Events and Actions

Tuesday July 21 (4:30 PM – 7:00 PM)  Jackie Fielder Town Hall & Tenants Rights Lit Drop (16th St. Mission, Qa, 2000 Mission St)

Tuesday July 21 (5:30 PM – 7:00 PM) Social Housing Working Group (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Tuesday July 21 (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) EWOC Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing (1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday July 22 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM) Phonebank for the Affordable Housing Guarantee Act – Hybrid (Syzygy SF, 395 S Van Ness Ave,)

Wednesday July 22 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM)  Socialist Shop Talk (1916 McAllister St)

Saturday July 25 (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM)  No Appetite for Apartheid – Store Canvass (1916 McAllister St)

Sunday July 26 (1:00 PM – 2:30 PM)  What Is DSA? (1916 McAllister St)

Sunday July 26 (5:00 PM – 6:00 PM)  Tenderloin Healing Circle Working Group (zoom)

Monday July 27 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM)  Tenderloin Healing Circle (220 Golden Gate Ave)

Tuesday July 28 (5:30 PM – 7:30 PM)  Phonebank for the Affordable Housing Guarantee Act (1916 McAllister St)

Tuesday July 28 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday July 29 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) DSA SF Electoral Board x WFP Happy Hour (Teeth Bar SF, 2323 Mission St)

Wednesday July 29 (6:45 PM – 8:30 PM) Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (1916 McAllister St)

Thursday July 30 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM)  ICE Out Orientation (1916 McAllister St)

Saturday August 1 (1:00 PM – 3:00 PM)  Immigrant Justice KYR Canvassing – Pacific Heights (Raymond Kimbell Playground Park, 1901 Geary Blvd)

Monday August 3 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St

Apartheid-Free Bay Area Outreach Training and Canvassing

Come join our store canvass for the No Appetite for Apartheid campaign on Saturday 7/25! We will meet at 1916 McAllister St for the training at 10. Snacks will be provided. Canvassing starts at 11:30, and will run until around 2.

This event is very new member friendly! We hope you can make it!

RSVP here.

Immigrant Justice Know Your Rights Canvassing Event & Social

Join the Immigrant Justice Working Group for Know Your Rights (KYR) canvassing Saturday August 1 at 1:00PM at Raymond Kimbell Playground Park!

We will be distributing red cards and KYR materials to businesses and community members in the Pacific Heights neighborhood.

We will meet at Raymond Kimbell Playground Park on the corner of Geary Blvd. & Steiner St. to receive training and materials before canvassing.

Join us after for a social/debrief session at a local spot and grab food/drinks!

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

Reportback: EWOC Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing Week #1 

Last Tuesday we held our first session of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) course Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing, a four week course that goes into the basics of organizing: from organizing committees to inoculation against the boss. A group of 10 met in person at 1916 McAllister to watch the course plenary before diving into a discussion about the material we covered. This week’s topic was “Developing Leadership” and was focused on the organizing committee, the core group of workers who lead a union campaign. We heard from a worker-organizer at Attaboy, a newly-unionized cocktail bar in Manhattan. She recounted how they identified leaders in the workplace, assembled an organizing committee, and eventually charted every member of their workplace. Her account emphasized how the organizing committee model played a decisive role during the unionization campaign. The plenary kicked off our discussion, where we compared our own experiences to the blueprint laid out in the plenary. We also talked about the differences between organizing in a small and large workplace and how we have spotted leaders in our own jobs.

The next session will take place on Tuesday, July 21th at 7PM, hosted at 1916 McAllister and will cover the organizing conversation.

If you’d like to get involved with the SF local chapter of EWOC, reach out to the lead coordinator Caitlin S or email labor@dsasf.org. EWOC is a standing topic at meetings of the Labor Board, which are held every other Monday at 7:00 PM, both in-person at 1916 McAllister and over Zoom. Anyone is welcome to attend, and we’re always looking for people interested In workplace lead canvassing, organizer trainings, and volunteer outreach. If you’re interested in organizing your workplace and would like to be connected with an EWOC organizer, fill out the request form here.

New York City’s Economic Development Corporation turns public assets into private profits. Will Mamdani keep, kill, or reform the agency?

The post Neoliberalism Versus a New Economy appeared first on Democratic Left.

U.S. socialism is back after a long absence. What’s the big idea?

The post Meet DSA appeared first on Democratic Left.

Collective study and public debate lead to collective liberation and the advance of socialism. Socialist Forum is DSA’s main platform for airing the thorny but necessary theoretical, political, and cultural issues that confront us in an age of U.S. hegemony and empire. The editorial board of the publication—writers, organizers, and political educators—are  committed to a vehicle to present ideas and analysis that would prove useful to winning socialism. We develop thinkers and writers who can provide clarity for our peers and comrades looking for ways to understand the world as is and ways to resist. We seek pieces that explore how capitalism leverages structures and institutions to exploit the peoples of the world. Analysis, inquiry, and discussion into forms of effective resistance are vital in fighting for the liberation of all peoples from exploitation and domination. 

As the late great thinker and writer, Ghassan Kanafani had once stated, “Scientific revolutionary thought is clear thought whereby the masses are able to understand their enemy, his points of weakness or strength and the forces that support and ally themselves to the enemy. Likewise, the masses should understand their own forces, the forces of revolution, how to mobilize, how to overcome the enemy’s points of strength and take advantage of the weakness of the enemy, and through what organization, mobilization and political and military programmes, they can escalate their forces until they can crush the enemy and achieve victory.” Theory and written analysis is a foundational part of our ability to grow as a movement and to some day, succeed, finally winning a world freed from capitalism, colonialism, and U.S. hubris. 

Socialist Forum, therefore, is an avenue for DSA members not only to publicly present their thinking but to work with one another. Our editors are themselves constantly learning and developing ways to strategically address the dilemmas facing the movement. Inspired by thinkers like Kanafani, we are not just a publication. Our aim is to help generate theory that can aid in practice. Moreover, DSA as a multi-tendency, big tent organization creates the ideal circumstances for struggling through ideas together. Pushing ourselves to engage with thinking and debate across the various socialist traditions forges  more robust analyses. We are a stronger organization when we discuss and debate our ideas openly in our publications.

Socialist Forum publication is organized into quarterly-themed issues. We accept pitches on a rolling basis on a variety of topics, and encourage all members to pitch on the current theme topic. Send us pitches that present the general topic of your article, the main argument you hope to emphasize, and its connection to DSA’s larger project. While our sister publication, Democratic Left, reports on the news and events, our publication prioritizes longer form writing and analysis with a global view. As such, our articles typically range from 3,000 to 8,000 words. We also strongly encourage engagement with previous articles and ongoing debates within the publication.

We look forward to writing from seasoned experts on an issue as well as comrades exploring a topic for the very first time. We are all revolutionaries and, at Socialist Forum, we want all revolutionaries to be heard. 

The revamped Workers Deserve More program lays out a vision of a comprehensively democratic society. The Right’s response speaks volumes.

The post DSA Launches New Program appeared first on Democratic Left.

Far from rejecting the American Dream, today’s democratic socialists are reclaiming its deepest promise: that freedom requires economic security, and democracy must extend into the workplace.

The post The American Dream Is Socialist appeared first on Democratic Left.

Enjoy your July National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 27-person body (including both YDSA Co-Chairs) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, hear about volunteer opportunities, organizing trainings, our upcoming Ecosocialism call, and more!

And to make sure you get our newsletters in your inbox, sign up here! Each one features action alerts, upcoming events, political education, and more.

• From the National Political Committee — Socialism is Practical
• Join Our Socialism and the Black Radical Tradition Call Sunday 7/19!
• Support DSA and Learn New Skills! Phonebanks and Trainings Start Sunday 7/19
• DSA is Hiring — Deadline Friday 7/24
• RSVP for DSA Ecosocialist Organizing Call Sunday 7/26
• Black Liberation Theology Book Study Group — and RSVP for Religion and Socialism Working Group Organizing Meeting Wednesday 8/5
• National Political Education Commission Applications are Open!  Deadline Saturday 8/15
• Sign Up for Fundraising Committee Training Saturday 8/22
• Welcome New Chapters and Organizing Committees!

From the National Political Committee — Socialism is Practical

America’s 250th anniversary this year was a flop. Most Americans today have no patience for hyper-nationalist bluster while our day-to-day social and economic conditions keep deteriorating. And we all see the Trump administration’s militarized waste and corporate bloat as public goods for all of us are slashed. It seemed like nature itself was sending signals, with record-breaking heat waves disrupting Fourth of July events and straining power grids across the country.

But we got a symbolic signal of our own that weekend. On July 4, 2026, we hit an all time high of 120,000 DSA members! In absolute numbers, that makes us the largest socialist organization in United States history, officially surpassing the Socialist Party of America under the great Eugene V. Debs, which reached its peak dues-paying membership in 1912. Thousands of people are joining DSA every week, because they see us protecting our communities, organizing our workplaces, standing up to fascism, and winning real working class victories against extreme crises caused by the billionaire class. 

It’s a hot socialist summer, with some of our biggest wins to date over the past month. NYC DSA scored two upset victories against the machine with Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier winning primary elections for Congress in New York City — a political earthquake that upended establishment narratives by winning majorities across racial and age demographics in upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Along with wins far from NYC in Buffalo and Syracuse, DSA chapters across New York have now doubled their presence in the state legislature of the 8th largest economy in the world. Denver DSA scored an insurgent win with Melat Kiros, ousting a 15-term incumbent in Colorado. We’re on track to grow the number of DSA members in Congress from 2 to at least 6 by November, with a bunch of big congressional primary elections still to go in August where we have endorsed working class champions. Our gains are hitting the Democratic Party establishment like a leftist tidal wave, and our members are gearing up for much bigger plans toward 2028.

The heat is increasingly literal and unavoidable. This summer could be the strongest El Niño on record, and the effects of the fossil-fueled climate crisis are obvious everywhere, from wildfires in Canada that are worsening air quality across the Midwest and all the way down to the Carolinas, to flash floods in Texas. DSA chapters across the country are organizing against the capitalists enabling climate chaos, from resisting the undemocratic proliferation of mega-polluting, water-hogging data centers pushed by Big Tech companies, from Seattle to Tucson, to Washington DC, to advancing public power over the electric grid in New York City, to countering corporate false solutions in Corpus Christi, Texas. It’s a great time for our nationwide Ecosocialism Commission to re-energize the fight for real working class solutions toward a green future for all of us — check out their recent call “Whose Power? The Ecosocialist Fight Over Data Centers & Corporate Power.”

Meanwhile, ICE is on a brutal summer rampage across the country. In the past week, we have seen the murders of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, and Johan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. We demand justice for these killings. DSA members from Texas to Maine stand in solidarity with the families of Lorenzo and Johan, and with so many of our neighbors who have been devastated by ICE violence. With sadness and rage, we reiterate our demand to abolish ICE. We understand that anti-immigrant hatred is a method to divide and conquer the working class, by distracting from the real economic crises being caused by capitalists, who only want to extract maximal profits from workers in the United States and around the world, and attack democratic structures that would help us decide how to use collective resources of our society to benefit all of us. Most Americans want a version of this country that includes all of us who live here, as mayor Zohran Mamdani laid out in his powerful pro-immigrant July 4 weekend address. From Newark, New Jersey, to Las Vegas, Nevada, DSA chapters are standing against ICE and for our neighbors. They’re following in the footsteps of DSA chapters in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, and more!

 Right-wing Republicans are attacking our neighbors, starting needless wars, and destroying our democracy. And do-nothing establishment Democrats wring their hands, but don’t stand up to stop them. We do! Against the extreme conditions we’re facing today, DSA members know that socialism is practical, a better world is possible, and we can work together to build it. All this heightened interest in DSA is great timing for the launch of our new Workers Deserve More program, which lays out what we’re organizing to win today, as steps toward our vision for a democratic socialist future beyond capitalism. Check out our program launch call, with special guest Emma Vigeland from The Majority Report!

Right now, mainstream media reporters are calling us every day, from CNN to Fox News to NewsNation to C-SPAN, from Politico to CBS to The Hill, to ask us to explain all our wins they didn’t see coming. They’re asking us to explain the difference between the Democratic establishment’s lukewarm attempts to reform the capitalist system, and our goal of ultimately replacing capitalism with something that works for all of us. And we’re telling them the truth, which is much clearer to viewers of independent media producers who’ve had their fingers on the pulse for awhile, like Democracy Now!, The Majority Report, and Hasan Piker. And that truth is that democratic socialism is common sense, pragmatic, and popular. The American public knows that genocide, forever wars, and ICE’s attacks against our communities are wrong — and that working class people are struggling to keep their homes, fighting a broken healthcare system, and getting wages too low to live on while extremist billionaires get special perks from the Trump administration. They see that DSA has real solutions and does real work! 

While fascists smear us, DSA members keep on sticking up for each other, protecting our communities, and organizing for a brighter future. New members tell us they joined because they see us, in person, doing the work we need — on picket lines, in city council meetings, at mutual aid events, in neighborhood canvasses, and more.

Read on for more on what YOU can do today. We’re grateful to organize with you, and over one hundred thousand DSA members all across the country!

Solidarity,

Ashik Siddique and Megan Romer
DSA National Co-Chairs

Join Our Socialism and the Black Radical Tradition Call Sunday 7/19!

This Sunday 7/19 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT, join DSA-endorsed candidates Cori Bush and Chris Rabb to learn about the intersections between socialism and the Black Radical Tradition. Moderated by NPC member Sid C.W., this members-only call will discuss Cori’s ongoing campaign, and both leaders’ experience as organizers. We’ll also delve into the rich organizing traditions that inspire all three speakers as we work to apply them to present day realities!

Support DSA and Learn New Skills! Phonebanks and Trainings Start Sunday 7/19

DSA’s Growth and Development Committee helps keep our movement strong! Join us for phonebanks starting Sunday 7/19 to reach out to lapsed members. Trainings are provided.

• Recommitment Phonebank Sunday 7/19 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT
• Recommitment Phonebank Thursday 8/6 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
• Recommitment Phonebank Sunday 8/16 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT

Check out our upcoming trainings too! Our core curriculum spans topics from meeting facilitation to membership engagement.

And are you interested in taking on a leadership role in your DSA chapter? Are you already in a position of leadership but looking to up your game? RSVP today for the June Leadership Intensive happening on Saturday, September 12th and Sunday, September 13th.

DSA is Hiring — Deadline Friday 7/24

DSA is hiring a Regional Organizer! You can find more about the position here. Although this is a remote position, applicants must live in the Northeast. The application deadline is Friday 7/24. Please apply if you’re interested, or send to someone you think would be interested.

RSVP for DSA Ecosocialist Organizing Call Sunday 7/26

The Transition Committee of DSA’s Ecosocialism Commission is excited to invite Ecosocialists in DSA to a discussion-based meeting on the structure, goals, and organizing of the new Ecosocialism Commission — and how to become a member. Join us Sunday 7/26 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT for Ecosocialism from the Ground Up!

Chapter organizers will be there to discuss their work and the broad scope of current Ecosocialist work in DSA. Come learn how you can join the organizing for this new DSA member body!

Black Liberation Theology Book Study Group — and RSVP for Religion and Socialism Working Group Organizing Meeting Wednesday 8/5

This month, our Religion and Socialism Working Group’s Black Liberation Theologians group will launch an 8-session study of “Sisters in the Wilderness” by womanist theologian Delores Williams. This text centers the story of Hagar as a lens for Black women’s survival, God-talk, and liberation. Because this text speaks from and to a particular community, this space is being held specifically for Black members. You can RSVP here. 

And help organize a DSA Religion and Socialism event at the national convention in 2027! Meet comrades of faith from around the country. Come to an organizing meeting on Wednesday 8/5 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT! Write to religioussocialism@dsacommittees.org for more information.

National Political Education Commission Applications are Open! Deadline Saturday 8/15

As DSA rises, our political education is more important ever, and we need YOU to contribute! If you have education, writing, or research skills in or out of DSA, join the National Political Education Commission (NPEC), DSAs political education commission, which will launch in the fall. We encourage women, non-binary comrades and comrades of color to apply to ensure a diverse commission. Apply by Saturday 8/15 to participate in our first general meeting and be eligible to run and vote in steering elections.

Sign Up for Fundraising Committee Training Saturday 8/22

Join the Fundraising Committee for a training on how to run a Solidarity Dues Drive on the chapter level. The training will be held on Saturday 8/22 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT. RSVP today!

Welcome New Chapters and Organizing Committees!

Let’s hear it for our comrades across the country! A warm welcome to:

New DSA Chapters

• Laredo, Texas
• Sun Valley, Idaho
• Southeast Minnesota (formerly known as Med City)
• Ozarks, Missouri

New DSA Organizing Committees: 

• Southern Oregon
• Wheeling, West Virginia
• Stillwater, Oklahoma
• Central Wisconsin
• Joplin Area, Missouri

The post Your National Political Committee newsletter — Socialism is Practical appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Scabby is one of the most recognizable symbols of managerial misconduct. But where did he come from? It turns out this rat has a complicated history.

The post The history of Scabby the rat appeared first on EWOC.

There are multiple reasons why Robin Hood remains the most-retold, favorite saga in the English language, exceeding, even in the United Kingdom, King Arthur and all the associated court drama. A perfect saga for popular theater, then films and television, Robin features the poor-versus-rich, the wrongful ruler, furtive romance across social classes, and so on. This year’s The Death of Robin Hood follows a century of film fascination.

In 1922, the newly launched independent United Artists studios borrowed heavily to produce the first notable film, Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, and succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations. Among much competition for successors, The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Olivia de Haviland and Errol Flynn, would remain totemic for generations of screen audiences.

In the time of my childhood, The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-59) was the first British series to become a hit on U.S. television, with an accompanying theme song that reached millions. Its scriptwriters happened to be blacklisted leftwingers who hid in the metaphorical forest, under pseudonyms.

It was succeeded best, in my view, by Robin and Marian directed by Richard Lester, an ally of the Beatles. In this version, we see Crusaders slaughtering innocent populations, Good King Richard in charge of war crimes, and Audrey Hepburn as the rebel Marian turned prioress (to escape persecution) who tries to revive Robin from war wounds with her healing herbs and finally administers the poison that they take together. 

Nothing since (and there have been many more) has been anywhere near as good, with one interesting exception: Maid Marian and Her Merry Men (1987-93), a hugely popular, perky, and funny British television show for children, which featured a Rastafarian who had his own interpretations of society and religion.

That Robin Hood lore is also, at base, a religious, folkloric saga is not well understood. We start with the Wat Tyler Rebellion of 1381, the first of the Radical Reformation mass struggles, highlighting the deteriorating condition of life for the poorer classes together with the impact of the Wycliffe biblical translation. Lollardy, a heretical Christianity, spread from the Oxford community as lay preachers and organizers mobilized the masses to urge the confiscation of the Church’s wealth and that of the Monarchy. The uprising was brutally suppressed, but the sentiment and the movement lived on across the continent. The 1525 peasant uprising behind Thomas Müntzer, a minister-revolutionary beheaded at the order of Martin Luther, stands among the most noted successors.

It was said that the Wat Tyler rebels could quote passages from Piers Plowman, that epic poem from the onset of English literature. Something is amiss, and protagonist Piers, sleeping in the Malvern Hills of Worcestershire, is awakened by the Lady explaining to him that the earth provides clothing, food, and drink if only its measures can be taken properly: it belongs to all. 

So much of English village life had been sustained for centuries around the Commons and the use of oak trees, along with ash and elm, apple and cherry, to sustain the  human inhabitants with their livestock. The Norman Conquest threw much of this into imbalance, but the expansion of serfdom pushed harder yet. The forest had become home to the deer—protein on the hoof— forbidden to villagers on penalty of death. It was now contested territory, notwithstanding the Magna Carta.

At one level, the more or less contemporary appearance of Robin Hood could be seen as revenge against the rising wealthy classes. For the great utopian socialist William Morris, ordinary people resisted the kind of “progress” pressed upon them by the rising upper classes, while they themselves looked backward at a Golden Age, before class society. A popular nineteenth century socialist idea, it reflected a belief in a kind of religion of nature. But it also reflected the folklorist English Christianity wrapped around holidays and rituals. Such rituals survived into the nineteenth century, including the Mayday night mating rituals in which the Virgin Mary became Marian the Queen of the Village and Robin her necessary mate.

The totemic Child Ballads folklore collection of English and Scottish ballads contains almost forty Robin Hood sagas. With plenty of direct action, these recall, explore and anticipate the further attack upon the established clergy in the name of a higher Christianity. No less than John Knox attacked the religious rebels, “the rascal multitude stirred up to make a Robin Hood… [who] disobey and trouble the town” of Edinburgh. The earliest printed version of A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, reprinted several times in the sixteenth century, openly advocates civic insurrection and the overthrow of the empowered clergy. As Robin instructs Little John, “these bishops and these archbishops/You shall beat and bind.” 

It is not entirely clear when Friar Tuck appeared in the Robin Hood saga, but he matches the restless element of the Church as it consolidated its property and power. He spies upon the powerful and reports to Robin, allowing the Merry Men to prepare for battle. But he also, famously barrel-chested, is the jolly Christian dispatching the images of blue-nosed propriety.

This year, though, the Robin Hood on screen tells us that his legend is a lie, and in real time, the famous Sherwood Oak in which Robin allegedly hid his gold, has died. Neither Robin nor the Oak will be allowed to die in imagination, for the acorns planted by legend bear high hopes. Such is the nature religion of lore that the Oak is Robin and Robin is the Oak. 

Paul Buhle is, with Mari Jo Buhle, coeditor of the biographical William Morris graphic novel, If I Could But See It, written and drawn by Nick Thorkelson, scheduled for September publication by Pluto Press. Much of the material in this essay is drawn from the text in the collaborative comic edited by Paul Buhle, Robin Hood: People’s Outlaw and Forest Hero (PM Press, 2011).

The post Robin Hood Redux, or What Happened to Friar Tuck? appeared first on DSA Religious Socialism.

The post Statement on Netanyahu Visit to DC appeared first on Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America.