by A Letter from the Editors
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DSA is at a crossroads. The revival of labor — the focus of our new magazine — depends on active, critical, socialist intervention. As the largest socialist organization in the US, we should also be helping build the movements for reproductive rights, student debt cancellation, and more.
The mood at the DSA National Convention in August 2021 was unconcerned — we’ve been successful; why change anything? The ambitious goals set by the 2019 convention have clearly been abandoned.
Breaking from the Democrats? The dominant trends in DSA claim this isn’t an urgent issue because socialists can achieve electoral success running on the Democratic Party ticket. But if DSA is seen as merely an appendage to Biden and the Democrats, the only voice of opposition left is the dangerous Republican right.
A Rank-and-File Strategy for labor? We voted for this in 2019 to kickstart the labor movement and challenge business unionism, but at the 2021 convention, a compromise resolution on labor removed the whole item and prevented us from discussing our approach.
And DSA’s new National Political Committee? We were optimistic in our last magazine, but let’s face it: it’s not off to a good start. The way the NPC handled the discussion about Jamaal Bowman’s Congressional vote for military aid to crush Palestinian resistance was more than disappointing.
But we can turn things around! We need to make DSA a visible anti-capitalist force, rooted in the struggles of labor and social movements. We need to build a strong Marxist wing in DSA to give our organization the backbone it’s currently lacking. If you like the work of Reform & Revolution, help build DSA, and a Marxist wing within it, with us: ReformAndRevolution.org/join
In Solidarity,
Alex Moni-Sauri and Stephan Kimmerle
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Alex Moni-Sauri
Alex Moni-Sauri is a poet and artist, and is a member of Seattle DSA. She lives in Kingston, Washington.
Stephan Kimmerle
Stephan Kimmerle is a Seattle DSA activist. He's been involved in the labor and socialist movement internationally from being a shop steward in the public sector in Germany to organizing Marxists on an international level. He is working part-time jobs while being a stay-at-home dad of two wonderful children.
