Red Star Newsletter- February 2026
Hello from Red Star! Curious about what we’ve been up to? Read on to find out!
National Work Update
NPC Update
The National Political Committee, in adherence to convention resolutions CR05, R30, and R36, have created the National Organizing Conference Committee in preparation for the National Organizing Conference scheduled for July 30th through August 2nd. Red Star member John L. of the National Political Committee has spearheaded this project for years, coordinating with staff to finalize budgeting and enlist the support of both the staff and the NPC. The NPC has rolled all of the events required by these three resolutions into one mega-event with three distinct tracks; a Palestine Solidarity track, a Socialists-in-Office track, a May Day 2028 track, and a General Track for all registered guests. The location is to be determined, so stay tuned for more updates. Check out the forum post on this announcement here.
Red Star on the Ballot
The National Electoral Commission has endorsed DSA and Red Star member Bobby Nichols in his run for city council in Tempe, Arizona. Bobby is running a proudly socialist and independent campaign that is refusing to take corporate money. His campaign is keeping a focus on making life more affordable and safe for Tempe residents by fighting corporate landlords, investing in city-owned grocery stores, expanding public transportation, protecting the right to do mutual aid work, and making Tempe a sanctuary city for its undocumented residents, and for people seeking abortions.
Bobby’s campaign is focused on building the movement, not just winning a seat on city council. Bobby is running to activate organizers to do mutual aid, engage in campaigns, and to run for office themselves. This effort is being run with a long view towards developing an independent socialist identity, towards party-building, and galvanizing a mass movement. You can check out Bobby’s platform and find ways to volunteer for his campaign here. Be sure to follow his Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook for campaign updates.
Red Star in the Spotlight: Our Members Share their Socialist Analysis
Since our last newsletter, Red Star members have been actively engaging with the broader Left, contributing vital socialist perspectives on a range of critical issues.
Megan R. on Class Pod
Red Star member and DSA co-chair Megan R. appeared on the National Political Education Committee’s podcast Class Pod to discuss her personal evolution from liberalism to revolutionary socialism, and to plug Marta Harnecker’s theory of protagonism. You can listen here. Below are some quotes from Megan’s interview with timestamps.
On her personal journey out of idealism:
“You kind of have this moment, where there’s always like this, clouds parting, angels singing moment where…you make that jump from idealism to materialism. I worked in the arts, and I think the arts are really important and beautiful…I like doing botanical drawings…but I do not think that me doing botanical drawings is going to save the world” [17:57]
On her hopes for future generations:
“My joke always is that I will know I have succeeded as a parent if it plays out like, if in thirty years, my revolutionary son puts me against a wall and a single tear rolls down his cheek as he takes me out” [19:52]
On the value of ideological synthesis through practice:
“That’s exactly the sort of development we get when we, just keep plugging away at organizing together, and keep developing our analysis and keep believing in the project, and keep believing in this idea that yes, the big tent has incredible value, it’s not about like, duking it out for the one perfect set of politics, it’s about how…we are so much more powerful when we bring the ideas together and figure out what that synthesis is” [28:45]
On Marta Harnecker’s theory of protagonism:
“[Marta] Harnecker, another one of her things that really hits me hard, and I try to take very seriously, is the idea that leaders of a movement should be, first and foremost, popular educators…helping people see their own potential in themselves, and say you have this stuff, you can pull it out, and what you are bringing to the table matters. I need to know it, we are learning from each other, this is a dialectical relationship, it is not, ‘you are the vessel, I am filling you with organizing knowledge’, that’s not how this works and it’s not how it should work” [40:58]
Red Star Writes
State of DSA Part Two: Lessons Learned
Red Star members Andrew D. and Hazel W. have written an article for Democratic Left detailing some of the most important findings from the “State of DSA” report commissioned at the 2023 convention and delivered at last year’s convention. Tracing DSA’s development from gaining 60 members per month in 2016 to gaining thousands of members per month today, the report investigates how DSA is able to recruit and retain members over time, and why over half of new members tend to drop off after just one year of membership. The report finds that DSA relies primarily on passive recruitment, with new membership spikes coinciding with major headlines and high-profile electoral successes. While there was no correlation between innovative member retention strategies in chapters and increased retention, interviews with chapter leaders show that early engagement, membership committees, and a healthy internal democracy all help to absorb the new blood and keep them plugged into the organization in the long run. Read the full article here.
Critique of the Rank and File Strategy
Red Star just published a piece written by comrade Joseph H. critiquing the “Rank and File Strategy” which DSA has previously adopted as its official labor strategy. Conceptualized by Labor Notes alum and Trotskyist Kim Moody, the Rank-and-File strategy is a product of the immediate post-Cold War doldrums for socialist organizing, and its assumptions are shaped by this context. Moody’s work discounts the party as a cohering force in socialist organizing, and instead seeks to put socialists on the ground in labor unions, with external organizations to support them, that force a confrontation with capital over transitional demands, things like shorter hours and National Healthcare. But the problem with this theory is what these demands transition towards is left completely unclear. Supposedly these would be revolutionary demands, but due to the Rank-and-File strategy’s insistence on obscuring these intentions until a nebulous level of consciousness-raising is reached, that point never arrives. Read the whole piece here.
Misreading Mamdani’s Victory: Zohran and the Contradictions of Electoralism
Red Star has published a piece by comrades Hazel W. and Elizabeth O. issuing a critique of DSA’s recent tendency to reshape the organization’s national communications and electoral strategy to fit that of Mayor Mamdani’s in New York City, allowing the elected to shape the party, rather than the party to shape the elected. This piece argues that not only is allowing one case-study in a very specific set of conditions to inform our broader electoral work a mistake, it also prevents a real reckoning with how the terrain of electoralism can be utilized to do more than just win reforms, and elections, at all costs. Mayor Mamdani’s rapidly multiplying capitulations to power, such as keeping on Jessica Tish, praising the NYPD in the aftermath of a police shooting, and sending police to confront anti-ICE protestors, only serve to depress and disillusion the diverse working-class base that catapulted Mamdani to power. This enervates a potential base for DSA rather than fostering it, all in the pursuit of reforms which will be weakened by bourgeois power structures that Mamdani is flattering at the expense of a mass movement which might otherwise be activated to defend them. Read the full piece here.
Red Star’s “Reading Now”
Neocolonialism through Debt: How French and U.S. Banks Underdeveloped Haiti
This month, Red Star members hosted a reading group on a September 2025 Monthly Review article covering neocolonialism through the case study of French and U.S. banks’ exploitation and control of Haiti. We learned about Haiti’s history post-revolution contending with the “double debt”, international proto-sanctions, and economic pressure. We also reflected on how finance capital adapted to new conditions with the development of neocolonialism. These topics are more relevant than ever as we see an increase in U.S. imperialist aggression. Read the full text here.
Constructive Criticism
Red Star’s Satellite program just finished its final reading, “Constructive Criticism” by Gracie Lyons. This text is one of Red Star’s essential texts - alongside “State and Revolution” by Lenin, “Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism” by Lenin, “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific” by Engels, and “Wage-Labor and Capital” by Marx. The reason this text stands alongside such seminal Marxist texts is because if the ideas presented in these other texts are to be worth anything, they must be applied in praxis through a rigorous regime of constructive criticism. Criticism should not be practiced to arrive at the perfect interpretation of Marxism’s “holy books”, nor should it be tossed to the way side in pursuit of a false “unity” which will only leave unresolved problems to fester, encouraging scheming and ultimately splits. The goal of criticism, according to Lyons, is to arrive at a new unity. To get there, you must start with the sincere aim of achieving unity, struggle to separate right ideas from wrong ideas, and as Mao said (someone Lyons quotes from extensively), “arriving at a new unity on a new basis”. Read the full text here.
Monthly Quote
“Revolutionary suicide does not mean that I and my comrades have a death wish; it means just the opposite. We have such a strong desire to live with hope and human dignity that existence without them is impossible. When reactionary forces crush us, we must move against these forces, even at the risk of death. We will have to be driven out with a stick.”
- Huey P. Newton
Recipe Korner
Creamy Cavatappi
By Sean B.
Photo: The Modern Proper
This is a simple and delicious pasta recipe I have cooked periodically over the years, and it always smells as good in the kitchen as it tastes when it’s ready.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces of Cavatappi Pasta
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 cloves of minced garlic
- ¾ cup of heavy cream
- ½ of grated parmesan
- 1 Tbsp of lemon juice
- ½ tbsp of salt
- ½ tsp of of black pepper
Step 1- Cook the Pasta
Place a large pot of water on to the burner to boil on high heat. Season with salt. Once you’ve brought the pot to a boil, add the cavatappi pasta and stir. Cook until almost al dente.
Step 2- Make the sauce
While the pasta cooks, add the tbsp of butter to a large skillet over medium heat. Once it’s melted, add the minced garlic until it’s fragrant, about thirty seconds.
Gradually add the cream while stirring and season with the salt and pepper. Bring it to a simmer, reducing heat if necessary. Cook until it’s thickened, stirring periodically for about three minutes.
Sprinkle the parmesan from your measuring cup a little bit at a time and stir each time until it has melted. Squirt some lemon juice and stir. Switch the heat to as low as possible until the pasta is ready, stirring periodically.
Step 3- Drain the pasta & add the sauce
Once it’s ready, pour the pasta into a strainer and drain. Then, pour the pasta into a pot and pour the sauce into that pot and stir until thoroughly mixed in. Grab a bowl and serve. Bon appetit!