FOR a SOCIALIST TOMORROW: DSA National Convention
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Vol. XLIX No 1 SUMMER 2021 DEMOCRATIC DSAUSA.ORG LEFTTHE MAGAZINE OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA SUMMER 2021 1 FROM THE NATIONAL DIRECTOR DEMOCRATIC LEFT Executive Editor Maria Svart Editor Maxine Phillips Managing Editor Kim Armstrong Editorial Team WE NEED ALL OF US! Ian Hyzy Alexander Lee BY MARIA SVART Christine Lombardi Stephen Magro Don McIntosh Christine Riddiough hen I was a college student, I participated in solidarity actions for Founding Editor unions at my school. I felt I was being true to my family’s union Michael Harrington (1928–1989) and immigrant roots. But it wasn’t until the first time I tried to Art Direction W organize my own workplace, and at a later job when I was a union steward, Brianna Harden that I truly understood the undemocratic power a boss can wield in the Layout Design Nikita Kataev workplace and the transformative power of a united, collective response by Book Review Editor the workers. I realized that we can win, and at the same time I saw just how Stephen Magro far the bosses would go to sow fear and division. Online Editor Christine Lombardi Many of the articles in this issue explore in one way or another how per- Proofreader sonal experiences shape our politics and our sense of the possible. What does Pam Grant-Ryan that mean for us in DSA? To me, it’s clear: We must always be organizing. Translation Donna Vivian Landon-Jiménez Organizing gives us a new experience under neoliberal capitalism, where Cover Art otherwise we would spend our lives in isolation. For many, significant social Jess Dunlap and bed deth time is mediated by technology platforms that maximize profits for the few Democratic Left (ISSN 1643207) is published while leading to more loneliness for the many. Work is a race to the bottom quarterly at P.O. Box 1038, as the owning class finds ever more ways to pit us against each other. Neigh- New York NY 10272. Periodicals postage paid borhoods and schools are increasingly segregated, and civil society has with- at New York, NY ered away, to the point where individual consumer choices, such as wearing (Publication No. 701-960). Subscriptions: $25 regular, a T-shirt with the right slogan, are marketed as activism. $30 institutional. Postmaster: Send address In contrast, organizing not only brings us together as comrades, it teaches changes to P.O. Box 1038, us both the skills to run our society without the boss class and the skills to New York NY 10272. (212) 726-8610. achieve such a society. DSA is a school for collective action. We are a labo- Signed articles express ratory for democracy. And we’re a team to build solidarity. That is the use of the opinions of the authors having an organization. Together, in strategy debates and on picket lines, we and not necessarily the organization. forge a new consciousness and a new confidence in our power. Democratic Socialists of On May Day this year, 86 chapters organized actions in support of the Pro- America promotes a humane tecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. We organized phonebanks and made international social order based on equitable distribu- one million calls asking voters in key states to call their senators to support tion of resources, meaningful the act. And we helped flip two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West work, a healthy environment, sustainable growth, gender Virginia and Angus King of Maine, who had been against the act. Few other and racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships. national organizations have this kind of energized and empowered force bub- We are dedicated to bling from the ground up. building truly international social movements—of unions, Our grassroots numbers highlight the other value of organizing: scale. The environmentalists, feminists, only way to reach the working-class millions who need to recapture their col- and people of color—which together can elevate global lective power is to stand side by side, understand what we have in common, justice over brutalizing global and fight for it together. You and I and 94,000-plus comrades are not enough. competition. We need all of us. 2 DEMOCRATIC LEFT CHALLENGED TO SOLIDARITY: DSA AFTER THE UPRISINGS BY MARIAN JONES ILLUSTRATION BY iggdeh year into the uprisings for Black lives, many pre- would continue beyond that Tuesday, there was no accom- dominantly white organizations, including DSA, are panying “ask” to these social media posts, such as donating A grappling with how best to engage in the struggle— to mutual aid and bail funds. being an “ally,” although a good start, is no longer enough. Ally work asks very little of allies. Often, allies have to deal As commonly understood on the Left, “allyship” focuses on only with the discomfort of acknowledging their privilege. interpersonal interactions, such as checking white privilege, As Andrea Smith writes in “The Problem with Privilege,” the being aware of microaggressions, not dominating the con- task of anti-racist activists is to dismantle racist structures, versation, and educating oneself about racism. The focus on a project that can’t be done by centering white allies’ behav- white allies changing their hearts and minds often comes at ior; instead, we need to challenge racist institutions such as the expense of collective action to change systems of oppres- housing, criminal justice, healthcare, and education. sion. For instance, posting a social media status about feel- There is broad agreement among DSA members that sol- ings of guilt is not the same as taking to the streets in solidar- idarity is the key to our growth and success. Many recog- ity with comrades of color. nize that solidarity isn’t about papering over differences or Challenging white groups to go beyond allyship to a poli- striving for false unity. Solidarity is about acknowledging tics of solidarity, Khury Petersen-Smith and brian bean have that our oppressions are connected and that the only true put forth an analysis and critique of allyship. In one form, freedom is collective freedom. white anti-racists are urged to follow the lead of people of Take, for example, the work of Metro DC DSA’s tenant color, thereby effectively leaving the work of ending racism organizing working group. In a report called “Getting Past to people of color. In the second understanding, white allies the Door, How We Moved from Canvassing to Organiz- are urged to use their privilege on behalf of people of color, ing Buildings,” the group openly addresses its lack of di- thereby leaving people of color to receive passively the versity. Noting that “we’re mostly operating in neighbor- benefits of white allies’ white privilege. In both cases, one hoods and buildings east of the Anacostia River where group becomes active participants and the other passive re- almost all tenants are Black and lower-income… We have cipients. In contrast, solidarity occurs when all organizers been intentional about recruiting women and people of do the work of making strategic decisions, building knowl- color to our volunteer organizing group, but, like the DSA edge, and carrying out actions. as a whole, our group remains disproportionately white Jaime Grant defines allyship as virtue-signaling meant and male.” The report focuses on how the DSA organiz- to show how aware of oppression the “ally” is. An exam- ers worked to organize through those differences. They did ple of this would be “Blackout Tuesday,” where celebri- this by making connections with natural leaders within the ties, influencers, and corporations posted black squares to buildings they sought to organize. They also shared vital social media to show their support for Black Lives Matter. Although the original organizers claimed that the protest Continued on page 15 SUMMER 2021 3 TALKING SOCIALISM Photograph by Scott Heins by Scott Photograph INTERVIEWING JACOBIN’S BHASKAR SUNKARA Few have done more to broaden the popular appeal I think the question most peo- How would you describe Jacobin’s poli- of socialism in recent years ple want to know is this: How do tics within the greater socialist milieu? than Bhaskar Sunkara, you pronounce the name of this Jacobin is meant to be comprehensible to a wider public that might not be familiar 31. Since he founded magazine that you founded? JACK-o-bin with socialist viewpoints. But even Jacobin magazine in 2010, though we’re flexible in our day-to-day Sunkara—a self-described Why did you choose that name? politics, and we’re excited by new move- “hype man” for DSA—has It has historical references to the ments that are emerging, intellectually I worked tirelessly to build French and Haitian revolutions. would say we’re fairly orthodox Marxists. the magazine, and the It recalls the Enlightenment There are lots of different moral tradi- movement. Jacobin now spirit found in a lot of the social- tions and intellectual viewpoints that ist tradition. Like the founders are compatible broadly with a socialist has a print circulation of of DSA, I situate what we’re politics. We just happen to cling to a about 70,000 and over doing as socialists as fulfilling the Marxist worldview because we find that 2.6 million web visitors a promises of the Enlightenment to be a useful way to understand the month. We spoke by Zoom that aren’t possible to fulfill world. Along with that comes a special April 15. —DON McINTOSH under capitalism. emphasis on working-class politics. 4 DEMOCRATIC LEFT You grew up in a small town, the deeply implanted in the working class Socialist Manifesto: The Case for youngest of five kids. Your par- for many decades.