Rank and file bewildered as questions abound over rushed, narrow dissolution vote of powerful United Auto Workers reform caucus

By: Eric L.

BOSTON, MA – On May 21, 2025, Working Mass and Boston DSA hosted a forum to discuss the attempted dissolution of Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), a rank-and-file caucus within United Auto Workers (UAW), and the political struggles that preceded that moment. The forum was hosted to open up discussion on an important rank-and-file debate in a context of few open spaces for discussion about the UAWD’s dissolution vote within the labor movement itself. In attendance were members of both DSA and UAW from across the country. These included long-time UAW retirees, plant autoworkers, and members of the Steering Committee who disagreed with the majority move.

UAWD was formed as a vehicle for a vision of a more independent, militant UAW in 2019, following several other rank-and-file rebellions within the UAW, such as the 1968 Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, and played a major role in establishing direct election of UAW leadership in 2021 and narrowly electing Shawn Fain in 2023 as the union’s president. However, since this election, tensions had risen between two wings: the majority of the Steering Committee that subsequently became UAW Member Action, supporting dissolution, and the minority “Class Struggle” wing in opposition.

Numerous DSA members were involved with both factions.

The forum was conceived as an opportunity to hear from both the pro- and anti-dissolution figures within the caucus. However, while numerous workers volunteered to speak about their opposition to the dissolution, no pro-dissolution speakers agreed to participate. A Working Mass moderator argued the pro-dissolution talking points, based on public statements released by that faction, as well as public analysis from prominent labor organizers presenting the arguments of Member Action. Nonetheless, there was palpable disappointment that no one from the pro-dissolution side was there to argue that position.

Procedural Controversies Over Dissolution

Much of the discourse in the wake of the attempted dissolution has concerned the procedure followed and the result itself. Based on a narrow vote in favor of dissolution among those in the general body meeting, which debated the topic, Member Action has alleged that the caucus was dissolved by its membership. Meanwhile, the Class Struggle wing has argued that dissolution did not take place due to significant procedural discrepancies that undermined internal democracy, including circumventing a ⅔ clause in favor of a simple majority to dissolve the caucus that many organizers poured blood, sweat, and tears into on both sides. 

Other alleged controversies included blocking new members from joining leading up to the vote, disregarding Robert’s Rules of Order by ignoring motions during the meeting, and arbitrarily  removing certain members from the meeting. 

The Strategy of Dissolution 

The legality of the attempted dissolution was also discussed; however, the emphasis was not on whether or not the dissolution had succeeded, but on the political and tactical differences between the two factions that led to the attempt to dissolve the caucus. These differences concerned the approach to the Fain administration, emphasis on political rather than economic issues (and in particular the genocide in Gaza), and the professional makeup of the caucus itself. 

After the UAWD won the 2023 internal election to elect Fain and other reformers, followed by striking the Big Three and setting a north star for a 2028 General Strike, members split over whether the caucus should align closely with Fain or maintain a more independent apparatus that could exert pressure on the Fain administration of the union. This strategic question seems to have resonated more with a slim minority of the UAWD, while the majority continued to focus primarily on building up workplace militancy through rank-and-file training. Before the nuclear move by the majority, disagreement between factions sharpened strongly in response to Fain’s endorsement of the Democratic Party ticket in 2024, Fain’s support for many of Donald Trump’s tariffs, and, of course, the union’s contracts themselves.

One union member critically described the caucus’s relationship with Fain during the forum:

[The majority] thought the answer was to “gold star” everything the Fain Administration does because we endorsed him. That’s when independence came into question, and I think a group of people do not want to be independent of Shawn Fain and the people that were endorsed by the UAWD during the IEB elections. A group of us thought it was important that we maintained our independence and that the caucus was bigger than individuals.

Another, calling in from a Detroit shop floor, criticized the training orientation of Member Action as insufficient. To them, the centrality of the reform movement is not only in building workplace militancy through rank-and-file trainings, but also in creating a political space for workers to become political protagonists: 

(The) Steering Committee majority wanted to become a training center where they are able to have top down control rather than a vibrant democratic or member-led organization that gets to set up political priorities and creates a space for workers to debate these important political questions, like what we’re going to do about the EV transition or tariffs or Palestine.

Palestine – A Central Debate in the UAWD 

Palestinian liberation, as is so often the case, became a defining issue for the caucus’s political split. Majorities of both factions have released statements in favor of Palestine, though there was a visible pro-Israel presence within the majority faction. Nonetheless, emphasizing Palestine programmatically became a major source of contention. At the meeting where the dissolution was voted on, speakers in favor of dissolution spoke against “ultra-left” emphasis on political issues- something that was largely seen as a reference to Palestine. 

A UAW retired auto worker argued at the forum:

The Steering Committee majority—the pro-dissolution group—was not for giving anything beyond very cursory mention to solidarity with Palestine… The chair of the Steering Committee said that ‘if members are working on Palestine solidarity, they’re not reforming the UAW.’ My counter-argument is that the UAW cannot call itself reformed if it’s not able to take a strong stand in solidarity against this horrific genocide that is still going on.

Member Action did not, of course, oppose the emphasis on Palestine because they were militant Zionists; rather, they saw the emphasis on such “political” issues as outside the core union work. Indeed, in the dissolution proposal, the majority stated, “We believe in the need for a reform caucus, but not in one that is constantly engaged in insular debate that distracts from the work of building the union.” They did not believe that their position was less militant, but rather, that the caucus’s energy was misplaced on issues on which it could not directly engage. 

In this argument, Member Action shows a clear political foundation. In 1970, decades before Kim Moody penned the 2000 pamphlet outlining the Rank-and-File Strategy, the socialist leader Hal Draper spoke on the topic of trade unions to the New Left: “Marx, Marxism, and Trade Unions.” To their immense credit, while many New Left radicals took increasingly esoteric or sectarian avenues out of the Sixties, Draper’s tendency embedded itself in the labor movement in what essentially became many lifetimes spent across thousands of activists to bring socialism closer to the rank-and-file movement. Emphasizing the idea of bringing the working class “into motion,” that the motion of the class itself is what shakes the foundations of society, Draper critiqued “class struggle” socialist orientations in labor unions:

The class struggle begins on a much lower level than the Marxist program itself, but the Marxist program says that this struggle is revolutionary from the beginning. The basic goal – the primary aim – is to get the class as a whole moving…. the distinguishing feature of [class struggle orientations] is that the split is based on some sort of ideological notion of what trade unions ought to be. They are not the result of movement from below.

To Draper, “leftist unionism” centered line struggle over actual militant action from below – a paraphrase of the same argument used by UAW Member Action.

UAW Member Action and their supporters pointed to lengthy membership meetings, which they alleged were dominated by workers in the education and legal sectors rather than auto workers, bogged down in concerns about political issues on which the union could do little more than take a symbolic position. Supporters of dissolution, including DSA members, complained at the meeting of a cadre of activists, not a part of UAW’s blue-collar base, who dominated proceedings and insisted on debating and voting on numerous topics not pertinent to shop-floor work.

To the Steering Committee minority and their allies, this framing revealed both a myopic vision of who constituted the working class and a disregard for member democracy. Another retired UAW member and opponent of dissolution disputed the insistence that such issues were alienating to workers, firing off: “The majority says, ‘we had to split off because the workers in the plants will run away if you bring up Palestine.’ Well, I’m sorry, it actually hasn’t been brought up in most of the plants. Second off, I’m 78 and I’ve been in the UAW for over forty years. I have brought up everything from Palestine to Libya to Iraq, Iran, et cetera. I was still elected numerous times to the Executive Board.”

Other supporters of the Steering Committee minority took issue with the premise that workers in the education or legal sector taking vocal roles in meetings was inappropriate, arguing such framing was divisive and fed into dated or reactionary perceptions as to the composition of the working class.

A Split Produces Two Directions 

UAW Member Action calls itself “a new, union-wide network of members supporting each other to stand up to employers, grow as activists and organizers, and carry on the transformation of our union at every level.” The governing structures of this new group are unclear. To its promoters, the caucus is now free from dysfunctional conflict and can pursue a reform-from-below vision that reaffirms the need for workplace organizing across the union at every shop. To critics, the new formation is positioning itself as a traditional union administrative caucus uncommitted to political struggles, without internal democracy, and without a commitment to class struggle or internationalism at a time of genocide.

The Class Struggle orientation, meanwhile, continues to function under the UAWD name. They continue to meet to further their work without access to several crucial UAWD resources, such as the website, which redirects members to UAW Member Action without mention of the ongoing activities of the original organization. This much smaller UAWD will undoubtedly remain, to its critics, unacceptably focused on political goals and on what they view as insular left-wing priorities that are not reflective of autoworkers as a whole.

It’s unclear how these two directions will impact the Fain administration.

These competing visions of labor, class struggle, and the role of unions in the political arena are far from confined to the struggle over UAWD. They are visible in countless unions, workers’ advocacy organizations, and in socialist organizations, including DSA. UAWD’s successes, failures, and fractures will continue to cast a long shadow over these struggles. 

The quotes included in this article have been lightly stylistically edited for clarity. You can view the forum in its entirety at bdsa.us/UAWD.

Eric L. is a member of Boston DSA, UAW Local 2320, and Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD).

The post UAW Reform No More? appeared first on Working Mass.

Events & Actions

Tuesday, June 24 (6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Ecosocialism Office Gardening (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, June 25 (6:45 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.): Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (Zoom & in person at Radical Reading Room, 438 Haight)

Wednesday, June 25 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): Screening of ‘They Live’ (In person at Roar Shack, 34 7th St)

Thursday, June 26 (5:50 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Socialist in Office + Electoral Board Meeting (Zoom)

Thursday, June 26 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigrant Justice Working Group Meeting (Zoom)

Friday, June 27 (3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): No Appetite for Apartheid Consumer Pledge Canvass x Trans March (Meet at the Dolores Park tennis courts)

Monday, June 30 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

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

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

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

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

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

Ecosocialism Gardening

Come garden with our Ecoscocialism Working Group to talk socialism and get to know our garden! We’ll start with a discussion of the history of native plants in the Bay Area and then identify the native plants in our office garden. Join us Tuesday, June 24th at 6:30 p.m. at 1916 McAllister.

Summer Social(ist) Events!

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

• June 25th @ 7:00 p.m. – Screening of They Live at Roar Shack (34 7th Street) – Let’s watch the classic monster movie inspired by the scariest monsters of them all (Ronald Reagan and Capitalism)!
• July 6th @ 11:00 p.m. – Screening of The Room at the Balboa Theater! We’ll meet outside at 10:30.
• July 11th @ 7:30PM – Comrade Karaoke at the Roar Shack (34 7th Street) – Come hang out and do some FREE karaoke with your fellow DSA SF comrades or cool people you want to impress with your incredible singing voice! No songs refused, no entry denied! Suggested Donation: $10. Drinks: Wine + Beer Available / BYOB
• July 27th @ 1:05PM – Oakland Ballers vs Northern Colorado Owlz baseball game + “Halloween in July Night” (at Raimondi Park) – RSVP here by July 13th so that we can put in a group order of tickets! Group tickets are are $15 per ticket, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds!

Apartheid-Free Bay Area Canvassing @ Trans March

Celebrate Trans Pride and build public support for stores that have pledged to go apartheid-free this Friday, 6/27 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.! We’ll meet at the Dolores Park tennis courts.

You will receive basic training, and then you will put that training into practice by collecting signatures at the Trans March. RSVP and then sign up for a 1-hour shift. Bring a tote bag and make sure to wear your DSA merch. New members encouraged to join!

Reading Group: “The Housing Question” by Friedrich Engels

Join us in reading the seminal text on the political economy of housing. Written in 1872, “The Housing Question” is Friedrich Engels’ critique of the housing market and the solutions promoted by his contemporaries. 150 years later, his work resonates just as much, if not more, with tenants’ current struggles.

This two-part series will have readers discuss the various historical attitudes and debates around housing and apply those lessons to our modern housing crisis.

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

EWOC: How to Talk About Organizing

EWOC (Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee) is a project of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and DSA working to build a distributed grassroots organizing program to support workers organizing at the workplace. To learn more about the work EWOC does, come by the DSA SF office to pick up a copy of Unite and Win or tune into the Labor Board’s weekly meetings every Monday at 7 p.m. on Zoom.

The next EWOC event hosted by DSA SF features EWOC staff members conducting a training on generating workplace leads and conducting organizing conversations on July 16th from 6:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m. Let us know if you can make it! Hope to see you there!

People’s Conference for Palestine: Gaza is the Compass

Come one, come all! We’re hoping to have a DSA SF delegation at the People’s Conference For Palestine: Gaza is the Compass from August 29-31 in Detroit, Michigan. Interested? We’re gauging interest, so please fill out this form by June 19th at 11:00 p.m. Limited financial aid may be available.

Reports

Immigrant Justice Working Group x East Bay DSA Know Your Rights Training

About 30 attendees filled the DSA office for a KYR training hosted by the Immigrant Justice Working Group (IJWG) and East Bay DSA Migrants Rights Working Group on Tuesday, June 17. A highlight from the training included roleplay scenarios which allowed participants to practice exercising their rights at work and during a traffic stop, among other scenarios.

Special thanks to comrades Caroline G., Cielo, Rashad X, Eric (EBDSA), Kevin (EBDSA) for helping present and facilitate the breakout sessions.

Stay tuned for future trainings. Join the #immigrant-justice channel on the DSA SF Slack for more information.

Behind the Scenes

The Chapter Coordination Committee (CCC) regularly rotates duties among chapter members. This allows us to train new members in key duties that help keep the chapter running like organizing chapter meetings, keeping records updated, office cleanup, updating the DSA SF website and newsletter, etc. Members can view current CCC rotations.

To help with the day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running, fill out the CCC help form.

How DSA Members Can Help Save Regional Services

In the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, public transportation is in existential crisis. Many of our transit agencies are racing toward fiscal cliffs: By mid-2026, projected revenue for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Caltrain, Muni, and others will not be enough to cover operating costs. Though our transit systems have faced structural deficits before, this time is different: Losing one-time COVID relief funds while struggling to regain pre-COVID ridership has blown a combined $800 million-dollar hole in budgets that have already survived multiple rounds of austerity measures.

To avoid financial collapse, these agencies anticipate massive service cuts that will leave more than one million working class people without safe and reliable routes to work, school, shopping, and loved ones. We previewed this “new normal” on May 9 when a small malfunction shut down BART and stranded 170,000 weekday commuters all around the Bay. Those who couldn’t find a bus turned to predatory ride-share companies, whose services cost 10-20 times more than the usual transit fare.

The financial precarity of Bay Area public transit is the logical result of decades of systemic disinvestment, intentional fragmentation, and unabashed NIMBYism. Each of our 27 transit operators must plan its own infrastructure and negotiate its routes in 101 municipalities, with every project subject to unilateral changes and at risk of last-minute cancellation. Bedroom communities on Peninsula DSA’s home turf are specifically at fault for refusing to participate in regional transit planning. From San Mateo County’s withdrawal from the full BART network in 1961 to filthy rich Atherton’s attempt to weaponize CEQA to block Caltrain's electrification in 2015, our local leaders rarely miss an opportunity to subsidize and normalize car dependency. (Thankfully, their latest pet project, a highway-widening scheme connecting Highway 101 to SR 92 / San Mateo Bridge, is facing stiff public opposition because it would remove homes without reducing traffic or commute times.)

The only way forward is securing sustainable new sources of revenue for the public transit ecosystem as a whole. The state Senate passed Senator Scott Weiner (District 11) and Senator Jesse Arreguín (District 7)’s five-county regional funding measure (SB 63) that would go to voters in November 2026. The measure would rescue transit agencies in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco by levying a sales tax of at least 1/2 cent over 10–15 years, though the revenue still wouldn’t be enough to preserve the current level of service. 

Though we support any solution that prevents transit apocalypse , this “pragmatic” solution repeats two historical mistakes. First, although San Mateo County and Santa Clara County have the highest median incomes and home values in California, SB 63 allows either county to choose a lower tax rate (1/4 cent) or simply “opt out” of participation, denying access to their robust tax base. Second, no matter how noble the cause, adding yet another sales tax to everyday items will hit working class people the hardest. Adding insult to injury, we’d end up paying more for less service because even the maximum sales tax wouldn’t keep pace with rampant inflation and arbitrary tariffs.

For months, San Mateo County’s transit agency, SamTrans, has declined to support or oppose the regional funding measure that would preserve local BART and Caltrain service. (SamTrans has structural deficits too, but not until fiscal year 2027.) Though the nine-member Board of Directors (BOD) has approved another round of polling, they seem fixated on just how much tax “the public” might accept rather than what awful consequences their riders will face should SB 63 fail. Their hesitancy isn’t surprising: No SamTrans board members regularly ride public transit, let alone depend on it. And some live in communities such as Hillsborough (median household income $250,000+), which is accessible only by car, and Redwood Shores, which has a single bus route that runs only during school dropoff and pickup hours—and takes summers off!

New Polling Provides Hope for Progressive Tax Solution

Fortunately, pro-transit organizations and activists across the Bay Area are uniting to pressure San Mateo County and Santa Clara County to pay their fair share. Our new demand is a gross receipts tax on all business activities, similar to San Francisco’s GR tax. Bay Area Forward, a group of transit unions (including SEIU), operators, and activists, just surveyed likely 2026 voters and found that 61% would support a gross receipts tax. The race is on to build enough public support to pressure other San Mateo County decision makers—San Mateo County Transit Authority (SMCTA), the Board of Supervisors, C/CAG—into advising SamTrans to “opt in” to SB 63 by the August 11 deadline.Once our county is confirmed to be in play, Peninsula DSA and our coalition partners will have a more than a year to boost public support through canvassing, flyering, and more.

Peninsula DSA now organizes with Transbay Coalition, as part of its San Mateo County cadre, and with Seamless Bay Area. Our chapter has promoted regional socials and led flyering events at BART and Caltrain stations to inform riders of proposed cuts. (The coalition’s next big event is a rally for public transit at the Millbrae BART/Caltrain station on July 1.) Every month, we mobilize to make public comments—whether in person, by Zoom, or via email—at the SamTrans BOD meetings. Transbay Coalition members now hold three of eleven seats on the SamTrans Citizens Advisory Committee and are actively recruiting like-minded folks for four vacant seats. 

We call on our fellow socialists to join our fight for public transit in four ways:

1. Push your chapter to use public transit. Like public libraries, public transit budgets rise or fall with public demand. If the coordinated Montgomery bus boycott ended racial segregation, a coordinated bus-riding effort by California DSA chapters could force more public investment. A great place to start is making all chapter meetings, socials, and events fully accessible by transit!

2. Join your local transit coalition so we can fight on a unified front. There are pro-transit organizers already at work near you; see this joint letter that Move California sent to Sacramento legislators for 100 different organizations!

3. Make public comments at agency board meetings. Because the monthly BOD meeting of your local transit agency is probably underattended, your public comment can directly influence decision makers. Use your two or three minutes to air socialist perspectives and solutions! You can show solidarity with Peninsula DSA by commenting in person or via Zoom in favor of SB 63 at the next SamTrans meeting on Wednesday, July 2. (Details at peninsuladsa.org/public-transit.)

4. Support your local transit workers (e.g, ATU, SEIU, TWU AFL-CIO). Santa Clara County’s Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) workers proved so essential that a Superior Court judge ordered them back to work on March 26, 2025. Imagine the transit we could win when we stand in solidarity with the workers who provide it.

Transit coalitions

Bay Area

Bay Area Safe Routes to School

People’s Transit Alliance

Seamless Bay Area

Transbay Coalition

Voices for Public Transit

Transit Riders Unions

East Bay Transit Riders Union

San Francisco Transit Riders (includes Transit Justice Coalition)

Silicon Valley Transit Users

Bicyclists

Bike East Bay

California Bicycle Coalition
Marin County Bicycle Coalition

Napa County Bicycle Coalition

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

Silicon Valley Bike Coalition (includes San Mateo County)

Sonoma County Bike Coalition

The biggest city in America will be choosing its next mayor this month on June 24, when the Democratic primary election for the New York City mayoral race takes place. But with summer heating up on the west coast, and our chapters facing a slew of local issues and conflicts, some of us might not care too much about what happens in the Big Apple. However, this race has the potential to be one of the most important events for DSA and American socialism in years. It’s the first time in over one hundred years an open socialist is running for mayor in NYC. Zohran Mamdani—DSA member and representative for New York’s 36th State Assembly district—has built a fiery campaign that has catapulted him to a close second in recent polling. He has a real chance of winning this mayoral race, and California democratic socialists should take notice.

Incumbent mayor Eric Adam’s first term has been fraught with scandal, corruption, and working class antagonism. His rule saw the return of several ‘tough on crime’ policies like renewed plain-clothes policing and adding two police officers to every subway train at night. With calls for a ceasefire in Gaza ramping up across NYC over the past two years, Adams has also maintained firm and uncritical support of Israel while refusing to call for a ceasefire. 

Adams and big money corruption

Last year, Adams was charged with taking bribes and soliciting illegal campaign contributions, including from foreign nationals. This made him the first sitting NYC mayor to be indicted on federal criminal charges. But while the investigation was on-going, Trump—who Adams refused to call a fascist—instructed prosecutors to end the corruption case. The same month Adam’s case was dropped, he joined the Independent party and told critics at a town hall that “all those who are just saying ‘just fight him, resist, resist’ — I’m not part of the resist movement.’ Adams now cooperates with HSI and ICE to kidnap the same undocumented migrants he has long housed in his sanctuary city. 

Adams is another example of how big money corruption and liberal capitulation to fascism has continued to erode the foundations of our democracy. But with Adams condemned to political irrelevancy, there is a new chance for New Yorkers to choose someone who represents their interests.

Mamdani’s program

Zohran Mamdani is known in NYC for his activism and legislation. He participated in a hunger strike with taxi drivers to help them win access to debt relief; years later he joined another hunger strike in front of the White House to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. His “Fix the MTA” campaign saw  a $100 million increase to NYC metro services and the founding of a successful free bus pilot program. 

On top of Zohran’s public transit reform and other progressive policy proposals is a bold initiative for freeze the rent for all stabilized tenants. NYC has long been one of the least affordable cities to live in, with renters paying close to 30% of their income on rent. Zohran is also putting forward a public works project to build 200,000 “permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes” over the next 10 years. These policies aim to give the children of NYC today the option of staying in their city tomorrow. Zohran’s campaign promises appear to be gaining popularity, and scaring the hell out of New York billionaires and their candidate Andrew Cuomo.

That’s right, the same Cuomo who was accused by eleven current and former New York State employees of sexual harassment. After a five-month investigation that mounted credible evidence against him, Cuomo resigned in disgrace. Risen once more by his Wall Street backers, Cuomo has been coasting on name recognition back into politics. While leading by double digits for most of the campaign, his checkered past has continued to haunt him on the campaign trail. 

Encouraging polling

During the first Democratic primary debate, Cuomo was at the bottom of a savage dogpile, with Zohran landing some of the best punches of the night. Claiming to be “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” Zohran stated that “the difference between myself and Cuomo is that my campaign is not funded by the very billionaires that put Donald Trump in D.C.” Post-debate polling is now showing Cuomo’s double digit lead shrinking to single digits. 

With endorsements from multiple unions, progressive representatives, organizations (including NY-DSA), and a recent tap from AOC, we gotta keep the momentum up. While NYC may be on another planet for us, a socialist mayor in NYC could be the spark that the progressive left desperately needs. Putting an immigrant, Muslim, socialist mayor in the heart of American capitalism—in Trump’s home city—would be a huge blow to the fascist oligarchy gripping our nation.

The first thing was the visceral body-memory of what it felt like the first time this president roiled the nation. The repulsion. The dread. The fear.

I don't want to go through this again, every cell of me said last autumn, as I imagined 2025 and beyond. The temptation to pull up the covers and hide, or stay frozen, doomscrolling, was familiar and strong.

Then I remembered how horrible I felt when I could do pretty much nothing but doomscroll, due to how very sick I was during much of Trump’s first term. I knew nothing would feel worse than doing nothing at all. Better frontline than sideline. 

Good medicine and care had been making me stronger since then. Perhaps I could blow the dust off my at-large DSA membership and do something useful with that?

In Search of a Real Socialist Organizer

So I started looking around, figuring I would just pitch in wherever Real Socialist Organizers had already decided to respond. I combed through national DSA's website and started slogging through a few of the (many) emails I'd previously ignored. The more I read, the more evident it was that working class-focused DSA chapters were core units of necessary political power.

Only problem was, the closest DSA chapter was...five hours away? Gulp.

Surely somebody more capable was forming a chapter nearer to here? I showed up at a few virtual gatherings of California DSA and the national organization to find who they might be. By happenstance, on one of the California DSA zooms I saw someone identify themself as local to my area. I reached out. We connected. We knew some of the same people from the Bernie campaigns. I learned there had been previous efforts to get DSAers organized locally. So I dug out some old contacts, begged for a few more, and started making calls.

I called people I knew who might have a connection to those prior efforts, or might fancy a new one. I asked who else might be interested. I called, messaged, read, asked questions, and tried to take it all in. Doomscrolling would start to seize me again. Then I’d stop and make some more calls.  

Through weeks of this, I kept looking for the Real Socialist Organizer who would SURELY materialize with a poof to assure me that they—competent, valorous, and presumably abled—were already ON IT, making a DSA chapter magically appear.

Meanwhile, as the president's malice befell the world again, something weird was happening. In between doomscrolling relapses, my conversations with all these other people who cared about working class power the way I did prompted a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. In spite of the onslaught of devastating news, I was feeling actually...hopeful? 

Eventually, I had to face facts. The local Real Socialist Organizer I sought was not going to materialize at my convenience. Improbably—absurdly even—it was going to have to be mostly-housebound, introverted, middle-aged, cranky, chronically ill, disabled me. Not because I was an ideal person for the job nor particularly wanted it, but because sometimes, I could do some part of this work somewhat competently, and it so very much needed to get done. I was the organizer now. 

All Hail the Real Socialist Organizers

All those calls and messages brought me into contact with actual Real Socialist Organizers who lived far away. Each time I found one, I begged them for help. No dignity here! This is fascism, not a drill.

They said, absolutely! We'll help! Because, after all, that's what a Real Socialist Organizer does. They get people doing socialist organizing -- that's the whole point! California DSA leaders were particularly gracious and helpful, and as I got better plugged in I found folks at the national org were, too. 

Next thing I knew, DSAers and DSA friends were regularly meeting locally, because I, of all people, invited them to! We were quiet and loud, new to politics and multiply burned out, young and not-at-all young. Everybody brought something different to the room, and it felt fresh, somewhat scary, invigorating, comradely and rich. I managed to revive a few useful skills from my pre-sick political life and started sharing them where I could. I drafted agendas, cooked meals, got others doing both, and kept making calls. Little by little, others stepped up and together, as a group, we started to bloom.

Not a Glide Path

As we get to know each other, we identify our shared political dreams, what we are into, and what we aren't. We keep gathering and a sense of coherence slowly emerges, keeps emerging. We start out a hodge-podge of isolated, worried, interested, idealistic folks, and gradually become comrades. When it felt like we had enough of this groupness together, we applied to be a DSA Pre-Organizing Committee.

Do we know what we're doing? Sometimes! A little! We are learning. We've had challenges around matching our skills and experience to the very big lift of building local working class power. Five of us spent a weekend in a DSA leadership training and came out with renewed cohesion and resolve. Now we're an interim steering committee! So much to learn, connections to make, campaigns to lead. 

Sometimes it seems harder than it should be to figure out the obvious things we need for this process. Like, where is the universal, easy-to-read introductory DSA literature for tabling, flyering, and working the ever-growing protest crowds, which could make it so much easier for a new DSA group like ours to rapidly grow? We had to look high and low to find materials to adapt for our purposes, hindered by the fact our local members aren't very experienced creating such lit. Meanwhile, in California, 28% of adults struggle to read English at the most basic level. This is the working class we all say we care about, and people marginalized in this way need power -- and accessible materials -- even more than those of us who take reading for granted.  

The deadliest places in California

The deadliest places in California for people aged 15-44 are all up here in the fabulously gorgeous rural north, and none have DSA chapters. "Deaths of despair" here are commonplace. According to a December 2024 state Legislative Analyst's Office report, "The counties with the highest young adult death rates are all in the rural northern part of the state." The untimely deaths correlate to our widespread poverty and have been on the rise, particularly for people of color and for men. We are lucky to have many strong Native Tribes in the region, but life can be exceedingly difficult because of the genocides and ongoing trauma brought by settler colonialism, and hard for other working class folks too in the wake of the collapse of multiple extractive industries. Yet Shasta is currently the only county in this region with a DSA Organizing Committee (shout-out and huge props to them!).

Many of our communities have either no broadband Internet, or its availability is very uneven. On-camera zoom meetings can only get us so far (not to mention spotty public transit and our landslide-prone rural roads). Where is the network of other DSA organizers who are also overcoming these things? How can we easily find, get to know and support each other?

So many rural people share our socialist values but don't come with a background (or interest) in dense political theory and jargon. Some are too busy cobbling together a living, caregiving and generally staying alive, to be interested in fractious online DSA spaces. Meanwhile, we are constantly weathering climate and economic disasters together. The same face-to-face community relationships that hold small places tightly together through thick and thin are also essential to the power-building work socialists believe in. Marginalized rural peoples' shared connections are as valuable as any other kind. Calloused hands hold precious keys to our collective freedom.

I find myself wondering what we can do to keep every new and aspiring DSA organizer and group from having to navigate daunting challenges in isolation. It would be great to have a DSA Rural Network and Skill-Share!

Coming Together

In spite of the challenges, earlier this month nine members joined together to submit an Organizing Committee Application for Humboldt DSA! We know it's a humble start but we're proud of it, because every single name on that application reflects trust we've earned with and extended to each other amid frightening times.

Now, just a few months after I first paused my doomscrolling habit, a whole room full of determined Real Socialist Organizers gather regularly here. We draw on the moral and practical support of our comrades afar. Our movement is only beginning. Our solidarity is strong and is deepening. Onward we grow.

At this moment you might be forgiven for asking, “So where are we at now with the fascism thing?” My answer: “Well on the way.”

Think of the moment after World War II, with fascism crushed, and the allies—Capitalist Democracy and Soviet Communism—standing briefly side by side over its inert body, each believing with differing forms of relief that this thing had been put away for good. Then imagine the big screen slo-mo in reverse of something broken in pieces at first slowly and then with a rush coming back together, whole again. 

That’s what the past few months have felt like to me here in MAGA America. The elements have been coming together steadily. Let’s summarize: the president freeing convicted violent right wing insurrectionists; a furious scapegoating of immigrants, in a formerly proud nation of immigrants, to draw attention away from the looting of the public sector and destruction of government services by billionaires; armed masked men seizing people off the street, in workplaces, shopping centers and courtrooms, and taking them away in unmarked vehicles to privately operated detention centers, or to their countries of origin where they face harm, or to countries they hadn’t come from—more than fifty thousand people newly behind borders, bars and fences; a judge arrested; a union leader arrested; a mayor from the opposition party arrested; a U.S. Senator from the opposition party arrested—each while peaceably defending immigrants against state-sanctioned kidnapping; and a massive ongoing chorus of right wing media spewing a toxic smokescreen of lies to reshape reality into a public narrative greasing the skids to fascism. 

And now, the murder of elected leaders of the opposition party. No, I’m not fantasizing this act resulted from a direct order from Trump; it didn’t need to be. It’s the logical outcome of his continuous encouragement of violence within his MAGA movement base and amplification in the conservative media ecosphere.

[Note: I wrote this article a week ago. So the “now” of the last paragraph is too old, because “now” the United States has gone to war, and this new step pretty much completes the fascism checklist. (Is there such a thing? Sort of. See my previous articles on the topic here, here, here and here.)]

Throughout, some of us have kept thinking, “There’s a path out of this nightmare. We have four tests. If the courts don’t hold, there’s the 2026 elections. If the elections don’t hold, there’s mass action in the streets. And finally, if the streets fail us, the American military won’t let their old enemy—fascism—prevail…will they?”

The question of the military

The question of the military, however, is a fraught one. Although legally and (mostly) historically neutral on American soil, it is the foundation of American imperialism abroad and has never been constrained in that role by the democratic pieties to which it proclaims allegiance here. Since the end of World War II and about-face on former ally Soviet Union, during which Communism was essentially refashioned as the replacement ideological “ism” for vanquished fascism, every international military adventure by the United States has been draped in the robes of Democracy against Communism or some other form of authoritarianism—even when all too obviously it was democratically elected forces that the US itself was overturning. 

So that’s a key question: what does democracy mean to US military forces inside the country today? Despite local (city and state) government objections, including a star turn by Gavin Newsom on prime-time national TV, muted oppositional muttering within the National Guard, and a temporary restraining order by a judge (on hold at the moment), we have yet to see the reversal of Guard deployment to L.A. Trump’s dispatch of a contingent of Marines—as if Los Angeles were Iwo Jima—has pushed the boundaries of acceptable military usage on American soil (along with our willing suspension of disbelief) out to the vanishing point. Juxtaposed with that you have the president encouraging soldiers on duty to jeer his hallucinatory perceived enemies (including a former president) and cheer as if they’re at a campaign rally—which, due to the presence of a vendor selling MAGA paraphernalia to the soldiers—it was. 

All of this is real, in real time. 

Dumpster fire of a Reichstag fire

The fascist president of the United States and his followers have been working overtime to set up a plausible illusion of lawless chaos and rebellion—a right wing media-fueled dumpster fire of a Reichstag fire—in order to justify bringing the iron fist of the state repressive apparatus onto downtown Los Angeles. But what Trump is trying to do is much bigger than that singular local action.

In a political democracy that sits on top of a coercive economic foundation—capitalism, which does not require political democracy to reproduce itself—the fragile edifice of control by the people over the plutocrats has always faced deep challenges and in fact can never be fully realized. People power versus money power, especially after Citizens United, has become a race against time, and with Trump in the White House and MAGA control over the other branches of federal government, we—the people, the climate, the future, the immigrants who built and continue to build America—are at this moment losing that race.

Well on the way to fascism

Trump and MAGA are testing how far they can push the membrane of political democracy before it breaks. Ultimately, he can ignore the courts, and he may be able to shut down the 2026 elections. But if they are large enough, he cannot ignore the demonstrations in the streets, at which point he needs know about the military’s inclinations. He is probing now, with his illegal military deployments and his immoral political speeches to the troops and sickening encouragement of MAGA violence, whether that key portion of the membrane is his or democracy’s. 

This is no longer an early stage of the process. We are well on the way to fascist America. History says that it’s not inexorable. The direct action of thousands of ordinary people—as we saw on April 5, May 1, and June 14 on “No Kings Day”—establishes a bump in the road that, with continued organizing, can enlarge itself to millions of people and thus a powerful barricade to the dismantling of our incomplete but essential political democracy. It takes me and you; there’s no one else, and now is the time. It will continue to be time until the job is done.

by Elizabeth Henderson

If you haven’t gardened before, there are tons of resources and local workshops to help you. Growing food is a millennial project – human beings have perfected their know-how over thousands of years.  No need to try to invent it yourself! The best way to learn is to find a mentor – many of the community gardens in Rochester have gardeners with roots that connect back to those millennial practices.  At the Magnolia Street Children’s Garden where I help out, there are three elders who together have over 200 years of experience! They may have trouble bending over – but that’s where you swoop in to help them and learn.

The basics of producing healthy food are simple – as my friend Joe (80 years of experience) says – SWANS: Sunshine, Water, Air, Nutrients and Soil – in other words, an ecological system. In organic farming, there is one orthodoxy: healthy soils give you healthy plants and then the critters who eat those plants are healthy. Organic practices and permaculture derive from millennial peasant wisdom in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Beware of silver bullets – substances that are advertised as eliminating all pests will probably kill you too, if not all at once, then slowly. Once you have healthy soil, you will not need to add fertilizers, only organic matter to feed the gazillions of microorganisms and members of the soil food web that feed the crops.  Pests and diseases will be fewer in a healthy system. Google Ruth Stout for ideas about how to use as little energy as possible.

Here is a quick guide:

• Keep the soil covered in green plants for as many months as possible – Maximize photosynthesis –
• Keep the fungi happy! Fungi go deep with their hyphae for all the best plant food. Tillage disrupts their delicate network of hyphae.
• Keep a diversity of species above ground to enhance species diversity below ground
• Support microbes, fungi and bacteria, to keep them working – feed them with compost, vermicompost
• Minimize tillage – bare soil loses carbon – use permanent vegetable bed systems
• Over the winter plant cover crops or mulch

The post Getting Grounded: Advice to Garden Newbies first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

Note: posts by individual GMDSA members do not necessarily reflect the views of the broader membership or of its leadership and should not be regarded as official statements by the chapter.

Below is a speech made by Green Mountain DSA labor chair, Andy Blanchet, on June 10th, 2025 at the Burlington, VT ICE OUT protest. The protest brought together people across the Vermont community - from union & migrant workers to retirees and community organizers - to stand in solidarity with the community of Los Angeles, CA in their resistance to government repression. 

GMDSA’s Labor Committee recently worked with rank and file union members in putting on a Union Power organizing training in April 2024, and was a key organization in coordinating and organizing the May Day 2025 March in Williston, VT where 2,500 people came out to celebrate international workers’ day and stand in solidarity with Vermont migrant farm workers in their Milk with Dignity picket line at Hannaford Supermarket. 

---

Repeat after me:  An Injury to One, is an Injury to all! (x3)

Hello! My name is Andy Blanchet and I am a full-time worker at Howard Center, and speak today as president of our labor union, AFSCME Local 1674, and as chair of the Green Mountain Democratic Socialists of America Chapter’s Labor Committee. I come with an urgent message for fellow working class people and our role in combating Trump’s Authoritarian cruelty as witnessed in LA and beyond. I first want to state clearly: AFSCME Local 1674 stands in solidarity with all who have been kidnapped by ICE and DHS and we demand the immediate release of those currently detained. We stand in solidarity with every Union member on the streets exercising our right to freedom of speech in calling for an end to the cruel ICE raids. These unacceptable state sponsored acts of kidnapping are both horrific and unsurprising from this administration. Unsurprising, considering capitalism’s fundamentally authoritarian nature. 

We currently live in a world where bosses who run corporations have full authority over workers. This is an ugly dictatorship of capital - where those who make profits from the blood, sweat, and tears of workers can decide exactly what kind of lives we are allowed to live by exploiting our time and energy for the sake of profit. Not only that, but the capitalist landlords, who pay for their new pools and 2nd homes with our meager wages we break our backs for, decide exactly how much to extort from us in exchange for shelter. Workers have historically worked to combat this dictatorship of the bosses by forming our own labor and tenant unions.

And with that collective organizing, working class people have tried to exercise our natural rights to free speech, organizing, freedom of association, and collective bargaining to win both better wages and working conditions, as well as political change. However, every step of the way, the rich have fought us tooth and nail for even the most meager of wins. They hire union busting lawyers from an industry that reaps profits by convincing employers to keep them on retainer in order to fight their own workers simply pursuing dignity and respect in the workplace. They call the police on striking workers, like they did to Starbucks Workers’ United members during their sit-down strike earlier this year. The rich have even gone so far as to OUTLAW the ability to strike, to withhold our labor, in different industries. That didn’t stop unions like the Newton Teachers’ Association of Newton Massachusetts from organizing a successful, and illegal, strike to win their demands. 

But now, it seems, the rich bosses want more. They criminalize working people from speaking out in support of Palestine through the critique of our own country’s complicity in the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people. ICE beat & detained the President of SEIU California, David Huerta, while he exercised his freedom of speech. The rich are willing to target unions, union workers & leaders, and immigrant workers to maintain their full control over our economic, political, and social lives. And it is essential that every union, be they local or international, answer the question: Which side are you on?

The time for fence-sitting apolitical unionism must come to an end. There are numerous examples of unions trying to play-nice with overtly hostile political administrations, thinking this would save them, and it never has. All this does is allow those in power to exercise their will over organized labor and know they can get away with it. Worse than that, the do-nothing Democratic party has used the plight of working class people as their political platform for decades. Workers are not pawns to be used in rhetoric and then discarded when it’s time to make good on policy promises - working people are who have built and sustained society and we deserve money for healthcare, prenatal & child care, education, housing, and food, not money for bombs and deportation! It is well past time for unions, big and small, to recognize these trends and organize to win the future we all deserve.

We can win these demands, and more, if we recognize and internalize that when we are divided, and alone, we are at risk. But when we practice safety through solidarity, we are unstoppable! Look at what organized labor did to energize the working class of South Korea in 2024. By organizing workers in huge companies into strike-ready unions and collaborating with farm workers, Korean workers were able to mobilize and fight back against President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law in a fight for democracy. We, the workers and organized labor, must find the political will to commit to this version of organizing for the common good in order to have a lasting impact. We deserve lives of dignity, honor, love, and justice!

The workers, united, will never be defeated! (x3)

Thank you! Solidarity Forever!

Columbus DSA condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the actions of President Trump and his administration, the United States armed forces, ICE, and the LAPD in their relentless brutality against peaceful protestors fighting to protect their communities from the thugs abducting their friends, family, and neighbors. We condemn the violence of ICE and their campaign of mass deportations that has come to our city of Columbus. On June 3rd ICE arrested Leonardo Fausto at a court hearing for a dismissed misdemeanor traffic violation. Fausto has lived in Columbus legally for 4 years while waiting to be granted asylum. Ohio senators have also passed a bill that will require public officials to allow the arrest of suspected undocumented immigrants with or without warrants, while other Ohio lawmakers have proposed the “America First Act”, making it a felony to be in Ohio undocumented. We stand in unshakable solidarity with our undocumented neighbors: no one’s existence is illegal.

The recent protests in Los Angeles and other cities demonstrate that the American people are aware of the cruelty that this administration inflicts upon our families, our neighbors, and people in our communities, and we demand that these abuses stop.

Left unchecked, this administration, alongside ICE and local law enforcement, will continue to hide what the ‘land of the free’ has become from the world. They obscure their names and faces so that no one knows who to hold accountable for their crimes, all while they vanish our neighbors, family, and friends. ICE has only existed since 2003 but is being used like the Gestapo of Nazi Germany to create terror among us. We have lived without their presence for most of our existence, and we don’t need them now. To that end, we demand the following from our own community of Columbus:

We demand ICE be abolished. We demand that undocumented citizens be given amnesty and a swift path to citizenship. And we call for the immediate release of every person that ICE has arrested in LA and across the nation.

We demand that Columbus City Council end their contracts with ICE, make Columbus a sanctuary city, and protect its residents from these illegal abductions.

Columbus DSA will continue to fight for the power of the working class and the freedoms of people all over the world, immigrants or not. We will not stand by as the people of our community are abused by state violence. An injury to one is an injury to all. Free the prisoners, abolish ICE, and end the authoritarian regime currently in power.

On Thursday, June 19, we celebrate what began as Jubilee Day, and what we now recognize as Juneteenth. This year, it marks 160 years since Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to finally enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and deliver the word of freedom to some of the last enslaved Black Americans.