Resolving the conflict between being visionary and being pragmatic is critical for those who want to transform society. Can we be both visionary and strategic?
We need to be far more generous with each other, able to hold conversations without resort to insults and abuses. Out of disagreement comes understanding. But out of malicious slander only comes disorientation.
Democrats were ready to throw railworkers to the wolves, letting even Republicans outflank them on labor rights. But thanks to a last-minute legislative push by Bernie Sanders and his allies today, railworkers may be getting the sick leave they’re demanding.
Put the mainstream Democrats aside. After the midterms, more left-wing insurgents are going to the House, Bernie Sanders has two strong allies in the Senate, and progressive ballot measures passed everywhere. Election night was a good night for the Left.
I hope those who cheer Lula’s victory pay attention to the source of his success. The route to a greener and fairer future is not through focus groups, it is through mobilisation of a multi-racial working-class, galvanised by the prospect of a government bold enough to act.
Confidence in the possibility to bring about change has often been built and rebuilt through local, frequently incomplete, victories independent of the Labour Party.
The protests of 2020 revealed the extent to which our political movements are at a real crossroads. Do we continue to place the vast majority of our hopes on conventional politics? Or do we really begin to engage in the necessary project of rebuilding a radical, even revolutionary left?
‘The main political responsibility of the Left is to identify, assemble, animate, and unite the social forces capable of accomplishing the primary breakthrough required at each moment.’
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Core questions of political strategy animate the debate roiling DSA. The whole Left has a stake in the outcome.
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