Want to get involved with Princeton YDSA? Just sign our petition for fair working conditions at Princeton here and check the box to join our mailing list! You’ll be up-to-date on our meeting times, actions and events, and our GroupMe chat. Contact ydsa@princeton.edu for any questions.

The bulk of our work aligns with specific areas of focus:

Labor

Coordinator: Bryce Springfield

Workers must sell their labor power to survive–it determines our relation to production, and is the primary battleground for improving working class conditions and changing the organization of production. We work to build labor union power as a step toward complete ownership and democratic control of production by workers, and more dignity for working-class people.

In terms of labor, we are currently focused on supporting various campus labor efforts through direct interaction with union organizing committees and established unions. This includes protests, direct support, education events, and more. Please contact us if you work on campus in any position, as we are collecting information about working conditions!

Electoral

Coordinator: Abigail Leibowitz

Our electoral efforts are designed to fulfill our mission of electing socialists in New Jersey, passing referenda which expand democracy, working-class power, and immigrant and queer liberation. We see electoral work as a way to both advance progressive legislation and get people involved in connecting electoral work to broader organizing.

We are working toward starting our electoral efforts with “Uncommitted,” immigrant voting rights, and more soon. Contact us to get involved!

Political Education

Coordinators: Zeke Douglas-Rosenthal and Rowan Johnson

We seek to educate our comrades and peers on the realities of our capitalist system; strategies for organizing for justice in labor, ecology, racial justice, housing, and international affairs; and more. Our Socialist Book Club involves reading about socialist theory and practice at our weekly meetings; our current reading is Albert Einstein’s “Why Socialism?”

We also bring in speakers like Sara Mughal of Starbucks Workers United, Noam Chomsky, left economists Ellora Derenoncourt, Mark Paul, and Santana Frutuoso, journalist Bhaskar Sunkara, and local labor organizers. We also support each other through skill sharing, trainings, and internal debates to build organizing power and education.

Racial Justice

Coordinator: Abdul-Bassit Fijabi

The capitalist system is not merely about class alone, but also its intersection oppressions involving race. We see this in the Black Lives Matter movement, which highlights how police and prisons coordinate to target and commit violence against vulnerable communities and carry out systemic racism; with Stop Cop City, the movement to end playgrounds for police to train for urban warfare; in our immigration system which commits violence every day against migrants and discriminates against migrant workers; and in the US’s military aid to some of the most egregious human rights offenders on the planet.

We have cosponsored events supporting the Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights and Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in New Jersey and participated in Jewish- and Palestinian-led protests to end US aid supporting the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians. We also plan to coordinate activities to stand in solidarity with Atlanta activists and say NO to the construction of Cop City, so stay tuned!

Ecosocialism

Coordinator: Lake Liao

Capitalism is incompatible with the survival of our planet! The ultimate goal of the group is to help create a society that prioritizes the formation of democratically-controlled renewable energy and efficient mass public transit infrastructure, the defense of indigenous rights, and the welfare of all people over profit and corporate interests.

The Ecosocialism WG is looking into work focused on building public renewables and public transit in New Jersey, and rejecting Princeton University’s financial involvement in lithium extraction in indigenous territories.