Denzel McCampbell is running in District 7 for Detroit City Council. He has spent more than a decade working on issues such as voting rights, water affordability, and equitable transportation. He’s also aiming to improve public safety by investing in preventative measures, community violence intervention programs and mental health services. Denzel’s primary is on August 5th!

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

Events & Actions

Tuesday, July 1 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (Zoom)

Tuesday, July 1 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): Reading Group: The Housing Question by Friederich Engels (Part 1 of 2) (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, July 2 (6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): New Member Happy Hour (In person at Zeitgeist, 199 Valencia)

Thursday, July 3 (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.): Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Thursday, July 3 (5:50 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Socialist in Office + Electoral Board Meeting (Zoom)

Saturday, July 5 (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.): No Appetite for Apartheid Consumer Pledge Canvass (Meet at Harry Bridges Plaza)

Saturday, July 5 (12:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Outreach and Outreach Training (Meet at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, July 5 (1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.): Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee Training: Planning Sync (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, July 5 (2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): Phonebank to Stop the Billionaire’s Budget Attack on the Unhoused (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Sunday, July 6 (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Capital Reading Group (Zoom & in person at 1916 McAllister)

Sunday, July 6 (10:30 p.m. – 1:30 a.m.): Screening of The Room at the Balboa Theater (In person at Balboa Theatre, 3630 Balboa)

Monday, July 7 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (Zoom & in person at 1916 McAllister)

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

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

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

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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 1 at the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister St. on July 1st at 7:00 p.m. A full PDF of the book can be found here.

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Summer Social(ist) Events!

Mark your calendars for our Summer Social(ist) event series!

• July 6th @ 11:00 p.m. – Screening of The Room at the Balboa Theater! We’ll meet outside at 10:30.
• 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
• July 27th @ 1:05PM – 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!

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Apartheid-Free Bay Area Consumer Pledge Canvassing

Help build public support for stores that have pledged to go apartheid-free at the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market, Harry Bridges Plaza, this Saturday, July 5 from 11:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m.! You will receive basic training, and then you will put that training into practice by collecting signatures at the Ferry Plaza Building Farmer’s Market. Please sign up here. Bring a tote bag and make sure to wear your DSA merch. New members encouraged to join!

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Oppose the billionaire budget

Call your comrades to oppose the billionaire budget! Join the DSA SF Electoral Board this Saturday, July 5, 2:00 p.m. to – 4:00 p.m at 1916 McAllister to phonebank members and urge them to send letters opposing Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Billionaire Budget. The proposed budget forces austerity upon the most vulnerable San Franciscans by redirecting Prop C Our City Our Home funds away from effective solutions to homelessness to temporary measures which do not address the root causes of homelessness.

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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!

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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

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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.

Reports

Physical Education Training

On June 28th, DSA SF held its first physical education training. Five comrades got together in the park to learn and practice basic movement and self defense skills like falling, squatting, lifting, and palm striking. The next one will be held on July 13th at 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at the William McKinley Monument in Panhandle Park. Join us for some fun and inclusive physical education, aimed at building the strength and flexibility to build a better world.

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Ecosocialist Office Gardening

The Ecosocialist Working Group held their first office gardening event last Tuesday, with 12 attendees, including 5 non-members. We discussed native plants in the bay area and the various tools to help with plant identification, and labeled our garden with popsicle sticks. Our comrade Lizzie even brought a microscope to take a closer look at petals and leaves.

Stay tuned for the next office gardening event! To get involved, join #ecosocialism on the DSA SF Slack, or reach out to ecosocialist@dsasf.org.

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.

Monthly Newsletter of the Rochester Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America

Welcome to the July issue. You’ll find Upcoming Events, coverage of chapter activities, and articles on the Democratic primary elections, capitalism’s death toll, podcast recommendations, community gardening, and more. Want to contribute? Submit to bit.ly/SubmitRedStar, or reach out to get involved with our Communications Committee by emailing steering@rocdsa.org.

The post Rochester Red Star | July 2025 | (Issue 15) first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

By: Collin P.

DSAers will be visiting the picket line in numbers on Tuesday, July 1 at 6pm, at 800 Farrow in Ferndale. Show your solidarity!

Our world runs on pressurized gas. I’m not talking about gasoline. I’m talking about acetylene for welding your cars together, propane for heating homes, nitrogen for fire suppression systems, and oxygen for hospitals. These gases are supplied by workers at companies like Airgas. These are the workers who fill the canisters, ensure gases are safely stored and stable, and transport them to where they need to be. And these are the same 30 Teamsters Local 283 workers who are now on strike for their dignity and livelihood.

The strike began June 23 after months without a contract. The workers had been trying to negotiate with management since November 2024 and the next session isn’t even scheduled for two weeks. Eleven Airgas units are now on strike across the country with more to come!

Workers’ Demands

I stood at the picket line in solidarity last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with workers like John, a truck driver who has been at Airgas for eight years. He loves being on the road and getting people the oxygen they need. What he doesn’t love is the poor wages and poor raises, neither of which are sustainable.

He also doesn’t love management’s introduction of driver-facing cameras; he is on camera at all times during the day. Management has been abusing these cameras to ding their workers for minor infractions, including drinking water, to slowly chip away at their dignity or even their livelihood.

Ray has been with Airgas for seven years. He used to be a union sheet metal worker, working in facilities where they built paint booths for the Big 3 automotive. He loved that job, talking of the brotherhood and solidarity he felt. He had to leave due to health conditions, but with his CDL and hazmat certifications, he found a new position driving for Airgas and loved it.

That was until new management added the driver-facing cameras and forced him out of the trucks and into the warehouse. He now unloads and loads every truck that comes into the facility as opposed to being on the open road where he would rather be.

Both John and Ray said that a new HR lead quickly started wrongly dinging the workers until they got disciplinary action. Ray talked of how management would not tell you of disciplinary action until days later, after it was supposed to be remedied, letting you go on unaware of any issues — so they could come at you with more.

John and Ray both want higher wages, similar to those at other Airgas facilities and industry competitors like Linde. And they want to fix their dispute/grievance system.

Not all Airgas facilities are unionized, adding to the pressure on its workers. Some of the other union Airgas facilities have settled their contracts. But this local wants more! They don’t want the bare minimum; they want a wage that is respectful of their labor. They want a disciplinary system that is fair and they want management to stop micromanaging.

Airgas’s Greed

Last year Airgas made approximately $30 billion in revenue. The union members believe they deserve some of that. Right now management is offering a $2 raise, which they find insulting. They are the ones who worked hard during the pandemic to supply the essentials needed for hospitals during the influx of patients. They were deemed “essential workers” but say that management gave them only an extra $100 for the entirety of the pandemic.

Management is trying to push these workers out by bringing in workers from other non-union facilities or even some union ones. The other facilities do not have strong enough contracts to be able to push back on scab assignments. I was told that normally this facility outputs 10 trucks of product every day, with about 140 stops. Since the strike, management has only been able to get out two trucks and a small pickup, decreasing their output to just 10–15 stops.

Safety alarms are going off non-stop because of the scabs’ incompetence. They are improperly marking trucks with the required placards for safety. These are volatile materials we are dealing with, putting the safety of workers and communities at risk. They are reportedly paying the scabs an extra $500 a day.

Management has even gone as far as sending letters and a press release to all striking workers saying they have been terminated, claiming their strike amounts to three days of “no-call/no-shows.” Firing workers for union activity is illegal, of course, but Airgas does not seem to care.

Right now union members are asking for more DSA members to show up, especially during the less staffed shift (2pm-10pm), but they appreciate any support on the other shift as well (6am — 2pm). DSAers will be visiting the picket line in numbers on Tuesday, July 1 at 6pm. The location is 800 Farrow in Ferndale.

Hope Is in the Air

Spirits are high at the Airgas picket line. Union members said they enjoy meeting community members who support their struggle and are willing to fight alongside them. This is the first time most members here have been on strike so they are learning a lot about what it means to be in a union. They have learned what solidarity looks like from DSA, community members, and another Teamsters local showing up and walking the line with them.

Ray talked of hopes for growing militancy in the union and growing solidarity among his coworkers. Since with a truck driving job you spend most of your time on the road, he has appreciated the opportunity to get to know those who support his fight. He told me, “We are a union. That means brotherhood. We stand together for all of us. That’s what it means to be in a union.”

Jim, the alternate steward on duty for the strike, said he wanted to join other picket lines after seeing our show of solidarity. He said he’s learning real quick the relationships they thought they had with management don’t exist when you are on the other side of the fence. We talked of a strategy to make the other Airgas facilities contracts all lined up so they can go on strike together in the future.

We talked about inspiring ideas such as the direction of the UAW to try and line up all union contracts for May Day so we can have a general strike. Jim is hopeful about this new wave of unionism — from the Teamsters to Starbucks — to make change in the world. It’s on us as DSA to show that a better world is possible.

Join the picket line to show them support. Put DSA words into action!

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Airgas Teamsters on Strike in Ferndale: Greed Is in the Air was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

There's never been a more exciting time to be in DSA. As you may have heard, a democratic socialist recently won the New York City mayoral primary.

33-year-old Zohran Mamdani's unexpected victory over former governor Andrew Cuomo in America's biggest city demonstrates the power of politics that centers the material needs of the working class. Amid numerous reasons for despair, it shows that DSA can offer a path forward. It's a moment of national significance, and now we need to take the model nationwide.

You can play a part by joining DSA and getting involved in your local chapter. Scroll down for our calendar of meetings in July.

You'll notice that it doesn't include a chapter or branch meeting. Instead, we've planned a couple outdoor social events for the summer. One of them is tomorrow (6/29)!

Come to Waterbury Center State Park (177 Reservoir Rd.) at 9:30 a.m. or to Stowe's Sterling Pond Trailhead (6443 Mountain Rd.) at 10 a.m. and spend a day in nature with other socialists. You can hang out with us again on July 20 at Burlington's Oakledge Park (11 Flynn Ave.), where a picnic will begin at 4:30 p.m. Feel free to email us at this address if you have any questions about either event.

We're getting folks together in part because we're trying to raise funds for our chapter's elected delegates in advance of the 2025 DSA National Convention in Chicago, where they'll debate resolutions and help choose a new National Political Committee. If we want our chapter's voice represented in August, we need to make sure that our representatives can afford the trip. You can donate here.

Finally, you may have heard that downtown Burlington is getting a new movie theater in the fall. If you noticed its name or read about its democratic governance, you may guessed that socialists had something to do with it. GMDSA has endorsed Partizanfilm, a cooperative, grassroots project to build a not-for-profit cinema for the people. Consider becoming a member! And please tell them we sent you on their signup form.

GMDSA MEETINGS
🚲 GMDSA's Urbanism Committee will meet on Monday, July 7, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

🧑‍🏭 Talk about your job and learn about shop-floor organizing from peers at Workers' Circle (co-hosted by the Green Mountain IWW) on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, including July 9, at 6 p.m. at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington).

🔨 Our Labor Committee will hold its next meeting on Monday, July 14, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

🗳️ The next meeting of our Electoral Committee will take place on Wednesday, July 16, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

🏳️‍⚧️ Our Gender & Sexuality Committee will meet on Monday, July 21, at 7 p.m. on Zoom.

🤝 Find out how you can help our Membership Committee improve recruitment and involvement in our chapter on Tuesday, July 22, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

🎥 Socialist Film Club will temporarily go remote next month. July's pick is the Italian drama The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971), available via Solidarity Cinema. After watching it individually at home, we'll discuss it together at Zero Gravity (716 Pine St., Burlington) on Friday, July 25, at 8 p.m.

🍉 Our Palestine Solidarity Committee will meet on Monday, July 28, at 7 p.m. on Zoom.

STATE AND LOCAL NEWS
📰 About 16,500 protesters rallied against President Trump in Burlington on No Kings Day, which may have been the state's most active day of political demonstrations ever.

📰 The Vermont Progressive Party needs a new executive director.

COMMUNITY FLYERS

A review of Malcolm Harris' recent ecosocialist proposals.

Has the US Left's failure to unite around a Black presidential candidate damaged trust and relations of solidarity?

Review of Mark Fisher's dissertation and the strategic limits of Marxist cultural criticism.

Boycotts to protect DEI and workplace diversity are strengthened by lessons from the Black civil rights movement

Speaking to a renewed age of public-sector austerity, a history of US postal worker organizing