DSA, Rashida Tlaib Team Up for Workplace Organizing Training Series
Co-authors: Layla Taha and Anthony D
At Detroit DSA’s inaugural local convention, the Electoral Committee presented a plan for the next year of our chapter’s electoral organizing. An amendment to that plan called “Organizing-focused Socialists in Office (SIO) Committee” passed with 67% of the vote. It asserted that the purpose of electing socialists is for them to act as “organizers first, legislators second.” It encourages them to use their offices as organizing hubs to train their constituents to organize alongside them and help build a militant, fighting working class. It also commits us to creating our own party-like infrastructure through which we can host trainings and events, and recruit future socialist candidates from within our own ranks.
One of the best and first outgrowths of this organizing philosophy was a workplace organizing training that our chapter co-hosted with Detroit DSA member and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on July 16 at the Dearborn Federation of Teachers hall in Dearborn. Two Detroit DSA members facilitated the first of three training sessions in this series, using Labor Notes materials. The training focused on “Beating Apathy” by helping the attending workers learn to overcome organizing roadblocks at their workplaces like fear, confusion, hopelessness, and division.
To get the word out about the event, Rashida posted it to her 451,000 followers on Instagram and sent out multiple emails to her list of supporters in Michigan leading up to it. Rashida was able to use her outreach apparatus to turn out workers that support her but may not be drawn to a DSA event due to unfamiliarity or unwillingness to call themselves socialists just yet.
The event had 50 RSVPs and 33 people attended, made up of a mix of DSA members and Rashida constituents that included auto workers, public school teachers, and other workers both with and without unions at their workplaces. Workers across these various industries were able to find common ground when discussing issues in their workplaces. Several UAW auto workers attended the training and will hopefully coordinate with us on our Strike Ready solidarity campaign leading up to a potential strike on Ford, Stellantis, and/or GM when their contract expires on September 14.
Rashida led off the training event with a speech about her willingness to experiment with the ideas that Detroit DSA brings to her and her desire to fight corporate greed by helping her constituents to build new unions and reform their existing ones. She referenced the fact that her dad was a UAW member and that her family received healthcare for the first time when he joined the union.
Rashida was followed by Kathi Martin, President of the Dearborn Federation of Teachers Local 681, who recently won leadership and majority control of the Executive Board as part of the rank-and-file reform caucus within the union called the Michigan Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (MI-CORE). Kathi helped to invite her coworkers to the training and spoke about how they have used Labor Notes materials in the past to guide their reform efforts within the union.
After the event, a follow-up email was sent to all attendees to invite them to join a Workers’ Circle organized by DSA members and to gauge interest in holding two more training sessions to complete the series. The feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive, including one who wrote “very good training and look forward to the other upcoming training sessions” and another who wrote “this was a great experience, there needs to be more inclusive organizing trainings/gatherings for everyone to learn and grow.” Rashida’s team sent one final email to write about the success of the event and help fundraise to host future trainings.
This workplace organizing training series is set to become the third in a series of programs coordinated by Rashida’s campaign that empower folks to organize on their own behalf. The other two programs include the Youth Civic Engagement Fellowship and Campaign School.
The Youth Civic Engagement Fellowship is an eight-month program for youth ages 14–24 who are interested in building power through civic engagement. With a focus on non-male and BIPOC youth, this program provides participants with training on organizing, coalition building, and communications. Fellows also receive instruction on a variety of social justice issues from experienced organizers including DSA members organizing in the labor movement. Through these trainings, instruction, and on-the-ground experience, participants develop important organizing and leadership skills.
The Campaign School is a free, five-week program for folks interested in running for local and state-level offices in Metro Detroit. The program focuses on non-male and BIPOC candidates. Throughout the five-week training, participants dive into the issues affecting Metro Detroit and learn the fundamentals of campaigning, preparing them to run their own grassroots campaigns that are rooted in values and community and share Rashida’s political vision. Campaign School applicants are vetted to ensure that they have prior organizing experience and their campaign platform prioritizes progressive policies like Medicare For All and a Green New Deal. Former participants include DSA members Landis Spencer and Dylan Wegela, the latter of whom is now a State Representative.
At the core of both the Youth Civic Engagement Fellowship and Campaign School is the drive to bring more residents of Rashida’s district into organizing work and help them to become more politically engaged. Whether it is through on-the-ground organizing and mobilizing or through elected office, Rashida wants to encourage her residents to start, join, and lead organizing work in their communities. By establishing a workplace organizing training program, Rashida’s campaign hopes to round out a comprehensive approach to developing youth, electoral, and labor organizers. Providing a training space for these folks is the first step in developing more organizers to help build the mass movement necessary to win a better world.
These programs can help grow our movement, but only if we all step up to build them together. Want to get involved? Email layla@rashidaforcongress.com to help us develop more organizers!
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