Please note, this is a proposal, not a passed resolution. And I have no idea how many members it would take to submit a resolution, so it could be two weirdos or have huge internal chapter support.
Edit: It appears I have started a struggle session. I apologise.
For the record, my own view on this is that it is well intentioned, but extremely poorly designed and (likely) to be poorly implemented as well. In one of my comments below, I say "I don’t think DSA, a predominantly white and PMC organization, is at all equipped to handle this in a way that doesn’t create more problems. To me, it would make more sense to have a Black socialist org be given the $ to do as they see fit, if this is a path the chapter votes on. It screams of white guilt rather than building power, and individual charity rather than mutual aid.". AFROSOC is an internal DSA org, as I understand it.
And I feel this is a textbook example of "charity vs mutual aid", with this decidedly being charity.
nonblack pretend allies absolutely have the ability to get all these Black mutual aid fundraisers paid without devolving into DSA rules-lawyering but i'm side-eyeing the twitter and c.c users on here that talked all that good shit all summer during the george floyd uprisings suddenly going into hysterics about opening their purse and giving money to Black people
I don't think DSA, a predominantly white and PMC organization, is at all equipped to handle this in a way that doesn't create more problems. To me, it would make more sense to have a Black socialist org be given the $ to do as they see fit, if this is a path the chapter votes on. It screams of white guilt rather than building power, and individual charity rather than mutual aid.
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There's already a black socialist org in Seattle that exists too which is the funny thing, although all of their members are affiliated with DSA in some respects.
is that not the point of divesting the immediate payout to AFROSOC to do as they see fit?
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That's an internal org, as far as I know. That just means making distribution their problem, and they'll catch any blowback.
If the non-black people in that chapter are poor too, and have an immediate need for that money as much as anyone, I have a hard time seeing how this makes sense. Social programs like reparations should be paid for by taxing the wealthy and/or tapping our deficit spending power.
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Yeah fr I think a few users here might have some unresolved issues based on how they're responding to this (I'll admit: somewhat harebrained) proposal.
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^^ This user is a troll. Just take a look at their user history to see for yourself
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Lmao the chronic sectarian is accusing me of being a fed, that's rich :michael-laugh:
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"counter-revolutionaries" lmao
That's, that's exactly what sectarianism is.
The existence of mutual aid to disenfranchised people is not a charity project nor is it why leftists have "no power" (in the west) but you do you my friend :)
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To me, reparations is a "corporate" or state act, versus an individual or small group. In addition, reparations is for all, not few. At this level, of one chapter, it seems much more like charity.
Now, reparations are far away (unfortunately), so is this at least something? Yes. But I think it's too performative and scattershot rather than systemic power building or mutual aid.
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Yeah, it sounds like we just have different definitions of reparations. To me, an individual can't make reparations for a historical atrocity - that has to come from the state that performed that atrocity. Leaving it at the individual leads to too much individualistic thinking/blame assigning/blame dodging and is likely to create tension within the group.
But I have no problem with individuals doing the acts you described, I just can't think of it as reparations?
Honestly, I might just be being a nerd about the word!
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Naw, we aren't libs who means test like that. Census answers only, everyone involved receives the same amount, and we move forward.
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Ok. Being the sort of cop who is too afraid of "someone getting something they don't deserve" in this country is pure liberalism.
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What's your game plan to immediately improve the material conditions of Black and Black Trans people during a period of national crisis?
I mean, what's your game plan for immediately improving the material conditions of black and black trans people during a period of (inter)national crisis? Because doing reparations with a few hundred dollars in DSA dues isn't going to do that, especially because the crisis isn't limited to black or black trans people, working class people have less spending power rn in general, and DSA dues are fairly low to begin with.
Also side point, but important point--Marxists talk about "material conditions" basically to describe the conditions of life produced by capitalism. It's not really used to refer to how much more money that this or that working class person has in their pocket because of a reform or a mutual aid project or whatever, especially because we live in a system where surplus gets sucked up. This is significant, because the only way to actually raise material conditions is to transform the mode of production and society to produce better conditions of life for working class people. Socialism is the basis for improving material conditions for the working class.
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This is a thread about the critique of opening a mutual aid fund to Black people, beloved.
If a Black trans person hit you up today and said they're struggling with employment and needed funds to move out of an abusive housing situation, or at least someone to spread their GFM to get more visibility to it, would you assist them or lecture them about how you can't assist them because that would just be doing charity?
Ah, but I would help them because they need help, not because they are black or because they are trans.