Francesca Hong on What Democratic Socialism Means to Her

The Assembly was a great starting point because so many of these choices happen at the state level. States determine wages and worker protections. We fund public schools. We administer Medicaid. We decide how much power local governments have to raise revenue, build housing or invest in transit. We regulate utilities and corporations. We write the rules that determine whether working people have power in the workplace and whether families can afford the basic necessities of life.

I ran because I understood that government is one arena where working people have to build power, and because decisions were being made there every day that shaped whether my neighbors could live with dignity.

I know from personal experience that being a socialist in an American legislative body can be a lonely and difficult experience. What were some of the fights you took on as an assemblymember?

For the entirety of my time in office, I’ve served in a legislature controlled by Republicans, so I learned very quickly that you have to define success more broadly than whether leadership allows your bill to receive a vote.

I’ve introduced an Economic Justice Bill of Rights because I believe healthcare, housing, education, food and a dignified job should be understood as basic economic rights. I’ve fought to raise the minimum wage and advocated for paid family and medical leave. I’ve introduced legislation to provide healthy school meals for every child and restore the collective bargaining rights that were stripped from Wisconsin workers under Act 10.

Sometimes, the objective is shifting the conversation around an idea that people initially tell you is impossible. Sometimes it’s using the legislature to give organizers, workers and communities a platform. And sometimes you find openings to actually change the law. I was proud to help pass bipartisan legislation requiring Wisconsin schools to teach Asian American and Hmong American history, a victory that grew out of community organizing and building positive relationships with folks from across the aisle. 

That experience has reinforced something I believe deeply: elected officials should not think of themselves as the movement. Our job is to open doors, bring organizing into the institution, use the power we have to shift material conditions and make it easier for people outside the Capitol to build power.

A socialist legislator without an organized constituency can be isolated. A socialist legislator connected to workers, unions and community organizations can make the institution much less comfortable with the status quo.

What would you say are some barriers to the achievement of democratic socialist policies in elected government?

The biggest barrier is institutional power. People sometimes talk about progressive policy as though the obstacle is simply finding the right data to back up your policy or persuading enough legislators that an idea makes sense. But many of the systems we’re trying to change are working exactly as intended for the people who benefit from them.

Corporations have lobbyists in the Capitol every day. Wealthy interests provide financial backing for campaigns and organizations designed to shape the policy conversation. Legislative leaders can keep overwhelmingly popular proposals from ever receiving a hearing or vote. And in Wisconsin, years of gerrymandering allowed Republicans to maintain enormous legislative power even in a closely divided state.

There is also a political culture that treats scarcity as inevitable. We are constantly told that universal programs are unrealistic while enormous subsidies, tax breaks and giveaways to corporations are treated as the natural order of things.

That is why electoral politics can’t be separated from organizing. Winning a seat is not the end of the work. If you want to change who has power, you have to build durable organizations outside of government that can make demands of those inside it.

I think that’s particularly important for socialists serving in state legislatures. We should pass legislation wherever we can, but we should also use these offices to expose who benefits from the current system, raise expectations about what government can provide, and help build the working-class coalition capable of making change unavoidable.

You made the decision to join DSA during a difficult time in state and local politics, 2020. What moved you to join the organization, and how long have you identified as a democratic socialist?

I joined DSA in 2020 because the organization was fighting for the things that had already come to define my politics: raising wages, racial justice, worker power and an economy that serves working people instead of an increasingly concentrated group of wealthy and corporate interests.

My politics grew out of lived experience and community organizing more than a particular label. I spent my adult life working alongside people who could work incredibly hard and still be one emergency away from losing everything. I watched service workers create thriving businesses and communities without receiving the stability, healthcare or wages they deserved in return. I saw how race, class and gender shaped who had power and who was expected to bear the burden when things went wrong.

To me, democratic socialism is about democracy, fairness and human rights. Working people should have a real say in the decisions that shape their lives, not just in government, but in their workplaces and in the economy. Too often, the most essential parts of our lives, from what we’re paid to what we spend on healthcare, housing and utilities, are determined by corporations with far more power than the people they serve.

I want working people to have a meaningful voice not only at the ballot box, but in their workplaces, their communities and the economy. And I believe that government should guarantee the basic conditions people need to actually exercise that freedom: healthcare, housing, education, childcare, a living wage and the right to organize. 

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