February Chapter and Verse: Where DSA is growing, new organizing committees, and more chapter news.

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At the end of January, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Chicago Cuba Coalition’s event titled “War in the Americas, Cuba, Colombia, Immigrants in the Crosshairs, What’s Next? What Can We Do?” During this event, I spoke about my experience on the DSA Cuba delegation. This event took place days after Trump’s new executive order, which seeks to further limit fuel going into Cuba. Trump’s executive order on Cuba, paired with the toppling of Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro, exacerbates the humanitarian crises unfolding in Latin America. My goal was to capture the beauty and resilience of the Cuban people despite every attempt to cut them down. I hope to carry that spirit of revolutionary struggle – which is still alive and well in Cuba today – into our local work, which takes place within the belly of the imperialist beast that is the United States of America.

***

Transcript of speech by Lyra Spencer, delivered January 31, 2026 at Chicago Teachers Union Headquarters. Text edited for clarity.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Lyra Spencer, and I am one of the two co-chairs of Chicago DSA. It is such a privilege and an honor to share the stage with such scholars, experts, and fighters who have been working to end the blockade for many years. 

I come to bring my experience and perspective as someone who had the privilege to travel to the island in October along with my DSA comrades in solidarity with Cuba. Thank you for giving me this space to share my experience. Cuba, interestingly enough, was my first trip abroad. It was a life changing experience for many reasons. 

I want to start by foregrounding the humanitarian crises unfolding in Cuba inflicted upon that nation by the United States. While I was there in October, Cuba was really struggling. Older buildings in Havana’s city center were crumbling and trash started piling up in places due to the lack of fuel for trash collection. There was actually a moment when we were passing a field on our bus where two 12-year-old boys carrying a trash can emptied it into a nearby lot. The hospitals are in desperate need of supplies, and they experience frequent power outages.

Cuba is facing a currency crisis. The Cuban peso has taken such a hit that many of the smaller peso units of currency are worthless now. Cuba, despite its robust public healthcare program, has a shortage of doctors now because the median wage is paid in pesos at $25 dollars per month. Cuban residents can find much more lucrative wages working in tourism, where currency and tips are often exchanged in U.S. dollars. A restaurant server often makes far more money than doctors.

A local Cuban journalist described the situation, stating that there used to be a baseline in Cuba where everyone had their basic needs met. No one was particularly wealthy, but no one was forced to live in extreme poverty either. However, because of the blockade, many of Cuba’s residents are falling into a type of destitution that few have experienced before. All of this was prior to the illegal kidnapping of Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela, and before the executive order on Cuba. 

I can only imagine how hard things must be for the people of Cuba now. I wanted to ground us in this place upfront to acknowledge the rough spot that Cuba is in as a result of U.S. imperialism. The reason why I chose to foreground this is because I do not believe that the full story is one of sadness and sorrow, but one of beauty, resilience, and liberation.

***

The most shocking thing about Cuba wasn’t the problems that ail its society today. For me as an American, it was seeing a society centered around the wellbeing of humans and not the maximization of shareholder value.

While in Cuba, we visited three main places that I want to highlight. The first being one of the main hospitals in Cuba, where we learned from some of the top doctors about the Cuban healthcare system. In Cuba, everyone has access to free healthcare, and it is considered a fundamental right. Healthcare was one of the main tenants of the Cuban revolution, and Fidel Castro demanded equal access to healthcare for all Cubans as a part of his two-hour denunciation of the Batista regime following his arrest for his involvement in the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba on the 26th of July, 1953.

Immediately after the revolution, doctors were sent to every corner of Cuba which had been previously neglected to survey the population and find out the needs of the public. They immediately set up a primary care system and started treating the most common ailments of the day. Cuba has historically had lower infant mortality rates than the United States, as well as a similar life expectancy and more equal health outcomes along race and income lines. The people of Cuba enjoy far better access to primary care, with doctors and nursing teams located at the neighborhood level, and residents having access to frequent preventative screenings. Even with Cuba’s current doctor shortage, they still have a higher doctor-to-population ratio than the U.S. 

Not only does Cuba provide excellent healthcare for its citizens, it also exports its doctors around the world to help other Global South countries in need. The only limitation to the Cuban healthcare system are the restrictions placed upon it by the U.S. embargo. It is ironic, despite its immense wealth, that the U.S. government is doing everything in its power to remove access to healthcare for millions of Americans. Despite the hardships imposed on them by the blockade, the people of Cuba are doing everything it can to keep quality care and expand it to other countries in need. 

During the trip to this hospital, I noticed something that I rarely see here in Chicago: Black doctors in prominent leadership positions within Cuba. In fact, Cuban society was fairly integrated, at least in Havana. Not only doctors, but professors, museum curators, lawyers, and countless other professions had their fair share of Afro-Cubans working together in Cuban civil society.

This was one of the first stark differences I noticed, as a Black woman residing in a northern neighborhood in Chicago. Back home, I could go days without seeing someone who looks like me, despite Chicago being 30% Black. Furthermore, professions are often unofficially segregated by race in the U.S., just as the neighborhoods in Chicago are. On our way out of the hospital, one of the doctors revealed that she was in her seventies, which was a shock to all of us. On the trip someone asked how she manages to look so youthful, she replied, “The revolution keeps me beautiful.”

***

The second place I want to talk about is the Latin America School of Medicine in Havana. There, we learned that Cuba sends doctors to other Global South countries around the world as a humanitarian service to the poor. The country takes in students, houses them, and trains them to return to practice medicine in their own countries free of charge. The head instructor told us that they share what they have with the community, including educational instruction, supplies, and temporary housing. But in exchange they also share some of Cuba’s problems, such as blackouts and limited access to food. The head instructor told us that recently fresh water hadn’t been available at the school for twenty days, and the students operated to distribute water pipes sent to them in equitable ways. In some communities in Latin America, over 70% of the doctors came from the Latin American School of Medicine. I also found it interesting that this school has also trained doctors from poor communities within the U.S., having hosted over 244 U.S.-American students since the academy’s founding. Eight U.S. students will be graduating this year.

The last place I want to cover is Cenesex. Cenesex is the Cuban National Center for Sex Education. It handles most of the country’s sex education, along with advocacy and essential services for queer people. The organization works to educate the population on all things related to queer and trans people, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. 

Cenesex was one of the main institutions responsible for the update to the family code that was passed through a nationwide referendum in 2022. It legalized same-sex marriage and adoption and recognized non-traditional family structures outside of the nuclear family, focusing on the rights and wellbeing of children over parental authority, mandating equal sharing of domestic responsibilities and gender equality, banning corporal punishment for children, and setting the minimum age for marriage in the country to eighteen. Cenesex was one of the main drivers of the advocacy campaign in favor of the new code, hosting public input and educational forums all across the country. It also helps trans individuals navigate transitioning, preparing them for surgeries, offering them and their families counseling, and connecting them to much-needed resources.

One moment that was the cornerstone of this trip was leaving Cenesex. There were three trans people on this trip, and we all cried after the visit. It was truly shocking to see a government institution actively care about our wellbeing instead of trying to erase our identity, call us “groomers,” and eradicate us from existence. We are told by our government that Cuba is a danger to the United States, yet each and every one of us trans women on this trip felt far safer in Havana than we did crossing through the Miami airport to get there.

***

The reality of Cuba that I experienced is one of resilience. Despite our government’s best efforts, Cuba has created a society that centers around the wellbeing of its population. While I was there, I saw very little military and police. I saw integration. I saw a government and people trying as hard as they could to get by in spite of the situation. Like any government, it makes mistakes. However, the central point of Cuba’s state planning is to center human wellbeing. 

The only danger that Cuba presents to the United States is the danger of U.S. citizens seeing what a government with a fraction of our country’s resources can do to take care of its people and its struggling neighbors. That is why our imperialist government is fighting so hard to finish the job of its predecessors and destroy the revolution once and for all.

I left Cuba with a renewed sense of responsibility. The only people that have the power to stop what our government is doing is us. We must carry the strength, beauty, and resilience of the Cuban people in our struggles against this fascist Trump regime. We must stand united in the belly of the beast.

Thank you.

The post The Revolution Keeps Me Beautiful: A Report-Back of the DSA Cuba Delegation appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

It is that time of year again, time for Vermont’s annual Town Meting Day tradition. 

The last two years have seen schools and school budgets become the focus on local as well as state politics. As in every year, Green Mountain DSA (GMDSA) recommends voting yes on your local school budget. 

GMDSA only chose to endorse one candidate for a local race this year, but there are elections in every town, city and village, some of which are more exciting than others. The rest of this voter guide will be a town-by-town breakdown of local races in areas where there is an active GMDSA presence, of both elections and ballot questions. 

Burlington

Green Mountain DSA has only endorsed one candidate this TMD, being Marek Broderick, for re-election to the city council in Ward 8. Before first being elected in 2024, Marek was co-chair and an organizer with the UVM chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, DSA’s youth section. As a councilor, Marek has fought for tenants’ rights on and off campus, including notably organizing with UVM's Student Tenant Union to win unanimous support for a resolution holding UVM accountable for poor housing conditions. Marek was unanimously endorsed for re-election by the chapter because the fight is not over. If Marek wins on March 3, he will continue to fight for housing for all, tenant rights, and a city that everyone can call home.

However, Marek’s advocacy for renters, students and the broader working class has not made him any friends within Burlington’s establishment. This year, the Democrat Party chose to nominate only one candidate to run against an incumbent: the landlord Ryan Nick, scion of commercial real estate tycoon Jeff Nick, is running to unseat Marek. 

Nick has been able to raise considerable cash through his connections to the city’s monied interests, mostly from other landlords and real estate moguls. This is fitting, as Nick has made a name for himself as a vocal opponent of essential harm reduction services like the Howard Center’s needle exchange, and an opponent of mutual aid groups like Food Not Cops. Ryan himself works for his father’s real estate company, JL Davis Realty, on “tenant relations,” according to his CCTV candidate forum. Between his status as one of Burlington’s landlords and his antagonism of community groups, Green Mountain DSA believes that Nick cannot be trusted to hold police accountable and exactly represents the elites’ status quo that is crushing us workers. 

If you live in Ward 8, please vote to re-elect Marek Broderick!

Green Mountain DSA recommends voting for all other Progressive candidates, including in Ward 7, where Bill Standen is running to unseat Democrat Even Litwin.  Green Mountain DSA also recommends voting yes on question three, which would enshrine the city’s Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Office in the city charter. 

Lastly, the coalition that put Proposition 0 on the ballot in 2023 is at it again, aiming to get the direct democracy charter change on the ballot again in time for the November midterms. We recommend signing the petition to get Proposition 0 on the ballot. 

Winooski

In Winooski, there are no contested races for city council or the mayor. Green Mountain DSA offers no recommendations for this election, other than a yes vote for both the city and school budgets, particularly article six which would allow the school to purchase a nearby home to the school with surplus funds. The property will be used by the school for specialized educational settings for students who need it. Currently, the school system does not have something like this and students who need a specialized education setting are required to travel out of district. We would also like to note that an added benefit of this purchase is removing a known Zionist's pro Israel propaganda from the property being purchased.

GMDSA also recommends Katie Livermore, who is running for re-election to the School Board. Many Winooski GMDSAers know her from her work on the Winooski AFC campaign which passed last year with over 70% approval. Katie played an integral role in that campaign and continues to organize in her community both in the school and outside.

South Burlington

Unlike Burlington, and like Winooski and the rest of Vermont municipalities, South Burlington elections are officially non-partisan. However, this does not stop them from being competitive. For the two-year seat this year, the two candidates running are Amy Allen and Beth Zigmund. Allen seems to be a typical pro-business, establishment candidate, while Zigmund is running with the support of progressive non-profits like Run on Climate (which also endorsed Marek Broderick). Green Mountain DSA offers no recommendation in this race, but leans toward favoring Zigmund. 

Montpelier

Montpelier residents will again vote on the Apartheid-Free Communities (AFC) pledge, after it was voted down last year. The pledge, which passed last year in Winooski and various other towns across Vermont, condemns Israel’s system of Apartheid, settler colonialism and occupation, and commits the signer to fighting for liberation in Palestine. Green Mountain DSA endorses AFC, and urges Montpelier residents to vote yes. 

Waterbury

On Waterburry’s ballot this year, there are three seats up for election: one three-year seat, and two one-year. For the three-year seat, Republican Chris Viens is the only candidate to have made it onto the ballot. Fortunately, former Selectboard member Don Schneider has announced a write-in campaign, and we recommend writing in his name. The chapter offers no recommendation for the one-year seat, but recommends voting yes on the Randall Meadow bond question .

Randolph

Randolph residents of the police district again face an increased police budget, this time to $893,357. Despite the district containing less than half the town’s total population of just 4,774 people, the police budget is approximately a sixth of the town’s budget. Green Mountain DSA recommends residents vote no on the police budget.

Randolph also has two selectboard elections this year. The three-year seat race is between Ashley Lincoln and Emery Mattheis, and the two-year seat is between Bethany Silloway and Dustin Adams. Mattheis and Adams are running with the newly-formed “Committee for a Cooler ‘Dolf,” organized by a GMDSA member. Adams is also a GMDSA member himself, although he did not seek the chapter’s endorsement. GMDSA recommends voting for Emery Mattheis and Dustin Adams.

St Albans

St. Albans has a relatively slim election this year. Three city seats are open – two city counselors and the Mayor – all of which are uncontested. 

Article three continues a seven year project to upgrade and update the city's 1953 water system. The current ask is for St. Albans residents to permit the borrowing of $800,000 to refurbish the existing town water tank; this accounts for half the total cost (project total of $1.6M) with the remaining $800,000 covered by a no-interest 40 year loan. Completion of the project will ensure that St. Albans continues to provide safe, clean water to residents without service interruption caused by maintenance: GMDSA recommends voting yes on Article three. 

Article two is a proposed budget for FY2027. Effort has been made to keep expenses low for residents with a modest property tax increase of 2.2% (estimated to be $50 more per resident throughout the year), and the budget includes capital improvements for the Welden Theater, new breathing apparatuses for fire responders, a lawn mower for city parks and properties, an increase in services provided by the Restorative Justice Center, and a new snow plow. The budget also includes a substantial increase for Police and Dispatch wages, as well as two new vehicles (one marked, one unmarked) for the St. Albans Police Department. Because the FY27 budget devotes nearly 50% of its total projected $15.5M expenditure to Dispatch and Police service, GMDSA recommends voting no on Article 2 unless the police budget is disentangled from other budgetary needs or the increase in police spending explicates integration of support/social service resources into law enforcement services. 

Town Meeting Day is Tuesday, March 3, 2026. Please email us at hello@greenmountaindsa.org if you’d like to join a canvass between now and then, or if you’d like to see an item on your town’s ballot included in this guide. 

You can check your voter registration here. 

The Denver Democratic Socialists of America (DDSA) echoes national DSA’s condemnation of the American-Israeli aggression against Iran. These unprovoked strikes have already killed at least 85 people at an elementary school for girls, the images of blood-stained backpacks mirroring the carnage and unrestrained slaughter of Gazan children we have all witnessed for the last two years. This is not coincidental – the brutality inflicted on Palestinians was never going to be limited to the land between the river and the sea, but was a step towards normalizing a more unmasked version of American imperialism around the world. From the unlawful abduction of Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela to the brutal blockade against the Cuban people, from Palestine to Iran, we are witnessing a dying empire lashing out in desperate attempts to reinforce its might around the world, for the benefit of a ruling class and no one else.  

This is a time for radicalization, organizing and action. While our unhoused neighbors suffer on Denver’s streets, our immigrant neighbors fear ICE raids and the working class struggles more than ever, there is always money for another imperial war. The insatiable hunger of the military industrial complex means that our ruling class will never address the needs of the people for health care, housing and child care. The oppression and carnage waged abroad in our names will turn into increased surveillance, incarceration and political targeting at home. We condemn the Trump administration for their arrogant, reckless aggression and also condemn the cowardice and tacit support for war against Iran from Democratic Party leadership, who have demonstrated that they are beholden to the interest of their donor class over the needs of working people.

DDSA mourns the lives lost in the American-Israeli attacks and demands a cessation of hostilities against Iran, a withdrawal of military assets from the Persian Gulf and the region, an end to unilateral coercive measures against Iran, and a return to diplomacy on the part of the United States. We call on the people of Denver to organize and participate in mass mobilizations against the attacks on Iran, contact their representatives in Congress and demand that they vote for the Iran War Powers Resolution, and join Denver DSA and its Internationalism Committee as we continue to struggle against American imperialism in West Asia and beyond.

No to imperialist war, yes to the sovereignty of the Iranian people! No war but class war!

Click here to contact your representative: NO WAR WITH IRAN! Support the War Powers Resolution!

Author: Serge S.

Artwork can carry many meanings. Sarah Selan, the artist behind the recent Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) exhibition What is Violence?, hopes that people can see the deeper meaning underneath the surface of her paintings and take action to end the genocide in Palestine. 

Her paintings consist of saturated dark backgrounds, figures of civilians forming protective barriers against ICE, interference with weapon manufacturers and other actions that highlight state hypocrisy when it labels direct action and peaceful resistance as “violence”. 

Selan has personally tasted the arbitrary nature of the government when she was charged, along with ten others, for her alleged involvement in a Nov. 2024 protest. According to the allegations, several buildings and landmarks at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) were smeared with red paint, including a statue of retired chemistry teacher “Doc Oc.” 

The action, which the school claims caused $400,000 in damages, was in response to the CWRU and CIA’s continued work with institutions in the genocidal state of Israel. Students have long demanded the university cut ties with the country.

As part of her punishment, Selan was ordered by The Cleveland Institute of Art to show what they categorized as “better” ways of protesting. She did, but she did it in her own style.

“To be frank, the assignment from the school felt a bit condescending,” Selan responded in a written interview. “I was told that I was fighting a good fight, but the way I was fighting is not acceptable. My instructions were to introduce ‘better’ protest ideas from people I do not believe want us to win in the first place. I wanted to use this opportunity to display the difference between peaceful protest and non-disruptive protest. The vandalism was a peaceful protest. Nobody got hurt or was threatened with violence.”

“That being said, it was a disruptive protest,” she added. “People who equate disruption with violence fail to realize that a protest without disruption gives no reason for demands to be met, and no reason for anyone to pay attention to what you are fighting for.”

The paintings remain unfinished. The reason why, Selan said, was to emphasize that the fight for liberation is never over, but also a way to honor the memory of those artists murdered in Palestine by Israel. 

“The first is that the revolution is never really over. The fight for global liberation is never really over,” Selan wrote. “We have miles to travel against our oppressors as we work to gain the freedom of ourselves and our neighbors. I wanted to portray that these acts against us are in progress, as are our acts of resistance against them.”

“The second reason was that I often found myself emotionally stuck,” she added. “What right do I have to make art when I should be out fighting? What lottery have I won to find myself in a situation where my punishment for disruption is art while others face death?”

“It was difficult to get the work done in time because I did not deserve the opportunity to make it in the first place,” she concluded. “The greatest artists have been killed by Israel during the genocide. The most creative minds sit in jails and prisons in the United States due to situations outside of their control. To me it serves as a reminder that the best art has never been made because we killed the beautiful people who would have made it.” 

Selan said that the school’s reaction to the protest shows the institute’s true stances on human rights, and she hopes that students continue to call for divestment. 

“I have no doubt that a day will come in the future where both institutions will boast that their students contributed to an encampment to end the genocide of the Palestinian people,” Selan wrote. “They will use it to draw in future applicants to come be a part of a historic campus with deep roots in liberation.

“They punished the brightest minds their schools have ever seen to promote their beliefs of hatred and bigotry. They work with groups that exterminate an entire group of people just to line their pockets. I condemn their hypocrisy and hope that as students continue to push for divestment, we will transform these institutions into respectful academic organizations that inspire calls for global liberation, instead of suppressing them.” 

Selan said that being an organizer as a student comes with its own limitations. When people graduate, movements slow down, and future participants can lose the memory of what worked and what didn’t in previous encampments.

She added that student organizing can only go so far, and for real progress to be made, the skills and experience developed among the encampments need to be put back into the community. 

“Student protesters have always been some of the most powerful voices in the activist community,” Selan wrote. “From anti-war movements to civil rights, our students are strong. That being said, we can not put the weight of the revolution on their back. 

“I am proud of the students who were able to achieve divestment through their encampments, but that cannot always be the case. There is a lot of pressure to change campuses that have been rooted in imperialism and oppression for decades, but most students will only be around for 4 years. These movements can take decades to achieve change and that can be an overwhelming thought to a lot of young people.”

“Do not take this to mean that campus-based issues aren’t worth fighting for,” she continued. “But rather as a reminder that even if you do not achieve what you hope to in your time at an academic institution, you are making progress towards personal growth and a strong community.” 

When asked for her final thoughts, Selan said that her future will be rooted in activism, and in a way, she can thank the state for that. 

“The vandalism and my alleged involvement changed my life,” Selan wrote. “I was thrown in jail, received death threats, and was forced to pay for damages that were obviously inflated. Despite all this, I have grown as an organizer and will hold these experiences with me forever. They will inspire not only my art, but everything I do in my life. I am grateful for my journey, and I am right where I want to be.” 

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