DSA-LA will select 58 delegates plus 6 alternates to represent the chapter at Convention (out of an organization-wide 1,361 delegates plus alternates). The following candidates self-nominated to represent the chapter and provided statements describing their candidacy and vision for DSA.
DSA-LA members in good standing will be receiving an approval voting ballot on Monday, May 22 where they may vote for the candidates they want representing DSA-LA at Convention. That OpaVote election will close on Monday, May 29 at 11:59pm.
You may use the links below to read the candidate statements for each of our DSA-LA delegates.
Aaron Reveles
I am running for Delégate for DSA convention because there are many resolutions that will develop DSA into an effective fighting socialist organization that can build toward a mass socialist party. The capitalists have their own parties, we should have our own too.
Currently DSA is at a crossroads, many look towards us as the leaders of the Socialist movement. We must ensure that moving forward, our leaders and electeds and our mass work are held accountable to our program. I will vote for resolutions that will ensure this.
Abdullah Farooq
I’m the YDSA LA coordinator for Los Angeles! I help existing YDSA chapters develop campaigns and organize around issues, as well as helping new organizing for YDSA chapters. I helped our student chapter at Caltech to win a campaign for rent control in conjunction with the Pasadena Tenants Union. We collected 15 000 physical signatures to get rent control, just cause evictions, and a “right to organize” for tenants on the ballot and then successfully won the election. Our campaign engaged working class people against powerful real estate interests to help them fight for themselves.
I am also a graduate student and rank and file organizer with CGPU-UAW, a new organizing campaign at Caltech for grad students and postdocs. We are currently collecting cards and have engaged students in sit-ins to protect international students facing deportation.
I believe that nationally, DSA should focus on two main tasks: developing and funding YDSA and building an electoral strategy that can develop an independent worker’s party.
YDSA is the most dynamic branch of DSA, and the most racially and socioeconomically diverse. YDSA is tapping into the radical sentiment currently captivating young people – and we should focus our resources on organizing as many of those young people as we can.
The Democratic Party is a hostile vehicle to working class politics. Our ability to organize within the party is extremely limited by the fact that the Democratic Party is run by corporate interests. Our candidates will be limited in terms of their ability to operate in the state to pass reforms as long as they have to operate within the Democratic Party. Currently, the majority of working class people are either disengaged from politics or vote for the Democratic Party. To our North, the Canadian example of the NDP is highly illustrative – despite the fact that they never won a parliamentary majority, developing an independent working class political profile enabled them to exert force on the Liberal establishment to pass social democratic reforms.
At the national scale, we need to explore what reforms would enable us to run independent/DSA candidates outside of the Democratic Party. Currently, the electoral system is entrenched in two party politics, and running third party candidates is extremely difficult. Passing electoral reforms such as ranked-choice voting would limit the spoiler effect and would allow us to effectively fight against the threat of the far right while maintaining an independent political presence.
Abril D
I (she/her) am a former teacher and I now work as a political organizer for a national healthcare union. I joined DSA following the growth of the socialist movement that was buoyed by the rise of Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. I believe that the only way for regular people to transform our society into one that serves our needs is through working-class organization. During my time in DSA I helped organize and train over 100 socialist to run for their neighborhood councils across the city.
I am running on the Superbloom slate alongside many amazing organizers. You can find our platform here. Our slate is committed to fighting for resolutions and NPC candidates that advance the vision of DSA as a multi-racial, mass workers movement. Superbloom supports the Groundwork slate for NPC.
Alex Fleming
My name is Alex Fleming and my interest in politics began when I helped organize rallies at my high school protesting the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. I become a DSA member during the 2020 Bernie campaign and found a way to plug in to the Green New Deal for Public Schools most recently. I have knocked doors for Pasadena rent control, attended many meetings and picket lines and produced some video for DSA-LA.
I am also a steering committee member of Game Workers of Southern California (GWSC) which fights to unionize the games industry and recently has been mobilizing solidarity for the strippers strike, medieval times and WGA. I am interested in starting a games labor circle with DSA-LA as well as a way to connect the two organizations.
I think there is growing cynicism with DSA’s focus on electoral politics, I would want to help steer the organization to not be afraid to work outside of the Democratic Party, and to focus on actions that will not shepherd people back into that broken party. We need to continue to be a voice that calls for a path away from capitalism for the United States.
It is important to also strike a balance between finding winnable battles and making sure we still push for strategic messaging that exposes the failures of capitalist liberals and conservative alike when they pretend to represent working people. It is necessary to make sure we continue to keep things like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal and a staunch anti-war stance in the national conversation.
As far as strategy goes, I want to focus on supporting grassroots efforts at the branch and chapter level as the core of DSA’s power, including supporting chapters and branches in their ability to organize at a local level and build coalition with local groups. Our chapters can learn so much about what has been successful from talking to each other. But most importantly I want to make sure DSA doesn’t overemphasize electoral politics and remains adversarial to the Democratic Party.
I hope you consider my candidacy.
Alex H.
I’m interested in attending national as a delegate to make sure that chapters have the opportunity to hear about material issues that matter to the poor and working class. Too much of DSA exists on Twitter at the expense of local communities. I want to represent my community and show others why DSA is important.
Alex M.
I’ve been a branch coordinator for the past two years and a union representative for eight. I know DSA can play a key role in anchoring a socialist response to both an inspiring surge in worker organizing and a terrifying sustained growth in the far right. However, I believe to play this role we must maintain the big-tent nature of our organization, pursue member growth and development with an emphasis on recruiting and communicating externally, engage in meaningful coalition work with unions, and focus on winning strategic elections that shift the balance of power in both the short and long-term. If elected I’ll vote for candidates and resolutions that further these priorities.
Alex Wi.
Hi comrades! My name is Alex Wi. I’m a queer Asian woman and am a library worker in LAUSD (and proud member of CSEA Local 500!). Born and raised in SoCal and have been living in LA for over a decade.
I’ve been active in DSA-LA since early 2017. I served as the Housing & Homelessness Committee coordinator between 2017 – 2019. I was a DSA-LA Steering Committee in 2019 and organized sending 50+ LA delegates to the 2019 National Convention. In 2022, I was co-chair of the Organizing Institute Working Group. Currently, I am a member of the National Multiracial Organizing Committee (MROC) Working Group and local Growth and Development Committee.
I’m running on the Superbloom Slate to represent DSA-LA at the 2021 National Convention. I’m running because I believe that DSA is necessary for building the socialist movement in the United States. We have an imperative to build a mass, working-class international socialist movement that can effectively wield power and win struggles in the workplace, in our homes and for a livable future on this planet. And, we cannot do this without a multiracial movement – we need a DSA that is representative of the working class in which all members are protagonists in class struggle.
I am particularly supportive of collective DSA-wide efforts to continue and strengthen the recruitment of members of color and multiracial organizing; deepen labor organizing; connect labor organizing with immigration justice; strategically engage in class-struggle elections; and improve the functionality and cohesiveness of our national-level organizing.
Love & solidarity, Alex
Alex Wo.
Hello there! My name’s Alex, and I’ve been a proud DSA-LA member since 2018! Since joining the organization I’ve been incredible heartened and encouraged to see our national organization and chapter grow into such an incredible political force. I’ve been honored to serve and elected to numerous roles throughout our organization, including Electoral Politics committee chair, Nithya Raman campaign working group chair, social media coordinator, Hollywood Labor leadership, and national delegate in both 2019 and 2021. I believe DSA is the best avenue for working class people to build power in generations. We have learned valuable lessons as an organization locally, and I hope to bring some of those lessons and perspectives to our highest deliberative body.
From my electoral experience, I believe that we must continue building our Socialists in Office program locally and nationally. We must build and maintain relationships with endorsed elected officials that is transparent and accountable to the members who work hard to elect them. We must also enter into these relationships with good faith and willingness to struggle through the contradictions created by existing political systems, and work to build towards a stronger unified system that might take years to fully develop.
As a member who’s helped take our Hollywood Labor work from it’s inception to one of the largest labor organizing formations in the country, I believe that organizing workers at their places of struggle is the best way forward. The UTLA and SEIU99 strike showed what power can be built by militant unions. The current WGA strike shows how our members can engage with class struggle by supporting their fellow workers on the picket lines. We must offer our members the tools to organize their workplace, jump-start their unions and build workplace militancy across the economy. DSA must prioritize and support new organizing. We need to empower the National Labor Commission to develop a clear organizing plan in tandem with the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee that deepens chapter-level mentoring and support of new organizing drives.
I believe that DSA-LA is one of the best chapters in the country, and we should be proud of the work that we’ve accomplished. If elected, I would be honored to vote in a way that further empowers our work in Los Angeles, and to help share our perspective and lessons with our fellow members from across the country. Solidarity forever!
Allison C.
I’m Allison (she/they/siya), and since 2020, I’ve been a dues-paying member of DSA.
My first call to action came through union organizing with our dope comrades on the Labor Committee, specifically with the Nonprofit Workers Circle. (Shoutout to the time y’all let me lead an exercise of “Never Have I Ever” Ten Fingers game, where the final one was “Never have I ever cried in the office bathroom,” and I swear everyone one of us put down a finger.)
Later, I built connections with the smart folks on the Electoral Politics Committee. In 2022, in large part due to our chapter’s endorsement process, I ended up working pretty intensively on the CD13 Hugo Soto-Martínez campaign as a Donor Organizing Strategy Consultant. My immediate work as a member of the campaign leadership team focused on mobilizing grassroots donors to give small-dollar and monthly donations, while consulting on major gifts, events fundraising, and overall donor communications and narrative strategy.
As a general member of the DSA-LA chapter, and by extension our national socialist movement, I believe issues concerning the labor movement and economic justice are the most critical. Just even considering the normalized concept of “cost of living” enrages me to no end, and it’s because capitalism dictates everything in imperialist America, and has the most damning impacts on black and brown communities both locally and abroad.
When it comes to our national priorities, I would throw hands to get the PRO Act passed at the federal level, and I would roll 500 miles (and 500 more, just to be the comrade who rolls 1000 steps) to ensure public, democratic control of all utilities.
Salamat kaayo for your consideration. Solidarity always! 🌹
Andre A.
My name is Andre, and I’ve been with DSA-LA since 2020 and have served for the past two years as Recording Secretary on Steering Committee. I joined DSA because as the largest and most developed socialist organization in the US, it is our responsibility to build and organize it into a mass socialist workers’ movement that can claim power from capital. I’m running as a delegate for national convention to advocate for strengthening development of leaders of color, fighting the far right to protect abortion and trans autonomy, seizing power through strategic electoral races and legislation, and ensuring the organization continues building the international working class through labor organizing.
Andrea
Hola gente and Hello People! I’m submitting myself to be part of DSA-LA so that my region of San Gabriel Valley has proper representation at a national level and so that as a member of the LA chapter I am able to truly bolster the issues that LA holds at high importance. And here is my emoji: 🐶
Andreya Garcia-Ponce De Leon
Candidate Statement DSA Convention
I’m Andreya (she/hers) your neighborhood community legal advocate based in Los Angeles. I am multifaceted when it comes to lived experience and organizing. I am a multi generational civil rights activist, my relatives organizing with Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. I am an abolitionist impacted by the carceral system and mass incarceration. I have direct experience fighting the injustice system. My background is law, policy, and housing, although I may be most known for being a Chingona groundshaker and changemaker rocking the boat within the legislature.
I lead the National NO CARE Court California Coalition and work with community based organization Project Amiga which provides free services to underserved and marginalized communities navigating life experiences, such as evictions, incarceration, houselessness, debt, mental health disabilities, deportation, lack of access to health care and abortion health care, unpaid wages, and many other overlapping disparities. We focus on social justice issues, including local, Statewide, Federal, and National policies affecting the clients we serve, which are predominantly BIPOC, formerly and currently immigration detained, incarcerated, and unhoused people. However, we help humans, simply put. Social injustice does not see things such as color, gender identity, poverty, and place of birth through a transparent lense, it discriminates against humanity. Some like a revolving door due to multiple layers of impacting challenges, which is also the population we hope to bring the most change for through our work. What is different about us is that we are small but mighty, we are self sustained, we currently do not have any fancy funding, and corporate players do not influence our movement.
I have been a member of DSA-LA since 2020, and find DSA’s values to be in alignment with the progressive views I strive to lead with. I am proud to be an impacted leader and voice for those that are unacknowledged, and unheard. I lead from experience, and by direction from those closest to injustice. Some of these issues affecting marginalized communities of color are what I hope to bring more awareness to, and advocacy through becoming a Delegate. I see our chapter expanding to further support people experiencing houselessness, migration issues, families/parents going through the family policing system, and becoming more active in campaigns such as defunding the police, housing for all, the war against drugs, and the strategy against establishing more punitive courts like CARE Court.
I stand in solidarity with liberation campaigns against oppressive systems to free all people experiencing oppression. I hope to gain your vote which would then spread the voice of unhoused and incarcerated people.
Power to the people always! ✊🏽
Thank you for your consideration.
-Andreya
Anher
This convention will be the first national convention I am eligible to attend as a DSA member. In this year I have contributed to organizing efforts in the San Fernando Valley branch, where I have focused on outreach to disenfranchised communities.
For me an important issue facing DSA is the lack of a clearly defined vision; folks outside of DSA are often confused by the organization and what it stands for. If this can be settled DSA will be in a strong position to stand out as an attractive option for leftists and independents who are politically disenfranchised. DSA would also benefit from a more proactive mentality in leadership that can establish clear demands and expectations for DSA’s elected officials. An organization like DSA should aspire to assert itself as a third force in our nation’s politics. This opportunity will come and we have to be ready to take it.
Anna Gross (she/her)
Hello from the Westside! Since joining in June 2022, I have been jumping into different actions and figuring out how I can best serve the chapter. I’ve tabled for Childcare For All, written postcards for the Green New Deal for Public Schools, and joined the picket lines for SEIU and UTLA (ILU, educators and school workers!). I may be new but I am serious about building a mass coalition of workers. By connecting with unions and strengthening DSA’s Multiracial Organizing Committee, I believe we can grow our membership locally and nationally to strengthen labor organizing, elect socialists to office, stamp out fascism, and provide housing, healthcare, and education for all. Oh, HELLLL yeah!
Aryn B.
Hello. My name is Aryn and I joined the DSA with the many people who were fans of Bernie Sanders during his 2020 campaign. I became a more active member in late 2021 when I could no longer idly watch the news and decided to fill out the member survey. Almost immediately I joined onto AdCom and the Childcare 4 All campaign. I was nominated to fill a vacant at-large Steering position in late 2022, and I currently hold an at-large Steering position.
One of the most critical issues the DSA has to tackle is the lack of class solidarity. As the country seems to be spiraling everyone is looking for someone to blame and, per usual, the finger always seems to be pointed at marginalized communities. As the whistle-blowing and dogpiling on these communities get more intense, I worry that we will have a harder time showing people where the actual cause of our suffering stems from.
My main priority for organizing at a national level would emphasize educating the working class across the board, regardless of their politics, on the actual cause of their day-to-day struggles and anguish. Most nonpolitical people are focused on the culture war of the week, I feel that its vital to break through that haze and inform as many people as possible about how they have been deceived by our current system, the illusion of American exceptionalism, and individualism into thinking that we are at the end of history and that our neighbor is our competition. I have always felt educating people, at very beginner levels, is one of the very most important ways to build solidarity and working-class power.
Benina S
I have been a DSA-LA member since 2018. Since then, my time in elected leadership positions has included being a branch coordinator for the Westside and serving on the Electoral Politics committee for the past two years. During that time, I’ve seen several membership booms.
I believe that DSA is the tool we need to organize and win a socialist future in the US and nationally the organization needs the support to do so. As delegate, I would support developing and growing DSA chapters and leadership though membership drives and supporting MROC trainings, bolstering labor organizing and building connections with unions nationally, continuing to run winning class-struggle electoral campaigns, and forming socialists in office plans that push forward socialist policy.
In advancing these priorities, I am supporting our Los Angeles comrades Marc K and Frances G running for NPC with the Groundwork slate.
Cailyn N
Hello! I’m currently a Branch Organizer with the Eastside/SGV Branch, a DSA CA Delegate and member of the State Committee. I joined DSA in Summer ‘21 and jumped in Fall ‘21 with the CD13 working group as a canvas captain during the primary election and then the field lead during the general election.
Nationally, we’re facing austerity politics resurfacing, threats to bodily autonomy, and attacks on the trans and queer community. We’re also seeing exciting waves of organizing in workplaces, apartments, and elections. As the largest socialist organization in the country, we must create strong strategies and movements to meet these fights with the might they deserve. That takes national cooperation and coordination.
I want to prioritize winning- from schools to apartments and from shop floors to ballot boxes. That takes a ton of work and really really good organizing.
Caleb Elguezabal
Hi everyone, my name is Caleb and I’m running to be a delegate. I became a branch organizer earlier this year and have formed a book club within the east-side branch! I’m looking forward to working on the campaigns during the summer/fall. I think DSA suffers from a lack of internal organization, and that’s a sentiment I hear constantly. I want DSA to be at the forefront of the national labor and socialist movement, the tip of the spear; but before we can organize the working class we must organize ourselves to be efficient and effective. That starts top-down, at the national level through changing the internal structures of DSA and making sure we move cohesively as an organization.
Carlos Callejo III
I have been an at-large member of YDSA since 2016 but formally got involved in DSA-LA in 2020 during the Sanders 2020 campaign. From my work on that campaign as a volunteer captain, I decided to co-found a YDSA chapter at Cal Poly Pomona. Our chapter Bronco YDSA has grown tremendously since 2020, slowly building up a progressive coalition on campus with many groups. Our work also extends off-campus as well as we have worked with local community groups to pass emergency rent control in Pomona, and we have organized a community brake light clinic. We are currently helping unionize undergrad workers on our campus. For the past year I have been the co-lead for YDSA-LA organizing, and I am proud of how much this YDSA group has grown.
As a long-standing Chicano member, I believe that DSA needs to address its diversity issue. I believe YDSA is the pipeline to the future of DSA so it must be thoroughly funded. I am the main sponsor of a resolution for YDSA convention that would prioritize building new YDSA chapters at public universities and community colleges. It is important that YDSA receives the fundings and resources it needs to properly carry out this vision. With this in mind, I and the YDSA-LA slate are major proponents of YDSA’s Consensus Resolution and believe it is imperative that it passes.
I am fully in support of and will argue for several resolutions including but not limited to: “Resolution On the Defense of Immigrants and Refugees”, “Platform Amendment: Public Ownership of Railroads”, “Full Time Political Leadership”, “Fighting the Right by Defending Abortion Rights, Trans People, and Democracy” among others. I am always in favor of hearing both sides of an argument so I will keep an open mind on all resolutions and amendments.
To bring some levity, I will also full heartedly support the “Make Bud DSA’s Official Mascot” resolution because Bud is indeed a fun little guy.
Claire P.
I became a member of the Democratic Socialists of America two years ago because I firmly believe that democratic socialism is the system that will deliver for the global working class. DSA is currently at a crucial turning point; the future of our movement hinges on the way we organize and develop our membership.
Before moving to Los Angeles in December of last year, I had the privilege of serving a term on DSA Sacramento’s steering committee. During my time there, I organized various strike solidarity efforts, demonstrations, and socialist education events. Since settling in LA, I have taken on the role of a Westside Branch organizer, with a focus on WGA Strike support efforts and implementing the Power to the Tenants resolution. The connections I have made with fellow democratic socialists in my new community have been both empowering and enlightening. Through my involvement in multiple chapters, I have come to understand the importance of collaboration and exchange of ideas among chapters in building a strong democratic socialist movement.
On a national scale, DSA must dedicate time, energy, and tangible resources to the development and education of our membership in order to establish a sustainable and resilient organization. By doing so, we can develop members into organizers who will become reliable elected officials, influential labor organizers, and future leaders of DSA.
The most dependable elected representatives within DSA are those who have been long-standing members and have fully embraced the DSA theory of change. These individuals have a history of devoting their efforts to building their respective chapters. By cultivating candidates within our chapters, we can ensure that our elected representatives are accountable to their comrades, rather than an organization they have limited knowledge of. It is crucial to identify offices where democratic socialists have a competitive edge and focus our efforts on developing membership and identifying leaders in those areas.
Democratic socialists must also build power by organizing within their workplaces and unions. Members actively organizing in workplaces, unions, and democratic reform caucuses grows a labor movement that is led by the workers themselves. A democratic labor movement that is accountable to the workers will disrupt the collaboration between the ruling class, ineffective union leadership, and the Democratic Party. Building relationships with international labor organizations will be crucial in fostering international labor solidarity and enhancing our members’ organizing abilities.
The longevity of DSA depends on our ability to develop internal leadership and provide adequate support for our staff. Too often, our strongest members suffer from burnout when they are unable to pass the baton to capable leaders or become overwhelmed with administrative tasks. We cannot afford to continually exhaust our most dedicated members with the demands of chapter and national leadership positions. Sustaining a powerful democratic socialist movement requires increasing staffing levels at the national level and in larger chapters. This will alleviate the administrative burden on members in leadership positions and facilitate better coordination among chapters, which has been challenging with our current staffing capacity.
I am proud to support the Groundwork Slate for NPC, a slate with two of DSA-LA’s most dedicated members.
Clayton Ryles
My name is Clayton Ryles (he/him) and I am a new DSA member, but have done various actions with DSA for several years. In Los Angeles.
I have taken part in the Abolish ICE campaign, voters guide efforts, and recently have become active in the Labor Committee’s efforts.
As a newer black member an issue that I believe is critical is bringing in and engaging people of color with DSA. As a union organizer I also believe that a serious orientation towards building a powerful working class coalition that can defeat fascism and neoliberalism is of prime importance.
As such, my priorities at the national level would be to build increasingly strong relationships with labor and with minority communities, to strategically bring in new diverse, radical activists into the labor movement, and to fight and defeat sectarianism within the movement.
I am proud to fight alongside my DSA comrades and hope to contribute to a spirit of unity and camaraderie in our battle for a better future.
Daniel Candee
Hello, my name is Daniel Candee, a branch organizer with DSA-LA Westside branch, I have been a yDSA/DSA member since 2017 and a member of DSA-LA since August of 2022. During my time in DSA my comrades and I have achieved concrete wins that I am proud of: as founder/co-chair of the first chartered yDSA in Kentucky our chapter directed strike support for the UAW at Bowling Green’s Corvette plant and helped to get a Provost demoted who was hell-bent on gutting the humanities curriculum. During my time in U-Chicago yDSA’s leadership I prioritized our relationships with Starbucks workers United and the NNU, and built our connections with Chicago’s DSA Chapter, so I must admit I am a bit excited about the convention’s location.
I have already been to several virtual yDSA national conventions, but this would be the first national DSA convention where I would be serving as a delegate. However, I am more than prepared to represent my comrades, as I believe that I share a vision for DSA with many of them. DSA is the largest, best organized, and most effective Socialist organization in the United States. That is both good news and a great responsibility. We must be principled anti-imperialists without becoming campists. We must fight in the electoral sphere while keeping our elected accountable to the principles they ran on and our members supportive of them outside of campaign season. We must build rank and file support within the labor unions while simultaneously using those unions’ power to push for the interests of the proletariat as a whole. With that in mind, I am a supporter of the resolutions included in Atlanta DSA’s Advance Platform (aside from salarying the NPC) and the goals of the Groundwork Slate.
I am open to any and all questions from DSA-LA members, and intend, if elected, to coordinate closely with the rest of our delegation. If elected, I also intend to push DSA towards leading the charge against the far right, towards winning reforms that build the power of the working class, and to help change our organizational structure so that we can start down the long road towards becoming the party of the working class.
Our next steps are vital, and although capitalism’s 2020 crisis has come and gone, we haven’t, and our goal should be to become its next one.
Daniel D
I (he/him/his) am a Southern California native and a healthcare union organizer. I joined DSA-LA in the fall of 2018 following AOC’s primary victory over the establishment candidate. I am currently serving on our chapter’s Labor Committee leadership. Previously I was elected to serve in various other leadership bodies including: DSA-LA’s Labor Committee (2021-2022); DSA-LA’s Steering Committee (2019-2021); and on the DSA National Labor Commission (2020-2022).
Locally, our chapter has been instrumental in forging connections between the socialist and labor movements. Over the past several years, we have focused on bolstering workers’ struggles through Los Angeles County while also equipping our members with the skills and resources they need to go and organize their workplaces. This year the committee is focused on having workers tell stories of their workplace fights through our Strike Hyper series which has featured UTLA teachers, UPS Teamsters, WGA writers, and more! Importantly, our Labor Circles model continues to be the foundation for our organizing model where we bring together members and non-members from similar workplaces and industries to work collectively toward building power.
I am running on the Superbloom slate alongside many amazing organizers. You can find our platform here. Our slate is committed to fighting for resolutions and NPC candidates that advance the vision of DSA as a multi-racial, mass workers movement. Superbloom supports the Groundwork slate for NPC.
David Abud
I have been involved with DSA on and off since 2016, but became a dues-paying member a bit over 2 years ago. I was on steering and am now co-branch coordinator of the East Side Branch. I think DSA has to focus extensively on base building and training organizers to develop our own campaigns, from electoral to community organizing and labor organizing. My priorities are to build DSA into a strong national organization, a voice for the working class, filled with multi-racial organizers who are able to deliver the wins that we need locally and nationally. I am working daily to realize that priority, and am excited to bring that to the national level!
Dr. Daniel Lee
Now, more than ever there is a need for a strong, direct and decisive counterpoint to the growing fascism we see around the the US and around the world. The most potent antidote to authoritarianism and market individualism is socialism. As Mayor in Culver City California I worked to close the largest urban oil field in the country, provide hero pay for hospital and grocery/pharmacy workers, pass rent control, make public meetings permanently hybrid, raise the minimum wage for hospital workers and start a reparations process.
I have supported the campaigns of Hugo Soto-Martinez and other socialists candidates and representatives throughout LA County with my endorsements and with my feet. I walked door to door with DSA members in Pasadena and spoke at the kickoff of the rent control campaign in that city. Similarly, prior to and during his election I supported the efforts of current Burbank Mayor and DSA member Konstantine Anthony. I have been a consistent member and supporter and when elected office gave me the opportunity I have I unabashedly moved forward with policies that support workers across the board. As a former member of SAG-AFTRA I have been on the picket line with WGA strikers just as I was over a decade and a half ago. I will remain there until they win.
After the 2022 election the Democratic party quickly distanced itself and eliminated all mention of The Green New Deal and Medicare For All. This happened even is the pandemic laid bare the stark racial and socioeconomic inequities in our medical system (BIPOC people and low income people died in disproportionate numbers during the pandemic) and as the climate crisis gives us daily reminders of the difficult and unfathomable challenges that will result as a consequence of our inaction (forest fires, floods, hurricanes, etc.). We cannot make life better for working class people if they continue to be the first to die due to lack of healthcare and the first victims of our ineffectual climate policy. DSA must take steps to show how these urgent and immediate issues matter for low income people and low income people of color in particular. We are the majority.
Duane Paul J. Murphy
Comrades and friends, since 2021 when I moved to the city and county of Los Angeles, I’ve been involved with DSA-L.A. in a wide variety of ways, caucuses, actions, and committees such as the Mutual Aid Committee, the LGBTQ Caucus, and field marshaling at rallies, marches, and protests as well as previous mutual aid and direct action organizing with chapter initiated project groups such as Streetwatch L.A. The Democratic Socialists of America, the country’s current largest socialist and leftist organization, must further commit towards radical and revolutionary militant intersectional, comprehensive, and inclusive anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, abolitionist, anti-establishmentarian, anti-Zionist, anti-neoliberal, anti-militarist, anti-clerical, and anti-fascist organizing and mobilizing through both mutual aid, labor unionization, and direct action as well as electoralism that is fully independent of the entire Democratic Party and in which all and any elected officials who have been endorsed by the DSA or are members of the DSA are fully held accountable and responsible for their actions that contradict or go against our own collective morals, values, policies, and ethics as a multi-tendency leftist organization.
If elected as your delegate, I will ensure that all DSA meeting and convention sessions will be in hybrid setup to commit towards accessibility needs, all DSA identity caucuses are equitably resourced for inclusive and intersectional organizing, reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, ensure comprehensive and inclusive intersectional anti-bias and anti-oppression instruction for new and current members, and ensure budgeting transparency.
I hope I can be your delegate for great change our organization needs.
Ed Keenan
Good afternoon. My name is Ed Keenan and I am a socialist.🌹 You may have seen me wearing DSA pins 🧷(pins which symbolize material wins) at a meeting or event.🗓️ I have extensive organizing experience, and I have knocked over 10,000🤑 voter doors in various campaigns since joining DSA. I have canvassed turfs from San Pedro🌁 to Porter ranch🖼️ and everywhere in between.🏢 In meetings I’m down to take notes.📝 When I hear my comrades talk theory it gives me hope.🌀 I try to spend time on chapter business each day,👔 even if I’m clocked in🕣 at work. One of my motivations is that all the children👨👦 of today will grow to the workers👷♂️ of tomorrow, and our actions🎬 today will determine the conditions🧴 they live in. I think🧠 I can be a good representative🗳️ of the chapter because I have developed connections🔌 with many members and I work hard to understand and fulfill🔋 our national🇺🇸, chapter📖, and branch🌿 goals. Send me a message📲 if you wanna get in touch. 3104218419☎️. I have developed💗 so much as a person since joining🔗 DSA in 2019, and diving into the work has been one of the best🥇 decisions of my life🧬 so far. My comrades inspire🤩 me so much.🥺 I truly believe that a better world is possible.🌎 It’s up to us. Lets get it!
-Ed
Edgar O.
Hi everyone!
My name is Edgar O. from Pico Rivera, and I’m running to be a delegate to the DSA National Convention. I am an active member of DSA-LA, with experience working with the organization since 2018. I initially started working with our chapter in my capacity as a nonprofit professional, and eventually joined due to its socialist values and grassroots organizing approach. During my time in DSA-LA, I have worked on the Green New Deal for Public Schools (GND4PS) campaign, where our efforts advanced the conversation around economic and environmental justice for the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) children, who make up the nation’s largest district. The campaign also helped with electing a progressive candidate to the school board in 2022, ousting the pro-charter school interests who had been entrenched in the district, and swinging the balance of power on the school board back to the labor-aligned bloc. I currently serve on the chapter’s electoral committee, where I have had the opportunity to help develop our first Socialists in Office (SIO) framework that will lay the groundwork for ongoing collaboration, education, and shared governance with our elected officials. I’m excited to work as with fellow socialists across the country to develop our most ambitious strategy to build power yet, should I be chosen.
Thank you for your consideration!
Estefany Alejandra Castaneda
My name is Estefany Alejandra Castañeda and I’m running to continue working for our working class people nationally because I believe in the programs we’re working on locally. I’ve been in DSALA for years now and started grassroots organizing in my predominantly latino working class community since late 2015 while organizing for Bernie Sanders. Through the Bernie campaign what stood out to me the most was how much national issues resonated so much locally with people because everyone in communities like mine are being taken advantage of and people have had it.
In November of 2018 while a senior undergraduate student at CSUN, at 22 years old I decided to run a grassroots campaign against a 10+ year incumbent with less than $2,000 and garnered over 12,000 votes to secure victory. I ran on a platform centered on working class issues: transparency in all the processes and decisions the school board makes, engagement with the community to give out and provide more resources for our surrounding cities facing displacement and losing their homes, and raising the quality of education in the district through establishing better mental health programs for students and parents facing adversity, advocating for special education programs, establishing more afterschool programs. Through this endeavor I learned about the Democratic Socialist of America and felt I could continue to live out my values with a support system that was also striving to make positive changes in people’s lives.
Once again in November of 2022 I ran for re-elections against a candidate placed by the conservative majority on my school board and won. This time around I organized with young high school students and ran publicly with DSA-LA’s support and the campaign continued to demonstrate where the communities priorities are headed. In addition to this I ran while supporting local candidates in my region through my capacity as a branch coordinator for DSA-LA as well as member of the Electoral Politics Committee where we pushed new ways to increase support from low income communities.
Nationally I think our local has tapped into programs that fit perfectly into what we want to accomplish across the country and we’re in the best position and time to do so. We are at a crossroads in America where not only do we have to change as a society but the majority are seeking changes across all issues: climate, housing, labor rights etc. As a labor organizer myself for Unite Here Local 11, I think we can work on new and existing labor relationships to push worker rights forward and center specifically our immigrant working class comrades in struggle. We have the capacity and ability to bring in leaders of color and change the landscape of our national politics and not just push the needle forward but create a new fabric. I hope I can count on your support. Thank you.
Frances G
Hello comrades! I’m Frances, she/her, Central Branch. I’m excited to be running to represent DSA LA as a delegate at the national convention.
Most of my work in our chapter has been in our Labor Committee, where I have served in Committee leadership for the last two terms. In my work on Labor Committee, I have worked alongside my comrades to coordinate strike support for teachers, hospitality workers, writers, starbucks workers, and more! We’ve also organized two political education panels highlighting worker organizations — including both unions and worker’s centers — with a focus on unions that might go on strike this summer. This has helped us strengthen our chapter’s relationship with organized labor in our city. I was inspired to be involved in our Labor Committee because I’m an active rank-and-file member of my own union, the Committee for Interns & Residents (CIR).
Additionally, as a Central Branch member, I was so excited to support a DSA LA City Council candidate during the last citywide elections. I was out knocking doors almost every weekend. I think that what our chapter accomplished during the last election cycle was incredible, and it can absolutely serve as a template for other chapters across the country. I’m excited to bring that experience to the national Convention because I believe DSA LA can serve as an inspiration for other chapters.
Lastly, I am excited to let y’all know that I am going to be running for DSA’s National Political Committee on the Groundwork Slate! I’m running with comrades from Louisville, New York, Los Angeles, and Maine. Check out our slate here: groundworkdsa.com. We are committed to building DSA for the long haul, and I am excited to bring this platform to convention.
Francisco
I’m Francisco I’ve been a part of DSA-LA since 2019. The biggest issue is DSA’s association with the Democratic Party. In order to install the socialist policy that we believe in we need a clean break from the Democratic Party. Push for Democratic Centralism so we can hold our candidates accountable.
Gabriel Orea
I serve currently as a co-chair to our chapter’s Labor Committee. Last year, labor committee as allied with our campaign working groups and mobilized members to help elect fellow members Hugo Soto-Martínez and Eunisses Hernandez. This year, we are in the midst of fights for workers rights along with our members in WGA, UTLA, Starbucks, and more. I have been involved with labor work for several years, and was also a co-coordinator of the DSA-LA nonprofit worker’s circle, which assists nonprofit workers in unionizing and taking down the nonprofit industrial complex.
Nationally, it is critical that we continue to build alongside workers and show solidarity, while orienting ourselves to struggle against bosses and capital. I am running as a delegate to make sure our organization prioritizes immigrant rights, labor struggles, and a democratic multiracial structure.
Georgina Henriquez
Hi my name is Georgina I had been a DSA member for about a year. I currently a student at my local community college I previously worked as a canvasser supporting DSA- LA endorsements. I haven’t been involved in DSA activities very much lately but I keep up with the emails I believe I am strong voice that support and defend immigration causes. As a immigrant myself I am very familiar with the difference forms of oppression we can face. I strongly defend and stand for creating a stronger community free of hate against people that look different from each other where we can welcome people from different backgrounds and learn from each other. I want to organize at the national level because I want to be able to comeback and teach people at my community what I could learn from other . I believe is important keep our community informed because at the end of the day they are the one that can make a change that would benefit they own.
Gerica Noerdinger
My name is Gerica Noerdinger (she/her), and I am happy to be running on a YDSA-LA (Young Democratic Socialists of America) slate along with my comrades to bring youth representation from Los Angeles to National Convention! I am a 20-year-old neurodivergent Filipina woman, born and raised in California (originally from the Bay Area). I have been a member of DSA since I began college in September 2021. I am a college student at Gnomon School of VFX, Games & Animation in Hollywood. At Gnomon, I am the founder and chapter leader of our YDSA chapter, where we organize as artists and as future workers in the entertainment industry. We recently supported striking WGA writers at Netflix on the picket lines with DSA Hollywood Labor. Within DSA-LA, I am a member of the central branch. Outside of DSA, I’ve done campaign work as a campaign consultant for Kenneth Mejia for LA City Controller, who ran on a leftist platform, bringing attention to the wasteful and exorbitant amount of money LA dedicates to LAPD, rather than funding departments that will *actually* help working-class people, such as transportation, housing, and community investment.
My priorities for DSA at a national level are to deepen and expand support for YDSA, which plays a key role in getting young people to become radicalized and organized (at such a pivotal time in their political development!). Thus, I am a supporter of the YDSA Consensus Resolution as it will strengthen ties between YDSA and DSA chapters, further develop a YDSA to DSA pipeline, and mentor lifetime socialist organizers. Additionally, I am also a supporter of the “Make Bud DSA’s Official Mascot” Resolution. They’re very cute—and a huge hit in LA! I think it would only benefit us as an organization to have him represent us nationally.
Hannah Kessel
I have been a dedicated member for several years, becoming more deeply involved in 2020 after working as a Regional Field Director for Bernie 2020. Since then I’ve been part of local, statewide, and national leadership. I currently serve on DSA’s National Electoral Committee where I help with our fundraising strategy and trainings. I would be honored to bring my local knowledge and national lens to serve as a delegate from our chapter this year.
Henessey Aaliyah P.
For folks I don’t know, my name is Henessey, and I’m currently a senior in High school. I’m running to be a Delegate because I want to to finish what my mom started when she jumped in to help organize the Eastside and San Gabriel Valley Branch. She worked for months to recruit more workers of color than anyone else in this chapter, and more than most people in the whole damn organization! she did this because she knew that we can win the things we want as socialists by organizing together, and we need to make DSA majority nonwhite to accurately represent the working class.
Hugo Soto-Martinez
I’ve been a proud member of DSA-LA for about 5 years now. Since joining the chapter I was a member of labor committee, was a coordinator with Nolympics, and lead the neighborhood solidarity program for my area.
I believe we need to continue to have a long term, and sustained organizing fights where we recruit and develop leaders while engaging in campaigns. These campaigns have to be formed to meet the needs of the working class while only some of them are electoral. These are lessons I’ve learned while being a union organizer and we need to do more.
Ian O’ccur
My name is Ian O’ccur. I’ve been a member since 2020 and I’ve been to very few events at this time, but I’m happy to be involved now and meeting all my comrades in DSA LA
Jack Suria-Linares
My name is Jack Suria Linares and I have organized as DSA for nearly a decade coming up in January 2024! Woot Woot!!!! In that time I’ve learned so much about socialist struggle in theory and in practice. I’ve seen the high turnover of activists as well as come to appreciate a diversity of ideological principals as long as the programmatic work of organization takes priority. The 2023 convention is the first “post-“pandemic meeting that we have had as an organization and it of crucial importance to send delegates that believe in DSA before their own ideological inclinations. We want a DSA that lasts 50 years not 10.
Throughout the Pandemic I led the efforts in developing a strategy for supporting undocumented immigrants by fundraising $60,000 dollars and distributing them across the county. I organized and supported key canvassing operations to take electoral power seriously and elevate DSA-LA into a new phase of political struggle. And prior to the pandemic, I helped organize unionization efforts at a former nonprofit workplace. I believe in DSA and I think it is a crucial vehicle for worker power.
That is why I am running on the Superbloom slate and supporting Groundwork’s candidates for the National Political Committee. I believe that we need to focus on recruiting people of color and in particular immigrants into DSA, and that we need to maintain in sight the developing shifts internationally. I believe that we need an electoral strategy that strengthens DSA electoral structures.
I oppose the rank and file strategy as presented by the National Labor Commission and believe that we need a labor resolution/strategy that centers the reality that DSA members are workers and should organize in our own workplaces. The current National Labor Commission holds no strategy for how to engage our 90,000 members to ourselves as workers. Sending members to organize in specific industries or to already unionized workplaces shifts the protagonism to a select few rather than ever expanding the organized workforce to engage throughout the political-economy. An effective Labor strategy for DSA is not one that separates DSA from labor, but one that recognizes that we are all Labor.
Links are below:
Superbloom Slate
Groundworks NPC Candidates
Janet H.
Vote for me cus I run this shit, OKuuuurrrr!
Jennifer Macias
I am currently a DSA-LA chapter member and I have previously served as co-chair and coordinator to our Chapter’s Immigration Justice Committee. During the time I was coordinator, I worked with IJC chairs to hold a political education forum about updates in immigration policy. As co-chair, we mobilized members to help elect fellow members Hugo Soto-Martínez and Eunisses Hernandez. I have been involved in the immigrant rights movement for over 10 years and continue to do so as an advocate and ally.
It is important that we continue to show solidarity and build alongside workers so we can present a united front against capital. I am running as a delegate to make sure our organization prioritizes immigrant rights, labor struggles, and a democratic multiracial structure. I am part of the Superbloom slate with my fellow comrades who share these priorities.
Joe V
I’ve been involved with DSA-LA for about a year, nearly the entire time I’ve lived in Los Angeles. Since joining, I’ve contributed to the 2022 DSA-LA General Election Voter Guide, knocked doors for United to House LA and Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, tabled for Childcare For All, rallied downtown for the electrification of LAUSD’s school buses, helped run chapter leadership elections, and more. I’ve been fortunate to get a diverse taste of the work DSA-LA is doing and feel eager and confident to represent the chapter at this year’s National Convention.
I see finding ways for DSA to continue contributing to the tremendous current workplace organizing momentum in America as an obvious organizational priority. Empowering DSA members to organize in their own workplaces and building relationships with unions should be part of a larger plan to support this new wave of labor organization.
In addition, for me, some of the most important issues facing DSA nationally are internal in nature. For instance, I feel lucky to have had the onboarding experience that I had with DSA-LA, and want for all new DSA members across the country to feel similarly welcomed, plugged in, and involved via a strong, standardized onboarding process, helping to build a strong foundation of organizers that enable DSA to thrive and grow for many years to come.
Jordan E
I’m Jordan, and I’m the current chair of the chapter’s Admin Committee. We do a lot of behind the scenes work to try and make things run smoothly and grow our capacity to be an effective socialist organization. My perspectives have been informed by my years of involvement in the chapter and interactions with countless members. That’s also why I’m running as a member of the Superbloom slate, who share my commitments.
I was a delegate in both 2019 and 2021, and I’d be honored to represent our chapter again. I’m a firm believer in the still untapped potential of DSA. There’s no other org positioned like we are. But there is still a long ways to go to build stronger ties with organized labor, work toward meaningful partnership/accountability for electeds, and make the organization accessible to the multiracial, normie working class.
I’d like to see the national organization seriously reckon with how to use our limited resources effectively to grow staff capacity sustainably and to find creative, unifying ways for our chapters and members to fight the far right and protect abortion rights, trans rights, and immigrants rights. I don’t think we need any radical changes in direction, what we need to do is invest in building DSA for the long haul.
Juan L
I’m Juan L and I live in Echo Park. I was born in Caracas, Venezuela and grew up in Florida. I fight for worker across all borders, will work toward growing DSA among the multiracial working class, and stand against the fascist assault against trans and nonbinary people. I moved to LA in 2020, became a neighborhood captain over zoom, and am now a Central Branch Co-Coordinator. I’ve worked on the Hugo campaign, coordinated strike support for UTLA/SEIU, Starbucks, and WGA, and coordinated with Green New Deal for Public Schools, Childcare for All and other priority campaigns. Victory to the workers! Socialismo vencera!
Jules Yun
I want to build DSA into a powerful political force. I’ll bring our priorities of building tenant and worker power to the national level and return with more effective strategies to implement in our campaigns.
Kenna Kotinek
It would be an honor to be a delegate to represent DSALA at this year’s convention. As a proud daughter to a Black single mother, I know firsthand the immense disparities Americans face. Working multiple jobs to make ends meet, skipping meals for gas to attend classes, and forgoing my asthma medications, my Mom and I were forced to battle daily with a failing status quo on both sides of the aisle.
As a delegate, I will be committed to advocating for national programs that will ensure actual social safety nets, protection of the LGBTQA+ community, strong member outreach to marginalized communities, and of course the advancement of democratic socialism.
Kyle Scott
My name is Kyle Scott (he/him). I’ve been in DSA-LA for six years, and I’m excited to be running for a delegate seat on the Superbloom Slate. You learn about the slate here.
During my time in DSA-LA, I have been involved in the Immigration Justice and Housing and Homelessness committees, as well as Streetwatch and NOlympics. I have participated in and led canvassing operations for the Proposition 10, Bernie, Nithya Raman, and Hugo campaigns. I’ve held leadership positions in the chapter as a member of the Steering Committee, as a Westside Branch Coordinator, and as a Central Branch Coordinator. Currently, I am a rank and file member in the Central Branch. I am also a proud member—and former Department Steward and Strike Captain—in UAW 2865, which represents academic workers at the University of California.
I believe that DSA should prioritize campaigns that will leverage and grow our power as a class and build towards a mass-participatory movement. An effective socialist organization should unify and embolden a fragmented left that has been under assault for decades. My more specific views on the critical issues and priorities for DSA nationally are outlined in the slate document above; but I will briefly highlight a few here:
– Labor: I believe DSA should re-commit to a national strategy to connect our movement with labor struggles on the ground. This means, among other things, training our members to organize in their workplace and support the struggles of workers on the picket line and beyond.
– Electoral Strategy: I believe DSA should continue to lead the charge in developing and electing socialist candidates locally and nationally. At the national level, our organization should prioritize offering support and resources to help chapters develop leaders and draw up winnable electoral strategies for electing candidates to school boards, city councils, and state and national office.
– Immigrant Rights + Internationalism: The national organization should prioritize expanding solidarity with our international partners, both by supporting immigrant struggles here in the U.S., and building ties with socialist organizations and parties abroad.
Leslie C
I’ve been a member of DSA-LA since March 2020 and have served on our local Steering Committee as Campaigns Coordinator for two years, and am currently the Eastside + SGV Branch Coordinator.
I believe that there are two areas of focus that are critical for ensuring that we are operating as a national organization, rather than a federation of independent locals. The first is establishing a concrete theory of change that articulates our vision and the pathways through which we will build power and win. The second is ensuring that local priorities map to the national priorities voted on at national convention. Local chapters and members should all see themselves as part of a national organization, rather than members of their local.
Liz D.
My name is Liz D. and I have been active in DSA-LA for about a year and a half. In that time I’ve mostly volunteered in the Central Branch to hold neighborhood and branch meetings, have helped with the search for a DSA-LA office space, and more recently have helped on the Green New Deal for Public Schools initiative. This year I attended the DSA-LA Convention for my first time and I am excited to get started on our new priority resolutions. Our new resolutions on tenant organizing and mass transit are especially salient in LA but are important issues nationwide. I would like to see more support and of DSA’s local initiatives from the National level.
In late 2021 after a round of layoffs and pay-cuts at my workplace I began organizing with my coworkers to try to start a union. That work, and marching alongside UTLA/SEIU and now the WGA on their strikes have shown me both the importance and strength of organized labor. At the DSA National Convention I would prioritize DSA’s support for the resurgent US labor movement.
Lori D
Hello! My name is Lori (she/her). I am a queer Filipina and a member of the Eastside Branch. I currently serve as DSA-LA’s communications director. My organizing history for several years with the chapter includes comms and logistics for major chapterwide events and campaigns, as well as day-to-day Steering Committee work.
Nationally, our organization is at a pivotal moment. Organized worker power is rising up across the country, and as the largest socialist organization in a century, we need to be leading and supporting these labor fights. We’re going up against violent reactionary right-wing fascists that are actively trying to take away our rights, but we know that by putting our collective strength together towards strategic goals, we can sabotage the power of capital. In addition to labor militancy, we can do this by *taking* existing levers of power in the electoral sphere. And DSA must recognize that our struggle for socialism doesn’t end at our national borders; global solidarity and liberation is critical. For our organization to lay the groundwork that will keep us in the fight for the long-haul, we need to build strong internal structures to ensure the stability of every chapter and long-term stability of the org itself. Importantly, this process must prioritize the development of leaders of color so that our organization represents the multiracial working class. There are many injustices facing working people today, but these are the priorities I believe we should throw our weight behind for the immediate future.
I believe in DSA and I am proud to run on the Superbloom slate 🙂
Maikiko J
I joined DSA nearly seven years ago, when the election of Trump spurred my revelation that anything is possible, including socialism in power in the U.S. in my lifetime. Over the years, I have organized and served in leadership roles both locally with Los Angeles (Racial Justice, Anti-Oppression, Admin, Steering, and currently Growth and Development – Trainings), and nationally (National Political Committee ‘19-’21, Growth and Development, Personnel, Multiracial Organizing, and National Abolition).
As authoritarianism, democracy denial, and racist patriarchy surges on the nation’s Right, the Left must be organizing with all we have to combat catastrophic systemic regression, and also keep building and showing people our vision for a thriving democratic and socialist future. We must be galvanizing the multiracial working class to see that when we stand up to existing, oppressive power structures – those which horde wealth and enact policies that deny life, safety, and well-being to all people – we win.
The road ahead for DSA is challenging. Our democratic organization of committed members has to come together and plant stakes in the terrains where we are ready to contest for power. Across the country and in Los Angeles, our members forged paths to decisive electoral victories which show millions of people that socialist candidates are not only viable, but also that they can govern in the interest of all people and not the capitalist class. Through a growing and inspiring Labor Movement, we continue to see the power of workers change not only specific sector conditions, but catalyze change across industries and cultivate critical solidarity. DSA must continue to be present and influential in these areas, committing our time and resources. This requires strong, well-managed, and clear organization at the national level, with dedicated, skilled staff and elected leadership ready to navigate keeping momentum up as circumstances change.
I run for Delegate as a member of the Socialist Majority Caucus, which identifies the issues above as key priorities. If you agree, please consider me, my fellow slate members, as well as those of the Superbloom slate to represent Los Angeles at this year’s Convention. Onward in solidarity.
Mansoor Khan
My name is Mansoor. I believe DSA should continue investing in organizing and building out our internationalist commitments.
Marc Krause
My name is Marc Krause (he/him), I am a member in our Eastside-San Gabriel Valley Branch, a Chicano and lifelong Angeleno, and I am running to be a chapter delegate to the 2023 national convention on the Superbloom Delegate Slate.
I have been a DSA member since 2019. I am a public sector worker and a rank-and-file member of SEIU 1000. Prior to joining DSA, I was an elected representative on my union’s bargaining team where I worked to undo contract concessions and advance significant wage, benefits, and working condition gains.
Since joining DSA, I have served in chapter leadership roles for DSA-LA’s Yes on Prop 15 – Tax the Rich campaign, Labor Committee, Dr. Rocío Rivas for LAUSD Board District 2 campaign, and Green New Deal for Public Schools LA campaign. Nationally, I have been the co-chair of DSA’s Green New Deal Campaign Commission since 2022.
I am most proud of my organizing of the Green New Deal for Public Schools LA campaign and Dr. Rocío Rivas campaign because they resulted in concrete wins for our chapter. We elected Dr. Rivas to the LAUSD school board, and she adopted our Green New Deal for Public Schools campaign as a core pillar of her platform. Dr. Rivas is now following through on implementing a Green New Deal for LAUSD as the chair of LAUSD’s Greening and Climate Resiliency Committee. Because of the relationship I was able to help cultivate with Dr. Rivas through the campaigns, DSA-LA now has an official organizational seat on LAUSD’s Greening and Climate Resiliency Committee where we get to plan and shape climate initiatives for the 2nd largest school district in the nation.
I believe DSA as a national organization is at a major juncture where we must decide if we are going to build for the long haul and operate as a proto-party that organizes the masses or will we continue to operate as a fragmented organization that organizes itself into obscurity. I want to ground DSA for the long haul because I believe DSA is the vehicle we must build to win socialism in the United States, to fight imperialism across the world, and to liberate our class from climate annihilation.
My priorities for DSA at a national level are: 1) Building a socialist labor movement that engages the whole of our membership in workplace struggles, builds militant and high-participation unions, and forms a mass movement of workers capable of overturning capitalism. 2) Orienting DSA to take and wield state power through an electoral strategy that institutionalizes best practices for recruiting cadre candidates, building new organizers and recruiting new members, and establishing Socialist in Office programs across the organization. 3) Recruitment, retention, and growth of DSA especially in working class communities of color.
Finally, I am running for the National Political Committee (NPC) on the Groundwork Slate alongside fellow DSA-LA comrade Frances Gill and other amazing organizers from Louisville, Maine, and New York City. I am excited to take the experiences, skills, and strategies I learned here in Los Angeles to our national leadership body, and I hope I can earn your trust and the chapter nomination to run for NPC. You can find more information about the Groundwork Slate for NPC here.
Maria Lopez
Hello! My name is Maria Lopez. Born and raised in East LA and have been organizing within my community for over 10 years in and out of DSA from rallies to canvassing for Bernie while I was living in Texas for a year. I for one am extremely excited for the push of more openly socialist candidates in Los Angeles and nationwide. I believe in the need for our own party as socialists as we’ve seen time and time again our working class community left behind especially in light of the pandemic. It’s truly disheartening to see our conditions worsen while the career politicians we help elect sell us out. It’s time for a party for the working families of Los Angeles, and nationwide!
Marissa Ayala
I am running as a delegate for the 2023 DSA National Convention to ensure that DSA continues building a strong, strategic, multiracial organization that can challenge the forces of capital and win, across many areas of struggle.
I submit my candidacy as a member of Superbloom, a slate comprised of mostly organizers of color, engaged in work across our chapter, ranging from labor, to mutual aid and electoral work, to immigration justice. My organizing history in this chapter began in 2020 as a neighborhood captain, and more recently guided me into leadership of the working group to elect a fellow DSA member to LA City Council.
As the largest and most robust socialist organization to exist in the U.S. in the past century, we exist at a tipping point for many struggles—climate, housing, worker rights, trans liberation, and immigrant justice movements. We can only win these fights by organizing DSA towards a mass socialist workers’ movement that can contest for power across multiple terrains. The work we do now, in building our movement, shaping new leaders, and fighting both neoliberal and right wing reactionaries is essential for a better world in which workers can enjoy the fruits of our labor without oppression.
Marissa Roy
Hi! My name is Marissa Roy, and I’m a civil rights lawyer based in Downtown LA. Growing up in LA County in a multi-racial, mixed status family–my mom immigrated from India and did not become a US citizen until after my younger brother was born–I had a front row seat to inequity. As a child, I watched my immigrant Indian grandparents struggle in a system not built for them and was always asking why. When I was 16 and watched California vote to ban gay marriage, taking away my younger brother’s rights and future, I finally understood why: our laws and government had been built to separate society into classes of privileged and oppressed, and many were voting to maintain that structure. I became a civil rights attorney to fight systemic oppression in all its forms. I have fought against abusive employers stealing wages from workers, the Trump Administration and Department of Homeland Security’s racist immigration agenda, and the right-wing movement to abolish abortion rights.
While I have found my purpose in legal work, I didn’t find a home in LA politics until I joined DSA-LA. I became a member of DSA-LA during the pandemic, and though many events were virtual, I found a sense of common purpose there. DSA-LA introduced me to Eunisses’ and Hugo’s campaigns, which I volunteered for regularly thereafter. DSA-LA gave me opportunities to stand in solidarity with Starbucks workers and writers on strike. And DSA-LA’s political education committee has allowed me to continue to grow and learn.
DSA-LA has so much to offer as an example of a chapter at DSA’s annual national convening. It’s important to bring the lessons and insights that DSA-LA has gained from participating in ground-breaking strikes throughout LA to talk about how we build on the momentum for workers’ rights nationally. And as a multi-racial city of immigrants, LA can bring a uniquely intersectional perspective on building a workers’ rights movement that truly embraces all workers. I want to be part of this delegation bringing my own intersectional life experiences as well as my perspective litigating workers’ rights cases to uplift DSA-LA’s organizing experiences at the national level.
Mark G
I have been a member of DSA-LA since 2017, and have served as Westside Branch Coordinator since 2022. I think we need to build a robust organizing culture within DSA, to develop our ties with labor, and to advance a policy agenda that empowers the working class and responds to the climate crisis.
Mark Masaoka
DSA-LA member since 2017. Retired UAW 645 member, local officer; 15 years in auto plants. Participate in the Starbucks Workers support committee and member, Socialist Majority Caucus. Previous member in chapter’s Immigration and Electoral committees. Independently active in Japanese American community orgs working on Black Reparations, immigration and gentrification. Supporter of Rideshare Drivers United and UAWD (for Democracy)
Key issue is DSA continuing to build its independent political org without falling into mistakes of rushing a third party strategy that will make DSA irrelevant, or becoming so immersed in the Democratic Party that we cease being an independent, influential, socialist political force in the political, social and intellectual fields.
I would like to see more efforts and reflections on engaging, recruiting, and developing DSA leaders from non-college educated backgrounds. I would like more work in building relations with the Black Liberation Movement, including the Black reparations organizations.
Matt P
I’ve been an active member of DSA-LA for the past 2 years, participating with a focus on Neighborhood Solidarity organizing, Labor support and Council electoral campaigns. Most recently, I’m dedicating time to help build the organization’s capacity to understand and engage with city politics, and our affiliated electeds.
At a national level I believe our most critical issues are – building our capabilities as an organization that will allow us to promote support electoral candidates that are truly aligned to our priorities, boosting critical support for the burgeoning labor movement, and in particular, focusing on social housing solutions to mostly quickly mitigate against the worst aspects of the national housing crisis.
Melanie Sandoval
My time as an organizer began in 2021 when I found out that my university, Cal Poly Pomona,
had a YDSA chapter on campus. I wanted to be a part of a Socialist organization and contacted the founding members immediately. I was ready to take action. I helped this budding YDSA chapter blossom into a large, coalition with student from different groups on campus. We held a successful break light clinic, supported the Pomona United for Stable Housing With DSA-LA, and unified with other students groups on campus. I volunteered in support of the Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing chapter amendment for the City of Pasadena and Green New Deal for Public Schools in the LAUSD. The latter saw a successful election of Dr. Rocio Rivas for the LAUSD school board in district 2.
I envision DSA building a stronger coalition with the working class by placing a focus on YDSA chapters at public schools. So many students have a hunger for the values we have, unionizing we support, and sustainability we seek to adopt. To ignore and underfund chapters at these public schools will stall progress. If we do not prioritize public school YDSA chapters, then we are leaving an important coalition behind. This is why I support the YDSA Consensus Resolution though the YDSA-LA slate.
Outside of my main support for the YDSA Consensus Resolution, I fully support the “Resolution On The Defense of Immigrants and Refugees”, “Fighting the Right by Defending Abortion Rights, Trans People, and Democracy”, as well as numerous other resolutions.”
Michael Lumpkin
My name is Michael Lumpkin, I am a labor organizer, and I’ve organized with DSA in Los Angeles since 2017. I was twice elected to serve the Los Angeles chapter as a leader of the Labor Committee in 2019 and 2020, and I am currently a delegate to DSA’s California statewide body. I’m running to represent our chapter at DSA’s national convention because I want to support resolutions that secure our organization and advance a mass, socialist politics.
As a trade unionist and socialist I will support resolutions that seek to advance the interests of working people by creating opportunities to fight alongside our brothers and sisters across the working class against our common enemies. Building the confidence and capacity for collective action of the working class is a key task for our project and I will support resolutions that aim to grow and develop the ranks of militant workers that are central to our class’ ability to effectively fight corporate America. I know that DSA can be an important part of our class’ empowerment and I will work with anyone across our organization to build worker power.
Across our country and the world dark forces – stemming from the extreme and inherent inequality that characterizes capitalist production – are rallying and reshaping our politics as we face climate catastrophe. To beat back these dark forces and unleash the power of solidarity we need to secure our socialist organization and take our role seriously as the largest socialist organization in recent US history. We should do this by reforming our organization so that our elected political leadership can effectively lead and organize campaigns that champion widely and deeply felt issues in our communities.
I grew up in public housing in a single parent family and I am mad as hell at the way our people have been disrespected, displaced, and exploited by elites that think we’re too weak and too disorganized to fight back and win. And while it is true that they will outspend us every time, it is also true that without our brain and muscle their world would come falling down. The way we win is by proving to workers that DSA is a viable vehicle for achieving change, and that will take securing the DSA’s future and putting current and future members into motion through strategic, mass campaigns.
Michael McCown
I’m running with Socialist Majority Caucus and the Superbloom slate.
Like many, I joined DSA after Trump’s election in 2016. I was already active in the labor movement, but saw the need for explicitly socialist organizing as the neoliberal Democratic Party could no longer even command an electoral victory against the extreme Right. I served on East Bay DSA’s steering committee, and used my labor experience to help the rapidly-expanding organization find its sealegs.
Since moving to LA I put nearly all my organizing work back into my union, UAW, where I helped organize a strike of 48,000 academic workers at the University of California last year. I got re-involved in DSA last year as well, as I was inspired by DSA’s important role in electing two socialists to the LA City Council, thanks to the work of many on the Superbloom slate. Working with my union and with DSA on Hugo’s campaign felt like one of those moments in organizing when things come together effectively to build real power. I’m running for delegate to the national convention because I would like to see DSA nationally support more of that kind of organizing which is both practical and rooted in socialist ideas.
Michael Stenovec
I’m running for a delegate seat for the 2023 DSA National Convention because I want to help build DSA into an organization that can beat capitalism and win socialism. To achieve this ambitious goal, we need a DSA that is of and for the multiracial working class, that continues to elect socialist organizers to office, and that continues to coordinate rank-and-file labor activists across the country. To get there, we need to ensure that DSA is strong, democratic, and able to coordinate campaigns on a local and national level.
I’ve been a member of DSA since late 2016, and a member of DSA-LA since 2017. I co-founded UCLA’s YDSA chapter in the fall of 2019 and, through a combination of Bernie work, political education, and organizer trainings helped grow it from 4 members to 40 members—the largest YDSA chapter at the time. I also served as DSA-LA’s YDSA coordinator, where I helped grow 8 additional active YDSA chapters.
I still believe that some of the most critical work we can do as socialists is to organize a democratic socialist student movement. Young socialists are the future of our movement, and if we take seriously the task of developing YDSA chapters—particularly at high school and community colleges—we’ll further root our organization in the multiracial working class.
Inseparable from my work within DSA is my life within the labor movement, both as a union member and union staffer with the United Auto Workers. I’ve worked on several campaigns including the historic strike at the University of California this past fall, organized hundreds of workers into the labor movement within existing locals and new organizing campaigns, lead organizer trainings, developed stewardship networks, and trained shop floor leaders.
I’m excited to bring my commitment to socialism and my experience in labor- and campus organizing to the 2023 DSA National Convention.
Mindy Acevedo
I’m currently a member of the Conflict Engagement Team, Growth & Development Working Group, and nonprofit labor circle. My DSA work and my day job as a lawyer at a worker center enrich and inform each other. I’m supporting the Superbloom & Groundwork Slates’ priorities.
Mitzy
Hello my name is Mitzy Esquivel and this is my first year with CPP-YDSA (DSA-LA). There has to be a larger focus on multi-racial members of YDSA in community or public universities.
Monica G.
Hello, my name is Monica current member of the mutual aid committee. I think Strengthening DSA’s development of leaders of color through the Multiracial Organizing Committee and supporting chapters’ membership recruitment drives should be one of our priorities.
Natalie Barman
My name is Natalie and I am running as a delegate for the DSA National Convention. My priorities as a candidate for convention delegate are based in the labor perspective. Building a mass socialist movement must entail deep organizing in our workplaces, and I believe that DSA has an important role to play in equipping members to take collective action to stand up to the boss and improve working lives.
My first significant experiences as a socialist organizer came after I realized, while working as a middle school teacher and then later as a university teaching assistant, that the only real power workers have is through collective action. I became a UAW 2865 union steward, and organized in that capacity alongside other workers to double our membership and establish an organizing committee to build deep relationships on campus. I also became a DSA member, and learned the importance of building relationships across sectors to coordinate our discrete workplace fights. Recently, I helped organize the largest ever strike in higher education: 48,000 academic workers at the University of California went on strike last fall, leading to some of the best contracts in higher ed. These experiences have convinced me that increasing membership and participation is essential for any mass movement.
While my experiences have shown me that worker organizing is our most powerful tool to build socialism, I also believe that a strong electoral strategy is essential. Last year, I canvassed for Hugo Soto-Martinez alongside other DSA and union members. Hugo won the election in large part because of the socialist coalition that supported him. I believe we need to replicate this strategy in other races.
Building socialism will not happen overnight – it takes hard work and a stable organization committed to bringing more people into the movement. The best and most dedicated organizers I know are organizing with DSA, which is why I believe our organization is uniquely positioned to support long term socialist organizing.
Noah Campbell
Hi! My name is Noah and I’ve always wanted to go to Chicago.
I’ve been involved in union and socialist organizing for ten years and have been in DSA since 2021. I’ve learned a lot about organizing from taking part in forming a union at my job to now serving on the organizing committee of my union and being a site rep. In addition to union organizing I’ve also volunteered for various political campaigns and worked on tenant organizing. Just recently, I also joined the branch organizing committee for DSA Eastside/SGV to try to support the work of building our organization. I believe DSA needs to focus on a variety of different areas to be able to build a working class movement that can actually threaten the current capitalist system and move us towards socialism. And that’s hard! It’s why I want to do whatever I can to help strengthen our organization’s structure and systems.
I think DSA has done a lot of incredible work across the country and I would like to serve as a delegate to focus on the importance of connecting our local and national campaigns. We can learn a lot from what’s been happening across all of our chapters to support our local initiatives as well as join up to fight for national campaigns. DSA should also focus on internal democracy and member organizing to make us as efficient and militant as possible.
Thanks!
Noah S-S
I am a co-chair of DSA-LA’s Hollywood Labor and a member of its steering committee; over the course of my time in this chapter I’ve assisted with a number of labor actions from the IATSE strike lead-up, to the Chateau Marmont boycott, to the current WGA strike. From what I’ve seen, DSA needs a strong, transparent, and accountable national organization that is prepared to fight the increasing threat of right-wing reaction, as well as to help lead the American left into a stronger position. That means we need to beef up recruitment, strengthen ties from the national organization to local chapters, and ensure that national leadership is functional and goal-oriented, as well as making sure that our organization is staffed appropriately and being responsible with our funds. I plan on supporting our comrades, Marc K and Frances G, who have shown their clear commitment to concrete, on-the-ground organizing and real leadership.
Paul Zappia
As a DSA-LA member, I have worked on communications doing design and illustration for many projects, materials, and campaigns since 2020. My most known work in DSA is Bud the rose. I have also canvassed and phone banked for several campaigns and was very active in the Bernie 2020, Prop 15, and Pasadena for Rent Control campaigns. I currently serve on the National and California Electoral Committees and was recently appointed to the California DSA State Committee (Steering).
In both our local chapter, statewide org, and across the country – there are several major victories we’ve had in supporting the labor movement, providing aid to our communities, and securing electoral victories at different levels of office. However, we’re also at a crossroads in which we are seeing a decline in membership, huge labor struggles on the horizon, and our comrades struggling to work together and find consensus.
This provides us with an opportunity that cannot me missed. As a representative for DSA-LA and CA DSA I will support priorities that:
1. Move us forward, together, against division in fighting the fascist right and joining the working class in building power.
2. Support rank and file workers and shop floor organizing as we’ve done with UTLA, WGA, and baristas.
3. Empowering statewide organizing and gaining state power by electing more democratic socialists and running campaigns that create, engage, and educate more democratic socialists.
4. Strengthen the working class and build class consciousness
Philip Iglauer
Hello, comrades.
I’m Philip. I urge you to vote for me to represent DSA-LA at the DSA National Convention.
I have returned to DSA after a very long hiatus. You see, I was a member back in the late 1980s and early 90s (my high school and college years). I re-joined in December 2021, really only because I had been recruited to run in ADEMs (a Democratic Party delegate election) by a DSA-LA member. During that election campaign, I felt far more connected to DSA-LA than I did to the Democratic Party. So, I renewed my membership. I participated in my second Chapter Convention in April. If you vote for me, I will join my first-ever National Convention in August.
I am excited about where DSA is and I am excited about the bright future of socialism in America. We’re making changes and wresting power away from bosses and corporate Democrats. Membership has exploded in recent years. We have now elected members of Congress who expressly describe themselves as “Democratic Socialists.” That’s something I would never have believed possible when I was a member back in the early 1990s.
Workers are demanding better pay and respect now — and they’re getting it. In LA and around the country, workers are striking. This summer could be a summer of socialism! How awesome is that!!
At the same time, membership is cooling both for DSA-LA and for the national organization. People are losing their enthusiasm and dropping out. Now is the time to think strategically. How can we bolster membership and inspire new enthusiasm among fellow comrades? We have built important relationships with labor unions — what’s happening with Starbucks Workers United and our deep ties with UTLA is inspiring, but those ties are also fragile and require nurturing attention and hard work.
Another issue I believe important is how we can upgrade our ground game. Communication among our membership is crucial for that to happen, and that includes between the local national organizations.
Most of all, I look to learn from my DSA-LA comrades. I want to find out what DSA is all about at the national convention level. After all, this would represent my very first trip to the national convention. So, I have a lot to learn. I look forward to hearing what’s important to our chapter; what are our priorities; what ideas, resolutions, and values should DSA-LA’s delegation bring to the national convention.
Thank you for hearing me out and thank you for your consideration.
Philip Iglauer
East Area / San Gabriel Valley Branch
Preeti S
Hi! I joined DSA-LA in the pandemic and first took leadership through the CD1/ Eunisses Hernandez working group based on the hope for the transformative possibilities of having an abolitionist organizer in office, and for building a socialist bloc in LA city offices. I’m now a part of the labor committee, where we support upcoming and expansive worker’s campaigns and contract fights across the diverse industries and across worker centers and unions in the county, from garment worker’s campaigns and Starbucks worker’s pledges to education worker’s pickets and writer’s strikes. These intersectional struggles for workers of color, immigrant workers, and workers in non-unionized industries have local dimensions and national strategies. I’m excited to build on these efforts to strengthen DSA’s local and national Mutliracial Organizing Committee, queer and trans organizing, and intersectional approaches to worker organizing.
Rafael Jaime
I am running for a delegate seat at the 2023 DSA National Convention because the movement for socialism is at a historic turning point, and DSA has a critical role to play in building the multiracial working class power we need to win socialism. To continue building a mass socialist movement we need a strong, democratic DSA that can organize the unorganized and elect socialist candidates to office.
I joined DSA three years ago, and in that time have been active on a number of campaigns including Yes on Prop 15 and the LA city council race for Hugo Soto-Martinez. Through the Yes on Prop 15 campaign, I coordinated outreach among labor unions across California to support the ballot measure to tax the rich. When Hugo Soto-Martinez announced his campaign for city council, I led my union, UAW 2865, to become one of the first unions to endorse him and commit resources to the fight. UAW 2865 went on to play a critical role in the race by organizing members to collectively commit hundreds of hours to canvassing for Hugo.
There is no socialist movement without the labor movement. If we are to win socialism, DSA must adopt a strategic plan to organize the unorganized. It is on this front that I believe I have an unique perspective to contribute as president of one the largest local unions in the country. In my three years as a labor organizer in UAW 2865, the union of 36,000 academic workers at the University of California, I have helped rebuild our union to its highest level of membership and militancy since its founding. I was also active in the campaign to unionize student researchers at the University of California, bringing in 17,000 new workers into the labor movement. Last fall, I led my union through the largest strike in the history of higher education–a strike that involved 48,000 workers across three unions, eleven campuses, and nearly a dozen job categories. After six weeks on strike, all three unions ratified historic contracts that set new industry standards across all of higher education.
I’m excited to represent DSA-LA at the National Convention, and will support resolutions that will help us build a bigger, stronger, and more democratic DSA capable of organizing the multiracial working class.
Ricardo
Hi comrades – My name is Ricardo and I’m from the City of La Puente in San Gabriel Valley. I’m running with the Superbloom slate, a group of organizers from different backgrounds and perspectives, because I firmly believe that we need to organize democratic socialists across the United States to prepare and fight back against fascists forces creeping before us. We have to protect our LGBTQ+ community, our friends and neighbors in the immigrant community, support labor unions, and more. I’ve been a DSA-LA member since spring 2020, when I began to get heavily involved with my community and establishing with friends a group called La Puente Mutual Aid. Most recently, in November 2022, I ran for City Council in La Puente on a bold, socialist agenda. I’d like your support to attend the 2023 National Convention Delegates with the Superbloom slate to bring our perspective and experiences to this important convention. Thank you for your support and consideration.
Robert Shields
I am writing this statement with great enthusiasm and commitment as I announce my candidacy for the position of national delegate to represent our organization at the upcoming DSA national convention in Chicago. It is with a deep sense of dedication to our shared principles that I humbly ask for your support and your vote.
Throughout the years, I have been actively involved in the DSA-LA chapter, working tirelessly to support local protests and actions aimed at creating a more just and equitable society. I have been a neighborhood capitain in North Hollywood and an active member of the San Fernando Valley Branch. My experiences on the ground, alongside fellow organizers, have strengthened my belief in the power of collective action and the urgent need to continue to build this organization.
I believe what is critical for this upcoming convention for DSA is to prepare and be prepared for the debates that we will inevitably face the Left and our movement as a whole. Our tasks are to grow the socialist base and organize around fighting for a socialist world. This means being prepared to best spread our ideas in electoral politics and also on the ground at local inventions. The two major parties, for decades have been losing more trust from workers. In us and others they have been seeking an alternative which we are in best position to offer.
The upcoming national convention presents a critical opportunity for us to shape the future direction of our movement. As a national delegate, I will fight to bring a Marxist and revolutionary perspective alongside our diverse base of members. I believe there are many proposals worth supporting that will help solidify DSA as a fighting organization and draw more workers to our organization.
My priorities at the convention will revolve around fostering meaningful dialogue, collaboration, and solidarity. I am committed to ensuring that the voices of marginalized communities, workers, and the most vulnerable among us are amplified and centered in our decision-making processes. Through inclusive and democratic practices, we can build a stronger, more resilient movement that leaves no one behind.
If elected as your national delegate, I will work tirelessly to advance our collective goals and ideals. I will engage with fellow delegates, sharing insights from our local organizing efforts and building coalitions to promote policies and initiatives that challenge capitalist hegemony and move us closer to a society grounded in genuine equality and liberation.
I am confident that together we can make a lasting impact and drive real change. Your vote for me as a national delegate will empower our movement with a Marxist perspective, infusing our discussions and decisions with a nuanced understanding of the class struggle and the urgent need for radical transformation.
Let us unite, inspire, and transform. Vote for me as your national delegate, and together, we will build a stronger Democratic Socialists of America that truly embodies the principles of reovolutionary socialism and fights for a better world.
Robert U
I am writing to express my interest in being considered for a delegate position within the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) organization. As a committed advocate for socialist values, I strongly align with the core principles and goals of the DSA. Since joining, I’ve canvassed, phonebanked, texted and have marched for issues that I strongly believe in and I want to expand my reach not only locally but on a national level. I am confident that my ability to collaborate effectively, my strong communication skills, and my unwavering commitment to building a more equitable and inclusive society would contribute positively to the important work undertaken by the DSA.
Given the opportunity, I will wholeheartedly work towards advancing the organization’s agenda nationally and empowering individuals from all walks of life. Thank you for considering my application.
Sincerely,
Robert U.
Rodolfo Cortes
I have been organizing especially around housing issues for many years in East LA. I joined DSA in 2017 but did not see a lot of members from my Eastside neighborhood in DSA LA. Now that DSA LA is more active on the Eastside I would like to do more to organize with DSA LA. Nationally, we need to continue to grow the socialist movement. I think we need to keep electing socialists all around the country, while also building our local movements for socialist change.
Ryan Andrews
I joined DSA in 2016 while living in Chicago, and served on the chapter’s Executive Committee as well as its North Side Branch and Labor Branch steering committees. After moving to Los Angeles in 2018, I joined DSA-LA and became active in the chapter’s Labor Committee.
In 2019, I was a volunteer coordinator for LA Labor for Bernie, helping to cohere a network of unionists in support of Bernie 2020. This work led me to a job as a Regional Field Director for Bernie 2020 in LA, where my coworkers and I built a program to engage thousands of volunteers and hundreds of thousands of LA County voters, helping to deliver a significant victory for Bernie in CA.
The political acumen and skill set I honed during my time as a Bernie 2020 staffer were put to use on DSA’s statewide campaign to tax the rich with Proposition 15. We coordinated across chapters, worked closely with progressive unions throughout the state, called over 323,000 voters, spoke to over 11,400 of those voters, and raised over $20,000 during that campaign.
Last year, I made the decision to take a union job in public education and began teaching in LAUSD. As a UTLA member and elected steward at my school site, I helped to ensure UTLA had supermajority participation in our recent 3-day strike with SEIU 99, which secured major wins in our unions’ respective tentative agreements with the district. I do this work in coordination with DSA-LA’s Education Workers Circle.
I’m currently Campaigns Coordinator on the DSA-LA Steering Committee, and have been working with branch and committee leaders as well as the working groups forming around our local priority campaigns in order to develop work plans and facilitate member-to-member engagement and development around our external work.
As a member of the CA-DSA Electoral Committee, I helped to write our 2024 Electoral Vision document, including our plan to recruit and run a slate of class-struggle candidates for the CA State Assembly. I believe statewide organizations have the potential to not only help us contest for power in state legislatures and advance bold policy initiatives like the Build Public Renewables Act in New York, but also to provide a link between chapters and the national organization. This is part of my excitement around the National Electoral Committee resolution, which puts forth a bold vision for DSA’s electoral work, including the prioritization of statewide organizing.
If elected as a delegate, I intend to support the Democratize DSA Constitutional Change and Resolution as well as other organizationally-focused resolutions and constitution/bylaws changes which provide some common-sense solutions to some of our structural problems. My priority at Convention would be to develop a positive and coherent vision for a mass politics that the overwhelming majority of active DSA members can get behind, rather than allow ourselves to be swept away by theoretical debates that can sometimes distract from the bigger picture. The opportunities in front of us are too important, and the obstacles we face too great, for us to falter in creating a real plan of action to build working-class power as we build our organization in the coming years.
Sam R.
Hi comrades. I’ve been a member of DSA-LA since 2020, when I joined because of DSA-LA’s campaign for Nithya Raman. I’ve canvassed for Hugo, and I’ve been a canvass captain for Fatima’s 2022 primary and general cycle. In 2023, I joined our Administrative Committee and help ensure that our behind-the-scenes operations (the website, membership changes, Red Desk tickets) function smoothly.
I believe in DSA as the only socialist organization capable of challenging capitalism in the US this generation. In Los Angeles, we have proven that socialists can win formal political power running on class struggle platforms. As we develop a Socialists In Office program, we can be a model for National DSA to build “Democratic Socialism” into something more than a brand — but a coordinated movement with power and agency independent of the Democratic party.
Just as importantly, defeating capitalism will require militant labor organizations. By all indications, DSA-LA’s delegation will be arriving in Chicago amidst a nationwide Teamsters strike, maybe the largest private-sector strike in 25 years. A new generation of fighting unions are ready to strike to win — and to bargain for the common good. Nationally, DSA can connect members — from the smallest chapter to the largest — to picket lines. Every fighting union should see their local chapter as their biggest ally in the fight against the boss, and this wave of labor insurgency should be every bit as catalyzing a moment for workers to start identifying and organizing as socialists as the Bernie electoral campaigns of 2016 and 2020 were.
Sam S.
While I’ve been a DSA-LA member since Carol Newton recruited me in 2014, I was drawn back by the Sanders campaign and the upsurge against state terror in 2020. Since then, I’ve helped write DSA-LA’s Democratic Socialist Program, build an electoral program that’s won 20 percent of LA City Council and 30 percent of LA’s school board, and the first federated statewide organization, and now serve on our steering committee.
This will be my second national convention, and I run under the same principles – for a socialist majority in California’s multi-racial working class, for contesting for state power at the ballot and on the street, and for a movement for democracy and a Green New Deal with workers’ organizations and socialist organizers at its center.
LA and California have, after the winter of our 2020 losses, had socialist politics bloom like poppies after our winters. We want to share our lessons – wins, losses, and ongoing struggles – for a strong and flexible DSA prepared for protracted struggle and victory.
Shiu-Ming Cheer
Hello comrades,
My pronouns are she/her and I’ve been an active member of DSA-LA since 2019. In 2021 I was the Immigration Justice Committee Co-Chair and in 2022 I co-chaired the Working Group to elect Eunisses Hernandez to LA City Council. In those roles, I convened regular meetings to organize political education events and rallies around immigrant justice as well as bi-weekly canvasses and other activities in support of Eunisses’ campaign. Since her election to City Council, I have continued to represent DSA-LA in interactions with her office.
In terms of my background, I am a Chinese American immigrant who grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. I have 20+ years of experience in the immigrant justice sector, ranging from volunteer-run grassroots organizing projects to policy, litigation, direct services, and coalition building work. Most of my time has been directed at challenging ICE’s oppressive arrest, detention and deportation practices, with the goal of abolishing ICE and other carceral systems altogether.
My priorities for DSA at a national level are to:
• Continue to build on and formalize a winning strategy to elect socialists to office and co-govern with them
• Further multiracial, abolitionist organizing through political education and training programs
• Support the growth of DSA’s base in working class communities of color
Steve M
Hello! I have been a member of DSA-LA since 2020. I’ve been active with the Starbucks Workers Solidarity Working Group, the Political Education Working Group, and the Pasadena Rent Control campaign. I helped write our chapter’s Democratic Socialist Program, and worked in the PolEd committee on the curriculum for the Night School on Black Left Thought. I’m an active member of the California Faculty Association, and am a delegate to the LA County Federation of Labor. I joined DSA in Tampa, FL in 2017, where I served on the steering committee as secretary and then co-chair. I led canvasses for Bernie, state and local candidates, Medicare for All, and the Amendment 4 ballot initiative to restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated people. I was a Tampa delegate to the 2019 DSA National Convention, and have a good understanding of Robert’s rules and how the convention operates which I would be happy to share with my fellow delegates if elected!
Sydney G.
Hi comrades! My name is Sydney G. and I am honored to be running to represent our chapter as a delegate at DSA’s National Convention. I am a current Steering Committee member of DSA’s National Political Committee who has spearheaded national DSA campaigns and organizing initiatives on climate, labor, abortion rights, and much more. I have served in various national leadership positions in DSA for 6 years, and I hope to utilize my deep knowledge of DSA’s organizational and political complexities to support other DSA-LA delegates in understanding and navigating this convention.
I believe in DSA, and I believe that the organizing work I’ve done in DSA over the past several years speaks to my strong commitment to this organization and my unshakeable belief in our collective vision and ability to change the world. I am a former DSA-LA Climate Justice Co-chair and Coordinator who launched the National Ecosocialist Working Group (ESWG) at the 2017 DSA Convention. I built that from the ground up with comrades nationwide, shaping national DSA’s (previously unformed) analysis of the climate crisis as being rooted in colonialism/capitalism and a key terrain of 21st century socialist struggle. During my 2 terms on the ESWG Steering, ~60 new local ecosocialist committees started, ~25 DSA ecosocialist energy democracy campaigns launched, and the group collectively and democratically wrote our Ecosocialist Green New Deal Principles that received endorsement from 50+ chapters before being adopted by national DSA. I then served as leadership of DSA’s Green New Deal Campaign Commission.
As a steering member for the national DSA Green New Deal Campaign, I co-organized a summit with ~80 ecosocialist leaders each representing a different DSA chapter to hash out the campaign strategy and near-term demands. While the GNDCC worked on many projects/campaigns during my terms, I am most proud of our leadership on the PRO Act campaign (you can read a piece I co-authored for Dissent about the GND/PRO Act Connection here: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/to-win-a-green-new-deal-pass-the-pro-act). The PRO Act campaign was among the most momentous campaigns DSA has ever undertaken, with national chapter coaching, campaign trainings, comms work, coalition work, and a field operation that flipped 2 Senators, revived chapters that went defunct during the pandemic, and plugged thousands of members into one of the most important fights for workers’ rights this century. Our campaign prioritized outreach/training of BIPOC DSA members as campaign leaders and translated the bulk of our campaign materials to Spanish as part of our goal to turn DSA into a truly massive multiracial working class movement. I served as the DSA representative on the steering committee of a national coalition to win the PRO Act with organizations and unions including IUPAT and CWA, and can attest to the newfound respect that many unions had for DSA because of our work on that campaign. While we have yet to win the PRO Act, but the campaign and connections built between chapters and locals through the coalition have served as a foundation for strike solidarity and labor organizing initiatives many chapters went on to do.
In 2021, I was elected to serve on DSA’s National Political Committee (NPC), which is DSA’s highest leadership body in-between conventions. I currently serve on the NPC’s Steering Committee. Through this role, I have addressed budgetary, legal, structural, political, organizing, coalition, electoral, governance, and staffing issues as part of a collective leadership body; the work is extensive. I have also spearheaded many projects, such as driving abortion rights as a top priority in the aftermath of the Roe v. Wade decision. Through the Protect Abortion Committee (which was established via a resolution I authored and passed as a steering committee member), we hosted a launch call and rapidly established a website, toolkit, graphics, signs, a petition, and flyers that supported 100 chapters in hitting the streets in the immediate aftermath of the decision. The committee went on to host training sessions that taught members how to organize state and local campaigns that would protect abortion. As part of this national effort, chapters in 3 red states successfully prevented the overturn of abortion rights. Some of that work was supported by DSA’s electoral grant program, which was established during my term. You can read a memo on the Protect Abortion campaign work here: https://bit.ly/3MUxZZA
I am committed to DSA, and the DSA work I’ve done over the past few years has only deepened my belief in the power of our members to build a transformative, multiracial, working class movement grounded in an internationalist and socialist perspective. I hope I have your support to represent our chapter as a delegate at this upcoming convention.
Tal L
I have been an active DSA-LA member since joining in January 2017. Through that time I’ve served on two Steering Committees, chaired an internal membership & recruitment committee from 2018-2019, and served on the chapter’s Electoral Committee in 2021 and 2022, with a particular focus on the DSA for Hugo Soto-Martinez campaign.
This year, I’m continuing to support the growing DSA-LA Socialists in Office Program, appointed by the Electoral Committee, and was recently elected to California DSA’s State Committee.
I have attended the 2019 (Atlanta) and 2021 (online) conventions, and am excited to run to attend a third (second in-person) convention with the Superbloom Slate.
Thea Orozco
Hello. I have been with DSA-LA for the past year and have volunteered on DSA’s committee to elect Rocío Rivas, I led two postcard events for that campaign. I was also on DSA-LA’s Green New Deal for Public Schools working group.
I think the main issue DSA is facing is apathy. Many people see the U.S. is “”broken,”” and while they may be hopeful something will change it seems like few think it actually will, and even fewer seem to be ready (or have the resources/time privilege) to fight for structural change.
I hope that on the National level DSA will focus on membership growth, membership retainment and engagement, and putting systems and best practices in place for local DSAs to create change through local action, legislation, and getting socialists elected into political office.
Thomas Calobrisi
I’ve been a member of DSA-LA since January 2023 and have since been involved as a Branch organizer for the East LA-SGV branch. I believe the most critical issue facing DSA are member retention, internal organizing, and charting meaningful interventions into the political landscape in the post-Bernie moment. My priorities for DSA follow from these issues: how do we retain current members and grow members ship going forward? How do build out the internal organization of DSA to serve that end? And how can we use a larger, engaged base of membership to make the impacts we want to see in the world?
Thomas Malone
I have been national member of DSA since about 2016 after the first Bernie campaign, but I didn’t get properly involved until about 2020 when my friend, and fellow slate member, Carlos Callejo approached me to help co-found the Cal Poly Pomona’s YDSA chapter. We’ve come a long way since our Zoom-oriented start with a couple of members to a passionate, strong, and close knit group of a few dozen people. I’m extremely proud of our work in Bronco YDSA in building progressive coalitions with other likeminded groups on campus including both clubs and labor organizations on campus. From our work on our Cops Off Campus campaign and hosting our brake light clinic with the help of DSA-LA, to working with community groups in Pomona to pass emergency rent control measures, to post Roe v Wade actions, we have come a long way. We are currently trying to help unionize undergraduate workers on campus, and as a senior, I hope to get more involved with DSA and DSA-LA proper after graduation.
Personally, I believe YDSA has some of the most thoughtful and progressive ideas and believe that YDSA serves as a great catalyst for cultivating future organizers in DSA. I, alongside the rest of the YDSA-LA Slate, wholeheartedly support the YDSA Consensus resolution by my comrade Carlos Callejo to help prioritize building up YDSA at public universities and community colleges. I fully support this resolution and hope to see greater investment in public institutions as a breeding ground for organizing working class college students.
I’m also a union member, UFCW Local 1428, and shop steward at my workplace. I fully support the National Labor Committee’s Consensus Resolution.
Other amendments I support include but are not limited to: International Committee’s Consensus Resolution, Housing Justice Commission’s Consensus Resolution, Multiracial Organizing Committee’s Consensus Resolution, Socialist Anti-Militarism and the War in Ukraine, Run DSA Candidates for School Boards, and Towards a Party-Like Electoral Strategy.
Most importantly, I am willing to fight and argue relentlessly for the “Make Bud DSA’s Official Mascot” resolution. All committed socialists need to carry on the good fight is a cool little dude to represent us.
Tony Vong
Hi, my name is Tony Vong and I originally found myself in the Democratic Socialists of America when I first volunteered for one of its candidates for city council in 2022. I hold great trust in the Democratic Socialists of America because I, and I believe you as well, see the DSA as a faithful opposition to corrupt political machines that now run politics throughout America. As a fellow member of the Democratic Socialists of America, I feel that it’s very important for the membership as a whole to ensure that we do not develop political machines within the DSA. I am concerned that allowing the use of national DSA assets to aid certain candidates in elections for our National Political Committee would keep us exposed to that threat and that’s why I support the prohibition of such practices. It’s with this restraint that we can rest assured knowing we may remain rich with genuine integrity, something unique to us and lacking in the governments of our country.
With this restraint, we can more clearly pursue goals for the benefit of our community and the United States as a whole, starting with the school board. Conservatives in school boards across the United States wash away our rich history of labor, our friends in the trans and queer communities face discrimination from officials who are supposed to represent them, while the identities of students are suppressed in what are supposed to be their second homes. All of these tragedies show why it’s ever more crucial to get democratic socialist candidates into school boards all across the country to rid this disgrace of discrimination and pave the way for the history of labor to finally be recognized. We saw MLK in our textbooks, but we have missed the presence of the likes of his comrade, Walter Reuther. I have taken part in demonstrations for benefits for part time professors, worked with the part time faculty of my community college, and I hope to see this theater of political conflict be emphasized nationwide.
Another theater I wish for the DSA to commit its sword to is the nationalization of railroads. While our highways, streets, and skies are constantly being suffocated by cars, it only makes sense to nationalize and democratize major infrastructures. It doesn’t have to take East Palestine to wake up the country that it’s time to nationalize our infrastructure for both our own safety and our future. I want this nationalization and democratization of our economy to pave the way for high speed rail to unite our countries, worker cooperatives in infrastructure to make our nature finally follow cooperation over self-interest, and the transition to complete renewable energy use to combat the creeping crisis of climate change.
I hope you share the same sentiments as I do and I hope you will stand alongside me in these endeavors. Thank you for your time.
Yoni H
Hi everyone! My name is Yoni, and I have been a proud member of DSA-LA since 2019. Inspired by the Bernie campaigns, I joined America’s largest socialist organization to make a difference in my community. In 2021, I joined Hollywood Labor leadership and have been involved in multiple labor and electoral campaigns, including canvassing for Hugo and providing strike support for WGA. These experiences have taught me critical lesions that I hope to bring to the national organization.
My work in DSA-LA directly led to me organizing my workplace and becoming a full-time union organizer with the newly reformed United Auto Workers. Over the course of two years, I worked with my fellow organizers to win a landslide election (93%-7%) against the University of Southern California, a fiercely anti-union and corrupt institution. I am now on the bargaining team, fighting for a fair contract. I couldn’t have done without the support and mentorship of DSA members, which is why I believe DSA must prioritize and support new organizing. We need to empower the National Labor Commission to develop a clear organizing plan in tandem with the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee.
DSA-LA is one of the best chapters in the country, and we should be damn proud of the things we have accomplished. If elected, I would be honored to vote in a way that further empowers our work in Los Angeles, and to help share our perspective and lessons with our fellow members from across the nation. Solidarity Forever!
Zé Ferreyra
I joined DSA in the fall of 2020 but only began to get involved in YDSA in April of 2022 through my local YDSA chapter at Cal Poly Pomona. Since the first campaign I got involved in (a brake light clinic), I knew I found an organization and group of students that not only could, but were actively working to better our community and the world around us. Our chapter has greatly increased in membership and has even taken the initiative in building progressive coalitions with like-minded/progressive clubs. We have also extended to off-campus and local community groups who we have worked with to help pass emergency rent control in Pomona. Our current main campaign focuses on helping unionize undergrad workers on our campus. I have had to honor to serve as the treasurer for our YDSA chapter this semester and as president of the club next academic year with the goal of continuing the great work and momentum present among our many activated members.
I fully support and am a co-sponsor of the resolution for the YDSA convention that would prioritize building new YDSA chapters at public universities and community colleges. As a Latine myself, I believe this resolution will not only address some of the concerns regarding diversity within DSA but will also strengthen YDSA in general so that it can continue to recruit and funnel more members into DSA to build the future of our organization. It is vital YDSA continues to receive the resources and funding it requires to work in building the organizations and the socialist movement at large. With this in mind, I, alongside the YDSA-LA slate are major proponents of YDSA’s Consensus Resolution and together, we believe it to be imperative that it passes. I also am in support of resolutions including but not limited to “Fighting the Right by Defending Abortion Rights, Trans People, and Democracy”, “Platform Amendment: Public Ownership of Railroads”, and “Make Bud DSA’s Official Mascot”.