When I turned 40, I wrote a post contemplating retirement from activism and activist work. More than anything else, I identified 40 as a crossroads. It’s a point where a person should step back and reconsider what they’re doing, especially in a college town with so many people in their 20s.
Nearing my 43rd birthday, I’m ready to check back in on the topic. I’ve definitely changed how I do activist work in the past few years. But even more so, I’ve thought about the legacy I might want to leave.
Let’s talk legacy.
Goals and Legacy
I see a common thread in much of my activist work over the last 20+ years. I especially see it in the last decade. At a minimum, this includes my time with the local DSA chapter, the Iowa City Tenants Union, and service on Iowa City’s Housing and Community Development Commission.
In each org, I tried to build the right sort of community. What kind is that? It’s one where people come together in a spirit of openness and curiosity in order to build power together with working-class people.
The ultimate goal was to create a self-sustaining org. I wanted to see each one survive and thrive after I stepped aside. Iowa City locals know all about this problem. We’re great at creating new orgs, but we’re terrible at sustaining them. People lose interest quickly and move on to the next org, which then proceeds to largely reinvent the wheel.
It’s easier to see this focus with DSA than ICTU. Indeed, it’s the explicit purpose of the national DSA org. With the ICTU, we put our focus on putting tenants together as a class, fighting landlords, and building tenant power. Sustainability came second.
It’s even less obvious with HCDC, but it’s there. As a commission chair, I tried to set an example by running open and honest discussions. And I tried especially hard to bring out the ideas of my fellow commissioners, especially those who were immigrants and/or tenants.
Successes and Failures
So, that was the goal. That’s the legacy I want to leave. The question is whether I’ve actually done it.
I see successes and failures.
DSA has proven a very sustainable org. Few activist groups in Iowa City last anywhere near 8+ years. DSA is one of the few and proud.
But my evaluation of its focus is more mixed. It usually leans away from building power with working people and more toward acting on behalf of them. That is to say, it comes at the issue more from a charitable or non-profit stance than a working-class power stance. That was always the org’s challenge, but it seems to be even more of a challenge now than when I was a leader.
In short, DSA often feels more like an activist subculture space than intended. But it’s still full of good people who want to do good work.
The ICTU folded after a couple of years. And so, it doesn’t get high marks on sustainability. But it did great work in its time. The ICTU recovered thousands of dollars for fellow tenants in stolen security deposits, and it showed many tenants what they can do when they work together as a class. Plus, there has been a more recent attempt to revive it. I’m a bit skeptical of their approach, but I’m rooting for them.
Finally, HCDC is helped by the fact that it has a formal structure within the city government. Having recently watched its deliberations on city funds in 2025, I was impressed. I can’t take all the credit, but I definitely felt like some of my work paid off in watching the careful deliberative environment they had maintained.
Earlier?
Most of what I wrote happened in the last decade. But I’d been bouncing around activist groups for an entire decade and longer before all that. But, honestly, those years feel like a mishmash of mistakes and naivety.
Before 2015, I took part in various groups working on issues ranging from rape culture to police violence to issues of war and peace. About 15 years ago, I took part in a group looking to build a tenant solidarity network. And even earlier than that, I was a national leader in the Young People’s Socialist League.
Though I cringe at some of those days, it wasn’t all bad, by any means. The solidarity network taught me many lessons about what to do and not do in building a tenants union. The anti-rape culture group made quite a splash and had numerous successes on specific problems. Even YPSL taught me a few things about socialist organizing.
The truth is that we all make mistakes, especially when we’re in our teens and 20s. We should learn from those mistakes. And we should show grace to those who come after us.
Even when they say and do dumb shit.
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