Comments on: Reimagining Socialism

By: Bhaskar Sunkara

Bhaskar Sunkara — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:55:40 +0000

I can understand why they didnt ID DSA or YDS. Resparking socialism in the minds of many tens of thousands of readers (not an understatement) will undoubtly at least draw a few to interest in DSA and in the long run a few recruits to either DSA or YDS don’t mean nearly as much as getting it back in the discussion.

I’m growing more fond of The Nation, maybe because they have an increased relevance since the election of Obama? Your point about them trying to be both on the right and left of us is well taken though.

By: Joseph M. Schwartz

Joseph M. Schwartz — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 04:15:48 +0000

Good catch to remove Bill Fletcher’s and Barbara Ehrenreich’s e-mail, as they don’t need e-mails from folks they don’t know well. (and my bad for originally posting it without thinking too carefully about it…this is a public site and not everyone would write them in the appropriate fraternal and sororal spirit…) It’s also conceivable that even if Barbara did ask The Nation to ID her as National Co-Chair of DSA, they would not do it. The Nation rarely gives DSA (or YDS) a positive notice. The Nation’s editors/core writers are too often NYC trendy-chique and likes to be to the right-and-left of DSA at the same time (and they sure know how to dress way more cool…)…Also, for good and bad reasons, folks who make their living writing don’t like to be IDed with a particular organization (can lose them audience and writing opportunities and $$$s…no one gets rich being an independent writer, so I understand). But Nation crowd just reeks that they feel they are way more cool than a small socialist organization. The Nation does have 100,000- plus subscribers, so we seem like small potatos (of course, if Paul Newman and others had dropped a cool several million on us to subsidize direct mail, we could have a good 20-30K members, I’m sure…) But folks who are active in YDS/DSA might tell Barbara and Bill that while they greatly appreciated their piece in The Nation IDing themselves (particularly Barbara) with DSA would have been a nice plug (and tell her that YDS is doing well…and has lots of chapters on non-elite campsues and is certainly not lilly-white…).

By: Bhaskar Sunkara

Bhaskar Sunkara — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:49:25 +0000

I agree that Parecon shouldn’t have been mentioned– “After Capitalism” would have been a better choice.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/11931127/Mitchel-Szczepanczyk-Economic-Democracy-vs-ParEcon

—
I’m glad socialism is at least back in the public discourse, pejoratively in lots of circles of course, but the progressive wing (The Nation, Harpers Magazine, etc.) at least its back in discussion.

By: Chris Maisano

Chris Maisano — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:30:36 +0000

Back to the piece at hand – very good, but I kind of agree with Tariq Aziz’s point that Barb’s and Bill’s confidence that we’ve entered an economic death spiral might underestimate the resiliancy of capitalism. I also am not so hot on Parecon and kind of wish that it wasn’t name-dropped in the piece, but you can’t have everything I guess. Overall it’s quite good, and we should try to distribute this as widely as possible.

By: Chris Maisano

Chris Maisano — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:28:15 +0000

Bill and Barbara will actually be at the New York Society for Ethical Culture tonight at an event on the crisis, so that might be an opportunity to publically (and very gently) prod them (especially Babs) to name-check DSA/YDS. I am planning on going – anyone else?

By: David Duhalde

David Duhalde — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:01:11 +0000

If you do write to them, please be polite. I can’t stress that enough. I can recall many times (even on this blog) where people get so nasty and sectarian about DSA vs. other socialist orgs. It’s what drives people away – especially the big shots.

By: Joseph M. Schwartz

Joseph M. Schwartz — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:41:13 +0000

PS Lest there be any confusion with “Bill” being in italics and running right into Barbara’s e-mail address…Barbara Ehrenreich’s e-mail, I’m fairly sure, is: [removed]

Solidarity, Joe S.

By: Joseph M. Schwartz

Joseph M. Schwartz — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:39:49 +0000

Only problem is that in the Nation itself, neither Bill nor Barbara mention any affiliation with Democratic Socialists of American (DSA). that’s particularly puzzling, as the conclusion of the article implies we need to build a socialist “organization.” Folks might want to gently point this out to both Bill and Barbara. At least in recent past, Barbara E’s e-mail is: [removed] Bill’s is: [removed] Be fraternal and sororal, but I’d remind (particularly Barbara) that YDS is growing rapidly and is fairly multi-racial and activist-oriented (and DSA is also getting its act together…) Bill is more ambivalent about a public ID with DSA, but Barbara is, after all, a national co-chair! So a polite note to Barbara E might be in order per the above. I am going to send one.Solidarity, Joe Schwartz PS It does very little good to say “build a socialist org” and then not say which one…and, for better or worse, DSA and YDS are the best ones going (by far!).

[ed~ traffic has been high lately, so I don't think we should publicly post these emails. Obviously if a YDS or DSA member wants to send them a fraternal letter they could get this information easily]

By: Jason Schulman

Jason Schulman — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:35:07 +0000

All hail Barbara and Bill, the best of DSA’s “celebrities.” (IMHO.) The Wallerstein piece is also quite good — if he’d had space, he might have compared the Brazilian MST to Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Movement. (There’s an academic paper just waiting to be written!)