May Day weekend of action in DMV continues revolutionary tradition; the Washington Socialist Spring 2026 issue, part II; Summer Reading Group signups now open; and more ...
This is the weekly newsletter of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America (MDC DSA), which is
produced by local members of the chapter's Publications Working Group. The Weekly Update publishes every
Friday at 9am. Want to fight fascism from the heart of empire? Join DSA and fight to build socialism!
Paid for by Metro DC DSA (mdcdsa.org). Not authorized by any candidate or committee.
UP FRONT
May Day from the beginning: Paris and London, 1890 — the movement continues TODAY
“1890 marked the first attempt at a coordinated May Day following a decision of the founding Congress of the Second Socialist International to hold strikes, rallies, and demonstrations as an expression of workers' power and to further the struggle to win the 8-hour day.
“The rally in Paris, with tens of thousands participating, was the first public mass action of socialists and anarchists since the defeat of the Paris Commune in 1871 — a revolutionary uprising that sought to establish direct democracy, drowned in blood, with 30,000 workers executed and even more imprisoned or exiled. In Germany, the march celebrated the re-emergence of a public face of the socialist movement which had survived 12 years of virtual illegality stronger than ever after the anti-socialist laws imposed in 1878 were rescinded in January 1890. And in London, the rally was the largest since the mass demonstrations of the Chartists at the dawn of the industrial revolution, coinciding with the 'New Unionism' of unskilled workers ready to confront capital at the workplace and in the political arena.
“Eleanor Marx, Karl Marx’s youngest daughter, was one of the principal speakers at the London rally. Active in her own right as one of the founders of the British Socialist League, a unionist and as such a strong supporter of women’s rights — especially of women and girls working in sweatshop factories — she advocated that May Day should be a daily commitment to workers. Her comments are relevant today, more than 100 years later:
”’… we have come here in the cause of labour, in its own defence, to demand its own rights. I can remember when we came in handfuls of a few dozen to Hyde Park to demand an Eight Hours' Bill, but the dozens have grown to hundreds, and the hundreds to thousands, until we have this magnificent demonstration that fills the park today. … Socialists believe that the eight hours' day is the first and most immediate step to be taken, and we aim at a time when there will no longer be one class supporting two others, but the unemployed both at the top and at the bottom of society will be got rid of. This is not the end but only the beginning of the struggle…’"
Read more about the history and promises of May Day in May Day Pasts: Moments and Movements, published in the spring 2023 issue of the Washington Socialist.
Socialists and workers will carry this radical tradition forward with a weekend of action to reject capitalist brutality and organize for the world envisioned by workers past. Working people are planning three larger actions this weekend:
Friday, May 1, 12pm: March and rally
at the Washington Monument. Led by immigrant workers, this May Day
rally will see workers, students, and communities united to demand
justice, dignity, and a world beyond capitalism. On what for many is a
workday, when the ruling class expects silence and subservience, the
working classes will fill the streets and prove that collective power
can disrupt business as usual.
The same day at 5pm, workers will have their bread and roses, too, with an evening celebration
featuring music, a speaking program, dancing, and more. (Worker art
will also be the focus of the DC Working Class Literature Festival
taking place over the weekend; more info in DMV LEFT BULLETIN.)
Sunday,
May 3, 4pm: Mass worker organizing meeting. After the direct action and
celebration, workers will strategize how to win the class war in the
long term. This education and strategy session will aim to turn the
working class’s rage into power. This is a comprehensive organizing
skills training; all are welcome. RSVP here.
Don’t Be Afraid of Evelyn: Outrage against the status quo has activated a previously dormant Democratic Party base, which will now vote for anyone willing to challenge the establishment — including socialists. In response, the author writes, the Democratic Socialists of America should embrace this rage and run candidates in primary elections nationwide.
Quixote, Franco’s Ghost, and the Fight for American Imagination: A statue of Don Quixote that rides in front of the Kennedy Center — gifted to the United States by Spain in the wake of the Franco dictatorship — has lessons to teach about imagination and rebellion in the face of fascism, from Madrid to DC.
Want to be part of a collective that’s learning and reading together? Metro DC DSA has assembled 12 distinct reading and discussion groups: a Capital Vol. 1 group, a political economy group on financial hegemony in capitalism, a critical theory discussion group on Adorno’s Minima Moralia, a group on organizing burnout and the experience of political defeat, a critical group on artificial intelligence, a TV club on HBO’s Watchmen series, a group on CLR James’ classic Black Jacobins, a group reading perspectives on the strategy of the No Cop City movement in Atlanta, a group on electoral strategy discussing Zohran’s win and DSA political endorsements, and three regularly occurring groups on labor organizing, new magazine articles, and global poetry. Sign up for reading groups here. The chapter’s reading groups provide an opportunity to learn in a group, either online or in-person, and help members develop their organizing prowess and knowledge alongside comrades while providing a forum for debate and discussion. These reading groups are also a great opportunity for new members to get introduced to the chapter and its ongoing work.
BRIEFS
Public Land Working Group to hold conversation with DC Shadow Rep Oye Owolewa — Monday, May 4 at 5:30pm
On Monday, May 4, Metro DC DSA’s Public Land Working Group will host chapter member Oye Owolewa — current shadow representative of the District of Columbia and candidate for At-Large member to the DC Council. The meeting will discuss his vision for social housing on public land with a particular focus on the 1617 U Street parcel. Sign up here to register for the meeting.
DC Spanish Club for Socialists — Monday, May 4 at 7pm
Spanish Club for Socialists, a project
of multiple area socialist and mutual aid organizations including Metro
DC DSA, is a free weekly event where organizers meet up to practice
their Spanish. The event is about 90 minutes long and is split into
beginner, intermediate, and advanced groups, so learners of all levels
should feel welcome. The next session is scheduled for Monday, April 27
from 7 – 8:30pm at St. Stephen’s (1525 Newton St NW). Sign up here for calendar updates and conversation guides.
Metro DC DSA tenant organizing arm, Stomp Out Slumlords, to hold general meeting next Wednesday, May 6 at 6:30pm
As the cost of living continues to skyrocket and tenants are constantly fighting back against corrupt landlords (and the big corporations backing them), it has never been more important to organize. Stomp Out Slumlords, Metro DC DSA’s tenant organizing arm, is laser-focused on adding to their running list of wins for tenants by electing champions for rent control and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) at the primaries in June. Anyone interested in joining Stomp Out Slumlords in fighting for the tenants of DC should join their general meeting on Wednesday, May 5 at 6:30pm at the Festival Center (1640 Columbia Road NW). The meeting will cover Stomp Out Slumlords’ current work, workshop tenant organizing challenges, and discuss electoral plans ahead of the primaries. Food and refreshments will be provided for all attendees. RSVP for the Stomp Out Slumlords meeting here.
The Big Red Machine in Action: MDC DSA showing the establishment what people-powered electoral campaigns look like across the DMV
In the midst of ongoing occupation and an inability to combat federal overreach by local government, Metro DC DSA's endorsed candidates are running to fight back. Locals can get involved throughout the weekend:
In DC: Canvass against the occupation of DC with Aparna Raj and the Community Defense Working Group in Columbia Heights from 11am to 4pm on Saturday, May 2. From patrolling the streets daily to testifying at DC Council hearings, Community Defense are fighting for a DC Council that will end MPD’s collaboration with ICE — and Aparna,who has joined the working group on patrols and at hearings, is the only choice for Ward 1. RSVP for the canvass here — and read more about Community Defense’s work here.
Knock doors for Janeese Lewis George in the U Street Corridor on Sunday, May 3 from 3 to 6pm. Janeese is fighting for childcare for all, rent stabilization, and more affordable utilities — a vision for the District that voters are excited by.
In Montgomery County: In the crowded at-large race for county council, labor unions and allied left-wing orgs have coalesced around Metro DC DSA cadre candidate Josie Caballero. But corporate and establishment forces are going all in on the opposition slate in an effort to repeal rent stabilization and break union power — and Josie needs help from every DSA member to reach her target door numbers. Canvasses will be held Saturday, May 2 at 10am and Sunday, May 3 at 2pm launching from Sligo-Bennington Neighborhood Park (599 Bennington Dr, Silver Spring, MD 20910). Training, rides to doors, and buddies will be provided to all who need them.
Fresh off a successful fundraiser, Gabe Acevero is hitting the doors with renewed vigor. Canvasses will be held Saturday, May 2 at 10am and 1pm launching from Spark M Matsunaga Elementary (13902 Bromfield Rd. Germantown, MD 20874).
Zola Shaw is widely recognized as the pro-tenant and pro-union candidate in the District 3 County Council race, leading the rent stabilization charge in Rockville and having cornered endorsements from every labor union in this race. Zola will be canvassing on Sunday, May 3 at 1pm in Rockville.
And in Prince George’s County: Join PG comrades in a joint canvass for Imara Crooms (District 9 PG County Council) and Raaheela Ahmed (District 23 MD Senate) on Saturday, May 2 at 1pm in Marlton. Following speeches from both candidates at last week’s chapter general body meeting in Hyattsville, the campaign trail is heating up — and every canvasser is needed to overcome the attacks from defenders of the failed status quo.
Interested in getting involved with Metro DC DSA’s electoral work, but not sure where to plug in? Fill out the electoral volunteer interest form here to join in the efforts ahead of the primary elections.
Comrades needed: Member Engagement Department seeking members to support text and phonebanking or to lead New Member Cohorts in DC
Interested in planning organizer trainings for new members? The Member Engagement Department (MED) is looking for members to organize New Member Cohorts in DC, NoVA, and PG County for newish members seeking to get more involved. Training and guidance will be provided.
MED is also looking for members to engage new or prospective members via phone and text banking or email replies to interested members with a monthly time commitment of 4 to 5 hours. Contact [email protected] if interested in either opportunity or for other ways to get involved in the department.
INFO ACCESS
Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, uniting the DMV, is one of a number of big urban DSA chapters — and many more compact but potent ones within the country’s Blue AND Red corridors — that are building a true political Left across the US. All this as Trump, flailing, seeks a nationalist rush with brain-dead warmaking, and ill-trained ICE paramilitary irregulars layer white-nationalist terrorism atop our everyday capitalist yoke. This is the terrain on which we fight back, gain allies, and, more often every day, win.
Your first step? Join DSA and fight to build socialism. We’re the alternative that works for people, not profiteers and their captive politicians. Still thinking about it? Be sure to get this Update every Friday in your inbox, member or not.
How is our activism grounded? See the rich archive of our acclaimed Socialist Night School. Join a socialist reading group (more above). Read the Washington Socialist, published since the 1970s, which has now published the second installment of its spring 2026 issue. See above for Quixote among the fascists, efforts to reappoint the people who brought you high electric costs, and exploring how a fervent right-winger can claim to be anti-war — and more. Watch the latest MDC Dispatch video chronicle on YouTube for more recent coverage.
Already a member? Join our Slack for real-time info on working group and campaign events, strategy/tactic exchange, and inspiration. Email [email protected] with your most recent DSA dues receipt to get access.
DMV LEFT COMMUNITY BULLETIN
Have an allied event, action, or resource we should know about? Share it with us by using ourtip line.
Working Class Literature Festival | Bol Co-op
Bol Co-op presents DC’s inaugural Working Class Literature Festival, which will take place on May 1 – 2 at the Festival Center.
The Working Class Literature Festival is inspired by the annual Working Class Literature Festival in Florence, which emerged from the GKN factory occupation, where workers turned struggle into solidarity, and solidarity into celebration and a call to action. This year’s festival in DC will bring together writers with and without formal training and will explore how the working class organizes and resists while also reckoning with how global economic powers shape labor conditions across the world. From poetry and fiction to music, the festival insists on the roses alongside the bread. RSVP for the Working Class Literature Festival here.
Crushing Wheelchairs film screening at AFI Theatre on May 12 at 6:30pm
A cast and crew of currently and formerly unhoused youth, families, and disabled elders from the Bay Area have created a scripted film about their lives and ancestors lost to the ongoing violence of homelessness, evictions, gentrification, domestic violence, police terror, and sweeps. The film is co-directed by Tiny (Lisa) Gray-Garcia, a formerly houseless and incarcerated screenwriter, author, poet, and founder of POOR MAGAZINE, a poor people — and Indigenous people — led grassroots nonprofit arts organization. Crushing Wheelchairs is coming to the East Coast in May 2026, with the DC showing on Tuesday, May 12 at the AFI Theatre in Silver Spring (food at 5:30pm, film at 6:30pm, Q&A at 8:30pm). Watch the trailer and buy tickets here on a sliding scale from $3 to $20.
Voter Registration Training on Tuesday, May 5 at 7:30pm | Rockville Renters United
Join the UMD School of Social Work Advocacy Students and Rockville Renters United on May 5 for a voter registrar training and community potluck. Rockville Renters United will be joined by a representative from the Montgomery County Board of Elections who will train attendees on becoming voter registrars. Participants will learn how to register people to vote to ensure that as many people as possible are able to be involved in electing local representation that will fight for them. Rockville Renters United is also throwing a potluck to provide food for the evening; those able are requested to bring food to share with the group. RSVP for the Rockville voter registration training here.
ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVES
ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVES are articles and opinion pieces of
interest to DMV leftists but not, generally, appearing in local media.
They should have links without paywalls. Readers are invited to submit
candidates at ourtip line.
The Third Party That’s Pushing the Democrats Left Long a major progressive influence in New York politics, the Working Families Party has released its first national platform ever — and it has the likes of Elizabeth Warren and Ro Khanna on board.
Trump is way under water but Dems are not proportionally elevated, creating an opening. But: in New York a candidate can be on more than one party ballot line. How will WFP’s strategy work in states where they can’t? New Republic via Portside
The two new analyses confirmed that 2025 was a banner year for renewable energy. Solar power was the single biggest source used to meet humanity’s growing appetite for electricity. New power generation from the broader suite of carbon-free sources — including wind, nuclear, and hydropower — actually exceeded the overall rise in electricity demand, meaning renewables began to displace fossil fuel sources. If this trend sticks, it would mean that the so-called energy transition meant to shepherd humanity out of the climate crisis is no longer theoretical. Mother Jones via Portside
A group of some 60 countries met last week on the Colombian coast to figure out how to phase out fossil fuels, after three decades of United Nations-led talks have struggled to produce a clear path for battling climate change. A lot of big emitters — the European Union, the United Kingdom and Brazil — attended, along with fossil fuel producers like Canada and Nigeria. Also attending: import-dependent nations like the Philippines and Pakistan, which have been roiled by the Iran war’s effects on oil markets. But one thing that will make the conference in Colombia different is that it won’t include countries that have historically tried to hold back climate action. “It is hugely important that the Colombians and the Dutch and others have set this up, because we all see how wrecked the COP process is, how vulnerable it is to naysayers and those who want to derail it,” Wopke Hoekstra, the European Union’s climate commissioner, said. POLITICO
“Jeff Bezos personally has enough money to buy all of Northern Virginia” — so who cares about his company’s failure to meet promises made for its NoVA HQ, writes Harold Meyerson in the Prospect. “He clearly has enough money to buy Trump’s National Labor Relations Board, though I’m not alleging that he did. By virtue of Trump’s appointment of an Amazon-friendly general counsel, any such purchase would be superfluous.” Trump, wallowing in the obeisance of Bezos and other Silicon Valley mega-moguls’ vast donations for his coronation (er, inauguration) appointed a lawyer who has represented Amazon repeatedly as the NLRB general counsel, and she negotiated a settlement in a crucial case before Amazon could be found liable. “Were Amazon to be found to be what it actually is—the joint employer of the many thousands of drivers who make its deliveries—it would be subject to all the legal obligations that employers must meet, and liable for violations of health and safety standards and for denying the rights of its drivers to unionize.” The American Prospect via Portside
Socialism without illusions Among leftists, the question of why one continues to use the word “socialism” can for most seem almost unnecessary — until one notices how unstable the term has become even within our own ranks. We invoke it constantly, but often as shorthand for very different and sometimes incompatible political projects. The social relations socialism arose to confront have not disappeared. Capital remains the organizing principle of social life. Production is subordinated to accumulation rather than need. Wealth and power are concentrated to grotesque degrees. Labor remains fragmented, disciplined, and increasingly precarious. Social reproduction is privatized and destabilized. Public life is hollowed out and increasingly administered on behalf of markets. Democratic forms survive in attenuated ways, but democratic control over economic life remains largely nonexistent. The ecological crisis deepens under imperatives of endless growth and competition. War and militarization remain structural features of the world system. None of this is new. What is new is only the degree to which these realities are normalized. Under these conditions, socialism remains the name of the unresolved historical question. ZNetwork
May Day arrived with the dawn — and it is always a good idea to remind ourselves of its history. Fred Glass, a labor historian, socialist, and union activist for many years, reminds us of that history in an article posted by California DSA's newsletter — with a particular focus on general strikes .
Working-class anti-fascism is also part of our history. The ILWU — the West Coast longshore and warehouse union — posted on its website a review of a biography of Bill Bailey. While working longshore in New York in 1935, Bailey and some comrades tore down the swastika of a German ship docked in the harbor. Two years later he volunteered to fight fascism in Spain. A seaman during World War II, he was blacklisted in the 1950s because of his Communist Party membership.
This is the weekly newsletter of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America (MDC DSA), which is produced by
local members of the chapter's Publications working group. The Weekly Update publishes every Friday at
9am.
Paid for by Metro DC DSA (mdcdsa.org). Not authorized by any candidate or committee.
Thinking about it, but want to get this email Update every Friday? SIGN UP
HERE
The flame of thought, the magnificence of art, the wonder of discovery, and the audacity of invention
all belong to revolutionary periods when humanity, tired of its chains, shatters them and stops inebriated to
breathe the breeze of a vast and free horizon. - Virgilia D'Andrea
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