
Hey, I’m running for North Brooklyn DSA Organizing Committee!
I’m currently the interim treasurer for NYC-DSA’s B&H worker solidarity campaign, I help manage the Socialists.nyc and NYC-DSA Facebook calendars, and I helped organize the North Brooklyn socials in May and June, as well as some other events, including an upcoming DSA Talent Show for Immigration Justice.
Before I get into my platform, I want to encourage you to consider Justin Charles and Eva Lucía Sotomayor, both of whom I formally endorsed, as well as Steven Wieser, who I also endorse. I don’t know everyone who is running, but I’m sure the other candidates are great too.
Anyway, here’s what I’d like to bring to the Organizing Commitee.
- Build up the Mobilizer program in North Brooklyn
We have people already trained and experienced in mobilizing in our branch, and I want to work together to get our branch trained and engaged in mobilizing our North Brooklyn members. Both the DSA Praxis and DSA Momentum platforms agree on the importance of mobilizers in DSA, and I want our branch to be great at it.
I went to a Mobilizer training last Saturday, and all but one of us were men. My first proposal is we hold a Mobilizer training specifically for women and non-binary people. I think this would be a great next step for our branch.
2. Develop a base-building strategy for North Brooklyn
Base-building means organizing unorganized people, particularly poor/working people in our communities. That’s not going to be easy, and we’re going to have to adopt and develop new strategies to get us there.
My proposal is we start by establishing a Solidarity Network in NBK, where people can bring problems with their boss or landlord to us and we help them fight back. The fights could range from getting back stolen wages to fighting an eviction. It would involve both direct action and connecting people to resources. Check out this link to see a model for how to do it.
I also propose we work more closely with NYC-DSA’s Immigration Justice Working Group to do sanctuary organizing in Bushwick/Ridgewood. In addition, I propose that our branch provides an additional push in the B&H worker campaign. The Bushwick B&H warehouse will be the first to shut down in August, and many of the workers live in the North Brooklyn area. As we build our branch, I think we coud work toward a Housing committee focused on fighting gentrification and displacement in Bushwick.
3. Create a North Brooklyn Political Education Committee
I also propose we start a North Brooklyn Political Education Committee at our branch that will guide our ongoing political education. This includes reading groups, pre-readings for meetings, film screenings, a regular e-mail with articles and podcasts to check out, skill-building workshops, and more. I would love to read from the Socialist Feminist reading list, as well as develop our own reading lists on topics like racial justice, organizing, immigration, disability rights, Marxist theory, etc. This committee could also take the lead on offering Spanish classes to our members, as well as English and Spanish classes to the community.
Before moving to Brooklyn, I co-led monthly racial justice workshops for 30–50 people at a time, as well as monthly socialist reading groups. I’ve also worked in youth work for seven years, including 5 years with English language learners, and I bring a popular education approach to education.
4. Train our branch in organizing skills and strategy
There are many of us who have had organizing training, and many of us who are new or have a lot of learn. For me, it’s both. I would like for our branch to offer ongoing organizing trainings where our members can develop their skills and strategies, regardless of their experience level. This includes trainings on how to do 1:1's, power-mapping, how to identify targets and goals, how to build an organizing campaign, and more.
A big aspect of organizing is learning how to think like an organizer, and I think this is a continuous learning process. I know there’s a lot of great experience in our group, and I’m in touch with other DSA chapters and DSA Praxis for trainings, resources, and support.
5. Work myself out of the job
I have two ways of thinking about this:
First, I’m a straight white cis-man, and I want fewer people who fit those categories to lead socialist organizations. Any organization that doesn’t have the leadership, perspective, skills, experience, talents, ideas, etc. of people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and people with disabilities is not the kind of organization that can fight for socialism. To me, the problem is structural, and it requires structural solutions, which is why I support quotas, caucuses, and other efforts to remove barriers and open up space.
Second, I grew up poor in a predominantly Latinx neighborhood in Milwaukee. As a poor white person who comes from a background of poverty, drug abuse, domestic violence, incarceration, housing insecurity, and early death, someone like me isn’t expected to become a socialist. The media is focused on an image of white working class people as racists, misogynists, and Trump supporters. There are too many people who fit this depiction, but I think these narratives indicate an overall disdain for poor/working people, across race. This is far more often expressed in centrist and right-wing politics that are racist, misogynist, and anti-poor/working people, all at the same time.
I think poor/working people are as capable as anyone else of understanding our own fights and our collective socialist fight. I want to help build the kind of organization that’s rooted in the realities of poor/working people, especially people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and people with disabilities. I also think poor white people like me can learn to think and act differently and join a socialist movement.
My experience is not the same as what a person of color faces in a city like my home of Milwaukee, and it’s not the same as what an immigrant faces in my current home of North Brooklyn, but my experience is the basis for my politics of solidarity. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor sums it up well:
“We have to build organizations that are democratic, multiracial and militant with a foundation in solidarity. … Solidarity meaning that even if you don’t experience a particular oppression … you understand that as ordinary people our fates are tied together and that one group’s liberation is dependent on the liberation of all of the oppressed and exploited.”
Working myself out of the job means building an organization that is engaging each other, learning together, and organizing toward a politics rooted in the lives of poor/working people and the solidarity that’s possible when we do the work.
