How To Unite The American Left-Wing

How do we build a powerful, united left in the US, and what roadblocks stand in the way? John Iadarola, Brandon Ramirez, and Charles Du break it down on The Damage Report. Follow The Damage Report on Facebook: facebook.com/TheDamageReportTYT/

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"The “race and class” question has always been a vexing one for the U.S. Left, and today the stakes are even higher—because of the strategic deployment of antiracist rhetoric by establishment Democrats and the open white supremacy of Donald Trump and the far Right. Within DSA, many members feel that our organization is “too white,” a shorthand that includes many different diagnoses of and solutions to the problem. And although DSA members of color have striven to achieve a nuanced balance between developing separate networks (such as the Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus) and involving themselves in the general work of their chapters, these efforts have not yet brought working-class people of color into the organization at the scale needed to qualitatively change the makeup of DSA.

In developing a coherent approach to addressing this issue, it can help us to go back to the basics. We know that socialism will only be achieved through a mass movement of the multiracial working class. DSA’s explosive upsurge to more than 55,000 members is a promising indication of the potential of left politics in this period of economic, social, and ecological crisis. Yet our continued growth is not guaranteed, because it has been a phenomenon of the historical moment spurred by events largely external to the organization: Bernie Sanders’s campaigns, Trump’s presidency, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s victory. If DSA is to become a historical force in its own right, we must make the transition from a self-selected group to a truly mass organization capable of organizing all parts of the multiracial working class.

The question, then, is, “How should DSA chapters work in communities with which our current membership lacks strong organic connections?” DSA cannot and should not attempt to impose a program or agenda where its members would be perceived as outsiders. Yet our goal must be to eventually grow our membership and influence in every neighborhood in the United States."

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