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Sat, Jan 3rd, 2026

Tacoma DSA posted in English at 20:37

Guest Submission: West Sound DSA – NO WAR ON VENEZUELA

STATEMENT IN CONDEMNATION OF ONGOING, REGIONAL, US MILITARY ACTION

Since this statement was written, late on the night of January 2nd, the US bombed military and civilian facilities in Caracas, culminating in the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. This act is a violation of International Law, as well as the stated goals of occupation prior to regime change. It signals an alarming precedent that US law enforcement are willing to conduct illegal military operations on sovereign soil.

The West Sound chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America recognizes that the United States of America is currently engaged in remote, unlawful and inhumane military action in and around the sovereign space of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and condemns the Trump administration as well as any Republican or Democratic lawmaker who voted to reject two resolutions, brought forward in 2025 under the War Powers Act of 1973. These measures would have limited executive authority to carry out such actions and required congressional approval for both military action taken against Venezuela, and military action in the Caribbean Sea. The failure of these congressional measures signal the continued concentration of war-making power within the US state, and the erosion of democratic control on the use of military force.

These military actions primarily involved the striking of suspected drug traffickers off the Caribbean coast of Venezuela. As of reporting from December 29th, 2025, strikes on a boat in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and a Venezuelan port have occurred, marking the first land strike of a facility by the US military in Venezuela since the operation began. These actions are a part of the US Counter-Narco-Terrorism campaign, Operation Southern Spear. Rather than detain individuals through any credible judicial process, the Trump administration is relying on terrorist designations that have long been used to circumvent accountability for extrajudicial violence.

It is through this distinction of “fighting terrorism” that the Trump administration justifies the use of deadly force against declared “non-state groups,” seemingly acting as executioner with impunity. These Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) are identified as Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as well as Cartel de los Soles, and were initially used to distinguish the action taken militarily as not being directed at the Venezuelan government itself; in December 2025, this too would change when President Trump declared Venezuela as an FTO. This has been a common strategy utilized by previous US administrations to take military action without democratic consent, especially when it came to many military operations in the Middle East.

A US military operation on September 2nd, 2025, observed and directed by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and US Naval Admiral Mitch Bradley, resulted in the death of 11 people. This was prior to the FTO designation being applied to Venezuela itself. The initial drone strike destroyed the vessel and presumably killed 9 individuals onboard. From captured aerial footage, 2 individuals survived the strike and are seen swimming towards the wreckage. A subsequent strike would kill these two people. The events as described constitute a war crime and violation of the Geneva Convention.

According to Common Article III of the Geneva Conventions of 1949:
In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:

Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria. To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
1. violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
2. taking of hostages;
3. outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;
4. the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for. An impartial humanitarian body, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, may offer its services to the Parties to the conflict. The Parties to the conflict should further endeavour to bring into force, by means of special agreements, all or part of the other provisions of the present Convention. The application of the preceding provisions shall not affect the legal status of the Parties to the conflict.

Additionally, the summary of the United States War Crimes Act of 1996 (H.R. 3680) states: War Crimes Act of 1996 – Amends the Federal criminal code to provide that anyone, whether inside or outside the United States, who commits a grave breach of the Geneva conventions, where the person who commits such breach or the victim of such breach is a member of the U.S. armed forces or a U.S. national, shall be fined or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, or, if death results to the victim, be subject to the death penalty.

It is by these standards that all involved in the September 2nd operation, in which survivors of an initial kinetic strike were killed in a subsequent strike after confirmation of survivors was known, are potentially guilty of both violating the Geneva Convention as well as federal law under the War Crimes Act of 1996, and should be immediately tried accordingly. As of the 29th of December, and from the beginning of military action in the Caribbean, 30 boat strikes and at least 107 people have been killed by US strikes, according to the Associated Press.

It should also not be left unsaid that this is not the first instance of the US violating the Geneva Convention in this way, as multiple instances of these “double-taps” and killing the wounded have been reported across multiple conflicts, including conflicts under President George Bush Sr. during the First Gulf War, President George W. Bush during the Iraq War (Second Gulf War), and President Barack Obama in Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen (among other countries). This tactic of “double-taps” is usually compounded with the targeting of individuals seeking to aid the wounded, and has only been becoming more prolific of a “strategy” over the last few decades.

It is with great urgency that we as a nation must address these grievances enacted on the foreign persons of Venezuela by this administration, as not only is it in violation of international law, but it is in violation of federal law as well. President Trump and his administration, notably Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance, tout drug trafficking as tantamount to terrorism, placing significant emphasis on the transportation of fentanyl within repurposed fishing vessels. According to an executive order signed December 15th, 2025, fentanyl is “closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic” and “illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals” are thus classified Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD); this supposedly necessitates the need for extreme military action.

We must recognize similarities between the urgent calls to wage war and calls to incite regime change abroad by the Trump administration with nearly identical calls for action in Iraq at the turn of the millennium:

[…] our belief is that the international community wants to see Saddam Hussein reverse course and that Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction are a threat to everybody in the region.

– Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu; Joint Press Availability, Royal Garden Hotel; London, United Kingdom, November 14, 1997.

The US would later begin military operations in Iraq in 2003, and by January 2004 the Bush administration would concede to there being no “Weapons of Mass Destruction” in Iraq.

Similarly, there is no evidence that fentanyl is produced or distributed through or within Venezuela. For the drug trafficking of Schedule 1 and 2 substances, which includes cocaine, fentanyl, and fentanyl analogs, the punishment ranges from 5- 40 years in for a first offense, with life imprisonment being the maximum sentence for multiple offences or when loss of life is involved. None of the killed have so far been proven to be drug traffickers, let alone tried in a court of law.

The actual motivations for the Trump administration and US military violating domestic and international law are likely in part due to control over perceived valuable resources, with President Trump having stated: “They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back.” He has also advocated explicitly for regime change in Venezuela, and they have enacted, concurrently with the administration’s military actions, a total blockade of sanctioned oil tankers leaving Venezuela, resulting in two such tankers being intercepted and acquired by the US military. Another key motivation for regime change is due to Venezuela’s status as a socialist country, a justification used for US military intervention globally since the start of the Cold War.

We must also be wary of the capital forces behind continued military action anywhere. For reference, Dick Cheney, as Vice President of the US, helped ensure the company Haliburton received 36.9 billion dollars in military contracts. Dick Cheney was a former Halliburton CEO and continued to receive “deferred compensation” of 1 million dollars annually while the company executives participated in discussions within the administration over potential oil production in post-war Iraq. Today in Venezuela, fentanyl is the media spin, but there is little mistaking capital as a primary driver of this military action.

Land, resources, and weapons manufacturing are the primary drivers of US military spending, especially since the second World War, and it props up an economy dependent on constant conflict.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

– President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (1961).

It is this feature of wartime profiteering that is a hallmark of US imperialism, and is perpetuated through capital influences on our politics from the defence lobby.

This echoes the motivation for US interventionism and imperialism in Latin America throughout our nation’s history. From the land theft of indigenous peoples by settlers all over the country, culminating in war with Mexico to seize land from California to Texas, to President Theodore Roosevelt’s Roosevelt Corollary, which began directing US military operations throughout Central and South America as a way to protect US and European colonial interests throughout the 20th century. The resources and capital extracted by US companies from Latin American banana republics was the primary motivator for continuous military interventionism and multiple campaigns of regime change.

After World War II and during the Cold War with the USSR, leftist and socialist campaigns to uplift the peasantry and decouple the governments from colonialism were brutally suppressed by the United States, either through direct military action or the training and funding of US-friendly authoritarian regimes, in the name of fighting communism. Even nations somewhat successful in establishing leftist governments found their situations sabotaged by crippling sanctions imposed by the US, and internal corruption exacerbated by CIA operations.

Throughout the 20th century in Latin America, the US was involved directly in the “successful” regime change of 17 governments, and of 24 others indirectly, through training and military funding. As noted in a Harvard Review of Latin America paper from 2005, if spread out evenly over the whole of the 20th century, this would amount to US policy having been consequential in instituting largely right-wing authoritarians in a different country every 28 months. This does not include less-than successful attempts at regime change such as US involvement in Cuba defined by the Cuban Missile Crisis and the rise of Fidel Castro, nor the amount of times the US has directly or indirectly supported pro-US dictatorships in the region from regime change. Notable examples include:

The use of Cuban liberation as an excuse to wage war on Spain at the turn of the 20thcentury, after which the US directly occupied Cuba before installing a US-friendly dictator.
Intervention promoting Panamanian secession from Colombia, using US troops to occupy and secure land which would be used to begin construction of the Panama Canal in 1904, which would not fall under ownership of Panama until December 31st 1999.
Occupation of the Dominican Republic under President Lyndon B. Johnson a few years after the assassination of DR President Trujillo as a way to exert political power in the face of internal US political threats by Republicans in congress.
Contra war, in which US backed opposition to the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, with Henry Kissinger and Ronald Reagan having circumvented congressional law that prevented the arming of rebel groups by first selling weapons to Iran to then sell to rebels in Nicaragua.
Heavy involvement in Chile in the early 1970s by Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon, culminating in the brutal coup d’état and assassination of the democratically elected President of Chile, Marxist-socialist Salavador Allende, by military general Pinochet.
US funding and training of death squads in El Salvador after backing the establishment of a military junta in the country. They supported the right-wing authoritarian regime against leftist guerilla groups during the over-decade long civil war from 1979 to 1992.

Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly indigenous folks and the peasantry, would lose their lives to conflicts funded and at times directed by the United States. The echoes of colonialism, violence, and bloodshed in the name of US imperialism can still be felt in these countries. As people in Latin America continue to fight for self-determination and an end to the perpetual poverty necessitated by US capital interests, our government continues the inhumane treatment of refugees and persons seeking solace within our own borders. In many ways, the immigration crisis we face now has been manufactured over decades of US imperialism, and our dependence on an economically-depressed Latin America prolongs the conditions which cause them to flee.

War profiteering, human rights abuses, and a bipartisan legacy of undemocratic military intervention are on full display in these operations. Please join West Sound DSA in saying no to perpetuating US imperialism, and no to war on Venezuela.

Military Action:

Fentanyl as WMD

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/designating-fentanyl-as-a-weapon-of-mass-destruction/

Eisenhower, Military Industrial Complex

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address

Congressional Reaction:

Iraq:

Oil:

Law:

Latin America Interventionism

Key Contributors

Original Statement

Written by

Carlos Yosten

Copyediting by

Sage Westfall

Amendment 1

Written by

Nick Schmitt

Acknowledgement of Contribution

Daniel Baca

Approval Signatories

West Sound Democratic Socialists of America – Steering Committee (2025-2026)

Daniel Baca – Co-Chair

Approved

Carlos Yosten – Co-Chair Approved

Nick Schmitt – Secretary Approved

Kristin Lillegard – Membership Coordinator Approved

Jared Sterling – Treasurer Approved

Fri, Jan 2nd, 2026

Pinellas DSA posted in English at 16:59

Chapter Notes: January 2026

Hope your new year is off to a great start! Us? We’re stoked to dive in and start the work of building socialism off right in 2026! Check out the first newsletter of the year — whether it’s flyering local apartment complexes, picketing in support of striking working, spreading political education, or holding a press conference to demand an end to SPPD’s ICE collaboration, our members are on the move 🔥🔥🔥 and we’ve got the details below ⬇⬇⬇

Pinellas DSA members on the picket line with SBWU members at the Cleveland St. Starbucks location in Clearwater, FL.

December Highlights

We started off the month with members of our Housing Working Group joining the St. Petersburg Tenants’ Union to flyer at The Morgan, an apartment complex in South St. Pete where residents are experiencing profound landlord neglect. We also hosted an organizing meeting with residents of The Morgan to discuss the severe issues facing their complex, from structural damage to unclean common spaces, and what we can do about them.

Next was our first-ever Tri-County Social, bringing together socialists from the Pinellas, Tampa, and Pasco-Hernando DSA chapters. As we continue to grow DSA’s national profile, communication and collaboration with nearby branches is going to be essential. That’s why members of the three participating chapters met at John Chesnut Park in Palm Harbor on December 6th for games, grilling, and some comradely camaraderie!

We also hosted Unions 101, the final installment of the four core education series for the year. At this workshop, we shared crucial political education for members and non-members alike about the centrality of organized labor to the socialist cause, and why the struggle for a fair workplace and the struggle for a fair society are one and the same.

We also held two events focused around St. Pete PD’s 287(g) agreement, which deputizes SPPD officers to act as part-time brownshirts for ICE. First was a volunteer and canvassing meeting to share info about the 287(g) agreement and gauge support for a canvassing initiative on the issue. Then, on December 23, we participated alongside the Tampa Bay Immigrant Solidarity Network, Tampa DSA, PSL Tampa Bay, Tampa Immigrants Rights Committee, and members of the clergy for a press conference demanding Chief Holloway and his boss in City Hall, Mayor Ken Welch, void the 287(g) agreement.

Are we missing anything? Oh right… we also elected a new Steering Committee at our December General Body Meeting! The new Steering Committee includes Co-Chairs Karla C. and Shane M., Treasurer Sarah C., Secretary Tyler G., Organizer Chaize H., and Social Media Coordinator David D. Huge props to the outgoing Steering Committee for all their hard work and dedication in 2025!

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Dump Duke

The temperature outside is dropping, but we’re turning up the heat on Duke Energy! Our Dump Duke campaign is entering its second year, and the tide is turning against the power conglomerate, which is why they’re throwing money into propaganda to sway residents against their best interests.

Duke is already spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV and social media ads through the lobbying group Edison Electric Institute, as well as their own newly formed dark-money 501(c)(6) organizations, the Clearwater Energy Alliance and Pinellas Energy Alliance. This, while Duke Energy announces massive rate hikes. They expect Pinellas residents to finance a propaganda campaign that cuts against the peoples’ best interest? We say we’re going to beat dark money with grassroots power!

The City of St. Petersburg is expected to send out requests for proposals in January to conduct a feasibility study on a municipally owned power utility. Meanwhile, we’re continuing our outreach efforts, with our next canvas scheduled for January 10. Come on out and get involved in this effort!

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: End 287(g)

Pinellas DSA members, alongside members of allied organizations, hosted a press conference in front of SPPD headquarters on December 23, demanding an end to the city’s 287(g) agreement with ICE.

Pinellas DSA, as a member organization of the Tampa Bay Immigrant Solidarity Network, joined Tampa DSA, PSL Tampa Bay, Tampa Immigrants Rights Committee, and members of the clergy for a press conference on December 23 in front of the headquarters of the St. Petersburg Police Department. We demanded that Chief Holloway and his boss in City Hall, Mayor Ken Welch, void the 287(g) agreement signed back in February, which authorizes local police to collaborate with ICE and serve as enforcers of fascism.

287(g) is a voluntary agreement. And, while Chief Holloway alleges that there’s been no direct collaboration as of yet with ICE, this agreement sets a dangerous precedent, and leaves the door open for local cops to be deputized stormtroopers at any time. That’s why we say “No more collaboration! End 287(g) now!”

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: SBWU Strike

Members of Pinellas DSA hit the picket lines this month in support of baristas fighting for a fair contract as part of the first-ever nationwide Starbucks Workers United strike. We joined striking workers at the Cleveland Street Starbucks in downtown Clearwater to say “No contract? No coffee!”

While workers at some stores across the country have since returned to work, the unprecedented strike wave continues. More than 250 new union baristas at 13 stores have won their union elections since the national ULP strike began on November 13, and just last week, SBWU announced that hundreds more baristas across 18 cities in 15 states have joined the struggle. This fight is far from over!

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Organizing at The Morgan

Our organizing efforts at The Morgan Apartments in South St. Pete are paying off! The PDSA Housing Working Group and the St. Petersburg Tenants’ Union held a joint meeting on December 5 with over a dozen residents from The Morgan. These residents are fed up, passionate, and determined to take on their greedy, exploitative landlord.

Tenants at the meeting voted in favor of establishing a tenants union at The Morgan — a landmark achievement! Attendees also voted to hold another meeting to press for further action!

We’ll be hosting a joint assembly between the St. Petersburg Tenants’ Union & the Pinellas DSA Housing Working Group on January 6, with the aim of getting more people acclimated to the fight for housing justice.

Upcoming Events

Boycott Chevron Picket
Saturday, January 3·from 10:00–11:30am. Meet us at 855 Tyrone Blvd N in St. Petersburg! Water and sunscreen provided.

The Morgan Door-Knocking
Sunday, January 4 from 4:00–5:30pm. Knocking doors at The Morgan to inform tenants of the next tenants union meeting and urge them to get involved. Meet at The Morgan (5473 27th St S. in St. Petersburg).

Health Justice Working Group Meeting
Monday, January 5·from 7:00–8:00pm. This will be a virtual meeting.
RSVP Here

DSA & SPTU Housing Assembly
Tuesday, January 6·from 7:00–8:30pm at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg). Discuss and take action on the housing crisis in St. Pete at this joint assembly between the St. Pete Tenants Union and Pinellas DSA.
RSVP Here

Venezuela Educational Forum
Wednesday, January 7 from 6:00–7:30pm at Barbara S. Ponce Public Library (7770 52nd St N. in Pinellas Park).
RSVP Here

Dump Duke Canvass
Saturday, January 10 from·10:30am–12:30pm. Meet at Lake Maggiore Park (3601 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. S. in St. Petersburg).

General Body Meeting
Sunday, January 11 from 2:00–3:30pm at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg).

Educational/Social Working Group Meeting
Wednesday, January 14 from·6:30–8:00pm. Join us at Bula Kava Bar & Coffee House (2500 5th Ave N. in St. Petersburg) to help plan the upcoming year’s events!

Housing Working Group + St. Pete Tenants’ Union Joint Meeting
Tuesday, January 20 from·7:00–8:30pm at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg). We will meet in the Wesley Room; reach out to Boshko for more details!

Self-Managed Abortion Info Session
Jan 24, 2026 at 01:00pm. People across the world are using abortion pills to end their pregnancies at home. The pills are safe and effective with accurate information and appropriate support. This will be a virtual event.
RSVP Here

Richie Floyd Campaign Kickoff
Saturday, January 24 from·7:00–9:00pm. Location details are TBA, but stay posted — you won’t want to miss this!

Cuba: An American History Reading Group
Saturday, January 31 from·4:00–5:30pm at Allendale United Methodist Church (3803 Haines Rd N. in St. Petersburg). We’ll be reading up to page 299 — there’s still time to get caught up!

We hope to see you at some upcoming events!

Instagram: @pinellasdsa
Twitter: @pinellasdsa
Bluesky: @pinellasdsa.bsky.social
Facebook: facebook.com/pinellasdsa
YouTube: @pinellasdsa

Tue, Dec 30th, 2025

DSA Religion and Socialism Working Group posted in English at 22:05

Recognizing Christianity’s Universal Leftism for What it Undisputedly Is

Phil Christman, a writer and lecturer at the University of Michigan, is a committed Protestant Christian. He grew up attending a fundamentalist Calvinist church, and sharing in that perspective, but it was one that he struggled with from very early on. His disentangling from that approach to Christianity didn’t lead him to renounce his faith; rather, his faith evolved, and with that spiritual evolution came a political one as well. In the excellent Why Christians Should Be Leftists, he testifies to that evolution, and calls other Christians to join him as well.

The fact that Christman’s argument really isn’t one, but rather is a testimony and an altar call of sorts, must be kept in mind when assessing the book. The way he talks about “leftism”—which he refuses to capitalize, stating in an early footnote that he thinks the term describes an “overall direction” and not a destination “where a person can definitively arrive” (p. 16)—is one that flows organically from his Christian commitments. Rather than starting out by defining terms and unfolding a discourse premised on the materialist language that so much of post-Marxist leftism has been defined by over the past two centuries, his reflections are rooted in a grab-bag of deeply religious, even Biblical, concepts and concern that every believing Christian, in one way or another, confronts. What is fallen in this world? What is the nature of work? Should those who accept Jesus as their savior have a politics? Should they have kings? Should believers love their enemies? And just who, exactly, are their neighbors, and how should they interact with them? In Christman’s view, a serious engagement with all these questions and more must inevitably point believers towards some kind of socialism—but this is a conclusion which he articulates in a manner that, while deeply informed by political argument, actually doesn’t flow from the arguments which have shaped socialism over the years.

This, I think, is why a socialist review of Christman’s book may be valuable. Why Christians Should Be Leftists hasn’t become a bestselling, culture-defining book in the months since its publication (unfortunately), but it has been fairly widely reviewed…overwhelmingly by other thoughtful writers—peers of Christman’s, really—who share his Christian commitments. Kayak Oakes praised it in National Catholic Reporter, as did James K.A. Smith in The Christian Century and Samuel McCann in The Presbyterian Outlook (the more conservative publications First Things, Christianity Today, and Front Porch Republic were, perhaps predictably, less receptive to his book, though all acknowledged the power of his anti-capitalist claims). All of the above comments are worth perusing (as are thoughtful engagements with Christman by such writers as Alan Jacobs), and so are Christman’s own occasional responses to such. But none of any of the above, to my knowledge, have approached the book from the perspective of the Left (using a capital letter this time) as it has emerged over the course of the rise of global capitalism, the impacts of the industrial revolution, and the both important achievements and catastrophic failures attached to the Left throughout Western modernity. I’m hardly an expert on all of the above, but as a card-carrying, dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, as well as believing Christian (though a Mormon one, which I suspect at least a couple of the above might insist may not really count), let me give it a try.

Christman’s turn towards leftism, and his turn away from the conservative Christianity that defined his early life, defines the whole arc of his book, and is noted by every reviewer of it. As a college student attending a Calvinist university, he recounts being a lonely, confused, frustrated individual—feeling like a profound loser, in his own terms. And then recounts a time when he was reading from the Bible as part of group of similar losers outdoors—at least as compared to the other students playing the guitar, smoking, or flirting in their own groups all around them—and as they worked through Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount from the Book of Matthew in the New Testament, he suddenly thought about everyone around him differently:

I suddenly saw the glory of God shining out of their faces….[E]ach of these people was a subject that a person could love, and was capable of giving love to others, and was therefore infinitely precious and infinitely interesting. That whole economy of losers and winners, with its implied scarcity of worthiness, had disappeared. Or not disappeared but receded: it didn’t seem inevitable or fully real anymore. It seemed like a lie that needed to be undone by the constant practice of universal, constant, and unvarying love (pp. 8-9).

From this point on, step by step, the idea that the Christian message of God’s grace, forgiveness, and love entails an absolute, universal equality of persons comes to be unfolded in Christman’s life and thought. “Part of the point of being a Christian,” he writes, “is that you’re supposed to unlearn the human instinct to circle the wagons, identify the outsiders, prioritize the in-group,” and instead develop “the deep conviction that every stranger, every enemy, is a neighbor” (pp. 30-31). Since the structure of capitalism depends upon the private or corporate accumulation of profit and property—and thus functionally meaning the exclusion of others from possession of such of wealth—that means Christians have to move beyond it, even the more liberal and egalitarian versions of it. Similarly, since the structure of national borders depends upon the territorial claims to sovereignty—and thus functionally meaning the exclusion of others from the systems of law and care that sovereign governments establish—that means that Christians have to move beyond the state’s imposition of them, even when done so in light of comparatively democratic and humanitarian priorities. The universalizing, the absolute neighboring, of the resources of the world and the people who live within it, is the socialism that Christman believes the plain teachings of Jesus require. (And for those who insist that such “socialism” needs to take the form of personal charity rather than government policy, Christman’s succinct reproofs–so why haven’t believing Christians ever actually created charitable systems sufficient to meet Jesus’s call? and why wouldn’t such charity create the same “dependency” which conservatives supposedly fear?–are as solid as any I’ve ever read.)

Obviously, Karl Marx would have all sorts of problems with this. Not the final result–Marx’s vision of post-socialist revolution communism included the “withering away of the state” and, thus, presumably the realization of some kind of universal community of freedom and recognition, after all. Rather, Marx’s contempt would have been for Christman’s locating of the roots of this ideal in moral conviction, rather than some kind of material logic. His famous description of Christian socialism–“the holy water with which the priest consecrates the heart-burnings of the aristocrat”–makes his perspective fairly clear: if socialism is understood as something that emerges from the guilty feelings or inspired insights of religious believers, rather than something that is built historically, structurally—that is, scientifically—then it’ll never truly be a liberating and empowering social form: it’ll just be another con that the upper classes impose upon everyone else (and perhaps actually delude themselves into believing). Marx’s perspective is certainly at least partly responsible for the hostility to religion widely associated with the Left over the centuries.

But as anyone who spends any time amongst actual Leftists can tell you, this is a perspective that 1) was obviously wrong from the beginning, and has remained so over the years, and 2) has been basically ignored by tens of millions of Leftist religious believers over the same period of time, Christians most certainly included. In regards to point 1), the vital revolutionary force which Marx’s analysis of the history of capitalism provided, whatever its usefulness and insight insofar as understanding the alienation experienced under industrialization is concerned, has been questioned, denounced, re-interpreted, and re-affirmed in alternative ways that have given shape to every socialist argument since the mid-19^th century on. To resolutely demand fidelity to Marx’s presumed linkage between the opposition to capitalism and the opposition to religious faith in the face of all this thoughtful debate is to do as much damage to the heritage of that ideal as is done by non-Leftists who insist that “socialism” can only ever mean the tyranny of Stalin or Mao. And in regards to point 2), the fact that Christian socialists—the Methodists who helped form the British Labor Party, the Catholics who organized the Catholic Worker Movement, and hundreds of other example—have, sometimes out of necessity and sometimes out of genuine intellectual agreement, appropriated and articulated their views in manners borrowed from Marx (talking about “class struggle,” for example), hardly means that their socialism is therefore Marxist, and necessarily carries all of his materialist, historicist, anti-religious baggage. This is especially the case for believers in the words of Jesus as presented in the New Testament, since of course those words were inspiring believers to—as recounted in the Book of Acts, chapter 4—sell their goods, distribute them equally, and have all things in common, right from the beginning. When it comes to socialism, Marx was a late addition to the tradition, and as important (for both good and ill) his contributions were, the Left has no more need to be beholden to him than it does to be beholden to Leo Tolstoy, Eduard Bernstein, Eugene Debs, Keir Hardie, Beatrice Webb, Dorothy Day, Simone Weil, or Gustavo Díaz.

Christman, for his part, elides most of this history by providing an assessment of where he sees different leftist intellectual trajectories pointing that is, in his view, “pretty vibes-based,” treating Marx’s thought “as we’d treat a buffet: you pick the stuff you think is helpful and ignore the rest, the same as you would any other economist or political theorist” (pp. 144-145). For people whose approach to these matters is grounded in historical and theoretical arguments over ideology and the writings of particular individuals, this is a pretty frustrating approach. Partly because it gets stuff wrong—as Christman does, such as when, earlier in the book, he goes too far in condemning the liberalism of John Locke as incapable of responding to the threats of capitalism, forgetting that Locke himself wrote that the rights of the property-owner oblige them to make sure that “enough, and as good” will always be available to everyone else—and partly because these are, by necessity, political debates that we are having, and as such being guided by one’s revelatory experience with the Sermon on the Mount leaves much unsaid.

But that doesn’t mean, and shouldn’t mean, that defenses of socialism like Christman’s need to be considered wrong; they aren’t. They just aren’t complete—as I think Christman himself would be quick to acknowledge. Again, his book isn’t really an argument for why Christians should be on the Left; it is a testimony of why, and how, the Christian message made it clear to him how he should think about inequality, about capitalism, about war, about borders, about wealth, and thus found himself moving leftward, hand-in-hand with his faith. He very thoughtfully considers all sorts of Left arrangements which the socialist tradition has inspired reformers and revolutionaries alike to consider over the centuries—worker co-ops, redistribution via taxation, government ownership of industries, wealth funds, and more—and acknowledges that there is plenty of thinking and working yet to be done in pursuing these Christian ends (“I don’t think it pays to get too dug in at this point on any of those systems,” he comments ruefully—p. 121). But that just means that Christman, like any other religious believer whose eyes have been opened to the socialist imperative, is in the same condition as the rest of us: making our way towards more justice, more fairness, more beloved communities in our world, and being attended by God’s grace and forgiveness in the midst of our own unavoidable involvement in all that challenges those aspirations along the way.

It should be noted that many of the Christian reviewers of Why Christians Should Be Leftists do, in fact, recognize that any proper understand of Christianity imposes a universalist vision of neighborliness and love upon believers, and they consequently recognize that there is truth to Christian condemnations of how even liberal democratic states (and their richest citizens and corporations) police their borders and protect their wealth, even if they demure from recognizing that such condemnations put them on the Left. But what about personal sin, they ask? What about moral purity? The records we have of Jesus’s words suggest that he didn’t talk about sexual morality nearly as much as he talked about sharing your goods with your neighbor, and didn’t condemn personal lifestyles nearly as much as he condemned exploiting the poor—but to insist that he never talked about the former isn’t correct either. So yes, those who want to find reasons to doubt the sincerity of Christman’s Christian faith solely on the basis of what he thinks about abortion or homosexuality or any other culture war issue can certainly do so. And when I put on my political scientist hat, I can explain at length how predictable it is that Christman, as he moved away from the Calvinist socialization of his youth, likely came to follow well-established patterns of liberal thought which granted enough importance to individualist expressions of moral choice such that he simply couldn’t take the sexual traditionalism of much of American Christianity seriously. But frankly, as something of a left conservative myself, I am happy that Christman felt no need to warp his testimony so as to encompass and defend those elements of his current political beliefs that actually have nothing to do what’s going on at their heart.

Their heart is, simply, a pious conviction that political, much less pragmatic, disputes about what can or should be done when it comes to applying the Sermon on the Mount, to applying a complete abandonment of any kind of distinction between winners and losers, are secondary. Towards the end of the book, Christman writes (in a vein very reminiscent of the theologian Stanley Hauerwas, though he never mentions his name):

The machinery of history is not ours to operate even if we could, which we can’t. But that’s OK, because there isn’t any machinery anyway. There’s the kingdom of God, which God is bringing about and will bring about. We live in a way that anticipates it. We forgive debtors, we hasten to resolve conflicts, we try to love our enemies. We try to build a society where the meek, the peacemaker, the person on the bottom of things is abundantly blessed. Leftism at its best helps us to do that. We are leftists only insofar as it is a name for our doing that (pp. 153-154).

Christman’s final words of testimony are, appropriately, “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus” (p. 174). Both the unreconstructed Marxist, and the MAGA-influenced Christian conservative who refuses to accept Jesus’s call for those who follow him to have complete solidarity with the poor, with their enemies, and with everyone else, would likely sniff at such a conclusion. But this Christian socialist loved it, and the book itself as well. To Mr. Christman, I can only say, as our mutually acknowledged lord and savior is reported to have said, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (And to everyone else, myself included, I can only also add: “Go and do likewise.”)

The post Recognizing Christianity’s Universal Leftism for What it Undisputedly Is appeared first on DSA Religious Socialism.

Tacoma DSA posted in English at 01:05

Socialist Songs for January 2026

Come join our Socialist sing-along after the General meeting on January 7th!

We build solidarity by singing songs that unite us and bring attention to issues within our communities. Currently Kira is in charge of the Socialist Sing-along, if you have suggestions reach out to her on Signal or by email at kirasorensen@gmail.com. Read on to learn about the songs we’ll be singing in January.

Workingman Unite, written 1918 by E.S. Nelson and recorded 1977 by Joe Glazer

Workingman Unite was written in 1918 by IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) member E. S. Nelson. The IWW formed in 1905, and was the only American Union at the time that included immigrants, women, and African Americans. The IWW is still active across the globe. This particular recording was released in 1977 on the album I Will Win: Songs of the Wobblies by Joe Glazer (1918-2006). A member of the Textile Workers Union of America, Joe focused his music on workers’ songs including albums about coal mining, newspaper printing, steel and woodworking and eventually started his own record company.

Make America Great Again, Pussy Riot, 2016

In 2015 the Russian feminist protest band Pussy Riot released their first English song I can’t Breathe. This song was based on the police killing of Eric Garner in New York City. Pussy Riot released Make America Great Again in October 2016, before Trump’s first presidential election. Their music videos are banned in Russia where the group is listed as an extremist organization as of December 2025.

Imagine, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, 1971

Released in 1971, Imagine rose to #3 of the Billboard Hot 100 and has climbed the charts several times since. The song was inspired by pieces in Yoko Ono’s book Grapefruit (1964) and has been controversial because of its denunciation of religion, starting with “Imagine there’s no heaven”. It is considered by many to be one of the best songs of the 20th century.

by Kira Sorensen

Tue, Dec 23rd, 2025

Columbus DSA posted in English at 17:03

Columbus DSA Statement: ICE Out of Columbus and All of Central Ohio

A statement from our City Council Non-Cooperation Campaign

ICE and their “Operation Buckeye” are present in Central Ohio and they are kidnapping families, friends and neighbors from their homes, jobs and off the street. They are working to create terror and distrust in our communities so that we stand weaker and more divided from each other, knowing that in unity we are strong.

We condemn their presence here and stand in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors. Migration is a basic part of being human. Migrants have moved here in the best interest of their families, for safety, for opportunity. They do not deserve to be targeted, imprisoned and brutalized by our government.

Help protect yourself and our community by making sure you know your rights and sharing with others their rights, reporting verified sightings of ice to the appropriate channels, checking on your neighbors and staying vigilant. We keep each other safe!

For other ways to get involved, join us at an upcoming meeting to see the work we’re doing to change the way our cities protect immigrants and keep an eye on our story for other ways to protect our community – even the smallest act of solidarity is a sign of strength.
Check out our calendar of meetings & events here: columbusdsa.org/events

(see the statement on Instagram)

Mon, Dec 22nd, 2025

Atlanta DSA posted in English at 13:00

Atlanta DSA endorses Gabriel Sanchez for State House

Atlanta DSA is proud to once again endorse our comrade Gabriel Sanchez for re-election to the Georgia State House, representing District 42.

In 2024, we made history by electing Representative Sanchez, the first Democratic Socialist in Georgia’s State House, on a platform of housing, healthcare, and an economy that works for all of us. Now, he’s running for re-election in 2026 to continue to fight for working families, stand up to fascism, and build a better Georgia for all. Atlanta DSA is thrilled to back our comrade once again.

Gabriel has been an active member of Atlanta DSA since 2019 and has spent years supporting striking workers on picket lines, organizing to Stop Cop City, campaigning for abortion rights, and advocating for a Free Palestine. During his first term, Gabriel continued fighting for working Georgians in the State House with support from a staff made up of DSA members. He introduced bills to raise the minimum wage to $20 and end corporate ownership of Georgia homes, voted to eliminate subminimum wages for disabled workers and against tax cuts for the wealthy, and authored and held a hearing for a bill to end rental price fixing via AI software. Gabriel also brought his many years of experience as a community organizer into his first term. Over the past year, he has hosted in-district mutual aid events in partnership with Atlanta DSA, as well as town halls and meet and greets to speak directly with residents about the pressing issues they’re facing right now. Our chapter is extremely proud of the work Representative Sanchez has done, and we look forward to continuing to build a Georgia for all alongside him.

As a proud Democratic Socialist, Gabriel is refusing money from corporations or their PACs. Just like last time, we’re running a grassroots campaign of, by, and for working people, and we need your help to win this election. Donate now at SanchezForGeorgia.com

In the lead-up to the 2024 election, Atlanta DSA knocked thousands of doors in District 42 to talk directly to voters about Gabriel’s campaign for housing, healthcare, and an economy for all. We’re planning to do the same next year. Sign up now to volunteer with our campaign at atldsa.org/Volunteer4Gabriel and stay tuned for info about a kickoff canvass in the new year. Let’s re-elect Representative Gabriel Sanchez!

Grand Rapids DSA posted in English at 08:39

GRDSA for the Many – We support money out of politics, funding education, and rank choice voting!

There are several ballot initiatives circulating petitions this cycle. The members of the GRDSA are proud to endorse Invest in MI Kids, MOP Up Michigan, and Rank MI Vote. If successful, these initiatives would mean real change for Michiganders.

We are circulating petitions! Our goal is to contribute 1,000 collected signatures for the Invest in MI Kids and MOP Up Michigan campaigns. If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out this form.

UPDATE: We have exceeded our goal! But there is still more work to get MOP Up Michigan on the ballot this November.

UPDATE: Rank MI Vote and Invest in MI Kids have paused their campaigns.

Invest in MI Kids – investinmikids.org

We support this ballot initiative because every student deserves access to excellent public education. This excellence requires proper facilities, educational material, and well-paid teachers. To fund these vital elements of education, this initiative would create a 5% fair share surcharge on income over $500K ($1M filing jointly) to be deposited in the State School Aid Fund. It will also add a requirement that money from the School Aid Fund be spent exclusively on local school districts.

MOP Up Michigan – mopupmichigan.org

MOP = Money Out of Politics

We deserve fair utilities, a clean environment, and honest elections. But as our bills continue to grow, utility companies use political contributions to avoid accountability and slow down reform. This ballot initiative would reign in corporate control of government by prohibiting companies with over $250,000 in government contracts from making campaign contributions. Additionally, the initiative introduces finance laws which would require donor information to be made more clear in political communications.

Rank MI Vote – rankmivote.org

NOTE: The Rank MI Vote campaign has suspended signature gathering for their 2026 statewide campaign.

We believe every voter should feel comfortable voting for their best option, rather than the better of two bad options. Rank choice voting is an alternative voting system where the voter ranks up to five candidates for each office, as opposed to picking one option. This allows the voter to rank their favorite candidate first, even if they aren’t likely to win, before ranking their second, third, etc. Voters may still vote for just one candidate or leave that office/section blank. If the votes are tallied and no candidate has enough votes to win, candidates with less votes are eliminated and back up choices are used until one candidate wins.

Dishonorable Mention

There are a few bad petitions circulating as well. There are some that would require IDs to vote and one to cut taxes, Ax MI Tax. Decline to sign these regressive initiatives.

The post GRDSA for the Many – We support money out of politics, funding education, and rank choice voting! appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.

Sun, Dec 21st, 2025

Las Vegas DSA posted in English at 18:17

In the News: Mamdani’s win in New York fuels Las Vegas democratic socialists

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory over establishment Democrats has reverberated nationwide — energizing Democratic Socialists of America chapters — including in Las Vegas, where local membership and energy have surged.

Nationally, DSA membership jumped from 80,000 in October to over 90,000 by November. The Las Vegas chapter gained 200 members between Mamdani’s primary win and November general election victory, reaching around 550 people now paying dues. A recent Las Vegas DSA general body meeting had 89 members show up, the largest co-chair Shaun Navarro has seen.

Las Vegas DSA aims to channel this energy into two Nevada Assembly seats in 2026 midterms. Navarro is running for Assembly District 34, while the group backs Val Thomason, who got 34.5% in her 2024 primary loss to Assemblymember Venise Karris in District 10.

“We’re trying to create Zohran in every single state,” Navarro said. “We want to replicate that here, and I think it shows a winning message.”

Read the full article

Sat, Dec 20th, 2025

Champlain Valley DSA posted in English at 17:42

The Vermont Socialist (12/7/25): The belated November edition

Happy belated Thanksgiving, and apologies for the tardy newsletter. Remember that it’s now flu season, so make sure that your immunizations are up to date (or you too might fall behind on your work!).

The legislative season is around the corner, and legislators are dealing with the fallout from federal budget cuts, with which come an intensification of the ever-present calls for austerity. This year, some of our most vulnerable friends and neighbors were thrown on the street and left without food. GMDSA believes not just that everyone deserves housing and food, but that the money exists — what we need is the political will. That’s why GMDSA’s second annual convention voted to make Tax the Rich our priority campaign for 2026.

Our members also voted on a new slate of officers and committee chairs. Congratulations in particular to Will Fritch, our new East Branch Co-Chair, and Nana Brownell, who will be returning to that same role for West Branch.

Upcoming Events

GMDSA is sponsoring “For Ukrainian Self-Determination: Building International Working Class Solidarity,” featuring our very own Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky and Traven Leyshon. Discussion begins December 15th at 5pm at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington) .
Talk about your job and learn about shop-floor organizing from peers at Workers' Circle (co-hosted by the Green Mountain IWW) on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. The next one is at 6pm and is also at Migrant Justice on December 10th.

GMDSA Meetings

Labor Committee meets December 8 at 6pm
Membership Committee meets December 8 at 7pm
Electoral Committee meets December 9 at 6pm
Communications Committee meets December
General Meeting on December 20th (details TBA; check our calendar)

TState News

Burlington’s democratic, member-run, GMDSA-sponsored cinema is now open for business. Congrats to Partizanfilm on its successful opening!

Thu, Dec 18th, 2025

DSA Religion and Socialism Working Group posted in English at 21:56

Jesus, Our Comrade

Jesus.

Does that name automatically make your eyes glaze? Maybe you link that name to homophobia, misogyny, or genocide.

But there is another Jesus out there, in history. The quests for the historical Jesus uncover a revolutionary, an insurgent, a creative, witty, working-class organizer, the spark for a poor people’s movement.

Eugene Debs kept a single picture of Jesus in his prison cell. He wrote, “Pure communism was the economic and social gospel preached by Jesus Christ… Private property was to his elevated mind a sacrilege.” Debs saw what many on today’s Left overlook: Jesus’ teachings give us tools to make us better organizers.

Jesus’ grassroots campaign grew into a mass movement that threatened both Rome and the Temple establishment. The ensuing martyrdom fueled a movement built on rigorous honesty, forgiveness, mutuality, and shared purpose. Rome eventually co-opted the religion. They edited the Bible and modified Jesus’s core teachings to make him more palatable.

Top Ten Ways Jesus Was a Revolutionary

1. Jesus was working class, although that term didn’t exist at the time.

He worked with his hands as a “tekton,” Koine Greek for skilled cabinet maker. Most people in his world were illiterate, and scholars such as Bruce Chilton argue that Jesus likely was too — a teacher shaped by oral storytelling traditions, not elite religious education. As a marginalized “mamzer,” or “bastard” child, he likely grew up shunned by village religious authorities. Outsiders often become either broken or fearless; Jesus chose radical love for all outsiders.

2. Jesus rejected nationalist tribalism

Although emerging from an oppressed Jewish community under Roman occupation, Jesus refused religious nationalism. His parable of the Good Samaritan subverted ethnic hostility by portraying the “enemy” Samaritan as the true moral hero. His teaching dismantled the idea of a chosen in-group and insisted on universal compassion.

3. Jesus practiced radical nonviolence

The early Jesus movement was fierce in its refusal of violence. “Turn the other cheek” was not passivity; it was strategic noncooperation meant to expose the shame of the oppressor. Father John Dear, an activist scholar of Christian nonviolence, notes how closely Jesus’ teachings align with those of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.: movements of suffering love that transform opponents rather than destroy them. The Left loses its soul when it dehumanizes its enemies. Jesus insists that every human can turn toward truth.

4. Jesus led a movement of communal sharing

Jesus was an early “anti-capitalist” who denounced greed, the rich, and hoarded wealth. “Woe to you who are rich,” he said, “You cannot serve God and money.” His lifestyle —rootless, nomadic, dependent on communal generosity — embodied anti-consumerist simplicity.

The feeding of the 5,000 was not magic; it was radical mutual aid. The early Christian community in Acts deepened this ethos: “They sold their possessions and distributed to all, as any had need.” Marx echoed this directly in his line “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

5. Jesus had queer dimensions

Homophobia and misogyny shaped biblical scholarship for centuries, flattening Jesus into a figure acceptable to later patriarchal norms. Queer theory exposes the heteronormative bias that predictably surfaces whenever scholars challenge orthodox assumptions—especially around Jesus’ emotional and sexual life.

Clement of Alexandria’s Letter to Theodore preserves a fragment from a lost version of Mark in which Jesus raises a young man from the dead who then spends the night with him, clothed only in a linen garment, as Jesus “taught him the mystery of the kingdom.” Morton Smith, the controversial and iconoclastic scholar who discovered the text, was viciously attacked—but never disproven.

In the Gospel of John, “the disciple Jesus loved” reclines against Jesus’ chest at the Last Supper, while the suppressed Gospel of Thomas gestures toward an intimate, esoteric bond between teacher and disciple. The Gospel of Philip records Jesus kissing Mary Magdalene and calling her his koinōnos—his companion or partner. Alongside Mary were Joanna and Susanna—independent women whose inclusion violated social norms. Jesus affirmed women as full disciples, not auxiliaries.

Even within the canonical Gospels, Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19:12 on “eunuchs” has been interpreted by progressive scholars as recognizing gender-nonconforming or third-gender people in the ancient world. Rather than marginalizing them, Jesus names them with honor—holding them up as exemplary participants in the kingdom movement.

Jesus emerges as more layered—and more human—than conservative Christianity allows. This opens space for socialist and progressive faith communities to affirm people across the gender and sexuality spectrum.

6. Jesus used martyrdom as a strategy

Jesus learned a lot from his cousin John the Baptist, who led a popular mass movement around virtue and moral reform. His ritual of baptism struck a chord with people. John became so popular that King Herod had him executed.

After that execution, Jesus stepped into John’s shoes. The Gospels record that Jesus seemed to enjoy that some people thought he was the new John the Baptist, or a new powerful prophet. Morton Smith claims that with this “New John” identity, Jesus was calling in an Egyptian form of “death-magic” whereby the successor takes on the mantle of the martyr to inherit their power. Jesus recognized that martyrdom could advance the struggle against Rome and corrupt religious authority. Eventually, he gave up his own life so that there might be a breakthrough in the consciousness of society.

7. Jesus had a radical mom

Mary’s prayer, the Magnificat, is considered so subversive that it has been banned in three different countries under various oppressive regimes. The brave, young, unwed mother sings,

The Lord has used his powerful arm
to scatter those who are proud.
God drags strong rulers from their thrones
and puts humble people in places of power.
God gives the hungry good things to eat,
and sends the rich away with nothing.
Luke 1. 8-56

8. Jesus opposed religious hypocrisy and showmanship

In multiple Gospels, Jesus warns that allegiance to the Kingdom — his justice movement — will rupture traditional family structures. Liberation demanded radical reorientation; forgiveness liberated people from cycles of familial trauma. Jesus called followers out of the past and into revolutionary purpose.

Christian nationalists today demand public prayer. Ten Commandments displays in the Deep South ignore Jesus’ explicit instruction to pray in private, not as spectacle.

9. Jesus welcomed zealots, tax collectors, prostitutes — everyone

Reza Aslan’s Zealot shows how Jesus drew from every sector of society, even those considered traitors or extremists. His movement was a big-tent coalition, not an ideologically pure sect. Social movements thrive when they unite unlikely allies.

10. Jesus stands in the lineage of Moses, Amos, Isaiah and the radicals after him

The Hebrew tradition leans heavily on Exodus, a story of mass emancipation from slavery. The essence of God is the path itself from slavery to liberation. Along the way, Moses introduced labor rights (Sabbath rest), land redistribution (Jubilee), and debt cancellation. Prophets such as Amos and Isaiah denounced the rich and demanded justice. Jesus consciously stepped into this lineage.

Scholar John Dominic Crossan argues that the most radical thing Jesus did was ignore caste rules, and create an “open table” where people of all classes, races and genders could come, eat together, and learn to heal the broken among us. Many social movements have been animated by the teachings and organizing of Jesus.

The movement around Zohran Mamdani, a proud Muslim, shows that spiritually grounded politics can inspire people today. His emphasis on human needs and communal dignity echoes themes central to Jesus’ ministry.

This moment also gives DSA an opportunity to speak more openly about spiritual dimensions within socialism. One of the early founders of DSA, Michael Harrington, came out of the Catholic Worker tradition. Today, the Religion and Socialism Working Group continues that lineage. Spiritual people should know there is a place for them inside DSA.

Christmas is based largely based on a lie: Jesus was almost certainly not born in Bethlehem, even most voices in the Bible all talk about him being a native of Nazareth. But behind the myth is a very powerful truth: Jesus is our comrade. His teachings are very much alive today. They are parallel to the core values of socialism. They are a wonderful way to undermine the hypocrisy of the “Christian” right-wing.

Christmas should be celebrated, to bring attention to the subversive teachings of a revolutionary. This is a way to give meaning to a holiday that is oftentimes overpowered by capitalist commercialism. Merry Christmas, Comrades!

The post Jesus, Our Comrade appeared first on DSA Religious Socialism.

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