Welcome to your quick glimpse into the work of the chapter over the last month, prepared for Little Red Letter #134.
- The day before the inauguration we joined with PSL to co-host the Get Connected, Fight Back Community Assembly, featuring speakers, musical and cultural performances, and informational tables from over 20 local organizations. As we face struggles old and new, building ties of solidarity and community is more crucial than ever. On Inauguration day, a contingent of TCDSA members attended the Fight for MLK’s Dream, Resist Trump’s Nightmare March, Rally, and Caravan to protest the administration’s agenda. And members held an ad hoc meeting the week following inauguration to allow members to walk through the implications of the first round of executive orders and collectively analyze steps our organization can take to build and support opposition efforts.
- In response to MNDOT’s intent to remove both at-grade I-94 redesign options from any further study, TCDSA and Our Streets partnered with local elected officials on the Political Advisory Committee to shine light on this opaque process as. Bringing the public into the room for a virtual and inaccessibly timed meeting, participants overwhelmingly demanded MNDOT to give the at-grade options full consideration, and spoke to the unclear process preventing residents and elected officials from having a tangible say in decision making, the contradictions of an initial evaluation that would claim a boulevard is worse for pedestrians than the current freeway, and the past and health consequences shouldered by residents along the corridor.
- A training event for our No Appetite for Apartheid campaign, a local effort aimed at removing products that benefit from or support the occupation of Palestinian land. In addition to strengthening the BDS movement by engaging with the local community, this effort has a material impact by boycotting products with are grown or manufactured on stolen Palestinian land, which exploit low-paid Palestinian labor, and whose profits and taxes are used to fund Israeli forces.
- The first session of our four-part education series “From Palestine to Turtle Island”, exploring the shared legacies and struggles of indigenous populations. This event examined the ways settler colonialism has functioned as a system of dispossession and racial supremacy, drawing connections between Zionism in Palestine and settler colonial projects in the Americas, Ireland, and South Africa.
- The chapter kicked off our local endorsement process for 2025, inviting candidates to apply for endorsement. With big opportunities coming in 2025 with all elected offices up for election, this process is designed to ensure candidates we ultimately endorse embody democratic socialist values. Our electoral organizing builds on past organizing successes to deny reactionaries elected office, push policies that improve people’s material conditions, and strengthen people’s sense of power and potential in and beyond the electoral realm.
- Workers from Delta Air Lines organized an inspiring rally at the St. Paul Labor Center on January 25th. Ramp, cargo, and tower workers are fighting to join the International Association of Machinists (IAM), and flight attendants are fighting to join the Association of Flight Attendants at Delta, the most profitable airline in the industry. Over 200 people from a wide range of communities packed the union hall, including 25 TCDSA members, and the rally received favorable coverage on Kare 11 News. Featuring speakers such as Sara Nelson, AFA-CWA president, as well as Minneapolis CVP Chughtai and CM Wonsley, this campaign represents one of the biggest organizing opportunities nationally, as a victory at Delta would be national news and give an important boost to the labor revival. Read the report back from chapter members here.
- The chapter’s Street Corp Cells continue to engage in ongoing organizing in support of our unhoused neighbors as they have faced compounding adversity from cold snaps, evictions, and encampment fires. This included support during an eviction in Saint Paul and pushing a chapter statement condemning the eviction and harassment of encampment residents by St. Paul fire and law enforcement. All of the cells convened on January 25th for the Street Corp general meeting, reflecting on their work over the last year and planning how to expand their organizing efforts across the Hamline/Midway, Marcy/Como, and Longfellow cells.
- Our Socialist Feminist branch held their first meeting after being dormant for most of 2024. Formed originally with a focus on building solidarity and power at the intersections of gender, race, and class, members old and new assembled this month to revive the work of the branch, one which served as an invaluable space for political education, action planning and leadership development.