WRU

7mo

dude got elected on the strength of promised working class concessions which has little to do with anything socialist aside from his usage of keywords. i dont doubt that american political youth has just as much interest in american political theater as anyone before them, so they just got another piece of political farce served for their delight

krishna bound

7mo

Not a lot of useful takeaways in terms of socialism but a lot of takeaways in terms of American politics and political discourse. Contrasting this with Omar Fateh losing in Minneapolis is probably interesting in terms of voter and rhetoric discourse

eye contact

7mo

I think Fateh’s loss was because of internal ethnopolitics and him running against an incumbent democrat with successful and popular social policy

Also the lack of a media circus probably led to a less fulfilling feedback loop between exposure and funding

krishna bound

7mo

The fact that deep of ethnopolitics are a factor at all no less in a city with the issues of Minneapolis is enough of a discussion topic as is imo

krishna bound

7mo

The fact that deep of ethnopolitics are a factor at all no less in a city with the issues of Minneapolis is enough of a discussion topic as is imo

fun guy

7mo

dude got elected on the strength of promised working class concessions

You're leaving out his positions towards Israel, which are not great yet still distinguish him from other demsoc/progressive libs in the West and are a MAJOR reason he got elected. Even if he doesn't follow through on his pledge to arrest Netanyahu, the sentiment is very strong by Amerikkkan standards.

As far as how it relates to socialists, yes Zohran is not a Communist, but he's still very relevant for us to pay attention to if you care about growing the movement. Regardless of how we feel about him, him and his party self identify as socialists and he enjoys mass support right now. When many of Zohran's supporters inevitably end up feeling let down and disillusioned by politics/"socialism", whether its due to structural barriers he encounters or his own capitulation to the right, Communists have to be there to offer a revolutionary alternative that inspires hope (and not the kind of blind hope you get by thinking one guy is going to save you). Without any alternative to voting, many people will just become disillusioned and withdrawn from politics altogether. I don't doubt "Zohran-lites" will pop up across Western cities after seeing his success, so it's an important moment to understand even for those of us who are not living in NYC/the US.

To link oneself with the masses, one must act in accordance with the needs and wishes of the masses. All work done for the masses must start from their needs and not from the desire of any individual, however well-intentioned. It often happens that objectively the masses need a certain change, but subjectively they are not yet conscious of the need, not yet willing or determined to make the change. In such cases, we should wait patiently. We should not make the change until, through our work, most of the masses have become conscious of the need and are willing and determined to carry it out. Otherwise we shall isolate ourselves from the masses. Unless they are conscious and willing, any kind of work that requires their participation will turn out to be a mere formality and will fail.... There are two principles here: one is the actual needs of the masses rather than what we fancy they need, and the other is the wishes of the masses, who must make up their own minds instead of our making up their minds for them.

Choking

7mo

ethnopolitics within immigrant communities isn’t new at all, why do people expect immigrants to immigrate as completely blank people with no history?

Choking

7mo

him and his party self identify as socialists

isn’t he running as a dem? has he done anything to actually empowering or getting DSA involved with his governance?

fun guy

7mo

Zohran has been a DSA member since 2017, called himself a “democratic socialist” during his victory speech, and has repeatedly encouraged people to join NYC-DSA throughout his campaign. It's possible (probably likely) that he will distance himself from the DSA to become a larger player for the Dems a la AOC, but I don't think that's 100% happened yet.

When it comes to how DSA members should run in elections, there are ongoing internal debates. As it stands, the DSA is not a real political party, it is a big tent non-profit organization with hopes of one day establishing itself as a viable independent workers party. For this reason (and a few others), DSA members commonly participate in democratic primaries to run as Democrats in elections, since the DSA is not big enough to win without the support of Democratic voters (they just hit 80,000 members in October) and will need support from certain Democrats in order to pass reforms. For example, Zohran running as the Democratic nominee gained him a lot of votes he wouldn’t have received otherwise running as an independent or for a different party.

- “The essence of the “dirty break” strategy is that you should run on the Democratic Party ballot line to build up independent working class and socialist organization until you’re strong enough to break from the Democratic Party and form a new party, or until the Democratic Party itself kicks you out and forces a break. The idea is that you can use the Democratic Party ballot line while remaining independent of the structures as a whole, both organizationally and politically, using that to build up independent working class organization and movements in the direction of your own workers’ party.”

I'm skeptical of this, but within the DSA, dirty break is the majority position. This strategy can be contrasted with “realignment”, which is the goal of transforming the Democratic Party to become a "workers party", and “clean break”, meaning the establishment of an independent worker's party and complete separation from the Dems right now - this seems to be an unpopular position though, only advocated for by the "far left" caucuses lol.

has he done anything to actually empowering or getting DSA involved with his governance?

The election was only last week and he’s yet to take office, so we’ll see how it plays out. In terms of empowering the DSA, Zohran has helped attract thousands of new members since announcing his campaign, and has exposed the DSA to a much larger audience than ever before. To follow through, he definitely needs to fill his administration with as many DSA cadres as he can.

kurapika

7mo

I know that the dsa has a list of day 1 policies they want him to implement which he has the power to do lets see if he will actually execute on them or just ignore it

fun guy

7mo

Ngl I haven't heard about Vijay Prafraud in years but this popped up on my timeline today

The replies are so funny. Dude is a die hard supporter of the CPI (M) yet people are acting shocked and drawing the line at him supporting Zohran, literal dummies

afterimage

7mo

He’s still relevant depending on what left media stuff you engage with. A lot of PSL and their affiliates like to work with him.

Idk if you’ve seen this though, he had a interview with Hinkle and ended up having to walk it back after his base gave him s***

fun guy

7mo

Ngl I haven't heard about Vijay Prafraud in years but this popped up on my timeline today

The replies are so funny. Dude is a die hard supporter of the CPI (M) yet people are acting shocked and drawing the line at him supporting Zohran, literal dummies

sniper

7mo

"Vijay Prafraud"

thats a funny name

sniper

3y

https://web.archive.org/web/20220315021153/sanhati.com/news/307/

fun guy

7mo

big throwback

sniper

7mo

how did you find this, I forgot I posted in this thread such a long time ago

fun guy

7mo

@sniper would you still call yourself an anarchist? I don't judge either way, people get too weird about sectarian s*** on the Internet. A lot of anarchists are doing more organizing than larping so called MLs online