The following is a speech delivered by Portland City Councilor Wes Pelletier at the October 18, 2025 No Kings rally in Portland Maine.

Hi everyone, thank you for being here. What a tremendous turnout. 

For those who don’t know me, my name’s Wes Pelletier. I’m the City Councilor for Portland right here in District 2. 

I’ve always been into politics. I canvassed for Howard Dean when I was thirteen, and followed politics closely after that. It was fun, with crazy characters and plot lines. The fun was quickly sucked out of it in November 2016. Suddenly, my relationship to politics was just a spiral of dread and anxiety, of anger: of powerlessness. I think we’ve all become familiar with that feeling. 

What got me out of that spiral, though, was organizing. It was building community. In being a small part of a larger whole: taking notes at meetings to figure out how to get winter clothes to homeless folks, signing people in at the vaccine clinic, knocking doors in my apartment building to start a tenants union.

From the outside, these projects never seem like much. What could one meeting around a kitchen table mean in the face of such widespread, powerful, nihilistic cruelty. Why dedicate a perfectly good weekday evening to a Zoom Call to design a flyer?  

I’ll tell you why: because it gives you a sense of agency and control in a system that does not want you to have any. So now, rather than lying awake every night feeling directionless and powerless, I wake up every morning with an idea of what specifically I can do to move things forward, even in a small way.

But more than that: it creates the skills and the structure that we will need to overthrow Trump’s fascism. Fascism relies on fractured communities. It relies on us being afraid of other people on the street, of us not being able to resolve disagreements without calling the cops. It relies on us believing that if we just throw enough other people under the bus, we’ll be spared. 

Now, those of us here know that’s not true. We know that diversity is strength. We know that our fight is not with our immigrant neighbors, it’s not with the guy sleeping in a doorway, it’s not with trans folks who are just trying to be themselves in a world that wants to punish them for it. We know that our fight is with the billionaires, and the ruling class that would throw us all to the wolves if it meant that their stock portfolio went up a point or two.

We know all of that, but how can we build that sense of solidarity around us?

Here’s how. Get involved. If you’re fortunate enough to be in a union, talk to your Representative and find out how to get involved. Get involved with your local Parent Teacher association, or a mutual aid organization. When there’s an ask for help, raise your hand, and then use that opportunity to understand how the organization works and how you can pitch in. 

Yes, you’re signing up for work, but it’s work in the same way that a hobby is. It is work that’s gratifying and it’s work that grows in scope. A few years ago I was handing out granola bars at a Brett Kavanaugh protest. Now I’m a city councilor. 

It also helps to have a political home. Mine is the Maine Democratic Socialists of America, who right now has a working group fighting for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. We’re building tenant power in multiple Cities, and here in Portland we’re fighting for question A, which will raise the minimum wage to help bring economic security to our most vulnerable neighbors. 

There is also Indivisible, who has done such important work in fighting to stop Avelo Airlines from being a part of ICE’s machine, and who has organized this incredible event.

These organizations teach us how to run a good meeting where we’re able to come together and make decisions. They show us that it’s possible to disagree but build something strong together. They teach us how to stand up for what we think and to take criticism with grace. They give us the skills we need to make our little corners of the world more fair, more connected, and more resilient to the fear and loathing that Trump feeds on.

But look, I get that not everyone has time for a new commitment. Maybe that all seems like a bit much. So start at home. 

Here’s an example. Say you don’t know anyone on the street you live on. Maybe there’s an elderly neighbor you know that could maybe use a hand every once in a while, and you’d love to help but it’d be weird to just knock on their door and ask. 

So you could just go about your life and feel idly disconnected from the people around you. Or maybe you plan a halloween block party. Make a flyer, knock on your neighbors’ doors, and see if they want to come drink some cider and maybe bring some donuts. Will they think you’re weird? Yes, almost definitely. But I will tell you that odds are good, that a few of them will show. 

And when they do, you don’t need to talk about politics, just eat donuts and get to know each other and your struggles. And next week, when your elderly neighbor needs help raking leaves, they feel okay asking you. Or when your next door neighbor is baking a pie and is a little short on flour, they can get some from someone on the street rather than driving to the store. 

And those little acts may not seem like much, but they build a community that cares and looks out for each other. A community that, when Trump’s goon squad comes to disappear the family living a few doors down, comes together and drives them out. That is the power of community.

So here’s what I want to leave you with: I want you to feel the power that we have here today. I want you to feel the solidarity and the sense of common purpose. Celebrate and commiserate. Then I want you to take that home with you, roll up your sleeves, get involved, and build the communities and organizations that will stop these wannabe kings in their tracks. 

Thank you all. Solidarity forever. Free Palestine!

The post No Kings Rally Speech by Councilor Pelletier appeared first on Pine & Roses.

On Monday, October 20, Cumberland County Commissioners will vote on agenda item 24-112, deciding whether or not to continue the county jail’s contract to hold ICE detainees. Last May, a loose coalition of individuals and organizations called No ICE for Maine began organizing and speaking out during public comment at the commissioners’ meetings, arguing that the county was being used by ICE as a small cog in their deportation machine. Five months later, after hundreds of members of the public have spoken out, thousands have signed a petition to end the contract, widespread press coverage, and public and private arguments and discussions with the board, we are on the eve of what would be an historic decision in the fight for immigrant rights. The letter below was sent the letter below to the commissioners as part of that campaign prior to a special hearing late last month.

***

Dear Cumberland County Commissioners, 

A final plea.

If you don’t have time to read this entire note, then before tonight’s hearing, please read and put yourself in the frame of mind of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. It reads, in part, 

“Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”

I first met you all back on May 17 at your monthly meeting. At the time, I believe those of us who value equality before the law, human rights, and basic respect for individual liberty were all in shock at the brazen assault on the rule of law by the Trump Administration. I have consistently counseled my counterparts to appreciate the administration’s strength and to assume that Trump and his cohorts will cling to power, no matter the cost. However, I have to admit that I hoped along with everyone else back in May that Trump’s drive to consolidate power might stumble and break apart. Four months later, it should be clear that any cause of such optimism is unfounded. What remains is a test of political power. 

This is nothing new in American politics. The Declaration of Independence was illegal from the Crown’s point of view. The Fugitive Slave Act (in fact, there were several such Acts) was legal, resistance to it was not. Separate But Equal segregation was legal, Dr. King was an outlaw. As were the Suffragettes, the CIO, and the UFW. Political power resolved each of these conflicts, laws and their interpretations followed after. Someone had to take a stand to put these processes in motion. 

Prior to the 1920s, immigration was open to virtually all Europeans. Speaking for you and me, whose ancestors came from that part of the world, our families were declared legal while today’s Black and Brown and Asian huddling masses are declared illegal. Keep in mind that enormous numbers of those being detained today are LEGAL, they have asylum claims pending, but ICE and Border Patrol snatch them up because of the color of their skin. 

Trump has decided that the knife he will use to cut the Constitution down to his liking is an all out attack on our immigrant neighbors. He is not enforcing the law. He is using political power to create facts of the ground that his hand-picked Supreme Court will later codify or, perhaps, temper to one degree or another. That ought to be plain to see by now. Trump is not winding down, he is winding up. 

I prefer to persuade and to reason, but here comes a time when all room for equivocation is over. For the past four months, you have seen what we have seen: Trump is using ICE as a practice squad for fascist repression. He is not yet able to impose that without dissent. But Congress just gave him $145 billion to build this machine and he intends to do so. Locally, Border Patrol and ICE act with impunity, masked up, raiding worksites and threatening schools. They will be more powerful and audacious in the coming months. 

No ICE for Maine did not start this debate. ICE started it and you ought to have reacted before we ever turned up. But after four months of public testimony and ICE terror, the sum total of your actions is as follows: 1/ you had a 60 minute meeting with No ICE for Maine representatives in July at which you listened to Sheriff Joyce describe the rapid rise in the number of ICE detainees in his jail, while admitting that he had no idea where most of them were living when they were detained; 2/ by your own admission, you spent much of August researching and refining rules for public comment [to limit it] instead of proposing to work with us to oppose ICE in whatever way you might have preferred, 3/ and you have schedule a single 2 hour workshop scheduled for tonight [September 29] in which No ICE for Maine is supplying the majority of the presenters while the majority of the presenters you designated represent law enforcement, but you haven’t even compelled an appearance by an ICE representative.

Here is how this looks. You are angry at us for breaking decorum, while you have not lifted a finger to oppose ICE as it increases its operations in the very institution under your direct supervision, the Cumberland County Jail. 

I believe you when you say you are disturbed by ICE’s actions. 

I believe you when you say you hope people protest ICE elsewhere. 

I believe you when you say you believe, whatever its limitations, in the rule of law. 

But if you vote to continue the contract with ICE, you will demonstrate that you lack the courage of your convictions. You didn’t ask to be put in this position, but you are elected officials so it is your job to make hard decisions. 

Here is the way out: Sheriff Joyce openly declares that he will defy the Commissioners if you vote to terminate the contract. He believes he has the law on his side. Well, then. Vote to terminate the contract and we will move to the next phase of this fight, that is, whether or not the Sheriff is obeying state law. The Maine Supreme Court has not yet been wrecked, so the dispute will get a fair hearing there and it will open the door for the Legislature to consider it as well.  

Until September’s meeting, Commissioner Gorden stated multiple times that, to paraphrase, if cutting the contract is the right thing to do, the Commissioners will do so without regard to financial considerations. At the September meeting, he raised the question of the financial impact of terminating the contract. I genuinely hope that he misspoke and that Commissioners are not weighing their commitment to equality before the law against a few pieces of silver. Your careers in public service deserve better than that. 

Take a stand for our immigrant neighbors. Vote to terminate the contract. Vote no to ICE. Vote yes to accountability, democracy, and civil liberties. Help us bring to life the old slogan, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” 

[Read next: Harness street power, endorse No Kings!]

The post Cumberland County jail should cut its contract with ICE appeared first on Pine & Roses.

By Phil K.

DSA members and allies rally for Medicare for All outside of Rep. Doris Matsui’s office in downtown Sacramento.

In April of this year, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell introduced the Medicare for All Act of 2025, the legislation for single-payer universal healthcare, along with over 100 Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate who signed on as co-sponsors.

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, Sacramento’s two Representatives—Doris Matsui and Ami Bera—are currently NOT co-sponsors of the bill. Despite the urging of a vocal and diverse local coalition for Medicare for All, including Sacramento DSA, Matsui and Bera refused to sign on, signifying their defense of a highly inefficient, profit-based system that makes it extremely difficult for half of U.S. adults to afford healthcare when they need it.

While the Trump administration accelerates the corporate attack on the working class and cuts funding for popular, necessary programs like Medicaid, Democrats like Matsui and Bera fail us by not pushing for the most effective solutions to problems that Sacramentans face every day.

It’s not enough to simply oppose Trump’s cuts when we have a status quo where more than half of Californians are skipping medical care due to cost and more than a third of Californians have medical debt. We spend about twice as much per person as other industrialized countries, but millions of people, many with insurance, still can’t get care. In combination with steadily worsening wages and economic conditions under decades of both Democratic and Republican presidential administrations, it’s no surprise that so many Americans have lost faith in politics.

Single-payer universal healthcare is the bare minimum of pro-working class policies that we desperately need, and we need elected officials who will actually work to pass it. The fact that half of elected Democrats in the House and a majority of Democrats in the Senate don’t support Medicare for All is both a disgrace and political malpractice that facilitates the rise of Trumpism.

However, the reality is that because of how entrenched the healthcare corporations are in our political system, too many politicians will not support it unless we build enough political power to either force them to support it or replace them. This is a long-term fight and it’s going to take a deep commitment to grassroots organizing and a willingness to engage in a diversity of tactics.

Sacramento DSA will continue to fight for guaranteed healthcare on both the federal and state levels. We urge readers of this blog to sign our petition, call your rep, and demand that they co-sponsor Medicare for All. Stay tuned for more blog posts on different aspects of our fight for healthcare justice over the coming months, and join our chapter’s Healthcare Committee to get more involved.

Members of Sacramento DSA deliver letters to the offices of Reps. Doris Matsui and Ami Bera urging them to co-sponsor Medicare for All.

The dynamism and explosiveness of the Suntrapp Workers United (SWU) strike has been hugely activating for LGBTQ, labor, and political activists all over Salt Lake. It is rare that you see new unions in this state and in the food service industry. It’s even rarer you see those unions strike! SWU have taken a stand against their employer for their dignity and their right to control their own working conditions. They know their power lies in their labor and solidarity, and are causing a crisis for their employer in order to meet their demands. As a result, the vast majority of Salt Lake is behind the SWU strike and have been turning out in huge numbers to support it. Every night the bar looks almost completely dead; the end is in sight.

A strike is meant to put a business in crisis—that is precisely what makes it powerful. But when the business in crisis is a beloved small business, there is always opposition that feels it’s not “right” to unionize a small business. Is it ‘right’ for the workers to cause a crisis for an employer that has this kind of romantic cultural value, something that is increasingly rare and fleeting in a society where multinational corporations have almost completely erased the market for small businesses? This problem can be initially confusing for people trying to understand socialist politics, as progressive liberalism tends to prop up minority owned small businesses as agents of broader societal improvements.

In the DSA, we seek to understand this through a class analysis. Socialism is a project to change the world we live in, and so we have to understand the world objectively. Who controls society? By what mechanisms do they control society? Who is oppressed? How can we liberate the oppressed, and turn society on its head? In class society, the infrastructure and resources which we depend on to survive are controlled by a tiny minority of the population, which we call the ruling class or the capitalist class. They dominate society not just by controlling our workplaces, but also the state, the government, the police, the military, education, mass media, and cultural institutions. We seek to put workers collectively in charge, not just of their workplaces, but all these sections of society. In order to achieve this monumental task, we must build a mass movement of workers who understand the necessity of creating worker organizations to leverage the only advantage we can have over the capitalist class; our superior numbers and our indispensable role in the economy. We recognize trade unions as one form of worker organization which engages workers in the struggle against capitalism, so Salt Lake DSA supports and engages in efforts to build unions in Salt Lake City.

This unconditional support inevitably will lead to this problem we’re discussing at Suntrapp; what do we do when workers are unionizing against a small business? Do we support them, or do we condemn their struggle because it is against a small business owner? The answer should be obvious in the context of the class analysis above and the broader movement. It would not serve the mass movement or the organized socialist movement to make our support of unions conditional on the specific economic position of the business owners, picking and choosing which workplaces are “big enough” or “too small” for democracy. If the small business owner chooses to resist the union, they are resisting a part of the movement we’re building together.

However, there is a distinction to be made. In the simple class analysis above, do small business owners have the same socio-economic position as monopoly capitalists like Bezos, Buffet, and Musk? Are they equal members of that class which control all other aspects of society? Of course not. Capitalism and individual capitalists are not the same, and different capitalists have contradicting interests. Small businesses are much more precarious and must appeal to romantic notions of community, handicraft, and personalized experiences to stay afloat, since they lack access to the economies of scale which make large industry objectively more efficient. The owners may even do the most labor in their business, forced to exploit themselves due to the immense market pressures to stay profitable.

However, they are also not working class either. They control the working conditions of others, hire employees to work for less than they create just like any other business, and the only thing they risk is the possibility of losing their investment and becoming a worker. They don’t do these things because they are a “good” or “bad” person, but because the market forces them to make decisions to stay competitive. As a result, they occupy a middle, precarious position between hegemonic finance capital and the working class. They can be genuine community leaders, with close connections to workers, and contribute something meaningful to the world along the economic framework that our society functions. But it is also true that small business owners are materially motivated to oppose union efforts at their workplaces, and therefore will often choose to do so.

Class position alone does not always predict the decisions of an individual. Workers themselves can also choose to be enemies or allies to the working class movement. Millions of working class Americans are unconvinced of a socialist future, and often actively sabotage union efforts in their workplaces by scabbing or counter-organizing, just like business owners. Socialism is not about “good guys” and “bad guys,” it’s about who chooses to build the movement, and winning the majority to that cause. Small business owners are trying to escape the same conditions all workers are, and we can appeal to them on those grounds. Rather than seeking individualized liberation from exploitation by becoming a capitalist, the only sustainable and just solution to class society is participating in a historic effort to overcome class distinctions completely. Socialism will liberate elements of the small owning classes as well, as they will no longer need to struggle so desperately to escape being a worker. With a mass movement perspective in mind, and the disproportionate strength of the small owning class in the US, we will even likely need to win a section of this layer to our cause on the strength of our ideas and
organization.

The owner of Suntrapp, and all business owners confronted with a union, should see the union for what it is—a piece of the wider movement to transcend class society. If she cannot, we need not concern ourselves too much on whether or not she will voluntarily recognize the union. We will tirelessly organize, regardless of the opposition we encounter. As a result, we must confront a final possibility. What if Suntrapp closes completely? Are the workers still correct to organize and to strike?

If the owner chooses to close their bar (to be clear, it will be her choice; the bar can absolutely continue to operate with a unionized workforce) rather than maintain complete control over their employees, we would continue to support the SWU strike as a win for the organized working class movement. Socialists are not engaged in a project to build more small businesses. We know the organized working class has the power to transform our society; a nation of small businesses does not. The workers in SWU know the stakes, and understand their struggle in the context of a broader one. Every picket I’ve attended, the workers at Suntrapp emphasize their vision of transforming the entire food service industry in Salt Lake. If an owner is too proud and short-sighted to bargain with their employees, then so be it. SWU will carry their experience and knowledge to their next workplace with an intimate knowledge of the stakes and an understanding of themselves as members of a working-class movement. The community should also learn the same lessons; that we have the ability to take a stand collectively as a class.

Unions at large businesses face the same threat of discipline through closing businesses. Capital has moved entire manufacturing bases to more oppressed nations for ‘cheaper’ labor and less regulation, and will often threaten to discipline organized labor by accelerating that process. That does not mean we oppose the movement the ruling class is trying to punish. It should be clear that we do not evaluate support of a union effort based on the reaction of any business owner, large or small. We see it as an element of an international working class movement.

The post Suntrapp Workers United and Small Business Liberalism first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.

Workers in Italy have been extremely successful in using the strike as a tool against war and connecting this with their lives at work.

The post Italian workers packed the streets for Palestine appeared first on EWOC.

The Nov. 4 Parks Levy effort becomes part of the Chapter’s emerging Family Agenda. 

On September 14, members of the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America voted to endorse the upcoming Portland Parks and Recreation Levy 2025 Ballot Initiative as part of its Family Agenda campaign, and is training members to canvass Portland communities in support. 

The 2020 voter-approved levy to support parks and recreation operations expires at the end of the fiscal year. If the Nov. 4 levy is not approved, the Parks operating budget would be cut nearly in half, resulting in far fewer programs and services. The Parks Levy ensures Portland can maintain parks and community centers by increasing the property tax rate by 60 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value. That means a median homeowner would pay about $26 per month and the median commercial property owner would pay around $37 per month.

Why it matters

Parks are about more than recreation: they are sites of community, climate resilience, public health, and intergenerational, cross-cultural connection. In a city increasingly shaped by privatization and budget cuts, securing resources for public parks is essential. Local governments around the country have found that investing in parks, and providing equitable access to them, can increase economic vitality and make their cities more attractive for existing and potential new residents. 

“The levy is an important piece of our community’s future, particularly for renters who rely on city parks to access the outdoors. With everything costing people more these days, parks are a great example of the community coming together both literally and figuratively, to ensure we have free outdoor spaces for all. My coworkers and I are the first line of defense to make sure these spaces are welcoming and well-maintained. I wish we had a more secure funding model but for now, the levy is essential.”

• Ryan Heidt, horticulturist for the City of Portland and LIUNA 483 member (Parks & Rec workers)

The wealth is here, if we want it

Contrary to the stories that wealthy people like to tell, we know that the rich only get richer by exploiting their workers: as of 2024, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio for major companies was $285-to-$1. We also know that “tax flight” is a myth cooked up by the city’s elite to get out of paying their fair share. That’s why Portland DSA supported City Councilor Steve Novick’s proposal earlier this year to increase the existing surcharge on corporations that have highly skewed ratios of CEO-to-worker pay, in addition to DSA member and City Councilor Mitch Green’s Healthy Parks, Healthy Climate Plan which would have built on Novick’s proposal. These are examples of the creative policy-making this city desperately needs right now.

At the same time, the 2025 Parks Levy is necessary but insufficient. This is especially true given that the Portland Metro Chamber threatened a campaign of opposition to the levy if the City Council didn’t reduce the amount, thereby protecting the Chamber’s elite base from having to pay a more equitable share. While the levy will provide urgently needed funding, relying on periodic levies to sustain critical infrastructure is an inequitable and unstable approach. Public goods should be guaranteed through progressive, permanent, and reliable funding—paid for by taxing the wealthy and corporations who benefit from our shared resources, not through regressive measures that disproportionately impact the working class. That’s why we need more elected leaders with the guts to push back against the arm-twisting elites at the Portland Metro Chamber and to stand up for working people.

“For years, Portland DSA members have shown up and testified for more sustained funding for the essential services that parks and community centers provide. The 2025 Portland Parks Levy will be no different. We’ll engage our neighbors and push to pass the levy while remaining crystal clear: a longer term funding structure is sorely needed and we’re ready to fight for that too.”

• Olivia Katbi, parent and co-chair of Portland DSA.

We need you. Yes, you! 

Portland DSA believes in vibrant public spaces as a collective right. Do you? Then sign up to stay in touch on future events and actions. Over the long term, the City Council must put more resources in public hands, but right now passing this levy is our best shot at retaining what we love about our parks and community centers. 

About the Parks Levy

The 2020 Parks Levy was a success for the city, as shown through both an independent audit and reports from the existing Parks Levy Oversight Committee. The 2025 Parks Levy would:

Preserve Program Access

• Continue free and discounted recreation programs for families experiencing poverty
• Provide free lunch & play programs, movies, concerts
• Preserve classes, community center hours, arts and cultural centers, parks, pools 

Ensure Neighborhood Parks Maintenance 

• Daily restroom cleaning, trash pickup
• Routine maintenance, minor repairs
• Repair or renovate facilities like playgrounds, restrooms, pools
• Park ranger safety patrols, incident responses 

Protect Nature in a Changing Climate

• Plant, maintain trees
• Preserve natural areas, trails, water quality, wildlife habitat
• Clear brush, maintain emergency access routes to reduce wildfire risk 

About Portland DSA’s Family Agenda

Families, however you define them, are a crucial part of a movement for a better world. Through the Family Agenda campaign, Portland DSA seeks to build a culture of collective care for working people, children and elders in our community, while rejecting the right-wing nationalist definition of family. We will make our voices heard at the city, county, and state to stop the slashing of programs that families rely on, and to demand that our parks, community centers, and after-school care programs are fully funded. We’ll be working to expand public support for public education and fight for full implementation of universal preschool at the county level – a policy that Portland DSA fought for and won in 2020.

Contact: family.agenda@portlanddsa.org  

The post Portland DSA Endorses Parks Levy, Calls for More Ambitious Public Investment appeared first on Portland DSA .

By: Frederick Reiber

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s students, workers, and union comrades gathered outside of the university’s Lobby 7 on Friday, October 10th to protest and celebrate MIT rejecting the Trump administration’s compact. 

Earlier this month, the White House sent offers to nine universities in what the administration titled “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” Contained within these agreements were a number of stipulations—including commitments to accept the government’s priorities on admissions, women’s sports, free speech, student discipline and college affordability—exchanged for better access to federal research funding.

Following calls from the graduate worker union, professors, and numerous other student-led groups, MIT president Sally Kornbluth rejected the compact. She cited the numerous messages she had received asking for the compact’s rejection. In doing so the university becomes the first to reject the president’s proposal and the only such university at the time of writing.

Trump’s Continued Attacks on Higher Education

Trump’s proposal follows numerous attacks and challenges to higher education. The administration has paused federal funding of many top research universities, signed several executive orders targeting colleges, and attacked international students’ rights. These have emptied out entire neighborhoods in areas like Allston-Brighton as international student enrollment dropped precipitously this semester, and while the compact may be seen as an attempt to change course, academic leaders were quick to point out its true intent. Ariel White, vice president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) at MIT, said:

This wasn’t an invitation letter, it was a ransom note… the goal is to leave universities powerless and at the whim of the federal government.

Other academic leaders agreed. MIT Graduate Student Union (GSU) – UE 256 president Lauren Chua called the proposal  “a thinly veiled attempt to divide us, to make us turn against each other, and to weaken the very communities that make our university thrive.” 

Chua couldn’t be more right, as the compact seeks to enforce harmful gender definitions, denying transgender students recognition and rolling back university protections, all masked under the language of “equality.” Other stipulations include forcing universities to be more accepting of conservative lines of thought, potentially overruling scientific consensus in academic research. The compact also bans colleges from using sex, ethnicity, gender, or political orientations, continuing the overturning of decades of academic work that finds strong connections between affirmative-action like policies and increasing opportunity for those with less money, or those who continue to face systemic racism. As Jade Personna, the speaker for the MIT Black Student Union, argued: “the battle is decades old and the Black Student Union has been fighting it since our inception.”

U.S. conservatives will continue their attacks on academic and intellectual freedom. That is part of a larger ideological project only furthered by the practical program of Project 2025. Long seen as bastions of “deceit and lies,” higher education has long been seen by conservatives as a threat. Some claim that colleges “teach that America is an evil, racist nation” purely for harboring left-wing scholars,. Now-Vice President JD Vance summarized their perception back in 2021: “the universities are the enemy.” 

In reality, American colleges reflect and reproduce America’s troubled history. Universities are learning institutions that are also landlords, schools that are also workplaces. 

Recognizing People Power

One important takeaway from the academic and student rally was the need for people power. Despite what other headlines may imply, the university’s rejection of the Trump Compact was not simply a matter of a good executive. The university’s rejection was a coordinated and community-led effort, won by the numerous student, worker, and professor-lead groups that organized against the compact by applying pressure on an executive amenable to that pressure.

The unfortunate reality is that American universities are businesses. Run by boards of trustees, colleges will do little to protect their students’ rights to academic or intellectual freedom in the face of financial turmoil. We have seen this time after time with pro-Palestine protests, and will likely continue to see similar protests dispelled. 

Kornbluth was forced to reject the compact by the very people who make MIT the institution of MIT. It is the professors, workers, and students who stood up for their communities, risking their bodies against an administration unafraid to kidnap or coerce. As Chua stated in her speech:

This is a victory for every single one of us, because we acted with unity and urgency, [because] we mounted a pressure that could not be ignored.

Fighting against fascism is not easy, it is not pretty, and it certainly is not done by CEOs, academic presidents, or a board of trustees. It is done through the blood, sweat, and organizing of workers, who—much like the community leaders at MIT—make themselves heard.

Frederick Reiber is a PhD student at Boston University researching collective action and technology. He is a member of SEIU 509, Boston DSA, and covers tech, labor, and education for Working Mass.

The post MIT Refuses to Sign Trump Compact Following Pressure from Grad Workers’ Union and Other Groups appeared first on Working Mass.

From the beginning, the Trans Liberation Priority Project has put on its agenda passing trans sanctuary city legislation in the cities of Lakewood and Cleveland.
Lakewood is our first success.

The Cleveland DSA Chapter first submitted draft legislation to the City of Lakewood in April 2025 and showed up in support of this at a city council meeting, with numerous DSA members who resided in Lakewood giving testimony. Afterwards, representatives from DSA kept in touch with Council President Sarah Kepple about this for several months. In addition, we attended several events in Lakewood and canvassed, gathering resident signatures in support of the legislation.

The City, after consulting with leading local and state LGBTQ rights organizations, transformed our original draft into a Gender Freedom Policy which enshrines and upholds transgender rights in Lakewood. Sarah joined a DSA call in September and discussed the policy further. The legislation was formally brought to the floor of council in September and passed on October 6th, 2025—and we gained an earned media opportunity by being featured in an article in Ohio queer news publication The Buckeye Flame!

What does this show? Our efforts work. There is strength in numbers. Public support can sway minds. There is an appetite to protect our most vulnerable populations in Ohio, despite what legislation our state and federal governments pass. Persistent, polite communication and pressure works with local politicians. Blue cities can be beacons of hope, even in red states.

Our goal is to emulate this in the City of Cleveland. Through concentrated, democratic efforts with local partners and politicians, we aim to encourage Cleveland to pass similar legislation. The fight for another victory is only just beginning, and we are ready for it!

The post DSA’s Success: Lakewood Passes First-of-its-Kind “Gender Freedom Policy” appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

By: Taina Santiago

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has deported more than 400,000 people since Donald Trump took office again in January of this year. The administration recently allocated 75 billion dollars of funding to bolster the agency, which was originally formed in 2002 under George W. Bush and has been utilized by every administration since to target immigrant communities.

With ICE’s accelerated kidnapping and deportation operations, the Supreme Court legalizing racial profiling of Latine people, and the building of the shuttered-then-reopened concentration camp that the right disgustingly dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”, many have compared this current era of attacks — specifically against Mexican immigrants — to the rise of fascism in Germany and the Nazis’ early antisemitic targeting of Jewish people in the 1930s. And while these comparisons are valid, we can also look in our own front lawn to see history repeating itself. The Mexican Repatriation of the 1930s — a period of time where as many as 2 million people of Mexican ancestry were forcibly or coercively sent to Mexico — took place on U.S. soil in the exact same period of rising fascism in Germany, but has gone largely unacknowledged since.

In the 1930s, The Great Depression brought on unprecedented levels of poverty and unemployment in the U.S. and around the world, a catastrophic downturn that was used by the government to scapegoat people of Mexican ancestry as the cause of these economic issues. President Hoover and his administration pushed an anti-immigration campaign at the time that revolved around keeping “American jobs for real Americans,” a dog whistle that quietly communicated that American meant — and still means — white.

In a white supremacist nation like the U.S., instead of the state of the economy being used as a mobilizing force for the working class, it is used — very effectively — to turn white working class people against Black and Brown people. Any time there is a recession or depression, minorities are to blame rather than the rich people who gamble with our livelihoods and abuse workers. Today, that economic rhetoric has been replaced by another set of lies that fearmonger about undocumented people committing more crimes — a claim that has been proven false. But it is all the same message of dehumanizing minorities in order to maintain white supremacy.

Back in the early 20th century, instead of ICE, it was the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) doing the deportations of 82,000 Mexican people between 1929 and 1935. But there were also many state and local “repatriation programs”–supported by the federal government–that encouraged people of Mexican ancestry to leave their homes, businesses, and communities for jobs, food stipends and financial assistance that did not materialize as promised, with cities like Detroit and Los Angeles carting off train cars full of people who were just living their lives. According to Professor Ana Raquel Minian in their contribution to this TIME article, “60% are believed to have been American citizens — most of them children.” This is a shocking statistic until you begin to understand that the very purpose of these “anti-immigration” efforts are nothing more than a tool to rid the U.S. of Black and Brown people, undocumented and documented alike.

Just as it is today, terror was used in the 1930s as a tool of coercion, with racial profiling and raids making life difficult for all people of Mexican ancestry. The USCIS website itself admits that, “though the effort was not aimed expressly at Mexican [people] it affected them more than other nationalities. For example, in 1930 Mexican [people] accounted for over half of all deportations.” It affected them more because they were people of color, othered by the U.S. government.

That othering continues today, where you can see on ICE and other immigration websites that every instance of the word “non-citizen” has been changed back to “alien” since Trump took office again. As it pertains to raids, the website also states that, “[a] more important result of [INS] raids, however, was that the threat of increased federal deportations likely hastened the departure of thousands of Mexican [people].” ICE’s sweeping raids of immigrant communities is creating this same fear in people around the country, and that is by design.

Detroit had its own Mexican Repatriation program that was advertised by the local government and Diego Rivera himself–the artist who painted the famed Detroit Industry murals at the DIA. He was recruited by the governor at the time, Wilber Brucker, and the Detroit Mexican Consulate, to help convince people of Mexican descent to leave Michigan. He falsely believed they would be greeted by new worker cooperatives, so he saw it as a liberating opportunity for his people and country. However, as he later came to find out, he was sold a bill of goods.

Detroit’s Mexican Repatriation program reduced the city’s population of Mexican people by 90% by 1936. And because of this pervasive, years-long ethnic cleansing, generations of Mexican-Americans were traumatized into silence, often opting for assimilation to survive. Only recently have we been able to hear the oral histories of Mexican-American Detroiters through projects like Maria Cotera and Elena Herrada’s documentary, Los Repatriados: Exiles from the Promised Land (2001), which asked elders who experienced the repatriation to recount their experiences of loss and suffering.

I was inspired to write this article because of a PBS documentary (you can watch it here) that happened to be playing on TV one night, which featured John Leguizamo documenting the history and activism of Latine people in America. In it, he talked about this repatriation operation, something I had never heard of in my life. I sat on the couch, confused. Confused about how I was unaware of this decade-long event that has shaped immigration policy and rhetoric ever since, and confused about why more parallels were not being drawn between it and the current times. The answer was that we simply hadn’t been taught about it en masse.

An essential feature of the propagation of U.S. imperialism is to erase history and frame ourselves as “the good guys”. We are taught in school and the media that most egregious human rights violations happen elsewhere, not here. Black and Brown people have always known this to be a blatant perversion of the truth — even if some of the specific examples like the Mexican Repatriation are also hidden from us. But it is a lie that white America falls for time and time again, even while they witness historically marginalized people suffer around them.

This present moment — the fascism, the racial targeting, and the white supremacy leading it all — was happening in the U.S. in the 1930s. So it is not solely Germany’s history we are repeating, but also our own. In fact, people of color have been living under fascism in the U.S. since the inception of this country, but it is only now that white America is waking up to this reality. It is time for the U.S. to look its ugly history in the face and finally–for the sake of the lives of Black and Brown people–learn from both the world’s and this country’s atrocities.

If you are looking for more ways to help in the struggle against ICE in our neighborhoods, join Detroit’s People’s Assembly contingent this Saturday, October 18th, 3PM at Roosevelt Park for the No Kings Rally taking place to connect with community members with the same resistance goals as you. Stay strong. Stay safe. We can only do this together. Solidarity forever!

The U.S. Playbook: How The Mexican Repatriation of the 1930s Mirrors Our Current Moment was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.