This Spring Song

For Peace, Democracy, and Socialism

How should socialists position ourselves and our movement in the face of American decline and ongoing threats to democracy? Aziz Rana, DSA-endorsed candidate for Congress Oliver Larkin, and St Petersburg, FL’s socialist in office, Richie Floyd, discussed the current political terrain on a mass call recorded Weds 05/20, presented here as a podcast.  Join DSA’s National Electoral Commission [https://electoral.dsausa.org/]. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2021076/fan_mail/new] Become a member of Democratic Socialists of America [https://act.dsausa.org/donate/membership/]. Sign up to receive NPEC's newsletter, Red Letter [https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-for-red-letter].

DSA v Data Centers

Gabriel from Portland DSA joins Class to discuss the complex political and class struggles around unpopular hyperscaled data center construction in Oregon, and how the moratorium campaign influenced the State House primaries happening now, where a DSA candidate, Tammy Carpenter, is competing against the Democratic establishment and tech capitalists. Read about the OR data center struggle in PDX DSA’s blog here [https://portlanddsa.org/the-data-centrists/]. The two Jacobin articles mentioned in the episode include Holly Buck's “Democratic Governance of AI is the Real Solution [https://jacobin.com/2026/04/ai-data-center-moratorium-democracy]" and Aaron Regunberg's “Stop the AI Build-out, Start the Fight [https://jacobin.com/2026/04/data-center-ai-moratorium-bernie]."  Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2021076/fan_mail/new] Become a member of Democratic Socialists of America [https://act.dsausa.org/donate/membership/]. Sign up to receive NPEC's newsletter, Red Letter [https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-for-red-letter].

May Day!

Cerena and Griffin, two DSA labor leaders from Houston and DC, join us to discuss the meaning and history of May Day for the socialist and labor movements and how, in this disorganizing time, we can still organize towards higher worker militancy and struggle to fight the right and capital.   This year, our May Day demands are NO WAR, ABOLISH ICE, TAX THE RICH! Now, over 150 DSA chapters are doing something for May Day — we hope your local DSA is too.  This site [https://maydaystrong.org/] shows May Day actions all over the country — find yours!  Here is a chapter toolkit [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pw4Ij5QIktH4cQvwNVjP3RpFx3s4Nqx2-tFbzWTlzTk/edit?usp=sharing] for May Day, including a socialist night school module on May Day and the General Strike from NPEC!  Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2021076/fan_mail/new] Become a member of Democratic Socialists of America [https://act.dsausa.org/donate/membership/]. Sign up to receive NPEC's newsletter, Red Letter [https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-for-red-letter].

This Spring Song

Class is taking a spring break and will be back with our regular programming on April 20th. For now, enjoy a moment of seasonal poetry with a few comrades across time and space: Rosa Luxemburg, Bertolt Brecht, Langston Hughes, and Ada Limón. Happy early Earth Day and May Day, listeners!  Read on this episode: - Rosa Luxemburg’s letters to Hans Diefenbach, March 30, 1917 [https://rosaluxemburg.org/en/material/2687/] & Sophie Liebkecht, May 2, 1917 [https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1917/05/02.htm] - Bertolt Brecht, "Morning Address to a Tree Named Green" [https://www.reddit.com/r/Poetry/comments/gu33mn/poem_morning_address_to_a_tree_named_green_by/] (1927) & "Spring 1938" [https://oliverlewisinfo.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/spring-1938-bertolt-brecht/] (1938). These are casual links for convenience; official English translations for these aren’t readily available online.  - Langston Hughes, “An Earth Song” [https://poets.org/poem/earth-song] (1925)  - Ada Limón, “Instructions on Not Giving Up” [https://poets.org/poem/instructions-not-giving] (2017), republished in The Carrying [https://milkweed.org/book/the-carrying] (2021)   Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2021076/fan_mail/new] Become a member of Democratic Socialists of America [https://act.dsausa.org/donate/membership/]. Sign up to receive NPEC's newsletter, Red Letter [https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-for-red-letter].

Our Party

David (Socialist Majority, NYC-DSA) and Ramsin (Bread and Roses, Chicago DSA) discuss their perspectives on party-building, political independence, and the democratic road to socialism.   Read David’s piece comparing the SPA and DSA, “The Long Reroute,” published by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung here [https://rosalux.nyc/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/the-long-reroute-historical-comparison_FINAL.pdf]. Read Ramsin’s pieces about how and when to advance socialist political independence, here [https://midwestsocialist.com/2022/10/30/a-socialist-movement-needs-a-truly-independent-political-vehicle/] and here [https://midwestsocialist.com/2026/01/04/independence-requires-investment-the-time-is-now-for-an-independent-run/]. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2021076/fan_mail/new] Become a member of Democratic Socialists of America [https://act.dsausa.org/donate/membership/]. Sign up to receive NPEC's newsletter, Red Letter [https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-for-red-letter].