Our next DSA Ventura County General Meeting is happening on Thursday, August 21st at 6 PM and your voice is essential. This is where we come together to shape our chapter’s priorities and plan the upcoming month’s organizing efforts. Whether you’re new or a longtime member, this meeting is the perfect opportunity to learn how to get involved and contribute your ideas. We’ll be discussing important agenda items, including launching quarterly workshops and transitioning to monthly meetings to increase engagement. Join us in building a stronger, more connected movement here in Ventura County. Together, we can turn our collective vision into action.

by Sam K.

Rights are not rights if we don’t use them, and we must use exercise them openly, frequently, and without reservation.

I don’t usually talk about masking very much, I just do it. I find people talk to me about masking more than I talk to them about it. The act of masking causes others to reflect; perhaps to feel some sort of guilt about themselves, or judgement about me and other maskers. This one time, let me make the case for masking for 2025 and the foreseeable future.

The techno-surveillance police state is already here – its gradually cemented itself in the digital and physical world we navigate our lives through. After 9/11, the normalization of surveillance has evolved from an initial public support for sacrificing freedoms for supposed “public safety,” to the shocking revelations of Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing, to an almost pathetic view of the security theater of going through TSA. Cameras are watching us in the sky – far enough away where we cannot seem them, but precise enough to see details on the ground. Many people tend to feel hopeless about avoiding such surveillance when thinking about this – but hope is not lost. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been fighting for digital privacy rights for decades, paving the way for alternatives to Big Tech such as the Graphene OS android operating system, Proton emerging as a Google suite alternative, and the more widespread adoption of Signal. The use of these digital tools help to shield us from the surveillance state, but the digital privacy community and socialist organizers are failing to discuss how we can protect ourselves from both the surveillance state and fascist forces in public. Being tracked by the state or being doxxed and identified by fascist forces are real threats we must confront head-on.

Historically, bans on facial coverings have a mixed history in the United States. One the one hand, there were some 20th century laws passed in various states in efforts to crack down the Klu Klux Klan, while later being applied to Occupy Movements. On the other hand, In 1845, New York State passed an anti-mask law for “public safety” after a tenants’ revolt, known as the Anti-Rent War, or the Helderberg War. Many states, and the District of Columbia, either already have anti-mask laws on the books, have pushed for them recently, or likely will continue to push for them. While the legal statuses have been challenged and some have been struck down by the Supreme Court, we know these liberal institutions have already failed us, and will continue to enable fascism.

So, what happens when ICE starts going after socialists? Will you wear a mask to a protest or at court watching? What will you do when a police officer or a masked ICE agent claims you cannot wear a mask because you’re hiding your identity and you might be a terrorist? Will you comply, or will you disobey, whether legal or not? Will you start coughing, or will you verbally argue the necessity of masking to protect yourself from a contagious virus that can cause young, otherwise healthy people to become disabled and immuno-compromised? Actions speak louder than words.

I’ve now contracted covid-19 three times, the third leaving me with a compromised immune system and GI reactions to some of my favorite foods – which I had been eating during isolating and recovering from the third infection. Wearing good masks that fit your face absolutely works to protect yourself from covid-19, other viruses, and those brutal Austin allergies, too! Maybe you still don’t care about covid-19, and I don’t think I can convince you with words. But the reality is, you cannot mask only for protection from the fascist forces; you must also mask for your protection from airborne viruses. Otherwise, your masking would be atypical. It would signal a divergence in your regular behavior. Our safety and security practices are for all of the time. We always wear our seat belts, not just right before we get into a collision. Normalizing masking in 2025 and onward is a matter of practice, and just doing it. Do it at the grocery store, do it at your work place. Do it inside, and do it outside. Do it to protect yourself, and do it to remind others to do it – because actions speak louder than words. Exert your right to mask, and do it now – before its too late.

The post Exert Your Right to Mask! first appeared on Red Fault.

by Henry M.

A modern industrial society requires a democratically-controlled economy. Here is an outline of why that’s true

Few clearer exhibits of capitalism’s need for waste arrive in the mailbox than the annual Auto Issue of Consumer Reports. In it are listed and reviewed the multiple automobiles overfilling the categories (sedan, pickup, minivan, etc.) that have evolved since the Tin Lizzie went into production generations ago. (“435 Models Tested” in the 2024 edition.) The waste of labor and material involved in the manufacture of numerous candidates to fit each category, and the implications for democracy, are the subject of this brief diatribe, using the ubiquitous Sport-Utility Vehicle (SUV) as an example.

The SUV is a kind of mix of station wagon, minivan, sedan, and sports car. The general type really is useful, whether electric, hybrid or gasoline-burner. But so many of them!

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Ten interchangeable models (with romantic names) just among the “Midsized 3-Row SUVs”! This overpopulation situation comes about because manufacturers want to maximize their profit, to fulfill the dreams of their managers and investors. This drive leads them to try to wrest away a portion of the market from one another. In this effort, they must differentiate their SUVs from those of their rivals. The cost in terms of finance they do not hide. But the hidden costs undercut democracy.

Bringing each SUV to reality and ultimately to the driveway of the buyer is not trivial. Each of the ten requires the fabrication of enormous metal-stamping molds for each body panel, of which there are a multitude on each different model. High-strength steel is fashioned into these giant molds, which must withstand the tremendous forces and the friction associated with crushing a big piece of sheet metal into the desired shape, requiring rare alloying elements.

Moreover, each mating mold pair, male and female, must be designed by skilled tool designers and fabricated by skilled toolmakers. And the body panels themselves: their shape emerges from the combined imaginations of Marketing and Industrial Design. Every swoop and curve, every seam, bulge and fin is wrestled over by trained professionals and reviewed by Management before the tooling is released for production…and they must all fit together perfectly, and not look quite like anyone else’s SUV. (A cursory inspection of a few SUV makes will reveal the differences among, for example, the front fenders.)

So thousands of labor-hours and refined talent are expended just on the body of each individual model…and that’s without looking at integration of the seats, the dashboard, the wipers, the door latches and the all-important cup holders. All these features, different for each, for every single, 3-row SUV, and we’ve ignored dozens of body categories (two-row SUVs, small sedans, etc.) Each of these models is dumped into the chaos and uncertainty of the marketplace; the makers must wait to see if their huge bets pay off in sales. Secrecy is crucial to profitability, an imperative of competition; none can afford to actually fabricate and test-market their creations among the public, as would be routine in a democratically-directed economy not dependent on secrecy. In the parts of our society permitted to operate along democratic principles, we discuss publicly and know in advance what policies will be adopted…not so when it comes to the operation of our enormous economy!

Now this is a critique of capitalism. So what’s to critique? Well, the flagrant waste. Among other things, the hoary Principle Of Interchangeable Parts is flung down and danced upon; standardization is spurned. If we as an electorate had dictated this state of affairs back in the Martin van Buren Administration and bequeathed it to our progeny for generations to come, it would be one thing. But that’s not how it happened. Over a century ago, when industrialization was young, people who had money to invest joined with others and built physical plants to manufacture cars. Others sought to compete with them. Millions went to work, of necessity, for the resulting corporations. Those manufacturers and their heirs have dominated our economy ever since. In requiring huge percentages of the population to engage in duplication of effort to earn a living, the economy misuses their labor.

But we are democrats. We believe ourselves capable of making the most important decisions in our society. Given the opportunity, we might not elect to make so many functionally interchangeable, but part-wise unique cars, each with its own infrastructure of parts and dealers. Socialism gives that opportunity.

Only socialism recognizes this silly duplication as a problem and proposes to correct it. Socialism, as a rationalizing force, would place direction and management of such an important part of our economy in the hands of the citizenry, for example through elected managers, like our choice of political candidates in conventional elections. All these manufacturers worked hard to provide us with things we don’t need, wasting resources, clean air and the labor of countless Americans. Socialism, somewhat more fundamentally than police and gender reforms, would impose order and planning, and democracy, on the productive capacities of our economy, and Consumer Reports would become thinner.

Respectable, proud democracy cannot coexist with this wasteful mode of industrial organization.

Henry M is an Automotive and Mechanical Engineer.

The post Democratic Socialism and the Automotive Industry first appeared on Red Fault.

By Aidan P and Carl H

Right now, people in Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham, and Hillsborough, as well as in Alamance and Chatham counties, are recovering from the severe and costly flash flooding brought on by Tropical Depression Chantal. We know that the climate crisis is making weather disasters more frequent and more intense, and our region is now threatened by supercharged floods, heat waves, and hurricanes. Even areas that were thought to be relatively safe are at risk. For example, North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains, once seen as a refuge due to the cooler climate and inland location, were hit hard by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Entire districts of Asheville were destroyed, tens of billions of dollars in damages were sustained, and many rural mountain communities were devastated. 

But even though climate change is now a manifest reality, our leaders have utterly failed to meet the moment. At the federal level, investments and incentives for renewable energy are systematically rolled back, public lands are threatened, environmental regulations are aggressively slashed, and proper forecasting equipment and personnel are thrown to the wayside with deadly consequences. At the same time, big tech’s extremely dangerous and ecologically costly gamble on a mass buildout of deregulated nuclear plants to power AI datacenters continues to accelerate. State leadership is hardly any better. Duke Energy, with the help of politicians on both sides of the aisle, continues to drag its feet on cutting emissions, instead investing in new fossil gas infrastructure. Most recently, the state legislature overrode Governor Josh Stein’s veto and dropped North Carolina’s interim 2030 decarbonization goal, removing incentives for Duke Energy to shift to renewables and encouraging continued use of fossil gas. According to an analysis by NC State professor Joseph DeCarolis and his colleagues, this destructive bill will lead to a 40% increase in fossil gas generation in our state between 2030 and 2050. This is only the tip of the melting iceberg when it comes to Duke Energy’s disastrous activities, which also include greenwashing and mass deception, systematic subversion of democracy, and an allegedly cavalier attitude towards nuclear safety, among others.

Besides emitting greenhouse gases, burning fossil fuels also emits a huge quantity of toxic pollution harmful to natural ecosystems and human health, causing asthma, cancer, and heart disease. Furthermore, as anyone who lives near one of Duke Energy’s coal ash deposits knows, the ecological and human costs don’t end with emissions, also including the leaching of heavy metals linked to cancers, reproductive harm, and heart and thyroid diseases into soil and groundwater. In addition to the impacts on our communities and our health, the climate crisis compounds the more general ecological crisis as animals and plants struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing environment.

In contrast to burning fossil-fuels, solar panels convert sunlight directly into electricity, avoiding greenhouse gasses and other toxic emissions. Increasing solar electricity generation is an important step in the transition to renewable energy and a sustainable economy. The Triangle region receives abundant sunlight, an average of 4.5-5.4 hours of peak sun per day. Thanks to technological advances, solar panels today are efficient, long-lasting, and low-cost compared to other ways of producing electricity. Renewable energy sources like solar also stabilize energy prices, as they are not prone to the periodic severe price shocks experienced by volatile fossil gas markets. 

While it is possible to fund solar installations through regular budget measures, this creates a false conflict between money for solar and money for other important public services. A bond resolves this, helping to facilitate the large scale solar projects necessary for a swift and comprehensive energy transition. 

The solar bonds we are advocating would borrow money specifically to fund solar installations on public buildings like schools, libraries, public housing, and government buildings. Any renewable energy installations funded by these bonds should be publicly owned, and money saved that previously went towards paying Duke Energy's high electricity rates should, after paying off the bond, instead be allocated to improving public services or helping to raise the wages of sanitation workers, teachers, support staff, and other low-wage public sector workers. 

These bonds are also a climate resilience measure. The importance of a climate resilient grid cannot be underestimated: this can be a matter of life and death during a climate disaster. For example, when combined with infrastructure hardening and the development of localized microgrids, the solarization of public buildings can ensure that our most critical public facilities stay on during the power outages that often accompany weather emergencies.

Depending on the specific needs of each county or city in the Triangle, these bonds could also fund other critical resilience, renewable energy, and energy efficiency measures. For example, a broader bond referendum could be used to fund efficient HVAC systems for our schools, improve stormwater infrastructure for our towns and cities, or even acquire property for new public housing. We encourage anyone familiar with the needs of their community to contact us and share what similar measures they would like to see included in local bonds.

Many cities and counties in North Carolina and across the South have already passed bonds to fund sustainability measures, including solar installations on public buildings. In 2020, Buncombe county, the city of Asheville, and Asheville’s Isaac Dickson Elementary School agreed to collectively spend $11.5 million on solar facilities capable of generating seven megawatts of power, mostly for public buildings -- schools, community colleges, community centers, and fire stations, among others. The majority of this money ($10.3 million) came from a bond issued by Buncombe county, approved unanimously by Buncombe county commissioners. Even Republican county commissioners voted to approve the bond, citing the cost savings, which more than covered each year’s bond payment. A 2024 initiative in San Antonio, Texas, provides a second example. Here, a total of $30.8 million was raised ($18.3 million from bonds, $10 million from Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, and $2.5 million from the State Energy Conservation Office), partially to solarize a variety of municipal facilities, such as municipal building rooftops and parking lots. San Antonio expects to pay off all debt within 10 years using savings accrued through the project, which also makes substantial progress towards the city’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Locally, a 2022 Durham County schools bond included funding to solarize Lyons Farm Elementary School, which now supplies about 20% of its electricity from rooftop solar. 

While we encourage local governments to adopt renewable energy measures through their regular budget proceedings, as Democratic Socialists we wanted to bring the issue directly to voters -- giving regular people a real say in important and economically consequential decisions brings us a step closer to the democratically organized economy we ultimately envision.

Currently, our goal is to get solar bonds on the ballot for Orange, Durham and Wake Counties, as well as for our smaller municipalities (Carrboro and Chapel Hill) and our larger cities (Durham and Raleigh)  But make no mistake -- a solar bond is only the beginning. Powerful forces stand in the way of the comprehensive energy and sustainability transition our society needs, especially in North Carolina. To overcome these forces we need to build a mass movement that centers the multiracial working class and all the oppressed and colonized peoples of this land. One of the core goals of the mass movement must be to establish an energy system owned and planned by and for the people, an energy system that puts our interests and our planet over corporate profit. We invite you to join us.

Interested in helping? Triangle DSA’s Solar Bond Campaign Committee meets every other Tuesday at 6:00pm online, and is open to the general public. The committee has already reached out to potential coalition partners, and plans to build support through tabling and canvassing campaigns. The committee is also in the process of meeting with elected leaders to advocate for the bond. You can reach out to us directly to join in this important effort by contacting nctdsa.solarbond@gmail.com, or you can simply show up to a committee meeting!

Champion for working class wages, Michael Westgaard has qualified for the 2025 General Election in Renton!

The Renton City primary on August 5th narrowed the pool of candidates to the top two, which will go on to the General Election.

Michael and his Seattle DSA comrades began raise the wage efforts in earnest in 2023 and the initiative won in 2024. However, Renton residents have yet to see these democratically demanded wage increases from $16.28 to $20.29. Michael is determined use his position to defeat the bureaucratic blockade preventing Renton residents from raising the minimum wage.

As with Zev Cook in Tacoma, Michael is facing extreme opposition in his race, in this case with funding coming from Amazon and big real estate. Unsurprisingly, Michael’s General Election opponent has even argued that minimum wage should not be a living wage and disgustingly cast minimum wage workers as “unskilled.” In stark contrast, Michael is channeling the sewer socialism tradition, which Alex Brower successfully campaigned on earlier this year in Milwaukee.

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We encourage all DSA members to help out with the Michael Westgaard campaign or send a donation!

Our DSA candidates in Washington state are sending a clear message – whether it happens this November or in a future year, socialist cash will take out the capitalist trash.

Tireless advocate for the Palestinian cause and Co-Founder of Tacoma for All, Zev Cook, has qualified for the 2025 General Election!

Tacoma’s primary election narrowed down the pool of candidates to a total of six, which will go on to the General Election for selecting the three new city council members.

Motivated by her Jewish values of community repair, Zev has worked with various direct aid and non-profit organizations and co-founded Serve the People Tacoma which has provided over 10,000 meals and other supplies for homeless neighbors over two years.

Super PAC money has been flooding into Tacoma to oppose Zev and mislead voters into equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

Zev will be facing off with Joe Bushnell this November, who plans to increase policing should he win. These two have previously battled over Zev’s wildly popular efforts to protect renters, Tacoma for All. Despite this fact and Zev’s years of community organizing to protect the most vulnerable of the population, she is facing very difficult odds for the General Election. Fellow Washington state candidate Michael Westgaard is similarly facing steep opposition, in his case from Amazon and real estate interests.

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We encourage all DSA members to help out with the Zev Cook campaign or send a donation!

We are thrilled to announce that one of our most recent National DSA endorsees, Denzel McCampbell, just won his August 5th primary!

Denzel has spent more than a decade working on issues such as voting rights, water affordability, and equitable transportation. He also has a keen focus on community violence intervention programs and mental health services.

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

Can’t afford to donate at this time? Support Denzel by phonebanking your DSA comrades!

by Sara G.

Do you like libraries, gender-neutral IDs, solidarity with marginalized groups, and defying Greg Abbott? You can get all of these things at once with Austin Public Library’s Enhanced Library Card (ELC). It serves as a normal library card but contains more information including your photo, address, and date of birth. It does NOT contain your citizenship information or gender.  

Austin Public Library has formal agreements with many other city services to allow the use of the card for ID, such as Austin Police Department, some city courts, and community organizations like the YWCA. Area businesses may choose to accept it as well. It is not a state ID, however. You cannot use it to vote. 

Austin has offered Enhanced Library Cards since 2023, but they are more useful than ever as we see an increase in attacks on liberty and personal dignity in Texas. Trans Texans cannot change the gender markers on their state identification, including driver’s licenses and birth certificates. This means that some transgender people are forced to carry identification that does not match their gender presentation, which can cause awkward and sometimes even dangerous interactions with authorities and other members of the community. 

Using an ELC allows transgender people to identify themselves without having to out themselves during mundane community interactions. This is particularly important in light of HB 32 (and its companion bill, SB 7), which has been filed for the Summer 2025 Texas special legislative session. HB 32 and SB 7 would require people to use sex-segregated spaces that match the sex recorded on their original birth certificate. This applies to all sex segregated spaces, including bathrooms, locker rooms, and jail cells that are located in family violence shelters, correctional facilities, public schools and universities, and other government facilities. If this law passes, transgender people will face the lose-lose choice between breaking the law to use bathrooms that match their gender presentation, and risking violence and harassment to use bathrooms that match their birth certificates. In light of the difficult choices transgender people may soon have to make, having an ELC may provide significant safety benefits to transgender people as they move through the public spaces in their communities. 

The ELC also assists residents who have trouble getting a more common ID such as a driver’s license due to lack of mobility or prior documentation. People who are unhoused or returning to the city after incarceration are often caught in a cruel catch-22. They often have no current ID because they had no way to renew it or it was stolen or destroyed by the police. They no longer have current ID, but to get the most common forms of ID, they need to already have a way to prove their identity. They can’t get an ID because they don’t have an ID. The ELC can act as that first form of ID that provides the stepping stone to other documentation. Austin Public Library sends an outreach team with a mobile printer into the communities that most need these IDs to help fill this vital gap.

More usage of the ELC normalizes ELC use for everyone. We encourage everyone to get and use an ELC, even people who are not members of the groups that most need ELCs, because normalizing ELC usage makes it easier for those who vitally need ELCs to use them. If only undocumented residents used ELCs, ELC usage would be a red flag regarding documentation. If we all use ELCs, ELC usage cannot be used to unfairly target one group. Using an ELC is a show of solidarity with the more marginalized members of your community. 

Getting an ELC takes about 15 minutes. You can see the Austin Public Library locations offering an ELC here, as well as the list of materials you need to bring with you. Pledge to get an ELC before August 15th, and you’ll be invited to Austin DSA’s ELC party. Let’s celebrate solidarity together and stick the middle finger to Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, and the other ghouls running our state.

The post You Should Get an Enhanced Library Card first appeared on Red Fault.

Chaz Howard, Chaplain at University of Pennsylvania, joins the podcast to talk about purpose and vocation, Black Liberation Theology as a needed remedy for American religion, and the necessity of spirituality in our activist work. We also discuss his new book, Uncovering Your Path, which you can purchase here: https://www.charleslattimorehoward.com

DSA member Zohran Mamdani’s victory in NYC’s mayoral Democratic Party primary is a case study in effective coalition-building. How did Zohran accomplish the impossible, going from 2% support in early polling to a decisive victory just 6 months later? Mamdani’s Obama-esque ability to resonate with voters across demographic and political lines played a part, as did the campaign’s strong field and communications operations. But another decisive factor came early in the campaign, at an endorsement forum hosted in February by DC 37, New York City’s largest union of public sector workers. Mamdani was received by the audience with rapturous applause throughout. Zohran’s campaign manager, Elle Bisgaard-Church, cited this forum as the moment she began to believe Zohran could win. “The energy in that room when he was on the stage was absolutely remarkable,” she said in an interview with the New York Times. “I remember sitting in the front row and feeling completely overwhelmed by it. That was a major sign to me of the breadth of this campaign’s resonance.”

DC 37 endorsed and joined the coalition for Zohran, but their support was far from guaranteed. In 2021, the union endorsed New York City’s current mayor Eric Adams, a scandal-ridden establishment politician who looks to face off with Mamdani in November’s general election. DC 37’s historic decision to endorse a ranked slate for mayor, including Zohran Mamdani, was the product of sustained rank-and-file organizing cohered through “DC 37 for Zohran,” a group of Zohran supporters who work for the city. As DSA considers interventions in the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election, the story of “DC 37 for Zohran” contains lessons DSA can take away to successfully build a movement, organization, and consciousness in support of our program at the largest stages of US politics. Delegates to DSA’s 2025 convention who are inspired by this story should vote in support of the two “A DSA Presidential Platform” amendments to ensure our organization helps create rank-and-file formations, like DC 37 for Zohran, that can organize activists and the politically disengaged, moving the labor-liberal Democratic Party establishment towards support for DSA’s slate of candidates and building the durable mass organizations necessary for the long-term political struggle for revolutionary democratic socialism. 

How We Win

Just like the Zohran campaign, DC 37 for Zohran is a coalition in its own right. The group was formed from a cadre of long-time activists in the public sector union movement. I was a member of this initial group. In addition to being city workers, some of us are DSA members, some are members of other socialist organizations, and some are unaffiliated. We share programmatic goals: transforming DC 37 from an ossified, disengaged business union into a democratic, member-driven and politically progressive union. But what really united us was the trust we built through years of organizing together. Activist city workers who formed DC 37 for Zohran struggled together on the shop floor and in our locals. And we had experience organizing city-wide political interventions together, around COVID-19 working conditions, 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests, and most recently around Palestinian liberation and the divestment of our pension from Israel. For this campaign, DC 37 for Zohran’s specific goals were to organize public sector workers in support of the Zohran Mamdani campaign, and push DC 37 to endorse Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy and invest media and field resources to support the campaign.

To build public sector union member support, DC 37 for Zohran hosted a public town hall with the campaign. Attendees had the opportunity to hear from Zohran Mamdani and other city workers. They also had the opportunity to ask about issues important to city workers, like underfunding, understaffing, privatization, and threats to retiree healthcare, and push the Zohran campaign to consider these issues seriously. We also organized regular “city worker” canvassing shifts and held regular organizing meetings where supporters could join and “level up” their participation by getting involved in the group’s strategy development, event planning, and execution. These efforts helped cohere a strong, active, and organized city worker support base for Zohran, which extended far beyond the initial reach of the core organizing group. We were creative and organized in building a list of supporters, reaching out to city worker activists organizing in our workplaces and for Palestinian solidarity, coworkers who may have been previously politically inactive, and identifying leads using publicly available data on Zohran campaign contributors. This effective list-work expanded our reach and allowed us to mobilize a large number of supporters and identify new organizing leaders to support the Zohran campaign and our long-term union reform efforts. Our ability to collaborate with the campaign while retaining the political independence to build our own organization and advocate for our own political goals was key to building trust with coworkers and nimbly scaling up our organizing.

One of the first ways we tested the strength of our group was through a campaign calling on the union’s leaders to include Mamdani in the union’s endorsement slate and not to rank Mamdani’s primary competitor, Andrew Cuomo, another scandal-ridden establishment figure in New York. We turned out a sizable contingent to the mayoral forum hosted by DC 37 to demonstrate members’ support for the campaign, and followed that up with countless emails, phone calls, and texts to union leaders asking them to endorse Zohran. This campaign was a success, and DC 37 leadership voted to include Zohran second on their mayoral endorsement slate. While DC 37’s field and media efforts in the primary were focused on the union’s number-one-ranking candidate, Adrienne Adams, Zohran supporters joined DC 37’s field operation and pushed from within to focus the union’s efforts on Zohran, the more exciting and viable candidate (Adams won under 5% of the first-round primary votes). Duncan Freeman wrote in the Chief Leader, “the union showed up for Mamdani in other ways,” adding, “The union’s president, Shaun Francois, who heads Board of Education Employees Local 372, spoke in support of Mamdani at a campaign rally inside of a Brooklyn concert venue in May, and Maf Misbah Uddin, the union’s treasurer, spoke enthusiastically in support of Mamdani… [h]e was also a presence at rallies for the candidate with South Asian labor leaders.” Even the presence of DC 37’s logo on campaign literature helped legitimize Zohran outside the activist left. 

Let’s be crystal clear: DC 37’s support for the Zohran campaign was a victory of rank-and-file organizing. It shows that we can dislodge the power of the Democratic Party’s powerbrokers and start the process of shifting the labor unions and political non-profits towards a more progressive agenda. It shows that, when merged through an exciting popular campaign, base-building and electoral campaigning, areas of work often counterposed on the left, can complement one another and help us accomplish our shorter and longer-term objectives. As we shall see, the long-term success of this work hinges on DSA and the broader left organizing with the political independence necessary to promote its platform and organize its base. This is why the amendment calls for DSA to organize autonomous rank-and-file initiatives, put forward its own presidential platform, establish some standards for a DSA-endorsed candidate’s alignment with our organization and our presidential platform, and ensure DSA’s ability to criticize a campaign’s shortcomings and organize for change within the campaign apparatus.

Looking Forward

Of course, winning the mayoral race is one thing: governing and delivering on campaign promises is another. DC 37 for Zohran finds itself in the peculiar predicament of having successfully campaigned for the election of our next boss. Conversations within the group have already started about how to organize in this brave new world, where a democratic socialist is the mayor of our city. We have begun drafting a platform for the future of city work under Zohran’s administration and plan to host a town hall on this topic. We certainly hope to fight with Zohran on shared priorities, like investing more in staffing and public services for New Yorkers, fighting against outsourcing, and protecting retiree healthcare. However, we will also have to negotiate with the Zohran administration for our next contract, and all the political alignment in the world does not change the fact that every New York City mayor has to choose how to staff their administration and where to invest limited resources. The mayor can try to appoint political allies to key administrative positions, but faces pressure to rely on experts whose leadership abilities come with the status quo political beliefs one obtains after a career going through the city’s revolving door of executives in the private and non profit sectors (one key example: current NYPD police commissioner and billionaire heiress Jessica Tisch, who Zohran is considering retaining for his administration). The mayor can try to raise taxes, but will need political support from the council to do so. Further, while the city’s largest revenue source, property taxes, is controlled locally, much of the city’s additional revenue comes from state and federal sources, putting them out of the mayor’s or the council’s control. 

Here, Zohran’s city worker supporters have no illusions. We do not support Zohran because we believe he will wave a magic wand and solve all our problems, or because he represents a full program for the socialist movement. We support him because we believe he is the candidate most conducive to our organizing goals: building an organized, independent, militant workers’ movement that fights for city workers, the working class New Yorkers we serve, and workers all over the world.  After Mamdani wins the general election in November, we will continue the fight for wages that keep up with inflation, for an end to the wasteful practice of farming out public sector work to private contractors, for fully funded city agencies that are responsive to community needs, and for divesting our pension to end the city’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal project of ethnic cleansing in Palestine.  

On some of these issues, Zohran is a clear ally. For example, he has already expressed an interest in fully funding city agencies and auditing the city’s private contractors. On some issues, like more maximalist DC 37 contract demands or abolitionist demands around the NYPD, the Mamdani administration may side with city leadership in calling for moderation. Ultimately, we will work with the mayor’s office when we can, but against them when we must. This is a key insight: independent rank-and-file organizing can power leftist politicians to victory, but it is the only vehicle to ensure that, after taking power and facing heavy institutional pressures to compromise, politicians continue to support the program of DSA and the worker’s movement, from fast and free buses to divesting city workers’ pension from Israel all the way to a democratic socialist society. The purpose of such independent political entities like DC37 for Zohran is not just to help candidates win campaigns but to keep them politically sharp and honest, as we continue to build consciousness and support for our own political program and organization. 

Looking to 2028, it is worth asking: what coalition could potential presidential nominees – AOC, Shawn Fain, Sara Nelson, or Rashida Tlaib – build around themselves? What coalition does DSA want to build in the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential elections, and how can we help cohere that coalition? As we answer these questions, DC 37 for Zohran is a model we can take inspiration from. It shows us that through the rank-and-file organization DSA helps cohere, we can organize activists and the politically disengaged to move the labor-liberal coalition towards our goals. Most importantly, it shows us that we can use these campaigns to raise consciousness, grow our lists, and build durable mass organizations for the political battles that occur after every election, win or lose. Delegates to DSA’s 2025 convention who resonate with this vision should vote in support of the “A DSA Presidential Platform” amendments and ensure our organization helps create these powerful rank-and-file formations.

Image: Zohran Mamdani speaking at a New York City DSA fundraiser in 2023. Photo by Alexandra Chan.