By Nolan R.

This article was originally published in Democratic Left: Find it here

We all know the narrative by now: socialists are too radical, fringe, and unpopular to win any kind of lasting power. “Enjoy your time in the sun, lefties, because any moment now the hammer of reasonable, moderate thought will come crashing down and send you back to the depths of political obscurity with your collective tail tucked between your legs.”

Variations of this line are repeated constantly across the country by national media and prominent members of both parties. They repeat it like a mantra, both because they need it to be true and because they would rather eat glass than honestly engage with our ideas. Unfortunately for them, the recent streak of socialist victories has proven there is immense hunger for a working-class movement in this country. In fact, DSA may be more popular among Democratic voters than the Democratic Party itself. One out of three Democratic voters now identify as democratic socialists, and even among those who don’t, two-thirds would be comfortable voting for one.

How does the media react when a socialist wins against allegedly insurmountable odds? They minimize. They put Zohran’s victory down to personality and social media presence, not policy. When a slate of DSA candidates won across multiple levels of government, they said that’s just New York. When DSA won in Denver, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Detroit, well, those are all reliably blue areas, so what’s the big deal?

On the other hand, they pounce on any whiff of failure as an opportunity to discredit the entire movement. Fox News triumphantly declared Kai Newkirk’s loss in Arizona a “setback” for DSA even though Newkirk only became a member days before requesting an endorsement, and was not endorsed in his primary. Similarly, they label progressive politicians like Abdul El-Sayed “commies in camouflage” despite his self-identification as a “capitalist who believes in regulation.” Their goal is to erase nuance, lumping anyone to the left of Stephen Miller into the same communist boogeyman so they can tar us all with the same brush.

Francesca Hong started her campaign for governor of Wisconsin as a little-known state assembly member going up against the full weight of the Democratic establishment and still managed to come within a razor-thin margin of the nomination as an open socialist in a swing state. Outspent by several orders of magnitude, she relied on a robust canvassing operation of enthusiastic volunteers. Her narrow loss proves the viability of insurgent socialist campaigns even in states conventionally considered moderate. To the New York Times, however, the results represent a brick wall for DSA’s momentum.

It would be much more sensible, pundits and political operatives argue, to nominate safe, unchallenging centrists who promise nothing and deliver less. Otherwise, we might spook the independent voters, sink the Democrats in the upcoming midterms, and doom us all to a freshly empowered Trump administration. The goal is to browbeat the voting public into believing that holding principled positions opens the door to fascism. If Democrats stand for nothing, then there’s nothing for Republicans to criticize, right?

This narrative is bullshit. It assumes that independent voters’ politics lie smack dab between Republicans and Democrats, but the reality isn’t so simple. While most independents describe themselves as moderate, they also tend to hold an assortment of incongruent beliefs, such as support for universal healthcare. Rather than diehard centrists, they often refuse to identify with power (hence the independent label) and feel abandoned by both parties.

Corporate media endlessly promote pundits who complain that Democrats have gone too far left instead of admitting that many voters are disillusioned by the cycle of optimism and disappointment that comes with electing milquetoast Democrats. Millions of Americans voted for Obama or Biden with the earnest belief that they would get the change they were hoping for and then they were duped into supporting a vessel for the capitalist status quo. Despite the hand-wringing, independents and the politically disaffected are fertile ground for DSA’s growing constituency.

Each DSA win forces the mainstream media to move the goalposts and adjust their narrative. They argued that AOC and Zohran were outliers, that we could only win in New York City, that we couldn’t win in swing states like Michigan. Now, they’re arguing that we can’t win in competitive races against Republicans. How will the narrative shift again when we prove them wrong?

In all likelihood, they’ll double down on the idea that DSA’s success will hurt Democrats in the midterms. After the midterms, they’ll likely argue that while socialism may be gaining in popularity, our policies will inevitably fail. No electoral success will prod the hostile media into fairly appraising our program or our candidates.

At the end of the day, we shouldn’t internalize the bad-faith criticisms of the corporate media and the party duopoly. The fact that the media can’t stop talking about us, that they’re so obviously terrified of an ascendant Left, means that we are on the right track. We will harness this energy and attention that’s being focused on us, and we will ride that wave to victory.

We are now the largest socialist organization in the history of the United States, with 120,000 members and counting. Our names and our ideas are echoing in hushed tones throughout the halls of power. The president and the speaker of the house describe our movement in apocalyptic terms while the Senate holds McCarthyist show trials alleging connections to terror. While they lie about our goals and our methods, they are right to be afraid. We threaten to seize the reins of power that the ruling class has taken for granted for so long and to deliver them into the hands of the people.

More than ever, it seems that a better world is possible. Keep winning, DSA.

The post Socialists Can Never Win — Until We Do first appeared on Red Fault.

“Red All Over” — an occasional roundup of media coverage of DSA

The post Hold Your Nose And Vote appeared first on Democratic Left.

by Travis Covitz

This month, I re-read To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee for the first time since my freshman year of high school (which overlapped with the first wave of Black Lives Matter uprisings). Mockingbird was written by Lee (a Southern white woman) in the early 1960s; it follows the girlhood of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, who is white and the daughter of a lawyer, in Depression-era Alabama. A major plot point of the book is Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, defending a local Black man who has been charged with rape of a white woman. Atticus is posed as a noble white hero in contrast with the ‘backwards’ racists in the countryside. Reading in 2026, the juxtaposition of the police brutality in Ferguson and the lawfare in Mockingbird seems like it was just begging for commentary. But at my school in the Phoenix, Arizona suburbs, where we had a very small Black population, I have no memory of such a conversation. What I do remember is, at some point during the year, one of the few Black girls in my grade commented that the murder of Michael Brown echoed the murder of Trayvon Martin. I know that she saw the parallels between Scout’s fictional world and the world we found ourselves growing up in. 

My mom has always been a huge fan of Mockingbird and the Finch family in particular. As the youngest in her family, my mom related heavily to Scout’s perspective as a young child surrounded by adults. Perhaps because of her connection with Scout, or perhaps just because of her own liberal white sympathies, my mom glorified Atticus as a paragon of virtue. I remember seeing a lot of discourse in 2020 about how white people preferred quoting this fictional white lawyer, instead of living Black people, to demonstrate their values of racial justice. My re-reading of Mockingbird was, in part, a desire to revisit the character of Atticus Finch and see just how valiant he really was. Was he a principled anti-racist or a white savior? I found myself thoroughly underwhelmed, but not surprised, with how Atticus actually behaves in the book. And then I read the sequel.

Go Set A Watchman takes place in that same small Alabama town, centered on that same Finch girl (who is now a woman), about two decades later. Scout is in her mid-twenties (actually very close to my current age) and visiting her hometown on a trip away from her life in New York City.  She is forced to confront the imperfections in the moral characters of her father (Atticus) and lover (Hank), who have joined the local white Citizens Council in protest of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Watchman was only published in 2015, and takes place after the events of Mockingbird, but it is actually more interesting than a mere ‘sequel’. Lee wrote Watchman in the 1950s, as the first draft of this story, only for it to later be edited into the narrative we know as Mockingbird. 

Reading Watchman greatly enriched my appreciation of Mockingbird – but I think that Watchman was only able to be so profound because of that decade of relationship I already had with the Mockingbird story. I felt that the loss of Atticus’ heroism, rather than a betrayal, was a very plausible continuation of the character. In fact, I think that character journey is an important one to read for white readers who, like the young Scout, saw Atticus as a perfect gentleman. In my experience, Mockingbird is used by liberal Americans to assuage their guilt over racism, by allowing them to reassure themselves that they’re ‘one of the good ones’. It paints a picture of racism as a personal problem rather than a political one. The subtextual rebukes to this narrative which I found in Watchman actually allowed me to more deeply appreciate the world that Lee built. By showing how a kind, honorable white man – who treats Black people as equals in daily life – can still feel so threatened by the idea of Black people in power that he organizes to prevent it, Watchman illustrates how racism is a political issue, not just a personal moral failing.

In Watchman, Scout is positioned as the moral hero in contrast to Atticus, but not necessarily enlightened, which I feel is the correct choice for the character. She is still learning the ways of the world, but we can see that she has deep moral convictions that ground her. If Scout had been written as perfect, it would have ruined the whole story, which is about coming-of-age and realizing that your heroes are only human. My revisiting of Lee’s work has been its own coming-of-age story, after all. Even though I generally appreciated the direction of Watchmen, I disagree with some of the political conclusions Lee offers. But this way in which I disagree with Scout paradoxically makes me relate to her even more. Just as her long-time deification of Atticus was confronted by a painful reality when Scout realizes she has her own moral positions, I had to realize my own values are based on the people I live and organize with – not just the books I’ve read.

If you remember reading Mockingbird, and especially if you remember quoting Atticus Finch, I would highly recommend Watchman. It might be painful, but I think you will be all the better for realizing that even the Finches have flaws – and wondering what actual anti-racism would look like.

The post Narratives of Imperfection: Revisiting Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and Go Set a Watchman (2015) first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

Enjoy your September National Political Committee (NPC) newsletter! Our NPC is an elected 27-person body (including both YDSA Co-Chairs) which functions as the board of directors of DSA. This month, hear about hot labor updates, organizing trainings, volunteer opportunities, and more!

And to make sure you get our newsletters in your inbox, sign up here! Each one features action alerts, upcoming events, political education, and more.

• From the National Political Committee — Cool Fall Organizing
• Sunday 9/27 — How Should DSA Respond to Data Centers? RSVP for our DSA Labor Call!
• Work for DSA! Application Deadlines Begin Friday 9/18
• Sign Up for Fall 2026 Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee Training Series! Classes Begin Saturday 10/24
• Mutual Aid Working Group Reforms Disaster Relief Committee — Get Involved
• Sign Up for National Political Education Commission Newsletter
• Housing Justice Commission Abolish Rent Book Club — Final Sessions Still Open
• Contribute to Democratic Left!

From the National Political Committee — Cool Fall Organizing

It’s September again, and while hot socialist summer is over, there’s lots of cool organizing going into the fall. From chapter Labor Day celebrations, to back-to-school organizing, to worker solidarity actions you can do right now, DSA members like you are getting in gear across the country!

We spent Labor Day weekend with hundreds of DSA members in Chicago at the annual Socialism Conference organized by Haymarket Books, which is a great opportunity for political education and big-picture strategizing across organizations on the left. DSA members were represented on over 20 panels, including ones on organizing a general strike and building a stronger pro-democracy labor movement, and showcasing our own “Workers Deserve More” program with special guest Hasan Piker. In DSA, we always want to focus on outward-facing work that builds our power with more and more people, but it’s important to make time to keep learning and testing each others’ ideas too! 

This spring, over 170 DSA chapters participated in May Day actions. And last week, chapters  came out to organize and celebrate workers — check out some of our highlights here! From NEPA DSA’s Labor Rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Greater Baltimore’s Labor Day Potluck, to Northern Colorado’s Labor Night Out, DSA members came together to create community and showcase worker wins. And check out some photo and video highlights!

• Boston DSA showed that socialism beats fascism
• Middle Tennessee DSA Labor Day marchers said Workers Deserve More
• Miami DSA’s Labor Day highlight was their most ambitious Leftist Movie Night of the year: a special 90th anniversary screening of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times

Socialist socializing like these Labor Day events create organizing opportunities! DSA members understand that bringing people together helps start conversations about how we can organize our workplace, protect our communities, elect socialist candidates, and more. (That’s probably why the Wall Street Journal set out to make coffee with comrades scary!)

And our Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) Fall Drive is off to a great start. Since last semester, more than 45 new campuses have started YDSA chapters. And since the beginning of August, YDSA has doubled its membership! Last year, YDSA chapters organized to protect immigrant students, support campus worker unions, end student lunch debt, and more. 

From the University of Florida YDSA’s kicking the Department of Homeland Security out of their Career Fair, to YDSA at the University of Delaware successfully pressuring the administration to stop collaborating with ICE, to University of Oregon YDSA winning medication access on campus, YDSA students are making big wins and learning how to organize long-lasting campaigns. That’s why they’re growing so much! And given the rise of right-wing campus outreach, we need our youth organizers more than ever.

And speaking of fall labor solidarity… we’re boycotting Starbucks this pumpkin spice season! Take the boycott pledge with our DSA National Labor Commission and DSA members across the country.

In solidarity with over 12,000 baristas across the country with Starbucks Workers United, DSA has pledged to operate as a Starbucks-free political organization during the duration of the boycott. This means that Starbucks products shall not be purchased with DSA funds for meetings, conferences, trainings, offices, conventions, or other official events. You can hear from Starbucks workers about the boycott here.

Solidarity work like this is one reason that thousands of people are joining DSA and renewing their memberships. They see members like you showing up and doing the work our communities need! Would you like to reach out to other members about renewing their dues? Sign up for one of our Fall Drive phonebanks! Training is provided on the call.

• Sunday 9/27 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT with special guest Professor Richard Wolff. One lucky phonebanker will receive a signed copy of Professor Wolff’s book Understanding Socialism!
• Wednesday 10/7 at 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT with special guest David Griscom. One lucky phonebanker will receive a signed copy of David Griscom’s book The Myth of Red Texas!

And read on for more ways to stand up for a brighter, more democratic future!

Solidarity,

Ashik Siddique and Megan Romer
DSA National Co-Chairs

PS: last week, more than 1000 people joined us for “End Times Fascism:” A DSA Conversation with Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor. Check out the book talk video here!

Sunday 9/27 — How Should DSA Respond to Data Centers? RSVP for our DSA Labor Call!

The construction of data centers around the country is leading to ecological damage and skyrocketing electricity costs, causing grassroots coalitions to take a stand and in some states, win moratoriums on new construction. But for unionized workers in the trades, data centers have led to new contracts and renewed investments in apprenticeships.

Join DSA’s National Labor Commission Sunday 9/27 at 1pm ET/12pm CT/11am MT/10am PT for Building the Machine: The Trades and Anti-Data Center Organizing! On the call, you’ll hear the perspectives of anti-data center organizers and rank-and-file union workers about how socialist unionists should orient to the data center boom.

Work for DSA! Application Deadlines Begin Friday 9/18

DSA is hiring! Please apply if you’re interested, or send to someone you know who has the right experience.

Open positions include:

• Regional Organizer (rolling; first deadline 9/18)
• Membership Growth and Retention Coordinator (deadline 9/20)
• Designer (deadline 9/25)

You can learn more about these positions on our Careers page here.

Sign Up for Fall 2026 Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee Training Series! Classes Begin Saturday 10/24

The Housing Justice Commission is proud to announce that our 2026 Fall Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee (ETOC) cohort is now accepting RSVPs from prospective tenant organizers. ETOC is a DSA initiative to promote the formation of militant tenant unions through tenant-to-tenant training and instruction.

This ETOC cohort will teach you the fundamentals of tenant organizing over a series of 4 meetings in October and November. The series starts Saturday 10/24 at 2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT. RSVP today! Instruction will focus on giving you the skills you need to develop new tenant unions that will organize tenants on a citywide or regional scale. We encourage you to invite others you intend to organize a tenant union with.

Mutual Aid Working Group Reforms Disaster Relief Committee — Get Involved

The Mutual Aid Working Group (MAWG) is reforming the Disaster Relief Committee! MAWG’s Disaster Relief Committee will organize MAWG members to collaborate on disaster preparedness, awareness, and relief. If you would like to get involved in this new committee, or other work in MAWG, join the working group!

Sign Up for National Political Education Commission Newsletter

Don’t get left behind on the left! Keep up with DSA’s National Political Education Commission — with popular trainings, debates and events, national reading groups, media, commentary, and more — by signing up for our monthly missive, Red Letter!

Housing Justice Commission Abolish Rent Book Club — Final Sessions Still Open

Join DSA members and tenant organizers around the country for a nationwide reading of the book Abolish Rent, written by two co-founders of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis. Sessions have already started, but there’s still spots for the Wednesday 9/30 and Wednesday 10/14 meetings. Book club meetings will be at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT.

Together, we’ll learn from the book, share our experiences as tenants and organizers, and discuss how to create a world where rent doesn’t exist. Use the discount code in the signup link here link for a discount on a copy of the book!

Contribute to Democratic Left!

Democratic Left, DSA’s official news publication, is opening applications for non-editorial board roles. If you are interested in supporting Democratic Left’s movement journalism as a book reviewer, reporter, arts critic, copy editor, graphic designer, or chapter correspondent, please fill out the third form linked on this page on the DSA forum.

The post Your National Political Committee newsletter — Cool Fall Organizing appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor launched their book tour for “End Time Fascism: and the Fight for the Living World” on a DSA mass call on Thursday.

The post Out of the Bunker appeared first on Democratic Left.

In December of last year, I started watching the television show M*A*S*H, which ran on CBS from 1972 to 1983. As a history nerd with a penchant for old TV shows I quickly became obsessed, watching every single episode in under six months.

For those unfamiliar, the show is a comedy-drama following the exploits of the personnel serving at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M*A*S*H) during the Korean War (1950-1953). Intended as an allegory for the Vietnam War, the show tapped into the intense anti-war and anti-institutional sentiment of broad swaths of the American public of the time.

The show is unapologetically anti-war and progressive, unrelenting in its insistence that basic human dignity be upheld in the most horrific circumstances. It is extremely well-written and enjoyable to watch, a true classic of twentieth-century television. M*A*S*H may have premiered over fifty years ago, but it still has much to teach us today.

Best Care Anywhere

Alan Alda stars as Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, a gifted young surgeon drafted into the war. He has a penchant for pranks and a consistent distaste for military discipline. Alda’s performance is unmatched, and he is truly a once-in-a-generation comedic talent. His sardonic wit, impeccable comedic timing, and old-school slapstick gags combine to create a masterful performance. At the time of writing, the 90-year-old Alda is still acting and speaking out for progressive causes. He deserves to be recognized as one of the greatest American comedians of the twentieth century, standing alongside the likes of Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, and Steve Martin.

There was a significant amount of cast turnover spanning the course of the show’s run. Every time someone left, I was very nervous to find out who their replacement would be, and I wondered whether the new actor could live up to the standards of those departing. I was never disappointed.

Hawkeye’s original sidekick, Captain John “Trapper” McIntyre (Wayne Rogers) was a zany, sarcastic prankster. His replacement, Captain B.J. Hunnicut (Mike Farrell) is a grounded family man who often serves as a calming presence and voice of reason. Colonel Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) was the good-natured, borderline incompetent commanding officer of the outfit in the early run of the show; he was replaced in season four by the firm-but-fair, no-nonsense cavalryman Colonel Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan). The whiny, arrogant, and right-wing Major Frank Burns (Larry Linville) was replaced in season six by the blue-blooded and snobbish but cultured and honorable Major Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers).

Rounding out the main cast are the two other characters who stayed for the entire series: the meek and kind-hearted Catholic chaplain Lieutenant Francis Mulcahey (William Christopher), and the career-driven and tough head nurse Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Loretta Swit).

The only character swap that is more ambiguous is the replacement of the boyish and innocent but preternaturally competent company clerk Corporal Walter “Radar” O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff), who left the show in season eight. He was replaced by Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger (Jamie Farr), the Toledo-born, Lebanese-American cross-dressing soldier who spends much of the war attempting to convince the Army he has gone insane in pursuit of a Section Eight psychiatric discharge. Both characters are quite beloved by fans, and Radar’s departure marked a major turning point for the series.

The focus of the show is highly varied. Plots typically involve pranks and hijinx, Army bureaucracy, dealing with North Korean and Chinese POWs and Korean civilians, confronting racism, the psychological and emotional struggles of the staff, attacks by the enemy, interpersonal conflict that blurs the line between comedy and drama, and much more. The show also experiments with its own format, for example by filming an entire episode from the perspective of a wounded G.I. (S7E11), following a casualty in near-real time (S8E11), and depicting a soldier who is lingering as a ghost after succumbing to his injuries (S10E10).

M*A*S*H is based on a 1970 film of the same name and the 1968 novel that inspired it. Both works fall outside the scope of this article. The franchise received three spinoff series: Trapper John, M.D., which is not related to the show at all; W*A*L*T*E*R, the once-aired pilot for a show following Radar; and AfterMASH, which ran for two seasons. I would only recommend the latter to the most die-hard fans.

“There’s No Such Thing as an Anti-War Film”

In a real sense, this quote from the late French filmmaker François Truffaut is true. Accurately capturing the abject horror of war renders a movie effectively unwatchable as entertainment and impossible to distribute beyond an extremely limited audience. No such project could ever appear on network television.

At the same time, M*A*S*H avoids the typical pitfalls of other “anti-war” media that actually serve to glorify armed conflict or advance pro-war messages, such as Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan or Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper. There are several reasons for this.

First, the surgeons in the show are not soldiers in the conventional sense. They are doctors first and foremost. Hawkeye, Trapper, and later Hunnicut only reluctantly submit to military discipline. The show does not depict frontline combat or give the sense that a victory on the battlefield is a victory for the cast. Direct engagement with the enemy is sporadic and never glorified. The show makes it explicitly clear that every advance of blue squares on the map in a general’s office sends countless teenage boys to the hospital in critical condition. The surgeons at the 4077th must perform “meatball surgery” on their shattered bodies in the hope of keeping them alive long enough to get them to a hospital in Seoul or Tokyo. This constant drumbeat of “incoming wounded” keeps the show grounded in its values, and many episodes focus explicitly on the unique stresses endured by wartime medical staff.

Second, overt displays of patriotism, love of country, and sympathy with American foreign policy goals for Korea are almost completely absent. The show’s thesis does not seriously entertain counter-arguments as to why war should be seen as a moral good or a regrettable necessity. Characters do express belief in traditional American virtues including justice, fairness, democracy, and equality, but it is rarely tied explicitly to patriotism. It is only foils like Frank Burns who demand loyalty, obedience, and paranoia as they salute the flag.

Finally, the more “gung-ho” officers, soldiers, and civilians who visit the 4077th are consistently depicted in a negative light. The doctors are often pitted against officers willing to trade young lives for their own glory, bigots of all stripes, war profiteers, adventure-seeking journalists, anti-communist witch hunters, the officious bureaucracy of the U.S. Army, and more. These figures are often drivers of conflict in the series. They nearly always either learn a lesson, receive some kind of comeuppance, or set up a serious and contemplative moment for the main cast.

The show is not intended as an attempt to shock the viewer with the horrific, gory reality of war. Its elements are packaged in a way that is palatable for 1970s TV. Episodes are by no means excessively violent, and they aren’t at all unpleasant to watch. But they do send an unambiguous and consistent message: There is no value in this kind of killing.

If any piece of popular media can be considered truly anti-war, M*A*S*H is it.

Questions of Taste

Most of the humor in the show holds up to modern standards. It is intelligent and well-written, and there are relatively few cases in which a joke is made that I consider to be in poor taste. In one early episode (S2E9), the doctors paint a soldier in partial blackface to teach him a lesson about racism after he requests that he not receive “the wrong kind of blood” (referring to the recent integration of the U.S. Army’s blood supply). The message is intended to be anti-racist, but this plot point couldn’t air today for obvious reasons.

Some of the accents of the actors playing Koreans are uncomfortably broad by today’s standards. Many Korean characters’ inability to speak English seems to render them unable to speak at all, though this is likely due to the difficulty of sourcing actors who speak the language fluently at a time when the number of Korean-Americans in the U.S. was much smaller than it is today. There are also a few cases in which a person being kissed against their will is played for laughs, most often Major Houlihan. For these reasons, and likely a few more that I missed, some viewer discretion is advised. By the standards of a fifty-year-old show, however, there isn’t much to cringe at.

The portrayal of the cross-dressing Corporal Klinger is particularly noteworthy as an early example of what I would consider positive trans representation in media. Klinger is not transgender in the modern sense. He openly admits that he dresses in women’s clothing only to convince the Army he has gone insane, though his wardrobes are quite involved and he obviously revels in the freedom of expression it affords him. Klinger never changes his name or pronouns, he refuses a Section Eight that would require him to admit to being a “homosexual,” and he returns to a regulation uniform and ceases to angle for a discharge after he replaces Radar as company clerk.

The most notable part of the performance is how the majority of the cast treats him with matter-of-fact tolerance, and the characters who scorn him (particularly Major Burns) are portrayed as bigoted and petty. Even from those characters, anti-trans rhetoric doesn’t go to extremes.

Other trans people have different opinions on this topic. They believe Klinger plays into a harmful stereotype of the “man in a dress” that has been weaponized by the cisgender majority to delegitimize trans experiences. Given how the show approaches LGBTQ+ issues more broadly, including Hawkeye and Trapper’s acceptance of a closeted gay soldier (S2E22), I am personally inclined to believe the showrunners approached the question of Klinger’s identity as carefully and sensitively as could be expected for the time. That said, readers are encouraged to form their own conclusions.

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen

The series finale is a two-hour tour de force. Its live broadcast was watched by over 100 million people nationwide, and to this day it remains one of the most-watched scripted television events in history. Directed by Alan Alda, the finale does an excellent job of capturing the heart of the show. The episode is perfectly calibrated in its bittersweetness, and it serves as a powerful, emotionally satisfying, and fitting sendoff.

There is one rather disturbing plot point in the episode relating to the ultimate reason for Hawkeye’s hospitalization. It isn’t graphically depicted and is handled with care, but sensitive viewers can choose to skip that section, which takes place from timestamps 38:51 to 41:25.

As the ceasefire is announced during the finale, the total number of U.N., communist, and civilian casualties is read out over the base’s loudspeaker system, serving as a memorial for all those killed and permanently scarred by the Korean War. Klinger’s question: “Vietnam? Where’s that?” is particularly poignant as a nod to the show’s origin as a critique of the Vietnam War.

* * *

M*A*S*H is solidly progressive in a way that socialist viewers will immediately recognize. None of the characters are socialists, nor could they be in a show set during the early Cold War. But we can still admire and praise the virtues the show promotes: Radical tolerance of those different from us. Scorn for the horror of war and cruelty in every form. Sacrifice for those who have nothing. M*A*S*H reminds us that we should not apologize for our values, that our most basic humanity must be upheld against the forces of imperialism, militarism, and hatred.

The doctors of the 4077th are unable to stop the unbelievable carnage around them. They can only do their best to help those who come through the door. In our own time of global crisis, we should strive to do the same.

M*A*S*H is currently available to stream in its entirety on Hulu.

The post M*A*S*H is an Antiwar Masterpiece appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

A universal right to bargain would turn Simone Weil's philosophy into a concrete tool for building economic democracy in the American workplace.

The post A Right to Bargain appeared first on Democratic Left.

As CDSA forges ahead into a busy and demanding aldermanic cycle, membership is set to consider a new slate of potential endorsees at September’s General Chapter Meeting: four candidates for Chicago’s first fully-elected school board.

Before those votes take place, I’d like to make the case for why lending our chapter’s endorsement of all four candidates is critical to amplifying our “Workers Deserve More” program and furthering the class-struggle messaging that will help build out our movement and propel us to victory in February’s municipal elections. All four school board candidates under consideration (Hilario Dominguez, Jason Dones, Karen Zaccor, and Debby Pope) are self-identified socialists who have a clear-eyed vision for what it means to bring socialism to the Board of Education. 

But perhaps it would be illustrative to first share what the stakes are in these elections; in other words – what we stand to lose should charter and billionaire-backed candidates take these seats instead. 

Should a right-leaning school board take the helm after November’s elections, there can be no doubt that school closures would be on the table. This would be sold to us under the tired slogans of “fiscal responsibility” and “chronic under-enrollment.” It’s quite the masterful gambit, really. These schools are chronically under-enrolled because of decisions at all levels of government that have left Black and Brown neighborhoods starved of resources for decades. Now, those same actors are returning to demand the closure of schools that they intentionally underfunded.

A right-wing school board would likely forsake any attempt at progressive revenue streams from the state. Instead, it would likely close schools exclusively on the South and West sides of the city, just as it did in 2013. School closures aren’t just about underinvestment. They are a form of violence inflicted on the most vulnerable neighborhoods in this city. They leave communities divested, depopulated, and scarred. Today, the vast majority of CPS schools closed in 2013 remain in disrepair, a constant reminder for neighbors that Chicago has long valued the lives of certain residents over others. Additionally, school closures themselves are often antecedents to violence. Research has consistently demonstrated that areas immediately surrounding closed schools have seen higher rates of gun violence since 2013. 

Schools are community anchors and hubs where neighbors and their families convene to dream of a better tomorrow – one made possible only by the right to a free, accessible, and comprehensive public education. In many cases, they serve as centers for community programming, provide free summer enrichment programs, and welcome families that have recently arrived to the United States. When families are stripped of that right and forced to send their children to schools miles away at the behest of a school board that’s been bought and paid for by the charter school lobby, it’s an example of how the boot of racial capitalism continues to crush communities of color while enriching their oppressors. 

How can we seek to grow our presence on the South and West sides under the message of “Workers Deserve More” if we stand by while they’re given less and less? If “Workers Deserve More” is to be an actual vision for the implementation of democratic socialism, rather than a mere rallying cry, it must account for the workers (and their families) most likely to be affected by school closures: in Austin, Garfield Park, Englewood, and Auburn Gresham, among so many other neighborhoods on the South and West Sides. 

Furthermore, the election of a right-wing school board would likely mean cuts to services for students across the board. The first programs to go would likely be those that support Diverse Learners, students who require special education services. At a time when schools are already understaffed for the personnel that would accommodate these students’ needs (SECAs, paraprofessionals, etc.), it would be unconscionable to consider further cuts. Many students who receive accommodations and curriculum modifications have disabilities. As socialists, we must view this fight through the lens of disability justice. To ensure that every child, in every part of this city, has access to education as a tool of liberation, we must fight to expand funding for our Diverse Learners, not sit idly by while it’s rolled back.

While the prospects are quite somber should the school board swing right, there’s also much to be excited about should the board remain aligned with workers and their children. Just as with the City Council, we are fighting to build a bloc of school board members who have proven records as organizers for the working class. These candidates will mobilize the working class to demand the progressive funding for our schools that Governor Pritzker and the Illinois General Assembly have been refusing to answer for. 

With stable, progressive revenue, we can start to dream bigger. We can work with our bloc of board members to develop a coherent set of policy planks around education that transforms and integrates our schools even deeper into the fabric of the communities they serve. We can begin to imagine a district of Sustainable Community Schools, with wraparound programs like free healthcare, legal aid clinics, and nutrition education. Our district could also fund Universal Pre-K at age 3. Both of these are policies that school board president candidate Hilario Dominguez is running on.  It is a program we as a chapter can and should rally around.

So in the words of educators across this country: “Raise your hand if you’re here, CDSA.” We need to be here to fully fund our schools. Here to push back against the tide of corporate and billionaire money. Here to ensure that the schools in our black and brown communities are as well-resourced as any school in Lincoln Park or Lakeview, not shut down. And here to dream and organize around a better future for Chicago’s children.

The post Raise Your Hand if You’re Here: Why CDSA Must Intervene in the Board of Education Races appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

Portland’s capitalist class animates an opaque network of political action committees & non-profits tasked with pushing Portland politics to the Right.

In a post-Citizens United world, this incestuous network of wealthy donors and corporations relies on weak campaign finance rules, splashy websites, and endless permutations of the words progressive, Portland, and action!

The Portland Metro Chamber of Secrets

The OG lobby of the capitalist class. The Portland Metro Chamber executive committee is helmed by giant multinationals like Bank of America, Amazon, Google, Nike, and Wells Fargo, but it also features local investor-owned utilities, contractors, and health insurers.

The Chamber is the main clearinghouse for right-wing candidates who want to hide campaign contributions from the country’s least popular companies, including data center operators, union-busting law firms, and weapons manufacturers.

The Chamber distributes money to corporate political candidates through 4 ‘separate’ PACs, which are all headed by the Chamber’s hardest working employee, lobbyist Jon Isaacs. According to campaign finance records, Isaacs is the Treasurer/Director of all four groups.

Dishonorable Mention: Working Waterfront is not (yet) a PAC, but the Chamber operates the organization on behalf of major corporate polluters, by fighting against accountability for the dangerous CEI hub and the Portland Harbor Superfund site (e.g. Zenith, Chevron, Exxon, etc).

Some current and recent endorsements:

• State Senate District 15: Janeen Sollman (lost to data center opponent and DSA member Myrna Munoz)
• Portland City Council: Eric Zimmerman (incumbent), Olivia Clark (incumbent), Steve Novick (incumbent), Eli Arnold (current candidate).
• Safer Portland, the failed effort to raid the Portland Clean Energy Fund and hire more cops.

People For ‘Portland Sucks’

This group is like your co-worker who says, “it’s not political” before launching into a pro-cop tirade about how homeless people are at fault for their circumstances. Rising rents and falling wages don’t come up.

These PACs are mostly jobs programs for failed candidates and fired chiefs of staff (e.g. Vadim Mozyrsky, Bob Weinstein, and Eli Arnold, and Julia Brim-Edward’s former staffer, Vikki Payne):

• Go, Portland, Go
• Future Portland
• Partnership for Progress

However, their big money originates with some of the largest check-writers funding right-wing politics across Oregon, including Columbia Sportswear head Timothy Boyle. 

Their steering committees all feature each other’s principal members, according to reporting by the Portland Mercury:

“Partnership for Progress donated $32,000 to the new effort, Go Portland Go, in June, according to state records. The organizations also share some leadership; Partnership for Progress co-leader Vadim Mozyrsky also sits on the steering committee for Go Portland Go. The group is also listed as a coalition member on Go Portland Go’s website.”

‘Go, Portland, Go’ attached several famous restaurant-owners to its list of supporters, but this grassroots is already bailing:

“Earl Ninsom’s constellation of Thai restaurants—Eem, Langbaan, Hat Yai, Paadee, Phuket Cafe, and OK Chicken & Khao Soi (the latter was erroneously listed as two separate restaurants on the Go Portland Go website)—all appeared on the coalition’s list as of Friday, August 28. But after the Mercury asked about the restaurant’s group decision to join, Ninsom said the company would be withdrawing its support.”

Among the restaurateurs still aboard the PAC is the owner of dessert-forward restaurant Papa Haydn’s, which is currently subjecting employees to a nasty union-busting campaign.

Landed Gentry

Portland’s rent-seekers. Rent-seekers are individuals or organizations that try to increase their own wealth by manipulating public policy or economic conditions rather than by creating new wealth or providing productive goods.

These PACs represent the inheritor class; Portland’s ‘old money’ leveraging vast birthrights to buy property and extract rent from tenants, residential and commercial.

• Revitalize Portland Coalition
• Multifamily NW PAC
  • Equitable Housing PAC (statehouse PAC)
• Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors PAC

The Revitalize Coalition is typical. A pet-project PAC of Portland property-inheritor Jordan Schnitzer, Revitalize bills itself as a “real estate collective” of commercial real estate owners, lawyers, builders, and property managers who want more public money to flow into their pockets. 

They insist this personal windfall will ‘trickle-down’ to you, despite their twin-objective of cutting public services. This PAC has an extremely high density of Preschool-for-All haters, and they are licking their lips at Julia Brim-Edwards’ persistent effort to degrade the program.

Also, unrepentant racist and sockpuppet account operator Brian Owendoff is a Revitalize member:

Revitalize’s candidates for the City elections, prior and current, include right-wingers Rene Gonzalez, Loretta Smith, Dan Ryan, Eli Arnold, Olivia Clark, and Eric Zimmerman.

On the residential side of wealth extraction, landlord lobby Multifamily NW (aka “Equitable Housing PAC”) collected and distributed over $1,000,000 since 2020 to local and state politicians, across various efforts to oppose rent control, relocation assistance, and free tenant representation. 

Recent large campaign donations include all of the statewide Democratic Party Leadership (Tina Kotek, Kayse Jama, Rob Wagner, Julie Fahey, and Ben Bowman) as well as Brim-Edwards. 

Police-Industrial Complex

Not much to say here that hasn’t already been said by police reformers and abolitionists for 50+ years. These PACs are funded by cops or by the capitalists who love the cops. 

“More police” is their hammer, and every social problem is a nail. Increased homelessness? Hire more cops. Grandpa watching too many Fox News ‘Antifa’ segments? Hire more cops? Neighbor’s dog pooping on your lawn? Hire more cops.

The PACs:

• Keep Portland Safe PAC
  • Portland Police Association PAC
• Community Safety Coalition PAC
  • Portland Police Association
  • Multnomah County Deputy Sheriff’s Association
  • Heavy crossover with the Landed Gentry and the Portland Metro Chamber of Secrets

Yet, for a bunch of “law enforcement” officers, they can’t seem to avoid breaking the law. Complainants allege canvassers were instructed to lie to potential voters during the unrealized bid to raid PCEF for cop salaries. The Portland Police Association wasted almost $1,000,000 backing the effort and were humiliated in federal court before finally giving up their campaign.

Canvassing Calendar

With election season in full swing from now until November, it’s time for the DSA Difference. This calendar is your one-stop shop where you can find all our canvassing dates.

Devin Thomas O’Shea’s The Veiled Prophet profiles a not-so-secret secret society that presided over a troubled and troubling metropolis.

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