The California community college system is one of the great jewels of working class power in the state. For very little money, and in some locations free, the multiracial working class gets to take courses leading to improved skills, an occupation, or a degree that in the four-year university world would cost thousands of dollars a semester.

The transformation of what used to be a motley system of agricultural schools and junior colleges focused on associate degrees into a multidimensional, accessible institution of higher learning came about through the advocacy of the labor movement at its peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s. And within that effort, in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, the labor movement also created small but feisty programs to teach the specific skills and knowledge important to defending and advancing worker rights—labor studies departments. 

Spring Semester is enrolling now

The largest program, offered at Los Angeles Trade Tech, offers nine in person classes in the spring semester: US Labor History; Labor and Political Action; The Working Class and Cinema (two sections); Organizing for Political Action; Union Leadership Skills; Workers’ Legal Rights; Issues in Labor Arbitration; and Workers’ Compensation. Five courses are offered on line. For more information, go here, or contact Kathleen Yasuda, department chair.

In City College San Francisco, spring semester features four classes: California Labor History (in person at the Mission Campus), Who Built America? (online), Organizing for Economic Justice (online), and Labor Relations in the Modern American Workplace (in person, Mission Campus). For more information, go here, or contact James Tracy, department chair.

San Diego City College offers a dynamic course in Labor and Community Organizing: Labor Studies 107 (Tuesday nights 6-9:10pm in AH 419) taught by two longtime labor organizers and activists, Satomi Rash-Zeigler and Cheryl Coney. The class offers a hands-on curriculum designed to help students learn about the labor movement, current organizing efforts, and how to organize students' own community or labor campaigns. The instructors frequently bring in guest speakers to provide windows into the sorts of actions happening all over San Diego. For more information, go here, or contact Kelly Mayhew, City College Labor Studies Coordinator.

The instructors in these programs are all practitioners, drawn from the local labor movement, with years of experience. But one of the best things about these courses is getting to meet your fellow students, many of whom are rank and file activists and leaders in unions. Make connections and organize!

You can have one too!

During the second weekend of December over thirty members from chapters all across Southern California came together for a Regional Organizing Retreat. The retreat weekend included two social events plus two full days of training and discussion groups. 

Trainings included everything from defining DSA to the how and why of setting chapter priorities and goals, campaign planning, and recruitment conversations. There were also priority campaign discussions from the National Labor Commission, Green New Deal Committee, and the National Electoral Committee. 

Staff Organizers Amy Zachmeyer and Patrick Shepherd were joined by leaders from several chapters in facilitation of the sessions, and Paul Zappia from California DSA worked with DSA’s Electoral Organizer Milo Pomarico to build out a California-specific training on ballot initiatives, including a discussion session on issues we will see on the ballot in 2024. 

San Luis Obispo member Scott T. said of the event, “I drove about three hours in order to go to the retreat with Amy & Patrick, It was well worth it. My chapter might be on the smaller side, but the experience gave me renewed vigor regarding organizing and the ideas and tools for my chapter to be more effective in our efforts.” 

Chapters wanting to schedule training sessions can go to www.dsausa.org/training to submit a request. 

As avid readers of California Red are aware, the December Mini California Red included a first: the annual California DSA Socialist News Quiz, with ten questions based in the past year’s articles.

We are pleased to announce the winners! We have a four-way tie for first place:

• Ben T (EB)

• Michael L (EB)

• Sean T (SF)

• Monica (SF)

Other contestants who got at least six answers right include Adam H, Michael L and Arun, all from DSA-LA. 

The first place winners will receive the following prizes donated by our generous chapters in East Bay, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and Inland Empire:

• Solidarity Forever poster, DSA-LA

• Labor 101 for Socialists pamphlet, EBDSA

• Socialism Meow sweatshirts from SV DSA

• “Some sort of socialist book” from IE DSA

Be sure to watch for the next California DSA Socialist News Quiz. In the meantime, here are the quiz questions and their answers:

Socialist News Quiz Questions & Answers

1. On what auspicious holiday did the California DSA newsletter, California Red, launch in 2023? [May Day]

2. What union newsletter praised DSA for its support of their strike through the innovative tool “the Snacklist”? [WGA’s Writers on the Line]

3. DSA-LA became active in opposing ICE in 2017 for what reason, and who did the chapter rescue from ICE? [LA’s immigrant population; Claudia Rueda]

4. In battling Robotaxis in San Francisco with traffic cones, who became our temporary allies? [Police, Firefighters, and SF Municipal Transportation Agency]

5. The Inland Empire and LA chapters got the national DSA Solidarity Fund to donate $2,500 to what striking workers? [Amazon DSP Drivers and dispatchers from Teamsters 396]

6. In 2023 Fairfax became the smallest district in California to establish what landmark ordinance with the help of Marin DSA? [Rent control]

7. After a three-day strike in solidarity with SEIU 99 members in March, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) won a historic new contract. In addition to reducing class sizes and lowering caseloads for counselors, the contract increased wages across the board by how much over three years? [21%]

8. Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Lopez beat back an attempted recall with the help of DSA. Which of the following statements are true?

1. Jesse Lopez was born & raised in Santa Ana.

1. Jesse Lopez is a member of the Working Families Party.

1. Jesse Lopez was duly elected in November 2020.

1. Jesse Lopez cast the deciding vote in favor of maintaining a 3% rent control in Santa Ana, the only city in Orange County with rent control.

2. Jesse Lopez is up for reelection in 4 years. [E is false] 

9. East Bay DSA Climate Action Committee canvassed a BART station to gather signatures to ban new oil and gas infrastructure within Contra Costa County and to phase out existing drilling. Which of the following is false?

1. The Bay Area is home to several refineries.

1. There is an active oil well in the East Bay.

1. Canvassers found that many transit riders had no knowledge of drilling in the county.

1. Canvassers learned that people take action most when that action fits into the existing pattern of their life-activity.

1. Canvassers learned that people take action when they believe that action has a good chance of changing the world to alleviate a felt pain.

1. The committee didn’t grow their skills as organizers through planning the canvass. [All except f are true]

1. DSA-SF and EBDSA protested with other organizations in the No2APEC coalition outside the APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting in San Francisco. Which of the following are true?

1. Demonstrators blocked an entrance to the conference disrupting and slowing down entry to the conference for a substantial number of delegates.

2. Activists gained several days of media coverage with the message that APEC represents profits for the wealthy, union busting for the workers, and continued climate destruction.

3. Organizers in movements who travel different paths and often don’t talk with one another forged a coalition (No2APEC) around a program of radical direct action against destructive trade practices in the world economy. 

4. San Francisco has all of its residents’ needs taken care of, so it was no problem to give $10 million to the federal government for the massive security around the conference. [All but d are true]

December 2023 State Council Meeting Report

Below is a brief summary of our December 2023 delegation meeting.

DSA to Cuba Delegation Report

Our keynote speaker was Lizzie of San Francisco DSA, who talked to us about our International Committee’s first delegation to Cuba between October 22 - 26, 2023. Members traveled in coordination with an organization called “Not Just Tourists,” which provides travelers with supplies to be distributed across the island. The delegation body was made up of a wide range of DSA members cohered around opposition to the United States embargo against Cuba. 

Members learned about the widespread effects of the embargo on Cuba and how it impacts every level of society. Due to limitations on what is able to be sold and provided there, this creates an overall sense of burden and loss. We were given specific examples of how forced lack of supply causes Cubans to reuse medical equipment like pacemakers - and people there have no access to things like the Apple App Store. The USA doesn’t allow you to sell to Cuba if you want to sell your product in the USA.  

Co-chair Report

One of our co-chairs, Hazel W, provided us with very useful context around work that had been done in the previous few months and the state of our organization. She reflected on our successful California Red newsletter, our endorsement and support of No on APEC work in the Bay Area, and our support of the “No Money for Massacres” campaign—making thousands of calls supporting the cause of Palestinian liberation. 

As we have been struggling to find folks with ample capacity, we’ve recently made some changes to our internal structures to account for this reality. Hopefully, making changes to the amount of standing meetings we carry, and putting intentional effort into our newly adopted Growth and Development Committee will help us grow into the org we know we can be (and the one that can be a large part of ushering socialism into California).

We need members to join us in this effort! We understand the struggle of finding capacity with all that’s happening around us; but even a little of your time goes a long way. You can sign up for the Growth and Development committee here.

Treasurer’s Report

Our previous treasurer provided us with a breakdown of expenses necessary to operate California DSA with tools like email clients and our voting tool. Currently, California DSA’s fiscal sponsor is DSA Los Angeles, which is going through a transitional process into incorporation now, so fundraising will be on hold for the time being. 

We received reports about our various committees, including:

Labor Committee

Communications Committee

Ecosocialists

Electoral Committee

Chapter reports

North Central Valley, San Francisco, and Ventura county gave our council updates about work in their local chapters. 

North Central Valley is engaged with their local labor federation, sending members through organizer trainings, and Palestinian solidarity work. Their chapter is also now separately incorporated.

San Francisco DSA has been running a campaign for Dean Preston, who is facing intense opposition from the capitalist class in the city and trying to remove him from his Board of Supervisors seat. Their chapter has also been continuing work in Palestinian solidarity and mutual aid, organizing things like donation drops. They’ve also been hosting their own DSA 101 courses, organizer trainings, and book clubs.

Ventura County is working on filling seats within the chapter, and expanding to public tabling events to engage community members in the organization. They currently host mostly membership meetings and have endorsed a city council candidate. Members have also been involved with strike support, and attended No Money for Massacres phone banks. They also now have their very first delegate for California DSA.

Legislative Platform Presentation

Members of CA DSA spent much time and energy to put together a legislative program that was originally intended to be used for an Assembly slate we had planned to run for 2024. Based on a poll of our delegates, the main planks of that platform include:

• Decarbonizing and building green infrastructure

• Protecting and encouraging union organizing

• Fund public education and oppose privatization

• Expand statewide rent control

• Build public, social housing

• Pass statewide public, single-payer healthcare

In the absence of running an Assembly campaign, this program will be used as a basis for our voter guide (coming soon) and future candidates for the state Legislature. 

Votes

The delegation adopted two amendments to our Legislative Endorsement Framework from previous council meetings and we ratified the State Committee’s suggested changes to our Housing and Electoral committees, as well as the creation of our Growth and Development committee.

Submitted by Paul Zappia, CA-DSA Secretary

Connor Wright

NEWTON – More than 2,000 members of the Newton Teachers Association (NTA) launched a strike on Friday morning.

The strike is the latest in a wave of illegal – and successful – teachers’ strikes in Massachusetts, the largest in the state since Quincy teachers walked out in 2007.

Teachers are demanding higher pay, especially for low-paid support staff, and an end to the chronic underfunding of Newton Public Schools (NPS). The Newton School Committee has hired a union-busting law firm and condemned the strike.

https://x.com/DSAWorkingMass/status/1748431100479778969?s=20

High Spirits on the Picket Line

As the 9am strike deadline approached, hundreds of teachers converged on Newton Center with union shirts and signs. Passing cars blared their horns in solidarity while teachers chanted: “What do we want? FAIR CONTRACT! When do we want it? NOW!”

Despite the freezing temperatures, the sidewalks were loud and cheerful as students, parents, and other community supporters bolstered the teachers’ picket lines.

“Newton teachers are fantastic,” said one parent as she helped hand out coffee and donuts. “The fact that they don’t get respect pisses me off.”

She described how for years, local politicians have touted the district’s “competitiveness,” pointing to building improvements and new school construction. But teacher pay has failed to keep up with spiraling living costs, turnover is high, and conditions for teachers and students have gotten steadily worse.

“It’s not about buildings, it’s about the teachers who work there,” she argued. “They’re the ones who take care of the kids. If they’re not treated right the whole system falls apart.”

Teachers agreed, noting that the district has been underfunded for years. Teachers endure hour-plus commutes, unable to afford Newton’s rising housing costs. Understaffing is rampant since teachers can find higher pay in most other suburban districts. And lower-paid support staff are forced to work second and third jobs to make ends meet.

Multiple NTA members told Working Mass how excited they were to fight back after years of neglect from the district.

“We haven’t felt this disrespected in a long time,” said one Newton South High School teacher. “We’re out here because we mean business.”

Strike Politics

One of the most popular picket line chants was about the city’s Democratic mayor, Ruthanne Fuller: “Hey hey, ho ho, Mayor Fuller has got to go!”

Although the Newton community seems fully in support of striking educators, the Newton political establishment is firmly against the teachers’ demands.

Fuller, a former business consultant, has condemned the strike. The Newton School Committee – which includes a corporate consultant, a hedge fund manager, and the former CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess – has stonewalled the NTA in negotiations, ignoring teachers’ demands over more than a year of negotiations.

According to a longtime NTA activist, as the union has gotten bolder and more organized in recent years, the district has become openly hostile in negotiations and shut down even moderate proposals from the union.

“It’s part of their strategy,” he told Working Mass. “They want to use the strike to break the union.”

Unions, community groups, and local socialists are all supporting the teachers. Boston DSA members, including NTA and other union activists, came out to bolster the picket lines.

Rallying for Better Schools

The first day of the strike culminated in a mass rally at Newton City Hall, where thousands of teachers and supporters gathered to flex their power.

Newton teachers, Boston Teachers Union (BTU) president Jessica Tang, and supporters from the Somerville Educators Union (SEU) and the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) all spoke.

MTA president Max Page kicked off the rally by praising Newton teachers’ dedication. “Today you are an inspiration to all of us: to your students, your families, and to unionists all across the state and all across the country.”

Leo, a Newton high school student, condemned Mayor Fuller’s letter to students and families, which claimed the strike “would harm our children.”

“Mayor Fuller, I don’t know where you get the audacity to claim that our teachers are hurting us. When’s the last time you set foot inside a Newton classroom?”

“What’s really hurting the schools, what’s really hurting the students, is having classes of 37 students. What really hurts us is when teachers have to balance childcare and coming to work. What really hurts us is when we can’t get access to a social worker when we need it most.”

In a passionate speech, Ashley Raven, a preschool teacher in the Newton Early Childhood Program (NECP), described the special burden on underpaid Unit C staff. She dared Fuller and the School Committee to work as support staff in Newton schools for just one week.

“At the end of that week, you tell us if you felt fairly compensated. You tell us if you felt respected for the work you did.”

The rally ended with a chant that had been heard all throughout the day: “Enough is enough! Enough is enough!”

Preparing for the Long Haul

The longest recent teachers’ strike, in Woburn, lasted five days. Based on the stubbornness of Fuller and the School Committee, informed sources told Working Mass the NTA is digging in for a multi-week strike if necessary.

Members seem ready to hold the line. “We didn’t pick this fight,” said an elementary school teacher as the day wrapped up. “But if they want one, we’ll give it to them.”

Strike actions are planned for this weekend. All community supporters are encouraged to come out to the Newton Education Center (100 Walnut St) from 10am-1pm and City Hall (1000 Commonwealth Ave) from 1-4pm, on both Saturday and Sunday.

By Connor Wright

NEWTON, MA – More than 2,000 members of the Newton Teachers Association (NTA) walked out on strike on Friday morning in the latest of a wave of illegal – and successful – teachers’ strikes in Massachusetts.

Teachers are demanding higher pay, especially for low-paid support staff, and an end to the chronic underfunding of Newton Public Schools (NPS). The Newton School Committee, meanwhile, has hired a union-busting law firm and condemned the strike.

High Spirits on the Picket Line

As the 9am strike deadline approached, hundreds of teachers converged on Newton Center with union shirts and signs. Passing cars blared their horns in solidarity while teachers chanted: “What do we want? FAIR CONTRACT! When do we want it? NOW!”

Despite the freezing temperatures, the sidewalks were loud and cheerful as students, parents, and other community supporters bolstered the teachers’ picket lines.

“Newton teachers are fantastic,” said one parent as she helped hand out coffee and donuts. “The fact that they don’t get respect pisses me off.”

She described how for years, local politicians have touted the district’s “competitiveness,” pointing to building improvements and new school construction. But teacher pay has failed to keep up with spiraling living costs, turnover is high, and conditions for teachers and students have gotten steadily worse.

“It’s not about buildings, it’s about the teachers who work there,” she argued. “They’re the ones who take care of the kids. If they’re not treated right, the whole system falls apart.”

Teachers agreed, noting that the district has been underfunded for years. Teachers endure hour-plus commutes, unable to afford Newton’s rising housing costs. Understaffing is rampant since teachers can find higher pay in most other suburban districts. And lower-paid support staff are forced to work second and third jobs to make ends meet.

Multiple NTA members told Working Mass how excited they were to fight back after years of neglect from the district.

“We haven’t felt this disrespected in a long time,” said one Newton South High School teacher. “We’re out here because we mean business.”

Strike Politics

One of the most popular picket line chants was about the city’s Democratic mayor, Ruthanne Fuller: “Hey hey, ho ho, Mayor Fuller has got to go!”

Although the Newton community seems fully in support of striking educators, the Newton political establishment is firmly against the teachers’ demands.

Fuller, a former business consultant, has condemned the strike. The Newton School Committee – which includes a corporate consultant, a hedge fund manager, and the former CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess – has stonewalled the NTA in negotiations, ignoring teachers’ demands over more than a year of negotiations.

According to a longtime NTA activist, as the union has gotten bolder and more organized in recent years, the district has become openly hostile in negotiations and shut down even moderate proposals from the union.

“It’s part of their strategy,” he told Working Mass. “They want to use the strike to break the union.”

Unions, community groups, and local socialists are all supporting the teachers. Boston DSA members, including NTA and other union activists, came out to bolster the picket lines.

Rallying for Better Schools

The first day of the strike culminated in a mass rally at Newton City Hall, where thousands of teachers and supporters gathered to flex their power.

Newton teachers, Boston Teachers Union (BTU) president Jessica Tang, and supporters from the Somerville Educators Union (SEU) and the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) all spoke.

MTA president Max Page kicked off the rally by praising Newton teachers’ dedication. “Today you are an inspiration to all of us: to your students, your families, and to unionists all across the state and all across the country.”

Leo, a Newton high school student, condemned Mayor Fuller’s letter to students and families, which claimed the strike “would harm our children.”

“Mayor Fuller, I don’t know where you get the audacity to claim that our teachers are hurting us. When’s the last time you set foot inside a Newton classroom?”

“What’s really hurting the schools, what’s really hurting the students, is having classes of 37 students. What really hurts us is when teachers have to balance childcare and coming to work. What really hurts us is when we can’t get access to a social worker when we need it most.”

In a passionate speech, Ashley Raven, a preschool teacher in the Newton Early Childhood Program (NECP), described the special burden on underpaid Unit C staff. She dared Fuller and the School Committee to work as support staff in Newton schools for just one week.

“At the end of that week, you tell us if you felt fairly compensated. You tell us if you felt respected for the work you did.”

The rally ended with a chant that had been heard all throughout the day: “Enough is enough! Enough is enough!”

Preparing for the Long Haul

The longest recent teachers’ strike, in Woburn, lasted five days. Based on the stubbornness of Fuller and the School Committee, informed sources told Working Mass the NTA is digging in for a multi-week strike if necessary.

Members seem ready to hold the line. “We didn’t pick this fight,” said an elementary school teacher as the day wrapped up. “But if they want one, we’ll give it to them.”

Strike actions are planned for this weekend. On both Saturday and Sunday, community supporters are encouraged to come out to the Newton Education Center (100 Walnut St) from 10am to 1pm and City Hall (1000 Commonwealth Ave) from 1 to 4pm.

Connor Wright is a current Boston Teachers Union member and a member of the Boston DSA Labor Working Group.

Henry De Groot, a Working Mass editor and Newton North 2014 graduate, also contributed to this piece.

Featured image credit: Newton educators and supporters rally outside Newton City Hall on January 19, 2024. Photo by Henry De Groot/Working Mass

The following remarks were made by ROC DSA members at Rochester City Council on January 18, 2024.

Ceasefire resolutions have been passed in cities across the U.S. including Cudahy, California; Long Beach, California; Oakland, California; Richmond, California; San Francisco, California; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Wilmington, Delaware; Atlanta, Georgia; Iowa City, Iowa; Portland, Maine; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Dearborn, Michigan; Dearborn Heights, Michigan; Detroit, Michigan; Hamtramck, Michigan; Ypsilanti, Michigan; Hastings, Minnesota; Albany, New York; Carrboro, North Carolina; Akron, Ohio; Talent, Oregon; Providence, Rhode Island; Bellingham, Washington; Olympia, Washington; Seattle, Washington; and Madison, Wisconsin. Others will certainly follow.

ROC DSA and its allies are encouraging City Council to add Rochester, New York to this growing list.

These Numbers Are Higher Now.

by Brent

Councilmembers, I am speaking to you today on the 104th day of just the latest phase of Israel’s brutal assault on the Palestinian people, which has been ongoing since the Nakba in 1948.

In just over 100 days, over 24,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered by US supplied Hellfire missiles, 2,000-pound bombs, tanks, lack of medical care, and starvation. That’s more than one in one hundred Gazans. Imagine if more than 2,000 Rochester residents experienced this same fate. That is roughly the equivalent. Of these 24,000 dead, over 10,000 are children and as many as 7,000 people are still trapped under the rubble.

These numbers are higher now—I wrote this on Monday! Make no mistake, this is no war, this is a genocide. And it’s one that didn’t start on October 7th. But it’s one that we can stop NOW.

I’m calling on you to join over a dozen cities, including Detroit, Atlanta, San Francisco, and right here in New York, Albany—in passing a resolution calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. You have the power to signal to President Biden, to Governor Hochul, and to Netanyahu himself, that Rochester doesn’t support this genocide. That the state of New York doesn’t support this genocide. That the American people don’t support this genocide.

CEASEFIRE NOW!
FREE PALESTINE!

* * *

Which Side Are You On?

by Gregory Lebens-Higgins

In the past 104 days, Israel has murdered more than 24,000 Palestinians at a rate of nearly 250 per day. Thousands more remain under the rubble or missing.

These numbers represent people. Individuals with hopes and dreams. Whole families wiped out. Generations scarred. Endless heartache.

Israeli leaders have not hidden their intentions. South Africa’s petition to the International Court of Justice cited numerous examples of Israeli officials calling for Gaza to be wiped out. And just today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed his opposition to the establishment of any future Palestinian state.

This atrocity is occurring with the tacit approval of the United States Government, which continues to supply weapons of genocide to Israel with no conditions regarding human rights or international law—a position upheld by 72 Senators this past Tuesday.

At the same time Washington is expanding the violence; bombing Yemen—among the poorest countries in the Middle East—without Congressional approval.

THIS MADNESS MUST END.

You may ask, “What am I to do? I’m not responsible for international affairs.”

To which I say: ALL elected leaders have a responsibility to use their platform to help us divert from this course of destruction.

We must acknowledge what is going on. We must demonstrate to Palestinian neighbors in our community that their lives matter. We must show the world that we do not condone the merciless actions of our leaders. And we must send a message to those leaders that they do not have our support.

Over the past 104 days we have heard calls for a ceasefire grow. In Rochester, each rally is larger than the last. As time goes on, and the full scope of horror unleashed on Palestinians becomes increasingly apparent, it is more and more obvious that we must do the right thing by pushing for an immediate end to the violence.

Which side are you on?

The post Speak to Council: Pass a Ceasefire Resolution! first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

—Tristan Bavol-Marques: former co-chair, treasurer

Written debriefs are useful in organizing both as a medium to organize one's thoughts in the present as well as something that can be revisited in the future to see how an organization has grown. I hope to set down here what I believe to have been the successes and limitations of my time on Steering Committee and provide whatever useful insight I can to the chapter.

Successes

Building a Unified Chapter

My foremost goal when I ran for co-chair two years ago was to centralize NC Triangle DSA into a coherent chapter that coordinates its efforts as one body. Some newer members may not know this, but until relatively recently, we did very little as a chapter—instead, we acted as three very loosely coordinated branches (Chapelboro, Durham, Raleigh), had four separate Discord servers, four steering committees, and smaller working groups separately housed in each branch that didn't really coordinate between branches even if they were doing the same kind of work. It was this baroque and unwieldy structure that I sought to transform into a coherent political body that could channel our energy in a unified direction. This reform was slow and delicate work because of inertia as well as concerns about branches retaining autonomy, but I was able to build chapter-wide buy-in first by building/supporting building chapter-wide structures such as our Comms Committee and the first working groups that decided to become chapter-level groups, for example, when the Chapelboro Electoral Working Group became our Chapter Electoral Working Group. I believe patience and demonstrating the utility of these reforms initially in a piece-meal, voluntary manner was crucial for the success of these centralizing reforms more broadly. I do not believe I would have been successful in achieving these reforms if I tried to do them all at once from the get-go. But although the desire was there to be a more unified chapter, it took someone actively organizing that constituency and pushing along that process for it to actually happen. I am proud that my dream which seemed quasi-utopian at the time of a unified, centralized chapter has been realized, and I think a lot of our recent successes have been made possible by the increased capacity and ability to coordinate organizing that being a coherent and unified chapter has brought us.

Chapter Shirts: A Test Case

The chapter's “White Whale” according to the outgoing leadership when I was starting as co-chair, was chapter shirts. They had been desired and talked about for a long time without any real progress. I made it my goal to secure chapter shirts quickly as a sign of the vigor of the new chapter leadership to members. I spearheaded the effort and sought to get it done within a month of being co-chair, which our Steering Committee succeeded in doing. In hindsight, it turned out not everyone was happy with how the design was chosen, but I believe the result was a net positive for the chapter. Oftentimes, getting things done quickly (or at all) and doing so with the overt consensus of members are priorities that come into conflict with one another; I have tended to favor the former for the less politically-charged aspects of running the chapter. And we got shirts! 

NOTE: I know other members are working on getting another batch of shirts made and that that process seems to have stalled out. I am happy to help provide insight on moving that along if desired. 

Our Chapter's BDS Resolution

The first major challenge faced by Steering Committee while I was co-chair was brought on by the proposing of the first draft of what would become our chapter's BDS resolution. At the time, I was a relatively new member, and I got my first real taste of some of the internal factionalism and also personal drama that existed within the chapter. This resolution was controversial (in my opinion) because of some of the specific mechanisms it employed, the manner in which it was presented to the chapter, and the overarching context of the Jamaal Bowman affair—as opposed to there being any constituency in the chapter opposed to the real substance of the resolution. I want to thank the group that proposed the resolution for taking the initiative to write what would become such an important document for our chapter. I spent a LOT of time working with the people in favor and opposed to the first draft of the BDS resolution, saw that regardless of ideological tendency differences, there wasn't that much daylight between language that would be amenable to both groups, and was able to get both groups to support a revised draft that passed with nearly unanimous consent and has become a model for Palestinian solidarity to other chapters across the country.

Here, the major lessons for me were that working together across ideological tendencies is not only possible, but a necessary precondition for us successfully organizing the Left and not just splitting off into ineffective splinter groups. I believe it is imperative that DSA unite the left and the working class into a party that can articulate, organize, and fight for its demands. This requires being able to compromise with our comrades, and I believe this was a successful example of debate and compromise leading to a very effective document. Another lesson was the importance of structural clarity as an organization. The initial post introducing the resolution declared it would be voted on at the next general meeting even though that wasn't how the resolution process in our bylaws worked. This led to difficulties because it was easy (especially in the charged atmosphere of the time) to conflate the need to follow the bylaws as it relates to resolutions with attempting to squash the resolution. This led to us as a Steering Committee seeking to increase knowledge of how resolutions and the bylaws work, which I hope has been helpful. Nonetheless, as an avid supporter of Palestinian solidarity, especially in this time of genocide by the zionist entity in Gaza, I am supremely proud that our chapter was able to pass a robust BDS resolution with near unanimous support.

Growth of the Internacional and Electoral Working Groups

Since I've been on Steering Committee, the lightning rod of the chapter has certainly been our electoral work, which makes sense in light of some particularly poor endorsements/candidate relationships at both the national level and by other DSA chapters. By the time I got involved in the leadership of our Electoral Working Group, the group had experienced three major failures (failure to follow up meaningfully on the Danny Nowell win due to Electoral WG leadership at the time not having the capacity to run the group effectively; failure to gain chapter consensus with a voter guide put out by the Electoral WG—and self-crit approved by Steering Committee; and unmitigated failure in our Joshua Bradley endorsement) and was floundering. 

I and my co-chair Gabe F were able to rebuild the working group into the powerhouse it is today through direct asks and actively onboarding the new members we did gain. We would make sure to reach out to people who expressed interest in the working group via dm, and we would take time at the end of our meetings to talk with first-time working group attendees to explain what we were working on and answer any questions they might have. That latter point is huge since there is such a high barrier to entry in terms of terminology, campaigns, strategy, and structure that it is a miracle anybody stays with a working group barring some kind of onboarding. These two tools in our organizing bucket—direct asks and onboarding—were how we were able to defeat some of the strongest political machines in Carrboro/Chapel Hill and Durham. Another key aspect of our success was taking the time to put together effective campaigns, which I will elaborate on in the relevant section under insights.

The Internacional Working Group is another working group I am proud to have helped grow. Originally two separate groups: International Solidarity Working Group and Spanish-Language Infrastructure and Outreach Committee, these two groups both struggled with capacity issues and were moribund. Combining the two into one group has spurred new life and vigor into the newly unified group. Now the group has grown past this, but the initial difference between getting 3 people in a meeting versus getting 6 feels huge and is a big boost to morale. Nobody wants to stick around in a group that feels moribund, and this consolidation played a big part in improving the vitality of that work.

Speaking of that work, some of the most fun I've had in DSA is connecting International Committee (the National DSA body) work to our chapter, such as with my trip to Venezuela, the Venezuelan Feminist Tour's stop here (they still say our stop was their favorite and best organized—huge point of pride for the chapter in my opinion!), the Venezuela-DSA event Housing: An International Struggle our chapter organized, the Demystifying Korea event, and our stop on the Mexico Solidarity Project tour. A lot of this work has been made possible because I am also on the International Committee and have been able to connect the right people, so it'll be important for other members from our chapter to join the International Committee (which you can do here!) as I take some time off to parent. And I am very proud of our strident support for Palestine and Palestinians during this ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Getting our Dues Share

Dues Share is a percentage of dues our chapter’s members pay to National DSA that are supposed to be given to our chapter. However, our chapter had not received our dues share until April 2023 because it had not been successfully set up yet. I made it my goal to set up our dues share no matter how hard it would be. It actually turned out to be pretty easy to get set up; it really just required emailing people in National DSA and confirming our bank account. It may be that people at the national-level were less easy to work with in the past, but in all honesty, this should have been done years ago and we have missed out on a lot of money because it wasn't. Regardless, I got this done within about a month of taking office as treasurer, and as a result, we have about doubled our income. This is my chief accomplishment as treasurer, but I hope people have also found me a prompt and efficient treasurer to work with on other things.

Limitations

Growth of other Working Groups

Unfortunately, I have not been able to be involved with every working group to the same degree as I have for Internacional and Electoral. I've tried to share some of the strategies that have worked in those groups at chapter trainings, but there's a difference between me saying what has been effective in other groups versus me actively spending the capacity to put those practices in place within a working group. Direct asks and working group onboarding, plus doing meeting announcements several days ahead of time, plus choosing effective campaigns are my recommendations to other groups. Another possibility to consider is consolidation if there is a  group similar enough, which played a huge role in Internacional WG becoming a robust and healthy group.

Building the Spanish-Language Capacity of our Chapter

This dovetails a bit with the previous discussion about consolidating International Solidarity Working Group and Spanish-Language Infrastructure and Outreach Committee (SLIO). I started SLIO with lofty goals of increasing our bilingual capacity, and we did not achieve those goals. We do have greater bilingual capacity now than our mostly just relying on Sebastian FG in the past, but the initial goals set out in that committee were not achieved. I attribute this to my own lack of capacity for the project and the difficulty in mobilizing an already small number of competent members to achieve a pretty big goal. This work is not dead, but it is a smaller part of the larger goal of Internacional Working Group, and I hope as we grow and have more Spanish speakers, we can revisit some of these goals again.

Delegating

A huge deficiency of mine that I have sought to improve upon is ability to delegate. I think I have improved at delegating, but I still find it scary and historically, not delegating work has led to me getting over capacity. The difficulty with me and delegating likely stems from the fear that the person being delegated to won't end up doing the thing in question, which is sometimes the outcome. But, I think I have learned the key is to delegate but check up ahead of time on the progress of the task in question. That and feeling greater and greater trust for my comrades has helped me with this deficiency, but I’m still not great at it.

Mission: Red Triangle

Credit goes to Robert W for the name of this project. I initiated what would be named Mission: Red Triangle because at the time, there was a sense of aimlessness in the chapter, and I sought to bring us all together as a chapter to chart a path forward. I believe the reflection period of Mission: Red Triangle was incredibly useful since we hadn’t really taken time to look at our previous campaigns and what about them was successful and what limitations they had. In that spirit, I am writing this document, and I believe a greater sense of the need for debrief and retrospection has been cultivated in the chapter from Mission: Red Triangle. That being said, I think more could and can still be done to support the priority campaign we decided upon as the culmination of that project, and I believe the priority campaign could use more support from the chapter as a whole. This lack of support is something I could have done more about and for that and some of the other organizational hurdles the Mission: Red Triangle process faced, I definitely take some part of the blame.

Insights

How to win campaigns

Having won a few campaigns now, I believe I can make some recommendations on how to organize winning campaigns. The first step is designing the campaign. I believe a good campaign takes a local issue, ties it to our socialist analysis, and has a clear win state. For example, with the Carrboro Greenway Campaign, the local issue was that a small group of rich homeowners was blocking a key piece of green infrastructure everyone else in town wanted. This ties to our socialist analysis because we were able to highlight the inherent class conflict at play and could radicalize people with this local instance of our overall socialist ideology as well as our ecosocialism. The campaign had a clear win state because we specifically were seeking to pressure Carrboro Town Council to vote to approve the greenway over the objections of the rich homeowners, which they did. Having a clear win state is important because it provides a specific goal for people to organize towards and lets you know whether your campaign was successful. Without a clear win state, people don’t feel like they are making progress and get burnt out.

Other recommendations would be to organize campaigns that build ties with other groups and communities in the area, which stems from the local issue recommendation. We were able to do this with both the Carrboro Greenway Campaign—building a good relationship with TriangleBlogBlog in the process as well as demonstrating our political might to the other members of council—and we were able to begin a relationship with the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People with the Nate Baker campaign, which will hopefully result in us building inroads with Durham’s Black community, assuming we are effective in maintaining that relationship in the future. 

Demonstrating momentum is another important aspect of effective campaigns. You can demonstrate momentum by publicizing metrics throughout the campaign, like the Carrboro Greenway Campaign did with our petition signature count, and through posting pictures of the turnouts of events. Nothing scared our opponents during the Nate Baker Campaign more than the picture of 25 DSA members volunteering to knock doors. I heard about the photo from other candidates and their staff constantly. Because campaigns take time and a lot of work, demonstrating momentum is key to keeping people engaged through the lifespan of the campaign.

Last but most important is using direct asks. Nothing I’ve ever done while organizing is half as useful as just DMing people and asking them to come out to a meeting or event. The dm is important versus making a general ask on discord because of the bystander effect. If you dm someone, they generally feel more like they need to at least come up with an excuse why the can’t help. Anyone who comes to a meeting or event that you didn’t reach out to is a blessing from God and you ought to treat them as such—beyond that, you need to make direct asks!

Talk to strangers

From my position on Steering Committee and being able to watch our numbers climb, one of the most useful ways of getting new people involved in our chapter—and bringing in fresh faces is critical to the ongoing success of an all volunteer org like ours—is by talking to strangers. The more we table, the more we canvass, and the more we do protest support, the more we grow. As we continue planning new actions and campaigns, I highly, highly, highly recommend we ensure whatever we are doing has an external face to it where we are actively talking to new people outside our existing social circles. This will be key to our continued growth.

Organizing in a multi-tendency chapter

Organizing across tendency can be a challenge sometimes. In my experience, the more grounded in local conditions the work you are doing, the easier it is to work across tendency because usually the differences don’t come up. Where differences do come up, I believe focusing on how to achieve shared goals and framing discussion around that is more productive than hashing out more theoretical ideological differences, which usually is not that productive a line of discussion.

Structure matters

Organizing in a democratic organization like our own requires balancing the principles of democracy with the necessities of action. How we navigate this balance is determined by our structure, and as such, structure matters. I personally favor chapter membership democratically empowering specific members or working groups or committees with a mandate and then giving them the space and trust to do their work. As seen in the retrospectives carried out during Mission: Red Triangle and through my own and I am sure many of y’all’s experience, capacity is the lifeblood of the chapter. Maintaining redundant or obsolete structures costs precious capacity and renders us less well equipped to fight capitalism and the forces of reaction. As such, I have spent a lot of time amending the bylaws and writing resolutions to improve our chapter structurally so as to hopefully improve both our ability to be both democratic and effective while also more efficiently using the capacity we have.

Ceiling is the Roof

Forgive me—it is basketball season. I can very earnestly say that I have never been more hopeful about the future of this chapter and its ability to meaningfully transform the Triangle. I am thrilled at the list of nominees for next Steering Committee and am confident that they will continue to build this chapter and organize the Triangle effectively. I intend on remaining involved in the chapter, albeit at whatever capacity parenthood allows, and I am excited to still help where I can and watch the great work my comrades can achieve together. I want to thank the rest of Steering Committee from both terms—Mika M, Peter T, Robert W, David S, Jason B, Daniel M, Travis S, Cara C, Tim H, Zoe L, and Hwa H. I want to especially thank my indefatigable fellow co-chair Iri Wen for her incredibly hard work these past two years. She has been indispensable to the chapter, and I am so glad she is finally getting a break. 

Calls on Community to Demand Dane County Invest in Care Not Cages

On Thursday, January 18, 2024 the Dane County Board of Supervisors will be voting on RES-286, which would increase the budget for the Jail Consolidation Project by $27.6 Million, bringing the total budget of the project to $197 Million. If this jail is built, it will be the most expensive public works project ever in Dane County by a long shot. But this community has the opportunity to say: no more.

District 2 Supervisor Heidi Wegleitner says, “It’s disappointing that some are so eager to pour more money into the jail project when the Crisis Triage Center appears stalled, behavioral health programs and homeless services are woefully underfunded, and two permanent supportive housing projects at Rethke Terrace and Tree Lane are being shut down.”

This jail will be a towering monument to Madison’s hypocrisy and the racial disparities that Dane County continues to uphold; but it has not been built yet, and we can stop it. As of January 14, the Dane County Jail’s population was 54% Black while Dane County is less than 6% Black. Building a new building is not going to fix that clearly broken and racist system. There is a real, tangible, human cost to incarceration—it is inherently violent and harmful. There is no possible budget big enough to build a “humane jail” because that is something that cannot exist.

The costs to run this jail will be an order of magnitude more than the capital cost to build it. If we build this jail, it will set Dane County on a trajectory of doubling down on incarceration, instead of using those funds on investments that would actually make our community safer. 

AWG is calling on the Dane County community to contact their County Board Supervisor to demand CARE, NOT CAGES and encourage them to fund alternatives to incarceration. We need everyone. Ask your friends and family to contact their supervisor and say NO NEW JAIL. CARE, NOT CAGES!

About the Abolitionist Working Group

The Abolitionist Working Group (AWG) formed out of the work to Derail the Jail and the Doyle Resolution campaigns to stop the jail expansion and decarcerate Dane County. This group is the home in Madison Area DSA for all abolition-related work. We believe that abolition is a key tenet of socialism as prisons and policing are some of the most direct and personal means of state-driven oppression in our current society.

With the battle over abortion rights raging in the United States at local, state, and national levels, we here in New York state cannot become complacent that access to abortion will always be guaranteed here. Economic, social, and logistical barriers prevent many people from accessing the care they need, and without decisive action to change that, working-class New York residents as well as people living in the surrounding area will continue to be at risk. Tonight we're joined live by Chelsea Williams-Diggs of New York Abortion Access Fund and Allie Bohm of New York Civil Liberties Union to discuss the state of abortion access in New York state and their advocacy for the statewide Reproductive Freedom and Equity Fund.

Tell your legislators that you support increasing access to abortion in New York state: https://action.aclu.org/send-message/protect-abortion-access-new-york

Follow and support the New York Abortion Access Fund at nyaaf.org.