BOOK REVIEW

Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See (Second Edition)

Mike Davis, Kelly Mayhew and Jim Miller

Seven Stories Press, 2026

Beyond the Theme Park: Struggle and Solidarity Under the San Diego Sun

Interviews by Kelly Mayhew and Jim Miller

Center for Policy Initiatives and American Federation of Teachers Guild, Local 1931

This year’s republication of Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See has been anxiously awaited by San Diego progressives and leftists. A master work by the late Mike Davis and his co-authors Jim Miller and Kelly Mayhew, Under the Perfect Sun went out of print only a few short years after its original publication in 2005, and has since then been passed around, checked out via interlibrary loan, and transmitted via PDF among organizers and activists hungry to learn about a city that hardly seems to know itself. Yet the new edition means more than an opportunity for San Diego leftists to finally have and hold their own copy—it’s an opportunity for our comrades across California and beyond to understand how one city’s development shaped the contemporary forces we must map, move and overcome in our quest for working-class rule.

Under the Perfect Sun stands alone as a record of San Diego’s left and labor history, but it’s also distinguished by the structure of the collaboration. The book is made up of three main sections, separately authored or, in the case of Mayhew’s contribution, curated. Following an introduction by journalist David Reid is a political and economic history by Mike Davis, then a chronicle of insurgent fights by Jim Miller, and the book concludes with a compendium of oral histories gathered by Kelly Mayhew. The new edition includes a sampling of contemporary testimonials gathered by Mayhew and Miller to accompany this year’s republication; available in full free and online as the companion publication Beyond the Theme Park (download available from the Center for Policy Initiatives website). (Full disclosure: I am one of the activists interviewed for that book.) 

Structuring opportunity

Flipping the order, let’s start with the oral histories. And what a start. In both Under the Perfect Sun and Beyond the Theme Park, Mayhew opens with leaders in San Diego’s civil rights fights – Harold Brown in the former, Shirley Weber in the latter. I want to be very clear: DSA members and other leftists who only know Shirley Weber as California’s current secretary of state nonetheless need to read her story. It reveals what is possible once a structure is changed to unblock opportunity, and consequently how crucial it is to examine and understand structures at all levels. From Harold Brown, you’ll learn the lonely experience of fighting for economic parity and how that focus determined agendas of the early 2000s. Also in Beyond the Theme Park is Center for Policy Initiatives’ executive director Kyra Greene, who at the launch event for the new edition noted that the comparatively small civil rights movement in San Diego factors into the persistent struggles of the left today.

Also featured in both books are many of the area’s most significant labor leaders, movement organizers, nonprofit directors and politicians. As Mayhew put it at the launch, what you get from oral histories rather than third-person narratives based on newspaper articles and other archives is an understanding of experience. It matters to know what moved Lorena Gonzalez and Sean Elo-Rivera into their current positions and commitments (Beyond the Theme Park), just as much as it matters to see how binational activist Enrique Davalos ended up choosing San Diego, and what working for the Environmental Health Coalition looked like for Sonia Rodriguez, who lived the toxicity of Barrio Logan firsthand (Under the Perfect Sun).

Repression and amnesia

Jim Miller’s episodic journey through San Diego’s left struggles changed my perspective utterly when I first read it 7-8 years ago, newly activated and unsure why everything in San Diego’s mainstream political life seemed so remote. Though I am myself a transplant, San Diego was always a fixture in my life as the birthplace of my military-family parents, who continued in that tradition. They graduated from UC San Diego’s first bachelor’s degree cohort. They grew up with the city as it boomed through the Cold War years. Yet I never learned anything from them about San Diego’s political life, and in the truest sense possible, San Diego hid itself from many of its own children. As Miller writes, struggles beginning with the Free Speech Fight in the early 20th century onward were dealt with by both repression and amnesia, summarily dismissed or distorted beyond recognition by credulous historians drawing exclusively from tilted accounts.

What’s so significant about memory? After all, capital manipulates government and its aligned institutions everywhere; newly developing leftists might understandably believe that since the factors of capital control are continuous, the dynamics of contesting them are transferable from one place to the next. What is so critical about Miller’s history, though, is learning about the victories alongside the setbacks. While the Magonista revolt was a rout and Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organizing was effectively suppressed by vigilantes in the early twentieth century Free Speech Fight, the establishment of Third College at UC San Diego and the creation of Chicano Park are examples of community interests consolidating as exercised power. What’s so significant about erasure? Last year I walked my elderly parents around Chicano Park – the largest collection of public murals in the nation, and extraordinary in their virtuosity – and told them the story of its founding. They had no idea. Not even that it exists.

Completing the flipped order, Mike Davis’ history of political and economic power in San Diego visits many of the themes in his Los Angeles histories, such as City of Quartz (1990) and his last-published book, Set the Night on Fire (2020). While Davis is recognized as one of the last century’s most influential Marxist authors, many DSA members may be new to his work. Under the Perfect Sun is a fantastic start. The section asks who rules San Diego, answered by the overriding contest of “smokestacks” versus “geraniums.” With smokestacks understood to be the faction driving for infrastructure that could enable large industry, the geraniums of San Diego’s past and present generally prevailed, focused on slow urban growth and economic sectors that alienated mass organizing and working class consciousness by their very nature – tourism and the military. 

Davis’ thesis is that through these competing capital factions, San Diego’s power has oscillated between what can be thought of as private governments, with the government of publicly elected officials acting primarily for those interests. As this history progressed beyond the publication of Under the Perfect Sun his thesis and indeed the center have held: first Republican, now Democratic, San Diego’s officials stand on a continuum of stewardship for private elites. Without working class institutions effectively contesting for power, that center has reconstituted in the last 20 years to include the racial, ethnic, gender and sexual orientation minorities rebuffed by a myopic GOP. At a time when parties are first and foremost brands, the center-right now makes its approach through campaigns formally unaffiliated with the GOP like Larry Turner for mayor in 2024 and now Richard Bailey for city council, who adopted Zohran Mamdani’s design palette for his primary campaign.

Look beyond slogans, follow the money

Tracing how these fights have articulated is critical for leftists across the U.S. as urban politics are gripped by the polarity of “YIMBY” versus “NIMBY.” As climate change advances – a key concern of Davis in his later years – leftists, unions and working class communities of interest draw factional lines around what is to be done about unaffordable housing, the unequal and unjust distribution of pollution, rapid transportation and the U.S.’ overreliance on home ownership to build social security. Reading about the stratagems of San Diego’s smokestacks and geraniums illustrates just how handily working class anxieties can be manipulated to serve masters we did not choose – even to the extreme of surrendering public resources to a power as remote and impervious as the U.S. military. Look beyond the slogans and follow the money.

In the 2026 coda, Jim Miller reflects on the changes in San Diego in the last 20 years and narrates some of the most significant events since Under the Perfect Sun was first published. While the cost of living is now driving workers out, the representation of historically marginalized groups in office is marked as a welcome change. A recent win is the reversal of bans on project labor agreements (PLAs) by municipalities across the county and the commitment by the City of San Diego to adopt PLAs going forward. Often, labor in San Diego now leads where our politicians falter, and the closer cooperation between unions and community organizations like DSA gives hope that someday we’ll escape the recurrent corruption dogging San Diego as Enron-by-the-Sea.

Under the Perfect Sun gives a view of collaboration as process and praxis, with each author bringing to the book a life of service in its different forms. Mayhew and Miller have both served as leaders in their local AFT chapter, bringing their San Diego City College students into organized activity through the AFT internship program they launched as a pedagogy of experience. Together they founded City Works Press and with it the San Diego Writers Collective, and with journalist Doug Porter publish The Jumping Off Place, an online platform for independent writing. Their legacy is still evolving, and humbling in its scope. The presence of Mike Davis the organizer and working class son in his writing gave us one of the clearest voices in a quintessentially American Marxism, and a view to how the natural riches of Southern California can be ours when we fight. Elbows up and solidarity bound, let’s carry his spirit on.

The top of the ticket statewide races and big city primaries grab the headlines, but at the local level and in smaller municipalities DSA members have been working hard to elect working class champions as well. In some cases the reward was winning outright or landing in the top two for the November 3 election runoff. In others our DSA candidates didn’t get there, but working on their campaigns strengthened the infrastructure of the chapters for next time. Here is an example of each: the mayoral race of Claudia Jimenez in Richmond, and the longshot lieutenant governor campaign of Oliver Ma as it played out in Orange County. 

Claudia Jimenez for Richmond Mayor!

The stakes have never been higher in Richmond, California. Chevron recently agreed to a $550 million dollar settlement with the city and the race is on to see if that money will be controlled by progressive politics or conservative business politics. The Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) endorsed Claudia Jimenez as their candidate for mayor: she is a proud Colombian immigrant, community organizer, city councilwoman, and political mentor to many of us who live in Richmond. East Bay DSA, often perceived as an Oakland-heavy organization, endorsed her mayoral campaign this year and members devoted significant people power to assisting her throughout the primary. 

Up to twenty EBDSA members showed up to the widely promoted canvasses. A core group of DSA members also attended weekly canvasses and phonebanks in the months leading up to the primary. Claudia has spoken at membership meetings and participated in debate at our convention. Our chapter’s monthly “Socialism Beats Fascism” event dedicated its May meeting to promote Claudia’s campaign and helped plug new members into volunteering with her. This is EBDSA’s best support so far for an RPA candidate and we are exploring more ways to support Claudia heading into the fall, such as organizing fundraisers and putting together a policy research team. 

DSA members are attracted to the RPA’s principled and highly successful track record in city government. Richmond currently has the lowest homicide rate in city history, a million-dollar legal defense fund for immigrants targeted by ICE, a mental health crisis response team (ROCK) that assists in emergency calls alongside police, and the city has extracted itself from high-cost debt swap investments that kept us in financial peril for decades. However, not everybody is a fan of such progress. Claudia’s opponents include Chevron, which doesn’t like being held accountable; the local police association, which thinks all settlement money should be used on overpolicing; and groups associated with AIPAC, who didn’t like Richmond leading a wave of municipalities calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza. All have deep pockets which is why fundraising for the November election is going to be key for Claudia victory! You can donate now at www.claudiaformayor.com! 

Oliver Ma Campaign a shot in the arm for OCDSA

It is June 2nd, the primary election night, in a crowded brewery in Santa Ana, California and conversation is flowing while televisions on the wall show the current state of each race. The room is filled with comrades from the Orange County Democratic Socialists of America (OCDSA) and the United Auto Workers union, Local 4811 (many of whom are in both organizations). Everyone here has spent the previous months canvassing their neighborhoods, phone banking, text banking, and even hand-writing postcards for Lieutenant Governor candidate Oliver Ma. When Ma, who actually grew up in Orange County, comes into the bar everyone starts chanting his name as he passionately starts a speech about how we collectively ran a grassroots campaign to be proud of.

Oliver Ma did not end up getting enough votes to move forward to the November election, receiving nearly 620,000 votes, or 7.3%. But the campaign was a shot in the arm for Orange County DSA. The campaign came at the opportune moment when the Electoral Committee of the chapter needed direction and revitalization. Since the conclusion of the Oliver Ma campaign the committee voted through new guidelines and expectations for the endorsement process, as well as helpful tips for those looking to apply for OCDSA endorsement.

During an open call with California DSA earlier this year, Oliver Ma described his intentions with the campaign. He described a campaign that would ideally uplift, train and funnel the people working on his campaign into DSA, whether or not he won the election. From the perspective of OCDSA this plan worked. We had current members who had their first canvassing experience for a democratic socialist candidate they actually wanted to endorse instead of a corporate Democrat. We have had new members come in from the campaign, energized and ready to move towards the next committee project. Just like any socialist project, we will learn, train, and do better next time.

On Thursday, May 21st around 3:30 p.m., a hazardous chemical leak was reported from a GKN Aerospace plant in Garden Grove, California. The chemical leak was caused by an overheating storage tank for methyl methacrylate, a toxic chemical used in the production of plastics such as those in airplane canopies. The failure was caused by a faulty valve in the tank’s cooling system leading to a rise in tank temperature and pressure. Additional safety mechanisms from GKN to halt the reaction on May 21st also failed. As a result, the GKN tank threatened a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE), endangering the lives and homes of thousands of Orange County residents.

Located in the middle of a working class neighborhood, the emergency prompted an evacuation order from city officials which displaced approximately 50,000 residents for five days before being lifted on May 26th. The threat was resolved with emergency response from OC Fire Authority to cool the tank as well as a partial crack which relieved tank pressure and heat gradually.

Major hub for military contractors

GKN Aerospace, a subsidiary of the British-based Melrose Industries, is an aerospace parts manufacturer serving contracts for plane engine parts and airframes with private and public sector clients. A 2025 report shows that 35% of Melrose Industries’ revenue from airframe sales comes from defense contracts, such as the contract for canopies for the F-35 fighter jet produced by Lockheed Martin. Currently, 48 of these jets are in use by the Israeli military to facilitate genocide in Palestine. GKN additionally serves contracts producing military parts for BAE, Leonardo, Airbus, other Lockheed Martin projects, drone projects for Anduril (an Orange County-based defense contractor), and direct government defense contracts. The GKN Garden Grove plant began operating in 2004 according to reporting from the LA Times.

The GKN Aerospace emergency highlights the glaring contradictions in the political economy and developmental priorities of Orange County. Southern California has been a major hub for defense contractors since World War II. Its location provided proximity to many of the largest military bases in the US, ideal geography and climate for weapons testing, and a massive supply of white- and blue-collar labor already trained for weapons production fueled by immigration waves and federal investment. The resulting economic development empowered a growing class of white suburban defense industry executives who relied on extracting the labor of Southern California’s diverse working class in urban manufacturing for private profit. 

The organization of Orange County’s military-industry class went beyond economic interests, becoming the epicenter of the Cold War counter-revolution in the US and generating political machines which led Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to the presidency. Decades of deindustrialization have since destroyed most of the manufacturing base of Orange County. However, toxic plants remain siloed in marginalized communities like Garden Grove, threatening the same workers on whose backs Orange County’s capitalist class arose in the first place. After intervening years of capitalist deregulation, we are left with a harrowing chemical emergency created by a system of interconnected political and economic interests hostile to workers in Orange County and abroad.

Community response

In response to this emergency, the Orange County community has shown an inspiring dedication to direct mutual aid, with volunteer organizations including Orange County DSA, 714 Mutual Aid, Costa Mesa Mutual Aid, Orange County PSL, World Central Kitchen, and many others helping organize the delivery of food and essentials to sheltering Garden Grove residents. Our community understands what our politicians do not: we protect us. In the absence of a political infrastructure committed to the needs of the working class, we must continue to build networks of solidarity, mutual aid, and community defense capable of supplanting our atrophied state capacity.

Garden Grove residents are still struggling in the wake of the evacuation. Workers in Garden Grove are facing missing paychecks, unreimbursed hotel stays, and the stress of a narrowly avoided environmental catastrophe. Predictably, most insurance companies are refusing to pay out on claims for these losses. As capitalism repeatedly fails to provide care and safety for the working class, Orange County DSA remains committed to supporting the needs of Garden Grove workers and opposing the interests of the military-industrial complex in Orange County.

As the Trump Administration continues to blame its failures on anyone left of the far-right, the federal Department of Education (DoED) has just taken another step towards what can only be called a new Red Scare.  In late May, the DoED unveiled a press release that proposed several critical changes to how institutions of higher education are accredited. If implemented, these reforms would force universities to, among other mandates, hold “policies that support, promote, and appropriately prioritize intellectual diversity” and implement “academic freedom protections.” 

The overwhelming majority of universities already insure intellectual diversity and academic freedom. Conservatives just want to use universities as platforms to push their anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-democratic, and socially backwards ideas to the next generation. They despise these “woke propaganda factories" because they promote critical thinking skills and intellectual diversity which empower students to question the systems and ideas their ideology relies on.

DSAers must acknowledge that these reforms will not just be used to deny funding from universities who refuse the DoED’s demands, they will make campus organizing much harder. As the largest and most successful socialist organization of the century, we cannot pretend that these developments won’t affect DSA and the broader left. 

The last two administrations have had mixed success legally compelling colleges to bend the knee to its policies. Some colleges like Brown and Columbia have capitulated while others like Harvard and UCLA are still resisting. At the state level, MAGA activists have been increasingly hacking away at public education, with some states funding “hostile takeover[s]” of entire universities.  The Trump White House is now looking to change the rules completely (again), and (Y)DSA must be ready to organize with students and faculty against them, or risk losing momentum.

Not Out of Nowhere

These proposed reforms did not come out of nowhere. Far-right discourse around higher education has saturated social and national media for decades. Conservatives have long tried—and failed—to build institutional power from within public universities. In recent years, the rapid spread of Turning Point USA has created magnets for the most racist and hateful students on campus; even without Kirk, they remain one of the fastest-growing fascist youth orgs in the country. 

However, astroturfed campus organizing hasn’t afforded conservatives much institutional power inside higher education. Many of the noted Youtube college campus crusaders have burned out—or gone cold—since the first years of Trump 1.0. Now with unchecked power over the government, conservatives are opting for a sweeping, top-down approach to higher education reform.

This is a scary reminder that the long held conservative tradition of discrediting and dismantling higher education never truly dies. With the certainty of capitalism’s boom-bust cycle comes the recurring fear of its logical solution. When we look at the history of Red Scares in the United States, it can be hard to tell when one begins and one ends. Historians are undecided on exactly how many distinctive Red Scares there have been, but there can be no doubt that the current scare we face has the potential to be more consequential than that of the McCarthy-era.

The chill of McCarthyism

During the Red Scare you probably learned about in school, the chill of McCarthyism was felt across many industries, especially in higher education. The general anti-communist paranoia amongst post-WWII U.S.A. was exploited and catalyzed by McCarthy and the Eisenhower administration. McCarthyism would go on to plague leftist organizing in the United States for generations.

But even McCarthy’s Republican party eventually turned on him when they grew tired of his aggressive rhetoric and interrogation tactics. His reign ended with a whimper because the president was forced to step in to save the “decency” of the Republican party. But what about the GOP of today? They’re in a much better position to engage in McCarthyism than McCarthy. Trump 2.0 has a trifecta control over the government, with his cult following stretching across his cabinet, congress, and supporters. McCarthy was lambasted by his party for having “no sense of decency,” but the MAGA movement has proudly solidified itself and the GOP as ardent defenders of pedophilia, abuse of power, and treasonous corruption. Let's be real: do we expect the feckless Democratic party to step in and defend higher education?

DSA demographics

DSA appeals heavily to the working class, but an overwhelming majority of our membership still comes out of higher education. In a 2021 Growth and Development Committee survey, a resounding 80% of members held a bachelor's degree while one of every ten members worked in academia. This correlation between attaining higher education and holding more progressive views has not only been known for decades, it is increasingly getting stronger. Conservatism relies on servile minds that are unwilling to question boogeyman narratives, and willing hold multiple contradicting positions. Leftists, and even progressive liberals, are more often skeptical of systems and the status quo in large part due to their critical thinking skills. This is not to say that uneducated workers are not or cannot become leftists, but data consistently shows they are not flocking to the cause. 

Even among our most recent growth spurts, new membership continues to be young and educated. DSA Ventura County doubled their membership during the 2025-26 academic year after committing to a college campus recruiting campaign; this resulted in a radical revitalization of the chapter and the sprouting of at least one YDSA club. With over 150 YDSA chapters currently leading campus organizing efforts, it is safe to say academia remains one of the most reliable pipelines for DSA growth. 

These campus organizers have already demonstrated their importance in recent electoral campaigns, providing volunteers, chapter leadership, and long-term organizational capacity. Recent electoral gains—including multiple citywide wins in L.A., and mayoral wins in NYC and D.C.— underscore the growing organizational capacity of DSA across the country. These victories would not have been possible if not for the thousands of volunteers who were recently activated and empowered by our growing coalition of lefty organizations. 

College students have far more free time than other demographics, especially if they are privileged enough to remain solely focused on school. As they contend with the uniquely bleak country they are inheriting, several political avenues beckon to them at the crossroads of alienation, disenfranchisement, and radicalization. They can keep their head down and hope the world fixes itself, join a democratic club and hope the status quo prevails, succumb to fascist grievance politics, or courageously believe a better world is possible. 

The proposed accreditation reforms are more than another policy dispute. If passed, they would inflame a new Red Scare that would threaten the left’s most effective recruiting and organizing institutions. If DSA chapters want to continue building on our current momentum and build capacity, defending higher education cannot remain a secondary concern.

The histories of religion and empire are intertwined, and for that reason, socialism and religion have had a contentious relationship. Whether it is the Roman Empire’s slaughter of pagan peoples or various empires’ use of religious texts as a moral justification for colonization, religion and the state apparatus have maintained a symbiotic relationship of control. At the same time,  religion and spirituality have been at the root of resistance movements for social justice throughout history. Dialectically, religion can liberate or subjugate, but it is nearly never a harmless tool.

Because dominant religious structures have often led to the oppression of the lower classes, some socialists have discarded liberatory spirituality. As a socialist, I believe that religion and spirituality can be just as liberatory as Marx’s work. For one of many prominent examples, I turn to Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, also known as The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. 

In 1377, forty years into the “forever war” that would later be called the 100-Year War, a ten-year-old Richard II inherited the kingdom of England and a costly war with France. England had been ravaged by the Black Death, a pandemic that killed up to 50% of Europe’s population from 1346 to 1353. It caused widespread hardships, mostly suffered by the lower classes, that included food scarcity, collapsing social structures, and, of course, a labor shortage.There were fewer workers and no one to replace them. Essentially, all living members of the underclass had work and were necessary to produce the wealth needed for the ongoing war with France. 

However, the English lower classes had their own wants. With fewer people working the land and the monarchy increasingly dependent on peasant and serf labor, peasants and serfs sought appropriate compensation for their work. Instead of compensating them more equitably for their work, Richard II implemented a “poll tax.” This was a flat tax applied in 1377 that each subject over the age of fourteen would pay one groat (four pence) to the Crown. 

The justification and ideological enforcement of the poll tax came from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury. A longtime leader of the Catholic faith who advocated England’s control of the French Crown, he instructed church leaders to emphasize the importance of people submitting to the poll tax. For the serfs and peasantry, participation in faith required ideological adherence to the kingdom and to the ongoing war. And they weren’t happy about it. Two more poll taxes followed quickly, and the spark for the largest peasant revolt in history was lit.

The ideological groundwork had been laid by the Lollard movement of the 14th century. While the church was busy justifying taxes, war, and obedience to the Crown, the Lollards translated the Bible into English and advocated a direct relationship with God, not one mediated by the Church. John Ball, an excommunicated priest, preached an early form of socialism. Ball’s teachings were simple: each toiler, each tradesman, was entitled to the world they created.  Ball saw the church as a means of appropriating and distorting the goodness and holiness of Christ. For him, the war in France was not blessed by God but a cruelty forced upon the people by the greed of the Crown. 

Ball’s words resonated with the people, and the spirit of the Lollards spread throughout England. Though we can’t attribute every act of resistance by the peasantry in 1381 to Ball and the Lollard movement, they provided the revolutionary ideas, giving peasants an ideological justification for the rebellion to come. When royal officials and tax collector John Bampton attempted to collect taxes in Essex and met resistance from a peasant baker known as Thomas Baker, Bampton ordered  Baker to be arrested. A fight broke out, and peasants seized three of Bampton’s clerks, who were later killed. Bampton managed to retreat to London. 

The news of the revolt spread quickly. Wat Tyler, a blacksmith, roof tiler, and former soldier, proved to be a great revolutionary leader. Armed with intelligence and an unbreakable spirit, Tyler helped channel the peasants’ outrage against the ruling class. He also seemed to deeply understand that the conflict facing the peasants would require a well-organized set of demands. 

Tyler led thousands of peasants to London, with several acts of rebellion along the way. He freed John Ball from Maidstone prison and took Canterbury, where they deposed the archbishop and destroyed tax records. On the way, Tyler proved himself a skilled strategist and leader capable of channeling his fellow peasants’ outrage against the crown and religious institutions. Estimates of those who joined the rebellion range from 60,000 to 100,000.

In Blackheath, just outside London, the peasants camped. It was here that the uprising took its true revolutionary form. John Ball stood among groups of peasants and delivered a speech that captured their egalitarian imagination. Ball’s words resonate through the years:

“When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman? From the beginning all men by nature were created alike, and our bondage or servitude came in by the unjust oppression of naughty men.” In other words, the first man dug in the soil as his work and the first woman spun thread. There were no class distinctions.

No longer were the rebels marching just to end the poll tax, but for a world free from the Crown’s domination and hierarchy, and for a society in which people cooperated and hierarchy among the people was eliminated. 

In London, the peassants ransacked Crown institutions and burned the Savoy Palace, the personal property of John of Gaunt. Archbishop Simon of Sudbury was killed and his head  placed on a spike and displayed on London Bridge. 

With most  of his armed forces in France, Richard was forced to meet and negotiate with the peasants. Tyler had an initial meeting with him in which the king gave in to all the peasants’ immediate demands. Richard declared that  the poll tax would be lifted, he would abolish serfdom, and the wage cap on workers would be removed. However,  Tyler and the rebels saw no concrete evidence that  Richard would follow through on his promises. They demanded another negotiation. During this negotiation, Tyler was attacked and killed. Somehow, Richard  was able to subdue the peasants, promising that their demands would be met. A majority of the peasants believed him and left London. 

However, the demands were not met. Instead, many participants were tracked down and killed.  Ball was publicly hanged, and his head  placed on London Bridge. 

However, one promise was kept. The Crown would not levy another poll tax for 300 years. The Wat Tyler Rebellion would go on to become a symbol for radicals. The 19th-century socialist William Morris would write about Tyler in his famous science-fiction novel A Dream of John Ball. Sculptor Emily Hoffnung created a Peasant Rebellion memorial, which was unveiled by the socialist filmmaker Ken Loach. 

In this country, as we fight our own forever wars, a coalition of right-wing “Christian” nationalists is following in the tradition of the 14th-century Roman Catholic Church. That tradition can be defined as the appropriation of people’s faith and spirituality to reinforce a state apparatus that is actively harming the people who support it. As for strategy, I doubt that we will get the religious and spiritually minded working class to abandon faith. And why would we want to do that? Faith can fortify the spirit of working people and give strength in the fight against injustice. 

It is not the mission of socialists to persuade people to abandon their faith but rather to decouple people’s faith from state institutions. The Wat Tyler Rebellion shows us that when faith is in the hands of working people, free from the interference of the bourgeoisie, class struggle flourishes. In the name of our God or faith, we can tear down the machinery of torment known as capitalism.

Sources: 

https://theconversation.com/who-were-the-peasants-of-the-1381-peasants-revolt-new-database-has-answers-278011

https://data.1381.online

https://historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/how-medieval-revolts-help-us-understand-modern-mass-protest/

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We must learn from each other through the organizing experience to build a multi-racial movement. The stakes are high.

The post Multi-racial Organizing in Practice appeared first on Democratic Left.

In 1886, after an unknown person threw a bomb in Haymarket Square, Chicago, police assumed it was the result of a radical conspiracy. They raided the homes and businesses of anyone with even a tangential connection to people who were at the rally. 

Seven people were sentenced to death, only two of whom were even present at Haymarket Square at the time. Police only cared that these radicals wrote, distributed, or possessed anarchist literature, and convicted them of no other crime.

Thirty years later, as Europe had devolved into war and America looked primed to enter as well, it was organized American socialists like Eugene Debs, Kate O’Hare, and the Industrial Workers of the World who led the anti-war movement, arguing that the war in Europe was nothing but another conflict born of capitalist chaos and a new era of imperialism. 

For their moral clarity and conscience, these organizers were immediately made targets of the federal government. They were systematically censored, indicted on unconstitutional charges, and sentenced to prison. This same cycle of squashing and punishing dissent would play out again a half century later, during the anti-war actions surrounding the Vietnam War. 

Now, 140 years after the Haymarket Affair, and just over 100 years since Eugene Debs was sent to prison for a decade for simply giving a speech, we are seeing the federal government similarly clamp down on our right to protest. 

Despite the United States’ long history of propaganda painting it as a bastion of free speech in the world, we socialists know too well that we have never held the freedom to speak out for what we believe in within this country.

When the Trump administration began filling American streets with violent, armed, and unidentifiable thugs tasked with kidnapping our neighbors, many community members rightly began to organize against these injustices. 

Just a year and half into Trump’s second term, we are now seeing how his regime intends to squash dissent and punish those who dare to push back against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. 

Today in Texas, a group of anti-ICE protesters were given sentences ranging from 50 to 100 years in federal prison for taking part in a protest outside an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas. 

Some of them, just like the Haymarket martyrs, are being persecuted for nothing more than possession of anarchist literature. These outrageous sentences dwarf even those handed down to several anti-ICE protesters in Spokane earlier this year.

While the Haymarket Affair led to the unjust execution of seven anarchists, it also led to the creation of May Day, the International Workers’ Day. 

Eugene Debs and Kate O’Hare were prosecuted in their time for their anti-war stance, but proven right by history. The same would happen with opponents of the Vietnam War. 

We already know what the history books will say about this time period: that Trump and his fascist regime are terrorizing immigrants, that this is a gross injustice, that those who were brave enough to stand up to fascism are the true heroes, not the cowards persecuting them.

The charges leveled against these protesters, which include terrorism and conspiracy, are without question an attempt by the federal government to intimidate organizers from pushing back against the inhumane and cruel treatment of our immigrant neighbors. 

The Seattle Democratic Socialists of America will not allow the authoritarian and fascist actions of our government to scare us away from organizing to protect and fight for our communities. 

Trump is intending to scare us into inaction. We choose to instead take inspiration from our heroes, past and present, and organize even harder.

No justice, no peace.

Solidarity forever.

DSA’s candidate for a Denver House seat is going up against an incumbent in office since 1997.

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Events & Actions

Wednesday June 24 (12:00 PM – 1:00 PM) Mass Mobilization for Environmental Justice @ City Hall (in person at 1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Pl)

Wednesday June 24 (5:30 PM – 7:30 PM)  Guarantee Act Phone Banking (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday June 24 (6:45 PM – 8:30 PM) Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Thursday June 25 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM) Public Bank Project Meeting (zoom)

Friday June 26 (9:30 AM – 10:30 AM)  District 1 Coffee with Comrades (in person at 2 Clement St)

Friday June 26 (4:00 PM – 6:00 PM) Guarantee Act Petition Dropoff/Pickup @ Horsies (in person at 3368 19th St)

Friday June 26 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM) Maker Friday (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Saturday June 27 (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM)  No Appetite For Apartheid Store Canvass (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Sunday June 28 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM) Guarantee Act Mobilization at Clement Street Farmers Market (152 Clement St)

Sunday June 28 (1:00 PM – 2:30 PM)  What Is DSA? (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday June 29 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Labor Board – New Union Organizing (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Tuesday June 30 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM) Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Tuesday June 30 (7:00 PM – 10:00 PM)  Tenant Organizers Social (in person at 1600 17th St)

Thursday July 2 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM)  Education Board Open Meeting  (zoom)

Thursday July 2 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Immigrant Justice Regular Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday July 6 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM) Labor Board Meeting – Office Hours (zoom)

Monday July 6 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates.

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Ways to Support Affordable Housing Guarantee Act

The Affordable Housing Guarantee Act is officially accepting contributions! This is a grassroots, community-led campaign, and we need whatever you’re able spare to help us protect our affordable housing funds and tax the rich! Head to fairhousingsf.com/donate to donate!

If you’re not in a position to donate at the moment, we can still use your help gathering signatures. Head to fairhousingsf.com/events to find a volunteer event near you!

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Mass Mobilization for Environmental Justice

Mass Rally! Today, Wednesday, June 24 at 12:00 PM @ the steps of City Hall. 

For decades, the people of Bayview-Hunters Point have lived in the shadow of one of the most contaminated former military sites in the United States: the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund Site. The Marie Harrison Community Foundation and Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, as well as DSA SF and 20+ endorsing organizations, are calling on concerned residents to stand with Bayview-Hunters Point in a united public demonstration for environmental justice. We demand that the Mayor reject the transfer of contaminated land for development. Join us and look out for the DSA SF banner! RSVP here.

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Guarantee Act Phone Banking

Come help us phone bank supporters of the Guarantee Act from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM Today, June 24 at 1916 McAllister St.

Can’t make it to the office? No problem! Join our virtual meeting here.

​No experience necessary!

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No Appetite For Apartheid Store Canvass

Come join us for our next NA4A store canvass on Saturday June 27 at 10:00 AM! We will be meeting at the DSA office and canvassing stores in the Japantown / Pacific Heights area. 

Let’s keep the momentum going for an apartheid free Bay Area and connect with small businesses in our local neighborhoods! RSVP here!

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Tenant Organizers Social

Meet tenants organizers from across the Bay. Come to Thee Parkside, 1600 17th St on Tuesday, June 30 at 7:00 PMfor one final time before it closes it’s doors for good. 

The same forces of rampant speculation and gentrification responsible for destroying local culture spaces (like Thee Parkside) are causing the massive displacement of tenants throughout the Bay Area. Pleace come and share your experience as tenants organizing in the face of finance capital’s agenda to build their “luxury city”.

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EWOC Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing Course

Sign up here!

EWOC holds a regular training course to help you build your union from the ground up alongside workers in your industry. It doesn’t require an organizing background to understand the material, which covers topics including mapping and charting, building an organizing committee, uniting over common concerns, and how to take action. If you’re interested in becoming any level of organizer for EWOC, this course is mandatory.

This course will in person at the DSA office (1916 McAllister). We’ll watch the EWOC lecture together and then go through the discussion activities. If you can’t make all of the sessions, reach out to Caitlin Stanton (SF EWOC local lead coordinator) for accommodations.

SCHEDULE:
Week 1: Developing Leadership
Tuesday, July 14 (7-8:30PM)

Week 2: The Organizing Conversation
Tuesday, July 21 (7-8:30PM)

Week 3: The Arc of the Campaign
Tuesday, July 28 (7-8:30PM)

Week 4: Inoculation and the Boss Campaign
Tuesday, August 4 (7-8:30PM)

Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ four-decade artistic project aims to teach us that we must cherish the work of taking care. A new film showcases the work of Ukeles, the artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation.

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