When we laid out our theory of power in 2022, we were organizing for a Green New Deal in a neoliberal Democratic administration over which the Left had limited power. We knew the following four years would be more of the same if we were lucky; now, we find ourselves at the conjuncture of Trump 2.0, which will be worse. Already, ICE is raiding homes and workplaces and chapters are in the streets trying to protect trans people and workers, while Democrats cower or criticize Trump for low deportation numbers. The Administration has launched a trade war, frozen research grants, escalated attacks on immigrants and transgender people, and started purging federal workers, with Elon Musk in charge of gutting the administrative state. Basic environmental protections like the Clean Air Act are under threat, even as we barrel past international emissions targets. 

Trump has already issued an executive order to halt future Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) spending, an unconstitutional attempt to reappropriate what Congress has already approved that will be challenged in court. As flawed and inadequate as it is, Biden’s IRA, still in its infancy, has just begun to bear fruit as a weak “green” industrial policy. Though unraveling the IRA would undermine job creation and economic growth in key Republican districts, that material fact may not be enough to save the legislation from forces dead-set on stopping our transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, even via mostly private means, and committed to precluding the state from acting on climate mitigation and adaptation. So far the direct pay provision of the IRA, a key component of the Build Public Renewables Act passed by some of New York state’s DSA chapters, remains unscathed.

Although the full fate of the IRA is uncertain, we already know that compromise legislation has not spurred the kind of green economic populism this moment requires. As Thea Riofrancos and Daniel Aldana Cohen pointed out, our vision for a socialist Green New Deal goes far beyond the hybrid “Prius economy” promised by legislation like the IRA. The Prius economy is driven by the private interests of big capital, which push investment—including federal subsidies and loans—towards cars and suburban housing and electric jets. We intend to change that direction, fighting for public investment in public goods like mass transit, green social housing, parks and trails, and healthy schools, all built and operated with good union jobs. 

During the next four years, DSA will continue to fight for those policies at the state and local level. Because the federal terrain is more hostile, we think the task before us remains to build local power with legislative, labor, and electoral organizing in order to expand public services to tackle both the cost-of-living and climate crises. 

Building with Labor

DSA’s long-term orientation towards rebuilding the labor movement is at the heart of our strategy. Of course, Green New Deal organizing can help do that, but it’s also clear that labor power is essential to winning climate policy at the scale and speed needed. We encourage GND and labor organizers in chapters to support workers bargaining for fair contracts and walking the picket line, while we help them build enduring coalitions with labor to win local changes that, in turn, create union jobs, enabling further organizing. This is why every B4P campaign places just transition demands and the creation of green union jobs at the center of the strategy. This process of changing state terrain so it is more conducive to working class organizing – while also engaging in direct working class organizing – is key to class formation in this moment, and a role DSA is uniquely capable of filling.

We’ve already seen bargaining for the common good used to win Green New Deal demands in LA, where United Teachers Los Angeles won provisions for solar panels, green spaces, and electric school buses in their last round of contract negotiations. And the organized Left has the first real opportunity to organize a general strike on May Day 2028, with the UAW calling for unions to align their contract expiration dates so the labor movement can take action as a whole. The UAW also happens to be a model for the kind of rank-and-file reform that needs to spread throughout the labor movement. Through their contract negotiations they are setting the terms of the EV transition, and creating space for other climate demands, like a 32-hour work week. Our long term project of rebuilding the labor movement continues, and Green New Deal unionism can help us win the future the working class deserves.

Winning State Power

The GNDCC originally launched Building for Power partly as a way to build on electoral organizing and wins. Coalitions led by DSA, labor unions, and DSA electeds can fight for different elements of GND policy. We recognize this timeline can become vague and/or lengthy, but we also understand that electoral organizing and labor organizing, led and cohered by socialists, can build unique forms of pressure on state actors while also accelerating class formation in the local context. We also think that building and operating such broad-based but complex coalitions can help develop strong, skilled DSA chapters that can lead on not only winning GND policy, but responding politically and materially to the climate crises ahead. And we think it’s clear that mass coalitions with labor power can be a major bulwark against the right wing locally and nationally. 

Responding to crises 

DSA chapters are responding to the immediate threats their communities face under Trump 2.0, and members will continue to be called on to protect people and build networks of solidarity when disaster strikes. But the connections generated in disasters must outlive the moment of crisis. DSA’s task is to organize those relationships into lasting working class solidarity to address the political causes of crises.  

Ecosocialist formations can help their chapters respond to moments of crisis, while also preparing them for the future, by Building for Power. We have witnessed devastating hurricanes and wildfires in just the past four months, requiring rapid response from DSA chapters who will spend months helping their communities rebuild. Strong Building For Power campaigns can pivot to disaster response while also fighting to change the conditions that cause these crises in the first place, with policies like green social housing, public power, mass transit, and more. As we respond to urgent threats in the coming years, we cannot afford to lose sight of the long-term horizon: beyond reacting strategically in moments of disaster, our goal is to actively build the future we deserve.

Building toward the Future 

Restructuring our economy by returning the wealth created by our ecosystems and our labor back to us, where it rightfully belongs, is the work of our lifetimes. The crises we face are urgent, yet the public goods we are working to expand take years to build out, and there is no time to waste. An organized Left must keep pushing on the local level, where there is still ample opportunity for wins that build working class power and green public sector capacity. 

Already, we’re seeing Trump 2.0 take a more rapacious direction, precipitating emergencies at multiple levels. In this setting, it is true that chapters may become stretched responding to immediate demands more pressing than new bus lanes. But our view is that, through B4P campaigns undertaken now, chapters can build the leadership and organizing skills and expand the outreach and recruitment that will be essential to responding to whatever Trump dishes out. And the GNDCC will be there to support chapters that need to pivot their work to meet the moment. 

Join our upcoming campaign huddles if you are interested in creating a Building for Power campaign in your chapter: 

Building the Green New Deal: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 8:00 PM • Virtual

Building for Ecosocialist Power under Trump/DOGE
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 8:00 PM • Virtual

Every year the chapter conducts a census of the members and creates a report on how the dynamics of the chapter function along with vital information about demographics. Read the report here.

The post 2024 CNJ DSA Chapter Census appeared first on Central NJ DSA.

The National Political Committee is looking for nominees to serve on the National Political Education Committee from May 2025 through April 2026! As the DSA committee charged with providing a socialist political education to its members and the public, NPEC welcomes members with substantial roots in diverse areas of DSA, across a range of organizing and education experience. We also ask that chapters and official national committees, working groups, and caucuses to submit nominations.

Applicants should be prepared to devote 8 hours a month to committee business, though those with less availability will still be considered. Applicants should also be prepared to contribute to substantive discussion on the content of political education material as well as partake in its implementation. This implementation can occur across (but is not limited to) any of NPEC’s four standing subcommittees:

• Chapter Support, which holds regular workshops to support local political education programs, develop DSA members’ skill base, and connect chapters with experienced mentors
• Events and Speakers, which hosts national political education events year-round on basic socialist ideas and critical issues
• Curriculum, which develops an expanding library of ready-to-use political education materials
• Communications, which broadcasts and furthers our committee’s work through social media, our podcast, and our newsletter, Red Letter

Chapters, national committees and working groups, and caucus steering committees (or equivalent) must email their nominee’s contact information (name, email address, and phone number) to politicaleducation@dsacommittees.org by 3/24. All DSA members interested in joining NPEC, whether nominated by a DSA body or applying as an individual, must apply via this form by Monday, April 6th. Appointments by the NPC will be announced by 4/30 to begin their terms on 5/1.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to the Political Education Committee at politicaleducation@dsacommittees.org, reach us on the DSA forums, or RSVP here to join us for an online information session on Sunday, March 16th 2-3pm PT/5-6pm ET

Welcome to another Town Meeting Day.

Last year, Champlain Valley DSA’s Burlington-focused voter guide lamented the brevity of the Queen City’s ballot following Democratic city councilors’ unusual refusal to allow voters to consider a citizens’ initiative condemning Israeli apartheid, even though more than 1,700 residents had signed the organizers’ petition. And now, the same thing has happened again.

One question, six towns (or more)

This time around, however, activists didn’t limit their efforts to Burlington. The Apartheid-Free Community pledge – drafted originally by the American Friends Service Committee – will appear on ballots in Winooski, Vergennes, Montpelier, Brattleboro, Newfane, and Thetford. Hearteningly, as it turns out, the Burlington Democrats’ contempt for democracy may be unique within Vermont; across the state, other city councils and select boards have determined to let the people have their say.

Coincidentally, Champlain Valley DSA no longer exists: Green Mountain DSA – a new chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America seeking to represent all of Vermont (or, at least, all but the sliver belonging to our Windsor County comrades in Upper Valley DSA) – has replaced it. On our first Town Meeting Day, we endorse the Apartheid-Free Community pledge in every municipality whose ballot contains it.

The text is the same in all six places. Vote yes on Article 5 in Winooski, Article 7 in Vergennes, Article 13 in Montpelier, Article 2 in Brattleboro, Article 38 in Newfane, and Article 23 in Thetford. Please tell your friends, or you can send them this video or this op-ed written by GMDSA’s co-chair for the Times-Argus.

On behalf of the Shelburne Progressive Town Committee, a member of Green Mountain DSA also plans to propose the Apartheid-Free Community pledge from the floor at Shelburne’s Town Meeting Day, along with a resolution advocating for healthcare reform. GMDSA endorses this effort as well. If you’re planning to attend an in-person town meeting where you live, consider doing the same thing!

Winooski

Due to a procedural error last time around, Winooski must vote again on its Just Cause Eviction charter change, which passed by a huge margin in 2023. You can learn more about Just Cause Eviction, a policy that protects renters, here.

Municipal charter changes must travel through the statehouse. Burlington, Essex, and Montpelier passed Just Cause Eviction in 2021, 2023, and 2024, respectively, but none of them has won permission to implement it. And with the Vermont General Assembly trending rightward, its immediate prospects don’t look good.

But tenants will keep fighting, and someday the tenants will win. GMDSA endorses Just Cause Eviction. Vote yes on Article 4 in Winooski.

Randolph

The Orange County town of Randolph has 4,774 residents. At that size, one might expect it not to have a police force. Jericho, Georgia, and Waterbury are all larger than Randolph, and none of them employ police officers.

Yet Randolph does have its own police department, and that police department has requested a budget of $820,937 for fiscal year 2026. Including generous supplements from the town’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation, spending has grown rapidly since fiscal year 2022, when the town paid just $343,960 for law enforcement services.

The Randolph Police Department serves the Randolph Police District, not the entire municipality. The residents of the Police District, specifically, must therefore approve or reject the police budget as an independent article rather than as a component of the townwide vote on Randolph’s annual general fund expenditure. As a result, they have a chance to say no to this particular form of municipal spending without saying no to the rest.

Like many other parts of Vermont, Randolph appears recently to have begun moving toward austerity. The Orange Southwest School District has proposed cutting $1.1 million from its new budget in order to avoid property tax increases in Randolph, Brookfield, and Braintree. Yet the Randolph Police Department has bet that the growing cheapskate attitude that has emerged out of Vermont’s cost-of-living problem will make an exception for expensive policing.

We hope they’re wrong. GMDSA endorses a “no” vote on Article 5 in Randolph. It won’t abolish the police, but it’ll send Randolph’s bloated cop budget back to the drawing board.

Candidates

The membership of Green Mountain DSA did not vote to endorse any candidates for public office on Town Meeting Day this year. But our Electoral Working Group recommends the 17-candidate slate endorsed by the Vermont Progressive Party.

We’re especially pleased to see Progressives in Windham, Lamoille, and Addison counties running for select board and school board positions. In Burlington, East District and South District candidates Kathy Olwell and Jennifer Monroe Zakaras both face competition for open seats.

Victories in those races would give Progressives a majority on the Burlington City Council. Burlington’s ballot also includes a critical vote on a $152 million bond for improved wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, upon which plans for new housing depend – we recommend a yes on Question 3.

School budgets

Taking a hint from the stronger-than-usual showing for Vermont Republicans in November’s legislative elections, school districts have aimed to head off an anticipated taxpayer revolt on Town Meeting Day by slashing their budgets preemptively. Hundreds of school employees will lose their jobs, but that may not be enough to satisfy voters in some towns.

In 2024, Vermonters shot down about a third of the school budgets across the state, forcing cuts that hurt students, teachers, and families alike. This year, we recommend voting yes on every school budget.

Town Meeting Day is Tuesday, March 4, 2025. Please email us at hello@greenmountaindsa.org if you’d like to join a canvass between now and then (here’s one option), or if you’d like to see an item on your town’s ballot included in this guide. 

You can check your voter registration here. 

Enjoy your National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 18-person body (including two YDSA members who share a vote) that functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, join a call hosted by the International Migrant Rights Working Group, hear from Amazon organizers who went on strike, get involved with the Mutual Aid Working Group, 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 Our Co-Chairs — Organizing Amidst the Chaos
• Immigration 101: No Human is Illegal hosted by the International Migrant Rights Working Group 
• DSA Amazon Priority Campaign
• Pitch an article to Socialist Forum
• Check out Democratic Left’s new website!
• Nationwide Abolish Rent Reading Group
• Announcing our new SC and calling for members to join MAWG!
• Organizing Fair for At-Large Members on 3/2
• Convention Planning Committee

From Our Co-Chairs — Organizing Amidst the Chaos

“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.” – W.E.B. Du Bois

Dear Comrade,

There’s never been an easy time to be a socialist in the USA, but organizing amidst the chaos of this second Trump administration – where Elon Musk, the richest man alive, attempts to dismantle our public services one by one; where Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-science nepo baby, is attempting to roll back crucial public health initiatives (and life-saving SSRIs); where the Democratic Party, the only opposition that holds formal power, is throwing their hands in the air and saying that nothing can be done – is uniquely exhausting. But that’s the point, right? Overwhelm is intended to lead us to inaction and despair. But because we have a strong socialist analysis and a theory of change that is continuing to prove correct, we do have hope; we do have stamina; we do know that a better world is possible, and we do know that an organized working class is what will get us all there.

Just this week, we’re seeing DSA chapters throw down with the Federal Unionists Network to turn out hundreds and thousands of people for events to Save Our Services and fight for federal workers, as they become one of the hottest new targets for Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)” cronies.

We keep showing how we are so much more than the sum of our parts, and even as the fire hydrant of bad news continues to spew uncontrollably, this analysis and the actions we take to combat it are leading to significant DSA membership growth (over 10%, with no signs of slowing, especially as chapters across the country take on intentional recruitment campaigns to meet this moment). But our work is not just about the numbers — it’s about building power for the working class, and we are seeing signs of that power everywhere.

We’re drawing hope and inspiration from the dozens upon dozens of chapters who are finding ways to show up and build connections with the broader working class in their areas, from strike support on hundreds of picket lines to know-your-rights trainings for targeted migrant workers from border to border; from abortion aftercare kit building events to protests led by DSA chapters from New York City to Chicago to Los Angeles to defend trans youth’s access to healthcare and demand that hospitals and university systems refuse to comply in advance with Trump’s anti-trans orders. 

And DSA chapters continue to rack up major wins — just a few among them recently:

• East Bay DSA were leaders in the successful movement to push Alameda County to divest over $30 million from Caterpillar, one of the primary targets of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions Movement (BDS)
• Seattle DSA helped achieve a major working class victory with the passage of Prop 1A, which will tax wealthy businesses to pay for a massive investment in social housing, estimated at around $50 million per year
• Philly DSA threw down and saw victory as a major partner in the Save Chinatown coalition, working alongside and building crucial connections with a variety of community organizations to halt the building of a new stadium that would have razed a historic working-class majority-AAPI downtown neighborhood for the sake of billionaires
• Pittsburgh DSA organized with the Not On Our Dime campaign to get over 21,000 signatures to get on the ballot this May, well above the necessary threshold, for a referendum that would prevent the city of Pittsburgh from investing or doing business with any government actively committing genocide, apartheid, or ethnic cleansing, in solidarity with Palestine.

If you are part of any of this work already, please know that your comrades across the country and throughout the world are drawing inspiration from you and your local comrades. If you’re not already jumping in on a local project or campaign, there’s no time like the present. Find your chapter, join a meeting, and get to work – we need you! If you don’t have a chapter in your area, join us for an At-Large Organizing Fair on March 2 to find out ways to either start a local chapter or plug into national DSA work!

We also know that not everyone has time, energy, or emotional capacity to dig into organizing work, but may have other resources to share. If that sounds like you, please consider becoming a Solidarity Dues payer, or even simply upping your current dues amount by a couple bucks per month. We know that we will never beat the capitalist class with money alone –it’s our organizing and people power that will get that job done. That said, we won’t beat them without money, either, and your monthly dues help fund the work of your own chapter and pay for nationally-shared resources, from tech tools to staff support, that make these big wins possible.

As always, we remain fiercely proud to be in this fight alongside each and every one of you.

In Solidarity, 

Megan Romer and Ashik Siddique
DSA National Co-Chairs

Immigration 101: No Human is Illegal hosted by the International Migrant Rights Working Group on 2/25

As we prepare against the ongoing attacks on migrants, it is important that we have a shared understanding of what reforms currently exist, what they actually do, and how we got to where we are today. Whether you’re new to DSA or new to the fight for immigrant rights, join DSA’s International Migrant Rights Working Group on Tuesday, February 25th at 7 pm CT/8 pm ET as we dig into the ever-changing issues involving immigration and go over the basics of what you need to know, where to start, and what you can do for the long-fight ahead.

This will be the first of many events in our newly-launched chapter organizing support program. This call is open to everyone, so please share widely to anybody interested in DSA! RSVP here.

DSA Amazon Priority Campaign

Last fall, the NLC membership passed the Amazon Priority Resolution, designating DSA Labor resources and capacity towards organizing Amazon’s 1.5 million workers. Organizing Amazon is Do or Die for the American Labor movement and the Left. We are launching the Amazon Priority Campaign on Sunday, February 23 at 8pm EST/5pm PST! Come hear from Amazon organizers who went on strike and are fighting for a first union contract, learn about how you can support local campaigns, and find out how you can get a job to organize. Amazon workers are leading the labor battle of our generation, will DSA step up to the challenge and fight with us?

Pitch an article to Socialist Forum

The next issue of Socialist Forum will be asking members how the U.S. Left should respond to a world on fire, metaphorically and quite literally. The recent years have been brutal, but there is great potential for the left to expand and grow its power if we are willing to analyze the political situation as is and learn from one another. We also welcome pitches on any other topic of potential interest and use to DSA members. First drafts will be due on Monday, March 24th. if your pitch is accepted. Please send pitches (~250 words) that include the following to socialistforum@dsausa.org by Friday, February 28th to be considered: 1) a general description of the topic, 2) your argument, unique perspective, or intervention, and 3) why you think our audience would be interested or should engage with this issue. See full call for pitch description here.

Check out Democratic Left’s new website!

Our national publication Democratic Left has launched a new and beautiful website! Please check it out and read some great articles by fellow members. 

Nationwide Abolish Rent Reading Group

Join DSA members and tenant organizers around the country for a nationwide reading of the new book Abolish Rent, written by two co-founders of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis.

With unsparing analysis and striking stories of resistance, this deeply reported account of the resurgent tenant movement centers poor and working-class people who are fighting back, staying put, and remaking the city in the process. Rent drives millions into debt and despair and onto the streets, but tenants can harness our power and make the world our home. Together, we’ll learn from the book, share our experiences as tenants and organizers, and discuss how to create a future where rent doesn’t exist.

We will meet biweekly for 4 sessions (3/12, 3/26, 4/9 and 4/23) at 5pm PST/8pm EST. Please sign up here to receive the zoom link to join.

Announcing Our New Steering Committee and Calling for Members to Join MAWG!

The Mutual Aid Working Group (MAWG) just elected a brand new Steering Committee for 2025! We are working to support chapters and members in doing more mutual aid work, getting involved in their communities, and fighting fascism and capitalism with cooperation! Now more than ever we need to support each other as natural disasters and higher cost of living are destroying people’s lives. So, we hope new members get involved in our work and join MAWG! And we look forward to seeing you at our first all members meeting that will be announced soon! 

Organizing Fair for At-Large Members on 3/2

At-large members (members who do not have a local DSA chapter) are invited to join the NPC, a variety of national committees, and our organizing staff for a virtual At-Large Organizing Fair on Sunday, 3/2 at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific. You’ll hear about ways that you can get plugged into all kinds of national work, learn about the process for starting a chapter locally, get filled in on the process for running as an at-large DSA National Convention delegate, and connect with other members across the country. Join us! 

Convention Planning Committee

Planning is in full swing for the 2025 DSA National Convention, to be held August 8-10 in Chicago. Keep an eye on our Convention Website and your email for ongoing updates on everything you need to know, including information about when and how to submit proposals, apply for scholarships, run your chapter delegate elections, and more!

The post Organizing Amidst the Chaos  — Your National Political Committee newsletter appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).