Seattle DSA Chapter Convention 2023 – Fighting the Billionaire Class

Seattle DSA’s annual chapter convention helps guide the overall direction of the entire chapter. It’s our largest meeting of the year where members submit changes to our bylaws, resolutions for priority campaigns, and we elect members to the Local Council to help facilitate that over-arching direction.

DSA Members can register here and attend on Saturday, March 25 at 10 AM, in person at Southside Commons in Columbia City or on Zoom.

Important Voting Information

Please see the email with the subject “Seattle DSA Convention IMPORTANT VOTING LINKS” from [email protected] which contains your unique voting key, as well as several links you’ll need to vote and deliberate. You can find more detailed information here.

  • Roll Call – You must sign into roll call starting at 9 AM this Saturday so that the convention can establish quorum and start deliberation. 
  • Get on Stack or submit a parliamentary motion
  • Voting – A separate form to vote on pending motions, resolutions, and bylaws.

If you are a member in good standing and you did not receive this email, please email [email protected] and we’ll work on getting you your ballot. Though this is a hybrid convention, all voting will be done electronically VIA THE LINKS IN YOUR EMAIL, so bring your phone charged to 100%. We will have a limited amount of charging bricks and a charging station with cords at the event, as well as some tech support volunteers on hand.

Agenda

View the Agenda

Registration

Register for Chapter Convention 2023

Volunteer

Volunteer to be on our Convention Committees!

Finance Report

Treasurer’s 2022-2023 Finance Report

Local Council Elections

Submit Questions for Local Council Candidates

Not on Slack? Forward your welcome email when you registered to [email protected]

Timeline

January 25

  • Nominations OPEN for Local Council
  • Submissions OPEN for bylaws changes, resolutions

February 19

  • Nominations, Resolutions, and Bylaws Changes CLOSE

February 23

March 2

  • All amendments due.
  • *NEW* Local Council Nominations due final

March 9

  • All resolutions and bylaws amendments finalized.

March 11

  • Final Two Week Notice Email, all final resolutions and bylwas amendments sent to membership.

March 22

  • Member questions for Local Council candidates due

March 25th from 10AM to 5PM

  • Local Convention! Local Council elections!

Local Council Candidates

List of candidates that have accepted their nominations, expand each candidate for their statement

    Co-Chairs (3 slots)

  • Chris P

    What do you want to accomplish, create, or change should you be elected?

    I intend to make the Local Council (LC) into a body which is primarily concerned with three things — drawing out the will of our members, effectively executing that vision, and “keeping the lights on” for the chapter. While individuals have done good work on the LC, I believe we have largely been ineffective as a body. In the past year, the LC has spent a lot of time discussing a constantly changing array of issues which has resulted in very little action. The LC has failed to set goals, make any plans that look more than a few weeks out, or collectively support the working groups and committees of our chapter. In a nutshell, there’s been lots of ideas but little follow-through. I will help to bring structure to the work of the LC that will facilitate our ability to grow, achieve our goals, and win our campaigns.”

    What is your organizing experience/experience for the specific position you are running for?

    – founded and served as a co-chair on the Member Engagement Committee – served as co-chair on the Divest SPD campaign, a campaign which aimed to get nonprofits to divest from the Seattle Police Foundation – founded and chaired the Mask Making group at the outset of the pandemic – served on the Local Council for two years – for the last 13 years, my work has involved helping to move groups of volunteers into action to achieve shared goals – I’ve had a lot of experience creating meeting agendas, facilitating meetings, creating workflows, and doing project management

    Describe your approach to working with others, managing conflict, and developing a united front?

    I try to be kind, give people the benefit of the doubt, and be curious about where they are coming from. If I disagree with someone’s approach I try to give it a chance before dismissing it. When differences in approach arise around strategy or tactics, I try to draw out the reasons people feel so strongly and encourage people to adopt a “”try it and see”” approach. If it works, great, if it doesn’t we can learn together and move on, but arguing endlessly is guaranteed to get us nowhere. Also, I’m genuinely interested in people and like talking about non-political stuff which seems to really soften conflicts — in my experience, if all you do is talk politics, a disagreement on political matters can become very heated because that’s your only basis for relating to them.

    Is there anything else you would like to add?

    I’ll be sharing more on our chapter’s Slack on #bulletin_board in the coming days. If you are a member and aren’t on Slack already, please go to https://seattledsa.org/contact/ and click the “Join Slack” button to be added to it. Thanks for considering voting for me.

  • Chris W

    What do you want to accomplish, create, or change should you be elected?

    In my first full term as co-chair, I would like continue to serve as a good steward for the chapter, ensuring that the organization functions smoothly. I want to make sure members get the resources, guidance and support they need in order to achieve our collective political aims in an efficient and courteous manner.

    What is your organizing experience/experience for the specific position you are running for?

    I have served as co-chair since October 2022. I have been elected to serve as a delegate to the DSA national convention for Seattle in 2021 and 2019. In 2017, I was a delegate for Austin DSA.

    Describe your approach to working with others, managing conflict, and developing a united front?

    My goal in working with others is to treat everyone with dignity, courtesy and respect. I am not conflict-adverse and find that the most productive solutions don’t come when one side backs down or even when opposing sides compromise. Rather, the best outcomes happen when opposing sides can be persuaded to collaborate, and not see their conflict as a zero-sum game. This flows into developing a United Front: the animating force behind a successful front is shared values across different backgrounds or tendencies. Drawing out these differences in order to reach solutions that are not only accepted by but fully embraced by everyone involved should always be the goal.

    Is there anything else you would like to add?

    This year is a national convention year and having been a delegate to the three previous conventions over the last six years has lent me some institutional knowledge that I will gladly share with the chapter in the run up to Chicago 2023.

  • Amy W

    What do you want to accomplish, create, or change should you be elected?

    My commitment as co-chair is to democracy. A big part of that is transparency and accountability. I want members to have information about LC decisions at their fingertips, and deliberations in public wherever possible whether on the LC or in the chapter at large. I hope our media project can be a platform for this; not just something to put our message out, but also to share our positions and disagreements, of value to the public and to members alike. I consider political education a major priority, and part of that is involvement of members early and often in setting direction and developing policy. I want to activate members and bring them in to the chapter through developing ownership and direct involvement, formalizing and socializing internal chapter work so it is not owned by individuals. Organizations are said to output products that resemble the structure of the organization. As a member of Marxist Unity Group, I want DSA to produce a new, democratic society.

    What is your organizing experience/experience for the specific position you are running for?

    I’ve served as co-chair of Seattle DSA for the last several months, and previously served on the central committee for Seattle Communists. I focused on tenant organizing with a small group throughout 2019 and into 2020.

    Describe your approach to working with others, managing conflict, and developing a united front?

    I believe most conflict comes from misunderstood disagreement and misunderstood or withheld criticism. My approach – admittedly executing on this is a process, I am learning – is to view disagreements and criticisms not as something to win but an opportunity to grow and become more effective together. United front to me means unity with working class institutions – we fight together for the political interests and the political conquest of the working class.

    Is there anything else you would like to add?

    I’d really like to discuss ways we could involve more people in the decision-making process. Not just voting, but developing and collaborating on positions and plans in meetings and beyond.

  • Philip L

    What do you want to accomplish, create, or change should you be elected?

    I see our central task as becoming a powerful political force in King County – a lever to popularize socialist ideas and rebuild labor & social movements. If re-elected as your co-chair, I commit to further increasing the resources and LC support for democratically agreed priorities. I support the priorities for the chapter in 2023 laid out in Resolution #5, in particular our campaign to raise the minimum wage in Renton and building a South King County branch. I’m a strong supporter of Resolution #2 (Political Education), #4 (Labor), and #6 (Media). I am committed to developing our chapter capacity by maintaining our staff and greater member engagement.

    What is your organizing experience/experience for the specific position you are running for?

    I’m running for re-election as co-chair to improve upon the good work we began this last year. I believe I’ve helped organize more interesting and educational chapter meetings (with guest speakers like John Nichols, Liza Featherstone & Joe Burns) which I pledge to continue in 2023. As a member of the Reform & Revolution caucus, I bring with me a history of effective mass organizing and relationships with other organizers. As Political Director of Kshama Sawant’s 2013 and 2015 campaigns, and a central architect of Seattle being the first major city to win a $15 minimum wage, I learned how socialists can build mass campaigns that can win while also popularizing socialist ideas.

    Describe your approach to working with others, managing conflict, and developing a united front?

    Too often in DSA, leadership fails to organize healthy discussion around genuine disagreements (which are normal in a big-tent organization). Without transparent debate, disagreements are expressed indirectly, becoming toxic. A central responsibility of the LC is to help politicize rather than personalize disagreements and, through that process, replace paralysis with constructive debates and clear democratic decisions to guide our work. While our chapter historically has not had a great track record in this regard, over the past year we have made headway in dealing with conflicts more effectively. A key reason is that we had more open discussion about political disagreements (i.e. our largest meeting was the debate over Bowman & the BDS working group; the breakfast program debate was less personalized than in the past and ended with a broadly supported compromise; and debate on the war in Ukraine). I will work to build on this to create a more democratic culture, which is vital for members to work out our priorities so we can move forward with greater unity.

    Is there anything else you would like to add?

    The defeat of the Sanders campaign, the impasse of BLM, the pandemic, and the ongoing challenge of re-orienting to the Biden era have all contributed to DSA’s stagnation nationwide. Many chapters have been destabilized by high turnover, paralyzing disagreements, and the lack of a clear strategy to build working-class power. Seattle DSA has not been immune from these trends, but over the last year we have fared better than most chapters. We made progress this past year by beginning to transform Seattle DSA from a loose network of working groups into a more cohesive political force by: 1) democratically deciding on clear campaign priorities; 2) driving those priorities forward by, among other things, raising our monthly dues base by 125% to hire staff; 3) beginning to expand into South King County; and (4) laying the basis for a strong socialist media project. At the same time, far more remains to be done to build the kind of political power Seattle DSA should be capable of achieving.

    Treasurer (1 slot)

  • Aram F

    What do you want to accomplish, create, or change should you be elected?

    I want to (1) make sure the chapter operates under a realistic budget (2) strengthen our fundraising so that we can sustain our most important programs and (3) make sure there is a clear process in place for how we collectively decide on money spent

    What is your organizing experience/experience for the specific position you are running for?

    I have been a Seattle DSA member since 2017, when I was (briefly) involved with the Jon Grant for city council campaign. Since then, I have worked on many electoral campaigns, most recently on Raise the Wage Renton. I also served two six-month terms as co-chair of the electoral working group, and was appointed to the local council in late 2022, filling a vacancy due to a resignation. In the late 1990’s I served as treasurer for an all-volunteer non-profit in Boston, where I helped it obtain its own 501c3 status and hire its first part-time staff member.

    Describe your approach to working with others, managing conflict, and developing a united front?

    My approach is to listen to all sides, but without compromising on my core values and beliefs. I will admit that I at times come across as inflexible because of the above.

    Is there anything else you would like to add?

    Over the past year SDSA has come a long way towards putting our finances in order. We were in serious non-compliance with state & federal laws, due to the last 2 treasurers not filing required paperwork. Our outgoing treasurer Bryan did a lot of cleanup so the incoming treasurer will have a clean legal slate to start from. We also have, for the first time ever, an operating budget that can serve as the starting point for the 2023-2024 budget that the incoming treasurer will need to prepare and submit by June. Most recently, I’ve been working with our treasurer on a fundraising plan, to ensure that we can sustainably fund our priorities, including two staff positions which will be our biggest expense item. While this fundraising campaign took longer than expected to get started (in part due to the legal issues that Bryan needed to clean up), we have made good progress. I will continue to prioritize creation of an ambitious but realistic budget, and the fundraising to go along with it.

    Michael P (From the Floor) nomination withdrawn

    Secretary (1 slot)

  • Duncan H

    What do you want to accomplish, create, or change should you be elected?

    As a member of Marxist Unity Group, my focus is on high politics and projects. To put it more concretely, I think that we should approach our work with the eventual aim of the working class seizing political power while bringing this aim to fruition in a structured, committed, and democratically accountable manner. As secretary, I want to build on what our comrade Justin has accomplished in institutional memory in our chapter. This is an important project, since the health of democracy is heavily reliant on the information available to its participants. In addition to the resolutions database, I want to make sure that we have well-archived and readily available copies of documents and materials pertaining to various activities around the chapter. This will be done to also better facilitate the sharing of information between working groups. More broadly for the LC, I want to work on establishing an administration committee, building political unity, and strengthening our education.

    What is your organizing experience/experience for the specific position you are running for?

    Note taking and agenda drafting for MUG Seattle

    Describe your approach to working with others, managing conflict, and developing a united front?

    The united front is about principled programmatic unity while retaining freedom of criticism, something which should be an aim for the DSA. Conflict is inevitable in such a mass organization, and the end goal with any conflict is unity. But the key is to achieve this democratically through honest discussion and debate expressed in objective terms that can serve as a basis for us all to struggle through. I would apply the same to working around the chapter, while ultimately accepting what the chapter decides as a basis for our actions.

    Elected Organizers (4 slots)

  • Luke C

    What do you want to accomplish, create, or change should you be elected?

    My top priority in the chapter is political education. Not for the sake of passively accepting ideas but to develop our membership’s confidence in its ability to investigate and criticize. A membership that has come to their ideas via their own self-education is one that is more active and passionate about our ultimate goal of socialism. In order to do this our chapter needs broader internal cohesion. This is where I come in as an elected organizer. I have years of experience as an organizer and administrator. I know how to get disparate groups working in concert. I also know that the best organizer and administrator is one who teaches others to organize and administer for themselves. Lastly as a member of Marxist Unity and a labor union organizer I aim to further the merger between our DSA chapter and the workers movement. Lets produce a new generation of worker-intellectuals who are inspired not only by the goal of a better life but also by the high ideal of a new society.

    What is your organizing experience/experience for the specific position you are running for?

    I previously served as chair of the electoral working group in 2018. I’ve also served as a volunteer secretary and organizer for a union for the past 4 years. For the past half a year I’ve served as a full time staff organizer for Starbucks Workers United

    Describe your approach to working with others, managing conflict, and developing a united front?

    I believe the first step to properly handling conflict is recognizing and clarifying disagreements while maintaining a commitment to working towards our shared goals. Meanwhile we should actively discuss differing perspectives, why we believe what we believe, to help develop each other’s positions. While a totality of agreement in everything is impossible we can ultimately let democratic decision-making be our guide. Also one of my goals for the chapter is to put on a training on constructive criticism developed by DSA members in the philly, rochester, and river valley chapters.

    Is there anything else you would like to add?

    I’m a member of Marxist Unity Group. My overall goals for DSA are for us to become an independent socialist party run by and for workers with the goal of overthrowing the slave owner’s constitution and institute a new democratic socialist republic.

  • Ramy K

    What do you want to accomplish, create, or change should you be elected?

    DSA is too associated with the discredited Democratic Party; we need to stand out as an independent force opposed to both major parties that fights unapologetically for the working class and marginalized communities. When DSA Congressmembers voted to ban a railroad strike, I helped Seattle DSA write an open letter (cosigned by 42 DSA chapters, 5 YDSA chapters & 550 DSA members) demanding a town hall with our elected representatives. We need political clarity and Marxist education about the idea that social change requires determined class struggle and an independent workers’ party to lead a socialist transformation of society. With these goals in mind, DSA can, and should, have a REAL impact in society. For 2023 specifically, I co-authored a chapter priorities resolution where we suggest prioritizing our minimum wage ballot initiative in Renton. To help with all these goals, we also propose investing in Seattle DSA’s new media project: http://tiinyurl.com/sdsa-staff-fund.

    What is your organizing experience/experience for the specific position you are running for?

    I was the Campaign Manager when we first elected Kshama Sawant to City Council and won the first $15 minimum wage in a major city. I helped lead mass student walk-outs to help shut down the World Trade Organization summit in 1999 and to protest US imperialist wars in the 2000s. I’ve been a union activist for 12 years, most recently in the strike of my union (Seattle Education Association)…. I served 2 terms on the DSA Local Council as an Elected Organizer in 2020 and 2022 when I helped significantly strengthen our BLM, reproductive justice, and union work. I helped make our chapter meetings more political and interesting, and in 2022 led the transition to a hybrid format. I also helped hire our first organizers.

    Describe your approach to working with others, managing conflict, and developing a united front?

    When comrades disagree, I try to remember we all are passionately trying to change the world in the best ways we know how; we’re just operating with different political assumptions. I’m proud that our chapter is making progress cultivating a culture of rigorous yet respectful debate where we learn from each other even when we disagree, and still collaborate… In general, I believe our meetings should have more political discussion and respectful debates so we can collectively work out together how best to respond to the political needs of the moment.

    Is there anything else you would like to add?

    I’m a member of the Reform & Revolution caucus – http://www.ReformAndRevolution.org – I believe DSA needs to use a “united front strategy” where we build broad mass campaigns with coalition partners while also educating people that capitalism is inherently exploitative, oppressive, and wracked by war and crises. Let’s recruit to DSA, educate and activate our members and supporters, and build the movement for a new eco-socialist world.

  • Tom B

    What do you want to accomplish, create, or change should you be elected?

    Increase SDSA’s local political impact through external campaigns around housing, the Renton Raise the Wage Campaign and the Mathew Mitnick campaign. Increase our organizational efficiency and capabilities, which will result in more members being able to participate in DSA political work. Flatten leadership structures, and make the LC more accountable to the membership. improve coordination between working groups, and increase their transparency to members. Decrease participation in political debates that have no bearing or influence on local members.

    What is your organizing experience/experience for the specific position you are running for?

    40 years in antiwar, anti-imperialist, anti-nuclear work, local organizing as a paid organizer for anti-Iraq war coalition, founding member of the Housing Justice Work Group, also worked on electoral campaigns, former member and branch leader in Socialist Alternative, and organized around other housing issues.

    Describe your approach to working with others, managing conflict, and developing a united front?

    The older I get, the more apparent it is to me that online communication has its drawbacks, and it’s easy to get misunderstood. Therefore working on reaching out to people one-on-one, in person when possible. As someone of strong opinions, it has become increasingly important to remember to be respectful and leave space for others. I am anticipating an LC of different and sometimes opposing political trends, so I’m going to be self-policing my language accordingly. That said, I’ve a record of working successfully inside a number of coalitions around a variety of issues, and it has gone reasonably well. Overall, I regard positions like this as an opportunity to provide service.

    Is there anything else you would like to add?

    Looking forward to serve the wider DSA, especially members who have found it difficult to engage.

  • Alyndra S

    What do you want to accomplish, create, or change should you be elected?

    I wish to restructure our organizing systems to be actually effective.

    What is your organizing experience/experience for the specific position you are running for?

    I have organized and participated in events for SDSA for the last five years, and have worked on many campaigns from Nikkita Oliver’s electoral and run and Starbucks Solidarity to the pro-choice movement and the establish of SDSA Eastside.

    Describe your approach to working with others, managing conflict, and developing a united front?

    I like to give others the time to voice their ideas, and I want to be as integrated in the general public of SDSA as possible. We are all comrades and should act like it. I exist to help others achieve their passions, and will help them do so as efficiently as possible.

    Is there anything else you would like to add?

    I look forward to meeting everyone and helping us all push towards a better future!

Compendium of Candidate Statements

Submitted Convention Resolutions

Submitted Bylaws Amendments

Minutes

  • M1: Approve Convention Rules is ADOPTED ✅ with 56 Yes,0 No, and 1 Abstain. Vote type was Two-Thirds with 37 needed to pass.
  • Motion: Move B1 to the end of the agenda is ADOPTED ✅ by acclimation
  • M2: Approve Agenda is ADOPTED ✅ with 53 Yes,0 No, and 2 Abstain. Vote type was Majority with 27 needed to pass.
  • Michael P is nominated from the floor for Treasurer.
  • Quorum, set at 118, is met.
  • R1: The ABCs for Seattle DSA Candidates is ADOPTED ✅ with 59 Yes,30 No, and 7 Abstain. Vote type was Majority with 45 needed to pass.
  • R3: Strengthening Our Chapter’s Capacity by Maintaining Staff is ADOPTED ✅ by acclimation.
  • R4: Support Worker Organizing in 2023 is ADOPTED ✅ with unanimous consent.
  • R5: Resolution on Seattle DSA’s 2023 Priorities is ADOPTED ✅  with 50 Yes,21 No, and 21 Abstain. Vote type was Majority with 36 needed to pass.
  • B6A: Reducing Quorum is LOST ❌ with 38 Yes,54 No, and 7 Abstain. Vote type was Two-Thirds with 61 needed to pass.
  • B6B: Accessible Voting is LOST ❌  with 56 Yes,39 No, and 4 Abstain. Vote type was Two-Thirds with 63 needed to pass.
  • B3: Electronic Voting for LC and Delegate Elections is  ADOPTED ✅  with 69 Yes,11 No, and 3 Abstain. Vote type was Two-Thirds with 53 needed to pass.
  • Motion to extend debate on bylaws amendments until 4:30, and cut 30 minutes from the candidate forum while focusing only on the contested races, is ADOPTED ✅   by acclimation.
  • Michael P withdraws nomination for Treasurer.
  • Bylaws Amendments B1, B5, B7 are TABLED to next Business Meeting.
  • Chris P, Chris W, Amy W are elected as Co-Chairs, Tom B, Luke C, Ramy K, and Alyndra S are elected as organizers, Aram F elected as treasurer and Duncan H elected as Secretary. See explanation from elections committee here.