Thanks to all who attended the Labor Day rally in Burlington, one of countless major protests across the country on Sept 1. We were proud to stand side-by-side with so many unions and activist organizations demanding an end to America's oligarchy.

Vermont's labor movement is growing more powerful, unified, and assertive. Right now, in St. Albans, workers want their milk money.

They also want shorter workdays and better health and retirement plans. Last week, members of Teamsters Local 597 went on strike against their employer, the Dairy Farmers of America. The processing plant, which supplies Cabot and Ben & Jerry's, brought in scabs.

If you can, please show your solidarity with the workers, as several Green Mountain Democratic Socialists already have, by joining the 24/7 picket line at 140 Federal St., St. Albans City, VT 05478. You can even ask them about donating to their strike fund.

Sept. 1 in Burlington
Sept. 27 in St. Albans

And if you want to help build working-class militancy across the country, join DSA. In Vermont and everywhere else, we are fighting to organize workplaces, win elections, and advance a better world for all.

With that in mind, please consider marking your calendar for our next general meeting (10/11). Details below.

GMDSA MEETINGS AND EVENTS
🚲 Our Urbanism Committee will meet on Monday, Oct. 6, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

🔨 Talk about your job and learn about shop-floor organizing from peers at Workers' Circle (co-hosted by the Green Mountain IWW) on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, including Oct. 8, at 6 p.m. at Migrant Justice (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington).

🤝 GMDSA's East and West branches will come together for another general meeting on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 11 a.m. at Burlington's Fletcher Free Library (235 College St.), where we'll continue last month's discussion about forming a chapter-wide priority campaign for 2026. Newcomers can show up at 10 a.m. for an optional orientation.

🧑‍🏭 Our Labor Committee will meet on Monday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

🗳️ The next meeting of our Electoral Committee will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

👋 Find out how you can help our Membership Committee improve recruitment and involvement in our chapter on Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 6 p.m. on Zoom.

STATE AND LOCAL NEWS
📰 Striking school bus drivers in Windham County returned to work, subsequently ratifying a new union contract.

📰 A Burlington musician has launched a campaign to become Chittenden County sheriff on a promise to refuse to carry out unjust eviction orders.

COMMUNITY FLYERS

If those deploring "political violence" are serious about stopping it, let's start with abolishing ICE.

Violence is nothing new to Americans. From almost daily mass shootings to horrors funded by our tax dollars in other countries – especially in Gaza – political violence is now just another daily occurrence. Take, for example, the murders of Minnesota Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband or the shooting of CEO Brian Thompson in New York City.

How did we get here? How did we find ourselves once again in an era of political violence not seen in almost 60 years?

Violence is as American as apple pie. For the almost 250 years of America’s existence as a sovereign nation, only 15 of those years were spent without the United States being engaged in a war or conflict, so it’s no shock we are continually embroiled in ongoing political violence. Just take a look at our history.

From its inception as a settler colonial movement committing genocide upon Indigenous people to its use of slave labor of African people to power the Southern economy, America has always been entrenched in political violence. The beginning of America started with a revolution and not even a hundred years later we were at war with each other. After the Civil war ended came the KKK and the infamous Jim Crow laws. Also came the continued crack down and destruction of indigenous people and their culture. Racial violence and oppression led to a Civil rights movement and two decades of political unrest marked with violence and protest.

That brings me back to where we are now.

It seems to me the political violence of this country really never left. Today’s current state of political violence is not something that exists within a vacuum, that simply came into our time, it’s an extension of the political violence the US has experienced throughout its history. Look at what we see today domestically and aboard, Armed masked thugs known as ICE coming into communities and tearing apart families or the targeting of Trans people by the administration. We see an active attempt to stifle Free speech from suing newspapers to the removal of talk show hosts like Jimmy Kimmel. Aboard we see the threatening of Venezuela’s sovereignty and of course the American funded genocide in Gaza being committed by Israel.

How do we get out of this?

A better way is needed for the future. We must embrace each other or fall prey to fascism and its growing need to consume our freedoms.That means organizing and building our communities. That means we must speak truth to power for those who can’t speak. We must change our culture of violence and create a culture that cares for the people and not just for the wealthy. That’s actually why I joined DSA, because it offered me a connection to my community and the ability to organize. DSA works for what’s right, and chooses the better path forward; like  our National Labor Commission’s campaign for unions to organize against supporting Israel, and Las Vegas DSA’s campaign for our own city council and mayor to not work with ICE. If we wish to save ourselves from fascism we must demand better for ourselves and our community and we can’t be scared to do what’s right.

After an action packed September General Meeting, two important shout-outs are in order:

First, we voted to kickstart a No Appetite for Apartheid Campaign here in Madison. No Appetite for Apartheid is a DSA National campaign launched by the Palestine Solidarity Working Group to pressure grocery stores to become Apartheid Free Stores by dropping companies and products that participate in Israeli apartheid and theft of Palestinian land. The campaign is powered by a number of chapters and coalitions across the country, and the Madison Area chapter will now be engaging in that work as well! As socialists, we stand in solidarity with all those facing settler-colonialism, and as Americans it is our duty to work from within the empire to end American imperialist violence around the world. At the September General Meeting, the chapter voted overwhelmingly to reaffirm this commitment by being the force for change in our own city. We look forward to an apartheid free Madison – and we need your help to get there. To get involved in this important work, join the #palestine-solidarity channel on Slack, check the chapter calendar for upcoming No Appetite for Apartheid (NA4A) planning meetings and events, and read more about the national campaign here.

Second, we voted to charter an Electoral Working Group to formalize the work already being done by the Power Mapping Committee as we prepare for local elections and work towards a statewide electoral strategy. If electoral work is your jam, you’ll definitely want to check out an upcoming EWG meeting, help canvas our neighborhoods with your MADSA comrades, and mark your calendars for the members-only town hall with Rep. Hong on September 29. Why a town hall with Rep. Hong? Well if you haven’t heard, Francesca Hong – a MADSA member and endorsed state legislator – is running for governor! We are excited to see where this campaign goes and to working with Fran on building the democratic socialist movement in Wisconsin. To that end, we must now engage in the process of democratically deciding if and how to get involved in the gubernatorial race. The town hall will be the first step in this process, where members will have the opportunity to ask Fran any and all questions – so don’t miss out! If you’re not yet a member, join DSA today to be able to attend.

If all that isn’t enough action for you, we have so many more exciting events and opportunities to get involved in our growing movement for a better city, state, country, and world, so get your calendars out and read on for all the details.

In this newsletter:

• Thu. September 25, 6-8:00pm: Beyond the Two Party System: A Socialist Way Forward
• Sat. September 27, 10:00am-12:00pm: Coffee with Comrades!
• Sun. September 28, 11:00am-12:30pm: Wretched of the Earth Reading Group
• Mon. September 29, 6:30pm: Members-Only Town Hall with Rep. Francesca Hong
• Sat. October 4, 2-3:30pm: October New Member Orientation
• Tue. October 7, 6:30pm: Copaganda Book Talk with Author Alec Karakatsanis
• Sun. October 12, 5-9:00pm: Halloween Carnival & Queer Liberation March Fundraiser
• Wed. October 15, 6:30-8:30pm: October General Membership Meeting

In this conversation, iconographer Kelly Latimore talks art, flourishing, protest, and spirituality, naming some practices for nourishing our spirits as we pursue justice in a toxic and demoralizing political climate. Check out his art at https://kellylatimoreicons.com

Note: posts by individual GMDSA members do not necessarily reflect the views of the broader membership or of its leadership and should not be regarded as official statements by the chapter.

GMDSA Co-Chair Joe Moore on the recent B-2 flyover. Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman/U.S. Air Force

---

On the afternoon of Saturday, September 20, a B-2 “Spirit” stealth bomber flew low over Montpelier on its way to Norwich University. The 2 p.m. flyover was scheduled to coincide with the kickoff of Norwich’s homecoming football game. 

The B-2 is a heavy bomber designed to carry a large payload, including up to sixteen 2,400 pound B83 nuclear weapons - each one with a potential yield 80 times that of the Hiroshima bomb. At about $2 billion per plane, the B-2 is the most expensive military aircraft ever produced. In terms of both cost and destructive capacity, the F-35 pales in comparison. 

I happened to be standing in the parking lot behind Montpelier’s Christ Episcopal Church when I heard the low roar of the B-2 overhead. It was a terrifying sight to behold from directly below. Its unique angular profile makes it immediately recognizable as a nuclear-capable stealth bomber. With only 19 in existence, the B-2 is a rare sight in most places, not to mention the skies over Vermont’s capital.  

A deep sense of unease at finding myself directly below a weapon of mass annihilation quickly turned to anger. At that moment, I was surrounded by the tents and canopies of Montpelier’s unhoused population. Dozens of Vermonters were forced to seek refuge in the Church parking lot following the end of the state's motel housing program on July 1 and Montpelier City Council’s ongoing ban on camping in “high sensitivity areas.” The juxtaposition of the $2 billion B-2 flying low over a cluster of makeshift shelters erected on parking lot asphalt could not have been more stark.

This one plane alone could have paid for the construction of 10-20,000 additional units of housing – not to mention clinics, schools, childcare centers, and other socially useful infrastructure. At $2 billion, one B-2 represents just under one-quarter of Vermont’s entire state budget. Its presence in the skies over our communities is both an affront and a timely reminder that the existence of poverty and homelessness in America – the wealthiest county in the history of the world – is not an inevitability. It is a social choice. 

While gratuitous displays of military power have become commonplace at U.S. sporting events, we should remember that those machines that inspire feelings of awe and pride in many Americans are weapons of mass destruction that inspire terror in most other places around the world. For the thousands of refugee families who have resettled in Vermont after fleeing wars abroad – including U.S.-launched wars – low-flying bombers are not associated with patriotic pageantry. They are associated with death and devastation. 

Norwich University is a private military college, but its leaders should consider its responsibility to the community and region in which it is embedded. Football is enjoyable on its own. The University doesn’t need to subject Washington County residents to the presence of weapons of annihilation for the purpose of “entertainment”. 

What Southern Africa's recent history teaches us about the dynamics of the Middle East of today.

Read more at Memphis-Midsouth