North New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America (NNJ DSA) condemns in the strongest possible terms the flagrantly illegal abduction by ICE of recent Columbia University graduate and green card holder, Mahmoud Khalil, from his university housing. Furthermore, we demand his immediate release. 

Mahmoud was targeted for his leadership in the movement for Palestinian liberation, a movement which imperialist elites of both the Democratic and Republican parties have ruthlessly targeted.This response to punish student protests is a clear sign that the Trump administration is continuing down the road of fascism. 

Early news reports stated that Mahmoud was taken to Elizabeth Detention Center (EDC), although it is currently unclear where ICE has taken him. EDC, a notorious private prison operated by Core Civic, should by all rights be closed. The state of New Jersey passed a law prohibiting ICE detention in the state and closed three of its four immigrant detention centers after a massive popular uprising against ICE in which DSA played a significant role. 

Two facts are laid bare by ICE’s actions:

1. The distinction between a person who is in the United States legally, and a person who is not, is a political one, not a matter of procedure or of following the rules. Anyone who poses a challenge to the regime can be made ‘illegal’ at the convenience of the ruling class.
2. The struggle for freedom for immigrants in the United States and the struggle for freedom of Palestinians in their own land are interconnected. As long as we fail to see that we are fighting against one unified army of reaction, we will not be able to advance a single inch.

NNJ DSA is committed to finishing the job and closing all immigrant detention centers in the state. We are further committed to resisting ICE and supporting our immigrant neighbors during this crackdown and in the future. We unequivocally and unapologetically support the movement for Palestinian liberation and will  fight the continued persecution of Palestinian solidarity. 

Freedom for Mahmoud!

Freedom for Palestine!

Abolish ICE!

Solidarity forever!

The post Statement Regarding the Abduction of Mahmoud Khalil first appeared on North NJ DSA.

Let’s celebrate and pay tribute to International Women’s Day — a day of resistance, formed by the militant struggles of working-class women. From the 1909 garment workers’ strike in New York to the Petrograd protests that ignited the Russian Revolution, International Women’s Day has always been a call to action against exploitation and oppression. Now, as reactionary forces try to erase the successes of this radical history by dismantling our hard-won rights, we must reclaim its true spirit in the ongoing fight for socialism.

The revolutionary origins of International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day (IWD) has its roots in the struggle of working-class women. In 1909, 20,000 female garment workers, the majority young immigrants, staged a mass strike in New York City, demanding better wages and safer working conditions. This collective action inspired the Socialist Party of America to declare February 28, 1909, as the first “National Women’s Day,” and committed the Party to the demand for women’s suffrage.

A year later, at the 1910 International Socialist Women’s Conference, German socialist Clara Zetkin proposed an annual, global day of action, an “International Working Women’s Day”. This was first observed March 19, 1911, with mass demonstrations across Europe, where women demanded the right to vote and for social security for mother and child, including maternity leave and health insurance.

The significance of March 8 was cemented in 1917, when Russian women textile workers in Petrograd took to the streets demanding “bread and peace.” This became the catalyst for the movement leading to the October Revolution, and in 1921, the Second International Conference of Communist Women officially declared March 8 as International Women’s Day; a date finally adopted by the United States in 1994 thanks to a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).

International Women’s Day is now celebrated worldwide, a testament to the revolutionary potential of working women and their fight for liberation. Unlike bourgeois feminists that seek reforms within capitalism, as socialists we view International Women’s Day as part of the broader struggle to overthrow capitalism itself, and the abolition of both wage slavery and domestic oppression through the socialization of education and care work.

The struggle continues

Women remain at the forefront of the anti-capitalist struggle, resisting the ruling class’s attempts to maintain power through culture wars and the marginalization of vulnerable communities. 

It’s clear that neither the Democratic nor Republican Party are in the struggle for women’s liberation. Since 2020, both Democratic and Republican administrations have seen over 1,500 anti-trans bills introduced nationwide. Trans women face ongoing attacks on their health, safety, and well-being, including restrictions on sports participation, travel, and access to gender-affirming care. The Supreme Court’s striking down of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, during the Biden administration, came after a deliberate multi-decade campaign of negligence by the Democratic Party. We can see what the Republicans accomplish when they hold 50 senate seats, but when the Democrats under Barack Obama held 59? Nothing. When you strip away all their cynical rhetoric, we see the predictable result of Obama’s choice was a severe blow to reproductive justice and bodily autonomy. In so doing, Democrats collaborated in removing federal abortion protections and in leaving marginalized communities even more vulnerable. And once again, Trump’s current cruel and harsh immigration policies disproportionately harm women and children.

Though these attacks often claim to protect “women’s rights,” the same forces restrict bodily autonomy, deny abortion access, and deny the rights of trans people to exist, all while ignoring domestic abuse and sexual violence in a capitalist system in crisis.

As socialists, we know this struggle is part of a larger fight — not just for women’s rights, but for the liberation of all people from the chains of capitalism. Winning women’s liberation requires unity among people of all genders, and the fight for gender equality is not solely women’s responsibility; it serves the interests of the entire working class. Everyone, regardless of gender, must actively participate by keeping these issues central in our organizing, discussions, and education. And we must resist the ruling class’s divisive tactics, meant to pit men against women, in our fight for collective freedom.

Further Reading

As the far-right seeks to erase history and liberals water down the legacy of progressive and socialist movements in the U.S., it is crucial we honor and elevate the contributions of women in the fight for justice. In the face of efforts to dismantle hard-won rights for women and gender-diverse people, restrict bodily autonomy, and erase the contributions of Black women and other women of color, we wanted to share this reading list curated by Lux Magazine and the DSA AfroSocialist and Socialists of Color Caucus for their Socialist Legacy of Black Feminism course.

WEEK 1 

1. Introduction to How We Get Free Black Feminism and The Combahee River Collective (2012) edited and Introduced by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
2. “Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s Ideas, Unifying Socialist and Identity Politics, Are Suddenly in the Spotlight” (2021) by E. Tammy Kim in Lux Magazine
3. “Mapping Gender in African American Political Strategies” by Leith Mullings in The Socialist Feminist Project: A Contemporary Reader in Theory and Politics

WEEK 2

1. “Identity Politics and Class Struggle” (Abridged) (1997) by Robin D. G. Kelley in New Politics
2. The Master‘s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master‘s House (1979) by Audre Lorde
3. “Nothing Short of Liberation” (2015) by Khury Petersen-Smith and Brian Bean in Jacobin
4. “Looting for Our Lives” (2021) by Marian Jones in Lux Magazine 

SUGGESTED READINGS

• “A History of Black American Feminism” from Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton by Duchess Harris
• Claudia Jones and Ending the Neglect of Black Women
• “The Two Faces of Kamala Harris” (2017) by Branko Marcetic in Jacobin
• “No Time for Despair” (2017) by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor in Jacobin 
• “Sisterhood: Political Solidarity Among Women”​ Chapter 4 of Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984) by bell hooks
• “Intersectionality and Marxism: a Critical Historiography” (2018) by Ashley J. Bohrer in Historical Materialism Issue 26(2): Identity Politics
• “Unite and Rebel: Challenges and Strategies in Building Alliances” (2006) by Elizabeth (Betita) Martínez in Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology
• Coalition Building Among People of Color: A Discussion with Angela Y. Davis and Elizabeth Martinez (1994)

DSA’s city council victories draw out true face of ‘progressive’ corporate agenda.

Written by Brian D.

In a recent interview in the Rose City Reform Podcast, two reporters were asked about the Democratic Socialists of America, and the significance of three DSA members on a newly elected Portland City Council. The host quoted this Instagram message from Portland DSA after DSA candidates won their election:

“The socialist movement is in City Hall. CEOs, developers, landlords, union-busters, billionaires and their puppets are now on notice…”

Neither reporter spoke of the landlords, developers, billionaires, CEOs, or union-busters in their response; nor are they discussed much at all in describing local political stories. In describing “special interest groups” having influence in City Hall, the capitalist media often omits the key players who are also their advertisers, bankrollers, corporate partners.

The interview demonstrated three clear points. First: reporters can struggle to report issues centered in class, and centered in the power of ordinary people. Secondly, local media feeds into false narratives about the political spectrum in Portland, just like the media does in other “progressive” cities, like San Francisco, and at the national level. And third, reporters and their corporate media outlets have clear political agendas, even when they pretend otherwise.

Reporters struggle to parse socialists because solidarity is an alien concept under capitalism, and class as a concept is stripped from public discourse in America. Socialism and the power of regular people to come together confuses reporters also because the media industry is actually the media and entertainment industry, worth about $570 billion in the United States. The profit incentives under capitalism define how our media functions- as entertainment or an algorithm designed to stimulate outrage and clicks on your device- and what is allowed to be a story. Under capitalism the incentive is to pretend that exploitation in society has nothing to do with class, nothing to do with being intentionally divided and conquered so that the passive incomes of the wealthy shall not be disturbed.

There is irony here; from camera operators and photographers, to journalists, reporters, and copy editors- the actual workers in the media industry have been devastated by the capitalist pressures of financialization and the gutting of news rooms.

Socialized health care, free or low-cost secondary education, paid family leave, effective and safe free public transit, robust infrastructure, social housing, and much lower rates of child poverty are conditions the majority of countries choose when given the opportunity, and much more the norm across the world. They are possible here- but one would not know it from any capitalist media in Oregon.

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” ― Dom Helder Camara

Many of the reporters interviewed on Rose City Reform, and in the Portland City Cast, consistently describe Portland politics as a spectrum: from “moderate,” to “progressive,” to “far left”. This is false, and pretends that there is not a right wing. By omission or downplaying, reporters maintain the pretense that powerful interests aren’t right wing, and pit “moderates,” and “progressives”, against a “far left,” purposefully obscuring the field and players.

The Portland Metro Chamber bankrolled their servant Sam Adams for Multnomah County Commissioner; but local reporters never describe Sam Adams as right wing; despite his clear agenda and masters. Portland Metro Chamber and the powerful developer and real estate lobby are rarely identified as critical players in local politics; the local media obscures reality. This is an example of the political agenda behind the local capitalist publications and their editorial biases.

Developers are the fourth branch of City Hall, but reporters are busy framing the fights between the “far left”, and “progressives” who just aren’t realists like those moderates. The powerful class interests in operation are whistled away; nothing to see. Wealthy developers threaten to sue the city when they don’t like the policies or reforms presented, guaranteeing a lose-lose scenario as the issue crawls through the courts for years. Too often, the city attorney lays out how it is in the cities’ best interest to capitulate. Reporting on this is not robust; instead the framing is how unions and DSA have more power in City Hall relative to the past.

In San Francisco, wealthy property owners coalesced to express how they want to make their city better; using the language of progressivism to make their case, and framing the discussion as if there was no right wing politics in San Francisco, no politics of class. That public relations campaign, led by local wealthy business interests, quickly pivoted to criticizing politicians and a campaign to remove the progressive District Attorney, who was falsely made the scapegoat for the homeless crisis and the crime spike during the pandemic.

Portland follows the same trend. People for Portland, a front group for wealthy business interests, coalesced to express how they want to make the city better for everyone, using the language of progressivism to make that case. That public relations campaign quickly pivoted to criticizing politicians and a campaign to remove the progressive District Attorney, who they made the scapegoat for the homeless crisis and fentanyl drug use. People for Portland violated Oregon election law in 2022, and disbanded in 2024, after the attention on the group made it clear they were no longer an effective front for the business interests and wealthy.

Pretending that politics here is just moderates, progressives, and the far left gives cover to the moves of the powerful in Portland and Oregon, and leaves journalists in a blind spot. Phil Knight funded the Republican Party of Oregon outright not that many years ago; Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle helped fund People for Portland. The previous City Council established numerous “Enterprise Zones” that also come with massive tax incentives that pauperize the City in the years to come. Clear analysis of the massive transfer of wealth out of the hands of the working class and permanently into the accounts of the owning class is required to address the real struggles of Portlanders and Oregonians, not false narratives that omit the key players.

Pretending that the class, corporate, and Right-wing interests who have influenced, profited from, and largely controlled Oregon for decades aren’t factors then makes it hard to address homelessness, quality of life issues, and the need for public goods and services. When you can’t analyze the causes for your current crisis, you fail to address the issue and fail to lastingly improve conditions.

Willamette Week for example, has a massive and obvious editorial bias: Oregon and Portland taxes are too high, Portland spends too much, is the subtext, if not the main text, of every third article produced. Divide and conquer narratives straight from the comfortable and wealthy. Here’s a stellar example of what might have been written by Portland Metro Chamber staff:

From the article:

“High taxes are hurting job growth in Portland and chasing wealthy people out of town. Despite those aggressive levies, many government services are poor, in part because specialized taxes aimed at girding for climate change, getting kids into preschool, and helping the homeless have, at various times, gone unspent. In June 2024, the unspent hoard totaled $1.26 billion.”

The tactic on display in the article quoted above: these identified funds are to compete against each other to see who can fend off cuts, while “moderates” demand that progressives and the left divide the baby.

Because what is required, according to the wealthy and powerful, is austerity for working class people and socialized risk for the wealthy, just like in the last Gilded Age, and the beginning of the Great Depression. By their lights it only makes sense to take from homeless funds, preschool funds, funds to address climate change, or all three.

Willamette Week quotes extensively from reports from business interests assessing Oregon and Portland as having too high taxes and wealthy fleeing the state; no opposition to this was interviewed nor quoted, despite the fact that this argument is trotted out over and over and usually debunked as skewed and inaccurate. The peoples of Oregon deserve better- better reporting for sure; but more crucially, better quality of life generally, struggling under huge rent, utility, and grocery cost increases, without the wages to match.

The Oregonian unsurprisingly has decades more experience burying the lead, for example regarding Zenith Oil in Portland. The opposition to Zenith is framed as ‘activists’- not entire neighborhoods of working people and families living in a liquefaction zone next to massive oil storage tanks- who see Big Oil in Portland has no plan when the big earthquake comes, except maybe mass funerals.

Austerity will ill prepare this generation, and the next to contribute, support, and be supported within a community. Austerity means instead of services to keep families in housing, they are unhoused. Austerity means instead of a tree canopy, you get more heat deaths in East Portland. Austerity means instead of access to education you get crowded, underserved classrooms. Austerity means less investment in infrastructure that makes Portland livable and functional.

The interests of the wealthy are not the interests of the working class. It’s time to cut through the false media and right-wing narratives, and time to stop pretending. Let’s invest in the working families, the working peoples of Oregon and Portland. Let’s talk about a jobs program and a social housing program, not how regular folk must make due with less. Workers really do deserve more!

DSA Corner is a monthly feature highlighting headlines from the Democratic Socialists of America from the last month.

NEW ANALYSIS OF MEMBERSHIP TRENDS IN DEMOCRATIC LEFT
“For decades, DSA hovered around 5,000 members. Then, suddenly, from 2016 to 2020, DSA’s membership ballooned to about 50,000. An average of about 2,400 new members joined every month with over 125,000 members joining over the period. In 2021, DSA topped out at just under 79,000 members in good standing.”

The first part of a “State of DSA” analysis commissioned by the 2023 DSA Convention has been released by the Growth and Development Committee this month which attempts to identify membership trends in the last eight years that we can use to exploit our first moment of rapid membership growth since 2021. Though the data is in some ways limited, we can see a high rate of member churn and variation in member experience across chapters. Different sized chapters have a tendency to grow at different rates, with small chapters often experiencing more explosive growth than larger chapters but larger chapters containing a greater proportion of members overall. 

DSA CO-CHAIR DEFENDS OPPOSITION TO TRUMP REGIME IN FACE OF DEM PARTY “DESISTANCE”
“But on the ground, what was clearest was the belief awakened in millions: we can make change by fighting for more, not settling for less.”

Writing in Newsweek this month DSA co-chair Ashik Siddique takes on claims by moderate pundits like Matt Yglesias that advocacy groups and nonprofits that led the Democratic Party’s resistance to the first Trump presidency are to blame for Trump’s current presidency. Instead of losing because the Democrats fought too hard in 2024 they instead lost because they failed to fight for the resistance policies that they campaigned on and won with in 2020. This can be seen in DSA’s recent growth, a rare bright spot in a currently bleak political landscape.

LUISA M SHARES PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH HORRORS OF US IMMIGRATION SYSTEM
“Socialism made me understand the solution is not amnesty — it’s about ending U.S. imperialism so no one lives in fear or shame and everyone has access to a life with dignity.”

National Political Committee member Luisa M urges DSA members to get involved with immigrant rights work and not to leave that work to specialized nonprofits. She argues that DSA empowers undocumented people in a way that these groups do not, drawing on her own personal experiences to illustrate how socialism provides a dignity to her identity that established liberal advocacy groups and a culture of shame towards immigrants denied her.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PARTY SURROGATE MODEL
“[T]he state has set rules such that it is ILLEGAL for us to have an organized group of socialists who make collective decisions and have those decisions be binding on an electoral US party. It’s not merely hard or impractical – it’s impossible.”

Michael Kinnucan develops the “party surrogate” theory this month in an essay that explores the limitations of party formation under the legal structures of the ballot line in the United States. Because ballot lines are controlled by the state in this country political parties cannot exert ideological control over them in the way that many who support breaking with the Democrats would like to do and which is possible in other countries. He argues that breaking would leave any new socialist ballot line vulnerable to infiltration and abuse, making it pointless to break from the Democratic Party especially considering the success DSA has had running candidates like AOC on that ballot line.

MEME PAGE ADMINS SLAM “ONLINE LEFT”
“It kinda went from being this very theoretical where I was like ‘capitalism bad’ … but it was very divorced from like ‘what are we going to do about it?’ And that’s where I think a lot of the Left unfortunately right now is … where I was when I was 16 … but we do need to pair it with something real.”

The anonymous founder of the @OrganizerMemes Twitter meme page and their public-facing collaborator Emma M join the Left on Red hosts to discuss the history of their meme page, how it grew from a place for political workers to vent about the horrors of working in politics to taking contracts to support progressive campaigns with cutting edge comms work, as well as the limitations in how the Left currently communicates ideas online. Notably excluded from the conversation were recent controversies including allegations that one or more members of the meme page worked for the Biden administration while it was supporting the genocide in Gaza and concerns about the content of contracts taken by the meme page from the Kamala Harris campaign.

MARXIST UNITY GROUP RELEASES PRIMER ON DEMOCRACY
“Socialism is ultimately a means to freedom. If you don’t have a say in decisions that affect you, you are not free. If you do have a say in the decisions that affect you, your freedom is secured by taking part in democracy.”

Cliff C from MUG takes on the concept of “democracy” in that caucus’ new journal Light and Air. In his essay he argues that “democracy” in the United States is a lie and has been from the very foundation of the constitution, which instead of enfranchising regular working people instead was designed to keep us from the levers of real power which are placed firmly in the hands of the bourgeoisie. Instead of just squeezing reforms from this undemocratic system he argues it is the task of DSA to build a true democratic majority for socialism, to do this he advocates for a form of democratic centralism in the organization that allows for comradely debate and dissent and empowers workers to engage with internal democracy actively and protagonistically, in turn creating a vanguard of the working class that rallies the class to take control of political institutions as a mass party, led by democratically elected tribunes of the people. 

RED STAR ANNOUNCES A MARXIST-LENINIST POSITION FOR CAUCUS IN NEW POINTS OF UNITY
“Our primary goal, the goal which informs all of our organizing work, is to abolish capitalism and, ultimately, to achieve communism. We do not believe that capitalism can be reformed into socialism – it must be overthrown and replaced.”

The Red Star caucus has released points of unity this month that establish their commitment to revolution over reform and their belief that DSA can be the vehicle for historical revolutionary change. Red Star offers a vision of Marxist-Leninism in DSA that emphasizes scientific socialism, materialism, anti-imperialism, and the role of a socialist party as the revolutionary vanguard of the worker’s movement. In doing so they openly break with the reformist (and staunchly anti-communist) worldview of DSA founder Michael Harrington, claiming that intentionally or not his social democratic politics disempowered membership by keeping the power to set political direction out of the hands of rank-and-file members.

SAN FRANCISCO ORGANIZERS SHARE WHY WINNING ELECTIONS IS NOT ENOUGH
“We can only continue to win, however, if we build a people-powered information machine willing to spend every day countering misinformation and informing voters how socialists have materially improved their lives.”

Alexander G from San Francisco DSA explores the triumphs and challenges his chapter has faced in and around campaigning for former Supervisor Dean Preston and current Supervisor Jackie Fielder. Alexander argues that Preston lost reelection due to a well funded smear campaign from an astroturfed “YIMBY” movement backed by Silicon Valley oligarchs like Garry Tan, who were threatened by the effective reforms he was able to pass while in office. Fielder avoided these smears and was able to connect with voters on issues of economic inequality. Despite her huge win we must now develop a strategy to counteract the toxic misinformation narratives that prevented Dean Preston’s reelection. 

The post DSA Corner – February 2025 appeared first on Pine & Roses.

Pine and Roses’s Todd Chretien sat down with Rose D. and Marianne M-W. to talk about Trump’s attacks on trans athletes in Maine.

TC: We’re here at Otto’s pizza in Portland with Rose and Marianne and we’re gonna talk about trans liberation and Trump. To begin with, Donald Trump has gone on the attack against Maine, threatening to withhold $260 million in education and state funding all over the question of trans athletes participating in sports in Maine. So, first question, do you think Trump is serious and how should we respond? 

M M-W: I think that sometimes Trump is just vibing on the mic, but now that the Justice Department has threatened a lawsuit against the state, I think the threat is transitioning from free association into something real that we need to be prepared to respond to. What actually comes of this is a different question. Is the state violating Title IX? No. Can the federal government withhold federal funding without the consent of Congress? No. But will the courts stop him? It’s unclear. 

TC: I’m glad you mentioned the courts. Gov. Janet Mills was completely right to stand up to Trump and say, “I’ll see you in court.” She’s gained a lot of credibility for that and rightly so. But the Supreme Court is run by a supermajority of ultra conservatives. So when Mills said, “I’ll see you in court,” it became a rallying cry, but also pointed to a weakness. 

M M-W: I think there is a pretty significant chance that this goes all the way to the top and the Supreme Court rules in Trump’s favor. Then what happens? Will the state just immediately fold or does that create a further crisis? I think that’s more of an open question and might be something we need to consider strategy wise. I think the liberal reflex to take things to the court has been a relic of the postwar liberal Warren court years. With a couple of notable exceptions,  the court has not been a friend to progressives and socially liberal causes in a long time. We need to move away from relying on the courts to enforce or establish progressive social liberties. For the moment, however, there’s not a lever that a moderate Democrat governor like Mills has to pull other than the courts. We will probably need popular resistance. I hesitate to suggest that anyone should make a high school basketball game a site of protest, but we will need popular resistance to demand that trans kids be allowed to play. We will need regular members of our communities—parents of the cisgender kids on the teams—to say, “this kid is just one of the kids on this team and they deserve to play.”  We need to ensure that whatever the Trump administration throws at us meets popular resistance in Maine as well as legal and legislative pushback. We shouldn’t look to Governor Mills to lead that. 

TC: Rose, you’ve been doing a lot of organizing work in the more rural District 2. There’s a stereotype that the state is split into a blue part and a red part around Portland. Based on your experience, do you see the potential for solidarity with trans athletes and trans people in general that Marianne is referring to, not only in and around Portland, but also in District 2? 

RD:  Absolutely. Right now I’m helping some students who live in northern and central Maine get ready to testify on a bill that would codify trans rights into the state Constitution, and queer people live in all parts of our state. There are definitely people outside of greater Portland who really care about these issues. Whether that’s because it affects them personally or they know people or it is something that they are really passionate about. There are people who are willing to speak out and stand up. 

TC: That’s a very important point to stress. But we do have a political problem in the state. State Rep. Laura Libby from Auburn has made a name for herself by outing a trans athlete minor. She has been censured by the state legislature for doing so, but is also raising millions of dollars for her gubernatorial campaign and has been championed endorsed by Trump. They are not just relying on the courts to push this through. They want to take the state back for MAGA. Do you see somebody like Laura Libby as purely opportunist? Or is there support for what she’s putting forward? Do we have a majority on our side in defense of trans rights in Maine? 

RD:  I think it might be both. There is definitely a way in which a lot of this has been manufactured from nothing. Yet it has become a flashpoint issue for the Republicans. And I think you’re starting to see that in opinion polls. Unfortunately, Trump’s attacks on LGTBQ+ rights is one of the only things that Trump’s not losing support around. He’s really dropping off on the economy. But he’s maintaining support for attacking immigrants and trans people. So I think both. The trans attack was manufactured, but I also think now that it has been manufactured, it does present a more serious risk. We need to figure out a way to confront it. It pains me to say we’re very lucky to have Janet Mills because she’s been such a frustrating governor for progressives and socialists in so many ways. But LGBTQ+ rights in general and abortion rights in particular are the two things where she has been consistently really good. However, specifically trans rights seem to be the one area where some elected Democrats seem more willing to throw us under the bus. So I think there will be a danger. If Libby runs for governor, it will be important to watch what Democrats do. Will they take on trans rights as an issue to be fought for or an issue to avoid and concede, like Kamala Harris did on so many issues during her presidential run. 

TC: I think it’s a really good point. Some of the Democrats who voted in favor of censuring Libby say things like, I don’t agree with the state policy supporting trans athletes, but I’m against outing minors on social media. District 2 Congressman Jared Golden is the prime example. How can the left construct a coalition of people who are strong enough to stand up for trans rights without cutting deals with those Democrats who are willing to throw people under the bus?

M M-W I think one thing we have going for us is that Democratic primary voters are more supportive of trans rights than Democratic elected officials. I think we need to do everything we can to make sure that Jared Golden is not the Democratic nominee for governor. I think we also need to reaffirm social liberalism as a left wing value. As a trans woman, I don’t need the general public to really know a lot about what it means to be trans, but I need people to respect my right and the rights of all other trans people to live the lives that we want to live. And we need to affirm that letting people live the lives that they want to live as a core value for socialists and progressives more broadly. 

I’m from away—as we say in Maine—so I’m a bit hesitant to speak about Maine values. But I’ve lived here for six years and it seems to me that letting people live their lives without interference as much as possible is the way people like it in Maine, whatever their political backgrounds. And so I think that if we frame this as a fight to allow people to be who they are and live the lives that they want to live, we can rally a lot of people. We’re not gonna convince Libby or any of her hardcore supporters. We’re not gonna convince MAGA people who claim to support freedom or whatever. But I think we can win over a coalition from mainstream liberals to Berniecrats to socialists. 

TC: A silver lining to Trump carrying up this attack and Libby carrying his torch is that he’s in danger of overreaching, for instance, now he’s threatening all Title IX support for sports. He’s really threatening all sports, threatening all schools, threatening the entire system of government. He’s already laid off VA workers in Maine. He’s already laid off park rangers. He’s already laid off USDA workers and Farm Service Agency workers. How do we talk to people about the real danger he poses to trans people and expose how he’s trying to divide and conquer. 

M M-W: What we need is to act with the understanding that trans rights are a working-class issue, not an abstract concept. Trans rights are made up of the same things that all working class people need, healthcare, education, housing, secure employment with a living wage, etc. How do we convince people that eroding trans people’s rights will set the stage for eroding every working class person’s rights. And fighting for trans liberation means fighting for universal healthcare and housing. It means fighting for workplace protections and unions. If you sacrifice trans people, you’re only opening the door for Trump to attack you. 

And look at who is attacking all the groups you mentioned. It’s the same guy who can’t shut up about trans women on Twitter. The billionaires removing transphobia from the hate speech policies on their platforms are the same ones backing Trump’s evisceration of the federal government and his plans to privatize everything. I don’t necessarily expect everyone to make trans rights their own personal cause, or really even understand anything about trans life, but we do need to understand that giving the billionaires an inch on anything emboldens them and furthers their agenda.  

RD: I feel like part of it, at least, is that they don’t like trans people, they hate trans people because of how we represent a kind of broader shift in culture. What it’s ultimately about is gender politics. Thinking back to during the election—JD Vance and the childless cat ladies and all that—the thing that threatens them is women in general having any rights. They want to end abortion rights! They’re coming for us because we’re an easy target right now, but it’s part of a broader push. And it’s not just trans women who are affected by these kinds of policies. Think back to the Olympics when conservatives generated controversy over an Algerian boxer, a cis woman, basically just because of how she looks. It’s about policing everyone. I think we need to train people to know who the real enemy is, because it’s the same no matter who you are if you are a working person in this country.

The post We’ll need popular resistance to defend trans rights in Maine appeared first on Pine & Roses.

In moments of historical consequence, everyday people can rise as a chorus that shakes the foundations of power–or be intimidated into silence. Today, we stand at such a crossroads. The pillars of democracy tremble not from natural disaster but from calculated erosion. This is not politics as usual but the dimming of lights that have guided our journey toward justice.

When power concentrates in fewer hands, when dissent becomes dangerous, when truth bends to serve the powerful—these warning signs demand our attention. Democracy dies in silence, withering through a thousand small concessions, each seemingly reasonable alone, catastrophic together.

The Democratic Socialists of America represent a vision where power rests with the many, not the few. In this critical moment, this vision becomes necessary. We offer a framework for resistance that is both principled and practical, understanding that true freedom requires both political rights and material security.

Participating in resistance means recognizing democracy is not a spectator sport. Voting is just the beginning of our civic responsibility. True democratic participation happens in community meetings, mutual aid networks, labor organizing, public demonstrations, and countless daily acts of solidarity. Democracy is a thing that becomes real when we engage in it.

When we join DSA chapters, we declare our commitment to a democracy that works for all. We assert that healthcare, housing, education, and dignified work are not commodities to be rationed by the wealthy but human rights to be guaranteed by society. These rights are not privileges to be granted or withheld at the whims of parasitic wealth extractors and bloodless billionaires.

Collective action transforms fear into courage. Alone, we feel overwhelmed by state and corporate power. Together, we know that no system of control can withstand the sustained resistance of ordinary people determined to live in dignity.

The path forward requires courage to stand firm when intimidated, to speak truth when lies become policy, to protect the vulnerable when targeted. It requires care to build relationships across differences and create spaces where democracy is practiced.

In joining DSA, you become part of a living tradition stretching from abolitionists to suffragists, from labor movements to civil rights struggles, from environmental justice to queer liberation.

The question isn’t whether history will judge our actions—it already is. The question is whether we’ll tell our children that when democracy was in peril, we did more than watch. That we stood with our neighbors. That we chose solidarity over cynicism. That we helped bend history toward justice.

The time for that choice is now. Join us.

Portland is at a crossroads. Our housing crisis has been decades in the making, driven by rising costs, stagnant wages, and a lack of public investment. As a socialist and a City Councilor, I ran on a platform that made social housing the centerpiece of my campaign. One year into my term, I’m thrilled to say we are making real progress toward a publicly owned, permanently affordable housing model that has the potential to transform how we think about housing in Maine.

On February 25, 2025, the Housing and Economic Development Committee unanimously passed a Social Housing Task Force Resolution, moving it forward for a full City Council vote. City staff are working with the Greater Portland Council of Governments (GPCOG) to secure grant funding that will support the development of this initiative. 

We’re in good company. The concept of social housing is gaining traction across the country. Seattle voters recently approved a social housing program, and cities from California to Maryland are revisiting the idea of public housing as a solution to their affordability crises. Right here in Maine, the town of Rockland is taking a giant step toward municipal-led housing by considering a local bond initiative to finance affordable homes, demonstrating that cities across the state are beginning to recognize that the private market alone will never meet our housing needs.

The question before us is not whether we can afford social housing but whether we can afford not to invest in it.

The Housing Crisis is a Manufactured Scarcity

For decades, we have been told that the only way to build affordable housing is to offer tax breaks to private developers. Yet despite pouring billions into these programs nationwide, housing remains unaffordable for a growing number of people, and Maine is no exception. The state needs 84,000 new homes by 2030 just to meet demand, but current production rates are falling well short. The private market has never built enough housing to meet the needs of low- and middle-income people because there is no financial incentive to do so.

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), the primary federal program for affordable housing, is not actually a housing program at all—it is a tax shelter system for banks and corporations. Instead of directly funding housing, LIHTC hands out tax credits to developers, who then sell them to banks and investors. By the time these credits pass through multiple layers of financial syndication, a significant portion of the money has already been siphoned away by intermediaries, consultants, and financial institutions before a single unit is built.

This is the Great Housing Heist, a system where public money, meant for affordable housing, is laundered through Wall Street before it reaches the people who need homes. What we end up with is an overpriced, slow-moving system that produces far fewer units than we need at higher costs than we can afford. Worse still, after 15 to 30 years, the affordability restrictions expire, allowing landlords to flip subsidized units to market rate. The public pays to create affordable housing, only to see it disappear, while banks and corporate investors walk away with tax breaks.

This is not an accident; it is the intended function of a system designed to enrich financial institutions while keeping housing supply artificially constrained.

Disinvestment and Demolition of Public Housing

There was a time in this country when public housing was seen as a civic responsibility rather than a last resort. In the mid-20th century, cities built publicly owned housing at scale, providing stable homes for working-class families. Portland had its own public housing developments, which housed veterans returning from World War II and families working in the city’s once-thriving industrial sector. These homes were safe, decent, and affordable, and they worked because they were not tied to speculative real estate markets.

This model did not fail on its own; it was deliberately dismantled. In the 1970s and 1980s, under pressure from real estate interests, the federal government cut off funding for public housing construction, forcing cities to either sell their housing stock to private landlords or allow it to fall into disrepair. Public housing was not inherently flawed; it was systematically defunded and stigmatized in order to justify the shift toward privatized, investor-driven models like LIHTC.

In Portland, entire working-class neighborhoods were demolished in the name of “urban renewal,” displacing families and gutting the city’s affordable housing stock. Instead of replacing these units, local and federal policies favored tax credit schemes and Section 8 vouchers, which rely on the private market to house people rather than ensuring public control over housing itself. Today, we are living with the consequences of that decision. Housing is no longer seen as a public good but as a commodity to be bought and sold for profit, leaving renters at the mercy of market forces and corporate landlords.

Portland’s Responsibility: Build Here, or Face the Consequences

Maine needs 84,000 new homes by 2030, and Portland has a responsibility to build a significant portion of that housing. As the state’s largest city, we have the infrastructure, transit, and economic base to absorb the most growth. If we don’t take on this responsibility, housing demand will spill into surrounding towns, accelerating suburban sprawl, increasing traffic congestion, and pushing development further from jobs, schools, and public services. The result will be longer commutes, higher emissions, and an even greater reliance on cars, outcomes that are bad for working people and bad for the planet.

Regrettably, the opposite has happened. While Cumberland County’s population has grown by 61% since 1970, Portland has barely grown at all. Our population peaked at 77,000 in 1950, and since 1970 we have increased by only 5%, while towns like Scarborough have exploded by over 200%. If Portland had kept pace with the region’s growth, we would have well over 100,000 people living here today, meaning we would have a stronger labor market, more workers to support our businesses, and a more vibrant local economy. Instead, our failure to build enough housing has pushed growth into the suburbs, leaving Portland with slower economic expansion while forcing workers to live farther and farther away from where the jobs are.

We should not let this trend continue. If we want Portland to be a strong worker-centered city with a robust labor market and thriving economy, we must build the housing necessary to support that vision. Social housing is the tool that can get us there, allowing us to grow in a way that is affordable, sustainable, and equitable.

Social housing is not a competitor to private and non-profit development; it is the missing piece in our housing production puzzle. Our current system is fragmented: market rate housing developers face financing constraints that limit their ability to build workforce and middle-income housing, while affordable housing developers rely on limited tax credit allocations that cannot scale to meet the need. Social housing can fill the gap, producing housing at lower costs by leveraging public financing and land while providing long-term stability and affordability. This model is not about replacing private or non-profit efforts but about expanding our ability to house people in a way that the market alone cannot.

The fight for social housing in Portland is just beginning. The Social Housing Task Force Resolution is moving forward to a full City Council vote, and we need the public to show up. This is a moment for action, not just conversation. If you believe that housing should be a public good, not a financial asset, now is the time to make your voice heard.

Testify at City Council meetings. Submit public comments in favor of the resolution. Write letters to the editor, educating the public about what social housing is and why it’s necessary. Talk to your neighbors and organize support. We cannot let the same failed policies dictate our future. Portland must lead on this issue, for us and for the rest of Maine. The future of housing is public.

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Upcoming Events

Tuesday, March 4 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): DSA Board Game Night (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, March 5 (6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): New Member Happy Hour (In person at Zeitgeist, 199 Valencia)

Thursday, March 6 (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.): Palestine Solidarity and Anti Imperialist Working Group (Zoom)

Thursday, March 6 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigration Justice Priority Working Group (Zoom)

Friday, March 7 (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): Office Hours (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, March 8 (1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Training & Outreach (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Sunday, March 9 (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.): Chapter Local Vision and Strategy Meeting (In person TBD)

Monday, March 10 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenderloin Healing Circle (In person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate)

Monday, March 10 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (Zoom)

Monday, March 10 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Electoral Board Meeting (Zoom)

Monday, March 10 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

Wednesday, March 12 (6:45 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): March General Meeting (In person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate)

Friday, March 14 (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Saturday, March 15 (1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.): Palestine Solidarity and Anti Imperialism Reading Group: Ten Myths About Israel (Zoom)

Sunday, March 16 (1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): DSA SF Socialist Job Fair (In person at 215 Golden Gate)

Monday, March 17 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates.

Events & Actions

Board Game Night

We’re hosting board game night! Come get to know your comrades while playing some board games. All are welcome. We’ll be at 1916 McAllister 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. tonight, March 4 with some games, snacks, and drinks to share. 

Socialists in Office Hours

Socialists in Office Hours will be 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. this Friday, March 7 instead of our usual 3:00 p.m. time! Join us to look ahead at Jackie Fielder’s hearing on the ‘Four Pillars’ and other Supervisors’ anti-harm reduction solutions to the drug crisis. Does this sound like jargon to you? No worries! Join us to find out and ask questions, no experience required.

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.