Comrades,
The strength of Central Indiana DSA
(CINDSA) has lain in its positive, non-ideological, pragmatic approach that has
concentrated on such vitals as housing and union organizing, items that
directly
affect the working and personal lives of
ordinary working people. This has
enabled CINDSA to reach out positively into the Indianapolis community, and
draw support from people who would not ordinarily be drawn to an organization
espousing socialism. With good results,
as we’ve seen in the recent campaigns for seats on the Indianapolis City-County
Council for its new term that starts in 2024.
While CINDSA members may not be “thoroughly informed” on the often
arcane left ideological causes of DSA at the national level and in the key
national chapters, and where CINDSA has also been blessed by not having warring
national caucuses who are roiled on these issues, its non-ideological,
pragmatic approach has paid off and enabled CINDSA to do good work, from what I
can see from my limited vantage point of not being able to participate much in
CINDSA.
I have of necessity to work a political
life-killing second-shift job at Kroger, which, because it is in retail, also
means not having weekends available either.
(However, politically I’m able to somewhat make up for this by being a
member of my union at Kroger, UFCW Local 700, and participating in the movement
to build a strong reform caucus within this union.) I participate somewhat more at the national
level through Facebook, through a network of left Friends there, and I keep
abreast of what national DSA is doing.
Although I am not a formal member, politically I’m aligned with the
traditional social-democratic caucus within national DSA, North Star, and a
strong adherent of DSA founder Michael Harrington’s “left wing of the
feasible.” I too am essentially
pragmatic, and strongly believe that positive results, far more than “correct”
ideology, are what are crucial and draw ordinary working people to support DSA
politics and proposals. However, I will
say bluntly that much of what comes out of national DSA and its leading
chapters is ultraleft, often drivel, and is even a throwback to
neo-Stalinism.
CINDSA has not become embroiled on
issues such as Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas War, which are very much dividing
points for DSA at the national and key local levels. That is in fitting with CINDSA’s pragmatic
approach. For myself, I do not believe
the struggle in Ukraine is a “proxy war” between Russia and the US and
NATO. I support the Ukrainian drive to
preserve its independence, and achieve national self-determination. This is, to me, consistent with the Marxist
principle of, above all, the right of small nations to self-determination, even
independence, and to be free of Great Power bullying. For this same reason, I support (support
which is only theoretical at this time) the rights of Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet,
and Taiwan to their own rights of self-determination, and to be independent of
China should their peoples wish. I wrote
this up in an article published earlier this year by the excellent left group,
the British Trotskyist Alliance for Workers Liberty, which is linked here, and
which I hope CINDSA comrades will read. (https://workersliberty.org/story/2023-06-26/marxist-case-tibet-xinjiang-hong-kong-and-taiwan-independence; see also,
published as an addendum to my post here, https://workersliberty.org/story/2023-06-26/stalin-1913-and-national-question-note) On Hamas-Israel,
I consider what Hamas did on October 7, 2023 to be atrocious and reprehensible,
and although I am not at all an automatic pro-Israel supporter, I do defend
Israel’s right to defend itself (which Sen. Bernie Sanders also supports), and believe
Hamas must be extirpated, as it is an Islamofascist entity. I know I differ from some comrades here, as
the issue came up with two of them on Facebook, and they defriended me over my
views, but that’s no matter—friendships often come and go on Facebook. What was appalling to me was DSA’s support of
the antisemitic “Free Palestine” rally in support of what Hamas did that
occurred the very next day, October 8, in New York City, and which both New
York DSA and national DSA doubled down in support of. No, comrades, terroristic attacks on
civilians are not, decidedly not, “resistance” and “decolonization,” and
anybody who asserts so has lost both moral compass and intellectual bearing! Some things are just simply beyond the pale;
so atrocious there is no way to ever justify or excuse them. Examples are the Pearl Harbor attack of
December 7, 1941; 9/11; and the October 7 attacks by Hamas. No one, now matter how grievous it is alleged
they acted (and in the case of the October 7 attacks, all the Israeli victims
did was be in the wrong place at the wrong time), certain things are never,
ever justified. We must be morally and
intellectually clear on that, in my opinion.
It is to the great discredit of both national DSA and certain key DSA
chapters that justified or even celebrated the Hamas attack that they did
so. Such is to be rooting for, act as
cheerleaders for, unconscionable mass murderers, and far too many in DSA were
simply, egregiously, wrong here.
Comrades of CINDSA, you are
youthful for the most part, far younger than am I, 77 years old now. I am a veteran of the 1960s left, an active
left force that existed long before many of you were born, and which also petered
out from both an onslaught from the right (Nixon, Reagan) and, just as
tellingly, from its own inadequacies, principally its substitution of moral
indignation for concrete political programs.
Comrades, the great US early 20th Century philosopher,
Santayana, tells us so well: “Those who
do not remember history are condemned to relive it.” So, please, Comrades, I urge you—learn the
history of earlier left movements, both for the positive lessons they can give
us, as well as for the negative ones.
On a positive note, youth is a time
of vitality and questioning; however, it is also a time of know-it-all
arrogance and stupidity. Be willing to
learn from older comrades, many of whom are resigning now in disgust from DSA,
despite being members for decades, because of DSA’s present de facto pro-Hamas
attitude. This, Comrades, is no time for
“Good riddance!” flippancy. One of the
great failures of the 1960s New Left was the great youth of its activists and
leadership. We of the New Left were
young and arrogant, and so we made a lot of mistakes we needn’t make. And in the end, following the fiasco of the
1969 SDS National Convention, literally went “poof!” overnight—from an
organization 100,000 members strong to nothing!
That could happen too easily to DSA too—already it has lost 20% of its
membership. The youthful enthusiasm of
those under 35 who are now drawn to DSA because of Israel-Hamas are not enough
to make DSA grow if DSA alienates those of the population 35 and older, who are
far more pro-Israel than those younger, with ignorance notable among the young,
I’m sad to say. A recent poll indicated
that 20% of Gen Zers believe the Holocaust was a hoax! 67% believe that Jews as a class are
“oppressors.” Far too much of the US
public believes there was an independent country called Palestine before the
creation of Israel (as a fact, there was no such entity). Comrades of CINDSA, “left” antisemitism is a
big problem, every bit as significant, or even more significant, as
Islamophobia.
Which brings one more point. What can I do now to participate well in
CINDSA given my work limitations? Well,
for one thing, I could serve as an intellectual resource. I’m well read on left literature, am a
university graduate, am an extensively published writer in left magazines and
on left websites, and have also taught adult education courses on China after
Mao, Marxism, and the Communist Manifesto. I also have a BlogSpot blog, “Politically
Incorrect Leftist,” (politicallyincorrectleftist.blogspot.com), which I urge
all of you to check out. This Letter
will also be posted there.
Finally, to end on a positive note, you Comrades of CINDSA are so much better than the hidebound, tired old leadership you replaced! A leadership that no longer gave a damn about DSA, and certainly didn’t give a damn about you, young Comrades who wanted to carry on the organization. You will be interested to know that these hidebound oldsters also were against me too. Even though they had participated positively in my Marxism and Communist Manifesto classes, and was not the ogre I had been portrayed as being by the equally hidebound “peaceable religious progressives” of Indianapolis (with whom several of these old DSAers overlapped), I had committed the “unpardonable sin” of criticizing one of their cronies for designing and installing for Indianapolis DSA a most inadequate website. In Indiana, overgrown high school clique that it is, one just does not criticize cronies! And so, these hidebound “leaders” plotted against me. I’ve published two blogs on what happened with them on my “Politically Incorrect Leftist” blog, the first one on August 14, 2010, “Dregs” (linked here: https://politicallyincorrectleftist.blogspot.com/2010/08/dregs_14.html), and a second one that drew on the critical testimony of a lifetime resident of Indianapolis pointedly noting he’d never even heard of DSA here before meeting me. This second blog, published on February 17, 2011, with the pointed subtitle, “Letter from One of ‘the Masses’” is linked here: https://politicallyincorrectleftist.blogspot.com/2011/02/dregs-aftermath1-letter-from-one-of.html, I bring up this old history not to re-fight old sectarian battles, but to let you know, much younger Comrades, that roiling conflicts with the hidebound “old ‘progressives’” are nothing new here in Indianapolis, or in Indiana, truly a State of Mediocrity! (Which the dictionary tellingly defines as “not good enough.”) I hope you young Comrades will check out these blogs of mine, and realize the fight for a good, effective left confronts many obstacles, some of them even internal. So, thank you, Comrades, good luck, and keep up the good fight!
In solidarity with you,
Comrades of CINDSA!
DSA
member
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