DSA at 100K: Onward To Revolution!
Today, we received the news that 100,000 people have chosen DSA as their political home and vehicle of struggle. This news should be received with pride by all who fly our banner, whether they’ve been in DSA for 25 years or for 2 days. How did DSA get 100,000 members? Ultimately, through involvement in various trenches of struggle, and the declining international and internal situation changing bystanders into activists. The atrocious scenes of ICE hunting our class siblings through the streets of Minneapolis and Chicago, the glorious scenes of the masses fighting back, the struggle for a free Palestine, a free Rojava, and liberation of all colonized people across the world, the struggle against economic woes at home and imperialism abroad, and ever more apparent manifestations of escalating fascism at home and abroad have convinced more and more people that they can no longer sit and watch. The Democrats have failed, and only a fool believes that we can rely on them to deliver us justice and relief. Justice comes from our own hands. This is the truth realized by every revolutionary movement from China to New Afrika to Vietnam to Rojava to Cuba. The enemy yields nothing except to greater force, and power is the ability to define a phenomenon and make it act in the desired manner. Elections are not enough, especially when the enemy is rapidly encroaching on our democratic rights.
It is time to escalate the struggle, bring more and more people into the mass movement, sharpen our political line, and turn more and more of our activists into steeled, disciplined cadres. Every revolutionary party in history has relied upon cadres as the backbone of the movement, and DSA will be no different. Cadres have a mastery of revolutionary theory, a commitment to the well-being of the masses and the Party over their own personal interests and careers, a burning rage towards the class enemy, and an all encompassing, pure love of the people. A cadre does not endorse a governor that is actively breaking a strike using budget concerns as an excuse, nor does a cadre throw colonized Palestinian organizers under the bus for the sake of their own well-being with regards to the Democratic Party establishment. A cadre does not lambast other comrades in narcissistic fashion, talking down to them as if they were children. This is food for thought for those who tail behind electeds, seeing the masses and their fellow Party members as employees and numbers. We cherish the masses and cherish our comrades.
DSA could not have grown to 100,000 comrades without thoroughly excising the spirit of the reformist and Zionist Michael Harrington from our organization. We cannot have a reformist cake and a revolutionary cake, we must, in Mao’s words, lean to one side, that of revolution. Our comrades in the Global South and internal colonies demand that we continue to sharpen our line, and struggle against the “more for me” mentality that has bedeviled the American so-called left for so long. As we meditate on this important milestone, we must not grow arrogant. Self-criticism and struggle spirit remains the order of the day, and we must continue to go among the masses, and paint our organization the colors of the rainbow. We must bring migrant workers, prisoners, gig workers, single parents, unhoused comrades, and all who have been used up and thrown away by this system under our banner, and empower them to seize the time. Victory is not given, it is wrenched from the enemy by force.
All Power to the Proletariat, Woe to the Pigs
Liberation
