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Recently @Boston_DSA members elected new leadership, and one of their first orders of business is to schedule a vote to expel me from the organization. A resolution with seven charges has been drawn up and presented to DSA's membership. Charges include: support for Governor Maura Healey, support for Senator Lydia Edwards, and support for Mayor Wu's rent stabilization proposal. Some of the charges, such as the allegation that I haven't engaged in BDSA's endorsement process, are demonstrably false. Many others are lacking any meaningful context or are indicative of deep contradictions within DSA. The resolution contains no consideration of the countless things I've done to stand up, help organize, and fight for DSA's principles over the years. I plan to defend myself against these charges at the July 23rd Boston DSA General Meeting, happening at 3 pm at the Cambridge Community Center. I'm calling on BDSA leadership to make this meeting open to the public and the press. I hope members of BDSA will consider that we @DemSocialists make up a tiny fraction of the Massachusetts state legislature. We must work with people outside our group if we want to deliver on our values. To demand of legislators they do not work with people in positions of state leadership, suggests our role is only to espouse ideas, not to deliver results. As an organizer, legislator, and proud DSA member for the past seven years, I reject that proposition. I’m proud of my record in the state legislature and all the work I’ve been able to do for our community, working together with a wide range of partners, from fellow DSA members and all of my friends on the Left, to legislative leaders, Senator Edwards, Mayor Wu, Speaker Mariano, Governor Healey and many others. In my 3+ terms on Beacon Hill, I have consistently been ranked the most progressive member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives by @progressivemass, and I've called for more roll call votes from the left than any other member in years. Check out PM's legislative scorecards, here: scorecard.progressivemass.com/legislator/mik… I helped lead efforts to pass the nation’s strongest eviction and foreclosure moratorium during the worst of the pandemic; I’ve introduced social housing and public ownership of public utilities legislation. I co-founded the Housing For All legislative caucus and have won approval of numerous budget amendments to bring improvements to our district, from street safety upgrades and unarmed alternatives to policing, to open space enhancements, LGBTQ+ educational programming, and more. I recently worked to get Cambridge's fossil fuel-free home rule petition included in our latest climate law, and I was the first legislator to stand up on the House floor and offer a full throated critique of the ongoing push for tax cuts for the rich in Massachusetts. Watch my 13 min speech from this April's revenue debate, here: youtube.com/watch?v=hjwAIa… Within DSA, I have also been active, showing up for meetings and demonstrations, participating in national calls with other elected officials, brainstorming and supporting campaigns, and always agreeing to meet with DSA members and leadership for small group or larger public conversations at any time upon request. I've endorsed every local DSA member currently or recently in office, from Rep. Uyterhoeven, to Cambridge City Councilors Quinton Zondervan and Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, Somerville City Councilors Ben Ewen-Campen, Willie Burnley, Jr., Charlotte Kelley, and J.T. Scott. I also served as a Massachusetts Co-Chair for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 Presidential campaign and was elected as a delegate to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, where I cast my vote for Senator Sanders. I've been publicly condemned by the Boston police union, I've been the subject of attacks from the real estate industry, including paid misinformation campaigns; I've looked all the most powerful forces in state government in the eye and explained to them directly, clearly, often in public, why what too many of the things they are doing are wrong and why the public deserves better. Doing this work is a tremendous honor, something I take very seriously, and I understand how the power I've been trusted with comes from everyone in our Cambridge and Somerville community who has stood with me and empowered me to do this work in partnership with so many others. Despite all this and so much more, I am being charged with being "out of step with the principles of DSA." I respect the fact that DSA is a membership organization with a mechanism for expelling members, subject to national review. I simply think, for an organization that has been struggling to retain membership, in this moment of overlapping emergencies, at a time when the Left's power is often being stretched thin, this push to expel me is misguided. Soon after the new leadership of Boston DSA took over in May, they asked to meet with me for an evening meeting. Honestly, I was excited, even after a long day working on legislation and constituent priorities. I was hopeful this would be a conversation about how we might work together to win rent control, to advance social housing, to get overdose prevention sites up and running, and to continue building a movement for working class power. To my surprise, as soon as the meeting began, they dispensed with introductions and immediately presented me with an ultimatum: resign from DSA now, or face imminent expulsion. They cite the fact that Boston DSA members have expressed a preference for accountability. I agree accountability is important. It's core to my service in government. But accountability between an elected representative and a membership organization begins with conversations and dialog, something I'm always willing and happy to engage in. At the end of the day, the “charges” I am now facing reveal a deep contradiction within Boston DSA. Democratic socialism, at its essence, is a political philosophy that puts democracy on the highest pedestal. Democracy entails valuing the concerns, preferences, interests and input of *all* of the voters and all of the constituents and residents of any given district or jurisdiction. However, it appears the new leadership of Boston DSA is demanding total fealty to a small group of purists. If I was to make myself subservient to this group, it would mean putting them above the thousands of other people who elected me — and that contradicts the basic idea of democracy, the very thing at the core of DSA. I hope to continue being a member of DSA because I believe organizing and activism is essential to the work of justice. However, I will always put the interests of our community and all of its residents above the agenda of any one political organization or a subset of its members. We must put people over purity and unity over unanimity, if we are ever going to get ourselves organized enough to defeat the destructive forces of capitalism, corporatism, militarism, racism and bigotry. I plan to post information about a solidarity event in the coming days; in the meantime if you want to support my work, please consider making a contribution to my ActBlue secure.actblue.com/donate/mikecon… Thank you.