As we always say at our general meetings, the real work of DSA is done in our working groups. Each working group is made up of a dedicated cadre committed to advancing the cause of socialist struggle in one specific arena, be it housing, labor, electoral, ecosocialism, health justice, etc.

We wanted to begin spotlighting the important work carried out by each working group, and how it fits into the broader strategy of our chapter. This month, we’ve invited the members of our International Solidarity Working Group to share a little about what they’ve been up to, what’s coming next, and why this work is important to the broader aims of the chapter.

Pinellas DSA’s International Solidarity Working Group (ISWG) kicked off the year with a Boycott Chevron picket at the Chevron on Tyrone Blvd in St. Petersburg to speak out against the corporation’s role in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. That same day, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores were kidnapped and forcibly removed by the imperial US forces. ISWG sprung into action, organizing the Emergency “Hands Off Venezuela” protest on Sunday, January 4th at Williams Park in St. Pete. Speakers from Tampa DSA, the Tampa Bay Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and the Tampa Bay Immigrant Solidarity Network (TBISN) joined us to publicly condemn imperial forces impeding Latin American sovereignty during the emergency protest, sounding off a call to action for our community to resist capitalist-driven imperial action around the world.

Later that week on January 7th, ISWG kicked off this year’s educational forums with an excitingly well-attended Venezuela Educational Forum at the Barbra S. Ponce Library. DSA members, as well as some non-member attendees from the community, learned about the history of the Bolivarian Revolution leading up to where it stands now in Cuba and Venezuela. This is during a pivotal time where propaganda and disinformation continue to fuel unjust military aggression against sovereign countries in Latin America and around the world.

On January 17th, with a coalition of organizations — including Tampa DSA, Pasco/Hernando DSA, Tampa Bay PSL, Food Not Bombs, Students for a Democratic Society, and more — we held another Hands off Venezuela march in downtown St. Pete. Speakers and attendees brought amazing energy that was felt through the entire city center.

Additionally, ISWG members have been working closely with TBISN, which Pinellas DSA is a part of, to demand that our city police force end the 287(g) agreement with ICE, which allows local cops to be deputized as ICE agents. On January 11th, just a few days after the senseless murder of Renee Good by ICE in Minneapolis, TBISN organized a protest outside the St. Pete Police Department, and two hundred people came to speak out against ICE terror. Only a couple of weeks later, Alex Pretti was shot ten times by ICE agents in Minneapolis after helping a fellow civilian who was shoved to the ground. The next day, TBISN held an End 287(g) volunteer and canvassing training at the Barack Obama Library in St. Pete, and over one hundred people attended to learn how they can fight back against ICE aggression.

We closed out the month by condemning ICE terror funded by our tax dollars at the vigil for Alex Pretti and the victims of ICE during the January 30th national day of action at War Veterans Memorial Park. Over one hundred community members came out to mourn the victims of ICE’s violence.

January has been jam-packed for this working group thanks to Trump and his cronies. ISWG is thankful for our comrades of PSL, TBISN, and Tampa DSA, along with all the other organizations that have come out to give speeches and participate in the condemnation of US imperialism this month. ISWG meets in-person at Allendale United Methodist Church on the fourth Monday of every month, and we often hold Zoom meetings in-between, so come join us! So far, February’s schedule includes:

• Tuesday, February 10th, 6 pm: ISWG meeting on Zoom
• Saturday, February 21st, 3 pm: Gulfport End 287(g) meeting (location TBD)
• Sunday, February 22nd, 12–4 pm: Boycott Chevron neighborhood canvassing and protest at Chevron in Clearwater
• Monday, February 23rd, 6:30 pm: ISWG in-person/hybrid meeting at Allendale UMC
• Saturday, February 28th, 4 pm: Book discussion on Cuba, An American History by Ada Ferrer

🌹

by Elizabeth Henderson

Despite the transactional orthodoxy dinned into us from the centers of power, there are people all over the world who express solidarity through their food shopping. Right here in Rochester, there are many members of area CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture farms) who agree to share the risks with the farms by paying in advance, and thousands who go to the trouble to shop at farmers markets instead of the produce sections of big grocery stores.  For three days in December, I had the opportunity to attend “The flagship global event for Local and Solidarity-based Partnerships in Agroecology (LSPA) of which Community Supported Agriculture is the best-known iteration…” in La Bergerie de Villarceaux, Chaussy, France.

As one of the first US CSA farmers and author of Sharing the Harvest with translations into Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Spanish, I have the honor to serve as Urgenci’s Honorary President. For twenty years, Urgenci has been serving as an international network, bringing together grassroots farmers, conscious eaters, activists and researchers from over 40 countries on all continents except Antarctica “to exchange experience and knowledge, analyze global food policies, and develop collective strategies” to strengthen local/regional food systems, secure dignified livelihoods for farmers and everyone who works on farms, and defend the commons. “URGENCI is an acronym standing for Urban-Rural networks: GEnerating New forms of exchanges between CItizens.” Thanks to Urgenci’s “seeding,” there are CSAs in most Eastern European countries and in all the countries ringing the Mediterranean.

The Symposium opened with a ritual expressing our mutual gratitude to our home planet – to the air, earth, winds and waters – and with a pledge to make the gathering a safe space with hope and love in the room. We shared a quote from Vaclav Havel – “Love and truth always prevail over hatred and lies.”

Then Urgenci co-presidents Shi Yan Sina from China and Isa Alvarez Vispo from Basque country Spain addressed the hundred or so participants from 38 countries. Shi Yan reminded us that CSA reconnects people with land, farmers with consumers. She recounted her own path to CSA via 6 months in 2008 at a CSA farm in the US that changed the direction of her life.  Once home, she organized the first CSA – Little Donkey Farm, renamed Shared Harvest Farm with 100 member households, farmed by a combination of village peasants and “new farmers,” college educated youngsters trained in agroecology. Since then, working with a growing team, Shi Yan has helped establish a national CSA network that provides farmer services and technical assistance. As of 2026, there are over 2000 CSAs united by EcoEarth, a national Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), a grassroots alternative to organic certification.

In her address, Isa Alvarez focused on international food policy. Isa represents CSAs as a member of the Internation Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty, part of the consumer sector of the Civil Society Mechanism of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, where they oppose industrial corporate control of the global food system and advocate for locally-controlled food sovereignty and agroecology. Centering an eco-feminist perspective, Isa declared, “we need a program so that we can fight together.”

We spent the afternoon visiting farms that use some of the 80 hectares belonging to La Bergerie. GAEC Farm grows organic vegetables for two AMAP groups (French farmers named CSAs AMAPs – Associations for the Maintenance of Peasant Agriculture, a brilliant cultural move that inspired thousands of people to join the farms that are the source of the great French cuisine.) Their soil is heavy with a high clay component. There are two large greenhouses where they do winter production, and a well-equipped packing shed. The next farm has cattle and grain production. Both operations sell at the Bergerie farm store which was well-stocked with breads made from farm grain and many cuts of meat.

After an Apero – a cocktail hour with a wild abundance of snacks contributed by participants – and an ample dinner, we spent the evening watching films. I hope to bring the documentary on Om Sleiman Farm in Palestine to next year’s Witness Palestine film festival.

Dec 12 – Moving the Movement.

We spent the second day in a series of plenary sessions and workshops. The plenary, “CSAs in the Fight for Food Sovereignty,” was done fishbowl style with prepared short statements and then the audience could jump in too. We heard about the Nyeleni Process (I reported on in it the December Red Star) that issued the Kandy Declaration. A Japanese Teikei (CSA) leader called for globalizing CSA and our shared cultural values of living peacefully and gently on earth.  A representative of RIPESS, the international Social Solidarity Economy Network, called upon us to expand beyond food to include energy, housing, health, and other sectors. Several speakers pointed to the urgency of raising the percentage of the price of food that goes to farmers – farmers are quitting and young people hesitate to farm because prices are too low to cover costs of farming.  

I moderated two of the parallel workshops. Farmer to Farmer: Farmers from Finland, France, Marocco, Mexico, the Philippines, Belgium, Lebanon and Egypt shared their strikingly similar stories and struggles with competition from cheaper supermarket food. CSA and Climate Change: CSA farmers from China, the Philippines, West Africa and Finland reported weather that has become more extreme – the wet is wetter, the dry drier, the winds more violent. The Beijing area averages 400mm/yr of rain, but in July 2024, there were 400mm of rain 3 times in July.  The Philippines has suffered 20 typhoons in just two years that wipe out entire crops. Due to this frequency, trust has become an issue.  Consumers are afraid to pay in advance. The rainy season is longer. Now they have two seasons – wet and wetter.  In Togo, West Africa, there are 2 seasons, dry and wet. Previously the wet season started in March and the farms sowed their corn.  Now, rains may not come till May or even June. As a result, they plant the corn later which greatly reduces the harvest. Corn harvest was 1700K/hectare – now it is only 300K. By contrast, Thomas Snellman from Finland, a farmer and the founder of REKO, a variant of CSA, said the changed weather is milder and better for farming.

In the plenary, “Conflict and Weaponization of Hunger,” Souad Mahmoud from Lebanon, Carolina Alzate Gouzy from Colombia and Yara Dowani from Israel/Palestine made moving, powerful presentations about how wars undermine food sovereignty. Israeli and US bombing of Lebanon along the border with Palestine has killed livestock, destroyed crops and contaminated the land and environment. Damages amount to over $700 million. Farmers are unable to access their land and thousands have been displaced. With the movement of troops, battleships and constant surveillance, the US is threatening Colombia and neighboring countries with attack.  As vividly depicted in the film we had seen the night before, Yara Dowani, who is openly Queer and does not wear a Hijab, described Om Sleiman Farm where they have created a CSA, growing vegetables under the walls and constant surveillance of Israeli settlers.  From her home in the West Bank, Yara has to drive through or around check points to reach the farm. They founded the farm in 2016 using land belonging to the village. The farm has 25 – 30 members, and runs a training program and a school – the Under the Pear Tree project.  They produce vegetables and grapes using a lot of handwork with trickle irrigation and mulch.

Dec 13, the final day of the Symposium, we held regional meetings and the Urgenci General Assembly. Six CSA activists from the US and one from Quebec were able to attend.  We agreed that the North American CSA Innovation Network should expand to include Canadian and Mexican CSA networks. The Assembly ratified a new 5-year strategic plan that includes expanding outreach, technical assistance and training in CSA to additional countries, compiling a report from researchers on CSA Around the World, and on-going participation in the international peasant campaign to uproot corporate domination and transform the food system. Finally, we elected the International Steering Committee that meets quarterly to guide the network: Isa Alvarez Vispo (Spain), Shi Being Yan Sina (China), Kate Anstreicher (USA), Kazumi Kondoh (Japan), Florent Sebban (France), Simon Anoumou Todzro (Togo), Fernando Docpil (Philippines), Ariel Molina (Brazil).

I come away from the Urgenci Symposium with feelings of encouragement and joy. Solidarity programs are growing steadily in many countries. In the context of increasing far-right ideologies, CSA and agroecology are subversive, chipping away at corporate domination.  Many of the national and regional networks focus on deep farm/farmer support rather than advertising with consumers, though the Chinese CSA Network has a reach of a million on WeChat. Shi Yan interviewed me the first day and told me the second day that 48,000 people had already listened to my words. The farmers and activists supporting CSA are enthusiastic, committed and fun to spend time with. The most surprising proposal I heard is that Urgenci and La Via Campesina in Europe have started campaigning for food social security! As with US income Social Security, employers and tax payers pay into a system that guarantees food security for everyone. That’s an inspiring idea to start planting.

The post Getting Grounded: Report back from the Urgenci 9th International Symposium: Sowing Solidarity, Cultivating Community first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

Atlanta DSA vehemently condemns the abhorrent execution of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent on January 24, 2026. Multiple DHS agents fired on Alex as he was attempting to help assist a community member assaulted by a federal agent moments prior. Further, an agent appeared to have removed Alex’s pistol that he was legally permitted to carry before he was executed in cold blood. Plain and simple, this is an attack on the 1st and 2nd Amendment rights every citizen is entitled to in the United States. The federal government then continued its vile tradition of publishing slanderous lies about those it murders in fabricating false narratives about the peaceful, non-violent behaviors of Alex. To us, it is clear that the purpose of a system is what it does and, so, the purpose of DHS (and specifically ICE) is death and violence. Videos and photos over the past century of black, brown, and tan bodies being butchered by human instruments of the law were ignored, minimized, and treated as inconsequential. Now, we live in the darkening shadow cast by the willing and conscious decision of hundreds of Democrat politicians from Washington to Peachtree Street to further increase funding to cops, ICE, and border patrol. Barely one year into the second Trump presidency, the full weight of the American imperial machine has turned inward to crush any act of resistance, no matter how small.

Just this past week, Democrat leaders have continued their decades-long complicity in the manufacturing of divisions between working people through measly gestures at reform of ICE. These ineffective measures follow in the wake of the killing of Renee Nicole Good not even a month ago, to say nothing of the numerous other deaths on the streets and even more in detention centers over the past year. Yet we know, as workers organizing in our workplaces and communities, this fascist regime is composed of incompetent losers that need you to feel small and isolated to succeed. Together, as an organized multi-racial working class, we can build a new, better world as the old neoliberal world order shakes itself to pieces under the weight of its own contradictions. Beyond polls or optics, it is clear that for working people our only position can be that of calling for the complete abolishment of ICE. It continues to serve as the foot soldier force of a burgeoning fascist regime determined to foment further class divisions based on racist, imperialist border policies.

Atlanta DSA once again calls for the abolishment of ICE and the removal of all DHS agents from our communities, as well as the full prosecution of all those involved in acts violating basic human rights under international laws.

We stand in solidarity with those participating across the country in the general strike taking place today. We strongly encourage our members, fellow comrades and union allies, elected politicians, and neighbors to organize with us in the face of this disgusting atrocity.

• If you can, donate to the efforts of Twin Cities DSA to fight ICE and build a better world. You can do so here: https://twincitiesdsa.org/donate/
• Honor the life and memory of Alex Pretti with us at a vigil hosted by National Nurses United, the American Federation of Government Employees, and other community orgs on Thursday, February 5th at 1670 Clairemont Rd in Decatur (the Atlanta VA Medical Center) from 6:30pm-7:30pm.
• Join DSA to support and lead our organizing efforts against ICE and this fascist federal administration: https://atldsa.org/join/

By a Comrade

This article is written by a DSA member and does not formally represent the views of MADSA as a whole or its subgroups. 

Welcome to Vol. 6 of the monthly round-up! The content in this publication overlaps significantly with our DSA newsletter and monthly General Membership Meetings. To sign up for the newsletter or check out an upcoming General Membership Meeting, visit: https://madison-dsa.org/events/

MADSA Endorses Fran Hong for Governor

Cheers erupted in the January 28th General Membership Meeting when over 100 people voted in favor of endorsing Francesca Hong in the upcoming Wisconsin gubernatorial race. The air in the meeting was electric and attendance was the largest in recent chapter history. Comrades engaged in rousing debate during the discussion block, on factors including election timing, chapter capacity, trust in structures of power, the opportunities and drawbacks that come with campaign organizing work, and the potential representation of socialism in WI. Ultimately, the chapter expressed readiness to put work into this campaign. 

As the District 76 State Representative and a member of the Wisconsin Legislative Socialist Caucus, Fran has championed democratic socialist policies like universal childcare, public education and healthy school meals for all, paid family leave, and an Economic Justice Bill of Rights which guarantees the right to a unionized job. She continues to run as a proud democratic socialist on a platform of economic justice and workers’ rights. This campaign also means a huge opportunity for community-building; people will be connecting across Wisconsin through door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, town halls, and other volunteer opportunities during the campaign. The chapter looks forward to meeting new people, discussing the issues that matter to them, and promoting policies for building working class power. 

Chapter Prepares for Upcoming Annual Convention

The DSA follows a deliberative democratic decision-making process, empowering all members to have a say in local and national DSA action. The process has many benefits, including feeling a higher sense of ownership in the projects of the organization, building leadership and speaking skills among members, encouraging critical thinking, modeling active participation in decisions that impact us, maintaining a sense of accountability in leaders, and being able to focus on several areas based on the abilities and desires of membership. As our chapter has grown in size, we’ve seen new working groups, changes to the bylaws governing our chapter, expansion of certain roles, and lots of lively discussion in-person and in our online channels! We’ve been seeing more debate as well, which is a sign of healthy engagement.

We have an opportunity for more change as our annual chapter convention is approaching. The dates have been finalized for March 20th and March 21st, 2026. The convention plays a huge role in chapter work for the rest of the year. At the convention, you will:

• Hear reports from working groups in our chapter;
• Vote on continuing existing working groups (rechartering);
• Vote on new bylaw amendments and chapter resolutions (starting new campaigns, working groups, projects, etc.);
• Vote for leadership positions – executive co-chairs, administrator, treasurer, communication and membership coordinators, “at-large,” Solidarity Captains, and the Community Accountability Committee (“CAC”). 

There are several preparation meetings scheduled before the convention, where people can co-work on resolutions and get feedback. Here is the timeline leading up to convention:

• Resolution Writing Workshop 1 – January 14th, which already took place this month!
• Resolution Writing Workshop 2 – February 12th 6:30-8:30pm at Social Justice Center.
• Due date for All Convention Materials – February 20th.
• Due date for Amendments to Proposals – March 10th.
• March General Meeting – convention agenda will be discussed – March 11th.
• Convention Friday March 20th 6-9pm + Saturday March 21st 10am-4pm.

Click here to see the full Convention Guide and/or RSVP – all members are strongly encouraged to attend so that they can participate in leading MADSA’s next steps for 2026!

ICE Out: Working Towards Community Safety

Alongside hope for Fran’s campaign, and focus for the upcoming convention, people’s hearts are burning with fear, sadness, and rage around state violence inflicted in the name of unjust “immigration enforcement” and protest “crowd control.” We are witnessing senseless deaths and extrajudicial kidnappings – flagrant human rights violations. 

Socialists know that the horrors we are seeing today are not the result of one mad leader (nor his cabinet), but the result of over a century of festering capitalism, racism, and imperialism concentrating wealth and power to the few. MADSA released a statement, and is ongoingly deliberating on what our medium- and long-term role will be in supporting communities around safety and immigration rights in the face of escalating political violence. The previous section noted the highlights of our deliberative democracy structure, but the major drawback is that decisions tend to move more slowly than in a “top-down” structure. While that work is ongoing, MADSA and its members have organized and participated in several actions in January, and will continue to do so:

• Members participated in the Ice Out Solidarity Vigil on January 9th after the killing of Nicole Good, as well as the following Ice Out rally on January 10th.
• Members participated further in an Ice Out rally on January 25th in response to the killing of Alex Pretti. Member Sam D. gave a speech – click here for a link with captions. 
• Members participated in an ICE Week of Action building up to a January 30th walk-out + march and the January 31st Madison Anti-ICE Community Meeting organized by MADSA. This included Know Your Rights training, group discussion, opportunities to generate concrete political demands, and information about next steps to build networks of community support. Organizers will continue to meet around this work. 
• Members are also building to a national general strike on May Day, which will include demands around safety for immigrant communities and communities of color.

Additional Organizing

Other important efforts this month included the following:

The Labor Working Group is launching the Madison Organizing Institute –a 12-week long course designed for anyone who wants to build or strengthen a union in their workplace. The course will teach you about your organizing rights, skills for talking to coworkers, developing demands, and more. Click here for the link to sign up.

No Appetite for Apartheid announced a launch party scheduled for February 7th, 6-8pm at James Reeb on E. Johnson. This event is open to the public, stating: “The goal of the No Appetite for Apartheid campaign is to make Madison a more ethical place to shop by removing all grocery items complicit in the violence against Palestinians.”

A member announced an Artists’ Planning Meeting for February 1st with the goal of adding art programming to the upcoming Convention, and overall increasing art and music engagement in the chapter.

MADSA has been more in touch with Milwaukee DSA in light of recent organization work, and the latter chapter published a podcast episode about successful labor organizing in Milwaukee. Listen to it here! 

Social Events

We continue hosting recurring social events – New Member Orientations, DSA 101, Coffee with Comrades, and the Rosebuddies program. We also look forward to various canvassing opportunities and electoral campaign-related events in February and beyond. 

Protest Song of the Month

For January, I present the Song of Choice by Peggy Seeger. This song uses an extended metaphor of dormant seeds to represent fascism, and urges the listener to pull the weeds before it’s too late. A snippet:

“Early every year, seeds are growing

Unseen, unheard, they lie beneath the ground.

Would you know before the leaves are showing

That with weeds all your garden will abound?

If you close your eyes, stop your ears,

Hold your mouth, how can you know?

The seeds you cannot see may not be there;

The seeds you cannot hear may never grow…

In January you’ve still got the choice,

You can cut the weeds before they start to bud!

If you leave them to grow higher, they’ll silence your voice

And in December you may pay with your blood!”

And that concludes our monthly round-up!

The following is an opinion piece by the contributor T. Sinclair, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Pine & Roses Editorial Board.

***

You know the trouble with the term “fascism”? There are just too many doggone types. That, and it’s lobbed around like a hot potato so much, to try and divine its actual definition these days is like trying to tell a heap from a pile. After all, we consider Mussolini’s and Hitler’s regimes to be fascist for sure, but where do we land on Hirohito’s Japan, Franco’s Spain, or Salazar’s Portugal? Were they fully fascist, or just authoritarian? If the AfD comes to power in Germany, is that suddenly a fascist state? How many hairs are left before a man is considered bald?

For these reasons of vagueness and the slow dilution of the term’s meaning, I suggest we take a “if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck” attitude when comparing regimes to fascism, so walk with me while we run through that exercise with the current Trump administration. I’ve referenced Keene State College’s “Characteristics of Fascism” for this piece.

Populist nationalism centered on cult of a redemptive, “infallible” leader who never admits mistakes.

Yup, MAGA and Trump, done.

Political power derived from questioning reality.

Trump’s administration has claimed that it has a right to Greenland never before claimed by the US. He and his administration also still deny he ever lost the 2020 election. They said their administration was killing sailors in the Caribbean for being drug smugglers with no evidence ever presented. His Department of Homeland Security has recently openly contradicted video evidence that clearly shows its ICE agents committing murder by arguing without any material evidence that the victims were would-be assassins. Not to mention all the other times Trump has denied blatantly true shit.

Fixation with perceived national decline, humiliation, or victimhood.

“America’s decline is over. Thanks to President Trump, we are facing the world with dignity, power, and strength.” – US State Department, Jan. 20th 2026

“Rather than focusing solely on his own legal troubles or partisan opponents, Trump began portraying the United States itself as a victim of foreign aggression. In this version of events, other countries were villains responsible for plundering American industry, exploiting trade imbalances, and sending criminals across the border.” – ZME Science, referencing a study by Dr. Marianna Patrona of the Hellenic Army Academy.

“Replacement theory” used to show that democratic ideals of freedom and equality are a threat. Oppose any initiatives or institutions that are racially, ethnically, or religiously harmonious.

Trump’s administration has repeatedly gone after “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” rules within federal agencies and educational institutions, arguing that they’re inherently “racist” toward whites. During his first week in office, he signed Executive Orders banning the consideration of DEI within a number of institutions. 

He has also dog-whistled the far-right’s “great replacement” theory, according to which white Americans are being replaced by non-white Americans, with the stated goal of muting the political power of white Americans. “Our elections are bad, and a lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote.” – Trump, Sept 2024 Presidential election. There is also the administration’s push to increase the birthrate and encourage traditional marriage among American citizens, increasing access to IVF and going so far as to consider a proposal for $5,000 bonuses for American women who give birth.

Disdain for human rights while seeking purity and cleansing for those they define as part of the nation.

ICE has consistently denied residents’ human rights, detaining people with legal residence in order to “reconsider” their status, caging children with legal status, deporting people in the middle of the night before their legal due process was completed, sending people to a high-security prison in El Salvador so they don’t have legal recourse. Moving detainees across state lines in order to make legal representation harder to attain in a timely fashion. All of these are denials of human and constitutional rights.

Identification of “enemies”/scapegoats as a unifying cause. Imprison and/or murder opposition and minority group leaders. 

The administration consistently has identified undocumented immigrants as “violent criminals,” and brings up the need to deport as many as possible. ICE being sent into areas with strong communities of black and brown folks, detaining both undocumented and legal residents alike in an attempt to ethnically cleanse urban centers of non-white, non-citizen residents. Note how ICE has not targeted undocumented residents from predominantly white nations, but instead has hammered down on immigrants and refugees from Latino and African nations. ICE has also murdered a handful of protestors, and detained hundreds more, who posed no physical threat to authorities, refusing to investigate those instances in an unbiased manner. This is all an attempt to create a unified “enemy.” 

There is also the Trump administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department to go after perceived political enemies, like James Comey who investigated Trump in 2016, former New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully prosecuted Trump on fraud charges before his return to power, and most recently the arrests of journalists like Don Lemon, who are often critical of Trump and his administration in their reporting.

Supremacy of the military and embrace of paramilitarism in an uneasy, but effective collaboration with traditional elites. Fascists arm people and justify and glorify violence as “redemptive”.

Just look at our recent venture into Venezuela, a successful military operation that had Trump praising the might of our military, as well as the true reasons for the incursion. He said as much, “I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America. This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” Praising the might of the US military in order to take over a sovereign nation and fill the pockets of America’s elites.

Then there is the arming of thugs to join ICE, modern day Brown Shirts masked, wearing plain clothes and driving unmarked cars. I hate to hammer the point, but these guys are nothing more than civilians deputized and armed in order to chase down black and brown folks who don’t have citizenship, tear them from their families and communities, and whisk them off in the middle of the night to some other country. The government tries to valorize the violence they commit, but so far there has been great pushback against that narrative. Let’s hope it can hold.

Rampant sexism.

Not only is Trump’s administration sexist, supporting anti-choice laws across the country, he’s also attacked the LGBTQ+ community by ordering federal agencies to recognize only two genders on his first day, they’ve made a big deal of being anti-transgender students in school, and restricting gender-affirming care to trans minors. 

Control of mass media and undermining “truth”.

The administration’s refusal to admit some major news agencies into official press briefings, and its continual denial of facts as “fake news” is a blatant example of this. Most recently, the doubling down by the DHS and Trump on the two murder victims in Minneapolis as “agitators” and “suspects”, as well as withholding evidence from the state before investigations are begun, let alone completed, is a great example of how they feel the need to control the narrative. Someone call Orwell.

Often seeking to expand territory through armed conflict.

Venezuela, Greenland, and with the recent posturing among the U.S. Treasury and Alberta separatists, maybe even an attempt at parts of Canada. Lebenstraum, we need more lebenstraum! I mean, c’mon folks. 

The fact is, it doesn’t matter if you use the “F” word to describe the Trump administration or not. What matters is looking at facts on the ground as they are. Call it a paleo-conservative reordering of the American system. Call it the rise of western authoritarianism, or the inevitable outcome of American hegemony after 70 years. Whether you think the current administration is proto-fascist, quasi-fascist, or something similar but not quite the same, I would encourage you to at least consider: if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, don’t be afraid to use the word. 

The post If it Walks Like a Duck and Talks Like a Duck … appeared first on Pine & Roses.

Monthly Newsletter of the Rochester Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America

Welcome to the February issue of Rochester Red Star. In this issue, read remarks on ICE violence, protest, and our chapter’s recent 2025 Convention. You’ll also find details on upcoming events, and coverage of chapter activities over the past month.

Interested in contributing? Send submissions to bit.ly/SubmitRedStar, or get involved with our Communications Committee. Reach out to steering@rocdsa.org and join DSA today!

The post Rochester Red Star | February 2026 | (Issue 22) first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

By: Kurt Stand

This was originally published by Portside on December 18, 2025.

“Here’s what’s wrong in this yard. Two white welders get fired and blackmailed into silence for their jobs. A third one, black, with an unblemished record, is fired for the same supposed offense and the company refuses to budge.”

“Ain’t right!” someone called.

“But not one of the three welders should have lost a minute of pay, much less their jobs. And why? Because you can’t breathe carbon monoxide! They are all victims of this company’s core value: Production over safety!”

Set at a shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts where Brandow worked for 9 years, he uses his experiences as a welder and a union officer to give Goliath an authenticity that is too often lacking in fictional depictions of labor. This is evident in his awareness of the complexity of the characters in the novel, in the picture he presents of union meetings, grievance handling, rank-and-file organizing.                  

Set in the late 70s — early 80s. at the time of the Iran hostage crisis and the racist violence that followed attempts to desegregate Boston’s public school, Brandow places his work in a wider context of events shaping the time without ever losing his focus on the shipyard.  The novel centers on the life of Michael Shea, a Vietnam vet whose personal experiences lead to awareness of class injustice (fueled in part by his mother’s picket line assault that results in her death), and, unusual in the community in which he was raised, awareness of racial injustice and a rejection of the racial hatreds that surround him. Shea’s status as a veteran at a time when jobs were plentiful, enables him to find work as a welder.  The hazards of shipyard work, the union’s unwillingness to fight back, lead him to become an engaged unionist and eventually, a shop steward.  This is shown against the backdrop of personal challenges and difficulties that make this path anything but a linear march of progress. 

 At the center of the novel is a conflict over the role of shop stewards. Do they serve the union leadership, doling out favors to the skilled, the “loyal,” those who are white; do they defend workers by compromising their rights; or do they fight management through unity, creativity, militancy, by organizing rank and file participation – and reaching out for support outside the workplace.  

 Behind those choices lies a difference as to how to relate to a changing workforce.  A shipyard that in living memory had been almost all white men now includes Black Americans, West Indians, Cape Verdeans, Puerto Ricans, a small but growing number of women, all of whom the old leadership fears and resents.  And many of the younger white workers don’t have the commitment to the job or union that older ones had.  Thus a weakened union, a union that has become parochial, a union that still tries to represent the workforce but does so through compromises with management that allows for small victories at the expense of loss of rights.  The price of doing so is at a cost that will come due.

The battle over the quality of the work stewards perform is merged with the battle to have enough stewards.  That conflict is central to all that follows as Brandow makes clear early on.

[Shea] checked his contract … it permitted one steward for each two hundred hardhats in a department.  Despite that, the union by-laws capped the number at a single steward [per department]. He couldn’t let that go.  How could it be possible that the union – not the company – limited the number of stewards, the front-line protections guys had on the job?  Shea realized it really was a black and white issue. The only truly affected department, the only one that qualified under the contract for additional stewards, was welding—the only department with a significant number of black votes.

That sparks a union meeting where the rank-and-file gets defeated by leadership afraid that opening doors might loosen their own authority.  Subsequent battles – over racist graffiti in bathrooms, the lay-off of a pregnant worker, speed-up, safety & health concerns, company disciplinary policies, the conduct of a strike – show the shifting sentiment of workers, how prejudiced attitudes can be broken down and how they can resurface. In all of this, the fights and arguments that take place within the union are always presented in the context of the real problem, management policy that devalues the life of all workers. 

Brandow’s description of how a rank-and-file movement organizes demonstrates that understanding, its goal is to strengthen the union as a whole, not to attack or undermine it. Here too, his writing reflects what he lived, the meetings, arguments, tensions, celebrations, camaraderie, disappointments, harsh language flung back and forth even between friends, all contain the ring of truth. 

Those complications are also those of the characters who people the novel, all with lives outside the job, all facing the pressures of working-class life in which opportunities are few and (even in a more “stable” era) precarious. The violence in the air post-Vietnam, when reaction was raising its ugly head trying to push down progress toward social justice, the uncertainties as those changes were reflected in personal relationships, are very much part of novel’s depiction of workplace life.  The multi-racial character of the shipyard and of Boston and its environs as much a part of the story as the reaction to it, just as is the assertiveness of women pushing back against silences that had prevailed.

That reflects itself in the character of the “sell-out” union president, who remembers with nostalgia, the militancy, the willingness to fight, that built the union.  He respects the new militancy of Shea and the others pushing for change, as much as he does all in his power to undermine them.  He rationalizes the compromises with management he makes every day, for all he sees is a losing battle.  His weakness is part of the problem, no doubt, but nonetheless, he is right – management holds the cards. For those who lived through those times, reading Goliath is a reminder of what happened when layoffs swept industry, fear of job loss leading those who had resisted to accept the unacceptable as safety regulations went out the window.  The end result is a feeling Brandow well describes as he records Shea’s thoughts toward the end of the novel as the combination of permanent layoffs, unrelenting speed-up, breakdown of shifts and jobs assignments, leave workers demoralized, the old union leadership out in the cold, younger union activists with a sense of defeat. 

He knew they thought of their homes, fishing trips in New Hampshire, mythic fiberglass boats skimming over the water, the week, maybe two in a year that they prized as their own. They thought of their own little girls and their sons in their yards. All gone. They knew they would go to their graves with a rage they could never concede. They stood by the basin and yearned for a bright, free beginning. For a start they knew they would never be given.

That describes a reality that those newer to labor activism also need to know for no gain should ever be taken for granted, unity needs to be fought for again and again, struggles for justice at the workplace need to be joined to those taking place in the communities where people live and the broader forces pushing society in one direction or another have to be engaged. Perhaps the greatest strength of the novel lies in making clear that what matters is not just the outcome of a particular battle – for win or lose, it is transitory.  Rather what matters is what we take away from each dispute, each organizing effort, how to integrate that in one’s own life.  Shea reflects that challenge in himself, his personal weaknesses as much a part of the story as his strengths.  The novel’s conclusion providing a good starting point for thinking about how to accept loss, which way to look for new beginnings, a search that – almost by definition, is never easy. 

Cotty and Lonny [two of the rank-and-file leaders] watched them go. They looked around, searching for Shea before they went in. He was the last to join the line. Cotty said, “You did what you could.” Shea nodded without hearing.  “For real, man,” Lonny added, poking Shea in the chest. “I mean, we had men and women, black and white, every shift pulling together. That’s real. That’s something they can’t take from us.”

“Yeah, maybe,” he said as he followed them into the ship and headed for his worksite. Shea’s legs ached to skip down the stairs, to churn past the gates, to breathe in the freedom outside. Instead, he stumbled his way past slaggy mounds of main deck debris toward his gear.  The last whistle blew.

Goliath at Sunset was published by Hard Ball Press on December 15, 2025.

Kurt Stand was active in the labor movement for over 20 years including as the elected North American Regional Secretary of the International Union of Food and Allied Workers until 1997.  He is a member of the Prince George’s County Branch of Metro DC DSA, and periodically writes for the Washington Socialist, Socialist Forum, and other left publications. He serves as a Portside Labor Moderator, and is active within the reentry community of formerly incarcerated people. Kurt Stand lives in Greenbelt, MD.

The post Shipyard Unionism: A Novel of Triumphs and Defeats – A Review of Goliath at Sunset by Jonathan Brandow appeared first on Working Mass.

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