Posts tagged Democratic Socialists of America
SQ 832 gets final push from socialists before election
June 17, 2026 // State Question 832 would more than double Oklahoma’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2029 and then continue increasing it every year based on increases in the cost-of-living in the nation’s largest urban centers, as measured by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). That would effectively tie Oklahoma’s wage mandate to the cost of living in places like New York City or San Francisco, where it far exceeds Oklahoma norms, particularly in rural communities.
Commentary: Will Unions Stick with Democrats in Michigan?
May 3, 2026 // In a crowd of over 7,000 delegates, labor looked small and concentrated, occupying a wing just off the main convention hall through much of the proceedings. The UAW claimed that its delegation made up more than 10 percent of the assembled group at the convention—more than 700 people—but even by the union’s own numbers, this constitutes an admission of shrinking influence. Its members lacked the presence of mind or cohesion to counter the booing directed at Acker and Representative Haley Stevens. This hard-left shift is forcing traditional Michigan unions to choose between their historic affinity for the Democratic Party or a new, more moderate option. Many traditional unions, including 24 locals, along with several prominent pro-union Democrats and one former Michigan AFL-CIO president, have already defected to former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s independent gubernatorial campaign.
600 groups with $2B in revenue mobilize 3,000 May Day protests in a ‘red-blue’ alliance, probe finds
May 1, 2026 // The California Democratic Party is using the pro-Democratic tech platform, Mobilize.us, to promote "Workers over Billionaires May Day rally" protests, like at the corner of Monroe Street and Highway 11 in Indio, Calif. In its publicity material, the California Democratic Party notes it's "the largest state party in the nation with more than 10 million members." The Ohio Democratic Party Progressive Caucus, North Carolina’s Young Democrats of Moore County, Young Democrats of Wisconsin and the Yuba County Democratic Central Committee are on the official list of organizers for a coalition, "May Day Strong," promoted online.
Union Now Is America’s New Strike Fund
April 20, 2026 // The American labor movement will soon have something it’s never had before: a centralized strike fund. Union Now, the new nonprofit and brainchild of Association of Flight Attendants-CWA International President Sara Nelson, began officially fundraising at a kickoff rally on Sunday, April 12th, in Manhattan. National leaders of the Democratic left were there in support; both Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani made rousing speeches, which suggests that the supporters Union Now hopes to enlist will go beyond those who are already union activists.
Op-ed: ‘The issue is the revolution’: Who is running your city’s teachers union?
March 4, 2026 // Under the banner of “social justice unionism,” teachers’ unions are increasingly treating classrooms, teachers, and even students as instruments in a wider ideological project — one organized, replicated, and funded across the nation. This shift helps explain why contemporary political controversies are now being filtered into elementary, middle and high schools. As one activist leader put it during the NEA Educators for Palestine webinar, the anti-ICE movement is “the spark that could ignite the fire under Labor.” As the saying goes, “The issue is never the issue — the issue is the revolution.”
There’s a Crisis Brewing at UAW
July 10, 2025 // Fain allegedly engaged in other behavior unbecoming of a union leader. According to the report, he launched into a “tirade” over printed material describing the UAW’s tentative agreement with Stellantis, yelling, “Who told you to put [Mock’s] motherf***ing photo on there? This is my motherf***ing membership.” He then allegedly shouted, “who the f**k runs this mother***ing department?” The report notes that the UAW employee on the receiving end of Fain’s outburst was left shaken and in tears. In a response submitted to the court on June 20, Harold Gurewitz, the UAW’s attorney and a criminal-defense specialist, argued that the union’s decision to remove Mock’s responsibilities “should not be subject to judicial or governmental interference.” Regardless of the legal merits, the idea that the union president’s personal judgement, no matter how irrational or corrupt, is beyond scrutiny is likely to rankle union dissidents. Some staged a “No Kings” rally outside UAW headquarters in Detroit following the release of the monitor’s report—a message aimed at President Fain, not President Trump.
Michael Watson: Big ESG’s Big Partner: Big Labor
April 20, 2025 // Unions’ principal interest in the ESG activism movement is on the “S” or “social” prong of the acronym. Both unions themselves, like the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and critics of unions, like the Institute for the American Worker, will argue that Big Labor views ESG as a category for advancing union organizing and other core union priorities. Proxy Preview shows unions and union-aligned groups (like city and state pension funds and the largely union-owned and union-controlled Amalgamated Bank) pushing shareholder resolutions demanding that companies “adopt a noninterference policy respecting freedom of association” or “respect for freedom of association and collective bargaining”—euphemisms for neutrality in union organizing. Under a neutrality agreement, the employer agrees not to present its views on the potential consequences of union organizing to employees, and it may agree not to confirm union majority support by a government-supervised secret-ballot election, instead using public union-card signatures (known as “card check”).
Anti-Israel radical socialists who’ve backed Luigi Mangione plotting to take over United Federation of Teachers
April 9, 2025 // Radical socialists who back anti-Israel groups and alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione are steadily making inroads into one of the city’s most powerful labor unions, sources warn The Post. Candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America are polling strongly in elections to lead the United Federation of Teachers — who represent nearly 200,000 educators and manage a welfare fund with $1 billion in assets — which take place next month, according to a source. The progressive political movement, which backed Vermont governor Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign in 2016 and was behind New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s insurgent victory two years later, set up a strategy to infiltrate labor unions in 2018, according to a report in Politico, citing an internal DSA memo.
Can Distributed Organizing Unionize Millions?
September 17, 2024 // Together with similarly bottom-up union campaigns like Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) and the reformed UAW’s organizing across Southern automakers, EWOC has demonstrated the viability of a new strategy of seeding unionization efforts, rather than passively waiting for workers to reach out (“hot-shopping”) or exclusively organizing pre-chosen workplaces (“strategic targeting”). Along these lines, Svoboda describes EWOC’s proactive efforts to provide organizing tools to as many workers as possible as “planting seeds of worker power.”
Chicago Teachers Union funds 3 in 5 Chicago aldermen, with big bucks to Socialists
August 11, 2024 // The Chicago Teachers Union has funneled over $850,000 to the political committees of 30 of the 50 current Chicago aldermen since 2010. Seven Socialists received the most money. Taking in the most was Jeanette Taylor, Ward 20’s progressive Socialist alderwoman, who has collected over $139,000 from CTU since 2010, according Illinois State Board of Elections records. Following her was Byron Sigcho Lopez, Ward 25’s progressive Socialist alderman, who has received nearly $107,000 from CTU. Of the 20 aldermen who have not received money from CTU since 2010, only one-quarter of them were progressives and none were Socialists.