Strategy

Building Popular Power In a Time of Reaction: Strategy for Social Struggle

Black and white image of striking teachers marching.

Editorial Note: This piece builds upon and updates the strategy and analysis document “Below and Beyond Trump” we released in late 2017 and aims to capture a snapshot of our internal discussions and conclusions over the past year. Because these conversations began in the lead up to our National Convention in early August we were not […]

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The State and Revolution: Theory and Practice

  The following text was first published as a chapter in “Bloodstained, One Hundred Years of Lenninist Counterrevolution” by AK Press. Taking Lenin’s The State and Revolution as a focus, this text compares the rhetoric of Lenin to the reality of the regime that was created – comparing the theory to the practice. You can […]

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Kali Akuno on Lenin’s Vanguard Party

The following is a transcript of a live Q&A session with Kali Akuno hosted on Twitter by Black Socialists of America (@BlackSocialists) on October 10, 2018. We found the discussion valuable and hope to offer more content like this. See below for the original tweets and videos.  Q: What do you think of the Leninist idea that […]

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Between Infoshops and Insurrection: U.S. Anarchism, Movement Building, and the Racial Order

This now classic essay by the late Joel Olson (1967-2012) reflects on the state of US anarchist milieu from the 1990’s through the 2000’s. Olson was a long time anarchist writer, organizer, political theorist and veteran of both Love & Rage Anarchist Federation and the anarchist influenced Bring the Ruckus organization. A major focus of his writing […]

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“Wild, Unprecedented” Reformism: The Case of Larry Krasner

The election of Larry Krasner as Philadelphia District Attorney was hailed by many on the left as a positive example of left electoralism – the election of a “people’s prosecutor.” This piece by Tim Horras of Philly Socialists puts forward well argued criticisms of the assumed narrative around Krasner that the election of progressive politicians […]

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The Lure of Elections: From Political Power to Popular Power

We recommend this article as a starting point for critical discussions of left electoral strategies and thinking about alternatives based around building power from below. For more related content see our reader, Socialist Faces in High Places: Elections & the Left. By Frank Ascaso, Enrique Guerrero-López, Patrick Berkman and Adam Weaver Originally published at Truthout.org […]

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Active Revolution: Organizing, Base Building and Dual Power

Versión Español Introduction by Adam Weaver While the larger radical/anti-capitalist left has arguably few universal tenets of strategic agreement, the statement that “a strong left is one that’s rooted in working class and oppressed communities and struggles” is easily one of them. The question that all tendencies and formations grapple with is how do we […]

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Resources on Tenant Organizing, Housing and Gentrification

Collected Writings on Gentrification, Tenant Organizing, Rent Control and Socialized Housing Struggles around housing, displacement, gentrification and to organize tenants are growing stronger in the current moment. In the recent past we’ve seen efforts to organize alongside tenants to wage single issue fights against landlords with solidarity networks. More recently we’ve seen efforts to form […]

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The Myth of Non-Reformist Reforms

By Black Rose/Rosa Negra – Burlington This gem of a passage by left economist and author Robin Hahnel has been locked away for years in a book of his, Economic Justice and Democracy: From Competition to Cooperation, but deserves a bigger audience, especially these days given the popularity of the phrase “non-reformist reform.” Hahnel’s central point here […]

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