June Central Iowa DSA Update
June is a check-in moment.
What have we built? What’s next?
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This issue is full of ways to plug in, get inspired, and shape the second half of 2025—with collective power as our compass.
Remember, each monthly newsletter is also available on our website at centraliowadsa.org.
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Pride began as a protest
and solidarity is still our strongest tool.
Get Involved! Organize for Change
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Capitalism thrives on division, isolation, and exploitation. We fight back by organizing for a world built on care, community, and collective power. From labor rights to housing justice to queer and trans liberation, we believe in a future where people, not profits, come first.
Whether you’re a seasoned organizer or just beginning to find your footing, your voice matters. Your labor matters. You matter.
Want to get involved? Join a working group, plug into a campaign, and help us build a world where everyone has what they need. Not just in June, but all year long.
Juneteenth and What’s Left When the Fire Clears
Juneteenth is a day that marks the real end of slavery in the United States. It honors June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to finally inform enslaved people of their freedom. This was more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Freedom delayed is not freedom granted. And the echoes of that delay still shape the world we live in.
Recently, a 185-year-old Louisiana plantation house, once a site of brutal enslavement, burned to the ground. No one was hurt and the cause remains unclear. Yet the vivid image of the plantation burning was a chilling reminder. History doesn’t vanish when buildings burn. But maybe we get a chance to rebuild with more honesty and intentionality. With justice for all in mind.
Here in Iowa, where the population is estimated to be 89.6% white according to the 2024 U.S. Census Bureau, it is especially important to raise up Black voices in our community. Juneteenth is a reminder that the work isn’t done. That real change takes all of us working together and finding connection in our intersectionality.
If you’re looking for ways to honor Juneteenth meaningfully this year, consider supporting the DSA Abolition Working Group.\
This national group within the Democratic Socialists of America focuses on abolitionist organizing, aiming to dismantle carceral systems and build alternatives rooted in justice and equity.
June General Meeting- Sunday June 14th at 4:00 pm
Our next General Meeting is on Saturday, June 14 at CCI at 4 PM (RSVP here). These meetings are a space to connect, learn, and take action on local and national issues. Join us to discuss ongoing campaigns, hear committee updates, and help shape our work! Then, stay after for some fun social time to unwind and connect with others.
Find us at Capital City Pridefest!
Pride didn’t start with rainbow capitalism, and it won’t be saved by it either.
We’re showing up to fight for housing, transit, queer liberation, and class solidarity through community power. Come find us for some goodies and get involved with grassroots organizing. We’re also so excited to walk in the parade, and you can join us!
CIDSA Elections
It’s that time again. Nominations are open for both chapter officers and working group or committee chairs!
We’re accepting nominations for the following roles for the July 2025 to June 2026 term:
- Two co-chair positions
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Working Group and Committee Chairs
Nominees must be dues-paying members in good standing. Co-chair Blake Iverson is stepping down, so there will be at least one open seat. If you or someone you trust would be a good fit, fill out the nomination form below.
We’re also electing chairs for our working groups and committees. Chairs help keep groups moving, plan events, and coordinate with the rest of the chapter. You can run solo or with a co-chair.
Not sure what’s what?
- Working groups are focused on issues like housing, transit, or international solidarity.
- Committees handle chapter operations like bylaws or political education.
If you’ve been showing up, have ideas, or want to help grow the work, now’s your chance. You can nominate yourself or someone else. Please use the buttons below to submit your nominations.
All nominations must be finished by 4pm on 6/13.
Queer joy, shared sandwiches, and mutual care.
We shared sandwiches, stories, and a whole lot of queer joy on a warm evening filled with care and connection. Folks came as they were, stretched out on picnic blankets, and made space for community to bloom.
Together we collected a haul of supplies for Des Moines Mutual Aid. Thank you for showing up with tents, socks, food, and more.
Hector with the CIDSA Housing Working Group presenting on 5/31 about Tenant Organizing and Tenant Unions at Franklin Library.
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DSA Spotlight
The DSA Spotlight is a new section of the CIDSA Update dedicated to shining a spotlight on one national committee, working group, campaign, or resource each month. This month, we’re discussing efforts that our Central Iowa DSA’s International Working Group has been championing.
Boycott Chevron: Our Fair Deserves Better
The Iowa State Fair is supposed to be about community, tradition, and everything we love about Iowa. But this year, it’s being used to clean up the image of one of the most destructive corporations on the planet: Chevron.
Chevron is responsible for some of the worst environmental and human rights abuses in the world. Some of their actions that we stand against are:
- Deliberate toxic dumping that poisoned Indigenous communities in Ecuador
- Oil spills and environmental destruction in Nigeria, Chad, and beyond
- Backing apartheid by supplying energy to Israeli military operations and illegal settlements in occupied Palestine
This isn’t speculation. These are well-documented, internationally condemned crimes, called out by groups like Amazon Watch, SOMO, and even the International Court of Justice. And yet Chevron gets a booth and a smile at the Iowa State Fair.
That’s why the International Working Group is writing a public letter to the Fair’s Board of Directors, demanding they cut ties with Chevron. The letter makes it clear: allowing a company like this to sponsor our state’s most beloved institution sends the message that Iowa is for sale and that justice, sustainability, and human rights are optional.
This fight is about more than one company. It’s about standing up to fossil fuel giants, calling out greenwashing, and saying we see through it. It’s about honoring the people, here and around the world, who pay the price for Chevron’s profits.
If the Iowa State Fair wants to represent Iowa values, then Chevron doesn’t belong there. We’re organizing to make sure they know it.
Want in? Reach out to the International Working Group and help us build pressure. We need voices. We need action. We need a fair that actually fights fair.
Letter-Writing Campaign Strategy Session
Hosted by the International Working Group
We’re organizing to get the Iowa State Fair to drop Chevron as a sponsor. Help us strategize!
Tuesday, June 4 at 6:30 PM
At the Central Library, Des Moines
World Refugee Day 5K Run/Walk
Hosted by the International Working Group
Walk, jog, or strut your stuff with us at the World Refugee Day 5K.
Sunday, June 29
Wear red or your DSA shirt!
Registration is free: Register here
Working Groups
CIDSA has a variety of committees and working groups where you can roll up your sleeves and get to work on the issues that matter most: media, political education, labor rights, housing justice, public transit… you name it! These groups are all about taking action, building power, and connecting with comrades who share your vision for a better world. Check out what each group is up to, and find your place in this movement.
Queer Liberation Working Group
Become a DSA Member- Your Voice, Your Power
By becoming a DSA member, you help strengthen our collective power to challenge the systems that oppress us. Monthly dues sustain our organizing efforts and build long-term power for socialism. You don’t need to do everything, just something. Join a meeting, bring a friend, drop off snacks, share an article with a friend. We’re in this together.
Get involved this month!
Date & Time
Meeting
- June 2nd 6:00pm - 7:30pm • Housing Working Group
- June 3rd 7:00pm - 8:45pm • Labor Working Group
- June 8 • Pride Festival Parade
- June 10 4:30pm - 6:30pm • Political Education Committee
- June 11 6:00pm - 7:45pm • Transit Working Group
- June 12 6:00pm - 7:30pm • International Reading Group (Orientalism)
- June 14 11:00am - 2:00pm • Green Worker’s Round Table at Easton Basin Park - Trash Pickup & Picnic
- June 14 4:00pm - 6:00pm • General Meeting at CCI
- June 15 4:00pm - 6:00pm • Reading Group
- June 16 6:00pm - 7:30pm • Housing Working Group
- June 17 6:30pm - 8:00pm • International Working Group
- June 25 6:00pm - 7:45pm • Transit Working Group
- June 26 6:30pm - 8:00pm • Electoral Working Group
- June 30 6:00pm - 7:30pm • Housing Working Group
You can find more information on these events and more at our website here.
Ecosocialist Working Group Kicks Off
At our first Ecosocialist meeting on May 7, we dug into the key environmental challenges facing Iowa, from ecosystem loss and nitrate pollution to food insecurity and public health. We explored ways to collaborate with existing orgs like the Iowa Prairie Network, Des Moines Food Security Council, and the Izaak Walton League, while also imagining future events like workshops, reading groups, and field trips. We’re building a movement that sees climate, labor, housing, and health as deeply interconnected and we’re just getting started. Stay tuned for speaker events, resource lists, and opportunities to plug in!
Green Worker’s Round Table Join us on 6/14 from 11:00-2:00 for a trash pickup (11:00) and a picnic (12:00) with locally sourced foods! Bring your own or something to share, and we’ll talk about local labor issues! Wear green if you have it. Feel free to come for just one event if you can’t make both! Location: Easton Basin Park
What are we enjoying?
Androgynous by The Replacements - Link to song
In 1984, the Replacements, a pioneering alternative rock band from Minnesota, were known for their nonconformist, anti-establishment, self-sabotaging behavior, and their class-conscious lyrics. Addressing topics like the myth of American upward mobility in “Bastards of Young” or affectionately portraying single mothers living in poverty in “Little Mascara”, the Replacements were a band of modernity. Their songs capture the spiraling class anxieties of the era.
The Replacements were not the traditional understanding of a queer band, not one member identified as LGBTQ+. However, they and their music were all about subverting the conventions of normalcy. In addition to playing through sets in an inebriated state, they would often wear dresses, flouting the traditional punk ethos of leather and spiked hair. While on tour with R.E.M., they decided to have some drunken fun by putting on makeup, wearing women’s clothes, and going out in drag. Someone called them “androgynous,” a word singer Paul Westerberg had never known.
They wrote the song from a perspective obtained by walking in the shoes of a queer person for one night. The lyrics predicted that the limited gender associations of “kewpie dolls” and “urinal stalls” would one day seem as ridiculous as gender nonconformity did then. This song gives me hope that, as the sympathetic lyrics state, one day there will be a future where we “see no damage, no evil at all.”
Shared by Justin S.
Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968- Daniel Singer
Daniel Singer’s Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968 is a compelling political and social analysis of the massive student and worker uprisings that shook France in May 1968. Singer, a Marxist journalist, explores how a seemingly stable and prosperous society came close to revolutionary change, with millions of workers on strike and a general sense that the established order could collapse. In an age of widening inequality, alienation, climate anxiety, and youth-led protest movements, Singer’s analysis is strikingly relevant. He reminds us that even in societies that seem stable, underlying contradictions can erupt suddenly - and that real change requires both spontaneity and political organization.
Shared by Sam A