DSA should use our electoral campaigns and elected offices to raise working-class consciousness and build working-class organization. That means rejecting attempts to placate the Democratic Party establishment.
Our opponents in the capitalist class want to divide and conquer us. We’re stronger when we stick together and when we make strategies collectively in an open and democratic manner. It’s the only way we can fight back and win against our enemies.
The rank-and-file strategy is more than just a tactic for labor organizing or a calling for young radicals. It’s a strategy for building a working-class movement with the consciousness and power to win socialism.
To win socialism, the working class needs political independence. Socialists today should use elections and other political campaigns to help build organization.
How we as socialists should evaluate a demand, campaign, or objective. The key question: does it build working-class power?
A separate ballot line for socialists would draw a sharper line between us and liberals. It’s an important tool we’ll need eventually.
Portland DSA debates what kind of party socialists should try to build, and how to get there.
How can DSA organize most effectively to support the movement for Black lives?
The successes and limitations of Bernie Sanders’s campaigns showed why we need a working-class party to extend and deepen what the campaign achieved.
The Left cannot roll the clock back to 2015 and ignore elections. Rank-and-file labor work, movement building, and class-struggle campaigns are a key part of our strategy.
