Hello comrades, my name is Brooke (she/her). I am running for Co-Chair of TCDSA. I am not running because I have an explicit grand vision for our organizing, or because I think it’s the most important way to shape the political direction of the chapter – I know that ordinary rank-and-file members of this chapter are the ones who make everything go round, and the best of our ideas come from on-the-ground struggles that members engage in. I am running because I want to help ensure this chapter and the Steering Committee is organized and tuned in enough to our membership so we can effectively harness our collective potential and strengthen the socialist movement in the Twin Cities and beyond.

The majority of my organizing in the chapter has been spread across Political Education, Environmental Justice, Palestine Solidarity, Labor, and the Socialist Feminists (RIP). However, I strive to keep myself informed of other working groups that I am not an active part of – mainly so I can better orient new members to the chapter, but also to help me see our organizing from a bird’s eye view. Knowing where all of the pieces are makes it easier to figure out how they can fit together. I am currently finishing my second term as Political Education Coordinator, and was on the Labor Branch Organizing Committee for a year with a partial term as Labor Branch Co-Chair. As part of those roles, I have served on the Steering Committee for the last year and a half. As one of our three Political Education Coordinators, I have helped maintain our TCDSA 101 program, welcoming new members into the chapter and starting them off with a baseline understanding of our common politics, our ongoing campaigns, and how to organize together in the chapter. The work of onboarding, educating, and organizing our new members is critical to our success in every campaign we take on. Last winter, alongside several other amazing comrades, I helped form the Palestine Solidarity working group and advocated for our chapter to deepen our organizing in support of Palestinian liberation. The group is now self-sustaining, and has helped keep Palestine in the spotlight while also building ties with local anti-imperialist and anti-colonial groups and YDSA chapters. No matter what position I am in, I will continue to develop new leadership as much as possible.

I am not part of any caucus, and I don’t align perfectly with any political tendency. I believe we need to unionize our coworkers and radicalize our unions, and I am also not shy about critiquing the labor movement; I believe we need to build a foundational mutual aid network and begin creating the social institutions of the future world we want to live in today; I believe we need to maintain an international focus, fighting for decolonization and liberation at home and abroad; I believe we need to listen to the ruling class when they plan out their next wars, and push back with all we have; I believe we need to make sure every single elected we endorse is someone we can be proud of, and who truly has our back as the working class and as an organization; I believe we can’t lose sight of climate change, in every single thing we do; I believe in organizing people where they are, especially where they live. But most of all, I believe in the big tent. Part of our strength as an organization comes from our diversity of tactics and organizing strategies – attacking capitalism from multiple angles at once. Our differences are often highlighted in debates, in resolutions submitted for convention, in the final vote counts – but I see our differences as a powerful force for success, not as something we should allow to divide us. As a member of this chapter, it is one of my goals to help figure out how to sharpen and enhance each pillar holding up our big tent, both individually and collaboratively. I want to help us break down our silos and practice combining our efforts more synergistically. Part of that includes ushering in our new chapter priorities, and working through this experimental process together. If I am elected as co-chair, I aim to represent this big tent organization faithfully, and do what I can to help it sustainably grow and become the political home for anyone in the working class of the Twin Cities.e stranglehold of the major capitalist parties on public discourse. We have the foundations, but there is still a lot of construction to do.

My name is Revmira (or Rev), and I have been honored to serve as one of the current co-chairs of our chapter. I had previous leadership experience in socialist organizations as co-chair of our Labor Branch, secretary of the Red Pine Revolutionary Collective, co-chair of Cannon Valley DSA, and a member of the Marxist Center Delegate Council, but serving as co-chair of TCDSA has been a very different experience. The simple reason for this is that people care about what TCDSA does and what we have to say. We are expected to respond to external political developments, and we have a diverse and active membership that frequently brings up new matters for our consideration. We have opportunities to put forward our politics that smaller organizations and chapters lack, and also face more scrutiny. Because of this, our Steering Committee, and particularly co-chairs, have a responsibility to demonstrate political leadership. 

But what does effective political leadership actually look like? There are numerous associated questions and challenges I’ve been grappling with. What do we need to respond to, and what do we not need to respond to? How do we avoid having an unrepresentative subset of members speak for us while also avoiding having too many cooks in the kitchen? What level of mandate do Steering Committee members have to represent the chapter, and what is undemocratic overreach? This past year’s Steering Committee in particular has been especially wary of these challenges after the backlash to the Palestine statements at the beginning of the term. 

I certainly have not found any kind of perfect secret answer that solves all these problems. However, in order to justify running for a full term, I did feel like I needed to come up with some kind of vision for how I can help our chapter put forward clear and compelling political leadership. Here are the areas I intend to focus on: 

• Developing a unified platform: I submitted a resolution to set a process for developing a chapter platform, and if it passes, I will focus on convening the Platform Committee and hosting the chapterwide political and strategic discussions it calls for. In order to effectively put forward our politics as a chapter, we need to have a clear sense of what our politics actually are, and what our vision and strategy for winning socialism is. 
• Prioritizing our priorities: At this chapter convention, we will vote on three priorities to focus on as a chapter. There are no clearly laid out benefits of being a priority, so their implementation will largely be up to the priority organizing committees that pledged their support to bottomline them, and the Steering Committee to prioritize them. As a Steering Committee, we should emphasize our chapter priorities in both our internal and external messaging, and ensure they are the focus of chapter resources. 
• Communicating with endorsed candidates and electeds: In a Minneapolis city council election year, there will be a lot of attention on local politics, and our endorsed candidates will play a significant role in how we are perceived. This can provide a great opportunity to reach people with our political vision. We should come up with clear asks for endorsed candidates to align with and boost our messaging and support our priorities, while also inviting their input on our chapter’s messaging. We should also be prepared to communicate ahead of time when we disagree with a candidate or elected official’s approach, and prepare a response. 

I also want to put forward my own vision for DSA that I will be advocating for through all of this. I am a member of Marxist Unity Group (MUG), a national caucus in DSA. I believe our mission must be to win the battle for democracy through establishing a new democratic socialist republic with a new constitution that enshrines working class majority rule. In order to socialize the economy, take key industries under collective ownership, and build our capacity for democratic economic planning, we must ensure that the state that mediates these processes is fully democratically accountable to the working class in all its diversity. The current structure of the US, from states’ rights, to the disproportionate Senate and electoral college, to the unelected Supreme Court and more, was designed explicitly by the founding fathers to prevent such societal transformation and majority rule. These structures and the constitution that enshrines them must go, and we must be honest about this task in order to prepare our class to fulfill its historical mission of taking power. 

In order to win, the working class needs a mass party united in fighting for a revolutionary program. DSA can be that party. Our greatest strength is our internal democracy and culture of robust debate, which we must continue to cultivate. We have a membership of dedicated working class activists, and must grow to be a political home for broader layers of our class. We are a national organization with chapters all over the country, and must work to build stronger ties between our local work and our nationwide mission. We have been putting our politics forward and gaining attention, but must cohere into a politically independent force that can break the stranglehold of the major capitalist parties on public discourse. We have the foundations, but there is still a lot of construction to do.

Hi Comrades! My name is Nat (he/him). I’m running for Recording Secretary because I believe that for Twin Cities DSA to be a truly democratic organization, the work of our Steering Committee must be clear and easily accessible to the entire membership. To that end, our current Recording Secretary, Michael, has done an incredible job of publishing timely and complete minutes of every steering committee meeting, tracking attendance and voting, and posting meeting summaries on slack. As Recording Secretary, I will continue these processes. Over the course of my term, I will document the systems and tools I use, to share with organizers throughout the chapter who are facilitating meetings and taking minutes, and as a resource for future Recording Secretaries. I will build upon the incredible library of Skill-Shares that has developed over the past year – recordings of which are accessible to all members! In collaboration with the rest of the Steering Committee, I will identify which of our existing Skill-Shares we should re-run for new members of Steering, which additional skills are most essential to run trainings on, and the cadence of Skill-Shares we want to see going forward. Every single member of the chapter has skills you’ve learned from your work in DSA or outside of it that can help us become a better organization. If you have a skill you want to present on, find me on Slack, on Signal, or in person to discuss it! In addition, I will work to expand the Skill-Share program to also include fun and educational in-person events, roughly once per quarter, on skills that can be especially useful to comrades throughout the chapter. From organizing skills like public speaking to tech tools like Canva, there’s a ton of knowledge within Twin Cities DSA that we can use to help each other become better organizers. Finally, I will collaborate with the Co-chairs and the rest of Steering Committee to distribute the administrative responsibilities of Steering in a way that reduces the chance of burnout and gives SC members, especially our Co-chairs, the time and energy to provide socialist political leadership. Twin Cities DSA will be taking on major political battles with the ruling class over the next year: battles over rent control, tenant’s rights, and housing for all; over labor organizing from Delta, to grocery stores, to county employees and beyond; over closing the HERC and reimagining the I-94 corridor; over divesting our University system, our pensions, and our state government from apartheid; over electing socialists to Minneapolis City Council, to the Parks Board, and electing a socialist mayor. Those battles will be an opportunity to take our vision of a Socialist Twin Cities directly to the masses, and I am excited to provide the structures, support, and communication resources that will help TCDSA provide political leadership.

I’m running for Tech Coordinator because I feel that my experience working in IT and studying computer science fits well for this position. Also, in my conversations with the current Tech Coordinator Pierce, we discussed ways in which tech ops could be improved. The biggest area for improvement that Pierce mentioned would be the chapter-wide coordination of our digital resources, especially when it comes to information, training, and support for these resources. I believe I would be able to improve coordination through the recruitment of Tech ops point people for different working groups/branches. I was involved in YDSA throughout my college career, becoming a dues paying member of TCDSA my sophomore year. I’m relatively new to being more actively involved in TCDSA itself, and have so far been most active in the Street Corps and Environmental Justice working groups, as well as the United Front. I’m excited to become more active in these groups over time, as well as more parts of our chapter such as the labor branch and communications. If I’m elected for this position, I hope that, through becoming more active throughout the chapter, i am able to make connections in various parts of our chapter that would facilitate the improved coordination of our digital resources.

Right now our chapter needs to aggressively address potential gaps in our fundraising as well as develop a more comprehensive and quality budgeting plan for our chapter. If elected as Treasurer of the chapter, my goals will be to eliminate our deficit and have a budget in place by the end of the year. Put simply, I plan to fundraise as much as possible, focusing on recurring donations from members, which would secure our chapter’s independence and give membership greater power within the chapter. I would also work with chapter members and leadership to create a process for developing annual budgets, with the goal of returning to the 2025 annual convention with a proposed budget for 2026. Finally, I will focus on increasing the quality of our income and expenses tracking with the goal of making it as transparent as possible. I have several years of experience being on the steering committee of our DSA chapter, including as a Political Education Coordinator and running electoral work in the chapter.

I am running for the position of Political Action Coordinator because I believe that we, as socialists, have a responsibility to push for meaningful and principled change in our communities. The challenges we face—worsening economic inequality, racial injustice, environmental degradation, genocides, and threats to our democratic rights—demand collective action and political advocacy rooted in an international working class perspective. I have always been deeply committed to advancing socialist principles, and I see this role as an opportunity to further strengthen our outreach, deepen our relationships with other like-minded organizations, and ensure that our advocacy efforts are both impactful and principled. Although I have only recently begun organizing, I have gained a great deal of experiences that will allow me to effectively fill the responsibilities of this position. Some such experiences include working alongside many other organizations in the Twin Cities Free Palestine Coalition, carrying out joint actions calling out the DFLs complicity in the Palestinian genocide alongside our comrades from Twin Ports DSA, and growing the Twin Cities United Front Against Fascism by reaching out to and building relationships with other local orgs. I am committed to bringing TCDSA’s political advocacy efforts to the forefront of our struggles and make our collective vision a reality.

2025 is full of opportunities to build socialist power in the Twin Cities: supporting major union contract fights, shutting down the HERC, leading and supporting boycott and divestment campaigns for Palestine Solidarity, and laying the foundations for an alternative to the DFL (to name a few!). If elected Political Action Coordinator, I will use the position to support coordination across our chapter and outside of it to advance our chapter’s democratically decided priorities. 

Since joining TCDSA in late 2022, I’ve worked on a range of efforts across the chapter. As co-chair of the Socialists in Office (SIO) Committee and as liaison with CVP Aisha Chughtai, I have organized events, coordinated with TCDSA’s endorsed elected officials, and pushed for legislation to repeal the state’s anti-BDS law. For our office, I drafted the successful matching grant application from National, and then found our office and negotiated our lease in the Spruce Tree building. My experience organizing as an academic worker at the U of M (past union drives and the recent PELRA win), has given me firsthand insight into how legislative work can (and cannot!) assist in the struggles TCDSA is presently working on. I was part of the group that created the program for developing Chapter Priorities aimed at pushing our membership towards more coordinated and focused work that will result in real wins for the working class. As PAC I will continue supporting chapter priorities in a way that is principled, strategic, and practical. 

Taking the EPNI fight as a model, I believe our work as a chapter needs to be intertwined and coordinated across branches and working groups wherever possible. This means utilizing the strengths of each branch and working group and using different tactics to achieve our common chapter goals. As PAC, I will work to identify these opportunities and facilitate collaboration both inside and outside of the chapter. 

Our momentum is building! TCDSA’s reputation is rapidly growing and we need to continue to back it up by being reliable partners to other organizations, accomplishing the goals we set for ourselves, and making sure that word gets out about our hard organizing work. People want to join an org (and be part of a movement!) that has integrity, is reliable, and wins the fights it sets out to win. Our electoral work (which I have been most involved with) needs to be focused on base-building, bringing in members, and supporting the priority fights taking place in other arenas. Now is a real opportunity to build socialist power, and with our members’ carefully thought-out priority proposals, we have a clear blueprint for taking full advantage of this moment!

I have been an active member of TCDSA and the Political Education Committee since 2022. I was elected as one of our three Political Education Coordinators last year. In these past few years I have helped plan and facilitate chapter debate nights, Solidarity Night School, TCDSA 101 and other education programming. I am proud of the accomplishments of Political Education this past year. We have a more robust orientation and continuing education program than we did the previous year in the form of a revamped, partially in-person TCDSA 101 for new members and Solidarity Night School. Over 100 people have gone through TCDSA 101 in the last year and we are projected to have around 20 graduates from Solidarity Night School. My framework in the 2023-2024 term when designing and running our programming was to give our members the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively organize the working class. I want to go further if reelected. Educating our membership is an important part of Political Education’s work, but we also need to begin serious education of the working class at large. The ultimate education is collective struggle on the picket line, but we can take concrete steps before and beyond that. Specifically, I would like TCDSA to sponsor two kinds of programming towards this end in the next year. First, we need to offer educational resources and training for workers looking to organize a union or a reform caucus within an existing union. There are already resources that exist outside of TCDSA for this, but I think we can play an important role in centralizing them, delivering them to workers, and placing them in a socialist framework. Second, we need to create a training and mentorship program for people interested in eventually running for office as a socialist. Currently, we endorse candidates for office who approach us, but we don’t have a robust way to develop electoral candidates in the long run. I would like to develop programming that attracts people interested in running for office as a socialist but who don’t know where to start. This program would take years to bear fruit, but that means it is all the more important that it begin now.

Does identify as a cisgender man

Although I have been an active member of the DSA for about two months, my engagement with political organizing and education extends much further. Over the past few months, I have been actively organizing and educating students at MCAD about the Palestinian struggle, fostering awareness and solidarity within our academic community. My dedication to activism began in my senior year of high school, where I participated in various local protests advocating for social justice and human rights. As Political Education Coordinator, I aim to: 1. Expand Educational Programs: Develop a comprehensive curriculum that includes both foundational socialist theory and practical organizing skills. This will include reading groups, workshops, and guest speaker events. 2. Promote Inclusivity: Ensure our educational programs are accessible to all members, regardless of their background or prior knowledge. This includes providing resources in multiple languages and formats. 3. Foster Critical Dialogue: Create spaces for open and respectful debate on various issues, encouraging members to engage critically with different perspectives. 4. Build Stronger Connections: Strengthen our ties with local organizations and community groups to foster solidarity and collective learning. Why I am Running?: I believe that political education is the backbone of our movement. It empowers us to understand the roots of oppression and envision pathways to liberation. My background in organizing, combined with my dedication to continuous learning and community engagement, makes me well-suited to lead our chapter’s educational initiatives. Together, we can cultivate a culture of learning and critical thinking that will strengthen our movement and bring us closer to achieving our shared goals. I humbly ask for your support in this endeavor. Let’s work together to build a more informed, engaged, and empowered DSA.

Does not identify as a cisgender man.

I feel that we have had success during my first few months as Poli Ed Facilitator and would love to continue with what we have started.

Does not identify as a cisgender man.

Although my time with TCDSA has only just passed the three month point I believe my passion for bringing education about socialism in combination with real life practice would provide a great benefit for comrades and potential new members.

Does not identify as a cisgender man.

I’m running for an at-large position on the Steering Committee to rack up wins in the electoral sphere and deliver material wins for the working class. 

In 2024, I led our chapter’s precinct caucus training and turnout program, implementing the resolution our membership passed at the 2023 annual convention to encourage going to caucuses. This program turned out at least 70 TCDSA members around a common purpose, including introducing a ceasefire resolution for the DFL’s platform. This work culminated in 1) electing a strong slate of Uncommitted national delegates committed to a Free Palestine, 2) passing a ceasefire resolution at the DFL State Convention, and 3) defeating proposals that would have favored conservative, monied candidates trying to defeat DSA endorsees. 

I was part of the founding team of the Vote Uncommitted MN campaign, winning the highest percent of uncommitted votes of any primary state. I went on to become an Uncommitted national delegate for Minnesota, serving as one of the co-chairs of the Minnesota’s uncommitted delegation. I took charge of fundraising, logistics, and support for our delegates, ensuring that we went to the DNC prepared and resourced. 

I also was part of the national Uncommitted leadership team and assisted in developing our ceasefire delegate strategy which increased our numbers tenfold at the DNC (30 to 330). We didn’t leave anything to chance at the DNC; we took seriously our moral obligation to be effective. At the end of it, we brought our message to every TV station, newspaper, and online journal covering the DNC, forcing Palestine into the conversation and exposing in undeniable terms the contradictions between the stated values of the party and the actions and policies of its leadership. I want to bring the lessons and skills developed through this wildly successful media strategy to our chapter’s work, to train and empower our members with media skills to take the fight to the ruling class and our message to the working class.

I’ve frequently served as parliamentarian for our chapter membership meetings. This last year, I’ve conducted two trainings on Robert’s Rules to develop the skills of members. I often informally advise members on aspects of rules and procedure, including at the 2023 DSA national convention. I want to build the knowledge and confidence of our members on procedure – to organize effectively around processes and to enhance our culture of democracy (and also to save time!).

Finally, as someone with one foot in DSA and one foot in the DFL, I can offer insights on the inner workings of the DFL to sharpen our electoral work and pull new folks into our chapter.

Does not identify as a cisgender man.

I want to run because I want to help with people understanding homes is spend a lot of people that it’s never been homeless and never been in a situation on the verge of homelessness has been people that talk around it my work is around homelessness I am CEO of freedom from the streets our office is in St Paul downtown St Paul on the floor 15th floor and I have too many people say that nobody wants to stop promises nobody wants to stop the drugs they want to keep this going on I want to sit at large I can see what’s going on and educate people on what’s what I know

Does not identify as a cisgender man.

Since joining DSA, I have been actively involved in the Palestine Working Group, where I’ve worked on building solidarity through coalition efforts, such as representing DSA in the Free Palestine Coalition, and contributing to outreach and communication efforts for the United Front. These experiences have deepened my understanding of various organizations and strengthened my commitment to our collective struggle. I am running for Member at-Large to help grow our chapter’s capacity by focusing on member engagement, community outreach, and political education. I believe that by equipping our members with the right tools and resources, we can build a stronger and more resilient organization. To achieve this, we must continuously evaluate and refine our tactics, ensuring our message resonates and helps build political consciousness across diverse communities. I’m passionate about supporting internal organizing efforts to make our chapter more effective and inclusive with a goal of translating our shared priorities into concrete actions that will expand our influence and organizing power. I’m excited about the opportunity to bring my experience, commitment, and dedication to this role. Together, we can build a movement that not only responds to the challenges we face today but also paves the way for the future.

Does not identify as a cisgender man.

I am running for a second term on Steering as an At Large representative because I want to dedicate more time to building chapter infrastructure and capacities that will support and engage our members, so that we will truly become a mass movement organization.

I believe that to ensure any of our campaigns are possible, we must maintain a focus in our chapter leadership on supporting and organizing our own membership and strengthening our ability to draw in local working class community members. It is the job of At Large representatives to do this and to strengthen our chapters operations. I believe I am strongly qualified and am passionate about carrying out this work.

I have been a member of DSA since 2018, and as an active member of Twin Cities DSA since 2021. For the past year I have been proud to be one of our chapters current At Large Steering Representatives where I have helped spearhead the creation of our chapter office into a key organizing and community space, helped improve new member onboarding, organized tabling efforts, and have launched our United Front coalition building effort. In addition to all of this I have dedicated countless hours helping with chapter administration and meetings.

Does not identify as a cisgender man.

My name is Aidan, and I’m proud to be running for Twin Cities DSA At-Large. In 2021, my life changed when I joined YDSA at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Since then, I’ve been deeply involved in socialist organizing at the University of Minnesota and the Twin Cities metro, a commitment I bring to my candidacy. 

In 2021, I helped organize doorknocks with Twin Cities DSA and YDSA UMN to turn out students to vote for now-Councilmember Robin Wonsley, who would win by 13 votes. One of the proudest moments I’ve had as a leader in YDSA UMN was in 2022, when we worked with the UMN Teamsters to help win them a fair contract, building solidarity between students and workers. In the 2023-2024 school year, I ended my final term as Chair of YDSA UMN on what I felt was our most successful year yet. We turned out students to support striking UAW workers, became founding members of the UMN Divest Coalition, were a massive part of the UMN Gaza Solidarity Encampment, and ran a gender-affirming clothing drive. I was also one of the leading undergraduate organizers in the push for PELRA Reform at the University of Minnesota, where we worked with our State Legislature socialists-in-office to win back the right to organize a union for over 23,000 different UMN workers. 

One of my key contributions has been recruiting and mentoring students to establish new YDSA chapters. Thanks to these efforts, we now have official chapters or organizing committees at Macalester College, Hamline University, Metro State University, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, with more coming. As a steering committee member, I want to strengthen the connection between our local YDSA chapters. This would look like informing them of Twin Cities DSA priorities and events, and creating more opportunities for YDSA and TCDSA to collaborate. I have also been actively involved in our chapters’ Electoral Committee and Socialists-in-Office Committee. As a former intern for State Senator Omar Fateh, I want to use my knowledge of the legislature to help grow TCDSA’s socialist-in-office program at the state level.

YDSA has taught me pivotal organizing skills I will use for the rest of my life. As an At-Large member, I want to use those skills to strengthen and grow Twin Cities DSA. The biggest thing I’ve learned from student organizing is the need to develop new leaders to replace ourselves. We need to meet people where they’re at and find out how to bring them closer to where we are. Whether it’s fighting for a Free Palestine, organizing our workplaces, or running socialists for local office, onboarding & leadership development are essential to both winning our demands and having sustainable long-term chapter growth.

Does identify as a cisgender man.

After two months as our chapter’s first communications coordinator, I’d like to continue on for the full year. Social media and our newsletter are critical pieces for DSA – it’s how we present a united front to the public and to our internal chapter. It’s also a challenge to balance communicating with different audiences – members, community allies, and potential members (and blocking trolls, of course). Communications is key for bolstering our numbers and influence in the community to create a better Twin Cities. As for experience, I’ve been on DSA’s communications team for the past year and a half. As a social media captain, I’ve learned “the voice” of DSA and know how to manage criticism and breaking news. For my day job, I’ve worked in communications for the past few years, and I’ve also worked as a journalist, so I understand media requests from their perspective. A couple goals I have in mind for comms committee are to build up our capacity to better handle breaking news, have “reporters on the ground,” and become proactive about various DSA campaigns. I also plan to help create a media training for any DSA member wishing to know how to talk to media, as well as guidelines for statements to smooth out that process.

I’m running for grievance committee member because I am committed to fostering both a welcoming and principled organizing space within Twin Cities DSA. I would like to have a grievance process that aims to address non-political conflicts within the organization, but also feel it is necessary for a process to be formed to contend with political conflicts, such as whatever the implementation of the anti-Zionist proposal may be. I feel that principled stances that are cohesive throughout membership are important in a big tent organization, even if we differ in tendency and organizational strategy. It is advantageous to create a culture where people feel comfortable being wrong, making mistakes, and learning from those around them. It is also advantageous to have a process in place for those who refuse to contribute to this culture, or who disrupt comradely organizing and consensus. I am committed to contributing to the creation (and implementation) of both these processes. I am a huge believer in transformative conflict. I have experience and feel comfortable having difficult conversations, and being frank while also being understanding, and showing compassion. I believe that a mix of firmness and a commitment to deep understanding are what make up a strong grievance officer/council member, and eventually contribute to a strong solidarity culture within the organization. This has been my experiencing as the (informal) grievance officer for UMN YDSA, and I would be happy to serve on this council to put that knowledge/experience to good use, and put work in towards this mission for a grievance process in TCDSA!

Hey! I’m Philip, and I am seeking election for the Grievance Committee. Since my time in college, I have been fascinated by interpersonal relations, conflict, and how to engage with it. I learned the basics and practice of Nonviolent Communication, an empathy and conflict resolution methodology, in 2020 and it has been something that has been on my mind ever since. It was a little after that that I found myself in YDSA and then TCDSA and have been blown away by the passion and solidarity of everyone in the organization. Last fall I worked as a canvasser on Soren Stevenson’s TCDSA Minneapolis city council campaign where we used relational organizing strategies such as deep canvassing to build and grow community around the campaign. I see work on the Grievance Committee partially as working through those political relations but instead within TCDSA itself. I am excited for the coming work of the Solidarity Culture Committee in tandem with the Grievance Committee to foster greater understanding among the various factions of our organization.

I began organizing with TCDSA in 2019. Over the years I’ve been involved with various groups across the chapter, including the Socialist Feminist branch, the Internal Organizing committee, and two terms on the Steering Committee as a Member At-Large. Since our 2023 convention, I have dedicated significant time to implementing the resolution passed to reboot the Grievance Committee, and I am running to be an elected member of the Grievance Committee to continue this work. Building political power requires more than just externally-focused campaigns or member recruitment—it also requires long-term internal work to strengthen our comradery with each other and unlearn capitalist models of relation. Clear, comprehensive processes can help us weather the conflict that invariably occurs in big-tent, multi-tendency organizing, but such processes are still only a piece of learning how to engage each other in solidarity. I want to ensure that every member of TCDSA has access to the resources and support necessary to grow their capacity to participate in healthy debate, to seek help when they have experienced harm, and to feel securely connected to each other, and to the work of creating a better world.

I have been a member of Twin Cities DSA since 2016 and have been on steering committee twice, both as Labor Branch Chair, and Chapter Co-Chair (2021-2022). As a former chapter leader, I have seen the impact the conflict can have on the ability of our organization to function, and how the presence of a trusted grievance process, or the lack thereof, can make a difference in our ability to resolve conflict and move forward as comrades. I was involved in some of the initial trainings around transformative justice when our grievance committee began, and I’m excited to see it reform in the coming months. I hope that on grievance committee, my long history with the chapter and relationships with a lot of comrades can be an asset to helping our chapter strengthen our culture of solidarity and repair the harm that inevitably happens when people interact in the course of organizing and community building.

I am a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker with 12+ years of experience in de-escalation and implementing good communication skills. For a few years, I also assisted with the grievance process while appointed to the Board of Directors for a collective bargaining unit of County workers. I became a member of TCDSA and have been engaged in the Solidarity Culture Committee since spring of this year and I am passionate about and excited for the opportunity to use my skills to serve on the Grievance Committee and foster more of the solidarity culture we’re striving to create in our wonderful chapter.