Blog
-
We Get What We Organize For: Smith Foundry Update
Background Smith Foundry is an iron foundry that manufactures iron castings in the East Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis. Smith began operations in 1923 but was purchased by Canadian private equity firm “Zynik Capital” in 2022. Holding the dubious distinction of being the largest emitter of lead in Hennepin County, little has changed inside the…
-
Solidarity Culture
There’s been a lot of discussion in the steering committee and the chapter as a whole about solidarity culture. That’s because there is a great desire on the part of many chapter members to have useful, comradely debate and discussion about the very serious issues facing the working class and TCDSA. We want to be…
-
OpenSliding into Democracy
Hello Comrades! As you all know, at our last general meeting, the chapter debuted a new online meeting organizing tool: OpenSlides. This was our first run with OpenSlides, and we did have some important success with it. We were able to successfully reach a quorum of people logged into the OpenSlides and capture a record…
-
Labor Notes 2024 – Watching History Be Made
One of the best moments of the Labor Notes weekend was what didn’t happen: Sean Fain couldn’t give his talk at the Friday night panel because he was busy overseeing the UAW victory at the Volkswagen facility in Tennessee, bringing 4,000 more workers into the union (though he did knock it out of the park…
-
Tenant Unionism is the remedy to the Ills of our Cities and our Organization: A Prescription for TCDSA
1. The Diagnosis We’re at a terrifying and tumultuous crossroads in history. The contradictions in capitalism have become more visible and harmful to us all in recent years. Between 36%-56% of American families have trouble meeting their basic needs each month (depending how you split the data, from US Census Household Pulse Survey Data 2024).…
-
Challenges for TCDSA and Endorsees
Written by Josh K More Wins, More Problems When I began attending Twin Cities DSA electoral committee meetings in 2018, we met in a vacant commercial space with unfinished floors, unadorned with furniture except folding tables and chairs. Ginger Jentzen had lost to Steve Fletcher a few months earlier; there were no elected officials with…
-
23,000 UMN Workers Collective Bargaining Rights Hinge On PELRA Reform
A version of this article was originally published in the Nokomis Messenger. As an undergraduate student on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in 2011 I, like many Wisconsin emigres, experienced significant upheaval around Wisconsin Act 10. Under the guise of a “Budget Repair Bill”, Act 10 is primarily known for removing collective bargaining rights of…
-
For Social Movements – Here’s How To Win
In mid-February, prospects didn’t look good for the St. Paul City Council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Council President, Mitra Jalali, had blocked introduction of such a resolution, explaining that she didn’t believe “foreign affairs” had a place in the deliberations of the City Council, despite the fact she…
-
Uncommitted Makes Waves
On March 5th, “Super Tuesday”, Minnesotans showed up in the tens of thousands to Vote Uncommitted in the presidential primary elections. Through phone-banking, text-banking, flyering, and relational organizing, members of our local Twin Cities chapter and DSA national joined in the effort, which garnered 19% of the vote in the Democratic Party primary, nearly 46,000…
-
Argentina Ignites the Fire of Rebellion Against the Far Right
Argentina anticipates the near future in the US? The working class in Argentina just dealt a powerful blow to the Far Right. After a one-day national strike that brought 1.5 million people into the streets across the country and a week of protests bringing together wide sectors of the working class and social movements, a…
-
Lessons from Cop City
You have likely heard of Cop City and the corresponding “Stop Cop City” movement in Atlanta, Georgia. However, you may have wondered what exactly are the details of this project and the campaign to stop it? How is the ruling class forcing this project into reality? What can we learn from the fight against Cop…
-
Why Liberal/Progressive Politicians Don’t Deliver
When St. Paul elected their first all female and nearly all women of color City Council last year, there were high hopes this would deliver progressive change at the City Council level. On Wednesday, February 21 those hopes took a heavy blow. Council President Mitra Jalali, widely known as a progressive, refused to bring forth…
2023 Elections Aisha Chughtai Anti-imperialism Association of Flight Attendants Book review Ceasefire in Gaza Delta Delta Air Lines Democratic Party/DFL East Phillips Neighborhood Institute/EPNI East Phillips Urban Farm Electoral Committee Endorsements Environmental racism General Strike Three International Association of Machinists International Brotherhood of Teamsters Jason Chavez Labor MFT/ESP MFT59 Minneapolis Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association (MULDA) MN Governor Tim Walz Mutual aid Nelsie Yang Omar Fateh Political education Rent control Rent Stabilization Ordinance Robin Wonsley Roof Depot Soren Stevenson St. Paul Starbucks Starbucks Workers United TCDSA Teamsters UFCW 663 Ukraine invasion 2022 UMN Union Organizing United Auto Workers (UAW) Unite HERE Local 17 YDSA