Red Star Newsletter - June 2026

Hello from Red Star! Curious about what we’ve been up to? Read on to find out!

National Work Update

NPC Update

During DSA’s last NPC meeting, Red Star’s Hazel W successfully argued for the inclusion of abolition in DSA’s national platform, overcoming calls to compromise our politics to align with elected officials. This serves as a platform for chapters to advance their abolition work through the Abolish ICE grant program, rapid response trainings, and on-the-ground action at Delaney Hall. See Hazel’s response to comments made in opposition to this change on the DSA forum.

Growth & Development Committee Update

Red Star is leading the first member survey conducted by DSA since 2021. Past surveys have contributed valuable insights to the organization into the demographics, composition, political development, engagement, obstacles, and opportunities of the organization’s membership. The survey is still being developed, but will be announced on the DSA forums and notification will be sent out to chapter leaders later this year.

Round two of the Office Matching Funds Program kicks off on July 8th. Last month we discussed how the first round of funding supported chapters in opening 20 new DSA offices across the country, and GDC is excited to repeat that success with even more chapters. If you want to build a stronger presence in your neighborhoods and have a home base for your electoral ground game, mutual aid projects, committee meetings, and social events, ​DSA National can help your chapter get a new office space. There will be a kickoff call on July 8th. You can also fill out the interest form, which is due on July 22nd. Applications are due on August 22nd.

Red Star in the Spotlight: Our Members Share their Socialist Analysis

Sudip B, along with his comrades Kevin and Mie, appears in the latest episode of the DSA National Political Education Committee’s podcast Class, Socialists Study Social Studies. In this episode they discuss their new study, identifying what they’ve termed “social justice nationalism," a pedagogy that avoids class analysis and a real critique of power, and isolates social activism and politics from collective action.

Red Star Writes

Red Star member and DSA co-chair Megan R delivered a speech at the European Left conference in April. The contents of that speech have now been published in Democratic Left as Militarism: the Biggest Obstacle to Socialism and Most Dire Threat to Humanity. In this piece, Megan explains how militarism creates and exacerbates the austerity that working people are facing all over the world.

Many of us in this room grew up in societies locked in an uneasy social truce between social democratic struggles from below and an expanding imperial military apparatus, a truce that is now dissolving. It is easy for us to forget that militarism is not easily severable from the “good” parts of government. Militarism is a cancer that has metastasized and spread across the whole body. And as we organize in the United States, we will hold the lesson of the 20th century close to our hearts: to win a truce is no victory at all.

Red Star’s “Reading Now”

Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism

Join Red Star on July 2 and July 9 at 5:00 PT/8:00 ET for a two-part discussion on a core Red Star text: Lenin's seminal Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. Over 100 years after its publication, Imperialism provides the most powerful analytical model for understanding our current economic epoch: the era of monopoly and finance capitalism. In our period of neoliberal globalization riddled with crisis after crisis, Lenin's insights prove more vital than ever before.

We will discuss approximately the first half of the book on July 2nd and the second half on July 9th. Excerpts will be shared in the collaborative document as usual. We hope to see you there!

After Imperialism, the next Red Start will continue with more Lenin and discuss What Is To Be Done? on August 6th.

Red Star Organizing Highlights

Members of Red Star’s Seattle local have helped organize the chapter’s Solidarity Committee, which recently published its quarterly progress report. Red Star member and Committee co-chair Steven O notes that the Committee’s initial goal was to revive the chapter’s mutual aid organizing and place it on a partyist foundation that prioritizes building affinity for DSA, political education, and investigating conditions in working class communities. He and Red Star member Griffin S contributed to the progress report, which describes the effort’s progress in building a supporter base, identifying key community issues, and connecting peoples’ daily experiences and anxieties to the contradictions of capitalism.. Head over to the forum post for further discussion.

Delaney Hall Update

Red Star member Brett R is on the steering committee of the New Jersey DSA Immigrant Justice Working Group. The working group has taken the lead role in supporting the efforts of people on the outside to uplift the demands of the strikers inside of Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center in Newark, NJ. The uprising at Delaney Hall, which has been ongoing for nearly a month, has seen hundreds of brave people detained by ICE while on a hunger and labor strike demanding liberation and an end to egregiously inhumane conditions. Several letters written by the strikers describing the dire conditions they live in and outlining their demands can be found here.

North New Jersey DSA has been outside Delaney Hall non-stop since the uprising began, serving as safety marshals, medics, coordinating mutual aid distribution, establishing a schedule of events to keep the protest movement going, and providing political education. The chapter been aided by comrades from other DSA chapters throughout the Northeast. DSA will continue to build the movement against ICE detention, a fight that DSA has been consistently involved in for over ten years. DSA will continue to raise up the voices of those impacted by ICE repression, particularly our comrades on the inside. Supporting the movement at Delaney Hall stems directly from Red Star’s approach to solidarity work, which utilizes scientific socialist approaches to mutual aid to build solidarity with the targets of state repression towards the objective of party building.

International Committee

Red Star member Nasser A has been leading the restructuring of the national level Palestine Working Group under the International Committee. Through this he’s working to make it a space for chapter leaders doing Palestine-related organizing to connect, learn from each other, and share resources. One example is starting a “divestment how to” resource, which includes case studies from successful campaigns. These are still a work in progress, but if you want to get involved, join the International Committee Palestine Working Group!

Monthly Quote

I had to question the morals and the ideas that society had put there for me to follow. What they wanted me to be was a little straight boy, getting married, settling down, having kids… If that's what they say about sexuality, then what about the rest of life? And I started to see that basically the whole country is not geared for the people. It's geared for the few people who're making money out of it.

• Mark Ashton, Communist Party of Great Britain, Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners

Recipe Korner

Char Siu Glaze

By Lexi H.

Ingredients

• ⅓ cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp five spice powder
• ½ tsp white pepper
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp shaoxing wine
• 6 cloves of grated garlic
• Water

Place all the ingredients except the water in a mixing bowl. Add enough water to dissolve the sugar, but not too much or the glaze won’t stick to the meat as well.

This glaze works great on ribs and other smoked meats!