Monthly Newsletter of the Rochester Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America

At twenty-eight pages, this is our largest issue of Red Star yet. We appreciate the exchange of ideas taking place on our pages—conversations between reader and author that dialectically shape the trajectory of the socialist movement. May we be a centripetal force which unifies the working class against the repression of capitalism. This month, our pages include a re-fletion on ROC DSA’s platform, a warning against conspiratorial thinking, thoughts on the manipulation of revolutionary art, and more.

The post Rochester Red Star | April 2025 (Issue 12) first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

“Agitation” is a term regularly used in the context of organizing and socialist politics. But what does it actually mean? 

I’ll keep it simple. Agitation means making someone angry.

Anger is often painted as irrational, a primitive reflex that should be suppressed in favor of a cool and objective analysis. But to be overcome by anger because of the cruel actions of the ruling class under capitalism is actually very rational. How else is one supposed to react to the barbarism that is unfolding every day in Gaza, or to ICE kidnapping immigrant activists off the street, or simply because your boss is an asshole who exploits and humiliates you day in and day out? 

Feeling your temper flare up just at the mention of those topics? Consider yourself agitated. 

Trying to assuage anger is not only a losing battle, it’s counterproductive. Anger can certainly lead to reckless behavior. Ever see someone get so mad they punch a wall? Anger is a deeply powerful emotion, and through organizing it can be channeled into effective struggle. 

Socialists affirm righteous anger and direct it towards those who are actually responsible for its causes. The Right also affirms anger, but then through deceit they direct it away from the ruling class and towards a scapegoat, whether it’s immigrants, trans people, Black people, “woke”; any “other” will do. Liberals do this too, usually to cover their own ass, directing blame for their failures at the masses for being “dumb” or “lazy”. Some on the left adopt a similar persuasion. 

As socialists, we aim our fire squarely on the boss, on the capitalist class, and on the politicians and institutions that uphold and defend the ruling order that is the cause of so much suffering.  Our task is to uncover “the innermost secret” of our society, “the hidden basis of the entire social structure”, as Marx described it. That is, we must uncover the fact that our entire economic and political system depends on the exploitation of those of us who must “work for a living” by those we are forced to work for. We must make this conflict and its irreconcilable nature well known and understood.

This is not easy. The ruling class has erected a vast “superstructure” designed to veil this conflict. Socialists will find themselves constantly running up against the kind of “common sense” that is doctrinaire in our society, whether it’s “work hard and you’ll get ahead”, “poverty is a choice”, or “politics is about making compromises”. This is why it’s generally unwise to immediately dive headfirst into ranting and raving about the evils of capitalism, as right as you may be. More often than not you’ll just come off like a crank.  

“Anger is often painted as irrational, a primitive reflex that should be suppressed in favor of a cool and objective analysis. But to be overcome by anger because of the cruel actions of the ruling class under capitalism is actually very rational.“

Agitation is the bridge. Most workers already know they’re being fucked over. Start there. 

Many workers are taught to have low expectations. Many will blame themselves for their troubles. This is when you start asking questions like, “do you think things are going to change without action?” or simply “do you think it’s right that the boss treats you like shit?” 

Part of agitation involves challenging others to overcome apathy and commit to action. You frame the choice. “Do you want to keep on doing nothing and accept that this is how things are going to be, or do you want to organize and fight for something better?” This is usually followed by a long silence. It’s uncomfortable, but don’t break it.  

There’s agitation in the context of an organizing conversation at work, but there’s also “political agitation” of the kind that a socialist organization like DSA engages in. The same principles apply as if you were agitating around a workplace issue, except the target is not the boss but their political representatives. 

Take for example recent Chicago DSA social media posts criticizing Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, whether over his plan to cut healthcare funding for immigrants or his veto of the Warehouse Worker Protection Act. These posts don’t just relay information; they are meant to elicit anger, and if they’re effective they’ll do so from all sides. After all, if liberals don’t complain when you rightfully point out the way a Democratic Party leader is failing the working class, then are you really agitating? 

Like with agitation at the workplace though, political agitation needs to be skillful to be effective. Hysteria is a turnoff. Be measured and direct. This is what is happening. These are the consequences. Ask: do you think this is right? 

At its core, political agitation is the simple act of asking “whose side are you on?” Socialists declare ourselves on the side of the workers and we condemn whomever is on the side of the boss, be it Democrat, Republican, or even “progressive”. This will ruffle some feathers. But we should not concern ourselves with naysayers who try to justify acquiescence to our class enemies. 

Most people don’t have deeply held or entirely coherent politics. But most people can smell bullshit from a mile away. This is why so many people view politics as a sham and a waste of time. If we want to have any chance at linking socialism with the working class, we can’t afford to get lumped in with the kind of two-faced hacks that dominate the political class. We must always take a stand, and we must always be agitating. 

The post Understanding agitation  appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

Why Recruit?

DSA members have by this point seen that present political events mean a lot of people are finding their way to our organization on their own. Indeed, since the beginning of September 2024, DSA Cincy has grown by nearly 100 members-representing ~33% growth from September 2024 to the end of March 2025. While we have developed an onboarding system, most of this actual recruitment has been fairly passive, from people who learned about our organization or who finally joined due to external events. So why should we do active recruitment?

• We want to not just be influenced by history, but to influence it. If we rely primarily on external events to determine our rise, fall and success, and don't take seriously developing our own power to win and change the world, we won't amount to the political force we would like to be in the US.
• The more relationships we develop in DSA, the more power we have. Every person who joins DSA isn't just one more member or volunteer-they're a person with a wealth of social relationships and history with people, and the more of these social networks we bring into DSA, the stronger our organization can be in our larger society.
• It develops our own organizing skills. Being able to have an organizing conversation and make direct asks are core skills for any organizer. This applies at all levels of campaigns and efforts, be it asking someone to sign a petition, or to join an organizing committee at your workplace. And every organizing conversation we have is a learning opportunity for ourselves to do better with the next one. Take the chance, make the ask, and learn from each one for next time!
• Direct recruitment asks work! One of the largest membership bumps in DSA history was the 100k recruitment drive in 2020, where chapters across the country recruited thousands of new members to DSA. Direct asks to the people in our lives who should be involved work, we just need to make the ask!

Recruitment Steps

So you've been persuaded-it's worth asking people to join DSA! How do you get started doing this? There are many different approaches, but one that's pursued by many different campaigns is shared below:

1. Make an initial list of at least five people to recruit. Notably, this list does not have to be restricted to people who have described themselves to you as socialists. Instead, think of the people in your life who have been sympathetic to socialist demands in your life. The family member who told you they voted for Bernie in 2020, the coworker who opposes the genocide of Palestinians-anyone who you've had a positive conversation about politics with in this vein is worth talking to!
2. Open a positive conversation on your shared values and vision for the world. Many leftists open up conversations about politics with the unorganized by starting with the problems. Unfortunately, opening with this framing often leaves people feeling hopeless to resolve those problems and unwilling to commit to action. Instead, open with shared socialist political values that you both have in common.
3. Spend most of your time listening. A good organizing conversation does not look like you delivering a speech to the other person-it looks like you listening and genuinely engaging with their thoughts and concerns about the world.
4. Channel towards a positive solution-DSA. After your conversation has touched on the things you both care about and what the other person is thinking about, talk about DSA and our efforts to build a mass organization that is able to fight for the things we care about. Share why DSA matters to you.
5. Directly make the ask. In any recruitment conversation, it is of the utmost importance you directly ask the other person if they will join DSA. You aren't imposing, anyone has the power to say yes or no as they wish, but many people don't realize joining is an option, or are waiting for implicit permission to be invited in. Give it to them!
6. If they say yes, walk through signing up with them. Sometimes people say yes, the conversation moves on, and by the end both have forgotten to take the step of actually filling out the join form. Make sure to show them the join page (link provided here), and walk through the form with them step by step!
7. Know your follow up. Whether you get a yes or no, it's good to make sure they know about other actions and events coming up you think they'd be interested in. And if they're unsure, a good event could be enough to change their minds. Make sure you know your follow up ask, whatever it is!

Last week, the Maine Coalition for Palestine organized a protest of ICE detention of Columbia University student leader Mahmoud Khalil. Since then, ICE has operated as the Trump Administration’s secret police, abducting a growing number of immigrant organizers for exercising their right to free speech and protesting the U.S.-sponsored genocide in Gaza. The list includes Rumeysa Ozturk, Yunseo Chung, Badar Khun Suri, Momodou Taal, Ranjani Srinivasan, as well as farmworker organizer Alfredo Juarez Zerefino. Maine DSA member and Portland District 2 City Councilmember Wes Pelletier spoke at the Portland Mahmoud Khalil protest and DSA chapters around New England issued a joint declaration reprinted below against the ICE abduction of Rumeysa Ozturk.

***

New England DSA chapters demand freedom for Rumeysa Ozturk

Yesterday, ICE agents abducted Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student and pro-Palestine activist at Tufts. 

The kidnapping comes after almost 400 ICE arrests in Massachusetts, as well as the doxxing of Ozturn by the pro-Isreal website Canary Mission. 

ICE’s abductions—of Ozturk, Khalil, and many others—is an unprecedented attack on basic civil rights in the name of U.S. Empire, whether those detained are peaceful political activists or undocumented migrants seeking safety, jobs, and a better life. 

We must stand up against this brazen attack on Palestine, free speech, and the right to protest.

We must stand in solidarity with our neighbors and communities under attack from Trump, ICE, and all agents of imperialism. 

Governor Healey, the courts, and the Democratic Party establishment are not coming to save us—we must mobilize, agitate, and organize in our workplaces and campuses to defend working-class rights. 

In Solidarity,

Berkshires DSA, Boston DSA, Boston University YDSA, Cape Cod DSA, Connecticut DSA, Maine DSA, Northeastern YDSA, River Valley DSA, Simmons YDSA, Southern New Hampshire DSA, Upper Valley DSA, Worcester DSA

[Listen next: Maine DSA podcast on Bowdoin College Gaza encampment]

Wes Pelletier speech at March 18 rally for Mahmoud Khalil in Portland

I’m here to lend my voice to everyone here to call for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil who was illegally detained and is facing deportation. This is part of a sadistic assault on working-class immigrants across the country. It’s part of a broader attack by this administration. In fact, the attack has been going on for a long time, but there’s also something new. This casual separation of families, this destruction of Black and Brown lives has been going on for years but what’s new is that the veneer is off, the idea that these are not white supremacist policies has fallen away. We now have a government that is hell bent on creating fear and uncertainty among everyone.

These are obviously very frightening circumstances. We’re facing a clear and present danger, but it’s also an opportunity. We have a lot of people who are not used to the machines normally reserved for others now turned on them. Yes, it’s scary, but there is an opportunity for solidarity. That solidarity does not come automatically and it’s going to take a lot of work. We need to do what’s right. Meanwhile, the liberal institutions that we count on, the Democratic Party and universities like Columbia are immediately acquiescing to fascism and it’s creating this vacuum.

So we need to turn to each other. Here’s what I’m asking everyone here to do. You need to create community, to build organization. You need to find and join an organization that’s got clear rule and decision-making structures that are democratic so you can create organizations that can help tackle these problems. The time to quibble over small differences has passed. We need to come together against a unified enemy. We need to unify to win this fight. We also need to come together in our communities. We need to go out and knock on neighbors’ doors and join community gardens and create tenant unions and more. This is the kind of community that will protect us because fascism thrives on fear of our neighbors. That’s something we see over and over. They want people to be afraid of the people around them. The poor people, Black and Brown, so you will support the people who will crack down on them. We need to create networks to resist that.

This moment is ours. It’s an opportunity even if it’s dangerous. We’re on the precipice of something, but we can get through this. We can create a stronger, more agile, more powerful working class that’s made up of everyone. We will have something bigger if we do it. So I call on you to contact your representatives, even if I don’t know that they’ll do anything! But it’s good to at least be a pain in their asses.

But more than that, get involved in local politics. Call on Mayor Dion, call on the city manager to stop slow rolling a bill that will prevent police from collaborating with ICE. That’s been kept off the agenda for months. Call the sheriff to end the Cumberland County Jail’s contract with ICE. Get involved at every level of your local government because it feels like something where you can feel your own agency. Together we can effect change in our state, in our county, in our towns. And it creates power and it creates community and it creates resistance. I appreciate you all for coming out tonight. Free Palestine!

[Read next: The method to Trump’s Medicaid cut madness]

The post New England DSA protests ICE detentions appeared first on Pine & Roses.

If you’re reading this, you (hopefully) agree that housing is a human right. The Democratic Socialists of America support Housing for All as a main tenet of the national platform, ultimately demanding public housing for all, housing relief and rental protections for all, and abolishment of homelessness (DSA, 2024). While rising housing costs dig deeper and deeper into our pockets, many of our community members continue to find themselves experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness. Colorado Springs shamefully attempts to combat homelessness with their four shelters, known for their ever changing rules, poor food supplies and abhorrent shelter conditions, thousands of unhoused folks go without a place to sleep each night (Pikes Peak Continuum of Care, 2024). With this unforgiving system, too many people are left to fend for themselves while being forced to live on the streets. So, how do we move towards making housing equitable and accessible to all? The Housing First Model may provide some guidance towards eliminating homelessness, along with insight as to the external catalysts and systems that create the circumstances for homelessness to occur.

The Housing First approach provides no-questions-asked housing to those in need, while also offering (yet not requiring) practical support such as guidance in applying for state benefits, financial planning education, substance use cessation assistance, mental health counseling, and job training. A Housing First approach to homelessness and homelessness prevention is based on the idea that housing is a human right. The Housing First Model eliminates any requirements or stipulations that many conventional renters and landlords impose before someone is granted access to housing. By providing housing or rental assistance absent of prerequisites, people are able to focus on things that can help them maintain stable and permanent housing, such as: finding employment, pursuing education, tending to mental and physical health, exploring sobriety and engaging with community. The Housing First model is thought to be beneficial as several studies show that supportive services are more effective when the person offered services willingly participates (Housing first, 2022). In turn, folks in Housing First programs have reported significant personal benefits such as an increased sense of autonomy, choice, and control (Housing first, 2022). This humanistic approach to housing can allow those experiencing homelessness the space and support to thrive in life on their own terms, rather than focusing all of their energy and capacity into surviving.

Housing first is not only a compassionate approach to preventing and eliminating homelessness in our community, but it provides economic and social benefits as well. In Colorado Springs, it costs approximately $58,000 to provide services such as shelter, police, fire and medical emergency services to 1 chronically homeless person each year (City of Colorado Springs, n.d.). According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness (2022), cities can see a yearly savings of around $23,000 per person housed in a Housing First program. These programs also lessen the social costs of homelessness: by utilizing Housing First programs and principles, we can dismiss the city's desire to hire more police and prison personnel, lessen the strain on emergency services like hospitals and emergency rooms, and reduce tensions between housed and unhoused communities.

As we continue to fight for Housing First policies and housing for all legislation, we must organize at the local level to change the minds of our neighbors. Luckily, there are many ways to join our fight for housing for all, including talking about these issues  with your neighbors and community, connecting with grassroots organizations (like DSA!), participating in your local politics and elections, showing up to city council and town hall meetings, and engaging in mutual aid with those around you. Another great opportunity to work towards Housing for All with a Housing First approach is coming up on April 1st, 2025 with Colorado Springs’ General Municipal Election. Colorado Springs’ DSA chapter has proudly endorsed fellow socialist Maryah Lauer for city council in district 3. Maryah is a steadfast candidate that we can count on to push for Housing for All policies with a Housing First approach while serving her community on city council. As a long-time community organizer herself, Maryah has built personal rapport with Colorado Springs’ unhoused community, so she understands how city council can play a larger role in eliminating and preventing homelessness through the sympathetic lens of the Housing First model. Maryah also plans to work towards DSA’s goal of Housing for All by expanding on renters protections and implementing restrictions on the purchase of housing stock by private equity and investment firms. If you’re looking for more ways to get involved and flex your socialist muscle, please visit https://maryahfordistrict3.com/ to learn more, volunteer, or donate!

References

City of Colorado Springs. (n.d.). Homelessness Prevention and Response. https://hr.coloradosprings.gov/homelessness-prevention-and-response 

El Paso County Colorado. (2024, January). Housing Our Future: City of Colorado Springs Housing and Community Vitality Department. https://epc-assets.elpasoco.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2024/02/EPCPH-2016-Annual-Report_-Final.pdf

Housing first. National Alliance to End Homelessness. (2022, March 20). https://endhomelessness.org/resource/housing-first/ 

Pikes Peak Continuum of Care. (2024). PIT Totals. 2024 Point-In-Time Count. https://www.ppchp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/PIT-Count-Summaries-1.pdf

All out to free Rumeysa!

This is a developing story.

By Henry De Groot

SOMERVILLE, MA – Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tuesday evening.

According to Ozturk’s attorney, sources report, Ozturk has a valid F-1 visa and was returning home to meet with friends and break her Ramadan fast when she was detained by federal agents, near Electric Avenue and Mason Street in Somerville, just a block away from Tuft’s campus in Medford. Some reports indicate that agents had been circling her neighborhood in unmarked vehicles for several days.

The university administration reports they were told that Ozturk’s visa has been terminated. They shared the following statement:

In March of 2024, Ozturk was one of four authors of an Op-Ed in the The Tufts Daily, the school’s student newspaper, titled “Try again, President Kumar: Renewing calls for Tufts to adopt March 4 TCU Senate resolutions.” The article called on the universities’ administration to implement the anti-genocide resolutions adopted by the Tufts Community Union Senate, a body of the student government.

Ozturk is a member of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) local 509. Union members reported to Working Mass that the local’s higher-ed members are organizing turnout to the rally this evening.

Her attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, has filed a petition of habeas corpus in Massachusetts federal court for her to be released. US District Court Judge Indira Talwani issued a 3 page ruling that Ozturk was not to be moved out of the state without prior notice.

The action comes as ICE reports that it arrested 370 migrants across Massachusetts after a multi-day raid.

This detention is just the latest in a series of actions targeting university students, workers, and faculty as Trump carries out his election promise to deport foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian and anti-war efforts.

Ozturk was listed by the right-wing doxing website Canary Mission, which targets pro-Palestinian activists back in February 2025. The site had screenshotted her March 4 article.

Activists are calling for an emergency demonstration at 5:30 p.m. at Powder House Square Park.

Henry De Groot is the managing editor of Working Mass.

Federal workers have many of the same rights as private-sector workers with a few crucial distinctions.

The post What are my union rights as a federal worker? appeared first on EWOC.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, March 26 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Intro to Socialism (Zoom)

Thursday, March 27 (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.): Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Thursday, March 27 (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.): Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialist Working Group (Zoom)

Saturday, March 29 (1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.): Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialism Reading Group: Ten Myths About Israel (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Sunday, March 30 (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.): Spanish for Organizers (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Sunday, March 30 (1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.): Know Your Rights Canvassing (Meet at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, March 31 (5:50 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Electoral Board Meeting (Zoom)

Monday, March 31 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, March 31 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

Tuesday, April 1 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Turnout Tuesday for Vision Drive (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, April 2 (6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): New Member Happy Hour at Zeitgeist (In person at Zeitgeist at 199 Valencia)

Thursday, April 3 (7:00 pm. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigration Justice Working Group Meeting (Zoom)

Saturday, April 5 (12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.): Chapter Local Vision and Strategy Meeting (Location TBD)

Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates.

Events & Actions

Turnout Tuesday on 3/25 (Today!) for Spanish for Organizers

Join your comrades in making calls and sending texts to let folks know about the upcoming Spanish for Organizers training. We’ll be meeting at 1916 McAllister today (Tuesday, March 25) from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. RSVP here!

Spanish for Organizers

Join the Immigrant Justice Working Group for Spanish for Organizers! Come learn and practice basic Spanish phrases for organizing. All skill levels welcome. We’re meeting on Sunday, March 30, at 12:00 p.m. at 1916 McAllister. See you there!

Can’t make it to Spanish for Organizers or are feeling extra inspired to encourage turnout? Come through for our Turnout Tuesday on March 25 from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at 1916 McAllister. We’ll be making calls and sending texts to let folks know about the Spanish for Organizers training. RSVP here.

Capital Reading Group

DSA SF has started a Marx’s Capital reading group! We’ll be meeting every other Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at 1916 McAllister St. and also on Zoom. We’ll meet on April 6th to cover Chapter 1. We’re reading the new translation published by Princeton University Press. You can also join the #capital-rdg-group-2025 channel on the DSA SF Slack for additional information and discussion!

Socialist Job Fair Reportback

Our first socialist job fair was a huge success! On Sunday, March 16, we had 140 registered attendees come down to the Unite-HERE Local 2 HQ to learn about union, worker co-op, organizing, and salting job opportunities from representatives of 14 union locals and organizations. Facilitating this matchmaking and engagement not only helps job-seeking socialists and bolsters worker power in the city economy, it provides an alternative job pipeline that challenges the logic of capitalist exploitation. More to come!

If you’re interested but were unable to make it, or want to follow up and need contact info, reach out to the Labor Working Group at labor@dsasf.org.

Behind the Scenes

The Chapter Coordination Committee (CCC) regularly rotates duties among chapter members. This allows us to train new members in key duties that help keep the chapter running like organizing chapter meetings, keeping records updated, office cleanup, updating the DSA SF website and newsletter, etc. Members can view current CCC rotations.

To help with the day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running, fill out the CCC help form.

by Gregory Lebens-Higgins

We live in a world of detachment; disconnected from our material surroundings, separated from one another, and desperately seeking distraction from our isolation. The unease is measured in deaths by alcohol and suicide, the frequency of mass shootings, and hours spent looking at our phones. An “epidemic of loneliness” is decried in mainstream media, but with incomplete analysis and stunted solutions. Unsurprisingly, “Work … appears to be of little help.”

This condition of alienation emanates from capitalism, circulating through the system and shaping the way we live and relate to one another. Capitalism perpetually drives our atomization into socially disconnected nodes of extraction, replacing social bonds with self-interested economic exchange.

Capitalism alienates workers from their labor. Under a capitalist mode of production, production is directed for profit and dependent on wage labor. The status of wage-laborer is not voluntarily assumed by the worker. This class of “free labor” had to be created, a task accomplished by the enclosure of common lands, the severing of feudal bonds, and advances in technology. 

Opportunities to escape the compulsion of rent under capitalism were foreclosed. Where economic coercion failed, violence was ready to step in. At the end of this process of primitive accumulation, the means of production—machinery, raw materials, and productive land—were securely in the hands of a capitalist ruling class. 

Workers came to relate to the object of their labor—the means of life—not by direct exchange with nature, but through the mediation of capital. Workers are forced to sell their labor power, manufacturing commodities that are in no part theirs, nor produced for their direct subsistence. “[T]he process of production has the mastery over man,” says Marx, “instead of being controlled by him.” The worker is transformed into an appendage of a much larger and impersonal machine. 

The worker must then act as a consumer, relying on the market for food, shelter, and other necessities. These objects are produced for profit, and the worker relates to them as exchange value, available only for purchase. Thus, crises of overproduction are unique to capitalism—goods destroyed or left to rot because workers’ wages are insufficient to effect their realization as capital.

This mass of commodities also shapes our world, carrying unintended externalities—whether cars, guns, smartphones, or pesticides. Still, democratic decision-making over production is largely foreclosed, with consumer choice the only recognized input.

Workers cannot escape their condition (despite the promised payoff of “hard work”), because wages are calculated only for social reproduction—the capacity to reproduce workers’ labor power. The surplus value of their labor (i.e., what remains after the subtraction of wages), is extracted through the production process and alienated as capital. This surplus value comes to dominate workers as thoroughly as the commodities they produce. Capitalists invest surplus value not only toward the further expansion of their capital, but to protect their power with lobbying, union busting, and corruption. 

These means are used to secure ever greater control over workers. In effect, every increase in production leads to a decrease in their freedom. “Labor itself progressively extends and gives an ever wider and fuller existence to the objective world of wealth as a power alien to labor,” says Marx. We need look no further than the divergence between increasing productivity and stagnant wages to illustrate this point.

Capitalism also heightens our experience of social alienation. Production is premised on competition, and workers are pitted against one another to offer their labor for the lowest wage. We come to relate to one another as exchange values, with mutual exploitation propelling our interactions. We are left with the question, “What can I get from this person?” We are all indoctrinated into the false consciousness of capitalism, driven to accumulate by any means necessary.

Social bonds are dissipated by unasked-for innovation. “The bourgeoisie cannot exist,” claims Marx, “without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society.” Every space is increasingly marketized; cut off from its public use. The occupation of social space now comes with an entrance fee, limiting opportunities for socialization not mediated through capital. This enclosure has led to a proliferation of online spaces where people can escape into a digital realm; dispersing the psychic anxiety of the reality crumbling around them by yelling into the void.

The capitalist class is also alienated. Though they own the means of production, they are similarly separated from its object. Commodities are produced for profit rather than any meaningful consideration of their use value. The capitalist cares not whether he produces school buses or precision bombs.

The protection of ruling class status requires war on humanity. To maximize profit, workers must have their wages reduced, hours extended, and be employable “at will.” In search of new markets, capitalism sponsors slavery, colonialism, and reckless resource extraction. 

At some level the capitalist cannot avoid acknowledging their guilt. In the Twilight Zone episode “Printer’s Devil,” a newspaper editor who exchanges his soul for success exclaims, “You’ve caused tragedy, you’ve destroyed life and property. I didn’t bargain for this!” “Oh yes, you did,” responds the devil. “But you put it out of your mind. You thought you’d get everything for nothing. That’s not the way life works.”

Though the rich view themselves as gods, they confront the same mortality we all do. This self-conception can never correspond to reality, leading to inevitable dissatisfaction. They are driven to ever larger displays of grandiosity to prove their worth, outward expression compensating for an absence of inward reflection.

The capitalist class cannot experience shared humanity, since their existence is in opposition to its continuation. Instead, they descend into hedonism. “Our bourgeois, not content with having wives and daughters of their proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the greatest pleasure in seducing each other’s wives,” observes Marx. Seeking distraction in ever greater novel pleasures, they descend into the perversions of Epstein and the rituals of Bohemian Grove.

The working class can defeat the capitalist engine of alienation by acknowledging our shared struggle and turning toward cooperation. Only by finding common cause will the working class be motivated to use its limited free time not for escapist pleasures, but to build an alternative political project. Such self-sacrificing solidarity is required to seize the means of production and reorient production toward humanity rather than profit. When the means of life are made available to all, new social structures will take root in our shared humanity and alleviate our alienation.

The post A is for Alienation first appeared on Rochester Red Star.