Unfortunately, Will and Niko will not be advancing to the November election for Northampton City Council. River Valley DSA is extremely proud of the campaigns Niko and Will ran, and a special thank you to all of our many volunteers who knocked doors, planned events, delivered signs and made phone calls. We were able to […]

The post Response to the mobilization of national guard troops in Memphis first appeared on Memphis-Midsouth.

Read more at Memphis-Midsouth

Hello Comrades,

Are you ready for fall? At MADSA, we’re kicking off cozy season with a great Wisconsin activity – apple picking! We had a summer full of outdoor fun, and we just had to squeeze in one more event before it gets too chilly. To our comrades who are looking forward to the cold, we see you and love you, and to those mourning the end of the summer sun and heat – and perhaps gazing woefully out on the lake as the sail boats are brought in for the year – we feel that too. Regardless of your feelings on the weather, we all know winter in Wisconsin can be a grey and lonely time – but not when you have a strong community and the fire of revolution in your heart! Now is a great time to start building that community ahead of the gloomy months, so make sure to stop by at least one of our three cozy, comradely socials coming up: Crafting with Comrades, Coffee with Comrades, and of course apple picking!

But wait, there’s more! The energy of summer may now be waning, but at MADSA, we aren’t slowing down for a second. Besides lovely fall and winter, there’s another season on the horizon: campaign season! The Power Mapping Committee has been hard at work on electoral plans, and we need everyone involved. At tonight’s General Meeting, we will have the opportunity to pass the charter for an Electoral Working Group to really get our electoral operation up-and-running and to continue that work in the coming months and years. We will also hear from chapter member and state rep Fran Hong and member and staffer David O on the state of Wisconsin politics and what we can be doing as a chapter to be movers and shakers in our city and state’s political scene. Come out to our Canvassing Kickoff event on September 13 to get fired up about potential upcoming city council campaigns and to talk to your neighbors in District 6 about their thoughts and feelings on local life and politics. We will start with a canvassing training, so no experience is required. Even if canvassing isn’t something you ever thought you’d do, it’s always a good time to learn a new skill, and there will be experienced comrades to help every step of the way. Also, please be sure to fill out the Membership Mapping Survey linked at the bottom of this email if you haven’t yet. A thorough survey of our members is important to assessing our internal power so we can plan our labor, electoral, and other activities most strategically.

Finally, check out our new and improved Socialism 101 – now titled Beyond the Two Party System! If you attended a Socialism 101 in the past, bring a socialism-curious or two-party-fatigued friend or coworker out and help us spread the message: workers deserve more, and socialism is the way to win it.

Solidarity forever, 

Your MADSA Executive Committee

In this newsletter:

• Tue. September 9, 6:30-8:30pm: September General Membership Meeting
• Sat. September 13, 1-5:00pm: Canvassing Kickoff
• Sat. September 13, 5:30pm: Crafting with Comrades!
• Sat. September 20, 10:00am: MADSA Apple Picking Social
• Thu. September 25, 6-8:00pm: Beyond the Two Party System: A Socialist Way Forward
• Sat. September 27, 10:00am-12:00pm: Coffee with Comrades!
• Sat. October 4, 2-3:30pm: October New Member Orientation

Note: posts by individual GMDSA members do not necessarily reflect the views of the broader membership or of its leadership and should not be regarded as official statements by the chapter.

After reading that Burlington’s legendary music spot Nectar’s had permanently closed, GMDSA Secretary David Wilcox wrote to Seven Days to propose municipalizing the venue. His letter, printed on 8/20/2025, is republished below.

In response to the shutdown of Nectar’s, I’d like to suggest a solution: Why not have the city government take over and run Nectar’s? There’s nothing radical or unprecedented about the City of Burlington running a popular music venue, given that it owned and operated 242 Main for 30 years. And I would argue that a venue like Nectar’s, one that’s synonymous with the general idea of what Burlington is, contributes far more to the city’s bottom line than its own financial numbers would indicate.

Without venues like Nectar’s, Burlington loses its aura as a cool, desirable place to live. And if Nectar’s has seemed like a shadow of its former self in recent years, why not try to revitalize it under new (public) ownership? Especially since the final shutdown of Nectar’s was due to a dispute with a landlord. The city has already forced the sale of one Handy property (184 Church Street) for the greater good of the community. Surely, there’s a way to make all this happen with enough political will.

I, for one, am sick and tired of passively accepting the loss of important places and services due to “the market,” which is every bit as much a human-created institution as laws and governments. The Burlington renaissance began with then-mayor Bernie Sanders (whose administration founded 242 Main) refusing to accept the market dictating that we couldn’t have nice things. If we want Burlington’s glory days to return, we need to rediscover that energy.

David Wilcox
Winooski

The Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) denounce Milwaukee Police Association president Alex Ayala’s comments calling for a National Guard presence in Milwaukee, noting that such an escalation would harm communities across the city.

“If enacted, the deployment of military violence on the streets of Milwaukee will only cause harm to the citizens,” said Pamela Westphal, Milwaukee DSA co-chair. “Now, more than ever, the citizens of Milwaukee need to build solidarity with their neighbors as the increase of police and military violence grows every day.”

Ayala’s comments come after President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard against protestors in Los Angeles and against the people of Washington D.C., and he has suggested doing likewise in other U.S. cities, as near to Milwaukee as Chicago.

“We must remain strong together in every city facing militarization,” Milwaukee DSA co-chair Andy Barbour said. “We oppose this proposed violation of the safety of our community and are committed to the fight against fascism.”

DSA organizers intend to work with other organizations and community members across the city and beyond to keep our communities safe from increased militarization in Milwaukee. 

As part of that work, the organization is calling on city leaders to follow the likes of Alderman Alex Brower and Alderwoman Larresa Taylor, who released a statement Thursday breaking down both legally and logically why a Milwaukee National Guard deployment would spell disaster for people here.

“We need our local government to advocate on behalf of the communities fearing for their lives here in Milwaukee,” Barbour said. “Working people will notice which of their representatives leave them in danger by remaining silent.”

Milwaukee DSA is Milwaukee’s largest socialist organization fighting for a democratic economy, a just society, and a sustainable environment. Join today at dsausa.org/join.

by Reese A

This piece was written 08/15/25

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– Adam Schneider

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

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

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

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

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

By Jesse D. and Laura W.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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