By Albert Daly

WORCESTER – This past Sunday, November 17, Worcester DSA, in collaboration with the WPI Graduate Workers Union (WPI-GWU), hosted a film screening and subsequent discussion of Harlan County, USA.

Harlan County, USA is a classic documentary that follows the 1973 Brookside Strike, a year-long struggle by coal miners in southeastern Kentucky to win their first union contract. After workers at a Harlan County mine unionized with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), Duke Power Company refused to agree to a contract unless it had a no-strike clause. The mine workers held firm, and the film shows the efforts of their wives to support the strike, the health and safety issues in the mines, and the intervention of police and the courts to keep roads open to scabs while ignoring their acts of violence and even murder.

Union reformers may find especially interesting the storyline covering the downfall of corrupt UMWA President Tony Boyle and the rise of reform caucus-backed leader Arnold Miller. The film highlights some of the democratic reforms introduced by Miller, including a member ratification vote on the 1974 National Coal Wage Agreement, but also the lack of right-to-strike protections in the same contract.

As Maddie P, facilitator of Worcester DSA’s Labor Committee noted, “This film reminds us that the harsh realities of American labor history persist in the struggles workers face today. The miners’ fight for their rights is not as distant as it seems and is part of the ongoing class struggle. While the specifics of their working conditions may differ, the underlying dynamics of exploitation, inequality, and corporate power remain strikingly similar.”

Much of the discussion after the screening centered around violence. In the documentary, a scab worker murders one of the striking miners, in addition to scabs and strikebreakers shooting up houses and using guns and violence to intimidate picketers.

The capitalist state did nothing to deter or punish these acts of violence. The police and courts focus largely on the striking workers and their supporters. In effect, they double down on the violence of Duke Power Company, which as one attendee pointed out, forces their workers to suffer in mines and succumb to black lung disease all to live in shacks without hot water. And we see in the film a cameo of sorts from the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, who comments on the impact of the 1974 nationwide miners strike on the economy, a reference to President Gerald Ford’s threat to invoke a Taft-Hartley Act injunction to force the miners to return to work.

Ezra S, facilitator of Worcester DSA’s Political Education Committee, said, “I’m always blown away by the points that other chapter members raise in discussion because they change the way that I view these pieces we consume. My father first showed me this film many years ago, and it was before I knew much about labor or labor history. My second time watching it, the film made so much more sense to me and seemed so much more applicable.”

Worcester DSA’s Political Education Committee prepares presentations and discussions for the chapter’s General Meetings, as well as movie nights like this one — including recent screenings of Concerning Violence, Nae Pasaran, Pride, Union Maids, and A Very British Coup. The Poli Ed Committee also offers regular reading groups, with discussions every month of both short-form, standalone readings and multi-session discussions of books, most recently The Wretched of the Earth and starting in January, Class Struggle Unionism.

“Politicized, socialist union members are stronger, more effective trade unionists because we understand the nature of class struggle on and beyond the shop floor,” said Jake S, a Worcester DSA Steering Committee member who helps direct the Political Education Committee and who is a member of WPI-GWU.

Worcester DSA’s Labor Committee also assisted in putting on the event. The Labor Committee coordinates labor solidarity work across Central Mass and beyond, supports and initiates union drives, and hosts a bi-weekly Workers’ Circle, where DSA members can discuss organizing challenges in their workplaces and unions.

Shane Levett, a Worcester DSA Steering Committee member who helps direct the Labor Committee, said, “Watching this film I hope people see how the mine owners contribute nothing and yet take everything, how the capitalist state facilitates this and is putting its finger on the scale and not in our favor, and how the workers and oppressed peoples of this world have the power in our hands to change it all.”

Albert Daly is a Worcester DSA member.

In this episode, Aaron Stauffer (Associate Director, The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice) joins to discuss faith, the strategies of broad-based community organizing, and the role of sacred values in organizing work. For more on the topic, check out his book: Listening to the Spirit: The Radical Social Gospel, Sacred Value, and Broad-based Community Organizing.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, November 20 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): What is DSA? (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Thursday, November 21 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialist Working Group (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Thursday, November 21 (6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Ecosocialist Monthly Meeting (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Friday, November 22 (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m): Office Hours (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Friday, November 22 (7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.): Film Screening: Nihon Sekigun x PFLP Declaration of War (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, November 25 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Meeting (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, November 25 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenderloin Healing Circle (In person at 220 Golden Gate)

Monday, November 25 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

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

Events & Actions

Tenderloin Healing Circle

We’d like to invite you (yes, you!) to join the Tenderloin Healing Circle every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month! We serve food right before the meeting at 6:00 p.m., and meet from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at 220 Golden Gate Avenue.

This is a free healing circle for the neighborhood. Join other Tenderloin folks for support, hope, and food. All are welcome. The venue is wheelchair accessible, bathrooms are available, and masks are encouraged.

Submit Photos of Your Pets for the 2025 DSA SF Pet Calendar!

We’re putting together a 2025 DSA SF pet calendar, and we want YOUR pet to be included! You can submit photos of your pet through this form. Make sure to submit soon – the calendar will fill up quickly, and we want to make sure your best friend gets a chance to shine!

No Appetite for Apartheid in SF!

Inspired by long-standing Palestinian boycott tactics and the BDS call, the Palestine Solidarity Anti-Imperialist Working Group are canvassing local stores and asking them to pledge to become Apartheid-Free by dropping products from companies complicit in the genocide of Palestinians and colonization of Palestine. It’s time to turn up the heat on this apartheid regime and take apartheid off our plates!

Want to show your support? Sign our Apartheid-Free Pledge so business owners know how popular this movement is with their local customers. After signing the pledge, we would love to see you at any of our upcoming campaign strategy sessions and canvassing days. Check dsasf.org/events for updates.

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 Brent L.

People often refer to cities as “concrete jungles.” Well, Rochester is an asphalt prairie. Walking around our downtown I can’t help but think that what was once a bustling city of industry has now been largely flattened to accommodate personal vehicles.

Rochester is not alone in this way. The urban renewal of the 1950s and 1960s saw entire neighborhoods, mostly Black and Latine, bulldozed to build highways, parking lots, and sports stadiums. Downtowns were no longer places where people lived, worked, and shopped, but simply places where the suburbanites who moved as part of “white flight” could visit in their automobiles.

The best example of this is the construction of Interstate 490, a six lane freeway that carves directly through downtown Rochester, forming the southern border of “The Innerloop.” The Clarissa Street neighborhood was once a thriving Black neighborhood with several popular jazz clubs hosting musicians like Chuck Mangione and George Benson. The construction of 490 carved directly through this neighborhood, displacing countless people and businesses. The jazz scene that once existed is now commemorated by a mural where 490 crosses over Main Street. (Check out the documentary and organization Clarissa Uprooted for more information on this story.) In contrast, a plan to route 390 through the wealthier Swillburg neighborhood was never approved.

All these highways have been carved through our downtown so that suburbanites can visit without waiting in gridlocked traffic (though thanks to induced demand, they still do). So now, they need a place to put their cars!

Building, upon building, upon building, met their fate at the hands of construction crews wielding wrecking balls, bulldozers, and cutting torches. The iconic former Fire Dept headquarters and Waverly Hotel became an office building and its large parking lot.

Rochester and other American cities weren’t built for cars, they were bulldozed for them!

There’s more to lamenting about parking lots than just aesthetics and lifestyle preferences, though. Car centric infrastructure has a significant impact on both our health and the health of the planet.

We hear a lot about microplastics these days—from being found in our blood, brains, and other places. But where do they come from?

The biggest source is synthetic textiles such as polyester and nylon, and a close second is car tires. While tires are typically thought of as rubber, modern tires have a considerable amount of synthetic polymers in them as well. As these tires break down from use, the particles do more than leave black streaks on pavement. Rain washes them into storm drains where they enter the water cycle, and eventually our bodies. The effect of microplastics on our health is still being studied, but it is theorized that they could increase the risk of colon cancer and metabolic disorders.

I’m writing in the wake of two recent devastating hurricanes, Helene and Milton. Hurricanes are growing stronger and more common due to global warming. It seems we now have a “once in a lifetime storm” every couple years. Or in this case, twice in one month.

Handing over our cities to The Car has greatly accelerated the warming of the planet. The transportation sector accounts for 28% of greenhouse gas emissions, and of that 28% light duty cars and trucks account for 52% of greenhouse gasses generated. Shifting our transportation choices to public transit and active transportation like walking and biking would greatly reduce emissions and slow the warming of the planet.

It’s not all bad news, however! Rochester has made a few smart decisions to correct for some of the sins of its past. The Innerloop removal project has replaced what was once a deep moat around our downtown with new housing, businesses, and a separated cycletrack. Surface lots on Main Street and Andrews Street are being turned into affordable housing.

Best of all, public opinion is turning away from the cult of the car and embracing public transit and active transportation. If you too would like to reclaim our cities from the scourge of the car, join DSA, get involved with our City Vitality Solidarity Group, and check out Reconnect Rochester!

The post Cities Are For People, Not Cars first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

by Blair Goodman, MADSA member, co-chair of Equador Working Group on the DSA International Committee and chair of the Training Subcommittee of the DSA Growth and Development Committee

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As we urgently grapple with Trump’s return to the White House, it’s crucial to swiftly understand the economic and political factors that led to this outcome. The Democrats’ failure to promptly address the real economic concerns of working-class Americans has paved the way for Trump’s populist rhetoric to once again resonate with voters.

The Disconnect Between Wall Street and Main Street

Despite the rosy picture painted by macroeconomic indicators – a booming stock market, low unemployment, and steady GDP growth – the reality for average Americans has been starkly different. Under the Biden-Harris administration, we witnessed a shocking 20% increase in consumer prices, the biggest slump in living standards since the 1930s[1]. While the rich got richer, most Americans struggled to keep up with inflation.

The disconnect between official economic data and workers’ lived experiences is staggering. According to a recent poll, 62% of respondents rated the economy as “not so good” or “poor”[2]. This “vibecession” – where public sentiment doesn’t match official economic data – has been a critical factor in the Democrats’ downfall.

The Failure of Bidenomics and Harris’s Neoliberal Approach

Perhaps most damning is the decline in real wages for union workers under Biden. Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index, we see that inflation-adjusted wages and salaries for union workers decreased during Biden’s term while increasing under Trump. No wonder 56% of Americans thought the country was in a recession, with 72% believing inflation was still rising.

Going back to Bill Clinton the Democrats’ embrace of austerity policies has deeply betrayed their working-class base. They’ve continued catering to Wall Street and big business instead of pushing for transformative economic policies that benefit the majority. Harris’s refusal to support a single-payer healthcare system, her backtracking on fracking, and the maintenance of Trump-era tax cuts for the wealthy all demonstrate the party’s shift away from progressive economic policies.

The Shift of Traditional Democratic Voters

One voter’s quote summarizes why sufficient numbers switched from Democrat to Republican: “I’ve been a Democrat my whole life, and I haven’t seen any benefits. Democrats have been sending funds to wars and resources to migrants rather than to Americans who are struggling. I trust Trump to put us first.”[2] This sentiment reflects a broader trend of disillusionment among traditionally Democratic voters, particularly regarding economic issues and the perception that the party wasn’t prioritizing struggling Americans.

The Immigration Paradox

Ironically, much of the US outperformance in economic growth results from a sharp increase in net immigration, twice as fast as in the Eurozone and three times as fast as in Japan. Yet, the Harris campaign failed to capitalize on this economic benefit, instead caving to anti-immigrant sentiment and supporting the continuation of border wall construction, which contradicted the economic benefits of immigration and alienated potential supporters.

The Looming Debt Crisis

Both candidates have ignored the elephant in the room: the ballooning public debt. Currently estimated at $35 trillion, or around 100% of GDP, the debt load is set to soar higher – potentially reaching $50 trillion within the next 10 years. This rising debt will inevitably lead to higher taxes and cuts in government spending, regardless of who is in power, posing a significant economic challenge for the future.

The Need for Socialist Policies is Urgent

Join a socialist organization. I prefer a mass multi-tendency organization like the Democratic Socialists of America, but if you need something more focused, go for it. Learn to be active in your organization and promote outward-facing, mass work.

To rebuild and move forward, we must embrace truly socialist policies that unite the working class:

• Implement a wealth tax on the ultra-rich to fund social programs and infrastructure investments.
• Establish a single-payer healthcare system to eliminate medical debt and ensure universal coverage.
• Enact a Green New Deal that creates millions of good-paying union jobs while addressing climate change.
• Raise the minimum wage to a living wage and strengthen workers’ rights to organize.
• Invest in affordable housing and public transportation to improve the quality of life for all.

The Road Ahead

While the Democratic Party has failed us, we must strategically consider whether it can still be a vehicle for progressive change. Our immediate focus should be building grassroots solid movements and labor organizations that can exert pressure on political institutions from the outside. Of course, we should use the Democratic line where it is strategically convenient and pursue reform that transfers power from the owning classes to the working classes. 

We must also concentrate our defenses against the coming onslaught of right-wing policies. Concentrating our defenses means making choices about where we can protect voting rights, defend reproductive freedom, and safeguard the rights of marginalized communities. We must recognize that unions will likely face a much more hostile environment under a Trump administration, forcing labor into a defensive position. We will need to find a strategy to resume the offensive. 

As we move forward, we must remember that the underlying forces of capitalist production, investment, and profit are much more powerful than any particular policy adopted and implemented by a government. However, this doesn’t mean we should give up on political action. Instead, we must work tirelessly to build a movement that can challenge the foundations of a system that continues to fail most Americans.

The road ahead is challenging, but we must channel our anger and sadness into organizing and action. Only by uniting the working class around a truly progressive economic agenda can we hope to reverse the tide of right-wing populism and build a more just and equitable society for all.

---

Sources: 

Kamala Harris Is Not Doing Well With Union Voters

How Bad Would a Trump Presidency Be for Labor? 

The US presidential election: part one – the economy – Michael Roberts Blog

The US election part two: Trump v Harris:  

NOTE: This review contains spoilers

In his latest film, Anora, director Sean Baker has broken through from indie credibility to mainstream success with a frenetic look at the layer of American workers that toil amongst the ultra-rich, doing their dirty work and cleaning up their messes. While the camera follows the arc of the title character, it lingers on the maids, hotel concierges, exotic dancers, and hired goons who bear witness to the realities of 21^st-century income inequality. Through the protagonist (and audience proxy), exotic dancer Anora, we wrestle with the hope we cannot seem to give up that maybe, if we play our cards right, we can gain access to the world of luxury and ease inhabited by people no better than us. 

As soon as we meet Anora (Mikey Madison), it becomes clear that she is an able and confident worker. Her job involves both physical and emotional labor that she navigates easily. Baker aims a nonjudgmental lens at the club where Anora works; the lighting is warm and sensual and the shots that linger on the dancers are sexy but not prurient or seedy. Anora’s club is a classy establishment that serves high-value clients, and Anora is assigned to Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch. What follows –flirting and touching, listening and laughing, deep stares – could look, from a distance, like two people falling in love; but those of us who have worked in the service industry know that performance is what we are paid for. 

When Ivan invites her to spend a week with him, it is a professional achievement more than a romantic one for Anora. She maintains her power and sets boundaries even as she enjoys the work and the perks, which include lavish parties and designer drugs. She dances for Ivan and holds him while he plays video games because her job is to fulfill the full range of his desires for companionship. They fly to Las Vegas and visit parts of it only seen by the ultra-rich, and when Ivan ‘jokingly’ screams at a hotel concierge, Anora laughs along with him — as does the concierge, because they both serve at his pleasure. 

When Ivan asks her to marry him, it is again proof of her skill at the job of companionship. The transactional nature of the proposal couldn’t be more clearly spelled out (she gets a ring, he gets a green card), yet we are all so wrapped up in the performance of romance and the ecstasy of a decadent lifestyle that it kind of feels like love. 

Then, as they always do, the drugs wear off, and reality sets in.

In the back half of the film, we meet a new set of characters and shift back into the world of people who must make a living doing what someone tells them to do. When word starts getting around that Ivan has married a ‘prostitute’, the fragile plans that he and Anora made during their honeymoon period immediately disintegrates. Men hired by Ivan’s family to keep an eye on him come knocking, and Ivan bolts, leaving her to (impressively) resist them until it becomes clear that she must ally with them to try to track him down. When they physically assault and restrain her, it is with visible reluctance and shame. These hired strongmen, especially the one who seems to be the sole caregiver to his grandmother, are driven by the paychecks they rely on, but also by the knowledge that their bosses are so powerful that disobedience could be punished with the destruction of their professional and personal lives. 

This looming power haunts the whole sad crew as they embark on an involuntary tour of Ivan’s favorite hangouts, wreaking havoc through their pursuit. The next hour of the film unfolds with a manic but humorous energy comparable to the Safdie Brothers film Good Time. Baker’s pacing pulls us from location to location with the driving force of economic anxiety, but skillfully inserts moments of humor and humanity. 

While the goons are fully aware from the outset that they are in a race for their lives, it only dawns on Anora slowly, piece by piece, as she comes to realize that any expectations she had of becoming part of Ivan’s family was a complete fantasy. After dozens of ignored calls and the ransacking of a candy shop, she realizes that Ivan is not a person she can rely on in even the most basic sense. Following a fight at the club where she met him, it becomes clear that he is a pathetic, dependent child completely unable to escape the authority of his parents. When Ivan’s mother (Darya Ekamasova) tells Anora that if she does not give him a divorce, they will destroy her life and the life of everyone she knows, she is just putting words to the feelings we have felt for the whole film. In a system where money buys power, the ultra-rich can make us all do whatever they want.

On her last night in the mansion she allowed herself to believe was hers, Anora attempts to restore some sense of her own power by belittling Igor (Yura Borisov), the henchman who has never stopped trying to show her his humanity. Anora is telling the truth when she calls him a thug and a kidnapper, but even as she says it, she knows that he, too, was just doing his job. They recognize each other as workers. 

The next day, Igor drops her off, carrying her bags to the door in a way that would never even occur to Ivan. When he gives her back her engagement ring — in a much less transactional way than when she first receives it — her instinct is to make good on his investment with her body. She responds with a sexual advance, because for her, the line between transactional sex and genuine attraction is even more blurred than it is for most women. In a moment when rejection would hurt her but enthusiasm would compromise her, Igor just lets things happen. His passivity is a sign of his care and a continuation of his efforts to support her that has been built up over the course of the film. 

In that moment, Anora struggles against her attraction to him. It is a response to what he has done to her, but also to the prospect of attaching herself to who she sees as a man of low status, as opposed to the elite husband she just lost. Their final encounter triggers an emotional release, and she breaks down when her need to be vulnerable momentarily overcomes her instinct to stay strong. This isn’t love any more than her relationship with Ivan was, but it is at least something real.

Anora is a movie with a sad ending, but it’s not a tragedy. It’s a movie about failing to achieve the American dream, but it’s not the story of a woman defeated. It’s about realizing that who gets to have money and who doesn’t is based not on merit or skill, but rather on luck and ruthlessness. Anora gets a taste of this unreal world, where power and pleasure are limitless. For an interloper like her, though, it has hard limits; it’s a sugar rush followed immediately by a crash. Because she is 25, this experience, though traumatizing, will fade; it isn’t the end for her, but a painful lesson that we all learn at some point.

The majority of American workers hold out hope that something will happen to ensure they won’t have to work anymore. This can be seen in the rise of sports betting, crypto prospecting, and voting for a presidential candidate who promises to magically make groceries cheaper. Anyone can see that those who work the hardest in our society tend to get paid the least, while a small minority at the top have nothing but time and endless resources; so why would anyone want to work hard? Unfortunately, none of us will be pulled out of a life of toil by a generous billionaire because the generous billionaire is a myth. For most of us, no amount of savvy speculation or cozying up to rich boys will ever get us into that stratospheric level of wealth. 

Instead, we have to work — not only at the wage jobs that keep food on the table, but at building working-class organizations to contest the power of the billionaire class. It sucks. It is nothing but the promise of hard work forever. But building something with our fellow workers is the only way out of this mess, and there is the potential to find dignity in the work we do, despite the scorn for hard work inculcated by capitalist culture. Sean Baker’s direction and editing allow us, the audience, to see the work of Anora and her coworkers for what it is: the provision of a service by professionals. By adopting this perspective, not only nonjudgmental but celebratory, on the work of exotic dancers, Baker opens the door for us to rediscover the dignity in the physical and emotional labor we all do.

The post (Sex) Work Won’t Love You Back: A Review of Sean Baker’s Anora appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

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By Ben Cabral

Donald Trump will be the 47th President of the United States. This is a result that will no doubt carry major ramifications for oppressed working class people all over the US. We can expect to see increased attacks against our LGBTQ+ communities, our black and brown communities, the bodily autonomy of women, and the safety and security of the working class as a whole.

Democrats and corporate media pundits will begin their usual commentary on how the left cost the Democrats this election, but socialists know better. Donald Trump was reelected because Democrats are either unable or unwilling to take the fight to him. Their strategy of courting neo-conservatives like Dick Cheney in order to chase a mythical moderate republican voter that no longer exists was doomed to fail from the start. 

So the question becomes where do we go from here? The answer is clear, the left, and the labor movement must detach itself from the Democrats and form our own independent mass workers party. This is a long term goal that socialists and communists and anyone else on the broader left must start working towards. DSA is well positioned to be that mass workers party, but this can only be achieved through a struggle within DSA for a clean break from the Democrats and become a fully independent political entity running our own third party ballot line. 

The Democrats Don’t Care About the Left or the Working Class

During the 2024 election cycle the Democrats made it clear that they are a party of the 1% and represent a different faction within the 1% than the GOP. The top spender in the 2024 election cycle was a hybrid PAC, also known as a Carey Committee, called Future Forward USA PAC, who has spent about $517.1 million primarily on ads attacking Trump. 

A top contributor to this PAC is LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. However, the largest contributor to Future Forward USA PAC is a nonprofit called Future Forward USA Action who, because of their status as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, is not required to disclose their contributors. This phenomenon, known as dark money, was the primary driver of a record breaking $4.5 billion of outside spending in this election cycle. 

While we don’t know all the contributors, a New York Times report shows that media mogul billionaire Mike Bloomberg gave $50 million to Future Forward USA Action, and the super PAC Democracy PAC, funded by billionaire George Soros and gains on invested money, gave $10 million to the nonprofit as well. 

  So what does this information tell us? It might offer an explanation as to why Kamala Harris sprinted so far to the right that she started to look like a member of the early 2000s Republican Party. In 2020 Harris entered the Democratic primaries running on Medicare for All, ending fracking, etc and yet in 2024 we didn’t hear her say a word about Medicare for all and instead actually came out in favor of fracking. One of her most memorable campaign promises was that, unlike Joe Biden, she would include a Republican in her Cabinet.

Harris would not even firmly support the right of trans people to access gender affirming care, instead saying in an NBC News interview that we should just “follow the law.” Meanwhile we have seen a number of states enact horrific anti-trans legislation aimed at denying trans people their right to exist.

Harris also refused to endorse an arms embargo against Israel, as they commit a genocide against the Palestinians, even though polling data showed that in multiple swing states it would’ve increased the amount of people likely to vote for her. This became clear in the state of Michigan, which Harris lost by about 80,000 votes.

Clearly, the interests of the 1% and American imperialism – which serves the needs of the 1% as well – were more of a priority for Kamala Harris than her own voter base. So it should not come as a shock to anyone that fewer democrats came out to vote in 2024 as compared to 2020. 

But don’t just take my word for it, Bernie Sanders, in a statement on the 2024 election results, said “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”

Harris and the Democrats made it clear to the working class that they would not support our freedom, our rights, and our ability to live comfortably, so it’s time for the working class to move on from the Democratic Party.

We Need an Independent Mass Working Class Party

It’s time for the labor movement to have our own independent political party that is able to effectively organize our economic power and use it to make meaningful political change. 

The labor movement in the United States has been long dormant in the aftermath of the neo-liberal counter-offensive which began in the late 1970s as a response to the falling rate of profit that had been accelerated by a vibrant labor movement. Large scale attacks on union power, such as the Taft-Hartley Act, the emergence and influence of pro-capitalist think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, and the administrations of Reagan, the Bushes, Clinton, etc. characterized a large scale coordinated effort of the 1% to strip away the gains that the labor movement had made. For example, the Reagan Administration gave massive tax cuts to the wealthy, reducing their tax burden by half and resulted in the beginning of a redistribution of wealth towards the wealthiest Americans. Reagan also famously fired over 11,000 air traffic controllers who had been striking in protest of long work hours and mandatory overtime, and even jailed strike leaders which ultimately disbanded their union. In a team effort by the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton presidencies, the North Atlantic Free Trade Association (NAFTA) was signed into law by Clinton, which allowed the free flow of  capital out of the US and cost the country 100,000s of working class jobs. 

This has resulted in a major weakening of the labor movement, culminating in a historic low in union membership of 10.1% recorded in 2022, down from 20.1% in 1983, as well as the rapid deterioration of the living standards for working class people. That being said, we have seen something of a resurgence in union militancy with multiple high profile strikes in recent years, such as the UAW strike from 2023, the ILA strike back in September, and the Boeing strike, which just ended recently, just to name a few. 

Workers are beginning to see the direct economic benefits that are won through militant labor unions, and we can see this through the massive shift in the public perception of unions. According to a Gallup poll from 2022, 71% of Americans hold a favorable view of labor unions, which is the highest since 1965 and is up significantly from 48% in 2009. The NLRB also reported a 57% increase in union election petitions filed during the first 6 months of fiscal year 2021.  

A mass workers party would be able to take this positive momentum and channel it into coordinated actions. The party would be able to more effectively generate organized mass movement to fight for reforms, such as card check, to transform the widespread positive opinion on unions into more unionized workers. Political education efforts undertaken by the party could give workers the political knowledge they need to not only organize their workplaces, but also to understand the class antagonisms of capitalism and the importance of organized labor beyond the immediate material improvements for workers. Spontaneous action from unions is not enough to end capitalism, the workers must also understand that the political and economic power of the 1% is used to further their accumulation of profit at the expense of the working class. And that the only chance of preventing the further deterioration of, and achieving prosperity for, the working class, is for us to band together and use our collective economic and political power to remove capitalism and implement socialism.    

The key to the success of a party like this is independence from the Democrats. The Democrats only serve to funnel grassroots energy back into the election process and drain our movements of their power. The George Floyd Uprisings of 2020 are a very recent example of this, and the promised police reforms never materialized in any meaningful way, evidenced by the fact that in 2023 police killed more people than any other year on record. In recognizing that the 1% is the enemy of the working class, we must also recognize that this includes the Democratic Party, who is fully funded by, and receives their power because of, the support of the 1%. 

DSA Must Break Away from the Democrats

DSA is the largest socialist organization in the United States, with 60,000 members nationwide and with chapters based in all 50 states. DSA members are already active in labor unions, and grassroots political movements advocating for a free Palestine, Medicare4All, reproductive rights, black liberation, immigrants rights, and so many other important movements. 

And while DSA doesn’t style itself a Leninist vanguard party like some other socialist parties do, this is not what the United States needs at this moment. Right now the United States needs a mass workers party that can reignite the fight against the 1%. A Leninist vanguard party requires a dedicated cadre of professional revolutionaries who are the most class conscious of the working class, have rigorously studied and applied Marxist theory, and are deeply experienced in class struggle. The United States has been lacking a militant labor movement and needs to develop experienced leadership rooted in marxist theory before an effective Leninist vanguard party could be created.

So how does DSA become this mass workers party that we so desperately need? 

DSA must break away from the Democrats. Any connection to the Democrats will only hamper our efforts to rebuild a militant labor movement. As was mentioned before, the Democrats function as a party of the 1% is to funnel mass movement energy from the working class back into electoral politics. While there may be some Democrats who are supportive of the labor movement, the party bosses understand that their power is enabled by the support they receive from the 1%. The economic interests of the capitalist class are in direct contradiction to the interests of the working class, therefore it is extremely unlikely that the Democratic Party could be used to create any real power for the labor movement. It also creates a real danger that DSA could inadvertently lead the working class into the arms of the Democratic Party, and the 1%, instead of away from the 1%. This isn’t to say that our party should ignore electoral politics, but it should not be the main thrust of our efforts, and it should be done independent of the 1% and their political organizations. 

More and more people are becoming disillusioned with capitalism every day. Incumbent administrations have lost elections all over the world this year in response to high levels of inflation making it harder for people to make ends meet. For these people, they may not see that it is the capitalist system itself that is the source of their pain, so we must be there to reveal how capitalism is their true enemy and help them get organized to fight back. DSA must continue to do mutual aid work, and organize around popular pro working class reforms, such as medicare for all, raising minimum wage, the PRO Act, etc and prove to the working class that DSA will fight for their interests. If DSA continues to be seen as a faction within the Democratic Party, it will be much more difficult for workers to believe that DSA supports their interests when they clearly do not believe that the Democratic Party does.

The labor movement can’t delay this task any longer. Quality of life in the United States and around the world is declining, capitalism is rapidly deteriorating right in front of our eyes, and we have a climate crisis which poses an existential threat to humanity. These problems can’t be solved under the domination of the 1%. The only way to defeat this threat is to cast capitalism aside and move into a socialist society designed for the benefit of the workers, and that begins with an independent mass workers party.

Photo Credits:

“You Can’t Fix Crazy” by Thomas Hawk is licensed under CC By-NC 2.0 You Can’t Fix Crazy | Thomas Hawk | Flickr , Thomas Hawk | Flickr , Deed – Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic – Creative Commons

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The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the official position of Working Mass.

By Ben Cabral

Donald Trump will be the 47th President of the United States. This is a result that will no doubt carry major ramifications for oppressed working class people all over the US. We can expect to see increased attacks against our LGBTQ+ communities, our black and brown communities, the bodily autonomy of women, and the safety and security of the working class as a whole.

Democrats and corporate media pundits will begin their usual commentary on how the left cost the Democrats this election, but socialists know better. Donald Trump was reelected because Democrats are either unable or unwilling to take the fight to him. Their strategy of courting neo-conservatives like Dick Cheney in order to chase a mythical moderate republican voter that no longer exists was doomed to fail from the start. 

So the question becomes where do we go from here? The answer is clear, the left, and the labor movement must detach itself from the Democrats and form our own independent mass workers party. This is a long term goal that socialists and communists and anyone else on the broader left must start working towards. DSA is well positioned to be that mass workers party, but this can only be achieved through a struggle within DSA for a clean break from the Democrats and become a fully independent political entity running our own third party ballot line. 

The Democrats Don’t Care About the Left or the Working Class

During the 2024 election cycle the Democrats made it clear that they are a party of the 1% and represent a different faction within the 1% than the GOP. The top spender in the 2024 election cycle was a hybrid PAC, also known as a Carey Committee, called Future Forward USA PAC, who has spent about $517.1 million primarily on ads attacking Trump. 

A top contributor to this PAC is LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. However, the largest contributor to Future Forward USA PAC is a nonprofit called Future Forward USA Action who, because of their status as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, is not required to disclose their contributors. This phenomenon, known as dark money, was the primary driver of a record breaking $4.5 billion of outside spending in this election cycle. 

While we don’t know all the contributors, a New York Times report shows that media mogul billionaire Mike Bloomberg gave $50 million to Future Forward USA Action, and the super PAC Democracy PAC, funded by billionaire George Soros and gains on invested money, gave $10 million to the nonprofit as well. 

  So what does this information tell us? It might offer an explanation as to why Kamala Harris sprinted so far to the right that she started to look like a member of the early 2000s Republican Party. In 2020 Harris entered the Democratic primaries running on Medicare for All, ending fracking, etc and yet in 2024 we didn’t hear her say a word about Medicare for all and instead actually came out in favor of fracking. One of her most memorable campaign promises was that, unlike Joe Biden, she would include a Republican in her Cabinet.

Harris would not even firmly support the right of trans people to access gender affirming care, instead saying in an NBC News interview that we should just “follow the law.” Meanwhile we have seen a number of states enact horrific anti-trans legislation aimed at denying trans people their right to exist.

Harris also refused to endorse an arms embargo against Israel, as they commit a genocide against the Palestinians, even though polling data showed that in multiple swing states it would’ve increased the amount of people likely to vote for her. This became clear in the state of Michigan, which Harris lost by about 80,000 votes.

Clearly, the interests of the 1% and American imperialism – which serves the needs of the 1% as well – were more of a priority for Kamala Harris than her own voter base. So it should not come as a shock to anyone that fewer democrats came out to vote in 2024 as compared to 2020. 

But don’t just take my word for it, Bernie Sanders, in a statement on the 2024 election results, said “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”

Harris and the Democrats made it clear to the working class that they would not support our freedom, our rights, and our ability to live comfortably, so it’s time for the working class to move on from the Democratic Party.

We Need an Independent Mass Working Class Party

It’s time for the labor movement to have our own independent political party that is able to effectively organize our economic power and use it to make meaningful political change. 

The labor movement in the United States has been long dormant in the aftermath of the neo-liberal counter-offensive which began in the late 1970s as a response to the falling rate of profit that had been accelerated by a vibrant labor movement. Large scale attacks on union power, such as the Taft-Hartley Act, the emergence and influence of pro-capitalist think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, and the administrations of Reagan, the Bushes, Clinton, etc. characterized a large scale coordinated effort of the 1% to strip away the gains that the labor movement had made. For example, the Reagan Administration gave massive tax cuts to the wealthy, reducing their tax burden by half and resulted in the beginning of a redistribution of wealth towards the wealthiest Americans. Reagan also famously fired over 11,000 air traffic controllers who had been striking in protest of long work hours and mandatory overtime, and even jailed strike leaders which ultimately disbanded their union. In a team effort by the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton presidencies, the North Atlantic Free Trade Association (NAFTA) was signed into law by Clinton, which allowed the free flow of  capital out of the US and cost the country 100,000s of working class jobs. 

This has resulted in a major weakening of the labor movement, culminating in a historic low in union membership of 10.1% recorded in 2022, down from 20.1% in 1983, as well as the rapid deterioration of the living standards for working class people. That being said, we have seen something of a resurgence in union militancy with multiple high profile strikes in recent years, such as the UAW strike from 2023, the ILA strike back in September, and the Boeing strike, which just ended recently, just to name a few. 

Workers are beginning to see the direct economic benefits that are won through militant labor unions, and we can see this through the massive shift in the public perception of unions. According to a Gallup poll from 2022, 71% of Americans hold a favorable view of labor unions, which is the highest since 1965 and is up significantly from 48% in 2009. The NLRB also reported a 57% increase in union election petitions filed during the first 6 months of fiscal year 2021.  

A mass workers party would be able to take this positive momentum and channel it into coordinated actions. The party would be able to more effectively generate organized mass movement to fight for reforms, such as card check, to transform the widespread positive opinion on unions into more unionized workers. Political education efforts undertaken by the party could give workers the political knowledge they need to not only organize their workplaces, but also to understand the class antagonisms of capitalism and the importance of organized labor beyond the immediate material improvements for workers. Spontaneous action from unions is not enough to end capitalism, the workers must also understand that the political and economic power of the 1% is used to further their accumulation of profit at the expense of the working class. And that the only chance of preventing the further deterioration of, and achieving prosperity for, the working class, is for us to band together and use our collective economic and political power to remove capitalism and implement socialism.    

The key to the success of a party like this is independence from the Democrats. The Democrats only serve to funnel grassroots energy back into the election process and drain our movements of their power. The George Floyd Uprisings of 2020 are a very recent example of this, and the promised police reforms never materialized in any meaningful way, evidenced by the fact that in 2023 police killed more people than any other year on record. In recognizing that the 1% is the enemy of the working class, we must also recognize that this includes the Democratic Party, who is fully funded by, and receives their power because of, the support of the 1%. 

DSA Must Break Away from the Democrats

DSA is the largest socialist organization in the United States, with 60,000 members nationwide and with chapters based in all 50 states. DSA members are already active in labor unions, and grassroots political movements advocating for a free Palestine, Medicare4All, reproductive rights, black liberation, immigrants rights, and so many other important movements. 

And while DSA doesn’t style itself a Leninist vanguard party like some other socialist parties do, this is not what the United States needs at this moment. Right now the United States needs a mass workers party that can reignite the fight against the 1%. A Leninist vanguard party requires a dedicated cadre of professional revolutionaries who are the most class conscious of the working class, have rigorously studied and applied Marxist theory, and are deeply experienced in class struggle. The United States has been lacking a militant labor movement and needs to develop experienced leadership rooted in marxist theory before an effective Leninist vanguard party could be created.

So how does DSA become this mass workers party that we so desperately need? 

DSA must break away from the Democrats. Any connection to the Democrats will only hamper our efforts to rebuild a militant labor movement. As was mentioned before, the Democrats function as a party of the 1% is to funnel mass movement energy from the working class back into electoral politics. While there may be some Democrats who are supportive of the labor movement, the party bosses understand that their power is enabled by the support they receive from the 1%. The economic interests of the capitalist class are in direct contradiction to the interests of the working class, therefore it is extremely unlikely that the Democratic Party could be used to create any real power for the labor movement. It also creates a real danger that DSA could inadvertently lead the working class into the arms of the Democratic Party, and the 1%, instead of away from the 1%. This isn’t to say that our party should ignore electoral politics, but it should not be the main thrust of our efforts, and it should be done independent of the 1% and their political organizations. 

More and more people are becoming disillusioned with capitalism every day. Incumbent administrations have lost elections all over the world this year in response to high levels of inflation making it harder for people to make ends meet. For these people, they may not see that it is the capitalist system itself that is the source of their pain, so we must be there to reveal how capitalism is their true enemy and help them get organized to fight back. DSA must continue to do mutual aid work, and organize around popular pro working class reforms, such as medicare for all, raising minimum wage, the PRO Act, etc and prove to the working class that DSA will fight for their interests. If DSA continues to be seen as a faction within the Democratic Party, it will be much more difficult for workers to believe that DSA supports their interests when they clearly do not believe that the Democratic Party does.

The labor movement can’t delay this task any longer. Quality of life in the United States and around the world is declining, capitalism is rapidly deteriorating right in front of our eyes, and we have a climate crisis which poses an existential threat to humanity. These problems can’t be solved under the domination of the 1%. The only way to defeat this threat is to cast capitalism aside and move into a socialist society designed for the benefit of the workers, and that begins with an independent mass workers party.

Ben Cabral is a member of Boston DSA and contributor to Working Mass.

Photo Credits: You Can’t Fix Crazy | Thomas Hawk | Flickr under CC BY-NC 2.0