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

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