How Charlotte Kelly will Govern

Timeline of Kelly's organizing history

Listen to my conversation with Charlotte!

Charlotte Kelly is a socialist. A red socialist rose sits unapologetically within the logo atop her campaign website, the literature handed out to constituents is filled with socialist policies, and in interviews and speeches Kelly raves about a community-based socialist revolution.

Months after announcing her campaign in March 2021, Charlotte Kelly won the third most votes of any at-large candidate in Somerville this past November. Despite a nationwide weariness to Socialism, Kelly embraced it long before she envisioned herself as an elected official. Now, she is using the knowledge and the experience of her community to guide her time in office.

In college, one of Kelly's professors pronounced that “the sound of the revolution is the sound of the stapler.” A revolution is not won in a triumphant battle, rather, through trudging the swamp of revolutionary action. The difficulty and patience that comes with trying to pass progressive or revolutionary policy causes many to simply give up. This prolonged battle was nothing new to Kelly when she had first heard the sound of the stapler quote from a University of Massachusetts Amherst professor.

Throughout college, Kelly spent her time as a prominent student organizer. However, it was only after university, though, when Kelly started organizing in the outside world, where she truly embraced the label of a socialist. Using her skills as a student organizer, she became the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance. MEJA fights for equality for teachers and students in Massachusetts schools. Unlike those, who had heard the stapler, and ran from it, Kelly leapt towards it.

“Doing organizing work inside and outside of the university and coming to this conclusion, in community with other people, that I came to the label of 'yep, I'm a socialist.’”

Whether it be embracing the label of socialist, fighting for equality, or deciding to run in the first place, Kelly makes decisions with the help of her community. As a fourth generation Somerville native, Kelly strides to make her community stronger. Any organizer will agree that strength comes in numbers, justice can only be won as a community. In university, with MEJA, and now in office, Kelly understands that it is one thing to fight, but another thing to fight together. For the revolution to be won, everyone must hear the sound of the stapler. This is how Kelly organized in the past and will govern in the future — in solidarity with her community.

“Solidarity is that real core. Like when I am in the struggle, I am struggling shoulder to shoulder with you, [to] build and fight for a better world,” Kelly continued. “I'm a member of this community in the same way that people who I'm emailing are a member of my community, and people should be able to help shape and inform our shared collective community the best that we all can.” 

Kelly is the first to admit that her election to city council has less to do with her, and more the community she works shoulder to shoulder with.

“What I can do as an elected official, is try to bring those folks who do have expertise, who have lived experience, who have policy insight to the table to help shape these decisions.” 

A key example of this is the rodent problem plaguing the city. Overtime, the propensity of rodents has become an issue in Somerville. People spend hundreds of dollars to rid rodents from their homes, and little has been done to solve the issue. Because of this, Kelly made the problem a staple of her campaign.  

“It was an issue that was so important to the people I was speaking with, that my campaign actually went back and did a bunch of research and wrote a white paper or a rat paper on what we could be doing differently on the issue of rats and Somerville.” 

The Rodent Issues Special Committee met on Feb. 15, with Kelly presiding as chair. A committee that might not be dealing with police abolition, or giving everyone healthcare, rather rat traps and rodent birth control. Yet, as the virtual meeting began, the faint sound of a stapler clicking could probably be heard in the background.