It kind of sucks that we have this lockdown going on, and meetings can’t happen. I don’t think people are as receptive to “Hey want to join a zoom call w/ me?” compared to just asking if they want to come to a meeting with you.
Probably majorly hampered the recruitment efforts.
I’m really disappointed to see DSA do this campaign when they already have very low membership engagement. Of the 500 members my local chapter claims maybe 80 of them are active. That is being generous.
Trying to get more people to join without first addressing their large, disengaged membership leaves a bad taste in my mouth. They are not effectively utilizing their base, already. They do not need to grow.
Feels more like an MLM scam than an attempt to build political power, especially with that “Recruit three people with this code, and get a free DSA hat!” promotional lol
Wait but who the fuck has a political group where most of the people are going to meetings?
Wait but who the fuck has a political group where most of the people are going to meetings?
I’m talking about any type of activity. If 80 people were showing up to meetings, that would be one thing.
The bulk of the membership are people who switched their monthly Bernie donation to DSA dues. I have not seen a campaign in DSA to address this problem, and yet they are trying to expand their membership.
Also, every party I have been in (besides DSA) has had membership expectations.
The bulk of the membership are people who switched their monthly Bernie donation to DSA dues.
So they have a bunch of money to do things. I can’t see anything wrong with that…
These are two separate issues and i hate that i have to explain to people how growing the largest socialist movement in decades is not a bad thing.
These are two separate issues
Organizations have a limited capacity. An organization is where they focus their labor, and nothing more.
I’m disappointed to see DSA move closer towards the UK Labor Party strategy: more focus on mass-membership, less focus on base-building. It is a fragile organizing strategy that has a bad history of success.
You can’t have a “base” in an organization with 5 digit membership in a country of 325 million. The CPUSA had almost 75,000 official members at its peak in a country of 125 million. And the risks of being a CPUSA member in the 30s were much higher than being a DSA member.
Can’t part of an organization focus their effort to growing, and another part on building a base?
This is literally the first time the org has had any sort of membership recruitment drive.
Feels more like an MLM scam
What did the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists ever do to you? 😤
It’s hinging on the hope of action being catalytic, I think.
The more people show up, the more people think “oh shit this is really happening” and so it goes. Realistically, membership engagement is always going to be low with stuff like this–work, kids, and so on. Can’t say this is the best way forward, though.
Yeah I hope this is it. I basically never go to meetings because nothing happens…
Yeah they may not be communists but they have a place in shifting the overall perception of socialism to the point where we can introduce communism.
Idk where people get the idea that DSA is going to push me towards communism. Basically every single DSA person I’ve ever met is wholly subsumed by liberal hegemony and will drop everything to try and get a social fascist elected dogcatcher. Like they’re still just trying to elect “”“”“”““socialists””“”“”“” to city council here in Baltimore as if that’s going to do a fucking thing. I know different chapters have different characteristics but honestly the class character of DSA as a whole is petit bourgeois. Isn’t it like 30% of their members make over $100k/yr?
Alienating folks because they make a high wage is silly. If they work for a living then they likely identify more with you than their multi-millionaire CEO. Also, a post-revolution society will need individuals who are currently paid well under our capitalist system. Shunning potential class traitors moves them right.
If they work for a living then they likely identify more with you than their multi-millionaire CEO.
The CEO also “works for a living.”
It’s not about shunning people, but recognizing how the class composition of an organization affects it’s politics
This is definitely true in terms of electoralism but I can’t really be entirely against them given how much their organising efforts are genuinely helping. They’ve got some good organisers that do good work and even if it’s helping them grow I think it’s helping all the left grow, particularly when libs show up to protests and get shot at by cops for doing nothing at all.
and will drop everything to try and get a social fascist elected dogcatcher.
I don’t think we’ll ever get to “vote” for socialism so in that sense I’m anti-electoralism… but how is this a bad thing? Someone like Lee Carter is able to get into the system and at least try and make things better for the working class. So it has the two-pronged effect of maybe improving people’s lives a little and definitely showing the public that we care about the working class and want to fight for them.
I mean, DSA = electoralism. And while electoralism is limited, if you think it’s a worthwhile endeavor then I dunno, DSA seems pretty alright to me.
Isn’t it like 30% of their members make over $100k/yr?
Who else is gonna shell out $50 annually to join a political party?
shifting the overall perception of socialism
the Overton Window is idealism not materialism
Maybe if we just change the ideas in everyone’s heads the material reality will change :liberalism:
It’s not incorrect that the residue of McCarthyism and American culture has put up an obstacle between the working class and socialism.
People aren’t going to have their material conditions deteriorate to an arbitrary point then suddenly say “hm, yes, time for Communism” if they’ve been primed to hate anything to do with socialism since birth.
There’s also a big controversy in PSL about this same thing too. Whats up with creeps doing this shit?
Might be some lib shit, but most people who want power probably shouldn’t have it. Most of them are in it only for themselves.
I’m in the seattle DSA and I think I heard about this. Are you too or is it just that prevalent?
Holy shit, I was in that chapter. We’ve probably met.
I left in May (yay graduation!), and I’ve still not decided what was up with that chapter. I’m like 65% sure that whole incident was an op by some folks who had decided to go Red Guard and smash the social fash.
As in, they’d literally been praising the KC Red Guard after that infamous photo of dweebs waiting for their turn on the Xbox, and then beating up a geriatric. Then a couple months later they tried to stay in leadership and wanted to purge the chapter.
But, some of the chapter leadership were definitely sus. I did some poking around after it all blew up, and decided just to quietly slide on to another state come graduation.
talking to the people who’ve been in DSA longer than me, it comes across as extremely “boys club” even if a lot of them are women or nonbinary. It seems to be self serving first and about membership action second.
i am still paying a monthly membership because this was basically just conjecture and i don’t know for sure.
