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.
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.
"I can’t tell you how many people I’ve known from activism in the past 20 years who have started out as Dem critics, gotten some sort of pro activist gig or started some sort of respectable organization, sworn to me that they would never become part of the toothless left wing of the party, and then gone on to do that in short order."
And those were almost certainly the people who accomplished the most actual good. They were the people who got themselves elected to the boards and councils that you protest to, and cast the actual votes that actually did something.
Ditto AOC. I read that article you linked to that supposed tells us what's so bad about her, and yet all it says is that she met with a Jewish group. Yeah, ya gots to meet with the people whose votes ya need. Geez.
Local activism is great and important, but getting to be one of the decision makers is far more effective. And that requires allies. And those potential allies are mostly Democrats.
Freddie, you often write about the need for political action to be effective, and then turn around and counsel people to, for example, not work to elect HRC in 2016, thus leading to the appointment of hundreds of right-wing judges by Trump, in front of whom you and the DSA will now uselessly protest.
This is, as usual, an incredibly well written article. The DSA thing is such a mystery to me. I was very active in left wing (primarily Marxist but there were so few of us you had to expand out) from about 1998-2004. Then I spent about a decade involved in Democratic politics, then became completely apolitical for a few years.
I cannot express the shock of coming back to politics and seeing a bunch of people proclaiming themselves as socialists. This was bizzaroland. To have been there in those brutal post-9/11 years and then Rip Van Winkle style wake up to socialism being trendy and cool was - and still is - surprising beyond words.
Unfortunately, it seems to me that DSA elects candidates who (at least the ones I know of on a national level) campaign as champions of the working class and then in office immediately become the standard bearers for [whatever is the nice way of saying woke politics]. Plus, I left the Democratic Party when I realized they were committed to not just rehabilitating the criminals behind the Iraq War but actively returning control of the party to them. DSA still wants you to vote for those people, which makes it difficult for me to view them with much charity. Of course, I doubt anyone there is losing sleep over the opinions of the five of us left in America who still remembers the illegal and immoral murder we unleashed on that country.
Weirdly, despite all that, I still feel some affinity for them.
This is why I’m a dues paying DSA member. The online “left” is overly focused on an immaculacy of vision. They think slap fights on Twitter = praxis. It’s parochial and flaccid and it doesn’t get shit done. Social media and “discourse” play such an outsized role in the lives of self-identified leftists and socialists that I wouldn’t say “the left” actually means anything. We have no shared identity and no power. But, when restaurant workers in Austin were owed back pay a few years ago, the DSA fought for them when no one else would, and won. That’s real. If they become the party of the left, I’m down. As long as they continue to put the poor and working class first, they’re the only worthwhile game in town.
I'm not in this space at all, but it's related to a long-standing question I have about the effectiveness of protests. It seems like you're praising DSA for showing up and that seems important for recruiting and solidarity, but this seems secondary to whether the protest actually works, which is something curious outsiders have questions about. Are the tenants being helped? Maybe it's too soon to say.
Of course in general, the answer is going to be that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, and it's going to depend on what you mean by "works." But I think something a writer with connections in this space could do is find and share success stories? Not necessarily flashy, just examples of getting things done.
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.
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.
Great piece. Would love to hear more as well on the 'nuts and bolts' of organizing from your experience
"I can’t tell you how many people I’ve known from activism in the past 20 years who have started out as Dem critics, gotten some sort of pro activist gig or started some sort of respectable organization, sworn to me that they would never become part of the toothless left wing of the party, and then gone on to do that in short order."
And those were almost certainly the people who accomplished the most actual good. They were the people who got themselves elected to the boards and councils that you protest to, and cast the actual votes that actually did something.
Ditto AOC. I read that article you linked to that supposed tells us what's so bad about her, and yet all it says is that she met with a Jewish group. Yeah, ya gots to meet with the people whose votes ya need. Geez.
Local activism is great and important, but getting to be one of the decision makers is far more effective. And that requires allies. And those potential allies are mostly Democrats.
Freddie, you often write about the need for political action to be effective, and then turn around and counsel people to, for example, not work to elect HRC in 2016, thus leading to the appointment of hundreds of right-wing judges by Trump, in front of whom you and the DSA will now uselessly protest.
> DSA is not my ideal vehicle, or even the most likely path to socialist resurgence.
What do you think is the most likely path to socialist resurgence?
This is, as usual, an incredibly well written article. The DSA thing is such a mystery to me. I was very active in left wing (primarily Marxist but there were so few of us you had to expand out) from about 1998-2004. Then I spent about a decade involved in Democratic politics, then became completely apolitical for a few years.
I cannot express the shock of coming back to politics and seeing a bunch of people proclaiming themselves as socialists. This was bizzaroland. To have been there in those brutal post-9/11 years and then Rip Van Winkle style wake up to socialism being trendy and cool was - and still is - surprising beyond words.
Unfortunately, it seems to me that DSA elects candidates who (at least the ones I know of on a national level) campaign as champions of the working class and then in office immediately become the standard bearers for [whatever is the nice way of saying woke politics]. Plus, I left the Democratic Party when I realized they were committed to not just rehabilitating the criminals behind the Iraq War but actively returning control of the party to them. DSA still wants you to vote for those people, which makes it difficult for me to view them with much charity. Of course, I doubt anyone there is losing sleep over the opinions of the five of us left in America who still remembers the illegal and immoral murder we unleashed on that country.
Weirdly, despite all that, I still feel some affinity for them.
This is why I’m a dues paying DSA member. The online “left” is overly focused on an immaculacy of vision. They think slap fights on Twitter = praxis. It’s parochial and flaccid and it doesn’t get shit done. Social media and “discourse” play such an outsized role in the lives of self-identified leftists and socialists that I wouldn’t say “the left” actually means anything. We have no shared identity and no power. But, when restaurant workers in Austin were owed back pay a few years ago, the DSA fought for them when no one else would, and won. That’s real. If they become the party of the left, I’m down. As long as they continue to put the poor and working class first, they’re the only worthwhile game in town.
I'm not in this space at all, but it's related to a long-standing question I have about the effectiveness of protests. It seems like you're praising DSA for showing up and that seems important for recruiting and solidarity, but this seems secondary to whether the protest actually works, which is something curious outsiders have questions about. Are the tenants being helped? Maybe it's too soon to say.
Of course in general, the answer is going to be that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, and it's going to depend on what you mean by "works." But I think something a writer with connections in this space could do is find and share success stories? Not necessarily flashy, just examples of getting things done.
I've posted this link thousands of times over the years to attack NIMBYs.
"I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes."
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-will-do-anything-to-end-homelessness-except-build-more-homes