getting ready to vote for a pro-dirty break Trotskyist as our electoral coordinator
My problem with the DSA is that there’s no energy about certain issues that would drive voter turnout and too much energy worrying about little stuff. There was a very professional defense lawyer, that fit all of the party’s requirements: supported renters rights, supported m4a/BDS, and tax reform and was a member of DSA that loss his bid for a endorsement. The reason given was that he was too much of a part of the PMC. He was certainly better than any of the local democratic candidates. There’s a lot of holier than thou people in the DSA which makes things really lame. However, I encourage people to actually attend the DSA meetings because it’s important for the health of the chapter.
Is that good?
yah he’s my buddy and very based i’m excited as hell cause he’ll probably win dirty-break = moving towards establishing an independent socialist workers’ party and limiting use of the D ballot line to strategically wise races
I really cant understand the whole idea behind this tbh. Have you actually worked on any campaigns? Why would you want to do even more electoral work by making the entire process harder and more expensive and complicated every step of the way? Wheres an example where we’d run someone in some new party on a 3rd party ballot line? Why is there some assumption on the viability of 3rd parties now when its never really worked in the past century? Maybe im misunderstanding the whole thing but it just seems like needless work and i dont see the strategy behind it or what its supposed to achieve. Theres plenty of other socialist 3rd parties right now, the answer is we need another one?
I’ve worked on a ton of campaigns. The Democratic ballot line is useful but we have to be clear that it is a tool. Too many DSA people have this idea in our heads that we can fix the Democratic Party, which we cannot. They will always crush and disarm any progressive or socialist attempt to change the party. The answer is the dirty-break: using the Dem ballot line where it’s useful and moving towards the goal of forming a socialist party with mass membership and a real connection to labor. I recommend these articles: https://reformandrevolution.org/2021/01/21/winning-the-dirty-break-under-biden-what-next-for-dsa/ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qyCCLfy335UWUzrUSR-c7-Awkl97dKNN/view
Seems to me that working under the Dems’ ballot line has also been “needless work” in the sense that it has lead completely nowhere. It has only served to give people the false sense of hope that the Democratic party will change, so they are willing to cling onto it longer. Elections should be used as a propaganda and organization-building tool, with the bonus that maybe you get some people elected, not as the strategy itself.
What is dirty-break? Never seen that expression before
The first part of this article is a good primer: https://reformandrevolution.org/2021/01/21/winning-the-dirty-break-under-biden-what-next-for-dsa/ basically it’s the idea that we should build independence from the Dems while tactically using their ballot line from time to time
