By Ian Mark

Like many of my comrades, I have a vision of a DSA with millions of working class members that can meaningfully influence politics on the scale of the next presidential election, a potential general strike and more. Only through growing DSA to this scale can we hope to build an organization capable of dismantling capitalism and winning socialism. Our goal is nothing short of building DSA into a genuine mass political party and a historic political force that can transform this country and the world…all in our lifetime.

At present, our chapter has nearly 1,400 members. That’s almost double the number of members we had in 2024. Recent DSA wins like Zohran Mamdani’s election underline that we are living in a time of historic opportunity for socialist politics, but our work is just beginning.

I’m running for Membership Engagement Chair to lead recruitment building the chapter to 2,000 members by the end of 2027 and position us for 3,000 by the end of 2028. I’m also running to support key efforts in driving engagement in our chapter’s projects and democracy, including developing practical organizing skills like how to hold effective one on one conversations and analyze power structures.

I’ve been in DSA for nearly 10 years. I joined Huron Valley DSA in 2017 because I felt compelled to do something other than doomscroll through the mind-numbing cruelty of the first Trump administration. I was angry and scared and I wanted to fight for a better future.

In 2020, I stepped up as the Member Engagement chair for Huron Valley DSA, serving on the steering committee and leading the committee through the surreal first year of the pandemic. In that time, I’ve talked to hundreds of new members and learned a lot about what truly drives engagement.

In this article, I’m outlining my plan for my three priorities of recruitment, engagement and development for the Membership Engagement Committee (MEC). These are the same priorities included in the MEC resolution that the general chapter membership unanimously and democratically voted to approve at our annual convention this April.

Building Metro Detroit DSA to 2,000 Members in Good Standing by 2027, and 3,000 or More by 2028

As exciting as our recent growth is, we can’t take this momentum for granted. Just three years ago, our membership had rapidly shrunk to less than 700 members. Furthermore, most people across Metro Detroit still have never heard of DSA or don’t understand what socialism is. Even many self-described socialists don’t understand why it’s important to join a socialist organization.

If we’re serious about building real power in Metro Detroit, we must ensure sympathetic people across the region are aware that a large chapter exists in their community and invite them to join the movement at scale.

Like most chapters across the country, our recruitment to nearly 1.4k members has been mostly passive, meaning there’s a lot of untapped potential for new members across southeast Michigan. If our chapter had the same proportion of DSA members to population as Twin Cities DSA, we would have over 2.3k members.

If we’re already growing at this rate, imagine how fast we can grow if we apply a concerted effort in recruiting.

I recently launched a new project with several comrades called “database building” (this is often called list building, but I prefer to call it database building to avoid confusion with list work, a totally different organizing tactic).

The database building approach is based on the model provided by New York City DSA, which is by far one of the fastest growing chapters in the country (even before Zohran launched his campaign).

In short, here’s how the plan for database building works:

1. We start by collecting names and contact information for individuals across Metro Detroit sympathetic to DSA and our politics at scale. This is a high-volume play.
2. There are many ways to build a large database of sympathetic non-members, but NYC-DSA cited letter-writing tools and mass calls like the call their chapter hosted with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as highly-efficient tactics for collecting thousands of names.
3. With a growing list of thousands of sympathetic “prospective” members in Metro Detroit, we phone or text-bank this list periodically asking them to join DSA, strategically timing outreach to occur following galvanizing political moments like the ICE surge in Minneapolis for maximum effect.

With this strategy, I am confident we can reach 2,000 members by our annual convention as outlined in our consent resolution for MEC. However, I’d like to go even further so that we can exceed 3,000 in 2028.

To Increase Engagement, We Must Build a More Consistent New Member Onboarding Experience

If we are going to deliver real wins for the working class in Metro Detroit, we don’t just need more members in the chapter. We need more members who are truly engaged, and that starts with new members.

If we use general meeting and convention attendance as a crude yardstick for engagement, only 150–200 members are actively engaged in any given month out of the nearly 1,400 members in good standing.

Our chapter currently excels at engaging new members in two crucial ways: our robust five-part new member political education program and a range of popular socials including game nights, Dances Against Fascism, regional meetups, cookouts, parties at local bars and bowling alleys, and more.

Continuing these programs is vital, and I commend my comrades in MEC for their exceptional efforts here in fostering a true sense of community in the chapter and grounding new members in sound socialist thought.

Where there’s the most room for improvement is ensuring all new members receive an accessible introduction on how the organization is structured, how our democracy works, what campaigns, projects and initiatives we have running and how they can contribute.

The biggest issue I see for engagement is the same issue I saw in Huron Valley DSA: with so many working groups, committees, projects and scattered communication channels, it can be very difficult for new members to understand what’s happening in the chapter and where they fit in. It’s hard to overstate how overwhelming and confusing the new member experience can be without a veteran member to guide you, but in MEC we simply don’t have time to do that for every comrade.

We do an admirable job calling new members weekly in MEC, but due to time constraints we only ever connect with a fraction of incoming members. Besides, in a 10–15 minute call, it’s not possible to share everything a new member needs to know. Lastly, even if we could, it wouldn’t be scalable for the amount of growth we need to build real power.

At the same time, we have to carefully assess what a brand new member truly needs to know, as it’s easy to overwhelm folks by throwing too much information or too many options at them all at once.

I believe MEC must streamline and standardize the new member experience by ensuring new members are consistently and quickly familiarized with the following:

1. The general structure of our chapter, including basic information on:

- General meetings and event schedule on our website

- What committee/working groups exist and what they’re working on

- How to access primary chapter communications (Slack, Signal)

- How our democratic process works, like Robert’s Rules 101 and how to bring resolutions to convention

2. Basic political education

- Basic orientation of what DSA is and does, what socialism is, and why we are socialists

- Schedule for upcoming new member political education events, OR other political education events if above is not in near future

3. Clear tasks to making a meaningful impact in the near future

- Accessible, tangible and specific opportunities to make an impact within the organization and get more involved

One way to achieve this would be consolidating our new member events with a session combining all of the above information in a DSA 101-style event hosted monthly. This would also provide a general entry point for prospective members.

New members would receive a primer on everything they need to understand the basics of our organization and how we operate. They’d get a chance to connect with other members and walk away with information on upcoming political education sessions as well as details on accessible, clear ways to make a meaningful impact, like the No Appetite for Apartheid boycott campaign or canvassing for the Chris Gilmer-Hill campaign.

This would supplement, not replace, our existing new member political education program. It would serve as the go-to first event to direct all new members within Metro Detroit DSA.

Other options include making this information more broadly available in a concise format on our website and in new member email and text outreach. Regardless, the point stands that we must ensure everyone receives the key details on how to navigate DSA in an accessible manner.

Developing Practical Organizing and Leadership Skills to Build Chapter Capacity

Since the majority of new members enter the organization with minimal or zero prior organizing experience, it is vital that we help everyday people grow into effective socialist organizers, thinkers and leaders. This development takes time and doesn’t happen by accident, so we must start this work now with an actionable, structured plan, building on the strong political education program and campaign structure that already exists within the chapter.

I recently launched a list work pilot program for developing leaders with the Chris Gilmer-Hill campaign. In less than two months, this initiative has already identified three members ready to step up as new canvass captains, who are the members that train new canvassers at the event and launch the canvass.

This is a big leap forward from the structure we built to elect Denzel McCampbell to Detroit City Council just last year. Each of these canvass captains gain valuable experience that they can later transfer to other leadership roles in the chapter.

Beyond leadership, MEC must also expand the general organizing skills trainings offered by our chapter. I believe that holding effective organizing conversations should be the number one skill every organizer learns, which is why I co-faciliated a training on the topic this spring. I’d like to run this training again every quarter to ensure every member is familiar and comfortable applying techniques like agitation and making a hard ask. Every single member should feel confident in their ability to galvanize their friends, family members, neighbors and comrades to action with this approach.

Furthermore, I believe we should run trainings on practical skills like facilitating effective meetings and creating agendas, how to use Robert’s Rules, analyzing power structures and more to complement the annual Organizing 101 series from the political education committee. These are skills that you often don’t learn before joining DSA, but are critical to being an effective organizer.

Together, We Can Build Thousands of Skilled Socialist Organizers in Metro Detroit

I have big dreams for MEC and our chapter, but I can’t do any of this work alone. Regardless of the results of the steering committee election, I will be working hard to implement the above agenda, and I’ll need the help of my comrades.

If you’re excited about the possibility of growing our chapter into the thousands and helping ordinary people grow into effective, powerful organizers, please join us. If you have your own ideas for how MEC should operate or what we should prioritize, let me know. Though I’m a proud member of the Groundwork caucus, I’d love for MEC to be a truly multi-tendency committee that serves as a model for how we can support diverse political perspectives and organizing tactics across the chapter.

Solidarity!

To 3,000 Members and Beyond: How MEC Can Build a Stronger, More Effective Metro Detroit DSA was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post DSA Labor Statement on Spanberger Veto of HB1263 and SB378 appeared first on Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America.

Events & Actions

Tuesday May 19 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM) Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesdady May 20 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Guarantee Act Petition Dropoff/Pickup (Mission Playground, 36 Cunningham Pl)

Wednesday May 20 (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM) What is DSA? (1916 McAllister St)

Thursday May 21 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Social Committee (zoom)

Thursday May 21 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Education Board Open Meeting (zoom)

Thursday May 21 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Immigrant Justice Regular Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Friday May 22 (9:30 AM – 10:30 AM) District 1 Coffee with Comrades (2 Clement St)

Friday May 22 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM) Maker Friday (1916 McAllister St)

Sunday May 24 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM) Physical Education + Self Defense Training (Panhandle, William McKinley Monument)

Sunday May 24 (1:00 PM – 3:00 PM) DSA Spring Picnic (William McKinley Monument, Panhandle)

Sunday May 24 (5:00 PM – 6:00 PM) Tenderloin Healing Circle Working Group (zoom)

Monday May 25 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Tenderloin Healing Circle (Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Ave)

Monday May 25 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (1916 McAllister St.)

Monday May 25 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM) DSA Run Club (McClaren Lodge, Golden Gate Park)

Monday May 25 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Labor Board – Flex Meeting (zoom)

Tuesday May 26 (5:30 PM – 7:00 PM) Social Housing Working Group (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Tuesday May 26 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Public Transit Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Wednesday May 27 (6:45 PM – 8:30 PM) Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Thursday May 28 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM) Public Bank Project Meeting (zoom)

Thursday May 28 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM) Bilingual Emergency Planning Training: How to Show Up for Immigrants at Their ICE Check-Ins (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Friday May 29 (9:30 AM – 10:30 AM) District 1 Coffee with Comrades (in person at 2 Clement St)

Sunday May 31 (1:00 PM – 2:30 PM) What Is DSA? (in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Monday June 1 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM) DSA Run Club (in person at McLaren Lodge)

Monday June 1 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Labor Board – New Union Organizing (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

Tuesday June 2 (6:30 PM – 7:30 PM) Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

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

We kicked off our campaign for the Affordable Housing Guarantee Act!

Come out to Mission Playground this Wednesday, May 20th anytime between 6 and 8 PM to drop off filled out petitions and pick up fresh petitions! We’ll train you in signature gathering and get you set up everything you need. Come help us guarantee our affordable housing funds!

RSVP here.

Join our Community Forum for wide-ranging discussions

We’re holding our Community Forum from 12-3 at the DSA SF Office. This will be our first run of the event, so we’re focusing on members first before rolling out to a wider audience, and we’ll be soliciting feedback and suggestions from attendees.

The goal of the event is to facilitate a discussion around concrete issues that people are concerned about at the global, national, and local levels, to discuss how problems that seem distinct are often interconnected through the logic of capitalism, and how socialism can tackle these challenges by targeting the roots.

EWOC Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing Course: Reportback for Weeks 2-4

The four week long Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing course had its final session this past Sunday. Our cohort was 8 to 12 comrades strong and we learned about the building blocks of organizing. These trainings are run regularly, with the next one coming up Tuesdays in July. You can find out more details here!

During the second session, the big idea was “socialize before you organize.” Building real relationships with coworkers outside of work creates the trust you need before any organizing conversation can actually happen. We talked through the 80/20 rule, 20% asking questions and sharing, 80% listening. The goal isn’t to come in with your own list of issues, but to get curious about what your coworkers care about and let them articulate what’s wrong in their own words. From there, you can start connecting people to each other and turning individual frustrations into collective ones, since a problem affecting one worker likely affects another. We also got into some of the practical strategies as well, such as not having organizing conversations at work or on internal communications tools like slack, always updating your chart afterward (if you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen!), and never assuming someone will say no before you’ve actually had the conversation. A few people shared updates on their own charting, including one person starting a chart at their workplace who got connected with another attendee organizing at the same company! We wrapped up talking about what makes someone “organizable”, things like prior social connections or signs they care about a cause, and how to redirect hopelessness by pointing to workplaces where organizing has actually won.

The third week’s plenary focused on “Campaigns and Collective Action,” and after watching it together we dug into how an organizing committee actually moves from building relationships into running a campaign. A big theme was structure tests: the idea that every action doubles as a diagnostic for how much cohesion you actually have. You want to front-load smaller, lower-stakes actions (stickers, swag, socials, asking OC members to commit to 1:1s, getting a question upvoted at an all-hands, raising an issue in a visible internal forum) so that if something flops, it flops early and tells you where the gaps are. Someone made the point that in tech especially, demands tend to be more amorphous than in service-sector campaigns, so you often have to get creative about what counts as an action. We also talked about how the most common failure mode isn’t unclear messaging but workers not feeling like others have their back, which is really a 1:1 trust problem dressed up as a communication problem. Recruiting natural workplace leaders into the OC matters a lot, and tactics like anonymous-signature open letters can lower the risk threshold for people who are nervous about visibility. On scope, we got into how a campaign can carry a #1 and a #2 issue rather than shoehorning everyone into one demand, with the Starbucks example as a reference point (pay and benefits across the board, hours and scheduling shop-specific). Identifying the actual decision-makers, which often means going past your immediate manager to the board, shareholders, or execs, came up as something bosses actively try to obscure. We closed by touching on the spectrum from business unionism to class-struggle unionism, with the sense that tech organizing probably can’t stop at the business-unionism layer. Recommended reading from the discussion included *What the Boss Doesn’t Want Us to Know*, *Class Struggle Unionism*, and *Unions of Our Own*.

The final session went over inoculation, which is the practice of preparing your coworkers against common talking points the boss and anti-union coworkers may share. We used the Union Busting Bingo Card to practice responses and reasoning behind the canned responses that union busters will have. Our scenarios went over phrases including “We’re already making those changes”, “If you don’t like it then don’t work here”, “You can always come to us”, and “We’ll give you a pizza party <or any kind of small gimme>”. We also discussed how to respond to concerns about immigration/work status being threatened and the myth that unions only ask for raises so that they can get more union dues. The boss is your strongest organizer because inoculation can prove to your coworkers that the boss isn’t there to support the workers and that they’d rather read from a union-busting playbook than respond to worker demands.

If you’d like to get involved with the SF local chapter of EWOC, reach out to the lead coordinator Caitlin S or email labor@dsasf.org. EWOC is a standing topic at meetings of the Labor Board, which are held every other Monday at 7:00 PM, both in-person at 1916 McAllister and over Zoom. Anyone is welcome to attend, and we’re always looking for people interested In workplace lead canvassing, organizer trainings, and volunteer outreach. If you’re interested in organizing your workplace and would like to be connected with an EWOC organizer, fill out the request form here.

Shasta County DSA faces the challenge of organizing in a rural, heavily Republican corner of far northern California — but years of persistent effort have paid off.

The post North California Home to New DSA Chapter appeared first on Democratic Left.

Procedure Steps

1. The Chapter Member(s) wishing to make an expenditure request (hereafter referred to as the “Requestor”) fills out and submits the Milwaukee DSA Expenditure Request Form at least one (1) week in advance of any deadlines associated with the request.
2. The Chapter Finance Team and/or Chapter Treasurer (hereafter referred to as the “Reviewer”) reviews the request within one (1) week. The Reviewer then determines if the request meets the following:
   • Criteria:
     • If the request meets both these criteria, the next steps of this procedure are then performed. If the request fails to meet any of the above criteria, the Reviewer denies the request and informs the Requestor of the reason(s) for denial, after which this Procedure is complete and no further steps are necessary. 
     • It is qualified for consideration according to the Governing Documents of Milwaukee DSA
   • If the request meets both these criteria, the next steps of this procedure are then performed. If the request fails to meet any of the above criteria, the Reviewer denies the request and informs the Requestor of the reason(s) for denial, after which this Procedure is complete and no further steps are necessary. 
3. The Reviewer determines what body of the Chapter is required to approve or deny the request (hereafter referred to as the “Grantor”), and refers the request to the appropriate party.
4. The Reviewer contacts the Requestor to inform them of the date, time and location at which the Grantor will consider the request, and asks if the Requestor or another person is available at that date and time to explain and motivate the request to the Grantor.
5. The Grantor approves or denies the request at the next available opportunity, and informs the Requestor of their decision. 

Purpose

The Internal Communication and Moderation policy will ensure that chapter communication spaces remain welcoming, constructive, and aligned with the DSA’s Code of Conduct for members as well as Milwaukee DSAs Online Code of Conduct policy and Meeting and Events Code of Conduct.  By establishing consistent moderation practices and clear guidelines, this Policy will help facilitate productive discussion, reduce disruptive behavior, and protect the ability of members to organize effectively online. 

Community Standards

1. At all chapter meetings and events, members must adhere to the Policy: Meeting and Event Code of Conduct.
2. For all online communication, members must adhere to Policy: Online Code of Conduct. 
3. Members may appeal a moderation decision through the Procedure: Moderation Appeal Process. All thoughts and concerns regarding a moderation action may not be shared on public platforms. Any questions regarding a moderation appeal or action must be asked privately and directly to a moderator or HGO.

Platforms

1. Milwaukee DSA members may use the Discord server, moderated by the chapter (hereafter referred to as the chapter Discord) to communicate with other active members, to discuss among themselves as individuals, and to advocate for their own individual perspectives. With the exception of announcements from moderators or duly elected or appointed chapter officers, posts are understood to represent individual opinions, not official decisions or positions of the Milwaukee chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
2. Signal should be used occasionally, concisely and for person to person, immediate communication. Signal may also be used in the event that said communications need to be encrypted.
3. The Milwaukee DSA Signal Chat has been terminated. There is no official Milwaukee DSA Signal Chat. 
4. The primary official method of outreach shall be through regular direct outreach to members and supporters at the contact information they have shared with DSA and Milwaukee DSA (e.g., email newsletters and occasional phone calls or texts). Chapter officers shall organize this outreach. Outreach using chapter contact lists shall be conducted using DSA resources to ensure members’ privacy. Scripts and emails shall be approved by duly elected or appointed chapter officers to ensure that they reflect the collective decisions of Milwaukee DSA.

Role Definitions

1. Moderators: members who moderate and monitor discussion in chapter chat servers
2. Harassment and Grievance Officers (HGOs): responsible for overseeing the investigation of Members accused of engaging in prohibited behavior according to the Harassment Policy (Resolution 33) of DSA. See chapter bylaws for more detail. 
3. Administrators: Maintain membership in the chapter chat server, adding in new members and channels plus removing members who are no longer in the chapter. Admin roles will be given to mkedsaoutreach@gmail.com and milwaukeedsa@gmail.com and be maintained by the Secretary, Outreach Officer and Communications Officer. More admins will be added on an as needed basis.

Role of Moderators

1. To remove, mute or ban any content or person that does not follow all applicable codes of conduct and policies 
2. To document all incidents in which the moderation team removed, muted, or banned content or persons
3. To seek advice from those on the moderation team for guidance on how to proceed with member infractions/removals
4. To cooperate with Chapter HGOs in the event of content needing to be retrieved for an HGO filing
5. To keep discussions and other chapter business on topic and concise
6. To receive feedback from members regarding content or user interactions, and clarify to members why the moderators modified their participation in the chapter server
7. Provide 48 hour notice to members who receive infractions or banning

Guidelines for Moderation Actions

1. This set of community guidelines follows a “three strikes you’re out” guideline for removing members from the chapter server. Once a member has acquired three or more infractions, they will be removed from the chapter server for a year or possibly more, depending on the severity.
   • Infraction #1
     • Member(s) will be notified by a moderator why the content they shared did not follow the Community Guidelines within 48 hours of the incident occurring
     • Member and Moderator will discuss and/or re-educate the member about how to interact with the chapter chat server in the future
   • Infraction #2
     • Member(s) will be notified by a moderator why the content they shared did not follow the Community Guidelines within 48 hours of the incident occurring.
     • Member will be banned from server ranging from a day to a week, depending on severity
     • Member and Moderator will discuss and/or re-educate the member about what they can do in the future
   • Infraction #3
     • Member(s) will be notified by a moderator why the content they shared did not follow the Community Guidelines within 48 hours of the incident occurring.
     • Member will be banned from server ranging from one  to indefinitely, depending on severity 
     • Member and Moderator will discuss and/or re-educate the member after the length of the ban time to determine if both parties are ready to bring the member back into the server.

2. Moderators will use their best discretion to enforce all applicable Community Standards (see section I.) and to maintain an orderly and safe place for all members to organize.  
3. At any point a member may discuss with the moderation team about why they received any moderation actions (deleted posts, account banned or muted)  against them. Questions regarding a moderation appeal or action must be asked privately and directly to a moderator or HGO. Members may appeal moderation actions through the Procedure: Moderation Appeal Process. 
4. In the event that a conversation is generally heated and may escalate, a moderator may temporarily put a channel or thread into “slow mode” to allow all parties time to cool down. Moderators should consult other moderators and/or HGO(s) if they chose to put a channel in “slow mode”  

Choosing moderators

1. Chapter Harassment and Grievance Officers (HGOs) will manage the moderation team under the purview of the Executive Committee; they will not personally moderate membership posts except in the case of inappropriate moderator behavior or when immediate emergency action is needed.
2. There must be at minimum 2 moderators (not including HGOs). The Executive Committee may appoint additional moderators as recommended by the moderation team. Appointed moderators will be subject to a confirmation vote by membership at a General Meeting.
3. Moderators must be members in good standing
4. A Moderator’s term shall be no longer than 1 year following their confirmation vote, unless reappointed by the Executive Committee. All moderators are subject to appointment or reappointment by the Executive Committee in June each year.

Purpose

A primary goal of DSA is to be welcoming and inclusive to our members and others who share DSA’s core values of liberty, equality, solidarity, as well as our commitment to restructuring gender and cultural relationships to be more equitable and not oppressive within the context of building a diverse working class movement. As such, we are committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all.

This code of conduct outlines DSA’s expectations for all those who participate in DSA meetings, conferences, and other public-facing events, as well as the consequences for unacceptable behavior. That includes DSA members, allies, vendors, donors, supporters, and others. We invite all DSA members and allies to help us create welcoming and positive experiences for everyone

1 Expected Behavior

The following behaviors are expected and requested of all persons – including members – who participate in Milwaukee DSA meetings, conferences and other events:

1. Abide by DSA Guidelines for Respectful Discussions and with all applicable Community Codes of Conduct;
2. Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior and speech;
3. Participate in an authentic and active way. In doing so, you contribute to the health and longevity of DSA;
4. Exercise consideration in your speech and actions;
5. Share analysis and opinions rather than accusations;
6. Be mindful of your surroundings and of your fellow participants. 
7. Alert a DSA chapter officer if you notice a dangerous situation, someone in distress, or violations of this Code of Conduct, even if they seem inconsequential;
8. Trust your gut if you notice someone who might be an infiltrator, and let a DSA chapter officer know. For DSA resources as to what infiltrators historically do, please read this and this.

2 Unacceptable Behavior

The following behaviors are unacceptable within our community and may lead to the person being subject to our harassment policy or code of conduct and expulsion process:

1. Violence, threats of violence or violent language directed against another person, as well as language which could reasonably be interpreted as encouraging or threatening violence;
2. Concealing, carrying, or brandishing weapons;
3. Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language;
4. Posting or displaying sexually explicit or violent material;
5. Posting or threatening to post other people’s personally identifying information (“doxing”);
6. Personal insults, particularly those related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, or disability;
7. Inappropriate photography or recording. You should have someone’s consent before taking their photograph and/or recording their voice;
8. Inappropriate physical contact. You should have someone’s consent before touching them;
9. Unwelcome sexual attention. This includes: sexualized comments or jokes; inappropriate touching, groping, and unwelcome sexual advances;
10. Deliberate intimidation, stalking or following (online or in person);
11. Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior; Disruption of community events, including meetings, talks and presentations; including by anyone who is in substantial disagreement with the principles or policies of the organization, as provided by the DSA Constitution.

3 Consequences of Unacceptable Behavior

3. Unacceptable behavior from any person who attends a Milwaukee DSA meeting, conference, or event will not be tolerated. Anyone asked to stop unacceptable behavior is expected to comply immediately.
4. Infiltrators will be removed from meetings, conferences, and all other events immediately. An infiltrator is defined any of the following: (a) anyone who is advocating for principles or actions which are in substantial disagreement with the principles or policies of the organization, as provided by the DSA Constitution (b) anyone who is engaging in systematic/planned disruption of DSA meetings/events/etc. regardless of their stated principles, (c) anyone who misuses DSA data. For example: tracking/compiling/using/disseminating DSA data (lists, minutes, etc.) for the purpose of surveillance, for use by an outside organization, or for other unapproved uses.  
5. If a person engages in unacceptable behavior, Milwaukee DSA leaders/organizers may take any immediate action they deem appropriate, including expulsion from the meeting, conference or event, and without refund in the case of a paid event. Until the chapter can investigate whether the unacceptable behavior violated DSA’s harassment policy and/or any applicable code of conduct, the person may be prohibited from further participation in the organization.

4 Reporting Guidelines

1. If you are subject to or witness unacceptable behavior, or have any other concerns, please notify a meeting marshal, HGO, or DSA officer (including the elected chapter leadership and/or meeting or committee chair). 
2. Solely as an option of critical need, depending on the nature of the conduct, DSA officers may help community members engage with local law enforcement or to otherwise help those experiencing unacceptable behavior feel safe. At in-person events, organizers will also provide escorts as desired by the person experiencing distress.
3. Chapter HGOs (harassment grievance officers) can assist with filing a grievance for a potential violation of DSA’s harassment policy, Resolution 33, and/or chapter codes of conduct. If an HGO is not present at the meeting, please contact a chapter officer or look on the chapter website to obtain the confidential email address to submit a grievance.

5 Scope

3. We expect all community participants (DSA staff, members, allies, vendors, donors, supporters and others) to abide by this Code of Conduct in all community venues–online and in-person–as well as in all one-on-one communications pertaining to DSA business.
4. This code of conduct and its related procedures also applies to unacceptable behavior occurring outside the scope of community activities when such behavior has the potential to adversely affect the safety and well-being of community members.
5. The Executive Committee may pre-approve appropriate security for any meeting or event if needed. Nothing in this code shall be interpreted as prohibiting security steps deemed necessary by the EC.

More than 300,000 people in Maine are renters who live in one of Maine’s 155,000 units. And almost half of those people are paying much more rent than they can afford. 

In the past decade, many have seen rent increases in the double digits, well above inflation and raises in pay. On top of that, tenants can be evicted for no reason, have their rent gouged regularly, and have very little recourse when a landlord violates the rules.

And yet, most housing affordability solutions in Maine have focused on property tax relief, or some form of homeowner assistance. In reality, on average, property taxes amount to less than 4% of a homeowner’s income, compared to almost 50% of a renter’s income. 

To that problem, I offer the “Tenant Bill of Rights.” This is an action plan pulled from all the best ideas I have seen or based on personal experience as a renter in Maine. While it should be enacted statewide, municipalities can take up many of its tenets as well.

1. Prohibit no-cause evictions. No tenant should be kicked out of their home for no reason, yet the practice is legal and frequent in Maine. Half a dozen states have laws requiring landlords to show “just cause” to terminate/not renew someone’s lease (even New Hampshire, for heaven’s sake). Maine should do the same.
2. Cap all rent increases to the rate of inflation. Right now, as every renter knows, landlords can and do raise the rent hundreds of dollars a month. A freeze tied to inflation, preferably permanent, but for five years would work, will protect hundreds of thousands of Mainers from rent gouging, as we look to longer term solutions.
3. Create a statewide rental registry including rent levels. In order to fully understand the rental housing crisis, and to track the rent gouging which has made thousands homeless, we need a statewide registry of the rent charged for every unit and all increases imposed. This is also essential to administer number two (rent increase cap).
4. Require landlords to negotiate with organized tenant unions. Unions for workers have basic protections. If a majority of employees vote to form a union, ownership must negotiate with them as a unit. While landlords can’t evict tenants for forming a union, landlords are not required to negotiate with them. They should be.
5. Require 90-day notice for all rent increases. When a landlord raises the rent, it is only humane to ensure that they give a tenant a full 90 days to prepare. That creates an opportunity for the tenant to seek a new place, ask for a raise at work, or, most likely, squeeze some other part of their budget to stay housed.
6. Limit security deposits to one month’s rent. One of the biggest detriments to tenants getting an apartment is that under current law, a landlord can ask for two months’ deposit plus the first month’s rent. For a unit renting at $1,500-$2,500 a month, that can be entirely prohibitive. Limiting up-front costs to a one month deposit and the first month’s rent will free up many tenants. And while we’re at it, landlords should be required to pay the tenant back the interest they earn holding that deposit for years.
7. Ban broker/application fees to apply for an apartment. Currently, a landlord can require a tenant to go through a broker to rent an apartment, who, in turn, can charge a tenant thousands to secure the unit. Also, a landlord can pass on the costs of doing a background check. Both should be banned.
8. Allow tenants to recover legal fees/damages for illegal evictions. Current law does not allow for tenants to recover legal fees or damages, even if your landlord does something illegal to you. When mine tried to evict me for organizing a union, we had to raise tens of thousands of dollars, including thousands of dollars of my own money, to fight back. Very few tenants have access to those kinds of resources.
9. Require significant civil penalties against landlords for violations. Right now, landlords in Maine face almost no consequences for breaking the law. The repercussions for health hazards, illegal fees, confiscating deposits, violating lease terms, etc, are basically fix it/pay it back. If the penalty for getting caught stealing was just to return the money, we’d all be bank robbers.
10. Create a cabinet level office to protect tenants. New York City has the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. The office advocates for tenants by enforcing rent laws, reversing housing discrimination, stopping landlord harassment, and preventing illegal evictions right in their tracks. Maine needs the same.

While implementing the above will not end our housing crisis overnight, it will quickly begin to alleviate the economic straightjacket currently burdening renters across Maine. I hope elected officials, candidates, and activists alike take up the torch. 

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