Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Category: Activism (Page 2 of 31)

These are posts on activism from the blog Base and Superstructure. This takes many forms. The focus here is on political activism, above all on activist organizing and base-building. One concern is how to build effective movements. There’s also a need to create solidarity with fellow members and build coalitions with other groups. The main aim of good movements is to work together to advance material interests. This section also includes critiques of electoral work, and discussion of how and when to use elections to advance activist goals. Navigating the balance between grassroots work and electoral work is difficult for everyone.

A photograph of an N99 respirator, used to represent Covid and masks in 2025.

Covid and Masks in 2025

December 8, 2025 /

A local guy named Mason (note: not his real name) goes to lots of local events – political events, activist meetings, festivals, and so on. He’s somewhat older, friendly but rather awkward, and overall a good natured person.

He also still wears a mask in 2025.

Sort of.

To put it more accurately, sometimes he wears a mask and other times he doesn’t. And there’s little discernible pattern to it. Whether or not he wears a mask doesn’t seem to follow any risk assessment related to Covid-19. It’s not just that he’s not at elevated risk – though he almost certainly isn’t – but at times I even see him wearing a mask while he’s outdoors and not in a crowd and then taking the mask off or wearing it on his chin when he joins an indoor meeting.

I’m not trying to pick on Mason here. He’s a good guy. My point is that his behavior tracks a lot of what I see. I’ve seen a few dozen or so local characters who fit a similar profile during the pandemic. Most of them gradually reduced or cut out their mask usage by last year.

A few remain holdouts.

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A photo of red banners at Harvard University, intended as a representation of professors in the Trump era.

Professors Won’t Save Us

September 15, 2025 /

In a short Current Affairs article titled “Don’t Expect Art to Save Us,” RS Benedict argues that artistic or cultural expression cannot meaningfully substitute for concrete political action.

It’s not a new claim. Nor, in my view, is it a very controversial claim, though, as with even most accurate claims, it draws its detractors.

However, I think we can learn a few lessons from the very first reason Benedict gives in favor of the claim.

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A photo of a fistfight in the Turkish parliament, intended as a representation of the idea that entryists are taking over DSA.

Did Entryists Take Over DSA?

August 18, 2025 /

DSA held its 2025 National Convention earlier this month, and the ‘DSA Left’ landed another series of wins. From anti-Zionism to a new NPC with a larger ‘left’ majority, the DSA Left built and expanded on its work at the 2023 Convention. In response, a variety of people claimed that ‘entryists’ have taken over DSA and held its members hostage to their ‘revolutionary socialist’ demands.

But they ground these claims in a misunderstanding of DSA. They miss how and why DSA grew around the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries and general election.

Let’s take a closer look at the details.

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A cartoon with a capitalist attempting to sell products by using rainbow flags, with someone rejecting the offer.

Woke Capitalism and Activists

August 4, 2025 /

The political far right has made a great deal of hay in the last decade out of the phenomenon of ‘woke capitalism.’ Of course, they rarely bother explaining what the term ‘woke capitalism’ even means, beyond vague gesturing toward corporate DEI programs. To get a sense of things, we have to turn to the left.

On the left, we hear more interesting questions about the relationship between racial justice progressive activism and woke capitalism. The original Black Lives Matter movement sparked some of these issues. But we hear it far more in the wake of the pandemic era 2020 resurgence.

In short, does woke capitalism co-opt racial justice movements? Or do racial justice activists simply promote ideas that woke capitalism likes?

Let’s take a moment to examine the contenders.

One side says that the world of corporate diversity co-opts the genuinely radical demands of true racial justice activists. We find this view expressed well, for instance, in the book Elite Capture by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò. I also profiled an especially egregious case in an earlier post that fits this model quite well.

The other side thinks that racial justice progressivism actually aligns with woke capitalism by pushing class to the margins and placing race in the driver’s seat. They think woke capitalism has no problem with racial equality, so long as the class system remains in place. We often find this view in the pages of Jacobin magazine or the books of Adolph Reed Jr. And, of course, I’m on record arguing that an ‘anti-racist capitalism’ is at least theoretically possible.

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A work of public art depicting working class Soviet fighters in World War II.

Democratic Centralism: First as Tragedy, Second as Farce

January 13, 2025 /

On an episode of Revolutionary Left Radio, Alyson and Breht review in detail the text of Marx’s 18th Brumaire.

Along the way, they point to one of Marx’s most famous quotes: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”

The quote references the transition in French politics from Napoleon Bonaparte to Louis Bonaparte. But we need not concern ourselves with the details here. Suffice it to say that Napoleon stood in for tragedy – the Napoleonic Wars killed millions – and Louis for farce, as his version of the French Empire paled in comparison to the first.

I find something like this on parts of the sectarian left. Some leftists – some from democratic centralism, some Marxism-Leninism, et al. – look to the historical work of leftist figures for lessons they rigidly apply to the modern world. It’s as though Lenin (or Kautsky, or Engels) speak directly to our time, giving us the secret blueprint for how to finally build the U.S. left into a force ready to take power.

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