Today we’d like to introduce you to DSA North Texas.
Hi DSA, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Our chapter, DSA North Texas, was founded in 2016 as a part of the national Democratic Socialists of America, and our membership numbers have ebbed and flowed since, with our chapter growing very rapidly now! We organize around a range of local and national issues and aim to build a mass working class movement. In the past we have run a campaign for paid sick leave in Dallas (which was successful until the Texas AG deemed the ordinance illegal), got a resolution in support of trans rights passed at the Dallas County commissioners’ court, fought public transit and city service cuts, and showed up for workers on strike at UAW and Starbucks picket lines. We’re also a dominant presence at protests for national issues (No Kings, anti ICE protests) and international issues (ending the genocide in Gaza).
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We have been through phases where lots of new people are eager to join DSA and get active, and those are great because we can accomplish more with so many more hands. However, new organizers may often burn out if they take on too much responsibility too fast or see little fruit of their labor (organizing a left movement in conservative pro-big business Texas is hard and slow!). Of course, most recently we are also seeing President Trump and Attorney General Ken Paxton announce their intent to crack down on left organizations. This may make some people feel daunted or scared to be publicly involved with us, but we aren’t going anywhere.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We are a political organization, known for representing working class interests and interests of marginalized people. We believe that capitalism has failed the working class and we need to right its wrongs and build something better in its place, which is why we fight for fully funded public services, unions and fair working conditions for all workers, and an end to the US war machine. And we believe in doing that through a variety of ways: electoral organizing, labor organizing, street protest, boycott tactics. We are proud of our recent burst of growth after Zohran Mamdani, a DSA candidate won the NYC mayoral primary, and our current campaign alongside a coalition of other local organizations to ban Realpage in Dallas (a software that assists landlords in colluding and artificially inflating rents).
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
External political conditions have resulted in lots of new members flocking to DSA North Texas. For example, Donald Trump winning is a disaster for workers everywhere, and we certainly don’t support him, but both times that that happened it pushed a lot of people to get politically active with us. In that sense we were lucky to have new members, and we decided to make the most of that scenario by onboarding those people, building relationships, and finding campaigns that they would be interested in working on. But our long term goal is to be able to grow even without the influence of external conditions; we have developed a welcoming committee that focuses on giving new members individual attention and talking to long term members and recently lapsed members to ensure retention.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://DSA-ntx.org
- Instagram: @dsanorthtexas
- Facebook: @dsanorthtexas
- Twitter: @dsa_northtexas
Image Credits
Nathan Bullock
