This short talk provides one explanation of the term “democratic socialism.” I presented this talk at a regional political education training event in June conducted by DSA’s National Political Education Committee. The talk is best used in conjunction with the specific readings we used, linked below.
21st Century Economic Bill of Rights, from the Bernie Sanders platform; What is Democratic Socialism?, Neal Meyer, Jacobin, July 2018; Building Socialism from Below: Popular Power and the State, Ben Tarnoff, Socialist Forum, 2018
Auto manufacturers in Detroit in the 1960s were among the largest private employers of Black workers. In 1969, black auto workers created the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. In this episode, Jerome Scott, a founding member of the LRBW, tells us about its motivations and accomplishments, why it was Black workers who began these revolutionary union movements, and how highly they valued political education and analysis. Jerome Scott is a member of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, and a founding director of Project South Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide. He is a founding member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. Further reading: https://daily.jstor.org/league-revolutionary-black-workers/ https://daily.jstor.org/the-detroit-rebellion/ https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/458-detroit-i-do-mind-dying ...
We discuss the question of police unions in the broader context of the diverging fortunes of public and private sector unions in the U.S., the wave of labor organizing among essential workers during the last few weeks, and whether unionization is reducing the risk to these workers, especially minority ones. Jake Rosenfeld is Professor of Sociology at Washington University-St Louis. His new book You’re Paid What You’re Worth And Other Myths of the Modern Economy will arrive early 2021. He is also the author of What Unions No Longer Do (2014). ...
Just how broken is capitalism in the U.S.? What is the right stance for socialists and progressives towards "reopening the economy?" Guest: Doug Henwood of Behind the News and Left Business Observer, and author of My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency Robert Graham Center projection of excess deaths in the U.S., by state, due to covid-related unemployment ...
