Alienation, autonomy, and ideology
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.
The DSA recently interviewed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). And then the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) criticized AOC from the left. Note for the curious: the WSWS is a small Trotskyist news site. As we’ll see, the WSWS offered less an informed critique than a string of informal fallacies.
But that comes later. For now, let’s take a look at AOC and her politics. What can we learn from the DSA interview and WSWS response?
I’ve focused quite a bit in this blog on issues of political language: how what we say affects us, and how our concepts of, say, intersectionality, privilege, or equity guide the things we do. Often whether we know it or not. I write about these issues in the service, of course, of deeper leftist projects.
In this post, I’ll shift a bit to giving advice on political language. What should we keep in mind when using political language as a part of our organizing efforts?
For a post on April Fools’ Day (but not an April Fools’ Day post), I wanted to touch on the sense many people have that social media is bad for activism. When I try to put this idea in its most plausible form, I come up with the claim that social media erodes trust. Whether it also does other things, its erosion of trust stands out as key.
Let’s roll with that and see where it takes us.
I’m not big on prayer. I’ve been an atheist since about age 15. That’s more than 20 years ago, so it’s something that probably won’t change. But here’s one situation that comes close to driving me to prayer. It pops up from time to time from social justice activists who take perspectives like this one from DiDi Delgado writing in Medium.
Let’s take a look at what’s wrong with this perspective.
Many leftists propose some form of vanguard theory of socialist change. From the Leninist idea that a vanguard party will form working-class consciousness to the identitarian view that certain identity groups will lead the way, leftists have long looked for shortcuts to change. Some – most recently, various DSA caucuses – propose unions as a vanguard. This calls to mind older ideas like workerism or certain forms of class reductionism.
But, whether new or not, is it right? Can unions be a vanguard for socialist change?
No. At least, not in anything like their present form. Nor in any form they’re likely to take in the near future. Let’s talk about why.
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