SMC May (Day) Newsletter - The Cause of Labor is the Hope of the World
Hello comrades!
It is springtime for the US labor movement, and it has been a spring full of labor activity for SMC! Our March caucus meeting focused on labor, with presentation and discussion from members on the new NLC salt project, Workers Organizing Workers (W.O.W); UAW’s new organizing drive; DSA strike solidarity efforts; and socialist leadership of unions. About thirty SMC members attended the Labor Notes conference in Chicago in April, including rank-and-file union members, elected union leaders, union staff, students in labor studies, and Labor Notes staff. Read on to learn more!
Reflection on Labor Notes from a first-time attendee
By Conor A.
Labor Notes is an organizing and media project that aims to strengthen the labor movement through militant, rank-and-file organizing. It hosts a conference every two years; this year’s event had about 4,500 participants. For many of us who attended, the Labor Notes conference felt exemplary of the contemporary paradigm, both bitter because of injustice and ripe with potential. Between participating in Palestine solidarity actions and celebrating the UAW election at Volkswagen that ended victoriously on Friday night in the midst of the conference, we saw how the shape of labor activism could be remolded by concerted human activity and organization.
The Labor Notes conference took place in Rosemont, Illinois, which is outside of Chicago and adjacent to O'Hare International Airport, between April 19th and 21st, 2024. About thirty Socialist Majority Caucus members, from at least six states, attended the conference—a strong showing for SMC that we plan to build on for future Labor Notes conferences.
Labor Notes was a blended environment, where people from varied backgrounds and political perspectives came together to actualize a militant and fighting labor movement. The organization made a point to bring attendees together around an inclusive vision for labor. Although this may have resulted in content some view as “cringe,” Labor Notes unapologetically cultivated a social-justice orientation for the conference. In short, this was the right move. The future of the labor movement depends on the active inclusion and participation of traditionally marginalized groups, such as trans people and people of color.
While some groups saw Labor Notes as an opportunity to sell their newspaper and recruit people to their sect, SMC chose a more subtle and laid-back approach. We participated in Labor Notes as union members and activists first. Ryan Andrews and Hannah Ross Allison-Natale, from DSA’s National Labor Committee (NLC) steering committee, helped host the DSA labor meetup, which hundreds of members attended. David Duhalde spoke of his experience as a rank-and-file union activist coordinating across unions at his workplace on a panel on organizing with a single employer. We proudly presented ourselves as both DSA and SMC members when the topic came up in conversations, but did not push our agenda to the detriment of the collective project that Labor Notes represents.
That said, we did make stronger connections with similarly oriented socialist organizations, such as Liberation Road. SMC members attended the social hosted by Liberation Road, and found them to be welcoming and similarly aligned on issues, including preventing advances by the far right in electoral politics, building a left pole within the labor movement, and the pressing need to organize the South. Like SMC, their approach is grounded in analyzing contemporary conditions in order to pursue strategic interventions to advance the working class movement.
On the whole, our experience at Labor Notes was marvelous. We found common interest with members of other DSA caucuses around supporting the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) and DSA Labor’s Workers Organizing Workers (WOW) initiative, and dove into the work of building a better future through labor organizing. Our work during this conference reminded us that we are in fact stronger and better together.
DSA Union fights back
The DSA staff union has filed grievances against the NPC majority to enforce their contractual rights, in response to months of bad-faith negotiating, including a failure to provide detailed and realistic economic justification for their layoff plan. Our position remains the same— the NPC majority should abandon their maximalist approach, bargain with the union in good faith, and work to achieve financial sustainability while minimizing layoffs.
As it stands, eight members of DSA’s staff have received layoff notices, on top of seven other members of DSA’s staff who have already resigned their positions since the start of the 2023-25 NPC term. If these cuts go through, DSA’s staff will have been cut over 40%, severely damaging our national capacity.
The union and NPC are meeting to discuss the layoff MOU on Thursday. We anticipate more developments will be shared soon, and still hope progress can be made towards a negotiated resolution. Members can send a message in support of the staff union to the NPC here.
Takeaways from the April NPC Meeting
This month’s full NPC meeting was held on April 28th. Some major highlights below:
Lancaster, PA is DSA’s latest official chapter! Congrats to new SMC member Brett C. on leading the way in revitalizing his OC and moving into full chapter status.
The NPC discussed the exciting development of Palestine solidarity encampments growing across college campuses. YDSA NPC member Evan estimated that one-third of these encampments are led by YDSA chapters and members, and even more have YDSA and DSA members working in coalition with other groups. DSA is united in standing with these students as they are facing escalating police repression.
Our budget deficit continues to improve. Our latest report from budget and finance showed our projected deficit for 2024 is now approximately $260,000. This further calls into question the NPC Majority’s continued insistence on laying off eight more staff.
The Solidarity Dues Drive continues to be incredibly successful. We have reached 86% of our Solidarity Dues fundraising goal for 2024!
Chapter dues share this quarter is the biggest it has ever been, increasing 8% since last quarter.
The NPC passed a resolution to establish a Federal Socialists in Office Committee.
SMC NPC member Renée moved to refer the proposal for consideration by the NEC in the first instance, in line with the consensus electoral resolution passed by the convention, and so that those with experience building successful SiO programs could lead the organizing of the formation, but the motion failed with only SMC, Groundwork, and Evan from YDSA in support.
Renée also attempted to amend the resolution so that chapters could determine how they will elect SiO representatives and that the SiO committee would have more discretion over how to share meeting information, but this set of amendments also failed, with only SMC and Groundwork NPC members in support. The majority’s insistence that radical transparency to membership is necessary for the SiO committee was in notable contrast to their decision the next day to insist on meeting again with the DSA staff union only in private.
The NPC passed a proposal to develop a strategy and better coordinate for the DNC protests.
In response to reluctance by some NPC members to vote on the re-endorsement of AOC at this time, Groundwork NPC members presented a proposal for a debate and vote period on whether we will nationally endorse Congressmembers Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This passed with some amendments. Renée and Colleen voted against the proposal as amended, arguing that the NPC was elected to make endorsement decisions, that DSA should be focused on organizing work, not endless discussion circles, and that asking to hear from the membership without being willing to poll our entire membership was an empty exercise.
The majority amended to remove Rashida Tlaib from this process
The debate period was extended to 30 days
The majority also amended to remove the membership poll from the process. SMC, Groundwork, and YDSA Evan were opposed to removing the member poll.
B&R amended to include a call for members to submit 250-word essays explaining their position on re-endorsing AOC.
In the Agitator
In Toward a Militant Majority, Shane Ruiz from the SMC Steering Committee reflects on what it takes to build a labor movement that can win.
And from last summer, learn more about SMC’s labor position with our steering committee statement: Meeting the Moment: Building a Left Pole of the Labor Movement