World leaders continue to show the necessity for the development of ecosocialism at the local level. Faced with capitalist ecocide, ecosocialism demands ecological balance.  As noted by Anti*Capitalist Resistance, environmental issues are not luxury concerns, because the same people polluting the planet are the people oppressing the working class. The fight against capitalism’s waste and inequity must begin locally and spread internationally. 

One example of an international shortcoming is the November 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as COP30, the 30th meeting of the Conference of the Parties, in Belém, Brazil) ending without an agreement on phasing out fossil fuels.  This is not surprising, considering COP30 had around 1,600 attendees who were fossil fuel lobbyists, outnumbering every national delegation other than Brazil.  This is in addition to the voices of petrostate attendees like Russia and Saudi Arabia and the absence of the United States, one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gas, which did not send a delegation.  A group of U.S. leaders did attend in an unofficial capacity, however, and they discussed how U.S. cities and states are addressing the climate crisis.

Although absent from COP30 and with leadership that increasingly rejects climate science, the U.S. is experiencing the devastating effects of climate change. Across all regions of the United States, people are experiencing warming temperatures and extreme weather conditions, including flooding, wildfires, and hurricanes. Low-income areas and communities of color disproportionately feel these effects. 

But there are economic costs, too, as the first half of 2025 was the costliest on record for major disasters in the U.S., totaling over $100 billion.  The United States will continue to face direct and compounding challenges as average surface temperatures continue to rise.

For the above reasons and many others, the journey to national (and, eventually, worldwide) ecosocialism must begin locally.  Localities, particularly cities like Chicago, have the potential to successfully implement ecosocialist goals.  These goals include efficient and universally accessible public transportation, local food sovereignty, and the elimination of fossil fuels. 

The work the Fix the CTA campaign has been doing will strengthen Chicago’s public transportation system.  If Zohran Mamdani achieves his goal of free public buses in New York City, such an accomplishment can serve as a model for Chicago and other municipalities. New York City’s congestion pricing should also be a model for municipalities, as the corollary for free and efficient public transportation is the reduction of private vehicles. 

Despite inequities and reliance on multinational corporations, Chicago can accomplish local food sovereignty through, among other things, greater support for local growers and kitchens. 

New York’s Build Public Renewables Act, which authorizes state-owned clean energy projects, is an example of favorable decarbonization that resulted from years of organizing by DSA. Although New York is unique in that it has the nation’s largest public energy provider, passage of the Build Public Renewables Act shows that grassroots organizing works. People in every jurisdiction can organize for clean energy sources like solar power. 

On a daily basis, people in every jurisdiction can recycle and use other sustainability efforts to minimize our own ecological footprint. Reusing items also serves the dual purpose of minimizing the flow of money from corporations to dangerous regimes. 

Of course, the final boss of ecosocialism is capitalism as a whole. Ecological balance is inconsistent with capitalism’s profit maximization that commodifies both people and nature. In that vein, ecosocialism requires a widespread and revolutionary social transformation and collectivization of the means of production. But the roots for ecosocialism are planted at home. 

The post Grassroots Red-Greens  appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

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By: Carlos B

The modern figure of the chef did not begin in a luxury dining room. It began in the barracks, in hunger, in political upheaval. Marie-Antoine Carême—the man later called the “King of Chefs and Chef of Kings”—was born in 1784 to an unemployed laborer on the outskirts of Paris. He was one of eight children. His father, overwhelmed by poverty as the French Revolution unfolded, took him in the city at the age of ten with a single instruction: find work and survive.

Carême did. He washed dishes, swept floors, and cooked in exchange for food for his 8 brothers. He was a worker before he was an artist. He lived in the same uncertainty as the masons and stonecutters who built Paris. From them he absorbed a way of seeing structure, symmetry, order. And in the heat of revolutionary France, surrounded by ruins and construction sites, he began shaping pastry as if it were stone—edible monuments that echoed the geometric clarity of the nation’s new architecture.

His pièces montées—towering sculptures of sugar, dough, and caramel—borrowed from the building language that would later inspire Le Corbusier and the architects that remade modern France. Carême believed that architecture and cuisine were parallel disciplines: both required discipline, engineering, creativity, and respect for labor. He designed not only dishes, but the first chef’s jacket—white, double-breasted, practical, proudly worn by cooks to this day. A uniform built for workers.

Nearly a century later, during the upheavals of the 1930s, another chapter of kitchen history unfolded—not in Paris, but in Minneapolis. The Great Depression crushed wages and pushed millions toward starvation. In 1934, as the city’s Teamsters strike escalated, workers built a commissary to feed thousands of strikers, supporters, and families. It was not a restaurant. It was a lifeline: a kitchen to keep people warm, sheltered, nourished, and alive. A place where food was not a commodity but a collective defense. In the middle of police beatings and freezing nights, workers cooked vats of stew, baked bread, treated injuries, and protected each other. The commissary became an engine of solidarity.

This is a pattern in American labor history. When a crisis arrives, kitchens appear. They appear because eating every day is a fundamental human need, and because the ability to feed each other is one of the oldest acts of resistance. The soup lines of the 1930s, the civil rights kitchens of the 1960s, the mutual-aid networks after hurricanes and pandemics—all extend the same lineage that began with Carême the child laborer building pastry monuments for a nation under reconstruction.

And today across Austin, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, New York City, Providence, Boston, Minneapolis and more, volunteer cooks and labor activists assemble meals for the Starbucks strikers. 

Dozens of cooks, friends and supporters of the Starbucks workers participated in elaborating meals for the picket lines. Several menus came together based on the proposal of cooking foods from Palestina, South America, Vietnam as well as traditional midwestern comfort food in memory of the 1934 teamsters strike, where the kitchen commissariat started.

These solidarity kitchens are not charity. They are infrastructure—built by food workers, baristas, cooks, organizers, and community members who understand that the fight for wages, safety, and dignity runs through the stomach as surely as through the picket line.

At this moment, the national Starbucks strike honors that tradition. The young baristas are stepping into the long memory of labor in the United States. They are showing that the struggle for better conditions is never just about pay.  

From Antoine Carême shaping pastry like architecture, to the Minneapolis commissary nourishing an entire strike in 1934, to today’s kitchens supporting Starbucks workers—the lesson is the same: food is a collective act of dignity.

Let’s help them win. 

Carlos B is a chef and organizer of the Starbucks worker solidarity kitchens.

The post The Starbucks Strike and the Long Memory of the Kitchen appeared first on Working Mass.

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Enjoy your December National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 27-person body (including both YDSA Co-Chairs) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, check out hot labor solidarity across the country, sign up for volunteer opportunities for the New Year, and more!

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

• From the National Political Committee — Bringing the Light
• Workers Demand More Forever Program Committee — Apply by Friday 1/9/26
• DSA Archive Volunteer Opportunity — Deadline Saturday 1/10/26
• Be Part of the DSA National Editorial Board! Apply by Thursday 1/15/26

From the National Political Committee — Bringing the Light

Dear Comrades,

Cultures around the world have found ways to celebrate the time around the winter solstice, using candles and lights to cut through the early darkness, and celebrations and rituals to combat the isolation and sadness that comes with the winter’s chill. 

As socialists, this is a time to pause and remember what we are fighting for; to look past the commercialism and commodification and understand that we deserve to have the space and safety to make community, the resources to enjoy the company of our loved ones, and the right to rest. As the old slogan goes, “we fight for bread, but we fight for roses, too.” We, the working class, have the right to have our basic needs fulfilled, and we also have the right to lives full of joy and celebration and relaxation. 

The symbolism of the season holds true: everywhere you look, you can see our comrades in DSA finding ways to bring light into the world. Chapters across the country, from Atlanta to Detroit to Denver and beyond, are standing strong with our partners at Starbucks Workers United and saying “No contract? No coffee!” If your chapter isn’t already engaged in Starbucks solidarity but you’d like to be, get in touch with DSA’s National Labor Commission and get started, and in the meantime, don’t hesitate to find a nearby picket line and jump in!

With the final runoffs in the bag, season is officially over for the year and just across the river from the soon-to-be-Mamdani-led New York City, two socialists and proud North New Jersey DSA members, Jake Ephros and Joel Brooks, won their Jersey City Council races, bringing a socialist legislative bloc to the city in one fell swoop. 

And from coast to coast, chapters are taking on Trump’s fascist deportation machine: participating in ICE Watch programs, organizing for sanctuary city legislation, and making ICE collaboration a toxic decision for businesses like Avelo Airlines.

There is so much more critical work happening everywhere in the country as DSA works to build working class power and take back our rights and dignity from the fascists and their billionaire funders. If you are not yet a DSA member, join us now. And if you are a member, you’ve still got time to jump in on the Fall Drive, recruit three new folks and win yourself a limited edition 2025 Fall Drive t-shirt, designed by Chattanooga DSA leader and labor artist Tabitha Arnold!

And Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), our youth and students section, is preparing for next year’s organizing too. Are you a student interested in building the movement for democratic socialism on your campus? Know someone who is? Registration for the 2026 YDSA Organizing Conference is open! The Conference will be held from 2/20/26 to 2/22/26 in Chicago, Illinois. The weekend will be full of inspiring speakers, opportunities to connect with other organizers from across the country, and tons of skills workshops. You can register at the link here. Early bird rate of $99 ends this Sunday, 12/21!

2026 will demand a lot of our energy, so we genuinely hope that you have the chance to recharge your batteries with warmth and light and your favorite holiday snacks and plenty of rest over the next few weeks. The fight continues, and we’ll see you in the new year!

In Solidarity, Comfort, and Joy,

Megan and Ashik
DSA National Co-Chairs

Workers Demand More Forever Program Committee — Apply by Friday 1/9/26

Applications are now open for the Workers Demand More (WDM) Forever Program committee! As a reminder, Resolution 34, Workers Deserve More Forever, was passed at this August’s National Convention. The 13-member program committee calls for four at-large members in good standing. To apply, see here. The application deadline is Friday, January 9th at 11:59pm PT.

This committee is time bound. After its tasks are completed, the Program committee will dissolve and the NPC members who had been on the committee will be the primary liaisons and stewards to the organization’s various bodies and socialists in office to support and promote the effective use of WDM.

DSA Archive Volunteer Opportunity — Deadline Saturday 1/10/26

The Archives Policy of the Democracy Commission (CB01-01) was passed by the 2025 DSA National Convention to create an archive of DSA meeting minutes, Convention results, and standing policies available to all members, and empowered the NPC to designate a group of members to assist with the archiving project, with their efforts concluding no later than January 1, 2027. Archive documents can be submitted here.

The Archive Committee will be undertaking this effort over the next year to ensure the archive is completed, and will assist the NPC Secretary in regular reporting and expanding the scope of resources to be available in the Archives. Applications are due by Saturday 1/10/26.

Be Part of the DSA National Editorial Board! Apply by Thursday 1/15/26

Applications are now open to the 2025-2027 DSA National Editorial Board. The Editorial Board is a 9-member body appointed by the NPC that oversees the organization’s two national publications, Democratic Left and Socialist Forum. The Editorial Board is composed of members with various points of view on important political questions. It does not exist to develop a single theoretical or strategic perspective. As a result, the publications reflect the wide range of views within the organization. The goal of the Editorial Board is not to espouse a particular “party line,” but to maintain strong editorial standards for our publications. As such, the process prioritizes familiarity with DSA and editorial experience in appointment to positions on the board.

If you are interested in being appointed to the Editorial Board, please fill out this application by Thursday, 1/15/26 at 11:59PM Hawaii Standard Time.

The post Your National Political Committee Newsletter — Bringing the Light appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Tried and true tips to help labor organizers stay focused on what matters most: worker self-activity.

The post 20 tips for new organizers from 1199 appeared first on EWOC.

A member of the National Political Committee shares lessons learned from growing up in a political crisis.

The post How to Survive as a Teen Under Trump appeared first on Democratic Left.

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By: Jackie Wilson

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the official position of Working Mass.

Electoralism is a strategy of electing politicians with the goal of creating political change. From a young age, many of us are indoctrinated to believe voting has great power;our childhoods are filled with lessons and stories about how voting is the way democracy is preserved and political change happens, backed by a sanitized lie that the Civil Rights Movement achieved its ends through the vote and not human struggle itself.  Elections have very rarely achieved any meaningful changes for the working class or done any lasting damage to the capitalist system. As Lenin argued in The State and Revolution, “to decide once every few years which member of the ruling class is to misrepresent the people in parliament is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism.” Politicians will always be more loyal to preserving the system that safeguards capital rather than liberating the masses, precisely because of their relation to the electoral system of the state, even with professed socialist politics. 

We have pursued a heavily electoral strategy in recent years of the Massachusetts socialist movement. Even recent debates have centered on methods of electoralism, rather than the question of its strategic value. There may be times where engaging in electoralism is strategic, even Lenin in Left-Wing Communism agrees that action by the masses, a big strike, for instance, is more important than parliamentary activity at all times. In order to combat the inevitable results of electoralism’s demobilization of mass movements, as well as its ineffectiveness in developing organizers, we need a break from electoral strategy itself in 2026.

Electoralism as a Way to Demobilize Mass Movements

Electoralism can’t have real revolutionary power if it is so encouraged and permitted by the state; this holds true in Massachusetts today, as in any other epoch where the state has used electoralism as a valve for discontent to be exhausted. As socialists, we strive to agitate workers and tenants to lose their own fear and come together in mass movements. When mass movements erupt into disruptions of the current system, politicians lockstep to stop those movements. That’s shown again and again, even in the annals of sports labor, as during the 2020 uprising. When NBA players began mobilizing to strike in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, Barack Obama called Lebron James and National Basketball Players’ Association (NBPA)  President Chris Paul, urging them to cancel the strike in favor of pushing voter turnout:  “in one fell swoop, electoralism had shut down mass mobilization.”

Instead of instilling what Asad Haider called a “class hatred” characterized by a “consistent antagonism to the system,” elections serve as a way to make the masses feel as though they have power over the current system.Obama’s response to the NBA strike how politicians can use elections to redirect the energy of a mass movement from escalating towards revolutionary class struggle to largely meaningless civic performance, but liberal politicians are not the only figures guilty. The Communist Party, USA largely sacrificed its Black-led base-building and organizing infrastructure in Alabama for a Popular Front motioned from above, with no input from members. As Fanon wrote in Wretched of the Earth,  “the leader pacifies the people.” Elections allow people to voice their anger about the oppressive system, but they do not bring together the working class in a way that can sustain active, militant mass movements.

The question of the ballot line distracts from the reality that dedicating resources to the strategy itself means losing ground. The Democratic and Republican Parties drone strike civilians overseas, expand the militarization of the police, deport immigrants, and engage in union-busting practices, co-opting left-wing dissent, while smaller third-party candidates either have no chance of winning an election or have no real means to enact the changes they promised once elected. 

Rosa Luxemburg remains correct.  We can talk about Socialists in Office all day, but to Luxemburg, a socialist in office can either work in opposition to the bourgeois government, which means they would not be an active member of the government and be removed from office, or they can carry out the duties necessary for the government to remain operational, which means they would not be a socialist. 

The Ineffectiveness of Electoral Politics in Developing Organizers 

Beyond the ineffectiveness of electoralism to achieve any meaningful change in and of itself, elections don’t raise class consciousness or increase revolutionary skill. Voting is not a form of class struggle, so participation in voting does not either. As McNally and Post argued: ”Not only do the people you ‘organize’ electorally remain isolated and passive, rather than active participants in their own liberation, but election campaigns that focus on winning must appeal to voters’ existing consciousness.” 

Other strategies do not rely on activating existing consciousness, mobilizing over organizing, but rather on actual change from within. Elections de-emphasize the ability of people to liberate themselves by positing an outside savior as the key actor in political struggle. 

Part of this urge to seek an outside savior comes from fear. In his work on death denial and the phenomenon of transference, Ernest Becker argues that individuals who have intense fear or denial of death will often seek out some kind of savior. In the case of revolutionary struggle, those who are afraid of their own or the revolution’s death will seek some figure that provides a sense of immortality. This is a means to avoid the weight of our responsibility as individuals to the revolutionary project, which includes the collective and one another, to the masses themselves as the ones actually capable of leading us to liberation. It’s much easier to think we can find the perfect champion whom we cheer on like any other celebrity. A core tenet of socialism is the belief in the liberatory power of the working class, not individual celebrities or champions. We should not let our fears override that belief. 

Fear may be an unconscious undercurrent, but socialists offer many arguments for why electoral strategies advance the socialist struggle. When organizers prioritize electoral campaigns, they often justify the strategic move with the claim that elections bring visibility to the organization and new members into the movement. When we conflate electing a champion with bringing new members into an organization, socialist organizations take a more evangelical posturing – telling others the “good news” of the politician bringing socialism to the people at the low price of one vote – towards the working class than one that seeks to unlock workers’ and tenants’ own power to shape historical forces. People must rely on the second coming of their god for salvation. We know that there is no second coming of anything that will save us. There’s no reason for us to focus exclusively on “raising awareness” or “spreading the good news of communism” when we can engage directly as political actors in class struggles and mass movements themselves.

Rather than build an international workers’ movement, electoralist strategies at the expense of others often lead to socialists supporting reactionary leaders and forging cross-class alliances that diminish important principles. The Communist Party, USA’s abandonment of base-building in Alabama for the Popular Front is one example; During the 1960s, the Iraqi Communist Party sacrificed any principle “in order to forge a relationship with those in power.”  After the 1958 revolution, the communists in Iraq united with Kassem, the military leader, and with the national bourgeoisie. This proved disastrous for the Iraqi Communist Party when the Ba’athist government turned against the communists resulting in much of the party’s central committee members exiled, imprisoned or executed.

The Iraqi Communist Party’s great weakness lay in its politics rather than its organization. Rather than forge ahead and offer independent leadership to the workers’ movement, the party retreated and refused to challenge the Free Officers’ leader Abd’al-Karim Qassem for power. By aligning with the government and the bourgeoisie, the party saw the tragic destruction of their movement which allowed for the rise of the Ba’athist Party. In the best of circumstances, bourgeois politicians and leaders will pacify and demobilize mass movements, and in the worst of circumstances, bourgeois politicians and leaders will violently repress and purge those mass movements.

DSA’s Electoral Priorities

The role of socialists in bourgeois society is to form an opposition party. Without insurgent mobilizations that advance working class power to produce political disruptions, which undergird the opposition to the system, engaging in electoralism within the capitalist state will result in a weakening of the socialist left.  As a socialist organization, DSA should prioritize actions that have the potential to undermine social divisions among working people and build antiracist and feminist class solidarity. Actions that involve confrontational action have the most power to radically transform working class people to build unity across social differences. 

Rather than prioritize electoral campaigns, DSA chapters should imagine ways for the working class to engage in their own liberation: union organizing for both tenants and workers, mutual aid network-building in our neighborhood groups, and anti-ICE response.  

Boston DSA joined the Homes For All coalition for a campaign to get rent control on the ballot in 2026, since rent control would be a massive victory for renters across the state, unlocking room for successive victories. There are even more direct examples of such power from below: Mattapan tenants won rent control for 347 buildings after an aggressive 6-year long fight. Without waiting for legislative solutions, these tenants succeeded in making their homes permanently affordable. We could do that for other neighborhoods and in other buildings. We don’t have to beg the Massachusetts legislation to protect us from price-gouging landlords. We can take matters into our own hands and win. 

By forming mutual aid networks, people do not need to beg for assistance from an uncaring government. When the government shutdown ended SNAP victims, neighborhoods across Boston sprang into action. Residents expanded food pantries, created meal trains, and coordinated food deliveries. Even after SNAP benefits have been reinstated, those networks remain. The foundation and structure created to respond to crises can be supported by neighborhood groups, the anchoring and most local formation of the DSA chapter. In neighborhood groups and other spaces, we can mobilize residents, distribute food and necessary supplies to support people facing food insecurity. Mutual aid groups like Food Not Bombs or Warm Up Boston have long been supporting our unhoused neighbors; participation and initiative like theirs can be pioneered in order to build the infrastructure of organization needed for mass disruption.  As we escalate and build towards mass disruptions, we need to have infrastructure to support workers and tenants on the front lines of militant union action like striking. Strong mutual aid networks allow workers to stay on strike for as long as it takes for corporations to come to the bargaining table and meet their demands. 

We can take back our streets and our cities from ICE and police forces. Rather than appeal to politicians who will offer little more than empty platitudes since they work for and maintain this system that abducts our neighbors, we can form ICE watch hubs, supporting and expanding the LUCE networks, while developing patrol systems as organizers have in Los Angeles and Metro DC in response to federal occupation.  Chicago, New York City, and Raleigh have all had success in chasing ICE out of their cities. This is only possible by training members in de-arresting techniques and direct action skills. Organizers in Minnesota rally outside of hotels where ICE agents are hosted, which not only demoralizes the ICE agents, but also disrupts the hotel business. These are the type of actions that hurt capitalists the most, which our chapter and others should prioritize.

 As the Greek poet Archilochus said, we don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.

If we are rallying behind someone we believe may look favorably on our demands rather than fighting for those demands ourselves, we are not training ourselves for revolution. Any reforms that the government offers, the workers can win through unions and militant campaigns. When the workers win reforms through revolutionary class struggle, they have the training necessary to be part of a mass movement that can fight for and win a socialist future. The purpose of a socialist organization should be to build a mass movement of revolutionaries who have been radicalized through class struggle. A revolution requires revolutionaries.

Jackie Wilson is a Boston DSA member and a contributing writer to Working Mass.

The post OPINION: A Revolution Requires Revolutionaries, Not Candidates  appeared first on Working Mass.

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By: Dalton Galloway

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the official position of Working Mass.

Reflecting back on the 2025 election season, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has major accomplishments for which to be proud.

In a year without federal elections, DSA nonetheless captured lightning in a bottle and secured Zohran Mamdani the Democratic nomination and ultimately the mayoralty in New York City. Locally, meanwhile, Boston DSA nominated four candidates, supporting Willie Burnley, Jr. for Mayor of Somerville, Marcos Candido for Lowell City Council, and Ayah al-Zubi (first) and Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler (second) for Cambridge City Council.

Both Cambridge City Council candidates were victorious; Candido lost an extremely close race by fewer than forty votes with 49% of the vote;  Burnley captured around 45% of the vote. In New York City, Mamdani swept to victory with more votes than any mayoral candidate in decades, a victory already swelling DSA’s ranks by the thousands. Membership has already surpassed 90,000 in good standing — the highest-ever.

All four candidates endorsed by Boston DSA are DSA members – as is Mamdani. This is something that, in 2025, practically goes without saying. However, it was not always the case that DSA endorsees were consistently members of the organization or that a non-socialist candidate was essentially an endorsement non-starter. 

What Does It Mean To Be a Socialist Candidate in 2026?

We have learned from experience that endorsement of candidates who do not organize within our fold leads to a situation where DSA is easily cast aside once elected, placing DSA in the unenviable position of no ability to influence decisions made by candidates whose political failures we are nonetheless tied to upon endorsement. 

The consensus view that DSA candidates ought to be avowed socialists (and nearly always members) emerged out of bitter disappointments felt by comrades across DSA’s internal political spectrum, but also from years of internal deliberations and debate.

Now, it is my hope that a similar inflection point is at hand on how DSA ought to select its candidates and how we should relate to candidates – and officials, upon their election. While some of the results of the 2025 DSA Convention suggest the partyist wing of DSA holds a bare majority, the organization is clearly not yet to the point of consensus around how we collectively address and support our candidates.

Instead, we must contend that disputes around our relationship to elected officials remain some of DSA’s most hotly contested debates.

All factions of DSA proclaim the need to “build power,” none more than would-be DSA office-holders. However, there are dueling perceptions of what this phrase means. For some, it means increasing the number of elected officials who are sympathetic to democratic socialist ideals: candidates who may or may not be DSA members, may or may not receive our endorsement, but who will work with DSA on certain priorities. Certainly, this approach would result in more boxes we could tick when tallying up the numbers of DSA endorsees in office. 

However, this vision-of elected officials as allies of DSA and the socialist movement rather than as representatives thereof must be cast aside if DSA is serious about its aspirations to function as a political party. Raising the bar for endorsement to being a member of DSA is insufficient when the organization and wider movement need a broader paradigm shift;  paying a few dozen dollars a year to the organization is important, but far more important is a willingness to represent our platform and organization while in office.

What Are We Building in 2026?

For the partyist wing of DSA to make the case that we collectively should make decisions and priorities based on a vision of elected officials as representatives of our organization, the first priority is illustrating the importance of the organization: the party. That means defining what exactly a party is. The United States does not have political parties in the classical sense of the term- rather, it has ballot lines, and undemocratic organizations which are vaguely affiliated with those ballot lines but in most cases do not directly determine who runs on them. The Democratic “Party” is at the center of a much larger financing, influence, turnout, and policy network that exerts real control over politicians. But it is voter registration or even self-identification that makes the average “Democrat,” not participation or identification with the labyrinthine workings of the organization itself.

When we speak of a party, we mean a democratic mass-membership organization which has its own independent political program. Indeed, these principles were codified as the basis of DSA’s structure at the 2025 National Convention with the passage of a resolution entitled “Principles for Party Building.” 

Our ability to implement our goals and to agitate workers toward the socialist party is compromised when we lend our full support to candidates who have not committed to a socialist program, and who see DSA not as their party but as merely one member of a coalition which supports them – a coalition which includes liberal and bourgeois-progressive forces. That is not to say that DSA members running for office should not seek out any external sources of support – it’s difficult for any of our candidates to win if they aren’t at least winning over Warren Democrats – but if DSA is seen not a party to be built, but an interest group to be placated, there is little incentive in building the organization or in agitating for its long-term program. 

Building power must not just mean electing DSA endorsees, or even DSA members, to elected office. Building power means electing candidates who will legislate according to the platform of, be accountable to, and ultimately be elected on behalf of DSA.

DSA enters 2026 with the most members we have ever had, fresh off our highest-profile victory ever. Whether or not one believes electoralism ought to be the primary focus of DSA, there can be little doubt engagement in elections has been the primary driver of membership growth. DSA should run focused campaigns at the federal, state, and municipal level. These candidates must be willing to put forward an oppositional, independent, and socialist political vision on the campaign trail and, should they win, from the halls of power, adhering to the DSA platform at all stages. 

Otherwise, while we may help to build a progressive mandate, we cannot help but fail to build the Party.

Dalton Galloway is a member of Boston DSA and contributing writer to Working Mass.

The post OPINION: Oppositional, Independent, and Socialist Candidates appeared first on Working Mass.

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[[{“value”:”

By: Ric Blair

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the official position of Working Mass.

The 2025 election cycle has left Boston Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) stronger and better positioned for the future; As far as I see it, this is a fact. Members across the region have pounded the pavement to spread the message of our endorsed candidates, leading to victories or strong showings in every race we ran this cycle.

In the process, too, Boston DSA, and all the zip codes it entails, has built up chapter capacity in meaningful ways and set the stage for even greater future success. 

In Somerville

Coming into 2025, Somerville DSA was a growing section of the chapter that had existed in a substantive sense for many years—my first ever interface with the chapter was, after all, the 2021 “Somerville for All” slate. But Somerville DSA itself – the Somerville “neighborhood group,” still felt nascent. Earlier this year, Somerville created its own leadership structure and self-organized out of the neighborhood group model of ad hoc initiatives and towards a branch with organizing campaigns and political decision-making.

One decision that Somerville DSA made as a body following the chapter endorsement of Willie Burnley, Jr. for Mayor was to establish a member-led apparatus to elect Burnley. The campaign was selected as the sole external priority of the branch, aimed at creating new member leaders from the campaign’s many tasks. Membership elected  three campaign stewards to bottomline the campaign and mobilize new members to campaign events. Those stewards, in collaboration with the Electoral Working Group and Burnley’s campaign, created the campaign’s field operation. What began as weekend canvasses only eventually expanded into Willie Wednesdays, then regular phone banks, volunteer recruitment calls, and beyond. 

An essential element of this process was new member leadership. Instead of relying on only activating the same core of members, Somerville intentionally worked to organize new leaders from members recently entering the organization or buried in its paper membership.  The Somerville DSA campaign stewards themselves were a mix of longtime members and former chapter and working group leadership, alongside newer self-motivated members. As Willie’s campaign worked to expand capacity, they brought in experienced electoral organizers with DSA connections and focused on greatly expanding their roster of field leads, recruiting nearly 20 highly motivated and reliable volunteers to bottom line canvassing shifts.

 This diffuse structure of campaigning is exactly what powered Mamdani’s victory, and while Somerville did not see that level of success, It was not because of a weak field operation down the stretch. Rather, the lesson here is the exact same one from last year’s campaign to elect Evan Mackay to the state house: that our campaigns should be operating at the necessary scale by the summer, or rather as early as possible. The expansion of capacity on Evan’s and Willie’s campaigns was substantial but too late to swing the ultimate result. 

Willie, and thus DSA, lost ultimately because the expansion of capacity didn’t happen quickly enough.  But in the process of running this campaign, Somerville DSA spent the better part of a year organizing in the community, developing leaders, growing the local membership, and spreading class consciousness in Somerville through organizing conversations. Somerville DSA’s leadership is now entirely composed of new members, most of whom were brought into organization through campaign tasks, but have now transitioned into organizers in other parts of their lives. Members canvassed relentlessly across the city with volunteer turnout driven by a concerted effort to make recruitment calls, both through chapter-owned lists on “Turnout Tuesdays” and with campaign lists on a regular basis. Many of the members who a year ago had barely interacted with the chapter or not even joined yet became involved with DSA through Willie’s campaign and have become effective local leaders in their own right. 

In Lowell

Marcos Candido’s campaign for Lowell City Council was a vehicle for the rejuvenation of Merrimack Valley DSA. What had been a largely overshadowed section of the chapter pulled itself together in the name of electing Marcos, who cut his teeth organizing a union with his coworkers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), who campaigned on a relentless door-knocking operation kickstarted weeks before the preliminary after a crucial Boston DSA endorsement.  He  lost by 39 votes. It was another eerie reminder of Evan’s race, in which the incumbent won out by 41 votes. The democratic socialist project was two votes, far slimmer than even a field margin, from the capture of key seats. 

The campaign leaves behind a window of opportunity to solidify and grow a democratic socialist presence in the Merrimack Valley. Comrades were inspired by Marcos’s energy and connection to the labor movement, which has connected more members from electoral to labor work. Further, already, the neighborhood group has organized beyond the campaign; in November 2025, Merrimack Valley DSA co-hosted an organizing training for local tenants with the Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee (ETOC) of Boston DSA’s Housing Working Group. 

The expansion of Merrimack Valley DSA, which can and should be a key hub of organizing in 2026 with the rent control ballot question on the horizon, should be a priority for local members and chapter leadership.

In Cambridge

Former Harvard student organizer Ayah Al-Zubi’s campaign was also incredibly strong at identifying motivated and diligent members and turning them into loyal volunteers and leaders. The campaign utilized a number of levers, including connections to outside organizations like IfNotNow and Cambridge for Palestine, to drive volunteer turnout and mobilize over 120 unique canvassers. Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler’s campaign mobilized about half that much, facing obstacles including a clear gap in enthusiasm between an incumbent campaign and a challenger campaign, as well as, of course, the chapter’s vote to essentially deprioritize his reelection. Jivan, to his credit, more than made up for the difficulties in recruiting volunteers by knocking nearly half the campaign’s doors himself. But both campaigns were ultimately able to ride the power of the chapter’s organizing to resounding wins. 

Cambridge’s election system is peculiar. Campaigns can make it into office on much smaller-scale operations. With that in mind, we should take to heart the magnitude of our victories there and stay hungry for more.

There are certainly ways to improve our operation. For one, we should have unity in our campaigns from the jump. Factional sentiments and tensions should be smoothed over internally and resolved before launching campaigns. Cambridge DSA was fortunate to see both candidates win, but ranked endorsements like what was passed at the August general meeting muddy the chapter’s communications both internally and externally. I believe that there exists within our chapter a shared commitment to resolving internal tensions and creating a better environment for more victories going forward.  

Every Conversation, A Seed for Class Consciousness

More than anything else, the lesson we should all glean from this election cycle is that canvassing works. DSA campaigns are powered first and foremost by rank-and-file DSA members who believe in the socialist project and what our candidates stand for and represent–they, meaning you, are the front lines of our movement. Every canvass is an organizing moment that builds capacity, leadership skills, and community. And every canvass, furthermore, whether it’s for an endorsed candidate, a ballot question, or a project like Safe Communities, is an opportunity to talk about DSA. Even beyond that, every conversation plants a seed for class consciousness in the head of every worker, tenant, and future DSA member in the region. Our campaigns, even in loss, can and have made our chapter and our movement stronger. 

So to comrades in Waltham, or Quincy, or Framingham, or anywhere outside of Camberville, who don’t see a strong DSA presence on their ballots, and who see winning campaigns electoral or otherwise as too much of an uphill battle to take on, shake off your worries and take as many opportunities to organize as you can get. As long as you are there, DSA is too. 

The time to build up chapter presence in your backyard is not in a couple months or years – it is now. DSA victories are not just dominating national headlines.  They are in your area code, and you yourself  can bring them into your community.  

Ric Blair is a member of Boston DSA and contributing writer to Working Mass.

The post OPINION: Electoral Strategy With Every Canvass An Organizing Moment appeared first on Working Mass.

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By: Frederick Reiber

BOSTON, MA—Amid the bustle of Thanksgiving weekend–long lines, overloaded suitcases, and the familiar scramble for caffeine, Blue Bottle baristas staged their first strike. With a union-busting rap sheet almost as big as its balance sheet, workers faced down the chain’s corporate anti-union majority stakeholder during one of the company’s busiest weeks of the year.

As the holidays march towards us, workers picketed and protested to remind customers and corporate leadership that behind the churn of holiday coffee are workers whose demands can no longer be ignored.

The Blue Bottle Independent Union

In May 2024, workers across six Boston Blue Bottle locations voted to unionize, forming the Blue Bottle Independent Union (BBIU). Blue Bottle, once a small San Francisco coffee shop, has become a staple of “third-wave” specialty coffee, now boasting more than 90 locations across the United States, Japan, and Hong Kong. Nestlé purchased a majority stake in 2017, positioning the chain as a glossy, craft-focused brand operating on a tech-startup-like growth model. Nestle is notorious for egregious human rights violations, including child labor, slave labor, and preventing water access to impoverished countries and Tribal nations, among other transgressions.   

For workers, unionization was a necessary response to an ever-widening gap between corporate profits and barista wages. Nestlé reported more than $5 billion in net profit in the first half of 2025 alone, even as many employees said they struggle with living costs. Organizers also noted that this tension mirrors broader trends across the industry and city, recognizing the current ongoing Starbucks Workers United Strike and the adding of three East Bay cafés to the union in 2025.

Workers have additionally emphasized the importance of safe, non-invasive working conditions. Shortly after employees announced their union campaign, Nestlé attempted to install new surveillance cameras across stores—raising concerns about anti-union retaliation  and constant monitoring. Despite the union’s attempts to negotiate meaningful data rights, the company declared an impasse.

That provided legal cover to move forward with the installations.

A First Strike Against Blue Bottle

Recognizing the need to increase pressure at the bargaining table and build worker power, the union voted to strike during Thanksgiving week, when foot traffic surges and the company launches its Black Friday sale on coffee beans. Organizers said the goal was to escalate at a moment when a work stoppage would be impossible for management to ignore. “In the lead-up to the decision to strike, we know that Black Friday and the week around Thanksgiving is one of the times in the year where Blue Bottle makes a lot of their money,” said barista-organizer Abby Sadow. 

Union organizers emphasized that their independence played a central role in how they arrived at that decision. “One of the biggest things about being independent is that we’re able to be fully autonomous and fully democratic,” said one union leader, describing their constitution and bylaws governing strikes.

We get to set all of the dates, we get to set all of the standards… we need to make sure everybody can come to a consensus.

The process required giving baristas ample time to vote and ensuring broad agreement—reflected in the overwhelming 92 percent strike-authorization vote, demonstrating a clear collective mandate to walk out.

Workers began their strike on Wednesday, November 26, urging baristas to withhold their labor and picket outside of the shop. And despite legal challenges over where they could picket, organizers cited strong turnout across the four day strike. Reports from the union’s social media highlighted closures across the city, with only one location, Blue Bottle’s Prudential Center cafe, managing to stay open through manager scabbing. At the union’s East Bay locations, workers were also successful, shutting down all three stores during the strike.

The strike allowed BBIU to send a message in the language that shareholders in Wall Street and Davos will understand: workers are organized, and can decimate your earnings until you give them their fair share. 

Striking To Win and To Organize

Workers also described the strike not merely as a last-ditch tactic, but as a vital organizing tool in its own right. 

As current Blue Bottle Independent Union president Alex Pyne put it, the union’s understanding of strikes differs from that of some larger, more traditional labor organizations. “When we launched our union last year, we felt very strongly about doing a walkout for recognition, which I know from conversations with a lot of people that a larger union would not have allowed us to do,” the organizer said. Many unions, they noted, view strikes primarily as a final step to push a contract over the finish line, whereas their independent union sees collective refusal as the historical force that brings employers to the table in the first place. That perspective shapes the union’s approach to workplace power, allowing them to fight the boss more directly. As Pyne argued:

There’s […] an understanding that strikes are a form of protest or refusal of a regime of work in order to challenge the actual nature of the workplace and who owns it.

This approach, where strikes are used not just as a tool for bargaining but also for organizing, affected their picket line strategy. Organizers stressed the importance of getting people to talk to each other, to share and listen to the personal stories of how their company is hurting them. As one workplace leader noted:

A lot of our baristas are on government assistance with EBT and SNAP… so giving them a solution to pressure the company, I think, has been really major and really influential.

Challenges in Striking as an Independent Union

Union leaders were also candid about the challenges of being an independent union. Unlike large, multinational unions, BBIU does not have major financial reserves to rely on during work stoppages. To sustain the strike, organizers raised roughly $18,000 in community donations—enough to ensure that every striking barista received their full wages for the duration of the walkout.

That community support extended beyond funding. Organizers coordinated with the Boston DSA Labor Working Group and connected with local Starbucks Workers United partners, building broader solidarity across the coffee industry at a critical moment when multiple chains were engaged in parallel fights for better working conditions.

Even as public support grew, workers said the company continued to retaliate, reporting the firing of three union leaders in what organizers described as a clear attempt to intimidate the workforce and discourage future direct action. These egregious maneuvers are not uncommon against workers standing up to the boss, but are even less surprising when facing union-busting conglomerates like Nestle, making this worker action still more impressive.

With bargaining set to resume in January, workers say the strike has only sharpened their resolve to win a contract that reflects the realities of living in Boston. Workers are now better positioned to push for a living wage, predictable scheduling, a more transparent promotions processes, and to push back on workplace surveillance. Union estimates put the financial cost to Nestlé  at over $100,000, a strong signal that worker voice and power can not be ignored. Nestlé also has begun exploring a potential sale of the coffee chain.

For workers, though, the strike has already demonstrated their collective power. As negotiations continue, they’re ready to translate momentum into concrete, lasting gains.

Frederick Reiber is a contributing writer to Working Mass.

The post Blue Bottle Workers Shut Down Stores Across Boston in Company’s First Multi-Day Strike appeared first on Working Mass.

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