Tag: Story 6

  • Monthly Round-Up – April 2026

    Monthly Round-Up – April 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. 9 of the monthly round-up! The content in this publication overlaps 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/

    Members Work Towards A May Day Success

    Photo from The Capitol Times, featuring Voces De La Frontera.
    MADSA members tabling at the Library Mall rally.

    Throughout the start of 2026, and especially in April, MADSA worked towards supporting a major economic blackout on May Day, with the goal of “No Work, No School, No Shopping!”. MADSA members planned a community pancake breakfast, wrote rally speeches, created signage, liaised with unions, attended coalition events and worker assemblies, and held many conversations with coworkers and loved ones around shutting down their workplaces in support of the historic day.

    May Day is International Workers’ Day, and in Wisconsin, it is also A Day Without Immigrants, organized for years by Voces de La Frontera. This year, Voces led the day with key demands around rights for immigrant workers and a just economy for all. MADSA supported by hosting a successful community pancake breakfast in the morning, and collecting over $2,000 in donations towards Voces’ work. Next, at 11am, there was a rally by UW staff and students, which joined up with a 12pm rally at Library Mall. At 1pm, the rally marched to the Capitol, where the crowd heard speeches and music organized by Voces and their allies. In a huge win, Madison Teachers Inc. (MTI) was successfully able to preemptively shut down Madison Metropolitan and Sun Prairie school districts by collecting enough signatures from staff pledging not to work on May 1. Students and teachers from West and East High Schools marched to the capitol during the day to join up with the main rally.

    The day saw roughly 3,000 attendees in Madison, with participation from MADSA, UW-Madison’s YDSA, a variety of socialist and communist organizations, and many unions in the area. Milwaukee also had a huge day of action, and gubernatorial candidate Fran Hong made stops to both cities.

    May Day 2026 reflected a sense of shared struggle and power among working class people, explicitly connecting with the long history of labor battles in the U.S. and around the world. As MADSA and other organizations continue to grow, workers will hopefully build towards a larger economic shutdown on May Day 2027, and eventually develop the solidarity and power required for a general strike.

    • The image shows protesters marching in State Street. Three people at the front of the group hold a wide banner that says Madison Area Democratic Socialists of America.
      MADSA members march up State St to the Capitol.
    • Image shows several rows of tables in a dimly lit non-denominational church space, filled with people listening to a speaker who is outside of the shot.
      Community members at the pancake breakfast listen to local speakers.

    For more May Day coverage, Voces de La Frontera’s Facebook page and Instagram have many photos and videos of actions all over Wisconsin. 

    MADSA Approves a New Office Space

    On April 26th, MADSA called a meeting to discuss the chapter’s need for a larger office to accommodate our growth in members and resources. Members held a small potluck, and formally approved a proposal to rent a larger office space, which also grants consistent access to a meeting space for our large monthly general membership meetings. More details will be shared once this is finalized!

    Members also reflected on the chapter’s relationship with the Social Justice Center, where MADSA currently rents a small amount of space. Members voted to continue renting the space, as part of our desire to maintain a positive and supportive relationship with the SJC. 

    Canvassing & Tabling for Endorsed Candidates

    Members and other volunteers have begun canvassing for Fran Hong and Juliana Bennett’s campaigns. There are opportunities to canvass in several Madison neighborhoods, as well as tabling at the Farmer’s Market each week. Juliana’s campaign will be having a weekend of canvass action on May 23 and 24. Sign up here!

    ICE Out Work Continues

    MADSA continues to coordinate information about trainings and events, and neighborhood group chats, via the Strike Out ICE hub, here. 

    Additional Organizing

    Other important efforts this month included the following:

    • MADSA had its first AfroSocialists/Socialists of Color Coffee Hangout at Qamaria Yemeni Coffee.
    • In the lead-up to May 1st, MADSA members showed up to the May Day Strong Solidarity School focusing on organizing tactics, as well as two Madison Worker Assemblies and a coalition meeting for event planning.
    • NoAppetiteForApartheid (NA4A) had a planning meeting for a summer film event.
    • The Comms Committee put on its first skills training, with the goal of building comms skills among chapter members. A comrade taught some key principles of graphic design. 
    • MADSA had a Powerpoint to the People event where members could share socialist education through short presentations.
    • MADSA continues to prepare for the Queer Liberation March, scheduled for June 13th. 
    • Southern Dane County Branch had their monthly meeting on 4/29.

    Social Events

    We continue hosting recurring social events. Currently, we have DSA 101, MADSA Run Club, and the Rosebuddies program on the calendar. May also features a board game night planned for 5/4, and a new reading club for Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed starting Sunday 5/30.

    Protest Song of the Month

    In honor of the Day Without Immigrants and Voces’ organizing role in our community, I’ll be featuring two songs this month.

    First, a lament – ICE, El Hielo by La Santa Cecilia, heard here. The music video features several actors who are living in the US as undocumented workers. The song tells of three workers contributing to the economy while living under the oppressive fear and restrictions that come with being undocumented.

    Next, for something higher energy – La Cumbia De La Migra by Los Jornaleros del Norte, a protest band proudly consisting of day-laborers. This song is ICE Out in purest form!

    And that concludes our monthly round-up!

  • Monthly Round-Up – February 2026

    Monthly Round-Up – February 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. 7 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/

    ICE Out Hub / Strike Out ICE!

    MADSA has launched a centralized resource for community defense and related organizing in Madison. Members in the February GMM debriefed about MADSA’s ICE-related efforts so far, and approved a proposal for Strike Out ICE!

    MADSA’s goals are to support other groups already doing this work – especially Voces de la Frontera – while also developing networks of mutual aid, supporting MADSA members in becoming active organizers, and building towards a national general strike on May 1st. What is most exciting to this author is that the strike plan is a movement backed by real strategy and community ties, not just a random internet call to action. The chapter is working on political education, building community bonds, spreading the word among coworkers and friends, and coordinating with other organizations, including unions. The strike could be a historic step in taking back the people’s power across the nation and in turning the tides of politics in the United States, if people embrace the spirit of making real, concrete demands, and shutting down the economy to ensure they are met.

    You can check out the hub here: https://madison-dsa.org/ice-out-hub/ The hub also contains weekly strike reports, and members will receive these reports in their email inboxes as a newsletter.

    I encourage all members to take action today, whether that’s joining a neighborhood group chat, attending an educational meeting about strike history or organizing skills, being trained as a legal observer, or talking to people in your life about the strike. And remember – millions of people participating imperfectly will always outweigh a few dozen participating perfectly. Embrace uncertainty and imperfection as a normal part of your political process! 

    MADSA Endorses Heidi Wegleitner for Re-Election

    Members voted in the February meeting to endorse Heidi’s re-election campaign for Dane County Board. Heidi has served as a delegate to the South Central Federation of Labor, is in a leadership role with the United Legal Workers union in Madison, and has a long history of fighting for housing rights. She will be running in District 2, which includes most of the Isthmus north of E. Washington Avenue, including neighborhoods around James Madison Park, Tenney Park, and Demetral Park. Elections will take place on April 7th, 2026.

    Additional Organizing

    Other important efforts this month included the following:

    • No Appetite for Apartheid held a launch party, and is now regularly hosting Grocery Scouting with DSA. At these 1 hour events, you can meet a MADSA member at a specific grocery store and learn how to spot products for boycotting, and how to build your voice for pressuring stores to stop carrying companies that are complicit in the subjugation of Palestinian people.
    • Phil Gasper held a talk on Trotsky’s Marxism at the Madison Public Library.
    • Southern Dane County Branch successfully had its own membership meeting.
    • There is now a working group meeting regularly about Fran Hong’s campaign.
    • A temporary working group is aiming to establish a physical office for MADSA to help with our growing size and work load.
    • Some chapter members have been seeking to grow community ties through art and music, and are building towards a community art build in March, as well as fostering a stronger chanting and music presence at protests.

    Social Events

    We continue hosting recurring social events – New Member Orientations, DSA 101, Coffee with Comrades, and the Rosebuddies program. A highlight from February was a special Galentine’s day event on February 13th! 

    The chapter also has a newly-started reading group for The Communist Manifesto, meeting on Saturdays at 10am.

    Protest Song of the Month

    MADSA members highlighted a few songs this month as part of the budding art and music efforts in the chapter. A recent feature was a modernized version of The Internationale, with lyrics updated in 2020 by Billy Bragg. Check it out here – song starts at 3 minutes in!

    And that concludes our monthly round-up!