I joined Portland DSA in June of 2017 out of a desire to engage in deep organizing work rooted in solidarity. Feeling the urgency of the political moment, I wanted to put my energy towards staggering challenges to poor and working class folx facing threats of an emboldened, reactionary white supremacist, capitalist, and patriarchal tide. At one demonstration after another, on all sorts of issues, I saw Portland DSA members hit the streets with banners of solidarity and radical change. My life experiences as a queer nonbinary person of Puerto Rican descent, growing up in 5 states and working since I was 14, led me to believe that the struggles we face in our communities are connected, and that building a better world will take collective and interlinked effort.

After joining, I dove in, joining committees and reading groups. I became involved in the process of drafting new bylaws for our chapter as it experienced unbelievable expansion. Ultimately, I decided to run for Secretary on the chapter Steering Committee to facilitate further growth while attending to internal organizing and implementing structures to ensure healthy functioning of our chapter, namely our new campaign and caucus structures.

Together, these have helped to broaden and deepen our chapter work as well as engage new members in meaningful organizing. As Secretary, I’ve helped spread awareness of these structures and help members make effective use of them, as well as bottom-lining the nuts-and-bolts organizing work of lists, spreadsheets, and physical meeting space. This understanding of organizational needs and a willingness to do the collaborative heavy-lifting has proven a boon to Portland DSA, and I want to bring the same energy to the NPC.

Coming of age in the US

After a steady diet of teenage punk politics, fueled by bands like Against Me! and a high school history teacher who assigned A People’s History of the United States, I attended Boise State University where I studied Public Policy. Coming of age during the Iraq War under the Bush administration bred great expectations for change when Obama took office. Yet as I was learning the framework of the liberal policy apparatus, I had a front-row seat to its limitations: the wars continued, immigration reform and the DREAM act stalled out, there was no serious movement on climate change. During this time, I cut my teeth on campus organizing, working around environmental and education issues. I was involved in student government and the Idaho Student Association, and after graduating, worked as campaign manager for a winning city council election and as field director for a congressional campaign.

Ferguson and #BlackLivesMatter

Then Ferguson happened. I watched live streams for an unhealthy amount of hours, night after night, as the people of Ferguson rose against the police murder of Mike Brown, facing down militarized police, defending children in the street by deflecting tear gas canisters. I remember that it was Palestinians who reached out on Twitter to share tips on how to administer first aid for tear gas and pepper spray. And I remember how the white supremacy underpinning this country was so great that even a Black president and his Black attorney general could do… nothing. While I did not yet understand the relation between race, class, and capitalism, the experience shook me and left me itching for deeper understanding of these root issues.

Puerto Rico is a US colony

The summer of 2016, while eyes were turned to national circus around the presidential election, Obama signed PROMESA into law, a bill which usurped any notion of self-governance from the US colony of Puerto Rico and created a forced austerity board managed by US bankers. Growing up, my relation to Puerto Rico was cultural, centered around food, family gatherings, and my broken diasporic grasp of the Spanish language. Suddenly, I was driven to understand how the debt crisis in Puerto Rico had gotten this far, and how Puerto Rico could have such a dependent relationship to the United States. This led to my awakening around colonialism and imperialism.

Puerto Rico is the oldest modern colony, dating to 1493. US involvement in Puerto Rico is linked with Cuba, the Philippines, and US commercial and military interests around the world, hallmarked by the chauvinism and paternalism of American exceptionalism, an extension of earlier supremacist ideologies of manifest destiny and the “civilizing mission” which continues unbroken to this day. My theoretical understanding was driven into sharp relief with hurricanes Irma and María in 2017, when a paper towel tossing president laughed as thousands of Puerto Ricans died and millions went without power and clean water. This informs my anti-imperialist, internationalist lens and grounds me in understanding that a form of socialism that prioritizes luxuries for those living in the Global North while ignoring our historical role in the Global South is not enough.

My political convictions run deep. I believe strongly in a liberatory imaginary, that a better world is possible and that all of us, collectively, are the ones to build it. In 2018, I believe that DSA is uniquely positioned to connect people together into a fighting left for our time. We have the opportunity. Our membership numbers are higher than ever, but most importantly, the energy, ideas, and talent of our members remains our greatest strength. Our ability to connect with a broad, working-class base and build real power is limited only by our willingness to confront the challenges of oppressive power dynamics within our organization and the entrenched forces from outside who will try to commodify and co-opt our energy.

I am proud of the platform my comrades in Refoundation and I have to address these issues:

Transparency & Organizational Democracy: Taking Internal Reforms Seriously

Confronting Harassment and Oppressive Behavior within DSA

Fostering Collaboration Between Chapters

Political Education Program

Moving Toward a Mass, Independent Socialist Party

Supporting National Base-Building Work

Regardless of who the NPC appoints, I will not stop fighting for the vision of a mass, broad coalition of people-driven movements building power from below. This political moment is scary for the many who feel powerless and ignored. Our organizing must be sincere, it must be skillful, and it must be rooted in a desire for collective liberation.

In the words of Assata Shakur: It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Support my candidacy by signing this petition or read the full platform to learn more.

Follow me on Twitter @juno_palante.