We will elect 23 members to the Metro Detroit DSA Steering Committee following the General Membership meeting on Saturday, June 6th.
To receive a ballot, you must register for the June 6 meeting on Zoom. You do not need to attend the General Meeting in order to vote. A ballot will be sent to the email address you use to register for the meeting.
Online voting take place June 6 at 12:00 pm to Sunday, June 7 at 11:59 pm.
The Steering Committee will include:
— 2 Co-chairs
— Secretary
— Treasurer
— Communications Coordinator
— Campaigns Coordinator
— Direct Action Coordinator
— Electoral Coordinator
— Political Education Coordinator
— Rules & Bylaws Coordinator
— Membership Engagement Coordinator
— Technology Coordinator
— Graphic Design & Art Coordinator
— 10 At-Large Positions
There will be one representative each from the Black & Brown Alliance and the YDSA, elected by each respective group.
With the exception of the two Co-chairs, general membership will not directly elect officers. Instead, we will elect the entire Steering Committee at once. This is to ensure that candidates with broad support are elected to Steering Committee even if they are not elected to the officer position they expressed interest in.
Internal Elections Committee will facilitate a special election meeting with the new Steering Committee members. At this meeting, the newly elected Steering Committee will choose its own officers. The results will be announced via regular communication channels (Facebook, Slack, email).
Only members of Detroit DSA are eligible to vote in the Steering Committee election. Email [email protected] to confirm your DSA membership, or join here.
The deadline for nominations passed on May 27.
CANDIDATES FOR CO-CHAIR
Vote for 2: As per our bylaws, at least one co-chair should identify as a woman or non-binary person.
HUSSEIN BEYDOUN
I’ve done DSA for Bernie canvassing and dialing, spoken at town halls on behalf of DSA, participated in virtual town halls, and conducted night school classes. I’m a member of the Bread & Roses caucus and my background as a rank-and-file organizer drives a lot of my philosophy about what our chapters priorities should be. Labor organizing and electoral work should be near the top of any priority list, as these efforts will help us cultivate leaders in our chapter and build more trust within the communities we are serving. BIPOC outreach is crucial to the future Detroit DSA, and I’m running for Co-chair because I look forward to steering efforts that will help make Metro Detroit DSA more welcoming, diverse and rooted in multi racial working class politics.
Self-identifies as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous or Person of Color).
NADA DAHER
If elected Co-chair of our chapter, some of my priorities include transitioning our chapter to the new bylaws and ensuring that the Steering Committee acts as effective leadership of our chapter. I am also interested in growing our chapter’s membership in order to better fight against capitalism through our electoral and various campaign efforts.While I have been politically active since my teenage years, I have long searched for a political home to organize and push for change. Three years ago I found that home in DSA. During that time I have served on the Steering Committee and worked with numerous working groups/committees to advance our chapter’s goals; including our membership engagement committee, representing our chapter as an elected delegate at the DSA national convention and even running for Ferndale City Council as an open socialist and member of DSA.
I am a member of our newly formed Black and Brown Alliance DSA Branch and recently joined the Bread and Roses Caucus.
Self-identifies as a woman and BIPOC.
DAVID GREEN
I have been a member of DSA since 1991. I served as chair of Detroit DSA from 1996-2018. During that time, Detroit DSA pursued an inside-outside strategy of political work. The outside strategy was to provide education and create political pressure to convince elected officials to enact policies that reflect our socialist values (e.g., single payer health insurance, living wages). Our inside strategy was to elect officials who supported those policies. During the years 1996-2018, Detroit DSA helped to elect over two dozen candidates to Congress, the state legislature, state senate, and to the Oakland and Macomb County Commissions. We leveraged those important electoral victories into significant legislative victories such as living wage statutes in six southeastern Michigan municipalities and Medicaid expansion (which provided health insurance to over 600,000 Michiganders).
As part of our outside strategy or movement work, Detroit DSA formed a coalition which passed an anti-sweatshop policy for procurement at Wayne State University. Along with National Nurses United and Progressive Democrats, we organized a large demonstration in Detroit which led to a temporary moratorium on water shut-offs. We built strong relationships with local unions.
I would like to be re-elected to the Steering Committee to provide organizational memory to the body. I would like us to recommit to winning a majority in the state legislature and state senate. I would like to strengthen our relationships with local unions. I would like to serve as Co-chair.
LAMAR LEMMONS
I wish to bring the perspective of a long term activist and Detroit activist to clarify truth and accuracy for context.
Self-identifies as BIPOC.
CANDIDATES FOR STEERING COMMITTEE
Choose 23 out of 33: Vote for all candidates you would like to see on Steering Committee, including the two candidates you selected for Co-chair positions. This is to ensure that runner-ups to Co-chair with broad support are represented on the Steering Committee.
HUSSEIN BEYDOUN
Hussein Beydoun is a candidate for Co-chair. See statement above.
GAVIN BUCKLEY
I've been a DSA member for about 2 years and have been active in the Detroit chapter for a little over a year. I assisted with the Public Education Working Group's charter school work, knocked doors for Bernie and nowadays spend the majority of my time in the Labor Working Group. Along with Carlos Salazar, I helped develop the curriculum and facilitate sessions for the Organizing 101 training. I helped set up the recent Frontline Workers panel at the May general meeting and previously worked on the two education themed panels in 2019. I'm one of the organizers in the national Emergency Workers Organizing Committee (EWOC) and have helped a few workers develop actions in their shops.
Outside of DSA I and other teacher-comrades have founded MI-CORE, the Michigan Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators and I fill up my non-DSA time with fighting to democratize my union. I think our priorities should be to develop members into organizers and coordinate our chapter's efforts to run successful electoral and labor campaigns. As a member of the Bread and Roses caucus I believe strongly in class-struggle elections and the rank-and-file strategy. I would like to join the Steering Committee to work alongside other trusted comrades to help steer the chapter toward effective campaign organizing.
VICTORIA "ROSE" CASTILLA
Preference for Officer Position:
Secretary
My name is Rose Castilla and I have been active in the D.S.A. for almost 3 years. I have been involved in the workers’/people’s movement for over 20 years. In my 20’s I was involved with Movimiento Estudiantil Xicano de Aztlán at Michigan State University. We engaged in campaigns of recruitment, retention, and hiring of minority students and staff at the university. I also participated in establishing a Chicano studies program at Michigan State University. I worked with community groups such as the Peace Education Center out of East Lansing and Anti-Racist Action and Cop-Watch in Lansing. I helped with the United Farmworkers’ grapes and strawberry workers’ campaigns.
When I moved from Lansing to metro Detroit, I became involved in the greater Detroit community. I am involved with PTAs in my children's schools and have chaired multiple events at the schools. I helped form a minority parents organization, Royal Oak Multicultural Parents Association (ROMPA) to engage parents to address issues of racism in the schools. I have represented parents in community forums with the school district.
I began attending DSA meetings and have joined the DSA as a dues-paying member. I have been involved with different working groups and committees within the organization. I have participated in actions with the DSA such as door knocking, phone banking, Bernie campaigning, and helped organize the Douglass Debs dinner in 2019. I have been active with the Black and Brown Alliance and events such as the recent poetry night. I have an extensive background in grassroots organizing in the community. I joined the DSA as it holds many of the values that I believe and support. I believe my commitment to the DSA will continue to grow over time. I am willing and able to engage in this work.
Self-identifies as a woman and BIPOC.
RICARDO CAUDILLO
Preference for Officer Position:
Rules & Bylaws Coordinator
I am a newer member in the DSA. However, I have been motivated to take a more active role in the Metro-Detroit DSA chapter through my participation in recent town halls and night school sessions. As a general member, I distributed literature and canvassed for Bernie. It was a new experience to go on my own to a new neighborhood and talk to strangers about politics. However, my enthusiasm carried me through. I have also phone-banked for Rashida and used personal experience interviewing people to put people at ease and encourage as much interaction during the calls. I have become most active within the chapter since the start of the Black and Brown Alliance (BBA), as a working group and then a branch. I have been a dues paying member of DSA since March 2018.
At its core, the DSA’s priority should be to develop organizers within the membership. DSA organizers and members who understand organizing can engage people in our communities who will illuminate the issues that DSA can take on to further our socialist values. More concretely, the DSA’s priorities should be to promote Medicare for All and the Rashida Tlaib and Abraham Aiyash campaigns. In my opinion, Medicare for All is the simplest, most relatable plank in DSA’s platform and can act as an entry point to explore socialism further. In terms of the Tlaib and Aiyash campaigns, we need to support elected officials that share our values and will be responsive to our demands.
I want to join the steering committee as the Rules and Bylaws Coordinator to do my part as we fight for our demands. I grew up in a union household, continue to be a union worker, and was a dependable Democratic voter. However, as with many new members, Democratic resistance to ideas such as Medicare for All and a Green New Deal forced me to understand that the Democratic Party represented and supports the established status quo. Those driving the Democratic Party were not thinking about me or my issues. Thankfully, I found the DSA, where I see my values represented. It has been exciting to learn from organizers in the chapter and act on their infectious motivation. I want to take a more active role in the struggle and see this position as an opportunity to contribute. Professionally, I have experience implementing rules and regulations and see this as an opportunity to contribute my experience, talents and work to the chapter. I hope to win your vote for Rules and Bylaws Coordinator and thank you for considering me.
Self-identifies as BIPOC.
NADA DAHER
Nada Daher is a candidate for Co-chair. See statement above.
ANTHONY DELLICOLLI
I’ve been a member of Metro Detroit DSA since December 2018 and became a frequently active member while knocking doors on the Ferndale for All campaign and then helping to launch canvasses in Hamtramck, Dearborn, and my own home in Royal Oak for our chapter’s DSA for Bernie campaign.
Immediately following the Michigan presidential primary, I’ve been focused on recruiting new members by helping to re-establish the new member orientation program and creating the new member reference guide. I’ve also been a neighborhood lead on our membership engagement program to check in on local comrades, build stronger relationships, move our chapter to an online organizing platform, plan virtual happy hours, and lay the groundwork for what must be done in the wake of a pandemic that has triggered an economic, political, and health crisis.
Doing this work over the last nine months has made me realize that if we want to build upon the multiracial working class movement created by Bernie’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, we must organize year-in, year-out and not just within the margins leading up to elections.
I’m a member of the Bread & Roses national caucus because I believe that in order to win socialism, we must rebuild the labor movement through rank-and-file union militancy and work towards a mass working-class party rather than hoping to reform the Democratic party from within.
I’m running to be an At-Large member on the Steering Committee because I believe that our chapter should prioritize: being democratically accountable as elected leaders, focusing on well defined chapter-wide campaigns, centering workplace organizing, working to elect class struggle candidates, recruiting a diverse membership base, and expanding our political education and training programs.
MICHELLE EMFINGER
I've been a member of Metro Detroit DSA for almost 2 years. It's been exciting to see the chapter gain momentum over that time. Since joining I've been involved in various activities including the auto show demo and the Ferndale for All campaign. I canvassed and made calls for the Bernie campaign as part of the chapter work and also for the national campaign. I've also participated in many great sessions of Socialist night school and now the Capital reading group.
Last year I was honored to represent the chapter at the National DSA convention. It provided great insight into the national organization and it was amazing to meet comrades from all over the country. At the same time it highlighted challenges we face in needing to grow the movement and organization, while at the same time further developing the structure, cohesiveness and strategy we need in order to move toward creating a party.
Our chapter has a talented and dedicated group of comrades and I believe that we can be one of the chapters leading the way to growing DSA nationally and positioning the organization quickly and effectively to gain more power.
I've been involved in this struggle for a long time and the momentum we have now is tremendous. I'm excited to be a part of Detroit DSA and would be happy to serve on the Steering Committee.
Self-identifies as a woman.
LOUIS FANELLI
Preferences for Officer Positions:
Direct Action Coordinator
Membership Engagement Coordinator
I entered Democratic Socialism through YDS of Oakland University in Fall 2018 and was elected as President during the 2019-2020 school year. I merged the YDSA with the Greater DDSA, which drastically improved membership and student participation. I helped coordinate, and became an active member, with M4A team in hosting the Fall 2019 town hall with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. I also bridged Wayne YDSA and OU YDSA, which built strong solidarity and friendships among the members and cadre. I am personally interested in the Direct Action Coordinator because protesting and civil disobedience runs in my veins — I live for it. But I also studied it as an undergrad, mostly on local CR and Labor campaigns. I hope to be able to strategize, improve tactics, and coordinate protests with leaders of various interworking groups, such as BBA and M4A. I will work diligently to study the art of protesting as a science. I believe my personal credentials stand for themselves as I gained local and national media exposure from facing down Trump and reactionaries in December 2019. But now I hope to harness that energy and provide leadership within he DDSA now that I am a college graduate with plenty of time!
NATASHA FERNANDEZ-SILBER
I would like to pass on what I've learned from my term as Co-chair to the next Steering Committee, which I hope is full of leaders with a passion for organizing and a vision for what they think the Chapter should be doing in the months and years to come.
Self-identifies as a woman.
DAVID GREEN
David Green is a candidate for Co-chair. See statement above.
EMMA GREEN
Preference for Officer Position:
Membership Engagement Coordinator
I joined Metro Detroit DSA in 2019 when I realized that power for the working class could not be won without the working class joining together. That requirement was not an exception for me, a college student who had grown up in a Detroit autoworker household and who knew all too well how quickly workers are thrown under the bus by bosses and major corporations. I made the decision to commit to my vision for a leftist future by joining Detroit DSA and attending monthly meetings on weekends I was home from school in Ohio. I canvassed for Ferndale for All, worked at the DSA booth at Motor City Pride, joined Detroit DSA at the DNC Debate Protest last summer, and recently have been plugging myself into neighborhood outreach as I've finally finished my schooling.
I'm interested in joining the Steering Committee because I want to give more time and energy to this chapter and make us stronger than ever in the year ahead. Regardless of if Biden or Trump wins, we can all agree with the fact that the working class of America will not be sufficiently supported by the presidency. For that reason, I would like to join the Steering Committee to put more time and energy into down-ballot electoral work and creating an organized labor movement in Metro Detroit. I also believe that one of Metro Detroit DSA's priorities should be creating a chapter as diverse and powerful as the population of this area. By supporting the work of the Black and Brown Alliance, I believe that Metro Detroit DSA can become a powerhouse of BIPOC voices and allies fighting for a better country for all members of the working class, and not just those who benefit from white privilege. For this reason, I am signing onto the Organizing Towards Power Slate and committing to its values as a candidate for Steering Committee.
I'm interested in running for the position of Membership Engagement Coordinator because I believe I have valuable experience in recruitment and membership engagement gained from previous organizations I've worked with. Throughout the past three years, I have spent the majority of my time as a community organizer focusing on event planning. Events I have worked with have included conferences, forums, lectures, and socials. I am more than comfortable facilitating new-member training as I have experience in facilitating training and workshops for grassroots organizations. I believe that part of recruiting new members and making existing members feel welcome in the community of DSA is creating enticing and accessible events. While happy hours are an excellent way to recruit older residents to Detroit DSA, they remain largely inaccessible or uninviting to members under the age of 21 or members who prefer to refrain from drinking. In addition to keeping the tradition of DSA Happy Hours, I would like to coordinate with members from Wayne State and Oakland YDSA Chapters to create appealing social events for younger adults interested in DSA, as well as creating more "sober" social events (such as board game nights, chapter open mics, or Super Smash Tournaments). In addition to this, I would like to coordinate with the Labor Working Group to target new recruits through organized labor connections we have in the Metro Detroit Area. I can only imagine the power that our chapter could achieve if we could target recruitment to UAW, SEIU, or other unions' existing rank-and-file membership.
Self-identifies as a woman.
MEL HERRERA-BAIRD
Preference for Officer Position:
Secretary
I've been involved with DSA overall for almost ten years and with Detroit DSA since the Auto Show Prom action in January 2019. Since then, I have canvassed and tabled for Bernie and Ferndale For All, helped organize the Douglass Debs dinner, have participated in/led several marches/actions, was a delegate to the National Convention, published in the Detroit Socialist, and started the Black and Brown Alliance of Detroit DSA.
Priorities for Detroit DSA should be focusing on local issues such as our housing crisis, environmental issues, and the abysmal poverty level in the area. As part of this focus, we should elevate Black and Brown members, and make sure to elect members like Rashida and Abe to public office. Further, we should be preparing folks in the membership to seek election as well.
I am interested in the Secretary position because I have a background in organizing and have served as a Secretary before. I've done administration for 15 years and would be amazing at all the necessary tasks.
Self-identifies as a woman and BIPOC.
DIANA HUSSEIN
Preference for Officer Position:
Communications Coordinator
I officially became a DSA member in September 2019. I was appointed to the MDDSA Steering Committee in January. Throughout my months as a chapter member, I have been active in every way I could pick up, from helping plan the anti-war with Iran action in January, to working with folks in the BBA and Labor Working Group for various activities such as the May Day digital statement for the chapter. I'm excited about the new formation of the Steering Committee as I feel like with an opportunity like Communications Coordinator, I can really focus my efforts for the chapter on what I know best. For nearly 5 years, I've been on staff for UNITE HERE Int'l Union as a Communications and Digital Specialist. The whole reason I decided to become an official member of DSA was because I want to take what I learn in the labor movement and further it to build strong working class power in my home region. I have experience running Communications for labor and strike campaigns, as well as political campaigns, and feel strongly that our chapter has all the potential to be in the national DSA conversation for leading a real working class and political movement.
Self-identifies as a woman and BIPOC.
HENRY “HANK” KENNEDY-COBB
Preferences for Officer Positions:
Campaign Coordinator
Communications Coordinator
Electoral Coordinator
Political Education Coordinator
I’ve been a paper member of Detroit DSA since 2015, but I decided to take a more active role these past two years. Since then, I’ve become a leader in the Socialist Reading Circle and a writer for the Detroit DSA newspaper, including a well received piece on Wayne State’s bureaucratic bloat. I am also a member in good standing of Wayne State YDSA and participated actively in the Labor Working Group, including strike solidarity during the UAW strike and the #fixtheelevators campaign involving a coalition of labor unions and the Wayne YDSA. If elected I will work to build up our capacity for independent political action, and I will represent the tradition of “socialism from below” as exemplified by Marx, Debs, and Luxemburg.
JASON KRZYSIAK
I have been involved with movement politics for my entire life.
Energized by my father, walking together in solidarity with striking newspaper employees and continuing with my 24 year membership in the United Auto Workers I am committed to building power for workers everywhere.
I have held both elected and appointed positions within the union and this past spring represented Local 245 in Washington D.C. as a delegate to our Community Action Conference advocating with other trade unionists on Capitol Hill for passage of worker focused legislation.
I am a graduate of Wayne State University’s Labor School and Central Michigan University with a major in Broadcasting and Cinematic Arts and minor in journalism.
My advocacy within my workplace inspired more involvement in my community and I won election to the Pleasant Ridge (MI) City Commission in 2011 where I served two 4-year terms ending this last November.
While on the commission I advocated vigorously for passage of our Human Rights Ordinance which bans all forms of discrimination within the city.
It was during my term as Commissioner that I became a member of Greater Detroit Democratic Socialists of America inspired by the vision of economic justice, environmental sustainability and human rights.
In a short time I have seen this chapter grow in size and capacity and have marveled at the effective organizing taking place.
My experience, both within the union and within local politics, may be helpful to the chapter and has prompted my interest to contribute to this growth.
If selected by my comrades, my priorities on the Steering Committee would be member engagement, mobilizing direct actions, workplace organizing and electoral work.
I would serve with reverence, humility and commitment to helping this chapter forge a better tomorrow for all mankind.
Thank you for considering me.
Submitted in solidarity.
CALEB LALINSKY
During the DSA for Bernie campaign I helped organize weekly phone banks and prepare canvassers as part of a chapter wide effort, which I also reported on in the Detroit Socialist newspaper. As a member of the Labor Working Group, I have participated in solidarity actions with striking Teamsters and UAW workers. During the pandemic I have been part of the neighborhood leads network, assisting and activating comrades in our communities. With the Political Education Working Group I have helped program propaganda for the newly public Socialist Movie Nights. I am a member of the Bread and Roses caucus, where I have the responsibility of orienting new members to the platform. I believe DSA's priorities should be organizing workers and liberating socialist political education from academia. I am a very active and involved member of Detroit DSA, and I seek an at large position on the Steering Committee to better offer my energies and enthusiasms to our organization.
PETER LANDON
Preferences for Officer Positions:
Political Education Coordinator
Campaigns Coordinator
Membership Engagement Coordinator
I've been in the Detroit chapter for close to three years. I've been active in initiating and helping organize the night school. I was a delegate to the 2019 DSA Convention. I've helped initiate the current Labor Working Group. I helped organize our DSA Bernie work. I'm running for Steering Committee to help create a leadership team that can build off of the successes of the chapter and move forward with even more. My priorities are political education; DSA having ongoing engagement with workplace based organizing; DSA contributing to forging an improved labor movement; and finding the capacities for DSA to engage in developing projects like the Green New Deal as a means to forging a socialism for the 21st Century. I'm a Teamster and a member of the Bread & Roses Caucus. I'm available for a number of roles on the Steering Committee though I'm primarily interested in the Political Education Coordinator assignment.
LAMAR LEMMONS
Lamar Lemmons is a candidate for Co-chair. Preferences for Officer Positions besides Co-chair: Campaigns Coordinator, Electoral Coordinator, Membership Engagement Coordinator, Political Education Coordinator, Rules & Bylaws Coordinator. See statement above.
MELISSA LUBERTI
Preference for Officer Position:
Technology Coordinator
I've been a member of Detroit DSA since mid-2017. Since joining, I've been an abortion clinic escort, along with coordinating our monthly clinic escorting events. I also help check in new members and guests at our monthly general meetings. I'm the chapter archivist and collect items for our collection at the Reuther Library. Finally, I helped set up our Tech Working Group and was the first administrator for our GSuite account. I'm running for the Technology Coordinator position because I would like to help our working groups, and chapter as a whole, determine what our tech needs are and use them to their greatest capacity.
Self-identifies as a woman.
DANA MARTINEZ-OCKER
Preferences for Officer Positions:
Treasurer
Membership Engagement Coordinator
Graphic Design and Art Coordinator
I first got involved with the DSA back in September where I helped plan the Douglass-Debs fundraiser by creating a budget and tracker, developing tools to manage event planning activities, and leading the day-of coordination. It was shortly thereafter that I became an official MDDSA member. Since then I have helped relaunch our new member engagement program under COVID, develop new member resources, manage outreach to new members, and I currently co-facilitate the new member orientation. I regularly assume support roles during events and activities and have planned a few events like happy hours or canvasses for our independent Bernie campaign. I also assist in managing our website and social media presence and designing graphics for our events and photographing them, too. Overall, my involvement with the MDDSA chapter has been to support all of our activities in whatever way I can.
As with many other DSA chapters, we are in a unique position to use the momentum of the Bernie campaign to grow socialism through class-struggle electoralism and a strong labor movement. But it will take a well-organized chapter membership to be the most effective with our campaigns. As such, we should prioritize our internal organizing efforts and create organizational structures that support the growth and development of our membership, leadership, and campaign work.
I am deeply grateful for my involvement with the MDDSA. Being a part of this organization and community has helped me grow as a socialist, as an organizer, and as a person. It is my hope, that as a Steering Committee member, that I can help foster this experience for others and use my decade of experience to grow the capacity of the chapter in sustainable ways.
Self-identifies as a woman.
JEFF MATHEUS
In the nearly two years since I've been a MDDSA member, I have worked hard with you fellow comrades to amplify the tenets, ideas, and message that we as Democratic Socialists are committed to spreading. In that time, I've canvassed countless times for our supported candidates and causes, and have done so in well over a dozen Metro Detroit communities. I've been part of direct actions, helped to form new working groups, and generally tried to help out where I can.
The majority of my time has been spent working in our Medicare 4 All workgroup, and I've been Co-chair for almost a year. We've had numerous town halls, canvassed in conservative dominant areas, marched in protest outside Blue Cross Blue Shield headquarters, turned the streets red with the Bernie/M4A door hanger campaign, had a ton of awesome happy hours, spoke out for M4A at Democratic and progressive clubs, bird dogged Haley Stevens and Elissa Slotkin endlessly, held multiple health fairs, helped to revive the brake light clinic, and have strived to innovate new ways to amplify the cause.
I think that one of our priorities, as a chapter, should be focusing on making sure DSA feels like an open and inclusive space to everyone. A place where people can find traction in ideas and not need to worry about being mocked or judged for speech well within the realm of our politics. Additionally, I think we should put priority into building goodwill within our Metro region, and really trying to put faces to our ideas that others can see themselves in.
As a member running for an at-large steering position, I would mostly like to help continue the work I'm already a part of and help with the greater responsibilities of the chapter in a more defined role.
AMANDA MATYAS
Preference for Officer Position:
Membership Engagement Coordinator
Hello Detroit DSA! My name is Amanda Matyas, and I joined our chapter when Bernie announced his campaign in early 2019. I got plugged into the newly formed Bernie group by tabling for DSA at rallies. I helped the DSA for Bernie group as a volunteer coordinator and hosted weekly phone banks for Bernie and Detroit DSA. In both projects my focus was to develop strong relationships with my comrades based around shared interests and common goals. Post Bernie I converted the phone banks into the DSA Dialer, which has a continuing goal of contacting every new signup to provide an easy path into our chapter. At the same time, I helped create the neighborhood leads network in response to the pandemic as a way to check in with our members and plug them in to our new online programs. I worked with the Electoral Committee to plan and host a preliminary Electoral phone bank for our recently endorsed candidates, Rashida and Abraham. Most recently I worked with the Political Education Working Group to start the Socialist Movie Nights, a program that encourages members and non-members to gather, watch a film with explicit and implicit socialist themes, and discuss shared politics. I am working with a small group of comrades to rethink our contact management system to better serve our chapter, and I am a member of the Bread and Roses caucus.
I would like to join Detroit DSA's Steering Committee in the Membership Engagement position. I believe our priorities for membership engagement should be targeted outreach to bring key working class people and local leaders into our chapter, strong political education in the form of weekly public facing events, and leadership development so our chapter's organizers can continue to democratically grow.
Self-identifies as a woman.
GLEN MILES
Preference for Officer Position:
Graphic Design & Art Coordinator
I’m Glen Miles — Detroit native, born & raised. I’ve been participating in DSA affiliated actions since the beginning of 2019. I became an official member of DSA at the beginning of 2020 and have spent a significant portion of time building a strong team of media savvy socialists within the chapter.
As a part of my time within the Metro Detroit chapter I’ve helped with the support efforts for the Bernie Sanders campaign in varying degrees. Sought out local and distant activists & organizations that shared DSA’s values to build useful coalitions with and helped with the formation of the Black & Brown Alliance.
I’ve acted as a media coordinator of sorts thus far and have served a short few months term on the Steering Committee this year already. I am applying to the Graphic Design & Art Coordinator position so that I may continue to push how the chapter thinks about design and inspire our members to get creative with our messaging.
As a member of the DSA Libertarian Socialist Caucus, I aim to steer the chapter in new directions utilizing a dual power strategy in the struggle against global capitalism. I respect & support the comrades in our chapter that continue to fight for change through policy gains, electing representatives, and unionizing efforts. However, I hope to offer an alternative to this strategy in the form of building mutual aid networks, taking on restorative ecology initiatives, and growing cooperative institutions to meet community needs while being democratically operated.
Self-identifies as nonbinary and BIPOC.
KYLE MINTON
I have been the Co-chair of the MDDSA's Medicare for All Working Group for 2.5 years. I have participated in and actively organized the House Pressure Campaign, brake light clinics, community health fairs, canvasses, trainings, and more. Our working group has pushed representatives to support single-payer programs both at the state and federal level, we have made real impacts toward health justice in the city of Detroit, and we have even led a direct action against the beast itself: Blue Cross Blue Shield.
I'm running to be an at-large member of the Steering Committee. The chapter is a massive organizing force and I believe my experience organizing effective campaigns will be an asset as we point it toward bigger and bigger objectives.
JESSICA NEWMAN
Preferences for Officer Positions:
Campaigns Coordinator
Electoral Coordinator
I have been a proud and active member of the Detroit DSA for over two years, and a member of DSA since 2016. In my time as a member of the Detroit chapter, I helped lead the highly successful Cobo rally, and served as Electoral Committee Co-chair and on the Steering Committee, helping lead our Ferndale for All strategy. I had to step down from my leadership positions to work on the national organizing team of the Bernie Sanders campaign for the past 6 months. Previous to the Bernie I worked in the labor movement as a communications professional and community/electoral organizer.
I would be honored to serve the chapter again in a leadership capacity, and continue to bring my over decade of experience as a professional labor and electoral organizer to the work and campaigns of our chapter. My experience building and managing remote volunteer teams, using virtual means to organize on a mass scale, is especially relevant to building the chapter in this time. I am interested in serving as the campaigns or electoral coordinator as I am passionate about leading efforts to build out and shape the strong, strategic, class struggle campaigns with clear points of entry for all interested members that are vital to building the socialist project.
It has been a great privilege to organize alongside my fierce, brilliant, and passionate comrades in this chapter, and I humbly seek your vote to help guide this vital organization in a time when the voice and vision of the socialist movement has never held more promise or had more importance.
Self-identifies as a woman.
MADELEINE RINGWALD
Preference for Officer Position:
Direct Action Coordinator
Thank you for considering me for the Metro Detroit DSA Steering Committee! I’ve been a member since 2017, and my primary involvement has been as a founding member of our chapter’s Labor Working Group (in its current iteration). It’s been incredible seeing the enthusiasm in our chapter as we’ve grown this past year to begin doing a mix of solidarity work, skill-building and on-the-ground workplace organizing.
Outside of DSA, during my four years living in Detroit, I’ve worked in both education and labor. I’m currently a staff organizer for SEIU Local 1 and an active member of our staff union, previously serving as shop steward.
Amidst this pandemic and looming depression, our job as socialists is to provide an explanation for this moment, and have a clear vision and strategy to move beyond it. I believe our central project is to build a militant, mulitracial working class movement. The current orientation of almost all major unions is that power comes not from a tightly organized workforce, but from cozying up to bosses and politicians — abandoning the workers they purport to represent. Nothing short of militant rank-and-file movements (within and outside unions) will challenge capitalism. Our main priority should be building, supporting and being catalysts in these rank-and-file worker movements.
Further, we must prioritize moving towards a DSA that represents the majority black and brown working class of the metro Detroit area, and growing the BBA. This requires achieving tangible victories, and organizing around the crises immediately facing hundreds of thousands of Detroiters: the racist eviction and foreclosure crises, the carceral police state and murderous levels of water, soil and air pollution, to name just a few.
Finally, our focus as always should be on building internal democracy as an organization. Democratic decision making and well-coordinated campaigns will both allow us to grow — and to win.
For these reasons, I’m running on the Organizing Towards Power slate. I have experience coordinating direct actions, including strike actions, which is why I'm running for either at-large or Direct Action coordinator. I would be thrilled and honored to serve on our Steering Committee this coming year — and bring my passion, skills and political vision to our shared project.
Self-identifies as a woman.
ZACHARY RIOUX
I have been a member of Detroit DSA for over a year now and it has become my political home. I am a founding member of the Labor Working Group and as an At-Large Steering Committee member I will work to make the Labor movement a larger part of our chapter activities. I believe that we can become a home for the politically active and organized working class. Furthermore, I want to make DSA a place that people go to, not just because they are interested in socialism, but because they think it can help improve their lives.
CARLOS SALAZAR
Preference for Officer Position:
Electoral Coordinator
I have been the Electoral Committee Co-chair for seven months and before that I was the campaign coordinator for the Ferndale for All Campaign, the first campaign to try to get our membership elected to government. I have the experience and the sense of the changing timetable in Michigan. I also commit to building a better infrastructure for our Electoral Committee and to begin to think at least two years ahead for how we want to see socialist politics reflected in our local governments.
Self-identifies as BIPOC.
MADISON SANDERS
I became a dues-paying member to our Metro-Detroit chapter in 2018, after attending a semester of Socialist Night School which both confirmed my interest in socialism and my confidence in the vision of DSA.
Having lost a sister at a young age partly due to our country’s healthcare inadequacies, I’ve always gravitated towards radical healthcare policy, despite not fully being able to articulate a concrete vision of what that might look like — until Bernie Sanders’ political bid in 2016. For me, DSA has allowed me to collectively organize and work alongside like-minded individuals, as well as envision a future where socialist values are the bedrock in which we build our society.
I am a member of our Political Education Committee, and I help plan our (now virtual) Socialist Night School classes which educate DSA and community members through an array of socialist subjects, both specific to Detroit and globally. We recruit current DSA members to help facilitate classes, and are working with YDSA members to facilitate “ABC’s of Socialism” classes to teach foundational values to our influx of new chapter members. We are currently creating on an application process and guidelines that will help DSA members confidently plan and teach their subject matter in a successful manner.
Through the Bernie campaign I did weekly phone banking with fellow DSA members at Red Door Digital, as well as canvassed in Detroit/Hamtramck/Metro Detroit on the weekends. Through this experience I was able to help with voter registration, recruitment for DSA and converse about specific and widespread issues that are impacting my community. Canvassing, phone banking and talking with my neighbors taught me what I intuited before but never felt so concretely: that the well-being of my neighbor is inextricable from my own.
I am running for an At-Large position on the Metro-Detroit DSA Steering Committee and believe that we should prioritize democratically accountable leadership, chapter-wide campaigns, centering workplace organizing and organized labor, class struggle electoral campaigns and recruiting diverse members & growing the BBA.
As a member of the Bread & Roses National Caucus, I support the rank-and-file strategy and believe that our chapter should continue, and increase, our collaboration and support for groups that have values that we share, like MI-CORE or MI Liberation, as a way to establish a united front against the ruling class here in Detroit. Through education and strategic organizing with like-minded groups, we can directly impact lives by spreading class consciousness, enacting socialist policies and building workplace power.
As a member of the Steering Committee I would stand by these priorities and continue working and collaborating with DSA members to facilitate real and substantial change here in Southeastern Michigan.
Self-identifies as a woman.
JANE SLAUGHTER
I want to join the Steering Committee to strengthen our labor work and our training and education programs. A member since 2018, I've worked on Night Schools and given classes on a bunch of topics, from Labor 101 to public speaking, as well as doing a large amount of foot-soldiering for Ferndale for All. I'm a member of the Bread & Roses caucus, which has those same priorities (https://socialistcall.com/where-we-stand). I want to encourage our members to see their workplaces as sites for political organizing. We have a long way to go, but building a strong, combative labor movement is the only way we'll transform American class consciousness enough to elect a socialist president. Likewise, DSA is the most important socialist organization of my lifetime, but we need to become an organization that all members of the working class feel comfortable in.
Self-identifies as a woman.
NICOLAS TEDESCO
Preference for Officer Position:
Political Education Coordinator
Hi everyone, I'm Nick Tedesco, a member of Detroit DSA since September 2019 and a former Co-chair of the recently formed Wayne State YDSA. Under my leadership, WSUYDSA became one of the fastest growing and most well organized YDSA chapters at the national convention, we started to build a working relationship with the unions on campus, we organized a campus wide town hall for Rashida Tlaib to speak on College-for-All, and I helped lead the DSA/Bernie campaign's efforts on Wayne's campus. Beyond that, I was very involved in canvassing and volunteering for the Bernie campaign in the lead-up to Super Tuesday.
I am running to be on the MDDSA Steering Committee because I am graduating from Wayne State and I would like to carry the skills I've honed and experiences I've had from WSUYDSA over to MDDSA. I believe DSA needs to mobilize quickly and effectively to first and foremost become a mass organization that builds an intimate, working relationship between the socialist movement and the labor movement that can realize, and build upon, legitimate political goals. Being in the heart of the city with one of the most radical and dynamic labor and socialist traditions in the country, Detroit DSA can be critical in leading the rest of the movement by example, and I want to help realize that.
Political education is crucial to having constructive discussion and disagreement in a democratic organization, as well as equipping organizers with the knowledge they need to confront issues in the world and in the workplace. That's why I am specifically seeking the position of Political Education Coordinator because I've developed a lot of skills in communication, educating (through tutoring), and working in an administrative capacity, so I feel I can contribute a great deal to the Steering Committee in this role and improve these skills even further. Thank you all for your consideration!
MATTHEW WILLIAMS
Hello my name is Matt Williams (He/Him). I have been a member of Detroit DSA since 2016 but recently became more involved with helping our Labor Working Group since December of 2019. I'm hoping to fill an At-Large Steering Committee position with the hope to help our chapter be focused on helping Labor in our communities organize and struggle against Capital. Thank you.
JACOB YESH-BROCHSTEIN
Preference for Officer Position:
Technology Coordinator
I’ve been involved with DSA for over a year now and have tried a bit of everything. I have really settled in on supporting our efforts with data. I work with data professionally, and have been happy to contribute my skills to an organization I am very passionate about. Perhaps my most well known contribution was as Data Director for the Ferndale for All Campaign. In this position I worked near daily setting up, participating in and coordinating canvasses, lit drops, and more. Through this role, I significantly contributed to our proudly socialist candidates receiving thousands of votes. I also was a key coordinator in the Green New Deal town hall with Abdul El-Sayed at University of Michigan Dearborn, which saw around 100 attendees. As a member of the Steering Committee I would hope to not necessarily change or push certain priorities, rather I would aim to improve how we use, coordinate, and store the information we utilize. This way our priorities are met as efficiently and effectively as possible. That being said, I feel I could do quite well in the Technology Coordinator position.