After Sanders, the US left must break with electoralism by Corey Oakley, Red Flag, March 17, 2021 https://redflag.org.au/article/after-sanders-us-left-must-break-electoralism . . . Bernie Sanders’ idea of socialism was only the faintest echo of what real socialism is about, but he did the US people a historic service by establishing in the minds of millions a vital connection: the world we live in is fundamentally unjust, and socialism is the solution.
The Bernie moment has now passed, for good or ill. The most positive element of his legacy—establishing a left alternative to liberal centrism in the popular imagination—has been achieved. But as the events of last year made brutally clear, that is far short of what is required to challenge the Democratic establishment, let alone the power of US capitalism more broadly. And the negative legacy of his campaign—entrenching an orientation to transforming the Democratic Party from within, or even, for those who have little faith in the Democrats, framing a strategic approach for radicalism primarily in terms of electoral politics—looms large. . . . If the left is going to build a movement that presents a challenge to the status quo that is profound enough to meet the existential crisis capitalism has plunged humanity into, it can’t start by obsessing about how to win a majority in the gerrymandered world of electoral politics. It has instead to look to the kind of fissures that disrupt the status quo, that point to a radical reimagining of the possible among the mass of the population. And those will happen—as they have throughout history—far outside the electoral sphere. ### On Wed, May 5, 2021 at 7:54 PM Dayne Goodwin via groups.io <daynegoodwin= [email protected]> wrote: > When the Party’s Over: Organizing after Bernie > Brendan O'Connor, Baffler #57, May 2021 > https://thebaffler.com/salvos/when-the-partys-over-oconnor > . . . > In the aftermath of Bernie 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the George > Floyd rebellion, it has become clearer than ever that one of the primary > questions that the left in the United States today must answer is that of > organization. Depending on the context in which this question is asked, it > can be reduced pretty precisely: the question of organization becomes a > question of forming a third party or seizing the Democratic ballot line; of > centralization or decentralization; of reform or revolution... > . . . > In other words, the social movements that do exist are not yet organized > in such a way that translates their cultural force into class-based > political power... > . . . > In the absence of a campaign, movement, or organization, even alternative > media is subject to the logic and incentives of the market in which it > operates and the platforms on which it exists. Now, that alternative media > is mutating, giving birth to degraded, populist pseudo-movements like > #ForceTheVote, which sought to agitate the Bernie-supporting masses around > a deeply obscure, procedural tactic its advocates claimed would expose the > Democratic Party’s hypocrisy on Medicare for All—as if this hypocrisy is > not already obvious to anyone who supported Sanders, or readily waved away > by anyone who didn’t... > . . . > ...As it prepares for its biennial national convention, the DSA is > approaching a hundred thousand members, making it by any measure the > largest socialist formation in the United States since WWII, and thus the > site of innumerable internal squabbles—and even some principled political > debates—as members learn together what it means to be a socialist in the > twenty-first century. Almost everyone I spoke to for this piece is a DSA > member. > . . . > Whether the DSA contains the germ of “an independent working-class party” > or can only contribute to some other, external effort is a matter of much > debate. Certainly, it is an imperfect organization whose membership > reflects a too-narrow fraction of the U.S. working class as it is currently > composed. And yet, its power is growing... > . . . > No one can be merely talked into believing that a world without > domination, exploitation, and oppression is possible. It is not a matter of > rhetoric or propaganda, of reading the right books or listening to the > right podcasts or watching the right streams, but of the transformational > experience of collective struggle. Being absorbed into a party, a union, or > any kind of organized, disciplined collective does not obliterate the > individual but produces a different kind of individual: one who is not only > valuable for the bits of data she creates as a user, viewer, or poster but > someone who can participate in the shaping of her own future—not alone, but > together. > ### > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8470): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8470 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82621517/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
