Comrades, et camarades, y camaradas,

We invite you to join us for the next Berkshires DSA General Meeting on Tuesday, February 10, at 6:30pm, in person at the UNO Community Center and virtually on Zoom. RSVP here and here is the agenda!

These gatherings are a vital space to build relationships, strengthen trust, and deepen our sense of shared purpose as comrades committed to collective action.

At this meeting, we’re especially excited to host a discussion and action-planning session :

Building, Taking, and Sustaining Action: What We Can Learn from Minnesota—and How We Can Apply it in the Berkshires

Across the country, people are fed up. More and more are turning toward direct action against rising authoritarianism and the corruption of a billionaire class that fuels insecurity, violence, and dehumanization. In Minnesota, organizers and labor leaders have helped reintroduce ideas like the general strike, labor stoppages, shutdowns, and boycotts into the popular imagination.

At the same time, we need to be honest about our conditions. Private-sector unionization rates are at historic lows—around 5%—which limits what a formal general strike can currently achieve. But this reality should not deter us.

The January 23rd "ICE Out of Minnesota" strike and coordinated actions in Minnesota—organized by unions and community groups, including SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17, and the Minnesota AFL-CIO, among others—were strategically built around nonviolent direct action to stop ICE. Using time-tested organizing methods, this campaign mobilized tens of thousands of Minnesotans and inspired solidarity actions across the country. It demonstrated that even when a general strike isn’t yet possible, we can build the solidarity, discipline, courage, and collective strategy that make one imaginable.

These organizers showed something crucial: when an issue is widely and deeply felt—such as the abuses of ICE—the people will show up if organizers are ready.

Please join us to discuss what made these actions effective, what lessons we can carry forward, and how we can apply them here at home. What issues are deeply and widely felt in the Berkshires? How can we organize around them now in ways that prepare us to meet the moment?

Let’s get ready, together.

In solidarity,
Victor, Heidi, Brad, Maro, and Kevin
Berkshires DSA Steering Committee

P.S. Want to learn more in advance of our meeting? Check out these links:

“If Anyone Can Pull Off a General Strike, It’s Minnesotans” by Sarah Jaffe, The New Republic, January 23, 2026
“How to Organize a Real General Strike in the US,” by Eric Blanc, Jacobin, February 2, 2026
The Dig: Minneapolis Fight Back w/ Emilia González Avalos, Greg Nammacher, and JaNaé Bates Imari, Jacobin Radio, January 31, 2026
https://museumofprotest.org/methods/general-strike/