Candidate Statement: Andrew R. - Recording Secretary
Three years ago I walked into my first DSA meeting. Bernie had politicized me. Trump got me mad enough to fight back. With DSA, I found something unique—a serious, winnable path forward after Bernie’s run that didn’t compromise a radical vision for a society free from exploitation and oppression. I joined on the spot.
Since then, I’ve:
- Served as Co-Chair of the Member Engagement Committee
- Headed our Mobilizers program
- Led outreach to members during COVID-19
- Organized distributed Bernie canvasses
- Put on organizer trainings, socials, and non-voting general meetings
- Ensured the smooth functioning of emails and phone banks on the Operations Committee
- Built our chapter newsletter
- Marched, canvassed, and walked picket lines
Bernie’s 2020 campaign has ended. Millions are newly unemployed and uninsured. Bosses are demanding workers, especially Black, Latinx, and women workers, risk their lives for profit. But workers are organizing. We have to join the fight, put forward a program against austerity, and rally the Bernie movement around these struggles.
We also need to expand our Mobilizers program to activate all our members and supporters as political leaders and organizers in their workplaces and neighborhoods.
DSA should become an instrument of class struggle in the hands of workers. We build this militancy through democracy, and democracy through organizing.
I’m running for Recording Secretary on the Bread & Roses slate because I want to strengthen our chapter’s democracy and address the low turnout at general meetings and our lack of diversity through applying organizing principles to the administrative functions of the office. Specifically, I will:
- Make meeting minutes exciting and relevant
- Help members understand the context of the decisions facing our organization
- Increase turnout to general meetings through phone banks and chapter media
- Make our democratic procedures accessible to all members and the broader multiracial working class
