Candidate Statement: Will S. - Vice Chair

As an Oakland local, gentrification pushed me to protest the greed eating my city. In 2017, DSA taught me to organize for more.

It’s been an immense privilege to be part of East Bay DSA and, as a member of the Bread & Roses slate, I’m asking for your vote to serve as our next Vice Chair. Beyond serving At-Large on our chapter’s Steering Committee, I:

• Was Social Housing Co-Chair, helping win a rent control campaign in Hayward and helping lead our efforts for state-wide rent control.
• Walked picket lines during the Oakland and Union City teachers’ strikes and captained canvasses for Jovanka Beckles.
• Dedicated the last year of my life full-time to Co-Chairing our DSA for Bernie campaign, the largest project our chapter has ever taken on, which helped deliver the fifth-largest economy in the world to democratic socialism on election day.
• Organized other California chapters to run DSA for Bernie campaigns as a Regional Organizer, training and growing their membership. We should take the project of a socialist California seriously and think more about DSA’s campaigns on a state-wide level, especially 2022 elections.

The austerity and layoffs following 2008 upended the lives of my family, friends, and community, throwing open the doors for horrendous gentrification. In this new crisis, DSA must be ready and organized to cohere the Bernie coalition to protect the lives of working-class people of all backgrounds from racist capitalism.

That’s why I believe in an external-facing DSA, which takes on ambitious campaigns that are rooted in and materially better the lives of the working class while expanding and diversifying our membership and which give our members opportunities to grow. We live in an incredibly uncertain time, but the more dedicated, life-long socialists there are, the stronger we are for future struggles.