by Carlee A. Baker

While it hardly feels like the end of the summer season in perpetually sunny Austin, Labor Day has come and gone. In celebration of the holiday and the workers that make it happen, Austin DSA hosted a kickback fundraiser featuring live music by four working class acts: Typical Girls, Landline, Good Looks, and Croy and the Boys. Comrades joined together Saturday, September 2 at Sagebrush to rest, recharge, join together, and celebrate labor. It was an evening of bumping tunes, socialist socializing, and recognition of labor power. Amongst our listening to such socialist croonings as “It Seems Like You Can’t Just Be Poor Anymore” and “Keep It Light” there exists a moment for reflection on how exactly we wound up with such a holiday. 

Keeping the history of the Labor Day holiday at the forefront of the mind can be a challenge, between the bombardment of advertisements promising slashed price, invitations to barbeques and pool parties (or kickbacks!). Not to mention that the history of the holiday is largely suppressed: the Wikipedia page for the U.S. holiday doesn’t mention the pivotal role of Eugene Debs, prominent socialist activist, and has only a brief mention of the Pullman strikes and May Day – now known as International Workers Day.

A celebration demands an understanding of what exactly we’re celebrating and how we got to where we are. The history of Labor Day in the U.S. is contentious and complicated, which is all the more reason for a closer look. 

Labor Day was created and officially recognized by the federal government under the Cleveland administration in 1894. The decision to establish a federal holiday celebrating American labor came on the heels of  violent state suppression of the Pullman Strike, organized by the American Railway Union with the help of Eugene Debs, a key founder of the ARU and one of the most well-known American socialists in history.

Workers in the company town of Pullman, Illinois just outside of Chicago, felt significant economic pain following the Panic of 1893 (sound familiar?). The Pullman Company, a train car manufacturer, slashed wages and laid off workers but didn’t reduce workers’ rent. Following this decision, accompanied by general discontent from 16-hour workdays and poor living conditions, Pullman Company employees voted to strike in May 1894. 

In solidarity with the Pullman Company employees, and given that many of them were represented by the ARU, the union voted to issue a boycott effective June 26, 1894 if concessions weren’t made by the company and they refused to submit the wage disputes to arbitration. When this deadline passed, the boycott was launched and ARU members refused to work with any Pullman train cars or any trains with Pullman cars hitched to them. By June 30th, 125,000 workers were on strike across 29 railroads. 

In the midst of the boycott, trains coupled to Pullman cars were not handled or managed. One such train belonged to the U.S. Postal Service. With tensions running high after scabs were hired to replace workers, Debs spoke at a rally in support of the strikes. That rally led to protests and demonstrations, resulting in arson and train derailments. 

At that point, President Cleveland stepped in and issued an injunction against the strike on the grounds that U.S. mail, carried in Pullman cars, was being obstructed. The Army was sent to Illinois to break the strike and arrest Debs. In total, the suppression of the strike in Chicago killed 13 workers.

Following his decision to violently suppress the strike, Cleveland was desperate to find a method by which to diffuse some of the anger of the working class. Six days after the violent end of the strike, Congress passed a resolution to recognize the first Monday of September as Labor Day. 

This decision was a calculated political move to deny legitimacy to May Day, now known broadly as International Workers Day. May Day is a commemoration of the 1884 Haymarket Massacre, which began as a socialist and anarchist demonstration in support of the 8-hour workday but ended in needless death. Cleveland’s decision to recognize a September Labor Day holiday was a deliberate move to avoid the recognition and legitimization of May Day and its underlying socialist sympathies.

Labor history in the U.S. is complex and largely suppressed, unless you know where to look. The rising interest in unions and increasing energy dedicated to organizing, especially among young people, necessitates a stark look back at those who came before us and paved the way to the ground upon which we stand, organize, and dream. Labor Day and International Workers Day both provide ample opportunity for reflection, gratitude, and solidarity. Ideally done while holding a beer and listening to some local tunes.

The post Kicking Back on Labor Day with a Little History first appeared on Red Fault.

by Micah Johnson

The following article represents the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Detroit Socialist Editorial and Writers’ Collective or Detroit DSA as a whole.

Comrades, our national convention voted overwhelmingly in support of the resolution “Act Like an Independent Party.” The obligation to act like an independent party took effect immediately, and it is up to us now to take concrete steps towards making that ideal a reality. Parties have standards. They have a code of conduct. A socialist party is no different, and any true socialist party has an obligation to serve the working class. Shri Thanedar, congressional representative of most of Wayne county, and many in this room, including myself, has not only failed in this, but has stood in flagrant opposition to our goals and principles, and openly stood in support of our class enemies.

On June 22nd of this year, Representative Shri Thanedar personally escorted the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi to the Capitol to give an address before Congress. The point of this address was to affirm solidarity between the US and India in the face of heightening tensions with Russia and China. Now, if this were all you knew of the affair, I would understand skepticism towards these expulsion proceedings.

Two days before on June 20th, Rashida Tlaib tweeted this out, “It’s shameful that Modi has been given a platform at our nation’s Capital — his long history of human rights abuses, anti-democratic actions, targeting Muslims & religious minorities, and censoring journalists is unacceptable. I will be boycotting Modi’s joint address to Congress.” Ilhan Omar of Minnesota likewise boycotted the address. But why? What is so bad about PM Modi?

Modi is an open Hindu nationalist, and is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, a Hindu nationalist party. As is typical with nationalists, he has a preferred minority to cast his ire on: Muslims. During his tenure as Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, in 2002, he oversaw a violent crackdown on mostly Muslim protestors. Roughly 2000 people were killed. His prime ministership, while not as overtly violent, has been no less systematically oppressive. He has overseen repression in Muslims’ rights to express themselves, to practice their religion freely, and to live as co-equal citizens with the Hindu majority. In 2005, he was denied entry into the US under an obscure ruling from the Commission on International Religious Freedom, on the grounds of his handling of the 2002 massacre. Imagine that! The US Government, in 2005, said that this guy is too extreme of an Islamophobe!

When asked by India Today about his then upcoming meeting with Modi, Thanedar said “It is a great honor.” He was proud to be associated with such a man. And this, when he is the national representative for the city of Hamtramck, a city which is notable for having one of, if not the, highest proportions of Muslim residents in the US; a majority, even, by some estimates.

Thanedar’s meeting with and open support of Modi is entirely indefensible. There was no crisis, no disaster should he refuse. This was pure and simple careerism, to associate himself with a major world leader. In doing so, he has associated us with that leader. In lending his support to Modi, we, implicitly, have done so as well. Now we have a chance, not to right that wrong, but to correct it. Comrades, vote to expel Shri Thanedar, and show that Metro Detroit DSA holds its electeds to the highest standards.

The Detroit Socialist is produced and run by members of Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective. Interested in becoming a member of Detroit DSA? Go to metrodetroitdsa.com/join to become a member. Send a copy of the dues receipt to: membership@metrodetroitdsa.com in order to get plugged in to our activities!

Viewpoint: Vote To Expel Shri Thanedar From Metro Detroit DSA was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By E. Steele

The following article represents the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Detroit Socialist Editorial and Writers’ Collective or Detroit DSA as a whole.

Is a strike always the best outcome in a contract campaign? Socialists are often torn between their desire for heightened class conflict and their goal of protecting workers. Surprisingly, the answer to this question is not at all controversial among many auto workers at the Big 3.

Conventional wisdom tells us that workers would rather not strike if they can avoid it. This is why popular books such as Jane McAlevy’s “No Shortcuts” and Labor Notes’ “Secrets of a Successful Organizer” both encourage starting small and building to escalating campaigns of bigger and riskier actions. However, this attitude is not present at Sterling Stamping among the members of UAW Local 1264 who work there.

Over the past month, the strike is all anyone talks about. It’s been decades since Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) faced a major strike, so even those with high seniority are excited about their first opportunity to go out. The majority opinion is clear: “We are going to strike, and we are going to win.” Workers count down the days until contract expiration, and anyone who complains about being scheduled for 14 or 21 days straight is reassured with a grin: “Don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of time off soon.”

This attitude might seem ideal to a socialist or a militant unionist. Workers understand their leverage in the economy, and are ready to fight together and win! However, it is not without its pitfalls.

Most are so confident in their power that they lack much interest in a contract campaign. To be sure, the new UAW leaders are swimming upstream; the UAW has never attempted a contract campaign before at the Big 3. And leaders have had success getting workers strike ready, as their open lines of communication and publication of demands have led to broad buyin, excitement, and discussion. Still, even those who are most excited to strike will forget to wear a red shirt on Wednesday, or balk at the idea of a rally or practice picket: “Why should I spend my energy on all of that? We are just going to win it with the strike!”

Similarly, everyone is convinced that come 11:59 pm on the 14th, we WILL be going on strike. At the time of writing, the UAW’s strategy for the strike is a closely guarded secret. Possible approaches include everything from bottleneck strikes targeting a relatively small number of strategic plants, all the way up to striking every plant at all three employers. Local 1264’s participation from day one is far from guaranteed, but you wouldn’t know it from the buzz on the shop floor.

For an energetic organizer, the potential of being in the factory after contract expiration is exciting. Unfettered by contract language against slowdowns or marches on the boss, there are huge opportunities for rank and file militancy. Unfortunately, the certainty regarding the strike makes many uninterested in these ideas.

There is also the additional risk of expectations. If midnight comes and goes and we are all still at work, many may feel let down, and may lose interest in collective action, or trust in the new leadership.

Despite these problems, socialists should be excited about the developments in the UAW. When workers are conscious of their position within the economy and their inherent antagonisms with the boss, good things happen. It will take time to build a culture of rank-and-file activity, but already there have been steps forward. A decisive strike can build on these successes and create further appetite for militancy, both among workers in auto and in other sectors of the economy.

[E. Steele is the pen name of a Detroit-area auto worker.]

Check out other articles in The Detroit Socialist’s Building Labor Power series here.

The Detroit Socialist is produced and run by members of Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective. Interested in becoming a member of Detroit DSA? Go to metrodetroitdsa.com/join to become a member. Send a copy of the dues receipt to: membership@metrodetroitdsa.com in order to get plugged in to our activities!

Viewpoint: Potential UAW Strike Introduces Some Challenges was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Democratic Socialists of America International Committee (DSA IC) extends its warm congratulations to the Citizen’s Revolution party in Ecuador for its notable achievements in the August 20th snap general elections. We also recognize the decisive vote in favor of Indigenous-led national referenda against carbon extraction.

The elections occurred after the assassinations of Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicensio, alongside other political figures. These deaths have drawn international attention to the unprecedented spike in murder and violent crime occurring within Ecuador. Despite a declared state of emergency and the presence of the military on the streets, the People of Ecuador were steadfast and backed Citizen’s Revolution Candidate Luisa Gonzalez who received 33% of the vote. Citizen’s Revolution also secured a plurality in the upcoming National Assembly, increasing its representation.  

Citizen’s Revolution has been at the forefront of the opposition to neoliberal and austerity policies put into effect since 2017. They led the effort within the National Assembly to impeach and remove right-wing President Guillermo Lasso who championed these initiatives. As a result of Citizen’s Revolution’s work, Lasso called for snap general elections that would end his presidency a year and a half early. 

Gonzalez will oppose Daniel Noboa, a scion of one of Ecuador’s most affluent families, in the Presidential runoff scheduled for October 15th. Gonzalez has pledged to restore government funding of social programs for the people while Noboa will prioritize continued government austerity measures and promote the interests of foreign investors. 

The DSA International Committee also acknowledges the Ecuadorian people’s historic vote to cease oil extraction within the Yasuni National Park and to halt mining projects within the Metropolitan District of Quito. The results of these referenda underscore the significant success Indigenous and environmental activists have had opposing both oil extraction and mining activities. The majority that voted to keep the oil in the ground in Yasuni did so despite the knowledge that it would require considerable economic sacrifice.  Twelve percent of Ecuador’s oil currently comes from Yasuni.  The DSA IC calls on the U.S. government to provide climate reparations to Ecuador, and to all poorer countries, to encourage their decisions to transition away from fossil fuel industries.

The DSA International Committee stands in unwavering solidarity with Gonzalez’s campaign to unify the diverse range of social forces opposed to neoliberal austerity, and rally them to her candidacy and the Ecuadorian people’s continued resistance to environmental exploitation. May their collective resilience be an example for all activists around the world.

The post DSA Congratulates Citizens Revolution Party in Ecuador appeared first on DSA International Committee.

By Chris Viola

In its negotiations with the Big Three Automakers, the United Auto Workers wants to eliminate the lower-tier status hurting many electric vehicle workers. A rank-and-file autoworker explains why the fight is central to a just green transition.

Chris Viola is an auto worker and member of UAW Local 22, Unite All Workers for Democracy, and Metro Detroit Democratic Socialists of America.

Negotiations between my union, the United Auto Workers (UAW), and the Big Three automakers (Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis) are now underway. UAW president Shawn Fain has already made headlines by demanding a 40 percent raise (much like our CEOs have received), proposing reductions to workweeks that have ballooned to eighty-four hours for some, and tossing Stellantis’s insulting counteroffer into the trash on a livestream video.

Eliminating tiers is the highest priority for many workers. What this means in practice is a bit complicated, especially on the electric vehicle (EV) front. Some EV construction now happens under joint-venture projects like Ultium (General Motors and LG), but tiers under preexisting UAW contracts are already fulfilling much of our EV work. With potentially dozens of battery plants being planned and built in the United States alone, however, that may be changing.

One thing is clear: the elimination of joint-venture battery tiers as well as all other tiers is necessary for a just transition to green manufacturing and infrastructure. Fighting climate change must not come at the expense of workers’ livelihoods — we all deserve the same rights, benefits, and pay won at the bargaining table.

A Labyrinth of Tiers

Tiers are endemic to EV construction across the Big Three. These tiers mean that many workers involved in EV manufacturing suffer from worse pay and benefits and less job security than their counterparts making conventional automobiles.

Of the Big Three, General Motors seems to have the most dizzying array of legal entities covered under our collective bargaining agreements. I’ve heard that EV drive units and batteries are currently made by workers employed by Ford and not some other entity, but I’m willing to bet that Ford’s joint EV venture with SK Innovations, BlueOval SK, would prefer its own contract with UAW similar to Ultium’s. Ditto for StarPlus Energy, Stellantis’s joint venture with Samsung SDI.

General Motors Component Holdings (GMCH) is one such entity where workers are making products for EVs. GMCH Rochester Operations in Rochester, New York, currently builds EV battery cooling lines. GMCH Lockport Operations in Lockport, New York, builds stators for EVs. The remaining GMCH locations do not build components specifically for EVs, but some of what they make are components in all vehicles, and more could be made at all of these plants in the future.

GMCH workers’ starting rate as of the 2019 contract was $16.25 and would max out at $22.50 after a minimum of eight years. I say a “minimum of eight years,” because for purposes of these wage increases, each year actually requires fifty-two “weeks worked.” Many workers experience at least a few months of time being laid off in the span of eight years, which would not count toward this time worked.

Eight years is a long time, especially when you consider that our contracts have a duration of only four years. In the 2015 contract, pay at date of hire remained at $16.25, and only surpassed the old maximum rate of $19.86 after four years of seniority. After a forty-day strike of General Motors in 2019, workers at GMCH locations gained only $2.64 after eight years of seniority had been reached — reaching just under 70 percent of maximum pay for assembly workers. When the 2019 collective bargaining agreement was ratified, it was no surprise that workers at GMCH overwhelmingly rejected it.

The eight-year wage progression is not an outlier among tiers within the UAW–Big Three contracts. Another entity under the master agreement, General Motors Customer Care and Aftersales (GM CCA), has an eight-year progression for workers starting at $17.00 an hour and ending at $31.57 an hour. That is, unless you were hired on or after November 16, 2015: those CCA workers start at $17.00 and top out at just $25.00. CCAs like this one are parts distribution centers that deliver parts for all types of vehicles to dealerships and other repair shops all over North America, and they will be just as important to EVs as they have been for internal combustion engine vehicles.

That brings us to GM Subsystems, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors formed in 2009 as part of the restructuring after the federal bailout. My first experience with GM Subsystems was in 2014. Dozens of General Motors temporary workers, many with over two years on the job, received a pay cut and were then classified as GM Subsystems workers. Material movement work, including my own job of sequencing side rearview mirrors, was brought under Subsystems when the local reached a deal with the company upon millions being invested in three new large warehouses to be constructed at Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly where I worked. This is when I learned that concessions don’t even have to wait for when times are lean to rear their ugly head.

In 2016 my plant had absorbed hundreds of workers in preparation for adding a second shift. Most came from Orion Assembly, which had entered retooling for the release of the Chevrolet Bolt. A majority of workers would rather stay at their home plant and would eventually return when they had work for them, but it’s fortunate when a plant within thirty-three miles is able to pick up some nearby laid-off workers. Sometimes that plant is hundreds of miles away, and there is no choice but to move for work, wait it out, or separate from the company entirely.

One of the workers who joined my team then, I learned, was from Brownstown Battery Assembly and had moved over for better pay. While Brownstown was critical to the Volt, the Bolt, and Bolt EUV, the workers there were considered GM Subsystems employees and started at a much lower pay rate, beginning at $15 and ending at $17 after four years.

The Big Three provide workers a profit-sharing benefit, in which autoworkers receive a contribution based on an agreed-upon formula; ours is based on the total North American profits from the previous year. The roughly fifty thousand General Motors workers receive $1 for every million dollars the company makes, rounded down to the nearest $250 — unless they work for GM Subsystems, in which case they only receive $0.25 per million.

Further, profit sharing is based on hours worked. To get the full amount, one must work 1,850 hours over the course of the year, a normal amount unless that worker has been laid off. Depending on the company, workers may not receive more should they work more than 1,850 hours that year. And if you’re a temp, I’m sorry that you’re even hearing about profit sharing, because you’re not getting a dime.

I can say one nice thing about Subsystems’ recent contract: it expires at the same time as the contract for other General Motors workers. So workers across General Motors and Subsystems will be able to stand in solidarity during contract negotiations and possibly a strike, unlike in 2019.

The different tiers of retirement benefits are also labyrinthine. General Motors workers hired after October 15, 2007, do not enjoy a pension or health care in retirement like previous generations did, and they’re instead forced to rely on various schemes of 401(k) and HSA matches and contributions. Even the benefits are uneven between different tiers, with lower-tier workers receiving less generous 401(k) and HSA contributions from the employer.

The Destructive Effect of Tiers

The byzantine tier system also makes it more difficult for autoworkers to find convenient jobs, and it creates inequalities in workplace rights that undermine union solidarity.

Before the Detroit-Hamtramck factory would close in 2020 to be reborn as Factory Zero, there were only a few nearby options for me to transfer to. I was able to put in paperwork to transfer to Flint but not to the much-closer Orion Assembly plant, due to a weird rule there that capped the percentage of tier-one workers. I was offered a job at Lansing, roughly eight-five miles away, but I ended up turning it down due to the distance.

The offer was rescinded anyway due to COVID-19, which provided a job only six miles away from home at Warren Transmission. That plant was shut down in 2019 but was reopened by General Motors for COVID supply manufacturing. I was making masks during the early months of the pandemic, but I was let go in early October for having turned down a job 180 miles away at Fort Wayne Assembly. I apparently was no longer in the correct tier to continue to make masks a short distance from where I live.

I returned home to Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in July 2021, but many things had changed. For example, just about every material job was now under GM Subsystems, which disappointed General Motors workers who had previously worked those jobs and were now ineligible due to deals we had made during contract negotiations in 2019 to keep work in my plant. All battery assembly fell under GM Subsystems as well, so even if someone wanted to, they could not transfer to jobs in that department.

I want to be clear: I don’t fault anyone for taking Subsystems jobs. That was what our union agreed to, and we’re living with the consequences of accepting lower-tier jobs with severely diminished wages and rights. Those workers not only deserve a living wage but also the respect that comes from having rights on the job.

Those rights are more easily upheld when union members who know their rights fight for those who don’t. I got a crash course in this lesson when I was first hired as a temp in 2006. After hundreds of workers retired following buyouts, CCA Pontiac brought in temps. When temps would get picked on by management, rank-and-file workers with the benefit of seniority kept an eye out and would raise hell — showing what having rights in the workplace looked like.

Unfortunately, workers in battery assembly have lower seniority, and because they’re in a separate part of the building they don’t have nearly enough rank-and-file members looking out for them. Because assembly workers cannot transfer over, there’s a very real “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” effect. On top of that, they have very little in the way of representation. Until recently they’ve had to make do with one steward for their whole unit — a steward who only had thirty hours a week to educate and defend their bargaining unit, the remainder of the time working a job. By comparison, the General Motors workers in the rest of the assembly plant have had a minimum of two full-time stewards since the first large batch of workers returned in July 2021.

In July 2022, contract negotiations ran up until the eleventh hour. The final morning, we were told by our steward that we would have to cross the picket line to leave and return or risk losing our jobs. This was the case for Subsystems workers during the 2019 strike, which caused some tension on the picket lines. It’s a clear example of how tiers erode solidarity and fracture workers’ unity.

With the 2022 contract, pay was raised to a maximum of $22 for materials workers and $24 for battery assemblers, although temporary workers still max at $17 after four or more years. That’s right: we have in writing that workers can be considered temporary for well over four years.

Tiers Must Go

Since the day I was formally hired by GM in 2007, tiers have only gotten more complex and further embedded into our contracts. There was a time when getting your foot in the door in an auto plant meant that you could breathe a sigh of relief. Yes, it takes a while to get used to standing on your feet for most of the day, but barring (sadly common) workplace injuries, your body does eventually get used to the work. But now we have unprecedented amounts of turnover. People hang on in the hope that things might one day get better.

Hopefully, that day is now, with a UAW leadership committed to getting rid of tiers. Eliminating tiers would reduce the number of hours workers have to spend on the job. It would also reduce the years required for workers to retire, and the unnecessary hours workers spend every day driving past workplaces where they would otherwise be able to work.

EVs are an important part of the fight against climate change, and the government is now giving automakers massive amounts of money to build new EV plants. We can’t allow tiers to stay and proliferate in this sector; they are a barrier to a just transition. We should file them in the trash right alongside Stellantis’s initial contract proposal.

[Reprinted from Jacobin.]

Check out other articles in The Detroit Socialist’s Building Labor Power series here.

The Detroit Socialist is produced and run by members of Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective. Interested in becoming a member of Detroit DSA? Go to metrodetroitdsa.com/join to become a member. Send a copy of the dues receipt to: membership@metrodetroitdsa.com in order to get plugged in to our activities!

In UAW’s Negotiations With the Big Three Automakers, Ending Tiers Is a Central Demand was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We at The Pika Press are very happy to bring you comprehensive coverage of the 2023 DSA National Convention! Our coverage includes articles, report-backs, and statistics features!

Articles

The Struggle for an Anti-Zionist DSA Continues by Omar — a pointed critique of DSA’s zionist history and the votes of the convention.

Convention from the Staffer’s View by Hayley Banyai-Becker — a reflection on what post-convention DSA looks like from the unique position of a DSA staff organizer.

What is the NPC? by Joe Mayall — a straight-forward explanation of what DSA’s National Political Committee is and what it does.

DSA Doesn’t Know What It Wants by Caoimhín Perkins — a polemic on certain comrade’s aversion to a party-like strategy.

Delegate Report-Backs

Brief summaries of Denver DSA delegates’ experiences and thoughts on convention. Contributing comrades: Alejandra Beatty, Ahmed, Colleen Johnston, Andrew Thompson, Jennifer Dillon, Matthew Rambles, Max Soo, Mitch, Skye O’Toole, and Stephanie Caulk.

Statistical features

Pika’s Index — a list of statistics about convention with plenty of lines to be read in-between.

Colorado DSA Votes @ DSACon2023 — a spreadsheet showing all the votes (resolutions and NPC) taken by delegates from all four of Colorado’s DSA chapters at the 2023 National Convention.

Ads and notes

Want to write for us? Want to make graphics for us? Want to help improve our website? Noticed a typo or inconsistency that makes you want to gauge your eyes out? GREAT! Please contact political.education@denverdsa.org or message Brynn via Slack or on Twitter to speak with the manager!

ISSUE #3

by Omar

On August 4, 2023, the first in-person Convention of the Democratic Socialists of America commenced after the 2020 surge in membership. Several important questions were up for debate: Should DSA expand its National Political Committee? Will DSA work within the Democratic Party, or will it declare independence? Will DSA be an anti-Zionist organization in principle and practice?

Anyone who has read the 2021 statement where DSA took a rhetorical departure from its Zionist history will be given the impression that DSA is “unwavering” in its commitment to Palestinian solidarity and liberation against Zionist settler colonialism. But the 2021 Bowman affair has suggested that the professed “solidarity” with Palestinians is actually implicit Zionisim. And inextricable from the Bowman affair was the NPC’s decision to decharter the BDS & Palestine Solidarity WG, providing yet another example of the solidarity collapsing from “merely professed” to “a total lie.” 

Now the year is 2023. The last-minute recommendation by the NPC to incapacitate Palestine organizing within DSA by absorbing the Palestine Solidarity WG into the International Committee, their refusal to place the anti-Zionist resolution on the agenda, their proposed amendment to the anti-Zionist resolution that renders it useless, as well as the use of tokenism on the debate floor and handing out propaganda flyers outside debate to impel delegates to support the IC absorption are all new examples of a new liberal Zionism within DSA. 

From this tremendous effort it is extremely difficult to conclude that it is perpetuated in good faith by anti-Zionists. It seems exactly what liberal Zionists would do, who begrudgingly resort to implicit Zionism only because of the moral progress within DSA that no longer renders acceptable explicit Zionism. 

Actual solidarity is described no better than by Paulo Freire, who in 1968 famously said that “solidarity requires that one enter into the situation of those with whom one is solidary; it is a radical posture.” To enter into the situation of Palestinians means to support BDS in principle, given that over 80% of Palestinians support BDS. Actual solidarity is militant intolerance to Zionism within DSA. Actual solidarity would completely transform DSA’s reputation away from liberal Zionism, which will improve both the quality and quantity of membership. We would unlock a vibrant and necessary collaboration with grassroots Palestinian organizations such as the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). 

I moved to Colorado in 2021, soon after the Israeli Occupation Forces conducted widespread terrorism in Palestine: Invading the al-Aqsa compound, unloading airstrikes on Gaza, and expediting colonialism in the West Bank and al-Quds. 

In light of this, I sought Palestine organizing, looking primarily towards political education and campaigns such as the BDS movement. Without a local PYM or SJP chapter, I reluctantly joined Denver DSA with full awareness of DSA’s historic ties to Zionism. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that substantial internal work was being done to make DSA a truly anti-Zionist organization, with like-minded folks in Denver and the National BDS & Palestine Solidarity WG, who proposed a resolution to enforce the actual anti-Zionism that DSA needs. What’s more, anti-Zionists in DSA have been met with great internal hostility and sometimes even violence, but that does not deter us from nurturing our organization.

It remains unclear whether the new NPC, after being handed the responsibility of deliberating whether to make DSA an anti-Zionist organization in principle and praxis, will be in solidarity with Palestinians. In my view, weakness on anti-Zionism has no place in leftist organizations and cannot sustain the types of enduring structures we are trying to build.

~~

Omar is a member of the Denver Democratic Socialists of America and an organizer with the Colorado Palestine Coalition.

ISSUE #3

by Hayley Banyai-Becker

Hi comrades! My name is Hayley Banyai-Becker (she/her) and I am a Field Organizer with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) aka I am a national staff organizer! At the beginning of August, I attended my first ever in person DSA convention (as a staff member) joining 1,200 socialists from around the country in Chicago, and wow do I have such a renewed sense of enthusiasm for the organizing project that is DSA. 

My work broadly consists of supporting DSA chapters in 12 states across the western United States with their internal work like member recruitment and development and external organizing efforts such as campaigns and solidarity work. I absolutely love what I do and firmly believe that I have one of the greatest jobs in the world – if it is possible for a socialist to love their work, lol. Before joining DSA, I worked for a Colorado progressive nonprofit, where a coworker and I started a union to improve our working conditions. Prior to that, I worked on a variety of campaigns, including two of Denver DSA’s own endorsees, Lorena Garcia for US Senate and Paid Family and Medical Leave for Coloradans (Proposition 118). I’ve been a member of DSA since late 2019 and I served as Denver’s Electoral Committee Chair in 2021. DSA has been my political home since I joined and I deeply believe we have the power to bring about socialism in our lifetime. 

All of this work led me to the DSA convention, where I had so much excitement to see  chapters across the country commit to implementing stronger, more comprehensive and truly intentional recruitment efforts. This year’s convention made clear the importance and necessity of extensive recruitment practices in order to succeed in (and pay for) our goals. Chapters earnestly heard this call: in real time, I am witnessing a remarkable sense of desire and commitment to grow our organization’s membership, and therefore fundraising, in order to build the DSA we want to see going forward. The energy around this is palpable for me, because one of my primary goals as a DSA organizer is to help chapters understand that strong recruitment skills are vital to the longevity and success of our movement! 

A lot of my work revolves around supporting chapters in educating their members on the importance of the ideological framework that is mass movement building. We are working to build a movement of the majority, which means organizing everyone in the working class into our movement is the only way we will win. It is essential to DSA’s theory of change: as working class people, we all face some very similar issues (we can’t afford rent, we have student or medical debt, etc), but we are the agents of change when we come together to fight back on these issues. Put even more simply: we must directly and intentionally ask people to join DSA in order to win the world we want. If you are interested in supporting Denver’s recruitment and internal organizing efforts, contact Caoimhin Perkins and/or join the #WG-Internal-Organizing channel on Slack.  

Another take away from convention that I am seeing across my entire turf is the inclination for chapters to work together across their states and regions. Being in person at the convention gave us all the ability to meet and create more honest and sincere connections with organizers from other chapters in neighboring towns and cities in a way that has not been possible since the last in person convention in 2019. Organizing is impossible without deep relationships and the pandemic has kept us from building the trust and intimacy needed to create relationships that can endure over time and trauma. Chapters have been seeking out regional connections consistently throughout the pandemic, but with this added in person aspect, I am seeing these relationships come to fruition now in a way that was not entirely possible before. This is tremendous for the strength of our organization and gives chapters the ability to more easily organize statewide efforts (or anything that impacts working class members outside of their jurisdiction) moving forward. If you want to connect more with me on these topics, reach out any time at hayley@dsausa.org. 

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Hayley Banyai-Becker is the DSA regional organizer for the western United States. Prior to her time as a DSA employee, she chaired Denver DSA’s Electoral Committee. She also worked for Representative Lorena Garcia’s 2018 campaign for U.S. Senate and the Yes On 118 campaign.

ISSUE #3

by Joe Mayall

As the most high-stakes vote at any convention, the election of the new National Political Committee (NPC) at the 2023 Convention was the most anticipated and debated decision put before the convention delegates. With each candidate presenting their vision for how the NPC should operate during the upcoming two-year term, NPC votes are often seen as a measuring stick for how the delegates, and therefore the membership that sent them to convention, are feeling about the direction of DSA. 

As the new 16-member body settles in to the inaugural month of its 24-month term, it’s worth examining the responsibilities, duties, and directives tasked to the NPC to properly understand how these members will shape the next two years of DSA.

What Does the NPC Do?

While the Convention is the highest decision-making body in DSA, it is only in session for four days every two years. Between conventions, the NPC acts as DSA’s “board of directors,” making executive decisions that impact the national organization. While the Convention sets DSA’s goals and priorities by voting on resolutions (as was just done in August), it is up to NPC members to determine how exactly these priorities should be carried out. For example, the 2023 Convention voted to keep the Green New Deal as a top political priority. How will this be enacted? That’s up to the NPC. They can allocate resources to campaigns and elections around the country, organize with environmental groups with similar goals, and do pretty much anything else that falls within the stated goal of trying to make the Green New Deal a reality. The NPC also has secondary duties as established in the DSA constitution, such as representing DSA in public spaces, assisting YDSA with its growth and actions, determining yearly dues, and overseeing the chartering of new chapters and commissions. 

All of these actions are determined at NPC’s quarterly meetings, and the bi-weekly meetings of the Steering Committee, a five-person committee elected by the NPC to serve as a consistent body in-between sessions.

NPC Requirements

Earlier the NPC was described as DSA’s “board of directors.” This isn’t just a euphemism, but rather a codified legal responsibility. As the heads of a registered non-profit organization, every member of the NPC has fiduciary duties they must abide by. In addition to enhancing DSA’s public standing, advocating on behalf of the organization, and representing the organization to the best of their ability, NPC members are legally required to fulfill three specific duties. Duty of Care requires them to exercise a “reasonable” level of care, attention, and concern when making decisions. Duty of Loyalty requires them to remain loyal to DSA and not take action that could potentially harm the organization. And, perhaps most importantly, they are bound by a Duty of Obedience that requires them to help the organization reach its stated goals to the best of their ability. To put this into context, the Duty of Obedience requires NPC members to dedicate DSA’s resources to the goals set in the resolutions determined by the Convention. 

If this sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. In addition to spearheading DSA’s national campaigns, NPC members must maintain relationships with DSA’s staff, National Director, and grass roots membership through the chapters. Unlike the aforementioned duties, these aren’t “requirements,” but rather functions necessary to ensure they are best able to continue doing their most important job: leaving DSA better than when they found it.

This will be the main thought on the mind of every new and veteran NPC member as they get to work at the start of their term.

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Joe Mayall is a freelance writer and a member of the Denver Democratic Socialists of America. His work has appeared in Jacobin, The Progressive, Balls and Strikes, and The Pika Press. More of his work can be found at joewrote.substack.com.

ISSUE #3

by Caoimhín Perkins

My first takeaway is how huge of a split we have when it comes to electoral politics. This is demonstrated by a glaring inconsistency with how we voted on two amendments to the National Electoral Committee Resolution. We quite easily passed Amendment I, “Act Like An Independent Party,” which said DSA should slowly transition away from working with the Democratic Party by 

1. Establishing our own resources outside of the tools and lists,
2. Identifying our candidates as socialists and separate from the DP,
3. Establishing candidate schools,
4. Establishing our own legislative programs,
5. Expecting our candidates to cross-endorse each other and bloc vote,
6. Developing our own party identity,
7. Expecting candidates to publicly and loudly identify as Democratic Socialists, and
8. Establish Socialists in Office committees

However, when it came time to vote on Amendment P, “Towards A Party-Like Electoral Strategy,” we choked. How are any of the below not necessary for acting like an independent party, something we had just voted to do?

1. Demanding candidates publicly and loudly champion DSA’s platform and identify as socialists
2. Demanding they always vote against police funding, military funding, carceral legislation, anti-labor legislation, and other racist, sexist, queerphobic, ableist, and xenophobic legislation
3. When they breach a standard they have not committed to, that we engage in a process of educating them, and that if they still refuse to meet this standard, that we de-endorse
4. Demanding they cross-endorse and bloc-vote
5. Demand that DSA electeds meet quarterly with their chapters to discuss legislative priorities
6. Requiring National create a group that would meet with and hold accountable DSA electeds in federal office

Every single point here can be found in Amendment I or is just a more rigorous form of what was in Amendment I. And yet, Amendment P failed to pass, and the yes vote was significantly less than the yes vote on Amendment I. The point of contention was, of course, point (3), which created consequences for crossing the red lines established in point (2). 

Comrades claimed that demanding expulsion for candidates was a purity test that sacrificed power. I spoke on the floor in favor of this amendment, explaining that there was no purity test, only a way of educating and holding electeds accountable. Sometimes being principled is the best praxis, and this is case in point. Point (4) even says that we have to educate candidates first, especially on subjects that we failed to educate them on in the first place. This is practically the same thing as point (3) for Amendment I, with the added caveat that candidates can be flunkies in this school and be (as the sternest, but not the first, consequence) de-endorsed. So, either the comrades who claimed a purity test did not actually read the Amendment P, or they don’t mind continuing to endorse electeds that vote in favor of oppression. Either way, they left us with no way to actually enforce our independent identity. To those who did not read the amendments properly, a certain Marxist once said, “Unless you have investigated a problem, you will be deprived of the right to speak on it. How can a communist keep his eyes shut and talk nonsense? It won’t do! You must not talk nonsense!”

To the comrades who think the de-endorsement and red lines themselves are bad and actually read the amendment, I have to ask what your goal is. This refusal to create accountability structures is a consistent issue we have where I am left wondering how serious a majority of our comrades are about socialism and whether they even know what they want. We have no long term electoral strategy; instead we have comrades fluttering like chickens over short term gains from electing supposed progressives to offices they can lose in 2-4 years while gridlocked against capitalist politicians. I spoke with some comrades who thought that if their moderate democrat in Alabama or city council person in San Diego weren’t up to snuff because of Amendment P, then they would fail. This is ridiculous.

Are we going to have a reformist revolution in 4-8 years? No, and we never will. We’re so focused on big-tents that we’ve forgotten we have to actually seize the means of production like we always say we will, and we cannot do that if we aren’t demanding more of ourselves. The seizure of the state and an entire economy is not some picnic where everyone drops their yes and no votes in a ballot box, and this is especially not the case in a country that was built on stolen land, has the largest military in the world, and has the world’s fourth largest police force. We are the backbone of global capitalism, and those in power will not simply let us reform our way out of it. They are fighting back through police violence, union busting, assassinations, stacking the courts, and attempted coup d’etats. Those of us set on electoral politics can’t even get our electeds to engage with us because we’re scared that we’ll have a few less useless representatives.

We need to get real. Electoralism is not the revolution, but if we’re dedicating resources to it, we could at least have high standards so that we can reliably gain non-reformist reforms. Why even say we’ll act like a separate party if we aren’t going to have something to offer that’s different from progressive Democrats? What will we be except for just another third party? I don’t understand why anyone goes to the convention of the largest socialist organization in the United States just to say that we can’t demand our socialist electeds engage with their base and legislate to a higher standard than capitalist electeds.

The second takeaway is that we have many comrades who still believe that gridlocked politicians are more important to building power than having strong connections with Palestinian and Anti-Zionist organizations. I’m not sure when they started prioritizing individuals over multi-racial mass politics, but we love to mix up our priorities for wins that are aesthetic blockbusters over wins that have substance. There were a number of maneuvers made by those chairing the convention that blocked MSR-12, an Anti-Zionist resolution, from even being brought to the floor. The majority of us voted to refer it to the incoming NPC, probably hoping it would get tanked. I don’t understand anyone who thinks multi-racial mass politics isn’t good for socialism, but keeping around a man who is unrepentant in being buddy-buddy with J-Street and the Iron Dome is. 

Some might say that we can find a third way on that issue, and in another timeline, one where we already had a national accountability structure in place when Bowman broke with DSA, they might be right. But we aren’t in that timeline, and so I would pose this question: do the Palestinian organizations that are writing us off care about that non-existent third way? They don’t, and we voted down the two opportunities to create that national accountability structure. So, again, I am wondering how serious some comrades are about this or whether they actually read these resolutions. Do we not want better for ourselves? Maybe MSR-12 will be passed by the new NPC’s narrow left-majority. That remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that even though both the national BDS working group and International Committee said they didn’t want to be merged, a majority of delegates said “surely they can’t know what they’re talking about,” and merged them anyway.

The third takeaway, as someone who is not a member of any caucus, is that my view of caucuses is slightly less pessimistic—but is still pessimistic, for different reasons. There were definitely cynical uses of power, but in most cases we were all on the same team, even when we were in direct conflict. But it still felt like it encouraged this maneuvering. My thoughts on this are partly informed by history—ultras and libertarian socialists like to criticize Lenin for banning caucuses from existing in the Soviet communist party, calling it anti-democratic. I’m starting to understand why he did it, even though I think banning wasn’t the solution. It feels like for all the power caucuses bring us for organizing on a national level, the side effect is that we have more competition that keeps us from functioning properly. It was astonishing to go from Denver to a National that was a delicate “balance” between hating each other’s guts and knowing we all had (approximately) the same skin in the game at the end of the day. This was, of course, always far more noticeable on votes that posed deep political questions, creating controversy where some comrades refused to look at reality and instead decided to go with their imaginary ideal of how our organization should work. I don’t have a solution to the caucus problem, but there needs to be one.

P.S. – There were bingo cards filled with convention buzzwords, courtesy of the National Housing Justice Commission. I got Bingo twice. 

P.P.S. – Having grown up in the Great Lakes region, quite possibly nothing will top the moment when Stephanie got to the shore of Lake Michigan, couldn’t see the other side, and yelled “this is a LAKE????”

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Caoimhín Perkins has been a member of Denver DSA since 2019. They are a former teacher and union steward who works in DDSA’s labor, housing, and internal organizing committees.