The Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are working to support a statewide race for governor after both that chapter and Madison DSA voted to endorse DSA member Francesca Hong in her bid for that office.

“Working people have seen that the system doesn’t work for them,” Milwaukee DSA Co-Chair Autumn Pickett said. “Time and again, the establishment has failed us so as not to upset their billionaire donors. As ICE threatens to terrorize our communities and kidnap our neighbors, Francesca Hong stands committed to fight back as the only candidate calling for their abolition.”

Hong’s campaign comes at the heels of successful DSA campaigns across the country, from New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Milwaukee District 3’s Alder Alex Brower, and U.S. polling has shown an increased interest in socialism, a clear reflection of the crumbling material conditions of the American working class amid ongoing crises at the hands of capitalism and its benefactors. 

“Francesca Hong has fought for Wisconsinites’ right to healthcare, paid family leave for all, a vibrant union movement, and public power owned by the people and not for the profit of billionaires—the same billionaires who are now forcing us to pay for their destructive data centers,” Pickett said. “She, thankfully, is not alone in this fight. As a movement of everyday people, DSA members are tired, fed up, and ready to win the better world we know is possible. Mayor Zohran Mamdani proved there is a better alternative to fascism than the same old tired establishment policies that brought Donald Trump into power to begin with. Socialism beats fascism, and now it’s our turn to prove it. Elect Francesca Hong for Governor.”

Those interested in joining DSA’s efforts to elect Hong can fill out a DSA campaign interest form to get plugged into the chapter’s work. More information on Hong’s candidacy is available on her campaign website.Milwaukee DSA is Milwaukee’s largest socialist organization fighting against imperialism for a democratic economy, a just society, and a sustainable environment. Join today at dsausa.org/join.

Littler Mendelson's latest labor survey report is full of insights straight from bosses about how unprepared they are against union efforts at work.

The post Secrets of a successful union-buster appeared first on EWOC.

Many hands make light work.

Please reference our Slack’s events channel, or general, for the Agenda.

Zoom Meeting link will appear upon RSVP.

Join DSA Ventura County’s Labor Working Group on zoom to discuss recent labor struggles in our communities, from Starbucks Workers United’s indefinite strike, to the new contract our County employees won by threatening to strike, to the movement for an arms embargo by Labor for Palestine, and the calls for a general strike by May Day 2028. Please, bring other ideas, campaigns, and your own workplace experiences. An agenda will be posted on slack soon. You will receive the zoom link shortly after completing RSVP.

Monday, February 9 at 6:30pm PST (Online)

Join DSA Ventura County’s Mutual Aid Working Group for a planning meeting focused on addressing unmet needs in Ventura County. Bring your big ideas, suggestions for coalition partners, and a desire to stand in solidarity with others. We are cookin’ up some ideas, and will post an agenda on our slack.

Sponsored by

HOSTED BY DSA NATIONAL POLITICAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE

In light of the political urgency we find ourselves in, we are holding a special edition of our Talking to Non-Socialists training, focusing on ICE and immigration. This training welcomes all DSA members, and anyone who wants to learn some basic techniques to challenge misinformation, move people closer to our side and further from the right, and expand the struggle for democracy and socialism — one neighbor, family member or workmate at a time.

Join us Monday, February 09, 5 PT/8 ET — RSVP for more details and zoom! See you soon.

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The post Protected: OPINION: The Current Political Moment and the Case for Building Boston DSA with No Shortcuts appeared first on Working Mass.

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By: Dan Albright

As DSA chapters grow, members often ask whether we are taking on too much or not enough. This DSA capacity debate is unfolding in Boston right now as members are currently debating whether running multiple electoral campaigns would overextend us. This question comes up in chapters nationally. Campaigns require time, coordination, and energy, which are often in short supply for voluntary organizations like ours. But how we think about capacity might be leading us to the wrong answers.

A useful way to approach this is dialectically. That means examining both sides of an argument and asking how their tension can lead to growth rather than paralysis. Organizations don’t develop by avoiding contradictions — they develop by working through them.

The Case for Caution

People who urge caution have an argument. State-level campaigns cover large areas and require tremendous ongoing volunteer work. Running several races at once can pull people away from other important efforts, such as tenant organizing, community ICE defense, or international solidarity. Many believe the focus should be on building independent, working-class institutions outside of the electoral sphere.

Some people worry that a small group of elected socialists can’t effect real change in the bourgeois government, or that working in coalitions can make it harder to hold elected candidates accountable. Others think focusing too much on elections can reinforce the idea that we must outsource our power to politicians rather than build our own collective power. These are important considerations.

Sometimes people use the limited-capacity argument when they have deeper political disagreements as well. This isn’t because anyone is being dishonest, but because it can feel easier to talk about logistical issues than political ones. As socialists, we often discuss the limits of reform, the role of social democracy, and how openly socialist candidates can or should be. Some believe in gradually improving working people’s lives, while others (myself included) maintain that openly acknowledging a revolutionary socialist horizon is essential. Electoral campaigns can be a space to debate these differences openly, which in turn helps educate people on politics and, over time, helps improve electoral discipline.

But if we only see campaigns as a drain on resources and capacity, we might miss all they actually do for us.

Capacity Is Built, Not Allocated

Everyone wants DSA to be fully embedded in our electoral campaigns. This is already happening in many cases. Electoral working groups offer guidance, chapter leaders often take key roles, and DSA volunteers keep coming back as staff or leaders. From the outside, it can seem like the chapter and the campaign are the same thing.

But the reality is more complicated. Usually, the candidate’s campaign committee does most of the direct organizing, with its own budget, staff, and legal authority. The chapter acts more like an organizing ecosystem that campaigns tap into. Endorsing a campaign doesn’t mean the chapter will manage everything. It’s a political choice whether a campaign organizes openly within the chapter’s space.

Once we understand this difference, the question of capacity changes. Supporting another campaign does not always split up our efforts — in many cases, it actually increases them.

Enthusiasm Is a Resource

Most chapters have many inactive members, and even the most committed volunteers find it hard to keep everyone involved or offer regular ways for eager new members to participate. Campaigns, on the other hand, often have staff who organize phone banks and canvasses, train new volunteers, and knock on doors. When these efforts focus on DSA members and sympathizers, the campaign’s resources become extra capacity for the chapter, even if only temporarily.

This is especially true for new members. Electoral work is often the first thing that new members gravitate toward, since mainstream political culture ingrains in us the idea that elections are the arena for politics and making change. While DSA has many priorities besides elections, most people are already familiar with this kind of participation when they join.

In a volunteer group, people always spend more time on the work that they care about. The question is how to use that energy without ignoring other important tasks. In my experience, it usually works better to support people’s interests and bring in others for less popular work, rather than trying to force everyone to do everything.

Campaigns Can Generate Capacity

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t challenges. Campaign staff report to the candidate, not the chapter, and candidates are under enormous pressure during elections. This happens in every endorsed race. Still, taking on an additional campaign within reason often brings more new people than new problems. Members canvass for the first time, campaign supporters organize for the first time, and relationships are built that last beyond one election.

The same thing happens with money. Chapters rarely provide most of the funding for campaigns. Most donations come from the candidate’s district or from people the campaign reaches out to. Supporting another candidate doesn’t necessarily divide a limited pool of money. Instead, it often brings in more resources that would not otherwise be there.

This is even clearer in bigger chapters. In New York City, ongoing electoral work has helped elect at least eleven officials at different levels of government, and the chapter is now backing its largest slate of candidates yet. Contesting more elections makes it easier for new candidates to run together, and the chapter’s processes for vetting, developing, and holding people accountable continue to improve as the organization grows.

Success builds on itself. When a strong DSA candidate wins and does well in office, it makes it easier for future DSA candidates.

Meeting the Political Moment

This debate is happening in a larger context. Many people are unhappy with national leaders, the cost of living keeps going up, and there is anger about war, ICE violence, and growing authoritarianism. No matter how you look at it, most people feel the system is letting them down.

In that context, visibility matters. If DSA is not putting forward as many strong candidates as it reasonably can, it risks being seen as missing in action. Electoral politics is only one terrain of struggle, and labor organizing, tenant unions, and community campaigns remain essential.

But even within a capitalist democracy, elected officials can make meaningful improvements to people’s lives through legislation, and when they cannot pass laws, they can still use their platform to amplify struggles and support movements on the ground. 

Strength does not look identical in every candidate. Some are stronger communicators, others are stronger legislators or organizers. A clear set of principles is necessary to maintain accountability, but variation in skills can be an asset if the organization knows how to channel it.

On the DSA Capacity Debate: Capacity Grows When We Use It

Taken together, these dynamics point to a broader conclusion. The pressure of competing for the time of the most active members is real. But focusing only on already-activated volunteers misses the bigger picture. Campaigns don’t only consume capacity. They can also generate it — by training new organizers, activating inactive members, and creating political momentum that makes taking part feel meaningful rather than draining.

Capacity isn’t just about what we have today. It’s also about what we can build tomorrow. Whether a campaign helps us grow or stretches us too thin depends more on how well it brings in new people and sets clear goals than on how many campaigns we endorse.

Backing more candidates does not guarantee success, and there are always risks. But if we refuse to endorse because we think our capacity is fixed, we might end up making that true. If we want to run strong campaigns in the future, we need to focus on what helps us grow our collective capacity now. Despite their tension, campaigns are still one of the best ways to do that.

Dan Albright is chair and an editor of Working Mass and a member of Boston DSA.

The post OPINION: The Myth of Limited Capacity in DSA appeared first on Working Mass.

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The Socialists Everywhere Project began in the now-defunct Organizing Committee for the North Side Blue Line (NSBL) branch. It arose out of conversations about how to learn more about the employers, landlords, and community organizations in the branch territory. The name, which was coined by former branch steering committee officer Ramsin Canon, originally encompassed an ever larger project involving both member engagement and a broader continuous research effort to do power mapping throughout the branch. This element was still present in the initial resolution authorizing the Project, which was presented to the Executive Committee, along with the part of the Project that would become the focus of work over the next year.

The initial proposal was brought at the November 2024 Executive Committee retreat and formally passed in 2025. It described a program in which local civic meetings would be cataloged and presented to branch membership. Members would be invited to attend these meetings and then submit a report to the Project leaders on what happened there. There are a lot of meetings in Chicago that fit the above description, including ward nights, local school council meetings, park advisory council meetings, and Community Alternative Policing meetings. The report back form asked members to describe what happened at the meeting, what kinds of people were in attendance, and to call out any issues that could serve as opportunities for Chicago DSA to organize in the community.

In practice, this is what the Project looked like with varying results: Ahead of NSBL branch meetings, a list would be compiled of three meetings happening within the branch territory in the next couple of weeks, in tabulated format with space for written names and phone numbers. Branch officers would then explain the Socialists Everywhere Project to the members in attendance, with the list being passed around for members to fill out if they could make the listed meeting times. Later, those members who signed up would receive a message via WhatsApp (sent manually) reminding them to attend the meeting, as well as a link to submit the report back form via Google Forms.

Word of the Project spread rapidly through the chapter, prompting a meeting between leaders in the North Side Blue Line, North Side Red Line, and South Side branches to discuss how the Project should be coordinated between the three geographic branches. For example, the leadership in the North Side Red Line branch prioritized monthly research meetings to add items on the Socialists Everywhere calendar, while classifying members by neighborhood during the branch meeting to decide how to coordinate meeting attendance. With specific goals to expand and automate the Project, research meetings began to produce a full catalog of meetings for members to attend. These research meetings proved popular among certain tech-savvy groups of members who were happy to help DSA by doing something they already knew how to do – work with computers to conduct research via spreadsheet work.

This work continued smoothly among the branches throughout the year. But after the DSA National Convention in August 2025, difficult questions arose during reauthorization. Namely: What has the Project accomplished? Though organizers set goals to build more participation using an automated calendar system rather than through a representative of the Project, only two members documented their attendance of a public, civic meetings after reauthorization, far below any reasonable goal.

What exactly was the goal of all of this work? The immediate goal was to engage new members in their communities, but the larger ambitions of the Project were never fully defined. The Project was envisioned at various times to be a research project, membership engagement, a left-wing answer to Moms for Liberty, and the initial stages of an intelligence network on community issues. If there was one definitive thing that the Project did, it gave new members something to do. Chicago DSA is full of newly minted activists who have just moved to the city and are light on experience and local knowledge, and Socialists Everywhere was ideal for giving them an opportunity to see what was happening in their local neighborhood. The loftier goals for the Project, to give Chicago DSA a foothold in local communities that could be used to organize as socialists on behalf of community members, never came to fruition. Finding a way to bridge the divide between individual volunteer action and a bigger project should be the core of any revival of the Project.

There is no particular shame in the Project’s performance, and not just because it only cost the chapter the price of a small button order. In many ways, the Project came and went at exactly the right time for the chapter. When it began, the chapter was coming out of a nadir of activity, with no significant large-scale work – labor, electoral, or otherwise – for members to jump into. But once the chapter’s campaigns kicked off, it became harder to justify pushing members elsewhere into this more piecemeal work. And once federal agents began their terror campaign in Chicagoland, it became hard not to see the Project as superfluous in the face of the higher degree of organization present in existing local groups that are leading the city’s response to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Perhaps if the Project had the capacity, infrastructure, and messaging to connect itself to the broader struggle, it could have justified its continued existence.

In January 2026, the Project was ended by a vote of the Executive Committee. It has been placed respectfully in the limbo of interesting but nascent ideas. It may one day be dug up and integrated into a more focused and effective project. Until then, it lives on as one of Chicago DSA’s political priorities: Be Socialists Everywhere.

The post An Assessment of the Socialists Everywhere Project appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

Join us on Saturday, February 28 at 10:00AM on Zoom or in Mattson Ballroom at Eagles #34 (2507 E 25th St, Minneapolis, MN 55406). Check-in on Saturday begins at 9:30AM, with the meeting kickoff at 10:00AM. Please register for the method you plan on using to attend on Saturday; this allows us to plan accordingly. […]