Welcome to our new column: Tender Comrades. This will be a semi-regular advice column from a leftist perspective. If you or a loved one have questions regarding any and all aspects of life, be it romance, etiquette, family, or work, don’t hesitate to contact Tender Comrades at asktendercomrade@gmail.com

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Dear Tender Comrades,

Since it’s gemini season, do you have any advice on how to attract a gemini? There’s this guy I’ve been into for a while, but I don’t know how to make a move. What are the intricate and mystical workings of the gemini brain?

Sincerely,

Gemini-less in greater Portland

Mx. Criticism: Huge news for you! Both myself and Dr. Self-Criticism are geminis, and therefore experts in this field. If I can be controversial for a minute, and show a little bit of my gemini nature off, I’m unsure if the astrology aspect is really the issue you’re writing about here! Astrology can have cultural significance, but it doesn’t have the ability to magically tell you how to navigate a new relationship. It seems to me that you might be looking for a cheat code to understanding someone’s mind, but those don’t really exist. 

Dr. Self-Criticism: Astrology DOES have cultural significance! If you think I learned about my sun, moon, and rising signs just to flirt with baristas and the people in theater school… you’d be right. But in all seriousness, astrology is as good a tool as any for understanding and critically evaluating our relationships with others AND it’s no joke that being astrologically literate can be key for queer flirtation. 

Mx. Criticism: Call me uncultured then, but my simple answer to your question is that you should continue getting to know this person and then tell them how you feel when the moment feels right. Starting a romantic relationship means taking on the risk that those feelings are not reciprocated. Plan a date, and invite the person on it. Try to make it clear you have romantic intentions, even if it’s scary, and they will either be interested in you or not. It’s okay to slowly build up by flirting or casually hanging out, but eventually you’ll have to make the ever-daunting first move. The best part of having a crush is learning things about them and weighing if the risk of failure is worth the reward of a brand spanking new relationship. Maybe you’ll even fall in love! Enter this new stage of flirtationship with an open mind, and try to pick up on the clues they give you. Do they swipe up on your instagram stories? Are they open to hanging out one-on-one? Does it seem like they are flirting back with you? Those are the cues to follow, not checking to see if you’re astrologically compatible. 

Dr. Self-Criticism: I agree, but I think it’s worth taking the gemini-ness into account. Geminis can be flaky, easy to agree to plans and overcommit, eager to please people in the moment at the risk of disappointing later. With this in mind, make it easy for your gemini—make the plan, invite them, and make sure to follow up. In this case, a double (or even triple) text is not out of pocket.

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Dear Tender Comrades, 

I’m new to Portland and it’s hard out there meeting people either socially or to organize with. I’ve been a member of DSA for a while, mostly just paying dues,  but I want to get involved now that I live in a place that’s this small.  How do I build connections with other queer socialists for friendship? How do I decide what projects to commit myself to? 

In solidarity,

New in Town

Dr. Self-Criticism: Spring is the worst season to feel socially isolated, especially in a place that totally comes alive with the long days and warm weather. It can be very hard to find a social home, let alone a political one when our culture and communities are so intentionally fractured by the ruling class. So don’t feel alone or let your loneliness spiral: it’s hard for everyone and the bosses want it that way. The more separated we are, the more vulnerable we are to exploitation and violence in all forms. Case in point, even in a city as out and queer as Portland, we really only have three expressly queer bars and not a single good place to meet new friends or lovers during the daytime and without alcohol. 

So, where to make friends? Where to find comrades? I’ve noticed that I often meet the best friends and build the strongest relationships from mere exposure. They’re the people that I already spend the most time with: classmates and coworkers. Not everyone you study or work with will be your cup of tea, but find the one or two people you seem to connect with the best and move intentionally to build a relationship with them. Ask them to coffee, to art walk, to breakfast, or for a bike ride! In the best case, you’ve made a new pal, in the worst case, you can mark them down as a five on your spreadsheet and move on to the next potential natural leader for your organizing committee.

Mx. Criticism: Definitely agree with Dr. Self-Criticism here—I’m relatively new to the city, and have moved back and forth a couple times. Everytime I’m back I feel the yearn for a deeper and more intimate community. To be honest, I’ve met most of my friends and comrades, at work or through other mutual friends. I tend to be the first person at a new job to invite people over for dinner or out for drinks because so much important community building and organizing happens in the workplace. What’s so beneficial about organizing with your coworkers is the proximity you have to others face-to-face. You learn about people’s interests, struggles, and everything in between in one eight hour shift. This is especially true to my fellow service industry folks because who amongst us has not bonded over a shift beer or juicy customer gossip.  

But I will point out that an issue arises here if you work alone or work from home because those organic relationships can be harder to find. My suggestion is to start by finding the causes you care about, and you might find that a lot of people are already working on them. Reach out, show that you’re interested, and help us start building the world we want to see! Find alternative ways to meet people in person, even if that means hanging out at the community garden or going to queer led events. Once you make connections with a couple people, the rest tend to follow. Infiltrate those friendship groups! The gay bar scene may be rough, but there are so many community leaders hosting smaller and more thoughtful events than a viewing of RuPaul’s Drag Race. 

Dr. Self-Criticism: Yep. Some of the strongest connections I made upon moving back to Portland were through mutual aid volunteer work during the worst months of the COVID pandemic. But you don’t need an acute crisis to make friends: there’s always bike party, sunday DIY baseball, and having an extra smoke to share at the back of a demonstration.

Mx. Criticism: Grace Lee Boggs says “Movements are born of critical connections rather than critical mass”—so put yourself out there. We have a world to win! 

Love and solidarity, 

Tender Comrades 

The post Tender Comrades: On New Relationships appeared first on Pine & Roses.

For the past 2 years, our DSA chapter has attended Rock Hill Pride to show solidarity with our queer comrades and share with the broader queer community how queer liberation and socialism are intertwined. 

We recently learned that Rock Hill Pride has hired Shane Windmeyer, aka drag performer Buff Faye, to headline the Pride festival. Windmeyer is the former CEO of Campus Pride. QNotes has reported and Campus Pride officers confirmed that he embezzled over $100,000 in Campus Pride funds, spending money that should’ve gone to building queer friendly spaces to instead build his personal drag performing business.

As socialists, we recognize that bosses dominate our working lives, the resources of our communities, and through this, the public life of our society. The LGBTQ+ community is no different. Socialists organize with our community to reclaim this power and our lives, and it starts by organizing to hold particularly bad bosses in our community accountable. Following a deep discussion with our membership and The Charlotte Gaymers Network (CGN), our leadership voted to join CGN’s calls for vendors to pull support from Rock Hill Pride, so long as Buff Faye skirts public accountability and remains employed by the festival. We hope that Windmeyer can make amends with Campus Pride and the local queer community so that we can stay united at a time of growing hate against queer people.

We do not take it lightly when we call on our members, the community, and other vendors to boycott Rock Hill Pride this year. We recognize that, while Rock Hill Pride and most local Pride events are funded and controlled by corporations and the non-profits they fund, they are refuges for our queer comrades. Our members found solace, joy, and community there in past years and are disappointed they can’t in good conscience attend. But we build our own community. That is why we recommend y’all check out events from queer community groups like CGN and T4T, or other Pride in the area unaffiliated with Rock Hill Pride. Our chapter will be tabling at Salisbury Pride on June 22nd and will host a post-Pride new & prospective member meeting on June 26th and a Socialist Social June 27th! Check out our events calendar for more details!

Happy Pride,

Charlotte Metro DSA

Background Smith Foundry is an iron foundry that manufactures iron castings in the East Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis. Smith began operations in 1923 but was purchased by Canadian private equity firm “Zynik Capital” in 2022. Holding the dubious distinction of being the largest emitter of lead in Hennepin County, little has changed inside the […]

There’s been a lot of discussion in the steering committee and the chapter as a whole about solidarity culture. That’s because there is a great desire on the part of many chapter members to have useful, comradely debate and discussion about the very serious issues facing the working class and TCDSA. We want to be […]

Hello Comrades! As you all know, at our last general meeting, the chapter debuted a new online meeting organizing tool: OpenSlides. This was our first run with OpenSlides, and we did have some important success with it. We were able to successfully reach a quorum of people logged into the OpenSlides and capture a record […]

The adopted resolution explicitly defines anti-Zionist expectations for both our membership and endorsed candidates. As a result of this resolution, we expect our members to commit to anti-Zionist practices and policies, refrain from any and all affiliation with the Israeli government or Zionist lobby groups, to oppose legislation that harms Palestinians, and to support legislation that results in Palestinian liberation. Similarly, endorsed candidates must support Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS), have no affiliations with any Zionist lobby groups (Democrats for Israel, J […]

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It is with tremendous pride that we announce that Mexico has made history with the election of Claudia Sheinbaum as Mexico’s next president. Not only has Sheinbaum broken the glass ceiling to become the country’s first female president, she has done so with a wholehearted embrace of the progressive platform of social and economic justice championed by our comrades at MORENA.

Sheinbaum – a descendent of Bulgarian Jews who fled the Holocaust – has earned her way to history through a remarkable career as a student activist, physicist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and finally, an effective politician. Her 30-point victory on May 2 is a resounding vote of confidence that comes from Mexicans of all regions and abroad. MORENA has a resounding mandate with victories in 24 of the 31 governorships and supermajorities in both houses of Congress. These victories amidst an unprecedented amount of political violence and an extreme drought demonstrate Mexicans’ unwavering support for the profound program of social and economic justice and development known as the Fourth Transformation (‘Cuarta Transformacion’ or ‘4T’).

MORENA also retained the Jefa de Gobernatura with the victory of Clara Brugada who. Brugada will succeed Sheinbaum as the chief executive for the entire Mexico City region. Sheinbaum previously succeeded current president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in that position. Brugada began her career as a militant member of the Zapatista Movement before serving as mayor of Iztapalapa from 2009-12. During which, she successfully oversaw an expansion of transit infrastructure, the opening of cultural centers called ‘utopias’, and reduced crime. 

DSA proudly participated as credentialed election observers for this historic moment and helped verify that the election was conducted freely and fairly as part of a large cadre of electoral observers from across the Americas and Europe. This is the fifth election in Latin America that DSA has participated as invited observers since 2021, demonstrating our organization’s growing integration with the Latin American Left. We look forward to continuing and expanding our delegation work for the benefit of our members and the region. 

The DSA delegation also held preliminary discussions with MORENA as well as with various sectors of Mexico’s organized labor for future collaborations that would mutually benefit members of both organizations and provide a political alternative to the current state of US-Mexican relations. 

¡Que viva la 4T!

¡Que viva la democracia, las mujeres, y el pobre!

The post Progressive Feminists Break Mexico’s Glass Ceiling appeared first on DSA International Committee.

by Matt McManus

Introduction

The best way for socialists to get elected by their fellow citizens is to make life better for their fellow citizens. That goes doubly in a country like the United States. People are less afraid of the “S” word than ever before. But socialism can still be a hard sell for many folks whose hard lives have made them rightly wary of over-promising politicians and spacy idealists (guilty as charged). Democratic socialists who speak to the issues that people experience everyday are more likely to be successful than those who double down on talking points or politically correct bromides.

This is why we need candidates like Layla Taha, who is currently running to be the second DSA member elected as a State Representative in Lansing. Layla is a native of Deaborn and was raised in the city of Wayne by a single mother. Especially passionate about public healthcare, Layla became a health analyst after studying global health at the University of Michigan and receiving her Masters of Public Health at Columbia. After serving as Program Director for Congresswoman Rashida Talib, Layla took the big step of running for public office. Having received endorsements from Talib, DSA and a who’s who of other progressive groups, she is running against Peter Herzberg in District 25.

Confronting DTE

Taha’s campaign centers around a few key issues. One of the most important is holding “DTE accountable.” DTE energy is of course one of the economic and political giants in Michigan. In the past legislative session over 93% of legislators in Lansing accepted donations from DTE at some point in their careers. This obviously gives the company an enormous amount of pull, which it has used to insulate itself from accountability and responsibility. And well it should, given a failure to reinvest in infrastructure has contributed to consistent blackouts during the not-exactly unexpected bad Michigan weather year round. This is in spite of billion dollar profits.

Layla is committed to following fellow Democratic Socialist Dylan Wegela’s precedent by pushing back against the influence of DTE money in Michigan politics. This has included committing to not taking any money from the mega-corp. In the long run she wants to establish public energy utility to provide cheap energy to people in Michigan. But in the short term she wants DTE to compensate residents for food and wages lost during power outages, and to pay them by the hour when the power goes out. These are good, common sense solutions. American politics may be acrimoniously partisan at the moment. But most of us would agree that energy prices are too high, and that the last thing we need is for money to have more of an influence on state politics.

Healthcare for All

In defiance of economic common sense which holds you should only pay more to get more United States has long been an exceptional country in paying far more to support a private health system that provides far less. This kind of mystical thinking about healthcare has long been pushed by politicians in both parties. As a consequence of this approach suffered while insurance countries rake in tens of billions and Americans pay more for health than any other country in the world. The impact has been dire. The Legatum Institute, a free market think tank, recently ranked the US 69 th on a list of worldwide health systems. Right between Armenia and Algeria. No wonder life expectancy has been declining.

As you might expect from someone with an extensive educational and professional background in healthcare, Layla is pissed about this and isn’t taking it lying down. She has proudly and rightly insisted that healthcare is a human right that people should be provided at point of service regardless of income or location. No exceptions. Layla wants to increase funding for hospitals and offer incentives for doctors to accept Medicaid patients. But more importantly she is pushing for the establishment of a single payer system within the state, which would make deductibles extinct and ensure all Michiganders would be able to get the healthcare they need.

This is an ambitious but realistic idea whose time came long ago, and its well past the point where it should be implemented. Across the river from Detroit in Canada all Canadians receive public healthcare provided by the provincial governments and subsidized by Ottawa. Despite many provincial systems experiencing underfunding by conservative governments, Canada’s health system is still ranked far higher than the US’. Not coincidentally life expectancy is also higher and costs are lower. Michiganders deserve quality healthcare as much as Canadians, and we need more candidates like Layla who are willing to push for such commonsense policies.

Conclusion

Martin Luther King once said “call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth in this country for all God’s children.” Dr. King was absolutely right, and it is a great tragedy that 50 years after his death we’ve moved further rather than closer to his dream. The consequence has been declining faith in basic institutions, corroding public trust, and the dark specter of rising authoritarianism and racism threatening once more. People need to believe that something better is not only possible, but necessary.

Democratic socialists running for office like Layla Taha are breaking a glass ceiling by offering the people of Michigan, and Americans everywhere, a better alternative than the centrist condescension of reactionary radicalism that have been par for the course for decades now. She is committed to fighting corporate power to advance democracy while delivering better health outcomes for citizens. If there’s any justice in the world by this time next year she’ll be in Lansing.

The Detroit Socialist is produced and run by members of Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective. Interested in becoming a member of Detroit DSA? Go to metrodetroitdsa.com/join to become a member. Send a copy of the dues receipt to: membership@metrodetroitdsa.com in order to get plugged in to our activities!

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Introducing Layla Taha was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Here’s your June Dispatch! This month, learn about Building for Power with the Green New Deal Campaign Commission, join the Discussion Forum Book Club, and hear from our Co-Chairs on a day of action in Florida. Read on to get involved. 

And to make sure you get our newsletters in your inbox, sign up here! Each one features action alerts, upcoming events, political education, and more. 

• From Our Co-Chairs — Days of Action
• RSVP for Building for Power in Mass Transit on 6/30
• Read an interview with the Green New Deal Campaign Commission
• Discussion Forum Book Club submissions are open until 6/9
• Member Feedback Requested: Should the NPC Re-Endorse AOC?

From Our Co-Chairs — Days of Action

We had a rare opportunity to have both DSA Co-Chairs in the same place at the same time this past weekend. Both Co-Chairs descended upon St. Petersburg, Florida, for a day of action with Pinellas DSA promoting a locally-endorsed candidate for city council, Nick Carey, alongside FL’s only socialist in office, Richie Floyd, and DSA members from Tampa DSA, Orlando DSA, Miami DSA, Polk County DSA, and multiple Florida YDSA chapters, too. 

It was a fantastic day, with member-organizers knocking over 1500 doors and raising thousands of dollars at an evening fundraiser. It was also a great reminder of what it means to be boots-on-the-ground alongside comrades from across chapters and even across the country. There’s nothing that can beat the feeling of putting ourselves in motion together to win victories for the working class and keep building our power through organized action.

We anticipate more days of action in Florida over the next few months, as there is a nationally-endorsed statewide campaign for Amendment 4, which would codify abortion access as a right in the state constitution. We also have electoral and ballot measure campaigns heating up across the country, with electoral races later this month in Las Vegas (Val Thomason) and Denver (Bryan Lindstrom and Tim Hernández), and the season is just starting to really pick up.

We know that even the most optimistic socialists among us feel pretty bad about our likely choices for President this year, but we also know that winning working-class power locally is what will build us the bench, grow our working-class organization, and even secure life-saving wins with passage of things like trans sanctuary city laws. 

We also know that our power has to be balanced outside the ballot box, too, which is why we’re so committed to …

• Supporting the broader labor movement, including showing up for our comrades in the University of California (UC) system who are on strike with UAW 4811 in solidarity with protesters for Palestine
• Continuing the fight for a permanent ceasefire and a truly free Palestine, including supporting our student comrades as they take on their universities in fights for divestment
• Fighting like hell for trans liberation and bodily autonomy, which includes showing up and showing out to make Pride celebrations spaces for liberation across the country

Summer is just starting to get red hot and there’s no time like now to tap into your local chapter (if you haven’t yet) or see how you can help your chapter pull in new members (if you’re already active) – a better world is possible, and when we FIGHT, we WIN.

RSVP for Sunday 6/30 Green New Deal call — Building for Power in Mass Transit

DSA chapters around the country are organizing for a Green New Deal as part of our Building for Power campaign. Join this call to hear from organizers about how they are fighting for mass public transit with labor and socialists in office!

Campaign Q&A: Building Public Power in Milwaukee

Milwaukee DSA is Building For Power through its public utilities campaign. In this interview with the Green New Deal Campaign Commission, MKE DSA leader Andy B shares how building a mass base will lead to a democratic, green energy future.

Join the Discussion Forum Book Club

The Discussion Forum is holding its second-ever book club! Book submissions are open until June 9th and a vote will be held afterwards to determine the next book. A new thread will go up each week to discuss a new section of the book and a discussion zoom will take place at the end. If your work schedule doesn’t allow you to join most book clubs, this might be the one for you!

Last Chance! Member Feedback Requested: Should the NPC Re-Endorse AOC?

Recently, the NPC passed a resolution soliciting feedback from members on whether to re-endorse Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14). We encourage members to share their thoughts on this question in 250 words or less using this form by Sunday 6/9. Please also share this form with other members of your chapter, as we would like to hear from as much of the membership as possible!

 

The post Days of Action — Your June Dispatch appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Let’s Build a Publicly Owned Alternative: Support I-137

Building publicly owned, democratically controlled high quality and green housing is the way out of the crisis of affordability and homelessness, for all working people.

[You can find this article here as a PDF leaflet]

Seattle Deserves Better Housing

Seattle is facing a huge housing crisis. For too long, the cost of living has been skyrocketing for working people. People feel less free to make the choices that will create a happy life for themselves and everyone in their community. It doesn’t have to be this way. The fight for I-137 is one step toward a better future for all.

From Private Ownership to Democratic Public Ownership

Housing under capitalism is an unstable, racist system of competition. It follows a boom bust cycle that preys upon working and poor people. Neighborhoods are gentrified. We need to build new housing that’s collectively owned by and for working people. I-137 is a step toward that: I-137 is a ballot initiative in Seattle, put forward by the House Our Neighbors coalition of community, gender, racial and economic justice organizations including DSA. It taxes large corporations (an excess tax only on compensation of over $1 million per person) to fund publicly owned social housing (the democratic, public housing developer voters in Seattle approved in 2023).

Tax Big Business

Washington State and the federal government have underfunded our education, our housing, our communities, especially of poorer working class and BIPOC families. It’s time to turn things around and use the wealth that working class people create in favor of the needs of working class people.

Join the Fight

If working people are going to win things like Social Housing, Medicare for All, and stop the Israeli war against Palestinians, we’ll need our own political party. Here in Seattle and Washington State the Democratic Party runs all levels of government in the interests of big business. Join the Democratic Socialist of America today to help build an alternative to the Wall Street Democrats and the even more dangerous far-right Republicans. Imagine if we can vote and organize for a party we actually like that is not just the lesser evil. 

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Build Millions of Green New Homes Nationwide

Around 11.3 million households in the US pay more than 50 percent of their income on housing. 650,000 people are homeless. DSA is fighting to put people over profits. 

• Build millions of units of new publicly owned housing to create social housing under democratic control of tenants and communities
• Rent control and strong enforcement of tenants’ rights
• Transformation of the housing stock in the US to zero-carbon, highly energy-efficient homes; creating high-paying unionized jobs; focus on building communities with new or improved green schools, child care and senior centers, expanding access to clean transportation, creating community gardens and other community investments
• Democratically-controlled models of land ownership like community land trusts

Our efforts to build affordable housing are part of our larger vision: We want to live in a society based on economic, racial and gender justice – a democratic socialist society. Join DSA today: SeattleDSA.org/join 

[You can find this article here as a PDF  leaflet]

The post The Capitalist Housing Market has Failed Us appeared first on Seattle Democratic Socialists of America.