The first half of this piece was published  in last month’s issue of California Red. There I discussed the background and initial responses to the Los Angeles fires, including from DSA-LA. 

---

After the fires in Los Angeles had been extinguished, I took time to drive up Lake Avenue toward the San Gabriel Mountains and see the devastation of the Eaton Fire that had torn through Altadena. It’s one thing to see photographs, it’s another to drive past block after block of destruction. Places that I grew up visiting, where I’d share a meal with my family, the homes of friends and their parents reduced to nothing but chimneys and piles of black dust. We’re now more than a month out from the start of the disaster, and the causes, responses, and effects are all beginning to come into focus. 

Origins

Though the causes of these calamities, and ones like them, vary in slight degrees, we know that they are unleashed  by an economic system that prioritizes privatization, profit, and wealth over our safety and dignity.

The Eaton Fire was likely caused by a private utility company, Southern California Edison. For a long time, utilities have paid a lot of money to elect candidates and exploit our ballot measure system to pass laws enabling them to make even more money. Whether they’re charging us higher rates or failing to repair equipment that ends up burning down our homes and livelihoods, it’s always at our expense. They see the loss of wildlife, housing, and people merely as the cost of doing business. It wasn’t long ago when Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), a private utility that has a near monopoly on energy for much of California, started the Camp Fire, destroying the town of Paradise and the surrounding area, killing 85 people. Six years later, the people of Paradise  are still rebuilding. This story is becoming tragically common in our state.

Even when a private utility isn’t to blame for the precise origin of a fire, like the one in the Palisades, the lust for wealth in the US has been both the spark and fuel. With the reality of climate change, extreme weather events are becoming more and more frequent. This will not be the last time that Los Angeles experiences extraordinary amounts of rain followed by drought, and we know that billionaire greed certainly isn’t going to politely go away. As these events become more deadly, ruinous, and costly, it’s incumbent upon us to be serious, realistic, and strategic about our work moving forward. 

The responses

As soon as the fires started, reactionary billionaires were already sowing the seeds of distrust for our government and reciting their common antidotal script for solving our problems: only the wealthy, a market economy, and charity can solve the problems we’re facing.

Landlords also wasted no time in taking advantage of the disaster by immediately raising rents and rushing to evict tenants who’d lost their jobs and income. In response, members of the community began compiling databases that included the listings of units for which the rent had increased more than the legal amount. These efforts caught the attention of elected officials from the local to statewide level.

Billionaires like Rick Caruso have used this tragedy to relaunch their failed political brands. Yes, the same man who hired private firefighters to steal our water in order to save his shopping center is claiming he actually gives a damn about you. Using a foundation that he started in the wake of the fire, he is partnering with one of the founders of AirBnb to “donate” prefab homes to around 100 victims. He is also likely to run for governor. Funny that a company like AirBnb, which has played a significant role in causing housing costs to rise in the United States, suddenly cares about making sure people have housing.

We are also looking at the first instance in US history where a federal government, led by Republicans eager to prove their cruelty has no bounds, may put conditions on disaster relief. Even where this relief has begun, much of the focus has been on the Palisades Fire (the only site Trump bothered to visit), where residents tend to be much wealthier than those affected by the Eaton Fire in Altadena. Of course, loss of belongings and homes is always tragic, but Altadena, a historically Black community in LA County, has already found itself falling behind in the official response. 

Moving forward 

These events have highlighted both the inequities that exist in our country and the interconnectedness of their effects. When people are forced out of their homes, the housing market becomes even more strained. The people who are left able to afford staying in Los Angeles are much more likely to be white and much less likely to be working class. When smoke fills the air for weeks, working class people are much more likely to work outside and suffer the health impacts of unhealthy air quality, if they haven’t lost their jobs altogether. Those health impacts mean people need to seek medical attention from our private healthcare system. If you can afford that, great. If you can’t, well, you can’t. Insurance companies, notorious for avoiding as much coverage as they can get away with, have spent years deciding to no longer cover fire damage.

DSA-LA’s socialists in office (SiOs) on the LA City Council moved quickly to propose tenant protections through an eviction moratorium and rent freeze. Shamefully, despite pressure from DSA-LA and the Keep LA Housed Coalition, a majority of the council has continued to delay the proposal, even as rent checks are due and eviction notices begin to pour in. Thankfully, the LA County Board of Supervisors stepped in with their own temporary protections for tenants where the city failed to do so. Their action, due to the emergency declaration, extends to all the cities within Los Angeles county, providing tenants with much needed relief. 

The Long Term

While disaster relief and tenant protections are absolutely necessary at this moment, capitalism’s need for continual and more costly bailouts is not sustainable or just. We must replace our profit-centric policies with human-centric ones. In other words, though each disaster presents a new challenge, our mission is largely the same: replacing capitalism with democratic socialism.

Los Angeles once had one of the largest transit systems in the country. The problem with that system was that it was all privately owned. As soon as it was no longer profitable to its few private owners, the rails and their charming cars were sold and dismantled. Los Angeles Metro, our public transportation system reviving our rail services since the 1990s, has come a long way, but it remains too dependent on profit-seeking private contractors as it slowly constructs its way around the county. We deserve a truly public transportation system that can get us to all the places where we need to go.

Californians also deserve publicly-owned utilities that provide renewable, affordable, and safe energy to the many rather than providing profits to the few who own them. Campaigns like Build Public Power New York can serve as case studies for efforts here.

Eviction protections and rent control are steps that we can take in the short term, but beyond that, we deserve guaranteed housing that we can actually afford. This would require a major shift  from our speculative housing market toward housing as a human right.

Disasters and emergencies are going to happen again, and when they do, people will inevitably need healthcare. We know, as democratic socialists, that we need a single-payer, guaranteed healthcare system in California. 

Rather than donations from people like Rick Caruso, we deserve a tax system that forces billionaires to pay their fair share to fund our schools and services. 

As we identify what we want, our next task is to figure out how we’re going to get it. This requires us to come together, both with our chapters and across California, to understand which levers we need to take control of and pull to achieve our goals. We know that even if city-level legislation begins to favor the working class, it will eventually run up against the limitations of the laws passed at the state level

What do you you think democratic socialists should be calling for in the wake of the climate crisis and face of disaster capitalism? What would your vision for the future of California be? What are some of the ways your chapter can begin working with other chapters to win the state power necessary to fight for the working class?

These are some of the questions we can address in California DSA as we face fascism in the federal government and the new uncertainty it brings to California state politics.

Prior to November 5, 2024 we were running our introductory “California DSA 101” sessions every few months for a dozen or two mostly new members. The ninety-minute meetings were held on zoom, and comrades from across California would tune in to learn about the first statewide DSA in the country and have a chance to ask questions of the state officers. 

The presentation featured a slideshow in four parts.  The first three sections addressed basic questions: What is capitalism? What is socialism? and What is DSA? The fourth part consisted of a condensed overview of the state’s political and labor history. We augmented the slideshow with breakout rooms for small group discussion and reserved time at the end for Q&A.  The participant feedback said we were on the right track.  

We then scheduled a session for December 1, a few weeks after the election. We revised the presentation to reflect the changed political landscape, with a new section toward the end on what fascism looks like in twenty first century America.  Seventy comrades showed up; at the next one, earlier this month, we had seventy-five.  

The jump in attendance numbers reflects an understandable dismay at the election results and a healthy desire by comrades to find an organizing space in this historical moment as the curtain descends on American democracy.  With the Democratic Party leadership mostly in confused disarray after its neoliberal election strategy’s catastrophic failure, there is a hunger for answers that make more sense than ‘doing the same thing, only better’. 

We do not pretend in California DSA to have a guaranteed roadmap to success. But we do understand that it will take a powerful mass movement to defeat the fascist forces in control of the federal government. This understanding is already a step ahead of the tired old guard at the top of the Democratic Party. 

While California DSA does not have the resources to lead that mass movement, we certainly do have the ability to help build it.  Our 101 program is a part of that contribution. Come to the next one on March 30.  But don’t wait until then to build the movement. Attend your local DSA chapter meetings and join with your comrades in taking a stand. This isn’t pretend fascism we’re facing. It’s the real thing.

Sign up for our next 101

On February 1st, we held our first State Council meeting of the year with sixty California DSA delegates in attendance. 

After greetings from co-chair Paul Zappia, we heard chapter reports from Los Angeles and East Bay.  Shelby, co-chair of the DSA-LA Climate Justice Committee, spoke about how the state’s largest chapter is responding to the city’s devastating wildfires—coordinating rapid response work and organizing beyond immediate needs to push for solutions such as eviction moratoriums and rent freezes. 

Juan C., co-chair of East Bay DSA, talked about how the chapter started a Boycott Chevron campaign to pressure Alameda County to divest from companies involved in and supporting genocide. Juan also highlighted November wins in local elections, the losses in state elections, and how the chapter is fighting the rightward shift in the Bay Area.

For the rest of the meeting, we had regional breakout groups to discuss what we want to build toward. With all the attacks from our fascist federal government, it’s easy to get bogged down in despair and be on the defensive.  But we must not forget what we are fighting for. Our co-chair Paul said it best in his opening remarks: “Being anti-Trump is not a political program.” 

Some highlights from the discussions included the ongoing need to strike down Prop 13, taxing corporations, social housing, universal healthcare, and building a united front with unions and other natural organizational partners. California DSA leadership will be collecting and assessing these priorities to build a "Vision for California," a program through which we can plan and execute strategic statewide campaigns.

Our next State Council meeting will be on Saturday, April 5th. While only delegates may vote, all DSA members in good standing are welcome to join.

“Escaping this crisis will depend, above all, on the actions of federal workers.”
    —Eric Blanc in ”Federal Workers Can Defeat Musk’s Coup” 

While we felt it as a gut punch, most of us, as socialists, were not really surprised to see some of the first and fiercest attacks from Musk’s munitions exploding on social service workers. Their publicly funded jobs, creating care and use value for the working class at large, hold seeds of the economy and society for which we agonize and organize every day.  I was particularly concerned for two friends, working in different capacities for the Environmental Protection Agency. When I asked them how they were holding up, I got reports of a crazy atmosphere, but also of “interesting developments” they’d soon make public.

Interesting, and heartening indeed, was the announcement from Labor Network for Sustainability and American Federation of Government Workers of a February 14th webinar on fighting funding and job cuts at the EPA. On the heels of this announcement was a message from the newly-formed Federal Unionists Network (FUN), calling for SOS (Save our Services) actions–from rallies to social media posts—across the country on February 19th. This cross-union call for public support to defend the workers and services we all depend on was just what we needed! But how were we to get it together in a scant week?

Event map organizing

FUN was smart. They used the now-common ‘event map’ first seen in Move On actions. Soon, they were partnering with Move On, and the map quickly filled with 59 events across the county. 

With a few minimally annoying minutes filling out the online form, we had a local photo-op here in the East Bay on the map.  

An older technology—human relationships—also facilitated a nimble response to FUN’s call. La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley holds monthly meetings of “the Old Guard”—activists who founded the Center in solidarity with Chilean refugees in the mid ‘70s. What better place to fight a coup! I quickly asked the Old Guard organizers (whom I’ve known for fifty years) if we could tack the photo op on the end of the meeting, and they were more than happy to support the cause.

I sent email and texts with the link to the FUN site for our Berkeley action to a few of my own connections—Labor Rise Climate Jobs Action Group and Bay Resistance—and voila! we had an action planned!  Day of, I brought a few signs I whipped together and brought some poster board, fat pens and tape for some spontaneous sign-making. Grabbed a comrade with a phone to take pictures to post at #saveourservices on Instagram and Facebook. Brought a guitar to support singing the high energy “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” during the shoot. It was fun, it was easy, and 75+ folks chatted with each other about resisting the coup. We felt the connection with thousands of protesters around the country.  I’d venture to say we all felt some degree of power in collective resistance to fascism.

Effectiveness requires streets and durability

But was it effective? A question time best answers. I’m convinced that we need mobilizations of large numbers—a visible, noisy united front of all who object to the Musk/Trump takeover. But we’ve seen the limits of mass mobilization in past years. While providing learning experiences and making relationships that may facilitate more enduring organization down the road, the 2020 anti-racist uprisings after the George Floyd murder raise some questions about our failure to stop, or even reduce police violence and murder. 

We need millions in the streets and on apps amplifying our chants and slogans. But we also need durable organizations that can build power to win our demands. We need democratic organizations that can strategize, campaign and evaluate practice free from funders druthers. We need long-lived, brick and mortar institutions like Peña, where food and music and art nourish a culture of resistance over generations. We need membership organizations that nurture leaders and facilitate meaningful participation from busy workers and parents. Little of that happens quickly or on social media.  But that kind of organization-building is what drew me, and I’d wager some of you readers, to DSA.  

Bridging the gap

How do we bridge the seemingly spontaneous, one-shot, energizing, high-turnout mobilizations with our slower, democratic process of building long-lasting working class organizations? Does this nascent Federal Unionists Network offer a clue? 

We don’t know where FUN will go from here. But we do know that this Save Our Services defense against Project 2025 and its fascist trajectory came from (at least intentionally) democratic membership organizations: unions! A network of unions is a different beast from the staff-run, often siloed non-profits that have called for many of the mobilizations we’ve seen.  I’m writing this in hopes that our chapters and California DSA will support the growth of FUN and whatever other union opposition rises against the coup. (Think Shawn Fain’s call for a 2028 general strike?) As resistance to fascism continues to build, I hope DSA will not stand above or apart from the mobilizing events that are springing up in response to the shock and awe of the Musk/Trump monster. But, as socialists, let’s lend major muscle to those actions that help us fight as a class and contribute to the durability and expansion of union and socialist organization.

Welcome to another Town Meeting Day.

Last year, Champlain Valley DSA’s Burlington-focused voter guide lamented the brevity of the Queen City’s ballot following Democratic city councilors’ unusual refusal to allow voters to consider a citizens’ initiative condemning Israeli apartheid, even though more than 1,700 residents had signed the organizers’ petition. And now, the same thing has happened again.

One question, six towns (or more)

This time around, however, activists didn’t limit their efforts to Burlington. The Apartheid-Free Community pledge – drafted originally by the American Friends Service Committee – will appear on ballots in Winooski, Vergennes, Montpelier, Brattleboro, Newfane, and Thetford. Hearteningly, as it turns out, the Burlington Democrats’ contempt for democracy may be unique within Vermont; across the state, other city councils and select boards have determined to let the people have their say.

Coincidentally, Champlain Valley DSA no longer exists: Green Mountain DSA – a new chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America seeking to represent all of Vermont (or, at least, all but the sliver belonging to our Windsor County comrades in Upper Valley DSA) – has replaced it. On our first Town Meeting Day, we endorse the Apartheid-Free Community pledge in every municipality whose ballot contains it.

The text is the same in all six places. Vote yes on Article 5 in Winooski, Article 7 in Vergennes, Article 13 in Montpelier, Article 2 in Brattleboro, Article 38 in Newfane, and Article 23 in Thetford. Please tell your friends, or you can send them this video or this op-ed written by GMDSA’s co-chair for the Times-Argus.

On behalf of the Shelburne Progressive Town Committee, a member of Green Mountain DSA also plans to propose the Apartheid-Free Community pledge from the floor at Shelburne’s Town Meeting Day, along with a resolution advocating for healthcare reform. GMDSA endorses this effort as well. If you’re planning to attend an in-person town meeting where you live, consider doing the same thing!

Winooski

Due to a procedural error last time around, Winooski must vote again on its Just Cause Eviction charter change, which passed by a huge margin in 2023. You can learn more about Just Cause Eviction, a policy that protects renters, here.

Municipal charter changes must travel through the statehouse. Burlington, Essex, and Montpelier passed Just Cause Eviction in 2021, 2023, and 2024, respectively, but none of them has won permission to implement it. And with the Vermont General Assembly trending rightward, its immediate prospects don’t look good.

But tenants will keep fighting, and someday the tenants will win. GMDSA endorses Just Cause Eviction. Vote yes on Article 4 in Winooski.

Randolph

The Orange County town of Randolph has 4,774 residents. At that size, one might expect it not to have a police force. Jericho, Georgia, and Waterbury are all larger than Randolph, and none of them employ police officers.

Yet Randolph does have its own police department, and that police department has requested a budget of $820,937 for fiscal year 2026. Including generous supplements from the town’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation, spending has grown rapidly since fiscal year 2022, when the town paid just $343,960 for law enforcement services.

The Randolph Police Department serves the Randolph Police District, not the entire municipality. The residents of the Police District, specifically, must therefore approve or reject the police budget as an independent article rather than as a component of the townwide vote on Randolph’s annual general fund expenditure. As a result, they have a chance to say no to this particular form of municipal spending without saying no to the rest.

Like many other parts of Vermont, Randolph appears recently to have begun moving toward austerity. The Orange Southwest School District has proposed cutting $1.1 million from its new budget in order to avoid property tax increases in Randolph, Brookfield, and Braintree. Yet the Randolph Police Department has bet that the growing cheapskate attitude that has emerged out of Vermont’s cost-of-living problem will make an exception for expensive policing.

We hope they’re wrong. GMDSA endorses a “no” vote on Article 5 in Randolph. It won’t abolish the police, but it’ll send Randolph’s bloated cop budget back to the drawing board.

Candidates

The membership of Green Mountain DSA did not vote to endorse any candidates for public office on Town Meeting Day this year. But our Electoral Working Group recommends the 17-candidate slate endorsed by the Vermont Progressive Party.

We’re especially pleased to see Progressives in Windham, Lamoille, and Addison counties running for select board and school board positions. In Burlington, East District and South District candidates Kathy Olwell and Jennifer Monroe Zakaras both face competition for open seats.

Victories in those races would give Progressives a majority on the Burlington City Council. Burlington’s ballot also includes a critical vote on a $152 million bond for improved wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, upon which plans for new housing depend – we recommend a yes on Question 3.

School budgets

Taking a hint from the stronger-than-usual showing for Vermont Republicans in November’s legislative elections, school districts have aimed to head off an anticipated taxpayer revolt on Town Meeting Day by slashing their budgets preemptively. Hundreds of school employees will lose their jobs, but that may not be enough to satisfy voters in some towns.

In 2024, Vermonters shot down about a third of the school budgets across the state, forcing cuts that hurt students, teachers, and families alike. This year, we recommend voting yes on every school budget.

Town Meeting Day is Tuesday, March 4, 2025. Please email us at hello@greenmountaindsa.org if you’d like to join a canvass between now and then (here’s one option), or if you’d like to see an item on your town’s ballot included in this guide. 

You can check your voter registration here. 

Common Ground workers began fighting against mistreatment at work and ended up winning a union and ownership of the business.

The post How Common Ground Cafe workers won a union and a cafe appeared first on EWOC.