by Reese A

This piece was written 08/15/25

Last week, I had the honor of representing the Liberal Arts and Science Academy chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), at YDSA’s 2025 annual national convention. It was a true honor to be their co-chair, and to serve them once more as their delegate.

Ultimately, however, I came away from the convention concerned for our political future as a movement: We were decisively against organizing students. We failed to pass crucial resolutions that would strengthen the student movement, including R23: Building Campus Consciousness, Democracy, and Militancy through Student Unions and R10: Building an International Student Movement. R23 would have provided crucial support to mass student organizing in the form of student unions, a formation that can mobilize large numbers of students in solidarity in a way that YDSA cannot. The success of the student union formation is outlined below with Students United by LASA YDSA, and I think that failing to bet on mass student organizing via student unions will remain one of the biggest lost opportunities of the convention. Additionally, R10 centered our internationalism around building relationships with student organizations as YDSA, something that must be centered in order to build an international coalition to win student demands and ultimately socialism.

Instead, we focused on gatekeeping durable socialist organizing to only people with “real” ties to the class struggle (current laborers) and building value-pure socialist groups to recruit students into. We passed resolutions like R12: For a Campaigning Internationalism and R18: Recommitting to Running Strategic Campaigns as Unapologetic Socialists, which aren’t obviously bad, but show a clear focus away from larger mass movement organizing of students towards socialist groups. This tendency fundamentally doesn’t believe that students have a claim to power, but rather we must take a backseat to the “real” working class and focus on political education, supporting their cause, and running smaller campaigns as socialists to pressure the campus. It doesn’t believe in the mass student movement or their own claim to power and representation.

This is a mistake. If we want to win material change, at our schools and in the world, we have to be comfortable organizing the people around us, having conversations, and building power. As students, we represent some of the most diverse, progressive and willing bodies of people in America, and our organizations should strive to organize and mobilize as many students as possible to win. Some might argue that students don’t have the correct “class character,” and I must disagree. We are forgetting what the root of working class is – people who are not owners, people who do not control capital. Just as unemployed people are part of the working class, so are students. Additionally, others argue that students inherently aren’t worth organizing because they’re a transient group. The student movement has built some of the strongest organizations and movements in American history, from Vietnam and Students for a Democratic Society, to divestment from South Africa and winning the collapse of apartheid, to fighting for a free Palestine today. Turnover is not a valid reason to avoid organizing – if that were true, we wouldn’t be organizing Starbucks and Amazon. Yet regardless of the excuses people give for abandoning students, none of them give a valid reason to leave them unorganized and retreat to our comfort zone of like-minded socialists. They’re progressive, willing to fight, and have organized throughout history. It would be a shame for YDSA to give up on student mass organizing, let alone for the wider socialist movement to do so, yet increasingly that seems to be the trend.

It’s important that we organize the entirety of the working class by building durable organizations to fight for change, not because that we think only the working class can win socialism, but because we truly believe in each and every one of our neighbors as people. In this time of rising fascism, believing in people is more important now than ever if we want to defeat it. Yet the socialist movement seems to be retreating into hiding, requiring that people come to our doorstep instead of organizing our neighbors en masse for change, because we no longer find hope in them. We vote down student organizing, we vote down protest organizing, we stop committing to the rank-and-file strategy and make connections with the union leaders instead. This is what fascism wants of us: to feel hopeless and that your neighbor is untrustworthy, to build division in order to cement the ruling class. Instead, we must meet neighbors where they are, with organizations that can represent them both to their schools and to the wider world, and build committed comrades out of this bond.

At LASA YDSA, we organized a student union, Students United, to serve as a durable student bargaining representative to fight for fairer learning conditions and mental health support. We currently have over 8% of the student body supporting our bid to unionize by signing Union Authorization Cards. This union attracted a wide range of people because it was rooted in a collective movement, representation, and demands for change – a movement from which we were able to build committed socialist organizers out of. While YDSA could never legitimately claim to be a representative of students and demand bargaining rights, a union could, because a union’s legitimacy comes exclusively from its status as a representative of the students instead of ideology or self-interest. YDSA can lead the movement, YDSA can build organizers from the movement, but YDSA must commit to empowering the working class to seize power for themselves. This is an important distinction because it’s both an optical, political and communal one – it’s the difference between one-party rule and a worker’s state for the people. Democratic socialists should commit to people power and democracy first and foremost, not try to make a utopian socialist society concocted out of thin air and imposed on the people.

We will not win by building a cadre vanguard that people do not feel a connection to. We will not win by treating our neighbors as peasants to be strung along. We will win through class struggle and a mass movement of each and every one of us, that, through solidarity, can be built in any community and especially within students. We must not give up on student and wider working class solidarity. We must not give up on our own communities. We must commit more, organize for power, and organize to win socialism.

The post In Defense of the Student Movement first appeared on Red Fault.

On August 22nd, 2025 United Auto Worker (UAW) local 647, representing over 600 GE aerospace workers in Evendale Ohio and Erlanger Kentucky, voted by 84% to go on strike if they had not received a counter offer from GE by the time their contract expired at midnight on August 27th. That time came and true to their word the workers went on strike.

It’s important to remember that between 2022 to 2024, GE Aerospace has reaped record revenue surpassing $100 billion for over $16 billion in shareholder distributions. CEO Larry Culp earned $89 million in 2024 alone - over 1,200 times more than the median worker’s annual income. With this kind of profit GE could absolutely be reasonable with these moderate increases that the workers are asking for but are choosing not to.

Metro Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Democratic Socialists of America stand in solidarity with these workers not just with words but with direct action. DSA Cincy members have been out on the picket line since day one with these workers and are currently out there as of this writing! We proudly support GE workers and will continue to do so until their demands are met.

DSA is proud to endorse the following candidates running with Twin Cities DSA support:

Robin Wonsley is running for her third term on Minneapolis City Council, representing Ward 2. She’s running as an independent socialist, and has been a tireless advocate for rent control, public housing, and police accountability.

Robin has a thorough list of campaign priorities which also references the work she has already done on council, encompassing an impressive legislative record. These priorities cover a wide range of issues impacting workers and students including a traffic calming program, housing programs, and working to secure tuition-free college at the state level.

Learn more about Robin in her interview with the Minneapolis Interview Project!

Soren Stevenson is running for Minneapolis City Council, Ward 8. He’s championing working class issues, including housing for all, public safety reform, and environmental justice.

Soren is a proud union member, survivor of Minneapolis police violence, and has extensive experience in housing justice. He recently worked within his union to prevent the permanent closure of a much needed homeless shelter, which required council support.

When Soren ran for council in 2023, he received the most first-choice votes by lost by a mere 38 votes! With just a little bit more help this time around we can secure his seat on Minneapolis City Council!

Robin and Soren are no strangers to national DSA endorsement and we’re looking forward to welcoming both of them to the new Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash slate this year!

Adam Schneider is running on a third party ballot line for the Minneapolis Park Board. He has led environmental justice fights, including the Roof Depot campaign. His campaign is championing parks equity, youth programming, and labor protections.

​​I am running because I believe the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board can be a vehicle to advance climate and environmental justice. By working with the community, our park system can be an integral part of an equitable, resilient, and vibrant Minneapolis.

– Adam Schneider

Adam’s focus areas for the Parks Board include community-driven governance to prioritize resident needs and health over developer interests, expanding community gardens and the urban tree canopy, and environmental stewardship.

Michael Wilson is also running for Minneapolis Park Board! Michael is a stalwart labor advocate, backed by unions running to unseat anti-union incumbents. He’s a former Park Board worker, labor organizer, and environmental justice leader in the successful Roof Depot campaign.

Michael is running on a platform of fair wages for park workers, expanding public transit to reach all parks, utilizing Park and Recreation programs to support working families, and directly addressing environmental concerns impacting the working class such as the Emerald Ash Borer infestation.

Michael’s going up against major anti-labor opponents who’ll pour in as much corporate cash as they need to keep him out of office – pitch in with a donation to our slate today!

The Twin Cities DSA Slate is part of the Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising campaign!

The National Guard is coming to Chicago. Never mind the fact that Governor J.B. Pritzker doesn’t want them here and hasn’t ordered them. Never mind the fact that a federal judge recently struck down Trump’s siccing of the Guard on Los Angeles, where they were tasked primarily with intimidating protesters and milling about aimlessly.  Never mind the fact that the presence of troops and federal agents in Washington, D.C was so enraging that a salmon-shirt-and-khaki-shorts-wearing Generic White Guy threw a sandwich at a federal agent – and dodged felony charges after a grand jury refused to indict him. 

Trump has chosen to illegally deploy  National Guard troops and more ICE agents to our city because Chicago is purportedly a violence ridden “killing field” requiring immediate federal intervention. The actual, obvious reason is that Trump is still mad that a group of protesters chased him out of the city in 2016, and that workers here have successfully organized against ICE terrorism. He also resents that Chicago is a thriving, multiracial, multi-ethnic city with local and state leadership uninterested in complying with his whims or bowing to threats of force.

At the same time, the allegations of violence and crime haven’t stopped well meaning people sharing photos of the best of Chicago – its street festivals, beaches, and museums – while mocking how “scary” this world-class city is. I understand the urge to troll and to tell people who have never visited our city to kick rocks. But we cannot neglect the real people behind every statistic, every talking point, and every headline about the number of shootings and assaults in Chicago. Those people deserve more than Trump’s false promises of “law and order,” a “gotcha” headline about crime, or erasure of what happened to them. 

Over the Labor Day weekend in Chicago, 58 people were shot. Eight of those people died. Eight people’s parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, and sisters are grieving the loss of loved ones while having to navigate the grim logistics of death: visits to the morgue and the funeral home, obtaining a tall stack of death certificates, contacting Social Security, phone and email providers, banks and credit card companies, health insurance companies, utility providers, and landlords in order to close accounts and attempt to eliminate any debts.

The 50 people who were “only” injured, not killed, are recovering in the hospital. They are fighting with insurance companies who want them discharged before they have gotten used to using a colostomy bag, or before their excruciating pain has dulled to become a manageable (but likely permanent) part of life. Their parents, partners or children are trying to figure out how they are supposed to accommodate a wheelchair or walker in their rickety walkup or two flat, or how they’re supposed to pick up their prescriptions when the only pharmacy in the neighborhood closed three months ago, or who they can talk to about their loved ones’ psychological trauma as the city grapples with a critical shortage of trained mental health professionals.

Meanwhile, nurses have to deliver bad news to parents, aid injured patients, fight with insurance companies, while somehow finding time for a bathroom break. Social workers and case managers have to call through a database of agencies that hasn’t been updated in five years to figure out which patchwork of nonprofit service providers are still open and can offer assistance. Many will try to find time to collectively grieve the clients they lost. Community Violence Intervention (CVI) workers will go to funerals and answer phone calls and text messages at all hours from angry friends and family, trying to persuade them that revenge isn’t worth it, all while making minimum wage and facing layoffs if the CVI grant isn’t renewed. To that last point: Chicago’s CVI landscape is even more fragmented and precariously funded in the aftermath of the collapse of Heartland Alliance, which ran the READI Chicago program.

If a survivor decides to take their chances with the criminal legal system, they’ll deal with an indifferent, unresponsive, or downright hostile police detective. If, rarer still, that detective actually clears a case (meaning a suspect is identified and arrested), the survivor then gets to deal with indifferent, unresponsive, or downright hostile assistant states attorneys, along with the stress of having to relive their trauma while testifying in court, being rigorously cross-examined, and having to see the alleged perpetrator and their family in court. 

If a survivor rationally decides that they want to focus on recovery and don’t want to subject themselves and their loved ones to violent retaliation, the police will openly blame them for the next shooting.

The cycle repeats, leaving more families and workers hurt, desperate for some kind of closure, and struggling with no support. The people screaming about crime in Chicago will continue to ignore the suffering of working-class Chicagoans and remain completely disinterested in offering any real solution to the complex problem of urban crime. The National Guard will either pack up or shift duties to mulching trees.

This is the current state of violence in Chicago. Our city is  this way because the ruling class wants it to be this way. The basic reason why violence is such an intractable issue, no matter how many millions we shovel into the police budget, is because the officers and leadership of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) believe that working-class Chicagoans deserve violence as punishment for having non-MAGA politics and for daring to exist in Chicago while not being white.

I am a police and prison abolitionist because I see “criminal justice reform” as being structurally impossible – not because there aren’t effective reforms, but because police have made it abundantly clear that they will not carry out any reforms that would make the police department better at its stated purpose of preventing crime, swiftly intervening when crime happens, supporting victims and witnesses, and detaining suspects without murdering them or violating their constitutional rights.

In recent years, police have successfully lobbied to make reforms ineffective. The “landmark” Empowering Communities for Public Safety Ordinance (ECPS) is a sprawling meetings-industrial complex that has not delivered on its promises of a police force accountable to civilian oversight. The Anjanette Young Ordinance removed the ban on no-knock raids so it could pass with the votes of alderpeople who think what happened to Anjanette Young and Breonna Taylor was good and should happen more often. They and the Chicago Police Department believe police officers should not be punished for terrorizing and murdering innocent people. 

This extends beyond shootings. This year, women in Logan Square were targeted by a serial rapist. Police detectives refused to act until the women got the attention of local news and publicly organized demands for justice to force the department’s hand. A group of detectives paid six figure salaries had to be bullied into doing their jobs and catching the perpetrator. At least one victim attempted to report what happened and received no response.

The ineptitude and indifference of CPD directly caused an increase in sexual assaults. The reason is pretty obvious if you spend any time trawling anonymous CPD Twitter accounts: the average cop considers women in Logan Square (or Avondale, or Edgewater, or Bridgeport, or Pilsen, or Lakeview, or Hyde Park, and so on) to be insufferably woke and feminist, and thus deserving of rape and sexual assault.

It is our role as socialists to name this specific state failure while uplifting the victims and the many workers left to pick up the pieces of these failures. We should not talk about “killing fields” or point to the richest parts of Chicago to claim that everything is fine. We should also avoid waving off violence as only an issue on the South and West Sides, because violence is both heavily concentrated and scattered across the city. I live on a charming block on the Far North Side that feels like it could have come straight from Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Town. There is a block not too far from me where shootings are commonplace.

Right now, Chicago DSA and many other community groups are bracing for an invasion from National Guard troops and federal agents. It is unclear how long this will last. But once the troops leave, or they are relegated to trash pickup, we need to make a serious effort to uplift the human toll of police letting thousands of people die for no reason, and be a regular presence at community vigils and peace marches. The 58 people shot this past weekend deserved more than a false choice between violence and fascism. We all do.

The post Neither Paradise Nor Killing Field: A Socialist Perspective on “Crime in Chicago” appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

By Jesse D. and Laura W.

Back in May of this year, DSA member and elected Beaverton School Board Director Dr. Tammy Carpenter was accused by the Board of antisemitism for her social media posts condemning Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The community rose up in defense of free speech and a free Palestine, and in August the board voted unanimously that she had not violated any board policy – demonstrating that these kinds of disingenuous smears are no match for the power of a revitalized anti-war movement.

The crisis started on May 29 when the Beaverton School Board held a special session for the sole purpose of disciplining Dr. Carpenter, who was not informed before the session began. The general public had no window into this proceeding as the live stream was blank for well over an hour, until the board appeared. Board meetings are typically held in person.

The accusation happened quickly and with no explanation: School Board Chair Dr. Karen Pérez-Da Silva entertained a motion to refer charges against Dr. Carpenter to a third party investigator. Director Susan Greenberg made the motion and it was seconded by Director Justice Rajee. The motion carried with five in favor and two opposed, and the meeting was immediately adjourned. Because the Board had met for the previous hour in a closed-door session, little information was available as to why Dr. Carpenter was under investigation. What were these charges? Why was Dr. Carpenter being targeted by a majority of the board? 

When Portland DSA members learned about the investigation, we instantly understood it as not just an attack on Dr. Carpenter personally, but also as part of a broader strategy by local Zionist agitators to suppress pro-Palestinian sentiment by punishing public officials who dare to challenge the pro-Israel hegemony. We sprang into action to mobilize Dr. Carpenter’s many supporters, uniting our Washington County Branch, Labor Working Group, Electoral Working Group, Palestine Solidarity Working Group, and our network of educators.

We submitted public records requests to BSD in order to see for ourselves what complaints had been made against Dr. Carpenter. What we discovered was an astroturfed campaign led by the Jewish Federation of Portland to retaliate against Dr. Carpenter for using her personal platform to highlight the injustice and horror of the genocide in Gaza. One Instagram story – which recognized the 77th anniversary of the Nakba – was cited repeatedly in the 13 complaints submitted to the Board.

As a physician, Dr. Carpenter has been deeply affected by Israel’s targeted bombing of hospitals in Gaza. Her first social media post about the genocide was on October 17, 2023, when Israel bombed the first of many hospitals. This was the first of dozens of posts she has made on the subject since October 7, 2023, many of which also talked about the destruction of the schools and universities; a subject relevant to a school board member.

The next regular School Board meeting was scheduled for June 2, just four days after the investigation was voted on. Portland DSA members quickly planned a solidarity protest for that day. Over the course of the next 90 hours, we held planning meetings, arranged for speakers, promoted the protest on social media, talked to our coworkers and allies in the Beaverton School District, and contacted local elected officials. On the day of the Board meeting, 150 people turned out to rally and occupy the School Board headquarters, demonstrating the overwhelming local support for Dr. Carpenter and the struggle for Palestinian liberation. Attendees heard from Portland Jewish Voice for Peace organizer Julia Ford; State Representative Farrah Chaichi; and Hailey DeMarre, a DSA member, Beaverton Education Association activist and Beaverton High School teacher who had a pro-Palestinian mural in her classroom painted over. Beaverton City Councilor Nadia Hasan, the first Muslim person to serve on the Council, also spoke in solidarity during the School Board meeting public comment period. They all made it clear that the retaliation against Dr. Carpenter was just one example out of many in which the interests of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students were utterly disrespected.

Following the rally, most supporters filed into the meeting room which quickly reached capacity – many supporters were turned away for fire safety reasons. The pro-Zionists were outnumbered 15:1. Those 20 or so counter-protesters carried signs saying “Tammy Sucks” and signs that equated solidarity with Palestine as a call for Jewish extermination. The vast majority of the room was taken up by anti-Zionist advocates and Dr. Carpenter’s supporters, holding signs saying “Stop Arming Israel” and “Free Speech on Palestine.”

The meeting was tense even before public comment began, as the audience seating was overflowing with people holding signs. At one point, a group of high schoolers were awarded honors by the district, and we overheard one student insist on staying to watch the anticipated drama of the meeting, saying, “No, Mom, I want to see how this goes!”

Following the awards, a heated public comment period began wherein both sides shared alternative perspectives on the situation the Board had caused by capitulating to the complaints engineered by the Jewish Federation of Portland. (To hear the speeches, you can watch this YouTube livestream.) Some speakers complained that their federal tax dollars are being used to fund the genocide, and their local tax dollars shouldn’t go to investigating board members with a pro-Palestine position. Although the Board chairperson interrupted several times to tell attendees to quiet their reactions, the event was entirely peaceful. The crowd dispersed with the feeling of a job well done. Following the meeting, public statements poured into the School Board expressing support for Dr. Carpenter and condemnation of the School Board’s actions.

On August 9, the results of the investigation were finalized and published: the third-party investigator determined the charges against Dr. Carpenter were unfounded. We were confident from the start that this would be the result, but Portland DSA was committed to making it clear – to the Beaverton School Board and any other power-players considering following the lead of the Zionist lobby – that the public is in opposition to both the genocide and the erosion of free speech rights.

We see these charges in the same light we have seen charges of anti-semitism made against other socialist figures who have championed Palestinian liberation, like Zohran Mamdani in NYC or Rep. Rashida Tlaib in Congress. The Zionist lobby has long relied on slander to defend military funding for Israel, but it’s clear this trick doesn’t work anymore. Opposition to the imperialist war machine and solidarity with Palestine is not a liability – it is our strength.

We encourage all sympathizers to join Portland DSA and be a part of the movement to end war and genocide and instead create a world where all people can live in peace. From Beaverton to Palestine, all children should have safe, well-resourced schools that facilitate free inquiry. This will not be the last time our public figures are attacked for championing that vision, but no matter what comes next, we’re ready to keep fighting.

The post That Trick Doesn’t Work Anymore: How DSA and Allies Defeated a Smear Campaign and Protected Free Speech on Palestine appeared first on Portland DSA.

By: Rob Switzer

This article was originally published in the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC)’s blog.

If you’re considering joining a union or starting one in your workplace, you may ask yourself, “Are union dues expensive?” This question may have occurred to you spontaneously, or it may have been planted in your head by anti-union rhetoric, perhaps by your bosses in response to a unionization movement in your workplace. In either case, it’s a question worth exploring.

How are union dues calculated?

The union may determine dues based on a straight percentage of your paychecks. For example, if you’re a member of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), you may pay 1.5% of your overall salary in dues, capped at $90 a month. Let’s say you earn $1,000 every week for a yearly salary of $52,000: You would pay $15 from each weekly paycheck, totaling $60 a month or $720 a year.

Other unions calculate dues as a flat rate. For example, I am a United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) member, and at my workplace, I pay $10.65 each week, or $42.60 every month. And yes, your boss is right: If my union membership ended tomorrow, that’s an extra $42.60 that would be going into my pocket. And a hypothetical SEIU worker would have an extra $60 every month going into their pocket.

Is it worth paying union dues?

The important question is what would you lose? What does that $60 get you? Do the benefits of your union membership offset that expense? The data shows overwhelmingly that the answer is yes. To begin with, according to a study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2024, unionized workers in the United States, thanks to the wages they bargained for in their contracts, make on average 17.5% more than their non-unionized counterparts.

That number alone shows that union membership is worth the cost. If you make $1,000 in a week, 17.5% of that is $175. So on average, if a non-union worker is making $1,000 in a week, their union shop counterpart makes $1,175. Over the course of a year, while you’re paying $720 every year in union dues, you can expect to pocket on average $2,100 in extra cash in exchange. That’s a $1,380 return on investment. But there is much more to the equation than a simple dollar-for-dollar comparison.

Are union dues a benefit?

Forming a union and obtaining a collective bargaining agreement almost always locks in a series of benefits, some that have monetary value and some that are invaluable, in my opinion.

For one example, you could look at the contract where I work: Cattleman’s Meat and Produce, a neighborhood meat market and grocery store. Our union, UFCW, is often criticized as being one of the weaker large unions (and sometimes for good reason), yet our contract provides for a number of guaranteed benefits that workers in many other grocery retail environments simply don’t enjoy.

My favorite among these is paid vacation. At Cattleman’s, we receive a week of paid vacation after one year, and eventually three weeks if you stick around long enough. Having worked many jobs in my life without paid vacation, I don’t know how I ever lived without it. This is one of the benefits that I would classify as “invaluable.” Having a week off here and there to travel or just recharge your batteries and still get your bills paid can be a life-changer.

Can union dues protect my job?

Another benefit is simply job security: unions protect your ability to stay employed. Almost every state in this country is an “at-will” state, meaning you can be fired at any time for any reason (as long as it’s not an illegal reason, like racial discrimination). But virtually any union contract includes a “just cause” provision, meaning you can only be fired for a good reason.

If you are fired and you decide to fight it, this could mean a lengthy and expensive battle for the employer, and sometimes they will simply take someone back rather than having to deal with a fight.

Do union dues mean lower wages?

Paying union dues means you and your co-workers earn higher wages and wage increases over time. At Cattleman’s, most employees are promised a 50-cent raise every six months. This is something we need to stay on top of to make sure it’s enforced (the boss will conveniently “forget”), but it’s a contractually agreed-upon promise that we all benefit from.

Most union contracts will contain wage increases like this, and this obviously contributes to why union workers typically make more money.

What are the benefits of paying union dues?

There are many more benefits! We receive a full day’s pay for certain holidays, whether we work or not. We have dependable schedules. We have guaranteed hours every week, ensuring that we can pay our bills even during slow seasons. We get sick days and paid “personal days.” And like every union member in the United States, we have “Weingarten rights,” meaning we can demand the presence of a union representative or steward before any disciplinary actions are taken.

I am a meat cutter at my job but I am also our shop steward, and when I am asked, “What does the union do for us?”, this is how I answer: I tell them about all of the above-described benefits. (I even wrote up a handout that explains them all!) When someone complains about the union to me and floats the idea of leaving it, I will listen and often sympathize with them. But I ultimately always make the point, “Do you like your paid vacation? How about your job security? Do you really want to give those things up to keep an extra $10 in your pocket every week?”

Is it worth it to pay union dues?

Sometimes critics of unions have a point. Many unions (such as the UFCW) are not as democratic as they should be. Sometimes it seems like they don’t pay attention or care about us. We are often largely excluded from the negotiation process, and many workers feel they are pressured into accepting bad contract offers. Sometimes union executives make extremely high salaries that seem extravagant. (The current UFCW International president makes over $300,000, and many local presidents make around a quarter-million every year as well.)

But even if the union isn’t perfect (and ours certainly is not), the answer is not to leave it. The answer is stay, reap the benefits, and become an active member and improve the union from within. And if you are wondering whether it is worth it to start or join one, the answer is yes! So, are union dues expensive? Simply put, it is much more expensive to not pay dues to a union. And at the end of the day, union dues aren’t a cost — they’re an investment. And the return is your dignity, your security, and your voice.

Rob Switzer is a UFCW butcher and shop steward in Detroit, Michigan. He is a member of Metro Detroit’s chapter of Democratic Socialists of America and co-editor of their publication “The Detroit Socialist.”

Are Union Dues Expensive? was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As part of a city-wide crackdown on our homeless neighbors, the City of Madison is unfairly targeting the Social Justice Center, demanding that the SJC removes its food pantry, public health vending machine, benches, and public art, in an attempt to drive away unhoused people who rely on the SJC and the organizations it houses for shelter, safety, healthcare, and support.

Madison Area Democratic Socialists of America recognizes the effort the Social Justice Center puts into addressing the housing crisis that this city ignores, and we stand with the SJC and all who rely on it.

There is no denying it: there is a crisis in Madison. Rents get higher and access to affordable housing gets more limited by the day, forcing more and more people from their homes. Public restrooms are not open early or late enough. Overcoming addiction is nearly impossible when one’s basic needs for survival are not met. Each of these problems is a rung in the ladder of capitalist oppression, which forces the working class into worse and worse conditions until they have nowhere left to go.

The city’s approach to this crisis is unjust and unhelpful. We cannot disappear the unhoused population. We must house them. We must give them safety, security, and support. They are our neighbors, community members, and constituents of the politicians who claim to represent us. Any one of us could be a layoff or medical emergency away from joining them. This crisis is a reminder to the rest of the working class that the ruling class will turn its back on anyone who isn’t making them profits.

The Beacon, Madison’s primary day shelter, is beyond capacity, so people look for shelter in other parts of the city. The city’s proposed new men’s shelter won’t be ready until next year, and will only have 250 beds – not nearly enough to meet the well-documented need.

But instead of fully funding and expanding the sorely needed homeless services and meaningfully addressing the housing crisis that makes them necessary, the city is cracking down on neighbors helping neighbors – by increasing police presence at and making punitive demands of the Social Justice Center, by threatening to close down the Dairy Drive campground with winter just around the corner, and by sweeping the encampment at the Wisconsin Veterans’ Museum.

“Solving” homelessness with incarceration is more expensive per person than harm reduction centers and housing first policies, and only perpetuates the cycle.

As community members, it is our responsibility to provide what the city will not, and the Social Justice Center aims to do exactly that. We also have to fight for a just future in which everyone has what they need. MADSA stands in solidarity with the Social Justice Center, and calls upon the Madison Common Council, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, and the Dane County Board to do right by our neighbors:

1. Stop targeting the SJC for stepping up where the city has failed.

2. Continue to fund the Dairy Drive campsite, a crucial transition program.

3. Support the Dane County Homeless Justice Initiative’s demands to fully fund homeless support services.

4. Cure the root cause of the homelessness crisis by building affordable, desirable, and dignified public housing where our neighbors can thrive, not just survive!

Author: Geoff B

Disclaimer

I am a licensed Mental Health Counselor and will be discussing mental health and potential mitigations for some of neoliberalism’s most insidious impacts on one’s psychological state.  Still, none of what I mention here is medical advice and, if you are struggling, please reach out to the appropriate mental health or crisis services provider.

Additionally, while aspects of neoliberalism can affect and/or exacerbate psychological issues, the reality is that any mental health difficulty is influenced by a multitude of biopsychosocial factors, so even if capitalism falls overnight and tomorrow’s brilliant dawn heralds the beginning of the socialist utopia, you should still definitely talk to your doctor before chucking your Lexapro in the trash.

The Issue

Neoliberal Capitalism is wrecking our mental health and is a major contributor to stress, depression, burnout, and nihilism.  

First, it’s important to lay out what exactly I am talking about when addressing neoliberal capitalism, the driving economic force globally since the tawdry, mid-80s affair between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.  The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “a type of liberalism which favours a global free market without government regulation, with reduction in government spending and businesses and industry controlled and run for profit by private owners.”  On its surface, the definition is dry, boring, and seemingly innocuous.  The most harmful aspects of neoliberalism, however, are seen in what it smuggles in, just under the surface: competition decides what or who is right; government market intervention is inherently destabilizing; humans are consumers; everything should be commodified; inequality is not just fair, but a virtue, as everyone, in the end, gets what they earn.  

The financial and societal impacts of neoliberalism are clear to anyone paying attention. Extreme concentrations of wealth and power and catastrophic levels of inequality are pushing the most people into poverty, marginalization, and disenfranchisement. Just as damaging are the erosion of education systems and the weakening of trade unions.  Then, of course, there are the financial catastrophes:  From the Savings and Loan crisis in the mid-80s (all roads lead back to Ronnie) right through the 2008 Housing Correction to the ongoing post-pandemic inflation, the neoliberal system delivers a regular drumbeat of financial devastation for the common person alongside incredible opportunities for the upward redistribution of wealth.  At this point, it is probably overkill to discuss the details of the numerous neoliberalism-induced wars, famines, and episodes of pestilence during that same period.

What doesn’t get enough press, however, is the psychological toll that all of the above takes on us as individuals.  We struggle to stay financially afloat.  It becomes difficult to envision a bright future for ourselves or our children.  We are algorithmically corralled into isolation, consumerism, and disinformation – all designed to prop up the system.  If one dares point these negative outcomes out, the system responds, “You didn’t grind hard enough, it’s your own fault,” or “You’re just being a snowflake.”  But the truth is, the impact is substantial, measurable, and not grounded in personal failing.  

The so-called deaths of despair – suicide, drug and alcohol overdoses, and alcohol-related liver and coronary disease – have doubled in the US since the 1980s and tripled since the post-war 1940s.  The World Health Organization reports a 13% increase in reported mental health disorders over the past decade, indicating that domestic and global mental health trends coincide.  

Some of the most worrisome examples of the damage done by a capitalistic system supercharged by neoliberal policy are the impacts on young people and children.  For example, Jonathan Haidt, in his book The Anxious Generation, lays out a compelling argument that unregulated social media algorithms are directly responsible for the rapid increase in rates of depression, anxiety, and eating disorders in teens.  (It would be dialectically biased for me to not mention, in their defense, that the algorithms monetizing our kids have driven some very healthy returns for investors.) 

The Solution

Recognizing the impact of the Neoliberal Capitalist system can be overwhelming.  There are, however, viable methods of engaging with the system in healthy, purposeful, and self-preserving ways.  While perhaps not a panacea that guarantees bliss in an oppressive system, we can use practices and tactics found in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to reclaim some peace of mind.  

ACT, in a nutshell, is the idea that: 1) the current situation is, the feelings arising from one’s existence in the situation are, and that one can accept those realities and the associated emotions without needing to endorse them; and 2) one can make a commitment to values-driven action to drive change.  In practical terms, this can be understood in three overarching action items:  Mindful Participation, Solidarity/Mutual Aid Building, and Efforts towards Change.

Mindful Participation

Despite our misgivings, despite seeing the injustices and the ugliness of the current system, our participation in it is (nearly) unavoidable.  (I say “nearly” because while becoming a cave-dwelling hermit is still technically possible, it seems unnecessarily extreme and the WiFi sucks.)  We live, mostly through no fault or choice of our own, in a world where the rent has to be paid, shopping has to be done, and, if you want to hedge against starving in your senior years, saving for retirement in an IRA or 401k is unavoidable.  

We can, however, participate in ways that are mindful of our impact and as aligned as possible with our ethical values.  Employers can be found that are more ethically tolerable than others.  Mortgage payments, rent, and banking are unavoidable, but we do have some level of choice in who we do business with.  And, despite still being embedded in an oppressive system, ethically focused investments can have fewer negative impacts on our world than purely profit/return-driven investing.  We may not be able to step out of the system, but we can certainly be mindful of how we participate and evaluate our actions through the lens of our ethical and moral framework.  Consider it behavioral harm reduction.

There can be a sense that participation is inherently collaboration, making the acceptance part of ACT a bitter pill to swallow.  We can string together two ideas from Michel Foucault (don’t mistake respect for his philosophy as an endorsement of his alleged – ahem –  unsavory behavior in his personal life).  First, he wrote, “Power is exercised through networks, and individuals do not simply circulate in those networks; they are in a position to both submit to and exercise this power,”  and in a related quote, “Where there is power, there is resistance.”  That is to say, resistance can only exist within a system of power.  

Our aforementioned hermit may have avoided the ethical pitfalls of participating in a corrupt system, but fails to take advantage of the power for resistance that is intrinsic to the system itself. (For example, the message of this essay is much more effectively delivered using a MacBook and the internet than it would be sending it via smoke signal from an ideologically-pure cave.)

Creating Solidarity/Mutual Aid

Nearly 1200 words into this and I haven’t brought out the big guns of theory, so let’s rectify that.  Karl Marx, posits in The German Ideology, “Only in community [with others has each] individual the means of cultivating his gifts in all directions; only in the community, therefore, is personal freedom possible.”  Herein lies the first of the two aspects of commitment that we can examine: the recognition that not only are we not alone in our suffering under this system, but that we will only emerge victorious by combining forces and assisting one another.  (After all, as they say, you can’t do socialism without being social, baby!)

Like in our evaluation of mindful participation, we need to parse this through our ethical framework, as well as our individual capacity.  What counts as helping or community building is nearly endless.  If you’re outdoorsy, organize a hiking group; if you’re proud of those baking skills honed during lockdown, bring some cookies to your neighbors; if you can swing it, donate to a worthy local cause.  One of my personal commitments to community building, as a further example, is to always engage the numerous people with whom I have micro-interactions (think cashiers, Uber drivers, receptionists) in a way that shows I see them as a person, not just as a robot performing a public-facing task.  (Sometimes, they look at me like I’m a weirdo.  Sometimes they spend five minutes giving me the down-and-dirty details as to why they’re having a bad day.  So, if I am ever late to a meeting, it’s probably the latter, and certainly not my predilection for losing track of time.)

Additionally, it’s worth pointing out that community building and helping are two-way streets.  None of us are in the position to always be the helper.  Solidarity is likewise strengthened when one reaches out and asks for needed help.  

A common sight, in the early morning hours, in many Southeast Asian countries, are the columns of orange-clad Buddhist monks, winding their way through dense Bangkok neighborhoods or remote Laotian villages.  The faithful line the road, waiting their turn to fill the alms bowls, so as to generate good karma. But, according to Buddhist philosophy, you know who is really racking up the karmic merit points…the monks, by providing those villagers with an opportunity for giving and generosity.

Efforts towards Change

The final leg of the ACT stool we’re crafting is a commitment to collective action aimed at systemic change.  There can be some overlap here with our community building, but these acts are more overtly political; more intentionally designed to upset, alter, or rework the system itself.  

Constructing a new society demands focused, strategic, and coordinated effort.  Plenty of hard work is required. Something as revolutionary as a just and democratic society won’t materialize from thoughts and good vibes.  Luckily, the range of activities that qualify and move us forward is wide and deep.  

-Have you gone to a general meeting and voted on something?  You are a change agent and absolutely pushing us towards a better future.  

-Have you worked a phone bank or marched in a protest rally?  You are a legitimate paradigm-shifting Rock Star.  

-Have you logged in to a DSA meeting via Zoom, listening and learning, trying to find where you can plug in to the organization?  Well, my friend, you are a warrior for humaneness and should regard yourself as such!   

As a warrior, you should certainly become familiar with the sage advice from everyone’s favorite Prussian General, Carl von Clausewitz, “Wearing down the enemy in a conflict means using the duration of the war to bring about a gradual exhaustion of his physical and moral resistance.”  Every action that chips away at neoliberalism, no matter how small, matters.

The Wrap-Up

I am of the opinion that there is plenty in this world to inspire wonder and amazement, but concede that it sometimes feels like we are living through the worst timeline.  We have borne witness to a steady decline in fairness, equality and the political agency of the common person.  We have seen and experienced financial exploitation, social oppression, and the continued concentration of wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands.  The modern age has driven a sense of psychological brutalism and strategic isolation.  

Dogged, collective action is the singular means by which a more just and humane future society can be won.  But, the strength required to carry out this action cannot exist without individual psychological resilience.  Our ability to protest, organize, or lead is directly tied to our capacity to keep ourselves from succumbing to the immediate pressures of a brutal system.  The coping skills and survivor mindset that can be cultivated with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy tools can not only make the day-to-day more bearable but also increase our ability to stay in the fight.  

None of the actions suggested by the ACT framework are momentous.  They can be executed in small chunks, step-by-step, inch-by-inch.  Even if we’re moving an inch at a time, we’re still gaining ground, and, in good time, will arrive at a better place, personally and as a society.  I am truly optimistic about that.

The post Acceptance, Commitment, and Class Struggle: Maintaining Resilience During Late-Stage Neoliberal Capitalism appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

To my comrades in the arts,

I write to you today, hopeful that I can answer one of the most important questions of our time.

This question sits at the back of my mind, and no doubt, most likely yours. It festers and manifests into either hope or defeat.

It inspires many, but it also leaves us with feelings of conflict. This, combined with the constant attacks from those in power and those who have been brainwashed to believe they will someday join their oppressors on that blood-soaked throne, can even make us feel unworthy and like impostors to the cause.

The question I’m here to ask today, to you, myself, and our allies across the nation and around the world, is this: How, without taking up arms, can I truly call myself a revolutionary?

We watch as the vampiric class takes our pleas for a better society as at best a tantrum, and at worst, an attack on their so-called “free world.”

We watch as the left hand of the establishment monster pats us on the head and sends us on our way, then reaches over to the right to collect its share of the wealth and power. All the while, that same right hand just moments before, with a clenched fist, slammed down and snuffed out the cries of the working class.

It’s by acknowledging that these are the likely outcomes that many of us may be too afraid to march or speak out, with the fear that you can just be abducted, sent to a place you may not even know, or risk losing what little stability you have in an already broken, unjust, and unstable system.

And all this, again, begs the question: How, without risking what little I have, can I truly be a revolutionary?

And throughout countless hours of reflection, sleepless nights, and a painful analysis of the hate rampant on social media, it’s that I’ve recognized what can be one of the most revolutionary acts of our modern times.

And that, my friends, is to create.

For too long, they have told us that our lives as creatives are meaningless. That our pursuit of the arts and knowledge about everything that makes us human is not worth it because it is not profitable.

That to live a fulfilling life, you need to give yourself to a system that does as little as possible to ensure your wellbeing in the name of profit.

Sacrifice what little time you have to pursue your passions to make even more money, and to leave little energy in your reserve so as not to question or step out of line.

To that I say, be relentless in your rebellion.

And by that I mean we must execute the perversion that is this self-hatred and submission to capitalist degradation.

Creativity feeds the human spirit, consequently fueling the desire to learn, and as we’ve seen, education is what tyrants fear most.

Because it’s through education that we can make vital steps toward achieving solidarity and collective class consciousness.

So take everything going on around you

And write a poem,
Draw a picture,
Make a song,
Pen an essay,
Record a video,

Use the arts to fuel the revolution. To create the blueprint for a world that values people over profits.

And if you say to yourself you’re not an artist, I challenge you to prove yourself wrong.

And when you do, you will realize that you are a revolutionary.

The post You Are a Revolutionary: A Letter to Working-Class Creatives first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.

By: Joanne Coutts

This article was originally published in Riverwise magazine.

By April 2020, as the world grappled with the harsh reality that the COVID pandemic was not going to be over quickly and that not everyone who contracted the virus could be saved, I had been volunteering to provide humanitarian aid in the Sonoran Desert surrounding Ajo, Arizona for about two years.

I was also grappling with another harsh reality: no matter how much water I put out in the desert some of the people crossing were still going to die. In the end, although the capacity for providing humanitarian aid remained solid all through spring and early summer of 2020 and we put out a lot of water, that summer came to be known in the humanitarian aid community as the “Summer of SAR” (Search and Rescue/Recovery). Perhaps because, or in spite of the pandemic, people continued to cross the border. The heat rose. The monsoons never really came to the west desert around Ajo. And the calls to the volunteer SAR line kept on coming.

Simultaneously, around the U.S. white activists were being asked to and beginning to question narratives of “white saviorism” in their work. For me the intersection of the reality that I could not put out enough water to save everyone’s life with the conversations surrounding white saviorism sparked an internal questioning of how I might reconsider my relationship to providing humanitarian aid. I very much wanted to move towards a perspective of solidarity — of recognizing, highlighting, and foregrounding the partnership of equals between U.S.-based volunteers and people crossing the desert in an inequitable place and time.

Solidarity takes many forms. It means not victimizing, disenfranchising, or denying the agency of people crossing the desert in our narratives of the border. For me, this includes not using or co-opting their stories, their experiences, or their deaths in my own quest for personal or community resolution and redemption. It means taking to heart the guidance of Gangula activist Lilla Watson, who reminded us that “If you have come here to help me, then you are wasting your time… But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” It also means telling the story of my own experiences, thoughts, and feelings to give a glimpse into why I choose to show up for humanitarian aid at the so-called U.S./Mexico border. The following is an excerpt from a journal I kept for a week in April 2020.

The only experiences we can know, stories we can tell, thoughts and feelings we can share, are our own. (Not necessarily. Solidarity also means being able to empathize and use that understanding for advocacy when others can’t. This means being able to understand how to tell stories without co-opting them for transactional purposes). Perhaps something like: For me, this means not just using the stories of others or co-opting their experiences and pain to fuel my own needs for resolution or redemption, but understanding deeply that my own liberation is connected to that of everyone’s, and providing through my own experiences a way for others to understand why I show up for others in the way I do.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Today was a chill day. It was a logistics day because we have received a waypoint (GPS coordinates) in the Bryan Mountains from one of the SAR hotlines of a person who was left behind by his group about a month ago.

There are many reasons (blisters, dehydration, exhaustion, death to name a few) that cause groups to leave one or more of their members behind. Sometimes, when we find someone who has died, I think about what the rest of their group could have gone through having to leave that person behind. I think about how clear and distinctive water drop locations seem in my mind in the moment. How quickly the image loses focus. How when I try to describe them to other volunteers, I forget details. Does this happen to groups? Do people tell themselves they are going to get help? Feel that the spot is ingrained in their memories? Only to find that when they call the SAR hotline and try to recall the location it has vanished like a dust devil into the enormity of the desert.

None of us has ever been to the Bryan Mountains. We will have to hike 11 miles from the nearest road, the Camino del Diablo, just to get to our search area. In addition to completing a thorough search, we will also take the opportunity to explore the area and try to understand how people are traveling through it. To accomplish all this, we are spending the weekend out there.

I feel that no one is interested in the details of my food, camping, COVID safety and truck preparations. So, I am going to take this opportunity to share something I get in my feelings about.

That something is — items left in the desert by people traveling. Generally, I believe in the principle of “leave no trace.” I pack out my trash and pick up water bottles that we have left in the desert at our drops. But, when it comes to items left behind in the desert by people traveling, I definitely do not pick them up and pack them out. Why not?

First, I do not consider these items to be “trash.” I think of these items as artifacts, tools that people have made a conscious choice about, for example, pantouflas. Pantouflas are carpet slippers that people wear over their shoes to cover their footprints and make it harder for Border Patrol to track them. Like pottery, or other cultural artifacts that you see in museums, pantouflas have a cultural relevance to life in the Sonoran Desert in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Second, I see these items as providing signs and guides for others traveling through the desert. They might help someone to navigate the easiest way through an area. This is especially true when there are multiple apparent canyons going into a mountain range. Some of the canyons will dead end or lead to high cliffs. By following the signs of other travelers, people may be able to identify which canyon leads through the mountains. Items can also identify safe or unsafe places to rest depending on what they are or how they are arranged. For instance, randomly left clothing and blankets can indicate a safe place to sleep, but a circle of camouflage clothing, accompanied by small Kirkland water bottles can indicate a detention site — that is a place where a group has been arrested by Border Patrol.

Third, sometimes items can be reused, a water bottle that has recently been left can replace one that is leaking, or it could be cut in half to make a bowl for eating the beans that we leave or to collect water from rain or a natural rock tank.

I have ideological reasons for not picking up items too.

I want people visiting the desert to see the impact of Prevention through Deterrence on people and on the land. Sometimes the number of items can be overwhelming. Every water bottle, every tuna packet, every backpack, blanket, jacket, pair of jeans, shoe represents someone who has traveled through the heat and surveillance to save themselves or to search for a better life. It is hard to believe that anyone could see the endurance and resilience that these items represent and not feel compassion for their fellow humans.

Finally, there is the hypocrisy of the land managers, who complain vociferously about the environmental impact of items left behind by travelers in a desert that is, and since 1941 has been, an active military training ground. We find all kinds of military trash, from bullets to tow darts, flares, and even full-size missiles. The military says it is too hard to collect their trash because of the terrain and distances they must travel to pick it up. Usually, I am all about community rather than individual responsibility, but as the military has dropped more “trash” in the desert than anyone else and as it is militarization of the desert that is causing people to travel through wilderness areas leaving items behind, it is, perhaps, the military’s responsibility to clean it up.

Friday, April 17, 2020

Summer is coming! Knowing that we had an 11.2-mile hike just to get to our search location in the Bryan Mountains, we left Ajo in the afternoon for the 40ish-mile drive to camp in the Agua Dulce Mountains so that we would be up and walking by 5 a.m. tomorrow.

By 7 p.m. in the evening, everyone was at the campsite. We ate dinner, then planned for the next day’s search around the campfire.

Saturday, April 18, 2020

This morning, we woke up to a beautiful desert sunrise. There was little time to enjoy it. We had a long hike and the heat of the day was coming. We loaded our packs, wolfed down some breakfast and set off across the San Cristobal valley towards our search location in the Bryan Mountains.

I know full well that when I talk about Search and Rescue/Recovery to people who have never participated in it in the Sonoran Desert, the term conjures up images of helicopters, well organized lines of searchers, 4-wheel drive trucks, drones, and high-tech navigation equipment. For us, however, SAR is a complex, messy tangle of information of varying degrees of accuracy and relevance and random groups of people walking on foot using handheld GPS units and distinctly low-tech walkie-talkies.

Normally on SAR we would walk in a line, each person spaced 50 feet apart. We would have a left and right line anchor on either end and a line manager in the middle making sure that we are all walking at the same pace and that everyone is accounted for when we go through washes or thick desert brush. Today, because we had such a great distance to walk just to get to the search area, we used a restricted administrative road — a road that the public is allowed to walk on but only the various arms of Law Enforcement are allowed to drive on — as the fastest way to travel across the valley. This strategy gave us more time to do a proper search once we got to the Bryan Mountains.

And we walked and walked, and it got hotter and hotter, and we walked some more. We stopped chatting and kept walking. After about five hours of walking, we hunted for lunchtime shade and ate and then started walking again. Finally, at about 2 p.m., after seven hours of walking, we arrived at the waypoint we had been given where the man we were looking for had been left behind. And there was nothing but desert. We did not find any sign of the man or any sign of his group.

Like the desert itself, information for SAR can be an illusion. Time, space and distance look different from different places. A slight rise in the terrain or a wash with tall trees can make a mountain look closer or a valley look narrower than it really is. Also with SAR, one piece of information, such as a waypoint, can seem larger and more important than it is. Another piece of information that might seem small and insignificant can lead the search team to the correct place.

Just because we found nothing at the waypoint, we did not immediately decide that there was no-one or nothing to be found.

We rested, unpacked our packs, and set up camp. Then, somewhat refreshed, we set out with only essential items, water, a little food, GPS, marking tape and walkie talkies for a line search of the area north of the waypoint. We spread out with the west line anchor on the lowest slopes of the Bryans and the east line anchor (me) on the fringe of the San Cristobal valley.

We walked slowly, checking under palo verde and mesquite trees, looking in washes and stopping to investigate items left behind in the desert. Our line moved deliberately and thoroughly north for just over an hour. Then we stopped, the sun was starting to set, and the Bryan Mountains threw a big shadow over the valley. It was time to turn back to reach our camp before it got dark. We bumped the line out to the east to continue our search as we went southward. I moved about a quarter mile out towards the center of the valley and the west anchor, moved to about the line that I had taken coming North. We returned in the same methodical way that we had come.

We did not find the person.

Days like these in the desert bring up so many questions. There are obvious logistical ones like: Was the waypoint wrong? Did we look in the correct directions? Where should we look tomorrow? How much time should we spend doing general exploration to gain information that might be helpful for future SARs? There are also emotional questions: Is it OK if we do not find the person? Is it OK if we laugh, tell stories, and generally enjoy each other’s company while we are on a SAR? Is it allowable to love and appreciate the beauty of the desert while looking for someone who has died in it?

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Back in the day when I had a steady income, I used to play Texas Hold ’Em. Not particularly well, but I was an almost decent recreational player. Aside from the obvious benefit of occasionally winning money, I learned a lot from the game which I have applied to my life as an humanitarian aid volunteer.

Texas Hold ’Em Poker is, according to Annie Duke, and I concur, a game of “decision making under conditions of incomplete information.” What counts is the quality of the decision regardless of its outcome. Hold ’Em also requires you to take the long view, to accept that the universe owes you nothing. Just because you have patiently folded bad starting cards for hours does not mean you now deserve to get dealt pocket Aces. Poker teaches you to maintain a Zen state of detachment, to hold the outcome you are looking for lightly and accept that it may or may not come.

All these lessons apply to doing humanitarian aid work in the Sonoran Desert. Not that people’s lives in the desert are a “game” in the frivolous sense of the word. Clearly there is nothing frivolous in the disappearance of thousands of people as a result of “Prevention through Deterrence.” It is a “game” in the sense that to recover the disappeared and deliver supplies to help people keep themselves alive requires strategy, adapting to change and trying to think as both your allies and your opponents might think, to aid the former and outsmart the latter.

Our SAR this past weekend required using all my poker skills.

We began the search with a waypoint. In the context of the Search and Recovery, a waypoint is very little information. With no corroboratory information, such as the starting location of the group, their destination, how long they had been walking before they left the man behind, which mountains they had passed or were headed towards, a waypoint is almost no information at all. In this situation of incomplete information, the first decision is, “do we go out and look for this person at all?”

In this case the answer to that question was “yes.” It was “yes” for some practical reasons. First, we had the capacity in terms of people ready, willing and able to mount a search. We also had a bigger picture motive of exploring an area (the Bryan Mountains) that none of us had ever been to before. It was also “yes” for existential reasons, even if we did not find him, the very fact of looking demonstrated that this man was a person worth looking for. That seven people hiked 22 miles to look for him (even though we do not know his name or family) hopefully went out into the universe and he and they got a moment of a sense that some people cared.

As we got closer to the waypoint the sense of expectation grew. It is human nature to get excited when you feel you are close to achieving your goal, especially one that has required the exertion of a great deal of physical and mental effort. Here is where poker comes in again: the fact of expending the effort does not equate to deserving the expected outcome. The person we were looking for was not at the waypoint. That does not invalidate the decision to look for him. It does not invalidate the effort expended. It is simply the unexpected result of a good decision.

Next we did a grid search, now a Zen poker mindset is most needed and hardest to maintain. You have been sitting at the table for hours, you have been getting dealt Queen/Three off suit for hours. You want something to happen. You envision Aces or Kings coming your way as the cards are dealt and you peek at the corner of the cards, Q3 again. This happens to me a lot on searches. I have been walking for hours, looking under trees for hours and I want to find the person. I start to imagine finding them under the next tree, in the next wash, over the next saddle. I look and there is still just the desert. I tell myself to let go, to hold the thought of the person lightly, to think about something else. Sometimes that works after a fashion. Sometimes I become so focused on trying to hold the person lightly I end up clinging to them tighter than ever.

Back in Ajo tonight, looking at the stars, I remember that this is a “long game.” I believe that the universe knows we looked for this man and I believe that one day, if we all hold him lightly and constantly enough, he will be found.

Now say his name aloud:

“Desconocido.”

“Presente!”

Epilogue

Reading this four years later brings back memories of the beautiful community we shared in the desert during the height of the COVID pandemic. How special it was to be able to walk with that group out to the Bryan Mountains. There are parts that I still agree with and parts where my thinking has changed since 2020. It would be a sorry thing if my thinking had not grown and evolved in the intervening years.

I continue to be drawn back to Ajo every year by my frustration at the inhumanity of U.S. immigration policy. And by my need to do something, anything to contribute to ameliorating the devastating human costs of “Prevention through Deterrence” I am also drawn by my desire to just be in the desert. I don’t know if I am any closer to resolving how to be in genuine solidarity with people crossing the desert. I cannot imagine the external pressures and internal strengths that would get me to pack just one backpack and leave behind the life and home I have built for myself. I do not like to think of people crossing the desert as “needy, desperate migrants.” I believe that humanitarian aid work and the language we use to describe it must recognize the agency, need and determination as well as the desperation in people’s journeys. As we move deeper into our technological and AI age, I become ever more acutely aware that people crossing the desert today are the vanguard. We will all be learning from them in a future where all our liberation is bound up in the freedom of people to move across “borders.”

My favorite day’s writing is Thursday, the day I talk about items left behind in the desert. I still stand solidly behind my arguments for not picking up items left by people traveling. I wince a little when I read that I wrote the words “leave no trace” and “wilderness.” When people say those words to me now my hackles rise. What wilderness? The Sonoran Desert has always been a place of people and communities and travel. Humans and their movement are as much a part of life in the desert as pronghorn, pack rats and saguaros.

The intervening years have also added another layer of complexity to my relationship with humanitarian aid. I have been thinking and learning about the relationship between our work with the Sonoran Desert’s Indigenous O’odham himdag (way of life) and the land itself. Today, I try to think of humanitarian aid as the current iteration of a centuries old desert culture of giving assistance to travelers and caring for water sources. It feels important to me to be in solidarity with land and water as well as people. The Sonoran Desert once provided water for travelers naturally. Now it is unable to do this on its own due to climate change and the never-ending thirst of cities like Phoenix, Tucson and Buckeye. The honor of creating and caring for water sources is an opportunity to try and practice valuing and learning from Indigenous ways of living with the land and to reestablish and rebalance my relationship with my human, plant, animal, mountain, rock, and water relatives.

Joanne Coutts is an independent cartographer and activist whose practice is centered on the connections between our relationships with land and water, and commitment to humanitarian aid and solidarity in response to climate change. Her current projects use counter-mapping to support humanitarian aid at the so-called US/Mexico border and contribute to efforts for water rights, and rights for water, in Detroit. She is a member of Metro Detroit DSA.

In Search of Solidarity: Reflections on a Weekend of Search and Discovery in the Sonoran Desert was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.