We need an anti-Trump united front in Maine
The April 5 Hands Off! protests were not the first against Trump and his cronies and they won’t be the last. Indeed, April 5 would not have been possible without unionized federal and postal workers and teachers and students marching and sticking up for themselves. But Saturday saw more than a million people demonstrate their willingness to fight back and that has changed the mood. Millions of people passed over from shock and awe to hell no!
But our unions, communities, and social movements are suffering from decades of free-trading and neoliberal attacks and racist, sexist, and anti-LGTBQ+ bigotry, all of which have weakened our organizing capacity. Trump does not yet care about opposition from below. He’s golfing. We’ll see which way the markets go in the coming days. Big investors may force Trump to modify his tariff trade war in their favor, or they may simply ride it out in exchange for massive tax cuts. And if the courts have shown a willingness to slow down his blitzkrieg, when it comes down to it, relying on the Supreme Court to reign in Trump means relying on Brett Kavanaugh… a grim prospect indeed. Either way, it would be a mistake to underestimate MAGAism’s staying power and the administration’s willingness to stick to its guns. Remember, Reagan used the 1981-82 recession to smash unions and attack social spending.
How do we confront this situation in the immediate and medium term? The long term matters as well but it will be conditioned by what we are able to accomplish in the coming few years.
[Read next: Thousands say Hands Off Maine!]
We all belong to some kind of organization or community. And some have deep roots and traditions anchoring them in decades or centuries of struggle. For instance, the Wabanaki people have endured 500 years of colonial assault and today form one of the most effective and sophisticated political powers in what we call Maine. The Maine AFL-CIO brings together more than 200 unions, representing 40,000 workers across the entire state with a proud history of strikes and struggles. The Maine Council of Churches builds bridges between congregations and faiths and has long stood for social justice. Advocacy organizations like Maine People’s Alliance, Equality Maine, and the League of Conservation Voters shine a light on discrimination and speak up for poor and marginalized communities. The Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, and Presente! Maine all give voice and provide legal and mutual aid to New Mainers. The Maine Coalition for Palestine and Bowdoin Students for Justice in Palestine have forced us all to confront our own elected officials support for the genocide in Gaza. The Maine Democratic Socialists of America is one of the new kids on the block, but has demonstrated an ability to work on multiple fronts, including winning office and important reforms in Portland. And Indivisible and Maine Resists provided the infrastructure for the April 5 protests themselves. There are, of course, hundreds of local and statewide groups I can’t list here. The point is, Maine does not suffer from organizing capacity.
All these organizations have different levels of capacity and bring different expertise, resources, and priorities to the table. It is rarely possible to agree on everything, but under certain conditions, a great deal of unity can be created—not in the abstract—but in action. And this is exactly what we need today. Maine needs a united front to defend ourselves from Trump’s attacks and build a powerful enough movement to turn the tide back towards The Way Life Should Be for all of us.
[Read next: Solidarity against Trump means joining an organization]
The first thing to keep in mind is that a united front is a process. Building unity between different social and political forces takes time, both to build up a set of common experiences and develop the necessary trust to withstand setbacks and differences of opinion. Some may say that time is precisely what we don’t have, instead, we must act now at all costs without patiently building up the durability of our own peoples movements. This is how Trump wants us to think. We can’t fall for it. This doesn’t mean we can’t act quickly, but it does mean that we must move together and, like it or not, that takes time to plan.
Here are some ABCs to begin thinking about how to accomplish this.
Bring together organizations facing a common threat who see the need to build solidarity to defend themselves and to defend the rights and well-being of others. No one organization or community claims to speak for all of Maine. If we want to create a real democratic power, we must recognize that power can only be assembled by mutual recognition.
Make decisions openly and democratically. This is easier said than done, but it is essential for building an effective movement. Trump wants to destroy democracy, if we want to transform our community groups, unions, and organizations into centers of people power, then we should give people a place to practice it. We open the DOOR: Discuss and decide. Organize and act. Observe and assess. Repeat and improve.
March separately, but strike together. Partners in a united front can agree on basic points of unity and basic norms of cooperation. All groups should promote common objectives and actions, for instance, we will all cooperate to organize at X time and Y place or places on May Day. However, each group retains the freedom to publicize and promote their own particular political program and organize their own independent actions. Trust and credibility are the ties that help bind us together when inevitable stresses arrive.
Solidarity and action are the keys. A united front is not a political party. It is not a debating society. It is not a walk in the park. It is an agreement between organizations to take concrete action to defend one another and to tilt the balance of forces towards the common good. Rather than writing long treatises, united fronts work best when they focus on concrete action.
Leaders, organizers, artists, participants all play a role. We ought to make it as easy to participate as possible. This means publicizing events and inviting people through all available means, but especially through face-to-face discussions. We need organizers who are willing to dedicate time to running committees. We need artists who can make our work beautiful and fun. And we need leaders. Leaders in a social movement are not appointed. They have to earn their stripes by strengthening common bonds and articulating mutual aspirations as well as developing useful strategies and tactics.
Organize locally, coordinate statewide. Maine is a big state and no town or region has to wait for anyone’s permission to call a local meeting and start organizing. United fronts can begin in a town, a county, or a region, or among students at different schools, or members of different unions or community groups. The more organizing going on at the local level, the more powerful our efforts will be when we combine into coordinated statewide action. Local and statewide actions can be mutually reinforcing.
What does this mean in Maine? A couple weeks ago, the Chicago Teachers Union hosted people from more than 200 organizations to plan for a mass action on May day. As Bernie might say, it’s going to be HUGE! We face different circumstances here and there is no ready-made blueprint. We may fail or only partially succeed at first. But practice makes perfect. And what other choice do we have? May Day in Maine is a good place to start.
If you’re looking for a place to get involved, email info@mainedsa.org
The post We need an anti-Trump united front in Maine appeared first on Pine & Roses.
Weekly Roundup: April 8, 2025
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, April 8 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): Abolish Rent Reading Group session 3 (In person at 438 Haight)
Wednesday, April 9 (6:45 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): April General Meeting (Zoom and in person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Ave)
Thursday, April 10 (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.): 
Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)
Thursday, April 10 (5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.): Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialist Working Group (Zoom)
Friday, April 11 (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): Office Hours (In person at 1916 McAllister)
Saturday, April 12 (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.): No Appetite for Apartheid Training and Outreach (Meet in person at 518 Valencia)
Saturday, April 12 (1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Training and Outreach (RSVP for location information)
Saturday, April 12 (1:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.): 
Muni History Walking & Riding Tour (Meet at Kearny & Market)
Monday, April 14 (5:50 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Electoral Board Meeting + Socialist in Office Hour (Zoom)
Monday, April 14 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenderloin Healing Circle (In person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate)
Monday, April 14 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (In person at 1916 McAllister)
Monday, April 14 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Bord Meeting (Zoom)
Wednesday, April 16 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): What Is DSA? (In person at 1916 McAllister)
Wednesday, April 16 (6:45 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (In person at 438 Haight)
Thursday, April 17 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigrant Justice Working Group Meeting (Zoom and in person, location TBD)
Saturday, April 19 (12:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.): Tenant Organizing Mission Canvass (Meet in person at Café La Bohème, 3318 24th St)
Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates.
Events & Actions
No Appetite for Apartheid Outreach Training & Canvassing This Saturday 
No Appetite for Apartheid is a campaign aimed at reducing economic support for Israeli apartheid by canvassing local businesses to boycott Israeli goods. Join the Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialist Working Group at 518 Valencia St this Saturday, April 12 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. to learn how you can help and take steps to make the Bay Area apartheid-free!
We will be doing a training on how to talk to stores in your neighborhood, then going out and talking with stores together!
Come Join the Tenderloin Healing Circle on April 14 and 28
All are welcome to attend the Tenderloin Healing Circle. The healing circle is a great way to connect, reflect, and share food with other DSA members and folks in the Tenderloin community. The Healing Circle will be meeting at the Kelly Cullen Auditorium at 220 Golden Gate Ave on April 14th and 28th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Food is provided, and masks are provided and encouraged.
Office Hours
Co-work with your comrades! Come to the DSA SF office and get your DSA work or work-work done, or just hang out. We’ll be at 1916 McAllister from 12:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m. on Fridays.
Capital Reading Group
DSA SF has started a Marx’s Capital reading group! We’ll be meeting every other Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at 1916 McAllister St. and also on Zoom. We’ll meet on April 20th to wrap up our discussion of chapter 1 and cover chapter 2 and the afterword to the second German edition. We’re reading the new translation published by Princeton University Press. You can also join the #capital-rdg-group-2025 channel on the DSA SF Slack for additional information and discussion!
Urban Ore Picket Line Reportback
On March 30th, at 900 Murray St., DSA members and Urban Ore workers held the picket line for a strike that started on March 22nd, demanding that the owners bargain in good faith with workers who formed a union with IWW IU 670 in April 2023. Despite claims since at least 2017 that they would like to transfer ownership to workers “as soon as possible,” the owners have been absent from or cancelled bargaining sessions and have not provided financial information necessary to bargain.
DSA SF Labor Board’s presence brought the picket line total to 15. Workers were able to deter about 50% of visitors from crossing the picket line. DSA SF also stood at the donation area at the back of the warehouse to encourage those unloading to take their salvage elsewhere. In addition to avoiding bargaining, the owners have threatened layoffs to keep the business afloat during the strike instead of coming to the table. The Urban Ore strike fund is currently at 91% of their goal and keeps costs low for workers. Please spread the word to support these courageous comrades and get them to 100%! For more strike and bargaining updates, check out @Urban_Ore_Workers and @sfbayareaiww on Instagram.
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.
How to Organize Memphis Midsouth DSA Style
You see a pressing need that you want to organize to address with your comrades. You step up to get it done. Fantastic!
Our organization is tailor-made for this kind of volunteer initiative. We come together for our shared work and shared resources. We stay for the solidarity.
This is a great starting point. But, how do you go about doing the work? There is without a doubt a ton of space for original approaches and a diversity of organizing principles. But, we have some experience in our chapter of successful ways to organize, and some unsuccessful ones. We have learned the hard way that if a project is not followed through on, or if it falls apart, it can be demoralizing and hurt our organizing as a whole.
Our work is sometimes humble. But, it matters. It matters in a profound sense. We are actively organizing for power, affecting working people’s lives, and affecting one another. Memphis Midsouth DSA is contributing to the political scene in west Tennessee in a way no other organization is. So, we have an obligation to do this work as well as we can.
This is written from a perspective that says that we are an organization of organizers who organize others. Many of us have never done anything like this before, and this document is meant to help you keep in mind some basics to accomplish your organizing goals.
Below you will find some general to-dos that apply to nearly any kind of organizing. This won’t tell members what to do strategically, or in the big picture. But, it does recommend some things you should probably think through along the way to make what you do is successful. This will be useful for members in general, but co-stewards of committees should read carefully and discuss what follows.
Big Questions & Getting Started
Often our organizing gets done in Organizing Committees and Ad Hoc Committees. Check out our chapter bylaws to see what those are and how to create them. Other tasks are so short-term that we just carry them out informally, and we will need to do organizing in other forms in the future.
But, before you start the process to form an Organizing Committee or Ad Hoc Committee, you should think through and answer a few questions about what you imagine it doing…
How does this committee fit into long-term socialist goals?
We should have an answer for this question for everything we do. Our goals generally are to:
- To increase working people’s power over the economy, politics, and their lives; and
- To build institutions and capacities that prepare us to win in future conflict.
As we discuss below, organizers should spend time learning from, actively supporting, and building positive relationships with existing local liberal, left, and radical organizations that do similar work. At the same time, you should be reading books, listening to podcasts, watching videos, and talking to experienced comrades to clarify what exactly a socialist movement can do that is different from the typical work of the Democratic Party, academic researchers, or the non-profit industrial complex. We are not doing the same things as well-intentioned liberals, nor do we have the same vision. We should be able to explain to one another exactly how it is an organizing project we hope to take up is a worthwhile form of socialist organizing.
What related work is already going on nearby or in general? Can we connect to, learn from, or support that work?
Our chapter is relatively new in the political landscape. Often when we have great ideas about what to organize around, there are already some folks doing something like that. They could be in another group nearby, internationally, or in another DSA chapter. Before we decide that we would do better at a similar project, we should check out and learn from any work that is already being done.
At minimum, we can use what we learn about what is already being done to inform what we do. We can either study others’ methods to improve our own approach, or we can see what might be missing in existing work. Perhaps it might be the best choice given our situation to organize to support existing work without coopting it? Or, perhaps the existing work does something good, but are there important pieces missing that we could contribute?
How can our chapter advance this work using a committee?
Before forming a committee, you should think through whether our chapter is capable of doing the work, and if using a committee is the best way to do it. As a part of that process, you should identify some other member(s) excited to organize around the same thing as you who have the time and energy to do the work with you. However, you might decide we don’t have the capacity to do a project because our members are stretched too thin. Or, it might be that our members lack the skills to do it the right way. If that is what you figure out, that’s okay! There are still lots of things that can be done to prepare to do some important piece of organizing, and there is always more to do for our existing work.
How will this committee organize others?
It is easy to just do something yourself. It is much more difficult to organize others. And yet, a central way we can get stronger is by organizing increasing numbers of working people and their allies. One goal you should keep in mind is that through our organizing you should help cultivate those we organize with into becoming organizers themselves. That way, our strength will ideally grow with each organizing project we undertake.
So, as you start gearing up to start a committee, you should think through how you will try to set up the work to enable us to not just accomplish it, but organize others in the process.
What investigation should you do? How can you learn before and while you act?
Nearly every kind of organizing should be informed by some kind of research. We almost never know enough based on casual observation when we first meet on a subject. Learning and knowledge generation are perennial and necessary political activities that support meaningfully developing strategy and tactics. None of us know spontaneously what the best way to act is.
We are socialists, so we have good politics and we usually care about the right things. Our members are thoughtful, so we often make careful decisions together. And we are democratic, so we all have a say in our meetings and what the majority says is what we do. But, that doesn’t mean that we have all relevant information to make good and successful plans.
There are several areas of knowledge you should aim to speak to when forming a committee, or have a plan to develop that knowledge through the committee’s work:
- Socialist theory: are there tried practices in our movement we can learn from?
- People’s perspective: What do the people affected by a relevant issue think about the problem we want to organize around? What do they think will address it? Will they work with us to accomplish those goals? The people aren’t always right, but knowing where they are at will help us decide what to do.
- Expert knowledge: Are there experts like veteran organizers or academics who have expertise related to what we want to organize around? Can we draw on that knowledge or include them in some way? What is the legal and/or political-economic landscape we will be interacting with as we organize in this area? How should that influence our plans?
- Organizing situation: Who else is doing work in the area relevant for the committee you want to work on? Can we learn from and support them? Are any of these groups doing work we think is harmful, wrong, or are they hostile to us?
Developing these different areas of knowledge is a part of how we build informed and strategic movements that actually win.
Research isn’t only about sitting in a room with a spreadsheet—it’s about preparing to take on the forces that exploit us. The best organizers aren’t just passionate—they’re informed and prepared. When we build campaigns without talking to the people most affected, we fail. But when we strategically listen, learn, and plan, we are much more likely to win.
Capitalists rely on working people being disconnected, uninformed, and isolated. Socialist organizers do the opposite—we connect, learn, and build power together. A successful working-class movement starts with people coming together, listening to and learning from each other, and figuring out how to fight back.
In other words, investigation, research, or study isn’t just about collecting facts—it’s about learning how to win. When we do these right, they form a weapon to fight for power.
That said, having all of the relevant knowledge that should inform our organizing is not always possible. Especially if you’re new to organizing, you often have very little of the knowledge you need to make organizing successful when you first get started.
That’s okay! We all start from somewhere.
A helpful first step is to consult those with more experience to seek their mentorship. Others’ experiences are always a vital resource. For co-stewards, this consultation is required. You should aim to learn from and coordinate with other co-stewards and veteran organizers early and often. If you are a co-steward, you have accepted responsibility to facilitate a consequential institution for our shared chapter. It would be irresponsible if you did not seek the guidance of those who have played a similar role before. Stewards often learn the hard way what works and what doesn’t while running chapter organs, and they have knowledge of how to navigate the chapters’ social structure. Even if they organize in a significantly different area than you, they can help you figure out a great deal.
In part through discussing with comrade-mentors, you can also start to figure out how to step-by-step gain access to the various kinds of knowledge you eventually need to obtain. Your comrades can help you identify the things you do not know, and ways you can begin addressing them. Sometimes, you can address knowledge gaps through organizing others into your committee’s work who know more about specific topics than you. Collectivity is a strength! Beyond mentorship, regular consultation among our co-stewards should be a norm for healthy sharing of experiences and reflection in our chapter.
Preparing for a Meeting
Okay. You have a problem you want to organize around, and some ideas of how to do it. You have buy-in from your comrades. You have thought through the questions outlined above, and you’re ready to proceed. Now, how do you get ready for a committee meeting?
First, a good place to start is to think through what you want to get out of the meeting. You should be able to answer the questions: What specific decisions need to be made at the meeting? What do you want people to do afterward? The content and plan of the meeting should be guided by what you want it to accomplish. You may decide to reflect or study to prepare to discuss one or more of the subjects you want to cover. Alternatively, you might want to ask someone else to be prepared to guide discussion of a topic or more on the agenda. In general, members should do what preparation they need to contribute to informed and practical decisions about the questions before the committee.
Second, make sure that you have meeting logistics figured out. This includes booking or deciding on a meeting space. Even if your meetings are recurringly at the same location, it is better to over-communicate with the space’s stewards ahead of time to make sure that they know to expect us. Also, in picking a meeting place, you should think about what kind of space will be able to hold your attendees, the noise level, and other functional logistical questions (is it a restaurant? Do you have plan for how to split the bill? Etc.).
Additionally, make sure that any different roles members need to play at the meeting are spoken for. Usually organizing committee meetings need: a note taker, stack keeper, someone to sign all attendees in, and a facilitator. The job of the facilitator is discussed further below in the section, “At the Meeting.” However, someone else besides the facilitator should take notes on major points of discussion and decisions made, keeping those safe and sharing them according to policies established by the chapter. It is up to the committee whether one, two, or three persons take on responsibilities to facilitate, keep time, and take stack.
It is also often a good call to occasionally rotate these and other committee responsibilities so that it is not always the same person(s) playing one or all of these roles. This helps to prevent the most involved (or the most likely to volunteer) from getting burned out. It can also help new members gain skills and develop stronger ties with their comrades.
Third, you need to get people to the meeting. So, who do you need to get there? In most cases, it is a good step to advertise it to other members. There are several steps that you can take depending on the situation.
- You can get in touch with our Communications Coordinator or Secretary to send out a mass email or mass text to our network to promote the upcoming meeting. You should give them at least a week of advance notice before you want the messages sent out. But, it is probably best to start this process at least two weeks before your planned meeting, and even earlier can sometimes be helpful depending on how much building for the meeting is required. When you contact these officers, you should also ask if they think posting your meeting on our event calendar is a good idea.
- Send a couple of messages over our group chats. Often members will be responsive over one medium, but not another. So, for each of our normal ways of communicating, it is helpful to send out a line to other members.
- Personally contact each individual who expressed an interest in the work of the committee, made a commitment to do work for it, or made a commitment to go to the meeting. We should all show up every time we can when we are a part of a committee, as this helps to reinforce momentum. But, we are all busy, and a nudge from you can help to remind others of what they have to do.
- Prepare an agenda. There are lots of examples we can draw from, and you can ask a co-steward of another organizing committee to provide you some. In general, an agenda should outline the broad topics of discussion, and say how much time you expect to be spent on each topic.
At the Meeting
This is your time to shine!
In many ways, organizing committee meetings are central to the life of our shared chapter. If you are a co-steward, you have some particular responsibilities at meetings to structure them to ensure strong outcomes and make sure that folks leave energized, ready to do their work. These meetings should also be democratic. If you are not a co-steward, you don’t have to structure the meeting. But, it is still your responsibility to help make sure that the meeting is successful. You should support your co-steward(s) to make the meeting effective, inclusive, and energizing.
Structure
A meeting should usually follow the agenda you made for it. If it gets off track, it can be helpful to check in to see if folks are okay with the deviation, or ask them politely to refocus and address the topic before the meeting. It is also important to not regularly go over the time allotted for a meeting. People are busy. They may hesitate to come to a next meeting if they don’t know if it will take up a lot more time than it is scheduled to.
Someone should facilitate the meeting, making sure that folks take turns speaking and new or otherwise quiet voices are heard. The same person who facilitates might also take a queue of those who want to speak, or they may ask someone else to do it. Usually the facilitator is a co-steward, but they don’t have to be. It can be useful for those who are considering taking on an officer role in the future to take on leadership responsibilities like facilitation to get some practice before they have to do it regularly.
A facilitator or anyone at a meeting can often helpfully advance the meeting by listening carefully and reframing points of discussion to clarify disagreement, agreement, and points where decisions need to be made. If decisions cannot be made quickly, or important disagreements resolved, discussion can be tabled for a future meeting or another medium.
Effective, inclusive, energizing
Meetings should be spaces for effective discussion and decision-making. Each meeting should have some specific decisions it makes that advance its committee’s work. Ideally each person, including each new person, leaves with an action item that they agree to accomplish before the committee’s next meeting.
This is a part of what makes our meetings inclusive. People show up because they want to be involved in our work, and often don’t know what they think should be done prior to their arrival. Therefore, committee meetings that aim to include new members should have some meaningful regular practice(s) that contribute to the committee’s goals that it revisits each meeting that new people can plug into.
Feeling a sense of momentum and a larger vision guiding a committee can be energizing. In addition to plug-and-play, recurring activities that new members can participate in, you should make sure that the committee’s discussion is often centered on the ongoing and long-term work related to its strategic goals. These occasionally are more difficult for new members to jump into, but having a sense that they are a part of something that is going somewhere can be a part of what leaves them inspired to get more involved.
These strategic goals are often the reasons why the committee exists in the first place. So, the committee may be sacrificing strategic objectives for short-term busy work if those objectives are not regularly discussed at meetings. It is both good for the morale of committee members to advance a committee’s strategic goals, and good for advancing our socialist aspirations.
Also, we recommend that you do not consume alcohol until after any meeting is over where chapter business is discussed. For many, a drink at a meeting is not a problem. But, for some it is, and we should set an example for our comrades that help us all to approach our shared work with enthusiastic, comradely gravity. Save drinks together for after our work is done if alcohol is your jam. We can socialize and get to know one another with some additional confidence that we regularly give our work the attention it deserves.
Finally, members and co-stewards in particular should assert and reassert why we are doing work together, and what it requires of us. By placing our work in this larger narrative, we gain and maintain perspective on why we do the work and keep showing up.
Democratic socialism
Our meetings are democratic. But what does that mean? Here, we mean that decisions are made by members through majority votes. A majority is half the members who don’t abstain at a meeting plus one vote. If there are 15 people voting on a decision, and 7 vote no on a decision, then 8 have to vote yes for the decision to be adopted.
We also want to deliberate. Our comrades are worthy of our respect. That respect requires that we make efforts to persuade one another to our views, rather than just steam roll over their objections. We are all in this movement and in the same organization for good reasons, and we should try to aim for agreement when we can get there. When we cannot agree, often we should compromise.
Meaningful deliberation can also help your committee feel democratic. Even if decisions are made through a majoritarian procedure, without discussion where counter-arguments, or different views, can be articulated, your votes can feel—or actually be—formalistic. So, if you’re planning the agenda for committee meetings, you should consider occasionally building in extra time to check in, and let unspoken concerns be articulated by members and other attendees. Once in a while build into a meeting 10 minutes to discuss a chosen question or three, like: What’s working? What’s missing? How are people feeling? What did you expect when joining this committee? What are you surprised by? What aligns with expectations?
In general, carefully making space for attendees to speak to the whole meeting or through small groups is important. People often remember what they said and how they felt, rather than what others say to them. Having them feel like a part of the meeting through playing a part in it will help them to feel invested in it.
We also need to be okay losing a vote. An important part of building powerful organizations is that we end up being in them with tons of people. As our numbers grow, which they have to, we will be surrounded by more and more people who disagree on how to accomplish our goals. We have to be comfortable losing even important votes. Often, even when our position gets voted down, we should still carry out the decisions of our committees together. We can work over time to convince those who disagree, but we won’t get anywhere if we insist the organization always does what any one of us wants.
If you are a co-steward, a skill to develop is to identify when there are disagreements in a committee that rise to the level of needing a vote. A facilitator can ask for proponents of important decisions to formulate their proposal as a motion so that it is clear what it is that members are voting on. Next, you should ask if there is a ‘second’ for this motion. If someone offers a second, you can call for a vote where members can vote yes, no, or abstain. You can always decide to table important decisions for later if consultation, study, or more deliberation is necessary to have the best result. A member participating in a meeting can also put forward a motion of their own accord that also must be seconded to before it is voted on. Regardless if the motion was put forward with the facilitator’s help or not, it is the facilitator’s responsibility to help ensure that debates over motions take place fairly, and that our norms of comradely discussion are adhered to. Socialists should have thick skin to disagree productively and patiently when appropriate, instead of avoiding differences of opinion or tough conversations.
Following Up
Some say that 80% of organizing is following up. Check in with those who agreed to tasks (which should often be everyone), and see how their work is going. Or, ask what they thought about the meeting, or if they want to chat to talk through the work.
At this stage, we are all volunteers who may face a personal cost for doing this work. And the thicker are our relationships, the more developed our trust and mutual support, the more reasons we will have to stick around and keep doing the work. It is our sense of duty to each other and the people that will help attendees stick around and sacrifice for others.
For anyone who agrees to take on an action item, your main responsibilities between meetings are to do what you said and to be communicative. Aim for 90% or more completion of action items in the time you commit to. We cannot always do things in the way we expect, and we often juggle a lot. So, it’s important to check-in with your comrades and let them know how the work is going. This is always the case, but it is especially true if you’re running into any kind of serious obstacle. When we almost always do what we say we will, we help to build momentum and a culture of respect for our common project. However, if work often does not get done—or is late—it can really take the wind out of our organizing sails. It can result in a slow collapse of our organizing.
So, we recommend co-stewards or others helping with leading work check-in between each meeting. Four kinds of persons are a high priority. First, those who attended the last meeting, and those who missed the last meeting. It can also be important to have actual conversations with new people and those facing tricky obstacles of whatever kind to help them stay connected to the committee.
As committees grow, this can become difficult for co-stewards to handle alone. This can be an opportunity to involve in leadership tasks to members who are consistent, trustworthy, and strong communicators. You can ask them to step forward, strengthening your committee by training more folks in follow-up skills, and building the capacity of our chapter in turn.
This relates to a different point: We should be aware that not everything we do is going to work perfectly. That’s okay, and normal. Sometimes things won’t work out, or things will come up. Over time, members should be developing skills to adjust to things going awry. This goes hand-in-hand with being able to spot organizing obstacles, communicating clearly when we have issues with our comrades, and addressing obstacles and issues so as to overcome them
A Reinforcing Process
This brings you back to preparing for the next meeting. Follow-up should contribute to preparation for the next gathering so that a part of what you can discuss is how all or nearly everyone accomplished their tasks. Committees and their particular meetings should have clear short and long-term goals, so that it can determine whether or not it has been successful in its aims (for example: PROC might plan an assembly of renters as a structure test. So you can measure your success, you might specify a specific number of tenants in attendance you need to get to turn out to the assembly, a certain quality of deliberation, or a specific outcome of a vote at said assembly). At most meetings you should sum up your efforts: what works, what doesn’t, and what new things we can try. By doing so in a repeating cycle we can regularly build on previous experience to develop new socialists’ skills and knowledge through practice.
That practice isn’t all we should learn from, as should be clear from the discussion above. But, it is nonetheless an important reservoir, that if we do this right, should be enriched by you and your comrades over time.
Go, organize others. Help them learn tools to change the world!
The post How to Organize Memphis Midsouth DSA Style first appeared on Memphis-Midsouth DSA.
4/03/25 Newsletter
- Our Stitching Social is this Saturday April 5th at noon, at the Northside Branch Library. Bring a craft project you're working on and chat with comrades!
- We are co-hosting a Happy Hour with Abortion Forward on Thursday, April 10th 7:30 PM at Urban Artifact! This is a great chance for our members to build relationships with pro-choice organizers in Cincinnati and across Ohio!
- Our series of Self-Defense Trainings continues this Friday April 11th at 6:00 PM! As always, we're joined by an experienced self-defense instructor. There will additionally be a social at about 7:00 PM following the self-defense course.
- We are co-hosting a Death of Stalin movie showing with Topia Coffee Cooperative on April 12th at 6:00 PM, located as always at Topia Coffee Cooperative! This is a movie rated R, so be mindful of childrens' attendance, but it's a lot of fun as well! Drinks and snacks will be available for purchase, but RSVP quickly-we have a maximum capacity of 20 for this event!
A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion.
Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
-- Karl Marx
Solidarity against Trump means joining an organization
Sophie Garner is the state co-chair of the Maine Democratic Socialists of America. She spoke to thousands on April 5 assembled to demand Hands Off! federal union contracts, trans rights and immigrant rights, and democracy. More than 10,000 people gathered across the state in more than a dozen cities and towns. As Trump provokes a global trade war and continues flashing the green light for genocide in Gaza, protests look set to continue on International Workers Day, May 1.
Thank you for being here. I’m Sophie Garner, Chapter Chair of the Maine Democratic Socialists of America. I’m a grad student at Northeastern University and an advocate focused on violence prevention policy and research. I work for a national gun violence prevention organization, and most recently, I was a lead organizer on a ballot initiative to put an extreme risk protection order on Maine’s November 2025 ballot. I hope you vote yes this fall to protect our schools and communities from gun violence.
When writing this speech, I realized I don’t need to list all the horrific things Trump and his billionaire buddies are doing—you already know. That’s why we’re here.
[Read next: Thousands say Hands Off! Maine]
However, I want to talk about another reason we are here. We are here because we know that change doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in the streets, in our neighborhoods, in conversations among people who refuse to accept the status quo. It happens when we build community, not as a concept, but as a force that moves us forward.
But what does it mean to build community? And more importantly, where do you fit in?
Community isn’t just about showing up—it’s about bringing what you have, when you can. Every one of us has a skill, a strength, an experience that can push this movement forward. Maybe you’re an organizer who unites people, a strategist who crafts a plan, or an artist who shapes the message. Maybe you’re a teacher, a healer, a researcher, or a builder. Whatever your skill set, the movement needs you. If we want to end this nightmare and rebuild, we need our own infrastructure.
Too often, we think activism belongs to those with the loudest voices or biggest platforms. But history tells us otherwise. Movements are built by ordinary people showing up, consistently, with intention, and together.
And that’s the key: together.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the labor movement, where unions have proven that collective action wins. Better wages, safer conditions, dignity on the job. That same power of solidarity applies to every fight we’re in today—whether for reproductive rights, trans liberation, Palestine liberation, or any of the struggles happening right now. Not only are they interconnected, but they require the same commitment from all of us.
But let’s be real, while this might resonate with many of you, many of us are also exhausted. Change feels daunting.
I know many of you wake up, turn on the news and think: This country is so fucked—but at the same time, I need to walk the dog, finish work, and have free time? You ache for change. But you wonder, Where would I find the time to do anything? What could I even add to this?
I get it. We all do. Life is overwhelming, especially now. But here’s the hard truth: nothing changes if we don’t make the time.
Movements are built by people just like you—people with jobs, families, responsibilities. You don’t need to give up everything. You don’t have to burn out. But you do need to commit. Because no one is coming to save us. We have to save each other.
So when you go home today, ask yourself: What do you bring to this movement? Who will you stand beside? Will you stand up for workers fighting for fair pay? For renters demanding affordable housing? Organizers knocking on doors, making calls, building the resistance? And after you reflect—act.
Because solidarity isn’t just a word, it’s an action. And it’s the foundation of every victory we’ve ever won, and WILL ever win.
Building a better world starts with small, powerful decisions—to contribute what you can, when you can. When we bring our skills, energy, and commitment to the movement, we turn collective power into real change.
One important step we can all take together is celebrating May Day, International Workers Day, which is May 1st. We’re planning a protest in Portland, and we’d love to see actions all over the state supporting workers. If you’re interested, please get in touch with us.
[Read next: New England DSA protests ICE detentions]
But my big ask here today: Join an organization. If you don’t have a political home, make one. We’d love to have you—Maine DSA needs you. Join us at mainedsa.org/join. If not us, then plug into an organization that’s already doing the work.
Please do not just go home and wait for the next protest. Protesting is only one piece of this. Make a commitment today towards building this resistance movement.
Show up. Bring your skills. Be part of the fight.
Because movements don’t just need supporters—they need builders. And that means you.
What do we do when workers are under attack? Stand up, fight back!
What do we do when immigrants are under attack?
Stand up, fight back!
What do we do when our LGBTQ friends are under attack?
Stand up, fight back!
What do we do when our communities are under attack?
WE stand up, and WE fight back!
[Read next: The method to Trump’s Medicaid cut madness]
The post Solidarity against Trump means joining an organization appeared first on Pine & Roses.
Break the Cycle
As a matter of survival, socialists need to move past models from professionally-managed organizations that focus on campaigns and trainings, and think about long-term organization building through the transformation and empowerment of members.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN was an Alinskyite organization that at its height in the early 2000s had something like 150,000 member families, just about all of them poor, and the majority of them Black and Latino. They boasted the ability to “activate” people in more than 700 communities across the United States. In 2009-10, as a result of a bogus scandal based on a fabricated video, ACORN collapsed in the matter of a year or so. While various chapters survived in different forms under different names, they are a shadow of what ACORN was.
ACORN fell because it was not resilient or durable under intense pressure, not because of the scandal itself. The organization knew they had a target on their back. Attacks from the right and center were not a surprise. But because that attack undercut the leadership of a fundamentally top-down organization, the absence of member democracy made the organization easier to knock over.
ACORN provides lessons. Many are positive, like their dedication to organizing some of the poorest workers, often in Black and brown communities. Their downfall teaches us a lot by negative example.
Over time, ACORN’s non-ideological, very locally focused and staff-heavy community organizing relied on more and more grant funding. This meant they had to show results on a grant cycle. That consistently nudged them towards mobilizing more than organizing. To show numbers, more than to politically empower and transform members into political actors. Eventually their policy campaigns had their members acting more like public relations than political leadership. But a truly mass movement is owned by its participants. That’s why it can’t be decapitated easily. It is not one that will be prone to being co-opted by funding and institutional jobs.
Emma Tai touches indirectly on the problem of professional campaign-focused “mobilizing” models in a recent essay in Convergence. Tai makes a broad case against “anti-politics,” and the role of “professional democratizers” — organizers with movement jobs — in building the movements we need to resist and ultimately defeat the right. Tai’s essay is a welcome contribution to the discussion on this point. As one of the architects of Chicago’s United Working Families, Tai can fuse both theoretical understanding with deep and broad experience in local politics and organization building.
Tai’s experience prompts her to ask a series of questions that get to the heart of what building a truly democratic movement organization means: “How many dues-paying members does an organization have? What decision-making power do they have? Do they elect their own leaders? Do they vote on a platform or political endorsements? Do they move with discipline once that vote is cast[]?” The questions about dues-paying (i.e., direct) members and their decision-making rights is of particular interest, particularly given the historical models NGOs and unions have pursued when building coalition-style movement organizations: where organizations join a coalition institutionally but have little incentive to have their own members join directly, that leaves decision-making in the hands of movement professionals or parochial leaders concerned only with the narrow interests of their own organization. This dynamic alienates members from that umbrella group, undercuts the unity of action Tai asks about, and leaves coalitions prone to infighting between leadership groups. It is why political advocacy coalitions or “networks” so rarely, if ever, amount to more than the sum of their parts.
The problem Tai is grappling with is essentially the problem of movement bosses–of the fact that “the left” generally has drifted towards undemocratic and top-down models that treat democracy with hostility. Democracy is hard, sometimes chaotic, and — crucially — sometimes binds leaders to decisions they don’t personally agree with. That phenomena isn’t unique just to just political advocacy NGOs but also pervades many of the most influential unions. The logic of NGOs has pervaded and become the logic of left organizations and that has created a strata of professionals who step in and “absorb” working class self activity at its critical moments.
It is the problem with which many of even the most successful movement organizations and coalitions have found themselves struggling. Self-reflecting, two early leaders of the Sunrise Movement, the climate-action youth organization, talk about some of the contradictions and internal tensions that arose as a result of their structure and organizing approach. One thing that shows through is the distinction between “staff” “core” and “volunteers.” These three groupings are discussed as being at odds with each other at a few different points throughout the essay.
As the mass movements of the early and mid 20th century have faded out of living memory, “mobilization” has been treated more and more as the same as “people power.” That assumes that numbers alone are proof that a movement is “mass.”
We know that numbers aren’t enough. “Mobilizing” large numbers of people is not equal to a movement, especially when that mobilization needs little decision-making or commitment from participants. Hundreds of millions of people vote in elections; millions of people respond to fund-raising texts from Democrats; millions fill out auto-generated emails to Congress. These individual acts accumulated do not mean a movement.
At the same time, we know that “democracy” in the abstract is no guarantee of revolutionary, radical, or even progressive politics. European far-right parties have used referenda to stoke xenophobia and confused nationalism. “A lot of people voting” does not guarantee a progressive result. No; there is a much more challenging and interesting relationship at work.
Mass movements have to be democratic so they’re not easily knocked over. So that the mistakes or corruption of leaders can’t undermine or destroy the project. They have to be democratic to resist being co-opted. Proximity to power is intoxicating, and only an engaged and empowered membership can be the designated drivers who can snatch the keys away from distant leadership.
Still, mass movements have to be informed and led by cadres who were themselves changed through class struggle, whether against bosses, landlords, or arms of the oppressive state. Leadership requires “mobilizing” — putting members into motion in class struggle in order to both change the world and change themselves. So mobilization is also an essential part of the project of building a durable mass movement.
The mobilizations we prioritize have to be democratically developed and carefully chosen. They can’t just be anything; they should come up from members’ experiences, molded with more experienced comrades, and include political education to help members understand why they are experiencing what they are experiencing and give it a broader meaning. Mobilizations should be easy to access for busy people without being empty of political content or requiring little active participation.
That is the virtuous cycle of building a durable, democratic mass movement in organization. Putting people into strategic motion to sharpen their class consciousness analysis of the world; developing them into cadre political leadership; bringing their fellow members along with them; and so having socialist outcomes to democratic processes. This virtuous cycle contrasts with focus on campaign models that gained popularity in professional movement NGOs since the 2010-11 uprisings in the US.
The “Momentum Model” was Made for Grant Cycles
Sunrise, like many progressive nonprofit organizations and coalitions over the last decade, has in its lineage something called the Momentum Model, an organizing “community” that developed the “Momentum Living Model,” an approach to progressive or “social movement” organizing. For a number of years this model was widely adopted. If you’ve come across “train the trainers” or “campaign in a box” style of organizing approaches, then you’re somewhat familiar with it. Momentum cites Justice Democrats, IfNotNow, and Sunrise as three of its successes.
The model is a bit difficult to explain in plain language or concrete terms. There is a lot of organizer-speak in the formal explanation on their website, but in short, the Momentum Model seeks to fuse mass protest direct action with “structure-based organizing,” a generalized term for what is essentially Alinskyite organizing.
Mass protest is clear enough: minimal structure and leadership, appeals to the general public, and putting as many people on the streets as possible. Mass protest relies on moments of public and community outrage, combined with charismatic leadership and deployment of forms of communication, like local press, radio, church pulpits, social media networks, etc.
Alinskyite community organizing, of which ACORN is the most successful example, is the local and issue-focused work of building small organizational “bases” in contained areas where there can be a relative advantage for a base of well-organized people. Alinskyite community organizing relies on paid organizers who develop organizational (not political) “leaders,” who in turn cultivate volunteers or activists. Staff is necessary because the work is very intensive and incremental. Small wins prove the value of the organization, which helps develop more leaders and recruit more activists etc.
The Momentum Model “hybridizes” these two approaches into a “cycle” (this cycle isn’t quite described as being sequential): “escalation,” where people engage in mass nonviolent action (like the summer 2020 uprisings against police violence); then “absorption,” where these newly activated people are “brought into the movement,” which means directing people looking for political direction towards “asks” or simple tasks–another way to say “mobilizing.” This is a quote: “Absorption can mean new people signing an online petition, joining a mass call, or attending an orientation training.” Note the examples used.
It goes on: “Good absorption doesn’t just move people onto a ladder of engagement — it puts them on an elevator of engagement so that the most enthusiastic new leaders can step into high levels of responsibility quickly.” It is unclear what the practical difference between a “ladder of engagement” and “elevator of engagement” is, unless it is meant to suggest that whereas a ladder requires the person climbing it to put in effort, an elevator allows people to passively move upwards. (Note, the Momentum Community website has recently become private, thus the lack of links).
After “escalation” and “absorption” comes “active popular support,” which seems to be the articulation of specific demands on power (“defund the police”), which after being made can both “absorb” people and contribute to “escalation” into mass protest or direct action.
Whether the Momentum Model is good, or works, is not really the point. Clearly it has been effective sometimes and less effective at other times. This isn’t a wholesale critique of that model. What is interesting for us is that the Momentum “cycle” is not a model for building a democratic, mass organization. The words “democratic” and “democracy” do not appear anywhere in the thousands of words describing the Momentum Model.
It is a model for building campaigns. It developed in a material system where metrics and engagement are critical to getting grant funding; campaigns show good metrics through “engagement,” (“volunteers sent one million texts”). That can certainly be effective for building an organization. The more effective your organization is (or looks) the more easily money will flow into the organization, whether from major foundations or from other types of “partners,” like large progressive unions, who see it as a viable partner on a particular issue.
But just because campaign engagement metrics impress funders and influential progressive leaders, that does not mean it will bring masses of people into it in a sustained way that will keep them engaged and committed to the organization for years.
The Work is Important but Needs Meaning
Obviously a political organization has to do things–it has to run campaigns, it has to show that it can be effective and win things. But winning campaigns is not the same as building a resilient and democratic organization. To the contrary, a rapid cycle of campaigns that rely on intense staff involvement and reliance on a “core” of super-activists can be a recipe for burn-out, disappointment, and, importantly, frustration with the speed of decision-making that excludes deliberative and collective decision-making. Deliberation and decision-making have to work, together with the experience of struggle in campaigns to change a person and win their loyalty for a lifetime. That forms a strong foundation that makes a movement and an organization difficult to destroy.
Socialists shouldn’t idealize democracy or confuse “meetings” with “organizing.” But we should deeply connect the two things. Deliberative democracy and organizing activity have to be so deeply entwined with each other that they cannot be separated. Members have to, to the maximum degree possible, feel that they are the collective owners of the organization. Organizations should strive for bigness; should try to break out of the “anti-politics” of parochial localism; and should build for resiliency and durability, even when it is less exciting than a short-term win or the allure of proximity to power.
The post Break the Cycle appeared first on Midwest Socialist.
Changing with the Seasons
by Lara
As this administration, aided and abetted by Grima Wormtongue’s Elon Musk’s illegal and illegitimate DOGE, dismantles the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Parks, Forest, and Weather Services while also razing legislation protecting people and the environment they are part of [1], the ensuing smoke may obscure our ability to see what we can do about these egregious actions of selfish short-sightedness. The world around us is on fire and many who hold great power are also those who are wielding the flamethrowers, uncaring who gets hurt, so long as the mountain of money they sit on top of is high enough to prevent they themselves from burning and provided there are plenty of opportunities to amass more money mountains and power off of the charred wastelands they’ve created. While they may be financially rich, they are morally bankrupt, having stolen these mountains and at the expense of Earth, her flora and fauna, including humans that are not a part of this kingly cohort. While we may not have the financial power of these heartless hoarders, we have power nonetheless and the ability to significantly improve our understanding of the biological implications of climate change. Ash can make for fertile soil but the world need not burn for goodness to grow.
The plight of Cassandra, granted the power of premonition but cursed with never having her prophecies be believed because she refused the advances of a powerful being, may be somewhat familiar to climate scientists and activists. Climate change is a frightening reality we all face, whether we believe in its existence or not, as are innumerable other related environmental issues, including microplastics hindering photosynthesis and the weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). In the face of such enormous issues, the temptation to lay still and wait in terror is understandable, the way moa might have once stood unmoving to avoid being spotted by Haast eagles hunting overhead. While standing still was likely an effective way to avoid the aerial eagles, it likely did little to help them evade humans who hunted them to extinction. When we do nothing in the face of horror, we might die a different death than the one we are trying to avoid, but we all will still someday die, and if we don’t adapt to the new circumstances, we all will go extinct.
While it can be frightening, accepting reality is the first step towards changing it—and is also incredibly empowering. The spin of the Earth has changed under the crushing mass redistribution of the Three Gorges Dam. Earth’s tilt has changed due to all the groundwater we have withdrawn. Our atmosphere’s global average temperature has increased 2 degrees F since 1850. (Note: the global average temperature during the last ice age was only about 6 degrees cooler than present day). Less than 25% of Earth’s ice-free land is wildlands. Our species has already “achieved” the inconceivable. It is not at all impossible that we can also drastically alter our world for the better.
This is not an article to scare you, shame you into changing a pattern of activity, or demand that you single-handedly save the world, but to share with you a lesser-known avenue to improve our collective understanding of how organisms are responding to climate change. This can ultimately aid conservation efforts and biodiversity, and can deepen our personal connections with nature.
Phenology—not to be confused with the racist pseudoscience phrenology—is the study of the seasonal timing of organisms’ life history events, such as the timing of budding, flowering, migration, egg-laying, hibernation, and leaf loss. Phenological events uphold ecosystem function and structure, impacting species interactions and ecosystem services including foodwebs, population dynamics, carbon cycling. All of these things affect us—we are a part of nature and nature is a part of us—but modern life has distanced many from the life-giving roots that sustain us. Our health, agriculture, and the economy/tourism sectors are impacted by phenology. By participating in community science programs centered around phenology, you can play a vital role in our survival and that of other species.
Making, recording, and uploading simple phenological observations does not require a lot of time (it can take as little as 5 minutes a week) or rigorous scientific training. Nature’s Notebook is an excellent community science program (with extensive learning resources) for phenology. Researchers have used data submitted by community scientists to answer a variety of questions, including about how to predict the allergy season, how male and female trees are responding to temperature changes, and how to assess the risk of fire based on flower presence. Participants can also use this powerful platform to answer their own phenological questions, visualize data, and track changes over time, or help answer existing research questions by joining a pre-existing campaign. If you are interested in being a part of a local group or have any questions, please reach out to me on Slack—I am happy to help.
In the face of the all-encompassing, complex issue of climate change, it is easy to feel ineffectual—particularly when the primary drivers of the problem are systems and corporations that are vastly larger than any one individual. According to a 2017 study, 25 corporations produced more than half of all global emissions (100 corporations have produced more than 70%) since 1988. The endless consumption of capitalism is not compatible with a sustainable world. Capitalism, in practice, has boiled down to exploitation: of people and of natural resources, with devastating consequences. Though the spirit of humanity is arguably unconquerable (though still should not be crushed by jackboots), our natural resources are finite, as is the window of time we have to mitigate forthcoming climate cataclysms.
Addressing the outsized power of major corporations, holding them accountable for their actions, and changing the systems that allowed the commodification of natural resources are worthy things to work towards, but they are not the only worthwhile ways to have a significant positive ecological impact. By making and sharing simple natural observations, we can improve our collective understanding of how organisms are responding to climate change to ultimately aid in their conservation and the protection of the systems they are part of. Participating in phenology-based community science programs not only connects the complex global issue of climate change to what is happening on a local level, it also gives us an opportunity to shift focus away from what we cannot achieve alone but rather on what we can accomplish together. As Rebecca Solnit puts it, “The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean that we cannot save anything, and everything we can save is worth saving.”
While improving our understanding of the biological impacts of climate change helps everyone, making routine phenological observations can have subtle personal benefits. By paying attention to phenological changes, wonders previously unnoticed may reveal themselves to you, such as the subtle splendor of leaf buds unfurling or the return of a small moth species. Though there are only four seasons meteorologically, during the growing season, new plant and animal activities occur about every two weeks here in the Northeast. To reflect this, Janice Goldfrank proposed 19 seasons, to highlight each cast of new species to take stage in her book “Field Guide to the Seasons.” By visiting the same individuals (if observing plants) or places (if observing animals), you may begin to notice the changes within these subseasons and gain a greater appreciation for and understanding of the organisms you share a space with.
Nature is a great respite—it asks nothing of us, it allows us to simply be as we are—allowing us to temporarily set aside the troubles of our times and then to return to advocate for a better world recharged. And advocate for a better world we must. As John Kastner put in the Sierra Club Rochester Regional Group’s Ecologue (Volume 55, Issue 1), “Neither our children, nor most of the Earth’s population, nor any of the earth’s vast diversity of non-human life got us into this fix that now threatens us all. We, who can still speak and act on this problem, owe it to the rest of life to solve it. The future is never a foregone conclusion.” Perhaps Cassandra would find comfort in this sentiment.
[1] Including, but not limited to:
2009 Endangerment Finding, which is part of the Clean Air Act that links greenhouse gasses to the dangers they pose for human health and wellbeing, that has served as a legal underpinning for much of the nation’s actions to mitigate climate change
Components of the Clean Water Act
Clean Air Act Exemptions may be issued for industrial polluters
The administration is also removing climate data from government websites and attempting to illegally revoke lawfully appropriated funding for climate grants
“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid,” Frederick Buechner
The post Changing with the Seasons first appeared on Rochester Red Star.
Portland’s police union is trying to use the labor movement to avoid budget cuts
By Erica T. and Gabriel E.
Efforts by the executive board of Northwest Oregon Labor Council (NOLC) to affiliate the Portland Police Association (PPA) leave us no choice but to speak out as rank-and-file members of unions (AFT and Teamsters) affiliated to the NOLC. The Labor Council is the largest federation of local unions, which speaks to local and state politicians on behalf of labor.
As trade unionists, we see through this cynical attempt by the police to shield themselves from accountability and budget cuts. They’ve gotten used to bloated personnel and equipment budgets, absurd overtime payouts, and immunity for violent misconduct. But with four socialists elected to City Council, the police union is suddenly trying to brand itself as a “friend of workers.”
We don’t buy it.
For years, the police association stood by and watched while city workers faced and fought job cuts and Portland residents suffered diminished public services. Even now, with $60 million in cuts on the docket for community centers, parks, and roads, the Mayor’s proposed budget does not recommend any cuts to the police bureau. Why? Because police help enforce the business interests of the wealthy, business owners, and the capitalist class.
When City of Portland workers represented by LIUNA Local 483 struck in 2023, dozens of local unions turned members out to the picket line, bringing pallets of water and boxes of food. To be fair, the police did show up — to harass the picket at the wastewater treatment plant in North Portland. Nobody walking the picket line was sporting any PPA gear. The PPA is completely out of step with the values of organized labor.
What is a police “union” for?
Police unions do engage in collective bargaining, but their purpose extends far beyond negotiating their contract. In 2012, Portland Police officer Christopher Humphreys was suspended for beating to death James P. Chasse Jr., who was unarmed and suffering from mental illness. What was the PPA’s response? They fought to overturn the suspension and then marched through downtown, sporting signs that said, “I Am Chris Humphreys.”
Has the police union undergone some sort of rebirth since 2012? Absolutely not. The PPA’s own past immediate President, Brian Hunzeker, was fired after he and another officer colluded to leak false information about then Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty to the The Oregonian and conservative political group Coalition to Save Portland, in hopes of smearing Hardesty’s character. This misconduct cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in the subsequent settlements.
Their recent opposition to mild police accountability measures, including Resolution 2025–047 (a measure to clarify bias standards for the Community Police Oversight Board) is their latest effort to avoid accountability for extreme acts of violence and racial bias. This freedom from oversight is not a “privilege” any of us would expect, nor desire, in our own jobs and workplaces.
Also this year, PPA members used the legal authority of their jobs to intimidate labor-backed elected officials who publicly support police accountability. As The Oregonian recently documented, five on-duty officers — two wearing Portland Police Association-branded baseball caps — descended uninvited on Councilor Sameer Kanal’s February 2025 town hall. The officers, dispatched by North Precinct Commander Rob Simon, lingered silently amid constituents, creating a palpable tension that erupted in jeers from attendees.
Days later, Councilor Angelita Morillo encountered a similar tactic: two uniformed officers appeared unannounced at a Montavilla neighborhood event she attended, lurking at the back of the room without engaging attendees. When Morillo approached them for answers, they refused to identify the lieutenant who ordered their presence and abruptly departed.
Armed officers leveraging their union’s insignia and state-sanctioned authority to surveil critics not only violates principles of worker solidarity, but it erodes public trust in law enforcement’s role as community partners. We’re proud that Councilors Kanal and Morillo — both DSA members — did not concede to PPA intimidation.
Why the cops’ sudden interest in labor?
Labor unions are more popular than at any time in generations, but the percentage of Americans who say they have a “great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the police” is now at 48% — a twenty-year low. It’s clear why the cops want to infiltrate the labor tent. It’s equally clear that PPA’s inclusion in the labor council would be extremely divisive, based on their recent history of intimidation, bullying, and misconduct against labor-back elected officials, and actions of intimidation at the picket lines of striking workers.
In 2020, Pacific Northwest unions turned out members to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement; many local unions passed resolutions supporting the aims of the Black Live Matter movement, including accountability for police here in Portland. Up in Seattle, the local labor council voted in 2020 to eject the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, citing the council’s commitment to dismantling racism:
“As a union movement, it’s our responsibility to fight for all forms of justice. In the Martin Luther King County Labor Council, we believe that there can be no justice without racial justice. Any union that is part of our labor council needs to be actively working to dismantle racism in their institution and society at large. Unfortunately, the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild has failed to do that work and are no longer welcome in our council.
Since the killing of George Floyd, communities of color in Seattle and around the United States have spoken loud and clear that the status quo will no longer be tolerated. We have listened to our community and responded by doing the right thing.”
As rank-and-file union members, we took our unions’ commitments to fighting racism seriously. It’s clear our comrades in other unions feel the same way. A petition backing NOLC delegates who oppose the PPA affiliation is approaching 400 signatures in less than one week; signatories are rank-and-file members of 34+ local unions from the building trades to the service sector — public workers at the City of Portland and beyond.
What’s next?
Labor Council delegates, who represent each of the affiliated locals, will vote on the PPA’s affiliation bid on April 28th. In the meantime, rank-and-file union members continue to organize to demonstrate our opposition. On April 13th at 6pm, Portland DSA Labor is hosting a Zoom event featuring author and local union member, Kristian Williams, in conversation with local union rank-and-file. Williams is the author of “Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America” as well as the forthcoming book about Portland, Policing the Progressive City. We are esteemed that retired Oregon Coalition of Black Trade Unionists Secretary-Treasure Deborah Hall will facilitate the event. RSVP here for the Zoom info.
As unionists we must see every struggle as an organizing opportunity. If you are a member of NOLC, talk to your co-workers about this issue. Ask them to oppose the addition of PPA to your Labor Council. Add your name to the growing list of unionists demanding no cops in the Labor Council!