Newsletter

Red Star Newsletter- March 2026

Sean B.

Mar 21, 2026 • 6 min read

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

Imperialism, Self-Determination, and the latest stage of the War on Iran

Red Star has published a piece on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war of aggression against Iran. It examines how the U.S. left should understand self-determination beyond the conceptual chains imposed by liberalism, and how imperialism is and has been the primary contradiction facing the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979 and even before, and thus, why the American left should aim their critiques towards Washington and Tel Aviv, rather than Tehran, as it stridently defends its right of self-determination against a hail of American and Israeli missiles. Read the article here, and join the discussion of the piece on the DSA forums here.

National Work Update

Growth & Development Committee Update

2025 Fall Recruitment Drive Report Published

The report back for DSA’s Fall Recruitment drive is out. The GDC Steering Committee concluded that the drive was largely a success, with the goal of 10,000 new members being reached and exceeded, welcoming 13,075 new recruits to our ranks. 40+ plus chapters were meaningfully engaged, falling just short of our goal of 50. In part due to this push, DSA hit 100,000 members for the first time at the end of the drive, making us the largest socialist organization in a century. This report also digests feedback received from dozens of GDC and chapter organizers about how to improve performance in future recruitment drives and how to retain new members through more robust and ongoing chapter engagement. Read the forum post on this report, and find the link to the report here.

Red Star on the Ballot

Bobby Nichols Makes the Runoff in Tempe

Phoenix Metro DSA and Red Star member Bobby Nichols has secured a spot in the May 19th General Election runoff for Tempe City Council’s At-Large seats, having obtained 14.66% of the vote. Bobby will be one of four candidates competing for three seats that were not won outright on March 10th. Bobby has run a campaign focusing on affordability, investing in social services, protecting the right to organize, and driving ICE out of Tempe, all without any corporate money on his side. With the help of an army of volunteers, and a national DSA endorsement, he has cleared the first hurdle. Find out how you can help Bobby get over the finish line and build DSA in the process, by checking out his website, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

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.

John L. Speaks at Southeastern Louisiana University

NPC and Red Star member John L. was invited to speak at the second meeting of the Southeastern Louisiana University’s newly founded YDSA chapter on February 23rd. Lewis discussed DSA’s theory of socialism, the democratic nature of its organizing culture, and the work DSA has done to push ICE out of communities in Louisiana. Read the article on this visit written in the SLU’s student newspaper The Lion’s Roar here.

Valeria R. of Miami DSA Celebrates Revolutionary Women for International Women’s Day

Red Star’s Valeria R., the treasurer of Miami DSA took to Instagram on International Women’s Day to celebrate the revolutionary women of past and present. Valeria R. highlights the revolutionary legacies of Leila Khaled of the PFLP and Angela Davis of CPUSA, as well as contemporary movement leaders like DSA Co-chair Megan R., Valeria reiterates that women’s liberation is tied to the end of the prison-industrial complex, freedom for Palestine, an end to U.S. & Israeli aggression abroad, and the dismantling of capitalism. Watch the full video on Instagram here.

Megan R. Contributes to Rosa Luxemburg-Stiftung Report on DSA & Worker’s Party of Belgium

DSA Co-Chair Megan R. was interviewed for a report recently published by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung comparing the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Worker’s Party of Belgium (PTB). In light of a recent trend on the British Left of citing both DSA and PTB as sources of inspiration for a new left party in the U.K., this report seeks to lay out the significant differences between these two entities- the PTB being an ideologically united Marxist political party, and DSA being a big-tent socialist organization. The authors argue that only by understanding these organizations’ particularities in context can the British Left understand why their respective playbooks cannot be replicated wholesale in the U.K., and provides a unique opportunity to look at DSA in the mirror and compare our work with other formations on the global left. Read the report here.

Red Star Writes

Maduro Must be Released or the Fascists Win

By Anthony Ballas & Sudip Bhattacharrya

Anthony Ballas and Red Star member Sudip B. wrote a piece for CounterPunch on the dangerous precedent set by the Trump Regime in the aftermath of Nicolas Maduro and Celia Flores’ kidnapping on January 3rd. With the U.S. increasingly desperate to reassert its declining power all over the world, the risk does not stop at the water’s edge, Ballas and Bhattacharrya argue. Domestic dissent against the U.S.-funded Israeli genocide in Gaza has already been suppressed with arrests, detentions and deportations of anti-Zionist activists domestically, and if Maduro is convicted, the massive oil and gas corporations backing the Trump regime will continue to amass power and embolden the administration to crack down even harder. Read the full article here.

Red Star’s “Reading Now”

For last month’s article review, Red Star members read “Marxism-Leninism: A Scientific Method and Guide to Know and Change the World” by Chinese Marxist academics Cheng Enfu and Li Wei, published in the World Marxist Review in 2024.

In this article, Cheng and Li give a stirring defense of Marxism-Leninism, and argue for its continued relevance today, its status as a dynamic theory woven by praxis rather than a static dogma, its usefulness in the Chinese context historically and contemporarily, and traces its development as the natural ideological innovation arising from the imperialist stage of the capitalist epoch. Read the full article here.

Monthly Quote

““Imperialism has laid its body over the world, the head in Eastern Asia, the heart in the Middle East, its arteries reaching Africa and Latin America. Wherever you strike it, you damage it, and you serve the World Revolution.”

Ghassan Kanafani

Recipe Korner

Frango com Quiabo (Chicken with Okra)

By Fern D.

Photo Credit: Panhelina

Frango com quiabo reflects the mixture of cultures that shaped Brazilian cuisine, with influences from both Europe and Africa.

The classic chicken stew comes from Portuguese cooking. Portuguese settlers brought this style of dish with them when they arrived in the colony, and it quickly became part of everyday cooking.

Okra, on the other hand, is native to Africa and is connected to the history of enslaved Africans brought to Brazil. Many of those who were forced across the Atlantic carried with them what they could from their homelands, including seeds and culinary traditions. Because of that, okra became part of Brazilian cooking and eventually part of dishes like Frango com Quiabo.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
32 oz okra, preferably cut
Garlic (for taste)
Salt (for taste)
Paprika (enough to give the dish a nice color)
1 whole onion, chopped

How to make it

Wash the chicken pieces and season them with salt and garlic for taste.

Deep fry the chicken pieces until they develop a nice golden-brown color. Set them aside.
In a separate deep pan, stir-fry the okra with a little garlic and salt. Cook it only briefly, just until the okra becomes slightly more tender but not fully cooked.

Add the fried chicken pieces to the pan with the okra. Pour in enough water to cover everything.

Just before the water begins to boil, add the paprika (enough to give the broth a nice color). Stir and cover the pan with a lid.

Once it starts boiling, add the chopped onion. Taste and adjust the salt if needed.

Let it cook until the okra is tender, but not overcooked to the point that it becomes gooey. Then turn off the heat — it’s ready to serve.

TIP: This dish goes really well with white rice and pinto beans. If you like a little heat, it’s also great with some hot sauce on the side.

It’s a simple but very traditional meal from my birth state Minas Gerais, and it always reminds me of the food and culture from where I’m from.