Tag: Organizing

  • Monthly Round-Up – January 2026

    Monthly Round-Up – January 2026

    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. 6 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 Endorses Fran Hong for Governor

    Cheers erupted in the January 28th General Membership Meeting when over 100 people voted in favor of endorsing Francesca Hong in the upcoming Wisconsin gubernatorial race. The air in the meeting was electric and attendance was the largest in recent chapter history. Comrades engaged in rousing debate during the discussion block, on factors including election timing, chapter capacity, trust in structures of power, the opportunities and drawbacks that come with campaign organizing work, and the potential representation of socialism in WI. Ultimately, the chapter expressed readiness to put work into this campaign. 

    As the District 76 State Representative and a member of the Wisconsin Legislative Socialist Caucus, Fran has championed democratic socialist policies like universal childcare, public education and healthy school meals for all, paid family leave, and an Economic Justice Bill of Rights which guarantees the right to a unionized job. She continues to run as a proud democratic socialist on a platform of economic justice and workers’ rights. This campaign also means a huge opportunity for community-building; people will be connecting across Wisconsin through door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, town halls, and other volunteer opportunities during the campaign. The chapter looks forward to meeting new people, discussing the issues that matter to them, and promoting policies for building working class power. 

    Chapter Prepares for Upcoming Annual Convention

    The DSA follows a deliberative democratic decision-making process, empowering all members to have a say in local and national DSA action. The process has many benefits, including feeling a higher sense of ownership in the projects of the organization, building leadership and speaking skills among members, encouraging critical thinking, modeling active participation in decisions that impact us, maintaining a sense of accountability in leaders, and being able to focus on several areas based on the abilities and desires of membership. As our chapter has grown in size, we’ve seen new working groups, changes to the bylaws governing our chapter, expansion of certain roles, and lots of lively discussion in-person and in our online channels! We’ve been seeing more debate as well, which is a sign of healthy engagement.

    We have an opportunity for more change as our annual chapter convention is approaching. The dates have been finalized for March 20th and March 21st, 2026. The convention plays a huge role in chapter work for the rest of the year. At the convention, you will:

    • Hear reports from working groups in our chapter;
    • Vote on continuing existing working groups (rechartering);
    • Vote on new bylaw amendments and chapter resolutions (starting new campaigns, working groups, projects, etc.);
    • Vote for leadership positions – executive co-chairs, administrator, treasurer, communication and membership coordinators, “at-large,” Solidarity Captains, and the Community Accountability Committee (“CAC”). 

    There are several preparation meetings scheduled before the convention, where people can co-work on resolutions and get feedback. Here is the timeline leading up to convention:

    • Resolution Writing Workshop 1 – January 14th, which already took place this month!
    • Resolution Writing Workshop 2 – February 12th 6:30-8:30pm at Social Justice Center.
    • Due date for All Convention Materials – February 20th.
    • Due date for Amendments to Proposals – March 10th.
    • March General Meeting – convention agenda will be discussed – March 11th.
    • Convention Friday March 20th 6-9pm + Saturday March 21st 10am-4pm.

    Click here to see the full Convention Guide and/or RSVP – all members are strongly encouraged to attend so that they can participate in leading MADSA’s next steps for 2026!

    ICE Out: Working Towards Community Safety

    Alongside hope for Fran’s campaign, and focus for the upcoming convention, people’s hearts are burning with fear, sadness, and rage around state violence inflicted in the name of unjust “immigration enforcement” and protest “crowd control.” We are witnessing senseless deaths and extrajudicial kidnappings – flagrant human rights violations. 

    Socialists know that the horrors we are seeing today are not the result of one mad leader (nor his cabinet), but the result of over a century of festering capitalism, racism, and imperialism concentrating wealth and power to the few. MADSA released a statement, and is ongoingly deliberating on what our medium- and long-term role will be in supporting communities around safety and immigration rights in the face of escalating political violence. The previous section noted the highlights of our deliberative democracy structure, but the major drawback is that decisions tend to move more slowly than in a “top-down” structure. While that work is ongoing, MADSA and its members have organized and participated in several actions in January, and will continue to do so:

    • Members participated in the Ice Out Solidarity Vigil on January 9th after the killing of Nicole Good, as well as the following Ice Out rally on January 10th.
    • Members participated further in an Ice Out rally on January 25th in response to the killing of Alex Pretti. Member Sam D. gave a speech – click here for a link with captions. 
    • Members participated in an ICE Week of Action building up to a January 30th walk-out + march and the January 31st Madison Anti-ICE Community Meeting organized by MADSA. This included Know Your Rights training, group discussion, opportunities to generate concrete political demands, and information about next steps to build networks of community support. Organizers will continue to meet around this work. 
    • Members are also building to a national general strike on May Day, which will include demands around safety for immigrant communities and communities of color.

    Additional Organizing

    Other important efforts this month included the following:

    The Labor Working Group is launching the Madison Organizing Institute –a 12-week long course designed for anyone who wants to build or strengthen a union in their workplace. The course will teach you about your organizing rights, skills for talking to coworkers, developing demands, and more. Click here for the link to sign up.

    No Appetite for Apartheid announced a launch party scheduled for February 7th, 6-8pm at James Reeb on E. Johnson. This event is open to the public, stating: “The goal of the No Appetite for Apartheid campaign is to make Madison a more ethical place to shop by removing all grocery items complicit in the violence against Palestinians.”

    A member announced an Artists’ Planning Meeting for February 1st with the goal of adding art programming to the upcoming Convention, and overall increasing art and music engagement in the chapter.

    MADSA has been more in touch with Milwaukee DSA in light of recent organization work, and the latter chapter published a podcast episode about successful labor organizing in Milwaukee. Listen to it here! 

    Social Events

    We continue hosting recurring social events – New Member Orientations, DSA 101, Coffee with Comrades, and the Rosebuddies program. We also look forward to various canvassing opportunities and electoral campaign-related events in February and beyond. 

    Protest Song of the Month

    For January, I present the Song of Choice by Peggy Seeger. This song uses an extended metaphor of dormant seeds to represent fascism, and urges the listener to pull the weeds before it’s too late. A snippet:

    “Early every year, seeds are growing

    Unseen, unheard, they lie beneath the ground.

    Would you know before the leaves are showing

    That with weeds all your garden will abound?

    If you close your eyes, stop your ears,

    Hold your mouth, how can you know?

    The seeds you cannot see may not be there;

    The seeds you cannot hear may never grow…

    In January you’ve still got the choice,

    You can cut the weeds before they start to bud!

    If you leave them to grow higher, they’ll silence your voice

    And in December you may pay with your blood!”

    And that concludes our monthly round-up!

  • Monthly Round-Up – November 2025

    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 Mamdani’s recent high-profile win in NYC (as well as other wins across the nation!). MADSA saw several new work groups form throughout 2025, as well as new projects, book clubs, potential candidate endorsements, and events for members and the community at large. These efforts all remain underway!

    As MADSA has scaled up, we’ve also contended with more mundane operational questions– How do we handle marketing and social media posts, now that there are so many more events? How are we feeling about our electoral endorsement process when it’s for re-elections? How can we keep developing comradeship among members? What is a good venue for our monthly meeting?!

    Here is a small behind-the-scenes look at some changes as we expand:

    • The Communication Committee (Comms) is working on appointing “liaisons” within each working group and project, so that Comms can stay better oriented to the chapter’s marketing/posting needs;
    • Comms and Executive Committee are also working on increasing direct posting access for various Working Groups so that they are not solely reliant on Comms for posting information about events and actions;
    • The Electoral Working Group has been exploring endorsement for several candidates running in state and local races, as well as discussing and reviewing the endorsement processes themselves;
    • Various members continue their efforts to revitalize Red Madison for internal and public readership – this has included identifying people who are open to contributing, as well as making calls for submissions at our general meetings;
    • The chapter will be publishing a resource to prepare for the 2026 Chapter Convention, where members will continue shaping the direction of MADSA;
    • The chapter has been experimenting with a few different venue options for GMMs to accommodate our new numbers and the geographical distribution of our membership.

    It is our hope that these changes will support the continued growth of the chapter, both in scope and in activity levels. 

    Social Events

    Our chapter had two reading groups wrap up in November:

    • Skyscraper Jails, discussed in the Abolitionist Working Group meetings;
    • Wretched of the Earth, discussed on Sundays, in a hybrid virtual/in-person format.

    We continue hosting recurring social events – New Member Orientations, Coffee with Comrades, Crafting with Comrades, MADSA Run Club, and the Rosebuddies program. 

    As the year comes to an end, we’ll be reaching out to members and asking about their experiences in MADSA this year, and their socialist resolutions for 2026. We’re also planning a New Year’s party on New Year’s Eve, details forthcoming!

    Protest Song of the Month

    For a November protest song, I’d like to highlight an artist from an indigenous background and ties to the Midwest – John Trudell. John was a Santee poet, musician, actor, speaker, veteran, and activist, at one point chairing the American Indian Movement (AIM). Here is the Listening / Honor Song, a spoken word piece over traditional music. The lyrics can be found here. 

    And that concludes our monthly round-up!

  • Cadre Development

    by Blair Goodman

    Purpose and Use

    This is a training and reference guide (or maybe just a vision) for developing cadres—members who form the committed core of an organization.  It helps participants understand both the skills and the culture needed to sustain effective socialist organizing.

    What is a Cadre?

    “I liked doing it, Mac. I don’t know why. It seemed a good thing to be doing. It seemed to have meaning. Nothing I ever did before had any meaning.”
     — John Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle

    In political organizing, cadre refers to the trained, committed core of activists who form an organization’s backbone. The term comes from the French for “framework”—the people who provide structure and continuity to movements. While it has formal connotations from Leninist party-building, the functional distinction is simple: every organization has general members, active participants, and a reliable core that holds it together.

    In DSA, we rarely use the term “cadre,” but the role exists. These are the members who show up consistently, train others, and keep chapters functioning between the exciting moments. They provide continuity, institutional memory, and capacity for growth.

    How Cadres Develop

    There’s no application or credentialing process to become a cadre. You don’t need a degree or professional experience—these skills are learnable through practice, mentorship, and reflection. Most members remain active participants, but a smaller number become reliable organizers who hold things together. Their development combines three dimensions: practical skill, political understanding, and emotional sustainability.

    Core Organizing Skills

    These are the foundational abilities that connect people, ideas, and action. They interrelate and reinforce one another.

    • Relationship Building & Recruitment: Conducting meaningful political conversations, identifying people’s interests, and moving them along a ladder of engagement. Cadres can assess someone’s political position and help them take the next step.
    • Meeting Facilitation: Running meetings with clear goals, time management, and inclusivity; encouraging participation while moving toward decisions.
    • Campaign Planning: Designing strategic campaigns with clear goals, timelines, and escalation strategies. Understanding power mapping and leverage points.
    • Political Education: Leading study groups, connecting theory to practice, and explaining Marxist or socialist concepts in accessible ways.
    • Communication: Writing leaflets, press releases, and social media content; public speaking; and internal communications that build unity and motivation.

    Operational Skills

    Operational skills turn plans into effective, coordinated action. They complement the core organizing skills by focusing on logistics, implementation, and management.

    • Direct Action Planning: Organizing pickets, rallies, and protests with attention to logistics, safety, legal needs, and media coordination.
    • Labor Organizing: Understanding workplace mapping, union drives, contract campaigns, and how to connect labor struggles to broader socialist politics.
    • Electoral Organizing: Managing canvassing and GOTV operations, supporting endorsed campaigns while maintaining DSA’s independence.
    • Coalition Building: Working across organizations with different traditions, balancing principled positions and practical collaboration.
    • Administrative & Digital Competence: Maintaining data (Action Network, VAN), budgeting, fundraising, and using communication tools effectively (Slack, Signal, Zoom, Canva).

    Political and Theoretical Knowledge

    Political grounding keeps cadres oriented and principled through complex or demoralizing conditions. Theory clarifies purpose and prevents burnout or disorientation.

    • Ideological Literacy: Understanding different left traditions (Marxism, democratic socialism, anarchism, etc.) and how to navigate a multi-tendency space.
    • Historical Awareness: Drawing lessons from labor, civil rights, and socialist movements—successes and failures alike.
    • Current Analysis: Following political developments, class composition shifts, and right-wing organizing, connecting analysis to action.
    • Organizational Theory: Understanding democratic structures, accountability, and how to balance democracy with effectiveness.

    Distinguishing Features of Cadre

    • Skill Integration: Deploying multiple skills in combination—facilitating, teaching, and advancing campaigns simultaneously.
    • Consistency & Reliability: Following through on commitments and maintaining presence through highs and lows.
    • Strategic Thinking: Seeing how immediate campaigns fit into long-term power-building.
    • Political Maturity: Managing conflict and setbacks without demoralization; keeping eyes on shared goals.
    • Initiative & Ownership: Acting without waiting for direction—identifying needs, organizing others, and taking responsibility.
    • Reproduction Capacity: Training others, sharing knowledge, and building sustainable organizational capacity.

    Mentorship and Reproduction Practices

    The mark of a mature cadre is the ability to reproduce leadership. This happens through structured mentorship and intentional knowledge transfer:

    • Apprenticeship: Pairing new members with experienced organizers to learn through observation and shared work.
    • Delegation: Giving others real responsibility, not just tasks, and trusting them to learn through doing.
    • Documentation: Writing guides, maintaining notes, and passing down institutional memory.
    • Feedback: Offering constructive criticism and praise as part of a regular organizational culture.

    Example: A chapter organizer pairs a new comrade to co-facilitate a meeting, then debriefs afterward about what worked and what didn’t. This transforms experience into shared learning.

    Political Discipline and Collective Accountability

    Cadres balance initiative with collective discipline. They understand that personal autonomy operates within democratic decisions. Once a group makes a decision, cadres help implement it faithfully while ensuring dissent remains principled and productive. They maintain message discipline, coordinate action, and avoid freelancing that undermines organizational trust.

    Internal Democracy and Conflict Navigation

    A healthy cadre culture depends on internal democracy and transparency. Cadres:

    • Model democratic behavior by encouraging participation and accountability.
    • Address conflict directly but constructively, seeing it as part of growth.
    • Uphold decisions once made while ensuring open, honest debate before decisions.

    Sustaining Ourselves and Each Other

    Organizing is emotionally demanding. Sustainability is a collective practice that allows us to endure and grow.

    • Emotional Regulation: Staying calm under stress and managing interpersonal challenges productively.
    • Boundaries and Burnout Awareness: Recognizing limits and respecting others’ capacity.
    • Collective Care: Normalizing check-ins, rest, and mutual support. Rest is part of revolutionary practice.
    • Maintaining Perspective: Seeing our work as part of a longer historical struggle; neither despairing nor romanticizing.
    • Reflection and Assessment: Building feedback loops—evaluating campaigns, identifying lessons, and celebrating victories.

    Inclusion and Equity in Cadre Development

    Cadre work must be inclusive. Historically marginalized comrades often face additional barriers to leadership. A healthy cadre culture:

    • Ensures access and participation across lines of race, gender, class, and ability.
    • Confronts gatekeeping and informal hierarchies.
    • Uses practices such as rotating facilitation, accessible meeting times, and multilingual materials.
    • Centers mentorship that lifts comrades from underrepresented groups.