ROC DSA congratulates Chiara “Kee Kee” Smith and Stanley Martin on electoral victories for Rochester City Council. Stanley’s tally as the highest recipient of votes demonstrates an appetite for meaningful policies that prioritize uplifting the working class rather than enriching developers. We look forward to working with these candidates to continue delivering the means for a dignified life to all the people of Rochester.

We also applaud Kevin Stewart and Kelly Cheatle for their impressive performances as first-time candidates in a crowded field. While Mary Lupien was unable to oust Mayor Malik Evans, her candidacy shook the status quo. There is more to be gained from an election than electoral victory, and ROC DSA’s endorsed candidates injected vibrant socialist politics into the discussion.

This election represented big money versus the people, illustrated by Mayor Evans’ average donation of $603, compared with Mary’s average of $33. Our power came from the efforts of our members, who over the the past four-plus months have petitioned, canvassed, phonebanked, and otherwise supported these campaigns in countless ways.

For this we are stronger. We are proud of our accomplishments, and cherishing of lessons learned. These will be the building blocks of a mass movement that can win the City of Rochester for all of its residents.

The post Chapter Statement on the 2025 Democratic Primaries first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

On the evening of June 24th, Zohran Mamdani’s campaign shocked the world, in a surprise first round victory that caused the establishment favorite, Andrew Cuomo, to concede the race. As Zohran Mamdani took the microphone, nearly an hour after Cuomo’s concession, he spoke of his monumental walk across Manhattan, describing the workers he saw across the island still hard at work running the city that never sleeps. One of the most profoundly working class speeches the US has ever seen a political candidate given. In this late evening hour, Zohran’s victory seemed to have always been an inevitable certainty.

But in October 2024, when the debate on running Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City was discussed at the New York City DSA’s convention, there were many questions about whether DSA was prepared for this campaign. Zohran Mamdani, a DSA organizer who had already been elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020, was an ideal, cadre candidate to represent the organization, but the sheer size of the effort was unlike anything a DSA chapter, even a behemoth like NYC, had taken on before. And there were deep concerns about the ability to convey an unfiltered socialist, working class message in a race as widely scrutinized as that as for the mayor of New York City.

Now we see that New York City DSA has shocked the world. Zohran’s victory in the NYC mayoral primary is the hugest electoral victory the socialist left has ever achieved in US politics, and in the end, it wasn’t even close. Despite all polling to the contrary, Zohran resoundingly crushed Cuomo in the first round of ranked choice voting, leading to a near immediate concession by the up-to-then assumed victor of the election.

How did such a seemingly impossible moment instead become an incredible victory? There are multiple elements to this. Zohran Mamdani is a generational talent, with a seemingly unshakeable charisma and ability to stay on message and inspire hope in his audience. And Cuomo’s reputation did him no favors-the more voters learned about each candidate, the further Zohran’s odds rose and Cuomo’s fell.

But the real source of this victory is the organizational weight behind Zohran Mamdani as a candidate. Over 60,000 volunteers knocked over 1.6 million doors in possibly the hugest field operation NYC has ever seen. The campaign maxed out potential fundraising early due to an unprecedented amount of committed small donors throughout NYC, enthusiastic about Zohran’s campaign. And the campaign’s Democratic Socialist politics, one that stubbornly insisted on the importance of reducing costs of living and making NYC a city for everyone, successfully captured both the media spotlight and importance among voters by sheer insistence.

Behind all these remarkable successes stands the crucial point, the thing that decided this race years before it even happened: Zohran Mamdani was a committed member of Democratic Socialists of America, an organization committed to developing the power of every day working class people to change politics in this country, and an organization that decided months before that this fight was one we could win. With this victory, there is no doubt that Democratic Socialists of America has become a historic force in US politics, one based in a kind of politics that has largely disappeared from the United States: democratic, grassroots organizations driven by regular working class people.

Steering the Ship

Seeing this huge success in New York City, what is there for us to learn in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky? While there are a number of contextual differences between ourselves and New York City, there are some core things anyone who wants a socialist left to succeed everywhere should take away.

Firstly, what Zohran successfully did was offer a politics based in hope and sincerity for the future of New Yorkers. While the fascist right has embraced cynicism as an organizing tool to encourage the US public to abandon the marginalized and oppressed, cynicism has also broadly infected politics in our society, to insist that winning better things, even if it’s what we want, is strictly impossible. Zohran’s campaign refused to cede an inch to this, insisting instead that New Yorkers “deserve to be free and fed”, that we can have everything that we deserve to lead a good life. This politics of sincerity and optimism must be the politics of Democratic Socialists of America.

Secondly, it has been common with the ebb and flow of DSA in the wake of the Bernie 2016 and 2020 campaigns to view political and historic events as something that simply occur to DSA, that we have to simply ride the waves and resist the regressions as well as we can. But Zohran’s campaign was a homegrown DSA campaign, intentionally chosen by NYC DSA to intervene in the political moment, and it is irrevocably changed the direction of politics both in New York City and across the country. While we certainly cannot control every political event that comes our way, we have the power to make our own mark on history, and we should take the opportunity to do so when we have it.

Finally, it is crucial to understand from this that power resides where we can bring people together. The powers that be rely on an increasingly common sense of powerlessness derived from us experiencing world events alone via computer and phone screens and a 24/7 stream of deeply evil events. But when we are able to come together as an organization, we transform from the framework of an individual victim of history, to a collective actor. To borrow from an excellent article on Zohran’s election:

In 2017, a DSA organizer and philosopher named Michael Kinnucan said: “US civic culture is so hollowed out at the grassroots level that in any city in the US if your organization can get 40 to 50 committed people in a room occasionally you’re probably operating one of the five or six most potentially powerful grassroots organizations in your city.

This idea was foundational to DSA, especially in New York City, and shaped Mamdani. For many, it seemed a fantasy. Five hundred thousand votes later, across nearly every language and nationality in the world, it’s a warning. To defeat the right, the left must learn from Mamdani and the DSA and rebuild mass working-class organization.”

Now is the time, in the wake of Zohran’s victory, to carve our path to power as DSA Cincinnati. While there are many differences between Cincinnati and New York City, so many of the crises Zohran plans to fight-affordability, housing, the lack of a real opposition to the Trump admin’s evil policies on immigrants, trans people and more-are crises we recognize right here in Cincinnati. It is time for us join the fight to make DSA a mass organization for millions of people, one that will take up the mantle to defeat the far right, and make Democratic Socialists of America the future of US politics.

DSA Cincinnati has already proven what it can do even with a fledgling canvassing operation. In a mere two months in 2024, DSA Cincy knocked nearly 10,000 doors to oppose Amendment 2, a Kentucky ballot measure that would have provided public school funding to private schools (the ballot measure was soundly defeated thanks to the work of unions and working class people, including DSA, across the state). Now, DSA Cincy looks to the future of Cincinnati and what can be accomplished. Democratic Socialists can take real power in Cincinnati, the same as we have in New York City. DSA has a vision of the future that meets the needs of the working class

It’s always been up to the working class to make a better future. Now it’s clear: DSA can win it. Join the fight and make it happen.

It’s been two weeks since Trump seized control of California’s national guard and ordered them to join the terror campaign against Angelenos. It has been two weeks since ICE began intensifying their kidnapping of our families and neighbors. But it has also been two weeks of community members fighting back for our community and against fascism. 

We’ve seen Governor Gavin Newsom condemn Trump for deploying federal troops on American citizens, for tearing families apart. Newsom was teary-eyed during his address when talking about the violence enacted by federal agents against immigrant families. We’ve seen him call on Trump to stop the ICE raids and for federal troops to leave California. We agree with these demands, but amongst the chaos and despite the rhetoric, California’s legislature has decided to balance the state budget on the backs of undocumented people.

On June 13, 2025, the California legislature passed a $321.1-billion budget that freezes Medi-Cal access to undocumented residents starting on January 1, 2026. It also requires enrolled undocumented adults to pay $30 monthly premiums beginning July 2027. In addition to this cruelty, Democrats and Republicans alike agreed to cut full dental coverage for undocumented adults starting July 1, 2026. These cuts come at a time when immigrants are more vulnerable than ever, and while California surpassed Japan to become the 4th largest economy in the world. The irony is palpable. 

A finalized budget bill is expected to pass the legislature this Friday with the Medi-Cal restrictions. It is expected to be signed by Newsom and will take effect starting July 1st. 

We, as California Democratic Socialists of America, reject the premise that the only way to balance our budgets is on the backs of our most vulnerable. Instead of cutting vital services, we could be taxing the rich and their corporations to fund these programs and more. If we are to build a California that ensures everyone’s safety, we must abolish I.C.E. and ensure housing, education, good union jobs, and free healthcare for all. 

It is no coincidence that, on the other side of the country, a democratic socialist just won a resounding victory in the Democratic mayoral primary with a campaign that unapologetically stood up against ICE and for all New Yorkers. We call on Democrats in California to not just speak, but do what is best for all of us. In the fourth largest economy in the world, there is no excuse to do otherwise.

From April 20th to May 11th, comrades in MADSA completed a reading and discussion of Vladimir Lenin’s Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Originally written in the first half of 1916 and published as a pamphlet in mid-1917, Lenin’s work analyzing how and why imperialism emerges under capitalism remains a vital resource in developing a stronger understanding of key Marxist concepts and analyses.

For most members of the group, it was their first time ever reading any literature written by Lenin. Most members felt the language of Imperialism was easy to understand and the text was a decent length with a good amount of content to analyze. Imperialism is backed up by quotes from other scholars Lenin was familiar with at the time of writing, as well as tables of data and other evidence for his claims that imperialism is the final (inevitable) stage of capitalism. 

After reading Imperialism, the reading group members felt it was helpful to see how capitalism evolves into imperialism in phases. For some, it was helpful to see with clarity how capitalism evolves into imperialism, and it was easy to make comparisons with how the world functions in 2025. 

As for the logistics of running the reading group, members felt it was great to have a member lead the discussion with key questions or main thoughts to get conversation started. Meeting in person was nice for interacting with comrades, but having it remain hybrid is best for engaging more members in the discussion and allowing flexibility for members who could not join in person. The length of Imperialism was ideal and it was easily divided into 30-40 page readings every week, which was manageable by everyone. 

As for the future of chapter reading groups, members floated the idea of doing more political theory and history discussion in the Slack, so members can ask clarifying questions about topics, answer each other’s questions, or engage in friendly debate about readings. Having discussion questions assigned ahead of time could potentially help structure readings as well.

Overall, the reading group went well and members were excited to continue reading anything in general. Members also felt keeping the reading group casual would allow for other members to explore things to read that aren’t just Karl Marx. 

An important takeaway from reading Imperialism is Lenin’s theory that imperialism is the final stage of capitalism, that it was the natural final stage that arises out of the formation of monopolies, and that capitalism is at that stage has reached a dead end. As socialists, we were able to map out Lenin’s ideas neatly along the problems of the United States, which left us with a burning question: if we are living under the final dead-end stage of capitalism, what happens next? This question inspired us to seek out another work by Lenin, State and Revolution, to hopefully gain more insight into what Lenin believed would occur next. 

With the MADSA chapter steadily growing in membership over the past few months, there has been talk about developing more chapter education initiatives, whether that be more Socialism 101 events or events designed to help people understand specific areas of political theory. It is important that comrades who have the time and energy to read and discuss theory also take the time to educate others, either through book/discussion group reports, posts to Red Madison, or helping to organize educational events. 

We commend our comrades in the chapter for achieving the gargantuan task of completing a reading of Karl Marx’s Capital, as this work serves as the most fundamental basis for our understanding of capitalism and frames our beliefs as socialists. Comrades in the Imperialism reading group have expressed an interest in continuing to read fundamental works from European socialists like Marx, Lenin, Luxembourg, and others. We also agree that we should be taking time to source important works from non-Western/non-European points of view. We would like to invite our comrades to engage more in the chapter reading groups, whether that be posting in Slack to ask questions about our readings and findings, or joining the readings whenever they can.

We were able to access Imperialism for free using the Marxists Internet Archive. A free PDF of Imperialism can be found here.
An annotated version of Imperialism edited by MADSA’s own chapter member Phil Gasper can be found here for purchase.

How Zohran Mamdani’s campaign used positive messaging to inspire a broad coalition of support

Throughout my life, when it comes to politics, no one in my personal life would describe my outlook as especially positive. I am a product of the times, and the times haven’t seen a lot to be very happy about if you’re interested in leftist politics, or the environment, or generally the well being of humanity. 

Something began to change my outlook this past year though, and it wasn’t that Donald Trump got re-elected, in many ways cementing the complete degradation of our two-party system which has been decaying for generations. What changed for me personally was that after several years of being a mostly inactive to passive member of Democratic Socialists of America, I decided to truly engage in community action and get involved in ways that were, at first, pretty uncomfortable for me. 

When I finally decided to show up to an event, I was quite literally immediately welcomed with open arms by several different comrades. The first social I joined, I was introduced to one of the most remarkable things about DSA, it is an inherently friendly cohort of people open to learning and hearing others tell their stories and share their experiences. Once you get your bearings, there is an immense sense of joy in coming together to debate and solve problems, facilitate events and organize community members around issues you care about. 

In public meeting rooms, on zoom calls, and in streets all over our country, there are volunteers giving their time, passion, energy and expertise to building a mass movement to make their communities stronger, more equitable, more diverse and more healthy, and that is an unbelievably inspiring thing to witness and be a part of.

In an era of violently divisive politics, Zohran is showing that there is not only space for positive messaging, but this approach to leftist politics resonates with a diverse coalition of voters. Mamdani’s campaign, bolstered by the work of New York City’s DSA chapter, was a flawlessly executed campaign that not only educated people about his policies, but about the wider socialist theory that informed them.

This week I’ve been inundated by messages from politically disengaged and dismayed friends all expressing an unfamiliar feeling; hope. Their disbelief that Mamdani could win even in the face of corporate PAC’s and lobbyists lining up behind Cuomo, and even in the face of mass media working against him. 

Democratic Socialists of America members all over the country this week are rejoicing as this win gives more proof to our theory of change; when we activate our organizational muscle and bring our message to the people in our communities, we can win elections and we can help to bring about the change we want to see.

Let this victory be a launching pad for a million more activists who are seeing, likely for the first time in their lives, a truly generational moment for socialist politics in the United States. Join us, let’s continue to build this movement.