Events & Actions

Events with a are especially new-member-friendly!

Tuesday, October 21 (8:00 AM – 4:30 PM): ICE out of SF courts! (in person at 100 Montgomery St)

Tuesday, October 21 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday, October 22 (4:00 PM – 7:00 PM): Zohran Debate Watch Party! (in person at The Savoy Tivoli, 1434 Grant Ave)

Thursday, October 23 (5:30 PM – 6:30 PM): Education Board Open Meeting (zoom)

Thursday, October 23 (6:30 PM – 9:30 PM): The Internet: Live & In-Person w/ Dean Preston! (in person at Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St)

Thursday, October 23 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Immigrant Justice Court Action Orientation (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Friday, October 24 (8:00 AM – 4:30 PM): ICE out of SF courts! (in person at 100 Montgomery St)

Saturday, October 25 (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM): HWG RV Outreach Event (meet at 1916 McAllister St)

Sunday, October 26 (5:00 PM – 7:00 PM): Capital Reading Group (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday, October 27 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Tenderloin Healing Circle (in person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Ave)

Monday, October 27 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM): Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday, October 29 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Tech Reading Group: Empire of AI by Karen Hao (zoom and in person at 518 Valencia St)

Wednesday, October 29 (6:45 PM – 8:30 PM): Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (zoom and in at person at Radical Reading Room, 438 Haight St)

Thursday, October 30 (7:30 PM – 9:30 PM): “Housing the City by the Bay: Tenant Activism, Civil Rights, and Class Politics in San Francisco” – TOWG Reading Group (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Friday, October 31 (2:30 PM – 4:00 PM): Keep Market St. Moving! Roundtable with Drivers (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Saturday, November 1 (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM): Growing Community: Urban Food Production at Alemany Farm (in person at Alemany Farm, 700 Alemany Blvd)

Sunday, November 2 (1:00 PM – 2:00 PM): SF EWOC Lead Generation Strategy Session (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Sunday, November 2 (5:30 PM – 7:15 PM): HWG Reads  “Capitalism & Disability…” (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday, November 3 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Labor Board x SF EWOC Local Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

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

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ICE Out of SF Courts!

Join neighbors, activists, grassroots organizations in resisting ICE abductions happening at immigration court hearings! ICE is taking anyone indiscriminately in order to meet their daily quotas. Many of those taken include people with no removal proceedings.

We’ll be meeting every Tuesday and Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM at Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery. We need all hands on deck. The 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM window is when we most need to boost turnout, but if you can’t make that please come whenever works for you. 1 or 2 hours or the entire time! We’re also holding orientation sessions for folks, but that is not required to attend. See the Immigrant Justice Court Action Orientation event in the calendar for more details.

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Zohran Debate Watch Party

Join us Wednesday, October 22, 4:00-7:00 PM to watch future New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani wipe the floor with Andrew “The Creep” Cuomo! We’ll watch party at Savoy Tivoli (1434 Grant Ave) with free food and fun!

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Apartheid-Free Bay Area Consumer Pledge Canvassing

Let’s build public support for stores that have pledged to go apartheid-free this Saturday, October 25 from 11:00 AM-1:00 PM! We’ll meet at Dolores Park on 18th St and Dolores St. We will first train you, and then you will put that training into practice by collecting signatures in Dolores Park. RSVP here!

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RV Ban Outreach Event and Letter Writing Campaign

Join Homelessness Working Group this Saturday, October 25 from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM to do outreach to RV residents on the city’s new oversize vehicle ban before it goes into effect November 1st. We’ll meet at 1916 McAllister Street to learn more about the ban before pairing up and going out to door-knock and speak with our neighbors living in vehicles about how they can get refuge permits. 

RSVP here if you’re able to come. Can’t attend? Send a letter to the Board of Supervisors here to tell them to do better!

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Stop The Threat Of US War On Venezuela!

Stop The Threat Of US War On Venezuela! :flag-ve: Wondering how we got here? Want to understand why Trump is attacking Venezuela? Need to deepen your understanding of US-Venezuela relations? And most importantly: want to discuss how we can fight back?

Join the Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialism working group in an educational forum on the history of Venezuela and the struggle against US imperialism.

Tuesday, October 28
  6:00-7:30 PM
1916 McAllister
RSVP here!

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DSA SF Tenant Organizing Reading Group – “Housing the City by the Bay: Tenant Activism, Civil Rights, and Class Politics in San Francisco” 

San Francisco has always had an affordable housing shortage, but solutions outside of the private sector have long been neglected or overlooked. Join us as we learn about the history of one proposed solution: public housing.

Our four-part reading group will meet every other Thursday at 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM hybrid in person at 1916 McAllister and Zoom with RSVP to discuss John Baranski’s book “Housing the City by the Bay”. The next meeting will be Thursday, October 30.

If you wish to join please RSVP here!

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DSA SF Homelessness Working Group Reads: Capitalism & Disability: Selected Writings by Marta Russell

Join DSA SF’s Homelessness Working Group as we read through Capitalism & Disability: Selected Writings by Marta Russell. We’ll be meeting every other Sunday evening starting in September for 4 or 5 sessions at 1916 McAllister. The next session is Sunday, November 2. For more info, register here and check the events calendar for latest details.

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Reportback: UESF Teachers for a Fair Contract

United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) gathered the evening of October 14th at 555 Franklin St. to deliver more than 4,000 strike-ready signatures to the management of San Francisco Unified School District. Union organizers have been in negotiations since March trying to get a fair contract, with district management unwilling to budge on reasonable demands. Teachers are asking for a more balanced work load for special education instructors, health care for dependents, fair pay for their labor, sanctuary protections against ICE on school grounds – only to be met with unwillingness by management. This was enough to rile up a host of teachers, parents, students, and community members to come out and rally together. The picket line took over the whole block at its height, with everyone from babies to the elderly chanting and marching together, accompanied by an endless chorus of supportive car horns. DSA members across the city came out to support our community and march in solidarity with our fellow DSA members in UESF. Union power and love for public schools was on full display as district management and the union drew the line in the sand. The ball is now in management’s court – let’s make sure they do what’s right! Let’s support our educators and comrades in UESF! Fight for Public Education!

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Reportback: DSA SF at No Kings Rally

Dozens of DSA SF members mobilized for the recent No Kings demonstration this Saturday (10/18) afternoon, with a reported 50,000 San Franciscans taking to the streets to protest the authoritarian federal regime and their domestic military invasion. DSA SF coordinated a two-pronged approach, hosting a literature table at Civic Center Plaza and a contingent at the Embarcadero. Our marching contingent drew support from those around us through anti-ICE chants and chants against military occupation.  Meanwhile, comrades at the table (and their children) received a warm welcome from the public with people of all ages feeling a sense of community and a desire to get organized. Lots of interest was displayed towards the Oakland Arms Embargo and ICE Court Watch. Thanks to the efforts of other comrades who participated in Maker’s Night, dropped off or picked supplies, or who just came by for a few minutes, the table was able to stay operating constantly from 12 to 4 PM; we passed out a lot of literature, had many extended discussions about socialism and signed up new potential recruits. We expect there will be many more demonstrations and actions to come as Trump sets his eyes on San Francisco, so come get involved in building community today for a socialist tomorrow.

What do we do when fascism comes to town? Stand up and Fight back!

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Reportback: Palestine Study on Understanding Zionism and Imperialism

On Sunday October 19th, the Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialism working group hosted the first part of our Palestine Study on Understanding Zionism and Imperialism. We packed the office with 38 attendees, all interested in deepening their knowledge of zionism, to better fight for Palestinian liberation!

The second part of our Palestine Study, November 9th, 2:00 to 4:00 PM, will focus on debunking the myth of a socialist Israel. Stay tuned for more details on the event.

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Reportback: Tenant Organizing Working Group

Sunday afternoon (10/19), DSA comrades joined with Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) for a rally to protest the eviction of three elders from their home in Noe Valley. A great ruckus was made as the comrades chanted in unison in support of the at-risk elders. Apparently, a nearby neighbor even called the police, according to posts on neighborhood social media, though no officers ever arrived at the scene. The rally was also featured in a segment by ABC7 News. When people have no control over their own homes they are vulnerable to the whims of their landlords, who might push them out of their homes of decades just to raise the rent back to market rate; however when we come together as a community in the spirit of collective action and socialism, it is the people who ultimately hold the power!

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Reportback: Learning from Seattle’s Social Housing Win

Did you miss our panel and Q&A on social housing efforts in Seattle and across California? Now you can read a transcript from that event in California Red!

In February, Seattle beat Big Tech and real estate opposition and passed a ballot measure to fund a municipal social housing developer, by more than 20 points. On October 3, the Ecosocialist Working Group hosted a panel and Q&A to learn how Seattle did it and the current status of efforts in California, featuring Seattle DSA/House Our Neighbors organizer Eric Lee, and DSA SF member/Tenants Together advocate Shanti Singh.

Read the transcript here, and get involved by reaching out to ecosocialist@dsasf.org or joining #ecosocialism on Slack.

Behind the Scenes

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

Interested in helping with the newsletter or other day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running? Fill out the CCC help form.

Enjoy your October 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, join our Fall Drive, hear about organizing across the country, 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 — Fighting For Working Class Freedom
• Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash. Help Elect Socialist Candidates!
• Saturday 10/25 Fall Drive Phonebank Kick Off — Special Guest Bhaskar Sunkara
• RSVP for International Migrant Rights Working Group ICE Watch Training Tuesday 10/28
• AfroSocialist and Socialists of Color Collective Meetings Tuesday 10/21 and Thursday 11/13
• Convention results
• Apply to Join the Democracy Commission (DemCom) 2025–2027! Deadline Extended to Friday 10/31

From the National Political Committee — Fighting For Working Class Freedom

Hot Socialist Summer has come to a close for 2025, but as the temperature drops this fall, organizing across DSA is heating up! 

DSA is at a pivotal moment, where the genocide in Palestine and the failures of the Democratic Party to mount meaningful opposition to the Trump administration, the oligarchy, and the rise of the far-right is motivating tens of thousands of people to build a mass, socialist organization in the United States. According to a Gallup poll, support for socialism is at an all-time high among Democratic voters. DSA’s presence at mass actions like the No Kings protests last weekend show how many people are ready for a fighting alternative to the catastrophic status quo. 

All across the country, people are being inspired to believe that building a powerful socialist party is possible — and that they can be a part of it. Just this past month, DSA has surpassed 80,000 members in good standing, our highest membership peak to date! DSA now has better organization, more political development, more vibrant internal democracy, and more radical ambitions coming to fruition than ever. We have more DSA members contesting elected office while operating together as socialist blocs, from Missoula, Montana, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Portland, Oregon. We are more embedded in the labor movement, we are more functionally part of social movements, we are more deeply internationalist — and thus are even better positioned to motivate and sustain a new membership surge.

We are just weeks away from Zohran Mamdani’s election for mayor of New York City — a democratic socialist mayor in the highest executive office in the heart of global capital! — and chapters across the country are throwing down for their locally and nationally-endorsed campaigns as Election Day nears (and you can, too, even if you’re not in a city with a candidate – jump on a Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash phonebank and help push these candidates across the finish line)!

State power is just one piece of DSA’s strategy — we’re also… 

• Building out our support network for Starbucks Workers United and helping chapters across the country to connect with their local SBWU organizing units as the holiday rush draws near
• Showing up in solidarity with the Cuban people, with a delegation we just sent to Havana of 40 DSA elected leaders and rank-and-file members from chapters big and small across the country to deliver hundreds of pounds of solidarity aid, learn about the achievements and challenges of Cuban socialism.
• Ramping up the pressure on Avelo Airlines as they continue to profit off mass deportations via ICE contracts, both with a consumer boycott and with pressure campaigns to kick them out of airports
• Continuing to build out resources and new fronts in our boycott against Chevron, a primary BDS target, as we continue to stand firm for Palestinian liberation
• And so much more!

As we continue the fight for working class freedom everywhere — from down the block to the other side of the globe — we know that as DSA, we must be bigger and stronger by many orders of magnitude. DSA is and will always be a dues-funded organization, where organizing new members increases our people power, allowing us to deepen and expand our base as we fight to oppose US military aggression and free Palestine, prepare for major political interventions toward midterms, organize toward May Day 2028, and so much more. DSA now has more members in good standing than ever before — and we’re turning the heat up higher with our just-launched Fall Recruitment Drive, with a stretch goal of reaching 100,000 DSA members by the end of this year! 

We’re rooted in struggle, blooming in solidarity — and together we’ll keep growing democratic socialism throughout this fall. Read on for more about how you can plug into the Fall Drive — and sign up for phonebanks with special guests, to help us reconnect with lapsed members to rejoin DSA in this crucial political moment!  Watch this space for more information about how you can get involved at the chapter level, or by taking on your own recruitment campaigns among your coworkers, neighbors, and friends.

For even more ways to get plugged into DSA, scroll down! We will see you in the fight!

Yours, 

Megan Romer and Ashik Siddique
DSA National Co-Chairs

Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash. Help Elect Socialist Candidates!

It’s 3 weeks till election day and we’re 6.5k short of our goal! It’s been a hugely successful year for the DSA’s National Electoral Commission and our fundraising campaign, and we’re hoping to have a new crop of socialists in office to show for it.

But taking out the capitalist trash won’t be possible without YOUR help. Corporate money is flooding into our races across the country in this crucial final stretch. We’ve set a goal of raising $100,000 before election day to ensure our slate has the support it needs to win and we’re just a little over $5,000 short! Can you donate to our slate to support a socialist running for office?

Saturday 10/25 Fall Drive Phonebank Kick Off — Special Guest Bhaskar Sunkara

Be part of the Growth and Development Committee’s nation-wide membership drive! Our strength is rooted in solidarity and in our communities. Let’s work to build deep roots in our local communities, reach out to lapsed members to renew, and bring thousands more into the struggle together! Join us for Fall Drive phonebanks to talk with lapsed DSA members about renewing their dues. We’ll kick off Saturday 10/25 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT with special guest Bhaskar Sunkara!

And you can join calls throughout November:

• Saturday 11/1 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT
• Wednesday 11/5 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT with special guest Meagan Day
• Wednesday 11/12 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
• Saturday 11/15 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT
• Wednesday 11/19 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT with special guest Adam Hochschild
• Saturday 11/22 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT

RSVP for International Migrant Rights Working Group ICE Watch Training Tuesday 10/28

ICE agents have been escalating their presence in our communities, and that means that we need to get together with our neighbors and come up with plans to make sure we are protecting ourselves and our communities from their harassment.

People all over the country are trying different things. Many communities are coming up with ways to observe ICE and to inform neighbors of their rights, all things that every person has a right to do under the Constitution.

Join DSA’s International Migrant Rights Working Group and NDLON on Tuesday 10/28 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT to hear from NDLON organizers about the Adopt a Corner program, and from DSA organizers who are actively running ICEWatch and Adopt a Corner programs in their local chapters.

AfroSocialist and Socialists of Color Collective Meetings Tuesday 10/21, Thursday 11/13

Hello comrades and cousins! Interested in joining a collective for AfroSocialists and Socialists of Color? 

Join AfroSoC for for upcoming General Body Meeting (GBM) to be in community with socialists of similar identity, culture and politics. The next GBM will be Thursday 11/13 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT.

If you are new to AfroSoC, we encourage you to attend our upcoming New Member Orientation tonight, Tuesday 10/21 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT. Questions? Reach out to AfroSoc@dsacommittees.org.

Convention results

The 2025 Convention Results Compendium and Minutes are officially approved by the 2025-2027 National Political Committee (NPC)! You can view these results and minutes here.

We appreciate everyone’s patience as our new NPC got onboarded and settled into their roles. As a reminder, there are Overflow Agenda items from the Convention that the NPC is still working through. These can be viewed in the final compendium. We hope to take up a majority of these items during our October 19th virtual meeting as well as our November 8th and 9th NPC in-person meeting in Denver, Colorado. 

We hope that all comrades who got sick following Convention are doing well. If you think you may have contracted COVID and have not already let us know, please email dsacon@dsausa.org with the subject line “Convention COVID Reporting” so we can continue to track and plan for future events. Please do not reply back to this email for this purpose.

Apply to Join the Democracy Commission (DemCom) 2025–2027! Deadline Extended to Friday 10/31

Apply to Join the Democracy Commission (DemCom) 2025–2027! The deadline to apply is Friday 10/31. Authorized in 2023, the Democracy Commission (DemCom) developed reforms to strengthen democracy across DSA. Its proposals were overwhelmingly adopted at the 2025 Convention, and the body has now been reauthorized to support chapters and the NPC in implementing them.

DemCom will assist with chapter rechartering and bylaws review (2025–2027), visit chapter meetings to support implementation, report regularly to members and the NPC, develop best practices in tandem with chapters, and promote democratic governance. 

There are open seats on the Commission. Please fill out the form here to apply. The application deadline is Friday 10/31. Commissioners are expected to attend regular meetings (8PM ET, Monday evenings, plus some weekends), work with chapters to implement reforms, and report on progress and challenges.

The post From the National Political Committee — Fighting For Working Class Freedom appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Ask yourself: What’s so different about your workplace? Why would your boss push back on a union?

The post When the boss says “Unions are great, but not for us” appeared first on EWOC.

A budget presentation at the organization's national convention in August clarifies the budget for members.

The post DSA Finances Demystified appeared first on Democratic Left.

Author: Mike Z

Things aren’t the best right now. I think we can probably all agree on that. The Trump administration is seemingly speed running the dismantling of our civil liberties while nakedly attacking any opposition of any kind. He’s declared war on anyone even remotely to the left of his positions with with broad and sweeping declarations of illegality so as to target and silence dissent within society. Even the most milquetoast liberals are being attacked and silenced for their modest criticism of Trump. Endless tariff uncertainty and corporate back dealing have led to ever increasing pinch in the wallet for the average person. ICE continues to attack our neighbors in the name of unlimited deportations. Federal troops and the national guard are being deployed en masse to ccities Trump deems to be “crime infested” to normalize their use against American citizens. Israel continues its genocide of Gaza from occupied Palestinian territory while the American media landscape consolidates control in the hands of a few Zionist sympathizers.

I think many of us did not expect things to fall so fast. That there would be at least some kind of fight or pushback that would slow things down. I think many of us thought we’d have more time to prepare for a fight that we knew may be coming, but just not yet.

We do not.

The fight against fascism is here. And with this recognition there is a sense of helplessness and hopelessness that can become paralyzing or empowering depending on your outlook. I recently helped run a new member orientation and when we talked about why we all joined, those feelings of helplessness and hopelessness were at the top of the list. For these people those feelings motivated them to seek out something more, but for so many others it leads us to shut down. Even those of us who have been in this fight for any amount of time are susceptible to this as well. What we do is not easy and we are all just human at the end of the day. It is something I have fought with on hard days as I’m sure many of you have as well, but we must be wary of letting those feelings set in and stay for any significant length of time. They can lead us to doomerism – that nihilistic feeling that nothing can change, try as we might, so what’s the point? It leads us to isolate and pull away from our comrades who are in desperate need of our support and solidarity. It leads us to comply with our ideological enemies before so much as a word is even uttered.

Do not comply in advance. Kill the part of you that dooms.

Your doomerism is the final boss of overcoming your liberalism. Liberalism teaches us to be oriented towards the individual and to hold that ability to operate unfettered from the restrictions of society and our peers as the highest virtue. It would have us believe that a single person, with enough pulling of the bootstraps, could change society. But anyone who has lived in one of our so-called liberal democracies understands the powerlessness of the individual in the face of systemic oppression. I believe this is where that doom comes from. But as socialists the remedy is simple. It is the knowledge that throughout history it has always been the case that true change only happens when the average person bands together in a fight for a vision of a future that has yet to be. A future that WILL be if we do the work now to materialize it.

We must remain endlessly hopeful that these actions we are taking right now will be the ones that start the fall of the first domino. We must remain steadfast in the face of overwhelming power and adversity to keep fighting for what we know to be right and just. We must remain assured in our convictions that the emancipation of all people from the evils of capitalism is worth fighting for to see a better future for our descendants who will reap what we sow today. And this is not to say it will be easy, because it certainly will not be, but remember that by joining with our comrades we can help each other foster and maintain the spirit of unyielding optimism that our fight requires. The future we want to build must remain our lodestar to bind us together in a movement larger than any one of us single actors.

In writing this I am constantly thinking of the Palestinian people, as I do most days for the past 2 years of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Every day there are new atrocities to learn about. Every day more innocent lives are lost in the name of genocidal irredentist conquest. But every day I am also stunned by the stories of ongoing resilience by those who remain and continue to fight for their very existence. They would have every right to despair. Nearly 80 years of occupation and systematic ethnic cleansing by Zionist forces, the majority of it patently unknown to much of the western world funding their destruction, and yet they carry on. They continue to fight for their homeland and their humanity with such grace and compassion. They remain unbroken.

Just as they dream of a world where they can live free in their land once more, we can embody this endless optimism in our fight to transform the world. We can work to build a world that will ensure that the oppressed and marginalized peoples around the world may never suffer a fate even remotely similar to those of Palestine, or Sudan, or Sri Lanka, or any of the other communities across the globe being persecuted ever again. For the sake of all people we must steel ourselves so we may respond to their cries for help both at home and abroad.

I recently finished a wonderful book, “Let This Radicalize You” by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba Cover to cover it was an amazing read that I highly recommend to any organizers looking for salient real world stories of other organizers and how they’ve struggled and succeeded. But that’s not what I want to talk about. During the book Mariame quotes one of her previous works and it has become permanently emblazoned into my mind –

“Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.”

And that’s really the whole thing right there to me. To me this quote really encapsulates the concept of Revolutionary Optimism in its entirety. When faced with heinous societal developments, don’t let it silence you, let it be the fuel that powers your resistance. Be it hope, anger or anything in between. And if you can’t do that, do it out of spite.
Remember that the average person does not like what is going on. They don’t like Trump and all the violence he is fomenting. They don’t like the attacks on their neighbors. They don’t like everything becoming endlessly more expensive while becoming worse every year. They don’t like the threats and restrictions on their freedoms across the board.
Remember that people want clean air and safe food. They want universal healthcare. They want affordable childcare. They want high quality infrastructure and public transit systems. They want affordable public housing. They want to feel safe with their family when they are out in the world. People want peace and prosperity, not war and destruction.

The average person is feeling all the same emotions of helplessness that we are – it’s our responsibility to help them. As those on the forefront of this struggle it is our duty to share our knowledge and strategies with the masses. To organize them and bring them into the fold of our fight. To show them a better future is possible and that they are a vital part of the equation that will free us all.

Organizing is the antidote to the despair we are all collectively feeling and working to stave off every day. In my short time in DSA I have found that surrounding myself with my comrades working together, no matter how small that work may be, has been the surest path to feeling secure in what we are doing. It’s helped me feel a little less alone in such uncertain times. It’s helped me feel reassured in the mission we are all here to fight for and the world that DSA believes in. I hope it can be that for you as well.

Kill the doomer inside you. A better world is possible for us all – let’s build it together.

Join DSA

If you’ve read this far I want to reward you with some of my current favorite videos that help me maintain my optimism for the future by reminding me why we fight. They help me lock back in. Yes, 3 of them are from Andor – don’t give me that look. Light spoilers if you haven’t seen it (go watch it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-asb8zTiuZ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKB67KzjO4A 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaKrm5txGCQ

And finally an excerpt from one Michael Parenti’s many wonderful lectures

https://youtu.be/npkeecCErQc?si=0o_HW2fb4jdUY-I4

The post Revolutionary Optimism and Why You Should Kill the Doomer Inside You appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

As the government becomes more authoritarian, our right to privacy becomes ever more vital. Learn how to protect your phone from surveillance and exploitation of biometrics by law enforcement.

The following is a speech delivered by Portland City Councilor Wes Pelletier at the October 18, 2025 No Kings rally in Portland Maine.

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Hi everyone, thank you for being here. What a tremendous turnout. 

For those who don’t know me, my name’s Wes Pelletier. I’m the City Councilor for Portland right here in District 2. 

I’ve always been into politics. I canvassed for Howard Dean when I was thirteen, and followed politics closely after that. It was fun, with crazy characters and plot lines. The fun was quickly sucked out of it in November 2016. Suddenly, my relationship to politics was just a spiral of dread and anxiety, of anger: of powerlessness. I think we’ve all become familiar with that feeling. 

What got me out of that spiral, though, was organizing. It was building community. In being a small part of a larger whole: taking notes at meetings to figure out how to get winter clothes to homeless folks, signing people in at the vaccine clinic, knocking doors in my apartment building to start a tenants union.

From the outside, these projects never seem like much. What could one meeting around a kitchen table mean in the face of such widespread, powerful, nihilistic cruelty. Why dedicate a perfectly good weekday evening to a Zoom Call to design a flyer?  

I’ll tell you why: because it gives you a sense of agency and control in a system that does not want you to have any. So now, rather than lying awake every night feeling directionless and powerless, I wake up every morning with an idea of what specifically I can do to move things forward, even in a small way.

But more than that: it creates the skills and the structure that we will need to overthrow Trump’s fascism. Fascism relies on fractured communities. It relies on us being afraid of other people on the street, of us not being able to resolve disagreements without calling the cops. It relies on us believing that if we just throw enough other people under the bus, we’ll be spared. 

Now, those of us here know that’s not true. We know that diversity is strength. We know that our fight is not with our immigrant neighbors, it’s not with the guy sleeping in a doorway, it’s not with trans folks who are just trying to be themselves in a world that wants to punish them for it. We know that our fight is with the billionaires, and the ruling class that would throw us all to the wolves if it meant that their stock portfolio went up a point or two.

We know all of that, but how can we build that sense of solidarity around us?

Here’s how. Get involved. If you’re fortunate enough to be in a union, talk to your Representative and find out how to get involved. Get involved with your local Parent Teacher association, or a mutual aid organization. When there’s an ask for help, raise your hand, and then use that opportunity to understand how the organization works and how you can pitch in. 

Yes, you’re signing up for work, but it’s work in the same way that a hobby is. It is work that’s gratifying and it’s work that grows in scope. A few years ago I was handing out granola bars at a Brett Kavanaugh protest. Now I’m a city councilor. 

It also helps to have a political home. Mine is the Maine Democratic Socialists of America, who right now has a working group fighting for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. We’re building tenant power in multiple Cities, and here in Portland we’re fighting for question A, which will raise the minimum wage to help bring economic security to our most vulnerable neighbors. 

There is also Indivisible, who has done such important work in fighting to stop Avelo Airlines from being a part of ICE’s machine, and who has organized this incredible event.

These organizations teach us how to run a good meeting where we’re able to come together and make decisions. They show us that it’s possible to disagree but build something strong together. They teach us how to stand up for what we think and to take criticism with grace. They give us the skills we need to make our little corners of the world more fair, more connected, and more resilient to the fear and loathing that Trump feeds on.

But look, I get that not everyone has time for a new commitment. Maybe that all seems like a bit much. So start at home. 

Here’s an example. Say you don’t know anyone on the street you live on. Maybe there’s an elderly neighbor you know that could maybe use a hand every once in a while, and you’d love to help but it’d be weird to just knock on their door and ask. 

So you could just go about your life and feel idly disconnected from the people around you. Or maybe you plan a halloween block party. Make a flyer, knock on your neighbors’ doors, and see if they want to come drink some cider and maybe bring some donuts. Will they think you’re weird? Yes, almost definitely. But I will tell you that odds are good, that a few of them will show. 

And when they do, you don’t need to talk about politics, just eat donuts and get to know each other and your struggles. And next week, when your elderly neighbor needs help raking leaves, they feel okay asking you. Or when your next door neighbor is baking a pie and is a little short on flour, they can get some from someone on the street rather than driving to the store. 

And those little acts may not seem like much, but they build a community that cares and looks out for each other. A community that, when Trump’s goon squad comes to disappear the family living a few doors down, comes together and drives them out. That is the power of community.

So here’s what I want to leave you with: I want you to feel the power that we have here today. I want you to feel the solidarity and the sense of common purpose. Celebrate and commiserate. Then I want you to take that home with you, roll up your sleeves, get involved, and build the communities and organizations that will stop these wannabe kings in their tracks. 

Thank you all. Solidarity forever. Free Palestine!

The post No Kings Rally Speech by Councilor Pelletier appeared first on Pine & Roses.

On Monday, October 20, Cumberland County Commissioners will vote on agenda item 24-112, deciding whether or not to continue the county jail’s contract to hold ICE detainees. Last May, a loose coalition of individuals and organizations called No ICE for Maine began organizing and speaking out during public comment at the commissioners’ meetings, arguing that the county was being used by ICE as a small cog in their deportation machine. Five months later, after hundreds of members of the public have spoken out, thousands have signed a petition to end the contract, widespread press coverage, and public and private arguments and discussions with the board, we are on the eve of what would be an historic decision in the fight for immigrant rights. The letter below was sent the letter below to the commissioners as part of that campaign prior to a special hearing late last month.

***

Dear Cumberland County Commissioners, 

A final plea.

If you don’t have time to read this entire note, then before tonight’s hearing, please read and put yourself in the frame of mind of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. It reads, in part, 

“Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”

I first met you all back on May 17 at your monthly meeting. At the time, I believe those of us who value equality before the law, human rights, and basic respect for individual liberty were all in shock at the brazen assault on the rule of law by the Trump Administration. I have consistently counseled my counterparts to appreciate the administration’s strength and to assume that Trump and his cohorts will cling to power, no matter the cost. However, I have to admit that I hoped along with everyone else back in May that Trump’s drive to consolidate power might stumble and break apart. Four months later, it should be clear that any cause of such optimism is unfounded. What remains is a test of political power. 

This is nothing new in American politics. The Declaration of Independence was illegal from the Crown’s point of view. The Fugitive Slave Act (in fact, there were several such Acts) was legal, resistance to it was not. Separate But Equal segregation was legal, Dr. King was an outlaw. As were the Suffragettes, the CIO, and the UFW. Political power resolved each of these conflicts, laws and their interpretations followed after. Someone had to take a stand to put these processes in motion. 

Prior to the 1920s, immigration was open to virtually all Europeans. Speaking for you and me, whose ancestors came from that part of the world, our families were declared legal while today’s Black and Brown and Asian huddling masses are declared illegal. Keep in mind that enormous numbers of those being detained today are LEGAL, they have asylum claims pending, but ICE and Border Patrol snatch them up because of the color of their skin. 

Trump has decided that the knife he will use to cut the Constitution down to his liking is an all out attack on our immigrant neighbors. He is not enforcing the law. He is using political power to create facts of the ground that his hand-picked Supreme Court will later codify or, perhaps, temper to one degree or another. That ought to be plain to see by now. Trump is not winding down, he is winding up. 

I prefer to persuade and to reason, but here comes a time when all room for equivocation is over. For the past four months, you have seen what we have seen: Trump is using ICE as a practice squad for fascist repression. He is not yet able to impose that without dissent. But Congress just gave him $145 billion to build this machine and he intends to do so. Locally, Border Patrol and ICE act with impunity, masked up, raiding worksites and threatening schools. They will be more powerful and audacious in the coming months. 

No ICE for Maine did not start this debate. ICE started it and you ought to have reacted before we ever turned up. But after four months of public testimony and ICE terror, the sum total of your actions is as follows: 1/ you had a 60 minute meeting with No ICE for Maine representatives in July at which you listened to Sheriff Joyce describe the rapid rise in the number of ICE detainees in his jail, while admitting that he had no idea where most of them were living when they were detained; 2/ by your own admission, you spent much of August researching and refining rules for public comment [to limit it] instead of proposing to work with us to oppose ICE in whatever way you might have preferred, 3/ and you have schedule a single 2 hour workshop scheduled for tonight [September 29] in which No ICE for Maine is supplying the majority of the presenters while the majority of the presenters you designated represent law enforcement, but you haven’t even compelled an appearance by an ICE representative.

Here is how this looks. You are angry at us for breaking decorum, while you have not lifted a finger to oppose ICE as it increases its operations in the very institution under your direct supervision, the Cumberland County Jail. 

I believe you when you say you are disturbed by ICE’s actions. 

I believe you when you say you hope people protest ICE elsewhere. 

I believe you when you say you believe, whatever its limitations, in the rule of law. 

But if you vote to continue the contract with ICE, you will demonstrate that you lack the courage of your convictions. You didn’t ask to be put in this position, but you are elected officials so it is your job to make hard decisions. 

Here is the way out: Sheriff Joyce openly declares that he will defy the Commissioners if you vote to terminate the contract. He believes he has the law on his side. Well, then. Vote to terminate the contract and we will move to the next phase of this fight, that is, whether or not the Sheriff is obeying state law. The Maine Supreme Court has not yet been wrecked, so the dispute will get a fair hearing there and it will open the door for the Legislature to consider it as well.  

Until September’s meeting, Commissioner Gorden stated multiple times that, to paraphrase, if cutting the contract is the right thing to do, the Commissioners will do so without regard to financial considerations. At the September meeting, he raised the question of the financial impact of terminating the contract. I genuinely hope that he misspoke and that Commissioners are not weighing their commitment to equality before the law against a few pieces of silver. Your careers in public service deserve better than that. 

Take a stand for our immigrant neighbors. Vote to terminate the contract. Vote no to ICE. Vote yes to accountability, democracy, and civil liberties. Help us bring to life the old slogan, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” 

[Read next: Harness street power, endorse No Kings!]

The post Cumberland County jail should cut its contract with ICE appeared first on Pine & Roses.

By Phil K.

DSA members and allies rally for Medicare for All outside of Rep. Doris Matsui’s office in downtown Sacramento.

In April of this year, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell introduced the Medicare for All Act of 2025, the legislation for single-payer universal healthcare, along with over 100 Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate who signed on as co-sponsors.

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, Sacramento’s two Representatives—Doris Matsui and Ami Bera—are currently NOT co-sponsors of the bill. Despite the urging of a vocal and diverse local coalition for Medicare for All, including Sacramento DSA, Matsui and Bera refused to sign on, signifying their defense of a highly inefficient, profit-based system that makes it extremely difficult for half of U.S. adults to afford healthcare when they need it.

While the Trump administration accelerates the corporate attack on the working class and cuts funding for popular, necessary programs like Medicaid, Democrats like Matsui and Bera fail us by not pushing for the most effective solutions to problems that Sacramentans face every day.

It’s not enough to simply oppose Trump’s cuts when we have a status quo where more than half of Californians are skipping medical care due to cost and more than a third of Californians have medical debt. We spend about twice as much per person as other industrialized countries, but millions of people, many with insurance, still can’t get care. In combination with steadily worsening wages and economic conditions under decades of both Democratic and Republican presidential administrations, it’s no surprise that so many Americans have lost faith in politics.

Single-payer universal healthcare is the bare minimum of pro-working class policies that we desperately need, and we need elected officials who will actually work to pass it. The fact that half of elected Democrats in the House and a majority of Democrats in the Senate don’t support Medicare for All is both a disgrace and political malpractice that facilitates the rise of Trumpism.

However, the reality is that because of how entrenched the healthcare corporations are in our political system, too many politicians will not support it unless we build enough political power to either force them to support it or replace them. This is a long-term fight and it’s going to take a deep commitment to grassroots organizing and a willingness to engage in a diversity of tactics.

Sacramento DSA will continue to fight for guaranteed healthcare on both the federal and state levels. We urge readers of this blog to sign our petition, call your rep, and demand that they co-sponsor Medicare for All. Stay tuned for more blog posts on different aspects of our fight for healthcare justice over the coming months, and join our chapter’s Healthcare Committee to get more involved.

Members of Sacramento DSA deliver letters to the offices of Reps. Doris Matsui and Ami Bera urging them to co-sponsor Medicare for All.

The dynamism and explosiveness of the Suntrapp Workers United (SWU) strike has been hugely activating for LGBTQ, labor, and political activists all over Salt Lake. It is rare that you see new unions in this state and in the food service industry. It’s even rarer you see those unions strike! SWU have taken a stand against their employer for their dignity and their right to control their own working conditions. They know their power lies in their labor and solidarity, and are causing a crisis for their employer in order to meet their demands. As a result, the vast majority of Salt Lake is behind the SWU strike and have been turning out in huge numbers to support it. Every night the bar looks almost completely dead; the end is in sight.

A strike is meant to put a business in crisis—that is precisely what makes it powerful. But when the business in crisis is a beloved small business, there is always opposition that feels it’s not “right” to unionize a small business. Is it ‘right’ for the workers to cause a crisis for an employer that has this kind of romantic cultural value, something that is increasingly rare and fleeting in a society where multinational corporations have almost completely erased the market for small businesses? This problem can be initially confusing for people trying to understand socialist politics, as progressive liberalism tends to prop up minority owned small businesses as agents of broader societal improvements.

In the DSA, we seek to understand this through a class analysis. Socialism is a project to change the world we live in, and so we have to understand the world objectively. Who controls society? By what mechanisms do they control society? Who is oppressed? How can we liberate the oppressed, and turn society on its head? In class society, the infrastructure and resources which we depend on to survive are controlled by a tiny minority of the population, which we call the ruling class or the capitalist class. They dominate society not just by controlling our workplaces, but also the state, the government, the police, the military, education, mass media, and cultural institutions. We seek to put workers collectively in charge, not just of their workplaces, but all these sections of society. In order to achieve this monumental task, we must build a mass movement of workers who understand the necessity of creating worker organizations to leverage the only advantage we can have over the capitalist class; our superior numbers and our indispensable role in the economy. We recognize trade unions as one form of worker organization which engages workers in the struggle against capitalism, so Salt Lake DSA supports and engages in efforts to build unions in Salt Lake City.

This unconditional support inevitably will lead to this problem we’re discussing at Suntrapp; what do we do when workers are unionizing against a small business? Do we support them, or do we condemn their struggle because it is against a small business owner? The answer should be obvious in the context of the class analysis above and the broader movement. It would not serve the mass movement or the organized socialist movement to make our support of unions conditional on the specific economic position of the business owners, picking and choosing which workplaces are “big enough” or “too small” for democracy. If the small business owner chooses to resist the union, they are resisting a part of the movement we’re building together.

However, there is a distinction to be made. In the simple class analysis above, do small business owners have the same socio-economic position as monopoly capitalists like Bezos, Buffet, and Musk? Are they equal members of that class which control all other aspects of society? Of course not. Capitalism and individual capitalists are not the same, and different capitalists have contradicting interests. Small businesses are much more precarious and must appeal to romantic notions of community, handicraft, and personalized experiences to stay afloat, since they lack access to the economies of scale which make large industry objectively more efficient. The owners may even do the most labor in their business, forced to exploit themselves due to the immense market pressures to stay profitable.

However, they are also not working class either. They control the working conditions of others, hire employees to work for less than they create just like any other business, and the only thing they risk is the possibility of losing their investment and becoming a worker. They don’t do these things because they are a “good” or “bad” person, but because the market forces them to make decisions to stay competitive. As a result, they occupy a middle, precarious position between hegemonic finance capital and the working class. They can be genuine community leaders, with close connections to workers, and contribute something meaningful to the world along the economic framework that our society functions. But it is also true that small business owners are materially motivated to oppose union efforts at their workplaces, and therefore will often choose to do so.

Class position alone does not always predict the decisions of an individual. Workers themselves can also choose to be enemies or allies to the working class movement. Millions of working class Americans are unconvinced of a socialist future, and often actively sabotage union efforts in their workplaces by scabbing or counter-organizing, just like business owners. Socialism is not about “good guys” and “bad guys,” it’s about who chooses to build the movement, and winning the majority to that cause. Small business owners are trying to escape the same conditions all workers are, and we can appeal to them on those grounds. Rather than seeking individualized liberation from exploitation by becoming a capitalist, the only sustainable and just solution to class society is participating in a historic effort to overcome class distinctions completely. Socialism will liberate elements of the small owning classes as well, as they will no longer need to struggle so desperately to escape being a worker. With a mass movement perspective in mind, and the disproportionate strength of the small owning class in the US, we will even likely need to win a section of this layer to our cause on the strength of our ideas and
organization.

The owner of Suntrapp, and all business owners confronted with a union, should see the union for what it is—a piece of the wider movement to transcend class society. If she cannot, we need not concern ourselves too much on whether or not she will voluntarily recognize the union. We will tirelessly organize, regardless of the opposition we encounter. As a result, we must confront a final possibility. What if Suntrapp closes completely? Are the workers still correct to organize and to strike?

If the owner chooses to close their bar (to be clear, it will be her choice; the bar can absolutely continue to operate with a unionized workforce) rather than maintain complete control over their employees, we would continue to support the SWU strike as a win for the organized working class movement. Socialists are not engaged in a project to build more small businesses. We know the organized working class has the power to transform our society; a nation of small businesses does not. The workers in SWU know the stakes, and understand their struggle in the context of a broader one. Every picket I’ve attended, the workers at Suntrapp emphasize their vision of transforming the entire food service industry in Salt Lake. If an owner is too proud and short-sighted to bargain with their employees, then so be it. SWU will carry their experience and knowledge to their next workplace with an intimate knowledge of the stakes and an understanding of themselves as members of a working-class movement. The community should also learn the same lessons; that we have the ability to take a stand collectively as a class.

Unions at large businesses face the same threat of discipline through closing businesses. Capital has moved entire manufacturing bases to more oppressed nations for ‘cheaper’ labor and less regulation, and will often threaten to discipline organized labor by accelerating that process. That does not mean we oppose the movement the ruling class is trying to punish. It should be clear that we do not evaluate support of a union effort based on the reaction of any business owner, large or small. We see it as an element of an international working class movement.

The post Suntrapp Workers United and Small Business Liberalism first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.