SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: Join DSA at the National People's Summit

By David Duhalde

Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign offers as many questions as hope in who will continue to mobilize the millions of voters now open to democratic socialism. This June’s People’s Summit, which brings together many pro-Sanders groups and their allies, may provide one answer to what happens after the Sanders campaign. Socialists would be wise to study the past to develop a strategy to approach post-election efforts to build long-term and structured progressive unity.

Two recent experiences in presidential politics for socialists are the Democratic Agenda around Ted Kennedy and the National Rainbow Coalition around Jesse Jackson. Socialists should understand both in order to inform ourselves how to strategically plan for the post-Bernie political landscape.

Today’s Sanders campaign has similarities and stark differences to both previous insurgencies. Unlike Kennedy and the Democratic Agenda, Sanders is running explicitly as a democratic socialist and his campaign is not driven by any single formal alliance, but largely by the Senator’s reputation, celebrity surrogates, a handful of unions, and millions of small donors and grassroots volunteers. Closer to Jackson’s campaigns, Sanders enjoys the support of several socialist organizations to a varying degree, including Socialist Alternative, Solidarity, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy & Socialism, and my own Democratic Socialists of America (which is a successor to DSOC). While none play as prominent campaign role as DSOC did for Kennedy, many of these groups are significantly expanding because of the Sanders phenomenon.

The late 70’s/early 80’s Democratic Agenda, a project of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), helped launch a national insurgent campaign against the Democratic Party’s neoliberal wing. The Democratic Agenda represented a concerted effort of labor and its allies, such as DSOC, in a coordinated push against the Jimmy Carter administration and the increasing power of the pro-corporate wing of the Democratic Party. The culmination of this was Ted Kennedy’s 1980 presidential primary challenge to the incumbent Carter.

Carter defeated Kennedy for a variety of reasons. Carter’s victory provided a major setback for the realignment hopes of DSOC. In other words, Kennedy’s loss diminished the chances of remaking the Democratic Party into a social democratic/labor party like those in Europe and Canada. (For an excellent summary of realignment, how it succeeded, and how it failed, check out “It’s Their Party” by Paul Heideman.)

However, an observer at the time stated a socialist pressure group with a membership of a few thousand had commensurate influence in the Democratic Party as the 300,000-member American Conservative Union had in the Republican Party. An influence no socialists can honestly claim today.

Jesse Jackson’s presidential ambitions in 1984 and 1988 represented a different kind of left-wing Democratic primary candidate. Jackson attracted not only support from progressive elements in labor, but many groups of color (including the Nation of Islam), and radical support outside of democratic socialists. These included Maoist and post-Maoist formations, some of whom, after his campaign, regrouped as new revolutionary organizations or entered the politics of the mainstream liberal-left.

Both the Kennedy and Jackson campaigns gave socialists an opportunity to participate openly in winnable presidential candidacies that we could only dream of running by ourselves and which exposed millions of new people to left-wing ideas. Neither campaign however, made socialism nor social democracy a clear part of their work. But neither of these campaigns either materialized into a stronger socialist political project or even a highly effective left-liberal political pressure group. The National Rainbow Coalition, which originated around Jackson’s campaign, came close. But by 1989, as Danny Glover and Bill Fletcher contended the Coalition shifted from a grassroots group to Jesse Jackson’s “personal political operation.” This ended the promise of creating a democratic multiracial, multiclass national grassroots organization to challenge the Reagan-Bush area.

Another crucial similarity of these three candidates is the question of what happens after their campaigns. For progressives and socialists, the Kennedy and Jackson campaigns were more than just winning the White House. Building new, mass organizations and alliances drove our participation in these presidential races. The same desires for post-election left-wing formation and unity drive our support of Sanders race. But does he share our ambition or his he only running to be Commander-and-Chief?

A significant difference is that the Sanders campaign has mobilized a significant portion of the millennial generation to a social democratic politics. This education and mobilization changes the near future of electoral politics in the U.S. and our work in DSA.

Both Sanders supporters and his critics are fairly asking this question. Tom Hayden’s latest piece in the Nation, which describes his transformation from Sanders supporter to Clinton voter, specifically cited Sanders ambiguous stance on what follows his campaign as one reason Hayden switched his vote. We can debate the veracity of Hayden’s motives, but we must acknowledge there is genuine and valid progressive concern about the energy of Sanders campaign evaporating when it ends, especially if he loses.

This fear is partly derived from the left’s tendency to measure our own successes and failures by the actions of our leaders. Sanders is no exception. Despite people placing their hopes and dream in Bernie’s campaign, however, it is not his responsibility to provide us with a post-election plan. The Senator’s main focus must and continues to be winning as many primary states and as many delegates as possible. His prime goal is winning the nomination. Failing that, gaining enough delegates to influence the Democratic National Convention (DNC) platform in Philadelphia. It is simply unrealistic for us to expect him to have the bandwidth to be planning his next political project absent knowing how well he’ll do by final primary in my home of Washington, D.C in mid-June, what happens at the DNC in July, and who sits in the White House in 2017.

For Sanders, the decision to join any post-election planning depends on when his campaign ends. His path will certainly vary whether his speech in Philadelphia is an acceptance of Democratic Party’s presidential nomination or if he is addressing the crowd as the runner up. Socialists don’t have this constraint. But we do have a limited window of opportunity to capitalize on the fact that millions of Americans have both campaigned and voted for a socialist. One way to take advantage of this moment is to participate in the upcoming People’s Summit in Chicago this June 17th to 19th.

This gathering, which occurs shortly after the last primary and before the DNC, brings together explicitly pro-Sanders groups such as, but not limited to, the National Nurses United, Reclaim Chicago, Progressive Democrats of America, the People for Bernie, and the Democratic Socialists of America alongside left-of-center non-partisan groups such as National People’s Action, United Students Against Sweatshops, and Food & Water Watch.

The People’s Summit differentiates itself from other left-wing political gatherings by going beyond the recycled debates currently represented by “Bernie or Bust” (i.e., third-party/protest vote) versus the “Popular Front against Trump” (i.e., just vote against Republicans). The thousands of participants will network and work to build a People’s Platform, a unifying political statement that can used to hold elected officials accountable.

The purpose of the People’s Summit is not creating any single new party or coalition. But many of the participating organizations represent people we’d want and expect in a future socialist party. These activists represent a microcosm of the best Sanders campaign supporters. Therefore, socialists should prioritize joining this chance to bond with thousands of activists open to our ideas and socialists. Together, we can construct a post-Bernie alliance is more democratically accountable than previous post-presidential election formations.

DSA will be the organized democratic socialist voice at the People’s Summit held in Chicago’s McCormick Place this June 17th to 19th. The gathering will bring together thousands of activists, many of whom support Bernie Sanders and—whether he wins or not—want to see new progressive unity out of his campaign.

We encourage DSA members and our allies to mobilize and to participate, to register for the People's Summit click here. This political opportunity comes once in a generation. I hope to see many of you in Chicago as we chart the next course of building a more democratic and equitable United States.

David Duhalde is DSA's Deputy Director and long time electoral activist.

You can register at www.dsausa.org