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For Tarig Robinson, it was seeing those images of immigrant children lying on the floors of detention centers, huddled under aluminum blankets. I knew I couldnt just sit there, he says. I had to do something about it.Ad Policy

Robinson was in Washington, DC, and he heard about a protest planned for Northern Virginia, outside the home of Thomas Homan, the former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The action was organized by the Metro DC chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

The people there had a common sense of purpose, says Robinson. This seemed markedly different from other forms of political engagement Id grown up with, where it was all about this polite engagement with the powers that be. Here, we were going to this persons house, and we were confronting him with at least a tiny fraction of the terror that the Blackshirts he commanded presented to undocumented people.

That sense of purpose led Robinson to the Temple University chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), the campus wing of DSA, when he began classes there last yearand this past weekend to a frigid Chicago, where he and 250 other students convened in the Chicago Teachers Union Center for the YDSA Winter Conference.

(Alan Maass)

Sarandon Elliott, a student at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, was drawn to YDSA for similar reasons. I grew up in a working-class black neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia, and I just saw that capitalism has never worked for the working class, especially black working-class folks. Its time for a change, its time for radical change.

Others were won over by democratic socialisms recruiting officer in chief: Bernie Sanders, the oldest candidate in the presidential race, whose most fervent base of support is among the youngest voters. Amelia Blair-Smith was inspired by Sanderss 2016 campaign while she was a high school student in suburban Chicago. She joined DSA after Donald Trump won the 2016 election and sought out the YDSA chapter at Carleton College as a freshman one year later.

Many YDSA members are knocking on dorm room doors to build support for Sanders, and the enthusiasm for his underdog successes in the 2020 primaries ran through the conference. The featured speaker was Phillip Agnew, cofounder of the Florida anti-racist organization Dream Defenders and now an official surrogate for the Sanders campaign.

Phillip Agnew of Dream Defenders addressing the conference. (Alan Maass)

Still, canvassing for Bernie comes alongside other YDSA activism: At Temple, Robinsons chapter wants the administration to cut ties to food services providers that contract with privatized prisons and detention centers. At UVA, Elliott is part of YDSAs College for All initiative in coalition with other campus groups to make the school accessible to working-class students. Blair-Smiths first taste of activism at Carleton was the campaign to raise the campus minimum wage from $9.50 to $15 an hour.Current Issue

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For Kristen Cervero, a New York University student and fellow national YDSA cochair with Blair-Smith, all this is bound together in connecting students with democratic socialism. In the past or the present, whether it be Quebec or Chile, or here during the antiVietnam War movement, students and young people have always been in the forefront of fighting for these ideas, so its important for us to organize students who care about things like a Green New Deal and Medicare for All, and make sure that theyre engaged in the struggle.

YDSA has grown dramatically since 2016, with nearly 100 chapters at the start of this year. Joseph Tejada, who moved to New York City from the Dominican Republic two years ago, says YDSA is also expanding its reach from more affluent campuses to working-class schools like LaGuardia Community College, where he is in his fourth semester.

Given the challenges of organizing on a campus where many students go part-time because of jobs and family responsibilities or financial constraints, Tejada says it took a lot of work to grow the chapter from two core members to five since the start of the school year, with others who come to meetings occasionally.

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Students at a school like LaGuardia dont have a lot of faith in the system, Tejada says. When we talk with them, they mostly tell us theyre not political. So our job has mainly been to let them understand that they are indeed political. We start to ask about things that they care about, and most of the time, they end up understanding that they need to be politically engaged, though they may not immediately sign up to be a member.

(Joe Legault)

Talking about Bernie Sanderss campaign is a gateway for students to better understand what socialism stands for, says Tejada. But the conference attendees last weekend were quick to say that the conversation doesnt end there.

Its not about getting him elected and having him put this, this, and that in place, says Tarig Robinson. Its about building working-class power. He thinks Sanders, as the candidate with the most popular platform, will win. But its not all about him. He says it himself: Not me, us. Its about rebuilding the labor movement, and its about rebuilding a working-class movement capable of winning economic justice.

Cervero, speaking in one of the conferences final sessions, urged YDSA members to start thinking about how were going to run beyond Bernie, and what youre going to be doing on your campuses and in your communities to do that. Were going to be running straight into sites of strugglethats where we matter.

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The Future of Democratic Socialism Starts Here - The Nation

The Coeur d'Alene Press - Letters to the Editor, SOCIALISM: Good blend with capitalism '); $(this).addClass('expanded'); $(this).animate({ height: imgHeight + 'px' }); } } }); $('#weather-forcast').html(''); }); function closeExpand(element) { $(element).parent('.expand-ad').animate({ height: '30px' }, function () { $(element).parent('.expand-ad').removeClass('expanded'); $(element).remove(); }); } function runExpandableAd() { setTimeout(function() { $('.expand-ad').animate({ height: $('.expand-ad img').height() + 'px' }); }, 2000); setTimeout(function() { $('.expand-ad').animate({ height: '30px' }); }, 4000); } function customPencilSize(size) { var ratio = 960/size; var screenWidth = $('body').width(); if (screenWidth > 960) screenWidth = 960; $('.expand-ad__holder').parent('.ad').css('padding-bottom', (screenWidth / ratio) + 'px'); $('.expand-ad__holder').css({ height: (screenWidth / ratio) + 'px' }); $('.expand-ad').css({ height: (screenWidth / ratio) + 'px' }); $('.expand-ad img').css('height', 'auto'); $('.expand-ad embed').css('height', 'auto'); $('.expand-ad embed').css('width', '100%'); $('.expand-ad embed').css('max-width', '960px'); } function customSize(size, id) { var element = jQuery('script#' + id).siblings('a').children('img'); if (element.length 960) screenWidth = 960; element.css('height', (screenWidth / ratio) + 'px'); } (function () { window.addEventListener('message', function (event) { $(document).ready(function() { var expand = event.data.expand; if (expand == 'false') { $('.expand-ad__holder').removeClass('expand-ad__holder'); $('.expand-ad').removeClass('expand-ad'); } }); }, false); function loadIframe(size, id) { $('.ad').each(function () { var iframeId = $(this).children('ins').children('iframe').attr('name'); var element = $(this).children('ins').children('iframe'); if (element.length > 0) { var ratio = 960 / size; var screenWidth = $('body').width(); if (screenWidth > 960) screenWidth = 960; element.css('height', (screenWidth / ratio) + 'px'); } }); } })();

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Letters to the Editor, SOCIALISM: Good blend with capitalism - Coeur d'Alene Press

Putins preference?

I just wonder who Vladimir Putin really prefers in the White House: Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders? And I also wonder as to the form in which Putin could interfere with our elections. Finally, the-then USSR contributed lots of money to the Communist Party of America in the 1980 to sabotage the election of Ronald Reagan. It got them nowhere.

Svetozar Pejovich, North Dallas

For 60 or more years I have seen the conservatives call many new reform idea socialistic and, thus, bad ideas. After visiting corrupt and less-corrupt capitalistic and socialistic nations like Mexico, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Canada and China and teaching social policy for some 50 years, I conclude that the United States and the world have been blending socialism and capitalism ideas for over 100 years or more.

Major national news have many articles on how to save capitalism. When those in the coalfields wanted to employ doctors and set up HMO clinics, the coal companies and American Medical Association called it socialism or worse, and said it would be the downfall of society and medical care.

So be not concerned when some claim a new idea is some form of socialism. Individualism and community (collective approaches like insurance) blend well in the less-corrupt nations like Canada, Switzerland and even in the USA. Democratic socialism in Sweden has a very strong capitalist economic society.

Stan Ingman, Denton

Re: Sanders told of Russian backing Senator, unlike Trump, sees activity as effort to undermine democracy, Saturday news story.

This article shows the direct threat Russia is to Americas democracy, and indeed, to the world. I have been following several Facebook groups that support both Democratic and Republican parties and while some participants reflect thoughtful discussion on policies, mostly they are hateful, degrading or apocalyptic statements of the absolute evil of the other side. It is impossible to have thoughtful discussions.

This media brings no value to the election of qualified candidates and in fact, is seemingly designed to ensure that there are no elections that result in anything more than a plurality for a candidate with no majority support after the election. If Russia had devised a way to destroy or at least weaken the U.S. permanently, they could have not devised a better weapon. Social media should be banned from spreading this poison.

If in fact Google, Facebook, Twitter and the others were to try live up to Dont be evil, then that could put a stop to this continuous bombardment of the American public. Elections would be much better if diverse and fair in-depth discussions were held individually between qualified and vetted journalists.

Jay Martin, Pilot Point

Of course Donald John Trump isnt happy with more news of Russian interference in 2016 and 2020 elections. Intelligence officials seem to be playing the role of Toto in The Wizard of Oz. They are knocking down the screen that conceals a very puny wizard. A screen built by Russia, no less.

Anne M. Sanders, Fort Worth

I used to chuckle when I heard the conservative pundit, Michael Savage, refer to liberalism as a mental disorder. Over the past three years, it seems that the Democrats with support from the liberal media have been attempting to prove him right with the failed Mueller investigation and House impeachment fiasco. They have recently reinforced the Savage statement by putting an avowed socialist at the top of their slate of liberal candidates for president.

In a state that proudly claims the motto Live Free or Die!, Sanders came away with the most votes. Crazy right? In a country with 175 million citizens at least 35 years of age, this is the best we can come up with to run for the president of the United States?

Our choice could come down to a socialist whose proposals will kill our booming economy and take away many of the freedoms we enjoy or a bully with a narcissist personality who will continue to alienate half of the population with his childish tweets. At least the liberals still have a choice.

Wes Pyfer, Irving

Re: Dallas misses red-light cameras City officials say crashes are up since states ban, while revenue for safer infrastructure is down, Sunday news story.

I get it that most questions especially political ones do not have simple answers. But when has common sense disappeared? As you so clearly revealed in this story, its a no-brainer that red-light cameras were a good thing. These cameras saved lives many of them. I see drivers run red lights not just every day, but essentially every time I stop at an intersection. Everyone has. It seems as clear as flashing yellow that the only people who dont want red-light cameras are people who run red lights. How simple is that?

Not to mention the revenue that helps keep down our taxes. Even when its common sense, our Legislature bombs again. And thanks to the governor. I believe the first time I took note of him was about a tree in his yard being cut down. He really focuses on the important stuff.

Wheelice Wilson Jr., Coppell

Perfect timing for a red-light piece the same time Michael Bloomberg is taking a hit for stop and frisk. Both are unconstitutional. Red-light cameras catch a vehicle breaking the law, not the person driving. Its not the vehicle owners job or legal requirement to state who was driving at the time of infraction, if the owner knows.

But, if you digest the complete article, it is not really about safety, it is about money for the city. Granted, red-light cameras do save lives and prevent injuries. But like stop and frisk, which also saved lives, it is not constitutional. And no, I have never had a red-light ticket or ever had a ticket in 50 years.

Brent Beal, Mansfield

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Letters to the Editor - Russian election interference, Vladimir Putin, socialism, social media, red-light cameras in Texas - The Dallas Morning News

A new socialist movement is cohering in the US, thanks in large part to the popular class politics of Bernie Sanders. But as that movement grows and progresses, it is bound to run into dangerous obstacles and thorny contradictions. The new US socialist movement is without a single "line" or monolithic political position. That's a strength of the movement, since none of us has all the answers. Still, many people in the movement, ourselves included, feel strongly about certain approaches to strategy. One approach we feel strongly about is what we call "the democratic road to socialism," or the idea that we need to make good use of the democratic structures and processes available to us (and to improve and expand them) in order to advance our cause.

A country like the United States has both a well-developed capitalist state, beholden to the capitalist class and armed to the teeth, and mechanisms for democratic participation in that state that allow people to exercise some measure of control over their representatives. Even though their choices are limited, their representatives are bought off by the rich, and the capitalist class holds the entire system hostage with the threat of devastating economic retaliation if things don't go their way, the system does have some basic democratic elements that its citizens largely affirm and occasionally participate in.

This is a tricky situation to navigate. If the democratic capitalist state were less developed, it might be possible to convince people to simply storm the gates, tear up the old rules, and start fresh in a socialist society. This is what socialists tried to do in Russia in 1917: the state was weak and after centuries of autocratic rule it didn't have much legitimacy in the eyes of most Russians, so revolutionaries could get popular support for scrapping it and starting over.

The United States is hardly an exemplary democracy, and socialists must push to further democratize elements of the state. But even if people are unhappy about much of our corrupt political system today, it does hold a strong degree of legitimacy in most citizens' minds. Despite Republicans' continued efforts to restrict the franchise, most people can vote, and they see the results of elections as basically lawful and valid. People often (rightfully) feel dejected and cynical about US electoral politics, but they don't consider the system so illegitimate that they're willing to risk their lives to destroy it anytime soon.

Mass numbers of people are going to treat elections as the main arena for their political frustrations and aspirations, at least for the time being. These are objective conditions over which we have no control. The question we must face is whether we join them in the democratic sphere, giving socialist and class-struggle character to fights playing out in the electoral arena, or sit those fights out and miss the opportunity to engage with people by getting in the ring ourselves.

The democratic road strategy does not assume that we'll simply stack up reforms until we look up one day and have socialism. Social change is more complicated than that, happening as it does in fits and starts, often with brief periods of great advance and long dry spells in between. Capitalists won't let us slowly but surely inch our way toward a new society; at some point, probably around the time our advances start decisively challenging their control over industry and their profits, they're going to try to tear us down by any means necessary.

But reforms do have a major role in building socialism, and not just for the purpose of spreading our message. By engaging in mass democratic politics, and electing politicians faithful to our movement who can spearhead the fight for real reform (including democratizing the current state), we can tip the balance of power in favor of the working class.

That balance is decidedly not tipped in our favor today. The power of the capitalist class is now so great that it can punish cities, states, and countries whose working-class movements have successfully won gains for workers against bosses. The punishment doesn't even have to be intentional: by simply following their mandate to maximize profits, employers are naturally inclined to close shops whose labor costs make them uncompetitive and move to regions where workers are less powerful, demoralizing movements and wreaking economic havoc on the people who fight back the hardest. Thisis the story of manufacturing in the United States, especially over recent decadescompanies have constantly moved operations, first within the country, from high-wage markets to relatively low-wage ones, then across the border or overseas, to countries with even lower wages like Mexico or China. Bosses don't have to be evil to do this; the market compels them to. They may not want to tear down a community's economic foundation, but if they don't, their competitors will undercut them.

To stop this race-to-the-bottom cycle undercutting workers' power and lay the groundwork for revolutionary change, we must erode the power of the capitalist class. We can accomplish that by, for example, imposing capital controlsmeasures that stop the free movement of capital in response to changing social and economic conditions. But to pass economic reforms as significant as these, we can't just agitate in the streets, as important as that is. We have to be in power.

Luckily for us, while contesting for that power comes with plenty of dilemmas we must be careful to avoid, it's also a fantastic opportunity. Without capital on our side, the project of contesting for state power becomes by necessity a democratic one. We achieve success in the electoral sphere when we've won over masses of people to our political agenda. Elections can be used to build mass working-class movements, and the project of wielding state power can be used to clear the path for those movements as they confront their class enemies.

Chris Maisano describes the democratic road as a strategy that pursues "election of a left government (likely over multiple contested elections) mandated to carry out a fundamental transformation of the political economy, coordinated with a movement from below to build new institutions and organizations of popular power in society."

Eric Blanc offers a similar formulation. Eventually, after the Left has won significant gains at the ballot box and in civil society, the capitalist class will take the gloves off against socialists and do whatever it takes to destroy our movement. We'll need to fight back. The democratic road to socialism seeks not to elide this confrontation, but to make it possible. To replace capitalism with socialism, writes Blanc, "(a) socialists should fight to win a socialist universal suffrage electoral majority in government/parliament and (b) socialists must expect that serious anti-capitalist change will necessarily require extra-parliamentary mass action like a general strike and a revolution to defeat the inevitable sabotage and resistance of the ruling class."

Though socialists are likely to be met with capitalist resistance that at times will turn violent, "revolution" doesn't necessitate mass bloodshed and though we believe in self-defense, we certainly do not advocate violent means. A future socialist government, the late Marxist thinker Ralph Miliband wrote, "has only one major resource, namely its popular support." To pull off a revolution in our circumstances, that popular support would need to be mobilized both inside and outside of government.

Adherents of the democratic road strategy don't claim to know the precise sequence of events that will lead us to socialism, nor do we pretend it will be a cakewalk to eliminate capitalism, even with our people in power. Past attempts to make such transformations in countries like Chile and France have been stymied, as we'll get to later in this chapter. But we do know that the United States will not be able to achieve anything like socialist governance, and join other nations in the project of building international socialism, without both a mass movement of workers and the formal power to stop capitalists from undermining that movement as it engages in class struggle. We see engagement in electoral politics as an important tactic for accomplishing both of these goals, and ultimately bringing about a scenario in which the working class can actually win.

We've seen that left elected officials can not only win office, but can widen the scope of political possibility even when they're only a small minority of legislators in a given elected body. For a socialist movement that's been in the wilderness for at least half a century, these new developments are crucial. But it's not enough for socialists to be a tiny minority in the House of Representatives, or run inspiring but failed campaigns for president, or hold only 10 percent of seats in a city council. Our aims have to be much bigger than that. We don't want simply to fight against some other political majoritywe want to become the majority, and believe we can get there.

Once we do, we will have to think very seriously about what our program should look like and how we will fight the capitalist backlash that will follow. If we aren't prepared for it, we're doomed to fail.

# # #

Adapted from "Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism," by Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht, to be published on April 28, 2020 from Verso. All rights reserved.

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Why Bernie Sanders is just the beginning of an American turn to the left - Salon

If there was ever any doubt as to the true intentions of democratic socialists, then look no further than a sobering article in Slate written by two of the movement's most prominent leaders.

In their piece, which is an adaptation of a forthcoming book, writers Micah Uetricht and Meagan Day of Jacobin, a socialist publication, argue that Sen. Bernie Sanders is merely the first step in a broader strategy to push the United States to the far left.

Uetricht and Day posit that the Vermont democratic socialist's presidential campaign is the tip of the spear of what they describe as "a new socialist movement." The two make a case for manipulating "democratic structures and processes" to march the country toward full-scale socialism.

While the two note that the American system is inherently designed to work against their cause, to achieve "revolutionary change," Uetricht and Day call for eroding "the power of the capitalist class."

In other words, they call for systemic changes and a "fundamental transformation of the political economy," through a series of economic reforms that would bring the economy under their control and the control of their ideological allies. "To replace capitalism with socialism," an author the pair cites wrote, socialists must achieve the following two goals:

The two also warn that the type of "revolution" they call for could result in bloodshed, though they do not openly call for violence. "To pull off a revolution in our circumstances," Uetricht and Day write, "that popular support would need to be mobilized both inside and outside of government."

Additionally, they caution that though they do not know "the precise sequence of events that will lead us to socialism," achieving "socialist governance" will require "both a mass movement of workers and the formal power to stop capitalists from undermining that movement as it engages in class struggle."

To get there, Uetricht and Day insist on winning elections. "[I]t's not enough for socialists to be a tiny minority in the House of Representatives, or run inspiring but failed campaigns for president, or hold only 10 percent of seats in a city council," they write. Adding, "We don't want simply to fight against some other political majoritywe want to become the majority."

In other words, the two seem to caution fellow socialists to put intra-socialist debates aside and focus on winning the presidency. By electing Sanders to the White House, the duo imply their socialist movement will be in a much stronger position to then launch a much broader, full-scale assault on the American free market system and way of life.

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Sanders is an important step to full-blown socialism and 'huge leftward shift,' say leading leftists - TheBlaze