Upcoming & Recent Events
Students carry a demonstrator injured on the first day of protests at Southern Illinois University on May 6, 1970. (Photo by John J. Lopinot, Daily Egyptian)
Southern Illinois Democratic Socialists of America (SIDSA) supports all working-class struggles and all movements against oppression. We believe capitalism is at the root of the problems facing working-class people and the oppressed.
SIDSA meetings are usually held on the second Sunday of each month. For more information please email us at southern.il.dsa@gmail.com. SIDSA is also affiliated with the Southern Illinois University Young Democratic Socialists of America (SIU YDSA). Please email us for more information about SIU YDSA meetings and activities.
Join the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) by registering as a member. A portion of your dues will be returned to the local chapter based in Jackson County, IL. Membership allows you to join national conversations and campaigns, vote in local elections, and participate in identity/issue-based working groups. Join us today!
Contact SIDSA!
SIDSA + Other So. ILL Organizers in the News
The journalist and writer, Frances Madeson, covers the adoption of a bodily autonomy human rights rights ordinance by the Carbondale City Council, protecting trans and queer rights, and reproductive rights, making the town a queer and reproductive rights sanctuary city — and laying the groundwork for a further expansion of human rights protections. The article (July 27, 2023) features several organizers from the Carbondale Assembly for Radical Equity, Rainbow Cafe, Southern Illinois Democratic Socialists of America, Southern Illinois University Young Democratic Socialists of America, and city councilwoman Clare Killman. Read the article here.
“CARE - Trans + Queer Relocation Solidarity in Southern Illinois,” Locust Radio (July 3, 2023)
A Locust Radio interview with organizers from the Carbondale Assembly for Radical Equity (CARE) on organizing mutual aid and solidarity with trans and queer persons being forced to flee the increasingly draconian laws and regulations being put forward (and often passed) across much of the United States. Check it out here.
Socialist & Marxist Archives
Marxist Internet Archive
An archive of thousands of works by hundreds of Marxist writers, organizers and organizations.
Red Wedge Magazine
Archive from the now defunct ecumenical socialist arts publication, Red Wedge Magazine.
We Are Many audio/video archive
An archive of hundreds of talks, panels, and workshops from the Historical Materialism conference, the Socialism conference, and other events.
Various Socialist & Left Publications, Podcasts, Websites, Journals
Against the Current
The journal/website of the socialist organization Solidarity.
International Viewpoint
The journal/website of the Fourth International.
Jacobin
The largest social democratic magazine and website in the US.
Labor Notes
The publication of the Labor Notes labor network.
Left Voice
The publication/website of the revolutionary socialist group, Left Voice.
A website maintained by Libertarian Communists.
Locust Review
A socialist art and literature journal and website published by the Locust Arts & Letters Collective.
New Left Review
A semi-academic socialist publication (but worth reading).
The Real News Network
Alternative-media with a focus on class and anti-racist struggle.
Reform & Revolution
The publication of a Marxist caucus in the DSA.
Socialist Alternative
The newspaper/website of Socialist Alternative (whose most well known member is Seattle city councilperson Kshama Sawant).
Socialist News & Views
A non-sectarian left socialist podcast based in Minneapolis.
Spectre
A left-socialist journal and website published by the Center for Economic Research and Social Change.
Tempest
The website of the socialist group, Tempest, founded by former members of the now defunct International Socialist Organization.
The Upsurge
Labor podcast with a focus on the Teamsters and UPS.
Selected Readings on Important Topics for Socialists
David Whitehouse, “The Origins of the Police,” Libcom.org (December 24, 2014)
A thorough article on the historic origins of the police in the United States. The police were not created to stop crime or protect people, but largely to control slave and immigrant labor.
Featured Video
Finally Got the News (1970). Directed by Peter Gessner, Rene Lichtman, Stewart Bird.
A documentary co-produced by (and about) the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in Detroit. The League was founded by a network of grassroots rank-and-file autoworkers to fight racism and capitalism in the auto industry.
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society. We believe there are many avenues that feed into the democratic road to socialism. Our vision pushes further than historic social democracy and leaves behind authoritarian visions of socialism.
Emergency Worker Organizing Committee (EWOC)
The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) is a project of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) to build a distributed, grassroots organizing program to support workers organizing at the workplace.
Labor Notes
Labor Notes is a media and organizing project that has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement since 1979. Labor Notes is also a network of rank-and-file members, local union leaders, and labor activists who know the labor movement is worth fighting for. We encourage connections between workers in different unions, worker centers, communities, industries, and countries to strengthen the movement—from the bottom up.
Starbucks Workers United (SWU)
The union of workers that has organized hundreds of Starbucks locations across the United States.
Local Projects*
*not formally affiliated with SIDSA, but some of our members are involved in some of these projects.
Born Again Labor Museum
An art and community space in Carbondale dedicated to the resurrection of the working-class. BALM is available for community, left, and labor organizing.
The Center for Empowerment & Justice
“The Center for Empowerment and Justice is a support center in Carbondale helping people get back on their feet.”
CARE - Carbondale Assembly for Radical Equity + Rainbow Refuge.
A leftist Multi Tendency group based in the greater Carbondale area organizing to, among other things, defend gender affirming care and our trans and queer siblings.
Rainbow Cafe
“Rainbow Cafe has served the queer community in Southern Illinois for over 20 years, providing a safe and welcoming environment for those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans/gender expansive, queer, intersex, asexual, or questioning their orientation and/or gender identity, and their friends and family, by creating a space in which they are affirmed and offered non-judgmental support and access to personal, community, spiritual, and health resources.”
Southern Illinois Reproductive Justice Network
A community network focusing on reproductive justice in Carbondale and southern Illinois.
Ewoc/SIDSA poster on the Strip (2023).
Striking Carbondale Starbucks workers and supporters on the picket line (2022).
Matt McGuire (from the Enchanters) performing at a SIDSA and Starbucks workers fundraiser at BALM (July 2023).
Workers and supporters at the Carbondale Starbucks Pride Strike (June 2023)
SIUC YDSA comrades and others making reproductive justice protest materials at the Born Again Labor Museum (BALM) (2022).
Reproductive justice open-mic at the Carbondale town square (2022) called by Southern Illinois Reproductive Justice Network (SIRJN).
Enchanters performing at the May Day solidarity potluck, mutual aid dinner, and fundraiser for the Starbucks workers strike fund at BALM (2023).
Reproductive justice open-mic at the Carbondale town square (2022) called by Southern Illinois Reproductive Justice Network (SIRJN).
Worthless Scarecrow performing at a SIDSA and Starbucks workers fundraiser at BALM (July 2023).
Organizers with CARE, Rainbow Cafe, SIDSA, SIU YDSA, and others speaking in support of the Carbondale Human Rights and Bodily Autonomy Ordinances (July 2023).
SIUC YDSA comrades making BLM and anti-debt protest signs at BALM (2022).
Carbondale Starbucks workers learn that they won their unionization vote (2022).
Sheldo performing at a SIDSA and Starbucks workers fundraiser at BALM (July 2023).
Diamond Soul performing at the May Day solidarity potluck, mutual aid dinner, and fundraiser for the Starbucks workers strike fund at BALM (2023).
Mass meeting of SIUC unions the night before the start of the 2011 strike at the old Carbondale Community High School.
SIUC YDSA comrades and others making reproductive justice protest materials at BALM (2022).
Workers and supporters at the Carbondale Starbucks Pride Strike (June 2023)
Labor Day solidarity cook-out at the Carbondale Town Square (2022).
SIUC faculty and students on strike (2011).
Sheldo performing at the May Day solidarity potluck, mutual aid dinner, and fundraiser for the Starbucks workers strike fund at BALM (2023).