I was talking to a lib about how politically disempowered Americans are, saying there's no way for me to even participate in the presidential election living in Oakland. He said that's not true, I can throw a fundraiser for Kamala. Still thinking about it 3 days later.
Honest answer is I did the teenage version of birthright at 15 and it was the most radicalizing thing I've ever done. Israel is a right wing hellscape and I was able to figure that out with basically no prior knowledge going in clean slate ready to be indoctrinated.
Macklemore says he's not voting for Biden, calls out the TikTok ban as censorship, and gets in a jab at zelenskyy in his antizionist song - he should just join Red Star.
Macklemore dropped a pro-Palestine song in defense of the student protesters and all the streaming proceeds are going to UNRWA. He also gets a jab in at Drake. What a king
This tweet is echoing in my head. Americans are the most disempowered people on Earth, even in DSA most people have no idea how unbelievably disempowered they are to the point where they're hallucinating their abstract thoughts having real-world effect.
@therockisdead_
I think the idea is that everyone has a "home" even if their "home" is a tent or a car, and that "unhoused" focuses on the fact that their house was taken from them by capitalism. I also think it's not a huge deal to use either term.
I am closely monitoring the developments between Iran and Israel. While there are no credible threats to important East Bay landmarks like the Sushi Place I Like and The Warhammer Store I am committed to ensuring safeguard of all relevant locales.
The LAPD is closely monitoring the developments between Iran and Israel. While there are no credible threats to Los Angeles at this time, we are committed to ensuring safeguards to houses of worship and sensitive areas throughout all communities in Los Angeles.
I'm just so far to the left of DSA to join, too far left actually, so far left that I can't do any actual political activity of any variety. I'm a serious communist btw.
You can't have a popular front until you've organized the advanced section of the working class into a party. You can't build a "coalition" when all you have is 60K donors supporting a 6K person activist base like DSA has, that's not enough. No shortcuts!
The revolutionary spirit lives on in France! The New Popular Front brought together the left and center-left to defeat the threat of fascism and win a plurality of seats in parliament.
SMC formally adopted this strategy in our updated Points of Unity:
The way some people have been speaking about John is horrifying, especially since he's probably the only person on NPC who actually has the skills to build a budget. If you have a problem with him please just talk to him, he's a comrade. So unfair to treat him like the enemy.
It's got to suck to be the current treasurer for this NPC.
Apparently you're the only one out of 16 people who knows how to use spreadsheet functions like the difficult sum, and when the numbers change based on new information, you're the one who gets called incompetent.
This is why we encourage socialists to study international politics, you need to be able to see parallels between for example American right wingers claiming election fraud and venezuelan right wingers claiming election fraud. It's important to know and study their tactics.
If you can't handle dsa receiving a few mean emails and some negative news articles because we stood up for Palestine that's on you, go join a social club. We're actually challenging capital out here.
A key difference between anarchists and socialists: anarchists believe that democracy is when everyone gets to do whatever they want while socialists believe that democracy is when a group decides together and binds the minority to the majority to act as a collective.
DSA is not a Zionist organization but we do have a lot of liberalism to unlearn and because of that many of us are very susceptible to zionist talking points. Really hoping our Palestinian comrades are patient with us as we try to educate our membership.
Yes sometimes DSA chapter accounts get out of pocket and need to be reeled in but you are not looking any better by dunking on them! If you're serious about thinking the chapter account is making us look bad please take it to DMs.
I wish I lived in the world where DSA was big and powerful enough to decide to oppose Trump and have that materially affect the outcome, maybe someday but today I know we are too small to change the outcome of a national election.
DSA Palestine thread on the national account is a good example of what we meant when we said "modular majority on NPC". The left has a majority on party building, but not on anti imperialism. There's still a Rightist majority there, and that's what rammed through that thread.
Okay to be specific it was
@dsa_hanshiarka
's "socialism is not unionizing a Sephora in Pyongyang" speech at convention. I wish I had it recorded so bad, might be one of the best barn burners I've ever heard.
There is no place for political violence, including the horrific incident we just witnessed in Pennsylvania.
It is absolutely unacceptable and must be denounced in the strongest terms.
My heart goes out to all the victims and I wish the former President a speedy recovery.
It just doesn't feel that complicated to me to say that DSA is not big enough to meaningfully participate in national electoral races. We need to concentrate locally to build our base. There are no shortcuts.
If DSA can't make "our" federal electeds vote the right way on even the most basic of stuff maybe we shouldn't have them? Like what's the point of this for us
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
- 412 yes
- 1 no (R-KY Thomas Massie)
- 1 present (D-MI Rashida Tlaib)
Zionist extremism is alive in both political parties.
As a Jewish person I'm just pumped I no longer have to try to defend a congressperson who platformed zionists crowing about antisemitism, what a huge embarrassment that was. That kind of centrism has no place in DSA.
sad to see these wreckers purity test our org instead of respecting the big tent :( guess they want to be in an irrelevant ultra sect where everyone agrees with them instead of actually meeting the working class where it's at
Dog this shit is so embarrassing lol I'm glad I'm in DSA where we're (for the most part) not even considering Cornell West's candidacy as a relevant topic
These are trots advocating for what to my understanding is just 2SS within DSA so I think them disliking our position is understandable and in fact probably good for us. They lost big at convention, they're a very small minority block that doesn't represent the org.
Anchor sold for $85M to Sapporo but actually it was some of the 70 total employees wanting slightly better working conditions that crashed the company. Source: vibes
In
@PortlandDSA
we won free universal preschool for the entire county, we have unionized workplaces and won contract fights, we’re running candidates city council. We are building power without ever compromising on Palestine - we’ve won 2 huge BDS campaigns. I’m so proud of that
New Interview: I talked to Daniella Weiss, a West Bank settler and activist, about how her religious views shape her view of the conflict, why she thinks human rights should not be considered universal, and her movement’s extreme plans for the region.
Funny how MSNBC is silent about the tens of millions of dollars the DSA spends to try to unseat incumbent Democrats and replace them with socialist antisemites.
But the second a Jewish person donates to a candidate who is not an antisemite, MSNBC alleges a Jewish conspiracy
Like I was a Ron Paul libertarian and this was the event that knocked me out of that nonsense and created the trajectory that made me a communist. Israel is just that insane.
Realizing it might be a bit unfair of Jews to have our big visible food item being this great bread and then our main holiday that outsiders try to understand is the day that we do not eat the bread
RS <> CC <> MUG is actually a pretty cool coalition now that I think about it. Leadership+internal organizing<>nuts and bolts organizing+on the ground base building<>agitation + putting out press
So disappointing, so disheartening, really disappointed, really sad to see, so disappointing to see, so sad to disappoint so disheartening to sad so disappoint to dishearten so
It's wild that we let a handful of people who lost their votes drag this entire organization into an endless fight instead of focusing on Palestine. It illustrates the problem with consensus decision making, it allows a few wackos to dictate the direction of tens of thousands
On April 13th 2024, the Iranian government launched drones and missiles at Israel in response to Israel's bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria. 1/4
Listening to this BJG thing and it's kinda funny how she just grasps at straws trying to find reasons to hate DSA - she doesn't seem to know what's going on at all.
The idea that any real group of Marxist Leninists in DSA do not want DSA to do any electoral politics is repeated by people who have done zero investigation into what we actually want. Ask us questions! Be curious! Don't just repeat stuff that sounds true in theory.
the idea that any organized faction in DSA "distance themselves from socialist electoral and legislative politics" is absurd!! building towards a party that can contest electoral struggle is a consensus in DSA, and it's sectarian posturing to pretend otherwise
Sounds like some in DSA are getting spun out of control in bubbles where nobody is deescalating anybody or trying to sort truth from opinion, I recommend you talk to people outside of your caucus for your own sanity! Useful to keep yourself grounded.
The real problem with the left is a messaging issue, and it's one that only I can solve. If everyone simply says the words I like we'll finally win. I, in my infinite wisdom, hold the answer to all of our problems and the answer is some words that I think people like.
"This is our lesson, and we hope socialists everywhere will pay close attention: the Democratic Party is a dead end. It is a “party” in name only; truly, it is simply a tangled web of dark money and mega-donors, cynical consultants, and lapdog politicians."
Clarifying our position and relationship with the NV State Democratic Party two years after a slate of DSA-members were elected to the board.
TLDR: DSA shouldn’t be wasting its time or resources with the Dem Party.
He just died? Wow. I didn't know that...He led an amazing life. What else can you say? He was an amazing Wagner Group Leader, whether you agree or not. He was an amazing Wagner Group Leader who led an amazing life. I'm actually sad to hear that.
if you are in DSA and are curious what you should be doing right now with convention around the corner and discourse in a frenzy: log off :) say something nice to someone, calm down, drink water
Even as a kid it was legible that Israelis are unlike other Jews. We had an Israeli family at our synagogue growing up and they were so obviously awful people it was hard to even recognize them as Jewish.
What rules about this clip is how effectively it demonstrates that less than 30 seconds of interacting with the average Israeli will turn almost anyone into an anti-Zionist
Stop posting budget stuff on the timeline, half the shit on here is wrong and this is textbook Take It To The Forums. Definitely not the public's business what we're doing.
It's lazy to just always root for the underdog because it feels good. Socialists have won power in some incredibly complicated places and we should study those movements and learn from them, not reflexively want to take them down.
DSA’s approach to internationalism doesn’t center working-class struggle enough. Delegates to the 2023 Convention can change that with a vote for Amendment C to the IC Consensus Resolution: For a Class-Struggle Internationalism.
I'm sympathetic to the idea that calling the DSA Rightists "the right" is confusing to outsiders but they do need to come up with something other than being called " the mass work wing",
@DSACommunists
already has that one you can't just take it.
DSA should not endorse a presidential candidate this cycle. If we were more mature / disciplined / organized we could participate in a campaign like that with the goal of recruitment but right now we're really bad at it. Ex: The Bernie bumps caused our current budget crisis.
I am trying out a new thing where I am genuine and nice all the time to all DSA accounts, I think the only exception I'd make is to the n*rth s**r Twitter account
He joined DSA a few years ago and it was really obvious he was at least one of 3 things
1) a cop
2) a right wing troll
3) a person with a serious head injury
everyone just kinda sidelined him until he went away. very weird he's continued to be A Thing.
I don’t trust
@JConrBOrtega
and I don’t think anyone should be donating to his sham of a campaign. He’s a product of the David Sacks and Garry Tan funded
@sfguardians
“training” program that gets pumped out through Epoch Times and Shellenberger/Sacks/Neighbors funded network.
A thing to add that people might not know, if you're a Leninist a "rightist error" is when you make your coalition too big (ex: including terfs in a socialist protest) and a "leftist error" is when you make your coalition too small (ex: irrelevant trotskyist sects)
Not that we're the most important thing here but kicking out Zionists also helps the Jewish community within DSA. There's only one group that ever questions my Judaism, only one group that purposefully stirs up and magnifies antisemitism, and that's Zionists.
Really important that this (MSR12) passes with this language intact. Every chapter that has passed a version at the local level has built a stronger and more direct relationship with Palestinian organizations such as PYM.
It’s important to make DSA a safe place for Palestinians
While I'm honored people think Red Star is powerful enough to make DSA refuse to re-endorse AOC it's probably useful to understand that while I wish it would happen we simply don't have the votes this go around. That's okay! We're staking out a position. It's a conversation.
It feels so weird and bad to watch friends slowly age and be less social, to snowglobe and just pair off into their little atomized couplings without interest in building a wider community. Idk what makes people want to do that but it's been really bumming me out lately.
I really recommend people read Fanshen, the shit the communists in China dealt with is not that different from DSA, it felt so strange to read about peasants in rural China in the 40s basically going though a grievance process in their village.