Enjoy your April National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 18-person body (including two YDSA members who share a vote) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, join May Day actions, protect trans rights, get involved with our national Convention, and more!

And to make sure you get our newsletters in your inbox, sign up here! Each one features action alerts, upcoming events, political education, and more.

• From the National Political Committee — May Day Solidarity
• National Electoral Commission Announces Two New Candidates — Your Support Can Put Them in Office!
• Help Pass Vital Trans Rights Legislation Today!
• Fight Oligarchy This May Day! Mass Call Sunday 4/29, Marches Monday 5/1, Thursday 5/3
• Monthly Convention Update: Volunteering Opportunities, Proposal Submissions, and Convention Programming Submissions Open!
• Sign Up for Housing Justice Commission’s May Meeting Wednesday 5/7
• Protect Socialist History! Join Our DSA Archives Workshop Thursday 5/29
• The Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus is Stronger and Building!
• Apply for DSA’s National Communications Committee

From the National Political Committee — May Day Solidarity

May Day is a uniquely international holiday, where workers of the world unite to celebrate our history and demands for our future — and it’s a holiday with deep American roots. A May Day 1886 protest demanding 8-hour work days (something we so often take for granted) led to the Chicago police brutalizing a crowd of protestors in Haymarket Square, and a series of violent events which led to the unjust state executions of 7 “Apostles of Labor.”

Socialists must remember these roots. This fight has never been easy, but we stand on the shoulders of giants, arm in arm with our comrades across our own organization — over 70,000 strong — and our siblings in the labor movement, the renters’ rights movement, the Palestinian liberation movement, the migrants’ rights movement, and so many more. 

Because of this solidarity, we have incredible opportunities to organize and exert our collective strength, working locally and nationally in unison with mass movements around the world, to pick big fights against the boss class, and to win. We are stronger every day, even as the forces of capital work to slow us down, because we continue to build this solidarity.

We’ve witnessed the strength of this solidarity in the last few weeks, as hundreds of thousands of people have come out to the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour to see democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speak out against the system that oppresses us, even in deep red parts of the country like Idaho and Bakersfield, California. The rallies feature labor organizers representing people who form the backbone of our economy, from rideshare workers to farmworkers, and socialist electeds building the bench downballot, like DSA city councilmember Eunisses Hernandez in Los Angeles. The message is clear: a better world is possible, and we need class solidarity to win it. DSA members are showing up in force at local stops of this tour to canvass attendees and show how we are ready to give people the chance to be protagonists of their own history and build the working class power we need at scale to take on the oligarchy.

DSA chapters all across the country are planning May Day events, and we have officially joined the May Day Strong movement, organized with the Chicago Teachers Union and Bargaining for the Common Good. We’re encouraging DSA members everywhere to plug in — check out our May Day toolkit for ways to get involved. You can find your nearest chapter and their contact info here, and check the May Day Strong Map to find an event near you!

This year, mobilizing on May Day is even more urgent:

• In spite of the objections of the Supreme Court, members of Congress, and millions of working class people, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father and union worker, is still being detained illegally in El Salvador.
• Pro-Palestine organizer and former UAW member Mahmoud Khalil is being held illegally in ICE detention in Louisiana.
• Over two hundred thousand federal workers have lost their jobs and nearly a million more have been told that their right to bargain over working conditions no longer exists.

And before you hit the streets on May 1, please join us for a mass call on April 29. On this call — Fight Oligarchy: Build to May Day 2025 — you’ll hear from labor organizers, immigrants’ rights activists, and DSA chapter leaders on how you can fight back this May Day against attacks on our unions, rights, and essential services. 

Need more ways to plug in? Please scroll down for a number of exciting ways to organize today — several of our national committees are seeking new members, we have a call to action from comrades in Colorado against an anti-trans bill, there’s more info about DSA Convention 2025 (to be held in Chicago, the Haymarket Martyrs’ resting place), and lots more ways to tap in and fight for a better future.

This is a difficult moment in our history, but the bosses are scared. They haven’t seen an organized left of this strength and caliber in their lifetimes. The stakes are high, and it’s on us to organize with even more strength and purpose, to exploit the contradictions that open up in uncertain times like these, and to win. May Day is a day to remind each other that together, organized people make history.

In Solidarity,

Megan Romer and Ashik Siddique
DSA National Co-Chairs 

National Electoral Commission Announces Two New Candidates — Your Support Can Put Them in Office!

This year, DSA’s National Electoral Commission has an exciting new project. We’re supporting a rotating slate of candidates with nationwide fundraising throughout the year — and in our first 30 days, we’ve already raised over $20,000!

We couldn’t be prouder of this slate of socialist candidates. All of them represent DSA and our vision for the future so well, including our two latest new endorsees, Tammy Honeywell and Michael Westgaard. Tammy Honeywell, a union leader and founding member of Syracuse DSA, is running for a seat in the Onondaga County Legislature in upstate New York. And in Washington State, Michael Westgaard of Seattle DSA is running for Renton Common Council. Your donations can help put them and our socialist candidates across the country in office!

And do you want to help out with phonebanking? Sign up for the NEC email list for more info!

Help Pass Vital Trans Rights Legislation Today!

URGENT ACTION NEEDED! The Kelly Loving Act (HB25-1312), a bold package of pro-trans changes to Colorado law backed by Colorado DSA chapters, has passed the State House and is currently before the State Senate. However, far-right opposition is mounting, and we need your help to get this vital trans rights legislation across the finish line! Click here to write to Colorado legislators and demand they take action to protect trans people.

Fight Oligarchy This May Day! Mass Call Sunday 4/29, Marches Monday 5/1, Thursday 5/3

The Trump administration continues to target federal workers, immigrants and the institutions that provide basic support for working people in our country. On May 1st, chapters across the country are joining the call to fight back and build a movement that can fight for the world we deserve!

Join us this Sunday, 4/29 at 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT/6:30pm MT/5:30pm PT to learn how you can be part of this fight. On this call, you’ll hear from organizers fighting for immigrant rights, defending our federal services, and building cross-union structures to build to May Day 2025!

Monthly Convention Update: Volunteering Opportunities, Proposal Submissions, and Convention Programming Submissions Open!

Our DSA Convention is coming up in August, and preparations are going on now. To start, we have openings on Convention Planning Subcommittees! The Convention Planning Subcommittees are looking to fill a few open spots. Interested members can view more information and apply to join a Convention Planning Subcommittee here! The application deadline is Friday, 5/2.

And proposals have been flying into our Convention Hub on the DSA Discussion Forum. These include new Bylaws, Platform Changes, and Resolutions, all of which are looking for signatories. Head on over to the Convention Hub to see what’s being submitted and sign on to things you want to see debated on the Convention floor! The deadline to submit proposals is Sunday 5/11.

You must be a member in good standing to view and sign on to any proposals. If you need to sign up for the DSA Discussion Forum account, go here to make your account today!

Having trouble getting on the forum? Reach out to the NTC at ntc@dsacommittees.org.

We’re also excited to open our call for submissions for programming sessions at this year’s DSA National Convention. You can submit your ideas here until Saturday, May 31. Sessions can include workshops, panel discussions, seminars, and creative displays or performances. This year, we are aiming for diverse, engaged, and energetic programming that connects to our theme, “Rebirth and Beyond: Reflecting on a Decade of DSA’s Growth and Preparing for a Decade of Party-Building.”

And finally, DSA’s National Fundraising Committee is calling for new members to help us raise a boatload of money to support DSA’s work at the 2025 DSA National Convention. We’re particularly looking for help organizing a live fundraiser event on Saturday, August 9. This includes soliciting donations of auction items for our live auction. If you have chapter fundraising experience, that’s all the better, but anyone can help contribute to this work. Apply here today! Applications are open on a rolling basis.

Sign Up for Housing Justice Commission’s May Meeting Wednesday 5/7

Join the Housing Justice Commission’s May meeting on Wednesday 5/7 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT! On this call, you’ll hear about our consensus resolution for the 2025 DSA convention, and our new and improved Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee project. If you’re interested in starting a new tenant union or you want to talk about housing work in DSA, come on through!

Protect Socialist History! Join Our DSA Archives Workshop Thursday 5/29

DSA Archives Workshop is BACK! When socialist education is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back… by taking care of our history and records! After a long hiatus, NPEC is excited to bring back the DSA Archives Workshop, co-sponsored by the DSA Fund. Chapter secretaries, political educators, comrades with old stuff, and anyone interested in the importance of archives for the left are welcome to join! The call will be held on Thursday, 5/29 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT. RSVP here today.

The Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus is Stronger and Building!

Thanks to everyone who joined our 4/10 General Body Meeting — our first since relaunching with the new Executive Committee! We’re now forming Working Groups and Committees to kick off organizing efforts and internal support structures.

Want to plug in? Fill out the interest form to help lead or join a group. Groups with the most engagement will be prioritized.

Apply for DSA’s National Communications Committee

The National Communications Committee is expanding! We are looking for DSA members with experience in video editing, livestream production, social media strategy, graphic design, media relations, and more to expand our national communications work. The National Communications Committee’s NPC members and at-large co-chair will appoint the new members, and will be accepting applications on a rolling basis. Apply here today!

The post May Day solidarity — Your National Political Committee newsletter appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Whereas the existential threat of the global climate and ecological crisis we face, unlike any in human history, requires socialists to make this a central terrain in our struggle for a better world and against a racialized capitalist system profiting from extraction, exploitation, and domination.

Whereas the Green New Deal (GND) is a flexible and popular framework for transformative state climate and environmental action, not a particular bill or predetermined set of policies.

Whereas, DSA adopted resolutions in 2019, 2021, and 2023 to prioritize fighting for an ecosocialist Green New Deal as defined by DSA’s democratically adopted GND Principles;

Whereas in 2023, the GNDCC launched the Building For Power (B4P) campaign to train and support DSA chapters to fight for state and municipal GND-style reforms in coalition with unions and other mass working-class organizations behind a common vision of an emancipated, democratic, and sustainable society;

Whereas, the GNDCC has provided dozens of trainings, workshops, mass calls, webinars, and policy briefs for at least 85 chapters in support of the B4P strategy; 

Whereas, chapters around the country have adopted B4P campaigns and successfully built significant relationships with organized labor and propelled socialists in office, including Milwaukee’s Power to the People, Chicago’s Fix the CTA, Louisville’s Get on the Bus, NYC’s House the Future, and more; 

Whereas, the GNDCC, as all national bodies, has submitted a report going into further detail on activity within the past two years;

Whereas by coaching chapters to run B4P campaigns, the GNDCC can help build DSA’s capacity to respond to a second Trump administration by developing strong chapters that can execute strategic campaigns; 

Be it therefore resolved the GNDCC is rechartered as a national DSA priority commission until the 2027 DSA Convention, and is tasked with continuing its work training, coaching, and supporting chapters with Building for Power campaigns. 

Resolved that the GNDCC will continue to train and organize DSA chapters to run and win legislative campaigns and labor and ballot demands for reforms that shift structural power to the working class by building public sector and organized labor capacity—like expanded mass transit, democratized and decarbonized public energy, green social housing, and green public spaces and facilities.

Resolved that the GNDCC will continue to support the development of chapter capacity by providing campaign-oriented training, coaching, resources, and educational materials and facilitating cross-chapter coordination as part of a larger unified strategy.

Resolved that the GNDCC will continue to emphasize collaboration with other DSA national bodies on overlapping campaign and policy areas, especially via mass political education events. Specifically, GNDCC will work with the NPC’s Trump Administration Response Committee (TARC) to incorporate, where strategic, B4P and the GNDCC’s ongoing work into the messaging and tactics of DSA’s national response to the Trump administration.

Resolved that the NPC will appoint the 11-member GNDCC within 60 days of the start of the NPC term, to serve a term of two years until the 2027 National Convention. The outgoing GNDCC will solicit applications and the NPC will appoint candidates based on the capacity, skills, and knowledge needed for carrying out this campaign.

Resolved that the GNDCC will maintain such subcommittees and processes as needed to fulfill the campaign’s objectives. 

Resolved that the NPC will commit resources to the work of the campaign, particularly coaching, training and growing DSA chapters engaged in work within its umbrella. Such resources shall include, at least, the following:

• Staff, technical, and other support for campaign fundraising and merchandise, as reasonably needed and requested by the GNDCC;
• Budget funds necessary to support digital tools and resources for campaign organizing;
• Access to DSA member data and other resources as reasonably needed and requested by the GNDCC.

On March 12th, eight state Democrats in Michigan voted for an anti-trans resolution that would hurt trans kids in schools.

HR40 is a non-enforceable resolution that strongly encourages the Michigan High School Athletic Association to discriminate against trans women by following Trump’s executive order to ban trans-women in women’s sports.

Despite it being non-enforceable, this resolution would lead to increased harassment and discrimination towards trans children who just want to play sports with their classmates.

The eight state Democrats who voted for this resolution are Rep. Alabas Farhat, Rep. Peter Herzberg, Rep. Tullio Liberati, Rep. Denise Mentzer, Rep. Reggie Miller, Rep. Will Snyder, Rep. Angela Witwer, and Rep. Mai Xiong.

Call your state Representative and let them know how you feel about their vote! You can find your state Representative here!

If your state Representative voted yes for this resolution, call them to express how disappointed you are and tell them they need to stand for trans rights or you will be voting against them in the next election.

If your state Representative voted no for this resolution, call and thank them for siding with trans people. Encourage them to continue their support and to speak up for the rights of trans people. We need as many people in positions of power to be on our side.

Keep in mind, your state representative does not represent anywhere close to as many people as your US Congress representative. Your call could very well sway them to support trans people going forward, even if they are Republican. In Montana, 29 Republicans changed their mind on an anti-trans bill after Reps. Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell gave impassioned speeches. This goes to show that it is possible to sway state Republicans.

The whole situation was handled so maliciously. Speaker Pro Tempore Rachelle Smit (R-43), a far-right Republican who believes the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, kept cutting off the speeches of Democrats so that her Republican colleagues could speak. The vote was then rushed through the House without letting Democrats finish their speeches. Erin in the Morning provides a copy of the whole situation here.

We must all stand for the rights of trans people!

The post Call your Reps and Tell Them to Let Trans Kids Play Sports appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.

Buffalo DSA’s Response to Buffalo Niagara Partnership’s 2025 Advocacy Agenda

We are a volunteer effort of class-conscious Western New Yorkers who have researched and organized against the BNP.

Here’s what you need to know:

Buffalo-Niagara Partnership stands for expensive, private healthcare on behalf of their health insurance company donors and board members.

Universal, public healthcare is what we need as people, patients, caregivers, and workers.

Unlike the “Advocacy Agenda” states, the child tax credit is not a solution to the childcare crisis.

Groups who might be actually concerned about the workforce should use their political power to advocate for direct cash payments to families to help with childcare costs, and a universal childcare system of well-paid caregivers.

BNP warns about the”benefits cliff” that means-testing creates, while advocating against universal policies that would solve the problem.

The solution is a state that provides support to all of us and encourages shared responsibility.

They want blank checks for their friends to make superficial improvements to our city while our existing housing issues worsen.

What we need is Good Cause Eviction and measures for Rent Control to start. We ultimately need public, social housing and anti-discrimination in New York.

BNP’s genius development ideas include a push for Buffalo to take part in over-investment in Al centers that fry our power grid and have little potential for actual adoption, while opposing environmental progress.

Building a tech bubble locally is an oversight that will lead to job loss in the future.

We have all the productive capacity we need to thrive, but the power is held in the wrong hands.

BNP’s scarcity mindset around taxes, as well as desire to protect and expand the private sector at great cost to the public, reflects their elite members’ preferences – not the scale and potential of New York’s economy.

A better Western New York is possible – if we get educated, build the independence, and political courage to prioritize the needs of working people.

The Butlalo-Niagara Partnership is structurally incapable of undertaking, or even guiding, such a task.

Political leaders should be held to account for their collaboration with them.

Take action with us:

• Read our full reports and share our materials – we are a volunteer effort!
• Sign our Back Off, BNP open letter exposing the relationship between our local corporate elites and politicians!
• Use our tools to contact your rep and demand they bring universal healthcare to a vote in NY this year!
• Share your healthcare story with us. Lets flip the script on the corporate for-profit care industry.
• Union Members: Advance a resolution in your union to support universal healthcare.

Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia University activist, was unjustly arrested by ICE on March 8th in what is a clear attack for his pro-Palestinian work on campus in the spring of 2024.

Mahmoud  was forcibly abducted from his New York apartment and now detained in Louisiana. ICE even threatened his wife with arrest, a US citizen who is 8 months pregnant. The Trump admin is attempting to revoke Mahmoud’s green card and deport him without criminal charges and without providing evidence.

In a post on Truth Social, President Trump applauded ICE for this arrest and promised more to come. In an earlier post, he claims they will freeze all federal funding for any school, colleges, or universities that allow so-called “illegal protest.” Coming from the guy that pardoned even the most violent of the January 6th Insurrectionists, we know this isn’t about legality but simply silencing speech he disagrees with.

First they came for Mahmoud Khalil and I’m gonna fucking say something!

Our comrades in NYC DSA have set up a few ways for you to take action now!

Call your members of Congress – using the provided script, demand action to secure Mahmoud’s release and protect the rights of activists.

Email your elected officials – urge them to take immediate action to stop the targeting of student activists and immigrants.

Let’s make one thing clear: we will not allow our communities to be silenced or terrorized. The fascists in the White House are hoping this will have a chilling effect on political speech and protest. And that’s why we need to be fired up!

The post Free Mahmoud Khalil – Protect Student Activists appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.

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