DSA opinion thread

Going to a general meeting tonight in my area. The guest speaker is on about IDpol, so I am a little discouraged. I've read their website, and I agree with some of it, but what do you guys think I can expect?

expect Democrats with LARPing characteristics

they claim to be DemSoc, which I can tolerate, but if they are just SocDem, I'm disappointed.

I went to a DSA meeting and the leader there was an ex-berniecrat who listened to Chapo trap house. it was a total sausagefest so we did all agree we needed more women to get involved, but it was racially diverse so there wasn't much talk about that. Everyone there seemed really scared of the USSR for some reason. I'll probably go again, it was friendly and the people were smart.

I guess it depends on the chapter. Sure, lgtbbq rights are a valid topic, but end the end it's just a splitter. Can't expect any chage to occur without a change in the material conditions that permit oppression in the first place.

There is no difference. The original SocDems claimed to be what DemSocs claim to be now, and morphed into their current form the moment they achieved actual power. You can't use the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie against the bourgeoisie, it's like trying to cool a room with a flamethrower.

It seems that Holla Forums is always complaining of two things: that the DSA is too social-democratic and too identitarian. But in my experience the more you try to avoid the former, the more you'll encounter the latter: no one is as insanely into identity politics today as MLs and anarchists and other "radicals".

So honestly, unless you become one of those self-styled leftists who never organize and never do anything, you must be ready to stomach at least DSA-levels of identitarianism.

They seem to be open to new ideas and shit, so if you attend those events, make you sure you argue persuasively for a more economics-focused politics, make sure you connect with and get to know those who somewhat already agree with you, and make sure you keep agitating in that direction inside and outside the DSA, you'll probably be choosing the best option for american Leftists right now.

their platform is socdem but there's a marxist left caucus.

Great post. This is the best argument for supporting them I've heard.

Do remember that parties like this are dime-a-dozen in Europe and entryism has never worked.

I agree that entryism has a bad record of selling out to neolibs. But the armchair war's record is abysmal.
If I saw a more radical group with any kind of numbers, I would go there. But they are tiny groups of LARPers. Better to try to radicalize my local than pull a bordiga and do nothing.

DSA is worth building up to invigorate the left in general, but we will need to split somewhere down the road as the org is too reformist to bring the final break with capitalism. Lot of legit leftists in the party so at the very least it is a good way to network and radicalize people.

I'm going to the convention they're having in new york tomorrow, so I'm gonna see for myself. I did hear about a nice summer job with a union because of them, though.

If both options have historically always failed, why are you picking one of them? Are you here to do something useful or just to LARP for your own satisfaction so you can pretend you're working against the system? Find a new form of political activism which hasn't already failed a thousand times instead of repeating the failures of the past once more. Even crap like Bookchin's weird idea to subvert city councils is better than just mindlessly bashing your head against the wall in the same way over and over again, because it's at least something new which hasn't already been demonstrated to be a failure. The total refusal of the Left to innovate strategically is utterly pathetic.

Entryism is bound to fail when a few organized individuals think they can outmatch the influence that the owning classes and the establishment have systematically developed with a certain party for years. So yeah it's not like people can join Labour or the Dems and transform it from a liberal to a socialist party because eventually the fact that most of their money and media support comes from a bourgeois shitdick speaks louder.

But the DSA is not this, and this is not really entryism. The DSA is meant to be a left-wing alternative, it's presenting itself as a left-wing alternative and it's more open for democratic control of its agenda and politics. They want people to join and figure out shit together.

Because the only model that has succeeded is that of the left-wing party, and this is what they're attempting to build.


Only in Holla Forums you hear that party politics is LARPing and, at the same time, that Bookchin is "real praxis"


History is filled with examples of all types of "innovative strategies" being tried by the Left, you just don't know them because they never evolve past the first stage or achieved anything significant.

I went to my local one's first meeting, they seem pretty cool, judging by the look of some of the people there I was expecting it to fall into some idpol shit. I didn't go again cuz its all the way across town and I didn't feel like commuting for 40 minutes to get there again. I'm still on their mailing list so if they start doing cool things i'll show up.

I am apart one of the largest chapters in the country and the politics committee is pretty much full trot. My advice is get in now and bend the org to your will. A lot of these Bernie people are way more open to real socialism than you might imagine.

Also, its the only viable growing socialist org in the country. Don't let the political LARPers and purists of leftypol discourage you from participating in activism.

DSA is holding a convention or some shit in July, and will likely end in a schism between the reformist wing and the Jacobin wing.

bit early to be splitting…damn i hate leftism sometimes

It's NEVER too early to split!

...

I've had brief conversations with some trots that non-ironically support this. Their argument is that the CPUSA became a honeypot because they were a united front, which lead to feds pouring in.

Personally, I'd prefer that the Left caucus became semi-autonomous, with still some engagement with the socdems.