DSA Feed
This is a feed aggregator that collects news and updates from DSA chapters, national working groups and committees, and our publications all in one convenient place. Updated every day at 8AM, 12PM, 4PM, and 8AM UTC.
DSA Has Arrived
By Madeline W.
Metro Detroit DSA endorsed four candidates in local races and eked out wins in all four, flexing the political muscle the likes of which NYC-DSA and Denver DSA demonstrated a month ago in their barrage of wins across endorsed races.
Cadre candidate and environmental advocate Chris Gilmer-Hill ran against incumbent Democrat Helena Scott in Michigan’s 8th State House District — covering areas of Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, and Northwest Detroit — and won by 6 percentage points. In an election season increasingly defined by the role of corporate money in politics, Scott was a vulnerable candidate due to her close relationship with DTE and corporate interests. Gilmer-Hill ran on a progressive platform, stumping for key DSA priorities like taking on DTE, enacting Medicare for All, and expanding socialized housing access and protection. Gilmer-Hill will face Republican Bruce Langran in the November general election.
By far the most ambitious campaign for Metro Detroit DSA this primary was Donavan McKinney’s campaign to unseat incumbent Democrat Shri Thanedar in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, encompassing all of Grosse Pointe, all of Detroit, and some of the Down River cities. Thanedar, a Metro Detroit DSA member until his expulsion a few years ago, had become embattled in recent years due to unpopular political positions in a district that was historically held by the late Democratic Socialist John Conyers. Last year, Thanedar voted with House Republicans to “thank” ICE for their mass deportation regime.
McKinney sought endorsement from DSA in late spring and was formally approved by the chapter body in June, giving MD-DSA just a few months to build campaign infrastructure capable of beating Thanedar — a monumental undertaking with so little time. The path to victory the chapter saw was not straightforward, but his race had one main factor going for it: significant parts of his district overlapped geographically with Chris Gilmer-Hill’s State House race, making it easy to quickly ramp up McKinney’s campaign work in the area.
Combined, DSA knocked 50K doors for Chris Gilmer-Hill and Donavan McKinney. That, along with critical support from fellow socialists in office, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and State Representative Dylan Wegela, propelled McKinney to victory. Early this morning, McKinney was declared the winner of his primary contest, winning by 4 percentage points. In the November general election, McKinney will face Republican challenger TP Nykoriak to become the next Congressman in what is a deep blue district.
Elsewhere in Metro Detroit, incumbent Democratic Socialists, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and State Representative Dylan Wegela, cruised to victory. They will face James Hooper and Chris Dobis, respectively, in the November general election.
Michigan is seen as a prime battleground in a proxy war playing out in the Democratic Party nationally between progressives and Democratic Socialists, and the establishment Democratic base. Today, we can now confidently say that Michigan has spoken: DSA is here to stay.
Madeline is the co-editor for The Detroit Socialist and a member of Groundwork.
DSA Has Arrived was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Sportcialism
Three DSA members discuss the intersection of socialism and sports fandom on this episode of "Class," the podcast of the National Political Education Committee.
The post Sportcialism appeared first on Democratic Left.
Statement on the Theft of Our Bus Stop Benches
We are issuing the following statement regarding the theft and defacement of bus stop benches by a local hate group, as well as the confiscation of benches by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) following Commissioner Dane Scalise’s promise to get in the way of mutual aid efforts to provide a place for all to rest. We will also take the opportunity to further contextualize this situation.
A key aspect of Democratic Socialism is the practice of mutual aid, which aims to share resources without seeking profit, build solidarity, and ultimately lead to community self-determination. Repurposing the waste of Capitalism by collecting discarded lumber and paint and inviting neighbors to improve their community is mutual aid. The messages on our benches are an expression of solidarity with the city and people in it. The physical structure is a material good to improve the lives of those living here. Our name is as essential to the benches as anything else. DSA doesn’t dictate the hopeful messages that are painted on our benches as some form of advertising; they come from the hearts of the community members who come to our public bench paints. The benches exist because we believe socialism means working together to give everyone the means to secure their own agency and dignity. This means a right to housing, medical care, education, fast and reliable public transit and yes, the right to a place to sit and rest in public. The benches are not a secret advertisement for Democratic Socialism; the benches themselves are the product of Democratic Socialism.
The bench that was stolen, repainted and then posted online had the following messages: “Socialism is Slavery” and “Socialists want to take everything that you have except your job.” Disagreements aside, we appreciate the irony that the vandals could only display their message on a bench built by socialists which they proceeded to “take” instead of building something on their own. We had no plans to pursue a single bench used in an internet stunt, especially since it did not seem as though the bench was actually left for commuters to use. That serves no one, especially the individuals who used that bench to get to and from work, or around the city. If the bench is, indeed, at a new location, we hope it is able to be used by people who need it.
Following this theft, Dane Scalise, vice-chair of county commissioners, requested permission from NCDOT for the County to remove all benches to avoid “vigilantism” and “lawlessness.” As of this morning, NCDOT has removed many of the benches on state right-of-way. It is noteworthy that Scalise offered no solutions to the transit issues in our city, just the removal of material goods that had been in place for up to 15 months without issue until now. Barely concealing his political motives, Scalise went so far as to suggest he will do everything in his power to prevent Wave from “partnering” with the DSA. He makes it apparent that he’d prefer transit riders to stand rather than sit on a bench built by socialists. Holding up the actions of a small group of fascists as a justification is only punishing the people of Wilmington for the actions of an isolated minority. We want to be clear: these people are not concerned with public safety; they are concerned with denying a service to the community because they’re scared of the theory it is born out of. They are scared of a world where everyone has their needs met, because that is a world where they have no power. This project is not intended to empower either political party, as we are not affiliated with either. We are first and foremost dedicated to empowering the people of Wilmington.
Many of the actors in this situation are claiming to be acting out of genuine concern for community safety. However, any member of the city or county government that lives in Wilmington would have seen these benches. If they had truly been concerned, they could’ve easily learned who made them and reached out. To pretend otherwise is willful ignorance. Our name was on them; we did not hide this program. It was open to the public, advertised heavily, and we wanted the community to participate. Scalise’s actions in particular play directly into the hands of the group that stole the bench. Whether he did this intentionally or through genuine ignorance is irrelevant. He should be voted out as soon as possible, unless he chooses to apologize to transit riders of Wilmington by tendering his resignation immediately so that he can be replaced by someone more willing to serve the people they represent.
We acted because we want to highlight the contradiction between what people can do with small resources and what hasn’t been done by those with ample resources. This city and county have the money and resources for improvements. The state of public transit in Wilmington and New Hanover County is not set in stone. It comes from policy decisions, made by our elected leaders, and carried out by staff. That means it can be changed. Anyone who is telling you otherwise, or telling you they are helpless and that you just need to vote more, is lying to you. If you appreciate our work, please come build and paint benches with us, and join our letter campaign demanding that Commissioner Dane Scalise and the rest of the county commissioners call for NCDOT to allow our benches to be returned to the community or otherwise take immediate steps to provide official non-hostile seating for the people of Wilmington.
Weekly Roundup: August 4, 2026
In June, ILWU Local 6 and Local 10 workers at C&H Sugar in Crockett, CA went on strike against contract takeaways and to demand the company negotiate in good faith. The company responded by rerouting a shipment of raw sugar to a nearby non-union facility, bypassing the striking ILWU workers, and dumping sugar from Negros Island in the Philippines onto its docks. Negros, where just months earlier, the Armed Forces of the Philippines massacred 19 human rights activists, community journalists, and land defenders, including Bay Area organizer and SFSU alumnus Lyle Prijoles.
On August 7 at 6:00 PM at the DSA office (1916 McAllister St), come to Bloody Sugar: The C&H Strike and Justice for Land Defenders in the Philippines, where we’ll connect the C&H strike to the struggle of Filipino sugar workers and land defenders, examine sugar’s bloody history and the imperialist global supply chains that bind us together in struggle, and discuss how we can organize in solidarity here in San Francisco.
- RSVP for Bloody Sugar: the C&H Strike and Justice for Land Defenders in the Philippines
- Read DSA SF’s statement: Justice for Lyle Prijoles and the Negros 19!
| Events & Actions |
Tuesday August 4 (5:30 PM – 7:00 PM) Social Housing Working Group (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
Wednesday August 5 (6:00 PM – 9:00 PM) Social Housing Happy Hour (MOTHERSHIP, 3152 Mission St)
Wednesday August 5 (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) Tech Worker Reading Group (in person at 1916 McAllister St)
Thursday August 6 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Education Board Open Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
Thursday August 6 (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) Immigrant Justice Regular Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
Friday August 7 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Bloody Sugar: the C&H Strike and Justice for Land Defenders in the Philippines (in person at 1916 McAllister St)
Saturday August 8 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM) No Appetite for Apartheid: Consumer Pledge Canvass (Dolores Park, by the Miguel Higalgo Statue)
Saturday August 8 (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM) Fundamentals of Tenant Organizing [ETOC] (in person at 1916 McAllister St)
Sunday August 9 (5:00 PM – 6:00 PM) Tenderloin Healing Circle Working Group Meeting (zoom only)
Monday August 10 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Tenderloin Healing Circle (Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Ave)
Monday August 10 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM)Labor Working Group Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
Tuesday August 11 (6:30 PM – 8:30 PM) Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting(zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
Wednesday August 12 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM)DSA SF General Meeting (zoom and in person at Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco, 1187 Franklin Street (at Geary) in the Starr King Room)
Saturday August 15 (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM) Fundamentals of Tenant Organizing [ETOC] (in person at 1916 McAllister St)
Saturday August 15 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Homelessness Working Group Food Service (Patricia’s Green Picnic Area, 499 1/2 Hayes St)
Sunday August 16 (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM) Affordable Housing Guarantee Act Field Kickoff (Duboce Park)
Monday August 17 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Homelessness Working Group Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)
Bloody Sugar: the C&H Strike and Justice for Land Defenders in the Philippines
Join us on the evening of Friday, August 7 at 6:00 PM at the DSA SF office, 1916 McAllister St — we’re hosting a guest speaker from San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines to discuss the recent events that connect the strike against C&H Sugar in Crockett, California to the massacre of 19 land defenders and activists in Toboso, Negros Occidental in the Philippines. We’ll dive into sugar’s bloody history, learn about the links in the imperialist global supply chain that bind us together in struggle, and discuss what we can do here in San Francisco.
RSVP for Bloody Sugar: the C&H Strike and Justice for Land Defenders in the Philippines
Apartheid-Free Bay Area Consumer Pledge Canvassing
Come join us for our next No Appetite for Apartheid consumer canvass! We will be meeting in Dolores Park on August 8 at 11:00 AM at the Miguel Hidalgo Statue. Help build support for the 200 apartheid-free zones our campaign has established in SF.
Social Housing Ballot Measure Field Kickoff
Great news: according to recent polling, the DSA SF-endorsed Affordable Housing Guarantee Act has support the support of 67% of San Franciscans, but there are still so many who haven’t heard about the measure yet. We need your help to make sure every San Franciscan hears about this measure directly from us – join us to kickoff the field campaign for the Affordable Housing Guarantee Act, Sunday, August 16 at 11:00 AM at Duboce Park.
RSVP for the Social Housing Ballot Measure Field Kickoff
Picnic in the Park
Join your friendly neighborhood socialists at Dolores Park on August 22 from 2:30 PM to 5:00 PM for an afternoon hanging out in the park. Great for families and new members! Bring snacks to share and a blanket! Meet in picnic area by the playground.
Beach Day with Palestine Solidarity Working Group
Join the Palestine Solidarity Working Group at Ocean Beach on August 29 at 2:00 PM as we play some games and enjoy some time on the beach together! We’ll have snacks/drinks and a volleyball net, and of course we will be snagging a bonfire pit for the vibes. 
Please bring whatever you’d like to roast over the fire and come learn more about our work with Palestine!
RSVP for Beach Day via Partiful
Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates.
| Reportbacks |
Know Your Rights Canvassing in the Fillmore
A small but mighty crew of four DSA members met at Raymond Kimbell Park on Saturday, August 1st to do some Know Your Rights Canvassing in the Fillmore District. The group went out into the community to chat with employees and business owners about what to do in the event of ICE agents showing up at their business. Informational handouts in both English and Spanish were distributed along with red cards that provide an easy script on what to say if you are in a situation confronting ICE.
Several blocks of Fillmore were covered and the businesses were receptive and often appreciative of the information being given to them. It also was a chance for DSA members to interact with the public in general, and some direct conversations were sparked with members of the community. DSA members enthusiastically encouraged curious people to seek out https://dsasf.org/events/ to get involved.
If you are interested in joining our next KYR Canvassing event or have suggestions on neighborhoods we should visit please join our Immigrant Justice Slack channel or check the events page for our upcoming meetings and planned community events.
EWOC Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing Week #3
Last Tuesday, we held our third session of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) course Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing, a four week course that goes into the basics of organizing: from organizing committees to inoculation against the boss. A group of about 10 met in person at 1916 McAllister to watch the course plenary before engaging in group discussion about the material.
This week’s topic was “Collective Action and Escalation” and was focused on the approach of building the cohesion and unity within a workplace necessary to make demands of the bosses. The plenary emphasized that Organizing Committees need to pick issues that promote worker cohesion in the campaign. Following that: the demands in a campaign need to be widely and deeply felt, definable, specific, measurable, and significant enough to actually change peoples’ lives. Also noted was the fact that often the choice of campaign target is as important as the issues chosen for the campaign–campaign targets should be people who are within reach of the workers and who are decision-makers. Finally, the plenary emphasized that escalating the campaign requires buy-in from coworkers at every stage. The campaign should only be escalated when your coworkers are ready for the next step. Discussion touched on stress tests, the mechanics of escalation, and the tact necessary to organize workers who are on visa or are undocumented.
The next session will take place on Tuesday, August 4 at 7:00 PM, hosted at 1916 McAllister St and will cover the Inoculation Against The Boss’s Campaign.
If you’d like to get involved with the SF local chapter of EWOC, reach out to the lead coordinator Caitlin S. or email labor@dsasf.org. EWOC is a standing topic at meetings of the Labor Working group, which are held every fourth Monday at 7:00 PM, both in-person at 1916 McAllister St and over Zoom. Anyone is welcome to attend, and we’re always looking for people interested in workplace lead canvassing, organizer trainings, and volunteer outreach. If you’re interested in organizing your workplace and would like to be connected with an EWOC organizer, fill out the request form here.
| 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 publishing the weekly newsletter. Members can view current CCC rotations.
Interested in helping with the newsletter or other day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running? Fill out the CCC help form.
How to talk to the press about your union campaign
Publicity can significantly shape a union campaign. Learn how to pressure your boss, rally public support, and sow doubt and division among management.
The post How to talk to the press about your union campaign appeared first on EWOC.
DSA’s “Workers Deserve More” Platform And Why the Press Can’t Stop Wringing Its Hands
A roundup of recent coverage
The post DSA’s “Workers Deserve More” Platform And Why the Press Can’t Stop Wringing Its Hands appeared first on Democratic Left.
A THREAT TO PUBLIC SAFETY: Police Brutality at the Corey Ruiz Vigil and the Negligent Governance of Mayor Satya
On August 4th, 2026, at approximately 5am, officers from the Madison Police Department and the Wisconsin State Patrol surrounded the Corey Ruiz Memorial Vigil at the intersection of Willy St. and S. Baldwin. These police officers cowered behind the city workers tasked with descending upon the barricades in Bobcats, bulldozers, and garbage trucks. The police only engaged with the volunteers when they were comfortably armed to the teeth in riot gear. With overwhelming force, they brutalized the protesters at the Vigil.
Verbal reports provided to Madison Area DSA included statements that police forces threw protesters onto broken glass, comrades were bound and carried like suitcases, and these brutes gloated about their mistreatment of the volunteers and houseless people at the memorial. These armed forces of the state profaned a community space that, through 13 days of sustained care, served a need for collective grief and remembrance of a man murdered at their hands.
Here is the so-called “peaceful” transition encouraged by Mayor Satya in her correspondence with the general public. Let us all remember just what Mayor Satya means whenever she dares to speak about “peace.” Peace for whom? Certainly this is not peace for the houseless of Madison. Not for Black and brown working class people. For Mayor Satya, peace is the restoration of convenience for the white and well-off. Peace is the end of the community’s disruption of a system that has murdered Corey Ruiz, Tony Robinson, and Richard Lee Johnson. That is Mayor Satya’s “peace.”
Prior to 5am on August 4th, the memorial site was calm. There were no altercations reported to the Madison Area DSA. Individuals de-escalated potential conflicts through their own efforts, demonstrating that the MPD is incompetent in their role of maintaining order. For a short time, the houseless people of Madison had somewhere safe to sleep, demonstrating that the city government is incompetent in their role of providing for the people. The community stepped up where our government failed. That evening demonstrated what the organizers on the ground already knew– we keep us safe. Mayor Satya’s vision of public safety is hiding behind a line of riot police marching down Willy street, while never meeting face-to-face with the protesters demanding that she and the MPD take accountability for a state-sanctioned murderer.
The true threat to the public safety of Madison is Mayor Satya’s incompetent governance and the MPD. It’s the structural violence of homelessness that imminently threatens every wage-worker who is one missed rent payment, one traumatic injury, or one catastrophe away from a fate of complete dehumanization. It’s the racial violence of the carceral state where the police may kill Black and brown people with impunity–where a murderer can walk free as long as that murder is funded by tax-payer money. The biggest threat to our public safety is allowing this system to continue.
The Madison Area DSA condemns Mayor Satya in mishandling the Corey Ruiz Vigil and sanctioning the MPD’s brutal treatment of the protesters. We join other community organizations, such as Freedom Inc., the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and local individual Black organizers, in demanding the immediate arrest of the murderer cop Kiel Baitinger-Peterson. We demand the funding and empowerment of an independent Office of the Independent Police Monitor and Police Civilian Oversight Board, and to provide all information requested by them immediately. We demand justice for Corey Ruiz, and others murdered by racist state violence.
We stand with the rest of Madison. We demand community control of the police.
Executive Committee
Madison Area Democratic Socialists of America
Against the Tribunal Left: DSA, Moralism, and Socialist Discipline
Fights over “cancel culture,” “political correctness,” and “call-out culture” reveal a deeper problem: the difficulty of distinguishing socialist discipline from moral punishment, comradely correction from public shaming, and class struggle from subcultural boundary maintenance.
The post Against the Tribunal Left: DSA, Moralism, and Socialist Discipline appeared first on Democratic Left.
Announcing Memphis-Midsouth DSA Merch Design Contest
Calling all socialist artists!
Got design skills and want to put them to work for the movement?
The Memphis-Midsouth Democratic Socialists of America is putting out a call for original designs to feature on our merch. Your logo could appear on t-shirts, mugs, totes, hats, stickers, and whatever else we can print on to sell merch as a fundraiser for our chapter work.
Deadline for submissions is 11:59 pm on Tuesday, September 1.
Merch Design Contest Rules
- Design must include our chapter name – either “Memphis-Midsouth DSA” or “Memphis-Midsouth Democratic Socialists of America”
- Absolutely NO AI
- Maximum two submissions per person
- No copyrighted or trademarked material
- Design must adapt across various merch items (e.g. can be used as the logo on a hat, t-shirt, tote bag, etc.)
- Format for submissions: Vector file preferred (EPS, SVG) or high-res PNG (300 DPI+)
- Design must work in both full color and black-and-white versions (for print cost flexibility)
- Submissions are open to members and non-members
- Chapter membership will vote for the winning design at our September 8 General Meeting
- Prize: Your design will be printed on a run of merchandise to fundraise for our work (and you’ll get some free merch with your design on it, too!)
The tide is turning. More and more people are seeing that socialism isn’t a dirty word because it’s the path forward for humanity. Every piece of Memphis-Midsouth DSA merch is a conversation starter and a chance to spread the word about our values and the work we’re doing here – so let’s give them something to talk about!
Email submissions to the chapter at memphisdsa@protonmail.com
Read more at Memphis-Midsouth
Election Live Blog: Scenes from McKinney Victory Party
Update: DSA candidates win Michigan legislative races, Ann Arbor mayoral primary.
The post Election Live Blog: Scenes from McKinney Victory Party appeared first on Democratic Left.