The Midwest Socialist’s Editorial Board

Matt

Pronouns: He/They

Neighborhood: Northwest Side Blue Line Branch

Outside of Midwest Socialist: I served as Chicago DSA’s Political Education Coordinator from July to December 2024.

Outside of DSA: I have a master’s degree in history, and I am particularly interested in the history of East Germany, the Eastern Bloc, socialist/labor history, and the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries more generally. I speak fluent German and conversational Spanish, I collect currency from around the world, and I am a member of the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA).

Currently Reading: Just finished Blue Collar Empireby Jeff Schuhrke, about the zealous anticommunism of the AFL-CIO, its very active collaboration with the CIA, and its successful efforts to undermine democratic trade unionism at home and abroad during the Cold War. I am now rereading the classic alternate history novel The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.

Book Every Socialist Should Read: Everything for Everyone by M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi. It’s a speculative oral history of a global anarcho-communist revolution that takes place from the 2050s to the 2070s. It is one of my favorite works of fiction of all time.

Another very formative book for me was Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, a memoir of the author’s experience as a war correspondent embedded with an anarchist militia in the Spanish Civil War. It’s the book that taught me that socialism could be more than just the aesthetic of the banners and slogans of the bygone USSR, but a revolutionary experiment relentlessly advancing the cause of equality, radical democracy, and human freedom.

If I could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would it be and why? Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, and Eugene Debs. They are easily my three favorite socialist figures of the twentieth century.

Organizing Advice: Intellectual pursuits are being hollowed out by social media, AI, and relentless attacks on public education. In this context, learning becomes a revolutionary act. Do your own reading, your own writing, and your own thinking. Your brain will thank you.

Publications: I write alternate-history themed settings for an independent tabletop roleplaying game publisher. I have also written for the Baffler, Chicago DSA’s Red Star Bulletin, and on my own (woefully out-of-date) Medium page.

Chase

Pronouns: He / Him

Neighborhood: Lincoln Square / Ravenswood

Outside of Midwest Socialist: I co-lead the Lincoln Square Social / Member Club, part of the Member Club pilot program within Chicago DSA. The focus is to activate, organize, and connect together members of Chicago DSA in Lincoln Square and the surrounding neighborhoods. 

Outside of DSA: Outside of DSA I work as a CPS Substitute teacher, and am currently completing my Masters in Education. I love learning languages, and speak German mostly fluently and Portuguese fairly well, with experience in several other languages. Additional passions of mine are Worldbuilding, watching movies, drawing, and writing. I am in fact working on publishing (on my substack) at least twelve short stories this year. 

Currently Reading: Currently I am reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I recently also finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick. 

Book Every Socialist Should Read: I don’t know if I know a very novel answer to this question, but I did read Kim Moody’s Rank and File Strategy recently; especially for those organizing within the US today, I think it’s a good read. 

If I could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would it be and why? This is such a difficult question. There are so many people I’d want to meet! I’ll give a shot:

1. Oetzi the Iceman: I actually saw his body on a trip to Italy, when I lived in nearby Austria. I would give anything to talk to anyone from the Neolithic, as I find the period, the dawn of “Civilization,” endlessly fascinating. Plus, he’s the oldest cold case in history!
2. Justinian II: Byzantine Emperor, last of the Heraclian dynasty. His great great grandfather, Heraclius, saved the Empire from the Parthians, only to lose half of it again to the nascent early Islamic Empire. Justinian II himself is interesting for being deposed, his nose cut off, exiled to Crimea, only to kill his guards, escape, and depose his deposer’s deposer (before being later again deposed). I’ve always thought he’d make a great subject of a book I’d like to write someday, so I’d love to chat!
3. Ursula K. Le Guin: I was not so much a fan of Le Guin when she was alive, but became one after her death. Earthsea and Always Coming Home are dear to my heart and great inspirations to me as a writer and as a human being. I would love the chance to talk to her and have her critique my own work!

Organizing Advice: Get to know your comrades! It’s hard to organize with somebody that you don’t know very well. 

Publications: I have not published anything for MWS as of yet, but I do have a substack! If you like short fiction of varying types follow my substack at @leerbaker1 (Lee R. Baker is my pen name). My plan for this year is to release 12 short stories in 12 months. 

Alec

Name: Alec Hudson

Pronouns: he/him

Neighborhood: Lincoln Square

Outside of Midwest Socialist: SEIU 73 member, Chicago DSA jack-of-all-trades.

Outside of DSA: New dad, history nerd, soccer fan, and traveler.

Currently Reading: The Paris Commune: A Brief History (Eichner, 2022), The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-1940 (Badger, 2002), The Socialist Challenge Today: Syriza, Corbyn, Sanders (Panitch, Gindin, & Maher, 2020).

If I could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would it be and why? Karl Marx for a good time, Eugene Debs to learn what it took to build a mass socialist party, and Gracchus Babeuf because I’m obsessed with the French Revolution and its role in establishing modern socialism/communism.

Organizing Advice: Stay curious and keep learning new skills!

Feel free to reach out via midwestsocialist at gmail dot com or send us your work!

The post Our Editorial Board: The Comrades Behind Midwest Socialist appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

Imagine the last five DSA meetings you have been to. Do you feel like you could, without providing excuses, invite a friend or coworker to each of those meetings and feel confident they would walk away with a positive impression of our ability to make change? Would they come away with a sense that our project is worth committing valuable time to?

The national DSA Growth and Development Committee recently reported that more than one in three DSA members have joined within the last year as the horrors of Trumpism spur people into action. Our organizing efforts and electoral wins, especially Zohran Mamdani’s in New York, show a path toward a better future. In this membership bump, like others in the recent past, we are faced with the question of how we successfully “onboard” new members and broaden our reach even further. While our growing wealth of collective experience has improved our abilities in these areas greatly (revamped DSA 101s and 102s and the work of the Membership Engagement Committee have been big successes), there is still plenty of room for improvement. For the majority of our meetings, we need to ensure that the answers to the above questions are resoundingly “Yes and yes!”

We can accomplish this by bringing a basic level of professionalism and competency to our own political practice and in turn, to DSA. As socialists, it can be uncomfortable to use words like “competency” and “professionalism,” because we understand how these terms are used in the context of the late-capitalist workplace to create the impression (and only the impression) of a meritocracy. We can reject that framework while still recognizing that if we look and act like a mess, we are less likely to attract new members, retain existing members, and succeed in our political efforts. Luckily, we are not starting from scratch – working people have cultivated decades and even centuries of know-how we can draw from and rely on.

Accordingly, if we consistently focus on perfecting these known basics of organizing skills and political development, we will have done most of the work of building competency. If we look to sports for a parallel: when a professional athlete reaches the top of their game, they do not transcend the fundamental rules and concepts of the sport. Rather they realize them expertly and bring their special talents to bear within that framework. If you’ve ever watched videos of professional athletes training, you will note that even once-in-a-generation talents consistently do basic drills. They do this not in spite of their expertise, but because it is what makes them expert. The basics are not just the foundation that everything else is built upon, they are most of the game.

So what are the fundamental organizing skills and what is fundamental to socialist political development?Fundamental organizing skills are the means and methods by which we build relationships of trust among ourselves and structure our decision making and collective action. These are a combination of soft skills, which can be applied broadly across a variety of pursuits, and hard skills specific to the task of socialist organizing. None of it is rocket science, and some of these skills might come naturally to certain people. No matter what, being intentional about it makes all the difference. Without going into too much depth on specifics, the core tenants of organizing skills involve:

• Being able to read and relate to people to understand where they are coming from. The term “buy-in” can be a useful shorthand, but the core is taking the time to understand what is motivating people and what they would like to contribute to the organization. Painting a picture of how someone’s contributions are meaningful to the project of building a better world is how we build engagement and capacity.
• Making sure that strategy, ideas, and debates are legible and meaningful to a broad spectrum of membership. We need to have clarity of purpose and action to be effective. Achieving legibility means honing the ability to run meetings effectively and making sure that people know what is going on through effective communication. This can include everything from social media posts, to scheduling meetings and communicating agendas well in advance, to one-on-one meetings with comrades who want to get more involved.
• Building relationships by following up. While our members don’t all need to be friends, we do need to be comrades. This means building a basic sense of trust and the willingness to understand each other. This is the cornerstone of a healthy democratic culture. Building these relationships requires intentional effort. Being welcoming and friendly is a must, but we also must make sure that we are doing the basic leg work that can help us keep in touch. This can include making sure meetings have sign-ins to help with list building and that collective and individual follow-up happens after each event, especially with new members.
• Developing comradely values, most especially patience and empathy. I’ve noted that the folks who tend to stay involved in the moment for the long haul are those who exercise patience with the organization and their comrades. Patience doesn’t mean abandoning a sense of urgency; rather, it means recognizing that imperfection is a fact and that there are no shortcuts in the work of building mass organizations. Likewise, empathy doesn’t mean being excessively kind or withholding criticism, but it does mean recognizing that, in general, folks are doing the best they can at any given moment, and this is the starting point for getting better.

To develop as socialists, we must possess a baseline analysis of capitalism and theory of change rooted in the collective experiences of past and present socialists. Capitalism is a moral outrage, but working toward change requires sober analysis of where we are at as an organization and the conditions we are working in. This will allow us to draw on history, theory, and our own creativity to chart a path forward.  Without going into too much depth, some of the core tenants of socialist political development as we understand it within DSA involve:

• Understanding that capitalism is working as intended, necessitating both reform and revolution. Developing this understanding requires a study of economics and the historical development of capitalism. Such a study demonstrates that the system is not broken, but working as intended. It therefore must  be swept into the dustbin of history. We need reforms in the here-and-now to improve lives and help develop our capacity to make change. At the same time, our ultimate goal must be upending the current order via democratic means to establish a socialist society where the economy is democratically controlled and unjust coercion is abolished in all its forms.
• A recognition of the centrality of the working class as agents of change. The idea of the multi-racial working class as the protagonist of history is easy to say, but harder to make real. We live in a world where nearly all people have internalized capitalist ideology in deep and fundamental ways. Our task is to overcome this by developing class consciousness through action, and to bind that consciousness together organizationally so it can translate into the mass action necessary to make sweeping changes. Socialists believe that workers are in the best position to effect change because our role as the sole producers of value under capitalism is, potentially, an immense source of political power. Recognizing this idea is one thing, but to truly work towards its realization requires an important deconstruction of liberal theories of change through political education work.
• Honing your ability to engage in comradely discussion and debate. Because democracy is a central value for socialists and vital to building a meaningfully mass organization, it is imperative that we take time to deliberately hone our ability to participate in the process of democracy. This means taking responsibility for developing ideas and perspectives by engaging with socialist writings (past and present) and having good faith constructive debates with comrades. Approaching this work with intention and humility as individuals is how we prepare ourselves as a collective for the hard work of deciding what it is we ought to be doing.

So how do we double down on the fundamentals? There is of course no silver bullet, but I do want to highlight that this will be a major focus of our Political Education Committee over the next several months. In that time frame, we will be spinning up a monthly series of skills trainings with rotating subject matter, as well as another semester of Socialist Night School. I encourage members, and especially newer members, to attend these events and approach them with an open mind. Even if you are coming into DSA with some organizing skills or a political background, talking about these things with fellow members and attending a training is bound to bring new perspectives, whether the material is something you already know or something you are just learning for the first time.

Similarly, my ask for experienced leaders and chapter members is that you attend these skills trainings and our Socialist Night School the way that a professional athlete approaches practice drills. There is value in revisiting skills that you’ve used before and have already developed with a sense of humility, asking yourself what you don’t know or how you can do something you are good at even better. I’ve been an organized socialist for half my life, and whenever I run or attend a political education event of any kind, even a repeat event, new neural pathways are formed. I learn something new or a new way of approaching or thinking about something. Sharing my experience with a new group of people and allowing their perspectives to shape me has value.

Further, I would also ask those that are either formally or informally in chapter leadership to lead by example and tend to the fundamentals and integrate them into our work. Make sure that meetings are well publicized in advance, that you are doing turnout, that agendas are clear, that meetings start and end on time, that new members always feel welcome, that you are having one-on-ones consistently, and that you are giving others the opportunity to develop their leadership and organizing skills. Consider taking meaningful time in your work with the chapter to have frank, big picture conversations and reflections about how well you are doing on the basics and what steps you can take to make improvements.

No one graduates from socialist political education, and everyone benefits from a focus on the fundamentals. If we want to build a mass movement, we need to sharpen our focus on these basics. We will need to get them right, not once, not a hundred times, but every single day that we are doing the work of building a better world.

The post On Getting The Basics Right (Again and Again) appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

The Socialists Everywhere Project began in the now-defunct Organizing Committee for the North Side Blue Line (NSBL) branch. It arose out of conversations about how to learn more about the employers, landlords, and community organizations in the branch territory. The name, which was coined by former branch steering committee officer Ramsin Canon, originally encompassed an ever larger project involving both member engagement and a broader continuous research effort to do power mapping throughout the branch. This element was still present in the initial resolution authorizing the Project, which was presented to the Executive Committee, along with the part of the Project that would become the focus of work over the next year.

The initial proposal was brought at the November 2024 Executive Committee retreat and formally passed in 2025. It described a program in which local civic meetings would be cataloged and presented to branch membership. Members would be invited to attend these meetings and then submit a report to the Project leaders on what happened there. There are a lot of meetings in Chicago that fit the above description, including ward nights, local school council meetings, park advisory council meetings, and Community Alternative Policing meetings. The report back form asked members to describe what happened at the meeting, what kinds of people were in attendance, and to call out any issues that could serve as opportunities for Chicago DSA to organize in the community.

In practice, this is what the Project looked like with varying results: Ahead of NSBL branch meetings, a list would be compiled of three meetings happening within the branch territory in the next couple of weeks, in tabulated format with space for written names and phone numbers. Branch officers would then explain the Socialists Everywhere Project to the members in attendance, with the list being passed around for members to fill out if they could make the listed meeting times. Later, those members who signed up would receive a message via WhatsApp (sent manually) reminding them to attend the meeting, as well as a link to submit the report back form via Google Forms.

Word of the Project spread rapidly through the chapter, prompting a meeting between leaders in the North Side Blue Line, North Side Red Line, and South Side branches to discuss how the Project should be coordinated between the three geographic branches. For example, the leadership in the North Side Red Line branch prioritized monthly research meetings to add items on the Socialists Everywhere calendar, while classifying members by neighborhood during the branch meeting to decide how to coordinate meeting attendance. With specific goals to expand and automate the Project, research meetings began to produce a full catalog of meetings for members to attend. These research meetings proved popular among certain tech-savvy groups of members who were happy to help DSA by doing something they already knew how to do – work with computers to conduct research via spreadsheet work.

This work continued smoothly among the branches throughout the year. But after the DSA National Convention in August 2025, difficult questions arose during reauthorization. Namely: What has the Project accomplished? Though organizers set goals to build more participation using an automated calendar system rather than through a representative of the Project, only two members documented their attendance of a public, civic meetings after reauthorization, far below any reasonable goal.

What exactly was the goal of all of this work? The immediate goal was to engage new members in their communities, but the larger ambitions of the Project were never fully defined. The Project was envisioned at various times to be a research project, membership engagement, a left-wing answer to Moms for Liberty, and the initial stages of an intelligence network on community issues. If there was one definitive thing that the Project did, it gave new members something to do. Chicago DSA is full of newly minted activists who have just moved to the city and are light on experience and local knowledge, and Socialists Everywhere was ideal for giving them an opportunity to see what was happening in their local neighborhood. The loftier goals for the Project, to give Chicago DSA a foothold in local communities that could be used to organize as socialists on behalf of community members, never came to fruition. Finding a way to bridge the divide between individual volunteer action and a bigger project should be the core of any revival of the Project.

There is no particular shame in the Project’s performance, and not just because it only cost the chapter the price of a small button order. In many ways, the Project came and went at exactly the right time for the chapter. When it began, the chapter was coming out of a nadir of activity, with no significant large-scale work – labor, electoral, or otherwise – for members to jump into. But once the chapter’s campaigns kicked off, it became harder to justify pushing members elsewhere into this more piecemeal work. And once federal agents began their terror campaign in Chicagoland, it became hard not to see the Project as superfluous in the face of the higher degree of organization present in existing local groups that are leading the city’s response to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Perhaps if the Project had the capacity, infrastructure, and messaging to connect itself to the broader struggle, it could have justified its continued existence.

In January 2026, the Project was ended by a vote of the Executive Committee. It has been placed respectfully in the limbo of interesting but nascent ideas. It may one day be dug up and integrated into a more focused and effective project. Until then, it lives on as one of Chicago DSA’s political priorities: Be Socialists Everywhere.

The post An Assessment of the Socialists Everywhere Project appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

GREEN MOUNTAIN DSA MEETINGS AND EVENTS
Our Tax the Rich Working Group will meet on every Sunday, including Sunday Feb 1 at 6:00pm on Zoom. Sign the  Tax the Rich for Healthcare and Schools petition here.

Our Steering Committee meets on the first Monday of every month at 7:30pm on Zoom, including Monday Feb 2. All members are welcome to participate in the meeting discussion, only members of the steering committee can vote. Email hello@greenmountaindsa.org for the Zoom link.

Our Labor Committee meets on the second Monday of every month at 6:00pm on Zoom, including Monday Feb 9.

Find out how you can help our Membership Committee improve recruitment and involvement in our chapter on Monday, Feb 9. The Membership Committee meets on every 2nd Monday of the month at 7:30pm on Zoom.

The next May Day Coalition meeting is Tuesday Feb 17 at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington) and on Zoom.

Our Electoral Committee will meet on Tuesday Feb 10 at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom.

Talk about your job and learn about shop-floor organizing from peers at Workers' Circle (co-hosted with the Green Mountain IWW) on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, including Feb 11 and 25 at 6:00 p.m. at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington).

GMDSA's East and West branches will come together for another general meeting on Saturday Feb 21 at 11:30 a.m. at Christ Episcopal Church Community Room (64 State St, Montpelier, VT 05602). Newcomers encouraged to show up at 10:30 a.m. for an optional “DSA 101” orientation.

Our Palestine Solidarity Committee will meet on Monday Feb 23 at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom.

Our Communications Committee will meet on Monday Feb 23 at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom.

GMDSA Steering Committee recently passed a resolution to advocate for and ask members to attend Migrant Justice's next rapid response training, Feb 10, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sign up for the meeting here

Add our Google Calendar - Check out our website‍ ‍

NATIONAL DSA MEETINGS OF INTEREST

‍ ‍

• Saturday, February 7th, 5pm, Recommitment Phonebank link

• Saturday, February 7th at 2pm Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee 2026 Winter Cohort Training (1 of 4): Social Investigation & the Tenant Movement link

‍ ‍

• Sunday, February 8th at 2pm: Chairing a Meeting with Robert's Rules Workshop link

• Sunday, February 22nd at 5pm: Solidarity Dues Phonebank link

Vermont Public Meetings of Interest for February

• Thursday, February 5th at 9am: 9:00am: VSEA v. State of Vermont, Department of Human Resources

‍ ‍

• Friday, February 13th at 9:00am: Hearing in the matter of Commissioner of Labor v. Wesco, Inc.

‍ ‍

Public Meeting Calendar Link: Published Calendar - Outlook‍ ‍

Important Dates this Year

• Town Meeting Day, March 3rd, 2026‍ ‍

• May Day: May 1st, 2026

• 2026 Labor Notes Conference: June 12-14th‍ ‍

• Statewide Primary Election: August 11th, 2026‍ ‍

• Labor Day: September 7th, 2026

• General Election: November 3rd, 2026‍ ‍

• Next DSA National Convention: 2027

‍ ‍

DSA is endorsing Tammy Carpenter for Oregon State House, and we need your help to win

Dr. Carpenter is a proud member of Portland DSA running to fight for universal healthcare, fully-funded schools and a renters’ bill of rights

Dr. Carpenter is part of a slate of candidates in the Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising project!

We are excited to announce that DSA is endorsing Bobby Nichols for Tempe City Council!

Bobby, of Phoenix-Metro DSA, is a public interest lawyer running to make Tempe affordable for everyone, building public housing and making it easier to form a union

Bobby is part of a slate of candidates in the Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising project!

Congratulations to Andrew Hairston of Austin DSA, our endorsee for Travis County Justice of the Peace!

Andrew is a civil rights attorney who will stand up for working-class students and tenants of color facing unequal treatment in a court system that needs to serve working people, not landlords’ profit motives.

Andrew is part of a slate of candidates in the Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising project!

Congratulations to Adam Bojak of Buffalo DSA, our newest endorsee for New York’s State Assembly!

Adam is a proud democratic socialist and a housing lawyer who will continue the fight to protect working-class people from crooked landlords across the state.

Adam is part of a slate of candidates in the Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising project!

Atlanta DSA vehemently condemns the abhorrent execution of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent on January 24, 2026. Multiple DHS agents fired on Alex as he was attempting to help assist a community member assaulted by a federal agent moments prior. Further, an agent appeared to have removed Alex’s pistol that he was legally permitted to carry before he was executed in cold blood. Plain and simple, this is an attack on the 1st and 2nd Amendment rights every citizen is entitled to in the United States. The federal government then continued its vile tradition of publishing slanderous lies about those it murders in fabricating false narratives about the peaceful, non-violent behaviors of Alex. To us, it is clear that the purpose of a system is what it does and, so, the purpose of DHS (and specifically ICE) is death and violence. Videos and photos over the past century of black, brown, and tan bodies being butchered by human instruments of the law were ignored, minimized, and treated as inconsequential. Now, we live in the darkening shadow cast by the willing and conscious decision of hundreds of Democrat politicians from Washington to Peachtree Street to further increase funding to cops, ICE, and border patrol. Barely one year into the second Trump presidency, the full weight of the American imperial machine has turned inward to crush any act of resistance, no matter how small.

Just this past week, Democrat leaders have continued their decades-long complicity in the manufacturing of divisions between working people through measly gestures at reform of ICE. These ineffective measures follow in the wake of the killing of Renee Nicole Good not even a month ago, to say nothing of the numerous other deaths on the streets and even more in detention centers over the past year. Yet we know, as workers organizing in our workplaces and communities, this fascist regime is composed of incompetent losers that need you to feel small and isolated to succeed. Together, as an organized multi-racial working class, we can build a new, better world as the old neoliberal world order shakes itself to pieces under the weight of its own contradictions. Beyond polls or optics, it is clear that for working people our only position can be that of calling for the complete abolishment of ICE. It continues to serve as the foot soldier force of a burgeoning fascist regime determined to foment further class divisions based on racist, imperialist border policies.

Atlanta DSA once again calls for the abolishment of ICE and the removal of all DHS agents from our communities, as well as the full prosecution of all those involved in acts violating basic human rights under international laws.

We stand in solidarity with those participating across the country in the general strike taking place today. We strongly encourage our members, fellow comrades and union allies, elected politicians, and neighbors to organize with us in the face of this disgusting atrocity.

• If you can, donate to the efforts of Twin Cities DSA to fight ICE and build a better world. You can do so here: https://twincitiesdsa.org/donate/
• Honor the life and memory of Alex Pretti with us at a vigil hosted by National Nurses United, the American Federation of Government Employees, and other community orgs on Thursday, February 5th at 1670 Clairemont Rd in Decatur (the Atlanta VA Medical Center) from 6:30pm-7:30pm.
• Join DSA to support and lead our organizing efforts against ICE and this fascist federal administration: https://atldsa.org/join/

This past November, baristas turned up the heat in their campaign to unionize Starbucks by launching a nationwide multi-week strike to win a first union contract. Their escalation came after nearly four years of challenging shop-by-shop organizing across the country, Starbucks’ relentless union-busting tactics, numerous unfair labor practice violations filed against Starbucks at the National Labor Relations Board, and months of contract negotiations that brought the Unfair Labor Practice Strike that DSA has been supporting over the last 2 months.

DSA Los Angeles has been shoulder-to-shoulder with Starbucks workers in Los Angeles County for four years as they have worked meticulously to unionize stores across the region. The chapter has organized sip-ins, mass calls, panel discussions, and has turned out for rallies and pickets. Our consistent solidarity with Starbucks Workers United has helped the chapter build meaningful relationships with rank-and-file, member leaders, and staff organizers. These relationships and the trust that comes with them have been incredibly important during the ongoing strike, as DSA-LA has been the primary community partner supporting these striking baristas who are engaged in their longest work stoppage to date.

Over the last 2 months, DSA-LA members have walked the picket line at various stores, blocked delivery vehicles from making deliveries to Starbucks stores, and fed striking baristas throughout December with financial support from the Labor Solidarity Fund of DSA’s National Labor Commission. DSA-LA Socialists in Office, like City Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez, and LAUSD School Board member Dr. Rocío Rivas have been out walking the picket lines and rallying supporters during the strike, and DSA-LA-endorsed candidates like Marissa Roy, who is running for LA City Attorney, have used their platform to elevate a key action everyone can do to support Starbucks baristas: do not buy anything from Starbucks during the strike! 

Isabella S., a rank-and-file member of Starbucks Workers United and a DSA member, explains better than anyone the value and impact of DSA’s strike solidarity: 

Without community support much of our efforts as striking workers becomes moot. In order to effectively make change at Starbucks we need support from the community to pressure the company to return to the bargaining table by divesting their money from Starbucks and convincing others to not cross our picket line. DSA members have been among the most dedicated and inspiring supporters to join our picket. DSA-LA members help set up our picket, amplify our voices, and put into context what our actions are all about. Their support energizes me, makes me feel less alone, and demonstrates the power we can have if we show up as a community for each other. No one needs to struggle alone.

While in some areas across the country, Starbucks baristas have paused their strike activity and shifted to other tactics to advance the contract campaign, Los Angeles remains a key area for continuing the open-ended strike. As with any open-ended strike, there are challenges. Starbucks Workers United in Los Angeles is grappling with Starbucks escalating its use of scab labor at stores that have been shut down for nearly 2 months due to successful striking. This has meant that Starbucks baristas and DSA-LA have had to be flexible and adjust to changing dynamics on the ground, and explore additional tactics and avenues to bring the pressure on Starbucks to agree to the union contract that Starbucks baristas deserve. In January, a large contingent of Starbucks baristas went to the Los Angeles City Council to elevate their fight for a union contract and to demand that Los Angeles pass a Fair Work Week ordinance that includes workers at companies like Starbucks, Subway, Taco Bell, and other fast food chains that are often exempted from such ordinances. Councilmember Soto-Martinez, a DSA-LA Socialist in Office, is a proud champion for the ordinance Starbucks baristas are demanding in Los Angeles. 

With every week that goes by, it has been inspiring to see Starbucks baristas continue to take the bold and brave step of refusing to go to work until they are afforded the respect they deserve. These Starbucks baristas are in an open fight with a multi-national mega-corporation led by a greedy capitalist billionaire, and for that, their struggle is our struggle. DSA is proud to stand with Starbucks Workers United one day longer, one day stronger.