Click (+) next to the proposal titles to view their contents below.

To be considered at convention, a proposal needed to demonstrate support from 2% of TCDSA members — 23 people as of Sept. 2024. Proposals had until Tuesday, September 10, 2024 to get the needed support. Five priority proposals and six resolutions demonstrated the required support to be considered at convention. We have also had four secondary amendments submitted for consideration. These were proposed amendments to priorities or resolutions. Secondary amendments also needed to demonstrate support from 2% of TCDSA members. They had until September 17, 2024 to get the needed support.

Submitted Priority Proposals, Resolutions, and Secondary Amendments to be Considered

Priorities Adopted by Membership

Priority Proposal #3 – Unite for Liberation – From Palestine to Turtle Island
Priority Proposal #4 – Stop Climate Change Before We All Die
Priority Proposal #5 – Taking the Cap Off Capacity, As Amended

Resolutions Adopted by Membership

Resolution #1 – TCDSA Labor Branch Road Map 2024-2025
Resolution #2 – Make Twin Cities DSA an Anti-Zionist Organization in Principle and Praxis
Resolution #3 – DSA for Minneapolis Schools
Resolution #4 – Proposal that TCDSA sign on to the End Slavery in Minnesota Campaign
Resolution #5 – Developing a Unified Platform for TCDSA, As Amended

Priorities Not Adopted by Membership

Priority Proposal #1 – Toward Building a Mass Working-Class Alternative to the Democratic Party in 2025
- Priority Amendment #1A – Run as a Clear DSA Bloc (Amendment adopted, Priority Proposal #1 as amended was not adopted)
Priority Proposal #2 – Build DSA through Class-Struggle Unionism

Tabled until the next General Meeting

Resolution #6 – Build the Capacity and Influence of Socialists Within Minnesota’s Political Party Structures

Did Not Meet 2% Threshold

Target Amount of Outward Facing Events per Month

Priorities Adopted by Membership

Priority Proposal #3 – Unite for Liberation – From Palestine to Turtle Island

Authors: Palestine Solidarity Working Group

Objective: TCDSA needs to seize this moment and engage working people in a struggle that targets the material basis of Zionism and U.S. imperialism.

The genocide in Gaza is approaching the end of its first year, which coincides with a critical period for the movement for a Free Palestine in the United States. The initial phase of mass mobilization and public pressure has notched successes – support for the state of Israel is at historic lows, many citizens have been engaged in street protests, and a wave of campus occupations has reinvigorated the BDS movement. These successes should not be taken lightly, and it is crucial that we maintain the level of pressure and engagement over the long term.

At the same time, our movement is also reckoning with the limits of street protests and symbolic demands. While many American cities passed resolutions in support of a ceasefire, the state of Israel proceeded with their genocide with the aid of the United States federal government and many U.S. corporations.

The time has come to focus the energy that the US pro-Palestine movement has built on the material basis of Zionism. TCDSA can assist in this effort by:

Continuing and expanding our No Appetite for Apartheid campaign.
Continuing to engage in existing BDS-adjacent struggles:
1. UMN Divest
2. SBI & Assisting Labor Branch Divestment Efforts
3. Statewide BDS

Choosing these particular fronts in the struggle for Palestinian liberation is strategically advantageous because it engages a problem created by capitalism and imperialism on precisely socialist and anti-imperialist terms.

In terms of socialism, each of the above actions targets the capitalist processes that permit the state of Israel to continue its occupation of Palestine. Where possible, we engage with laborers, who are the original source of the capital that fuels the Zionist state. In other cases, we target investment funds that siphon wealth to Israel and the U.S.-based corporations that profit from the occupation. Otherwise, we engage as consumers in targeted actions that seek specific concessions – either promoting larger chains to divest, or helping to economically untether our local communities from the war machine.

Approaching the issue by tracing the expropriation of wealth from Minnesotans to the state of Israel has the additional benefit of pushing an anti-imperialist framework forward. This approach demands much more than a ceasefire, instead dismantling the relationships that allow the state of Israel to act as a client state of Western imperialist powers. Over the long haul, this sort of engagement will help position the U.S. working class to understand the repercussions of imperialism on the domestic front (via the offshoring of manufacturing as a way to suppress wages or the migration caused by foreign policy).

These campaigns also each identify effective and concretely winnable demands to channel pro-Palestine energy into. While keeping an eye towards the whole imperial structure, this strategy will keep us anchored to a set of intermediate goals that chip away at its foundation. This formulation will help combat the sense of powerlessness and disconnection that can take root when attempting to take on issues at the scale of international politics and genocide.

Campaign Goals

No Appetite for Apartheid
1. Canvas all small halal stores once by fall
2. Create a network of grocery stores in the Twin Cities that boycott key Israeli brands/products in a coordinated way in order to slow down the supply of money directed back to Israel.
3. Build relationships with local, immigrant-run small businesses and their customers/communities
4. Begin talking with UFCW 663 workers about pressuring Cub, Kowalski’s and Lund’s & Byerly’s to stop carrying Israeli products with an eye towards a possible strike next spring – we could encourage working group members to help salt these stores.
5. Note: Goals are based on current capacity – with more involvement these could be expanded to larger companies
Existing BDS-adjacent struggles:
1. UMN Divest
  1. Provide material support and direct members across the chapter to assist in whatever capacity is requested by the student movement.
  2. DSA members who were leaders in the coalition in the spring could be formal or informal liaisons between the students and the chapter.
  3. Try to anticipate escalations, identify situational roles that will need to be filled, and find DSA members to fill them.
2. SBI & Assisting Labor Branch Divestment Efforts
  1. Continue to pressure the State Board of Investments to divest from companies that are supporting apartheid, both by supporting the existing efforts of Labor Branch comrades and directing members towards Free Palestine Coalition led actions and call-in campaigns.
  2. MAPE and MFT campaigns
    1. Reach out to TCDSA members in public employee unions who are not yet involved in this fight and schedule 1-on-1s to see about getting them involved.
    2. Build towards getting all public employee unions to publicly demand that their pensions be divested.
3. Statewide BDS

Work with DSA-endorsed electeds to repeal a bill that prevents organizations that boycott Israel from receiving state funding.
Meet with Omar Fateh. Learn who the obstacles in the Senate DFL are to divestment and get Fateh’s insight on how it can be won.

Internal Organizing Goals

Capacity Building
1. Leverage the specificity of divestment campaigns to engage inactive chapter members. Call these members to invite them to participate, and schedule 1-on-1s with them to discuss how they can help us fight to end the genocide and end the occupation.
2. Recruit at least 10 new members into DSA and into becoming actively involved in the Palestine Solidarity Working Group.
3. Table at a minimum of one event per quarter that is hosted by coalition partners or otherwise likely to have a pro-Palestinian audience.
Knowledge Building
1. Host at least one Political Education event per quarter and promote using Spoke and Everyaction.
  1. Use events to build capacity –
    1. Tie each Political Education event to a specific organizing ask and campaign. Make that ask of the whole group during the event. Keep track of who attends.
    2. Keep track of who attends and have a member of the Palestine Solidarity WG reach out within a week after to learn what they thought about the event and repeat the organizing ask.
2. Train for marshaling and direct action competency throughout the chapter
3. Teach members to canvas in the context of specific campaigns (either electoral or issues-based like NA4A)
4. Grow public speaking skills at various actions

Chapter Collaboration

Labor: see Campaign Goal around “SBI & Assisting Labor Branch Divestment Efforts”.
Internal Organizing: see Internal Organizing Goal around “Capacity Building”.
Political Education: see Internal Organizing Goal around “Knowledge Building”.
Electoral: Efforts around statewide divestment would fit neatly with the nascent Statewide SIO committee. We can also coordinate with our local electeds around whatever actions and flashpoints come up in other campaigns – Robin Wonsley did a fantastic job of supporting the encampment at the U.
Street Corps/United Front: Collaborate on marshal/action training.
Comms: Collaborate with the comms team to

Continue to keep the issue of Palestine at the front of our local discourse.
Highlight ways that individuals can get involved in the struggle – including FPC/SBI actions and working group campaigns.
Highlight progress and wins achieved (with the TCDSA Labor for Palestine series being a great template).

External Collaboration

There exists a lot of possibility here due to the energy around Palestine on the left and across the Twin Cities.

Local religious groups and organization

Free Palestine Coalition – TCDSA is a member, as are:
- Anti-War Committee MN
- Women Against Military Madness
- American Muslims for Palestine
- Healthcare Workers for Palestine
- National Lawyers Guild
- Jewish Voice for Peace
- MIRA
- Party for Socialism and Liberation
- And more!
Labor unions, especially public sector unions
MN BDS Community
Local artist collectives – Spill Paint not Oil, Public Functionary, Artists Against Apartheid, Mixed Blood Theater/Pangea World Theater

Priority Proposal #4 – Stop Climate Change Before We All Die

Author: Environmental Justice Working Group

Narrative:

There is no socialism on a dead planet. Combatting climate change is something we must do in order for any of our other organizing to succeed, and we don’t have much time left to make big changes. To stop climate change, we have to break through the green capitalist “solutions” that corporations, nonprofits, and governments at every level have embraced. We have to bring a socialist perspective to environmental organizing, with people – and planet – centered solutions at the forefront of this movement.

We must think globally and act locally. The EJ WG has put its focus on some of the largest polluters in Hennepin County (HERC and I-94), in the most marginalized neighborhoods (East Phillips, North Minneapolis, Rondo). We do this because as socialists we know that an injury to one is an injury to all, and we must work to liberate the most vulnerable people in order to also liberate ourselves. The work in East Phillips in particular keeps decolonization at the forefront of our minds as we struggle for clean air, water, dignity, and community ownership of the land. Each campaign that we list below addresses land use, a key issue that separates socialists from liberal environmentalists, and aims a challenge right at one of the core tenets of capitalism – the private ownership of land.

Being part of a local movement that can win against behemoth polluters and change massive infrastructure will build the credibility of socialism as an alternative to the capitalist order. Corporate and nonprofit “non-solutions” have left the public with a nihilism and skepticism that anything can be done about climate change. Socialism provides the blueprint for true climate solutions. The public needs to see that in action.

This should be prioritized over other work because climate change affects every one of us, and can be a guiding light for all of our other work. How many members of the working class will succumb to pollution-related illnesses? How many of us are afflicted with climate-anxiety? How many of us struggle to get where we need to go because of car-centric infrastructure? Environmental organizing also expands the traditional site of struggle, connecting people with the land they live on and their neighbors. Organizing in these spaces allows us to connect with the “whole person” beyond their job description, and reach folks who might not be found in the traditional workplace, at the ballot box, or even in housing. Organizing for environmental justice is a unique opportunity that allows us to take people’s greatest source of existential dread, climate change, and organize them around a vision of realistic hope that can bring people into socialist politics for the long haul.

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Does this priority overlap with work being performed by existing chapter groups?:

Labor – Organized labor is a critical part of EJ work.

– Workers might be employed in harmful industries (such as Teamsters workers at Smith Foundry and IBEW workers at the HERC). We must build relationships with those rank and file workers and ensure a Just Transition.

Union power can help create pressure for change when aligned with EJ goals, through Bargaining for the Common Good, statements, rallies, endorsements, etc. (MFT, MNA, and Teamsters 320 have already been big players in the HERC fight, and we can engage them even deeper if EJ is made a priority).

– Zero Burn coalition is interested in engaging with UFCW 663 for a common good demand regarding food waste. UFCW 663 is a priority for our chapter’s labor branch.

– There’s also already incipient solidarity between Zero Burn and AFSCME 2822 against Hennepin County. There are areas of overlap with the collective Building Trades, in terms of deconstruction as part of the People’s HERC Transition Plan.

– Union workers will build the green future we need, and need to know we are partners with them.

– Zero Burn Coalition is in the process of beginning a Labor transition working group as well.

Housing – Displacement is an issue that can arise in the course of EJ campaigns.

– Tenant organizing and rent control could be areas of crossover with the EJ campaigns, both of which can help prevent displacement in newly cleaned areas where there is a concentration of renters. Still to be explored, but the chapter’s tenant organizing group could put some focus on organizing within East Phillips, North MPLS, and along the 94 corridor; then EJ members could help lend capacity in turn to tenant organizing.

– EJ group members have met with the housing group, and there is interest in door knocking about both EJ and rent control issues.

Community land ownership is a model that is gaining traction within these two campaigns. Some of that land might be developed by the community into green social housing, and the EJ group would appreciate collaboration with the Housing WG to research and develop ideas and practical implementation.

– EJ WG’s ongoing support of residents at Camp Nenookaasi is an example of direct aid to our unhoused neighbors, and ties in with housing policy – both for housed and unhoused folks – in Minneapolis.

Electoral –

– This work involves communicating and collaborating with DSA-endorsed elected officials at the city, county, and state levels to promote and enforce policy or create pressure for change. One example is the 100% Carbon Free legislation, and ensuring that polluting processes like trash-burning are not included in the definition of “carbon free”.

– DSA-endorsed electeds like Jason Chavez,Robin Wonsley, Samantha Sencer-Mura, Aurin Chowdhury, and Omar Fateh are already involved

in many of the EJ struggles, such as Camp Nenookaasi, the I-94 campaign, Smith Foundry, and in the past, the Roof Depot fight.

Street Corps – Mutual aid is a critical piece of EJ organizing.

– Projects like trash cleanups, city beautification, community gardens, or food distribution all address environmental concerns as well as meeting peoples’ immediate needs. Systems of care and mutual support in connection with the land will be essential to create change, and also as long term solutions that engage us with our neighbors. The support at Camp Nenookaasi is one example of a community built and sustained on mutual aid. The Roof Depot fight historically used large mutual aid fairs to spread neighborhood awareness of the struggle while building community in East Phillips.

– As Street Corps builds out its marshaling capacity, there is opportunity to collaborate with them for mass mobilizations and direct action in support of EJ WG’s campaigns.

Health Justice WG

– Climate change’s effects are felt inequitably, and health problems due to pollution and extreme weather events are concentrated in marginalized communities that are “sacrifice zones” for the ruling class. We can partner to do a free health clinic event for residents of highly polluted areas, or partner in the fight for Medicare for All so that everyone (including people disproportionately impacted by pollution) can get the care they need. Healthcare workers have also been instrumental in building public pressure around EJ campaigns (ex: the SVEP health letter for the Roof Depot fight).

St. Paul Branch

– I-94 runs through St. Paul! St Paul Branch members can help build neighborhood organizing bases to push for the removal of I-94, pressure St Paul electeds to support the campaign, and help promote connection with Minneapolis

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What campaign (or campaigns) could be organized to further this priority?:

Zero Burn:

Shut down the HERC Trash Burner, owned by Hennepin County, by 2025. The HERC is the single largest industrial polluter in Hennepin County, burning trash from the entire county and sending toxic air over North Minneapolis residents. This campaign is multi-faceted, using a combination of direct action, pushing legislative actions, and mass mobilization to accomplish its goals. This campaign has linked urban and suburban communities, is BIPOC-led, and has engaged local unions as partners in the fight for environmental justice. Currently the campaign is keeping steady pressure on Hennepin County, while also exerting new pressure on Minneapolis through its Zero Waste Ward Teams.

ReImagining I-94

Rebuild the I-94 corridor for the people and the planet. This campaign takes on a state-level entity, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), as it attempts to rebuild the I-94 highway between Minneapolis and St. Paul. The goal is to not only stop MnDOT from expanding the highway, which would multiply the historic and ongoing harms from its original build-out, but to completely redesign the infrastructure of the corridor to reduce and reverse the harms of urban highways – air pollution, displacement, traffic, inaccessible transit, noise pollution. This includes expanding mass public transit and multimodal transit, and promoting community ownership of reclaimed land along the corridor, centering residents in the historic Rondo neighborhood who have experienced the most harm from I-94. Currently the campaign is using a combination of legislative pushes, neighborhood-level organizing hubs, and community educational outreach to accomplish its goals. This work is being done in coalition with local environmental organizations, student groups, and neighborhood associations.

Both campaigns are committed to learning from each other and lending capacity when able.

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What are possible goals for the priority, campaigns, and tactics?:

– Shift housing and land use policies and the unhoused response in Minneapolis towards a Housing First model that also centers decolonization through continued support to Camp Nenookaasi.

– Promote labor solidarity within the EJ movement, particularly through engaging with Teamsters workers at Smith Foundry and IBEW workers at the HERC, and also pushing electeds to provide avenues and funding for a Just Transition for these workers.

– Reduce pollution in marginalized neighborhoods – shut down the HERC by 2025, no expansion or rebuild of I-94 (by 2025 scoping decision. Long term goal of total removal and replacement with public transit and community-owned land by 2028/2030)

– Lay the literal groundwork for an ecosocialist future – public transit, green social housing, public green spaces, and local economic opportunity.

– Build a base of the working class ready and equipped to struggle against capitalist powers to ensure accountability and public autonomy with environmental issues, through campaign-based outreach (such as the HERC and Smith Foundry), neighborhood-level organizing hubs (such as I-94), list work, mutual aid among our most vulnerable Indigenous neighbors (such as Camp Nenookaasi).

– Prevent displacement in areas that are cleaned up, by promoting community ownership over private ownership (North Minneapolis near the HERC; neighborhoods along I-94 corridor, especially Rondo)

– Develop a regional structure to engage more effectively and consistently with neighborhood-level organizing and mutual aid.

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What tactics might be used to achieve goals for priority/campaign?:

– Community engagement events

– Neighborhood organizing

– Rallies, marches/mobilizations

– Pack-the-meeting, public comments

– Press (Op Eds)

– Research reports/data analysis

– Doorknocking

– Art and performance

– Direct action

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Are there external partners who might work with us on this priority?:

The EJ WG is already engaged with several partners on these campaigns

– HERC: MN EJ Table, Zero Burn Coalition, Zero Waste Coalition, Minneapolis Ward Team residents, Minneapolis DSA-endorsed electeds, Spill Paint not Oil art collective

– I-94: Our Streets/Communities Over Highways Coalition, Seward Neighborhood, Rail Coalition, environmental nonprofits, student orgs, Minneapolis and St Paul DSA-endorsed electeds, State-level DSA-endorsed electeds

– Labor Unions: MFT, MNA, and Teamsters 320 are already engaged with the HERC campaign. SPFE, LiUNA, SEIU, CWA, Building Trade unions, ATU, and others are unions that could be engaged in these campaigns.

– Through our recently victorious work on Smith Foundry, and before that the Roof Depot, we have deep connections with EPNI, East Phillips Health Team, Little Earth, organized parents at Circulo de Amigos daycare center, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, and others central to those fights (including elected officials Omar Fateh, Sam Senser-Mura, and Jason Chavez)

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How will this priority grow the chapter? How will the possible campaigns grow the chapter or develop member skills?:

We all live on the planet, and it’s being destroyed by capitalism. Many people come to TCDSA looking to enter into environmental organizing. Seeing us prioritize it would be a big statement and draw people looking for powerful ways to get involved, address the root problems of the crisis, and actually improve people’s material conditions.

This area of work is always buzzing with activity, with a variety of events (rallies, doorknocking, survey parties, camp support volunteering, etc) to draw people in and develop organizing skills.

Organizing for environmental justice inherently brings us alongside BIPOC communities who are fighting for their lives. Given the nature of our shared struggle – protecting the world we all must live in – we arrive as partners, not saviors, in the fight.

Climate change is where many people interact with capitalism outside of the workplace, allowing us to reach people who may not otherwise be organized if it weren’t for environmental struggle.

Chapter growth is not a straight-line or a simple cause-effect, but historically we have already seen membership growth in the EJ WG (and subsequently the chapter) due to our organizing. Some of that was because of our role in the Roof Depot fight, which galvanized many working-class people in Minneapolis, and some of it is because of the exciting possibilities we present in our current campaigns.

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Is there anything else you want to mention?:

Nationally, DSA has pushed the Building For Power campaign umbrella (Public Transit, Green Social Housing, Public Green Spaces, and Public Power). Elements of the I-94 campaign fall under this umbrella.

Priority Proposal #5 – Taking the Cap Off Capacity, As Amended

Authors: Clare D, Shane M, Josh K, Matt O, Pierce P

Narrative:

There is a continual refrain across Twin Cities DSA: our capacity is limited. Working groups, committees, and branches throughout the chapter have repeatedly expressed the need to involve broader membership in their campaigns, to integrate new members with ongoing work, and to recruit new members from the wider community.

Capacity-building work creates the foundation upon which all our external political work rests. Without it, we risk ineffectiveness, lower retention, higher levels of burnout, and internal turmoil. Building a mass movement can only happen upon a strong foundation—one where members are not merely activated as occasional participants, but able to develop into effective organizers and leaders in their own right. Focusing our attention on growing our ranks will lead to increased political power for all subsequent campaigns.

The hope for this priority is that it will develop more chapter capacity than it expends, while it works to break down long-standing silos between extant groups and develop a sense of comradery that keeps people engaged. We must commit chapter-wide to creating the spaces, structures, and resources to initiate and sustain members’ active and generative participation in our work. Through a focus on connecting directly with new and existing members, we strive to grow our capacity by developing confident and skilled organizers and leaders who build the collective power to make socialist change.

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Does this priority overlap with work being performed by existing chapter groups?:

Building community is core to all work we do as socialists. The hope is that one-on-ones and new member engagement will build capacity for all groups within TCDSA, and turn groups themselves into greater engines of capacity-generation. The priority will help break down silos. It will also help to network us with other organizations.

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What campaign (or campaigns) could be organized to further this priority?:

This can be viewed as a single campaign with multiple facets. The three major facets are community outreach, internal organizing, and new member development. When rolling out this campaign, the focus would be on new member outreach.

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What are possible goals for the priority, campaigns, and tactics?:

–Increasing the estimated active members by 10% of total membership in good standing, effectively doubling the size of our chapter’s active core. (For purposes of this priority, we define an active member as a member in good standing who volunteers at least five hours a month to the work of any chapter committee, branch, or working group.)

–12 tabling events by the next convention.

–A sustainable, structured program to engage and track one-on-ones between existing members.

–A sustainable, structured program to arrange and track one-on-ones with every community member who signs up during tabling events.

–A program for connecting new members to one-on-ones based on their interests, and make it a standard practice for active committee members in that area of interest to carry out these one-on-ones.

-Implement a leadership development program that empowers active core members to hold capacity-building 1:1s, and shifts our chapter culture towards creating welcoming spaces and a strong sense of solidarity.

–A welcome package sent to every new member.

–Expand capacity to support multilingual organizing, and identify or recruit at least two possible member translator/interpreters for prevalent community languages apart from English.

-Empower members to represent Twin Cities DSA to the broader community with confidence and effectiveness.

-Recruit 20 new members from community outreach targeted at spaces that are not conventionally “movement spaces” or even necessarily political spaces.

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What tactics might be used to achieve goals for priority/campaign?:

New member development:

–Sending a welcome package to new members.

–A new member survey to plug new people in with groups and one-on-ones, including a question to identify members that have moved from another chapter.

–A list of core members who triage one-on-one opportunities to groups.

–Continuing to support TCDSA 101 sessions in partnership with the Political Education Committee.

–A monthly Spoke campaign to help plug-in members who joined that month.

—Designating one office coffee hour a month as a new member social and informal info session.

Internal organizing:

–An opt-in program that assigns members a monthly one-on-one* with each other.

–Multiple chapter-wide trainings on how to hold and track one-on-one conversations.

–A continued focus on member socials, sports leagues, and other community building opportunities. Use of chapter resources such as office space for these events is recommended.

-A new program to encourage socials specifically oriented around practical skillshares (including brake light clinics, craft socials, tech skillshares, cooking/potlucks, etc). Use of chapter resources such as office space for these events is recommended.

–Helping groups develop onboarding documents and processes so new members have an easier time plugging into the work.

–Two liaisons from TCDSA for local YDSA chapters, to improve coordination for campaigns and tabling, prioritizing members with existing strong YDSA connections. Liaisons will focus on attending YDSA meetings regularly to help update student orgs on ongoing chapter work, invite TCDSA core members to attend to deliver updates, and invite students to participate in ongoing chapter campaigns identified by priority organizing committees or other bodies coordinating chapter work.

– Strengthening a standard chapter culture through the provision of standardized uniform/merch materials via New Member Packages

*For internal one-on-ones, a focus should be placed on pairing base members with either active or core members. One-on-ones between active and core members have some value but shouldn’t be the focus.

Community outreach:

–Creating a calendar of all possible places to table.

–Tabling to develop lists of people in the community to follow-up with.

–Spoke and/or email campaigns for outreach to people in the community interested in TCDSA.

–Encourage members to join/become involved as out and proud socialists in their communities.

-Create a subcommittee of the Internal Organizing Committee, tasked to develop a program for outreach targeted specifically at nominally apolitical organizations that serve their communities. Examples would be community orgs/church groups/gyms/tool libraries/etc. Part of the task of this committee will be to translate the lessons learned into a political education program for how to honestly convey a socialist message to depoliticised people in terms of those people’s self-interest.

-Collaborate with Political Education, Internal Organizing, and other active chapter working groups to hold outward-facing events with broad public appeal, especially among those who do not already identify as socialists, to build power and political awareness in the local working class

-Create and strengthen channels of correspondence with other local groups organizing around similar issues, in order to advance our common goals

-Encourage members to seek language training in languages that are of high utility to outreach and organizing (e.g. Somali, Oromo, Hmong, Spanish, etc.) with the chapter to cover some cost, if reasonably within the chapter’s financial means. Additionally, pilot an internal language tutoring program.

– Standardizing and creating chapter-specific materials for tabling and general outreach

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Are there external partners who might work with us on this priority?:

This is an internally focused campaign, but members we engage may belong to other orgs, and strengthen our connection to them. Additionally, the skills conferred by DSA organizing can be translated to other organizing spaces, including critical movement spaces such as workplace organizing, tenant organizing, and other grassroots community movements.

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How will this priority grow the chapter? How will the possible campaigns grow the chapter or develop member skills?:

Training for one-on-ones are key member development. One-on-ones and other intentional communications form a foundation for how we recruit and discuss socialism with others. Furthermore, intentional focus on tabling work and outreach will continue to bring interested community members in contact with TCDSA. Converting paper members and new members to active core organizers is key for all working groups to accomplish their goals.

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If someone wants to discuss this priority proposal directly with the author, please list Slack handle @’s:

@clare d @Shane @Josh K, @Matt O, @Pierce

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Is there anything else you want to mention?:

We anticipate this priority will heavily involve the Internal Organizing committee. A draft has been introduced to that committee but no formal vote has occurred in support of it. We anticipate the support vote will be an agenda item at the monthly IOC meeting on 9/11 if the priority meets the member support threshold.

Resolutions Adopted by Membership

Resolution #1 – TCDSA Labor Branch Road Map 2024-2025

Introduction

The workplace, the need to bring in a wage, and the lack of freedom found in both are one of the uniting forces pushing the working class together, across racial, gender, and geographic lines. It is at the workplace level, down on the shopfloor that we can begin to stitch together a fraction of the working class into a fighting machine capable of contesting the capitalist powers. Without a mass base, anchored at the very site of production, be it labor in logistics, construction, healthcare, education, commercial, or manufacturing, a socialist politics will lack the teeth, knowledge, and will to contest power and control of society.

Unfortunately the actually existing labor movement is not at the level of class consciousness necessary to engage in fighting for economic and political control, and the actually existing socialist movement has neither the numbers nor the leverage to win the same fight.

What is needed is a return to the shop floor, a sharpening of ourselves and our coworkers, an organization of socialists across workplaces, a coordination of our labor efforts, and a plan to rebuild the sclerotic unions in the Twin Cities from decrepit business unions content to collaborate with management into militant worker-led organizations prepared to break outside of the status quo and end the tyranny of capital and the boss.

What is needed is not only for workers to see DSA to be fighting alongside them, but for DSA to agitate, organize, recruit, and integrate the working class into itself and bring the fight from and through DSA.

Today, right now, there are growing opportunities for socialists and our chapter to help rebuild a fighting labor movement. Public support for unions is the highest it’s been since 1965. Unions are filing for elections and winning them at rates not seen in decades. Unions have scored a series of victories in the auto industry, at Starbucks, Amazon, UPS, the University of California, and too many others to name — all of which have inspired workers across the country who are beginning to understand better the power we have when we unionize and fight. Locally, park workers won their strike, the Minneapolis Uber & Lyft Drivers Association won a minimum wage law, we had a rare “compression week of strikes,” and public sector unions are demanding that their pensions be divested from companies profiting from Israel’s genocide.

The pandemic resulted in the celebration of frontline workers as “essential” heroes, but corporate bosses have continued to treat workers as disposable. There has been a tight labor market since the pandemic which has made workers more confident to unionize and strike, and the National Labor Relations Board under Biden has been more supportive of unions than in the past. All of these factors have combined together to create a historic opening for socialists to help rebuild a fighting labor movement – an opening our chapter must prioritize and take advantage of. For these reasons the labor branch strongly urges the chapter to rank the labor movement among our top 3 priorities.

This resolution seeks to build on the aspirations of past conventions and chart a path towards a TCDSA which sits fully integrated and enmeshed in a raucous labor movement.

Resolution

Whereas: Everyone in this room has to work for a living

Whereas: The merger of the labor movement and a socialist party represents our best, last hope at political revolution

Whereas: The general leadership of our unions has shown itself to be willfully blind to changing conditions or woefully inadequate to the demands of these times in fighting for substantive change in the lives and workplace conditions of ourselves, our coworkers, and the broader regional working class

Whereas: A progressive union leadership as found in UFCW 663 can increase the militancy and fighting spirit of workers far beyond the personal politics of said union leadership

Whereas: The lack of organized and radical rank and file groups pulling their unions onto the front lines of the class war has resulted in disaffection and substandard contracts for ATU 1005, UA 15 & 34, IBEW 292 & 110, and MNA

Whereas: The shopfloor struggle and our immediate coworkers are the foundation of a new struggle against the boss and union misleadership

Whereas: Sometimes comrades want to radically shift their job path, or get laid off, or just don’t have a job right now

Whereas: Organizing co-workers and pitching a socialist project to them is a trainable, developable skill that not all of our members currently possess.

Whereas: The home of the largest socialist organization in the metro area, Twin Cities DSA, must be found in and among a united, organized working class, with the mission of building the capacity and militancy of that class to build workplace and political democracy

Be it therefore resolved that the TCDSA Labor Branch will be recommitted to the fusion of the socialist and labor movements.

Be it further resolved that the TCDSA labor branch is setting the following priorities for the branch in the following year.

The Branch top priorities are:

Doing what we can to mobilize unions to resist Trump’s agenda and far-right attempts to steal the presidential election and to also build the Palestine Solidarity movement, including ceasefire/divestment efforts within unions, especially college campus unions.

2. UFCW 663 contract fight

In the spring of 2024, UFCW 663 elected a new progressive president, Rena Wong, whose leadership team is striving to train 1,000 strike captains at grocery stores in Minneapolis for a big strike after their labor contracts expire in early March 2025. Assuming UFCW shuts down approximately one third of the grocery stores next spring or summer, it’ll have an impact on the Minneapolis economy and hopefully inspire workers throughout the region. We are asking the TCDSA chapter to join the labor branch in supporting the contract fight of these nearly 10,000 workers and encouraging folks to apply for jobs at Cub, Lunds & Byerlys, or Kowalski’s.

3. DSA Union Working Groups

Where there already exists workplaces or unions with multiple DSA members within them, the labor branch will organize and recruit Union Working Groups (UWGs). We cannot be union activists going it alone. We must come together as DSA members in order to shift our unions and workplaces, in order to bring a shopfloor and political fight back into our unions. These UWGs will be the fighting instruments in the labor movement of our organization, and will be our means for recruiting new members who are interested in giving their unions teeth and a reason to fight beyond “a fair wage for fair day’s work.”

We have UWGs at UFCW 663, Delta/IAM, MAPE, AFSCME, and a collective Building Trades group. We also have 70+ chapter members who are NEA or AFT members, so we will strive to rebuild the education justice working group.

4. Continued hosting of workplace organizer trainings

There is an art and a science to talking with and convincing our fellow workers to step out onto the ledge with us, and make our worksites more than a site of production, but also a site of political struggle against the boss and the union misleadership. There are skills and knowledge held by some within the chapter and within its periphery, and these skills and knowledge must be taught to the broader membership as effectively as possible. Every member – an organizer.

6. Recruitment, retainment, training, and development of class struggle leaders from unions and organizing drives.

Without a plan to individually retain and develop workers who come into our organization, all other goals to build working-class power within the branch and the chapter will be unattainable.

This means we must set up a mentoring system, a reading program, and other types of training to help move more and more workers into the center and leadership of our branch and chapter. This is especially important given that the culture of both are not necessarily inviting to frontline workers.

7. Support AFSCME 2822, a union representing over 1000 clerical workers across Hennepin County, including the public libraries, service centers, and health and human services workers, which is currently in contract negotiation.

Their class-struggle oriented leadership of the local is currently in contract negotiations with the county fighting for a living wage for the lowest paid workers, better staffing, and increased union protections. Their local’s organizing is being done largely in spite of a conservative business union culture within their state council, making supporting this fight important to rebuilding a fighting labor movement. Additionally, this fight will bring attending to the need for investment in public services. The labor branch should prioritize showing up to 2822’s labor actions, platform their messaging, and assist in facilitating organized support from other Hennepin County AFSCME locals, including AFSCME 34.

8. Support Delta Air Lines union drive

Currently over 18,000 Delta Air Lines ramp, cargo and tower employees are engaged in a battle to gain a union recognition vote, with a plan to file for an election by October 31. The there will be a two month period for voting, hopefully culminating in a union victory of major proportions. There will then be a major battle to gain a first contract. This will potentially extend well into 2025. DSA nationally and locally is playing a key role and integrated closely into this campaign. In the coming months we would like to prioritize the chapter and labor branch showing up at picket lines, phone banking to Delta workers and building solidarity in our unions for Delta workers, as well as getting hired at Delta to be part of this from the inside.

Be it further resolved, that, only where possible, our commitment to labor be expressed by means of:

1. A commitment to the NLC’s Worker Organizing Worker (WOW) program

This national program seeks to fit any comrades who are in need of a new job, into critical industries where we already have members and a strategic focus. Job-seekers are paired with mentors who help walk them through the application process and help them hit the ground running, organizing their workplace once

2. A start of building a union caucus and officer endorsement process similar to the electoral endorsement process

As our UWGs build power, as the working class finds some small measure of political leadership and utility in TCDSA, as the old guard of unions founders more and more on changing shores, contested elections in unions in the Twin Cities will become more common, and like-minded reform caucuses and candidates will contest union elections. Some of these will seek our aid and endorsement. This has already happened twice in the past year and the branch has not had a defined process in which to navigate this. In expectation of a new wind, we will work in conjunction with members of the TCDSA Electoral Committee to draft a democratic endorsement process amenable to the branch and the chapter at large.

3. Supporting labor actions driven by unions that are strategically selected to maximize our use of resources toward building working-class power

Building a presence in and recruiting workers from unions is difficult in normal times. We are reliant on “street walk-ins,” workers who come to our ideas and program on their own, or through extended social networks. During strikes and union organizing campaigns the antagonistic relationship between employer and employee is laid bare, and a broadening of people’s horizons can take place. While we do not (yet) have the resources to support all labor actions in the TC and recognize that deep organizing (such as member recruitment, retention, and focused leadership development) must accompany any plan that involves mobilizing members to actions, we commit to having a presence at strategically selected picket lines and union drives. At these actions, we must be talking with workers and recruiting them. But mobilizing members without specific goals for the action, without scripts and materials such as leaflets for engaging workers, or without a deliberate plan and dedicated resources for onboarding, retaining and developing new worker leaders is a poor investment of our resources. Therefore we must balance mobilizations with realistic assessments of our capacity. We must also recognize that these events happen outside of our control, that we are guests on these pickets, and that this will always be coalitional work.

And be it finally resolved, that:

The labor branch is rebuilding the power of the branch and has limited time, labor, and energy to expend. It may be difficult for us to do anything where we do not already have a DSA Union Working Group. Where we do have Union Working Groups, we will try to help as much as we can, but do not expect more than resolutions and statements to come out of the unions. We are focusing on achievable goals, and if we achieve them, we will be able to accomplish more in the future. Platform Committee will host further discussions on the draft platform and encourage members to bring amendments

Resolution #2 – Make Twin Cities DSA an Anti-Zionist Organization in Principle and Praxis

Authors: Hamza H, Oli E, Matt S

Whereas, and in line with Convention Resolutions #4 and #62 from 2019, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is an anti-imperialist organization;

Whereas, and in line with Convention Resolution #50 from 2019, the DSA is an anti-colonialist organization committed to advancing decolonization projects;

Whereas, and in line with Convention Resolutions #41 and #45 from 2017 and Resolutions #4 and #31 from 2021, the DSA is an anti-racist organization;

Whereas, and in line with Convention Resolutions #7 & 8 from 2017 and Resolution #35 from 2019, DSA National has publicly declared on numerous occasions in recent years that it “unapologetically stands in solidarity with Palestinian people everywhere;”

Whereas, Zionism – as popularized by Theodore Herzl and explicitly described by him as “something colonial,” meant to be “a wall of Europe against Asia… an outpost of [Western] civilization against [Eastern] barbarism” – is and has always been a racist, imperialist, settler-colonial project that has resulted in the ongoing death, displacement, and dehumanization of Palestinians everywhere (i.e., in Palestine and in diaspora around the world);

Whereas, the establishment of a Jewish ethnostate in Palestine (i.e., the so-called “state of Israel”) and its maintenance via ongoing and illegal occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing represent the culmination of Zionistsʼ century-long colonization of Palestine;

Whereas, as part of their century-long ethnic cleansing, Zionist occupation forces have been perpetrating a genocide in Gaza since October 2023 that has been confirmed to have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, but potentially upwards of 186,000;

Whereas, the US government shares equal responsibility for the genocide in Gaza, because it has armed, financially supported, and shielded the Zionist entity from diplomatic consequences to ensure their attacks can continue, alongside sending U.S. troops to directly participate in the massacre;

Whereas, and antithetical to the DSAʼs contemporary principles and policies, DSAʼs founding merger was heavily predicated on ensuring that the DSA would uphold DSOCʼs position of supporting continued American aid for Israelʼs Zionist colonial project, as explicitly noted in our organizationʼs founding merger documents (e.g., Points of Political Unity) and by Michael Harrington himself in his autobiography;

Whereas, and antithetical to the DSAʼs contemporary principles and policies, a number of DSA endorsed electeds (e.g., Jamaal Bowman & Nithya Raman) have not consistently demonstrated a commitment to anti-Zionism through their public support for BDS and/or opposition to legislation that harms Palestinians everywhere (e.g., public support for and votes in favor of U.S. financial aid to Israeli military, which forcefully advances the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine through systematic tactics of abuse, forcible displacement, and murder of Palestinians; governmental adoption of definitions of antisemitism that conflate anti-Zionism and antisemitism, leading to the suppression of speech of Palestinians and those in solidarity with them);

Whereas, the DSAʼs historic and contemporary association with and enablement of Zionism has jeopardized DSA rank- and-file membershipʼs confidence in the integrity of DSAʼs overall politics, as well as our organizationʼs working relationships with major Palestinian-led grassroots organizations across North America;

Whereas, DSA membership has overwhelmingly denounced Zionism through its stated principles and convention mandates since 2017 but has yet to articulate these newfound principles into a more coherent praxis;

Whereas, the resolution “Make DSA an Anti-Zionist Organization in Principle and Praxis” (MSR #12), was not heard or deliberated on at the 2023 National Convention, and there is an urgent need to address this at the chapter and national level;

Whereas, TCDSA’s Palestine Solidarity Working Group has been stifled in its ability to effectively organize in solidarity with Twin Cities chapters of Palestinian-led organizations due to these political conditions;

Whereas, In failing to pass an Anti-Zionist resolution in the spirit of MSR #12, DSA is not a safe space for Palestinians and those who organize for Palestinian liberation, as evidenced by the digital and physical threats against Palestine organizers at the 2023 convention

Therefore, be it resolved, The Twin Cities DSA chapter denounces the organizationʼs Zionist roots and reaffirms its commitment to being an anti-racist, anti-imperialist organization by explicitly committing to being an anti-Zionist chapter and supporting a single, democratic, multi-faith state of Palestine from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea– in both principle and praxis;

Be it resolved, the Twin Cities DSA chapter once again reaffirms our commitments to Palestinian liberation and the broad, international BDS movement by conveying our expectation that all of Twin Cities DSA’s endorsed candidates hold true to the following basic commitments:

Fully and publicly support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement;
Publicly call for a ceasefire and arms embargo in response to the genocidal actions taken by the state of Israel;
Refrain from any and all affiliation with the Israeli government or Zionist lobby groups, such as, but not limited to, AIPAC, J Street, or Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), JCRC, including participating in political junkets or any event sponsored by these entities;
Pledge to oppose legislation that harms Palestinians, such as…
1. Any official adoption of a redefinition of antisemitism to include opposition to Israelʼs existence as an ethno-religious state, it’s policies or legal system, or support for BDS (e.g., support for IHRA definition of antisemitism);
2. Legislative and executive efforts to penalize individuals, universities and entities that boycott Israel or protest its actions;
3. Legislative and executive efforts to send any military or economic resources to Israel;
4. Legislative and executive actions that permit the use of force by the state against people protesting in support of Palestine;
Pledge to support legislation that supports Palestinian liberation, such as…
1. Legislative and executive efforts to end Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians and promote Palestiniansʼ rights to return to and live freely on the land (e.g., H.R. 2590, 117th Congress);
2. Condemnation of Israeli apartheid and colonial practices (e.g., H.Res. 751, 117th Congress);
3. Attempts to end the spending of U.S. tax dollars on Israel and/or sanction Israel until it ceases its practices of apartheid, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, or genocide;
4. Investigations and accountability for war crimes perpetrated by the state of Israel

Be it resolved, The TC DSA’s chapter candidate questionnaires will continue to include a question that inquires about the candidateʼs position on BDS in addition to their support for a single democratic state of Palestine;

Be it resolved, potential candidates who cannot commit to the aforementioned basic expectations should be deemed, by TCDSA members, as ineligible for endorsement by the Twin Cities DSA at every level;

Be it resolved, TC DSA, in collaboration with trusted Palestine Solidarity movement partners in the grassroots (e.g., Free Palestine Coalition, Palestinian Youth Movement), will provide all endorsed candidates with anti-Zionist educational materials, 1-to-1 training opportunities and ongoing, open-door counsel as needed;

Be it resolved, upon receiving fair and ample opportunity for education about the Palestinian struggle for liberation, endorsed candidates who do not commit to the aforementioned basic expectations will have their TC DSA endorsements swiftly revoked;

Be it resolved, all TC DSA members who are credibly shown to:

have proclaimed that they are a Zionist and intend on advancing the interests of the Zionist settler colony,
be a member of or have consciously provided material aid to any Zionist organization, the Israeli government, affiliates or supporters of the Israeli government including but not limited to Friends of United Hatzalah, Christians United for Israel, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Jewish Defense League, or any Zionist lobby group(s) such as but not limited to AIPAC, American Jewish Committee, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Jewish Community Relations Council, J-Street, and DMFI, or any settler NGOs who carry out the mission of Israeli settlement and Palestinian dispossession/displacement, such as but not limited to the Jewish National Fund, the Israel Land Fund, the Hebron Fund, and Regavim
have consistently and publicly opposed BDS as a legitimate form of struggle (e.g., denouncing the BDS movement in public interviews; writing public op-eds denouncing the BDS movement; drafting and voting in favor of legislation that suppresses BDS, such as legislation that suppresses speech rights around the right to freely criticize Zionism/Israel and/or the right to boycott), even after receiving fair and ample opportunity for education about the Palestinian struggle for liberation,

will be considered in substantial disagreement with DSAʼs principles and policies, as per Article 1, Section 3 of the DSA Bylaws, thereby committing an expellable offense; as outlined in Article 3, Section 4 of the DSA Constitution; Religious membership, spiritual interactions within houses of worship or religious educational institutions that have relationships with Zionist organizations are not considered endorsements of Zionism.

Be it resolved, members expelled on these grounds may be reconsidered for membership reinstatement provided they write a statement to membership that 1) demonstrates a basic understanding of Palestinian issues and Zionism and 2) apologizes for past anti-solidaristic behaviors with a commitment to putting their new anti-Zionist principles into practice;

Resolution #3 – DSA for Minneapolis Schools

Author: Aidan T

Whereas – Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) faced a $110 million deficit in the 2023-24 school year.

Whereas – This November election, Minneapolis voters will consider the 2024 Technology Levy, which would increase dedicated funding for technology by $20 million annually to minimize cuts to other programs and services for MPS.

Whereas – The Minneapolis Federation of Educators Local 59 (MFT) has endorsed the Vote Yes for MPLS Kids campaign to support voting “Yes” on the 2024 Technology Levy.

Whereas – Twin Cities DSA is not currently engaging in any competitive elections this year, whether for a candidate or a ballot measure, leaving a gap for potential electoral campaigning.

Whereas – Many Twin Cities DSA members are parents of students at MPS, MFT members at MPS, or residents of Minneapolis.

Whereas – Twin Cities DSA supporting the MPS 2024 Technology Levy has the opportunity to build cooperation on a shared project with MFT and other political allies, and also organize more parents and workers into the Chapter.

Therefore, be it resolved – Twin Cities DSA will endorse voting “Yes” on the Minneapolis Public Schools 2024 Technology Levy.

Be it resolved – Twin Cities DSA will organize members to canvass for voting “Yes” on the 2024 Technology Levy.

Be it resolved – Twin Cities DSA will use endorsing and campaigning for this ballot measure to build capacity for the upcoming 2025 local elections.

Resolution #4 – Proposal that TCDSA sign on to the End Slavery in Minnesota Campaign

Author: Aaron M

Introduction: Article 1, Section 2 of Minnesota’s constitution says: “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the state otherwise than as punishment for a crime”. In other words, it contains the same carve-out as the Thirteenth Amendment, permitting involuntary servitude for incarcerated people.

In practice, prisoners in Minnesota are forced to work meaningless jobs for $0.25 an hour, coming home without skills or savings. They have no right to organize or to earn a living wage, even if they are doing the same work that would entitle them to those rights on the outside. This treatment leads to recidivism and maintaining incarcerated people as a permanently super-exploited section of the working class.

This campaign, led by the Twin Cities Local of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), has two aims. The first is to amend the state constitution to remove the involuntary servitude exception. The second is to pass the End Slavery In Minnesota Bill in 2025, which mandates the end of forced labor in Minnesota by classifying prisoners as workers with the right to employment and brings an end to cost-of-confinement fees.

IWOC is a section of the Industrial Workers of the World, with locals in several cities. Its members are both incarcerated and unincarcerated. The Twin Cities local is one of the most active, with past actions that include support for last year’s Oak Park Heights Canteen Prisoners’ Strike.

Why TCDSA should be a signatory: Ending slavery is a powerful symbolic position. It cuts across traditional ideological lines and has near-universal appeal. The constitutional reform sought as part of this campaign has been won in seven states, including Alabama, Tennessee, Colorado and Vermont.

This campaign sits at the intersection of expanding workers’ power and abolition, two key principles of socialist vision. Much of the campaign will involve bringing legislators on board, including, hopefully, chapter-endorsed elected officials.

TCDSA currently does little to no work in the abolitionist space. Signing on to this campaign will cost us no resources. This is not being proposed as a chapter-wide priority, and this resolution does not mandate member capacity. The resolution is a token of solidarity and support for IWOC’s critical work in this space. However, if, in the future, we establish an abolitionist WG, this could be an area of focus for that WG. Moreover, while abolition work around policing tends to primarily impact urban and BIPOC communities, the rights of prisoners can be an issue for organizing in rural and small town Greater Minnesota, allowing DSA to expand its current geographic base.

Resolution #5 – Developing a Unified Platform for TCDSA, As Amended

Author: Revmira B

Motivation

Twin Cities DSA is a big tent organization where members hold a variety of visions for socialism and how to get there. This is an important strength, but only insofar as members are engaging with each other’s theories of change and developing actionable syntheses to guide our collective work. In practice, members in our chapter have tended to sort into different working groups, committees, and branches that each have a different and sometimes competing theory of change. Work continues within these groups, but when the chapter is asked to put forward our politics as a collective, we are often paralyzed. Every time we seek to put out a statement, write an op ed, or empower someone to act as a chapter spokesperson as a speaker or to the media, we have to grapple with the diversity of politics within the chapter and our lack of collectively adopted positions. This also hinders our ability to establish clear expectations of candidates seeking our endorsement, and our ability to present a compelling vision when tabling.

In order to make a convincing case for our politics, we must develop a clear collective understanding of our politics. As a central document laying out our collectively adopted politics, a platform is a helpful tool for this. In order for a platform to be useful, it must have strong buy in from membership. While it is not realistic to develop a platform that all members fully agree with, through deliberation we can come up with something that members agree represents the politics of our chapter and are prepared to fight for. This will require focused chapter wide discussion on socialist vision and strategy so members can understand each other’s positions and think more deeply about how to actually win a socialist society. As a local chapter of a nationwide socialist organization, we must also consider how our local work fits into the broader context of DSA as a whole and platforms we have adopted nationally.

Proposal

Be it therefore resolved that Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America host a series of chapter discussions on the vision and strategy of our chapter for achieving socialism,

Resolved that topics for these discussions will include at minimum:

Our vision for what a socialist society and state looks like
What it means for DSA and the working class to take power and the conditions for doing so
Our relationship to national DSA platforms such as the 2021 platform and the 2024 Workers Deserve More platform and how these translate into the demands and work of our chapter
The role of a platform and different types of platforms/programs
How we work towards our long term vision in our local context

Resolved that the Steering Committee appoint a Platform Committee within two months of this resolution passing to plan these discussions, prioritizing applicants who represent a range of theories of change within the chapter,

Resolved that before each discussion, recommended readings relevant to the topic will be provided by the Platform Committee.

Resolved that following the chapter discussion series, the Platform Committee will write a draft platform to submit for a vote at the 2025 chapter convention,

Resolved that the scope of the platform will include current priority goals and campaigns of TCDSA, tying it to the current national platform, and the platform will be valid until the following chapter convention at which it can be renewed or amended.

Resolved that ahead of the 2025 chapter convention, the Platform Committee will host further discussions on the draft platform and encourage members to bring amendments

Original Texts of Resolutions with Adopted Amendments and Secondary Amendment Proposals

Priority Proposal #5 – Taking the Cap Off Capacity

Authors: Clare D, Shane M, Josh K, Matt O, Pierce P

Narrative:

=====

Does this priority overlap with work being performed by existing chapter groups?:

=====

What campaign (or campaigns) could be organized to further this priority?:

=====

What are possible goals for the priority, campaigns, and tactics?:

–12 tabling events by the next convention.

–A sustainable, structured program to engage and track one-on-ones between existing members.

–A sustainable, structured program to arrange and track one-on-ones with every community member who signs up during tabling events.

–A program for connecting new members to one-on-ones based on their interests, and make it a standard practice for active committee members in that area of interest to carry out these one-on-ones.

–A welcome package sent to every new member.

–Expand capacity to support multilingual organizing, and identify or recruit at least two possible member translator/interpreters for prevalent community languages apart from English.

-Empower members to represent Twin Cities DSA to the broader community with confidence and effectiveness.

=====

What tactics might be used to achieve goals for priority/campaign?:

New member development:

–Sending a welcome package to new members.

–A new member survey to plug new people in with groups and one-on-ones, including a question to identify members that have moved from another chapter.

–A list of core members who triage one-on-one opportunities to groups.

–Continuing to support TCDSA 101 sessions in partnership with the Political Education Committee.

–A monthly Spoke campaign to help plug-in members who joined that month.

—Designating one office coffee hour a month as a new member social and informal info session.

Internal organizing:

–An opt-in program that assigns members a monthly one-on-one* with each other.

–Multiple chapter-wide trainings on how to hold and track one-on-one conversations.

–A continued focus on member socials, sports leagues, and other community building opportunities. Use of chapter resources such as office space for these events is recommended.

–Helping groups develop onboarding documents and processes so new members have an easier time plugging into the work.

– Strengthening a standard chapter culture through the provision of standardized uniform/merch materials via New Member Packages

Community outreach:

–Creating a calendar of all possible places to table.

–Tabling to develop lists of people in the community to follow-up with.

–Spoke and/or email campaigns for outreach to people in the community interested in TCDSA.

–Encourage members to join/become involved as out and proud socialists in their communities.

– Standardizing and creating chapter-specific materials for tabling and general outreach

=====

Are there external partners who might work with us on this priority?:

=====

How will this priority grow the chapter? How will the possible campaigns grow the chapter or develop member skills?:

=====

If someone wants to discuss this priority proposal directly with the author, please list Slack handle @’s:

@clare d @Shane @Josh K, @Matt O, @Pierce

=====

Is there anything else you want to mention?:

Priority Amendment #5A to “Taking the Cap off Capacity”

Author: Clare D, Matt O, Andrew M

Whereas: the initial proposal Taking the Cap off Capacity focused primarily on TCDSA’s internal organizing work, and less on the critical work of outreach;

Whereas: the proposal to Target Number of Outreach Events per Month is one that directly requests strategic prioritization of TCDSA’s outreach work, in order to increase our political power;

Whereas: any successful socialist movement must reach beyond the confines of those already politically activated enough to seek it out themselves, and deliberately build power and political awareness in those not yet moved to engage in organizing work;

BE IT RESOLVED that we add the following as an amendment to the proposal:

Amendment:

Add the below in green to the goals section:

…

-Empower members to represent Twin Cities DSA to the broader community with confidence and effectiveness.

-Recruit 20 new members from community outreach targeted at spaces that are not conventionally “movement spaces” or even necessarily political spaces.

Add the below in green to the Tactics/Community Outreach section:

…

–Encourage members to join/become involved as out and proud socialists in their communities.

-Create and strengthen channels of correspondence with other local groups organizing around similar issues, in order to advance our common goals

Resolution #5 – Developing a Unified Platform for TCDSA

Author: Revmira B

Motivation

Proposal

Be it therefore resolved that Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America host a series of chapter discussions on the vision and strategy of our chapter for achieving socialism,

Resolved that topics for these discussions will include at minimum:

Our vision for what a socialist society and state looks like
What it means for DSA and the working class to take power and the conditions for doing so
Our relationship to national DSA platforms such as the 2021 platform and the 2024 Workers Deserve More platform and how these translate into the demands and work of our chapter
The role of a platform and different types of platforms/programs
How we work towards our long term vision in our local context

Resolved that following the chapter discussion series, the Platform Committee will write a draft platform to submit for a vote at the 2025 chapter convention,

Resolved that ahead of the 2025 chapter convention, the Platform Committee will host further discussions on the draft platform and encourage members to bring amendments

Resolution Amendment #5A to “Developing a Unified Platform for TCDSA”

Author: Charlise K

Motivation:

Whereas, in the process of forming a platform for our chapter, it is imperative that it is rooted in sound political theory,

Whereas, all TCDSA members come from different backgrounds and political education,

Whereas, providing political education material for members when having open discussions provides a shared foundation,

Whereas, the scope of the platform must be defined to successfully develop a unified proposal at the end,

Whereas, as memberships’ and the masses’ political consciousness grows what is pertinent to a platform may change,

Proposal:

Add the following two statements in green to the resolved section of the resolution.

Resolved that before each discussion, recommended readings relevant to the topic will be provided by the Platform Committee.

Resolved that following the chapter discussion series, the Platform Committee will write a draft platform to submit for a vote at the 2025 chapter convention,

Resolved that ahead of the 2025 chapter convention, the Platform Committee will host further discussions on the draft platform and encourage members to bring amendments.

Priorities and Amendments Not Adopted by Membership

Priority Proposal #1A – Toward Building a Mass Working-Class Alternative to the Democratic Party in 2025

Authors: Nat F, Luke M, Ari Z, Britt VP, Cynthia M, Anders B

The Priority: Build working class power through electoral organizing in 2025

Our four TCDSA-endorsed Minneapolis City Council Members have been relentless champions for the working class. They were instrumental in securing the victory in the EPNI fight, passed a ceasefire resolution, and forced the Minnesota Legislature to raise wages for 10,000 Uber and Lyft drivers across Minnesota. In doing so, they’ve catapulted our chapter into the spotlight, making TCDSA the feared adversary of the ruling class. They’re fighting for a just and humane homeless encampment policy, standing shoulder to shoulder with organized labor on picket lines, amplifying the voices of our community demanding the shutdown of corporate polluters, and pushing for renter protections to keep us in our homes.

To continue our momentum, our chapter must build on our electoral power in Minneapolis. The 2025 elections are a golden opportunity: Mayor Frey is vulnerable, there is a potential for open council seats, and other seats, like the Park Board, are seeing backlash after forcing a strike by Park workers. In 2025, City Council candidates will be running for 4-year (instead of 2-year) terms. The DSA endorsed incumbent City Council Members are already driving much of the legislative work at City Hall. We’re on the brink of socialists running Minneapolis—a victory that will not only advance all aspects of our chapter’s organizing but will also energize new members, drawing them into the broader fight for working-class power.

This is the year to escalate our efforts to build a true workers’ party, with a focus on training members to run campaigns and building a bench of cadre candidates who are TCDSA members. TCDSA can grow into the political home base for the working people of Minneapolis—Uber and Lyft drivers, young parents crushed by childcare costs, college students exploited by slumlords—who are sick and tired of a government that ignores their needs. Tapping into the media visibility surrounding the mayoral election with a powerful communications campaign, we will vividly outline what a socialist-run Minneapolis looks like, inspiring a collective vision of change.

In 2023, we laid the groundwork for a mass working-class alternative to the Democratic Party in Ward 8 with Soren Stevenson. We pushed the ruling class to their limits—they’re angry, they’re scared, and they know we’re a force to be reckoned with. They’re trying to turn socialism into a boogeyman to derail our organizing efforts. No matter what the DSA does next year, the ruling class is coming for us. We must confront them head-on. If we win in 2025, we can transform Minneapolis by pairing socialist governance with an activated and growing TCDSA membership ready to deliver material changes for hundreds of thousands of our neighbors, while taking a key step forward in creating the capacity and skills necessary to build a mass working-class alternative to the Democratic Party.

The Plan

GOALS:

Use the endorsement process for incumbent city council candidates to strengthen chapter ties and expectations for socialists in office
1. Present clear expectations of what it means to be a TCDSA-endorsed elected official in building a mass working-class alternative to the Democratic Party
2. Endorse early–by April 1st
3. Successfully re-elect every incumbent our chapter chooses to endorse.
Endorse and successfully elect two additional city council candidates
1. Present clear expectations of what it means to be a TCDSA-endorsed elected official
2. Endorse early–by April 1st
Consider endorsing a mayoral candidate
1. If chapter decides to endorse, endorse early–by April 1st
Recruit, endorse and successfully elect two DSA members to the Minneapolis Park Board
Double the scale of door knocking campaign and get TCDSA members staff positions within all endorsed electoral campaigns
1. Train and recruit campaign managers, treasurers and campaign staff from the chapter
2. Get 100 active chapter members to commit to 3 door knocks
3. Reactivate 25 non-active chapter members to attend at least 1 doorknock
4. Double our 2023 efforts with a goal for 2025 to knock 15,000 doors by election day
5. Plan and carry out at least 3 Issue-based door knocks related to chapter priorities
Recruit 30 new active members from electoral work, channel them to work on other Chapter Priorities
1. Concerted focus on organizing and bringing in members of the East African community and North Minneapolis by building upon our chapter’s ongoing work on renter rights and rent control, Palestine solidarity and the rideshare driver minimum wage.
2. Continue the 2023 success of hosting post door knock socials to build relationships with non-DSA campaign volunteers and recruit them into DSA.
3. Establish a 1-1 program with attendees of TCDSA canvasses and campaign events in order to bring them in as DSA members.
Continue to build SIO program
1. Guiding principle: Strong relationships = more input into their decisions and actions; More influence leads to more support for chapter priority work from electeds and building working class power.
2. Work towards an integrated SIO model, in which representatives from all chapter working groups and chapter leadership are in communication with electeds on mutual priorities and campaigns.
3. Start hosting quarterly strategizing meetings with TCDSA-endorsed electeds.
Establish and articulate clear expectations for TCDSA endorsed elected officials in 2025 Endorsement Process
1. Expectations for solidarity with Palestine
2. Expectations for frequent meetings with liaisons and meetings with other TCDSA-endorsed electeds
3. Expectations for supporting Chapter Priorities

CROSS-CHAPTER COLLABORATION + DEVELOPING MEMBER SKILLS:

Poli-ed: develop public speaking skills, have members practice through volunteering for public comment, speaking at canvasses and campaign events, provide members with the political skills to understand the conservative ruling class forces aligned against socialists in the Twin Cities.
Comms: use the media’s focus on the Minneapolis elections to amplify chapter visibility in earned media and social media, train chapter spokespeople to provide regular quotes to media, conduct interviews and appear on TV to advance a socialist vision for the Minneapolis, build capacity for op-eds and press releases for more Chapter Activities.
Labor: continue to support our endorsed candidates in being strong allies to labor across Minneapolis, use TCDSA union working groups to pressure unions to endorse TCDSA endorsed candidates, organize labor related door knocks, work w/ comms on labor-electoral collaboration.
EJ: continue to support our endorsed candidates in being strong champions for environmental justice in both legislative action and their advocacy, organize EJ related door knocks, use electoral themed comms to amplify environmental issues.
Housing: pick strategic housing issues to bring up for votes at the City Council, such as rent control or renter protections, to isolate landlords and their allies politically, organize housing related door knocks, use electoral themed comms to amplify housing issues.
Internal Organizing: create a plan of plugging in new members gained through electoral campaign work to work on priority campaigns across the chapter via a 1-1 program, use visibility of electoral work to expand tabling at Minneapolis events to recruit new members to the chapter.
YDSA: expand on the mass YDSA volunteer mobilization for DSA endorsed candidates seen in 2023, develop a network of YDSA paid canvassers and campaign workers to build a strong foundation for continued socialist organizing in the Twin Cities, grow YDSA chapters by engaging un-organized students in a high profile public facing campaign.

OUTSIDE COLLABORATION AND EXTERNAL PARTNERS

Work with National on campaign work training and strategy

Campaign and candidate training and experience for members from TCDSA-endorsed electeds and their staff and campaigns

Engage in coalition work with allied organizations in Minneapolis to build chapter relationships for future work

Run as a Clear DSA Bloc – Priority Amendment #1A to “Toward Building a Mass Working-Class Alternative to the Democratic Party in 2025” (Amendment adopted, Priority Proposal #1 as amended was not adopted)

Authors: Revmira B, Emma F, Ramy K

Motivation

Whereas, the chapter electoral proposal suggests that TCDSA is “on the brink of socialists running Minneapolis” and “transforming Minneapolis,”

Whereas, socialist elected officials come under enormous, stressful pressures from the capitalist class, the DFL establishment, the capitalist media, moderate union and progressive leaders, non-profits, and capitalist-influenced public opinion,

Whereas, TCDSA-endorsed Minneapolis City Council Member Aurin Chowdhury voted for the Minneapolis police contract, which raised the police’s salaries to among the highest in the nation without any robust accountability reforms,

Whereas, TCDSA-endorsed elected officials need clear expectations and pressure from TCDSA to push back against these powerful capitalist forces so we can hold elected officials accountable to the needs of the working class, oppressed communities, and the planet,

Whereas, in order to become an alternative to the Democratic Party, DSA must cultivate our own base of working-class supporters who primarily identify with DSA rather than relying on loyal DFL voters,

Whereas, the significant political divisions on the Minneapolis city council are obscured for most residents by both the right and left wings of the council sharing the DFL party label,

Whereas, DSA currently follows the model of a “party-surrogate,” acting like a mass party while retaining flexibility on what ballot line we use,

Whereas, Minneapolis city council elections provide a great opportunity to run candidates under our own ballot label (without having to legally register as a political party),

Whereas, conservatives and liberals claim that socialist politics are unpopular, ineffective, and too extreme, and yet Councilmember Robin Wonsley’s successful electoral campaigns and policy reforms demonstrate the viability of winning city council elections and policy reforms under the independent Democratic Socialist label, legitimizing socialist politics,

Whereas, creating a clear bloc of DSA candidates who run under the DSA label and cross-endorse each other would make it easier for residents to understand who represents DSA in city politics, and debunk attempts by Frey-aligned forces to present DSA as an ill-defined bogeyman that supposedly controls the city council,

Whereas, asking DSA-endorsed candidates to use the DSA ballot label and cross-endorse each other will help communicate to them that TCDSA sees ourselves as building an independent mass party accountable to the working class rather than DSA being just another activist group that also does endorsements,

Proposals
All changes to the text of the chapter priority proposal “Toward Building a Mass Working-Class Alternative to the Democratic Party in 2025” are highlighted in green.

1. Add the following lines to the end of bullet point #8 of the GOALS section to set clear expectations for candidates seeking TCDSA’s endorsement:

TCDSA will prioritize time, energy, and resources for candidates who meet the following criteria, (while balancing strategic decisions to build independent working-class power):
1. Stay up-to-date in paying dues to DSA
2. List “Democratic Socialist” or preferably “independent Democratic Socialist” as their party affiliation on the ballot and election materials. Avoid using “DFL/Democrat”. (The ballot line is limited to only 3 words so candidates are currently not allowed to write “Democratic Socialists of America” (4 words).
3. Endorse all other candidates endorsed by the chapter
4. Explicitly critique the Democratic Party as controlled by corporations and billionaires in their election materials
5. Urge supporters to join DSA as a step toward forming an independent democratic socialist party
6. Vote in accordance with the democratically agreed DSA national platform and TCDSA policies (and a potential future democratically agreed TCDSA platform). If an issue arises where a TCDSA-endorsed elected official is considering voting contrary to these policies, TCDSA expects them to notify the TCDSA Steering Committee as soon as possible and prioritize meeting with TCDSA to discuss it. (This may be a meeting with the SC, a chapter membership meeting, a public town hall, or other format deemed appropriate by the SC and chapter membership.)

2. Delete the following phrase from the very first paragraph:

Our four TCDSA-endorsed Minneapolis City Council Members ~~have been relentless champions for the working class. They~~ were instrumental in securing the victory in the EPNI fight, passed a ceasefire resolution, and forced the Minnesota Legislature to raise wages for 10,000 Uber and Lyft drivers across Minnesota. In doing so, they’ve catapulted our chapter into the spotlight, making TCDSA the feared adversary of the ruling class. They’re fighting for a just and humane homeless encampment policy, standing shoulder to shoulder with organized labor on picket lines, amplifying the voices of our community demanding the shutdown of corporate polluters, and pushing for renter protections to keep us in our homes.

3. Add these new paragraphs after the 2nd paragraph:

That said, socialists gaining governmental influence will be ferociously attacked with slander by the corporate media. They will blame socialists for society’s problems – poverty, crime, inflation, immigration, etc. (problems actually caused by capitalism). The red-baiting attacks on Socialists will be much more intense than the accusations lobbed at Democrats for social problems in Democratic-led cities.

Major compromises with big business and the Democratic Party will not stop the ruling class from attacking us. Significant compromises would largely disappoint and demobilize our working-class base, whose lives would remain unchanged and deeply frustrating.

The only way to avoid mass confusion and setbacks to our socialist movement is to go all in on the class struggle. Legislative reforms can help, but by themselves they will not uproot the debt and insecurity afflicting working families. We must politically prepare ourselves, DSA nationwide, and the working class for the full democratic socialist transformation of society. Gaining political power could backfire unless we educate and organize unions and the working class to throw off the billionaire class and take the big corporations into public ownership under democratic workers’ control. Establishing a world where the working class control the decisions that impact their lives rather than the profit-driven market system is the only realistic way to uproot inequality, crime, climate catastrophes, misinformation, and divisions within the working class along ethnic, gender, and geographic lines.

Priority Proposal #2 – Build DSA through Class-Struggle Unionism

Priority Name:

Build DSA through Class-Struggle Unionism: (A Priority Proposal)

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Author(s):

The TCDSA Labor Branch Organizing Committee

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Narrative:

Capitalism, with all its crises – a genocide in Gaza, a climate catastrophe, racism, etc. – can be overthrown only by a united, organized working class. Fortunately, as corporations grow ever larger, the capitalists are “creating their own gravediggers” – the working class. The workplace, the need to bring in a wage, and the lack of freedom found in both are forces that unite the working class across racial, gender, and geographic lines, especially if organizers work to foster this unity. It is in our workplaces, on the shopfloor, that we can begin to stitch together a fraction of the working class into a fighting force capable of contesting the capitalist powers.

Three factors have contributed to reviving the labor movement: (1) Capitalism’s 50-year crisis has caused unprecedented inequality and class anger. (2) The pandemic resulted in the celebration of frontline workers as “essential/heroes” and the raising of working-class consciousness, but bosses have continued treating workers as disposable. (3) The pandemic caused a tight labor market, increasing workers’ confidence to unionize and strike.

As a result, public support for unions is the highest it’s been since 1965! Unions are filing for elections and winning them at rates not seen in decades! Unions have scored a series of victories in the auto industry, at Starbucks, Amazon, UPS, the University of California, and too many places to name — all of which have inspired workers who are beginning to understand the power of unionizing and fighting.

Locally, park workers won their strike, the Minneapolis Uber & Lyft Drivers Association won a minimum wage law, we had a rare “compression week of strikes,” and unions are demanding divestment of their pensions from companies profiting from Israel’s genocide. The working class is obviously not yet prepared to take the top 500 corporations into democratic public ownership, but these nationwide stirrings among the working class for the first time in a generation are a positive sign.

The TCDSA Labor Branch submitted a separate document to the convention, “TCDSA Labor Branch Road Map 2024-2025,” which explains 11 different tasks that the Labor Branch hopes to work on using a class-struggle strategy. We are asking the convention to also vote on this document, which is intended to help the chapter understand our work and solicit feedback. We are also asking the convention to vote for this proposal which you are reading now, “Build DSA Through Class Struggle Unionism (A Priority Proposal).” This proposal asks the chapter to prioritize two specific labor struggles in 2024-2025: (1) Delta workers’ fight to unionize and win a dignified contract, and especially (2) the grocery workers’ likely strike.

The chapter should prioritize the Minneapolis grocery workers struggle in particular because we have more time to prepare for it. A Minneapolis grocery workers strike will likely take place in the spring or summer of 2025 after their labor contracts expire in early March, whereas the Delta union election will take place much sooner, between Oct-Dec 2024, although the staggered timing will make the chapter’s involvement sustainable. Chapter members – six of whom are Delta workers – are already deeply involved in preparations that the chapter can easily plug into, along with chapters nationwide, through DSA’s National Labor Commission (NLC).

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) has long been on the lowest rungs of the unionized workforce. They are poorly paid, and decades of complacency and corruption within union leadership has meant that many UFCW local presidents are among the highest paid labor bureaucrats in the country, pulling in north of six figures.

Fortunately this began to change in Minnesota with Rena Wong’s appointment as UFCW 663 President three years ago and her election on March 20, 2024 when she handily beat an ineffective old-guard incumbent. In preparation for contract negotiations with Cub, Lunds & Byerlys, Kowalski’s, and other Minneapolis grocery stores, the union leadership is striving to train 1,000 strike captains to lead 10,000 workers on a strike – if needed. If the union shuts down up to one third of Minneapolis grocery stores, it could significantly impact the economy and inspire workers throughout the region.

The union is looking for so many strike captains that they will probably be willing to bring DSA members on board again like they did during the last round of negotiations, and train us to serve as strike captains. The TCDSA Labor Branch is asking all chapter members and TCDSA committees to encourage folks to get jobs at grocery stores to help with this. At least one experienced DSA member, Ramy K, has become a shop steward at Kowalski’s.

Meanwhile, over 18,000 Delta Air Lines ramp, cargo, and tower employees plan to file for a union election with the International Association of Machinists (IAM) by Oct. 31, 2024. The two-month voting process has a good shot at winning a major victory. The fight for a first contract will then follow the vote to unionize and will likely extend well into 2025. Efforts to reform the union will follow a successful election, and DSA members will have an opportunity to be in on the ground floor of this evolving class-struggle fight. Key worker-leaders of the national organizing drive are here in the Twin Cities, six of whom have joined our chapter and are working with TCDSA’s Labor Branch and DSA’s National Labor Commission to involve DSA chapters nationwide. These workers, along with national IAM union leadership, have welcomed DSA into the organizing drive as salts, door-knockers, and volunteer organizers. Most importantly, Delta workers have started to join DSA as members across the country, helping us become the multiracial working-class organization we need to achieve socialism.

We have the opportunity to be part of these fights early on. We’ll be able to organize with workers and share our politics with them before, during, and after their fights with their bosses. We should mobilize our chapter to call Delta workers, knock on their doors, and leaflet airports, encouraging them to vote for a union, and then support their struggle for a fair contract. We should bring the political weight of our 12 DSA-endorsed elected officials to picket lines and discuss socialist politics with workers engaged in radicalizing struggles. Prioritizing these struggles will directly strengthen DSA’s influence in the labor movement and grow our membership within the multiracial working class.

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Does this priority overlap with work being performed by existing chapter groups?:

The TCDSA Labor Branch intends to develop plans for member mobilization, canvassing, and picketing for the Delta and UFCW campaigns, but we’ll need active leadership from the TCDSA Steering Committee and coordination with the Communications Committee, Electoral Committee, and Internal Organizing Committee. Our most powerful campaigns have involved all committees within our chapter working in unison. These two class-struggle organizing campaigns offer a rare opportunity to maximize our impact through collective action. The Labor Branch would love to talk with our Electoral Committee about inviting DSA elected officials to union activities. This can benefit DSA elected officials and also bring media and social media attention to the workers’ struggles. We’d also like to explore asking DSA-endorsed Minneapolis City Council Member Chughtai to connect her Labor Standards Board proposal to the likely UFCW strike.

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What campaign (or campaigns) could be organized to further this priority?:

1. Top priority: Support grocery workers’ likely strike (spring/summer 2025)
2. Secondary priority: Help Delta Airlines workers win a union election (Oct – Dec 2024), a democratic union, and then a strong labor contract

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What are possible goals for the priority, campaigns, and tactics?:

1)    A living wage and dignified working conditions for airport workers and Minneapolis grocery workers
2)    Bring five UFCW members and five more Delta workers into DSA from picket lines, canvassing, strike captain trainings, mutual aid, social media
3)    Carefully work to fully integrate these new worker-leaders into our branch and chapter and do the work to make changes in our internal culture to retain these workers
4)    Deepen relationships in the labor movement. (Consider asking UFCW 663 to use its PAC to fund TCDSA’s work, similar to the Portland Teachers Association donating $10,000 to PDSA.)
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What tactics might be used to achieve goals for priority/campaign?:

Approximately 250 TCDSA members are active in DSA, the labor movement, and/or community organizations. We’d like to help DSA union activists get their union to provide a message of solidarity, donate to a strike fund, and/or mobilize workers to union events. DSA should help amplify UFCW and Delta workers’ messages by email, social media, and word of mouth. We should call Delta workers, knock on their doors, leaflet airports. We should get trained to be grocery strike captains, walk picket lines, etc.
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Are there external partners who might work with us on this priority?:

Delta workers / International Association of Machinists
Grocery workers / UFCW 663
Labor liberal groups like CTUL among others
If a grocery strike develops, we should explore working with food pantries to provide food to picket lines and the community. We should consider organizing local farmers who sell produce to grocery stores to pressure the companies by setting up alternative farmers markets nearby stores during a strike, like Teamsters did in 1934.

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How will this priority grow the chapter? How will the possible campaigns grow the chapter or develop member skills?:

These campaigns will likely grow the chapter by recruiting to DSA from Delta canvasses/trainings and grocery picket lines/trainings.
These campaigns offer a rare opportunity to bring together socialists with working-class union members engaged in very direct class struggle, which is incredibly valuable and educational for socialists.DSA should work with Delta workers to train members on how to have conversations with workers at canvasses and picket lines. To recruit workers to DSA, we must be friendly, meet workers where they are at, support their demands, build trust, and strive to raise workers’ horizons as appropriate. The Labor Branch will develop campaign updates, trainings, suggested talking points, flyers, and sign-up sheets to help DSA members tactfully talk up our politics and DSA.
DSA members will likely be invited to IAM canvassing and UFCW strike captain trainings. We can take advantage of union resources to train DSA members to become more skilled at talking with workers and consumers of union/socialist goals, learn how to organize a picket line, lead chants, etc.
DSA members will gain valuable skills in multiracial/multiethnic dialogue, opposing racism and Xenophobia in a way that unites our class against the capitalists.
DSA activists skilled in electoral canvassing will learn to apply their skills to union contexts.

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If someone wants to discuss this priority proposal directly with the author, please list Slack handle @’s:

@AustinBennett, @RamyKhalil, @TylerG, @EmmaFletcher, @Cynthia Sarver, @Kip Hedges
=====
Is there anything else you want to mention?:

==========Priority Proposal==========

Resolution Amendment #2A to “Make Twin Cities DSA an Anti-Zionist Organization in Principle and Praxis”

Authors: Tim H, Tori B, Luke M, Arianna F, Bree R

Motivation:

The resolution rightfully stakes out a principled anti-Zionist position for Twin Cities DSA – and guides it towards more Palestine solidarity work. However, the final two sections do not reflect how DSA as an organization should conceive of or approach our members. This amendment ensures we establish our position instilled with a commitment to our culture of solidarity.

Our framework for all our discussions, debates, and implementation of decisions must be that we have a common enemy – the ruling class – and common vision for the future – socialism. This means every comrade is a vital piece of our organization and needs to be treated as such.

The work of our Solidarity Culture Committee and our chapters’ grievance process are predicated on this. Our goal should be to organize our members to take principled, socialist political positions, not punitive expulsions as outlined in these sections of the resolution.

They reflect a suspicion towards members, pre-determining that the described actions will be committed, and that there will be members that these disciplinary measures need to have been prescribed for.

Both nationally and locally, our existing procedures provide for the ability to deal with the described disruptive behaviors as they arise and impede our organizing, without assuming ahead of time that disciplinary measures will need to be taken.

For these reasons, this amendment strikes the last two “be it resolved sections” from the original resolution.

Amendment:

~~Strikethrough~~ is text from original resolution that is being removed by amendment

~~Be it resolved,~~ ~~all TC DSA members who are credibly shown to:~~

~~have proclaimed that they are a Zionist and intend on advancing the interests of the Zionist settler colony,~~
be a member of or have consciously provided material aid to any Zionist organization, the Israeli government, affiliates or supporters of the Israeli government including but not limited to Friends of United Hatzalah, Christians United for Israel, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Jewish Defense League, or any Zionist lobby group(s) such as but not limited to AIPAC, American Jewish Committee, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Jewish Community Relations Council, J-Street, and DMFI, or any settler NGOs who carry out the mission of Israeli settlement and Palestinian dispossession/displacement, such as but not limited to the Jewish National Fund, the Israel Land Fund, the Hebron Fund, and Regavim
have consistently and publicly opposed BDS as a legitimate form of struggle (e.g., denouncing the BDS movement in public interviews; writing public op-eds denouncing the BDS movement; drafting and voting in favor of legislation that suppresses BDS, such as legislation that suppresses speech rights around the right to freely criticize Zionism/Israel and/or the right to boycott), even after receiving fair and ample opportunity for education about the Palestinian struggle for liberation,

~~will be considered in substantial disagreement with DSAʼs principles and policies, as per~~ ~~Article 1, Section 3~~ ~~of the DSA Bylaws, thereby committing an expellable offense; as outlined in~~ ~~Article 3, Section 4~~ ~~of the DSA Constitution; Religious membership and spiritual interactions within houses of worship that have relationships with Zionist organizations are not considered endorsements of Zionism.~~

~~Be it resolved,~~ members expelled on these grounds may be reconsidered for membership reinstatement provided they write a statement to membership that 1) demonstrates a basic understanding of Palestinian issues and Zionism and 2) apologizes for past anti-solidaristic behaviors with a commitment to putting their new anti-Zionist principles into practice;

Tabled until the next General Meeting

Resolution #6 – Build the Capacity and Influence of Socialists Within Minnesota’s Political Party Structures

Author: Samuel D

Whereas, the Democratic Socialists of America is not a political party but an independent political organization engaged in a proto-party project; and

Whereas, the 2023 DSA national convention passed a resolution (Consensus Resolution #6, as amended) which commits to making electoral politics a priority for the next two years, continuing its approach of “tactically contesting partisan elections on the Democratic ballot line and other lines where viable,” and “strengthen[ing] our already existing organization independence from the Democratic Party” while recognizing that not all left-wing and labor coalition partners embrace the DSA’s party-like project; and

Whereas, the Farmer-Labor Party was an explicitly democratic socialist party, it was the most successful third party in U.S. history, and its successor Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party retains many of the grassroots democratic governance structures of the FL, including the precinct caucus; and

Whereas, For many socialists in Minnesota, their political home is in the DFL, and they are endeavoring to bring to the fight for socialism directly to the party and not leave this arena uncontested; and

Whereas, DFL delegate roles require a limited time commitment yet hold a lot of power; and

Whereas, DSA members across multiple chapters have a winning record supporting democratic socialist candidates in DFL endorsement conventions and/or blocking the party’s endorsement of opposing candidates; and

Whereas, DFL precinct caucuses and conventions are an opportunity to recruit unorganized leftist Democrats across the state into DSA; and

Whereas, base Democratic party and independent voters are in search of a political alternative, specifically a populist and coherent political agenda that addresses the economic and social alienation of the neoliberal capitalist economic order, and a majority these voters support socialist policies even if they reject socialism as a political identity; and

Whereas, DSA provides this political alternative: the table is set to heighten and expose the contradictions within the Democratic party, flex the popular support of DSA’s political agenda, and earn the trust and loyalty of a disaffected constituency by literally meeting them where they are; and

Whereas, The Uncommitted movement demonstrated the success of principled engagement with the DFL and Democratic Party caucus-convention process, providing access and a platform to build power, coalitions, and relationships around our popular political priorities; and

Whereas, Irrespective of divergent approaches to the Democratic Party (such as realignment, dirty break, clean break, dirty stay, etc.), exercising power in the existing political party structure serves the short-term electoral objectives of TCDSA and also develops the experience and analysis to hone the long-term objectives and strategy of DSA vis a vis the capitalist two-party system; Therefore, be it

Resolved, That TCDSA encourages its members to participate in the Minneapolis DFL’s precinct caucuses on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 and the Saint Paul DFL’s precinct caucuses (date to be determined); and be it further

Resolved, That in the course of caucus participation, members are encouraged to:

Run for delegate positions to support candidates endorsed by TCDSA
Vote for fellow socialists and aligned progressives to elected positions such as delegates, committee members, and party leadership
Form Democratic Socialist and/or Uncommitted subcaucuses where there is not a TCDSA endorsed candidate running
Identify socialist DFLers at their precinct caucus who are not TCDSA members and invite them to get involved with the chapter
Consider selectively running for roles in the DFL which will support socialist and labor organizing goals but will not detract from or compete with building DSA; and be it further

Resolved, That TCDSA encourages its 2025 endorsed candidates running on the DFL ballot line to invite their supporters to strategically engage in the DFL caucus/convention process as listed above in pursuit of chapter and national DSA goals.

Did Not Meet 2% Threshold

Target Amount of Outward Facing Events per Month

Author: Andrew M
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Narrative:

It would draw in more people to out organization or at least help in informing the public on key issues
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Does this priority overlap with work being performed by existing chapter groups?:

=====
What campaign (or campaigns) could be organized to further this priority?:

Finding dependable sister organizations or coalition partners or finding ways of advertising to newer demographicss
=====
What are possible goals for the priority, campaigns, and tactics?:

Have a target number of outward facing events per month and focus on informational or entertaining types of events like the debates
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What tactics might be used to achieve goals for priority/campaign?:

See if other groups would like to add space in their newsletters or emails or even invest in some Facebook advertisement
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Are there external partners who might work with us on this priority?:

WAMM, Anti-war committee, FRSO (?), Amnesty International, BLM, various unions
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How will this priority grow the chapter? How will the possible campaigns grow the chapter or develop member skills?:

It will draw in new communities or even inspire similar advocacy in other groups
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If someone wants to discuss this priority proposal directly with the author, please list Slack handle @’s:

Andrew Mangles
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Is there anything else you want to mention?:

If there are any members who have listed similar proposals I would appreciate the opportunity to reach out in order to discuss out ideas

Twin Cities DSA 2024 Annual Convention Results

Campaign Goals

Internal Organizing Goals

Chapter Collaboration

External Collaboration

Proposal

Proposal

Motivation

ProposalsAll changes to the text of the chapter priority proposal “Toward Building a Mass Working-Class Alternative to the Democratic Party in 2025” are highlighted in green.

Proposals
All changes to the text of the chapter priority proposal “Toward Building a Mass Working-Class Alternative to the Democratic Party in 2025” are highlighted in green.