joepinetree posted:

DSA is a perfectly tuned machine aimed at taking any energy for change and channeling into irrelevant procedural nonsense.

My last meeting with DSA there was a stupid slapfight for like 30 minutes over whether a particular motion could come up for a vote, and there was a whole thing about roberts rules of order and amending the agenda (note, the debate wasn't about the motion itself, but whether someone could make a motion to amend the agenda to add the motion for debate and a vote). The guy wanting to put the motion to a vote got loud at one point. So this lady interrupted him and said that as a victim of sexual assault he was triggering her by speaking loudly. He then said that as a victim of sexual assault himself he found it extremely concerning that she would casually use sexual assault that way. Which then led to mutual threats of filing grievances, a discussion of how no one internal should be able to handle it, and a promise by the chair of seeking help from national. Best part was that the motion itself was some vague pablum about engaging in electoralism even after Bernie's defeat.

After the meeting was over, I cancelled my membership, and asked to be removed from the rolls (despite being allowed to continue on as a member for a while if I wanted).

fermun posted:

as a reminder, you can't be a communist alone, so even as dysfunctional as dsa is, if youre not in an org, you're a lib.

it doesn't have to be dsa, though thats the only org available in a lot of places, but join salt or cpusa or whatever

fermun posted:

as a reminder, you can't be a communist alone, so even as dysfunctional as dsa is, if youre not in an org, you're a lib.

it doesn't have to be dsa, though thats the only org available in a lot of places, but join salt or cpusa or whatever

joepinetree posted:

I've been part of organizing faculty, students and staff under the same union. About 1/3 of my department joined because of me.

In fact, doing that was the beginning of the end for me. Because doing this union felt easy, people were earnest and collaborative, and it wasn't an endless energy suck.

Especially because at the same time this was getting off the ground, my disillusion was starting to grow with DSA. I think I even posted about it here. Some clown who only ever attended meetings remotely and never actually participated in anything spent literally half a meeting arguing that everything that DSA did should have an ASL interpreter and child care available. Now, the sticking point wasn't that the rest didn't want an ASL interpreter. The sticking point is that she thought those things should be provided even if no one requested it, because even making it available upon request is ableist. Thinking about it now and its stuff like this that probably ballooned the dsa budget, because she was adamant that there had to be an ASL interpreter at every event even if no one requested and we knew of no one who needed it.

joepinetree posted:

I've been part of organizing faculty, students and staff under the same union. About 1/3 of my department joined because of me.

In fact, doing that was the beginning of the end for me. Because doing this union felt easy, people were earnest and collaborative, and it wasn't an endless energy suck.

Especially because at the same time this was getting off the ground, my disillusion was starting to grow with DSA. I think I even posted about it here. Some clown who only ever attended meetings remotely and never actually participated in anything spent literally half a meeting arguing that everything that DSA did should have an ASL interpreter and child care available. Now, the sticking point wasn't that the rest didn't want an ASL interpreter. The sticking point is that she thought those things should be provided even if no one requested it, because even making it available upon request is ableist. Thinking about it now and its stuff like this that probably ballooned the dsa budget, because she was adamant that there had to be an ASL interpreter at every event even if no one requested and we knew of no one who needed it.

PostNouveau posted:

Labor movement is probably the only way anything will actually change.

R. Mute posted:

unions are great, but they aren't vehicles for revolutionary change. and if there's no revolutionary party pressuring unions, they have a tendency to slide into complacency and/or defeatism. sucks that you americans don't really have any viable communist parties out there.

joepinetree posted:

DSA is a perfectly tuned machine aimed at taking any energy for change and channeling into irrelevant procedural nonsense.

My last meeting with DSA there was a stupid slapfight for like 30 minutes over whether a particular motion could come up for a vote, and there was a whole thing about roberts rules of order and amending the agenda (note, the debate wasn't about the motion itself, but whether someone could make a motion to amend the agenda to add the motion for debate and a vote). The guy wanting to put the motion to a vote got loud at one point. So this lady interrupted him and said that as a victim of sexual assault he was triggering her by speaking loudly. He then said that as a victim of sexual assault himself he found it extremely concerning that she would casually use sexual assault that way. Which then led to mutual threats of filing grievances, a discussion of how no one internal should be able to handle it, and a promise by the chair of seeking help from national. Best part was that the motion itself was some vague pablum about engaging in electoralism even after Bernie's defeat.

After the meeting was over, I cancelled my membership, and asked to be removed from the rolls (despite being allowed to continue on as a member for a while if I wanted).

Jon Pod Van Damm posted:

socialism with american characteristics

joepinetree posted:

DSA is a perfectly tuned machine aimed at taking any energy for change and channeling into irrelevant procedural nonsense.

My last meeting with DSA there was a stupid slapfight for like 30 minutes over whether a particular motion could come up for a vote, and there was a whole thing about roberts rules of order and amending the agenda (note, the debate wasn't about the motion itself, but whether someone could make a motion to amend the agenda to add the motion for debate and a vote). The guy wanting to put the motion to a vote got loud at one point. So this lady interrupted him and said that as a victim of sexual assault he was triggering her by speaking loudly. He then said that as a victim of sexual assault himself he found it extremely concerning that she would casually use sexual assault that way. Which then led to mutual threats of filing grievances, a discussion of how no one internal should be able to handle it, and a promise by the chair of seeking help from national. Best part was that the motion itself was some vague pablum about engaging in electoralism even after Bernie's defeat.

After the meeting was over, I cancelled my membership, and asked to be removed from the rolls (despite being allowed to continue on as a member for a while if I wanted).

yellowcar posted:

swear fealty to the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China and work to undermine the United States government

R. Mute posted:

unions are great, but they aren't vehicles for revolutionary change. and if there's no revolutionary party pressuring unions, they have a tendency to slide into complacency and/or defeatism. sucks that you americans don't really have any viable communist parties out there.

it owns being in a proper revolutionary leninist party. everyone who works for our party earns the median wage, all our elected officials have to give their government wage to the party and get that same median wage, careerists have nothing to gain here. and if you're a wrecker like apparently 90% of the DSA is, you're going to get booted out of even the lowliest parts of our party. also democratic centralism ftw.

Jon Pod Van Damm posted:

socialism with american characteristics

lumpentroll posted:

is svart still employed by the dsa

PERPETUAL IDIOT posted:

Wasn't their biggest campaign at the national level, post Bernie and with enormous membership growth, trying to get Keith Ellison elected as like the DNC chair or some other Democratic party functionary?

V. Illych L. posted:

are you PTB or some smaller organisation?

joepinetree posted:

DSA is a perfectly tuned machine aimed at taking any energy for change and channeling into irrelevant procedural nonsense.

My last meeting with DSA there was a stupid slapfight for like 30 minutes over whether a particular motion could come up for a vote, and there was a whole thing about roberts rules of order and amending the agenda (note, the debate wasn't about the motion itself, but whether someone could make a motion to amend the agenda to add the motion for debate and a vote). The guy wanting to put the motion to a vote got loud at one point. So this lady interrupted him and said that as a victim of sexual assault he was triggering her by speaking loudly. He then said that as a victim of sexual assault himself he found it extremely concerning that she would casually use sexual assault that way. Which then led to mutual threats of filing grievances, a discussion of how no one internal should be able to handle it, and a promise by the chair of seeking help from national. Best part was that the motion itself was some vague pablum about engaging in electoralism even after Bernie's defeat.

After the meeting was over, I cancelled my membership, and asked to be removed from the rolls (despite being allowed to continue on as a member for a while if I wanted).

fermun posted:

as a reminder, you can't be a communist alone, so even as dysfunctional as dsa is, if youre not in an org, you're a lib.

it doesn't have to be dsa, though thats the only org available in a lot of places, but join salt or cpusa or whatever

Cuttlefush posted:

more stories please

joepinetree posted:

Lot's of people trying to become the next chapo (in a chapter where the biggest event we had had like 40 people, I know of at least 4 different podcasts that got started).

joepinetree posted:

in a chapter where the biggest event we had had like 40 people, I know of at least 4 different podcasts that got started

DaysBefore posted:

lol

lumpentroll posted:

DaysBefore posted:

lol

DaysBefore posted:

lol

Pentecoastal Elites posted:

while I was doing dishes the other day I randomly remembered the vegas dsa sex worker pool party, and the sex worker pool party gatekeeping drama, and the anti gatekeeping drama, and the anti anti gatekeeping drama, and had myself a little lol. what a cool org

R. Mute posted:

ptb, babyyyyy.

PostNouveau posted:

What happened?

DaysBefore posted:

lol

In Training posted:

Yeah my view on the current conditions in US is that there needs to be a left wing cadre developed through trade union reformism that can open people to the value of communist tactics + internationalism. The moribund existing unions are weak to takeover alongside growing mass support for anti imperialism that can't be supported by unions as they are now.

Were a ways away from a revolutionary party existing but the people that will build that org are struggling in different industries w/o a central & principled party. I believe it can be built. It won't be DSA but a lot of people involved with it will probably come from DSA etc.

Pentecoastal Elites posted:

the last 2 or 3 meetings I went to were completely dominated by arguing about the progressive stack and who got priority and why it was literally violence to ask so and so to sort themselves back in the stack. I had a friend that stayed for a a few more meetings who said that it basically gridlocked the org and he too quit after they invited a union organizer to speak and 2/3rds of his time was eaten by more stack arguments

PhilippAchtel posted:

What's a progressive stack?

R. Mute posted:

ptb, babyyyyy.

PhilippAchtel posted:

What's a progressive stack?