I’m working on a new piece that’s trying to tie together lessons from the left 2016-2026.

I’m trying to see if any former PSL members have anything they might be willing to share.

Thanks in advance!

Why does everyone not believe that the DSA is actually socialist?

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/09/democratic-socialist-authoritarian-extremist/688529/

Labor Day 2026 arrives at a moment when Americans are increasingly vocal about the need to challenge billionaire rule, and are once again recognizing that organized labor – the people who brought us the weekend – is a crucial counter-force to the oligarchs. And after years of shrinking union power, they are starting to gain back ground, with membership increases of more than 400,000 in 2025 even as Donald Trump sought to break federal workers unions and gutted labor law enforcement. We also passed more than 80 laws in 19 U.S. states last year expanding workers rights, including paid sick leave in the new Democratic trifecta in Virginia and a ban on nearly all non-compete agreements in Washington.

There’s still so much more to do, and we all have to step up and do our part.

The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, a volunteer-run network of workers, organizers and supporters, aims to provide the resources, networks and training to support folks in organizing their workplaces nationwide. They’re looking for experienced organizers; folks interested in doing communications, data, research, development and legal work; and call line staffers to help continue to grow their efforts. ⚙️ We can sign up to join them here. ⚙️

VOLUNTEER TO SUPPORT LABOR ORGANIZING

And if we’re looking to step up and form a union at our own workplace, the next session of their fundamentals of workplace organizing training starts Saturday! We’ll hear from experienced organizers, practice connecting with our co-workers and prepare for what the bosses have in store. ⚙️ We can register to be part of it here. ⚙️

LEARN THE FUNDAMENTALS

💵 Have more money than time? We can also chip in with a donation here. 💵

DONATE TO SUPPORT EWOC

The Socialism 2026 clips floating around the internet today really highlight the need for the DSA to be viewed independently from things like Socialism Conference. For context — I’ve been a DSA member for 5+ years and consider myself a socialist. Obviously these are different entities but for the public, they are not.

The notion that we even need to be having conversations like this given the current state of things is completely repulsive. So many of these panelists, of course, have made a career out of monetizing their postulations via public speaking, selling books, podcasts etc.

There needs to be a larger conversation in the movement about people monetizing theory that is by and large designed to be inflammatory and antagonistic towards greater public’s sensibilities. This is destructive, ego driven and does absolutely nothing to push solidarity or make our movement strong enough to fight fascism.

We can be inclusive to all types of people without pissing all over ourselves in public like this. Fucking embarrassing.

Im trying to see sides of both perspectives, i want to make it clear I’m a leftist but I’m learning more about it, so i know the ussr china Cuba vietnam Yugoslavia etc are all dictatorships and i hate dictatorships but at the same time i understand why they are dictatorships because of imperialist pressure, i think these countries are nuanced they helped the lives of many people but at the same time were brutal and oppressive like a extremely strict dad, i understand Cuba is isolated and lost almost all its trading since the fall of the ussr but i cant help but think Cuba’s government is shitty but much better than the Batista regime and simultaneously helped many stuff for the cuban people, how come cuban/ Eastern European immigrants talk about how bad it is i can’t just dismiss it if i live in America my whole life, is saying it’s complicated a good answer, is the answer not a utopia but also not a shit hole and move on and learn from its mistakes?

This may be an oddball question. 

I'll preface this by saying I'm not really interested or know much about politics. Don't really care about Trump, immigration, Palestine or any of the big headlines of the day. 

My family and I are huge open wheel racing fans. Primarily F1 and Indy. We basically live for it and it's the only thing that matters to us. If it doesn't involve a driver or a country that hosts a Grand Prix, I probably don't know enough to actually care. 

With that said, I'm curious/concerned about how professional motor racing would function under a socialist or communist economic system. Specifically, if the government takes ownership of the sport.

Would the US still host Grand Prix? Would Penske Entertainment Corp, (the company which owns Indycar) still exist? Or would the government take it over? How about all the sponsors which financially fuels the series? Would the Indianapolis Motor Speedway get confiscated by the state? If the government runs the sport, could it decide to no longer fund it and then we have no motor racing? 

I dug into this a little bit on my own and one of the things I found worry some is how the Soviet Union handled motorsports. Motor racing in the USSR, from what I've read, was extremely underwhelming since it lacked the performance and technical progression compared to motor sports in Western nations, particularly in constructor series. The Soviets sadly rejected building an F1 circuit (in Moscow no less!) in the 60s due to costs, depriving their citizens of a home Grand Prix which must have been a huge bummer for Russian racing fans. 

Interestingly enough though, they did have their own formula series called Formula Easter but the cars carried a 1,300cc engine which is like a toy compared to the highly developed internal combustion engines of Formula One cars. To put that in perspective, a typical Formula Easter car put out roughly 90 to 110 horsepower, while a contemporary 1970s Western Formula 3 car pushed well past 160–180 horsepower

If a socialist or communist US handled it similarly, that would be greatly concerning to me since I would be worried that government ownership of teams and car manufacturers would stifle the drive to develop faster cars that push the limits of what physics will allow.

Both of my kids have been honing their race craft on our home simulator for some time now and are about to start their karting journeys so we have a lot of emotional and, down the road, financial investment into motorsports.

What do you guys think? Would socialism/communism fundamentally change professional motor racing in America or are my fears unfounded? 

I think the comparison to stans complaining about their fave underground/niche musical-artist faves going mainstream is pretty apt: as someone who has been a huge Charli XCX fan for like almost a decade at this point, I've seen this A LOT lately: you might find this boggling, but MANY of her old long-term fans have found extremely annoying how much mainstream success & influence on the 2020s cultural zeitgeist she's had with the whole 'Brat Summer' thing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brat_Summer, & have been VERY relieved to see her go back to being an unsuccessful commercial flop & niche underground darling with her follow-up to Brat, Music, Fashion, Film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music,_Fashion,_Film

Also, before calling this nonsensical wishful-thinking insanity, think about the fact that the modern US American Left was basically entirely reborn with Bernie's 2016 Presidential Campaign & that until then it had been for at the very least the entire four decades prior an utterly irrelevant marginally fringe political faction with completely non-existent political influence.

& also, yes, AOC is VERY MUCH an anticapitalist Democratic Socialist/Market Socialist lol not just a Social Democrat, even though the policy platform she advocates for IN THE SHORT TERM does indeed very much consist in progressive social democratic reformism for the most part (which also applies to pretty much every single electorally viable Democratic Socialist political force in most of the world lol, even here in Europe, look up the kind of short-term policy platforms pretty much every single electorally viable self-styled anticapitalist political force in the entire continent runs on for elections, it's all literally old-school pre-Third Way social democratic reformism through & through lol, but that doesn't mean at all that our long-term political ideals & aspirations in the space of the European Radical Left that aspires to offer a solid credible alternative to the wildly & excruciatingly insufficient soft bland centre-to-centre-left reforms currently offered by the political family/tradition of European post-Third Way Social Democracy are no longer anticapitalist, they VERY MUCH are, & so are AOC's):

AOC: "Capitalism is an irredeemable system"

ANDY SERWER: It's an interesting perspective. You self-identify as a Democratic Socialist and have called capitalism irredeemable, I believe. But what does that really mean? And does that mean capitalism should be eliminated? And are your views compatible with capitalism?

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Well, I believe that in a broad sense-- because when we toss out these big words, capitalism, socialism, they get sensationalized. And people translate them into meaning things that perhaps they don't mean. So to me, capitalism at its core, what we're talking about when we talk about that, is the absolute pursuit of profit at all human, environmental, and social cost. That is what we're really discussing.

And what we're also discussing is the ability for a very small group of actual capitalists, and that is people who have so much money that their money makes money and they don't have to work, and they can control industry, they can control our energy sources, they can control our labor, they can control massive markets that they dictate and can capture governments, and they can essentially have power over the many. And to me, that is not a redeemable system for us to be able to participate in for the prosperity and peace for the vast majority of people.

ANDY SERWER: So people talk about stakeholder capitalism, like Larry Fink at BlackRock, where the weighting for different constituents besides shareholders is more equal. Is that something you'd be amenable to?

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Well, I think at the end of the day, it is about who has control over the very core assets of production in society. If it ultimately comes down to a billionaire, or the Koch brothers, or the Koch family having control over the vast majority or large plurality of our oil assets in the United States, if it's a handful of very wealthy families having control over-- private families having control over means of production, that is essentially the capitalist system that we live in. It is a small group that is of privatized control over what we eat and how we fuel our society.

Now, where we can transition to-- and there are certain ideas where we're talking about-- for example, Elizabeth Warren has discussed workers being elected to the governing boards of companies. And also, you know, we're here in the Bronx. I represent a community that has the largest concentration of worker cooperatives in-- one of the largest concentrations in the world.

Now, these are all alternative ways of doing business. Free markets are not the same thing as capitalism. And you can have markets where businesses and ways of producing, trading, selling goods are really controlled, and not just controlled, but given more power to workers. People get a fair shake. Union jobs. Unionized workplaces. All of these are different steps and levels that we're talking about in a more just economy.

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/influencers-andy-serwer-alexandria-ocasio-110000469.html

What’s a good, preferably newer, “Socialism 101” book you’d recommend? Looking for something that gives a solid overview of socialist theory/history without being insanely long or dense.

I'm seeing accusations of commenters in this sub being "bots." What is being claimed when someone is called a "bot"? Is it mere invective or it there something more to it? Is the idea that it's an automated account commenting programmatically?

Image taken from British political cartoon (roughly 1890s) titled “The Carving Up of Africa.” That cartoon hits really hard at the greed and arrogance of Europe’s imperial powers.
I wanted to include Musk and his support of the far right movement in Germany. Maybe someone would suggest the best way to include this action.
Thanks and I welcome any comments!

"Abolishing the Senate is not something that will happen in a vacuum. It is a maximalist demand for achieving a working-class democracy."

Michael Harrington was both a supporter of left-wing Labour Zionism and an opponent of authoritarian Marxism-Leninism, and his faction dominated the DSA until about 2017. I think it is a good thing that the DSA became more accepting of members with varying views of socialism after that point, but I don’t think getting rid of the ban on “Democratic Centralism” is a good idea. Also, while I am 100% opposed to Netanyahu, Likud and the genocidal actions of the state of Israel, I also believe Israel can change and I want to support those in Israel who want real change and to live in peace with their Palestinian neighbors. Most of those people would describe themselves as Labour Zionists, and while its record in regards to Palestinian self-determination has certainly not been perfect, in general Labour Zionism has been infinitely more supportive of Palestinian rights than their fascistic Neo-Zionist and Revisionist Zionist opponents. The current usage of the term “anti-Zionist” as synonymous with pro-Palestinian fails to make a distinction between the Labour Zionism of someone like Rabin and the Revisionist Zionism of Netanyahu and his ilk. I think that making this distinction is important if we are to support those forces in Israel that might be able move its government away from fascism. Similarly, if we are going to make clear to those outside of DSA that we do not support an ideology like that of Joseph Stalin, Kim Jong Un or Pol Pol, we have to take a clear stance in opposition to authoritarianism in all forms, even “Marxist” ones- which means drawing the line at so-called “Democratic Centralism.” I know this may not be a popular position in DSA now, but I think it is only because of the natural human tendency to want simple answers to complex issues. It is possible to have a nuanced stance on something like Zionism (aka Jewish nationalism), supporting the side of Labour Zionism in Israel while also pointing out the inherent problems with settler colonialism in all its forms (including the one that produced the United States). It is possible to have a nuanced stance on Marxism-Leninism, recognizing the positive contributions of Marxist-Leninists to proletarian struggle around the world while also condemning authoritarianism in all its forms.

My favorite part is the last sentence, where they describe the current system as “A system that has provided Americans unmatched freedom and prosperity for 250 years”

I’m done with the democrats and I’m damn sure not going MAGA, but I’m having a problem with the agenda. What are we looking to gain? How are we going to get it and what’s going to happen when the taxes drive businesses to the ground. I’m not 100% sure and I’m guessing here but Google said that right at half of all people living today are responsible for the comforts of life that are available to the world. I’ll list the big 3
1. Farmers. They grow our food and most of them like Trump. Almost all.
2. Construction workers. The keep our shit pumped and away from water source or use it in safe productive manners. The electricity has to keep making its way to your light switch and keep your home comfortable.
3. Bankers. They control the top two industries that feed 99% of us.

How do you plan to take down such an empire? If I see the plans I could get on board.

New here and hoping some comrades can shed some light on something that I’m having a difficult time wrapping my head around.

I’ve seen several comments getting nearly DTO’d for mentioning Hassan Piker as the potential political figurehead of the DSA. Even Trump made comments about Piker just last week, isn’t that the kind of leadership the DSA needs? So contrarian that even the fascist leadership of Western capitalism is forced to acknowledge Piker’s political clout? Why not just crown the kingmaker?

He has a massive presence in the political sphere, and is, in all honesty, the most prolific member of the DSA.