Author: Mike Z

Things aren’t the best right now. I think we can probably all agree on that. The Trump administration is seemingly speed running the dismantling of our civil liberties while nakedly attacking any opposition of any kind. He’s declared war on anyone even remotely to the left of his positions with with broad and sweeping declarations of illegality so as to target and silence dissent within society. Even the most milquetoast liberals are being attacked and silenced for their modest criticism of Trump. Endless tariff uncertainty and corporate back dealing have led to ever increasing pinch in the wallet for the average person. ICE continues to attack our neighbors in the name of unlimited deportations. Federal troops and the national guard are being deployed en masse to ccities Trump deems to be “crime infested” to normalize their use against American citizens. Israel continues its genocide of Gaza from occupied Palestinian territory while the American media landscape consolidates control in the hands of a few Zionist sympathizers.

I think many of us did not expect things to fall so fast. That there would be at least some kind of fight or pushback that would slow things down. I think many of us thought we’d have more time to prepare for a fight that we knew may be coming, but just not yet.

We do not.

The fight against fascism is here. And with this recognition there is a sense of helplessness and hopelessness that can become paralyzing or empowering depending on your outlook. I recently helped run a new member orientation and when we talked about why we all joined, those feelings of helplessness and hopelessness were at the top of the list. For these people those feelings motivated them to seek out something more, but for so many others it leads us to shut down. Even those of us who have been in this fight for any amount of time are susceptible to this as well. What we do is not easy and we are all just human at the end of the day. It is something I have fought with on hard days as I’m sure many of you have as well, but we must be wary of letting those feelings set in and stay for any significant length of time. They can lead us to doomerism – that nihilistic feeling that nothing can change, try as we might, so what’s the point? It leads us to isolate and pull away from our comrades who are in desperate need of our support and solidarity. It leads us to comply with our ideological enemies before so much as a word is even uttered.

Do not comply in advance. Kill the part of you that dooms.

Your doomerism is the final boss of overcoming your liberalism. Liberalism teaches us to be oriented towards the individual and to hold that ability to operate unfettered from the restrictions of society and our peers as the highest virtue. It would have us believe that a single person, with enough pulling of the bootstraps, could change society. But anyone who has lived in one of our so-called liberal democracies understands the powerlessness of the individual in the face of systemic oppression. I believe this is where that doom comes from. But as socialists the remedy is simple. It is the knowledge that throughout history it has always been the case that true change only happens when the average person bands together in a fight for a vision of a future that has yet to be. A future that WILL be if we do the work now to materialize it.

We must remain endlessly hopeful that these actions we are taking right now will be the ones that start the fall of the first domino. We must remain steadfast in the face of overwhelming power and adversity to keep fighting for what we know to be right and just. We must remain assured in our convictions that the emancipation of all people from the evils of capitalism is worth fighting for to see a better future for our descendants who will reap what we sow today. And this is not to say it will be easy, because it certainly will not be, but remember that by joining with our comrades we can help each other foster and maintain the spirit of unyielding optimism that our fight requires. The future we want to build must remain our lodestar to bind us together in a movement larger than any one of us single actors.

In writing this I am constantly thinking of the Palestinian people, as I do most days for the past 2 years of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Every day there are new atrocities to learn about. Every day more innocent lives are lost in the name of genocidal irredentist conquest. But every day I am also stunned by the stories of ongoing resilience by those who remain and continue to fight for their very existence. They would have every right to despair. Nearly 80 years of occupation and systematic ethnic cleansing by Zionist forces, the majority of it patently unknown to much of the western world funding their destruction, and yet they carry on. They continue to fight for their homeland and their humanity with such grace and compassion. They remain unbroken.

Just as they dream of a world where they can live free in their land once more, we can embody this endless optimism in our fight to transform the world. We can work to build a world that will ensure that the oppressed and marginalized peoples around the world may never suffer a fate even remotely similar to those of Palestine, or Sudan, or Sri Lanka, or any of the other communities across the globe being persecuted ever again. For the sake of all people we must steel ourselves so we may respond to their cries for help both at home and abroad.

I recently finished a wonderful book, “Let This Radicalize You” by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba Cover to cover it was an amazing read that I highly recommend to any organizers looking for salient real world stories of other organizers and how they’ve struggled and succeeded. But that’s not what I want to talk about. During the book Mariame quotes one of her previous works and it has become permanently emblazoned into my mind –

“Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.”

And that’s really the whole thing right there to me. To me this quote really encapsulates the concept of Revolutionary Optimism in its entirety. When faced with heinous societal developments, don’t let it silence you, let it be the fuel that powers your resistance. Be it hope, anger or anything in between. And if you can’t do that, do it out of spite.
Remember that the average person does not like what is going on. They don’t like Trump and all the violence he is fomenting. They don’t like the attacks on their neighbors. They don’t like everything becoming endlessly more expensive while becoming worse every year. They don’t like the threats and restrictions on their freedoms across the board.
Remember that people want clean air and safe food. They want universal healthcare. They want affordable childcare. They want high quality infrastructure and public transit systems. They want affordable public housing. They want to feel safe with their family when they are out in the world. People want peace and prosperity, not war and destruction.

The average person is feeling all the same emotions of helplessness that we are – it’s our responsibility to help them. As those on the forefront of this struggle it is our duty to share our knowledge and strategies with the masses. To organize them and bring them into the fold of our fight. To show them a better future is possible and that they are a vital part of the equation that will free us all.

Organizing is the antidote to the despair we are all collectively feeling and working to stave off every day. In my short time in DSA I have found that surrounding myself with my comrades working together, no matter how small that work may be, has been the surest path to feeling secure in what we are doing. It’s helped me feel a little less alone in such uncertain times. It’s helped me feel reassured in the mission we are all here to fight for and the world that DSA believes in. I hope it can be that for you as well.

Kill the doomer inside you. A better world is possible for us all – let’s build it together.

Join DSA

If you’ve read this far I want to reward you with some of my current favorite videos that help me maintain my optimism for the future by reminding me why we fight. They help me lock back in. Yes, 3 of them are from Andor – don’t give me that look. Light spoilers if you haven’t seen it (go watch it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-asb8zTiuZ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKB67KzjO4A 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaKrm5txGCQ

And finally an excerpt from one Michael Parenti’s many wonderful lectures

https://youtu.be/npkeecCErQc?si=0o_HW2fb4jdUY-I4

The post Revolutionary Optimism and Why You Should Kill the Doomer Inside You appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

The following is a speech delivered by Portland City Councilor Wes Pelletier at the October 18, 2025 No Kings rally in Portland Maine.

Hi everyone, thank you for being here. What a tremendous turnout. 

For those who don’t know me, my name’s Wes Pelletier. I’m the City Councilor for Portland right here in District 2. 

I’ve always been into politics. I canvassed for Howard Dean when I was thirteen, and followed politics closely after that. It was fun, with crazy characters and plot lines. The fun was quickly sucked out of it in November 2016. Suddenly, my relationship to politics was just a spiral of dread and anxiety, of anger: of powerlessness. I think we’ve all become familiar with that feeling. 

What got me out of that spiral, though, was organizing. It was building community. In being a small part of a larger whole: taking notes at meetings to figure out how to get winter clothes to homeless folks, signing people in at the vaccine clinic, knocking doors in my apartment building to start a tenants union.

From the outside, these projects never seem like much. What could one meeting around a kitchen table mean in the face of such widespread, powerful, nihilistic cruelty. Why dedicate a perfectly good weekday evening to a Zoom Call to design a flyer?  

I’ll tell you why: because it gives you a sense of agency and control in a system that does not want you to have any. So now, rather than lying awake every night feeling directionless and powerless, I wake up every morning with an idea of what specifically I can do to move things forward, even in a small way.

But more than that: it creates the skills and the structure that we will need to overthrow Trump’s fascism. Fascism relies on fractured communities. It relies on us being afraid of other people on the street, of us not being able to resolve disagreements without calling the cops. It relies on us believing that if we just throw enough other people under the bus, we’ll be spared. 

Now, those of us here know that’s not true. We know that diversity is strength. We know that our fight is not with our immigrant neighbors, it’s not with the guy sleeping in a doorway, it’s not with trans folks who are just trying to be themselves in a world that wants to punish them for it. We know that our fight is with the billionaires, and the ruling class that would throw us all to the wolves if it meant that their stock portfolio went up a point or two.

We know all of that, but how can we build that sense of solidarity around us?

Here’s how. Get involved. If you’re fortunate enough to be in a union, talk to your Representative and find out how to get involved. Get involved with your local Parent Teacher association, or a mutual aid organization. When there’s an ask for help, raise your hand, and then use that opportunity to understand how the organization works and how you can pitch in. 

Yes, you’re signing up for work, but it’s work in the same way that a hobby is. It is work that’s gratifying and it’s work that grows in scope. A few years ago I was handing out granola bars at a Brett Kavanaugh protest. Now I’m a city councilor. 

It also helps to have a political home. Mine is the Maine Democratic Socialists of America, who right now has a working group fighting for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. We’re building tenant power in multiple Cities, and here in Portland we’re fighting for question A, which will raise the minimum wage to help bring economic security to our most vulnerable neighbors. 

There is also Indivisible, who has done such important work in fighting to stop Avelo Airlines from being a part of ICE’s machine, and who has organized this incredible event.

These organizations teach us how to run a good meeting where we’re able to come together and make decisions. They show us that it’s possible to disagree but build something strong together. They teach us how to stand up for what we think and to take criticism with grace. They give us the skills we need to make our little corners of the world more fair, more connected, and more resilient to the fear and loathing that Trump feeds on.

But look, I get that not everyone has time for a new commitment. Maybe that all seems like a bit much. So start at home. 

Here’s an example. Say you don’t know anyone on the street you live on. Maybe there’s an elderly neighbor you know that could maybe use a hand every once in a while, and you’d love to help but it’d be weird to just knock on their door and ask. 

So you could just go about your life and feel idly disconnected from the people around you. Or maybe you plan a halloween block party. Make a flyer, knock on your neighbors’ doors, and see if they want to come drink some cider and maybe bring some donuts. Will they think you’re weird? Yes, almost definitely. But I will tell you that odds are good, that a few of them will show. 

And when they do, you don’t need to talk about politics, just eat donuts and get to know each other and your struggles. And next week, when your elderly neighbor needs help raking leaves, they feel okay asking you. Or when your next door neighbor is baking a pie and is a little short on flour, they can get some from someone on the street rather than driving to the store. 

And those little acts may not seem like much, but they build a community that cares and looks out for each other. A community that, when Trump’s goon squad comes to disappear the family living a few doors down, comes together and drives them out. That is the power of community.

So here’s what I want to leave you with: I want you to feel the power that we have here today. I want you to feel the solidarity and the sense of common purpose. Celebrate and commiserate. Then I want you to take that home with you, roll up your sleeves, get involved, and build the communities and organizations that will stop these wannabe kings in their tracks. 

Thank you all. Solidarity forever. Free Palestine!

The post No Kings Rally Speech by Councilor Pelletier appeared first on Pine & Roses.

On Monday, October 20, Cumberland County Commissioners will vote on agenda item 24-112, deciding whether or not to continue the county jail’s contract to hold ICE detainees. Last May, a loose coalition of individuals and organizations called No ICE for Maine began organizing and speaking out during public comment at the commissioners’ meetings, arguing that the county was being used by ICE as a small cog in their deportation machine. Five months later, after hundreds of members of the public have spoken out, thousands have signed a petition to end the contract, widespread press coverage, and public and private arguments and discussions with the board, we are on the eve of what would be an historic decision in the fight for immigrant rights. The letter below was sent the letter below to the commissioners as part of that campaign prior to a special hearing late last month.

***

Dear Cumberland County Commissioners, 

A final plea.

If you don’t have time to read this entire note, then before tonight’s hearing, please read and put yourself in the frame of mind of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. It reads, in part, 

“Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”

I first met you all back on May 17 at your monthly meeting. At the time, I believe those of us who value equality before the law, human rights, and basic respect for individual liberty were all in shock at the brazen assault on the rule of law by the Trump Administration. I have consistently counseled my counterparts to appreciate the administration’s strength and to assume that Trump and his cohorts will cling to power, no matter the cost. However, I have to admit that I hoped along with everyone else back in May that Trump’s drive to consolidate power might stumble and break apart. Four months later, it should be clear that any cause of such optimism is unfounded. What remains is a test of political power. 

This is nothing new in American politics. The Declaration of Independence was illegal from the Crown’s point of view. The Fugitive Slave Act (in fact, there were several such Acts) was legal, resistance to it was not. Separate But Equal segregation was legal, Dr. King was an outlaw. As were the Suffragettes, the CIO, and the UFW. Political power resolved each of these conflicts, laws and their interpretations followed after. Someone had to take a stand to put these processes in motion. 

Prior to the 1920s, immigration was open to virtually all Europeans. Speaking for you and me, whose ancestors came from that part of the world, our families were declared legal while today’s Black and Brown and Asian huddling masses are declared illegal. Keep in mind that enormous numbers of those being detained today are LEGAL, they have asylum claims pending, but ICE and Border Patrol snatch them up because of the color of their skin. 

Trump has decided that the knife he will use to cut the Constitution down to his liking is an all out attack on our immigrant neighbors. He is not enforcing the law. He is using political power to create facts of the ground that his hand-picked Supreme Court will later codify or, perhaps, temper to one degree or another. That ought to be plain to see by now. Trump is not winding down, he is winding up. 

I prefer to persuade and to reason, but here comes a time when all room for equivocation is over. For the past four months, you have seen what we have seen: Trump is using ICE as a practice squad for fascist repression. He is not yet able to impose that without dissent. But Congress just gave him $145 billion to build this machine and he intends to do so. Locally, Border Patrol and ICE act with impunity, masked up, raiding worksites and threatening schools. They will be more powerful and audacious in the coming months. 

No ICE for Maine did not start this debate. ICE started it and you ought to have reacted before we ever turned up. But after four months of public testimony and ICE terror, the sum total of your actions is as follows: 1/ you had a 60 minute meeting with No ICE for Maine representatives in July at which you listened to Sheriff Joyce describe the rapid rise in the number of ICE detainees in his jail, while admitting that he had no idea where most of them were living when they were detained; 2/ by your own admission, you spent much of August researching and refining rules for public comment [to limit it] instead of proposing to work with us to oppose ICE in whatever way you might have preferred, 3/ and you have schedule a single 2 hour workshop scheduled for tonight [September 29] in which No ICE for Maine is supplying the majority of the presenters while the majority of the presenters you designated represent law enforcement, but you haven’t even compelled an appearance by an ICE representative.

Here is how this looks. You are angry at us for breaking decorum, while you have not lifted a finger to oppose ICE as it increases its operations in the very institution under your direct supervision, the Cumberland County Jail. 

I believe you when you say you are disturbed by ICE’s actions. 

I believe you when you say you hope people protest ICE elsewhere. 

I believe you when you say you believe, whatever its limitations, in the rule of law. 

But if you vote to continue the contract with ICE, you will demonstrate that you lack the courage of your convictions. You didn’t ask to be put in this position, but you are elected officials so it is your job to make hard decisions. 

Here is the way out: Sheriff Joyce openly declares that he will defy the Commissioners if you vote to terminate the contract. He believes he has the law on his side. Well, then. Vote to terminate the contract and we will move to the next phase of this fight, that is, whether or not the Sheriff is obeying state law. The Maine Supreme Court has not yet been wrecked, so the dispute will get a fair hearing there and it will open the door for the Legislature to consider it as well.  

Until September’s meeting, Commissioner Gorden stated multiple times that, to paraphrase, if cutting the contract is the right thing to do, the Commissioners will do so without regard to financial considerations. At the September meeting, he raised the question of the financial impact of terminating the contract. I genuinely hope that he misspoke and that Commissioners are not weighing their commitment to equality before the law against a few pieces of silver. Your careers in public service deserve better than that. 

Take a stand for our immigrant neighbors. Vote to terminate the contract. Vote no to ICE. Vote yes to accountability, democracy, and civil liberties. Help us bring to life the old slogan, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” 

[Read next: Harness street power, endorse No Kings!]

The post Cumberland County jail should cut its contract with ICE appeared first on Pine & Roses.

By Phil K.

DSA members and allies rally for Medicare for All outside of Rep. Doris Matsui’s office in downtown Sacramento.

In April of this year, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell introduced the Medicare for All Act of 2025, the legislation for single-payer universal healthcare, along with over 100 Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate who signed on as co-sponsors.

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, Sacramento’s two Representatives—Doris Matsui and Ami Bera—are currently NOT co-sponsors of the bill. Despite the urging of a vocal and diverse local coalition for Medicare for All, including Sacramento DSA, Matsui and Bera refused to sign on, signifying their defense of a highly inefficient, profit-based system that makes it extremely difficult for half of U.S. adults to afford healthcare when they need it.

While the Trump administration accelerates the corporate attack on the working class and cuts funding for popular, necessary programs like Medicaid, Democrats like Matsui and Bera fail us by not pushing for the most effective solutions to problems that Sacramentans face every day.

It’s not enough to simply oppose Trump’s cuts when we have a status quo where more than half of Californians are skipping medical care due to cost and more than a third of Californians have medical debt. We spend about twice as much per person as other industrialized countries, but millions of people, many with insurance, still can’t get care. In combination with steadily worsening wages and economic conditions under decades of both Democratic and Republican presidential administrations, it’s no surprise that so many Americans have lost faith in politics.

Single-payer universal healthcare is the bare minimum of pro-working class policies that we desperately need, and we need elected officials who will actually work to pass it. The fact that half of elected Democrats in the House and a majority of Democrats in the Senate don’t support Medicare for All is both a disgrace and political malpractice that facilitates the rise of Trumpism.

However, the reality is that because of how entrenched the healthcare corporations are in our political system, too many politicians will not support it unless we build enough political power to either force them to support it or replace them. This is a long-term fight and it’s going to take a deep commitment to grassroots organizing and a willingness to engage in a diversity of tactics.

Sacramento DSA will continue to fight for guaranteed healthcare on both the federal and state levels. We urge readers of this blog to sign our petition, call your rep, and demand that they co-sponsor Medicare for All. Stay tuned for more blog posts on different aspects of our fight for healthcare justice over the coming months, and join our chapter’s Healthcare Committee to get more involved.

Members of Sacramento DSA deliver letters to the offices of Reps. Doris Matsui and Ami Bera urging them to co-sponsor Medicare for All.

The following remarks were prepared for the No Kings protest in Brighton, NY (one of several events held across Monroe County) on October 18, 2025. Due to “not having a permit for amplification,” the Brighton event did not include speakers, and these remarks were not delivered – an issue that demonstrates the limitations of these protests, described previously in the pages of Red Star and alluded to below.

My name is Greg and I am the Secretary of the Rochester chapter of Democratic Socialists of America. Thank you to the organizers who put this event together, and for inviting us to speak.

We’re here because we oppose the Trump Administration’s assault on our democratic values and the rising tide of fascism in America. We oppose the deportation of our neighbors and the invasion of our communities by federal agents. We oppose unauthorized deadly attacks on fishing boats in Venezuela and the expansion of US imperialism. And we oppose the erosion of social safety nets, union rights, and so much more.

But we must recognize that the conditions for the present did not develop in 2024 as a result of Trump’s second election; nor 2020 in response to Covid; nor 2015 when Trump descended his golden escalator to announce his candidacy by calling Mexican immigrants “criminals and rapists.”

We must recognize the legacy of our country’s founding upon the genocide of Native Americans and the theft of land; the forced transportation and enslavement of Africans; the WWII internment of US citizens of Japanese descent; colonialization and military interventions in the Philippines, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Iraq, and elsewhere; and red scare tactics against those who have voiced opposition.

That is why we must not fight for a return to the status quo, but for our collective liberation. Despite what we were taught in grade school, the project of a “free and equal” America is far from complete.

Today, the working class is crushed by low-paying and demanding employment, rising prices, and increasingly innovative methods of exploitation in pursuit of endless corporate profit.

The confounding popularity of the Trump administration is this: We are confronting real problems. But they are not the result of those who are scapegoated by fascism. It is the ailment of a system where everyone’s personal worth is reduced to the monetary value they produce for the capitalist.

We must provide a competing vision. One in which everyone is truly free. Where everyone has access to healthcare. Where everyone belongs to a union with democratic control of the workplace. Where we can all afford the necessities to live a dignified lifestyle.

It’s great to see everyone out here today, and to see the protests that have occurred since the start of Trump’s second administration. Yet we must take this energy beyond the streets. We must get organized, and find the pressure points to push back on the encroachment of fascism. We can’t wait for the ballot box in 2026, we must start now. Go to rocdsa.org to learn more about our organization, but whatever you do, don’t let being here today be the end of it. 

We have a world to win.

The post “No fascists, NO KINGS!” first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

The dynamism and explosiveness of the Suntrapp Workers United (SWU) strike has been hugely activating for LGBTQ, labor, and political activists all over Salt Lake. It is rare that you see new unions in this state and in the food service industry. It’s even rarer you see those unions strike! SWU have taken a stand against their employer for their dignity and their right to control their own working conditions. They know their power lies in their labor and solidarity, and are causing a crisis for their employer in order to meet their demands. As a result, the vast majority of Salt Lake is behind the SWU strike and have been turning out in huge numbers to support it. Every night the bar looks almost completely dead; the end is in sight.

A strike is meant to put a business in crisis—that is precisely what makes it powerful. But when the business in crisis is a beloved small business, there is always opposition that feels it’s not “right” to unionize a small business. Is it ‘right’ for the workers to cause a crisis for an employer that has this kind of romantic cultural value, something that is increasingly rare and fleeting in a society where multinational corporations have almost completely erased the market for small businesses? This problem can be initially confusing for people trying to understand socialist politics, as progressive liberalism tends to prop up minority owned small businesses as agents of broader societal improvements.

In the DSA, we seek to understand this through a class analysis. Socialism is a project to change the world we live in, and so we have to understand the world objectively. Who controls society? By what mechanisms do they control society? Who is oppressed? How can we liberate the oppressed, and turn society on its head? In class society, the infrastructure and resources which we depend on to survive are controlled by a tiny minority of the population, which we call the ruling class or the capitalist class. They dominate society not just by controlling our workplaces, but also the state, the government, the police, the military, education, mass media, and cultural institutions. We seek to put workers collectively in charge, not just of their workplaces, but all these sections of society. In order to achieve this monumental task, we must build a mass movement of workers who understand the necessity of creating worker organizations to leverage the only advantage we can have over the capitalist class; our superior numbers and our indispensable role in the economy. We recognize trade unions as one form of worker organization which engages workers in the struggle against capitalism, so Salt Lake DSA supports and engages in efforts to build unions in Salt Lake City.

This unconditional support inevitably will lead to this problem we’re discussing at Suntrapp; what do we do when workers are unionizing against a small business? Do we support them, or do we condemn their struggle because it is against a small business owner? The answer should be obvious in the context of the class analysis above and the broader movement. It would not serve the mass movement or the organized socialist movement to make our support of unions conditional on the specific economic position of the business owners, picking and choosing which workplaces are “big enough” or “too small” for democracy. If the small business owner chooses to resist the union, they are resisting a part of the movement we’re building together.

However, there is a distinction to be made. In the simple class analysis above, do small business owners have the same socio-economic position as monopoly capitalists like Bezos, Buffet, and Musk? Are they equal members of that class which control all other aspects of society? Of course not. Capitalism and individual capitalists are not the same, and different capitalists have contradicting interests. Small businesses are much more precarious and must appeal to romantic notions of community, handicraft, and personalized experiences to stay afloat, since they lack access to the economies of scale which make large industry objectively more efficient. The owners may even do the most labor in their business, forced to exploit themselves due to the immense market pressures to stay profitable.

However, they are also not working class either. They control the working conditions of others, hire employees to work for less than they create just like any other business, and the only thing they risk is the possibility of losing their investment and becoming a worker. They don’t do these things because they are a “good” or “bad” person, but because the market forces them to make decisions to stay competitive. As a result, they occupy a middle, precarious position between hegemonic finance capital and the working class. They can be genuine community leaders, with close connections to workers, and contribute something meaningful to the world along the economic framework that our society functions. But it is also true that small business owners are materially motivated to oppose union efforts at their workplaces, and therefore will often choose to do so.

Class position alone does not always predict the decisions of an individual. Workers themselves can also choose to be enemies or allies to the working class movement. Millions of working class Americans are unconvinced of a socialist future, and often actively sabotage union efforts in their workplaces by scabbing or counter-organizing, just like business owners. Socialism is not about “good guys” and “bad guys,” it’s about who chooses to build the movement, and winning the majority to that cause. Small business owners are trying to escape the same conditions all workers are, and we can appeal to them on those grounds. Rather than seeking individualized liberation from exploitation by becoming a capitalist, the only sustainable and just solution to class society is participating in a historic effort to overcome class distinctions completely. Socialism will liberate elements of the small owning classes as well, as they will no longer need to struggle so desperately to escape being a worker. With a mass movement perspective in mind, and the disproportionate strength of the small owning class in the US, we will even likely need to win a section of this layer to our cause on the strength of our ideas and
organization.

The owner of Suntrapp, and all business owners confronted with a union, should see the union for what it is—a piece of the wider movement to transcend class society. If she cannot, we need not concern ourselves too much on whether or not she will voluntarily recognize the union. We will tirelessly organize, regardless of the opposition we encounter. As a result, we must confront a final possibility. What if Suntrapp closes completely? Are the workers still correct to organize and to strike?

If the owner chooses to close their bar (to be clear, it will be her choice; the bar can absolutely continue to operate with a unionized workforce) rather than maintain complete control over their employees, we would continue to support the SWU strike as a win for the organized working class movement. Socialists are not engaged in a project to build more small businesses. We know the organized working class has the power to transform our society; a nation of small businesses does not. The workers in SWU know the stakes, and understand their struggle in the context of a broader one. Every picket I’ve attended, the workers at Suntrapp emphasize their vision of transforming the entire food service industry in Salt Lake. If an owner is too proud and short-sighted to bargain with their employees, then so be it. SWU will carry their experience and knowledge to their next workplace with an intimate knowledge of the stakes and an understanding of themselves as members of a working-class movement. The community should also learn the same lessons; that we have the ability to take a stand collectively as a class.

Unions at large businesses face the same threat of discipline through closing businesses. Capital has moved entire manufacturing bases to more oppressed nations for ‘cheaper’ labor and less regulation, and will often threaten to discipline organized labor by accelerating that process. That does not mean we oppose the movement the ruling class is trying to punish. It should be clear that we do not evaluate support of a union effort based on the reaction of any business owner, large or small. We see it as an element of an international working class movement.

The post Suntrapp Workers United and Small Business Liberalism first appeared on Salt Lake DSA.

Workers in Italy have been extremely successful in using the strike as a tool against war and connecting this with their lives at work.

The post Italian workers packed the streets for Palestine appeared first on EWOC.

The Nov. 4 Parks Levy effort becomes part of the Chapter’s emerging Family Agenda. 

On September 14, members of the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America voted to endorse the upcoming Portland Parks and Recreation Levy 2025 Ballot Initiative as part of its Family Agenda campaign, and is training members to canvass Portland communities in support. 

The 2020 voter-approved levy to support parks and recreation operations expires at the end of the fiscal year. If the Nov. 4 levy is not approved, the Parks operating budget would be cut nearly in half, resulting in far fewer programs and services. The Parks Levy ensures Portland can maintain parks and community centers by increasing the property tax rate by 60 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value. That means a median homeowner would pay about $26 per month and the median commercial property owner would pay around $37 per month.

Why it matters

Parks are about more than recreation: they are sites of community, climate resilience, public health, and intergenerational, cross-cultural connection. In a city increasingly shaped by privatization and budget cuts, securing resources for public parks is essential. Local governments around the country have found that investing in parks, and providing equitable access to them, can increase economic vitality and make their cities more attractive for existing and potential new residents. 

“The levy is an important piece of our community’s future, particularly for renters who rely on city parks to access the outdoors. With everything costing people more these days, parks are a great example of the community coming together both literally and figuratively, to ensure we have free outdoor spaces for all. My coworkers and I are the first line of defense to make sure these spaces are welcoming and well-maintained. I wish we had a more secure funding model but for now, the levy is essential.”

• Ryan Heidt, horticulturist for the City of Portland and LIUNA 483 member (Parks & Rec workers)

The wealth is here, if we want it

Contrary to the stories that wealthy people like to tell, we know that the rich only get richer by exploiting their workers: as of 2024, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio for major companies was $285-to-$1. We also know that “tax flight” is a myth cooked up by the city’s elite to get out of paying their fair share. That’s why Portland DSA supported City Councilor Steve Novick’s proposal earlier this year to increase the existing surcharge on corporations that have highly skewed ratios of CEO-to-worker pay, in addition to DSA member and City Councilor Mitch Green’s Healthy Parks, Healthy Climate Plan which would have built on Novick’s proposal. These are examples of the creative policy-making this city desperately needs right now.

At the same time, the 2025 Parks Levy is necessary but insufficient. This is especially true given that the Portland Metro Chamber threatened a campaign of opposition to the levy if the City Council didn’t reduce the amount, thereby protecting the Chamber’s elite base from having to pay a more equitable share. While the levy will provide urgently needed funding, relying on periodic levies to sustain critical infrastructure is an inequitable and unstable approach. Public goods should be guaranteed through progressive, permanent, and reliable funding—paid for by taxing the wealthy and corporations who benefit from our shared resources, not through regressive measures that disproportionately impact the working class. That’s why we need more elected leaders with the guts to push back against the arm-twisting elites at the Portland Metro Chamber and to stand up for working people.

“For years, Portland DSA members have shown up and testified for more sustained funding for the essential services that parks and community centers provide. The 2025 Portland Parks Levy will be no different. We’ll engage our neighbors and push to pass the levy while remaining crystal clear: a longer term funding structure is sorely needed and we’re ready to fight for that too.”

• Olivia Katbi, parent and co-chair of Portland DSA.

We need you. Yes, you! 

Portland DSA believes in vibrant public spaces as a collective right. Do you? Then sign up to stay in touch on future events and actions. Over the long term, the City Council must put more resources in public hands, but right now passing this levy is our best shot at retaining what we love about our parks and community centers. 

About the Parks Levy

The 2020 Parks Levy was a success for the city, as shown through both an independent audit and reports from the existing Parks Levy Oversight Committee. The 2025 Parks Levy would:

Preserve Program Access

• Continue free and discounted recreation programs for families experiencing poverty
• Provide free lunch & play programs, movies, concerts
• Preserve classes, community center hours, arts and cultural centers, parks, pools 

Ensure Neighborhood Parks Maintenance 

• Daily restroom cleaning, trash pickup
• Routine maintenance, minor repairs
• Repair or renovate facilities like playgrounds, restrooms, pools
• Park ranger safety patrols, incident responses 

Protect Nature in a Changing Climate

• Plant, maintain trees
• Preserve natural areas, trails, water quality, wildlife habitat
• Clear brush, maintain emergency access routes to reduce wildfire risk 

About Portland DSA’s Family Agenda

Families, however you define them, are a crucial part of a movement for a better world. Through the Family Agenda campaign, Portland DSA seeks to build a culture of collective care for working people, children and elders in our community, while rejecting the right-wing nationalist definition of family. We will make our voices heard at the city, county, and state to stop the slashing of programs that families rely on, and to demand that our parks, community centers, and after-school care programs are fully funded. We’ll be working to expand public support for public education and fight for full implementation of universal preschool at the county level – a policy that Portland DSA fought for and won in 2020.

Contact: family.agenda@portlanddsa.org  

The post Portland DSA Endorses Parks Levy, Calls for More Ambitious Public Investment appeared first on Portland DSA .

by Gregory Lebens-Higgins

On September 6, Free the People Rochester (FTP ROC)—a police and prison abolition organization formed in 2020 during the mass mobilization against police brutality—held its inaugural conference on “Abolition: A Practice of Resistance and Resilience.” The conference occurred in a similar moment of urgency, as expanding carceral resources are deployed against immigrant communities and cities, mirrored by growing resistance to the ideologies embodied by Trump. It is a moment for the left to advance solutions to the structural issues perpetuating these circumstances.

Modern carceral systems maintain the legacy of slavery, with methods of oppression evolving from plantation systems of control—slave patrols, overseers, and forced labor. These mechanisms represent the coercive arm of capital that disciplines labor; and like capital, they are expansive. We now live in an era of global policing, with cross-border surveillance and coordination by increasingly militarized police forces.

Carceral solutions are not effective at “solving crime.” If spending on police and prisons correlated with safety, the United States would be the safest country on earth, pointed out keynote speaker Philip V. McHarris, author of Beyond Policing. Poverty is the greatest indicator of crime, so why not put a stop to that? Because safety is not the goal. Rather, it is policing class boundaries and protecting power.

What is Abolition

Prison abolition is the continued struggle against systems of slavery and human subjugation. The Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition on slavery excepts the practice “as a punishment for crime.” Abolitionists recognize there can be no exceptions in the struggle for collective human liberation.

Abolition has a dual component: Alongside organizing to end systems of oppression, we must develop and implement new solutions. There are legitimate concerns regarding crime in our community. Nobody wants to become victimized or fear for their safety. The problem is that the dysfunctional solutions currently offered don’t actually make us safer. 

“We must broaden how we think about violence and harm,” suggests McHarris. As we see all too often, police themselves carry violence and harm into communities. So does a lack of nutrition, insecure housing, and social alienation. When people are housed, fed, and cared for, says McHarris, “the justifications for policing disappear.” 

Abolition is a practice; it is the horizon of what we must achieve. Abolitionists affirm that another world is possible, and deploy imagination and collective power to bring it forth, says McHarris. Who would include police and prisons in their vision for a perfect world? We must build toward that vision to make it a reality.

The road to abolition will not result in the immediate dismantling of prisons or disbandment of police forces; yet this transformation is the goal. Too often, criticisms of abolition are framed using the most egregious examples—What are you going to do about the Ted Bundys and John Wayne Gacys of the world? But these are not representative of the majority of those caught up in the tentacles of the carceral system, deserving of true opportunities for rehabilitation that incarceration claims (i.e., the Department of Community Corrections), but fails, to deliver.

Carceral systems discipline our imagination by imposing limitations on what is seen as possible. McHarris uses the example of 911—now ubiquitous, this universal emergency services number was only developed in 1968. Notably, as a recommendation of the Kerner Commission to help suppress “civil disorder” (i.e., Black protest); with Alabama white supremacist Eugene “Bull” Connor a party to the first 911 call. Yet calling 911 is now the reflexive response for many, from minor annoyance to emergency.

Limits of Reform

Can’t we just reform policing? Police forces could become more effective and kind; jails and prisons more comfortable. In short: no. If conflict is produced by structural conditions, we need to address those conditions. When we reform policing we put more resources into policing, resulting in further expansion. Abolition requires divestment. Organizers must ask, “Is this action taking power (energy, resources, and legitimacy) from the institution?”

The bourgeois state will never grant reforms sufficient power to have teeth. In Rochester, the Police Accountability Board was defanged by the police union; now having no real power to discipline cops and becoming a form of “legitimacy theater.” The Person in Crisis (“PIC”) response team, created for mental health intervention, responds to less than half of calls, and are often accompanied by police—resulting, still, in carceral management.

With the implementation of body-worn cameras, “we see when they kill us, but they’re still killing us,” said city councilperson Stanley Martin. Increased training—whether for bias, deescalation, or use of force—does not change the role of police. A more diverse police force does not change its class dynamic. Ultimately, the question is where we focus the energy of our movement in the demand for change.

Abolitionist Solutions

Abolition requires “an abundance of experiments,” says McHarris, including components of prevention, intervention, and response. How do we limit the occurrence of crises, resolve conflict, and heal in its aftermath?

One such experiment was unveiled at the conference: HOPE (Healing Outreach and Peer Engagement) First ROC. Like PIC, HOPE First is intended as an alternative to police intervention in mental health crises. Yet it is community driven to avoid co-optation by the carceral state. We tried creating alternatives through the system, now we’re building through community, explained Martin.

The program relies on a paid peer-response team and will utilize a different number than 911. People in crisis can call to connect with a care team, discuss options and decide the best way for help. After receiving care, follow-up ensures ongoing support. This system is premised on the belief that “people can define crisis in their own terms,” says Mallory Szymanski, Co-Founder of the Upstate New York Policing Research Consortium. The project is currently limited to the 19th Ward, with hours from 3:00pm – 11:00pm (based on analysis of 911 calls), but is looking to build 24/7 availability.

HOPE First ROC is modeled upon similar “experiments.” CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) was founded in Eugene, Oregon in 1989 to “provide[] immediate stabilization in case of urgent medical need or psychological crisis, assessment, information, referral, advocacy and, in some cases, transportation to the next step in treatment.” STAR (Support Team Assisted Response), based in Denver, Colorado, “is an alternative response team that includes behavioral health clinicians and paramedics to engage individuals experiencing mental health distress and substance use disorders.” HOPE First is funded by a legislative grant from Samra Brouk, Chair of the New York State Senate Mental Health Committee. The program will build in consistent evaluation and reflection to improve its services and inform further experimentation.

How We Get There

Attendees workshopped potential challenges for the program. The revolution will not be funded, and we cannot rely on those in power to indefinitely fund programs that challenge power. HOPE First must also overcome public backlash from stigmatization and the political influence of the Locust Club. And first responders must understand the population they are working with.

To be effective, HOPE First must be truly community driven—by building relationships of trust and visibility in the community, providing avenues for community involvement and decisionmaking, and educating the community on the availability of alternatives and demonstrating effectiveness through transparency. HOPE First must also develop adequate “secondary responses,” by networking with other resource providers. 

The conference—bringing together organizations across Rochester—“is what the work of abolition looks like,” said Martin. We are building a coalition of aligned activists that can exert pressure for change. To quote escaped slave and abolitionist Rochesterian Frederick Douglass, “power concedes nothing without a demand.”

McHarris acknowledged that these “abundance of experiments” won’t necessarily each end in success. But we must be critical in how we understand success—the ending of one “institution” or phase of organizing does not mean the end of the ideas expressed or the lessons learned. We must “keep imagining, keep dreaming.”

The post Defund, Rebuild first appeared on Rochester Red Star.