Struggle from Below

The Tempest Collective sees the activity of the vast majority of the world’s population whose ability to work is their only means of survival as the crucial factor in building the socialist movement and winning reforms. The socialist movement is the movement of the international working class orgnaized against the present state of things. Its commitment must be always to stand for abolition of capitalism and the establishment of communism. Reforms of capitalism directly support the continued existence of capitalism. The working class is the agent of social transformation – of ridding our society of capitalism, addressing the existential environmental catastrophe, and building a socialist society – if we can organize ourselves.

Struggle is the key vehicle through which the balance of class forces can shift and on which working class demands like Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, Defunding the Police, Gender Liberation, Open Borders, etc, All of these demands other than gender liberation necessarily amount to reforms conceded by the state, and as such, directly advocating for them represents a betrayal of the fight for socialism. will be won. We support running socialist candidates for office, but we do not believe that amassing more socialist officeholders is the way we are going to win. People cannot be understood by the labels they claim or the words they say, they have to be understood by their role in the class struggle. Whatever else they may do, anyone who holds office in bourgeois government is someone who is taking part in the operation of that institution, which exists only to manage bourgeois control over the working class. It is good you dont see this measure as the main path to socialism, but it has to be understood that it is not even a stepping stone. It is a tactic that history has shown time and time again to actively harm socialist movements. However popular policy reforms are, historically these have not been won without a mass-based movement that involves millions of ordinary people.

Mass struggle would also be the key to a revolutionary break with capitalism that starts a transition to ecosocialism. By ecosocialism we mean a classless and stateless society of freedom in which people democratically plan production to meet their needs and repair humanity’s relationship with the rest of nature. This is literally just Communism. We have to assume that this choice in language was chosen deliberately so that the scary word “Communism” could be avoided. Efficiently, this confuses and waters down the meaning of a word that has a definition and centuries of precedent behind it, just for the purposes of recruiting those who would be scared off by the word “Communism” but not “Ecosocialism”. A transition to ecosocialism would have to be a liberatory process carried out by ordinary people themselves, running society through new radically democratic institutions.

Antiracism & Abolition

We are antiracists and abolitionists. The US working class has moved most forcefully and consistently when it has confronted racism, in particular anti-Black racism. We take this lesson seriously and prioritize antiracist struggle even when it is unpopular or appears to detract from broader ‘class-wide’ interests. The priority of anything above the class struggle is a fundamentally non-communist position. If the working class was especially interested in climate change activism at this moment would you then prioritize that struggle over the class struggle as well? If the socialist movement does not center the primacy of anti-oppression inside the working class, in all its diversity, it is not going to be effective. The George Floyd uprising was an important reminder of the power of Black-led resistance and how forcefully it can assert itself as a political actor, demonstrating the absolute necessity of systemic transformation. We seek not a transformation of the system, but its complete overthrow. The George Floyd uprising was indeed a key reminder of spontaneous working class power, but it is also a reminder of what happens when there is not a strong communist party capable of focusing that energy into the class struggle and towards the overthrow of capitalism. This is what allowed capital to co-opt and destroy that movement. Our response to this as communist is not just to blame the system, but to organize around the demand of revolution, something the system can by its very nature not co-opt. We see the anti-racist rebellion that took place in the summer of 2020 as the most important development of the current radicalization. Even with a movement still in development, its potential should not be underestimated.

Crucial to the politics of abolition is the recognition that the state under capitalism is a means of violent repression wielded to ensure the domination of the ruling class. In the U.S., prisons and police are indispensable tools of racist oppression. As socialists, we fight for the full abolition of the cops, the courts, the prisons, and the capitalist state.

Feminism & LGBTQ Liberation

Internationally, the feminist and gender justice movement is the leading edge of working class resistance. Structural gender oppression under capitalism shapes life and resistance in myriad ways. It has shown itself to be a potent vehicle for social transformation.

Standing against sexual violence, domestic violence, and femicide are questions of principle that socialists must develop ways of addressing – politically, but also organizationally, as very few groups can point to processes that have helped address grievances inside left organizations.

We demand full equality and liberation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and unequivocally oppose the attacks against transgender people, especially transgender women of color. The resurgence of trans-exclusionary feminism on the Left must be challenged. The project of revolutionary socialism aims to build a world based on sexual and gender freedom and self-determination.

Disability Justice

Capitalism both creates the category of disability and discriminates against the disabled on that basis. Capitalism privileges bodies that can labor in ways optimal to the production of profit for employers. The fight against oppression based on ability is thus inherently a struggle for working-class liberation and against the capitalist system. It is also tied to the abolitionist project of destroying the carceral state. Yes, however, this is included in the struggle against the capitalist system. By separating this into a separate category, even if unwillingly, you allow for argumentation and organization to the contrary of this fact.

In the short term, we support reforms that can break down the systematic marginalization, impoverishment, and oppression of disabled people. While these are undoubtedly good things that would help the lives of disabled people, how exactly should such support of reforms be done? If this entails working within the capitalist state that was just rightly denounced, then it is an utterly anti-socialist statement. If terms besides working within the state apparatus are meant here, then this quote is generally acceptable.

But because disability oppression is endemic to capitalism and implicated in the carceral state, overcoming it requires a revolutionary abolitionist program. Tempest stands with the disability justice movement and its calls for intersectional, anti-capitalist politics and full equality and liberation for disabled people. In practice, we are committed to making spaces for meeting, organizing, and protesting fully accessible.

Electoral Strategy

Elections are a crucial tactic of working class organization, Yes, elections within independent mass assemblies, worker councils, the International Party of the Working Class, Communes, etc. Elections as are meant here, elections in a bourgeois republic where one member or party of the ruling class is given years to enact their plan for what is best for capital, are inherently a tool of capitalist class domination and must be opposed alongside the rest of this rotten system. but they are not the motor-force of change. Elections can help develop and spread demands, contribute to concessions from the ruling class, Concessions from the ruling class do not come from electoral success but militant action of the working class. When they feel sufficiently threatened, reforms are given out to appease the masses and stablize their domination. Reforms are a tactical decision made by the ruling class when they deem it helpful, they are not a goal communists should aspire to enact. and project a socialist worldview. However, we do not believe that winning elections is the same thing as winning power or changing the balance of class forces. The capitalist state is an anti-worker apparatus that cannot simply be taken over by workers. For that reason, elections are a vehicle towards the development of struggle and independent working class institutions, not an end in themselves. Why would any worker trust a group who infiltrates the capitalist state, enganges with its archaic procedures, and involves itself in the active repression of the working class. You cannot expect any worker to support this party just because it claims, as all other bourgeois parties do, that the other parties are bad but this one is good.

Independent Working Class Institutions

We believe the Democratic Party cannot be reformed or realigned. Every previous effort to do so has weakened and undercut our ability to build the type of struggle organizations that could transcend the choices on offer under a two-party system. There are bourgeois democracies with 8 parties, 10 parties, even more. Is this what Marxists advocate for? The problem with capitalist government is that it is capitalist; it represents the interests of the ruling class. This fact has nothing to do with there only being two bourgeois parties to choose from.

We are for an independent working class membership party and we are open to different tactics and roads to get us there. However, we insist that this strategy and process cannot be deferred down the line to a more favorable moment. A new party can come together as struggle rises, Yes, an International Party of Communists working to help organize the working class towards an international revolution. Not another electoralist party, that history has shown will never be able to participate in or support revolution. we need to prepare for that now. Even people who support the Democrats over the Republicans in elections are more ready to criticize them and advocate a new party than ever before. Socialists should never be the people telling anyone who wants to break from the Democrats that they should stay inside. The socialist movement should be the home for those who yearn for political independence. Political independence must mean from bourgeois politics itself not from one or the other bourgeois parties. If a successful social democratic party were created in the US tomorrow it would follow the path of the various leftist electral parties from history. It would fade into irrelevance or be absorbed again into a larger party. This is because all capitalist parties have the same goal, win elections. Representing the actual interests of the working class is and must always be secondary.

The key ingredient in the formation of new working class organizations and parties is heightened working class self-activity and struggle that raises expectations and makes millions feel that change is possible. The growth of working class organization should go hand in hand with the growth of all wings of the movement, including a revolutionary one. This is the pole of the movement we aim to contribute to building, with the goal of a strong and vibrant revolutionary current, front or organization.

Democracy

Flowing from the centrality of struggle and working class self-activity is an insistence on democracy. Democracy is relevant in multiple ways – from ensuring that our organizations are run by the membership, to the need to defend and expand democratic rights, to the threat of far right authoritarianism. If this involves collaboration with the left wing of capital against the right wing of capital, then this is betrayal of the working class in the worst form. The only way to prevent fascism and other reactionary movements is with the abolition of the material conditions which create them and their rise to popularity, that is, the abolition of capitalism. We believe that the weakness of the organized left goes hand in hand with a lack of organizations through which working class people can participate in political, workplace and community decisions. Whether it is a tenant group, a labor union, a BLM organization, etc, democracy and participation is a crucial factor to the development of working class institutions. The lifeblood of socialist organization, in particular, is a thriving democratic culture.

Labor Strategy

We see working class self-activity and democracy – both inside and outside of the existing trade union movement – as the key roads to winning working class demands and power. Trade unions, which exist to mediate demands between the proletariat and bourgeoisie under the capitalist system, are at this point of capitalist development purely counter-revolutionary and anti-communist organizations similar to social democratic parties. The goal of socialists is not to win working class demands under capitalism, but to overthrow capitalism. We look to workers in their workplaces to organize themselves for their own interests, a rank-and-file labor strategy, which is a political and organizational orientation on the self-activity of workers inside the workers movement. We believe this will facilitate the creation of our goals more than a strategy of building influence through the labor bureaucracy or staffers in the existing unions. For us, the rank-and-file strategy is about much more than simply having socialists inside strategic sectors or getting union jobs. It is about building a socialist wing of the workers movement, fostering bottom-up organizing, and continuing to reverse the 40 year isolation that socialist politics have had from working class institutions. These all absolutely have to be done, but the reasons behind the current state of the socialist movements across the world are not really addressed anywhere in this text. It is not because of a lack of trade union activism (mistaking a symptom for a cause) or a random decrease in self organization. The period of counterrevolution that is only now ending is due to many factors including the large scale bastardization and conflation of Communism with state capitalism perpetuated by the USSR, China, etc, the lack of widely known and mature internationalist communist organizations, and the relative luxury that has up to now been enjoyed by workers within the imperial core, especially in the West. Without understanding the cause of the past failures of communist movements we cannot hope to rebuild as these sentences call for. Through the development of a socialist wing of the workers movement, a strategy for class power can become a reality by overcoming the strategic impediments that have hamstrung the organized labor movement for decades.

Internationalism, Anti-Imperialism & Self Determination

We are internationalists. We support working class self activity in every country and oppose the borders that physically, violently, and ideologically divide workers from one another. We are always on the side of ordinary people in their quest for democracy and self-determination and liberation against authoritarian rule. While we are not opposed to these per se. It is another selection of language that sows more confusion than clarity. The quest for Communism involves the establishment of the only form of true democracy, the only end to authoritarian rule, the only possibility for real self-determination free from the control of capitalist society. We must clearly and consistently call for only workers’ democracy, in a system of workers councils with delegates representing a specific mandate straight from the workers who elected that delegate. Specific language when talking about these concepts is necessary to avoid moralist or idealistic claims that rely on vague concepts rather than material aims.

We are principally opposed to imperialism, which we understand to be the manifestation of capitalist relations at the level of the nation-state. Imperialism is not an abstract concept, it is the inevitable outgrowth of a system built on profit and competition between capitalist states. As the economic crisis intensifies, so too will ramped up rivalries between different countries. Military activity is part of the package of attacks on working class people internationally.

We vehemently oppose US imperialism, which has destroyed the lives of our brothers and sisters across the world and has served as the justification for amped up islamophobia and xenophobia. We also hold a principled opposition to all imperial interests that are competing for international power. Instead of choosing sides with one imperial bloc over the other, we look to the strengthening of working class solidarity internationally as the central opposition to capitalism.

As socialists in the world’s biggest imperial power — in a country founded on settler-colonialism — we see our support for the struggles of indigenous, colonized and occupied people as a cornerstone of anti-imperialism. From Turtle Island to Palestine and beyond, our internationalism is inextricable from national liberation. If your internationalism “is inextricable from national liberation” then it is not worthy of the word. National liberation is the support of class collaboration within an “oppressed nation” as a means to uplift that country as a stronger actor on the bourgeois international stage. That is to say, rather than support of international revolution, this is the promotion of bourgeois nationalism, backed up only by a misplaced desire to assist particularly oppressed people along nationalist lines. By perpetuating this understanding you are doing a disservice to the working class of the nation/s at hand who will be brought from under the rule of one ruling class into the rule of another. The brutal legacy of imperialism can only be truly addressed when the working class of the whole world is free as one, and thus able to collaborate freely for the building of a new just system for all (communism). You are at the same time misleading the international working class into organizing around individual struggles that ultimately amount to reshuffling the capitalist world order rather than doing the essential work of preparing its downfall and replacement with communism.

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1. Political Independence

We want DSA to free itself from the Democratic Party The Democratic Party is not itself the reason that capitalism cannot be reformed into socialism. It’s own capitalist character is only a symptom of the necessities of entering the electoralist system. To assume that this could be in some way changed is entirely Non-Marxist. and all other capitalist influences.

Marxist Unity Group strives to transform DSA into an independent socialist party. That is, to transform an apparatus of the bourgeois state into something revolutionary. Independence means establishing a distinct public profile for DSA with our own platform, branding, and rhetoric. It also means building our own institutions and our own party discipline in the halls of power. “The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” -Marx Communist Manifesto. The ruling class has put all of its energy into ensuring that class struggle is relegated to their bourgeois electoral system. The halls of power are exactly where they want us. We would stand with unwavering confidence in our cause, never watering down our socialist vision or subordinating our interests to those of a capitalist party. Any party operating within the capitalist system with the goals of achieving electoral success under capitalism is in effect a capitalist party.

Together, we would cultivate a popular mandate for revolution Support for revolution comes not from idealist notions or belief in the supremacy of socialism, but from the realization brought upon by material conditions in the proletariat that they must either overthrow the system, or die. by running militant socialist candidates for public office—while simultaneously organizing grassroots institutions of working class power. We would create party-affiliated media, community services, mutual aid and defensive organizations. Within the labor movement, we would fight the existing labor bureaucracy, build militant and democratic unions, History has demonstrated that unions have become organizations which by their vary nature can no longer be progressive or helpful to the socialist movement. and strive to win these unions to socialist politics. As we nurture a vast ecosystem of socialist-allied institutions, our socialist party will simultaneously become a mass movement: a party-movement. Together, we would cultivate a popular mandate for revolution by running militant socialist candidates for public office—while simultaneously organizing grassroots institutions of working class power. We would create party-affiliated media, community services, mutual aid and defensive organizations. Within the labor movement, we would fight the existing labor bureaucracy, build militant and democratic unions, and strive to win these unions to socialist politics. As we nurture a vast ecosystem of socialist-allied institutions, our socialist party will simultaneously become a mass movement: a party-movement.

Marxist Unity Group calls for immediate steps towards political independence. We become a party by acting like one. For us, the ‘break’ with the Democrats The DSA and electoralism* is a continuous process that must begin in earnest right now. This will require courage and faith in our ability to succeed as an independent movement, but we believe that the socialist movement is worthy of that faith. We support a transition towards independent campaigns wherever ballot access laws make this readily achievable In other words, wherever the ruling class finds it useful to vent class tension with symbolic wins that do not threaten the base of their control. —even if this causes a temporary decrease in our number of electoral victories. Which is to say the end goal is continued and further venting of class struggle into the dead end of electoralism. Building a distinct socialist constituency is the paramount task of our political era, and independent campaigns help us cultivate loyalty that is completely disconnected from loyalty to the Democratic Party.

2. Programmatic Unity

We want a program to guide DSA’s political work.

To achieve political independence, we must learn to act with greater unity and determination. This is an idealist notion that pits the failures of reformism to progress humanity towards socialism, not on the inherent characteristics of reform (IE, a materialist understanding), but rather on the failure, ineptitude, and foolishness of previous reformists. We want a disciplined, self-reliant organization that is run democratically by its rank and file members. What holds parties together is agreement on final goals, not minor immediate tactical concerns. Let us take for example that one of our goals is, through the abolishment of capitalism, the end of homelessness. Given this goal, should we work with those that also wish to end homelessness, but rather than through revolution, by killing all homeless people. By the Marxist Unity Group’s own logic, such minor tactical concerns should be ceded in the name of programmatic unity. As non-idealists and communists however our answer is no. Reformism kills proletarians. This approach is called programmatic unity: unity based on common struggle for essential political goals, rather than on dogmatic purity That is to say, reforms over revolution. Unity of theoretical revolutionary final goals means nothing when the immediate actions taken by a group lead to the destruction of the class struggle. or vague slogans that obscure our true objectives. Acceptance of a political program with specific demands on the state is how the first mass socialist parties succeeded in winning the working class of their countries by the millions. This refers to a specific history of which only some is told. Here is the full story: The social democratic movements being referred to did indeed achieve popular success and win reforms, but when those same movements were faced with an imperialist world war (World War 1) they were so integrated into the bourgeois system that they shamefully supported the war as a means to preserve their movement’s credibility within the system. This led to 17 million people dying in the war which helped cause the Revolutionary wave starting in 1917. In response to this spontaneous action of the working class the social democratic parties aligned with the state to suppress the revolutions at every turn. They slaughtered revolutionaries, subverted class autonomy, and empowered the reactionary militias that would become a bulwark of early 20th century fascism. To evoke this movement as an example for the modern era is extremely distressing. A program provides direction on the political demands that will establish socialism and democratic rule by the working class without prescribing a narrow tactical route.

Marxist Unity Group works towards adopting a minimum-maximum program for DSA. We view both the ‘minimum’ and ‘maximum’ program as essential. The minimum program refers to the party’s comprehensive platform: the policies that it will immediately implement upon taking power to establish working-class political rule and place society on the path of a socialist transition out of capitalism. The maximum program refers to the results of this process: a world free of the market, borders, classes, and all other oppressive structures that exist under capitalism—in a word, communism. Centering programmatic politics will restore the sense of unity and purpose that socialists enjoyed during the Sanders campaigns. The campaign to elect a reformist social democrat to office. In otherwords an anticommunist movement. However, our program will have much more ambitious aims, and instead of belonging to a single candidate, it will be developed democratically by the entire socialist movement. They see the problem with this non-communist campaign not that it was non-communist, but that its strategy wasn’t extended to other bourgeois politicians as well.

We would like to make ‘program acceptance’ the basis of DSA membership. Acceptance does not mean agreeing with everything in the program. It simply means being willing to fight for the program as an expression of the movement’s democratically-elaborated aims. Members would have the right to organize for specific changes to the program at conventions. Members will be free to publicly voice disagreement with any majority decision, as long as they can accept the decision as legitimate and assist with its implementation. This is the true meaning of democratic centralism.

3. Electoral Discipline

We want socialist electoral candidates to represent the socialist movement Any movement involving electoral candidates in capitalism is by definition not a socialist one as socialism is the movement to abolish capitalism through international working class revolution.

Discipline and cohesion are another foundation of our political independence. If DSA candidates are truly dedicated to socialist politics, they should run together on a common DSA platform. Even if some are elected on a Democratic ballot line, they should form their own legislative caucuses, vote as a bloc, and refuse to join the Democratic Party caucus. They should also campaign for other socialists, refuse to endorse non-socialists, and only take the wage of a typical union worker. With these assertive political tactics, our candidates will rise as ‘tribunes of the people’: organized representatives of the socialist movement. DSA members have already implemented some elements of this approach in the New York state legislature, but we would like to formalize and universalize it. Horse-trading and spineless compromise have failed to truly advance socialist politics. We will always embrace the struggle for reforms, This passage speaks for itself. Reform of this system reinforces it, allowing its indescribable harm to all life on Earth to continue longer. but we want socialists to conduct that struggle out in the open and win concessions by acting as an intransigent opposition. Instead of cutting backroom deals as a junior coalition partner, socialist electeds can use their platform to raise the expectations of the working class and mobilize it to force concessions from the capitalists.

4. Nationwide Struggle

We want socialists to treat U.S. politics as a nationwide While this document acknowledges the international nature of imperialism, it is telling that no section takes the position that, at the very least, the primary focus of their group is within national confines, but the entire movement must be international. Rather than uniting with Communists around the world to form a unified party, MUG seeks to unite with liberals within the united states and fight US imperialism within national boundaries as the full extent of its so called “internationalism”. struggle for power

As socialists in the United States, we live in a reactionary political culture that encourages us to think small. Americans are taught to believe that all problems should be solved locally, and socialists often accept this logic by confining themselves to isolated local campaigns, assuming that this is where ‘real change happens.’ Yet despite our backwards federal system, the United States is not an alliance of city-states or a network of 20,000 police departments. It is a colossal empire propped up by the most powerful military on Earth. Even local police are armed, trained, and integrated by the federal government. If we ignore national politics, we will become blind to the true nature of our oppressors. We will obscure their nationwide abuse of the working class, not to mention their imperialist crimes in every corner of the world. Local organizing is an indispensable foundation of our movement, but it will be infinitely more effective when it is connected to a nationwide, pan-American, and global vision for working class revolution.

Marxist Unity Group will work to increase DSA acting as a nationwide organization. We will build nationwide collaboration and debate through DSA’s national committees and also through developing a lively party press. We support efforts to lift chapters out of parochialism by increasing member communication across chapter lines, maintaining staffing levels required to make member-led organizing possible at the national level while ensuring fair pay and working conditions, and by integrating locals into larger state-level organizations. It is also why we want DSA to run an organized slate of socialist candidates to contest the House of Representatives. By conducting principled agitation in the halls of Congress, socialists can deliver a common message to every corner of the country. While we use the federal government as a bully pulpit, our candidates could also use their public profiles to support state and municipal organizing efforts. Federal, state, and local struggles—strikes, electoral campaigns, and mass demonstrations—will all be fused together in one grand movement that demands nothing less than a working-class, socialist revolution.

5. Fight the Imperial Police State

We want socialists to challenge the repressive structures of the capitalist state.

U.S. socialists have a duty to stand firmly against militarism and police tyranny, beginning with a clear opposition to the imperialist designs of our own state. In the belly of the American empire, any socialist program must firmly oppose (neo)colonialism and advance the principles of national self-determination “the working class has no nation” -Marx, The Communist Manifeso. Capitalism in the 21st century entails a system where nation states form together in imperialist blocs which compete with one another for economic control, that is, who has the right to exploit the workers and natural resources of certain regions. National Liberation amounts to supporting the creation of a new national ruling class from that nation that will go on to join alongside one imperialist power bloc or another and will continue to exploit the working class of that territory.—that each country must be sovereign to decide its own affairs, free from military coercion or economic extortion. This means taking a defeatist stance against our country’s All* wars, including those engaged by proxies and through military alliances like NATO, as well as cruel economic sanctions and military and diplomatic cover for colonial occupation, police repression, and ethnic cleansing.

But a defeatist stance against U.S. imperialism must exist alongside a revolutionary commitment to politically-independent international action. A lasting transition to socialism in any one country is impossible, and the working class can only emancipate itself on an international scale. The decline of much of the socialist movement in the 20th century into variant forms of nationalism and popular frontism —from the official communist ‘national roads to socialism’ to the earlier capitulation of social democracy to ‘defense of the nation’ during WWI—have equally led to strategic dead-ends and tragic defeat. Though the working class of any country must first of all ‘come to terms with its own bourgeoisie,’ domestic reforms are only partial victories for an international class.

The socialist movement takes a leading role in expressing this international character in several ways, such as coordinated international strike action — like the historic May Day strikes —fiercely combating anti-immigrant chauvinism, and organizing to defend and extend the civil liberties of the migrant working class. Yet how does the MUG propose this is done? For them, this means engaging in electoralism for the defense of civil liberties. As actual communists, we do not organize to defend the civil liberties of the migrant working class (which are in reality only the right to be exploited more efficiently), but the migrant working class itself through the abolition of the very system that exploits them. As its far-reaching political objective, our party should commit to building fraternal ties with class-independent socialist parties towards the horizon of a new International.

With every tool available to us, we must erode the political, cultural, and physical hegemony of the U.S. police state. The affirmative votes of DSA-endorsed electeds for military and cop budgets, arms shipments to US vassal states, and the legal condemnation of anti-Zionism, all serve to weaken the socialist project for human emancipation. It is insufficient for socialist legislators to rhetorically criticize excessive military spending. They should be bound by our program to force a genuine public confrontation over the matter by refusing to vote for military, police, national security and intelligence budgets. By building a genuine and disciplined party infrastructure, DSA legislators and councilors would be on the forefront of a nation-wide confrontation with the imperialist state, exposing the interconnectedness of police and military brutality.

As we wage immediate struggles against repressive capitalist institutions like police departments and ICE, a socialist vision for abolitionism requires concrete, programmatic commitment to alternative, radically democratic political institutions, recognizing that abolition is impossible without the working class taking state power into its own hands. Agreed! The problem is that your definition of “seizing state power” is by playing by the rules of a system established by and for the ruling class. Rather than engaging within these systems (which has lead to failure over and over again) it is clear that the working class must overthrow and entirely supercede the ruling class and it’s governments that exist only to maintain its rule as a class. “the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes” Marx, The Civil War in France The racist militarized border regime will be replaced by an open border, Yes but to be more exact it would be better to say that borders as a concept would no longer exist. With the abolition of nations there are no borders, open or closed. with complete freedom of movement for all peoples and universal citizenship for residents. The armed forces of international capital—the prison industrial complex, police, and the military—will be replaced by a democratic and popular militia, flowing from the working class and the oppressed’s organs of self-defense established under capitalism—defined by the right to bear arms, the sovereignty of the people, universal service and training, and a rigorous community control coexisting with the democratic rights of members.

6. Fight the Contitution

We want socialists to fight to overthrow the Constitution This is still technically reformism. Why the Constitution? The constitution didn’t form capitalism, it doesn’t give the ruling class its power. It was created by the ruling class after it had established itself as such. We must overthrow the entire capitalist system and replace it with a Communist one. Destroying the Constitution will be but one part of this process.

Marxist Unity opposes a constitution that was written by a ‘holy alliance’ of capitalists and slavers to make the United States a perpetual oligarchy. Oligarchy is just one form that capitalist firms can take the shape of. This implies that capitalism without oligarchy is what we aim for or is at least preferable as a form of capitalism. As Communists, we simply cannot pick and choose which kind of capitalism is best, because we seek its abolition no matter its exact manifestation. There can be no question of submitting to a political order that exists to divide and conquer the working class, that slices up the government and divorces it from the will of the people—that is set in stone and almost impossible to amend. Black people cannot be free under a constitution written by slaveholders; Capitalism* indigenous people cannot win sovereignty under a constitution designed to facilitate their elimination; women cannot be free under a constitution written before they had the right to vote, Capitalism.* and working people cannot be free under a constitution that enshrines private property. Capitalism* No one can be truly free if they are forced to bow to a reactionary constitution written by the dead. We want socialist leaders to erode the popular legitimacy of the U.S. Constitution through combative political agitation: never bowing to the old order, and always acknowledging the need for a working class revolution in the United States.

The socialist revolution will not base its legitimacy on the laws of the slaveholder constitution. Capitalism is not bad because it had slavery at one point, and owning slaves is not the reason why the words of these bourgeois revolutionaries who we are taught are our “founding fathers” are illegitimate. They were bourgeois revolutionaries who established a bourgeois republic, which means it is inherently against the interests of the entire working class. It is because these institutions (established by people who owned slaves) stand in material opposition to our interests as a class that we oppose them, not because of their ethical character. We will base it on a democratic majority mandate for socialism. This majority may be expressed by the popular vote of an election, but it does not have to take that form if the state represses our ability to contest elections. We stand for the right of the working class to take power by any means necessary. To win a socialist republic, millions of working people must be mobilized in their workplaces, at the ballot box, Again, mobilization towards the left wing of capital only encourages radicalized workers to fall for bourgeois reformist lies. and in the street. We recognize that the capitalist class relies on the minoritarian rule of the U.S. Constitution, and they will not give it up peacefully. The working class will need armed self-defense to protect itself from the inevitable violence of reaction. We also recognize that we must fight for the democratic rights of enlisted U.S. soldiers. This piece speaks at length about the abolition of the very document that ensures these bourgeois rights, the constitution. Yet later it says we should fight for the “rights” of other proletarians in the hopes this will win them over, rather than class based organization around the fact that we must unite along our shared interest in abolishing all of capitalism and its false “democratic rights” along with it. As a section of the working class, soldiers share our inherent interest to overthrow the very system that guarantees these supposed “rights” (bourgeois ideology designed to placate the masses and uplift the property rights of the ruling class). To complete a successful revolution, we must win a decisive section of the military rank and file over to our side.

7. Demand a New Republic, Finish Reconstruction

We want to win a plurinational democratic socialist republic in North America. In other words, the establishment of a newer, larger, and more efficiently deceptive capitalist republic in the likes of modern china.

We fight the Constitution to win a democratic socialist republic in North America, to complete the partial overthrow of the constitutional order by the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, and to finish the project of Reconstruction by establishing a multiracial and multinational democracy ruled by the toilers of society. Forged in revolution, this continental republic will strive for the global liberation of all working and oppressed people. We desire the widest possible geographic scope for such a state so that it can most effectively carry out this mission, but we also recognize the principle of national self-determination. To reiterate, nation states (which all counties are) are a method of social organization that inherently requires a ruling class to enforce their existence (borders do not exist without armies or checkpoints to enforce them). We cannot organize around the desire for any ethnic group, imagined community, or historical nationality to have a ruling class of its own. To advocate for this is to advocate for anti-communism. All indigenous and colonized peoples must win sovereignty, including those living within the current borders of the United States. No oppressed nation will be incorporated into the socialist republic against its will. In effect meaning that the subject that holds sovereignty is not classes, not even individuals, but nations. If a new nation with a new ruling class is formed within the borders of the current US, this document tells us we would have to accept their domination over whatever territory they could control through force. Should you find yourself as a worker on a native reservation or whatever other circumstance this quote applies to, you would simply be subjected to the rule of a new ruling class.

Alongside ecological and economic crises, the minoritarian and sclerotic constitutional order will contribute to massive political crises in the coming decades. This period of crisis will provide our class with an opportunity to topple the old order and convene a revolutionary Popular Assembly: a majoritarian constitutional convention elected by all the people. Again utterly infeasible given the history of bourgeois democracy in the US. This would take generations of effort to build towards and even then it could only achieve goals that are within the framework of the original government set up by the bourgeois centuries ago. Under the democratic leadership of a victorious socialist party, the Popular Assembly will proceed to construct the socialist order. It will dismantle the slaveholder constitution and write the founding documents of the new republic.

Immediately upon taking power, socialists will implement a sweeping minimum program to cement working class political rule. We will need to destroy every institution that denies the people an authentic popular democracy, abolishing the Senate, the Electoral College, the Supreme Court, and the independent presidency. We will implement direct, universal, and equal suffrage. Supreme power will rest in the hands of a popular, unicameral assembly elected by proportional representation. All power must be held by workers councils and assemblies. The establishment of this system the only method for bringing about a truly socialist society. What they propose instead is simply a more progressive form of the bourgeois republic. A direct example of independent workers councils being replaced by the bourgeois form of government that republican assemblies are occurred during betrayal of the Communists by the Social Democrats in the 1918 German revolution. Delegates will be recallable at any time and will receive no more than a skilled worker’s wage. This implies two problematic elements, first, that we retain wage labor. Second, that the members of the governmental bodies of socialist society (the councils) are not also workers themselves. All parties that accept the laws of the new revolutionary order will be free to operate. Local organs of government will have a wide degree of autonomy. Unrestricted freedom of speech will be guaranteed to all. To make good on the unfulfilled promise of Reconstruction, our republic will launch social programs of targeted wealth redistribution, striving to eliminate all racial inequalities. The socialist republic will put political power and economic resources into the hands of all racially oppressed and colonized people.

Our broader economic program will include unimpeded labor and union rights, a massive reduction in working hours, and a truly universal welfare state that provides for all citizens from cradle to grave. We will create programs to reduce the power of bureaucrats and teach administrative skills to all workers. Worker self-management will be encouraged to the greatest extent achievable in every industry. Large industry will be placed under collective ownership early on, and we will progressively socialize the rest of the economy as we build our capacity for democratic economic planning. We will pursue crash course programs to address the ecological crisis and establish resilient forms of production, distribution and habitation. Climate refugees will be welcomed into our republic with open arms.

With the shackles of the old order broken, the working class will finally have the power to remake society on egalitarian lines. In cooperation with the global socialist movement, we will move closer with every passing year to a fully liberated classless society: communism. Communism abolishes money, class distinctions, racial discrimination, patriarchy, national boundaries, oppressive gender roles, the mental/manual division of labor, and all other forms of social oppression. It is a society truly based on the principle “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need,” where humanity collectively plans its economic activities through a free association of labor. Communism brings freedom to both society and the individual and will be the true beginning of human history.

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Click to Expand Me This is an explanation of our critique.

For a Communism for the 21st century

Our emergent strategy draws from global liberation movements (By which you actually mean national liberation movements) while adapting to present circumstances. (By which you actually mean abandoning the class struggle and instead advocating for reforms on the premises of possibilism).

Our framework: The need for working class revolution in our lifetime is urgent. Our world’s resources should be used for the wellbeing of all people — but instead, oligarchs By focusing on oligarchs specifically, you fail to see that it is not the people in charge that are the problem but the system of capital as a whole. As a result, you simultaneously allow for the argumentation that it is preferable to have a large class of smaller capitalists instead of a few large ones and as such open yourself to alliance with and cooption by capital. enrich themselves at the expense of our lives and the planet. As the working class is exploited by the capitalist class, so too is the Global South by the Global North. Imperialism and colonialism continue to appropriate the bodies and ecologies of the peoples of the world to develop the excesses of Western society. This argument pits the struggle as the oppressed workers of the global south against the indulgent workers of the global north, many of whom are themsevles impoverished. This is in contrast to an actual class struggle which nessecitates the organization of the whole proletariat against the bourgeious system of capital.

Our moment: At home and abroad, liberation movements resist the poverty and war the U.S. government Imperialism is practiced by all capitalist power blocs, with the US and its allies simply being the currently strongest of them. Furthermore, the state is itself merely a sympton of the class distinctions present under capitalism, which exists globally. By focusing critique on one of many imperialist blocs, you open yourself to collaboration with the interests of the other capitalist sects. imposes upon them. The world system ruled by 20th century capitalism is ending. If we are going to take a meaningful role in that transformation, we must engage in a parallel struggle, stitching together diverse social forces to organize a mass front against global imperialism and domestic carceral fascism. To construct a world-changing solidarity, we organize locally, identifying where class confrontation is already happening — in the street, at the ballot box The state is not an unaligned mediator between classes but an instrument of bourgeois oppression and control against the proletariat. As such, elections are not a grounds for class struggle but a tactically conceded propaganda tool to justify bourgeois society and rule. , against prisons and detention centers, and in our neighborhoods. Our organizing aims to erode relationships of domination and build collective power, so that we may chart our shared destiny in unity.

Our inspiration: To ground our principles and inform our tactics, we look to Marxist theory and liberatory projects around the world. We study how communist parties operated in the Russian , Chinese, and Cuban Revolutions Neither the Chinese nor Cuban revolutions were actually socialist revolutions, but rather national liberation struggles. To quote Lenin: In calling the Chinese and Cuban revolutions Communist, DSA “was guided by their name, that is, by a word, and not by the actual place they occupy in the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. What a wonderful understanding and application of Marxism!”, and how anti-colonial movements fought for liberation in Algeria, Vietnam, and Burkina Faso. The liberation of the nations and national bourgeoisie of Algeria, Vietnam, and Burkina Faso, not the liberation of workers (who’s conditions and relations to production remained ultimately unchanged). We look to historical struggles in the U.S., like Reconstruction (A series of liberal reforms), the rise of the Black Panther Party (A national liberation movement), and the American Indian Movement (A national liberation movement), and reflect on the gains and challenges faced by recent projects like the Palestinian resistance movement, the Latin American Pink Tide, and the George Floyd uprising.

Our implementation: We are partisans of this global tradition, analyzing, criticizing, and continuing the work of generations before. But we also intend to transform along with our conditions. Thus, we emphasize deliberation, democracy and diversity as keys to our adaptive method. We are proudly a multi-tendency communist caucus. We view our diversity of ideologies, roots and lived experiences as a tool in the synthesis of developing new strategies for our present circumstances.

For the Abolition of Domination and Exclusion

Liberation requires prison abolition – which we fight for in solidarity with the oppressed on their own terms, against expansion of the carceral state and in pursuit of transformative justice.

Our present society rests on division of the working class through identity-based oppression, upheld by the carceral state. Incarceration, criminalization,and police violence are tactics forged from slavery to visibly keep the marginalized in line, disproportionately targeting Black and brown people. Therefore, we stake our struggle for a communist horizon in abolition, as it unites those whose oppressions intersect: Indigenous, Black, and brown people; women; trans and queer people; disabled people; immigrant, undocumented, and colonized people; sex workers and others outside of the formal economy; and the currently and formerly incarcerated. For a supposedly communist program that says they “struggle for a communist horizon” it is telling that especially oppressed minorities are mentioned here but there is zero mention of the fact that all members of the working class have an inherent interest to work together as a class. This is the essential basis for Communist revolution and it cannot be substituted by any other means, including intersectional alliances between minority groups.

Our practice of abolition centers solidarity. We show up in the streets to combat the criminalization of Black life, houselessness, and poverty. We rally for bodily autonomy for women and all trans and gender non-conforming people. We mobilize against police brutality; we train ourselves and others in harm reduction for drug users. We defend our neighbors against ICE and agitate to demilitarize our borders. We call for reparations for chattel slavery and Jim Crow Under capitalism, such reparations (morally good as they may be) will never be feasibly possible. Under communism, the conditions that nessecitate them will themselves be abolished; for land back and sovereignty to indigenous peoples That is, sovereignty for an indigenous ruling class to oppress indigenous workers. Additionally, not including the entirety of the proletariat in the communist struggle is not a winning strategy for overthrowing a system as powerful as global capitalism.. By committing to abolition, we confront the ideology that justifies the carceral state Firstly, the job of communists is not to confront the ideologies of the ruling class, which are at all times the ruling ideas; but to overthrow the economic conditions which create them. Secondly, by committing to the overthrow of the police state within the confines of capitalism, you are in fact reinforcing the liberal ideology that positive change can be fought for and won under capitalism. and conceals its true function: as a machine of domination and violence, in service of nothing other than capital.

For Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism

Unequal exchange binds workers of the world together in an exploitative hierarchy, which we must help topple from within the empire There is not only one singular empire under global capitalism, but many. Each of whom will use any weakening in the other to advance their own position.

Our place in society is largely determined by where we are born. For the same labor, workers in the Global South are paid a fraction of what workers are paid in the Global North, all to fuel development in Western nations at the expense of their own livelihoods and security. The U.S. and its allies, such as NATO Again what about the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian states who also leverage economic, political, and military power for their own interest at the expense of both the global and their national working class., use their militaries and global financial institutions to maintain this unequal worldsystem and violently smother socialist states and liberation struggles all over the world. As socialists in the imperial core, we must oppose all interventions that uphold the empire There are several competing empires around the world. — military, economic, or otherwise — and fight for a world economy which is planned to allow all humanity to flourish.

Accordingly, Emerge seeks to incorporate anti-imperialism in DSA’s labor activism and legislative campaigns Reform of the current system is an anti-communist activity. Rather than enabling the unequal dynamics of world trade to benefit U.S. workers alone, we must grow the militancy and solidarity of our labor movement so it opposes oligarchy Again, by focusing on oligarchs specifically, you fail to see that it is not the people in charge that are the problem but the system of capital as a whole. and colonialism everywhere. Likewise, we must advocate not just for “green growth” for the West, but for ecosocialist policy built on principles of just global transition and respect for all life. Beyond working to improve the lives of Americans, our elected officials should publicly oppose the endless warfare and sanctions the U.S.-led regime exports around the globe. They would be powerless in challenging the material realities of our system which make imperialism necessary and would instead vent frustration and radicalism into electoral dead ends. To combat capitalism we must confront imperialism.

For Democratic Working Class Organization and Movements

The working class is not an existing force waiting to be awakened. It must be actively built and unified through local organizing work, street movements, electoral projects, and coalition building. This is a complete rejection of the basic materialist fundamentals of communism. The working class is “awakened” as a political force neither by the actions of great men of history nor by the actions of political parties, but by the economic conditions of the system they live under.

Given our strategic position between movements, labor, and the state, (A tool of bourgeois domination over the proletariat) DSA should be a connective tissue of the left ecosystem By which you mean an alliance of the proletariat with the left wing of capital. and a strong collaborator and leader. This means forging broad coalitions and developing new DSA members by organizing at existing and emergent sites of working class struggle. (Coopting working class struggle into liberal reformism) Emerge members work in their local communities within organizations like labor unions (Which are inherently counter-revolutionary organizations that seek only to mediate between capital and the proletariat), tenant unions, and community safety networks, building avenues for working class autonomy and class struggle independent of the nonprofit industrial complex. Emerge also builds with street movements to practice security culture and self defense, both to stand our communal ground and to prepare for direct action in crisis. We believe antifascist organizing (which entails siding with the left wing of capital against the right wing of capital and has always ended horribly for the working class) is fundamental to building bonds in ongoing collective struggle and keeping attuned to possibilities for revolutionary breaks.

Electoral work is a critical site of such collective struggle. Electoralism reinforces the capitalist system. When socialists are elected, they can popularize demands, legislate to increase working class power, and expose the repressive mechanisms of bourgeois democracy from within. In doing so, their offices can become sites of community organization. When social democrats are elected as a last resort to curb independent class struggle, they ideologically and materially disarm the working class and allow for capital to institute fascist counter-revolutionary practice. However, in Emerge, we do not equate a seat at the table with actual power in an inherently hostile state. To actually transform society, we need independent movements that can open space for our electeds to operate That abolish the bourgeois electoral system and the system of capital itself.*, through applying external pressure and bolstering defense from reactionary forces.

For Collective Care, Equity, and Democratic Culture

To sustain our movement through lifelong struggle, we prioritize equity, practice accountability, and enshrine democracy in our internal culture.

The struggle to abolish all forms of oppression begins with our own organizational practices. Aware of our upbringing in patriarchal, chauvinist mores, we strive to maintain gender and racial parity in our caucus membership, to evenly spread reproductive labor, and to guarantee shared ownership of our decisions through transparent processes. Because we view democracy as the means of building socialism, The democratic workers councils will be the fundamental organizational organ by which decisions are made under socialism, but this form of true democracy is not to be conflated with the system of bourgeois dictatorship that the electoral system resides within. It is plausible that you could be discussing either here, but that is in and of itself an indictment of your failure to distance the class struggle from reformism. we check the tide of majority rule and actively foster consensus, which sets the foundation for taking nimble action “at the speed of trust” when circumstances require it.

As disability is a feature, not a failing, of the human experience, we work to dismantle ableist attitudes and infrastructure. We prioritize making our caucus more equitable, and develop practices to ensure our spaces are safe, accessible, and nurturing. We esteem mutual aid as an essential form of political work and a critical element of caucus life, grounding our collective care efforts in its principles. Mutual aid is morally good, but not socialist in and of itself.

We consider debate an important tool to develop our collective thought, and value disagreement as a sign of good faith engagement. We work to meet each other where we’re at with patience and a learning mindset, acknowledging harm when it occurs and seeking opportunities for growth. In doing so, we deepen our politics, our practice as organizers, and our bonds as comrades that will sustain us in the long fight we face together.

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