cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/9742945
By https://x.com/AndromedaPip/status/2108102746666934382
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I think this is one that could have stayed in hexbear. We can have both electoralism and direct action.
And yes, modern dsa is not very leftist compared to global/European standards, I’d still rather have mediocre politicians trying their best and not actively trying to benefit the oligarchs instead of geriatric rapists and pedophiles activity destroying the country.
The DSA is the compromise with the genocidal rapist pedophiles that exists so that nobody will do anything too drastic about the situation, so it can go on and on without change.
And what do you propose doing instead?
Organizing a communist party using mutual aid, propaganda, labor strikes eventually, and any other viable methods, never conceding an inch of power to the bourgeois government and growing popular support and dual power by any means necessary, patiently, only taking illegal or violent action when the gains exceed the members arrested or killed. Accept that you have a legitimate chance to get killed or imprisoned by the police.
Once the foundation for an armed revolution is created wait until there is a spontaneous explosion of some kind (like the riots in France rn, but larger) and seize the moment to start engaging in actual warfare against the state.
Prepare for a drawn-out civil war, horrific beyond the likes of which you’ve ever thought possible to witness, that kills probably over 400,000 people. Also, prepare for the side you’re fighting to receive substantial imperialist military aid or outright foreign military reinforcements.
At the end of it, if you succeed, then humanity gains one precious chance at never repeating all of this stuff again.
That’s roughly what it’ll look like.
Ok so how about we do that, and also vote for DSA? Like while we are building this party, why not just also have everyone go out and vote every few years? At the very least, having democrats and DSA types won’t actually prosecute and actively fight against such a party while the right absolutely will. And people seeing that change is possible from incremental policy change can also help people see that hey, these socialists aren’t so bad, what else is further to the left that could be better?
All of that is also just so far out, I would rather have slightly better policy on healthcare, affordability, queer/trans rights and acceptance, etc. I don’t want to sacrifice my trans friends lives and safety by letting the right win temporarily in hopes that it will cause a violent revolution resulting in true communism in a few decades if it means they won’t be alive to see it, whether from being killed by the state or from suicide. Even if it means a few extra decades of fighting for true communism
Edit: also, if current day DSA takes majority power, that opens the door to further left parties being viable.
I mean, maybe, if you’re arguing we inflitrate the DSA, but as soon as they start opposing all this and making compromises you’ve gotta break up with them. I think we’re well past the point of breaking up with them. When they don’t have solidarity with anti-imperialists in the global South, that’s when their actual goals become irreconcilable with a communist movement.
Honestly don’t even need to infiltrate, just let them do the work of getting candidates into elections, just still vote for them and that’s it, and push them further left, or pull members further left. Even in the primaries it’s better to vote for them unless there is a better candidate. I just see no reason to actively fight, they’re still better than nothing, and also often already doing community/direct action, getting boots on the ground to go talk to people and get them to understand and support socialism.
Tbh I’m not entirely sure what you mean by them not having solidarity with anti-imperialists in the global South either tho
The DSA is mostly silent on Iran, probably negative, holding the lib position of the war being bad for Amerikkka, has opposed direct action in support of Palestine, claims Cuba is a dictatorship, made questionable remarks on Venezuela at a time when the US was terrorizing the people there, and it seems they support the continuation of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Let’s not forget the popular candidates: Mamdani, who has done nothing of substance to fight against American imperialism (saying things doesn’t count if you do otherwise), Graham Planter (who wasn’t a member but rallied more support in the party than actual members), a mercenary for Blackwater (enough said, Christ, that alone makes them at least as bad as Democrats, even the most liberals thought supporting a mercenary who brags about raping and pillaging was in poor taste), and Abdul El-Sayad, literally bourgeois, owns property in the UAE (a country guilty of genocide in Sudan greater in scale than what has happened in Palestine) and says he explicitly supports capitalism. These are your greatest fighters?
Also they are explicitly anti-communist, so its more like that they’ll block movement left and act as a controlled opposition to absorb would be communists and make sure that the farthest left conceivable position in the US are social democrats like them.
So, no, voting for them now does nothing and if it did, it’d actually be against your interests if you want actual socialism in the US and not social democracy subsidized by imperialism. At one point I did think the DSA might be okay, it clearly wasn’t and I was wrong. Graham Platner was the fucking last straw for me and the Demokkkratikkk $$ociali$$t$$ of Amerikkka, it should have been earlier, and then they only kept piling the straw higher.
We can have both electoralism and direct action.
You can’t. Human time and motivation are finite resources.
That doesn’t explain why we can’t have both though, because human time and motivation being finite doesn’t stop us from having those things.
Why spend finite resources doing something useless (electioneering)
With electoralism do you mean just voting or doing other stuff like wheat-pasting for candidates?
I feel like a general rule of thumb for electoralism is that you’re picking your enemies. Not your friends.
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