To celebrate Zohran Mamdami’s inauguration, and in honor of the mass mobilization that made this moment possible, our first newsletter of 2026 is about ways to get involved right now.
First, GMDSA is proud to endorse the following candidates:
Marek Broderick for Burlington City Council Ward 8
Matt Gile for Vermont House of Representatives (Chittenden-21)
Jeffrey Peterson for Vermont House of Representatives (Chittenden-16)
We will be canvassing for Marek starting at 1:00PM in Burlington, location TBA. Reply to this email if you would like to join, and expect many more canvassing opportunities in our next newsletter and beyond. If you’ve been considering getting involved but don’t know how, canvassing is one of the best ways to start. Zohran’s campaign knocked 3 million doors!
To that end, our Electoral and Communications Committees are launching a new, joint initiative. If you are part of a group doing something about our current crisis, formal or informal, big or small, if you’ll have us, we want to meet you in person (or, if you prefer, over Zoom) to learn how we can help.
The first stop of this tour will be at Building A Local Economy (BALE) in South Royalton on January 21 at 6:00PM. Our 2026 Electoral and Communications Chairs, Adam and Alejandro, will be giving a talk and discussing our political strategy with BALE’s Resistance Hub.
A lot is going wrong right now, and we know that there are people all over Vermont trying to do something about it. We already work with many of you, and the coalitions we’ve made are behind our biggest successes, but we know that there are more of you out there doing important things. We want to work with you. Write in, and we can do it together.
Upcoming Events:
Canvassing for Councilor Marek Broderick Saturday, January 3, starting location TBA.
GMDSA member Brandon Lawson is hosting Green Mountain IWW Workplace Organizing Workshop Sunday January 11 at 3:00PM in the Community Room in the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington.
Worker’s Circle is every 2nd and 4th Wednesday at 6:00PM at 179 S. Winooski Avenue in Burlington. The next one is January 14.
GMDSA @ BALE - January 21 at 6:00PM.
For regular GMDSA Committee meetings, see our calendar.
State News:
Starbucks workers are on strike across 145 stores and counting, and the union is asking customers to stop shopping at Starbucks.
Hospice United had a successful Honk and Wave on December 20 as they bargain their first contract.
Western New York, alongside regions across the country, faces healthcare disaster due to the dysfunction of America’s privatized healthcare system being accelerated by federal cuts and state inaction. The Buffalo chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has run a campaign for over a year, Back Off BNP, researching, educating, and organizing WNY residents around the collaboration of local hospital systems, health insurers, and major corporations in the Buffalo Niagara Partnership (BNP).
“Quality healthcare is not just a necessity for us and our kids, it is a human right. It’s unacceptable that we live in fear of insurers, or of bosses dangling healthcare benefits like a carrot over our heads.“
The campaign seeks to publicize the chamber of commerce’s political influence in favor of private capital and corporations in the state, and against the solution of universal healthcare in New York state, legislation called the New York Health Act (NYHA; NY State Senate Bill 2023-S7590 and Assembly Bill A7897). DSA calls for an urgent focus on NYHA this 2026 legislative session as premiums for WNYers skyrocket to unsustainable amounts due to commercial health insurance plans seeking to offset Medicaid cuts and the effects of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill.
“Private health insurers, such as Independent Health, are being empowered to deny therapeutic and rehabilitative services to patients through arbitrarily and automatically requiring prior authorization. They make massive amounts of money to deny healthcare, get in the way of treatment, and I see them inflict cruelty and desertion on stroke and traumatic brain injury patients,” said Olivia Colgrove, co-chair of the Buffalo DSA Healthcare Committee that organized the picket and a speech-language pathologist. The issue referenced by Colgrove has received high-profile coverage in The Guardian, focusing on Kaleida (whose president and CEO sits on the board of BNP).
“We have been volunteers sounding the alarm on the rollback of what little public healthcare still exists, and the crisis that expansion of the role of private insurers in these programs represents. Trump’s second term is already showing how fragile a system based on private insurance is,” said Moira Madden, co-chair of the Buffalo DSA Healthcare Committee and emergency mental health caseworker. “It’s past time for urgency in the movement for universal healthcare on the state level (e.g. NYHA), as a way to protect against this worsening dysfunction. January 2026 begins a new state legislative session, and a new opportunity for public advocacy and oversight of anti-NYHA lobbyists.”
“Quality healthcare is not just a necessity for us and our kids, it is a human right. It’s unacceptable that we live in fear of insurers, or of bosses dangling healthcare benefits like a carrot over our heads. I am proud to stand with Buffalo DSA, as our campaign and chapter fight for the New York Health Act,” said Adam Bojak, Buffalo DSA member and candidate for state assembly in district 149.
On January 8, 2026 the Buffalo Niagara Partnership will be presenting their lobbying agenda for the year to their political allies at the Jazzboline restaurant in Amherst, from 4-7pm. Buffalo DSA has once again been organizing their membership, sympathetic organizations, and the signatories to their Back Off BNP campaign so far to picket the event and BNP’s longstanding role in opposing the NYHA solution to the healthcare crisis that could be led by New York.
More on NYHA and BNP
NYHA would create statewide, universal, “single payer” healthcare, meaning if passed, all New Yorkers would be enrolled in a single, public insurance program. All services requiring a medical professional of the patient’s choice would be fully covered, without extraneous fees or the negative, profit-motivated intervention of a private insurer.
Buffalo DSA has long rallied around NYHA’s passage alongside like-minded groups and unions statewide, based on its positive projected outcomes for workers’ rights, families, and individuals in all stages of life in New York, as well as the state’s health systems. NYHA, according to the organization, would provide $80 billion in savings over 10 years, as a self-sustaining program through the state’s progressive tax structure. Per their research, New York would not need to cut any essential or existing social programs to fund NYHA, and would create ~150,000 new jobs in the public sector, with retraining for and rehiring of current private insurance workers. Public hospitals would benefit from a higher reimbursement rate, which would lower chances of hospital closures, improving health outcomes for New Yorkers.
The corresponding legislation for NYHA has stalled over the course of several sessions, in part due to lobbyists like the Buffalo Niagara Partnership; the region’s most-utilized health insurers hold leadership on the BNP board and the organization enjoys close ties with local politicians. As Buffalo DSA states in its report on NYHA Opposition, the BNP’s Memorandum of Opposition against these bills, and its membership in an untraceable campaign called “Realities of Single Payer” are examples of their lack of care for the region’s residents. “The way the BNP has wielded its power to lobby against universal healthcare is cruel and unacceptable,” said Madden. “Everyday working people, who outnumber the executives of the BNP, deserve a healthcare system that works for everyone. Anti-NYHA lobbying only serves to enrich the insurance and health system executives on the leadership board.”
Western New York residents are encouraged to visit Buffalo DSA’s campaign website to learn more about the New York Health Act and sign the organization’s petition. Those interested in volunteering for further campaigning are encouraged to contact the chapter; the group says no previous campaign experience is required.
Buffalo DSA, Inc. is a member dues funded and member-directed not-for-profit in the State of New York. Democratic Socialists of America believe both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. Join Buffalo DSA by visiting buffalodsa.org.
Madison Area DSA unequivocally condemns the illegal and unprovoked bombing of Caracas and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.
This is not an “intervention” against “narcoterrorism” or in favor of democracy, as the Trump Regime claims. It is a blatant act of war in pursuit of resource control and hemispheric dominance, and it sends a message to Latin American and other governments around the world: submit to American imperialism or you’ll be next.
This escalation, while shocking, represents the logical culmination of decades of economic, diplomatic, and covert war by the US against Venezuela, and a return to the norms that characterized the darkest era of US aggression in Latin America that occurred under the auspices of the Monroe Doctrine. It is the latest installment in the pattern of American imperialist violence and regime-change policy that has played out many times over in every corner of the world.
The actions of the United States, in every previous imperialist war and now in Venezuela, clearly violate:
The UN Charter and the fundamental principle of national sovereignty;
International law against war crimes;
The right of all peoples, including the Venezuelan people, to self-determination.
The liberal establishment has once again failed to fight back against the illegal and barbaric acts of the Trump Regime. Rather than recognize the fundamental injustice of imperialism and seek to dismantle it, prominent Democrats have focused on procedural gripes. Rather than condemn the attack, they complain that Trump failed to obtain Congressional approval. This ignores the blatant illegality of the bombing and kidnapping, and the inhumanity of America’s policy towards Venezuela in general. Their responses lay bare the inherent incapacity of neoliberal hegemony to oppose fascist tendency.
As Democratic Socialists, we recognize the true motives and intended effects of the Trump Regime’s escalation:
Seizure of Venezuela’s sovereign oil wealth and the transfer of that wealth from the Venezuelan people to private American companies;
Geopolitical control over the Western Hemisphere through the destruction of Venezuelan resistance to US hegemony and the further dissuading of any other Latin American government from insubordination to Washington and the interests of foreign capital;
The destruction of Bolivarian socialism and any other alternative to neoliberal capitalism.
We therefore demand, not simply a return to liberal norms, but rather:
An immediate end to all hostilities;
The return of President Maduro and First Lady Flores;
The lifting of all sanctions and other forms of economic warfare;
Reparations for lost Venezuelan life and property, both national and private;
An end to the Monroe Doctrine and US interventions that violate other nations’ sovereignty;
Prosecution for war crimes of any US government personnel who planned or executed this illegal military action;
The immediate release and exoneration of any and all individuals detained and arrested on American soil for protesting the bombing and kidnapping, in violation of the First Amendment;
Unconditional amnesty for all current and future Venezuelan immigrants and refugees in the United States in response to the United States’ violent treatment of their homeland.
To the working class of the United States, we say: This war is not in our name. It is waged by a capitalist oligarchy that exploits us and that, while bombing innocent civilians abroad, also bombs our communities with austerity, police violence, and neglect. The billions spent on this criminal adventure are stolen from our healthcare, our housing, our schools, and our climate future. The Venezuelan working class are our siblings and allies in the global class war, and we stand in solidarity with them and all victims of U.S. imperialist wars.
Triangle DSA condemns the US abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores. As socialists, we can clearly see this for what it is – an imperial ploy to seize oil resources and destabilize the Bolivarian Socialist government of Venezuela. The American oligarchy acted with impunity, laying the precedent that any nation that does not submit to profit-seeking interests will face unjustified military aggression.
On Saturday, TDSA members showed up alongside our comrades in PSL, other local organizations, and members of the public to protest this act of terror on civilians in Caracas and the escalation of the US’s ongoing war against Venezuelan sovereignty.
The fight for socialism is necessarily international and anti-imperialist. The destructive path of domination and state terror by the US both in Latin America and the Middle East will bring nothing but suffering to innocent people in the global south and increased profits to the ruling class. This is a path to global ruin that can only be brought to an end by socialist revolution.
By organizing within the imperial core, we stand with the workers of the world in a shared struggle to end imperialism, neocolonialism, and war, and to establish a new international order based on relations of solidarity, equality, and cooperation. Join DSA in demanding No War with Venezuela!
The Pinellas County chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America condemns in the strongest terms the United States’ disgraceful military assault on Venezuela and reported kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, early on January 3, 2026. This outrageous act represents a grave escalation of U.S. intervention in Latin America and a blatant violation of national sovereignty and international law.
The use of military force to seize a sitting head of state and his partner and transport them abroad for trial is a horrendous act of aggression, and should not be tolerated. It mirrors the 1989 invasion of Panama and reflects a deeply imperialist approach to foreign policy that prioritizes domination and resource control over diplomacy, peace, and international norms. It risks triggering widespread instability across the region, exacerbating humanitarian crises, and further eroding trust in international institutions.
For decades, successive U.S. administrations have leveraged sanctions, economic pressure, diplomatic isolation, and covert operations to undermine Venezuelan self-governance, producing humanitarian suffering and political instability while seeking to control the country’s vast oil and mineral resources. The United States’ long history of interference in the region reflects a pattern of imperial domination rather than any genuine concern for human rights or democratic governance.
The Pinellas County chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America demands an immediate end to this assault and respect for Venezuelan sovereignty. We urge Congress to assert its constitutional authority and halt further unauthorized military engagements abroad. We call on the United Nations to convene an emergency session to address this breach of international law. We call for the removal of all U.S. military forces from Puerto Rico and an end to the colonial use of the island as a military outpost just miles north of Venezuela. We also call for the immediate release of President Nicolas Maduro Moros from U.S. custody and for the dropping of all charges raised against him in this illegitimate indictment by the United States government. Lastly, we implore anyone who is incensed by this news to mobilize local and national pressure campaigns to oppose sanctions, military intervention, and economic coercion as tools of U.S. foreign policy.
We stand in solidarity with Latin American grassroots movements resisting imperialism and advocating for regional autonomy, peace, and justice. The United States must abandon its imperial approach and support just, democratic, and peaceful solutions determined by the people of Venezuela and the broader Global South.
The Trump Administration has started an illegal war against Venezuela. This is a nakedly imperialist war to install a US puppet government that will give Venezuela’s oil resources over to […]
Two nights ago, Trump’s fascist regime carried out airstrikes on Venezuela’s capital and kidnapped Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, along with his wife, Cilia Flores. In this armed invasion of a sovereign nation, the US also shamelessly murdered at least 40 Venezuelan people, including civilians. The Silicon Valley Democratic Socialists of America mourns this loss of life and condemns the imperialist war against Venezuela.
This kidnapping is simply a continuation of the long history of the United States undermining the sovereignty of Latin American states. This history goes decades back, including the 1954 overthrow of pro-labor President Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala, which led to decades of civil war in the nation, and the 1973 coup against socialist President Salvador Allende in Chile, which led to the fascist dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
These coups were orchestrated or encouraged by the US government not because the US believes in fighting for “democracy” or “freedom,” but because these Latin American governments pursued policies which undermined the economic interests of US corporations. This is the core of modern US foreign policy – to wreck entire countries and derail the lives of millions of people for decades, just so some corporate elites can make a quick buck off exploiting workers, land, and whatever or whoever they can get their hands on.
The US’ aggression against Venezuela is no different: Like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this war is being waged for the profits of US oil companies which are destroying the planet. Trump doesn’t even hide our government’s greed anymore, openly declaring after the airstrikes that the US intends to run Venezuela and plunder its vast oil resources.
This aggression started not just with the airstrikes, but has been waged through an almost-decades-long bipartisan “maximum pressure campaign” since 2017, where the US placed blanket sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector which powers its economy. These sanctions played a key role in drastically lowering Venezuela’s oil production, leading to a deep humanitarian crisis where Venezuela is no longer able to import its basic necessities like food and medicine. The sanctions have also had a staggering death toll, as mortality increased by 31 percent — meaning 40,000 more people died — just one year after the sanctions took effect. In turn, the US has attempted to pull the wool over the American people’s eyes and use this crisis to point to Venezuela as a failed state and justify their war, when they are the ones who accelerated the crisis in the first place!
However, the American people will not be fooled by this pathetic attempt to justify brazen imperialism – people know regime change does not work and will not benefit the 99%. When US healthcare and social programs are being slashed while billions are spent on military adventures, coups, and genocides, people know the only winners are the oil industry, the US war machine, and the billionaire class which profits off the exploitation of both American and Venezuelan workers.
Therefore, we as Silicon Valley DSA take a clear and uncompromising stand: Down with the military industrial complex which powers imperialism! Down with the genocidal US Empire and its capitalist cronies! And hands off Venezuela!
Hope your new year is off to a great start! Us? We’re stoked to dive in and start the work of building socialism off right in 2026! Check out the first newsletter of the year — whether it’s flyering local apartment complexes, picketing in support of striking working, spreading political education, or holding a press conference to demand an end to SPPD’s ICE collaboration, our members are on the move 🔥🔥🔥 and we’ve got the details below ⬇⬇⬇
Pinellas DSA members on the picket line with SBWU members at the Cleveland St. Starbucks location in Clearwater, FL.
December Highlights
We started off the month with members of our Housing Working Group joining the St. Petersburg Tenants’ Union to flyer at The Morgan, an apartment complex in South St. Pete where residents are experiencing profound landlord neglect. We also hosted an organizing meeting with residents of The Morgan to discuss the severe issues facing their complex, from structural damage to unclean common spaces, and what we can do about them.
Next was our first-ever Tri-County Social, bringing together socialists from the Pinellas, Tampa, and Pasco-Hernando DSA chapters. As we continue to grow DSA’s national profile, communication and collaboration with nearby branches is going to be essential. That’s why members of the three participating chapters met at John Chesnut Park in Palm Harbor on December 6th for games, grilling, and some comradely camaraderie!
We also hosted Unions 101, the final installment of the four core education series for the year. At this workshop, we shared crucial political education for members and non-members alike about the centrality of organized labor to the socialist cause, and why the struggle for a fair workplace and the struggle for a fair society are one and the same.
We also held two events focused around St. Pete PD’s 287(g) agreement, which deputizes SPPD officers to act as part-time brownshirts for ICE. First was a volunteer and canvassing meeting to share info about the 287(g) agreement and gauge support for a canvassing initiative on the issue. Then, on December 23, we participated alongside the Tampa Bay Immigrant Solidarity Network, Tampa DSA, PSL Tampa Bay, Tampa Immigrants Rights Committee, and members of the clergy for a press conference demanding Chief Holloway and his boss in City Hall, Mayor Ken Welch, void the 287(g) agreement.
Are we missing anything? Oh right… we also elected a new Steering Committee at our December General Body Meeting! The new Steering Committee includes Co-Chairs Karla C. and Shane M., Treasurer Sarah C., Secretary Tyler G., Organizer Chaize H., and Social Media Coordinator David D. Huge props to the outgoing Steering Committee for all their hard work and dedication in 2025!
CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Dump Duke
The temperature outside is dropping, but we’re turning up the heat on Duke Energy! Our Dump Duke campaign is entering its second year, and the tide is turning against the power conglomerate, which is why they’re throwing money into propaganda to sway residents against their best interests.
Duke is already spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV and social media ads through the lobbying group Edison Electric Institute, as well as their own newly formed dark-money 501(c)(6) organizations, the Clearwater Energy Alliance and Pinellas Energy Alliance. This, while Duke Energy announces massive rate hikes. They expect Pinellas residents to finance a propaganda campaign that cuts against the peoples’ best interest? We say we’re going to beat dark money with grassroots power!
The City of St. Petersburg is expected to send out requests for proposals in January to conduct a feasibility study on a municipally owned power utility. Meanwhile, we’re continuing our outreach efforts, with our next canvas scheduled for January 10. Come on out and get involved in this effort!
CAMPAIGN UPDATE: End 287(g)
Pinellas DSA members, alongside members of allied organizations, hosted a press conference in front of SPPD headquarters on December 23, demanding an end to the city’s 287(g) agreement with ICE.
Pinellas DSA, as a member organization of the Tampa Bay Immigrant Solidarity Network, joined Tampa DSA, PSL Tampa Bay, Tampa Immigrants Rights Committee, and members of the clergy for a press conference on December 23 in front of the headquarters of the St. Petersburg Police Department. We demanded that Chief Holloway and his boss in City Hall, Mayor Ken Welch, void the 287(g) agreement signed back in February, which authorizes local police to collaborate with ICE and serve as enforcers of fascism.
287(g) is a voluntary agreement. And, while Chief Holloway alleges that there’s been no direct collaboration as of yet with ICE, this agreement sets a dangerous precedent, and leaves the door open for local cops to be deputized stormtroopers at any time. That’s why we say “No more collaboration! End 287(g) now!”
CAMPAIGN UPDATE: SBWU Strike
Members of Pinellas DSA hit the picket lines this month in support of baristas fighting for a fair contract as part of the first-ever nationwide Starbucks Workers United strike. We joined striking workers at the Cleveland Street Starbucks in downtown Clearwater to say “No contract? No coffee!”
While workers at some stores across the country have since returned to work, the unprecedented strike wave continues. More than 250 new union baristas at 13 stores have won their union elections since the national ULP strike began on November 13, and just last week, SBWU announced that hundreds more baristas across 18 cities in 15 states have joined the struggle. This fight is far from over!
CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Organizing at The Morgan
Our organizing efforts at The Morgan Apartments in South St. Pete are paying off! The PDSA Housing Working Group and the St. Petersburg Tenants’ Union held a joint meeting on December 5 with over a dozen residents from The Morgan. These residents are fed up, passionate, and determined to take on their greedy, exploitative landlord.
Tenants at the meeting voted in favor of establishing a tenants union at The Morgan — a landmark achievement! Attendees also voted to hold another meeting to press for further action!
We’ll be hosting a joint assembly between the St. Petersburg Tenants’ Union & the Pinellas DSA Housing Working Group on January 6, with the aim of getting more people acclimated to the fight for housing justice.
Upcoming Events
Boycott Chevron Picket Saturday, January 3·from 10:00–11:30am. Meet us at 855 Tyrone Blvd N in St. Petersburg! Water and sunscreen provided.
The Morgan Door-Knocking Sunday, January 4 from 4:00–5:30pm. Knocking doors at The Morgan to inform tenants of the next tenants union meeting and urge them to get involved. Meet at The Morgan (5473 27th St S. in St. Petersburg).
Health Justice Working Group Meeting Monday, January 5·from 7:00–8:00pm. This will be a virtual meeting. RSVP Here
DSA & SPTU Housing Assembly Tuesday, January 6·from 7:00–8:30pm at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg). Discuss and take action on the housing crisis in St. Pete at this joint assembly between the St. Pete Tenants Union and Pinellas DSA. RSVP Here
Venezuela Educational Forum Wednesday, January 7 from 6:00–7:30pm at Barbara S. Ponce Public Library (7770 52nd St N. in Pinellas Park). RSVP Here
Dump Duke Canvass Saturday, January 10 from·10:30am–12:30pm. Meet at Lake Maggiore Park (3601 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. S. in St. Petersburg).
General Body Meeting Sunday, January 11 from 2:00–3:30pm at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg).
Educational/Social Working Group Meeting Wednesday, January 14 from·6:30–8:00pm. Join us at Bula Kava Bar & Coffee House (2500 5th Ave N. in St. Petersburg) to help plan the upcoming year’s events!
Housing Working Group + St. Pete Tenants’ Union Joint Meeting Tuesday, January 20 from·7:00–8:30pm at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg). We will meet in the Wesley Room; reach out to Boshko for more details!
Self-Managed Abortion Info Session Jan 24, 2026 at 01:00pm. People across the world are using abortion pills to end their pregnancies at home. The pills are safe and effective with accurate information and appropriate support. This will be a virtual event. RSVP Here
Richie Floyd Campaign Kickoff Saturday, January 24 from·7:00–9:00pm. Location details are TBA, but stay posted — you won’t want to miss this!
Cuba: An American History Reading Group Saturday, January 31 from·4:00–5:30pm at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg). We’ll be reading up to page 299 — there’s still time to get caught up!
Phil Christman, a writer and lecturer at the University of Michigan, is a committed Protestant Christian. He grew up attending a fundamentalist Calvinist church, and sharing in that perspective, but it was one that he struggled with from very early on. His disentangling from that approach to Christianity didn’t lead him to renounce his faith; rather, his faith evolved, and with that spiritual evolution came a political one as well. In the excellent Why Christians Should Be Leftists, he testifies to that evolution, and calls other Christians to join him as well.
The fact that Christman’s argument really isn’t one, but rather is a testimony and an altar call of sorts, must be kept in mind when assessing the book. The way he talks about “leftism”—which he refuses to capitalize, stating in an early footnote that he thinks the term describes an “overall direction” and not a destination “where a person can definitively arrive” (p. 16)—is one that flows organically from his Christian commitments. Rather than starting out by defining terms and unfolding a discourse premised on the materialist language that so much of post-Marxist leftism has been defined by over the past two centuries, his reflections are rooted in a grab-bag of deeply religious, even Biblical, concepts and concern that every believing Christian, in one way or another, confronts. What is fallen in this world? What is the nature of work? Should those who accept Jesus as their savior have a politics? Should they have kings? Should believers love their enemies? And just who, exactly, are their neighbors, and how should they interact with them? In Christman’s view, a serious engagement with all these questions and more must inevitably point believers towards some kind of socialism—but this is a conclusion which he articulates in a manner that, while deeply informed by political argument, actually doesn’t flow from the arguments which have shaped socialism over the years.
This, I think, is why a socialist review of Christman’s book may be valuable. Why Christians Should Be Leftists hasn’t become a bestselling, culture-defining book in the months since its publication (unfortunately), but it has been fairly widely reviewed…overwhelmingly by other thoughtful writers—peers of Christman’s, really—who share his Christian commitments. Kayak Oakes praised it in National Catholic Reporter, as did James K.A. Smith in The Christian Century and Samuel McCann in The Presbyterian Outlook (the more conservative publications First Things, Christianity Today, and Front Porch Republic were, perhaps predictably, less receptive to his book, though all acknowledged the power of his anti-capitalist claims). All of the above comments are worth perusing (as are thoughtful engagements with Christman by such writers as Alan Jacobs), and so are Christman’s own occasionalresponses to such. But none of any of the above, to my knowledge, have approached the book from the perspective of the Left (using a capital letter this time) as it has emerged over the course of the rise of global capitalism, the impacts of the industrial revolution, and the both important achievements and catastrophic failures attached to the Left throughout Western modernity. I’m hardly an expert on all of the above, but as a card-carrying, dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, as well as believing Christian (though a Mormon one, which I suspect at least a couple of the above might insist may not really count), let me give it a try.
Christman’s turn towards leftism, and his turn away from the conservative Christianity that defined his early life, defines the whole arc of his book, and is noted by every reviewer of it. As a college student attending a Calvinist university, he recounts being a lonely, confused, frustrated individual—feeling like a profound loser, in his own terms. And then recounts a time when he was reading from the Bible as part of group of similar losers outdoors—at least as compared to the other students playing the guitar, smoking, or flirting in their own groups all around them—and as they worked through Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount from the Book of Matthew in the New Testament, he suddenly thought about everyone around him differently:
I suddenly saw the glory of God shining out of their faces….[E]ach of these people was a subject that a person could love, and was capable of giving love to others, and was therefore infinitely precious and infinitely interesting. That whole economy of losers and winners, with its implied scarcity of worthiness, had disappeared. Or not disappeared but receded: it didn’t seem inevitable or fully real anymore. It seemed like a lie that needed to be undone by the constant practice of universal, constant, and unvarying love (pp. 8-9).
From this point on, step by step, the idea that the Christian message of God’s grace, forgiveness, and love entails an absolute, universal equality of persons comes to be unfolded in Christman’s life and thought. “Part of the point of being a Christian,” he writes, “is that you’re supposed to unlearn the human instinct to circle the wagons, identify the outsiders, prioritize the in-group,” and instead develop “the deep conviction that every stranger, every enemy, is a neighbor” (pp. 30-31). Since the structure of capitalism depends upon the private or corporate accumulation of profit and property—and thus functionally meaning the exclusion of others from possession of such of wealth—that means Christians have to move beyond it, even the more liberal and egalitarian versions of it. Similarly, since the structure of national borders depends upon the territorial claims to sovereignty—and thus functionally meaning the exclusion of others from the systems of law and care that sovereign governments establish—that means that Christians have to move beyond the state’s imposition of them, even when done so in light of comparatively democratic and humanitarian priorities. The universalizing, the absolute neighboring, of the resources of the world and the people who live within it, is the socialism that Christman believes the plain teachings of Jesus require. (And for those who insist that such “socialism” needs to take the form of personal charity rather than government policy, Christman’s succinct reproofs–so why haven’t believing Christians ever actually created charitable systems sufficient to meet Jesus’s call? and why wouldn’t such charity create the same “dependency” which conservatives supposedly fear?–are as solid as any I’ve ever read.)
Obviously, Karl Marx would have all sorts of problems with this. Not the final result–Marx’s vision of post-socialist revolution communism included the “withering away of the state” and, thus, presumably the realization of some kind of universal community of freedom and recognition, after all. Rather, Marx’s contempt would have been for Christman’s locating of the roots of this ideal in moral conviction, rather than some kind of material logic. His famous description of Christian socialism–“the holy water with which the priest consecrates the heart-burnings of the aristocrat”–makes his perspective fairly clear: if socialism is understood as something that emerges from the guilty feelings or inspired insights of religious believers, rather than something that is built historically, structurally—that is, scientifically—then it’ll never truly be a liberating and empowering social form: it’ll just be another con that the upper classes impose upon everyone else (and perhaps actually delude themselves into believing). Marx’s perspective is certainly at least partly responsible for the hostility to religion widely associated with the Left over the centuries.
But as anyone who spends any time amongst actual Leftists can tell you, this is a perspective that 1) was obviously wrong from the beginning, and has remained so over the years, and 2) has been basically ignored by tens of millions of Leftist religious believers over the same period of time, Christians most certainly included. In regards to point 1), the vital revolutionary force which Marx’s analysis of the history of capitalism provided, whatever its usefulness and insight insofar as understanding the alienation experienced under industrialization is concerned, has been questioned, denounced, re-interpreted, and re-affirmed in alternative ways that have given shape to every socialist argument since the mid-19th century on. To resolutely demand fidelity to Marx’s presumed linkage between the opposition to capitalism and the opposition to religious faith in the face of all this thoughtful debate is to do as much damage to the heritage of that ideal as is done by non-Leftists who insist that “socialism” can only ever mean the tyranny of Stalin or Mao. And in regards to point 2), the fact that Christian socialists—the Methodists who helped form the British Labor Party, the Catholics who organized the Catholic Worker Movement, and hundreds of other example—have, sometimes out of necessity and sometimes out of genuine intellectual agreement, appropriated and articulated their views in manners borrowed from Marx (talking about “class struggle,” for example), hardly means that their socialism is therefore Marxist, and necessarily carries all of his materialist, historicist, anti-religious baggage. This is especially the case for believers in the words of Jesus as presented in the New Testament, since of course those words were inspiring believers to—as recounted in the Book of Acts, chapter 4—sell their goods, distribute them equally, and have all things in common, right from the beginning. When it comes to socialism, Marx was a late addition to the tradition, and as important (for both good and ill) his contributions were, the Left has no more need to be beholden to him than it does to be beholden to Leo Tolstoy, Eduard Bernstein, Eugene Debs, Keir Hardie, Beatrice Webb, Dorothy Day, Simone Weil, or Gustavo Díaz.
Christman, for his part, elides most of this history by providing an assessment of where he sees different leftist intellectual trajectories pointing that is, in his view, “pretty vibes-based,” treating Marx’s thought “as we’d treat a buffet: you pick the stuff you think is helpful and ignore the rest, the same as you would any other economist or political theorist” (pp. 144-145). For people whose approach to these matters is grounded in historical and theoretical arguments over ideology and the writings of particular individuals, this is a pretty frustrating approach. Partly because it gets stuff wrong—as Christman does, such as when, earlier in the book, he goes too far in condemning the liberalism of John Locke as incapable of responding to the threats of capitalism, forgetting that Locke himself wrote that the rights of the property-owner oblige them to make sure that “enough, and as good” will always be available to everyone else—and partly because these are, by necessity, political debates that we are having, and as such being guided by one’s revelatory experience with the Sermon on the Mount leaves much unsaid.
But that doesn’t mean, and shouldn’t mean, that defenses of socialism like Christman’s need to be considered wrong; they aren’t. They just aren’t complete—as I think Christman himself would be quick to acknowledge. Again, his book isn’t really an argument for why Christians should be on the Left; it is a testimony of why, and how, the Christian message made it clear to him how he should think about inequality, about capitalism, about war, about borders, about wealth, and thus found himself moving leftward, hand-in-hand with his faith. He very thoughtfully considers all sorts of Left arrangements which the socialist tradition has inspired reformers and revolutionaries alike to consider over the centuries—worker co-ops, redistribution via taxation, government ownership of industries, wealth funds, and more—and acknowledges that there is plenty of thinking and working yet to be done in pursuing these Christian ends (“I don’t think it pays to get too dug in at this point on any of those systems,” he comments ruefully—p. 121). But that just means that Christman, like any other religious believer whose eyes have been opened to the socialist imperative, is in the same condition as the rest of us: making our way towards more justice, more fairness, more beloved communities in our world, and being attended by God’s grace and forgiveness in the midst of our own unavoidable involvement in all that challenges those aspirations along the way.
It should be noted that many of the Christian reviewers of Why Christians Should Be Leftists do, in fact, recognize that any proper understand of Christianity imposes a universalist vision of neighborliness and love upon believers, and they consequently recognize that there is truth to Christian condemnations of how even liberal democratic states (and their richest citizens and corporations) police their borders and protect their wealth, even if they demure from recognizing that such condemnations put them on the Left. But what about personal sin, they ask? What about moral purity? The records we have of Jesus’s words suggest that he didn’t talk about sexual morality nearly as much as he talked about sharing your goods with your neighbor, and didn’t condemn personal lifestyles nearly as much as he condemned exploiting the poor—but to insist that he never talked about the former isn’t correct either. So yes, those who want to find reasons to doubt the sincerity of Christman’s Christian faith solely on the basis of what he thinks about abortion or homosexuality or any other culture war issue can certainly do so. And when I put on my political scientist hat, I can explain at length how predictable it is that Christman, as he moved away from the Calvinist socialization of his youth, likely came to follow well-established patterns of liberal thought which granted enough importance to individualist expressions of moral choice such that he simply couldn’t take the sexual traditionalism of much of American Christianity seriously. But frankly, as something of a leftconservativemyself, I am happy that Christman felt no need to warp his testimony so as to encompass and defend those elements of his current political beliefs that actually have nothing to do what’s going on at their heart.
Their heart is, simply, a pious conviction that political, much less pragmatic, disputes about what can or should be done when it comes to applying the Sermon on the Mount, to applying a complete abandonment of any kind of distinction between winners and losers, are secondary. Towards the end of the book, Christman writes (in a vein very reminiscent of the theologian Stanley Hauerwas, though he never mentions his name):
The machinery of history is not ours to operate even if we could, which we can’t. But that’s OK, because there isn’t any machinery anyway. There’s the kingdom of God, which God is bringing about and will bring about. We live in a way that anticipates it. We forgive debtors, we hasten to resolve conflicts, we try to love our enemies. We try to build a society where the meek, the peacemaker, the person on the bottom of things is abundantly blessed. Leftism at its best helps us to do that. We are leftists only insofar as it is a name for our doing that (pp. 153-154).
Christman’s final words of testimony are, appropriately, “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus” (p. 174). Both the unreconstructed Marxist, and the MAGA-influenced Christian conservative who refuses to accept Jesus’s call for those who follow him to have complete solidarity with the poor, with their enemies, and with everyone else, would likely sniff at such a conclusion. But this Christian socialist loved it, and the book itself as well. To Mr. Christman, I can only say, as our mutually acknowledged lord and savior is reported to have said, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (And to everyone else, myself included, I can only also add: “Go and do likewise.”)
A statement from our City Council Non-Cooperation Campaign
ICE and their “Operation Buckeye” are present in Central Ohio and they are kidnapping families, friends and neighbors from their homes, jobs and off the street. They are working to create terror and distrust in our communities so that we stand weaker and more divided from each other, knowing that in unity we are strong.
We condemn their presence here and stand in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors. Migration is a basic part of being human. Migrants have moved here in the best interest of their families, for safety, for opportunity. They do not deserve to be targeted, imprisoned and brutalized by our government.
Help protect yourself and our community by making sure you know your rights and sharing with others their rights, reporting verified sightings of ice to the appropriate channels, checking on your neighbors and staying vigilant. We keep each other safe!
For other ways to get involved, join us at an upcoming meeting to see the work we’re doing to change the way our cities protect immigrants and keep an eye on our story for other ways to protect our community – even the smallest act of solidarity is a sign of strength. Check out our calendar of meetings & events here: columbusdsa.org/events
Christianity didn’t lead him to renounce his faith; rather, his faith evolved, and with that spiritual evolution came a political one as well. In the excellent Why Christians Should Be Leftists, he testifies to that evolution, and calls other Christians to join him as well.