You’ve probably received enough communications regarding this Saturday’s “No Kings” demonstrations, which will be held all across the country. At last count more than three thousand demonstrations are being organized, and there will no doubt be at least one near you.

In case you have been procrastinating, here is a link to find the demonstrations closest to you.

The first of these demos last June had a million or two people attend. The next one, in October, had at least five million. We’re aiming to double that this time, which would put us in striking distance of the 3.5% of the US population that research says is necessary to topple authoritarian regimes in the making. 

Against the backdrop of brutal anti-immigrant violence and preparation for election suppression at home, and clueless trade policy matched with deadly wars abroad, a growing number of Americans are coming out to the streets. These include people who have never been politically involved outside of voting every few years, and progressives who sat out the 2024 presidential elections because they didn’t think there was any difference between the two parties and the two candidates. Within DSA and the rest of the left this often took the form of denouncing the “twin parties of capital”. Which they are. But that picture, drawn without nuance, underestimated what fascism is and does.

Now we know. 

A reasonable question at this point is, ‘What sort of message should socialists be sending to the other demonstrators, and the world, a year into America’s fascist descent?’ You have the opportunity to weigh in on that as you make your protest sign. “No Kings” is a start, not a program. “Workers Over Billionaires” moves us closer to the ideas we need.

This mass demonstration of opposition is absolutely necessary, but not sufficient to stop MAGA from dragging us along on its road to hell. For that we need to be broadening the struggle with other tactics and strategies (mutual aid, mass strikes, non-violent direct action, and electoral politics) that build a powerful anti-fascist movement and lay the basis for moving past the failed politics of the past. What happened in Minneapolis/St. Paul on January 23—‘No Work, No School, No Shopping’—is the best example so far. DSA has joined with labor and community partners in the May Day Strong coalition, which understands “No Kings” as a step toward a sharper critique of capitalism on May 1. On that day we will see how prepared we are to advance beyond a nationwide demonstration to a national movement.

We’ll see you out in the streets this weekend. And then we’ll continue to train and educate and prepare ourselves for the struggle ahead.

In the February issue of California Red we ran a background article on the California DSA campaign we call “The Fair and Responsible Tax Plan for California’s Wealthy”, which embraces both measures currently gathering signatures to qualify for the November state ballot. That was the first in a series we are running between now and the election. Here is the next installment.—Editor

The unfathomably vast yet still growing level of California’s economic inequality

Our East Bay DSA crew of five had planted ourselves in the parking lot of a supermarket in North Berkeley on a warm mid-March afternoon. We were collecting signatures for the Billionaires Tax and the Protecting Education and Health Care Act. During our three-hour shift we did not do badly, gathering several dozen for each measure. Even better were the conversations, which ranged from informing voters about the nuts and bolts of the proposals to broader questions about economic inequality: how much money do billionaires have, anyway? What share of the total income of California, the fifth largest economy in the world, goes to the one percent? What would be the right amount of taxes for them to pay? And how do we get them to pay their fair share? 

We explore a few of these ideas and numbers below.

A cool million

It used to be hard for the typical working class stiff to imagine what a million dollars looks like. A million dollars? That’s what millionaires have, and I’m not even close to being one of those, we would say. But that was before a million dollars or thereabouts became the average price of a house in Los Angeles. It’s slightly below that statewide, and slightly above that in San Francisco. But you get the idea. Generally speaking, if you can afford a home, you know what a million dollars looks like—it looks like your house. (If you’re a renter, it looks like that house.)

A billion dollars was even more unfathomable. We didn’t have many in the United States until relatively recently; as late as 1990 there were just 66 of them. Now there are close to a thousand, and we’ve got 213 right here in the Golden State. Since we know that a million dollars looks like a house these days, we can imagine that since a billion is a thousand millions, it would look like a thousand houses. 

No one needs a thousand houses to live in, so most billionaires scrape by with just ten or twelve. Of course, being billionaires, they need somewhat larger houses than most people, so they might spend five or ten million dollars or even more—fifty million! A hundred million!—on their humble abodes. If they owned ten of those, that could put a pretty big dent in their billion dollar fortune. But guess what? The average wealth of a billionaire is not a billion dollars. It’s currently around 8.6 billion dollars, according to inequality.org. So that would be 8,600 houses. 

Minus the dozen they “live” in, that would leave them with enough money to purchase 8,588 more houses. I don’t know about you, but as the numbers climb my ability to translate the million dollar house into a clear image of the wealth of billionaires is beginning to get somewhat unequal to the task. And that’s before we try to imagine what the total wealth of 213 billionaires looks like. 

Trillions

It is reliably estimated that thanks to the ginormous growth of their fortunes during the past ten years (Trump I’s tax cuts, pandemic economy when there was nothing to invest in except stock buybacks, Trump II’s continuing tax cuts, massive AI bubble, and outright looting of public resources) our couple hundred California billionaires collectively own (hold onto your “tax the rich” baseball cap) two trillion dollars’ worth of assets. In California they’re doing a little better than the average 8.6 billionaire; they’ve each got around 9.4 billion. 

Although I just said I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around the houses when they added up to the average 8,600 houses each (adjusted now to 9,400), let’s try it out with trillions. That’s a thousand billions. So collectively our 213 ultra-rich people with their two trillion dollars would have, let’s see, carry the one, a bit over 1.8 million houses, at a million dollars each. 

You might think that that’s enough for anyone, and these individuals must be looking around for philanthropies to unload to. But no, according to a recent New York Times article, billionaire giving has fallen precipitously in the last few years as their ‘uneasy accommodation with fascism’ (fascism scholar Robert Paxton’s formulation describing the initial response of economic elites to the uncouth new political rulers) has grown considerably less uneasy—more like downright comfortable. The 213 billionaires in California have seen their total wealth grow by nearly a third in this period as the rest of us have been essentially running in place—and that’s not enough for some of them. 

If you listen to one of their loudest mouthpieces, tech mogul Ron Conway, the proposed billionaire tax is not only bad for his 212 other peeps; it’s way worse than that. He was recently quoted in a New York Times article with a sentiment that inadvertently revealed how that kind of bank account can warp one’s perspective: According to Mr. Conway, referring to the billionaire tax, “This is the greatest tragedy this state has ever felt.” Hmmm. I wonder whether the families of dozens of people who lost their lives and thousands who lost homes in the Eaton and Palisades fires in 2025 agree? Or if Japanese-Californians, 93,000 of whom were incarcerated during World War II, share that view? Or if Native Californians, whose population fell from a third a million people in 1800 to about 15,000 by 1910 during the genocide that did them in, would agree with Conway’s historical research? 

On the other hand

At the other end of the economic spectrum, California’s borders contain about 7 million people below the official poverty line, or 18% of its roughly 40 million people. But the official federal poverty line ($33,000/year for a family of four) is laughably (that’s probably the wrong word) below an actual ability to live. One measure of how many people are barely getting by in California is the number of MediCal recipients, dependent on the federal Medicaid funding stream for most of their care costs. Although California is a net donor to the federal treasury, it does rely on $20 billion per year from the feds to support MediCal. Some 15 million Californians are enrolled in MediCal.

Let’s move on from the tiny extremely rich and the very large poor slices of the state and look at the condition of the merely rich, the top 1% income earners, which includes the billionaires but extends downward to the merely well-to-do. Although calculations vary, the bottom rung of the ladder for a one percenter is just about a million dollars a year in income; the median merely rich, right in the middle of the one percent, is $3.6 million a year. Here’s chart to help us visualize how their share of total California income has grown over the past half century. 

That’s right, believe your eyes. The top 1%’s share of income in the Golden State has grown over the past half century from about one twelfth of total income to almost one third. Richest state in the richest country in the world? Yes, but a vast chunk of the riches seems to have ended up in the pockets of people who didn’t need the transfer. 

On the third hand, if all of the state’s total income had been divided up equally, every person in California in 2024 would have received around $80,000—which means that for a family of four, combining their incomes, the household would have had $320,000—just a little under ten times the official poverty line.  

“But that would be socialism!” cry the billionaires, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and probably quite a few temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Well, sort of. We’ll get into that some other time. One thing is clear: it would certainly be different from what we’ve got.

by Kevin N

Sometime in my early twenties — way, way back in the early 2010s — for reasons I’m still not entirely sure about, I suddenly stopped being a nihilist apolitical punk who couldn’t be bothered with activism because he had more important things to drink. I was first radicalized around the issue of campaign finance reform, and got involved with a national organization called Wolf-PAC. I spent a few years lobbying Ohio’s state representatives regarding campaign finance laws — they were invariably bemused each time I walked into their offices with long hair and a patchy leather jacket. In spite of my ratty appearance, I did manage to personally convince a Republican State Representative to change his stance on campaign finance laws after a series of meetings at the Mentor Public Library, although he still wouldn’t sponsor our Wolf-PAC resolution for fear of political backlash. I learned a lot about political advocacy through that experience, but that’s another story.

At some point, I got an email from a group dedicated to campaign finance reform that called itself Democracy Spring. They were organizing a protest in DC, with the intention of having as many people as possible perform an act of civil disobedience by willingly getting arrested for protesting without a permit on the steps of the Capitol Building.

I was absolutely thrilled at the idea. I had romanticized 1960s images of crowds of protestors in my head, and they had convinced me that this was the sort of direct action that would affect real change (that was, indeed, the depth of my analysis). So I threw everything I had into the organization. After months of working with the Democracy Spring organizers in DC, I was able to organize a small contingent of Clevelanders to travel to DC by train and participate in the protest. All in all, there were some 1,300 people who were arrested on the first day of the protests, the largest number of arrests at the Capitol since the Vietnam Protests. More would be arrested in the week that followed.

I spent a week in DC protesting, and it was one of the most exciting weeks of my life. I marched, chanted, and commiserated with like-minded activists. I have a picture somewhere of me getting my hands zip-tied behind my back, but I have no idea where. Rosario Dawson and Cenk Uygur got arrested with us. One of my favorite political commentators at the time, Lawrence Lessig, spoke at the rally. Bernie Sanders gave us a shout out on social media. Cory Booker and John Lewis came out to speak with us and encouraged us to continue. Elizabeth Warren admonished the rest of the Senators for ignoring us during a speech she made on the Senate floor. I even made my first semi-viral Twitter post. It truly felt like the beginning of something important — I left DC feeling downright euphoric.

But that was it. Nothing changed.

Aside from CNN showing a single 30 second clip of the protest, no mainstream news media covered us. Someone at Vice wrote a piece on us, but nobody ever really took them seriously anyway. After it ended, nobody in the government ever referenced the protest again. I’m quite certain most of you reading this have never heard of the protest in the first place. It was like we had plowed the ocean.

After I got home, I was undeniably elated by the experience, but in the back of my mind I was still somewhat conflicted. It seemed like we hadn’t actually accomplished anything, despite all that effort.

Luckily, I learned from the organizers that there would be a coordinated follow-up effort: the country would be divided into smaller regions, and local organizers would recruit supporters (there was no formal membership process) by staging smaller protests at local political events. Then after two years of building support, we would return to the Capitol and stage a repeat of the original protest, but larger.

This was promising! Again, I threw everything into the effort. I drove to Columbus once a month to meet with Ohio’s organizers, and got another small contingent of Clevelanders to go to protests in an effort to build support for our nonpartisan campaign finance reform movement. 

Then Trump got elected.

The Spring Dries Up

Suddenly, all of the emails from Democracy Spring stopped talking about campaign finance reform and were just focused on “resisting” Trump. Okay, that’s fine. But how? Are we still meeting in Columbus to coordinate efforts? No, those regional meetings around the country stopped pretty abruptly. Are we trying to organize another big protest in DC? No, the communications were just filled with vague calls to “Resist!” and unoriginal, unremarkable statements about the gravity and urgency of the political threat posed by Trump. Lacking any formal structures, the organizational movement in Ohio and around the country dissipated faster than it came together.

But emails from Democracy Spring’s leadership (the only remaining form of communication they sent out) kept coming. I wasn’t clear on what they were doing now, but I continued to read them since they had been such a big part of my life for nearly half a decade. On Trump’s inauguration day, I went to DC to protest — although, admittedly, I ended up disgusted and depressed by the whole spectacle and spent the day in the Holocaust Museum instead.

I touched base with some of the Democracy Spring organizers who were in DC as well. They said they had something big planned for the inauguration, and I was confused as to why there hadn’t been a more concerted effort to recruit people. Regardless, I hadn’t planned to get arrested again, so I declined to participate.

Later that day, I got this email:

The email went on to detail the efforts of “six brave democracy defenders” — a far cry from the 1,700 who joined them just two years prior — and they claimed it as a massive victory. In the weeks and months that followed, similar emails with subject lines like “Trump Disrupted!” and “Two Democracy Spring Leaders Arrested at Sit-In!” followed, each containing photos of the same handful of participants engaged in various innocuous acts of “resistance” — and typically accompanied by a request for donations. The emails eventually stopped.

The Democracy Spring organization (if you can call it that), once able to mobilize thousands of people across the country, had dissolved into a vanity project for its leadership clique. All it took was a single political crisis (Trump’s election, in this case), and the structureless network of dedicated activists from across the country fell apart into a harmless, toothless display of performative “Resist!”-ance.

I was devastated. I felt like I had totally wasted those years of my efforts with Democracy Spring. I dropped out of activism altogether and probably (definitely) started drinking too much. I got into activist journalism instead, and made a few locally-focused documentaries about homelessness that won some awards at some film festivals around Ohio. But I stopped engaging in direct political activism, for the most part, aside from attending one-off protests or local community-building events.

I’d occasionally talk with the organizers of these events, and when I asked them what their long-term strategy was, they would invariably offer vague, starry-eyed platitudes about “building the movement” and “Resist!”-ing without offering anything concrete. It was always too reminiscent of the empty rhetoric I heard from Democracy Spring’s leadership for me to buy into their passion again.

Luckily, I had also been a convert of Bernie Sanders in 2014, and canvassed for him in 2015. Exclusively thanks to him, I spent the following years reading and unlearning all of the misconceptions that I didn’t know I had held about the word “socialism” (on my own, since I still mostly liked to hang out with nihilist apolitical punks who all thought I was annoying for being “political” and reading). It took a long time! Anti-socialist propaganda dies hard. I’m still unlearning stuff. At some point in 2023, I saw a post made by an old college friend (shout-out Julie) about a DSA event and decided that I’d better attend if I were going to be calling myself a socialist. It was my socialist “put up or shut up” moment, if you will.

Democracy In Action

In Cleveland’s DSA chapter, I found tons of committed members working together in an organization that was structured in its composition, serious and thoughtful about its rhetoric, deliberate about its strategy and tactics, intentional about political education, and focused on efforts that did not just consist of protests and petty acts of civil disobedience. But most importantly, it was democratic, directly accountable to its membership, and committed to building its members into leaders — instead of having them orbit around an insular group of self-proclaimed leaders who lead through force of personality alone.

The chapter’s model of organizing, as opposed to just mobilizing and advocacy, was nothing short of inspiring. According to what a given situation demanded, the organization’s goals were both long-term and short-term, widescoped and narrow, national and local, and with a calculated strategy to achieve all of them — with the right kind of deliberate and thorough organizing, of course. Most importantly, the chapter had a priority structure that allowed its membership to pivot and focus their limited capacity on issues as needed, so the organization wouldn’t crumble if the national political situation demanded a change of course.

In short, DSA was everything that Democracy Spring wasn’t.

I want to clarify that I don’t expect or even want you to be disillusioned by protesting. It was a real bummer of a process to go through, and I’m happy for folks who don’t feel the same way I do. I’m also not trying to use my personal experience as a demand for deference — although if you’re someone who is shallow enough to grant political weight to this sort of activist credentialism, feel free to defer to me if you want to — nor am I trying to say “I know better than you, so you should think like I do.” My intentions are solely to give an example that illustrates the clear limitations of protest-based activism. The trend I laid out in my personal story about one protest movement is observable in varying degrees across all protest movements.

Protesting is an acceptable way to “fight back” precisely because the ruling class thinks protesting is ineffective. And without a deep commitment to organizing, it is. The word “demonstration” is suggestive of the performative nature of protests — which there is a time and place for! But protests are by no means the most important tool in our toolkit. Without clear follow-up, without a commitment to building ourselves and each other into leaders, without a plan to build working-class power — in other words, without organizing — protests achieve little beyond making the attendees feel good about themselves. And to amplify the social standing of the self-proclaimed “leaders” in liberal activist circles, of course.

(By the way, the French word for “protest” is “manifestation,” which is more befitting of their culture of resistance; the average French protest would be called a “riot” if it took place in this country. But that’s a separate discussion.)

Again and again, when I see a political crisis emerge in this country, I watch the liberal activist groups in this city circle their wagons and start mobilizing for protests. I see the same people attending every time. And when the crisis passes, the mobilizing stops. There’s good work being done by these liberal activists, for sure. But every time a new issue emerges as the crisis du jour, the same pattern plays out: new coalitions with catchy names (but composed of the same people), emergency protests, vague calls to “Get organized! Join an org!”, and then — once public perceptions of “crisis” and “urgency” have faded — nothing. That sort of Sisyphean ambulance chasing is not organizing for change — it’s just performative “Resist!”-ance.

I often hear that we have a bad reputation among liberal activists in this city. Quite frankly, I don’t care. I’m not really all that impressed with those groups. That’s why I’m in DSA instead. Our DSA chapter is one of the largest, most coordinated, and most capable independent political organizations in the city, so let’s act like it. Liberal activist groups should be more worried about what we think of them. There’s nothing to be gained from deferring to liberal activists and giving undeserved weight to their criticisms of our chapter. We should absolutely work with them where our interests align, but at the end of the day, they need us more than we need them. After all, they wouldn’t be so desperate for us to endorse, support, and attend their events if that weren’t the case. Let them work for our approval instead.

I’m in DSA because I think it’s the organization best poised to stage a serious, coordinated, and multifronted resistance against capitalism and fascist reaction — not because it just happens to be “one progressive org out of many” that I happened to join. But if we treat this organization like it’s just one of many generally progressive orgs, it definitely will be.

Organizing, Not Just Mobilizing

I have nothing against attending protests. I attend and will continue to attend protests. People should attend protests; they’re cathartic, empowering, and publicly visible. But we have to recognize the strategic limits to endorsing and attending protests just for the sake of endorsing and attending protests. And if we do endorse a protest, we need to be deliberate about turnout.

The March 28th No Kings protest is coming up and there are questions over whether we should endorse it or not. Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter. Unless we’re doing something tangible at it like collecting signatures for our Gender Freedom Policy Petition, simply showing up, as good as that might feel, will accomplish as little as any other protest.

If we endorse a protest and only about 10 people show up, that misrepresents the actual power in this chapter and perceptibly brings our nearly 700 member org to the level of the myriad small, disorganized activist groups in the city. So, there is a potential cost associated with the optics of being present at these protests as well as the potential benefits to which folks are appealing; but those benefits only manifest if our turnout is strong.

Protesting alone isn’t going to stop Trump, Zionism, or ICE — it won’t stop any form of fascist reaction, for that matter. What will stop these things is organizing people into DSA and building it into a formidable political force that can leverage its power from below. As long as we’re not making a concerted effort at doing the latter, the former holds.

On a positive note of what can be possible at protests: at the last anti-ICE protest I attended, I connected a group of student activists at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) with the state Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) coordinator, and they’re currently organizing a new YDSA chapter on Case’s campus. This, in my opinion, is the sort of thing we should be aiming to do at protests.

Without organizing — and I mean organizing — mobilizing attendees for protests has an inherently limited impact. I think many comrades think “organizing” simply consists of getting people to show up at events, direct actions, canvasses, and training sessions; but that’s only mobilizing, not organizing. Without a deep commitment to developing one another into leaders both inside and outside the organization, we are not organizing.

Internal organizing is just as crucial a part of “the work” as our outward-focused efforts in the community. Without either, we stagnate.

To be clear, nothing should stop us from attending, endorsing, or supporting protests when they’re aligned with our values, but we need to be deliberate and calculated about what we’re doing when we go. Otherwise we’re just chasing the tail of the liberal activist movement — and I don’t know about you, but I joined DSA because I found that movement lacking.

We can attend these protests, demonstrate resistance to ICE and fascism, participate in direct actions/responses, and be serious about organizing people into DSA at these events — all at the same time. As one of our comrades likes to say, “We can walk and chew gum at the same time.” Another likes to say “We just have to do it.”  Again, I fully agree — we just have to be deliberate and strategic about it. The urgency of the situation demands nothing less than a principled and coordinated organizational effort, not just blind faith that “Resist!”-ing at protests is enough to change anything on its own.

Solidarity, comrades.

The post Why Protesting Isn’t Enough: The Limits of Protest Activism appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

On January 3, 2026, the United States military invaded Venezuela, murdered more than one hundred people, and kidnapped both President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. Since then, the President and First Lady have been illegally detained in Brooklyn, and now the United States is attempting to choke off their legal right to counsel of their own choosing. Enough is enough; this case should be dismissed at the next court hearing on March 26, 2026.

As DSA has pointed out repeatedly, the illegal sanctions against Venezuela are suffocating. Even high-level Trump regime officials boast that “it’s sort of like in Star Wars when Darth Vader constricts somebody’s throat, that’s what we are doing” to Venezuela. In the latest example of the harm caused by these illegal sanctions, the United States Office of Foreign Asset Controls (“OFAC”) has intervened to prevent President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores from even being able to pay for their own attorneys. Despite their best efforts, Venezuela has not been able to obtain a license from OFAC to permit the transfer of funds. This is unjustifiable interference.

In short, the Trump regime committed mass murder, kidnapped a sitting president, hauled him in front of a Brooklyn judge, and is now attempting to deprive him from even obtaining legal counsel to defend himself in this kangaroo court. The only way that they can win is by lying, cheating, and using physical force.

On February 26, 2026, (unpaid) counsel for President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores filed a motion to dismiss the case, alleging—among other things—that the Trump regime has unlawfully interfered with President Maduro’s Sixth Amendment right to legal counsel, and that the appropriate remedy is to “restore the defendant to the status quo ante by dismissal of the indictment.” If relief is not granted, then Barry Pollack—an experienced trial attorney who previously represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange—will withdraw from the case, and President Maduro will be without legal counsel, and without the ability to pay for an attorney of his own choosing. In such a high stakes case, this is absurd gamesmanship to throttle the defense.

We demand the immediate dismissal of this case. This farce has already gone on too long, and U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein finally now has the opportunity to dismiss this case when the parties next appear in court on March 26, 2026.

We further congratulate the Venezuelan national baseball team on its victory over the United States in the World Baseball Classic and wish the people of the nation a joyous celebration in the team’s honor.

DSA exige la desestimación del proceso judicial contra el presidente Maduro

El 3 de enero de 2026, el ejército de Estados Unidos invadió Venezuela, asesinó a más de cien personas y secuestró tanto al presidente Nicolás Maduro como a la primera dama Cilia Flores. Desde entonces, el presidente y la primera dama permanecen detenidos ilegalmente en Brooklyn, y ahora Estados Unidos está intentando privarles de su derecho legal a contar con un abogado de su elección. Ya basta; este caso debería desestimarse en la próxima audiencia judicial, el 26 de marzo de 2026.

Como ha señalado DSA en repetidas ocasiones, las sanciones ilegales contra Venezuela son asfixiantes. Incluso altos cargos del régimen de Trump se jactan de que «es algo así como en Star Wars cuando Darth Vader aprieta el cuello a alguien, eso es lo que estamos haciendo» a Venezuela. En el último ejemplo del daño causado por estas sanciones ilegales, la Oficina de Control de Activos Extranjeros de Estados Unidos («OFAC») ha intervenido para impedir que el presidente Nicolás Maduro y la primera dama Cilia Flores puedan siquiera pagar a sus propios abogados. A pesar de todos sus esfuerzos, Venezuela no ha podido obtener una licencia de la OFAC que permita la transferencia de fondos. Se trata de una injerencia injustificable.

En resumen, el régimen de Trump cometió un asesinato en masa, secuestró a un presidente en ejercicio, lo llevó ante un juez de Brooklyn y ahora está intentando privarle incluso de la posibilidad de obtener asistencia legal para defenderse en este tribunal irregular. La única forma en que pueden ganar es mintiendo, haciendo trampa y utilizando la fuerza física.

El 26 de febrero de 2026, los abogados (no remunerados) del presidente Maduro y de la primera dama Cilia Flores presentaron una moción para desestimar el caso, alegando —entre otras cosas— que el régimen de Trump ha interferido ilegalmente en el derecho del presidente Maduro a la asistencia legal, amparado por la Sexta Enmienda, y que la reparación adecuada es «restablecer al acusado en la situación anterior mediante la desestimación de la acusación». Si no se concede la reparación, Barry Pollack —un experimentado abogado litigante que anteriormente representó al fundador de WikiLeaks, Julian Assange— se retirará del caso, y el presidente Maduro se quedará sin asistencia legal y sin la posibilidad de pagar a un abogado de su elección. En un caso de tan alto riesgo, se trata de una maniobra absurda para estrangular a la defensa.

Exigimos la desestimación inmediata de este caso. Esta farsa ya se ha prolongado demasiado, y el juez federal de distrito Alvin Hellerstein tiene ahora por fin la oportunidad de desestimar este caso cuando las partes comparezcan de nuevo ante el tribunal el 26 de marzo de 2026.

Además, felicitamos a la selección nacional de béisbol de Venezuela por su victoria sobre Estados Unidos en el Clásico Mundial de Béisbol y deseamos al pueblo de la nación una alegre celebración en honor al equipo.

The post DSA Calls for the Dismissal of the Litigation Against President Maduro appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

At our March 2026 chapter meeting, SV DSA member Stacey delivered a statement of our chapter’s position on the allegations against Cesar Chavez. The recording is available on Instagram.

The Labor Working Group’s Statement in response to the Cesar Chavez investigation results:

1. SV DSA stands in solidarity with the women who were abused by Mr. Chavez.
2. SV DSA recognizes and applauds these women’s strength and courage to come forward as well as their resilience living with this for 60+ years.
3. SV DSA stands in solidarity with the United Farm Workers movement and state that this news absolutely does not define the movement in the past or present. SV DSA acknowledges the damage and grief this news will cause within the Latino community.
4. SV DSA condemns sexual assault, harassment, and abuse in all forms.
5. SV DSA stands with women, children, and other vulnerable groups who need protection from abuse of power.

This news will affect each person differently, for some it is the loss of a heroic figure regardless of the accuracy of that description.

This movement historically provided an opportunity for migrant workers and their families to fight for rights and against exploitation.

A movement should not be defined by its leader, too much power for one person without much oversight.

This gives us an opportunity to become more aware of how power imbalances can lead to horrible abuses.

It is important for us to keep this in mind when we are working in our communities and with our partners to promote safety, respect, and dignity for all people.

The post SV DSA Statement on Cesar Chavez Investigation Results appeared first on Silicon Valley DSA.

The Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America (LVDSA) recently responded to a community crisis at Hebron apartments in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. Local organizers were outraged to learn that Hebron’s vulnerable residents had been abruptly served eviction notices despite having made timely rent payments. Hebron, a once beautiful neighborhood dedicated to the mission of helping those of low income find affordable housing, formerly adorned with local art and flourishing community garden, has turned into a tragedy as many Las Vegas tenants are looking to their friends and community members asking a vital question: “What is going to happen to us?”

Hebron, “a 124-unit complex”, was originally owned by the nonprofit Caridad to support those who are disabled, unhoused, and unable to work. The complex originally received funding via Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project Initiative in 2015, prior to the CEO’s unexpected passing, since facing serious financial concerns that led to the nonprofit disbanding its efforts. Hebron apartments are currently managed by Advanced Management Group (AMG) under the supervision of YSBM Investments, and, in our community’s opinion, their management of Hebron has been “inhumane and cruel” toward this vulnerable population. During LVDSA’s involvement, tenants have shared their stories, showing that property management is clearly attempting to push them out of their homes by any means necessary. They have posted illegal eviction notices without following proper due process, locked tenants out of kitchens and laundry services, and removed the nonprofit and community services at the property that were attempting to help tenants facing financial insecurity. Members of our Mutual Aid campaign have been on the property, attempting to provide groceries and community resources, only to be regularly asked to leave by security despite the community’s desperation for food, water, and essential toiletries. Some tenants remarked that the food our Mutual Aid program has provided was their, “only regular access to food.” Most tenants are disabled, without income or transportation, and without the support of the former nonprofit. Many tenants shared with LVDSA that the whole process was “humiliating” and “without dignity”, remarking that their home at Hebron was “the only one (they) knew” and that they had been subjected to “unsafe and unsanitary conditions,” including “going weeks at a time without toilet paper.”

Advanced Management Group recently made a statement to local news in an attempt to maintain positive PR stating that their “priority is stability and support” and that they are “…actively working with local assistance programs, including Help of Southern Nevada…(as they) also continue to provide on-site resources, including a fully stocked pantry that tenants may access as needed,” claiming that “residents who are able to meet standard rental requirements will have the opportunity to remain at the property.”

However, LVDSA has personally been following up with those affected in the past few weeks, and a lot of these claims from management appear highly exaggerated. Help of Southern Nevada, for instance, can only accept clients who are actively living on the street and cannot intervene in individual cases of eviction due to their personal capacity. AMG is also raising the rental requirements to remain at the property. Base rent that was closer to $500 a month per room at Hebron is being swiftly raised to over $800 despite most tenants qualifying for SNAP, placing their economic position to ~130% under the poverty line. Another resident shared with us that the food pantry mentioned “was never restocked” and that the “resources” they were given were simply instructions to The Las Vegas Courtyard, while an essential area of shade for the unhoused, is the socio-economic equivalent of a multiple million dollar company saying to a disabled vet, “We’re so sorry about your situation, but we are buying your home and if you cannot afford it please do go sleep outside and best of luck.” 

We are deeply concerned about what happens to the tenants of Hebron if nothing changes. Many tenants shared with us that they are severely disabled, and many are waiting over a year for their Social Security benefit applications to be reviewed. In the meantime, they have no income and are unable to work; many are in need of mobility aids, essential medical devices like oxygen tanks, and expensive medications. Without regular housing, they will likely be completely unable to survive on the street. Most tenants are unable to afford bus passes or walk long distances to reach a shelter at night. Summer is around the corner, and brutal heat waves are already hitting the valley. Extreme desert weather is especially hard on those living on the streets.

Our current economic system not only refuses to hold this kind of systemic genocide of the unhoused and low income accountable, but enables it. This is another situation where, if you are rich enough, lucky enough, and privileged enough, you get to survive, and if you’re not, the elites will take advantage of the opportunity to pinch every last dollar from you until you face death on the street. While this ideology is bleak, I urge you, to paraphrase Timothy Synder’s manual on resisting tyranny-do not look away. Do not look away at the signs of hate in the world that you cannot bear to watch, instead face them, do not allow them to be normal and resist, resist, resist.

The beauty in tragedy like this is the potential for the community to come together and make change. We can do something by getting involved, and we invite you to do the same. Our chapter recently proposed a petition that granted temporary rental assistance to those struggling at Hebron, and we are not finished. Our Mutual Aid campaign is working tirelessly to organize meals, distribute water and hygiene supplies, raise funds to support the tenants, and offer a listening ear to those in need. We will continue to write and share about this issue. Please show the tenants of Hebron that we have not forgotten about them. Below is a list of ways to get involved, make a difference, and send the message: We win together, we cry together but at least we know we’re together. 

Please get involved today by visiting: https://lvdsa.org/working-group/mutual-aid/ 

April 5th, 2026 Update: LVDSA received word from our Mutual Aid Campaign that we were able to coordinate rental assistance and replacement housing for almost every resident left in Hebron Apartments in addition to groceries and hygiene kits. While the community itself  may be closing, we are incredibly proud of the response by our community, our organizers and every person who was able to respond to this crisis. Let this be an inspiration that a better world is possible when we respond to the call to action!

River T.F is a local mental health social worker and activist within the community

Sources

Biswas, Akash. 2025. “SNAP Eligibility Criteria 2026: Income Limits & How to Qualify.” Snap Calculator. November 15, 2025. https://snapbenefitcalculator.com/snap-eligibility/.

Carrillo, Jhovani. 2026. “Tenants in Limbo after Nonprofit Operating Las Vegas Low-Income Apartment Complex Is Evicted.” Channel 13 Las Vegas News KTNV. February 26, 2026. https://www.ktnv.com/news/tenants-in-limbo-after-nonprofit-operating-las-vegas-low-income-apartment-complex-is-evicted.

City of Las Vegas. 2026. “Homeless Services.” Www.lasvegasnevada.gov. March 28, 2026. https://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/Residents/Resident-Services/Homeless-Services.

HSNV. 2026. “‘See If You Qualify.’” Help of Southern Nevada. March 24, 2026. https://www.helpsonv.org/.

King, James. 2026. “Hebron Residents Fear Eviction, Uncertainty as Fallout from Management Change Continues.” KSNV. March 3, 2026. https://news3lv.com/news/local/hebron-residents-fear-eviction-uncertainty-as-fallout-from-management-change-continues.

Ohio State. 2026. “Caseworkers: Overworked and on the Decline | EPIC.” U.osu.edu. March 24, 2026. https://u.osu.edu/epic/2020/12/07/caseworkers-overworked-and-on-the-decline/.

Shelley, Berkely. 2026. “Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2026 Budget.” Lasvegasnevada.gov. LVNV. https://files.lasvegasnevada.gov/finance/2026_Fiscal_Year/CLV-FY2026_Final_Budget.pdf.

Snyder, Timothy. 2021. ON TYRANNY GRAPHIC EDITION : Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. S.L.: Ten Speed.

Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority. 2026. “Open Section 8 Waiting Lists in Las Vegas, Nevada.” Affordablehousingonline.com. 2026. https://affordablehousingonline.com/open-section-8-waiting-lists/Nevada/Las-Vegas.

T.F, River. 2026. “Discussions with Residents.” In person interviews, March 20, 2026.

Torres-Cortez, Ricardo. 2026. “Officials Rush to Rescue Las Vegas Tenants from Sudden Rent Hikes, Evictions.” Las Vegas Review-Journal. March 21, 2026. https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/las-vegas-and-clark-county-officials-rush-to-rescue-hebron-tenants-from-sudden-rent-hikes-evictions-3727689/.

Urban Institute. 2017. “Public Welfare Expenditures.” Urban Institute. October 20, 2017. https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/public-welfare-expenditures.

Labor activists are front and center in today’s fight against ICE and for the dignity and rights of immigrants and workers of color. 

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Atlanta DSA Interest Meeting Held in Lawrenceville

In July of 2024, the metro-Atlanta county of Gwinnett officially became the second county in the state of Georgia to cross the mark of one million residents, behind only Fulton County, home to Atlanta itself. This growing population indicates that Gwinnett needs an Atlanta DSA branch of its own to promote socialism and to act as a vehicle for the voice of Gwinnett’s working class in metro Atlanta’s political sphere. Thus, on the afternoon of Sunday, March 7^th, 2026, Atlanta DSA organizers, with the help of Georgia Gwinnett College’s YDSA (GGC-YDSA), held a Gwinnett branch interest meeting, which was attended by well over 60 people at GGC. A petition to formalize a Gwinnett branch has been underway since.

The meeting began with attendees sharing what drew their interest in the DSA and a few common sentiments rang throughout the 60+ gathered. Some of those sentiments included healthcare costs, taking political action for Palestinian liberation, wanting to act against growing right-wing power, and making life affordable in Gwinnett. Another common sentiment was that of a previous desire to be involved with Atlanta DSA, but distance to the city made that desire difficult to actualize.

Following introductions, the meeting changed gears to explaining the DSA structure to attendees. Much of the emphasis was put on the DSA’s nonprofit, volunteer-run system and how it functions bottom-up rather than top-down, as is the status quo for political organizations in this country. The meeting leaders also highlighted the DSA’s electoral strategies, with focusing on grassroots level matters, as exemplified by the recent successes of Kelsea Bond and Gabriel Sanchez in the state of Georgia. Following that, information about Atlanta DSA’s different committees (labor, political education, electoral, etc.) and identity-based sections (Afrosocialists and socialists of color, feminist socialists) was shared with the attendees.

As the meeting came to its conclusion, the group discussed how DSA works with other working-class organizations in the Atlanta area to advocate for the improvement of working class life, emphasizing DSA’s collaborative structure, especially during this period of right-wing fascism attacking the working class and the country’s minorities. Finally, at the meeting’s end, the petition to start a Gwinnett branch of the Atlanta DSA was introduced.

I spoke to two members of GGC’s YDSA leadership, co-chair Josue EC and membership chair Hannah B, who both worked to host the Gwinnett interest meeting. Josue worked to arrange the meeting location, design the flier, and to promote the meeting on the GGC campus and through social media. When asked about what he hopes to see happen through a Gwinnett branch of Atlanta DSA, he expressed that he feels that the current system of elitist American politics pushes members of the working class away from engaging politically. Thus, through a Gwinnett branch of ATLDSA, he hopes to energize leftists across the county to become politically engaged and bring about positive change in the lives of Gwinnett’s working class. Hannah B, who also helped in organizing the interest meeting, spoke about how she hopes a Gwinnett branch will work to bring socialism locally to Gwinnett, not just limited to the city of Atlanta. One specific goal she she shared is for a Gwinnett branch to push for low cost/free public transportation in Gwinnett, which would include the expansion of MARTA. 

The meeting had a very positive and optimistic outlook to it, as the people of Gwinnett are hungry for real, meaningful change and are excited to engage with DSA to bring about such change. The people of Gwinnett are hopeful that in the face of right-wing fascism and elitist politics, a future Gwinnett branch of ATLDSA will advocate for immigrant rights, affordable housing, free healthcare, and local support for Gwinnett’s working class.

May the future of the DSA in Atlanta be prosperous and may the people of Gwinnett carry their hope towards a future of well-being, safety, and health.

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Join DSA Ventura County’s Labor Working Group on zoom to discuss recent labor struggles in our communities, from Starbucks Workers United’s indefinite strike, to the new contract our County employees won by threatening to strike, to the movement for an arms embargo by Labor for Palestine, and the calls for a general strike by May Day 2028. Please, bring other ideas, campaigns, and your own workplace experiences. An agenda will be posted on slack soon. You will receive the zoom link shortly after completing RSVP.