Syracuse DSA condemns the recent Supreme Court ruling that threatens protection of marginalized and colonized communities in America and dramatically limits access to the current education system. Already coming off one year since the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the curtailing of EPA powers to regulate air quality and carbon emissions, we already see the results of allowing hard won civil rights to remain issues of litigation as opposed to legislation. 

As socialists, we cannot sit idly by as an unelected, reactionary judicial body influenced by right-wing billionaires slowly strips the rights away from working-class people. It is up to us to organize a movement that can build the kind of world we need. A world that can meaningfully address the systemic racism woven within its structure. A world where free, high-quality education is accessible from cradle to grave.

The Supreme Court rulings show us that the ruling-class will always oppose even the most basic interests of oppressed and working-class people. Dozens of cases, ranging from Dred Scott v. Sanford, Korematsu v. United States, to Plessy v. Ferguson have upheld the right to discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender expression and sexual orientation. The most recent decisions should not be viewed as an extremist anomaly, but as a continuation of a trend—one that abets capitalist hegemony and white supremacy.

The Supreme Court, unlike every other court in the United States, has failed to adopt an ethics code that compels justices to recuse themselves from cases where there are clear conflicts of interests. Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, in particular, have accepted lavish trips and gifts from right-wing billionaires with business before the court. 

This makes a mockery out of a major branch of American government, instead turning it into a transparent example of the two-tiered system conservative justices might deny exists—one designed for the wealthy, and one for everyone else.

We must not let empty promises by centrist Democrats derail and thwart demands for accountability that arise organically, products of the increasingly apparent contradictions of the capitalist system. Those demands for accountability and a truly just world cannot be paralyzed by election promises, freedoms to perhaps be realized in future election cycles. People are tired of their rights being used for fundraising pitches with no intention to actualize or advocate for them—they want a society that provides for their needs and defends their humanity in the here and now.

It is up to us to wield our collective power and make a better world, one built from the ashes of the old, and inspire our neighbors and comrades to make it with us.

July 3rd, 2023

The post On the Supreme Court, July 2023 appeared first on Syracuse DSA.

DSA stands in unwavering solidarity with UE Locals 506 and 618 and all workers engaged in shop-floor struggle for a better world. The capitalists at Wabtec, Amazon, UPS, Starbucks, and other multinational corporations hate strikes for the same reason they inspire workers everywhere: they show workers that our labor creates all value and we have the power to withhold it to win our demands. UE has been part of the resurgence of new shop organizing with its role in the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, a joint venture between Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and UE that supports the formation of militant rank-and-file led unions in all industries throughout the United States. UE’s demonstration of what workers can demand when they use the power of the strike will inspire workers across industries. 

UE has represented workers at this plant since 1938 but lost this right in their 2019 agreement with new owner Wabtec. This loss makes it difficult for UE to enforce their collective bargaining agreement. UE Locals 506 and 618 are fighting not only to regain the right to strike, but also for a just transition in the locomotive manufacturing industry. The contract they are demanding would not only protect current jobs and create new ones, but also orient railroads away from a dirty, fossil-fuel-guzzling status quo towards a greener, cleaner, worker-centered future through its Green Locomotive Project.

But a contract is only as strong as a union’s ability to enforce it; a worker-led Green New Deal can only be won when workers are empowered to strike when necessary.  We encourage members to use this link to donate to the strike fund, and chapters can send letters of support to UE Local 618 (3923 Main St., Erie, PA 16511) and UE Local 506 (3923 Main St. Erie, PA 16511). 

At a time when the anti-democratic Supreme Court is attempting to strip workers of their rights, including the right to strike, UE Locals 506 and 618 (who manufacture locomotives in Erie, PA) are using their contract fight to expand the right to strike, create new green jobs to benefit their community and the planet, and make Wabtec give workers the respect and compensation they deserve. We stand with these workers in the fight for what they deserve.

The post Stand in Solidarity with UE Wabtec Strikers appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

On Wednesday, June 28th, the Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America distributed over 1,000 quality masks to working people across Chicago in the midst of an ongoing air quality crisis.

When Chicagoans awoke Tuesday morning to the news that our city had among the lowest air quality in the entire world, organizers in CDSA mounted a plan. With only 5 hours of notice, over 50 people attended a call Tuesday evening to coordinate a rapid response to the health crisis. The following day, organizers distributed over 1,000 quality masks, predominantly KN95, to hundreds of Chicagoans, including CTA workers at the Kedzie bus depot, working people at the Howard and 95th/Dan Ryan CTA stations, and UPS Teamsters at the Jeff Street and Morgan/Pershing sites. This mutual aid was accomplished in cooperation with partners at 48th Ward Neighbors for Justice and made possible through mask donations supplied by Jobs With Justice, Edgewater Mutual Aid Network, and other community groups. 

These volunteer-led relief efforts were necessitated by our government’s failure to mobilize an adequate response. CDSA urges Mayor Johnson and Governor Prtizker to consider future times of low air quality within the city and state a public health emergency. In doing so, they can distribute PPE to the general public to keep residents, especially vulnerable ones, safe from the potential health hazards.

This unpreparedness extends to the private sector. UPS is one of countless employers who failed to notify employees of the hazardous working conditions on Tuesday — conditions which will doubtless be a recurring danger to workers’ health as the climate emergency escalates. UPS also failed to make any new masks available to workers going out on the job this week, behavior which fits into a pattern of refusing to address safety concerns. UPS Teamsters have authorized a strike if today’s June 30th negotiating deadline is not met, and CDSA is prepared to support in solidarity.

Disturbingly, our volunteers attest to encountering many dozens of Chicagoans — including CTA employees — who were completely unaware that the hazy skies were due to dangerous wildfire smoke, that going outdoors for any period of time can cause health complications, or that wearing a mask outdoors at this time was recommended by health agencies. This deficit of education and resources is unsurprising given that the top health official in Chicago is actively aligned against the health of working class Chicagoans. The Chicago Department of Public Health is headed by Dr. Allison Arwady, a Lightfoot appointee who has repeatedly put business interests ahead of public health, even siding with notorious air polluter Southside Recycling over the complaints of residents who pointed to illnesses derived from the company’s car shredding operation. CDPH messaging under her watch has been unclear and their advice completely ignores the many working people who cannot “stay inside” until air quality considerably improves. CDSA joins our partners at the Collaborative for Community Wellness in calling for Mayor Johnson to uphold his campaign promise to fire Dr. Arwady.

Ultimately, the working class can only achieve lasting public health equity through mass mobilization against climate change. We encourage anyone who shares our vision of a Chicago which prioritizes everyone’s safety to join us in fighting for an ecosocialist future. Our Democratize ComEd campaign would municipalize Chicago’s power grid, allowing for democratic control, progressive rates, energy equity, and gradual decarbonization. A better world is possible.

The post CDSA Distributes 1,000 Masks To Chicago Workers Amidst Air Quality Crisis appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

by Gumbo

On Tuesday, 27 June 2023, hundreds of nurses organized with National Nurses United (NNU) walked out on strike at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin (ASMCA) in Austin, Texas. Hundreds more struck at two other Ascension-owned hospitals in Wichita, Kansas. Over 2000 workers in total withheld their labor to demand safe staffing levels, better pay and improved working conditions from hospital executives sitting on cash reserves of over $18 billion. 

Community members turned out in droves to support them. Among the supporters were members of many other union locals including UNITE-HERE Local 23, Restaurant Workers United, AFSCME 1624, ATU 1091, News Guild–CWA 32035, TSEU–CWA 6186, Austin EMS Association–CWA 6914, Education Austin, Air Line Pilots’ Association, United Workers of Integral Care–CWA 6154, and what seemed like half the membership of the IBEW 520 along with their 20-foot inflatable fat cat, complete with cigar and money bag. The line grew so dense that it eventually extended down the entire block. People grew hoarse from shouting, then others joined in to keep momentum going. There was not a moment of silence.

Background to the Strike

Nurses at ASMCA voted to authorize the strike by a 98% margin at the end of May after months of stalled negotiations with management. They initially won union recognition in September 2022 and began negotiating that November, but have yet to receive a fair contract offer. Chief among their concerns are short staffing and low pay. DSA asked many nurses why they were striking and every one responded first with “safe staffing.” They are demanding improved recruitment and retention practices to keep nurses at the bedside, and dignity and respect for themselves and their patients. The working conditions of nurses are the same conditions patients experience.

I’ve been a nurse for 16 years and I’m not going

to stop fighting to make this profession better

Lisa L

The nurses say that staff shortages have created unmanageable workloads and they cannot provide adequate care to their patients. Ascension’s poor labor practices have directly jeopardized nurses’ licenses and put patients’ lives in danger, leading to preventable deaths and a revolving door of nursing staff. The Bureau of Labor Statistics in April 2023 showed that there are over a million registered nurses who actively choose not to work in their licensed profession. Sandy Reding, NNU president and nurse, pointed out that, “There is no nursing shortage. There’s a shortage of nurses who want to work under these conditions.” One NNU nurse and Austin DSA comrade, Lisa L, explained that many nurses are locked into two-year contracts right out of school in order to get a signing bonus. They are treated so poorly on the job with no avenue for respite that as soon as their contract is up, they often quit nursing altogether. For herself however, she makes clear, “I’ve been a nurse for 16 years and I’m not going to stop fighting to make this profession better.”

Management Fails to Bargain and Fails Patients

Rather than bargain with the nurses in good faith, Catholic healthcare giant Ascension’s management has stalled and rejected union contract proposals. In return, nurses fought back with the greatest tool in the working class’ arsenal: the strike. They withheld their labor for 24 hours to demonstrate that the hospital does not run without them. Ascension hired agency nurses to scab at a supposed rate of around $300/hr, over eight times the average wage of their own nursing staff, and locked NNU nurses out for three days. On the picket line, word spread that not only were these scabs being paid exorbitant amounts to break the strike, but they had no idea where any of the supplies were stored!

ASMCA further jeopardized their patients and doctors in the name of crushing workers who dared to demand a say in how their workplace is run. The community was not enthused. One elderly woman named Bridgette was sitting at the supply table cutting bananas and donuts and handing out water to picketers. She said that when her late husband was in the ICU, the nurses at ASMCA were incredibly helpful and kind and made the best of a difficult time in her life. She simply wanted to return the favor and called on Ascension to follow their supposed Christian values by valuing the people they employ.

Strike Don’t Win Themselves

The strike was not a haphazard action. It was deliberate, it was disciplined, and it was coordinated, the culmination of years of organizing at the hospital. This organizing was made possible by the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and by NNU. Nurse and comrade Kellen G. shared that it was “the ultimate socialist trial by fire to organize a brand new union in Texas. The fact that Austin DSA and the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee had our back made the biggest difference.” Kellen and fellow nurses went through EWOC’s Foundational Training Series as part of their preparation for taking control over their workplace. “We have so much gratitude toward the many comrades who showed up to support our historic strike,” said Kellen. “It was an honor to share this day with you all.”

On the picket line, chants echoed off of nearby buildings. Hundreds of cars honked in support as they passed, notable because Austin has not historically been a hotbed of labor activism. Many aggregate drivers (trucks hauling rocks, gravel or sand – common in this city of endless construction) also honked in support, remarkable because that isn’t a sector of the industry in which the Teamsters have much strength in the region. 

Amidst the joyous rebellion, one NNU staffer, Mallory, was hard at work reinvigorating nurses all day long. There were shifts organized to ensure a continuous flow of fresh energy to the line. NNU, DSA and others ensured there was sufficient water and food to keep everyone lively.

Fights like this are not won in a day. What the nurses showed us all is that every workplace is run by the workers and can be won by the workers. Nurses showed up on the morning of Wednesday, 28 June 2023, ready to work. Ascension would not let them in because they “weren’t on the list,” (i.e., they were locked out) but come Saturday, 1 July, they will be on the payroll and their struggle will continue.

Lessons for DSA

What the successful union recognition campaign and strike on Ascension shows is that the resurgent socialist labor strategy is working. By providing valuable training through EWOC, DSA has made steps toward becoming an organization of organizers – not just volunteers on an email list, but disciplined organizers ready to take the struggle to their workplaces and their neighborhoods.

The future of labor unions and the future of socialism are inextricably linked. Socialists bring a developed class struggle analysis to the labor movement which strengthens labor and informs socialism. If we commit ourselves to this kind of outward-facing mass work, we will make DSA a place that comrades focused on organizing their neighbors and co-workers can easily join and participate in. The socialist movement will be stronger for it.

When nurses did return to work, they were met with continued understaffing and hostility from management, plus the realization that the scab nurses, despite higher staffing ratios, had cared poorly for patients. The Austin Chronicle published a good follow up article.

The post Largest Nurse Strike in Texas History Shows Resurgent Labor Movement first appeared on Red Fault.

By Paul Garver and Eli Gerzon

DISCLAIMER: The entire Working Mass board appreciates the research and reporting that went into this important article and of course the big wins for rail workers across the US. However, some members of the board strongly disagree with some of the analysis in the article especially regarding the actions by members of Democratic Socialists of America who are in Congress. This is a controversial topic across DSA. We welcome any op-eds or letters to the editor in response.

Most of the 115,000 rail workers in the US now have paid sick leave! Many workers are also getting safety improvements they have been fighting for for years. In December 2022, Biden and Congress voted to impose a contract on workers with no paid sick leave and took away their right to strike – a move that angered many socialists and other supporters of labor. How can workers get what they need when the right to strike has been taken away? And yet, rail workers have gotten these major wins. What happened and what more needs to be done?

Several factors for positive changes for railroad workers:

• More attention to the issue following lobbying by rail workers and Biden’s imposed contract in December 2022
• Efforts by members of Congress such as Senator Sanders and Representatives Bowman, Bush, and AOC
• Bad press following the railroad catastrophe in East Palestine, Ohio
• Several states have recently passed regulations requiring at least two person crews on freight trains 
• Rank-and-file organizing by railroad workers especially by RWU and BMWED
• Many rail workers have been quitting their increasingly stressful and dangerous jobs –  to deter quitting and recruit replacements, rail corporations have improved some conditions

A few things which have NOT caused positive changes for rail workers:

• Greedy railroad barons suddenly became nice guys
• Bureaucratic rail union leaders have done fundamental union restructuring and reforms so all railroad workers can boldly wield their power as a united workforce
• DSA expelled Bowman, Bush, and AOC and gave up completely on electoral work that has any association with the Democratic party

Railroad Workers’ Organized for Better Conditions in 2022

Rail corporations reaped record profits during the pandemic era for people like Warren Buffet. But the workers who made that possible were denied paid sick days and forced to work under increasingly dangerous understaffed conditions. Freight trains have become longer and heavier, with safety inspections more cursory. Workers organized across 13 different craft unions with the four major rail corporations for better pay and conditions. This culminated in calls for strikes in 2022 and a vote by Congress to impose a contract at the end of the year.

Many socialists considered the votes of Congressional DSA members Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the imposed contract on rail workers to be an indictment of those individuals as anti-worker. Some also considered those votes to be an indictment of DSA, electoralism, and any association with the Democratic Party.  

It was the BMWED (Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters) Rank and File Caucus that led lobbying efforts in the fall of 2022 to get Congress to vote on an amendment to include seven paid sick leave days for rail workers. That included urging Bowman, Bush and AOC to vote for the resolution and the amendment. It was a “Hail Mary Pass” that passed the House but narrowly failed to clear the 60-vote hurdle in the Senate. Although that tactic did not succeed in the short run, it cleared a path to the current successful negotiations.

“A Rail Strike was never intended by Rail Labor leaders… never in the cards. Anyone with an appreciation of American Rail Labor History knows this.” This is according to Carey Dall, one of the founders of the BMWED rank-and-file caucus in his article “Rail Unions in the U.S. are in bad need of consolidation, democracy, and militancy.” He notes the years of preparation and strategizing needed to accomplish any successful strike which would “endangers interstate commerce.” None of the leaders of the 13 rail craft unions had lifted a finger to prepare for a strike in December. In fact, Dall in some ways places more blame on Rail Labor leadership than on Biden – let alone members of Congress.

There were some rail workers who expressed support for going on strike. But even some militant leaders of rank-and-file rail workers’ caucuses expected that the tentative agreement would be imposed by Congress. Since no strike was envisaged or prepared, the legislative route to winning paid sick leave, a gamble that could have been better executed in practice, seemed the only alternative. It should have been made possible for legislative champions of the rail workers to vote against the imposed contract as a whole after voting for the sick leave amendment. But Speaker Pelosi out-maneuvered the union lobbyists.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Bowman, Bush and AOC, plus other members of the Squad and Progressive Caucus, continued to put pressure on the Biden Administration through public statements and organizing a public letter to Biden in support of the demands of rail workers signed by 70 Senators and Representatives.

I sent a letter today with more than 70 of my colleagues in the House and the Senate urging President Biden to do everything within his power to guarantee rail workers the seven paid sick days that they desperately need. pic.twitter.com/gd4d7nqO7s

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 9, 2022

Progress For Rail Workers in 2023

The freight rail corporations, which had appeared triumphant at the end of 2022 after successfully using the blackmail threat that a rail strike would cripple the U.S. economy, then faced blowback from the negative consequences of their political victories in Congress.

Also the lobbying efforts by railroad workers earned lots of press coverage and sympathy. That has helped put pressure on rail corporations. The catastrophe in East Palestine, Ohio also put pressure on rail corporations to make safety improvements.

Most of these agreements provided for four new paid annual sick days, with an option of converting three personal days into unscheduled paid sick leave. In general, the agreements cover non-operating personnel rather than locomotive engineers, where negotiations with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLET-IBT) continued until May 29, when the BLET reached a tentative agreement including work schedule changes still subject to ratification by the members.

The best roundup is by veteran labor reporter Steven Greenhouse in The Guardian: US rail companies grant paid sick days after public pressure in win for unions (msn.com)

An updated recent story appeared in the Associated Press: Norfolk Southern is 1st railroad to give all workers sick time as others negotiate with unions | AP News 

Norfolk Southern will have to pay out at least half a billion dollars for their disaster. But insurance coverage and tax breaks will limit the impact on Norfolk Southern’s bottom-line profits. 

A more significant threat to the excessive profits of the entire rail freight industry is posed by legislative action at the federal and state level to require at least two person crews on freight trains. 

Kansas just joined eight other states in announcing that it would do so for trains passing through its territory: Kansas will regulate railroad crew size under Kelly proposal | The Kansas City Star

The Pennsylvania State House also just passed a bipartisan bill to regulate freight railroads: Pennsylvania House passes rail regulation bill – Trains

State-by-state legislation poses at best a minor nuisance to the industry. The current SCOTUS would probably overturn state rail safety laws, but it demonstrates that the federal Railway Safety Act as proposed by the Democratic and Republican Senators from Ohio could be enacted: Senate panel OKs rail-safety bill as railroad vows to help homeowners affected by Ohio derailment (msn.com)

The current profit model of the major rail corporations is highly dependent on reducing labor costs by cutting staffing to the bone, and super-exploiting a dwindling workforce. Since the end of the last contract cycle in November 2018 some 40,000 rail jobs have been eliminated, without any technological changes to justify the cuts. As RWU co-chairman Ross Grooters, a lifetime member of DSA, was quoted in 2022, “The job is really just becoming fewer people doing more work faster.”   

As predicted by rank-and-file rail worker reformers in 2022, following the imposed settlement that did not address the underlying causes of worker anger at Precision Scheduled Railroading and other schemes to cut the rail work force to the bone, large numbers of rail workers took the large bonuses and back pay settlements under the agreement, and quit their increasingly stressful jobs.  

To deter some workers from quitting and to recruit replacements, the rail corporations have a self-interest in providing somewhat less onerous working conditions. Bargaining over paid sick leave, which alleviates some of the stresses on rail workers, but does not touch the core issues of scheduling and adequate staffing, in fact happened because the rail corporation management were themselves beginning to do it unilaterally.  

Railroad Unions Still Fragmented

Bureaucratic rail union leaders are quick to claim credit, complacent that no fundamental union restructuring or reforms are required of them. But these wins are not thanks to better bargaining skills by union leaders. The unions are still bargaining fragmented agreements in an uncoordinated way as they have in the past.

“We’ve made a lot of progress,” said Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, the main US labor federation. “This is being done the right way. Each railroad is negotiating with each of its individual unions on this.”

Greg Regan is technically correct that under current law and union structures, there is no alternative for the rail unions that now are bargaining from a position of fragmentation and structural weakness.  13 small craft unions are powerless against big corporate management. Real and lasting progress for rail workers will come only from a major restructuring of the rail unions into a single union, together with the mobilization of a unified and democratic rail workers’ movement.  Rank-and-file reformers are advocating for one big Railway Workers Union, as imagined by Eugene Debs in the 1890s.

Resistance to the negative consequences of super-exploitative rail capitalism for rank-and-file rail workers has been coordinated by two rank-and-file rail reform caucuses, Railroad Workers United (RWU) and the BMWED Rail & File Caucus. These caucuses have developed in different historical ways strategically, and use differing tactics, but taken together have already made a major positive impact for rail workers. I described these two caucuses more fully in an article in Democratic Left posted on the DSA website. 

Both caucuses are contributing to help shape a better future for rail workers and their unions.

The BMWED Rank and File Caucus stems from an internal organizing effort within the Brotherhood of Maintenance Way Employees – part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).  The internal organizing campaign was headed by Carey Dall, an organizer hired from the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union). Over several years, utilizing as many as twelve internal organizers at a cost of over $10 million, the BMWED slowly increased its capacity to mobilize rank-and-file members.  In 2016 the union was capable of staging a coordinated National Day of Demonstrations.  However, the financial costs of the campaign became too much for the small union to bear alone, and the campaign ended with Carey Dall’s departure back to the ILWU.  The BMWED Rank & File Caucus, now aligned with other Teamsters reform caucuses, is insisting that rail workers need a unified and democratic industrial union to be effective: Fighting isn’t easy, but united we can win. (bmwepower.com)

An energized network of 26 state legislative coordinators from the BMWED rank-and-files, led by Deven Mantz of North Dakota, visited Congressional offices in November 2022, to lobby for paid sick leave.  They gained the enthusiastic support of Representatives Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush and AOC for including paid sick leave in the tentative agreement that would end the current round of negotiations.  After Speaker Pelosi refused to include that sick leave provision in the agreement and insisted on separating the votes, the House passed both the sick leave amendment and the imposition of the Rail Labor Act.

Although the legislative team focused on lobbying Republican Senators from their home states to support legislation introduced by Bernie Sanders that would amend the tentative agreement to include seven paid sick leave days, several Republicans who had promised to vote for paid sick leave reneged under pressure from business lobbyists.  The Sanders amendment passed the Senate., but without the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

Yielding to pressures from the four major freight railroad corporations, on December 2nd President Biden signed his approval of a tentative agreement that did not address the essential demands of rail workers for proper scheduling and staffing, safety requirements and adequate paid time off.

Later that day Biden flew to Boston to sip tea with Prince William, only to be met by a protest of some 200 persons hastily organized by local members of the Railroad Workers United, by the Boston DSA labor working group, and others.  The rally noisily called out Biden as a SCAB, was well covered by the Boston Globe and local news media, got national attention, and led to editorials in the Boston Globe and other news media calling for paid sick leave for railroad workers.  A week later, a smaller rally in Worcester brought out members of Worcester DSA and a larger presence of rank-and-file rail workers. An article by Henry de Groot in Working Mass captures these actions, which remain among the largest protest actions in support of rail workers to date.  

Solidarity From DSA and Others for Bigger Changes for Rail Workers

This setback for the rail workers did not end the struggle for paid sick leave days for rail workers. Both the BMWED Rank and File Caucus and Railroad Workers United [RWU] made use of the public outcry against the unwillingness of the freight rail industry to keep agitating for paid sick leave as one measure to address the concerns of rail workers. The RWU, with an executive board and organizers made up entirely of rank-and-file rail workers from several different unions, expanded its already vigorous presence in a variety of media, including numerous interviews with organizer Ron Kaminkow and Executive Board Co-chair Ross Grooters.  The RWU also organizes an excellent weekly email mailing that includes news, editorials and excerpts from all sorts of articles including mainstream and industry publications. The RWU is committed to organizing regional solidarity chapters open to DSA members and other supporters along with rail workers.

As part of its agitational campaign, the RWU is pushing for nationalization of the freight rail industry. This campaign has been endorsed by the UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America) and by DSA Labor. The national DSA Labor Commission and its various organizing committees (EWOC, Labor Corps, etc.) have sponsored numerous group discussions and webinars that include rail worker issues, attended regularly by Ross Grooters, Ron Kaminkow, Deven Mantz, Carey Dall, Matt Weaver and other rank-and-file rail workers.

This growing relationship, begun just several months ago, seems to be a useful experience both for the rank-and-file rail workers and for DSA. It is an important part of DSA’s commitment to joining and supporting broad working-class struggles from Starbucks and Amazon through the UAW and other academic workers’ unions, teachers and nurses. DSA Labor Commission has been prioritizing the UPS campaign, the success or failure of which will set a tone for all worker organizing in the USA, including that in logistical industries like freight rail.  

Building a militant, broad, environmentally conscious, and inclusive working-class movement in the USA makes every other goal of democratic socialism more possible. The DSA Convention will be debating a consensus resolution put forward by the National Labor Commission to make this a top priority for DSA as a whole.  Likely friendly amendments include ongoing support for nationalizing the rails and to support the rail rank-and-file caucuses’ demand for the creation of a big industrial union.

When we have a big industrial union we will have the power to improve everyone’s lives. This is especially clear when it comes to rail road workers: if we had nationalized rails and good working conditions we could prevent catastrophes like the train wreck in East Palestine. We would also rely on cars less and help prevent the worst of the climate crisis. If we combine the values of democratic socialism with the power of a big industrial union we could accomplish almost anything.

Paul Garver (he/him) worked as a union organizer in the USA for SEIU from 1974 to 1990, and organized and coordinated unions at the global level for the International Union of Food Workers (IUF) from 1990 to 2006. After formally retiring, he has continued this work through DSA, through the International Committee and as its liaison to the National Labor Committee. He is one of the founding members of DSA.

Eli Gerzon (they/them) is the managing editor at Working Mass. They are active members of Boston DSA and Jewish Voice for Peace – Boston. Gerzon got their start in political organizing as part of the climate movement helping start and lead statewide campaigns in Massachusetts.

At 12:01am May 2nd, the Writers’ Guild of America launched their first nationwide strike since 2007, grinding production to a halt across the entertainment industry. The WGA represents over 11,500 writers in TV, film, radio, and online media production, and for 56 days and counting, its members have held the picket line from coast to coast, demanding fair compensation for their time and labor, greater job security, as well as firm protections against studio efforts to replace their profession with artificial intelligence. Tonight, we hear from Jono Matt, a screenwriter based in Los Angeles and a strike captain for the WGA, on their fight for a fair contract and why this public display of labor power by the writers is so critical in this incendiary moment for the working class of this country.

UPS Teamsters have authorized a strike this August. It’s vital that the socialist movement mobilize and help rank-and-file members win a ground-breaking contract.   Syracuse DSA’s Steering Committee has officially joined DSA chapters across the country by signing on to Strike Ready 2023!What can you do to get involved? Great question! Commit to attend the picket line, provide donations for workers, or purchasing Teamster merch by signing the Strike Ready Pledge.  You can find more information about Syracuse actions here.

The post Syracuse is 2023 Strike Ready appeared first on Syracuse DSA.

One of the goals for the first year of the National Tech Committee’s (“NTC”) Five Year Work Plan was to develop and deploy a system for handling voting at the 2023 DSA National Convention. NTC members had been informally engaged in discussion of potential contenders to meet this goal since last summer’s NTC wide strategy session, and began actively looking at tools and our options at the beginning of 2023.

What follows is a retrospective and report-back of the last few months of work from the NTC and our work to meet this goal. This is a long post and should be seen more as a reflection of how the NTC approaches planning and testing our tools for use in DSA. If you just want to read a summary of OpenSlides and its features, click over to our OpenSlides page.

Background

Scope of Work

After an initial session with NTC members and Staff at the beginning of the year, we identified the following requirements for a voting tool for the 2023 Convention to be considered a minimum viable product:

1. Stability. Application needs to be able to handle 1300+ comrades voting in a small window of time.
2. Speed. Both for Staff administering the tool during convention (e.g. creating new votes on the fly for floor motions, converting comrades from Alternate to Voting member) and for comrades using it for votes, the tool needs to be fast
3. Mobile friendly: The tool needs to work on mobile, as well as on a tablet or computer
4. Accessibility: Tool needs to be able to be used by a screen reader for comrades that rely on them.

Additional ideas that were identified in this scoping call, but not included as the bare requirements for a voting tool were:

• Stack functionality
• Time keeping
• NPC Elections

The NTC and Staff both expressed  an interest in testing this out in chapters to get feedback and get as many comrades across the organization as possible used to using the tool, prior to August.

History of Voting Tool Implementations in DSA

To provide context to the above scope of work, here is a summary of past implementations of voting tools for DSA conventions:

2017 DSA Convention: DSA used a volunteer-built mobile web application to facilitate voting, but it crashed on the first vote due to the spike in traffic and was scrapped by floor motion by convention delegates in favor of hand voting immediately. Hand voting required Staff to tabulate totals for NPC elections at convention manually, which was a major delay for delivering the results to the delegate body.

2019 DSA Convention: DSA used OpaVote to facilitate votes. This was time consuming, costly, and crashed the DSA website due to too much traffic.

2020 YDSA Convention (virtual): DSA used a volunteer-built voting tool built on Google Sheets and Forms. It crashed once, but worked for ~200 users. 

2021 YDSA Convention (virtual): DSA used a volunteer-built voting tool built on Airtable. It worked for ~200 users without crashing and added a new stack functionality. 

2021 DSA Convention (virtual): DSA used a volunteer-built voting tool built on Airtable. It crashed twice and experienced significant delays in processing votes and stack requests for ~1,200 users.

2022 YDSA Convention: DSA used a volunteer-built voting app built on Softr. The stack function worked, but the voting function could not support ~200 simultaneous users (the app did not adequately update for delegates during voting), and was scrapped by convention delegates in favor of hand voting immediately.

NTC Research

With our prior research and discussion and assessments of the NTC’s capacity, we ruled out creating another tool from scratch for two reasons: the first and foremost is myDSA was and still is an NTC priority which has most development energy focused on it. The second, is it is unrealistic to expect a full-featured and stable software of this complexity to be developed in less than eight months, especially one that has been battle tested for large user-groups and can handle spikes in use.

Commercial solutions work, but have been inflexible for the needs of a live Convention. As expressed to us by Staff and prior delegates, OpaVote and the custom-built Airtable voting system work perfectly assuming there’s no changes to the agenda or a resolution. Once we divert from that, it becomes a much more frustrating and time consuming process for kicking off a vote, potentially delaying a tightly packed agenda. OpaVote’s disadvantage on top of this is still its cost, as any Chapter leader likely knows, it’s incredibly expensive to kick off votes and for a convention delegation being 1300+ comrades this year, we’re looking at $110 per vote. Airtable (and Softr, which is built on Airtable) on the other hand, is already paid for use annually by DSA National, but we’ve seen the tool break multiple times now under load of 200+ delegates.

After research of available tools, we narrowed the selection to Loomio and OpenSlides, both pieces of open source software. The compatibility of our fight for Socialism in our lifetimes and Open Source software is a huge subject not in the scope of this blog post, but a vast majority of NTC members all agree and recognize the imperative for DSA to support and adopt open source tools rather than proprietary capitalist tools, especially when we’re spending member dues to use or run this software. Open Source means we can view, run, and even edit the code backing the application ourselves, leveraging the work of other contributors and teams who have committed their work to the public good. It’s the closest thing tech workers have to owning the means of production under our current conditions, while we organize more shops to be unionized or converted into worker owned cooperatives.

Loomio’s advantage is it’s already being used by other bodies in DSA, including the National Political Committee, for asynchronous votes and discussion/amending of items. The experience our existing user-base had with this tool was appealing as well as its ability to scale to a full convention body (an aside, but a great fact — Loomio is a worker owned cooperative!). Unfortunately, the tool is not oriented to a full parliamentary body like our Convention, as it is strictly a voting tool that allows for discussion and decision making. For Convention, especially our first in-person one since 2019, the desire to focus on debate on the floor rather than having additional areas of discussion was highlighted as a reason Loomio may not meet our needs by Staff and what was relayed over from the Convention Steering Committee.

OpenSlides, while new to DSA, is a full featured suite meant to augment in-person, hybrid, or virtual deliberative bodies that has been in development for as long as Loomio. Its users include a number of left political parties that have parallels to DSA and YDSA: the Social Democratic Party of Germany (‘SPD”) along with its youth wing Jusos, the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), and Die Linke along with its youth wing Linksjugend [‘solid]; have used OpenSlides at various meetings and party conventions. Other users include several European labor unions and various non-profits. While not owned by a worker cooperative, its owner and developers have decades of commitment to exclusively creating and supporting open source software projects.

OpenSlides Selection

The NTC was able to deploy a proof of concept instance in March 2023 of OpenSlides in our testing environment and upload the 2021 Convention in the tool to run a mock convention for NTC members and Staff. Immediately identified by testers was the number of additional features in the tool that met not just the minimum requirements, but added a lot to help improve quality of life use of the tool. Features such as in-tool amending of resolutions, progressive stack with a point of order functionality, and a way to mass import and create accounts for the entire DSA convention delegation from a .csv file, helped sell this as the recommended solution for Convention from the NTC and Staff.

One limitation of the tool today identified by the NTC is OpenSlides is unable to do Borda or STV for NPC elections, merely doing a simple first past the post elections. While this means it cannot handle the NPC elections today for the 2023 Convention, as it is open source it’s likely the software will be able to support it in the future either by requesting it of the developers or recruiting developers for it. This was considered the last of the “nice to have” features outlined in our scope of work.

By mid March, NTC and Staff presented the tool to the Convention Steering Committee along with a 2 month testing plan for the tool, to trial it in as many chapters as possible throughout April and May, which was passed unanimously.

Chapter Testing

After approval to proceed with testing, DSA procured a hosted instance from OpenSlides which we introduced to Chapters as an “evaluation copy” of OpenSlides, as it had a single “meeting” limitation with 250 concurrent users. We could run this in as many meetings and add as many comrades as we wanted, as long as they were done sequentially and users were removed when no longer used.

Staff identified all chapters that previously used the Airtable voting system for Chapter Conventions or meetings, along with a few medium to larger chapters that we felt would be good to deploy OpenSlides in, leading to close to 60 chapters being identified. Of those, we selected the following chapters and DSA bodies to test the tool out in:

• Socialism is the Future Conference – mock session
• DSA North Texas – April General Meeting
• Atlanta DSA – April General Meeting
• DSA Metro Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky – April General Meeting
• Seattle DSA – April and May General Meetings
• Boston DSA – April General Meeting
• California DSA – May Delegates Meeting
• National Tech Committee – Steering Committee Meeting
• Providence DSA – Chapter Convention
• East Bay DSA – Pre-Convention reading meeting and Chapter Convention

We had a number of additional chapters reply with interest using the tool, but due to a mix of scheduling conflicts, the aforementioned capacity limitations on the evaluation instance of OpenSlides, along with limited NTC/Staff capacity we were not able to run this in more chapters.

In addition to this, the NTC partnered with the National Disability Working Group to ensure the tool was tested with compatibility with screen readers for comrades that need them, along with other often overlooked accessibility items that came up during our testing like selecting a “DSA” theme that didn’t impact the use of the tool for comrades needing high-contrast visibility.

What Worked

Voting, a key component of the minimum viable product outlined in our scoping calls, worked flawlessly. Comrades using the tool found the votes obvious and easy to find, and found the function of it easy. Stack taking for facilitators, also was something that got great feedback from comrades and from Chapter leadership as it made managing discussion and debate much easier than hunting through Zoom or struggling to take in-person and Zoom stacks.

Comrades found the motion screens which contained details of a resolution and any potential amendments easy to use, however the Amendment feature was not used with actual amendments from the floor in any chapter just due to how each of these meetings went.

NTC requested 10 minutes at the start of a meeting for training on OpenSlides, to both help set up chapters for success and to allow for NTC and the Chapter to provision any accounts needed for walk-in comrades to the meeting. These trainings became easier after fine tuning the training materials. Initially a focus to introduce the tool with Convention in mind (and an emphasis on DSA Staff and NTC not being able to modify votes) was dropped to simplify training around “why we’re using the tool for this meeting”, “here’s how to log in to the tool, check in, and then vote” which had better reception from comrades and resulted in less questions.

Special highlights: 

• North Texas DSA was the first DSA chapter that used this tool to conduct business at their April meeting, 
• Seattle DSA was the largest overall chapter to use the tool with 246 accounts provisioned and 115+ simultaneous users of OpenSlides at their April chapter meeting and approved the creation of the Seattle Sound podcast using OpenSlides!

Pain Points

The aforementioned limitations on the “evaluation” instance of OpenSlides was a minor headache for chapters as it required Chapter leadership and the NTC to work to get as many “known” attendees. It became apparent that many chapters have comrades that do not use the chapter’s ActionNetwork to sign up for meetings. The NTC factored for this and expected that the beginnings of every meeting would need to be spent provisioning accounts, but in some cases NTC members had to provision close to 50 additional accounts from “walk-ins”, which could’ve been automatically imported had the comrades signed up to ActionNetwork. The import process around this limitation on quantity of delegates also resulted in adding East Bay users to an incorrect group which contained a typo, preventing them from using the tool until this was rectified. While less than 10 minutes for the NTC to fix, this is something that slowed the meeting body down.

The single “meeting” limitation also meant we were unable to run two meeting bodies at once, as comrades were all participants in the same meeting with each other. Meaning Agenda, Motions, Votes, were all scoped to the same user base. This prevented us from running two meetings at once when conflicts occurred (NYC DSA and Providence DSA, DSA Cincy/Northern Kentucky and East Bay DSA were two such conflicts).

The silver lining with the above two pain points is this is a result solely from us pushing the limits with the above evaluation copy. If a permanent instance of OpenSlides is spun up for a chapter or national body, there is little reason to need to re-create users all the time as they can just be kept in the tool as long as they’re a member in good standing. On top of this, a longer running instance will also allow us to run multiple meetings concurrently, and not worry about conflicting meetings. Once chapter comrades are onboarded into the tool, they do not need to be re-uploaded each time either, and can be assigned to whichever meeting body they’re participating in.

Another major pain point for the NTC and Staff is written documentation in English from OpenSlides on how to use their tool is sparse. The tool is intuitive and simple enough that NTC members were able to learn the administration of it by poking around or using Google Translate on the existing German documentation, but it needs work to be something that’s usable as a reference for DSA. We will need to create our own documentation library including video trainings for comrades to learn how to use the tool, much like ActionNetwork trainings are given through Org Tools today, for this to be a viable product we deploy as a service to chapters and national bodies.

What Didn’t Work

Timing and connectivity issues were the main issues we ran in to with chapters, with a couple cases where they caused the tool to be tabled by the meeting body. In Providence DSA’s case, technical issues due to the wireless being down at the location of their chapter Convention caused the meeting body to be unable to hear training from the NTC, which caused this to be shelved by chapter leadership.

For timing issues, in Metro Cincy/Northern Kentucky’s case, technical issues delayed the virtual attendees from dialing in to their hybrid meeting, and once that was resolved it was found that the meeting body had moved on from the planned agenda of starting the meeting off with an OpenSlides training on to the rest of their agenda. By the time the training occurred, it was just before votes were being cast and the comrades in attendance voted to table the tool to not break up the rhythm of the that had already been in progress.

These chapters are not highlighted to “point blame”, but rather to give real world examples inside of DSA in the spirit of blameless post-mortems. It further emphasizes that for anything to be successful technology wise in DSA, we need a careful process to introduce the tools, factoring in local conditions in each body that may make running a tool infeasible, have a backup plan, and most importantly: get buy-in from our comrades that what we’re offering is in fact better. We as technologists learn more from our failures than our successes, and it’s the reason we need to write them down and document them.

Bugs Identified

As a result of testing in chapters, the NTC was able to identify several, non-application breaking, but disruptive bugs which have been identified thanks to comrades (specifically the wonderful YDSA comrades at the Socialism is the Future Conference!) thoroughly testing out the tool. In order:

• User pronouns were identified to have a max length of 256 characters. This was resolved in a recent minor release of OpenSlides
• “Non-Binary” was not listed as a gender, rather “male”, “female”, and “diverse”, likely due to a mistranslated phrase from German to English. This was a major complaint from our users as it’s reflected next to user names when on Stack. OpenSlides has resolved this for the 4.0.2 release
• Issues between light and dark themes not coloring links consistently

Looking Ahead: Convention and Beyond

There’s a lot of potential for a future for OpenSlides in DSA. From optimizing various committees and chapter meetings and ensuring basic things like agenda setting are done consistently between leadership bodies and members, to being able to make meeting facilitation easier with in-app progressive stack, voting, and amendment creation.

The NTC will be spending the next couple months getting our documentation and training package ready for our comrades heading to Chicago to direct where DSA’s heading in the next two years. But after August, we want to work on continuing to get this in as many hands as possible and hope to find permanent homes for it in your local chapter or national committee.

Dear Chicago DSA members,

I am writing to encourage you to RSVP for our Chapter Convention on June 25 from Noon to 4pm! I originally sent this out as an email to members in good standing who haven’t RSVP’d, but I wanted to publish this on Midwest Socialist so everyone can read.

I started my Secretary term on July 1, 2022 and I’m getting ready to finish my term on June 30th. I’ve been a Chicago DSA member since February 2017. For the last 6.5 years, Chicago DSA has been my political home.

I’ve been asked by a few comrades, “why is our Chapter Convention the same day as the Pride Parade?” Usually I start by saying we scheduled our Convention months ago before the parade date was set in stone. But for me, what really hits home is that the Pride Parade is a corporate event that celebrates corporations. Chase Bank will be there wearing rainbow colors. Cops will act like they’re part of our queer community and then be back on the streets the next day killing us. I’m excited for families who want to celebrate and show their kids what inclusivity looks like. But as a trans person, I will never feel comfortable at a Pride Parade that prioritizes our oppressors over me.

Trans and queer rights are under attack. At the last General Chapter Meeting we passed a proposal in Defense of the Queer and Trans Working Class. In order to turn that proposal into something real, we have to organize. In my opinion the best thing we can do this Pride Month is to come together as a chapter to discuss and vote on proposals that will prepare us to bring in more and more people to our movement so we can fight back as a united front against right wing attacks on trans people. And in order to make that happen, we have to make quorum!

So that is why I am asking YOU to RSVP today for the June Convention. We, the membership, are the highest decision making body of Chicago DSA. I urge you to make it out to our Chapter Convention on Sunday June 25, from Noon – 4:00PM. The meeting will be hybrid, with in person location at CTU Hall, 1901 W Carroll Ave.

Comrades, we have a world to win!

Useful links

• RSVP for the meeting
• Agenda
• Phonebank volunteer form – Help turnout CDSA members to the GCM so we can make quorum!
• Day-of Volunteer form – Volunteer needs will include checking in members, setting up, and working the merchandise table

Solidarity,

Marcy F (she/her)

Chapter Secretary

The post Why Is The Chapter Convention The Day Of The Pride Parade? appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

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