2023-24 Austin DSA Leadership Committee

When and why did you join DSA?

I joined DSA in October 2019 when we were starting an organizing committee in North Louisiana. That OC then morphed into a YDSA chapter at Louisiana Tech, which I co-chaired for two years before moving to Austin in July 2021. I joined DSA because, being from the Gulf South, I have lived through the horrors of climate catastrophe and comrades in DSA helped me put those experiences into a wider context. It was DSA that first taught me what it actually means to live under capitalism and that socialism is not the dirty word I grew up learning it to be. It was DSA that exposed me to union organizing and gave me the tools I needed to analyze my conditions in rural North Louisiana and organize others. Even when my activity in DSA has waned in the past, I have remained a member for four uninterrupted years because this is the largest socialist organization in many generations and it is the best vehicle we have for delivering wins for the working class writ large. I used to feel nothing but anxiety about the future, but now in DSA I hold great hope in my heart that the cause of labor shall win because we will fight for it.

Please provide a short description of your qualifications for this position.

I have years of experience organizing social events, both in DSA and in other organizations in college. I have been organizing monthly (with exceptions) hikes in Austin DSA for comrades to get out, stretch their legs, and walk around with each other talking and socializing in a lower-stakes environment than our meetings can sometimes be.

In my YDSA chapter, I brought comrades together over our weekly food program. We would gather every Monday at someone's house or dorm to cook a hot meal and deliver it to around 30 people across the campus/college town. The program served as a way for members to get involved quickly and easily after joining the chapter and it gave us a shared stake in what we were doing.

I served on the national DSA Mutual Aid Working Group from March 2021 to March 2022, during which time I organized social zoom meetings, experimented with methods of engaging comrades in disaster relief work, and co-facilitated DSA's response to Hurricane Ian outside of Florida. The disaster relief work included creating virtual training materials for volunteers, providing space for grief, and connecting comrades from nearby chapters together so they could respond as a single group.

Describe your involvement in Austin DSA's campaigns or other co-op/socialist/union organizing efforts.

I have been on the picket line with Starbucks workers in Austin and kept in touch with their organizers so that DSA organizers could follow up with them. I make it a point to show up to every labor action in the city that I am able to. I canvassed for the Prop A/Prop B ballot measures and for the No Way on Prop A ballot measure under Austin DSA's Defund-Decrim Campaign. I have also contributed to an abolition view of safety in Austin DSA work, notably the Organized Labor for Reporductive Justice rally in July 2022, by cementing a relationship with Street Medics Austin, working with various comrades to hold first aid trainings, and inquiring about what makes our people safe without the involvement of the cops.

Presently, I am engaged in organizing more of my coworkers into our union, AFSCME 1624, in light of the interim city manager's major change to our telework policy at the expense of both office and field staff. I am focused on taking those folks from being agitated to being organizers, because a militant union is far more than just an email list of angry people. We are experimenting with how to bridge the divide between office and field staff, a divide which has long been used to bust unions and attack working conditions. It is hard work, but it is work worth doing.

What did you learn about raising class consciousness from doing this work?

Raising class consciousness is a marathon, not a sprint. It's cliche, yes, but it is cliche for a reason. I know some coworkers who I have been working on moving more towards the union and to the Left for months, while others are more than ready to take action tomorrow. The same goes for DSA work, it takes time, patience, and a willingness to be persistent and disciplined in one's organizing. I take what Jane McAlevey wrote to heart and I ask myself every day: what did I do today to build class consciousness? The answer is often as small as having a meaningful discussion with someone about a ballot proposition or a current strike being waged. I also feel that I've gotten far better at this since I stopped being quite So Online on Twitter. Sometimes you just gotta touch grass bruh.

What will unite the working class in Austin?

I think that one of major issues which we continue to face in the 21st century is that of working class disorganization. So many of the weathered, old bastions of working class organization and social cohesion have been eroded. Unions were gutted throughout the neoliberal years, socialist organizations and leftist sects have risen and fallen and none have been able to give people the thing that seems to be consistently lacking in our capitalist society: genuine human connection. This is an area where I think DSA would do well to learn from the churches. We must become a beacon and a hub for working class organization by giving our comrades the tools to go forth and organize where they are. We must become an organization of organizers who are equipped to canvass our own neighborhoods, apartment complexes, workplaces, or social groups and uplift class consciousness across our many networks.

I think Austin DSA specifically can accomplish this by building on what we already have. We have bustling general meetings each month and would only need to incorporate a little more structure to make them truly moving. Having dedicated greeters, making sure that we are facilitating 1:1s between leadership and members and from member to member, and training people in how to have effective organizing 1:1 conversations are all easy strategies we can employ to deepen our cadres. I also think we could make even better use of our office space, hosting smaller workshops and giving rank-and-file Austin DSA members a method of reserving the office space via LC so that they can host neighborhood meetings, tenant meetings, organizing sessions, and so on. We can expand our social activities by finding shared interests among comrades and giving them the tools necessary to self-organize events and projects. We can pull on the immense musical talent in the chapter to hold solidarity shows and raise money for strike funds or abortion funds (as many have already been doing). We are in a time ripe for experimentation and we should keep throwing socialist spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

How should Austin DSA relate to other Texas chapters? How should Austin DSA relate to DSA nationally?

Austin DSA is in an interesting position as relates to other Texas chapters. Of the big Texas cities, Austin is the smallest, though perhaps with more developed contradictions between the forces of capital and labor due to our proximity to the state capitol and to the city's reputation as a bastion of progressivism. We are within a few hours drive from the other major hubs of DSA activity in the state, and should use that position to augment struggles in those places where possible. We are also well-suited to be a first line of relief when hurricanes strike the Texas Gulf Coast or when tornadoes rip through the north Texas plains, and so we should be prepared to offer our help to comrades in need. I also believe that DSA does not do enough rural organizing, though frankly I am still unsure how to expand that type or work in Austin DSA as yet.

I view national DSA as a grout that keeps the many locals held together in an intricate, if complex, mosaic. National DSA has immense resources and the utility of a socialist banner to unite under. I was a leader of a national DSA working group for a year, and I am proud of that, but Austin DSA has always done our best work when we have focused on local issues. It is for that reason I even stepped down from MAWG to run for Austin DSA LC. I think Austin should strive to engage our members with the national body's work where possible, but ultimately we are strongest when improving the working conditions of folks in our own backyard.

Do you have any conflicts of interest regarding a professional affiliation?

No

Any other information that you would like to share with the chapter?

I see myself in DSA, as much as I see each and every one of you, my comrades. The road to socialism is long and winding and much of it is yet untraveled, but we WILL win because the alternative is barbarism, fascism, and hell on earth.