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Class is taking a spring break and will be back with our regular programming on April 20th. For now, enjoy a moment of seasonal poetry with a few comrades across time and space: Rosa Luxemburg, Bertolt Brecht, Langston Hughes, and Ada Limón. Happy early Earth Day and May Day, listeners! 

Read on this episode:

- Rosa Luxemburg’s letters to Hans Diefenbach, March 30, 1917 & Sophie Liebkecht, May 2, 1917

- Bertolt Brecht, "Morning Address to a Tree Named Green" (1927) & "Spring 1938" (1938). These are casual links for convenience; official English translations for these aren’t readily available online. 

- Langston Hughes, “An Earth Song” (1925) 

- Ada Limón, “Instructions on Not Giving Up” (2017), republished in The Carrying (2021)  

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David (Socialist Majority, NYC-DSA) and Ramsin (Bread and Roses, Chicago DSA) discuss their perspectives on party-building, political independence, and the democratic road to socialism.  

Read David’s piece comparing the SPA and DSA, “The Long Reroute,” published by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung here.

Read Ramsin’s pieces about how and when to advance socialist political independence, here and here.

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In this episode, we talk with Lisa from Labor Notes and Scott from the IBEW reform caucus CREW about the new guide on building rank-and-file reform caucuses in existing unions. Reform caucus organizing is one of the primary strategies within DSA and the broader American labor left to support the growth of a militant, democratic workers' movement. 

Find the new Labor Notes guide, “How to Build a Union Reform Caucus,” here. 

Check out the classic Secrets of a Successful Organizer here, as well as Ellen David Friedman’s new book, Keep Going: A Guide to Organizing When it’s Hard. 

Kim Moody’s 2000 essay, "The Rank and File Strategy,” can be found here. 

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NPEC member and former chair Evan (Mid-Hudson Valley) talks about his journey into socialism and garden knowledge, and how our hopeful politics of renewal, intention, collectivity, and cooperation are made practical and material by digging around in the dirt.

Evan recommends the book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer for anyone interested in knowing more about his own learnings, and where he started to become interested in growing things in our world. You can find it for sale from the publisher here.

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We’re joined by Nick and Tyler from Louisville DSA to talk about being socialist poets and glimpsing beauty in a chaotic, capitalist world. 

Nick and Tyler’s occasional podcast, Poetry is a Destructive Force, is here.

Oscar Wilde's "The Soul of Man Under Socialism” is here.

Oscar Wilde's “Lecture to Art Students” is here.  

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We are pleased to present “Stop the Siege on Cuba,” a mass call from February 22nd by DSA’s International Committee and Cuba Solidarity Working Group, along with an interview with Claire from Boston DSA, a co-chair of the working group. Listen and learn how to get involved with democratic socialist activism in support of Cuban self-determination and freedom from imperialist violence and oppression. ¡Cuba sí, bloqueo no! 

Find out how to help stop the siege on Cuba with DSA here. 

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In this episode of Class, we talk to Sarah, chair of DSA’s National Grievance Panel, about the contradictions and openings of conflict within a socialist organization. We walk through some of the political and affective distinctions that must urgently be drawn to effectively struggle together as comrades and build the truly free world we want to live in. 

Read a review of Jodi Dean’s Comrade: An Essay On Political Belonging by NPEC alum Mie here. Buy Comrade here. 

Check out Gracie Lion's Constructive Criticism here.

Read Jo Freeman’s classic essay "Tyranny of Structurelessness" here. 

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On this episode, we talk with Colin from DSA’s National Tech Committee about becoming a socialist and doing socialism on the internet. This episode will kick off what we expect will be a regular discussion on the wide topic of “digital socialism.” 

NPEC/NTC Training 02/19: Socialist Archiving 201: The Digital Deep Dive

Get involved with DSA’s National Tech Committee! 

• NTC website
• Apply to the committee 

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On this episode, we talk to Megan, one of DSA’s national cochairs, about her political journey from early-00s girlboss feminism to Marta Harnecker’s mass-protagonist vision of a socialist future, and how collective political education was crucial to her transformation. 

Find Marta Harnecker’s writings in the Monthly Review online archive HERE.

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In this episode, Luke talks with Edward about the Socialist Party of America's (SPA) 1912 Program and its role in his political development. Luke concentrates on two aspects of the platform: its programmatic character and democratic political demands, including the demand for a democratic constitution. This is the first of several conversations we hope to host with NPEC members about texts that played an important role in their political development and current orientation. 

Luke mentions the SPA's Program, DSA's 2024-25 Workers Deserve More Program,  Aziz Rana's The Constitutional Bind, and Rana's interviews on Class. 

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