Platform
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My people are dying. Brothers and sisters working 40+ hours a week, starving in our streets, dying in prisons, and being lynched by our ever present slave catchers the police, who hold the "invisible colony" our people of color, under military occupation. As Huey P. Newton noted, we cannot have revolution on an empty stomach. Individuals who are simply fighting every day to survive cannot take up the fight to achieve liberation. When the entirety of your energy is spent on making enough money to survive, to pay rent, to feed your children, to pay the bus fare, how can you expect them to then come out and organize?
The most successful contemporary socialist organization in the United States were full time soldiers of the revolution. These people generally did not hold jobs because the nature of their successful work was a full time job. We must do what our capitalist state refuses to: ensure our communities are fed, housed, and accounted for before we can expect a significant amount of us to be able to participate in the revolution. Therefore, I would encourage that every chapter, in conjunction with their statewide initiative determined by their elected state bodies, would also have a community service or outreach program, mutual aid. Not only will this make a positive material change in the lives of poor and marginalized people, but it provides a fantastic opportunity to educate those who do not have the time or resources to learn of the alternative to the current system, and to learn from them what it is which we are missing. |
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Issues
Racial Justice:
I believe that while our national may pay a (however weak) lipservice to racial justice, the reality is that our organization fails to understand racism. While it is true that Capitalism creates racism and cannot function without it, racism as it's own entity can perpetuate itself without the economic factors which created it. Some believe that by destroying capitalism we will destroy racism, but this is not true. By refusing to tackle racism as the independent means of oppression which it is, it will continue to propagate itself, and by proxy, capitalism. A clear example of this, the campaign of massive resistance against segregation. Southern states went out of their way to spend millions of dollars to ensure segregation was upheld for as long as possible. In an absolute capitalist mindset, they would have integrated schools from the jump, because building two separate sets of facilities is not the cheapest means of doing things.
Classism:
The language of our organization does not lend itself to communicating broadly with people from all walks of life. From our meme culture, dank as it may be, to the way we communicate on gaming platforms, we appeal to a certain demographic of middle class and higher white men. I have witnessed the culture of the group, and the way we prioritize theory and red books becomes a way to gatekeep, making sure only those wth a certain level of knowledge feel comfortable participating. This is unacceptable for an organization designed for working class solidarity. Addressing the classism in our culture is necessary to grow our movement. Being open to constructive criticism is essential for revolution.
Inclusivity:
Our organization needs to fundamentally change our culture from the cliquey, exclusionary social club it currently is to an inclusive organization which opens its arms to people from all walks of life, of all class, color, identity and orientation. I believe that rather than simply having diversity mandates in our offices, we must actively work to elevate and prioritize the voices of our marginalized groups, particularly people of color. The dominating white culture in this organization will only prioritize itself and its goals, which will never match those of us people of color.
Accessibility:
Our organization is notorious for having a mismanaged and inaccessible bureaucracy. Even the term "national" in most circles holds the connotation of our leadership which provides nothing to us but mandates of organizing priorities which we are not even held meaningly accountable for. I will strive as your national co-chair to ensure your national is one that not only provides your chapter with meaningful, helpful, and accessible resources, but is also a national which you can easily reach and correspond with.
Accountability:
We must, as national and local, hold each other accountable. In our current state, there is no way for national to ensure our chapters are not simply holding book club meetings making no meaningful changes in their campuses or communities, and no way for local to hold our national officers accountable, because they are impossible to reach or keep track of. Both of these must change. I envision an organization with a generally unified message from coast to coast, held accountable to ensure we do not become the subject of state suppression due to our inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric, and one which our officers do not simply fall into the trap of being a socialist social club who's only interest is in preserving their power and bureaucracy.
I believe that while our national may pay a (however weak) lipservice to racial justice, the reality is that our organization fails to understand racism. While it is true that Capitalism creates racism and cannot function without it, racism as it's own entity can perpetuate itself without the economic factors which created it. Some believe that by destroying capitalism we will destroy racism, but this is not true. By refusing to tackle racism as the independent means of oppression which it is, it will continue to propagate itself, and by proxy, capitalism. A clear example of this, the campaign of massive resistance against segregation. Southern states went out of their way to spend millions of dollars to ensure segregation was upheld for as long as possible. In an absolute capitalist mindset, they would have integrated schools from the jump, because building two separate sets of facilities is not the cheapest means of doing things.
Classism:
The language of our organization does not lend itself to communicating broadly with people from all walks of life. From our meme culture, dank as it may be, to the way we communicate on gaming platforms, we appeal to a certain demographic of middle class and higher white men. I have witnessed the culture of the group, and the way we prioritize theory and red books becomes a way to gatekeep, making sure only those wth a certain level of knowledge feel comfortable participating. This is unacceptable for an organization designed for working class solidarity. Addressing the classism in our culture is necessary to grow our movement. Being open to constructive criticism is essential for revolution.
Inclusivity:
Our organization needs to fundamentally change our culture from the cliquey, exclusionary social club it currently is to an inclusive organization which opens its arms to people from all walks of life, of all class, color, identity and orientation. I believe that rather than simply having diversity mandates in our offices, we must actively work to elevate and prioritize the voices of our marginalized groups, particularly people of color. The dominating white culture in this organization will only prioritize itself and its goals, which will never match those of us people of color.
Accessibility:
Our organization is notorious for having a mismanaged and inaccessible bureaucracy. Even the term "national" in most circles holds the connotation of our leadership which provides nothing to us but mandates of organizing priorities which we are not even held meaningly accountable for. I will strive as your national co-chair to ensure your national is one that not only provides your chapter with meaningful, helpful, and accessible resources, but is also a national which you can easily reach and correspond with.
Accountability:
We must, as national and local, hold each other accountable. In our current state, there is no way for national to ensure our chapters are not simply holding book club meetings making no meaningful changes in their campuses or communities, and no way for local to hold our national officers accountable, because they are impossible to reach or keep track of. Both of these must change. I envision an organization with a generally unified message from coast to coast, held accountable to ensure we do not become the subject of state suppression due to our inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric, and one which our officers do not simply fall into the trap of being a socialist social club who's only interest is in preserving their power and bureaucracy.
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“I was born in a bourgeois community and had some of the better things in life, but I found that there were more people starving than there were people eating, more people that didn’t have clothes than did have clothes, and I just happened to be one of the few. So I decided that I wouldn’t stop doing what I’m doing until all those people are free.” -Fred Hampton |