Another convention season is here, and yet, the demand for a hybrid convention— a key focus for the Disability Working Group (DWG)— has failed to meet the requirements for  consideration by the convention committee. As a candidate for the National Political Committee, I included this sentence in my responses to the requisite questionnaire: “In DWG, we confront DSA’s institutional ableism, from inaccessible events to token accommodations.” This is something that every disabled organizer in DSA confronts every day. This institutional form of ableism can range from having to remind staff two conventions in a row to book more accessible rooms for the DSA block, to dealing with statements like “We don’t know where the accessible entrances are; this has never been an issue before.” Frustrations among members of our community have been mounting over the years. Frustrations that can cause more alienation, and fellow disabled comrades leaving the organization at a critical juncture. My comrades in the DWG have asked me why this consistently happens to us. I have to admit that I did not have a good answer.  This piece is my attempt to give voice to my own frustrations and theirs.

A focus on disability and accessibility is critical to developing a DSA that’s growing in strength and one that’s effective in winning broader demands. Without us, there is no revolutionary horizon to be achieved. 

A History of the Disability Working Group

In 2019, there was a mass resignation of the Steering Committee of the Disability Working Group. The text of their resignation can be found here and is worth reading in its entirety. However, unmentioned in this text is that prominent leftist writer and co-host of the popular podcast Chapo Trap House Amber A’Lee Frost was a key player in the harassment that the DWG Steering Committee faced. Given Amber’s turn towards advocating for an “anti-woke” left and masculine working class fetishism, it’s hard not to see the historic parallels in how attacks on disabled people are often harbingers of latent right-wing tendencies. Years later, and ableist slurs and ableist rhetoric has once again proliferated in the broader society. 

I strongly believe that the DWG went dormant for a time after this due to a lack of people willing to subject themselves to the ableism that the previous group experienced. At the end of the 2019 convention, an anti-identity politics caucus formed, announcing their formation with the ableist article “Let Them Clap,” published in Class Unity. Thankfully, like many things founded in opposition to other people’s existence and rights, this caucus has since split from DSA to focus on a podcast. Many of its former members are still active in DSA, however, and while they may no longer be part of a caucus that openly presents such divisiveness, I’m sure their influence is still playing a part in DSA’s orientation towards disability justice.

In 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the national convention was held online. Advocates of a hybrid convention or an online convention finally had proof that it was feasible. However, a group of delegates dropped a harassment complaint against a slate of NPC candidates in the middle of the convention and exacerbated the vicious interpersonal conduct that sometimes plagues DSA’s organizational culture. This incident and the online fallout thereafter are now used by a significant section of our membership to argue that we need an in-person-only convention. But the logic of this argument is one that chooses to accommodate toxic behavior and papers over the serious issues at the expense of people with accessibility needs. To put it bluntly, this line of reasoning is more invested in prioritizing avoiding holding bad-faith actors accountable rather than making convention a more welcoming space for disabled comrades, a significant part of our socialist base. The 2023 National Convention had uneven adherence to supporting disabled members. Masking and vaccination were mandatory. Yet,the Disability Working Group worked on several resolutions, including the first hybrid convention resolution, but it did not meet the requirements to be considered. Many disabled delegates also experienced in-person ableism, such as a quiet room that was too close to the convention hall  for those experiencing sensory overload. A delegate was left in tears after a request for the chair to ask other delegates to stop clapping and yelling was denied. In the aftermath of the 2023 convention, the bulk of the Disability Working Group has left DSA yet again.

This history is only a fraction of the issues that affect the wider organization. I have not spoken of the personal incidents that occur throughout chapters because I can’t possibly know them all, but I do know that they occur with alarming frequency. This has led to an organization that is less reflective of the working class that we claim to represent—in just one of many ways it fails to do so. According to the Centers for Disease Control, at least 1 in 4 people in the U.S. have a disability. About 78 percent of all disabled adults participate in the country’s labor force, with nearly 27 percent, twice the rate of able adults, languishing in poverty. If anything, as much as the DSA has become the leading socialist organization in the U.S., it’s regressed terribly when it comes to issues of basic accessibility and respect for its disabled members. 

The Dilemma of Disability Rights Persists

In 2025, the issues of accessibility and ableism persist. Currently, the major focus of opposition to disability justice has to do with masking, transmissible infections, and the cost of accessibility. For many, masking after the initial outbreak became a way of life, and I currently mask on public transit and in enclosed spaces. Members of the DWG have asked me to push for more chapters to have mandatory masking policies, and I have tried advocating for that in various DSA spaces, such as in online discords and the DSA national forums. The opposition to this has crystallized in the optional masking policy adopted by the NPC for the 2025 convention. As a member of the Accessibility Committee for convention, I had pushed for stronger standards, but the committee deadlocked on the final vote and then never met again. Already, some delegates who were democratically elected to their seats have dropped out from attending because of this failure to protect their health. The organization makes explicit institutional commitments to fighting racism, transphobia, and homophobia, yet when it comes to disability, we remain stuck debating whether inclusion is worth the effort. I am not raising this point to pit race, transness, or disability justice against one another, as I know this is not a zero-sum game. I am pointing out that DSA can successfully welcome people into our organization and make them a priority, but it selectively chooses when to do so, and oftentimes, falls short on such commitments.

Many DSA members who are able-bodied perpetuate the ableism present in our society, and many of the arguments that they make are the same arguments that disabled people encounter in their day-to-day life as to why society cannot adjust or accommodate us. Members, including those in the top-most positions of leadership, couch these arguments in concerns about cost but have no problem booking convention at an expensive complex or asking delegates to pay their way to and from convention, even with the cost of living increasing exponentially every year, which also deeply impacts many of us who are disabled and living precarious lives financially. I find it incoherent to say that the cost of a hybrid convention would be somehow more than the cost being passed on to individual delegates in order for us to have our face-to-face time.

Setting aside convention, far too many chapters continue to have events at inaccessible locations and fail to prepare for the possibility of having a disabled member participate fully in chapter activities that some others may take for granted. Every chapter and every working group actively asks members to use pronouns. Why can’t this same level of effort be made for disabled people who are part of a working class feeling squeezed in a neoliberal ableist America? Instead, the issues and concerns of disabled people in the organization are dismissed, and members of the community are made to feel like a burden instead of comrades in this common struggle against oppression and class exploitation. 

I want to think the best of my more able-bodied comrades (although that line between abled and disabled are always blurring), and, while I don’t think any of this is based in explicit forms of eugenics, I do think, like the rest of able-bodied society, there is some kind of squeamishness about what disabled people represent: an otherness that goes unspoken but nonetheless screams with visibility. At some point in their lives, all able-bodied people will need the accommodations that disabled people so fiercely advocate for. Maybe this possibility, this equalization by time and the stress of capitalist life, makes some deeply uncomfortable in ways that they can’t express or don’t know how to. Either way, we are all left with an organization that is weaker for it, with fewer and fewer disabled members who are willing to endure this implicit hostility. We are left with disabled comrades leaving the organization, oftentimes alienated by politics overall, disenchanted and ever more isolated. We are left with policy demands that do not in fact, take seriously accommodations and health issues that all people, abled and disabled alike, shall face, like having facilities that are well ventilated and a healthcare system that cares about our basic health. Such things should be the bedrock of a socialist agenda and yet, such ideas are barely mentioned, along with those of us who need these policies the most. 

The eternal question is always: What is to be done? I don’t know the specific answer to that. I do know that I cannot guilt my comrades into doing better. I cannot simply ask nicely, for I have done that repeatedly and gotten nowhere. I can organize a resolution or proposal that doesn’t gather enough signatures. I can buy my chapter portable wheelchair ramps which will then get lost in the shuffle. As a leader in the National Disability Working Group and DSA, I choose to stay, but I feel it keenly every time a comrade chooses not to. I constantly ask myself: Is there more I could have done? Could I have supported them more? Could I have talked to their chapter leaders? But ultimately if the organization as a whole is unwilling to act, even my substantial efforts won’t be enough. We are all members of DSA because we recognize the limits of the individual. I recognize my limits more and more, and I am proactive about asking my comrades to respect and accommodate them. I wish that the organization would reciprocate and recognize its responsibility in managing and choosing its own limits rather than reinforcing an individualist and anti-socialist culture when it comes to accessibility and inclusion for members of our community, whose lives are often at the frontlines of capitalist decay and class war

I leave with my most recent encounter with how the organization erases disability from within our ranks. While in the process of writing this piece, I filled out my delegate registration form, which asked a variety of demographic questions, but did not include a general question displaying a similar interest in gathering the demographic data related to disability. The only question regarding whether or not our members are disabled and what disabilities they may have was what accommodations they need. Based on past experience, I am not hopeful that these accommodations will be present. This theater of inclusion will play out every convention and in every chapter until it matters to DSA. It’s only a question of how many disabled members we’ll lose before DSA starts to care, and maybe then, for the broader movement, it might be too late.

Image: Handicap parking spots in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 29, 2024. Photo by Tony Webster. Photo distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Co-Chairs Megan and Ashik Review Their Terms 1. Reflect on the project of paid co-chair position Megan:  I was skeptical of paid co-chairs as a necessary position. I’m pretty sure I voted against it. But, convention mandated it, so I was excited to get started. We ended up doing more admin work than would have […]

The post Co-Chairs Megan and Ashik Review Their Terms appeared first on Democratic Left.

Butler Workers Lead a Historic Fight for Mental Health and Dignity

By Amanda A and Carlos B

PROVIDENCE, RI – On May 15, 2025, nearly 800 healthcare workers at Butler Hospital, a major psychiatric hospital serving the region, launched an open-ended unfair labor practice (ULP) strike. Represented by SEIU 1199 New England, these workers include mental health staff, food service workers, nurses, call center staff, therapists, clerical staff, and more. The strike was authorized by an overwhelming majority: 91% of the workers at Butler participated in the strike authorization vote. 99% of the voting membership voted in favor to authorize the strike. 

Butler Hospital is owned by Care New England. Care New England employs over 8,000 health care workers across Rhode Island. They own several major healthcare institutions including Women and Infants Hospital and Kent Hospital. 

A major demand of the striking workers is that all Butler workers should be making a living wage. According to SEIU 1199 New England, “nearly 60% of Butler staff surveyed said they struggled to afford the cost of food and housing. A new report indicates that a Rhode Islander must earn $25.31 to afford a studio apartment, $27.25 for a one bedroom and $33.20 for a two bedroom apartment.” The lack of living wages has contributed to short staffing and high turn over, leading to a significant increase to workplace violence. 

The Union’s Defense Against Care New England’s Onslaught

Care New England CEOs have responded with provocations of all kinds—millions of dollars spent to hire scabs, threats to permanently replace workers, cancellation of health insurance for all striking workers, and lies and smears in the media. Care New England has spent well above the amount that it would cost to meet the Butler worker’s demands in union-busting efforts, even hiring Littler Mendelson, a major union-busting firm, to assist them in negotiations.

Ben D, a member of the bargaining committee, spoke with Working Mass about the response from Care New England. “Management told us right off the bat that they have the money to agree to the initial contract proposals, they just don’t think it’s in their interest,” Ben reported. He continued:

So then, why are they doing this? They are trying to break the union. They think the union is too strong, we are too united, we are too powerful, we had too much of a say in trying to make our hospital better – and they don’t want it to be like that. They want to be able to make top down decisions and that is it. They just want to break us and it’s had the opposite effect.

Each attack has been defended against by rank-and-file organizing. When Care New England cancelled health insurance, the union assisted members in signing up for state health insurance. When Care New England declared they were seeking to permanently replace Butler workers, the striking workers became eligible for unemployment benefits – which plays a crucial role for workers surviving, paying for essentials like groceries and rent, when full-time workers lose their jobs. 

When Care New England started to spread lies about negotiations, the union opened up bargaining sessions so that all members are invited to attend and see for themselves what the negotiations were. Ben D described the strategy:

The hospital put out there that the bargaining committee was not being transparent with negotiations so that was the point when we said, well everyone can come for themselves and be part of the bargaining committee and see for themselves that we are a transparent organization, we are a democratic organization, this is how it works, so we invited everyone to come in.

Butler workers have kept the pressure up throughout the strike. They have done informational pickets at other Care New England facilities, picketed board members, a “Tax the Rich” rally on May 29, and a 30-hour occupation outside Care New England headquarters 30 days into the strike.

Patients, Organizers, and Other Unions

The workers’ march on the Capitol made the demand for a fair contract visible. Labor unions, politicians and the larger Providence community have responded with firm support to the union. SEIU 1199 workers have opened a microphone to the community. Patients and former patients continue to speak out in support of the strike, emphasizing the vital role these workers play in their recovery and community well-being.

The strike has received strong solidarity on the picket line from other unions and community organizations. These include the Rhode Island Democratic Socialists of America, Providence General Assembly, and Food Not Bombs. Teamsters and the UFCW have also supported the strike, with UFCW union workers at Seven Stars Bakery organizing donations of bread loaves and pastries in solidarity with their fellow workers. Striking Butler workers returned that solidarity by mobilizing in support of Seven Stars café workers organizing around workplace safety. 

Rhode Island DSA, in particular, has helped to raise morale by showing up to the picket line, hosting karaoke on the line, preparing and cooking food, and uplifting the strike through social media and neighborhood flyering. And in response to mass community support, the Providence City Council invited Butler workers and SEIU 1199 RI to lead the Providence Pride Parade on June 21, 2025. Hundreds of healthcare workers in purple kicked off the parade and thousands lining the streets met them with cheers.

The Strike as Teacher

The strike is unfolding in the broader context of the Trump administration’s sweeping reforms to government spending—targeting public health and education—to slash expenses wherever possible, particularly in areas supporting workers’ well-being. Most notably, the Trump Administration has decimated Medicaid with a “Big Beautiful Bill” that threatens the closure of over 300 hospitals nationwide, including one rural hospital in Massachusetts, while providing free ammunition to hospital bosses to squeeze their workers for more capital. While hospital executives increase their own bloated salaries, SEIU 1199 RI members march and demand adequate state funding for healthcare in Rhode Island.

Striking healthcare workers at Butler Hospital show us what fighting back against profit-driven attacks on the mental health services can look like. The strike is, as always, worker education. Strikes expose the real power of workers not just as individuals completing tasks, but as the engine that keeps entire industries running. That’s the real “damage” this strike delivers—not to patients, but to the power of bosses who rely on undervalued, underpaid labor to generate profits.

The ripple effects are already being felt. Nurses at Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital voted in June 2025 to authorize a strike and reached a tentative agreement days after delivering the threat; the nurses, represented by the United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP) Local 5098, were able to push successfully for increased wages to be included in Brown University Health’s final offer.

Nurses aren’t alone; over 900 Providence-based interns, residents, and fellows joined the Committee of Residents and Interns (CIR), joining 43,000 other workers across the country organized in their union, in January 2025. The newly unionized workers work at several different hospitals in the city and just began bargaining for their first contract. 

As socialists, we understand that the example set by the Butler workers is contagious. This has already become one of the longest strikes in New England’s recent history and its outcome will have lasting consequences—for workers in the same industry and far beyond Rhode Island. 

To support the strike, join their picket line which runs daily from 6am-7pm outside Butler Hospital at 345 Blackstone Blvd, Providence, RI 02906. Follow and share their social media coverage, with a focus on Facebook and Instagram.

Amanda A is a rank and file member of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) and member of Rhode Island DSA. 

Carlos B is an immigrant kitchen worker and socialist militant in the New England labor movement.

The post Rhode Island’s Longest Healthcare Strike appeared first on Working Mass.

GNDCC Committee Updates

DSA Convention season in full swing. In our Campaign Huddles, we strategized for the next two years and outlined why Organizing for a Green New Deal under Trump 2.0 is crucial for DSA in Democratic Left. Read our resolution that would mandate us to focused on Buiding for Power for two more years.

Missed our mass call with socialist electeds, ecosocialist leaders, and campaign organizers? Watch a recording on why the Fight for a Socialist Green New Deal continues, featuring Thea Riofrancos, Ashik Siddique, Sarahana Shrestha, Kelsea Bond, Alex Brower, Michael B, and Sam Z.

Building for Power campaign updates

New Campaigns

We welcomed a new B4P campaign into our universe: Houston DSA launched Our Vote, Our METRO, pressuring Mayor Whitmore to deliver transit improvements voters already approved. The revitalized ecosocialist working group is mobilizing for 2026 METRO budget hearings, driving turnout and shaping the narrative.

Keeping the Pressure On

In New York, Sarahana Shrestha’s Public Renewables Transparency Act passed unanimously in the State Assembly, ensuring democratic oversight of NYPA’s renewables expansion. The push continues for 15 GW of public renewables by 2030—creating 25,000 union jobs, cutting bills, and retiring peaker plants.

If you missed it, check out our latest Campaign Q&A: Building Public Renewables in New York. The Build Public Renewables Act provides a model for a successful chapter campaign within the Building for Power framework, and the fight continues to see it fully implemented. This interview is brimming with insights for chapters running their own strategic campaigns.

The summer months are great for canvassing: We Power DC hosted their first canvasses for their public power pledge, while the canvassing pros in Milwaukee continue their weekly efforts to gather signatures to replace WE Energies.

Louisville DSA’s Get on the Bus campaign to fund TARC continues gaining momentum, with nearly 1,200 signatures on their demand letter and support from 31 organizations—including 9 unions/labor councils. This summer they delivered over 300 postcards to city council and launched a street team wheatpasting bold “Let TARC Grow” posters across the city, taking inspiration from Metro DC’s B4P campaigns model.

If you’re at the 2025 DSA convention, stop by our table and say hi! We will be there championing the  power of organizing at the intersection of climate, labor, and public goods. As more chapters take on strategic, place-based campaigns, we’re building toward a future where ecosocialism is not just a vision—but a material force in the everyday lives of working-class people. See you in Chicago!

GMDSA Electoral Committee Chair Adam Franz delivered the following speech at our chapter’s summer barbecue on July 22.

It’s great to see so many people here today, and I thank you all for coming to support our chapter’s delegation to Chicago for the national convention.

I am going into my fifth year as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and many of the people here have been in the organization longer than I have. In my time in this org, and in all of our lifetimes, “socialism” and the left have been mostly an experience of defeat. The rollback of the New Deal in favor of neoliberalism, the defeat of the labor movement, the rise of the new right, Bernie’s two defeats, and a second Trump administration. Often, socialists have looked to small wins, like mutual aid, or the lack of a defeat, as a victory.

Zohran’s win changes all of that. Since 2020, socialists have been told, and in many cases accepted, a narrative that our beliefs are unpopular, that a majority of the American people are not with us. When the New York assemblymember, a cadre DSA member, announced his campaign last fall, he was a joke. Polling at just 1%, his platform read to the mainstream media like an ultra-left Twitter bio. Free buses? Rent freeze? Publicly owned grocery stores? No, these were not the talking points they had decided the election would be about. A moral panic about crime, a debate between different forms of centrism—that was what the mayoral election would be about. Zohran’s message would not breach the borders of the already existing base of democratic socialism in New York.

New York City DSA did not, however, just play to its base. After Trump’s victory, Zohran took to the street, talking to voters in neighborhoods that swung hard against Harris in November. He found that voters were motivated by a sense that the country was not working for ordinary people, and that even the lives they had been living four years before were no longer affordable to them. Now, price caps on rent and free, universal public services don’t sound so radical. They sound like the kind of materialist demands that the socialist left has that connect with working class voters.

Zohran’s message took off, propelling him into second place against disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo. And the more voters saw of Zohran, the more they liked him. The socialist assemblymember seemed like the first politician in a long time that genuinely cared about the struggles of the working class, and had solutions for them. Zohran did not just win the primary by 12 percent; he won neighborhoods nobody expected, and even in the neighborhoods where he lost, he far exceeded expectations, like in the more conservative Staten Island, where he landed only 9% below Cuomo. 

If Zohran wins in November, DSA will be in a position to be governing America’s biggest city. Like Bernie 40 years ago in Burlington, we have the opportunity to demonstrate that socialist government is good government. That public ownership is more efficient than private dictatorship. We can realize the slogan that Lenin beautifully gifted us a century ago: “Bolshevism equals soviet power plus electrification.” Socialists recognize that we must radically transform the state to empower ordinary people and deliver a better form of administration of government services that puts to bed the notion that socialism means ineffective government.

The easy thing to do, and you already see this in Democrats’ chosen media outlets like CNN and the New York Crimes, is to say, “This is a New York phenomenon, it can’t be repeated in cities and towns across America. Small-town America doesn’t have the media presence,  the right demographics, whatever, to allow such a victory in Anywhere, USA.” 

The truth is, New York is not an easy place to win elections for the left. It’s a city with a media ecosystem run by billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, where politics is driven by machines hostile to the left, and where the ultra-wealthy have seemingly unlimited resources to defeat insurgents like us. NYC-DSA won not because of these conditions, but in spite of them. It totally transformed the terrain on which the election was fought, because it had built up its own working-class institutions that could compete with the capitalist class on its terms, not those set by the 1%. The chapter has methodically built up its presence around the city. Zohran could capitalize on 50 thousand volunteers, knocking on doors in every borough and neighborhood to spread the message, leading to record-breaking turnout. 

The task for us is to bring the momentum to Vermont. Our chapter clearly is not as big as NYC-DSA, which has over 10,000 members. Yet we have the potential to be just as organized and mobilized. 

Working Vermonters are sick of the Democratic Party. Democrats have no answers for working people to address their concerns of an unaffordable state and out-of-control housing crisis. We do. The question is, will Vermont continue to slide back into the Republican camp, or will Vermont follow the “Zohmentum” and elect socialists in 2026?

Clearly, we have our work cut out for us. The Electoral Committee has set a goal to run four candidates for the legislature next year, in winnable seats where we can build a strong presence under the golden dome, and in hopes of building our presence statewide for future campaigns. We do this because we believe that our politics are popular and we can win. It is also because we believe that running for office is not an opportunity to rabble-rouse and talk down to the masses, but to govern as socialists. 

To do this, we need candidates. If you have ever thought to yourself, “I wish someone would do something about these problems,” that person is you! If you are interested in running for office, for the state house or selectboard or city council, come find me or another organizer today. There is a place for everybody to play.

If we are going to win, we need a chapter with a fighting capacity. We need to rely on an army of volunteers, like Zohran did. If you haven’t yet, join DSA today! While the capitalist class relies on their money, there are more of us than there are of them. Build the movement, build a fighting DSA, because I believe that we will win in 2026. 

And if you want to build on this major win, sign up to get involved with the Electoral Committee.  The next meeting is July 20 at 6.

Every month we meet to discuss books with powerful socialist and progressive messages. After each book we finish, we vote on our next book. To cast your vote or join our upcoming meeting, be sure to check the events calendar and connect with us on Slack. The candidates for our next book include: Upcoming Our [...]

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Events & Actions

Tuesday, August 5 (8:00 AM – 4:30 PM) ICE out of SF courts! (In person at 100 Montgomery) 

Tuesday, August 5 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM) SF Public Bank Reading Group (In person at 1916 McAllister) 

Wednesday, August 6 (6:30 PM – 9:00 PM) New Member Happy Hour (In person at Zeitgeist, 199 Valencia) 

Thursday, August 7 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Immigrant Justice Working Group Meeting (Zoom)

Saturday, August 9 (6:00 PM – 9:00 PM) Battle of Algiers Screening (In person at Carr Auditorium, Building 3, 22nd St.)

Sunday, August 10 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM) Physical Education and Self Defense Training (In person at William McKinley Monument, Panhandle) 

Monday, August 11 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Tenderloin Healing Circle (In person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate) 

Monday, August 11 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Socialist In Office (SIO) Subcommittee Regular Meeting (Zoom)

Monday, August 11 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Labor Board x SF EWOC Local Meeting (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Tuesday, August 12 (8:00 AM – 4:30 PM) Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (Zoom)

Wednesday, August 13 (6:45 PM – 9:00 PM) August General Meeting (Zoom and in person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Ave)

Thursday, August 14 (5:30 PM – 6:30 PM) Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Thursday, August 14 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Immigrant Justice Office Hour (Zoom)

Friday, August 15 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM) Maker Friday: SF Zine Fest Prep (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, August 16 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Homelessness Working Group Food Service (In person at Castro & Market)

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

ICE Out of SF Courts!

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

We’ll be meeting every Tuesday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30  p.m. at Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery. We need all hands on deck, even if you can only participate for 1 or 2 hours.

Public Bank Discussion Group

What is a Public Bank? How can it help solve climate and housing problems? How can we make it happen in SF? Join us from 6:30 PM-7:30 PM TODAY, Tuesday, August 5 at 1916 McAllister. We will be discussing the short article “How Public Banks Can Help Finance a Green and Just Energy Transformation” by Thomas Marois. We recommend the reading, but it’s totally fine to attend if you didn’t get to it! We will then be discussing current public bank efforts in San Francisco, as well as the best way for DSA to get involved. RSVP to let us know you’ll attend below!

Screening of The Battle of Algiers

Join us at the Carr Auditorium in Potrero Hill at 6:00 PM on Saturday, August 9th for a free screening of The Battle of Algiers, the landmark 1966 film that dramatizes the Algerian resistance against French colonial rule in the 1950s and early 1960s. Shot in a neorealist style and banned in France for years, the film remains one of the most influential political films of the 20th century, studied by organizations like the IRA, PLO, and the Black Panthers for their own liberation struggles.

This free screening will take place at the Carr Auditorium in Potrero Hill and is open to all.

Following the film, we’ll host a discussion exploring its parallels between the Algerian liberation struggle and the current plight of Palestinians under occupation. We invite you to stay, share your thoughts, and engage with others in critical dialogue.

Maker Friday: Zine Edition

DSA SF will be tabling at SF Zine Fest at the end of the month! Help us fold and update zines, or bring your own craft and come hang out. Everyone is welcome!

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

Join DSA SF’s Homelessness Working Group as we read through Capitalism & Disability: Selected Writings by Marta Russell. We’ll be meeting at 1916 McAllister starting September 7th at 5:30pm and running every other week for 4 or 5 sessions. For more info, register here: bit.ly/martacd

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. Recently, 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 publishing the weekly newsletter. Members can view current CCC rotations.

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

By: Rob Switzer

A few months back, one of the openly Left-wing fitness influencers I follow (of which there are few — more on that later) posted a workout video with a caption reading, “Don’t let the fascists be stronger than you.”

This got me thinking. Fitness has been a huge part of my life for the last five years or so, and the personal benefits it has provided me are legion. At 40 years old, I’m in the best shape of my life. I’m far stronger than I’ve ever been. Work is easier on my body and just easier to do. I walk through the world with more confidence. It has helped me pull myself out of substance abuse issues. I’ve acquired discipline, which has spilled over into my other pursuits, such as my quest to become fluent in Spanish. (I practice about an hour every day.)

There are many ways to approach fitness; all of them are good. You can get into running or other cardio exercises. Yoga is fantastic. But my personal niche is resistance training: lifting weights and doing calisthenics. I do it four days a week with the specific intent of growing muscle. Basically, I train like a bodybuilder (just without steroids).

Again, different approaches all have benefits, but I’m a huge proponent of just getting “jacked,” or at least incorporating a healthy amount of resistance training. And I think this approach in particular can have numerous benefits for activism, believe it or not. So let’s go through some of them!

Don’t let the fascists be stronger than you

There’s a scene from the film “Karate Kid” that I think about often. In case you somehow haven’t seen the 80’s classic, it’s about a high school boy named Daniel who gets bullied and discovers karate as a way to develop his confidence.

In the scene I’m talking about, Mr. Miyagi — Daniel’s sensei — is talking to Daniel on a boat about the purpose of karate. Daniel says, “Karate is fighting; you train to fight.” Mr. Miyagi turns to Daniel with a concerned face and responds, “Is that what you think?” Daniel pauses his practice to ponder for a few moments, and says, “No.” Mr. Miyagi follows up: “Then why train?” Daniel responds, “So I won’t have to fight!”. Mr. Miyagi laughs with joy, saying, “Miyagi have hope for you.”

But for karate to serve that purpose, you have to make people aware of your training. With bodybuilding, you don’t have to. People just see it.

Like Daniel, I was bullied as a kid. Also like Daniel, I found confidence in training: I joined the high school wrestling team, and noticed that people picked on me less once that became a known fact. However, I remained a relatively skinny and weak kid, even though my endurance was top-tier and I knew how to grapple.

As an adult, bullying still occurs, of course, but in different and typically more dangerous contexts. A number of years ago I was assaulted at a bar; I was put in a chokehold from behind and we fell to the ground. I managed to pry the attacker’s arms off of me before I lost consciousness, and he fled as I collected myself. I was OK. But next time someone even thinks about doing something like that, I’d prefer that they see my athletic build and think twice.

I also just move through the world with less fear than I did five years ago. I feel more robust and less vulnerable. If I were, say, at a protest in Clark Park and got advanced upon by a group of Highwaymen (which happened to some of our comrades earlier this year), I wouldn’t be afraid to stand up to them. Not because I necessarily think I could beat them up, but because I know I’m formidable.

And you don’t need to be a 185-pound man like me to feel this confidence boost. The truth is, if you’ve never dedicated yourself to training before, you can become two or three times as strong as you are now. With dedication, that’s actually a realistic goal. And it will make you feel like a new person. Furthermore, transforming your body will make you feel empowered to change other things in your life, ultimately including your community and even society.

Re-claiming and celebrating masculinity in a positive way

There has been much talk about the Left needing its own Joe Rogan, and many say that popular YouTuber Hasan Piker is the closest thing we have. That may or may not be true, but I can say that I am inspired and encouraged by the fact that Piker is avidly into fitness, a sphere largely dominated by the Right. I don’t think I’m alone. We need more role models like this to appeal to more young men, and to encourage those uncomfortable with gym culture to embark on the same journey as me.

I’d never claim that fitness or even bodybuilding is inherently only for men or masculine people; I believe women and other people who identify with femininity can also benefit from it without undermining those traits. But there is an undeniable link between muscularity and masculinity, at least in our society.

And as the media love to tell us, a lot of young men have been drifting to the “Rogansphere,” feeling as if the Left is too “woke” and essentially ignores them. Whether wrong or right, they feel that their masculine essence isn’t favored by our side. I think we should do our part to change this.

As empathetic as I try to be, I am a cisgender man, and I only really know the world through that lens. And one of the undeniable benefits for bodybuilding for me, personally, has been affirming my own masculinity. The more muscular I become, the more I feel like my body reflects the way I feel inside.

And there is nothing wrong with that; masculinity is not inherently toxic. When transgender men, for example, seek to enhance their masculine features, they’re not aiming at becoming aggressive jerks. Rather, I believe they’re aiming to align their aesthetics and their energy to match a style and sensibility that they feel in their soul.

Although we should celebrate body diversity and avoid body-shaming, we should also celebrate genuine efforts by people to embrace their authentic selves. And we should work to re-claim masculinity-laden spaces like the gym, and ultimately masculinity itself.

Longevity/brain health

Last but certainly not least, muscle-building is one of the best things you can do for your longevity, and we as socialists have a long fight ahead of us! To learn all about how muscularity can improve longevity, I would recommend reading the book “Forever Strong,” by Dr. Gabrielle Lyon. In the book, she argues that despite growing evidence, doctors too often ignore the effect a person’s level of muscle tissue can have on their overall health as they age.

The book covers studies that show muscle mass directly affects many health factors, including (but not limited to) your energy level, your immune system, your circulatory system, and the health and function of your joints and connective tissue. And muscle mass helps regulate and burn adipose tissue (fat) in your body and therefore helps fight obesity-related diseases. It even affects your brain health: there have been studies showing a strong link between overall fitness and a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s and dementia.

So the question is: When you’re 90 years old, do you still want to be able to march with your comrades? Do you want to be able to duck an incoming tear gas canister? Do you want to ensure that you’ll still be able to read and debate the meaning of Das Kapital? If so, it’s time to hit the gym. Let’s go. Join the Swoletariat.

Rob Switzer is Co-Editor of “The Detroit Socialist,” DSA member and a butcher and shop steward with the United Food and Commercial Workers.

Why Socialists Should Get in Shape was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Workers with higher pay and better benefits, like tech workers, can still benefit from union representation.

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Viewpoint: Michigan for the Many Campaign — The Path to a Mass Party

By: Francesca S.

The following article represents the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of The Detroit Socialist or Metro Detroit DSA as a whole.

The Michigan for the Many campaign is an exciting opportunity for DSA to fight for our values and build our movement statewide. The proposal is that DSA will join a statewide coalition of activist groups to support two ballot measures. The first is Invest in MI Kids, which would impose a 5% tax on the top 1% earners in Michigan. In other words, taxing the rich. This would provide Michigan schools with urgently needed funds to cover budget deficits resulting from federal cuts to education.

The second ballot measure, Michiganders for Money Out of Politics, would ban government contractors, utility companies, and corporations from donating to political campaigns. If this measure passes it would be a seismic change in the landscape of Michigan politics, shifting power away from corporate interests and making it easier for citizens to make their voices heard.

Our current systems make it easy for capitalists to stymie any reforms that activists gain through grassroots action. A good example of this is the gutting of the minimum wage and paid sick time bills passed by the Democratic supermajority during the lame duck session last year. Activists are now working to pass those measures as a ballot initiative, because we can’t have real democracy in this state when we have corporations controlling our legislature. If we want to be able to make legislative decisions as socialists, we need to make the landscape more friendly to grassroots organizing and this ballot measure will accomplish that.

I understand the hesitation to join a coalition, because it means that we will have to negotiate with other groups on strategy. But for a push this big, a coalition is really the only way to win. Other nonprofits also have access to resources that DSA as a volunteer organization just doesn’t, including lawyers with years of experience in Michigan law who can work full time drafting legislative language. Socialism is about collective organizing, and insisting that DSA take on the enormously complex task of writing bills by ourselves runs counter to our values.

We should have enough confidence in DSA’s ability to lead that joining a coalition is not a negative, but an opportunity to move other activist groups more in line with our politics. Every group involved in Michigan for the Many is doing work to tax the rich and make our government answer to citizens and not moneyed interests, so they already agree with us on core socialist beliefs. I started my activist work in liberal groups and became radicalized through exposure to socialist beliefs in coalitions like Michigan for the Many, I became a DSA member. And I am not the only DSA member with this story. If we want to be a party for the working class, and if we want to grow our ranks, we can’t just stick to organizing our own narrow cadre of people. We have to engage with the broader movement, and this ballot measure is a perfect opportunity to do that.

The capitalist class has much deeper pockets than we do, and they will spend millions of dollars to oppose these measures and preserve the status quo that allows them to keep buying seats in Michigan’s legislature. We saw this happen with Proposal P, a measure to rewrite Detroit’s city charter to include working class priorities like affordable housing and police reform, in 2021. DSA supported and campaigned for this measure. Corporate entities like Blue Cross and DTE spent thousands on opposition messaging in the city, and the measure was defeated. The capitalists were able to control the messaging because grassroots activists weren’t able to build up enough of a support base to counteract that.

The strength of the working class is in our numbers, and to leverage that we are going to need a mass movement. DSA should lead that movement, and in order to lead that movement we first have to join it. I would encourage you to vote yes on the proposal to join the Michigan for the Many campaign. Together we can change the political landscape in Michigan and win material gains for the working class.

Viewpoint: Michigan for the Many Campaign — The Path to a Mass Party was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.