San Francisco is About to Defund Solutions to Homelessness
After a late-night session on June 26, the Budget & Appropriations Committee of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is moving forward with a set of proposed resolutions regarding the budget. This includes one key provision proposed by Mayor Daniel Lurie to reallocate tax revenue raised from 2018’s Local Measure C, a.k.a. “Our City Our Home” or just Prop C. Besides likely being illegal – per the city attorney – this move would remove funding for a popular and successful housing program addressing homelessness in San Francisco.
In 2018, hundreds of activists came together with over a hundred endorsers in a political upsurge to fight for a durable solution to homelessness in San Francisco. DSA San Francisco formed a key part of this coalition, with DSA members occupying positions at every level of the campaign, from signature-gathering to running the field operation. We saw something revolutionary in Prop C: the ability to address homelessness at its root by funding permanent supportive housing.
Prop C implemented a gross receipts tax on large businesses, with the revenue going into a special city fund. It also specified that this fund be used for four things, in proportion: at least half for permanent housing, at least a quarter for mental health services, up to 15% on homelessness prevention, and only up to 10% for temporary shelter. This isn’t an afterthought: Prop C was built around the Housing First approach, which argues that homelessness and the constellation of issues that often surround it — drug use, mental health crises, and poverty — are best resolved by providing housing, not by temporary half-measures.
Prop C has faced challenges before. In 2018, before its passage, it received unprecedented pushback from the mayor at the time, London Breed, in an astounding statement where she highlighted the “lack of accountability” in her own administration and claimed that housing people without homes would worsen homelessness by “funding services for residents from other counties”. (San Francisco’s Point-in-Time count has continued to show that around 60–70% of the homeless population was most recently housed in San Francisco, before and after Prop C’s passage). She also raised the possibility of it being blocked by business interests: “if it passes, Proposition C will likely immediately become part of an ongoing lawsuit to invalidate it and similar signature-driven tax measures passed earlier this year.”
San Francisco’s voters approved Prop C with a 61% majority, but former Mayor Breed’s prediction came true and an anti-tax organization sued the city, claiming that special-purpose taxes require a ⅔ supermajority. This blocked Prop C spending until mid-2020 when the California Court of Appeals reaffirmed voters’ power to set taxes on businesses with citizen-initiated ballot measures.
When it has been allowed to work, Prop C and Housing First have been successful. The city’s 2024 report shows that it has provided more than 5,000 units – a number larger than the current remaining unsheltered homeless population in San Francisco – and that this housing works: “In the Permanent Housing service area, 96% of households retained their housing or exited to other stable housing options”. The contrast with other approaches is stark, and the city’s approach to temporary shelter has been, at best, chaotic: during the pandemic, San Francisco made it difficult for people to self-refer into shelter. On the other hand, Prop C made it possible for many of the residents of the city’s Shelter-in-Place Hotel program to exit to permanent housing.
This is the funding that Mayor Lurie plans to re-allocate to temporary shelter or other programs. As socialists we believe in provisioning the economy based on the needs of the people, not on the whims of startup capitalists or technocratic heirs-turned-mayors, and it’s clear that the urgent need of San Francisco’s homeless population is housing. The people of San Francisco agree. We call on the Board of Supervisors and the mayor to keep this funding permanent supportive housing and to protect Prop C and reject this antidemocratic provision.
Regardless of what happens at the Board today, it’s clear that real solutions can only come from organizing together. This decision is a step back for the city’s democratic processes, but together we can claim this power and demand real durable solutions for the city’s problems. Join DSA to fight for a world that places the interests of the many over the interests of the few!
Weekly Roundup: July 15, 2025
Events & Actions
Tuesday, July 15 (8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.): ICE out of SF Courts (In person at Immigration Court, 100 Montgomery St)
Tuesday, July 15 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (Zoom)
Tuesday, July 15 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): Reading Group: The Housing Question by Friedrich Engels, Part 2 (In person at 1916 McAllister)
Wednesday, July 16 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): 
What Is DSA? (In person at Potrero Branch Library, 1616 20th St)
Wednesday, July 16 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): EWOC: Organizer Toolkit Workshop (In person at 1916 McAllister)
Thursday, July 17 (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.): 
Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)
Thursday, July 17 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Electoral Board Meeting (Zoom)
Thursday, July 17 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigrant Justice Office Hour (Zoom)
Saturday, July 19 (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.): No Appetite for Apartheid Training and Outreach (Meet in person for training at 1916 McAllister, then head out to do outreach in the Bayview)
Saturday, July 19 (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.): Tenant Organizing Canvass (Meet in person at Chan Kaajal Park, 3100 17th St)
Saturday, July 19 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group (HWG) Food Service (In person at Castro & Market)
Sunday, July 20 (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Capital Reading Group – Review (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)
Monday, July 21 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Socialist in Office Subcommittee Regular Meeting (Zoom)
Monday, July 21 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (Zoom)
Monday, July 21 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)
Tuesday, July 22 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Social Housing Reading Group: SF Analyst’s Report (Zoom)
Wednesday, July 23 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tech Worker Reading Group: You Deserve a Tech Union (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)
Wednesday, July 23 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Independent Outreach (Meet at 1916 McAllister)
Thursday, July 24 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigrant Justice Working Group Meeting (Zoom)
Friday, July 25 (5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Electoral Education: Zohran x DSA’s Victory (In person at 1916 McAllister)
Friday, July 25 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): Maker Friday: Zine Edition (In person at 1916 McAllister)
Saturday, July 26 (1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.): Cuba Reportback (In person at 1916 McAllister)
Sunday, July 27 (1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.): Oakland Ballers vs Northern Colorado Owlz baseball game + “Halloween in July Night” (In person at Raimondi Park, 1800 Wood St, Oakland)
Monday, July 28 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenderloin Healing Circle (In person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate)
Monday, July 28 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board x Divestment Priority Meeting (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)
Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates. Events with a are especially new-member-friendly!
Say NO to Seizing Homes!
Join DSA SF in writing the Board of Supervisors to oppose Mayor Lurie’s RV ban, which threatens to seize the homes of poor and working San Franciscans. Demand real, permanent solutions for our neighbors living in their vehicles. Email homelessness@dsasf.org with any questions.
ICE Out of SF
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 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery. We need all hands on deck, even if you can only participate for 1 or 2 hours.
Reading Group: “The Housing Question” by Friedrich Engels
Join us in reading the seminal text on the political economy of housing. Written in 1872, The Housing Question is Friedrich Engels’ critique of the housing market and the solutions promoted by his contemporaries. 150 years later, his work resonates just as much, if not more, with tenants’ current struggles.
This two-part series will have readers discuss the various historical attitudes and debates around housing and apply those lessons to our modern housing crisis.
Join us for session 2 at the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister St. on July 15th at 7:00 p.m. A full PDF of the book can be found here.
EWOC: Organizer Toolkit Workshop
Join us Wednesday, July 16 from 6:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m. for a workshop held by the San Francisco local of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC)! We’ll be going over how to generate workplace organizing leads and hold organizing conversations. This will be an interactive session for any and all levels of organizing experience. Whether you’re an organizer or volunteer with EWOC or simply someone who wants to start learning about workplace organizing, this workshop is a great place to join the conversation and plan work for the labor movement!
We’ll be meeting at 1916 McAllister Let us know if you can make it! Hope to see you there!
Apartheid-Free Bay Area Canvass
No Appetite for Apartheid is a campaign aimed at reducing economic support for Israeli apartheid by canvassing local businesses to boycott Israeli goods. Come and canvass local businesses with the Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialist Working Group!
On Saturday, July 19 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., We will be doing a training on how to talk to stores in your neighborhood, then going out and talking with stores together in the Bayview! Meet at 1916 McAllister.
Tenant Organizing Canvass in the Mission
Help us build tenant power in SF! Tenant Organizing Working Group is hosting a canvass the Mission, in partnership with Tenant and Neighborhood Councils. We’ll meet July 19th at 3:00 p.m. at Chan Kaajal Park, near 16th St. BART station, and we’ll walk the neighborhood together, talking to tenants about their housing conditions and how collective action can help. This is a powerful way to build organizing skills and relationships within the community. We will start with a training, so no prior experience is required. Sign up here so we know you’re coming. See you there!
Social Housing Reading Group
What could social housing look like in San Francisco, and how do we get there? Join DSASF for a reading of the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s report on how the city can build its own publicly owned, deeply affordable housing. We will also read the SF Berniecrats report, Housing for the 99%, which lays out a vision for social housing for all in San Francisco. Join us at 1916 McAllister Tuesday, July 22 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
DSA SF Tech Reading Group
On July 23rd from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., come join DSA SF and Rideshare Drivers United tech workers for our next monthly tech reading group.
We’ll be reading an excerpt from You Deserve a Tech Union by Ethan Marcotte. This event is hybrid with food provided at the DSA SF office at 1916 McAllister St.
RSVP here to access the link to the reading! See you there!
Electoral Education: Zohran x DSA’s Victory
Join us Friday, July 25 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at 1916 McAllister for an open discussion about the very exciting Zohran campaign, how they did it, and how it’s shaping the national discussion about electoral politics in the United States and in our national organization! .
Audience: EVERYONE! Whether you’re new to movement or been following the Zohran campaign for a while, we hope this will be interesting for us all!
Maker Friday: Zine Edition
Join us for Maker Friday: Zine Edition on July 25 at 1916 McAllister from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.! We will learn how to make zines, brainstorm ideas for them, and make them. All are welcome, no experience necessary, come connect with your fellow comrades while making fun content to pass out.
Summer Social(ist) Events! 
On Sunday, July 27th at 3:30 p.m. we’ll be going to the Oakland Ballers vs Northern Colorado Owlz baseball game + “Halloween in July Night” (at Raimondi Park) – RSVP here by July 13th so that we can put in a group order of tickets! Group tickets are are $15 per ticket, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds!
Support the Blue Bottle Independent Union
Support the Blue Bottle Independent UnionNestlé is one of the biggest corporations in the world charged with decades of human rights violations in the global south. They’re now in our backyard intimidating baristas with surveillance, firing, and bad-faith bargaining. Last week, baristas in four Bay Area locations of Nestlé-owned Blue Bottle presented management with a super majority of union cards and demanded voluntary recognition. Instead, Blue Bottle fired one of the organizers, B.B. Young. This comes at an especially bad time for B.B. since their husband was also recently laid off.
Blue Bottle workers are asking for our support
- Donate at this GoFundMe page
- Sign the petition to demand that the company voluntarily recognize the Blue Bottle Independent Union
- Join the Blue Bottle Independent Union email list or follow on Instagram to stay in touch
- If you are an employee of Blue Bottle, fill out this intake form to get involved with organizing the union at your own store
Reports
Physical Education Training
On July 13th DSA SF held its second physical education training. Seven comrades got together in the park to learn and practice basic movement and self defense skills such as falling, quick get ups, rolling, human crutch carries, and basic stance work.
Stay tuned for the next one! If you’re interested in inclusive physical education and self defense strategies, please join #phys-ed on the DSA SF Slack.
Behind the Scenes
The Chapter Coordination Committee (CCC) regularly rotates duties among chapter members. This allows us to train new members in key duties that help keep the chapter running like organizing chapter meetings, keeping records updated, office cleanup, updating the DSA SF website and newsletter, etc. Members can view current CCC rotations.
To help with the day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running, fill out the CCC help form.
From Heavy Metal to Socialism: Why I joined DSA
By: Lucas Paschall
My story of joining DSA began with my first memory of any living president. Two shoes–both of which unfortunately missed–were launched at George W. Bush’s head. As a seven-year-old child, I obviously could not have been fully aware of precisely why an Iraqi journalist would do that. From what I did gather through the news I watched, I understood that Bush was a man that did not do great things.
As a kid, I was eager to find the rock stars that raised some hell. My dad turned me on to an 80’s classic, The Blues Brothers, because of his uncanny impersonations of the character Elwood Blues. My main takeaway from that movie wasn’t that the bad guy Blues Brothers were bad guys: it’s that they were good guys. That translated over to that moment of George W. Bush, despite my lack of awareness of the “War on Terrorism.” The Blues Brothers broke the rules just like that Iraqi journalist. But they were also rock stars.
Since being a rock star was the coolest thing on Earth, it was only natural that come the summer heading into eighth grade, I became the local militant metalhead. You knew that kid in school too: the annoying one who insisted that Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, and AC/DC were far superior to the garbage music that other kids were listening to. While those around me cringed both because of this and how bad I smelled, I simply laughed at their lackluster inferiority.
My sense of ego would only heighten when my dad took me to my first concert: System of a Down at Pine Knob. I remember being blown away at their sheer energy: the vocalist’s absurd screeches, the hyper-aggressive down-tuned guitar and bass, and an atmosphere where I felt I belonged. Yes, this was my calling card. My newest fandom was alive and well, and I got home to listen to all five albums, back-to-back. As I am listening to these albums now though, there are things I notice that I previously did not realize about this country in which I live. Lines like the following from my personal favorite, “B.Y.O.B.”:
“Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor?”
Then there are lyrics from “Deer Dance”, a song which describes the horrors of police brutality in the band’s home city of Los Angeles:
“Beyond the Staples Center you can see America
With its tired poor avenging disgrace
Peaceful, loving youth against the brutality
Of plastic existence.”
One particular lyric that I will never forget is from “Boom!”:
“Four thousand hungry children
Leave us per hour from starvation
While billions are spent on bombs
Creating death showers”
This led me to doing some research into what these words meant. Then came a bombshell that was about bombshells: the “War on Terror,” the killing of millions of innocent people in the Middle East, the wrongdoings of the Patriot Act, and so on. I finally had my answer as to why Bush nearly got domed with shoes, and it enraged me.
Heading into high school, I was determined to spread this word to the students around me, to let everyone know how bad this country sucked. From the genocide of Native Americans to current day, I was furious to hear that our country was doing horrendous things. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 only made things worse. Yet, as I went through high school, I still felt powerless: being black-pilled was a real possibility. I started to take the approach that nothing was going to change.
Fast-forward to a couple of years ago, after the turmoil of 2020, and in the middle of Joe Biden’s lackluster presidency. As I saw how Biden failed with his immigration policy and his wet noodle approach to a conservative Supreme Court, it really began to enrage me how we were supposedly going to be back to “normalcy” and “stability” when the administration was doing anything but. That is when–once again–the power of rock stars began to make an impact. Although this time, they were not wielding a Gibson Explorer with Marshall tube amps. This time, it was one man or woman with a banjo or guitar that went behind a chorus of people. Utah Philips was the first one to introduce me to the world of pro-union music.
Growing up, I had heard of unions, but never really took the time to understand what exactly they did, nor the history of them. But after having Philips discuss the powers of one, then having Pete Seeger describe to me the story of the Harlan County War, then to really dive into what Woody Guthrie meant when he said, “This Land is Our Land,” the pieces came together for me to become a democratic socialist.
As I now indulge in reading more political theory and becoming more of an activist than I could have ever imagined, I figured this would be a good time to explain why joining DSA is so important to me. There are several answers, but to keep you from falling asleep, I will give you my main reason: my hometown. New Baltimore, Michigan, home to about 12,000 people, is a fairly affluent city populated by a conservative community. It is a town where people made their money through the trades: blue-collar jobs that they excelled at. There are “progressives” that would gawk at the idea of living in such a town, where our residents couldn’t possibly be saved. Yet I see a town that can be much different.
Our town cannot stand the rich. While corporatism has practically taken over Chesterfield Township — the city south of us — our town does not like being told the poor are to blame. Of course, there are people here who would not spit in the direction of democratic socialism, but I believe that if we’re going to spread this message properly, it is vital that we begin with the people who are democratic socialists in the making but just don’t know it yet. Everyone has the ability to be a rock star; it’s time that they use that energy and take their power back.
From Heavy Metal to Socialism: Why I joined DSA was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Avoiding Heat Exhaustion: Tips for Helping Unhoused People During a Heat Wave
by Rochester Grants Pass Resistance
The post Avoiding Heat Exhaustion: Tips for Helping Unhoused People During a Heat Wave first appeared on Rochester Red Star.
Tonawanda Seneca Nation and Sierra Club File Litigation Challenging Environmental Review Process of Massive Data Center at STAMP
by Allies of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation
Litigation alleges that developer violated state law in approving the project; petitioners seek a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent irreparable harm
GENESEE COUNTY, NEW YORK – The Tonawanda Seneca Nation and the Sierra Club filed suit today [Editor’s Note: July 1, 2025] in New York State Supreme Court challenging two resolutions issued by the Genesee County Economic Development Center for the development of a massive data center at the WNY Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP) in Alabama, NY.
The petition states that GCEDC violated both procedural and substantive requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) when it issued decisions that awarded subsidies of $472 million to Stream U.S. Data Centers for the development of the data center and concluded environmental review without project specifics or site plan review. The litigation names GCEDC, Stream U.S. Data Centers LLC and the Town of Alabama as defendants.
The data center would be built within 300 feet of the nearest residence and roughly one half mile from the Reservation Territory of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, which has strongly opposed the siting of a data center at STAMP. According to Chief Kenith Dale Jonathan, “Our reservation Territory is protected by federal treaty and it is our duty to protect our Territory – the land, plants, animals, waters – for future generations… The Territory and its natural resources is all that the Nation’s citizens have – if the Territory is damaged, we will have no place to go.”
The petition shows that GCEDC failed to follow the requirement that its review of environmental impacts be based on actual plans, not mere concepts. In addition, GCEDC failed to ensure that its SEQRA review was coordinated with the Town of Alabama site plan review as required by the FGEIS it issued for STAMP. Moreover, the petition shows that GCEDC made mistakes in its review and failed to provide the careful analysis of environmental impacts required by SEQRA.
The suit aims to invalidate GCEDC’s decisions and force it to carry out a new environmental review that complies with SEQRA’s requirements. The
Tonawanda Seneca Nation and the Sierra Club have also sought a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the defendants from taking further action to advance the data center project. To date, Stream U.S. Data Centers has not completed a purchase and sale agreement for the land and the Town of Alabama Planning Board has not conducted site plan review.
If ultimately built, Stream’s data center would cover 900,000 square feet – the size of 15 football fields – and would use 250 megawatts of power per year, store and burn 60,000 gallons of diesel per year, and guzzle 10,000 gallons of water per day. Taxpayers would subsidize Stream at a cost of $472 million dollars, equivalent to $3.9 million per job.
The Tonawanda Seneca Nation, a federally recognized Indigenous Nation and part of the Haudenosaunee, has raised concerns about the STAMP mega-industrial site since its inception. STAMP poses an existential threat to the people and culture of the Nation, as well as to birds, fish, deer, water, and medicinal plants in the Nation’s Big Woods, which are located adjacent to the proposed data parcel site.
In an affidavit, Chief Jonathan addressed likely impacts of the data center on the Nation’s way of life: “The construction and operation of the Project will diminish the Big Woods as a pristine hunting ground and forever change the character of the area with the additional noise, lights, pollution, and surrounding human development… Any spill or pollution event at the Project site that results in contamination to either ground or surface waters threatens the drinking water resources for the Nation and its Citizens.”
The 1,263 acre STAMP site is being constructed in the middle of a rural, agricultural area and is surrounded by a network of public protected lands that are visited each year by thousands of nature enthusiasts, who are drawn to the area by ecologically rich wetlands and forests that provide critical habitat for a diversity of birds, plants, and animals, including threatened and endangered species such as the Short Eared Owl.
The Sierra Club stands with the Tonawanda Seneca Nation to oppose GCEDC’s plans to turn this pristine and ecologically sensitive area into an ill-conceived and recklessly planned industrial mega-site. The data center industry is notorious around the world for its excessive noise, air pollution, excessive water use and the consumption of massive amounts of energy. If GCEDC’s plans are effected, the diversion of 250 megawatts of renewable electricity to the data center will undermine New York’s ability to meet our climate change goals and add massive amounts of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants to the atmosphere. This environmentally precious area needs to be protected and expanded under New York’s 30 by 30 Initiative, not degraded by environmentally damaging industries.
Despite nearly twenty years of effort and more than $410 million in taxpayer subsidies, GCEDC has struggled to attract viable advanced manufacturing tenants or to construct basic infrastructure at the rural site proposed to become a “mega industrial park.” Currently, Edwards Vacuum is the only tenant under construction at STAMP. Plug Power paused construction on its green hydrogen manufacturing facility in 2023, leaving a gap in financing for the onsite electrical substation; Stream U.S. Data Centers committed to covering $50 million of this gap as part of their data center proposal. According to the petition, “To fast track the development of a data center and jump start the stalled STAMP Site, the GCEDC resorted to taking shortcuts around the very environmental review standards and procedures” put in place under SEQRA.
The post Tonawanda Seneca Nation and Sierra Club File Litigation Challenging Environmental Review Process of Massive Data Center at STAMP first appeared on Rochester Red Star.
Portland DSA’s National Delegation
Portland DSA has elected a politically diverse, 35-member delegation to DSA’s national convention. The attending delegates at this biannual event establish DSA’s policy, structure, and political direction, and as such constitute the organization’s highest authority.
The national convention is often a high-stakes, contentious event, and this year is no exception. There are proposals on the table to replace DSA’s political platform, shake up our labor strategy, transform our electoral approach, change national campaign leadership, and formally reprimand some of DSA’s elected members. These issues and others will be decided, in part, by the arguments and votes put forward by the delegation from our chapter in Portland.
Many of Portland’s delegates are organized into national or local political caucuses. Caucuses act like political parties within DSA, organizing around a shared political understanding. Other delegates chose to remain independent, and let their politics speak for themselves. Some members feel the caucus system is politically stifling, while others describe it as the foundation of DSA’s internal democracy. This article will outline the politics of our delegation’s caucuses and non-caucused tendencies.
Portland’s Delegation
21st Century Socialism
2 Delegates
21st Century Socialism (21CS) is a caucus committed to a global south Marxist-Leninist perspective on building socialism. The caucus programa de lucha focuses on the importance of feminism, poverty, anti-imperialism, abolition, and humility towards socialist movements in the third world. 21CS rejects U.S. chauvinism in its socialist analysis as it believes the global south is leading the fight for socialism and socialists in the U.S. have much to learn from its movements. Caucus member Luisa M. is running for re-election to the DSA National Political Committee on the Springs of Revolution slate.
AfroSOC
1 Delegate
The Afro-Socialists and Socialists of Color Caucus (AfroSOC) advocates for and builds power with DSA’s Black, Indigenous, and POC membership and their communities. AfroSOC pursues this work to help build a multiracial working-class base, the only viable strategy for securing a socialist future.
Through public and internal education and agitation, AfroSOC aims to continue the legacy of the Black radical tradition, as well as the radical traditions of other oppressed minorities. AfroSOC’s goal is to act as a network that will support and develop non-white DSA members.
Bread and Roses
8 Delegates
Bread & Roses describes itself as a national caucus of Marxist organizers. Considered by many to be the current political center of DSA, the caucus is perhaps best known for its strong presence in labor union organizing. It believes that socialism must speak to regular people who are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the political establishment. It advocates for rank & file democracy and political leadership of DSA, and rejects the model of liberal non-profits when it comes to internal democracy and staff structure. B&R’s vision for political action is well-expressed in DSA’s 2024 “Workers Deserve More” program, and it has proposed a process for adopting an improved version of that program continuously. B&R is running four candidates for the National Political Committee (NPC), including Hayley Banyai-Becker from Portland’s delegation, and a candidate for national co-chair.
Cultivate Caucus
8 Delegates
Cultivate is a local caucus focused on a collectivist, interdependent, cross-ideological and expansive vision for the Portland chapter. That vision extends in many ways to the national organization and to the world at large. The caucus stands in solidarity with the broad left of DSA: rejecting class-reductionism, promoting international solidarity and diversity of tactics, and valuing emergent horizontal organizing and community care. Cultivate is supporting its member Luisa M. who is running for NPC on the Springs of Revolution slate.
Independent Delegates
8 Delegates
Elected on the basis of their own politics and good work in the chapter, eight members of Portland’s delegation are not members of any caucus. Independent delegates often play the role of kingmaker on the convention floor, but don’t be fooled into thinking of independents as a moderate bloc: They run the gamut from revolutionary Marxism-Leninism to Democratic Party realigners. Portland’s split of independents to caucus-affiliated delegates is in line with national trends.
Marxist Unity Group
2 Delegates
Marxist Unity Group wants DSA to bring workers, renters, prisoners, and immigrants together to stand against capitalist oppression. The caucus wants to turn DSA into an independent, socialist, mass party united around a revolutionary “minimum-maximum” program; one that outlines both the minimum conditions for a working-class seizure of power, and the end goal of communism. The mass party, in MUG’s view, would help liberate mankind from capitalism by transferring political power to the working class by replacing the slavers’ Constitution and establishing a Democratic Socialist Republic. The caucus promotes an agitational approach to electoral work, and wants DSA’s electeds to speak for – and spread socialist ideas to – the people. Marxist Unity Group is considered to be on DSA’s left wing.
Reform and Revolution
8 Delegates
Reform and Revolution is a Revolutionary Marxist caucus in the Trotskyist tradition. Generally considered on the ‘left’ of DSA’s internal struggles, R&R this year is proposing resolutions to prepare for breaking with the Democratic party by building up municipal political independence and running candidates as independents, to expand DSA’s recruitment efforts, and expand member participation in national DSA debates. R&R is dedicated to building the power of DSA in the labor movement through the rank and file strategy, and many of its members are union organizers. They are running one candidate for NPC—Sarah M. — a Portland DSA member.
Convention Stakes
Delegates will be convening in Chicago for three days: August 8-10, to debate DSA’s national policy and direction. The convention docket will be packed. Fifty-nine convention resolutions, changes to bylaws, and platform amendments qualified for consideration through a petitioning process open to all members. Some of these resolutions will be moved into the consent agenda or referred to the National Political Committee (NPC). The remainder, however, will be debated thoroughly on the convention floor by delegates.
The decisions made by the convention will determine what DSA is and does for the next two years and beyond. These decisions will also be mediated largely by the caucus system: about two-thirds of delegates at this year’s convention will be affiliated with one or another caucus. Delegates will also be electing the National Political Committee; DSA’s standing political leadership and its highest body between conventions.
Getting our Portland delegates to Chicago is not an easy task, nor is it cheap. Delegates have limited access to meager national funds which only cover a small fraction of registration, travel, and lodging expenses. This can leave the members of our chapter’s working-class delegation with tough choices to make before deliberations can even begin. Portland needs to send our full complement of representatives to the national convention, to make our voice heard in the national context. If you agree with that, donate here to send our delegates to Chicago! Or, attend our Power Up fundraiser on July 12th! RSVP here!
The post Portland DSA’s National Delegation appeared first on Portland DSA.
OPINION: DSA Can Bring Socialism to the Shop Floor
By: Emma Buckley
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the official position of Working Mass.
We try to help the working class to get the smallest possible but real improvement (economic and political) in their situation and we add always that no reform can be durable, sincere, serious if not seconded by revolutionary methods of struggle of the masses. We preach always that a socialist party not uniting this struggle for reforms with the revolutionary methods of working class movement can become a sect, can be severed from the masses.
V.I. Lenin in Letter to CW Fitzgerald, November 1915
Over the last several years DSA members have industrialized, embedding themselves into union jobs and helping the labor movement fight for concessions against capitalist greed. DSA members have made a big impact in the rank and file by helping lead new organizing campaigns and pushing for increased militancy within existing unions. This has helped unions make some of the largest gains they’ve had in decades. But at the end of the day, these victories mostly have been limited to concessions on pay and working conditions. While increases in militancy and momentum are meaningful in their own right, these victories remain reforms at the margins, not a challenge to the roots of the capitalist system. If we’re going to improve the lives of all working people, the fight for labor justice will have to transform into a movement beyond the fight for reforms on bread and butter issues.
While the victories won through new organizing and at the bargaining table are meaningful in improving workers’ lives, they fail to resolve the pervasive exploitation and oppression which workers face every day. Winning higher wages matters. However, workers are still servants to their bosses, and the larger issues of racism, sexism, imperialism, and climate catastrophe remain unresolved. Under such harsh conditions, working people need a horizon to fight for beyond the temporary concessions they can win in their next contract.
Not only are these victories small relative to the comprehensive oppressions workers face under capitalism, but they also remain insecure. Nearly all of the reforms to the National Labor Relations Board won under Biden have been reversed under Trump. Wage gains won by the inspiring, hard fought struggle of workers are constantly eroded by inflation. Capitalists use their positions of power to escalate attacks on workers from all sides: from the new attacks on federal workers; to the expansion of the attacks on immigrant workers; and a thousand other abuses workers face every day. These flagrant assaults on workers’ solidarity occur alongside systemic stagnation of wages and ever-increasing inflation. If workers’ lives are going to be substantially and permanently improved, the labor movement must unite the struggle for immediate reforms with a movement directed towards taking political power away from the owning class.
Bring DSA to the Labor Movement!
The amendment to the DSA National Labor Committee Consensus Resolution, A Partyist Labor Strategy, was a collaboration between comrades from the Reform and Revolution caucus and the Marxist Unity Group, presenting a revolutionary vision to organize DSA within the labor movement which begins by centering the key political questions.
The amendment takes on a debate that held huge prominence on the labor left a century ago and has continued to inform labor organizing ever since: Should we reduce the labor struggle to economic demands? We say no. Rather, we must infuse the labor struggle with revolutionary politics in order to make each fight against the boss a fight for the whole working class.
Proponents of reducing the struggle to economic demands believe that socialists should focus almost entirely on the economic fight to bring workers around to socialism and class struggle. Within the radical labor movement there is a widespread fear that anything more would push away workers and isolate socialists. We certainly believe that socialists should be the best fighters for the achievable economic reforms in each labor struggle; however, it isn’t true that organizing on bread and butter issues is the only way to build power. Our vision is for mass socialist politics, which requires uniting our socialist horizon and the daily struggle into one indivisible movement.
There is certainly a balance to this, as it’s possible to get lost in revolutionary rhetoric and lose relevancy. However, by rooting ourselves in the day to day struggles it is possible to connect shop floor issues to our larger goals in ways that make sense to our co-workers. As rank-and-filers in labor struggles, we often see our most engaged co-workers – those who do the most to support new organizing – are not just motivated by wage and benefit increases. They are also committed to winning back their sense of dignity over the daily injustices of the workplace, and the related potential for unions to address larger issues of racism or sexism on the shop floor. In fact, for the most active rank and file workers, the amount of time they spend fighting for their union does not make sense for the piecemeal gains they are able to push through negotiation.
Our vision is for mass socialist politics, which requires uniting our socialist horizon and the daily struggle into one indivisible movement.
If these worker leaders were only motivated by improving their individual paychecks, their energy would probably be better directed towards searching for a higher-paying job. Politicized rank and filers are often written off as just GenZ workers radicalized around BLM, trans rights, or Palestine, however, this is a shallow view of the most active contingent of rank and file activists. We saw in 2016 and 2020 that the vast majority of left-unionists who became radicalized and began organizing for change within their unions did so on the political basis of the Bernie campaigns, not on pure bread-and-butter reforms. Politicized workers are not an anomaly or divorced from the movement, they are the beginnings of a larger movement that we should seek to expand.
To become an active organic leader, and to persist in the face of unrelenting union-busting from management and bureaucratic bullshit from union leadership, worker-leaders need to relate the struggle for immediate improvements to a bigger mission. While DSA members under the rank and file strategy have certainly diligently worked towards developing other rank and file leaders individually or in small groups, DSA can bring many more workers to the labor movement by acting as an organized body which raises the overarching political horizon of the working class taking power.
However, politicizing the labor movement does not mean DSA members should adopt the strategies of the SEIU and UAW by simply advocating for the Democratic Party. Having long abandoned the working class, Democrats in many ways mimic the model of business unionism, which claims to represent the working class while undercutting workers’ ability to self organize. The Democrats only make empty, symbolic gestures towards economic relief and liberation for the oppressed. As a key step in connecting immediate struggles with a socialist horizon, DSA members should put forward a working class politics that is independent from the Democrats and Republicans, one which points towards socialist politics, a new party, and a mass movement of workers.
Bring the Labor Movement to DSA!
If DSA is going to build an independent party with thousands and eventually millions of union members capable of becoming the heart and soul of a militant labor movement, then we need to dramatically grow the ranks of DSA’s labor activists. Industrialization, the strategy of socialists taking union jobs, has been a good step in this direction and should be continued and expanded; but this alone will not be enough. To grow to the numbers we need, we must recruit union members to DSA instead of relying on DSA members to join unions.
It is far easier to recruit a union member to DSA than for a DSA member to industrialize, and existing union members already have the trust of the coworkers and union siblings. DSA can become a recognized current fighting to make the labor movement a place where workers can democratically participate. This fighting current would oppose not only the bosses, but also business unionists and the Democratic Party, which seek to keep working people passive in their own movement in order to quietly capitulate to capitalist and imperialist interests.
Business unionists and the Democratic Party both excel at making workers feel powerless while pushing their agitation into passive support for bureaucratic leaders. The increasingly low voter turnout in elections shows that nearly half of the working class feels completely cut out, apathetic, and unable to meaningfully participate in our political system. It’s DSA’s job to provide a clear, differentiated example of how we can fight against the authoritarianism of the bosses and the chauvinist political leaders from the bottom up, making the labor movement the field for everyday workers to meaningfully participate in political activity.
Even workers that don’t join DSA will be motivated into activity by seeing an active and organized contingent of their coworkers fighting for such an expanded vision of the labor movement. However, for them to be able to meaningfully participate, we have to fight to create robust union democracy that establishes member control of bargaining, elected and active stewards and shop representatives, and member control over the unions political endorsements.
If workers recognize DSA as the force in their unions fighting consistently for immediate workplace improvements, standing up for the rights of their immigrant, trans, and marginalized co-workers, leading campaigns for union democracy and reform, pushing to expand the labor struggle to unorganized shops and into rural areas, and tying all this into a larger political vision, they will recognize that DSA is an organization worth joining.
Bring the NLC to Our Chapters!
It makes very little sense for the NLC to operate as a body completely separate from the work that thousands of DSA labor organizers conduct through their chapters. Our national committees should create deeper ties to local chapters, operating campaigns not through one separate national NLC phone banking list, but through how we traditionally organize campaigns in our unions – through communication at each locale with organic leaders, connecting to each chapter’s organizing conditions. The amendment, A Partyist Labor Strategy, puts forward an organizational plan to coordinate DSA members in the labor movement, connecting the NLC to chapters and connecting DSA members by industry and by large national unions where it makes sense.
Once we accept that DSA’s labor work must tie fights for immediate wins in the workplace and for reforms in the unions to a larger political project, we still must answer the question: how do we make this happen? Our amendment answers this by calling for changes to the structure of DSA’s labor work, including the structure of the National Labor Commission and the relation between the NLC and the chapter labor formations. We must connect the NLC to chapters and connect DSA members organizing with the same industries or national unions.
This is a large undertaking and can only be accomplished by implementing small logistical steps and connecting what we’ve already built. Many local chapters already have local industrial sections, whether they’re called educators meet up, healthcare workers meeting, or logistics subcommittee, but it’s up to the NLC to connect these local groups nationally with a common communication platform and develop a toolkit for chapters that do not already have these formations.
Once connected, these groups will be better situated to nationally develop the labor movement in their industry or major union through democratic coordination: they will be better equipped to implement trainings, push for contract language, or organize to pass resolutions in their locals. The NLC could facilitate this by creating a library for DSA labor organizers to keep training resources and template resolutions. By connecting through their national industrial section and using NLC resources, DSA members will be able to fight for more robust internal democracy as part of reform movements and act as a bottom up force to push labor leaders past capitulation and reformism. Even a handful of DSA members organizing together within an industry or national union will immediately be a touchpoint for reaching non-DSA layers of progressive and reform-minded workers within that industry or union. As each group takes shape in their industry or national union, we will have the skeleton of a national, comprehensive, and systematic fight for control of the entire labor movement.
Likewise, this process will help the NLC improve its ability to continue previous projects such as Labor for an Arms Embargo, Mask Off Maersk, and the development of local EWOCs. The NLC shouldn’t be an obscure body DSA labor organizers have to seek out instead, it should be part of our chapter ecosystem, a connective tissue for our labor work around the country. Combining a new orientation which centers a political approach and these structural changes, we will take the first meaningful steps towards a new DSA labor movement.
There is No Such Thing as Apolitical
Opponents of this amendment will state that the attempt to politicize the labor movement will limit our ability to reach a broad political spectrum of workers, and that leading with our socialist politics will only isolate us. However, won’t workers be more motivated by a movement actually fighting for their interests? The attempt to hide ourselves and our politics in the movements of liberals and reformists only allows liberal and reformist politics to remain dominant. Time and time again, we have seen that liberal politics have failed to sustain a democratic mass movement. Workers are looking for something different because they are looking for results.
The major revolutionary strains of socialism a century ago, from Lenin and the Bolsheviks in Russia to figures such as Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in Germany, consistently fought against subsumming the labor movement’s socialist politics within purely economistic demands. While necessary to fight for, the economic concessions we can win will never be enough to match the rise in automation, increasing authoritarianism, and the global climate crisis.
In the early twentieth century, ideological opponents to the “Politicals” at the time were best exemplified by the trade unionists in Britain. The UK trade unionists often only represented workers in skilled trades. Every economic win of these trade unionists was divorced from larger political goals and, as a result, remained isolated within these unions instead of spreading through the class. The lack of a larger political movement that could expand the struggles of trade unionists to the working class at large meant that the benefits of these struggles did not make it to the many workers; in particular, it was disproportionately those from oppressed national backgrounds who were left unrepresented. Not only was this unjust, but by leaving a large section of the workforce behind to remain underpaid, these unionists undercut their own efforts by giving capitalists a steady supply of cheaper labor.
Less than a quarter of the workforce in the US today is represented by unions. Simply tailing union struggles without expanding on them through working class politics leaves behind every US worker who isn’t lucky enough to secure one of the few jobs with representation. DSA must help grow the labor movement into a fighting mass movement. We do that not by hiding our politics, but by putting our politics into practice. Creating a mass movement is not an easy task that can be achieved in a year, but if we center politics in our labor work while building our structures to work systematically as a national force, DSA can become the beating heart that workers need to expand their struggle.
Emma Buckley is a member of the New Seasons Labor Union, Portland DSA, and the DSA caucus Reform & Revolution.
The post OPINION: DSA Can Bring Socialism to the Shop Floor appeared first on Working Mass.
