To err is human, to be a union organizer is to make mistakes. We all do it, so don't sweat it. Here are some tips to try to avoid the next one.

The post Common Mistakes New Union Organizers Make—and How to Avoid Them appeared first on EWOC.

Events & Actions

Tuesday, August 12 (8:15 AM – 4:45 PM) ICE Out of SF Courts! (In person at 100 Montgomery)

Tuesday, August 12 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM) Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (Zoom)

Wednesday, August 13 (6:45 PM – 9:00 PM) August General Meeting (Zoom and in person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Ave)

Thursday, August 14 (5:30 PM – 6:30 PM) Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Thursday, August 14 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Immigrant Justice Office Hour (Zoom)

Friday, August 15 (8:15 AM – 4:45 PM) ICE Out of SF Courts! (In person at 100 Montgomery)

Friday, August 15 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM) Maker Friday: SF Zine Fest Prep (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, August 16 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Homelessness Working Group Food Service (In person at Castro & Market)

Sunday, August 17 (1:30 PM – 5:00 PM) Tenant Organizing Canvass (Meet in person at In Chan Kaajal Park)

Sunday, August 17 (5:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Capital Reading Group (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, August 18 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Socialist In Office (SIO) Subcommittee Regular Meeting (Zoom)

Monday, August 18 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, August 18 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

Tuesday, August 19 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) DSA SF Tech Reading Group feat. Author Mike Monteiro (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, August 20 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM) What Is DSA? (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Friday, August 22 (6:30 PM to 8:00 PM) Book Talk with Jaz Brisack: Get On the Job and Organize (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, August 23 (2:00 PM to 4:30 PM) Palestine Healing Circle (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates. Events with a are especially new-member-friendly!

ICE Out of SF Courts!

Join neighbors, activists, grassroots organizations in resisting ICE abductions happening at immigration court hearings! ICE is taking anyone indiscriminately in order to meet their daily quotas. Many of those taken include people with no removal proceedings.

We’ll be meeting every Tuesday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30  p.m. at Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery. We need all hands on deck, even if you can only participate for 1 or 2 hours.

Join East Bay DSA and Social Security Workers United to Rally for Social Security’s 90th Birthday

The recent attacks from the Trump administration and DOGE on Social Security workers and the services they provide have made our jobs more difficult and have degraded service for the millions of Americans who rely on Social Security. But we’re ready to fight back. That’s why on August 14, Social Security’s 90th birthday, we are taking action to keep #SocialSecurityStrong.

Join us as we demand Social Security Administrator Frank Bisignano:

• Fully staff the Social Security Administration to reduce wait times and ensure high quality service delivered by professionals, not machines.
• Protect the private information that millions of Americans have entrusted to the Social Security Administration.
• Make the rich pay their fair share so that we can expand Social Security and keep it strong for the next 90 years.

Maker Friday: Zine Edition

DSA SF will be tabling at SF Zine Fest at the end of the month! Help us fold and update zines, or bring your own craft and come hang out. Everyone is welcome!

No Appetite for Apartheid Canvass

No Appetite for Apartheid is a campaign aimed at reducing economic support for Israeli apartheid by canvassing local businesses to boycott Israeli goods. Come and canvass local businesses with the Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialist Working Group!

On Saturday, August 16th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., we will be doing a training on how to talk to stores in your neighborhood, then going out and talking with stores together! Meet at 1916 McAllister.

Calling Out Capitalism: An Op-Ed Writing Workshop

San Francisco needs good stories about capitalism’s failures. Why not yours?

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to write effective op-eds, find an audience for your story, and reframe the narratives media outlets miss. Join us on Sunday, August 17 from 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM at 1916 McAllister. You can RSVP by clicking the image above or visiting this link.

Tech Worker Reading Group: The Case for Community with Mike Monteiro

Come join TWC, DSA SF, BAL4P, and RDU tech workers at 1916 McAllister on Tuesday, August 19th from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM for our monthly tech reading group. We’ll be reading a chapter from Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro, “The Case for Community.” 

Palestine Healing Circle

Join us Saturday, August 23rd from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM at 1916 McAllister for the Palestine Healing Circle. The event will begin with a healing circle and end with a community potluck. Join us as we take a moment to process and collectively hold the grief of the devastation in Palestine

Sunday Sip ‘n’ Stitch

Calling all artists for Sip N Stitch! Bring a craft while casually enjoying some drinks with comrades on Sunday, August 24th from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at Rise & Grind Coffeehouse at 2598 Folsom St. All are welcome!

Labor & Homelessness Working Group Food Serve and Rideshare Driver Political Education Event

Join Labor and the Homelessness Working Group for a food serve and political education event at Bayside Park near Burlingame on Tuesday, August 26th from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM. We need volunteers to help Homelessness Working Group with food prep and also helping with political education and serving! Pop into the #labor channel on Slack if you’re interested.

People’s Conference for Palestine

We’re excited to announce that our chapter is sending a five-person delegation to join thousands of organizers, artists, students, and community members from across North America at the People’s Conference for Palestine, taking place August 29th through 31st, 2025, in Detroit, Michigan.

With the guiding theme “Gaza is the compass,” the conference aims to deepen our collective strategy, convene us at a critical juncture, and strengthen the mass movement for Palestinian liberation in North America. Attendees will engage in plenaries, workshops, cultural events, and organizing sessions that reflect the urgency of this moment.

Our organization is proud to endorse the conference and is actively mobilizing our members to attend. We see this as a critical opportunity to connect with others in the movement, share strategies, and reaffirm our commitment to justice for Palestine.

Although we’ve voted on our official delegation, you’re still able to attend if you’d like and join up with other Bay Area organizers!

For more information and to register, visit the official conference website at peoplesconferenceforpalestine.org

Can’t make it? Consider donating to support the cost of the Conference.

Help spread the word by liking and sharing the following posts:

Call for Endorsers: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJAE5LJgJFl/

Twitter: https://x.com/palyouthmvmt/status/1910362321794236544

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DIeUmF6gBQr/?img_index=1 

DSA SF Homelessness Working Group Reads: Capitalism & Disability: Selected Writings by Marta Russell

Join DSA SF’s Homelessness Working Group as we read through Capitalism & Disability: Selected Writings by Marta Russell. We’ll be meeting at 1916 McAllister starting September 7th at 5:30pm and running every other week for 4 or 5 sessions. For more info, register here: bit.ly/martacd

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.

Nearly one in six workers is an independent contractor. Learn how you can organize for better conditions.

The post Can freelancers unionize? appeared first on EWOC.

By: Ian McClure

Call to Action: Another “Climb with the Union” event is scheduled for Saturday, 16 August at 2 p.m. Supporters are encouraged to wear union paraphernalia and tell the front desk why they came! DYNO Gym is located at 3500 Orleans St. in Detroit, MI.

Rock climbing is a lot like organizing; it relies on trust, collaboration, and communication. That’s why it’s no wonder that around 30 workers at Detroit’s DYNO Climbing Gym formed a union this July, with a supermajority signing union cards and marching on the boss! After losing their paid breaks and seeing popular coworkers fired, they formed DYNO Detroit Climbing Workers United (D2CWU) and organized with Workers United Chicago and Midwest Joint Board, joining a nationwide movement of organizing climbers.

Two weeks after announcing their intention to unionize, the workers hosted a solidarity climbing night, inviting climbers and labor allies to show up in public support of their effort. Over 50 turned up on a Thursday evening to climb union-themed routes and show their support. While supporters climbed Solidarity Forever (V2) and Union Strong (V4), workers who weren’t on shift circulated the room in matching Workers United t-shirts, handing out buttons, and sharing in the solidarity.

“It feels amazing to see how much community support there is, and to come in and feel like I’m only able to walk five steps before someone’s stopping me to say how stoked they are to support us. I’m really excited to keep going and to make this a better place for us and for everyone who climbs here” said Sky, a D2CWU member and organizer. When workers got on the intercom and invited supporters to take a photo at the front of the gym, cheers and celebrations followed.

It’s clear that for DYNO workers that the gym is more than just a job, and that organizing is a way for them to protect the community that they’ve built there. As Sky put it, “It’s a meeting place, a gathering place, everyone here has a shared interest. […] This is a great place for people to meet new people and work out things that are in their body that need to come out the way that sports do, while also providing a social space to do that.”

They are acutely aware that the conditions of their work directly impact the state of the gym and its members, and so, for Sky, unionizing isn’t just about pay and benefits, but also about protecting that community. “We can foster a better space that gives people a better feeling. The energy in here is going to be better. We already have an amazing energy here; that’s why I applied to work here!”

DYNO is not the first gym to unionize, with over 800 climbers in NYC, LA, Philadelphia, Chicago, Vermont, and Virginia already organized with Workers United. As climbing continues to grow as a sport, so too will the movement of workers organizing at climbing gyms.

When Sky was asked for advice to other climbers thinking about a union, they said “Oh my god, reach out to us if you have any questions or want any help in navigating the process! Do it. We’re stronger together. If workers have input on how things are run, then they will be run better, because we know what we’re doing.”

The quoted interview in this story was conducted by Frances Reade.

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Detroit’s DYNO Gym Climbs into the Labor Movement was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

by Sara G.

Do you like libraries, gender-neutral IDs, solidarity with marginalized groups, and defying Greg Abbott? You can get all of these things at once with Austin Public Library’s Enhanced Library Card (ELC). It serves as a normal library card but contains more information including your photo, address, and date of birth. It does NOT contain your citizenship information or gender.  

Austin Public Library has formal agreements with many other city services to allow the use of the card for ID, such as Austin Police Department, some city courts, and community organizations like the YWCA. Area businesses may choose to accept it as well. It is not a state ID, however. You cannot use it to vote. 

Austin has offered Enhanced Library Cards since 2023, but they are more useful than ever as we see an increase in attacks on liberty and personal dignity in Texas. Trans Texans cannot change the gender markers on their state identification, including driver’s licenses and birth certificates. This means that some transgender people are forced to carry identification that does not match their gender presentation, which can cause awkward and sometimes even dangerous interactions with authorities and other members of the community. 

Using an ELC allows transgender people to identify themselves without having to out themselves during mundane community interactions. This is particularly important in light of HB 32 (and its companion bill, SB 7), which has been filed for the Summer 2025 Texas special legislative session. HB 32 and SB 7 would require people to use sex-segregated spaces that match the sex recorded on their original birth certificate. This applies to all sex segregated spaces, including bathrooms, locker rooms, and jail cells that are located in family violence shelters, correctional facilities, public schools and universities, and other government facilities. If this law passes, transgender people will face the lose-lose choice between breaking the law to use bathrooms that match their gender presentation, and risking violence and harassment to use bathrooms that match their birth certificates. In light of the difficult choices transgender people may soon have to make, having an ELC may provide significant safety benefits to transgender people as they move through the public spaces in their communities. 

The ELC also assists residents who have trouble getting a more common ID such as a driver’s license due to lack of mobility or prior documentation. People who are unhoused or returning to the city after incarceration are often caught in a cruel catch-22. They often have no current ID because they had no way to renew it or it was stolen or destroyed by the police. They no longer have current ID, but to get the most common forms of ID, they need to already have a way to prove their identity. They can’t get an ID because they don’t have an ID. The ELC can act as that first form of ID that provides the stepping stone to other documentation. Austin Public Library sends an outreach team with a mobile printer into the communities that most need these IDs to help fill this vital gap.

More usage of the ELC normalizes ELC use for everyone. We encourage everyone to get and use an ELC, even people who are not members of the groups that most need ELCs, because normalizing ELC usage makes it easier for those who vitally need ELCs to use them. If only undocumented residents used ELCs, ELC usage would be a red flag regarding documentation. If we all use ELCs, ELC usage cannot be used to unfairly target one group. Using an ELC is a show of solidarity with the more marginalized members of your community. 

Getting an ELC takes about 15 minutes. You can see the Austin Public Library locations offering an ELC here, as well as the list of materials you need to bring with you. Pledge to get an ELC before August 15th, and you’ll be invited to Austin DSA’s ELC party. Let’s celebrate solidarity together and stick the middle finger to Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, and the other ghouls running our state.

The post You Should Get an Enhanced Library Card first appeared on Red Fault.

The Mask off Maersk campaign has successfully pressured the company and made it harder for them to deliver arms to Israel. The project can be a blueprint for how to win an arms embargo. 

The post Mask off Maersk Shows How to Win an Arms Embargo appeared first on Democratic Left.

Concerted activity refers to actions taken by one or more workers to improve their wages, hours, or working conditions.

The post What is concerted activity? appeared first on EWOC.

Chaz Howard, Chaplain at University of Pennsylvania, joins the podcast to talk about purpose and vocation, Black Liberation Theology as a needed remedy for American religion, and the necessity of spirituality in our activist work. We also discuss his new book, Uncovering Your Path, which you can purchase here: https://www.charleslattimorehoward.com

By: Jade DeSloover

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Rabbit Hole v.004 was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

DSA member Zohran Mamdani’s victory in NYC’s mayoral Democratic Party primary is a case study in effective coalition-building. How did Zohran accomplish the impossible, going from 2% support in early polling to a decisive victory just 6 months later? Mamdani’s Obama-esque ability to resonate with voters across demographic and political lines played a part, as did the campaign’s strong field and communications operations. But another decisive factor came early in the campaign, at an endorsement forum hosted in February by DC 37, New York City’s largest union of public sector workers. Mamdani was received by the audience with rapturous applause throughout. Zohran’s campaign manager, Elle Bisgaard-Church, cited this forum as the moment she began to believe Zohran could win. “The energy in that room when he was on the stage was absolutely remarkable,” she said in an interview with the New York Times. “I remember sitting in the front row and feeling completely overwhelmed by it. That was a major sign to me of the breadth of this campaign’s resonance.”

DC 37 endorsed and joined the coalition for Zohran, but their support was far from guaranteed. In 2021, the union endorsed New York City’s current mayor Eric Adams, a scandal-ridden establishment politician who looks to face off with Mamdani in November’s general election. DC 37’s historic decision to endorse a ranked slate for mayor, including Zohran Mamdani, was the product of sustained rank-and-file organizing cohered through “DC 37 for Zohran,” a group of Zohran supporters who work for the city. As DSA considers interventions in the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election, the story of “DC 37 for Zohran” contains lessons DSA can take away to successfully build a movement, organization, and consciousness in support of our program at the largest stages of US politics. Delegates to DSA’s 2025 convention who are inspired by this story should vote in support of the two “A DSA Presidential Platform” amendments to ensure our organization helps create rank-and-file formations, like DC 37 for Zohran, that can organize activists and the politically disengaged, moving the labor-liberal Democratic Party establishment towards support for DSA’s slate of candidates and building the durable mass organizations necessary for the long-term political struggle for revolutionary democratic socialism. 

How We Win

Just like the Zohran campaign, DC 37 for Zohran is a coalition in its own right. The group was formed from a cadre of long-time activists in the public sector union movement. I was a member of this initial group. In addition to being city workers, some of us are DSA members, some are members of other socialist organizations, and some are unaffiliated. We share programmatic goals: transforming DC 37 from an ossified, disengaged business union into a democratic, member-driven and politically progressive union. But what really united us was the trust we built through years of organizing together. Activist city workers who formed DC 37 for Zohran struggled together on the shop floor and in our locals. And we had experience organizing city-wide political interventions together, around COVID-19 working conditions, 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests, and most recently around Palestinian liberation and the divestment of our pension from Israel. For this campaign, DC 37 for Zohran’s specific goals were to organize public sector workers in support of the Zohran Mamdani campaign, and push DC 37 to endorse Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy and invest media and field resources to support the campaign.

To build public sector union member support, DC 37 for Zohran hosted a public town hall with the campaign. Attendees had the opportunity to hear from Zohran Mamdani and other city workers. They also had the opportunity to ask about issues important to city workers, like underfunding, understaffing, privatization, and threats to retiree healthcare, and push the Zohran campaign to consider these issues seriously. We also organized regular “city worker” canvassing shifts and held regular organizing meetings where supporters could join and “level up” their participation by getting involved in the group’s strategy development, event planning, and execution. These efforts helped cohere a strong, active, and organized city worker support base for Zohran, which extended far beyond the initial reach of the core organizing group. We were creative and organized in building a list of supporters, reaching out to city worker activists organizing in our workplaces and for Palestinian solidarity, coworkers who may have been previously politically inactive, and identifying leads using publicly available data on Zohran campaign contributors. This effective list-work expanded our reach and allowed us to mobilize a large number of supporters and identify new organizing leaders to support the Zohran campaign and our long-term union reform efforts. Our ability to collaborate with the campaign while retaining the political independence to build our own organization and advocate for our own political goals was key to building trust with coworkers and nimbly scaling up our organizing.

One of the first ways we tested the strength of our group was through a campaign calling on the union’s leaders to include Mamdani in the union’s endorsement slate and not to rank Mamdani’s primary competitor, Andrew Cuomo, another scandal-ridden establishment figure in New York. We turned out a sizable contingent to the mayoral forum hosted by DC 37 to demonstrate members’ support for the campaign, and followed that up with countless emails, phone calls, and texts to union leaders asking them to endorse Zohran. This campaign was a success, and DC 37 leadership voted to include Zohran second on their mayoral endorsement slate. While DC 37’s field and media efforts in the primary were focused on the union’s number-one-ranking candidate, Adrienne Adams, Zohran supporters joined DC 37’s field operation and pushed from within to focus the union’s efforts on Zohran, the more exciting and viable candidate (Adams won under 5% of the first-round primary votes). Duncan Freeman wrote in the Chief Leader, “the union showed up for Mamdani in other ways,” adding, “The union’s president, Shaun Francois, who heads Board of Education Employees Local 372, spoke in support of Mamdani at a campaign rally inside of a Brooklyn concert venue in May, and Maf Misbah Uddin, the union’s treasurer, spoke enthusiastically in support of Mamdani… [h]e was also a presence at rallies for the candidate with South Asian labor leaders.” Even the presence of DC 37’s logo on campaign literature helped legitimize Zohran outside the activist left. 

Let’s be crystal clear: DC 37’s support for the Zohran campaign was a victory of rank-and-file organizing. It shows that we can dislodge the power of the Democratic Party’s powerbrokers and start the process of shifting the labor unions and political non-profits towards a more progressive agenda. It shows that, when merged through an exciting popular campaign, base-building and electoral campaigning, areas of work often counterposed on the left, can complement one another and help us accomplish our shorter and longer-term objectives. As we shall see, the long-term success of this work hinges on DSA and the broader left organizing with the political independence necessary to promote its platform and organize its base. This is why the amendment calls for DSA to organize autonomous rank-and-file initiatives, put forward its own presidential platform, establish some standards for a DSA-endorsed candidate’s alignment with our organization and our presidential platform, and ensure DSA’s ability to criticize a campaign’s shortcomings and organize for change within the campaign apparatus.

Looking Forward

Of course, winning the mayoral race is one thing: governing and delivering on campaign promises is another. DC 37 for Zohran finds itself in the peculiar predicament of having successfully campaigned for the election of our next boss. Conversations within the group have already started about how to organize in this brave new world, where a democratic socialist is the mayor of our city. We have begun drafting a platform for the future of city work under Zohran’s administration and plan to host a town hall on this topic. We certainly hope to fight with Zohran on shared priorities, like investing more in staffing and public services for New Yorkers, fighting against outsourcing, and protecting retiree healthcare. However, we will also have to negotiate with the Zohran administration for our next contract, and all the political alignment in the world does not change the fact that every New York City mayor has to choose how to staff their administration and where to invest limited resources. The mayor can try to appoint political allies to key administrative positions, but faces pressure to rely on experts whose leadership abilities come with the status quo political beliefs one obtains after a career going through the city’s revolving door of executives in the private and non profit sectors (one key example: current NYPD police commissioner and billionaire heiress Jessica Tisch, who Zohran is considering retaining for his administration). The mayor can try to raise taxes, but will need political support from the council to do so. Further, while the city’s largest revenue source, property taxes, is controlled locally, much of the city’s additional revenue comes from state and federal sources, putting them out of the mayor’s or the council’s control. 

Here, Zohran’s city worker supporters have no illusions. We do not support Zohran because we believe he will wave a magic wand and solve all our problems, or because he represents a full program for the socialist movement. We support him because we believe he is the candidate most conducive to our organizing goals: building an organized, independent, militant workers’ movement that fights for city workers, the working class New Yorkers we serve, and workers all over the world.  After Mamdani wins the general election in November, we will continue the fight for wages that keep up with inflation, for an end to the wasteful practice of farming out public sector work to private contractors, for fully funded city agencies that are responsive to community needs, and for divesting our pension to end the city’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal project of ethnic cleansing in Palestine.  

On some of these issues, Zohran is a clear ally. For example, he has already expressed an interest in fully funding city agencies and auditing the city’s private contractors. On some issues, like more maximalist DC 37 contract demands or abolitionist demands around the NYPD, the Mamdani administration may side with city leadership in calling for moderation. Ultimately, we will work with the mayor’s office when we can, but against them when we must. This is a key insight: independent rank-and-file organizing can power leftist politicians to victory, but it is the only vehicle to ensure that, after taking power and facing heavy institutional pressures to compromise, politicians continue to support the program of DSA and the worker’s movement, from fast and free buses to divesting city workers’ pension from Israel all the way to a democratic socialist society. The purpose of such independent political entities like DC37 for Zohran is not just to help candidates win campaigns but to keep them politically sharp and honest, as we continue to build consciousness and support for our own political program and organization. 

Looking to 2028, it is worth asking: what coalition could potential presidential nominees – AOC, Shawn Fain, Sara Nelson, or Rashida Tlaib – build around themselves? What coalition does DSA want to build in the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential elections, and how can we help cohere that coalition? As we answer these questions, DC 37 for Zohran is a model we can take inspiration from. It shows us that through the rank-and-file organization DSA helps cohere, we can organize activists and the politically disengaged to move the labor-liberal coalition towards our goals. Most importantly, it shows us that we can use these campaigns to raise consciousness, grow our lists, and build durable mass organizations for the political battles that occur after every election, win or lose. Delegates to DSA’s 2025 convention who resonate with this vision should vote in support of the “A DSA Presidential Platform” amendments and ensure our organization helps create these powerful rank-and-file formations.

Image: Zohran Mamdani speaking at a New York City DSA fundraiser in 2023. Photo by Alexandra Chan.