To be a member of DSA is to inherit a socialist tradition that goes back more than a hundred years. On June 10, DSA lost a nationally celebrated comrade who united the labor radicalism of the 1930s with the social movements of the 1970s. Edward Eugene Sadlowski grew up across the street from a union…

DSA members around the country are working to build power in their unions, and those not in unions are showing solidarity by supporting the struggles of organized workers. Here’s some of what DSA members are doing. —DM At the national level, the Democratic Socialist Labor Commission (DSLC), established by a 2017 convention resolution, serves as…

What are unions and why do they matter? Put simply, a union is an organization of workers acting collectively to defend and advance their common interests. Most people in capitalist society must sell their capacity to work to employers in exchange for the wages necessary for survival. Bosses cement their authority by sowing division among…

Under capitalism, your boss can fire you, but you can’t fire your boss. Under socialism, workers and their representatives hire and control capital. If there are bosses—in a looser, administrative sense of the word—workers can fire them. The workplace is democratic and directly responsive to the needs of those who do the work. Examples of…

The red state rebellion of teachers has once again demonstrated the incredible power of collective action. Ignoring legal restrictions on their right to strike, tens of thousands of teachers in so-called red states struck anyway, forcing reactionary politicians to the bargaining table. In doing so, they upended decades of bipartisan neoliberal attacks on public education,…

Socialist politics go nowhere without a deep base in the labor movement, but we need a different kind of labor movement from the one we have now. DSAers are discussing how we can help build a labor movement that is all about class struggle. A movement where workers are collectively standing up for themselves and…

In late 1936, members of the newly organized United Auto Workers (UAW) struck several General Motors plants to win union recognition. A month later, GM still hadn’t budged. But in February 1937, workers in Flint, Michigan, occupied Chevrolet Plant 4. In less than two weeks, one of the most powerful corporations on earth capitulated. What…

Right-wing forces have sharpened their decades-long attacks on the labor movement as they attempt to erase the very idea of the public good. Capitalist elites correctly identify unions as the most effective means for working people to contest their rule and exert democratic control. This year’s teacher uprisings against austerity demonstrate the scale and tactics…

The connection between socialists and the working class predates Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. With the earliest rumblings of the socialist movement, going back to the French Revolution, socialists focused upon the working class and the poor in the struggle against capitalism and tyranny. What Marx and Engels introduced was a specific way of understanding…

At the 2017 DSA Convention, dozens of labor activist delegates presented a resolution calling “for DSA to boldly and unapologetically become an inextricable part of the labor movement.” With no speakers against, the resolution passed, creating the Democratic Socialist Labor Commission, also known as the DSLC. Why DSA must become inextricably intertwined with the labor…