Events & Actions

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)

Friday March 20 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM): Maker Friday: No Kings Prep (1916 McAllister St)

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

Sunday March 22 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM): No Appetite for Apartheid Consumer Pledge Canvass (Mission Dolores Park by Miguel Hidalgo Statue)

Sunday March 22 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM): Physical Education + Self Defense Training (zoom)

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

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

Tuesday March 24 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday March 25 (6:45 PM – 8:30 PM): Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Thursday March 26 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM): Education Board Open Meeting (zoom)

Thursday March 26 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM): ICE Out Orientation (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Friday March 27 (7:00 PM – 10:30 PM): Comrade Karaoke at the Roar Shack (34 7th Street)

Friday March 27 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM): Maker Friday: Whistle Kits (1916 McAllister St)

Sunday March 29 (1:00 PM – 2:30 PM): What Is DSA? (Excelsior Branch Library, 4400 Mission St)

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

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

Monday March 30 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Labor Board – Flex Meeting (zoom)

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

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Upcoming Maker Fridays

Join us at 1916 McAllister this Friday, March 20th and next for some maker time! We’ll be preparing for No Kings tabling and supporting our community by making whistle kits with Immigrant Justice. Everyone is welcome, hope to see you there!

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Apartheid-Free Bay Area: Consumer Canvassing

Our next consumer pledge canvass will be on Sunday, 3/22 from 11 AM to 1 PM at Mission Dolores Park! We’ll meet by the Miguel Hidalgo Statue and train you on how to speak with consumers about the No Appetite for Apartheid Campaign. Hope to see you there!

RSVP here.

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Lunch Break Book Club

Are you free for lunch? Do you love reading? Join us at noon, April 1st on zoom while discuss the first two stories from Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. This is a great short story collection. You don’t have to finish the whole section to attend—just read what you can, and we’ll discuss it together! 

It has been ten years since ROC DSA formed as a chapter in March 2016 at the height of Bernie Sanders’ social democratic challenge for the presidency. From fourteen members in attendance at the first meeting, the chapter has grown to regularly reach the capacity of its meeting space. Forty percent of this growth occurred over the past year, and the chapter now nears 500 members.

Sanders’ campaign for the presidency de-stigmatized socialism, demonstrating its democratic essence and nature of mutual concern. Since its formation, ROC DSA has also focused on raising class consciousness through political education and rhetoric. A growing appetite for socialist politics has led to the successful election of several members to City Council and County Legislature. These years have seen renewed labor militancy, with ROC DSA on the picket line. The chapter took part in mass eruptions over police violence and Palestinian genocide, fought for bodily autonomy, organized tenants, amplified calls for public power, and more.

The chapter continues to respond to the fascist currents of the second Trump administration, while building a positive program for change. The chapter’s current priority campaign is Tax the Rich, a statewide campaign to increase taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers to fund universal childcare and offset cuts by the federal government. In coalition with Rochester Grants Pass Resistance, the chapter organizes the “reserve army of labor” by educating our community about homelessness and supporting housing initiatives and opioid prevention centers. Organizing labor for the capacity to seize the means of production, ROC DSA assists comrades forming unions throughout the Rochester area.

We will not stop at these minimum demands, but continue pushing toward a socialist horizon. Following on the success of NYC-DSA and Zohran Mamdani, the chapter is developing cadre candidates to champion our socialist values in upcoming electoral campaigns. Statewide organizing has strengthened ROC DSA’s coordination with other growing chapters across the state. We will continue to struggle for a future that is free from oppression by capital.

To achieve this goal, DSA is building a multiracial working class movement. Becoming a member is about more than paying dues; it is the experience of democratic participation in shaping a better world. The coordinated strength of the working class shall overcome. Join now: dsausa.us/join. 

The post Steering Committee: On the Tenth Anniversary of ROC DSA first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

How do you put pressure on key people in your workplace, build up natural leaders, and disrupt the status quo? Consider a work action.

The post What is a work action? appeared first on EWOC.

When members of Chicago DSA arrived at 3201 S Millard in late September last year, they were confronted by a startling question: did you hear about the helicopter? Leon, a worker at Mauser and a steward for Teamsters Local 705, shared a video that another striking worker had taken with one of the Labor Branch steering committee members. In the video, a Customs and Border Patrol helicopter could be seen circling the site of the picket for a few minutes, just above the treeline. To the workers there, it was clear that CBP had gone to Little Village to intimidate the workers, immigrant and native-born alike, as their strike against Mauser entered its twelfth week.

When people talk about unions, it’s easy to think only of their economic benefits. In posters, social media posts, and TV ads, locals for the various building trades advertise the union wage premium; non-workers make this much, while union workers make this much more. In Kenny Winfree’s “I’m a Union Card,” he sings about how the union card “could have been a Visa/could have been a MasterCard,” and how it protects workers from getting fired.

For the Teamsters who struck Mauser, unions and collective bargaining agreements offered something more than better compensation and safer working conditions (which themselves can be life or death concerns). They sought guaranteed protections against ICE raids from management. With “Operation Midway Blitz” in full swing in Chicago, this was an essential stipulation sought by the bargaining team alongside long-standing demands for higher wages and better PPE when dealing with hazardous chemicals. Their struggle, like many labor struggles, encompassed not only economic justice, but also immigrant rights, racial justice, healthcare, and the environment. For so many working people, these issues are most salient in the workplace, and the workplace is where they have the greatest power to change them. 

Members of the Chicago DSA, led by solidarity captains from its Labor Branch, continued to show support for Mauser workers, walking the picket line and cooking meals. We did so because we cannot build our movement without other working people, and because we, like the Teamsters at Mauser, believe that labor is an economic justice issue; it is an immigrants’ rights issue; it is a racial justice issue; it is an environmental and health justice issue. In short, labor is the foundation which unites our struggles, and it deserves a central position in our organization. 

Why unions?

While organized labor in general may have broad appeal, trade unions in particular have been a site of theoretical contestation on the left. Going back to Marx and Engels, the idea of a problematic ‘labor aristocracy’ has complicated the relationship between socialists and trade unionists. Setting these theoretical concerns aside, for the Steering Committee of the Labor Branch, our commitment to unions is grounded in the long term project to achieve socialism in the United States. 

We need a dedicated place for unions and workplace organizing in Chicago DSA because of their promise for organizing workers into radical political actors. Historically, socialist and communist organizations maintained strong organizing ties with unions. Even when unions were not explicitly socialist, significant numbers of organizers and rank-and-file members were. For many unions, only the height of McCarthyism in the early 1950s led to purges of socialists and communists from their ranks. More recent union drives have seen a resurgence of left-wing politics, from the brief formation of the American Labor Party in the 1990s to union support for Bernie Sanders in 2016. 

Elsewhere, in Europe social democratic and labor parties maintain strong or even institutional ties with their labor movements. Even today, as union density in Europe stands at its lowest point in decades, several European countries maintain higher union density than the U.S. had at its peak¹. In contrast, as of 2025, union density in the U.S. sits at 10% for all-workers, down from a high of roughly 34% in the late 1940s. In the public sector, 32.9% of workers are unionized, compared to only 5.9% of workers in the private sector. And the influence of working people over policy and politics at both the national and local levels has fallen in proportion to the labor movement’s decline.

In an effort to undermine support for left-wing politicians and movements in the U.S., some centrist politicians have invoked the monolith of the “white working class” while ridiculing the base for left movements as no more than a mass of “white Bernie bros.” These attempts to use identitarian attacks to undermine class-centered politics are at odds with the reality that unionized workers are disproportionately workers of color and women. While it’s true that some unions do have a greater proportion of white male members than the wider population, this is a reflection of their industry rather than the institution itself. The supposed antagonism between civil rights and unions is anachronistic and out of step with the current base of most unions’ membership. 

Unionized workers are more politically engaged than non-union workers: they vote more often and are more likely to contact their representatives in office. They’re also more likely than non-union workers to blame inflation on corporate greed, as opposed to the supposed inflationary pressures of higher wages. Unions also provide an infrastructure for political mobilization and the dissemination of political ideas. From talking points and trainings to broad social networks and rallies, unions facilitate the development of political agitation. Unions can even influence the political positions of their non-union managers. The push for radical politics in the United States cannot be separated from the struggles of the labor movement.

Recent CDSA Labor Branch Work:

Before detailing some of the recent work of CDSA’s Labor Branch, it’s worth pausing to reflect on the reason for our creation. Returning to the Branch’s manifesto from 2017 (when it was first created as a working group, and was most recently updated in 2020): 

We are an intersectional group of labor militants who are actively rebuilding the labor movement from the ground-up through organizing the unorganized and strengthening the power of the organized rank-and-file worker. We demand a proactive labor movement, both nationally and locally, that can combat worker exploitation and respond to the new economy of fissured workplaces. We believe that in order to overthrow capitalism we need to build a militant movement of labor activists. 

As Democratic Socialists, we bring an alternative vision of what the labor movement can be.  Through socialism, we are determined to win the democratic control of the means of production and democracy in the workplace. We are building a socialist movement topush for broader justice for all workers.

Our work is for the broader socialist movement, which means justice for all workers. This is not just the CDSA Union Branch or CDSA Organized Labor Branch. Our organizing encompasses all working people.

Political Education

We also hold events dedicated to political education and networking. We held a townhall after May Day last year where panelists in unions shared their thoughts and experiences with attendees who were interested to hear about the difference that organized labor makes. From this meeting, CDSA gained many new members who have become active throughout the chapter. Later this spring, Labor Branch will host another meeting around union jobs and organizing which will be advertised to the public, and we hope to gain new members for the chapter as well. 

Helping Members Get Union Jobs

As mentioned above, Labor Branch will be hosting a jobs fair this spring. The event will give unions and reform caucuses within unions the opportunity to advertise employment opportunities for people interested in dedicating themselves to the labor movement, whether in a currently unionized workplace or a site that is yet to be unionized. This will be an extension of the work our branch has already been doing within our chapter. 

CDSA Labor’s jobs pipeline program began 4 years ago, with the goal of getting socialists into strategic union jobs where they can organize for greater union militancy and democracy. With the Rank-and-File Strategy as our guide, we help members connect to steady employment and support them in their efforts to become workplace organizers. Like much of our labor work, the pipeline is a long-term project of building relationships and responding and adjusting to shifting conditions. At upcoming meetings this spring, we’ll also be evaluating the project so far and voting on its direction.

CHIWOC

The Chicago Workplace Organizing Committee (CHIWOC) is our local chapter of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), a joint project of DSA and the United Electric with the mission to organize every workplace in the country. CHIWOC volunteers field requests for support from everyone in the Chicagoland area, from doulas to software developers, looking to solve problems that they’re facing on the job. Those volunteers then pair these workers with teams of trained local organizers who teach them the basics of workplace organizing. Those workers then get the chance to become organizers themselves and support their neighbors fighting for better treatment on the job.

The structure of CHIWOC gives workers of all backgrounds an on-ramp into building the labor movement. It also gives them the opportunity to help us discover the kind of mass organizing it takes to truly bring this movement back, and show the working class that we always had the tools to free ourselves. Over the past year, that has meant doing promotional events, holding open meetings once a month where workers can bring their issues, and hosting live trainings on how to prepare your workplace for a general strike. 

Sharing Strategies and Tactics Across Unions

As mentioned above, unions hold the promise of getting people more involved in radical politics. As an organized force, unions are able to use their collective action in a lot of ways that can advance goals that we as socialists care about, including solidarity with immigrants and calling for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctioning (BDS) of Israel and a ceasefire in Gaza that respects the rights of Palestinians. For years, the Labor Branch has been a place where members of different unions sample resolutions from their locals, discuss tactics for advancing their vision in their unions, or simply commiserate over the challenges they deal with as union activists in a capitalist society. In situations where two unions were in seemingly intractable conflict, Labor Branch served as a place for rank-and-file members of those unions to come together and speak across those barriers to find shared understanding. For unions with more conservative leadership and less-democratic structures, our space has allowed for union activists to learn from each other to better organize within their union.

Strike Solidarity Support

Strike solidarity is probably the Labor Branch’s most public facing work. In support of the Teamsters who struck Mauser, we did more than just provide food and support to the workers at the job site; we made social media videos and posts to turn out more people to the picket line. Our members lobbied their union leadership to stand in solidarity with the Teamsters; we attended morale-raising rallies where co-chair Sean Duffy spoke before hundreds of people alongside Local leaders and elected officials. 

Chicago DSA has been involved in strike solidarity since before 2016, but our first major instance of strike support occurred during UNITE HERE’s 2018 strike, in which workers at 30 hotels walked off the job. Many in the broader labor movement looked to CDSA to lead community efforts, and we put forward our analysis that, in a strike at 30 hotels involving multiple employers, our numbers were most powerful when concentrated on the weakest link. We focused our turnout on the Blake in the South Loop, one of the smallest of hotels, sending members before and after work to build relationships with worker-leaders. The Blake was the first hotel to capitulate to the union’s demands. We then shifted our efforts to the Monaco, the second-smallest hotel, which quickly became the next hotel to fold. The vast majority of the remaining hotels quickly followed suit.

CDSA built on this experience in the following year as we prepared for the 2019 contract fight in Chicago Public Schools. Four months before a strike was likely to start, we held a preparation meeting and came up with a plan. We engaged in community education, making sure Chicago’s broader working class knew about the contract fight and was ready to support these workers if they had to walk out. We came up with a plan to support a set of strategic picket lines across the city through our relationships with CTU and SEIU 73 members. The most elaborate of our plans was our commitment to feed strikers, students, and community members. Modeled after the Bread for Ed project East Bay DSA organized during the Oakland teachers’ strike that March, we raised and spent tens of thousands of dollars hiring food trucks for rallies. Working with local food banks, we provided groceries and assembled thousands of bagged lunches for teachers and students across the city. The strike, which ultimately lasted nearly three weeks, successfully won common good demands for libraries and nurses at more schools, and housing assistance for students. 

Like all of the branches of CDSA, as well as many of the other working groups, Labor Branch allocates a significant amount of time at most branch meetings for political education. We have invited guest speakers to speak on issues past and present. We read and discuss articles written by our own members and other labor organizers. Our space facilitates conversations among union and non-union members alike to understand issues of labor, immigration, political organizing, and more.  

More recently, chapter members took a variety of solidarity actions on behalf of striking Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) workers, organized by our solidarity captains. Our members held informational pickets at non-struck stores to educate the public on the No Contract, No Coffee campaign. They walked the picket line at stores on strike. They textbanked for No Contract, No Coffee and encouraged their own unions to adopt resolutions supporting the campaign. They raised money for (and donated to) the SBWU regional strike fund. They prepared meals for striking workers. They engaged in flying pickets to enlist Teamster support and the refusal to deliver products to stores in the Loop and River North. Our work has engendered genuine support for CDSA, and it even led to recruitment of new members from among SBWU members.

All of this time, effort, and money raises the question: why do we support strikes? While it may seem intuitive to some, it still merits a robust answer. For one, we want unions to succeed. Although the life and death of the International Brotherhood certainly did not rest on the success of the strike at Mauser, the battle for SBWU is quite literally existential. Starbucks is among the largest fast food chains in the world, by both revenue and number of locations. While workers have signed cards to be represented by SBWU at only a few hundred locations, there is a reason that C-suite executives at the company have fought against the union drive so viciously. DSA at the national level has asked for all of its chapters to support SBWU where union efforts took place, and with good reason. If SBWU is able to obtain a master contract, it would be a game changer. 

Beyond this, we want strikes to succeed to uplift the struggle of militant workers against the complacency of conservative union leadership. For decades, across industries, union leadership has been happy to function as a backup campaign fund for Democratic candidates and as a type of employment insurance for its workers: ‘Pay your dues so we can fight against your termination.’ Labor peace was seen as a productive compromise to ensure decent wages and benefits, and avoid the risks of more militant action. If workers in Chicago go on strike and fail to win meaningful concessions, it would only embolden the opponents of strikes in other industries. However, when strikes succeed, the chorus of agitation can spread as workers become inspired by the victories of others. Militancy begets militancy, and militancy reinforces radical politics.

Lastly, what should concern socialists most about supporting striking workers is that our work can connect the struggles of workers across identities and unions. SBWU called for the support of Teamsters Local 710, and their members at QCD (the truck drivers for the logistics company that supplies Starbucks stores) honored the picket line for the unfair labor practices (ULP) strike. This meant that during the flying pickets organized by SBWU in Chicago, and in other parts of the country, stores did not get the breakfast sandwiches, cake pops, and milk that they need delivered every day to turn a profit. This February, drivers and warehouse workers at Sysco, who are also represented by Teamsters Local 710, authorized a strike. Through our leadership, dual SBWU/CDSA members have called for their fellow union members to support the Teamsters and pledge to walk the picket line if they do walk out. By developing these connections, our efforts have fostered lasting bonds of solidarity among the working class. 

Our struggle is to get workers to identify with the broader Labor Movement — those in organized labor and the unorganized; those in white-collar and blue-collar jobs; private sector and public sector; immigrant and native born; across racial, ethnic, and religious lines; and across the gender and sexuality spectrum. Our aim is to raise the political consciousness of the one and only identity group which has the power to bring about a permanent change to our political economy: the working class. Our task is vital to the struggle for socialism and it needs to have its own place within CDSA in order to flourish.

Why You Should Join the Labor Branch

Although the above is a good summary of the Branch’s recent work, it is only a part of the work that our members do and have done since its creation. Our steering committee members, solidarity captains, and other leaders in the branch have many more ideas that we hope to bring to fruition in 2026 and beyond. While many of us are union members, it bears repeating that it is the Labor Branch and our long-term struggle, as socialists, is conducted on behalf of the whole working class. 

We will continue to struggle on behalf of immigrant communities, and help train our members to educate their co-workers and union siblings about ICE-proofing their jobsites. We will continue to struggle alongside our trans siblings by standing strong with strike-ready nurses who fight for the continued provision of trans healthcare, including those at Howard Brown. Our members will continue to share strategies on how to democratize their unions and agitate for more militant action so that the socialist struggle can advance through more than just electoral politics.

If you have ever had the thought, “I shouldn’t get involved in Labor Branch, I’m not in a union,” or “I shouldn’t get involved in Labor Branch, I’m not that interested in unions or workplace organizing,” as the Steering Committee of Chicago DSA’s Labor Branch we are asking you to reach out to us directly or come to our monthly meeting on the second Tuesday of every month at 7:00 PM. Chicago DSA members who attend our meetings, union or not, can vote on our priorities, elect our leadership, hear reportbacks of the work being done by our members throughout the labor movement, and bring ideas of projects that the organized force of workers could support. 

Labor Branch is an onramp and home in the chapter for people involved in organizing as workers. If you’re building and exercising your power as a worker, or you want to help your comrades who are, Labor Branch is for you. If there’s something that you think the Labor Branch of Chicago DSA should be doing that we aren’t yet, anyone can request for time to speak at the meeting by contacting the Steering Committee or bring a resolution for consideration. We hope to see you there!

1. Union density in the US peaked at 33.4% in 1945. https://www.epi.org/publication/as-union-membership-has-fallen-the-top-10-percent-have-been-getting-a-larger-share-of-income/ 7 European-OECD countries have higher 33% union density, but many countries with lower union density have more extensive collective bargaining rights. 
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The post Labor Branch in 2025: The Work We’ve Done, and Why You Should Join appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

The Executive Committee (EC) of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America (CDSA) is a 23-person body. However, under the current bylaws, it will increase to 30 members over the next two years as our membership continues to grow (Article VI, Section 1, CDSA bylaws). This growing body is already larger than that of  any other DSA chapter in the country. For example, our comrades in New York City DSA, whose chapter is roughly four times the size of our own, has the largest executive body of any other DSA chapter (Article VI, NYC-DSA bylaws). Meanwhile, other chapters have substantially smaller bodies despite several having similar or larger membership than our own. Metro DC and Boston have 11 members, Portland has 14, and Los Angeles has only 9.

A proposal coming before the General Chapter Meeting (GCM) this March (see Figure 1) would take effect in June 2026, at the end of the current leadership’s term. It would limit the body to 11 members, a number much more in line with similarly situated chapters. The proposal achieves this reduction by removing most officer positions from the EC except the Treasurer, Secretary, Membership Engagement Coordinator, and the Co-Chairs. The proposal also removes branch representatives (currently numbering 15 but growing to a cap of 22) and adds 5 at-large members elected by the whole chapter and a representative from YDSA.

Why EC reform?

The EC is tasked with carrying out the will of the chapter, as expressed by our quarterly GCMs. However, in the months-long gaps between these meetings, the EC must lead the chapter both politically and administratively. Under these circumstances, it is crucial that our executive body is as representative and efficient as possible to meet the needs of its task of political leadership.

Efficiency

If CDSA seeks to realize the vision of maintaining an efficient executive body, the sheer size of the EC stands as an obstacle standing between us and that goal. Smaller bodies make decisions faster; it takes less time to debate and vote on proposals when there are fewer people in the room. Current EC members are aware of this; this is why CDSA has established and maintained a chapter Steering Committee (SC) as a subset of the EC to address less controversial proposals in a timely manner. If the SC did not exist, the EC would fail to fulfill its responsibilities within its current structure. As the EC is currently constructed, it is not uncommon for votes to pile up, resulting in days or even a week to clear a single proposal. This delay occurs, in large part, due to the logistics of coordinating 23 people with multiple roles in the chapter to debate and vote in a timely manner. In contrast, a smaller body whose members have only one major role could debate and vote on urgent votes much faster without the need for a chapter SC.

Consultation

A smaller body is easier to consult. If a resolution is proposed to the EC, members are highly encouraged to share the document with at least a few others on the EC to see if there is buy-in and find points of compromise to avoid debating a half dozen amendments. In a body of 23 to 30 members, this consultation process can be lengthy, and theoretically requires individual conversations with up to 11 other members to ensure the resolution is passable. Practically, this number can be even higher, since those who would oppose the resolution will often wish to be consulted ahead of time as a show of good faith. Shrinking the body from 23 to 30 members to 11 will encourage all members of the EC to consult on proposals as broadly as possible by making it feasible to speak to the whole body in a reasonable amount of time.

The Multi-Officer Problem

Currently, the EC is composed of a wide range of chapter officers, members of the geographic branch steering committees, and a representative from the Labor Branch and YDSA. As a result, every person on the EC is serving in at least one other crucial role in the chapter.

Officers 

Elected officers assume a substantial burden in managing their committees. If a member of CDSA has the expertise, time, and energy to invest in leading one of these offices, they may be deterred from doing so because it entails taking on the responsibilities of the office plus two monthly meetings for the EC and SC. By removing these officers from the EC, they are provided the necessary time and energy to focus on the work they were elected to do.

Branch Leaders

Branch leadership faces a similar problem. If a member is interested in helping organize agitprop or socials in their branch, they may consider running for their branch SC. However, as currently constructed, winning a seat on their branch SC means they are also seated on the EC. This paradigm erases opportunities for fledgling leaders to develop at their own pace by forcing them to take responsibility for the leadership of the entire chapter. Separating these offices introduces an important opportunity to develop a more robust middle layer of leadership in the form of branch leaders and officers providing the chapter with an incubator for future leadership.

Political Representation and Democracy

CDSA meets as a general body less frequently than other similarly-sized chapters. Other DSA chapters commonly have general meetings monthly or bimonthly, whereas CDSA only meets every three months. As a result, the EC often makes decisions about priorities, events, and projects between these meetings. The EC’s decisions are subject to reconsideration, but in practice the body makes many important political decisions for the chapter. Under these conditions it is especially important that the EC represents the political tendencies of the chapter.

Heightening Chapter Democracy 

A strong democratic culture requires structures which lead to votes with meaningful outcomes. The current EC structure is likely to lead to a continuation of CDSA’s history of non-competitive elections. Last June, only two of eight officer positions faced competitive elections (Secretary and Communications Coordinator). The West Cook branch did not have a competitive election for its EC representative; the South Side and North Side Red Line (NSRL) branches each had only one more candidate than seats, and the North Side Blue Line (NSBL) branch had two more candidates than seats.  In 2024, there were almost no competitive elections at all in the chapter (NSBL only filled one of eight steering committee seats and NSRL four of seven).

With the 2025 surge of leadership candidates and the Zohran membership bump, it is essential to encourage competitive elections going forward. Allowing the branch SCs to continue growing to maintain proportional representation on the EC would be a mistake. An 8-person NSBL steering committee is unlikely to produce a competitive election even as the branch surpasses 1,000 members. To avoid this problem without creating an EC which seats 30 members is to separate the branch steering committees from EC representation and fix the branch SCs at sizes that fit the needs, size, and activity of the branch in question. 

Additionally, lifting the burden of EC and SC duties from many of our chapter officers will reduce the workload expected of members elected to those offices. It follows that offices thus unburdened are more likely to attract candidates and help develop the chapter toward more competitive officer elections.

Political Representation Over Special Skills: The Problems of an Officer-Heavy EC

Talented organizers and competent administrators are ideal to sit on the EC; however, an officer-heavy EC often forces voters to choose between a skilled candidate who would make an excellent officer and a less-skilled candidate who will vote how a political faction would like on political decisions.

It is worth pointing out, again, that of the eight chapter officers currently sitting on the EC, only one of them was elected in a contested election. Under the current structure, the requirement of special skills or the manifold responsibilities of a chapter officer likely deters a broader field of candidates. What is certain is that these positions are not currently the product of internal political debate or representative of the chapter’s political tendencies. Seats are simply filled by anyone willing to take the job, regardless of their political opinions or priorities.

To further encourage accurate political representation in the EC, we decided to exclude branch representation from the base proposal. This decision springs from the same line of reasoning which inspired an earlier article on the role of branches in CDSA. The article argued that branches exist as infrastructure units of CDSA, not as political ones. The internal political interests of a CDSA member does not typically hinge on whether they live in Garfield Park, Rogers Park, Hyde Park, or Oak Park.

The resolution also proposes implementing the single transferable voting (STV) method to address the problem of political representation. By maximizing the number of at-large members elected by STV, the various interest groups that do exist in CDSA, such as caucuses, labor organizers, electoral organizers, or identity-based groups, will be able to internally organize around candidates that represent their interests and have an opportunity to win a spot at the table. In addition, this proposal would allow our members to freely vote for candidates that more closely fit their political orientation and support a system which encourages proportional representation.

Conclusion

According to DSA’s National Political Committee (NPC), CDSA had 2,621 members in January, an increase of over 100 from December, putting the chapter on track to reach its goal of 3,000 members before June (GDC Member Data Report). If we meet that goal and no change to the EC is made, we will begin elections for an approximately 30-member Executive Committee ahead of the June membership convention, including North Side Branch SCs of seven or eight members. We and our comrades across the chapter are bringing this proposal to the spring GCM because we believe that EC reform is sorely needed to ensure CDSA’s leadership body is representative of the internal political tendencies of the chapter without consuming 30 cadre organizers. We want a body that can operate decisively in a rapidly evolving external political situation. The chapter needs to reign in the size of this body now to ensure competitive elections, effective branches, and a functional EC in the coming term.

The post The Case for Reforming the Executive Committee appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

By Elizabeth Henderson

At Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) summer conferences, we held a fair which culminated in a horseback riding demonstration.  Dale Perkins rode bareback with his feet first on one, then two, finally bridging 3 horses as they leapt through a flaming hoop.

This is a stirring metaphor for what we need to do!

Horse #1 – Fighting back, reacting to the endless flood of negativities.

We must:

• protest against the many toxic, endocrine-disrupting inputs that trap farms in the corporate-dominated system,

• expose misleading food labels like bioengineered for GMOs,

• resist the gaggle of cynical, greedy billionaires who conspire to gut social services and protections for the environment and widen income inequality even further putting democracy at risk. 

I include here protecting and making incremental improvements in the programs our sustainable agriculture movement has already achieved to increase conservation payments to our farms, research in organic agriculture, keep the cost share for organic certification fees, and maintain the integrity of the organic label.

Horse #2 – Building our farms, gardens, coops and local food networks, the alternative solidarity economy, our liberated territory where we practice food sovereignty.

For 50-plus years, through organizations like NOFA and MOFGA, we have made tremendous progress in learning how to produce food without damaging the planet and how to nurture community around food.  We helped create the organic label, the gold standard eco-label that has helped build a market that supports our farms.

I have spent most of my life and energies helping build this alternative through organic farming and CSA.  The Principle of Fairness from IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) has been a guiding star.

The Principle of Fairness is comprehensive:

“Organic agriculture should build on relationships that ensure fairness with regard to the common environment and life opportunities.

Fairness is characterized by equity, respect, justice, and stewardship of the shared world, both among people and in their relations to other living beings.”

The National Organic Program (NOP) never encompassed the full values of organic agriculture and Fairness in particular. So alongside the Farmworker Support Committee (CATA), Rural Advancement Foundation International and Florida Organic Growers, I represented NOFA in creating the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP), with Food Justice Certified as an add-on to the organic label.  

Farmers function on two levels – as suppliers and employers. AJP addresses both. As suppliers, farmers need the guaranteed right to freely associate without fear of retaliation. Especially in the current context when buyers are rapidly consolidating, farms as small and very small businesses must have protection against predatory, unfair contracts, whether verbal or written, so that buyers can’t break them without just cause. AJP standards for labor apply to farmers as employers and other food businesses as well.  For farmworkers, freedom of association recognizes their right to approach the employer about working conditions, wages, hours, safety, without fear of retaliation and to resolve disputes fairly. 

AJP has worked for dramatic, long-term transformation in our food system through a cultural shift away from power consolidation and towards empowerment, transparency, justice, and fairness for all who work together to bring food to our tables. Please check out the AJP website – the tool-kit contains many resources to help farms strengthen both pricing and labor policies.

With the mainstreaming of organic has come increasing pressure on NOP to make allowances for corporate approaches to organic production.  NOP auditors have failed to censure the certifiers that allow mega-dairies to skimp on pasture or certify hydroponic operations as organic. Organic farmers are resisting with new add-ons – the Real Organic Project (grown in soil, no CAFOs) and Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) (all that plus humane and fair).

In making choices for our farms, ancestral peasant wisdom counsels us to depend on our own resources and those of our closest cooperators and supporters so that we can enlarge our autonomy from the concentrated wealth and power of agribusiness. The sustainable agriculture/local foods movements have slowed the downward trend in farm numbers, but losses continue. Most farm products move through brokers, distributors, processors, and retailers, predominantly entrepreneurial entities that are dedicated to profiting from the value that others produce. This sobering reality brings us to

Horse # three – shaping our vision.

To bring to life our vision of a just, agroecological farming system that is worth sustaining, we need comprehensive domestic fair trade that balances the interests of farmers, farmworkers, and the land, while constantly expanding access to local high-quality organic foods for people of all income levels. 

Our movement for Agrarian Justice is one of the most critical social movements of our day. Turning sunlight into food – we may hold the key to transforming the whole system.

Draft program for system transformation:

• Replace subsidies that prop up constantly falling farm prices, in effect subsidizing big processors and import-exporters, with a system of parity price supports with supply management tagged to inflation. Parity pricing functions like a minimum wage for farms. Farmers should learn the history of its origins in the Great Depression.

Twenty-first century parity should provide price supports and supply management for the basic commodities (grains, beans) and reestablish farmer-held reserves for grains as buffer stocks in case of poor harvests or climate disasters that also protect farmers against price volatility.

Since fruit and vegetables are perishable, farmer, community, or worker-owned co-ops can invest in value-added enterprises. If seasonal excess supply threatens to lower prices, fruit and vegetables will be frozen, canned, dried, or made into products for use year-round.  A parity system will return livestock onto family farms by making diverse crop rotations economically viable.

Paying farmers a fair price might result in a small increase in food prices (3 – 5%), but if we raise wages for food chain workers (17% of all workers), they will be able to afford it.  It is crucial that farmworkers be included in the higher wages.  Fair prices mean prices that cover fair wages! These two issues must be in lock step.

• We need the government to enforce the antitrust laws already on the books.

• We need contract reform.  Farmers who sell to bigger entities need legislation that supports them in getting fair contracts, including the protected right to freedom of association without threat of retaliation, so they can form hubs or cooperatives to strengthen their bargaining position. A limit must be set on the middlemen’s share of the final shopper dollar.

• We must eliminate the structural racism that underpins injustice and inequity in food and farming characterized by lack of access to land, training, resources, discrimination in government programs and lending institutions, lack of access to healthy, culturally appropriate food, hierarchy in food institutions and employment that place people of color and women in the lowest ranks of authority and pay scale.

• We must tax the billionaires, and reallocate the billions that go into commodity payments and subsidizing crop insurance for the biggest farms to increase funding for SNAP and nutrition programs so that low-income people can afford the high-quality food we produce. 

• We must transform farm work into a respected, fairly remunerated profession. Farmworkers deserve the same rights as other sectors to bargain collectively, receive time-and-a-half for overtime, unemployment insurance, workers’ comp, and paid sick leave. There must be immigration reform based on human rights, including a path to legal residency and citizenship without punitive measures, high fees, prohibition from participating in means-based social programs, and lengthy rigmarole.

• To increase community-based, family-scale organic farms, we must invest in farmer training, including enabling farmworkers to become farmers with access to resources and land.

Once we stand up for the changes that low-income food workers need, we will find ourselves in effective alliance with the most energized social movements of our time and the most radical participants in the labor movement.

Without farmworkers and all the food chain workers as allies, farmers will never have the power to make the changes we need to make our farms the radiant centers of well-being that we dream of. We have to figure out a way forward together and bring the entire food movement with us.

The increasing violence of the climate emergency heightens the urgency of this moment. Our agrarian movement is bursting at the seams with great ideas and years of solid practices. We have been learning how critical it is to have good process – that not just what we do, but also how we do it – is essential to our success.  To achieve agrarian justice, we must have a stakeholder-driven process that is respectful of differences, diverse, and honors our ancestors and the indigenous roots of our practices while making space for feisty young innovators and voices from the margins.  Together we can build the giant coalition based on the intersectionality of soil health and social justice so that we can bring to life a food system grounded in agroecology, health, justice, and equity!

The post Riding Three Horses to Agrarian Justice first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

By: Jack W.

Early in February I worked with some friends in Minnesota who are active in the Twin Cities DSA chapter to get their takes on the massive ICE deployment in their area. Specifically, I wanted to ask questions that can help guide our decision making in MDDSA.

To start off, can you introduce yourself? How long have you lived in the Twin Cities? What history do you have with DSA and activism?

Rachel H: I was born and raised in a suburb outside Minneapolis. I currently live in Saint Paul. I joined the DSA a bit before Trump was elected the second time. I became active with DSA when Operation Metro Surge happened and I couldn’t sit back and do nothing.

Dylan H: I’ve lived in the Twin Cities since 2010. I had volunteered with Fairvote Minnesota before, an organization trying to bring ranked choice voting to the state. After ICE killed Good I felt I needed to get more involved in direct action and mutual aid.

What was the general mood in the Twin Cities towards issues like Trump, immigration and ICE? Outside of DSA circles, was ICE enforcement or immigration a common topic of conversation?

Rachel H: The Twin Cities are blue, so support for Trump and ICE is pretty low. Before last year, ICE had never been a topic of conversation. People that talk about immigration tend to be conservative. Most people around here recognize and celebrate that we are cities made up of immigrants . We have so many different food options!

Dylan H: Prior to Trump most conversations I participated in regarding ICE were about how Obama was deporter-in-chief.

The Trump admin kicked off this operation pointing to recent investigation into childcare fraud, specifically creating propaganda blaming immigrants. Can you talk about if there appears to be any consistent narrative/strategy to why this is happening besides terrorizing a region that has not voted for Trump?

Rachel H: I really haven’t seen a consistent narrative besides absolute lies and degradation of our Somali population. There are so many other cities with a higher percentage of immigrants. So why pick Minneapolis and Saint Paul? The Trump admin is not hiding its intentions and purpose. They said they’d withdraw the ICE incursion if Governor Walz hands over voter information. Trump wants to punish not only Walz, but any voter that did not vote for Trump.

Dylan H: In keeping with Republican tradition, Trump is just using the Somali population here as a scapegoat to sell cruelty to his supporters. He needed to create a “them” that’s separate from “us” so it’s okay if you feel hate towards them and it’s okay if you dehumanize them. But it’s not about the fraud. I think it’s mostly because Walz called him weird when he was running for VP with Kamala, and Trump’s narcissism just can’t abide that.

What are some lessons you can share with other chapters on how your chapter prepared and reacted to the ICE deployment as their activity first ramped up?

Rachel H: Our chapter had an emergency action plan devised last year before the ICE deployment. It was essentially a plan to stop current DSA initiatives (with a few exceptions) and divert all energy towards anti-ICE activity. There was a lot of back and forth on when was the appropriate time to enact the plan. Some believed that once we did pass it, it would be easy for people to burn out too quickly. There were also concerns it wasn’t a proper action guide that would funnel members to anti-ICE work.

We did eventually pass it, but personally, I think we could have done it earlier. I’ll note it is easy for me to say that, in hindsight. We didn’t know how bad and swift this Metro Surge would hit our communities. So I guess my advice would be to have a concrete plan in place and pass it sooner rather than later. Better to have people tired than disorganized and late.

As events unfolded (like the ICE murders) how has your organizing evolved?

Rachel H: Since we enacted the plan, TCDSA sends out a daily ICE bulletin with ways to get involved, events like protests and vigils, as well as upcoming trainings for legal observers, street medics, marshalling, and others.

This is a great concise way to get the most pertinent information to as wide a range of people as possible. Outside of DSA, people have formed tons of hyperlocal neighborhood groups for rapid response and mutual aid. I think a huge and important network is our public schools. They have come together and organized to protect students.

What has been your chapter’s experience working with other organizations? Do you feel like your chapter has taken the lead on organizing an in-house operation to combat ICE, or have you been organizing with other anti-ICE orgs?

Rachel H: I feel like the DSA has worked in tandem with many other groups. I wouldn’t say there’s really a lead in organizing. We have an incredible network of mutual aid groups, unions, and progressive orgs that have really stepped up. Many small businesses have started their own donation funds, food pantries, or donation drop-offs for clothes and household items.

Has your chapter had success moving elected offices to be more aggressive against ICE?

Rachel H: We do the usual: calls and emails demanding action. It’s also been helpful to show up at council meetings and voice complaints directly to our local leaders. Honestly, I can’t say how effective we’ve been in getting elected officials to be more aggressive. Frey (Mayor of Minneapolis) will say “Get the fuck out of Minnesota” or whatever but it’s just words. He hasn’t done shit. I’m also extremely disappointed in Walz who has shown he does not have the backs of his constituents. He declared February small business month which is great but like, how about “Arrest ICE”? That would make a difference to small businesses.

Dylan H: Honestly I’ve been really disappointed in Klobuchar for going along with Schumer’s weak negotiating position. “Oh, use body cameras” and “Take those masks off,” like he’s scolding children. It’s too late for those measures and regular PD’s have shown that those measures do basically nothing when there’s no one willing to actually hold Law Enforcement accountable. It’s too late for these compromises. Nothing but the abolishment of ICE will do at this point. These are not children, they’re fascists. Personally I am going to try to get as far as I can as an uncommitted caucus delegate so that I’ll have the opportunity to talk to Klobuchar and tell her just that. She wants to be governor. What has she done to earn the honor?

On the labor side, what has been your chapter’s experience working with unions or otherwise organizing workplaces to protect your community from ICE?

Rachel H: DSA has been doing rapid response and observer trainings alongside unions and other orgs. I went to a training that was in tandem with the Saint Paul schools union.

Is there solidarity work you’d like to see other chapters prioritize?

Rachel H: I think it’s really easy to feel like we’re fighting alone. Seeing the protests happen in other cities across the country and even the world has been a great way to see solidarity. I think the number one need right now is rent money for people sheltering in place. So perhaps it’d be helpful to have chapters have a linktree for ways to send funds.

Dylan H: The best way to directly help people on the ground here is to organize a fund raising drive to donate to standwithminnesota.com.

Do you have any other messages for DSA members about this moment?

Rachel H: We might have the biggest surge of ICE, but they are in every city. Talk to your neighbors, get organized, and get involved. Remember that we are stronger together and only WE protect us.

Dylan H: Have an action plan in place. Learn as much as you can from as many organizers here as you can. When they leave here, they will be coming to your city too. Fascists don’t stop until they are stopped.

In other conversations I had with the pair in the wake of the news that the Trump admin is declaring a draw down, they made clear that little has changed on the ground. “They have not let down on abductions and surveillance. I hear planes, helicopters, and/or drones every day. No one is relaxing their guard,” said Rachel. “It’s a false concession they spent as a bargaining chip to try to get DHS funded. Literally nothing has changed,” added Dylan.

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On the Ground in a Terrorized City: An interview with Twin City DSA members was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

At the March 2026 General Meeting, RVDSA adopted the electoral strategy below, along with amendments to our endorsement process. Introduction The purpose of our electoral work is to build the confidence and organization for the working class to seize political power, radically democratizing our society and transitioning toward social control of the economy. When working […]

Under the Trump regime, the mask of empire has slipped off. The ruling class is barely trying to manufacture consent for its wars, relying instead on a show of overwhelming force. There is no ideological project, no “promotion of democracy.” The latest attacks on Venezuela and Iran are merely the naked assertion of power and maintenance of US hegemony.

Imperialism describes the expansion of capitalistic competition across the globe in pursuit of profit. Though already in control of much of the world’s resources, the US imperial core exerts militaristic and economic violence to dominate countries on its periphery. Meanwhile, inter-imperial rivalries among capitalist powers contending for global hegemony risk the outbreak of broader conflict and destruction.

These forces perpetuate the suffering of the international working class. Money that could be used to fund schools and healthcare is instead invested in bombs and bullets. Young people, asked to fight and die, become instruments of death. Those living in countries targeted by the US are crushed in the rubble and economic exploitation. 

Imperialist war makes us less safe. Blowback describes the unintended consequences of foreign military action. The CIA’s backing of the Afghan mujahideen led directly to the rise of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The 1979 Iranian Revolution was largely a reaction to the Western-backed coup of 25 years earlier. Inevitably, civilians are caught in the explosive reaction to US imperial violence.

The exertion of force overseas also has a boomerang effect at home. Technologies of war, refined abroad, are increasingly used to exert control on domestic soil. Increased government surveillance and militarized police forces are the outputs of this inward hardening. An overhyped fear of foreign enemies promotes fascistic attacks against immigrants and minorities, while militarism reinforces patriarchy and glorifies hypermasculinity.

The Global War on Terror was a factor in popular support for Donald Trump. His wars abroad, fought with no consideration for preventing war crimes, respond to complaints that Bush and Obama were too restrained. Trump promises to use these weapons of war against America’s domestic enemies who supposedly weaken our composition and resolve. Embittered military veterans were overrepresented among those who attempted insurrection on January 6.

The working class has no desire for these conflicts. ROC DSA is organizing opposition into a force capable of seizing the gears of war. Capitalists rely on our labor to manufacture their bombs and to fight their wars. We refuse to be complicit in their violence. 

The post End Imperialism first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

By Hannah W.

In the past few months, the US government has increased state-sanctioned violence with ICE as its executioners. Neighbors are snatched off the street without due process. People are murdered for being bystanders. While violence by the US government isn’t anything new, we must stop the cycle and put an end to the rise of fascism.

ICE targets the marginalized because they expect less mass outcry. ICE thinks they can justify their cruelty, so they can make their violence “acceptable”. But we stand with the most vulnerable. Do not let the US government’s propaganda fool you. People ARE angry. People ARE protesting. The actions of everyday people from all over the country have shown that we the people are NOT okay with ICE. We will not be complacent or complicit. If one of us isn’t safe, none of us are safe.

Not all of our neighbors are able to protect themselves from the ICE onslaught. Our unhoused neighbors don’t have a door they can hide behind when ICE shows up at their homes. Their homes are under threat constantly, not only from the federal government, but also here locally from Mayor Malik Evans sweeping encampments. We must stand with them, too.

Taking action is important, as is the work beyond protesting. Now more than ever, we need to build bridges and stand in solidarity with each other. We need to build community and invest in mutual aid. This can be as simple as checking in on your neighbors, or buying groceries for them. We are stronger together than we are apart.

Many people ask themselves, “What would I do in Nazi Germany?” There is no need to ask. Ask yourself what you’re doing RIGHT NOW. Fascism is here, and the time to act is NOW.

Get involved with ROC DSA or one of the many organizations here. The work continues beyond these streets, and it’s on us, the working class, to make sure our neighbors are protected. Together we hold the power to create the change in the world we want. That starts by taking action now.

The post Organize Beyond Protests first appeared on Rochester Red Star.