

May Day 2025: Workers of the World, Unite!
This May Day, we gather in a moment of rising pressure. The bosses exploit us, the politicians sell us out, and the system demands our silence. In a city and country where labor action is far too rare and organizing faces constant resistance, it can be easy to feel isolated. May Day reminds us that we are not alone. We stand in a global tradition of struggle and solidarity, one that has always grown strongest in the face of repression. Rooted in the demand for basic rights – from the eight-hour workday to healthcare and housing for all – May Day is our yearly call to keep fighting back.
This tradition belongs to us all – workers, tenants, students, and everyone struggling for a better future. Across the country, workers are reclaiming their power, forming unions, making their voices heard, and building something better. We can and must embody that spirit here in Madison. As capitalism decays our world around us and threats to our lives and livelihoods escalate, our task is clear: build working-class power and wrench back our wealth from the bosses and billionaires.
Let this May Day be a reminder: the future is not yet written. We create it. With courage, with care, and with each other, we organize – not just for survival, but for dignity, for justice, and for the world we know is possible. Change doesn’t happen overnight, but it starts when ordinary people come together. Whether it’s supporting the next generation as they walk out of school, preparing for a 2028 general strike, or spending a spring day talking socialism with comrades in the park, every step forward counts.
Below are a few ways to get involved this May Day and beyond to help build our power – no experience required. All you need is the belief in a better future and a willingness to stand in solidarity against the ruling class. Let us plant the seeds for a stronger movement, together.
- Thu. May 1, 9am – East + West High School Walkout
- Thu. May 1, 7-8:30pm – May Day Mass Meeting & Panel Discussion: The Road to a General Strike
- Fri. May 2, 3pm (or Thu. May 1, 9:30am in MKE) – A Day Without Immigrants & Workers Rally
- Sat. May 3, 10am-1pm – Family Friendly Spring Park Social
- Sat. May 3, 2-3:30pm – New Member Orientation
- Sat. May 10, 6pm – Hands Off Medicaid! Town Hall


S.B. 516 Doesn’t Protect Us — It Hurts Everyone
By Colleen L
In the heart of North Carolina, a storm is brewing once again. Senate Bill 516 (S.B. 516), misleadingly titled the "Women's Safety and Protection Act," threatens to unravel the fabric of inclusivity and respect that binds our communities together. The bill is not just a step backward, it's a direct assault on the dignity and rights of transgender individuals, and it places everyone, regardless of whether or not someone is transgender, at greater risk.
But the danger doesn’t stop at restroom doors. S.B. 516 is part of a broader political strategy rooted in upholding systems of patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism. These types of laws seek to control bodies, especially the bodies of those who resist gender norms, who are people of color (POC), queer, disabled, working-class, and/or poor. By weaponizing fear and moral panic, these bills distract from the real crises facing our communities: lack of access to housing, healthcare, education, and living wages. In doing so, they divide the working class and shift blame away from the systems that actually endanger us.
When the government polices gender, it enforces rigid roles that serve the interests of power, not the safety of people. S.B. 516 does not protect women or children. It reinforces a violent, narrow view of who is “acceptable,” while putting trans people, non-binary people, and even cisgender people at risk of surveillance, harassment, and violence. This bill isn't about safety, it's about control.
What is S.B. 516?
Senate Bill 516 (S.B. 516), also known as the “Women’s Safety and Protection Act,” is a proposed North Carolina law that would force people to use bathrooms and changing facilities in public buildings based on their sex assigned at birth, not their gender identity. The bill would also prevent transgender people from updating the gender marker on their birth certificates or driver’s licenses, legally erasing recognition of trans and non-binary individuals. S.B. 516 does not increase public safety. Instead, it puts transgender people, non-binary people, and even cisgender women and men at greater risk of harassment, violence, and discrimination in public spaces.
A Violation of Privacy and Safety
Studies have shown that transgender individuals face alarmingly high rates of harassment in public restrooms. According to GLSEN, over 75% of transgender students feel unsafe at school due to their gender identity, and restrictive bathroom policies exacerbate this vulnerability.
Moreover, these policies don't just harm transgender individuals. They hurt all of us.
S.B. 516 is written as though gender is binary and everyone fits neatly into one of two categories. But we know that’s simply not reality. Countless people, non-binary, gender nonconforming, and intersex, exist outside that rigid framework. This bill erases their identities and their humanity by forcing them to choose between unsafe or inappropriate public spaces.
Harmful policies like S.B. 516 create an environment where anyone who doesn't conform to traditional gender norms, whether it be appearance or mannerism, can be subjected to scrutiny and discrimination. This includes cisgender women who are perceived as masculine, who could also be challenged or harassed when simply trying to use the restroom. Cisgender men aren’t safe either. Fathers helping their daughters in public restrooms or caregivers assisting elderly family members may find themselves accused of suspicious behavior.
Consider the case of domestic violence shelters. Transgender women, who are already at a heightened risk of intimate partner violence, could be denied access to these critical resources under S.B. 516. This exclusion not only leaves transgender women without support but also undermines the very purpose of these shelters: to provide safety and refuge to those in need.
S.B. 516 doesn’t create safety, it invites profiling. And worse, it encourages everyday people to act as enforcers of state control. Much like abortion bans, ICE raids, or anti-trans legislation across the country, this bill relies on surveillance and snitch culture, where suspicion alone becomes justification for confrontation. It deputizes citizens to police each other’s bodies, turning public spaces into battlegrounds of judgment and fear.
The GOP knows these laws are both harmful and unpopular. But rather than govern democratically, they push these policies through by stoking fear, bypassing public consensus, and using political power to force their agenda, regardless of the lives at risk.
This bill, created under the guise of “protection,” doesn’t protect anyone. It targets the most vulnerable among us, and it empowers the public to do the state’s work.
We’ve Seen This Before: HB2
We don't have to look far back to see the repercussions of such discriminatory legislation. In 2016, North Carolina passed House Bill 2 (HB2), which mandated individuals to use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates. The backlash was swift and severe. Major corporations halted investments, leading to significant economic losses. The NBA relocated its All-Star Game, and numerous entertainers canceled performances. The Associated Press estimated that HB2 would cost the state over $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years.
The public outcry and economic impact were so profound that the legislature eventually repealed HB2. Yet, here we are again, with S.B. 516 threatening to repeat history.
Infringement on Fundamental Rights
Beyond the tangible harms, S.B. 516 strikes at the very core of individual freedoms. Denying transgender individuals access to facilities that align with their gender identity is a blatant violation of their rights. It's not about safety; it's about codifying discrimination. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina has aptly described S.B. 516 as a bill that "erodes fundamental rights and dignity by enforcing rigid definitions of sex and gender in state law."
But this bill is about more than restrooms. It is part of a larger strategy to maintain systems of control. Policies like S.B. 516 reinforce patriarchy by policing gender roles, white supremacy by disproportionately harming POC trans people, and uphold capitalism by criminalizing the poor while denying them access to safe public space. These systems rely on strict hierarchies of power and punishing those who refuse to conform.
In the face of this institutional violence, LGBTQ+ communities have built alternative systems of care. Many rely on mutual aid networks to meet their most basic needs: hormone therapy kits, gender-affirming clothing swaps, safe housing resources, and fundraising support for legal, medical, or survival costs. These acts of collective care are not charity. They are acts of survival.
S.B. 516 seeks to sever these networks by increasing stigma, limiting access to public life, and pushing people into deeper precarity. It targets the very communities that have always had to build their own safety. When the state abandons these communities, or actively legislates them out of existence, the communities are the ones who respond. Mutual aid is a reminder that real safety doesn’t come from the state. It comes from each other. And that is exactly what this bill is trying to dismantle.
The Urgent Need for Compassion and Understanding
To those who support this bill under the guise of protecting women, consider the real-world implications. Policies like S.B. 516 don't make spaces safer; they make them more hostile and divisive. True safety comes from fostering environments of understanding, respect, and inclusivity.
Taking Action: Preventing the Passage of S.B. 516
There are so many ways to show up in this fight, and not all of them require being physically present at a protest. Activism is strongest when everyone participates in the ways they’re able.
Show up for trans and non-binary people: That means listening, believing, and advocating alongside them.
Contact your legislators: Contact your state senators and representatives. Express your opposition to S.B. 516 and explain how it harms the community. Personal stories and well-reasoned arguments can be particularly impactful.
Find your NC legislators here: https://www.ncleg.gov/FindYourLegislatorsSupport local organizations doing the work: In addition to national advocacy groups, grassroots organizations here in North Carolina are building power for reproductive justice, LGBTQIA+ rights, and working-class liberation, such as:
The NC Triangle Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – Socialist Feminist Working Group
The Socialist Feminist (“SocFem”) Working Group of the NC Triangle DSA envisions a world rooted in reproductive justice, bodily autonomy, and dignity for all people, values that stand in direct opposition to S.B. 516.
Their work connects the fight for trans rights and reproductive freedom with broader struggles for labor rights, housing justice, and free, accessible healthcare. They organize for systemic change, not just defensive actions.
Their past efforts include:
Rallies in response to the overturn of Roe v. Wade
Picketing anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers”
Teach-ins on abortion care and bodily autonomy for trans people
Active participation in the chapter’s Priority Campaign for Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy, which challenges the state government through civil non-compliance and organizing.
To learn more or get involved:
Website: https://triangledsa.org/working-groups/socialist-feminist-working-group/
Instagram: @triangledsa
Other organizations include: ACLU of NC, Equality NC, and the Campaign for Southern Equality (and more!)
Attend protests and community events: Show public solidarity. Visibility matters. If you can’t attend physically, raise awareness digitally.
Educate others: Use your voice on social media and in your local communities. Help people understand that this isn’t about safety. It’s about control and discrimination.
Vote: Remember this moment during election season. Support candidates who champion inclusivity and oppose discriminatory legislation.
Let's not be a state that legalizes discrimination. North Carolina can champion the rights and dignity of all its residents. S.B. 516 is not the path forward. It's a regression that North Carolinians cannot afford morally, socially, or economically.
It's time to stand together, to uplift every member of our community, and to ensure that our laws reflect the values of equality and respect. Reject S.B. 516. Embrace compassion. Champion justice.


Antisemitism and Anti-zionism: Cynicism and Conflation
By Nathan K & Dan C
In the wake of October 7th, another round of Israel’s genocidal actions towards the Palestinians in Gaza has begun, pushing Zionism and antisemitism to the top of American public consciousness. While Israel has been engaged in brutal repression towards the Palestinians for decades, what has made this moment so different from previous ones has been the sharp outcry against Israel’s actions from a wide swath of western capitalist society. In an effort to suppress these newly dissenting voices, Zionist affiliated organizations have turned to a tried-and-true method in their playbook: conflating anti-zionism with antisemitism. Criticism and even awareness of Israel’s actions are positioned as antisemitic smears by the left, juxtaposed against a rational and palatable “Liberal Zionism”. The waters are only muddied further with the arrival of far-right groups inadvertently bolstering this effort, attempting to hijack the narrative to insert actual anti-semitic rhetoric into criticism of the Israeli state.
So what is antisemitism, why and how is it being conflated with Zionism, and how do we push back against the narrative of “Liberal Zionism”?
Antisemitism is rooted historically in Europe’s conversion to Christianity, though there were certainly discriminatory actions levelled at Jews in the classical era, such as expulsions and slavery in the wake of conquest or revolt, the prejudices we are familiar with grew out of the perception that Jews were “killers of christ”. Restrictions on where Jews could live, bans from certain occupations, and everyday racism were all part of a systematic campaign of persecution with the goal of forcing conversion. These pressures led Jews to practice in secret, flee their homes, or take up socially inferior jobs such as moneylending, peddling wares, or tax/rent collecting. The latter resulted in representations of Jews as “greedy” or untrustworthy and made them scapegoats in times of crisis, despite Jews in these professions working on behalf of Christians who could not practice usury.
Starting in the Enlightenment, race as a “science” gained popularity as attempts to retroactively justify the religiously motivated prejudices of the past. The rising nationalist movements of the day viewed Jewish identity as inherently oppositional to national identity and Jews as conspirators against national rejuvenation. To fight their oppression, Jews in turn began flocking to revolutionary movements, leading to further tension. Jewish and gentile intellectuals alike debated whether Jews could assimilate or would always face discrimination. In the pro-assimilation camp, various movements to secularize Jews and fight for their rights within society were founded. Among Jews from the anti-assimilationist camp, a new political ideology emerged: Zionism.
Political Zionism began with Theodore Herzl and his manifesto Der Judenstaat written in 1896, though its existence as an aspirational religious goal predates that. Unlike assimilationists, Zionists did not necessarily reject scientific racism and accepted the formulation that Jews were a distinct and separate race from their European counterparts, requiring a homeland of their own. The British Empire saw Zionism as an opportunity to expand influence in the Middle East and offered patronage through the The Balfour Declaration, and Zionists in turn encouraged activity in Mandatory Palestine due to its religious and historical significance in Judaism.
Following the Holocaust and the death of six million Jews, assimilationist positions seemed absurd. How could Jews possibly turn around and attempt reintegration in a society that had just planned their mass extermination? The Zionist position seemed like the obvious way forward: to settle in a new land, far from Europe,and establish a Jewish nation-state with complete political control. The words never again etched their way into Zionist lexicon as their strongest argument. This is the common refrain of the Liberal Zionist, that the Holocaust uniquely proves the necessity of a Jewish Nation-State — that it is a given fact that without a Jewish Nation, a genocide will occur again.
According to this mindset, the "excesses” of the Israeli state boil down to bad policy or bad actors. Following this line of thought, Liberal Zionists, argue that the right politicians or the right policy can create a Zionism that is palatable and free of such “excesses”. The problem is this outlook refuses to see the settler-colonialism at the heart of the Israeli project, which will cause those “excesses” to occur again and again. Benjamin Netanyahu’s Nationalist Likud Party, the ones currently conducting the campaign of slaughter in Gaza, wasn’t always the ruling party of Israel; the first governing coalition was composed of Liberal and Labor zionists. That didn’t stop Jewish settlers and soldiers who had just fled persecution and suffering turn around and inflict that same violence against the Palestinians. As negotiations broke down into war in 1948, the Israeli paramilitaries that would eventually become the core of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing known as the Nakba. Over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from the land they called home, 16,000 Palestinains were killed,and land and property were expropriated by the nascent Israeli state.
No matter how much liberal or socialist window dressing takes place, Zionism is an ideology of settler-colonialism, and nothing can change that. Its rallying cry, “A land without a people for a people without a land” erases the personhood of Palestinians, leading to its atrocities being buried or ignored. Zionists believe, implicitly or otherwise, they are on a “civilizing mission” for the Levant. When media outlets and politicians push rhetoric like “Israel is the only stable democracy in the Middle East,” the implication is clear: Israel is a western democracy, it has European founders, it is stable like us.
That also doesn’t change the fact that many Jews support Israel out of fear of antisemitism, with a true conviction that Israel serves as a bulwark against it. Zionism itself proudly claims this to be true, but history paints a different picture. Israel, through its material actions, has no issues with antisemitism aimed at the Diaspora. It materially supports evangelical “Christian Zionists” who support the Israeli State out of perceived fulfillment of biblical prophecy, a prophecy that ends in genocide: with all Jews either dying in the apocalypse or converting to Christianity. Christian Zionism and American backing leads to widespread acceptance of Israel on the ideological Right, even among groups who perpetrate antisemitism against Jews in their home countries. That’s how a party like the AfD in Germany can advocate for tearing down Holocaust Memorials and laws outlawing Kosher slaughter but be a vocal proponent for Israel in the German legislature.
Israel does nothing to protect those who are victimized by these groups and their supporters. There is no material support, and no amount of “soft power” actually helps the people trying to live their day-to-day lives. At most, Israel’s claim of being a shield against antisemitism amounts to cynical invocations of the Holocaust to justify its own existence through methods like the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which notably includes:
“Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
These alliances between Zionists and antisemites are a feature, not a bug. Theodore Herzl once noted in his diary that “The antisemites will become our most dependable friends, the antisemitic countries our allies.” This remains the strategy of Israel to this day, and why not? It’s of material interest to the Israeli project. Antisemitism against the Jewish diaspora means more Jews emigrating to become Israeli citizens. There is still the implicit understanding of Herzl’s internalized antisemitism in policy: that the “weak” diaspora must be transformed into a “proper” Zionist nation. This is to say nothing of the destruction of traditional Jewish culture within Israel, the eradication of local practices in the name of stamping out the “ghetto culture” of the diaspora (Ashkenazim, Sephardim, etc) for the homogenized monolith of the Hebrew-speaking Israeli.
This brings us back to the question of antisemitism. Is anti-Zionism antisemitism, like so many politicians would have us believe? No. Just from the Nakba alone, there are clear political reasons to oppose the Zionist project that have nothing to do with the hatred of Jews. Definitions like the one used by the IHRA obscure this, framing the discussion of Israel around Jewish self-determination as opposed to the suffering and dispossession of the Palestinians.
That doesn’t mean critiques of Israel can’t still cross the line into antisemitism, such as when those critiques cross the line into targeting Jews who have no connection to the Israeli state. Other offensive tropes include invoking claims of sinister conspiracies headed by the Rothschilds or George Soros, implicating Jewish individuals and institutions as part of some secret cabal for Israeli power, and implying a dual loyalty across an entire people. Baseless accusations like these are just the old tropes of antisemitism given a new coat of paint for the world Jews find themselves living in today.
DSA is against all imperialist and colonial ideologies, including Zionism and anti-Muslim racism. We reaffirm that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism! We stand with the oppressed peoples of Palestine and work with them in solidarity and support through actions like our No Appetite for Apartheid campaign and by working on the ground with Palestinian organizations. We do this while fighting antisemitism in our communities at the same time. Freedom for the Palestinian People and safety for the Jewish diaspora are not in any way mutually exclusive. Recent events have made people more conscious of this, but it is only through action and education that we can make sure it is a reality.


In Search of a Labor Day
By Nathan K
When an American hears Labor Day, what comes to mind? The end of Summer? barbecue, beers, and the flag? Not wearing white? It seems kind of odd that, besides getting a day off on the calendar, labor itself is put on the backburner, and agitation is conspicuously absent from America’s ostensible worker holiday. To those wondering why, it should come as no surprise that the first Monday in September is an aberration compared to Labor days across the world, a holiday in the United States and Canada, but meaningless to the more than 150 countries around the world that instead recognize May 1st as International Workers Day. You may know it by another name: May Day.
The roots behind the choice of May 1st as an international holiday for labor come specifically from the fight for an eight hour workday in the 1800s. Prior to the First World War, most countries had laws for 10 hour days, usually 6am to 6pm, if they had any laws regulating working hours at all. This brutal state of affairs had workers spending over half their waking hours on the clock, with little spare time before needing to sleep after a shift. As the labor movement consolidated through the 1800s, the fight for an eight hour day became a crucial centerpiece of worker demands.
In the United States, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, a precursor to the AFL, set May 1st 1886 as a deadline to make the eight hour day standard. 500,000 workers turned out in force to fight for workers rights, and as the strike progressed into its 3rd day strikebreakers and police in Chicago caused the death of two workers. Retaliation against this act of police violence led to a further 3,000 gathering in Haymarket Square the next day to rally in solidarity, and the clashes with Police that followed as they attempted to forcibly disperse this peaceful rally led to a further 15 deaths and 70 injuries.
The men behind the “Haymarket Affair” were sentenced in a rigged trial. Four were executed and the remaining three were given lengthy prison sentences. Capitalists across the world hoped that workers would learn their lesson, and Haymarket would fade into history.
But the workers didn’t forget.
Those killed, either at the riot or at the hands of the state, became Martyrs for the cause of an eight hour day. At the meeting of the Second International in Paris in 1889 a great demonstration, the first “International Workingmen's Day”, was planned for May 1st of 1890 in honor of those who died fighting for the cause of work hour reduction. The success of this event around the world led to the establishment of the May Day we all know and love.
Of course knowing the history of May Day, and how inextricably it is tied to the American Labor movement, makes the “Labor Day” recognized by the US in September all the more cynical. Anxiety over the explicitly political and socialist meaning behind May 1 led President Grover Clevland to push the first Monday of September as a moderate alternative. This date had already been discussed in some AFL-affiliated circles as a potential “holiday for labor”. The American government’s attempts to suppress awareness of May Day continued into the 1950s with the establishment of “Loyalty Day” on May 1st as a nationalist celebration, though laughably few people know about this holiday to commemorate “American history and declaring loyalty to the United States”.
Though the eight hour workday has been won in the global north, the worker’s struggle for control of our economic and political agency is far from complete — especially for our comrades in the global south. This May Day, we should remember our forebears, who fought for eight hours between backbreaking 12 hour shifts. If they could win eight hours, what could we win?


Milwaukee DSA and allies to deliver 10,000 public power petitions to City Hall
The Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America and their allies are set to deliver more than 10,000 petitions to City Hall (200 E Wells St.) on Friday, May 9, calling for public ownership of public utilities. The 6 p.m. delivery and adjoining rally are the latest move in the Power To The People coalition’s fight for public takeover of power utilities currently owned by We Energies.
“We Energies’ high rates are bleeding the people of Milwaukee dry, and the company’s sluggish adoption of sustainable energy fails to meet the urgency of the moment,” Andy Barbour, a chapter leader with Milwaukee DSA, said. “We must remove the profit motive from our public utility now.”
DSA-endorsed Common Councilor Alex Brower won his election in April with a public takeover of We Energies as part of his platform, and Power To The People organizers look forward to more city leaders joining Brower in this movement as residents from across the city voice their need for a change that is already taking place in cities across the country: from Long Island to Los Angeles.
SIGN THE PETITION: Tell City Hall Milwaukee Can Do Better Than We Energies
Current data show that public ownership of city utilities lowers cost for residents, decreases annual outage times and provides communities with democratic control of the resources used to generate their energy, allowing them recourse in the fight against climate change.
Milwaukee DSA is Milwaukee’s largest socialist organization fighting for a democratic economy, a just society, and a sustainable environment. Join today at dsausa.org/join. The Greater Milwaukee Green Party, Milwaukee Party for Socialism and Liberation, Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, Milwaukee Solidarity, North Side Rising and Our Wisconsin Revolution are joining them in this action as the Power To The People coalition.


Peninsula DSA Votes Unanimously Against Zionism and for Palestinian Liberation
Socialists oppose all forms of colonialism, imperialism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Palestine cannot be an exception!
On April 27, 2025, Peninsula Democratic Socialists of America (Peninsula DSA) unanimously adopted a resolution affirming our chapter’s anti-zionist stance in both principle and practice. Following the leadership of chapters like Silicon Valley, Seattle, Twin Cities, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Diego, Colorado Springs, Inland Empire, Boston, Philadelphia, Austin, Tidewater, Greater Baltimore, Houston, Connecticut, Boise, New Orleans, Northwest Ohio, Salt Lake City, NEPA, Tampa, Denver, Long Beach, North Texas, Spokane, Syracuse, Orange County, Tacoma, North New Jersey, Champaign Urbana, Orlando, Greater Lafayette, and others, we join a growing movement within DSA standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation.
Zionism is a settler-colonial ideology that has enabled the violent displacement, dispossession, and oppression of Palestinians for over 75 years. Today, the Zionist project continues through an ongoing genocide against Palestinians, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank, carried out with the full financial, military, and political backing of the United States. Israeli forces have bombed hospitals, schools, refugee camps, homes, and entire neighborhoods, targeting civilians and vital infrastructure. They have imposed mass starvation as a weapon of war, destroyed Gaza’s universities and cultural institutions, and deliberately cut off food, water, medicine, and electricity to millions. As socialists, we oppose all forms of colonialism, imperialism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Our commitment to international solidarity demands that we reject Zionism in all its forms and actively work to dismantle systems of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, military occupation, and settler colonialism.
We affirm that opposing Zionism is not antisemitic. Peninsula DSA stands firmly against antisemitism and all forms of racism and bigotry. We recognize that many Jewish comrades — within DSA and beyond — are leading voices in the fight against Zionism and in the struggle for the liberation of all oppressed peoples. Peninsula DSA reaffirms our solidarity with the Palestinian people and upholds the full right of return for all Palestinian refugees. We oppose the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and reject any framework that denies Palestinians their full human rights, freedom, and sovereignty.
We expect our Anti-Zionist resolution will make us an even stronger ally in the struggle for a free Palestine, and commend the work of several local organizations and coalitions fighting towards this end, including:
- Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)
- Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC)
- Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
- CA15forPalestine
- Vigil4Gaza
- Stanford Against Apartheid in Palestine (SAAP)
We look forward to working more closely with our allies, who have made it clear that DSA National must explicitly connect the fight against Zionism with our socialist and anti-colonialist principles.
We call on DSA chapters and the national organization to take a clear, principled Anti-Zionist position, and to help build an internationalist, anti-colonial, and anti-racist socialist movement.
A better world is possible — a world without colonialism, apartheid, or genocide.
Free Palestine.


We need more leaders, we need less stuff!
Some thoughts on movement building, single-issues, false urgency, and mutual aid.
Author: Anna P.
Everything written here is my opinion and does not represent the views of Cleveland DSA.
In 2023, for the first time in my adult life, an anti-war movement with clear strategy and demands inspired mass participation in the United States. Palestinian activists raised the stakes and demanded attention with deep organizing, education, and consistency at the national level that I had never seen. Locally, I was able to learn and observe trends as a frequent participant in high risk, direct action. I was also able to observe how a coalition gets built from the ground up. I must reflect on what I have done and seen in order to prepare for the long fight towards socialism and learn from the immense efforts of organizers who came before me.
“We keep us safe” is vague and lacks any actionable demand. What we need is an organization capable of keeping people safe by wielding collective, material power. To win the fight for socialism in the United States of America, the delegation of responsibility and power must be clear and consensual to everyone involved in the movement. Our movement must be transparent and accessible, so that power is noticed and discussed. Leadership in any context must be political because giving people what they want and need is inherently political. Now that we are in Trump’s second term, and the opposition tent is bigger than ever, socialist organizations do themselves no favors smoothing over differences with competing political projects. I’m not just talking about liberals, everyone needs to get with the program. From anarchists, to black nationalists, and progressive academics; we cannot simply wish ourselves into agreement and coordination, it must be an honest struggle.
I used to believe that organizing would be so much easier if we could simply give people what they need without saying anything at all, without ever running the risk of alienation. I used to believe that what was “good” or “right” would spontaneously emerge out of individual goodwill, an intention to build a diverse community, coupled with academic or legal reason. Obviously it would be a shortcut to victory if we could manage society with a small group of good people. But the idea that the movement could be led by the people already involved in existing coalitions, was comforting, because that meant I had less work to do, and that most problems had been acknowledged.
Because I believed this, I was frustrated by communists and socialists who struggled hard over the content of collective statements, questions of history and theory that inevitably lead to a delayed response to crises. Why must the statement be a collective effort? Why can’t the chair speak for everyone out of convenience? Why do we include so much nuance in our statements? Why don’t we put boots on the ground immediately?
Through much frustration, I have started learning how to take personal responsibility for the collective will, work, and rhetoric of an organization, regardless of how it impacts my ability to wield personal power. More importantly, I learned that I could only be organizing if I convinced other people to do the same.
Taking responsibility for the safety and material conditions of others is not a decision that should be taken lightly. As an organization’s capacity to meet needs, overcome status-quo authority, and manage society is increased, new members of the working class must feel compelled to participate in more and higher levels of civil service. The organization must naturally encourage this engagement because the more people who know how to wield power and balance contradictions, the greater is their capacity to contribute to the collective project.
Additionally, my capacity for responsibility and service to an organization should not endow me with unchecked power or deference. “Doing the work” or politics dictated by volunteerism easily creeps into socialist organizations, despite most people knowing better at this point. It is worth repeating that the content of one’s ideas and arguments should lead in all exercises of power. Asking that people “do the work” before they are able to criticize anything is a harmful fallacy that has found its way into a lot of political discourse. While someone who engages with politics at high levels is important to retain, it is obvious many socialist organizations rely too strongly on too few people who are able to operate on the level of theory, creating a situation where only a few people always set the ground for debate. This inevitably leads to hidden fractures and contention in the organization. We must escape the paranoid tendency to never train new leaders, never criticize them, never discipline their political aspirations to the will of the organization.
During our local student encampment for Palestine, I learned a lot about the ordinary person’s inexperience with exercising collective communication and decision making in large groups. I believe the lack of centralization in an organization and a deference to the concept of “collective responsibility,” created a leadership vacuum at the encampment that could have been anticipated. There was also a near constant urgency and tendency to focus on the management of “stuff” that drained energy even further. I believe these last two issues are easier to fix so I will address them first.
Movements that benefit the capitalist project seemingly advance on their own thanks to an endless resource pool that includes the bodies and minds of poor and working people. In contrast, our movements for socialism do not have the privilege of coasting on endless, spontaneous momentum. So when the weather gets nice, and protests grow in size and scope, it is actually very predictable that the reproductive and administrative labor available to the spontaneous street takeovers will be insufficient to sustain them against the militarized police. Sure, we might have leaders named in the papers, but who is managing the need to call an assembly, administrate and communicate group decisions? Who is making sure people don’t get sick or hurt in the fight? Who is making sure those people are around?
This work is often assigned the status of “everyone does this” and many assume it is done in some group chat they are not part of. Not everyone can call a general assembly, and not everyone will be listened to when they speak. The existence of group chats as decision making spaces also makes this lack of transparency and indecision additionally frustrating for participants. It does not inspire them to take larger risks for the cause.
The lack of centralised authority created a few different kinds of chaos at the encampment. First, there was simply too much stuff. A collective decision to stop accepting donations would have avoided unnecessary labor and exhaustion for volunteers running the medic tent and food area. Additionally, there were routinely not enough participants willing to get arrested for the sake of the camp at any given time. This is probably because the capacity of the “high risk participants” was not managed appropriately. I was getting called back to the camp constantly every time rumors spread of a potential raid, I never got the chance to tap out. Again, a collective decision to throttle the urgency of the messaging could have extended the limited energy of those willing to take high risk actions.
In the first days of the encampment I was very impressed by the student organizers. These young activists quickly set up formal channels of communication, utilized their organic networks on campus, and brought in the greater community to spread the word about important decisions. The authority in the beginning was well-defined and worked to get everyone on the same page about what needed to happen. One of the ways this manifested was in a “camp basics” document circulated among many, that addressed matters of conduct and jail support.
However, after the camp was established, it began to be run in an increasingly decentralized fashion. The student organizers naturally sought greater buy-in from the camp participants, but without a clear process for doing so. Gossip and constant threat of a raid contributed greatly to the “fog of war” felt by student leaders. Fear and incompatible schedules deterred regular leadership meetings. This fog never allowed for a moment to consider how to establish a general “camp” assembly, abide by the mandate of that assembly, or escalate as a response to police aggression. Every morning I would receive a telegram notification telling me it was urgent people return to the camp. I was bothered by the assumption that it wouldn’t always be the same people willing to haul out, and when I finally arrived there was no reason to have rushed at all.
When it came to matters of camp-keeping and reproductive labor, there was little enthusiasm about being the person who stepped into a leadership role. When I use the term “reproductive labor” what I am referring to is “activities of provisioning, care-giving and interaction that produce and maintain social bonds.” This is how Nancy Fraser describes social reproduction in the Contradictions of Capital and Care. The most upsetting part was that too much food was being brought into the camp, and it was being left behind in the hope that it would get consumed by somebody. A lot of the food went bad. If the University refused to pick up the trash, and locked their bins, I’m not sure we would have been able to keep the camp sanitary for 10 days, especially when the police interfered with clean up efforts. I have work experience managing trash in public places. I know that when people gather in large groups, and live outside full time, it creates an abnormal amount of waste that requires actual labor and logistics to manage. Many people were willing and able to help with the food management and meals, but ultimately with limited leadership, weeding out bad food, resetting coolers, and setting/clearing the big meal exhausted most of the capacity for the day. There was no time to discuss food strategy or best practices, there was no mechanism to do so.
Despite the obvious need, there was a reluctance to take leadership or delegate, especially among people who had never exercised the skill before. Most people were worried about “overstepping” or taking away the individual agency of others who were also trying to help. Attempting to “catch a vibe” from a large group of people seemed to be the most comfortable thing to do if someone assumed a particular responsibility and had to motivate the task. No one wanted to tell other people what to do, so when work was accomplished, it was the result of individual initiative, not collective action.
I am guilty of all of this, especially as days wore on and it felt like we were getting nowhere. Everyone was always waiting on someone else’s direction and that was exhausting. Of course, there is always going to be contradictory information fighting for air, but it was so obvious the student organizers let their own lack of consensus slip out into the whole camp. It wasn’t long before the camp was unable to speak with one voice, and camp participants were calling the police on counter-protestors. Student leaders had wisely announced a rule against that in the previously mentioned “camp basics” document. This useful and important document was never recirculated and was lost to time, buried in a group chat where so much of this organizing took place. By the end of the first week I was completely demoralized, and then shortly after the encampment ended without further escalation.
This is no one’s fault. We are not taught the mechanics of collective decision making, and being overburdened with material support almost seems like a good problem to have. I stood in awe as I witnessed an entire church lobby filled to the brim with protest supplies several days after police, mounted on horses, assaulted Cleveland protest participants May 30 2020. There was so much stuff, I wish someone had told me not to bother driving out to drop off more. Saline solution, water, hundreds of sunscreen bottles, all accumulated for protests that had not even been planned yet. Unfortunately, the hard part isn’t finding people who will donate, but finding the administrative labor required to take the stuff where it needs to go and manage it. Mutual aid, and keeping people safe, is usually the first task of any street movement, so it is shocking how we still struggle so much with the basics.
The truth is, for a highly publicized injustice, it is actually very easy to ask for and receive large amounts of donations and supplies. There is genuine repressed enthusiasm from the alienated working class that comes out, often, in the form of donations. Almost always, the only thing the movement actually needs is momentum, bodies, and leaders. The alienated worker’s lack of time and freedom to participate in collective action is softened by the hope that there are other outlets through which they can participate and hopefully contribute. Resorting too quickly to donations and social media awareness campaigns might even alienate someone further from taking power in their own life because the movement did not win its demands, nothing changed, and the worker does not understand how any of it happened. The movement should, but often fails to, offer participation and genuine opportunity to lead, to its base that is not already committed to the cause. Learning to lead is how people buy into the greater project and stay committed for the long haul.
Unfortunately, for the activists, work needed to maintain occupations, encampments, and riots cannot be done by paid staff. Outside of mass mobilizations like these, community care often does involve paid staff (nonprofit or otherwise) set out with the task of fulfilling a particular need that activists may be organizing around. For example, social workers will come out to support trans activists and self-organize professional support outside of any kind of movement infrastructure. The Cleveland Food Bank still feeds anyone regardless of marginalized status. When administration of “stuff” is done spontaneously, or when activist time is not effectively managed, unpaid activists duplicate the work of paid activists and waste their time relentlessly. I have seen this happen a number of times, but mainly as a response to COVID or environmental disasters like the East Palestine train derailment.
It makes me sad and worried when I consider all the unpaid activist energy and capacity that has gone into establishing brand new mutual aid projects for every tragedy and issue-area. Often the service non-profits (donor/corporate/grant funded NGOs, yes, even small ones) and charity organizations are willing and capable of providing blankets, water, hot meals, clothes, bail, sometimes legal services, sometimes medical services, and basically any and all consumer goods to victims of tragedy and injustice. Often, it is someone’s literal job to raise money for direct support or to provide a service for free. Since the United States does not have a welfare system, these organizations (good/bad, religious/agnostic, government/non government) are the faulty, decentralized safety net that everyone is far too familiar with. Do people fall through the net, and are unable to get what they need to survive? Absolutely. Will we be able to catch them and support them without a complete restructuring of society and universal welfare programs? Probably not. Ultimately it is a political problem, not a problem of charity.
Socialist organizations can and should do charity/mutual aid as a supplement to education and organizing. However, before beginning this work I believe it is necessary to acknowledge two limitations. First, aid and service are the bandaid we use to help who we can when it is not possible for mass mobilization/power shift on a particular issue. We always want to shift the levers of power, and eliminate the root cause of injustice. For example, we should not donate rent money to assist tenants if the tenants themselves can strike and negotiate a lower rent that they can actually afford. Second, the impact of our work will be relatively small compared to the market forces that drive the disparity we are trying to resolve. There will always be more people we need to help than hands available to provide necessary one-on-one attention that every human being deserves.
Too often, instead of confronting these limitations, DSA chapters and similar organizations will try to be everything to everyone. Routinely, the social movement wants to take on more than it is capable of handling, assuming responsibility for an entire issue-area, positioning itself as an alternative to traditional nonprofits/service providers, and doing so with a deeply misguided sense of urgency. They duplicate the work of organizations which are both increasingly failing to address the problems of capitalism, and which are far, far better positioned to address them than unpaid activists are. In doing so, they misunderstand that the purpose of political organization is to change the balance of power, and the purpose of progressive political organization is to win socialism. This “everything at once” approach sidelines leadership development and collective decision-making, all in order to “do the work” with the “proper” amount of commitment and on an accelerated timeline. Too often, committed activists are compelled to prove their moral integrity on every issue in order to present as properly intersectional and radical. Attempting to prove the moral integrity of an organization or individual is not a path towards justice, and it certainly isn’t the way to win socialism. Instead, we are tasked with the hard work of motivating ordinary people to our cause, slowly and deliberately. The people we need to win are not already running their own projects, and they are not toiling to maintain the decaying social safety net either.
Instead of starting a brand new mutual aid or service project, I believe it is better to keep logs of references and research to share, and provide aid to people who ask for it explicitly. As a socialist, I cannot be everything to everyone, but I can try to build a plan for someone who comes to me and asks for help. There are times when DSA, and myself by extension, have actually filled a gap in services that the NGO industrial complex had not accounted for. Cleveland DSA spent two years knocking on the doors of people facing eviction and encouraged them to go to their hearing, shared resources, and followed up afterwards. There were times when the notice did not come and I was telling someone for the first time that they were getting evicted. Sometimes I drove tenants to their hearing. Sometimes I helped someone stay in their home, and sometimes there was nothing I could do. Regardless of the outcome, providing the door-knocking service was never my job, it was always something I did out of obligation to our organization’s priorities and goals. The eviction canvassing could only reach about 43% of all cases being filed in a year and it was very difficult to organize tenant unions while tenant leaders were in an active crisis. We were not moving toward our ultimate goal of building a city-wide tenants union, so the work had to be abandoned. In fact, a $20,000 grant was created by United Way to fill this gap in eviction-related outreach, and they offered it to DSA. When we denied the money, it was offered to another organization who hired two people to do the work part-time. There is nothing about this exchange of work that is wrong or morally compromised. The service work is being done by an employee paid for their time, and we don’t need to mobilize 20 volunteers on a biweekly basis. Our leaders of the project at the time explained how there was only so much of themselves they could extend to a service-based project, acknowledging it was never mutual aid because we could not get the tenants we canvassed to come out and knock doors for others after their eviction was over.
If DSA can provide a necessary service to people in crisis and organize ordinary people into powerful leaders at the same time, I am so happy to do both. If I must pick one, then I must try to find some people who are not in active crisis or are not already self-selected, highly-involved activists. I need to find people with the free time to read, debate, and practice leadership in a collective body. I must be able to reproduce myself for the sake of having socialists to live another day. I have trouble acknowledging the very real opposition many working class people feel towards the idea of a collective society. I have trouble acknowledging that our “mid size” DSA chapter has less yearly income, and moves less money per-year, than a single Ohioan making minimum wage. At the same time, it frees my ego when I consider how truly devastating the situation really is. Looking ahead, there is so much work that needs to be done.
I believe the ease of our mass communications (through social media/ group chats) and easy access to material goods have made our movement lazier and less deliberate about what we say and what we think we need. We should not be naive, and understand when we receive “stuff” “attention” or “useful data” from capitalists and their institutions, it is a pity prize.
During the tenth and final day of the Palestine encampment my nails were packed with dirt, several pounds of taco meat spilled in my car, I had bruising from handcuffs, and three parking tickets sat on my dash. I’m unemployed without any means to pay them.
Looking in the mirror, I realized that the people I need to radicalize the most, were not going to be able to do this work. I was as self-selected as they come, and just telling someone to copy my imperfect time/resource sacrifice was not going to motivate or empower them to build power in their own life. If anything, the example I set was predicated on giving so much of myself, that there was no way I could be supporting someone else in their development as a leader. Solidarity is not self-sacrifice and it is wrong for a socialist to put themselves in this position. It is especially wrong to expect others to do the same. The people we need to lead the movement don’t already identify as activists and don’t have time to “prove themselves” through constant, selfless acts of charity and sacrifice. Ordinary people often stay the course on one long term project that directly affects their material conditions. Ordinary people bring others into the work instead of doing everything themselves, often this is a skill that needs to be taught and fostered in groups accustomed to individualist competition.
If we are trying to build a mass movement, by teaching people how to exercise power and organize themselves, then we should only be engaging in single issues to the point that they radicalize new socialists and not beyond that. If the single-issue project is actually collective it will move itself, if it was always a couple people making every decision, it will fizzle out. As an activist, I do not have the capacity or strength to die on every hill. I don’t always need to be the thing standing in between a stranger and some horrible fate. The cycle of suffering is endless and expansive, but if everything is urgent then nothing is. Before it is too late, we must build a self-critical and leadership-heavy democratic organization that is able to hold the contradictions of the multiracial, American working class. And I don’t want these new socialists obsessed with the idea that more stuff in the hands of more people is the ultimate mission of mutual aid. It is important we do not assume that every participant is already a leader capable of driving strangers to action or subordinating themselves to the will of the collective body. Lastly, without formal organization at the core of our movement, the self-selected ones lose their way, giving too much of themselves and their collective capacity to an endless amount of work that will never be properly done.
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May Day solidarity — Your National Political Committee newsletter
Enjoy your April National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 18-person body (including two YDSA members who share a vote) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, join May Day actions, protect trans rights, get involved with our national Convention, and more!
And to make sure you get our newsletters in your inbox, sign up here! Each one features action alerts, upcoming events, political education, and more.
- From the National Political Committee — May Day Solidarity
- National Electoral Commission Announces Two New Candidates — Your Support Can Put Them in Office!
- Help Pass Vital Trans Rights Legislation Today!
- Fight Oligarchy This May Day! Mass Call Sunday 4/29, Marches Monday 5/1, Thursday 5/3
- Monthly Convention Update: Volunteering Opportunities, Proposal Submissions, and Convention Programming Submissions Open!
- Sign Up for Housing Justice Commission’s May Meeting Wednesday 5/7
- Protect Socialist History! Join Our DSA Archives Workshop Thursday 5/29
- The Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus is Stronger and Building!
- Apply for DSA’s National Communications Committee
From the National Political Committee — May Day Solidarity
May Day is a uniquely international holiday, where workers of the world unite to celebrate our history and demands for our future — and it’s a holiday with deep American roots. A May Day 1886 protest demanding 8-hour work days (something we so often take for granted) led to the Chicago police brutalizing a crowd of protestors in Haymarket Square, and a series of violent events which led to the unjust state executions of 7 “Apostles of Labor.”
Socialists must remember these roots. This fight has never been easy, but we stand on the shoulders of giants, arm in arm with our comrades across our own organization — over 70,000 strong — and our siblings in the labor movement, the renters’ rights movement, the Palestinian liberation movement, the migrants’ rights movement, and so many more.
Because of this solidarity, we have incredible opportunities to organize and exert our collective strength, working locally and nationally in unison with mass movements around the world, to pick big fights against the boss class, and to win. We are stronger every day, even as the forces of capital work to slow us down, because we continue to build this solidarity.
We’ve witnessed the strength of this solidarity in the last few weeks, as hundreds of thousands of people have come out to the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour to see democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speak out against the system that oppresses us, even in deep red parts of the country like Idaho and Bakersfield, California. The rallies feature labor organizers representing people who form the backbone of our economy, from rideshare workers to farmworkers, and socialist electeds building the bench downballot, like DSA city councilmember Eunisses Hernandez in Los Angeles. The message is clear: a better world is possible, and we need class solidarity to win it. DSA members are showing up in force at local stops of this tour to canvass attendees and show how we are ready to give people the chance to be protagonists of their own history and build the working class power we need at scale to take on the oligarchy.
DSA chapters all across the country are planning May Day events, and we have officially joined the May Day Strong movement, organized with the Chicago Teachers Union and Bargaining for the Common Good. We’re encouraging DSA members everywhere to plug in — check out our May Day toolkit for ways to get involved. You can find your nearest chapter and their contact info here, and check the May Day Strong Map to find an event near you!
This year, mobilizing on May Day is even more urgent:
- In spite of the objections of the Supreme Court, members of Congress, and millions of working class people, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father and union worker, is still being detained illegally in El Salvador.
- Pro-Palestine organizer and former UAW member Mahmoud Khalil is being held illegally in ICE detention in Louisiana.
- Over two hundred thousand federal workers have lost their jobs and nearly a million more have been told that their right to bargain over working conditions no longer exists.
And before you hit the streets on May 1, please join us for a mass call on April 29. On this call — Fight Oligarchy: Build to May Day 2025 — you’ll hear from labor organizers, immigrants’ rights activists, and DSA chapter leaders on how you can fight back this May Day against attacks on our unions, rights, and essential services.
Need more ways to plug in? Please scroll down for a number of exciting ways to organize today — several of our national committees are seeking new members, we have a call to action from comrades in Colorado against an anti-trans bill, there’s more info about DSA Convention 2025 (to be held in Chicago, the Haymarket Martyrs’ resting place), and lots more ways to tap in and fight for a better future.
This is a difficult moment in our history, but the bosses are scared. They haven’t seen an organized left of this strength and caliber in their lifetimes. The stakes are high, and it’s on us to organize with even more strength and purpose, to exploit the contradictions that open up in uncertain times like these, and to win. May Day is a day to remind each other that together, organized people make history.
In Solidarity,
Megan Romer and Ashik Siddique
DSA National Co-Chairs
National Electoral Commission Announces Two New Candidates — Your Support Can Put Them in Office!
This year, DSA’s National Electoral Commission has an exciting new project. We’re supporting a rotating slate of candidates with nationwide fundraising throughout the year — and in our first 30 days, we’ve already raised over $20,000!
We couldn’t be prouder of this slate of socialist candidates. All of them represent DSA and our vision for the future so well, including our two latest new endorsees, Tammy Honeywell and Michael Westgaard. Tammy Honeywell, a union leader and founding member of Syracuse DSA, is running for a seat in the Onondaga County Legislature in upstate New York. And in Washington State, Michael Westgaard of Seattle DSA is running for Renton Common Council. Your donations can help put them and our socialist candidates across the country in office!
And do you want to help out with phonebanking? Sign up for the NEC email list for more info!
Help Pass Vital Trans Rights Legislation Today!
URGENT ACTION NEEDED! The Kelly Loving Act (HB25-1312), a bold package of pro-trans changes to Colorado law backed by Colorado DSA chapters, has passed the State House and is currently before the State Senate. However, far-right opposition is mounting, and we need your help to get this vital trans rights legislation across the finish line! Click here to write to Colorado legislators and demand they take action to protect trans people.
Fight Oligarchy This May Day! Mass Call Sunday 4/29, Marches Monday 5/1, Thursday 5/3
The Trump administration continues to target federal workers, immigrants and the institutions that provide basic support for working people in our country. On May 1st, chapters across the country are joining the call to fight back and build a movement that can fight for the world we deserve!
Join us this Sunday, 4/29 at 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT/6:30pm MT/5:30pm PT to learn how you can be part of this fight. On this call, you’ll hear from organizers fighting for immigrant rights, defending our federal services, and building cross-union structures to build to May Day 2025!
Monthly Convention Update: Volunteering Opportunities, Proposal Submissions, and Convention Programming Submissions Open!
Our DSA Convention is coming up in August, and preparations are going on now. To start, we have openings on Convention Planning Subcommittees! The Convention Planning Subcommittees are looking to fill a few open spots. Interested members can view more information and apply to join a Convention Planning Subcommittee here! The application deadline is Friday, 5/2.
And proposals have been flying into our Convention Hub on the DSA Discussion Forum. These include new Bylaws, Platform Changes, and Resolutions, all of which are looking for signatories. Head on over to the Convention Hub to see what’s being submitted and sign on to things you want to see debated on the Convention floor! The deadline to submit proposals is Sunday 5/11.
You must be a member in good standing to view and sign on to any proposals. If you need to sign up for the DSA Discussion Forum account, go here to make your account today!
Having trouble getting on the forum? Reach out to the NTC at ntc@dsacommittees.org.
We’re also excited to open our call for submissions for programming sessions at this year’s DSA National Convention. You can submit your ideas here until Saturday, May 31. Sessions can include workshops, panel discussions, seminars, and creative displays or performances. This year, we are aiming for diverse, engaged, and energetic programming that connects to our theme, “Rebirth and Beyond: Reflecting on a Decade of DSA’s Growth and Preparing for a Decade of Party-Building.”
And finally, DSA’s National Fundraising Committee is calling for new members to help us raise a boatload of money to support DSA’s work at the 2025 DSA National Convention. We’re particularly looking for help organizing a live fundraiser event on Saturday, August 9. This includes soliciting donations of auction items for our live auction. If you have chapter fundraising experience, that’s all the better, but anyone can help contribute to this work. Apply here today! Applications are open on a rolling basis.
Sign Up for Housing Justice Commission’s May Meeting Wednesday 5/7
Join the Housing Justice Commission’s May meeting on Wednesday 5/7 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT! On this call, you’ll hear about our consensus resolution for the 2025 DSA convention, and our new and improved Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee project. If you’re interested in starting a new tenant union or you want to talk about housing work in DSA, come on through!
Protect Socialist History! Join Our DSA Archives Workshop Thursday 5/29
DSA Archives Workshop is BACK! When socialist education is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back… by taking care of our history and records! After a long hiatus, NPEC is excited to bring back the DSA Archives Workshop, co-sponsored by the DSA Fund. Chapter secretaries, political educators, comrades with old stuff, and anyone interested in the importance of archives for the left are welcome to join! The call will be held on Thursday, 5/29 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT. RSVP here today.
The Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus is Stronger and Building!
Thanks to everyone who joined our 4/10 General Body Meeting — our first since relaunching with the new Executive Committee! We’re now forming Working Groups and Committees to kick off organizing efforts and internal support structures.
Want to plug in? Fill out the interest form to help lead or join a group. Groups with the most engagement will be prioritized.
Apply for DSA’s National Communications Committee
The National Communications Committee is expanding! We are looking for DSA members with experience in video editing, livestream production, social media strategy, graphic design, media relations, and more to expand our national communications work. The National Communications Committee’s NPC members and at-large co-chair will appoint the new members, and will be accepting applications on a rolling basis. Apply here today!
The post May Day solidarity — Your National Political Committee newsletter appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).


Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America condemn FBI arrest of Milwaukee County judge
The Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) condemn the FBI’s arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan, accused of obstructing ICE agents from taking a man into custody at the federal courthouse during the recent escalation in arrests of immigrants and minorities throughout the country at the behest of President Trump and his backers.
“ICE’s presence in our courthouse is an unconscionable assault on our public safety,” Milwaukee DSA leader Andy Barbour said. “We must all oppose this administration’s efforts to harm the immigrants in our community, as well as this administration’s attempts to intimidate those who fight for justice.”
The chapter will continue to support Dugan and others targeted by oppressive government forces in the days ahead.
Milwaukee DSA is Milwaukee’s largest socialist organization fighting for a democratic economy, a just society, and a sustainable environment. Join today at dsausa.org/join.
