Organizing • Net Neutrality • Solidarity • 1917

the magazine of the Democratic Socialists of America Vol. XLV, No. 1, Summer 2017 www.dsausa.org A NewNew RevolutionRevolution From the National Director In Dark Times, Growing Pains And Opportunities By Maria Svart

SA is now almost qua- ics, planning campaigns, and winning victories. It druple the size it was last is also about transforming ourselves into agents of Dsummer. It’s a far cry from change through the democratic process of collective the organization I joined sixteen struggle. It is impossible to restructure our soci- years ago as a student in Chica- ety without unlearning the helplessness that capi- go. Many longtime members had talism teaches us. Our goal is to create space for lost steam, and new folks weren’t all people to do this together. Giants from Eugene joining, yet the politics and strat- Debs to Peggy Terry speak of how, in the words of egy of DSA resonated with me. I Ella Baker, we need “organizing to be self-suffi cient rose in the ranks as an elected YDS and then DSA rather than to be dependent upon the charismatic leader, eventually joining staff as the National Di- leader.” rector in 2011. Central to this work is our commitment to par- During those years, a team of national leaders ticipatory democracy. We operate through a feder- and staff collectively transformed DSA. We held ated chapter structure and elected leadership at all summer relationship-building retreats between levels. Such a structure is an investment in trans- YDS and DSA leaders. We developed more organiz- forming people and thus in our long-term strength. ing trainings. We made the right strategic choices, It’s a truism among organizers that the good ones such as supporting Bernie Sanders during the Dem- organize themselves out of a job. In other words, our ocratic primary and using a highly democratic, bot- work as an organization is to strengthen our com- tom-up participatory process to develop a national munity and build leaders and, to paraphrase Linda strategy document, “Resistance Rising.” Sarsour, “open more doors to the movement.” That work paid off. At our November 2015 con- On the other hand, our recent rapid growth puts vention I could feel and see the respect forged a target on our back, and learning how to do democ- through joint work and the commitment to dealing racy is tough. Capitalism doesn’t train people from with organizational weaknesses through practical wildly different backgrounds to work through con- and concrete new initiatives. Without the founda- fl ict respectfully and together come up with mutu- tion that we built then, we could not now success- ally acceptable solutions. Those who study history fully absorb and be changed by the new members know how often movements have foundered on the and energy we’ve experienced since the presidential shoals of our learned habits of competition and divi- election. sion. Make no mistake: what we build in DSA is an It is in this context that I invite you to approach experiment in collective transformation. It is a fore- participation in this beautiful experiment called shadowing of the vision we have for a democratic DSA by adopting these practices as we build social- socialist society. ist power together! Organizing is not just about assessing dynam- 1. Ask well-posed, open-ended questions that dem- onstrate curiosity about the other person’s experi- Contents ence and invite them to be introspective.

Coalition Politics ...... 3 2. Take a moment to absorb and refl ect on what oth- Pentagon Cries Poverty, Trump Marches to War ...... 5 ers say to you, rather than immediately formulating How to Canvass Door to Door ...... 7 your response. Does what they are saying change Solidarity Has Many Names ...... 8 you? Kitchen Table Socialism: Net Neutrality ...... 9 Organizing for Resistance ...... 10 3. Think of concrete organizing work as the place Assessing Leon Trotsky ...... 12 Bolsheviks and Beyond ...... 13 where we can better understand each other—in- Hannah Allison Interview ...... 15 cluding both our differences and our mutual inter- Cover art by Frank Reynoso continued on page 6 page 2 • Democratic Left • Summer 2017 Coalition Politics and the Fight for Socialism By Joseph M. Schwartz

SA has thrown itself into resistance to Re- playing constant defense can exhaust and demobi- publican rule of all three branches of the lize people. We have to build organization and not Dfederal government and twenty-fi ve state just show up for rallies. DSA will have to “walk on governments. Highly visible DSA contingents have two legs,” sustaining mass opposition to the Trump marched in every signifi cant mobilization since the administration and its red-state equivalents while presidential election and shown up at local town building social movements for economic, gender, meetings to push back against efforts to repeal the and racial justice that can spur electoral challenges Affordable Care Act (ACA). DSA chapters also are to pro-corporate Democratic incumbents. challenging the Democratic pro-corporate establish- Defeating the Republicans in 2018 will be a ma- ment at the national, state, and jor priority for everyone. Using local level. Since the election, in executive fi at, Donald Trump has fact, thousands have fl ocked to already green-lighted the Dakota DSA to make it—at 21,000 mem- Access Pipeline; appointed a re- bers—the largest socialist orga- actionary Supreme Court justice nization in this country since the who will tilt the Court to the far 1960s. right on labor, gender and repro- DSA is a rare bird in United ductive justice, immigrant, and States politics: a democratic, na- voting rights; terrorized the im- tional, federated organization migrant community by ramp- (with local and state groups) ing up arbitrary anti-immigrant that is almost completely mem- enforcement; unleashed the rac- ber-funded. Chapters have con- ist and reactionary tendencies siderable local autonomy, and within local law enforcement; and democratically elected local Frank Reynoso severely weakened federal regu- representatives set feasible na- lations that slow climate change tional priorities at our conven- and protect workers’ rights. As tions. DSA is also a multi-tendency organization Trump threatens massive military action in Syria, that believes in democracy as both a means and North Korea, and who knows where, the left and an end. We do not compel members to adhere to DSA have to build a mass anti-war movement. one ideological line. Our members’ commitment to Fighting Racism and Building a Multi-Racial Left socialism derives from a multitude of traditions ranging from religious socialists to left social demo- Absent the emergence of hundreds of racially di- crats, to various strands of democratic Marxism. We verse “Bernie and Bernice”-style candidacies, the have spirited but comradely internal political dis- Democrats will not win enough votes in 2018 from cussions. Our most effective chapters build “unity a suffi cient portion of the white working class to be through diversity” by focusing upon a few key activ- competitive in red states and the rural and small- ist projects that enable us to work with organiza- town deindustrialized areas of the Midwest. Many tions representing working-class people of all races DSA chapters already work with local groups that and nationalities. We function as an independent, came out of Bernie Sanders’s campaign (Our Revo- visible socialist presence in mass social movements lution, Indivisible, and Swing Left, to name some). and focus our energy on “non-reformist” or “trans- For these groups to transform the political order, formational” reforms—changes in public policy that they must form broader multi-racial coalitions than constrain corporate power and that illustrate how did the Sanders campaign. A divided working class economic democracy better serves people’s needs, is a defeated working class. such as Medicare for All and free public higher edu- In-depth interviews show that although many cation. white working-class swing voters oppose unbridled But as those who lived through the resistance corporate power, they remain cynical about gov- to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush will attest, ernment programs and taxation. Some buy the

Democratic Left • Summer 2017 • page 3 Republican myth that government programs dis- ing-class families otherwise not eligible for ACA proportionately benefi t undeserving people of color subsidies). (though whites are the largest benefi ciaries of gross- Activists are drawn to DSA’s message that build- ly underfunded anti-poverty programs). And taxes ing a majoritarian left requires constructing a pow- on working people are too high, given the regres- erful independent socialist organization. Any pro- sive burden of sales taxes, user fees, and property gressive reform that curtails the power of corporate taxes. Thus, left candidates, including open social- America immediately gets red-baited. When open ists, need to explain how progressive taxation can democratic socialist candidates become a greater fund high-quality universal social programs such as part of the political landscape, the power of red- Medicare for All and baiting will be weak- child care as well as ened. public investment in The space pro- job-creating alterna- Activists are drawn to vided by the Sanders tive energy and infra- campaign for explicit structure. But the left “DSA’s message that build- democratic socialist also has to take on candidates to run the racist narrative of ing a majoritarian left for offi ce has already the Republican Party, raised DSA’s visibil- which generates fears requires constructing a ity, with khalid kam- of undocumented im- au and Dylan Parker migrants taking jobs powerful independent so- winning city council from the native born races in South Ful- even in areas so eco- cialist organization. ton, Georgia, and in nomically devastated working-class Rock- that almost no im- ford, Illinois, respec- migrants live there. ” tively. In addition, DSA also needs to argue that if robust social dem- Mike Sylvester and Mike Connolly serve as open ocratic levels of public provision (roads, bridges, DSAers in the Democratic caucuses of the Maine schools) are good enough for affl uent white suburbs, and Massachusetts state legislatures. These elect- then they should be available to all. ed offi cials are open socialists as well as leaders in That working people of all races can no longer mass movements for economic and racial justice. afford to live in most major cities means that young There is historical precedent for these dual roles. DSAers have real skin in the game fi ghting for a In the mid-1980s, DSA counted more than 30 elect- “right to the city.” We need to bring back rent control ed offi cials among its members. We now have 16. and mass federal and state funding for public and Activists will build DSA rather than engage in non-profi t housing, as well as fi ght against school single-issue activism only if working with DSA charterization and for high-quality, well-funded brings a tangible “value-added.” DSA trains effec- public schools that are integrated by race and class. tive organizers and strategists who can operate as a The multi-racial tenants’ rights work of our Brook- visible socialist collective within mass movements. lyn chapter can serve as a model for other chap- If we develop a “farm team” of viable socialist elec- ters, as can our East Bay (Berkeley and Oakland, toral candidates, our visibility will increase. Only by CA) door-to-door canvassing for a California-wide winning victories that improve the lives of the ma- single-payer system. In blue states and blue cit- jority can we make clear that another world is pos- ies, DSA can help build an independent left politics sible. Those who have organizing skills and who can that challenges neoliberal Democrats. In red states, articulate a socialist strategy can build the socialist DSA chapters can work with black, Latino, labor, project. Our task is to comprehend the challenging feminist, LGBTQ, environmentalist, and left activ- political terrain on which we must defeat both the ists trying to fl ip state legislatures (for example, the far right and the neoliberal Democratic Party estab- Moral Mondays Movement in North Carolina and lishment. We can do so only if we remain committed the New Virginia and New Florida Majority multi- to the long-distance socialist runner’s tasks of edu- racial coalitions). Only then can there be the po- cating, agitating, and organizing.  litical space to make more radical demands. (State Joseph M. Schwartz is a professor of political single-payer systems are on the political agenda in science at Temple University and a national vice blue states such as California, New York, New Jer- chair of DSA. A past chair of both the Boston and sey, and Minnesota. In red states, we have to fi ght Philadelphia locals, he has been active in DSA to expand—or preserve—Medicaid funding to work- since its founding. page 4 • Democratic Left • Summer 2017 Pentagon Cries Poverty as Trump Marches to War By William D. Hartung

hen Donald Trump’s administration or- U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which has been en- dered the bombing of a Syrian air base in gaged in a U.S.-backed bombing campaign that has Wresponse to a chemical weapons attack on killed thousands of civilians and committed what Syrian civilians, the decision was greeted warmly independent human rights groups have suggested in the mainstream media, as if it were a well-con- may be war crimes; and discussed increasing the sidered decision designed to dissuade the Assad re- number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. gime from engaging in further chemical attacks. It Let’s be clear: Barack Obama was no peacenik. was not. It was at best an emotional outburst, at He sharply increased drone strikes while waging worst an effort to distract attention from the grow- war in at least seven nations—Iraq, Syria, Afghani- ing scandal over the Trump team’s ties to Russia. stan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Pakistan—and he It had no military signifi cance, reversed course on his pledg- as the airfi eld that was hit by es to remove all U.S. troops 59 cruise missiles—at a cost from Iraq and Afghanistan. of $89 million—was up and But Obama also helped seal operating the next day. But a multilateral deal to curb it did risk escalation of a war Iran’s nuclear program, con- in Syria in which the United cluded an arms control treaty States has been far from pas- that will reduce deployed U.S. sive, dispatching Marines and and Russian nuclear weapons Special Forces to the battle- by one-third, and opened rela- fi eld and dropping 12,000 tions with Cuba after decades bombs on Syrian targets in the of misguided sanctions and past year alone. Assad’s killing enmity. It is precisely these of civilians in the hundreds of achievements that Trump thousands is a crime against seeks to undermine, even as humanity, but dropping more he fl ails about, motivated as bombs will only make matters much by what he sees on Fox worse. News and CNN as by any Soon after the Syria bomb- plan. Obama was a hawk, as ing, the administration ordered the use of the most is Hillary Clinton, but Trump represents a unique powerful non-nuclear bomb ever dropped by the threat to our safety, security, and even our survival, United States—the so-called “Mother of All Bombs” given that he has the ability to launch a nuclear (MOAB)—against ISIS forces in Afghanistan. The attack on a whim—not likely, perhaps, but possible, bombing did little to reduce the group’s capability which is in itself a frightening new feature of our to do harm in Afghanistan and beyond, but it did al- foreign policy landscape. low Trump to posture as a tough guy while simulta- Trump has backed up his aggressive policies with neously diverting attention from his woes at home, requests for a massive increase in Pentagon spend- from allegations of collusion with Putin’s Russia in ing, with every dollar coming at the expense of di- the 2016 elections to his inability to ram through plomacy, the environment, and our already frayed some of his high-profi le policy proposals. social safety net. His proposed $54 billion increase The Syria and Afghanistan strikes are just one in Pentagon spending for fi scal year 2018 is huge. element of a sharp escalation in U.S. military ac- To give some sense of scale, the Trump increase in tivity in the greater Middle East in Trump’s fi rst Pentagon spending is comparable to the entire mili- months in offi ce. He has unleashed U.S. Special tary budget of the United Kingdom and higher than Forces and increased U.S. drone strikes in Yemen; the military budgets of France, Germany, or Japan. relaxed regulations on avoiding civilian harm in This is on top of a budget that already weighs in bombings in Iraq and Syria; lifted restrictions on at almost $600 billion per year, more than the next

Democratic Left • Summer 2017 • page 5 eight nations in the world combined, and higher yearly bureaucratic waste in the Pentagon, accord- than the peak year of the Reagan buildup of the ing to its own business advisory board. These cuts 1980s. The Pentagon has no lack of money, but you have nothing to do with fi scal restraint and every- wouldn’t know it when a parade of generals and de- thing to do with conservative ideology. Some of the fense bureaucrats routinely goes up to Capitol Hill programs targeted by the Republicans have been in to cry poverty and ask for hundreds of billions more their sights since the Reagan era, while they had over the next fi ve years. designs on eliminating others since the so-called Meanwhile, Trump’s proposed domestic cuts “Gingrich revolution” of the 1990s. will cost lives even as they attempt to dumb down Mulvaney’s hit list is just the beginning. When America and create an even more docile, under- the outline of Trump’s budget plan was released in informed, and misguided citizenry. Shortly after he March, it included unprecedented cuts in the State was confi rmed, Trump budget director Mick Mul- Department (29%), the Environmental Protection vaney assembled a “hit list” of programs that would Agency (31%), and crucial domestic programs such be eliminated or defunded altogether, including the as Medicaid, which would be converted into a block Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National grant in which each state would get a set amount of Endowment for the Arts, the Legal Services Corpo- money regardless of the level of need of its popula- ration, AmeriCorps, the National Endowment for tion. Needless to say, the amount of the Medicaid the Humanities, and Planned Parenthood. These block grants would be far below current levels. On programs’ combined costs come to about $3 billion the foreign policy front, one of the most tragic choic- a year, or about one-half of one percent of what the es is the decision to slash funding for UN refugee Pentagon receives per year, even before the pro- and humanitarian aid programs at a time when posed Trump increases. In fact, the programs on countries from Nigeria to South Sudan to Yemen the hit list are less than one-eighth the amount of are on the brink of famine and people continue to fl ee the Syrian civil war in large numbers. And deep cuts in spending on diplomacy will deprive us of From the National Director/continued from page 2 the expertise and initiative needed to come up with ests. nonmilitary solutions to the wide array of challeng- es facing the United States in the Middle East and 4. Use confl ict with comrades as a way to learn. Re- beyond—challenges that not only can’t be resolved mind yourself that we all have unique experiences by force, but also have been made far worse by the but we are together in DSA to build a better world, military interventions of this century. and even when we push each other to grow, we have So, what is to be done? We need an all-hands-on- faith in our shared humanity.  deck coalition of the kind we have not seen in de- cades to oppose Trump’s twisted budget priorities. Successful efforts to block Trump’s Muslim ban and slow his efforts to repeal Obamacare (rather than Films to Talk About expanding it into a system of universal health cov- erage, as should be done) offer some hope that a co- Join other DSAers for national discussions about alition that promotes human needs and Pentagon insightful fi lms. Go to www.dsausa.org/calendar cuts could have success if we stay at it. Of course, to RSVP. neither health care nor basic human security is safe Pride, Sunday, September 10, 8:00-9:00 ET DSA under Trump and his team—as evidenced by the members Eric Brasure and Brendan Hamill will lead a discussion on this British fi lm. It’s 1984, Brit- escalation of deportations of undocumented immi- ish coal miners are on strike, and a group of gays grants whose only crime has been to try to build a and lesbians in London bring the queer commu- better life for themselves and their families and ef- nity together to support the miners in their fi ght. forts to eliminate Department of Justice programs Based on the true story of Lesbians and Gays Sup- to monitor the activities of local police forces. But port the Miners. without abandoning these urgent issues, opposition Union Maids, Sunday, September 24, 8:00-9:00 ET to the militarization of foreign policy and the slash- DSA member and labor historian Susan Hirsch will ing of basic services should become an integral part discuss Union Maids. Nominated for an Academy of the growing resistance movement.  Award, this documentary follows three Chicago labor organizers (Kate Hyndman, Stella Nowicki, William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and and Sylvia Woods), who were active beginning Security Project at the Center for International Policy in the 1930s. The fi lmmakers were members of the and the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin New American Movement (a precursor of DSA). and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. page 6 • Democratic Left • Summer 2017 How to Canvass Door to Door By Jamie Gardner

his spring, the East Bay DSA, working with Step 3: Choose your neighborhoods the California Nurses Association, mobilized Send teams to a few different neighborhoods. T almost 200 volunteers for door-to-door can- You may discover support in unexpected places, or vassing to educate voters about the benefi ts of sin- you may fi nd that some neighborhoods are espe- gle-payer health care. The response was so positive cially dense with gated apartments that make door that the local plans to use canvassing for a variety knocking impractical. of issues.—Ed. Step 4: Plan, plan, plan Secure a home base for your event early and an- Why canvass? nounce the upcoming canvass at DSA events and Door-to-door canvassing can be very effective through your social media. Consider phone banking in reaching folks who wouldn’t otherwise encoun- your members to get a fi rm head count. Make sure ter our message. We’ve been experimenting with volunteers understand that canvassing involves both big city-wide canvassing events and smaller, walking around for several hours. Offer sit-down neighborhood-focused groups. By election season, roles for comrades who need them at the place des- we hope to have trained 1,000 local leftists to can- ignated as home base and round up a few volun- vass—giving us a powerful tool to back socialists in teers to provide child watch. local elections. Consider how your volunteers will get from the Step 1: Write a rap meet-up spot to their turfs—walk, bike, or carpool? Provide clipboards for each team, with enough con- Our goal is to fi nd folks who care about our cause tact info sheets, leave-behind fl yers, print copies of but don’t know how to get involved. We live in an your rap, and FAQ for everyone. alienating and alienated society, so chatting with strangers about important political issues does Step 5: Do the canvass and debrief not come easily to most of us. We’re not asking for Allow four to fi ve hours for a Saturday afternoon money or trying to get signatures. This frees us to canvass: this includes the opening rally, with back- have meaningful conversations with people who are ground information. Break into teams to role-play interested in talking to us. canvassing with friendly and unfriendly neighbors. Rather than ramp up the awkwardness with a Then send volunteers out in pairs to spend an hour memorized script, we listen more than we talk. The and a half to two hours before coming back to base rap—a fl exible set of pointers and pertinent facts— for snacks and a debrief. Inviting the whole group is designed to guide the conversation from informa- out to socialize afterward helps build camaraderie tion to action. First, we ask what they know; we after a long day’s work. draw out the relevance of the issue to their lives and help them identify the need for action. Finally, Step 6: Follow up we leave them with some way to take action. Can- We use the NationBuilder software package to vassers should use their own words. The key is to keep track of all the folks we contact, and we try to get people talking, both so that they feel listened to follow up by phone with new volunteers and prom- and because they’ll remember what they say much ising contacts within a week or so. Use the feed- more clearly than what you say. back from your volunteers to refi ne your canvassing strategy, and keep on going.  Step 2: Do a test-run/training Before you recruit your general membership and Jamie Gardner is a lab tech, cat dad, friends for a big event, gather a few of the organiz- and activist in Oakland, CA. He ers for a test canvass. Use the same timeline, peti- helped found a progressive umbrella tions/handouts, and rap you’ve designed for the big group in his Deep South hometown event. Doing this will turn your organizers into ex- and joined DSA after the 2016 perienced team captains and give you a chance to election debacle. work out any kinks before scaling up.

Democratic Left • Summer 2017 • page 7 Solidarity Has Many Names By Sarah Ngu

his strangely feels like church, I thought. I empowering symbol of “God’s loving solidarity with was at a Democratic Socialists of America the ‘least of these,’ the unwanted in society who suf- T meeting in Brooklyn. People all around me fer daily from great injustices,” as theologian James were singing, with lyric sheets in hand, “Solidarity Cone writes in The Cross and the Lynching Tree. forever… for the union makes us strong.” Many of In that book, Cone makes a case for the parallels us were trying to keep up with the words and match, between the lynching of black people in the United however haltingly, the tune. People were, I’d guess, States and the killing of Jesus by the Roman Em- like me: at their fi rst-ever DSA meeting, awakened pire. But he doesn’t stop there. He discusses how by Bernie Sanders’s champi- both blacks and whites who oning of democratic socialism share a common religious heri- and galvanized by Donald tage are joined together by the Trump’s election as president “blood of the cross of Jesus.” Re- of the United States. fl ecting on how God’s solidarity I’d never encountered collec- on the cross can transform ugli- tive singing before outside of a ness into a kind of beauty, Cone religious space. But, looking writes, “No gulf between blacks back now, I see that it makes and whites is too great to over- perfect sense in a socialist come, for our beauty is more en- space. Singing fosters solidar- during than our brutality. What ity. It gets everyone literally God joined together, no one can on the same page and connects tear apart.” singers not just to one anoth- Of course, religiosity at its er, but also to a tradition that worst can morph into an arro- goes before them. (“Solidarity gant zeal, one that has damaged Forever” was written by Ralph and still continues to damage Chaplin of the Industrial others, all in service to a sup- Workers of the World, who self-consciously linked posedly greater cause. Socialists should understand the song to the earlier abolitionist movement by this, for socialism at its worst can become a “true using the tune to “John Brown’s Body” and “Battle faith” that we are not to question, only follow. Hymn of the Republic.”) Blind zeal has no place in either religion or so- Because most organizing spaces tend to splinter cialism, but both need hope. Earlier this year, I was off by identity or issue, it seems to me that demo- back in the same venue—Mayday Space, a social cratic socialism’s great political promise is in its em- justice organizing center—that hosted my fi rst DSA phasis on solidarity, a solidarity that encompasses meeting, this time for a national Young Democratic but is not limited to particular identities. “Solidar- Socialists conference. José La Luz, a seasoned trade ity” is what enables union organizers to rally work- unionist and vice-chair of DSA, took to the stage. ers of all identities to fi ght for what they deserve. After talking about his work with César Chávez’s At its best, it provides the organizing foundation for United Farm Workers of America, he put down people to better understand the experiences of dif- the microphone, stepped off the stage, and led the ferent identities, rather than to paper over them. standing-room crowd in an electrifying chant of “¡Sí The idea that we are all bound up in a shared Se Puede!” for several long minutes. It felt like the struggle is not just a common trope within social- socialist equivalent of an “altar call,” as La Luz held ism, but also within certain traditions of Christian- out to the enthusiastic crowd the hope that one day ity—it certainly goes beyond it, but I’m speaking our broken earth will be transformed.  from my own religious tradition. The idea of soli- Sarah Ngu, a freelance writer darity extends beyond humans to include God, who in Brooklyn, NY, is a member of took on human form in order to be with us. Libera- Forefront Church, a progressive tion theologians go further and argue that God’s evangelical church, and the Religion death on the cross should be seen as an unjust ex- and Socialism Working Group of ecution by the State. The cross, then, becomes an DSA. page 8 • Democratic Left • Summer 2017 Kitchen Table Socialism: Net Neutrality By Julianne Tveten

his spring, Congress passed anti-online-pri- venience fee” or “service fee.” In so doing, it would vacy legislation that could hinder organizing stymie the fl ow of information to low-income Inter- Tefforts by groups like DSA while channeling net users, who are already subject to slow speeds millions of dollars into corporations. President Don- and prohibitive broadband costs. Similarly, if AT&T ald Trump signed into law a bill that allows Inter- workers strike due to poor working conditions— net Service Providers (ISPs) to harvest sensitive which happened earlier this year—and create a data, such as medical information, geolocation, and website to publicize their grievances and seek sup- Web-browsing history, and sell it to port, the company might opt to pre- advertisers. vent its broadband subscribers from This could be just the beginning. accessing it, committing a veritable Many open-Internet activists fear act of union-busting censorship. that the anti-privacy vote is a bell- Former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai, wether for gutting another tenet of who was appointed to the FCC by online democracy: net neutrality. Net Barack Obama and voted against net neutrality is the principle that ISPs neutrality in 2015, has been appoint- should allow users equal access to all ed head of the FCC by Trump. In online content and applications re- Hallie Jay Pope April, spurred by telecom lobbyists, gardless of the source. It dictates that Pai proposed a far more lax “plan” for telecommunications companies aren’t allowed to ac- ISP regulation: remove broadband’s utility classifi - celerate traffi c for preferred sites (that is, sites that cation, replace net neutrality with ISPs’ “voluntary” pay extra, are affi liated with them, or that they fi nd commitment to a select few net neutrality facets in politically savory) or obstruct traffi c to sites they their terms of service, and transfer oversight to the deem unfavorable. Federal Trade Commission, which lacks the FCC’s Net neutrality has governed the Internet in the preemptive regulatory power. In other words, Pai United States since February of 2015, when the seeks to jettison any legal enforcement of the prin- Federal Communications Commission reclassifi ed ciple. broadband as a utility and set forth regulations The opposition to Pai’s proposals, however, is ve- equivalent to those placed on phone service and hement and vast. Because eradicating net neutral- electricity providers. This move followed a ruling ity only truly benefi ts ISPs, a number of corpora- in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Co- tions and nonprofi ts seek to keep it intact. The In- lumbia Circuit that the FCC did not have suffi cient ternet Trade Association—whose members include regulatory power over broadband Internet. Only by giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Reddit, and reclassifying broadband as a utility could the FCC Netfl ix—is lobbying to maintain it. Its rationale, of ensure net neutrality and curb fraudulent billing course, is strictly pro-business: without net neutral- and price gouging. ity, user accessibility to these sites—and thus the To understand the gravity of losing net neutral- companies’ profi ts—will be compromised. Far more ity, consider this example: In 2007, Verizon severed meaningful is the work of such groups as Free Press subscriber access to a text-messaging program from and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which are the pro-choice nonprofi t NARAL, explaining that legally defending digital rights while mobilizing it would not host communications from any group activists to meet with elected offi cials, attend town “that seeks to promote an agenda or distribute con- hall meetings, and take other local action. tent that, in its discretion, may be seen as contro- If capitalism is allowed to run rampant, the only versial or unsavory to any of our users.” Fortunate- thing free on the Web will be the market. Only pub- ly, Verizon reversed its censorship of NARAL after lic activism can create an open, democratic Internet large user protests. in the people’s best interest.  Were net neutrality to be razed, the repercus- DSA member Julianne Tveten sions would be infi nite. Comcast, an ISP, might de- writes about the tech industry cide to charge users $5 per month to visit popular and social issues. Her work has free sites, such as Facebook or Wikipedia, justifying appeared in Truthout, Hazlitt, the charge with such disingenuous labels as “con- and The Outline, among others.

Democratic Left • Summer 2017 • page 9 Organizing for Resistance By Jessie Mannisto

Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In nity in Pennsylvania and is By Bernie Sanders currently director of Beyond Thomas Dunne Books, 2016 the Choir, became a radical while in high school, when Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals he realized that the only By Jonathan Matthew Smucker way to achieve the goals of AK Press, 2017 the Gospel was to immerse himself in the radical move- e live in a strange new political world, ment and fi ght for social and with a bigot in the White House on one economic justice. Whand and a swelling of the democratic so- Of the many valuable rec- cialist ranks on the other. How do we chart a path ommendations in Hegemony forward? One way is to learn from experienced lead- How-To, one of particular ers on the left, many of whom are putting their ex- interest in the wake of the Sanders campaign is periences out there as books. Smucker’s call for what he terms narrative insur- One of those leaders is gency. In contrast with narrative attack—that is, Senator Bernie Sanders of the kind of rhetoric that involves a direct assault on Vermont, whose Our Revo- a person’s entire worldview, and that therefore usu- lution is half recap of his ally fails to convince people to change their minds— run for the White House Smucker’s approach is to begin by listening to oth- and half treatise on the is- ers in an attempt to understand their values and sues he championed during concerns and then making the case for how your that campaign. DSA mem- goals fi t with those values and concerns. He sug- bers may not fi nd much new gests, for instance, that if you want to win converts in the anecdotes of capital- to environmental activism in his hometown, you ist abuses and examples of emphasize the biblical mandate to care for God’s the policies Sanders espous- creation. es to address them, but they Smucker’s technique sounds a lot like what grass- will fi nd out why the mes- roots activists such as Moumita Ahmed did while sage resonated so strongly going door to door to drum up support for Bernie during his campaign and how socialist activists Sanders among working-class voters and voters in can repurpose it to reach people who don’t think of communities of color. Ahmed argued in the Spring themselves as “political.” 2017 issue of Democratic Left that instead of talking Sanders’s message struck a chord with people about the word “socialism,” we should be prepared who said they hadn’t paid attention to politics until to talk about people’s lived experiences and show he showed up and spoke about crises in our country how we’re on their side. Smucker puts it this way: that mainstream candidates were ignoring and that “We don’t have to feign identifi cation with the al- people really cared about. That message hit home lied and neutral components within a community’s well before November 9, 2016, and sent hundreds narrative or culture [...] because our work for social of new members to DSA. After the presidential elec- justice is rooted in our love for real people, in all tion, it drew thousands who now knew the words their complexity.” “democratic socialism.” Smucker also talks about metanarratives—the But don’t stop with Bernie. Another new book grand philosophical stories that attempt to explain offers excellent guidance for amplifying the demo- the world for everyone and that present particular cratic socialist message. In Hegemony How-To, ex- interests as universal. For instance, the idea that perienced activist and strategist Jonathan Matthew the benefi ts of policies that favor corporations will Smucker shares his experiences as an organizer trickle down to help everyone is a neoliberal meta- and participant in movements such as Occupy Wall narrative that was once widely accepted but has Street, MoveOn.org, and United for Peace and Jus- been fraying since the fi nancial crisis of 2008. tice. Smucker, who was raised in a religious commu- Reading Our Revolution alongside Hegemony page 10 • Democratic Left • Summer 2017 How-To brings to light these shifting narratives. tential allies who are reluctant to engage in futile The Sanders campaign didn’t create a whole new organizing efforts. narrative, of course: Bernie ran with a narrative There’s a review of Our Revolution on Amazon. that had been fueled earlier by Occupy Wall Street’s com that shows the value in Smucker’s advice to meme of the 99%. Bernie rightfully complains in his reach out to new communities. The reviewer, Mike book that the media generally failed to report the M, posting in March 2017, doesn’t agree with Sand- content of his message, instead focusing only on the ers’s proposals, but is glad to see the issues raised: contest between him and Hillary Clinton. As a Christ-following, life-long Republican and But he refused to be distracted and hammered business owner, I would likely be in the demo- away at his message. Against the advice of profession- graphic of the least likely to recommend this book al political consultants (who preferred sound bites) he or to embrace any of Bernie Sanders’ policies, but spoke in detail about the reasons for the crises people I found this book to be challenging at a personal are facing and his proposals to address them. And peo- level. [...] My own small business struggles with the ple responded. Sanders highlights a favorite comment rising costs of health insurance, my own kids strug- from the campaign: “Thank you, Bernie. You treat us gle with the ongoing burden of student loans, even while they succeed in their careers. And I have to as if we were intelligent human beings.” agree that the present trajectory of making it easier Our Revolution explains that most of the people for the wealthy (individuals and corporations) to es- who fl ocked to his campaign were not the usual cape taxes and thereby a responsibility to society, is suspects, faithful to the Democratic Party. They not right. I did not become a progressive or a social- were newly engaged because someone was fi nally ist as a result of reading this book. . . but I agree speaking to the realities of their lives. DSA’s work fully that what he raises are certainly the issues to establish chapters in all fi fty states, no matter that campaigns and our government should be fo- how red they may look, is in line with the wisdom cused on . . . . I strongly urge you to read this book. of Sanders and Smucker, who both urge us not to When lifelong Republicans start thanking so- forget that there are people out there who are open cialists for raising important issues, you know to a new message. the narrative is shifting. And judging from DSA’s In fact, our real problem, Smucker argues, is not swelling ranks, this is only the beginning.  that people disagree with us: it’s that they don’t be- lieve we can be effective. The surprisingly positive Jessie Mannisto is a writer and response to Bernie’s campaign, even as it exposes librarian from Detroit who now lives the obstacles we face, has given us a platform to in Washington, DC, where she is the show that we can make our concerns heard, and chair of the Metro DC DSA political that we’re therefore worth the time of all those po- education committee.

Send Greetings to Democratic Left on Labor Day Wish us well, pay tribute to a comrade or comrades, list your own labor blog, or adver- tise your book. This magazine is the public face of our organization. It is going into its 45th year of bringing you theory, practice, and just plain information about our movement. Let’s keep it going and keep it strong. Send a check or donate online and specify that it is for Democratic Left and you’ll see your name in the Labor Day issue. . Don’t delay. Deadline for copy is July 5. NAME ONLY ADS Reader: $20 __ One-eighth page: $125 __ Supporter: $40 __ Quarter-page: $250 __ Sustainer: $60 __ Half-page: $500 __ Booster: $80 __ Full page: $1,000 __ Cadre: $100 __ Inside front or back cover: $1,100 __ Email your copy to [email protected] and mail your check to Editor, Democratic Left, Suite 702, 75 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038. If you are advertising a service or product, the cost may be tax deductible to you as a business expense.

Democratic Left • Summer 2017 • page 11 Assessing Leon Trotsky By Jason Schulman

The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky with regard to his children, all of whose lives, in one By Victor Serge and Natalia Sedova Trotsky, pub- way or another, have been sacrifi ced in the political lished in France in 1951; Haymarket Books, 2015 struggle,” while in his fi ght for a new mass revolu- tionary International during the years of what he Leon Trotsky believes to be “the death agony of capitalism,” he By Irving Howe, Penguin Books, 1978 “is overcome by the incongruity between the magni- tude of his political perspective and the paltriness his year marks the hundredth anniversary of of his political means.” Additional anguish comes the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, a work- when the Trotsky-aligned Left Oppositionists in Ters’ revolution led by a Marxist party with the Russia—some 8,000 or so “Old Bolsheviks”—die in intent of sparking a Europe-wide revolution, which Stalin’s purge trials, described by Serge and Sedova never came. These two books on the leader of the as “the greatest political massacre in history.” Bolsheviks’ Red Army and the Marxist theorist of Although Serge remained a Marxist to the end “permanent revolution” and “combined and uneven of his days and Howe did not, there is some sym- development” are worthy additions to any socialist’s metry in their assessments of Trotsky’s strengths personal library. One is co-written by and fl aws. Serge praises him for having Trotsky’s widow (herself a revolution- “[a] sense of life integrated with both ary) and an anarchist-turned-Bolshevik thought and action which is the antith- who joined Trotsky’s small international esis of the after-dinner heroism of West- movement of anti-Stalinist communists ern socialists,” while Howe argues that (“Trotskyists”) in the 1930s. The other “in the last ten or twelve years of his life is by a former Trotskyist who became Trotsky offered a towering example of a founding editor of Dissent magazine what a man can be.” Both men criticize and, with other erstwhile Trotskyists Trotsky for, in Howe’s words, his use seeking a less “sectarian” existence, of “deplorable means,” although Howe helped form what is now DSA. does not give examples of specifi c acts. Serge and Sedova pack a great In an appendix to his book, from a amount of detail into less than 300 pag- previously unpublished manuscript es, especially when discussing Trotsky’s from 1940 on Trotsky’s Their Morals life from 1917 onward. Less comprehen- and Ours, Serge writes of Trotsky’s un- sive than Isaac Deutscher’s well-known critical defense of the suppression of “Trotsky trilogy,” it is a more approach- the Kronstadt Revolt of 1921: “I see the able introduction and offers a more personal touch worst sufferers of Bolshevik intolerance (which long than Deutscher can provide, especially when Se- precedes Stalinism) showing it here,” and denounc- dova—whose words appear in quotations—speaks. es, perhaps unfairly given the fate of Trotsky and Particularly memorable (and grim) are the remi- his family, Trotsky’s “contempt for different convic- niscences of the Trotskys’ lives in the Soviet Union tions. Contempt of the man who thinks differently.” between the end of the Russian Civil War and their Unfortunately, this sort of intolerance has charac- forced exile in 1927, as well as their persecution in terized the internal life of Trotskyist groups more various countries during the early 1930s—the years often than not, which was reason enough for some when offi cial Communism suddenly veered into a of DSA’s founders to abandon “Trotskyism” even if “strategy” of catastrophic forced collectivization they still drew on Trotsky’s writings as they saw fi t. in Russia and ultra-left sectarianism abroad. The Ultimately, regardless of how one assesses latter development ensured the Nazis’ triumph in Trotsky as either man or author, both of these bi- 1933, even though Trotsky had repeatedly urged a ographies provide excellent examinations of one of united front of German Social Democrats and Com- the most important socialists of the 20th century.  munists to prevent this outcome. The deaths of all Jason Schulman is a member of NYC DSA who four of Trotsky’s children are agonizingly recounted teaches political science at Lehman College, CUNY. by Sedova, who, with Serge, makes clear what Howe He is a co-editor of New Politics. succinctly summarizes: Trotsky in exile “feels guilty page 12 • Democratic Left • Summer 2017 Bolsheviks and Beyond By Michael Hirsch

Ten Days That Shook the World out of any crisis if the working class allows it. By John Reed, originally published, 1919, Penguin So, what did the Bolsheviks do? As a mass party Classics, revised ed., 2007 by 1917, they were in a position to learn from the masses and generalize strategies and tactics from ohn (“Jack”) Reed wasn’t looking backward to there. The party was, in labor-union terms, rank- the French Revolution or even the Paris Com- and-fi le shop stewards beholden to their base. A lib- Jmune when he chronicled the seizure of power ertarian Marxist (like me, for one) would say that of the Russian Revolution of 1917. As a 30-year-old a party has to lead the class, but above all it has to independent radical journalist, he was looking at be in a position and a frame of mind to learn from it with fresh eyes. What he saw was not just the it. Reed’s book is a testament to a class and a party overthrow of a repressive monarchist oligarchy and in a unique historical moment getting the balance its attendant bourgeois class, but a vast democratic, right. majoritarian movement based on “soviets,” or coun- In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels cils, made up of workers, soldiers, and lay out their analysis: “All previous his- peasants. Although he had been em- torical movements were movements of bedded in Pancho Villa’s rebel army in minorities or in the interest of minori- Mexico and covered Industrial Work- ties. The proletarian movement is the ers of the World strikes in New Jersey self-conscious independent movement and miners’ struggles in Colorado, it of the immense majority, in the interest was witnessing the cataclysmic events of the immense majority.” in Russia that confi rmed him as a rev- It is in the context of a real class olutionary. upsurge that a party matters; the co- The role that revolutionaries— nundrum is that the party can’t be and not just Bolsheviks but Menshe- wished into existence overnight, yet it vik Internationalists and Left Social stagnates in periods of low fi ght-backs, Revolutionaries—played in displac- either lapsing into a glorifi ed study ing the post-tsar, all-party Provisional group, a newspaper-selling sect, a pure- Government was catalytic. It was, as ly reform-orienting lobbying effort or Reed saw it, a social revolution that turning into a group of action freaks— outstripped its purely political impli- in the most extreme cases, a cult. Wit- cations. Its program—largely articu- ness the disaggregation of Students for lated by the Bolsheviks—was to break up the giant a Democratic Society in the late 1960s or the Ger- landholdings and distribute land to the peasants, man and Italian New Lefts of the 1970s. What does to move toward socializing industry, and for an it mean to be a revolutionary in the age of Trump, or immediate armistice without annexations to end even a progressive reformer? It’s an open question the First World War. Above all, it was to have no we reds struggle with daily. truck with any of the bourgeois parties, which in The Hegelian maxim—via Engels—that freedom their own ways supported the war, opposed work- is the recognition of necessity takes its best expres- ers’ rights, and even looked to a return of the hated sion in revolutionary situations, and Reed paints Romanov dynasty. the moment vividly. As Lenin understood it, it was In this centennial year, there is much to herald in “an extremely unique historical situation,” one in the revolution, if not in its aftermath, and Reed dra- which “absolutely dissimilar currents, absolutely matically shows why. It was the fi rst revolution in heterogeneous class interests, absolutely contrary which the working class played an outsized, critical political strivings” merged in a strikingly “harmo- role. Both workers and peasants rebelled against a nious” manner. Today, such an event sounds like regime in which they were, in Marxist terms, “ob- magical thinking, but it happened, and in a nation jects of accumulation” and not its subjects; they where 80% of the population were landed peasants were historical actors, not acted upon by elite po- or soldiers and sailors from the peasantry and the litical formations. What the revolutionaries under- bulk of the others were primarily urban working stood was that its ruling class can wheedle its way class. There is no deus ex machina in Reed’s history,

Democratic Left • Summer 2017 • page 13 no factors independent of human agency, and no the old Government mechanisms, did the Bolsheviki manipulative puppet masters, least of all the Bol- conquer the power. Not by the organized violence of sheviks, who, I would argue, learned as much from a small clique. If the masses all over Russia had not the workers’ movement as they taught. What Reed been ready for insurrection, it must have failed. The only reason for Bolshevik success lay in their ac- describes is no less than what Marx analyzed: the complishing the vast and simple desires of the most basis on which a class can emancipate itself. profound strata of the people, calling them to the The two great classes had different origins and work of tearing down and destroying the old, and goals. The oppressed peasantry were ripe for revolt; afterward, in the smoke of falling ruins, cooperating they wanted to expropriate the private property of with them to erect the framework of the new… the large estate owners, but they also wanted their What was the outcome of the revolution? Reed own small private properties. Socialism was not can’t tell us. A protracted civil war, stoked in large their goal, but it was the goal of growing numbers part by the British, French, and U.S. governments of workers. Both groups united behind the slogan of still smarting over Russia’s exit from the war, left “Peace, Land, and Bread,” none of which interested the country in a parlous condition. Reed’s project- the provisional government, which could not even ed three-volume history was never written, and he supply food to the starving army and masses. died in Moscow of typhus in October 1920, one of What to do? thousands of victims of the Allied boycott of medical Reed cites Maxim Gorky, editor of the indepen- and other supplies to the devastated nation. dent newspaper Novaya Zhizn (New Life) as “point- Would Jack Reed have remained a Soviet Union ing out that the Bolshevik insurrection meant one sympathizer, especially once Stalin completely thing very clearly; that all illusions about coalition destroyed working-class power in Russia? Who with the bourgeoisie were henceforth demonstrated knows? It is indicative that in Reed’s book, replete vain.” Reed also noted that the idea that “the Bol- with laudatory mentions of Lenin, Trotsky, and oth- sheviki would remain in power longer than three er Bolsheviks, as well as of dissidents within the days never occurred to anybody—except perhaps party, Stalin is mentioned just twice, in passing. to Lenin, Trotsky, the Petrograd workers and the More telling is that in the USSR during the Stalin simple soldiers.” years, possessing copies of Ten Days That Shook the For Reed, these soldiers, themselves peasants or World was considered a crime against the state. In workers in uniform, were hardly simple. What they capitalist Europe and the United States, with offi - needed was a tactical way forward, something the cial enmity toward all things revolutionary, Reed’s Bolsheviks provided. Timing was everything. As book has rarely been out of print. As thick descrip- Lenin said, “Yesterday was too soon; tomorrow is tion and analysis, it is still a classic.  too late.” Michael Hirsch is a member of NYC DSA and of its Reed summarizes in what could be the book’s labor branch. A longtime union staffer, activist, and coda: labor writer, he is on the editorial boards of New Not by compromise with the propertied classes, or Politics and Democratic Left. with the other political leaders; not by conciliating

Democratic Left (ISSN 1643207) is published quarterly at 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 702, New York, NY 10038. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY (Publication No. 701-960). Subscriptions: $10 regular; $15 institutional. Postmaster: Send address changes to 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 702, New York, NY 10038. Democratic Left is published by the Democratic Socialists of America, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 702, New York, NY 10038. (212) 727-8610. Signed articles express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the organization. Executive Editor: Maria Svart Editor: Maxine Phillips Blog Editors: Duane Campbell, Barbara Joye, Tom Ladendorf, Simone Morgen, Brandon Proia, Emily Robinson, Peg Strobel Editorial Committee: Michael Baker, Elizabeth Henderson, Michael Hirsch, Barbara Joye Editorial Advisory Committee: Duane Campbell, Jeffrey Gold, José Gutierrez, Frank Llewellyn, Simone Morgen, Mark Schaeffer, Jason Schulman, Joseph Schwartz, Jack Suria-Linares, Lawrence Ware Founding Editor: Michael Harrington (1928-1989) Production: Ed Hedemann Democratic Socialists of America share a vision of a humane international social order based on equitable distribution of resources, meaningful work, a healthy environment, sustainable growth, gender and racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships. Equality, solidarity, and democracy can only be achieved through international political and social cooperation aimed at ensuring that economic institutions benefi t all people. We are dedicated to building truly international social movements—of unionists, environmentalists, feminists, and people of color—which together can elevate global justice over brutalizing global competition.

page 14 • Democratic Left • Summer 2017 Organizing for Socialism Hannah Allison talks with Maxine Phillips

If you’re in a DSA chapter you may have already Texan farmers and Chicago stockyard workers.” I’ve heard from DSA’s new full-time organizer. We caught visited DSA chapters across the country and I can up with her in between trips and asked about her en- tell you, we’re not watering down radical politics in thusiasm for DSA.—Ed. places such as Fargo, North Dakota. We’re reviving MP: Why did you join DSA? a tradition of American socialism that spans the HA: Friends I trusted were joining DSA. One in diverse landscape of this vast place. We’re building particular— a social worker like me, who is a leader an organization of the working class to fi ght for the in his union — had a one-on-one conversation with things that matter to our lives—universal health- me and asked me to care, free education, affordable housing, and eco- join. I pay monthly dues nomic institutions where because I believe that workers own not just we’ll win by organizing their labor but the means people and organizing they use to produce goods money. No one but us and services that benefi t is going to pay to over- us all. throw capitalism. MP: What challeng- MP: What is your es does DSA face? organizing back- HA: For a socialist or- ground? ganization, DSA is big, HA: I’ve been an or- but we need to get even ganizer (paid and un- bigger. We are in a battle paid) since college. I got for the hearts and minds my start working for a of working and poor peo- small environmental ple in this country. And I organization called Ap- believe they are with us. Why? Because they’re us. palachian Voices. They Hannah Allison looks at a map that will soon show DSA chapters in 50 brought community states. Photo by Maxine Phillips We’re people from across members together to the country who are tired fi ght mountaintop re- of being sick and tired. moval coal mining. Since then, I’ve been a student We’re ready to create an economy and a society that and community organizer in places like Saint Louis, works for all of us. Missouri and Raleigh, North Carolina. As an orga- The other challenge for us as an organization is nizer for Missourians Organizing for Reform and to stop talking so much about how white and male Empowerment, I organized neighbors and commu- we are and just fi ght like hell to dismantle patriar- nity members to save families’ homes from foreclo- chy and white supremacy within our organization sure. I also helped fi ght to increase the minimum and in the world. Oh, and we’ve got to keep showing wage in Missouri and to stop tuition hikes at state up for each other. Ella Baker, who organized poor schools in North Carolina. black folks and young people in the South and was thought to be the more radical, grassroots counter- MP: What excites you about what’s happen- part to Martin Luther King, is one of my organiz- ing with DSA? ing heroes. While working to win the right to vote, HA: In this political moment, DSA has a unique she would travel around the country and stay with opportunity to be THE place to build a mass socialist the people she was organizing. People would always organization—the kind of organization that can be say of her after she left that it was clear she really an ideological anchor within the broader movement cared about them and their families and their lives. for social and economic justice. In a recent piece for We have to be like Ella. We can’t stop caring about Jacobin, Paul Heideman notes that, during the de- each other. Not now. The stakes are too high. This velopment of the Socialist Party of America, “class once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a differ- confl ict was not something talked about in small ent world is too great. rooms, but a fact of life for Americans as varied as

Democratic Left • Summer 2017 • page 15 Pre-registration required. www.dsausa.org/convention2017

CChangehange tthehe UUSA!SA! JoinJoin thethe DSA!DSA!  Yes, I want to join the Democratic Socialists of America. Enclosed are my dues My interests are: (includes a subscription to Democratic Left) of Labor  $175 Sustainer  $110 Family  $45 Introductory  $20 Student Religion  $27 Low-Income Youth  Yes, I want to renew my membership in DSA. Enclosed are my renewal dues of Anti-Racism  $175 Sustainer  $110 Family  $60 Regular  $20 Student  $27 Low-Income Feminism  Enclosed is an extra contribution of  $50  $100  $25 to help DSA in its work. LGBTQI Rights International Name ______Year of Birth ______Environmental Justice Address ______Other______

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