NWI DSA January 2025 Recap

Hello comrades! It’s Jackie, your friendly neighborhood Social Media Coordinator- here to present the January 2025 recap for our chapter.

Wait, this is new…

Indeed it is! This recap is part of an initiative from your Steering Committee to better keep chapter members and supporters in touch with the activities of the chapter, as well as some commentary on local and national politics where convenient. Without further ado- let’s get into the meat and potatoes here.

Chapter Announcements

• Routine general membership meetings have been established and will henceforth occur on the first Friday of every month, at 6:00 P.M. beginning March 7th.
• A social media whitelist has been established. The Social Media Coordinator may freely repost content from these accounts at their own discretion, without requiring prior approval from the Steering Committee.

State of Politics Under Trump

You probably saw this topic coming. Trump’s presidency has started off strong, and not in a good way. On day one of inauguration, he signed several executive orders attacking the rights of Americans in various ways, and a little over a week in we’re starting to see the effects of these. Whether it’s increased ICE activity with the promise of future mass deportations, the freezing of passport applications with an ‘X’ gender marker or changed gender, or a mass freeze on many federal aid programs that was ‘rescinded’ but then not actually– Trump is surely marking his 2024 term as a “memorable” one. We continue to keep close tabs on developments in these anti-human activities; this example list is definitely not all-inclusive and yet another development seems to arrive with each passing day.

In times like these it can seem nigh impossible to maintain hope, motivation, or even a healthy mental state. There is a distinct sense of tension and despair in the American left right now that no one can ignore. For some, there is understandably a strong urge to lock yourself away from the outside world and maintain some kind of bubble away from it all. Naturally, this is luxury many of the affected cannot afford, but still an understandable response. For what it’s worth, if the state of things is plunging you into a time of crisis, we encourage you to reach out to any and all resources you have and need. This may include family and friends, of course, but also community resources. Below we link just a few examples of good resources for people who need it or know others that do:

Food Bank of Northwest Indiana (Merrillville, IN)

Joy Bomb Social Center (Lake Station, IN)

988 – Suicide and Crisis Hotline (National)

As an individual, we may suffer, but as communities, together, we can channel suffering into invaluable mutual support for each other and come closer together than ever. A principled study of history will show that these cycles of immense suffering and large-scale crisis are not a bug, but a feature of capitalism. It is with this in mind that we must do what we can to foster the path to socialism. If you are personally in crisis- this may mean sitting it out for a bit, gathering yourself together. There is no shame in this, in fact more than that it is entirely correct if that’s the situation you are in. For those with the ability to participate in organizing, there is no greater need for socialist organizing than the here and now. 

Campaigns and Events

Last month, we sent out a survey to all chapter members asking what general campaign topics you would be most interested in organizing around, ranging from environmental action, utility activism, LGBTQ+ rights, and more. If you haven’t filled out this survey already, we encourage you to do so here. With the responses from this survey, and gauging of local sentiment at the upcoming NWI Organizing Fair, the Steering Committee will help put together some initial information to propose a chapter campaign! 

Speaking of the fair- that’s still happening! If you’ve been following our emails and/or social media, you’ll know that we had to push the date back from late January to February 15th. But come February 15th, 4PM-7PM CT, we look forward to seeing you! We’re excited to have some very notable local organizations attending, including Citizens Action Coalition, Just Transition NWI, and NWI Pride! 

New Resolutions, Notable Internal Developments

Several important chapter resolutions are being worked on at the moment. The most major is a proposed amendment to the Chapter Bylaws originated by chapter Co-Chairs Mitch & Eve. If passed, this amendment will make several changes to the chapter structure, including transitioning the ‘Social Media Coordinator’ Steering Committee position to the more broad ‘Membership Coordinator’, and redefining what constitutes a valid quorum for chapter votes. These resolutions aim to help improve the democratic validity of the chapter’s structure as well as its effectiveness.

Chapter Social Media Coordinator Jackie (me) is originating a resolution for a 2025 Internet Outreach Strategy for the Chapter. After a motion to streamline the chapter social media approval process at the 1/25 NWI DSA Steering Committee meeting, we almost immediately witnessed a small burst in traction on our social media profiles after more basic activity was made easier. Introduced in this motion was a whitelist of friendly local organizations as well as DSA profiles, from which the Social Media Coordinator is allowed to autonomously repost from with discretion. Continuing on this, the 2025 Internet Outreach Strategy will outline additional online strategies to increase engagement, and if passed ultimately aim to help increase chapter growth and recognition. 

Another simple but important outcome of the 1/25 Steering Committee meeting was the passing of a regular chapter meeting schedule. Starting March 7th, general chapter meetings will be held the first Friday of each month, at 6pm CT. The chapter Steering Committee will meet roughly every two weeks, the next being on February 7th. Co-Chair Eve is working to get the rest of the Steering Committee caught up to speed with resources from the national DSA, especially with regard to web tools for organizing events and managing data.

Other Local Action

Members of our DSA chapter recently had the opportunity to participate in some inspiring non-DSA local action. Back in November, members from NWI Green Party, Citizens Action Coalition, and more were able to pack hearings for the proposed NIPSCO Electric Utility Rate Hike- read more here. This proposal from NIPSCO would raise NIPSCO customer electric bills by an average of $45 per month! On a positive note, a resolution against the proposal (authored by the NWI Greens) was passed by Portage City Council. Still, evidentiary hearings for the NIPSCO proposal will begin in Indianapolis on February 5th, and Citizens Action Coalition expects the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to come to a final order in the third quarter of 2025.

Earlier this month, we participated with Save Briar East Woods in packing the 1/13 Hammond City Council meeting to save this unprotected land from being decimated by an unnecessary road project. We heard from many passionate individuals as well as local members of Save Briar East Woods plea from both heart and mind to the Hammond City Council- so many people attended the meeting that the seating was nearly completely full! Nonetheless this continues to be a long and hard-fought battle. You can read more about the Save Briar East Woods project on the Hessville Dune Dusters Facebook page.