The post Internationalism Working Group appeared first on Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When we laid out our theory of power in 2022, we were organizing for a Green New Deal in a neoliberal Democratic administration over which the Left had limited power. We knew the following four years would be more of the same if we were lucky; now, we find ourselves at the conjuncture of Trump 2.0, which will be worse. Already, ICE is raiding homes and workplaces and chapters are in the streets trying to protect trans people and workers, while Democrats cower or criticize Trump for low deportation numbers. The Administration has launched a trade war, frozen research grants, escalated attacks on immigrants and transgender people, and started purging federal workers, with Elon Musk in charge of gutting the administrative state. Basic environmental protections like the Clean Air Act are under threat, even as we barrel past international emissions targets. 

Trump has already issued an executive order to halt future Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) spending, an unconstitutional attempt to reappropriate what Congress has already approved that will be challenged in court. As flawed and inadequate as it is, Biden’s IRA, still in its infancy, has just begun to bear fruit as a weak “green” industrial policy. Though unraveling the IRA would undermine job creation and economic growth in key Republican districts, that material fact may not be enough to save the legislation from forces dead-set on stopping our transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, even via mostly private means, and committed to precluding the state from acting on climate mitigation and adaptation. So far the direct pay provision of the IRA, a key component of the Build Public Renewables Act passed by some of New York state’s DSA chapters, remains unscathed.

Although the full fate of the IRA is uncertain, we already know that compromise legislation has not spurred the kind of green economic populism this moment requires. As Thea Riofrancos and Daniel Aldana Cohen pointed out, our vision for a socialist Green New Deal goes far beyond the hybrid “Prius economy” promised by legislation like the IRA. The Prius economy is driven by the private interests of big capital, which push investment—including federal subsidies and loans—towards cars and suburban housing and electric jets. We intend to change that direction, fighting for public investment in public goods like mass transit, green social housing, parks and trails, and healthy schools, all built and operated with good union jobs. 

During the next four years, DSA will continue to fight for those policies at the state and local level. Because the federal terrain is more hostile, we think the task before us remains to build local power with legislative, labor, and electoral organizing in order to expand public services to tackle both the cost-of-living and climate crises. 

Building with Labor

DSA’s long-term orientation towards rebuilding the labor movement is at the heart of our strategy. Of course, Green New Deal organizing can help do that, but it’s also clear that labor power is essential to winning climate policy at the scale and speed needed. We encourage GND and labor organizers in chapters to support workers bargaining for fair contracts and walking the picket line, while we help them build enduring coalitions with labor to win local changes that, in turn, create union jobs, enabling further organizing. This is why every B4P campaign places just transition demands and the creation of green union jobs at the center of the strategy. This process of changing state terrain so it is more conducive to working class organizing – while also engaging in direct working class organizing – is key to class formation in this moment, and a role DSA is uniquely capable of filling.

We’ve already seen bargaining for the common good used to win Green New Deal demands in LA, where United Teachers Los Angeles won provisions for solar panels, green spaces, and electric school buses in their last round of contract negotiations. And the organized Left has the first real opportunity to organize a general strike on May Day 2028, with the UAW calling for unions to align their contract expiration dates so the labor movement can take action as a whole. The UAW also happens to be a model for the kind of rank-and-file reform that needs to spread throughout the labor movement. Through their contract negotiations they are setting the terms of the EV transition, and creating space for other climate demands, like a 32-hour work week. Our long term project of rebuilding the labor movement continues, and Green New Deal unionism can help us win the future the working class deserves.

Winning State Power

The GNDCC originally launched Building for Power partly as a way to build on electoral organizing and wins. Coalitions led by DSA, labor unions, and DSA electeds can fight for different elements of GND policy. We recognize this timeline can become vague and/or lengthy, but we also understand that electoral organizing and labor organizing, led and cohered by socialists, can build unique forms of pressure on state actors while also accelerating class formation in the local context. We also think that building and operating such broad-based but complex coalitions can help develop strong, skilled DSA chapters that can lead on not only winning GND policy, but responding politically and materially to the climate crises ahead. And we think it’s clear that mass coalitions with labor power can be a major bulwark against the right wing locally and nationally. 

Responding to crises 

DSA chapters are responding to the immediate threats their communities face under Trump 2.0, and members will continue to be called on to protect people and build networks of solidarity when disaster strikes. But the connections generated in disasters must outlive the moment of crisis. DSA’s task is to organize those relationships into lasting working class solidarity to address the political causes of crises.  

Ecosocialist formations can help their chapters respond to moments of crisis, while also preparing them for the future, by Building for Power. We have witnessed devastating hurricanes and wildfires in just the past four months, requiring rapid response from DSA chapters who will spend months helping their communities rebuild. Strong Building For Power campaigns can pivot to disaster response while also fighting to change the conditions that cause these crises in the first place, with policies like green social housing, public power, mass transit, and more. As we respond to urgent threats in the coming years, we cannot afford to lose sight of the long-term horizon: beyond reacting strategically in moments of disaster, our goal is to actively build the future we deserve.

Building toward the Future 

Restructuring our economy by returning the wealth created by our ecosystems and our labor back to us, where it rightfully belongs, is the work of our lifetimes. The crises we face are urgent, yet the public goods we are working to expand take years to build out, and there is no time to waste. An organized Left must keep pushing on the local level, where there is still ample opportunity for wins that build working class power and green public sector capacity. 

Already, we’re seeing Trump 2.0 take a more rapacious direction, precipitating emergencies at multiple levels. In this setting, it is true that chapters may become stretched responding to immediate demands more pressing than new bus lanes. But our view is that, through B4P campaigns undertaken now, chapters can build the leadership and organizing skills and expand the outreach and recruitment that will be essential to responding to whatever Trump dishes out. And the GNDCC will be there to support chapters that need to pivot their work to meet the moment. 

Join our upcoming campaign huddles if you are interested in creating a Building for Power campaign in your chapter: 

Building the Green New Deal: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 8:00 PM • Virtual

Building for Ecosocialist Power under Trump/DOGE
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 8:00 PM • Virtual

Thorn West: Issue No. 227

City Politics

• The Charter Reform Commission, which is expected to consider municipal reforms including a potential increase to the size of city council, has not been able to begin meeting, because Mayor Bass has not yet appointed anyone to the four seats designated to the mayor to fill. This week, after the delay received media coverage, applications for the positions were posted to the public.

• Recent reports on the city budget from both the City Controller and Chief Administrative Officer have projected a larger than expected budget gap.

• Two weeks ago, Mayor Karen Bass fired LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley. Crowley appealed the decision to the City Council, but the termination was upheld by a vote of 13–2. An after-action report on the city’s preparedness for and reaction to the wildfires is still being drafted.

• As the mayor faces sustained criticism over her handling of the wildfires, a group of right wing opponents, including RFK Jr’s running-mate, Nicole Shanahan, has initiated a recall effort.

Labor

• It’s been one year since California law raised the minimum wage for fast food workers and created the Fast Food Council to oversee labor conditions in large chains. CalMatters summarizes year one of the council. Capital & Main has more, including a recent study indicating that so far, the wage increase has had a minimal effect on either the number of jobs, or the price of fast food.

• A package of protections for fast food workers, authored by Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martinez and Katy Yaroslavksy, passed unanimously out of the city’s Economic Development committee.

• The Original Pantry Cafe has survived as an institution for over a century, but new owners, the heirs of former mayor Richard Riordan, are closing the restaurant for good after its workforce refused to negotiate its union contract.

• Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order requiring that most state employees work from the office at least four days a week – echoing a similar effort from the Trump administration. SEIU Local 1000, which represents 100,000 state workers, has filed an Unfair Practice Charge with the Public Employment Relations Board.

Housing Rights

• An audit has concluded that the city and county’s homelessness response programs are disorganized and lack adequate financial oversight. At both the city and county level, plans to restructure homelessness around newly created organizations have already been proposed..

• In Pacific Palisades, plans to use the opportunity of the rebuilding effort to increase affordable housing stock have met with pushback from local homeowners.

Local Media

• This week, Patrick Soon-Shiong, the Los Angeles Times’ billionaire owner, announced “Insight,” a new AI program that will chart the paper’s opinion columns on a left-right spectrum, while automatically generating the “opposing view.” Within a day of its launch, the program drew controversy by offering a defense of the KKK.

• Governor Newsom has launched a podcast. His first guest was hard right podcaster and political operative Charlie Kirk, to whom Newsom capitulated on a variety of issues. Newsom drew the most criticism for agreeing with Kirk that Democrats were too supportive of trans rights. Statement from Equality California here.

Environmental Justice

• The cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre, along with LA County, are suing Southern California Edison, alleging that the utility company’s equipment is responsible for starting the Eaton fire.

The post Scathing Audit of Homelessness Spending Released + LA Times Owner Introduces AI to Editorial Page appeared first on The Thorn West.

Every year the chapter conducts a census of the members and creates a report on how the dynamics of the chapter function along with vital information about demographics. Read the report here.

The post 2024 CNJ DSA Chapter Census appeared first on Central NJ DSA.

The National Political Committee is looking for nominees to serve on the National Political Education Committee from May 2025 through April 2026! As the DSA committee charged with providing a socialist political education to its members and the public, NPEC welcomes members with substantial roots in diverse areas of DSA, across a range of organizing and education experience. We also ask that chapters and official national committees, working groups, and caucuses to submit nominations.

Applicants should be prepared to devote 8 hours a month to committee business, though those with less availability will still be considered. Applicants should also be prepared to contribute to substantive discussion on the content of political education material as well as partake in its implementation. This implementation can occur across (but is not limited to) any of NPEC’s four standing subcommittees:

• Chapter Support, which holds regular workshops to support local political education programs, develop DSA members’ skill base, and connect chapters with experienced mentors
• Events and Speakers, which hosts national political education events year-round on basic socialist ideas and critical issues
• Curriculum, which develops an expanding library of ready-to-use political education materials
• Communications, which broadcasts and furthers our committee’s work through social media, our podcast, and our newsletter, Red Letter

Chapters, national committees and working groups, and caucus steering committees (or equivalent) must email their nominee’s contact information (name, email address, and phone number) to politicaleducation@dsacommittees.org by 3/24. All DSA members interested in joining NPEC, whether nominated by a DSA body or applying as an individual, must apply via this form by Monday, April 6th. Appointments by the NPC will be announced by 4/30 to begin their terms on 5/1.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to the Political Education Committee at politicaleducation@dsacommittees.org, reach us on the DSA forums, or RSVP here to join us for an online information session on Sunday, March 16th 2-3pm PT/5-6pm ET