Blog
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Student, Worker Solidarity Leads to Victory at the U of M
The MN Higher Ed Worker Center (HEWC) and a coalition of faculty, student groups, frontline unions and community organizations (including TCDSA) experienced a big victory during Monday night’s UMN Board of Regents election. Following weeks of intensive lobbying and outside pressure and organizing, right-wing populist Michael Hsu and union-busting attorney Karen Schanfield were both defeated during an hours-long joint convention of the MN…
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The Weimar Republic
Part 2 of Between the World Wars A Political Education Snippet Introduction The Weimar Republic was an experiment with democracy that ultimately ended in one of the most brutal totalitarian regimes known to world history. Nicknamed after the German city wherein its first constitutional assembly was held, the Weimar Republic emerged in 1918 from the…
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We Have a New Electoral Committee
At the request of the former Electoral Working Group, the active WG was transformed by the Steering Committee into the Electoral Committee. Tim H. and Anna were appointed interim Co-chairs. All members are welcome to join the committee! Just to be clear, the Committee does NOT make decisions about electoral strategy or endorsements. The Committee…
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TCDSA endorses Minneapolis United for Rent Control (MURC)
Here’s what you can do: Sign MURC’s petition to help hit the goal of 20,000 signatures by the summer, when the City Council decides to put these amendments on the ballot. Take a few minutes to fill out how you would like to be involved. When you’re done, share it with your friends! Follow MURC…
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TCDSA statement on the Derek Chauvin trial
Twin Cities DSA stands in solidarity with George Floyd’s family as the trial of the man who murdered him begins. We recognize that the state rarely holds police who harm people accountable because the intertwining of capital, the state, and police violence defines fascism. We hope that Derek Chauvin’s trial is the exception. We also…
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The Page amendment; Educators’ solidarity; COVID-19 and safe reopening of schools
A big subject in local educational news has been the struggle between teachers’ unions and school districts over when and how it is safe to return to in-person classes. As we explained in the October 2020 Education Section, it’s a complex issue. For some teachers, in-person learning is what they want most, and for some…
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Between the World Wars – A Three Part Series
For Political Education Snippets Red Vienna – Between the Wars Part I The Political Education Committee is presenting three three-part series of Political Education Snippets over the next nine months. The first series is called Between the Wars, and will examine three manifestations of attempts at social change in different parts of Europe between 1919…
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How do we relate to each other, comrade?
What is a comrade in a 21st-century socialist organization? In the 20th Century it meant you were “under discipline,” a cadre in an organization of “professional revolutionaries.” But many of these organizations were based on a centralized, hierarchical model developed in Czarist Russia. They evolved hierarchies within structures of white supremacy, hierarchies that advantaged hetero-masculinity,…
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Book Review: Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas
This is an insightful and dangerous book. Its ideas have wormed their way into my consciousness and changed the way I see things. I will never again watch a TED Talk, listen to an Aspen Idea NPR broadcast, the Clintons, Trump, Bill Gates, or Joe Biden without them being colored by what I learned from…
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Reaching Consensus: Democracy and Rules of Order
Robert’s Rules of Order probably seem to many, especially the younger of us, to be ancient and nearly irrelevant. But these rules are comparatively recent, and far more modern and adaptable than you may realize. Henry Martyn Robert published his pamphlet of “Rules” in 1876, a mere 145 years ago, and almost 100 years after…
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Minnesota’s Vaccine Rollout Strategy: A Socialist Perspective
From the Twin Cities DSA Health Justice Working Group The Health Justice Working Group interviewed TCDSA member Pat for a socialist perspective on Minnesota’s vaccine rollout strategy. Pat is a PhD student studying occupational and environmental epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, as well as a graduate research assistant. Pat also works in local public…
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Marathon Refinery Strike Report
At 5 PM on Thursday, January 21, 200 workers represented by Teamsters Local 120 at the Marathon refinery in St Paul Park walked off the job in Minnesota’s first strike of 2021. They offered to return after 24 hours, but the company has decided to lock them out instead, content to continue working with scabs…
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