As this dreadful police state bears down on us, there are still faint glimmers of hope. One of the most promising is the Democratic primary win for New York City’s mayoral race by long-time DSA member Zohran Mamdani. This victory, somewhat surprising given his low polling early in the race, has put explicit democratic socialist executive power on the table for the first time in decades, in a central hub of Wall Street capital and a center for international finance. Simultaneously, massive crowds have rallied  behind Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, demanding a future worth living in. As Bernie’s clear protege, it is quite possible that AOC will run for president in 2028, inspiring millions who view her as the last best chance for social progress in America. Now, DSA’s task is to make sure that this popular energy is channeled into a lasting political project—not crushed or coopted as it was in 2020 and 2024 for a decrepit Democratic establishment.

At our recent 2025 convention, DSA passed two separate resolutions that commit the organization to  exploring a run for president in 2028. It also committed us to the task of building an independent socialist party. If we want to make these dreams a reality, however, we have two strategic imperatives: first, we need to draft a democratic socialist presidential platform –  DSA’s vision for how to use the presidency to fight for socialism in our lifetime. Second, we must begin our intervention in the 2028 presidential primary by running our own candidate, a bold DSA cadre candidate, even if that candidate eventually drops out and backs a figure like AOC for the general. 

Are we up to the task? Have faith, comrades! It’s reasonable to feel small next to the scale of the problems that haunt us. Yet in DSA, we have real strengths that we can continue to develop: vision, commitment, and continuity. When elections end and the cameras leave, we are the ones who keep the struggle alive, who stay rooted in our communities and refuse to bow down to Democratic elites. They may have the name recognition, but we have a lasting organization that can inspire a new kind of mass movement and hopefully, a broader national presidential agenda to go along with that sense of commitment.

Rallying the Masses

This isn’t about winning the first time we run our own independent candidate for the highest elected office in the country. It’s about preparing the US working class for a revolutionary conquest of state power. The crucial reality is that the U.S. Constitution is already dead under Trump’s autocracy, which itself is a result of decades of creeping oligarchy. With the extreme disparities in Senate representation, the hideous influence of money in politics, and all the chaos and confusion ahead, it’s very unlikely that we’ll ever win a clean trifecta of the presidency, House, and Senate. Even Lincoln wasn’t that lucky when his insurgent Republican Party first took the presidency in 1860.

Rather, we’ll sweep to power using presidential politics to help trigger an avalanche of working class struggle, and rip up the old rulebook. It’s about using electoral campaigns for political office to attract support and to agitate the working class. Alongside the electoral realm, we will use every other tool available: strikes, demonstrations, mutual aid associations, and so on. Our “organizer in chief” presidential campaign will also encourage socialists to build up their own media, like the mass livestreams that Bernie Sanders pioneered or Zohran Mamdani’s masterful TikTok videos. We can be certain the cable news pundits won’t be kind to us, and it’s high time we found ways to counter their propaganda, and to cultivate peoples’ questioning of the status quo into something more enduring and focused!

Imagine our candidates throwing down on the picket line with striking workers; holding listening sessions outside VA hospitals and rail yards, organizing militant public health initiatives to subvert abortion bans and defend transgender care. Wherever we find organic working class leaders, we funnel them right into the pipeline to our People’s Cabinet. In our movement, today’s train conductor is tomorrow’s presidential nominee! The presidential election is just an audition for power—a way to build the muscle, the vision, and the network that the working class needs to actually govern when the time comes.

A Platform of Revolution

Before we even begin to select a potential candidate, we would need to determine what we’re running them for. Steps and patience are still necessary. We start by drafting a “Democratic Socialist Presidential Platform”: a prepared list of tasks that we would initiate on day one of a socialist presidency. Through rapid executive action, our intent would be to mobilize the working class to dismantle the capitalist state as it currently exists and win peace, homes, and healthcare for all.

Our agitation around this document would be more than a protest campaign. It’s a platform campaign spanning countless election cycles, not just one, in a nationwide struggle for power. Instead of beginning with a personality, we can start by revisiting DSA’s existing program, refining it together through democratic deliberation. The following could be inspiring commitments for our platform:

• Appoint a People’s Cabinet of working class organizers, prepared to take power as a revolutionary workers’ government. Such organizers would be recruited from across the country.
• Redeploy federal resources toward massive climate resiliency projects, housing, and healthcare for all, regardless of locality
• Cut all federal support for genocide and the Israeli war machine, instead supporting Palestine’s freedom
• Arrest all war criminals and genocide collaborators in the US for prosecution in international courts. 
• Arrest all collaborators in Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile network.
• Recognize the self-determination of all colonized and indigenous nations fighting global capitalism and U.S. imperialism
• Declare a public health emergency to restore abortion rights and gender-affirming care nationwide, deploying federal resources to ensure universal access.
• Nationalize public infrastructure, from railways to energy grids, under democratic control
• Welcome climate refugees and declare universal amnesty for immigrants 
• Liberate political prisoners from both federal and state incarceration
• Reorganize the armed forces into a democratic people’s army
• Convene a Popular Assembly, elected by nationwide proportional representation, to rewrite the US Constitution and declare a democratic socialist republic

The agenda will lead, not a personality. Our socialist vision will be spearheaded by charismatic people with a strong sense of responsibility to the movement, ready to build a permanent constituency for socialism. As we boldly articulate DSA’s vision for the country and the world, we will become infinitely more powerful.

The DSA Presidential Convention

With a platform agreed upon, we’ll be ready for the next step of nominating our ticket. Those who will be responsible for using electoral politics to spread our socialist movement across the country won’t be nominated through a backroom negotiation. Instead, we can hold a DSA presidential nominating convention. Anyone would be free to run for the nomination, as long as they pledge to implement the DSA Presidential Platform. DSA could develop democratic procedures for selecting a nominee and hold livestreamed in-person debates for all declared candidates to earn the DSA endorsement and full backing. Such debates will encourage healthy discourse in our organization and push all of us forward politically 

But how do we find good candidates? We can do this by thinking outside the box! We don’t necessarily need a governor, a member of Congress, or even an existing DSA elected. It would be amazing to win over a national politician like Rashida Tlaib or Cori Bush, but we could also pick a DSA chapter leader, a national co-chair, or a rank and file union activist. We could draft a local elected like Richie Floyd, a socialist schoolteacher like Jeremy Gong, or even a plain-spoken left wing academic like Matt Karp. The nomination process will give us ample opportunity to observe the candidates in action, picking one who is up to the task of building a socialist constituency.

Then, we could bring in other figures to boost the ticket. Imagine Zohran Mamdani, running for Congress on a nationwide slate of democratic socialist firebrands. These candidates will be backed by the strong campaigns that are necessary to win, build DSA and spread consciousness about our program. Downballot campaigns will get a boost when the presidential candidate barnstorms their district to help get their name out, and local elected officials will in turn have a part to play in boosting the presidential ticket. 

Running for a collective presidency would give us incredible resilience. If we spread name recognition across the movement, we can avoid getting trapped with a single perennial candidate like Bernie, Corbyn, or Melénchon. Instead, we can learn from figures like former Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and his successor Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico, who have used their groundbreaking electoral campaigns to build up permanent institutions like Morena, a mass party of the Mexican left. Bernie and AOC seem to be building support for their progressive vision through their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, but their distance from DSA limits their ability to cohere an organized mass base for their political program. Their instinct has always been to center their personalities instead of trying to create a new voter identity or a partylike organization.

If we nominate our candidates early—perhaps in 2026—we’ll have plenty of time to start forging a socialist voter identity as 2028 approaches. We can begin by running in the national Democratic primary with a stridently independent campaign, making it clear that we will never endorse the establishment if they steal the nomination or continue to ignore working class grievances. Our candidate’s orientation would still be to antagonize masses of typical voters, including the many Democratic party voters who have become increasingly frustrated with the party, and to offer them a true alternative to the GOP. If the time seems ideal, we can continue to the general election as an independent, on a third-party ballot line, or perhaps even as a write-in candidate, taking with us support from inside the primary. Every step of the way, we will assess support for socialism and continue the long overdue process of cultivating a pro-socialist constituency.

If AOC enters the primary, many comrades will feel that the only responsible choice is to rally behind her immediately. For many Americans, she is the most familiar figure to emerge from Bernie Sanders’ movement, their entry point to “democratic socialism.” Yet there is a hard truth that DSA sometimes struggles to address: AOC’s approach is rarely insurgent and has in fact become increasingly conciliatory in recent years. In 2024, she went so far as to go on the DNC stage and claim with a straight face that Kamala Harris“[works] tirelessly for a ceasefire in Gaza”—all while Harris groveled to Biden’s killing spree and promised the “most lethal” military in the world. More recently, AOC voted against a measure to slash funding for Israel’s Iron Dome, followed by reasoning that itself sounded contorted and unclear.

AOC’s strategy is compromised by her commitment, however well-intentioned in some circumstances, to staying in the good graces of a party leadership that is utterly hostile to progress and its own voter base. That is not a personal attack, but a political reality with consequences. If DSA plays “follow the leader” and tails a left-Democratic presidential candidate, we will forfeit any ability to push beyond the limits they accept. We should never forget what happened in 2020: when Bernie Sanders capitulated to Biden early on in the name of “party unity,” his massive volunteer army was left in despair and disunity. When summer came, millions rose up in the George Floyd rebellion, but they had no real political leadership—no defiant presidential agitator who could guide their righteous fury into a permanent resistance. That tragedy could repeat itself in 2028 if AOC surrenders to the establishment, all while ICE tramples more families into the ground. 

We can welcome AOC into the field. We may even consider forming a united front of some kind with her as the primaries unfold—if she makes significant concessions to the DSA platform, and we retain our own independent voice. Even from a position of “critical support for AOC,” we could continue to build a constituency around DSA’s unique vision and stay completely hostile to establishment Democrats. If she drops out and endorses an establishment primary winner, we must not follow her. A revolutionary campaign must be prepared to go much further than AOC will, because the US working class deserves more than a fleeting populist resistance: it demands an enduring socialist opposition. 

With a boldly independent socialist campaign, we will answer working people’s hunger for a real alternative. We’ll be putting forward our own agenda, unfiltered by the expectations of the Democratic party establishment. This strengthens our leverage and puts pressure on the entire political system. Ironically, this may even bolster AOC’s position within her party by showing the establishment that there’s a far more dangerous option than her. In the short term, that too would be in our favor, with AOC forced to concede to some of our more liberatory demands, all the while we carry on developing our independent sources of power, electoral or otherwise. DSA’s strength lies not in our proximity to progressive celebrities, but in our capacity to organize working-class people around a shared vision for a better society. All strategies, including the electoral, proceed over from this principle. 

The Hard Road Ahead

As our new National Political Committee builds on our commitment to building a socialist party, it should begin planning for a groundbreaking presidential campaign to fight for “socialism in our lifetime.” Across the country, DSA members increasingly understand that contesting the presidency is vital to our success as a movement. The greatest challenge ahead is making sure our presidential intervention is bold, inspiring, and courageously independent.

If DSA can come together around this vision, we will be taking a considerable leap of faith. It requires confidence in socialism as a movement, as an organization, as a concrete project worth fighting for. Is it actually possible for socialists to rise to power in the United States? If we don’t start to believe it ourselves, no one else ever will. 

If there’s one thing we can draw hope from, it’s the fact that all the old release valves are breaking apart. The Democratic Party has never been weaker and more decrepit. If we seize this moment with unrelenting ferocity, we can emerge with the independent movement of our dreams. The key to all of it is developing our vision through a presidential platform, and then running a candidate who is willing to speak to it. It is a message of confidence to the entire world that we can achieve socialism in our lifetime, in the United States: the center of global capitalism and empire.

Our time will come. Our time is now. 

Image: Photo of the Oval Office during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s time as U.S. President. (Public Domain)

COLUMBUS — The Columbus chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) issues the following recommendations to residents of Columbus.

1. In For Issue 1, YES.
2. In For Columbus School Board, vote MOUNIR LYNCH.
3. In For Columbus City Council, district 7, vote JESSE VOGEL.

A detailed rationale for each recommendation follows.

Disclaimer: No recommendations made here are endorsements. These recommendations are tactical considerations meant to minimize the harm likely to occur to the working class here and abroad as a result of this election.

Do you lament the lack of socialist, abolitionist, anti-ICE and pro-BDS candidates running for office? You can be a part of changing that, whether by running for office yourself or helping us to discover and cultivate future socialists-in-office. To advance the democratic socialist movement in Central Ohio, join DSA today: www.columbusdsa.org/join/.

Endorsement for Columbus School Board

Mounir Lynch

Columbus DSA is proud to endorse Mounir Lynch for Columbus School Board. Lynch sought our chapter’s endorsement and was thereafter endorsed by a democratic vote of the chapter. From our conversations with him, Lynch has demonstrated that he shares our ideals. He will seek to prioritize community voices, students, families, educators, and neighbors in shaping schools with transparent processes and district-wide advisory boards that will meet at convenient times and locations.  He wants to make teachers and staff “partners” with the board and will work to direct resources where they’re most needed. He wants to end the inequality in funding to schools and will work to provide all students with a world-class education. Lynch will fight for better pay, not only for teachers, but for all staff, including school bus drivers, cafeteria workers, aides and other support staff. Furthermore, Lynch has and will continue to speak out against developers who steal from our schools through tax abatements, and against the privatization of education. As he has said, “Our public schools belong to all of us.” We support Lynch’s vision for safe, inclusive schools where all students and workers are valued and respected.

Recommendation for Columbus City Council, district 7

Jesse Vogel

Columbus’s City Council has been bought and paid for by the local Democratic Party for decades. The local party has opposed efforts to make the process of electing councilmembers more democratic and has insisted on appointing or endorsing their own chosen candidates to maintain their hold on power in Columbus. (Our chapter’s Democracy in Columbus Priority Campaign seeks to change this.) Jesse Vogel’s campaign is part of the struggle against the established Democratic Party’s stranglehold on power in this city. Vogel’s vision is positive and certainly superior to the vision offered by the local Democratic Party leaders and his opponent, Tiara Ross. Vogel has not sought our chapter’s endorsement, and we are not granting it. But we do acknowledge that he is far superior to his Democratic Party endorsed opponent, and as a result, we recommend that our members vote for Jesse Vogel for city council. 

Recommend “Yes” vote for Issue 1

We recommend a Yes vote on Issue 1, a .05-mill increase of an existing levy over ten years to fund the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health (ADAMH) Board. This increase will strengthen key services available to all, with a particular focus on helping the uninsured and underinsured with mental health and addiction crises and recovery services. Key recipients of the levy dollars are the new Franklin County Crises Core Center for adults, Youth Prevention services, Treatment Access, Recovery and Support Services, Housing Programs, Family & Caregiver Support, and other Specialized Services for mental health and addiction issues.

No recommendation for other Issues

We cannot, in good conscience, recommend any other issues, due to lack of specific information from the City as to how funds, coming from the largest request for bond packages ever, will benefit the average citizens of Columbus.

At DSA’s 2025 National Convention, DSA members passed CR-05, the NEC Consensus Resolution, a set of electoral resolutions authored by NEC members. Among those was “Focused National Endorsements,” a resolution establishing new, concrete, specific, and immediately actionable criteria for DSA”s national endorsements. The resolution defines this criteria in aim of focusing national DSA endorsements on electoral campaigns where DSA can make concerted national action to intervene in elections. As explained by the resolution, these endorsement criteria may result in fewer, more selective endorsements by the national organization, but will allow for more meaningful endorsement experiences and interventions.

The criteria for DSA’s national endorsement applications will ask that candidates:

• Have a demonstrated history of leadership in their chapter, participation in DSA’s internal life, and attending DSA events
• Commit to uphold DSA’s national policy platform, Workers Deserve More, and DSA’s national priorities, campaigns and initiatives
• View themselves as socialist organizers first, and legislators second
• Openly and proudly identify with DSA and Socialism, including by:
  • Expressly encouraging people to join DSA
  • Identifying publicly as a “Socialist” or “Democratic Socialist”
  • Aligning their branding, messaging, and/or color scheme with DSA
• Commit to grow their DSA chapter and develop DSA leaders through their campaign
• Demonstrate interest in receiving a national endorsement
• Commit to caucusing with fellow elected DSA endorsees and socialist-in-office committees, where applicable

The resolution also specifies that national endorsement should also consider:

• How DSA’s national endorsement would significantly impact the odds of success, through national fundraising, publicity, and volunteer support
• Opportunities to build DSA’s public profile and recruit more members through elections with national political significance
• The campaign’s stance on key political issues and strategic questions important to DSA, such as:
  • The Democratic Party, political independence and party-building
  • DSA’s path to power and the transition to a socialist society
  • Palestinian liberation

National endorsements will authorize DSA to provide candidates with the following support:

• DSA communications will prioritize highlighting the candidates social media and sharing their posts
• The NEC will host national phone banks and encourage nearby DSA chapters to journey to canvass for these candidates
• DSA and NEC will prioritize fundraising support, when allowed by compliance, prioritizing national donations from members to the campaigns
• At least one of DSA’s national co-chairs will be encouraged to visit the chapter of the candidate, meet with the chapter and candidate, do public facing communications for the campaign, and engage in chapter and campaign building activities, including canvass for the campaign
• DSA’s NEC will support the campaign through all relevant logistical infrastructure available at the time, including mentorship, electoral academy, and more
• DSA’s national committees will provide logistical and policy support

As a result of this measure, the NEC’s endorsement and educational materials will be adapted to communicate this new endorsement criteria. As your campaign or chapter apply for local endorsement, please consider applying for national endorsement if your campaign meets this criteria and would benefit from strategic national intervention and support.

Mayor-President Sid Edwards and the Metro-Council are currently debating how to proportion the parish's budget. You know that the Baton Rouge police have a history of abuse and violence, and you know that the best way to prevent crime is to fund communities through social programs, homelessness support, good jobs, parks, transportation, schools and other people-centered approaches. The police can only respond to crime, but we can have a safer city by tackling the root causes. Hiring more police officers or paying them more will not address these problems, and they could make them worse.

In this bonus episode, we keep the mics rolling with Kelly Latimore as we discuss icons, Bonhoeffer, and subversive religious practices.

Enjoy your October National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 27-person body (including both YDSA Co-Chairs) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, join our Fall Drive, hear about organizing across the country, 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 — Fighting For Working Class Freedom
• Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash. Help Elect Socialist Candidates!
• Saturday 10/25 Fall Drive Phonebank Kick Off — Special Guest Bhaskar Sunkara
• RSVP for International Migrant Rights Working Group ICE Watch Training Tuesday 10/28
• AfroSocialist and Socialists of Color Collective Meetings Tuesday 10/21 and Thursday 11/13
• Convention results
• Apply to Join the Democracy Commission (DemCom) 2025–2027! Deadline Extended to Friday 10/31

From the National Political Committee — Fighting For Working Class Freedom

Hot Socialist Summer has come to a close for 2025, but as the temperature drops this fall, organizing across DSA is heating up! 

DSA is at a pivotal moment, where the genocide in Palestine and the failures of the Democratic Party to mount meaningful opposition to the Trump administration, the oligarchy, and the rise of the far-right is motivating tens of thousands of people to build a mass, socialist organization in the United States. According to a Gallup poll, support for socialism is at an all-time high among Democratic voters. DSA’s presence at mass actions like the No Kings protests last weekend show how many people are ready for a fighting alternative to the catastrophic status quo. 

All across the country, people are being inspired to believe that building a powerful socialist party is possible — and that they can be a part of it. Just this past month, DSA has surpassed 80,000 members in good standing, our highest membership peak to date! DSA now has better organization, more political development, more vibrant internal democracy, and more radical ambitions coming to fruition than ever. We have more DSA members contesting elected office while operating together as socialist blocs, from Missoula, Montana, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Portland, Oregon. We are more embedded in the labor movement, we are more functionally part of social movements, we are more deeply internationalist — and thus are even better positioned to motivate and sustain a new membership surge.

We are just weeks away from Zohran Mamdani’s election for mayor of New York City — a democratic socialist mayor in the highest executive office in the heart of global capital! — and chapters across the country are throwing down for their locally and nationally-endorsed campaigns as Election Day nears (and you can, too, even if you’re not in a city with a candidate – jump on a Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash phonebank and help push these candidates across the finish line)!

State power is just one piece of DSA’s strategy — we’re also… 

• Building out our support network for Starbucks Workers United and helping chapters across the country to connect with their local SBWU organizing units as the holiday rush draws near
• Showing up in solidarity with the Cuban people, with a delegation we just sent to Havana of 40 DSA elected leaders and rank-and-file members from chapters big and small across the country to deliver hundreds of pounds of solidarity aid, learn about the achievements and challenges of Cuban socialism.
• Ramping up the pressure on Avelo Airlines as they continue to profit off mass deportations via ICE contracts, both with a consumer boycott and with pressure campaigns to kick them out of airports
• Continuing to build out resources and new fronts in our boycott against Chevron, a primary BDS target, as we continue to stand firm for Palestinian liberation
• And so much more!

As we continue the fight for working class freedom everywhere — from down the block to the other side of the globe — we know that as DSA, we must be bigger and stronger by many orders of magnitude. DSA is and will always be a dues-funded organization, where organizing new members increases our people power, allowing us to deepen and expand our base as we fight to oppose US military aggression and free Palestine, prepare for major political interventions toward midterms, organize toward May Day 2028, and so much more. DSA now has more members in good standing than ever before — and we’re turning the heat up higher with our just-launched Fall Recruitment Drive, with a stretch goal of reaching 100,000 DSA members by the end of this year! 

We’re rooted in struggle, blooming in solidarity — and together we’ll keep growing democratic socialism throughout this fall. Read on for more about how you can plug into the Fall Drive — and sign up for phonebanks with special guests, to help us reconnect with lapsed members to rejoin DSA in this crucial political moment!  Watch this space for more information about how you can get involved at the chapter level, or by taking on your own recruitment campaigns among your coworkers, neighbors, and friends.

For even more ways to get plugged into DSA, scroll down! We will see you in the fight!

Yours, 

Megan Romer and Ashik Siddique
DSA National Co-Chairs

Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash. Help Elect Socialist Candidates!

It’s 3 weeks till election day and we’re 6.5k short of our goal! It’s been a hugely successful year for the DSA’s National Electoral Commission and our fundraising campaign, and we’re hoping to have a new crop of socialists in office to show for it.

But taking out the capitalist trash won’t be possible without YOUR help. Corporate money is flooding into our races across the country in this crucial final stretch. We’ve set a goal of raising $100,000 before election day to ensure our slate has the support it needs to win and we’re just a little over $5,000 short! Can you donate to our slate to support a socialist running for office?

Saturday 10/25 Fall Drive Phonebank Kick Off — Special Guest Bhaskar Sunkara

Be part of the Growth and Development Committee’s nation-wide membership drive! Our strength is rooted in solidarity and in our communities. Let’s work to build deep roots in our local communities, reach out to lapsed members to renew, and bring thousands more into the struggle together! Join us for Fall Drive phonebanks to talk with lapsed DSA members about renewing their dues. We’ll kick off Saturday 10/25 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT with special guest Bhaskar Sunkara!

And you can join calls throughout November:

• Saturday 11/1 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT
• Wednesday 11/5 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT with special guest Meagan Day
• Wednesday 11/12 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
• Saturday 11/15 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT
• Wednesday 11/19 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT with special guest Adam Hochschild
• Saturday 11/22 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT

RSVP for International Migrant Rights Working Group ICE Watch Training Tuesday 10/28

ICE agents have been escalating their presence in our communities, and that means that we need to get together with our neighbors and come up with plans to make sure we are protecting ourselves and our communities from their harassment.

People all over the country are trying different things. Many communities are coming up with ways to observe ICE and to inform neighbors of their rights, all things that every person has a right to do under the Constitution.

Join DSA’s International Migrant Rights Working Group and NDLON on Tuesday 10/28 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT to hear from NDLON organizers about the Adopt a Corner program, and from DSA organizers who are actively running ICEWatch and Adopt a Corner programs in their local chapters.

AfroSocialist and Socialists of Color Collective Meetings Tuesday 10/21, Thursday 11/13

Hello comrades and cousins! Interested in joining a collective for AfroSocialists and Socialists of Color? 

Join AfroSoC for for upcoming General Body Meeting (GBM) to be in community with socialists of similar identity, culture and politics. The next GBM will be Thursday 11/13 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT.

If you are new to AfroSoC, we encourage you to attend our upcoming New Member Orientation tonight, Tuesday 10/21 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT. Questions? Reach out to AfroSoc@dsacommittees.org.

Convention results

The 2025 Convention Results Compendium and Minutes are officially approved by the 2025-2027 National Political Committee (NPC)! You can view these results and minutes here.

We appreciate everyone’s patience as our new NPC got onboarded and settled into their roles. As a reminder, there are Overflow Agenda items from the Convention that the NPC is still working through. These can be viewed in the final compendium. We hope to take up a majority of these items during our October 19th virtual meeting as well as our November 8th and 9th NPC in-person meeting in Denver, Colorado. 

We hope that all comrades who got sick following Convention are doing well. If you think you may have contracted COVID and have not already let us know, please email dsacon@dsausa.org with the subject line “Convention COVID Reporting” so we can continue to track and plan for future events. Please do not reply back to this email for this purpose.

Apply to Join the Democracy Commission (DemCom) 2025–2027! Deadline Extended to Friday 10/31

Apply to Join the Democracy Commission (DemCom) 2025–2027! The deadline to apply is Friday 10/31. 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 Friday 10/31. 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.

The post From the National Political Committee — Fighting For Working Class Freedom appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

DSA is proud to endorse Frankie Santos Fritz for Greenbelt Mayor & City Council!

Frankie is a longtime local organizer and branch leader with Metro DC DSA. He is a proud member of a union family and plans to introduce a collective bargaining ordinance to cover the city workforce. Frankie is also a member of the Greenbelt Home Inc housing co-op and is championing laws to empower tenants who wish to convert their communities to cooperative or social housing.

Frankie plans to expand rent stabilization protections to cap annual rent increases with the rate of inflation. He is dedicated to supporting federal workers who are under attack from DOGE and the federal administration. His top transportation priority for the next term would be getting the long-promised Capital Bikeshare station built at the Greenbelt Metro Station and getting it stocked with numerous E-Bikes.

Check out the rest of Frankie’s campaign priorities!

This is a special meeting of the GRDSA Chapter to consider a proposal to endorse and support several ballot initiatives.

We will have reps from each campaign to give a brief presentation and answer any questions. Then chapter members will present a proposal to endorse and circulate these petitions as a chapter.

Michigan for the Many (M4M) is an alliance between the MOP Up Michigan (Money Out of Politics) and the Invest in MI Kids (wealth tax to fund education).

Rank MI Vote (RMV) would amend the Michigan Constitution so that we would use Rank Choice Voting (instant runoff) for elections.

Join us Sunday, October 19, 4pm, on Zoom to hear how these initiatives can empower the working class of Michigan.

The post Special Chapter Meeting: Campaign Proposal Town Hall appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.

The following article is the result of a visit to the People’s Republic of China to participate in celebrating China’s 80th Anniversary of its victory over Japanese fascism. Dee Knight and DSA China Working Group coordinator Anlin Wang were part of a five-person self-organized delegation of DSA members.

Beijing buzzed with excitement on September 3, as leaders of friendly countries poured into the city from around the world. They came to celebrate China’s 80^th anniversary of defeating Japanese fascism in World War II and to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Summit meeting. It was an impressive display of “unity in multi-polarity” featuring Russian President Putin and Indian Prime Minister Modi, as well as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, among about two dozen others.

With participation of most southeast Asian members of ASEAN, as well as the “stans” of central Asia, China was literally surrounded by the representatives of countries representing well over four billion people and nearly half the world economy. Another prominent participant was President Pezeshkian of Iran, which maintains close economic and military partnerships with both Russia and China.

The New York Times called Beijing’s Victory Day parade on September 3 “a defiant warning to its rivals.” The awesome display of China’s military might at the V-Day parade lent “a menacing tone” for Western leaders and media. CNBC said Xi Jinping made “a thinly-veiled swipe at Trump’s global tariff campaign” when he said “shadows of Cold War mentality and bullying have not dissipated, with new challenges mounting.”

CNN offered a more measured tone, quoting Xi: “I look forward to working with all countries for a more just and equitable global governance system… We should continue to dismantle walls, not erect them; seek integration, not decoupling.” CNN added that “Xi’s vision pushes back against the foundations of a US-led world order, opposing alliances like NATO.”

Russian President Putin commented to Russian media after the summit that “The SCO is not designed to confront anyone. We do not set ourselves such a task. And… during the discussions and bilateral meetings, there has never been anything that could be described as a confrontational beginning during these four days.”

In kicking off the SCO Summit, Xi said “We should advocate an equal and orderly multipolar world, and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and make the global governance system more just and equitable.”

How defiant is that? (Strange that advocating “universally beneficial and inclusive economic organization” can actually be considered a death threat for the US-led “rules-based” system.)

The massive military display at Beijing’s V-Day celebration left little doubt that China would never allow itself to be bullied again. More than 35 million Chinese were killed in Imperial Japan’s invasion and occupation of their country from the early 1930s to the end of World War II in August 1945. That’s even greater than the USSR’s loss of 27 million from the German Nazi onslaught. Together those numbers prompted Trump to say “Many Americans died in China’s quest for victory and glory. I hope they are rightfully honored…” 

Through the summit, we can see the past and future in contention for a world that’s striving to break away from overwhelming U.S. domination and unipolar rule. 

The “American Century”

The US lost about 420,000 soldiers in World War 2, according to the National WW2 Museum. But it assumed the role of overall victor, launching “the American Century” along with a global war against communism. It has maintained occupation troops in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Guam and other Pacific islands – all of which are deployed today against China, just as NATO (and its “defensive alliance” against the Soviet Union) continues to threaten Russia. Which side is threatening and destabilizing? It depends largely on your point of view.

During the Korean War, from 1950 to 53, the US slaughtered millions of Koreans, and flattened all buildings of more than one story, in a massive bombing campaign. Its threats to extend the war into China were repelled by the mobilization of half a million Chinese to fight alongside the North Koreans. The US war against Vietnam began shortly after the French colonizers were routed in 1954 and lasted until the US too was finally defeated in 1975, at a cost of additional millions of Vietnamese victims and tens of thousands of US troops. Some estimates put the total number of Vietnamese dying from the U.S. war there at over 3 million, a staggering amount of human loss. Both wars were also aimed at China, and China provided troops and weapons to support their allies in both, staving off further ruin and destabilization within their own territory.

The war zones of today, in Eastern Europe, West Asia and the Far East, are continuations of eighty years of US unipolar domination, both militarily and economically. But the way the US is protecting its interests in all three areas has exposed a blunt reality: the constant official refrain that “America is protecting democracy and human rights” is nothing but war propaganda and mythology. For most of the world’s population, America’s leadership has only meant invasion, coups and more death. 

The US: Sponsor and Protector of Fascists

While China and the USSR achieved major defeats against fascism, the US sheltered and rehabilitated Imperial Japan’s fascist rulers, helping them form and maintain the country’s far-right Liberal Democratic Party which has ruled virtually non-stop for 80 years. (The US CIA did the same for the fascists of Ukraine, and have since sponsored them against Russia.) Japan’s rulers have been obstinate in acknowledging their role in the horrors their empire had perpetrated across Asia, refusing  to apologize for slaughtering millions in their invasion and occupation of China. Ditto for Japan’s 35-year colonial hold on Korea, from 1910 to 1945. In both countries the Japanese imperialists were notorious for setting up systems of “comfort women” – sex slaves for Japan’s occupation forces (not very different from the hospitality enjoyed by US occupation forces across Asia today, but a significant contrast to the status of women in China today).

In South Korea, a country formed by Korean collaborators with the Japanese empire,  the U.S. has sponsored a series of military dictatorships in South Korea, until democracy finally broke through in the 1990s. Such dictatorships were aimed at threatening China, most notably in the so-called Korean War, that resulted in an armistice in 1953 but never officially ended, which has kept Korea split in two and maintained a kleptocratic U.S. client state in power in the south for generations to come. In fact, through the armistice deal, the US working with its anticommunist counterparts in South Korea, awarded itself a forever military presence there, guaranteeing “operational control” of the massive Korean military in case of war against the Democratic People’s Republic of [North] Korea (DPRK), China, or both. Such belligerence underscores the significance of DPRK leader Kim standing next to Russian President Putin and Chinese President Xi at the V-Day event. It would seem that America’s network of alliances is now being faced with a counter-alliance of groups and nations no longer willing to accept its rule. 

Even the internal politics of South Korea has been scrambled over the last few months. Its new president, Lee Jae Myung, came to power last June, following six months of intense popular struggle to oust the US puppet President Yoon, who was impeached and jailed after declaring martial law, and trying to provoke a war with US backing. When President Lee visited Trump in August, he resisted US pressure for him to join US escalation against China, which is South Korea’s number one trading partner.

The friendly leaders from around the world who joined both the SCO summit and the Beijing V-Day celebration showed that US efforts to surround and threaten China are failing. Most of the southeast Asian countries that make up ASEAN, notably Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia, attended after recent visits to their countries by Chinese President Xi. The significant exception was the Philippines, where the US maintains a military alliance aimed at China. But like in South Korea, the popular movement against US domination is strong, with serious efforts to force the US bases out, and to help US soldiers refuse to engage in a hopeless war that can only lead to needless suffering and death.

The American century, part two, is in a phase of serious reckoning, as China does what the U.S. has never done, which is build alliances rather than simply imposing its will on other nations. 

Remembering When the US Helped China Against Fascism

The week before China’s national V-Day celebrations, there was a special event in the southwestern province of Guizhou, honoring doctors and nurses from the US and European countries who formed an International Medical Rescue Corps. As this Xinhua article reports, “Dozens of foreign medical workers worked alongside thousands of their Chinese counterparts from the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps to save lives and provide medical training under harsh conditions. Today, these foreign medical workers are collectively remembered as the International Medical Relief Corps (IMRC).”

On August 26, a delegation of the descendants of these volunteers attended a commemoration in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province, “to pay tribute to their forebears and mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War,” the Xinhua report said.

“As descendants of the International Medical Relief Corps, we are incredibly grateful to you for keeping our ancestors’ memory alive,” said Peter Soyogyi, whose father served in the IMRC. “For them, as international anti-fascists, this was not just China’s war; it was their own. It is essential for future generations to understand the fight against fascism and the struggle for freedom,” he added.

Following the commemoration ceremony, the descendants’ delegation and a group of solidarity activists from the US traveled along the famous “24-Zig Road” – also known as the Stilwell Road – which served as a supply line from Burma (now Myanmar) and India for medical supplies to the US-supported Chinese resistance to Imperial Japanese aggression. The road was a joint project of US and Chinese forces, and a symbol of their united efforts against Japanese fascist forces at the time.

US commanding General Joseph Stilwell had many conflicts with Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) leader Chiang Kai-Shek, who called for his ouster. Stilwell argued for unified efforts of the KMT and Red Army forces, which led to his replacement.

The descendants’ delegation, and the solidarity group from the US, got a close-up view of the challenges faced by US troops, as well as US and European medical workers, in helping the Chinese resistance to fascism during World War II.

Official US support during World War II for Chinese resistance to fascism was a major factor in defeating global fascism. But the switch to supporting fascism after the war, including up to the present day, poses a challenge to the world’s progressive forces. The existence of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization constitutes a giant bulwark in that fight. But the struggle continues, as challenging as ever, as can be seen in the US-backed genocidal assault on Palestine. Just as the world’s progressive forces united to stop fascism in the 1940s, history calls on us to unite even more strongly today. Victory against fascism today may spell the end of imperialism and capitalism, and usher in the common prosperity and shared future the world needs now. China, clearly, in its honoring of U.S. medical teams from the past, and in its willingness to bridge divides between itself and other countries, some who have been less than sympathetic to China such as India, should be taken seriously by those of us studying world events and the trajectory of history. So far, a new world order appears to be possibly forming right before our eyes, a world order promising far more diplomacy than explicit warmaking, a world order led by China and countries emboldened to try a different route than what had been the norm under U.S. unipolarity for generations. The recent summit exemplifies this new possible path that China and other countries are now willing to risk against the terrorism of the West. 

Photo: General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea Kim Jong Un, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto at China’s Victory Day military parade in Beijing. Courtesy of the government of Indonesia.