The Mediterranean sun beat down upon the dusty limestone streets of Jerusalem, casting sharp shadows across a city fractured by imperial occupation, grinding poverty, and rigid social stratification. On the surface, the Roman peace—the Pax Romana—reigned supreme. But beneath that veneer lay a harsh economic reality: wealth was concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, temple elites exacted heavy tributes, and the margins of society were choked with day laborers, widows, and orphans always on the brink of starvation.

Yet, among a clandestine gathering of believers who had recently embraced the resurrected Galilean teacher, a radically different world was being born.

Luke, recording these events in the Book of Acts, captures a moment in human history where the fundamental rules of survival were rewritten. Standing in the courtyard, watching these Jesus followers unburden themselves of their deeds, scrolls, and surplus wealth, one could hear the quiet hum of a new social order taking shape. This was not merely a spiritual revival; it was an embryonic blueprint for a democratic socialist society.

The Abolition of Destitution: Reclaiming the Commons

To walk among the early Jerusalem believers was to witness something entirely alien to the ancient world: the total eradication of destitution. Luke writes in Acts 4:34–35:

There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

When property owners liquidated their estates, they were enacting structural redistribution. As Luke notes, “no one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but everything was held in common” (Acts 4:32). In modern political economy, this mirrors the core tenets of democratic socialism: the belief that the material prerequisites of life—housing, food, security—are human rights, and that surplus capital must answer to human need rather than private hoarding. The Jerusalem church instituted a micro-economy where wealth was stripped of its power to oppress, ensuring that basic human dignity was guaranteed for every member of the community.

Participatory Democracy and the Feminist Critique:

Solving the Crisis of Equity

Eventually, every radical movement faces an administrative crucible, and the early church was no exception. As the community grew, cracks began to show. In Acts 6:1–7, a serious crisis of equity erupted: the Hellenistic (Greek-speaking) Jewish widows were being systematically overlooked in the daily distribution of food in favor of the Hebrew widows.

In any other ancient institution, this administrative failure would have been handled from the top down by an autocratic ruler issuing decrees. But the apostles’ response anticipated the core mechanisms of participatory democracy.

They did not hide behind closed doors to draft a corporate fix. Instead, as Acts 6:2 records, “the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples.” They brought the systemic failure directly to the people, acknowledging that administrative power belonged to the community. They established a transparent, democratic process:

• Decentralization of Power: Authority was shared rather than hoarded at the top.
• Community Vetting: The broader assembly was tasked with selecting leaders from among themselves—traditionally recorded as men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom—to manage the communal treasury and welfare distribution.
• Accountability: The newly appointed administrators were directly accountable to the public they served.

However, a critical historical and feminist lens—championed by contemporary theologians and scholars such as Meggan Watterson—forces us to look closer at who was actually doing the heavy lifting of survival and community care. Watterson’s work on alternative and marginalized early Christian texts (such as Mary Magdalene Revealed and The Girl Who Baptized Herself) underscores how patriarchal structures often whitewashed or edited out the active, frontline leadership of women.

While the canonical text of Acts tells us that male deacons were appointed to solve the Greek-speaking widows’ crisis, feminist biblical scholarship suggests that women were the vital connective tissue of these early house-church economies. They were the ones hospitality-girding, networking, and sustaining communal life on the ground. The actual survival of the community depended heavily on women’s unrecognized or under-reported labor. The distribution to widows was not merely a top-down handout managed by men, but a grassroots crisis solved because marginalized voices—the neglected Hellenistic widows—refused to be rendered invisible and demanded systemic equity.

Voluntary Association vs. Coercion: The Philosophical Bridge

Critics often point out a fundamental tension when comparing the Jerusalem church to modern democratic socialism: the early believers operated through voluntary spiritual devotion, whereas modern socialism often utilizes state legislation, public policy, and taxation to achieve equity.

There was no Roman legion, no temple police, and no state decree forcing citizens to liquidate their assets. The redistribution in Acts was entirely voluntary. 

Yet, despite the difference in enforcement mechanisms, both systems seek to move human society away from a predatory, survival-of-the-fittest ethos toward a cooperative commonwealth. While democratic socialists use the lever of the democratic state to shield citizens from the predations of unregulated capital, the early church used the power of communal solidarity to achieve that same goal: a society where no one is left behind to suffer the indignity of poverty.

The Messy Reality of Commune Life: Ideals vs. Unfinished Chores

It is easy to romanticize the Book of Acts as a utopian snapshot of a society where everyone lived in frictionless harmony. But anyone who has ever been in an intentional community or a cooperative knows that political alignment does not automatically erase human friction. Any commune member can readily testify to the corrosive power of unwashed dishes, passive-aggressive chore wheels, and ego clashes to erode solidarity—even when every member is on the same political and ideological page.

A broader reading of the Christian Bible shows that the early church was plagued by these same dysfunctions. The letters of Paul to the Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans reveal communities riven by squabbles, socioeconomic elitism (even during the communal Love Feasts or Lord’s Suppers), petty power struggles, and failed attempts at radical solidarity. The Jerusalem church itself eventually suffered severe economic collapse, requiring Paul to spend years organizing a massive international collection across the Gentile churches to bail out the impoverished Jerusalem believers.

The radical sharing depicted in Acts was a messy, high-stakes experiment in human cooperation. The fact that it often fractured under the weight of human selfishness and administrative strain does not invalidate its democratic socialist principles. Rather, it humanizes them. It shows that economic justice is not an automatic spiritual state but a daily, difficult practice of negotiation, accountability, and grace.

From Capitalism to Community

The narrative preserved in the Book of Acts remains a powerful historical and moral provocation. Long before Karl Marx penned his critiques of industrial capitalism or modern democratic socialists campaigned for universal healthcare and housing, a small band of believers in Jerusalem proved that human beings could organize their economic lives around equity, shared labor, and radical care—even if the housekeeping, the gender exclusions, and the internal squabbles made it infinitely more complicated than the highlight reel suggests.

Whether viewed through the lens of divine intervention or sociopolitical history, the early church blueprint challenges every modern economy to answer a timeless, haunting question: Why should anyone suffer in need when there is more than enough to go around?

For further reading:

• Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006.
• Hengel, Martin. Property and Riches in the Early Church: Aspects of an Early Christian Social History. Fortress Press, 1974.
• Kootstra, Paul. “Christian Socialism and the Early Church: Reading Acts in Modern Political Contexts.” Journal of Theological Politics, vol. 42, no. 3, 2018, pp. 145–162.
• Stassen, Glen H., and David P. Gushee. Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context. InterVarsity Press, 2003.
• The Bible. English Standard Version (ESV). Crossway Bibles, 2001. (Specifically referencing Acts 2:42–47, Acts 4:32–35, Acts 5:1–11, and Acts 6:1–7).
• Watterson, Meggan. Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven’t Tried Yet. Hay House, 2019.
• Watterson, Meggan. The Girl Who Baptized Herself. Hay House, 2024.

The post Democratic Socialist Principles in the Book of Acts appeared first on DSA Religious Socialism.

By: Liam Noble

BOSTON COMMON – On Saturday, October 3, anti-war protesters and left organizations rallied against the multiple simultaneous illegal wars prosecuted by the United States under the current regime — with a particular focus on the war in Iran. Protestors and local activists including Rabbi Greg Hersh and Tony Van Der Meer gave speeches condemning the loss of life caused by imperialist violence, especially in Latin America and West Asia.

The atmosphere at the protest was one of shared outrage: against the illegal wars of aggression, the insanity of the US leadership, as well as over the deaths of and intentional targeting of civilians. At least two signs carried photographs of dead children, their gravesites, or of family photos from when they were still alive. The message spoke for itself even as many vocalized: “We Want The Murder to End Now.”

The life lost was staggering and never far from the center stage of protest. The number of dead children is particularly chilling: 247+ in Lebanon, 350+ dead children in Iran, tens of thousands of dead in Palestine. More than 220 fishermen in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean have been murdered by the US military in senseless drone strikes. The blockade of Cuba has also been tightened, with the U.S. intercepting $3 million in fuel shipments the week of the rally alone, working people suffering and dying because of the loss of electricity to homes and hospitals. The United States stands also on the brink of potential invasion of Cuba itself.

Increasingly, the intentions of the US empire might be seen as waging a war on life.

One rallying cry in a speech by prominent Massachusetts Peace Action activist Paul Shannon was a cardinal demand: “the state should get pension funds away from murderous military contractors.” This demand to separate state employee investments, or divestment, shows the depth and pragmatism of the struggle.

Nationalist Counterprotesters

The anti-war event became tense when counterprotestors arrived.

Persian nationalists, or Pahlavi supporters, carried large flags showing Pahlavi, Trump and Netanyahu shoulder to shoulder, the national flags photoshopped to blend into one another. If nothing else, the display was a true expression of the Pahlavi movement— farce to encourage the waging of the conflict and intimidate the peace activists. A man with a bullhorn, wearing a Persian nationalist flag as a cape, screamed “USA, USA,” in an attempt to drown out the speakers.

When a woman approached him to ask the aggressor to stop, he put the bullhorn in her face and screamed, “Terrorist, terrorist.” A short time later, he tried to enter the crowd and disrupt the event, but some mischievous comrade broke his bullhorn in half, leaving him despondently carrying a broken piece of it in each hand.

At no point could the counterprotestors muster more than two people for their cause.

War Felt at the Gas Pump

The most prominent aspect of the peace protest was opposition to the war on Iran.

The most visible and tangible conflict, the Iran war is a new energy conflict. It is one of many of the wars, the pain of which is felt at the gas pump itself. Diesel, the life-blood of commercial transportation, averages $6.50 in Massachusetts – roughly double what it was at the beginning of the year. While higher gas prices can trigger a decrease in car usage by regular consumers who rely on personal vehicles, diesel is far less elastic: widely used in construction, railways, and trucking, the supply chains themselves are heavily and institutionally reliant on diesel.

Additional shortages of industrial lubricants and petroleum byproducts will continue to have knock-on effects of price inflation. These effects cannot be underestimated; one expert has called the likely impact inflation “turbocharged” beyond record numbers. All of these factors all but assure the international tightening of petroleum supply is likely at the very least to result in a worldwide recession.

In principle, the war itself is a crime, let alone the social murder caused by its externalities, but it’s remarkable to reflect on the incompetence with which it was pursued. The Iran War seems executed on impulse, with no plan. Perhaps initiated under the assumption of a mere three-day war, a weekend war, that the Islamic Republic would capitulate similarly to Venezuela following Maduro’s abduction if the leadership were murdered. Instead, Iran was prepared and immediately struck back on vulnerable American positions. Within a week, Naval Support Facility Bahrain— the logistics headquarters of the US fifth fleet— was destroyed, and will probably never be rebuilt. Subsequently, aircraft carriers like USS Abraham Lincoln were forced to withdraw from the area because keeping them properly supplied proved impossible. The radar sites in the region used to gather early warning and telemetry against Iranian ballistic missiles were also destroyed with drones.

This leaves the US/Israeli axis critically vulnerable to the most effective and well-stocked weapon Iran has: ballistic missiles.

Should the war heat up again (which seems positively inevitable), it is bewildering how vulnerable Israel’s position appears. Buttressed only by ideological fanaticism, the position of the Israeli state itself could become totally unsustainable under concentrated missile fire on its cities, infrastructure, and sensitive military sites. This has not yet come to pass because of the calculations around the potential use of nuclear weapons, and an Iranian desire to show restraint in escalation.

At the rally, a frequent question asked was: “How do you think this will end?” The better question is probably, how will this all end up?

Its corollary answer: In an unfamiliar world. But probably not anytime soon.

The curious position of war protest this year is that the Iran War is very different from the Vietnam War, or the Iraq War, or even the contemporary blockade against Cuba. Iran is a middle-tier power, a nation fighting a war of national defense. This is not an American war against a poorly-organized adversary, or against a near-defenseless civilian population; rather, the conflict is peer/peer between states. In the context of this war, the United States is a weakened country, no longer hegemonic, throwing the last of its strength at an entrenched and prepared enemy with significant moral investment and landed base. The result is that the United States has been decisively defeated and pushed out of the region.

All this is to say, regardless of flareups of the future, the United States lost a war, and lost it badly and quickly. The illusions of American fighting power seemed to have vanished quicker than a glass of neat whiskey left around Secretary Hegseth. What then is the responsibility of anti-war protestors? To champion the cause of peace, of course. And to use their activism to restrain the American military, to prevent other possible wars, to illuminate the foul intentions and terrible crimes; and to delegitimize the wars wherever they are pursued.

Liam Noble is a Boston DSA member living in Somerville and a contributing writer to Working Mass.

The post Fall is Here but Prices Aren’t Falling: Protestors Rally Against Iran War, for Divestment as Gas Prices Skyrocket appeared first on Working Mass.

With the undemocratic constitution off our backs and a new political playing field, a better world will be possible.

The post DSA Is Right: We Need a New Constitution  appeared first on Democratic Left.

By: Nesrine Malik

This article was originally published by The Guardian on September 30, 2026.

The question of the week is: “who are Uber drivers always talking to on the phone?” It’s one that regularly surfaces on Reddit threads and social media and even, on a couple of occasions, in the office. It’s not my question (I know who they are talking to), but I think the fact that many people are so baffled by it tells us a lot about the separate worlds we occupy.

When you get a cab on a ride-hailing app, the chances that your driver will be on the phone is high. The conversation is almost always quiet, containing pauses so long that it often seems they are actually no longer on a call. But then comes a rejoinder, a laugh, an interjection, and the marathon continues.

For anyone of an immigrant background, the question of who they are talking to is absolutely no mystery. They are talking to us; their siblings, parents, cousins and friends. Sometimes the person on the end of the line is back home, other times they are in a western city also navigating the dislocations of immigrant life. The long phone call is a regular feature of diaspora lives, and even more so for those employed in long, solitary work such as cab driving. These conversations are about nothing and everything.

This is not an exhaustive list, but based on the calls I constantly field from friends and family, the content I receive in a follow-up call, and familiar themes from chats with drivers in Arabic (which I sometimes get drawn into), the subjects are remarkably consistent. The range includes family gossip, wedding updates, complaints about the cost of living in the west, advice on navigating complex immigration systems, extremely detailed health updates, and political analysis of whatever crisis is unfolding. These conversations can broadly be sorted into one of two categories: “serious technical resolution of a problem” or “shooting the breeze”.

In my experience, these beast mode long phone calls are between someone on a long shift, commute or drive, and a mother cooking in the kitchen. There is a languorous quality to the call. Time and conversational convention shift to accommodate long silences without explanation, as one person or the other breaks away to get on with something – dismount or park or blitz something in the food processor. Because the point is not the actual chat. It is a broadly phatic – that is to say language used for bonding – form of communication, an exercise in yearning and homesickness. It helps us bridge a gap between long distances and absences, and simulate a proximity that is so deeply longed for.

The interminable phone call is an immigrant’s lifeline, now made cheap and stable by voice over IP (the ability to make calls on an internet connection). But it is also a feature of broader cultural and economic patterns. Western time is personal, individual, literally “me time”, something that is violated if demanded without permission. This time is parcelled out necessarily for decompression, for work, for leisure. In other cultures, time is social and public.

In Sudan, for example, there is no such thing as calling ahead before a visit. Your home is a drop-in destination from about 11am onwards. A neighbour will pop in for a chat, a relative will be driving home and swing by, and if there are children in the household, their own social lives mean you just never know how many people you are cooking for. The corner shop is a lifeline of last minute provision as numbers swell unexpectedly. If you are an introvert, good luck.

When that physical socialisation is impossible, the phone does the work. Certain conditions make the visit and the call possible. Homes where there is often a homemaker to receive, or work that does not require strict, in-office professional deportment and execution. Highly structured working environments and fast-paced modern lives mean that entire societies are firmly post-casual-phone-call. In these contexts, I find myself so wary of ambushing or alarming people with a call that I send a clear warning beforehand. No, there is nothing to worry about, and are you sure this is a good time to speak? Absolutely no worries if not.

But it is also a mindset, which you can lose over time. I find myself becoming increasingly post-phone call outside work, constantly thinking to myself that I will ring a relative back when I have the time. Generally, I prefer to message or voice note, conscious that when I return the call, it absolutely will not be a quick and efficient catch up. But, in truth, I do have the time, I have just assimilated the same rigid notions of downtime and non-urgent phone calls as an incursion. Fundamentally, this is an extremely capitalist notion of time as purely a function of work, where even if you are not working, you are “re-charging” in anticipation of more work.

The fact that the long driver call is such a bewildering anomaly is a meeting of those two worlds. In one, a passenger cannot fathom that you might have so much to say to someone over the phone, because everyone you love or want to see is generally within your immediate social reach, and because it is unfathomable to dedicate so much of your precious bandwidth to seemingly aimless conversation. In another, loved ones are in a different country or sprawl all over the world, and without their constant companionship life is just alienation and monotonous work.

But I suspect there is more to the lost art of the phone call in certain societies than just the pressures of modernity. In contemporary life, there are so many ways to feel like you are in touch and in conversation when you are not. So many ways to feel part of some slipstream of humanity, when in fact we are scrolling, meme-ing, seeing news from friends and strangers alike via story updates, while not exchanging anything meaningful or even uttering a single word. Those in exile are acutely aware of alienation, and reach out to remedy it. But for those in their home countries, loneliness still lurks in ways harder to recognise. A phone call is honestly less time consuming and more replenishing than anything else we use our devices for.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist and the author of We Need New Stories: Challenging the Toxic Myths Behind Our Age of Discontent.

The post Who’s Your Uber Driver on the Phone to? Welcome to the Long, Long Diaspora Call appeared first on Working Mass.

Madrid Tenants Union expresses solidarity with US tenants!

Solidarity from the Madrid Tenants Union to tenants, tenant unions, and organizers in the US! The struggle against private property and capitalism is truly universal, and we in DSA can make a massive contribution by organizing our buildings, forming new tenant unions, and joining the ones that already exist in our areas.

WATCH THE VIDEO CLIP HERE

DSA HJC to Madrid Tenants Union: “Solidaridad!”

The Housing Justice Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America send our profound solidarity to the Madrid Tenants Union and all tenants across Spain. The struggle against private property and capitalism is international and we are deeply inspired by the courageous, militant actions you are undertaking. Tenants of the world, unite! 

SEE THE VIDEO CLIP HERE

La Comisión para Vivienda con Justicia de los Socialistas Democráticos de América expresa su profunda solidaridad con el Sindicato de Inquilinas de Madrid y con todos los inquilinos de España. La lucha contra la propiedad privada y el capitalismo es internacional, y nos sentimos profundamente inspirados por las acciones valientes y combativas que están llevando a cabo. ¡Inquilinos del mundo, uníos!

MIRA EL VIDEO AQUI

Tuesday, October 6 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Ecosocialist Bi-weekly Meeting (zoom)

Tuesday, October 6 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM) HWG Attends: Care vs. Criminalization: Rethinking Our Street Response to Homelessness (zoom and in person at 3036 24th St)

Tuesday, October 6 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM)  Ballot Measure Turnout Tuesday (zoom and in person 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday, October 7 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM) What is DSA? @ Sour Cherry Comics! (in person at 3187 16th St)

Thursday, October 8 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM)  Palestine Solidarity Free Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Thursday, October 8 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM)  Organizing Mindset Training Series (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Friday, October 9 (5:30 PM – 7:30 PM) Tenants Know Your Rights + Yes on I Canvass (in person at 545 O’Farrell St)

Friday, October 9 (5:30 PM – 7:30 PM) Yes on I Lit Drop: Richmond (in person at 600 Arguello Blvd)

Saturday, October 10 (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM) Yes on I, Yes on B, No on D Canvass – Glen Park (in person at Walter Haas Playground)

Sunday, October 11 (11:00 AM – 1:30 PM) Yes on I Lit Drop: Mission (in person at In Chan Kajaal Park)

Sunday, October 11 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM)  No Appetite for Apartheid – Consumer Canvas (in person at Dolores St & 19th St)

Sunday, October 11 (5:00 PM – 6:00 PM) Tenderloin Healing Circle Working Group Meeting (zoom)

Sunday, October 11 (6:15 PM – 7:30 PM) Working Class Gender Liberation Meeting (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday, October 12 (5:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Yes On I – Social Housing Working Group Lit Drop (location TBD)

Monday, October 12 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Tenderloin Healing Circle (in person at 220 Golden Gate Ave)

Monday, October 12 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (zoom)

Tuesday, October 13 (5:30 PM – 7:00 PM) Social Housing Working Group  (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday, October 14 (6:45 PM – 9:00 PM) DSA SF General Meeting  (zoom and in person at 220 Golden Gate Ave)

Thursday, October 15 (5:30 PM – 6:30 PM)  Palestine Solidarity Working Group – No Appetite for Apartheid Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Thursday, October 15 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM)  Education Board Open Meeting  (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Thursday, October 15 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Immigrant Justice Regular Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Friday, October 16 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM)  Maker Day: Writing Corner (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Saturday, October 17 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM)  HWG Food Service (in person at 499 1/2 Hayes St)

Sunday, October 18 (1:00 PM – 2:30 PM)  What is DSA? (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday, October 19 (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) SF EWOC Local Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Ballot Measure Turnout Tuesday

Today: Join the Electoral Board as we call new and existing members to let them know about our upcoming events for Yes on Prop B, Yes on Prop I, and No on Prop D! Join us at the DSA SF Office (1916 McAllister St) from 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM.

If you can’t make it in person, you can still make calls on your own, just RSVP and you’ll get a link to join!
RSVP here!

Organizing Mindset Training: Basebuilding 101, How to Have an Effective Organizing Conversation

Every Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 17 through October 8 at the DSA SF Office, 1916 McAllister St.

Talking to people is central to effective organizing, but how do you embark on an organizing conversation? Organizing Mindset Training is a four-part event series that goes in depth into every aspect of the organizing conversation so that it’s a sharpened and ready-to-use tool for any campaign. After this training, participants will:

• Learn about the differences between organizing, advocacy, and direct services/mutual aid
• Understand of the role of an Organizing Committee and carrying out an organizing strategy
• Overview the Organizing Conversation and get in-depth practice for each step
• Develop the ability to have multiple successive organizing conversations with a person, with the goal of getting them more involved in your organizing

Attendance of all four sessions isn’t required, but it is encouraged! 

RSVP here!

Prop B Mobilizations

Come join our Yes on B mobilizations this weekend! Ballots are out so there is no better time to fight for a Public Bank in San Francisco. On Saturday, October 10 we’ll be joined by the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, the Yes on I, No on D, and Gary McCoy campaigns for a canvass and lit drop at Walter Haas Playground in Glen Park. On Sunday, October 11 join us for a rally and lit drop at Minnie & Lovie Ward Recreational Center in the Excelsior! RSVP for Saturday here and Sunday here.

Please note that non-endorsed campaigns will be present, so please use your best judgement for lit drop participation with these campaigns.

No Appetite for Apartheid Canvass

Join us for our No Appetite for Apartheid campaign this Sunday, October 11 from 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM! We are working to build public support for stores in SF that have pledged to go apartheid-free, and talk to people about products to boycott. We’ll meet at Mission Dolores Park nearby the Miguel Hidalgo Statue.

We will first train you on how to talk to people, and then you will put that training into practice by collecting signatures around the park! Free Palestine 

RSVP Here!

Decolonization Studies

Come join your friendly neighborhood socialists for the third session of Decolonization Studies! On Saturday, October 24thwe’re discussing a collection of texts chosen to elevate our understanding of decolonization and socialism, reading is done beforehand and participants are invited to the DSA SF office (1916 McAllister St) for an in person facilitated discussion. Please feel free to come to the session even if you’ve only partially completed the readings or you missed the first one! Masks are required and provided!

RSVP Here!

Reportback: Bay Resistance Coalition

Last Tuesday, September 29th, DSA SF joined several organizations in the Bay Resistance Coalition to protest at the OpenAI conference. Sam Altman was the main speaker. We were out there to protest OpenAI’s complicity with ICE, their technical support to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and their role in the climate crisis through the continued use of data centers. We also demanded that OpenAI pledge to protect democracy should the Trump administration attempt a fascist takeover of the election. People Over Profit and billionaires were also our main slogans. The protest was very successful and drew media attention with coverage appearing on social media, local news stations, Democracy Now, Al Jazeera, just to name a few. 
Thank you to the electoral board and steering for supporting this action and also to those DSA members who were able to make it out to this early morning protest. DSA SF will continue to join in with other Bay Resistance coalition members to fight against any fascist and oligarch takeover of our government that want to silence the voice of the working class.  Stay tuned for more information regarding other actions that are needed in the event that the upcoming election is stolen or thrown into chaos.

BOO, comrade! An extra-spooky Halloween edition of the Pinellas DSA newsletter is here!

We hit another exciting milestone in September — our chapter is now officially more than 400 members strong! That’s 400 friends and neighbors who’ve made the choice to stand up and say “I believe that a better world is possible.” And, as long as we keep doing the day-to-day work of building our organization and growing the international movement for socialism, we will transform possible into inevitable.

Read on to learn more about what our chapter was up to over the last month, and what we have coming up next!

September Highlights

September was a month of steady progress for our ongoing campaigns. Perhaps the biggest development came early in the month when DSA comrades behind the Dump Duke campaign held a press conference in Williams Park to announce the launch of a petition campaign to place an amendment for public power on the 2028 ballot.

Meanwhile, organizers behind the No on 3 initiative wasted no time, launching a series of door-to-door canvasses, lit drops, and more to get the word out about the threat Amendment 3 poses to our communities. We also established a social media presence for our DeFlock St. Pete campaign, which has already seen a major win with a new business item in front of the St. Pete City Council, introduced by Councilmember and DSA comrade Richie Floyd, to allow for the discussion of the city’s Flock contract.

We also published the first in a fantastic new series of videos from our International Solidarity Working Group, with the aim of educating the masses on the legacy of US imperialism in the Caribbean. Check it out on the official Pinellas DSA YouTube channel (and subscribe while you’re at it)!

Lastly, we want to also spotlight the Pinellas DSA blog, which is where you can find updates and official statements published on behalf of the chapter. We’re also accepting submissions for the blog from any active member in good standing; email us at dsa.pinellas@gmail.com if you’d like to pitch your article!

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Dump Duke

On September 2, Pinellas DSA members held a press conference to announce the launch of a petition campaign to place a charter amendment on the 2028 ballot. If successful, the initiative would give St. Pete voters the opportunity to decide whether the city should establish a publicly owned electric utility.

The event, which was held in Williams Park — directly across the street from Duke Energy headquarters — was also the official launch of Public Power St. Pete, a coalition aimed at advancing the #DumpDuke mission. Besides Pinellas DSA, other coalition members include the CLEO Institute, Sierra Club Suncoast Group, Florida Youth Action Fund, People Power for Florida, and Florida Rising.

At the heart of this campaign is a simple goal: making electricity more affordable, reliable, and locally controlled for St. Pete residents. It won’t be easy, though: organizers will need to collect 16,200 petitions with verified signatures from St. Pete voters, with the aim to secure over 20,000 signatures.

Learn more about the petition drive here

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DeFlock St. Pete

As mentioned above, Councilmember Richie Floyd introducing a business item during a meeting of the St. Pete City Council at the end of August to allow for the discussion of the city’s Flock contract. Specifically, how we can eliminate it.

You might reasonably assume that this initiative would see pushback from at least a few of the council’s more conservative members. However, St. Pete City Council voted unanimously to pass this item, and advance the discussion to the city’s Public Services & Infrastructure Committee. Richie sits on the committee, as do Councilmembers Hanewicz, Harting, and Gerdes.

Organizers with the DeFlock St. Pete campaign are asking anyone who is “passionate about preventing our little slice of Florida from becoming part of the surveillance state” to reach out to the three committee members in question, thank them for backing Richie’s business item, and let them know that you want to #DeFlockStPete! You can reach the officials in question using the contact information provided below:

• Copley Gerdes: copley.gerdes@stpete.org | (727) 551–3528
• Mike Harting: mike.harting@stpete.org | (727) 551–3305
• Lisset Hanewicz: lisset.hanewicz@stpete.org | (727) 893–7412

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: No on 3

Organizers behind the No on 3 campaign hit the ground running last month, launching into a series of door-to-door canvasses, lit drops, and “public service stakeouts” to rally Pinellas residents to defeat Amendment 3 on the November ballot.

If Amendment 3 passes, Pinellas County residents will suffer from millions of dollars in public funding cuts each year, impacting EMS, fire and rescue, flood mitigation, infrastructure repair, libraries, parks, public transit, and more. This campaign was spun up on short notice, withe less than three months to get the word out. But, organizers have done a phenomenal job so far!

Check out upcoming No on 3 events

Upcoming Events

“No On 3” Public Service Stakeout

Monday, October 5 from 6:00–7:30pm. Meet at the Largo Public Library (120 Central Park Dr. in Largo). RSVP for updates: https://sldr.it/s/NoOn3Events.

Program Committee Meeting

Tuesday, October 6 from 6:30–8:00pm. Location TBD; check the Discord for more details.

Book Study: NATO: What You Need to Know

Wednesday, October 7 from 7:00–8:30pm at Pistil House (2533 1st Ave S. in St. Pete). Join us for a discussion of the book NATO: What You Need to Know by Medea Benjamin and David Swanson!

Dump Duke Petitioning

Thursday, October 8 from 6:30–8:00pm. Come help us collect petitions downtown (location TBD).

PDSA Steering Committee Meeting

Thursday, October 8 from 7:00–8:30pm. Zoom only.

Health Justice Working Group Meeting

Friday, October 9 from 6:00–7:30pm at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Pete). Meeting in the Hybrid room.

“No On 3” North County Canvass

Saturday, October 10 from 10:00am — 1:00pm. Meeting in Clearwater (location TBD). RSVP for updates: https://sldr.it/s/NoOn3Events.

Dump Duke @ Fall Fest

Sunday, October 11 from 11:00am — 7:00pm at the St. Pete Pier. Come help us collect petitions at Fall Fest.

Growth & Development Committee Interest Meeting

Monday, October 12 from 6:30–8:00pm. Location TBD.

54th Ave S Apartment Canvass

Monday, October 12 from 6:30–8:00pm. Meet in the parking lot at 2822 54th Ave S. in St Pete. Join Pinellas DSA and the St Pete Tenants Union to organize tenants and demand safe and sustainable public housing.

Property Tax Townhall With Richie Floyd

Tuesday, October 13 from 6:00–8:00pm at Allendale United Methodist Church. Meeting in the Community Center; a Zoom option will also be available. RSVP for the event: https://sldr.it/s/amend-3-town-hall.

“No On 3” Public Service Stakeout

Wednesday, October 14 from 6:00–8:00pm at the President Barack Obama Main Library (3745 9th Ave N. in St. Pete). RSVP for updates: https://sldr.it/s/NoOn3Events.

North County Meeting

Thursday, October 15 from 6:30–8:00pm. Zoom only; RSVP for updates: https://sldr.it/s/PDSA-NorthCounty.

Dump Duke Canvass — No Kings Day

Saturday, October 17 from 10:00am — 12:00pm. Meeting at Spa Beach on the St. Pete Pier to collect Petitions at the No Kings Day Event.

Bradenton-Sarasota Interest Meeting

Saturday, October 17 from 3:30–5:00pm at the South Manatee Branch Library (6081 26th St W. in Bradenton). Helping comrades in the South Bay Area to launch a Bradenton-Sarasota DSA chapter!

PDSA Steering Committee Meeting

Sunday, October 18 from 7:00–8:30pm. Zoom only.

Dump Duke Pollathon 2.0

Monday, October 19 from 7:00am — 7:00pm. Meet across from St. Pete City Hall (175 5th St N. in St. Pete) to collect petitions during Early Voting! More info TBD.

“No On 3” Public Service Stakeout

Tuesday, October 20 from 6:00–8:00pm at the President Barack Obama Main Library (3745 9th Ave N. in St. Pete). RSVP for updates: https://sldr.it/s/NoOn3Events.

Housing Working Group & SPTU Joint Meeting

Wednesday, October 21 from 7:00–8:30pm at Allendale United Methodist Church. Meeting of the Pinellas DSA Housing Working Group and St. Pete Tenants Union to decide action on tackling the exploitative capitalist housing system.

Dump Duke Pollathon 2.0

Thursday, October 22 from 7:00am — 7:00pm. Meet across from St. Pete City Hall (175 5th St N. in St. Pete) to collect petitions during Early Voting! More info TBD.

“No On 3” North County Canvass

Saturday, October 24 from 10:00am — 1:00pm. Meeting location TBD. RSVP for updates: https://sldr.it/s/NoOn3Events.

Dump Duke @ Mezzo Market

Saturday, October 24 from 11:00am — 1:30pm. Meet at the corner of Central Ave & 11th St. to collect petitions at the Mezzo Market before the new member orientation.

October Interest Meeting & New Member Orientation

Saturday, October 24 from 2:30–4:00pm at the Barbara S. Ponce Public Library (7770 52nd St N. in Pinellas Park). We’ll be in Meeting Room 2. RSVP: https://pinellasdsa.solidarity.tech/new-member-orientation

Halloween On Central

Sunday, October 25 from 7:30am — 5:00pm. Location TBD. We’ll be set up on Central Ave to share info about our ongoing campaigns and collect Dump Duke petitions. The signup link will be available soon if you’re interested in taking a shift — check back with the Discord for more info!

International Solidarity Working Group Meeting

Monday, October 26 from 6:30–8:00pm. Zoom only: https://dsausa.zoom.us/j/84002106080

“No On 3” Public Service Stakeout

Thursday, October 29 from 6:00–8:00pm at the President Barack Obama Main Library (3745 9th Ave N. in St. Pete). RSVP for updates: https://sldr.it/s/NoOn3Events.

Dump Duke Pollathon 2.0

Friday, October 30 from 7:00am — 7:00pm. Meet across from St. Pete City Hall (175 5th St N. in St. Pete) to collect petitions during Early Voting! More info TBD.

“No On 3” Pollathon

Saturday, October 31 from 9:00–11:30am. Location TBD. RSVP For Campaign Events: https://pinellasdsa.solidarity.tech/no-on-3-campaign-volunteer-events

“No On 3” Pollathon

Sunday November 1 from 10:30am — 3:00pm. Location TBD. RSVP For Campaign Events: https://pinellasdsa.solidarity.tech/no-on-3-campaign-volunteer-events

PDSA Steering Committee Meeting

Sunday, November 1 from 7:00–8:30pm. Zoom only.

Health Justice WG Meeting

Monday, November 2 from 6:30–8:00pm. Zoom only; see the Discord for the Zoom link.

–

NOTE: All dates and times are subject to change, so check the website regularly for updates!

Plus an AutoZone location unionizes, strong results in Delaware, Raman leads in the polls, and more in Chapter and Verse, Democratic Left’s monthly round-up of chapter news.

The post Austin DSA City Council Candidate Arrested After ICE Protest appeared first on Democratic Left.

By Chris W.

At the 8/7 Steering Committee meeting, a new set of guidelines for our Detroit Socialist newspaper was brought forward, including number five on internal debates:

5. We should strive to keep internal debates and disagreements internal. We should not make it a habit to air our proverbial dirty laundry. At the end of the day, we are all comrades and we all want to achieve socialism. There is no reason to give our enemies ammunition to use against us. Internal debates are important and are critical to the democratic process, which is why they are better suited to our chapter’s internal discussion platforms and processes.

This guideline was met with pushback from Steering Committee members Jon Mukes and Mohamd Z., as well as other chapter members in attendance. Comrade Mo suggested that such a contentious issue should be referred to a General Membership meeting, but that proposal was not taken up and it was sent back to the Newspaper Committee while the rest of the guidelines were passed. At the newspaper Zoom meeting on 8/13, it was proposed that articles labeled “internal debates” would be placed in the chapter Discord, rather than in the Detroit Socialist, so that they are not available for public consumption. Any debate article could be published in the Detroit Socialist only with a hidden link not visible on the site, or it would have to be published with an accompanying counterpoint article as part of the same post.

After yet more pushback from Mohamd Z., myself and others, around what constituted an “internal debate,” an extra newspaper meeting was scheduled for 8/20. That meeting was attended by nearly every Metro Detroit member of the Groundwork caucus, as well as members of Bread and Roses, Marxist Unity Group, the Detroit Democracy Coalition, and independent members. Newspaper meetings average about five attendees, including the editors. The Groundwork members favored the guidelines; the Bread and Roses, Marxist Unity Group, and Detroit Democracy Coalition members opposed them. At the August 30th Steering Committee meeting, the committee voted to adopt the updated internal debate guideline. It’s difficult to parse the actual guideline from the agitation for the guideline (full text here), but the most relevant portion is this:

For the purposes of this proposal, internal debate and discussion will be defined as follows: “Discussion that directly affects a strategic decision taken by the membership imminently.”… Should a member still wish to publish their work on an internal debate in The Detroit Socialist, they will have the option to either publish it on an unlisted link on The Detroit Socialist’s Medium page — meaning that only individuals with the link may access the work — or, members may publish in The Detroit Socialist, but it will be published on the same page of an article with an opposing view.

These guidelines would turn The Detroit Socialist into nothing more than a promotional brochure — a place to “celebrate our victories” but not to tackle any difficult political discussions. Taking political debate out of The Detroit Socialist, or trying to hide it away in a Detroit-only Discord server, will prevent uncaucused comrades from influencing national DSA politics, cut off our chapter from the national DSA movement, rob this chapter of its best forum for political discussion, and debilitate the political development of our membership and the wider working class.

The Detroit Socialist is the only place for uncaucused comrades in our chapter to set out their own political positions for a broader public audience. Whereas caucused members of our chapter (a very small minority) will be able to publish under their caucus letterhead, those without a caucus who want to publish something on internal Detroit politics will be relegated to a quiet cul-de-sac where no one in the broader organization, or the wider working class, will be able to read it. This will force chapter members to join a caucus if they want to have a voice in the wider national discourse and create a built-in privilege for chapter members who are already part of a caucus.

There is no “local issue” when DSA is involved. Many other chapters are likely engaging in similar debates as Metro Detroit, or they likely soon will be. Issues like: the adoption of email voting, how to rewrite bylaws, whether or not to endorse a candidate with only a tenuous connection to the chapter. It is important that every member of our chapter has an opportunity to write and be published in a paper that can be shared nationally, because as DSA members we are part of a national party, and as socialists we are part of a global movement. Decisions taken by Metro Detroit DSA will change the local and national political situation, influence the way DSA is perceived as a whole, and hopefully provide a guide for how other chapters can organize in their area. Internal debate in The Detroit Socialist is a vital stream of information for other chapters to understand the political conditions within our chapter and we have an obligation to openly share this discourse with them.

Transformation of the working class from political objects to political subjects is one of the most important tasks of DSA as the nascent party of the working class. We need to show people that when they are collectively organized, they can enact their will on the world. This political development requires that workers can articulate for themselves what our party is fighting for. The Detroit Socialist is a training ground for members of the working class to build themselves into political thinkers who can construct nuanced arguments in long-form articles. The current political and cultural situation shows a dire need for long-form writing to be defended as a necessary skill for human flourishing. With AI slop becoming a blight on everyday life, it’s our socialist duty to defend and develop the human ability to think for oneself (The Detroit Socialist expressly forbids AI-written articles). Writing is a unique and edifying form of thought, and by writing I mean setting down one’s thoughts in a long piece, not slapping a quip in a discord chat. There’s a reason Elon Musk spends all his time posting on Twitter: he’s a moron. And we will be condemning our chapter to moronhood if all we have for internal discourse is a Slack or Discord forum that’s essentially constructed the same way as a Facebook comment section.

We already had an online forum for political discussion: the Slack channel, which many members already avoid because the level of discourse was usually low, poorly constructed, and at times devolved into ad hominems. This is not necessarily the fault of the participants. The medium is simply unsuited for intellectually rigorous debate. The Discord will likely experience all of the same problems. I challenge anyone to say they gained more intellectually from reading a 100+ reply Slack thread than from reading an article. I can say as the Political Education Co-chair, we do not ask people to read forum posts before attending New Member Political Education; we ask them to read articles.

The writing in The Detroit Socialist comes from the same intellectual tradition as the pieces we do read as part of the curriculum. Marx, Lenin, Luxembourg– take your pick. They developed their thinking and the politics of the working class as a whole by debating political points in publications that were freely available to the masses. These were not writings that were hidden away for only party members to be able to view (as long as they weren’t censored by the state); they were shared and discussed by members of the working class who were not necessarily formal members of a socialist party. These writings are still read and discussed today. The great socialist theorists never feared airing their “dirty laundry,” because there’s nothing dirty about disagreement in a democratic organization. We should be proud of a robust culture of political debate and of our transparency as an organization. A pair of articles debating a political point are not a pair of dirty socks, they are red banners. It is not shameful that we debate, it is our socialist honor.

There is concern that allowing certain points of view to be expressed in The Detroit Socialist will make our chapter look bad. For example, when Anthony D. argued against endorsing Donavan McKinney, it was said of the article, “It was bad for Donavan and it was bad for us.” The article was shared by a Metro Phoenix DSA page. Critics argued that this article confused readers and made it seem as if the chapter opposed Donovan’s endorsement. I think that confusion was cleared up when we voted to endorse him. But, if that doesn’t assuage these concerns, perhaps The Detroit Socialist can do what literally every other newspaper does and put a big “OPINION” above articles that aren’t meant to reflect the views of the chapter.

If there is still concern over disagreements in this chapter making Metro-Detroit DSA look bad, I encourage the supporters of these restrictive guidelines to address disagreement the democratic way: make your case to membership and win your comrades over to your point-of-view through well-reasoned arguments.

Maybe write an article in The Detroit Socialist?

Chris W. is a law student and an uncaucused member of the Democracy Coalition.

The Detroit Socialist is Not Dirty Laundry was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.