by Aaron C Earlier this year I went to the first EWOC convention at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. It was a surreal and informative experience. Over 300 people from across the country, learning more about labor organizing side by side.  During the industry breakout session there was a comrade from an Amazon Fresh […]

by James BThis is a draft of a speech delivered in front of the Rock Island City Council I am James, I am a citizen of Rock Island, and I serve as the co-chair of the Quad Cities chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. I am here today to ask, on behalf of our […]

by Kelly K On August 8th German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a ban on Germany selling weapons to Israel. To people in the know about the situation on the ground in Palestine, it was too little and too late and only further proved that the West could have stopped the ethnic cleansing and genocide playing […]

by B. Maloney Capitalism and its social conditioning are deeply pervasive.   People of the Quad Cities need to fight not only to maintain current public services and community resources but also to enhance, increase, and invest in them. This fight starts with examining the learned characteristics of our society and critically questioning who benefits from […]

by B. Maloney I recently had the opportunity to gather in a ballroom in Chicago with over one thousand comrades for the DSA National Convention, and it was an amazing and unforgettable experience. The energy in the room, the sense of unity, and the shared purpose among such a large group created an atmosphere unlike […]

Kids in Vermont have gone back to school. On their first day after the summer vacation, Windham County students may have expected to say hello again to their usual bus drivers, but that'll have to wait. Travel Kuz, the supervisory union's transportation contractor, has locked out members of Teamsters Local 597 and brought in scabs.

Bus drivers and monitors responded to their bosses' refusal to bargain by organizing pickets. On Wednesday, Travel Kuz sent them a cease-and-desist letter, calling a demonstration at Brattleboro Union High School "unlawful" and "unsafe." Local law enforcement disagreed.

The Teamsters want Windham Southeast superintendent Mark Speno to pressure Travel Kuz to end the lockout and have encouraged allies to contact him. Tell Speno (802-254-3730, mspeno@wsesdvt.org) to support the transportation workers' fight for fair wages and benefits. You can even attend the next school board meeting.

Follow Local 597's Facebook page for the latest updates. An injury to one is an injury to all.

And speaking of the Teamsters, you may see some of them in Burlington at the Labor Day Solidarity March, Rally & Picnic. Dozens of unions and activist organizations (including Green Mountain DSA) have endorsed the event.

You can help us get ready by joining us at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington) today (8/30) at 4 p.m. to create art for the rally. Feel free to bring materials.

We expect a massive turnout for the rally itself. Meet us at Battery Park at 1 p.m. on Monday, Sept 1. Labor Day belongs to workers.

Unfortunately, as the schoolkids already know, Labor Day also means that summer is over. Thanks for the memories – here are a few shots from our chapter's barbecue at Oakledge Park.

GMDSA MEETINGS & EVENTS
🚲 In order to avoid a conflict with the Labor Day rally, GMDSA's Urbanism Committee will meet on Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

👋 Find out how you can help our Membership Committee improve recruitment and involvement in our chapter on Thursday, Sept. 4, and Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

🧑‍🏭 Our Labor Committee will hold its next meeting on Monday, Sept. 8, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

🔨 Talk about your job and learn about shop-floor organizing from peers at Workers' Circle (co-hosted by the Green Mountain IWW) on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, including Sept. 10, at 6 p.m. at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington).

🍿 Socialist Film Club will host another backyard screening in Burlington on Friday, Sept. 12, at 7 p.m. Please email us for more information if you're interested.

🗳️ The next meeting of our Electoral Committee will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

🤝 GMDSA's East Branch and West Branch will come together for a general meeting on Saturday, Sept. 20, at 11 a.m. at Montpelier's Christ Episcopal Church (64 State St.), with an optional orientation for newcomers at 10 a.m.

🍉 Our Palestine Solidarity Committee will meet on Monday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. on Zoom.

STATE & LOCAL NEWS
📰 GMDSA-endorsed state senator Tanya Vyhovsky (Chittenden-Central) toured Ukraine, meeting with activists, politicians, students, and trade unionists.

📰 Protesting the Trump administration, Vermonters and Quebecois gathered at the US-Canada line in an expression of international solidarity.

COMMUNITY FLYERS

The Democratic Socialists of America International Committee (DSA IC) unequivocally condemns the “peace” plan brokered by President Donald Trump between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We call on the United States to immediately reverse course and ensure that any peace agreement is finalized with full consequences for Azerbaijan’s officials for perpetrating a genocide against the indigenous Armenians of Artsakh (also known as Nagorno-Karabakh). This means ensuring the right of return for Artsakh Armenians, recognition of their right to self-determination, and prosecution for crimes against humanity by Azerbaijan’s ethno-supremacist government under Ilham Aliyev. 

Nearly two years ago, Azerbaijan finalized a brutal assault on the de facto autonomous region of Artsakh, besieging, starving, and ultimately expelling the native Armenian population. As the world first saw in 2020, this assault was made possible by U.S. complicity in the actions of two of its allies, Turkey and Israel. Despite State Department Acting Assistant Secretary Yuri Kim assuring the world that “the United States will not countenance any action or effort—short-term or long-term—to ethnically cleanse or commit other atrocities against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the United States did exactly that.

Despite Azerbaijan’s documented and numerous crimes against humanity, its occupation of sovereign Armenian territory, and its genocide of Artsakh’s Armenian population, administrations of both major parties have now acquiesced to this regime’s demands. This includes repeatedly waving Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act to send American tax dollars to arm the Azerbaijani military. The shameful situation can be explained by the geopolitics of the South Caucasus. 

Turkey, for its part, continues to engage in vehement denial of the 1915 Armenian Genocide and uses fascistic, hyper-nationalist rhetoric both at home and in its foreign policy. Towards Azerbaijan, this means advancing Pan-Turkism, which largely scapegoats Armenians as an inferior and sub-human people worthy of extermination in order to create a contiguous Turkic nation. Both Turkish President Reccep Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Aliyev have, for instance, publicly praised the actions of the perpetrators of the 1915 Armenian Genocide and their immediate underlings repeatedly advance the idea of “completing” the task. However, support for Azerbaijan from U.S. allies neither starts nor ends with Turkey.

Israel, since the fall of the Soviet Union, has cultivated a deep relationship with Azerbaijan. Reports suggest that Azerbaijan continues to be one of the top three energy suppliers of Israel. In exchange, Israel sells weapons to and tests developing systems in partnership with Azerbaijan’s military. In fact, around 70 percent of Azerbaijan’s weapons are reported to come from Israel. In 2020, Israeli drones were a key factor in Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenian forces protecting Artsakh. It is likely for this reason that Israel also proudly denies the Armenian Genocide even today. Furthermore, Israel views Azerbaijan as a key geostrategic asset to gain leverage, intelligence, and supremacy over Iran, with a number of Israeli bases being hosted close to the Iranian border.

The U.S.should not sacrifice Artsakh’s Armenians on an altar to these two genocidal allies. Assisting Azerbaijan in whitewashing genocide in exchange for oil to flow from Baku to Europe and Israel and to further Pan-Turkism is criminal. As socialists, we recognize that the dignity of any people should not be contingent on their value to global capital. Tragically, this peace plan does exactly the opposite: subjugating Armenia at the expense of profit, Pan-Turkism, and Zionism. The Armenians of Artsakh have been indigenous to the region for millennia, with some of the Armenian people’s earliest cultural heritage originating in the area. Their right to self-determination is inalienable and the right of return for the over 100,000 forcibly displaced people must be part of any U.S. brokered peace along with release of prisoners of war, political prisoners, and withdrawal from occupied lands.

This injustice is compounded by the provision for a 99-year, privatized lease on a transit corridor for Azerbaijan that would cut through the Armenian region of Syunik. Profiteering on a route that will likely be used by Turkey and Israel to supply weapons to Azerbaijan to use against Armenia or Iran. The creation of such a route also calls into question Armenian sovereignty, as the corridor would potentially cut off Armenia from its only friendly neighbor, Iran.  

This would undeniably be an extension of American neo-colonial power into Armenia that, as history suggests for 99-year leases, any future Armenian government will find incredibly difficult to get out of. Troublingly, U.S. diplomatic history is checkered with interventions into smaller, less powerful countries to uphold such strategic trade routes and enrich private enterprises. This includes the Panama Canal in Panama, United Fruit in Guatemala, the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected government, and the military takeover of Chile. This history must not be allowed to repeat itself in Armenia. Instead, the United States must go back to the table and reverse the genocide of Artsakh Armenians. 

Democratic Socialists of America’s International Committee stands with oppressed people around the world fighting for liberation against imperialism, racism, and capitalism. From Palestine, to the Congo, to Sudan, to Armenia and Artsakh, and beyond, we recognize that these struggles are interconnected. In solidarity with comrades around the world, we strongly condemn this reprehensible proposal and call on the US government to change course.

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Ամերիկայի Միացյալ Նահանգների Սոցիալիստ Դեմոկրատների Միջազգային Կոմիտեն (DSA IC) անկասկած դատապարտում է «խաղաղության» այն ծրագիրը, որ միջնորդեց նախագահ Դոնալդ Թրամփը Հայաստանի եւ Ատրպէյճանի միջեւ։ Մենք կոչումէնք անում Միացյալ Նահանգներին որ անմիջապես փոխել ընթացքը եւ ապահովել, որ խաղաղության որեւէ համաձայնագիր կնքուի միայն այն դէպքում, երբ Ատրպէյճանի պաշտօնյաները կ’ենթարկուին լիարժէք հետեւանքներու՝ Արցախի (նաեւ յայտնի իբրեւ Լեռնային Ղարաբաղ) բնիկ հայության դէմ իրականացրած ցեղասպանության համար։ Սա նշանակում է ապահովել արցախահայության վերադարձի իրաւունքը, նրանց ինքնորոշման իրաւունքի ճանաչումը, նաեւ Ատրպէյճանի էթնօ-գերազանցական վարչակարգի՝ Իլհամ Ալիեւի գլխաւորությամբ, մարդու դէմ ոճիրներու համար դատապարտումը։

Մօտ երկու տարի առաջ Ատրպէյճանը աւարտեց դաժան յարձակում Արցախի փաստացի ինքնավար շրջանի վրայ՝ պաշարելով, սովամահ անելով եւ ի վերջոյ արտաքսելով բնիկ հայ բնակչութիւնը։ Ինչպէս աշխարհը տեսաւ 2020 թուականին, այս հարձակումը հնարաւոր դարձաւ Միացյալ Նահանգներու մեղսակցությամբ՝ իր երկու դաշնակիցներու, Թուրքիոյ եւ Իսրայէլի գործողութիւններուն։ Չնայած Պետդեպարտամենտի Ժամանակաւոր Օգնական Արտգործնախարար Յուրի Քիմը վստահեցրեց աշխարհին, թէ «Միացյալ Նահանգները պիտի չհանդուրժեն որեւէ գործողութիւն կամ փորձ՝ կարճաժամկէտ թէ երկարաժամկէտ,՝ էթնիկ զտումներ կամ այլ ոճիրներ իրականացնելու համար արցախահայության դէմ», Միացյալ Նահանգները գործնականում ճիշդ այդ բանն արեցին։

Չնայած Ատրպէյճանի բազմաթիւ եւ փաստագրուած ոճիրներուն՝ մարդության դէմ, Հայաստանի ինքնիշխան տարածքներու գրաւումը եւ Արցախի հայության ցեղասպանութիւնը, երկու խոշոր կուսակցութիւններու վարչակազմերը զիջած են այս վարչակարգի պահանջներուն։ Սա ներառում է բազմիցս հրաժարվել Freedom Support Act Section 907-ի, որպէսզի ամերիկյան հարկատուներու գումարով զինեն Ատրպէյճանի բանակը։ Այս ամօթալի կացութիւնը բացատրելի է Հարաւային Կովկասի աշխարհաքաղաքականությամբ։

Թուրքիան, իր հերթին, կը շարունակէ մերժել 1915-ի Հայոց Ցեղասպանութիւնը եւ օկտագործում է ֆաշիստական, գերէթնիկ-ազգային հռետորաբանութիւն թե՛ ներքին, թե՛ արտաքին քաղաքականության մեջ։ Ատրպէյճանի հանդէպ, սա նշանակում է առաջ տանել Պանթուրքիզմը, որ հիմնականում հայութիւնը կը դարձնէ քաւության նոխազ՝ իբր անարժէք ու ենթամարդկային ժողովուրդ, որուն ոչնչացումն անհրաժեշտ է «միացյալ թուրանական ազգ» ստեղծելու համար։ Թուրքիայի նախագահ Ռէջեփ Էրդողանը եւ Ատրպէյճանի նախագահ Ալիեւը անգամ բազմիցս հրապարակավ գովեստներ յղած են 1915-ի ցեղասպանության իրագործողներուն, իսկ անոնց անմիջական հետեւորդները կրկին ու կրկին առաջ կտան գաղափարը «ավարտին հասցնելու»։ Սակայն Ատրպէյճանի հանդէպ ամերիկյան դաշնակիցներու աջակցութիւնը չի սահմանափակուիր միայն Թուրքիայով։

Իսրայէլը, Խորհրդային Միության անկումէն ի վեր, խորապէս զարգացուցած է խոր յարաբերութիւններ Ատրպէյճանի հետ։ Զեկոյցներու համաձայն, Ատրպէյճանը կմնա Իսրայէլի երեք խոշոր էներգամատակարարներէն մէկը։ Փոխարենը, Իսրայէլը զէնք վաճառում է եւ համատեղ համակարգեր կփորձարկէ Ատրպէյճանի բանակի հետ։ Իրականում, որ Ատրպէյճանի զէնքերու շուրջ 70 տոկոսը հասնում է Իսրայէլից։ 2020-ին, իսրայէլյան անօդաչուները վճռական դեր խաղացին Ատրպէյճանի յաղթանակին՝ Արցախի պաշտպանական ուժերուն դէմ։ Հաւանաբար այս պատճառով Իսրայէլը մինչեւ այսօր հպարտությամբ կժխտէ Հայոց Ցեղասպանութիւնը։ Աւելին, Իսրայէլը տեսնում է Ատրպէյճանը որպէս կարեւոր աշխարհագրական ռազմավարական ակտիվ՝  Իրանի դէմ լաւագոյն լծակներու, հետախուզական եւ ռազմական գերակայության համար՝ տեղադրելով բազում ռազմակայաններ Իրանի սահմանին մօտ։

Միացյալ Նահանգները պէտք չէ զոհաբերէ Արցախի հայութիւնը այս երկու ցեղասպան դաշնակիցներուն զոհասեղանին վրայ։ Աջակցիլ Ատրպէյճանին՝ ցեղասպանութիւնը սպիտակեցնելու համար՝ նավթը Բաքուէն դէպի Եւրոպա եւ Իսրայէլ հոսեցնելու եւ Պանթուրքիզմը առաջ տանելու նպատակով, հրէշաւոր ոճիր է։ Որպէս սոցիալիստներ, մենք ճանանչում ենք, որ որեւէ ժողովուրդի արժանապատուութիւնը չպէտք է կախուած լինի անոր արժէքէն համաշխարհային կապիտալի համար։ Ցաւօք, այս խաղաղության ծրագիրը ճիշդ հակառակնէ անոգմ՝ ենթարկելով Հայաստանն շահ շահոյթին, Պանթուրքիզմին եւ Սիոնիզմին։ Արցախի հայերը բնիկ են այս երկրամասին մէջ հազարամեակներով, ուր հայ ժողովուրդի ամենահին մշակութային ժառանգութիւններէն ոմանք ծագած են։ Անոնց ինքնորոշման իրաւունքը անօտարելի է, իսկ բռնագրաւուած 100,000 մարդոց վերադարձի իրաւունքը պէտք է լինի որեւէ ամերիկյան միջնորդությամբ խաղաղության հիմնաքարը՝ զինուորական գերիներու եւ քաղբանտարկյալներու ազատ արձակման ու օկուպացուած տարածքներու ազատման հետ միասին։

Այս անարդարութիւնը աւելի կխորանայ այն դրությամբ, որ 99 տարուան վարձակալությամբ, մասնաւորեցուած «կորիդոր» պէտք է տրամադրուի Ատրպէյճանին՝ անցնելու Հայաստանի Սիւնիքի մարզէն։ Սա կը դառնայ շահագործումի ուղի, որ մեծ հաւանականությամբ պիտի ծառայէ Թուրքիոյ եւ Իսրայէլին՝ զինելու Ատրպէյճանը Հայաստանի կամ Իրանի դէմ։ Աւելին, նման ուղիի ստեղծումը կասկածի տակ կը դնէ Հայաստանի ինքնիշխանութիւնը, քանի որ «կորիդոր»ը կարողանա կտրել Հայաստանը իր միակ բարեկամ հարեւանէն՝ Իրանից։

Սա անկասկած պիտի դառնայ ամերիկյան նեօ-գաղութատիրության երկարաձգում Հայաստանի մէջ, որ, ինչպէս պատմութիւնը ցոյց ե տալիս 99 տարուան վարձակալութիւններու պարագային, որեւէ ապագայ հայկական կառավարության համար չափազանց դժուար պիտի լինի վերացնելու։ Խիստ մտահոգիչ է, որ Միացյալ Նահանգներու դիւանագիտական պատմութիւնը լի է փոքր եւ տկար երկիրներու նկատմամբ միջամտութիւններով՝ նման ռազմավարական առեւտրական ուղիներ ապահովելու եւ մասնաւոր ձեռնարկութիւններ հարստացնելու նպատակով։ Սա ներառած է Փանամայի ջրանցքը, «United Fruit»-ը Գուատեմալայում, Իրանի ժողովրդավարօրէն ընտրուած կառավարության տապալումը եւ Չիլիի զինուորական յեղաշրջումը։ Այս պատմութիւնը պէտք չէ կրկնուի Հայաստանի մէջ։ Փոխարէնը, Միացյալ Նահանգները պէտք է վերադառնան բանակցութիւններու սեղան եւ դադրեցնեն Արցախի հայության ցեղասպանութիւնը։

Ամերիկայի Միացյալ Նահանգների Սոցիալիստ Դեմոկրատների Միջազգային Կոմիտեն (DSA IC) կանգնում է աշխարհի բոլոր ճնշուած ժողովուրդներու կողքին՝ ազատագրության պայքարին մէջ՝ դէմ կայսերապաշտության, ռասիզմին, եւ կապիտալիզմին։ Պաղեստինէն մինչեւ Կոնգօ, Սուդան, Հայաստան եւ Արցախ եւ անդին՝ մենք ճանաչում ենք, որ այս պայքարները փոխկապակցուած են։ Համաշխարհային ընկերներու հետ համերաշխությամբ, մենք վճռականօրէն կը դատապարտենք այս անպատշաճ առաջարկը եւ կը կոչենք Ամերիկյան կառավարութիւնը փոխել իրենց ընթացքը։

The post DSA IC Condemns US-brokered “peace” eroding Armenia’s sovereignty and rewarding  Azerbaijan’s genocide in Artsakh appeared first on DSA International Committee.

by a comrade

This article is written by a DSA member and does not formally represent the views of MADSA as a whole or its subgroups.

I am excited to present a new format of content on Red Madison – a recurring summary of what kind of work we’re doing in our chapter each month! My goal as a contributing author is to inform people about MADSA’s everyday efforts in a convenient and easily accessible place.

The content in this publication overlaps significantly with our DSA newsletter and monthly General Membership Meetings. To sign up for the newsletter or check out an upcoming General Membership Meeting, visit: https://madison-dsa.org/events/

Celebrating a Local Win

We saw a win this summer after our Abolitionist Working Group, in collaboration with other groups in Madison, spoke up at a county board meeting in late July against an alarming contract with the county jail. The contract would implement a for-profit digital “mail scanning” system, robbing inmates’ rights to receive and hold their own physical mail. The “mail scanning” would entail forwarding all mail to a privately owned facility in Florida, scanning mail items into an online system, and making mail accessible only via digital tablets in the jail which inmates would not have round-the-clock access to. Mail scanning is billed as a inmate safety measure to prevent overdoses, but evidence from other jurisdictions that have implemented such systems show that mail scanning at best does not prevent the majority of drugs from entering prisons and at worst it can make the problem worse. The ability to receive and hold physical mail – like a letter of encouragement from a parent or a drawing from one’s child – is vitally important to inmates on their rehabilitation journeys. Protecting the rights of incarcerated individuals and promoting humane criminal justice policies with the goal of decreasing recidivism is a chief concern for the Abolitionist Working Group, who rallied MADSA and other community members show up in opposition to this unnecessary and dehumanizing contract being proposed. Around a dozen people provided in-person testimony against the contract, others shared comments via Zoom, and still others registered their formal opposition online ahead of the county board subcommittee hearing, adding up to around 50 people in total! After this overwhelming response from the community, two county board subcommittees have recommended the contract be denied. The contract will appear in front of the entire county board at its upcoming September 4th meeting for a final determination. DSA members and non-members alike are encouraged to check the board agenda the Friday before the meeting and attend in person or register your opposition ahead of time to continue this important battle!

Keep an eye out for the board meeting agenda around Friday, August 29th, and check out this article in Tone Madison for more about the contract and the fight against it.

Topic Highlight: Act 10 Series

As the days steadily shorten and summer comes to its end, so too ends a recent education and organizing series within MADSA: the Act 10 Series by our Labor Working Group. Wisconsin Act 10, passed in 2011, severely gutted union power by ending most collective bargaining rights for a majority of government employees. A court case challenging Act 10 has been working its way through the Wisconsin appellate court system and may appear before the Wisconsin Supreme Court within the next year. Learning about Act 10 is a powerful piece in understanding levers of change for workers in Wisconsin. 

The Labor Working Group hosted previous Act 10 events this summer, including a reading group and a movie night, and will be finishing their series with How Workers are Overturning Act 10: a Panel Discussion on August 28th. As usual, this event is open to the public and all workers are encouraged to attend – unionized or not!

Reporting Back from the DSA National Convention 

MADSA had the pleasure of sending nine delegates and one alternate to the DSA National Convention, which establishes priorities, policies, and leadership at the national level for our organization. Our delegates reported back in the August General Membership Meeting and shared some of their experiences. We confirmed that our chapter is doing well in terms of our activity levels relative to our size and recent membership expansion. Some key national topics included the details of the DSA’s stance against the genocide in Palestine, strategies for national unionizing and workplace organizing, and DSA’s political program for the foreseeable future. Between debate blocks, delegates attended programming sessions regarding prescient organizing areas and exploring how to strengthen our members’ leadership and decision-making skills. Delegates also discussed the role of electoral politics in our collective struggle, and debated strategies for building an independent working class party.

Hot Strike Summer: MADSA Stands in Solidarity with Striking Workers

This summer, workers across Wisconsin – and around the world – are taking action and striking for higher wages, better working conditions, and dignity at work. MADSA members have taken to the picket lines, helped fundraise, and raised awareness about these struggles. Here are just a few of our recent strike support efforts:

• Since July 2nd, more than 130 members of UAW Local 95, a local representing wall-to-wall healthcare workers at Janesville’s Mercy Clinic East, have been on strike to demand fair compensation and better workplace safety. Our members have visited the picket lines, donated supplies, and participated in Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement’s strike support fundraiser. 
• MADSA members held an informational picket at the Hilldale Lululemon, as part of a global day of action in solidarity with Filipino garment workers. Read more here.
• Immigrant workers at W&W dairy in Monroe are on strike because the dairy’s new, out-of-state owners implemented an e-verify system that effectively bars undocumented workers from working, even those that have worked at the company for 20 years. Wisconsin is not America’s dairyland without the workers that make our cheese. MADSA members joined them on the picket line on August 19th, and we encourage everyone to donate to their legal defense fund. Follow Voces de la Frontera for more updates and information on how to support these brave workers!
• Workers at Festival Foods and Hilton Monona Terrace have recently won their union elections! MADSA stands in solidarity with these workers and will support them as they begin to bargain their first contracts. 

Do you want to help with strike support or other labor organizing? Join MADSA’s Labor Working Group & sign up for updates from the LWG Text Tree! 

Further Organizing Highlights This Month

Our work continues in so many more ways thanks to our dedicated membership. Here are other key organizing efforts taking place this August in MADSA. This summary is not exhaustive! 

• Doing Politics in Public – This committee has been working on researching the formal systems of power in Madison, and exploring ways to make this information widely available to the general public. The group is looking into the various entities relevant to major decision-making in Madison, including governmental systems and non-profits. At our general membership meeting, members of this group presented preliminary information, including a report on our chapter’s geographical distribution and specific information about local electoral systems.

• Political Education Working Group – Our PoliEd group has been conducting a survey to learn more about topics of interest within our chapter, with the hopes of developing more events inside and outside of our membership. The group has also been running a “Socialism 101” series!

• Free School Lunch Campaign – This project is part of a coalition in Madison working towards a shared goal – that children and their families never have to worry about their next meal at school. As their next step this Fall, project members are planning to gather information from the Madison school system about the real costs of a free school lunch program.

• Hands Off Medicaid – Members continue to take organizing steps, including protest actions and ongoing communications with the governor’s office, to defend Medicaid in Wisconsin (also known as BadgerCare). Medicaid is currently under severe threat due to spending cuts and other restrictions being enacted at the federal level. 

Social Opportunities

Lastly, MADSA has had some budding social opportunities (get it?) as our membership grows! Events in the past month have included our regular Coffee with Comrades gathering and weekly jogging group. The chapter has also restarted a program called “Rose Buddies,” where members can submit a request for a 1:1 meeting with a member around an interest or question. You can sign up for that here! 

We’ve also had thriving reading group opportunities, including V.I. Lenin’s What is to Be Done, meeting Sundays at 11am, and Alec Karakatsanis’ Copaganda with the Abolitionist Working Group, every other Monday at 7pm.

Comrade’s Protest Song of the Month

To bolster morale in these times, I figured I’d include a protest song to close things out!

My pick for this month is a nod to labor, in Peggy Seeger’s Song of Myself (lyrics here). 

And that concludes our monthly round-up!

The 2025 national convention of the Democratic Socialists of America wrapped up this weekend, right here in Chicago – home of some of the most vibrant and dynamic working-class communities in the history of this country. As often happens, our speakers, delegates, caucus members, and organizers correctly spoke of the importance of building a mass movement of the multi-racial working class in order to fight capitalism and win socialism.

But there is a curious tendency, even in the most enlightened and class-conscious spaces on the left, to discuss the working class in a strange, detached way, as if they are an object and not a subject, a signifier and not the signified. It can have a disorienting effect, especially on newly organized members and people who are not used to the rarefied language often employed in activist circles, to hear workers, the poor, and the marginalized referred to as if they are specimens to be coaxed, cajoled, and studied before being released into the wild.

This is understandable! Just as DSA struggles with its racial composition, it struggles with its class character, with many of its members drawn from the white middle and upper-middle class. It’s not a cause to feel guilt; people have no say in how, where, and when they are born, and anyone can be part of the struggle. It is a fact that, especially in America – the most capitalist country in the history of the world, one whose citizens are inundated in anti-communist propaganda from the cradle to the grave – many people only develop class consciousness, leftists political tendencies, and an understanding of material analysis by attending elite colleges and spending time around socially aware academics. 

But if we are going to reach the working class, let alone organize the working class into the only weapon that can end the dominance of capitalist imperialist hegemony, we must understand how to talk about the working class. While it was being in solidarity with educated children of the bourgeoisie that gave me the language to understand Marxism and develop a theory of change, it was being around other working-class people that gave me the life lessons to translate those theoretical frameworks into action that can bring more and more workers into the fold. Here are four commandments for talking, thinking about, and organizing the working class.

I. UNDERSTAND WHAT THE WORKING CLASS IS.

Defining the working class can be deceptively difficult, especially in the U.S., where the bosses have developed all kinds of tricks and rhetorical feints to discourage class consciousness and solidarity and discourage the working class from identifying them as the true enemy. But here, as in most things, we look to the source: Karl Marx. We must conquer our shyness around words like “comrade” and “proletariat” and turn our attention to the most basic definition of the working class that Marx gave us: those great masses of people who have nothing to sell but their labor, and who must do so in order to live. That is why the working class is larger than we allow ourselves to imagine, as it comprises every person on Earth who does not directly control capital. It does not matter how much you are paid for your labor; it does not matter what that labor consists of you selling. If you must sell it, whether it is muscle or brains, to live, you are the working class.

II. UNDERSTAND WHAT THE WORKING CLASS ISN’T.

One particular trap people fall into is to mistake cultural signifiers of class for the true class marker of what you must do to earn a living. Again, this is an easy pitfall, because the bosses are forever muddying the waters through propaganda, and in America – a country that claims to have no classes – we often talk ourselves into the delusion that class consists of certain cultural markers. Even people on the left do this out of the same confused impulses that makes reactionaries do it: teachers aren’t working class, but plumbers are. Truck drivers are working class, but baristas aren’t. Blue collar workers are working class, but white collar workers aren’t. Real working-class people drive like this, fake working-class people drive like this. Don’t fall for it, comrades! This is the same old ruling-class trick to keep us fighting among ourselves instead of the people keeping us all down. Your fellow workers are your allies, no matter how they talk, what they do for work, or what their taste in music is.

III. THE WORKING CLASS ARE EVERYWHERE.

To hear some people talk, the working class is like a rare species of bird or a mythical creature like gnomes cavorting among the toadstools. The truth is, you do not have to go anywhere to find working-class people. They are everywhere you look! They are your friends and they are your neighbors. They are the people who drive your cabs and serve you food. They are the security guards at the office building where you work. Unless you are part of the bourgeoisie (and it’s fine if you are; class traitors are part of a great leftist tradition going all the way back to original communist gangster Friedrich Engels), they are your co-workers! Talking to them is as simple as having a conversation with them about how their day is going, when their shift ends, or how long it is before they get to go home. Most working-class people are more than happy to talk to anyone (besides the boss) about how alienated they are under capitalism. From there, a conversation about workplace organizing is an easy next step.

IV. THE WORKING CLASS SHOULD LEAD.

Perhaps the most dangerous mistake many leftists make is to assume the working class are helpless, hopeless, and politically idle, and are waiting in a kind of ideological limbo from those of us who come from on high to liberate them. But disorganization is not helplessness! The truth is that the working class has been organizing for its own interests long before we ever came along. When we say we believe in workers controlling the means of production, that means the workers are the ones we trust to organize for themselves. All workers know their workplaces, their social conditions, and the nature of their exploitation. They may not have the language to describe it or the know-how to resist it, but we don’t need to explain their own lives to them. As one of the speakers at our convention this year, a grocery worker encountering DSA for the first time, put it: “We do not need saviors. We just need people with knowledge and organization to stand with us.”

V. DON’T GET HIGH ON YOUR OWN SUPPLY.

Okay, technically, that’s one of the Ten Crack Commandments, but related to the above, it’s desirable to introduce Marxist language to the working class, because it’s for them to use in pursuit of their own liberation. But it’s easy to overwhelm people with jargon, or use particular academic argot that can be confusing to newcomers to theory. By the same token, it’s important to remember that it is class that binds us, and while moving in unfamiliar circles allows for lots of opportunities to introduce related forms of liberatory solidarity, we shouldn’t disqualify people from membership in the working class because they aren’t as politically developed as we are or as socially integrated as we are. Once we unite them in struggle, we will have plenty of time to help them move beyond whatever prejudices they retain from growing up in a reactionary environment encouraged by the bosses. You were a worker first, and so are they. Having comrades who trust you is better than being assured of your own righteousness.

If we could distill all of this into a single Golden Rule, it would be “Don’t other the working class.” The working class is you, it’s us, it’s practically everyone. As our chapter strives to teach in our political education platform, we do not value the working class as the means to revolution because it is uniquely moral, especially politically developed, or the most oppressed; we value the working class because it is us, in our vast numbers, a huge army of labor equipped and suited to fight the bosses and overthrow the rule of capital for the benefit of all. For workers to be a class of themselves and for themselves, they must be seen as ourselves, our allies, and our comrades – not an exotic animal at the zoo. Reject the egoistic notion that you are different, better, or even inferior to other workers and embrace the totality of solidarity, and you will begin to see that the path to building a mass movement of the multi-racial working class is not as rocky a road as it may seem. 

The post THE FIVE WORKING-CLASS COMMANDMENTS appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

Today, California DSA (to which I am now an LA delegate) voted to endorse Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Response Act. Prop 50 will be on the ballot in a special November 4 election this year and will redraw California federal congressional districts to (frankly) shut out current Republican seats. 

As a former longtime Austinite, I’ve seen firsthand what Republican gerrymandering does. Austin—one of the most left-leaning cities in the South—was deliberately carved into multiple congressional districts, each stretching out hundreds of miles into deep-red territory–some all the way to the border with Mexico. The effect was simple: no matter how the people of Austin voted, they would never elect a representative who actually reflected the city’s majority in full.

That taught me what’s at stake. Gerrymandering isn’t just an abstract fight about maps—it’s about whether working-class communities can have any real say in shaping their future.

That wasn’t an accident. It was a calculated assault on democracy. It's a naked move openly embraced by Texas state senator Phil King (R-Weatherford): “I did not take race into consideration when drawing this map, I drew it based on what would better perform for Republican candidates.”

In states like Texas and Florida, they’ve built maps that guarantee minoritarian rule: the Far Right dominates Congress even without majority support. 

California has already been in the crosshairs. Trump unleashed mass ICE raids on our neighborhoods in Los Angeles, terrorized farmworkers in the Central Valley, mobilized active duty marines to occupy us, and made open threats against our cities. If Republicans lock down Congress through putting a big fat thumb on the scale in 2026, those attacks will only escalate—with California’s communities bearing the brunt.

Should We Care?

Some may ask (and rightfully because the Democratic Party is a shitshow): why should we care at all about this? Why do we need a dog in this fight? 

Because the fight over maps is a political fight over not letting rightwing authoritarianism expand. Gerrymandering is the Right’s most powerful weapon for locking working people out of politics. It’s the natural progression of a broken two-party system and first-past-the-post voting method. 

Backing redistricting shouldn’t mean tailing Democratic strategists. Gavin Newsom is a centrist turd who has moved vicious campaigns against the homeless and stripped environmental protections as part of the hyper-YIMBY Abundance agenda. We should have no illusions about the party establishment and what it wants out of this (which–let's be blunt and real–is the same kind of thumb-placing). 

But this moment gives us a chance to both take a realpolitik move to reduce the GOP advantage from Texas gerrymandering and to agitate and push beyond the rigged two-party system. We should also back Prop 50 but we also can and need to demand more fundamental reforms in CA: proportional representation, multimember districts, ranked-choice voting, and political pluralism. (California DSA’s endorsement commits us to this).

Unions are already mobilizing for redistricting. I don’t want to overstate it, but this is an opening. By standing with unions in this fight, we can again strengthen ties that are essential for building a Left-Labor pole in California politics—exactly the kind of force we need for the battles to come in 2028 and beyond. New district lines could also open space for us to run strong DSA “cadre” candidates for Congress, giving working people real choices at the ballot box.

The Right wants to lock us into permanent minority rule. Corporate Democrats want to tinker around the edges and only have us move around their banner. We can do something different: fight in the immediate struggle while making the deeper case for democracy, pluralism, and working-class power.