Denver Communists

09/01/2026

Protest Drip Café
Friday, Sept 4 from 6 - 9 pm MT
869 Santa Fe Dr, Denver

All you transphobes bound to lose!

🌈 Join the Denver Communists 🚩 Notes of Dissent 🎺 Bread & Roses Legal Center 🏴 the Trans Empowerment Alliance ⚧️ and Trans Rescue Network 🏳️‍⚧️ for our monthly protest against the Drip Café, a coffeeshop run by an anti-LGBTQ+, fundamentalist Christian church.

Our monthly protests have evolved into a mix of a picket, an anti-fascist counter-demonstration, and a street party. We always have a good time, whether we are informing people about Drip’s homophobia and transphobia, exchanging sharp words with self-identified bigots, or shooting the s**t with each other and the First Friday Art Walk crowd.

Come through! Every first Friday until Drip closes down for good. (For more info, check out the anti-Drip slideshows pinned to our Instagram page.)

08/31/2026

“Our point of departure is simple: an anti-war and anti-imperialist politics cannot be satisfied with replacing one power bloc with another. Following through the implications of this position, however, requires conceptual mediation, summoning history into the present, revisiting past experiences, and confronting questions for which there are no ready-made answers. Such a politics must stand against imperialist war, sanctions, and regime-change projects while simultaneously confronting the repression and killing carried out by authoritarian states, as well as their appropriation of emancipatory struggles.”

cargo.site

08/18/2026

defend woke from democratic socialists!
“Woke 1.0 was crazy!”

disavowing the left during a new Red Scare
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently denounced demands by the left circa 2020 to defund the police and cancel Thanksgiving by glibly claiming “Woke 1.0 was crazy!”

In an effort to make herself a viable candidate for president, she disparaged the progressive politics of the George Floyd Rebellion and attributed the political opening to COVID, not the Black Lives Matter movement.

what is woke?
The term “woke” is a hundred-year-old African American English word for people awakened to racial injustice. It was popularized by the 2014 Black Lives Matter movement and more recently adopted by the right as a pejorative for the politically progressive.

Many on the left use “woke” snarkily to indicate extremism — or worse, adopt anti-woke positions in a disastrous effort to appeal to the right.

The revolutionary left should embrace “woke” unironically. Yes, we fight all forms of bigotry and make radical demands for systemic change! Yes, we’re woke!

AOC’s got us missing her Woke 1.0 version
Yes, she was also voting to fund the US and Israeli militaries around the same time, but AOC calling immigration detention centers “concentration camps” and demanding the abolition of ICE was not at all crazy.

When we let the right control the narrative, legitimate demands sound unreasonable. While Donald Trump is attacking the left as “terrorists,” the no-longer-woke AOC chose to join in on the attack.

we can’t change the democratic party, it changes us

from abolition to jail construction
In 2020, New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, the latest great hope for the democratic socialist movement, said of the NYPD, “There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked and corrupt. Defund it. Dismantle it.”

Yet as mayor, he has disavowed defunding the police, retained iron-fisted Zionist Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and is building four new jails in NYC.

why are left Democrats attacking woke?
Reformist socialists have historically betrayed internationalism and anti-oppression politics in pursuit of popularity and electability. This is due to a structural pitfall built into the electoral tactic.

Socialists chasing votes in a non-revolutionary period will always be tempted to cater to the present state of consciousness, rather than trying to advance it.

democratic socialists are adapting to reaction
forever reaching to their right, they will inevitably betray the left

the dead end of democratic socialism
If these are the most radical leftists in the Democratic Party, as both the right and left claim, it’s clear there is no path forward through this party. We can’t defund the police, abolish ICE, or stop the military-industrial complex unless we fight both the Democrats and the Republicans.

Abandoning these “socialist” Democrats is an essential step in building a truly socialist movement. They betray the working class, hinder our movement, and confuse the public about what socialism means. Socialism is workers controlling the means of production, not just “when the government does stuff.”

why is MAGA attacking woke?
Trump and MAGA seek to entrench the worst aspects of capitalism, from white supremacy and gender oppression to endless war and unchecked exploitation. “Woke” is their codeword for anyone who opposes their schemes.

Woke is a threat to them because they are outnumbered and correctly see movements for human liberation as their natural enemies. By vilifying and pathologizing the left, the right seeks to divide and conquer — and leftists who disavow woke enable them.

if anything Woke 1.0 didn’t go far enough
There was nothing crazy about the burning of a Minneapolis police station after George Floyd’s murder. There was nothing crazy about 25 million people taking to the streets in militant protest against racist police terror.

But to accomplish the goals of the anti-racist and anti-fascist movement, we need more than mass protest. We need political strikes, a revolutionary party, and ultimately a socialist revolution.

we’re going to need everyone to get more woke immediately

defund & abolish the police! abolish Thanksgiving! socialists out of the Democratic Party!

08/18/2026

08/17/2026

Join Firebrand for a national virtual public meeting, featuring a political presentation and moderated discussion.

The Politics of Firebrand and the Fight for International Socialism
Wednesday, Sept 2 at 6 pm MT / 8 pm ET
On zoom at bit.ly/dencomzoom

📖 “The few comrades who started the International Socialist tendency were not prepared to use Marxism as a substitute for reality, but on the contrary wished it to be a weapon helping to master reality. In the years 1946-48 we had to wrestle with very difficult questions. We had to be clear that we were continuing a tradition – that we were followers of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky – but that we had to face new situations. It was both a continuation and a new beginning. Intellectual toughness does not mean dogmatism; grasping a changing reality does not mean vagueness. Our criticism of orthodox Trotskyism was conceived as a return to classical Marxism.”

📕 Recommended Material

Chapter 1: Recognizing the Problem from Trotskyism After Trotsky by Tony Cliff
https://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1999/trotism/ch01.htm

“The Promise of Workers’ Power” by Bill Roberts
https://tempestmag.org/2026/08/the-promise-of-workers-power/

08/12/2026

Every year in August, Santa Fe Drive is shut down for cars and turned into a street festival. As has been the case for the past three years, this allowed us to talk to a much larger number of people, all of whom expressed enthusiastic support of our consistent presence and shock at the fact that bigots have set up a hub in the Art District, where their beliefs are clearly unwanted and virulently opposed.

We were glad to be joined by and Vote No On 109 & 110, who informed the crowd about the terrible anti-trans ballot measures on the Colorado ballot this fall.

Drip continued to prove our point about it being a hub for far-right organizing by assembling a motley crew of reactionaries, including:

* members of the anti-abortionist White Rose Resistance

* Aaron Brooks, Zionist assh0le-about-town and founder of the Colorado Jewish Alliance

* Ian Welling, a self-proclaimed Bernie bro and yoga teacher, who was kicked out of the band Itchy-O after proclaiming himself a “proud Islamophobe” in a video we took outside Drip two years ago.

* Corey Blair, a right-wing wanna-be influencer with Break The Chains Media. He organized a “Drip Support Squad” meetup a few weeks ago that drew out a few white Christian nationalists to spew vitriol outside of the coffee shop.

While Drip made some half-hearted attempts to distance themselves from Blair last month, they welcomed him with open arms this time, standing side-by-side with Drip’s manager as they attempted to defend their bigotry by shouting in our faces.

Despite Drip’s two or three loud supporters, the Art Walk was on our side, with many passersby flipping off the cafe and their supporters as they walked by, and sharing our disgust at their homophobia. Notes of Dissent, as always, provided us with lively renditions of gay club hits and anti-fascist anthems.

It is obvious that Drip is solely relying on their church supporters and right-wing “influencers” to keep them afloat, bolstering our longtime claim that Drip isn’t an innocent coffee shop, but an incubator for anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry and a safe place for far-right organizing. But they will never do it unopposed!

08/11/2026

STUDY GROUP
Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win by Clara Zetkin
Mondays August 17 - August 31 at 6 pm MT / 8 pm ET
On zoom at bit.ly/dencomzoom

📕 Join us for a 3-week study group on Clara Zetkin’s Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win. Written in 1923, it is one of the first Marxist writings on the character of fascism, its relationship to capitalism, and the most effective way to fight it.

Clara Zetkin was a Marxist revolutionary, anti-war activist, and crusader of women’s rights who played a major role in the creation of International Women’s Day. A contemporary and close comrade of Rosa Luxemburg, Zetkin served as a communist deputy in the German Reichstag from 1920 - 1933 and is known for the fiery speech she gave there in 1932 in the face of threats and intimidation.

“We must not combat fascism in the way of the reformists in Italy, who beseeched them to ‘leave me alone, and then I’ll leave you alone.’ On the contrary! Meet violence with violence. But not violence in the form of individual terror—that will surely fail. But rather violence as the power of the revolutionary organized proletarian class struggle.”

🔗 Links to readings & syllabus at: bit.ly/foundations-of-marxism

🗓️ Schedule
August 17: Introduction
August 24: The Struggle Against Fascism
August 31: Resolution on Fascism + Appendixes

08/09/2026

Every year in August, Santa Fe Drive is shut down for cars and turned into a street festival. As has been the case for the past three years, this allowed us to talk to a much larger number of people, all of whom expressed enthusiastic support of our consistent presence and shock at the fact that bigots have set up a hub in the Art District, where their beliefs are clearly unwanted and virulently opposed.

We were glad to be joined by and Vote No On 109 & 110, who informed the crowd about the terrible anti-trans ballot measures on the Colorado ballot this fall.

Drip continued to prove our point about it being a hub for far-right organizing by assembling a motley crew of reactionaries, including:

* members of the anti-abortionist White Rose Resistance

* Aaron Brooks, Zionist assh0le-about-town and founder of the Colorado Jewish Alliance

* Ian Welling, a self-proclaimed Bernie bro and yoga teacher, who was kicked out of the band Itchy-O after proclaiming himself a “proud Islamophobe” in a video we took outside Drip two years ago.

* Corey Blair, a right-wing wanna-be influencer with Break The Chains Media. He organized a “Drip Support Squad” meetup a few weeks ago that drew out a few white Christian nationalists to spew vitriol outside of the coffee shop.

While Drip made some half-hearted attempts to distance themselves from Blair last month, they welcomed him with open arms this time, standing side-by-side with Drip’s manager as they attempted to defend their bigotry by shouting in our faces.

Despite Drip’s two or three loud supporters, the Art Walk was on our side, with many passersby flipping off the cafe and their supporters as they walked by, and sharing our disgust at their homophobia. Notes of Dissent, as always, provided us with lively renditions of gay club hits and anti-fascist anthems.

It is obvious that Drip is solely relying on their church supporters and right-wing “influencers” to keep them afloat, bolstering our longtime claim that Drip isn’t an innocent coffee shop, but an incubator for anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry and a safe place for far-right organizing. But they will never do it unopposed!

08/04/2026

Protest Drip Café
Friday, Aug 7 from 6 - 9 pm MT
869 Santa Fe Dr, Denver

Bigots out! 🖕 Fundamentalists and racists, homophobes and Islamophobes, out of our art walk!

August is the largest First Friday celebration of the year with over 10,000 people in attendance last year. Santa Fe Drive will be closed to traffic from 6th to 11th Avenues and lined with creative vendors, businesses, foods and drinks, performances, and more.

Last month, Drip brought out the most loathsome of its supporters that we’ve encountered — white Christian nationalist sc*m preaching hate speech and calling for a religious war against Muslims. We can only hope Drip makes a strong showing this month, because all they ever do is make fools of themselves and reveal their fanatical bigotry to the art walk crowd.

🌈 Join the Denver Communists 🚩 Notes of Dissent 🎺 Bread & Roses Legal Center 🏴 the Trans Empowerment Alliance 🏳️‍⚧️ and our newest official sponsor, Trans Rescue Network ⚧️ for our monthly protest against the Drip Café, a coffeeshop run by a homophobic, fundamentalist Christian church.

Trans Rescue Network is a trans-led nonprofit focusing on helping vulnerable and unhoused trans folks.

Our monthly protests have evolved into a mix of a picket, an anti-fascist counter-demonstration, and a street party. We always have a good time, whether we are informing people about Drip’s homophobia and transphobia, exchanging sharp words with self-identified bigots, or shooting the s**t with each other and the First Friday Art Walk crowd.

Come through! Every first Friday until Drip closes down for good. (For more info, check out the anti-Drip slideshows pinned to our Instagram page.)

08/03/2026

STUDY GROUP
Settler Colonialism: An Introduction by Sai Englert

Sundays, Aug 16 – Oct 4
12 noon ET / 10 am MT
on Zoom at bit.ly/firebrandzoom

📅
Aug 16: Introduction
Aug 23: Ch 1, Pt 1: to American Silver and the Rise of a New Global Order
Aug 30: Ch 1, Pt 2: from Rise of Anglo Settlement
Sept 6: Ch 2
Sept 13: Ch 3, Pt 1: to Bonded Labor – European and American
Sept 20: Ch 3, Pt 2: from Indigenous Land, Enslaved Labor
Sept 27: Ch 4
Oct 4: Ch 5

🔗 Download ebook at bit.ly/sai-englert

From the Palestinian struggle against Israeli Apartheid, to First Nations’ mass campaigns against pipeline construction in North America, Indigenous peoples are at the forefront of some of the crucial struggles of our age. Rich with their distinct histories and cultures, they are connected by the shared enemy they face: settler colonialism.

In this introduction to the subject, Sai Englert highlights the ways in which settler colonialism has and continues to shape our global economic and political order. From the rapacious accumulation of resources, land, and labour, through Indigenous dispossession and genocide, to the development of racism as a form of social control, settler colonialism is deeply connected to many of today’s social ills.

To understand settler colonialism as an ongoing process, is therefore also to start engaging with contemporary social movements and solidarity campaigns differently. It is to start seeing how distinct struggles for justice and liberation are intertwined.