https://twitter.com/the_vello/status/1321435262023536641
Feels like (the good parts of) old chapo again, drop an AOC post and go grab some lunch... come back and there are over 60 replies :)
https://twitter.com/the_vello/status/1321435262023536641
Feels like (the good parts of) old chapo again, drop an AOC post and go grab some lunch... come back and there are over 60 replies :)
Left politicians regularly hide how far left they are, Kshama Sawant does things like try to differentiate between small and large landlords acting like small ones aren't a problem. Everyone knows she believes different stuff, but still.
Kshama at least has the sense to continue running as an independent, and continues to openly present herself as a Trot rather than a succdem, but she's grown weaker and more lib in recent years. One of the causes of the CWI splitting in 2019 was her and SA's increasingly dubious endorsements of DSA Dem and Justice Dem entryists like AOC and Salazar, rooted in the colossal mistake that was the 2015 Bern Turn, an avoidable mistake SA repeatedly doubled down on until class consciousness lurched forward in March 2020 and they had no choice but to self-correct. Kshama rightly continues to be a pain in the ass to Amazon but is in a much weaker position than she was when she first won her city council seat, especially as her district continues to gentrify and the voters living there necessarily become more petty-bourgie.
There are a ton of problems with the CWI and SAlt national that I'm aware of, I just point this out because opportunism isn't an inherently abhorrent thing that suddenly stops a group or a particular set of politicians from being socialist.
We live in a deeply right wing country, sometimes holding onto and growing power is more important than every single principal.
It's not that a mere moment of opportunism doomed SAlt or Kshama in 2015, it's that they made a mistake under opportunist pressure in 2015-2016 and then spent most of the Trump years refusing to acknowledge their mistake and correct course, instead making similar mistakes under the same pressure, thereby neglecting some of the work needed to sink roots into the working class.
The ends have to justify the means, but there are hard lines a Marxist party should never cross. Holding onto political power at the cost of tossing out foundational Marxist principles is practically the definition of opportunism, it's what turned the CPUSA and other vestiges of the 3rd International into liberal parties, and it's also what ruined the social-democratic parties left over from the 2nd International. What is even the point of winning and keeping power as a socialist party if you're not going to effectively represent the interests of the working class? Why call yourself "Communist" or "socialist" if you're going to act as the left wing of liberalism and get into the awful habit of co-signing social-imperialist and neoliberal policies?
Opportunism the way I like to approach it is be as left as you can possibly be in the political arena without totally abandoning your ability to get anything done in that space, and still remaining accountable to the socialist movement overall. I definitely have criticism for both AOC and DSA as a whole in it's ability to maintain this sort of stuff, but they are definitely trying. It's a lack of attachment to theoretical principals that is holding back the movement in a major way.
The most important thing is that outside this legislarive arena you are supporting major grass roots type efforts around mutual aid, left media, union building, and protest movements such that they become full vested parts of your left wing political machinery. The difference between the squad+Bernie and the most left wing legislative members like Barbara Lee is that they do make at least some effort in building out the above. Both the squad and DSA are far worse at doing this sort of stuff given their resources than Sawant/SAlt, PSL, ect, but they are doing it and it's why I still consider them to be left of succdem. DSA and squad democrats are much better at doing this sort of thing than a future third party like MPP or the green party does.
Also Sawant can be further left wing in the legislative arena than someone like AOC by virtue of the fact that she's one of nine in coalition with 6 other socdem legislators, rather than 1 of 435 in a split government. Someone like Sawant would be totally ineffective in a legislative body that large. The real test comes once we see a DSA type figure hold an executive office like mayor or governor, but until then, there's really not much more we can expect.
Most anger people have towards these folks is that they aren't constantly just shitting on democrats, and I don't think it's necessary that such rhetoric comes directly from them. They regularly are having their staffers leak stories to their media allies that shit on democrats.