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Organizing can be exhausting. A leader of Silicon Valley DSA describes how careful construction of a joyful, engaged environment for members revived their chapter.

The post Chant Your Comrade’s Name appeared first on Democratic Left.

El 7 de julio del 2026, agentes de ICE persiguieron y asesinaron a Lorenzo Salgado Araújo mientras iba camino al trabajo en el barrio Second Ward de Houston.  Desde hace […]

The post Una declaración sobre el Asesinato de Lorenzo Salgado Araújo a manos de ICE el 7 de julio del 2026 appeared first on Houston DSA.

On July 7, 2026, ICE agents targeted and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while on his way to work in Houston’s Second Ward.  For more than a year, people in Houston […]

The post A Statement on the Murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by ICE on July 7, 2026 appeared first on Houston DSA.

By Sean Mullins

We often think of the work we do to build socialism as a struggle. Of course it is, but could we also think of it as a game? If it is a game, then is there a rule set we must follow? Or are we allowed to make our own rules?

Finally, is it more important to “win” at the game of socialism, or should we be far more concerned about how it is we go about playing the game? Every game is a system, you see. Much like the system that we oppose and wish to deconstruct completely.

Years ago I joined DSA for the same reason many people do. I learned how messed up our world truly is and I felt compelled to do something about it. Joining was pretty easy. I clicked on a few website buttons and eventually I showed up for my very first general meeting. I met a few people, I gave an introduction speech, and eventually I got plugged in to Slack. Before long I learned about our chapter’s basic structure, which revolved around working groups which all had a specific type of organizing in mind. I went to some meetings, and a few socials, and of course also did a bit of canvassing.

All of that was the easy part. It was a path that had already been paved for me, in a sense. But then, after trying out a few things for a few working groups, I eventually had to answer the question that had been lingering in the back of my head. Why am I really here? Or more specifically, what can I as an individual offer an organization like ours? I wasn’t rich, I wasn’t super smart, and I certainly didn’t have tons of connections. I was also disabled both mentally and physically. Disability by definition limits the choices we have for the things we are capable of doing.

I eventually recalled a passage from Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.” Saul used the analogy of painting a single leaf for a lifetime, to describe the frustration every activist eventually feels. The work we do tends to feel very small and insignificant sometimes. Particularly if we never allow ourselves to step back and view the “tree” we’re working on as a whole. Because what if you weren’t the only one painting a leaf?

If we consider the tree to be DSA as an organization, or better yet the overall cause that is socialism, then there are an awful lot of leaves and branches indeed. It’s easy to see how one might spend a lifetime on one leaf/project or one branch/organization/chapter.

And so I knew then what I had to do. I had to find “my” leaf. I had been wandering aimlessly around the tree looking for where I might start painting. But once I began to consider what I was most comfortable with, skilled at, or passionate about, I immediately considered my obsession with table top gaming. I had amassed a decent collection of games, I had devoted an entire YouTube channel to playing them, and I had even hosted numerous game events in the past for other groups. “Why doesn’t our chapter have a game night?” I wondered aloud. I had found my leaf, and now it was time to start painting.

Have you found your leaf yet? It’s okay if you haven’t. It took me over a year to find mine. Sometimes it doesn’t jump right out at you. And it doesn’t even need to be a unique trail that only you can blaze, or a thing you alone can create. But if you’re like me, you may initially doubt the importance of the leaf you end up choosing. Given the material conditions that we find ourselves in, I legitimately wondered if I was just “wasting time” by trying to sit around and play games with my comrades. I mean the world is literally on fire, after all (among other things). Was I Nero grabbing a fiddle?

BOUNCY CASTLE COMMUNISM

One of the main reasons I’m writing this article is another article that a comrade shared with me. I found it so interesting that I shared it in the membership engagement Slack channel. This sparked yet another conversation and in fact we had an entire meeting revolve around the concepts discussed in this article! It poses a very simple question. Why is the left no fun? We have fun all the time, of course. But how often do we truly consider the relationship between fun and our organizing work? The article wonders why we don’t have “bouncy castle communism.” Why aren’t we trying harder to have truly inclusive communal activities that right-wing groups so often have? What about carnivals, or theater groups, or baseball leagues?

The article makes clear that there was once a time when socialists understood the true power of just… being social. They knew that social activities weren’t just a nice thing to have, they were an essential element of this thing we call organizing. They knew that in order to get the working class to show up, you need bouncy castles for their kids to play on, you need baseball games for them to enjoy, and you most certainly need to show them a good time rather than just have a bunch of meetings and the occasional trip to the bar.

These socialists even started coming up with and continued to refine a hard set of rules for how their socials should ideally be conducted in order to get the most out of them. They absolutely wanted to educate the working class and galvanize them into action, but they also knew they needed to give folks a reason to stick around long enough for any of that to happen. Education does take time, after all. And action doesn’t come from nowhere. We must have a why, and that why needs to be compelling enough to keep moving us forward regardless of the cost.

Would you like to get to know your comrades a little better? Would you like to bond over shared interests? Do you love playing games? There are all sorts of ways to get involved in game night! You could come to one of our events, which are usually on the last Saturday of the month at Pandemonium Games and Hobbies in Garden City around 4pm. If you dig game night after trying it out, there’s a bunch of ways to stay tapped in. We do have a games channel on our chapter Slack, which is a great place to make suggestions or ask questions. You can also just DM me as well of course.

The MDDSA game night will always strive to be a highly inclusive and welcoming event, as any socialist event should be. No matter who you are, no matter what games you prefer to play. Any feedback is always welcome too! And please remember that if games aren’t the leaf you want to paint, then you can always find your own. Or you can help another comrade with their leaf! Just know that it is a part of this tree that we call socialism. Painting this tree may take our whole lives, and our children may need to pick up a brush someday too. But we will all paint it for the same reason. We believe in a better world which is possible. Solidarity forever.

Sean Mullins has been a DSA member for two years and is a member of the Detroit Democracy Coalition. He is a member of the Member Engagement Committee.

Rolling the Die for Socialism was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.