Base and Superstructure

Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Category: Activism (Page 3 of 26)

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 protest sign that says Shut It Down! It has an image of a fist.

Iowa City’s Anarcho-Liberalism

September 11, 2023 /

Bhaskar Sunkara kicked up a bit of a storm when he first wrote about ‘anarcho-liberalism’ in 2011. Sunkara wrote about this odd term as an extension of the politics of the New Left.  Specifically the anti-globalization movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s. And when he used the term, Sunkara called to mind two things: first, a rejection of the mass working class institutions and politics of the left, and second, ‘revolutionary’ critique and action from people and small groups.

Let me narrow this down a bit in a way that readers might apply to their local situations. Anarcho-liberalism often amounts to a kind of knee-jerk cynicism and opposition toward government, especially at the local level. And it lacks any serious plan to build a movement to take power in the interests of the working class.

Insofar as anarcho-liberalism allows for an alternative, it falls back on NGOs, non-profits, or ‘mutual aid.’ And these are the best options. At its worst, it fails to go beyond ‘pestering’ local officials with no deeper goal.

In short, it’s a mess. And it has its backers in Iowa City.

Let’s talk a bit about that.

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Book cover for The Idea of Prison Abolition by Tommie Shelby.

The Idea of Prison Abolition

August 28, 2023 /

I recently read The Idea of Prison Abolition, a book by Tommie Shelby collecting his remarks in the Carl G. Hempel Lecture Series at Princeton. It’s a book on a polarizing issue, and its conclusions will satisfy few participants.

But that need not trouble us.

Shelby isn’t an abolitionist. Rather, he sets out to study the work of abolitionists in order to draw philosophical and practical insights about prisons. He draws insights both for our society and for the better societies we seek to build. Along the way, he draws key distinctions and offers sympathetic criticism of abolitionism. He also situates abolitionism within both black Marxist and black radical traditions.

It’s a worthwhile project, and I’ll take an extended look at it. I’ll also say a bit about how it clarifies and expands upon what I wrote about prison abolition some time ago.

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2023 DSA Convention Reaction

August 14, 2023 /

I wanted to check in with a quick post laying out a few reactions to the 2023 DSA Convention. This isn’t meant to substitute for a more in-depth analysis of the Resolutions passed and the changes to the NPC. But I’m laying it out as an overview of the big picture.

1. By electing a ‘left’ NPC majority of 10-6 (with ‘left’ in quotes because it’s a contested term in DSA, to put it mildly), delegates signaled dissatisfaction with the 2021-2023 NPC. Particularly with the Socialist Majority and GND/Groundwork coalitions.

2. Delegates offered some clarity around key debates, e.g., BDS Working Group and Palestinian liberation, but they did so via compromise rather than by settling the issues for one side or another. This shows, I think, political maturity.

3. Finally, I think that by funding all current priority campaigns (Electoral, GND, Housing, International, Labor, M4A) and adding yet another priority campaign, i.e., trans liberation and reproductive rights, delegates punted on important political debates about prioritizing work. The org simply doesn’t have the money and capacity to run all these campaigns, so the NPC will ultimately have to decide which of these to prioritize. More importantly, the Convention locked in the current ‘issue’ strategy rather than switching to a more advisable ‘class’ strategy.

I suspect readers already know which campaigns I think we should prioritize: Housing, International, and Labor.

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A collage of Jacobin magazine covers.

Jacobin Study, Part 2: We’re Not Ready for Electoral Politics

August 7, 2023 /

A couple years ago, Jacobin commissioned a study of working-class voters. I took a close look at the study in an earlier post, and in many ways the study went quite well for Jacobin. While it didn’t necessarily support the mag’s focus on elections and the national political narrative, it did suggest that working-class voters are attracted to a progressive, populist political message.

Jacobin continued the study with a second part, and so I’ll continue with a second post. Readers can check out the mag’s intro to the study here. And they can check out the full study here. While the first study provided social democrats with reason for optimism, the second study paints a much more challenging landscape.

Let’s talk about why.

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Writing DSA Convention Resolutions

July 31, 2023 /

It wouldn’t be a DSA Convention without endless rumors and drama! At least one faction has already appealed to made-up shenanigans and conspiracy theory to protest the removal of its (not especially popular) resolution from the conference program.

But enough about that. Here’s what I wanted to say a word about in this post: writing Convention resolutions.

I reviewed the 2023 resolutions in an earlier post. But when I was reading an objection to the ‘expand the NPC’ resolution, I brought a few points together.

Here’s how it goes.

Many resolutions suffer from a similar flaw. A group of very like-minded people get together. They push each other in the same direction until they turn a quite sensible proposal into an unbalanced, extreme, and poorly thought out proposal. In my earlier post, I identified three resolutions that did this. I suspect the one Red Star criticized is a fourth.

So, how do you prevent this from happening?

I’ll leave the reader with some advice. If you’re a DSA member thinking about writing a resolution, include at least one thoughtful and friendly critic on your team of writers. Run it past one of them. They’ll alert you to some of the problems. And you can address those problems before your resolution ends up taking heat for all those problems you ignored at the outset.

Who knows? If you ask nicely enough, I might even be your thoughtful and friendly critic.

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