Bill Fletcher Jr.'s newest novel uses working-class realities as fuel for gripping mystery.

As the DSA continues its fight to realize the Green New Deal, we have much to learn from both the wins and the setbacks the fight for public power has sustained this year. 

Socialists can use a basic understanding of international rules to challenge intentional distortions of international law weaponized by the powerful. 

The revolution will not be message tested.

Disrupting DC recounts a local episode in corporate control of our shared social life.

A mass protest erupted in DC on November 4th, 2023. The scale of turnout demonstrated mass desire for an end to US support for Israel's apartheid regime.

The demand for a ceasefire is a demand for justice. It is also part of a campaign to cut spending on bombs to further fund social support at home and abroad.

Open governance is vital for maintaining trust and consistency in democratic organizations. We must recommit to this process.

As Israel slaughters starving Palestinians in the world’s largest open-air prison, American liberals are waging a parallel war against language.

DC is set to inherit full control over a prime parcel of real-estate. Should we build housing for all, or parking lots for a blood sport?

Damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t, Mitski loves her job in a way that has been killing her.

A wide-ranging interview with photo journalist Michael Key on the current problems with journalism and its future under socialism. 

In response to attack, the Israeli government has launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians. What are the roots of this conflict?

Metro DC DSA's campaigns and working groups report back on their successes and operations half-way through 2023.

Adam Hochschild's historical account on turn of the century political repression echoes the struggles faced by socialists in the present.

As Donald Trump's Summer of Reckoning nears an end, the rest of us enter uncharted territory.

An innocuous sounding voting system is being boosted by some of the biggest enemies of the working-class.

At the DSA's biennial convention, more than a thousand elected delegates descended on Chicago to decide the future of the organization.

A new local caucus describes its approach to improving the local DSA's internal operations.

Steering Committee member Michael M contributes to the ongoing discussion on Metro DC DSA's recent delegate election.

Connecting what is to what could be forms the framework of what the socialist movement is or should be about. A new anthology seeks to address this moment.

Republicans in Congress, having solved the rest of America’s problems, have renewed their focus on how the District of Columbia runs its municipal affairs.

A genre maligned. It did not begin with social media, but social media introduced a new utility of the medium to its fans.

The local's most recent internal election imparted a confounding mandate for its convention delegation.

A multinational corporation owns and operates DC's electrical utilities at the expense of the public good. There is an alternative to this exploitative arrangement.

Nearly two years out, was the DSA successful in implementing the will decided by the 2021 National Convention?

Analysis raises concerns about the short-term financial health of DSA ahead of the 2023 convention: a decline in membership and overspending exposes liquidity risk.

Assessing the power of the Manifesto today, Miéville illuminates the document’s power as prediction, prophecy and call to revolution.

To celebrate May Day as a single event can lead one to miss the spirit that animated its origins as an international workers holiday.

To enhance the safety of all residents in the District, DC must embrace a decarceral regimen that funds care and support, not cages and violence.

Insurance lobbyists are using the progressive-sounding language and the elderly to maintain a Medicare privatization scheme.

A new book by Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington exposes how the consulting industry profits from (and helps to facilitate) the erosion of the public good.

The fight for full democracy for DC will not reach conclusion until DC’s citizens and elected officials unite to bring it about, by any means necessary. 

What would a future with publicly owned power look like, and how do we get there?

Testimony provided by the Democratic Socialists at the DC Police Performance Oversight Hearings provides a detailed roadmap for building real safety in Washington, DC.

Congressional denial of the rights of DC residents has always been built on demagogy and resentment.

Tensions between building trades unions and environmental groups have existed for so long that they seem inescapable, yet both groups share the same objective – a livable future for people and the planet.

A discussion with DSA member and Stomp Out Slumlords tenant organizer Katlyn Cotton on the socialist vision of housing.

The emblematic play by Nathan Alan Davis, currently in its world premiere at Arena Stage, connects America’s fraught racial past with its present.

Don't believe the hype; Mayor Bowser's budget engagement forums are little more than show-n-tell propaganda events.

Larry Hogan recently touted his lack of regrets as he exits the Maryland governorship; we've got a few.

That year went faster than expected. ICYMI - here's where you can catch up on the status of the labor movement, local and national.

An organizers guide to building a community base for police abolition.

Annual report provided to document activities of the Metro DC DSA in 2022.

A troubling new technology risks deteriorating working conditions for working artists.

Or - why aren't more electrician's women? A children's book published by lefty-publisher Hard Ball Press seeks to change this.

However important railroads are, are they so critical as to undercut the rights of the workers to decent treatment?

A special offer, for DMV socialists.

Without a guarantee of healthful food to all, we will be unable to move forward or effectively organize any form of alternative to capitalism.

Compliance fines and renewable energy credits are not encouraging energy providers to decarbonize DC's power grid. The District should directly finance renewable expansion and confront the dirty work head-on.

Pundits took the Democrats' strength in the midterms as a referendum on Republican extremism and support for moderation. But the results really show that voters want more from Democrats, not less.

YIMBYs of NOVA promises to "make housing affordable to all" through more development. However, its leaders' ideological commitments call to question just how much their proposals will result in real gain for NOVA's working-class.

In the past fourteen months, current and former officers have brought five lawsuits against MPD. The failure of the department to protect honest whistleblowers casts doubt on the possibility of police reform.

The time is now ripe for College Park to become a union town—if the people of Maryland make it. 

Brief coverage of an anti-Amazon rally held on Black Friday.

What went down on election night, 2022.

How Arlington rebranded Reaganomics as “diversity.”

A new play at DC's Kreeger Theater explores the common threads that link unique immigrant experiences.

A new coalition is looking to disrupt police involvement in basic traffic enforcement.

The ink from President Biden’s signature on “The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” was hardly dry when his underlings began to undercut the most critical parts of the legislation.

The Virginia Republican Party has fully embraced the far-right culture wars.

A regional organizing retreat in early September that brought comrades from as far away as New Jersey and Charlottesville to discuss organizational tactics and strategy.

In November, DC voters will again be asked to end the subminimum wage.

The Supreme Court's recent ruling in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta is one of the latest developments in Native Americans' longstanding struggles against American colonialism.

The District's lack of autonomy leaves its 700,000 residents vulnerable to the political right's misogynistic machinations.

In the late 1970s, Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee was wrongly charged, and eventually convicted, with two counts of murder by the San Francisco District Attorney's office. The conviction set off an international and multiracial movement that challenged the injustices and malignancies of the US legal system.

Through Amazonians United, Starbucks Workers United, and many other nontraditional sites of struggle, the hope and promise of the labor movement hasn't felt this strong in decades.

Debt organizers have vowed to continue the fight.

Too often, those elected are content to let business as usual remain unchanged — even in communities, where those elected say all the right things. When can electoral change make a difference?

An analysis of the District 2022 primary elections suggest DC is depolarizing around race and repolaring around class.

The enthusiasm and promise of a nation-wide tenants network was on display at the ATUN 2022 convention.

We hate to say ICYMI, but we just did...

Whatever demons drive Americans to kill massive numbers of innocent citizens, they’d be stymied without easy access to lethal weaponry.

How the Metro DC DSA is working to actualize the Membership Engagement Committee.

Gains the Mayor has made in improving DC’s public education system have been undermined by a callous approach to workers, funding mismanagement, and a disregard for transparency and open communication.

It's simple to wave your hand and say you will hire an unrealistic number of police officers. But reality is more complicated than that.

On capitalism, abortion rights, and queer rights.

By laying a foundation of civic and political education in local Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, the DSA can equip and prepare socialists to vie for power in the District.

The battle for basic rights is about to get tougher. So must the Left.

The vehicle Mayor Bowser is using to build more affordable units is not well managed, and her administration has a history of using it to reward developers that do not perform the best.

On DC's DIY scene, explorations of beauty, and deploying novel artist feedback mechanisms.

On April 7, the DMV lost an important figure in the history of DC's left-wing currents.

At the North America's Building Trades Union's conference, the promise and limitations of organized labor's current resurgence were on full display.

Arrestable protests in Washington are not the only way to get a response from the President. It is time for mainstream media to give creatives greater news coverage.

In the battle between the “corporate Mouse” and the political rats in Tallahassee and elsewhere, the Left has no natural allies.

Precarity and student debt were foisted on a generation by capitalist systems. Young workers are yearning for a new solution.

A look back at the late 1940s and its lost opportunities ought to give socialists pause as we consider the left's situation today.

The District has made strides to replace police with non-law enforcement public servants and non-carceral programming. Our message to DC Council is simple: keep going.

The world must demand of Russia: Stop the bombing and pull out the troops. Then we’ll talk.

A response to the February 25th MDC DSA Weekly Update.

A letter from a socialist in Kyiv regarding the western left's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

What opponents of CRT are really afraid of is white students embracing solidarity with students of color in favor of social change.

The history of this old socialist stronghold contains lessons for those building and sustaining working-class power today.

Labor wars, memories of January 6, and tactical thinking define the common thread linking January's discourse.

Through voter suppression tactics and and locally focused organizing schemes, Republicans are setting up conditions to favorably contest the next presidential election.

Though statewide organizing is still in its infancy, Maryland’s DSA formations have been conferring regularly about how to leverage our numbers and apply our analysis to the so-called Blue state’s political realities.

Putting theory to work through student organizing in Watkins Mill High School.

When it comes to the great and near-great powers, there are no good guys.

“…portraying the struggle ahead of us, but with hope and motivation”

We round up the best good reads to walk us into a high-information — and high stakes — 2022.

How equitably can federal funds be released for infrastructure? It depends on how skilled local and state governments are at scooping up and managing those funds.

Has the national defund movement slowed? Part of the problem may be the movement’s messaging.

The 2021 Steering Committee's annual report.

In DC, the Defund MPD effort has found quiet success in changing policy and opinions on policing shared by the broader public.

The controversy stirred up by Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s vote to fund Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile defense system and his meeting with the repulsive Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett raises questions about the posture of the US Left towards Palestinian liberation, Zionism and anti-Semitism.

How should the local DSA approach electoral politics?

Link juice for you and our SEO.

On election night 2021, nationally endorsed DSA candidates won over 25 local victories at the hyperlocal level.

How to take on power and win.

Biden promised to undo Trump's harmful policies on Cuba - so far he's failed to act.

Keeping a loose record of 'Build Back Better' negotiations on Capitol Hill

An inventive new book uses a technology lens to show how the automobile took over culture, with capitalism guiding events at every turn

The residual racism embedded in many place names around the country could well include the name Arlington

Prisons in both the US and Palestine fragment communities and deepen systemic inequalities. We must recognize that all prisoners are political and no human being deserves to be incarcerated.

The Governor's race in Virginia is too close to call — socialists should consider voting strategically

Good reads from October

A recent forum out of NYC sought to challenge the American left on its approach to understanding US-China relations.

Taliban rule and the Texas far right’s legislative wish list of banning abortion and suppressing voting rights invite comparisons.

'The Washington Revolutionary' reports on the grotesque intersection of police brutality, gentrification and the thin blue line of silence that produces false narratives.

District educators should consider abandoning pay-systems that reproduce competition and inequity in the workplace.

Reflections on Hägglund's articulation of what it means to be human and what we value as a product of socialization

Socialists should provide unwavering support to Afghan refugees. Here's where we can help.

What went down at the DSA 2021 National Convention.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s HR4442 is designed to return schools to their place as centers of community. If socialists act fast, we can make it a reality.

A two-decade recounting of local perspectives on the labor movement.

As community members and creative subjects ourselves, the activist-artist must help forge a shared dream for the future.

Famed union leader Richard Trumka died suddenly last month at age 72. Socialists should remember his legacy to ensure labor's revival.

The struggle against Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline so far.

This UK labor journal publishes worker-written correspondence with the aim of strengthening worker organizations.

Record of what went down at the 2021 YDSA convention.

National DSA has kicked off the next phase of its Green New Deal campaign, encompassing labor and the PRO Act but moving into the highly unionized public school system.

What would it take to reduce gun violence as we emerge from the pandemic? (Hint — more cops are not the solution.)

When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.

...and what his victory means for the socialists of Portsmouth.

It's not as daunting as it looks.

Socialists of all stripes should reckon that we may need to rebuild at the local level the very thing we’ve been fighting for years.

A former progressive legislator’s lens on the action at the 2021 session of the Maryland General Assembly: a litany of missed opportunities and unfinished business.

An (admittedly old-fashioned) MDC DSA member outlines his skepticism about podcasts. Does the history of peasant rebellions in the 16th century provide clues to their value?

An inside (the courtroom) look at how our legal system can sidestep eviction moratoriums in Montgomery County.

In a post-carbon future, will urban expressways wither away and revert to urban space?

On Thursday, June 10th, the Defund MPD coalition brought its case for reimagining public safety to the District Council.

Five socialist vets provide their thoughts on capitalism, socialism, imperialism, and the military.

Photos from the Saturday, May 15 Nakba 73 protests in DC.

An explanation for the emotions, language, and objectives of the sometimes-embattled term “Defund.”

Israel's propaganda tactics have not changed in over a decade - but their success is fading in the face of activist resolve.

To achieve racial equity, every institution, without exception, needs to change. Here's how you can do it.

A marxist analysis of Biden's signature infrastructure bill.

To end the prevalence of "warrior" culture found within police departments, PD bargaining units should be combined with other social support staff.

Community groups, political organizations, and mutual aid networks rallied to confront the District government's bumbling vaccine rollout.

Socialist strategies, the labor wars, and more.

A slice of history covering DC's oft-forgotten far-left.

Heather McGhee's new book reminds us that racial division is a vital component of capitalist exploitation.

One approach for mobilizing the working masses into socialist political operations.

Biden's infrastructure plan is a fair start, but in no way broaches the scale of investment needed to seriously address the climate crisis.

From Bush-era "alt" rock to verbose left-wing magazines: a common path for the millennial Left.

Democratic socialists should think about how we can leverage the structures and systems of the DSA to build capacity for deliberate, strategic disruption.

The estate of Dr. Seuss was justified in ceasing the publications of several of his books. His legacy should be viewed against the entirety of his life’s (rather progressive) work.

For the eco-socialist left, Robinson's new sci-fi thriller should be seen as a great resource for inspiration and provocation

Medicare for All is not a fix-all solution. But it is the foundation from which an equitable and just health care system can be built.

A collection of some of the best stories for socialist interest: thinking about a Green New Deal, political organizing, and deep economics.

The passing of the former labor leader's passing provides an occasion to look back on the role he played in guiding the progress of the labor movement out of the hysteria of the Cold War.

The political war between voting rights and voter suppression has reached a new intensity. For the Left, the battle is about the future of progressive politics; for the Right, it’s about survival.

Modern monetary theory: what it is, where it comes from, who supports it, and how to separate the economic theory from political rhetoric.

The battle for the humane treatment of Central American migrants has roots in the US-backed wars in the region from many years ago.

A labor contingent in PG County reviewed organizing efforts at Amazon and eco-socialist organizing around the PRO Act.

A terse attempt at defining the socialist project.

Should the DSA carry-forward its electoral strategy through the Democratic Party? An ecosocialist response.

The growing threat of fascism will require deeper attention paid to administrative security.

Recent critiques levied at DSA peddle in an aesthetic-radicalism that risks distracting the working-class from organizing itself into a disciplined political force.

An annotated discussion on capitalism and virtual realities with the creators of Preserving Worlds.

Trump is gone, but the pandemic nightmare his administration failed to acknowledge remains.

Democratizing the energy grid is one way to limit fallout from climate change while bringing us closer to a socialist future.

DC statehood is back on the nation’s agenda. With Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, only a likely Senate filibuster stands in the way of adding a 51st star to the US flag.

In 2021, Virginia is a much-changed state absorbed by a blue wave that foretells an opening for progressive politics from Virginia to Florida.

Building a policy platform based on oppositional politics risks putting the working-class in bed with otherwise hostile interests.

The socialist electoral project is the most successful it has been because socialists are contesting power using the Democratic ballot line. Eschew symbolism, prioritize victory.

The Capitol Coup, Trump's Twitter break, Democratic Party intrigue, and the populist revolt of Wall Street norms.

Organizers in PG County have finally come together to help build socialism in Maryland.

Engaging in the long leftist tradition of filmmaking and critique might be a means to help us envision what a post-capitalist order might look like.

An ex-machinist suggests that socialists should look to ESOPs as a way to expand worker control over the means of production.

Local socialists have been quietly building out an anti-capitalist technical operation for use by the DC-area left. Its impetus and activities are outlined here.

Trump's regime ended with an insurrection at the Capitol. The attack failed, but revealed the wells of hatred that infect much of the White working-class.

A decade of neoliberal retrenchment is finally starting to crack. Can DC's left recognize the moment?

A collection of intriguing articles that have been passed around the socialist universe from 2020.

The progressive project of forcing a vote on Medicare for All is high-stakes. Boosters from the commanding heights of lefty media are promoting the idea without fully acknowledging the effort it might entail.

The anti-capitalist theories provided by the late-philosopher Mark Fisher can help us make sense of the tragedies inflicted by the coronavirus - and build a new class politics in its wake.

This article from February 1992 set out the state of play for the single-payer movement at the time. As in 2020, a recession was making millions of Americans anxious about their own access to health care.

In mid-December the United States passed a grim milestone: 300,000 lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. How do we even begin to process how many have died?

DMV socialists took to the streets of Washington in order to highlight the dire need for bold federal action to address the ongoing suffering of the working-class.

Historical precedent shows that Democrats win when they embrace the grassroots demands of their party. If Democrats want to build a winning coalition, they will need to recruit the left to watch their back.

Update delivered to the chapter at the 2020 MDC DSA chapter convention

For those looking to combat imperialism, dismantle the US war machine, stand in solidarity with comrades across borders — this piece will provide some context and guidance on where to start.

It was a mixed-messages kind of election - Trump was defeated but not fully repudiated. How should we make sense of where we are now?

A retrospective article republished from 1997 - this piece illustrates that the question of what to do about meetings transcends time, the size of the organization and the social and political context.

Kim Stanley Robinson's latest novel not only has the juice of a good sci-fi narrative, but provides strong insight into how an international plan for reversing climate change might be structured.

Diluting the propaganda deployed on the working class requires significant investments into education.

The Police Union is a critical barrier to defunding the Metropolitan Police Department and investing in the community - here's what needs to happen.

With the election barely over, the Democratic Party has started flailing at their left flank - seemingly ignorant to the Republican offensive barreling towards them.

Trump’s two-pronged strategy—litigation and political pressure—to remain in the White House is sputtering on all cylinders, but unlikely to succeed.

How might the 2020 election be stolen, and how will the opposition fight back?

A review of David Schwartzman's new book, which imagines the possibility of a green future within the context of class struggle and socialism.

As the world beings to realize more dramatic accelerants to climate change, the need for global mobilization becomes more urgent than ever.

The danger of authoritarian rule is real. Only broad electoral unity can face down the forces of capital that stand behind Trump's megalomania.

A republished interview from 1984 with DC statehood and environmental activist Josphine Butler.

As the Washington Teachers Union battles against reopening plans set forth by Mayor Bowser, the need for working-class solidarity is more apparent than ever.

Making sense of DC's local political campaigns, which are continuing on in the shadow of what is shaping up to be a tumultuous general election.

Introduction

An exploration of how political discourse can be used to build political coalitions, structure movements and chart a path to political change.

An investigation of how co-ops in DC are navigating the post-covid world reveals their resilience in the face of systemic turmoil.

Losing the ideological balance of the Supreme Court means sloppy legislation can no longer be saved from friendly justices. We will need smarter legislators and tighter legislation to reduce the risk of judicial interception.

Longtime DSA member Howard Croft, who died of COVID-19 in June, ran for DC Council in 1997. This article provides a concise overview of Croft’s accomplishments to that point and the vision he brought to the race for the Ward 6 seat.

Unearthed images of Occupy protests in Washington, DC.

Donald Trump intends to steal the 2020 election. We can't let that happen.

An amusing look at how a small right-wing college serves as academic cover for a classic push-poll about the dread menace socialism.

Left politics remain beset by adversaries, and their preservation demands a unified front with a strong political program.

Observations on how the pandemic changed the relationship between labor and capital, today and perhaps into the future.

The rich histories of the United Electrical Workers and the International Longshore Workers’ Union, two radical worker formations who were at the forefront of resistance when many other unions were taking a compliant route for short-term gains.

This article, reprinted from 1984, reflects on the nomination of Geraldine Ferraro to become Walter Mondale's running mate. The Mondale-Ferraro ticket, of course, lost the 1984 general election to Reagan-Bush, but will Harris go beyond past woman nominees and become the first member to be elected to national office?

The latest eyewitness reporting on protesters, hostile and often brutal police conduct, and Mayor Bowser’s duplicitous and self-serving maneuvers.

How do we think about the police and their unions? Their entanglement in the goals of the capitalist ruling class suggest that they are outliers in the real workers’ movement.

In a housing market based on private pursuit of profit, the denial of the basic right to housing is a rule of business.

Adapting to life in the time of permanent biohazard is going to require permanent lifestyle and behavior changes, and we really don’t know which changes will be more or less pleasant and which ones not.

A guide for exploring the clash of ideologies in a compact enclave in Northwest Washington.

How does one begin to get involved in socialist struggle? To paraphrase the Chinese proverb, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single article.

Just as today, DSA 35 years ago was wrestling with how, as a predominately white organization, it could effectively work across racial lines and forge ties with communities of color.

What has the new anti-racism revolution accomplished? And what has yet to be achieved?

The National Guard and police have illegally assaulted protesters in Lafayette Square (D.C.) by violating the First Amendment of the Constitution, which allows peaceful demonstrations. The demo did not violate curfew and the attack was without warning.

The treatment of the District during both the COVID-19 crisis and the Black Lives Matter protests provides yet another argument why the District needs self-government.

A review of Michael Raysson's book on security guard unizonization efforts in Boston.

A history of Black radicalism on the eastern shore of Maryland.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has failed to meet the challenge of the COVID-19 virus in a state battered by skyrocketing unemployment.

A wide network of activists and organizers, fueled by popular uprising in DC, provides a legitimate political opening for local change.

The push to make DC the 51st state has reached its next critical stage.

Dr. Howard Croft, DC Statehood advocate, professor and chair of urban studies at UDC and longtime member of Metro DC DSA from its earliest days, has died. Members and activists who have long memories of his tireless work for empowerment of all residents of the District of Columbia contribute their recollections.

How should socialists engage in electoral politics? Recent victories are considered in this case for stronger engagement in electoral politics.

The left should see the problem of police brutality as the multiracial class issue that it is, and the left should propose specific policy alternatives to the current police “warrior” culture.

This article, published in the June 1992 issue of the Washington Socialist, looks at two uprisings from that time triggered by police violence: in DC’s Mount Pleasant Neighborhood in 1992 and in Los Angeles the previous year.

Socialists on parade in the first game released by Pixel Pushers Union 512.

The DSA is not endorsing Joe Biden. But members should do what they can to assist in his victory.

Planet of the Humans falls victim to misinformation, limited vision, and capitalist intrusion.

Following pandemic hardship and fears of displacement due to impending recession, stronger tenant protections have never been more urgent.

Automation provides the left an opportunity to mobilize socialism in the post-pandemic era.

The story of Pat Wheelan and his maritime organizing in Charm City.

Hilda Mason was not only a longtime DC councilmember but also an open socialist, making her one of the few DSA members in elected office prior to 2017.

The special impact of the COVID-19 health/economic crisis on working-class tenants around the DMV has generated mass protests, notably in Alexandria, to defy rent collection.

This piece from Fall 1987 draws parallels between that year’s crash and much more significant one of 1929 and offers predictions of how it might affect U.S. politics going forward.

What podcasts discuss contemporary manifestations of class struggle and economic justice, and then explore lefty policy solutions or activist strategies?

How do we value the lessons learned from DSA's involvement in the Bernie Sanders campaign?

This is the first entry in a larger series recounting radical labor history in Maryland.

Does the Left’s eagerness to remake the country in the face of the crisis make it the mirror image of the nationalist right?

With the democratic primary effectively over, how did the left fail to rally decisively behind Bernie?

An interview with candidate McKayla Wilkes, who is running against House Majority leader Steny Hoyer.

The history of DSA's electoral and political strategy.

To what extent will the next future be a gradual reconstruction of the capitalist material structures of the past, and how much a palimpsest, erased and rewritten in a different idiom?

As the coronavirus emergency overtook Maryland, day by day and with new restrictions piling up, thousands have watched their jobs evaporate under their feet.

Labor’s present-day struggles against capital – and sometimes, amongst itself – are reflected in this 1985 Socialist interview with Victor Reuther, brother of the late United Auto Workers’ President Walter Reuther and himself a longtime UAW leader.

It's tempting to believe that the dangers and calamity imposed by COVID-19 are unique. But COVID is only capable of mass proliferation because it feeds on the long-neglected externalities produced by our current arrangement of work and life.

The COVID-19 epidemic has found many governments and business leaders unprepared to meet the emergency. For socialists who take the capitalist economic system seriously, however, COVID-19 shouldn’t be a surprise.

Considering the role of women in the expansion of labor politics and power in the United States.

With Bernie on the edge of victory, how does the left think about its goals and objectives?

An eye-witness recounting of the energy surrounding Bernie Sanders' rally in Northern Virginia.

But attempts to pin down what socialism is and what socialists would do if they gained the levers of power has been a historically popular exercise. A new book gives it another go.

Will Gov. Larry Hogan, like Trump, make Maryland taxpayers hostages to a foreign (global capitalist) power?

Ableism, like any other form of supremacy, is rooted in the subconscious. ... With Autism comes difficulties in building conversation that many people do not understand.

Arguably, only Nancy Pelosi is as powerfully connected and invested in the status quo of the DCCC as MD Rep. Steny Hoyer. Unseating him would send a powerful message that the politics-as-usual approach of the DCCC will no longer stand.

If civil disobedience is needed to prick the consciences of a number of us sufficient to avert a new global tragedy, then we are obliged to practice it.

The proposed bill from a decade ago, which would have given DC a single vote in the House but no Senate representation, sold democracy short.  That would have given DC no voice in the impeachment trial, nor in the confirmation votes of the rogues’ gallery of Trump appointees.

We look at the list of issues that many analysts say will top the agenda of this 2020 General Assembly session, and we get the itchy feeling that one sentence could clear away some of the confusion.

How do we afford Medicare for All? We have to recognize that war profiteers endanger our safety and cost the US taxpayer massive amounts that can be redirected to human needs, including the one that most voters rank first -- fixing our broken health care system.

The majority of the country is opposed to Trumpism, but this opposition is much more heterogeneous than the right-wing alliance. This poses big challenges to a Left that wants to build broad unity in defeating the Trump and the GOP in the 2020 elections.

Conversations are taking place around Maryland on diversity, equity and inclusion practices (DEI). The writer, a Baltimore attorney, provides context about where various parties are starting from, historically, in terms of power and emphasizes

This international perspective provides international affirmation of growing acceptance of anti-capitalism in the United States.

There are numerous changes in our individual behaviors and practices that can help move the struggle forward, if only a little, by injecting a little socialism at the grass roots. After all, virtually every important social change started with an individual taking action.

While Facebook is currently embroiled in a controversy over whether it’s wrong for it to allow Trump’s political advertising that contains naked lies, the debate over fully or partially nationalizing the platform has gotten much less coverage.

The Caucus mission statement cited its purpose as the exploration of “the history of DSA both locally and nationally, as well as the history of left politics and culture locally, nationally and internationally, in order to provide a historic perspective that can contribute to the present-day thinking and practices of Metro-DC DSA.”

The Check Your Complicity campaign calls out Virginia elected officials who continue to benefit from violence against migrants, largely thanks to generous contributions from ICE contractors, while making a show of being on our side.

RWF will present to representatives of team owner Daniel Snyder a sort of holiday gift: the petitions collected during the year with signatures of members of the public demanding a name change.

The quick propensity to lock people up on one side, while failing to provide adequate service or opportunities on the other, has undermined the quality of life in Maryland.

Mckayla Wilkes has been endorsed by MDC DSA membership in her run for the Democratic nomination for Maryland’s 5th Congressional District. The primary is April 28, 2020. The incumbent: Steny Hoyer.

I think I’ve learned that punishment and justice are not the same. The carceral system is not something I could ever find myself celebrating or expecting to bring me peace.

Chomsky's contributions trace the post-WW2 policy: corporate goals of commercial dominance and resource control in South and East Asia.

Putting aside my not-insignificant disagreements with the other Democratic candidates, their electability compared to Trump is questionable.

Maryland needs a system that treats addiction and substance abuse as a health care, instead of criminal issue.

How do we continue to build support for Sanders, the movement, politics, and values his campaign has come to represent without attacking or alienating those who have come to a different decision?

[Grossman] writes of how when his wife visited the US (her first time in the West) after the Wall came down, she was shocked at the sight of beggars, for she had never before seen people so desperate for a meal.

These opening remarks were delivered to Sept. 15th’s Climate Emergency Town Hall in Montgomery County’s Silver Spring Civic Center.

While being a socialist isn’t required to support statehood for the District, the cause does demand the support and involvement of all true socialists.

Reflections on democratic socialism from 1984.

The Assembly passed a bill creating a panel to examine and if necessarily lower prescription drug prices in Maryland. The GOP governor, whose veto of the bill was overriden, has refused to release the funds appropriated, kicking off a nasty fight.

Throughout the 2019 Convention, there were many chances outside of debating resolutions and bylaws to connect with comrades across the organization, at hosted events and informal meetups.

Ursula Le Guin's anarcho-socialist planet Anarres provides the social backdrop for her landmark novel, "The Dispossessed." How would a society like that live, every day, on this planet? An extrapolation.

While proposals for DC statehood have been submitted in each Congress for decades, the current bill is the first to have been declared a priority by the Democratic leadership of both houses.

Jeffrey Epstein made some contributions to the MIT Media Lab's work. Discovery! Shock! Horror! But was his money particularly dirty?

People moving to improve their lot in life has been a constant and sometimes this movement takes place across the arbitrary lines known as borders.

A program to abolish prisons and police needs more than sloganeering. We need a program that understands the struggle to win control for all the people looking to pursue a more just society.

Hogan, as Treasurer Nancy Kopp acutely suggests, is becoming rapidly more Trump-like as he wallows in second-term freedom, acting out the Maryland equivalent of the Obama-obsessed Trump’s attempt to erase the work of his predecessor, in Hogan’s case Democrat Martin O’Malley.

With Maryland’s multi-member districts, the costs of running a race and the time needed to cover the 125,000-plus population districts are too much for all but the most well-funded insurgent candidates. In many parts of the state, particularly Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, the only way to win is by joining the incumbent slate.

In the coming debates, Bernie must deepen and sustain Biden's diminished public perception. In fact, it should be expanded to emphasize that Biden will not fight for the multi-racial working class.

The administration's brain-dead war against science is a reason why “Deep Time,” the new permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, is so refreshing.

After Arlington County's vote, “For Us, Not Amazon” coalition will refocus around the issues we learned were the foremost concerns in the community.

The DC Office of Planning, proposed in early 2018 to amend the Comprehensive Plan’s all-important preamble section in such a way as to make it virtually impossible for residents to use the provisions of the plan as the basis for challenging bad land-use decisions in court.

All of these Green New Deal goals will need a broad bottom-up mobilization of the residents most impacted, DC’s working class along with their allies, and must be planned and implemented by the same.

For ecosocialists and mainstream environmentalists anxious to rally support for a Green New Deal, we'll have to take the task of educating voters into our own hands.

Members of a DC anti-gentrification alliance are scrambling at press time to read through Mendelson’s proposed rewrite of the Comp Plan preamble.

With recent labor victories fresh in our collective memories, three panelists shared their experiences and offered advice for furthering the movement in our own communities and in solidarity with workers everywhere. Their words were more than a call to act — but a call to get organized.

The struggle for full democratic rights for the District of Columbia will take another step forward on July 24 when the House Committee on Oversight and Reform holds a hearing on H.R. 51, a bill to make the DC the 51st state.

The country can live without athletes hobnobbing in the Rose Garden. What will be harder, though, is repairing the damage that Trump’s toxic racism unleashed on the nation.

Far from it being a matter for the “Venezuelan citizens and political officials” to decide, much of the wrangling has focused on cinching the noose around the Venezuelan people first and the assets of the Venezuelan state second.

Intrinsically valuable in and of themselves, a reentry council, an office of returning citizens, and community-based halfway houses can also open up a pathway for changing a system that is too willing to throw away the lives of too many.

The job of political figures who take their roles seriously has always been educational – to bring their electorate along as they illustrate and demonstrate the pathways to better lives for individuals and the community.

The Fair Budget Coalition — which advocates for a District budget and public policies that address poverty and human needs — included “offset federal tax cuts locally” in its platform for fiscal year 2020.

In 2015, the Arlington County Board also adopted a resolution condemning the Washington football team’s name as racist. But two jurisdictions that have shown interest in luring the team have remained mum on the issue.

Pete Buttigieg and Howard Shultz are part of a larger phenomenon in U.S. cultural discourse that privileges a set of experiences and traits that are interpreted as merit, beyond any real policy value that a candidate brings to public debate.

DSA climate activists might conceivably play an important role in saving the Tidal Basin that could win grudging support from a host of different local and national organizations.

Sine Die was, to say the least, complicated by the death of House of Delegates Chair Mike Busch the weekend before, followed by a dismal and unseemly contest to succeed him.

Only through the combination of labor in the cooperative, the proletarian enterprise, can humanity walk the path to liberation of mind, body, and spirit. It is time for the working class to take their fate into their own hands.

Odds appear good that a bill for DC statehood will pass the House of Representatives, a new first in the fight for equality for the District. And unfortunately, that’s where it will stop.

How can DC-area socialists build connections between the Bernie campaign and the labor movement?

Through force or fraud, through sanction or election, the Trump administration is attempting to install its preferred candidate atop the Venezuelan people.

We must use the Bernie campaign as another opportunity to build links between chapters and organizers.

The Sanders campaign presents great risks. DSA refusing to engage with the campaign would result in isolation from the broader progressive community.

At 60,000 members, with infrastructure and serious organizing experience across the country, DSA is in a unique position to step into this political space, and channel this organizing energy behind an explicitly socialist program.

Remembering legendary journalist Bill Blum.

The Sanders campaign revived DSA in 2016, and if we are prepared to seize the opportunity, it may again.

The ostensibly sunny-day Hogan budget puts a heavy load on the General Assembly to adapt it to what Marylanders actually need.

Metro-DC DSA notes with sadness the passing of longtime local member Alice M. Leonard on February 24 at the age of 101.

On February 14 an advocacy transportation group denounced a quiet move by Hogan’s ethically compromised transportation agency (MDOT) to formally drop all mass transit options from his big plan to add toll lanes to the I-495 Beltway and to I-270.

DSA's National Political Committee ratifies the 3-to-1 member vote to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders's candidacy for president.

In Marxist terms, McDonald’s and its fast-food rivals have made their industry into a corporate “hegemon” – economically, culturally and politically.

The changing ideological disposition of the Maryland General Assembly is the result of wide range of actions organized by visionaries in the state.

With only two weeks to go before the Arlington County Board is set to vote on its $23 million incentive package for Amazon, the fight is more important than ever, and there are plenty of opportunities for comrades to get involved.

Virginia's DSA Statewide convention, recounted here.

The Socialists of Faith Caucus formed in 2018, has operated in the tradition of radical social movements of the past.

The next big battle to persuade the local NFL owner to Change the Name – the racist name of the football team – will be fought in Montgomery County, and it may represent a tipping point.

Socialist or Marxist political economy is necessary but not sufficient in itself to advance a vision of 21st Century socialism.

Don’t look now, but what we all buy and consume in the way of food – combined with how corporate agribusiness shapes how most people eat – is helping to create climate catastrophe.

Good links for February 2019.

A message from the National Director outlines what DSA's response(s) can be and the path currently planned if Sen Sanders announces another run for the presidency.

Bill Mosley examines the right wing's longstanding rationale behind the late, great and once and future (?) Shutdown – further eroding public confidence and trust in government.

As political Maryland swings into another General Assembly session where Democrats face a second-term GOP governor, the shape of things political in a divided state is sketched by a variety of examples.

Guaido represents the latest in a long, well, caravan of American-backed puppets seeking to smash the independence movements of Latin America in general, and the social democratic reforms of the Chavez era in particular.

Environmental activism has been hampered by political boundaries in the DMV. A singular, multi-state public initiative could allow DMV socialists to engage in cross-jurisdictional ecosocialist work.

In the fast-changing world of automation trending toward AI, tech workers could find themselves in the same boat as other workers sooner than they think.

The recent contentious relocation of the largest base on the island of Okinawa has exposed a bizarre cooperation between Japanese nationalism and US imperialism.

The left must capitalize on this moment of mass mobilization and offer something different from the neoliberal capitalist globalization that elites like Macron and his friends pursue at the expense of the working class.

Review of a new book from John Sides, Michael Tesler and Lynn Varveck which explores the intersection of race, identity, and the working class.

Good reads for socialists, with links and summaries. Brain candy!

Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal provides an opportunity for socialists to gain new credibility with a wide range of climate activists.

In Prince George’s County, a far too comfortable Democratic Party apparatus shuts out dissident voices and relies on low voter turnout to maintain power.

On December 8, activists pressing for a change to the Washington football team’s racist name take their campaign to the club’s headquarters in Ashburn, VA.

Where do Northern VA socialists go in 2019?

The pro-police message of NLEM demands a countervailing narrative, one that makes more than a brief pass at the abuses of law-enforcement officers.

Only by firmly linking democracy and civil liberties to concrete programs of social and economic justice can working-class unity be built.

The People’s Lobbying Group is lining up clients that work on tax issues, economic justice, labor, consumer rights and local Prince George’s County matters.

The divide between the liberal commentariat and the public's conception of the 2018 election shows the limitations of the Democratic Party.

A community forum held in Crystal City/Arlington showed that many NoVA residents are worried about the impact that Amazon will have on their home towns.

The progressive faction on the council has largely pursued policies to benefit the majority of DC residents, but Reeder’s rise shows they have not made necessary connections with the District’s lower-income minority communities.

While the DSOC of my youth had a strong presence of 20 to 30-year olds, there was also a noticeable contingent of members in their 40s and 50s. Successful organizing will find a way to incorporate older members into the fight for socialism.

To bring about that change means not only endurance and a deep-rooted humanism.

Our news organizations do not focus on how the world is developing. Japan's NHK, available on many US cable listings, provides a fresh and different format.

The expanding number of DSA chapters around the country have an overwhelmingly local focus on hyper-specific issues.

Democratic socialism must create ample space for a robust peace movement in material policy platforms. Authoritarianism, war, climate change and imperialism must be confronted with conviction.

At least in the near to mid-term future, even green socialists need to hope that “green” capitalist corporations make advances in the development of revolutionizing the capitalist energy sector away from reliance on fossil fuels.

The average American is regularly reassured that this economic recovery is a validation that 2008 has been overcome. But for whom is this expansion really a benefit? The answer is not hard to confirm.

Dick Gregory carried the weight of being a black man in a country still emerging from the mire of Jim Crow, and the racism he experienced in his everyday life first drove his comedy and then his commitment to fighting racial oppression.

The Council’s threat to overturn the expressed will of the voters rises to more than policy disagreement: it is nothing less than contempt for the voters who put them in office.

Occupation Free DC is part of a nationwide campaign led by Jewish Voice for Peace that seeks to get US law enforcement to end its “deadly exchange” with Israeli police and military.

We in the DSA recognize that no one is free or safe while this system of detention, deportation, fear, and intimidation, continues.

Labor militance and organization in the post-Civil War era enabled workers to make meaningful gains against corporate power. But the failure to organically connect those strands of struggle together prevented the working-class from unifying.

To meet the danger of climate change, developed nations will need to organize a new global Marshall Plan with representatives from developing countries.

DC has been playing an increasingly assertive role in facing down the hostile occupier sitting in the White House. Now we need to ask for a favor from those outside the District.

Employer lobbying groups continue to masquerade under the guise of defending worker’s rights.

It will take all of us working together to build a strong and sustainable information security culture.

We may take a long look at our information habits and practices and realize that we may be just as impervious to new, mind-changing information as those self-identified “deplorables.”

In Places Journal, Alex MacGillis writes about the legacy of highway-fueled white flight in Baltimore, and the sheer resentment suburban residents feel toward transit serving the city (‘loot train’).

What the Trump administration is proposing would leave the US with weaker fuel efficiency standards compared to those of the EU, Japan, China, India and even Saudi Arabia, and this could cut into Detroit’s future overseas sales.

Russian botpages on Facebook, endangered Act, what to do about the Janus decision and other good reads.

Kim Lehmkuhl explains the many ways that a public bank for public funds would benefit all of DC’s residents, rather than just the wealthy who benefit from the city’s funds being kept in the scandal-encrusted Wells Fargo bank.

Woody Woodruff analyzes the duplicitous stealth-centrist posture of GOP Gov. Larry Hogan as he seeks a second term in November – and the conservative and pro-corporate administration he leads.

Bill Mosley examines why confronting the malefactors in the Administration in their public and private lives is necessary in this Age of Trump.

Trump administration zealots aim to remove provisions that protect populations of endangered species.

Today’s galloping gentrification is only the latest chapter in a decades-long saga in which the powers that be have sought to remake Washington, DC at the expense of the people who have made it a living, breathing city.

Local DSA members have been involved for more than a year now in the Grassroots Planning Coalition's monthly organizing meetings around protecting the DC Comp Plan and making it better able to protect low-income housing in the District.

Some of [what happens in ANCs] is minutiae that you may not be interested in, but it is the real nuts-and-bolts of self-governance at work.

Good links for July 2018.

As a corporation, Amazon’s interests begin and end with their own wealth and influence. Any promises of corporate responsibility or community benefit not nailed down in ironclad legal contracts should be considered empty.

Ben Jealous’s primary victory puts Maryland within striking distance of the progressive governor Maryland deserves and needs.

Anyone who has studied crafting of the Constitution would find it laughable to think that the Founders took so much time and energy in crafting Article II only to immunize him from federal crimes.

Broad lessons from participating in the 40 day Poor People's Campaign

Education is a basic concern of the AFL-CIO. Millennial workers share this focus as one presenter noted that 50 percent of younger workers already have associate degrees or more.

In our days, everything seems pregnant with its contraries. Machinery, gifted with the wonderful power of shortening and fructifying human labor, we behold starving and overworking it.

Critical points made by the speakers focused on the importance of strategic thinking and planning in terms of electoral politics and its place as part of a broader movement strategy.

A dedicated-tax source for the funds is still necessary, despite the artful dodging of tax-shy local governments.

Our local leaders have shown time and again that they are unable and unwilling to fight for what's best for the marginalized in our region

If the Justice Department’s suit against California does reach our nation’s highest court NJ Governor Murphy provides a good indicator of how the current court feels about the federal government dictating policy to states.

Radical tourism is not merely about passing a day while visiting another city, but rather looking at the world from the viewpoint of those who challenged the status quo of profit, patriarchy, white privilege and homophobia.

To truly address climate change, countries must act collaboratively across borders while running the educational, building, industrial, and research assets needed to make the transition.

How do we escape the pervasive capitalism spread through tech contagion?

Much was accomplished in the 1960s, but its larger goals were not – a reality painfully evident when we look around this day and time.

The idea of establishing a dedicated source of funds for WMATA dates back at least three-and-a-half decades — and one of its early proponents was the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.

Some urban places could be doomed unless they begin making ambitious efforts soon to meet the challenge.

Good reads are back! -- about Trump's tariffs, ridesharing vs. public transit and a few odds and ends

The film effectively depicts the mob mentality that greases the wheels for attacks on the poor.

To commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the original Poor People’s Campaign launched by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., organizers have prepared a similar campaign to take place across the nation from May 13 to June 23.

This is the first of a two-part series on climate change and rising oceans; Part II will be published in a succeeding issue.

West Virginia teachers found their most influential support from the coalfield areas.

DSA members, including some from the MDC DSA local chapter, plan to launch a new caucus in national DSA.

Kurt Stand explores the breakthrough qualities of the March for Our Lives and of the young people who fueled its passion.

Trump's tariffs are a dodge to avoid the questions of global trade and multinational corporate hegemony that his crude ideology has no answers for. Yet he has perforce been joined by some unlikely allies.

The Democratic-controlled Assembly and Gov. Larry Hogan are squaring off in a political year, with payback on everyone's mind.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, which recently opened an exhibition on how Native imagery and history have been used and abused for entertainment, profit-making, and painting a pretty face on the policy of Manifest Destiny.

Democrats maximize their chance to win elections when they champion better economic policies for poor, struggling, and working-class Americans.

Now, 70 years after George Kennan saw the US foreign policy goal as maintaining its wealth-and-power advantage over the rest of the world, we can see that the ruling class still controls foreign relations doctrine.

Countering critics of kneeling protesters with a deeper look into the creation of the Star Spangled Banner.

Unions, death and transfiguration; Democracies; death; history as the alt-right sees it and as Tet '68 revisions try to warp it -- and a couple of nice shout-outs for DSA.

When attributing disasters to global warming, we must equally emphasize the market-driven forces that put so many millions of people in harms' way.

To understand the roots of mass incarceration and warrior-style policing in DC we must start with a profound social fact: In the years preceding and during our punishment binge, black communities were devastated by historically unprecedented levels of crime and violence.

Fascism is hard to define as it is not a particularly intellectual pursuit. It thrives on racism, anti-Semitism, antifeminism, homophobia and with Milo and Trump, anti-immigrant organizing. Haters like this are not the smartest tools in the shed...

An opportunity for the left today is to show that democratic socialism is not only just, but also more functional at building a strong and resourceful country than neoliberal capitalism or China's state mercantilism.

Rothstein relentlessly provides evidence that the segregation of African Americans in the US is not the “white conceit” of personal preference across the color line—de facto segregation—but de jure, the result of state action done under the color of law.

This report reveals that many of Maryland’s current laws, enforcement schemes, monetary penalties and related policies and practices disproportionately criminalize the poor, with disproportionate impact on communities of color.

The Los Angeles area in particular, Mike Davis writes, has experienced generations of "market-driven urbanization [that] has transgressed environmental common sense." Mud follows.

Why progressive taxation? Some thoughts on what a fairer tax policy will look like.

Is it really possible for a museum dedicated to the scripture of a specific religion to be a pure purveyor of scholarship rather than a promoter of that religion’s point of view?

Last week, the DC Office of Planning (OP) released their first update in months, and unfortunately, it goes completely off-script from the process they laid out, putting those of us who care about housing, economic, and environmental justice in a tough spot.

Historian Nancy MacLean brings to the AFL-CIO book talk her account of the way the Koch Bros. anti-democratic project got its intellectual underpinning.

What would a good trade pact look like? Some ideas to consider.

Good links for January 2018.

For the past three years, the grassroots group Rebrand Washington Football (RWF) has been circulating petitions calling on the team to adopt a new name.

Every significant development in the history of the district has had a racial component. This is a city whose very existence is steeped in racial geography.

Good reads for December 2017 - with a November bonus!

The artists we now call modern increasingly adopted the world around them as their subject matter, a world being reshaped by industrialization and revolution.

This article has been retracted, but is posted here for record.

A useful intercity rail system is in reach for Maryland if it defers the maglev and hyperloop dreams in favor of the needs of today's travelers.

Representing DSA on the international circuit.

"Pawn in their Game" still retains the power to help working-class whites feel viscerally the oppression that some of them and many of their forebears visited upon African-Americans.

If Puerto Rico is cursed by federal Washington's indifference and neglect, the District of Columbia has the opposite problem: suffocating micromanagement

A roundup of headlines and news clips commenting on election night, 2017.

Democrats hone their strategy for sending Governor Larry Hogan back to private life while Hogan postures for his base.

Prince George's DSA members met with allies from Our Revolution PG and Progressive Prince George's to begin forging a progressive agenda for the Maryland General Assembly session in January.

The convention will offer more than just the grind of voting on proposals, but the opportunity to shape a socialist organization for a nimble and substantive future.

Good Reads: More on Juggalos, Corbyn's triumph, mapping social movements and much more.

Hogan's highway plan encumbers an enormous cost and short state revenues.

Our local chapter is enjoying excellent timing for this public outreach as the Senate's last-gasp Graham-Cassidy attempt at ruinous health care changes implodes.

Top Democrats have the ability to appeal directly to swing voters by recommitting to their party's traditional pro-worker pro-peace values.

Emboldened hate groups followed Trump's example in a march on Charlottesville. Thousands, including dozens of members of Democratic Socialists of America, marched in a counter-demonstration to show with their presence that hatred and intolerance cannot go unanswered.

Working through DSA's inevitable growing pains will require balancing the optimism of a mass movement with the realism of achieving "the left-wing of the possible."

As a whole, the labor movement has not committed itself to ending greenhouse gas emissions that most scientists believe are likely to produce climate catastrophe by the end of this century.

While the removal of racist monuments is on the agenda, we need look no further than in our own backyard for examples of memorials that should never have been erected in the first place.

A Marxist approach to capitalist environmental crisis important both to our organization and the wider radical left.

Sam Knight, one of the Metro DC DSA members to go to Charlottesville for the antifascist protest last weekend, provides an on-the-ground account of the events.

A local comrade defends DSA's relationship to the Socialist International, in response to a debate on involvement.

Dan Adkins updates the development of micro-grids, independent energy sources that can deal big corporate power companies out of their dominion over power and prices.

Andy Feeney outlines the proposed DC Comprehensive Plan amendments that DSA members, in concert with allies, have submitted.

A member of the Climate Change and Environmental Justice Committee, expresses skepticism that attempts to relate classical Marxism -- and classic Marx -- to today's climate concerns will not be analytically useful and overlooks the role of population in the crisis.

National parks are under severe threat from the extraction-first mania of the Trump administration. Andy Feeney contextualizes this latest barbarism.

Sean Monahan, current and retiring NPC member from Providence, R.I, , has some thoughts about what NPC members face, and what candidates and delegates need to think about.

Recent articles from a leftish perspective that you may have missed; with links...

Lucy Duff explores the devastation to the environment, communities and workers of mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia.

The 100th birthday celebration of a founding member of DSOC/DSA in our local and a Northern Virginia activist for over 70 years.

Joe Schwartz and Mike Hirsh, in a multipart colloquy, take on the longest-running dynamic in DSA: electoral work vs. movement building.

Austin Kendall and Jared Catapano discuss chapter solidarity actions with DCPS teachers, who have worked without a new contract for five years.

Applying the lessons learned from the Reagan Reduction in Force (RIF) to the threat to federal workers posted by the Trump administration.

Every level of economic and political society in the US -- except the GOP's federal monopoly -- expressed immediate and constructive pushback to Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.

A report on DSA's activism in the Virginia primary election, from a Charlottesville DSA comrade.

This new Labour party is a social democratic party that believes in something beyond the dreary inevitability of fear and despair proposed by Tories.

This month, don't miss Bob Roman's compilation, "DSA in the News"...

Four tips for identifying honest info from salacious misinformation.

Harrington's book is notable for its candor: it admitted the complexities of the problems, their resistance to easy solutions, and insisted nonetheless that steps toward a more just global order were both possible and morally necessary.

A Free Concert Of Thelonious Monk's Work brings the thought: If we ever achieve socialism here in the United States, will the revolution provide equal access for everyone to see performances like this?

How could we build a caring, mutually supportive socialist society if we cannot build that environment within our own movement?

The local branches, while still under the umbrella of the Metro DC chapter, give current members opportunities bring the socialist vision to bear on a wider range of issues.

A roundup of the 2017 People's Summit in Chicago.

Polls have consistently shown that Democratic Party voters want single payer, but the Party keeps telling them they can't have it.

ATC privatization has been prevented for now, but privatization has powerful backers who aren't ready to quit after 30 years of trying, and it is likely to be resuscitated in the near future.

Though we saw populism in both the Trump and Sanders campaigns, it is right-wing populism that represents a threat in American politics.

How do socialists breach capitalism? Smucker's how-to provides some guidance.

A plan for how to use extant political parties to the advantage of progressives.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan delivered his long-threatened veto of HB1 -- it must be used against him.

DSA should reject calls to leave the Socialist International.

A lengthy recollection of DSA's engagement in the People's Climate March - and the panel we hosted before it.

The weekend of May 19th-21st, CWA workers at AT&T Mobility went on one of the largest retail worker strikes in U.S. history.

For the residents of DC, the Marshall monument is an affront to our city.

Members of MDC DSA met to debate DSA's position in the Socialist International.

A meeting with Rep. Anthony Brown reassured a leery left-wing delegation, but left some room for improvement.

Getting money out of politics doesn't change the structures and institutions within which politicians operate.

Instead of consciously projecting socialism to a tier of potential activists, socialists should learn to communicate their philosophy in transactional terms.

Local exhibitions serve a reminder that history is all around us -- and it is up to us to take the time to open our eyes, ears and hearts to learn from those who came before.

Local socialists join a united effort to push the DC government to pay stronger attention to investment policy.

Carbon taxes are not every environmentalist's cuppa tea.

Transportation advocacy is key for introducing localities to the need for strong climate policy.

The galloping threat of vector-borne diseases that comes with warmer weather farther north in the US may offer organizing opportunities for ecosocialists.

Profiles in radical resistance of the multi-ethnic working-class.

Interest in a universal basic income (UBI) appears to be rising alongside a widespread sense that we are nearing the end of work. Two examples show what this sort of plan might look like.

Our group's expansion creates amazing opportunities for gaining ground in the battle against capitalism. We should take care to consider how our structure shapes how we approach the class struggle.

The fate of RFK Stadium and the land on which it sits were put in play earlier this year when DC and Maryland political leaders, wary of a giveaway, went on the offensive.

There is a wall of resistance to Trump and his agenda that will be difficult to break. Tim Snyder's review helps us build out a resistance strategy built for the long-term.

Intersectionality is a negation of the premise that one single facet of oppression -- economic class -- is enough to explain and address the harms of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and the other faces of oppression.

In this year before the 2018 gubernatorial election -- when Maryland Democrats will pull out all the stops to oust Republican Governor Larry Hogan -- legislation and progressive activism are showing many convergences.

The Federal Communications Commission in Trumpland is allowing big telcom companies to sell more of your personal data.

The structure of socialist political organizations - well, ours at least - bears some resemblance of the structures of religious institutions.

‍A lifelong Washingtonian receives commendation for a career of helping his community and union.

As the nature of work becomes fundamentally upended by creative (and labor-abusing) technological-capital formations, novel perspectives are needed to combat these new modes of capitalist extraction.

Trump's taking of the White House offered the possibility of shattering liberals' illusions of the neutrality of the state

The radical alliance must write its own political narrative that gives a better unifying basis than those written on the capitalist fiction of human nature as solely individualistic.

A DSA event sparks a lively discussion on UBI, wealth taxation, and capital redistribution.

Maryland lawmakers should not violate the free speech rights of their residents in order to continue a culture of impunity for violating Palestinian human rights.

The sun and wind are public resources and will bring in a new era of regionally based power. By directly tying them into local governments and organizations we can be sure that they serve the public.

How gentrifying municipalities like Arlington lose their affordable housing -- and how to stop it.

To avoid the trap of allowing misleading rhetoric to dictate our policies, we need to continue to articulate and organize around an alternative world view.

Much has been written on the formation of fascist regimes -- Trumps' march matches them.

Even as cities across the country declare themselves as sanctuaries, DC has come under special scrutiny due to its colonial status.

There are impressive coalitions of climate activist groups forming, both at the local level and nationally to contest Trump's suicidal climate agenda.

James Baldwin was an astute cultural critic, observing the nature of how legacies of oppression fan out through all manner of life.

The big problems that plague our society can only be solved with an effort that matches the size of their danger.

Brutal restructuring borne on the backs of workers is forthcoming -- Trump is positioning himself to take credit for halting that.

Notes on local ecosocialist mobilization efforts.

DSA discussed the Fight for 15 in Maryland, and many were interested in contacting Montgomery County's County Executive Ike Leggett to tell him not to veto the County Council's bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.

In preparing for resistance to Trump's incoming regime, the ACLU hosts a talk recounting proper protest strategy.

Essays and articles of recent vintage that socialists and fellow radicals might have missed, from various sources.

In 1948, a socialist program was able to take hold in Wisconsin -- until the ascendance of neoliberalism began to peel back left-wing municipal planning.

Rex Tillerson made his fortune slow-roasting the planet with full knowledge of the consequences.

Kashkari, in introducing his proposal, stated that before Congress approved the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill during the Obama administration, the risks of the U.S. suffering from another big banking crisis amounted to some 84 percent. The enactment of Dodd-Frank significantly reduced such risk to just 67 percent, Kashkari added. But this is still much too high, especially given the ability of major financial crises to cause trillions of dollars in losses to the U.S. economy and the world.

As Metro DC DSA's reach expands - policywise - into suburban Maryland, left allies offer ample opportunities to take Maryland in a new direction.

A talk by Cecily McMillan recounts the history of mass-movement activism.

DC residents can't appeal to a member of Congress to stop a Trump nominee. So stop asking us...

Some analysts think Trump's clawback scheme could yield big stock buybacks but little capital investment.

For class-conscious readers with a little larceny in their souls, Westlake's novel may help chase away depression as Trump prepares to take office in Washington.