Una revista independiente del CASA sobre sus derechos.

By: Jade DeSloover

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Rabbit Hole v.002 was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

On April 1st, 2024, I received notification that a project for which I was a research assistant had been completely defunded. I was fired, and the future of the project remained uncertain. Our funding came from the Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaboration (CCERC) which was established from federal COVID relief funds to address pressing issues in Connecticut’s public schools and provide jobs to Connecticut researchers. Usually, I’d console myself and try to find hope for the future, but it was hard to feel that there was a future for researchers like me, who think people deserve better. Despite this hopelessness, I joined the DSA Education Justice working group: a coalition of educators, librarians, students, parents, and more that seeks to improve public education from a socialist lens. There is power and strength in the unity this working group provides. I found consolation with others who reassured me that they still see the value in research.

by Void Since the beginning of the current administration, we have witnessed an extraordinary restructuring of American governance in ways […]

Power Down Pratt: Mycelial Songs Freedom I cannot be the only person internally conflicted about protests, about what constitutes effective […]

My origin story feels like I am a contradiction in terms. Communist and Catholic—really? Looking back, my journey to communism is not one I ever imagined. Growing up in the comfortable white settler community of East Lansing, Michigan, I certainly was not exposed to oppression.

by Pearson From the failed poisoned piña colada plan to the action movie shootout no one asked for, the White […]

While we celebrated Zohran and Jorge‘s wins in the NYC Mayoral and Ithaca Common Council primaries, we waited for the results to finalize for Hannah Shvet’s race for Ithaca Common Council. And the wait was worth it, with Hannah winning her primary by a margin of just 11 votes! 

Hannah Shvets, running to represent Ithaca’s Ward 5, is a student organizer running on a bold, worker-first platform. Her platform focuses on affordable housing, climate action, public safety reform, and government transparency, aiming to build a more inclusive, affordable, equitable, and sustainable Ithaca that works for working people. 

Hannah is championing her community’s needs for rent stabilization, safer working conditions for TCAT drivers, and job programs like The Energy Warriors: Green Career Pathways. She’s also aiming to maintain Ithaca’s commitment to Sanctuary City status for immigrants, those seeking gender-affirming care, and reproductive care.

Although Hannah won the primary, one of her challengers will be running on a third-party line this November. The primary race was very close, so Hannah needs your continued support!

Hannah is part of a slate of candidates in the Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising project!Donate to the slate here! Through this effort, we raised $3,400 for Jorge and Hannah in just 6 weeks.

That’s the power of mass socialist organization, and this wouldn’t have been possible without DSA members donating, making calls, running phonebanks, and preparing graphics and copy. 

Congratulations to all the organizers in Ithaca DSA on the Common Council sweep & good luck in the General Election this November!

By: David Elsila

Labor theater returns to Detroit this Fall with a revival of the show ‘Forgotten: The Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant.’

Open auditions: Anyone who likes to sing or act can come to auditions for “Forgotten” July 11–12 at St. Matthew’s-St. Joseph’s Church on Woodward at Holbrook. Nine leads and nine chorus members will be cast, and all positions are paid. Contact davidelsila@gmail.com for more information.

One night in November 1937, Lewis Bradford was found seriously injured in an isolated section of the Ford Rouge plant in Dearborn. A few days later he died.

Bradford’s voice was well known in Detroit. He hosted a radio show on WXYZ called “The Forgotten Man’s Hour” where he interviewed jobless and homeless workers. It was a counterpoint, he felt, to the right-wing antisemitic priest Father Charles Coughlin, whose “Hour of Power” radio show on WJR was beamed nationwide.

Now nearly 90 years later, the story of Bradford’s mysterious death and the struggle of workers to organize unions during the Depression will be told on stage in the play “Forgotten: The Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant.” It will run for three days at Marygrove Theatre in Detroit October 10–12. DSA members are involved on the production team or are helping raise funds to mount the show, which features 22 songs in a jazz/bluesy genre performed by a cast of more than 20 actors, singers, and musicians.

Bradford was also an assistant pastor at Detroit’s Central Methodist Church. He had taken a job at the Rouge to pay for medical care for his young daughter, Ella, who was seriously ill. There was no health insurance in those days, and a pastor’s salary alone couldn’t pay the bills. While at the Rouge, Bradford tried to interest Henry Ford in developing better relationships between workers and management. Ford rejected his overtures; indeed, earlier that year Ford security guards had attacked UAW organizers at the Battle of the Overpass.

For years, Steve Jones, Bradford’s great-nephew, had listened to family stories of his great-uncle’s life and mysterious death. In 1991, he traveled from his home in Maryland to Detroit to find out more. Weeks of research led to the discovery of Bradford’s 1937 autopsy report. Jones took it to the Wayne County Medical Examiner, who said Bradford’s death should likely have been classified as a homicide — not an accident.

That became the genesis for “Forgotten.” Jones, an accomplished composer and a member of the American Federation of Musicians union, wrote 22 songs for “Forgotten” that tell the stories of the Ford Hunger March, the Battle of the Overpass, the Flint sit-down strike, and the struggles of workers like Bradford to organize.

In 2004, the Michigan Labor History Society sponsored the premiere of the show and revived it in 2005 and 2010 to sold-out audiences. This fall will bring another opportunity for Detroit-area audiences to see it.

Tickets for “Forgotten” are $35 and available through EventBrite. Read more about “Forgotten” at MichiganLaborHistorySociety.com and get tickets here.

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David Elsila, a long-time Metro Detroit DSA member, is a producer of “Forgotten.”

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COMING TO THE STAGE: A COMPELLING STORY ABOUT DETROIT WORKERS was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Events & Actions

Wednesday, July 9 (6:45 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.):  July General Meeting (Zoom)

Thursday, July 10 (5:50 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Socialist in Office + Electoral Board Meeting (Zoom)

Thursday, July 10 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigrant Justice Working Group Meeting (Zoom)

Friday, July 11 (7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): Comrade Karaoke (In person at The Roar Shack, 34 7th St)

Sunday, July 13 (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.): Sip ‘n’ Stitch (In person at The Nosh Box, 1116 Folsom St)

Sunday, July 13 (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.): Physical Education + Self Defense Training (In person at William McKinley Monument, Panhandle Park)

Monday, July 14 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenderloin Healing Circle (In person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate)

Monday, July 14 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

Tuesday, July 15 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (Zoom)

Tuesday, July 15 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): Reading Group: The Housing Question by Friedrich Engels, Part 2 (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, July 16 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): What Is DSA? (In person at Potrero Branch Library, 1616 20th St)

Wednesday, July 16 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) Training Workshop (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Thursday, July 17 (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.): Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Thursday, July 17 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigrant Justice Office Hour (Zoom)

Saturday, July 19 (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.): No Appetite for Apartheid Training and Outreach (Meet in person for training at 1916 McAllister, then head out to do outreach in the Bayview)

Saturday, July 19 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group (HWG) Food Service (In person in the Castro)

Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates. Events with a are especially new-member-friendly!

Say NO to Seizing Homes!

Join DSA SF in writing the Board of Supervisors to oppose Mayor Lurie’s RV ban, which threatens to seize the homes of poor and working San Franciscans. Demand real, permanent solutions for our neighbors living in their vehicles. Email homelessness@dsasf.org with any questions.

Summer Social(ist) Events!

Mark your calendars for our Summer Social(ist) event series! Our next event is coming up this Friday, July 11th @ 7:30PM – Comrade Karaoke at the Roar Shack (34 7th Street) – Come hang out and do some FREE karaoke with your fellow DSA SF comrades or cool people you want to impress with your incredible singing voice! No songs refused, no entry denied! Suggested Donation: $10. Drinks: Wine + Beer Available / BYOB

Later this month on July 27th @ 1:05PM we’ll be going to the Oakland Ballers vs Northern Colorado Owlz baseball game + “Halloween in July Night” (at Raimondi Park) – RSVP here by July 13th so that we can put in a group order of tickets! Group tickets are are $15 per ticket, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds!

Reading Group: “The Housing Question” by Friedrich Engels

Join us in reading the seminal text on the political economy of housing. Written in 1872, The Housing Question is Friedrich Engels’ critique of the housing market and the solutions promoted by his contemporaries. 150 years later, his work resonates just as much, if not more, with tenants’ current struggles.

This two-part series will have readers discuss the various historical attitudes and debates around housing and apply those lessons to our modern housing crisis.

Join us for session 2 at the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister St. on July 15th at 7:00 p.m. A full PDF of the book can be found here.

EWOC: How to Talk About Organizing

EWOC (Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee) is a project of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and DSA working to build a distributed grassroots organizing program to support workers organizing at the workplace. To learn more about the work EWOC does, come by the DSA SF office to pick up a copy of Unite and Win or tune into the Labor Board’s weekly meetings every Monday at 7 p.m. on Zoom.

The next EWOC event hosted by DSA SF features EWOC staff members conducting a training on generating workplace leads and conducting organizing conversations on July 16th from 6:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m. Let us know if you can make it! Hope to see you there!

Tenant Organizing Canvass in the Mission

Help us build tenant power in SF! Tenant Organizing Working Group is hosting a canvass the Mission, in partnership with Tenant and Neighborhood Councils. We’ll meet July 19th at 3:00 p.m. at Chan Kaajal Park, near 16th St. BART station, and we’ll walk the neighborhood together, talking to tenants about their housing conditions and how collective action can help. This is a powerful way to build organizing skills and relationships within the community. We will start with a training, so no prior experience is required. Sign up here so we know you’re coming. See you there!

Social Housing Reading Group

What could social housing look like in San Francisco, and how do we get there? Join DSASF for a reading of the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s report on how the city can build its own publicly owned, deeply affordable housing. We will also read the SF Berniecrats report, Housing for the 99%, which lays out a vision for social housing for all in San Francisco. Join us at 1916 McAllister Tuesday, July 22 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

DSA SF Tech Reading Group

On July 23rd from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., come join DSA SF and Rideshare Drivers United tech workers for our next monthly tech reading group.

We’ll be reading an excerpt from You Deserve a Tech Union by Ethan Marcotte. This event is hybrid with food provided at the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister St.

RSVP here to access the link to the reading! See you there!

Support the Blue Bottle Independent Union

Nestlé is one of the biggest corporations in the world charged with decades of human rights violations in the global south. They’re now in our backyard intimidating baristas with surveillance, firing, and bad-faith bargaining. Last week, baristas in four Bay Area locations of Nestlé-owned Blue Bottle presented management with a super majority of union cards and demanded voluntary recognition. Instead, Blue Bottle fired one of the organizers, B.B. Young. This comes at an especially bad time for B.B. since their husband was also recently laid off.

Blue Bottle workers are asking for our support

• Donate at this GoFundMe page 
• Sign the petition to demand that the company voluntarily recognize the Blue Bottle Independent Union
• Join the Blue Bottle Independent Union email list  or follow on Instagram to stay in touch
• If you are an employee of Blue Bottle, fill out this intake form to get involved with organizing the union at your own store

Behind the Scenes

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

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