Don’t be fooled: failed politicians and Proud Boys tried to spread antisemitic bile at Harvard. DSA anti-fascists won’t let them

On November 11, 2023, several members of Boston DSA, a mix of non-Jews and Jews, disrupted Shiva Ayyadurai’s antisemitic, “anti-Zionist” rally in Harvard Square. As the flier advertising it made clear, this was no rally in support of Palestinians or anti-Zionism, but a rally to support Shiva’s particular brand of conspiracy theory and the idea of Jews as all-controlling oppressors of working people.

We carried signs reading “Antisemitism is the Anti-Zionism of Fools” (a play on the old quote “Antisemitism is the socialism of fools”), “Pro-Palestine, Pro-Jewish, Antifascist” and others. We did this because we find antisemitism repellent, and we find it repellent that Shiva would co-opt the suffering and death of Palestinians for his own ends in this manner. And, we did this to send a message, in deed and not just word, that principled anti-Zionists oppose antisemitism. Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim members of the Harvard and Cambridge communities—indeed, all members—did not deserve Shiva’s spectacle, or the stress and fear that they may have felt as a result of the rally fliers. Indeed, some passers-by thanked us for helping them understand what was happening. Several people who had simply heard about a Palestine rally in Harvard Square spoke to us and were upset and disappointed about the true nature of Shiva’s rally.

We are all experienced antifascists, and we understand the difference between principled anti-Zionism and antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism. John Medlar, a well-known Proud Boy who tried to crash a Drag Queen Story Hour in Fall River last year, was Shiva’s livestreamer. Another rallygoer told us that he too was a Proud Boy and a friend of Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, and called a member of our group a “homo.” One of us, a Jewish survivor of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017, was wearing Palestine colors with a Star of David necklace, and was asked multiple times by Shiva’s rallygoer fans what was around their neck. Another of us was told by a rallygoer that 60% of Congress has dual citizenship with Israel, a variant on a longstanding antisemitic myth. Several told us that vaccines are a “globalist” (a dogwhistle for Jewish) population control plot. In no way is any of this Palestine solidarity or helpful to the people being murdered in Gaza.

We encourage readers to attend rallies for Palestine and a ceasefire that are sponsored by legitimate coalitions and organizations such as the Boston Coalition for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, and to contact their representatives in support of the Ceasefire Now resolution. Unfortunately, right now, with the increased attention to Palestinians’ oppression and many new people in the movement, the antisemitic far right will do what it often does, and try to inject its ideas into the movement through spreading them to well-meaning people (some of them new activists, English language learners, and/or people new to North American cultural contexts) who don’t realize the full implications of certain framings, terms, or images. If you see a friend repeating things that seem off (like suggesting that Americans need to be freed from Israeli dominance, or that Israelis or Jews are “unbelievers” in some way, or using Jewish symbols like the menorah to signify something bad, or using the neo-Nazi phrase “Zionist Occupied Government”), talk to them about it! That’s how we build healthy movements.

No to antisemitism, no to anti-Palestinian hatred, no to Islamophobia, no to fascism!

We repeat here the points from the educational fliers that we distributed on site:

We are supporters of a ceasefire in Israel/Palestine. Many of us are longtime Palestine solidarity activists. We oppose antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian hatred, and fascism.

The rally we are here to oppose claims to be an anti-Zionism, pro-worker rally. However fliers advertising it intertwined the Star of David with a dollar sign as the chain in a pair of handcuffs, accusing “Zionists” of enslaving workers throughout the world. The use of a plain Star of David in this way is unambiguously antisemitic.

While Zionism is an ideology and there is nothing intrinsically antisemitic in anti-Zionism, there is a long and unfortunate history of antisemites using “Zionist” and “Zionism” as antisemitic dog whistles, dating back to Willis Carto’s Liberty Lobby in the 1950s.

Shiva Ayyadurai, who called the rally that we are here to oppose, has spoken at several far-right rallies in the Boston area since 2017, speaking alongside notorious figures such as the violent neo-Nazi/former Proud Boy Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman, Proud Boy and convicted 1/6/21 Capitol attack leader Joe Biggs and Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson. For more on this era of fascist activity in Boston, see this 2019 piece.

One of the local rallies he spoke at was the 2018 Proud Boys rally in Concord, MA. The Proud Boys have become well-known as one of the groups that led the attack on the Capitol on 1/6/21. Massachusetts Proud Boy John Medlar is a long-time collaborator of Shiva’s.

Shiva is a conspiracy theorist who testified at “election audit” hearings to claim the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump

We find it grotesque that Shiva is co-opting Palestinian suffering and death in this opportunistic, antisemitic way. As principled anti-Zionists, ceasefire supporters, antifascists, we say no.

Join us this Sunday, October 29 3pm at the Labor Temple for some grilling, chilling, and organizing! We will be discussing how to mobilize and organize, and what’s the difference. Afterwards we will be grilling, and have some good ole Socialist Socialization! Workshop starts at 3 and cookout afterwards.

Grillidarity art is by local artist Gavin Herzog.

After the events of October 7th, 2023, the Israeli occupying force wasted little time in launching an indiscriminate bombing campaign against the 2.1 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza as a collective punishment, targeting ambulances¹, apartments, schools, mosques, hospitals, and media outlets, turning the existing blockade into an active and deadly siege. Israel has cut off all water, power, fuel, and food supply to Gaza, a further crime against humanity, and the specter of starvation and genocide looms. Telegraphing further escalation, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip²; only a day earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Palestinian civilians in Gaza to “leave now.”³ Leave to go where exactly?

At the time of this writing, thousands of people have already been killed inside and near the Gaza Strip. International law is clear on the legitimacy of occupied peoples to liberate themselves from “colonial domination, apartheid, and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.”⁴ International law is also clear on the prohibition of punishing a civilian for an offense he or she has not personally committed and the prohibition of reprisals against protected persons and their property.⁵ But since the beginning of 2023, the Israeli police, military, and armed settlers have killed, on average, one Palestinian a day. Since Israel imposed the blockade on the Gaza Strip, the occupying force has bombed Gaza a total of seven times: 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2023 — and Palestinians have never been able to leave for safety.

However, Netanyahu’s faux-humanitarian warning to Palestinians, “leave now,” touches the roots of the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” In 1948, Zionist paramilitary groups ethnically cleansed over 750,000 Palestinians from historic Palestine and established the state of Israel, a historic event known as al-Nakba in Palestinian collective memory⁶. It is the reason why nearly 67% of Palestinians in Gaza are descendants of families that were ethnically cleansed from the villages where Israeli kibbutzim and cities stand today. It is the reason why Israel is a military garrison state that maintains an apartheid system today, where Palestinians are harassed, robbed, and murdered by Israeli soldiers and settlers every day, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.⁷ It is the reason why, despite Zionist attempts to deny their existence, Palestinians have continued to resist, persevere, and yearn for Return.

Now is not the time for supposedly balanced, measured statements that obfuscate the truth of the conflict. The failure of international bodies and leaders to hold Israel accountable to international law and to apply UN Resolution 194, the right of Palestinians to return to their ancestral homes, has resulted in what we are now bearing witness to. This has been the status quo for Palestinians for 75 years, and it must end.

Israel is able to maintain this barbaric status quo because of the diplomatic, military, and financial support of the United States since 1967. The United States uses this alliance to project its military power into the Middle East, as it seeks to do in all geostrategically important areas of the globe.

As American socialists, we understand the fight for socialism is international, and we understand the unique role the United States plays in administering a global capitalist empire. To assist Palestinians in their struggle for self-determination, our primary role is to pressure the US for a change in its foreign policy. To this end, we unequivocally support the BDS movement and call on American civil society to join the targeted boycott of Israeli goods, companies, and institutions.

The response of the Biden administration to these events still unfolding has been to supply Israel with more money and weapons.^{8 9}The United States must end its policy of arming the apartheid, settler-colonial ethnostate of Israel. We fully condemn the capitalist Republican and Democratic parties, who are largely culpable for the continuation of violence and dispossession perpetrated upon Palestinians. America’s expanding military-industrial complex continues to act as a force of destabilization and oppression throughout the world, and major arms and military technology manufacturers like Raytheon make billions of dollars in profits from exploitation and war.

As socialists living in the heart of a global capitalist empire, we stand in opposition to the imperialism of the American ruling class, and we stand in solidarity with all oppressed people.

Palestine will be free — from the river to the sea.

In solidarity,
Central New Jersey DSA

1. https://www.businessinsider.com/doctors-without-borders-hospitals-ambulances-targets-israel-hamas-gaza-2023-10 ︎
2.  https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/9/israeli-defence-minister-orders-complete-siege-on-gaza ︎
3. https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/israel-palestine-conflict-more-than-530-killed-after-hamas-launched-unprecedented-attack-on-israel-netanyahu-retaliates-declares-war-1.1696670798153 ︎
4. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-184195/ ︎
5. https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciv-1949/article-33 ︎
6. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ethnic-Cleansing-of-Palestine/Ilan-Pappe/9781851685554 ︎
7. https://jacobin.com/2023/10/west-bank-apartheid-israel-idf-oslo-accords ︎
8. https://themessenger.com/politics/biden-administration-discussing-military-aid-package-to-israel-after-hamas-attack ︎
9. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67049196 ︎

The post From the River to the Sea! appeared first on Central NJ DSA.

Denver DSA unequivocally stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their fight for liberation from the apartheid regime of Israel. Palestinians have endured 75 years of dispossession, colonization, desecration, torture, and confinement at the hands of the Israeli government, enabled financially, politically, and culturally by the United States. The path to liberation must include ceasing all U.S. aid to Israel, lifting the blockade of Gaza, ending Zionist settler-colonialism, and ensuring the right for Palestinians to return to their homeland.

Yesterday, a wealthy and well-funded nuclear power with the financial, political, and cultural support of the United States began forcibly evacuating 1.1 million civilians from Gaza City during an ongoing indiscriminate carpet-bombing campaign which has already killed thousands of civilians, injured tens of thousands, and displaced hundreds of thousands. Israel has cut off food, water, fuel, electricity, and medical care from Gaza’s 2.3 million citizens, half of whom are children. These civilians have been deemed “human animals” by the Israeli Defense Minister overseeing these attacks, who committed to “treat them accordingly” – an open declaration of genocide. Yet even now, the American war machine readies itself to ship more weapons and send more military funding to support Israel’s extermination of the Palestinian people for daring to resist their brutal, unlivable conditions.

Border walls, military checkpoints, crippling sanctions, restricted water and electricity, food scarcity, impoverishment, denial of medical care, and routine bombings are the material conditions that Palestinians have been forced to live under for over 75 years. Backed by the US, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) brutally murder Palestinians with impunity, over 8,000 since 2000 and thousands since October 7. The IOF detains 600 Palestinian children every year and keeps over 5,000 Palestinians imprisoned, a quarter of whom are held without charges or trial. For 16 years, Gaza has been transformed into an open-air prison, wherein the IOF concentrates 2.3 million people in an area smaller than Denver and bombs them in politically-motivated campaigns they sadistically term “mowing the grass.” 

Bloodshed is a universal tragedy. But under apartheid and occupation, some lives are deemed more precious than others. The negative blowback of apartheid should come as no shock; people who are oppressed will perpetually seek ways to free themselves from that oppression. The murder of Palestinians has been a systemically invisibilized occurrence for decades. When Palestinians quietly suffer the daily violence inflicted on them, the West calls that “peace”. Denver DSA recognizes that the only true and lasting peace must be predicated on liberation from occupation, and it is towards that goal that we resolve ourselves today.

We call on all DSA members and endorsed DSA electeds to stand unequivocally in support of Palestinian people’s right to resist. We encourage all DSA chapters to stand with the people of Palestine and organize turn-out to local demonstrations.

May Palestine be free, from the river to the sea.

In the face of over 75 years of settler-colonial violence and genocide, the will and spirit of the Palestinian resistance burns brighter than ever. The state of Israel has ethnically […]

The post Statement In Support Of Palestinian Liberation appeared first on Houston DSA.

We at The Pika Press are very happy to bring you comprehensive coverage of the 2023 DSA National Convention! Our coverage includes articles, report-backs, and statistics features!

Articles

The Struggle for an Anti-Zionist DSA Continues by Omar — a pointed critique of DSA’s zionist history and the votes of the convention.

Convention from the Staffer’s View by Hayley Banyai-Becker — a reflection on what post-convention DSA looks like from the unique position of a DSA staff organizer.

What is the NPC? by Joe Mayall — a straight-forward explanation of what DSA’s National Political Committee is and what it does.

DSA Doesn’t Know What It Wants by Caoimhín Perkins — a polemic on certain comrade’s aversion to a party-like strategy.

Delegate Report-Backs

Brief summaries of Denver DSA delegates’ experiences and thoughts on convention. Contributing comrades: Alejandra Beatty, Ahmed, Colleen Johnston, Andrew Thompson, Jennifer Dillon, Matthew Rambles, Max Soo, Mitch, Skye O’Toole, and Stephanie Caulk.

Statistical features

Pika’s Index — a list of statistics about convention with plenty of lines to be read in-between.

Colorado DSA Votes @ DSACon2023 — a spreadsheet showing all the votes (resolutions and NPC) taken by delegates from all four of Colorado’s DSA chapters at the 2023 National Convention.

Ads and notes

Want to write for us? Want to make graphics for us? Want to help improve our website? Noticed a typo or inconsistency that makes you want to gauge your eyes out? GREAT! Please contact political.education@denverdsa.org or message Brynn via Slack or on Twitter to speak with the manager!

ISSUE #3

by Omar

On August 4, 2023, the first in-person Convention of the Democratic Socialists of America commenced after the 2020 surge in membership. Several important questions were up for debate: Should DSA expand its National Political Committee? Will DSA work within the Democratic Party, or will it declare independence? Will DSA be an anti-Zionist organization in principle and practice?

Anyone who has read the 2021 statement where DSA took a rhetorical departure from its Zionist history will be given the impression that DSA is “unwavering” in its commitment to Palestinian solidarity and liberation against Zionist settler colonialism. But the 2021 Bowman affair has suggested that the professed “solidarity” with Palestinians is actually implicit Zionisim. And inextricable from the Bowman affair was the NPC’s decision to decharter the BDS & Palestine Solidarity WG, providing yet another example of the solidarity collapsing from “merely professed” to “a total lie.” 

Now the year is 2023. The last-minute recommendation by the NPC to incapacitate Palestine organizing within DSA by absorbing the Palestine Solidarity WG into the International Committee, their refusal to place the anti-Zionist resolution on the agenda, their proposed amendment to the anti-Zionist resolution that renders it useless, as well as the use of tokenism on the debate floor and handing out propaganda flyers outside debate to impel delegates to support the IC absorption are all new examples of a new liberal Zionism within DSA. 

From this tremendous effort it is extremely difficult to conclude that it is perpetuated in good faith by anti-Zionists. It seems exactly what liberal Zionists would do, who begrudgingly resort to implicit Zionism only because of the moral progress within DSA that no longer renders acceptable explicit Zionism. 

Actual solidarity is described no better than by Paulo Freire, who in 1968 famously said that “solidarity requires that one enter into the situation of those with whom one is solidary; it is a radical posture.” To enter into the situation of Palestinians means to support BDS in principle, given that over 80% of Palestinians support BDS. Actual solidarity is militant intolerance to Zionism within DSA. Actual solidarity would completely transform DSA’s reputation away from liberal Zionism, which will improve both the quality and quantity of membership. We would unlock a vibrant and necessary collaboration with grassroots Palestinian organizations such as the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). 

I moved to Colorado in 2021, soon after the Israeli Occupation Forces conducted widespread terrorism in Palestine: Invading the al-Aqsa compound, unloading airstrikes on Gaza, and expediting colonialism in the West Bank and al-Quds. 

In light of this, I sought Palestine organizing, looking primarily towards political education and campaigns such as the BDS movement. Without a local PYM or SJP chapter, I reluctantly joined Denver DSA with full awareness of DSA’s historic ties to Zionism. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that substantial internal work was being done to make DSA a truly anti-Zionist organization, with like-minded folks in Denver and the National BDS & Palestine Solidarity WG, who proposed a resolution to enforce the actual anti-Zionism that DSA needs. What’s more, anti-Zionists in DSA have been met with great internal hostility and sometimes even violence, but that does not deter us from nurturing our organization.

It remains unclear whether the new NPC, after being handed the responsibility of deliberating whether to make DSA an anti-Zionist organization in principle and praxis, will be in solidarity with Palestinians. In my view, weakness on anti-Zionism has no place in leftist organizations and cannot sustain the types of enduring structures we are trying to build.

~~

Omar is a member of the Denver Democratic Socialists of America and an organizer with the Colorado Palestine Coalition.

ISSUE #3

by Hayley Banyai-Becker

Hi comrades! My name is Hayley Banyai-Becker (she/her) and I am a Field Organizer with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) aka I am a national staff organizer! At the beginning of August, I attended my first ever in person DSA convention (as a staff member) joining 1,200 socialists from around the country in Chicago, and wow do I have such a renewed sense of enthusiasm for the organizing project that is DSA. 

My work broadly consists of supporting DSA chapters in 12 states across the western United States with their internal work like member recruitment and development and external organizing efforts such as campaigns and solidarity work. I absolutely love what I do and firmly believe that I have one of the greatest jobs in the world – if it is possible for a socialist to love their work, lol. Before joining DSA, I worked for a Colorado progressive nonprofit, where a coworker and I started a union to improve our working conditions. Prior to that, I worked on a variety of campaigns, including two of Denver DSA’s own endorsees, Lorena Garcia for US Senate and Paid Family and Medical Leave for Coloradans (Proposition 118). I’ve been a member of DSA since late 2019 and I served as Denver’s Electoral Committee Chair in 2021. DSA has been my political home since I joined and I deeply believe we have the power to bring about socialism in our lifetime. 

All of this work led me to the DSA convention, where I had so much excitement to see  chapters across the country commit to implementing stronger, more comprehensive and truly intentional recruitment efforts. This year’s convention made clear the importance and necessity of extensive recruitment practices in order to succeed in (and pay for) our goals. Chapters earnestly heard this call: in real time, I am witnessing a remarkable sense of desire and commitment to grow our organization’s membership, and therefore fundraising, in order to build the DSA we want to see going forward. The energy around this is palpable for me, because one of my primary goals as a DSA organizer is to help chapters understand that strong recruitment skills are vital to the longevity and success of our movement! 

A lot of my work revolves around supporting chapters in educating their members on the importance of the ideological framework that is mass movement building. We are working to build a movement of the majority, which means organizing everyone in the working class into our movement is the only way we will win. It is essential to DSA’s theory of change: as working class people, we all face some very similar issues (we can’t afford rent, we have student or medical debt, etc), but we are the agents of change when we come together to fight back on these issues. Put even more simply: we must directly and intentionally ask people to join DSA in order to win the world we want. If you are interested in supporting Denver’s recruitment and internal organizing efforts, contact Caoimhin Perkins and/or join the #WG-Internal-Organizing channel on Slack.  

Another take away from convention that I am seeing across my entire turf is the inclination for chapters to work together across their states and regions. Being in person at the convention gave us all the ability to meet and create more honest and sincere connections with organizers from other chapters in neighboring towns and cities in a way that has not been possible since the last in person convention in 2019. Organizing is impossible without deep relationships and the pandemic has kept us from building the trust and intimacy needed to create relationships that can endure over time and trauma. Chapters have been seeking out regional connections consistently throughout the pandemic, but with this added in person aspect, I am seeing these relationships come to fruition now in a way that was not entirely possible before. This is tremendous for the strength of our organization and gives chapters the ability to more easily organize statewide efforts (or anything that impacts working class members outside of their jurisdiction) moving forward. If you want to connect more with me on these topics, reach out any time at hayley@dsausa.org. 

~~

Hayley Banyai-Becker is the DSA regional organizer for the western United States. Prior to her time as a DSA employee, she chaired Denver DSA’s Electoral Committee. She also worked for Representative Lorena Garcia’s 2018 campaign for U.S. Senate and the Yes On 118 campaign.

ISSUE #3

by Joe Mayall

As the most high-stakes vote at any convention, the election of the new National Political Committee (NPC) at the 2023 Convention was the most anticipated and debated decision put before the convention delegates. With each candidate presenting their vision for how the NPC should operate during the upcoming two-year term, NPC votes are often seen as a measuring stick for how the delegates, and therefore the membership that sent them to convention, are feeling about the direction of DSA. 

As the new 16-member body settles in to the inaugural month of its 24-month term, it’s worth examining the responsibilities, duties, and directives tasked to the NPC to properly understand how these members will shape the next two years of DSA.

What Does the NPC Do?

While the Convention is the highest decision-making body in DSA, it is only in session for four days every two years. Between conventions, the NPC acts as DSA’s “board of directors,” making executive decisions that impact the national organization. While the Convention sets DSA’s goals and priorities by voting on resolutions (as was just done in August), it is up to NPC members to determine how exactly these priorities should be carried out. For example, the 2023 Convention voted to keep the Green New Deal as a top political priority. How will this be enacted? That’s up to the NPC. They can allocate resources to campaigns and elections around the country, organize with environmental groups with similar goals, and do pretty much anything else that falls within the stated goal of trying to make the Green New Deal a reality. The NPC also has secondary duties as established in the DSA constitution, such as representing DSA in public spaces, assisting YDSA with its growth and actions, determining yearly dues, and overseeing the chartering of new chapters and commissions. 

All of these actions are determined at NPC’s quarterly meetings, and the bi-weekly meetings of the Steering Committee, a five-person committee elected by the NPC to serve as a consistent body in-between sessions.

NPC Requirements

Earlier the NPC was described as DSA’s “board of directors.” This isn’t just a euphemism, but rather a codified legal responsibility. As the heads of a registered non-profit organization, every member of the NPC has fiduciary duties they must abide by. In addition to enhancing DSA’s public standing, advocating on behalf of the organization, and representing the organization to the best of their ability, NPC members are legally required to fulfill three specific duties. Duty of Care requires them to exercise a “reasonable” level of care, attention, and concern when making decisions. Duty of Loyalty requires them to remain loyal to DSA and not take action that could potentially harm the organization. And, perhaps most importantly, they are bound by a Duty of Obedience that requires them to help the organization reach its stated goals to the best of their ability. To put this into context, the Duty of Obedience requires NPC members to dedicate DSA’s resources to the goals set in the resolutions determined by the Convention. 

If this sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. In addition to spearheading DSA’s national campaigns, NPC members must maintain relationships with DSA’s staff, National Director, and grass roots membership through the chapters. Unlike the aforementioned duties, these aren’t “requirements,” but rather functions necessary to ensure they are best able to continue doing their most important job: leaving DSA better than when they found it.

This will be the main thought on the mind of every new and veteran NPC member as they get to work at the start of their term.

~~

Joe Mayall is a freelance writer and a member of the Denver Democratic Socialists of America. His work has appeared in Jacobin, The Progressive, Balls and Strikes, and The Pika Press. More of his work can be found at joewrote.substack.com.

ISSUE #3

by Caoimhín Perkins

My first takeaway is how huge of a split we have when it comes to electoral politics. This is demonstrated by a glaring inconsistency with how we voted on two amendments to the National Electoral Committee Resolution. We quite easily passed Amendment I, “Act Like An Independent Party,” which said DSA should slowly transition away from working with the Democratic Party by 

1. Establishing our own resources outside of the tools and lists,
2. Identifying our candidates as socialists and separate from the DP,
3. Establishing candidate schools,
4. Establishing our own legislative programs,
5. Expecting our candidates to cross-endorse each other and bloc vote,
6. Developing our own party identity,
7. Expecting candidates to publicly and loudly identify as Democratic Socialists, and
8. Establish Socialists in Office committees

However, when it came time to vote on Amendment P, “Towards A Party-Like Electoral Strategy,” we choked. How are any of the below not necessary for acting like an independent party, something we had just voted to do?

1. Demanding candidates publicly and loudly champion DSA’s platform and identify as socialists
2. Demanding they always vote against police funding, military funding, carceral legislation, anti-labor legislation, and other racist, sexist, queerphobic, ableist, and xenophobic legislation
3. When they breach a standard they have not committed to, that we engage in a process of educating them, and that if they still refuse to meet this standard, that we de-endorse
4. Demanding they cross-endorse and bloc-vote
5. Demand that DSA electeds meet quarterly with their chapters to discuss legislative priorities
6. Requiring National create a group that would meet with and hold accountable DSA electeds in federal office

Every single point here can be found in Amendment I or is just a more rigorous form of what was in Amendment I. And yet, Amendment P failed to pass, and the yes vote was significantly less than the yes vote on Amendment I. The point of contention was, of course, point (3), which created consequences for crossing the red lines established in point (2). 

Comrades claimed that demanding expulsion for candidates was a purity test that sacrificed power. I spoke on the floor in favor of this amendment, explaining that there was no purity test, only a way of educating and holding electeds accountable. Sometimes being principled is the best praxis, and this is case in point. Point (4) even says that we have to educate candidates first, especially on subjects that we failed to educate them on in the first place. This is practically the same thing as point (3) for Amendment I, with the added caveat that candidates can be flunkies in this school and be (as the sternest, but not the first, consequence) de-endorsed. So, either the comrades who claimed a purity test did not actually read the Amendment P, or they don’t mind continuing to endorse electeds that vote in favor of oppression. Either way, they left us with no way to actually enforce our independent identity. To those who did not read the amendments properly, a certain Marxist once said, “Unless you have investigated a problem, you will be deprived of the right to speak on it. How can a communist keep his eyes shut and talk nonsense? It won’t do! You must not talk nonsense!”

To the comrades who think the de-endorsement and red lines themselves are bad and actually read the amendment, I have to ask what your goal is. This refusal to create accountability structures is a consistent issue we have where I am left wondering how serious a majority of our comrades are about socialism and whether they even know what they want. We have no long term electoral strategy; instead we have comrades fluttering like chickens over short term gains from electing supposed progressives to offices they can lose in 2-4 years while gridlocked against capitalist politicians. I spoke with some comrades who thought that if their moderate democrat in Alabama or city council person in San Diego weren’t up to snuff because of Amendment P, then they would fail. This is ridiculous.

Are we going to have a reformist revolution in 4-8 years? No, and we never will. We’re so focused on big-tents that we’ve forgotten we have to actually seize the means of production like we always say we will, and we cannot do that if we aren’t demanding more of ourselves. The seizure of the state and an entire economy is not some picnic where everyone drops their yes and no votes in a ballot box, and this is especially not the case in a country that was built on stolen land, has the largest military in the world, and has the world’s fourth largest police force. We are the backbone of global capitalism, and those in power will not simply let us reform our way out of it. They are fighting back through police violence, union busting, assassinations, stacking the courts, and attempted coup d’etats. Those of us set on electoral politics can’t even get our electeds to engage with us because we’re scared that we’ll have a few less useless representatives.

We need to get real. Electoralism is not the revolution, but if we’re dedicating resources to it, we could at least have high standards so that we can reliably gain non-reformist reforms. Why even say we’ll act like a separate party if we aren’t going to have something to offer that’s different from progressive Democrats? What will we be except for just another third party? I don’t understand why anyone goes to the convention of the largest socialist organization in the United States just to say that we can’t demand our socialist electeds engage with their base and legislate to a higher standard than capitalist electeds.

The second takeaway is that we have many comrades who still believe that gridlocked politicians are more important to building power than having strong connections with Palestinian and Anti-Zionist organizations. I’m not sure when they started prioritizing individuals over multi-racial mass politics, but we love to mix up our priorities for wins that are aesthetic blockbusters over wins that have substance. There were a number of maneuvers made by those chairing the convention that blocked MSR-12, an Anti-Zionist resolution, from even being brought to the floor. The majority of us voted to refer it to the incoming NPC, probably hoping it would get tanked. I don’t understand anyone who thinks multi-racial mass politics isn’t good for socialism, but keeping around a man who is unrepentant in being buddy-buddy with J-Street and the Iron Dome is. 

Some might say that we can find a third way on that issue, and in another timeline, one where we already had a national accountability structure in place when Bowman broke with DSA, they might be right. But we aren’t in that timeline, and so I would pose this question: do the Palestinian organizations that are writing us off care about that non-existent third way? They don’t, and we voted down the two opportunities to create that national accountability structure. So, again, I am wondering how serious some comrades are about this or whether they actually read these resolutions. Do we not want better for ourselves? Maybe MSR-12 will be passed by the new NPC’s narrow left-majority. That remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that even though both the national BDS working group and International Committee said they didn’t want to be merged, a majority of delegates said “surely they can’t know what they’re talking about,” and merged them anyway.

The third takeaway, as someone who is not a member of any caucus, is that my view of caucuses is slightly less pessimistic—but is still pessimistic, for different reasons. There were definitely cynical uses of power, but in most cases we were all on the same team, even when we were in direct conflict. But it still felt like it encouraged this maneuvering. My thoughts on this are partly informed by history—ultras and libertarian socialists like to criticize Lenin for banning caucuses from existing in the Soviet communist party, calling it anti-democratic. I’m starting to understand why he did it, even though I think banning wasn’t the solution. It feels like for all the power caucuses bring us for organizing on a national level, the side effect is that we have more competition that keeps us from functioning properly. It was astonishing to go from Denver to a National that was a delicate “balance” between hating each other’s guts and knowing we all had (approximately) the same skin in the game at the end of the day. This was, of course, always far more noticeable on votes that posed deep political questions, creating controversy where some comrades refused to look at reality and instead decided to go with their imaginary ideal of how our organization should work. I don’t have a solution to the caucus problem, but there needs to be one.

P.S. – There were bingo cards filled with convention buzzwords, courtesy of the National Housing Justice Commission. I got Bingo twice. 

P.P.S. – Having grown up in the Great Lakes region, quite possibly nothing will top the moment when Stephanie got to the shore of Lake Michigan, couldn’t see the other side, and yelled “this is a LAKE????”

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Caoimhín Perkins has been a member of Denver DSA since 2019. They are a former teacher and union steward who works in DDSA’s labor, housing, and internal organizing committees.