The Socialists and Progressives Working Outside of the Biden Campaign to Oust Trump – In These Times
When Vice President Joe Biden won the Democratic primary earlier this year, it was ablow to the independent progressive and left forces, which had been working hard in support of more progressive candidates like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. People grieved, then rallied. The most important thing now, many have reasoned, is to oust President Donald Trump from office, even if it means backing acandidate who does not share the same core values youdo.
Now, in the final weeks before the election, progressive and left organizations are working hard to get out the vote for acandidate many of them dont feel enthusiastic about. In the process, theyre aiming to build astronger, independentleft.
LeftRoots, asocialist organization, doesnt normally get involved in campaigns. The organization educates and trains community organizers (mostly people of color and women) across the country in political education and strategy development, with the goal of establishing 21st century socialism in the UnitedStates.
This year is different. In the wake of acatastrophic Trump presidency, LeftRoots took astep back to review the whole picture. Several times aweek the organization mobilizes its members and networks to canvass, phone bank and text bank for Biden through Seed the Vote, avolunteer-based coalition working with already-existing groups providing grassroots efforts to get out thevote.
In this moment, defeating not just Trump, but also the forces that he represents, is our number one task, says Milena Velis, LeftRoots training director. Thats because of the real danger this white supremacist authoritarian minority thats vying to take control of the country right now poses for our communities and for our organizing goingforward.
Campaigning for Biden has not been an easy decision. The establishment Democrat, who voted for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and rejects key left demands like Medicare for All, doesnt reflect the socialist values that LeftRoots holds. Biden is not aleft-wing candidate, Velis explains. It requires us to both be honest and to not lose sight of our vision. We have to be talking about much bigger change than Bidens platformpolicy.
In its recently released situational objective document, LeftRoots says that left forces working to oust Trump should not hide our politics, nor become subsumed within the Democratic Party. Rather, the group says it sees the defeat of Trump not as an ending, but as the launching point for new struggle. The organization argues that whenever possible we should be open socialists against Trump, voting for Biden, defendingdemocracy.
So far, the call to action appears to be working. The enthusiasm from the LeftRoots community around getting out the vote has been strong, despite the many other issues staff and volunteers juggle. Many folks who are on the frontlines of community organizations, who are really engaged in fights against evictions, or trying to fight for labor protections for workers, at the end of the long day are getting on the phones for two hours to call someone in aswing state, Velis says. We have parents who are home with their kids, squeezing in afew hours to text folks on aweekend. This is really the time to throwdown.
LeftRoots is just one of many groups working to support Seed the Votes campaign effort in swing states, particularly Pennsylvania, Florida andArizona.
This years mission is to fill the gap in the Biden campaigns outreach, which appears to be neglecting to reach some marginalized communities with apowerful voting pool. In activating those people who have traditionally been left out, Seed the Vote hopes to nurture and build onto its existing base of voters and volunteers, creating amovement independent of the Democratic Party that can be activated forchange.
We dont know what the next weeks of the campaign will bring, but one thing is clear, wrote Emily Lee of Seed the Vote and Peter Hogness of Water For Grassroots in New York in arecent Guardian op-ed. Defeating Donald Trump is too important to leave up to the Bidencampaign.
The solution, they argue, lies in supporting established grassroots organizers who already have connections to communities that are at risk of voter suppression, or who arent yet registered tovote.
In conversations with disenchanted voters, agroup doing long-term organizing can have more credibility than acandidates campaign, state Lee and Hogness. Theyre working in the community 12 months ayear, not just appearing at election time, extracting avote, and thenvanishing.
These on-the-ground organizations, however, dont always have the staff or volunteer base available to run operations for amajor campaign, particularly in dense urban areas. Seed the Vote draws from anational pool of volunteers, trains them on the needs of each geographic area, and deploys them to canvass or phone bank for small organizations. Often, community-based nonprofits or neighborhood groups are away to start aconversation with potential voters who the Biden campaign may overlook, or not be culturally adept to talk to. For example, the Biden campaign didnt ramp up efforts to target Puerto Rican voters in Florida until mid-September. Seed the Vote has been making Spanish-language calls in Florida since at least August.
In Florida, which Trump won by 112,911 votes in 2016, Seed the Vote partners with the New Florida Majority, which fights for inclusion of marginalized communities in the electoral process, and Mijente, which advocates for Latinxrights.
Florida is avital state to watch in the upcoming election. As the third most populous state in the country, it has 29 seats in the electoral college, and has historically goneRepublican.
Its not impossible to flip. The population of people of color in Florida has grown 25% since 2010. Florida now has the third largest Latinx electorate in the country, with 3.1 million eligible to vote. But race does not always connote apolitical stance. As Seed the Vote states on its website, we can expect that Trumps campaign will aggressively pursue Latinx people and other key groups in Florida through anti-abortion and anti-socialistfearmongering.
In Pennsylvania, Seed the Vote volunteers provide support for Pennsylvania Stands Up, an umbrella advocacy organization with nine networks statewide that supports candidates who fight for racial and social justice while battling voter suppression and working to get people to thepolls.
In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania by only 44,292 votes. This year, those on the ground believe the state can be flipped, but it wont happen without aton ofwork.
Michaela Purdue Lovegood, the deputy executive director at Pennsylvania Stands Up, says that voter suppression is amajor concern for the upcomingelection.
When Ithink about the work of voter suppression, theres alot of work that we need to do around laws, and around really figuring out how do we change laws, how do we ensure that people show up at the voting polls, how do we ensure that people get our mail-in ballots, she says. All of those things we have to do, but we dually have to do the work to deal with the decolonization that exists in our minds about what our vote is, and what it cando.
Every Thursday Seed the Vote volunteers team up with Pennsylvania Stands Up to help state residents make sure they are registered to vote, and to ensure they understand theprocess.
The work doesnt stop there. Even during the pandemic, there is acall for volunteers to travel to high-density areas like Philadelphia to canvass for Biden. Simply put, research shows us that there is no more effective way to persuade someone to vote than through aface-to-face conversation, reads an information guide for Seed the Vote volunteers. That is why it is critically important that you and your friends travel to Philadelphia to bring locals to these polling centers. (The Biden campaign initially declined to do door-to-door canvassing, but recently reversed itsposition.)
Last but not least is Arizona, which Trump won by 91,234 votes in 2016. In this state, Seed the Vote partners with Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), which advocates for the rights of the states large Latinx population, and has been wildlysuccessful.
In a2019 New York Times op-ed, LUCHA founders Alejandra Gomez and Toms Robles Jr. state that Democrats have long treated communities of color as instruments of someone elses power rather than core progressives who should be instruments of their own power. This is despite the fact that there are 1.2 million eligible Latino voters in Arizona, making them ahighly impactful voterbase.
In the years since its creation, LUCHA has launched ahighly successful reclamation of that power. In the 2020 August primaries, 14 of the 15 legislative and county candidates LUCHA supported were victorious. In the primaries, LUCHA endorsed Sanders. The organization hasnt openly endorsed Biden, but its work hasnt stopped, and the mission is clear: kick Trump out ofoffice.
For organizers who campaigned hard for Senators Sanders or Warren only to see them lose, its important to keep their eyes on the horizon. Change happens in increments, and this is just one step toward amore progressivenation.
Biden is not our savior, write Lee and Hogness. In fact, if he wins, on many issues he may be our opponent. But defeating Trump will open possibilities for organizing that wont exist if he remains inoffice.
While existing organizations continue their legacy of voter education and empowerment, new collaborations are beingborn.
Every four years theres achorus of voices that says this is the most important election of our lifetime, states Maurice Mitchell the national director for the Working Families Party. This year Iam one of those voices. Things are bad now, and they can get worse. But that doesnt have to be where our story ends. In the midst of an unprecedented crisis, there is much we can be hopeful and drivenby.
The Working Families Partywhich identifies itself as a progressive grassroots political party with chapters in 15 states nationwideis now part of anew movement christened The Frontline. Launched in September, The Frontline is acollaboration between several groups, including immigrant rights group United We Dream Action and the Movement for Black Lives Electoral Justice Project. Its acollaboration that centers the myriad experiences of people of color, uniting them toward one clearcause.
The movements goals are short and succinct: Mission one is to defeat Trump in alandslide, to make it harder for him to refuse to step down between the election and inauguration. Step two is to push candidates Biden and Kamala Harris policies furtherleft.
We must seize the opportunity in the first hundred days to lift up the demands our movements have been fighting for decades, Frontline volunteer Cindy Wiesner recently told Organizing Upgrade. We have an opportunity to make the BREATHE Act real. We have the capacity to pass aGreen New Deal, to continue to push for areal Peoples Bailout, not acorporatebailout.
The energy, organizers believe, is already there. The Black-led uprisings around the country in response to police violence has activated acommunity that is desperate for change. Black and Brown communities, meanwhile, are the ones Trump is working hardest to discredit and exclude through voter suppression andcriminalization.
Our lives and the lives of the people that we love depend on us fighting with everything weve got to overthrow the Trumpism, the white supremacy, the white nationalismall the harm that is being done by this administration to our communities, says Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson of the Movement for Black Lives Electoral Justice Project. We are committed, not to fighting for asavior on Pennsylvania Avenue, but to fighting for our next target. And we will come as hard at the new administration that we hope will follow the Trump administration as we are at Trump rightnow.
Originally posted here:
The Socialists and Progressives Working Outside of the Biden Campaign to Oust Trump - In These Times
- Bernard S. Sharfman: Socialism will not save the Democratic Party. Its historic centrism will. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Zohran Mamdani: Hypocrisy, Socialism and the Danger of Elitist Politics - Fair Observer - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- 'Ask Ann Landers' column once used cows as analogy to explain fascism and socialism - Snopes - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Letter to the Editor: Republican reconciliation bill is 'socialism for the rich' - Sioux City Journal - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Opinion | Cliff Asness on Zohran Mamdanis Socialism - WSJ - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Some Thoughts on Techno-Fascism From Socialism 2025 - Organizing My Thoughts - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Dont go down the Islamist rabbit hole: Socialism is what makes Mamdani toxic - New York Post - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- The Worker-Peasant Alliance in the Transition to Socialism Today - Monthly Review - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Socialism, secularism are the spirit of the Constitution - The Hindu - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Hour 1 - Socialism will ruin NYC | NewsTalk 1320 KWHN | The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show - iHeart - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Daughter of Cuban exiles says Democratic socialism is wonderful in theory but miserable in practice - Fox Business - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Readers sound off on vilifying socialism, Trumps retaliation and a snipers victims - New York Daily News - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Socialism is a fantasy politicians are selling and doesnt work: Editor - NewsNation - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- As a New York Resident Here Is My Biggest Worry About Mamdanis Socialism - The Daily Signal - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Opinion: The secularism-socialism debate is a fight over words, not essence - The News Minute - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Winklevoss and Armstrong Warn: Socialism Punishes the Poor the Most - Bitcoin.com News - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- The siren song of socialism - The Highland County Press - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- How Bezos and Snchez Just Delivered a Pitch-Perfect Ad for Socialism - The Daily Beast - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- Zohran Mamdani and the Rise of Hipster Socialism - City Journal - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- From MAGA Marxism to NY Socialism, something is happening in America - AL.com - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- GMR Today: Can socialism win at the ballot box? - Communist Party USA - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- A City Not Of Socialism: Eric Adams Takes Shot At Zohran Mamdani As He Launches Reelection Bid - The Daily Wire - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- Eric Adamss Common Sense Will Save New York From Radical Socialism - The New York Sun - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- Socialism in practice: Private land was 32.4 times as productive as public land in the Soviet Union - Stephen Hicks.org - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- NYCs Zohran Mamdani Tries Selling Socialism to the Home of Wall Street - Bloomberg.com - June 22nd, 2025 [June 22nd, 2025]
- In todays US, saying be careful with crypto sounds like socialism - The Irish Times - June 22nd, 2025 [June 22nd, 2025]
- Ahead of Shreveport Rally, Louisiana Says No Thanks to Bernies Socialism and Tax Hikes - Bossier Press-Tribune - June 22nd, 2025 [June 22nd, 2025]
- Despite the Pain in the World, Socialism Is Not a Distant Utopia: The Twenty-Fifth Newsletter (2025) - thetricontinental.org - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- The Cuban regime now says that to build socialism, a "well-structured economic system" is needed - CiberCuba - June 18th, 2025 [June 18th, 2025]
- We are heading for economic disaster: say goodbye to virtue-signalling socialism - The Telegraph - June 10th, 2025 [June 10th, 2025]
- Party for Socialism and Liberation holds NATO protest in Dayton - Cincinnati Enquirer - May 26th, 2025 [May 26th, 2025]
- Anti-U.S. Extremist Party For Socialism And Liberation, Linked To DC Jewish Event Shooter, Celebrates Hamas Attacks In NYC On October 8, 2023: The... - May 26th, 2025 [May 26th, 2025]
- STUC general secretary accused of 'champagne socialism' over second home - Yahoo News UK - May 26th, 2025 [May 26th, 2025]
- Under the socialism umbrella: Labor torched over pie in the sky super reform - MSN - May 26th, 2025 [May 26th, 2025]
- Socialism dressed up in the politics of empathy - The Spectator Australia - May 26th, 2025 [May 26th, 2025]
- Daz-Canel: "The fight against homophobia and transphobia is part of the ideals of socialism in Cuba." - CiberCuba - May 19th, 2025 [May 19th, 2025]
- Left turns toward socialism, and America must be on guard - The Mountaineer - May 17th, 2025 [May 17th, 2025]
- Join the Trotskyist movement to fight for socialism - World Socialist Web Site - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- "Socialism, yes... but with an hourly rate": The wave of memes about the rental of the Anti-Imperialist Tribune - CiberCuba - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- Economic Nationalism Divides Us. World Socialism Is the Answer | Opinion - Newsweek - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- Class struggle and identity politics in the era of Trump - International Socialism - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- Breaking European socialism will solve Americas drug pricing gap - Washington Times - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- We will intensify campaign for socialism: Chair Prachanda - The Rising Nepal - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- Cuba and Vietnam walk together in the construction of socialism - Granma - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- The trade deals will be wasted unless Sir Keir rejects socialism - The Telegraph - May 11th, 2025 [May 11th, 2025]
- Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, and the sausage line - Stephen Hicks.org - May 10th, 2025 [May 10th, 2025]
- Ending the Gaza genocide requires the fight for socialism - World Socialist Web Site - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- Trumps dictatorship, global war, and the fight for socialism - World Socialist Web Site - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- The Illusion Of Choice: Capitalism, Socialism, And The Suppression Of Religion In The Modern Era - Kashmir Reader - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- Parroting of socialism: Merely in words, not in action - The Himalayan Times - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- The end of post-socialism and the opportunity for a European public service media house - New Eastern Europe - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Socialism, the only alternative in the face of danger - Granma - April 18th, 2025 [April 18th, 2025]
- Study group: What are the prospects for socialism in the U.S.? - Freedom Socialist Party - April 12th, 2025 [April 12th, 2025]
- Debunking the Not Real Socialism Myth - New Ideal - April 12th, 2025 [April 12th, 2025]
- Capitalism versus Socialism: The Confusion of Knight, the Clarity of Mises | Peter J. Boettke - Independent Institute - April 12th, 2025 [April 12th, 2025]
- Dilemmas of Humanity: Socialism is the only way, says Vijay Prashad during the conferences opening - Brasil de Fato - April 12th, 2025 [April 12th, 2025]
- Brinda Karat interview: Socialism is only alternative to capitalism, loot, American hegemony - The Federal News - April 12th, 2025 [April 12th, 2025]
- Letters: "The bandwagon of vindictive socialism [against farming] rolls on" - Farmers Guardian - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Leipzig Book Fair 2025: David North to present the German edition of his book Sounding the Alarm: Socialism Against War - WSWS - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Democrat Party Imploding as Bernie Sanders and AOC Embark on Fight Oligarchy Socialism Tour - Megyn Kelly - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Trump's tariffs fly like socialism in the face of free enterprise capitalism | Letters - The Columbus Dispatch - March 22nd, 2025 [March 22nd, 2025]
- Cybernetics with Chinese Characteristics: How big data is eliminating poverty and building socialism - People's World - March 13th, 2025 [March 13th, 2025]
- The defense of science requires a fight for socialism! - WSWS - March 11th, 2025 [March 11th, 2025]
- Womens liberation and the fight for socialism are inseparable - Counterfire - March 11th, 2025 [March 11th, 2025]
- Faced with Trumps tariffs: working class unity and international socialism - In Defence of Marxism - March 11th, 2025 [March 11th, 2025]
- The Dialectics of Ecology: Socialism and Nature book review - Counterfire - March 1st, 2025 [March 1st, 2025]
- Oklahoma Republican says prohibiting hitting disabled kids is socialism and violation of scripture - Heartland Signal - March 1st, 2025 [March 1st, 2025]
- Talk to tell forgotten history of socialism in West Norfolk town - Lynn News - March 1st, 2025 [March 1st, 2025]
- Red Reviews: Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR - Fight Back! Newspaper - February 18th, 2025 [February 18th, 2025]
- Socialism at the Milk Bar - Tribune magazine - February 18th, 2025 [February 18th, 2025]
- To Fight The Right, Fight For Socialism - Socialist Alternative - February 18th, 2025 [February 18th, 2025]
- Like the GDR, GAA must balance socialism and capitalism - The Irish News - February 18th, 2025 [February 18th, 2025]
- Jenny Erpenbeck: There is a place in the world for socialism - Hindustan Times - February 18th, 2025 [February 18th, 2025]
- AIs growth will pave the way for socialism - The Times of India - January 30th, 2025 [January 30th, 2025]
- Boomers, its time to hand over your dosh and kill millennial socialism - The Telegraph - January 30th, 2025 [January 30th, 2025]
- System change not climate change Socialism and the fight to save our environment - Socialist Worker - January 9th, 2025 [January 9th, 2025]
- A Deputy claims that young Cubans want to stay in Cuba to "build socialism." - CiberCuba - December 25th, 2024 [December 25th, 2024]
- Milei becomes a symbol of the global far right: We must put an end to the garbage of socialism once and for all - EL PAS USA - December 8th, 2024 [December 8th, 2024]
- John Bellamy Foster: The Dialectics of Ecology: Socialism and Nature Book Review - MR Online - December 8th, 2024 [December 8th, 2024]
- Socialism holds its ground and grows stronger with Chinas contribution - Workers World - December 8th, 2024 [December 8th, 2024]