Here's something that I've been thinking about with this election.
Twenty years ago, I was actively involved in fringe left parties like the Socialist Party USA, and I frequently had discussions with members of other socialist/communist groups. Nobody except the Communist Party supported Al Gore (and I'm not sure about them). Everyone else - the democratic socialists, the Trotskyists, the splinter group revolutionaries - all of them followed a similar line: The two major parties are tools of the capitalist class and we must build an independent working class movement to oppose them. Some groups ran their own candidates; some didn't. I worked with David McReynolds' socialist campaign for president, and I proudly voted for him.
The point is that there was almost nobody on the red left that advocated for Al Gore, and nobody put any faith in the Democratic Party as the party of the working class.
And the red left was freakin' tiny. I went to a national convention of a socialist youth group once, and there were 7 of us there.
Twenty years later, I'm sitting in a debate party hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America, and we're cheering on the frontrunner of the Democratic primary. And we're joined by members of Socialist Alternative, a literal Trotskyist group, a member of which is given the microphone to talk about a women's march the group is sponsoring. And there are dozens of us packed into one room of a local bar. And we're just one chapter of a socialist group that is actually surging into the mainstream of American discourse, led by an actual candidate for the Democratic primary who MIGHT WIN THIS THING.
Meanwhile, in Tacoma, Bernie invited Kshama Sawant, a Seattle city councilor and member of the aforementioned Trotskyist group Socialist Alternative, to give a barnburner of an anti-capitalist speech at his rally. 17,000 people cheered her calling for an end to capitalist oppression. At a rally for a Democratic candidate.
I never thought I'd see the day. Neither did you.
There have been times in my life when I've felt ridiculous and hid the red flag behind my back, because everyone rolled their eyes and convinced themselves I'd grow out of it.
But now I wave it proudly, and many of you are starting to come around. There's an "I told you so" that I could flaunt, but I won't. Much. Ok, maybe a little.
It's time, friends. We have a world to win.
#Notmeus
