Vol. XLVIII No 4 SPRING 2021 DEMOCRATIC

DSAUSA.ORG LEFTTHE MAGAZINE OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA

SPRING 2021 1 FROM THE NATIONAL DIRECTOR

DEMOCRATIC LEFT A GREEN NEW DEAL

Executive Editor Maria Svart Editor Maxine Phillips MEANS Editorial Team Ian Hyzy Alexander Lee KEEP ORGANIZING! Christine Lombardi A LABOR NEW DEAL Stephen Magro Don McIntosh BY MARIA SVART Christine Riddiough Founding Editor BY CHRIS LOMBARDI Michael Harrington e live in dangerous times. Joe Biden won the election, but the results ILLUSTRATION BY DEVON MANNEY (1928–1989) were far, far too close, and he’s still deporting people, dropping bombs In March 2009, then-Vice President Biden gave a sur- Art Direction & Layout Brianna Harden and hiding behind procedure. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s fascist base prisingly decent speech to the AFL-CIO’s annual confer- Asst. Layout Design W What does an “all hands” moment for and its puppet masters have captured much of the Republican Party, as demon- ence in support of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Nikita Kataev strated by a study last fall showing that the GOP now shares key authoritarian EFCA was one of Barack Obama’s key campaign promises. Asst. Art Director DSA look like? Perhaps this one, to judge Devon Manney characteristics with Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and Viktor Orban’s from recent communications across the By allowing unions to form via “Card Check,” instead of Book Review Editor Fidesz. Republicans are already advancing over 100 bills in 28 states to erode forcing secret NLRB elections, the bill would have made Stephen Magro organization pointing to the first major voting rights and introducing bills in dozens of states to criminalize protest. it much easier for workers to organize. “This is all going Online Editor Christine Lombardi Not just Republicans, but also neoliberals in the Democratic Party are forcing campaign of 2021. The following mate- to be difficult,” Biden said, “and one of the most difficult Proofreader schools and restaurants to open before vaccines are distributed, and the 500,000 rial, drawn from DSA’s website, tells a things will be to re-institute that basic bargain” between Pam Grant-Ryan COVID deaths are joined by untold suffering as millions remain unemployed. The business and labor: that higher productivity means higher Production story that is as exciting as it is historic. Ed Hedemann crisis in capitalism is killing us, and the political crisis threatens to finish the job. wages. “And I think the way to do that is the Employee Cover Art What is a socialist to do? Free Choice Act.” But like so much of the Obama admin- Cath Virginia Organize! he new Biden administration is making big commit- istration’s promises, it evaporated in the face of massive Democratic Left (ISSN 1643207) is published When New York City locked down a year ago, the national office sent headquar- ments around the climate crisis, but the working opposition by the forces of capital. quarterly at P.O. Box 1038, ters staff home for what we thought would be a few weeks. Chapters ended in-per- class needs more than a restoration of the Obama- Does the PRO Act have a better shot than the EFCA did? New York NY 10272. T Periodicals postage paid son events. Members risked their lives every day at work or struggled at home with era status quo and massive handouts to corporations We learned our lesson from the EFCA debacle. Democrats at New York, NY kids or cramped conditions and bills piling up. for “green” capitalism. We need a Green New Deal that such as Biden aren’t going to make better labor laws a pri- (Publication No. 701-960). Subscriptions: $25 regular, But you kept organizing. It’s what socialists do. massively expands the public sector and guarantees good ority unless we push them, and now is our chance to up $30 institutional. Postmaster: Send address Fighting for workplace PPE and hazard pay, expanding or building mutual aid green jobs for all workers. the pressure. changes to P.O. Box 1038, networks in response to COVID or weather disasters, pivoting electoral and legis- A first step is ensuring that Biden’s campaign promises That’s why the Democratic Socialist Labor Commission New York NY 10272. (212) 726-8610. lative work from canvassing to phone banking, taking to the streets for an end to to support labor become reality. and DSA’s Green New Deal Campaign are launching a push

Signed articles express racist police violence and for public energy production, and holding chapter edu- The PRO Act, which passed the House last year but for the First 100 Days of the new administration to pass the the opinions of the authors cation and democratic decision-making events over Zoom: These are but a few of stalled in the Senate, would be the most significant pro- PRO Act, which would strengthen unions and the power of and not necessarily the organization. the ways DSA members are still building the mass movement we need to win. Just union labor law rewrite since the 1935 Wagner Act. It would the working class to organize on the job, helping to build

Democratic Socialists looking back at our collective work this past year is mind-boggling. almost certainly lead to a major revival of unionization and labor power as strong as it needs to be in the months and of America promotes a Organizing is how we helped beat back the white supremacist threat in the last working-class power. years ahead to win a just transition to a green economy for humane international social order based on equitable few months. It’s how we’ll consolidate left gains and strengthen solidarity across The PRO (Protecting the Right to Organize) Act has sev- all communities. The original New Deal was won through distribution of resources, our differences as we take on the capitalist class. And it’s how we’ll build multiracial eral key provisions. The bill would impose financial penal- militant labor organizing. Rebuilding this capacity is cru- meaningful work, a healthy environment, sustainable working-class power for the long term, as when Black and brown essential workers ties on businesses that violate workers’ rights, remove pro- cial to DSA’s work for a radical Green New Deal. growth, gender and racial won historic raises and learned solidarity through the Hunts Point strike in January. equality, and non-oppressive hibitions on solidarity strikes, and ban captive-audience Passage of the PRO Act will be a game-changer. And DSA relationships. We are The legendary leader of the Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis, may she rest meetings in contested union elections. Perhaps most sig- is no longer on the sidelines. dedicated to building truly international social in power, always said to ask yourself this when considering a course of action: nificantly, it would put a federal ban on so-called right-to- movements—of unions, “Does it unite us? Does it build power? Does it make us stronger?” work laws and push back against gig-economy exploitation CHRIS LOMBARDI is online editor of Democratic Left, environmentalists, feminists, and people of color—which That’s why we are going all-in this spring to fight for the pro-union Protecting by tightening standards around independent contractor and author of I Ain’t Marching Anymore: Dissenters, De- together can elevate global the Right to Organize Act (see story on p. 3). Reach out to your local chapter now. classification. It’s a good bill. DSA supports it, and during serters & Objectors to America’s Wars. For more informa- justice over brutalizing global competition. It is never too late to take that first step! the campaign, Joe Biden said he did, too. tion about the campaign, check out dsausa.org.

2 DEMOCRATIC LEFT SPRING 2021 3 TALKING SOCIALISM

about the work ahead of us. The oil in a Trump administration. We One of the exciting things about and gas lobbies have gone in so hard can make the argument that not your early days in Congress was to try to give the Green New Deal enough is changing fast enough. your willingness to break from a bad name, and even after total These are not nitpicking questions convention, like when you blew the hammering by the Republican Party, of semantics. The language that we lid on the freshman orientation it still doesn't poll that poorly. Once use communicates “who is included.” that was crawling with corpo- we send organizers or have other When you say “nothing has changed,” rate lobbyists or appeared at the forms of messaging and explain what you are calling the people who are Sunrise Movement sit-in in Nancy the Green New Deal is, support sky- now protected from deportation Pelosi’s office. Has your strategy rockets. So I think we need to engage “no one.” And we cannot allow for shifted from those days? in the work of organizing. There is that in our movement. That's not a I don't think so. I believe we're critical electoral work to be done movement that I want to be a part getting more sophisticated. I think as well. The strategy of supporting of. We're so susceptible to cynicism. about all of our tactics as different candidates—when that is calculated, And cynicism continues to threaten tools in a toolbox. When I first focused, precise, when we aren't to tear down everything that we have started, I had a hammer. And when casting our net too wide beyond the spent so much time building up. We're you have a hammer, everything's capacities of any given local organiza- allowed to win too, by the way. a nail, as they say. But then you tion—is extremely effective. I've seen learn about other methods, you get the impact of it from the inside—how Millions of people are excited about a wrench, you get a screwdriver. even incumbent members of Congress you being in Congress and rooting You add the tools of electoralism,

Photograph by Corey Torpie by Corey Photograph will totally reinvent themselves in for your success. But at the same supporting other members to join. a far more progressive direction, time, no other figure has been tar- You have the tools of sunlight. machine politics, where there was a because they know their communities geted by the Fox News crowd quite There's one moment I'll never CATCHING UP WITH AOC lot of cynical use of identity under the are watching. like you have. Why do you think forget. We were going through the guise of lobbyist-driven policies. Also, that they worked to make you such appropriations process, I believe in Bronx Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, best in New York City, there has histori- Some on the Left have looked at a bogeyman for the right wing? 2019 or so, and there are these mas- known as AOC, is DSA’s foremost “superstar.” With over cally been tension between DSA and Biden’s record and his differences I think they've done it because they sive multi-thousand-page packages. 12 million Twitter followers, her picture on the December organizing collectives of color. But with the Bernie wing of the party, know that we are a threat, particularly And I remember finding this really cover of Vanity Fair, and mass cultural appeal to teens and it really felt like a moment where we and they conclude that no progress because I'm a movement candidate. bizarre appropriation for fossil fuel were coming together. And I felt like it is going to come out of the Biden If I was just some kind of one-off sin- facilities, like a multi-billion-dollar the not-yet-political, she continues to use her celebrity to was something worth being part of. administration. What’s your view? gular candidate, I do not believe that giveaway. We were like, “Where did build support for a democratic socialist agenda. We spoke Well, I think it's a really privileged we would be attracting the energy this come from? Did someone slip by Zoom on January 26. —DON McINTOSH DSA’s priorities are your priorities, critique. We have to focus on solidar- and attacks. Organized capital has this in?” We were gonna propose Green New Deal and Medicare For ity with one another, developing good correctly identified that my candidacy an amendment to take it out, so What was your path to joining DSA? warehouse workers to the meeting All in particular. There’s no getting faith critique. Bad faith critique can is not an individual venture, but rep- we raised the question about this. I grew up very working class. Both my and translated their testimony. And around the fact that those are go- destroy everything we have built. We resentative of an actual working-class And because no one wanted to fess parents grew up in extreme poverty. on top of that, the chapter provided ing to require an act of Congress. do not have the time or the luxury movement. There is a rush to define up and actually own that they were What initially drew me to DSA was the free childcare to anyone who wanted What’s the most strategic thing to entertain bad faith actors in our me to the country before I have the the one who put that in, it was fact that they showed up everywhere to show up. And at the end of that that DSA members and chapters movement. What is the message that opportunity to define myself. I believe withdrawn without actually making that I showed up. I started as a meeting, I was like, ‘Okay, this is real.’ could be doing right now to bring you are sending to your Black and that what was attempted was, “We’re it a floor fight. There are so many of community organizer before I even Then [DSA member] Jabari Brisport that about? brown and undocumented members going to make an example out of her these wins, that aren't necessarily knew about DSA, and I was advocating ran for City Council. It felt like I think sometimes people fall into of your community when you say for everyone else.” It was also trying public fights every time. Some of for educational equity. A friend invited something fundamentally different this trap of wishful thinking about a nothing has changed? Perhaps not to convince Democrats that this is too that work is quiet, but it is just as me to a DSA meeting in the Bronx/ to me. Ironically enough, I was one poll question, thinking that support enough has changed. But just the dangerous, and that this is a liability. significant as some of the public Upper Manhattan Branch. This was of those folks that felt we're not is solid, that it’s unsusceptible to the other night, we in collective struggle And it didn't work. We expanded our fighting and organizing. around the time DSA was picketing going to get any substantive change propaganda of corporate lobbyists were able to stop the deportations of presence with the election of Jamaal to call attention to warehouse through electoral politics. I felt that and the health insurance industry. critical members of our community. Bowman and Cori Bush. This is not workers. They brought undocumented way because I grew up around Bronx The first thing we need is honesty And that would not have happened going away. Continued on page 15

4 DEMOCRATIC LEFT SPRING 2021 5 SOCIALISTS ACROSS GENERATIONS: We Need To Talk

BY DAVID DUHALDE

joined DSA at age 19 (full disclosure: I’m From what might be called “the ashes of the old,” our organization 36 now) because of Eugene Debs’s al- was founded by a 1982 merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing leged quip that “an unorganized socialist Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM). Both Iis a contradiction in terms.” I felt it as a moral formations were youth-dominated and changed the way socialists mo- obligation, not a strategic decision. The orga- bilized in this country. nization was down to about 5,000 members DSOC broke with the strategy of building an independent party, seek- and had no visible national presence. ing to build instead a nexus between labor, social movements, and the As a member, and then a staffer of Young left wing of the Democratic Party. Younger activists came to DSOC in Democratic Socialists (now YDSA) in the the early 1970s, as the former Socialist Party split into three different final years of George W. Bush’s second term, groups. DSOC helped elect socialists on the Democratic Party line, in- I found it demoralizing to attempt to recruit troduced young people to the socialist tradition in the labor movement, students to an organization that seemed to and drove international solidarity with the South African democracy have no one under 40 in its off-campus chap- movement and the Latin American Left. provided a constant source of historical information, organizing experi- Gay Pride parade in Chicago circa 1992 ters. How could one not consider leaving to Youth was even more central for the New American Movement, ence, and personal wisdom. After Donald Trump’s election, the average PHOTOGRAPH BY JAY HUGHES join a larger organization? Luckily, some of which emerged in the 1970s from the shattered Students for a Dem- age of DSA members dropped to 33. Longtime members today lack the us did stay to maintain a structure that would ocratic Society (SDS). NAM was made up primarily of graduates—lit- capacity to nurture and guide newcomers, who now vastly outnumber welcome a flood of new comrades energized erally and figuratively—from the New Left. They pushed for campus the older cadre. by Bernie Sanders’s first presidential campaign chapters that included faculty and workers, rather than narrow “stu- Absent such collaboration, DSA runs the risk of repeating past mis- lifetime commitment to socialism was a real and Donald Trump’s election. Overnight, it dent” groups. Baby Boomer NAM members were some of the earliest takes. It’s not hard to find executive committees of DSA chapters with option. The older members learned about new seemed, I and my small cohort went from being fighters for a socialist feminism that challenged male dominance in the no one who is over 35 or who was a member before 2016. Our National styles of organizing. DSA conventions featured the “future generation” of our socialist project organization. This task is certainly incomplete, but their efforts are a Political Committee has almost no one on it from the DSA that existed panels with socialists from each decade talking to being in the almost-oldtimer category. lasting legacy and important foundation for addressing institutional- before Bernie Sanders’s 2016 run. Without a generational balance in lead- about their commitments. This new energy has given DSA a capacity ized racism, sexism, and heteronormativity in socialist spaces. ership, within but not limited to the NPC, institutional memory cannot Sharing knowledge and experience is a two- and influence we had not experienced in de- Recently, as part of a study for the DSA Fund, I spoke with former be shared. Such concentrations of age are inadvisable—whether within way street. Our newer members can learn from cades. From having our Political Action Com- members of the youth wing of DSA. In the hundreds of interviews and the old DSA when it was just old or the new DSA, which is the opposite. those who play the long game, and the older mittee contributions returned by candidates surveys of 1970s and 1980s DSOC and DSA youth section members, as People with different entry points into socialism should have the op- ones can both remember their own youthful afraid of being labeled as socialists, we have well as NAM activists, I was struck by how often they cited mentor- portunity to meet, discuss, and learn from one another. For instance, enthusiasms and mistakes and stretch them- become an organization whose endorsements ship as one of their fondest memories of that time. Old Left and New some chapters have started running tech workshops for members. selves to learn about organizing in the 21st are sought. From providing a handful of people Left learned from the mistakes made by SDS. There was a real desire During the pandemic, online study groups have allowed people to meet century. DSA will be stronger for it. to show up at picket lines, DSA now mentors to avoid these mistakes and build a collective space for collaboration virtually when they might never have traveled to another town for an and trains rank-and-file leaders, shaping the and learning. One alumnus recalled speaking with Dissent magazine co- in-person event. But we need more planned exchanges among com- DAVID DUHALDE is vice-chair of the DSA future of democratic unionism. founder Irving Howe as an equal, not so many years after receiving rades who are not age peers. Fund and serves on the Steering Commit- The U.S. Left went through a similar demo- Howe’s World of Our Fathers as a bar mitzvah gift. One of the most successful programs in my time as YDSA orga- tee of DSA’s International Committee. For a graphic transition more than 50 years ago, and But after the 1990s, as DSA members grew older, membership stalled, nizer was our biennial summer intergenerational leadership retreat. deeper dive into the history of youth in DSA, it did not end well with regard to intergenera- and by 2013 the average age of members was 67. Veteran members at the YDSA and DSA leaders came together to read historical socialist watch his video presentation of this material tional work. (See various histories of Students time were so happy to have younger members in the organization that texts, share stories, and break bread. Many of the YDSA leaders who on the Jacobin magazine YouTube station at for a Democratic Society and the New Left.) students and youth had multiple mentors to choose from. Mentorship came stayed on to build DSA. These conferences showed them that a youtu.be/Sdcz7KnIz6s

6 DEMOCRATIC LEFT SPRING 2021 7 Republicans Alf Landon and Thomas advertising are all data-based activities Dewey would win their respective races that affect our lives. We must examine in landslides, based on early skewed how the biases of data scientists are polling and early voting numbers. incorporated into models that predict In 2016, pollsters told us that Hil- educational achievement or health QUESTION lary Clinton would take both the Elec- care needs. In the current pandemic toral College and the popular vote. In crisis, we learned only after it was on 2020, despite today’s more sophis- the market that one vaccine had not ticated techniques that supposedly been tested on enough people over the adjust for class, gender, and race, poll- age of 65 to determine its usefulness THE DATA: ing indicated a big win for Democrats. with that population. Instead, Democrats eked out narrow Do you know how the digits in your margins in the House and Senate. We ZIP code affect your auto insurance on the Left want to win, and polls can rates or mortgage rates? Do you know be designed to help us understand how how much your smartphone can reveal Go Beyond Fake News to advance our ideas and boost our can- to everyone from advertisers to law didates. That is, they can if we design enforcement? polls to tell us what we need to know Beyond just looking Data can be a resource for the Left from people who have the information. at flawed polls, we as well. In January, the Washington Post Beyond just looking at flawed polls, must understand how reported that a consumer protection however, we must understand how math (and science) group had shown that factors such as math (and science) affect policy. Con- education level and occupation are sider climate change. We know the av- affect policy. used by auto insurance companies BY CHRISTINE RIDDIOUGH erage temperature on earth is higher when setting rates. Although this may ILLUSTRATIONS BY DEVON MANNEY than it was only decades ago. And so, not be a surprise, it is helpful to have we support a Green New Deal and securities. The profitability of these this kind of data as part of our argu- oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline. financial products led to pressure on ment for change. But math, science, and, in particular, mortgage lenders to offer lower and A left slogan should be “Ques- data science have an impact on other lower interest rate mortgages in order tion the Data.” Ask, “What’s the date climate-related issues; and until re- to reel in more home buyers. The on the information in this email I’m ne of my favorite television Health Organization, 140,000 people Trump by 7%. This poll was based on cently, few were questioning assump- availability of low-interest mortgages being asked to forward?” “What’s the shows was Numbers, which died from measles in 2018, down from just over 500 likely voters. The final tions about race, sex, and class. For in- drove up demand for houses and thus source for this statement?” “Who was ran from 2005-2010. It was about 2.6 million per year before the count came in at a 1.2% Biden lead. Be- stance, we know that climate change home prices. Many of these low-in- involved in this supposedly scientific aboutO a prodigy who helped solve measles vaccine was introduced. No cause the predicted difference was so means hotter summers and more hur- terest loans, however, started re- study?” Lives depend on our looking crimes using math. The tagline was, deaths from the vaccine have been small, had more people stayed home ricanes, but do we think about how verting to much higher interest rates at, and behind, the numbers. “We all use numbers every day.” It’s reported. However, the anti-vaccine rather than going to vote, the result those hotter summers affect people around the same time the “housing true, whether we’re checking the time, movement, based on a fraudulent could have been disastrous. Such mis- without access to air conditioning or bubble” burst, owing to rising interest CHRISTINE RIDDIOUGH is a running our credit cards, or counting study by Andrew Wakefield, contin- calculations can come from not fac- how crop failures could lead to food rates in general and a stalling hous- founding member of DSA and a change. We use numbers even when ues to propagandize. We have only to toring in the margin of error (typi- scarcity, especially in poorer commu- ing market. House values plummeted, member of Metro DC DSA. She we aren’t looking; after all, computers check the daily newsfeed to see the ef- cally around 3-4%) or because the poll nities? Do we notice how vast migra- leaving homeowners “under water,” works as a computer programming and the Internet are built on numbers fects of pseudoscience in our current sample was skewed. For example, if tions from drought-stricken areas fuel that is, owing more money than the and statistics teacher for a software —ones and zeros, to be exact. coronavirus crisis. polling firms call only voters with anti-immigrant sentiments and re- house was now worth. Only those company. For further reading on But do we understand what’s going Innumeracy around polling may not landlines, they might reach a higher gional warfare? who had some grounding in mathe- this topic, check out John Allen Pau- on with those numbers? Do we un- be as deadly as that around disease, percentage of older voters than are in Leading up to the financial crisis matics would have understood what los’s Innumeracy: Mathematical Illit- derstand the data and how it’s driv- but it can be quite harmful. For exam- the population as a whole. of 2008/2009, deregulation in the fi- a mess they were walking into when eracy and Its Consequences and Cathy ing policy? Most of the time, we don’t. ple, a Monmouth University poll in This isn’t an academic question. nancial industry had allowed banks they signed the contract. O’Neil’s Weapons of Math Destruc- Look at the pseudoscience around Pennsylvania shortly prior to the elec- Polls in the presidential races of 1936 to engage in risky hedge fund trad- School testing, redlining, and the tion: How Big Data Increases Inequal- vaccines. According to the World tion showed Joe Biden leading Donald and 1948 incorrectly predicted that ing, often involving mortgage-backed use of algorithms in hiring as well as ity and Threatens Our Democracy.

8 DEMOCRATIC LEFT SPRING 2021 9 KITCHEN TABLE SOCIALISM CHAPTER AND VERSE

and—especially with increased 14, DSA counted 12,847 brand new country to see who could bring in the Gaming the System: deregulation over the last couple of members and 2,005 lapsed members most new members. decades—it has turned into more of a SIX WEEK who renewed. That title went to Janet Hurtado casino than a means of raising money It was election season, and DSA of Los Angeles, who recruited 122 Why the Stock Market is Worthless or driving innovation and investment. was growing, so how many of the new new members. Her secret? “I just ask, BY HADAS THIER As economist Doug Henwood has SURGE members were the direct result of wherever I’m at,” Hurtado said. “There’s pointed out, companies have raised recruitment? Zhu thinks at least half. no other way to do it.” about $671 billion since 2000 by BY DON McINTOSH Some 4,687 new or rejoining members Hurtado says she recruited among issuing new stocks, while at the same used the referral links, and others who neighbors, at the store, and especially time they invested $8.5 trillion in were contacted joined directly at dsausa. among the volunteers she met as a stock buybacks in order to pay higher DSA has been growing steadily, org. In absolute terms, the chapters field organizer for the 2020 Bernie dividends to shareholders. but that growth went into turbo that had the most tracked signups Sanders campaign. The stock market has made a few from October 1 to November 14, were NYC (602), LA (344), DC (264), Super-recruiter Mindy Isser of Chicago (200), and Philadelphia (160). people very wealthy and has done 2020, during DSA’s first-ever national Philadelphia DSA was a close second, recruitment drive. Membership But proportionally, DSA saw the largest bringing in 120 new members. Isser little for working people (apart from soared 14,852 in six weeks. gains in its Southern chapters, biggest of used the same strategy she employs as a forcing us to wager our retirements DSA’s National Growth & all in Charleston, Southwest Louisiana, union organizer: Ask everyone possible— at the casino via 401(k) plans). The Development Committee (GDC) led New Orleans, and San Antonio. in the most direct way—and follow up richest 10% of households control the drive, using technology-assisted “One thing the recruitment drive really with those who commit. approximately two-thirds of individual people power. Its basic instrument shows is that our ideas are popular all “If you can, ask in person,” Isser said. stocks, while households earning was an online pledge. Individual DSA across the country,” says Charleston “If you can’t ask in person, ask by phone. below the median income typically members pledged to recruit three new DSA co-facilitator Nick Rubin. “If we And only if you can’t ask by phone, ask have no financial assets at all. members and then received a unique make the ask and organize, we can build by text. Calling people makes people he drama that swirled around profited handsomely from the day During the COVID-induced reces- referral link to track those they signed a presence even in places some people take it more seriously.” GameStop and the stock trading “revolt.” sion, the Federal Reserve has poured up. Chapters committed to grow by 10% don’t expect.” market earlier this year high- The episode drew the attention of trillions of dollars into the financial T and designated one or two captains to Charleston phone-banked its entire lighted two things: The system is millions of people to the charade of the markets. But rather than using credit lead the effort. Captains phone-banked membership of about 180 and texted RECRUITMENT BY THE NUMBERS rigged against working people, and stock market and the financial sector. to keep payrolls and employment and text-banked chapter member lists or emailed those they didn’t reach. The 2,165 DSA members signed the the stock market is useless. Financial capital has always existed going, those loans have been used to to recruit individual pledgers, and chapter had worked in coalition with pledge to recruit three The basic story was this: Some under capitalism, because credit is speculate in financial assets. This has organized online recruitment events. other groups, so inviting allies to join new members hedge fund investors took bets on necessary for businesses to function. translated into huge windfalls for some An online leaderboard allowed was a logical next step. The chapter 1,004 pledgers successfully GameStop’s declining profitability Without credit, businesses wouldn’t CEOs and shareholders, while millions individuals and chapters to find out gained 34 new members and doubled recruited at least one through a process called “shorting.” be able to pay Monday’s wages and of people have been left out of work, whether their contacts had followed the number of active members, says new member This means that investors borrow bills until they collected Friday’s facing evictions or hunger or both. through to become members, and to Charleston DSA communications 433 pledgers hit their three- shares of the company. They then sell profits. They wouldn’t be able to U.S. stock market indexes broke records see in real time who were DSA’s top- secretary Jasmine Rogasner. member goal those stocks on the assumption that make large investments in equipment in 2020, but their disconnect from eco- recruiting individuals and chapters. SW Louisiana DSA added 19 4,335 new members, plus 352 lapsed their price will fall. Once the price has and technology until they had nomic reality could not be greater. GDC leaders—together with DSAer New members to the roughly 60 it had at members, joined via individual fallen sufficiently, they buy back the accumulated enough to pay cash. All York State Assembly member Jabari the starting line. Drive captain Megan referral links stocks at a lower price, return the bor- this would drastically slow down the HADAS THIER is the author of Brisport—kicked off the drive with Romer says the chapter had built a 88 chapters appointed one rowed shares, and pocket the difference. march of capital. A People’s Guide to Capitalism: An online trainings on how to make the ask. reputation locally for its disaster relief or more captains Some day traders communicating on Stocks theoretically play a role in Introduction to Marxist Econom- Tim Zhu, a union data specialist and work. Now she and others pushed 122 members served as Reddit bought up shares, driving up the raising money for companies, through ics, a regular contributor to Jaco- member of Metro DC DSA, developed outside comrades to “put a ring on it.” chapter captains prices of those stocks. This left hedge the selling of shares of their future bin Magazine and In These Times, the campaign’s outline in June, and “I think there’s a cultural attitude of 179 chapters grew by at least 10% fund investors on the hook for a much value. Each share is a claim to a frac- and a member of DSA in Central worked with the National Political ‘We don’t want to pressure people.’ But higher value than they had laid out. tion of the company’s future worth. Brooklyn, New York. She led the Committee and staff to prepare it for people need to be asked. Read your Jane 12,847 brand new members joined For a moment, some regular The stock market functions like an “Socialist School of Economics” launch. Three weeks in, the campaign McAlevey!” Romer says. during the drive people made money off of the stock auction in which the value of stocks for DSA on March 9, 2021, which had blasted past its 5,000 goal, so Meanwhile, on the leaderboard, a 2,005 lapsed members renewed the goal was raised to 8,000 and the comradely competition broke out market. But the real winners were fluctuates constantly. can be viewed at youtube.com/ 14,852 total membership growth other Wall Street investors, who This is a highly speculative process, DSAEventLivestream. deadline extended a week. By November among individual pledgers around the

10 DEMOCRATIC LEFT SPRING 2021 11 HELP DSA MEDICAL FRONT LINE her as a patient, because we’re all covering our asses. Lost in the shuffle RAISE MONEY of lab and legal and billing paperwork AN EMT’S STORY is what our patient actually wants, what she can actually afford. FOR ABORTION We bandage a person’s infected foot wound, an injury caused by years of ACCESS! untreated diabetes. We transport an unhoused person ost people who find out to an ER to treat their psychotic It's once again time for I’m an emergency med- episode, sure that months of living on the National Network of ical technician think the street without medication were Abortion Funds (NNAF) MI’m first on the scene, saving lives, what made their situation bad enough annual Fund-a-thon for that sort of thing. There are people to require an ambulance. abortion access! Abortion who do that, but that’s not my job. No matter how fast our ambulance access has suffered tremendously under the I, like most EMTs, don’t respond to gets to the scene, it arrives months Trump administration and 911 calls. We work for private com- and years too late to do any good. COVID pandemic. We need panies, doing interfacility transports. As capitalism leaves more and more your help to raise over On paper, it’s things like bringing a people behind, EMTs and paramedics $100,000 for abortion funds! psych patient from the emergency will be the ones to respond to its room to a mental health care center, failures, from health management or a heart attack victim to a hospital to malnutrition to homelessness. equipped for specialized surgery. In And, given the politics of many of Already have a team? reality, it mostly means dumping pa- those working in emergency services, Please fill out this form to help tients—taking them from the pristine it’s likely that this strain will breed us track teams and $$$ raised ERs of the private hospitals to the hostility rather than solidarity. https://bit.ly/DSAFundathon overstuffed, understaffed community At the time of this writing, my hospitals that their health insurance county has issued new instructions to (or lack thereof) actually covers. ambulance crews: Because ERs are so On paper, there’s supposed to be a overcrowded with COVID-19 patients, Want to learn how medical reason for an ambulance ride tell people about their right to refuse remote nursing hotline for non-emer- ILLUSTRATION BY people in cardiac arrest are not to be your chapter can to a different facility, or the patient’s care—if a patient refuses care and gency medical transport, but keeps the CONNOR WILLUMSEN transported. If we can’t resuscitate start a team? insurance won’t cover the trip. The later their condition gets worse, we details opaque, likely for this reason. them on scene, we declare them dead. majority of our on-the-job training is can be sued and lose our licenses if They heard her report a high blood Prior to getting that directive, I RSVP to learn how to learning which keywords to use (like our documentation isn't perfect. I pressure event and called us in, prob- had planned to end by saying that our start fundraising! “requires special positioning”) in our make $15 an hour. In July 2021, I’ll get ably to cover their asses just in case. us. We’re all in agreement that she healthcare system is unwilling to let documentation, regardless of whether a $0.30 raise. I don’t make enough to My partner and I make awkward eye doesn’t need an ambulance for this, anybody die, but it’s unable to truly The March training: it’s true or not. If the insurance take that kind of risk. contact over our gurney. We had been but the rules say we have to strap her help them live. The pandemic hasn’t refuses to cover the ambulance trip, excited to get this house call, because, onto our gurney anyway. She has the changed this equation, only exposed March 14th then the patient is stuck with the bill. unlike our usual runs, these tend to right to tell us to go away—we can’t the fault lines that were already there. 3pm EST / 12pm PST Emergency Medical Services is involve doing some actual medicine. force her to go if she doesn’t want No matter what, my company gets Until our ability to stay healthy is https://bit.ly/MarchFundTraining paid. Legally, the patient is allowed a small-picture field. It deals in I take her blood pressure; it’s in the to—but if either of us tells her so, we uncoupled from our ability to produce to decline the ride, but that would proximate causes. I have anecdotes, high 190s. The woman clearly needs could lose our jobs. All she talks about profit, the logo on your health insur- mean saying no first to their nurse, not statistics. Here’s one: to see a doctor. on the journey is how she can’t afford ance card (if you have one) largely The April training: then to us, then listening to us explain “If I had known that they were “How much are they going to this. Her blood pressure climbs into determines your fate. April 7th everything that could go wrong if they going to send an ambulance, I never charge me for this?” she asks. Neither the 200s, probably from the stress. 8pm EST / 5pm PST don’t shut up, sign the paperwork, would have called,” our patient says. of us has an answer to that question. Who have we really helped here? We The author wishes to remain anony- and accept the ride. Most EMTs don’t Her private health insurance offers a Eventually we get her to come with take her to the ER, and the ER takes mous for fear of job retaliation. https://bit.ly/AprilFundTraining

12 DEMOCRATIC LEFT SPRING 2021 13 BOOK REVIEW READ MORE ONLINE dsausa.org/democratic-left/ ITALY: PERSONALITIES PREEMPT POLITICS AOC Joins Gamers to Educate Voters

BY SPENCER BROWN In the run-up to the November election, AOC appeared on the popular online platform Twitch. Does Italy’s often bewildering political anti-migrant Lega (previously Lega Nord, tv to play the game Among Us and volatility contain any lessons for the Left? reflecting its northern-separatist origins) urge more than 400,000 viewers to David Broder believes it does. In First that is the leading right-wing party, some- get out to vote. In another appear- They Took Rome (Verso), the Europe editor what ironically capturing the rural-south- ance, she helped raise $200,000 of Jacobin magazine argues that Italian ern vote in the process. The “neither left for coronavirus relief. Her willing- politics may be less the exception than the nor right” M5S, on the other hand, has Continued from page 5 ness to go where other politicians Scan QR code to read rule in the future. He sees Italy’s political made significant inroads into the historic have hesitated to tread has intro- more about Twitch fragmentation over the past 30 years as a voting base of the Italian Left. You’re famous for skillfully clapping duced many formerly apolitical and its potential for national case study of a larger globalized Broder argues that, despite their many back at haters, but you don’t come off people to left-wing politics. the Left online pattern. Broder is here to tell us how this differences, both Lega and M5S share a as mean, and you never punch down. came to be and what lessons we can draw common “anti-political” project. Each re- How do you stay so positive? from it. flects an explicit turn away from the realm Well, you know, positivity is an orga- Broder argues that the collapse of the of formal politics. This is in sharp contrast nizing tool. There's a reason why Jabari mass parties of both Left and Right that to Italy’s previous system of mass parties, [Brisport] won, there's a reason why BUILDING THE First They Took structured postwar Italy led to their re- where each membership-based party sought Zohran [Mamdani] won, why Marcela RELIGIOUS LEFT Rome: How the placement by an ever-shifting sea of to use electoral campaigns to organize a [Mitaynes] and Phara [Souffrant media- and personality-driven political broader civil society, albeit often corruptly. Forrest] won—these wins that we had Populist Right groupings. Previously, the right-Catholic Today, Italy’s populists place them- on the state level in New York. Look at April 24-25, 2021 Conquered Italy Christian Democracy party had held con- selves in conscious opposition to party-or- them. They are people that you want By David Broder to be around. They are not cynical, Sponsored by tinuous national political power. In pe- ganized politics, what they term the par- the Religion and Socialism rennial opposition—but always excluded titocrazia or the political “caste.” This is and they do not engage in “more Working Group of DSA from national government—was the mas- in part a legitimate reaction to the wave socialist than thou.” They are just sive Italian Communist Party. The fall of of corruption scandals in the early 1990s relentlessly positive. And I think the For more information: www.religioussocialism.org the Berlin Wall in 1989 ended this Cold that led to the collapse of Italy’s existing most important thing that we can do in War divide, thereby opening a new era for party system. But, as Broder notes, it also order to win is to be people and spaces Italian politics. reflects a deeper and more troubling dis- that other people want to be around. This historic shift led to the domina- trust among many Italians in the ability of We have to make Medicare for All and DEMOCRATIC LEFT tion of Italy’s political system by such fig- political action to solve society’s problems. the Green New Deal something that NEEDS SKILLED VOLUNTEERS! ures and formations as billionaire Silvio For Broder, this loss of faith in collective everyone wants to be a part of. I think Berlusconi (a businessman with no prior political action makes Italy a symbol of our people sometimes are dismissive of DSA’s all-volunteer team needs political experience who has been prime present condition. The trends themselves this, thinking it’s less serious. But who's skilled writers, reporters, translators, minister in four different governments), are global: depoliticization, rising inequal- gonna join your book club if it sucks, illustrators, photographers, and editors. Matteo Salvini’s far-right Lega Party, and ity, falling public investment, and growing if they feel judged? We need to create something . . . excuse my language . . . the ever-amorphous Five Star Movement social atomization. But in Italy, the politi- Apply here: bit.ly/3kRUU6e (M5S). Broder traces their histories, ana- cal manifestation of these neoliberal trends that's fucking fun. lyzes their developments, and locates their has taken on a particularly acute form. First social bases in Italian society. They Took Rome presents a compelling story This interview has been edited and condensed for print. All told, AOC spent 40 minutes an- Despite dominating Italian politics of the dangers that arise when mass polit- swering questions. In the uncut version at for more than a decade, Berlusconi plays ical parties are removed from public life. dsausa.org/aoc, she talks about her recent expe- the smallest role in the overall story. His rience on a Teamster picket line, her blowout coming soon 2020 reelection wins against corporate-backed SPENCER BROWN is co-chair of Boston Forza Italia political party is today a shell challengers, and much more. Democratic Left en español online

of its former self. Instead, it is now the DSA and a close observer of Italian politics. Torpie (above): Corey Photograph

14 DEMOCRATIC LEFT SPRING 2021 15 ABOUT THE COVER ART

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