Thorn West: Issue No. 169

DSA held its biannual national convention over the past weekend, with over 1,000 socialists gathering in Chicago to set the direction of the organization for the next two years. The Los Angeles chapter sent over 60 delegates, the second-largest delegation, and one of its members was elected to DSA’s 16-person National Political Committee.

City Politics

• This Tuesday the Los Angeles City Council’s Personnel, Audits, and Hiring Committee will meet for the first time in several months, as the absence of Councilmember Curren Price has led to several cancellations. This week the committee will discuss impediments to the Targeted Local Hire Program, which the city relies on to staff open civilian positions.

Labor

• Los Angeles city employees represented by SEIU Local 721 staged a 24-hour walkout on Tuesday in response to alleged unfair labor practices by the city. The union also used the opportunity to draw attention to the city’s thousands of staffing vacancies, which for numerous reasons the city has been slow to fill. “If you’re our members, there’s immediacy — if you’re working mandatory overtime every weekend, if you haven’t seen your family,” said union president David Green.

• The LA Times reports on numerous instances of violence being used against striking hotel workers by the security forces employed by hotels. Jacobin also has continued coverage of the hotel workers’ strike, with articles on a strike-breaking app and a strike-breaking conference of political science academics.

• Last Friday representatives of the WGA and AMPTP met to discuss the possibility of resuming negotiations. Though initial reports indicated that there had not been much progress to restart negotiations, it has since been announced that negotiations would resume today.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• Meanwhile the city has moved with feverish speed to address a parallel staffing decline in the LAPD, offering double-digit percentage pay bumps for starting pay in the latest contract. (Having fewer police officers has not corresponded with an increase in crime.) Los Angeles Police Protective League officers will vote to ratify the tentative agreement next week, after which the LA City Council must vote to approve it, first in the Personnel Committee and then in full council.

Housing Rights

• In 2022, years of tenant organizing at Hillside Villa led to a historically successful result, as the LA City Council passed a motion to acquire their building through eminent domain to maintain affordable rents. In the year since, the city has made very little progress on following through. Last week, the building’s owner delivered dozens of pay-or-quit notices to tenants. Thread from tenant rally here. 

• In July, reporting from ProPublica and Capital & Main uncovered several residential hotels — in which units are supposed to be kept as affordable housing — renting to tourists, violating the rules in plain sight. The Los Angeles Housing Department has responded by sending out notices to noncompliant owners. A motion from Councilmember Bob Blumenfield also aims to strengthen what has been lax enforcement of the ordinance, which LAHD claims is the result of departmental short-staffing.

• Relatedly, KCRW covers the city’s failure to enforce its tenant anti-harassment ordinance.

Environmental Justice

• The South Coast Air Quality Management District board approved new regulations to help the Southern California region hit federally mandated targets for reducing nitrogen oxide emissions. It is a first-of-its-kind rule that will require dozens of food manufacturers to soon begin replacing their gas-powered ovens with cleaner electric models.

The post High Vacancy Rate in City Staffing Aggravating Housing Crisis + Causing Labor Burnout appeared first on The Thorn West.

The workers of Barboncino Pizza in Crown Heights, Brooklyn made New York history on July 26th, as they voted unanimously to form a union with Workers United. Barboncino Workers United became New York’s first unionized pizzeria, an incredible show of strength for the cause of Labor in the deeply unorganized food service industry. Tonight, we hear from Alex and Mike, two workers involved in the organizing effort, about their successful campaign at Barboncino, and the fight that’s yet to come not only in their own workplace but across the restaurant industry.

Today we submitted a petition to both the City of Bozeman and Gallatin County to establish a Housing Authority. This is the first step to building Social Housing and lowering the cost of housing in Bozeman.

With a Housing Authority, we can take an active role in increasing the supply of affordable housing. We cannot continue to look for remedies from the status quo. The reality is that when housing is tied to profits, it is more profitable for developers to maintain scarcity. Meanwhile, non-profit developers statewide fight over a small pot of LIHTC and Section 8 vouchers to serve a growing need. With a public housing authority, the city could use its tools – the same ones that build our schools and fire stations – to access bonds to start building Social Housing.

With Social Housing, we can have local control of development to meet the needs of our community in Bozeman – including deciding the cost of rent, developing in a way that meets crucial sustainability standards, and creating communities welcoming to workers, students, pets, and families. Social Housing is a sustainable model of publicly owned and publicly developed mixed-income housing that would remain permanently affordable. With our own housing authority, the city can set the rents for their own developments and the reasonably-priced rents can go back to maintaining the building, rather than being pocketed by for-profit developers.

The city cannot mandate requirements for private developers to have more low-income units, meaning that we continue to use public funds to subsidize landlords and developers to maintain their profits. The city cannot mandate that LIHTC units are kept affordable in perpetuity, meaning there is always a threat that we will lose affordable units each year. But the city CAN have local control on development if the city establishes a public housing authority and starts creating its own supply of Social Housing.

Want to learn more about the concept of Social Housing? Join our Topical Discussion on Sunday, August 20 to learn about how the model of social housing could work in Bozeman. https://www.facebook.com/events/214570914505353

On Wednesday, July 12th, I took time out of my work day to make public comment at the City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy meeting on behalf of Democratize ComEd, one of Chicago DSA’s two ecosocialist priority campaigns. Public comment is an incredibly powerful way to speak directly to our political leaders and allow the public to directly engage in civic affairs. By lending my voice, together with my other comrades, to the cause of Democratize ComEd, we can have a direct impact on the political process. 

With a new administration, and a new Chair of the Environment Committee (49th Ward Alderwoman Maria Hadden), the goal of municipalization of our power grid is closer than ever, and the meeting was a clear demonstration that ComEd is unprepared to answer basic questions about service unreliability — or why they should continue to provide electric service to Chicago at all. 

My public comment is below:

****

Good morning. My name is Elena Gormley, and I am the Co-Chair of Chicago Democratic Socialists of America, the founding organizational member of Democratize ComEd. Chicago DSA is dedicated to creating a city that enables all Chicagoans to live prosperous, healthy lives and an equitable, reliable energy system is critical to that vision. Democratize ComEd is a coalition dedicated to improving electrical service to all Chicagoans through municipalization of our power grid. 

We are in the midst of a climate crisis that has impacted Chicagoans through dangerous flash flooding, poor air quality from wildfires that impacts the people who can’t work inside offices — like our hardworking UPS Teamsters, and the continued economic impacts from COVID-19 and inflation. Many of you represent wards where hundreds of thousands–and even millions of dollars are extracted for increasingly unaffordable ComEd bills. 

We need a reliable power grid, and a transparent and publicly accountable municipal utility agency. ComEd does not deliver either of these. 

 Disconnections, blackouts, and general unreliability are an immense burden on the physical and mental health of Chicagoans. As a social worker, I have worked with countless clients who have been harmed by the electric system failing them. Lack of access to electricity, whether through lack of affordability or system unreliability, is a real, material problem for thousands of Chicagoans across this city–and it puts many working families with children at risk of unnecessary involvement in the child welfare system. 

As you discuss summer preparation and ensuring service reliability, I urge you to reject ComEd’s corruption and unreliable service, reject the disastrous legacy of poor franchise agreements, and move to municipalize our power grid.

****

Everyone, except for two speakers during public comment, spoke on behalf of Democratize ComEd, highlighting everything from the ComEd Four corruption trial, to ComEd’s continued pattern of racially disproportionate shutoffs. You can watch the whole meeting, including public comment, here:

The only public commenters speaking in favor of ComEd were representatives of a local nonprofits and an iHeartMedia affiliated radio show, who spoke supportively of ComEd’s Community Ambassador program. This program, operated through nonprofit agencies, provides information on utility assistance and energy savings programs. ComEd’s philanthropic efforts are so limited and scattershot that I, a social worker who regularly promoted bill assistance programs through the Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County (CEDA) and the Federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), the two largest energy assistance programs offered to low-income households, was not aware of this program or its connected funding opportunities. 

The workers across Chicago who assist hundreds of thousands of families with extremely complex utility assistance applications do extremely important work — and would benefit immensely from a publicly funded and publicly accountable municipal power agency instead of ComEd’s fairweather approach to community assistance.

The rest of the hearing demonstrated something I’ve seen repeatedly as a DSA member: socialist policies and political demands are extremely popular — even among people who aren’t socialists. Critical questions towards ComEd officials weren’t just limited to members of the Democratic Socialist Caucus; alderpersons across the political spectrum had similar concerns because ComEd’s inability to provide a basic public service is apparent to everyone. 

This is a political environment that we can capitalize upon to win public power in Chicago — if we organize. Join our fight to Democratize ComEd today!

The post We Must Democratize ComEd: CDSA Co-Chair Speaks In City Council appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

Scholar, philosopher, and prolific author Dr. David Bentley Hart joins the podcast to discuss Bible translation as an act of resistance, the Christian sources and support for social democracy, and the moral demands of human and creaturely relations to care for one another. Don't forget to join us at Theology Beer Camp (www.theologybeer.camp) and use the promo code HEARTGODPOD for a discount! – Check out his New Testament translation (https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300265705/the-new-testament/) – For essays on his theological and political ideas, check out "Theological Territories" (https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268107185/theological-territories/) – And per Hart's own request, check out his works of fiction like "Roland in Moonlight" (https://angelicopress.org/roland-in-moonlight-hart)

Democratize DSA (CB1), a proposal at this year’s national convention, is a bylaws change that would dramatically reshape the National Political Committee (NPC). Marxist Unity Group urges delegates to vote no.

What is the National Political Committee?

The NPC is DSA’s highest decision-making body between conventions. It consists of 16 members elected at DSA’s national convention and two YDSA co-chairs who each have half a vote.

Once elected, the NPC elects a five person Steering Committee (SC), which is required to meet at least bimonthly. The SC is responsible for decision-making between NPC meetings, planning meetings and agendas for the NPC, and coordinating the work of the committees of the NPC.

The remaining 11 NPC members are the At-Large NPC members. DSA bylaws require them to act as liaisons to national commissions, as well as to regional and state bodies and chapters. The full NPC is responsible for staff, finances, publications, and education. The NPC is responsible for hiring and discharging staff as necessary, and hears expulsion cases.

What happens in practice?

Many of the NPC’s decisions are made outside of meetings of the full NPC and with little deliberation through Loomio, an asynchronous online voting tool. The procedures for online voting by the NPC have been criticized and reforms have been made, but frustrations persist. There are complaints of overwork and burnout, but participation is extremely uneven (some NPC members serve on multiple committees while others serve on none). Despite recent efforts by NPC members to attend the district calls held by staff Field Organizers, the required liaising with chapter leaders has historically not happened.

What changes does CB1 make?

CB1 triples the size of the NPC to 51 members. 48 members would now be elected at the national convention, a major increase from the current 16. YDSA representatives expand from 2 members sharing a vote to 3 with their own individual votes. Once elected, the NPC would choose a 13 member SC and have the ability to recall any SC member.

Several powers of the NPC or other committees would be given to the SC. Steering would now be in charge of taking applications for the National Director position and recommending candidates for hire. The power to hire and fire regular staff would be taken from the NPC and given to the SC. Expulsion decisions would be made by the SC, instead of the full NPC.

CB1 could be summarized as adding many more people in the interest of adding capacity, and changes that mean the At-Large members need to vote less between quarterly meetings of the full NPC.

What does CB1 do? 

The rationale for CB1 in the convention compendium states that the NPC is too small for an organization that exploded in size over the past few years. In their own words, “the “NPC” would become an entirely new body; being on the NPC would no longer require a taxing full-time commitment, but could instead be as simple as attending quarterly NPC meetings, liaising with DSA chapters, and serving on a national committee, working group or commission. The NPC would retain its role as the highest decision making body in the organization between conventions, and would have deliberative, voting meetings in which it made binding political decisions, but would no longer serve as the executive body running the day to day operations of the organization.”

The authors write that their efforts to change leadership structures have failed at the past conventions, and describe CB1 as the simplest way to expand DSA’s leadership. However, the simplest way to expand DSA’s leadership is found in the recommendation unanimously put forward by the 2019-2021 NPC to expand the committee from 16 people to 25 without other changes. It is unclear why a massive expansion that shifts the balance of power on the committee must be done before attempting this much smaller change.

The rationale of CB1 primarily talks about increasing the capacity of our leadership. Adding more people to solve a capacity problem does not always have the intended result. If the NPC cannot ensure even distribution of work and adequate participation while there are 11 At-Large members, the drastic expansion in CB1 provides no solutions. Putting more people into a disorganized body will make it even more chaotic. The NPC must agree on who is responsible for making sure all NPC duties are fulfilled, which will be even more difficult with 51 people.

CB1 uses the familiar name of NPC but dismantles the committee as we know it. The sheer number of SC meetings between voting opportunities for At-Large members ensures that almost all decisions will be made by the SC. The authors describe the At-Large members as empowered to make “binding political decisions” while the SC handles day-to-day operations. The SC’s duties should not be overlooked: all of these daily decisions impact DSA resources and functioning, and they are political choices. The primary decision-making function of At-Large members will be to occasionally confirm or overturn SC decisions. This may seem like a minor distinction, but there are already problems with NPC members being denied information on decisions they are responsible for. If At-Large members are demoted from making decisions to reviewing SC votes, this problem is almost certain to increase.

CB1 transforms At-large members from equal members of top leadership into a new intermediate body that (supposedly) provides accountability to the SC and connects membership to them. However, CB1 does not provide any of the democratic structure necessary for a successful intermediary body. Increased time for chapter leader liaising is presented as a hollow stand-in for accountability and connection with DSA membership. Increased liaising with chapter leaders would be a good thing, but it is not the same as a clearly defined duty to engage with membership. Nor is increased liaising a mandate to represent membership as an intentionally designed middle layer would. Telling members there is now an accountable oversight method for our top leadership without actually having one is a recipe for dissatisfaction.

What about the elections and amendments?

If CB1 passes, convention would not select the people who make most of the important national decisions. Factions could coordinate to choose voting methods that would allow them to turn a slim majority on the NPC into a controlling super-majority on the SC. An alternative amendment for consideration would implement a direct election for the SC by convention delegates. While this amendment is an improvement over CB1, it does not fix how the body would function in office.

An amendment to the procedures for the special election states that the Convention Committee may use regions for the candidate elections. This amendment is intended to avoid incomprehensible rankings on an endless ballot in an election for 48 positions. Election by regions is not inherently problematic, but we all know the importance of maps to election results. The way in which these regions are created has a huge role in determining the winners. If members object to how the regions are set and lack avenues to appeal, the lack of advance approval by convention or membership could lead to a legitimacy crisis.

Small changes in how an election is run can have enormous effects on the results. We should not rush a bylaws change that requires many leaps of faith to (hopefully) have coherent elections. Changes of this magnitude should go through the Democracy Commission (Member-Submitted Resolution #10: Launch a Democracy Commission for DSA)  to allow delegates to evaluate whether these new methods of electing our leadership are acceptable.

What should be done? 

There are many possible improvements to our national leadership that do not create a lower tier of NPC members. The NPC could be expanded to 25 people as stated in the 2019-2021 NPC’s unanimous recommendation. The NPC should use the quorum requirements set in the bylaws to meet more frequently to reduce decisions deferred to the SC or made without debate. The NPC should adopt and enforce standards for the quality and quantity of liaising work for each NPC member. An intermediate body connecting DSA members to our top decision-makers between conventions must give members a democratic structure to engage with, not an arbitrarily assigned leadership liaison who can ignore membership.

Marxist Unity Group recommends voting no on CB1, with or without amendments.

The post The NPC Needs Improvements. But “Democratize DSA” Isn’t It. appeared first on Socialist Forum.

Read the Official Teamsters Press Release

Teamsters Win!

The Teamsters have reached a tentative agreement with UPS by staying firm to their demands, showing that if we fight for what we deserve we can win! The agreement includes major changes, including:

• Historic wage increases. Existing full- and part-time UPS Teamsters will get $2.75 more per hour in 2023. Over the length of the contract, wage increases will total $7.50 per hour.
• Existing part-timers will be raised up to no less than $21 per hour immediately, and part-time seniority workers earning more under a market rate adjustment would still receive all new general wage increases.
• General wage increases for part-time workers will be double the amount obtained in the previous UPS Teamsters contract — and existing part-time workers will receive a 48 percent average total wage increase over the next five years.
• Wage increases for full-timers will keep UPS Teamsters the highest paid delivery drivers in the nation, improving their average top rate to $49 per hour.
• Current UPS Teamsters working part-time would receive longevity wage increases of up to $1.50 per hour on top of new hourly raises, compounding their earnings.
• New part-time hires at UPS would start at $21 per hour and advance to $23 per hour.
• All UPS Teamster drivers classified as 22.4s would be reclassified immediately to Regular Package Car Drivers and placed into seniority, ending the unfair two-tier wage system at UPS.
• Safety and health protections, including vehicle air conditioning and cargo ventilation. UPS will equip in-cab A/C in all larger delivery vehicles, sprinter vans, and package cars purchased after Jan. 1, 2024. All cars get two fans and air induction vents in the cargo compartments.
• All UPS Teamsters would receive Martin Luther King Day as a full holiday for the first time.
• No more forced overtime on Teamster drivers’ days off. Drivers would keep one of two workweek schedules and could not be forced into overtime on scheduled off-days.
• UPS Teamster part-timers will have priority to perform all seasonal support work using their own vehicles with a locked-in eight-hour guarantee. For the first time, seasonal work will be contained to five weeks only from November-December.
• The creation of 7,500 new full-time Teamster jobs at UPS and the fulfillment of 22,500 open positions, establishing more opportunities through the life of the agreement for part-timers to transition to full-time work.
• More than 60 total changes and improvements to the National Master Agreement — more than any other time in Teamsters history — and zero concessions from the rank-and-file.

The decision has not yet been officially ratified, but given that all of the contract demands were met by UPS, it seems likely that this will be agreed upon by all Locals.

What can we learn from this?

As socialists, what can we take away from this? Although there are many elements to this complex organizing effort that has culminated after years of change within the Teamsters and within UPS from before the pandemic until now, let’s highlight two things in particular that made this successful:

1. Meaningful demands and unwavering commitment to them. UPS creates a list of demands that improves the workplace for everyone, from rookie part-timers to full-time veterans. This sort of contract is appealing to all workers and shows that they are looking out for everyone. As organizers, we should always be seeking buy-in from the entire working class and responding to their individual circumstances as best we can. Additionally, once we agree upon our demands, we should not be willing to abandon them for the sake of expediency. UPS Teamsters were willing to go on strike until their demands are met and we should always keep our ambitions as high.
2. Practice pickets show the capitalists our power. UPS Teamsters mobilized their workers to perform a dress rehearsal for the strike and held practice pickets nationwide, including here in Wilmington. Not only does this help workers improve logistics for a real strike, but the attendance for these practice pickets seems to have shown the bosses that workers were serious about their strike threat. By doing acts that demonstrate our power, we can make the capitalists more willing to concede to our demands because there is a credible threat to their power and wealth. If a practice strike is enough to get a full concession, imagine what more could be won.

Congratulations to the UPS Teamsters on this historic victory!

Thorn West: Issue No. 168

State Politics

• CalMatters details early industry spending on 2024’s public ballot initiatives, including a massive expenditure from the fast-food industry on a measure that would overturn a state law establishing a fast-food workers’ council to set wages and work safety standards.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• Measure J was an LA County ballot measure that mandated 10% of the county budget be spent on social services, and not police or jails. After it passed in 2020, a lawsuit successfully had it overturned in the courts. Now, in a reversal, Measure J has been found constitutional on appeal. “Measure J was our response to what we think public safety is and what it should look like,” said Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who co-chaired the electoral campaign for the ballot measure.

• The mayor’s office and the Los Angeles Police Protective League have come to a tentative agreement over the next labor contract for the LAPD. The agreement includes a 13% increase in starting pay for new officers, who will now start near $86,000. This is meant to address the fact that the number of LAPD officers has dropped by 1,000 as it has struggled with recruitment. The decrease in police officers has not corresponded with an increase in crime.

• Los Angeles took another step toward initiating a pilot program based on the CAHOOTS model of unarmed response to people experiencing mental health crises. A funding mechanism passed this week, as the city council returned from summer recess.

Incarceration

• LA Public Press has continued in-depth coverage of last week’s planned disruption of a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting demanding the closure of Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. The protest captured more attention this week after several of the children interned at the facility attempted to escape.

Labor

• Today, representatives from the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers met for an hour, the first such meeting since the writers strike began, three months ago. The meeting lasted one hour.

• Hotel workers in UNITE HERE Local 11 continue to organize walkouts as they seek fair contracts from 60 area hotels. This week, the union, along with many California politicians, called on singer Taylor Swift to delay her Los Angeles tour dates this weekend, in solidarity.

Housing Rights

• The LA Times editorial board asks if City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto is deliberately obstructing the construction of a supportive housing project on a city-owned parking lot in Venice.

• A town hall meeting to discuss 30 proposed units of interim shelter in CD 5 was overrun by opponents of the units.

The post Hotel Workers Call on TSwift + Tentative LAPD Contract Contains Massive Increase in Starting Pay appeared first on The Thorn West.

Member-Submitted Resolution #2 (MSR 2), “Defend Democracy through Political Independence,” contends that the Republican Party and its Trumpist elements pose a threat to the multiracial working class (although much less of a threat than in 2016) and that Democrats—not Republicans—are the principal opponent of socialists in blue states. The authors assert that global authoritarianism is on the rise and socialists need to defend the rights of oppressed people and our democratic infrastructure. However, we need to do so without “being subsumed into the Democratic Party and its NGO apparatus.” While we agree with the importance of building DSA as an institution and increasing our independence from the Democratic Party, the resolution contains a poison pill that will divide DSA and undercut our efforts to fight the right: requiring the National Political Committee (NPC) to publicly condemn elected comrades who show support for “centrists.”

While proponents of MSR 2 have focused on the aspects of the resolution that are positive and proactive, such as acting in coalition to fight the fascist right, building up our youth wing, and creating alignment within the organization in preparation for the 2024 presidential race, the real meat of the resolution is punitive and divisive. The measure requires the NPC to “publicly communicate disapproval to endorsed candidates and elected DSA members who reject this strategy in order to explicitly or tacitly support centrist leaders of the Democratic Party (for example, by attending rallies on behalf of centrists, political communications, or explicit endorsement of centrist Democrats).” There are multiple issues with this directive. First, it is built on a flawed organizing premise—that DSA elected officials are not members to organize with, but servants to control and punish. Organizers know that imposing a decision on stakeholders without their buy-in is unsustainable. On top of that, DSA is not yet powerful enough to back up our bark with a bite, especially for federal-level electeds. So we would be alienating our elected comrades for nothing. Second, “centrist” is not well defined in this resolution. While most members would agree those who identify as socialist are not centrist, who will define the line between a progressive and a centrist? While this distinction may not matter much now, the authors of the resolution make this definition critical when they require the NPC to publicly condemn our electeds who support centrists.

Third, this would directly undermine many of our priorities, especially our efforts to fight the fascist right, a priority the authors seek to support. In many swing states, DSA electeds from safe Democratic districts have given critical support to Democrats running statewide against far-right Republicans. In 2022, incumbent Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was in a close race against right-wing election denier Tudor Dixon. DSA Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib supported Whitmer and worked to boost voter turnout, including by attending a rally for Whitmer hosted by Barack Obama. This resolution would require the NPC to condemn Tlaib for this—not only alienating us from Tlaib, but also from the progressive voters who help elect our socialist candidates and potential coalition partners like the United Auto Workers union, which have benefited from the end of right-to-work in that state, ushered in by the victory of Whitmer and other “centrist” Democrats that took control of the state legislature.

Even in blue states, DSA electeds’ strategic support for establishment Democrats has advanced DSA priorities. For example, in New York, centrist Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul faced an unexpectedly competitive general election opponent in Lee Zeldin, a Trump-supporting far-right Republican. While New York’s DSA chapters were not pressured by DSA electeds to support Hochul, many of those comrades in office did events with her re-election campaign. Hochul is certainly not a progressive, and NYC-DSA continued to target her throughout the election, but New York electeds and many in DSA leadership recognized that her victory would be critical to passing DSA’s legislative priorities like the Build Public Renewables Act, which was included in the this year’s budget and signed by the governor. Zeldin simply could not be pressured into doing that. In swing states, centrists can be the only option to prevent fascistic conservatives from winning power. Even in blue states, centrists in power can be a key tool for winning our socialist priorities.

We’ve limited ourselves like this before. At the 2019 convention, DSA passed “In The Event of a Sanders Loss” which was couched in anti-Trump language but pledged that DSA would only endorse one Democrat for president: Bernie Sanders. As the political situation in the US got worse and worse the next year, this resolution had a chilling effect on what DSA chapters and members felt they could and could not do. To be clear, the authors and Socialist Majority Caucus do not think we should have endorsed Joe Biden (nor do we think DSA should do so in 2024), but the language in the 2019 resolution caused comrades across the country to question if they could do anything formally as DSA in the effort to defeat Trump—an outcome critical to not only DSA’s strategic goals but to curtail the worst of far-right fascism. In part due to this chilling effect, our organization became the subject of negative editorials in The Nation and New York Times and infighting around public letters distracted from the task of defeating Donald Trump and beating back the Trumpist right.

Thanks to massive organizing and more, Trump lost, but we need to learn from the experience of these unnecessary, self-imposed strictures. In early 2021, without any self-inflicted limitations, DSA supported anti-GOP work in the two Georgia US senate runoffs and helped swing the body to a Democratic majority. That majority has made Bernie Sanders the chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, where he highlights workers’ struggles ignored by that body for decades. Again, working with centrists, while not an end in itself, proved a smart short-term tactic for supporting our medium and long-term socialist goals.

Winning socialist power in the real world requires grappling with real world conditions, not striving for an ephemeral sense of ideological purity. In this moment, a centrist Democrat who believes people should be able to vote, that trans people should be able to live, and that abortion is a right is better than a fascist Republican alternative. Condemning our electeds for saying so is not only wrong, it is antithetical to our goal of building a powerful, multiracial working-class organization. It will alienate us from the working class we hope to recruit into socialism and DSA. Electoral work is messy. Governing is messy. Only way to avoid complexities and complications is to avoid anything that would actually build power. We should not create self-imposed constraints that divide us and make our work harder. We must continue to do the complicated, hard work required to gain meaningful power.

The post Defend Democracy Through Defending Democracy appeared first on Socialist Forum.

Steering Committee member Michael M contributes to the ongoing discussion on Metro DC DSA's recent delegate election.