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 . 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. We still skew too Radical Politics in an Era of Ex- ents are immigrants from Trini- middle class, too college educated, treme Inequality], and Jacobin dad. What were you like growing as a result of the Left’s historic has published over a dozen books up? And how did you find your pas- isolation. So we need to figure out so far in partnership with Verso sion for politics and socialism? a way, as we grow, to be the type Books. What’s your next project? I definitely considered myself a of organization that someone can Lately, we’ve been developing a liberal in the American sense, in just plug into. And it’s easier said Jacobin YouTube channel. We just the sense of being for a welfare than done, in part because it’s not launched it last year with the help state. I was reading people like Paul just the Left that’s detached from of my late friend Michael Brooks. Krugman at 12, 13. And 9/11, the war working-class life in America. Much We have around 75,000 subscribers on terror, the Iraq War, all really of our working-class civil society has or so on the channel now, which is heightened my sense of opposition been hollowed out. People don’t have not a bad start for a year. Personally, to U.S. empire. Then I read the works the same connection they used to, to I’m writing two books right now. of Leon Trotsky. I read Irving Howe. the trade union, to the local civic as- I’m almost done with one, which is a I read Michael Harrington. It was a sociation, even to church attendance. history of the Grenadian revolution. very isolated, intellectual trajectory, And I’m also working with a couple but a core political awakening. I Is there a tension for you in hav- of collaborators, Mike Beggs and discovered DSA as a result of being ing socialist values on the one hand Ben Burgis, on a big book about the familiar with Harrington. I went to and on the other hand being an em- economics of a feasible socialism. my first DSA thing when I was 17. And ployer? Are you profiting off the It’s not because I believe fully in I met a whole host of people in New surplus value of the employees? “writing recipes for the cook shops York City DSA the summer between Well, first of all, I’m an employee of the future,” as Marx derisively put my senior year of high school and of a board myself, and we have an it, but because I think a lot of people going to college. Primarily my DSA egalitarian wage scale. And we have today want to believe in socialism, work then was revamping The Activist unionized staff. I and everyone at they want to believe that there is an blog, where a lot of early contributors Jacobin are getting paid a lot less than alternative, but they have doubts to Jacobin cohered. DSA was very we otherwise could be, but we make about its technical feasibility. So let’s formative. I can’t really imagine what sure we’re paid a living wage and that start talking about alternatives to I was like before DSA because I’m 31 we have good health benefits. capitalism, because I actually think and it’s been 14 years since I joined. But I don’t really see a tension any it might fuel our work. There was a more than there’s a tension with confidence the Left had for a lot of What do you see as DSA’s strengths the fact that DSA has to balance its the 20th century and the late 19th today, and what do you think is books, has to get membership dues, century that we lost. We thought we holding DSA back? has to figure out what to pay staffers. were inheritors of history. I think Well, I think DSA’s primary strength Our main goal is expansion. I think we need to rebuild that confidence is the fact that it is an organization that’s probably the only thing we today. Because we can’t just be the with more than 94,000 members. have in common with a capitalist people saying “no” to actually exist- It’s one of the largest socialist firm. But our reasons for expansion ing capitalism. We need to say, “No, organizations in U.S. history. I think are different. It’s to maximize reach, and here’s an alternative.” our ideological pluralism is a big not to maximize revenue. advantage. I think the fact that we’ve avoided extreme factionalization is You have so many projects under- This interview has been edited and con- very important. way. You’re publisher of Jacobin, densed for print. In the uncut version at dsausa.org/sunkara, Sunkara talks about Where we’re weak is that we are still the theoretical journal Catalyst, Jacobin’s sprawling overseas operation, his an organization that is not rooted the UK publication the Tribune. time as a DSA vice chair, why the millennial deeply in the working class, because There’s the Jacobin family of pod- generation is so radical, and much more. the U.S. Left as a whole hasn’t been casts. You’ve got your book [The

SUMMER 2021 5 Lost in the Wilderness: Can the White Working Class Return Home?

BY NICHOLAS POWERS ILLUSTRATION BY AARON MoDAVIS

Dividing the Inheritance fter Joe Biden’s 2020 win, a glaring fact stood efore America, whiteness did not exist. The early co- out. The United States is a house divided. The lonial era was a brutal time but not a racial one. In wholesale repudiation of Donald Trump did not Bthe New World, slaves and indentured servants, Af- Ahappen. Many white voters cling to the grievance politics he ricans and Europeans lived in a limbo. Free Africans could stoked. At stake is what does whiteness mean today? buy land. Europeans could be whipped or branded for dis- The answer is in the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son. obeying masters. The U.S. ruling class used race to divide U.S workers, but They worked relentlessly in brutal winters and boiling now whiteness is becoming an empty inheritance. If the summers. The sweat of labor glued them together. They Left can welcome back the repentant Prodigal Sons of his- were exploited by the same wealthy landowners. When Na- tory, it can create a social democratic country. thaniel Bacon led a rebellion against Virginia’s colonial gov- To recap the original story: One son of a rich man took ernment in 1675-76, Africans and Europeans shared musket his inheritance early, squandered it, and when famine came, balls and shot the same English enemy. crawled back to his family, ready to take menial work be- The revolt was crushed violently. New laws, written by cause he was starving. His brother, who had stayed home the ruling class, pitted the two groups against each other. and been dutiful, was furious. But the father welcomed the “White” became a privileged identity. The Prodigal Son errant, repentant adult child. was born. He was white and male; he got more rights, more

6 DEMOCRATIC LEFT land, more status. He felt his power against a Black back- The Celebration ground. He left the human family. ow do you defuse disgust?” the interviewer asked Today, we live among his descendants. Every wave of “ Haidt at his TED talk. Haidt bobbed his head as European immigrants took up the Prodigal Son’s role. Hif trying to get the right word. “The opposite of Whether Irish, Jewish from whatever country, Italian, disgust is actually love,” he said, “Disgust is about borders. they bought new “white” lives, new faces, new cars, new Love is about dissolving walls. Personal relationships are homes, and new last names. They benefited from the probably the most powerful means we have.” New Deal and the post–Second World War economy. In the Prodigal Son, that wayward child returns home in Those who could barricaded themselves in suburbs, re- rags. Luke 15:20 says his “father saw him, and had compassion, calling the scene from Luke 15:12, when the Prodigal Son and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” The son apol- “took his journey into high country, and there wasted his ogized for his foolishness, and the father, seeing he suffered, substance with riotous living.” did not punish him but celebrated his son’s homecoming. Now, a great famine has struck the West. Capitalism, Welcoming back a lost child is tradition in the Black free- the engine of whiteness, has left white workers behind. dom movement, where leaders have turned historical suf- At home, technology has replaced them. Overseas, cheap fering into a bridge to other groups. In his 1988 Democratic labor has replaced them. The Prodigal Son has no future. National Convention speech, Jesse Jackson said, “Most poor people are not lazy. They are not Black. They are not brown. They are mostly white and female and young. But whether The Moral See-Saw white, Black or brown, a hungry baby’s belly turned inside n the 2020 election, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris out is the same color—color it pain, color it hurt, color it won just enough of the white working class to tilt agony.” Years later, Cornel West repeated the theme: “White Ithe scales. If they can bring about real reforms, such working-class brother, we know you have pain … but we’re as universal healthcare and a Green New Deal-type jobs asking you to confront the most powerful, not scapegoat the program, those voters will stay. If not, they will turn right most vulnerable.” again, into a dead end. The GOP will do what the GOP What if this is what our ancestors worked so hard for? They always does: channel anxiety at global elites and minori- put us in the position to decide the fate of the nation. The ties while pushing business-friendly policies. More tax centuries-long struggle to transform ourselves from slaves to cuts. More labor rights repealed. citizens gave us the authority to define the meaning of our The problem is that if the white working class goes history. We’re not victims. We’re inheritors of a powerful em- left, they’ll meet disgust. Social psychologist Jonathan pathy that can rescue others who are being trapped as we Haidt maps liberalism as in part driven by a focus on were. Maybe we can be the elder brother in the parable who harm. The Left in essence creates “sacred victims,” he meets the Prodigal Son, the millions of them in this country, says, and regards those with privilege as “subhuman, and tells them it’s time to rejoin the family. monstrous, morally deformed.” Writer James Baldwin said in an interview with poet Nikki Many of us on the Left feel that way about the Prodi- Giovanni, “For a long time you think, no one has ever suf- gal Son. We see him as a straight white male and Chris- fered the way I suffered. Then you realize … that your suffer- tian victimizer who is now the victim of the very forces ing does not isolate you, it’s your bridge … so that you bring that gave him power. He took his inheritance. Now he a little light into their suffering, so they can comprehend it wants sympathy? and change it.” Our disgust at the Prodigal Son comes through in our It’s not in the Bible, but I like to think that the older brother fetishizing of elite political jargon and the near-religious went into the house where his sibling sat at the table, trem- embrace of Afro-pessimism, a philosophy of despair bling with shame. I like to think he bent down, lifted up his about the condition of African Americans. It saturates brother, and hugged him. I think he felt joy when he did. colleges and bookstores. It ripples out from colleges, where professors repeat the iconography of victimiza- NICHOLAS POWERS is a poet, journalist, and associate tion. It is our wall to keep the Prodigal Son out. professor of literature at SUNY Old Westbury. His book Parts of the Left are like the older brother in the par- The Ground Below Zero: 9/11 to Burning Man, New Orleans able, who in Luke 15:28 was so angered that the feckless to Darfur, Haiti to Occupy Wall Street was published by brother was welcomed home, that “he would not go in.” UpSet Press. An earlier version of this essay appeared in What can break down this wall of disgust? the Indypendent.

SUMMER 2021 7 “Like Standing Rock, but more prepared.” Minnesota DSA Stands Up Against Line 3

BY CHRIS LOMBARDI

ast fall, Tom Julstrom asked from the Alberta tar sands to the Min- Democratic Left. On a trip to Canada, his local DSA chapter in nesota waters and the Mississippi before she joined DSA, she “met some Duluth, Minnesota, what DSA River, was first proposed in 2015 by Line 3 organizers,” who told her that Lwas doing about Indigenous activ- the Canada-and-Texas-based Enbridge time was growing short. She joined ists who were getting arrested trying Corporation. Indigenous communi- Northfield Against Line 3, which met to stop a new pipeline carrying tar ties have been fighting it ever since: with the Giniw Collective and Anti- sands oil. “You mean Line 3? That’s in HomeToEarth.org, founded by envi- colonial Land Defense. Then, when a limbo,” chapter leaders said, noting on- ronmental activist Winona LaDuke, new DSA chapter popped up near her, going court challenges. DSA’s position assembled “a grand coalition” in sup- she not only joined but became co- is clear, they said, citing resolutions by port of the Anishinaabe, including the chair of its executive committee. She DSA Ecosocialists in 2018 and by Twin Ojibwe peoples, whose lands are most knew that a statewide effort to sup- Cities DSA in 2019 opposing the pipe- affected. The last permits for the pipe- port the Indigenous fight against Line line. But that was before 2020 scram- line were approved in December 2020 3 was crucial and that chapters outside bled everything. This limbo meant that by the Minnesota Public Utilities Com- of the Twin Cities had the bandwidth a major struggle against a top corporate mission and the Army Corps of En- to make that happen. polluter slated to add 193 million tons gineers, and Native activists started Cannon Valley DSA signed on early of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere locking themselves onto Enbridge to a Line 3 statement posted by the each year (more than in all of Minne- construction equipment. In early Jan- Twin Ports chapter. “We approached sota combined right now) was hap- uary 2021, “Camp Migizi” was estab- other Minnesota chapters in the hopes pening at their front door while most lished in Sawyer, near the worksite, on that a unified statewide DSA would chapters were engaged in the social land bought by Fond du Lac activist bring greater national attention to justice uprisings and pandemic re- Taysha Martineau. Since then, the site the pipeline fight,” Julstrom said via sponses. Since that moment, Julstrom has hosted celebrity activists includ- email. “After every Minnesota chap- and others from a half-dozen Minne- ing LaDuke and Jane Fonda. The Water ter approved the statement, we kept sota chapters have been organizing for Protectors are calling for Joe Biden to those initial lines of communication this summer, when drilling is scheduled shut down the pipeline as he did with open.” Eventually, a statewide DSA to begin in some of Minnesota’s most the Keystone pipeline. Line 3 Working Group formed, “the delicate wild-rice fields. “I first heard about Line 3 when most active participants of which Line 3, which would replace and en- I was still in high school,” Revmira are the Twin Ports, Brainerd Lakes large an existing pipeline that runs Beeby of Cannon Valley DSA told Area, Cannon Valley, and St. Cloud

8 DEMOCRATIC LEFT dozens of teach-ins and Line 3 events across the state—especially the week of May Day—culminating with a state- wide webinar on May 7. The race against time is real. After a pause for “seasonal restrictions,” En- bridge set June 1 for the full resump- tion of work, including high-speed drill- ing across 227 lakes and rivers. “We will need hundreds, thousands of people taking direct action,” Julstrom told DL. “DSA can make a real difference if we mobilize people to come to Minnesota and put their bodies in front of that equipment.” He said that the move- ment can build on the lessons of pre- vious pipeline protests: “Like Standing Rock, but more prepared.” The Twin Ports DSA Ecosocialist and early April, just as Indigenous If they can’t come in person, Jul- Working Group joined Brainerd youth brought the struggle to Wash- strom and Beeby emphasized, DSAers Lakes Area DSA members on a ington, D.C., to put pressure on Biden. can also take direct action at local trip to Camp Migizi near Line 3 In April, Representative Ilhan Omar Chase banks. Can’t do direct action? outside of Cloquet, MN, bringing co-authored a CNN.com essay with Write to Biden, urging him to stop needed donations. Anishinaabe writer Tara Houska en- Line 3. Join other disinvestment cam- titled “The pipeline that President paigns, so your city or employer isn’t PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN KRUMM Biden needs to stop.” And Twin Cities supporting this devastating project. DSA staged protests at Enbridge’s For ecosocialists, Beeby said, the Minneapolis headquarters. Line 3 struggle is part of the fight chapters.” Given the bevy of banks In April, working group members against tar sands oil, which, along with funding the project—Black Rock In- noticed that the special anti-protest fracking, forms the late stage of fos- vestments, JPMorgan Chase, TD Bank, units trained against pipeline protest- sil-fuel devastation. “It’s so important Citibank and Wells Fargo—DSA activ- ers—a mix of state troopers and offi- to stop. Look what it’s done to Alberta,” ists knew that fighting Line 3 is a strike cers with the Department of National where tar sands mining has torn gashes at capitalism’s heart. Resources and funded by Enbridge— across miles of the province. The group met every week to dis- were being used to confront protest- “This is an issue that impacts you!” cuss ways to support the protests ers who gathered in Brooklyn Center Julstrom added. “If you live near or without undermining the Indigenous after the police murder of Daunte care about the Mississippi River, it’s leadership. They decided to offer Wright. “I think Line 3 has already your fight. If you care about Indigenous material support to Camp Migizi in demonstrated that some of the ways people’s rights, it’s your fight.” person. They drove from Duluth and in which struggles for Indigenous sov- Brainerd Lakes, with a dozen people ereignty and struggles for racial justice CHRIS LOMBARDI, a member squeezed into eight cars loaded with overlap,” said Julstrom. “The same of the DL Editorial Committee, water, food, paper supplies “and most cops that have been training for years spent years on staff at the of all, firewood,” Justrum said via text to brutalize water protectors fighting California League of Conserva- message. “One of our members [who Line 3 were putting down protests in tion Voters and is a committed couldn’t come] baked a whole bunch Brooklyn Center.” ecosocialist. To stay up-to-date on of banana bread,” he added. To ramp up the scope of DSA ac- the struggle, go to stopline3.org or These caravans happened in March tivism, the working group organized honorearth.org/stop_line_3

SUMMER 2021 9 KITCHEN TABLE SOCIALISM FOR A SOCIALIST TOMORROW: DSA National Convention

A REPORT ON 2019-2021 fromSocialism the For ashes A New ofTomorrow the old August 1 8, 2021 From the National Political Committee

hen the current DSA The capitalist-caused climate crisis solidarity must be worked toward and National Political led to winter storms that took so many that part of this work must be to con- Committee took office lives and will lead to more deaths as front empire here. This fight for racial Win 2019, we anticipated that the pres- drought, tornadoes, and hurricanes justice also became a cry for abolition, Join us at this year’s virtual convention for idential election would be the biggest devastate the land this summer. ICE for a world without cages and cops: a week of panels, workshops, and political political flashpoint of our term. The continues to be a relentlessly cruel a vision of a socialist world of abun- debate. We’ll be debating and voting outbreak of COVID-19 in the spring and rogue institution as it ramps up dance, of dignity, and of democracy. on a political platform for DSA and setting of 2020 and the massive uprisings in the separation of immigrant families During our NPC term, we made the vision of the world we’re fighting to win. the wake of ’s murder in and forced sterilization of Black and strides in building up chapters in all Convention2021.DSAUSA.org May of that year massively altered the brown women. Many countries, al- parts of the country and took steps political landscape. There was a tan- ready exploited by U.S. imperialism, to synchronize activities between na- gible shift in the realm of the possible, are suffering devastating loss of life, tional and chapters. We spent time and our approach to organizing had exacerbated by the monopoly on vac- talking to chapter leaders to learn to adjust to social-distancing, virtual cine patents and lack of medical re- more about how we can move as a na- events, a drop in our individual ca- sources due to sanctions. We’ve seen tional organization and what particu- pacity to engage in this work, and the how the police and the military have lar issues are faced by comrades in the difficult decision early in our term to played a similar role of enacting vio- South, comrades in rural areas, and move to an online convention. lence on the masses as they demand comrades just starting to organize. We The pandemic has ripped the mask the right to live in dignity: in Nigeria, have worked to incorporate these les- off capitalism, making it clear to mil- in Colombia, in Palestine. sons into national campaigns, such as lions of people exactly for whom our so- Both 2020 and 2021 have shown us our current campaign to pass the PRO ciety is built. At every turn, capitalist in- how powerful we can be, but it has Act (Protecting the Right to Organize terests superseded public safety and our also reminded us how quickly it can Act) and last year’s campaign to save well-being when it came to mask man- all be taken away. We mourn the lives the U.S. Postal Service. dates, business openings, vaccine roll- and opportunities stolen from us as We’ve expanded our support for out, and school reopenings. These fail- we sustain each other in this work. new chapters through the work of ures contributed to rampant anti-Asian Still, there’s hope not only on the the Growth and Development Com- violence that devastated so many com- horizon but in our day-to-day work mittee’s training, retention, recruit- munities. The rage from countless of building a mass socialist organi- ment, and mentorship teams and police murders was widely felt, and zation. The last year showed us what deepened our political education ef- the state responded with increasing vi- our class could have if and when we forts through the National Political olence. As the January 6 insurrection fight back—both in terms of actual Education Committee’s facilitation made clear, the far-right has not gone wins, and in terms of our collective training and basic curriculum. All of away, and the state is not willing to power. It’s important for us to re- this has been done in coordination serve as an opposition to these forces. member, as we begin to move toward with our organizing team and our The mobilization to get Donald Trump more in-person events, that we are field organizers. We’ve seen our chap- out of office has prompted escalating at our strongest and most powerful ters build strong alliances with local attacks on voting rights by Republicans. when we work together. We know that organizations and unions, working

10 DEMOCRATIC LEFT DSA National Convention fromSocialism the For ashes A New ofTomorrow the old August 1 8, 2021

Join us at this year’s virtual convention for a week of panels, workshops, and political debate. We’ll be debating and voting on a political platform for DSA and setting the vision of the world we’re fighting to win. Convention2021.DSAUSA.org

to root our movement in the working us the value of meeting people where 2019 convention. We hope this report class. We’re excited to be sending two they are and how rewarding it is to will lead to reflection on what it will delegations to Peru and Venezuela re- work toward a shared vision. The 100K take to make the organization what spectively as part of ongoing efforts Recruitment Drive reminded us of the we want, to assess the reality of how to deepen our international ties, and importance of asking people to join much time and resources are required we anticipate that deepening DSA’s DSA and how much we can grow when to win campaigns, and will prompt internationalist efforts will be a seri- we work in unity. The BIPOC (Black, members to recommit to the work of ous task for the incoming NPC. Indigenous, People of Color) internal building a national organization capa- As a rapidly growing socialist orga- priority resolution is helping us clarify ble of winning and being a vehicle for nization, we have made mistakes. We where we need a shift in culture and the working class to take back what’s know we have much to do to make structure to ensure that our organiz- ours. We’re a different organization DSA a more welcoming political home ing is multiracial. Our many elected than we were in 2015, and we look for- and much to learn to focus our power officials and five congressional mem- ward to seeing how we grow six years more strategically. But we’re doing it. bers are changing conditions on the down the line. But it feels good to We are working with Tilde Language ground. And our PRO Act campaign is know we’re going to figure it out with Justice Cooperative to translate our putting those in power on notice. 94,000-plus comrades at our side, 239 website into Spanish and coordinat- The last two years have felt both chapters deep, and a vision of a world ing language justice training. Most im- blurry and endless, but we are firm worth fighting for. portant, we have committed to help- in looking forward and focusing on Solidarity forever. ing chapters engage in meaningful dis- the tomorrow we are trying to build. cussion around race, reparations, and Ahead of the DSA National Conven- MARIANELA D’APRILE and KRISTIAN growing our power with intentionality tion in August, the NPC will present HERNANDEZ drafted this article, and a focus on mass-action campaigns a comprehensive report on its work which was approved by the National that build organization. as well as on progress made toward Political Committee as it ends its The DSA for Bernie campaign taught achieving the mandated goals of the term of office in August 2021.

SUMMER 2021 11 the person on the phone needs me to answer detailed questions about food allergies, while table 1’s food is up on the pass and needs to be run before it gets cold—yeah, the first thing to fall down my list is going to be sanitizing a menu. That’s just the reality of it. I want everyone to go out and enjoy themselves. After the year we’ve had, is there anything more life-affirming than spending time with loved ones and friends over a good meal? This is another of capitalism’s brutal iro- nies: We are social beings who need human interaction, yet we commodify the very things that make us human. Some go to the restaurant to buy the exact experience they are craving. Just one thing reliable and exactly as or- dered in an unreliable world. I get it. I yearn for something reliable, too. But this puts more onto restaurant work- LIVES ON THE LINE: ers than is reasonable to expect. Restaurant workers have always nav- A RESTAURANT WORKER’S STORY igated between what the boss wants us BY NATALIA TYLIM ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHANIE MONOHAN to do, what the customers demand of us, and the reality that we are flawed, ’ve been collecting unemployment was fast paced, with high table turn- human workers who are trying our since March 2020. The virus con- over. While managing a million tasks, very best under high stress. Our job re- I tinues to spread. They ask me to we periodically run downstairs for quires us to do hard physical labor for come back to work. Not because my ice, to clean the bathrooms, to refill long hours while maintaining a calm, work is essential during a pandemic, condiments, and restock wine. At the unflinching exterior. We are asked to but because my labor gives life to the end of the day, when our bodies have hide our fears and annoyances, even economy. had enough and we are sweaty from when we find ourselves tasked with The risks are real. We’ve heard and the hustle and bustle, we stack all bringing a little normalcy to other peo- told the stories. GoFundMe pages the tables and chairs, sweep and mop, ple’s lives no matter what is happening for immigrant restaurant workers. A clean the bathrooms, and put every- in our own. This was true before the California study finds that of all the thing away—just in time to bring it pandemic, but COVID-19 has made it jobs out there, line cooks are the most out again tomorrow. more visible. likely to die of COVID-19. On top of all the regular work, we They ask me to come back to work. Still, when asked to come back, I are now public safety agents as well. Nothing about this situation makes ratio- don’t deliberate. Besides Unem- Some who come to eat are intransi- nal sense. But the market compels it. ployment Insurance, this job—at a gent about wearing masks; others get cramped, casual neighborhood sea- drunk and forget. We are doing extra NATALIA TYLIM is a member of food restaurant supported by 20 years work with fewer workers, all while the Labor Branch in DSA’s NYC of loyal regulars—has been my only sanitizing everything at all times. So Chapter. She’s a founder of the source of income for a decade. My when customers are getting impa- Democratic Socialist Labor Com- shifts used to be 8 hours; now they tient—I need to refill table 2’s water, mission’s Restaurant Organiz- are closer to 13. table 4 needs ketchup, this guy with ing Project and can be found on Even before the pandemic, the work the hat is waiting for a to-go order, and Twitter @nataliatylim.

12 DEMOCRATIC LEFT WHY ARE ALL MY TRANS FRIENDS SOCIALISTS? BY LILY MOSS ILLUSTRATION BY DELLIQUANTI

rans people are of all shapes, In today's world, being transgender sizes, ethnicities, races, and is seen as a radical act. To be trans is to T geographic locations, but be pathologized at home, at school, at the one characteristic I’ve seen that work, and by society at large as having unites my own network and the made a conscious, extremist choice. trans community at large—more Trans people, of course, do not see it than might be expected in the gen- as a choice, but as being our true selves. eral populace—is that they support Against our will, we are placed in a box socialistic policies and politicians, by the culture that surrounds us. are DSA members, and subscribe to Perhaps the only upside is that this ideologies left of the Left. I believe forces many in the trans community an even greater number of trans to more critically examine other “cer- people would identify this way if ex- tainties” in our society, such as capital- posed to the message of socialism ism. If something as fundamental as Even with good insurance, the costs and shown how much it would ben- the wrong gender was forced upon me, of weekly hormone shots, endless efit them and their community. what else in our society may simply be doctor visits, and surgeries quickly Transphobia permeates almost a relic of an antiquated worldview? Per- add up. I’m one of the “lucky” ones. every facet of society. The National sonally, realizing I was trans recontex- For the last year, I have worked at Center for Transgender Equality tualized the world around me. It was Starbucks—one of the few companies says that one in 10 transgender indi- a hard reset that allowed me to take a with decent trans medical benefits— viduals have been evicted from their step back from the life I was living and in order to avoid accruing a mountain homes because of their gender iden- see the ways I was simply parroting the of medical debt. While I’m thankful tity. One in five have experienced white, middle-class worldviews with that I have the healthcare I need, I had homelessness, many because their which I was raised. to leave a higher-paying job in my de- own families have kicked them out. There’s another, extremely practi- sired field in order to work long and More than one in four have lost a job cal, reason for the openness to social- physically exhausting hours, just so I because of their gender identity, and ism in the trans community: health- could afford to be trans. For people three-fourths have suffered from job care. Transgender individuals have with conditions that don’t allow them discrimination because they are trans. the same health care needs as every- to do this kind of physical work, such For trans people in multiple mar- one else, as well as special needs. Like a job change isn’t even an option. ginalized groups, such as trans people millions in this country, they suffer DSA and the trans community are of color, these inequities don’t just from lack of basic care. In addition, a natural allies. Many of DSA’s core stack—they multiply exponentially. study of 27,000 transgender individu- values, such as protecting workers and Trans women of color are at particu- als by the National Center for Trans- advocating for universal healthcare, larly high risk for violence and homi- gender Equality found that a third are aligned with the needs of the trans cide. The trans population is forced had been refused medical care or had population. Actively pushing to include to fight against the inequities of our been harassed by medical profession- the trans population in DSA’s vision of current system every day, and given als. Many trans people cannot afford the future is to everyone’s benefit. the amount of discrimination and vi- or gain access to the care they need in olence leveled against a population order to transition. Trans suicide rates LILY MOSS is a transgender film- that doesn’t even reach 1% in any plummet dramatically post-transition, maker living in Queens. She pro- state, it soon becomes clear that the according to a 2015 survey by the Na- duces the podcast “Bullsh!t Alert,” system is broken at its core. tional Center for Transgender Equality. available on Spotify.

SUMMER 2021 13 BOOK REVIEW

BLACK MARXISM TODAY operates through a logic of differenti- ation. This structural analysis makes BY SIDDHANT ISSAR sense of how “extra-economic” coer- cion (expropriation) exists alongside wage-labor exploitation. Moving past a Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition tendency in some Marxist thought to abstract and bracket colonization and By Cedric J. Robinson the Atlantic slave trade as either outside the orbit of capitalist development or a oday, the phrase “racial capi- slavery, colonization, and capitalism, historical phase prior to the emergence talism” is ubiquitous—invoked Robinson offers a critique of orthodox of capitalism proper, Robinson estab- Tby the Movement for Black Marxism, providing an alternative his- lishes the centrality of multiple forms of Lives, debated in Dissent, and even torical and structural understanding of racialized and gendered expropriation, mentioned in the New York Times. As a the capitalist world-system. including racial slavery and super-ex- term of art, racial capitalism emerged Black Marxism contests Marx’s and ploitation, to the expanded reproduc- in debates on the South African Left in Engels’s understanding of capitalism as tion of capital. the 1970s. Subsequently, Cedric Robin- a complete overhaul of feudalism. Euro- Although not a work of political son’s 1983 Black Marxism: The Making pean feudalism, for Robinson, was rife economy, its power lies in the system- of the Black Radical Tradition moved with “racialist” ideologies that normal- atic exploration of the fundamental the understanding of racial capitalism ized intra-European relations of con- links between racial domination, co- beyond apartheid South Africa to en- quest, enslavement, and labor domi- lonialism, and global capitalism. Fore- compass the global development of nation. The rise of capitalist social re- grounding the “Black radical tradi- capitalism and neglected forms of an- lations out of feudalism extended and tion,” it also highlights how thinkers ti-capitalist resistance. expanded racialist differentiation. This such as W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R James, The contemporary renaissance is not a transhistorical argument. Robin- and Richard Wright reshaped or broke around Robinson’s Black Marxism son shows how racial hierarchies, from with Marxism to understand Black and the framework of racial capital- the 17th century onward, mark a rup- struggles against capital and the state. ism is driven in no small part by the ture from the past because emerging Going beyond wage-labor relations in Black Lives Matter movement. Follow- global capitalist relations transformed the industrial center, Black Marxism ing a year of sustained Black struggles material conditions between differently forces the Left to reckon with resis- against anti-Black state violence, UNC racialized populations within and out- tances that have often been invisible Press brought out a third edition of side of Europe. For example, Robinson to orthodox Marxists. These include Black Marxism. What makes Robinson’s identifies how modern nationalism and slave insurrections, runaway commu- text useful for contemporary anti-rac- Anglo-Saxon chauvinism stymied work- nities established by those escaping ist and anti-capitalist struggles? What ing-class solidarities in 19th-century En- slavery, anti-colonial revolutions (ex- lessons might the Left learn from en- gland. By centering England’s coloniza- emplified by the Haitian Revolution), gaging with it? tion of Ireland and the super-exploita- and contemporary struggles against Black Marxism is not a corrective or tion of Irish workers in Britain, Robinson state-sanctioned anti-Black violence. plea for Marxist analyses of capitalism demonstrates how competing “racial” Overcoming racial capitalism thus re- to account for white supremacist racial and “national” interests were constitu- quires that we bring together, not sep- domination. Robin D.G. Kelley puts it tive of the English proletariat. In doing arate, anti-racist and anti-capitalist best in his new foreword: “Black Marx- so, Robinson troubles Marx’s revolution- struggles, building power across the ism is neither Marxist nor anti-Marxist. ary subject, as well as the Euro-American racialized and gendered exploitation/ It is a dialectical critique of Marxism Left’s uncritical embrace of a deracial- expropriation continuum. that turned to the long history of Black ized and universal industrial proletariat revolt… to construct a wholly original as the vanguard of revolution. SIDDHANT ISSAR’ s writing has theory of revolution and interpretation Rather than homogenizing class an- appeared in Race and Class, of the history of the modern world.” By tagonisms, per Marx and Engels, Rob- Contemporary Political Theory, centering Black struggles against racial inson underscores how capitalism and The Black Scholar.

14 DEMOCRATIC LEFT “Challenged to Solidarity,” continued from page 3 information, such as pamphlets on tenants’ rights, legal aid contacts, and health clinics. organize your workplace During last summer’s uprisings, the NYC DSA mar- shals known as the Red Rabbits shared trainings on street Get the new organizing guide safety with DSA members and others. Red Rabbits also from the Emergency Workplace dispersed walkie talkies (which are not connected to the Organizing Committee (EWOC). Internet) and megaphones around the city informally Contact our organizers for and then offered more formal help when the Defund the support on your campaign! Police rallies began in early June. In this case, being in workerorganizing.org/guide solidarity meant mobilizing support to respond to a dy- namic moment. In general, allyship is not about redistributing resources A joint project of Democratic Socialists of America and UE Union or dismantling structures and institutions. Solidarity can be about all of those, but above all, it is about taking action. Solidarity is about working in collaboration with marginal- ized people. In comparison, allies tend to focus on talking with and being educated by people of color. DEMOCRATIC LEFT Another way to think of solidarity is to think of oneself NEEDS SKILLED as a “co-conspirator.” BLM activist and co-founder describes co-conspiracy as “what we do in action, VOLUNTEERS! not just in language… It is about moving through guilt DSA’s all-volunteer team needs and shame and recognizing that we did not create none skilled writers, reporters, of this stuff. And so what we are taking responsibility for is the power that we hold to transform our conditions.” translators, illustrators, One example of radical solidarity involves the case photographers, and editors. of artist and activist Bree Newsome. Newsome came to fame for removing the Confederate flag outside the South Apply here: Carolina Capitol building in 2015. Newsome, a Black bit.ly/3kRUU6e woman, was aided by a white male named James Tyson, who stayed at the bottom of the pole to spot her. When police pointed their tasers at Newsome, Tyson embraced the base of the metal flagpole, joining in the danger to her of severe injury or even death. The officials withdrew SEEKING GRAPHIC DESIGNER their weapons. This is a model, Newsome said, of “how FORAD SOCIAL FOR WEB MEDIA DESIGN we see police escalate or de-escalate due to skin color.” So, how can DSA members act in solidarity? As organiz- DemocraticVOLUNTEER Left’s art volunteer ers, we must experiment to find what works. We can ana- team is seeking a graphic designer lyze both the successes and failures of socialists of the past. to create eye-catching visuals for The difference between DSA and white ally organiza- our social media pages. tions is that DSA is committed to winning socialism for the multiracial working class. At the same time, we have Reach out to us here: a long way to go to confront white racism within the [email protected] organization and diversify our demographics. It’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be pretty, but I am hopeful about our prospects for building a better future beyond allyship and toward solidarity. FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA MARIAN JONES is a member of the DSA’s National Polit- @DemLeftMag ical Education Committee and an editor of Lux Magazine.

SUMMER 2021 15 ABOUT THE COVER ART Inspired by Jess Dunlap’s nature illustrations, we arrived at the concept of a community garden to symbolize what socialist solidarity means to us—by working together, we can grow stronger. Jess’s delicate linework was paired with artist bed deth’s textural digital coloring for this Moving? Let us know: [email protected]. The Post Office charges for every collaboration. returned copy of Democratic Left. We save money, and you don’t miss an issue.

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