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I think chapters that take on mutual aid projects can learn a lot from how Palm Beach advertises DSA and recruits through their projects. If tied together with a party building project, and a strong rank and file strategy, I think mutual aid can help build up our socialist party!

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Done Right, Mutual Aid Builds Working-Class Power | Reform & Revolution

I think DSA chapters can do a lot to use mutual aid. In strike support, homeless defense and jail support it can be mobilizing for members and help us build a brand. But to do it right, we have to make sure it also builds our movements! reformandrevolution.org/2021/04/30/d...

reformandrevolution.org

I was really impressed by the curiosity of the chapter and how much they wanted to engage with national work. We spent two hours talking about questions from caucuses to Cuba.

there are elections like this across the country! Races like this will be a pivotal part of the dirty break. An election that can be won with 2,000 votes is a race that we can 100% win with a strong independent campaign.

we talked about elections and the dirty break. Some of the elections in their region have only a few thousand or a few hundred voters!!

Luckily that’s exactly something we’re working on with comms (news on that very very very soon BTW!) so that should be coming soon!

I asked comrades what could most help their chapter and one of the big responses I heard was that we need developed written materials on things like housing for chapters to hand out at tables.

They’ve also been putting together a pretty strong new member mobilization effort. Between these two things they’ve actually punched above their weight with recruitment and mobilization. They had one of the biggest turnouts for any chapter we visited!

There’s a few things that are important here. For a chapter that’s smaller and seeking to grow, it’s absolutely vital to have a regularly occurring event or campaign that can help mobilize members consistently

Like a lot of cities, Palm Beach has a housing crisis and an aggressive anti-homeless rich people. DSA has been working to set themselves at the center of the opposition.

Palm Beach comrades taught me about their mutual aid work. They’ve taken the lead in running a food network that was once a food not bombs program. Twice a week they hold food distribution, with DSA banners, flags and flyers, to help out the poorest residents in their county

first thing off the bat, I want to stress how important and impactful it is for people from national to meet with chapters like Palm Beach. People were excited! they wanted to learn more about convention, caucuses and national strategies

On saturday I met with comrades from Palm Beach DSA. We talked about the hurdles of organizing as a smaller chapter, and the fight for socialism in the middle of a town where people like Trump and Epstein live.

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As we face attacks from the right across the country i think we can take heart from the fact that Miami DSA has managed to not only survive but thrive. Popular organizing, attentive leadership, and a lot of attention to democracy can help strengthen chapters under this pressure!

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I think chapters should adopt the labor forum work and the way poli ed is tied to chapter campaigns! I also think DSA as a whole should adopt the multi-lingual organizing!

They also have some of the best comms of any chapter in the country!

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The chapter consistently puts together socials and chapter leaders have a strong approach of talking with and meeting with members one on one.

Despite this Miami has developed a really strong chapter culture. The chapter members I talked with really underlined how vital it is to have a frank, democratic and comradely discussion of actual differences to create a resilient culture of solidarity under this pressure

Miami is organizing in some of the toughest conditions for any chapter in the country. Miami is at the intersection of Zionism, imperial anti-communism, right wing tech elitism and Christian Nationalism. Political organizers face incredible amounts of potential repression

The chapter connected this work to their poli ed program. They ran a simultaneous reading group on Abolish Rent and invited organizers from the protests to the reading group

Housing I learned a lot about Miami’s Lil Abner campaign. This campaign, to help the residents of Lil Abner Mobile Home Park save their homes from developers. this campaign connected the chapter to some of the most oppressed workers in the whole city

Labor Forums! Miami is holding public forums for working class organizers to talk about their experiences in unions and at the workplace. These forums are open to the public!

During canvassing they send out speakers in pairs to make sure at least one of them is able to speak some Spanish. They’ve started releasing key statements in Spanish as well as English. During work in predominately Spanish areas, they have Spanish speaking organizers lead!

Bilingual Organizing! Miami DSA is one of the first chapters I’ve seen that is developing a genuine multilingual approach.

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My biggest takeaways from Miami were the importance of democracy when facing oppressions their bilingual organizing, their labor work, and their housing work

My second chapter meeting thread! spent the day hanging out with Miami DSA comrades! Here’s some stuff I learned!

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also did you guys know FIU’s sports stadium is legit just named after pitbull like his name and face is everywhere on it. i felt like i was losing my mind.

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I think if chapters across the country adopted this slideshow and model it would dramatically strengthen DSA’s recruitment and retention numbers, and raise the political standards of our organization!

I thought the level of political discussion and energy was incredibly impressive ! Myself and Daniel were talking about how exciting (and a little nervewracking!) it is to see a wave of socialists we’ve never met come in and prepare to take leadership!

the meeting ended with a clear dues ask!! and then the chance to join the chapter discord. Then flyers for an upcoming rally were handed out and people had time to socialize

Most importantly, the presentation gave a clear series of asks. Members got **four** different asks to join or participate. No vague “if you like the chapter find a thing to do haha”! The slideshow clearly outlined the priority campaign, its timeline and how to get involved

The slideshow then provided clear descriptions of DSA, both organizational *and* political. The members talked about the idea of a multi tendency big tent and its strengths and weaknesses!

Chapter leaders and experienced members did a great job catalyzing this conversation with contributions without dominating the discussion. I think “mixing the audience” with some experienced members who also attend the event can be a really helpful tool

The conversation opened with discussion based analysis of socialism and capitalism. The audience gave their thoughts and feedback on capitalism through a series of open discussion questions, and the new members worked their way through to a stronger analysis together

Socialism 101 is an onboarding presentation for new members. The turnout was really impressive, I think about 30 people made it, the majority were new members. The presentation FIU YDSA put together was really strong.