April 2026 Newsletter

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Socialism in the News

Democratic Socialism has been in the news this year like never before. With the success of the Mamdani campaign national and local news organizations have taken notice of the DSA and our aims. We’re glad to have the attention!

Protest Coverage

Syracuse DSA and allied organizations taking part in protests in Syracuse. Keep showing up and making your voices heard, comrades!

Protesters gather in Syracuse to oppose U.S. strikes and capture of Venezuela’s president Syracuse.com - January 4, 2026

Dozens of protesters gather in downtown Syracuse to condemn U.S. actions against VenezuelaWAER Syracuse Public Media - January 8, 2026

Syracuse citizen groups plan large protest Monday against ICE raids after Minnesota killing WAER Syracuse Public Media - January 11, 2026

Syracuse activists plan anti-ICE protest and march on Monday Syracuse.com - January 11, 2026

More than 1,200 rally in Syracuse against Trump immigration crackdown, killing of Renee Good Syracuse.com - January 12, 2026

Hundreds of people protest ICE and Trump administration immigration policy in Syracuse WAER Syracuse Public Media - January 13, 2026

‘Ice Out of Everywhere’ protest draws crowd in Downtown Syracuse LocalSYR.com - January 30, 2026

Melt the Contracts/Mass Surveillance

Melt the Contracts is an initiative of the Syracuse DSA International Solidarity Committee. It seeks to ban the city from establishing new contracts with vendors that have direct involvement in illegal detainment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This issue came to a head when the city switched from Flock to Axon for their license plate reading surveillance software.

Local advocates want to ‘melt’ Syracuse’s links to ICE. Will lawmakers listen? Central Current - January 14, 2026

Syracuse looks to a familiar company for replacing controversial license plate readers Syracuse.com - January 21, 2026

Syracuse lawmakers to urge governor, state legislature to enact ‘New York For All’Central Current - January 21, 2026

Activists want Ryan McMahon to stop ‘colluding’ with ICE. What’s that mean? Syracuse.com - January 23, 2026

Syracuse police to pitch lawmakers on switching license plate reader provider Central Current - February 5, 2026

ICE protesters removed from Syracuse council meeting amid vote on license plate readers Syracuse.com - February 9, 2026

Why Syracuse lawmakers’ voting session became a meltdown between activists and lawmakers Central Current - February 9, 2026

Syracuse lawmakers approve contract for Axon license plate readers, plan to block Flock Safety from city streets Central Current - February 9, 2026

Syracuse drivers are under corporate surveillance. Where’s the outrage? (Your Letters) Syracuse.com - February 14, 2026

Syracuse lawmakers ice out Flock Safety in favor of company contracting with ICECentral Current - March 23, 2026

Endorsed Candidates

Syracuse Democratic Socialists of America have endorsed Tammy Honeywell (County Legislative District 8), Maurice Brown (State Assembly District 129), and Jo Bennett (County Legislative District 15) as our Affordability Slate for Syracuse and Onondaga County!

Onondaga County legislator launches primary challenge to longtime state Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli for CNY seat Spectrum News 1 - February 20, 2026

Mo Brown launches primary bid to unseat Bill Magnarelli for NY Assembly seat in Syracuse Syracuse.com - February 20, 2026

Mo Brown launches primary campaign against Bill Magnarelli, a fixture of Syracuse politicsCentral Current - February 9, 2026

Onondaga County Legislature candidate trio launches Affordability Slate The Daily Orange - February 21, 2026

Democratic Socialist to primary ex-lawmaker in race for Mo Brown’s county legislature seat Syracuse.com - February 24, 2026

Other Stories

Syracuse Democratic Socialists say election wins by Mamdani & Ehrenreich can improve public policyWAER Syracuse Public Media - January 14, 2026 (scroll down for the full 25 minute interview)

Africa Initiative, SU’s Young Democratic Socialists denounce Project 2025 The Daily Orange - March 28, 2026

More views of Good Cause Eviction (Your Letters) Syracuse.com - February 18, 2026 (See second letter by Jo Bennett)

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Did we miss anything? Please send any additions, corrections or updates to newsletter@syracusedsa.org

April 2026 Newsletter

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April 1st - Wednesday - Mutual Aid Committee meeting at 601 Allen and on Zoom. See #mutual-aid-committee on Slack

April 4th and 5th - Saturday & Sunday - Affordability Slate Canvassing - Sign up here

April 6th - Monday - Organizing Committee meeting on Zoom. See #organizing-committee on Slack

April 8th - Wednesday - International Solidarity Committee meeting at 601 Allen and Zoom. See #international-solidarity-committee on Slack

April 11th and 12th - Saturday & Sunday - Affordability Slate Canvassing - Sign up here

April 12th - Sunday - Syracuse DSA Reading Group - Topic: Municipal Socialism - See details here

April 15th - Wednesday - Mutual Aid Committee meeting at 601 Allen and on Zoom. See #mutual-aid-committee on Slack

April 18th - Allied Event - Building Beloved Community Beyond the Binary Conference

April 18th and 19th - Saturday & Sunday - Affordability Slate Canvassing - Sign up here

April 20th - Monday - Organizing Committee meeting on Zoom. See #organizing-committee on Slack

April 22nd - Wednesday - International Solidarity Committee meeting at 601 Allen and Zoom. See #international-solidarity-committee on Slack

April 25th and 26th - Saturday & Sunday - Affordability Slate Canvassing - Sign up here

April 26th - Sunday - First Socialist Sunday Social at TBD - 6 to 8 PM (Request to RSVP coming soon!)

April 28th - Tuesday - Steering Committee Meeting

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Did we miss anything? Please send any additions, corrections or updates to newsletter@syracusedsa.org

April 2026 Newsletter

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International Solidarity (ISC)

The International Solidarity Committee has been busy! We have multiple projects working currently.

We are continuing to put pressure on the Syracuse Common Council to introduce our Melt the Contracts resolution. It is looking very likely that we will have an update this month. We will be putting out calls for members to show solidarity at Council meetings as more details solidify.

We are looking for volunteers for 4th Amendment Workplace trainings, please contact committee co-chairs if you are interested.

A chapter-wide ICE Watch training will be taking place in April. Details will follow but a Know Your Rights training must be completed first along with filling out the SIRDN interest form here.

We are still in the process of getting our CNY-BDS coalition off the ground. We are looking for members willing to initiate conversations with businesses, help with designing materials, and help participating businesses determine products on the BDS list.

Mutual Aid

The Mutual Aid Committee this month reviewed the success of the free store hosted with Muslim Mosaic at the Ramadan Festival. We discussed improvements that can be made to ensure cultural sensitivity and community support.

We are working on a Event/Project proposal form to be utilized for projects so we can better organize and see them through to completion!

We hosted a Marshaling training to educate community members on police abolitionist aligned tactics that ensure safety at protests, demonstrations, and other events. This will help support increased community actions and marshal capacity.

We are also looking to do other skill shares in the future regarding a variety of topics so be on the look-out for those!

Overall, we are set up to continue our outreach and involvement in providing community support and to build the presence of mutual aid in Syracuse and surrounding areas.

Engagement

After a brief hiatus the Engagement Committee is taking shape as a working group until we are ready to launch again as a fully-fledged committee.

Engagement will lean into contributing to the Newsletter and making an audio version of the Newsletter for the Podcast.

New projects include planning more social events and starting a DSA 101 course in May.

Electoral & Labor

Electoral and Labor committees are on a brief hiatus due to membership becoming engaged in the campaigns of our endorsed candidates. These committees will be revamped and relaunched during the Spring as social and networking groups and will reform into committees as participation requires. Please contact Mike P on Slack or labor@syracusedsa.org if you'd like to be a part of this effort.

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Did we miss anything? Please send any additions, corrections or updates to newsletter@syracusedsa.org

Big Tech firms like Meta, Google, Palantir, and beyond continue to enable Israel's genocide in Gaza. DMV locals are fighting back.

Our goal as organizers and seekers of political change will be the continuation of coalition growth and subsequent mobilization of power.

The unfairness and absurdity of modern homelessness can be summed up in a single number: there are 28 vacant homes for every homeless person. Although this fact diminishes the complexity of homelessness, its simple cruelty reveals America’s greatest contradiction: a nation of abundance and a nation of destitution. Society holds in its hands the ability to provide for all, yet chooses not to. The inherent inequality of the economy only deepens its inhumanity as prices rise, real wages stagnate, and social services are cut. Homelessness is growing at record rates, mostly among the youth and elderly, and disproportionately affecting racial and sexual minorities. Government services often fail to address the root issue of the problem, if it exists at all. It is not enough that capitalism should subject one part of society to be without a place to stay; governments viciously criminalize homelessness and maniacally inflict pain through anti-homeless architecture. Why does capitalism force one part of the population into abject poverty at their most needed? And why does this unignorable inequality not anger society more and more every day? The answer is rooted in capitalism’s need for a reserve army of labor and dominance as the base for society, including our thoughts and feelings about the world around us.

Homelessness and unemployment are not solely symptoms of capitalism but a necessary element in order to further exploit workers and lower wages through the immiseration of the lowest strata of society. The underhoused and unhoused are part of a group Marx termed the reserve army of labor. This reserve army acts as a potential replacement for employed wage workers, forcing them to accept worse working conditions and lower wages in fear of losing their jobs. The largest supply of workers with the lowest demand for labor allows employers to increase exploitation of workers, as people become desperate for any job at all. Increased competition between those needing employment divides the working class, making them fight over the scraps instead of banding together to bring about change. This supply grows ever larger as capital concentrates in fewer hands and more people are pushed into the proletariat, seen in the record high rates of homelessness and wealth inequality in the U.S. Capitalism and bourgeois society have no desire or reason to end homelessness as it needs the reserve army to be so large and conditions for the unemployed so miserable to keep workers subservient to wages. As Marx said, “accumulation of wealth is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole.”

Capitalism was built and continues to be supported by the forced unhousing of sectors of society and the creation of the reserve army. British industrialism exploded rapidly in urban areas due to the enclosure of farming and grazing land. Peasants were kicked off the soil to create privately owned land, and forced off in droves to the cities. Vagrancy and homelessness became criminalized, and former peasants had to take the worst possible jobs. The reserve army helped keep the plantation system and the exploitation of black labor alive in the post-Reconstruction South. By arresting unemployed freed slaves, the black population was given a choice between quasi-slavery in sharecropping or legal slavery in the prison system. And in modern times, legislation and government policy criminalizes homelessness in order to sweep away the issue and punish the victims without any concern for the root cause.The landmark Grants Pass v Johnson SCOTUS case in 2024 overturned protections for homeless encampments even if the unhoused had nowhere else to go, combining with other statues and ordinances that make it illegal to sleep in public. As affordability and welfare cuts make permanent housing harder and harder to obtain, the state punishes those caught in these unavoidable situations with nowhere else to turn. Cemented is the rule of capitalism: work or suffer.

The reserve army of labor explains why capitalism impoverishes the most needy. But the system permeates deeper: into societal thoughts and feelings towards the unhoused. Certainly, hateful, hyper-exaggerated, and largely false stereotypes play their role, but what lies deeper? Societal attitudes towards the homeless, ideas of who they are in relation to the employed, and theories on how to confront the issue cannot be boiled down to malicious disparagement or apathetic pity. Instead, they are shaped by the foundations of capitalism and bourgeois society.

First, the unhoused lie outside the capitalist system of production. They are not laboring in order to create surplus-value or profit. Capitalism defines people as wage-workers who live solely to create capital; therefore, the non-worker lives for nothing, a burden that “provides” nothing. Production of capital, as the foundation of society, becomes the measure of human “value.” We can see this exemplified in current unhoused aid practices and social services. With the prevalence of employment dependent help or simple job training, help comes only if people engage in, or are seeking to engage in, producing surplus-value. Aid without concern for how much the person contributed to capital is reserved for those who can’t work at all. While the right parrots the idea of laziness being the cause of poverty more and more as a justification for policy, these ideas remain in the minds of all. The connection between labor and human value lies at the core of our species. Marx writes, “it is just in his work upon, the objective world, therefore, that man first really proves himself to be a species being”. Labor is humanity’s purpose, what separates man from animal, and defines us as a species. But under capitalism, labor comes under the harsh master of capital, as the only form labor can take. The worker is alienated from his labor, his species-being, his humanity. Since the unhoused are not laboring for capital, they are viewed to not contribute to society, viewed as not to be fulfilling our greater purpose. Capital defines society, and the unhoused are not in its service, viewed to be not in its society. Humans define themselves and others through labor and work. However, as labor is dominated by the tyranny of capital, our ideas of humanity and human value are dominated by the tyranny of capital.

Secondly, the unhoused not only buck capitalist production but it’s necessary counterpart-consumption. The existence of a dominant consumer society is widely known. But modern adoration for commodities is more than a want for better and more stuff. Not only does capitalism alienate people from their labor but also the products of that labor. When we make something, we are impressing part of ourselves into the material world. In the object we pour our sweat, effort, ideas, feeling, and being. Yet capitalism takes us from the fruit of our work- we don’t own what we make. Instead, we receive wages, which in turn buy commodities- the replacement for our stolen, objectified labor. Mass modern economies hide the relations of production from the common eye, so we do not see the relationship between labor and commodity hidden by the chaotic world encompassing scale of modern industry. Value is believed to be inherent in the commodity itself and not a result of the labor congealed in it. Commodities as value become personal power, social power, and a mark of value presentable to the larger society. We become what we own, we can choose who we are by buying back the lost objectification of our labor through commodities. The less commodities owned, the less you are, the less you can express yourself, the less you can be. Commodity fetishism runs deep. The desire for commodities innate in our economic system, in the base of society, directly supervenes on not only politics or religion but into our conceptions of the world around us, other people, and even morality and philosophy. While we might not realize it, the base mechanics of capitalism- the need for commodities to be used to make profit- makes it seem that this is one the base mechanics of human society as a whole. The unhoused, as non consumers, become social pariahs, outside the value system. This goes hand in hand with their status as non-producers. Commodities become the value we create in our labor. The unhoused neither produce value nor own value in the eyes of capital. Property is the highest form of social power and ownership-based value. To have privacy, a place to call your own, is to have a false objective self in the physical and social world. Commodities start to gain power over us, the ability to “own” us as the physical realization of self through labor. Those who lack commodities are the ones cast aside by society and only helped again if they work to create and own more. Capitalism and its unending want for more stuff makes ownership of commodities a key part of day to day life. By being unable or limited to join this system of commodity fetishism, the unhoused appear to stand separate from the rest of capitalist society. They are the ones who force society to look reality in the eye and listen- “look what you have done.”

Capitalism’s influence on the material base on society leads to an influence in the ideological base- in the core evaluations and appreciations of humanity, the purpose of human life, and the value of human life. Because current society revolves around the creation of surplus-value through labor and the exchange of wages for commodities, dominant ideas about people revolve around these same poles. This is not the immediate, interpersonal feelings one might have or not have about the homelessness. This ideological base is the subconscious building block of beliefs about people that guides larger ideas about the world and our place in it, leading to real-world opinions and justifications that play back into the capitalist system. Understanding where attitudes about this issue stem from allows us to undermine these infiltrations. By realizing where capitalism thwarts ideas towards inequality and cruelty, we can build new ideas of equity, compassion, and humanity that will help us grow towards a new society.

You’ve probably received enough communications regarding this Saturday’s “No Kings” demonstrations, which will be held all across the country. At last count more than three thousand demonstrations are being organized, and there will no doubt be at least one near you.

In case you have been procrastinating, here is a link to find the demonstrations closest to you.

The first of these demos last June had a million or two people attend. The next one, in October, had at least five million. We’re aiming to double that this time, which would put us in striking distance of the 3.5% of the US population that research says is necessary to topple authoritarian regimes in the making. 

Against the backdrop of brutal anti-immigrant violence and preparation for election suppression at home, and clueless trade policy matched with deadly wars abroad, a growing number of Americans are coming out to the streets. These include people who have never been politically involved outside of voting every few years, and progressives who sat out the 2024 presidential elections because they didn’t think there was any difference between the two parties and the two candidates. Within DSA and the rest of the left this often took the form of denouncing the “twin parties of capital”. Which they are. But that picture, drawn without nuance, underestimated what fascism is and does.

Now we know. 

A reasonable question at this point is, ‘What sort of message should socialists be sending to the other demonstrators, and the world, a year into America’s fascist descent?’ You have the opportunity to weigh in on that as you make your protest sign. “No Kings” is a start, not a program. “Workers Over Billionaires” moves us closer to the ideas we need.

This mass demonstration of opposition is absolutely necessary, but not sufficient to stop MAGA from dragging us along on its road to hell. For that we need to be broadening the struggle with other tactics and strategies (mutual aid, mass strikes, non-violent direct action, and electoral politics) that build a powerful anti-fascist movement and lay the basis for moving past the failed politics of the past. What happened in Minneapolis/St. Paul on January 23—‘No Work, No School, No Shopping’—is the best example so far. DSA has joined with labor and community partners in the May Day Strong coalition, which understands “No Kings” as a step toward a sharper critique of capitalism on May 1. On that day we will see how prepared we are to advance beyond a nationwide demonstration to a national movement.

We’ll see you out in the streets this weekend. And then we’ll continue to train and educate and prepare ourselves for the struggle ahead.

In the February issue of California Red we ran a background article on the California DSA campaign we call “The Fair and Responsible Tax Plan for California’s Wealthy”, which embraces both measures currently gathering signatures to qualify for the November state ballot. That was the first in a series we are running between now and the election. Here is the next installment.—Editor

The unfathomably vast yet still growing level of California’s economic inequality

Our East Bay DSA crew of five had planted ourselves in the parking lot of a supermarket in North Berkeley on a warm mid-March afternoon. We were collecting signatures for the Billionaires Tax and the Protecting Education and Health Care Act. During our three-hour shift we did not do badly, gathering several dozen for each measure. Even better were the conversations, which ranged from informing voters about the nuts and bolts of the proposals to broader questions about economic inequality: how much money do billionaires have, anyway? What share of the total income of California, the fifth largest economy in the world, goes to the one percent? What would be the right amount of taxes for them to pay? And how do we get them to pay their fair share? 

We explore a few of these ideas and numbers below.

A cool million

It used to be hard for the typical working class stiff to imagine what a million dollars looks like. A million dollars? That’s what millionaires have, and I’m not even close to being one of those, we would say. But that was before a million dollars or thereabouts became the average price of a house in Los Angeles. It’s slightly below that statewide, and slightly above that in San Francisco. But you get the idea. Generally speaking, if you can afford a home, you know what a million dollars looks like—it looks like your house. (If you’re a renter, it looks like that house.)

A billion dollars was even more unfathomable. We didn’t have many in the United States until relatively recently; as late as 1990 there were just 66 of them. Now there are close to a thousand, and we’ve got 213 right here in the Golden State. Since we know that a million dollars looks like a house these days, we can imagine that since a billion is a thousand millions, it would look like a thousand houses. 

No one needs a thousand houses to live in, so most billionaires scrape by with just ten or twelve. Of course, being billionaires, they need somewhat larger houses than most people, so they might spend five or ten million dollars or even more—fifty million! A hundred million!—on their humble abodes. If they owned ten of those, that could put a pretty big dent in their billion dollar fortune. But guess what? The average wealth of a billionaire is not a billion dollars. It’s currently around 8.6 billion dollars, according to inequality.org. So that would be 8,600 houses. 

Minus the dozen they “live” in, that would leave them with enough money to purchase 8,588 more houses. I don’t know about you, but as the numbers climb my ability to translate the million dollar house into a clear image of the wealth of billionaires is beginning to get somewhat unequal to the task. And that’s before we try to imagine what the total wealth of 213 billionaires looks like. 

Trillions

It is reliably estimated that thanks to the ginormous growth of their fortunes during the past ten years (Trump I’s tax cuts, pandemic economy when there was nothing to invest in except stock buybacks, Trump II’s continuing tax cuts, massive AI bubble, and outright looting of public resources) our couple hundred California billionaires collectively own (hold onto your “tax the rich” baseball cap) two trillion dollars’ worth of assets. In California they’re doing a little better than the average 8.6 billionaire; they’ve each got around 9.4 billion. 

Although I just said I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around the houses when they added up to the average 8,600 houses each (adjusted now to 9,400), let’s try it out with trillions. That’s a thousand billions. So collectively our 213 ultra-rich people with their two trillion dollars would have, let’s see, carry the one, a bit over 1.8 million houses, at a million dollars each. 

You might think that that’s enough for anyone, and these individuals must be looking around for philanthropies to unload to. But no, according to a recent New York Times article, billionaire giving has fallen precipitously in the last few years as their ‘uneasy accommodation with fascism’ (fascism scholar Robert Paxton’s formulation describing the initial response of economic elites to the uncouth new political rulers) has grown considerably less uneasy—more like downright comfortable. The 213 billionaires in California have seen their total wealth grow by nearly a third in this period as the rest of us have been essentially running in place—and that’s not enough for some of them. 

If you listen to one of their loudest mouthpieces, tech mogul Ron Conway, the proposed billionaire tax is not only bad for his 212 other peeps; it’s way worse than that. He was recently quoted in a New York Times article with a sentiment that inadvertently revealed how that kind of bank account can warp one’s perspective: According to Mr. Conway, referring to the billionaire tax, “This is the greatest tragedy this state has ever felt.” Hmmm. I wonder whether the families of dozens of people who lost their lives and thousands who lost homes in the Eaton and Palisades fires in 2025 agree? Or if Japanese-Californians, 93,000 of whom were incarcerated during World War II, share that view? Or if Native Californians, whose population fell from a third a million people in 1800 to about 15,000 by 1910 during the genocide that did them in, would agree with Conway’s historical research? 

On the other hand

At the other end of the economic spectrum, California’s borders contain about 7 million people below the official poverty line, or 18% of its roughly 40 million people. But the official federal poverty line ($33,000/year for a family of four) is laughably (that’s probably the wrong word) below an actual ability to live. One measure of how many people are barely getting by in California is the number of MediCal recipients, dependent on the federal Medicaid funding stream for most of their care costs. Although California is a net donor to the federal treasury, it does rely on $20 billion per year from the feds to support MediCal. Some 15 million Californians are enrolled in MediCal.

Let’s move on from the tiny extremely rich and the very large poor slices of the state and look at the condition of the merely rich, the top 1% income earners, which includes the billionaires but extends downward to the merely well-to-do. Although calculations vary, the bottom rung of the ladder for a one percenter is just about a million dollars a year in income; the median merely rich, right in the middle of the one percent, is $3.6 million a year. Here’s chart to help us visualize how their share of total California income has grown over the past half century. 

That’s right, believe your eyes. The top 1%’s share of income in the Golden State has grown over the past half century from about one twelfth of total income to almost one third. Richest state in the richest country in the world? Yes, but a vast chunk of the riches seems to have ended up in the pockets of people who didn’t need the transfer. 

On the third hand, if all of the state’s total income had been divided up equally, every person in California in 2024 would have received around $80,000—which means that for a family of four, combining their incomes, the household would have had $320,000—just a little under ten times the official poverty line.  

“But that would be socialism!” cry the billionaires, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and probably quite a few temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Well, sort of. We’ll get into that some other time. One thing is clear: it would certainly be different from what we’ve got.

When HR-1, Trump’s Big Bad Budget Bill, first passed last summer, the California Medical Association warned of “catastrophic” consequences. They were right.

Residents of Glenn County now travel 40 minutes to the nearest emergency room, thanks to a 40% funding cut that forced the county’s only hospital to shut down. St. Johns Community Health in Los Angeles struggles to stay open, after seeing one-third of its operating revenue disappear. $50 million in cuts have forced the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to close more than half its community clinics; besides vaccinations, the clinics provided screening and treatment of tuberculosis and HIV. In Alameda County, Wilma Chan Hospital narrowly averted a layoff of 400 workers while the County searches  for new funding sources to keep them on the job.

MediCal, California’s version of the federal Medicaid program, currently covers one in five working Californians and half the state’s children. A 25% cut in state and federal spending is expected to strip close to 3 million people of their coverage by 2028. People on Medicaid will lose access to reproductive health services.  

Nor has Medicare been spared. Refugees and asylum-seeking immigrants who were on  Medicare no longer qualify. Other non-citizens were already barred from the program. 

HR-1’s proponents claimed the only people harmed by Medicaid cuts will be those who should not have been getting benefits in the first place—what were once referred to as the “undeserving poor. ” The new law requires that any adult under 65 who is not caring for young children must provide proof of working at least 80 hours a month to qualify for Medicaid, so long as their employers met the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.  

“Too onerous”

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, most people on Medicaid already work, but may find it “too onerous to demonstrate compliance” with the work requirement. The UC Berkeley Labor Center estimates that this could account for more than half the Californians expected to lose their MediCal coverage.  Their hours may fluctuate; they may be laid off temporarily or change jobs; they may be self-employed, or work for an employer who is unable or unwilling to provide the necessary documentation. The same illness that required access to Medicaid could also disqualify you from getting it, if it keeps you off work for any length of time. 

Work requirements don’t come cheap; one of the ironies of HR-1 is that the cost of implementing them could offset any savings from  throwing people off the rolls. Georgia is a case in point. Medicaid is jointly funded by state and federal governments, and one of the best features of the Affordable Care Act to make federal Medicaid dollars available for states  that cover people who make  up to 138% of the federal poverty level. Georgia took the money, but added a work requirement. As a result,  Pro Publica reports that “most of the tax dollars used to launch and implement the program have gone toward paying administrative costs rather than covering health care.”  Worse, many Georgians who complied with the work requirement still found their coverage terminated. 

The targets of HR-1

HR-1 targets those who benefited from expanded access to Medicaid—including 5 million Californians—in other ways. They are now required to reestablish their eligibility every six months. Every doctor’s visit requires  a $35 co-payment. In California, providers who will take them on as patients will likely become harder to find, since the state will no longer augment notoriously stingy Medicaid payments. And no one on Medicaid can count on being reimbursed if they get medical treatment more than a  month before their eligibility is confirmed.

More than any other group, Californias’s immigrants will feel the impact of the cuts;  here, the state must assume its share of the responsibility. California was the first state in the nation to grant MediCal eligibility without regard to immigration status. This did not come easy or happen overnight; it was the product of a protracted, step-by-step struggle to extend state funds to cover those denied access by the feds—first immigrant children, then Dreamers, finally all state residents, whether “legal” or not. 

This victory for immigrant rights is now in peril.  California has responded to lost federal health care dollars by barring any new enrollment in MediCal for undocumented adults. Those already enrolled must pay a $30 monthly premium. Even one missed payment gets you dropped from the program, with no opportunity to reenroll. In fact, leaving the program for any reason, even temporary, means you can’t get back in. Those who remain enrolled must now pay out of pocket for dental care.

A weapon in the war on immigrants

How is it that that a state that boasts the world’s fourth largest economy could allow access to health care to be used as a weapon in Donald Trump’s war on immigrants, all in the name of “austerity budgeting”? Much of the blame lies with the health care system itself. A plethora of profit-driven private insurance plans, coupled with various public programs that try to patch up the system’s holes, make rampant administrative waste and glaring inequities inevitable, while driving health care costs through the roof. 

The state legislature is already on record in favor of a “unified financing” system that provides comprehensive benefits and equal access for all Californians, at a projected savings of $158 billion a year. AB 1900, the latest attempt to adopt a single payer health plan in California, fleshes out what the system should look like.  But it is strictly a policy bill; effective financing for a truly comprehensive, universal health care system in the state would require federal waivers that aren’t likely to happen as long as Trump is in the White House. 

That doesn’t mean the money isn’t already there. It’s just that so much it is in the hands of people who are exempt from equitable taxation. That’s the rationale for the Billionaire’s Tax, a one-time 5 percent state tax on assets over $1 billion. It would affect only about 200 people, but would bring in enough money to offset all the federal revenue cuts from  HR-1. 

A second measure, to extend Proposition 55, the Education and Health Care Act of 2026, would make permanent an existing state tax on incomes in the top 2 percent’s brackets, due to expire in 2030. It wouldn’t bring in any new revenue, but it should prevent further cuts to cash-strapped public schools and colleges, and sets aside money as well for children’s health.

Both measures are currently collecting signatures for the November ballot and are endorsed by California DSA. On March 15, East Bay DSA created a Tax the Rich Working Group to get them on the ballot and work for their passage.

Neither measure represents a long-term solution to the health care crisis. They’re more like applying a tourniquet to a cut artery—a stopgap measure, to buy time until you can get the patient to a doctor. But without it, the patient could die. We can’t let that happen.

[Reprinted from Democratic Left]

Our ancestors in the labor movement fought for bread, but they fought for roses, too. This saying means that while we want subsistence, we also desire beauty.

As a union organizer and Silicon Valley DSA co-chair, I worked non-stop in 2025. Daily local fights just to earn my bread. Like many socialists, it was a joy to get to cheer on Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral campaign. Then I had a realization: Why do so from afar? Why not give myself a rose? So I decided I would pack my bags and canvas for Mamdani. After trouncing Andrew Cuomo in the primary election, he was almost sure to win. It would be beautiful, and I needed a chance to celebrate.

I felt so compelled because frankly, we don’t often win on the Left: Bernie’s losses, the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the destruction of Gaza had many feeling depleted. But every now and again? We get a long shot knockout.

A historic campaign
So here was the tale of the tape: On one side, a young, relatively green New York Assemblyman. A Muslim. An immigrant. A friggin’ Democratic Socialist. Just reeking of unelectability. On the other side, the most establishment Democrat who ever established: former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Zohran shouldn’t have stood a chance. But, despite smears of antisemitism, and the fact that Andrew Cuomo, a disgraced sex pest, was willing to ally with any Republican or billionaire with a checkbook, Zohran was able to organize a historic campaign. This campaign was built on real hope for working people and the mobilization of tens of thousands of volunteers.

On the ballot back home in Santa Clara County, there was Measure A, a ballot measure to raise $330 million for our public hospitals. I pushed for Silicon Valley DSA to endorse it. Campaigning for Measure A would be a strategic opportunity to build our chapter’s local notoriety and, of course, winning would be hugely meaningful in our community. Since I am a co-chair and I introduced the resolution for our endorsement, I was feeling a bit selfish leaving town so close to election day. Luckily, trusted comrades encouraged me to take the trip anyway. Those talks were roses for me.

In 2010, I had actually lived in Brooklyn. Returning on Saturday, November 1, 2025 was surreal. I roomed with a fascinating but cranky Russian woman named Merina, a 70-year-old immigrant who told me stories of isolation and despair, landlords who fixed nothing, and her past as an economist and poet. When I tried to talk to her about Zohran, she insisted that nothing could change and that Zohran and I were both naive. It reminded me of why his campaign, and his focus on the unvarnished details of working class life, was so empowering: because so many had lost hope. But in Zohran’s New York we all matter. Meeting Merina was a rose, even if she hated giving it to me.

How Zohran connected
The first canvas was Sunday in Park Slope. I got paired up with a first-time volunteer, a nurse practitioner. In my union, I represent similar workers and we bonded. Zohran connected with her because she sees how affordability impacts her patients. She was non-union and we talked about how she could change that. Our time together was a little rose.

That evening I got dinner with a DSA buddy from Portland who also made the pilgrimage. We hung with his friend, a popular drag king. While bar hopping we chatted everyone up about the election. When we hit a bar called Boobie Trap, we talked to a young couple who were making out all night. When they took a short break I interrupted to ask if they supported Zohran.The woman replied, “Do I look like I would vote for Cuomo?”

The last stop before bed was to hit the bodega. I chatted up three native Brooklynites about the election. One of them asked me, “So what exactly does it mean to freeze the rent?” Luckily, Zohran had been so detailed in explaining his platform, I felt I had the tools to explain. The guys said they would look into it. I don’t know if they did. But when I checked out, the shopkeeper confirmed he was voting for Zohran. Nice, bodega rose.

On Monday I had hopped over to New Jersey to canvas for Jake Ephros in his Jersey City city council race (he won). I hit the doors with a 22-year-old comrade named Mei. She wore a bluetooth boombox slung around her shoulder. For someone so young, she was quite insightful and dedicated. I did have to tell her not to play her boombox at the door though. 

A generous person, Mei drove me back into the city where we met up with my Portland comrade again and an old NYC friend. The four of us had a classic NYC Italian dining experience at Monte’s Trattoria and camaraderie was at an all-time high. Roses and “Fuggedaboutits” abounded.”

Tuesday, I had the surreal experience of canvassing in my old neighborhood, Bushwick. Last time I lived there Occupy Wall Street was happening. I did not participate at all. Times change. 

While waiting in line to get my precinct list, one of the volunteers wearing a red “DSA for Zohran” shirt pointed at me and insisted he knew me from somewhere. But how? As we shuffled through the line getting materials it dawned on both of us – we had attended some parties thrown by a mutual friend in San Francisco in 2023. Small world, big roses.

Beware shop talk
Once again, I was paired with a first-time volunteer. After we canvassed our last door, we ate lunch at a Palestinian restaurant called Ayat Bushwick. While sitting down, we ran into a handful of volunteers (including the one I had met in SF) and decided to all eat together. It didn’t take long before internal DSA politics took over the conversation. Finally, after a couple minutes of what was probably unintelligible shop talk, one of the volunteers bravely asked “So, what’s DSA?” Socialist record scratch.

This brave volunteer was a 28-year-old Dominican native New Yorker who had just been laid off. This ought to be our target demographic –— but she’s out here literally canvassing for Zohran and has no idea what DSA is. We’ve got so much work to do. A harsh reminder to not get lost in the red sauce. After lunch, those DSA members let me take a work call at their apartment. Rose and rose.

Finally, polls closed. There were big DSA election night parties scattered across the city. I couldn’t miss out. I went to 9 Bob Note, a wicked warehouse bar and club. Zohran felt larger than life at this point. When I finally got inside the energy was incredible. Will Menaker from Chapo Trap House was there and I got to say hello. Also there were Yung Chomsky and Brace Belden from the TrueAnon podcast: the DSA equivalent of a Hollywood after-party! Plus I kept running into people I had met on the trip. The drag king! My Portland comrade I didn’t even expect to be there! Ara, one of the NYC-DSA staff! It was like the end of Wizard of Oz: “And you were there, and you were there.”

The moment we were all waiting for was fast approaching. By then, many of us had crowded tightly into the dance floor area of the event space. There were a few hosts there to get us hyped up. And then it happens: Zohran is announced the winner. The mayor-elect sign flashes on the big screen. The building erupts. Incredible. 

This felt like a peak in my socialist career. Crammed in with hundreds of other comrades, most of whom I am sure worked a lot more on this campaign than I did, cheering, crying, hugging strangers. No kidding, I did a 360° and the makeout couple from Boobie Trap was standing behind me! We high fived. Roses could have fallen from the ceiling.

Eventually a group of us moseyed over to another Zohran party at Starr Bar where more comrades abounded. It really felt like you couldn’t go anywhere to escape the specter of “Mammunism”. We laughed, we drank, we danced and a 25-year-old told me I was “Old as fuck.” That rose was a little wilted but I still liked it.

Different world
During my final day I made an emotional visit to my old apartment from fifteen years prior. The street itself wasn’t that different, but my understanding of the world was. I sat down in a pizza shop and reflected on my experience and how far I have come.

I am fortunate I have the means for a trip like this. Most do not. Traveling introduced me to so many wonderful people all struggling for their bread and their roses. So many were generous and kind. Their faces lit up when I told them I had come all the way from California to help. And I have so many lessons to bring back to apply in Silicon Valley. 

And now I think about how far we have all come. DSA, the Left and the working-people living in this era of capitalism. More and more are waking up. More and more are hungry for change, hungry for the bread we deserve. The socialist future is ahead of us. Maybe you can’t see it yet. But close your eyes. Breathe it in. Do you smell that? That’s the rose.