By: Zac Bears and Jessica Farrell

This article was originally published in Convergence Magazine in 2024.

MEDFORD, MA – For decades, residents in Medford, Mass have voted many of the same people into office time and time again. City politics was, and in some ways still is, defined by long-standing conflicts between individual elected officials and their supporters. Political leadership roles were passed down to family members across multiple generations. Important proposals were approved or denied for who was supporting them just as often as they were for their merits. Facing the dual impact of incredibly restrictive state laws on municipal finance and lack of comprehensive planning and growth of the city’s tax base, Medford’s public infrastructure crumbled and the local government provided fewer city and school services. 

After the Great Recession, the public schools cut dozens of positions, many of which never returned. Huge staff cuts in the Department of Public Works means the city outsources basic maintenance of streets and sidewalks. Many of our recreation, school sports, and arts programs are entirely funded by fees or managed by private nonprofits and donors.

All of this in a city where residents were voting for more progressive officials at the state and national level, where residents were seeing our neighboring communities improve far more rapidly, and where more residents were demanding the basic services, support for public schools, and the safe, well-maintained infrastructure they deserved.

These were, and still are, conditions where a movement for change can grow. Does this sound similar to your community? If so, the potential for change may be closer than you think.

Where We Live

Medford’s nearly 65,000 residents reside on both sides of the Mystic River five miles from Downtown Boston in a historically middle and working-class community. The city has one of the country’s oldest historically Black neighborhoods in West Medford, and a strong immigrant history with large Irish and Italian communities putting down roots here in the mid-20th century alongside fast-growing Haitian and Brazilian communities today. 

Unlike neighbors in Cambridge, Somerville, and Everett, Medford has not grown a large commercial tax base to support city services or public schools and is largely dependent on residential property taxes to fund the city budget. Today, residents face skyrocketing housing costs and decades of underinvestment in streets, schools, and city staff. Hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance is now coming due, and because of Proposition 2.5, a 1980 MA ballot question that limited municipal property tax authority, high property values don’t equate to more tax revenue to fix these major problems.

Starting from the Bottom

Galvanized by the far-right victory in the 2016 national election, a small group of progressive residents founded Our Revolution Medford (ORM) in early 2017 to take action for progressive change at the local level. We developed our own local platform based on city issues, and while we occasionally share invitations and information for statewide and national Our Revolution events, the movement is entirely locally grown and directed and receives no outside funding. Eight years later, ORM has grown from a small backyard gathering to a citywide movement that elected majorities on both the Medford City Council and Medford School Committee.  

Our initial conversations in 2017 quickly turned to the need for political analysis, desire to see candidates commit to real policies, and to fill in massive information gaps in a community with little-to-no local news media and scant public space for pre-election discussion and debate. We asked: who can we trust? Who can we influence? We brought together a group of people who could build trust and share the burden of paying attention to city government to help each other analyze what’s going on.

We reached out to lists of local residents we knew supported the Bernie Sanders campaign and movement, community organizations focused on change, and candidates for local office in the 2017 municipal election who seemed to share our values. Our initial membership was deeply intergenerational, from college students to retirees, and stretched across ideologies, including long-time local progressives, young socialists, frustrated parents, people facing housing displacement, and everyday folks who shared our values but didn’t choose a political label.

Three major strategic values soon followed from those meetings: (1) a clear focus on building power, (2) making the necessary preparations for successfully wielding power, and (3) growing our capacity through relationships and trust across the community.

Before 2017, many candidates for local office ran on city pride and local social and family connections. Their campaigns lacked specific policies or opinions on policy. Few discussed strategies to address major long-term fiscal and economic challenges.  Our initial efforts to shift power were grounded in information-sharing and transparency, staking out clear policy positions and informing voters about what incumbent candidates believed and supported based on their votes and comments in Council meetings.  

Strong support for progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ed Markey in our community showed us that the majority of residents wanted to see progress and transformative change. We decided early on that the best way to build power was to focus on organizing residents around city policy and government by creating grassroots policy campaigns and having a laser-focus on electing new members of the School Committee and City Council so that we could put those policies into place.

We decided early on that the best way to build power was to focus on organizing residents around city policy and government by creating grassroots policy campaigns and having a laser-focus on electing new members of the School Committee and City Council.

These two tactics took on specific forms. For grassroots policy campaigns, we held public events to educate residents about specific issues (for example, pushing to increase the low Payments in Lieu of Taxes or PILOTs from large tax-exempt institutions like Tufts University), discussed topics in ORM meetings, and held city council watch parties over a group chat. The chats help mobilize residents to reach out to elected officials and attend city meetings and connect residents’ everyday experiences to the actions of local government.

Our direct electoral work was even more focused and ambitious. Adapting a model successfully used in Richmond, CA and popularized by the Incorruptibles, we ran a “candidate slate” to help us overcome the financial and structural barriers progressive candidates face.

In Fall 2017, we formed a slapshot slate of candidates who were already running, pitched in personal funds to get some palm cards printed, canvassed a couple of times, and then stood at the polls on Election Day. Four of five of our endorsed candidates won, including one whose narrow majority survived a recount. This showed us that every single vote really mattered and gave us a wedge to grow in the subsequent years. Start small – with discipline and building a culture of organizing, there’s always room to grow.

Building Cycles of Organizing

Each win built on the ones before, with three School Committee Members and two City Councilors winning in 2019 (one of whom is Zac Bears, co-author of this article and ORM’s first member-turned-candidate), and eight out of nine endorsed candidates winning in 2021, including the first Asian-American person to serve on the Council, and securing majorities on both the City Council and the School Committee. Opponents who didn’t see us coming were surprised. Ten of 11 endorsed candidates won in 2023, including six of the seven who ran for Council seats. Several ORM-endorsed candidates won more than 50% of the vote, a rarity in the past even for long-time incumbents, and the top vote-getters for both Council and School Committee received more votes than the re-elected incumbent Mayor and the most votes for either office in at least 20 years.

While the idea of the platform and slate began with the Richmond Progressive Alliance model, we have greatly expanded it over the past six years. Each election cycle, we conduct an extensive community outreach and editing process to revise the Medford People’s Platform (MPP) and update the endorsement process we launched in 2019. We reach out to dozens of community organizations and major stakeholders, engaging hundreds of residents with surveys and public forums. We hold community workshops on the questions of who is included in decision-making, what are our core values, and what policies we want to see implemented in our city. 

The result? A platform that we all agree to work towards, even though most members do not agree 100% with every point. Each successive election, we have expanded the process, engaging more residents and updating the platform to address changing conditions and celebrate hard-won victories. Candidates endorsed by Our Revolution Medford commit to support the platform; the platform shapes messaging and outreach for our coordinated electoral campaigns and provides the basis for a clear understanding of success and accountability after candidates win. 

Now in its third iteration, the 2023-2024 Medford People’s Platform is focused on housing justice, racial justice, public health, and a shared vision for a welcoming, vibrant, and forward-looking local government that provides residents with the city and school services they deserve. The two biggest priorities are raising revenue to invest in a new Medford High School and Fire Headquarters and implementing transformative housing production, zoning reform, and economic development plans to fight housing displacement, grow the city’s commercial tax base, and build more vibrant local business and cultural districts. 

Our work is purposeful and committed but joyful as well. We have consistently placed a high value on community-building. During each local election cycle, we grow the movement by building stronger relationships and growing our capacity to organize. Each non-election year, we sustain that movement-building through virtual city meeting watches and discussion spaces, and we hold regular general meetings. We focus on city government actions to hold elected officials accountable while supporting the good work done, and we hold social events to be in community with each other.

Historic Challenges

Inauguration day in January 2020 was a celebration of our successes. The months that followed showed the limits of our power, and then the limits of government and society. The COVID-19 pandemic struck Massachusetts and Medford hard. After just two months of Council meetings, we were in lockdown and dozens of Medford residents were getting seriously ill and dying, especially in our senior housing facilities. Shock pervaded the community, with highways and skies quieter than anyone had ever experienced. But in less than a month, Medford was able to implement videoconferencing for public meetings and the City Council began to meet again.

ORM-endorsed elected officials pushed hard for state and federal support, implementation of strong pandemic responses to protect residents from serious illness and death, resources and training for online learning to minimize the unimaginable disruption of the pandemic on kids, protection for residents facing housing displacement, and provisions for public meetings to continue to occur in a safe manner. 

From 2017 to 2021, serving in the minority or with a slim majority meant we needed to build coalitions and consensus within the City Council and School Committee, and many of our more ambitious and long-overdue policy proposals were stymied before reaching passage or rejected as too ambitious by the mayor or city and school administrators who hold outsized power compared to the elected legislative bodies under our city charter. 

With many progressives now in elected office, we see conflicts between people fighting to maintain the status quo and people who want to see the city grow and change play out constantly, with persistent arguments that people who have lived here across decades and generations and those who own property have more of a right to the city than residents who arrived more recently or who rent. 

Transformation is in the Details

The progressive majority elected in 2023 has brought a major change in the tone and approach of the City Council. For the first time ever, the Council has created, voted on, and published a governing agenda for the 2024-2025 term that outlines major initiatives. A new Council committee structure helps clarify when and how the Council develops ordinances and conducts administrative oversight. Meeting agendas, schedules, and files are published through a new online portal. Updated Council rules contain a table of contents, guarantee remote participation by members of the public through hybrid meetings, and no longer contain arcane language to make the rules clearer and more accessible to the public. 

Transformative initiatives and ordinances are moving quickly, with the Council voting to create an independent Department of Elections, passing the first Zoning Ordinance Recodification in 60 years, as well as passing ordinances updating snow removal policies to improve sidewalk access, several environmental and civil liberties ordinances, and a new budget ordinance that formally establishes an open and transparent budget process as city law.  

We’ve also faced new, unexpected barriers. Our budget cycles lay bare the major short-term and long-term budget crisis facing Medford. Prior to 2023, budget cycles had a similar rhythm. Mayors would submit a proposed budget close to the June 30^th deadline, some years riddled with errors. Councilors would demand accountability and attempt to set the facts straight during budget hearings held with less than ideal information to make decisions. Councils would attempt to hold strong and often would win small improvements, but year after year, residents would see service cuts to city departments and Medford Public Schools. 

In FY24, the Council once again had serious concerns about the use of one-time federal funds for permanent operating budget positions as well as the lack of a long-term plan to fund the giant liabilities the city faces for school buildings, city facilities, streets, sidewalks, and our water and sewer infrastructure. While a budget plan released by Councilor Bears and supported by Councilors Collins and Tseng did not move forward in its entirety, major pieces were secured by an agreement reached between Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Council President Nicole Morell, and Councilor Bears and ratified by a June 2024 Council vote to approve the Mayor’s budget. 

Since then, the City Council passed the city’s first-ever budget ordinance and in collaboration with the Mayor and School Committee leadership placed three referendum questions on the November 5, 2024 election ballot to raise revenue for the first time in the city’s post-Proposition 2.5 history. If voters approve these anti-austerity ballot questions, they would enable the city to raise revenue necessary to increase funding for the Medford Public Schools, build a new Fire Headquarters, and fund an in-house sidewalk and pothole repair crew in our Department of Public Works.  

Planting Seeds of Change in Your Community

You are reading an unfinished story. We have won great victories by bringing together residents in a collaborative, joyful, and values-based political movement, and we also understand that single victories will not automatically create the positive change we want to see in our community.

We hope our model can help you build the progressive community you want for yourself, your family, your neighbors, and your friends. Please don’t hesitate to be in touch with us so we can fill in the gaps and help you learn more about what we’ve built here in Medford.

Zac Bears is a lifelong resident of Medford, MA and a graduate of the Medford Public Schools and UMass Amherst. Public education and the labor movement have been the foundation of Zac’s life–including transformative experiences as a student activist and opinion journalist at UMass Amherst, director of the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM), and as a member of AFGE, union staffer at AFSCME, and staff member at Massachusetts Jobs With Justice. Zac has been a Medford City Councilor since 2020 with a key focus on funding public services and supporting working families.

Jessica Farrell is an organizer and archivist. She worked in libraries, archives, and nonprofits for 15 years. Since 2024 she has owned and operated Redstart Works, consulting on library and archives projects that expand the commons. Her commitment to free access to information compels her to fill civic information and data gaps in her communities. Her commitment to the commons compels her to advocate for the expansion and funding of social services, including libraries.

The post Step By Step, We Built a Movement to Transform Our Local Government appeared first on Working Mass.

Enjoy your September National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 25-person body (including two YDSA members who share a vote) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, hear from the Mexican left, help stop deportation flights, and more!

And to make sure you get our newsletters in your inbox, sign up here! Each one features action alerts, upcoming events, political education, and more.

• From the National Political Committee — Amid Hard Times, Democratic Socialism Goes Mainstream
• Live from the Global Sumud Flotilla — Humanity is on Board to Stop the Genocide! Join Us Friday 9/19
• RSVP for DSA Political Exchange Call with MORENA Starting Saturday 9/20
• Spanish Speakers: Housing Justice Commission Weekly Spanish Practice Beginning Tuesday 9/23
• Sign Up for Stop Avelo Power Mapping Workshop Tuesday 9/30
• Join Our Growth and Development Committee’s Membership Drive!
• Apply to Join the Democracy Commission (DemCom) 2025–2027! Deadline Saturday 10/18
• Apply Today to Become a Discussion Forum Mod!

From the National Political Committee — Amid Hard Times, Democratic Socialism Goes Mainstream

“Freedom is always the freedom of the dissenter.” — Rosa Luxemburg

As Trump’s administration accelerates its attempted crackdown on dissent — demanding the deportation of Palestine solidarity activist Mahmoud Khalil and others, using economic threats to force TV networks to silence even mildly-critical hosts like Jimmy Kimmel, allegedly planning a broad-based “crackdown” on liberal and left wing organizations, and whatever fresh fascist schemes appear in their alphabet soup — we stand proud and firm knowing that we, as democratic socialists, are not only on the right side of history but the popular side of the present. 

As democratic socialists, we are on the side of and among the people. And we’re not just saying that because it’s a cool-sounding socialist slogan — we have evidence! A new national poll from Jacobin and the DSA Fund finds that democratic socialist leaders and left-wing policies are broadly popular. More and more Americans are not just seeing what we stand for as radical — against an economic system rigged in favor of corporations and the wealthy, it’s practical!

That confirms what many of us know as DSA members. From years of knocking doors for campaigns, tabling, and talking to people in our communities about the projects we’re taking on collectively, we know from firsthand experience that working class people are hungry for an alternative and very receptive to ideas about how we make it happen. When we communicate plainly and lay out organizing plans together that people can believe in, it can powerfully cut through all the noise from a ruling class that wants to keep us divided and distracted while they plunder our planet and pick our pockets. 

As DSA member Zohran Mamdani gets closer to the mayorship of the wealthiest city in the world, DSA chapters around the country are running candidates to expand socialist power on city councils and in state houses, and through our work in housing justice, labor organizing, and campaigns grounded in ecosocialism, socialist feminism, abolitionism, trans and queer liberation, and more. As we keep raising expectations and winning power with the strength of our organization, we’re reaching millions of people to see that a better world is possible — and that DSA is building the organization that they can join to build it together. 

The crackdown on dissent is genuinely scary, but we won’t let it stop us. We believe in a path to socialism, even inside the belly of the beast, that comes from collective mass action — like labor and rent strikes, peaceful public protests, community-powered elections and ballot initiatives, and economic pressure campaigns like Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) in solidarity with Palestinians, to end our government’s support for apartheid and genocide. 

When the ruling class’s greed and incompetence opens up a power vacuum, like when the New York City establishment decided to run two corrupt machine Democrats against each other, they leave a lane wide open for organized socialists to move in. DSA was ready for this moment after years of steady organizing to build an electoral bloc of Socialists in Office in New York, who aren’t there to simply advocate for bills in government and let us hope for the best from the outside — they organize with us and show up with us on the streets to stand up for justice for us all. We will continue to be ready. Keeping on with our organizing work is how we build our organizing chops, expand our base, and be ready when those moments come — which is to say, it is the most powerful thing we can do right now.  We continue to march forth with things like a mobilization call to support the Global Sumud Flotilla (scroll down for info about an exciting live stream!), organize together to defend our immigrant neighbors, increase support of Starbucks worker organizing, support our nationally-endorsed electoral slate, and so much more.

We are in DSA because we believe in a better world, one in which people’s basic needs are met, where we make decisions democratically about our living and working conditions, where the violence of bigotry and division are no longer a subject of debate, but simply a thing we remember from the darker days. 

This is an important time to continue bringing new people into our organization, and to motivate our members to keep building working class power together in our communities. We’re safer and stronger when we are pulling together toward our common goals. We’re about to ramp up a big fall recruitment drive — now’s a great time to make the ask of people in your life to join DSA! Dues are one of our collective resources (consider raising yours today!), our experience and skillsets as organizers are also, the power that comes from moving in unison with hundreds and thousands of people is another… and courage is too. Pool that courage together and we will not fail.

Solidarity Now and Always,

Megan Romer and Ashik Siddique
DSA National Co-Chairs

Live from the Global Sumud Flotilla — Humanity is on Board to Stop the Genocide! Join Us Friday 9/19

The DSA International Committee will be hosting an important conversation with some of our global movement partners, livestreamed directly from the decks of the Family, one of the ships on the Global Sumud Flotilla, in order to find out more about the goals and strategies of the Flotilla itself, as well as to help build a solidarity network for Flotilla participants, who are being actively targeted by the Zionist state for their humanitarian work.

Come join us tomorrow, Saturday 9/19 at 12pm ET/11am CT/10am MT/9am PT to hear first hand about what is going on with the Flotilla, and to share ideas about how to continue to strengthen international solidarity against the genocide in Gaza and in support of Palestinian liberation. DSA members in good standing are invited to register here.

RSVP for DSA Political Exchange Call with MORENA Starting Saturday 9/20

Saturday 9/20 and 9/27, we’ll be participating in our first ever political exchange with the Mexican left political party, MORENA! Both events will start at 12pm ET/11am CT/10am MT/9am PT, and will run for two hours each.

Part 1 (Saturday 9/20) will focus on the histories of both organizations and organizing conditions in their respective countries. RSVP here!

Part 2 (Saturday 9/27) will focus on members in office. You can sign up here. We will have 3 very special guest speakers for DSA, including Rashida Tlaib! Don’t miss out on this very special occasion!

Spanish Speakers: Housing Justice Commission Weekly Spanish Practice Beginning Tuesday 9/23

Practica tu español con la Comisión para la Vivienda con Justicia (CVJ)!

Aprendiste español en el colegio o en el trabajo y quieres mejorar? Unete los martes a las 9pm ET/8pm CT/7pm MT/6pm PT para practicar con la CVJ. Te pondremos en un cuarto de Zoom con otra persona para que practiquen juntos. Si quieres también tenemos guiones si necesitas ayuda!

Sign Up for Stop Avelo Power Mapping Workshop Tuesday 9/30

Avelo Airlines is profiting from deportation flights, tearing our communities apart. We need good strategy to make sure we can affect their bottom line while making it clear that any airline that deports our people cannot continue to operate. Are you wondering how your local chapter can join the fight to tell Avelo Airlines that we won’t stand for this?

Join us Tuesday 9/30 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT for a 1.5 hour power mapping strategy session! On this call, you’ll learn the best strategy for your chapter to force Avelo to drop their contract with ICE.

Join Our Growth and Development Committee’s Membership Drive!

We’re in the throes of fall, and that means it’s time for a Fall Membership Drive! With us approaching election day for some extremely exciting DSA Campaigns (wink wink), we want to make sure we are turning DSA’s campaigns into hotbeds to recruit new socialists and organizers/soon to be socialists.

But to build off the momentum of our work, we will need everyone’s help making this drive as successful as possible! Fill out the form here to get involved.

Apply to Join the Democracy Commission (DemCom) 2025–2027! Deadline Saturday 10/18

Authorized in 2023, the Democracy Commission (DemCom) developed reforms to strengthen democracy across DSA. Its proposals were overwhelmingly adopted at the 2025 Convention, and the body has now been reauthorized to support chapters and the NPC in implementing them.

DemCom will assist with chapter rechartering and bylaws review (2025–2027), visit chapter meetings to support implementation, report regularly to members and the NPC, develop best practices in tandem with chapters, and promote democratic governance. 

There are open seats on the Commission. Please fill out the form here to apply. The application deadline is Saturday 10/18. Commissioners are expected to attend regular meetings (8PM ET, Monday evenings, plus some weekends), work with chapters to implement reforms, and report on progress and challenges.

Apply Today to Become a Discussion Forum Mod!

The Discussion Forum Moderator Council wants YOU to apply to be a forum mod to help build out forum use, ensure constructive and generative discussion and debate on the forums, and lead the way for keeping our internal communication platform representative of the big tent! More details can be found in this forum topic, which also includes the link to apply!

The post Your National Political Committee Newsletter — Amid Hard Times, Democratic Socialism Goes Mainstream appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

by Austin DSA

Austin DSA unequivocally condemns the decision of the Texas State University President, Kelly Damphousse, to terminate Dr. Tom Alter from his position at Texas State University.

On Wednesday, 10 September 2025, Dr. Tom Alter, a well-respected educator, published historian, and tenured faculty member at Texas State University, was unceremoniously terminated from his position at Texas State University. This unjust decision came just days after Dr. Alter spoke at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference in his legal and protected capacity as a private individual and not as a representative of the university. Karlyn Borysenko, an online personality with known fascist positions, recorded his talk, livestreamed it online, and immediately began calling for his termination on 8 September 2025. Dr. Alter was summarily fired from his position by university President Kelly Damphousse without notice nor due process. The decision was announced (and communicated to Dr. Alter) via public letter.

Dr. Alter’s firing is the latest in a string of recent firings under similar circumstances: an individual acting in bad faith records the words of professional educators, publishes them online, and conducts a smear campaign against the targeted professor calling for their immediate termination. This is not just an attack on Dr. Alter himself; **it is an attack on the very institution of public education**. Further, it is an attack on the right of all Texans, of all Americans, and of all people around the world, to speak freely without fear of retaliation. It fits the ongoing pattern of right-wing, often openly-fascist, attacks on public and higher education as a means of eroding the trust, legitimacy, and power of the very concept of human knowledge.

From the intense repression of the protests during the Student Intifada last spring, to the direct targeting of immigrant students and educators as with Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, and others, to the push for school vouchers from Governor Greg Abbott, the education system is being targeted and dismantled. This sustained campaign against education is being conducted via an inside-outside strategy of institutional repression from university presidents combined with online harassment and smear campaigns by fascist “influencers” on social media platforms. In taking their marching orders from internet micro-celebrities, university administrations show a level of hypocrisy that is unbecoming of those who claim to be educators, circumventing due process and labor rights to enact openly political decisions that go against the right to freedom of speech.

Austin DSA has hosted Dr. Alter for political education events in the past. Many of our members have learned from him and hold him in high esteem. Further, our comrades in Texas State YDSA are directly affected by the decision to fire him without due process and the lack of any guarantee to protection from repression and retaliation for their own free expression. We stand in solidarity with Dr. Tom Alter and call upon Texas State University to:

Reinstate Dr. Alter immediately.
Publicly affirm the constitutional right of all employees to speak as private citizens without retaliation.
Establish clear policies guaranteeing due process before any termination related to off-duty expression.

We ask our comrades to sign this letter from Dr. Alter’s union, the Texas State Employees Union (TSEU-CWA Local 6186), voicing their own support for the above demands.

The post Reinstate Dr. Tom Alter first appeared on Red Fault.

What Southern Africa's recent history teaches us about the dynamics of the Middle East of today

By: Rob Switzer

The following is a post I made on Facebook that was not intended to be published. It was mainly written to vent and just to show friends the kind of things I deal with as union steward at my workplace, which is a Food and Commercial Workers meat market where I have been working for five years as a butcher.

Someone suggested this piece would work as a demonstration of how power functions in the workplace. Note that the stories included are not official union activities and could theoretically be accomplished in any workplace. However, it is worth noting that the union-provided protections we have and my status as a quasi-authority figure very likely embolden my coworkers and me to assert ourselves in ways that we otherwise might not.

A couple of weeks ago, I was informed that a coworker of mine was sent home, suspended, and written up. He had allegedly gone shopping, prepared a lunch, then had his lunch, all on the clock. He was being accused of deliberate and extended time theft, which of course is a fireable offense.

Coworker said this was not true, and I asked him to send me a screenshot of his punches on the time-keeping app we use. He did so. Upon cursory inspection, it was obvious that he had in fact neglected to clock back in from his early break, and was therefore actually off the clock during these events.

We had a meeting with the store manager, and Coworker brought the write-up itself, which included the clearly false accusations, and even had his receipt stapled to it, showing what he bought and when he bought it (while he was off the clock, remember). The store manager saw my point and understood, but told the worker that he had to be more careful about punches; this time it wouldn’t be held against him.

But I wasn’t satisfied — the shift manager who had originally made these accusations was still operating under the belief that my coworker was a time thief. So I informed him the next morning that the worker wasn’t on the clock. “Yes he was!,” he told me. “No he wasn’t!,” I retorted. “Yes he was!” he shouted back. He agreed to let me show him the screenshot. We walked to my locker to see my phone. The shift manager looked at it and I could see his mind spinning. He exclaimed something like, “Well, he probably would have done it anyway!”

About ten minutes later he approached me and apologized, admitting he was wrong and that he should have investigated better. He seemed to hide for the rest of the day; other workers noticed and told me. I made sure everyone was aware that someone had just been written up and suspended for something he demonstrably did not do. Someone chanted, “Steward! Steward! Steward!” which was pretty amusing.

Fast forward to today. We had about six first-shift meat cutters/handlers working. It was getting close to 2:30, our usual out time. But overtime was posted, meaning management can hold us later if they want to.

We had ten cases of bacon that had to be bagged and vacuum-sealed. No one likes doing this; it’s tedious. But it’s part of the job. So when I was done with my other work for the day, I took it upon myself to start.

Right around this time one manager came into the cutting room and said, “We’re getting ready to prep up!” That basically means we’re being cut loose as soon as we clean up. Two of the cutters promptly left, leaving four of us behind. We finished the bacon; we were all getting ready to leave.

Then a different manager came in and said he wanted us to make sure the bacon got vacuum-sealed before we left. Usually what we do is bag it all and let one of the afternoon-shift cutters handle the sealing. There were four of them there today. Why couldn’t one of them do it? We all were ready to leave, and had already been told we could leave.

I told the manager I thought this was bullshit. That’s literally a one-person job. Are you actually asking three of us to stand around and watch someone vacuum-seal 10 cases of bacon? In so many words, he said that yes, yes, he was asking that.

I talked to the other three workers individually. Everyone agreed they were ready to leave. So let’s leave, I told them. I went and talked to the manager, and we had a little argument. “I have other stuff for them to do; I want you to seal the bacon, blah blah blah.” He stormed off and said something like, “Just get it done and you can leave.” I don’t think he understood; I was telling him we had already decided we were leaving.

We rolled the sealer machine into the cutting room, and one of the second-shift cutters started sealing. He was clearly free to do this. I checked in with everyone to make sure we were all walking out in solidarity. And then we did. It will be interesting to see if there are any consequences tomorrow.

Epilogue: There were no consequences, other than a manager mentioning it to me in disapproval. I hope our action stands as a lesson to my coworkers that we have power when we take actions in solidarity.

---

Adventures of a Union Steward was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post Response to the mobilization of national guard troops in Memphis first appeared on Memphis-Midsouth DSA.

Ventura County Democratic Socialists of America

Governor Gavin Newsom
1021 O Street, Suite 9000
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Oppose AB 715: Protect Free Expression and Academic Freedom

Dear Governor Newsom,

On behalf of the Ventura County chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, we urge you to veto AB 715 unless it is substantially amended.

We recognize and condemn the rise in antisemitic incidents in California schools. All students deserve to learn in environments free from harassment and discrimination. However, AB 715, as currently written, does not protect students from bigotry. By codifying definitions that conflate antisemitism with legitimate criticism of the Israeli state or Zionism as a political ideology, the bill risks censoring speech, curriculum, and silencing communities, particularly Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and allied students and educators.

Key concerns include:

• Curriculum restrictions: By requiring that instructional materials about Jews or Israel/Palestine be “balanced” and “non-discriminatory,” AB 715 invites political interference and lobby-driven censorship of Ethnic Studies, social science, and history classes.
• Complaint abuse: Expanding the Uniform Complaint Process to cover school board members, teachers, and contractors opens the door for frivolous or politically motivated complaints targeting those who speak out against apartheid or advocate for Palestinian rights.
• Selective protection: Establishing a State Antisemitism Coordinator, without equal attention to anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, and anti-Palestinian hate, elevates one set of protections while neglecting others, undermining the principle of equal protection under the law.
  

We support the fight against antisemitism. But real safety for Jewish students will not come at the expense of academic freedom, student speech, or the silencing of Palestinian voices. AB 715 risks weaponizing anti-discrimination policy to punish students and educators for speaking truth to power.

We therefore urge you to veto AB 715 unless it is amended to:

• Explicitly safeguard the right to critique governments, including Israel, without being labeled antisemitic.
• Include protections against anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, and anti-Palestinian hate alongside protections against antisemitism.
• Bar the misuse of the Uniform Complaint Process as a tool for political intimidation of educators and students.
  

California schools must be places of honest dialogue, rigorous scholarship, and solidarity among all communities. AB 715, as written, threatens those values.

For these reasons, Ventura County DSA calls on you to veto this bill in its current form.

In solidarity,

Ventura County Democratic Socialists of America

Events & Actions

Tuesday, September 16 (8:00 AM – 4:30 PM): ICE out of SF courts! (In person at 100 Montgomery St)

Tuesday, September 16 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM): What Is DSA?  (In person at Ingleside Branch Library, 1298 Ocean Ave)

Tuesday, September 16 (7:30 PM – 8:30 PM): What Is DSA? Social Hour  (In person at Beep’s Burgers, 1051 Ocean Ave)

Thursday, September 18 (7:30 PM – 9:30 PM): “Housing the City by the Bay: Tenant Activism, Civil Rights, and Class Politics in San Francisco” – TOWG Reading Group (In person at 1916 McAllister St)

Friday, September 19 (8:00 AM – 4:30 PM): ICE out of SF courts! (In person at 100 Montgomery St)

Friday, September 19 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM): Maker Friday (In person at 1916 McAllister St)

Saturday, September 20 (10:30 AM – 12:00 PM): DSA SF x EBDSA: No Space for ICE Canvassing (In person at Lincoln Square Park, 261 11th St, Oakland)

Saturday, September 20 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM): Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee Training: Session 3 (In person at 399 Webster St)

Saturday, September 20 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Homelessness Working Group Food Service (In person at Castro St & Market St)

Sunday, September 21 (5:00 PM – 7:00 PM): Capital Reading Group (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Sunday, September 21 (5:30 PM – 7:15 PM): Homelessness Working Group Reads  “Capitalism & Disability…” (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday, September 22 (5:00 PM – 6:30 PM): EWOC Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing Training (In person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday, September 22 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Labor Board x Divestment Priority Meeting (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Tuesday, September 23 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday, September 24 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM): DSA SF Tech Reading Group (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)z

Wednesday, September 24 (6:45 PM – 8:30 PM): Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (Zoom and in person at 438 Haight St)

Thursday, September 25 (5:30 PM – 6:30 PM): Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Thursday, September 25 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Immigrant Justice Court Action Orientation (In person at 1916 McAllister St)

Friday, September 26 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Kashmir: Partition, Nationalism, and Global Fascism (In person at 1916 McAllister St)

Saturday, September 27 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM): Physical Education + Self Defense Training (In person at William McKinley Monument)

Saturday, September 27 (1:30 PM – 3:30 PM): Divestment Strategy Session (1916 McAllister St)

Monday, September 29 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM): Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday, September 29 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

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

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This is the Last Chance to Stop AB 715

AB 715 is an extremely dangerous bill designed to censor any criticism of Israel and education about Palestine in California schools, by framing it as antisemitic.

On Friday, after a long week of mobilization to oppose the bill, it passed both Senate and Assembly chambers and will now head to California Governor Newsom’s desk.

We need to bombard his office with letters and calls of opposition!

1. Send a letter today (takes less than 30 seconds): https://win.newmode.net/caircalifornia/newsomveto
2. Call Newsom’s office during business hours: (916) 445-2841

You can follow this sample script: “I am calling the Governor to strongly oppose AB 715, a dangerous and discriminatory bill aimed at silencing and censoring any teaching of Palestine and Palestinians under the guise of antisemitism.”

Let’s support Palestinian students and teachers in the classroom from being silenced and censored! Please share with friends, family, neighbors to do the same!

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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 and Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM at Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery. We need all hands on deck. The 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM window is when we most need to boost turnout, but if you can’t make that please come whenever works for you. 1 or 2 hours or the entire time!

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Maker Friday: Zine Edition

Come make with us on Friday, September 19 from 7:00-9:00 PM at 1916 McAllister St! We’ll be making zines about socialism, organizing, and our reflections/hopes/dreams. Masks required and provided. All are welcome, no experience necessary, see you there!

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EWOC: Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing

The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) is running a Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing course weekly in September (see below for schedule). Just like we did back in May, we’re getting a group to take the course together and benefit from in-person discussions and activities (at 1916 McAllister). If you’re interested, RSVP here! The goal is to have more people learn organizing skills, both for your own projects and for organizing with EWOC. Sessions run every week from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM on:

• Monday, September 22
• Monday, September 29

If you have any questions, reach out to labor@dsasf.org.

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DSA SF x EBDSA: No Space for ICE Canvassing in Oakland Chinatown

The DSA SF Immigrant Justice Working Group and East Bay DSA Migrant Defense Working Group are leaving No Space for ICE!

Join us on Saturday, September 20, at 10:30 AM in Oakland’s Lincoln Square Park to provide Know Your Rights materials and educate local businesses and religious institutions on their rights in relation to ICE/DHS. This canvass will be EBDSA Migrant Defense’s first in Oakland Chinatown — and DSA SF’s Immigrant Justice is helping out! Meet at the sign for Lincoln Square Park for a brief training before we canvass in pairs or small groups.

Wear DSA merch if you can, or put a DSA pin on a visible part of your clothing.

RSVP here or, if you’d like more details, Contact an organizer via email at immigrantjustice@dsasf.org.

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 Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee (ETOC) Training

This month the Tenant Organizing Working Group has been attending the Fall 2025 Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee (ETOC) training, a four-part series, offered by the national DSA Housing Justice Commission! In the first ETOC session, we learned about the four principles of social housing as well as tools and techniques we could employ in the course of our social investigation and class analysis of the tenants and landlords in our area. In session 2, we learned how to approach tenants about forming a union organizing committee, how to identify tenants who are most readily accepting of agitation and to mobilize to convince their neighbors, and generally getting our foot in the door to begin the process of making a tenants association or union.

We hope to see you join us for the upcoming ETOC session 3 on Saturday, September 20 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM either remotely via zoom or at our watch party at 399 Webster St at the Embassy. There will be snacks! All are welcome! Please get in touch with us at tenants@dsasf.org if you’d like to explore the ETOC materials.

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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 every other Sunday evening starting in September for 4 or 5 sessions at 1916 McAllister. The next session is Sunday, September 21. For more info, register here: bit.ly/martacd and check the events calendar for latest details.

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Tech Reading Group with Kickstarter Union Founder Clarissa Redwine

Come join DSA SF and Rideshare Drivers United on Wednesday, September 24 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at 1916 McAllister for our monthly tech reading group. We’ll be reading an article by Clarissa Redwine about the Kickstarter Union Campaign that started in 2016. Clarissa will also be making an appearance on Zoom to answer questions about her experience. RSVP here!

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Immigrant Justice Court Action Orientation

Come one, come all to 1916 McAllister St for our court watch orientation! You’ll learn how we are resisting ICE , how you can help, and participate in a biweekly art build. Bring questions and anti-ICE slogans! This event will take place every-other week on Thursday’s starting at 7:00 PM and the next one is September 25!

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Kashmir: Partition, Nationalism, and Global Fascism

Nationalism is rising all over the world, and violence as always is accompanying it. Nowhere is the genocidal logic of the nation-state more evident than in Israel’s occupation of Palestine, but it is not the only example that we must learn from. The Partition of India in 1947 and subsequent conflicts in South Asia have many similarities, and some important differences. Come join the DSA SF as we investigate the Kashmir Conflict, which flared up violently this spring, and its relationship to Hindu nationalism and the global fascist movement. We’ll be meeting Friday, September 26 from 6:00 – 8:00 PM at 1916 McAllister St.

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Reportback: No Appetite for Apartheid Canvass

This last Saturday, Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialism Working Group had 27 people attend a canvass to partner with store owners to de-shelve products profiting off Israeli apartheid! We had so many new faces from many different orgs, even outside our coalition partners (AROC, DSA, JVP, Speak Out Socialist). We covered 8 turfs in Bernal Heights and Outer Mission, 32 stores in total, and also got some consumer pledge signatures. Join #palestine-solidarity on Slack for more information on the next canvass!  Free Palestine

Behind the Scenes

he 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.

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