On February 21, 2025, Elon Musk walked onto the stage of the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference and waved around a chainsaw before declaring “I am become meme!” The chainsaw was handed to him by President Javier Milei of Argentina, who used the chainsaw as a symbol of his campaign to “cut bureaucracy” and bring prosperity to Argentina–a campaign so successful that 57% of Argentinians now live in poverty. In typical Muskian fashion however, the chainsaw did not actually function, and instead Elon himself made chainsaw noises. 

As Elon jumped around, his ex-girlfriend Grimes took to messaging him publicly on X (Twitter) begging him to please stop ignoring their child’s medical needs. “Plz respond about our child’s medical crisis. I am sorry to do this publicly but it is no longer acceptable to ignore this situation. This requires immediate attention,” She then explained to others on the site, “I’m not giving any details but he won’t respond to texts, calls or emails and has skipped every meeting and our child will suffer lifelong impairment if he doesn’t respond asap.” 

This is the man who Trump has granted near-limitless power to cut budgets and fire employees at will through his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

As of writing, this administration has already ordered the firing of 220,000 federal workers. Tens of thousands have been fired so far. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its activities protecting people from debt collectors have been effectively ended. Plans are underway to eliminate the Department of Education. DOGE has already ended dozens of education programs, seemingly targeting in particular those meant to help disabled students, as part of DOGE’s campaign against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. Thousands have been fired from the Department of Veteran Affairs, and the administration has ended many of its programs researching cancer and veterans’ healthcare. They have also cut hundreds of millions of dollars in research and education funding, particularly healthcare-related research conducted through the National Institutes of Health. Following in the footsteps of Argentina’s Millei, these government cuts are triggering a reduction in consumer spending, an increase in inflation, and risking negative economic growth in the United States–all potential signs of a nosedive towards economic recession.

Listen: these guys suck.

They just plain suck. It’s not even funny! These people are freaks, and not the good kind.

So let’s just get rid of them!

There is, in fact, a long tradition of working people defying governments and organizing for revolution in their workplace: this tradition is called syndicalism.

Syndicalism is a form of action that focuses on organizing unions as the primary revolutionary vehicles to overturn the power of the capitalist class, take control of the workplace, and run our workplaces and economic system together democratically.

The ideas can perhaps best be summarized by the 1906 Charter of Amiens, which became the program of many syndicalist unions: “In daily protest work the union pursues the coordination of working class efforts, and the growth of the well being of workers, through the carrying out of immediate improvements, such as the diminution in work hours, the increase in salaries, etc. But this task is only one side of the work of syndicalism: it prepares complete emancipation, which can only be fulfilled by expropriation of the capitalists; it advocates as a method of action the general strike; and it considers that the union, today a resistance group will be, in the future, a group for production and redistribution, the basis of social reorganization.”

Prior to World War I, syndicalism was an important form of revolutionary socialist struggle in industrial societies. Animated by the vision of a socialist and egalitarian future, syndicalists organized the first major national unions that many countries ever had, mobilizing millions of workers for revolutionary struggle. With this vision, the Confédération générale du travail (CGT) was organized in France in 1895, and to this day it remains the largest labor union in France. The Freie Vereinigung deutscher Gewerkschaften (FVdG) was organized in Germany in 1897, later reorganizing in 1919 as the even larger Freie Arbeiter Union Deutschlands (FAUD). The Federación Obrera Regional Argentina (FORA) was organized in Argentina in 1902. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was organized in the United States in 1905. The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) was organized in Spain in 1910 out of the merger of several earlier regional syndicalist unions. The Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI) was organized in Italy in 1912. The Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) was organized in South Africa in 1919, evolving out of the IWW chapter there. The Confederação Geral do Trabalho (CGT) was organized in Portugal also in 1919. Each of these unions would reach over a hundred thousand members, and many of them remained in their time the largest labor union in their country. In some cases they became international unions, such as the IWW with its branches in the tens of thousands in Chile, Australia, Canada, and elsewhere.

There are many lessons we can draw from these movements. However, I would like to focus on one particular example of syndicalist organizing relevant to our current crisis. In 1918, the German Empire was overthrown, with a leading role played by a group of labor militants known as the Revolutionary Shop Stewards.

How did this happen?

In 1914, the empires of Europe went to war with each other over competing territorial claims. This was World War I. In a shock to the international socialist movement, the socialist party of Germany, the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD), did not oppose the German Empire’s war of conquest. Instead, they embraced it! The SPD leadership whipped its parliamentary politicians into funding the war, and opponents of the war within the party ranks were quickly expelled, with many then imprisoned by the Empire. The SPD and the Empire further entered into an agreement called the Burgfrieden, whereby the SPD-affiliated labor unions agreed to not go on strike for the duration of the war and to discipline workers to increase productivity for the war effort. The syndicalist FVdG was the only German union to release a statement opposing the war and Burgfrieden, and for this its leaders were imprisoned and driven underground.

Many rank-and-file workers recoiled at the actions of the SPD and began organizing their own opposition to the war. Labor militants and shop stewards created an independent underground network known as Revolutionäre Obleute, or in English–the Revolutionary Shop Stewards (RSS).

RSS members were organizers recruited from workplaces across unions and firms where the workers were opposed to the war and would be willing to go on strike irrespective of the position of the union leadership. The RSS member from that workplace was chosen by the workplace’s workers as a sort of delegate to the RSS, someone who had the leadership abilities to organize strikes while also being trusted enough to represent coworkers and maintain secrecy. The RSS also targeted the war material industries in particular to recruit members and organize anti-war sentiment as a way to position themselves to halt the entire war effort and the Empire’s military capabilities.

As the war dragged on, the Empire began rationing food and energy, and there were scarcities throughout the economy. Casualties mounted. Family members and loved ones were lost. Dissatisfaction began to grow. RSS militants flexed their muscles in their respective workplaces more and more by initiating illegal strikes for better wages and working conditions, violating the Burgfrieden. By 1916, the RSS felt confident enough to begin organizing their first general strike against the government when SPD parliamentary leader and anti-militarist agitator Karl Liebknecht was arrested, spurring the anti-war movement into public action.

With public anger forming against the war and Liebknecht’s arrest, the RSS decided now was their chance to launch a general strike. The RSS tried to hold an emergency meeting of members at a dancehall, but police had been tipped off and arrived before them. The thrity RSS organizers instead chose a local pub to meet, and there they decided that they had enough support in their respective workplaces to call a strike for the following day, June 28, 1916. They returned to their workplaces, and the following day, they left their workplace for the streets–with thousands alongside them. Initially this meant the large metal-working companies in Berlin went on strike, since this is where the RSS was most densely organized, but thousands of other workers soon went on strike in support. In Berlin and Braunschwig, 55,000 workers in total struck to demand Liebknecht’s freedom, despite mainstream union leadership and the SPD publicly opposing the strike.

This strike did not succeed in its goals–Liebknecht was conscripted to the army, then imprisoned again after he kept trying to organize soldiers against the war. He remained in prison until 1918. For many, this was demoralizing. But the RSS understood this was a long game, and the fact that they were able to muster tens of thousands of workers on an illegal strike for a political goal, rather than a purely workplace-related issue, was a promising sign of what could be achieved. So they organized another strike. After a harsh winter, the Empire reduced everyone’s food rations in March, and a new law was passed conscripting civilians to work in the war industries. The RSS felt there was enough popular anger against the Empire again to launch another strike.

Among syndicalists there is a recurring question of whether to work within the mainstream labor unions and convert them to syndicalism or build new independent radical syndicalist unions outside of them. The majority of the syndicalist movement at this time chose the latter. However, the RSS opted for something a little in between. The RSS agreed with their syndicalist comrades that unions should be the major revolutionary vehicle to overthrow the capitalist system and become the infrastructure of the new democratically-organized economy. And although individual members of the RSS were members of various socialist groups, they were committed to maintaining the independence of the RSS and revolutionary labor movement outside the influence of any political parties. However, the RSS did not attempt to build an independent union. 

Instead, RSS members came together across different unions to organize. To that end, their network was both: 1) a parallel infrastructure meant to allow militants to directly organize with their fellow workers and coordinate with each other across workplaces, bypassing the authority of the mainstream union leadership; and 2) a network within each union to coordinate taking over the leadership and direction of that union. Everything is an organizing opportunity, everywhere is a battlefield for class war. To that end, Richard Muller, one of the key leaders of the RSS, successfully passed a resolution in the metalworkers union to demand an end to the new law conscripting civilians to work in the war industries. They then used the union’s upcoming general assembly to organize with RSS and non-RSS union members alike for a new general strike. Muller was imprisoned by the Empire for his actions, but that only served to inflame the more moderate members of the metalworkers union, who now felt that one of their own was being attacked.

The result was an April 1917 general strike that was even bigger than the 1916 one, with an estimate of over 100,000 strikers paralyzing the cities of Berlin, Braunschweig, Halle, Magdeburg, Leipzig, and others. Demands came to free Muller, increase the food ration, and establish democratic political representation. After a day, the pro-war leader of the metalworkers union called for an end to the strike, but tens of thousands continued striking for another week anyway. None of the demands were met. That didn’t stop anyone though. In fact, it just made them more angry.

Several months later, Muller was released, and the RSS began planning another strike. They attempted to forge coalitions with other anti-war elements, in particular the USPD and the Spartacus League. These groups were formed by people who were expelled or resigned from the SPD because they opposed the war, perhaps the most well known of them being Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Karl Kautsky, and even by this point, the famously moderate Eduard Bernstein. If you’ve lost even Bernstein, you’ve really done it! And done it they did – the German Empire was losing the war, and badly. The SPD’s continued support for the war lacked any credibility. After extensive surveying of their members and fellow workers, the RSS in consultation with the USPD and Spartacus League organized for another general strike on January 28. This time the strike demand was explicit: the people demand the downfall of the regime. RSS members went to general meetings of their unions to call on all workers to strike. Some of the mainstream union leadership denounced the strike but to no avail.

On January 28, 1918, the metalworkers announced the start of the strike by banging hammers on metal oxygen tanks in the factories. Eventually over 500,000 workers went on strike across Germany demanding the overthrow of the government. The police responded with brutality, assaulting assemblies and raiding union offices, targeting and arresting strike leaders. The military was called in to Berlin, and RSS leaders feared they would be willing to fire on the strikers. Out of caution, they called off the strike only a week after it began. This was the third general strike.

It was soon followed up by a fourth and final general strike. Knowing they would have to face off against the military, the RSS and allies began assembling weapons and prepared to initiate the next strike in November. They smuggled thousands of rifles into Berlin and hid them throughout the city. They made plans for armed marches through the city to occupy critical infrastructure and surround the military barracks before the army could be mobilized. Then something unexpected happened: sailors in the German Navy in the northern port of Kiel mutinied, refusing to fight anymore in a losing war, and Kiel itself came out in protest to support them. A revolutionary wind in the air, the RSS moved up their plans and launched the fourth general strike on November 9, 1918. This time, the SPD and pro-war union leadership didn’t dare to oppose it. They saw the writing on the wall.

When the day came, everyone did their duty. Contemporary observers noted with surprise how bloodless and automatic it all seemed. The barracks were surrounded. The soldiers either surrendered or joined the strikers. The railways, bridges, telegraphs, and other critical infrastructure were occupied by armed workers. An armed march on the parliament building, with Richard Muller at its head, led to the pro-war parliamentarians scattering and trying to escape as the armed strikers began seizing each room. New revolutionary committees to manage food, welfare, and trade were already being established in the old offices that once were occupied by war planning. Karl Liebknecht, now freed from prison, declared a new socialist republic from the balcony of the former royal palace to thunderous applause from thousands.

The rest of the story doesn’t have a happy ending. But the post-revolution politics that eventually led to the rise of the Nazis is a story for another time.

What can we learn from this part of the story?

As of writing, Trump is attempting to institute his own Burgfrieden, with an extra emphasis on Burger. He has granted permission to Israel to continue their genocide of the Palestinian people with US weapons, as he organizes murderous US airstrikes against Yemen. He has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deport any immigrant, regardless of visa or residency status, who has expressed opposition to the genocide, including the high-profile arrests of Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and others. Now Trump is expanding his attempts to arrest and deport hundreds, targeting university activists, academic union organizers, and immigrant labor organizers. Trump additionally signed an executive order nullifying collective bargaining agreements with most federal labor unions, ending union protections for over 800,000 workers. Trump’s threats to withhold funding from universities that don’t crack down harder on anti-genocide protests has led Columbia University to expel Grant Miner, the pro-Palestine president of the university’s academic worker union UAW 2710 of which Mahmoud Khalil was also a member. This was only one day before union contract negotiations were to begin–the university has since cancelled the negotiations. Twenty-two students at Columbia have either been expelled, suspended, or had their degree revoked. Opponents to the war, including labor organizers, are being suppressed and arrested–does any of this sound familiar?

Noticeably absent from the opposition to Trump’s new Burger-frieden is the opposition party itself, the Democratic Party. Leading Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have instead voted to pass the Trump-Elon austerity bill, which cuts billions in public spending and thousands of jobs. Only a handful of Democratic members of Congress have spoken out against the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil and others, while the top party leadership remains silent. The result has been a collapse in public approval of the Democratic Party to literally record lows.

Although the people may not yet demand the downfall of the regime, they at least are demanding a real opposition to it. The layoffs among federal employees have led to nationwide protests by federal labor unions. Federal labor organizers have formed the Federal Unionist Network to coordinate collective action against the administration. They have organized mass rallies in major cities under the banner of Save Our Services. Many of these Save Our Services rallies occurred outside of Tesla vehicle dealerships, helping inspire the Tesla Takedown pickets of Tesla facilities and direct action against Tesla vehicles. In parallel, academic labor unions have mobilized thousands of workers in Stand Up for Science and Kill the Cuts rallies. During the April 5 nationwide day of action, which mobilized at least one million in protest, labor unions joined in marching on the capital to demand freedom for Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and other political prisoners.

We can take a few lessons from the history of syndicalism and the Revolutionary Shop Stewards. For one, the revolutionary syndicalist unions built their strength through organizing the unorganized. DSA is doing this through the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) and Workers Organizing Workers (WOW). These successes could be even further expanded upon through deep organizing in immigrant communities, which perhaps some chapters are already doing. This would include the translation and dissemination of organizing materials in local languages, developing organizers for EWOC and WOW who can field organizational efforts in local languages, as well as holding organizing meetings in immigrant neighborhoods in the languages of the neighborhood.

As the organizing base widens, more organizers are recruited, and the organizing network expands, there arises a need to coordinate collective action. This could be done in the manner of the Revolutionary Shop Stewards by establishing a formally-organized network of labor militants across workplaces where the workers are opposed to the Trump administration and willing to take politically-motivated labor action. Many labor militants already connect through DSA, and these connections can evolve into the kind of tightly-organized structure that labor confrontation demands: uniting upon a common platform, common strategy, common actions, whereby all members take responsibility for the mobilization and success of the action within the workplace they represent. Like the RSS, this socialist labor network could also fulfill the dual role of organizing militancy within unions while also coordinating action between militants across unions in a way that bypasses potential blocks from moderate leadership. A lot of this work can begin at the chapter level for local labor organizing and can expand nationally, facilitated by resources and connections from the DSA National Labor Commission.

Ultimately, like the RSS, this militancy could organize a succession of nationwide general strikes against the administration. It goes without saying it will take long and intense organizing work to reach this kind of critical mass, but it’s a critical mass we can reach. And these would be hard fights, but they’re hard fights that can be won. We can take heart from some recent successes of illegal strike actions: the Durham city sanitation workers strike in 2023, the public school teacher strikes in right-to-work states in 2018, the Indiana Graduate Worker Coalition strikes in 2022 and 2024, the UAW 4811 strike for Palestine in 2024, and more. Additionally, we have a long history of general strikes in the United States to draw inspiration from, such as the St. Louis General Strike in 1877, the Seattle General Strike in 1919, and the San Francisco General Strike in 1934.

Perhaps the prospect of taking such a direct and combative stance against the administration seems scary. But if left unchecked, Trump and Elon will engineer a reality far more frightening. People are being sent to prison camps. Hundreds of thousands are losing their jobs. The economy is crashing. The country is being thrown into a generalized crisis. As things stand, each and every one of us in this society is stamped with an invisible number that marks our place next in line for losing a job, losing housing, or getting imprisoned. Our only defense is to band together and fight. We have it in our power to change the world. And we must change it. If we stand still, we will lose everything. If we act, we will win everything. The choice is clear. The world is yours, if you simply reach out to seize it.

Before the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) as we know it existed, New York City’s bus system was an amalgamation of private bus companies that operated on a franchise basis – they had contracts with the city detailing where they could run and what fares they could charge.

One such private company was Fifth Avenue Coach (FACO). It had a monopoly on most of upper Manhattan and all Bronx routes, and was staffed by TWU Labor. In the early 1960s, real-estate mogul and transit poacher Harry Weinberg orchestrated a hostile takeover of FACO’s board. He purchased a majority of its shares and coordinated a proxy faction (who included Roy M. Cohn, lawyer for THAT Senator Joseph McCarthy) that installed him as Chair. Transit labor knew Weinberg had a past of taking over transit systems, keeping their real estate holdings, then offloading the systems to their cities or states but benefiting from the real estate gains, as he did in Dallas, Scranton, and Honolulu. His goal as a capitalist was not to provide quality public transportation to the public, but to use quasi-public transportation services as a tool of private capital accumulation.

New York Times, Feb 2, 1962

In New York, Weinberg announced a reorganization plan that included layoffs of 800-1,500 workers, elimination of most night and weekend service, and a halt to pension payments. He also wanted to increase the fare from 15 to 20 cents (about $1.45 to $1.90 in today’s dollars) and re-instate a 5 cent transfer between lines (note: when they eliminated the free transfer just months before, the company thought it would put their books in the black; instead, ridership plummeted).

The TWU saw right through Weinberg’s capitalist ploy. In February, they authorized a strike should Weinberg make cuts or layoffs. At that meeting, TWU president Micheal J. Quill said he would like to see the city take over the whole company.

He would get his wish.

On the morning of March 1st, 1962, Weinberg laid of 29 TWU fare collectors, doorman, and watchmen, all of whom were unable to drive because of age, injury, or illness. The TWU stopped work on all FACO lines by 5pm that day.

More photos here: http://www.twulocal100.org/story/60-years-ago-fight-survival-and-birth-mabstoa

Mayor Wagner meanwhile wasted no time condemning Weinberg for precipitating a strike and threatening cuts, layoffs, AND a fare increase. Within 2 days he moved with the Board of Estimate and the state Legislature  to condemn FACO’s buses and garages and seize them for municipal use.

On March 8th, the Board of Estimates striped FACO of 80% of its franchises.
On March 15 & 19th, the state assembly and senate passed the bills needed for the city to condemn and seize FACO’s garage/maintenance properties and rolling stock.
By the end of the month, under the newly created Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MABSTOA), the buses were back online (repainted to city colors) and strikers went back to work as public employees.

The state, neither before nor since, has never moved so quickly in public transit. Perhaps this is because public sector workers are no longer legally able to strike under the Taylor Law, which severely curtails the strength Labor has as an organized body to defend not only their rights, but the rights of the public.

History taken from From a Nickel to a Token (2016) by Andrew J. Sparberg.

What We Did

As we close the book on another NPEC term, I’d like to use one of my last acts as chair to recap the past year, debrief how we did, and preview what’s to come.  

The centerpiece of this term was NPEC’s inaugural National Capital Reading Group (CRG).  This ambitious project was our first foray into reading a foundational socialist text at a national level.  The Reading Group divided Capital Vol. 1, into several monthly sections, where we would meet on Zoom to have rotation facilitators review key ideas and discuss.  We also provided our guide so that chapters or regions could have their own Capital reading group.  Our kickoff event had over 500 RSVPs in October. While there was a dropoff, like any reading group, we did have a good number of members make it to the final session at the end of February. We feel that the CRG went so well, we will make it an annual tradition, and would like to adopt the format to other foundational socialist texts.  

Chapter Support

Our Chapter support subcommittee continued on its mission by mentoring 20 chapters and multiple trainings, including how to have a socialist night school, talking to non-socialists, and our how to have a childwatch in your chapter.  

Curriculum 

We published two new modules this term: Race and Capitalism in the United States: An Introduction and Fascism and the American Right. Next term, we are committing to publishing even more modules while revamping our old modules with new readings, materials, and resources for chapter to political educators to use out of the box.  We are also excited to share that our modules will be moving to a DSA Moodle shortly.  

Events 

They had a very active term, producing 4 of their typical mass calls while venturing into new territory and planning the first series of national foundational calls in collaboration with the NPC.  Events also lent a hand with the Capital Reading Group, the annual Educators’ Conference, and other NPEC mass calls.  You can find recordings of these events and series on the DSA YouTube.  

Comms and Podcast

We democratized our podcast production to expand the scope of topics while maintaining quality, producing 13 episodes. The Class podcast has grown its listenership by over 10,000 downloads in the past year, moving past 26,000 this past month. Our newsletter Redletter, is also gaining popularity through its quality and pertinent information about political education in DSA. It is read by an average of 3,600 members monthly this term.  

Meeting Goals 

At the beginning of this term, we set some goals about the content, events, and materials we’d like to produce this year. I wanted to reflect on those goals to highlight the ones we met and put a pin in what we can strive for this coming term.  

• We had the ambition to create several new trainings and how-tos geared at new and at-large members, along with developing chapters. A new facilitation and how-to start a political education training will debut soon, after the member surge in the wake of the 2024 election. We did implement our national foundations call in conjunction with the NPC and help wrangle DSA 101 and new member resources. So, we didn’t check all our boxes, but we did get some important ones marked, especially those that met the moment. 
• Resources depot This is halfway met. Over the past term, we have gathered many new and diverse chapter-created materials, but we haven’t yet sorted, categorized, and posted those on the resource page. 
• Democratic Socialists of America: A Graphic History, which we helped the DSA Fund produce, is finished and available digitally. As of this writing, a Kickstarter campaign will soon launch to produce physical copies. NPEC’s next step is to possibly make an accompanying lesson plan for chapters to utilize along with the Graphic History.
• The Spanish translations of our foundational modules are complete and can be found here. It went down to the wire, but NPEC was able to complete our initial goal of offering our materials in more languages. With a language justice and accessibility resolution up for debate at this year’s convention, we look forward to having a wider and more diverse set of translated materials.  
• We wanted to continue to have contact with every chapter, no matter the size, to see if they are doing political education and how we can help them better facilitate their programs.  The goal of reaching every chapter and getting their status still eludes us, but our yearly survey, which we sent out many times and worked with the NPC to circulate it, had the most interactions of any term. With that, we could work with large and established chapters like Philly down to Organizing Committees like Alachua County in Florida. NPEC and our Chapter Support subcommittee will continue our outreach through every avenue at our disposal to reach out and communicate with chapters.
• Through an NPC resolution after the 2024 election results, we were asked to put on another round of socialist foundations mass calls. This was an excellent opportunity to meet one of our goals and revamp the program with the participation of our national co-chairs. These calls were well attended and are now on DSA’s YouTube.  
• The Capital Vol. 1 Reading Group was the feather in our cap this past term. It created the most buzz of any event that NPEC has put on, with over 200 members attending our kick-off event. Along with reading a seminal socialist text, the reading group made many members aware of our committee and offerings.  There was a drop off like any reading group, but especially one of this density. Still, we finished with a solid core and built the foundations to make this an annual event while providing the blueprints to do it with other essential readings.  
• We also hosted a second national reading group for Eric Blanc’s recently released book, We Are the Union, in collaboration with the DSA’s National Labor Commission, YDSA, and EWOC.  This strong collaboration led to one of our best-attended calls, with over a thousand people turning in for the launch call that featured Eric Blanc, labor writer Kim Kelly (author, Fight Like Hell), and Moe Mills of Starbucks Workers United. The Recap Call featured Jane Slaughter of Labor Notes and Jaz Brisack, an original organizer of Starbucks Workers United, to discuss their impressions of the book with the author, Eric Blanc.  

Next Term

NPEC members came together and democratically decided our goals for the future in our 2025 Consensus Resolution. After meeting our charter goals from Resolution 33 at the 2019 Convention, we outlined how we will continue improving our current fair and what we strive to do next to keep developing political education in DSA, thereby shaping the future of DSA as we grow and develop as an organization. 

• Expanding our volunteer and contributor pool of members
• Structurally, shore up our place as a dynamic national committee with an increase in budget and staff time
• Add depth and width to our media offerings and member outreach
  • Expanding the scope of topics and increasing the frequency of our podcast Class
  • Creating more video content for DSA’s YouTube channel
  • Ensuring that our Educators’ Conference is held regularly throughout the term. 
• Continue to expand and improve our curriculum offerings
  • 4 new Socialist Night School Modules
    • Democracy, Civil Society, and Socialist Politics
    • What is Internationalism for Socialists?
    • Socialist Analyses of Nativism and Racism
    • Socialist Feminisms & Gender Liberation
  • Refine and improve past modules for use in Socialist Night Schools
  • Found a Party School to be used in conjunction with the Growth and Development Committee’s hard skills trainings
  • A Socialist Sprouts curriculum for children, parents, and caregivers
  • The Capital Reading Group will continue annually, with the prospect of offering more reading groups for other critical socialist readings.  

Before reading more, an urgent ask for all members: we want the feedback of all our membership! Please fill out our chapter survey so we can know more about your thoughts on our various areas of work and how we can improve! This will take about 10-15 minutes, so set aside some time to sit down and share your thoughts!

• Our State and Revolution reading group is coming up this Saturday. Make sure to RSVP in order to get the link!

• Our Sanctuary Cincy petition is going strong, but we need you to help us reach as many people as possible to sign! Sign up for our canvass this Saturday, May 24th in Westwood to get as many residents of Cincinnati as possible to sign the petition!

• New to DSA (or know someone interested) and want to meet others and learn more about the country’s largest socialist organization? Join us for our next DSA 101!

• Our next Stitching Social is happening this May 31st at noon! Join us at the Covington Library to start or continue a craft project and socialize with fellow socialists!

• We’re hosting a 101 session on Medicare for All and why we fight for it as socialists! Join us on May 31st at the Newport Library at 3 PM for a political education event on one of the core issues for democratic socialists over the past ten years!

Climate Disaster? The Point is to Change It!

What got me out of being a climate doomer is meeting and collaborating with enough people across this organization who have been through that period of engaging with how bad things are and reckoning with that doomer aspect, and then are like, No, we just have to build something better and that’s the only alternative, because otherwise we are fucked. But we have to figure out what that alternative is and how to make it happen at whatever cost because that’s our collective and individual survival. Those actually are the stakes and we can build it together—there are all these reasons to think we can build it together—but we have to keep articulating that in a way that people can actually believe, that we can actually believe and also convince other people of.

• Ashik Siddique, DSA Co-Chair. READ MORE

By Triangle DSA Socialist Feminist Working Group

The NC Triangle Democratic Socialists of America’s two-year-long effort to shut down anti-abortion center Gateway Women's Care on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh has ended in victory! Gateway's landlord is no longer leasing to this unlicensed, unregulated, and unethical “crisis pregnancy center.”

Local activists with Triangle DSA’s Socialist Feminist (“SocFem”) Working Group began picketing Gateway in the spring of 2023. We aimed to bring attention to the harm that anti-abortion or “crisis pregnancy centers” pose to working-class communities. These centers are known to target low-income folks and women of color, who experience disproportionate risk for poor maternal health outcomes. Like other “crisis pregnancy centers,” Gateway poses as a source of legitimate healthcare, even though it is not a licensed medical facility. Misinformation abounds on their website, from alleging abortion causes breast cancer and depression to offering dubious “abortion pill reversal” services. Crucially, anti-abortion centers like Gateway obstruct reproductive justice by endangering people regardless of whether or not they want to stay pregnant. Free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds peddled by centers may deceive clients into thinking that they are receiving quality prenatal care, a calculated diversion that can delay OBGYN visits. “Crisis pregnancy center” staff have also been known to fail to diagnose pregnancy complications that might require urgent medical attention or abortion care. 

Gateway opened with the stated intent of targeting college students seeking reproductive healthcare. Their location stood within two miles of seven local universities serving over 50,000 students. In the end, the very college students Gateway hoped to “slow down in the rush to the abortion clinic” were instrumental to the center’s demise. The NC State Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) turned out dozens of students for regular pickets on the sidewalk in front of Gateway. At our pickets, we warned community members about the presence of an anti-abortion center in their neighborhood and shared legitimate resources for reproductive healthcare. We also informed passersby that Gateway’s landlord was a registered Democrat who worked in the building just next door and seemed all too comfortable profiting from his lease with the anti-abortion operation.

Ultimately, our campaign was successful because we threatened the reputation of Gateway’s landlord. In May 2024, we received no response when we contacted the landlord to inform him of Gateway's harm to the community. In August of 2024, we contacted him again to no avail to share that over 200 petition signers shared our vision of a Hillsborough St without Gateway. Later that month, we had the first opportunity to speak to him when he arrived at his workplace next to Gateway during a picket. He memorably suggested that we should hold Kamala Harris signs since she could “take care” of anti-abortion centers. Inspired by his comment, at our next picket in November 2024, we decided to hold a sign bearing the name of the only person who could fix the situation. Within an hour of hearing that picketers were outside holding signs demanding he stop leasing to Gateway, the landlord emailed us claiming our tactics would not work. But on March 27th, 2025, we learned through public records that Gateway would no longer be a tenant at 1306 Hillsborough St. 

We want to credit the borrowed and learned techniques that helped shape our successful campaign. We learned how to de-escalate anti-abortion agitators from clinic defenders in our community. Triangle DSA’s No Appetite for Apartheid campaign shared tips for canvassing local businesses. Siembra and Triangle Tenant Union encouraged us to identify Gateway’s points of vulnerability, helping shape our unique strategy of escalating pressure on their landlord. We are also deeply appreciative of chapter partner and member of the Raleigh Planning Commission, Reeves Peeler. His guidance supported us in confirming the lease's termination and identifying areas where Gateway may have failed to comply with municipal building code. 

Most importantly, we want to thank the more than 100 community members who showed up to picket Gateway. The “sexually broken and abortion minded” community that Gateway sought to deceive and control came together to fight back, and we won. In the continued pursuit of bodily autonomy, Triangle DSA SocFem plans to activate other DSA chapters and politically aligned organizations across the nation to take action against anti-abortion centers. There are six remaining “crisis pregnancy centers” in the tri-city area of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill– and we are prepared to dismantle the thinly veiled propaganda operation that they are, one by one. 

DSA San Diego, as part of TRUST Coalition, is demanding the end of Automatic License Plate Readers used by the San Diego Police Department. Read statement. [...]

Read More... from DSA San Diego Calls on the San Diego City Council to End the use of Automatic License Plate Readers

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Enjoy your May National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 18-person body (including two YDSA members who share a vote) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, join Palestinian solidarity actions, sign up for tenant organizing trainings, get in the Convention spirit, and more!

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

• From the National Political Committee — Growing Our Movement
• Palestine Will Live Forever — Nakba Week of Action Through Wednesday 5/21
• May and June Afrosocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus Committee Meetings
• Document Our Socialist History! Join Our DSA Archives Workshop Thursday 5/29
• Summer Tenant Organizing Training Series Starts Saturday 6/7!
• Monthly Convention Update: Programming Proposals, Running for National Political Committee, and More!
• DSA Graphic Novel — Help New Members Learn Our History!
• Apply for DSA’s National Communications Committee

From the National Political Committee — Growing Our Movement

Two weeks ago on May Day, chapters across the country poured into the street to protest the oligarchy and celebrate our power, bringing the spirit of International Workers’ Day to over 800 cities and towns all over the United States — the most simultaneous May Day events in US history. Standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with each other and with workers everywhere is a powerful reminder of the world we’re building toward — a better world where the working class has democratic control of every aspect of our lives, instead of the war-hungry earth-killing capitalist class currently running it all like some kind of demented planetary chessboard. 

As we organize and show up at mass events to keep demonstrating and growing our power, we know we are up against the rise of fascism everywhere as capitalism buckles under its own need for endless, mindless growth of profits for the very few at the top. The death drive of these war profiteers is especially clear today, the 77th anniversary of the Nakba of Palestine, as corporations and governments complicit in genocide and apartheid feel the heat from the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. Our international solidarity is the force that will not only push back against this tide, but turn it altogether — but only if we organize ourselves into something stronger than the billionaires’ bottomless bank accounts. 

We know that this means growing our numbers and carefully organizing the resources we have, to deepen our power in ways that disrupt the ability of the capitalist class to control us. We need powerful labor unions in our workplaces to take on the bosses, organized tenants to take on the landlords, socialists in office to use state power and the bully pulpit to curb capitalist control of the economy, and a mass movement that’s ready to hit the ground in defense of immigrants, trans folks, reproductive rights, and against ecological devastation for a planet where all can survive and thrive together. 

And that’s exactly what we’re doing. DSA has seen more than 10% growth in membership since Election Day, plus a rapid increase in new organizing committees in cities and regions where we didn’t have a chapter. Capitalists organize everywhere, so we must do the same — and we are!

We want to give a special welcome to the members of these new Organizing Committees (pre-chapter formations) that have formed so far in 2025:

• Bluegrass (KY)
• Brazos (TX)
• Central Mississippi
• Chippewa Valley (WI)
• Flagstaff, AZ
• Land of Lincoln (IL)
• Med City (Rochester, MN)
• Middle Georgia
• Northwest Michigan
• Paso Del Norte (TX, NM)
• River Region (AL)
• Southeast Kansas
• St. Cloud (MN)
• Walla Walla (WA)

And we want to welcome our newest chapters, who have all already passed a set of bylaws, elected officers, and gotten down to the nitty-gritty of organizing in their areas!

• Mesa County DSA (CO)
• Mobile Bay DSA (AL)
• Omaha DSA (NE, IA)
• Saginaw Bay DSA (MI)
• Sonoma County DSA (CA)
• Southern Idaho DSA
• Southern Maryland DSA

This is incredible growth and we’re so excited to see organizing happening in these areas. Workers are taking on mega-corporations Amazon and Starbucks, organizing brand new tenants unions, running people for municipal office, fighting back against hospital systems that are complying in advance with Trump’s anti-trans directives, and so much more. If you are an at-large member interested in organizing a new formation in your city or region, you can learn more about that process here. There’s no time like the present to get that work off the ground. Folks are ready to get mobilizing and organizing!

If you’re interested in connecting with DSA members across the country to talk about your organizing work, learn from each other’s successes and challenges, and find the collective motivation and courage to take on these big fights, there are two big opportunities this summer to do exactly that.

Socialism Conference will be held over 4th of July weekend in Chicago and will feature programming from organizers, activists, and thinkers across the country and around the world, with folks addressing everything from the nuts and bolts of organizing tasks to the huge political questions in front of us about how we build left power, against the far right ascending around the globe amid war and wildfires. DSA will be hosting several panels and DSA members will be present on many more, plus there will be DSA meet-and-greets and lots of chances to connect with other members. Watch this space for more information, and register now!

The 2025 DSA National Convention will be taking place in Chicago on August 8-10. It will be an incredible opportunity for us to network with each other, debate our strategy and political orientation for the next two years, and continue building ourselves into the mass party we need to be in order to fight capitalism. If your chapter hasn’t already started the process of choosing delegates, thinking about resolutions, or making a fundraising plan to help get delegates to the convention, what are you waiting for? Reach out to your chapter for more information!

We look forward to seeing you at either or both of these events, or maybe at a march or rally or canvass, very soon!

Solidarity forever!

Megan Romer and Ashik Siddique
DSA National Co-Chairs

P.S. Join us to make some phone calls to raise socialist cash to take out capitalist trash and support our current nationally-endorsed slate of socialist candidates for office. We’ll be hitting the phones on Sunday, 5/18 at 3pm ET/2pm CT/1pm MT/12pm PT, and we hope to see you there!

Palestine Will Live Forever — Nakba Week of Action Through Wednesday 5/21

Now until Wednesday 5/21, DSA is holding a nationwide week of action for Nakba Week. As Israel and the U.S. continue to ethnically cleanse Gaza and provoke an entire regional war and Trump’s administration escalates repression against solidarity work at home, it is more important than ever that we build sustainable, mass campaigns against strategic targets. This is the most effective form of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Chapters across the county are organizing long term BDS Campaigns targeting municipalities, Chevron, and Maersk. Find an event near you here.

May and June Afrosocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus Committee Meetings

National AFROSOC Committees are LIVE. Check it out!

• Communications Committee Biweekly Meeting Sunday 5/18 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
• Organizing and Mutual Aid Committee Monthly Meeting Tuesday 5/20 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
• Growth and Development Committee Monthly Meeting Thursday 6/5 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT
• Political Education Committee Monthly Meeting Friday 6/6 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT

And we’ve added May Local AFROSOC Events! Wanna plug into your local chapters actions? Download our AFROSOC Events Calendar here.

Lastly! For those who may not vibe with Discord or Slack, we have access to an AFROSOC Discussion Group on the members-only DSA Discussion Forum. If you haven’t signed up for the Discussion Forum already, use the email you use for your membership to get in!

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

Join the DSA National Political Education Committee and the DSA Fund for our DSA Archives Workshop Thursday 5/29 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT! We invite all DSA comrades who are…

• chapter secretaries
• interested in starting a local archive of DSA and/or associated histories in their chapters
• political educators who want to bring archival knowledge back to their chapters
• socialists with cool stuff who want to know what they could do with it
• interested in exploring the purpose and meaning of archives for the left

This is a 90-minute instructional workshop with interspersed, interactive discussion of theory and practice, led by Michaela B. (DSA National Political Education Committee, North New Jersey DSA), Anna F (Chicago DSA), Colin M (National Tech Committee, North New Jersey DSA), and Shannon O (NYU Tamiment Archive).

Summer Tenant Organizing Training Series Starts Saturday 6/7!

Learn how to start a tenant union! Are you or people you know having trouble with landlords? Take initiative into your hands and start a tenant union! In this weekly training series, you’ll learn how to set up an organizing committee, investigate your local conditions, and run campaigns. RSVP today! Sessions are Saturdays at 2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT throughout June. If you’re already in a tenant union, this is a great opportunity to share your expertise with other members!

Monthly Convention Update: Programming Proposals, Running for National Political Committee, and More!

Convention season is in full swing. Submit your ideas for Convention programming sessions today! Proposal submissions are open until Saturday 5/31. The Convention team is looking for diverse, engaged, and energetic programming that connects to our theme, “Rebirth and Beyond: Reflecting on a Decade of DSA’s Growth and Preparing for a Decade of Party-Building.” Sessions can include workshops, panel discussions, seminars, and creative displays or performances.

As part of our 2025 Convention Fundraiser, DSA will be hosting an auction — and we need auction items! The deadline for submissions is Sunday 6/15. Are you an artist with a piece you’d be willing to donate, an author who could donate some signed books, or a collector who’s hanging on to a cool item that a comrade might be willing to bid on? Previous years’ auction items have included all sorts of physical goods, gift cards, and even experiences, like museum or concert tickets or a stay at a vacation property. If you are interested in sharing something or talking more to someone about it, please fill out this form. Everyone else, get ready to raise those paddles!

And it’s last call for chapter fundraising seed grants! The deadline is Saturday 5/17. 

Convention is coming, and we hope your chapter has started thinking about how you’ll help fundraise for your delegation to attend! The DSA National Political Committee, 2025 Convention Planning Committee, and Fundraising Committee have worked together to create and approve a $5000 grant pool for chapters to help finance fundraising activities for Convention. 

For example, maybe you’re throwing a punk show, or a “prommunism” fundraising dance, and need to put a deposit on a rental space. Or you’d like to print and sell limited-edition calendars or t-shirts and need to pay for supplies up front. Whatever creative fundraising idea you’ve got, if you need a bit of seed money to make it happen, please reach out to your chapter leader about applying for this grant.

And National Political Committee (NPC) nominations are open until Sunday 6/15! NPC candidates must have a nominating resolution passed by either the chapter or Organizing Committee of which they are a member, any recognized National Working Group or Committee, or a majority vote by the current NPC.

Please note that NPC elections will be more complex than in past years due to rules changes that will be voted on at Convention. You can find information on these, the election rules, roles and duties of NPC members, the candidate questionnaire, and more on the National Political Committee Elections page here.

DSA Graphic Novel — Help New Members Learn Our History!

Democratic Socialists of America: A Graphic History (narrated by the spirit of Eugene V. Debs, seen here) is ready for chapters to use with new and newish members as well as those interested in DSA. Right now, it exists online. You can help us print it for use at in-person events! This comic, based on research and input from several generations of DSA members, was written by Paul Buhle and Raymond Tyler with illustrations by Noah Van Sciver. In 24 colorful pages, it  gives a quick overview of our origins and campaigns. Your support can bring this fantastic and fun tool to both new and experienced comrades.

Apply for DSA’s National Communications Committee

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

The post May National Political Committee newsletter — Growing Our Movement appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).