Is the West Experiencing a Left-Wing Drift? (the international left politics activism, news, and strategy thread)

hottt off the DSA's local wins a couple of days ago, here's a place to discuss current left movements and orgs, ponder strategy and all that fun stuff. not gonna police/define what "left" means too rigidly except to say there's already a democratic party thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sUXMzkh-jI

I guess the only hard-and-fast rule is no comedy podcasts allowed

anyway some fun things to talk about might be

- the DSA's electoral strategy plank and where it stands (or should stand) in relation to other strategies, also the challenges presented by growing 4-fold in the space of a year
- Corbyn's Labour and its prospects for forming government and/or its ability to potentially productively disrupt the Brexiting "process" (such as it is)
- wtf is happening with the Canadian left
- wtf is happening in other places

oh and
- talk about what orgs yr involved with, if any!

Olympia WA just elected a fierce and principled homeless advocate, running for office for the first time, to the city council. She beat the incumbent, a real estate developer. This is fantastic news for a small city with an escalating housing crisis.

That is v cool! I was just reading about that.

On the more theoretical end, here's a centrist tackling the Corey Robin book on the history of conservative pols/thinkers

http://theweek.com/articles/735841/lefts-myopic-obsession-fairness

in the panel kingfish posted in the chapo thread Chibber argues that fascism only succeeds when there isn't a viable leftist alternative and that the right-wing drift in the West was a temporary phenomenon that is now receding as options like corbyn/sanders become more viable. i'm not so sure how that comports w/ his theory of ww2 (where he argues precisely the opposite - that the strength of the left is what led capital to throw its lot in with fascism) - these two ideas seem to be in tension. maybe he's just pushing for a middle ground - a left powerful enough to be a viable alternative to fascism for the downtrodden, and he's not too worried about labor challenging capital anytime soon since we're a long way off from another dictatorship of the proletariat.

On the front of "capital throwing its weight around" in the face of a strengthened left, I was heartened to see talk of Labour preparing to counteract capital flight should they ever take power

- wtf is happening with the Canadian left

Would appreciate any kind of discussion on this, even pointers to good news/commentary sources.

idk how accurate this is but I don't think this is so much a left-wing "drift" as much as it is 18-35 year olds in this country realizing what happens when they don't vote

slash realizing they have no viable economic future under the current order

https://elizabethirreverent.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/slash_by_bigjet.jpg

this moral foundations stuff that is deployed like a trump card in that damon linker article (& elsewhere) could do with some more discussion

CR definitely took notice of the review and will probably provide a rebuttal of some kind, I feel a bit out of my depth as I haven't read The Reactionary Mind

hate reading a whole book so i can pull it apart is where i draw the line

wrt haidt i mean

there's a pun in there somewhere

re: the Cdn left, my current summary would be "we're all watching to see what Jagmeet inevitably waffles on" and that our general terminal smugness is our biggest impediment. I haven't even noticed the Trudeau Paradise Papers stuff get much traction.

fwiw that article above is essentially my complaint about CR's book. it smooths out an awful lot of [to my mind] legitimate concerns of conservatism in order to make a moral argument. and esp a moral argument that is easily made in practically any situation - there is no ideology where you cannot find losers of the ideology being oppressed. iow there's no exclusively liberatory ideology cf the great Leftist States of the 20th century.

i just realized tho why are we talking about conservatism itt?

but the degree of inequality does vary. the fact that something can't be completely eliminated is no argument against reducing it

what i meant is that one could v easily make the argument that the left is about oppression and inequality and you can see bc every time there's a communist state they end up killing millions of ppl through the rigid enforcement of dogma. the question is always who is oppressing whom. now rightly you could argue that soviet + chinese communism should not be how we measure the motivations underlining leftism but then you can do the same for conservatism. my point is just that if you're looking to defame your political opponents on oppression grounds you'll have plenty of fodder no matter your ideology.

ha, i think real world examples are salient, but for what they tell you about power rather than what they tell you about ideology

I haven't even noticed the Trudeau Paradise Papers stuff get much traction.

Do you mean the stuff about Bronfman's offshore accounts? Was JT or the LPC directly implicated?

I imagine Canada will probably remain a country of milquetoast centrist liberalism for a while. We never drifted as far right as some of our allies and will probably not experience as intense of a left-wing backlash?

That said, there have been some legitimately good ideas coming from the NDP, especially Ashton (and the Greens). I'm eager to see more advocacy for things like a green energy transition Crown corporation, socialized finance options, socialized pharma care coverage, someone actually standing against more pipelines. In a minority govt situation, this Liberal govt might be more push-able than the last one.

An NDP provincial government may well be likely in SK, I think?

challops: soviet + chinese communism is actually right-wing

That said, there have been some legitimately good ideas coming from the NDP, especially Ashton (and the Greens).

I (along with all the Marxist goons I roll w/) voted for Ashton even though she was disappointing on QC, hoping she remains a prominent voice for the party going forward. I really got the feeling she pushed the overall tenor of the leadership race significantly left.

Everything is an angry centrist overreaction to the last shit

Maybe this belongs more on the CDN politics thread, but curious to hear what other leftists/Canadians on this thread think.

I voted for Ashton and am definitely far to the left of Jagmeet, but from a tactical POV, do you think he may be - in an instrumental way - better for the medium to longer term prospects of the party insofar as he will likely be able to win over some of the more left(ish) or progressive people who voted for Trudeau in 2015 (and either moved more to the left since or have been disillusioned by the betrayal of campaign promises, etc.).

I know this way of thinking can lead to a slippery slope, but I wonder if his leadership of the party might help - to some degree - galvanize (or at least sustain some forward momentum for) the NDP in a way that an Ashton, Angus or Caron victory may have?

I voted for Ashton but I don't think her platform would have been electorally successful, if I'm honest. But I am of the pessimistic view that liberal centrism is the best we can expect from a federal government in Canada and so the federal NDP can best function as a sort of parliamentary pressure group.

Two huge problems for left politics in Canada: the national dependence on oil leads to a situation in which a large proportion of the public view the oil patch as a sacred cow which precludes widespread popularity for environmentalism which must be a pillar for any left-wing movement; another important part of any left movement in canada must be indigenous rights, decolonization, reconciliation. these ideas are given plenty of lip service in mainstream canadian discourse but anything that actually threatens entrenched interests or even, you know, calls a spade a spade - wrt the opprobrium that comes from many corners the second someone uses the words "settler colonialism" or "genocide" etc. - is anathema to a large proportion of the canadian population.

I voted for Ashton and am definitely far to the left of Jagmeet, but from a tactical POV, do you think he may be - in an instrumental way - better for the medium to longer term prospects of the party insofar as he will likely be able to win over some of the more left(ish) or progressive people who voted for Trudeau in 2015 (and either moved more to the left since or have been disillusioned by the betrayal of campaign promises, etc.).

my concern is that his platform may not wind up distinct enough from the Libs for a significant number of voters to even consider jumping ship

and JiV otm, Canada is much more backwards than the US on these issues in some respects

On oil, possibly. I don't agree that the US is more progressive on aboriginal issues. Afaict, these barely even register as an issue on the national level in the US.

Simon, that's totally a fair point, though I also wonder if Singh will be able to bring some amount of first-time voters to the NDP (I doubt it will be massive, but stil...) or people who had formerly been unaffiliated with any party. He may also be appealing to culturally conservative immigrant groups who vote PC (to generalize) and win over more votes.

Jim, yes, both are also two massive problems that any progressive force will have to reckon with and, in the near future, am not sure how they will be able to reconcile.

Young/new voters are definitely where I'd be focusing on trying to mobilize if I were an NDP strategist, yeah.

I know Habermas has been progressively lurching to the centre over the course of his life, but even I'm quite surprised he wrote this glowing article on Macron.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/juergen-habermas-on-the-european-vision-of-emmanuel-macron-a-1174721.html

Fun with (American) history:

https://soundcloud.com/deadpundits/ep-34-the-democratic-party-the-left-w-adam-hilton

Dead Pundits Society - Ep. 34: The Democratic Party & the Left w/ Adam Hilton

Adam Hilton, visiting lecturer in Politics at Mount Holyoke College, is on the show to talk about the history of the Democratic Party and its interaction with the left. Can the Democratic Party be used as an instrument of socialist advance? And what is the nature of the Democratic Party, anyway? Tune in to find out.

Find some of Adam's writings here:
-"Bernie and the Search for New Politics," https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/06/bernie-president-unions-mcgovern
-"Searching for New Politics," https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/02/bernie-sanders-new-politics-democratic-party-realignment-primary

I know Habermas has been progressively lurching to the centre over the course of his life, but even I'm quite surprised he wrote this glowing article on Macron.

He seems to be using Macron as a stick to beat the German political establishment with. They need beating, but get a better stick.

thanks for that kingfish, SPD is a reliably good cast even if I find the main guy mysteriously grating

Proctor likes to stir shit for better or for worse but I enjoy his guests most of the time

One of the socialist candidates I can vote for in municipal elections later this month is named Charisma Fries. I might vote for her just for that reason. I will probably just vote for the party, though.

Sounds like the name of one of the bands on scott's Leftover College Radio Station Indie Rock Records thread

Latin America seen as part of the West? I think that's where the latest drift began. Different forms of a populist left to varying degrees in Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and so on. Its under tension - and in Brazil its collapsed to quite a dangerous situation for the environment..

On the front of "capital throwing its weight around" in the face of a strengthened left, I was heartened to see talk of Labour preparing to counteract capital flight should they ever take power

― Simon H., Thursday, 9 November 2017 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Due to Brexit capital flight could happen anyway. Business is practically telling Labour they could put up with a erm diminished influence and profits as long as Brexit is the softer option (access to the single market). That's an opening, of sorts, to bring more things to the forefront and keep those ppl on their toes.

skip to about 13:30 in the latest Trillbilly Workers' Party for a very good RL Stephens segment on DSA/American left stuff, particularly the old race/class question

https://soundcloud.com/user-972848621-463073718/episode-35-who-are-we-w-special-guest-rl-stephens

or 18:30ish if you're feeling impatient

this is all pretty dope imho

Good thread of what DSA has been up to this week. https://t.co/0mv1eo63k0

— Sturgeon's Law (@Sturgeons_Law) November 13, 2017

Interview with Lee Carter and David Duhalde from DSA

Gunna start putting good pod eps in here to keep the other thread mainly focused on its titular show

Great interview with Prof. Federico Finchelstein

KPFA - Against the Grain - Populism or Fascism?

Is Donald Trump a fascist?  A rightwing populist?  What about Marine Le Pen of the far right National Front, who received the support of a third of French voters in the last presidential election?  Historian Federico Finchelstein discusses what the terms fascist and populist mean, not as abstractions, but looking at history.

Resources:

Federico Finchelstein, From Fascism to Populism in History [1] UC Press, 2017

[1] https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520295193

Anyone listen to Novara Media? It's one the left political podcasts I've been listening to a while and would recommend - I'm not sure if it was ever discussed/posted on the Chapo thread (I've only occasionally checked it), but it's worth listening to. They cover a wide range of issues, and find a nice balance between larger abstract theoretical discussions and episodes on very specific and concrete events/movements/etc.

http://novaramedia.com/category/audio/

no

lol sorry that was a flippant answer to the thread question

I've been meaning to check out Novara stuff, Ash Sarkar is one of my favorite left twitter people

i also like ash sarkar but the novara podcast seems extremely boring and average

Novara seems like an okay hour/long local radio show

Coupla recent episodes of note(feat. American guests):

Sarah Jaffe

Peter Frase(who’s own episode of Chapo last year got eaten)

Thanks for that Frase episode, listening now. Four Futures seems right up my alley

More great pod. Gets into the particulars of American history and connects it up with 2016 and more.

The Dig - Universalizing American Liberty with Aziz Rana

Aziz Rana discusses his pivotal book, _The Two Faces of American Freedom_. Rana overturns conventional accounts of American history, from settlement and Revolution to the Populists and the present day. In reality, settler-colonialism, empire, and a brutally exploitative economic system grounded in racial subjugation have always been at the core of the American project. But radical thinkers and movements have consistently stepped forward at critical junctures to propose transformative alternatives that would make American freedom universal. Rana's most brilliant move is to ultimately make a devastatingly critical account of American history hopeful and optimistic.

I'm glad someone brought up Novara, I've become a big fan over the last few months. Sarkar & James Butler especially I think are great. The Novara FM podcasts I feel actually manage to cover some fairly substantial stuff while still being accessible. The video segments like The Fix etc are def more hit & miss though - some worthwhile episodes but a lot of boilerplate rehearsal of overly neat talking-points too.

To open the discussion up a bit beyond just 'I dig this' (although let's be honest, that's my basic station in life), one thing I find interesting with the Novara people is the tension between anarchists and what for want of better terms I tend to think of as 'radical democrats' or 'democratic utopians' on the one hand, and traditional state socialsts plus fully-blown state communists on the other.
I feel like this tension could be reflected across the Corbynite left or at least within Momentum, and I'm interested to see how it plays out in the long term, especially if Labour under the current leadership do manage to make it into power.
Then again maybe the perception of a split is exaggerated by me focusing too much on Novara and hanging out too much in the Brit corner of 'left twitter', and the more unorthodox elements esp anarchos are too small in number/too marginalized to have any influence, I dunno.

That split is definitely not exclusive to the UK. The saving grace is that the short-term goals of both broad groups is more or less the same, so common mobilization on pressing issues is far from impossible.

If anybody who would like an Australian lefty pod, there’s the Boonta Vista Socialist Club.

For more American ones:

For those of y'all looking for some great leftist podcasts out there, here is a thread.

Subscribe to:@seasonoftheB @DiscoCollective @thetrillbillies @deleteuracct @LeftPod @thisishellradio @StreetFightWCRS @MAKCapitalism @TheDCSentinel @CitationsPod https://t.co/aeBsI9xzQ4

— Kudzu Commune (@kudzucommune) November 21, 2017

For CanCon(sorta), this is more of a monthly show, but Luke Savage & Will Sloan do Michael & Us our of Toronto, where they watch a crappy American(usually) agit-prop polemic. They started with every Michael Moore flick, then moved on to the Fahrenheit 9/11 knockoffs, Hollywood stuff, or whatever Dinesh craps out,

On the american organizing side, I’m wondering the percentage of all the groups that exploded in membership are now hitting growing pains a year in.

My local DSA chapter is trying to slog thru bylaw revision, as the group now is far different than it was originally constituted 12 months back. Quorum reqs are a drag, for instance.

that Aziz Rana interview is really great!

re: the slog/bloat that comes with organizational expansion, do you see it as a necessary evil or would you handle it some other way if possible?

I just think that it’s expected if not necessary; we’re coming out of like 4 decades of bad political habits, and having to relearn a whole mess of shit along with translating to a modern format.

Massive cultural change has to happen, and is underway, and everybody is going to fuck up a lot because the dominant culture was/is this hyperatomizing thing, not to mention all the discursive complications borne out of academia and social media.

DSA New Orleans posted a DIY guide on how & why they chose a taillight replacement action:

http://dsaneworleans.org/img/brake-light-clinic-guide.pdf

Workers Win Big in Ontario
In Ontario, the Fight for $15 just won a huge victory.

By DAVID BUSH & DOUG NESBITT

another podcast, just launched -

http://butterflystorycollective.libsyn.com/

one thing I find interesting with the Novara people is the tension between anarchists and what for want of better terms I tend to think of as 'radical democrats' or 'democratic utopians' on the one hand, and traditional state socialsts plus fully-blown state communists on the other.

At points it has been ugly to watch. Both sides actually managed to converge amicably (so far) over at New Socialist:

https://newsocialist.org.uk/

I love the brakelight clinics so much

I don't agree that the US is more progressive on aboriginal issues. Afaict, these barely even register as an issue on the national level in the US.

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Thursday, November 9, 2017 4:19 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya what's up with this? is it just that they historically killed a larger % of them?

Plenty of good arguments here

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/out-of-sight-out-of-mind-2/

talking US first nations though

anyways this is not the thread

Yeah, that Maclean's thing makes no sense to me. If we really need to compare the situation of Canada's aboriginal population to a US equivalent, I would think that it should be the US aboriginal population ("Native Americans"), not the African-American population. And, like I said, I'm not a US politics expert but the only Presidential candidate I observed even mentioning FN issues was Bernie Sanders, who afaict didn't do more than pay lip service in passing.

This might be the UK-version of Chapo btw:

https://twitter.com/reel_politcast

I don't listen to podcasts so this is all bits of educated guesswork.

promising new Left Coast on youth organizing in the US, starting in on it now

https://soundcloud.com/leftcoastpodcast/north-bae-004-the-dictatorship-of-the-teen#t=0:00

Meanwhile, Alex Jones is posting Rosa Luxemburg quotes. Happy American Thanksgiving!

pic.twitter.com/N18dkYTqMd

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) January 14, 2017

Ha, leftie pods are popping up quick enough to start stepping on each other’s names

Left Coast:
@leftcoastpod
podcast about leftism for west coast idiots by los angeles trash comedians @shutupandrosky and @heysarajune. new ep every wednesday, DMs open

http://leftcoastpod.libsyn.com/

Left Coast Media:
@LeftPod
Interviewing leftists from the best coast and beyond. Follow @chekainformant, @communalsauce, and @rrrrn.

https://m.soundcloud.com/leftcoastpodcast

Beast Coast Podcast:

@BeastCoastPod
East coast is the beast coast. A #leftpod covering culture and philosophy from @the_admo, @lostcosmonaut84, @rayagun19, and @garthotron
beastcoastpodcast.com

Jeeze

Somebody elsewhere mentioned about how leftie folks are taking to podcasts like RW schmucks did to YT

This is probly of heavy relevance:

Both Verso & Haymarket are now running half-off sales til year’s end, with bundled ebooks where available

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3495-50-off-all-our-books

https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/55-50-off-holiday-gifts-for-the-red-on-your-list

I’m currently reading this: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2062-the-s-word

Last Verso I read:

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2465-humankind

Is anybody on Tim Faust’s health justice email list? He sent out an update today, and I had to laugh due to two things:

1. He sent it out from “T-Bone Faust,” which is a rare nickname that works for both Coen Bros collaborator and Coen Bros character

2. The opener is almost word-for-word matching a certain Onion columnist:

Hello friends,

This one's long. It’s been a minute since I got to last speak with you.

You can read his missive and sign up for the list here

I earnestly love that dude so much

<3 beavis wallpaper

All eyes on Illinois

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/28/politics/illinois-house-dsa-carlos-ramirez-rosa-chuy-garcia/index.html

^ strategically this makes no sense to me

because there's already a "progressive" running?

yes. why go after an early Sanders supporter who's an automatic yes vote on single-payer?

what is gained?

I would guess that they feel particularly strongly about Rosa's local popularity but otherwise I can't speak to the wisdom or lack thereof. Single payer isn't the only issue to be concerned about. (Then again, as yet, DSA has yet to officially endorse him AFAIK.)

What is the podcast equivalent for those of us who prefer music to podcasts and therefore never listen to podcasts? I mean, apart from hardcore punk lol

xp Garcia and Ramirez-Rosa are going to vote the same on practically every issue of consequence. What's the point of replacing a guy who's 95% left with a guy who's 100% left?

think you're right, there must be some local angle

What is the podcast equivalent for those of us who prefer music to podcasts and therefore never listen to podcasts? I mean, apart from hardcore punk lol

What about Algiers and, uh, Downtown Boys(who are more post-hardcore, really)?

If I understand correctly, I think imago is looking for short podcasts.

I doubt that

imago have u ever deep-listened to Crass' Penis Envy? That's my suggestion.

i was a big fan of motherfucker, aka m-f. episodes about 10 minutes long. it was the realest. they stopped doing it after about 10 episodes though. it was really hard to search for.

I doubt the q is "what is music that I can listen to instead of podcasts and get the same political insight", or at least I hope it isn't, 'cause that's a crazy question.

m-f feels (felt?) pretty punk rock. stripped down to the barest nub of honesty and humor and conversation and swearing. short eps. an ineffable sense of what the kids today call "moving the culture forward". it's not political in the way this thread is looking for in general though

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/m-f/id1241489297?mt=2

I was listening to Flux of Pink Indians yesterday and Rudimentary Peni today. I suppose it makes sense to listen to Crass next

socialist economic darling/enfant terrible Matt Bruenig made an appearance (his first, I assume?) in the NYT today:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/opinion/inequality-social-wealth-fund.html

RE: DSA/Garcia/Rosa, I don’t think a DSA endorsement of Rosa would matter very much. Gutierrez has endorsed Garcia and that counts a lot. Gutierrez is overwhelmingly popular in IL-4 and hasn’t gotten less that 74% of the vote in the last two primaries. I can’t imagine his constituents going against anyone he anoints as a successor.

I gotta say, while I agree (mostly) with their platform, I don't understand what the DSA is trying to do strategically.

The tea party template would seem to be the best approach—obtaining guarantees of support for single-payer, education debt reform and "no" votes on Near Eastern wars from center-left candidates under credible threat of a primary.

But this looks like typical progressive infighting.

AFAICT they haven't run any candidates that have served to prevent Dem-identifying candidates from getting elected

Any chance they can take to run someone and promote socialist ideals and proposals without getting republicans elected is fine by me

Well, that's the thing—they don't actually run anyone. They just endorse them. So they should use *that* as a bargaining chip—in safe districts, obviously—to pull the libs further left.

It worked for the right.

That was their old model, more or less, as I understand it. With the influx of new blood less interested in trying to "reform" or influence the Democratic party, that's changed somewhat. One of the major national slates discussed the difference between electoral strategy vs "electoralism" here https://www.dsamomentum.org/platform/

More broadly, the electoral plank is (again, this is based only on what I've read) just one thing they're interested in and not the principal focus.

From that link:

Rather, we propose an approach that could be called building a “party beyond the party,” one that formulates a clear political program and develops, runs, and disciplines candidates in select campaigns.

Sounds like a Tea Party model to me. I also notice that Medicare For All is explicitly endorsed, not only as a policy (duh), but as a rallying cry:

Medicare for All has become a key working class demand and enjoys strong majority support across the country.

I would note it's a key middle class demand as well. So why go after Garcia, an automatic "yes" vote on Medicare for All? It would seem to make more sense to target the center-left, making it politically unacceptable for any Democrat to hold any other position.

I agree that it's questionable, but a) I'm not sure it's indicative of a larger problem and b) it doesn't seem like it'll make much of a difference - Garcia seems like more or less a sure thing

LanaDelRaytheon outed as harasser?

🤭

https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/lana-del-raytheon?page=20

matt breunig on sovereign wealth funds in the nyt today https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/opinion/inequality-social-wealth-fund.html?_r=0

I re-read the Harper’s Magazine excerpts of the jury selection from the Shkreli trial today.

https://harpers.org/archive/2017/09/public-enemy/

If we can’t convert this elemental anger into concrete political action, we don’t deserve to be called “the Left.”

the wild part is of course that everything they're so angry about was perfectly legal

Imagine passionately wanting to convict this guy of something and then, when handed the opportunity, so nonchalantly disqualifying yrself from doing so in the name of saying some snarky bullshit

I've never been called for a jury before. are potential jurors under oath?

In the US I believe I was under oath for voir dire

In any event you are instructed not to lie during voir dire and in fact encouraged to volunteer the truth unprompted

Interview with Lee Carter

awesome conversation with Keeanga-Yamahtta-Taylor about her new book

The Dig - Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: Recovering Identity Politics from Neoliberalism

<p>Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor returns to The Dig to discuss her new book<span> </span><i>How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective</i>. Forty years ago, a group of black feminists coined the term “identity politics” in the Combahee River Collective Statement. For them, it was a way to identify the various ways that capitalism, racism, patriarchy, and homophobia created a set of interlocking oppressions. And the point of identifying how those systems operated together was not to create an itemized politics of particularity, as is too often the case today, but rather to create a framework for solidarity. Thanks to our sponsors at Verso Books. Check out<span> </span><i>Futures of Black Radicalism</i><span> </span>and support this podcast with $ at Patreon.com/TheDig

Dammit, oh well

this is great, thanks

The Portland DSA chapter got a guest op-ed into the local paper.

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/12/a_class_war_brewing_guest_opin.html

Over 850+ comments so far!

Nice!

How do we connect white socialism in Oregon with black self-preservation in Alabama?

whatever "white socialism" is, DSA has been pretty good in its direct-action and rhetoric about not being that

anyway the answer to most questions is to provide more compelling options so that people don't disengage from politics entirely as they seem likely to down the road in Alabama

https://rewire.news/article/2017/12/20/long-take-southern-white-democrat-elected-black-voters-shift-right-less-week/

Doug Jones will never ever get to do anything, he will lose in 2020 and Dems won't have any power until then. The sooner he - and others, I guess, but mostly he - accepts that, the better.

Fred, shut the fuck up for once

How do we connect white socialism in Oregon with black self-preservation in Alabama?

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, December 26, 2017 3:24 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Check out Robin Kelley's Hammer & Hoe--Alabama in particular has a strong black socialist history. The Communist Party in the American South was a remarkable institution rooted in the black working class that had more to say and do with poor sharecroppers than any black American org til SNCC.

I think Fred misunderstands the import of the fact that Doug Jones was until recently a middle-aged white U.S. Attorney in Alabama. He is not and never will be a fervent supporter of the broad progressive agenda that would appeal to urban northerners.

Jones will carve out his own personal agenda, try to get re-elected, and seek to remake the USA in whatever mold he imagines to be the best and most like his own values and those of a majority of Alabama voters. The consensus platform among Senate democrats, such as it is, is very limited compared to the highly disparate ideas and ambitions of democratic senators. We have a very weird system that is hard for foreigners to grasp and confuses most Americans, too.

Nothing good comes from him trying for re-election :( I read this interview with a staffer of his, and it's just all so so wrong: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/26/16810116/doug-jones-alabama-polls-roy-moore The worst thing I've read was that he isn't hiring black staffers. If there's one thing he could do for the future, it's giving activists from the base experience in Washington, but instead he seems scared.

I still thing he did everything correct in the campaign, though, and the handwringing over him was misplaced. But his campaigning is over now.

Feel free to handwring all you wish, but the amount of 'good' you seem to expect out of an Alabama senator is poorly calculated.

I'm pretty sure you're misreading what I'm writing.

Garcia and Ramirez-Rosa are going to vote the same on practically every issue of consequence. What's the point of replacing a guy who's 95% left with a guy who's 100% left?

Rosa has dropped out and endorsed Garcia.

I lost track of which thread the Cooper piece on the history of neoliberalism was posted on, but here's a follow-up, an overview of what American socialism might look like

http://theweek.com/articles/733970/dawn-american-socialism

Has anyone read Inventing the Future by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams from a couple of years ago? I meant to read it when it came out but had passed - I revisited after finding it second hand a few weeks ago. It's a fairly provocative - in places - polemic against much of how the left conceives of its own efforts and strategies (both on a small and large scale).

While it's a bit out of date - it must have been mostly written in 2012 or 2013 - and failed to anticipate the successes of Corbyn or Bernie's mobilizations of so many people on the left, it nonetheless raises some very valid points and interesting criticisms about the current moment.

I'm only halfway through so have yet to get to the substance of their more prescriptive/alternative vision, so will withhold any judgment on that for now, but would be interested in anyone's thoughts on the book/its claims/critiques/etc.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2315-inventing-the-future

Yeah, I just finished it a bit ago. I like it. They’re authors I wish would find out about my old philo prof Frithjof Bergmann’s “NewWork/NewCulture” Project.

i've been mostly avoiding it because yknow something something cookshops of the future but if it's good i might try it

I read it and liked it.

Half of the book is more focused on criticizing ineffective ways of organizing similar to what _Hegemony How-To_ did than actually being about the future.

https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2018/01/09/19594215/prominent-tenant-activist-margot-black-is-stepping-down-as-allegations-of-racism-roil-her-organization

that's how you connect "white socialism" in oregon with "black self-preservation" in some kind of theoretical alabama.

at this point i've decided learning how to pound nails into my nose is a more positive and healthy use of my time than trying to align myself with "progressive" causes.

As a counterpoint, we had our local BLM chapter write a long article calling out our local Jobs with Justice chapter over concerns about the way their work was done: slights were cited, deeper questions were raised about whether black activists were being tokenized by JWJ's work, it was suggested they were being used instrumentally without meaningful reciprocity or investment in their priorities. Similar in some respects to what you've linked.

JWJ took the concerns seriously and invited the writers of the piece into a dialogue & a difficult process that ultimately took a year. In the end both orgs issued vulnerable & powerful public follow up statements that indicated a shared sense of progress with difficult ground yet to be covered. It struck me as a powerful positive model of what it can look like when people meet one another in good faith to resolve these kinds of difficult questions.

So don't pound nails up your nose. There's good to go around.

thanks for that

that's really great to hear, hoos! i'm glad they managed to work things out and come to a respectful and conscientious understanding. hopefully they don't wind up running into bob dylan. he might wind up singing a woody guthrie song and they'd have to take a couple more years to work out the inherent problems in that before they could do anything else.

i guess what i'm trying to say is that bottom line is, i'm not a decent enough human being to be meaningfully involved in that kind of work and i don't really believe i ever will be. apologies for the sarcasm in my last post. i do really have a lot of respect for anybody who can do this kind of work, but i can't.

I hear you--some of the cyclical dynamics involved in this work can be challenging. Never count yourself out forever though, man. We need every hand on the plow, now more than ever.

Check it out, efforts in Arizona are getting noticed by douchebag state legislators:

Arizona Legislator Bob Thorpe's New Bill Attacks Socialists, People Under 40
ANTONIA NOORI FARZAN | JANUARY 12, 2018 | 7:30AM

State Representative Bob Thorpe, a Flagstaff Republican best known for trying to keep college students from voting and making racist remarks on Twitter, is at it again.

Thorpe's latest bill, HB 2277, seeks to designate "American free-market capitalism" as the state's official political-economic system.

As Thorpe explains in the legislative intent section of the bill, he's concerned that The Youths are all converting to socialism because they don't know better...

Jacobin magazine has a union now.

http://www.nyguild.org/post/jacobin-newsguild-members-ratify-first-union-contract-for-the-publication

Good for them.

I assumed they already had one!

This is probably the thread to note that Paul Booth has died:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/paul-booth-labor-leader-and-antiwar-activist-dies-at-74/2018/01/19/d36b1884-fd29-11e7-a46b-a3614530bd87_story.html

Badly formulated thoughts here, but this is something I’ve been thinking about off & on:

How much of the popular fixation on protesting in the streets due to the fact that we primarily view the world and history thru media spectacle, and we can really only imagine changing society or power by expressing discontent in that form alone? The last time we had mass movements with any potential change was at the same time as a lot of protests going on, protests that got a lot of media coverage and as such are the historical footage we cut back to whenever these previous eras are talked about. Anybody on the screen talks about social change, we cut to b&w archival vid.

It’s like there used to be(still are) several concurrent ways of trying to build or exercise or display power, but the only tool left in most people’s mind when they consider change is put there because tactics like tense bargaining or decision making sessions, letter-writing campaigns, etc were too visually boring to be filmed by news cameras and thus never were.

Because we don’t have (much) film or video of the labored process of coalition building et al, the only thing many think of is just the most vivid/tangible/superficial/spectacle-feeding aspect that just so happens to be a fairly ineffectual. I mean, you want to have the ability to hold a mass demo when need be, but it’s like just one just aspect incapable of effecting change on its own without a full movement accompanying it, right?

It’s an understandable reaction, I figure, since every other aspect of (American) political culture is barely understood or discussed in the most simplistic and superficial ways, so why shouldn’t everybody without direct firsthand experience of movement-building fall back on the fun spectacle bit?

Brace Belden is interviewed on Moshe Kasher’s podcast about going off to joking the YPG to fight ISIS in Syria.

Hound Tall with Moshe Kasher - I Fought ISIS

<p>Imagine moving to Syria to fight ISIS with a Kurdish militia. You can’t? Well Brace Belden did just that and explains what the fuck he was thinking. With comedic guests: Janeane Garofalo, Todd Barry and Michelle Buteau. Recorded live at SF Sketchfest.

*joining the

Great pod, covers a lot of things don’t get a wide enough audience:

http://unmutetalk.podbean.com/e/episode-031-serene-khader-on-cross-border-feminist-solidarity/

Surprisingly good piece in the Nation:

White Anti-Racism Must Be Based in Solidarity, Not Altruism
-
Altruism is too often carried along by the currents of racist capitalism.

By Jesse A. Myerson
FEBRUARY 5, 2018
-
[...]
“The main lesson most whites absorbed from the Civil Rights Movement,” tweeted sociologist Crystal Fleming, “wasn’t that they have a personal responsibility to fight systemic racism but rather, that they have a responsibility to maintain a public appearance of being ‘non-racist’ even as racism pervades their lives.”

[...]

The baseline matters. Describing human rights as “privileges” uses destitution as the baseline. When people work from that baseline and treat every step above it as another “privilege,” we are affirming the right-wing idea that we naturally have nothing, that we have to ruthlessly compete just to get by. But when we talk of “universal rights,” the baseline shoots way up to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and freedom from want and fear. That is the life we all deserve; that is the life we are owed.

In the “privilege” framework, racist inequality induces white people to feel guilty, which produces inaction. In the “universal-rights” framework, it induces us to feel fury, which inspires action. No longer is it, “I feel bad for even thinking it, but thank goodness I don’t have it as bad as those who are worse off.” Instead, it becomes, “let’s get together and collect our due...”

Anger has never inspired anything in me other than helplessness and bad behavior towards loved ones, I don’t want to be motivated by guilt or fury, this is only slightly germane to the quoted excerpt but people who find anger motivating confuse and surprise me.

Righteous anger can help motivate to act

Yeah "cold anger" is the phrase some organizers throw around. With hot anger we act irrationally and misdirect it toward the wrong people. With cold anger we focus on what we can do to change the things that anger us.

this makes me wonder how much of activism is dispositional, bc I so often run into this distinct zealous political anger but v rarely amongst my friends. I'm with silby, not only do I not feel the anger, I find it offputting and draining to be around. it frequently has no correlation with injustices suffered personally and is more of a general righteous piety and I just don't trust it

There's a variety of experience in that regard, ofc. I'd argue that anger over injustice is tied to compassion, both rooted in a sense of inflammation about a fellow being harmed. The extent to which we can and do extend our circle of fellows to let ourselves be affected by the plights of others, and the extent to which that righteous inflammation becomes a self-serving identity tentpole in itself, will vary. It helps to be surrounded by others who stay rooted in meaningful action rather than expressions of indignation.

from an article about Ernie Cortes, who in my book is over and above Saul Alinsky as the guy who's figured out how to explain how to do this stuff:

When one woman asks him to explain how he “motivates” people to support a cause with actions as well as words, the storm rolls in. Cortés can scarcely conceal his impatience. “Perhaps I prejudge you unfairly,” he begins, “but when I hear your question, what I think you’re really saying is, ‘How can I convince people to do what’s good? How do I get them to do what’s right? How do I get them to follow my agenda?’ ” He pauses, frowning. “That’s not organizing. What I mean by organizing is getting you to recognize what’s in your best interest. Getting you to recognize that you have a child, that you have a career and a life to lead, and that there are some things that are obstacles to the quality of your life. I need to get you to see how you can affect those things through relationships with other people. And it’s only going to happen if you engage in some kind of struggle.”

He pauses to let it all sink in. “We organize people not just around issues, but around their values,” he says. “The issues fade, and people lose interest in them. But what they really care about remains: family, dignity, justice, and hope. We need power to protect what we value.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/39208/social-justice-ernesto-cortes-jr

h00s, my impression of you is that you're a happy warrior. in my tradition we venerate joy and marginalize anger. a 'cold anger' would seem to have merit over a 'hot anger' in that it can be better directed but ultimately 'coldness' is a problem and 'anger' of any sort seems to me to not create in the world the sentiments that we are seeking - even if it is somehow related to compassion/hope/joy it is not synonymous. i fear sometimes that the "pro anger" contingency is more concerned w/ justifying their own emotional turbulence as valuable than in actually seeking what is good. in general the celebration of negative/hurtful affect troubles me about the left in 2018.

not to take us too off topic but since i read this passage in w+p last night and it seems germane maybe i can share it here to some worthwhile end?

Talking of my family affairs he said to me, ‘the chief duty of a true mason, as I have told you, lies in perfecting himself. We often think that by removing all the difficulties of our life we shall more quickly reach our aim, but on the contrary, my dear sir, it is only in the midst of worldly cares that we can attain our three chief aims: (1) Self-knowledge—for man can only know himself by comparison, (2) Self-perfecting, which can only be attained by conflict, and (3) The attainment of the chief virtue—love of death. Only the vicissitudes of life can show us its vanity, and develop our innate love of death or of rebirth to a new life.’ These words are all the more remarkable because, in spite of his great physical sufferings, Iosif Alexeevich is never weary of life though he loves death, for which—in spite of the purity and loftiness of his inner man—he does not yet feel himself sufficiently prepared.

the context is too long to quote but Pierre has just advocated for his lodge to engage more with the politics of the people around him and they respond v poorly. his mentor is unsympathetic seeing his pupil's desire to change the world as an abdication of his obligation to change himself. which isn't to say that i see zero value in engaging the world to change it (or really i shouldn't be posting on this thread at all), but that certainly if our mission *is* to change the world around us and not just ourselves (and i believe it is), it must come from the right place entirely, selflessness and compassion that brokers no anger.

i fear sometimes that the "pro anger" contingency is more concerned w/ justifying their own emotional turbulence as valuable than in actually seeking what is good. in general the celebration of negative/hurtful affect troubles me about the left in 2018.

― Mordy, Thursday, February 8, 2018 3:32 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i share this

I had a long exchange on FB a few weeks ago with a young woman who accused me of exercising privilege by leaving Twitter (!) -- she, with her new-car-smell-fresh Twitter account, argued that by choosing to withdraw from the "stories of pain" people told on Twitter, I was just taking advantage of my white-presenting-maleness & cloistering myself from a world going to shit. I think I succeeded at explaining where I diverged from her view, but she seemed set on the idea that there's a righteousness in subjecting ourselves to the torrent of others pain and sort of bathing in the rage it induces, and I just think that's deeply unhealthy.

I think celebrating anger is the wrong move--but I'm not sure that makes disclaiming it the wisest move either. It's about the intentions and motivations that the anger's raw energy can be channeled into.

that is a bizarre argument re: leaving twitter. imo there is nothing bad about leaving twitter

This is a person who seems to revel in publicly sticking her finger in the eyes of people she thinks have affronted someone somewhere. She's harmed & hopeless--a difficult sort with which to make a real exchange.

She's going to fucking love Twitter then.

brratbrrat

*swish*

Nice lengthy history here getting into what happened to union organizing in the 70s and how that differs from the popular conception:

https://www.thenation.com/article/organized-labors-lost-generations/

she seemed set on the idea that there's a righteousness in subjecting ourselves to the torrent of others pain and sort of bathing in the rage it induces, and I just think that's deeply unhealthy.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, February 8, 2018 10:45 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

reminded me of this thread:

problem with taking twitter break for mental health reasons is that the granularity of information you see here can't be found anywhere else

— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) August 13, 2017

haha i faved that tweet at the time

nicely drawn history lesson at the nib today on 20th century black socialists & their relevance today:

https://thenib.com/black-and-red

and again, can't recommend Robin Kelley's Hammer & Hoe enough, which was one of last year's life-changing reads for me and is available online

Thanks for the link, that was good

http://progressivearmy.com/

Anyone know anything about this group? Legit? Astroturf? I feel like a couple of the staff names look familiar, maybe Ben Dixon?

Dixon used to be on the Ring of Fire Network & i guess this is his new thing, everybody out here starting their own podcast networks now what a world

the democratization of graphic design & brand conscious copywriting makes it impossible to tell the difference between actually resourced projects & shoestring distributed operations anymore which lets anyone at least appear credible which makes me feel insane

maybe not that new, started in 2015 says

As I remarked long ago, you could format Time Cube like a Medium post and it would seem pretty credible

hm

https://i.imgur.com/fhijc13.png

:o

Oh shit I love cheap Aussie sci-fi I'm in

new Electoral Strategy guide from Metro DC DSA

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pa9qqalJ6dqy4w6s_ts9ijVh5Yo27za2gvFExJ_Sm6s/edit

and hey while we're at it here's DC's Stomp Out Slumlords anti-evictions manual:

https://mdcdsa.org/content/Anti-Eviction-Manual.pdf

that is REALLY good stuff

a little disappointed that the "how to beat a landlord" section doesn't contain actual fightin' tips though :)

anger is an energy, claimed that punter John Lydon

I get sensitive when I see folks online complaining repeatedly about DSA and ”electoralism.”

It’s like, motherfucker, what else you GOT? It’s not the only hook that the chapters are staking their hopes on, and there’s shit-tons of other work done by the groups nationwide. All the electoral criticisms I see launched seem like refuse from either the early 70s when a thousand sects splintered or the early 80s when Harrington first formed the group.

They never seem to take into account that shit is materially way fucking different from 35 years ago where you had a Dem-controlled Congress and a vast majority of state houses held by Dems. That’s all gone. Need to carve out some room just to stave off the constant attacks.

I agree that there’s not a little bourgeois spectacle to American electoral politics, but at the same time, it’s seems like there exists a tendency just to use that line an excuse not to do anything. Hell, at least *try* in some of these races, esp in non-Dem strongholds, while you work on building power and coalitions elsewhere. DSA-supported candidates lost in Brooklyn and Seattle, but they sure as shit won in VA and AL.

Some of my comrades might disagree but I think their electoral strategy is sound and, as you say, just one plank of a broader movement-building strategy. Like one of the slates' docs said, falling prey to electoralism vs. having an electoral strategy is the key distinction to be drawn.

Yeah, I think that distinction gets flattened, and you get some held-over 90s political thinking where any and every attempt to go for any sort of power is to be violently scorned.

The time for that thinking is over, if it was ever valid.

loving the expansion of this campaign, and also this ad

Having an out tail light is one of the most common reasons people are pulled over. Unfortunately, in @miamidadecounty this is enough to get you deported. #Miami @demsocialists are here to fix your lights for free. @MiamiHerald @newtropicmiami @MiamiNewTimes @tomaskenn @GeoffMiami pic.twitter.com/A8WsVoByEB

— Miami DSA 🌹 (@MiamiDSA) February 19, 2018

Seeing a lot of these today (plus one on here too :))

Thank you Wayne LaPierre, you have said the right things to make me finally become a due paying member of @DemSocialists . Any group that is keeping you up at night must be doing the right thing. I look forward to receiving my card in the mail. @pghDSA keep me posted on meetups!

— Michael 🌹 (@nekorook) February 22, 2018

Coverage of the W.Va teachers: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/20955/west_virginia_teachers_strike_wildcat

that article's pretty light on research or quotes

Trillbilly Workers' Party did a special episode interviewing some of the teachers:

https://soundcloud.com/user-972848621-463073718/bonus-episode-voices-from-the-west-virginia-teachers-strike

and, predictably, Jacobin has a bunch of stuff on the strike.

The primary source of striking teachers’ dissatisfaction is the state’s meager offering of a “task force” to fix the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA), West Virginia’s health insurance program for public employees. Tax cuts have resulted in changes to the insurance plan, sending co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses through the roof as teacher pay remains among the lowest in the country. One projection shows premiums under PEIA rising as much as 11 percent per year starting in 2020.

“This has been a huge issue, causing problems for years,” said one striking teacher. “They’ve been cutting our health insurance over and over, making it really expensive to survive.” Throughout the strike teachers held signs that read “Will teach for insurance” and “I’d take a bullet for your child but PEIA won’t cover it.”

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/03/west-virginia-teachers-strike-medicare-for-all

Teachers looking with trepidation at Janus have much to learn from our colleagues in West Virginia. They didn’t passively wait for “the union” to act on their behalf; the strike was not called from above, it was built from below, in part through social media, where workers were able to organize escalating actions independent of the union leadership. As one striker told me, “Leadership was largely based on communities and not always directly tied to the unions themselves. Communities looked to local leadership as to what to do, how to organize, when to hold votes, and when to hold impromptu walkouts.” Workers need strong unions, but they also need to organize independently in the workplace and learn to rely on their own power. Building durable rank-and-file networks and union caucuses is a crucial next step in revitalizing American labor.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/03/west-virginia-janus-right-to-work-unions

and it only took a week

WV Teacher’s strike finally being covered on @chrislhayes show right now.

— MitchellCares (@MitchellCares) March 3, 2018

Oh no, is Slavoj exhibiting palsy symptoms like Jim Ross did 15+ years ago?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrSUGgfM4Q4

😘👌 h/t @kath_krueger pic.twitter.com/q8IO7z98XM

— alex (@shitshowdotinfo) April 6, 2018

This should be required listening imo:

https://player.fm/series/jacobin-radio-1354006/the-dig-dsa-at-the-ballot-box

The latest installment in our ongoing series on the left and electoral politics and we're talking about Democratic Socialists of America's new electoral strategy. DSA has almost overnight become a serious force on an American socialist left that has for decades lacked much in the way of serious forces. One of the major reasons the organization's membership rolls blew up, of course, was because of Bernie Sanders' historic 2016 run for president, which not only electrified huge swaths of the country but reminded the radical left that the point is to win power and to govern—and that, after years on the margins, we could do so. This was in part because many Americans were no longer afraid of the s-word: socialism. Yet there is still, for many good reasons, a lot of skepticism about electoral politics in general and the Democratic Party very much in particular, inside DSA and across the socialist left. That's the needle that the new DSA electoral strategy document tries to thread.

Dan’s guests are Renée Paradis, a civil rights and criminal defense lawyer (@ReneeParadis). She has frequently worked for electoral campaigns, including most recently as the National Voter Protection Director for Bernie 2016. Michael Kinnucan is a writer, researcher and activist in New York City. You should also follow him on Facebook, where he has a lively and incisive presence. Both are members of DSA’s National Electoral Committee and the organizing committee for NYC-DSA’s Brooklyn Electoral Working Group.

Michael and Renee are just scary smart, I feel like they are actually going to have a big impact on NY politics.

yeah, this is good. anyone who's interested in the possibilities and pitfalls of getting involved in US electoral politics should give er a shot.

Nice interview with Chokwe Antar Lumumba, mayor of Jackson, MS.

Gets into the limits of electoralism, Detroit, how to work around structural limits placed by the state of Mississippi & more.

https://www.blubrry.com/thedig/33478978/radicalizing-jackson-with-chokwe-antar-lumumba/

speaking of electoral strategy

DSA is proud to announce national endorsements for nine candidates who are running for local, state, and federal office. Congrats @KanielaIng @KareemForPA @Innamo @SummerForPA @zellieimani @GayleforCA @brandy4moco @chrisRwilhelm @DanielleMeitiv! pic.twitter.com/U9lGCeUiHO

— DSA 🌹 (@DemSocialists) April 26, 2018

Over in Iraq:

First female Communist elected in Iraq's holiest city calls for 'social justice'

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/female-communist-mp-heart-iraqs-holiest-city-1374412216

A nice post from Corey Robin:

pic.twitter.com/GBLfXYjYjR

— corey robin (@CoreyRobin) May 16, 2018

I hope we can start to retire the hope we can start talk! Go team.

good news out of SF

Prop F won. Tenants in San Francisco have power where they didn't before. Thank you to our 100+ volunteers. Thank you to our partners and allies. Read our press release here: https://t.co/Mv3imxqYsH

— DSA San Francisco (@DSA_SF) June 6, 2018

also the ranked voting system means Ron Conway didn't win, and all the ballot measure results look good

Really nice Nation piece here:

https://www.thenation.com/article/trumpism-its-coming-from-the-suburbs/

Gets into the history of American leftist organizing to show the need to incorporate antiracism for any movement going forward

I would love a HOOS' take on the Poor People's Campaign

https://theoutline.com/post/5009/poor-peoples-campaign-march-june-23?zd=1&zi=4vm7ynzb

I have complicated feelings about it.

My current workplace has done a lot of the back-of-the-napkin research work for it. They're not getting a lot of coverage of the DC protests and that's now become part of their messaging, which I know must feel like a necessary move for them but I think is a waste of time. My former workplace gave me a lot of experience with mass civil disobedience at the Capitol that the media basically doesn't cover, or say does human interest stories about without meaningfully discussing the issues.

Why isn't it getting coverage? In my view, it's because polite sit-ins on the Capitol steps aren't high enough on the sacrifice/disruption axes to either move people to action through empathy or literally disrupt any valuable targets. This morning some PPC campaigners walked past me on the metro platform singing and for just a few seconds my heart leapt as I thought they might be about to block this major train station, but then I realized they were just on their way to another day of speeches & ceremonial sitting & frogmarching & tedious processing paperwork.

I think the decentralized civil disobedience happening in various states is much more useful and powerful largely because civil disobedience arrests are not nearly so neatly stage managed by police outside DC, so neither escalation nor particular dramatic sacrifice is quite as required to garner local media eyes & opportunities to build active public support.

(the intercept link above doesn't note that we had over 1,200 arrests during our action--PPC has now officially surpassed that if you include their decentralized actions, which, more power to em, but dang i liked having that "i organized the largest civil disobedience action in a generation" on my resume)

thanks HOOS, always happy to get the skinny on what's happening out there

so AMLO won in México, the New Yorker had a profile of him and his campaign. The major question raised there is what his all- things-to-all-people campaign persona will become in office, I think.

I first learned about him on the El Chapo drama on Univision. felt bad for him on the show so I'm glad he won an election :)

wanted to share this reflection from a pal on the kind of personal spiritual benefits of organizing, and particularly the catalytic effect of momentum, the training institute & community i've learned organizing through:

Momentum helped guide me through a life-changing spiritual transformation and leadership change. I learned new tools and practices for my organizing work. But on a deeper level, I was able to sustain myself in hope for the first time in my organizing career. I was connected to a larger organizing community. I met a group of incredible leaders who played roles in movements and campaigns across dozens of issues. These relationships supported me in transcending the feelings of not belonging that I often felt in social justice spaces. I didn’t have to be a “good organizer” in the Momentum community. I could be my broken, complicated, whole self for the first time. And I finally had a theory of change that posited current political structures could be disrupted so that a more fundamental liberation would be possible. The training structure helped me to integrate this new theory of change experientially, through song and chant. I was making change on a spiritual level.

http://stillharbor.org/anchormagazine/2018/no-small-project

("my" momentum ofc is different from corbyn's momentum, funny that they share a name)

thx for sharing HOOS

there's a lot more nuts-and-bolts organizing/campaigning stuff in this long AOC interview than I've seen from her elsewhere

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/08/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-interview-democratic-primary

all y'all forriners are just copying the true socialist rush of #ruddmentum

For a deeply skeptical read on the current situation, the latest Trillbilly ep has you civered

One of them alleges that she removed DSA from a bio somewhere?

it is probably very healthy for me that my girlfriend is to my left--she's mentioned the bio removal also & insisted i listen to the same trillbillies ep lol

Simon H are you my girlfriend

omg plot twist

I'll never tell

Lookee that, TeenVogue talked to Ash Sharkar, and actually gave her enough space to describe leftist politics:

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/ash-sarkar-communist-called-piers-morgan-idiot

love that they included a direct PDF link to Marx's Fragment on the Machine

I’m glad you’ve posted this because I semi related want to say how angry I was at the number of British journalists uncritically rting this shit take:

Communism and Nazism are roughly as bad as each other, but communism gets treated as if it's a fun little eccentricity or youthful exuberance.

— Sam Bowman (@s8mb) July 16, 2018

following a week when:
- Trump gave an interview to the Sun and walked it back
- Steve bannon appeared on gmb (fawned over by Piers Morgan) and LBC (with Farage)
- Bannon then threatened the producer of the LBC show for giving him pushback
- Piers Morgan gave another fawning interview to Trump on his way out of the country

But sure, communism is the real threat here. Must be nice not having to worry about being on the sharp end.

Left out:

- Trump refused to take a q from Cnn and the press pack let that happen

https://photos.app.goo.gl/dATxKSqKxGCa8KpEA ILx what hast thou wrought?

Referring to this clown self identifying as a 'poptimist' obv https://twitter.com/s8mb

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/17/magazine/america-can-never-sort-out-whether-socialism-is-marginal-or-rising.html

AOC is getting a shit-ton of press

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/democratic-socialists-stage-a-summertime-comeback/2018/07/24/a28ae0da-8c1e-11e8-a345-a1bf7847b375_story.html

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/07/just-stop-worrying-and-embrace-the-left

admittedly I was wrong about this being a new york-centric thing, I underestimated the right's ability to create new hillary clinton/nancy pelosi-esque villains of any woman in politics

It’s wild this shit made it on NPR:

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/26/630960719/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-democratic-socialists-of-america

The BSA met with AOC for a little brush-up coaching

Electoral politics alone isn’t enough.

No politicians are accurately describing Socialism.@Ocasio2018 wanted to meet in person & let us explain why. We appreciate this at a time when many Leftist figures won’t even get on a call with us.

Our statement: https://t.co/RYkZiwscq8 pic.twitter.com/EygpHyNL8m

— Black Socialists of America (@BlackSocialists) July 26, 2018

Oh, and in case y’all were wondering...

She’s 100% ‘bout that human liberation life (confirmed).#ComradeAlex 💯 pic.twitter.com/VCEvJhEp6g

— Black Socialists of America (@BlackSocialists) July 26, 2018

Here’s their statement: https://blacksocialists.us/home/bsa-meets-aoc

i don't think it's "wild" that NPR are reporting on DSA at this late date but that is a decent piece. it's clear about some of their goals, it allows an adherent to articulate their moral vision, and it offers a specific example about why people are more receptive to this vision after being disappointed by 2016.

hey, that BSA stuff is very wholesome and cool

she's got teeth that will run the world someday

so uh who is the dead ringer for Malcolm X there

haha he says in the thread those glasses are "the same model and vintage from the same era"

yknow may as well

the BSA "opening statement" is essential, relatively brief reading for anyone who wants to get the left's apprehensiveness w/r/t/ "democratic socialism" and electoralism more broadly imho

er *"social democratic" I should have typed there

Leftist film youtuber Lindsey Ellis posted this(w/ the help of Natalie from ContraPoints)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFMiuAtbMO0

the BSA "opening statement" is essential, relatively brief reading for anyone who wants to get the left's apprehensiveness w/r/t/ "democratic socialism" and electoralism more broadly imho

― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Friday, July 27, 2018 4:21 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i like it but i don't really dig how it carries that sort of condescendingly written style of idk post-Fanon (??) stuff

Yeah, I know what you mean, but I think it's a strong summary of the concerns and a good reference for new entrants who are confused by skepticism towards electoralism

I'm not confused offhand but I don't really care to find out what people think the middle ground is between getting out the vote and arming the populace. Since nobody seems to be arming the populace.

I mean I can understand why an org might not care to focus on getting out the vote and do any number of other pressure moves but deriding "electoralism" as ineffective in bringing about change without proposing armed struggle doesn't do a lot for me.

Since nobody seems to be arming the populace

not quite true

https://socialistra.org/

the DSA-electoral leverage question re Cynthia Nixon

https://splinternews.com/the-democratic-socialists-of-america-s-cynthia-nixon-di-1827894468

pro-armed struggle tankies in the u.s. are deranged.

remember how well being armed worked as protection for the black panthers who were facing a much less militarized police force?

not even the jokers in the PLP who're actively organizing inside the armed forces think they're gonna beat history's greatest superpower through open armed insurrection tomorrow, though. if there's a benefit to organizing in the armed forces it's one that works just as well for strategic nonviolent conflict, namely that you're moving the enactors of institutional power to your side within the institution itself, building quietly towards a time when the right political crisis will allow for a cleave of leading elements away from the will of the institution. if you ask me, though, that's not what PLP types have in mind.

the memey joke answer to your post, jim, is a smiling picture of ho chi minh & a link to that bonkers pastebin about launching protracted people's warfare from the everglades

being armed seemed to work out pretty well for the Malheur occupation, wonder why

bonkers pastebin about launching protracted people's warfare from the everglades

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, July 27, 2018 12:30 PM (thirty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

beg your pardon?

retweets are not endorsements ok https://pastebin.com/FBRF3VhG

The struggle could begin with…establishing permanent camps in the swampiest, most isolated parts of the Everglades—areas seldom penetrated by tourists. This would not be difficult.

visionary

truly a "how many levels of communism are you on" document

Train the gators to be foot soldiers of the revolution

that is amazing

and like, the running bit on left twitter is investigating whether it's an extended joke or if there are actually like 3 dudes swimming through north florida right now with red hats on

in other news, this strikes me as a fair piece even if the people representing the no-endorse view are some of my least favorite online types

https://splinternews.com/the-democratic-socialists-of-america-s-cynthia-nixon-di-1827894468

Well, the Communist League of Tampa is a thing...

https://communistleaguetampa.org

Always nice to learn there are levels of online I'm not on

love too be in a popular front movement

https://i.imgur.com/yMgyu2K.png

i got invited to a friend's bbq on may day and thats when i learned they were down with PLP and im like GIRL nah (the copies of the challenge should've been my first clue)

yo did i ever tell you about the time a PLP "cell" in San Antonio (this is actually what they called themselves) invited me to join their underground cadre and i left because i was so weirded out

my pals invited me to a party and then not long after i got there like the music stopped and everyone turned to face me and my bud was like "well we should probably tell you, we invited you to a party, but really, we wanted to invite you to join the party" and i was like uhhh i'll think about it

ultimately i broke with them because i was weirded out but also my friend was like "the black panthers were racist" and i was like gtfo im an anarchist now

Wow A+

this is when i was barely 19 years old!! what a life

this should really go in the conservative opinions thread but the fact that a lot of young people are getting into leftist politics is great, but the amount of them - on the internet at least - who are getting into anti-revisionistt, marxist-leninism is a real downer

Way overrepresented online, imo

yo did i ever tell you about the time a PLP "cell" in San Antonio (this is actually what they called themselves) invited me to join their underground cadre and i left because i was so weirded out

my pals invited me to a party and then not long after i got there like the music stopped and everyone turned to face me and my bud was like "well we should probably tell you, we invited you to a party, but really, we wanted to invite you to join the party" and i was like uhhh i'll think about it

ultimately i broke with them because i was weirded out but also my friend was like "the black panthers were racist" and i was like gtfo im an anarchist now

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, July 27, 2018 6:24 PM (thirty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is there more than one PLP group in SA bc im pretty sure this is the same group.

or, there are some people who were probably still in it back then that are in it now

Wild!!

On a related note, there’s a nice convo here between Derick Varn and JM Colón about this stuff, like DSA as a leftist org, how civility norms can work to prevent things from sliding into Leninist shit, all the culty sects that form, and, at one point, Bordiga.

http://zero-books.net/blogs/zero/symptomatic-redness-jm-colon-on-the-dsa/

(Plus they do give my own show a shout-out late in the episode)

Leftist film youtuber Lindsey Ellis posted this(w/ the help of Natalie from ContraPoints)

Wish she hadn't gone for Adorno :/

I liked this, from the end of this profile of McElwee and the Abolish ICe movement:

The prospect that Abolish ICE will continue to figure prominently during the midterms has lead to angst among Democrats over whether the stance will damage them with swing voters. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 69% of Republican voters viewed the agency positively, while 63% of Democrats viewed it negatively.

“These activists have become incredible effective in forcing their issues to become litmus tests,” said one Democratic strategist working on several races the party is hoping to turn from red to blue. “We are in a weird position. We are all so certain we’re going to win that they are willing to ask for things no matter the jeopardy it puts candidates in.”

McElwee said that he thinks those fears have been overstated, and he will stake his future on midterm success. He requested that BuzzFeed News put this on the record: If the Democrats do not flip the House, he will stop writing about or engaging with politics.

“I think there has to be some sort of accountability, and I wish the people who supported the Iraq War had done this ahead of time,” he said. "If I’m that off in how I understand politics and my theories of change, I should just stop doing it.”

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stevenperlberg/abolish-ice-sean-mcelwee

I also wish the neocons had done that, but I don't think it's a good idea to stake your activism on whether some suburban Republicans finally stop voting like dickheads

the gingrich cohort were all about term limits until they got in power and changed their mind. when mcelwee says these sorts of things in a world which enforces no consequences on blatant hypocrisy and lies, there's no cause to trust him.

Man, this campaign advert from Michigan is a helluva thing:

Thousands joined @BernieSanders and I yesterday as we called for a government for the people, by the people.

We are #DoneWaiting for that to be a reality. Tomorrow, we make our voices heard.

Hop on the 📞 TODAY so we can cross the finish line strong: https://t.co/0jj6eg8bwG pic.twitter.com/xuidWG8DJ6

— Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) August 6, 2018

I hope he does well - right now he seems to be polling in third among the Dem governor candidates

he had a decent line about that: "it's true, i'm not polling well among people who answer land lines in the middle of the day. the people we're reaching don't tend to be those people."

that's a killer ad

*bernie sanders and me

I voted for him today

Oh fuck I have a pointless and controversy-free primary I’m supposed to vote in, guess I’ll have to go to the dropbox

Looking rough for El-Sayed with 3% in

xp I threw a pointless vote to socialist and audiophile Steve Hoffman, can’t bring myself to vote Cantrell in a primary and it’s better than voting Goodspaceguy.

cantwell

Goodspaceguy’s got a beard now!

See you next cycle, Al-Sayed.

Yeah, he's a born candidate. I daren't speculate yet just how much his name and religion hurt him.

On the plus side

BREAKING: Democratic Socialist @RashidaTlaib is the projected winner of #MI13. She will replace John Conyers and makes history on two fronts: she becomes both the first Muslim congresswoman and first Palestinian-American woman ever elected to Congress. https://t.co/g09MTbZ1gg

— Daniel Medina (@dmedin11) August 8, 2018

Counterpoint:

According to Israel lobby group ⁦@jstreetdotorg⁩, Michigan congressional candidate ⁦@RashidaTlaib⁩ supports “all current aid to Israel” – that means she supports the bullets & bombs used to kill Palestinian children and their parents in Gaza. https://t.co/TmvKfipDGx

— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) August 8, 2018

lmao calling JStreet an "Israel lobby group" as if it's not closer to JVP than AIPAC

Liz from Leeds is my nu-god

Last week when @AyoCaesar was on The Wright Stuff, Liz from Leeds rang in to explain communism and it was beautiful. 😍😍 pic.twitter.com/OJoCHicuey

— Novara Media (@novaramedia) August 9, 2018

novara crew are going to need a better line on the USSR etc. than that

Are they?

if only stalin had had more revolutionary zeal

I don't really think it's up to present-day communists to answer for past regimes any more than it is present-day capitalists' job to answer for [insert major war or other foreign misadventure of your choice]. It's a dumb line of argumentation.

I agree but that doesn't make no true scotsman arguments convincing

liz from leeds i luv u

made this while bored at work
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10160621854435304&set=a.98630175303&type=3

https://i.imgflip.com/2fzdto.jpg

Ha, is that from an actual Misfits show?

could be, I just wanted a tense/ambiguous image of a crowd of people so I GIS'd mosh pit photos

A+

Corey Robin in the NYT:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/opinion/sunday/what-socialism-looks-like-in-2018.html

It took Mr. Sanders to convince them that if tax credits and insurance exchanges are the best liberals have to offer to men and women struggling to make stagnating wages pay for bills that skyrocket and debt that never dissipates, maybe socialism is worth a try

What a ridiculous statement. You have miles and miles of distance to cover on the spectrum of re-distribution of wealth in America. How about exploring some of that before pursuing an entirely different economic system. If you're really serious about advocating something, which you have no evidence of being ever being succesful to a fraction of what you promise, then how about addressing the major inherent inconsistencies in the economic theory before deciding that "eh, it's worth a try"?

The socialist argument against capitalism isn’t that it makes us poor. It’s that it makes us unfree.

There are many arguments against and valid criticisms of capitalism. Expounding does in no way increase the merit of socialism. Marx had that drivel about the oh so terrible division of labor as well, but at least he put forward a more or less coherent theoretical base. How about starting there?

Socialism means different things to different people. For some, it conjures the Soviet Union and the gulag; for others, Scandinavia and guaranteed income

Denmark, Sweden and Norway are literally examples of how wealth generated from capitalist economies can facilitate strong social programs to ensure high living standards for everyone and people are actually using it as an example of why capitalism is bad?

Under capitalism, we’re forced to enter the market just to live. The libertarian sees the market as synonymous with freedom. But socialists hear “the market” and think of the anxious parent, desperate not to offend the insurance representative on the phone, lest he decree that the policy she paid for doesn’t cover her child’s appendectomy. Under capitalism, we’re forced to submit to the boss. Terrified of getting on his bad side, we bow and scrape, flatter and flirt, or worse — just to get that raise or make sure we don’t get fired.

This is written by someone with a degree in political science? What kind of argument is this?

an argument that sure sounds fucking effective if you've ever been that anxious parent

Cool sock Prof Friedman

And why do you need to abolish capitalism to fix it? You know there are capitalist countries where basically everything up to breast implants is 100% covered by the state, right?

Actually, in many cases, you can get public grants for breast enhancement surgery here in Denmark, so imma scratch that

we need to abolish capitalism because it's destroying the planet and can't be "fixed"

also, you're in the wrong thread, you want this one:

your terrible ideas

also, FP

what's with the proliferation of Danes

did Fred leave the back door open again?

why do you need to abolish capitalism to fix it?

Good lord, This is the reddest of red herrings. "Abolishing capitalism" is nowhere on the US political radar. the highest flights of contemporary US socialism extend no further than "Medicare for all", student debt relief, and some form of livable wages. There are minor rumblings about Universal Basic Income, but they are no larger than a tiny cloud on the horizon. Europe is also far from trying to abolish capitalism, afaics.

Simmer down a bit and try to address reality.

tbf my city council rep is on the record as in favor of nationalizing Amazon.com

european capitalism is good yo varying degrees capitalism isnt the problem tbh sorry

there's only one capitalism

~ bob marley

no point in a totalizing theory if it doesn't totalize

oh i enjoy the discussions dont mind me

I was addressing an article that was posted here that criticized capitalism. Not crony capitalism, not unhinged capitalism, not neo-liberalism, not corporatism, not the state of the american economy. Unless the NY Times is in its own bubble way left of the US political radar, how am I off target?

Aboloshing capitalism because of environmental concerns is probably the only valid argument, yeah.

just as well we're literally destroying the planet and it's the most pressing concern in the existence of the earth

an article that was posted here that criticized capitalism.

god forbid! we all know that capitalism is beyond criticism. btw, here is a direct quote from that article:

There’s not much discussion, yet, of classic socialist tenets like worker control or collective ownership of the means of production.

Someone tweeted that the Onion has moved to the left of Jacobin and it's all I think about when I see their political stuff now. https://t.co/KM69clgVAO

— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) August 27, 2018

god forbid! we all know that capitalism is beyond criticism.

Dude, i literally wrote in my initial post: "There are many arguments against and valid criticisms of capitalism". That doesn't mean that any unsubstantiated claim against it should stand unchallenged.

how am I off target?

By implying that abolishing capitalism was the point of the article you were responding to.

It’s an op-ed, it’s not going to be “substantial”

Capitalism has varying "iterations" but none, AFAICT, are sufficient to the task of the massive reorientation needed to circumvent climate catastrophe.

As soon as capitalism stops supplying me with cheap bup, it's in big trouble.

bup?

Fuckin' booze

lol I looked that up and the internet told me it was UK speak for "bread and butter" but I was pretty sure u meant booze

I don't think some of the colloquialisms of Dewsbury make it to Urban Dictionary!

hey have you guys ended capitalism yet

we've only just started this morning, jeez

ah, I heard some leftists were fighting about it and figured we were almost there :(

lmao "crony capitalism" doctor friedman you are unmasked

brony capitalism

It's good to know that in 2018, long after logins became required, people can still Google shit and randomly end up on ILX.

The marketplace of ideas, at least, still works.

This may be an opportune moment to note that I've been working my way through Jodie Dean's book The Communist Horizon since I stalled out with Donna Haraway in Anthropocene or Capitalocene.

The Dean book has 6 relatively short chapters, and so far I'm finding them alternately right-on on the one hand and decidedly Marx-apostate on the other. "Our Soviets" makes an interesting argument for a recovery of some of the Soviet legacy, "Present Force" is a dumb chapter that lays out communism as--you might guess--a present force. The next overlong chapter argues that 'the people' should replace the laboring class as the revolutionary subject, and sometimes I think she's onto something and sometimes I think she's just being another post-Marxist looking for a way to differentiate herself.

Next on the list is Radicals in the Barrio and How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America. Gonna be a substantive end to summer reading.

Also for people interested in doing & improving organizing work, I wanna highly recommend a couple biographies I read this year, of Fred Ross (who taught Cesar Chavez) and Bob Moses (who led SNCC in Mississippi). Social Arsonist is the Fred Ross book and the Moses book is Robert Parris Moses: A Life in Civil Rights and Leadership at the Grassroots. Both men with very compelling lives, both well written by people who aim to draw out the subjects' organizing methodology through biography. I learned a ton.

'The next overlong chapter argues that 'the people' should replace the laboring class as the revolutionary subject, and sometimes I think she's onto something and sometimes I think she's just being another post-Marxist looking for a way to differentiate herself.'

Isn't this basically just a variation of Maoism?

Support the National Prison Strike, y’all:

https://incarceratedworkers.org

By implying that abolishing capitalism was the point of the article you were responding to

Don't know what the point of the article is. The author clearly states socialists believe that those bleak realities are inherent to capitalist society. Doesn't that imply that you would have to get rid of capitalism to escape them?

Isn't this basically just a variation of Maoism?

― Frederik B, Tuesday, August 28, 2018 6:42 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah that's a way of thinking it -- she explicitly frames it in terms of our current conjuncture, that is "the super-wealthy" vs "the rest of us," but i think you're right to key into that

and like mao still held onto the importance of the laboring class as the movers of history but dean goes "actually this whole notion of an empirically delineable working class is a red herring in the age of networked capitalism where we're all producing all the time for various corporations extracting value from our posts online"

which imo is spurious

something to it but spurious

It kinda sounds like she's substituting socialist theory for just straight up anti-elitist populism, and using 'networked capitalism' as an excuse. I don't know.

usually marxists get mad when you suggest "the people" vs the rich as it deemphasizes the class relation implicit in worker v capitalist

ya when i realized that's what she was doing my notes in the margins became more and more incredulous

Obviously what the revolution needs is an even more abstract ontology of the status quo

I've often mentioned I've Got The Light of Freedom on here -- a friend uploaded an epub version here if you're into epubs. Easily the single most important book I've read.

Obviously what the revolution needs is an even more abstract ontology of the status quo

― faculty w1fe (silby), Tuesday, August 28, 2018 5:04 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i hear what you're saying here, but the question she's aiming to resolve is whether organizing the so-called working class (what's that? who's in it in 2018?) ought to be the project of those who aim for an egalitarian society freed of exploitation, or if where we are today suggests a different subject of that project

i don't think the question is a waste of time, and one finds lots of arguments within the labor movement about which sectors of the economy are properly 'strategic' to pursue organizing that can build labor-stoppage-power against capital, which in essence is the same set of questions in the more restricted vocabulary of unionism

aw hoos I'm at work and posting nonsense b/c I'm bored engaging in a strategic labor stoppage I didn't think you'd be all thoughtful and shit about my snark

always be stealing time

http://knowfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/steal-your-time-300x258.jpg

https://themilitant.com/2018/08/24/witch-hunt-by-liberals-against-trump-a-danger-to-workers/

who are these fucking racist morons

you have answered your own question

lmao trots

in my exp the kids tend to agree that the socialist workers party & their newspaper are not the leaders we need

as an IMT member the other trot tendencies just make me sad

(not that the IMT is beyond reproach but I generally find their analysis pretty sound)

correction: the SWP (The Militant is their paper) are apparently *former Trots*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Workers_Party_(United_States)

*throws up hands wildly*

On the challenges of organizing tech folks:

https://thebaffler.com/latest/which-side-are-they-on-banks

thanks for that ^^^ very relevant to my interests

fuck yeah bjoooorn

thanks to a HOOS for RTing this, a necessary response to the Nordic fetishism we're seeing in some circles

https://bostonpewg.org/2018/09/07/one-weird-trick-to-building-socialism/

every time somebody brings up sweden's immense amounts of paid work leave i'm like "how the fuck can you even do that"

for people interested in DSA infighting, the boston political education working group is doing among the very best countering work to both Jacobin's worse takes and the new _totally unaffiliated we promise_ DSA publication The Call which is totally a genuine DSA rank and file thing and definitely not a political vehicle for Jacobin's tendency inside of DSA, even if every link on their 'about' page goes to a Jacobin article

new publication BUILD, about ongoing grassroots basebuilding work across DSA chapters, is really fucking cool and inspiring

here's a PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzX2vTL0jLbedUZXX0lLTEY4eXRYX2JaNnBQaXdzc0RlV3Rr/view

Jacobin's been breaking new grounds in trash lately so this is a welcome development

I got a doorknock/canvassing visit from some guy last night telling me about the new DSA-endorsed candidate for Supervisor in my District. He's light-years better than the other candidates so my support is not even a question.

To be a little less opaque for folks who don't follow the factionalism, and hopefully not condescending to those that do, here's a breakdown of the internal stresses I'm aware of in the org rn:

- Last year at the convention there were several slates for leadership positions on the National Political Cmte, the national leadership body

- These slates as such no longer exist, but the names for the slates continue to be used for the tendencies they represented that are now basically factions

- "Momentum" and "North Star" factions lean heavily toward prioritizing canvassing as a tactic to pursue Medicare for All and electoral volunteer work, typically angling for the deliberate exclusion of other kinds of work. There are lots of people who think like I do, that Medicare for All is a necessary idea that we need grassroots work to win and that cold-canvassing ala Greenpeace-on-sidewalks is the stupidest possible nonstarter to build a serious campaign.

- In many chapters, like East Bay DSA or Philadelphia DSA and others, there have been allegations that Momentumites have aggressively gamed votes and other processes to ensure their agenda is the only one pursued. There's understood to be significant overlap between Momentum/NS and Jacobin--partly because much of what appears in Jacobin either argues in favor of Momentum positions or attacks positions held by Momentum opponents.

- Jacobin has rather plainly been used as a mouthpiece for views representative of Momentum faction while stridently maintaining they don't advocate for any faction--helping along this argument, now the new publication The Call appears poised to be the standard bearer that's inside the organization.

- Other tendencies & caucuses, generally those further to left (and so they call Momentum et al "the right" of DSA) are aligned in opposition to Momentum's approach as much as their politics. While Momentumites tend to hold that their priorities should be the only ones forcefully pursued by their chapters, opponents hold that simultaneous ongoing approaches within chapters, from M4A to work on housing to brake light clinics, are a good thing. These factions, like Refoundation (who's especially strong in Boston, hence Boston PEWG's strengths) or the LibSoc caucus (strong in the Pacific NW), are much more interested in the kind of base building work you see in the BUILD zine above, but don't make a concerted effort to block work by the opposing gang. That's where I tend to place myself, if anywhere.

Also a report was released yesterday regarding a long investigation of an alleged assault by an NPC member -- it's very damning of the org's internal dysfunction at the national level, and raises thorny questions about the leadership's approach to resolving this issue, even as it paints the accused in an unflattering light.

In solidarity with Billings #plaidshirtguy who was escorted off the risers after wearing a @DemSocialists sticker for 20 minutes. pic.twitter.com/wNH08GzMU4

— Billings DSA (@Billings_DSA) September 7, 2018

i...cant see the sticker?

HOOS do you think a formal DSA split is inevitable?

https://www.dsausa.org/weekly/identities-mistaken-where-the-rubber-meets-the-road/
Oh lovely

Naschek’s caucus opposed a reading group on Haider’s book and Naschek, as co-chair of the Steering Committee, then censured a committee of the Local whose members independently organized said reading group.

HOOS do you think a formal DSA split is inevitable?

― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Friday, September 7, 2018 8:47 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think rather than a split we're gonna see attrition; my gf often says that her fear is 'after we win medicare for all, DSA is over, all the 2016 new members go home'

I thought about that, but I dunno; it’s not like folks are going to be _less_ stressed by that point

fair! i don't tend to think things will unfold in that way either -- i think just the stream of amateurish administrative dysfunction plus legitimate political conflict is going to burn a lot of people out

xps all the tools in the toolbox, all the time, I don't trust any approach that valorizes/prioritizes/excludes

ya same

Also a report was released yesterday regarding a long investigation of an alleged assault by an NPC member -- it's very damning of the org's internal dysfunction at the national level, and raises thorny questions about the leadership's approach to resolving this issue, even as it paints the accused in an unflattering light.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, September 7, 2018 4:33 PM (forty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is also a perennial issue in local chapters, fwiw -- I've said this before but this is my number one hesitation about being involved. even without actual assault, I wish there was a way to get involved in this sort of thing while completely avoiding the bro/"dirtbag left" atmosphere*

* a perennial complaint, I've found, of women involved in this stuff throughout history

To be a little less opaque for folks who don't follow the factionalism, and hopefully not condescending to those that do, here's a breakdown of the internal stresses I'm aware of in the org rn:

I had to lie down with a hot towel over my face after reading HOOS's post

i would like to be organized but I only trust Hoos to do it

See here's a little hit of the madness --

East Bay DSA: hey guys here are our voting recommendations, make sure you vote *against* a measure that would levy taxes on million plus dollar homes to find affordable housing

Everyone Else: you what now

We try not to wade into internal DSA squabbles, but this is #actually appalling. Not really sure how you can claim to be a socialist and oppose raising property taxes to fund affordable housing. https://t.co/BTpSDbwLC0

— Stomp Out Slumlords! (@StompSlumlords) September 7, 2018

I’m anti-solidaristic with homeowners

“Nonprofit industrial complex” you mean the orgs that build and manage affordable housing units?! JFC

This is such a “how many levels of socialism are you on” thing it hurts my head

"to hell with the good, we demand the perfect and we want it now"

I don't even think that's the argument, sleeve, I think they're just betraying that they (this subcmte) have appallingly bad political instincts and don't really understand why it doesn't make sense for ex to use median home prices of all things as their determinant figure here.

Occupy Our Homes was a good reminder to me that middle class homeowners are not generally of the material conditions to be really radicalized in an otherwise humdrum period. It's the people who've got little already who have the most to gain and least to lose from demanding radical change -- to be a little reductionist for the sake of conversation, it's the very people who need access to affordable housing. And as a consequence, they ought to be the center of gravity in any political analysis around housing.

So this whole thing just stinks

thx for clarifying, that makes sense

jesus christ

Shortly after the convention, a friend warned me not to be alone with RL. A few months later, the person he raped reached out to me directly. I believe them. I started giving other people the same warning: don’t drink with him, don’t hang with him alone.

— allison (@allisongeroi) September 7, 2018

And as you may or may not have seen, Al is now the subject of a hit job by a friend of RL's about being a **government employee** engaged in a **political hit job** because she's a DOJ functionary by day. This fact about her has previously been ""exposed"" when Al was one of the main organizers of that first shaming of Miller at the restaurant.

And had this idiot writing this hit piece on Al had done a second's diligence (as if he's operating in good faith) he would have realized that Al is actually politically *friendly* to RL, and an *opponent* of the people this jackass claims engineered this "political hit job."

meanwhile..

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/08/john-mcdonnell-labour-proposal-workers-ownership-funds

xp

This is all heartbreaking to me to learn--RL and I go back to Occupy, and back then he resisted participating in a restorative justice process brought to him for a long time.

Ultimately he and the victim completed the process and worked together again and she spoke well publicly on his behalf afterwards, so I'd hoped behaviors like these were left in the past, tied to a time and place of great confusion and grief. Gutting that it's not the case. When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time I suppose.

I do think there's something to the point made that many of the behaviors coding as aggressive that people complain about in the report have at least something to do with RL as a loud & passionate & occasionally razor-sharp young black man. That this aspect of all this says something about the old guard & momentum folks low tolerance for those characteristics.

thanks to a HOOS for RTing this, a necessary response to the Nordic fetishism we're seeing in some circles

https://bostonpewg.org/2018/09/07/one-weird-trick-to-building-socialism/

― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Friday, September 7, 2018 3:32 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

socialists against owning the means of production 🤔

hyup

H/t to Hoos for pointing this out:

Students are striking at Mexico’s largest university, and elected a new Economics Dept

Striking students from the Economics Faculty at UNAM in Mexico City updated their department directory pic.twitter.com/bhRA3IuYZr

— Haymarket Books (@haymarketbooks) September 7, 2018

Excited for new season of walking dead

Excited for new season of walking dead

Coordinador de Revolucion Permanente made me lol

I like the fact that the second best university in Mexico costs 200% of the average national salary per year in tuition and the best university in Mexico costs nothing - though both are great tbf.

New Socialist is publishing a series on how Labour could / should create a bolder policy set, which might be interesting.

https://newsocialist.org.uk/tag/beyond-the-manifesto/

The whole RL thing is uncomfortable for me, or an example of a larger discomfort I feel when women I don't know are tweeting about men I don't know via secondhand accounts from other women I don't know, because I do feel inclined to believe the women, but I also don't know what context might be missing, whose agenda might be in play, etc. Occasionally there are cases where an accusation without its context can seem like more than it is. I'm leaning toward believing that is the case for Keith Ellison, for example, although I honestly don't know.

re thread title, i don't think this ostensible news feature (not an op-ed) would have been published in the NYT even a year ago (it still wouldn't be published as an op-ed!)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/magazine/americans-jobs-poverty-homeless.html

Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the Solution to Poverty. They’re Not.

Unemployment is down and jobs are going unfilled. But for people without much education, the real question is: Do those jobs pay enough to live on?

American workers are being shut out of the profits they are helping to generate. The decline of unions is a big reason.

e.g.

Democrats may scoff at Republicans’ work requirements, but they have yet to challenge the dominant conception of poverty that feeds such meanspirited politics. Instead of offering a counternarrative to America’s moral trope of deservedness, liberals have generally submitted to it, perhaps even embraced it, figuring that the public will not support aid that doesn’t demand that the poor subject themselves to the low-paying jobs now available to them. Even stalwarts of the progressive movement seem to reserve economic prosperity for the full-time worker. Senator Bernie Sanders once declared, echoing a long line of Democrats who have come before and after him, “Nobody who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty.” Sure, but what about those who work 20 or 30 hours, like Vanessa?

etc.

Horatio Alger has a lot to answer for.

I've also been thinking about those Marx and anarchism explainers in Teen Vogue. They've obviously decided that these sorts of pieces, which go well beyond a simple "woke" rebranding, are a good investment, and that's as solid an indication of the broadening appeal of far-left politics as you're likely to find.

ya hiring extreme metal writer & union organizer kim kelly as a columnist made me go 'oh here we fuckin go'

(the anarchist piece was a column of hers!)

Yeah I don't like anarchism that much but it was still cool to see

after the NY elections tonight i look forward to the new media narrative that socialism is over/is victorious over all

— September Tweets (@bombsfall) September 13, 2018

the main reason I'm pretty sure Nixon won't win is because it would just be too sweet to see the entire mainstream political and media class proven utterly wrong. I don't think we get to have anything that enjoyable. I really hope I'm wrong

Simon, just thinking out loud here, but there might be another reason why people who think the opposite of you are rarely proven wrong...

i'm voting for nixon/williams/teachout after work today and boy am i going to enjoy it

Because there's a huge amount of capital (in every sense) helping to ensure the undesired outcome, so that tends to be a safe bet? I'm aware of that thx. xp

nixon/williams/teachout

if the whole election thing doesn't work they should start a prog supergroup

God, Zephyr Teachout is such an awesome name. I never get over it

Vote suppression in @NYGovCuomo's New York: a thread.

— Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) September 13, 2018

Seeing a *ton* of reports of Dems purged from voter rolls, well beyond that thread. Lots of people filling out provisional ballots.

Last one:

.@NYCMayor says his son Dante brought his registration card to poll site and still had to use affidavit ballot. "He was holding the card from the board of elections that they sent to him — perfect evidence of his registration… and they told him he couldn’t vote on the machine."

— Yoav Gonen (@yoavgonen) September 13, 2018

https://organizingupgrade.com/how-can-the-left-participate-in-electoral-campaigns/

honestly this thread was refreshing to read

y’all need to stop being so fucking positive rn. you *lost*. salazar won and everyone else *lost*. you cannot keep saying you won when you lost. this is an indictment of electoral strategy against entrenched powerful machines with no base in communities. get serious.

— FUCK AMAZON colleen @ SPX W42A (@colleentie) September 14, 2018

Who is the “y’all” in that tweet?

Some other people on Twitter I assume

yeah "y'all" is the NY left-twitter echo chamber which has been (AFAICT) resoundingly upbeat

But if she’s referring to the statewide races, I agree to an extent. It’s notable that Williams, who had a history of organizing and organizing support in his district, way outperformed Nixon and Teachout who are basically celebrity candidates with “the right politics.”

It’s also just really fucking hard to oppose Cuomo statewide though, and organizing statewide is a different game than organizing a single mostly walkable state senate district.

from personal sources i kinda think the nixon campaign basically shit the bed upstate

I do wonder how much Bernie would have helped move the needle if he'd endorsed her - though I can think of a half-dozen reasons (some good, some...less good) he opted not to. It wouldn't have been enough to change the result in any case

i mean from a downstate POV she shit the bed upstate

FWIW I can also say from personal knowledge that a shitton of organizing and boots-on-ground hard work went into knocking off most of the IDC candidates (the dems that caucused with the Republicans, with Cuomo's blessing), and that that work has been going on for well over a year.

Also I have heard from people involved in Teachout's past campaigns that she's not great at campaigning outside of her natural demographic.

probably the ideal situation is combo of incredibly charismatic candidate with a lot of media attention AND intense boots-on-ground organizing (e.g. AOC)

Yeah, the IDC result seems positive? This made me smile as well: https://www.vox.com/2018/9/13/17854554/andrew-cuomo-new-york-president-2020-no

my line about him is that he thinks he's bulletproof but really he just buys up all the bullets

all but two of the ex-IDC people are gone, which is great. If dems can actually pick up a couple seats from republicans, some shit can really get done. Of course, who knows whether Cuomo will find some way to buy off a few of the anti-IDC winners -- a couple of them, like Alcantara, were actually pretty progressive when they got elected.

You've all definitely watched NY politics longer than I have, but couldn't the result also not might put off Cuomo and other Dems from repeating what the IDC did? I mean, a couple of them did get reelected, and reading about Simcha Felder, he seems to be from a pretty conservative district anyway, but it seems like it would be a political miscalculation to move towards - and past - the middle again.

Presumably he does it with money. xp

Did the joint caucus control the chamber? Would it presumably flip to the real Democrats if no seats change parties?

What is the story with the IDC? Why are NY state Dems so cozy with Republicans?

Asking as someone who is very unfamiliar with NY politics. That whole situation is pretty baffling to me.

Does it just boil down to whole-scale corruption? Or is it part of long-term political/cultural trends in NY?

The IDC did disband a while back I think, but another Dem called Simcha Felder caucused with Republicans as well. He cleared his primary challenge. So Dems need to flip a seat.

Reading up on it on Wikipedia, and it's kinda incredible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Senate#Recent_history It's been a ten-year debacle.

The IDC "disbanding" was meaningless imo, it was a late game maneuver to try to save their seats.

I don't feel any simcha about felder winning

What is the story with the IDC? Why are NY state Dems so cozy with Republicans?

Asking as someone who is very unfamiliar with NY politics. That whole situation is pretty baffling to me.

Does it just boil down to whole-scale corruption? Or is it part of long-term political/cultural trends in NY?

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Friday, September 14, 2018 11:22 AM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's complicated. Even people familiar with NY Politics have trouble fully explaining it, but Cuomo very much enabled the situation and yes there is definitely corruption involved.

Simcha Felder's district is gerrymandered such that no one could beat him except probably another orthodox jew (BTW, that gerrymandering is ALSO enabled by Cuomo!)

BTW, not all the IDC members were conservative dems. Alcantara (who rightfully lost last night) was a left-wing activist and organizer who backed Bernie. But, according to her, the mainstream dems wouldn't meet with her when she wanted to run for state senate. In swooped Jeff Klein, who offered her money for her campaign (some of which comes from pretty sketchy sources). She basically sold out without fully realizing that she was selling out, imo. In her mind, this was a way to give progressive latinx groups a seat at the table, but the larger effect was to make sure republicans controlled the state senate and most of the progressive agenda couldn't get passed. Nonetheless, she had to be pushed out as a result of making this alliance. Who you take money from and who you align with matters, not just what's in your heart.

I mean, if I had to sum it up, I'd say the IDC was a creation of moneyed-interests with the support of Cuomo who wanted a bulwark against the naturally left-leaning tendencies of the state's polity. It was a clever way to reduce the otherwise natural power of progressive dems in the state legislature. I'm sure it won't be the last device of its kind.

Simon, just thinking out loud here, but there might be another reason why people who think the opposite of you are rarely proven wrong...

― Frederik B, Thursday, September 13, 2018 3:29 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

god fuck off

maybe if we duct tape you to a ceiling your blithe condescension will actually have a reason to sound like it's from on high

lol

I'll help

Haha

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/ubkngrbgbh8phpsy3rtf.jpg

See? Look, you can post!

(Also, it’s freaky that that image is now _16_ years old.

https://compete.kotaku.com/15-years-later-heres-why-a-gamer-was-duct-taped-to-a-c-1796679499)

Meanwhile, a couple local libertarian types decided to roll up on the DSA happy hour earlier this evening

(I think this is a first as the social events tend not to get trolled)

In an uncharacteristic show of strength, both libertarians in Portland showed up to crash our happy hour 😂😂😂. 2 of them showed up to support free markets; over 50 of us showed up to support free people. pic.twitter.com/V0FuFZtX2M

— DSA Portland Oregon (@PortlandDSA) September 15, 2018

Email in from DC DSA steering committee that O'Keefe is likely to release another Project Veritas vid soon targeting DSA DC members that are fed bureaucrats

Fun!

hooooo boy

how is that dude not in jail

I’m guessing that means they’re going after Allison then

DSA strikes me as a much lower value target than Planned Parenthood or Acorn. Maybe he’s a little desperate.

hyup xp

The new Tribune looks interesting:

https://tribunemag.co.uk/relaunch-preview

Some excellent contributors.

ah look its my twitter TL in the culture section #proud

https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2018/09/18/22990739/burgerville-employees-go-on-strike-on-national-cheeseburger-day

Interesting tactics

Good comments from Spain's Borrell

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/19/donald-trump-urged-spain-to-build-the-wall-across-the-sahara

into this piece

https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/9/18/17876024/mcdonalds-strikes-walkout-me-too

I’m guessing that means they’re going after Allison then

― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Tuesday, September 18, 2018 6:16 AM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Allison of DC DSA was fired this week

https://www.gofundme.com/activist-fired-for-protesting-trump

Yup, was just about to link that:

And if you don't know why you shouldn't lose any sleep over someone yelling at Secretary Neilsen this should clear that up. https://t.co/Lzl7tmcwdK https://t.co/YD6tWNi6zs

— Charles, Star of MicDicta (@Ugarles) September 25, 2018

If you can, please donate to my friend @allisongeroi, she was one of the super brave protestors who shamed DHS Secretary Nielsen in public, and got fired from her job for it months later https://t.co/r3SB51Z3Wr

— hell woods (@floozyesq) September 25, 2018

Pretty into these two short articles, one presenting a taxonomy of the current US left, and a second that responds to the first.

https://theleftwind.wordpress.com/2018/05/13/the-us-left-has-only-four-tendencies/

https://theleftwind.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/how-many-tendencies/

From the second, which of the two I prefer:

regardless of all protestations to the contrary, the US left owes more to the period between Occupy Wall Street and Blacklivesmatter than it does to the Russian or Chinese revolutions. While we may ideologically claim adherence to any historical movement we wish, practically a movement is limited by the organizational makeup and strategies of the movements that came before it. We may do what we want with this body we have, but sadly we have inherited our skeleton.

What we must understand about this skeleton the left has built on is that, as opposed to the 50s, the 30s, or the 1910s, the current era of radicalism is coming from an incredibly narrow range of organizations. Activist orgs and intellectuals were the two forms of activism which predominated on the left, with some interplay between these two groups and electoral advocacy. In terms of what union work there was, it was scant and often guided one directly into the nexus of liberal organizations, and as for mutual aid, it was often focused on supplying the milieu with half-molded bread.

This came to a peak at Occupy, and after that the slow collapse of the left of the Oughties became a far more rapid process. In its place we began to see a series of different tendencies, marked by their shared oppositions to what they viewed as the failures of the last decade. But these new tendencies did not spring up completely new; they were built on the organizations that existed before them. This led to a strange interregnum: the left was increasingly disgusted with itself after Occupy but its reactions could only manifest through the same kinds of organizations as the ones who produced Occupy. A kind of magical thinking arose, where replacing the seemingly mundane forms of organizing associated with the anarchist left with some other form would lead to immediate success.