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democratic socialists of america
'They Want Change': Bernie Sanders Explains Appeal of Democratic Socialism to Fox Reporter
"The American people are disgusted with an economic system in which one guy on top, Elon Musk, owns more wealth than the bottom half of American society."
Jul 24, 2026
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday explained to Fox Business reporter Chase Williams why candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America have been racking up victories in Democratic primaries throughout the US.
While walking the halls of the US Capitol building, Williams asked Sanders (I-Vt.) if he believed DSA-backed candidates would hurt the Democratic Party's chances of retaking Congress from Republicans this fall.
Sanders said he didn't think so and then offered his opinion on why many voters are attracted to democratic socialism.
"The American people are disgusted with an economic system in which one guy on top, Elon Musk, owns more wealth than the bottom half of American society," Sanders said. "They're tired of a situation where 60% of our people live paycheck-to-paycheck... they are tired of a corrupt political system in which billionaires buy elections."
NEW: I asked Sen. Bernie Sanders whether the rise of Democratic Socialist candidates could hurt Democrats politically in November.
"No," Sanders replied. "The American people are disgusted with an economic system in which one guy on top - Elon Musk - owns more wealth than the… pic.twitter.com/eYb41K3o3h
— Chase Williams (@ChaseWilliams_) July 23, 2026
Williams attempted to interject, but Sanders kept speaking.
"They want change," he continued. "They want candidates and members of Congress with the guts to stand up for working families and not simply take big checks and not simply have super PACs elect... the next senators and members of Congress."
Williams again pressed Sanders if he thought democratic socialists were a liability for the Democratic Party.
"No," Sanders replied. "I think that if you have candidates who are standing up for the working class, and explaining that there is something wrong when the billionaire class is getting richer and richer, while so many Americans can't afford groceries, they can't afford housing, they can't afford healthcare. That's not the kind of economy the American people want."
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Progressive Support for McKinney Grows as Top House Dems Back Rep. Thanedar in Michigan
"In Congress, Donavan will fight for strong union jobs, environmental justice, and for universal childcare."
Jul 20, 2026
As Democratic Michigan Congressman Shri Thanedar on Monday announced endorsements from party leaders in the US House of Representatives, his primary challenger, Donavan McKinney, secured more support from key progressives.
Already, McKinney counted among his backers various Michiganders, US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and progressive congressional candidates who have recently won their primaries: Dr. Adam Hamawy in New Jersey, Melat Kiros in Colorado, and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania.
On Monday, just over two weeks away from the August 4 primary, Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) also backed the lifelong Detroiter's bid to oust Thanedar in Michigan's 13th Congressional District.
"Donavan McKinney is the fighter his community needs: principled, hardworking, and unafraid to speak truth to power," Lee said in a statement. "I'm proud to support his people-powered campaign, and proud to endorse him for Congress in MI-13. Detroit deserves real representation, and I know Donavan McKinney will deliver it."
McKinney welcomed her support on social media, writing that "I am honored to receive the endorsement of my sister in service, Rep. Summer Lee. Our shared commitment to standing up for our communities unites us deeply, and I am thrilled to have a fighter like Summer join our people-powered coalition."
In a Monday social media post promoted by Kiros and Rabb, DSA said that "Donavan knows what it takes to fight, and win. Now he's ready to take that fight to DC. In Congress, Donavan will fight for strong union jobs, environmental justice, and for universal childcare."
"The Motor City is ready to put working people in the driver’s seat. Let’s get Donavan across the finish line and grow our socialist bloc in Congress," the organization added.
The fresh endorsements followed a weekend rally in Detroit, where McKinney appeared with Sanders, Tlaib, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed—a progressive US Senate candidate who notably secured support from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Monday.
While El-Sayed and Congresswoman Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) battle over the seat currently held by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, McKinney is aiming to oust Thanedar, "a pharmaceutical entrepreneur who has spent millions of dollars from his personal fortune on several campaigns," as the Detroit Metro Times reported Monday. He "was first elected to Congress in 2022 after winning a nine-candidate primary with 28% of the vote. His victory left Detroit without a Black member of Congress for the first time in nearly seven decades."
After journalists noted in recent days that Thanedar "lost more than $630,000 in investment income last quarter after he put $3.7 million in campaign funds into the cryptocurrency industry," and just loaned his campaign another $650,000, Ravi Mangla, national press secretary for the Working Families Party, declared Monday that the incumbent "is panicked."
"He's emptying out his bank account and begging his AIPAC and crypto buddies to bail him out," Mangla said, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—which is also backing Stevens in the state's Senate fight. "Detroiters deserve better than an out-of-touch politician who's willing to sell them out to the highest bidder."
In a clear signal of where Democratic Party leadership stands as they try to reclaim both chambers of Congress from Republicans in the November midterms, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY), Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.), and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (Calif.) on Monday issued a joint statement supporting Thanedar. They said that he "has always shown up for his constituents and is fighting every day to lower the cost of housing and groceries, and to make life more affordable for everyday Michiganders."
Responding on social media, Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim said: "I understand that Dem leaders always endorse incumbents, but this one is particularly absurd. Shri is basically a con man who spent his way into Congress. But his opponent Donovan McKinney has Bernie's backing, so the con man will have to do."
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Pope Serving as 'Chinese Communist Agent' by Criticizing AI, Says Tech Billionaire Peter Thiel
Thiel in the past has also speculated that AI critics are doing the bidding of the Antichrist.
Jul 03, 2026
Right-wing tech billionaire Peter Thiel is accusing Pope Leo XIV of doing the work of the Chinese Communist Party with his criticisms of artificial intelligence.
According to a Thursday report from CNN, Thiel told the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado on Tuesday that the pope was inadvertently serving as a "Chinese communist agent" when he released a 42,000-word encyclical that called for strict regulation of AI, a technology that the pontiff said heightens the "risk of dehumanization" throughout the world.
Thiel argued that this sort of thinking was dangerous, CNN reported, because it could result in the US losing the "race" to build more advanced AI to China. Because of this, Thiel continued, the pope is essentially "working for the Chinese communists" by trying to tap the brakes on AI development.
Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has long decried AI critics in harsh terms. Over the last year, he has been delivering a series of lectures in which he has said that opponents of AI development are working as agents for the Antichrist.
Journalist Christopher Hale, who writes the Letters From Leo newsletter, noted on Friday that Thiel in the past has even speculated that Pope Leo could be "a manifestation of the Antichrist."
Thiel has said that he instructed Vice President JD Vance, a longtime political ally who received major funding from the tech billionaire for his 2022 Senate campaign, to ignore the pope's moral guidance despite influencing Vance to convert to Catholicism, Hale added.
"Thiel seeded the vice president’s Catholic faith," Hale wrote, "and he now tells wealthy festival audiences that the leader of that faith works for a communist government."
In addition to his attacks on the pope, Thiel also warned about "a democratic-socialist takeover of the Democratic Party," pointing to recent victories in New York and Colorado of candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America.
Thiel said that this "takeover" would doom the US, arguing that "when the Democratic Party goes, this country is over," according to CNN.
The New York Times reported in May that Thiel has grown so concerned about the political situation in the US that he's created a "foothold" for himself in Argentina, which is currently being governed by ideologically likeminded libertarian President Javier Milei.
"Thiel, who has a history of collecting backup countries as he hedges his bets against the United States, is considering making Argentina another Plan B," the Times reported. "Born in Germany and raised in the United States, he received citizenship in New Zealand in 2011, and applied for a passport in Malta in 2022."
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Progressives Call On NYC Council to Expel Member Paladino for Saying CIA Should 'Neutralize' DSA Organizers
"Yet another example of Vickie Paladino calling for the federal government to retaliate against people she disagrees with," said congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier.
Jun 30, 2026
Darializa Avila Chevalier, the progressive organizer whose primary victory over five-term Democratic Congressman Adriano Espaillat last week stunned the party's establishment, was among those calling for the expulsion of New York City Council member Vickie Paladino Tuesday night after the Republican issued "a thinly veiled call" for the government "to kill" democratic socialists.
On the social media platform X, Paladino posted an image of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) 2025-27 National Political Committee, including national co-chairs Ashik Siddique and Megan Romer, and mused that in the past, government agencies may have mobilized to kill the 27 people in the picture to stop their left-wing activities.
"There was a time in our history, not too long ago, when the CIA/FBI would’ve made sure unabashed revolutionaries like this were neutralized one way or another," said Paladino (R-19). "In fact, that was basically the entire point of having them."
Paladino appeared to be referring to the FBI's Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), which surveilled, infiltrated, and tried to disrupt groups and movements that fought for civil rights and against the US war in Vietnam. COINTELPRO was involved in the 1969 raid in Chicago in which police killed Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
"This is insane," said US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) after Paladino suggested the US government should use the FBI and CIA to "neutralize" DSA organizers, who are working to elect advocates for Medicare for All, universal childcare, and abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among other increasingly popular progressive proposals.
Chevalier, a member of the DSA's New York City chapter, called for Paladino to be "expelled."
"We need public leaders who will fight for a politics of life and the council member has shown time and time again that she does not," said Chevalier.
Paladino's call to "neutralize" left-wing organizers came a day after she urged New York City police to "run over" protesters who were blocking officers on bikes. Last December, Paladino said the US should "take very seriously the need to begin the expulsion of Muslims from Western nations," and last June she suggested New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who was then a primary candidate, should be deported.
The Brooklyn Young Democrats also accused Paladino of "encouraging political violence" and called on the City Council to condemn her comments "and consider appropriate action—including expulsion."
Ryan Deitsch, co-founder of the gun control group A March for Our Lives, addressed the New York Police Department and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, asking whether Paladino's threat raised any "red flags."
The council member's comments came less than a week after a number of progressive primary victories in New York City, including Chevalier's. The election results led centrist Democrats to quickly mobilize against democratic socialist candidates, warning that progressive contenders are “bomb-throwers, not problem solvers"—even as Mamdani secured a two-year rent freeze that will affect roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, as New Yorkers and people across the country struggle with rising costs.
One DSA organizer said in response to Paladino, "Imagine if Zohran Mamdani said something about having the [Republican National Committee] chair and co-chair 'neutralized one way or another' with a secret police force."
"Expel Vickie Paladino from the NYC Council," they added, "and have her arrested and charged for making a terrorist threat."
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DC’s Elections Were Divisive—But Embracing Partnership is the Path to Jewish Safety
History has taught us that Jews are safest in societies and political systems that pursue true safety for everyone who faces marginalization and hate.
Jun 28, 2026
During an election season, it’s natural to take sides—that’s what elections are for. But taking sides doesn’t have to mean dividing the Jewish community, or isolating Jews from the broader community around us.
As the Executive Director of Jews United for Justice and the JUFJ Campaign Fund in Washington, DC and Maryland, I lead a group that has worked for more than a quarter century to ensure that everyone in our region—no matter our religion, where we come from, how much money we have, or what we look like—can live with freedom, safety, and belonging. Unfortunately, in DC, we just witnessed primary elections that saw national political polarization impacting us locally. Disagreements and concerns within the Jewish community are intersecting with local electoral politics—in ways that I fear could leave us more divided and less safe. But there is another path forward.
The JUFJ Campaign Fund endorses candidates who we believe will use their voices and their offices to build a more just region for all of us, including Jews. In this month’s DC Primary election, all seven of the progressive candidates that we endorsed won. That includes Janeese Lewis George, the winner of the Democratic Primary for Mayor, and soon-to-be Councilmember Aparna Raj, both of whom have also been endorsed by local chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Given DSA’s anti-Zionist positions, for some Jews, DSA’s backing is enough to warrant labeling these politicians as a threat to our community. Yet for myself and our organization, our personal experiences of these candidates could not be more contrary to that image.
When we feel alone and misunderstood, every disagreement can seem like a threat. Yet I know, from these past 20 years, that the way through this anxiety is relationships.
All of our endorsees, including Lewis George, Raj, and others endorsed by DSA, have shown up for my colleagues and me individually, our organizations, and their own Jewish constituents. They’ve cited our community’s needs and concerns as important to them, and recognized our community as part of their winning coalitions on election night. Even—and especially—when we have had disagreements, we have remained in relationships that allow us to recognize each other’s humanity and to build a strong Jewish presence in our shared political work.
At JUFJ’s community seders this spring, we hosted a dozen candidates for local and statewide office in DC, Montgomery County, and Baltimore. These candidates were Jewish and non-Jewish, ones who had received our endorsements and ones who hadn’t, DSA members and not, of many races and ethnicities—and they all came together to retell the Passover story and connect it to the struggles we face here in our region. I’ve seen these candidates build relationships and create space for conversation with our Jewish community over many years, and throughout this campaign season. And these relationships bear fruit during hard times.
After the terrorist attack against Temple Israel in Michigan this March, a non-Jewish, DSA-endorsed candidate wrote to one of my colleagues: “I saw the news coming out of Detroit and just wanted to say I’m thinking of you. It means a lot to be able to organize alongside you and others in the Jewish community to create a vision for a multiracial democracy where we’re all safe together. Hope you're doing ok.” Another non-Jewish DSA-endorsed elected official called all the senior rabbis in their jurisdiction on October 8, 2023, and has since worked to arrange additional security for Jewish institutions after antisemitic violence. In DC and Montgomery County, our endorsed candidates in elected office have voted time and time again to support funding for Jewish nonprofits and providing security grants for places of worship.
When I started at JUFJ in 2008, I didn’t see antisemitism as one of the pivotal challenges to address in our region. Today, that has changed. We’ve made dismantling antisemitism a key piece of our ongoing work, including working with candidates and elected officials to help them gain a better understanding of antisemitism, how it affects us, and what they can do. Unfortunately, we are living through a time when some politicians and community leaders attempt to build their own power by fueling antisemitism and exploiting divisions within our communities. They want Jews to feel isolated and alone. But isolation is not a path to safety. Anger and resentment is not a strategy.
When we feel alone and misunderstood, every disagreement can seem like a threat. Yet I know, from these past 20 years, that the way through this anxiety is relationships. Building and maintaining relationships with people who are different from me means that I have people to reach out to for a better understanding of our differences. As the great Black activist and musician Bernice Johnson Reagon put it, “Coalition work is not work done in your home.” To build coalitions with people who are different from us, we must resist the urge to isolate—despite fears and disagreements.
As DC’s next mayor and other progressive and democratic socialist candidates across the country take office, we in the Jewish community have a choice ahead of us. We can treat them as potential threats—even as they say they are working to build a city where everyone can thrive. Or, we can consider them to be potential partners and allies, despite any differences—and engage openly and honestly with them on that basis.
History has taught us that Jews are safest in societies and political systems that pursue true safety for everyone who faces marginalization and hate. That is why our movement here in the DMV has endorsed candidates who are committed to tackling antisemitism, and who are also looking out for my Black, brown, immigrant, and low-income neighbors. When we look out for and talk to each other, only then can our society be a place where all of us can live with respect and dignity.
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Corporate Democrats Mobilize to Counter Rise of Democratic Socialists Within the Party
"The progressive movement is winning across the country, from the heart of New York to Michigan to Maine," said US Rep. Ro Khanna in response to centrist critics.
Jun 26, 2026
The corporate wing of the Democratic Party is looking to fight back after three insurgent progressive candidates knocked off establishment favorites in primary elections in New York this week.
Axios reported on Thursday that centrist Democrats are gearing up to organize against progressives and democratic socialists, who have been racking up victories over the last two years by presenting themselves as an alternative to a failed status quo that lost the 2024 election to President Donald Trump.
One anonymous centrist Democrat predicted to Axios that "there's going to be a war" between factions in the party, referring to democratic socialists as "bomb-throwers, not problem solvers."
"Clearly there has to be organization," another centrist Democrat explained to Axios of their faction's plans. "You can't just wring your hands on this stuff."
To push back against recent victories by democratic socialists, 15 centrist Democrats on Thursday announced their support for the "Promise to America" manifesto in which they emphasize their support for capitalism, law enforcement, and "fiscal discipline."
In an interview with The Washington Post, Jessica Killin, a Democratic candidate running for US Congress in Colorado who signed the manifesto, said that moderate Democrats need "to be organized and clear in our vision," arguing that democratic socialists "should not be the face of our party."
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), another signatory of the manifesto, told the Post that he gave the democratic socialists credit for their organizing, while warning that "that kind of campaign and that type of ideology is not going to play with the people in our districts."
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), however, pushed back on the centrists' efforts to marginalize progressive insurgents.
On the floor of the US House on Friday, Khanna made the case for the growing number of progressives within the ranks of elected Democratic Party officials by saying that voters across the country have shown their hunger for this brand of politics.
"The progressive movement is winning across the country, from the heart of New York to Michigan to Maine," Khanna said. "The people are saying no to foreign wars and they're saying no to genocide in Gaza. They're saying no to the unfair and lopsided economy that has allowed a few people to hoard extreme wealth and power, and they're saying yes to Medicare for All."
Progressives are the future.
No war, no genocide, no oligarchs, and yes to Medicare for All. pic.twitter.com/sJQLoXX5e2
— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) June 26, 2026
Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the New York Health Campaign, accused the centrist Democrats of offering a substance-free platform that would not improve Americans' lives.
"'Centrism' is just performative compromise devoid of critical thinking, policy, or ideology," D'Arrigo wrote. "It’s a political vehicle that gives permission to do nothing in service of protecting a status quo that benefits large corporate donors and special interest groups who fund both parties."
In an interview with The Independent, Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, argued that centrists' fears are misplaced if they believe that the democratic socialists would act as obstructionists and saboteurs as the Tea Party once did.
"I don't want to replicate the Freedom Caucus on our side," Balint insisted, "because it has made this place completely and totally dysfunctional, and we are not delivering for Americans."
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Janeese Lewis George, Next DC Mayor, Says Working People 'Don't Want to Hear What Government Can't Do'
"This is not a liberal, moderate, or socialist thing," said the democratic socialist after winning the Democratic Party primary in the nation's capital. "We all want to be able to achieve the American Dream."
Jun 19, 2026
Janeese Lewis George, a Washington, DC City Councilmember, won the Democratic primary to become the city's next mayor on Thursday, a triumph celebrated by progressives in the nation's capital and beyond as a further sign that the democratic socialism she represents is resonating deeply with voters within the party.
“From native Washingtonians to people that have found and called this place home, to restaurant workers, to teachers, to retirees, so many people—whether you’re new to the team or have been a part of this since day one, I want to be clear that I plan to be a mayor for everyone who calls this city home,” Lewis George said at a press conference after the primary was called in her favor.
In the deeply blue city, winner of the Democratic primary means Lewis George is almost certain to be the next mayor, the latest in a string of self-identified democratic socialists to win elections in major US cities this cycle, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York City and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson.
As the Washington Post notes in its coverage of Lewis George's win,
Faith in capitalism is slipping, and socialism does not carry the same toxic brand among young voters that it does with older Americans who grew up during the Cold War. An August 2025 Gallup poll found that 49 percent of Americans ages 18 to 34 had positive views of socialism, compared with 30 percent of Americans 55 and older. The survey found that Americans on balance prefer capitalism to socialism, but the favorability of capitalism dropped from 60 percent in 2021 to 54 percent.
During remarks to the press on Thursday, Lewis George downplayed the usefulness of political or ideological labels, but said what voters are craving is elected officials willing to address their material needs and to fight to make the day-to-day lives of working people more affordable.
NOW - Lewis George: "People don't want to hear about what government can't do" pic.twitter.com/6pnWtbc0a6
— Joey Barke (@joey_barke) June 18, 2026
"This is not a liberal, moderate, or socialist thing," she said. "We all want to be able to achieve the American Dream. We all want to be able to provide for our families and ourselves. And that's what leaders should be focused on—delivering results for residents in this city and in this country."
"People are not interested in hearing what government can't do," Lewis George continued. "When they're struggling every day, working two jobs, and still can't make it—they don't want to hear what government can't do."
Ashik Siddique, co-chair of the city's chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), suggested to the Post that Lewis George, who DSA backed in the primary, represents more of what voters are craving after decades of Democrats tracking further to the right and capitulating to corporate interests—even in the face of President Donald Trump.
“People are feeling like they have to work way harder to get by, and meanwhile they’re seeing Elon Musk become the first trillionaire in the world,” said Siddique. “The Trump administration is just administering policies that make people’s lives worse, and many people feel like the Democratic Party establishment is not really putting up a fight.”
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AOC Commits to Opposing ‘Any Spending on Arms for Israel,’ Including Iron Dome
The progressive congresswoman has been named as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender.
Apr 01, 2026
A private meeting between Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and an increasingly influential progressive New York City organization on Tuesday evening revealed new evidence of Israel's "weakening position," as one journalist observed, as the potential 2028 presidential contender committed to voting against any military funding for the Middle Eastern superpower, including for "defensive" weapons.
To the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), whose New York City chapter Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) met with on Tuesday, the congresswoman's failure to vote against a 2021 funding package for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system—instead voting "present"—represented a significant betrayal of the fight for Palestinian rights and against Israel's violent anti-Palestinian policies.
The congresswodefeman further angered solidarity organizers in 2024 when she voted in favor of a resolution to adopt a definition of antisemitism that conflates the term with criticism of Israel, and last year she voted against an amendment to strip Iron Dome funding from a must-pass defense spending bill. She then voted against the Defense Appropriations Act itself, which included spending for offensive weapons for Israel.
On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez was clear when asked by a DSA organizer whether she would support an arms embargo on Israel, which has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza since beginning its US-backed assault there in 2023; is currently joining the US in attacking Iran; and has killed over 1,000 people in the region in the last month as it's pledged to use Gaza as a "model" for its attacks on Lebanon.
“I have not once ever voted to authorize funding to Israel, and I will never,” Ocasio-Cortez said in response to the question. “The Israeli government should be able to finance their own weapons if they seek to arm themselves."
A member asked to clarify in a follow-up question, asking specifically, “If the moment presents itself in Congress, will you commit to voting ‘no’ for any spending on arms for Israel, including so-called ‘defensive capabilities?’”
“Yes,” Ocasio-Cortez replied, according to a partial recording of the meeting.
DSA members who attended the forum also reported that Ocasio-Cortez committed to opposing the International Holocaust Remembrance Association's definition of antisemitism, which claims that "denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor," and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis," are examples of anti-Jewish bias.
The positions expressed by Ocasio-Cortez at the DSA forum have already been embraced by other progressive lawmakers like Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), but some observers noted that Ocasio-Cortez committed to voting against all military funding for Israel as she's been named a potential contender for the 2028 presidential race.
Political strategist Chris Sosa said Ocasio-Cortez's clear position against all weapons for Israel "will echo across the Democratic Party" and is a sign of a new "common litmus test" for candidates.
"Whatever Israel’s level of popularity is right now is its ceiling, because Israel is going to take a huge part of the blame for the financial crisis and likely recession about to hit us," said Ryan Grim of Drop Site News, referring to the growing economic turmoil that's resulted from the US-Israeli war on Iran. "And while the global economy is on its knees, Israel will *still* be pushing for the war on Iran to continue. And people will have had more than enough."
"Alexandria Ocasio-Corronez breaking against Israel here is a major sign of their weakening position," added Grim.
A poll released last month by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies found that more US voters now view Israel negatively than positively. In 2023, 47% of Americans viewed Israel in a positive light, versus 24% who had negative views of the country's government.
At Groundwork DSA, a faction within the organization that aims for the DSA to "become a genuine, mass political party," one organizer noted that Ocasio-Cortez's position sets her apart from other Democrats who are thought to be likely presidential contenders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris, who refused to back an arms embargo during her 2024 campaign.
Neither Newsom nor Harris "will be ideologically willing to even consider an arms embargo against Israel," wrote organizer J. Kraush ahead of Tuesday's forum. "More importantly, they can not be swayed on the topic, precisely because there is no political or financial benefit for them to move. We can expect them to receive millions in funding from Zionist organizations such as AIPAC, especially if AOC remains a front-runner."
While establishment Democrats continue to back military funding for Israel, Ocasio-Cortez's commitment "is the right thing to do and the leadership Democratic voters want to see," said progressive organizer Daniel Denvir.
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Tacoma Activists Offer a Model for Building People Power
With mainstream US politics offering at the moment only Trumpian neofascism and tepid, corporate-friendly Democratic progressivism, a group of left-wing activists in Tacoma, Washington are showing the potential for mobilizing ordinary Americans on behalf of economic justice.
Dec 27, 2025
Tacoma, Washington is a city of about 222,000 persons, 35 miles southwest of Seattle along Interstate 5. It, and the broader Pierce County of which it is the largest city, are typical of many areas of the United States: majority white but with visible communities of color—including many first generation immigrants—and a largely working class population heavily dependent on low-wage, mostly non-union, service sector employment.
As is the case with the vast majority of Americans, most Tacoma residents are only intermittently interested in politics, concentrating on the day to day struggle of living paycheck to paycheck. Politics in the city is dominated by business interests, with elected representatives running the cliched gamut from tepid centrist progressives to right-wing Republicans.
Housing Justice
Recently, the Tacoma chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 367 have successfully mobilized ordinary people to fight for greater housing security, affordability, and pro-worker politics. Several years ago, for example, both organizations launched Tacoma 4 All (T4A), an organization whose activism succeeded in securing from the city’s voters in November 2023 the passage of what has been informally called the Tenants Bill of Rights—its formal legal title is the Landlord Fairness Code (LFC). The main features of the LFC were a $10 cap on late rental fees, a moratorium on rental evictions within the city during winter months, and a limit on rent increases at 5% annually. If landlords chose to raise the rent by more than 5% per year (and the tenant did not accept the rent increase), they were required to provide the tenant with relocation assistance.
T4A’s grassroots power has been on display in recent months during Tacoma City Council meetings as the organization has mobilized Tacoma residents—in what Tacoma’s business-friendly Democratic Mayor Victoria Woodards called "unprecedented" numbers for the December 9 meeting—to speak out during the meetings in support of the LFC. At the meetings, working class person after working class person has arisen to give testimony as to how the measures' regulations—particularly the winter month eviction moratorium—have given them desperately needed breathing space when temporary financial difficulties have made it impossible for them to pay rent. Such grassroots mobilization helped keep most of the LFC intact when the Tacoma City Council voted during the December 9 meeting on Council Member Sarah Rumbaugh’s proposal to make the LFC more landlord friendly.
The situation of ordinary Tacomans is a microcosm of broader economic injustices facing Washington state (and the United States as a whole).
The popular mobilization helped defeat some of Rumbaugh’s worst proposals, but other landlord-friendly revisions made it into the final revised LFC legislation, which the council approved by a 7-2 margin. The winter eviction moratorium was reduced from five months to four months; the $10 late fee cap was replaced by a charge of 1.5% of monthly rent; residents of nonprofit-owned buildings and Tacoma Housing Authority properties were removed from LFC winter eviction moratorium protections, as were “small landlords,” those defined as owning four or fewer properties in Tacoma and implied as being mom-and-pop landlords but who, in reality, are often large corporations, including private equity firms.
Worker’s Rights
Tacoma DSA, T4A and, UFCW 367 have also sought to mobilize ordinary Tacomans to expand workers’ rights. By late June 2025, the three organizations had collected 10,000 signatures (twice the required number) for a Worker’s Bill of Rights Initiative to be put before Tacoma voters. The proposed measure would increase Tacoma’s minimum wage with relative rapidity to $20 an hour (it now sits at $16.66 an hour, equivalent to Washington state’s minimum wage); implement fair scheduling regulations (requiring Tacoma employers to give workers adequate advanced notice of shift schedule changes); and improve worker safety conditions.
Since last summer—and although the proposed ballot initiative gained the required number of validated signatures—the Tacoma city government has successfully sued in court to delay the placement of the Worker’s Bill of Rights on voters’ ballots. The majority of the Tacoma City Council has requested these delays on the grounds that more time is needed to study the measure and have expressed the fear that it could derail business investment in the city. In the meantime, the struggle continues with T4A, Tacoma DSA, and Local 367 continuing the fight in the courts and at the grassroots to finally get the Worker’s Bill of Rights before Tacoma voters.
As Tacoma city officials fret over the Workers Bill of Rights as potentially creating a less favorable investment climate in the city by raising worker wages, it is crucial to consider some important context. Tacoma residents are struggling with stagnating wages and increasingly unaffordable rent. The situation of ordinary Tacomans is a microcosm of broader economic injustices facing Washington state (and the United States as a whole). The New York Times reported in April that “between 2001 to 2023, median residential rents in Washington state rose by 43%, adjusted for inflation” while state renter income grew by only 26% during the same time period.
Empowering Ordinary People
What is remarkable about the social justice activism that I’ve outlined above is that it has featured a determination to use the push for relatively modest progressive reform as a mechanism to empower and raise the political consciousness of ordinary people in potentially more radical directions.
For example, since the passage of the Landlord Fairness Code (LFC) in 2023, T4A activists have been frequently visiting Tacoma’s apartment complexes, informing tenants of their rights under the LFC, engaging in dialogue with residents about the ownership by predatory private equity firms of rental properties, and offering pro bono legal assistance for tenants having problems with landlords. T4A structures membership meetings to have organizational policy democratically determined by the group’s paying members. Meanwhile, earlier this month, T4A helped launch Tacoma’s first tenant union at one of the city’s privately owned apartment complexes. T4A, Tacoma DSA, and Local 367 are in the beginning stages of attempting to extend their organizing model from Tacoma into the rest of Pierce County.
It is the model of groups like T4A in patiently dialoguing with ordinary people over a long period of time and seeking to slowly but surely build popular power through organizing and consciousness raising that has the best chance of eventually replacing political rule by MAGA neofacists and neoliberal Democrats with the true economic and political empowerment of ordinary people.
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'She Died Free': Tributes Pour In for Revolutionary Icon Assata Shakur
"They wanted her bound, broken, and paraded as an example, but instead, she slipped their grip and lived out her life in exile, surrounded by people who honored her struggle and her survival," said one admirer.
Sep 27, 2025
Assata Shakur, a Black revolutionary who inspired generations of activists to struggle for a better world, passed away on Thursday in Havana, Cuba, where she had lived in exile from the US for over four decades.
Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced her death on Friday, saying it was caused by a combination of “health conditions and advanced age." She was reportedly 78 years old.
"At approximately 1:15 pm on September 25, my mother, Assata Shakur, took her last earthly breath," her daughter Kakuya Shakur wrote on Facebook on Friday. "Words cannot describe the depth of loss that I am feeling at this time. I want to thank you for your loving prayers that continue to anchor me in the strength that I need in this moment. My spirit is overflowing in unison with all of you who are grieving with me at this time."
Shakur, who was born Joanne Deborah Byron and was also known as Joanne Deborah Chesimard, spent the first three years of her life in Queens, New York before moving to Wilmington, North Carolina. She then returned to Queens for third grade.
"Assata’s unwavering commitment to the liberation of her people continues to inspire generations."
"I spent my early childhood in the racist segregated South," she recalled in a 1998 letter to Pope John Paul II. "I later moved to the northern part of the country, where I realized that Black people were equally victimized by racism and oppression."
Shakur became active in the anti-Vietnam War, student, and Black liberation movements while attending Borough of Manhattan Community College and the City College of New York. After graduation, she joined first the Black Panther Party and then the Black Liberation Army (BLA).
"I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the US government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one," she wrote in 2013.
In 1973, she and two other BLA activists were stopped at the New Jersey Turnpike by two state troopers. By the end of the encounter, both Shakur's friend Zayd Malik Shakur and trooper Werner Foerster were shot dead. In 1977, Shakur was convicted of Foerster's murder in a trial she described as a "legal lynching." Throughout her life, she maintained her innocence.
"I was shot once with my arms held up in the air and then once again from the back," she wrote of the shootout.
She was sentenced to life in prison plus 33 years, but didn't long remain behind bars.
"In 1979, fearing that I would be murdered in prison, and knowing that I would never receive any justice, I was liberated from prison, aided by committed comrades who understood the depths of the injustices in my case and who were also extremely fearful for my life," she wrote.
In 1984, she claimed asylum in Cuba. Throughout her life, she also remained staunchly committed to the cause of liberation for all oppressed peoples.
"I have advocated and I still advocate revolutionary changes in the structure and in the principles that govern the United States," she wrote to John Paul II. "I advocate self-determination for my people and for all oppressed inside the United States. I advocate an end to capitalist exploitation, the abolition of racist policies, the eradication of sexism, and the elimination of political repression. If that is a crime, then I am totally guilty."
During her exile, her writings, including her 1987 autobiography, gained a wide audience and brought her story and voice to younger activists.
"It is our duty to fight for our freedom," she wrote in one of the book's most famous passages. "It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
She was also influential in the world of music and hip-hop, serving as godmother to Tupac Shakur and inspiring songs by Public Enemy and Common, among others.
The US government did not give up its pursuit of her. In 2013, under President Barack Obama, the Federal Bureau of Investigation named her the first woman on its "Most Wanted Terrorist" list. The FBI and the state of New Jersey also doubled the reward for information leading to her capture. That reward will now never be claimed.
"She died free!" one of her admirers, who uses the handle The Cake Lady, wrote on social media on Friday. "The US government, after decades of pursuit, never got the satisfaction of putting her in a cage. They wanted her bound, broken, and paraded as an example, but instead, she slipped their grip and lived out her life in exile, surrounded by people who honored her struggle and her survival."
News of her passing inspired tributes from social justice and anti-imperialist leaders and organizations, including former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)
"We honor the life of comrade Assata Shakur, a revolutionary who inspires and pushes all of us in the struggle for a better world," wrote anti-war group CodePink on social media.
Community organizer Tanisha Long posted: "Assata Shakur joins the ancestors a free woman. She did not die bound by the carceral system and she did not pass away living in a land that never respected or accepted her. Assata taught us that liberation can not be bargained for, it must be taken."
The Revolutionary Blackout Network wrote, "Thank you for fighting to liberate us all, comrade."
The New York-based People's Forum said: "We honor Assata’s life and legacy as a tireless champion of the people and as a symbol of hope and resistance for millions around the world in urgent fight against racism, police brutality, US imperialism, and white supremacy. Assata’s unwavering commitment to the liberation of her people continues to inspire generations."
The Democratic Socialists of America vowed to "honor her legacy by recognizing our duty to fight for our freedom, to win, to love, and protect one another because we have nothing to lose but our chains."
Black Lives Matter organizer Malkia Amala Cyril lamented to The Associated Press that Shakur died during a global rise of authoritarianism.
“The world in this era needs the kind of courage and radical love she practiced if we are going to survive it,” Cyril said.
Several tributes featured Shakur's own words.
"I believe in living," she wrote in a poem at the beginning of her autobiography.
"I believe in birth. I believe in the sweat of love and in the fire of truth. And i believe that a lost ship, steered by tired, seasick sailors, can still be guided home to port."
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