How movements settle the debate on whether to engage with political parties from the inside or outside will have a profound impact on their effectiveness.
Any political movement powerful enough to secure policies sufficient to repair the damage inflicted by centuries of slavery will also have the power to secure a more radical and enduring transformation of our social and political order
The United Electrical Workers was one of America’s mightiest unions. Many leaders were leftists who challenged corporate power, so UE was decimated by McCarthyism. The union survived and UE's model of militant, democratic unionism can revive labor.
We, the undersigned democratic socialists, want to make clear that the priority for the left in 2020 should be the electoral defeat of Donald Trump and the Trumpist Republican Party in November.
Progressives often applaud the idea of “speaking truth to power.” But this concept is hazardous. If taken literally and deployed as a single-minded strategy, it can divert attention from the crucial need to take power away from those who abuse it.
Once you remember that every struggle waged by the oppressed against the oppressor class and their allies is asymmetric, it is possible to construct a strategy that holds the potential to win. When you assume that you are fighting the oppressor on, more or less, equal terms, you are guaranteeing your own defeat.
Spread the word