The Midwest Socialist’s Editorial Board

Leonard

Pronouns: he/him/comrade

Neighborhood: Hermosa

Outside of Midwest Socialist: I’m on the North Side Blue Line steering committee, and I’m co-chair of the Political Education committee. 

Outside of DSA: I’m an occasional freelance writer, editor, and proofreader, and I work as a crossing guard for Chicago Public Schools, assigned to Northwest Middle School. My wife, Anna Forsher, is also very active in CDSA, and we love travel, sports, and having fun together.

Currently Reading: Seth Harp’s The Fort Bragg Cartel and Chester Himes’ Plan B.

Book Every Socialist Should Read: André Gorz’s Farewell to the Working Class.

If I could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would it be and why? D. Boon, Nina Simone, and Joe Hill. Great music, great conversation with three passionate Marxists who led with their politics but also created unforgettable music.

Organizing Advice: Remember that you’re in the struggle for the long haul and don’t get too frustrated when you don’t see immediate wins. Like the saying goes, you’re planting the seeds of a tree whose shade you’ll never enjoy.

Publications: MWS writing here; Jacobin pieces here; lots more on my website, Immortal Science, here.

Binx

Pronouns: they/them/any

Neighborhood: Logan Square

Outside of Midwest Socialist: I serve as one of the chapter’s Harassment and Grievance Officers, as well as one of the co-chairs of the chapter’s Red Rabbits Committee. As a founding member of the RRC, I am also involved with the DSA’s National Security Commission.

Outside of DSA: I work for a non-profit doing social services and I am a staff editor for Sundress Publications. I have a dog, who I love more than anything on this earth, and I’ve gotten into crocheting lately. I’m working on a sweater for her.

Currently Reading: Urusla K. LeGuin’s “Always Coming Home,” and “M: Son of the Century” by Antonio Scurati (translated by Anne Milano Appel)

Book Every Socialist Should Read: Instead of recommending a book, I want to recommend subscribing to Lux Magazine. It’s literally the best magazine out there, especially because it’s a Marxist Feminist publication. Not only are the print magazines glossy and gorgeous, but the journalism is impeccable. Cannot recommend Lux enough!

If I could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would it be and why? I would have dinner with Pier Paolo Pasolini, Audre Lorde, and Seamus Heaney. Pasolini having lived through Mussolini’s dictatorship as a gay writer, producer, and director; Lorde at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality during the American Civil Rights movement; and Heaney being an anti-imperialist during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. As a poet and an anti-fascist myself, I think they’d each share some deeply valuable perspectives on poetics and politics from their experiences.

Organizing Advice: IT IS OKAY TO TAKE BREAKS. PLEASE TAKE BREAKS. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD, TAKE A BREAK. I am so serious, burn out will make you a demon to those around you. Do yourself and everyone in your life a favor by taking some time for yourself. IT IS OKAY.

Publications: Visit binxperino.com to check out the creative work that I’ve published over the years! Around Chicago, you can find copies of my chapbook Pure Light (2023) in various bookstores. You can also just enter my name into a search engine, if you’re nasty.

Nick

Pronouns: He/Him

Neighborhood: Andersonville

Outside of Midwest Socialist: I’m a member of the Communications Committee.

Outside of DSA: I’m a songwriter and musician, and I play in bands regularly around Chicago. I’m also a software engineer, avid Bulls fan, and I enjoy long bike rides by the lake.

Currently Reading: Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven.

Book Every Socialist Should Read: Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis.

If I could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would it be and why? Neil Young, Tracy Chapman, Gil Scott Heron. Three uniquely talented and accomplished musical artists with deeply held political perspectives that they aren’t afraid to express in their work. I could learn a lot from each of them.

Organizing Advice: Have patience and show up consistently! It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Matt

Pronouns: He/They

Neighborhood: Northwest Side Blue Line Branch

Outside of Midwest Socialist: I served as Chicago DSA’s Political Education Coordinator from July to December 2024.

Outside of DSA: I have a master’s degree in history, and I am particularly interested in the history of East Germany, the Eastern Bloc, socialist/labor history, and the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries more generally. I speak fluent German and conversational Spanish, I collect currency from around the world, and I am a member of the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA).

Currently Reading: Just finished Blue Collar Empireby Jeff Schuhrke, about the zealous anticommunism of the AFL-CIO, its very active collaboration with the CIA, and its successful efforts to undermine democratic trade unionism at home and abroad during the Cold War. I am now rereading the classic alternate history novel The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.

Book Every Socialist Should Read: Everything for Everyone by M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi. It’s a speculative oral history of a global anarcho-communist revolution that takes place from the 2050s to the 2070s. It is one of my favorite works of fiction of all time.

Another very formative book for me was Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, a memoir of the author’s experience as a war correspondent embedded with an anarchist militia in the Spanish Civil War. It’s the book that taught me that socialism could be more than just the aesthetic of the banners and slogans of the bygone USSR, but a revolutionary experiment relentlessly advancing the cause of equality, radical democracy, and human freedom.

If I could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would it be and why? Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, and Eugene Debs. They are easily my three favorite socialist figures of the twentieth century.

Organizing Advice: Intellectual pursuits are being hollowed out by social media, AI, and relentless attacks on public education. In this context, learning becomes a revolutionary act. Do your own reading, your own writing, and your own thinking. Your brain will thank you.

Publications: I write alternate-history themed settings for an independent tabletop roleplaying game publisher. I have also written for the Baffler, Chicago DSA’s Red Star Bulletin, and on my own (woefully out-of-date) Medium page.

Chase

Pronouns: He / Him

Neighborhood: Lincoln Square / Ravenswood

Outside of Midwest Socialist: I co-lead the Lincoln Square Social / Member Club, part of the Member Club pilot program within Chicago DSA. The focus is to activate, organize, and connect together members of Chicago DSA in Lincoln Square and the surrounding neighborhoods. 

Outside of DSA: Outside of DSA I work as a CPS Substitute teacher, and am currently completing my Masters in Education. I love learning languages, and speak German mostly fluently and Portuguese fairly well, with experience in several other languages. Additional passions of mine are Worldbuilding, watching movies, drawing, and writing. I am in fact working on publishing (on my substack) at least twelve short stories this year. 

Currently Reading: Currently I am reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I recently also finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick. 

Book Every Socialist Should Read: I don’t know if I know a very novel answer to this question, but I did read Kim Moody’s Rank and File Strategy recently; especially for those organizing within the US today, I think it’s a good read. 

If I could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would it be and why? This is such a difficult question. There are so many people I’d want to meet! I’ll give a shot:

1. Oetzi the Iceman: I actually saw his body on a trip to Italy, when I lived in nearby Austria. I would give anything to talk to anyone from the Neolithic, as I find the period, the dawn of “Civilization,” endlessly fascinating. Plus, he’s the oldest cold case in history!
2. Justinian II: Byzantine Emperor, last of the Heraclian dynasty. His great great grandfather, Heraclius, saved the Empire from the Parthians, only to lose half of it again to the nascent early Islamic Empire. Justinian II himself is interesting for being deposed, his nose cut off, exiled to Crimea, only to kill his guards, escape, and depose his deposer’s deposer (before being later again deposed). I’ve always thought he’d make a great subject of a book I’d like to write someday, so I’d love to chat!
3. Ursula K. Le Guin: I was not so much a fan of Le Guin when she was alive, but became one after her death. Earthsea and Always Coming Home are dear to my heart and great inspirations to me as a writer and as a human being. I would love the chance to talk to her and have her critique my own work!

Organizing Advice: Get to know your comrades! It’s hard to organize with somebody that you don’t know very well. 

Publications: I have not published anything for MWS as of yet, but I do have a substack! If you like short fiction of varying types follow my substack at @leerbaker1 (Lee R. Baker is my pen name). My plan for this year is to release 12 short stories in 12 months. 

Alec

Name: Alec Hudson

Pronouns: he/him

Neighborhood: Lincoln Square

Outside of Midwest Socialist: SEIU 73 member, Chicago DSA jack-of-all-trades.

Outside of DSA: New dad, history nerd, soccer fan, and traveler.

Currently Reading: The Paris Commune: A Brief History (Eichner, 2022), The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-1940 (Badger, 2002), The Socialist Challenge Today: Syriza, Corbyn, Sanders (Panitch, Gindin, & Maher, 2020).

If I could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would it be and why? Karl Marx for a good time, Eugene Debs to learn what it took to build a mass socialist party, and Gracchus Babeuf because I’m obsessed with the French Revolution and its role in establishing modern socialism/communism.

Organizing Advice: Stay curious and keep learning new skills!

Feel free to reach out via midwestsocialist at gmail dot com or send us your work!

The post Our Editorial Board: The Comrades Behind Midwest Socialist appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

This is an opinion piece written collaboratively by the Migrant Rights Working Group and was not voted on at a general membership meeting. Opinion pieces from sub-bodies do not reflect the opinions of all members and are not chapter approved statements.

Without reservation, the Salt Lake Democratic Socialists of America (SL DSA) firmly oppose any and all immigration detention within Utah. We reject the Federal Government’s racist, nativist, and exploitative approach to immigration policy, and are appalled at the intentional and cruel humanitarian crisis it has created. Recent leaks uncovering plans for an immigration detention facility in Utah threaten to continue the state’s ugly history of participation in large scale, racially-targeted internment. These past and present attempts to suppress immigrant communities are not only an affront to the fundamental notion of intrinsic human dignity, but also a cudgel wielded against the interests of the working class. They obscure the identities of the true architects of our exploitation, redirecting responsibility for our justified feelings of bitterness and discontentment away from oppressive regimes and economies and onto the precarious and undocumented; those who are, in fact, our allies. 

Over the past several months, internal ICE documents have emerged that outline a plan utilizing US military resources to establish “facilities to house as many as 10,000 people each” in several locations across the country, including Salt Lake City. After the failure of Florida’s taxpayer funded “Alligator Alcatraz” which was shuttered after violating detainee rights, disregarding local government and tribal rights, and dismissing environmental concerns, one would think that Utah’s leaders would express more hesitation to ride shotgun on this wild spectacle of waste and abuse. Sadly, it is not so: Utah’s state-level and congressional leadership, in submissive fealty to Trump’s agenda, refused to comment, much less openly oppose the effort. With new leaks indicating a warehouse near Salt Lake City International Airport as the intended location, there has been mixed response from local officials. The only official acknowledgement from Salt Lake City has been a rather passive reminder from Mayor Erin Mendenhall that a detention center at the location would run afoul of local zoning ordinances; on the other hand, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson admirably condemned the plan and committed the county to fighting it “using every available tool.” In the face of such inconsistent leadership, we salute the people of Utah that showed up in the early hours of January 13^th to make their opposition perfectly clear. While the owners of the rumored detention center site ultimately denied their intent to sell or lease to ICE, it is abundantly clear that ICE’s continue working to build the infrastructure necessary to execute their authoritarian directive. Considering today’s fresh atrocities and with historical perspective, SL DSA’s stance is rooted in one critical message: never again. 

“Never again:” a much-needed refrain which calls us to remember Utah’s record of hosting racial concentration camps within its borders. In 1942, Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, directing the Secretary of War to “prescribe military areas […] from which any or all persons may be excluded” and provide for them “other accommodation as may be necessary.” EO 9102 established the War Relocation Authority, and assigned it the task of “[effectuating] a program for the removal…of the persons or classes of persons designated under [EO 9066], and for their relocation.” In the text of these two executive orders, which speciously argued for the need to protect against foreign espionage and sabotage, Roosevelt identifies a single justification: national security. 

Two of the sites that provided for that relocation program, which in total detained approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent, were the Topaz War Relocation Center in the desert west of Delta, Utah, and the Dalton Wells Isolation Center, a disciplinary camp outside Moab. From 1942 to 1945, 11,000 people were incarcerated in the Topaz camp, making it the fifth largest city in Utah over its three years of operation. Prisoners were given “loyalty questionnaires,” with those not deemed sufficiently loyal sent to more restrictive isolation facilities like Dalton Wells. A unique stain on state history, these concentration camps were the result of a government empowering itself to decide whose rights were sacred, and whose were forfeit. 

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The stage is set for another monumental crime of a scale that promises to shock Utahns to our core; and in this crime, we will be complicit. We cannot say we did not see it coming. 

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Now, these actions are justified with the same warlike rhetoric and appeal to the maintenance of national security. Equating immigration to a “foreign invasion” and making use of military largesse, ICE and the US military are coordinating on a facility in Utah that could have a capacity nearly the size of Topaz. This facility could have up to 10,000 beds, with detainees potentially housed in weather-vulnerable soft-sided tents. We are now living through a moment that demonstrates that although history doesn’t repeat, it does rhyme: the Trump regime engages in racial profiling, deports citizens and legal residents, targets and sanctions those critical of the regime, and offers excuses and justifications for its most violent excesses. The stage is set for another monumental crime of a scale that promises to shock Utahns to our core; and in this crime, we will be complicit. We cannot say we did not see it coming. 

SL DSA’s stance is one that increasingly resonates with the people of Utah as we face a hostile government intent on stripping away our rights. We demand: no detention centers in Utah, no cooperation with ICE, and full solidarity with our immigrant community. We reject any false distinction between “good” and “bad” immigrants, “legal” and “illegal” immigrants, and immigrating the “right way” and the “wrong way.” These distinctions are nothing more than the flimsy judgements of an immoral power structure with no respect for our rights, protections, or human worth. Finally, we reject the increasingly brazen lies of the Trump administration, as it claims “If you are here legally and contributing, you have nothing to fear.” In fact, cases of arrest based on ICE’s refusal to accept documentation, employment records, payment of taxes, or even while following the official immigration process all fall apart under the barest scrutiny. There is no logic, no rule of law, and no respect for human beings in ICE’s “enforcement” activities. 

In our ongoing work, our goal is to mobilize, organize, and educate the working class, ultimately engendering and reinforcing solidarity within it. This objective necessarily must include working class immigrants. If a portion of the working class is deemed unworthy of protection, the rights of the working class as a whole cannot be assured. 

Words on a page, however, are not enough. As wages are depressed, as landlords are permitted to use immigration status to threaten tenants, as bosses and managers benefit from workers’ stolen labor, the consequences of this authoritarian regime will affect us all. This regime and the capitalist economic structure that gave birth to it requires systemic exploitation in order to sustain themselves. At its best, it must demand silence; at its worst, it requires complicity and total obedience. In order to justify this system and its cruel repercussions, we are invited to despise and ostracize our fellow human beings. As socialists, we refuse. We invite you to join us in that refusal, and struggle with us to build a better world that is inclusive of us all.

ETA: Credit where credit is due to Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who in her 2026 State of the City address, elaborated on her firm opposition to ICE operations in the city.

No, there is no terrible thing happening coming for you in some distant future. But know that a terrible thing is happening to you now. You are being asked to kill off a part of you that would otherwise scream in opposition to injustice. You are being asked to dismantle the machinery of a functioning conscience. Who cares if diplomatic expediency prefers you shrug away the sight of dismembered children? Who cares if great distance from the bloodstained middle allows obliviousness? Forget pity. Forget even the dead, if you must. But at least fight against the theft of your soul.”

― Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

The post Never Again: Revisiting the Tragedy of Mass Detention in Utah first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.

Imagine the last five DSA meetings you have been to. Do you feel like you could, without providing excuses, invite a friend or coworker to each of those meetings and feel confident they would walk away with a positive impression of our ability to make change? Would they come away with a sense that our project is worth committing valuable time to?

The national DSA Growth and Development Committee recently reported that more than one in three DSA members have joined within the last year as the horrors of Trumpism spur people into action. Our organizing efforts and electoral wins, especially Zohran Mamdani’s in New York, show a path toward a better future. In this membership bump, like others in the recent past, we are faced with the question of how we successfully “onboard” new members and broaden our reach even further. While our growing wealth of collective experience has improved our abilities in these areas greatly (revamped DSA 101s and 102s and the work of the Membership Engagement Committee have been big successes), there is still plenty of room for improvement. For the majority of our meetings, we need to ensure that the answers to the above questions are resoundingly “Yes and yes!”

We can accomplish this by bringing a basic level of professionalism and competency to our own political practice and in turn, to DSA. As socialists, it can be uncomfortable to use words like “competency” and “professionalism,” because we understand how these terms are used in the context of the late-capitalist workplace to create the impression (and only the impression) of a meritocracy. We can reject that framework while still recognizing that if we look and act like a mess, we are less likely to attract new members, retain existing members, and succeed in our political efforts. Luckily, we are not starting from scratch – working people have cultivated decades and even centuries of know-how we can draw from and rely on.

Accordingly, if we consistently focus on perfecting these known basics of organizing skills and political development, we will have done most of the work of building competency. If we look to sports for a parallel: when a professional athlete reaches the top of their game, they do not transcend the fundamental rules and concepts of the sport. Rather they realize them expertly and bring their special talents to bear within that framework. If you’ve ever watched videos of professional athletes training, you will note that even once-in-a-generation talents consistently do basic drills. They do this not in spite of their expertise, but because it is what makes them expert. The basics are not just the foundation that everything else is built upon, they are most of the game.

So what are the fundamental organizing skills and what is fundamental to socialist political development?Fundamental organizing skills are the means and methods by which we build relationships of trust among ourselves and structure our decision making and collective action. These are a combination of soft skills, which can be applied broadly across a variety of pursuits, and hard skills specific to the task of socialist organizing. None of it is rocket science, and some of these skills might come naturally to certain people. No matter what, being intentional about it makes all the difference. Without going into too much depth on specifics, the core tenants of organizing skills involve:

• Being able to read and relate to people to understand where they are coming from. The term “buy-in” can be a useful shorthand, but the core is taking the time to understand what is motivating people and what they would like to contribute to the organization. Painting a picture of how someone’s contributions are meaningful to the project of building a better world is how we build engagement and capacity.
• Making sure that strategy, ideas, and debates are legible and meaningful to a broad spectrum of membership. We need to have clarity of purpose and action to be effective. Achieving legibility means honing the ability to run meetings effectively and making sure that people know what is going on through effective communication. This can include everything from social media posts, to scheduling meetings and communicating agendas well in advance, to one-on-one meetings with comrades who want to get more involved.
• Building relationships by following up. While our members don’t all need to be friends, we do need to be comrades. This means building a basic sense of trust and the willingness to understand each other. This is the cornerstone of a healthy democratic culture. Building these relationships requires intentional effort. Being welcoming and friendly is a must, but we also must make sure that we are doing the basic leg work that can help us keep in touch. This can include making sure meetings have sign-ins to help with list building and that collective and individual follow-up happens after each event, especially with new members.
• Developing comradely values, most especially patience and empathy. I’ve noted that the folks who tend to stay involved in the moment for the long haul are those who exercise patience with the organization and their comrades. Patience doesn’t mean abandoning a sense of urgency; rather, it means recognizing that imperfection is a fact and that there are no shortcuts in the work of building mass organizations. Likewise, empathy doesn’t mean being excessively kind or withholding criticism, but it does mean recognizing that, in general, folks are doing the best they can at any given moment, and this is the starting point for getting better.

To develop as socialists, we must possess a baseline analysis of capitalism and theory of change rooted in the collective experiences of past and present socialists. Capitalism is a moral outrage, but working toward change requires sober analysis of where we are at as an organization and the conditions we are working in. This will allow us to draw on history, theory, and our own creativity to chart a path forward.  Without going into too much depth, some of the core tenants of socialist political development as we understand it within DSA involve:

• Understanding that capitalism is working as intended, necessitating both reform and revolution. Developing this understanding requires a study of economics and the historical development of capitalism. Such a study demonstrates that the system is not broken, but working as intended. It therefore must  be swept into the dustbin of history. We need reforms in the here-and-now to improve lives and help develop our capacity to make change. At the same time, our ultimate goal must be upending the current order via democratic means to establish a socialist society where the economy is democratically controlled and unjust coercion is abolished in all its forms.
• A recognition of the centrality of the working class as agents of change. The idea of the multi-racial working class as the protagonist of history is easy to say, but harder to make real. We live in a world where nearly all people have internalized capitalist ideology in deep and fundamental ways. Our task is to overcome this by developing class consciousness through action, and to bind that consciousness together organizationally so it can translate into the mass action necessary to make sweeping changes. Socialists believe that workers are in the best position to effect change because our role as the sole producers of value under capitalism is, potentially, an immense source of political power. Recognizing this idea is one thing, but to truly work towards its realization requires an important deconstruction of liberal theories of change through political education work.
• Honing your ability to engage in comradely discussion and debate. Because democracy is a central value for socialists and vital to building a meaningfully mass organization, it is imperative that we take time to deliberately hone our ability to participate in the process of democracy. This means taking responsibility for developing ideas and perspectives by engaging with socialist writings (past and present) and having good faith constructive debates with comrades. Approaching this work with intention and humility as individuals is how we prepare ourselves as a collective for the hard work of deciding what it is we ought to be doing.

So how do we double down on the fundamentals? There is of course no silver bullet, but I do want to highlight that this will be a major focus of our Political Education Committee over the next several months. In that time frame, we will be spinning up a monthly series of skills trainings with rotating subject matter, as well as another semester of Socialist Night School. I encourage members, and especially newer members, to attend these events and approach them with an open mind. Even if you are coming into DSA with some organizing skills or a political background, talking about these things with fellow members and attending a training is bound to bring new perspectives, whether the material is something you already know or something you are just learning for the first time.

Similarly, my ask for experienced leaders and chapter members is that you attend these skills trainings and our Socialist Night School the way that a professional athlete approaches practice drills. There is value in revisiting skills that you’ve used before and have already developed with a sense of humility, asking yourself what you don’t know or how you can do something you are good at even better. I’ve been an organized socialist for half my life, and whenever I run or attend a political education event of any kind, even a repeat event, new neural pathways are formed. I learn something new or a new way of approaching or thinking about something. Sharing my experience with a new group of people and allowing their perspectives to shape me has value.

Further, I would also ask those that are either formally or informally in chapter leadership to lead by example and tend to the fundamentals and integrate them into our work. Make sure that meetings are well publicized in advance, that you are doing turnout, that agendas are clear, that meetings start and end on time, that new members always feel welcome, that you are having one-on-ones consistently, and that you are giving others the opportunity to develop their leadership and organizing skills. Consider taking meaningful time in your work with the chapter to have frank, big picture conversations and reflections about how well you are doing on the basics and what steps you can take to make improvements.

No one graduates from socialist political education, and everyone benefits from a focus on the fundamentals. If we want to build a mass movement, we need to sharpen our focus on these basics. We will need to get them right, not once, not a hundred times, but every single day that we are doing the work of building a better world.

The post On Getting The Basics Right (Again and Again) appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

The Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are working to support a statewide race for governor after both that chapter and Madison DSA voted to endorse DSA member Francesca Hong in her bid for that office.

“Working people have seen that the system doesn’t work for them,” Milwaukee DSA Co-Chair Autumn Pickett said. “Time and again, the establishment has failed us so as not to upset their billionaire donors. As ICE threatens to terrorize our communities and kidnap our neighbors, Francesca Hong stands committed to fight back as the only candidate calling for their abolition.”

Hong’s campaign comes at the heels of successful DSA campaigns across the country, from New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Milwaukee District 3’s Alder Alex Brower, and U.S. polling has shown an increased interest in socialism, a clear reflection of the crumbling material conditions of the American working class amid ongoing crises at the hands of capitalism and its benefactors. 

“Francesca Hong has fought for Wisconsinites’ right to healthcare, paid family leave for all, a vibrant union movement, and public power owned by the people and not for the profit of billionaires—the same billionaires who are now forcing us to pay for their destructive data centers,” Pickett said. “She, thankfully, is not alone in this fight. As a movement of everyday people, DSA members are tired, fed up, and ready to win the better world we know is possible. Mayor Zohran Mamdani proved there is a better alternative to fascism than the same old tired establishment policies that brought Donald Trump into power to begin with. Socialism beats fascism, and now it’s our turn to prove it. Elect Francesca Hong for Governor.”

Those interested in joining DSA’s efforts to elect Hong can fill out a DSA campaign interest form to get plugged into the chapter’s work. More information on Hong’s candidacy is available on her campaign website.Milwaukee DSA is Milwaukee’s largest socialist organization fighting against imperialism for a democratic economy, a just society, and a sustainable environment. Join today at dsausa.org/join.

The Socialists Everywhere Project began in the now-defunct Organizing Committee for the North Side Blue Line (NSBL) branch. It arose out of conversations about how to learn more about the employers, landlords, and community organizations in the branch territory. The name, which was coined by former branch steering committee officer Ramsin Canon, originally encompassed an ever larger project involving both member engagement and a broader continuous research effort to do power mapping throughout the branch. This element was still present in the initial resolution authorizing the Project, which was presented to the Executive Committee, along with the part of the Project that would become the focus of work over the next year.

The initial proposal was brought at the November 2024 Executive Committee retreat and formally passed in 2025. It described a program in which local civic meetings would be cataloged and presented to branch membership. Members would be invited to attend these meetings and then submit a report to the Project leaders on what happened there. There are a lot of meetings in Chicago that fit the above description, including ward nights, local school council meetings, park advisory council meetings, and Community Alternative Policing meetings. The report back form asked members to describe what happened at the meeting, what kinds of people were in attendance, and to call out any issues that could serve as opportunities for Chicago DSA to organize in the community.

In practice, this is what the Project looked like with varying results: Ahead of NSBL branch meetings, a list would be compiled of three meetings happening within the branch territory in the next couple of weeks, in tabulated format with space for written names and phone numbers. Branch officers would then explain the Socialists Everywhere Project to the members in attendance, with the list being passed around for members to fill out if they could make the listed meeting times. Later, those members who signed up would receive a message via WhatsApp (sent manually) reminding them to attend the meeting, as well as a link to submit the report back form via Google Forms.

Word of the Project spread rapidly through the chapter, prompting a meeting between leaders in the North Side Blue Line, North Side Red Line, and South Side branches to discuss how the Project should be coordinated between the three geographic branches. For example, the leadership in the North Side Red Line branch prioritized monthly research meetings to add items on the Socialists Everywhere calendar, while classifying members by neighborhood during the branch meeting to decide how to coordinate meeting attendance. With specific goals to expand and automate the Project, research meetings began to produce a full catalog of meetings for members to attend. These research meetings proved popular among certain tech-savvy groups of members who were happy to help DSA by doing something they already knew how to do – work with computers to conduct research via spreadsheet work.

This work continued smoothly among the branches throughout the year. But after the DSA National Convention in August 2025, difficult questions arose during reauthorization. Namely: What has the Project accomplished? Though organizers set goals to build more participation using an automated calendar system rather than through a representative of the Project, only two members documented their attendance of a public, civic meetings after reauthorization, far below any reasonable goal.

What exactly was the goal of all of this work? The immediate goal was to engage new members in their communities, but the larger ambitions of the Project were never fully defined. The Project was envisioned at various times to be a research project, membership engagement, a left-wing answer to Moms for Liberty, and the initial stages of an intelligence network on community issues. If there was one definitive thing that the Project did, it gave new members something to do. Chicago DSA is full of newly minted activists who have just moved to the city and are light on experience and local knowledge, and Socialists Everywhere was ideal for giving them an opportunity to see what was happening in their local neighborhood. The loftier goals for the Project, to give Chicago DSA a foothold in local communities that could be used to organize as socialists on behalf of community members, never came to fruition. Finding a way to bridge the divide between individual volunteer action and a bigger project should be the core of any revival of the Project.

There is no particular shame in the Project’s performance, and not just because it only cost the chapter the price of a small button order. In many ways, the Project came and went at exactly the right time for the chapter. When it began, the chapter was coming out of a nadir of activity, with no significant large-scale work – labor, electoral, or otherwise – for members to jump into. But once the chapter’s campaigns kicked off, it became harder to justify pushing members elsewhere into this more piecemeal work. And once federal agents began their terror campaign in Chicagoland, it became hard not to see the Project as superfluous in the face of the higher degree of organization present in existing local groups that are leading the city’s response to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Perhaps if the Project had the capacity, infrastructure, and messaging to connect itself to the broader struggle, it could have justified its continued existence.

In January 2026, the Project was ended by a vote of the Executive Committee. It has been placed respectfully in the limbo of interesting but nascent ideas. It may one day be dug up and integrated into a more focused and effective project. Until then, it lives on as one of Chicago DSA’s political priorities: Be Socialists Everywhere.

The post An Assessment of the Socialists Everywhere Project appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

Join us on Saturday, February 28 at 10:00AM on Zoom or in Mattson Ballroom at Eagles #34 (2507 E 25th St, Minneapolis, MN 55406). Check-in on Saturday begins at 9:30AM, with the meeting kickoff at 10:00AM. Please register for the method you plan on using to attend on Saturday; this allows us to plan accordingly. […]

GREEN MOUNTAIN DSA MEETINGS AND EVENTS
Our Tax the Rich Working Group will meet on every Sunday, including Sunday Feb 1 at 6:00pm on Zoom. Sign the  Tax the Rich for Healthcare and Schools petition here.

Our Steering Committee meets on the first Monday of every month at 7:30pm on Zoom, including Monday Feb 2. All members are welcome to participate in the meeting discussion, only members of the steering committee can vote. Email hello@greenmountaindsa.org for the Zoom link.

Our Labor Committee meets on the second Monday of every month at 6:00pm on Zoom, including Monday Feb 9.

Find out how you can help our Membership Committee improve recruitment and involvement in our chapter on Monday, Feb 9. The Membership Committee meets on every 2nd Monday of the month at 7:30pm on Zoom.

The next May Day Coalition meeting is Tuesday Feb 17 at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington) and on Zoom.

Our Electoral Committee will meet on Tuesday Feb 10 at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom.

Talk about your job and learn about shop-floor organizing from peers at Workers' Circle (co-hosted with the Green Mountain IWW) on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, including Feb 11 and 25 at 6:00 p.m. at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington).

GMDSA's East and West branches will come together for another general meeting on Saturday Feb 21 at 11:30 a.m. at Christ Episcopal Church Community Room (64 State St, Montpelier, VT 05602). Newcomers encouraged to show up at 10:30 a.m. for an optional “DSA 101” orientation.

Our Palestine Solidarity Committee will meet on Monday Feb 23 at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom.

Our Communications Committee will meet on Monday Feb 23 at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom.

GMDSA Steering Committee recently passed a resolution to advocate for and ask members to attend Migrant Justice's next rapid response training, Feb 10, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sign up for the meeting here

Add our Google Calendar - Check out our website‍ ‍

NATIONAL DSA MEETINGS OF INTEREST

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• Saturday, February 7th, 5pm, Recommitment Phonebank link

• Saturday, February 7th at 2pm Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee 2026 Winter Cohort Training (1 of 4): Social Investigation & the Tenant Movement link

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• Sunday, February 8th at 2pm: Chairing a Meeting with Robert's Rules Workshop link

• Sunday, February 22nd at 5pm: Solidarity Dues Phonebank link

Vermont Public Meetings of Interest for February

• Thursday, February 5th at 9am: 9:00am: VSEA v. State of Vermont, Department of Human Resources

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• Friday, February 13th at 9:00am: Hearing in the matter of Commissioner of Labor v. Wesco, Inc.

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Public Meeting Calendar Link: Published Calendar - Outlook‍ ‍

Important Dates this Year

• Town Meeting Day, March 3rd, 2026‍ ‍

• May Day: May 1st, 2026

• 2026 Labor Notes Conference: June 12-14th‍ ‍

• Statewide Primary Election: August 11th, 2026‍ ‍

• Labor Day: September 7th, 2026

• General Election: November 3rd, 2026‍ ‍

• Next DSA National Convention: 2027

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The government and ICE are using the threat of deportation to strike fear into our hearts. It is because they want to stop people and workers like us from working together — from trying to create genuine positive material change in our lives and workplaces. How and why does the owning class align with and use the state to prevent our unity? They know that when we are divided is when we are most exploitable.

They want to convince us that immigrants and citizens are somehow fundamentally different, despite immigrants living and working in the same community as us. They want us to think that immigrants are aliens or foreigners, when they call the same cities home. The ruling class enforces a border and ever-stricter legal barriers on movement from country to country to keep us divided, when the only real difference between citizens and immigrants is that immigrants are forced into fear of deportation should they speak up or try to organize when their employers or the state exploit them.

While the extraction of labor value is inherent to capitalism, immigrants are much more exploited, being paid less and subjected to significantly worse conditions.

Immigrants are forced into submission and squeezed for every last droplet of profit.

Every moment they step outside, there could be a ‘legally’ armed swarm of masked bandits to abduct them.

This is not acceptable.

This is fascism, and this is our reality.

The owning class has a long history of implementing the divide and conquer strategy towards workers, legally and socially supporting racial segregation, and racializing immigrant groups as somehow different from citizens. It has been done to exploit existing populations, as with Irish immigrants entering into “whiteness” to gain a position of social superiority over Black workers. It has been done to exploit incoming populations, as with Chinese immigrants in California during the 19th century. This strategy has been used repeatedly, around the United States and worldwide. Our history is a history of exploitation fueled by the profit motive.

Let us consider why there are so many immigrants here from Latin America today. What economic and personal hardship could they be fleeing, or what greater opportunity does the U.S. provide?

Consider that the U.S. has repeatedly destabilized Latin America for centuries. The U.S. has sent its agents to coup any government that might turn against U.S. hegemony. It has turned Latin America into an economy of extraction, with resources being exported and very little money flowing back in.

U.S. imperialism, another extension of capitalism’s need to expand and find more exploitable methods to drive higher profit margins, has created the migration that the imperialists and fascists now portray as invasion.

We created this displacement crisis, and because climate change disproportionately affects the overexploited global south, there will be significantly more people seeking refuge and a place to start over. 

Yet the U.S. stops immigrants at our arbitrary border and says, “Even if you enter, you will not be free.”

You are marked for life, and unless you want ICE to come knocking on your door, you can never protest, you can never fight back. 

You will never be free.

Never forget that those who endlessly scapegoat immigrants for all of the inevitable horrors of capitalism are the cause of their own problem. Capitalism is a gluttonous system. It cannot help but decay, because infinite growth is not possible, when there is nobody left to exploit here or abroad, and when all limited resources are inevitably extracted.

First, fascists find a target, be it immigrants, queer people, or any marginalized group. Then, the fascists attack those groups because it is an easy narrative to say: “Immigrants are the ones taking your jobs and bringing wages down.” The narrative that immigrants drive down wages because “they will work for less” has to be defeated. Immigrants do not voluntarily choose to work for less than the full value of their labor; exploitative work is the only option offered to them. Additionally, wages are only “brought down” when a manager or a member of the owning class chooses to lower them.

It is easy to blame every societal problem on already marginalized groups, because it gives the masses an easy out, a narrative to follow, rather than forcing themselves to come to terms with the full scale of their oppression. It is easy for the fascists to create their own “problem” and then use the promise of solving it to gain power. Anyone who has studied the Holocaust understands this to be the case. This is the same method the Nazi party gained support in Weimar Germany, and it is the same method the Trump administration used to gain power today.

They want us to accept their narratives rather than face the reality that immigrants are the same as all legal citizens — they are people, they are workers, they deserve endless kindness, love, and respect, they deserve the same access to education, welfare, and basic amenities as we all do.

We must understand that immigrants are often the most exploited workers, and that liberals and conservatives alike use their immigration status as a means to force them into low-paying jobs. The narrative that we only accept immigrants because they “do the jobs citizens don’t want to do” must be eradicated. It is the justification for using immigrants as what amounts to a slave class: people only allowed in society as long as they engage in the most exploitative labor.

All immigrants are welcome. We must eradicate the narrative that any immigrant is more valuable than any other because of how long they have been involved in their current community, or how much they have produced within it. These factors are irrelevant. All immigrants deserve to have their needs met, just as every other human does.

The idea that we must organize society from each according to their ability, to each according to their need, does not stop at an arbitrary national distinction. It does not stop at the racial border perpetuated in our minds. 

We must understand that immigrants would not be illegal if those in power did not make them illegal. They decide to arbitrarily restrict movement and to create national boundaries. They choose the criteria for legal entry and set the threshold as high as they wish.

The abolitionist struggle cannot stop at state policing, incarceration, or ICE.

We must abolish borders as well. 

Likewise, the socialist struggle cannot stop at capitalism or imperialism.

We must abolish borders as well.

Today, we must come to a realization. Immigration was never the problem. Borders themselves are the problem.

They exist for no reason but to divide us — to divide the people so that we may not rise up together against our oppressors.

If the owning class can drive us apart by nationality and race, then they can exploit us. If the owning class can tie these with immigration status, they can and will use ICE to destroy our communities.

We will no longer let that happen.

As organizer and author, Harsha Walia writes in the conclusion to Border and Rule:

We understand that “man-made borders shall never fully thwart human movements compelled by the upheavals of our era.”

We fight for the idea that “the freedom to stay and the freedom to move are revolutionary corollaries refusing imperial bordered sovereignties, with home as our shared horizon.”

Abolish ICE!

Abolish Borders!

None of us are free until all of us are free.

Sources:

Border and Rule by Harsha Walia (Ch. 4; Conclusion)

Walia, Harsha. Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism and the Rise of Racist Nationalism. Haymarket Books, 2021.

How the Irish became White by Noel Ignatiev (Introduction)

Ignatiev, Noel. How The Irish Became White. Routledge, 2009.

Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat by J. Sakai (Ch. 4, s. 3)

J. Sakai. Settlers: the Mythology of the White Proletariat. Morningstar Press, 1989.

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano (Part 1, Ch. 3)

Galeano, Eduardo. Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Monthly Review Press. 1973.

DSA is endorsing Tammy Carpenter for Oregon State House, and we need your help to win

Dr. Carpenter is a proud member of Portland DSA running to fight for universal healthcare, fully-funded schools and a renters’ bill of rights

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

We are excited to announce that DSA is endorsing Bobby Nichols for Tempe City Council!

Bobby, of Phoenix-Metro DSA, is a public interest lawyer running to make Tempe affordable for everyone, building public housing and making it easier to form a union

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