MizuTama

NGL, from what I've seen you're essentially dealing with an entirely different org depending on what chapter you get.

One nearest to me has pro-zionism as grounds for chapter expulsion.

Depends heavily on chapter from what I've seen. If they're the only organizing in your area you'll likely find a chapter undeveloped enough where if you aren't irritating you could easily influence it's political character. Watch out for SMC and Groundworks caucuses, those are the ideologically committed right-of-Menshiviks. NYCDSA is ran by their coalition for example. If your local chapter is ran by them, you're probably cooked. (Follow-up reading on this: https://cosmonautmag.com/2026/01/dredging-the-southern-earth-4-years-later)

Expect chauvinism and opportunism, comes with the territory, catch people on the way in and encourage political development towards your ideas, if you're luckily you'll find some somewhat ideological allies(Maoists/MLs -> Neo-Kauts/Trots from closest to furthest. Libertarian Socialists are somewhere in there depending on how much you like anarchism).

Godspeed and good luck.

US is tightening the sanctions on Cuba.

https://x.com/i/status/2017025377177129445

Long live the Cuban Revolution!

Okay, that bit got me.

The process for getting into a DSA meeting tends to be as follows:

Find whichever group or chapter you want to get on meetings for.

Dig around in whatever general comm the above gets you til you find a meeting time.

Join meeting.

Action so bad it's got hexbear members siding with DSA

Have you considered China is trying to infiltrated New York and turn it to a People's Republic undemocratically?

https://www.newsweek.com/mamdani-china-communist-party-democratic-socialists-11370804

Beware the evils of the CCP!

(LMAO)

RBBP is a different group than BPP.

Easy way to tell us check the National Chairman, they have a different one, also Birdsong mentions them in a post about internationalism he made.

And they try to tell us socialism will fail cuz no one will work

I am glossing over a lot but yeah it's fucking grim what we're working with. Hard to meet the moment and rebuild unionism from scratch. Frankly, the biggest issue I see is time. The empire is getting desperate and lashing out but the tools to work with internally are all rusted and decayed. Also even within the left a lot of people I've seen don't really want to do labor organizing, they'll support it at pickets etc. but actually trying to recreate unions earn leadership of them etc isn't something I've personally seen much of. Community defense is getting interest as of like this year, and mutual aid is always in vogue to a degree, even if it isn't always properly done.

I have not had to much luck unfortunately, but I have had some notes I've been waiting to compile so may as well do it here. (and funnily enough I think those that show up and do some type of work have mentioned being DND players before).

I can't speak towards the progressive/outright lib orgs due to a lack of personal or even second hand experience but can speak on our resident socdem collective: DSA

The big thing I've seen in DSA spaces is due to its "multi-tendency" nature before you even start creating discipline, you essentially need to note the political landscape internally for the local chapter you'd be working in. Some of the ideological strains/caucuses are going to actively rail against discipline or try to enforce socdem demcent (NYCDSA tried to implement unity of action behind Zohran as a continuous project, which yes elected support continously isn't an action as Lenin pointed out, but this is socdem stuff). There is also going to be various levels of chauvinism etc. you'll have to discover and combat.

Most DSA members are fairly ideologically unaligned due to the numbers focus, so working towards educating them when relevant is often the most overarching goal but it's slow considering all the tasks required likely starting it by yourself or with 1-2 other members etc.

Frankly, from discussions I have some of the chapters that are more chauvinistic or try to force unpopular principles onto their membership body are easiest to organize within as it is required to do projects they don't want. I haven't done it personally and have only talked to people who have but it's a semi-frequent way local caucuses form.

For chapters that are just generally ideologically unaligned, you'll need to canvas the chapter and see who can be agitated, as well as who may most efficiently be agitated. Often this would be working group/committee leads if you don't take up the mantle of one of those yourself.

I find a lot of chapters have a political education committee but they often are a bit under utilitized since no one ever shows up, but a decent amount of people do read assigned books for their working groups, and often highly active membership/leadership can be agitated into reading whatever as long as you're patient and personable about it (and frankly if it's a bit short it helps).

Doubling back, you'll want to consider the idea of caucusing or working with caucused people. You'll probably want to find someone that is closer aligned with your politics and start organizing with them and branch out from there. Got a Red Star contingent in your chapter? Great, they best match our brand of tankie from what I've seen. If not you'll probably want to eye for the Maoists in Liberation. MUG is decent as well and supports the idea unity of action in particular, they are vary pro-factionalism so some here might disagree with their idea of DemCent, and there is the LeftComms in the Commie Caucus, who generally want to focus on labor and tenant militancy. And if not them, then you'll probably want to check for Emerge members (multi-tendency focused on abolitionism, etc. unlikely outside of NY, but atp I would just try a different org, NYCDSA sucks in particular IMO). And if none of the above you'll likely want to keep an eye out for the Trots (RnR and BnR in that order generally). Other hand you'll probably struggle with Groundworks and SMC since inside the org they'll function as ideological foils and when they do enforce discipline a lot of the time it's for like straight electoralism. The libertarian socialists vary a lot and on principle oppose some of the type of organization we'd desire so I don't have much to say on them. Ofc there is also looking out for uncaucused Marxists/MLs. All of this is very ymmv but I'm trying to keep things as generally applicable as possible for a variety of areas.

From there a mix of increasingly cooperative work, resolution work and cooperation, and anything else could be used to increase unity and discipline. You may want a formal or semi-formal caucus with points of unity of some kinds to make things simpler for recruitment until there is a type of chapter critical mass.

Technically, with the repealing of the DemCent ban, I don't see why an ultimate goal is transforming a DSA chapter into a DemCent structure couldn't be done, (though difficulty heavily varying based on chapter and liable to lock you into socdem unity of action in some cases) essentially doing the goals Red Star outlines on a local level.

This is a mix of experiences and speculative so adapt accordingly ofc. Also side note, I do think this org if moving towards something effective will likely require a split at some point (maybe that bumps the Trots up, huh? LMAO).

I did make a bit of a big assumption of them doing some type of work, even if it's electoral canvassing, meaning people are willing to do tedious tasks with friction to some extent but if your chapter doesn't even meet that bar you might be better off starting a Marxist reading circle or a post-post Maoist circle.

Yep, I constantly talk to people that are so focused on growing org numbers in leftist orga and I feel like many orgs are past that point (or fast approaching it) and should be moving towards discipline (applies less to some orgs and more to others coughs DSA coughs), mass org integration, and leadership.

The Panthers were the threat they were with 5000 people.

Saw a Ken Klippenstein post that for the people they're sending atp are volunteers since a lot of the recruits are pissing themselves in fear.

Thing is that means it's bastards that want to jump into this powder keg going.

Folks, hear me out:

One more elected. This time it'll work. Sure, Mamdani is a socdem (read fasc.) but if we just run one more elected without a party, labor/tenant unions, soviets to reign them in, if we run one more person that has no checks against them and put all our hope in them. It'll work.

I wasn't even fully against the idea of supporting Mamdani in a manner similar to Lenin's proposal for orienting around Labour in Left Wing Comm. However seeing people actually act like this time they were going to see socdem Lenin manifest the full power of a Bonapartist had me start losing it towards the end of the campaign. I saw DSA members online that were more critical of him than the tankie forum, like c'mon.

One thing that throws me is doesn't this presume no radical shift in the U.S. I know about the anti-decoupling measure but considering domestic consumption if the U.S economy goes the way of 2008, or something more drastic happens

in the U.S, what's the game plan for weathering that without the ability to build out to kickstart things again.

Sounds like the left orgs nearby aren't contesting that space well.

Yes but internationalism from a lost era still fuels peoples hearts. They believe it because they want to.

I've seen him help various states such as the Allied Sahel States but didn't think he was going to posture towards a direct U.S confrontation.

And China seems to have taken Socialism in one state to the extreme. I got Chinese intervention right above U.S left getting our act together.

I get China copium but who here is actually hoping for Putin?

MizuTama [he/him, any]

@ MizuTama @hexbear.net

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MizuTama [he/him, any]

Is joining the DSA in 2026 worthwhile?

Is joining the DSA in 2026 worthwhile?

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