Reproductive Justice • Mass Incarceration • Women and Poverty the magazine of the Democratic Socialists of America Vol. XLIII, No. 3, Winter 2015 www.dsausa.org From the National Director Seize the Day! By Maria Svart n recent issues of Democratic Left I talked about And get others involved. The only way to get some- the importance of building one to say “yes” to becoming a member is if you ask Isolidarity, of acknowledging them to join. and building on our differences in Three: Learn from fellow members, and from mutual support. I also discussed other movements. Reach out to DSAers to fi nd out the importance of walking with how they have accomplished exciting things and do vision, always keeping our social- the same with organizations in your own commu- ist ideals fi xed in our sights and nity. How did the new Austin DSA chapter double strategy. its membership in just two years? How did the eight But neither really matters if new DSA organizing committees get up and running we don’t dramatically grow our movement! so fast? How have NYC, Philly, and Chicago DSA In that regard, Bernie Sanders has given us a gift. managed weekly Bernie tabling? How did the fi ve His campaign is hitting two birds with one stone: new YDS campus chapters self-organize this fall? explaining that democratic socialism is not the to- How are Latinos for Bernie and African Americans talitarian nightmare that the capitalists claim and for Bernie spreading the word? How can we learn empowering ordinary people to take the fi rst step to expand our own organization from the lessons toward collective action. You and I know that move- Bernie learned about reaching new demographic ment work can be tiring, discouraging, and frustrat- groups through forthright solidarity? Listen to each ing. But it can also be exhilarating and transforma- others’ stories, and don’t be afraid to tell your own. tive. Can we get a signifi cant number of these newly We’re building this future together. active Bernie supporters to become long distance Will you ask a Bernie supporter you know to join runners for democratic socialism? !Sí, se puede! DSA? Will you start attending meetings organized Here’s what we have to do to truly make this a by your local DSA or YDS chapter (if you don’t al- movement rather than a moment. ready)? Will you help organize a chapter if there One: Be proud of who we are, what we believe, isn’t one in your community? Will you do your part and what we are doing. You are a member of an or- to expand our infrastructure so that we can maxi- ganization fi ghting for the liberation of all people, mize our effectiveness between now and the prima- for the right of each of us to a dignifi ed and healthy ries, and beyond? life, and for the expansion of democracy into all ar- If not now, when? If not you, who? eas of life. Join Bernie in scoffi ng at the red-baiters and heed his call to build a mass grassroots move- ment of politically aware and empowered people. Two: Understand that this organization won’t grow by itself. We’re in an all-hands-on-deck mo- ment, and, for once, we’re on the offense. Now is not the time to snuggle up in front of the TV or computer or abstain from action because our vol- unteer-run organization isn’t perfect. Get involved. Contents Building a Political Revolution .............................................3 All Out for Bernie .................................................................. 5 Talkin’ Bernie and Socialism ................................................ 8 Welfare Rights, Wrongs, and Attacks on Women ............ 9 Mass Incarceration: Is Change Gonna Come? ............ 11 Creating a Culture of Reproductive Justice ...................12 Socialist for President: Debs and Sanders ...................... 13 Elections in Popular Culture .............................................. 14 Bernie Comics .................................................................... 15 Nadia James, Dustin Guastella, Adam Goldman, and Phillip Logan tabling for Philadelphia DSA at First Friday Cover art by Frank Reynoso this summer. Photo: Elizabeth Henderson. page 2 • Democratic Left • Winter 2015 Building a Political Revolution The Sanders Campaign and the Future of the Left By Joseph M. Schwartz enator Bernie Sanders’s campaign for the funding for worker cooperatives. His proposal to Democratic presidential nomination offers create a Post Offi ce banking system would provide Sthe biggest opportunity for growth that U.S. low-cost fi nancial services to people who are now socialists have had in de- exploited by check-cashing ser- cades. In a few months he has vices and pay-day lenders. transformed the Democratic We may not be Denmark, as Party primary into a debate Hillary Clinton famously said, about the causes of rampant but Sanders would like the rich- inequality and possible solu- est country in the world to do tions. But the political revolu- better than the small countries tion he talks about can only of northern Europe. Today, the happen if activists in the United States spends 30% of its Sanders campaign broaden gross domestic product on public its social base among voters of expenditure and over a quarter color and the non-college edu- of that is wasted on mass in- cated and build local multi- carceration and militarism. In racial progressive coalitions. contrast, northern European Stronger DSA locals must governments channel 45-55% of play a central role in such co- their GDP through the state and alitions if they are to offer a spend only 2% of their GDP on coherent alternative to corpo- defense. rate domination. Why the difference? Most of These state and local for- northern Europe has publicly mations should link social- funded universal child care, movement activism to elec- truly universal health care, and toral politics and develop a more generous public pensions diverse array of viable Sand- that replace 60% of average in- ers-type candidates in their come. Social Security, our equiv- communities. If they do that, Frank Reynoso alent program, replaces a paltry the Left can both challenge pro-corporate Demo- 40%. How do these countries pay for programs that crats and change the game in the 25 states where benefi t all their residents? They can do it because Republicans rule all three branches of government. affl uent taxpayers see the value of these relatively Sanders hesitated to run for fear of being a mar- high quality social goods and are willing to pay for ginal candidate. But hundreds of thousands have them. joined his campaign, disgusted by the bipartisan Could the United States afford these goods? corporate control of our politics. Who would have Certainly, but only if the 1% and corporate America thought that the fi rst Democratic presidential de- pay their fair share. In 1962, corporate taxes con- bate would focus on whether democratic socialism stituted more than 25% of federal revenues. Today, is a superior system to capitalism? corporate taxes account for 8% of federal revenues. Sanders’s program includes both the social demo- If the country just went back to the pre-Reagan and cratic reforms of progressive income and corporate pre-George W. Bush tax levels on the top 5% of in- taxation and the more radical “non-reformist” re- come earners, federal spending could immediately forms that shift control over capital from corpora- expand by $250 billion or more than 7%. tions to social ownership. The former would be used However, not even one of Sanders’s platform to fund such public goods as free universal child planks could pass a center-right Congress with- care, free public higher education, and a national out massive protests. Politicians, even left-lean- health care system. The latter includes a public in- ing ones, are opportunists; they want to be re- frastructure bank to invest one trillion dollars over elected. The social movements of the 1930s and ten years to create three million jobs and federal 1960s not only scared elites into supporting pro- Democratic Left • Winter 2015 • page 3 gressive reforms but also increased the number women and children. of left-leaning representatives. To build local “rainbow coalitions” that last be- Building an effective protest movement will not yond the Sanders campaign, DSAers need to priori- be easy. Racism and coded appeals to it have long tize linking struggles for racial justice to the Sand- divided people who should be natural allies. Many ers effort. Struggles for immigrant rights, for equi- swing white voters favor an expansion of universal table public education, for a $15 minimum wage, public goods but are skeptical about tax reform. and against mass incarceration and police brutality Despite ample evidence to the contrary, many still are the civil rights struggles of our time. If a multi- believe that too much social welfare spending goes racial Left is to emerge from the campaign, we need to the “undeserving” poor. Widespread economic new forms of grassroots coalitions that can put anxiety fuels the rival populisms of Left and Right, street heat on government offi cials while building hence the popularity of Donald Trump and Ben the independent electoral capacity of the Left, labor, Carson. and communities of color. The last time the Left had Outrage against inequality and declining liv- such an opportunity was with Jesse Jackson’s 1988 ing standards, particularly among young, heav- presidential nomination run. We failed to build a ily indebted, and underemployed recent college national rainbow coalition after that campaign; we graduates, fueled Occupy. It also provides Sanders cannot afford to fail again. with a strong base among millennials. They have As Hillary supporters ramp up the anti-socialist a somewhat more favorable view of socialism than rhetoric (“Bernie’s unelectable because he’s a social- of capitalism, probably because they vaguely asso- ist”) DSA activists have to demonstrate that demo- ciate northern European social democracy with a cratic socialism can be a viable and effective force more egalitarian and socially mobile society than in U.S.