Those are the only “leftist” groups that organize here. Obviously I hate them both but considering that ydsa considers themselves “big tent” is it still worth it to join them or should I just say screw it?
I think it goes without saying that my view of Trotsky starts with ice and ends with pick.
i think joining DSA can be a good organising experience (in the sense that you will learn a lot). there are radical factions of the DSA that you might be able to join and learn from, and DSA as a whole often organises with unions and tenants. I think seeing how an org works at their capacity is much more valuable than anti-AES newspaper selling.
If DSA is your only option then go DSA.
There are pros to being a disciplined Marxist in a big tent party.
I think it goes without saying that my view of Trotsky starts with ice and ends with pick.
This doesn’t matter. Our job is not to relitigate Stalin v Trotsky, it’s to organize for revolution. What matters towards that end is finding the most effective option available to you now. The only way to find that out is to check out both active groups, attend some meetings, do a little political work, and see what fits you best. I’d guess you’re looking at the following:
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Join YDSA and work towards being a member of a radical caucus you align with. Try to get as many people in the group as possible on board with your politics, but that’s secondary to the external work. Don’t join DSA just to do internal politics.
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Join the Trots. They’ll probably be better ‘Marxists’ in a theoretical sense but worse Marxists in a change-the-world sense. You’ll have to stifle your anti-Trot views here.
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Start an org on your own. Don’t just start an unaffiliated group from your own brain when the options above exist. Find a national org you vibe with and reach out, tell them you want help getting something going on your campus. This will be a LOT of work to do right, and you need to be diplomatic with the other existing groups. A more fractured left is no good. Potentially the nost valuable because it’ll be something you can keep going with right after finishing collece.
edit: 3.5. join a non-campus organization
- Do nothing, post smugly, be useless
Ask yourself what your goals are. Do you want to do the most effective socialist organizing right this second? Do you want to develop your skills and knowledge for a long-term fight? Do you want to build the relationships that are the basis of organizing work? Do you want to find your life-long political home? Do you want to organize students or the broader community?
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Go to a few meetings and vet them?
DSA is fine.
The one here in Virginia kinda does nothing.
But they are overall fine.
Sounds like you have to go do agitprop to kautskyites.
Lenin argued that every revolutionary should find themselves in every avenue with every compatible class, strata, group, etc. To expand themselves across all existing avenues and, if unavailable, to strive to create those avenues. If anything, you will gain necessary material that can further more revolutionary activity.
