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

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