It's Too Soon to Debate Tactics for November
DSA's tactics for the presidential general election is a question best left for once we know for certain Biden will be the nominee. The urgent question right now is how to win a cease-fire in Gaza.
For many socialists, myself included, the most urgent issue this winter is winning a cease-fire in Gaza. Israel’s genocidal campaign there has killed almost thirty thousand people at this point. It must be stopped. Joe Biden and the Democrats have given us no reason to believe there is any daylight between their policy and the policy of a possible second Donald Trump administration.
The fact that there’s no “lesser evil” candidate when it comes to the genocide in Gaza poses a challenge for everyone who is also justifiably concerned about a possible second Donald Trump presidency. The two parties are far apart on the other big question of the year: What will happen to important democratic, labor, and civil rights that make it possible for us to organize publicly and legally and have a hope of changing the US for the better? While Biden and the Democrats have made marginal improvements on some issues of labor and civil rights compared to where they started in 2021, Trump promises a wave of reaction.
What might a new Trump-sponsored age of reaction look like? His campaign has been remarkably frank about their intentions.
Trump intends to:
Use the Insurrection Act to send the US army to crush big protests.
Make full use of the prosecutorial powers available to the president to wage what comrades in Latin America call “lawfare” against political rivals, taking full advantage of a judiciary stacked with right-wing judges to break Trump’s opponents.
Crack down brutally on the rights of trans people.
Pack the NLRB with pro-business appointees and try his best to kneecap the insurgent labor movement in the United States.
Ban “communists, Marxists, and socialists” from getting a visa to enter the US by subjecting anyone who wants to visit the country to ideological screenings, similar to how he banned Muslims last term. (Lest you think he can't do that, US immigration law written during the Red Scare explicitly empowers the president to do this.)
Launch an unprecedented mass deportation campaign, with a goal of rounding up and holding millions of migrants who don't have papers in newly-built “camps” across the country. Immigrants will be held in these camps until they're deported, and he has plans to deny them any kind of due process to appeal their fate. (Biden’s immigration policy has been a truly deplorable continuation of many of the crimes of Trump’s first term. But as bad as that is, Trump promises to up the ante in a way many of us are not prepared for.)
That's just some of what Trump and the Republicans say publicly that they intend to do. It's cold comfort to think they won't actually follow through on this. There are no guarantees in politics, so it's possible Trump won't be able or won't want to carry out these policies in the end. But should we make a wager based on that hope? The threat seems real. Most of us believe, quite reasonably, that if a mugger says “I have a gun,” we should take the threat seriously, even if we can’t see the gun. I’m for following a similar logic in 2024.
Trump’s promised wave of reaction is definitely on my mind as I think about the general election. Moreover, while there is no reason to think that the election outcome will bring the people of Gaza any relief, how we act in the next year — and how we use the organizing opportunities that come with a major general election — could help tip the balance toward winning a cease-fire. In thinking about “what is to be done” in 2024, I also think it’s necessary to distinguish between how socialists in big movement organizations handle the question and how DSA as DSA handles it. And it’s also important not to rush into a debate on DSA’s tactics in the general election when Biden might not be the nominee and there’s much more important questions for DSA to answer right now.
Tasks for Socialists in Bigger Movement Organizations
The right tactic for the still pretty big labor movement and other important movement organizations in 2024 might not be the right tactic for the much smaller socialist movement, at least this winter and spring.
From the point of view of the big movement we're part of, which includes socialists but also the left-wing of the labor movement, various social movements, etc, I think the reality is that the leading organizations in our movement — and the DSAers who are part of them — really have no choice.
The challenge faced by UAW President Shawn Fain and others in the union’s leadership was real, and in the end they chose to endorse Biden. I would hope that a union like the UAW would fight like hell and exhaust all options to get concessions from Biden, particularly on a cease-fire. Moreover, if I had the ear of the UAW leadership, I'd support delaying the endorsement, not inviting Biden to speak, being even more critical of the Democrats and their Gaza policy, plus things like phrasing an endorsement as "critical support” etc. I would not try to “paint lipstick on a pig” by making it sound like Biden is great, or good, or we’re so lucky to have him, as some progressive politicians have done.
But unlike DSA, it seems like Shawn Fain and comrades in the UAW have drawn the understandable conclusion that what their union says this year will matter a lot for the outcome, particularly in key battleground states like Michigan. I think their logic is understandable and if I were in their shoes I’d be hard pressed not to come to a similar conclusion.
What Should DSA as DSA Do About the Election?
For DSA as DSA, it’s possible that the organization can abstain from making a recommendation about how to vote or adopt a more coy position like “vote against Trump” in the fall. Regardless of what DSA eventually decides to do, the fact is that the organization does not have to decide now. There is no world in which DSA would canvass or campaign for Biden in a serious way, so we’re under no pressure to act quickly. We can wait to see how the Democratic National Convention plays out — and see whether Biden is even the nominee in the end (accumulating tales of his declining health make me think a last minute decision to step aside is entirely possible).
Between now and the convention, there are far more urgent tasks before us — both to help end Israel's genocidal campaign in Palestine and to stop Trump from winning. We can intervene in the ongoing elections to get closer to achieving both outcomes.
We need to:
Fight like hell to convince the Democrats to change course in Palestine. Not because we have any illusions that they can “reclaim their progressive principles” or atone for their position so far. But because we want to see the genocide ended and Trump defeated. This will require that we birddog Democrats up and down the ticket demanding they back a cease-fire and reject funding from AIPAC and J Street, etc. We need to go to rallies and demonstrations in our cities and towns. If Biden is having a campaign event or fundraiser, there should be a picket or civil disobedience. If your congressmember is shitty like mine, borrow tactics from groups like NY-10 Neighbors. They bring together DSA members and other activists and are fighting to make Democratic members of Congress support a cease-fire. We don't really know what will work, so we should be open to many different tactics. If you're a union activist, I think making the case to delay a presidential endorsement for as long as possible also is a good idea. In nonpresidential races, it also might make sense to argue for denying union and community organization endorsements to any candidate who supports the genocide.
Push Biden to drop out. Biden won't be the official nominee of the Democratic Party until the Democratic National Convention in Chicago at the end of August. The left should champion the demand to get him to drop out. It would be a massive blow to the pro-Israel faction in the Democratic Party if Biden were forced to bow out because of his role in enabling the genocide in Gaza. (Think about the lasting effect that LBJ dropping out in 1968 had on the pro-Vietnam War forces inside the Democratic Party.) Besides, getting Biden to drop out is probably the best hope we have for defeating Trump in the fall. In this vein, the effort in Michigan being spearheaded by Rashida Tlaib's younger sister Layla Elabed to get Michigan Democratic voters to vote "uncommitted" in the presidential primary there on February 27 seems worth supporting. Perhaps it can be copied in other states as well.
Defend the pro-Palestine left in Congress. The Squad in Congress have been the biggest defenders of Palestine in national politics and it's important to close ranks with them during this moment. A few of them have serious primary challengers. We should be doing what we can to defend them all, by donating money and volunteering if we're able. That means doing our part to defend Rashida of course, but the others as well.
Build the left and the labor movement. It’s been said by socialists many times before, but it's true: the strongest answer to the threat of the far right and Israel’s war crimes is a bold and independent left and a revived labor movement. In 2024, building the left and the labor movement looks like:
Campaigning for and boosting socialist tribunes who are running for office and working in legislatures to champion our politics — particularly comrades like JP Lyninger in Louisville, New York’s slate of democratic socialists, Jesse Brown in Indianapolis, Richie Floyd in St Petersburg, and others.
Helping lead really strong solidarity efforts to support contract fights and new organizing campaigns in a host of labor battles coming up this year, from the UAW's push to organize the unorganized in auto to contract battles for postal workers, teachers, and more.
Building the projects that will put the labor movement on a new more militant, left-wing, and democratic trajectory: the Rank-and-File Project, the DSA National Labor Commission's new Workers Organizing Workers project, Labor Notes, the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, and more.
Tying all this work in with what's on the mind of everyone on the progressive left: “How do we really defeat Trumpism?” No one should be under any illusions: DSA hates the far right and will do everything we can to contribute meaningfully to defeating them and getting on with the work of building a better world.
The future of Palestine and the lives of millions of innocent people there are at stake in 2024. So too is what Lenin called the "light and air" necessary to do mass politics: democratic, labor, and civil rights. The left and DSA have a responsibility to work like hell right now to stop the genocide, strengthen Palestine’s forces in the US, and push Biden out of the race. And then come fall we can revisit the question of what DSA’s tactics should be in the general election.