electoralism Archives

October 6, 2020

Us versus the billionaires and their parties

In a recent interview, Joe Biden was visually irritated when responding to a reporter who asked if his proposed policies are “socialist”. “Do I look like a socialist? Look at my career — my whole career. I am not a socialist…I beat the socialist!”

This back-handed slap at Bernie Sanders occurred precisely at the time that Sanders and the self-identified progressives and Socialists in Congress push for the 10-15 million people who voted for Sanders in the primaries to get behind Biden—despite deep ideological differences.

On the heels of the deployment of Federal police in several states to repress Black Lives Matter protests, and Trump accusing him of being soft on the movement against police violence, Biden defensively replied and criticized the protests. At a high-profile press conference at a steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with all of its dog-whistle

May 5, 2020

by Lupita Romero and Hector A. Rivera

Puntorojo roundtable: What’s next for the Latinx left?

Now that Bernie Sanders has left the race and endorsed Joe Biden, several articles in The Red Nation, New Politics, Latino Rebels and Jacobin, have assessed the campaign and offered next steps for socialists. At puntorojo, we’d like to contribute to this comradely debate by opening up our magazine for others who want to contribute their reflections. In this piece, we offer two reflections from members of our editorial collective and we invite other Latinx and people of color (POC) socialists to contribute their insights and perspectives as we move forward in a post-Bernie landscape.

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.