A Metro DC DSA members writes about a chapter proposal to invest in a new part-time staffer position.

Thanks to all who attended the Labor Day rally in Burlington, one of countless major protests across the country on Sept 1. We were proud to stand side-by-side with so many unions and activist organizations demanding an end to America's oligarchy.

Vermont's labor movement is growing more powerful, unified, and assertive. Right now, in St. Albans, workers want their milk money.

They also want shorter workdays and better health and retirement plans. Last week, members of Teamsters Local 597 went on strike against their employer, the Dairy Farmers of America. The processing plant, which supplies Cabot and Ben & Jerry's, brought in scabs.

If you can, please show your solidarity with the workers, as several Green Mountain Democratic Socialists already have, by joining the 24/7 picket line at 140 Federal St., St. Albans City, VT 05478. You can even ask them about donating to their strike fund.

Sept. 1 in Burlington
Sept. 27 in St. Albans

And if you want to help build working-class militancy across the country, join DSA. In Vermont and everywhere else, we are fighting to organize workplaces, win elections, and advance a better world for all.

With that in mind, please consider marking your calendar for our next general meeting (10/11). Details below.

GMDSA MEETINGS AND EVENTS
🚲 Our Urbanism Committee will meet on Monday, Oct. 6, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

🔨 Talk about your job and learn about shop-floor organizing from peers at Workers' Circle (co-hosted by the Green Mountain IWW) on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, including Oct. 8, at 6 p.m. at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington).

🤝 GMDSA's East and West branches will come together for another general meeting on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 11 a.m. at Burlington's Fletcher Free Library (235 College St.), where we'll continue last month's discussion about forming a chapter-wide priority campaign for 2026. Newcomers can show up at 10 a.m. for an optional orientation.

🧑‍🏭 Our Labor Committee will meet on Monday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

🗳️ The next meeting of our Electoral Committee will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

👋 Find out how you can help our Membership Committee improve recruitment and involvement in our chapter on Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

STATE AND LOCAL NEWS
📰 Striking school bus drivers in Windham County returned to work, subsequently ratifying a new union contract.

📰 A Burlington musician has launched a campaign to become Chittenden County sheriff on a promise to refuse to carry out unjust eviction orders.

COMMUNITY FLYERS

by Rochester for Energy Democracy

Metro Justice, the Rochester for Energy Democracy (RED) Campaign and over 60 concerned Rochesterians rallied Tuesday at 5:30pm at City Hall to highlight the harmful RG&E proposal for another 34% hike in distribution rates, right after the previous 34% rate hike went into effect in May. These new hikes, if approved, would result in a $623 increase to the average household gas and electric bill and, using ACEEE numbers, put 50,000 more RG&E customers in energy poverty. With a median income of ~$46K, this means more than half of Rochester households would be at risk (meaning energy exceeds 6% of income). The hikes also come on the heels of the recent audit showing widespread mismanagement and safety violations by RG&E and its multinational owners, and that it’s unclear where money is going within the company or between the various utility companies that Avangrid owns. Even with the results of that audit, RG&E is requesting an increase in their rate of profit, to 10%, even while experts claim that utility profits should be closer to 6%. RG&E/NYSEG also wants to close the walk-in center on South Clinton, and 4 other offices (Sodus, Oneonta, Ithaca, Auburn) in their territory. 

“It’s clear that RG&E can’t be trusted with our money, why would we give them one cent more?” expressed Dr. Michi Wenderlich, Campaign and Policy Coordinator of Metro Justice, and continued: “We don’t need to be in this constant cycle. If RG&E is successful in raising our rates AGAIN, Adam Bello and Malik Evans, who have so far been able to block even the common sense step of investigating an alternative, are to blame. Drop the Hikes, Fund the Study!” 

Kim Smith, Political Director for VOCAL-NY: “Given the political landscape and all that is happening on the federal level, Rochester residents living at and below the poverty level are in the midst of an affordability crisis.  Housing is limited, there are proposed cuts to SNAP benefits and healthcare – now RG&E is proposing a 34% rate hike. With winter approaching so many families will be neglected.  Enough is Enough! When will customer service, satisfaction and needs be a priority? RG&E = Rochester Greed & Errancy.”

Graham Hughes, Director of Policy and Advocacy with the Climate Solutions Accelerator: “Right now, Rochestarians need our utility company to prioritize energy affordability and climate investments. Unfortunately this rate case filing prioritizes expanding expensive fracked gas infrastructure and makes minimal investments in renewable energy and electrification. Rate payers cannot afford a 34% delivery rate increase, we need the Public Service Commission to reject this increase and demand that our utility companies do their part to meet CLCPA requirements.”

Bishop Norman Roberts of United Christian Leadership Ministry: “United Christian Leadership Ministry stands firmly with community members who are concerned about the financial strain a proposed rate increase would place on families, seniors, and vulnerable individuals. We urge state regulators and RG&E to reconsider this proposal and instead seek alternative solutions that prioritize affordability, transparency, and the well- being of all residents. It is our belief that an ill-informed rate increase will profoundly impact poor and low-income families.”

Christina Christman, President of Federation of Social Workers: “We’re the workers responsible for seeing people having trouble paying their energy bills, and it’s clear the people of Rochester can’t afford RG&E. Any increase poses an unacceptable rise in energy burden and shut offs. We need to get out of this cycle of unending rate increases and investigate a public utility.” 

Barbara Rivera with Community Giveback 585: “The recent DPS Audit shows that RG&E can’t be trusted with our money, and shouldn’t get any rate increase. Rate hikes would worsen an already dire situation where Rochester faces the 3rd highest energy burden in the country and RG&E shut off over 13,000 homes and businesses in 2024. I can’t afford bills now, and I can’t afford a rate hike.”

Liz McGriff of City-wide Tenant Union: “People are struggling everyday just to have the basic needs met. It makes sense to me to keep our resources close to home. Right now, the utility money we pay goes to a corporation in another country.  Federal programs such as HEAP funding goes to a corporation in another country. We can not afford a rate hike! We need a rate reduction. We need elected officials to listen to the People. Stop padding your pockets at the expense of the people! This community needs to have its own utility company, to bring down the cost and the funds will stay in the community.”

The post Metro Justice and Community Organizations Demand “STOP the Hikes – Fund the Study” at Sept 30 Public Hearing on Proposed 34% RG&E Rate Hikes first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

Welcome to the October issue of Red Star. In this issue you’ll find a statement from DSA’s National Political Committee, commentary on the alleged “mass politics” vs. “sectarian” divide within the organization, an exposure of “left” Zionism, lessons from nature, and more. There is also a list of upcoming events, and “Notes of the Month” from September.

Want to contribute? Submit 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 | October 2025 | (Issue 18) first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

San Francisco runs on transit. Every morning, the city’s pulse flows through its veins: buses, streetcars, and trains. This network is more than just transportation, it represents the motion of our daily lives, how our nurses, teachers, builders, and clerks reach their posts to keep the city living and growing.

But that heartbeat is now faltering. The system that carries us through our daily grind, is being starved of resources. The SFMTA faces a $300+ million shortfall, and this year, our new mayor, Daniel Lurie, has cut Muni service on essential routes like the 5 Fulton, 9 San Bruno, and 31 Balboa. Meanwhile, BART confronts a catastrophic $400 million deficit that threatens night and weekend service. A city without reliable transit simply cannot and will not function.

These cuts fall hardest on those who already carry the city: working-class families, elders, students, and immigrants. For those who rely on transit, “service reductions” mean lost hours, lost wages, and closed doors.

For years, transportation network companies (TNCs) such as Uber and Lyft have clogged our streets. According to the SFCTA’s 2018 report “TNCs & Congestion”, TNCs contributed approximately 50% of the overall increase in traffic congestion in San Francisco between 2010 and 2016.

Time and again, working people have been left hanging by politicians who spend endlessly on budget items like excessive police overtime or the ballooning budgets for the sheriff and DA’s office. Funding for fare enforcement has increased but not for transit itself, with fines disproportionately extracted from minorities. Meanwhile, Muni drivers must fight for their right to simply use the bathroom during their shift. City Hall is committed to spending public funds on punitive measures rather than vital services.

Transit is not a luxury we indulge in, it is a fundamental public service. And now, Mayor Lurie’s solution to this crisis? Allowing Waymos, Ubers, and Lyfts on what was supposed to be a Car-Free Market Street—a hard-won public safety initiative. These same corporations funneled massive amounts of money into opposing Prop L in 2024, which would have funded transit services through a tax on their operations. Now, a wealthy mayor, insulated from the working class and our reliance on public transit, is offering expensive, private luxury ride-hails as a substitute for affordable public transportation. 

The question before us is simple: will we allow public transit to be dismantled piece by piece? Or will we come together to defend it, demand investment, and build the future our communities deserve?

The answer will not come from above. It must come from us: the riders, the drivers, the workers, the people who make this city move. San Francisco can be a city that moves together, or it can be a city that leaves us behind. The choice is ours.

If you want to fight for public transit for the working class, join DSA.
See you at the bus stop!

Sincerely, the DSA SF Ecosocialists

By: Rodney Coopwood

The Illusion of Choice

What Americans call political diversity is actually ideological uniformity. Turn on any news channel, scroll through any political debate, and you’ll see the same tired performance: conservatives versus liberals, Republicans versus Democrats, each side convinced they represent fundamentally different worldviews. But here’s what I’ve come to understand as a socialist looking at this spectacle from the outside — they’re all playing variations of the same tune.

Conservatives, liberals, and even libertarians aren’t offering different philosophical frameworks. They’re offering different flavors of the same ice cream: liberalism. The marketing makes them seem distinct, even opposed, but strip away the branding and you find they all believe in the same core values — just different approaches to achieving them.

This confusion runs so deep that when progressives push for reforms like universal healthcare or wealth taxes, they get labeled as “radical leftists” when they’re actually just trying to make the existing liberal-capitalist system function closer to its stated ideals. True leftist positions — like worker ownership of the means of production or democratic economic planning — don’t even register in mainstream political discourse because they fall outside the artificially constrained liberal framework that defines America’s political vocabulary.

Unmasking the Liberal Consensus

At their very core, conservatives, liberals, and libertarians all operate within the classical liberal tradition that emerged from the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. They all accept:

• Individual rights as the foundation of society
• Private property as sacred and natural
• Market relations as the default way of organizing economic life
• Constitutional government with checks and balances
• The basic legitimacy of democratic institutions (though they may disagree on their scope)

The differences people get so heated about are really just different emphases within this shared framework. Conservatives might say they want minimal government interference in the economy while liberals want more regulation, but both accept that the economy should be organized around private ownership and market exchange. Libertarians take classical liberalism to its logical extreme, but they’re still working within the same philosophical boundaries.

When I say this is about marketing, I don’t mean the policy differences are trivial — they have real impacts on people’s lives. What I mean is that the ideological packaging makes these tactical disagreements appear to be fundamental philosophical divisions when they’re really just different management styles for the same basic system.

Libertarianism perfectly illustrates this point. Libertarians present themselves as radically different from both conservatives and liberals, advocating for minimal government and maximum individual freedom. But libertarianism is actually what you get when you push liberal principles of individual rights and limited government as far as they can go while still maintaining private property and market relations. The libertarian’s “radical” position of eliminating most government functions isn’t a departure from liberalism; it’s liberalism without the moderating influences that other liberals accept as necessary to manage capitalism’s contradictions. This is why libertarianism sits even further right than conservatism — conservatives at least accept some government intervention as necessary, while libertarians want to strip it down to almost nothing.

Here’s where American political discourse gets it fundamentally wrong: liberalism isn’t the “left” — it’s the center of the political spectrum. In mainstream American conversation, “liberal” gets treated as synonymous with “left-wing,” but this is a profound misunderstanding that distorts our entire political vocabulary.

The real political spectrum runs like this: To the left of the liberal center, you have progressivism (what Americans often mistakenly call “liberalism”), then socialism, then communism, then anarchism. To the right of the liberal center, you have conservatism, then libertarianism, then far-right extremism.

But American discourse compresses this entire range into a false binary where “liberal” means left and “conservative” means right, completely erasing actual left-wing positions from the conversation. When Americans say someone is “liberal,” they’re usually describing what should properly be called progressive — someone who wants to reform the liberal system to make it work better, not someone who wants to replace it entirely.

This linguistic confusion isn’t accidental. It serves to make the liberal framework appear to encompass the full range of legitimate political thought, when in reality it represents just the center position with some variations to either side.

The Structural Contradiction

Here’s where it gets interesting from a theoretical standpoint. Capitalism developed as a purely economic system focused on market relations and private ownership. But any economic system needs a political and social framework to sustain it, and liberalism provided that framework for capitalism.

The problem is that these two systems have contradictory logics. Liberalism promises political equality — the idea that all individuals have equal rights and equal say in democratic governance. But capitalism requires economic inequality to function. Someone has to own the means of production, someone else has to sell their labor. Capital needs to accumulate, which means wealth concentrates. The system literally cannot work without creating and maintaining class divisions.

This isn’t some unintended side effect –- it’s structural. Political theorist and historian Roy Casagrande describes how liberalism essentially became capitalism’s philosophical framework, providing the ideological justification for a system that contradicts liberalism’s own stated values.

Even early Enlightenment thinkers who developed liberal theory recognized this tension. They understood that capitalism’s tendency toward inequality could undermine political equality, but they believed this could be managed through institutions and reforms rather than by questioning the economic system itself.

The Evidence: When Theory Meets Reality

This contradiction isn’t just theoretical — it plays out in concrete ways that affect real people’s lives.

Black Americans provide the clearest example of how formal political equality coexists with systematic economic exclusion. Despite decades of civil rights legislation, anti-discrimination laws, and diversity initiatives –- all liberal solutions — the racial wealth gap has barely budged. Median Black family wealth remains about one-tenth that of white families. This isn’t because liberal reforms haven’t been implemented, but because they address symptoms while leaving untouched the underlying system that created and maintains these disparities.

The caste system that affects Black Americans operates alongside the class system. When economic downturns happen, Black Americans face distinct and often disproportionate impacts not just because of class position but because of how race and class interact under racial capitalism. Liberal frameworks struggle to address this because they’re designed to treat race and class as separate issues rather than understanding how they’re systematically intertwined.

Native Americans face even starker contradictions. They’re simultaneously sovereign nations and colonial subjects, with formal treaty rights that exist alongside ongoing land theft and resource extraction. The reservation system creates a form of internal colonialism that liberal political theory can’t even properly name, let alone address. How do you reconcile individual property rights –- a cornerstone of liberalism — with collective indigenous sovereignty and traditional land use practices? You can’t, which is why liberal solutions consistently fail to address the root issues.

Latino Americans demonstrate how immigration status creates tiered citizenship that serves capital’s need for exploitable labor. Some have formal rights while others are deliberately kept in precarious legal positions that make them more vulnerable to exploitation. This isn’t a policy oversight — it’s exactly what the economic system requires to maintain cheap labor pools.

Even European social democratic models, often held up as examples of successful liberal reform, reveal these same fundamental contradictions. Sweden’s domestic equality coexists with arms exports to authoritarian regimes. Germany’s strong worker protections rely on exploiting Southern European labor through EU economic structures. The welfare state ameliorates capitalism’s worst effects domestically while often intensifying exploitation elsewhere.

The Progressive Trap

Here’s what’s particularly revealing: every time progressives push for reforms to address inequality, they’re essentially admitting that capitalism doesn’t naturally produce the outcomes liberalism promises.

Universal healthcare? That’s because market-based healthcare creates inequality. Strong labor protections? Because unregulated capitalism exploits workers. Wealth taxes? Because capitalism concentrates wealth. Affirmative action? Because “merit-based” systems reproduce existing inequalities.

Each progressive reform is an acknowledgment that the economic system undermines the political ideals. The more adjustments liberals have to make to capitalism to achieve their stated goals of equality and freedom, the more they’re proving that socialism’s analysis was correct — that you can’t have genuine political equality while maintaining private ownership of the means of production.

This is why liberal reforms, no matter how well-intentioned, keep failing to address root causes. They’re trying to solve systemic problems with tools provided by the same system that created those problems. It’s like trying to fix a broken foundation by rearranging the furniture.

Beyond the Liberal Horizon

Understanding this helps explain why American political discourse feels so constrained and circular. When both major parties operate within the same fundamental framework, when the boundaries of “realistic” policy are drawn by that framework’s limitations, genuine alternatives become literally unthinkable within mainstream political conversation.

Socialism offers something different because it addresses both the economic system and its supporting political structures. Instead of trying to manage capitalism’s contradictions, it proposes replacing the system that creates those contradictions in the first place. Worker ownership of the means of production. Democratic planning of economic priorities. An economic system designed to serve human needs rather than accumulate capital.

This isn’t utopian thinking — it’s practical recognition that the problems liberalism struggles to solve are inherent to the economic system liberalism was designed to support.

Breaking the Frame

The first step toward real political alternatives is recognizing how narrow the current frame actually is. What gets presented as the full spectrum of political possibility is really just different management strategies for the same basic arrangement of economic and political power.

Once you see this, a lot of things start making sense. Why Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on so much when it comes to fundamental economic structures. Why reforms that sound transformative end up changing so little. Why the same problems keep recurring regardless of which party is in power.

We live in a liberal Enlightenment society with capitalism as its economic model. Until we’re willing to question that framework itself, we’ll keep having the same debates, implementing the same types of solutions, and wondering why the same problems persist.

The real political spectrum is much broader than American discourse suggests. It’s time we started acting like it.

This article represents the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of The Detroit Socialist or Metro Detroit DSA as a whole.

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Beyond the Liberal Mirage: Why American Politics Is a Closed Loop was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Events & Actions

Tuesday, September 30 (8:00 AM – 4:30 PM): ICE Out of SF Courts! (In person at 100 Montgomery)

Tuesday, September 30 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Immigrant Justice Healing Circle (In person at 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday, October 1 (6:30 PM – 9:00 PM): New Member Happy Hour (In person at Zeitgeist, 199 Valencia)

Thursday, October 2 (7:30 PM – 9:30 PM): TOWG Reading Group: “Housing the City by the Bay: Tenant Activism, Civil Rights, and Class Politics in San Francisco” (In person at 1916 McAllister St)

Friday, October 3 (8:00 AM – 4:30 PM): ICE Out of SF Courts! (In person at 100 Montgomery)

Friday, October 3 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM): Municipal Social Housing: Learning from Seattle’s Win (518 Valencia)

Saturday, October 4 (10:30 AM – 12:00 PM): DSA SF x EBDSA: No Space for ICE Canvassing (In person at Portsmouth Square Park, 745 Kearny St)

Saturday, October 4 (1:00 PM – 3:00 PM): International Day of Action: Oakland Arms Embargo Now! (In person at Oscar Grant Plaza, Oakland)

Saturday, October 4 (4:00 PM – 6:00 PM): Divestment Strategy Session (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, October 5 (5:30 PM – 7:15 PM): HWG Reads “Capitalism & Disability – Selected Writings by Marta Russell” (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday, October 6 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Labor Board x SF EWOC Local Meeting (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Tuesday, October 7 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (Zoom)

Wednesday, October 8 (6:45 PM – 9:00 PM): October General Meeting (Zoom and in person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Ave)

Thursday, October 9 (5:30 PM – 6:30 PM): Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Thursday, October 9 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Immigrant Justice Court Action Orientation (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, October 11 (12:45 PM – 4:00 PM): Homelessness Working Group Outreach and Outreach Training (Meet in person at 1916 McAllister)

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

ICE Out of SF Courts!

Join neighbors, activists, grassroots organizations in resisting ICE abductions happening at immigration court hearings! ICE is taking anyone indiscriminately in order to meet their daily quotas. Many of those taken include people with no removal proceedings.

We’ll be meeting every Tuesday and Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM at Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery. We need all hands on deck. The 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM window is when we most need to boost turnout, but if you can’t make that please come whenever works for you. 1 or 2 hours or the entire time! We’re also holding orientation sessions for folks, but that is not required to attend. See the Immigrant Justice Court Action Orientation event for more details.

Municipal Social Housing: Learning from Seattle’s Win

Two DSA SF-backed ballot props in 2020 were meant to enable and fund social housing, but mayoral opposition has blocked the funds being spent for that purpose. Seattle’s victory offers a lesson in how we might beat that blockage. In February, Seattle’s House Our Neighbors passed a ballot proposition with dedicated funds for a social housing developer. The campaign won by 26 points over opposition from Seattle’s mayor and most of their city council.

Join us at 518 Valencia on Friday, October 3 from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM for a conversation with Seattle organizer Eric Lee (House Our Neighbors, Seattle DSA) and our own Shanti Singh (Tenants Together, DSA SF).

RSVP here!

Stop the World for Gaza! Arms Embargo Now!

At least 280 shipments have left the Oakland Airport in the first 6 months of this year, carrying deadly military cargo to maintain Israel’s F-35 fleet. On Saturday, October 4th at 1:00 PM, we’ll link arms at Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland and re-energize ourselves for the fight ahead and demand killer cargo out of OAK! If you’d like to join the DSA contingent, check out the #palestine-solidarity Slack channel.

DSA SF x EBDSA: No Space for ICE Canvassing in SF Chinatown

The DSA SF Immigrant Justice Working Group and East Bay DSA Migrant Defense Working Group are leaving No Space for ICE! Join us on Saturday, October 4, at 1:00 PM to distribute red cards and other Know Your Rights materials to businesses and community members in SF Chinatown. We will meet at Portsmouth Square Park to share materials and train before we canvass. You can RSVP for the event here! Wear DSA merch if you can, or put a DSA pin on a visible part of your clothing.

New to canvassing? No worries! There will be a brief how-to training before we go out in pairs or small groups.

Steal This Story, Please! at the Roxie

DSA SF is proud to be a community partner with the Bay Area Premiere of Steal This Story, Please!, a documentary about award-winning journalist and host of Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman. The film will be playing on Saturday, October 4th from 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM at the Roxie Theater. Expected guests include Amy Goodman and the directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin.

Steal This Story, Please! is a gripping portrait of the trailblazer whose unwavering commitment to truth-telling spans three decades of turbulent history. From the front lines of global conflicts to the organized chaos of her daily news show Democracy Now!, Goodman broadcasts stories and voices routinely silenced by commercial media. Get your tickets here!

DSA SF Homelessness Working Group Reads: Capitalism & Disability: Selected Writings by Marta Russell

Join DSA SF’s Homelessness Working Group as we read through Capitalism & Disability: Selected Writings by Marta Russell. We’ll be meeting every other Sunday evening starting in September for 4 or 5 sessions at 1916 McAllister. The next session is Sunday, October 5. For more info, register here: bit.ly/martacd and check the events calendar for latest details.

Save the Date: Palestine Study – Understanding Zionism and Imperialism for Palestine Liberation

What does socialism have to do with Palestine? What did the founding of Israel really look like? How do we fight the genocide in Gaza here in the Bay Area? Join DSA SF on Sunday, October 19th from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM for the upcoming Palestine Study exploring the foundations of Zionism and how we fight imperialism for Palestinian liberation.

Immigrant Justice Court Action Orientation

Come one, come all to 1916 McAllister St for our court watch orientation! You’ll learn how we are resisting ICE , how you can help, and participate in a biweekly art build. Bring questions and anti-ICE slogans! This event will take place every other week on Thursdays starting at 7:00 PM and the next one is October 9th!

DSA SF Tenant Organizing Reading Group – “Housing the City by the Bay: Tenant Activism, Civil Rights, and Class Politics in San Francisco”

San Francisco has always had an affordable housing shortage, but solutions outside of the private sector have long been neglected or overlooked. Join us as we learn about the history of one proposed solution: public housing.

Our four-part reading group will meet every other Thursday at 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM hybrid in person at 1916 McAllister and Zoom with RSVP to discuss John Baranski’s book “Housing the City by the Bay”. The next meeting will be Thursday, October 2nd.

If you wish to join please RSVP here!

Behind the Scenes

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

Interested in helping with the newsletter or other day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running? Fill out the CCC help form.

SIGN ON: Fight Authoritarianism with the “Full Force” of the Working Class

Organizations and unions: Sign on to this letter and add organizational info here.

As Trump continues to sow terror on the working class, we, the undersigned organizations, are committed to protecting our rights to organize freely without fear of state repression. Engaging in peaceful protest and criticism of the government and the current social order is essential to democracy and freedom.

This weekend, Trump published a draconian directive to federal agencies to surveil and disrupt individuals and organizations who exhibit supposed “indicators of violence” including “anti-Americanism”, “anti-capitalism”, “extremism on migration, race, and gender”, and “hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality”. These are obvious signals to repress anyone who criticizes corporations, ICE, Israel, transphobia, patriarchy, Christian nationalism, and anti-abortion policies.

Trump then announced on social media that he would deploy military troops to Portland and use “full force, if necessary.” Oregon is not being targeted for federal intervention because of any actual threat to safety here, but because we have a proud history of demonstrating working-class power such as in street mobilizations, labor militancy, and our recently elected left-leaning Portland City Council. The business lobby alongside both liberal and conservative politicians tried to create the perception of Portland being a crime-ridden warzone in recent years – and now even they are opposed to troop deployment here. 

If Trump sends federal agents or the National Guard to Portland, it will do nothing to solve the daily crises – created by capitalism and made worse by Trump himself – that working Oregonians already face: housing insecurity, low wages, unstable employment, underfunded schools, cuts to public programs, escalating climate disasters, and corporate control of nearly every aspect of our lives.

We condemn the attempts to intimidate working class people, especially immigrants, and contrive an “emergency” to further repress our right to organize and protest.

We declare ourselves part of the century-old movement against fascism.

We pledge to protect members of our organizations, our families, our immigrant neighbors and our communities against Trump’s intimidation and violence. We pledge non-cooperation and resistance against illegal, unconstitutional violations of our human rights. We encourage all dissidents to organize at work, at school, in their neighborhoods, and in their faith communities.

We pledge to mobilize the power of our members in collective actions, as we know how:

• Withhold our labor or creatively deploy our labor
• Coordinate direct actions such as pickets, marches, rallies, vigils, and caravans
• Engage in civil disobedience such as sit-downs and sit-ins
• Display our union banners and wear our union gear at work and in public
• Display yard signs and window signs expressing our unity against fascism
• Encourage individual federal agents and National Guard troops to disobey unlawful orders
• Encourage our members and all resisters to participate in surveillance and rapid response to ICE, federal agent, and troop activity

People power is the only way to stop authoritarianism and create a better world that we all deserve.

The post Against the Militarization of Portland appeared first on Portland DSA .

“Nobody cares, work harder.” 

I watch my parents work themselves to the bone, while they are constantly exploited by the people for whom they work, and the capitalists who are oh so nice enough to afford them a place to live, while taking every opportunity to take more without reason and say, “That’s just how it works.”

My people sacrifice their bodies to erect buildings for companies that will exploit and discriminate against them. They leave their homeland, ravaged by corporations, corruption, colonialism, and imperialism, to build homes they may never be able to afford themselves.

I came across a forum post in which users were venting about their frustration, no, their hopelessness, in not being able to find a job in a system that requires you to have one to afford the most basic human necessities. 

I sat back and read as many admitted they just don’t see an end in sight, and were looking at heartbreaking alternatives to ease the suffering.

But we’re told we just need to “work harder.”

“Work.” Rich, coming from those who don’t seem to understand its meaning.

“But you don’t understand, if you work hard enough, you too will one day own capital. You, too, will one day be a big shot!”

Okay, even if that were true, then what?

What happens when we’re all filthy rich CEOs? At the expense of exploiting other countries, mind you, but that’s a whole other story.

Who will perform the labor?

“You just hire others to do it for you! Better yet, you can replace them all with AI or overseas laborers and pay THEM pennies on the dollar.”

But I thought the capitalist dream was that we all become big shots?

Do you see how that’s an inherently flawed “plan?”

Our participation in this capitalist system leaves us with two options: sell our labor at a tremendous loss, monetary and quality-of-life-wise, or exploit our fellow humans.

What kind of a choice is that?

We work ourselves to death, and for what? Low wages, maybe some benefits, and to be tossed aside at any given moment while CEOs rake in the fruits of our labor.

We’re then, if lucky enough, forced into gig work, meaning even longer hours, less pay, no benefits, and still, the company giving you the wonderful privilege of “being your own boss” takes their unfair cut of your labor.

And if you manage to start your own business free of these parasitic owners, congratulations, you are now in competition with them. 

Do you see how hard we’ve been working and continue to work? Do you see how easy these corporations, these capitalists have had it at YOUR expense?

You know what, maybe we do need to work harder.

We need to work harder to take back our labor.

Our time

Our dignity

Our lives.

The post The Capitalists Are Right: We Need to Work Harder first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.

If those deploring "political violence" are serious about stopping it, let's start with abolishing ICE.