Tech workers are still largely unorganized, but they can act together to stop the used of militarized weapons on people at home and abroad.

The post Tech Workers Must Fight the Anti-Immigrant Crackdown and Escalating Authoritarianism appeared first on EWOC.

This article is reprinted from the Socialist Forum, a publication of DSA. It was authored by Todd Chretien, who serves both on DSA’s Editorial Board as well as Pine & Roses’ Editorial Collective. It was originally published on May 30, 2025.

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What happened? 

Hundreds of thousands of workers marched and rallied on May Day, making it the largest International Workers Day since 2006 when two million immigrant workers left work and marched to demand their rights. Protests were organized in 1300 locations, large and small; no doubt the first May Day protest in many places. Broadly speaking, there were three different levels of mobilization. First, as in 2006, Chicago stood out with some 30,000 marching, organized by a mass coalition of labor and immigrant rights organizations. Second, cities like Philly, New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, Oakland, Burlington, and Portland, Maine mobilized between two and fifteen thousand. Third, hundreds of cities and towns turned out crowds from a couple dozen to hundreds, including smaller cities like Davis, California. This ranking is not intended as a judgement on the organizers. In fact, some of the smaller rallies included higher percentages of the population than the largest. For instance, in the town of Wayne, Maine—population 1,000—seventy-five people turned out for both morning and evening rallies. 

It’s worth noting that the crowds were not as large as the April 5 day of protest initiated by Indivisible; however, participants were noticeably more multiracial, younger, and radical with widespread support for transgender rights and opposition to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Though an important step in the process of building working-class unity against the billionaires and capitalist class, these efforts have a long way to go. For instance, although multiracial, at the national level, the marches did not entirely reflect working-class diversity. And if immigrant rights organizations were critical in many cities, Trump’s reign of terror against immigrant workers suppressed turnout from this community in many places. 

Who organized it and how? 

Memory and sacrifice play a role in sustaining oppositional working-class culture. No Haymarket Martyrs, no May Day. More recently, the 2006 May Day protests provided a living link to the past as well as the importance of International Workers Day globally. UAW president Shawn Fain’s call for unions to align contracts and lead a 2028 general strike, have introduced May Day to a whole new generation of labor organizers.

 Recently, precursor actions in the wake of Trump’s election laid the basis for pulling together a mass, class-based response. As the saying goes, the best organizing tool is a bad boss and Trump is one of the worst bosses possible. Repression and widespread layoffs do not always provoke resistance, but this time targeted workers put up a critical mass of opposition that gummed up the works and provided the time to organize a strategic response. 

Thousands of teachers from across the country responded to a call by the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers for walk-ins in March to protest Trump’s destruction of the Department of Education. Bay Area activists organized a “Day of Resistance” against ICE even before Trump was inaugurated. The Maine State Nurses Association led a rally to protest Medicaid cuts in March and organized a mass town hall to prevent the closure of the obstetrics department in the small town of Houlton. Kathryn Lybarger, president of AFSCME 3299 representing 22,000 workers at the University of California, summarizes her union’s approach, “My union went on its fourth strike in six months on May Day, and the energy felt great. For union members fighting a powerful employer for our families’ futures, it was amazing to be joined on the picket line by all kinds of community members who are fighting billionaires for their futures too. The day felt like an event and an important step in building the movement we need to stop Trump and win a better world.”   In the single biggest display of working-class power on May Day, 55,000 LA County employees in SEIU 721 walked off the job and marched through downtown LA. 

As federal workers reeled from Trump’s layoffs, the Federal Unionist Network was one of the most important elements blunting the blitzkrieg. FUN organizer Chris Dols explains, “Amidst all the necessary defense we’re playing against the billionaires’ offensive, May Day is the labor movement’s opportunity to articulate a positive vision for the world we deserve. Federal workers are uniquely positioned and proud to help advance such a vision because, above all else, we are public servants, and it is the entire public that is under assault. As is captured by the FUN’s ‘Save Our Services’ demand, our approach to May Day was to foreground the crucial services and protections federal workers provide in an effort to not only cohere fighting federal labor movement but also to develop and deepen alliances with all who stand to lose the most if Trump gets away with smashing up our agencies.”

Pair these factors with decades of bipartisan misery inflicted on the working class, and it’s not surprising workers are angry. Politicians have failed to deliver on demands like healthcare for all, affordable housing, and a stronger public education system. Add inflation, union-busting, white supremacy, misogyny, transphobia and homophobia, genocide in Gaza, and anti-immigrant bigotry, and the potential for uniting large parts of the working class across its many divisions comes into focus.

Chicago takes the lead

Yet objective conditions alone cannot make a plan. Organized forces with the credibility and capacity to think through a strategy and to put it into practice are needed. 

According to Jesse Sharkey, past president of the Chicago Teachers Union and lead organizer with the newly-formed May Day Strong coalition, “Chicago became a center of May Day organizing this year for two reasons—first, there was a local coalition that got a lot of people involved. Activists from the immigrants rights community were extremely important in initiating it, and they held open meetings. They invited anyone who wanted to help organize. That drew in trade unionists, and many others. On a second front, Chicago was in the middle of initiating a national call for May Day protests… The call for that effort came from the Chicago Teachers Union and a handful of allied organizations such as Midwest Academy, Bargaining for the Common Good, and the Action Center on Race and the Economy. The NEA also played an extremely helpful role. In late March, we had about 220 people from over 100 organizations join us in Chicago to start planning for May 1 actions. The reason we were able to initiate such a widespread effort was because we have a past practice of closely linking trade union fights to wider working-class demands. In places where local unions have worked with community and activist groups, we had networks of communication and trust. Then, once that effort had reached a certain critical mass, some of the big national networks like Indivisible and 50501 got on board, and that really grew the reach of the day.”

It’s not that the CTU and immigrant community organizers in Chicago were the only ones thinking about May Day, but their action drew together and amplified similar efforts across the country, nationalizing the protest by providing a framework and resources for labor and community organizers in hundreds of towns and cities. Chicago didn’t create May Day 2025—thousands of activists across the country had to take up the call—but it did open a door. 

Socialists and the united front

Assessing the impact of May Day for the working class as a whole should not be conflated with DSA’s role in the organizing. But as this is an article that will mostly reach DSA members, it’s worth reviewing what we contributed. First, thousands of DSA members across the country turned out for May Day. This fact alone shows our organization’s strength, and it points to opportunities and responsibilities. If all your chapter was able to do was to turn out members or help publicize the local protest among coworkers and the broader community, that’s an important contribution. Second, at the National Level, DSA’s National Political Committee and National Labor Commission joined May Day Strong and organized membership Zoom meetings to encourage branches to take action starting in March. Third, and this should come as no surprise, DSA played a bigger role in some places than others. I think it’s worth considering the impact of the strategic and tactical choices local chapters made on the influence they wielded and the organic ties they deepened. After speaking with comrades from across the country, I will offer a few positive examples. I hope comrades will add to this picture and offer alternative ideas or criticisms. 

New York 

In October, the NYC-DSA chapter adopted a resolution to support the UAW’s call for a 2028 May Day strike. The chapter subsequently held an internal May Day 2028 strategy retreat and identified May Day 2025 as a key link in the chain of developing power and political momentum to fight against Trump and the broader machine. As one DSA organizer puts it, “It’s not enough to circle May Day 2028 on a calendar, we need to build a coalition to organize it and politicize it.” Rooted in this perspective, NYC-DSA turned out to support a mass post-election labor-left anti-Trump rally, the FUN day of action in February, the subsequent Stop the Cuts rally on March 15, and Hands Off on April 5. 

Olivia Gonzalez Killingsworth, co-chair of NYC-DSA Labor Working Group and National Labor Commission SC member (as well as a twenty-year member of Actors’ Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA) picks up the story, reflecting, “After Stop the Cuts, I went to Chicago on March 19 and 20 as an NLC representative to join the May Day Strong meeting. Stacy Davis Gates, Jackson Potter, and Jesse Sharkey welcomed us all into the house that CTU built. Shawn Fain was there along with Randi Weingarten, who was enraged because Trump signed his executive order gutting the Department of Education that same day. We broke out into regions and were charged with going back home to build May Day as big as possible. In New York City, broadly speaking, there were three important currents: the core of the union movement represented by the Central Labor Council, the left-liberals like Tesla Takedown, and the labor/left, of which DSA is a part. Through a lot of coalition work, we made a circle out of this Venn diagram. Trump helped along the way. Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation really angered the Building Trades, further galvanizing them into participation. DSA played an important role in mobilizing: we had a huge contingent, and even more members marching with their unions. But more than that, we helped politicize May Day to point to the billionaires who are benefiting from the Trump administration’s attacks on us.” 

Part of this work included successfully advocating—alongside many others—for both AOC and Mahmoud Khalil’s lawyer to speak at the rally, which garnered significant national media attention, helping broadcast our message far beyond May Day participants. It’s important to point out that DSA did not initiate the coalition, but worked alongside long-time labor activists to support May Day, earning our stripes as a trusted and capable partner. 

On the day, NYC-DSA turned out some 500 members, many of whom marched with their unions. They did so while keeping up with other work—DSA member Zohran Mamdani is running for mayor—with NYC-DSA labor organizers having advanced a month-long Build to May Day campaign. Organizers called on committees and working groups across the chapter to make May Day a priority, turning out members and volunteer marshalls. The chapter is now in a stronger position to discuss next steps with the broader coalition and consolidate a layer of new members and allies. There’s more pain ahead, but May Day helped gather working-class forces together for action and to take the temperature of the most active and militant layer of trade unionists and community activists. As NYC-DSA Labor Working Group member David Duhalde suggests, “The New York City May Day rally and march from Foley Square to the iconic Wall Street Bull statue was a microcosm of the shift in energy in labor during Trump’s second term.” How far that shift goes can only be tested in practice.

Philadelphia

As in New York, Philadelphia DSA did not initiate the call for the May Day rallies. The AFL-CIO led the charge in alliance with immigrants rights organizations such as Milpa, New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, and Juntos, mobilizing some 5,000 workers. But Philadelphia DSA did add its organizing muscle, assigning Luke M to act as liaison. The chapter followed many of the same tactics as their New York comrades. When the AFL-CIO opened up the coalition, DSA members proved themselves energetic organizers; for instance, running the marshal training and providing a large portion of marshals. DSA members constituted a large part of the seventy-two people arrested at the end of the march in a civil disobedience action, including Rick Krajewski, a DSA member elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Seven union presidents joined in this calculated escalation of tactics, demonstrating a broad understanding that workers will have to take matters into their own hands to back down the billionaires and capitalist elites. 

And in a lesson passed down through generations, from the IWW to Sit-Down Strikes to the Civil Rights Movement to Occupy to Black Lives Matter to Gaza, no protest is finished until jail support is organized, a responsibility that was taken up by DSA members and coalition partners alike. That unity in action demonstrated the most important aspect of united front work, but the chapter also raised the socialist banner. Taking placards and membership interest card ideas from DSA members in California, Philadelphia DSA formed a visible presence on the march with some 200 members, and signed up sixty-two new recruits. It didn’t hurt that the unions invited Bernie to speak. After all the hard work, Luke praised his Philly comrades, “I have to say I’m genuinely proud of what we accomplished, and I’m looking forward to the debrief meeting to see what comes next.”

Portland, Maine

Maine DSA’s Labor Rising working group decided to focus on May Day in December, laying the basis to help initiate an organizing meeting open to all community groups and unions. Maine AFL-CIO leaders and UAW graduate students participated in a preliminary meeting to brainstorm ideas, and more than 70 people attended an April 12 meeting in the South Portland Teamsters’ Hall, where the group democratically planned Portland’s May Day. Working groups took up all aspects of the action, and we took all important decisions back to the coalition for votes. Running a long a related track, Maine Education Association and Maine AFL-CIO leaders called for actions across the state, amplifying the Chicago May Day Strong call and dramatically broadening what the Portland coalition could organize. 

Nearly 2,000 people turned out in Portland, starting with a rally at the University of Southern Maine to back UAW graduate students’ demands for a first contract and then marching to the Post Office to hear from postal workers. Members of the Portland Education Association and a trans student poet headlined the stop at Portland High School and a librarian union rep spoke in Monument Square before the final rally that heard from the president of the Metal Trades Council at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, a rep from the Maine State Nurses Association, members of the Maine Coalition for Palestine, an organizer from LGTBQ+ community group Portland Outright, a local immigrant rights group called Presente! Maine, and others. It was a great demonstration and showed the thirst for a broader coalition. Twenty-five other towns held actions, bringing the total number of Maine participants to over 5,000, the largest Maine May Day anyone can remember. 

It would be shortsighted to overstate the power and stability of this fledgling coalition. Large doses of patience and understanding will be necessary to foster bonds of trust. Sectarian pressures to draw “red lines” that exclude workers new to political activity and organizations who have various programs and interests represent one danger. A narrow focus on the midterm elections represents another. Fortunately, there’s a lot of room for creativity between those two extremes. 

Long road ahead

May Day was the first test of strength for the left and working class against Trump, MAGA, and forty-plus years of neoliberal rot. We face a long, complex problem where political pressures to return to passivity will be strong, but May Day 2025 constitutes a small step towards healing deep wounds in the American working class, the divide between organized and unorganized, immigrant and US born, etc. If brother Fain’s call for 2028 is to grow strong, then 2026 and 2027 must be practice runs.  If 2026 and 2027 are to be real demonstrations of strength, they must grow out of tighter bonds between labor, community, and the left, more active membership participation in all of those forces, and a combination of defensive struggles we are forced to fight and battles we pick on our own terms. As Sarah Hurd, co-chair of DSA’s National Labor Commission, spells out, “This year’s May Day actions showed the power of what we can accomplish just by setting a date and inviting people to take action together. It has also highlighted what work we need to do to scale up our level of organization in the next three years.” 

What did May Day teach us? Fittingly, the last word goes to Kirsten Roberts, a rank-and-file Chicago teacher, “The most important element of May Day 2025 is the explicit entry of organized and unorganized labor into resistance to Trump. Trump’s attacks are aimed directly at dividing the working class and turning ordinary people against one another while the billionaires rob and plunder us all. An agenda for working class unity can be built when we stand up for those most victimized and vilified by the right-wing bigots AND when we stand together to fight for the things that the billionaire class has denied us—the fight for healthcare, education, housing, and good-paying jobs for starters. For decades, we’ve been told by both parties that funding war, incarceration, and border militarization are their priorities. May Day showed that working people have another agenda. Now let’s organize to win it.”

The post Unions and Community Unite for May Day: Lessons for the Fight Ahead appeared first on Pine & Roses.

by Gregory Lebens-Higgins

Rochester’s mayoral primary debate took place on May 28, between incumbent Mayor Malik Evans, ROC DSA-endorsee and city councilmember Mary Lupien, and local businessman Shashi Sinha. Lupien spoke ambitiously of her vision for a better future, while Evans and Sinha invoked limitations and appealed to the status quo. The satirical exchange in the footnote below humorously captures the tone of the debate.*

About halfway through, the candidates were asked: “What is your stance on encampment sweeps? Do you support their removal, or do you think their removal [exacerbates] the issues of homelessness?” 

“How many people have we arrested for being on the street? The answer is zero,” said Mayor Evans. He elaborates, “you can’t arrest someone for being in poverty or having a substance abuse disorder.” But closer consideration reveals that arrest is the all too frequent response to poverty and substance abuse.

How does Mayor Evans’ logic hold up against racial disparities in policing? Black Americans comprise 33% of the prison population despite being just 14% of the general population, and are arrested at five times the rate of whites. Yet would Mayor Evans believe that “nobody has been arrested for being Black?” (or driving, running, shopping, and swimming while Black).

Of course, racial profiling will always be denied as the true motivation behind such outcomes. Following the Civil War vagrancy laws were enacted across the South, describes historian Eric Foner in his account of Reconstruction, punishing “the idle, disorderly, and those who ‘misspend what they earn,’” with fines or involuntary plantation labor. Virginia’s law punished those who demanded higher wages, while in Florida, disobedience and disrespect to the employer were criminalized. 

Many of these laws “made no reference to race, to avoid the appearance of discrimination and comply with the federal Civil Rights Act of 1866,” says Foner. “But it was well understood, as Alabama planter and Democratic politico John W. DuBois later remarked, that ‘the vagrant contemplated was the plantation negro.’”

Similarly, capitalist society builds a carceral framework around homelessness in more devious ways. The threat of homelessness disciplines labor, while the vulnerability of the homeless establishes a hyper-exploitable reserve army of labor. 

Today, more than 1,000 Rochester residents are homeless, and the city boasts the fifth highest child poverty rate in the nation, at over 40%. Homelessness in Rochester testifies to the racial legacy of America, with Black residents representing 40% of the general population but 55% of those experiencing homelessness. Meanwhile, rent continues to increase—a single-bedroom apartment now averages $1,200 per month—and a surging housing market pushes home ownership further out of reach. 

Housing is not the only rising cost of living, and income growth lags behind. Employment can be difficult to obtain, requiring a stable address, transportation, and a passing background check. Even retaining a job does not guarantee alleviation from homelessness, as employers provide low wages, unreliable hours, and limited time off, and employees are subject to termination at will. 

Rochester lacks adequate shelters for the unhoused, and those in extreme poverty have nowhere to go. Capitalism privatizes everything it can profitably possess. Modern public space carries a cost of occupancy, and minor violations such as sleeping in public or an open container can lead to arrest or a trespass notice. “Urinating and sleeping in public are both unavoidable and criminalized,” says Alex Vitale in The End of Policing, “creating a terrible dynamic.”

The unhoused are targeted by police and ostracized by the community. Despite Mayor Evans’ denial, encampment sweeps have traumatically displaced inhabitants and destroyed their belongings and continue to do so. Those occupying public spaces are more likely to have police contact or be subject to search, while poverty encourages crimes of desperation and nihilism—if society doesn’t care about me, why should I follow their rules?

Once the unhoused enter the criminal justice system, problems compound: “The criminal justice system, with its emphasis on punishment,” says Vitale, “[cannot] address the underlying and intertwined problems of homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse.” 

The unhoused are more likely to be held in jail, as they are denied release due to a lack of stable housing and cannot afford bail. They will encounter more difficulty paying fines, necessitating more court appearances or consequences such as license suspensions, and they can’t reliably stay in contact with their attorney or the court. Criminal entanglement can disrupt social services and limit job opportunities, leading to a downward spiral. 

So, yes, Mayor Evans, we arrest people for being on the street, in all but invocation.

Sinha’s response to this issue is not any better. Solving homelessness, he says, is “very simple and of course it’s [a] very complicated issue.” This answer is revealing—solving homelessness is simple in that the answer appears on its face: providing homes. It is complicated, however, because the desire for profit means this option cannot be delivered by the market. 

As mayor, Mary Lupien promises “[to] end homeless encampment sweeps day one.” “Homeless encampment sweeps can kill people,” says Lupien, by disrupting forms of support available to the homeless community through outreach and solidarity. Lupien clearly identifies the “simple answer”—“to provide them homes.” 

Mayor Evans admits “[homelessness] is not a problem that you can arrest your way out of.” Yet disproportionate city funding goes to policing rather than social services. With society’s wealth and capacity for production, we have the means to provide housing and a dignified lifestyle to all. When we arrange our society toward these ends, we will find not only that we can eliminate homelessness, but can create a more comfortable and safe community for all. 

* “Question: What pizza should we order?

Sinha: Pizza. Ordering. It has some crust. It has some cheese. But we never ask if we can afford it. You know…. sauce. Why aren’t we asking about why we need pizza? We need to fix this problem.

Lupien: I have been a staunch believer in pepperoni pizza, standing with the communities. More pizza in more mouths will feed so many hungry people. It is disappointing that Mayor Evans threw away two whole pizzas at the last pizza party that could have gone to feeding more people. We have the pizza available, we just need to get it to the right mouths. I’ve partnered with Pizza Justice and over a dozen other pizza communities, who understands what it takes to get there. It works.

Evans: I will never apologize for my pizza choices, because my pizza choices are right. I have personally delivered pizza to people, wasting not a single slice. When I was 14 I worked for Salvatores and cannot be ashamed at that. I have never thrown away a pizza. Three years ago we had a pizza crisis in this city. I rolled out Slice of the Night, which gave pizza to pizzaless communities. I will never apologize for what I’ve done. We don’t have the budget to just give everyone pizza. We could all make up misunderstandings about pizza waste, but that’s just not how things work. I have a three topping approach to pizza: sausage, onions, and peppers. You need all three. Let me be clear: without onions a pizza cannot happen. Just like I’ve been doing for 3.5 years, I’ve been bringing these together.

‘Sinha, you have your hand raised.’

Sinha: These two keep arguing. It just isn’t like that. It won’t happen unless we try.” – Reddit user Mysterious-Gold2220.

The post No Mayor Evans, the Answer is not “Zero”: On Arresting the Unhoused first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

by Rosa

A municipal budget is not a fascinating read to most, but it is a very valuable document to understand what, and who, is prioritized, and to provide specific projects or programs that can be targeted by local organizers, either for increased funding or abolishment. Every year, the City of Rochester’s budget includes a Community Input Report, summarizing residents’ responses from in-person events, a telephone town hall, and an online survey. Hundreds of residents respond every year, but one would be hard-pressed to actually find how their input has been applied. With the recent release of the proposed 2025-2026 $680 million budget, Rochesterians will again ask, “why are we being ignored?”

The online survey this year asked participants to rank twenty-eight specific City services by their essentialness, ranging from refuse collection to public arts funding to the Roc the Riverway project. Some options were very vague like “Safety in Rochester” (separately listed from fire, EMS, and “Police services and crime prevention”); to the very specific mentions of emergency repair housing grants, rehab grants and loans, and homebuyer assistance; to the undefined “Alternate First Response” models. Some of the services ranked least essential were “Downtown development” and “Development of riverfront, aka Roc the Riverway” at 20% and 15% of respondents respectively. The City’s budget over the years has not reflected that most people don’t find these essential: the Roc the Riverway project alone was proposed at $500 million—almost an entire year’s budget.

In-person and online participants also completed the Budget Bucks activity, a participatory budgeting tool where one can choose how they would allocate a hypothetical thousand dollars into ten categories. Housing received the highest allocation at 17%, and Violence Prevention followed closely, receiving 15%. “Police and Community Relations” only received 10%. 

Now the Budget Bucks activity didn’t include some essential services like water maintenance or refuse collection, but if we could truly spend the proposed budget on the priorities residents have identified, what would that look like? 

Based on this year’s budget of $680,455,000, 17% would mean $115,677,350 to spend on safe, quality housing for all residents. The current proposed budget for the Housing office is $895,000: that is 0.8% of what Rochesterians want spent on housing.

But what do Rochesterians mean by wanting more invested in housing? Going back to the City services listed in the survey, you’d never know that approximately two-thirds of Rochesterians are tenants; the only City services that mention housing are services for homeowners: emergency repair grants, rehab grants and loans, and homebuyer assistance. Where do residents have the chance to list affordable housing, rental assistance, or Housing First programs as priorities?

If we actually allocated 15% of the proposed budget to violence prevention, that would mean $102,068,250 to spend on youth intervention programs, mediation, and other programs with proven success. The current proposed budget for the Office of Violence Prevention is $3,243,100, only 3.2% of what Rochesterians want invested.

On the flip side of the coin, Police and Community Relations received 10% of allocated funds—still a sizable amount. 10% of the total budget would be $68,045,500. The proposed RPD budget this year is $115,436,800, 70% over what residents would spend.

As of 2025, there are 110 police officer vacancies (13WHAM). According to the upcoming budget, RPD estimates 27 newly hired police officers will complete the academy, with an estimated 40 officers separating from employment. By RPD’s own estimates, the number of vacancies will continue to grow, as that money continues to be allocated for empty positions. If we eliminated the empty positions that exist now (estimating salary and benefits to be around $150,000), we’d have $16,500,000 to invest in programs that Rochesterians actually want.

If the public was heard, how would our budget actually be spent? What would reinvesting in the community look like?

Rochester could have a true Housing First model: providing permanent housing to people without first requiring sobriety, getting a job, or completion of a financial education program, to list some of the common barriers people face when seeking long-term housing. A Housing First model ensures a level of stability and safety that makes seeking mental health care or finding a job much easier and more successful.

Rental assistance can be a huge help for people at risk of losing their housing. Loss of income, health issues, or unexpected expenses can push someone in a stable situation into eviction. Evictions are on the rise, and are on pace to double last year’s numbers. The rate of homelessness in the county increased 31% last year. The rates of unsheltered and chronic homelessness almost doubled from last year. Providing a few hundred dollars a month to households near eviction can keep people in their homes and off the streets.

The average rent in Rochester for a 1-bedroom apartment is $1,464/month. The City’s financial support of housing development prioritizing market rate units is contributing to displacing its own residents. In the Projects That Need Funding section of the budget is “Affordable Housing,” but it’s not what most would consider affordable housing: 25% of total units set aside for eligible households sounds more like market-rate housing with a few affordable units thrown in. Instead of pouring millions of grants into these projects, the City could fund projects that are solely affordable units, particularly growing the amount of public housing. Through changes to the restrictive zoning codes, investments could also be made into developing alternate types of housing such as cottage housing or accessory dwelling units, or helping people age-in-place.

Rhode Island has recently opened an overdose prevention center, with $2.6 million allocated for the first year of operation (WBUR News). Overdose prevention centers provide harm reduction for those using drugs by providing clean needles and testing strips, to referring people to rehabilitation services. $2.6 million is a significant amount, but it will save people’s lives as well as reducing the costs for services such as 911 call responses and health care related to drug use. 

Rochester is creating an ACTION team—a unit of community responders that will respond to non-urgent 911 calls like trespassing or welfare checks (Rochester Beacon). The program is still in development so it’s not clear what the annual cost would be at full deployment, but this unit could expand to other types of calls, such as writing incident reports for minor car accidents or resolving disputes between neighbors. Rather than be confronted by a badge and a gun, residents can receive referrals to mental health services or mediation.

It’s clear that Rochesterians want more from their local government but are being ignored. We can have a Rochester where residents are prioritized over real estate developers and the Police Locust Club. We can advocate for, and win, a community that takes care of each other.

A better Rochester is possible.

The post Why I Read Rochester’s City Budget Cover-To-Cover first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

by Lauren B.

A cloudy, drizzly Saturday in Livingston County saw around 100 people gather in Geneseo to mark International Workers Day—a first of its kind in the county, despite the holiday being more than a century old. 

The May 3 rally was a collaboration of local DSA members and the newly-formed YDSA Chapter at SUNY Geneseo, whose campus is a short walk from the rally location on Main Street near an area known as the Village Park. Other participating groups included Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace, Genesee Valley Indivisible, and the 5 & 20 Alliance. 

The power of organized labor and the history of International Workers Day were the event’s focus. Standing atop a short stone wall, Organizer Chris Norton explained that because May Day “was a festival of celebration, it led to a rare day off work for peasants in the Middle Ages.” In 1890, Norton went on, “May 1^st was chosen…by workers around the world—in support of an 8-hour workday in … the United States of America.”

DSA Member Lauren Berger’s remarks also commented on the history of International Workers Day, “in commemoration of the Haymarket affair,” during what was, they said, “the Gilded Age—robber barons, poverty, dangerous job sites, no social safety net, violent racial inequality … the top 12 percent of people in the US owned 86 percent of the wealth. The bottom 44 percent of the people owned 1.2 percent of the wealth. Sound familiar?”

“One of the ways people fought back was through organizing,” Berger continued. Not just labor strikes, but “support networks … to make sure the strikers got fed, had shelter, and could get medical care … . They listened and learned from each other to understand how their struggles were bound together—and in doing so created a collective power.”

Attendees held signs and stood along the Main Street sidewalk, representing a wide range of ages and backgrounds but hailing mostly from towns in Livingston and the surrounding rural counties. Some signs indicated specific workers to support—including the Post Office and fired federal employees. Other signs read “Stand with labor,” “Bread yes, but roses too,” and, “A better world is possible.” 

Berger explained the reference—the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike and the subsequent legend of a striking worker bearing a sign reading “Bread yes, but roses too,” meaning workers deserve not only the basic necessities of survival, but enough to be afforded dignity and joy. “We’re not outnumbered, just out-organized,” they said. “Our resistance, and our survival, stands a far better chance if we do it together.” 

Berger spoke about the ongoing Graduate Labor Union strike at the University of Rochester (linktr.ee/glu.ur), pointing to informational handouts on a table that grew damp in the intermittent sprinkles of rain. 

Norton led the group in a call and response, with a list of struggles fought and won by organized labor in the US, including, “If you like that kids go to school instead of work,” and “If you like safe working conditions,” and each meeting the echoing refrain, “Thank the Unions!”

Berger also read prior remarks from ROC DSA Member Rich Jurnack entitled “Manifesting the General Strike (rocdsa.org/blog/manifesting-the-general-strike).” As supporters honked their horns and the occasional disagreeing shout came from an opened driver window, Berger shared Jurnack’s retellings of two general strikes—the Palestinian-Arab Strike in 1936-39 and in Rochester in 1946. These instances and others prove, Jurnack wrote, “that we are in fact all essential workers, and they depend on us to make everything work. And if we stop working, their power goes away very fast.”

Referencing UAW President Shawn Fain’s moves for national contracts to simultaneously expire in his speech (originally delivered at the 2024 Chapter May Day Picnic), Jurnack wrote that May 1, 2028, “promises to be a moment where we as workers can come together and actually achieve the possibilities of a general strike. To achieve more politically and in the workplace than we’ve ever been able to before, at least since World War Two.”

Before concluding, the group sang “Solidarity Forever,” printed lyrics curling wet with the rain but well enough to read all six verses. As rally attendees departed many reported having learned something new, wondering aloud why this history isn’t commonly known. While this rally for International Workers Day might have been the first of its kind for Livingston County, it certainly won’t be the last. 

The post May Day rally brings out rural residents first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

On April 15, Border Patrol agents tackled a 27-year-old Salvadoran man to the pavement on Massachusetts Avenue in Portland. They zip-tied his limbs and threw him into the back of an unmarked vehicle. “It looked like someone getting kidnapped,” a witness told reporters. That’s because it was: a state-sponsored abduction, a spectacle of fear, and a message.

Eyidi Ambila, a man from the Democratic Republic of Congo, served a short sentence in Cumberland County Jail and has since been caged for over eight months by ICE with no new charges, no passport, and nowhere to be deported. This is not immigration enforcement—it’s indefinite detention and state-sanctioned cruelty. A federal judge ruled that Ambila can stay in the U.S. while appealing his deportation, acknowledging that returning him could mean arbitrary arrest, prolonged imprisonment, or torture. Let that sink in: the government admits deportation could lead to torture and still wants to deport him. He’s not a threat. He’s not a flight risk. He’s a living example of a system that dehumanizes, disappears, and discards. 

Marcos Henrique and Lucas Segobia, two skilled immigrant workers en route to a job in Maine, were abducted by ICE without charges. They were disappeared for over 36 hours and moved from one facility to another, while ICE lied to their families about their location. Jail staff refused responsibility. It was only after public pressure that officials finally tell their families where they were detained but the respite was brief, ICE, against their families wishes, moved them out of state.

These are not outliers. These are the cases that made it into the press. In April, documents obtained by the ACLU revealed that Cumberland County Jail was detaining 80 people for ICE, and Two Bridges Jail another 25. That’s over 100 people disappeared into the deportation pipeline with the full cooperation of local law enforcement. This is not policy failure—it’s policy success. It is not an accident—it is the infrastructure of repression being put to work to manage the turbulence of dying world.

We are living in the chaos of a collapsing order. Since the 1970s, the twin engines of neoliberal globalization and carceral expansion have reshaped United States: dismantling public institutions, deregulating capital, and replacing mass employment with mass policing, imprisonment, and deportation. What we are witnessing now is not an aberration but the terminal stage of this conjuncture—a world where crisis is met not with care or redistribution, but with cages and scapegoats. Immigration enforcement emerged to discipline labor, to create a hyper exploited strata of the labor market. Now it is being used by the Trump Administration to impose a blatantly fascist order.

To confront this reality, we start with a simple demand: End Cooperation Between Cumberland County Jail and ICE. And we understand that this demand is also a call to end suffering now, dismantle the deportation machine, and it opens the door to new solidarities and new ways of life.

The Event: Spectacle, Terror, and the Demand for Community Defense

The spectacle of forced removal is meant to terrify. It’s meant to be seen. It teaches entire communities to live in fear and sends a warning: no one is safe. The raids, the unmarked vans, the zip-ties—this is fascism in rehearsal. These moments are not isolated incidents; they are performances of state power. The goal is not merely removal. It is submission.

But for every spectacle of fear, we must respond with a celebration of solidarity. These bewildering, terrifying event demand community defense. They demand mutual aid. They demand we show up: outside jails, inside courtrooms, on the streets. The Trump Administration wants to fear going viral. Resistance must spread faster.

The Conjuncture: Neoliberalism, The Carceral State, and Crimmigration

Beneath the immediate spectacle is a broader structure of political economy. Over the last four decades, both parties have built the crimmigration regime—a fusion of carceral control and immigration enforcement designed to regulate the labor market and manage surplus populations. Reagan began immigrant detention. Clinton passed the laws that made mass deportation possible. Bush created ICE, consolidating immigration enforcement into a nationwide, federal police force. Obama used these tools to deport more people than any president in history. And Trump, despite all his gratuitous authoritarianism, has, in both terms, been unable to match the monthly deportation numbers of his democratic predecessors.

The system was not built to ensure justice. It was built to create a precarious workforce and a permanent underclass. It fabricates social order by dividing workers, criminalizing mobility, and treating migration as a security threat. The Trump administration is now using this bipartisan machinery to impose a more openly fascist order.

This is why ending ICE cooperation in Cumberland County matters. It’s not just a local demand. It’s a strike at on the pillars of the crimmigration system. It removes key logistical support. It complicates ICE’s ability to function. It interrupts the flow of bodies from street to cell to deportation. It is a lever of disruption—and it must be pulled.

The Longue Durée: Capitalism, Racial Division, and the Possibility of a New World

Zoom out further, and the contours of a deeper struggle emerge. The United States is a settler-colonial state founded on land theft, racial hierarchy, and labor exploitation. From slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration, from the reservation to the ghetto to the border, the same logics persist. Capitalism appropriates and exploits labor and then organizes abandonment. It produces surplus people: unemployed, unhoused, undocumented, untreated. It punishes these victims and twists and contorts their situations to make them appear as enemies to be contained, excluded, and expelled.

But from within that hell, new worlds are being born.

Presente! Maine is showing us how. Their land and food sovereignty programs, mutual aid work, and wellness initiatives are rooted in the labor and leadership of Maine’s Latine immigrant communities—most of whom work in the very sectors propping up this state’s tourism and agricultural economies. This is not charity. It is not service. It is revolutionary infrastructure. It builds autonomy. It deepens solidarity. It models a different way to live—with the land, with each other, and beyond the violence of borders and bosses.

This campaign is part of that same struggle. It’s not just about removing ICE from our jails. It’s about removing ICE from our future so we can build something better, something more humane, something that can unite New and Old Mainers.

We Are Not Asking—We Are Organizing

Of course, movements that threaten power face opposition—not just from reactionaries, but from liberals who want to manage dissent. We see it already. Some prominent liberal immigration advocacy organizations oppose ending ICE cooperation with the Cumberland County Sherriff, arguing that keeping people detained in Maine in the state aids legal defense. But proximity is not justice. Marcos and Lucas were hidden for 36 hours. Their families were lied to. Eyidi has been held for months with no end in sight. The system is built on opacity and cruelty. Local detention doesn’t protect—it enables.

The point is not to make the system more efficient. The point is to make it impossible.

Real change doesn’t come from appealing to authority. It comes from disrupting business as usual. From making the status quo ungovernable. From forcing elites to choose between justice and disorder. This is how power concedes. This is how history shifts.

We are not asking for better policies. We are not asking for a seat at the table. We are organizing to break the table in half.

For Marcos and Lucas.
For Eyidi.
For every neighbor taken in silence.
For every worker forced into the shadows.
For every life destroyed, for family shattered by the perpetual police war in the name of security and order.

End ICE cooperation in Cumberland County.
Free them all.
Stop the deportation machine.

The post Stop Deportation Machine: End ICE Cooperation in Cumberland County appeared first on Pine & Roses.

by Rochester for Energy Democracy

Metro Justice and members of the Rochester for Energy Democracy (RED) Campaign and allies rallied and spoke to City Council Thursday evening at City Hall to highlight the seriousness of the recent RG&E Audit, the close ties of RG&E to the Chamber of Commerce, and current City leadership’s refusal to act on a Phase 1 study, using already reserved funds.  

“The audit shows dramatic security and compliance concerns and a lack of planning and leadership at the utility level. In the face of such glaring evidence, will City leaders continue to refuse to act?” asked LaWanda Shipman, Vice President, Federation of Social Workers and President of Metro Justice. “A Phase 1 study that covers the city and county does not cost more than what the City already said they’d cover, and if they actually want to move this forward, it’s the way to get the County on board. We serve the city residents who are most impacted by the abuses of RG&E’s multinational owners and by the City’s delay – we can’t wait any longer.”

The groups are calling on the City to allocate already reserved funds for a Phase 1 study on replacing RG&E with a public utility. 

“When we voted for Mayor Evans, Melendez and other council members, we were looking for champions for our community and they are failing. They say they want to build with the community – Well how do you have $500,000 and you don’t think enough of the citizens who are mostly the marginalized and poorest and working poor of this city, and you don’t think we’re worthy to have that study performed? It is now time for them to step up,” expressed Lentory Johnson of Generational Engagement Matters. 

“The audit showed that basically nothing – planning nor leadership, happens at the utility level – it’s all at the level of their national holding company, and leadership doesn’t even know what’s happening at the RG&E level or where money is going. That in this context City leadership in power including Malik Evans, Miguel Melendez and Mitch Gruber continue to refuse to act while Bob Duffy is paid over $240,000 a year to sit on RG&E’s parent company (Avangrid)’s board makes you wonder – who is delay on the study serving?” asked Dr. Michi Wenderlich, Metro Justice Campaign and Policy Coordinator. 

Metro Justice also has released a Public Power Report Card outlining what candidates in the upcoming Primary have committed City leadership on a study, and which have refused. Those identified as most committed to city leadership on a study include Mary Lupien, Stanley Martin, Chiara “Kee Kee” Smith, Kelly Cheatle, and Kevin Stewart.

James Bearden, Third Act Rochester added: “Rochester Third Act Elders are part of a national community of Americans over sixty determined to use our generational power to face the existential crises of climate change and democracy threat. RG&E has for decades put profit before community interest. In 1975 Genesee Valley People’s Power Coalition challenged a RG&E proposed rate got the Public Service Commission to reduce the rate increase. Of course that was not the end of the story, RG&E has long been a bad actor. By 1980 GVPPC began to advocate for the city to fund a feasibility study on municipal power. Some of us were active in GVPPC and we have not changed our minds. We believe that a public utility company would provide more and better jobs for people living in Rochester, better service, lower energy costs, and community first policies. We urge Rochester City Council to put aside political differences and fund the preliminary study. Let’s find out if we can all work together to improve the lives of people in our community.”

The post Rochester for Energy Democracy calls out RG&E Audit and connection to Chamber of Commerce in Rally and Speak to Council, calling on City to Fund a study with reserved funds in June budget first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

I was on the street outside the Minneapolis VA Hospital, a truly giant facility that tends to the health of tens of thousands of military veterans each year.  The occasion was a demonstration sponsored by the two American Federation of Government Employees locals that represent thousands of workers at the hospital. The motivator for the […]

Authors: Jesse D, Aiden S, Jesse J (Electoral Working Group leadership)

The city of Portland is six months into its grand experiment in a new form of government. Portland City Council’s expansion and the multi-member geographic districts are providing new horizons of political action for the socialist movement and the city’s broader progressive milieu.  When thinking about our relationship with the new system, we find it important to refer to the past – in order to understand the present and to fight for a better future. 

Historically, candidates elected by people-powered movements to Portland city council have had short shelf lives. Their elections came as shocks to the establishment, who then fought to claw back those seats for the capitalist interests which dominate our city: the developers, the metro chamber, and their intersection in the Democratic Party of Oregon. For example, Commissioners Chloe Eudaly (elected 2016) and Jo Ann Hardesty (elected 2018), were identified by the establishment as part of the left. They both served single terms and then faced well-funded and aggressive opposition in their second elections, resulting in losses in 2020 and 2022 respectively. 

The second round of elections under the new system will fall first in Districts 3 & 4, where three DSA members are going to be up for re-election. It is imperative that we create a vigorous campaign plan to maintain our socialists in office. It is in the interest of all chapter members, and the city at large, that we succeed in that plan in 2026.

If you believe in our councilors’ mission – building a city that works for everyone, and not just the rich – consider these actions to get involved in defending our mandate:

1: Commit your time to the Electoral Working Group, which meets every third Thursday (find our next meeting on the chapter calendar here)

• Train with other members on how to run an electoral campaign, how to launch a canvass, how to be an effective canvasser, and fight for the candidacies of our DSA councilors on the front line!
• Attend the National Electoral Commission‘s upcoming “Electoral Academy” training series. This series is filled with important nuts-and-bolts trainings addressing all aspects of campaign work.
• Make an outreach plan for your non-DSA network: Highlight the work of our councilors to your non-DSA friends, coworkers, and family members. Encourage them to commit to donating to our Socialists in Office re-election campaigns or to canvass when we launch our field campaigns. Watch and listen for updates on these campaigns in chapter general meetings, Electoral Working Group meetings, and via direct communications (texts, emails, etc.).

2: Help prepare the chapter for a vigorous campaign

• Make the jump to solidarity dues to fund the chapter’s work between campaigns.
• Are your friends stoked about socialists on city council? Ask them to join the chapter!
• Keep up the good work in your Working Groups, Committees, and caucuses. We’re not just running on our councilors’ achievements but everything we do as a chapter!

3: Keep active with the chapter’s interventions at city hall

• We’ve seen greater group cohesion in our Socialist bloc when the chapter is organizing and mobilizing around our councilors’ legislative priorities.
• Bolster working groups’ policy priorities in the chapter (Renter’s bill of Rights, Family Agenda, public power etc.).

The post A Call to Action to Prepare for the 2026 Elections appeared first on Portland DSA.

By Nick Lavin

SOMERVILLE, MA — Just outside the Somerville Farmers Market, two Somerville for Palestine organizers – Lauren and Hala – lead a training for a dozen canvassers prepared and ready to engage people in the street. The group is gearing up to collect signatures for a ballot question demanding the city divest from from Palestinian occupation and genocide.

“While I’m frustrated the City Council voted not to divest, I’m proud so many people are doing the hard work to make this petition happen,” said Andrew, a Somerville resident and canvasser for the campaign.

Despite heavy rain all of the past twelve weekends, Somerville for Palestine has hit the streets hard since their ballot question campaign began a couple months ago after Somerville residents nearly overwhelmed City Hall in support of city divestment, only to be struck down by council. The campaign has collected well over 2,000 verified signatures for their petition calling for Somerville to “end all current city business and prohibit future city investments and contracts with companies… that sustain Israel’s apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine.” In order to get on the ballot, the campaign must collect verified signatures from 10% of the voting population. That’s 5200 certified signatures in total that are necessary, which means Somerville for Palestine has collected around 38% of the signatures needed so far to obtain ballot access.

Fundamental to the ballot campaign is an intensive canvassing operation that organizers hope will develop new pro-Palestine organizers and deepen support for the movement in Somerville. “We’re aiming for 10,000 signatures, that’s 10,000 conversations about Palestine in Somerville,” says Lauren, a Jewish pro-Palestine Somerville organizer. 

For many canvassers, the latest news from Gaza underlines the urgency of their work. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, with firm backing from American allies, is systematically starving Gaza by blockading international aid. The entire 2.1 million population faces famine.

While pro-Palestine organizers had hoped national and international pressure on the American government to suspend weapons shipments would force an end to the war, the election of Trump in 2024 foreclosed the possibility of an end to the catastrophe. President Trump wholeheartedly supports Israel’s siege, explaining his vision for Gaza with an AI-generated video transforming the Palestinian territory into a luxury resort while outlining a plan for the ethnic cleansing of its population.

Many organizations like Somerville for Palestine have responded to this changing political terrain by orienting to local petitions to consolidate a pro-Palestine constituency in the town while continuing to build the national movement for BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions), operating on both levels through concerted campaigns. Just as Somerville was the first town in Massachusetts to pass a ceasefire resolution in early 2024, a movement which quickly spread like a wildfire across the state and country, organizers hope momentum for municipal divestment in Somerville will encourage similar efforts while preparing the groundwork for continued state and national pressure.

Hala, a Palestinian and longtime Somerville resident, is motivated by the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the petition from the community and hopes their work will inspire people elsewhere.

As the song says at Somerville High, Somerville leads the way, so Somerville for Palestine is leading the way on divestment.

Somerville for Palestine has had a lot of success in organizing coalitional support to harness to achieve the ballot measure and build a municipal base for Palestine. Their weekly canvasses, jointly organized with groups like Allston/Brighton for Palestine and Boston DSA, bring people from all across the Boston area to talk about Palestine, ceasefire, and divestment with Somerville residents.

Immigration, Palestine, and Civil Rights

Somerville for Palestine’s divestment campaign comes as Trump cracks down on civil rights. Just two months ago, Somerville’s own Rümeysa Öztürk was kidnapped by Trump’s ICE officers for writing an op-ed about divesting her university from Israel. Then too, Somerville for Palestine members were out in force protesting the decision and demanding her release.

Öztürk’s arrest also ignited fury from the labor movement: as a Tufts graduate student and member of SEIU 509, her arrest garnered immediate reactions from unions across the state and country demanding her release. 

While unions were on the frontline in the fight for a ceasefire and arms embargo under Biden, pro-Palestine labor activists are still finding their footing on the shifting terrain under Trump. For DSA’s National Labor Commission, the focus remains squarely on an arms embargo; but rather than targeting federal officials, union activists are plunging headfirst into organizing pressure against local governments to prevent weapons shipments through their ports and transportation hubs.

In Somerville, it is crunch time for the divestment ballot question: with about three months left to collect the needed 5,200 signatures, Somerville for Palestine needs all hands on deck to get across the threshold to be on the ballot this fall. To support Somerville for Palestine’s efforts, you can sign up for a canvass at tinyurl.com/canvass4s4p.

Nick Lavin is a Boston Public Schools paraprofessional and a member of the Boston Teachers Union.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated there were 5500 signatures necessary to obtain ballot access, when the number is actually 5200.

The post Somerville Fights for Palestine appeared first on Working Mass.