On Saturday, November 15, people began to slowly trickle into Lewiston’s Franco Center as soon as the doors opened at 9:00 AM. Coming from all over the state, a few having traveled from as far as Massachusetts and New York, people were arriving for the first ever Maine Solidarity Conference, a day-long event put on by the Maine Democratic Socialists of America. Throughout the day roughly 125 people showed up, attending different panels and presentations focused on an array of issues ranging from labor to empire, from feminism to electoral politics, and much more followed by a social featuring local bands.
The statewide chapter of DSA voted to organize a fall conference last January during its Winter Semi-Annual Convention, the impetus being the rise of Trump 2.0 and the need for a stronger united front on the left. By bringing together people from different organizations and overlapping struggles who might not otherwise get many chances to share strategies and experiences, the hope was that the conference could offer a material step toward opening lines of communication and education between different movements that all share an interest in opposing the far right’s agenda.