Page 45 of 133

Severance and White-Collar Organizing

March 6, 2023 / baseblogger

The new TV show Severance drew lots of attention as it finished up its first season. Some of it even from a leftist perspective! Or at least a near left perspective. Even more interestingly, those who view Severance through a leftist lens see it as a show about worker solidarity and workplace organizing.

Can Severance teach us something about workplace organizing? I think it can! In fact, I think it highlights a major gap in the U.S. union movement. A gap that leftists could – and should – fill.

Let’s talk about all this.

Severance and Raising Children

March 2, 2023 / baseblogger

So, I watched Season 1 of the TV show Severance not long ago. I’ll have much more to say about the show later. But for now, a quote from one of the characters jumped out to me.

Should Socialism Be a Youth Movement?

February 27, 2023 / baseblogger

Recently, a debate opened up between two DSA caucuses – Socialist Majority and Bread & Roses – over a few strategic questions. Among other things, it shows an emerging split within the national org’s majority coalition. I don’t want to review the entire debate, especially since I’ve looked at parts of it in other posts. Rather, I want to look at a new part of the debate: the issue of who the DSA should target in its recruiting efforts. Should the DSA try to be a youth movement?

As a start, I’ll note that in some ways, the DSA is already a youth movement. It grew from 2015 to 2020, often rapidly. And it did so in large part on the strength of new members under the age of 30. Nearly everyone who joined was under the age of 40. But is all this the goal of a good recruiting effort? Should DSA keep focusing its efforts on finding new members among young people?

I think the answer is more complicated than the simple “yes” given by the Bread & Roses faction.

On The Lettuce Problem

February 23, 2023 / baseblogger

Last year, I summed up the major lessons I’ve learned from taking part in local activist movements over the last couple of decades. In thinking over this topic again, I find the need to tack an addendum onto those posts.

So, I’ll talk here very briefly about what I call the ‘Lettuce Problem.’

Dealignment and Posting Alone

February 20, 2023 / baseblogger

From the sectarian left to mainstream socialists, many U.S. leftists put forward dealignment to explain politics today. Jacobin recently dropped an issue on the topic. As long time readers surely know, I have sort of a love/hate relationship with the mag. Its founder has done some good work. As has the mag itself. But the mag has its faults, which I’ve also discussed in a few posts.

But I’m not here just to talk about a magazine. I’m here to talk about dealignment, especially as it concerns class. And especially a recent article on it – ‘From Bowling Alone to Posting Alone,’ by Anton Jäger.

Base and Superstructure

Page 45 of 133

Severance and White-Collar Organizing

Severance and Raising Children

Should Socialism Be a Youth Movement?

On The Lettuce Problem

Dealignment and Posting Alone

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