EE.UU.: revolutionaries and the new socialist movement
Of the 4 al 7 July we attended the conference in Chicago Socialism 2019. Then in New York, we met with other activists and references of the American left. Socialize some debates, challenges and opportunities in the new socialist revolutionary movement that is growing in the heart of imperialism.
Socialism It is the premier annual conference of the American left. Despite the recent dissolution of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), who organized the event for years, it brought together more than a thousand activists from around the country and delegations from several countries. Our participation allowed us to know more deeply the social and political process in the country and meet with activists from various sectors and organizations in the United States and other countries.
A new socialist movement
Trump reactionary policy has deepened social polarization taking place since the outbreak of the capitalist crisis 2008 in the US and boosted the radicalization of a sector, especially youth. Bernie Sanders dispute for the Democratic nomination in 2016 He gave political expression to this radicalization, originated in social processes Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Me Too teachers and waves of strikes in recent years.
After the campaign Sanders came the election of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez to the House, Julia Salazar to the New York State Senate and six Socialist councilors in Chicago, among others, sumados a la trotskista Kshama Sawant, who he was elected councilor in Seattle 2014. The new presidential campaign Bernie 2020 He has returned to mobilize tens of thousands across the country.
These electoral victories of candidates Socialists claimed reflect the emergence of a new socialist movement in the United States. The Economist He published a cover story last year about what he called "Millennial socialism", in which he warned that more than half of young Americans have a better image of socialism to capitalism. Although the level of awareness of this movement is still dominated by confused notions about socialism, it is undeniable that has caused a political change of historic magnitude in the country.
organizationally, this movement has been expressed in the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), an organization that had a handful of militants and members when joined the campaign Bernie 2016, and today has become a power of about 5.000 active members and 60.000 members who collaborate differently. DSA coexist within the various interpretations of socialism, policy guidelines and current. Dominated by a reformist electoral perspective, but it contains a swathe of young radicalized, linked to social movements and fluid dynamic internal discussion and.
The return of Kautsky?
Within the American left a debate that reflects the dispute between the reformists and more radicalized develops. The former seek to revive the thesis of the old reformist leader of German Social Democracy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, that in the bourgeois democracies strategy to socialism is the conquest of government through elections.
They argue that the insurrectional route that triumphed in Russia 1917 It was only possible because he against an autocratic state, and has been a historic mistake of the left want to move this model to countries with bourgeois-democratic regimes, in which the State enjoys widespread legitimacy among workers.
The new ones kautskistas, Nevertheless, omit some fundamental things. First, the legitimacy of the state in bourgeois democracies quickly fades into the inevitable acute crisis of capitalism. And when this happens, if not a revolution triumphs, often is fascism that destroys parliamentary democracy and takes power. The experience of electoral socialism Chile Salvador Allende and his tragic end at the hands of Pinochet is an example among many of these old ideas where they lead. Today, without reaching that outcome, what prevails in the world is the crisis of democratic regimes, polarization and strengthening alternatives left and right expressing rejection political establishment.
Secondly, that while the electoral road to socialism, recycled many times, He has not given us a single example in history of a breakthrough anticapitalist, although the insurrectionary revolutions led by non-revolutionary bureaucratic leaderships that prevented a real move towards socialism- they came to expropriate the bourgeoisie in one-third of the world.
Finally, when revolutionary crises occur, a strong revolutionary organization is indispensable for the triumph of the revolution. For the purposes of the electoral process kautskista, achieved with broad socialist organizations like DSA. For a revolutionary perspective, Nevertheless, although it may be permissible to participate in broad groupings at certain times, what revolutionaries can never abandon the strategic task it is to maintain and build your own organization.
The dissolution of the ISO and the future of the revolutionary left
Socialism It was organized for years by the ISO, one of the leading American Trotskyist groups in recent decades. The conference last year was crossed by the debate that organization on how to respond to the monumental political changes shaking the country and how to relate to the DSA and the socialist movement in general from its historic position against supporting candidates running in the Democratic primaries.
tragically, the refusal of the old leadership to readjust the political tactic to better participate in the new socialist movement that emerged outside the ISO and use of bureaucratic methods that impeded fraternal debate provoked a crisis and an abrupt replacement address which when combined with the complaint of a sexual abuse case mishandled by the above address, He ended in demoralizing the membership and the band split in April. This year's conference was organized by Haymarket Publishing, the Jacobin publication and DSA.
Hundreds of former members of the ISO also gathered at the conference to discuss the next steps. Many of them still intervene in the struggles and social and political movements in their cities; many of them have joined the DSA.
The central debate that goes through is how to organize in the coming period: Should we be likened to DSA? Should we reorganize a group object in principle to participate in the DSA and the entire Democratic campaign lists? Should we rebuild a revolutionary organization with greater tactical flexibility?
From the International Socialist League we believe that, beyond the tactical debate on how to relate to the DSA and the socialist movement or how to intervene in the electoral process, It is critical for fellow ex-ISO, other revolutionary organizations and unorganized, find ways that build a revolutionary organization itself in the United States. This will depend on the ability to meet the challenges, seize opportunities and offer a revolutionary way out of the debacle of capitalism in the next period. Since the LIS, we aim to assist in this strategic task.
Alejandro Bodart and Federico Moreno
Bodart an Australia
Invited by Socialist Alternative in Australia our colleague Alejandro Bodart will participate as a panelist in the conference Socialism 2019 to be held in Sydney 23 al 25 of August.
