I've been feeling a little antsy lately; both socially and just feeling like I need to do more. I live in a pretty major city but I also feel like people have been leaving DSA in droves and a lot of the work they do seems to be just canvassing for local candidates. Interested to just hear the thoughts of others who are still active in their local orgs to see if I'd be wasting my time joining.
Personally, I did not find that paying dues to a liberal anticommunist organization for the opportunity to do unpaid labor funneling donations to the Democratic Party was a worthwhile investment of my time, effort, or money. Others experiences may vary.
Some DSA branches are way more radical than national, but those cities probably have actual communist parties you can join.
you should be in some org, even if it isn't the DSA. IWW, PSL, some local anarchist group, etc. Make your own splinter org! join a union!
it's a great way to meet local comrades, and "organizing" is most of the point of being a communist. it's a shame DSA does so much electoralism though.
I joined my local DSA and it was a fiasco of overeducated rich libs with zero organizing chops and tons of infighting.
"if it sucks....hit da bricks"
if you don't like the DSA, leave and join a different org.
your experience with the DSA isn't unique, btw.
Democrat Sympathizer Assimilation? Where leftism goes to die. They are a de facto captured org of the moderate wing of fascism. The DSA is just more life support for the Does Not Care party.
Is there anything else in your area not tied to the hip to the Democrats?
For all the criticisms of the DSA, it's the only remotely leftist org that remotely approaches the scale of a mass movement. There's at least some utility in a large, nationwide org that is explicitly left of the Democratic Party and has "socialist" in the title. There really hasn't been anything comparable since, what, before McCarthyism?
If you aren't part of an org DSA is a good starter org. You aren't gonna get into any of the cooler orgs if people have no idea who the fuck you are. I mean yeah the DSA itself sucks shit and is full of nerds who can't put the "social" in socialist to save their lives but definitely join if you have nothing else going on. Good orgs don't just fall into your lap if you aren't plugged in at all.
Which are the cool groups you need connections to join?
Besides the Communist Illuminati. And, no, we're not taking new members.
You'd be wasting your time unless you get lucky with a good branch, and then you're only wasting some of your time. Join
There are some marxist-leninists who argue for joining
https://redstarcaucus.org/tag/zenith/
https://redstarcaucus.org/dsa-as-a-placeholder/
So yes, join- either your local is good and you can hop on the bandwagon or you get experience making near-miss-left into left.
This is assuming you aren't in LA or NYC
Some local chapters are good, some aren’t. My local chapter is pretty based and would never dream of supporting any dem candidate, even local ones. Others aren’t. I think it’s definitely worth at least investigating.
And IMO DSA is getting better, not worse. Marxist Unity is making a lot of headway.
if you use it as an opportunity to learn useful skills you can use elsewhere, sure.
