Leftists Get Schooled by Marianne in Organizing Working Class Into Broader Coalitions

The lack of strategy and misguided purity is so beyond unworkable that the average person cannot even relate to the positions the left is taking.... Alessandra Biaggi in response to DSA pulling support for AOC

Ocasio-Cortez, Once an Outsider, Takes Center Stage at Convention

Full speech

 Let's be careful about branding the "left" as monolithic as Biaggi and many others tend to do -- even I do it without thinking. I usually say "certain segments of the left."....Norm

Just Win Baby, Win! ... Al Davis

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

I get a high-five by a retired NYC fireman in a hot yoga class over the RA victory in the chapter election. Of course he and his pals all know about the NYC Retirees and the chief organizer Marianne Pizzitola. 

I've been getting get-well calls from many people and one of the more interesting ones was from an old oppo war-horse CL and UFT Exec Bd member, a hard-core lifetime leftist who retired a long time ago. He is one of the 300 newly elected delegates in the RA chapter election. And of course he has followed the Medicare story.

He said something so interesting. That Marianne Pizzitola, who came out of nowhere and is far from a leftist, has taught the left a lesson on how to organize a broad base of working class and beyond, uniting left and right in the battle. Knowing the left as I do (and I consider myself part of the left), that will be a lesson unlearned. On much of the left, ideology trumps practicality and often, winning.

Yes, sometimes winning is important. I remember certain segments of the left making the case against trying to win in UFT or NYSUT elections as being a waste of time. With the big retiree win in the UFT, views may be changing with a unique opportunity to be in serious contention for leadership of the UFT for the first time in its history. A key question is how far will some segments on the left go to mess it up by pushing for their particular ideology even if that reduces the chances of winning. I know that in Retiree Advocate, we knew we were trying to build a winning coalition based on the healthcare issue and avoided getting into ideological entanglements. Thus, our 300 elected delegates have a broad range of political views.

Some on the left are beginning to look askance at some of their fellows and dames as the Biaggi (not a hard core lefty) says above. 

Shockingly, there are still so-called leftists who often line up on the right who claim Trump is more the peace candidate than Biden --- do they actually believe this guy is not lying about everything? Yes, some claiming to be leftists can also be naive.

I am still a member of DSA because left politics (and accompanying infighting) interests me. You know the old joke -- put 2 of them in a room and get 3 groups. Splitting into sects and factions seems to be endemic.

But all too often some elements in DSA, a conglomeration of just about every left sect with numerous caucuses, seem off the rails. Remember how they cancelled Jamaal Bowman for daring to visit Israel on a fact-finding mission? When it was clear that right winger George Latimer backed by AIPAC was way ahead, DSA reversed itself but too late to make a difference.

Inside the UFT, we saw MORE, a segment of the left, sit out the TRS election because they heard a baseless ideological-based rumor about a candidate. "Better Unity"? In essence, the message. Or we on the left don't really care about winning but about making a point. Despite that the non-Unity candidate still got one third of the vote. 

With upcoming UFT elections, will we see an ideological war break out inside oppo forces or will we see a broad front inclusive enough to defeat Unity.

And by the way, AOC made the most dynamic speech last night at the convention. You can see her future as the heir to Bernie while DSA will remain sanctimonious. 

--------

Another segment of the DSA cancelled Adolf Reed, Jr. Reed who focuses on class more than race and that is a big cancel on the left.

A Black Marxist Scholar Wanted to Talk About Race. It Ignited a Fury.

The cancellation of a speech reflects an intense debate on the left: Is racism the primary problem in America today, or the outgrowth of a system that oppresses all poor people?

By Michael Powell

Published Aug. 14, 2020Updated Aug. 18, 2020

Adolph Reed is a son of the segregated South, a native of New Orleans who organized poor Black people and antiwar soldiers in the late 1960s and became a leading Socialist scholar at a trio of top universities.

Along the way, he acquired the conviction, controversial today, that the left is too focused on race and not enough on class. Lasting victories were achieved, he believed, when working-class and poor people of all races fought shoulder to shoulder for their rights.

The Socialists vs. Andrew Cuomo - The Nation, DSA Challenge for Governor in Virginia - RIsing, Krystal Ball

Two socialists walk into a flower shop... this is not a Henny Youngman joke.  If DSA gets a strong toehold in the Council whomever is the next mayor will face some serious opposition that is very different than Corey Johnson. ..
As a DSA member I have received notice of numerous organizing efforts around the tax the rich campaign.

I've been tracking the work of the Democratic Socialists (DSA) here in NYC and am in fact a member, attending a few meetings of the South Brooklyn branch and also touching base with the Queens and the Labor groups (there are at least 8 branches in NYC). 

 

I'm told there is a southeast Queens group that would include Rockaway so I'm looking forward to working with them. DSA, which has grown from something like 5000 to almost 100,000 members nationally since Trump's election, has its fingers in many pies housing, health care, climate) but the key for me is the electoral strategy of challenging the Democratic Party machines at the grassroots level. 

 

The AOC victory in 2018 was a key factor in pushing the strategy. Note also the number of teachers and educators getting involved. Jamaal Bowman was not a DSA endorsement I believe but a Justice Democrat recruit. Featured below is Jabari Brisport who was a middle school teacher in Crown Heights in Brooklyn and I believe a MORE member though not when I was still involved (until two years ago). Note that MORE is a heavy DSA outpost and wouldn't it be interesting if the MORE DSA people could actually bring a similar grassroots operation to the UFT elections, echoing the broader left/central battles in the Dem Party.

The DSA operation is impressive and they pick their battles and have beaten the Dem party machine in many of those battles. More will be coming up this year as they focus on the City Council. In some place DSa will also come into conflict with the UFT political machine with some juicy battles coming up - which I will report on. If DSA gets a strong toehold in the Council the next mayor will face some interesting opposition that is very different than Corey Johnson.

DSA is the most serious challenge to the Dem Party machine but only in select areas of the city. So how that will impact the mayoral race is left to be determined. My sense is they are not there yet and there is no current candidate they would conceivably report. But if they jump in with their resources in the primary for a candidate they could have a major impact due to the usual low turnout. Their ground game in impressive. 

As a side note, Krystal Ball on Rising today had a story about a DSA challenge in the Dem primary for governor of Virginia. Krystal often points out that Virginia is dominated by Dems but ranks last in workers rights - what does that tell you about Dem Party central? Check out her report:

https://youtu.be/mn6NwjvXh_g

 

This article in The Nation focuses on the battle with Cuomo, which should be delicious.

The Socialists vs. Andrew Cuomo

Newly elected DSA members in the New York legislature will work with grassroots organizers to force the governor to tax the rich. Will their inside/outside strategy work?

By Liza FeatherstoneTwitter

December 22, 2020

 https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/dsa-cuomo-new-york/

 Two socialists emerged from a flower shop in Astoria, Queens, with a bouquet of red roses. Jabari Brisport, 33, a newly elected state senator from Brooklyn, sported a red Democratic Socialists of America hoodie while Zohran Mamdani, 29, a newly elected assemblyman from Queens, wore a red-and-black checked Arsenal jersey—an item he’d just purchased and later characterized as “this ridiculous shirt” yet was plainly excited to show off. NYC-DSA endorsed both this year, and the pair spent the overcast November weekend surprising each of the organization’s freshly endorsed City Council candidates at home with a rose. (The color red has represented socialism and communism at least since the 1840s, while the red rose, now the symbol of the Democratic Socialists of America, has been associated with socialist and social democratic movements and parties since the 1880s.) “I’d like to point out that he didn’t pay [for the flowers]. That’s the problem with socialism,” Mamdani ribbed Brisport, impersonating a conservative. “Eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

The two were part of a slate of five candidates for state government endorsed by NYC-DSA this election cycle. The others were Julia Salazar, the sole incumbent, representing North Brooklyn in the state Senate; and Assembly challengers (both tenant organizers) Peruvian-born Marcela Mitaynes in Sunset Park and Phara Souffrant Forrest of Crown Heights, a nurse and daughter of Haitian immigrants. All five won their races, in a huge show of power for an organization that has only been a significant force in New York electoral politics for two years. Through a retreat in October, weekly Zoom calls with fellow NYC-DSA members, and other meetings and texts, the socialist five have been getting to know one another and planning their Albany strategy. I’m an NYC-DSA member; I live in Brisport and Forrest’s districts, and volunteered on their campaigns as well as Salazar’s. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Mamdani was kidding about running out of “other people’s money,” but it’s an important joke. Everything the socialists want to achieve in office—eviction relief and other urgent assistance; full funding for transit, schools, and health care; a Green New Deal for New York—costs money. The first item on their legislative agenda, then, is the one that could make everything else possible: taxing the rich.

Ninety percent of New Yorkers favor increasing taxes on millionaires and billionaires. In a deadly pandemic and a devastating recession, the needs are obvious, with lines for food pantries spanning blocks. Still, the policy won’t be decided on its moral rightness or even its popularity but by a power struggle. On the socialists’ side is an organized movement and a receptive public. Against them, most likely, will be Governor Andrew Cuomo and the ruling class he represents.

Related Article

The Future of Democratic Socialism Starts Here

Cuomo, Salazar told me, “is practically a Republican.” Taking shelter under a temporary pandemic lean-to outside a bar on Wyckoff Avenue in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood, on a cold, rainy evening last month, Salazar sipped a hot toddy and explained how power is organized in Albany. “The way the budget process is constitutionally designed gives outsized power to the governor,” she said, explaining that the legislature isn’t empowered to add items to the budget without the governor’s consent. This makes progressive legislation especially tough, since Cuomo, she said, “is a fiscal conservative, proudly committed to austerity.” He’s a crucial part of the reason New York state has a budget shortfall, despite having at least a million millionaires and 118 billionaires.

But Salazar observed that the winds around Cuomo were shifting, with even moderate legislators now calling for taxing the rich. Senate majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who represents wealthy Westchester County, said this summer that raising taxes was unlikely despite the state’s looming budget crises. Yet as soon as all the absentee ballots were counted and all five members of the DSA slate declared victory, Salazar said, the Democratic leadership in the legislature released a public statement saying the state government needed to raise revenues. “That was very telling, to me, of what was to come in January.” The presence of more socialists in Albany, Salazar emphasized, “will really make a difference.”

In fact, the socialist victories over longtime incumbents should serve as a warning. NYC-DSA cochair Chi Anunwa put it this way: “Hey, you know, if you don’t want to raise revenue and provide housing and health care to all, that’s fine. But don’t be surprised if you experience our primary challenge.”

Before 2018 Cuomo mostly got his way. A cadre of Democrats in the state Senate who caucused with the Republicans made progressive legislation almost impossible. In 2018, a grassroots campaign defeated nearly all of those conservative Democrats, replacing them with progressives. It was then that DSA made its first foray into state politics, electing Salazar to the state Senate. Salazar, DSA, and a coalition of tenants’ rights groups seized the moment, expanding protection for renters in New York State for the first time in 40 years. The real estate industry is one of the most powerful interest groups in the state, and most political observers both inside and outside DSA were shocked that it could be defeated by grassroots organizing. “The governor could have vetoed it,” said Michael Kinnucan of the Brooklyn DSA Electoral Working Group. “I would have thought the rent laws would be the last thing he’d want to compromise on.”

Cuomo is known as a vengeful bully, and a great deal of New York politics is explained by the fact that people know that if they cross the governor, they may face punishment. Cuomo’s also skilled at resisting policy moves from the left, while retaining something resembling heartthrob status to the party’s liberal base. In the early days of the pandemic, many incorporated his briefings into their daily routines and wore “Cuomosexual” T-shirts. But this mystique around the governor’s political power, said Kinnucan, though not unfounded, has often served to let the legislature off the hook. Now that Cuomo’s power is increasingly challenged, New Yorkers are learning that he’s not the only decision-maker in Albany. When Cuomo’s real estate industry cronies called him to ask him to stop the pro-tenant legislation from passing last year, he told them to call their legislators.

It’s too early to say whether this story will be repeated in the fight for progressive taxation. Last summer, Cuomo argued that taxing New York’s wealthy would mean “you’d have no more billionaires,” as if, New York Times columnist Ginia Bellafante quipped, “someone had proposed killing off the warblers of the Adirondacks.” Recently, however, Cuomo seems to have tacked to the left on the matter. In late November he warned that New York would need to raise taxes on the wealthy if no pandemic-related aid were forthcoming from Washington, which depends partly on the outcome of next month’s Georgia Senate runoffs. In early December, Cuomo went further, suggesting that such tax increases were likely regardless of what happens in Georgia or Washington. He’s perhaps conceding in advance to the politically inevitable, hoping to take credit for a popular policy he initially opposed (as he’s done before)—or preparing the ground for a small, watered-down tax increase that will appear responsive while making everyone to his left look like Ho Chi Minh (as he’s also done before).

How will the elected socialists, DSA, and their allies prevail? Through an “inside/outside” strategy, Anunwa explained, with the new officials organizing their colleagues, while the rest of DSA, in turn, organizes the grassroots to pressure Albany.

State Assembly member-elect Zohran Kwame Mamdani presents Jaslin Kaur, a candidate for New York City Council, with a single red rose. (Kara McCurdy)

The grassroots campaign launched in early December, with phone banking and leafletting urging New Yorkers to pressure their legislators to support legislation taxing the rich. About 785 volunteers participated in the campaign in the first week, making more than 105,000 calls and hanging flyers on some 60,000 doors (no canvassing yet due to Covid-19). On the phones, volunteers found tremendous enthusiasm for the campaign; the phone bank technology allows the volunteer to put the constituents through to their legislator’s office right that minute to tell them to support the bills, and DSA volunteers have been especially struck by how many people (968 in the first week) chose this option. It was the most successful launch of any single-issue campaign in NYC-DSA’s history.

NYC-DSA is not the only powerful organization fighting to tax New York’s rich. A coalition called New York Budget Justice—which, along with NYC-DSA, includes Alliance for Quality Education, Indivisible Harlem, and more than a dozen other groups—has formed solely around this demand. In mid-December, the week after NYC-DSA launched its Tax the Rich campaign, 10 labor unions plus the New York State AFL-CIO publicly joined the call, with the union that represents transit workers, Local 100 TWU, organizing a rally in mid-December with DSA and other labor unions.

Sitting in Astoria’s Socrates Sculpture Garden, Brisport and his chief of staff, Kara Clark, who was active in DSA’s Defund the Police campaign, talked about building relationships in Albany, where they have a growing number of progressive and even fellow socialist allies. But the slate is working on their more moderate future colleagues, too. Brisport, a middle school math teacher about to become the first openly gay Black person in the New York State legislature, has befriended Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the first Black woman to be the state senate’s majority leader. Brisport helped her out in the fall with the fight to keep a Democratic majority in the legislature, volunteering on campaigns in swing districts where Democratic seats were threatened by Republicans. (Now that all the absentee ballots have been counted, the Democrats have a veto-proof supermajority.) Asked if the majority leader is receptive to the socialist agenda, Brisport paused and answered, “She’s receptive to me as a person, so that’s good.” This means more than many working outside government might suppose. Mamdani observed that how legislators vote or what bills they sign onto is often not ideological but “because their friends asked them to.”

The next day, I met Brisport and Mamdani in Brooklyn. Brisport wore the same red hoodie as the previous day, while Mamdani, who was born in Kampala, Uganda, repped the Nigerian national soccer team with a black-and-white checked jersey almost as loud as the previous day’s choice. Neither were dressed quite warmly enough for the chilly day. This time Brisport paid for the roses. One of the City Council candidates we visited, Brandon West, a community organizer, answered his door warily. He seemed relieved when Mamdani and Brisport presented him with a rose, admitting sheepishly, “I thought I was getting hazed.” NYC-DSA is no fraternity; West’s new comrades came only in solidarity and left extra flowers for his roommates. But the socialists are indeed about to be hazed by the state’s political establishment. In any case, they’re getting ready.

My Commentary on NYT NYC DSA Challenge to Local Unions re: MORE

A lot more attention has been paid to this story of the NYC DSA labor branch organizing to challenge the leadership of NYC traditional unions sparked by an original Politico story which I reported on: Politico's Big Joke: MORE Wants to take over UFT -...

It is of interest here because MORE/UFT is involved, though MORE is not mentioned in this article. The NY Times is following up on the somewhat mocking piece in The Chief -- Meet the New Left, Just As Daft as the Old Left --- Chief Leader Richard Steier on DSA Labor Group "Takeover".

The theory behind this move from DSA is based on what is known as "the rank and file strategy" (RFS) and I have been posting and will continue to post on to try to uncover what might work and what might not in the strategy, if it is valid at all, or if so, are the people trying to execute it even capable? Here are two of my posts:

• Critique of Rank and File Strategy/ Kim Moody/ Sol...
• DSA, the Rank-and-File Strategy, and Organizing th...

Now comes the NY Times piece, and the fact they are taking it on - they are taking it seriously, while I know at least those in the no inside the UFT are laughing out loud. Maybe they have some opportunities in other unions.

I took note of this point about red-baiting which has been used to attack socialists for 150 years. But I also see charging red-baiting by socialists as a method to deflect legitimate criticism.

Some backlash was immediate. But it exploded recently, after the group’s [DSA] 37-page memo about its plan [to challenge local unions] was reported by Politico, leading union leaders to accuse D.S.A. of sowing division. 

In response, D.S.A. members — including State Senator Julia Salazar, the first member of the group to serve in the Legislature — said the union leaders were “red-baiting.” .... NY Times

I agree with Salazar that this is red-baiting by anti-socialist unions like the UFT. People on the left are very sensitive to red baiting, a traditional weapon used inside unions - and we saw our own Unity Caucus leadership use it time and again over the years, most notably in the attack on ICEUFT/TJC

Presidential candidate Kit Wainer, who never hid is leftist and Trotskyist views but Unity sent out an "October" surprise with a postcard sent to members' homes right before the election. Unity played dirty politics in an election it wasn't going to lose anyway. I wrote about it then:

• Unity Uses Red-Baiting - Just Part of their MO 

• Unity Propaganda Machine Treads in Dangerous Territory

Internally, when some on the left criticize others on the left, the group being criticized often charges red-baiting to deflect criticism. For instance, there are leftist/socialists like me an many others connected to ICEUFT who are opposed to Trotskyist views and criticize them for that reason - their view of organizing and socialism differs.

We saw that all the time when the leftists in ICEUFT criticized the manipulative tactics  of the International Socialists (ISO) inside MORE. Their charges of red-baiting backed people off and some of us tried to be careful not to step over a red-baiting line while they engaged in secret behind the scenes organizing tactics to isolate the ICEUFT people  - and they brilliantly executed their strategy with the assistance of the undemocratic socialists connected to DSA no matter the costs to MORE. Fundamentally, the ISO crew organized behind the scenes to push the ICEUFT progressives out under the cover of claiming rude emails when in fact some of the comments were criticisms of ISO functioning like a secret caucus within a caucus and being exposed was not something they wanted to deal with.

So was it red-baiting when ISO was called out for its actions related to taking control of MORE? [I still haven't published their internal memo where they brag about doing so and driving ICE out.]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/nyregion/labor-unions-democratic-socialist.html

In New York, the Far Left Is Targeting a Close Ally

Activists are trying to influence labor unions in New York City. Accusations of spying, subterfuge and “red-baiting” followed. 

By Vivian Wang

• Published Sept. 19, 2019Updated Sept. 20, 2019, 12:25 a.m. ET
• • 
    
  A group of far-left activists huddled in the basement of a labor union in Manhattan, aiming to upend a Democratic institution that they felt had grown stale. 
The potential target was not an entrenched politician, or the local county party. It was a much closer ally: labor unions, including the one that was hosting the activists’ meeting earlier this year.
The plan did not go over well. The union, a branch of the Communications Workers of America, kicked the activists out. Labor leaders accused the activists of plotting infiltration. The activists, in turn, recently warned of union spies.

Any serious effort at building a powerful socialist movement in the U.S. will have to involve transforming existing unions and dramatically expanding their ranks.... Barry Eidlin 

There's a lot that bothers me in this article when applied to the UFT but my brain can't organize my thoughts well enough to address them here. The idea of going into teaching with the higher purpose of pushing socialist ideas is somehow bothersome. Some of the best organizers I've seen came out of the UFT not based on political aims but out of the experience of teaching and the conditions in the schools and the UFT and that is what turned them towards more general progressive politics.

There are people in the UFT confused about the strategy within MORE Caucus around the idea of not running in elections to win.

I'm putting this up as a way to go deeper on the issue raised in Politico which bloggers in the UFT commented on (links included in my post: Politico's Big Joke: MORE Wants to take over UFT - by not wanting to win Elections.)

The local DSA labor group, which includes the faction in control of MORE, is part of the group and the Rank and file strategy (RFS) which comes out of the Labor Notes/ISO/Solidarity faction on the left is making this the heart of their organizing efforts. This is a 20 year old idea and author Barry Eidlin is part of the Labor Notes wing. RFS on the surface makes sense for lots of unions but when it comes to the UFT the MOREs live in a reality distortion field, choosing to follow a formula rather than their own experiences - or those of other activists in the UFT like the more experienced people in ICEUFT that MORE purged.

One of the keys to the RFS is to avoid taking union jobs  - and in MORE, taking positions on the Ex bd seems to fall into that category. Though actually winning elections like in Chicago and LA and Baltimore is something I have not teased out of the RFS.

Eidlin is providing a framework for DSA people who go into unions. In all the Labor Notes training I took - which by the way many of what's left in MORE also took but given the results the training didn't take in terms of organizing the rank and file -- MORE is pretty much filled with their version of "activists" - people who have longer term goals than taking over the UFT.

My version of an activists is someone like Unity Must Go who took in the job of chapter leader and supported push backs to Unity. MORE is not interested in this class of activist.

I'll try to get deeper into issues raised here and also post some critical views of the RFS -- from within DSA from the Build Caucus which seems to push back against Bread and Roses Caucus of which Eidlin is a supporter.

https://socialistcall.com/2019/07/03/dsa-organizing-unorganized-labor/

by Barry EidlinJuly 3, 201911:00 am

DSA, the Rank-and-File Strategy, and Organizing the Unorganized

2019 -- Politico's Big Joke: MORE Wants to take over UFT - by not wanting to win Elections

What's left of MORE prides itself on being intolerant and insular. It does not wish to deal with viewpoints that vary one iota from theirs. As for what that viewpoint may be, I have no clue. I only know that whatever it is shuts me out as a "right-winger." .... If I'm a right-winger, so is a good 95-99% of UFT membership. What's left of MORE represents what's left of MORE, and little else.  .....NYC Educator:  Blithering Baloney from Politico on MORE {Updated Sunday, Aug. 18, 2019, 1:30 PM}

Oh, that's just great,  and makes the Gods of Irony laugh: unions in legitimate need of reform (if the UFT is at all representative) are to be shaken up by naive Democratic Socialists acting as cat's paws for the Trots[kyists] ..... Former MORE leftist member, a founder of purged ICEUFT.

Democratic Socialists look to take over New York's powerful labor unions screamed the headline from Politico.

Another target is the United Federation of Teachers, a nearly 200,000-member union representing teachers, social workers, secretaries and other school employees. “UFT is the largest local of one of the largest unions in the country. It has the potential to be extremely influential in electoral politics,” the group wrote. “It is extremely internally undemocratic, but there is a reform caucus, MORE, which has many active DSA members.” MORE refers to the Movement of Rank and File Educators, whose website leads with a July post criticizing the union’s internal election process and calling for voting reforms. The union “fails to exercise the full potential of its power” and ends up backing centrist or conservative Democrats, the group added.

Did the authors check out the outcome of the last UFT election which was won by Unity with one of its highest vote totals in history while MORE's vote totals dropped by 75% and they finished behind a ghost caucus? Or read about the way MORE is no more democratic than Unity Caucus? Or that there are way more ex-MORE members than current MORE members?

The funniest quote in the article was a quote from a MORE statement on the election as if to blame the UFT election process instead of their own ineptness and poor judgement where they could claim, "at least we didn't finish last."

“With more DSA teachers, we could bolster and significantly support the internal movement for democracy and militant organizing within the union but it will likely take years to reform the UFT,” it concluded.

Note they say they want to reform the UFT which cannot be done without creating a credible threat to Unity which MORE killed in its divisiveness. They also lodged a protest over some of the procedures in the election with the UFT, some of which were out right funny.

One thing it does is reveal the MORE strategy, since the faction in control has not been able to make inroads into the rank and file even in their own schools, they have used an old tactic on the left and right: Seeding – Bring in activists to form a cadre - a woke vanguard who will lead the unwoke rank and file. There's more than a little arrogance in this concept.

Actually, the UFT was organized using similar tactics – remember, Shanker and other founders came out of the Socialist Party - the very anti-communist cold warrior wing. One of the founders who had been in a middle school which became the organizing center of the future UFT in the late 50s purposely left to go to a high school where he was able to organize inside the high school teachers association, the most militant segment of the union - he used the term "salting" when I spoke to him.

But they had no Unity Caucus to contend with - and it is that factor that is missing from all the training MORE does along with Labor Notes. In the future I'll get into why the current MORE strategy that took us away from the concept of a broad based opposition will fail and for every cadre MORE brings into the UFT and MORE, an equal number will leave or drift away.

The Democratic Socialists members approved zeroing in on six of those labor groups during a January meeting and have since begun pursuing the effort.... Politico

Funny how the MORE steering committee came out of the witness protection program in January 2019 to suspend me for 6 months for revealing the misinformation at the MORE election meetings to get people to run in the election not to win and alone in the fall.

James Eterno, another former MORE member (there are way more formers than currents) calls them out on the ICEUFT blog in his excellent piece on the same story: SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA TRYING TO PENETRATE NYC UNIONS

If the Democratic Socialists of America want to be taken seriously inside the UFT, they should work on having their people live up to that democratic part of their name. ... MORE voted against working with any other opposition group in 2019. It appears they are more interested in pushing their political views than in changing the UFT. It is impossible to defend MORE's indefensible lack of fairness. While I can still work with members of MORE on individual issues like opposing the contract, it is very difficult to support their candidates for union office under these circumstances. I don't want my union to be run like this caucus....

Here is another quote on the story from a former MORE member:

Honestly, I'd like to burn every single Bread and Roses flag I see. But from my vantage, this memo was a leak from DSA and, after reading the quotes from the union presidents, I think they may have angered the better part of all 151 of them. (The last time all the city's unions were on the same page, they pulled the rug out from under both Cynthia Nixon AND the entire WFP.) I don't think this is going to go unanswered by the union heads and I'm curious who to sympathize for here.... Former MORE  member.

Now to be clear - I joined DSA and like the work they are doing generally. The organization as whole is broad tent socialist unlike the MORE wing which is sectarian. DSAers who are teachers are wasting their time with MORE since DSA has so many other options for organizing and social justice work. Spending your time at meetings to "learn" how to organize your colleagues to do exactly what? When you could join one of the numerous DSA committees on housing, working for progressive candidates etc can actually lead to results?

Here is the full Politico story - tell Sally and Janaki to do some research.

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2019/08/14/democratic-socialists-look-to-take-over-new-yorks-powerful-labor-unions-1141206

Democratic Socialists look to take over New York's powerful labor unions

Sally GOLDENBERG and JANAKI CHADHA08/14/2019 05:01 AM EDT

NEW YORK — A left-leaning political organization that publicly backed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her insurgent victory last year was also quietly plotting to penetrate another New York City power source — labor unions.

The New York City branch of the Democratic Socialists of America presented its members with a strategy last year to gain entry into some of the city’s most powerful labor organizations and ensure they are adhering to the “militant” principles that the group felt had been diluted over time. POLITICO obtained a previously unreported, 37-page memo laying out a follow-up plan that identified 10 unions to target.

A Day At the Beach With DSA

There are now numerous elected officials from congress to school boards who classify themselves as socialists, something we hadn't seen in this nation since the late 40s.

I've been posting stories about the remarkable 10x growth of the Democratic Socialists (DSA) in the last three years due to Bernie and Trump. The local DSA groups certainly keep their people busy with a constant list of things to do, both political and social. Yesterday they had a beach party at Fort Tilden beach and since it is so close I decided to take a ride over in the afternoon to check it out.

This is possibly the most beautiful and somewhat secluded beach in the city - a federal beach with no lifeguards - and a place not known to many people despite being contiguous with Riis Park. The lack of food services (though there are porta potties) keeps the place quiet but no longer on weekends. It attracts mostly young people on blankets, not chairs - since most come by public transportation - and young and mostly white.

The beach was crowded yesterday but I found the DSA people under a banner that said "Refugees Welcome". I was there for about an hour engaging in some very interesting conversations with a few people, most of whom are recent converts to socialism of one flavor or another. I seemed to connect with people whose views were somewhat aligned with mine - the libertarian/anarchist crowd who eschew democratic centralism which binds everyone to the will of the majority no matter how slim that might be. One of the guys said he hoped to be a teacher and did I hear of MORE? Oy!

They like a big tent socialist group like DSA. I did talk to one woman who had the only chair and was somewhat within a decade or two of my age -- very nice and someone who also joined post Trump. Turns out her son is a teacher and in MORE and I know him - he came from the DSA crew. A second year high school teacher who I was glad to tell his mom I happened to like. I told her I was no longer interested in MORE and she asked me why. There is no way I could get into the whole story so I was brief.

It is exciting to see a renaissance on the left among that generation and will be interesting to see if they get ripped apart like the left tends to do to itself. The guys I spoke to didn't seem to be very worried about that.

Here is a story about a DSAer who has played a role in Denver.

Denver’s City Council, Led by Democratic Socialist, Stuns For-Profit Prison Operators by Nuking Contracts

The 2019 DSA Convention: Showdown at the Caucus Corral - Bread and Roses Caucus and MORE

It’s true that Bread & Roses doesn’t make any pretense about having more than a couple overarching goals for the organization, citing the limited capacity of DSA as a whole. These priorities include a commitment to a rank-and-file labor strategy, the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, and fostering mass political movements around large policy objectives, such as Medicare For All and the Green New Deal. But it would be a mischaracterization to say that Bread & Roses is opposed to political activity outside its stated, centralized priorities. Above all, above even its ideological convictions, Bread & Roses has a commitment to democracy. .... Current Affairs

I've been following and compiling stories on the Democratic Socialists (DSA), of which I am a fringe member. 
See my post the other day: Democratic Socialist Convention Update: If Not Bernie, What?

I view the rise of DSA which has grown 10x in two years is one of the most significant events as they have the potential to become an alternate space for the left in the Democratic Party and have begun to operate as a quasi caucus inside the Dem Party. But DSA is still a big tent socialist group and is threatened internally by some of the same sectarian politics that have so divided the left over the past century. Bread and Roses caucus has the potential to create a dividing line. 

This is what democracy means, to Bread and Roses: majority rule....

.... rather than bulldoze minority viewpoints, Build [caucus] prefers to work with them, incorporating those other viewpoints in a holistic way. “What ties us together is a commitment to working across our differences, so that we can come to something that works for everybody,”.....CA  

If that is what democracy means, then the suppression of the minority point of view to the point of purging is the opposite of democracy. Which is what happened inside MORE by some of the very people associated with the Bread and Roses caucus. I would say the ICE people in MORE would have been somewhat aligned with the Build caucus by trying to find consensus.

They say all politics are local and in the various factions of DSA I see echoes of the faction battles in MORE where the ISO faction recruited enough people out of DSA to be able to overturn the democratic structure of MORE and push people out who did not agree with them -- call it banishing the minority view, not uncommon among certain branches of socialism. So it is not an accident that many of the same MOREs are involved in the NYC DSA Labor contingent and have ties to the Bread and Roses caucus in DSA.

One of their key planks, which passed narrowly at the convention last week, was the boiler plate rank and file strategy advocated by Kim Moody/ Labor Notes and others associated with the Trotsky wing of socialism. The MOREs used this same issue to create a red line inside MORE - either go along or get out. It was not that many of us in ICE disagreed with the strategy but the sneaky undemocratic way the faction went about it and the hard line they took -- actually they had to suspend the steering committee and throw out the MORE by-laws in order to assure it got passed -- not a good ad for the "democratic" in democratic socialism.

In other words will be see the same type of actions by some of the same people who divided MORE, and in the supreme irony killed rank and file organizing inside the UFT where the biggest instrument of so-called "business unionism" resides, Unity Caucus - has been enormously strengthened - which means even greater control over the AFT which has collaborated with so much ed deform.

So this article from Current Affairs, a non-left wing view is interesting. In a follow-up tomorrow I will print a harder left view from New Politics, where a key editor has fundamentally supported the undemocratic actions within MORE. Expect more fawning from NP.

August 03, 2019

The 2019 DSA Convention: Showdown at the Caucus Corral

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/08/the-2019-dsa-convention-showdown-at-the-caucus-corral

Democratic Socialist Convention Update: If Not Bernie, What?

When a convention of the Democratic Socialists (DSA) breaks into the mainstream, like this ABC report, we are in new territory.

[UPDATE - NYT today with full page story which I will post and address later -- but note how the article also points to growth of DSA as due to Trump -- but doesn't go where I go -- that some DSA people who are Bernie or bust would rather see Trump win in 2020 than any Democrat because Trump not a wishy washy Dem helps build the movement -- a very dangerous idea when Trump turns us into a police state.]

They held their annual convention in Atlanta this past weekend. I've heard for months about possible fireworks as the former ISO and allies pile in and create issues at the contention. Former ISOers and allies are too weak at this point to overwhelm DSA whose leading lights eschew sectarianism. But there was at least one minor victory and since I have a bunch of things to report I will cover that in future blog posts.

Ideology repeatedly clashed with electoral pragmatism during this year's convention, which veered between a giddy celebration of the group's previously unfathomable successes, delegates' passage of Green New Deal and open borders initiatives, and painful deliberations over how to harness its new power. Two votes during the first 24 hours of the gathering put those questions on display. The first asked what to do in the event Sanders fails to win the Democratic nomination; the second considered imposing a litmus test on candidates seeking DSA's national endorsement.The results were, in effect, a split decision.
On Friday, delegates narrowly passed a proposal that will prevent DSA from backing anyone but Sanders in the next presidential race. The argument in favor was simple: DSA is a socialist organization and risked spoiling its authority on the left by publicly backing -- as Andrew Sernatinger, a delegate from Wisconsin, argued -- "a candidate that is a neoliberal that is not what we are for."

More remarkable than its growth, though, is DSA's increasing presence on the electoral stage. Nearly 100 democratic socialists now hold office at almost all levels of government, from local school boards to the US Congress... ABCNews 

Sectarianism is coming to DSA at the convention ... a knowledgeable and influential leftist in a conversation with me, November, 2018. 

DSA held its biannual convention this past weekend. My instinct is that a certain segment of socialists would rather Trump win than any Democrat, even Bernie based on the idea that all the candidates are reformers of capitalism and if they succeed they will actually strengthen  capitalism and deflect organizing efforts away from building socialism. Which is what happened with the New Deal. Hard core socialists disparage FDR as a light weight reformer. But they are a minority.

DSA is a big tent socialist organization which includes some people who have been associated with the UFT leadership, rankles some sectarians who with the demise of ISO have nowhere else to go.

Current Affairs has an article on DSA caucuses: THE 2019 DSA CONVENTION: SHOWDOWN AT THE CAUCUS CORRAL

Here's tbe New Politics pre-convention analysis:

DSA 2019 Convention Breakdown – New Politics

https://newpol.org/dsa-2019-convention-breakdown/

Note the Bread and Roses caucus which is where people like the ISO and DSA sectarians in MORE have piled in. Their Rank and file strategy is what they secretly discussed and then imposed within MORE and purged people who they felt did not fit into their strategy. I hear their proposal barely won which is a sign internally that half the DSA delegates pushed back and are on the alert. Wish I were there to share with them how well their strategy worked in the UFT election.

It's Bernie or bust
DSA has gone full bore for Bernie and voted this weekend not to commit to another candidate.

I am a DSA member though I don't support some of the DSA precepts about socialism but had a chance to vote for local delegates even though I didn't know most of them. So far from what I've seen DSA is very young, white and preponderantly male. But I'm only seeing a small slice. In one branch there is a requirement that one third of the elected delegates be woman and people of color, so there is an attempt to address the issue.

What tripled the membership in DSA since Trump from 8 thousand to almost 60,000 members? Hint: think orange man. Well, maybe Bernie too though he is not formally affiliated with DSA. Actually Bernie on the surface is a social democrat not a democratic socialist though I think he has been a  For the major differences I posted some articles - one from the mainstream: Democratic Socialism and Social Democracy - How they differ - NY Times.

And another from the socialist left: Democratic Socialism Isn’t Social Democracy - Jacobin

Here is the very interesting ABC news report on the convention. There's a lot to digest in this so read it twice.

https://www.abc17news.com/news/politics/democratic-socialist-revolution-comes-to-a-crossroads/1106086209

School Scope: On Democracy and the Queens DA Race

Here is my latest for The WAVE- July 12, 2019 -- www.rockawave.com. I wrote it on Tuesday so it may not make it into this edition. The Queens DA race has received extensive media coverage because it reflects the internal battle in the Democratic Party between the machine and the new kid in town, DSA activists on the left, an interesting shift from the socialist left which had viewed the Dem Party as little different from the Republicans and not worth the effort. Many still think that way and they will force that debate to be ongoing in DSA, with things coming to a head at their upcoming convention in Atlanta in August. More on the left and the Dems in followups.

School Scope:  On Democracy and the Queens DA Race

By Norm Scott, July 9, 2019

I’ve been posing the Queens DA race as a test case with national implications for the future direction of the Democratic Party. In some ways I see this internal battle as having equal if not greater impact than the 2020 presidential race. (Give me a smack in the head the next time you see me.)

The Democratic Party machine, where our local pols reside, supports Katz. The Cabán coalition, based on the northwest quadrant of Queens, which is one of the most diverse communities in the nation, is supported by activists from all areas of the progressive wing of the party, but the muscle is provided by the Democratic Socialists (DSA), which has been building local chapters throughout the city to challenge selected races on the local, state and selected Congressional levels. (The latest will be NYC principal Jamaal Bowman’s primary effort against longtime Congressman Eliot Engle in the 2020 congressional election in the Bronx: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jamaal-bowman-democratic-primary-challenge-eliot-engel-new-york-justice-democrats_n_5d081e57e4b0ea7c4a4e4c97

One interesting angle here is that the black leadership in Queens, led by Dem County Chairman and Congressman Gregory Meeks, supports Katz. Meeks is not on the progressive wing. Does the black community, which seemed to go for Katz, automatically follow their leaders? Or is there more to it than that – a generally more conservative bent on a number of issues? (Don’t forget the influence of the church). There are rumors that the real Queens boss is still Joe Crowley who was defeated by AOC. Oh, how delicious politics can be --- better than the NBA free agent wars.

As I write this on July 9, Katz leads Cabán by 16 votes, an outcome that some political pros and the media thought very unlikely given Cabán’s initial lead of over 1100 because it was expected that the absentee ballots would be split among the 7 candidates in roughly the same proportion as other votes. Not. Katz took the majority of these votes by a landslide, which seemed to surprise people. Most of the votes of affidavit voters – people who did not show up on the local enrollment lists – were disallowed, which is the basis of the current struggle. I received many requests from the DSA folks who were looking for people to come down as observers. The Dem machine already has people who do that. Both sides chipped in:

“We’re here today because we want to support this Democratic process,” Meeks said. “We want every valid vote counted!” Added Cabán’s attorney, Jerry Goldfeder, “I think both sides recognize the importance of every registered voter and eligible Democrat to have his or her vote counted.”

Jerry is an old friend and one of the leading lawyers on elections – he was also Phil Goldfeder’s (no relation) lawyer, so he has links to the Democratic machine. How interesting that he lines up with Cabán and seems to be supporting Pete Buttigieg in the presidential race.

NY Times Editorial Board headline: One Lesson From the Katz-Cabán Recount - New York still needs more election reform. It is worth reading and also asking our local pols where they stand on election reforms: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/opinion/caban-katz-recount-.html

While the left/progressives celebrated the initial Cabán victory, there is a reality: that if there were a runoff between the two leading vote getters, Katz would gather the bulk of the other candidates’ votes, showing that Queens, other than the northwest quadrant, is far from jumping onto the left bandwagon. Even though I lean that way and voted for Cabán, I will continue to report from the real world.

The 2019 Socialism Conference, sponsored by American leftist juggernauts the DSA, Jacobin magazine, and ISO’s Haymarket Books, features regime-change activists from multiple US government-funded NGOs - The Grayzone

Now that the ISO has disbanded, its veterans can reach into the rapidly growing ideologically diffuse world of Democratic Socialists of America, using platforms like Socialism 2019 to infect DSA’s youthful core with the imperial politics of regime change – but always “from the left,” and always “from below.”   ....The Grayzone

There were estimates that 300 former ISOers were at the socialist conference in Chicago. Here's an article that raises important issues about sectors of the left and how some organized groups operate. Note this excerpt which has relevance to events that occurred in MORE since the leaders of the split came from ISO, Solidarity and people they recruited from the Democratic Socialists.

This March, the ISO voted to dissolve — in a decision some former members joked was the most democratic act ever undertaken by the organization, which had been dominated by an unelected leadership of veteran Trotskyite activists.
The dissolution was prompted by evidence that the ISO’s steering committee mishandled sexual assault allegations. It also came as the ISO’s membership was shrinking and rapidly being absorbed by a newly burgeoning anti-communist organization, the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA.
Now that the ISO has dissolved, some of its past prominent members have entered the ranks of the DSA, burrowing from within to inject their anti-anti-imperialist politics into the group.
Because Trotskyites are so sectarian and notoriously incapable of holding together organizations, they are infamous for infiltrating larger, more popular groups and trying to take them over, in a tactic known as entryism.
This is precisely the strategy being used by former members of the ISO — and by another tiny US Trotskyite organization, Solidarity, which was led by anti-Nicaragua regime-change activist and Socialism Conference speaker Dan La Botz, now a leader in DSA.
Democratic Socialists of America is the largest self-described socialist organization in the United States, with more than 60,000 card-carrying members. It is also very heterogeneous, with many internal contradictions and conflicting political views.

I joined DSA and have some hopes they can be a counter force to the Democratic Party machine as I've been reporting. But I don't want to end up in another MORE-like situation where there is a group that is meeting privately out of sight plotting.

The 2019 Socialism Conference, sponsored by American leftist juggernauts the DSA, Jacobin magazine, and ISO’s Haymarket Books, features regime-change activists from multiple US government-funded NGOs.

By Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal

https://thegrayzone.com/2019/07/06/dsa-jacobin-iso-socialism-conference-us-funded-regime-change/?fbclid=IwAR1Zzjwdi5BuokPD1y3l3N0Jc2wxKS4T-IL97_atR81S0IgW_zBpFM2gPmE

  

Socialism is now apparently brought to you by the US State Department.

From July 4 to 7, thousands of left-wing activists from across the United States are gathering in Chicago for the 2019 Socialism Conference.

At this event, some of the most powerful institutions on the American socialist — but avowedly anti-communist — left have brought together a motley crew of regime-change activists to demonize Official Enemies of Washington.

Queens DA - Bad News for Katz, Democratic Machine, the UFT (so often wrong), Cuomo, Real Estate Interests, etc.

UPDATE 2:
Hi Norm:
I read what you wrote about Caban beating Katz. You might be interested in these articles:

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2019/06/26/cabans-likely-win-deals-another-big-blow-to-the-queens-machine-1075762

https://theintercept.com/2019/06/07/queens-new-york-district-attorney-race-melinda-katz/

The UFT gave Katz $36,000.

UPDATE1: Let me add this FB comment from Schoolgal about the UFT, which expresses the attitude of many teachers - at least the ones that follow things closely:

Hey UFT! Why did I get so many calls for a DA race? Do you really think I’m gonna buy a plane ticket to vote....illegally.....in NY? And for a woman who folded to give Bloomberg an illegal 3rd term! Glad to see Cuomo, Randi and Mulgrew with egg on their face! Remember when Bloomberg won by a slight margin the year you didn’t back a Democrat! In fact you didn’t back a Democrat against Pataki. Teachers don’t forget! 

And a big win for the AOC wing of the party and the Democratic Socialists (DSA) who I've been writing about and pointing out their ability to put together a grass roots movement that seems to be able to outflank the regular Democrats when they chose to contest. (See the upcoming primary next year between Elliot Engel and Jamal Bowman -Bronx principal Jamaal Bowman running for Congress - https://www.theroot.com/bronx-ny-principal-wins-nod-from-alexandria-ocasio-co-1835674536.)

That adds up to bad news for Katz — and worse news for the Queens Democratic Organization. It would mean that Ocasio-Cortez was not just a blip localized to one congressional district, but rather, that the organizers on the ground have built a movement that may be capable of consistently challenging the establishment. The 2020 primaries are shaping up to be a wild ride! ((Gothamist)

In yesterday's post for The WAVE on the morning of the primary (School Scope: Queens DA, I predicted that Katz would win, especially since the Dem machine, probably seeing the dismal pre-election polling, convinced (or threatened) Rory Lancman to drop out days before the primary (I heard he was offered borough president but imagine if the progressive wing of the party makes a big push for that - and it probably will). It's still neck and neck with Tiffany Cabán leading by a hair. If Katz hadn't picked up the Lancman votes Tiffany's would be even further ahead.

Who supported Katz? She raised lots of money from real estate interests and the UFT was one of the major contributors.

Now what does this mean? I think that the insurgents from the left have shown they can go neck and neck with the regular Democrats aligned with our own lovely UFT which so often picks the wrong side and will continue to pick wrong sides (it's in their DNA.) They will do so again in the 2020 presidential race. The UFT has always fought off the left both internally and externally. They are lucky that the left in the UFT, unlike in other teacher unions, is so inept.

This is Queens, though a much changed borough of Archie Bunker fame. Ooooh, politics as sport -- I turned off the Yankee game to write this - there's a machine that manages to win.

Shocker in Queens DA Race

By Brigid Bergin

Queens district attorney candidate Tiffany Cabán receives her ballot at her polling place in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, June 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Scott Wenig)

Cabán Holds Lead Over Katz On the one-year anniversary of political newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's defeat of Congressman Joseph Crowley, voters woke up to the news that another first-time candidate may have upended the political world of Queens Democrats — again. My colleague Beth Fertig was at Tiffany Cabán’s election night party where the 31-year-old appeared to win the Democratic nomination for Queens District Attorney in a tight race against five other candidates, including the Queens County Democratic organization's candidate, Borough President Melinda Katz. Based on the unofficial returns, Cabán ended election night ahead by less than 1,100 votes — with 39.57 percent of the tally compared to Katz’s 38.3 percent. The official count of machine votes and emergency ballots begins today and could drag on throughout the weekend. Staff from the city Board of Elections along with representatives from the campaigns will watch as ballots that could not be scanned at polling sites are run through voting machines at the Queens borough office. This process is unlikely to dramatically shift the current tally unless officials find a large stack of unscanned ballots. That leaves more than 3,000 absentee ballots that the City Board of Elections will begin counting on July 3rd. With seven candidates on the ballot, it’s a stretch to imagine that the overwhelming majority would go to one candidate. That adds up to bad news for Katz — and worse news for the Queens Democratic Organization. It would mean that Ocasio-Cortez was not just a blip localized to one congressional district, but rather, that the organizers on the ground have built a movement that may be capable of consistently challenging the establishment. The 2020 primaries are shaping up to be a wild ride! (Gothamist)

Socialism and Socialists in the Press; Another Young Hispanic socialist, Julia Salazar

In one of the [Bushwick's] storefront’s Gothic windows, someone has taped up a recent cover of the New York Times Sunday Review section. “Millennial Socialists Are Coming,” reads the headline, while beneath it a metal placard nailed to the building’s facade cautions visitors striding through the parlor’s entryway to “Watch Your Step.”... Peter Rugh, The Indypendent, The Next Big Socialist Win 

The Independent has a story on Julia Salazar, 27 years old and a

democratic socialist, running for state assembly in Brooklyn against the candidate who is out of the old Vito Lopez empire - so she may have a tougher go than Ocasio-Cortez did -- her older male opponent is also Hispanic.

This district covers the area where I spent most of my teaching career -- I'm thinking of going up there to help out. I still sort of know the politics -- the young candidate has a more uphill battle in that she is going up against the machine but it is also run by Hispanics. But she has the growing DSA machine working for her:

Peter Rugh's story is a must read for its insights into the left and the DSA methods.

The Next Big Socialist Win (in North Brooklyn)
Julia Salazar wants to put working-class demands front and center in Albany. But first, she has to defeat a wily old party boss.

Peter Rugh Aug 7

Issue 238

First there was Ocasio-Cortez, now it's Julia Salazar running an energetic campaign across North Brooklyn to become the first openly socialist New York state legislator in decades.

https://indypendent.org/2018/08/the-next-big-socialist-win/

FOX was crowing about the losses of long-shot candidates endorsed by the new socialist wing of the Democratic Party let by Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders. But the game is in its earliest stages.

Every day I seem to read a reference in the NY Times to socialism or stories talking about capitalism.

Bernie Sanders certainly has raised the issue, but he was presented as an outlier and just an old lefty grouch. Then came the Ocasio-Cortez victory in the Dem Party primary that shook both conservatives and liberals - that a 28-year old would openly declare herself a socialist. Then came Cynthia Nixon and even de Blasio jumping on the bandwagon. Who's next, Cuomo?

After almost 8 decades of red scares and witch hunts, it's safe for socialists to go back in the water. But watch the intense attacks to come from both the right, center and even the left, especially from the left wing purists who disparage Bernie and Ocasio-Cortez for not being "authentic" socialists ---- in future posts we will get into the differences between the social democrats and the Marxist-Lenists and its various wings from the Trotskyists to other sects. For those of you who ask what does this have to do with the UFT? Well, a lot, but I'll keep you in suspense.

Peter Rugh, author of our lead story here (I did a long interview with him for an ed story he was doing and found him so knowledgeable), makes this point:

the fact that a high-profile candidate like Nixon would embrace ideas that once elicited visions of Stalinism in American minds indicates how far socialism has risen in the public’s estimation and how much political clout DSA is garnering. But the organization’s growth and electoral success have also posed new strategic challenges.

Peter goes on to talk about the isolation of socialists in this country and part of the reasons why -- these little competing sectarian grouplets which all think they are the only ones with the answers. 

Banished from the mainstream political arena in the United States, Marxism has survived — barely — through two main poles of activity. One, in academia; the other, through small grouplets whose members, never numbering more than a few hundred, tout a near-unified political outlook and attract recruits in ones and twos through social-movement activism.

By avoiding engaging in the mainstream political arena -- mostly by disparaging the Democratic Party -- which does deserve its share of disparagement - but then attacking those on the left who venture forth and at times feel they have to shave back their positions. That affects the purists on the left.

Socialism has thereby avoided sullying itself with the form of political activity Americans engage in most: the two-party electoral process. It has maintained its ideological purity while managing to be awesomely irrelevant.

He could be talking about how MORE is organizing. Rugh does not neglect the dangers of working in the Dem party:

 

Not that fears of engaging with the Democratic Party aren’t well founded. It has a way of vacuuming up social movements’ energy and subverting the outcomes activists are fighting for.

DSA is an attempting a new method of electoral engagement... In addition to his role as a co-leader of DSA’s local New York chapter, Younus helps train DSA activists across the country in basic campaign organizing. Canvassing is covered, obviously, but also communications, social media, research, district analysis and resource allocation. “The goal is to strip away the power of the consultant class,” he said. “There’s this idea that there are keepers of secret information, but really, that information should be democratized and shouldn’t cost absurd sums of money. Candidates who truly represent the communities they are coming from should have access to that, their campaigns should have access to that and grassroots activists especially should have access to that, so that they can be engaged at this level and not need millions of dollars to do it.”

I will be publishing left wing attacks on people who work with the Democratic Party -- I've been called an opportunist for even bringing it up

Here are some of the stories I am collating for those of you who have missed them -- they are tied together by  my own weird logic.

=====

Here's another DSA endorsed candidate who will probably be in the House with Ocasio-Cortez --- things are looking interesting

Detroit: Rashida Tlaib Just Won An Election That’ll Likely Make Her The First Muslim Woman In Congress

Tlaib raised more money than her Democratic competitors, and won the endorsement of the Detroit Free Press. She was also backed by a host of organizations on the left, including the Sanders-aligned Our Revolution and Greater Detroit Democratic Socialists of America, which identifies Tlaib as a member.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hannahallam/rashida-tlaib-michigan-election-muslim-congress

===
I posted this before (https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2018/08/can-pro-coal-democrat-in-west-virginia.html) but wanted to include it in this list.

This is counter article on a center Dem who had been in the military and then went into teaching and was a leader of the teacher strikes and a hero to many other teachers. He also voted for Trump but now regrets it. This is the other side of the "let's everyone go left" even if the district is 97% white and conservative.

Can a Pro-Coal Democrat in West Virginia Carve a Path for His Party ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/17/us/.../richard-ojeda-west-virginia-congress.html

Jul 17, 2018 - He has built support in a deep red coal-country district by riding a wave ... are focused almost exclusively on flipping seats in suburban districts, ...

=====
Then look at this review from last Friday's NY Times Arts:

Review: In ‘Prairie Trilogy,’ All-American Stories of Socialism

By Glenn Kenny

• July 26, 2018

What does it mean to be a socialist in America, and why do people get so angry, and angrily terrified, when some Americans espouse socialism as a fairer system than the one in place? These questions have been coming up more frequently in recent years, prompted by the rhetoric and policy propositions of the recent presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders and the ascendance of younger politicians, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the congressional candidate from New York who is unabashedly aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America.

You may find an engaging answer to at least the first of the above questions in “Prairie Trilogy,” a collection of three short documentaries made between 1977 and 1980 and directed by the regional filmmakers John Hanson and Rob Nilsson. Now playing in New York in restored form, the movies are companion pieces to Mr. Hanson and Mr. Nilsson’s 1978 feature “Northern Lights,” a fictionalized tale of the real North Dakota labor union called the Nonpartisan League, which formed about a half a decade before America’s involvement in World War I.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/26/movies/prairie-trilogy-review-socialism.html
 ====