The top of the ticket statewide races and big city primaries grab the headlines, but at the local level and in smaller municipalities DSA members have been working hard to elect working class champions as well. In some cases the reward was winning outright or landing in the top two for the November 3 election runoff. In others our DSA candidates didn’t get there, but working on their campaigns strengthened the infrastructure of the chapters for next time. Here is an example of each: the mayoral race of Claudia Jimenez in Richmond, and the longshot lieutenant governor campaign of Oliver Ma as it played out in Orange County. 

Claudia Jimenez for Richmond Mayor!

The stakes have never been higher in Richmond, California. Chevron recently agreed to a $550 million dollar settlement with the city and the race is on to see if that money will be controlled by progressive politics or conservative business politics. The Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) endorsed Claudia Jimenez as their candidate for mayor: she is a proud Colombian immigrant, community organizer, city councilwoman, and political mentor to many of us who live in Richmond. East Bay DSA, often perceived as an Oakland-heavy organization, endorsed her mayoral campaign this year and members devoted significant people power to assisting her throughout the primary. 

Up to twenty EBDSA members showed up to the widely promoted canvasses. A core group of DSA members also attended weekly canvasses and phonebanks in the months leading up to the primary. Claudia has spoken at membership meetings and participated in debate at our convention. Our chapter’s monthly “Socialism Beats Fascism” event dedicated its May meeting to promote Claudia’s campaign and helped plug new members into volunteering with her. This is EBDSA’s best support so far for an RPA candidate and we are exploring more ways to support Claudia heading into the fall, such as organizing fundraisers and putting together a policy research team. 

DSA members are attracted to the RPA’s principled and highly successful track record in city government. Richmond currently has the lowest homicide rate in city history, a million-dollar legal defense fund for immigrants targeted by ICE, a mental health crisis response team (ROCK) that assists in emergency calls alongside police, and the city has extracted itself from high-cost debt swap investments that kept us in financial peril for decades. However, not everybody is a fan of such progress. Claudia’s opponents include Chevron, which doesn’t like being held accountable; the local police association, which thinks all settlement money should be used on overpolicing; and groups associated with AIPAC, who didn’t like Richmond leading a wave of municipalities calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza. All have deep pockets which is why fundraising for the November election is going to be key for Claudia victory! You can donate now at www.claudiaformayor.com! 

Oliver Ma Campaign a shot in the arm for OCDSA

It is June 2nd, the primary election night, in a crowded brewery in Santa Ana, California and conversation is flowing while televisions on the wall show the current state of each race. The room is filled with comrades from the Orange County Democratic Socialists of America (OCDSA) and the United Auto Workers union, Local 4811 (many of whom are in both organizations). Everyone here has spent the previous months canvassing their neighborhoods, phone banking, text banking, and even hand-writing postcards for Lieutenant Governor candidate Oliver Ma. When Ma, who actually grew up in Orange County, comes into the bar everyone starts chanting his name as he passionately starts a speech about how we collectively ran a grassroots campaign to be proud of.

Oliver Ma did not end up getting enough votes to move forward to the November election, receiving nearly 620,000 votes, or 7.3%. But the campaign was a shot in the arm for Orange County DSA. The campaign came at the opportune moment when the Electoral Committee of the chapter needed direction and revitalization. Since the conclusion of the Oliver Ma campaign the committee voted through new guidelines and expectations for the endorsement process, as well as helpful tips for those looking to apply for OCDSA endorsement.

During an open call with California DSA earlier this year, Oliver Ma described his intentions with the campaign. He described a campaign that would ideally uplift, train and funnel the people working on his campaign into DSA, whether or not he won the election. From the perspective of OCDSA this plan worked. We had current members who had their first canvassing experience for a democratic socialist candidate they actually wanted to endorse instead of a corporate Democrat. We have had new members come in from the campaign, energized and ready to move towards the next committee project. Just like any socialist project, we will learn, train, and do better next time.

On Thursday, May 21st around 3:30 p.m., a hazardous chemical leak was reported from a GKN Aerospace plant in Garden Grove, California. The chemical leak was caused by an overheating storage tank for methyl methacrylate, a toxic chemical used in the production of plastics such as those in airplane canopies. The failure was caused by a faulty valve in the tank’s cooling system leading to a rise in tank temperature and pressure. Additional safety mechanisms from GKN to halt the reaction on May 21st also failed. As a result, the GKN tank threatened a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE), endangering the lives and homes of thousands of Orange County residents.

Located in the middle of a working class neighborhood, the emergency prompted an evacuation order from city officials which displaced approximately 50,000 residents for five days before being lifted on May 26th. The threat was resolved with emergency response from OC Fire Authority to cool the tank as well as a partial crack which relieved tank pressure and heat gradually.

Major hub for military contractors

GKN Aerospace, a subsidiary of the British-based Melrose Industries, is an aerospace parts manufacturer serving contracts for plane engine parts and airframes with private and public sector clients. A 2025 report shows that 35% of Melrose Industries’ revenue from airframe sales comes from defense contracts, such as the contract for canopies for the F-35 fighter jet produced by Lockheed Martin. Currently, 48 of these jets are in use by the Israeli military to facilitate genocide in Palestine. GKN additionally serves contracts producing military parts for BAE, Leonardo, Airbus, other Lockheed Martin projects, drone projects for Anduril (an Orange County-based defense contractor), and direct government defense contracts. The GKN Garden Grove plant began operating in 2004 according to reporting from the LA Times.

The GKN Aerospace emergency highlights the glaring contradictions in the political economy and developmental priorities of Orange County. Southern California has been a major hub for defense contractors since World War II. Its location provided proximity to many of the largest military bases in the US, ideal geography and climate for weapons testing, and a massive supply of white- and blue-collar labor already trained for weapons production fueled by immigration waves and federal investment. The resulting economic development empowered a growing class of white suburban defense industry executives who relied on extracting the labor of Southern California’s diverse working class in urban manufacturing for private profit. 

The organization of Orange County’s military-industry class went beyond economic interests, becoming the epicenter of the Cold War counter-revolution in the US and generating political machines which led Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to the presidency. Decades of deindustrialization have since destroyed most of the manufacturing base of Orange County. However, toxic plants remain siloed in marginalized communities like Garden Grove, threatening the same workers on whose backs Orange County’s capitalist class arose in the first place. After intervening years of capitalist deregulation, we are left with a harrowing chemical emergency created by a system of interconnected political and economic interests hostile to workers in Orange County and abroad.

Community response

In response to this emergency, the Orange County community has shown an inspiring dedication to direct mutual aid, with volunteer organizations including Orange County DSA, 714 Mutual Aid, Costa Mesa Mutual Aid, Orange County PSL, World Central Kitchen, and many others helping organize the delivery of food and essentials to sheltering Garden Grove residents. Our community understands what our politicians do not: we protect us. In the absence of a political infrastructure committed to the needs of the working class, we must continue to build networks of solidarity, mutual aid, and community defense capable of supplanting our atrophied state capacity.

Garden Grove residents are still struggling in the wake of the evacuation. Workers in Garden Grove are facing missing paychecks, unreimbursed hotel stays, and the stress of a narrowly avoided environmental catastrophe. Predictably, most insurance companies are refusing to pay out on claims for these losses. As capitalism repeatedly fails to provide care and safety for the working class, Orange County DSA remains committed to supporting the needs of Garden Grove workers and opposing the interests of the military-industrial complex in Orange County.

As the Trump Administration continues to blame its failures on anyone left of the far-right, the federal Department of Education (DoED) has just taken another step towards what can only be called a new Red Scare.  In late May, the DoED unveiled a press release that proposed several critical changes to how institutions of higher education are accredited. If implemented, these reforms would force universities to, among other mandates, hold “policies that support, promote, and appropriately prioritize intellectual diversity” and implement “academic freedom protections.” 

The overwhelming majority of universities already insure intellectual diversity and academic freedom. Conservatives just want to use universities as platforms to push their anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-democratic, and socially backwards ideas to the next generation. They despise these “woke propaganda factories" because they promote critical thinking skills and intellectual diversity which empower students to question the systems and ideas their ideology relies on.

DSAers must acknowledge that these reforms will not just be used to deny funding from universities who refuse the DoED’s demands, they will make campus organizing much harder. As the largest and most successful socialist organization of the century, we cannot pretend that these developments won’t affect DSA and the broader left. 

The last two administrations have had mixed success legally compelling colleges to bend the knee to its policies. Some colleges like Brown and Columbia have capitulated while others like Harvard and UCLA are still resisting. At the state level, MAGA activists have been increasingly hacking away at public education, with some states funding “hostile takeover[s]” of entire universities.  The Trump White House is now looking to change the rules completely (again), and (Y)DSA must be ready to organize with students and faculty against them, or risk losing momentum.

Not Out of Nowhere

These proposed reforms did not come out of nowhere. Far-right discourse around higher education has saturated social and national media for decades. Conservatives have long tried—and failed—to build institutional power from within public universities. In recent years, the rapid spread of Turning Point USA has created magnets for the most racist and hateful students on campus; even without Kirk, they remain one of the fastest-growing fascist youth orgs in the country. 

However, astroturfed campus organizing hasn’t afforded conservatives much institutional power inside higher education. Many of the noted Youtube college campus crusaders have burned out—or gone cold—since the first years of Trump 1.0. Now with unchecked power over the government, conservatives are opting for a sweeping, top-down approach to higher education reform.

This is a scary reminder that the long held conservative tradition of discrediting and dismantling higher education never truly dies. With the certainty of capitalism’s boom-bust cycle comes the recurring fear of its logical solution. When we look at the history of Red Scares in the United States, it can be hard to tell when one begins and one ends. Historians are undecided on exactly how many distinctive Red Scares there have been, but there can be no doubt that the current scare we face has the potential to be more consequential than that of the McCarthy-era.

The chill of McCarthyism

During the Red Scare you probably learned about in school, the chill of McCarthyism was felt across many industries, especially in higher education. The general anti-communist paranoia amongst post-WWII U.S.A. was exploited and catalyzed by McCarthy and the Eisenhower administration. McCarthyism would go on to plague leftist organizing in the United States for generations.

But even McCarthy’s Republican party eventually turned on him when they grew tired of his aggressive rhetoric and interrogation tactics. His reign ended with a whimper because the president was forced to step in to save the “decency” of the Republican party. But what about the GOP of today? They’re in a much better position to engage in McCarthyism than McCarthy. Trump 2.0 has a trifecta control over the government, with his cult following stretching across his cabinet, congress, and supporters. McCarthy was lambasted by his party for having “no sense of decency,” but the MAGA movement has proudly solidified itself and the GOP as ardent defenders of pedophilia, abuse of power, and treasonous corruption. Let's be real: do we expect the feckless Democratic party to step in and defend higher education?

DSA demographics

DSA appeals heavily to the working class, but an overwhelming majority of our membership still comes out of higher education. In a 2021 Growth and Development Committee survey, a resounding 80% of members held a bachelor's degree while one of every ten members worked in academia. This correlation between attaining higher education and holding more progressive views has not only been known for decades, it is increasingly getting stronger. Conservatism relies on servile minds that are unwilling to question boogeyman narratives, and willing hold multiple contradicting positions. Leftists, and even progressive liberals, are more often skeptical of systems and the status quo in large part due to their critical thinking skills. This is not to say that uneducated workers are not or cannot become leftists, but data consistently shows they are not flocking to the cause. 

Even among our most recent growth spurts, new membership continues to be young and educated. DSA Ventura County doubled their membership during the 2025-26 academic year after committing to a college campus recruiting campaign; this resulted in a radical revitalization of the chapter and the sprouting of at least one YDSA club. With over 150 YDSA chapters currently leading campus organizing efforts, it is safe to say academia remains one of the most reliable pipelines for DSA growth. 

These campus organizers have already demonstrated their importance in recent electoral campaigns, providing volunteers, chapter leadership, and long-term organizational capacity. Recent electoral gains—including multiple citywide wins in L.A., and mayoral wins in NYC and D.C.— underscore the growing organizational capacity of DSA across the country. These victories would not have been possible if not for the thousands of volunteers who were recently activated and empowered by our growing coalition of lefty organizations. 

College students have far more free time than other demographics, especially if they are privileged enough to remain solely focused on school. As they contend with the uniquely bleak country they are inheriting, several political avenues beckon to them at the crossroads of alienation, disenfranchisement, and radicalization. They can keep their head down and hope the world fixes itself, join a democratic club and hope the status quo prevails, succumb to fascist grievance politics, or courageously believe a better world is possible. 

The proposed accreditation reforms are more than another policy dispute. If passed, they would inflame a new Red Scare that would threaten the left’s most effective recruiting and organizing institutions. If DSA chapters want to continue building on our current momentum and build capacity, defending higher education cannot remain a secondary concern.

The histories of religion and empire are intertwined, and for that reason, socialism and religion have had a contentious relationship. Whether it is the Roman Empire’s slaughter of pagan peoples or various empires’ use of religious texts as a moral justification for colonization, religion and the state apparatus have maintained a symbiotic relationship of control. At the same time,  religion and spirituality have been at the root of resistance movements for social justice throughout history. Dialectically, religion can liberate or subjugate, but it is nearly never a harmless tool.

Because dominant religious structures have often led to the oppression of the lower classes, some socialists have discarded liberatory spirituality. As a socialist, I believe that religion and spirituality can be just as liberatory as Marx’s work. For one of many prominent examples, I turn to Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, also known as The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. 

In 1377, forty years into the “forever war” that would later be called the 100-Year War, a ten-year-old Richard II inherited the kingdom of England and a costly war with France. England had been ravaged by the Black Death, a pandemic that killed up to 50% of Europe’s population from 1346 to 1353. It caused widespread hardships, mostly suffered by the lower classes, that included food scarcity, collapsing social structures, and, of course, a labor shortage.There were fewer workers and no one to replace them. Essentially, all living members of the underclass had work and were necessary to produce the wealth needed for the ongoing war with France. 

However, the English lower classes had their own wants. With fewer people working the land and the monarchy increasingly dependent on peasant and serf labor, peasants and serfs sought appropriate compensation for their work. Instead of compensating them more equitably for their work, Richard II implemented a “poll tax.” This was a flat tax applied in 1377 that each subject over the age of fourteen would pay one groat (four pence) to the Crown. 

The justification and ideological enforcement of the poll tax came from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury. A longtime leader of the Catholic faith who advocated England’s control of the French Crown, he instructed church leaders to emphasize the importance of people submitting to the poll tax. For the serfs and peasantry, participation in faith required ideological adherence to the kingdom and to the ongoing war. And they weren’t happy about it. Two more poll taxes followed quickly, and the spark for the largest peasant revolt in history was lit.

The ideological groundwork had been laid by the Lollard movement of the 14th century. While the church was busy justifying taxes, war, and obedience to the Crown, the Lollards translated the Bible into English and advocated a direct relationship with God, not one mediated by the Church. John Ball, an excommunicated priest, preached an early form of socialism. Ball’s teachings were simple: each toiler, each tradesman, was entitled to the world they created.  Ball saw the church as a means of appropriating and distorting the goodness and holiness of Christ. For him, the war in France was not blessed by God but a cruelty forced upon the people by the greed of the Crown. 

Ball’s words resonated with the people, and the spirit of the Lollards spread throughout England. Though we can’t attribute every act of resistance by the peasantry in 1381 to Ball and the Lollard movement, they provided the revolutionary ideas, giving peasants an ideological justification for the rebellion to come. When royal officials and tax collector John Bampton attempted to collect taxes in Essex and met resistance from a peasant baker known as Thomas Baker, Bampton ordered  Baker to be arrested. A fight broke out, and peasants seized three of Bampton’s clerks, who were later killed. Bampton managed to retreat to London. 

The news of the revolt spread quickly. Wat Tyler, a blacksmith, roof tiler, and former soldier, proved to be a great revolutionary leader. Armed with intelligence and an unbreakable spirit, Tyler helped channel the peasants’ outrage against the ruling class. He also seemed to deeply understand that the conflict facing the peasants would require a well-organized set of demands. 

Tyler led thousands of peasants to London, with several acts of rebellion along the way. He freed John Ball from Maidstone prison and took Canterbury, where they deposed the archbishop and destroyed tax records. On the way, Tyler proved himself a skilled strategist and leader capable of channeling his fellow peasants’ outrage against the crown and religious institutions. Estimates of those who joined the rebellion range from 60,000 to 100,000.

In Blackheath, just outside London, the peasants camped. It was here that the uprising took its true revolutionary form. John Ball stood among groups of peasants and delivered a speech that captured their egalitarian imagination. Ball’s words resonate through the years:

“When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman? From the beginning all men by nature were created alike, and our bondage or servitude came in by the unjust oppression of naughty men.” In other words, the first man dug in the soil as his work and the first woman spun thread. There were no class distinctions.

No longer were the rebels marching just to end the poll tax, but for a world free from the Crown’s domination and hierarchy, and for a society in which people cooperated and hierarchy among the people was eliminated. 

In London, the peassants ransacked Crown institutions and burned the Savoy Palace, the personal property of John of Gaunt. Archbishop Simon of Sudbury was killed and his head  placed on a spike and displayed on London Bridge. 

With most  of his armed forces in France, Richard was forced to meet and negotiate with the peasants. Tyler had an initial meeting with him in which the king gave in to all the peasants’ immediate demands. Richard declared that  the poll tax would be lifted, he would abolish serfdom, and the wage cap on workers would be removed. However,  Tyler and the rebels saw no concrete evidence that  Richard would follow through on his promises. They demanded another negotiation. During this negotiation, Tyler was attacked and killed. Somehow, Richard  was able to subdue the peasants, promising that their demands would be met. A majority of the peasants believed him and left London. 

However, the demands were not met. Instead, many participants were tracked down and killed.  Ball was publicly hanged, and his head  placed on London Bridge. 

However, one promise was kept. The Crown would not levy another poll tax for 300 years. The Wat Tyler Rebellion would go on to become a symbol for radicals. The 19th-century socialist William Morris would write about Tyler in his famous science-fiction novel A Dream of John Ball. Sculptor Emily Hoffnung created a Peasant Rebellion memorial, which was unveiled by the socialist filmmaker Ken Loach. 

In this country, as we fight our own forever wars, a coalition of right-wing “Christian” nationalists is following in the tradition of the 14th-century Roman Catholic Church. That tradition can be defined as the appropriation of people’s faith and spirituality to reinforce a state apparatus that is actively harming the people who support it. As for strategy, I doubt that we will get the religious and spiritually minded working class to abandon faith. And why would we want to do that? Faith can fortify the spirit of working people and give strength in the fight against injustice. 

It is not the mission of socialists to persuade people to abandon their faith but rather to decouple people’s faith from state institutions. The Wat Tyler Rebellion shows us that when faith is in the hands of working people, free from the interference of the bourgeoisie, class struggle flourishes. In the name of our God or faith, we can tear down the machinery of torment known as capitalism.

Sources: 

https://theconversation.com/who-were-the-peasants-of-the-1381-peasants-revolt-new-database-has-answers-278011

https://data.1381.online

https://historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/how-medieval-revolts-help-us-understand-modern-mass-protest/

The post What Socialists Can Learn from the Wat Tyler Rebellion appeared first on DSA Religious Socialism.

We must learn from each other through the organizing experience to build a multi-racial movement. The stakes are high.

The post Multi-racial Organizing in Practice appeared first on Democratic Left.

DSA’s candidate for a Denver House seat is going up against an incumbent in office since 1997.

The post Melat Kiros is Challenging “the System Itself” appeared first on Democratic Left.

Events & Actions

Wednesday June 24 (12:00 PM – 1:00 PM) Mass Mobilization for Environmental Justice @ City Hall (in person at 1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Pl)

Wednesday June 24 (5:30 PM – 7:30 PM)  Guarantee Act Phone Banking (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday June 24 (6:45 PM – 8:30 PM) Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Thursday June 25 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM) Public Bank Project Meeting (zoom)

Friday June 26 (9:30 AM – 10:30 AM)  District 1 Coffee with Comrades (in person at 2 Clement St)

Friday June 26 (4:00 PM – 6:00 PM) Guarantee Act Petition Dropoff/Pickup @ Horsies (in person at 3368 19th St)

Friday June 26 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM) Maker Friday (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Saturday June 27 (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM)  No Appetite For Apartheid Store Canvass (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Sunday June 28 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM) Guarantee Act Mobilization at Clement Street Farmers Market (152 Clement St)

Sunday June 28 (1:00 PM – 2:30 PM)  What Is DSA? (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday June 29 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Labor Board – New Union Organizing (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Tuesday June 30 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM) Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Tuesday June 30 (7:00 PM – 10:00 PM)  Tenant Organizers Social (in person at 1600 17th St)

Thursday July 2 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM)  Education Board Open Meeting  (zoom)

Thursday July 2 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Immigrant Justice Regular Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday July 6 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM) Labor Board Meeting – Office Hours (zoom)

Monday July 6 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

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

Ways to Support Affordable Housing Guarantee Act

The Affordable Housing Guarantee Act is officially accepting contributions! This is a grassroots, community-led campaign, and we need whatever you’re able spare to help us protect our affordable housing funds and tax the rich! Head to fairhousingsf.com/donate to donate!

If you’re not in a position to donate at the moment, we can still use your help gathering signatures. Head to fairhousingsf.com/events to find a volunteer event near you!

Mass Mobilization for Environmental Justice

Mass Rally! Today, Wednesday, June 24 at 12:00 PM @ the steps of City Hall. 

For decades, the people of Bayview-Hunters Point have lived in the shadow of one of the most contaminated former military sites in the United States: the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund Site. The Marie Harrison Community Foundation and Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, as well as DSA SF and 20+ endorsing organizations, are calling on concerned residents to stand with Bayview-Hunters Point in a united public demonstration for environmental justice. We demand that the Mayor reject the transfer of contaminated land for development. Join us and look out for the DSA SF banner! RSVP here.

Guarantee Act Phone Banking

Come help us phone bank supporters of the Guarantee Act from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM Today, June 24 at 1916 McAllister St.

Can’t make it to the office? No problem! Join our virtual meeting here.

​No experience necessary!

No Appetite For Apartheid Store Canvass

Come join us for our next NA4A store canvass on Saturday June 27 at 10:00 AM! We will be meeting at the DSA office and canvassing stores in the Japantown / Pacific Heights area. 

Let’s keep the momentum going for an apartheid free Bay Area and connect with small businesses in our local neighborhoods! RSVP here!

Tenant Organizers Social

Meet tenants organizers from across the Bay. Come to Thee Parkside, 1600 17th St on Tuesday, June 30 at 7:00 PMfor one final time before it closes it’s doors for good. 

The same forces of rampant speculation and gentrification responsible for destroying local culture spaces (like Thee Parkside) are causing the massive displacement of tenants throughout the Bay Area. Pleace come and share your experience as tenants organizing in the face of finance capital’s agenda to build their “luxury city”.

EWOC Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing Course

Sign up here!

EWOC holds a regular training course to help you build your union from the ground up alongside workers in your industry. It doesn’t require an organizing background to understand the material, which covers topics including mapping and charting, building an organizing committee, uniting over common concerns, and how to take action. If you’re interested in becoming any level of organizer for EWOC, this course is mandatory.

This course will in person at the DSA office (1916 McAllister). We’ll watch the EWOC lecture together and then go through the discussion activities. If you can’t make all of the sessions, reach out to Caitlin Stanton (SF EWOC local lead coordinator) for accommodations.

SCHEDULE:
Week 1: Developing Leadership
Tuesday, July 14 (7-8:30PM)

Week 2: The Organizing Conversation
Tuesday, July 21 (7-8:30PM)

Week 3: The Arc of the Campaign
Tuesday, July 28 (7-8:30PM)

Week 4: Inoculation and the Boss Campaign
Tuesday, August 4 (7-8:30PM)

Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ four-decade artistic project aims to teach us that we must cherish the work of taking care. A new film showcases the work of Ukeles, the artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation.

The post Who Holds Up the World appeared first on Democratic Left.

This year’s May Day activities saw significant mobilizations and marches, some school closures, and even small examples of strike action. Yet, many activists had reason to hope for a much more powerful action to confront Trump and his right-wing authoritarian agenda. The enormous victory against ICE after the January 23rd mass strike in Minnesota set a high water mark for resistance. A day of “No Work, No School, No Shopping” set a profound example that inspired national discussion about next steps to fight Trump and ICE’s Gestapo tactics. I counted myself among those looking to make May Day 2026 a day to build on the Twin Cities’ momentum. 

I am an elementary special education teacher, a proud Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) member, and an elected school delegate. In Chicago, we had ICE in our streets kidnapping neighbors just months before they descended on the Twin Cities. Many schools, including my own, had spent the fall building school-based ICE response networks that included Safe Passage shifts and know-your-rights (KYR) trainings.

Leaders of the CTU joined the January 23rd mass strike in the Twin Cities in person. They pointed to it as a positive example to build on, and later announced plans for a May 1st “Day of Civic Action.” As put forward at the March House of Delegates (HoD) meeting, the CTU’s monthly delegate meeting, the Day of Civic Action implied shutting down the city and called for “No Work, No School, No Shopping” to be joined by educators and families. 

What actually happened in the schools was quite limited. Important awareness was raised around the significance and history of May Day among educators, students, and the Chicago school community. But there was no shutdown, no disruption of business as usual, and no direct challenge raised against Trump’s racism and warmongering.

News outlets reported staff absences just a bit above average for the week. Student attendance remained normal, with the exception of high schools, which reported 72% attendance compared to the previous Friday’s 75%. While students from around forty schools participated in field trips to community hubs or to the main rally in Union Park, all schools remained in session. Some schools organized assemblies or resource fairs and some teachers gave lessons in their classrooms, but many did not participate at all. After weeks of discussion and planning, May Day in Chicago, as it was initially conceived by CTU leaders and approved by CTU rank-and-file delegate leaders, was essentially a flop.

Why did the Day of Civic Action underperform so much? Answering this question is important for class struggle unionists like myself and those across the country. 

CTU’s Political Influence Fails to Cancel Classes

In my opinion, May Day should have been a disruptive, powerful action. The movement had slowed after the victory against ICE in Minnesota, but with prominent unions like CTU taking the lead, there was an opportunity to keep up the pressure. We could have shut down the city and led the way for workers across the country. I believe the reason it fell short was due to the weakness of the CTU leadership’s chosen strategy to rely on leveraging Democratic Party politicians that the union helped elect.

CTU leaders initially seemed to have secured the support of both Mayor Brandon Johnson (a former CTU teacher and union staff organizer) and the Johnson/CTU-influenced school board. If they signed off on a “Civic Day of Action,” the union would not have to take full political responsibility for the shutdown. In the leadup to the Day of Action, Mayor Johnson continuously said “May 1st is happening.”

As every class struggle unionist knows, progressive Democratic politicians are unreliable allies even in the best of times due to their conflicting ties with big business. As May Day approached, these political leaders flinched and capitulated. Whether Johnson and the school board genuinely planned to shut down schools and then backed down due to pressure, or if they had planned to water things down all along, remains unknown. Either way, absent action by city and district officials, CTU was left in a trap of its own making. The union struck a Memorandum of Understanding with Chicago Public Schools to allow for May Day lessons and trips, but there was no Plan B for “No School, No Work.” 

May Day showed the limits of CTU’s political influence. Unions should, of course, make use of politicians’ support where they can get it. However, far too often, the CTU leadership of President Stacy Davis Gates and Vice President Jackson Potter uses the strategy of leveraging friendly Democrats as a one-size-fits-all shortcut. Our power is not primarily in dues money flowing to electoral campaigns, but in our power as vital workers with social authority and the means to shut things down. In their consistent focus on political influence, CTU leaders neglect the tools of rank-and-file organizing and class struggle. Make no mistake: Members can see that they are being made into observers, rather than participants, in our own union’s actions. We need more confidence in our independent worker power.

I want to be clear that I am making a different critique of CTU leadership than the Illinois Policy Institute or the Chicago Tribune. There is also a minority of more conservative members, very active on social media, who echo pro-business propaganda, calling CTU a “political machine.”

Working people have an absolute right to our own representation, and unions should be involved in electoral politics. But union members need to be aware that even where we are decisive in a winning campaign, the capitalist class can bring enormous pressure on any representative. They have the advantage in the halls of state power. As it stands, CTU’s strategy exaggerates the strength these politicians give us, to the point that an overreliance on arrangements with politicians is actually harming our union’s democratic vitality and fighting capacity.

By pushing for May Day action, CTU compared favorably with most of the rest of the labor movement, which let the moment pass by. CTU leaders consistently prepared members for May Day for months and came up with member-led structure tests that steadily built this support among the rank-and-file. The problem? The overall strategy hinged entirely on friendly political representatives facilitating the union’s actions, rather than the union guaranteeing it through an independent commitment of its class power. 

Thousands of members were prepared to shut down the schools on May 1st. Dozens of delegates, like myself, prepared for this, school by school. Yet when the politicians’ support dissolved, so did our May 1st “No Work. No School. No Shopping,” project. Instead, we were handed more work planning in-school civics lessons – and many frustrated, dejected, and confused members on top of it.

Organizing for the Day of Civic Action and Its Opponents

For the union membership, these events unfolded in a confusing fashion. The discussions between the CTU leadership and powerful city and district officials were not transparent to us, so following the public twists and turns had many members themselves feeling twisted into knots.

To their credit, CTU leadership began laying groundwork for May Day as early as the February HoD meeting. Delegates were given a poster to bring back to our schools for members to sign as a structure test. The poster read “Our school is ready to protect our students, tax the rich to fund our schools, defend our democracy, and fight back on May 1st.” The meaning of fighting back was still not totally clear, but many members in the schools signed on in agreement that we should be doing something.

At the following March HoD, CTU leadership brought forward a resolution on May 1st and the Day of Civic Action. Delegates voted overwhelmingly in favor, after a short discussion. The ones I spoke with were under the impression that we were calling for a day of non-instruction so that teachers, students, and families could attend the May Day rally. 

All members were mobilized to sign a petition demanding Mayor Johnson and the board of education declare May 1st a “Day of Civic Action.” Although the resolution passed overwhelmingly, the petition itself ultimately gave the mayor and the board the power to define the fate of May Day, leaving delegates and members alike with vague guidelines for action.

In March and April, national newspapers ran oppositional editorials and reporting, and public debate intensified. Nonetheless, in early April, it seemed we were just waiting for the gears of the decision-making process to turn. At that time, the board of education held a closed session; it was shared that a straw poll indicated support for a Day of Civic Action. Following this, a rumor spread that Johnson-appointed interim CPS chief executive officer Dr. Macquline King was also on board. So far, so good!

However, just hours after buzz hit our schools, Dr. King walked back her perceived agreement in an e-mail to all CPS staff, in which she wrote: “My position is to maintain May 1 as an instructional day. As a career educator, I believe that every minute in the classroom is vital for students. My position has been consistent and has not changed.” Following this back and forth, member activists were concerned, and CTU leaders did not have concrete answers. 

CTU leaders responded by mounting several lines of public rebuttal. As a result of both on the ground experience and the public back-and-forth, May Day looked shaky. It became a hot topic among the rank-and-file members in the schools. Rumors spread through different news outlets, internal CTU communications, CPS e-mails, and on social media. Feelings of whiplash and a negative view of May Day began to circulate among some members, who complained that they were being forced to participate in something political they didn’t vote for, or that the union had planned poorly and made their path uncertain.

Nonetheless, if the union had taken action, I believe a majority of members would have been ready to go. But time was running out. Discussion raged: What the hell are we doing on May Day? Are we calling off work? Is this a one-day strike? Are we holding out and waiting for Mayor Johnson to cancel school? What is the plan?

We got an answer at the HoD meeting on April 15th, where I was surprised to be given three different options to take back to membership: 1) coordinate field trips to community hubs for students to participate in a day of civic education around May Day; 2) host a “Day of Civic Action” at our schools; or 3) take a Benefit Day. CTU leadership continued to blame CPS for all the confusion and reiterated that delegates needed to be flexible and have a plan in case school was not cancelled. They said they were working towards an agreement with CPS, but they didn’t have concrete details or full terms. At this point, schools were instructed to ‘choose their own adventure.’

May Day in Chicago: More Work for Educators, School in Session

Hope was still kept alive that CPS would relent. However, CTU leadership had effectively retreated, and the “Day of Civic Action” was redefined. Members struggled to keep up and understand the shift. The ‘choice’ meant that some schools were going all in to plan field trips or a day of action, but it also meant that many were off the hook to do nothing at all. 

With just the Memorandum of Understanding in place, obstructive administrators at CPS had the ability to water down our plans. They skirted around the language, denying field trips and avoiding required paperwork. Rather than uniting members around a common struggle to fight back against the right-wing dismantling of educational funding, CTU’s failure to secure a non-instructional day siloed May Day actions to inside the schools. It also undermined delegates and activist members that had spent a lot of effort convincing members to get behind a bold action. May Day, as it was initially envisioned and discussed in Chicago, was a bust. 

Ultimately, many schools across the city participated in May Day, but it depended on activists within the school, the willingness of administration, and buy-in from individual communities. Some students went on field trips to CTU Headquarters, Rainbow-PUSH, and BUILD; some high schools held assemblies and teach-ins for students and neighboring schools; schools hosted their own “Days of Civic Action” with community clean-ups, resource fairs, and mini-marches around their buildings; and some teachers used a May Day curriculum to teach lessons in their classrooms about labor history. Any actions taken required work and flexibility from teachers to make happen, but in the end, they raised consciousness among educators and in school communities. Yet CTU’s bold May 1st strike threat, which had rattled Chicago’s ruling class, had been withdrawn, and this was a success for the rich and powerful.

An Alternative Class-Struggle Approach

CTU leaders should have decided on a solid strategy for actual disruption. This might have come in different forms, like an attempt at a sick-out or an actual strike vote (which would have likely been ruled officially unlawful, like many great union struggles of the past). There would have been a contentious and robust debate over this among the rank-and-file, with no guarantee of success. But the debate, on clear terms, could have been educational and empowering in itself. Perhaps these proposals may have even lost in a democratic vote, something CTU leaders surely feared; but, of course, we did not succeed in having a “No School” May Day with Mayor Johnson, either. 

The CTU’s approach to May Day was just one example of the leadership’s disorganized approach and lack of transparency. This conduct has been typical since Johnson became mayor, but the problems go back further. It’s part of a longer-term strategy of placing too many eggs in the basket of gaming politics through the state. These maneuvers are then brought to the membership, preventing the union from organizing power with us.

The takeaway is, as Jane MacAlevey famously said: “there are no shortcuts.” To win, we have to build and rely on the massive power we possess as educators to galvanize school communities, unite with other workers, and disrupt and resist. We hand this power over to others at our peril.

A class-struggle approach genuinely involves the membership in deciding how to use the union’s independent collective power. It allows for multiple proposals, differing opinions, intense debate and discussion, and vibrant democracy. This strategy understands that capitalism does not grant us easy victories. We must commit to building a wider, multi-racial working-class movement that understands the need to challenge the normal functioning of capitalism in order to force change.

The CTU Dues Restructure: Leadership Loses a Referendum on Their Struggle Strategy 

At the May HoD, each CTU officer report championed our May Day action and characterized it as a success. Some members would agree, but for many, May Day was an unpleasant disappointment that raised numerous doubts about the union and leadership. For me, the HoD created cognitive dissonance. As a collective, we weren’t grappling with the result. I felt it was tragic that we ended up with so much disappointment and unease when there was a lot of possibility around May Day and a great deal of work put into organizing.

How can post-May Day member sentiment be gauged? Interestingly, the May HoD also initiated a new democratic procedure in the union. In addition to preparing for other end-of-the-year votes, delegates were also responsible for organizing discussions and voting on a proposal to restructure CTU dues, held on May 20th and 21st. Leadership brought forward a constitutional amendment to restructure the dues in a more equitable way, proposing that all members pay 1.75% of their base hourly salary instead of the current flat rate. 

Delegates were first informed about a possible dues hike in January, but it did not feature prominently at meetings until March. When the official language of the amendment was brought to delegates to discuss in April, I was already overwhelmed. It was a lot to consider alongside the May Day confusion, and CTU leadership added an additional question to the mix: Another new clause to the constitution about exhausting all union structures before taking CTU to court. All things considered, I was hesitant to give more in dues money to an unclear political strategy, not to mention the need to convince my colleagues why this was critical.

Ahead of the all-membership vote, CTU and staff organized one of the biggest member engagement campaigns I have ever seen. Leadership explained the dues change from a number of different angles: we need money to fight back against Trump and the right wing, to pay for organizers to defend our contract wins, for the upcoming school board races, and for the inevitable fight to defend against school closures. Given this long list of reasons summarizing the union’s political outlook, the vote acted as a referendum on the leadership’s approach, and was seen as such by members I spoke with. 

There was strong opposition from the more conservative parts of the union, which could be seen all over Facebook, but ultimately the proposal was not endorsed by a wide part of the general membership. It was defeated, with 62.9% opposed. By comparison, the CORE leadership was reelected with 64% of the member vote in 2025.

For me, the vote did not leave any doubt that CTU is still a majority-progressive, fighting union. Even despite inflation pressure on members, a dues increase might have passed if the proposal were tied clearly to empowering activism. But given the context, many members were not inclined to send the union more dues money, and instead, sent a message of frustration. I think the vote result can fairly be described as an example of the growing disconnect between CTU leadership and the rank and file. 

Equitable dues could be the right step for the union down the line. But for our union and the broader working class to be stronger in the righteous fights that CTU leadership correctly identifies are coming, money is not necessarily decisive. Truly powerful collective action can best be measured in the risks, time, and sacrifices members make to build it. The rank and file need to push CTU leadership to take a class-struggle approach featuring democratic meetings that include us in the fight, rather than a demand that members join actions with no critique of tactics and strategy allowed. 

We need a vision of working class-power and a clear, determined organizing strategy to bring everyone in. More dues money for organizing could help with this, but it’s the self-activity of the members that is our true strength. If money is simply used to double down on a limited strategy to contribute to more political campaigns, we are no closer to being prepared to fight like we need to be fighting. 

That fight is not letting up. In recent days, Chicago educators have faced notice that CPS expects to conduct the largest set of layoffs in years. COVID relief money is drying up, and Trump is at war with public education. School closures are back on the table. Principals have said these cuts compare to those of the early 2010s, when the city was coming out of the Great Recession. The fight to tax the rich and fund our schools is urgent.

I am proud to be a member of the CTU and grateful to be in a position to engage in genuine collaboration about how to work towards a fighting strategy in our unions. I hope that leftists and unionists read this piece and consider how we can empower our unions and raise the level of resistance against Trump and the capitalist billionaires ruining the country – and the planet. 

The post Assessing Chicago’s May Day: What Was the Chicago Teachers Union’s Day of Civic Action? appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

In addition to high-stakes elections in New York, DSA candidates are on the ballot tonight in Maryland and Utah. 

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