as the very essence, the very nature of fascism.

In the 1990s and 2000s, American news companies regularly invited Pat Buchanan onto their shows. People (white people more specifically) who interacted with him claimed that he was a nice guy to them personally, almost as if they couldn’t believe that this same man would utter such hateful vitriol.

In the 1920s, Benito Mussolini turned his group of thugs into suit-wearing “politicians” who “played by the rules” (on paper at least). In the 2010s, the alt-right, led by Richard Spencer, wore suits and ties, cut their hair nicely, and presented themselves as a movement of intellectuals.

Fascists often dress nice, and speak from the sides of their mouth, to legitimize their ideas before hungry media cameras. The uglier truth always hides just beneath the surface. 

There appears to be a notion among some liberals that our current crop of neo-fascists can be “saved.” That we can “appeal to their better nature.” But again, violence is the nature of this ideology; it is what they stand for, it is what they believe in. That the strong may lord over whatever they please, and the weak shall submit to whatever fate is handed to them. It’s the moral compass that guided Nazi Germany, the Confederate States of America, Fascist Italy, and now, the “Make America Great Again” movement. It is a moral compass that always leads to ruin and immense human suffering. This ideology of violence cannot be reasoned with, as it refuses to moderate its quest for domination.

The choice must always be to fight, rather than accommodate. We can win, but we must know our enemy first. At the moment, MAGA grasps the levers of power of the United States government. The only force strong enough to confront this expression of fascism is the organized power of the working class. The strength of resistance that is currently occurring in Minnesota is only possible because of the network of community connections that are linked by a common cause. Rochester must begin using this blueprint to prepare. So that when the time comes, fascism will not be tolerated, but will be defeated.

The post Mask Off first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

by Mackenzie F

Throughout this harsh winter, we have watched the rising tide of fascism surge across our country, with trans communities squarely in its crosshairs. Kansas has revoked gender-affirming IDs with no grace period, clinics nationwide are shuttering their doors, and a myriad of anti-trans executive orders are being challenged in court. In Ohio, Republicans are working to dismantle bodily autonomy despite Issue 1 passing in 2023, and they continue to attack transgender people for simply existing in public life. Undeterred by these threats, Cleveland DSA holds the line on trans rights, maintaining our commitment to protecting the trans community.

Over the last year, we turned commitment into action.

By canvassing the city of Lakewood for weeks, building relationships with Lakewood City Council, and collaborating closely with community allies, we secured the passage of our Gender Freedom Policy. Cleveland DSA dedicated significant time and effort to developing this legislation, ensuring that it provides robust protections from law enforcement overreach for transgender and gender-nonconforming people within Lakewood, all without costing taxpayers a dime. 

Cleveland Heights and Lakewood have shown what is possible for the rest of Northeast Ohio, and other cities are taking notice. But the rest of this story is yet to be written. To win real safety for our trans neighbors, we must continue to build a strong, organized socialist movement in Cleveland. It is critical that Cleveland adopts our Gender Freedom Policy, not only to protect its own residents, but to send a powerful message: Ohio stands with the trans community.

Learn more about the Cleveland
Gender Freedom Policy here!

Cleveland DSA recognizes the power of collective action, which is why we are calling on all of our local allies to join the fight alongside us. From the AIDS crisis to every subsequent wave of government overreach, history has shown that our community survives only when we act together. This moment is no different. Pillars of our community like the LGBT Center, TransOhio, and Equality Ohio must stand in solidarity now more than ever.

The safety and dignity of our transgender neighbors rests on our shoulders. If you share our commitment to protecting this community, we urge you to take action. The legislation is written, and relationship-building with Cleveland City Council is already underway. But in order to move forward, we must gather at least 5,000 signatures from registered voters in Cleveland. While this may be no small task, we acknowledge that justice does not arrive by chance. It is built, block by block, by those who refuse to stay silent.

The state targets trans people not by mistake, but to divide us, to remind us that some lives matter more than others. We reject that logic. Trans liberation is not secondary to our movement; it is central to it. Because a world worth building is one where no one is left to struggle alone. So as the sun returns, warming both the land and our spirits, we invite you to join us in this crucial fight.

Here’s what you can do:

• Meet with one of our organizers to help collect signatures
• Attend one of our project meetings
• Contact your Cleveland City Council representative
• Talk to your loved ones
• If you haven’t already, join DSA. Join the fight.

We will not rest until we have shattered the chains that bind every one of us. Solidarity forever!

The post Trans Rights: We Will Not Rest! Sign the Gender Freedom Policy in Cleveland! appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

Previous entries — Part One, Introduction; Part Two, Electoral Politics; Part Three, Labor

As we learn from the successful organizing of the SPA, we must also acknowledge the SPA’s greatest failure. At the same time reactionary tendencies dominated the AFL, bigotry also had a far too common place in the socialist movement. Many prominent SPA members held racist and misogynistic viewpoints, and the membership of the organization (predominantly white and male) reflected this. While it is accurate that socialist politicians and the party’s position tended to be more emancipatory than other political organizations of the time, the lack of a strong anti-racist and feminist culture significantly weakened it.

While many women did join the party and played crucial roles as socialist organizers, the organization never reached anywhere near gender parity, with few women in leadership positions. This occurred despite an effort by the party to take a role in the movement for women’s rights. In 1908, the SPA endorsed the women’s suffrage movement and hired a full-time staffer dedicated to the cause.  Ruthenberg himself once argued that there was “no more important cause” than bringing women into the party.  But the demographic imbalance persisted. This situation was described by Cleveland local member Nellie Zell in her article “The Lone Woman in the Local”:

“The first thing that greets her is that same capitalist mind of these Socialist men who have invited her to come. . . . Indeed, it is a very embarrassing position for both men and women. They want her there, yet now that she is there, they don’t know what to do with her. To make the matter worse, they talk about things of which she has no knowledge, and to smoke or not to smoke is the burden on their minds, while she is wondering whether she had better talk or preserve that lady-like silence so much admired by members of the old parties… I wonder if you men fully realize what that word ‘Comrade’ means to us women?”

Put simply, the party was failing to present a comradely attitude towards women who were interested in socialism. Within a broader US social culture that discouraged women from being active and vocal politically, this resulted in a failure to recruit significant numbers of women into the SPA.

The SPA did not embrace anti-racism in the 1910s in the same way it did the suffrage movement. Many locals in the South operated under segregation, and several prominent socialist leaders were open white supremacists. The Ohio Socialist Party adopted a position in 1911 of encouraging the recruitment of Black members, but there was a failure to explicitly condemn racial oppression, rather than just class oppression of Black workers. This changed over time, as discussed in Eric Blanc’s article which focuses primarily on SPA congressman Victor Berger’s shift from holding openly racist views to being praised by the NAACP.  However, this tolerance of racism was an incredibly significant failure of the organization for the duration of the 1910s, when it was most politically relevant.

On the other hand, we can take some positive examples from the SPA’s national and linguistic diversity. Cleveland was a cosmopolitan city,  and the Cleveland local represented this well, including German, Bohemian, Polish, Jewish, Finnish, Hungarian, Lettish, Lithuanian, Slovak and Italian branches.. Nationally, there were similar language-based federations, with both posing an interesting question of internal governance. These groups represented a significant portion of party membership on paper, but in practice operated very autonomously. Some SPA members, like Ruthenberg, advocated for more centralization of the language federations, bringing them closer in line with the organizing of the party as a whole. Others advocated for the autonomous model as an effective way to organize immigrant communities. Ultimately, it is clear that the party’s diversity among European immigrant groups was a strength enabled through providing spaces for socialists of the same identity to coordinate. With the language federation’s tendency to effectively act as internal factions, Ruthenberg’s push towards centralization is understandable, although such practices should be accompanied with a clear understanding that solidarity, not assimilation, is the answer to xenophobic attitudes.

In many regards, DSA has come a long way from the open displays of bigotry and predominantly white male membership of the SPA. However, there is still much to be learned from their failure to stand with the oppressed – which is both a moral disgrace and a political weakness. With a membership and mass reach beyond DSA’s today, one can imagine how much stronger the SPA would have been had it built a membership that represented the broader working class. To avoid replicating this, DSA members should heed comrade Zell’s words. Even with the SPA supporting women’s suffrage, it did not create an environment conducive for women to organize. It is easy for a chapter’s demographics to self-perpetuate, as new members do not feel welcome in a space that does not look like them or their communities. In order to change this, we need consistent and proactive effort throughout all organizing projects, and structured ways for marginalized comrades to coordinate. To do otherwise will only serve to cement Cleveland DSA’s current place – as a predominantly white organization in a multiracial city.

Please return tomorrow for Part Five: Conclusion: The SPA’s Rise and Fall

The post History of Cleveland SPA Part Four: Diversity in the SPA appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

By Casey G

If you’re in the mood for pizza, there’s no better place to go than Sicily’s Pizza in Southwest Detroit. This is where MDDSA comrades met on December 8th for a Red Square co-presented with the Political Education and International Solidarity working groups. Peter B. of Brazil’s Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (Socialism and Liberty Party, abbreviated to PSOL) was visiting Detroit and met with us over cheese and pepperoni pizzas to discuss his experiences living and working in Brazil, and answer questions from comrades at MDDSA.

Peter has been an organizer since 2009, starting in Brazil’s student and youth movement. He then moved into electoral, where he was chief of staff for PSOL Congresswoman Sâmia de Souza Bomfim. He is currently living in the United States while reasearching with an American university.

Peter discussed the difference in American and Brazilian party systems. As opposed to our American reality of two parties struggling to hold power on one side of the binary or the other, Brazil has 30 recognized political parties with more than 20 parties holding seats in Congress. New parties are more common in Brazil than in the US, with PSOL forming in 2004 after a split from the Workers Party after President Lula’s proposed pension reform raised the retirement age. PSOL currently holds 12 of the 513 seats in Brazil’s Congress.

Peter gave us a personal anecdote of his experience witnessing the power of the general strike. While he was a student in Sao Paolo in 2017, he witnessed the ripple effects of a general strike through the city. While it affected plenty of sectors, his example was the subway union: the mode of transportation that millions of residents rely on (this year’s strike affected an estimated 3.3 million residents) was unavailable and attention drawn to the needs of those whose undervalued work maintains the system underlying the movement of thousands of citizens daily.

Peter laid out his three guiding principles for a socialist elected. As seen with Lula of the Worker’s Party and then as PSOL gained seats in Congress, the election of a socialist does not miraculously transform the system they operate within. Peter offers foundations to take into these new circumstances.

First, to mobilize society. Success is not achieved in the act of taking office — success is improvements in the material conditions of the working class. These include goals such as Mamdani’s freezing rents, free buses, and universal childcare. [CG1] An elected is not just a representative with a megaphone; true embodiment of the position is organizing and mobilizing constituents to fight for themselves.

Second, to speak the truth of and for the working class. Honesty is its own labyrinth in politics, but as an elected navigates the system, they must be guided by honesty towards their constituents as they face obstacles and compromise.

And last, expanding the horizons. Once we reach goals that have been set, we expand the field and stretch to farther goals. Particularly given DSA’s recent bout of electoral wins (Detroit’s own Denzel McCampbell, and of course, Zohran Mamdami in New York City), it’s time to start thinking about what happens when the North star we’ve been following turns from a spot on the horizon to the ground under our feet. What does socialist governance look like in practice?

We are still operating within a capitalist system and there’s an important balance to strike for American socialists. These electoral wins are indeed achievements to be celebrated; we have not achieved a miraculous change to existing systems and our electeds are going to have rough waters to steer in.

It’s also perpetually invigorating to see people talk about, as material reality, the things we fight for now in the United States. When we’re constantly told how providing medical care to every person is unrealistic, it’s helpful to be reminded that is simply not true. Brazil has a Healthcare for All system. They also removed private money from elections ten years ago. These are not unreasonable pipe dreams; they’re concrete reality elsewhere and worth fighting for here, too. A huge thanks to Peter B. for taking time to discuss with us his experiences in Brazil.

Red Square Recap: An Evening with a PSOL Organizer was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

DSA can make it happen.

The post Every City Needs a Pro-billionaire March appeared first on Democratic Left.

by R.K. Upadhya

The American Civil War is a key moment of US history. If you grew up in the US, you almost certainly spent a good chunk of time in grade school learning about the Civil War. It is also likely the case that this education was boring and unengaging. This is a tragedy, for in fact the Civil War era had profoundly radical and revolutionary dimensions, and should be a source of education and inspiration for the modern Left and the US socialist movement. Case in point: after Abraham Lincoln’s re-election victory in 1864, Karl Marx himself helped pen a letter of congratulations to Lincoln, celebrating the Union cause as a universal interest of the working class, and encouraged him toward complete victory over the Southern slavers. It is not often that we think of Marx and Lincoln as being contemporaneous – but they were, and while it is unknown if Lincoln actually read Marx’s letter, it is likely that Lincoln read at least some of Marx’s many articles in the New York Daily Tribune.

The Civil War was the culmination of the abolitionist movement, which emerged out of free Black communities of the North, and the slave revolts which rocked the South in the 1830s. And the abolitionist movement is where the US Left was truly born; it was in this fiery struggle against slavery that many of the ideas we hold dear today – anti-racism, democracy, anti-imperialism, and anti-capitalism – went mainstream and became a permanent part of American politics. There is a grand history for how this happened, with many moving parts. But one fascinating thread is the way in which the abolitionist movement in the US was connected with the emerging revolutionary socialist movement in Europe. Abolitionism being the birthplace of the American Left wasn’t just a matter of converging values, but based on a direct exchange of ideas and militants between the US and Europe – and in particular, the cohorts of revolutionary German exiles who immigrated to America in the 1850s.

Historical Context

The abolitionist movement started in earnest in the 1830s, after Nat Turner’s Rebellion in 1831, which galvanized free Black communities across the North and put an end to any doubts that enslaved people were happy with their lot in life. Over the course of the next few decades, it grew dramatically in popularity, organization, and militancy; its electoral expression was the Republican Party, founded in 1854, while its more revolutionary tendency was expressed via the likes of John Brown, Harriet Tubman, and other insurgent figures. By the 1850s, the question of slavery was the defining political issue in the US, fostering an intense amount of political and civil unrest.

At the same time, Europe was also undergoing convulsions. In parallel to the growth of the abolitionist movement in the US, the revolutionary socialist movement was growing, and founding figures like Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels were coming into the spotlight. The tremors finally erupted into an earthquake in 1848, when a wave of uprisings and revolutions shook the foundations of Europe, particularly in Germany. Workers, peasants, and other parts of a “revolutionary citizenry” assaulted and overthrew centers of monarchical and feudal power. Marx and Engels wrote and published The Communist Manifesto during this tumult; Engels himself was in the streets as a revolutionary soldier.

Unfortunately, the revolution in Germany gets crushed, and millions of Germans escape to Western Europe and beyond, fleeing harsh counter-revolutionary reprisals as well as general economic ruin. Many of these refugees and exiles end up in the United States; about one million Germans emigrated to America in the 1850s. And among this number, roughly 4,000 were hardcore revolutionaries, socialists and communists, organizers and militants, in addition to tens of thousands more supporters, followers, and sympathizers. This cohort was known as the “Forty Eighters”, exiles of the 1848 Revolution. And once in the US, the Forty Eighters immediately bolstered the ranks of an increasingly revolutionary abolitionist movement. This was a natural alliance; the nature of the Southern slaver elites was an uncanny mirror image of the tyrannical aristocrats that they had attempted to overthrow at home. And for the abolitionist movement, these veterans brought military experience, organizational discipline, and expansive ideas about liberty, labor, and capitalism, which coupled well with the parallel works of the leading abolitionist intellectuals.

Colonel Weydemeyer and General Willich

Two figures in particular represent the radical edge of the Forty Eighter abolitionists: Joseph Weydemeyer and August Willich. Both of these men were German communists and revolutionaries, who eventually ended up as high-ranking military officers in the Union Army.

The initial trajectories of the two men were similar. Both were Prussian military officers in the 1840s, who became radicalized by Marx’s writings about capitalism, class, and revolution. They rebelled in 1848 on the side of the Revolution, and fled west when the revolution was crushed. They made personal acquaintance with Karl Marx in London, and joined the Communist League and helped further develop revolutionary socialist politics in Europe. After a few years, both men emigrated to the United States, where they planted themselves among fellow Forty Eighters and made a living via political organizing and radical intellectual writings. And when the Civil War began, they enlisted along with large numbers of fellow Germans, and quickly rose up the ranks due to their previous military experience and their political fervour.

Compared to Willich, Weydemeyer was more of an intellectual type. He was a friend of Marx and Engels; in fact, it was Marx who directly suggested to Weydemeyer that he emigrate to New York City. Once there, he quickly got to work in left-wing journalism and organizing, joining a growing cohort of revolutionary Marxist voices that joined the abolitionist movement. He was a co-founder of what was arguably the first socialist organization in the United States, the American Workers League (which, despite its broad name, was almost entirely an organization of radical German immigrants). This group would later become the New York Communist Club.

When the Civil War began, Weydemeyer enlisted and quickly ended up as a technical aide to General Fremont, an abolitionist and a radical rival to Abraham Lincoln. Within a year, Weydemeyer was a Lieutenant Colonel and in charge of a volunteer artillery regiment. Later on in the war, he served as a Colonel of the 41st Missouri Infantry Regiment. Amusingly, throughout his active duty service, Weydemeyer kept up his intellectual pursuits, exchanging letters with Marx and Engels about the war, writing opinion pieces for local newspapers near his posts, and engaging in local debates. In 1864, when Marx helped found the International Workingmen’s Association (a.k.a., the First International), Weydemeyer printed out copies of the inaugural address and passed it out to his men (it is unclear how many of these Missouri infantrymen subsequently joined the cause of international communism).

After the war, Weydemeyer remained in politics, winning an election for the St. Louis County auditor. He ran the office as a Marxist, using his powers to strengthen tax laws and chase down war profiteers. Unfortunately, his tenure was short-lived; Weydemeyer passed away in August 1866 from cholera.

August Willich led a similarly colorful life, albeit one more oriented around military affairs.

An excellent book on his entire life, only a tiny fraction of which can be discussed here, is Radical Warrior: August Willich’s Journey From German Revolutionary to Union General.

Like Joseph Weydemeyer, Willich also knew Marx & Engels; indeed, Engels was Willich’s right-hand man during several battles in the final stages of the 1848 Revolution. But unlike Weydemeyer, Willich did not like Marx at all. Willich led the left-wing faction of the Communist League, and thought Marx was too conservative and was not eager enough to wage revolutionary struggle; for his part, Marx was not impressed by Willich’s intellectual standing. There may have also been some more personal animosity at play; Willich apparently was quite interested in Marx’s wife, Jenny, and would regularly come visit her at their home in London and engage her in long conversations about theory and politics. As Jenny Marx described, “He would come to visit me because he wanted to pursue the worm that lies in every marriage and coax it out.” It’s not clear if Willich ever coaxed out the worm; within a few years, he emigrated to the United States, engaged in radical writing, and organized among other German immigrants and Forty Eighters in the midwest.

When the Civil War began, Willich played an important role in recruiting fellow Germans into the military; he would become a Colonel, and then a General in command of an all-German infantry unit, the 32nd Indiana Infantry Regiment. Willich and his men quickly distinguished himself on the battlefield, helping win one of the few Union victories in 1861 at the Battle of Rowlett Station in Kentucky. This battle saw about 500 German infantrymen defeat over 1,000 Texas Rangers and assorted Confederate infantry. This battle is also commemorated in what is the oldest surviving Civil War monument, the Bloedner Monument, which was carved by a member of the regiment a couple of weeks after the battle. It’s a remarkable piece of history, since it’s likely that this battle is mentioned in many Civil War textbooks – but the radical historical context, that this victory was one of a revolutionary communist veteran and other revolutionary exiles, is papered over or ignored.

Willich and the 32nd would go on to fight in other major Civil War battles, including the 1862 Battle of Shiloh, the 1863 Siege of Chattanooga, and General Sherman’s “March to the Sea” in 1864. After the war, just like Weydemeyer, Willich went into government service and was elected as a county auditor in Ohio. In his later years, he went into academia. August Willich passed away in 1878.

Forty Eighters in Texas

The legacy of the Forty Eighters is also present right here in central Texas, where many Germans settled in the 1850s. San Antonio and the Hill Country were particularly popular – a legacy that still continues today, with cities like New Braunfels and Fredericksburg remaining centers of German culture, as well as smaller towns like Boerne and Comfort. Despite being in a southern slave state, just like their brethren in the midwest and the north-east, German immigrants to Texas were generally anti-slavery and pro-Union. In 1854, Germans in San Antonio caused a major political firestorm when they held a convention and passed a resolution condemning slavery. In 1861, during the Referendum on Secession, the counties with the most Germans tended to vote against secession.

As the war progressed, repression against Unionists escalated, with Germans being a major target. In 1862, the Confederacy passed a conscription law to mandate military service, which provoked German Texans Unionists to escalate into armed resistance – which in turn, brought martial law across the Hill Country and waves of violent reprisals. The struggle culminated in August 1862, when a band of Germans gathered up arms and attempted to escape to Mexico. Unfortunately, the Confederates caught wind and chased them down, eventually cornering them on the banks of the Nueces River, and defeating them after a pitched battle. Despite being right at the border, the German Unionist rebels were captured, and 34 executed on the spot. The dead were buried at a cemetery in Comfort, Texas, where after the war a monument was erected – the Treue der Union Monument, or, the “Loyalty to the Union” Monument – to honor them and the pro-Union beliefs that they died for. This monument remains in Comfort to this day.

Conclusion

These stories – of German Texan rebels, communist commanders, and the surprise emergence of Marxism in antebellum America – should make us recognize the importance of tracing back our own political lineage to this period. It was the abolitionist movement that established a long and unbroken legacy of socialist politics and struggle in the United States. Abolitionists went on into different movements after the war, expanding the struggle into labor organizing, civil rights, anti-imperialism, and feminism. After the abolitionist movement, came Radical Reconstruction; veterans of that went on into the Knights of Labor, and then the Industrial Workers of the World; then emerged the Socialist Party and the Communist Party, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party, and so on. We should look at abolitionists as our own political ancestors, and with the connection to radical German immigrants, appreciate that revolutionary socialist politics has been in this country for a very long time.

And to draw a final parallel to then and now: the Civil War didn’t start out of nowhere. It was preceded by years of civil unrest, violence around elections, and collapsing legal boundaries. And one dynamic in particular, was the escalation of violence in the 1850s by federal agents against Northerners. After the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, federal agents and southern bounty hunters and slave catchers had free legal reign to indiscriminately hunt down Black people to kidnap and enslave. This enraged public opinion across the North and galvanized abolitionists and their allies, who organized Vigilance Committees to track and disrupt federal operations, preventing arrests, staging jailbreaks, and engaging in pitched battle against the feds.

And it is a remarkable parallel today, when we have federal troops engaging in indiscriminate violence with impunity, hunting down immigrants, assaulting and murdering protestors, kidnaping people and whisking them off into a growing network of concentration camps. And in response, just like over 150 years ago, people are organizing and mobilizing, forming rapid response networks, tracking and disrupting federal operations. It is a beautiful thing, and shows how our political ancestors can echo through us today, even without our conscious knowledge. The struggle has been going on for a long time; and if there is to be another civil war, let us make sure we finish it for good this time around.

The post Between Marx and Lincoln: German Communists in the American Civil War first appeared on Red Fault.

Previous entries — Part One: Introduction; Part Two: Electoral Politics

There were two different approaches to “the labor question” in the 1910s SPA. The first approach was to work within the existing unions. In the early 20th century, the dominant AFL was composed of trade unions representing workers with specific skills, did not stand up for broader working class interests, and was bigoted and exclusionary towards racial minorities and women. Many socialists sought to confront the AFL leadership and push unions in a different direction. This included Clevelander Max Hayes, who would at one point win close to a third of the vote in the AFL leadership race, and is now commemorated in a namesake West Side high school. 

Others sought to follow the path of dual unionism, which was advocated by the SLP, and organized on a mass scale following the founding of the International Workers of the World (IWW) in 1905. Wobblies, as IWW members were at times known, favored industrial unions, which represented sectors or workplaces, rather than workers with specific skills. This advocacy for industrial unionism was shared by others in the SPA (including some in the AFL), but was not reflected within the party’s platform for most of the 1910s.

Labor organizing was another topic where Ruthenberg demonstrated a commitment to unity, despite the bitter divides among SPA members. As his biographer stated, “his primary interest was in labor’s struggle, whether led by a craft union or industrial union.” This principle of solidarity came to the forefront as worker organizing escalated. In 1911, Cleveland saw the historic International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union strike, with thousands of workers participating. In his mayoral campaign of that year, Ruthenberg argued that the power of the state should be wielded in favor of the workers through the swearing in “a hundred of the coolest heads among the strikers” as special police. Three years later, Cleveland teachers organized a union, working in solidarity with a group of mothers from the school districts. Ruthenberg again supported this organizing, which was ultimately derailed by the administration’s firing of pro-union teachers. This repression of worker organizing was upheld by a frequent enemy of workers – District Judge David Westenhaver, who effectively delayed the unionization of Cleveland teachers until 1934. The same year, Ohio miners were locked out of their workplace following the passage of a new labor law, which the mine owners hoped to appeal as unconstitutional. In response, Ruthenberg called on the Ohio Socialist Party to push for immediate state ownership and worker operation of the coal mines. Later on, Ruthenberg would unionize his own white-collar workplace, and lead mass rallies of workers including IWW and AFL members.

The unity practiced by Ruthenberg and the Cleveland local is admirable, and carried on within DSA’s labor organizing approach today. While there are still contentious debates to be had within DSA regarding our approach to labor organizing, the disagreement is over narrower territory.  This is largely a reaction to the changes in the labor movement within the past century, shifting predominantly towards industrial unions which are much more willing to embrace the entire working class. This has eliminated a considerable portion of the impetus for dual unionism. Instead, DSA labor work now focuses on organizing new workplaces into unions, and bringing existing unions towards a more militant posture and political unity with our aims. As we undertake this work, as I am honored to do as Cleveland DSA’s elected Union Liaison, we should strive for the same levels of mass organizing as the SPA, bringing thousands of workers towards a socialist vision.

Please return tomorrow for Part Four: Diversity in the SPA

The post History of the Cleveland SPA, Part Three: Labor appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

Events & Actions

Tuesday, March 10 (3:30 PM – 5:00 PM): Public Comment: Save Prop I (San Francisco City Hall, 1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett P)

Tuesday, March 10 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday, March 11 (6:45 PM – 9:00 PM): DSA SF General Meeting (zoom and in person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Ave)

Thursday, March 12 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM): New Member Happy Hour (Standard Deviant Brewing, 280 14th St)

Thursday, March 12 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM): Education Board Open Meeting (zoom)

Friday, March 13 (9:30 AM – 10:30 AM): District 1 Coffee with Comrades (Breck’s, 2 Clement St)

Saturday, March 14 (1:00 PM – 3:00 PM): Immigrant Justice KYR Canvassing (Buena Vista Ave W & Haight St)

Sunday March 15 (12:00 PM – 3:00 PM): SiO x E Board x HWG: Letter Writing and Propaganda Day (1916 McAllister St)

Sunday, March 15 (3:30 PM – 5:00 PM): Haiti and Neocolonialism (1916 McAllister St)

Monday, March 16 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM): Labor Board Meeting – Office Hours (zoom)

Monday, March 16 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM): Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday, March 16 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM): DSA Run Club (McClaren Lodge, eastern end of JFK Drive)

Tuesday, March 17 (5:30 PM – 7:00 PM): Social Housing Meeting (1916 McAllister St)

Tuesday, March 17 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Public Transit Meeting (1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday March 18 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM): What is DSA? (1916 McAllister St)

Thursday March 19 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM): Social Committee (zoom)

Thursday March 19 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM): Public Bank Project Meeting (zoom)

Thursday March 19 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Immigrant Justice regular meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Saturday March 21 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM): HWG Food Service (Castro Street & Market Street)

Sunday March 22 (5:00 PM – 6:00 PM): Tenderloin Healing Circle Working Group (zoom)

Monday March 23 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Tenderloin Healing Circle (Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Ave)

Monday March 23 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Labor Board Meeting – Existing Union Support (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates.

Tell California to Let SF Regulate AVs

In the wake of the December power-outage in which Waymos gridlocked traffic citywide, the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary continues to refuse transparency. Sign this petition to demand that communities be given the power to regulate autonomous vehicles.

Speak up to Save Affordable Housing Funds!

Billionaire Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood announced legislation that would slash real estate transfer taxes on the wealthiest corporate landlords. This directly undermines 2020’s Prop I, which has generated more than $500 million in revenue for housing that working San Franciscans can actually afford.

Join us TODAY, Tuedsay 3/10 at room 250 in City Hall, for public comment (no earlier than 3:30 PM) to speak up to save Prop I and affordable housing funds! RSVP for talking points.

If you can’t make it, send a letter to City Hall demanding that they reject this blatant attempt to cut taxes on the richest corporate real estate owners at the expense of working San Franciscans.

Take action now to stop the eviction of a SF tenant currently detained by ICE!

Take action now!

Call and email Trinity Plaza, 33 8th St. LLC to stop the eviction of a San Francisco tenant currently detained by ICE. He fled political persecution in Russia and is being threatened with eviction while in federal custody. Landlord lawyers refuse to delay the hearing, putting his home and stability at risk.

Demand the eviction be dismissed immediately! Send letter via Action Network here and come to the rally on Thursday March 12 at 5:30 PM at Trinity Plaza 33 8th St.

New Member Happy Hour

Join us for our a Happy Hour at Standard Deviant Brewing (280 14th Street) March 12th 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM. Learn more about DSA SF’s upcoming projects, find out how to plug in, or just socialize with socialists! Also open to old members, regular folks and the socialism-curious.

Bay Area Mass Meeting & Training Non Cooperation: May Day & Beyond

The Bay is organizing and we need you.

We are building a mass non-cooperation movement to stop fascism and defend our communities. Join us to learn about our campaigns targeting corporations enabling ICE including Palantir, Home Depot, and Target and organize for a powerful May Day: No Work, No School, No Shopping. We are also organizing our neighborhoods to defend our neighbors and stand together against these attacks. This is the moment to act. Come find out how to plug in.

Topics covered include:
– Build mass participation for May Day
– Take on the corporations working with ICE
– Learn skills to build our campaigns, escalate our actions and expand our organizing
– Organize our neighbors to stand together against ICE attacks
– Build a united movement to stop these attacks once and for all!

RSVP HERE

Sponsored by Bay Resistance

Saturday, March 14, 2026

9:00 AM to 3:00 PM

Mission High School, 3750 18th Street

Immigrant Justice Canvassing Event and Social

Immigrants Justice Know Your Right canvassing event followed by social on Saturday March 14 at 1:00 PM. Meet at Buena Vista Park near the intersection of Buena Vista and Haight St.

Haiti and Neocolonialism

Come join DSA SF and the Haiti Action Committee to learn more about Haiti’s history, the role of the United States and France in it’s exploitation, and what is happening in Haiti today. After winning independence from their former enslavers in 1804, Haitians found themselves ensnared in a new form of colonialism and economic exploitation which extracted billions of dollars of wealth, unleashed generations of violence, and violated their national sovereignty. This exploitation continues to this day.

French and US finance capital developed new methods of forcing economic dependency which was used as a model 100 years later throughout the post-colonial era of the 20th century. We will learn about the Haiti’s specific history as well as explore the broader dynamics of neocolonialism in an interactive, discussion-based event at the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister St on Sunday March 15th from 3:30 PM to 5 PM. RSVP here.

Reportback from Alemany Farm event

On Saturday 2/28, DSA Ecosocialism working group hosted a Growing Community event at Alemany Farm where 25 people showed up to discuss socialism and to volunteer at the farm! We received a tour of the farm and discussed topics such as: the ecological and social importance of seed diversity, how labor struggles have laid foundations for an alternative to profit-driven speculative land ownership, and the social benefits of having a space completely open for the community to enjoy and participate in. We worked in their orchards weeding and fertilizing the land, and harvested fresh vegetables and produce to bring home. Getting our hands dirty and recentering ourselves with the earth and with each other is a great way to stay hopeful for a better future and to directly impact others. Stay tuned for future community gardening and farming events led by the Ecosocialism working group! Thank you Alemany Farm for hosting us!