DSA is thrilled to endorse Richie Floyd and wholeheartedly supports his re-election to St. Petersburg’s city council! Richie is one of the most historic DSA candidates of our time, and we will fight alongside him once again!

A few years ago, Richie Floyd became the first openly self-identified socialist to win an election in Florida since the early 1900s, and he became St. Peterburg’s youngest council member!

While many of Florida’s elected officials remain openly hostile to socialists and insist on pushing red-bait culture war hysteria, Richie held his ground fighting for tenant’s rights, reproductive rights, and the entire working class of his city and state.

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

Hello again, comrade!

When we last spoke, we were witnessing the opening salvos of the US assault on the people of Iran, carried out on behalf of the genocidal apartheid regime that is our overseas Israeli colony. Over the last four weeks, the world has remained on the precipice of widespread destruction and economic collapse. But, things here in the United States sometimes feel… surreally mundane.

That awareness — that sense that while we watch unbelievable imperialist violence unfold, the routine of life goes on as usual domestically? That capitalist value extraction continues unabated? That’s what it is to live in the imperial core.

The contradiction can make you feel as if you’re losing your mind. But, that’s the distilled, mad logic of capitalism at work. Stripped of the platitudes about human rights and democracy, liberal capitalism is a cold and unfeeling machine — a vise, designed to crush life from the world and extract value for the ruling class. Citizens of the imperial core will be the last fed into the press, but with time, the machine comes for all of us.

The only thing that can disrupt this mad machine is for people to throw their weight against the gears and make it stop. Not with grand, spectacular gestures, but by carrying on with the day-to-day business of building a better world in every corner of the imperial core in which they find themselves. Combined, our efforts will make the gears stop.

More and more people hear the call to build a better world everyday. Read on and see how we’ve answered here in our corner of Florida!

March Highlights

This month, our members mobilized for emergency demonstrations to voice opposition to the war against Iran. We stood beside our comrades in Tampa to say in one clear and unified voice: NO to war! NO to imperialism!

We also organized a film screening to share inspiring moments of Cuba’s revolutionary cinema, and to raise money for medical devices that are desperately needed by the Cuban people as they withstand the US’s brutal embargo and military threats. In one evening, we raised more than $1,000 to help our comrades on the island!

Our members knocked hundreds of doors to help re-elect Richie Floyd to St. Petersburg City Council. Richie was the first socialist elected to public office in Florida in a century, and with our ongoing, continued efforts, he will be the first of many!

Our Health Justice Working Group hosted a self-managed abortion information session, sharing facts about how self-managed abortions are administered safely, and how to pass on life-saving information and resources without being subject to state reprisal.

We also brought out a contingent of DSA members to table at the No Kings demonstration in St. Petersburg. We distributed literature to get the word out about our ongoing campaigns, circulated ballot petitions for congressional candidate (and DSA member) Oliver Larkin, and called in neighbors desperate for a way to strike back against the present state of affairs.

Working Group Spotlight: Ecosocialism

The Ecosocialist Working Group exists to help DSA organize around the reality that ecological, economic, and climate crises all stem from the same capitalist system. Our purpose is to build campaigns that challenge corporate control of energy, expand democratic ownership of essential systems, and support working‑class communities most affected by pollution, rising costs, and climate disasters.

The core goal of our working group is to advance a vision where people and the planet come before profit, achieved through collective action and democratic control over the systems that shape our lives. This is why the working group is currently focused on the Dump Duke campaign to bring public power to Pinellas.

Check out the full report back from the Ecosocialism Working Group, written by Jason S.

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Re-Elect Richie Floyd

The campaign to re-elect Richie Floyd continues to gain traction.

Richie and the campaign team took a break for their weekly canvassing efforts to table at the No Kings Day rally on March 28. Richie was able to talk with dozens of St. Pete voters, hear their concerns, and share information about the campaign. But, we’re already back to our regular canvassing schedule — be sure to come out Saturday, April 11, because after we knock some doors, we’ll host a post-canvas barbecue (address to be provided at the canvass)!

We’re closing in on the number of petitions needed to secure Richie’s spot on the ballot. But, the deadline is coming up next month, so anyone able to lend a hand for the weekly Saturday morning canvassing would be greatly appreciated!

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Dump Duke

In March, the Dump Duke campaign marked its one‑year anniversary with a canvass and poster raffle, celebrating a major milestone: collecting our 4,000th petition! The posters featured at the raffle will also be available for purchase at the next general meeting.

Later on in the month in St. Petersburg, bids were submitted for the feasibility study RFP, including NewGen Strategies which conducted Clearwater’s study, and from GDS Associates. These bids are now moving through the administration’s selection process. The Tampa Bay Times also published an investigation identifying the consultants behind the Duke‑linked dark money groups and detailing their history of opposing public power efforts in other states, including Maine’s Our Power campaign, where investor‑owned utilities spent more than $4 million fighting against it.

Upcoming Events

We have more than a dozen political events, working group meetings, and social outings scheduled in April. You can always view our full calendar of upcoming events, along with the most up-to-date times and locations, on our website: https://www.pinellasdsa.org/home.

Canvassing at The Morgan Apartments

Monday, April 6 from 6:00–7:30pm. Canvass The Morgan Apartments (2822 54th Ave S. in St. Petersburg) to inform and encourage tenants to attend a tenants meeting, where they can tackle the issues facing their property together!

International Solidary Working Group Meeting

Tuesday, April 7 from 6:00–7:00pm. This will be a virtual-only meeting. The Zoom link will be provided in the Discord.

Health Justice Working Group Meeting

Wednesday, April 8 from 7:00–8:30pm. Meet in the Hybrid Room at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg)

Housing Working Group & St. Pete Tenants Union Joint Meeting

Friday, April 10 from 7:00–8:30pm. Meeting of the Pinellas DSA Housing Working Group and St Pete Tenants Union to decide action on tackling the exploitative capitalist housing system. Meet in the Hybrid room at Allendale UMC.

Canvass for Richie Floyd & BBQ

Saturday, April 11 from 10:30am — 3:30pm. Meet at Gladden Park (3901 30th Ave N. in St. Petersburg), then stick around afterward for a barbecue (address to be provided at the canvass)! RSVP here.

General Meeting & Social

Sunday, April 12 from 2:00–4:30pm at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg). To be followed immediately after by the Socialist Social Hour, with food and (non-alcoholic) drinks provided! And bring your favorite board game!

287(g) Committee Meeting

Tuesday, April 14 from 6:30–8:00pm. Location TBD.

Bylaws Committee Meeting

Wednesday, April 15 from 6:30–8:30pm. The Zoom link will be provided in the Discord..

Canvass for Richie Floyd

Saturday, April 18 from 10:30am — 1:30pm. Location TBD. RSVP here.

Boycott Chevron Canvass

Sunday, April 19 from 1:00–2:00pm. Canvassing in Clearwater for our ongoing #StopFuelingGenocide campaign. Meeting location TBD.

Canvass for Richie Floyd

Saturday, April 25 from 10:30am — 1:30pm. Location TBD. RSVP here.

Pinellas DSA Orientation

Saturday, April 25 from 2:30–4:00pm. New to DSA? Or, been around for a while but want a refresher on the basics of organizing in our chapter? Come on out! Meet at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg) in the Hybrid Room. RSVP here.

PDSA Member Social

Saturday, April 25 from 4:00–6:30pm. Join us immediately after the Pinellas DSA Orientation in the Community Center at Allendale for game night!

International Solidarity WG Meeting

Monday, April 27 from 6:30–8:00pm. Meeting at Allendale UMC (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg) in the Hybrid Room.

Socialists in Office Working Group Meeting

Wednesday, April 29 from 6:30–8:00pm. Meeting location will be provided in the Discord.

NOTE: All dates and times are subject to change, so check the website regularly for updates!

As we always say at our general meetings, the real work of DSA is done in our working groups. Each working group is made up of a dedicated cadre committed to advancing the cause of socialist struggle in one specific arena, be it housing, labor, electoral, ecosocialism, health justice, etc.

We wanted to begin spotlighting the important work carried out by each working group, and how it fits into the broader strategy of our chapter. This month, we’ve invited the members of our Ecosocialist Working Group to share a little about what they’ve been up to, what’s coming next, and why this work is important to the broader aims of the chapter.

The Ecosocialist Working Group exists to help DSA organize around the reality that ecological, economic, and climate crises all stem from the same capitalist system. Our purpose is to build campaigns that challenge corporate control of energy, expand democratic ownership of essential systems, and support working‑class communities most affected by pollution, rising costs, and climate disasters.

The core goal of our working group is to advance a vision where people and the planet come before profit, achieved through collective action and democratic control over the systems that shape our lives. This is why the working group is currently focused on the Dump Duke campaign to bring public power to Pinellas.

Over the past year, the campaign has pushed back against misinformation from Duke Energy and its dark‑money groups, applied sustained pressure on city councils to pursue public power, and canvassed door to door to collect thousands of petition signatures. It has also helped expose Duke Energy’s actions at the state level and within the PSC (the Florida Public Service Commission), bringing much needed transparency to how these decisions affect our communities.

To support this effort, please make sure you’ve signed our petition and begin contacting your local council members, as two major votes are approaching.

In June, the St. Petersburg City Council will vote on whether to conduct a feasibility study for public power. Meanwhile in Clearwater, the City Council will decide whether to begin negotiations with Duke Energy for a buyout of their assets or to end their fight for public power. This decision will come down sometime before July. Our voices need to be heard, so use the links below to reach your council members and add your name to the petition.

• Sign the Petition!
• Contact St.Petersburg City Council — Say you support public power!
• Thank Clearwater city officials for standing for public power!

🌹

The period we are living through is one of profound importance for the workers’ movement across the globe, and in particular for the American socialist movement. Over the last year, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), once near-moribund, have exploded back to life in response to the action of the American regime. 

Madison Area DSA’s number of Members in Good Standing (registered members who pay dues to DSA National) has increased from 402 in February of 2025 to 750 in February of 2026, an 86.5% increase. (Refer to the report of the Membership Committee in the 2026 MADSA Convention Compendium for details.) Ongoing political campaigns, such as the Strike Out ICE campaign, and MADSA’s participation in several electoral campaigns (most notably Francesca Hong’s gubernatorial campaign) continue to draw in more members. 

The conundrum facing the chapter at present is not how to find new members, but how to integrate and retain those who join as a result of our efforts. Historically this has been a major weakness of DSA as a national organization, as highlighted by the article State of DSA Part 2: Lessons Learned by comrades Andrew Dai and Hazel Williams, writing for Democratic Left. DSA chapters which fail to rapidly integrate new members often lose the members they gain within a year, and the authors pinpoint this as both a failure of membership work and a result of a lack of membership engagement infrastructure within chapters. Losing members almost as rapidly as one gains them is precisely how chapters lose institutional knowledge and find themselves “treading water” rather than building workers’ power.

This is an issue which affects every part of DSA’s existence as an organization and touches on every other area of work. If members do not feel engaged and “plugged into” the life of the chapter, then our chapter democracy will become a democracy in name only. If members do not participate in committee work, then the capacity of our committees to conduct party work will be dramatically reduced. If our electoral efforts cannot consistently mobilize members, then our power as a political organization and the weight of our endorsement will collapse. The general consensus of the chapter, as expressed in resolutions and debate, is that we are working towards the goal of a socialist political party. We cannot speak of being a party, let alone a mass party, unless we have an active membership which actively fights to build workers’ power. 

If we are to achieve our goals as socialists, people who believe in the power of collective action, then priority must be given to the work of membership engagement and activation. We must pull new members into the work that we are doing, give them things to do and people to befriend as part of a Madison DSA community. This is at present primarily the role of our Membership Engagement Committee, assisted closely by the work of the Communications Committee, but it is a task which must involve every member of the chapter. We must cultivate a party spirit which encourages every member to do their part.

The confused flailing of the American regime and the fecklessness of much of the opposition has created the conditions necessary to facilitate the creation of a mass American socialist movement for the first time in generations. If we are to fulfill the potential of the Democratic Socialists of America and carry out our world-historic mission as socialists, we must not only improve our membership work, but master it. 

If you are a member of Madison DSA, and you want to help the Membership Engagement Committee, check out our slack channel on the MADSA slack, and consider attending one of our meetings. We meet virtually from 7:00-8:30pm on the first and third Tuesdays of every month.

By: Gumbo V

Late February is a frigid time to visit Minneapolis, Minnesota, but the people of the Twin Cities are no strangers to fending off ICE. I had the honor of visiting Minneapolis from 25 February to 1 March 2026 for their Bring the Heat, Melt the ICE Week of Action, which brought in organizers from across the country to learn firsthand how Minnesotans have resisted the occupation of their cities by federal agents through an inspiring diversity of tactics. There were a variety of activities to participate in each day, from training sessions to ridealongs with ICEwatch patrols; noise demos to blockades on critical facilities; protest marches to Block ICE block parties—a “choose your own adventure” of movement learning. Week of Action organizers acknowledged in the welcome packet that “the strongest movements are made up of well-connected individuals across far reaches of time and space,” and sought to provide as many opportunities as possible for attendees to experience the breadth of their historic resistance.

Days 1-2 – Orientation & Suburban Patrol

My experience in Minneapolis began early Wednesday morning, 25 February 2026, as I left behind the near-90° heat in Texas and stepped out of the airport into sub-freezing winds to meet a comrade from Twin Cities DSA, Brooke B, who would be my host for the week. I briefly interviewed Brooke about her own perspective on the developments in Minneapolis, then we spent the rest of the day in training sessions hosted by Minneapolis rapid responders (many of whom were Twin Cities DSA members). Workshop sessions covered Know-Your-Rights business canvassing with a focus on organizing the workers at canvassed locations, the basics of the neighborhood rapid response model, and a thorough 2-hour session on the bread and butter of rapid response in practice. At the end of the day, attendees were invited to join neighborhood chats based on where in Minneapolis we were staying and get ready to patrol the following day.

On Thursday, I joined a rural/suburban patrol session, which began with a short training led by Tinkerbell and Mama Bear (most folks go by their Signal usernames as a matter of precaution). Brooke then took me and another comrade from northern California out on patrol in the city of Hopkins, a suburb of Minneapolis. We joined a live call on Signal to check in with dispatch, who asked us to check a list of areas where ICE had been seen lurking in recent weeks. The suburban patrol felt very similar to patrolling I have done in Austin—a lot of driving around from parking lot to parking lot, scoping out vehicles with heavily-tinted windows or out-of-state license plates, and trying not to be too paranoid. Border Czar Tom Homan, appointed to replace Nazi fanboy Greg Bovino as head of Operation Metro Surge at the end of January, had announced the “end” of the operation just two weeks prior, and organizers on the ground had noted a slow withdrawal of immigration officers coupled with a change in their tactics. ICE and CBP agents were no longer roving openly in their military garb but had instead shifted to more clandestine, plainclothes tactics to continue carrying out their abductions from a rotating cast of Enterprise rental cars. Comrades noted that this seemed to be a direct result of the strength of resistance efforts up to that point.

Dispatch, Please Advise

Let us pause here to discuss what is meant by patrol and dispatch. I will not go into the system at length, as it has been described in great detail in the piece “Rapid Response Networks in the Twin Cities: A Guide to an Updated Model” on CrimethInc.com, but I will discuss my personal experience with the tool. Patrolling (or commuting, as some in the Twin Cities have taken to calling it) is rather straightforward: get in your car, hop on a bike, or just throw on a coat and some walking shoes and roam your neighborhood looking for potential ICE activity. At first, patrolling was both decentralized and largely disorganized, but it rapidly became highly organized while remaining decentralized, a key to its success. By the time of the Week of Action, there were dozens, if not hundreds of neighborhood groups at varying levels of granularity, from the larger regional channels like Southside Minneapolis, to local and even hyperlocal chats consisting of as few as 3-4 city blocks. Within each geographic unit, people would be out patrolling during the day, or would join each of the respective neighborhoods along their commute to and from work; hence, commuting.

The rapid response networks in Minneapolis scaled up incredibly quickly. Consequently, they needed a better system of coordinating between the various responders on the ground. Enter: the dispatch system. Dispatch started at the Whipple federal building (see below), where initially organizers would stage in vehicles nearby and commute behind ICE agents as they exited the facility to give advance warning to the neighborhoods they entered. Over time, the ICE agents began harassing observers at Whipple more and more, so organizers adapted their tactics in response. By having a dispatcher offsite start a running call on a Signal chat, they were able to take some of the pressure of note-taking off of people on the ground. Instead of having to simultaneously take pictures of vehicles and note their license plates (or lack thereof), observers could call out the plate numbers verbally and a dispatcher would transcribe them. Dispatchers also assisted in directing more people to back up observers who were being harassed by ICE agents.

The dispatch system proved highly effective, so it spread throughout the neighborhood groups as well. Dispatchers began organizing amongst themselves to schedule shifts, train up new dispatchers, and export the system to new areas. Dispatchers would identify themselves using a phone emoji () in their signal name and add a green dot () or an X emoji () when they were on-shift, which led to an ingenious emoji code for quickly communicating one’s role in the wider network.

I was especially fascinated by the dispatch and emoji code aspect of the rapid response network. In my day job, I often act as a dispatcher for field crews to barricade flooded roads; my role is to look at the city from a bird’s eye view, monitor for flooding conditions, and send crews to the areas of concern to take action while I update the public about the hazard. The Minneapolis dispatch system is a powerful mirror of my own job, and one that organizers arrived at organically out of immediate need. Dispatchers are not only tasked with transcribing license plate numbers, but also checking plates against the database to confirm if they are ICE and, crucially, coordinating patrollers across wide geographical areas so that they maintain full coverage of a neighborhood at all times. One training session described it quite simply: if every single patroller converges on the first confirmed ICE activity of the day, that leaves the rest of the entire neighborhood as open season for other ICE agents.

Dispatchers thus have to manage several people at once (many or most of them total strangers!), keep them on target in their areas of coverage, and often talk them through difficult situations when they have ICE encounters themselves. A comrade in TCDSA shared during the rapid response training on Wednesday evening that he was the dispatcher on-shift when Alex Pretti was murdered by CBP agents at the corner of Nicollet Ave and 26th St. He had to talk the observers on the scene through the situation, help them navigate to safety, and gather as much information as possible about the incident. Though miles away himself, he was very much on the ground with everyone else. Another comrade told me later that it was the first time he had ever talked about that experience publicly.

Day 3 – Whipple Watch

Friday was Whipple Watch day. The intelligence-gathering operations outside the Bishop Henry Whipple federal building have been instrumental to the rapid response network in Minneapolis, affectionately dubbed “Whipple Watch” by organizers. Interestingly, the Whipple building is part of the Fort Snelling complex, which was historically used as a concentration camp for Dakota and Ho-Chunk people who were forcibly removed from their homelands during the Dakota War of 1862; it was also home to Dred and Harriet Robinson Scott who were enslaved there in the 1830s and whom the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous Dred Scott Decision ruled were not extended citizenship by the U.S. Constitution. Whipple now serves as an ICE field office and a detention center for immigrants and citizens alike.

Every day since the start of Operation Metro Surge, comrades have staked out the Whipple building beginning around 5am and often lasting until late in the evening. They log every single vehicle that enters or departs from the building carrying ICE agents, gathering data including license plate numbers, vehicle makes and models, photos, and even directions of travel along Federal Blvd in front of the building. These data are sent to a Signal chat that is recreated anew every morning where offsite organizers compile the information into a database that is accessible to rapid responders across the cities. Noting the direction of travel helps dispatchers know which neighborhoods the convoys of ICE agents are likely to target that day, with southbound convoys headed to southside Minneapolis and northbound convoys likely to target areas near downtown or in suburbs. One vehicle we observed leaving the facility in the two hours we were there was reported as making an abduction just thirty minutes later.

The utility of the intelligence-gathering operations outside of Whipple cannot be overstated. Minnesotans have the “benefit” of a less overtly evil state government compared to Texas under Greg Abbott, which has meant that Minneapolis police, Hennepin County sheriffs, and Minnesota state troopers are not directly collaborating with ICE agents to conduct traffic stops. Thus, ICE agents have to commute to a centralized location (Whipple) to mobilize for their operations, and rapid response organizers are better able to track them. The data gathered at Whipple Watch feeds a decentralized network across the cities that enables rapid responders on patrol in their neighborhoods to verify whether a vehicle prowling their block has been observed in ICE operations and rapidly mobilize a response if the plate check comes back positive, oftentimes before those agents are able to abduct anyone. Without that intelligence, rapid responders would be forced into a posture of constant reaction, rather than being proactive with their neighborhood defense.

As an aside, the conduct of the ICE agents at Whipple was notably abhorrent. I had no expectations of them whatsoever, but I was primed to expect the stony-faced, vacant-eyed stares of cops in riot gear that I’ve seen at protests in Austin. They are law enforcement officers, after all, and there is a certain demeanor that often comes with that position. The ICE agents in Minneapolis, however, were openly belligerent towards people at Whipple. Although Whipple Watch had been ongoing since December, protests began targeting the building directly, sometimes escalating to barricading the exits to prevent ICE agents from departing for their daily toil of kidnapping people off the streets. In response, ICE and Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies erected concrete barricades topped with 8-foot chainlink fencing around the entire complex, which effectively created a chainlink tunnel along Federal Blvd that could only be accessed by car. Ironically, this also blocked one of the three gates that ICE agents would use to come and go from Whipple, limiting the number of gates that observers had to watch to two.

Whipple has since become a site of catharsis for many in the community, who will go to yell at ICE through megaphones to blow off steam after long hours patrolling their own neighborhoods. While we were there for Whipple Watch, others arrived simply to yell at the ICE agents and demoralize them. Rather than take it on the chin, as many cops are trained to do, these agents yelled back, threw water bottles out their windows, filmed protestors, and repeatedly flipped us off while grinning through their fully-masked face coverings. One comrade who helped start Whipple Watch in December told me that she was there early one morning, recording vehicles as they came and went, and agents rolled their windows down to call her a “red-headed cunt,” though she hadn’t said a word to them prior. They just seemed to thrive on the cruelty.

After Whipple Watch, we headed downtown for foot patrolling. Again, we joined a live Signal call with a dispatcher and embarked from the Minneapolis Central Library to crisscross the tightly-packed downtown core. Comrades in TCDSA noted that enforcement operations were less common in downtown Minneapolis because of its proximity to financial centers, and there seemed to be an implicit agreement between federal forces and the instruments of capital that too much disruption to the flow of money was unacceptable. As a result, rapid responders in downtown Minneapolis focused more on business canvassing, both organizing workers and businesses to know their rights should ICE arrive on the property and building support for the 23 January 2026 general work stoppage.

After a break for lunch at a worker-owned, cash-only deli co-op, we met with a protest march and walking tour. Led by a truck loaded down with loudspeakers, we marched past hotels where ICE agents had been staying, CBS News offices, and the headquarters for Target and other complicit corporations. At each stop, a new organizer came up to speak to the crowd about exactly how the corporate targets were wrapped up in the ongoing occupation of the Twin Cities. There was not a single cop in sight for the entire march; protest marshals handled all of the traffic for at least one block on either side and two blocks out ahead of the march, using a combination of bike marshals as a vanguard to seize intersections and foot marshals to leapfrog from block to block keeping the cross traffic away from marchers.

Day 4-5 – Solo Patrol & Closing Notes

I spent most of Saturday at the Twin Cities DSA annual chapter convention. Late in 2025, TCDSA passed a Contingency Plan in anticipation of escalated ICE operations. The Contingency Plan outlined a process by which either a majority of the general membership or two-thirds supermajority of the Steering Committee could declare an emergency and pause all other chapter activities so as to focus all comrades’ efforts on the emergency at hand. TCDSA activated this Contingency Plan in December, shortly after Metro Surge began, and had only just started to revive other sectors of chapter organizing while I was visiting. Saturday morning was also when news broke of the joint US-Israeli war on Iran, and Week of Action organizers were already planning a protest tying together the threads of imperialism abroad and racist, militarized immigration enforcement at home.

I left the chapter convention in the early afternoon to find coffee and a snack. I love all my comrades, but much of the debate at the TCDSA convention was of less interest to me than the resistance to ICE operations in the cities. While walking to a local bakery several blocks away, I asked Week of Action organizers which neighborhood aligned with where I was walking and was quickly added to the Longfellow/Seward neighborhood chat. I got my coffee and a pastry and then spent a few hours on the call with dispatch and other foot patrollers, walking throughout the Long-Sew neighborhood in the single-digit cold checking plates and looking for ICE. Thankfully, all I saw was the kind that freezes hard to the ground and makes you slip if you aren’t careful with how you walk (my hosts, Brooke and Sean, taught me how best to shuffle across slick patches of ice so I wouldn’t fall, something ICE agents would’ve done well to practice).

Sunday was spent recovering from the high intensity of the week and visiting a frozen lake with my hosts (a personal first!) before boarding my plane for home in the balmy 85° Austin heat. I never saw an actual ICE operation while I was in Minneapolis, but I felt their presence throughout the cities nonetheless. It was a contradiction I discussed endlessly with my hosts and comrades whom I met: I wanted them to have a good day, with no abductions, but I also felt a responsibility to see those abductions in progress to get an idea of just how bad it might get in Texas (even worse than it already is). Despite never seeing ICE abductions in progress, I felt the community’s eyes on me constantly. There were times when I took a smoke break outside the Week of Action training locations or departed on my own to walk around and explore, and I could feel people watching me. The watching was rarely overt, but it was palpable—a father’s eyes lingering on me as he walked his child home from school; cars slowing down as they passed me by; a second glance from people on the sidewalk. I may have been there for a good reason, but they had no way of knowing; to them, I was a stranger, and a white, male-presenting one in cowboy boots at that. I never felt unwelcome by this attention, I only felt appropriately observed, because for all they knew I could be a plainclothes agent and their priority was keeping each other safe. Driving around in the mornings, I saw huddles of adults chaperoning children to their bus stops, and in the afternoons those chaperones escorted kids from the stops to their houses.

Minneapolis has been a site of struggle for decades, and even more recently as the epicenter of the George Floyd Uprisings in the summer of 2020. The people there are kind, their hearts so warm they could melt the snow that engulfed their streets, but they did not ask to be thrust into the national spotlight once again. To call them resilient feels belittling, much as I take issue with those who label all of us from the Gulf Coast “resilient” and “strong” for weathering the polycrisis of climate disasters, extractive industries, and negligent-at-best governments. Nonetheless, the Twin Cities have fought hard and they are lighting the way for the rest of us in struggle. Truly, the people, united, can never be defeated.

The post Dispatches from Minneapolis: An Overview first appeared on Red Fault.

By Diego Pajuelo

While PSU made headlines in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement when they claimed campus police were disarmed, this was never true. It is less true now that even partial concessions have been rolled back. Since 2023 the police have been fully re-armed.

In the midst of all this, the university still has a mural in the Smith building and a memorial on the street where Jason Washington was killed. In effect, they maintain symbols meant to give a sense of justice and remembrance to Jason Washington, but deny him any actual justice. Students at PSU are left in an oppressive setting, with 57% of BIPOC students saying they didn’t feel safe talking to campus police in a survey in 2020.

PSU Backstabs the Disarm Movement

In 2018, Jason Washington, a black man, veteran, USPS worker and community member at Portland State University was shot at 17 times (with 9 hitting him) by Portland State University campus police after trying to break up a fight.

In the aftermath of his death, a movement to disarm the campus police arose, with a great deal of support from the PSU Student Union (PSUSU), the Students United for Palestinian Equity and Return (SUPER), and from a number of professors working within the Disarm PSU coalition.

A number of demonstrations would be held between 2018 and 2020, including a non-violent occupation of the Campus Public Safety Office in 2018, and marches which blocked traffic. Despite the numerous demonstrations of significant public support, PSU never truly disarmed. However, due to the size and organization of the movement, PSU offered one major concession: campus police would start a few unarmed patrols.

Campus police, even during the unarmed patrols period, kept access to their guns, and the Disarm movement began to suffer loss of momentum. The year after, the PSU Student Union dissolved and SUPER dissolved in 2025. The Disarm coalition shifted focus toward PSU’s ties with the Boeing weapons manufacturer, but the group also became inactive by 2025.

More broadly, the Black Lives Matter movement went into decline after 2020. The economy recovered and a new president was elected.

In Portland specifically the Black Lives Matter movement experienced setbacks, with the re-election of pro-cop mayor Ted Wheeler, and the defeat of a number of progressives on the city council.

Combined, the lack of organization, drop in momentum, and illusion of partial victory resulted in the Portland State University administration in 2023 choosing to completely drop the partial victory of “unarmed patrols” and bring back armed patrols.

The Youth Wing of the Socialist Party

In academic year 2025-26, a number of students started building a YDSA chapter at PSU. Much of our membership comes from a place of fighting against the dictatorship of the capitalists, the oppression of LGBTQ+ people, and the brutality of racist police. Like the rest of DSA, we align ourselves with the Workers Deserve More program adopted by the organization in 2024, and while not everyone in YDSA is necessarily a worker in a classical sense, we all align ourselves with a working-class program: fighting for union power, college for all, and most importantly in this case, against mass incarceration and police brutality.

During the Winter term we set the priority of disarming campus police. Such a task is crucial in our fight for a worker-run society. In the history of the United States, the police have played the role mainly as strike-breakers and scabs, with the most notable example in recent history being the NYPD breaking up the picket line of the Amazon Labor Union strike in December of 2024.

They have also historically played a role enforcing an order of white supremacy, not just during the era of Jim Crow, when segregationist and white supremacy were more open in the law, but also during the modern day, by utilizing the war on drugs as a cover. For many, and especially Black communities, the police are known not as peace-keepers, but as weapons of mass destruction. They keep communities impoverished through the mass imprisonment of Black people, making it harder later in life to find jobs, and through economic exploitation of incarcerated and enslaved workers.

At PSU, the campus police are subservient to a completely unaccountable oligarchy: the Board of Trustees and the President. They serve to protect not students, but the PSU administration from any sort of agitators. Campus police are often hired from the regular police, and they carry with them the norms of structural racism, and enforce it here at PSU. To many at PSU, the murder of Jason Washington remains a reminder that we are not exempt from the racism which plagues the entire country, and which forces Black people into the most exploited sections of the working-class.

Our Demands

As a first step, we call on students at PSU to join us in petitioning to PSU to completely disarm campus police, including so-called “less-than-lethal” weapons. We also demand within the petition for all future decisions regarding the armament and funding of campus police to be subject to a vote by the students, professors and staff at PSU. No decisions on the campus police should be made unilaterally by the President, Board of Trustees, or whatever force acts without the consultation and consent of students.

The petition is itself only a first step, as we know it may not change the opinions of the administration. Furthermore, the administration has an active interest in keeping its own police force, not to protect students but to protect their own interests, to ensure that students fall in line with their rule rather than take any substantial moves to change. 

While we acknowledge limits to this petition, we do not abandon the fight to disarm PSU, but instead fight further on it, and actively organize students and student workers to fight for a program of working-class liberation. We call on those students, who seek action further than a petition, to join PSU-YDSA, and fight for an anti-racist society for the working class.

The Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are joining calls demanding the release of Islamic Society of Milwaukee president Salah Sarsour after nearly a dozen ICE agents detained him on March 30.

Sarsour is a community leader. He is a legal permanent resident of the U.S., where he has lived for decades with his wife and family without any criminal record. ICE’s ongoing terror tactics in our communities over alleged foreign policy threats and flimsy constructions of legal status continue to harm more Milwaukee families than any of the agency’s now-displaced victims.

“ICE and the Trump administration are attempting to instill fear and division,” Milwaukee DSA co-chair Andy Barbour said. “We must stand together in solidarity, using our might as the working class to oppose the violence directed at our communities.”

Milwaukee DSA recognizes the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) role in violently suppressing political dissent in the U.S., especially when that dissent concerns support for the Palestinian struggle. We see clearly the danger posed by Sarsour’s detention in the so-called “land of the free” over a decades-old conviction by a foreign military court with a more than 95% conviction rate and a history of torture and abuse.

“Our hearts go out to Salah Sarsour and his family as he faces illegal and inhumane detention,” Milwaukee DSA co-chair Autumn Pickett said. “We reaffirm the call of DSA leaders like gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong and District 3 alderman Alex Brower to abolish ICE.”

Milwaukee DSA is Milwaukee’s largest socialist organization fighting against imperialism for a democratic economy, a just society, and a sustainable environment. Join today at dsausa.org/join.

Over the Christmas and New Year holidays, I re-watched the films of George Lucas’s Star Wars science fiction franchise. Although Star Wars is very well-known, it also has been almost 50 years since it first came out, so a quick synopsis is that it starts with a galaxy under the rule of a democratic but ineffectual government called the Galactic Republic. Internal strife and an outbreak of civil war lead to a politician, Palpatine, being able to seize absolute power and install himself as Galactic Emperor. The formation of the Galactic Empire inspires the rise of the Rebel Alliance. Over the decades, the franchise has produced nine films, which have a timeless quality, showing little awareness of current political and cultural trends but being archetypical enough that many of its themes can be applied to contemporary challenges.

The drivers of the story are individuals who are sensitive to a semi-sentient spiritual force (i.e., the Force). The concept of the Force is influenced by animism and eastern mysticism (George Lucas identifies as a “Buddhist Methodist”). The Force is variously described as being generated either mystically by all living things or by special cells in the body called midi-chlorians. Those born sensitive to the Force can sense the feelings (empathy) and thoughts (telepathy) of others as well as control matter through telekinesis. It seems also that mastery of the Force can be attained either through controlling one’s passions or embracing them fully. The latter leads to the “Dark Side of the Force.”  

At the start of the franchise, this Force has become the focus of two diametrically opposed religious orders of light-saber wielding warrior monks. The Jedi seek to control their desires to focus their use of the Force toward duty and selfless service to others in order to bring peace and justice to the galaxy. The Sith, on the other hand, embrace the Dark Side of the Force and use it to accumulate power for themselves. Palpatine turns out to be a Sith who almost destroys the Jedi through the help of the Jedi-turned Sith Anakin Skywalker, who is renamed Darth Vader when he becomes a Sith. Darth Vader betrays the Jedi but at the end of Episode VI turns back to good and gives his life to save his Jedi son, Luke Skywalker, and defeat Emperor Palpatine. Vader could be seen as a sort of dark messiah who overcomes evil through self-sacrifice after turning good. 

In re-watching the films, I was interested in the ways that both the Jedi and the Sith play a significant role in transforming the galactic civilization. The Jedi act as guardians of the Republic, safeguarding peace and justice. When the greedy Trade Federation attempts to invade the peaceful planet Naboo to exploit its natural resources in Episode I, the Jedi are called in to negotiate with the Trade Federation, though negotiations turn out to be short. When a league of separatists (instigated by the Sith) begins to threaten the Republic, the Jedi intervene at the First Battle of Geonosis in Episode II, albeit with the help of a clone army. It is also ultimately a Jedi who defeats Galactic Emperor Palpatine in Episode VI and restores peace and freedom to the galaxy.

The role of the Jedi is not limited to politics and society. It is also implied that they play a role in the accumulation of knowledge and the advancement of science. The Jedi Library on the urban planet Coruscant contains all knowledge known by the galactic civilization. In the Expanded Universe, which contains novels and games created by fans to expand on the canonical films, there are Jedi researchers who specialize in specific scientific fields, including archaeology, linguistics, geology, astronomy, and biology.

Other than the obvious role of the Sith in creating the Galactic Empire, it is also implied that the Sith actively encourage capitalistic exploitation and extractivism. In the recent Disney Star Wars spinoff shows such as Andor, Imperial officers talk of “profit.” A major plot element of Andor is the Galactic Empire inciting unrest on the planet Ghorman to create pretense for genocide so that the Empire can remove the current  population and strip-mine the planet for a valuable mineral, kalkite.

Intriguingly, the Sith never appear to indulge in the luxuries that come from ruling an empire. Their lifestyle remains austere and monastic. In this way, they resemble Karl Marx’s description of early capitalists in volume I of Capital. The capitalists see themselves only as profit-making machines and shun indulging in the profits for the sake of luxury because that would make them less competitive. In this way, the Sith resemble the ideal capitalist. They have made exploitation and oppression for their own sake a calling as much as the Jedi have made peace and justice a calling.

The actions of the Jedi and the Sith are reflected in real-world religious orders. Because it is my background, I will focus on examples from the Christian tradition.  One specific example is the Jesuits, who have a mixed history both in opposing and reinforcing imperialist oppression and exploitation at different times. An example of the latter is the role of the Jesuits in the Spanish conquest of Guam in the 17th and 18th centuries, where Jesuits acted as agents of Spanish colonialism, encouraging militarization, forced Catholicization, and replacement of the Indigenous culture with European culture. In contrast, the Jesuits have also been advocates and protectors of Indigenous people in Latin America, trying to shield them from the worst excesses of Spanish and Portuguese imperialism during reduccion (forced relocation). 

More recently, Jesuits have worked to oppose European and U.S. imperialism in Latin America as shown by figures such as Ignacio Ellacuria in El Salvador and Ernesto Cardenal in Nicaragua. Jesuits have also distinguished themselves through their work as scientists, such as the planetary astronomer Guy Consolmagno and his work on meteorites, and activists for global peace, such as anti-Viet Nam war activists Daniel and Philip Berrigan (a Josephite).

It is less common for religious orders to make specific social causes their primary mission in the way that the Jedi, but there are modern examples, such as the multi-faith Order of the Sacred Earth which was founded specifically to advocate for protection of the environment and lacks connection to a specific religious tradition.

In this way, the order of the Sacred Earth draws on both science and faith to work toward justice and peace. Lutheran theologian Thomas Hoffman has proposed the concept of exomissiology, the investigation of possible dialogue with extraterrestrials about religion in a way that resists imperialism and colonialism, preserving cultural diversity and autonomy. 

Today, most religious orders are in decline, but members of religious orders continue to inspire real social change. Historically, religious orders have been at the cutting edge of mysticism and spiritual development. Religious orders are likely to continue to have an influence on the direction of spirituality and religion even if they are no longer as influential as they were in the past.  

Throughout history, religious orders have played both the role of the Jedi in being guardians of peace and justice and agents of social and scientific progress and of the Sith as agents of oppression and exploitation, shaping the course of their respective religions. Modern religions must decide whether they will choose the path of the Jedi or the Sith. Our future may depend on it.

The post The Jedi, Religious Orders, Social Progress, and the Advancement of Knowledge appeared first on DSA Religious Socialism.

Purpose

The Moderation Appeal Procedure provides a step by step process for members if they disagree with a moderation action. 

Procedure Steps

1. Discuss in direct messages with the Moderator, and other Moderators, about why the moderation action was taken.
2. Review applicable policies: Online Code of Conduct, Internal Communication and Moderation 
3. If you belive that moderator(s) have a pattern of wrongful moderation which targets:
   1. you specifically 
   2. a particular political view within the “Big Tent” of DSA 
   3. persons based on protected class listed in Resolution 33

Then contact the HGO(s) via grievance.mkedsa@gmail.com  to discuss and/or file a formal grievance HGO(s) will follow Procedure: Harassment and Grievances. Consult this procedure for more information about the grievance process

4. If, after pursuing (1) and (2) you believe that a post of yours was wrongfully moderated, but this moderation was not part of a pattern of targeted wrongful moderation, then you should contact the HGO via grievance.mkedsa@gmail.com and include:
   1. “moderation appeal” in the subject line.
   2.  Information about the post that was moderated
   3. Screenshots of your discussion with the moderators  
   4. Your concerns relative to the policies (see 2) 
5. HGO(s) will review the moderation decision.
   1. HGO(s) should assess if the situation would be more properly handled as a grievance and take appropriate action if so. 
   2. HGOs can access deleted messages in the deleted messages channel of Discord.  
   3. HGO(s) may reach out to the member if more information is needed
6. HGO(s) will discuss the reasoning behind the moderation action with the Moderator(s) who made the moderation action. 
7. HGO(s) will assess the moderation action based on the applicable policies related to community standards 
8. HGO(s) will inform the members and Moderators of the assessment. They may further pursue any of the following as appropriate:
   1. re-educate member and/or Moderators about MKE DSAs applicable standards and polices
   2. Instruct Moderators to reverse the moderation action
   3. Instruct removal of “strikes” against a member
   4. any other appropriate actions or recommendations 

Popular education is a method of teaching that centers the voices of students starting from their unique perspectives and situations.

The post How to use popular education to build worker power appeared first on EWOC.