Labor Committee Plan 2025-2027

General Strategy:

As we plan the future of RI DSA’s Labor Committee, hundreds of workers at Butler Hospital are on strike for better staffing, working conditions, and pay. The organization, solidarity, and militancy on display during this strike represents our ambition for workers across Rhode Island. It also inspires us to expect more: in our workplaces, in our unions, and in the labor movement.

The Labor Committee works toward fulfilling the goals of our May 2023 convention resolution:

Rhode Island DSA shall prioritize building a socialist base in the labor movement – with a particular focus on strategic industries such as logistics – in order to help orient unions toward class struggle, win workers to the socialist cause, and organize the unorganized.

We understand that socialism can only be won by the working class, and that workers have particular power at the point of production. Without labor, capitalists can’t make a profit. Workers who are organized at essential nodes of production and distribution have the capacity to hamstring the capitalist system.

For this reason, the long-term success of the socialist movement depends on socialists organizing and politically educating workers within the major industries. Union members, while fighting to improve their workplaces, must expand the scope of their demands toward the struggle for socialism.

Rhode Island DSA believes that such a transformation of the labor movement can only come from the workers themselves. Business unionism – the tendency of union bureaucrats to abandon class struggle and prioritize relationships with capitalists and politicians – is a major impediment to labor’s independence from capitalist domination. To address this problem, we take a bottom-up organizing approach, helping socialists unite their coworkers around shared grievances in order to fight the boss. Our aim is to foster movements that democratize existing unions and unionize new workplaces, while expanding labor struggles beyond the workplace to address wider working-class demands (healthcare, immigrant rights, ending wars, etc.).

Throughout this process, we strive to recruit workers to Rhode Island DSA and foster socialist consciousness within the labor movement. Our ultimate goal is to build political independence within unions so that, instead of tailing capitalist parties, workers can lead with their own socialist party.

Long Term Goals (By June 2027):

What goals does your committee/working group seek to accomplish in the next two years? These can be specific campaigns or organizing goals more generally. However, these should be concrete, with clear success conditions.

Educate cohorts of workers in socialist theory and labor organizing, including a socialist cadre within one or more major unionized industries (healthcare, education, logistics). 

  • Expand participation in Workers’ Circles, as well as working-class participation in RI DSA more generally.

  • Have conducted at least three organizing projects: 

    • Conducted: Initiated or played an integral role in as recognized by workers leading the organizing 

    • Organizing Project: 

      • Unionizing a shop

      • Rank-and-file organizers running for union leadership or an issue campaign

      • A solidarity campaign leading to a winning contract

  • Recruit five new members to the labor committee, with a goal of at least two recruits being members of a union

Medium Term (1 year) Goals (by June 2026):

What are intermediate goals that would move you toward your long term goals? More broadly, what do you hope to achieve in the next year? Be realistic and as specific as possible.

Initiate a rank-and-file program that includes cadre recruitment, education, and a support structure for socialists entering union jobs.

  • Recruit at least 3 committed, experienced labor organizers to serve as educators and mentors 

  • Form a cohort of at least three people to enter a single workplace or different shops under same employer 

  • Hold regular social events for DSA and union members.

  • Increase DSA turnout for strike support.

  • Call lists of DSA members to recruit workers for workplace organizing.

  • Run a socialist job fair.

  • Recruit five new members to the Labor Committee, with a goal of at least two recruits being members of a union

Short Term Actions/Goals (through 2025):

What will you begin doing immediately to get your committee/working group moving toward your medium and long term goals? These should be actions that are possible and realistic given the size and organization of your committee/working group.

Develop an internal Strike Support Guide/Template.

  • Lays out repeatable steps for conducting strike support with a recommended timeline 

  • Recruit at least two Strike Captains.

    • Strike Captains will be a year-long position selected by the committee chair on a volunteer basis

  • Create a Labor Committee calendar with reminders for the chair/committee of significant, annual/repeating dates.

  • Develop and run at least 3 Labor Organizing 101 events.

    • Work with PGA for the purpose of collaboration and using their network to find workers 

    • Identify organizers who can follow up with workers attending workshops 

  • Integrate organizing trainings into Workers’ Circle format, and explore the possibility of running Workers’ Circles as a coalition project with aligned groups

  • Draft the educational program for socialist rank-and-file organizers, and recruit facilitators to lead the lessons.

  • Meet and learn from DSA Labor staff/NLC members, other chapters’ Labor Committees, labor organizers, and/or organizations (e.g. Rank-and-File Project, the Inside Organizer Project).

  • Conduct a “labor census” with members to learn existing workplaces, unions, and employment status.