Base and Superstructure

Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Category: DSA (Page 1 of 7)

Against Centralized Majoritarianism

October 7, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A couple years ago, I listened to the Russian Revolution season of Mike Duncan’s podcast Revolutions. Readers might recall that I had a few things to say about the podcast when tsk-tsking Duncan about Marx on profit.

In fact, I think it’s overall a great podcast. And I listened to it again, this time hitting all seasons and not just the one on Russia.

As I listened to how the various revolutions strayed off course, I thought about how their leaders engaged with the population. That is to say, I thought about how the revolutionaries related to the average person in these societies. I especially thought about this in light of the French and Russian Revolutions, two revolutions that featured at least some conception of a society built in the interests of the people as a whole.

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A picture of a child holding a candle with Time to Re-tire as the headline.

When is it Time to Retire from Activism?

September 23, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I never asked my friend Dick Leitsch when it was time to retire from activism. But he did tell me when he decided to retire.

Dick was 40 years old and the gay liberation movement had changed in ways he didn’t like. It went down a radical path to which Dick himself had opened the door, but didn’t want to pass through. By the time he turned 40, Dick felt that he was part of a different generation from the young activists who arose in the wake of Stonewall.

Generations theorists would agree with Dick. They’d call him a Silent Generation guy, while activist groups were led by young, upstart Boomers.

As for me, I recently turned 41. And I’m thinking through some of the same issues Dick worked through about a half century ago. When is it time to retire from activism? Is it time for me to do so? If so, what does that look like? Is there no place in activism for people over 40?

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An image of two members of DSA having a discussion in front of protest signs.

Is DSA a Sectarian Org?

August 26, 2024 / / 0 Comments

In my last couple of posts, I charted out some of the deep tensions within DSA. I charted some of its issues with post-pandemic social anxiety and psychological safety a couple of weeks ago. And then last week, I analyzed its position with respect to progressive activism.

In that post, I presented DSA as an org for activists and enthusiasts rather than for a working-class base. And in that regard, DSA looks more like one node in a broader progressive activist network rather than a grassroots working-class movement.

But some people within DSA argue that the org is descending into a sectarian one. I took up this question a couple of years ago, where I denied this view.

But since the election of a new NPC that contains multiple democratic centralist factions, have things changed?

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A poster with the headline The Working Class Takes the Wheel, with a UPS truck under it promoting unionization.

Is DSA a Working-Class Org?

August 19, 2024 /

DSA is an org that professes to organize the ‘multiracial working class.’ It presents itself as a site for the building of working-class power across lines of race, gender, sexuality, and other identity categories. Indeed, these things allegedly set DSA apart both from the sectarian left and the progressive NGO space.

The trouble is that just about everyone to the left of Joe Biden tells some version of that story. It seems like they all love the ‘multiracial working class’ now. This complicates how DSA uses this story to set itself apart.

At the end of the day, I think we can separate DSA from the sectarian left. I’ll say a bit more about that in a future post. For this one, I’ll point out that DSA’s use of the magic phrase looks the same to me as the one we find in the progressive NGO space.

Read on to find out why.

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A photo of Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).

Jamaal Bowman and the DSA Electoral Project

July 1, 2024 /

Jamaal Bowman lost last week’s primary to moderate Democratic challenger George Latimer. Coverage of the loss – both in the mainstream press and on the left – focused on his shifting positions on Israel and Palestine.

That’s fair enough. Israel and Palestine turned out central both to the campaign and its funders, in light of the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza. But this leaves out a broader ideological struggle within the Democratic Party between a more moderate and a more progressive wing. Latimer might have run on foreign policy issues, but he’ll also join Congress as a voice against ideas like Medicare for All.

However, the struggle between Democratic moderates and progressives typically doesn’t involve foreign policy.

Indeed, that fact is highly relevant to internal struggles within the Squad and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Most progressives don’t see foreign policy as central to their political project. They’re often willing to vote in favor of the foreign policy consensus on most issues, so long as those issues don’t involve U.S. troops literally on the ground. They give ground on foreign policy because it’s not central to their political vision. It’s not very important to them.

AIPAC exploited this very division in the ways it heavily poured funds into the Bowman vs. Latimer race.

But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. Let’s start by talking about why Bowman lost. And then let’s ask what his loss means for DSA and the electoral left.

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