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This year, New York Citys Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter faced its first real bout of adversity after an astounding post-2016 resurgence. The democratic socialists chose to endorse six candidates for the City Council and only two will end up winning, a setback thats already causing a bit of schadenfreude among the career Democrats who root against their success.

For socialists, the losses in the 2021 Democratic primaries sting because last year was such a success. In 2020, during the state legislative primaries, all four DSA-backed Democrats won, dethroning incumbents or establishment-backed candidates. DSAs first state legislator, Julia Salazar, won reelection, and new political stars were minted. A fifth insurgent who ran without DSAs backing joined their socialist caucus in Albany after winning.

Why did DSA come up short this year? And, more important, does it matter? Critics of DSA many of them either members of the professional left or centrists who recoil at the idea of socialists taking office are hoping this portends a coming decline for the organization. But any prolonged losing streak is unlikely. New York Citys chapter, arguably the national flagship, continues to add members and expertise. Many of the young organizers are now seasoned. Next year, with another state legislative cycle in the offering, could very well lead to the election of even more socialists.

But 2021 did not go the way DSA wanted. Part of this can be blamed on the strength of the opposition the group encountered, and part of it can be attributed to choices DSA made: the candidates it recruited and the terrain they chose to compete in.

What sets DSA apart from every other organization that does politics in New York is that DSA does not widely endorse. They did not support any Democrat for mayor. For left nonprofit groups, organized labor, and the Working Families Party, this is a completely alien concept. The ultimate goal of DSA is to build a mass-movement socialist organization, relying on elected officials who will be accountable, fully, to rank-and-file members and the overall socialist agenda.

DSA does not care about sending more politicians with their seal of approval into government if they will behave like conventional Democrats, pivoting to the center and spurning socialist-supported legislation, like statewide single-payer health care, a right to housing, and public ownership of the electric grid. DSA chapters rightfully fret about capacity and only want to support campaigns to which they can lend a full volunteer operation.

Most other groups, while caring about building a greater progressive project, like to project clout particularly in the media. Claiming victory is extremely important to them. If thirty endorsements are issued and twenty candidates prevail, thats twenty politicians who can be celebrated in a press release. DSA is volunteer-run and faces no internal pressure to cater to donors or politicians who can secure them funding. Racking up wins therefore carries a lot less meaning, since there are no donors who need to be placated.

The slate of six candidates was the largest DSA had ever run in the post-2016 era, when socialists, for the very first time, became a force in New York politics. They were a diverse array of candidates in three different boroughs. One of them, Tiffany Cabn, nearly won the Queens district attorneys race in 2019. She was an overwhelming favorite for a Queens City Council seat that she went on to win with ease. A second front-runner, Alexa Avils, breezed to victory in Brooklyn with DSAs strong support.

The other four candidates faltered in various ways. The strongest of the four campaigns occurred in a stretch of eastern Queens that is suburban in character and not known as any kind of hotbed for leftist politics, let alone socialism. Jaslin Kaur, a young socialist organizer, finished a strong second in a crowded field to Linda Lee, a nonprofit executive running on a more moderate platform.

Kaur faced deep challenges in a district with a large number of middle-class and affluent homeowners. She campaigned hard on a few key issues, like bailing out immigrant taxi drivers, and cannily repackaged the more controversial elements of DSAs platform, including defunding the police. She stressed reallocating resources to nonviolent responses to mental health issues and homelessness, avoiding the sort of language that could alienate voters who ended up choosing her.

DSA, meanwhile, flooded the area with volunteers, door-knocking in neighborhoods without subway access. The enthusiasm for Kaur was quite genuine. She is a talented candidate who could end up representing the district one day, once Lee is term-limited, or seek another office nearby.

The Kaur campaign, from the get-go, was a well-intentioned long shot. DSAs support of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement likely hampered Kaurs efforts to reach out to older Jewish voters. In an area with fewer renters, DSAs traditional embrace of tenant issues would always have less resonance. It can be debated whether its worth DSAs while to pursue the struggle for socialism in eastern Queens, even with its growing immigrant population, but the campaign demonstrated that the future there may be much brighter than one would think.

The next toughest race was on terrain where DSA had succeeded greatly last year. Tenant organizer Michael Hollingsworth faced Crystal Hudson, a former staffer for several elected officials, including the outgoing councilwoman, Laurie Cumbo, in a gentrifying Brooklyn district that includes the neighborhoods of Crown Heights, Clinton Hill, and Prospect Heights. Hudson vs. Hollingsworth was the most pitched battle of the cycle not just for DSA but maybe anywhere pitting two young, black candidates against each other in an area where DSA just sent two socialists to Albany.

Hudson narrowly won. She had the strong support of Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who suffered a grievous loss last year when DSA defeated a local assemblyman who was his protg. In a bid to work with Jeffries, a potential successor to Nancy Pelosi, all of organized labor rallied behind Hudson, as well as many elected officials. Jeffries conscripted Maya Wiley, who was regarded as the progressive standard-bearer in the mayoral race, to campaign for Hudson personally. In addition, a super PAC supported by the billionaire real estate developer Stephen Ross, Common Sense NYC, spent more than $100,000 against Hollingsworth. The districts sizable Hasidic vote swung decisively against Hollingsworth, because DSA is critical of Israel.

There is little, truthfully, DSA could have done differently here. Hollingsworth was a formidable candidate in the mold of the socialists DSA recently elected, Jabari Brisport and Phara Souffrant Forrest. Unlike the Democrats DSA defeated a year ago, Hudson was far more capable. Her platform, on issues like education, policing, and even real estate development, did not differ much from Hollingsworths. She wisely distanced herself from Cumbo, who is reviled by leftists in the district for supporting a controversial development that did not create enough affordable housing. Combined with the heavy outside spending on her behalf and against Hollingsworth she was a force DSA could not overcome.

Hudsons victory demonstrates one looming challenge for DSA: the Democratic establishment is ready for them. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, once a DSA insurgent, was able to take a lazy Queens party machine by surprise in her race against incumbent Joe Crowley, and other socialists followed suit. After losing a pivotal race in his own backyard a year ago, Jeffries leaned in heavily this time, and DSA had to do far more to combat the combined might of labor, real estate, and outside Democratic politicians.

Ask anyone in DSA, and they will tell you that, for these reasons, the Hollingsworth loss hurts. Jeffries crowed on Twitter after the win: The most interesting take away from this years NYC elections may be the battleground city council races. Streets is watching.

Jeffries shouldnt get too comfortable, since his district is still fertile ground for socialists. Where DSA probably erred, though, was investing heavily in a neighboring Brooklyn district where their candidate, Brandon West, could not secure a victory. West ran in one of the citys wealthiest districts, which ropes in the neighborhoods of Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Gowanus, and Kensington. Home to tony brownstones and many upwardly mobile progressives, the district is not one DSA needs the goal is to organize the working class, particularly nonwhites, and not the kind of people who own homes that can sell for $5 million.

West was a fine candidate, but he was outmatched by Shahana Hanif, a former aide to the term-limited councilman, Brad Lander. Hanif ran on a platform largely indistinguishable from Wests and will probably function, once in the Council, as a de facto socialist. Opposing her, given the contours of the district, did not make a great deal of sense.

Beyond Hollingsworth, the toughest loss for DSA was probably in the Bronx, where Adolfo Abreu fell well short of winning. Represented by a term-limited right-wing Democrat, Fernando Cabrera, the district nevertheless handed a victory to another left candidate, an Ivy Leagueeducated urban planner named Pierina Sanchez. Sanchez had the support of Congressman Adriano Espaillat, who has a record of backing winning candidates; the leader of the Bronx Democratic machine, Jamaal Bailey; and several large labor unions. It would behoove DSA to figure out why their candidate lost to another Democrat competing in the left lane of a primary in a working-class district. The billionaire-funded super PAC, Common Sense NYC, did spend almost $60,000 against Abreu, which was probably one factor.

There were other districts where DSA could have chosen to support candidates or back eventual winners. Two gentrifying districts in western Queens, home to many DSA members, were ignored entirely. A young activist named Chi Oss won in central Brooklyn, where DSA chose to back no one; if Oss wasnt an acceptable candidate, DSA could have found someone to run instead and maybe would have won. Finally, the outer-borough, overwhelmingly black working-class neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens had no DSA candidates this year. If socialists wont run there, they wont build power there. For next year and beyond, these communities should be a priority for the nations premier socialist organization.

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How DSA Won and Lost in New York City Elections - Jacobin magazine

In the aftermath of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held last weekend in Dallas, Texas, a clear warning must be made: Donald Trump is consolidating power over the Republican Party, transforming it from a conservative bourgeois party into a fascist party with a personalist leader and a paramilitary wing.

Trumps keynote speech copied Hitler and the Nazis. Trump is not engaged in bluster, as the Democrats and corporate media insist. He is following a distinct political strategy. When Trump and his fascist advisers confront a political problem, their first step is to ask, What would Hitler do?

Trump began his speech by laying out his stab-in-the-back myths regarding the 2020 election and the coronavirus pandemic, modeling himself on Goebbels theory of the Big Lie.

We were doing really well until the rigged election came along, Trump said, calling the Biden administration illegitimate, asserting it usurped power through election fraud and ballot stuffing. He presented his own supporters as victims of political violence that was encouraged and legitimized by the left. He repeated his claims about the China plague, scapegoating China for the death of over 600,000 people in the US.

Trump told his supporters they are under siege from an internal enemy that is responsible for economic hardship, unemployment and crime. Immigrants have killed and maimed many, he said, and they are currently overrunning the country. They are coming out of the prisons in these countries, flooding our country, murderers, drug dealers, human traffickers.

He made his most explicit denunciation of socialism and Marxism yet, presenting his movement as a mailed fist, prepared to crush social opposition amid a worsening economic and social crisis.

Socialists, he said, have stolen our American heritage. The radical left and the failed political establishment hate our movement because we took on the corrupt special interests, he said. Like socialist and communist movements throughout history, todays leftists do not believe in freedom, they do not believe in fairness, and they do not believe in democracy. They believe in Marxist moralityanything is justified as long as it hurts their political opponents and advances the radical agenda of their party.

Earlier on Sunday during an interview with Fox News, Trump gave his movement a martyr, praising January 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was killed by Capitol security, as an innocent, wonderful young woman. This, too, is copied from Hitler, who promoted stormtrooper Horst Wessel as a martyr after his death in 1930. Trump hinted that he would blame Democratic leadership for Babbitts death, saying for the first time that he had information showing she was shot by the head of security for a certain high official in the Democratic Party.

Trumps speech came at the conclusion of a CPAC meeting geared entirely to promoting Trump as the personalist leader of the Republican Party.

Prime speaking slots were given to individuals who helped lead the coup plot of January 6. Lauren Boebert, who tweeted live updates of the whereabouts of congressional Democrats during the putsch, was a featured speaker, as was Mo Brooks, who spoke alongside Trump on the morning of January 6 and encouraged the crowd to fight. A slew of far-right podcasters who have promoted Trumps claims of election fraud also spoke, as did Trumps son Donald Jr., several Trump cabinet members and Trumps former White House adviser Stephen Miller.

Trump and his advisers are incorporating fascist groups like the Proud Boys, Three Percenters and Oath Keepers into the Republican Party as its paramilitary stormtroopers. Delegations from each of these groups were present at CPAC and were welcomed by the conference organizers with open arms. Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes, who personally organized the paramilitary rapid response squads that were prepared to deploy to the US Capitol on January 6, was a credentialed guest.

Conference participants engaged in a celebration of death, cheering a panelist who praised the USs low vaccination rate. Congresswoman Boebert opposed any further vaccination efforts: Don't come knocking on my door with your Fauci ouchie. Speakers praised Trumps reaction to the coronavirus, which entailed sacrificing hundreds of thousands of people for profit.

The most explicitly fascist speech was given by Miller, the only top Trump aide who remained in the White House for the entirety of his term in office.

Miller, a longtime student of Hitler, boasted that Trump has succeeded in carrying out a takeover of the Republican Party, in forging a new conservative populism based on defending this nations heritage, its culture, its values through ruthless attacks on immigrant workers who want to defile American culture. As of this time, the Republican Party must file for divorce from big business and never look back. Walk away from the oligarchs, the multinational corporations and all the other massive business conglomerates that have no loyalty to this country. We have a disloyal elite in this country. The wealthiest, most privileged, most powerful people are trying to destroy this country.

He concluded his speech by proclaiming that with Trump leading their resurgent movement, We will triumph! This was an almost word-for-word repetition of the Nazi propaganda slogan Wir werden siegen, weil uns Adolf Hitler fhrt. (We will triumph, because Adolf Hitler is leading us.)

Trump and his fascist advisers now advance the theory that he can be reinstated as rightful president. The theory was reportedly developed among fascist circles earlier this summer, with Trump supporters Michael Flynn, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell and Trumps former election lawyer Sidney Powell advocating a reinstatement putsch, according to Vanity Fair. In May, Lindell appeared on Steve Bannons War Room podcast and declared, Donald Trump, I believe, will be back in by the end of August. A Politico/Morning Consult poll from June shows that 29 percent of Republican voters believe Trump will be reinstated as president by the end of the year.

The fascist transformation of the Republican Party exposes the bankruptcy of the corporate media and Democratic Partys efforts to downplay the danger. The Democrats engage in endless appeals to bipartisanship that take on a demented and grotesque character. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the socialists in Congress call Republicans their colleagues. Upon taking office, Biden declared, We need a Republican Party. We need an opposition thats principled and strong.

The Democrats are pursuing a political strategy that plays right into Trumps hands. They implement economic policies that enrich the aristocracy and lead to social immiseration among workers and the middle class. They obsessively promote racial and gender politics and embolden the extreme right. Trump singled out the New York Times 1619 Project in his CPAC speech, saying, Thats all they talk about. Race. The whole show. Race, race. As Bannon said in 2017, The Democratsthe longer they talk about identity politics, I got em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.

Six months have passed since the coup attempt of January 6, and the Democratic establishment is papering over what took place. No facts from the Biden Justice Departments investigation have been released to the public. A congressional inquiry has been delayed as Democrats insist that Republican conspirators be invited to participate. Though some of the streetfighters have been arrested, none of the architects have been so much as forced to testify.

The response of the Democrats, the corporate media and the complacent middle class is dictated by a fear of the working class. The Democratic Party is no less a defender of capitalist property relations than Trump, and it is desperate to avoid alerting the working class to the danger in the present situation for fear of triggering mass protests and strikes. This fear is the basis of Trumps appeal to the entire ruling class: only he can stop this growing movement of the working class from challenging their wealth.

Strikes are taking place across the United States among autoworkers, nurses, public sector workers, coal miners and more. The fight against fascism means imbuing the class struggle with a political and socialist perspective independent of the Democratic Party. This requires building the Socialist Equality Party, which fights to unite the international working class across races and nationalities in a common struggle against the source of fascism: the capitalist system.

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The CPAC conference and the fascist transformation of Trump's Republican Party - WSWS

ECO-SOCIALISTsolutions to the climate crisis will be vital in the run-up to the COP26 conference, a Labour MSP has said,calling for a worker-led Green New Deal with international solidarity at its heart.

Mercedes Villalba called on the Westminster and devolved governments to urgently address the climate emergency.

MsVillalba, who represents North East Scotland at Holyrood, said that class inequality continued to blight Britain and smothered the potential of many people across the globe.

Activists nationwide must now mobilise ahead of the United Nations summit to ensure that this opportunity is not wasted, she said.

The MSP insisted that Scottish Labour is committed to encouraging the development of transport that is more sustainable and publicly owned, as well as ending fuel poverty.

Ms Villalba said: These issues are not remote or distant from the people I represent.

Issues of climate justice are international issues and thus require international solutions. We must not allow those at COP26 to forget it.

Internationalism and the principles of international solidarity are essential if we are to succeed in tackling inequality and environmental breakdown.

Ms Villalba was speaking at a meeting organised by theCOP26 Coalition, Momentum, The World Transformed, Labour for a Green New Deal and the Peace and Justice Project.

Others at the event included former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and MPRebecca LongBailey.

Ms Villalba said that she planned to push the SNP government to take the environment seriously through rewilding and reforming land ownership.

She said: At the moment, enormous swathes of rural Scotland are exploited as playgrounds for the rich.

Im committed to eco-socialism. I believe an alliance of civil society, environmental activists and the labour movement can implement the measures needed to avert ecological disaster.

After all, the cause of Labour is the cause of the earth.

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Eco-socialists urged to mobilise ahead of COP26 - Morning Star Online

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) When incumbent Mayor Byron Brown launched his write-in campaign for a fifth term on Monday, he did little to try to hide one of the highlights of his campaign strategy, painting Democratic nominee India Walton as a radical socialist.

People are fearful about the future of our city, Brown said. They are fearful about the future of their families. They are fearful about the future of their children. They have said to me that they do not want a radical socialist occupying the mayors office in Buffalo City Hall.

Walton, the self-described democratic socialist who shocked Buffalo by beating Brown in the Democratic primary, wasted no time firing back on Tuesday.

The only thing that is radical about this campaign is that this is a radical act of love, she said.

Jacob Neiheisel, a political science professor at the University at Buffalo and an expert in symbolic politics, believes this theme will linger throughout the campaign in the leadup to Election Day on November 2nd.

It is a bit of a critical case study, Neiheisel said. It has a lot of the trappings where you would expect the label to be at issue.

A 2019 Monmouth poll found that 10% of Americans viewed socialism favorably at that time. Meanwhile, 42% had a negative view of socialism. But Neiheisel suggests those numbers are on the move, and could differ in the Queen City.

Not surprisingly, the further we get away from the Cold War, the more that number changes, and it changes between generations, he said. It has been a moving target, if you will. But America at large is not Buffalo. Its not the largely Democratic electorate in the city.

Election Day is November 2nd.

Chris Horvatits is an award-winning anchor and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2017. See more of his work here.

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Socialism? Expect to hear a lot about it in the lead up to Buffalos mayoral election - WIVB.com - News 4

Last Tuesday, as news coverage focused on New York Citys mayoral race, an upset occurred in New Yorks second-largest city. India Walton, a nurse and union activist endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Working Families Party, defeated incumbent mayor Byron Brown in Buffalos Democratic primary.

Walton proudly called herself a democratic socialist throughout the campaign, and on election night, she refused to back away from that label. Responding to a reporters question about whether she considers herself a socialist, Walton was adamant: Oh, absolutely. The entire intent of this campaign is to draw power and resources to the ground level and into the hands of the people.

At a victory party the same night, she laid out her political vision: All that we are doing in this moment is claiming what is rightfully ours. We are the workers. We do the work. And we deserve a government that works with and for us.

Having won the primary in Democrat-heavy Buffalo, Walton will almost certainly become the citys first female mayor and the first socialist mayor of a major US city in years. Her upset is another milestone in the rise of DSA, which put considerable energy into Waltons campaign. But her victory also points to an important, if often overlooked, tradition of US politics: municipal and state-level socialism.

During the early twentieth century, the Socialist Party of America (SPA) fielded formidable candidates across the country. The most prominent was Eugene Debs, who ran for president five times, including from a federal prison in 1920. (He was serving time for opposing World War I.) New Yorks Meyer London and Wisconsins Victor Berger both won election to the US Congress as Socialists in the 1910s and 20s.

The real action, however, was down-ballot, where Socialists secured spots on city councils, state legislatures, county boards, and an array of other governing bodies. The SPA elected over 150 state legislators during the early twentieth century. They also won mayoral races. There was Jasper McLevy in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Louis Duncan in Butte, Montana; J. Henry Stump in Reading, Pennsylvania, and John Gibbons in Lackawanna, New York, just south of Buffalo. In Buffalo itself, Socialist Frank Perkins won a city council seat in 1920. All told, Socialists won office in at least 353 cities, the vast majority in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

The longest socialist administration was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where from 1910 to 1960 the city had three socialist mayors. Emil Seidel, Daniel Hoan, and Frank Zeidlers administrations promoted sewer socialism, a moderate form of socialism aimed at delivering workers immediate material improvements and de-commodifying society through a democratic process. While they de-emphasized strikes and labor struggles, the sewer socialists were able to build an incredibly well-organized machine and a rich working-class culture.

Emil Seidel was elected in 1910, becoming the countrys first Socialist mayor of a major city. During his brief tenure, he created the citys first public works department and started the city parks system. After losing reelection, Seidel served as Eugene Debss running mate in 1912.

Milwaukee Socialists regained power with Daniel Hoans victory in 1916. Hoans twenty-four-year tenure remains the longest continuous Socialist administration in US history. Milwaukee set up the countrys first public housing project, Garden Homes, in 1923, and the Hoan administration pushed for municipal ownership of street lighting, city sanitation, and water purification. It also financed public marketplaces, raised funds to improve Milwaukees harbors, and purged the corruption that had plagued past administrations.

Hoans tenure ended in 1940, but socialist governance returned under Frank Zeidler starting in 1948. Zeidler continued the sewer socialism tradition while overseeing Milwaukees territorial expansion and population rise. He stood out as a strong supporter of civil rights as Milwaukees black population increased following World War II (an especially laudable stance given the bigotry of earlier sewer socialists like Victor Berger).

The Wisconsin Socialist Partys success wasnt limited to Milwaukee. From 1905 to 1945, Socialists sent seventy-four legislators to the state capital, where they passed over five hundred pieces of legislation, often aimed at supporting the municipal administrations back in Milwaukee. A 1919 socialist bill, for instance, gave the city permission to create public housing.

Like their city-level comrades, Socialist state legislators worked to deliver tangible changes to workers lives. Socialists authored Wisconsins first workmens compensation bill, which passed in 1911, and pushed legislation that allowed women to receive their paychecks instead of having it sent to their husbands. They updated housing codes, reduced working hours for women, and funded public county hospitals. They exempted union property from taxation and made it illegal for company investigators to infiltrate unions.

Socialist state legislators in Wisconsin didnt accomplish what they did alone. They aligned with progressive Republicans when possible and, as a result, much of the legislation that came out of the legislature looked like a mixture of socialist and progressive positions.

Still, Socialists were more than happy to call out progressives for not going far enough to help the working class. In 1931, the legislature debated a state unemployment system to combat the effects of the Great Depression. The socialist version of the bill called for $12 a week in benefits and included a provision to create an eight-hour working day across all industries. Progressives rallied around a bill that called for $10 a week in benefits and no cap on working hours. Socialist representative George Tews summarized the caucuss sentiment when he declared on the House floor that a progressive was a socialist with their brains knocked out.

The Milwaukee socialists became mainstays of the state legislature, managing to survive the First Red Scare following World War I. Elsewhere, state repression (and deep splits within the party) proved more devastating. In New York, for instance, state officials operating under the anti-radical Lusk Committee targeted Buffalo, where Frank Perkins had been elected city councilor in 1920, and the nearby steel town of Lackawanna, where socialist John Gibbons won the mayors office. Under the cloud of federal repression, neither Perkins nor Gibbons won reelection.

The Wisconsin Socialists numbers and electoral victories evaporated following World War II, and for decades, socialists largely found themselves outside the halls of power (some exceptions: Oakland, California mayor Ron Dellums; St Paul, Minnesota mayor Jim Scheibel; Berkeley, California mayor Gus Newport; Santa Cruz, California mayor Mike Rokin, and Irving, California mayor Larry Agran all DSA members).

But DSA victories in congressional, state, and local races have again placed socialism on the map. The key now will be to fight for concrete improvements in workers lives, raising their expectations about what is politically possible.

In her victory speech last Tuesday, India Walton laid out an optimistic view of socialist successes to come. This victory is ours. It is the first of many. If you are in an elected office right now, you are being put on notice. We are coming.

That kind of optimism was warranted at the state and local level during the early twentieth century. There is no reason it cannot be so again.

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India Walton Is Reviving the American Tradition of Municipal Socialism - Jacobin magazine