River City Rose: A Project of SA DSA’s Writing and Publishing Working Group

The working group exists to create socialist publications rooted in San Antonio and to cultivate essayists, poets and critics, both in the visual and written forms. Through art and commentary, we want to connect the local chapter with the needs and aspirations of the working class, from this town at a crossroads of the Southwest and to the nodes of struggle across the world. We aim to deepen how people understand the structures of profit and state protection of such, historical interventions by the working class to counter it and what interventions might be developed in our own time. With our mission in mind, our ways of working aim to reduce hierarchy while holding one another to high standards, respecting the contributions of everyone involved and encouraging development.

As originally conceived, River City Rose was to be a quarterly, digital first publication in the style of a literary magazine which aims to draw people towards, and inspire people in socialism through the beauty, pleasure, struggle, positivity and development of socialist life. A colorful 34 page first edition came together from this vision, born under the shadow of the Trump II DHS surge and a centuries long grind against human flourishing.

After the first edition coalesced, some contributors found they needed to step back to tend to life and organizing. We wish them well and hope to continue as a hub of inspiration for the world to be. As such, this subpage of the chapter’s website will serve to be our digital home and as a way to showcase our work during low tides in the creation of “official” editions.

At the end of the day, our mission is one of encouraging creation and vision alongside others, because as it is said, “any cook can govern”.