Joel Brooks, a tenant and long-time labor organizer, is running for Jersey City Council in Ward B. He aims to expand affordable housing and is running on a platform for more school funding, much-needed infrastructure improvements, and better public transit.

He ran in 2021 and came very close, and is running in 2025 to make sure we get housing justice, fully funded public schools, and that the corporate landlords and developers pay their fair share. Joel’s history of organizing and advocating for people of all economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds has prepared him to represent Ward B.

Joel is part of a slate of candidates in the Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising project!

Jake Ephros is also running in Jersey City!

by Portland DSA’s Immigrant Justice Working Group

Portland DSA stands in solidarity with immigrants and all the people of Los Angeles as they face the oppression of militarized federal ICE forces and the National Guard. 

We condemn the Trump administration’s use of violence—including tear gas and rubber bullets—to suppress protests against its illegitimate deportation regime. 

In 2020, the Portland community experienced the same violence from the same forces and under the same president. 

The rebellion in Portland, which lasted for more than 100 days, was a clear response to the daily violence experienced by colonized peoples across the United States. 

We stand with immigrants in the face of these reprehensible and unconstitutional attacks and call on the people of Portland to join us in condemning and resisting this violence. 

Through a diversity of tactics, we speak with a united voice:

Abolish ICE!

No one is illegal on stolen land! 

¡Se ve, se siente, el pueblo está presente!

The post Statement on Trump Administration Violence in Los Angeles appeared first on Portland DSA.

In recent weeks Seattle has seen an outrageous escalation in dangerous tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On Thursday, June 5th at the Seattle US Immigration Review Court, community members were detained and dragged through the hallways of the courthouse by masked men in plainclothes. Seattle DSA rejects this continued use of intimidation and dehumanization. These extrajudicical arrests and the implications they create for those with upcoming court dates is tantamount to psychological terrorism against the immigrant population, both in Seattle and across the country.

The silence from Seattle’s public officials is disgraceful and yet another example of their failure to provide the leadership this moment requires. Their prioritization of funding for new police surveillance technologies over legal and housing assistance for immigrants, and their use of our city as a hunting ground for Gestapo-style goon squads should infuriate us all and send shivers down our spines.

Under current conditions, the designation of Washington as a so-called “sanctuary state” for immigrants is not only meaningless, it’s offensive and disingenuous. The Seattle US Immigration Review Court is where people must go for immigration appointments and for ICE contractors to encroach upon this space in a confrontational and violent way does massive harm to our community. It is critical that Washington provide meaningful efforts to improve immigrants’ material welfare. 

We encourage all Seattleites to contact Mayor Bruce Harrell, your council member, and your state legislator. Tell them we do not accept this inhumane treatment and that ICE is not welcome here. If you’d like to get involved in direct action in supporting immigrant welfare, we encourage you to follow Superfamilia KC, La Resistencia, and the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, and for Seattle Democratic Socialists of America members to join our Immigrant Justice Working Group. We refuse to take these advances of state violence sitting down.

On June 4, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained at least 15 individuals, including a 3-year-old and other children, at court check-in appointments in San Francisco. This attack on our community members came just a week after the arrest of four asylum seekers after their hearings at S.F. Immigration Court. These actions are part of a nationwide escalation in immigration enforcement where ICE agents coordinate with court officers to identify and harass migrants and interfere with their cases to fast track their deportations. The Democratic Socialists of America – San Francisco (DSA SF) condemns this continued debilitation and criminalization of displaced migrants under the undemocratic U.S. border regime.

ICE’s presence inside courtrooms, their coordination with prosecutors, and their terrorizing of already vulnerable migrants represent a dangerous rise in state repression. Fear mongering at the courthouse keeps migrants in a perpetual state of panic and “under control.” Deportations are then enforced to deal the final blow to expel the racialized migrant class. Both debilitation and exclusionist tactics serve to solidify the racist idea of a homogeneous nation-state that keeps the working class divided and the capitalist class in power. This is why these expedited removals are not just an attack on our migrant neighbors, but an attack on all of the working class.

As democratic socialists, we are building an independent political movement that fights for the working class majority. We believe that we must end the U.S. war machine and economic warfare. We must fight for freedom of movement, allowing people to freely cross borders without restrictive immigration controls. We must demilitarize the border, end all immigrant detention and deportations, grant immediate amnesty for all immigrants regardless of current immigration status, and provide access to jobs, labor, rights, and social services to all immigrants. We must abolish all repressive capitalist institutions like ICE and establish a working class democracy.

The courts are not safe. It is only through mobilizing for community defense initiatives, such as Know Your Rights resource-sharing, accompaniment to immigration appointments, and community rapid response, and building democratic organs of popular power like people’s assemblies that we can protect our working-class community. Join DSA SF to defend our migrant neighbors and build the independent political movement needed to win the battle against fascism.

In solidarity,

DSA SF

Union busters are hired in two thirds of organizing campaigns. Make sure you know how the “persuader” industry works.

The post How does the union-busting industry work? appeared first on EWOC.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, June 4 (6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): New Member Happy Hour (In person at Zeitgeist, 199 Valencia)

Thursday, June 5 (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.): Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Saturday, June 7 (1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.): Know Your Rights Canvassing (Meet at the intersection of Mission and Cesar Chavez)

Saturday, June 7 (1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Outreach and Training (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, June 9 (10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.): Family Shelter Hearing (SF City Hall Room 250, 1 Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Plaza)

Monday, June 9 (5:50 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Socialist in Office + Electoral Board Meeting (Zoom)

Monday, June 9 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (Zoom)

Monday, June 9 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenderloin Healing Circle (In person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate)

Monday, June 9 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, June 9 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

Wednesday, June 11 (6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): New Member Happy Hour at Zeitgeist (In person at Zeitgeist, 199 Valencia)

Thursday, June 12 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigrant Justice Working Group Meeting (Zoom)

Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates.

Events & Actions

Immigrant Justice Know Your Rights Canvass

Join the Immigrant Justice Working Group on Saturday, June 7th at 1:00 p.m. for Know Your Rights (KYR) canvassing! We will be distributing red cards and KYR posters to businesses and community members on Mission between Cesar Chavez and 30th St. Our meeting point will be at the intersection of Mission & Cesar Chavez St. New to canvassing? No worries! There will be a brief how-to training before we go out in pairs or small groups.

Family Shelter Hearing on June 9

Hello all, there will be a hearing on June 9th about the family shelter evictions, and it is in need of YOUR support! Jackie is proposing to extend the stay of families in shelters to 1 year. The mayor would like to limit the stay to 90 days, which is not long enough to secure permanent housing. Come speak at the public comment in support of families getting to stay sheltered, or just cheer on Jackie!

Chapter Convention Updates

Our 2025 Chapter Convention will be held on June 14th and 15th at Kelly Cullen Auditorium (220 Golden Gate Ave) and will take the place of our June Regular Meeting. At convention we will debate amendments to our bylaws, select our 2025/2026 chapter priorities, re-charter chapter bodies, and elect new leadership. RSVP at dsasf.org/convention-RSVP. The Convention Packet with reflections on our work from the last year and proposals for the next year can be viewed at dsasf.org/packet2025.

EWOC Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing Reportback

EWOC (Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee) is a project of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and DSA working to build a distributed grassroots organizing program to support workers organizing at the workplace. This week local organizers-in-training met at the DSA SF office to wrap up Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing, a four-module EWOC course, with a lesson on preparing your coworkers to counter against bosses’ anti-union rhetoric, also known as inoculation. Bosses utilize rhetoric like “the union doesn’t represent you” or “we’re all making sacrifices” as a way to incite fear, division, and complacency among workers. Inoculation helps ensure that bosses’ messaging doesn’t further exploit workers and keeps the focus on the positive power of union organizing.

To learn more about the work EWOC does, come by the DSA SF office to pick up a copy of Unite and Win or tune into the Labor Board’s weekly meetings every Monday at 7 p.m. on Zoom. The next EWOC event hosted by DSA SF features EWOC staff members conducting a training on generating workplace leads and conducting organizing conversations on July 17th from 6:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m. Let us know in if you can make it! Hope to see you there!

Behind the Scenes

The Chapter Coordination Committee (CCC) regularly rotates duties among chapter members. This allows us to train new members in key duties that help keep the chapter running like organizing chapter meetings, keeping records updated, office cleanup, updating the DSA SF website and newsletter, etc. Members can view current CCC rotations.

To help with the day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running, fill out the CCC help form.

This month we bring you an audio adaptation of a presentation designed by the Political Education Committee of Maine DSA. It is narrated by Bluebird, and is geared especially to people who may be new to left-wing politics. It can be hard to follow the ins and outs of socialist history, so the Political Committee put together a very brief overview on the origins of the socialist movement and some bare essentials people ought to know. We hope you enjoy the program!

The post Maine Mural: Origins of the Socialist Movement appeared first on Pine & Roses.

Pasco hernando DSA is back and now on instagram, with plenty of new members ready to organize! See us on instagram, twitter, and bluesky. Check the bottom of the website for the links!

Are you interested in becoming the best organizer you can be? Do you want to expand socialism here in Milwaukee, but are unsure of where and how to start? Have you been involved but feel like the project did not go anywhere? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the Milwaukee Socialist Organizer Class is for you! 

This nine week program will focus on holistically teaching you to be an unstoppable organizer who builds socialism, changes hearts and minds, and impacts our city.  You will learn direct action organizing, as defined by Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists, in which we organize actions, campaigns, and tactics to “1) win real, immediate, concrete improvement in people’s lives . . . 2) Give people a sense of their own power . . . 3) Alter the relations of power.” 

Interested individuals will apply (Click here, which is due by 11:59 p.m. on June 10, 2025), be interviewed, and enter the program if selected.  DSA membership is not required to participate, but is encouraged. 

This education program will be a combination of in-person events with virtual events if necessary. Each unit will be roughly a week, with a week break in the middle of the program. Each unit will consist of classroom-style instruction in the unit topic (no more than 2 hours, which will be in-person), field work in organizing (which will be at least 3 hours and consist of having conversations, moving people to action, and building infrastructure for a strong socialist movement involving several types of campaigns), and time for personal reflection. Each participant must commit to the entire program and, unless excused, attend every unit instruction, and field work session.  Missing more than two classes and field work sessions may result in removal from the program.  

This is the sixth time this program has been offered, and it is back by popular demand! The two instructors have updated and revised the course to make you even more prepared to lead in socialism.  

Time commitment per week: 

Unit instruction: 2 hours 

Organizing work: 3 hours 

Miscellaneous tasks: 1 hour 

Total time per week: 6 hours

Weekly Schedule 

Class will be conducted on Thursday evenings from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. and held in-person at Zao MKE, located at 2319 E Kenwood Blvd, Milwaukee, 53211.  

Field work will be held at regular intervals over the week, with options to organize at several points during the week: 

(tentative schedule, subject to change . . .) 

Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.

Sundays 12:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. 

Mondays 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. 

Program Timeline: 

June 10 at 11:59 p.m.:

Application deadline – apply here

June 12:

Start of nine week program ( class held, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.), held at Zao MKE, located at 2319 E Kenwood Blvd, Milwaukee, WI 53211

June 19:

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

June 26:

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

July 3:

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

July 10:

Week Break

July 17:

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

July 24:

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

July 31: 

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

August 7: 

Class will be held from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Units

Each unit helps to answer the question: what is organizing? 

Welcome: what is organizing?

• Get to know participants and instructor
• Define scope of class and intentions 
• Determine goals and desired outcomes 

Organizing is one-on-one Conversations

• Learn the 7 point organizing conversation 
• Practice the conversation and its elements 

Organizing is building the committee and the campaign 

• The importance (or not) of the committee
• Power Mapping the campaign 
• Strategy Chart 

Organizing is holistic productivity 

• Traction versus distraction 
• Time management and its importance
• The Reverse Calendar 
• Overcoming blocks to action

Organizing is a mindset 

• Acknowledging hurdles and setbacks 
• Failure is a great option
• Develop a practice to keep you going

Organizing is raising money and managing it

• Why money is OK 
• How to bring energy and money to your campaign 
• The basics of campaign budgeting and finance 

Organizing is communications

• What does “messaging” mean? 
• The power of media 
• Writing workshop

Organizing is bringing it all together

• You’ve got momentum – now what? 
• Recap of unit themes

Reviews

Here is what previous students have to say about the Milwaukee Socialist Organizer Class: 

“[Before the class] I had no idea about the actual work of organizing.  Now I feel confident that I would be able to become a leader in a campaign setting . . .” 

“I loved the practical application of socialism . . . [and] I loved the far-reaching application of some of the class content.” 

“This is a great way to move into the world of socialism. . . thank you so much for offering this course” 

“This [class] is a great first step for anyone looking to start organizing . . .” 

“I radically grew in my comfort around being upfront and simply being able to approach a complete stranger with a potentially controversial topic.” 

“New organizers and experienced organizers can benefit from this class.” 

“Generally speaking my confidence level just interacting with people about socialism has gone through the roof.  I have been given a phenomenal overview of how to organize and I feel confident that I can find out what works best for me in the future.”  

“It was great to grow as an organizer within the confines of a welcoming community/instructor.” 

“I feel more confident organizing outside of an electoral context.”  

Meet your instructors: 

Alex Brower

Alex Brower is a labor leader, socialist organizer, and Milwaukee’s 3rd district alderperson as a DSA endorsed elected. Professionally, Alex has been the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, which organizes union retirees. In his organizing work, Alex has saved jobs from privatization, helped workers win a union voice on the job, defeated a temp agency, organized against a proposed iron-ore mine, helped bring comprehensive sex education to Beloit Public Schools, and won workplace healthcare for many uninsured MPS Substitute Teachers. As an MPS substitute teacher and former Milwaukee Rec. Department instructor, Alex brings a host of experience teaching others. Alex has also been a candidate for Milwaukee City Comptroller and School Board, running both times as a socialist. 

Autumn Pickett

Autumn Pickett is a union organizer and Communications Director for American Federation of Teachers – Wisconsin. She helped win back voting rights for 20,000 students while attending college in Indiana, protect 100’s of custodial and grounds crew jobs from privatization across Wisconsin, sink Billionaire Howard Schultz’s 2016 presidential run, use organizing tactics that garnered national headlines, and mentor dozens of YDSA chapters across the country that continue to make real wins for working people. She has served on the National Coordinating Committee for YDSA, as Milwaukee DSA’s Education Officer, and currently represents Milwaukee DSA on the statewide Socialists in Office committee. Autumn is excited to bring her years of experience mentoring new socialist organizers over to the Milwaukee Organizer Class for the first time and help build a people powered movement in Cream City alongside each of you.

Any questions? 

Contact Alex Brower at 414-949-8756 or milwaukeedsa@gmail.com 

Apply now!

Apply here, or copy and paste this URL into your web browser: https://forms.gle/JLgc33sE3fpK8TSH7

From the Portland DSA Steering Committee:

At the Beaverton School Board meeting this Thursday, after an hour-long closed-door session, a motion was made to engage a “third-party investigator” to look into the actions and comments of Dr. Tammy Carpenter, an elected school board member and a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). What was her alleged offense? Being an unabashed supporter of Palestinian liberation in the face of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. While discussions in executive session are legally withheld from public records laws, our understanding is that this retaliation was instigated by the Jewish Federation of Portland, an organization lobbying for Zionist interests and the State of Israel that has a history of waging smear campaigns against pro-Palestinian elected officials and community members.

We commend Dr. Carpenter for fighting for the rights of all children – in Beaverton, in Palestine, and around the world. We believe that children have the right to go to school in peace, unburdened by war and famine, and that those defending them are on the right side of history. As the United States’ funding of Israel grows increasingly unpopular, it is clear this “investigation” into Dr. Carpenter is a desperate maneuver to force local governments to crack down on free speech, and to go down with the sinking ship of the Zionist project. In the last 600 days of genocide in Gaza, every public school and university in the territory has been destroyed by the Israeli military. We cannot allow this to continue.

Dr. Carpenter is a beacon of community integrity and is the only elected official on the Beaverton school board to regularly hold town halls, respond to constituent inquiries, and share information with families. She is also a champion of unions and workers’ rights in our schools. It is no wonder that the political establishment is colluding with the Jewish Federation of Portland to slander her.

This is just the latest example of how the US’ war industry attempts to silence dissent around Palestine. Schools – and by extension, school boards – should be a place where people can speak freely and learn the truth about our military’s complicity in genocide. The people of Beaverton elected Dr. Carpenter, and she is our voice for justice.

We call on all supporters of free speech and a free Palestine to rally at the Beaverton School Board meeting to show our opposition to this undemocratic retaliation! Join DSA and allies this Monday, June 2nd, 6:30pm at the Beaverton School District offices at 1260 NW Waterhouse Ave to defend Dr. Carpenter, along with all those facing political retaliation for their support of Palestinian children and families. No to Genocide! Solidarity Forever!

The post Statement on the Political Retaliation Against Dr. Tammy Carpenter appeared first on Portland DSA.