On the Question of Electoral Support
Two candidates, Jovanka Beckles and Gayle McLaughlin, are asking for the East Bay DSA’s support. Careful consideration shows that support is not in our interest at this time. Part one of this position paper lays out brief arguments against electoral support. Part two proceeds to offer an alternative vision for how to allocate our limited resources, and establish material working class power.
Part One: Arguments Against Support
I. Supporting Beckles and McLaughlin will not build our ability to conduct class struggle at this time. Our power in class struggle can be defined as our ability to collectively block the flow of capital. Electoral politics may be helpful in supporting already-existing class struggles. But, class struggle in the US is currently stalled. Workplace stoppages are at their lowest in recorded history. Non-workplace forms of struggle are stuck in symbolic modes of protest. Support of Beckles and McLaughlin puts the cart before the horse. We need to focus our very precious time and resources on developing and supporting new forms of class struggle that resonate within, and outside of, the DSA.
II. Our current weakness in obstructing capital means that we have no meaningful way to hold Beckles, McLaughlin, or any other politician, accountable. Without an ability to hold capital hostage, we are compelled to fall back on liberal forms of politics. We are forced to act in the capacity of an electorate, rather than as a class. We are without significant recourse, which means that any reform can be taken away from us at any time. We become reliant on the goodwill of politicians, or the undemocratic judicial system, rather than our power as an organized class.
III. When we strengthen our power outside of electoral politics, we become more electorally impactful. Recent parliamentary shifts have occurred because of situations outside of governmental bodies. The breakdown of centrism is a thoroughly global trend. The global character of this shift demonstrates that electoral changes didn’t happen because of politicians’ actions. Rather, external factors, like economic stagnation and emergent social movements, have produced right-wing to left-wing polarization. If we want power over the electoral sphere, then we must strengthen our position outside of it.
IV. Relying on electoral activity will make the already-existing problem of inner-class diversity worse for the East Bay DSA chapter. Levels of voter engagement — from the literal act of voting, to merely keeping up with elections — are largely correlated with income levels. Income, as is well known, tends to map onto race and gender categories. This is why the run of Bernie Sanders electrified a specific portion of our class, namely those with some higher education, or white-collar employment. In order to reach out to other parts of our class, a non-electoral route is necessary.
Part Two: Towards Working Class Power
We need to build our power — working class power. Class power is material. Our power is felt when we block or impede the flow of capital. When we obstruct capital, our enemies suffer directly. Capitalists and landlords lose profits. States lose tax revenue. This type of organized class power is what made past socialist and communist parties dynamic. Yet, capitalism has changed since the 1970s. Unions have become increasingly defunct. Non-profits have tended to blur social and economic contradictions. We need new forms of working class organization that can empower us in the workplace, the neighborhood, and the city. This is a difficult task. Yet we, in the DSA, have the power to creatively tackle this problem.
As a first task, we should administer inquiries regarding work, rent, sociality, and consumption for DSA members and their associates. This information will give us insights into how and where to begin. Getting ideas about our collective situation will then allow us to experiment with new types of self-organization. For the purposes of clarity, we have endeavored to make some preliminary examples of what organizational structures we could build with information from inquiries:
· Landlord-specific tenant organizations: It is likely that many DSA members unknowingly share the same landlords. DSA can help build tenant infrastructure that could keep tenants in touch as a modest first step. DSA Communist Caucus has already begun experimenting with this idea. We’ve begun organizing around an Oakland/Berkeley landlord, with some success.
· Regional worker organizations: Perhaps many DSA members are currently working in service jobs in downtown Oakland. DSA could begin organizing a service workers association for those employed in the Downtown region. Service workers are precarious, and have difficulty making demands on their own. However, neighboring workers and DSA chapter members could disrupt businesses without endangering workers directly so as to enforce workers’ demands.
· Neighborhood assemblies: It is likely that many DSA members already live in the same neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods might have issues that others do not have. Yet most of us exist without much contact with our neighbors. Our DSA chapter could begin building the infrastructure necessary to cut through today’s urban alienation. Neighborhood assemblies could act as a place for new demands and issues to be collectively thought through. This could include eviction defense, mutual aid, repurposing of vacant land, or issues of police brutality and violence.
Without information obtained through inquiries, these examples remain speculations. We have given these concrete examples because they represent some possibilities for new kinds of working class organization. In truth, we will not know what kinds of organization are appropriate until we find out more information. In our current moment, electoral engagements miss out on this entirely. We have finite time and resources. We must allocate them carefully. It is for this reason that we currently oppose electoral support.
