base building Archives

November 19, 2021

Base building meets cadre development: the alternative to socialist opportunism

The subterranean forces of capitalist development have begun to produce ruptures. The economic growth of the neoliberal period stalled as early as 2007-08, leading to the Occupy movement and the nascent class politics of the 99%. The phony post-racialism of the early Obama period has been exposed as a fraud again and again, most significantly by the Ferguson riots and the national uprising following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Covid-19 exposed the inability of our capitalistic health infrastructure to even keep the economy running, let alone care for people’s basic needs. As both the ecological and economic situation continue to deteriorate, these crises will only compound. Without an organizational framework that can capture the inevitable rage of the exploited and oppressed and bind it to a vision for revolutionary transformation, the potential power of the working class – the only class which can overthrow capitalism – will not be realized. It will remain a “class-in-itself” but not a “class-for-itself.”

August 1, 2019

by Julian Guerrero

A base building primer for the socialist movement

Millions of people are coming to radical conclusions over the nature of the social problems they face. The deceptive promises of the free market to rationally organize social life is falling apart in the neoliberal wasteland people find themselves in. And this is powering the resurgence of interest towards socialist politics and the growth of a new, if still modest socialist movement.

The growth of interest in socialism and the number socialist activists has raised a series of strategic paths towards reconnecting the politics of socialism with the working class. This is necessary because if one were to survey the current socialist movement they would notice the predominance of academics in its leadership and a high number of white-collar white workers in its ranks. The need to root the socialist movement in the multi-racial working class remains the litmus test for the movement’s continued growth and development.

It’s against this background that socialist electoral strategy has dominated as the main way to reconnect with the working class. But as several socialist campaigns have shown, without a strong social base from which the socialist movement can exert power, socialists in office will struggle to overcome the bureaucratic obstacles and political pressure the state has thrown in the way of political movements intent on challenging the status quo. The low level of working class self-organization and dominance of non-profit organizations leave the movement without a way to make that connection immediately.