This is the circular that the DSA national leadership is sending around
DSA appears to be gearing up to try to replace the Green Party and run a candidate for president… in 2028. That is the tenor of the circular sent out by DSA’s national leadership – the National Political Committee – for discussion at all branch meetings. On Aug. 16 it was discussed at East Bay DSA.
The topic was introduced by a speaker who gave the usual rip-roaring speech. “We’re gonna build a strong DSA. We’re gonna build strong labor unions. We’re gonna built strong tenants unions. We’re gonna build a strong working class,” he shouted to resounding cheers from the 150 or so people in the audience. DSA won’t only transform the unions, it will “build a strong working class”. Yes, indeed! There wasn’t a thought in the world to what other forces exist in society, forces that just possibly might be more powerful than DSA. Talk about delusions of grandeur!
Among other things, this was a cover for the cowardly and passive role of the union leadership. That same leadership has representatives in most major DSA branches, including East Bay and New York DSA. These representatives are the DSA staffers who carry the water for the upper level bureaucrats – the ones who hire them and sign their paychecks. Their role is to make sure that DSA does nothing to disrupt the grip the bureaucracy has over the unions. The ultra left sectarians are only too happy to collaborate with that, just so long as they can make their “revolutionary” proclamations.
In talking about DSA running a candidate for president in 2028, the speaker cited the example of Eugene Debs and his campaign for president in 1920 at the head of the Socialist Party. The suggestion was that DSA could repeat what Debs and the Socialist Party did. The fact that now, over 100 years later, the situation is very different was not considered.
The speaker did issue the warning that running a presidential candidate must not prevent DSA’s activism. Again, whether it might help Donald Trump Mark 3 get elected received not a hint of a mention. Instead, there was the ritual warning that winning elections is not the same as “overthrowing capitalism”. Rather, it is “a byproduct of overthrowing capitalism”.
These last points were concessions to those who oppose participating in elections at all. This view is represented by the anarchists of the “Commie Caucus”, who believe in activism, activism, activism. Hiding behind their revolutionary claims is the fact that they deal with the symptoms only, not the cause. This is what’s known as reformism, and for a good reason.
Overall, the entire presentation was permeated with the view of the ultra left sectarians who see the Republicans and Democrats as being more or less the same. That was made clear by the two absolute minimums that any presidential candidate must have for DSA to support them – no support for Israel and abolish ICE. Since there is very little chance that any Democratic presidential candidate will take those positions, that means that DSA should run its own candidate for president in 2028. Again, to repeat: whether in 2028 there will be an election in any real sense of the word was totally ignored as was whether helping MAGA remain in office should be considered.
Following this presentation, the meeting broke up into small groups to discuss the questions on this comminication from the National Political Committee.
I made a couple of points in the group I was in, starting with the point that the entire discussion was starting from the wrong point of view. We really need to start by discussing the objective situation. That situation includes the crisis in the working class and the disastrous policies of the union leadership. Most of all, it includes the very real threat that Trump will steal the upcoming elections. Talk about running a candidate in 2028 is living in a fantasy world if we don’t talk about this threat in 2026. If Trump steals this election, there might not be an election in 2028 in any real sense of the word.
I also commented on the disastrous mistake the socialist left made in not trying to keep Trump out of the White House in 2024. Now, it seems, DSA is gearing up to repeat this blunder in 2028, if there even are any real elections then.
Nobody else spoke to these points. It was all about what we should do, not what is happening independently of our wishes. All reports from the other groups indicated that it was just the same there – no interest in discussing the real and present danger today.
Today, many Democrats plus the mainstream media (the NY Times, CNN, etc.) are giving regular warnings about what Trump is preparing this November. It is only the union leadership, their hangers on and the ultra left sectarians who are ignoring it. How ironic… and disastrous. I am reminded of a group of six year-olds gathering together to play house. “You be the daddy and I be the mommy,” starts the play acting. That fantasy world is appropriate for six year-olds, but for adult socialists?
If any readers are simply uninformed about what Trump is doing, they should read this article: Trump is preparing legal version of January 6,2020. It’s all out there, right in the open.