Author: dsamadison

ElectionsLeave a comment

MADSA’s Electoral Strategy & The Fran Hong Endorsement

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by Aaron L Since the April 2025 Chapter Convention, MADSA has slowly been reconfiguring its electoral strategy. Two key events emerged from the 2025 Chapter convention. First was the passage of a pair of resolutions: “Doing Politics in Public,” and “Towards a Local Political Program.”  These resolutions oriented the chapter to the work of mapping out the city’s power structures, our membership’s distribution within the city, and interfacing with the public to generate a political program based on the needs of the city’s population. The second key event was the Electoral Working Group’s failure to recharter. This all pointed MADSA’s … Continue reading MADSA’s Electoral Strategy & The Fran Hong Endorsement

Internationalism, SocialismLeave a comment

Member of PSOL in Brazil Visits Madison DSA

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by Kristen B. In December 2025, MADSA was visited by Peter B., a Brazilian socialist member of PSOL (Partido Socialismo e Liberdade/Socialism and Liberty Party). Peter has been living in New York for the past year and paid a visit to Madison, Wisconsin, as part of his effort to promote the First International Antifascism Conference, being held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, from March 26-29, 2026. This conference is being organized by his party, PSOL, as well as PT (Worker’s Party; party of current president Lula da Silva) and PC do B (Communist Party of Brazil).  Peter has been an active … Continue reading Member of PSOL in Brazil Visits Madison DSA

Labor, Local, Monthly Round-Up, Organizing, UnionsLeave a comment

Monthly Round-Up – December 2025

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By a Comrade This article is written by a DSA member and does not formally represent the views of MADSA as a whole or its subgroups.  Welcome to Vol. 5 of the monthly round-up! The content in this publication overlaps significantly with our DSA newsletter and monthly General Membership Meetings. To sign up for the newsletter or check out an upcoming General Membership Meeting, visit: https://madison-dsa.org/events/ MADSA Adds a New Branch The chapter reported at our December General Membership Meeting that MADSA has nearly doubled in size since October 2024 – from 368 members then, to 643 members now! In … Continue reading Monthly Round-Up – December 2025

UncategorizedLeave a comment

Can MADSA Make Better Possible? Francesca Hong and Madison Area DSA’s Electoral Strategy

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By Halsey H. The past decade of the Democratic Socialists of America has been defined by shockingly successful moonshot campaigns that catapulted socialism into national conversation, leaving organizers scrambling to meet the moment without sacrificing their principles. First, we had Bernie’s 2016 presidential campaign and its 2020 encore, and then just a few months ago, Zohran Mamdani shattered expectations with his election as  mayor of New York City. Now, it might be Wisconsin’s turn: MADSA member and State Rep. Francesca Hong announced her bid for Governor at our September General Meeting. Since then, there has been widespread debate in the … Continue reading Can MADSA Make Better Possible? Francesca Hong and Madison Area DSA’s Electoral Strategy

Anticapitalism, LocalLeave a comment

Seasons of Retail

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On stocking Christmas merchandise when it’s 80 degrees in October by OF I grew up in Southern Illinois, at the very tip where you’re closer to Memphis than Chicago. Thesummers of my youth were brutal and swampy: far worse than those my parents remembered, and god awful to my delicate sensibilities. Heat waves would hover over 100 degrees for days, only letting up after a cold front kept the tornado sirens running all night long. As such, summer became a season of indoor fun. My preferred pastimes were reading books, going to movies, and playing video games. I developed certain … Continue reading Seasons of Retail

Organizing, SocialismLeave a comment

Democracy: On meetings and voting

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by Dan F There have been some differences of opinion in MADSA about decision making, meetings, and in general how we organize over the past few years. And contention has often arisen around bylaw changes. Here are some of my migraine-addled opinions on why this is happening. Two examples of contention First, in the 2025 convention there was a bylaw change proposed to make working groups accountable to a SMART goal-based structure. In the introduction, the intent was written as about “democracy, accountability, and transparency”, and about improving communication between working groups and the general membership. However, as written, the … Continue reading Democracy: On meetings and voting

Monthly Round-UpLeave a comment

Monthly Round-Up – November 2025

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By a Comrade This article is written by a DSA member and does not formally represent the views of MADSA as a whole or its subgroups.  Welcome to Vol. 4 of the monthly round-up! The content in this publication overlaps significantly with our DSA newsletter and monthly General Membership Meetings. To sign up for the newsletter or check out an upcoming General Membership Meeting, visit: https://madison-dsa.org/events/ Behind-the-Scenes in a Growing Org Over the past year, the DSA has had a huge boom in membership nationally, a surge in membership here in Madison, and an increase in name recognition after Zohran … Continue reading Monthly Round-Up – November 2025

SocialismLeave a comment

Why Socialists Should be Vegan

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by Leo Neustadt Personally, I’ve been vegan for almost a decade. This is the longest I’ve ever stuck with anything in my entire life. I’ve picked up and put down so many hobbies, played around with my gender expression, and had just shy of a million jobs, but being vegan is by far the most consistent thing about me. Recently, my partner and I spent a weekend at Vegan Basecamp. A lovely couple living in Las Vegas plans a few trips a year to camp and hike in different parts of the southwest, and they pamper their guests with amazing … Continue reading Why Socialists Should be Vegan

Organizing, Racism, Socialism, Uncategorized, UnionsLeave a comment

The Peculiar and Continuing Importance of Anti-Black Racism in the U.S.

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By Blair Goodman — Political Education Working Group, Madison DSA Madison, right now Across Dane County, our campaigns against jail expansion, corporate developers, and layoffs at TruStage all run into the same brick wall: a system that divides and disciplines labor along racial lines. Anti-Black racism isn’t an add-on to class struggle—it’s a core method by which exploitation keeps reproducing itself. This piece offers a framework for connecting those dots in our local work. 1) Capitalism’s birth in racial slavery Modern capitalism was built through dispossession and enslavement—the twin thefts of land and labor. Plantations were early financial instruments linking … Continue reading The Peculiar and Continuing Importance of Anti-Black Racism in the U.S.

abolition, City Gov, Local, OrganizingLeave a comment

Jail Communications Campaign Victory

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By the Jail Communications Coalition We fought hard, we fought smart, and we won! The Abolitionist Working Group and our community coalition for free jail communications campaigned against a 3-5 year, exploitative contract between the Dane County Sheriff and Smart Communications, which the Dane County Board of Supervisors voted to reject on September 18, 2025.  The contract would have meant continued financial exploitation of jail residents and their families, keeping human connection for those awaiting trial behind a paywall and denying jail residents physical mai through the dehumanizing and inefficient practice of mail scanning. We are celebrating and learning from … Continue reading Jail Communications Campaign Victory