Upcoming Events

Wednesday, May 14 (6:45 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): May General Meeting (Zoom and in person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Ave)

Thursday, May 15 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Da Vinci Code Reading Group – Day 1 (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Thursday, May 15 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigrant Justice Working Group (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, May 17 (2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): No Appetite for Apartheid Consumer Pledge Canvass! (Meet outside 3100 16th St)

Sunday, May 18 (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Capital Reading Group (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, May 19 (5:50 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Socialist in Office + Electoral Board Meeting (Zoom)

Monday, May 19 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Planning for Vision and Strategy (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, May 19 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Tuesday, May 20 (7:00 p.m. – 8:15 p.m.): Socialist Night School: Salting (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, May 21 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): What is DSA? (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, May 21 (6:45 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (In person at 438 Haight)

Thursday, May 22 (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.): Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Thursday, May 22 (7:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.): Comrade Karaoke (In person at 34 7th St.)

Saturday, May 24 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Food Service (Meet at Castro St. and Market St.)

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

Events & Actions

Apartheid-Free Bay Area: Consumer Pledge Canvassing

Help gather signatures in order to build public support for local apartheid-free stores and to raise awareness about Israeli apartheid! We’ll be meeting at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 17th in front of 3100 16th St. We will first train you, and then you will put that training into practice by collecting signatures at the Nakba Day Rally. RSVP here! New members encouraged to join!

Rally: Remember the Nakba, Demand an End to Genocide in Gaza

Saturday, May 17 will mark 77 years since the Nakba. Since then, Palestinians have faced genocide, displacement, and occupation under Zionism. This Nakba Day, we will rally at 16th St. and Valencia St. starting at 2:30 p.m. alongside cities worldwide to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza, a full and immediate two-way arms embargo on Israel, the release of all Palestinian political prisoners, Immediate humanitarian aid and reconstruction for Gaza, and an end to the Zionist occupation of all Palestinian land.

The world stands with Palestine—see you in the streets!

Socialist Night School: Salting

Curious about salting? Heard the term but not sure what it means? Interested in learning about salting opportunities in the Bay Area? Join the Labor Board for a Socialist Night School on salting on Tuesday, May 20 from 7:00 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. at 1916 McAllister. We’ll learn about salting strategies, examine past SF wins, and hear about current opportunities to salt a workplace.

Masks are encouraged but not required. Food and drink will be provided!

RSVP at https://actionnetwork.org/events/socialist-night-school-salting/

DSA Karaoke

Come hang out and do some karaoke with your fellow DSA SF comrades or cool people you want to impress with your incredible singing voice! Thursday, May 22 from 7:30 – 10:00 p.m. at The Roar Shack (34 7th Street at Market). Suggested donation of $10, no one turned away for lack of funds. No songs refused, no entry denied! Cheap drinks available to purchase or feel free to bring your own! RSVP here.

Office Hours

Co-work with your comrades! Come to the DSA SF office and get your DSA work or work-work done, or just hang out. We’ll  be at 1916 McAllister from 12:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m. on Fridays.

EWOC Training Reportback

9 of us gathered at the Office on Wednesday with wide-eyed curiosity for the first session of the EWOC Fundamentals Training series. While some of us are actively looking to engage in workplace organizing, others are motivated to become informed and fluent supporters of the fighting section of workers. Across both groups, learning the brass tacks of Analyzing Your Workplace is the common first step, i.e. mapping the workplace for workers’ concerns, their shifts & departments, relationships, willingness to get involved and more. This all informs who we should approach to gauge interest about joining the organizing committee (OC), or a representative group of the workplace that democratically drives the strategy and bottomlines the organizing efforts. Our biggest shared takeaways from the lecture were (1) the importance of acting like a union, even if you aren’t legally recognized as one yet and (2) the fact that the OC model minimizes unnecessary risks taken by workers and is the safest method for workplace organizing. Next week, we’re going to run it back and learn all about how to Bring Coworkers Together!

Behind the Scenes

The Chapter Coordination Committee (CCC) regularly rotates duties among chapter members. This allows us to train new members in key duties that help keep the chapter running like organizing chapter meetings, keeping records updated, office cleanup, updating the DSA SF website and newsletter, etc. Members can view current CCC rotations.

To help with the day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running, fill out the CCC help form.

The following remarks, written by Skye, were delivered by Alexa at the LGBTQ+ Together Rally, held April 6.

At an immigrant rights rally held by Metro Justice recently, Mary Lupien read First They Came, a poem version of a 1946 piece by a German pastor who lived through the Nazi regime (Martin Niemöller). The poetic version, which you very likely know, goes as follows: first, they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists—and so on. He doesn’t speak out about anyone, even when the Nazis penultimately come for the Jews in the next-to-last stanza. Then in the end the Nazis come for him. The piece is about the privilege of comfortable silence, and tacit complicity in monstrous, structural, horror…

It has long been salient, tacit complicity in structural violence is nothing new at all, just ask a Black person. The reasons someone would read this poem in 2025 are very obvious. Literally every single morning, I hear stories about the new-fashioned gestapo disappearing people off the street with no due process—even less accountability than the cops! And the cops are actively, loudly complicit in this, becoming less accountable and more emboldened. I’d wager that none of us here is comfortable with the growing power of fascism in the US, and that’s why we’re here. We must remember this feeling well, and hold onto it.

The last time many of us felt this way was probably toward the end of 2020—in Rochester we were witnessing a mass uprising, furious at the murder of Daniel Prude, on top of ICE raiding our communities. What happened!? Where did that fury go? Account-ability was not had. No justice was seen for the murders of Daniel Prude, George Floyd, Samuel Ellis, Andre Hill, Brianna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, and many more–countably many, yet too many to contemplate. What happened is this: the Democrats won, and they did nothing with their power. It’s like clockwork in America. The bad guys are out—we can go back to sleep, because our lives are no longer directly impacted.

Even now, in the midst of a bloody purge of our society, the Democrats appeal to decency and decorum, coor-dinating their outfits in meager protest while anonymous plain-clothes thugs cart their constituents off to a concentration camp in El Salvador.

Black trans lives are under attack! What do we do?

We fight back! Indigenous trans lives, immigrant trans lives, homeless trans lives, all trans lives—our siblings, in identity and in class, are scapegoats for the fascists. And if we will have any hope of protecting the whole queer community, we must start with our trans brothers and sisters, and our non-binary siblings.

But how! If the Democrats can’t be trusted, what should we do? Something that’s pretty funny, in the last week or so, is the insistence by Republican sympathizers hat any protest or rally at which an organization is present must in fact be astroturfed—because to people who live their whole lives by the dollar, organizations equal money! But look at this rally—there are at least eight organizations represented here! Are any of you getting paid!? The world’s biggest secret, apparently, is that life is politics and politics is life. There is no such thing as being apolitical: if you are apolitical, you are comfortable with the status quo.

“This is what we’ve got to do, to build a better tomorrow: Organize.”

This is what we’ve got to do, to build a better to-morrow: Organize. Organize politically! Always be organizing. Don’t have a boring old social club where you talk about coordinating your vacations, and discuss who’s with who at the office; have a fabulous new social club where you talk about coordinating your messaging at the next Speak to Council meeting, and power map the politicians and business interests standing in your way! It’s exactly the same, but you will have accepted that the politicians and business interests are in fact your peers, and you are theirs.

The next step, right now, should probably be to join any of the organizations represented here, or stay in touch with all of them, or at least network and form alliances and bonds with other organizers. Learn from those who came before you, from the Black and queer radicals who rose up and rioted to bring us here today, and read theory. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t be an active participant in politics, or in your own life! Not only can you—you must!

The post LGBTQ+ Rights Are Under Attack. What Do We Do? first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

By Jeremy Sitarek

On March 8th, 2025, Mahmoud Khalil was put in handcuffs and taken from his home in New York City by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Mahmoud moved to the U.S. in 2022 on a student visa while pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University. He married his U.S. citizen wife in 2023 and became a legal permanent resident in 2024. Mahmoud’s wife, Noor Abdalla, is pregnant with their first child and is expecting in April 2025.

When ICE agents detained Mahmoud, they were acting on orders from the State Department to revoke Mahmoud’s student visa. Mahmoud’s wife presented his green card, proving he was a legal resident and ICE agents informed Mahmoud and Noor that they were also revoking his green card.

Five days ago, on Tuesday, March 25th, 30-year-old Rumeysa Ozturk was on her way to a friend’s home when she was detained by ICE. Rumeysa has a valid F-1 visa, which allows her to pursue full-time academic studies at Tufts University where she was enrolled in a PhD program. Facing the same accusations as Mahmoud, the State Department deems Rumeysa a threat to foreign policy for her vocal support of Palestine.

Mahmoud and Rumeysa have no criminal charges against them.

“The detaining of a legal U.S. resident for their political activism should terrify U.S. citizens because the rebirth of McCarthyism has arrived.”

The detaining of a legal U.S. resident for their political activism should terrify U.S. citizens because the rebirth of McCarthyism has arrived. In the 1950’s, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy helped initiate a nation-wide witch hunt for suspected communists. McCarthyism or the Red Scare resulted in the repression and persecution of individuals with left-wing ideologies and spread fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions. It was this historical period of paranoia and political oppression that allowed the passing of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The exact act that is being used to detain Mahmoud and Rumeysa.

Eventually it came to light that McCarthy’s witch hunt was unsubstantiated, and he was criticized by colleagues and the public at large. McCarthy was on the wrong side of history, and if this administration continues to detain and deport legal residents for their political views, they will be on the wrong side of history as well.

We call for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk.

The post Batavia Rally for Palestine first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

Portland Democratic Socialists support Councilor Novick’s Park Plan

Increasing the existing CEO surcharge Novick championed in 2016 equitable move to fund parks

The Portland Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America supports Councilor Novick’s move to increase the surcharge on companies with highly skewed ratios of CEO to worker pay. Portland DSA recently launched a new campaign for a Family Agenda for Portland, to fight for concrete public investments in Portland families, children, and communities. We appreciate Councilor Novick’s bold proposal that will protect programs families rely on. We also support DSA member Councilor Green’s PCEF loan proposal as a vital part of this package. Novick’s complement to Green’s plan is an example of the creative policy-making this city desperately needs.

An increase in taxation aimed at the city’s vast wealth inequality is an appropriate way to pay for infrastructure vital to working Portlanders’ lives. Parks are some of the few remaining publicly shared free spaces; third spaces where we can exist in community. They function as oases when heat waves hit the city, and provide connections to nature that we depend on. They are places of solace in a too-hectic time.

Parks programs and community centers are the cornerstone of Portland communities, and anyone who attended the public listening sessions on the city budget that were held in every district in Portland this spring heard personal testimonies of how much parks programs had transformed the lives of Portlanders and their families. Parks programs also provide jobs and support livelihoods. They must be defended.

Portland DSA Co-Chair Olivia Katbi testified at the District 2 listening session accompanied by her family, urging the council to raise revenue by taxing the rich, and to keep open the community center where she brings her daughter. “At a time when Trump and Musk are gutting critical services at the federal level, the response from our city government cannot be to turn around and do the same thing. Do we want to have a nice city that families with children want to live in, or do we want to just have a shell of a police state with shitty services and abandoned parks? What is going to be left for us? The billionaire class is growing while the rest of us are fighting for scraps. We need to present an alternate vision forward.”

Socialists understand that austerity always functions to the detriment of working people, and we believe strong progressive tax measures targeting the wealthy are good for the economy, and a sign of independent, uncaptured political leaders. We also understand that the underlying issue is the limitations of capitalism’s ability to provide for full lives. We cannot afford a market-driven neoliberal urbanism, which privatizes and undermines public goods in the name of profit, at a terrible human cost.

Councilor Novick proposed, championed, and helped pass the first CEO surcharge in any city in the US in 2016; another reason Portland is a leader in public policies.

Portland DSA urges City Council to pass Councilor Novick’s CEO surcharge increase. We urge the people of Portland to contact your district Councilors and speak in favor; to protect our communities, our parks, and our future!

WORCESTER, MA — Dozens of union organizers, labor activists, and organized working class supporters gathered at University Park on May 1 to celebrate May Day, organized by the Worcester chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Speakers covered the often violent history wielded against the burgeoning labor movement by the capitalist class of the 19th and 20th centuries in America, from the Haymarket Affair to the Palmer Raids, the central impetus for May Day. Then, they knit together the struggles of the past to the struggles of today in central Massachusetts.

Worcester Labor History

Worcester is no stranger to contentious flashpoints of class struggle.

Peter Fay, a movement elder, longtime labor organizer, and member of Rhode Island DSA, talked about Worcester’s role in labor suppression. He recalled his friend and prolific labor organizer Anne Burlak. Burlak, known as “The Red Flame” and “Seditious Anne” was at the forefront of the labor movement in the early 20th century. She began organizing as a teenager in the textile mills of Pennsylvania, worked to organize multiracial unions in the South, where she was jailed for insurrection.

Burlak continued to live up to her nicknames, leading textile strikes in early 1930s Rhode Island, before settling in Massachusetts where she faced more persecution from the federal government during crackdowns on communists. In one of her many clashes with Worcester police in 1937, Worcester banned Anne from speaking in the city.  She remained an icon of Massachusetts labor for decades.

“Not only was her speech banned, but according to the chief of police, all speech by anyone in any foreign language was banned, all singing must be in English, no literature could be distributed, and no bandstand could be used,” Fay said. With a wry note, the labor organizer said:

It’s pretty clear that no one in the history of Worcester has scared capitalists so much as that little Ukrainian woman with red hair who told workers to join together to overthrow capitalism.

The Hope For Labor

While speeches often noted the grim state of the labor movement and U.S. politics, all May Day speakers used this context to galvanize action and remind people of the power of the labor movement. They pointed to the labor ferment in the heart of the Commonwealth today.

Speakers noted graduate and undergraduate workers’ ongoing campaign to unionize at Clark University. Student workers went on strike for about ten days in March. Backed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the workers fought for card check neutrality, a legal agreement that would have made forming a union easier, without an election. Clark University roiled with “We are the Teamsters! And if they forget it, they’ll live to regret it!” from the lips of workers across campus during the strike.

May Day speakers also shouted out the units of the Massachusetts Nursing Association (MNA) that led successful strikes this year, bending hospital administrations to better contracts and defending important community medical centers and the immense number of nurses’ union jobs that arm those vital service providers. Zach Wright, a Registered Nurse (RN) and rank-and-file worker, spoke on MNA’s victories.

The Democrats vs. the Might of Labor

Worcester DSA’s James L. stepped up to call for more from U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA). McGovern expressed interest in a general strike about two months ago, as a means to combat the Trump administration, yet McGovern also voted to approve a bipartisan bill in 2022 forcing rail unions to accept a deal and avert a strike. The crowd boos showed that Worcester labor believed workers deserved more.

James L. also spoke to the Democratic Party’s facilitation of US-Israeli genocide in Gaza:

Most of the so-called opposition party is happy to collaborate, sign off, or roll over.

That was particularly on May Day. Israeli news outlet Channel 13 and the Middle East Monitor had both reported the Biden administration knowingly allowed the genocide in Gaza to continue without ever approaching Israel about a ceasefire deal. Biden’s vice president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris infamously shut down Gaza protesters with “I’m speaking” at a rally early on in her campaign.

But labor had far more power than the figureheads of resistance. “When we organize —  when we stand together —  we can bring the whole damn system to a stop,” said Cayla Dodd, a bus driver and union activist with Local 170 of the Teamsters. Dodd asked the multigenerational crowd to organize, join a union, start a union, and demand more from unions.

Don’t settle for a union that plays defense, build one that goes on the attack!

James Niedzinski is a member of the Worcester DSA.

All across the US, students at colleges and universities have spent over a year organizing to protest the ongoing ethnic cleansing Israel is currently committing in Gaza. The killing and maiming of over 100,000 men, women, and children. The forced relocation of hundreds of thousands. The targeted attacks on schools and hospitals. The blockade of food, water, and medicine to civilians. To billions around the world, if it walks like a genocide, and talks like a genocide, then chances are, well, you get it. In light of this, students across the country have organized sit-ins, encampments, pressure campaigns, and more to try and get their respective institutions to stop any sort of direct or indirect support of the Israeli war machine.

In response to these student efforts, institutions such as Columbia, Harvard, Swarthmore, and Michigan have cracked down hard against anti-genocide protests. They’ve taken drastic measures like creating new rules to tighten students’ right to protest, banning students from libraries, suspending or expelling students, firing faculty, and calling in cops to make arrests. 

Here in Maine, we feel like we’re kept safely away from much of what happens nationally, but that is a myth we feed ourselves. At Bowdoin College in Brunswick, there has been a lively organizing effort to get the school to divest from arms companies and denounce the scholasticide taking place in Gaza. In May 2024, with a supermajority, students passed a referendum demanding the school take action. The administration refused to act. In February 2025, students organized an encampment on campus to pressure the administration to take the referendum results seriously. After five days, the encampment came to an end, with 40 students put on probation, 8 temporarily suspended, and the college’s SJP chapter banned.

All of this happened under the new Trump 2.0 administration, which has ramped up pressure on colleges and universities to crack down even harder on anti-genocide protestors. The administration has investigated and threatened to withhold funding from a number of schools deemed to be too soft on student organizers. And, in a move that has sent shockwaves across the civic and legal world, has sent in ICE to detain and attempt to deport a number of students here on Visas who have allegedly attended pro-Palestinian actions on campuses. 

On March 27, those efforts hit Maine when a congressional committee sent Bowdoin a letter announcing that they were looking into whether the college had adequately addressed “antisemitisim” on its campus, specifically referencing the recent encampment that called for an end to scholasticide in Gaza. They demanded to know what disciplinary actions had been taken against students who partook. That committee considers “antisemitism” not only as actions that target Jews and Judaism, but also absurdly extends it to anything that targets the nation-state of Israel and “Zionism”.

Although Bowdoin unjustly punished anti-genocide activists, and refuses to take any concrete measures to stop a genocide in which they admit they are financially invested, they have also not followed other institutions that have happily acquiesced to outside demands to viciously repress the college community. Moreover, Bowdoin’s president, Safa Zaki, signed onto a letter from the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) on April 22 openly challenging the Trump administration’s attempts to stifle academic freedom. 

And on May 2, the Bowdoin chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) released a letter, signed by over 180 current and former Bowdoin faculty and staff, encouraging the college to continue standing up to threats to the community. Among other things, they pledged support to all efforts to challenge threats to higher education, refuse to comply with demands for names, affirm fundamental civil rights, and “reject cynical invocations of antisemitism that undermine democratic norms, stifle critical dialogue, and strip individuals of their rights.”

What comes next, no one is sure. We know that the Trump administration is not as strong as it seems, and that it is vulnerable to resistance. But we also know that it will not give up without a fight. The government is still committed to destroying higher education, and there’s always the risk that college leaders might succumb to the onslaught and throw their community under the bus – especially now that summer is coming and students and staff won’t be as present to hold the administration accountable.

Which is why Mainers and Bowdoin alumni need to keep making their voices heard. People can contact the Office of the President at Bowdoin to show support for her decision to sign onto the AAC&U’s letter. This is a time of great pressure on schools, and it’s important that we encourage administrators and presidents who have shown courage and pushed back against Trump’s efforts to silence educational institutions. We must call on them to continue the fight and keep our students and teachers safe and free from unjust and potentially illegal interference.

The post Bowdoin, Trump, and the Battle for Academic Freedom appeared first on Pine & Roses.

Savannah DSA opposes the Urban Camping Ordinance Amendment, which empowers police to displace unhoused residents instead of offering real solutions. We call on the county to implement Housing First policies that provide unconditional, permanent housing and uphold the human right to shelter.

R.K. Upadhya

Over the past two decades, the housing market has emerged as a powerful means by which capitalism can exploit the working class. At our workplaces, capitalists profit from their ability to control our labor; and then we go home, where we are exploited by the landlords who profit from their control over housing. And if the answer to our oppression in the workplace is labor unions, the answer to our oppression in our homes is tenant unions.  

From early 2022 to early 2024, I was involved with a tenant union campaign at a large apartment complex in north-west San Antonio, via the now-dormant Tenant Union San Antonio (TUSA). While the campaign failed in its overall goal – to organize the tenants of the complex into a self-sustaining, democratic, and militant union – the efforts nonetheless secured some improvements for tenants, and provided organizers with an important and fulfilling learning experience. 

The apartment complex in question was Vista Del Rey Apartments (VDR), a massive 453-unit complex in Leon Valley, located near the intersection of 410 and TX-16/Bandera. The property was first built in 1979, and by testament of some long-time tenants, was a beautiful and well-run property. But in recent years, as the housing market heated up and real estate capital grew increasingly predatory, things started falling apart. Ownership was repeatedly swapped between increasingly greedy firms looking for fresh ways to cut costs and extract more rent. In April 2021, VDR was bought by Shippy Properties, a firm run by an Austin tech executive turned real estate speculator, which quickly turned out to be the worst landlord yet for VDR tenants..

By pure coincidence, a core TUSA member had just moved into VDR in late 2021, and quickly realized it would be an excellent place to start a tenant union campaign. So a handful of us got to work, and over the next two years helped instigate class conflict between the tenants of VDR and their corporate slumlord. Our overall vision was informed by the strategies and tactics developed by socialist-aligned autonomous tenant unions like Tenants and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles Tenants Union (LATU), Stomp Out Slumlords (SOS) in Washington D.C., and Houston Tenants Union (HTU).

A quick run-down of what the campaign looked like: we door-knocked across the complex, inquired about conditions and experiences, invited interested tenants to meetings, and saw the formation of the Vista Del Rey Tenants Union (VDR-TU). More canvassing was done; petitions were passed around and protests and rallies were held; a kind of spontaneous rent strike emerged, with many tenants across the complex refusing to pay rent. The city of Leon Valley got involved in a lawsuit against Shippy Properties, demanding that they fix the numerous code violations across the property. Key tenant leaders were targeted for eviction, but we successfully fought back against most of the initial eviction attempts. Shippy made various concessions, even as they caused more problems in the process and escalated repression. A tenant leader’s apartment burned down due to bad electrical wiring, along with the other eleven units in her building. More canvassing, more meetings; attendance and enthusiasm waxed and waned. Finally, after many cycles of ups and downs, by the end of 2023, people had burned out and key leaders had left VDR, and the campaign came to an end. VDR-TU was dead – but if nothing else, the mailboxes had been fixed, wider renovations had been implemented, two people got married, David Shippy’s name was mud, and dozens of people had experienced an interesting and unique attempt at building an autonomous and militant working-class organization.

A full accounting of the day-to-day and month-to-month of the campaign would make for a very lengthy report. But here are some major lessons and take-aways, to paint a picture of what it was like organizing at VDR, and how socialists should think about tenant organizing.  

Big corporate landlords are the scum of the earth – and people love chatting at the door about it

That landlords are parasites shouldn’t be a surprise to socialists – but there is a difference in understanding this in the abstract, versus coming face-to-face with the depths of criminal deprivation and immiseration that landlords subject people to. 

Conditions at Vista Del Rey were abysmal in almost every possible way. A non-exhaustive list of issues at VDR included:

• Constant and unannounced water shut-offs and major water main leaks – the bill for which was passed on to tenants
• Mailboxes that had been broken for over a year, forcing people to pick up mail at the post office (if the mail didn’t get lost)
• Air conditioners being broken for weeks, if not months, during the summer
• Broken and unusable laundry machines
• Endemic cockroaches and mold 
• Crumbling staircases and weak railings, which routinely broke 
• Covid-era rent relief checks getting stolen by management, who then demanded more rent money
• Widespread electrical wiring problems, which in one case resulted in an entire building of twelve apartments burning down
• Arbitrary fees and fines for whenever maintenance was performed (even if temporarily and poorly)

These problems weren’t just incidental. The profit-making strategy of Shippy Properties was overtly about cutting maintenance and services, while simultaneously raising fees and levying fines. As an article in San Antonio Report in January 2022 described: 

The stated strategy of David Shippy, the company’s founder and CEO who wrote a 2019 book detailing his wealth-building formula, involves buying up working-class apartment complexes, slashing maintenance costs and charging tenants new fees. “I like to think of each apartment complex as a cash machine,” wrote Shippy in his book Money Matters for Financial Freedom: The Fast Path to Abundance in Life and Business.

But there is a silver lining to the depravities of landlords, which is that tenants are generally more than happy to talk to a stranger at the door about their issues and experiences. Of course, there is always an initial suspicion (“ugh, what do these people want to sell me…”), but once they realize that you’re not a salesman or missionary, and mainly want to hear about their experiences, the barriers vanish. And a key aspect of this is to, in fact, not be trying to sell some grand organizational plan or political ideology (at least, initially), but to show up to have a genuine conversation with somebody. The 80:20 rule is key – a good initial conversation at the door should have the tenant talking for 80% of the time, and the canvasser mainly asking questions and learning. Ask people about how long they’ve been there, what their experiences have been like, if they know their neighbors, if they’ve tried to get management to address problems, what their thoughts are on why things aren’t being solved and how they feel about that. Ultimately, none of this should be that complicated; talk to people and take a genuine interest in who they are! 

Door-knocking, surveying about problems, and collecting contact information was probably the easiest aspect of organizing at VDR, and made for many memorable conversations. During one canvassing session, me and another DSA/TUSA member met a mother and her daughter who were in the process of moving in, and were already livid about management not having prepared the apartment at all for move-in. We then helped her move a dishwasher up the stairs. Then her neighbor, a pudgy older guy with no shirt came outside and told us that his own dishwasher had backed up a month ago and had never been fixed. Another time, a guy invited me into his apartment to see the massive hole in his living room ceiling, and the leak in the bathroom. His upstairs neighbor, meanwhile, was furious about the impact of persistent mold on his young son’s health. Not all of the people we talked to were immediately excited about getting involved in a tenant union campaign, or organizing in general; but at a minimum, they were happy to chat about how bad the complex was, and their desire to see things change.     

Disorganization is the default mode of existence for working-class people

One thing you realize very quickly when canvassing across apartment complexes is that people are highly atomized – a reflection of the wider problem of “proletarian disorganization” and the fact that whatever working-class institutions and networks that once existed in this country have withered away under neoliberalism. People don’t really talk with their neighbors, beyond waving at them (if that). Tenant unionism thus must overcome an obstacle that labor unionism doesn’t have to deal with: that people tend to lack basic knowledge about one another and their shared problems. Despite the serious and widespread issues at VDR, many people didn’t realize that they had the same problems as their neighbors, which pushed them toward individual solutions (calling management themselves, trying to find a lawyer, or deciding to move out) or just a sense of apathy (“what can I do, I just gotta get used to it”). One tenant who became an early member of the VDR organizing committee told me that when we first knocked on his door, he was happy to chat about his problems, but he was also a bit suspicious about what we wanted and why we were even interested. But once he realized just how many other tenants had the same exact problems as him, it finally clicked that he didn’t have to fight these issues alone.  

Another consequence of social disorganization is that people may tend to identify other tenants as the main source of problems, rather than landlords. The issue of crime, in particular, can be a difficult question for socialists to grapple with. One on hand, we have our standard abolitionist principles that rejects the police as a viable solution to social problems; on the other hand, it can be difficult to articulate – let alone implement – abolitionist solutions to immediate issues around crime. At VDR, there were undeniable problems with anti-social behavior, theft and robberies, and even murders; and for many tenants, the obvious solution for this was more police presence. It’s important for tenant organizers to be prepared to discuss these issues and propose solutions that don’t rely on police; meet people where they’re at, but don’t stay where they are at. TUSA and VDR-TU were somewhat successful in this, insofar as whenever complaints about other tenants came up, these were sidelined in favor of focusing on problems caused by the landlord, which most people agreed were more egregious and easier to directly address.  

In addition, atomization overlaps with and exacerbates racism and xenophobia. This did not become a particularly large obstacle at VDR, but the complex had a number of cultural and linguistic divisions that created challenges to get people together. Unsurprisingly for San Antonio, the majority of the complex was Latino, with smaller numbers of Black and white people. There were also several immigrant groups, specifically Afghans and Indians, typical for apartments in the Medical Center area. This meant there were small populations of monolingual Pashto, Dari, and Hindi speakers, in addition to the typical group of Spanish speakers. And perhaps most unusually, there was a sizable Romani community – an Eastern European ethnic group with a traditionally nomadic culture, descended from South Asia – many of whom were allegedly squatting in one of the buildings. It was this Roma group, as well as other South/South-West Asian families, who attracted the most animosity from certain tenants, who were suspicious of “refugees” who couldn’t speak English, and who blamed them for vandalism and petty crime.  

All of this comes back to the point that one of the most important aspects of tenant organizing is  simply to get people to know each other, to break down the default atomization of neoliberal existence. Prejudice in working-class neighborhoods like this can sometimes be very superficial; simply attending a meeting or social with a person you were suspicious of, could be enough to cure you of any wrong-headed ideas. And simply building a sense of community can be enough to provide a greater sense of security, with the knowledge that you know your neighbors, and you have each other’s back. 

Despite atomization and exploitation, resistance is widespread

One of the best things about tenant unionism is the consistency with which you’ll come across sudden and unexpected sources of radicalism. Acts of resistance – ranging from individual and spontaneous, to broader and more organized – are already happening, all over the place, in all kinds of ways, and militancy can accelerate faster than an activist is prepared for. People are constantly pushing back individually against their landlord; VDR tenants constantly called in or barged into the office, demanding appliance repairs or an explanation for the latest water leak. During canvassing, a constant theme was tenants wanting to connect with legal resources and sue Shippy Properties. But it is in group discussions with other tenants, that people’s natural instincts about collective action and power can emerge. At the first general event we held at VDR in May 2022, a Know Your Rights training, one older lady almost immediately brought up the idea of a rent strike, talking about the need to hit the landlord in the pocketbooks. The dozen or so other tenants largely agreed that this would be morally justified and strategically sound. 

Another memorable moment, fusing individual and collective resistance, happened during a protest VDR-TU held later that summer. As “luck” would have it, during the protest rally held outside the management office, the water was abruptly shut off yet again. A man then came around the corner, still damp from his interrupted shower, and made a beeline to the office and started banging on the door and yelling about the water shut-off. If he wasn’t planning on attending the protest before, his ruined shower made his mind up for him. And this wasn’t the end of the story; his spontaneous passion impressed one of the main tenant leaders of VDR-TU, and they got to talking afterward – and two years later, they got married!  

But the most stunning example of spontaneous resistance was something we learned shortly after the protest – that upwards of half the complex was already on a de-facto rent strike. Ironically, we learned this when management sent out an e-mail asserting this mass non-payment of rent, and that this was the reason why they couldn’t do necessary repairs. As it turned out, many people were willing to act on the basic notion that if they weren’t being given habitable apartments, then they shouldn’t have to pay rent – a righteous position, albeit illegal. But the illegality of individual rent strikes were of little concern to many – as they told us themselves, who cared about getting evicted or taking a hit to their credit score, when they already had multiple evictions on their record and no credit score to speak of? At a complex like VDR, filled with the most oppressed layers of the working class, taking risky actions can be an easy choice – there is little left to lose anyway.   

Tenant unionism requires high levels of commitment and consistency

Despite the atrocious conditions at VDR and the relatively combative spirit of VDR tenants, the tenant union campaign ultimately fizzled out after about two years. There are a number of reasons for this, some outside of our control; but if I had to pick the biggest shortcoming, it was that those of us in TUSA weren’t able to give the campaign the necessary amount of consistent effort. 

A tenant union campaign should have a solid overall plan, and a rapid cadence; if you knock on somebody’s door, you should have an upcoming meeting or action you can invite them to, or at least a 1:1 follow-up if they seem like a potential leader. And more broadly, tenant union campaigns are about relationship-building; quality is better than quantity, especially at the beginning of the campaign. It’s crucial to spend time doing 1:1s with tenants you’re trying to bring into an organizing committee as potential leaders, to get on the same page about the project and the political and social principles of tenant unionism, and to understand their own background, experiences, and ideas. Talking to somebody once at the door and then dropping them into a group chat or Facebook group is not going to get them involved or lead to a functional organizing committee.

Unfortunately with the VDR campaign, most of us didn’t really understand this at the time. After door-knocking sessions, we would try to create big group chats with all the contacts, which would fizzle out over and over again, other than a couple of busybodies who would spam the chat and annoy everybody else. We did few 1:1s, even with people who were enthusiastic about organizing. There were often long gaps of time between talking to somebody and getting their contact info, and actually reaching back out to them. In retrospect, it’s a bit surprising that an actual organizing committee of about a dozen VDR tenants emerged at all, but that may be a testament to just how many people we talked to. But less surprising is that outside of this core group of people who spontaneously and by their own will began organizing, there was little success in building out a wider layer of “cadre” at VDR; the energy required for genuine relationship-building and rigorous onboarding just wasn’t there.

Our inconsistency wasn’t just a result of our relative inexperience, either – a general problem, especially toward the latter phases of the campaign, was the split attention of core TUSA organizers, who were trying to keep the campaign at VDR going while also being in leadership roles in other spaces like San Antonio DSA, Black Rose Anarchist Federation, and labor union campaigns. In retrospect, it was impossible to give the campaign the necessary attention while also being a key member of other campaigns and organizations. A tenant union campaign needs at least a couple of people who are completely focused on finding and developing tenant leaders into an organizing committee, and connecting these leaders with resources, training, and support.  

Tenant unionism is worth it, even in failure

Despite the eventual failure of the Vista Del Rey Tenant Union to develop into a mass, militant working-class institution, I would still consider my involvement in the campaign to be the most interesting, educational, and fulfilling project I was ever involved in during my five years living in San Antonio. I met and organized with people who were far outside the typical left-wing activist and organizing spaces – but who nonetheless had deeply radical instincts and ideas. And despite the long-term failure, there were still short-term victories; the mailboxes, broken for years, were fixed after our campaign started. Many organizers had long-standing maintenance issues resolved by management, who hoped this would pacify them. The campaign pushed the city of Leon Valley to engage in their own lawsuit, which forced even more repairs. And one of the main tenant leaders found a husband through the campaign, and invited the core TUSA members to the wedding. Can’t be a total loss if a great party came out of it!

In conclusion, I would encourage all socialists and fellow radicals to engage in tenant organizing. Many of us already rent our homes in the first place; thus, tenant unionism isn’t something that has to make us go “somewhere else” to organize, but instead can be about us building institutions where we are already at, with our own neighbors. And just like with workplace organizing, oftentimes the best way to engage in socialist politics and organizing is to “organize where we are at”, and to radicalize the networks and communities we are already embedded in.  

If you’re in Austin, join other Austin DSA members in Greater Austin Tenant Organizing (GATO) to help spread autonomous tenant unionism. Follow and support other local tenant organizing groups, like BASTA. And sign up for the DSA Housing Justice Commission’s upcoming four-part training series on tenant union organizing, scheduled for June! 

The post Lessons from a Tenant Union Campaign in North-West San Antonio first appeared on Red Fault.

Since we launched our print edition just before the 2024 election, each edition has marked a deeper, darker descent into a made-in-America authoritarian hellscape.

Since our last issue, the whole world watched in horror as Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk was grabbed by unmarked police lurking outside of her home. It was immediately clear that Rümeysa, whose research focuses on child welfare, was targeted because she had co-authored an article in the Tufts student newspaper calling for the university to do more to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.

Trump’s attacks have escalated, and they will escalate more. We know that labor has the power to stop Trump. But where will labor fall?

In this issue we look back at labor’s fight against apartheid, largely kicked off in Massachusetts. And we also look at the development of labor reformers, including Boston local Sean O’Brien, who moves rapidly to the right, and the UAWD caucus, which has dissolved itself after long infighting.

Not all is bleak. We are also happy to reflect (deliciously) on the success of the Carnation Revolution on its 51st anniversary. You’ve heard of bread and roses… but what about cod and carnations?

If you’re not a subscriber – subscribe today or check out the free digital version below.

In solidarity,

Managing Editor

Henry De Groot

We, the Greater Grand Rapids Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, are disappointed the jury failed to convict former police officer, Christopher Schurr, and the case was declared a mistrial. We demand that a new trial be held as soon as possible. We also demand that County Prosecutor, Chris Becker, recuse himself and let someone who hasn’t received political donations from Schurr’s Police Union try the case.

The Lyoya family has been waiting three years for this trial to take place and are now being forced to wait longer while Christopher Schurr is still walking free. While this case has been about Justice for Patrick, this mistrial means the Lyoya’s civil case against Schurr and the City of Grand Rapids must also wait.

Christopher Schurr clearly showed intent to kill. Once he drew his weapon, he offered no warning, never said, “stop or I’ll shoot,” and shot Patrick in the back of the head. Schurr testified on the stand that he didn’t know what he was shooting at, he just fired at Patrick Lyoya. But the physical evidence showed the gun was pressed against the back of Patrick’s head when he fired.

We are disappointed that the GRPD Captains testified in defense of Schurr. There are still people on the police force who believe murdering civilians out of frustration is “reasonable” behavior. The GRPD remains a threat to our community.

We are thankful to the many community members who stood up to participate in marches, rallies, and other outcries for justice for Patrick. We are disappointed in the outcome of this trial and acknowledge that our efforts for police accountability are not over.

The post Statement on the Mistrial of Former GRPD Officer, Christopher Schurr appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.