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Jules's avatar

I'm on the organizing committee for one of the working groups of NYC DSA and I'm thrilled to have your praise. I doubt that anyone I know in DSA would not want the praise of someone involved in housing activism in New York.

You're correct that a lot of members probably couldn't give you a coherent definition of Democratic Socialism and I don't think I did know that DSA was explicitly founded as anti communist. I only really know the history back to the Barbara Ehrenreich era. I also suspect I don't share the all of the views of our chapter or national leadership, in fact I don't particularly like some of the city wide leadership.

But here's the thing: I don't give a shit about all that right now. Our Working Group is fanatically devoted to one project right now that I believe in entirely. It will be an unambiguously good thing for the people of the City and it will be a blow against some of the most powerful corporations in the world. DSA at this point just gives an organizational structure to operate within and institutional power.

I would also note that AOC criticism is alive and thriving in the DSA discussion forums. It feels sometimes like people assume that DSA members don't criticize the people we helped get elected (because DSA is just The Democrats...something), but that's just not the case. We read twitter, the same disappointment you see on Twitter is present in the DSA forums, and there's plenty of good discussion about what it means for the left.

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Rick Gore's avatar

Interesting and thoughtful as usual- Freddie have you written up something on your experiences (and takeaways) from your time in the anti-Iraq war protest movement? I would love to read that.

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