Interested or want to get involved? Please email us at contact@palousedsa.org or fill out our chapter interest form and sign up for our email list.
What do we have going on?
The Palouse region of Washington and Idaho presents some unique challenges for organizing. A land grant university each in Moscow and Pullman, with a number of small bedroom towns and farming communities, surrounded by a vast desert of wheat makes for an isolated yet rich community. There is a complete ecosystem, if on a smaller scale, of what one might expect to find in any larger metro in a major coastal area and yet is fairly isolated even from the neighboring Spokane and LC Valleys.
The nature of the towns is that they are inextricably tied to the universities and all of their ebbs and flows. A high rate of population turnover as students come and go and as professionals move through their careers, with a relative lack of other industries and geographic isolation, results in an organizing base that is ever shifting. We hope you will join us in our endeavor to make a better community for all on the Palouse while giving newcomers to the socialist movement the opportunity to quickly develop hands on skills and experience that they can take to other places.
STUDENT? Check out the Young Democratic Socialists of America!
YDSA Chapters at Washington State University and University of Idaho!
MEMBERSHIP HANDBOOK
Our Membership Handbook has all of the resolutions passed by our chapter, along with a myriad of organizing resources for chapter members. It is highly encouraged for members to store this document somewhere easily accessible, promote it to fellow members, and read over main aspects of it to understand how our chapter works, how our committees and working groups work, and what democratically-decided resolutions have been passed to date.
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Click here to get on our contact list. Our chapter Secretary delivers monthly newsletters with chapter updates and events. This is the best way to stay informed of and get involved with our chapter work, besides joining our Discord server, which you will get an invite in the footer of each newsletter!
Current Regular Events and Meetings
Most of these meetings are open to the public
General Meeting: This is our monthly business meeting, where we discuss and vote on any business that the chapter has. Working groups and members involved in other community initiatives provide report backs. Often the meeting will involve a short educational component or political discussion.
Educational Meetings: This is our monthly lecture series where a member or guest provides a primer on a subject relevant to the socialist movement or American political discourse, followed by a moderated discussion. These are the best meetings for non-members and newcomers.
Committee / Working Group Meetings: Our committees and working groups host their own meetings for their particular areas of work. These are typically bi-weekly or once a month. Most chapter communication around these meetings happen in our Discord but can also be found on our Google Calendar.
Socials: We occasionally host social events as a low-pressure way for interested community members and chapter members to hang out and get to know each other. These are open to all! We also frequently have informal socials after our general and educational meetings. If you can’t make it one of the meetings but want to join us for one of these informal socials, reach out and we can let you know where we plan to go after our meeting.
Phone-banks: Phone-banking is an important organizing skill to promote our events and directly converse with our chapter’s members and contacts about our work, chapter, and Socialism.
Committees and Working Groups
These are official working groups of the Palouse chapter. They are semi-autonomous groupings intended to streamline the chapter’s relationship to work on local issues. Community members who believe that they know of places where the community has needs that these groups can help with should feel free to reach out. If you are interested in supporting the work these groups are doing or partnering with them on projects, we would also love to hear from you. Active participation in the internal organizing of these groups requires membership in the DSA, however meetings are typically open to the public (with the exception of Steering Committee meetings)!
Steering Committee
The Steering Committee administers the affairs of the Chapter and oversees the implementation of the decisions of Chapter Meetings; it may also propose policy to Chapter Meetings. It shall have the power to receive reports of any Branch, Committee, or formally created Working Group, and advise thereon, to call Special Meetings of the Chapter, and to act on any matter that requires immediate and urgent action. The Steering Committee is the regular executive body of the Chapter, and thus subordinate to its Legislative bodies, the Chapter Convention and Chapter General Meetings.
The Steering Committee shall be responsible for establishing program activities for the Chapter, for proposing guidelines and policies that shall subsequently be voted on by members in good standing, and for acting on the organization’s behalf between Chapter meetings.
The Steering Committee is responsible for ensuring that the following responsibilities are assigned to Steering Committee members or other individuals: communications, internal and external; development of any standing rules; and preparation of an annual report to be presented to the membership at the beginning of the new fiscal year or at the Chapter Convention.
Membership Development Committee
In an area with such high transience, the chapter recognizes a need to create a focused group for recruiting and integrating new members into the chapter. Most of the population locally is connected in some manner or another to the university system and these connections are usually temporary. We aim to support those interested in becoming part of the socialist movement to feel confident that they have something to contribute, help them figure out where to start with organizing, and provide a reliable point of contact to have their questions answered and address concerns. The group also takes responsibility for hosting our socials, fundraisers, phone-banks, list-work and one-on-ones.
Political Education Committee
This committee’s purpose is to support the organization of the working class by facilitating the development of the general membership’s and the at-large public’s political perspective; regardless of primary language, nationality, physical or mental abilities/capacities, time constrictions, sobriety, housing status, education level, and marginalized identity to foster confidence in navigating, acting and/or supporting actions in the political environment. In general, we exist to move people through the organizing bullseye by sharpening their political analysis with study and reflection.
Mutual Aid Working Group
Description TBD
Washington State DSA Socialists in Office Committee
Our chapter passed the resolution, Seattle DSA Statewide SIOC Resolution, which gives our chapter a contributor seat on the Washington DSA state-wide Socialists in Office Committee. This committee’s primary work concerns electoral policy work with WA congressional representative and DSA member, Shaun Scott. Throughout the 2025 legislative session, the proto-SIOC met regularly with Rep. Scott, providing policy support by tracking and analyzing bills, and organizing direct actions—particularly in support of progressive revenue measures.
MEMBER ASSOCIATED PROJECTS
Palouse for Palestine (PfP) (currently defunct)
The ongoing genocide in Gaza and renewed violence against Palestinians in the West Bank demands the attention of anti-imperialists. The DSA has made Palestine solidarity a crucial part of the work of the organization in recognition of the importance of internationalism to the socialist movement. This group emerged from the efforts of the Palouse DSA to pass a ceasefire resolution through the Pullman city council. While that effort was unsuccessful, PfP has continued to organize the community for awareness and participation in Palestine solidarity. You can go to pullmanforpalestine.org to learn more about this organization.
KRFP – 90.3FM Moscow/ Pullman
We are proud supporters of the best damn community radio station on Palouse. KRFP recently celebrated its 20th anniversary! While our organization is relatively new to the area, we are proud to underwrite for the KRFP as it enters its 20th year of radio excellence and encourage our membership to support the station. You can hear Under Construction, a program co-hosted by a DSA member and close community ally of the DSA, on Tuesdays from 7:30-9:30. You can hear our underwriting message playing every day on the station. To listen online or support KRFP, you can go to KRFP.org. Be sure to save 90.3FM to your radio station favorites.
Labor Organizing
We are proud to have the support and participation of a number of union members locally and have partnered with local labor unions on some community events. We have a relationship with Starbucks Workers United, United Auto Workers (UAW), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and we look forward to building a May Day coalition based off of our successful May Day picnic in 2024.
