While the conclusion of the 2024 election season offered most DSA chapters an opportunity to pause, reflect on their campaigns, and regroup ahead of the following electoral cycle, special elections called in Oakland immediately launched East Bay DSA back into action. The recall of Oakland’s mayor and the election of the District 2 Councilmember to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors created two vacancies to be filled in an April special election.

Both elections were pivotal for political control of local government in Oakland, as progressive wins in both races were necessary to secure a progressive majority. The left quickly coalesced behind a single candidate in each race: former Representative Barbara Lee for Mayor and housing policy director Kara Murray-Badal for District 2. Lee, both a progressive icon and a longtime mainstay of East Bay politics, was easily able to assemble a broad coalition of support ranging from the left to the establishment and from labor unions to the business community, and faced only former Councilmember Loren Taylor, an arch-centrist figure in Oakland politics who narrowly lost the 2022 mayoral election and subsequently emerged as a leader in the recall movement.

But despite her progressive credentials, most notably being the only member of Congress to vote against the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Lee is not a socialist and East Bay DSA did not intervene in the mayoral race. Murray-Badal, on the other hand, is not only a socialist but a once-active member of East Bay DSA, having founded the chapter’s Racial Solidarity Committee and organized for Medicare for All as a canvass lead. Members of the chapter were enthusiastic about her run, and the chapter voted overwhelmingly to endorse her.

It was, however, clear that Murray-Badal faced a much greater challenge. Her main opponent, environmental policy advisor Charlene Wang, started with a financial and name recognition advantage, having run only a few months prior for the at-large position on City Council. Wang also benefited from being able to position herself between the progressive and moderate wings of local politics, aided by the presence of candidates to her right such as Harold Lowe and Kanitha Matoury. Murray-Badal would need to rely on a strong field operation through her core coalition of labor unions and progressive organizations to win.

Immediately following our chapter’s endorsement in February, we began to co-host and support canvasses on a weekly basis. In total, we held or supported eight weekend canvasses, three weeknight canvasses, and one phonebank, in addition to conducting turnout phonebanks and textbanks during the week, knocking nearly three thousand doors in the process. We developed a strong relationship with the Murray-Badal campaign, and multiple DSA members served as campaign staff.

Ultimately, though, our efforts were unsuccessful. Wang won the election, leading with 47% of the vote to Murray-Badal’s 34% in the first round and winning 59% to 41% after ranked-choice voting.

Electoral analysis

District 2 is in many ways a microcosm of Oakland as a whole, exemplified not least by its demographic makeup. A racial and socioeconomic gradient spans the district; the hills in the north are mostly white and wealthy, while the communities in the flatlands, closer to the shore, are overwhelmingly non-white and working-class. Wang won both extremes, while Murray-Badal won the diverse and mixed-income center of the district, in particular Cleveland Heights and most of the Eastlake neighborhood. In Crocker Highlands, the wealthiest part of the neighborhood, Wang won easily and Murray-Badal finished third behind centrist candidate Harold Lowe. Wang was strongest in Chinatown, the westernmost part of the district, and also performed well in San Antonio in the southeast, a neighborhood which notably awarded Trump his best performance in Oakland last November with over 20% of the vote.

A precinct-level estimate of the results after ranked-choice calculations produces a similar map, though with Wang flipping one precinct and improving significantly on her result in Crocker Highlands thanks to the distribution of Lowe’s second-choice votes.

Examining turnout at the precinct level most clearly demonstrates the gradient described earlier. While some San Antonio precincts saw turnout below 20%, a whopping 64% of Crocker Highlands voters cast ballots, a particularly high figure for an off-cycle special election. Turnout disparities between wealthier and poorer areas are obviously commonplace, but they are exacerbated in lower-turnout scenarios such as special elections.

Takeaways

The trichotomy between conservative wealthy areas, progressive middle-income areas, and conservative poor areas is not unique to this election; rather, it reflects voting patterns commonly encountered by progressive and socialist candidates across the country and indicates an issue we must tackle if we are to be more electorally successful. We must expand beyond our base of college-educated, downwardly-mobile young people and make inroads among working-class communities that have been ignored by campaigns and political organizations and often move toward reactionary politics as a result. Toward this end, East Bay DSA’s Electoral Committee plans to undertake deep canvassing campaigns in areas such as West Oakland and East Oakland, inspired by and hopefully in collaboration with left-wing community organizations such as the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment which are successfully building bases in these areas.

Internally, too, there is work to be done. While there was a core group of consistent volunteers throughout the campaign, most chapter members did not engage with the campaign, and some even expressed opposition to participating in the campaign or electoral politics in general. Getting more members on board with engagement in elections will be crucial to building our capacity and strength as an organization. Additionally, our decision to hold canvasses every weekend may have dampened attendance at each canvass, especially considering our limited capacity to turn out members on a weekly basis; for future campaigns, we are considering instead hosting a smaller number of canvasses but concentrating turnout efforts on those few canvasses to maximize impact.

But while we lost the election, our efforts were still fruitful for East Bay DSA and our electoral organizing, both internally and externally. Our canvasses and phonebanks provided valuable campaign experience and leadership development to members, growing the Electoral Committee’s core and preparing us for future campaigns. 

Antonio G, co-chair of East Bay DSA's Electoral Committee, put it this way: “The campaign was an outlet for local political agency. Kara’s campaign and values were for some new members the perfect starting point to connect with strangers and organize in community."

Our consistent involvement made us one of the strongest components of the Murray-Badal campaign’s coalition, strengthening our relationship with allied organizations and the broader left in the East Bay. While we have much room to grow, learn, and improve, this experience has helped us as we look toward 2026 and beyond.

Before reading more, an urgent ask for all members: we want the feedback of all our membership! Please fill out our chapter survey so we can know more about your thoughts on our various areas of work and how we can improve! This will take about 10-15 minutes, so set aside some time to sit down and share your thoughts!

• Our State and Revolution reading group is coming up this Saturday. Make sure to RSVP in order to get the link!

• Our Sanctuary Cincy petition is going strong, but we need you to help us reach as many people as possible to sign! Sign up for our canvass this Saturday, May 24th in Westwood to get as many residents of Cincinnati as possible to sign the petition!

• New to DSA (or know someone interested) and want to meet others and learn more about the country’s largest socialist organization? Join us for our next DSA 101!

• Our next Stitching Social is happening this May 31st at noon! Join us at the Covington Library to start or continue a craft project and socialize with fellow socialists!

• We’re hosting a 101 session on Medicare for All and why we fight for it as socialists! Join us on May 31st at the Newport Library at 3 PM for a political education event on one of the core issues for democratic socialists over the past ten years!

Climate Disaster? The Point is to Change It!

What got me out of being a climate doomer is meeting and collaborating with enough people across this organization who have been through that period of engaging with how bad things are and reckoning with that doomer aspect, and then are like, No, we just have to build something better and that’s the only alternative, because otherwise we are fucked. But we have to figure out what that alternative is and how to make it happen at whatever cost because that’s our collective and individual survival. Those actually are the stakes and we can build it together—there are all these reasons to think we can build it together—but we have to keep articulating that in a way that people can actually believe, that we can actually believe and also convince other people of.

• Ashik Siddique, DSA Co-Chair. READ MORE

Starting With Gramsci

MAGA has put together a fascist coalition of white supremacist, reactionary nationalists, Christian fundamentalists, libertarians, and techno authoritarians; and they are on an offensive against the progress of the 20^th century. All the gains of labor, civil rights, women’s rights, and the LBGQTI+ community are under assault in a blitzkrieg of attacks. The fascists intend to fundamentally restructure institutional democracy, and impose a strait jacket on civil society. Nevertheless, among the people there is an anti-fascist majority and deep splits within the ruling class. How can socialists organize to block, resist, and build an effective opposition? 

In the struggle for power, the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci defined two different periods which have relevancy for our current political moment. He terms these the war of position and the war of maneuver. The fascists are now on a war of maneuver, a rapid offensive to gain ground and consolidate power. For the left, the massive labor movement in the 1930s was our war of maneuver. Other key periods were Reconstruction after the Civil War, and the second reconstruction of the civil rights movement that defeated Jim Crow apartheid and brought radical changes to civil society. 

When not on the offensive, the left needs to be building positions of institutional and organizational strength in civil society, Gramsci’s war of position. In these moments, socialists should root themselves in the working class by building the power of unions, Independent Political Organizations (IPOs), social and community organizations, mutual aid groups, immigration defense, progressive churches, on school boards and so on. In other words, “socialists everywhere.” This builds our organizing capacity and mass influence; increases our ability to mobilize, whether for protests, contract fights or elections; and offers opportunities to train and recruit activists, build relationships, and project power.

How can socialists work to build power in civil society? Mass organizations don’t need to have socialist politics, but socialists can win leadership through fighting for organizational goals, gaining respect, and uniting rather than dividing. Through such work we can attract and recruit the best organizers, educate people about socialism, and connect the immediate struggle to strategic goals. Avoiding working with people because they don’t say or do things as we would, or simply preaching socialism without defending people in their daily struggle, ends in political isolation. We don’t need to impose our ideas, but learn from folks; find out what their worries and demands are. Only once we fully understand their reality, can we hope to clarify the exploitative nature of capitalism and bring them to socialism. Chinese revolutionaries called this “from the masses to the masses,” and the great Brazilian educator Paolo Freire articulated it as “pedagogy of the oppressed” and developing “critical consciousness.” Through such organizing we can help create a broad united front that can resist and block the fascists and build the opposition. By the elections of 2026 we may be in the position to start a counteroffensive, and more so in 2028. 

Coalitions are also a crucial element to building organizational power. We must answer the question: How should we deal with centrists in a united front? There is widespread anger and growing disillusionment over centrist leadership.  It’s evident in the mass crowds rallying to Sanders and AOC, and the huge protests organized by Indivisible, Working Families Party, Move On and 505051. Some members of DSA are uncomfortable working with such organizations. They are too close to the Democrats, they’re not socialists, they fail to say this or that. Yet standing on the sidelines just won’t do and converts are not won through disdain and neglect.

This is the time to unite with all friends and allies to push the centrists to the sidelines. Something we can’t do by ourselves. During the civil rights movement and Vietnam war, under mass pressure, some centrists moved to the left. Others did not. The same will happen today. Senator Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador should be applauded, much more effective than Senator Booker’s 25-hour soliloquy of performance politics. When centrists vacillate, compromise, and collaborate they weaken the united front from within and must be criticized and called to step aside. But our anger needs to be directed at the fascists. In that battle, when centrists show they can’t lead, it opens the door for more militant leadership.  Schumer and Jeffries act like deer caught in the headlights of an onrushing car. They yearn for a return to “normalcy.” But we must push beyond the old normal that proved too weak to prevent the fascist onslaught. We can build towards an expanded democracy, what we might call a third reconstruction, and win the united front to such a vision. 

This must be done through fighting the war of position. But how do we do it? What practices can we adopt to build the capacity of DSA and the left to generate real political change? What actual examples are there of on-the-ground tactics and techniques to use in today’s war of position? We’d like to explore three projects: one old, one new, and one not yet implemented. These illustrate possible approaches to engaging with organizations and individuals outside the left to build our positional power.

The New Lynn Coalition 

The New Lynn Coalition—a group of faith, community, labor, and political organizations—is a prime example for how coalitions can serve both immediate needs and move forward in the war of position. In Give Light and the People Will Fight, Jeff Crosby, the former Executive Director of the organization, describes the coalition’s successful reactions to Trump’s victory and attack on immigrants, quickly gaining support with an array of community institutions and elected officials. The power to catalyze such a broad range of participants is not due solely to the cruelty of the Oval Office, but a decade’s long campaign to build coalitional power and sharpen organizing abilities.

Their actions should be seen as a set of habits built over decades of organizing and coalition work. These habits within the war of position are what have enabled the New Lynn Coalition to be so formidable in 2025.

Coalitions are not easy. As Crosby outlines, they take patience and, sometimes, a pragmatic perspective. Because of their extensive experience, the New Lynn Coalition was able to effectively employ several techniques to leverage the dissatisfaction with the Trump administration to maintain and build their coalition. In return, Crosby claims that residents have begun successfully building institutions to resist and increase the power of the left.

What can New Lynn teach us? According to Crosby, the coalition sought out organizational allies with different political orientations, encouraged democratic participation outside of the coalition’s leadership, and compromised to maintain positive relationships between organizations and honor the results of the democratic process.

Building Alliances

The New Lynn coalition actively courts organizations that have overlapping interests during a given campaign. Crosby describes two examples. In the first, the coalition worked with a Guatemalan Evangelical Church to support undocumented immigrants and then, after Trump’s 2024 victory, a rally protesting ICE. This very same church discouraged parishioners from attending a Ceasefire for Palestine march. Similarly, seeing how Trump’s attack on immigrants was harming small businesses, the coalition recruited them to join the anti-ICE march, despite their past opposition to labor rights. By building these tactical alliances, the fight to defend immigrants was strengthened. 

By necessity, coalitions must be built between organizations that do not share all the same values. The New Lynn Coalition’s view on temporary alliances increased their public power during marches against the Trump administration and created relationships embedded within the community that can be mobilized for future actions. The core of the Lynn Coalition has strategic and deep organizational relationships, but other relationships are tactical, uniting all those who can work together on a specific issue. 

Democratic Participation

The New Lynn Coalition depended on open meetings to organize one of their actions. This meant that unaffiliated individuals could come off the street and join in. This structure has some risks, but Crosby explains the tactic brought new insights into the current moment and their course of action. Democratic processes that allow people to feel ownership over a movement, have potentially profound effects on organizational depth.

Certainly, this tactic should not always be employed. But there is reason to believe that, if done carefully and selectively, open meetings can help organizations build power within a community, not only increasing a membership roster but ensuring that new members (or affiliated individuals and organizations) are fully engaged and empowered.

Compromise

Crosby details how several decisions were borne out of democratic negotiations. One which Crosby himself did not agree with: the day of the protest was set for a weekday, better for media but inconvenient for workers and seniors. But negotiating in good faith is absolutely necessary to the maintenance of coalitional relationships. It’s crucial that in our partnerships we accept even ideas we disagree with (sometimes) to hold coalitions together, and ensure that partners will continue to collaborate in the future. 

Of course, compromises must be made purposefully: we need to be clear about the principals on which we won’t compromise and, even if socialism is not a prerequisite for coalition unity, maintain our independence to speak about socialism and recruit for DSA. 

Crosby’s account follows the structural decisions of the coalition rather than individual behavior, so we’d like to point to one more potential to build organizational capacity within coalitions: recruitment. Coalitions bring membership into contact with people from different backgrounds and orientations. This is an opportunity. Any interactions with non-socialists are a chance to recruit, however nominally. These recruits do not need to become red-dyed left militants (although that would be great!). Shifting their political orientation leftwards opens opportunities for future mobilization. This boils down to basic organizing tactics: seek out interaction; listen and try to understand their primary political concerns; and ‘recruit’ using their rhetoric and values, not yours. This perspective becomes even more relevant when looking at our next example, Socialists Everywhere.

Socialists Everywhere

Socialists Everywhere, a new project started in the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America (CDSA) Blue Line Branch, asks members to attend meetings for civic and quasi-civic institutions, such as the city councils, school boards, and neighborhood associations and…well…mainly, listen. After the event finishes up, members file reports that break down important information from the meeting. That’s it! No protests or leaflets required. Many descriptions of the program’s goals and structure come from an interview with Ramsin Canon from CDSA Blue Line Branch.

This simple program is an exciting innovation in building positional power. Internally, the ease of access and freedom from the campaign boom and bust cycle give members and potential leaders a simple, unintimidating project to build skills and confidence.

For the project to reach its full potential, we think members should meet people, offer ideas during civic forums, and even take on leadership positions within these civic and quasi-civic institutions. As the project and its participants mature, we expect that these more ambitious goals will materialize, allowing CDSA to build organic ties to the community. Building organic ties to the community sounds more like an over-scripted commercial sound-bite than a central political goal, but these communal ties are crucial political tools, allowing our organization to extend its reach outside of our membership and mobilize a much broader group.

Socialists Everywhere can build these communal ties by increasing visibility, building individual relationships, and constructing the foundations for bottom-up coalitions.

Visibility and Individual Relationships

Socialists Everywhere promotes CDSA as an interested and active organization. If members wearing CDSA swag sit in on group meetings, listening to the concerns of the community and volunteering to help, they’ve effectively proven our organization to be reliable, open, and invested in the problems of concerned workers. Appearance at these events also repositions CDSA as a coalition partner. If our members are attending the same events and listening to the same communal concerns, we no longer need to treat other groups as exclusive representatives. Instead, we’ve been there too. We’ve heard and shared the same problems. This increases our attractiveness as a coalition partner, home for new members, or simply a more powerful endorser of candidates or political goals. This is no small positional change, but promises to make CDSA an equal rather than junior partner in future alliances. 

Individual relationships are also crucial for increasing organizational capacity. With Socialists Everywhere, members can interface with people from different backgrounds and political orientations. More than that, these events are often at least nominally political and have to do with decisions about shared responsibilities and priorities. This is a great opportunity for our members to build networks outside of CDSA that can amplify political goals well past a typical member’s bubble of friends, family, and comrades.

Bottom-Up Coalitions

Socialists Everywhere may also improve the quality of the foundation of our coalitions. Now, it has only been around for a few months, so the effectiveness of coalition building through Socialists Everywhere remains to be seen, but the glimpses are promising. One example: a member attended a ward meeting where a tenant union announced their project and a related event. After the meeting, the member talked to some of the union folks and exchanged contact information. The member discussed their interaction with branch leadership and the union presented at a branch meeting and even took the opportunity to ask for volunteers and donations. This isn’t a full-scale coalition by any means, but the door is now open to future coordination.

This is what Canon would call the beginning of a bottom-up coalition, where a rank-and-file member first connects with members from another group. Leadership consent is still required (otherwise there would be no democratic accountability), but on-the-ground relationships constitute the first step. This is quite different from a leadership-based coalition, which depends on relationships between an organization’s leaders. Leadership-based coalitions are more fragile. Such a coalition is vulnerable to personality differences and leadership changes, dangers that are far less concerning when relationships also exist within the broader respective memberships. Last, when leader-based coalitions do take place, if there are organic ties to other organizations through rank-and-file members, membership is already, at least indirectly, involved and more likely to respond positively

Building a Base through Electoral Campaigns

Both the New Lynn Coalition and Socialists Everywhere seek to continually build networks within their cities and communities by working with people outside of their organization and respectfully listening to the needs and wants of partners and residents. This project format could be applied to other organizational action, particularly electoral campaigns. Typically, we regard them as win or lose, but these actions can be harnessed to build relationships and establish institutional strength in civil society. In addition to winning seats on councils and school boards, we should focus on expanding the ward IPO. 

Let’s say a DSA candidate gets 2,200 votes in a losing effort for city council. In doing our mass outreach and door-to-door work perhaps we have identified 500 home addresses that had positive responses to our issues and candidate. If we used a petition during the campaign, asking people to support one of our issues, we may also have a few hundred emails or phone numbers. So post-election, we have an immediate popular base of 2,200 with more than 500 already identified with contact information.

The election should not be the end, but the beginning. From programs such as Socialists Everywhere and canvasses, we will have learned the major concerns of our supporters. Now we can create a campaign to take to the ward, showing we are serious about issues and not just getting votes. First, we can contact the 200 or so people whose phone or email we have, asking them to come to a planning meeting at our IPO office. Perhaps we get 10 to 20 new people to show up who want to be activists. Now we’re in a position to go back to the 500 addresses of supporters with an enlarged activist core. And we build from there: turning supporters into activists, turning activists into DSA members. The result is an institutional structure led by socialists based in the ward’s working class. 

Positionally, such an approach would have an incredible impact. But, it must be pursued with the ideas of the New Lynn Coalition and Socialists Everywhere in mind. We must listen and learn from the people. What are their issues, not just the issues we think are important. Moreover, to pursue true long-term organizational strength, we need to create working relations with other progressive ward organizations and institutions, built on respect and common concerns.  

By rooting ourselves deeply in working class communities and integrating into local institutions, socialists can build positions of power in civil society. It’s not about one campaign or one election, but a strategy that can defend workers when the enemy is on the offensive, and turn our defense into mobilizations to expand democracy and contest for power. We can build socialist influence and leadership by working with all our friends and allies, using tactical alliances as well as building long-term relationships and recruiting members and building DSA as an organic expression of the multi-racial working class. That necessitates a long-term commitment for socialist to be everywhere, in our community, in our workplace, and in elections. There are no shortcuts. Preaching socialism in a “field of dreams” scenario in which “they will come” to our side won’t do. But being shoulder to shoulder in the daily battles for dignity, building those battles into institutional structures, and making those institutions a base for working class power is our road-map forward. 

The post Building Working Class Power in Civil Society appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

By Triangle DSA Socialist Feminist Working Group

The NC Triangle Democratic Socialists of America’s two-year-long effort to shut down anti-abortion center Gateway Women's Care on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh has ended in victory! Gateway's landlord is no longer leasing to this unlicensed, unregulated, and unethical “crisis pregnancy center.”

Local activists with Triangle DSA’s Socialist Feminist (“SocFem”) Working Group began picketing Gateway in the spring of 2023. We aimed to bring attention to the harm that anti-abortion or “crisis pregnancy centers” pose to working-class communities. These centers are known to target low-income folks and women of color, who experience disproportionate risk for poor maternal health outcomes. Like other “crisis pregnancy centers,” Gateway poses as a source of legitimate healthcare, even though it is not a licensed medical facility. Misinformation abounds on their website, from alleging abortion causes breast cancer and depression to offering dubious “abortion pill reversal” services. Crucially, anti-abortion centers like Gateway obstruct reproductive justice by endangering people regardless of whether or not they want to stay pregnant. Free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds peddled by centers may deceive clients into thinking that they are receiving quality prenatal care, a calculated diversion that can delay OBGYN visits. “Crisis pregnancy center” staff have also been known to fail to diagnose pregnancy complications that might require urgent medical attention or abortion care. 

Gateway opened with the stated intent of targeting college students seeking reproductive healthcare. Their location stood within two miles of seven local universities serving over 50,000 students. In the end, the very college students Gateway hoped to “slow down in the rush to the abortion clinic” were instrumental to the center’s demise. The NC State Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) turned out dozens of students for regular pickets on the sidewalk in front of Gateway. At our pickets, we warned community members about the presence of an anti-abortion center in their neighborhood and shared legitimate resources for reproductive healthcare. We also informed passersby that Gateway’s landlord was a registered Democrat who worked in the building just next door and seemed all too comfortable profiting from his lease with the anti-abortion operation.

Ultimately, our campaign was successful because we threatened the reputation of Gateway’s landlord. In May 2024, we received no response when we contacted the landlord to inform him of Gateway's harm to the community. In August of 2024, we contacted him again to no avail to share that over 200 petition signers shared our vision of a Hillsborough St without Gateway. Later that month, we had the first opportunity to speak to him when he arrived at his workplace next to Gateway during a picket. He memorably suggested that we should hold Kamala Harris signs since she could “take care” of anti-abortion centers. Inspired by his comment, at our next picket in November 2024, we decided to hold a sign bearing the name of the only person who could fix the situation. Within an hour of hearing that picketers were outside holding signs demanding he stop leasing to Gateway, the landlord emailed us claiming our tactics would not work. But on March 27th, 2025, we learned through public records that Gateway would no longer be a tenant at 1306 Hillsborough St. 

We want to credit the borrowed and learned techniques that helped shape our successful campaign. We learned how to de-escalate anti-abortion agitators from clinic defenders in our community. Triangle DSA’s No Appetite for Apartheid campaign shared tips for canvassing local businesses. Siembra and Triangle Tenant Union encouraged us to identify Gateway’s points of vulnerability, helping shape our unique strategy of escalating pressure on their landlord. We are also deeply appreciative of chapter partner and member of the Raleigh Planning Commission, Reeves Peeler. His guidance supported us in confirming the lease's termination and identifying areas where Gateway may have failed to comply with municipal building code. 

Most importantly, we want to thank the more than 100 community members who showed up to picket Gateway. The “sexually broken and abortion minded” community that Gateway sought to deceive and control came together to fight back, and we won. In the continued pursuit of bodily autonomy, Triangle DSA SocFem plans to activate other DSA chapters and politically aligned organizations across the nation to take action against anti-abortion centers. There are six remaining “crisis pregnancy centers” in the tri-city area of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill– and we are prepared to dismantle the thinly veiled propaganda operation that they are, one by one. 

DSA San Diego, as part of TRUST Coalition, is demanding the end of Automatic License Plate Readers used by the San Diego Police Department. Read statement. [...]

Read More... from DSA San Diego Calls on the San Diego City Council to End the use of Automatic License Plate Readers

The post DSA San Diego Calls on the San Diego City Council to End the use of Automatic License Plate Readers appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America | San Diego Chapter.

Enjoy your May National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 18-person body (including two YDSA members who share a vote) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, join Palestinian solidarity actions, sign up for tenant organizing trainings, get in the Convention spirit, and more!

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 the National Political Committee — Growing Our Movement
• Palestine Will Live Forever — Nakba Week of Action Through Wednesday 5/21
• May and June Afrosocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus Committee Meetings
• Document Our Socialist History! Join Our DSA Archives Workshop Thursday 5/29
• Summer Tenant Organizing Training Series Starts Saturday 6/7!
• Monthly Convention Update: Programming Proposals, Running for National Political Committee, and More!
• DSA Graphic Novel — Help New Members Learn Our History!
• Apply for DSA’s National Communications Committee

From the National Political Committee — Growing Our Movement

Two weeks ago on May Day, chapters across the country poured into the street to protest the oligarchy and celebrate our power, bringing the spirit of International Workers’ Day to over 800 cities and towns all over the United States — the most simultaneous May Day events in US history. Standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with each other and with workers everywhere is a powerful reminder of the world we’re building toward — a better world where the working class has democratic control of every aspect of our lives, instead of the war-hungry earth-killing capitalist class currently running it all like some kind of demented planetary chessboard. 

As we organize and show up at mass events to keep demonstrating and growing our power, we know we are up against the rise of fascism everywhere as capitalism buckles under its own need for endless, mindless growth of profits for the very few at the top. The death drive of these war profiteers is especially clear today, the 77th anniversary of the Nakba of Palestine, as corporations and governments complicit in genocide and apartheid feel the heat from the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. Our international solidarity is the force that will not only push back against this tide, but turn it altogether — but only if we organize ourselves into something stronger than the billionaires’ bottomless bank accounts. 

We know that this means growing our numbers and carefully organizing the resources we have, to deepen our power in ways that disrupt the ability of the capitalist class to control us. We need powerful labor unions in our workplaces to take on the bosses, organized tenants to take on the landlords, socialists in office to use state power and the bully pulpit to curb capitalist control of the economy, and a mass movement that’s ready to hit the ground in defense of immigrants, trans folks, reproductive rights, and against ecological devastation for a planet where all can survive and thrive together. 

And that’s exactly what we’re doing. DSA has seen more than 10% growth in membership since Election Day, plus a rapid increase in new organizing committees in cities and regions where we didn’t have a chapter. Capitalists organize everywhere, so we must do the same — and we are!

We want to give a special welcome to the members of these new Organizing Committees (pre-chapter formations) that have formed so far in 2025:

• Bluegrass (KY)
• Brazos (TX)
• Central Mississippi
• Chippewa Valley (WI)
• Flagstaff, AZ
• Land of Lincoln (IL)
• Med City (Rochester, MN)
• Middle Georgia
• Northwest Michigan
• Paso Del Norte (TX, NM)
• River Region (AL)
• Southeast Kansas
• St. Cloud (MN)
• Walla Walla (WA)

And we want to welcome our newest chapters, who have all already passed a set of bylaws, elected officers, and gotten down to the nitty-gritty of organizing in their areas!

• Mesa County DSA (CO)
• Mobile Bay DSA (AL)
• Omaha DSA (NE, IA)
• Saginaw Bay DSA (MI)
• Sonoma County DSA (CA)
• Southern Idaho DSA
• Southern Maryland DSA

This is incredible growth and we’re so excited to see organizing happening in these areas. Workers are taking on mega-corporations Amazon and Starbucks, organizing brand new tenants unions, running people for municipal office, fighting back against hospital systems that are complying in advance with Trump’s anti-trans directives, and so much more. If you are an at-large member interested in organizing a new formation in your city or region, you can learn more about that process here. There’s no time like the present to get that work off the ground. Folks are ready to get mobilizing and organizing!

If you’re interested in connecting with DSA members across the country to talk about your organizing work, learn from each other’s successes and challenges, and find the collective motivation and courage to take on these big fights, there are two big opportunities this summer to do exactly that.

Socialism Conference will be held over 4th of July weekend in Chicago and will feature programming from organizers, activists, and thinkers across the country and around the world, with folks addressing everything from the nuts and bolts of organizing tasks to the huge political questions in front of us about how we build left power, against the far right ascending around the globe amid war and wildfires. DSA will be hosting several panels and DSA members will be present on many more, plus there will be DSA meet-and-greets and lots of chances to connect with other members. Watch this space for more information, and register now!

The 2025 DSA National Convention will be taking place in Chicago on August 8-10. It will be an incredible opportunity for us to network with each other, debate our strategy and political orientation for the next two years, and continue building ourselves into the mass party we need to be in order to fight capitalism. If your chapter hasn’t already started the process of choosing delegates, thinking about resolutions, or making a fundraising plan to help get delegates to the convention, what are you waiting for? Reach out to your chapter for more information!

We look forward to seeing you at either or both of these events, or maybe at a march or rally or canvass, very soon!

Solidarity forever!

Megan Romer and Ashik Siddique
DSA National Co-Chairs

P.S. Join us to make some phone calls to raise socialist cash to take out capitalist trash and support our current nationally-endorsed slate of socialist candidates for office. We’ll be hitting the phones on Sunday, 5/18 at 3pm ET/2pm CT/1pm MT/12pm PT, and we hope to see you there!

Palestine Will Live Forever — Nakba Week of Action Through Wednesday 5/21

Now until Wednesday 5/21, DSA is holding a nationwide week of action for Nakba Week. As Israel and the U.S. continue to ethnically cleanse Gaza and provoke an entire regional war and Trump’s administration escalates repression against solidarity work at home, it is more important than ever that we build sustainable, mass campaigns against strategic targets. This is the most effective form of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Chapters across the county are organizing long term BDS Campaigns targeting municipalities, Chevron, and Maersk. Find an event near you here.

May and June Afrosocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus Committee Meetings

National AFROSOC Committees are LIVE. Check it out!

• Communications Committee Biweekly Meeting Sunday 5/18 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
• Organizing and Mutual Aid Committee Monthly Meeting Tuesday 5/20 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
• Growth and Development Committee Monthly Meeting Thursday 6/5 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
• Political Education Committee Monthly Meeting Friday 6/6 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT

And we’ve added May Local AFROSOC Events! Wanna plug into your local chapters actions? Download our AFROSOC Events Calendar here.

Lastly! For those who may not vibe with Discord or Slack, we have access to an AFROSOC Discussion Group on the members-only DSA Discussion Forum. If you haven’t signed up for the Discussion Forum already, use the email you use for your membership to get in!

Document Our Socialist History! Join Our DSA Archives Workshop Thursday 5/29

Join the DSA National Political Education Committee and the DSA Fund for our DSA Archives Workshop Thursday 5/29 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT! We invite all DSA comrades who are…

• chapter secretaries
• interested in starting a local archive of DSA and/or associated histories in their chapters
• political educators who want to bring archival knowledge back to their chapters
• socialists with cool stuff who want to know what they could do with it
• interested in exploring the purpose and meaning of archives for the left

This is a 90-minute instructional workshop with interspersed, interactive discussion of theory and practice, led by Michaela B. (DSA National Political Education Committee, North New Jersey DSA), Anna F (Chicago DSA), Colin M (National Tech Committee, North New Jersey DSA), and Shannon O (NYU Tamiment Archive).

Summer Tenant Organizing Training Series Starts Saturday 6/7!

Learn how to start a tenant union! Are you or people you know having trouble with landlords? Take initiative into your hands and start a tenant union! In this weekly training series, you’ll learn how to set up an organizing committee, investigate your local conditions, and run campaigns. RSVP today! Sessions are Saturdays at 2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT throughout June. If you’re already in a tenant union, this is a great opportunity to share your expertise with other members!

Monthly Convention Update: Programming Proposals, Running for National Political Committee, and More!

Convention season is in full swing. Submit your ideas for Convention programming sessions today! Proposal submissions are open until Saturday 5/31. The Convention team is looking for diverse, engaged, and energetic programming that connects to our theme, “Rebirth and Beyond: Reflecting on a Decade of DSA’s Growth and Preparing for a Decade of Party-Building.” Sessions can include workshops, panel discussions, seminars, and creative displays or performances.

As part of our 2025 Convention Fundraiser, DSA will be hosting an auction — and we need auction items! The deadline for submissions is Sunday 6/15. Are you an artist with a piece you’d be willing to donate, an author who could donate some signed books, or a collector who’s hanging on to a cool item that a comrade might be willing to bid on? Previous years’ auction items have included all sorts of physical goods, gift cards, and even experiences, like museum or concert tickets or a stay at a vacation property. If you are interested in sharing something or talking more to someone about it, please fill out this form. Everyone else, get ready to raise those paddles!

And it’s last call for chapter fundraising seed grants! The deadline is Saturday 5/17. 

Convention is coming, and we hope your chapter has started thinking about how you’ll help fundraise for your delegation to attend! The DSA National Political Committee, 2025 Convention Planning Committee, and Fundraising Committee have worked together to create and approve a $5000 grant pool for chapters to help finance fundraising activities for Convention. 

For example, maybe you’re throwing a punk show, or a “prommunism” fundraising dance, and need to put a deposit on a rental space. Or you’d like to print and sell limited-edition calendars or t-shirts and need to pay for supplies up front. Whatever creative fundraising idea you’ve got, if you need a bit of seed money to make it happen, please reach out to your chapter leader about applying for this grant.

And National Political Committee (NPC) nominations are open until Sunday 6/15! NPC candidates must have a nominating resolution passed by either the chapter or Organizing Committee of which they are a member, any recognized National Working Group or Committee, or a majority vote by the current NPC.

Please note that NPC elections will be more complex than in past years due to rules changes that will be voted on at Convention. You can find information on these, the election rules, roles and duties of NPC members, the candidate questionnaire, and more on the National Political Committee Elections page here.

DSA Graphic Novel — Help New Members Learn Our History!

Democratic Socialists of America: A Graphic History (narrated by the spirit of Eugene V. Debs, seen here) is ready for chapters to use with new and newish members as well as those interested in DSA. Right now, it exists online. You can help us print it for use at in-person events! This comic, based on research and input from several generations of DSA members, was written by Paul Buhle and Raymond Tyler with illustrations by Noah Van Sciver. In 24 colorful pages, it  gives a quick overview of our origins and campaigns. Your support can bring this fantastic and fun tool to both new and experienced comrades.

Apply for DSA’s National Communications Committee

The National Communications Committee is expanding! We are looking for DSA members with experience in video editing, livestream production, social media strategy, graphic design, media relations, and more to expand our national communications work. The National Communications Committee’s NPC members and at-large co-chair will appoint the new members. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. Apply here today!

The post May National Political Committee newsletter — Growing Our Movement appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Increasing the existing CEO surcharge Novick championed in 2016 equitable move to fund parks

The Portland Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America supports Councilor Novick’s move to increase the surcharge on companies with highly skewed ratios of CEO to worker pay. Portland DSA recently launched a new campaign for a Family Agenda for Portland, to fight for concrete public investments in Portland families, children, and communities. We appreciate Councilor Novick’s bold proposal that will protect programs families rely on. We also support DSA member Councilor Green’s PCEF loan proposal as a vital part of this package. Novick’s complement to Green’s plan is an example of the creative policy-making this city desperately needs.

An increase in taxation aimed at the city’s vast wealth inequality is an appropriate way to pay for infrastructure vital to working Portlanders’ lives. Parks are some of the few remaining publicly shared free spaces; third spaces where we can exist in community. They function as oases when heat waves hit the city, and provide connections to nature that we depend on. They are places of solace in a too-hectic time.

Parks programs and community centers are the cornerstone of Portland communities, and anyone who attended the public listening sessions on the city budget that were held in every district in Portland this spring heard personal testimonies of how much parks programs had transformed the lives of Portlanders and their families. Parks programs also provide jobs and support livelihoods. They must be defended.

Portland DSA Co-Chair Olivia Katbi testified at the District 2 listening session accompanied by her family, urging the council to raise revenue by taxing the rich, and to keep open the community center where she brings her daughter. “At a time when Trump and Musk are gutting critical services at the federal level, the response from our city government cannot be to turn around and do the same thing. Do we want to have a nice city that families with children want to live in, or do we want to just have a shell of a police state with shitty services and abandoned parks? What is going to be left for us? The billionaire class is growing while the rest of us are fighting for scraps. We need to present an alternate vision forward.”

Socialists understand that austerity always functions to the detriment of working people, and we believe strong progressive tax measures targeting the wealthy are good for the economy, and a sign of independent, uncaptured political leaders. We also understand that the underlying issue is the limitations of capitalism’s ability to provide for full lives. We cannot afford a market-driven neoliberal urbanism, which privatizes and undermines public goods in the name of profit, at a terrible human cost.

Councilor Novick proposed, championed, and helped pass the first CEO surcharge in any city in the US in 2016; another reason Portland is a leader in public policies.

Portland DSA urges City Council to pass Councilor Novick’s CEO surcharge increase. We urge the people of Portland to contact your district Councilors and speak in favor; to protect our communities, our parks, and our future!

Find all city councilors here. Not sure which district you’re in? Enter your address into the interactive map here.

The post Portland Democratic Socialists support Councilor Novick’s Park Plan appeared first on Portland DSA .

by R.K. Upadhya

Over the past two decades, the housing market has emerged as a powerful means by which capitalism can exploit the working class. At our workplaces, capitalists profit from their ability to control our labor; and then we go home, where we are exploited by the landlords who profit from their control over housing. And if the answer to our oppression in the workplace is labor unions, the answer to our oppression in our homes is tenant unions.  

From early 2022 to early 2024, I was involved with a tenant union campaign at a large apartment complex in north-west San Antonio, via the now-dormant Tenant Union San Antonio (TUSA). While the campaign failed in its overall goal – to organize the tenants of the complex into a self-sustaining, democratic, and militant union – the efforts nonetheless secured some improvements for tenants, and provided organizers with an important and fulfilling learning experience. 

The apartment complex in question was Vista Del Rey Apartments (VDR), a massive 453-unit complex in Leon Valley, located near the intersection of 410 and TX-16/Bandera. The property was first built in 1979, and by testament of some long-time tenants, was a beautiful and well-run property. But in recent years, as the housing market heated up and real estate capital grew increasingly predatory, things started falling apart. Ownership was repeatedly swapped between increasingly greedy firms looking for fresh ways to cut costs and extract more rent. In April 2021, VDR was bought by Shippy Properties, a firm run by an Austin tech executive turned real estate speculator, which quickly turned out to be the worst landlord yet for VDR tenants..

By pure coincidence, a core TUSA member had just moved into VDR in late 2021, and quickly realized it would be an excellent place to start a tenant union campaign. So a handful of us got to work, and over the next two years helped instigate class conflict between the tenants of VDR and their corporate slumlord. Our overall vision was informed by the strategies and tactics developed by socialist-aligned autonomous tenant unions like Tenants and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles Tenants Union (LATU), Stomp Out Slumlords (SOS) in Washington D.C., and Houston Tenants Union (HTU).

A quick run-down of what the campaign looked like: we door-knocked across the complex, inquired about conditions and experiences, invited interested tenants to meetings, and saw the formation of the Vista Del Rey Tenants Union (VDR-TU). More canvassing was done; petitions were passed around and protests and rallies were held; a kind of spontaneous rent strike emerged, with many tenants across the complex refusing to pay rent. The city of Leon Valley got involved in a lawsuit against Shippy Properties, demanding that they fix the numerous code violations across the property. Key tenant leaders were targeted for eviction, but we successfully fought back against most of the initial eviction attempts. Shippy made various concessions, even as they caused more problems in the process and escalated repression. A tenant leader’s apartment burned down due to bad electrical wiring, along with the other eleven units in her building. More canvassing, more meetings; attendance and enthusiasm waxed and waned. Finally, after many cycles of ups and downs, by the end of 2023, people had burned out and key leaders had left VDR, and the campaign came to an end. VDR-TU was dead – but if nothing else, the mailboxes had been fixed, wider renovations had been implemented, two people got married, David Shippy’s name was mud, and dozens of people had experienced an interesting and unique attempt at building an autonomous and militant working-class organization.

A full accounting of the day-to-day and month-to-month of the campaign would make for a very lengthy report. But here are some major lessons and take-aways, to paint a picture of what it was like organizing at VDR, and how socialists should think about tenant organizing.  

Big corporate landlords are the scum of the earth – and people love chatting at the door about it

That landlords are parasites shouldn’t be a surprise to socialists – but there is a difference in understanding this in the abstract, versus coming face-to-face with the depths of criminal deprivation and immiseration that landlords subject people to. 

Conditions at Vista Del Rey were abysmal in almost every possible way. A non-exhaustive list of issues at VDR included:

• Constant and unannounced water shut-offs and major water main leaks – the bill for which was passed on to tenants
• Mailboxes that had been broken for over a year, forcing people to pick up mail at the post office (if the mail didn’t get lost)
• Air conditioners being broken for weeks, if not months, during the summer
• Broken and unusable laundry machines
• Endemic cockroaches and mold 
• Crumbling staircases and weak railings, which routinely broke 
• Covid-era rent relief checks getting stolen by management, who then demanded more rent money
• Widespread electrical wiring problems, which in one case resulted in an entire building of twelve apartments burning down
• Arbitrary fees and fines for whenever maintenance was performed (even if temporarily and poorly)

These problems weren’t just incidental. The profit-making strategy of Shippy Properties was overtly about cutting maintenance and services, while simultaneously raising fees and levying fines. As an article in San Antonio Report in January 2022 described: 

The stated strategy of David Shippy, the company’s founder and CEO who wrote a 2019 book detailing his wealth-building formula, involves buying up working-class apartment complexes, slashing maintenance costs and charging tenants new fees. “I like to think of each apartment complex as a cash machine,” wrote Shippy in his book Money Matters for Financial Freedom: The Fast Path to Abundance in Life and Business.

But there is a silver lining to the depravities of landlords, which is that tenants are generally more than happy to talk to a stranger at the door about their issues and experiences. Of course, there is always an initial suspicion (“ugh, what do these people want to sell me…”), but once they realize that you’re not a salesman or missionary, and mainly want to hear about their experiences, the barriers vanish. And a key aspect of this is to, in fact, not be trying to sell some grand organizational plan or political ideology (at least, initially), but to show up to have a genuine conversation with somebody. The 80:20 rule is key – a good initial conversation at the door should have the tenant talking for 80% of the time, and the canvasser mainly asking questions and learning. Ask people about how long they’ve been there, what their experiences have been like, if they know their neighbors, if they’ve tried to get management to address problems, what their thoughts are on why things aren’t being solved and how they feel about that. Ultimately, none of this should be that complicated; talk to people and take a genuine interest in who they are! 

Door-knocking, surveying about problems, and collecting contact information was probably the easiest aspect of organizing at VDR, and made for many memorable conversations. During one canvassing session, me and another DSA/TUSA member met a mother and her daughter who were in the process of moving in, and were already livid about management not having prepared the apartment at all for move-in. We then helped her move a dishwasher up the stairs. Then her neighbor, a pudgy older guy with no shirt came outside and told us that his own dishwasher had backed up a month ago and had never been fixed. Another time, a guy invited me into his apartment to see the massive hole in his living room ceiling, and the leak in the bathroom. His upstairs neighbor, meanwhile, was furious about the impact of persistent mold on his young son’s health. Not all of the people we talked to were immediately excited about getting involved in a tenant union campaign, or organizing in general; but at a minimum, they were happy to chat about how bad the complex was, and their desire to see things change.     

Disorganization is the default mode of existence for working-class people

One thing you realize very quickly when canvassing across apartment complexes is that people are highly atomized – a reflection of the wider problem of “proletarian disorganization” and the fact that whatever working-class institutions and networks that once existed in this country have withered away under neoliberalism. People don’t really talk with their neighbors, beyond waving at them (if that). Tenant unionism thus must overcome an obstacle that labor unionism doesn’t have to deal with: that people tend to lack basic knowledge about one another and their shared problems. Despite the serious and widespread issues at VDR, many people didn’t realize that they had the same problems as their neighbors, which pushed them toward individual solutions (calling management themselves, trying to find a lawyer, or deciding to move out) or just a sense of apathy (“what can I do, I just gotta get used to it”). One tenant who became an early member of the VDR organizing committee told me that when we first knocked on his door, he was happy to chat about his problems, but he was also a bit suspicious about what we wanted and why we were even interested. But once he realized just how many other tenants had the same exact problems as him, it finally clicked that he didn’t have to fight these issues alone.  

Another consequence of social disorganization is that people may tend to identify other tenants as the main source of problems, rather than landlords. The issue of crime, in particular, can be a difficult question for socialists to grapple with. One on hand, we have our standard abolitionist principles that rejects the police as a viable solution to social problems; on the other hand, it can be difficult to articulate – let alone implement – abolitionist solutions to immediate issues around crime. At VDR, there were undeniable problems with anti-social behavior, theft and robberies, and even murders; and for many tenants, the obvious solution for this was more police presence. It’s important for tenant organizers to be prepared to discuss these issues and propose solutions that don’t rely on police; meet people where they’re at, but don’t stay where they are at. TUSA and VDR-TU were somewhat successful in this, insofar as whenever complaints about other tenants came up, these were sidelined in favor of focusing on problems caused by the landlord, which most people agreed were more egregious and easier to directly address.  

In addition, atomization overlaps with and exacerbates racism and xenophobia. This did not become a particularly large obstacle at VDR, but the complex had a number of cultural and linguistic divisions that created challenges to get people together. Unsurprisingly for San Antonio, the majority of the complex was Latino, with smaller numbers of Black and white people. There were also several immigrant groups, specifically Afghans and Indians, typical for apartments in the Medical Center area. This meant there were small populations of monolingual Pashto, Dari, and Hindi speakers, in addition to the typical group of Spanish speakers. And perhaps most unusually, there was a sizable Romani community – an Eastern European ethnic group with a traditionally nomadic culture, descended from South Asia – many of whom were allegedly squatting in one of the buildings. It was this Roma group, as well as other South/South-West Asian families, who attracted the most animosity from certain tenants, who were suspicious of “refugees” who couldn’t speak English, and who blamed them for vandalism and petty crime.  

All of this comes back to the point that one of the most important aspects of tenant organizing is  simply to get people to know each other, to break down the default atomization of neoliberal existence. Prejudice in working-class neighborhoods like this can sometimes be very superficial; simply attending a meeting or social with a person you were suspicious of, could be enough to cure you of any wrong-headed ideas. And simply building a sense of community can be enough to provide a greater sense of security, with the knowledge that you know your neighbors, and you have each other’s back. 

Despite atomization and exploitation, resistance is widespread

One of the best things about tenant unionism is the consistency with which you’ll come across sudden and unexpected sources of radicalism. Acts of resistance – ranging from individual and spontaneous, to broader and more organized – are already happening, all over the place, in all kinds of ways, and militancy can accelerate faster than an activist is prepared for. People are constantly pushing back individually against their landlord; VDR tenants constantly called in or barged into the office, demanding appliance repairs or an explanation for the latest water leak. During canvassing, a constant theme was tenants wanting to connect with legal resources and sue Shippy Properties. But it is in group discussions with other tenants, that people’s natural instincts about collective action and power can emerge. At the first general event we held at VDR in May 2022, a Know Your Rights training, one older lady almost immediately brought up the idea of a rent strike, talking about the need to hit the landlord in the pocketbooks. The dozen or so other tenants largely agreed that this would be morally justified and strategically sound. 

Another memorable moment, fusing individual and collective resistance, happened during a protest VDR-TU held later that summer. As “luck” would have it, during the protest rally held outside the management office, the water was abruptly shut off yet again. A man then came around the corner, still damp from his interrupted shower, and made a beeline to the office and started banging on the door and yelling about the water shut-off. If he wasn’t planning on attending the protest before, his ruined shower made his mind up for him. And this wasn’t the end of the story; his spontaneous passion impressed one of the main tenant leaders of VDR-TU, and they got to talking afterward – and two years later, they got married!  

But the most stunning example of spontaneous resistance was something we learned shortly after the protest – that upwards of half the complex was already on a de-facto rent strike. Ironically, we learned this when management sent out an e-mail asserting this mass non-payment of rent, and that this was the reason why they couldn’t do necessary repairs. As it turned out, many people were willing to act on the basic notion that if they weren’t being given habitable apartments, then they shouldn’t have to pay rent – a righteous position, albeit illegal. But the illegality of individual rent strikes were of little concern to many – as they told us themselves, who cared about getting evicted or taking a hit to their credit score, when they already had multiple evictions on their record and no credit score to speak of? At a complex like VDR, filled with the most oppressed layers of the working class, taking risky actions can be an easy choice – there is little left to lose anyway.   

Tenant unionism requires high levels of commitment and consistency

Despite the atrocious conditions at VDR and the relatively combative spirit of VDR tenants, the tenant union campaign ultimately fizzled out after about two years. There are a number of reasons for this, some outside of our control; but if I had to pick the biggest shortcoming, it was that those of us in TUSA weren’t able to give the campaign the necessary amount of consistent effort. 

A tenant union campaign should have a solid overall plan, and a rapid cadence; if you knock on somebody’s door, you should have an upcoming meeting or action you can invite them to, or at least a 1:1 follow-up if they seem like a potential leader. And more broadly, tenant union campaigns are about relationship-building; quality is better than quantity, especially at the beginning of the campaign. It’s crucial to spend time doing 1:1s with tenants you’re trying to bring into an organizing committee as potential leaders, to get on the same page about the project and the political and social principles of tenant unionism, and to understand their own background, experiences, and ideas. Talking to somebody once at the door and then dropping them into a group chat or Facebook group is not going to get them involved or lead to a functional organizing committee.

Unfortunately with the VDR campaign, most of us didn’t really understand this at the time. After door-knocking sessions, we would try to create big group chats with all the contacts, which would fizzle out over and over again, other than a couple of busybodies who would spam the chat and annoy everybody else. We did few 1:1s, even with people who were enthusiastic about organizing. There were often long gaps of time between talking to somebody and getting their contact info, and actually reaching back out to them. In retrospect, it’s a bit surprising that an actual organizing committee of about a dozen VDR tenants emerged at all, but that may be a testament to just how many people we talked to. But less surprising is that outside of this core group of people who spontaneously and by their own will began organizing, there was little success in building out a wider layer of “cadre” at VDR; the energy required for genuine relationship-building and rigorous onboarding just wasn’t there.

Our inconsistency wasn’t just a result of our relative inexperience, either – a general problem, especially toward the latter phases of the campaign, was the split attention of core TUSA organizers, who were trying to keep the campaign at VDR going while also being in leadership roles in other spaces like San Antonio DSA, Black Rose Anarchist Federation, and labor union campaigns. In retrospect, it was impossible to give the campaign the necessary attention while also being a key member of other campaigns and organizations. A tenant union campaign needs at least a couple of people who are completely focused on finding and developing tenant leaders into an organizing committee, and connecting these leaders with resources, training, and support.  

Tenant unionism is worth it, even in failure

Despite the eventual failure of the Vista Del Rey Tenant Union to develop into a mass, militant working-class institution, I would still consider my involvement in the campaign to be the most interesting, educational, and fulfilling project I was ever involved in during my five years living in San Antonio. I met and organized with people who were far outside the typical left-wing activist and organizing spaces – but who nonetheless had deeply radical instincts and ideas. And despite the long-term failure, there were still short-term victories; the mailboxes, broken for years, were fixed after our campaign started. Many organizers had long-standing maintenance issues resolved by management, who hoped this would pacify them. The campaign pushed the city of Leon Valley to engage in their own lawsuit, which forced even more repairs. And one of the main tenant leaders found a husband through the campaign, and invited the core TUSA members to the wedding. Can’t be a total loss if a great party came out of it!

In conclusion, I would encourage all socialists and fellow radicals to engage in tenant organizing. Many of us already rent our homes in the first place; thus, tenant unionism isn’t something that has to make us go “somewhere else” to organize, but instead can be about us building institutions where we are already at, with our own neighbors. And just like with workplace organizing, oftentimes the best way to engage in socialist politics and organizing is to “organize where we are at”, and to radicalize the networks and communities we are already embedded in.  

If you’re in Austin, join other Austin DSA members in Greater Austin Tenant Organizing (GATO) to help spread autonomous tenant unionism. Follow and support other local tenant organizing groups, like BASTA. And sign up for the DSA Housing Justice Commission’s upcoming four-part training series on tenant union organizing, scheduled for June! 

The post Lessons from a Tenant Union Campaign in North-West San Antonio first appeared on Red Fault.