By Adam S

DSA is an organizational chimera–– a delightful and dazzling yet fragile and baffling assemblage of different pieces all in one–– and I think we should talk about it.

Allow me to explain.

Socialists have historically been divided between those who believe socialism can be guided along, or even instituted, by governments, and those who believe socialism must be built by working class organizations made up of working class people. In the nineteenth century, these hostilities were on full display in the rifts that broke out between social democratic parties who sought a parliamentary road to socialism through a combination of legislation and trade union activities and anarchist-oriented syndicalists who thought that, "by organizing industrially," they could form "the structure of the new society within the shell of the old," to quote the Industrial Workers of the World. 

Democratic Socialists of America does not fit neatly into either of these camps. On the one hand, we are not a syndicalist organization, and much of our membership is not directly based in the trade union movement. But neither are we a political party, though we do endorse candidates and intervene in elections. Instead, we operate on many political fronts simultaneously –– we are a union incubator, a civil rights group, and an electoral machine all at once. In this way we are an organizational chimera: multiple different pieces all assembled into one collective, rapidly growing, rapidly changing body.

This also causes DSA to function as a social network for the Left. Those who recognize the need for a change in our economic system join DSA at a higher rate than than any other socialist organization in the United States, learn about and connect with similarly minded people, and, in the best cases, engage in the hard work of organizing for a better world. This has the benefit of imbuing our work with a coherent alternative to neoliberal or reactionary thinking and is an invaluable means of identifying the social origin of many ills that affect modern life under the capitalist system. It is also the primary aspect that unifies the disparate pieces that make up DSA. 

However, DSA’s function as a social network means that socialists are often connected to campaigns through DSA, rather than in or by DSA. This causes problems with retaining focus on DSA’s organizational core, and in the long run this jeopardizes the substantial gains that DSA has made in membership and influence since 2016. 

Members joining an organization who end up working for other organizations do not easily retain their original, rather than inherited, responsibilities. This is just a description, not an attack on the good work that is being done: yours truly is certainly guilty of this to a certain extent. But it means that some appendages to DSA take on an importance that can be substantially different from work that builds DSA. 

This conundrum has affected the work of some working groups within DSA, including the Labor Working Group. The Labor Working Group has provided support to an array of efforts in the Triangle area and beyond, including supporting CWA workers on strike, supporting REI workers organizing to unionize and gain recognition, providing a forum for grad students at UNC and Duke to connect with fellow socialists, and providing extensive support to the Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or CAUSE, perhaps the single most exciting and dynamic grassroots Amazon union in the entire country. 

At the same time, the Labor Working Group has struggled to retain membership to develop its core competencies, leaving its main leaders under-supported and over-worked on internal DSA matters even as their members plug in and rapidly spin off to provide consistent support to external campaigns. 

To provide one concrete example of how these contradictions harm DSA’s ability to do even its most important work, at the very same time that CAUSE began collecting cards to take their campaign to the next level, the key members of the Labor Working Group, which has had a priority resolution in force providing invaluable support to workers on that campaign for almost a year, had so little support that they were considering dissolving. Even now, its future remains uncertain, and even if the work is reshaped in new ways, the conflicts between internal growth and external organizing will likely remain. Again, the problem here is not with those who took on leadership responsibilities within the working group, but that so few did. 

So what is the path forward? How can we make this chimera into something more elegant? A few solutions have been offered. Some have suggested that the working group model is out of date and that encouraging people to meet regularly on general thematic topics like “labor,” “socialist feminism,” or “ecosocialism” rather than specific campaigns risks burning people out. There is some truth to the idea that committees should be task-oriented. Yet at the same time, that diagnosis does not address the wider problem of DSA being a “forum through” rather than a “hub of” organizing. Saying our dear chimera should have functional pieces does not itself knit it into a more unified body.

Others have suggested that members should be doing more as workers, organizing directly in their own workplaces and communities around specific ways to build power. This suggestion is especially relevant for contexts like union building or tenant organizing where the task is very specific. 

Yet not all workers are able to organize in this way, either because they do not have the capacity to organize their tenants or are not employed somewhere that gives the ability to organize. This means that the exhortation of members to organize does not always make sense. Workers join an organization because of what they can do for the organization, not just themselves. Saying our wonderful chimera’s individual pieces should, amoeba-like, have their own organizational ecosystems, is at odds with why it was ever assembled. 

What is common to both these approaches is arguably the idea that solving this problem–– making DSA a hub rather than a forum–– will require a change in the relation of DSA members to DSA itself, an alteration in the significance of what members believe they are joining for. It will require that members come to understand that they are joining DSA at least as much for themselves as for other people, and to change their conditions, as the conditions of their fellow workers. It will also require that they understand that DSA does not exist by fiat –– it is only empowered when we do the hard work of strengthening it ourselves.

This entails becoming an organization that conceives of collective solidarity as also a personal act placing each individual’s own experiences alongside those of other members in the movement for socialism, and not as external to, or supportive of, some other movement. The paradox is, seen in this way, arguably that DSA members must see ourselves as members of the socialist movement in the way we live our lives, not as abstract bringers of support to something beyond or above us, not as representatives bringing some exalted sense of “socialism” to fellow workers in our communities, but as individuals bringing the energy of solidarity into all that we do for DSA as well as through it. 

The hybridity of DSA can also be a source of strength. By building a community of socialists engaged in struggle across many fronts, we can channel our energies collectively to transform our communities, our unions, and our political systems for the better. We can connect the struggles our members face across different arenas into a single unified movement, and we can live lives that give expression to our goals in many ways rather than pigeonholing ourselves into narrow manifestations of political engagement. 

In doing this, DSA can realize the promise it holds of being a way for workers to build collective power with one another and build a new world within the shell of the old, made–– like a chimera–– out of many pieces, the pieces of our daily lives.

Every four years, working class Utahns are faced with the same “options” for president, a conservative Democrat creeping further right, a deranged Republican set on crushing the working class and marginalized people on behalf of our oppressors, and a few minor party candidates more interested in validating their vanity than actually winning. Since the undemocratic electoral college makes it so Utah will almost certainly go to Trump, the national Democratic Party has completely abandoned Utahns who reject the fascist Republican party. Similarly, the ultra-right supermajority in the State Legislature, which is filled to the brim with landlords (including Sen. Kirk Cullimore, who evicts more people than anyone in the state of Utah) and open neo-Nazis (including Rep. Trevor Lee, who self identifies as a “Deseret Nationalist,” a Mormon-flavored brand of Nazism), has undemocratically gerrymandered state and congressional districts so they choose their voters, and working class Utahns are not actually represented in the government. Because of this, the Democratic Party in Utah has stopped even pretending to try. These choices seem impossible, and for many working class Utahns, voting doesn’t seem worth the effort.

If elected, both Donald Trump and Republican gubernatorial candidate Spencer Cox would be a disaster for the working class of Utah and attack the people of Salt Lake City for the crime of being more progressive than the corrupt state government. As described in “Project 2025,” the extreme right Republicans plan to end civil rights for minority groups, destroy the already weak social safety net and public education, eliminate bodily autonomy for women and queer people, poison the environment, dangerously deregulate businesses, and crush dissent and target immigrants and people of color through an authoritarian police state commanded by a Trump dictatorship. Trump and the State Legislature have vocally supported this plan, and Cox silently subscribes to it. Trump, Cox, and the State Legislature want to make Utah unlivable for everyone who is not a wealthy, white, cisgender/heterosexual, Mormon man.

Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party are no real alternative. They have embraced Trump’s racist border wall and Biden’s unconditional support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Harris would repeat destructive policies carried out under previous administrations like mass deportations and global imperialist warfare. She has alienated the progressives and young people who made her vice president in the first place to court the most reactionary forces in our country, such as war-criminal Dick Cheney, architect of the illegal Iraq war and overseer of the torture and abuse of thousands of Iraqis and political dissidents within America. She has no intention of ceasing oil drilling or fracking, and likely will not reverse the deregulation of businesses that defined the Trump years that has made even our basic needs like food more dangerous for consumers. The threat of a Trump presidency is possible because of her deliberate political choices. Should Trump win, it will be entirely the fault of Kamala Harris and the Democratic party that enabled her behavior.

Both candidates uncritically support Israel’s genocide of Gaza. Both candidates serve the ruling class at the expense of the working class. This impossible  “choice” is why millions across the country and thousands here in Utah are itching for an alternative.

Salt Lake DSA has made no recommendation to our members on who to vote for president. Many of our members are voting for candidates that support Palestinian liberation, and some are plugging their nose and voting tactically to defeat Trump. How our members choose to vote is the least important thing Salt Lake DSA members will do over the next four years.

As democratic socialists, we understand that the multi-racial working class has been on the defensive for far too long, and it is time we as a class go on the offensive against our oppressors. We reject the false dichotomy of the Republican and Democratic factions of the ruling class. The ruling class wants us to feel hopeless and alienated from each other– and we reject that as well. We choose solidarity. We understand that only a mass movement of the working and marginalized majority can fundamentally change our lives for the better. We must organize in our workplaces, our apartment buildings, our schools, and our communities. We must organize unions and strikes to build worker power in a state that has the 5th lowest union density in the country. We must carry out campaigns to build working class power and defend our rights outside of and from the corrupt State Legislature. We must organize boycotts against Israeli goods, and work to overturn Utah’s unconstitutional ban on citizens’ right to criticize the genocidal state of Israel. We must hold protests, sit-ins, and marches. Everything we must do as a class to achieve our liberation will require powerful labor and tenant unions, student groups, parent groups, and community coalitions. It will also require running more candidates for office that understand the problems the working class faces and want to build a party of our own to solve those problems.

Salt Lake DSA is building a party that fights for real working class democracy, abolition of the carceral state and white supremacy, dignified union jobs and wages, Medicare for all, education for all, housing for all, a just transition to a climate conscious economy, an end to the U.S. war machine and exploitation of the Global South, a free Palestine – and the transformation of our economy from capitalist exploitation to collective liberation. Workers in Utah deserve more; we deserve a party of our own, and Salt Lake DSA is building the party the multi-racial working class of Utah deserve.

Regardless of what happens or who wins tonight, the sun will rise tomorrow morning; and as long as the sun continues to rise, Salt Lake DSA will continue to organize and fight for the working class and all marginalized people in Utah. Join us in fighting for our future.

The post We Choose Solidarity: Salt Lake DSA Statement on the 2024 Election first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.

The core of organizing is one-on-one conversations, and canvassing is the perfect environment to apply and practice them. Each door answered is an opportunity to reset and try a new tact or improve on a rhetorical strategy that is already working.

When a canvasser speaks to voter after voter, they are asked more questions from more perspectives, and each interaction is an opportunity to learn about the issue, practice advocating for it, and learn about what resonates most.

Being able to quickly latch onto what resonates with a voter is key to effectively communicating with them. Someone’s worldview won’t be changed with a few minutes of conversation, but they can be nudged in the right direction when the issue is put into a framework they understand. One doesn’t need to agree on everything to give that nudge. Meet them where they’re at.

The best way to bring someone around to your way of thinking is to have them do it themselves. Ask incisive, leading questions about their priorities and how they believe the issue on the ballot will affect those priorities. This might convince someone already on the fence, but when they are working on a faulty premise, they probably won’t come around. That’s okay too. Try digging at that premise to leave them thinking about it, and with any luck, they’ll have moved one step closer to a sound analysis.

In Kentucky, this year’s Amendment 2 would change the state constitution to allow the allocation of public funds towards private schools, another in a frightening trend of attacks on public education across the US. Kentucky’s Republican super-majority state legislature tried establishing a school voucher program in 2021, but the Kentucky Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional in December 2022. To pave the way for a lasting voucher program, they want to amend the state’s constitution and remove the obstacle in the court.

In opposition to this amendment, I have knocked on more than a thousand doors in DSA Cincy’s campaign. To help illustrate the canvassing experience, I want to share some of the lessons I’ve learned while speaking with voters on the ground. Some voters are eager to talk, and some with a yard full of Trump signs and “don’t tread on me” flags might yell at you for missing their “no soliciting” sign. Some voters answer the door and immediately share that their family works in public schools, and others with a statue of Mother Mary in their front yard will tell you they plan on voting Yes.

One voter of the latter kind, a catholic planning on voting for the possibility of a voucher program, expressed her concern about affordability to me: “I’m split because my daughter sends her kids to a Catholic school and she’s paying out the butt for it, but I have other family going to public schools,” she said. Not every Catholic voter will be in an identical situation, but this one isn’t uncommon, and it’s perfect for nudging her from undecided to leaning against the amendment.

This woman had family in public schools, so I emphasized that. “Many people are in public schools like your family, and a lot of them have no other option. Going to a Catholic school is great, but this amendment wouldn’t just help your grandchildren go to parochial school, it would take money away from your family in public schools, and the other kids who don’t have the means to go elsewhere,” I told her, “it sucks that parochial school is expensive for your daughter, but if it ever gets to be too much, she can always fall back on public schools.” The woman responded well to this, and she thanked me for helping to clarify a concern she already had.

Not many voters are in the position to be convinced though. Another house I approached had a couple of banners with depictions of Jesus in the yard, along with a sign saying, “Vote Yes on 2.”. I introduced myself to the woman at the door, and I asked her, “I saw the sign on your lawn. Can I ask: why do you want to support school vouchers?” Her response was something I hadn’t heard before: “I work at the diocese, so I know the truth about it. They won’t even let them talk about it! Don’t you think they should be able to talk about it?”

She clearly had some strong convictions about something she didn’t understand—far from not being able to “talk about” it, the legislature had passed a voucher law already—so I tried to explain the legal situation and why people opposed the amendment. Still, she insisted on her bizarre free-speech interpretation, so I wished her a good night and took off.

Not every voter is going to be responsive to what you have to say, and it’s important to take the hint and move on. This story is similar to one a friend told me about a door he knocked on this campaign. The man who answered listened for a moment, then insisted that he have Amendment 1 explained to him before he would listen to anything about Amendment 2. My friend tried explaining that Amendments 1 and 2 were entirely separate issues, but the man didn’t care and seemed to think something was being hidden from him.

Now, would it have been nice to remember Amendment 1 well enough to explain it off the cuff, while canvassing for another issue? Yes. But it’s good to read the signs when someone is confrontational. If you could perfectly answer every question he has, you might, just might, convince this man. But your time is better spent speaking with a voter who is interested in what you have to say.

Another door I knocked had an older man who was eager to talk to me. The more someone talks, the more you learn about what might bring them around, so I listened for a few minutes. Eventually, he began sharing a story about when his son was in school and kids in his class were sharing poems they had written. “Must’ve been half of those kids wrote about their daddy in prison or their parents addicted to drugs,” he said to me, “I nearly started crying.” And I piggybacked off of this emotional example he gave.

“That’s awful. And when those kids don’t have anyone helping them at home, who’s there for them? Who helps to make sure they don’t end up in the same place?” I asked. I was hoping he’d see the same picture as me, that their public school could be a positive force in the lives of these children, and he did.

It’s easy to focus on adapting your message to the individual, but it’s also important to understand your foundation for the issue you’re canvassing. More than a couple of voters asked me why I cared enough to be out volunteering, and there’s not one right answer. Whatever rings true for you will also be the most compelling message you can give to others.

Not every voter will have a productive conversation, but that’s okay! I have had someone who mostly wanted to talk about why we need corporal punishment back in schools and another who warned me to renew my passport in case I need to get out of the country. Some people will immediately agree with you after you explain the issue, and some have no interest in being swayed to your point of view. It’s never your fault when someone isn’t open to being convinced, but you can leave them with something to think about at the least. The real effect comes when you’re able to canvass a large number of doors.

If a motivated organizer canvasses a hundred doors over a couple of hours and nudges one in ten of those households to change their vote, now he is punching above his weight. When a motivated group canvasses together, that force is amplified. Organize a campaign of canvasses over a month, and now a small group of dedicated activists can have a huge impact on the outcome of an election.

The strength of democracy doesn’t end with our vote, though it’s easy to stop there. It also lies in our ability to influence others. Advertisements, yard signs, and political events can all move a vote, but nothing is more effective than personal conversations. And that is an advantage that socialists have over groups that can’t do anything but throw money at an issue. It’s something that any organizer can do, and it’s better than what money can buy.

Canvassing also helps to develop crucial skills for a successful socialist organizer. One-on-one conversations with workers, meeting people where they are, and understanding how to effectively use our words to agitate and evoke a response are key to any campaign. Everyone interested in organizing should get out and canvass at least once or twice an election, whether they do it to learn new skills, keep old ones sharp, get a feel for what voters are thinking, or swing some votes.

San Jose Against War, joined by SVDSA, held a rally on October 6, 2024 to mark a year of Palestinian resistance to genocide.

Today, a nuclear-armed state rains down terror on an oppressed population of natives, behind a multi-billion dollar shield of rockets protecting its settlers. Built on the ethnic cleansing of almost a million natives, the occupying state imposes a system of apartheid and ethnosupremacy over its claimed territories, placing its own settlers’ rights above the natives’ democratic will. Despite the natives having an internationally recognized right to resist their subjugation and pursue self-determination, other major powers refuse to recognize this – saying only the occupier has a “right to self defense.”

We could have written a similar introduction about any number of colonial and occupied groups. White Americans and Indigenous people – who were similarly genocided under the guise of “manifest destiny.” Hindutva supremacists and occupied Kashmir – where Kashmiris have been denied their internationally recognized right to a plebiscite and self-determination.

As Israel today continues its genocide on Palestine and begins to destroy Lebanon, we must be clear as socialists that we oppose not only Israel’s actions, but also the racist, colonial ideology underpinning it all. Just as DSA has previously taken stances on anti-racism, anti-colonialism, and anti-imperialism, today we commit to organizing around dismantling Zionism in our local governments and communities.

At our end-August chapter meeting, Silicon Valley DSA unanimously passed a resolution reinforcing our chapter as an anti-Zionist organization in principle and practice.

Zionism, as defined by Theodor Herzl in the late 19th century, has always been a settler-colonial project intended to dispossess natives – to create “a wall of Europe against Asia… an outpost of [Western] civilization against [Eastern] barbarism.” Armed with the lie of “a land without a people for a people without a land,” Zionists regularly terrorized Palestinians alongside the British, and built their own segregated systems during the years of the British Mandate. During the Nakba (“catastrophe”) of 1948, Zionists prevailed in ethnically cleansing 750,000 Palestinians to form the state of Israel – against the consent of most natives.

In opposing Zionism, SVDSA seeks to end all forms of oppression and ethnosupremacy, in line with our prior opposition to caste discrimination and white supremacy.

Since October 2023, SVDSA has mobilized to call for a ceasefire, helped pass ceasefire resolutions at the Democratic Party and local levels, initiated Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns, and educated our neighbors about Israel’s genocide. We recognize that, as U.S. taxpayers, we are directly paying for the destruction of Palestine – to the tune of $3.8 billion in annual military funding, and a further $10+ billion in arms approved just this year. Redirecting these funds alone would give $1250 per year for every American child in poverty.

Following the lead of other DSA chapters, including DSA SF and East Bay DSA, we drafted a resolution to fully commit our chapter to anti-Zionism, and place ourselves firmly on the side of the struggle for Palestinian liberation.

The adopted resolution clearly defines anti-Zionist expectations for our membership and endorsed candidates. With the passage of this resolution, Zionist positions — such as opposing BDS or the Palestinian right of return — are considered to be in substantial disagreement with Silicon Valley DSA’s principles and policies. Supporting Zionist lobby groups — such as Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) — is also now a violation of our principles, because we recognize how these lobbies disingenuously provide political cover for Israel’s genocide. Members who commit these violations can be subject to expulsion, as is the case with violating any other DSA principles.

Along the same lines, our endorsed candidates must now publicly support BDS, disaffiliate from any Zionist lobby groups, and — when elected — politically support the Palestinian cause and oppose Zionist legislation.

Our resolution against Zionism is a product of our diverse chapter. Just as we firmly rejected any conflation between Hinduism and ethno-nationalist Hindutva in opposing caste discrimination in 2023, so too do we reject any conflation of Judaism and Zionism. We recognize and commend the long history of Jewish anti-Zionist and non-Zionist organizations – such as Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, the 20th-century socialist Jewish Labour Bund, and the modern Jewish Labor Bund – as well as the efforts of our own anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jewish members.

We expect our anti-Zionist resolution will make us an even stronger ally in the struggle for a free Palestine, and commend the work of several local organizations and coalitions fighting towards this end, including Palestinian Youth Movement, Arab Resource & Organizing Center, Jewish Voice for Peace, CA15forPalestine, Vigil4Gaza, Stanford Against Apartheid in Palestine, and San Jose Against War. We look forward to working more closely with our allies, who have made it clear that DSA nationally must explicitly connect the fight against Zionism with our socialist and anti-colonialist principles.

We commit to making Palestine central in our ongoing struggle against global capitalism, settler colonialism, and U.S. imperialism. Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea!

Join SVDSA!

Help us build democratic socialist power locally by joining SVDSA! Join our mailing list through the form below. We will get you set up with email & text updates, and reach out to you individually. Please also read our Code of Conduct for participating in SVDSA spaces.

The post SVDSA Unanimously Passes Anti-Zionist Resolution appeared first on Silicon Valley DSA.

COLUMBUS — The Columbus chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) issues the following recommendations to residents of Ohio.

1. In For Issue 1, YES.
2. In For Issue 46, YES.
3. In For Issue 47, YES.
4. In For U.S. President, NO RECOMMENDATION.
5. In For U.S. Senator, NO RECOMMENDATION.
6. In For Justice of the Supreme Court, vote MELODY STEWART.
7. In For Justice of the Supreme Court, vote MICHAEL DONNELLY.
8. In For Justice of the Supreme Court, vote LISA FORBES.

A detailed rationale for each recommendation follows.

Disclaimer: No recommendations made here are endorsements. Columbus DSA has not endorsed any candidate in this upcoming election. These recommendations are tactical considerations meant to minimize the harm likely to occur to the working class here and abroad as a result of this election.

Do you lament the lack of socialist, abolitionist, and pro-BDS candidates running for office? You can be a part of changing that, whether by running for office yourself or helping us to discover and cultivate future socialists-in-office. To advance the democratic socialist movement in Central Ohio, join DSA today: www.columbusdsa.org/join/.

Endorsed “YES” vote for Issue 1

Issue 1, the Citizens-Not-Politicians anti-gerrymandering ballot initiative, is an absolutely vital step to increase democratic representation in Ohio. We are proud to have overwhelmingly voted to endorse a YES vote for Issue 1 at our September General Meeting. 

Gerrymandering will always be a problem in politics: entrenched power has a habit of working to stay entrenched. Although Issue 1 is unlikely to eliminate the threat of gerrymandering, and we must always stay vigilant, the protections provided by the amendment and the constitutional body it creates to draw districts are much better than the politician-ran redistricting body we are currently oppressed by. Instead of having politicians draw their own districts and keeping power in the hands of political parties, Issue 1 would create a redistricting body made up of representatives from the two largest parties AND political independents (those who do not vote in partisan primaries). 

Issue 1 provides an opportunity for political voices outside entrenched parties – like us – to have a role in shaping the future of the state by creating a more realistic legislature that actually aligns with how Ohioans vote. This would be an incredible blow against the GOP-dominated state legislature, which has entrenched their supermajority not through the power of their politics (which are unpopular and not supported by Ohioans), but through bureaucratic rule-making such as redistricting. Fairer districts would also provide more opportunities for us to run our own socialist candidates in the future, creating additional pathways for us to build the power of the working class and begin to create the foundations of a party that actually serves working people instead of simply using them as an electoral base for liberal half-measures. 

It is absolutely vital that we pass Issue 1, and we strongly endorse a YES vote. Columbus DSA is also hosting canvasses in support of Issue 1 each Sunday at 1:30pm. Visit our calendar at columbusdsa.org/calendar to join one of our canvases.

Recommended “YES” vote for Issue 46

Issue 46 is a property tax levy to fund Franklin County Children Services (FCCS). Columbus DSA supports programs that help both children and families and strive for them to be robust. This is what taxes are supposed to be for: direct, material services to the people. FCCS provides a variety of important services including an abuse hotline, mental health counseling, adoption and foster care, and mentorship services. Columbus DSA has not officially endorsed Issue 46, but we recommend a YES vote to provide funding to FCCS. 

Recommended “YES” vote for Issue 47

Issue 47 is a sales tax levy providing funds to improve public transportation in the Columbus area with the Central Ohio Transport Authority (COTA) and LINKUS. More accessible and widespread public transportation is vital to driving demand away from automobiles. This would reduce pollution, help the climate, make roads and sidewalks safer. Too many of our neighbors have died while simply walking or biking city streets due to cars. The proposed funds would also be used for sidewalks, greenways, and bike paths, making our city more accessible and providing alternatives to personal cars. Columbus DSA wants to see our city thrive, and this is one way to do that while helping the world too. While we have not officially endorsed Issue 47, we recommend a YES vote on Issue 47 to fund COTA/LINKUS.  

No endorsement for President

There are no candidates for President who are fighting for working-class power on Ohio’s ballot. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris; at the end of the day, these are our options for the presidential election. These are also two candidates Columbus DSA cannot and will not endorse. We have already seen the disastrous consequences of a Trump presidency, and while a Harris White House may be less disastrous than another Trump term, Harris has not done nearly enough to earn Columbus DSA’s endorsement. She refuses to end weapon shipments to Israel despite their ongoing genocide of Palestinians and violent invasion of Lebanon. She has withdrawn support for Medicare For All – which she supported in her 2020 presidential run – and has recommitted to increased oil drilling and supporting fracking. Harris has made no commitment to ending the massive wealth disparity between rich and poor, and she has done little to fight corporate power in her time in office. 

Ohio is not even considered a “battleground” state anymore due to the abject failure of the Ohio Democrats to offer Ohio workers anything of value, so considerations of “tactical voting” are entirely worthless. Besides, we are not blind to the fact that Democrats are not working to save us from the corporate-fascist alliance that is building to take power. In many ways, they have aided and abetted it, and this nation is now at a point where half-measures are no longer good enough. 

Therefore, we offer no recommendations for the Presidential race. Members should choose for themselves the best course of action in this race. 

No endorsement in the Senate race

As with the presidential race, we cannot extend an endorsement to either of Ohio’s Senate candidates. Bernie Moreno has been involved in several lawsuits from former employees for discrimination and wage theft. Despite being an immigrant himself, he supports the mass deportation of immigrants, who are just working people just trying to make a living. He has also spoken against bodily autonomy, complaining that women over 50 should not care whether or not we have a right to an abortion. Sherrod Brown has a long history of support for working people and unions, but the majority of his policy focus is on trade, which often favors business owners over workers. These policies often harm working people in other countries for the profit of American big business. While he did vote to send humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza, he has failed to call for a ceasefire to end the genocide, voting again and again to send Israel military funding instead. While Brown may do less harm than Moreno in the long run, Columbus DSA cannot endorse lukewarm support for working people and failure to stand up against genocide. We offer no recommendations for the Senate race, and members should choose for themselves the best course of action in this race. Furthermore, the Senate should be abolished.

Recommendation for Supreme Court Candidates

Melody Stewart, Michael Donnelly, & Lisa Forbes 

The Ohio Supreme Court has been held under a Republican stranglehold for 40 over years. While many decisions over this time have shown that they are inadequate to be in such a position of power, there have been a few over the past 2 years and some coming up that are why we are recommending Melody Stewart, Michael Donnelly, & Lisa Forbes. One, we endorsed Issue 1(reasoning above), the Republicans on the Supreme Court have shown that they will do nothing to stop their friends, like Frank LaRose, Mike Dewine and other Republicans officials in the state from drawing unconstitutional maps, putting incorrect language on the ballot, to confuse voters and blatant voter suppression tactics, like allowing someone to drop off your ballot at a Dropbox. The Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment established a clear framework protecting everyone’s right to access abortion, but it is up to our court system to make sure that this amendment doesn’t just become a meaningless piece of paper. We need justices that will enforce the amendment, not ignore it like they have with anti-gerrymandering legislation. We would also like to have Supreme Court justices that do not change the definitions of words to benefit corporate America. 

Hello hello! Contemplating going to the annual conference in Chicago next year but not sure if it’s worth your time? I went this year, so here’s an overview of what it was like for me.

Overall experience / what to expect:

Six of us from the chapter went together and rented a van. The “road trip with friends” aspect was a lot of fun, and this probably turned out cheaper splitting the rental/gas/parking costs for one vehicle between six of us rather than people bringing their own vehicles. I acquired some new songs for my playlist from other people’s lists. Also, I highly recommend stopping at Cheddar’s on the way for mealtime. The portions of food that you get are huge relative to what you’d normally get for that price elsewhere.

At the conference proper, the logistics were pretty convenient. The conference is at the Hyatt’s convention center, which is attached to the Hyatt hotel building itself, so you don’t have to go outdoors to go between them, have time to stop by your room in between sessions if you need to drop something off, etc. If you book through the link on the conference website you get a substantial discount on rooms (mine was $114 a night, of which I only actually paid half because two of us shared a room to save money). The food in hotel venues was priced about as high as you’d expect, but there were mini-fridges in the rooms and a microwave in the common area with the ice machine, so it’s easy to swing by Walmart on the way and do some weekend grocery shopping instead. There seemed to be a decent amount of all-gender restrooms throughout the conference center, and I never saw a line for any of the bathrooms.

Session-wise, there were a LOT of sessions occurring at the same time (up to fifteen per time slot in some cases). I recommend taking advantage of the Sched app they link to in the schedule emails beforehand, or being ready to mark up your printed program, to help narrow down your favorites and keep straight where you want to go. They run on a schedule of 1.5 hour sessions and 30 minute breaks though, so it’s easy to grab a cup of coffee, charge your laptop a little, poke around the bookstore, etc. in between them. Some are also live-streamed / recorded, so if you’re stuck deciding between multiple, you can also factor in which ones you can catch later versus which ones you have to catch live.

Finally, you might also consider bringing your laptop. I seemed to be in a small minority that did so, but I found it very useful for taking notes, especially when some DSA members put together a collaborative notes document so people back home or who attended other sessions could get info from the sessions other people attended. Although one hang-up was battery life - I had to work at 10-15% screen brightness to make my battery last between opportunities to charge it. Next year I’m going to bring a portable battery with me as well.

Oh, and, bring a sweater or something. It was weirdly chilly in the hotel halls and some session rooms for late summer, and I ended up wearing my jacket almost the whole weekend.

What I liked about the conference content wise:

I enjoyed the variety of sessions to choose from. One big theme that I noticed was the connectedness of everything: issues weren’t presented in a siloed way (at least for the sessions I attended), but as something that relates to at least five other things. Decarceration is central to covid justice because covid is used as an excuse to deny people resources in prison despite guards not masking. Demilitarization is crucial to climate justice because of how big a negative impact our military specifically has on the environment. Trans misogyny is a weapon/tool of colonial imperialism. Freedom for Palestine is related to our own police state because our cops train with Israel, and to reproductive justice because part of that is the freedom to raise your child(ren) in a safe environment, which Palestinian parents don’t have. Affordable housing is a vital part of whether a state is a safe state for trans people, because you can’t move there if you can’t actually afford to live there. Etc. You can’t be a “one issue person” in some ways because nothing is an isolated issue.

Social-wise, I got to know people from my chapter better, and meet people from other chapters. I got some ideas to bring back to our electoral working group, some good podcast recommendations, and decided to officially join a caucus I was practically a member of by this point anyway. I also got a signed copy of Nick Estes’s Our History is the Future, and a Palestinian flag to add to my handheld flag collection.

What I would like to see next year or do differently:

Conference wise, I wish there was more music. A couple sessions had a minimal amount of singing, but we didn’t even sing “Solidarity Together” as a collective to my knowledge. I would love it if there was a session devoted to singing Pete Seeger songs or the like for an hour, similar to how there were evening events for trivia and board games. (I put this on the post-conference survey, so fingers crossed.) I also think it’d be cool if there was a session about the neurodiversity movement, since that ties in with queer rights (statistical overlap between the autistic and ace & trans communities).

Personally, I think I need to be more prepared to spend money on food/drinks next year. I was a little disappointed halfway through about the extent to which I’d been able to hang out with new people because it seemed like everything was “bar this, brewery that, up to 3 am,” whereas I was more interested in chatting with people over coffee at the breakfast bar before the first session of the day. Enough hang-out type events had been planned by the end of the conference though, I think this has more to do with me always wanting to do more in a day in these situations than I have the social capacity for, or not having planned to spend much money eating out. Next year I’m just going to plan more lunches-out into my financial expectations.

Conclusion

Overall, it was a very positive experience, and I would recommend it to others. I’ll definitely be going again in 2025, which is happening July 3rd to 6th.

NPEC is excited to announce that Democratic Socialists of America: A Graphic History is here and ready for chapters to be used in their political education. This comic, completed with financial support from the DSA Fund plus research and input from many generations of DSA members, was written and penned by Paul Buhle and Raymond Tyler with illustrations by Noah Van Sciver. This is a 24-page online graphic history of DSA that can be used to give members a quick overview of our origins and campaigns. This is a fantastic and fun tool for new and experienced people to learn about DSA’s history and development and the dynamic force it is today. 

View the Democratic Socialists of America: A Graphic History here